The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Triple Jumbo, former Engineering School Dean Ioannis Miaoulis discusses Tufts career see FEATURES / PAGE 3

TUFTS BASEBALL

Tufts beats MIT, continuing 15-game homestand

Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Alumni shine in a cappella performances see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 49

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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Buttigieg draws hundreds at latest New Hampshire rally

by Daniel Nelson

Executive Investigations Editor

Early Democratic presidential campaigner Pete Buttigieg rallied primary voters last Friday night, speaking before hundreds at his latest New Hampshire stop, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H. The South Bend, Ind. mayor has not yet officially entered the race for the Democratic nomination, but that mattered little to the supporters and attendees who came to see the likely candidate.

Voters saw an opportunity to place policy to a persona. Buttigieg’s sudden explosion in the national media and proven fundraising success places the atypical candidate in the conversation, despite his relative anonymity only a few months ago.

Wendy Thomas, a state representative for New Hampshire’s District 21, said she wanted to vet the candidate who “popped up out of nowhere.”

“He’s charismatic,” Thomas, who lives in Merrimack, said of Buttigieg. “Even though he could be a great person and a great candidate, I want to be sure that we’re not getting carried away by charisma.”

Buttigieg’s unconventional background in Indiana politics, military service and Christian service sets him to run as the Democratic field’s values-oriented outsider — a role he was eager to embrace Friday night.

“We as Democrats, being as we are policy people, sometimes forget to talk about the values that motivate our policies,” Buttigieg said at the rally. “So, you’re going to hear a lot from me about policy, but first you’re going to hear a lot from me about values.”

In a 20-minute stump speech, Buttigieg fleshed out his central talking points – “freedom, democracy and security” – with personal anecdotes and political rhetoric that sought to

reclaim the terms from conservatives, who have run, and won, on those themes in the past.

He said that conservative politicians were sincere in their desire for “freedom,” but failed to see anything beyond “freedom from” the government and its myriad laws, taxes and regulations.

“Sometimes, your neighbor can make you feel unfree,” Buttigieg said. “Your cable company can make you feel unfree. Your county clerk can make you unfree if they’re telling you who to marry.”

Buttigieg pressed that those terms were progressive to the core.

“Don’t anybody tell you that freedom belongs to the other side of the aisle,” he said.

Buttigieg’s other talking points refocused Democratic agendas on policy buzzwords favorited by the right, like security, which the military veteran said that progressive candidates had avoided talking about.

Buttigieg pointed to cyber threats, climate change and violent white nationalism as some of the largest threats to America’s security, alongside the traditional threats that he said he saw while serving in uniform.

The stump landed most fervently when Buttigieg turned towards “democracy,” which he described as the glue keeping his other two tenants upright. He called for combating gerrymandering and campaign finance reform, and his anti-establishment view to abolish the electoral college, which gained some of the loudest applause of the night.

Attendees were split on what they wanted from Buttigieg.

Tom Murphy, a New Hampshire resident who described himself as a democratic conservative, was hopeful that Buttigieg’s middle-America appeal could resonate on the national stage.

“I’m a fiscal conservative, I’m a social liberal. I have two gay daughters. I’m a progres-

DANIEL NELSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

Buttgieg is pictured speaking at the Currier Art Museum in Manchester, N.H. sive. That’s the Paul Tsongas formula,” Murphy said, referring to the former Massachusetts representative and unsuccessful presidential candidate known for centrist policies. “[Buttigieg] is the first candidate other than Amy Klobuchar who comes remotely close to fitting that bill.”

But Thomas, the New Hampshire state representative, said she wanted a fighter to lead the party into 2020.

“I want intelligence, I want depth and I also want them to be angry,” she said of a future Democratic nominee. “Some of these candidates are coming out and saying we have to work with the other side, we have to be friends with the other side, and we have to hold hands.

No. You guys screwed it up. Step aside, we’re taking over.”

Buttigieg said he was bullish on his future in democratic politics, in part

because of the emphatic response that he said he was seeing.

“I believe that message is resonating from coast to coast, because every time we arrange a little meet and greet we end up with a rally,” Buttigieg said at the rally.

Friday’s event was no exception. Buttigieg’s team made a last-minute venue change from a brewery with room for 80 to a far-larger art museum that still could not accommodate everyone who came. Buttigieg delivered a shorter version of his campaign stump to the 200-odd supporters outside the venue from atop his soap box: a park bench.

All this for a primary election still over 10 months away.

“In New Hampshire, it’s never too early,” Debbie Nest, a longtime Nashua resident, said. She had come to see Buttigieg for the second time in a month.

Lawmakers try again after Monaco-led lobbyists help sink Somerville transparency bill

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

State Representative Christine Barber has refiled legislation in the current session of the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would allow the City of Somerville to compel Tufts University to provide an institutional master plan outlining its development objectives, after the previous version died in committee without getting a floor vote in spring of 2017.

Tufts’ trade group, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in

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Massachusetts (AICUM), which was chaired at the time by University President Anthony Monaco, lobbied a key lawmaker against the previous bill and may have played a role in its demise, Barber, whose district includes Somerville and Medford, claimed.

Monaco served on AICUM’s board from the fall of 2015 until the spring of 2018 first as vice-chair, then chair and finally as member ex-officio last academic year, according to the organization’s archived web pages.

Tufts spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying between 2013 and 2016, with total For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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expenditures growing each year, according to the university’s 2016 public 990 tax form, the latest available.

In an email to the Daily, Rocco DiRico, Tufts’ director of community relations, declined to reveal the amount of this money that Tufts pays in annual dues to AICUM. He said the dues cover trade group expenses like staff, conferences and research.

The current and previous versions of the bill would give Somerville an exemption from a 1950 Massachusetts General Law commonly referred to as the Dover Amendment, which prevents municipali-

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ties from prohibiting, regulating or restricting any land use by nonprofits that would be devoted to educational purposes.

DiRico confirmed Tufts had opposed the legislation because it would have weakened the Dover Amendment, which he claimed protects the university from “discrimination and unreasonable zoning restrictions.”

DiRico did not know whether Monaco made a specific request for AICUM to oppose the bill.

However, he added that the president knew of efforts to repeal the Dover Amendment.

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................4

see LOBBYING, page 2

OPINION.....................................6 SPORTS............................ BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, April 10, 2019

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Somerville residents frustrated but unsurprised by Tufts lobbying efforts LOBBYING

continued from page 1 Lawmakers take action Following a series of planning disagreements between Tufts and Somerville in 2013 and 2014, during which city officials worried that university expansion would reduce housing affordability, a key priority for the city, Somerville City Councilwoman Katjana Ballantyne proposed an ordinance that would have required Tufts to publish institutional master plan, according to a December 2016 Daily article.

Master plans are detailed outlines of how an organization envisions its future physical expansion, and, in the case of universities, enrollment, according to Ballantyne, who represents Ward Seven, a section of Somerville south of Tufts’ campus.

Ballantyne, now the city council president, told the Daily that the ordinance and the resultant master plan would enable the city to better anticipate Tufts’ development plans and require Tufts to notify the city of any changes in their intentions.

However, because of the Dover Amendment, Somerville sought an exemption from the Massachusetts State Legislature.

The first attempt to get the exemption began when Barber and State Senator Patricia Jehlen, who also represents Somerville, filed a bill to do so in November 2015. Barber said the bill never received a floor vote because it had been filed too late in the legislative session.

Two months into the next session, in March 2017, Barber refiled the legislation. According to State House records and documents reviewed by the Daily, a hearing was held on the bill in May of that year, during which local officials, including Ballantyne, offered testimony favorable to the bill. Barber said she could not remember any testimony given opposing the bill during the hearing.

The bill cleared the House Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government on June 1, 2017 before getting a second reading six days later and being referred to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, the last stop before a floor vote.

But no floor vote ever happened; no further action was taken, and the bill died in committee.

Lobbyists intervene Barber said that sometime during the summer of 2017, she went to see the chair of the committee in which the bill had stalled, Massachusetts State Representative Ted Speliotis, to see why the bill was not moving.

Barber said Speliotis explained to her that the bill had faced some resistance from AICUM’s team of lobbyists.

“I heard then that it was not Tufts necessarily, it was AICUM,” Barber said. “AICUM was the one who had a lot of opposition to the bill at that point.”

Speliotis, who represents Danvers and Middleton, could not remember his specific interaction with representatives of AICUM but rejected the idea that their actions swayed his vote.

“Did I meet with [AICUM] on this bill?

Over the years, probably once, yes, but like I said, it’s not the overriding issue. You have the right to meet with everyone. It doesn’t mean I haven’t done [that] in the last few years,” he told the Daily.

Speliotis went on to say that AICUM reinforced his view on the importance of upholding the Dover Amendment, and that the fact that he agreed with their opinion was not due to “some insidious thing, [or] that they’re so powerful.”

That same summer, Monaco had just finished his term as chair of AICUM’s board

of directors, an organization which engages in political advocacy for Massachusetts private colleges and universities, according to its website. As of 2019, the group has three lobbyists registered with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, including the organization’s president, Richard Doherty.

AICUM lobbies on a range of issues; during Monaco’s time on the board, AICUM supported legislation that encouraged student loan repayment while opposing bills that would have amended or reviewed the Dover Amendment, ensured a minimum wage for adjunct professors and increased university police force transparency, according to lobbying declarations from between 2016 and 2018.

These records also show that from January 2016 on, all of AICUM’s lobbyists were registered to oppose the two versions of the master plan bill that had been filed in the last two legislative sessions.

AICUM paid $29,000 annually to O’Neill and Associates, one of Massachusetts’ most powerful lobbying firms, to farm out some of its lobbying, including for the master plan bill, according to their lobbying declarations.

In an emailed statement to the Daily, Doherty confirmed the organization had actively lobbied against the bill.

He wrote that the Dover Amendment allows educational organizations the flexibility they need to plan in the long-term while also striking the right balance with municipal concerns.

Doherty went on to say that granting exemptions to the Dover Amendment would create unpredictability for colleges because it would disrupt the special permitting and zoning process that they enjoy under the current system.

“For over a decade AICUM has consistently opposed proposals like [the master plan bill] which would erode the very essence of the Dover Amendment – to ensure that religious and academic freedoms – two cornerstones of our Commonwealth – are protected from the vagaries and politics inherent in the zoning approval process,” the statement reads.

Speliotis used a similar logic to justify his decision.

He said the legislature is very “selective” about passing bills that could affect universities or hospitals and that the Dover Amendment is key to upholding the freedom of academic and nonprofit institutions.

He also argued that if an exemption were granted to Somerville, every municipality in Massachusetts would want one as well.

“It’s hard to say … ‘yes’ to one community, then say ‘no’ to 300 other communities,” he said.

In her testimony on the bill two years ago, a copy of which Ballantyne provided to the Daily, she pointed out that Cambridge and Boston have both been granted similar exemptions to the Dover Amendment.

Because of its health sciences campus located in Boston, Tufts already provides a partial master plan, the most recent of which was updated in 2016.

Speliotis said that Cambridge and Boston are special cases because they have such a high concentration of universities and hospitals, whereas Somerville’s exemption is largely focused on Tufts.

The two other members of the Committee on Bills in Third Reading, Carole Fiola and Angelo D’Emilia, told the Daily they did not remember meeting with representatives of AICUM or Tufts about the bill.

Fiola said the committee reviewed around 900 pieces of legislation last session and some 200 of those did not see a floor vote.

However, Barber, who authored the bill, believes that lobbying by AICUM did play a role in the bill’s demise.

“I think [lobbying was] one of the factors,” she said. “You don’t necessarily know when your bill is not coming out of committee. There could be multiple reasons for it, but I know … that AICUM had a lot of concerns about the bill.”

Locals react Support for a master plan remains strong among Tufts’ neighbors. Residents frequently cited requiring a master plan from Tufts as a priority in a survey of Somerville residents conducted this summer by the Cambridge-based Consensus Building Institute, and some residents are quick to point to times when a master plan would have been useful.

Jim Monagle, a member of the West Somerville Neighborhood Association who participated in talks with Tufts the last time they released a master plan in the 1980s, singled out Tufts’ efforts to purchase the apartments at 119 College Ave. in 2015.

The university’s plan was only discovered by the city when MassDevelopment asked the city council to weigh in, as Tufts had never informed them, the Daily reported.

Monagle believed the purchase would have further driven up the cost of housing in the area. He said he was glad the council members had caught it but hoped that a master plan could prevent similar situations in the future.

“Those are things that could be, I’ll say, massaged along in a master plan conversation,” he said. “Plus, whenever they do something without a master plan, we don’t have faith that they’re going to do what’s right for the city, and that’s a big issue: the trust factor.”

Monagle believes that a master plan would lead to constructive discussion between the community and the university and would enable Somerville to better defend its interests against an encroaching university.

James Bride, another member of the West Somerville Neighborhood Association, said the core issue is transparency regarding future expansion.

“A lot of people in the neighborhood have felt historically surprised by Tufts,” he said. “I think that finding out at the 11th hour that Tufts is planning to do something is concerning.”

DiRico wrote in his email to the Daily that Tufts has conducted three community meetings in the past year to discuss campus planning and that the Office of Government and Community Relations will host another on April 24.

“When Tufts University pursues a new construction project, we go through a rigorous process to have that project reviewed by our neighbors, elected officials and the local municipality,” he wrote.

Bride was unsurprised that AICUM had lobbied against the bill. He said institutions like Tufts have the right to represent themselves in the legislature but was unimpressed by how they justified their opposition to the Dover Amendment.

“We’ve got a huge higher-ed industry in Massachusetts, but these institutions exist in communities and the Dover Amendment shouldn’t be a carte blanche to ignore the communities that are hosting them,” he said.

Monagle was more direct. “[Tufts] advertise themselves as a good neighbor … but they don’t practice it,” he said. “They don’t practice what they preach, and that’s the way we see it.”

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Features

Alumni Q&A: Ioannis Miaoulis, Part I

COURTESY YANNIS MIAOULIS

Yannis Miaoulis is pictured.

by Grace Yuh

Executive Features Editor

The Alumni Series aims to create a diverse collection of experiences at Tufts through highlighting notable alumni.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ioannis (Yannis) Miaoulis (E ’83, AG ’86, EG ’87) has had a long and distinguished association with Tufts: six years as a bachelor’s, master’s, then doctoral student, 15 years as a professor of mechanical engineering and 10 years as a trustee. After serving as the youngest-ever dean of Tufts’ School of Engineering from 1994 to 2002, he went on to lead the Museum of Science, Boston as its president and director. This fall, he will become the president of Roger Williams University. The Daily sat down with him to talk about his years at Tufts.

The Tufts Daily (TD): How did you hear about Tufts and why did you choose to attend?

Ioannis Miaoulis (IM): I was a student at Athens College [in Athens, Greece] which back then used to be an all-boys school — now it’s co-ed. I wanted to study in the United States. I wanted to study engineering, and I was looking for a great engineering school but within a liberal arts environment. So I searched in Barron’s book on colleges [Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges]. There was no internet, so that was our guide. It was a huge book. I went through it and I thought that Massachusetts would be a great place to study because of all the schools in the area. The best engineering school in a liberal arts environment was Tufts. I applied there early decision and I got in. My high school counselor told me, “Tufts is too tough for you,” but I got in, and it’s actually a funny story how I found out. I knew that the acceptance letter would arrive at my house right after New Year’s, and the mail would come to my house about noontime.

So I would call my mom from school every day at quarter past noon to find out if they got a letter from Tufts. I called every day and it was January 7, I remember the day.

I called my mom and my mom was crying and I thought, “Oh no, I didn’t get in, I got rejected.” I asked, “What’s happening, did I not get in?” and she says, “No, I didn’t say that.” I asked her what the problem was and she said, “I got the letter, but I can’t read it; it’s in English.” She was too nervous and I asked her to tell me if the envelope was thin or thick. She said it was thick so I knew I got in.

TD: Was there a large international student community when you were at Tufts?

IM: Yes, there was a large international community. My first time in the

U.S., my first experience with Tufts, was the International Orientation, which was excellent. It was an excellent introduction. I bonded with the international community immediately. The next year, I became president of the International Club, and the year after, the manager of the International House. However, I made a point to hang out with my American friends — that was why I came to the U.S. I came to learn the American culture and be a part of it. My [first] year, I [lived] in Wren Hall in the “O-Zone,” the basement, and all my friends there, whom I’m still friends with, are American.

TD: How did you decide to study mechanical engineering?

IM: When I came to Tufts, I had no idea what kind of engineering I would do. The first day of regular orientation — with all the students, not just international — I met with my [orientation] group and I met with my undergraduate advisor, which was Professor Lloyd Trefethen. [He] was one of the best fluid mechanics engineers in the world. I had read all about him, and I was so excited to meet him. I sat next to him during the first dinner of orientation, and he invited me to go his laboratory the next morning [because] he was doing some cool experiments with droplets. I woke up early because I was jet lagged, and I took a walk around campus. It was actually the first time I’d seen a squirrel. I got to his office early, and he was holding a pipette and pulling water from a cup. I thought that was odd … He had a high-speed video camera, which is now common but back then it was very expensive. He started dropping water from the pipette and filming it and we played it back. I was fascinated because actually, they were perfect spheres. That immediately impressed me, so I decided to go into the mechanical engineering department. That was the moment I knew — the first day at Tufts.

TD: Did you study other fields at Tufts?

IM: It was mostly engineering. I started research immediately my [first] year.

I did several projects, like one on solar energy and building solar houses. I also did a project on energy storage, which was my undergraduate thesis. And then I did a project in fluid mechanics. That was the highlight [of ] my time there, these research projects and my social life.

TD: What non-academic activities did you participate in at Tufts?

IM: Like I said before, I was president of International Club, which back then, threw the best parties on campus. Eaton Hall, the computer lab, this used to be a party space. There was an island in the middle with a DJ and there was great dancing, like hundreds and hundreds of

students. So we used to throw parties there and at the International House. I was also in the karate club, and I learned how to scuba dive. I took a lot of physical education courses, like learning how to fence or become a lifeguard. I was very well-organized, and I would do my schedule every Sunday morning. I would never study past 8:30 and tried to go out on the weekend.

TD: Did you have any particular study spot on campus?

IM: My desk. I never went to the library — not once. I went to get books but not to study.

TD: What were some memorable moments you experienced at Tufts?

IM: There were some academic moments. I represented Tufts at a New England competition for best engineering paper and I won. That was a fantastic moment. There were other memorable moments at parties, like winning the Halloween costume contest three years in a row.

TD: Who were some of the most influential professors or classes you had at Tufts?

IM: My advisor was by far the most influential. One of the courses I took [in my first] year was solar energy … and that was a fascinating course also.

TD: How did you become a triple Jumbo, and why did you decide to stay at Tufts?

IM: Senior year, I applied to both the school of architecture and the engineering school at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. I remember that I asked Professor Trefethen to write the letter of recommendation … I asked two other professors, who signed it immediately, and Professor Trefethen, who took forever. So the day of the deadline, I went to his office and said that I needed the recommendation. He pulled it out of his desk. It was a blank form and he wrote a sentence. He closed the envelope and gave it to me. I was so devastated after all the good work I’d done with him in his research and his classes, and he wouldn’t take the time to write the recommendation. So I went to MIT and I left it there.

The next day, I called the secretary to see if they had gotten my application and she said yes, you are accepted. The next day. I thought I had to wait until April. I ran to the ATM machine, got money and got roses for the secretary for the good news. I said, “How did I get accepted so quickly?” She said that Professor [Warren] Rohsenow, who was the head of admissions, read Professor Trefethen’s letter.

But I knew that he wrote one sentence.

That sentence had said “Accept him.” So I got into both schools, but I focused on mechanical engineering. I did pretty well and the plan was for me to stay for my Ph.D. But what happened is Professor [Behrouz] Abedian, who was one of the advisors for my projects, got major funding from the National Science Foundation and invited me to go back to Tufts to do my Ph.D. there and offered me a great stipend to have master’s students working with me — lots of resources. And of course I love Tufts. When I was at MIT, I began to get interested in business because I took an entrepreneurship course, so when I went back to Tufts I wanted to continue studying business. Tufts does not have business, so I decided, along with me taking courses for my Ph.D. and doing research, to get a master’s in economics.

That’s why I’m a triple Jumbo.

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Nate Rubright Somerville with Townie Tim

Marathon Monday

S

pring is finally happening.

The weather is getting warmer, restaurants are starting to put tables outside and that one guy with the Bon Jovi covers has resumed his residency in Davis Square. You’ve probably also noticed that this is that time of year when people decide to start running. Maybe these are folks that have been on the treadmill all winter and are finally out on the town, but I’m pretty sure about half of the residents of Somerville restarted their New Year’s resolutions this weekend.

This is a time to celebrate because your boy Townie Tim is a runner and having a few more folks on the sidewalks means Boston is amidst its transformation from a frozen tundra to an absolute running mecca. Spring means that you can run without snot icicles forming on your nose or your tears freezing your eyes shut. Spring also means that the running world returns to its spiritual home to celebrate the Boston Marathon. From the Somerville Community Path, to the Esplanade, to all the Red Line T stops with ads for running shoes, this is truly the time of the year for runners.

The Boston Marathon is happening this Monday and the entire working and student populations of Boston have the day off. For all Tufts students, mile nine is the place to be. The Tufts Marathon Team ( TMT ), led by the legendary coach Don Megerle, will be out in force to cheer on the 50 marathoners that Tufts sponsors every year. If you do not know about the TMT, well, you clearly have surrounded yourself with very reasonable people who do not wake up at the crack of dawn three times a week to run long distances over snow and slush. You probably also do not know that the Tufts team is the largest that any school sends to the Boston Marathon.

At this point, it would be a disservice not to go on at length about Coach Don and all the work he does to make the TMT one of the best organizations on campus. From his consistent positive attitude, his mentorship of hundreds of marathon finishers and the daily emails of inspiration to the team, he really is the best. One of my favorite anecdotes about Don comes from Andrew Stout, a member of the TMT and a runner in this year’s Boston Marathon.

The sun was just rising over the partially frozen Mystic Lakes and we were approaching the turnaround point for our typical Wednesday run. It was a frigid morning, but Don was there as usual next to his car in shorts, with cups of water and ’60s surfer music playing on the radio. After we thanked him and turned back, Andrew remarked, “I don’t know what heaven will be like, but I’m pretty sure it will involve Don next to his car, with water and music at the ready.”

We’ll see you at the Boston Marathon on Monday, and be sure to cheer like crazy for the folks in the yellow jerseys from the Tufts Marathon Team.

Nate Rubright is a columnist with the Features section of the Daily and is a member of the Somerville community. He can be reached at nathan.rubright@gmail.com.

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ARTS&LIVING

Evan Zigmond Out on the Town

Chelsea Pupusa Festival

T

rying new foods is endlessly exciting to me, and discovering pupusas was no exception. Despite this El Salvadoran dish’s decent representation in Greater Boston, I hadn’t heard of it until a few weeks ago. When I discovered the Pupusa Fiesta happening in Chelsea, Mass. this past weekend, I knew I had to get off campus and try them.

The Chelsea Pupusa fiesta is a chance for Chelsea’s local pupusa restaurants to strut their stuff. Ambassadors from each eatery offer pupusa samples for those willing to wait in line at the festival. Having never tried them before, I thought that a sampler would be a great introduction, so I left campus for Chelsea this past weekend to see what I had been missing.

I took a long, arduous bike route to get there, one that I would not repeat.

Fortunately, there are ways to get to Chelsea with public transport. While the route is convoluted, one can take the 80 bus from Boston Avenue to Lechmere, followed by the Green Line from Lechmere to Haymarket and finally the 111 bus to Hawthorne St. Regardless of one’s preferred route, Chelsea has a distinct feel from the rest of Greater Boston. While I was there, I saw many catering and distribution companies, as well as the Teamsters and Laborers Unions. The whole area felt industrial.

Sidling up to the Pupusa Fiesta, which was located at a rented space, I witnessed a line stretching out the door and down the block. I stood in line outside for about 10 minutes, before being allowed in free of charge with a stamp on my wrist. To my dismay, the line continued inside, with hungry visitors waiting at each of five tables to obtain their samples. The atmosphere, on the other hand, was very pleasant. The walls had been decorated with flags from various Central American countries. Music blared in Spanish over some loudspeakers. Out of curiosity, I Shazam’d one of the tunes, which was aptly named “A Mi Me Gustan Las Pupusas.” Those who had received their samples hung out in the center of the room.

The afternoon seemed very much like a community event. Everyone had a smile on, and I was greeted by a few strangers.

Someone at the front was even willing to look after my bicycle, which I couldn’t find any parking for in the immediate area.

The positive energy here made it a great place to eat, and eat I did. After another 30 minutes of waiting, I finally received my first sample, which I devoured. It was delicious! Sandwiched between a round of flour tortilla-esque dough was a healthy dollop of melted cheese. The wait was worth it. After eating all my samples and soaking up the atmosphere a bit longer, I returned to campus, satisfied with my new knowledge of a piece of El Salvadoran culture. For those interested, Chelsea has some quality pupusa restaurants that will knock your socks right off if you give them the opportunity.

In the future, if you, the reader, know of some food you’d like me to try, let me know! I’m always on the lookout for food I’ve never eaten.

Evan Zigmond is a sophomore studying music. Evan can be reached at evan.zigmond@tufts.edu.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

‘Sarabande Presents: Freefall’ is a diverse, dramatic end-of-year performance

by Setenay Mufti Arts Editor

“Sarabande Presents: Freefall,” Sarabande’s spring showcase, commenced last week on April 4 and April 6, and featured a wide array of styles, tricks and Tufts groups to celebrate freedom and the fear that comes with the fall. The performances indeed are both graceful and risky — some pieces are sensual, some are emotional and others are joyous. By incorporating so many different flavors of movement, the fall that must follow every jump has never had so many spotlights. The dancers spin almost impossibly fast, only to collapse like rushing water.

The first number of the night is “Heart,” a slow build of a dance choreographed by Emma Bednarski. In the show program, Bednarski simply commented that she was “grateful to have this space and these people to feel vulnerable with” and “thankful for the ability to fall and know someone will catch me every time.” The movements are deliberate and the vulnerability in the choreography comes through in the delicate falls and catches. Much of the dance is organized by pairs, groups and patterns of two.

The dancers move and pull against one another, making the movements look like those of waves.

Next is Gabrielle de Weck’s “Nasty Groove,” a funky contemporary number with a medium-sized ensemble. De Weck described it as “off-brand” and “short and simple.” Set to Janet Jackson’s immortal “Nasty” (1986), this piece is full of twists and turns and is a bold, exhausting choice for a second number in a long night.

“Limit to Your Love” follows, and it proves one of the most dynamic and fun of the night.

Choreographed by Ania Kranz and Eli van der Rijn, this piece is an incredible futuristic, hiphop inspired tour de force. The movements are sharp and dramatic, and the dancers exercise incredible control. This one is hard to take the eyes off of, and the song “Limit to Your Love”

by James Blake provides the perfect amount of pizzazz.

The following two dances are very personal, with themes of longing, hope and return.

The first, titled “Cheers to What’s Ahead,” choreographed by Alice Janigro, is a cheery commentary on breaking ahead in the world and confronting the nerves of adulthood head-on.

As Janigro writes, “as everyone gets older, there’s a pervasive desire to go back to when we were ‘young’… rather than dread the future, or long for the past, we should be grateful for the present and embrace the unknown that lies ahead.” It is a welcome, optimistic perspective that is not conveyed through dance. The following number, “Home,” is a more poignant piece by Kelly Donohue. Interspersed with voices defining what “home” means for them, this sweet lyrical dance has an especially large ensemble, giving it a gravitas and universality as well.

The following three dances are a fantastic showcase of style and ability; Sarabande is the only student-run contemporary-jazz dance club at Tufts, and the dancers come from a variety of backgrounds including hip-hop, ballet, jazz and other genres. “Legends,” choreographed by Eriko Kiode, is a celebratory piece with lots of

lovely tricks and flairs from individual dancers. “Mind over Matter” is a dreamlike, mostly acoustic number by Julia Olszewski, who writes, “been thinking about the unification of youth and ephemerality lately.” The piece is energetic but soft, set to “White Ferrari” (2016) by Frank Ocean. The next piece, “Now and Again” by Cat Ahola and Anna Morreale is groovy and smooth, with small selection of dancers.

The following two pieces slow it down a little. “Ne me quitte pas” is elegant and tender, choreographed by Maya Best. “So Sweet,” by Charlene Brew, is another lyrical dance set to a well-chosen “Roses” by James Arthur and Emili Sandé. This piece radiates love, and the red skirts of the dancers might be the titular roses, or slow, licking flames.

The last two dances are the Senior Dance and the All Sarabande Dance: Show Me What You’ve Got! The Senior Dance, choreographed

by Brew, Koide, Donohue and Janigro is a delightful hodgepodge of styles and moods, featuring music by Tchaikovsky, Christina Aguilera and the Cheetah Girls. Finally, “Show Me What You’ve Got!” by Brew and Koide is a joyful, energetic finale featuring bright yellow dresses and “Work This Body” (2014) by Walk the Moon. It is an exaltation of freedom and movement, and an appropriate end to this charged night of dance.

Special props must also be given to the guest performers throughout both nights: Encendido, JumboRaas, Pulse, Bhangra, Tap, TDC and Spirit of the Creative, all of whom rocked it out (and included performers dancing in Sarabande as well). Congratulations to all dancers involved!

Tufts choirs deliver captivating performance of works by Sharon, Sacks, Brahms

by Megan Szostak Staff Writer

On April 7, choir director Jamie Kirsch led the Tufts Concert Choir, Chamber Singers and Alumni in captivating performances of a cappella arrangements by Deke Sharon, the premiere of “Songs for the Earth” by Rebecca Sacks (LA ’06) and Johannes Brahms’ “German Requiem” as a part of the Alumni Choral Weekend.

Alum Deke Sharon (LA ’91), has become extremely notable in the field of a cappella and choral arrangements and served as the music director and arranger for all three “Pitch Perfect” (2012–2017) movies. This concert featured three arrangements by Sharon: “Orange Colored Sky” composed by Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein, “Aquarius” from “Hair” by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot and “September” by “Earth Wind and Fire.” A cappella songs are usually written with the intent that the group performing is small and tight-knit; the group in this concert was much larger than the typical a cappella group but still retained the coherence of a small and intimate group.

The next piece on the program was the world premiere of Sacks’ “Songs for the Earth.” The extremely powerful poems to which the music was set deeply resonated with the audience with their messages promoting environmentalism and efforts to combat climate change. As a composer, Sacks flourishes in her creation of complex harmonic structure underneath emotional melodies, all of which stems from Sacks’ training as a jazz pianist.

The first movement of the three-movement work began with a piano solo, played

emotionally by Thomas Stumpf, and conveyed feelings of grief and mourning, both of which were reinforced by the choir’s entrance several minutes into the work. The second movement, “My Heart Soars,” began with a haunting solo in the tenor and bass sections, which highlighted their ability to produce a deep and full sound, and grew into a celebration of the beauty of nature.

Melismatic passages aided in placing an emphasis on certain words in the movement, most notably the word “soars,” which had a soaring melody that fluidly moved throughout the choir. The final movement, although having the least amount of text, was temporally the longest, and was representative of the grief and joy regarding the environment coming together, exhorting the listener to take action in environmental protection and appreciation of the natural world. Each chord sung by the choir was a testament to their ability to convey emotion through music, and they absolutely succeeded. Each instance of harmonic tension was expertly resolved through Sacks’ music and the choir’s musicality, which embodied the idea of “never having too much of a good thing.”

The concert concluded with a performance of Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” a standard in Romantic choral repertoire.

Brahms composed this work in the wake of the deaths of his mentor and friend Robert Schumann, and his mother. A requiem is a non-secular work of music praying for peace on the souls of the deceased.

Brahms’ requiem is sung in German, and the text is drawn from various books of the Bible. Successfully executing this work is not an easy task due to the complex voice parts, intricate text and daunting duration

of more than 60 minutes. A great deal of endurance is required for a performance of this piece, but Kirsch, the choir, the pianists and the soloists never seemed to tire.

The first movement of the work began with a piano solo which set the somber emotion of mourning. The ensemble of more than 130 musicians produced a full, rich and emotional sound, as is expected in professional performances of Brahms’ music. This movement was also the first instance in which the vocal ranges of the choir were exhibited; the soprano and bass sections especially saw their registers greatly stretched here and throughout the entire work. Despite this, they were still able to produce a beautifully warm sound. The second movement explored the ephemerality of grief and contained many areas of unison-singing between all of the sections, as well as several powerful vocal entrances.

Baritone Philip Lima began the third movement as the soloist, and demonstrated his ability in vocal control and his rich voice.

The fourth movement was jovial, and was about rejoicing in the Lord. The intricacy of the vocal parts in this movement made the melodic line difficult to find at several points, but when heard, the luscious melody rose above the harmony with great emotion. Soprano Deborah Selig was the soloist in the next movement and, like Lima, possessed an operatic sound with a gorgeous tone that was capable of penetrating through the ensemble. The final two movements of the work showcased the choir’s ability in sound-blending, as melodic lines often passed smoothly from one section to another. The final chord of this work was released into the air and resonated for several seconds before fading away.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Opinion

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Deeksha Bathini America is dying

Big Pharma, with no end in sight

W

hen a diabetic walks into a drugstore, they could pay about $9 to fill their prescription for insulin. Then, American taxpayers could front the rest of the bill, which amounts to around $280.

This scenario reveals a little-known fact: When drug prices skyrocket (for no other reason than capitalistic gain), it affects everyone. Diabetic ketoacidosis kills.

This condition occurs when blood sugars get too high and the lack of insulin causes the body to shut down. Headlines these days are teeming with stories of people dying from the high cost of drugs, so why exactly is this happening?

The obscene price of drugs is characteristic of the United States, which has the highest cost for prescription drugs out of any other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development country.

This comes as a byproduct of drug regulation processes. Take the drug Humira, for example. Humira treats conditions like arthritis and psoriasis. If you lived in Switzerland or the United Kingdom, the drug would cost $822 and $1,362, respectively. But purchasing that same exact product in the United States would cost a mind-boggling $2,669.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alone has the jurisdiction to determine whether a drug is safe and effective.

It, however, does not pay heed to relative cost or whether a similar drug already exists in the market. In other countries, like Australia, this is not the case. Government agencies will take a far more involved role in regulating prices when pharmaceutical companies bring forth a drug proposal.

They will consider the risks, benefits, novelty and everything in between. Then, a price will be negotiated. By contrast, the U.S. allows pharmaceutical companies to dictate their prices, and Medicare plans require all drugs to be covered regardless of their cost. In fact, it is against the law for Medicare to provide any commentary or advice on drug pricing. The process that companies undergo to sell drugs has so little oversight in America that pharmaceutical companies can line their pockets with no regard to the welfare of vulnerable populations.

With politicians running on empty promises of lower prices, there seems to be no end in sight. This leads me to believe that doctors might actually be the answer to saving the bleeding wallets of American patients. Physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital led the charge as they vetoed the inclusion of Zaltrap, a colorectal cancer drug, into the hospital’s chargemaster because of its high cost and the lack of evidence that it performed better than preexisting drugs in the market. Maybe doctors can be the ones to prevent patients from personal bankruptcy when they hold companies accountable and refuse to prescribe unoriginal, overpriced medications.

Deeksha Bathini is a sophomore studying community health. Deeksha can be reached at deeksha.bathini@tufts.edu.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

OP-ED

Boycott Birthright unconditionally

by Tufts SJP A few weeks ago, J Street U announced the culmination of its year-long campaign asking Birthright to reinstate the one Palestinian speaker on the trip that had been removed from itineraries as of November 2017. J Street’s national organization stated that it will offer an alternative trip to Israel, and they will ask its members to “only participate in trips that include meetings with both Israelis and Palestinians and that show participants how the occupation impacts the daily lives of Palestinians living beyond the Green Line.”

Similarly, this past Friday, 200 young Jews from the activist organization IfNotNow gathered at the Birthright headquarters in New York as the most recent escalation in their campaign demanding that Birthright “confront the crisis” of the occupation, asking Birthright to choose between their right-wing donors and the young Jews at their doors.

It is incredibly exciting to see so many people critical of Birthright and demanding change, but we want to reiterate that the very nature and existence of Birthright is unjust. To offer Jewish young adults free trips to Israel and imply that they have a birthright to land occupied by the State of Israel while Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return home is entirely flawed.

It is not enough to ask Birthright to be better. It is instead essential to reject Birthright altogether, focusing instead on building and advocating for collective liberation. We reject the idea that a racist and tokenizing program can fix itself by including one or a few carefully vetted Palestinian voices or rigidly structured dialogue about a ‘conflict’ — framed this way, of course, to ignore power imbalances and rewrite the narrative as one of two equal parties. Violence against Palestinians is funded by American tax dollars and univer-

sity investments, and normalized by trips like Birthright. We must reject Birthright unconditionally and in its entirety, directing our attention and anger towards the right-wing donors that make these trips possible, the corporations that profit from suffering and right-wing governments that enact and fund these oppressive policies.

Since Jewish Voice for Peace’s launch of its “Return the Birthright” campaign in 2017, over 1,000 young Jews have signed a pledge committing to never attend a Birthright trip. For those of us who are eligible to go on Birthright trips, this birthright was never ours to begin with, and claiming stolen Indigenous land for an apartheid state, cannot be done in our name. Palestinians have been denied the right to return for more than 70 years, and it is reprehensible for a self-proclaimed “democratic” state to deny this right to five million refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes in such a hurry that they still have the key to the door, and they keep these keys with them as a reminder of their eventual return home. It is so important to hold Israel accountable for its racist apartheid policies against Palestinians. Criticism of Israel must center Palestinians, who have been speaking for decades about the horrors of occupation. We shouldn’t need to see it for ourselves to believe it, and we should trust Palestinians and follow their lead.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society called for people of good conscience around the world to put economic pressure on Israel in protest of its countless human rights violations against Palestinians by recognizing how trips to Israel and the tourism industry must be part of the larger boycott. This nonviolent movement known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is one of the most direct ways that people around the world can support Palestinians. There are similarities

between the BDS movement and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

The group advocating for this campaign, known as the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), recently released a statement titled “Do No Harm: Palestinian Call for Ethical Tourism/Pilgrimage.” This statement argued that it is essential to boycott trips that bring participants to “present-day Israel or illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory that include any links to the Israeli government or complicit Israeli corporations or institutions” and instead to “increase visits in solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as independent fact-finding missions that have no institutional link of any sort to the Israeli government, complicit institutions or lobby groups.”

The statement also quotes an Al-Haq article that describes the Israeli tourism industry as one that “benefits from and drives Israel’s unlawful policies and practices in the occupied West Bank, including the confiscation of Palestinian land and exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, unlawful excavations at archeological sites, the obstruction of the Palestinian economy, and the transfer of the protected Palestinian population.” The fact that PACBI’s central message in its statement is “do no harm” is very telling. It is essential that we recognize that trips to Israel that do not comply with PACBI’s suggested guidelines will not help Palestinians.

Meeting with settlers — colonizers — and contributing to the Israeli economy are only some of the ways in which these trips normalize and reinforce violence and oppression. Any trip that does so, therefore, cannot be considered neutral or harmless.

This article was written by an anonymous member of the Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group. They can be reached at sjptufts@gmail.com.

CARTOON

Shedding Season

BY SHANNON GEARY

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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Sports

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Men’s rowing opens spring season on the Malden

7

Jeremy Goldstein Anti-Bostonian

Tom Brady loses Class of ’77 March Madness

I ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Members of the men’s crew team are pictured rowing in the regatta against Wesleyan and Bates on April 14, 2018.

by Bradley Schussel Sports Editor

The first regatta of the spring season took place in the Jumbos’ backyard on the Malden River in Medford, Mass. The men’s crew team raced competitively for the first time since late October 2018, competing against three other teams: the Williams Ephs, the Coast Guard Bears and the MIT Engineers on the 2.3-mile-long river.

Senior Nick Hartman reflected on the state of his team after the long offseason.

“We trained very hard, so our fitness is there,” Hartman said. “Part of [getting back into the season], though, is just trying to find the competitive aspect. After not being able to race against different teams over course the winter, you need to re-find that competitiveness and channel something different for the races.”

The first boats to get their oars in the water were the first varsity eight (1V8) boats for Tufts and Williams. Tufts’ 1V8 consisted of six seniors — coxswain James Grant, Isaac Mudge, Ryan Bell, bow Alec Whipple, Hartman, James Miller — as well as junior Mats Edwards, sophomore stroke Rick Boer and first-year Alex Williams.

In the first race of the day between the two NESCAC 1V8 boats, the Ephs edged out the Jumbos. Williams finished the race in 5:59.84, six seconds in front of Tufts’ boat.

Unlike the other categories, there were no championship and consolation races.

Hartman spoke about what he feels went wrong with the 1V8 in their first race of the season.

“We were excited to get back into racing,” Hartman said. “So, right off the start, we were going faster and harder than we usually do in terms of our rate. We ended up sticking with Williams for about the first half of the

race, but then they got a little bit ahead. We weren’t able to respond because we ran out of energy.”

Tufts’ 1V8 boat raced against Coast Guard later in the day, finishing runner-up to the Bears, 6:07.37 to 6:10.16. To end the action for the day, Williams won its race against Coast Guard. The Ephs posted a 6:06.26 time to the Bears’ 6:17.82.

The Jumbos’ best performance on the day came from their 3V8 boat which won both of its races on the day. The 3V8 was boated by senior Tamas Takata, four juniors — stroke Peter Malinovsky, bow Adrian Tanner, captain Paul Gelhaus, Mitch Koganski — as well as sophomore coxswain John DiGiacomo and first-years Malcom Zuckerman, Ethan Donnelly and Henry Ross.

Gelhaus commented on the dynamic of being a captain in a boat with some younger, more inexperienced rowers.

“With more years under my belt, I’m in a position where I can give people pointers,” Gelhaus said. “But, if anything, [the firstyears] have taught me a lot from a determination standpoint. [The regatta] was one of their first college races, and it’s nothing new from me, so to see the excitement from them is awesome.”

The 3V8 boat took part in two races on the day. The first was a semifinal race against the Ephs’ 3V8, where the Jumbos won by just over eight seconds, 6:21.22 to 6:29.77. Tufts’ boat was actually behind early in the race but overtook Williams and sealed the win.

“In the first 200 meters or so, [Williams] got out ahead,” Gelhaus said. “If your boat’s not in the right mindset once the other boat gets out ahead, it can be hard to pick up the speed to overtake the opponent. But we didn’t have a bad mindset; we just stuck to our plan, walked up on Williams, got out ahead and kept going from there.”

Williams also had a 4V8 boat taking part in the regatta, which impressively beat Coast Guard’s 3V8 in the semifinal race to advance to the the 3V8 championship race.

In the final race, the Jumbos were victorious once again over the Ephs. This time, Tufts edged out Williams’ 4V8 boat by over 28 seconds, the largest winning margin of the day. Officially, the finish was 6:26.16 to 6:54.59 in favor of the Jumbos, who took the 3V8 championship for the regatta.

The final category for the regatta was comprised of 2V8 boats, including MIT’s lightweight boat. This 2V8 was the only boat the Engineers sent out for the day. The lightweight boat defeated Coast Guard’s 2V8 by just under 10 seconds after a scoring mistake where the timers missed the start of the race and had to start their stopwatches over a minute in. The Engineers moved onto the 2V8 final with the semifinal win.

In the other 2V8 semifinal, the Jumbos and Ephs squared off once again. Tufts’ 2V8 boat was manned by three first-years — coxswain Tara Curran, stroke Matias Facciuto, David Gantt — as well as sophomore Harris Hardiman-Mostow, junior Matt Agurcia, and four seniors, bow Samson Braun, Ted Midthun, Jordan Bacher and Rich Gilland.

In the semifinal race, Williams took the win over Tufts, 6:13.78 to 6:22.35, to advance to the final race. Williams would go on to defeat MIT’s lights boat by 6.5 seconds and capture the 2V8 championship. The consolation race between Tufts and Coast Guard was one of the closest of the day. The Jumbos eked by the Bears, 6:24.98 to 6:26.40, a margin of just 1.42 seconds.

Tufts’ next races are on Saturday at Malden River when the team hosts Bates, Wesleyan and UMass on the team’s Senior Day.

Women's crew dominates in opening regatta on Malden River WOMEN'S CREW

continued from back Lichter noted that the weekend’s results, more than anything else, demonstrated the team’s depth, as all four boats had success.

“All of our boats are performing extremely well across the board,” Lichter said. “I think that speaks to the depth of the team and how we’re getting stronger in a different way. It’s not just six or eight people are standing out, we have 16, 18, 20, 24, 30 people that are really developing into competitive rowers and athletes.”

According to Lichter, the team has improved significantly in terms of

depth, which has benefited their success in competition.

“As each boat was coming down the course today, it was really cool. Having been on this team for four years and having seen what the 3V and 4V looked like when I was a [first-year] and sophomore, to be like ‘That’s our 3V, they look so sharp,’” Lichter said. “The blade work is clean; the boat is running well.

Overall, the results were encouraging for the remainder of the season.”

Heia agreed with Lichter’s observation of the team’s depth.

“I think that we pulled as well as we could,” Heia said. “The early season

wins with the 2V and the 3V boost our confidence and make us look forward to next weekend.”

On Saturday, the team returns to the Malden River to host Bates, Wesleyan and Wellesley.

“Bates finished top at NCAAs last year.

Wesleyan is a team that pretty consistently performs well, and Wellesley is also a team that has a legacy of performing consistently well,” Lichter said. “So that will be a big race for us kind of to see where our competition in the rest of New England lies.”

This weekend’s race is also Seniors Day, honoring the six seniors on the squad.

n case you didn’t know, Tom Brady is not a young man. As he continues to test the stringent laws of Father Time, more and more jealous critics continue to bemoan his successes and continued championships.

Henceforth, in the spirit of good jealousy, here will be yet another attempt to knock back the quarter: call it a quarterback. It’s like a comeback, but since the challenger (in this case, me) is coming from such a position of weakness against the established strength (Brady), it can only be quarter-hearted and ultimately, kind of pathetic.

Still, it’s worth a shot. I’m just at the place where there’s really almost no point to rigid statistical argument or layered emotional justification.

I’m at the point where I need to get rather creative — I can’t really make a serious argument, so I need to inject a heavy dose of sarcasm to even allow me to write anything. I’m compensating: I know I’m wrong, but I’m going to try anyway. Lol. Brady was born on Aug. 3, 1977. Here are some other famous people born in the same year: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Kanye West, Kerry Washington, the Johns (Cena and Mayer) and Shakira. It’s an interesting assortment of cats, cobbled together from a quick Google search of “famous people born in 1977 not named Tom Brady,” but they will be used as ammunition against the Patriot gunslinger. Actually, for the spirit of March Madness, let’s try this in bracket form. Contenders will be randomly seeded.

All of the remarkable successes they’ve had on an individual basis were heavily considered: Grammy awards, Oscars, undefeated records and maybe even a WWE title belt. This group defines greatness, and leaves a trail behind to prove it! Of course, any legacy for greatness needs to be crosschecked and examined for any stains, which will be heavily considered.

COURTESY JUSTIN YU

Here’s a quick recap of the competition. Don’t mind me, I’m just the objective observer! Floyd’s invincibility ultimately trumped Brady’s two stinkers against the Giants, and the committee also gave the quarterback little credit for his two miraculous Super Bowl victories against the Falcons and Seahawks (citing more the failures of the other teams). Boseman’s movies were more likely to be determined “immortal” than Shakira’s pop-infused music, but this year a close vote.Washington’s deep CV of television work including “Scandal” (2012–)and “How to Get Away with Murder” (2014–) bested what was determined to be Cena’s ‘fake wrestling acting.’ West won in a landslide, though the committee was intrigued because Mayer had collaborated with West in the past.

The panel took away marks from Floyd after re-watching his fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2015 and determining that they viewed him as less skillful. West pledged to never wear a MAGA hat again if they let him win, so that determined that pairing.

For the final, the committee couldn’t decide.

Can you? All I know is that Brady wasn’t even close …

Jeremy Goldstein is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Jeremy can be reached at jeremy. goldstein@tufts.edu.

8 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Baseball continues home stretch success

by Jacob Dreyer

Contributing Writer

Tufts continued its 15-game homestand strong this week by beating MIT 10–2 on Thursday, April 4. Tufts then split a doubleheader against Middlebury and ended the week with an impressive come-frombehind win against Keene State, improving its overall record to 15–4.

On Sunday against Keene State, the Owls went up early, scoring three runs in the top of the second inning. The Jumbos started their comeback in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by junior infielder Elias Varinos, scoring first-year infielder Peter DeMaria to cut the lead to 3–1. Neither team scored again until the bottom of the seventh inning when junior outfielder Ryan Day scored junior outfielder Justin Mills on an RBI single up the middle to shorten the lead to one.

The Jumbos completed the comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring thrice and taking a 5–3 lead. Junior outfielder JP Knight tied the game up on an RBI single to score DeMaria. Senior co-captain and catcher Harrison Frickman broke the tie with an RBI single to score Varinos. Senior co-captain and infielder Will Shackelford added a much-needed insurance run on an RBI single to score Frickman and increase the lead to 5–3.

Keene State added a run in the top of the ninth inning, but first-year pitcher Michael Volgende was able to secure the 5–4 victory for Tufts.

Volgende got his second win of the season, throwing 2⅓ 1/3 innings in relief. Firstyear pitcher Sriharsha Bollu started the game for the Jumbos, throwing six innings and giving up only one earned run on four hits. First-year pitcher Steven Landry threw two-thirds of an inning in relief after Bollu, giving up zero runs on only one hit.

“We are not a team that gets down on ourselves,” sophomore infielder Kyle Cortese said. “We have a lot of leaders on the team. The upperclassmen are a great group of guys, great role models to look up to. It’s just that never-say-die attitude.”

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore infielder Ryan Daues is pictured at bat during Tufts’ 24–6 win over Mass. Maritime on March 27.

The Jumbos split a doubleheader against the Middlebury Panthers on April 6. In the second game, the Jumbos suffered a narrow 9–6 defeat. Middlebury’s hitting overwhelmed Tufts in the opening innings, and the Panthers finished the third inning with a 4–0 lead. While the Jumbos were able to cut the lead to two in the fourth inning, the real damage came on one swing of the bat by Panther sophomore first-baseman Ryan Hanrahan who sent a dinger over the left-field fence to score Alan Guild and Hayden Smith, extending their lead to 8–2. The Jumbos added four more runs to the scoreboard, but it was too little too late. The Panthers added another run in the ninth inning.

In their first meeting of the day, the Jumbos won a hard-fought game 4–3. Tufts got on the board first with two runs in the second inning. Middlebury came back and took a 3–2 lead after 6½ innings by scoring one run in the third and two runs in the sixth inning. The Jumbos tied the game in

the bottom half of the sixth inning on a home run by Knight; they secured the win when Mills hit a sacrifice fly to score sophomore infielder Will Burgess in the bottom of the eighth inning.

“I was trying to just hit something hard and in the air if I could and if the pitch was there,” Mills said, commenting on his eighth-inning heroics. “It was a lefty-lefty matchup. He threw a curveball for a strike and then the pitch that I ended up hitting was another curveball. I tried to gain whatever information I could from seeing the first one, because I had heard from other guys that he was going to that curve a lot. I just wanted to put a good swing on the ball, not trying to do too much, put it in the air, hit something hard and get our guys a win.”

Senior co-captain RJ Hall started the game and threw well, going six innings while giving up three earned runs with four strikeouts. First-year pitcher Aidan Tucker picked up his third win of the season, pitching two scoreless innings in relief for the Jumbos.

Two days prior to their doubleheader with the Panthers, the Jumbos continued their long stay at home with an impressive 10–2 win against the MIT Engineers. Although Tufts did not find the same offensive success as it did against Salem State, where it scored 30 runs, its approach at the plate still proved to be impressive. On only nine hits, the Jumbos crossed the plate 10 times over the course of the nine innings, while holding the Engineers to only two runs on 12 hits.

“The approach stays the same,” Cortese said. “Everyone on our team is trying to do everything in our power to get on base. The main goal is always to get on base.”

First-year pitcher Lucas Gustavson recorded his first win of the season, throwing five innings with one earned run with four strikeouts. Sophomore pitcher Manny Ray recorded his first save of the season, throwing four innings and giving up one earned run and striking out three.

The Jumbos continue their home stretch against the Bowdoin Bears on April 12.

Women’s crew wins 11 of 13 races in opening spring weekend

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Members of the women’s crew team are pictured rowing in the regatta against Wesleyan, Wellesley and Bates on April 14, 2018.

by Jake Freudberg

Assistant Sports Editor

Back from a long offseason of indoor training, the Jumbos hosted two regattas on the Malden River, their “home river,” on Saturday and Sunday, winning 11 of the 13 races they competed in.

On Saturday, Tufts hosted Coast Guard and NESCAC opponent Trinity,

and on Sunday, competed against Amherst and Smith College.

With beautiful early spring weather, the athletes had few external factors to deal with and could dial in on their races.

“It was near perfect conditions, which was kind of surprising,” senior and co-captain Libby Lichter said.

“Normally there’s some wind or rain or

it’s chilly, but we’re very lucky — where our course is it’s very protected.”

Sunday’s action only saw one loss for Tufts, as Smith’s first varsity eight (1V8) finished in 6:43.6 ahead of Tufts’ boat at 7:01.4. Tufts’ 1V8 later defeated Amherst by a six-second margin with a 7:02.8 time.

Lichter, who was in the seventh spot in the 1V8, commented on her boat’s performance. “[Smith] really busted out of the gates pulling out, for any Div. III team, a really impressive time in the 1V,” Lichter said. “They deserve a lot of credit there.

They have not been known to be a competitive team in the past, and I think with Clare Doyle, their new coach, they wanted to be something different, and they are.”

The second varsity eight won both of its races on the day. In their first race, the Jumbos finished in 7:13.1 to the Pioneers’ 7:24.1, and in their second race, the Jumbos came in at 7:15.5 to the Mammoths’ 7:29.9.

“The 2V had really good warmups, so every girl in my boat felt strong and together,” Alicia Heia, one of the 17 first-years on the team, said. “We do

a five-stroke start, and then a 20 high, and then a 10 for settling, and then right after that we were over a boat length ahead of every single team. We have a good start; we jump up.”

The 3V8 also defeated Smith by five seconds and Amherst by a whopping 30-second margin, while the 4V8 won in its only matchup of the day against Amherst.

The first race on Saturday, featuring the first women’s 1V8 up against Trinity, was the only loss of the day for Tufts.

Trinity’s boat edged out Tufts’ only by half of a second at 6:56.47 to Tufts’ 6:57.16.

The Jumbos went on to win the other five races for the day. The first varsity eight defeated Coast Guard with its 7:08.86 to Coast Guard’s 7:22.37. The 2V8 boat, which went 4–0 on the weekend (won twice each day), flew past Trinity and Coast Guard. Tufts’ 3V8 finished at 7:27.42 ahead of Trinity at 7:52.91, and the 4V8 finished at 7:49.57 ahead of Trinity’s “3.5,” varsity eight, made up of rowers from the third and fourth boats, which finished at 8:11.38. see WOMEN'S CREW, page 7