The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, January 28, 2020

TUAG unveils new exhibition on criminal justice, social issues see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

MEN’S, WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

Jumbos impress with top personal performances early in season

Editorial: Cummings building should be LEED rated to provide transparency see OPINION / PAGE 6

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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T HE T UFTS DAILY Tuesday, January 28, 2020

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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Somerville zoning overhaul establishes housing, environmental standards for new development

by Caleb Symons Staff Writer

The Somerville City Council approved an overhaul of the city’s zoning code which seeks to promote affordable housing, reduce congestion and improve sustainability standards.

The City Council approved the 552-page Somerville Zoning Ordinance (SZO), as the new code is formally known, at its Dec. 12, 2019 meeting after nearly eight years of committee meetings, public hearings and analysis by city officials. The overhaul is the first significant revision to Somerville’s zoning code in nearly 30 years and updates some regulations that had existed since the city passed its first zoning ordinance in 1924.

Among the significant changes is the expansion of an affordable housing provision that was originally passed by the City Council, then known as the Board of Aldermen, in 2016. That provision now requires most residential developments with more than four units to provide at least 20% of those units at affordable rates.

The SZO also incorporates a fee on developments over 30,000 square feet that is allocated to the city’s affordable housing programs.

“Zoning is one of, if not the most, powerful tool that we have as a municipality [to] affect change [and] to accomplish goals that we’ve set out as a community,” Ward 6 City Councilor Lance Davis said. “The fact that people are getting displaced day after day, and have for years in this city, and [that] the city is losing so much of the diversity in character that’s always made it such an interesting place is our biggest challenge. Through zoning, we can take some strong steps toward mitigating that.”

Davis, whose ward includes the southeastern portion of Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus and adjacent neighborhoods, including Davis Square, also pointed to the inclusion in the SZO of a jobs linkage fee first passed in 2017 as a way to combat displacement. That fee requires developers to provide funds that go toward training Somerville residents to compete for local jobs.

New parking regulations in the SZO aim to prevent congestion and encourage residents to use public or carbon-neutral forms of transportation.

The ordinance establishes a maximum number of parking spots that developers are permitted to build and abolishes a minimum number of spots they previously had to provide. For developments designated as within walking distance of public transportation, parking must be built off of the street.

Moreover, several residential and commercial districts require developers to provide free bicycle parking for residents, employees and visitors.

“In the old zoning, the parking requirements were designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” Davis said.“The data is overwhelmingly clear that if you build parking spaces, what happens is

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people bring cars, and that puts more traffic on the streets — not to mention the impact on the environment and our climate.”

The SZO also establishes several regulations to encourage eco-friendly development.

Residential and commercial developments must achieve a minimum sustainability standard under Somerville’s new “Green Score” measurement. Developments earn points toward their Green Score by incorporating sustainable features in their architecture and landscaping, such as green roofs, permeable surfaces and habitats for pollinating insects.

“Normal zoning says that a certain percentage of your lot has to be landscaped,” the city’s senior planner, Dan Bartman, said. “This system says … the landscape must earn points based on how we value the items that you landscape with. So large trees earn more points than small trees because of what they do for us or what they do for the environment.”

Unlike inflexible landscaping requirements, Bartman said, the Green Score program — which is modeled on existing programs in Seattle and Washington D.C. — gives developers leeway to meet its standards by establishing a calculation that considers a property’s entire environmental impact.

“That’s a way we felt would still allow creativity among the development community [and] among the neighbors of the community,” Davis said. “One of the biggest assets we have in Somerville is how smart and creative people are. Throughout the zoning process, we learned that the community is going to think of things that we didn’t … so to the extent that we could, we wanted to leverage that and allow people to get creative.”

The SZO also requires developments over 25,000 square feet to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification and developments over 50,000 feet to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

Earlier drafts of the ordinance set the certification requirements at LEED Silver and LEED Gold, respectively, which would match sustainability standards in Boston and Cambridge. However, later versions included the more stringent requirements.

In addition, the SZO stipulates that new laboratory buildings must earn LEED Platinum certification. That provision provoked backlash from the development community in the final months before it was adopted and will likely be considered further, according to Bartman.

However, Bartman explained that certain buildings that achieve environmental standards set by the Passive House Institute U.S. or the International Living Future Institute can earn a density bonus under the new ordinance and would inherently qualify for LEED certification.

“Essentially, every new apartment building has the ability [to increase] the amount of dwelling units they can provide if they build a more sustainFor breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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able building,” Bartman said. “We offer the exact same density bonus for building that are 100% affordable, and we’ve had really good feedback from people already expressing interest in doing one or the other.”

Tufts must comply with the LEED requirements for any developments but does not currently have plans to construct a new laboratory building in Somerville, according to the university’s Director of Community Relations Rocco DiRico.

“Before starting any new construction project, we would contact the appropriate City officials, as we always do, to determine what aspects of the new zoning code would apply,” DiRico told the Daily in an email.

As it was in previous zoning codes, Tufts is situated in a special zoning district in which it enjoys certain privileges, such as being able to build up to eight stories at least 200 feet from the surrounding community. The SZO does not change any provisions of the university’s special zoning district, according to Bartman.

Bartman noted that Tufts’ proximity to the coming Green Line Extension would trigger the new provision limiting the number of parking spaces allowed near public transportation hubs if it was not in a special zoning district. However, he did not rule out dismissing that exemption in the future.

“We didn’t change anything [regarding] Tufts or how the public understands the Tufts zoning function, outside of wanting to have a planning process to do such things,” Bartman said. “The underlying principle was that if we were, one day, to change how the Tufts zoning works, we should have a planning process that involves Tufts and the public.”

Tufts representatives regularly attended community discussions regarding the proposed SZO throughout the nearly eight-year adoption process and occasionally provided feedback to the city, according to DiRico.

Mayor Joseph Curtatone’s administration began drafting the SZO in February 2012 after introducing its comprehensive plan, SomerVision.

SomerVision called for the creation of 30,000 new jobs and 6,000 new housing units, with 1,200 designated as permanently affordable, by 2030. It also presented nearly 600 goals, policies and action statements for Somerville to consider, many of which the SomerVision Steering Committee saw as incompatible with the city’s old zoning code, according to Bartman.

“They realized that many of the things they wanted to accomplish, and much of the way they wanted development to unfold in the city, was in direct conflict with the regulations that were in place at that time,” Bartman said. “My hiring [in February 2012] was a direct result of SomerVision being adopted and a good chunk of its objectives needing to be imple-

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mented through a revision, if not a wholesale replacement of zoning, to ever achieve any of that stuff.”

In his initial survey of the city, Bartman saw that its zoning regulations did not recognize different building types and thus could not preserve the character of its neighborhoods.

“Zoning was using uniform dimensions to regulate all buildings,” he said. “It didn’t matter if you had a triple-decker or a house — it was just letting you build onto them in an uncoordinated manner that respected that specific type.”

The SZO’s establishment of a Neighborhood Residence zone, which covers 80% of the city and standardizes regulations by building type, was a direct result of the need for greater coherence, according to Bartman.

The administration presented a draft of the SZO to the former Board of Aldermen in 2015. That version contained the same building classifications that are in the final ordinance but did not include many of the affordable housing and sustainability provisions.

“That draft was not received really well,” Davis said. “To everyone’s credit, we took it as a working draft [and] went back out to the community.

There’s been rounds and rounds of community input, expert input and analysis from consultants, the City Council, the former Board of Aldermen and the administration.”

The administration ultimately submitted four more versions of the ordinance before the City Council adopted the final one in December 2019.

“Some of that had to do with the politics changing multiple times during the process,” Bartman said. “We have a two-year election cycle, so if I didn’t get it done in two years, new people would come.

But this was a collaborative effort — it’s very different than where we started in 2015.”

Aside from the SZO’s new policies, Davis pointed to its simplified language and organization as a significant upgrade from the city’s old zoning code.

“Just from a transparency standpoint … [the old code] was really inaccessible for people,” he said.

“You needed expert lawyers [and] people who could help you sort through it just to have even the beginnings of a sense of what you could or couldn’t do, or what your neighbor could and couldn’t do.”

Bartman concurred and emphasized the importance of adopting the SZO for Somerville’s continued growth.

“This really was a collaborative effort between everybody,” Bartman said. “It certainly reflects the interests of the public and the elected leadership, and in my opinion, it’s a huge achievement in the city’s history. This is a platform for further work. It’s like we replaced the operating system of a computer with a new version so that we can keep working.We had a 1990 version of a computer, and now we have a 2020 version.”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, January 28, 2020

THE TUFTS DAILY Ryan Shaffer Editor in Chief

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Diversity remains a priority as Tufts admissions reviews ED applications

by Elie Levine

Executive Audio Editor

This year, Tufts Office of Admissions received a record number of applications for the School of Arts and Sciences — close to 23,100 — a 1.5% increase from last year’s record-setting pool of 22,725. Tufts Admissions received more than 2,550 applications for both rounds of Early Decision (ED), marking a 2.4% increase in ED applications from last year. The Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, part of the School of Arts and Sciences, saw the greatest increase in applications, rising by about 19% from 416 applications last year.

“It’s too soon to know how many will be admitted in Early Decision, or what the demographics of the ED cohort will look like,” Joseph “JT” Duck, dean of admissions, said in an email.

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The Tufts University Chaplaincy hired Nora Bond (AG’16) as program manager in December 2019, the second person to hold the role since its creation.

Bond, an alumna of Mount Holyoke College, graduated from Tufts in 2016 with a Master’s in Child Study and Human Development. Bond explained that she has worked in higher education for four years before coming to Tufts and is currently a certified spiritual director, according to the Chaplaincy’s website.

Bond elaborated that the program manager is responsible for coordinating a team to conduct events at Tufts, such as the Halloween Midnight Organ Concert and the annual Illumination Ceremony, which takes place during Orientation.

Bond is also responsible for the Conversation, Action, Faith and Education (CAFE) Pre-Orientation program, which helps facilitate the transition of incoming first-year students to campus.

Costa Camerano, a regular Chaplaincy attendee, explained that the Chaplaincy

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“We look forward to learning more about the make-up of the enrolled class, which will become clearer this spring,” Mack said.

The admissions office is working toward a mid-February decision release date for ED2 applications, which were due Jan. 1. The office continues to evaluate applications holistically and in context, according to Duck. Candidates who were deferred in either ED round will be notified by April 1, according to the Tufts Admissions website.

Last year, Tufts accepted its largest class yet, admitting 14.6% of applicants in total — for ED and regular-decision rounds.

Hannah Bray, a first-year from Austin, Texas, who applied ED, says she applied to Tufts because she loved the inclusive community she felt the moment she stepped on campus.

“And I saw a corgi on my tour, so I knew,” Bray said in an electronic message.

had a positive influence on his transition into the university as an underclassman.

“I would say that the Chaplaincy definitely had a positive influence,” Camerano, a senior, said. “Whenever I had times of stress or doubt, I had either an advisor to turn to or a group of people to meet with on a weekly basis for support. I am excited to see how a new manager could change the program for the better.”

Bond explained that re-envisioning programming is one of her priorities.

“We are so lucky to have such a vibrant, multi-worldview chaplaincy model, and it makes us truly unique,” Bond said. “I aim to build and refine programming that offers affirmation for who you are, challenge to examine yourself and wisdom to deepen your way of being.”

Bond also oversees projects focusing on community outreach, as well as collaborating with and supporting the six faith and worldview chaplains associated with the University Chaplaincy, according to its website.

Ishan Gupta, vice president of the Hindu Students Council, expressed optimism that the new program manager

will be able to further the Chaplaincy’s mission.

“I believe that the new program [manager] will be able to further interfaith programs across Tufts and allow for intersection between faiths,” Gupta, a senior, said in an email.

Bond is also focused on what the Chaplaincy can do that other organizations cannot. She plans to explore the possibilities of the Chaplaincy in a few different ways moving forward.

“I will be thinking broadly about how to better translate the work of the University Chaplaincy through communications, resource development and events,” Bond said.

Thinking of programming for this semester, Bond expressed excitement for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 20 and the following Symposium on Jan. 22, as well as other religious observances, holidays and regular gatherings coming later in the semester.

“We will hold events like Buddha Day and our weekly offerings like worship services, Jummah prayer and our Humanist community gatherings,” Bond said.

consider divesting Tufts’ endowment from the fossil fuel industry.

“It’s very important that we kind of understand the endowment, how it’s invested and what our goals actually are,” McGarghan said.

McGarghan explained that Tufts’ endowment is invested into a variety of funds, each overseen by external fund managers, which may then be invested in stocks of individual companies. He emphasized that Tufts wields no formal influence on what financial assets a manager decides to invest their fund in.

“So when we say, ‘Hey, we don’t like that you’re investing in X company,’ they say, ‘too bad,'” McGarghan said. “We don’t have say.”

TCU Senator Deepen Goradia added that the many funds which the endowment invests in may themselves be invested into other funds, which are in turn invested into other funds.

“It’s like ‘Inception,’” Goradia, a sophomore, said.

McGarghan continued to explain that calling for divestment from a particular company or industry means divestment from funds entirely, forming another barrier to divestment.

Another factor that complicates divestment is that the precise makeup of the endowment

changes day-to-day, which makes knowing exactly how much is invested in a particular industry or company even more difficult, McGarghan said.

McGarghan added that Tufts incurs a substantial fee if it tries to divest from a particular fund before the expiration of the term that the university agreed to upon entry into the fund.

Considering all of these specific financial details, McGarghan emphasized the benefit that he believes the RIAG provides for students concerned about the endowment’s investment activities.

“All it takes for us is to pass a resolution, for a student group to put together a 20-page proposal and have people who are experts to take a look at it, so we don’t have to do all this,” McGarghan said.

These facts, however, should not stop students from advocating and organizing for divestment from certain companies or industries, according to TCU Senator and Historian Rabiya Ismail.

Before entering this discussion on the endowment, Goradia, the chair of the administration and policy committee, reminded his fellow senators about the upcoming University Budget and Finance town hall on Feb. 4.

TCU Senate discusses endowment structure, organization

by Robert Kaplan

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Duck said that, though students from all U.S. states are in the application pool, the university has seen high numbers of applications in both ED and regular-decision rounds from students in Massachusetts, New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida and Texas.

Applications from students without U.S. citizenship increased by 12% this year.

“Applications from students of color continue to grow at a faster pace than our overall applicant pool, and account for nearly 50% of this year’s domestic applicants,” Duck said.

Last year, former Dean of Admissions Karen Richardson also noted that she was pleased with an increase in applications from domestic students of color.

Although the admissions department is still in early stages of review, Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost Rob Mack said the preliminary numbers are encouraging.

Nora Bond named Chaplaincy’s new program director

by Rhys Empey

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The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate convened to discuss how Tufts’ endowment operates and hear updates from its Executive Board on the evening of Jan. 26 in the Sophia Gordon multipurpose room.

Sunday night’s TCU Senate meeting marks the second consecutive week that the deliberative body has not voted on a resolution or supplementary funding requests from student organizations, which usually occupy the senators for the bulk of their weekly meetings.

TCU Parliamentarian Finn McGarghan presented on the structure and organization of the university’s endowment for most of the meeting, and answered questions from the body afterwards.

McGarghan, a senior, explained that he felt it was especially important that senators understand the endowment, given the TCU Senate’s successful sponsorship of the Tufts Climate Action proposal in December which prompted the formation of the Responsible Investment Advisory Group (RIAG) to

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Features

3 Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Q&A: Lecturer Beardsley reflects on career, student-centered education

by Amelia Becker

Executive Features Editor

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

Linda Beardsley, a senior lecturer in the Department of Education in the School of Arts and Sciences, has worked as a teacher across many levels of schooling, as a state education policymaker and as a board member of a girls school in Rwanda. Her work focuses on the role of students as being central to their own educational experience. Beardsley sat down with the Daily to discuss her work and what brought her to Tufts.

Tufts Daily (TD): How did you get interested in the field of education?

Linda Beardsley (LB): I’ve always been interested in teaching from the time I had a younger sibling and friends and we used to play school. So it was something I’ve always done. And of course you spend a lot of time sin school, so you get to know school and how to do school and all of that. Actually, -when I was in college, I initially wanted to -be in advertising, but after a few experienc-es that led me to believe I wasn’t so keen don advertising, teaching seemed to be the natural progression, because I was always einterested in writing, reading, English, shumanities, so I went into teaching.

- TD: What brought you to Tufts? t LB: I started by teaching high school and I had two maternity leaves in that bit tof time. It was actually through raising my eown young children that I realized even -though I knew how to do what I thought dwas a knockout lesson plan on “The Scarlet Letter,” I had no idea how people really slearned. I mean, watching my own chilrdren learning just the basic things that a etoddler learns — I was fascinated. I had an nopportunity to apply to Tufts, to the [Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and gHuman Development], and I did my graduate work there. When my graduate work ywas done, they asked if I’d like to stay and -teach there, and that was a great opporttunity to work with young children after I had been working with high school-aged students. So that’s how I first got to Tufts.

TD: What is your role here now?

LB: A senior lecturer. I was at EliotPearson for 14 years at the children’s school.

I did a lot of teaching, research, that kind of

thing. I left when there was a class action lawsuit in New Hampshire to close the institutional schools and bring students that had been institutionalized back to their neighborhood schools. So I did that for a few years, which was very rewarding and really taught me a lot about school.

And then when I was finished with that role, Massachusetts was starting its education reform work and I was encouraged to apply to the [State] Department of Education to do that… I spearheaded the development of the first [Massachusetts] Curriculum Frameworks and worked a lot with schools until John Silber was elected to the Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he had a very different idea than I did about how one reforms schools and it involves teachers in particular … so I knew I had to leave. I was at a conference and happened to meet one of the professors I had when I was at Eliot-Pearson who said you should think about coming back to Tufts. And I thought to myself, all the work I did in policy, I learned it really is about the relationship between students and their teachers that makes a difference, so I thought if I could get to work to train teachers to have those relationships, I would do more to reform education than sitting in board rooms.

TD: What was your research at EliotPearson about? And what have you learned now that you’ve become a lecturer and are interacting more with students?

LB: My areas of research … [in] the years when I first came here was really about how to train teachers. I believe in partnerships between higher education and K-12 schools, so that was a lot of the work I did my first decade back here was looking at how you establish partnerships with schools. I was very interested in attracting more young people of color and so did a lot of work in that regard, and the university was very supportive of that kind of work, so that was really gratifying, [especially] working with the school in Rwanda, and looking at the global perspective of education. I worked on education reform, curriculum standards, frameworks, all of that kind of thing in a place that I know very well — Massachusetts schools — but to realize that the rest of the world was doing that too was pretty amazing to me. The thing about Rwanda, and certainly I think other African countries as well, they’re trying to adopt the

way we do things and I don’t think we necessarily always do things well. So helping to steer some of that work, to work at a school that really is trying to provide some models of more hands-on learning, more STEMfocused work with girls especially, has really been interesting. That’s been a lot of my work, as well as a course that I developed called “The Role of ‘Story’ in Education,” helping people look at the narrative of their education and worlds it’s opened up to them, as well as boundaries it may be putting around their thinking. Those are the two areas that I’m most enthusiastic about at this point.

TD: So on the other side, what was your experience working in the field of education policy?

LB: Education policy is like — you always hear that idea — you never want to know how the sausage is made. I think I was very fortunate to work at the [Massachusetts] Department of Education at a time when there was a lot of progressive thinking, a lot of people who had been teachers, like myself, who were actually now looking at policy from the perspective of the practitioner and not just from the perspective of the academic or the political side. Because I think that to me what is often missing from the policy level is the real perspective of the practitioner, [and] also the perspective of students. When I was helping to design the process for developing the curriculum frameworks, we were one of the first states to include students on our framework committees. I’ll tell you, that was like “Wow!” Hopefully in my own teaching I give students a sense of how important it is to think about their own voices in shaping [policy]. We don’t have to shape policy at the big national level, we can shape policy by talking with the schools we work in about what we believe is good practice.

TD: On that note, is there anything Tufts is doing or should be doing in terms of their practices in education?

LB: First of all, I believe in a liberal arts education. I think it’s wonderful. I think the time you spend as an undergraduate in an institution should be a time when you can really try some things, grow in ways that maybe you can’t believe — I can’t believe I love acting, I can’t believe I really enjoy calculus — it should be all those kinds of

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opportunities. I’ll tell you a story. At the beginning of classes, I often ask people what they want to learn, because I think that’s an important thing to do on the first day — find out what your students know already about what you’re going to be teaching them and what they really want to know. It’s the way I kind of develop my own rubric for the year.

A couple of years ago when I asked that question on the first day and asked them to jot some things down, someone looked at me and said “Nobody has ever asked me that before.” I mean I think it’s so typical, especially in the K-12 experience, and especially now with so much standards-driven education, that we trust the fact that the schools know what we need to learn. I think we need to think more about how we incorporate student voice at every level, and that includes here at Tufts.

TD: Lastly, do you have any words of wisdom for Tufts students?

LB: I don’t feel very wise. Especially after 3 in the afternoon. I feel as though I’m someone who’s always learning and I learn a lot from my students. I always have, whether they were kindergarteners at Eliot-Pearson, or graduate students here in the department.

One thing I would hope is that Tufts students really know that they should have and they do have a voice in their own educations and what they want to pursue. I would encourage them to use them here. To help all of us who are their teachers to understand what they see, because they see the future all in front of them. You know a lot of us who are their teachers are looking backwards and I think it’s important that we always have conversations about what you will need to know and how you will need to make meaning out of this crazy world we’ve all created for you. I was thinking about that the other day — I was reading about Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist, and just thinking about how brave she is to raise her voice. The students from Parkland, how brave they were to raise their voices. I just hope that’s one of the things a student learns here, is how to raise your voice, be brave. Tell truth to power, as they say.

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Tuesday, January 28, 2020

ARTS&LIVING

tuftsdaily.com

‘Walls Turned Sideways’ offers new insight into criminal justice system

by Sam Heyman

Assistant Arts Editor

Tufts University Art Galleries’ its new exhibition, “Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System,” Thursday at the Tisch and Koppelman Galleries in Aidekman Arts Center. The exhibition compiles works by dozens of artists critiquing the criminal justice system in the United States. A reception and talk by curator Risa Puleo and participating artist Autumn Knight followed. An ambitious slate of additional programming is set to accompany the show, including faculty talks elaborating on the show’s key themes and a two-day symposium.

“Walls Turned Sideways” comes to Tufts from the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. According to a museum press release, it is “the largest and most comprehensive museum presentation to investigate the criminal justice system in the United States.” Its title quotes activist and author Angela Davis: “Walls turned sideways are bridges.”

Over 30 artists contributed to “Walls Turned Sideways,” and the result is a dense library of perspective, theme and material that would take days to pore through in its entirety. The wealth of subject matter is organized thematically into six sections: Ground, Profile, Arrest, Process, Exits and Incarcerate. It’s not required that one brush up on the sections before visiting the gallery, but those interested can find an overview on the exhibition’s web page.

The exhibition itself weaves the contents of these sections together rather than separating them out; the thematic category of each piece is indicated not by its location in the gallery but by a color-coded label in the corner of its plaque.

For those drawn to this exhibition by an interest in criminal justice, the themes will be familiar: police brutality, racial profiling and the prison system, among others.

It’s precisely that familiarity which makes this collection special and its exhibition urgent. Art specializes in dismantling tropes, which makes it an ideal instrument for provoking meaningful engagement with the systemic cruelty to which

many Americans have — perhaps willingly — become desensitized.

“Walls Turned Sideways” doesn’t waste this opportunity. It’s stuffed with videos, projections, a comic book, stacks of images, an interactive map tucked into a dividing wall. The space crackles with motion and urgency. Many of the works are cleverly designed to withhold information from the viewer, asking them to choose what, when and how much they are willing to process.

Beneath the power to curate one’s own experience beats a pulse of responsibility: If you don’t flip the pages of the books or leaf through the stacks of photographs, their contents will remain covered. It’s a masterful manipulation of the ethos of a gallery environment, carefully crafted to forge a connection between viewer and subject.

Like the works themselves, the exhibition aspires to create an impact in its host community. One of the ways it seeks to do this is with a full schedule of supplementary programming designed to elaborate on the issues raised by the

works. Among the planned events is a faculty talk by Assistant Professor Diana Martinez on Feb. 12. The highlight of the program is a two-day symposium on March 5–6, which will place the participating artists themselves “in dialogue with scholars, advocates and activists.”

The confluence between art and activism in “Walls Turned Sideways” drills to the core of what art is and what it aspires to do. Abstraction is rare, but illusion abounds; many of these pieces blur the line between reality and art. It could be argued that all art, intentionally or otherwise, builds bridges between ideas and people. A work of social commentary wears this directive on its sleeve, and thus faces the additional challenge of convincing the viewer to care about its subject without scaring them off. “Walls Turned Sideways” is a masterclass in the art of protest as much as a stunning visual biography of the American criminal justice system and the deafening silence on which it feeds.

“Walls Turned Sideways” will be on display through April 19.

For your consideration: ‘The Two Popes’, Pryce’s performance

by Christopher Panella Arts Editor

In less than two weeks, the 92nd Academy Awards will air; millions will watch and argue about the nominees awarded, the dresses worn and the speeches given. There are clear contenders for each category — anyone following this awards season is positive that Brad Pitt is a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” (2019) and Laura Dern will certainly take home Best Supporting Actress for “Marriage Story” (2019). And these wins are certainly fine. Pitt is the best part about “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and not just because of that shirtless scene — which was the hottest thing ever — but also because Pitt’s performance (whether intentional or not) carries the film. Likewise, Dern makes herself standout amongst other fantastic performances in “Marriage Story;” one might be tempted to argue that her performance in “Little Women” (2019) deserves to be nominated far more than this one, but as long as Dern wins an Oscar, all is well.

One category at this year’s Oscars is greatly troubling. Yes, the sheer lack of diversity across categories makes the entire Oscars distressing and upsetting — especially the absence of nominations for any actors from “Parasite” (2019) — but the Best Actor category seems to be dominated by one performance in particular. While it might seem as though Joaquin Phoenix’s nightmarish performance in the dumpster fire “Joker” (2019) is what everyone’s talking about, it’s time to revisit Jonathan Pryce’s role as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, otherwise known as the current Pope Francis, in “The Two Popes” (2019). Pryce is far more deserving than most of his fellow nominees for his thoughtful and delicate performance.

“The Two Popes” is certainly not the best film of 2019. It’s an interesting story, a film that ruminates on religion’s place in the modern world and the struggle between conservative traditions and new ideas. Pryce and Anthony Hopkins — nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Pope Benedict XVI — represent that struggle quite literally. As Bergoglio

desperately tries to resign due to his growing disagreements with much of the church’s stances on gay marriage, abortion and Catholicism’s role in society, Pope Benedict reaffirms his beliefs in traditional ideals. The conflict is palpable in the film’s incredible screenplay. Each actor is given more than enough monologues to play with and plenty of wonderful one-liners. Pryce and Hopkins are utterly electric together, delivering slow-moving scenes that showcase acting at its finest.

But gosh, Pryce manages to outshine Hopkins. If Hopkins’ performance is steak — expensive, flavorful, but not for everyone — then Pryce is a bowl of chicken noodle soup — soothing, soulful and comforting. It might seem impossible that Pryce can even go toe-to-toe with the powerhouse that is Hopkins, but Pryce’s performance is far more realized.

Every mannerism, word and action is understood; nothing is left to chance or whim. It’s a ruminative performance that shows that you don’t have to go through any crazy transformation to become a historical — or fictional — character.

This isn’t to question the work behind any other performance nominated for Best Actor. Antonio Banderas is a surprise nomination for “Pain and Glory” (2019) — yes, a surprise, but a welcome one — and Adam Driver makes gold out of everything he touches. Leonardo DiCaprio is … an interesting choice for giving the same tired performance in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” that he’s given throughout his filmography.

Phoenix is the good part of “Joker.”

But Pryce secures this nomination because of how fully he realizes the struggles of his character. “The Two Popes” gives him space to do that; there’s no absurd antics, plot twists or spicy moments. The film works because it gives Pryce what he needs in order to perform the best he can. This isn’t to say that there aren’t parts of “The Two Popes” that don’t necessarily work: annoying flashbacks that are far too long and break the chemistry between Pryce and Hopkins, weird editing that almost ruins the beautifully simple cinematography and setting. Again, it’s not the best film of 2019, but it harbors one of the best performances of the year.

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “The Two Popes” (2019) is pictured.

So, what now? Well, Pryce isn’t favored to win — four guesses who is — but it’s laughable to think that what is nominated or wins the awards is always the best. “The Two Popes” has most likely fallen off lists of what audiences are going to watch (or re-watch) before the Academy Awards, but it

shouldn’t be. If anything, it should be near the top; it’s got three nominations and most likely won’t win for any of them, but sometimes the underdogs are the films that deserve another viewing. Give “The Two Popes” a go — it’s on Netflix and Pryce makes it well worth the watch.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

EDITORIAL

Tufts must value transparency, pursue LEED certification for Cummings Center

Last September, the Daily reported on the Joyce Cummings Center, which is currently under construction at the corner of Boston and College Avenues. According to Director of Strategic Capital Programs Ruth Bennett, the new building will not be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rated. This outcome is surprising given this certification’s clear value and credibility as the most widely used green building rating system in the world and the U.S. Green Building Council’s urging universities to gain this certification for their buildings. While Tufts reassures students that sustainability remains a priority for this new center, transparency about the building’s environmental implications takes the back seat with this decision. LEED certification holds institutions accountable to meeting sustainability standards about building materials, water savings, energy efficiency, waste management and overall sustainable development.

While we recognize cost as a factor in Tufts’ decision — as certification may cost a maximum of $22,500 — the benefits of this certification clearly outweigh this factor given the current environmental crisis; Tufts must LEED certify the Cummings Center in order to address this impending disaster, promote transparency and create a more sustainable campus.

As a university that values innovation and the creation of a promising future for its students, it is Tufts’ duty to support sustainability and our environment like its students actively do. Climate change is an extremely pressing issue, and our campus should not be exempt from monitoring its environmental impact, which includes being held accountable to environmental standards in its construction of new buildings. This also falls in line with student voices and activism: Many student groups tirelessly strive for a more environmentally conscious campus, including Tufts Climate Action (TCA), Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA) and Tufts Energy Group.

In many ways, Tufts supports these important voices in their current plan for the Cummings building, but it must follow through on these values by gaining LEED certification for the center. Bennett told the Daily that the building aims for 50 kBtu/sf of energy consumption, which is more efficient than the highest LEED rating, and that the center will feature an environmentally conscious design, including energy-efficient triple glazed windows and solar panels on the building’s roof.

These attributes of the current plan illustrate Tufts’ applaudable commitment to sustainability but lacks a level of accountability that would ensure follow-through and limit inconsistency in the building’s environmental footprint.

BY CARYS KONG LEED certification would fix this missing element and assure the university’s transparency about the building’s environmental impact, for it inherently holds organizations accountable to standards for its environmental practices. In order to receive certification, buildings must be reviewed based on seven factors: “Integrative process, Location and transportation, Sustainable sites, Water, Energy, Materials and resources, and Indoor environmental quality.” By undergoing this extensive review, buildings and organizations remain transparent about their sustainable practices, for they must meet rigorous, thorough standards in order to receive certification.

By gaining this certification, Tufts not only becomes more environmentally accountable but also benefits as as institution with relativity little financial deficit; the certification acts as a clear demonstration of Tufts’ commitment to sustainability, which the university can use to their benefit through marketing and public relations initiatives. Tufts also economically benefits as

meeting LEED certification standards leads to over $2 billion in water, energy, waste and maintenance savings. Additionally, the actual cost of LEED certification is minimal relative to these benefits as well as to the costs of the Cummings Center and other university projects. Tufts estimates it will spend approximately $90 million on the construction of the Cummings Center and 2 million for the Tufts name appear in the new MBTA stop, so the maximum $22,500 needed for LEED certification proves minimal in comparison, especially with the clear benefits and necessity of LEED certification in mind. If Tufts is not willing to invest this amount but will spend millions of dollars just to name an MBTA stop, its priorities are clearly skewed and should be shifted toward transparency about efforts to combat the urgent climate crisis.

The strides already made by both Tufts and other universities toward LEED certification act as a testament to the feasibility of this important action. Many Tufts buildings are certified such as Sophia Gordon

Hall, 200 Boston Ave., the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex building at 574 Boston Ave. and the Science and Engineering Complex; the university’s experience with the certification process demonstrates the practicality of pursuing LEED certification for the Cummings Center. By doing so, Tufts follows in the sustainable path of institutions like the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Dickinson College, which mandate LEED Certification for all new buildings.

Through LEED certifying for the Joyce Cummings Center, Tufts claims a title as a transparent institution that values student voices, sustainability and the overall betterment of our campus. Ultimately, the Cummings building is for the Tufts community, and LEED certification would make the information about the building’s sustainability accessible to this community; this certification is vital to the preservation of community values, involving both the administration and the rest of our campus.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Thank you, UIJ

We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Tufts student organization United For Immigrant Justice for their recent winter clothing drive for immigrant and homeless families in Somerville. We have had a growing number of immigrant

children and families coming straight from the border with no experience with winter in Massachusetts! The idea of making an appeal to students going home on vacation to go through their closets for winter garments and bring them back to help

supply the Clothing Closet maintained at a Somerville school originated in a discussion with UIJ back in 2014 when the first wave of unaccompanied minors from the border arrived. This year they came through again.

Thank you so much, United for Immigrant Justice!

Nomi Davidson, on behalf of the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative Alex Pirie, on behalf of the Somerville Sanctuary City Steering Committee

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.

ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

Opinion

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Sports

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Men’s, women’s track and field see strong early season performances in 2nd week

by Delaney Tantillo Sports Editor

On Saturday, the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., to compete in the Wheaton Invitational, the second full meet of the season for both teams.

The men’s team performed well across the board, ending the day with 24 top five finishes in nearly every event. While the meet did not feature team scoring, impressive individual performances put the athletes in a good position heading into the upcoming invitational meets.

The young talent on the men’s team was on display in both the track and field events at the Wheaton Invitational. First-years Joe Pizzi and Evan Ensslin captured second place in the 200 meters and 1,000 meters, respectively. In the field events, first-year Carter Rosewell won the long jump at 22 feet one-fourth inches, while fellow first-year Marcus Hardy won the triple jump at 42 feet, 3 1/4 inches.

Tufts was especially dominant in the 800meter race, with four Jumbos finishing in the top 10 in this event. Senior Matt D’Anieri was the top Tufts runner, finishing in fourth place with a time of 1 minute 54.80 seconds. Senior co-captain Roman Lovell, who placed ninth with a time of 1:59.01, said that having so many Jumbo runners in this particular event contributed to their success.

“Any time we can get a bunch of guys in the same event it is exciting,” Lovell said. “From the people competing pushing each other, to the rest of the ream rallying around them and chanting things like ‘go,’ the team helps elicit great showings.”

The Jumbos are still early in their season and Lovell said that the team hopes to build off this weekend’s success in the coming weeks.

“With this being just the second meet, we want to keep the big picture in mind,” Lovell said. “This involves using the performances from these early meets as jumping-off points, to motivate us to continue putting in work and not settle.”

The women’s track and field team also had an impressive day at the Wheaton Invitational, especially from the younger athletes. The team was notably stronger in the field events, which accounted for five of the Jumbos’ eight firstplace finishes.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Sophomore Joseph Harmon, junior Patrick Nero and Dylan Jones (LA ‘19), compete in the 10,000-meter race at Snowflake Classic on March 30, 2019 First-year Lia Rotti had an outstanding meet as she captured first place in both the long jump (17 feet, 9 3/4 inches) and pole vault (10 feet, 8 inches) events.

The Jumbos were dominant in the weight throw, too, capturing three of the top five spots.

First-year Gabriella Pearl recorded a mark of 43 feet, 7 inches to take first place, and first-year Otega Amudo (41 feet, 8 3/4 inches) and junior Nkem Aduka (39 feet, 8 inches) finished in third and fifth place, respectively.

Junior Melissa Rowland’s mile performance was a highlight of the running events, as she set a personal record of 5:17.51 to take first place.

First-years Kate Bidgood and Lexi Quinn won the 1,000 meters and 3000 meters races, respectively. Bidgood finished with a time of 3:11.26 and Quinn recorded an impressive 10:49.96, besting the second-place runner by nearly 24 seconds.

Senior co-captain Rhemi Toth, who did not compete in the meet on Saturday, said the Wheaton Invitational was a success for the team.

“Overall, the team did very well,” Toth said.

“We had many people qualify for the New

England Div. III meet which is very exciting.

Additionally, in the weight throw, all of the throwers qualified for the final.”

One day prior, on Friday, eight members of the women’s team traveled to Boston University (BU) to compete in the John Thomas Terrier Classic, which featured Div. I, II and III athletes from schools across the nation.

Among the eight Tufts athletes competing were Toth and senior co-captain Julia Gake.

Toth competed in the 1000 meters race, placing 26th with a time of 2:57.71, while Gake competed in the 500 meters, finishing 30th with a time of 1:18.37. Sophomore Luana Machado also raced in the 500 meters, finishing in 25th place — the best of four Jumbos in the race — with a time of 1:17.58.

Given that this meet did not feature team scoring, athletes used it as an opportunity to challenge their own personal bests, according to Toth.

“The BU meet is mostly geared towards individuals rather than the team,” Toth said.

“BU has one of the fastest tracks in the country and the competition at the BU meets are

always very competitive. Those of us who competed on Friday went in wanting to run some fast times early in the season and I think we accomplished that goal.”

The team is looking forward to upcoming meets featuring team scoring, including the Branwen Smith-King Invitational next weekend. Tufts will host the meet — named after the former women’s track and field coach, women’s cross country coach and assistant director of Athletics — at the Gantcher Center on Friday and Saturday.

“The Bran meet is definitely bigger than the events this weekend,” Toth said.

“The meet is scored, and we’ll be facing off against many other teams from New England. It will be a great early season test for us as a team.”

While the Branwen Smith-King Invitational will be the main focus of the weekend, members of both the men’s and women’s teams will also be competing at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Championships (NEICAAA) at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Men’s, women’s squash get off to rough start after winter break

by Pranav Jain

Assistant Sports Editor

The No. 26 men’s squash team started the new year on a disappointing note with consecutive losses to No. 17 Williams, No. 24 Dickinson College and No. 21 Bates. Its sole victory came against Stanford University, in which the Jumbos prevailed 9–0.

The No. 19 women’s squash team had a similar start to 2020 with losses against No. 13 Williams, No. 17 Bates and No. 5 Stanford, only prevailing over No. 22 Dickinson with a convincing 7–2 victory.

The Jumbos had a very intense training week in preparation for their match on Sunday against Williams, a perennial NESCAC rival.

“Williams is a really good team,” Sanjeev Jeyabalan, a first-year on the men’s team, said. “We had an extremely intense training week after our match against Dickinson where the coach told us exactly what to do.”

Despite giving it their all, the Ephs got the better of Jumbos, with the men’s team losing 6–3 and the women’s team 9–0.

The women’s and men’s teams both had to battle against a difficult team, in addition to long hours of travel in their encounter against Dickinson on Jan. 18.

“The game against Dickinson was really tiring,” Vivaan Jaikishan, a first-year on the men’s team, said. “We traveled for almost eight hours, which made it very difficult for us.”

Both teams ensured that their efforts did not go to waste, with the women’s team carving out a comfortable 7–2 victory and the men’s team suffering a narrow 5–4 defeat.

“I think we were right there against Dickinson,” first-year Kunal Valia on the men’s team said. “They probably just wanted it more than us on that particular day.”

Jaikishan was the sole victor for Tufts in the match against Bates on Jan. 14, as the men’s team lost 8–1. The women’s team, too, fought very hard before bowing down 6–3 in a close encounter against Bates. Although the end results didn’t reflect the amount of effort put in by the Jumbos, most of the matches went down to the wire.

“We lost 8–1 against Bates, but the games were really close,” Jaikishan said.

“Four out of the eight matches we lost went to five sets.”

This rough stretch of the season came on the heels of an intense November and December, which concluded in a contrasting fashion for the Jumbos, with the men’s team narrowly upsetting No. 23 Bowdoin and the women’s team defeating No. 21 Bowdoin.

They were back in action for an intense five-day training session at Stanford, which ended with a match on Jan. 8 against the Cardinal. The women’s team lost 9–0, while the men’s team won by the same score.

Valia explained that the training camp at Stanford really got the entire team close to one another.

“It’s a really nice team to be a part of,” Valia said. “We were with each other 24/7 throughout the trip. The support I get from my teammates keeps me motivated and makes the process a lot more fun.”

“Over the break we were just asked to recover, rest and maintain fitness,” first-

year Shloke Sahay said. “At Stanford, we were training multiple times every day so that helped us get back to the grind.”

With the opening of the new squash courts at the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center next week, the Jumbos are elated at the opportunity of being able to play in front of their home crowd and save time and effort on traveling.

“We are all very excited,” Valia said.

“It’s gonna save us a lot of time in terms of traveling and give us more flexibility in terms of practice schedule.”

Sahay also commented on how the opening of the cour ts would help in increasing frequency of training sessions.

“Earlier we could only practice at a fixed time but now we can train whenever we want to,” Sahay said. “We can now train more and we won’t waste time on traveling.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams next play Amherst on Jan. 31, and then against Connecticut College on Feb. 1 in the inaugural match on the new courts.