The Tufts Daily - Thursday, November 14, 2019

Bill’s Food Shop is a relic of old Somerville, regular stop for students see FEATURES / PAGE 3

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Jumbos win first NESCAC championship since 1996

Burns and Jones host roundtable discussing ‘The Report’ see WEEKENDER / PAGE 4

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VOLUME LXXVIII, ISSUE 47

Thursday, November 14, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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S.1401 seeks to make Massachusetts a safe community, December hearing date set

by Jessica Blough Editor in Chief

The Safe Communities Act, or S.1401, a bill currently making its way through the Massachusetts House of Representatives, stipulates that law enforcement shall not question people about their immigration status and that people taken into custody may only be interviewed about their immigration status after giving their written consent. According to the bill, these people have a right to seek legal counsel at their own expense and local police should not notify federal immigration officials when someone is released from custody, unless they’ve been released from prison.

This is the fourth term in which the bill has been filed, marking seven years since State Senator James Eldridge first introduced it.

Eldridge confirmed in an interview with the Daily that the bill will be scrutinized in a Dec. 2 hearing with the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, the next step in putting the bill up to a vote.

This hearing will come at the heels of the Supreme Court’s long-awaited decision on whether to allow President Donald Trump to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival.

A Sanctuary State?

Similar to laws that create sanctuary cities, the Safe Communities Act would discourage or prevent local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration law or cooperating with

authorities like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

If the bill passes, Massachusetts would become the first “sanctuary state,” although several other states have passed legislation to limit ICE’s reach.

Though the bill was first drafted in 2012 during former President Barack Obama’s administration, its proponents argue it has become especially necessary in the era of Trump. Eldridge pointed to a 2017 executive order by the Trump administration, intended to “direct executive departments and agencies to employ all lawful means to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” including deporting undocumented immigrants and eliminating the Priority Enforcement Program, an Obama-era program that focused ICE attention on individuals convicted of crimes.

“Even though they are working hard, contributing to the local community, belong to a local church, they lack legal status, so they’ve been getting deported,” Eldridge said in an interview with the Daily. “This was happening already under the Obama administration, but it’s only increased under the Trump administration.”

Eldridge cited his experience with his constituency in the Middlesex and Worcester counties as his reason for drafting and supporting the Safe Communities Act. “A significant percentage of the Latino and Brazilian communities in Massachusetts are undocumented,” he said. “In my 17 years as a

NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Protesters listen to a speaker outside of the Mass. State House in November 2015. legislator, I have seen and met with constituents who have been ripped apart by ICE.” A Pew Research Center study published in June estimates that the undocumented population in Massachusetts rose by 95,000 between 2010 and 2017. There were approximately 275,000 undocumented people living in Massachusetts in 2017.

To Eldridge and the bill’s cosponsors, like Massachusetts State Senator Patricia Jehlen — whose district, the Second Middlesex District,

includes Somerville and Medford — the purpose of the Safe Communities Act is, as its name indicates, safety.

“Law enforcement for local and state police, [who are] not in charge of enforcing any federal law … can’t be enforcing federal immigration law because it’s going to make Massachusetts less safe,” Eldridge said. “If an immigrant community thinks that the police in their city or

see BEACON HILL, page 2

TCU Senate, administration host Mental Health Town Hall to address student wellbeing

by Abbie Gruskin

News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and the university administration co-hosted a town hall yesterday to address mental health policies on campus and allow students to discuss experiences of mental health and illness among the student body.

Deepen Goradia, chair of the TCU Senate Administration and Policy Committee, led a panel of university administrators and staff including University President Anthony Monaco, Executive Director of Health and Wellness Michelle Bowdler, Director of Mental Health Services Julie Ross, Associate Dean of Student Accessibility and Academic Resources Kirsten Behling, Interim Dean of Student Affairs Nancy Thompson, Dean of Student Life and Engagement Christopher Rossi and Interim

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University Chaplain Jennifer Peace. After the moderated panel discussion, Goradia fielded questions from the roughly 30 attendees.

Goradia prefaced the town hall by calling for students to treat the event as a “safe and welcoming place” for open and informal discussions about “sensitive topics” before introducing the panel members and giving the floor to Monaco and Peace for opening remarks.

Though the event was planned weeks in advance, according to Monaco, Monaco and Peace’s opening statements focused on addressing the recent death of Matthew Gesell, a first-year student.

“We’re very fortunate, I think, at Tufts to have a community that cares so much about wellbeing and supporting student mental health,” Monaco said in his opening remarks.

“We recognize that as we gather tonight at this time the community is grieving over the loss of For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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a student, and this loss touches all of us — students, faculty and staff.”

Peace reminded the audience that grief is natural and that it often takes time to heal, before explaining the sense of comfort she gains from her faith and encouraging the audience to seek out the things that make them feel more connected with their communities during difficult times.

“One of the most powerful sources of solace is really this sense of being woven into the fabric of a caring community,” she said.

Peace ended her remarks by reciting a poem titled “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry and inviting students to join her in a moment of silence for Gesell.

The panel discussion then focused more generally on mental health on campus and the policies and efforts in place to aid students.

Monaco explained that mental health issues

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have increased in recent year: 70% of students surveyed leading up to the event reported that mental health issues made it more difficult for them to perform well academically within the last year. Monaco added that the number of students in acute mental health crises, including suffering from “suicidal ideation” or “self-harming behavior,” has risen as well. He also mentioned that an increasing number of students are coming to Tufts with long-established diagnoses of mental illness who are seeking continued care.

“It’s really impeding individuals from reaching the full potential during their time here,” he said.

Monaco said that this rise in mental illness and mental health awareness is happening across the country. He noted that

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, November 14, 2019

THE TUFTS DAILY Jessica Blough Editor in Chief

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Cautious optimism characterizes latest filing of Safe Communities Act BEACON HILL

continued from page 1 town is collaborating with ICE, it’s not going to be reporting crimes.”

He pointed to the example of domestic violence victims being hesitant to report their assailants due to their immigration status.

Jehlen also pointed to federal policies that could make immigrants feel unsafe in their communities.

“If one person is afraid to call the police and report a crime because there is a chance they might be deported, often separating families and leaving holes in communities, that crime might continue and affect other people,” she said. “I want people to feel safe in their neighborhoods and around the state because immigration status does not mean a person does not have valuable contributions to a community.”

Somerville and Medford have instituted protections for undocumented communities.

Somerville counts itself a sanctuary city, while Medford prefers to call itself a “safe community” and has local legislation in place to limit local police from collaborating with federal immigration authorities.

Jehlen believes that the rights given by sanctuary cities should expand beyond the local level.

“I have heard from young people in the district who are afraid to leave Somerville because they know it is a sanctuary city and is not trying to deport them or their parents,” she said.

“They are Massachusetts residents and should feel safe and be a part of everything the state they call home has to offer.”

A Long Process Eldridge is cautiously optimistic that this version of the bill will make it past the House of Representatives because of its more narrow focus, in part due to the Lunn decision in 2017. The Lunn decision, a “landmark decision” by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, prevents police from holding someone because of their immigration status longer than a U.S. citizen or permanent resident; its passage allowed for similar language to be removed from this session’s version of the Safe Communities Act. However, some have voiced opposition to the act and its potential constraints

on police power. Brian Kyes, chief of the Chelsea Police Department and president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police Association (MMCC), says that though he supports components of the bill, he wishes that it included a clause that was added to a previous version. Last session’s Safe Communities Act included input from the MMCC that allowed local law enforcement to hold an undocumented person for six hours after being arrested if they had previously been convicted of a serious crime. This clause is now contradicted by the Lunn decision.

“That’s what we’re saying with our language [in the earlier version of the bill], is to hold certain people that are dangerous threats based on their past record of convictions for a period, not for more than six hours,” Kyes said. “People are free, based on Lunn, to walk out the door and never be seen again.”

However, Kyes also commended the Safe Communities Act for its call to ban 287(g) agreements, which are contracts with federal immigration agencies like ICE that allow local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents. Kyes said the community he serves has a high immigrant population and that ICE officers come to Chelsea several times per week.

“If I or any member of the 111 police officers in Chelsea … were to act as mini ICE agents, that would be a serious problem,” he said.

“Because at the end of the day, it’s all about trust. It’s all about the residents that we work for trusting the police.”

Eldridge said that the Massachusetts State Senate accounted for the passage of the Safe Communities Act when setting this year’s budget, indicating a majority support from state senators.

If the bill makes it through the Massachusetts State House of Representatives, it would need to be signed by the state’s Republican governor, Charlie Baker. Supporters of the Safe Communities Act have until July 31, 2020 to get the act to Baker.

Since Eldridge filed the bill in January, his office and immigrant advocacy groups have been focused on educating people about the bill. In particular, Eldridge highlighted the role of testimonies from doctors advocating for the health benefits of the Safe Communities Act, such as increased report-

ing of domestic violence and decreased anxiety for undocumented immigrants and their relatives.

“There seems to be some fear that is Massachusetts were to be a sanctuary state, somehow that immigrants who broke the law … that this bill would prevent the police from arresting them, which nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

The Next Step In preparation for the December hearing date, activists and advocacy groups have ramped up their organizing efforts to prepare for the hearing.

One of the key groups behind this organizing is the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), an activist group that has worked closely with Eldridge. MIRA is in the process of creating the Safe Communities Coalition, a group of organizations and individuals focused on promoting immigrant rights through pushing for the passage of the Safe Communities Act. “Since 2016, we have built unprecedented support on Beacon Hill and across our Commonwealth, and ensured the adoption of pro-immigrant policies in dozens of local communities,” MIRA’s website reads. “Now it’s time to bring our work to fruition.”

With the Dec. 2 hearing date set and quickly approaching, MIRA expects to have a busy month of organizing inside and outside of the statehouse.

“We’re actively stepping up our advocacy and preparing for a big presence at the State House in December,” Marion Davis, the director of communications for MIRA, said in an email.

To Eldridge, the Safe Communities Act and protecting immigrant rights are at the core of Massachusetts’ values.

“If not for immigrants coming to Massachusetts … the state would be much less well off when you’re talking about job creation or you’re talking about cultural contribution,” Eldridge said. “We’re a diverse state. We’re a welcoming state that relies on the brain power and innovation that largely is dependent on people from all over the world coming to Massachusetts.”

Administrators discuss roles in addressing mental health

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TOWN HALL

continued from page 1 at Tufts, 28% of undergraduate students are utilizing Counseling and Mental Health Services (CMHS) while another 8% to 10% of students are currently seeking help from “outside services.”

In response to the rising demand for mental health care and awareness, Monaco explained that the university has taken certain steps, including launching a Mental Health Task Force in 2016, to evaluate its policies and services as they relate to undergraduate, graduate and professional students. He emphasized that the Boston campus now has on-site mental health counseling and that faculty and staff university-wide are receiving training to help guide students who might be suffering from mental health disorders.

Bowdler added that with her background in community health, she has taken a particular interest in mental illness prevention in addition to treatment in her role as the executive director of health and wellness at Tufts. Referencing an annual survey of students on topics of mental health, Bowdler emphasized that stigma on campus for receiving mental health care is low.

Bowdler also spoke about JED Campus, a national foundation helping colleges and universities to assess mental health and substance abuse policies, and The Haven at College, an

on-campus outpatient substance abuse treatment program, and how mental illness and substance abuse often go hand in hand. She said that 25% to 40% of students are interested in activities on campus that are substance-free, and that 5% to 10% of students struggle to control their substance use.

Ross, the director of Counseling and Mental Health Services, also mentioned new university services, like telehealth counseling options from BetterHelp and iHope and increased access to care through a recently hired urgent care clinician who can meet with students when other clinicians are fully booked.

Behling and Peace added to the conversation by explaining how their services complement those provided by CMHS. Behling explained that as the associate dean of student accessibility and academic resources, she strives to promote a view of disability that includes mental illness as “another form of diversity of identity,” and that academic solutions are determined on an individual, student-by-student basis. At the University Chaplaincy, Peace explained that students of all backgrounds, religious or not, can take advantage of a wide range of services, including grief counseling.

“What we do in the Chaplaincy office to support students’ mental health and spiritual health is from a slightly different angle and paradigm than the counseling services,” Peace

said. “We would work very closely with counseling services if we were, for example, talking to a student about the ways they’re processing the normal experience of grief in the wake of a loss, and we identify that maybe that’s going a little further than a typical grief process into some areas of anxiety or depression.”

After the discussion among the panel members, Goradia devoted the remaining 30 minutes to addressing student questions and suggestions through both pre-collected comments and those from the audience.

During this time, Rossi emphasized that the Student Affairs Office has three funds to allow students the flexibility to respond to unexpected emergencies.

Bowdler explained that student advocacy helped changed the old university tuition insurance plan, which was not created by the university, so that students taking leaves of absence for medical and mental health reasons receive the same tuition reduction — before, students taking a medical leave could receive a 90% tuition return, while students taking a mental health leave could only receive a 70% return.

Students also voiced their opinions on the importance of a diverse CMHS staff and mental health awareness and emergency training for the Tufts University Police Department, both of which administrators and staff on the panel assured were a priority.

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Features

3 Thursday, November 14, 2019

Bill’s Food Shop brings convenience, community to What is ‘socially re- Conwell Avenue

Ryan Gell JumboCash

sponsible’ investing?

A

s global temperatures heat up, so has the divestment movement on Tufts’ campus, which demands that Tufts sell its investments in companies involved in extracting fossil fuels. With many socially conscious investors seeking to avoid fossil fuels with their own money, asset managers have begun creating new funds investing in stocks that meet ethical criteria. These funds are called ESG — standing for Environment, Social and Governance — and they have seen a rapid rise in popularity. Before you invest your savings in an ESG fund, it’s worth examining whether these “feel-good” investments truly deliver on their promises.

The typical methodology for ESG funds is to rate companies based on how well they meet environmental, social and governance standards, and then proceed to invest only in companies with high scores. A score for environmental standards might be based on carbon emissions, levels of waste or contributions to deforestation.

Social scores relate to working conditions and company diversity, while governance emphasizes history of corruption and bribery. Hence, ESG funds try to create an asset of environmentally friendly, socially-conscious and scandal-free stocks — in theory, at least.

The main issue I see with ESG is the subjectivity of the evaluation process. The criteria can be so broad and contradictory that funds include perplexing holdings. Take Invesco’s ESG fund ESGL, for example, whose second-largest holding is ExxonMobil! A deeper dive into the fund reveals that it owns the tobacco industry titans Altria Group and Philip Morris, alongside defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin. So, even in socially harmful industries, it is possible for a company to score high enough on each pillar to be included in funds.

Even when looking at companies within the same industry, ESG scores don’t always reflect the most environmentally friendly, ethical companies.

A perfect example is the divergence in ratings between Tesla and BMW. In 2018, the ESG rating agency Sustainalytics ranked BMW in the 93rd percentile, while Tesla scored in the meager 38th percentile. This doesn’t make sense: BMW has faced legal trouble related to collusive activity and trying to hide diesel emissions, while Tesla’s entire business model focuses on emission reduction and clean energy usage.

Not only do the holdings of ESG funds appear contradictory, but investors must pay a high price in order to supposedly align their investments with their values. A Bloomberg report on ESG investing found that ESG products cost about 15 times as much as BlackRock’s ETF on the US stock market.

Just like headphones, shampoo or ice cream, ESG funds are products, and you are a consumer.

In this case, financial firms appeal to younger, socially-conscious investors who think they are doing something positive with their money.

Consequently, Wall Street charges a higher price for the story they sell, even if the holdings of their funds don’t align with what investors believe they’re buying.

At first glance, ESG investing appears to be a way for investors to align their investing strategies with their core values. However, the subjective nature of screening companies for their environmental impact, workplace culture and governance practices leads to contradictory ratings. There are plenty of ways to have a positive impact with your money, but investing in ESG may not be one of them.

Ryan Gell is a senior studying economics and history. Ryan can be reached at ryan. gell@tufts.edu.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Bill’s Food Shop is pictured on Nov. 3.

by Kayla Butera

Contributing Writer

Part business, part family, part history — walking into Bill’s Food Shop is like stepping onto a 1950s TV set. It seems to be frozen, with artifacts carefully curated over time. After all, Bill’s Food Shop, located at the intersection of Conwell Avenue and Hillsdale Road, has been central to the West Somerville community for 62 years.

Many Tufts students discover Bill’s later in their college career: In a survey the Daily conducted of 71 Tufts students, only 16.9% of students knew of Bill’s. Jack Eddy said that he first encountered the quaint shop in the fall of his junior year.

“It’s an interesting spot because the outside of it is covered with old ’80s cigarette ads which of course, you never see … It’s a relic in a wonderful way,” Eddy, a senior, said.

Lena Novins-Montague discovered Bill’s this past summer with her friend.

“After [my friend and I] realized Bill’s wasn’t out of business, I could tell from the outside that it was quirky and retro because it has all these old ads on the outside,” NovinsMontague, a senior, said.

Inside Bill’s, a wall dedicated to a sea of retro candies sits to the right of the entrance, offering Dubble Bubble, Charleston Chews, Hubba Bubba and more. The store is sprinkled with cultural and personal mementos from the past, including a poster of Marilyn Monroe, a framed story stating “Mom and Pop still alive and well in Somerville” and family photos. Tufts is also represented in its decor, with a felted banner suspended on a cabinet and a “Welcome Jumbo” poster depicting a late 19th century drawing from Tufts’ archives.

Somerville native and store owner Frank DiFonzo said that he came from the other side of town with his father to open up this shop in the late 1950s, when he was only 21 years old.

He’s stayed in the area ever since, and his wife of 58 years is involved in the business as well.

“College is great, people in the area are nice.

Years ago, we had a lot of kids, and they’d do damage — not all of them,” DiFonzo said. “My own three kids grew up here, all engineers; one went to Tufts and the other two went to Northeastern.

They got good jobs for themselves.”

Bill’s Food Shop used to be one of many on Conwell Avenue, including Conwell Ave. Market, which sold beer, wine and groceries; now, Bill’s Food Shop is the only store left. DiFonzo had noted that the population that they have observed around their shop has changed over time. It went from being known as “Slummerville” to becoming one of America’s 100 best places to live in, and Bill’s has been through it all.

“Oh, [the neighborhood] has changed a lot.

Years ago, we had all kinds of families with kids and now they’re all young working people or students,” DiFonzo said.

Students describe Bill’s as feeling welcoming and community-oriented.

“What I like about Bill’s is that it is very homey, and it reminds me of my hometown grocery store but in Medford,” first-year Elysse Karozichian said.

Novins-Montague said that she once was in a rush to do her laundry before a trip and was out of quarters, so she went to Bill’s, which only accepts cash.

“I bought something and asked for change in quarters, and [DiFonzo] asked how many quarters I needed, and I said about 10, and without saying anything, he reached [into] his cash register and pulled out an entire roll of

quarters in addition to my change,” NovinsMontague said. “He said, ‘Whenever you need quarters, you can always come in here, I know it’s hard being away from home.’ It was one of those things that you didn’t expect someone to be so randomly nice, and he was so lovely.”

“Come on in for a one-dollar slushy or even just a friendly conversation,” the store’s website states. “We are happy to serve you in a jiffy!”

While Somerville may have changed over the years, one sentiment remains constant: Bill’s Food Shop has a niche following from Tufts students who have discovered it and value Bill’s for its convenience and location.

“They have some of the produce you need, and honestly, if you live by Bill’s, it’s blocks before you find an option for groceries or other items except for this one, random shop in the middle of homes that is Bill’s,” Eddy said. “[It’s] this one island of convenience.”

Locals can go to Bill’s to grab last-minute items like paper towels or to satisfy cravings with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Core ice cream.

“We’re unique because we’re here seven days a week,” said DiFonzo.

Karozichian noted Bill’s reliability as a long-standing business.

“I think Bill’s has stayed around for so long because it’s the neighbor that you can count on to borrow things from if you run out — but in a shop,” Karozichian said. “It’s quick and convenient, and it’s run by people who have been in the neighborhood for a long time, so it’s trustworthy and good to support them.”

Students attribute many characteristics to Bill’s Food Shop’s appeal. Yet when DiFonzo was asked what the best part of his shop is, his answer was short and sweet: “Candy.”

4 Thursday, November 14, 2019

WEEKENDER

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Burns, Jones discuss making ‘The Report’

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A promotional poster for ‘The Report’ (2019) is pictured.

by Christopher Panella

Executive Social Media Editor

“The Report” (2019) follows Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) and his investigation into the “enhanced interrogation techniques” — a softer, more cryptic term to describe systematic torture — that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employed following the Sept.

11 attacks. Based on Jones’ real experience with the “Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Report of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program,” the film spans a decade, highlighting the years Jones worked on the project. It focuses on Jones’ struggle — alongside California Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) — to bring to light the information gathered from more than 6.3 million documents and materials about interrogations, methods used to obtain information and revelations that those methods just didn’t work.

At a roundtable interview Friday, Scott Z. Burns, director and writer of “The Report,” and Daniel J. Jones sat down to discuss the film and why this story matters now.

“When I learned about the program,” Burns said, “I was horrified that my country did something that routinely we hold other countries in contempt for.” He noted that the story felt immediately hypocritical and especially upsetting after the later revelation that torture does not work, something that was “well known to people in law enforcement, in the military.”

“The Report” makes Jones’ dedication its focus, from shots of Jones working late into the evening under sterilized, fluorescent lights to the film never going home with Jones and barely discussing his personal life.

Burns was called to the story by that work ethic and his meticulous research and writing. “Whenever you can find a character like that, as a filmmaker, that’s what you instinctively want to pursue,” Burns said.

The work Jones does throughout the film is daunting and exhausting. “You have Dan Jones in a basement, working tirelessly, working very cautiously to piece together this puzzle,” Burns commented. “It’s important to reflect on what that must be like.” He shows that difficulty in many ways — the millions of scattered papers all around the basement office, the slow, methodical process by which Jones and his team begin to trace each prisoner’s situation. Eventually, the information is hung on the walls around the office. It’s overwhelming to look at.

Since the film spends so much time with Jones, Driver has to deliver a lived-in performance — nothing as tortured as Kylo Ren or funny as Adam Sackler, but honest and human and normal — and Driver does it impeccably well. Burns commented that Driver was recommended by director Steven Soderbergh. “I met with Adam and he said something that made me very excited to work with him,” Burns said. “He felt that he had some awareness of the story and yet when he read the script, he became aware of how little he didn’t know and that made

him curious.” That curiosity is in Driver’s portrayal.

“The Report” also thrives from Jones knowing Burns and being a part of the process. “He [Burns] always wanted to get it right and be respectful,” Jones said. “This is a story about the report itself, I don’t view it as my story. But he made choices that I’m very proud of and happy about.” He commented that beyond his screenwriting and filmmaking, Burns is a researcher, which explains his interest in both this film and in getting the story right. For the actors, specifically Driver, Bening and Jon Hamm, who plays Barack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Jones was more of a consultant. “All of them also wanted to know context and background, and to an extent, I could help. I also just tried to stay out of their way.”

Jones also compared the process of helping work on “The Report” with his role as an investigator. “For me, I can sort of peel off a part of myself and focus on just all business. I think that’s how I’ve approached this process.” However, Jones said that the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year — the first time the film was shown to an audience larger than around 15 to 20 people — was a heavy experience.

“The whole reason I was in a basement, with other people, was to make sure that people knew this story,” Jones said. “The report came out in December 2014 and it was worldwide press for one day and then it was gone.” Now, as “The Report” opens in theaters and the story and its details are told, Jones is grateful.

The film is edited excellently, flowing through various timelines and locations to show the torture being done while Jones and his team research it. Some of the torture scenes, specifically the waterboarding scenes, are gruesome and honest depictions. Burns noted the importance of includ-

ing this and John Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, the psychologists behind the techniques used in interrogating detainees, as well as focusing on how desperate certain characters are to believe in the effectiveness of the “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

One of the most important moments — although it might not seem like it at first glance — is when Jones sees an advertisement for “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) on television one night while working. “This movie, with a studio budget and an ad campaign, goes whistling by him, and I felt like that was an important moment where the main character of our movie sees what’s going on outside of the basement and that this is a narrative that is now loose in the world,” Burns noted.

And as for what audiences should be thinking, doing and feeling after “The Report,” Burns isn’t so sure he’s in a position to make those decisions. “I feel very strongly, as an artist, that I don’t get to tell people how to feel,” he said. “I get to make choices about what I want to write about and what I want to make movies about, but I don’t get to tell the audience how to respond.” He’s focused more on presenting the accurate information rather than telling the viewer what they should make of it — something that’s important when dealing with a story as harrowing as this.

But it’s important to note that by the conclusion of “The Report,” which finally shows the December 2014 release, Jones leaving work and Feinstein congratulating Jones, it’s impossible to not feel upset for not knowing about this story and the work behind this report sooner. The film’s highlighting of the painstaking process behind uncovering the truth is a reminder of how much more there is to a story than one might already think they know.

“The Report” is in theaters starting this weekend.

TV REVIEW

‘His Dark Materials’ pilot is promising, starts slow

by Nathan Kyn

Executive Copy Editor

The pilot episode of “His Dark Materials” (2019–), an HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” novel trilogy (1995–2000), premiered on Nov. 4. Setting the tone for the exposition-heavy nature of the episode, several title cards precede the start of the action that explain the rules of this alternate world — most notably, that humans’ souls are outside their bodies, and take the form of animals called “dæmons.”

The episode gets off to a flying start, with Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) bringing an infant girl, Lyra, to the door of the fictional Jordan College in Oxford, England. Then comes the “Great Flood,” and the image of Asriel wading through chest-high water with the girl in his arms and his leopard dæmon paddling beside him is captivating. Asriel pounds at a door at one edge of the flooded college courtyard, and gives the girl to the man who opens it, the Master (Clarke Peters) of Jordan College. Asriel invokes “scholastic sanctuary” and tells the Master to protect Lyra, saying she won’t be safe anywhere else — harkening to the mention in the title cards of “a prophecy of a child with a great destiny.”

Given the opening scene and subsequent 12-year flash-forward to Lyra (Dafne Keen) playing with a friend on the college grounds, I can’t help drawing parallels to the source

material’s fellow late-’90s British fantasy epic protagonist: Harry Potter. Lyra and Harry are both given away at a doorstep for their protection and grow up orphaned; they will both follow the hero’s journey once they leave their sheltered childhood home and attempt to fulfill their destiny. Yet the setup of the stories differs greatly. Harry learns about the wizarding world along with the reader; yet, in “The Golden Compass” (1995) novel and the pilot episode of “His Dark Materials,” every new element of the world is thrown at us from the start. The talking dæmons, sinister Magisterium and nomadic Gyptians are known to Lyra and the other characters, and their inclusion with little introduction in the pilot makes it seem as if the audience should be familiar with the books.

An admission: I wasn’t a huge fan of the original novels — I can vaguely remember reading them, but unlike other fantasy works I read in elementary school, they just didn’t stick with me. The reason this show piqued my interest was actually the cast. When I saw “Logan” (2017) with friends at the Somerville Theatre, I had basically no expectations — I wasn’t a huge proponent of the X-Men movies, having only seen a random subset of them. The movie was dark and gripping, and Keen, who played a young mutant with similar powers to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, really stole the show. When I saw the trailer for “His Dark Materials” in July, I was excited

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for ‘His Dark Materials’ (2019–) is pictured. to see Keen in a leading role, especially alongside familiar faces from “Game of Thrones” (2011–2019) and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The other aspect that drew me in from the first trailer was the worldbuilding. The show depicts what looks like Earth around the turn

of the 20th century, but the trailer highlighted the parallel-universe steampunk setting filled with ‘anachronistic’ future-esque tech and many, many zeppelins. The accomplished cast did not fall short in the first episode; Miranda’s adventurer Lee Scoresby has yet to appear, but Ruth Wilson’s Mrs. Coulter impressed in her appearance near the end of the episode, expertly convincing Lyra to trust her and leave Oxford.

If “His Dark Materials” has legwork to do in the first episode beyond setting up the characters’ arcs and giving worldbuilding exposition, it’s assuring the audience that the show will atone for the failures of the previous adaptation of Pullman’s series.

“The Golden Compass” (2007) film, adapted from Pullman’s first novel, received a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie suffered where the series may not: In under two hours, there was not enough time to pay off having to sit through the tedious exposition and countless character introductions. In that sense, this pilot episode’s exposition-heavy nature should hopefully be worth it. Lyra is an exciting protagonist, and the cast around Keen is strong. The world is well-detailed and inviting; I’m looking forward to seeing the Northern Lights, armored bears and so much more. The first episode of “His Dark Materials” certainly isn’t perfect, but it sets the stage well for a fresh new fantasy series.

Arts & Living

Thursday, November 14, 2019 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

Q&A: Lady Lamb discusses tour, ‘Even in the Tremor’

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Colette Smith and Madison Lehan Love It or Haute It

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GEOFF TOBIA JR. / THE TUFTS DAILY

American songwriter and musician Lady Lamb performs at Royale on Nov. 4.

by Geoff Tobia Jr.

Assistant Arts Editor

Brunswick, Maine-based singer/songwriter Aly Spaltro, better known as Lady Lamb, gave an electrifying yet heartwarming performance at the Royale in Boston on Nov. 4, opening for The New Pornographers.

The Daily got a chance to interview Lady Lamb to discuss her recent album and her tour experience.

The Tufts Daily (TD): First things first, how has the tour been so far?

Lady Lamb (LL): It’s been amazing! I have a brand new band, and I’m really stoked about that. The drummer’s been with me before, but I have two women in my band who I’ve never played with before, and we’re singing harmonies together, and it’s going great!

TD: What’s your favorite part about performing live for an audience? Do you have any fun concert stories you can tell?

LL: I really just love the energy from the crowd, it feels like this symbiotic sort of connection that we’re having together, and we’re kinda throwing it back at each other, and it just fills me up, I love it. For a story, I actually crowd surfed for the first time this year, and that was thrilling. I felt like I was really stoned, like my body … just started tingling and I felt like I went to this other place. It was an experience like nothing I’ve ever had, and it’s really weird to feel all these hands on you, and it was so exciting.

TD: Discussing your recent material, especially your latest album, what are the emotions that you try to conjure up, or what are the feelings you want your listeners to experience when they’re listening to “Even in the Tremor” (2019)?

LL: With “Even in the Tremor,” I really tried to be self-aware while I was writing the record, like if I was feeling any sort of discomfort and anxiety throughout the day, instead of only writing a song about it, I was kinda finding it as a way to help myself out. So I’m hoping that it inspires people if they’re feeling anxiety for example, to really

try to re-center and realize that self care is really important. I know that’s kinda silly, but it’s still important, and that was kinda the vibe of the record.

TD: During your songwriting process, you traveled quite a bit. What were some of the highlights of your trips?

LL: Yeah, I was really fortunate to have all this time to write the album. So I traveled extensively through the US and Canada, but I also went to Mexico a couple times and fell in love with it. I also went to Nicaragua — and I sing about this in a new song that’s coming out earlier in the winter — but I went up this volcano at night, and stood over it, and looked into it and saw the lava, and it was insane. There were no railings or anything, and it was totally dangerous, and that really was a life-changing moment. It was just really cool. I got a lot of inspiration just from traveling a lot and just observing people and walking around all day … In the song “Even in the Tremor,” in the first verse it touches upon going to Madrid, Montreal the Fallingwater house.

TD: What are some of the songs off “Even in the Tremor” that you have the strongest emotional connection to or the most memorable songwriting experience with from your travels?

LL: “Deep Love” is one that really stands out to me, because I was convinced that the record was finished when I had written it, and it was a complete surprise song and I wrote it so quickly, like in about 10 minutes, and it just seemed to pour out of me. It’s filled with so much realness, it’s just so palpably authentic to me, so that one’s important to me. “Little Flaws” too, because I have so many strong memories of writing that one from living in Montreal over the summer. It was the first song I ever wrote on synth first, instead of guitar like I usually do. It was a different approach for me, and I’m proud of what came out of that.

TD: Speaking of “Little Flaws,” your lyrics about how you “missed six pitches

in the batting cage” was one of the first moments that hooked me right onto the album. Do you want to get into that story a little more?

LL: Yeah, that’s completely autobiographical, I wrote it as a response to falling in love with my girlfriend, who I’m still with.

When I wrote the song we were together for less than a year, and that was a real thing that happened; we went to a batting cage in Michigan, and I’m a super poor sport, and I couldn’t hit any of the balls so I threw the bat. I realize now that it was an insane red flag for her, like “Whoa, maybe I shouldn’t be dating someone with such a temper.”

But I was trying to write a song that was like a love song but also touched on how funny it is to have these little quirks, like, yeah, I have a little bit of a temper, so I might as well point it out.

TD: Are there any artists that you’d like to collaborate with? And do you have any dream collaborators?

LL: There’s this one band called Slothrust, actually Boston-based. The front-woman Leah, she’s an insanely good songwriter, and she just absolutely shreds on guitar. We have wanted to tour together, and so I’d love to write some songs with her. There’s another amazing songwriter from Michigan, his band is Frontier Ruckus, and we plan on doing something together. As far as dream collaborators go, my biggest dream collaborator ever would be Sufjan Stevens. I’m just so enamored with him, as I have been since I was like 14.

Kind of a long shot, but that would be my dream for sure.

TD: Lastly, what’s something that Lady Lamb fans should know that they might not know about you?

LL: Something that fans probably wouldn’t know about me is that I always wanted to be in the WNBA. Before I found music, I was a little basketball hot shot, it was my whole life. In sixth grade I was the only sixth grader on a team full of tall eighth graders, and I was starting point guard. So yeah, I was a little basketball star, fans probably didn’t know that one.

ith 28 varsity teams on campus, Tufts athletes constitute a sizable portion of the student body.

They make their presence known through Instagram stories announcing games, rowdy post-practice Dewick meals and showing up to class in athletic gear straight from lift, among other things. However, the most prolific method of showing their participation in the athletic community is them constantly wearing their sports team apparel for every occasion.

Coco: I support athletes wearing their team’s apparel. It is a great show of school pride and I often wear my lacrosse apparel. However, as with all things, I think all things should be in moderation and sometimes the frequency of athletic apparel surpasses what I think is acceptable. My friend Beans may be the worst culprit of excessive Tufts athletic gear on this entire campus. I cannot remember the last time that she was wearing an outfit that was completely devoid of a mention of Tufts lacrosse. The other day she was wearing a seemingly normal outfit that had no signs of athletic apparel. Oh wait, but guess what her socks were? Our 2019 game day socks. This detail would have gone unnoticed by many, but it was Beans subtly flexing on everyone. So, while I think it is completely acceptable for people to wear their team’s apparel, just don’t be like Beans (who checked her credentials for writing this “fashion” column anyway?).

Beans: I feel personally attacked by this prompt. As someone who regularly shows up to class, Dewick and social gatherings in more than three pieces of lacrosse apparel, I think this look is receiving too much heat. I believe forcing the concept of organized sports down the throats of those who don’t care is an important step in establishing social dominance. Professors, peers, Rez employees, TUPD officers: all people that need to know I play a sport. It is imperative that every single person on the Tufts University campus is aware that I am a lacrosse player. Without this, I question what the point of doing a varsity sport is. Coco has often criticized my constant wearing of athletic gear and encouraged me to spread my fashion wings. Maybe she’s right. As the writer of a fashion column, perhaps it is time for me to take a long and hard look at what kind of image I am cultivating.

When people look at me, do they think “that person is so cool, they must have a valid and compelling opinion on fashion that warrants the writing of a weekly fashion column in the Tufts Daily.” If I’m being honest with myself, the answer is probably “no.” I’m not “fashionable.” I don’t own “business casual clothing,” I don’t know about “matching socks,” I have my Bat Mitzvah dress from seventh grade, if that’s what you want. I just want everyone to be happy. Is that too much to ask? Trust me — after a long day, when my pit stains have been nicely and discreetly absorbed by my athletic clothes, everyone is much happier.

Colette Smith is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Colette can be reached at colette.smith@tufts.edu. Madison Lehan is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Madison can be reached at madison.lehan@tufts.edu.

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Thursday, November 14, 2019 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

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F &G FUN & GAMES

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LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Jess: “[Aidan’s] so satisfied, no one’s ever asked him to turn up his music”

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Scorpio (Oct. 23–Nov. 21)

Compromise around a cash flow challenge. Postpone buying unnecessary stuff. Hunt for efficiencies and find them. Adjust the budget to suit an unexpected expense.

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8 Thursday, November 14, 2019

Opinion

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EDITORIAL

Massachusetts should rethink misguided vape ban Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker initiated a four-month ban on all vaping products on Sept. 24, which was hailed by some as a swift response to an emerging public health crisis and decried by others as reactionary and damaging to small businesses in the state. Yesterday, the Massachusetts State House took this ban a step further, passing legislation in favor of a permanent ban on all flavored vaping products and a 75% excise tax on all other vaporized nicotine products. The four-month ban itself has been ineffective: Massachusetts residents surged to Rhode Island and New Hampshire to purchase nicotine and marijuana vaping products in the period following the announcement. This new, extended ban is equally misguided. By exposing Massachusetts residents, including Tufts students, to black-market vaping products and by harming local businesses, Baker and the State House do Massachusetts no favors when they ban products readily available just across the borders of our small state.

In the past several months, vape users across Massachusetts and at Tufts have found ways around the emergency ban.

Massachusetts is the first state to enact a total ban on vaping products and stands alone regionally, with neighbors Rhode Island,

New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and New York completely open to vape sales or regulating them less stringently. There have been three vaping-related deaths in Massachusetts, 21 other confirmed cases and 47 probable cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We understand the Commonwealth’s concern and good intentions in responding to this crisis, but these types of bans and regulations do little to address the underlying problem of nicotine addiction, especially when there is no institutional support for vape users and no regional partnership in legislation.

Boston University School of Public Health professor and former researcher for the CDC Michael Siegel thinks the temporary ban is vague and does not address the root cause of vaping illnesses, the majority of which come from black-market, THC-infused products.

In an interview with WBUR, Dr. Siegel said, “people need to know specifically what to avoid. It would be like if we had an outbreak of contaminated lettuce and the health department put out a warning saying, ‘Do not eat any vegetables.’ That’s not helpful.”

The temporary ban does not specify what is particularly dangerous about vaping products, beyond banning all types of vapes. “To

Letter to the Editor

try to lump nicotine products that are being sold by stores into that mix is very deceptive,” Siegel said.

A significant hole in Massachusetts’ vape ban is the lack of support for nicotine addicts.

Many cigarette users turn to vaping to help reduce reliance on tobacco smoke. Despite continued controversy around the efficacy of vaping as a smoking alternative, nicotine users should not be left high and dry during a public health crisis: they, too, need support.

One could argue that since Massachusetts’ new ban does not prohibit non-flavored nicotine products, this problem is resolved, but the ban still punishes non-flavored options.

A 75% excise tax, depending on consumer elasticity, could push nicotine users back to cigarettes for purely economic reasons.

A final line of defense against the emergency vape ban is the lack of regional legislative partners. As we’ve mentioned, Rhode Island and New Hampshire are Massachusetts’ neighbors, and are certainly not far from Tufts. The vape ban, rather than preventing vape use as it is intended, instead forces users to drive to neighboring states. Users without access to a car? Reliant on nicotine, they could be forced to turn to cigarettes or the black market. The research on legal

vaping products remains limited to a handful of studies, and even less is known about black market vaping products. Unregulated or counterfeit products from the black market are likely to be even more dangerous than Juuls and other brands of e-cigarettes.

Addiction is a tricky issue, and Massachusetts is not doing enough to tread carefully. Vaping is incredibly popular among college students and other youth, and according to Dr. Marina Picciotto, a neuroscientist at Yale, “adolescents don’t think they will get addicted to nicotine, but when they do want to stop, they find it’s very difficult.” When faced with a difficult choice, should young people be forced to turn to the black market?

The Massachusetts State Senate should refrain from enacting the State House’s new vape ban. A more nuanced approach to addiction, vaping and the current health crisis is necessary. We cannot solve complex problems with one-size-fits-all solutions, extractive taxes or total bans. These regulations affect small businesses, nicotine and marijuana users, Tufts students and multitudinous citizens and residents across Massachusetts; the response should be proportional to the problem.

CARTOON

To the Editor, The lead editorial on Monday, Nov. 4, “Study-area weekend hours should match weekday hours,” caught our attention in Tisch Library. Study space and library open hours are ongoing areas of evaluation for us. We appreciate the perspective reflected in the piece.

There are over 7,000 students enrolled on the Medford campus, with busy lives, a wide variety of schedules and commitments and individual preferences for how, when and where to study. We recognize that an old-school service model that assumes everyone is socializing on Friday and Saturday nights no longer meets our campus needs. The libraries (as well as Eaton Lab, SEC and other spaces) are actively striving to balance community input and feedback with the very real challenges of staffing and security.

One goal is to expand the availability of our spaces. Thanks in part to our trusted student staff, we have been able to make some changes in this direction. A year ago Tisch began opening earlier on weekdays to accommodate printing needs before first block. This fall, responding to one of our most frequent requests, we extended weekend hours so there is now a 7:45 am. opening, seven days a week. During the exam period, Hirsh Reading Room is open 24/7, and Ginn, Tisch and Lilly libraries are part of the campus-wide group that works to open additional study spaces through finals. We also consistently collect data to help us understand building use patterns, and recently began using software that will allow more detailed analysis to inform changes. (When you see people walking around looking like they are counting people — they are!)

All Tufts libraries aim to provide welcoming, inclusive environments, with a variety of spaces to allow for both quiet study and collaborative work. Thank you for your support as we continue to make changes.

Sincerely, Dorothy Meaney Director, Tisch Library

BY MARIA FONG

When life throws you a financial challenge, you’ve proven you have what it takes to ace it.

Now it’s time to tackle your retirement savings at AceYourRetirement.org

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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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Thursday, November 14, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts' Office of the Provost presents

Bullied, Assaulted and Near Death: Surviving Trauma and Addiction By

Brandon Lee

On Monday, November 18th, 2019 6 - 7:30 PM, Alumnae Lounge, Aidekman Arts Center, Medford Campus

Two-time Emmy award winning journalist, Brandon Lee, will deliver a keynote session on 'Bullied, Assaulted and Near Death: Surviving Trauma and Addiction'. During the session, Brandon will share his personal life experieces of sexual trauma that he faced during childhood. This horrifying experience led him to choose the path of sex and drug addiction to keep this deep dark secret to himself, until the age of 37 when he finally got courage to break his silence in the #MeToo era.

The talk will be followed by Brandon Lee book signing of his Memoir, “Mascara Boy” Bullied, Assaulted & Near Death: Surviving Trauma & Addiction. Books will be on sale before and after the lecture.

This is an open and FREE event. Tickets are required. "Pre-sale" tickets for the Tufts community will be available on TuftsTickets.com beginning November 3. Tickets for the general public will be available beginning November 11. There are limited tickets available. The tickets can be bought at the given link: https://tuftstickets.universitytickets.com/w/

This event is co-sponsored by: Provost office, President’s office, Chief Diversity Officers, LGBT Center, Office for Campus Life, Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion- School Arts & Sciences and Engineering, FIRST Resource Center, University Chaplaincy, Dean of Student Life and Engagement, Africana Center, Asian American Center and Latino Center

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Sports

Thursday, November 14, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Women’s soccer falls short in NESCAC semifinal, earns NCAA atlarge berth

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior forward Liz Reed prepares to take a shot against Conn. College in a 2–2 tie on Oct. 19.

by Jake Freudberg Sports Editor

After advancing through the quarterfinal round last week with a double-overtime win against Bowdoin, the No. 1 seed women’s soccer team was upset 3–0 by No. 4 seed Amherst in the NESCAC tournament semifinal.

Tufts hosted both the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday and the following day’s championship contest. In the second semifinal competition, No. 2 seed Middlebury defeated No. 3 seed Williams. Middlebury went on to be defeated 1–0 by Amherst, who took home the NESCAC title.

“It definitely wasn’t our best game of the year,” coach Martha Whiting said. “I think that Amherst is actually peaking.

I thought that they played really well — they played a lot better than the first time we played them.”

The Jumbos were tested early on defense. The Mammoths got off to a quick start offensively with six shots in the first 10 minutes. The Mammoths converted for the first goal of the day in the 21st minute, with a shot from forward/midfielder Isabel Stern, assisted by midfielder/forward Ruby Hastie.

In response, the Jumbos tried to take offensive control and managed to get two good attempts on goal in the next 10 minutes. However, the Mammoths regained control and extended their lead to 2–0 when midfielder/defender Jordan Bailey scored off of a corner kick in the 33rd minute.

The Jumbos went into halftime trailing 2–0 and struggling to match the Mammoths’ offensive dominance. Senior midfielder and co-captain Izzy Moore had a chance to close the gap early on in the second half, but her shot was blocked away.

The Mammoths solidified their victory in the 67th minute of contest with an insurance goal. Forward/midfielder Natalie Landau passed the ball to defender Sloan Askins, who scored to bring the score to 3–0.

The three-goal deficit was too much for the Jumbos to handle in the remaining 23 minutes, despite a couple of shots from junior forward Liz Reed.

The 3–0 loss marks the most goals allowed by the Jumbos this fall. The stat line tells the story, as the Mammoths outshot the Jumbos 20–10 and won the corner kick tally 9–6. Mammoth goalkeeper Erica Sanders continued to impress as one of the top NESCAC goalkeepers, denying the Jumbos any opportunities to get on the scoreboard. Reed spoke about the outcome of the game.

“Honestly, it was hard to pinpoint even one thing [to improve],” Reed said. “It’s

just been tough because there have been a lot of injuries on the team. Amherst came out very strong that day. I don’t think we were expecting them to come out as fast as they did.”

Whiting explained that most of the mishaps in the game were minor, and can be resolved.

“I think that we just made some little mistakes here and there and just started to add up and got a little bit out of hand on our end,” Whiting said. “But, as we looked at film, everything was 100% fixable.”

Despite the lopsided score, Whiting added that the team never felt as though they were out of contention.

“With this team in particular, I always feel like we’re going to pull it out,” Whiting said. “Last time we played [Amherst] we were down 2–0 and scored two goals in 25 seconds and ended up winning. I really believe in this group and their ability to never give up. I honestly had that feeling.”

The Mammoths advanced to the championship on Sunday, defeating the Middlebury Panthers and earning an automatic NCAA tournament bid.

The Jumbos, meanwhile, had to wait until Monday afternoon to learn their fate, when NCAA tournament at-large bids were announced. Tufts secured an at-large bid and will play in the first round against SUNY Cortland, the champions of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). This marks the third year in a row that Tufts has qualified for the national tournament.

“We’re really, really focused on the weekend,” Whiting said. “One thing that we’ve done really well this season is we haven’t looked ahead. We focused on the next game that we have and prepared and done what [we] can to be the best to play every team.

So, we’re really just going to focus on the weekend and SUNY Cortland and see what we’ve got on Sunday.”

The Jumbos will travel to The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., on Saturday for the first-round matchup. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m.

“It’s great to get revenge because my [first year] we went down to TCNJ and lost in the first round,” Reed said. “But, this year I think we can go even farther than that.”

Sports

12 tuftsdaily.com

Aiden Herrod The Zone Read

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6 things I’m watching

he NFL regular season is a little more than half over, and with that always comes some of the most decisive, exciting football games of the year. We saw it on Monday night in the game between the 49ers and the Seahawks, a game that came down to the wire and felt every bit like a playoff game in terms of atmosphere and intensity. We are only going to get treated to more and more games like that down the stretch, and with these games will come plenty of narratives that grow and evolve. Here are some of the narratives, players and teams I’m watching closely from here on out.

1) Lamar Jackson is the story of the season, and with good reason. He’s the most dynamic player in the league right now, to a point where he made juking three professional-grade athletes at once look easy. Jackson has proven the Ravens’ ceiling is the Super Bowl, and he’s pushing for MVP right now.

2) The other name in that race is the superhero Russell Wilson, who just handed the league’s last undefeated team its first loss, in nail-biting fashion.

The Seahawks continue to defy logic with their subpar roster and make magic happen. It won’t be pretty, but they can hand a loss to anyone right now.

3) The NFC West is also the home of a struggling Rams offense. The Rams have regressed this season, and are dealing with depth issues across the board. The schedule doesn’t get easier for them either, and this could be a big test of Sean McVay’s adaptability as a head coach.

4) The 49ers and their absolute tear of a run came to an end at the hands of the aforementioned Russell Wilson, and now they look to bounce back against the mediocre Arizona Cardinals. A getright win will be needed as the 49ers stare down a gauntlet of Super Bowl contenders in Green Bay, New Orleans and Baltimore. How they perform in those matches will be a big indicator of whether this young team is truly ready for a deep playoff run.

5) The New England Patriots look to bounce back from a tough loss as well.

Their schedule is much harder in this second half, and the first contending team they’ve faced handed them a big loss. Let’s see how that defense fares against quarterbacks like Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes.

6) The absolute disaster that is the Browns have defied all our modest or hopeful expectations with a really sad season. Yes, the Browns just won a game. Yippie. They’ve turned the promising Baker Mayfield into a turnover machine with their terrible offensive line play, and have no business playing this undisciplined and unsuccessfully with so much talent on the roster. If they don’t turn it around in these next weeks, things could get ugly in the offseason.

Aiden Herrod is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Aiden can be reached at aiden.herrod@tufts.edu.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Volleyball wins NESCAC tournament, moves on to host NCAA regional

JULIA MCDOWELL FOR TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Senior outside/opposite hitter and co-captain Maddie Stewart hits the ball during a game against Springfield on Oct. 18.

by Arpan Barua Staff Writer

Over the weekend, while the winter season began to hit our own Tufts University, the volleyball team only began to warm up as they won their first NESCAC championship in over 20 years to cap off a historic season, setting them up for a long road in the postseason.

As holders of the NESCAC’s best record in the regular season, Tufts had the responsibility of hosting the entire tournament — allowing them to play all its tournament games on its home court.

The tournament came to a close on Sunday, where in front of a packed crowd of over 200, the Jumbos played in the final of the NESCAC tournament against the Bowdoin Polar Bears.

Their match earlier in the year followed a similar trend as they beat them 3–0 on Sept. 27.

However, this was a much-improved Bowdoin team as they came into Sunday’s final having won every match since the loss to Tufts, including the two in the NESCAC tournament, leaving them with an impressive 18–6 record overall prior to the final. The Polar Bears also won the NESCAC tournament in 2018, coming in determined to reclaim their crown.

From the get-go, it was clear what was in store for the afternoon. The Jumbos, as they always have, came out firing, as senior opposite/middle hitter Christina Nwankpa and sophomore outside/opposite hitter Cate Desler continued their impressive form to put the Jumbos up 7–2 at the very start of the set.

Though they were able to keep a fair amount of distance from Bowdoin for the majority of the set, this Polar Bear team proved to be resilient, closing the gap to 21–19 in favor of the Jumbos toward the end of the set. Ultimately, the attack proved to be too much for Bowdoin as Tufts won the set 25–21, but it was clear that both teams were ready for a dog fight.

Through their blocking and blitzing offense, the Polar Bears gave the Jumbos a taste of their own medicine as they were up big by the middle of the second set. Senior outside/opposite hitter and co-captain Maddie Stewart wrote in an email to the Daily about Bowdoin’s reawakening in the second set.

“Bowdoin challenged us right back after we started strong in set one,” Stewart said. “They were in system offensively and we had to work very hard to not only defend them, but convert a solid transition dig into an in-system swing.”

Though the Jumbos were able to generate momentum and mount a comeback, they ultimately came up just short as the Polar Bears closed out the set with six straight points, giving Bowdoin the highly competitive and topsy turvy second set 25–18. The momentum would continue to swing in Bowdoin’s direction as they took the third set by a score of 25–20.

This left the Jumbos in a spot unfamiliar to them: they were losing. It had been nearly a month since they were last losing in a match, and through 28 matches, was only the fourth time they were in a losing position.

The fourth set remained close throughout; the Polar Bears took the lead early in the set, but it was clear that no one team possessed any control. The points were long, enduring and grueling, with neither team wanting to lose. This was reflected in the set, which went back and forth until Tufts sparked a massive six-point run to create daylight between the two teams. The attack was versatile, reflecting the team spirit of this Jumbo squad, as the kills came from four different players during the run: Desler, senior middle/opposite hitter Heather Holz, senior setter/opposite hitter Rachel Furash and Stewart. Inspired by the historic run they had this year, the Jumbos were determined to not let this be their last day, as they closed out the set in emphatic fashion, winning the set 25–17.

Changes like these are not coincidences, and for the leaders of the team, it took a collective effort to regroup the team in order to win the fourth set, coach Cora Thompson explained in an email to the Daily.

“We started to play tight in the 2nd and 3rd sets and upon realizing that, the players adjusted and controlled their emotions and focused on executing our game plan,” Thompson said.

The fifth set proved to be the toughest of them all. The set embodied the nature of the match itself, as kills from Furash were canceled out by a mix of errors from Tufts and kills from Bowdoin.

As the whirlwind of a set was coming to a close, the Jumbos were struggling to find a way to close this Bowdoin team out, leaving them at a pivotal 12–11 deficit towards the end of the fifth. But, in the wise words of Arya Stark, the Jumbos looked into the eyes of death and emphatically stated, “Not today,” keeping their cool to rattle off four of the last five points and win the set 15–13 with a monumental kill from none other than Stewart.

For Stewart, Thompson and the rest of the team, Sunday’s victory reflected a culmination of all the hard work they had put in throughout their historic season, and when it counted, their best play came out.

“They needed to stay loose and embrace the challenge without fear and that’s exactly what they did,” Thompson said.

On Saturday, in the semifinals of the tournament, the Jumbos faced off against the now 15–10 Middlebury Panthers, whom they had also beaten earlier in the season 3–0. This time, it was the double threat of Desler, who finished the game with 11 kills, and Nwankpa, a staple of the Jumbo attack, who finished the game herself with 12 kills.

Once again, the Jumbos came out to make a strong statement, winning the first two sets 25–17 and 25–10, respectively. The third set was when it got a little trickier for the Jumbos, as they quickly saw their 7–3 lead turn into an 14–11 deficit behind a couple of errors. However, just as they had always done throughout the season, they kept their composure and trusted what had brought them there, winning the final set 25–20.

The campaign began on Friday night where Tufts’ first match was against the Hamilton Continentals (10–14). This was a team that Tufts had beaten earlier in the season, and Friday proved no different. Behind the strong attacking play of Stewart, who finished the game with 13 kills, the Jumbos jumped out to a fast start and were consistent throughout the match, always keeping the Continentals out of reach. The final score was 25–13, 25–14, 25–12: a statement to all their other NESCAC opponents.

Thompson knew that winning the tournament was never going to be easy.

“The NESCAC is the toughest conference tournament in New England top to bottom,” Thompson said. “Every team can pull off a win on any given day when they are playing for their seasons so we respected all of our opponents and had to bring our best game to the court all three nights.”

Up next, the Jumbos will play in the NCAA tournament where they will be facing the 17–6 Eastern Nazarene Lions of nearby Quincy, Mass. The game will be played right here in Cousens Gym on Friday night, as they look to take the next step on the road to a national championship.