The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, September 8, 2020

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VOLUME LXXX, ISSUE 1

INDEPENDENT

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

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tuftsdaily.com

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Welcome Back, Tufts

Majority of undergraduate students plan to return to campus this fall

Local leaders, residents slam Tufts’ reopening plans

by Alexander Thompson Assistant News Editor

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Aug. 28.

by Sarah Sandlow News Editor

As of Aug. 27, approximately 5,300 undergraduate students will be studying in person for fall 2020 and only about 735 students will be studying remotely. However, this data is likely to change through the first few weeks of the semester.

Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, explained in an email to the Daily that about two-thirds of returning students will be living on campus and one-third of returning students will be residing off campus.

Collins also indicated that an estimated 140 first-year students are taking a gap year.

He said that it is difficult to determine the number of students who are taking leaves of absence for the semester, due to the way in which the university tracks the information, but noted that any student who chooses to study remotely or take a gap year will not be penalized for their decision.

Sophomore Mayura Thomas, who is a biology major, decided to take a leave of absence for the fall semester. Participating in in-person lab courses was a critical factor in her decision not to return to campus.

“I don’t want to be going and doing [lab courses] online,” she said. “Those lab skills are pretty important to me and I don’t want to compromise on those skills.”

Thomas plans to work at the same chemistry lab she worked at during a previous summer and expects to gain essential lab skills.

“When I told my boss that I would potentially want to work there for the rest of the year, we negotiated learning more so it was 50/50 between doing the job and getting those [lab] skills,” she said. see PLAN, page 2

Rabbi Jordan Braunig leaves Tufts Hillel for Emory

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

Rabbi Jordan Braunig will be departing Tufts Hillel in the fall to assume the role of Jewish chaplain at Emory University.

Braunig served as the director of the Initiative for Innovative Community Building at Tufts Hillel.

During his tenure at the university, the Community Building Fellows program remained a central focus of Braunig’s work. According to

the University Chaplaincy’s website, the purpose of the program is to decentralize Jewish life on campus by connecting fellows with other students.

Braunig underlined that the program is intended to support students and their communities.

“The real goal of the program is to empower students to organize Jewish life for themselves and for their communities,” Braunig said.

He recognized that the Community Building Fellows

initiative helps hone its members’ skills as listeners and strengthens students’ ability to spread their values into the different communities they are involved in on and off campus.

“One of the sweet things about Tufts is there are lots of overlapping circles of communities, and sometimes the best way to encourage people to grapple with their Jewish identity is to bring those conversations and see BRAUNIG, page 4

In recent weeks, Tufts has come under fire from local mayors, legislators and residents for its reopening plan. Critics of the plan say the return of students from across the country and globe threatens to reverse the significant progress they have made in containing the pandemic.

In an Aug. 10 letter to University President Anthony Monaco, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Medford Mayor Breanna LungoKoehn called on the university’s leadership to make seven significant changes to its reopening plan, including a reassessment of the plan in conjunction with the community and cutting the number of students living on and off campus.

“Despite months of planning for a safe in-person return to class, and corresponding drastic changes to campus life, the virus is spreading widely at universities,” Curtatone and Lungo-Koehn wrote.

The mayors believe that by inviting students back to campus, the university is putting residents and other members of the community at risk. “[The plan] will significantly increase the risk of transmission in our communities and catalyze a potentially unmanageable increase in infections as we enter the fall and winter seasons,” Curtatone and Lungo-Koehn said.

On Packard Avenue on Aug. 19, a small group of residents turned out to a protest organized by Our Revolution groups in Medford and see RESIDENTS, page 5

Group of Six renamed to Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion

by Sam Klugherz

Assistant News Editor

The collection of identity-based centers on campus, formerly known as the Group of Six, has been renamed to the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion (DSDI), and new staffing positions were added to three of the centers.

This change is part of a broader restructuring that has been taking place since the fall of 2019.

The centers that compose the DSDI are the Africana Center, the Asian American Center, the FIRST Resource Center, the Latino Center, the LGBT Center and the Women’s Center.

Nandi Bynoe, associate dean of student diversity and inclusion, explained the reason for the name change.

“The Group of Six was brought into our own division to work more closely in alignment with the deans of the school, and also to create a focus for broader support for all students of marginalized identities across the campus,” Bynoe said.

OPINION / page 16

FEATURES / page 6

ARTS / page 9

Back on the Hill, ready for a semester of advocacy

Tufts professor lectures on history of protest music, raising thousands

Innovations in dance, music classes in response to COVID-19

She added that the renaming of the group will increase opportunities for collaboration across all identity groups.

“The six centers worked really closely and really well together in the past, but this was an intentional way of bringing us into a conversation and creating a cohort of folks to really advance the work, not just in each center but with an idea for intersectionality,” Bynoe said.

Hope Freeman, director of the LGBT Center and interim director of the Women’s Center, explained the larger impact of the new name.

“By calling ourselves the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion it really gave more muscle to the work and influence inspired by the students to whom we support,” Freeman wrote in an email to the Daily.

Rob Mack, associate provost and chief diversity officer for the Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses, echoed the see DSDI, page 4 NEWS 1 FEATURES 6 PHOTO 8 ARTS & POP CULTURE 9 FUN & GAMES 12 OPINION 15 SPORTS BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

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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.

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The Academic Quad is pictured on Aug. 28.

by Madeleine Aitken Assistant News Editor

The beginning of the academic year signals the close of a summer full of impactful moments, with the nation focused on the evolving COVID-19 situation and the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation following the death of George Floyd. The following is an overview of the news stories the Daily published this past summer.

Pre-orientation programs go virtual In early June, the pre-orientation team announced that all of its programs would be virtual due to concerns about its ability to run

its programs in person while safely social distancing. All pre-orientation programs were also be offered free of cost.

Mayors of Somerville and Medford respond to the Black Lives Matter movement In late June, the mayors of Somerville and Medford pledged changes in their administrations to address racism in their municipal departments, school systems and police forces.

One of the announcements came from Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn shortly after the Medford City Council passed a resolution that declared systemic racism a health emergency. In Somerville,

Mayor Joe Curtatone made a similar declaration and gave systemic racism the same health crisis status as the coronavirus pandemic.

Tufts invites students back to campus On June 23, Tufts announced its plan for the fall semester, which included the invitation of all students back to campus. The guide released by the university detailed COVID-19 testing practices and the new hybrid academic format. It also explained the creation of residential cohorts and the installation of “The Mods,” a temporary residential space that will provide isolation see ROUNDUP, page 4

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences sees reduction of on campus students PLAN

continued from page 1 Thomas also expressed concern at not being guaranteed housing when she returns to campus.

Collins noted, however, that the University plans to offer on-campus housing to all first-year and sophomore students who choose to return in the Spring. Further details will be released soon.

According to Collins, on-campus dorm occupancy will be 15% less this year than in a normal year. He also indicated that The Mods contain 225 beds for isolation and that an additional 84 beds have been set aside in Blakeley Hall for potential quarantine.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will be completely remote and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will have a 20% reduction of on-campus graduate students, according to Collins.

Hugh Gallagher, a professor of physics and astronomy, teaches two graduate seminars and works with other faculty to coordinate the Physics 1 and Physics 11 course labs.

To adhere to social distancing guidelines, only seven students will be allowed to work in both labs, instead of the usual 14 student limit, according to Gallagher.

He explained that his courses this semester will be hybrid and that students will have the opportunity to alternate between working in person in the lab and working through Zoom, in an effort to maintain team collaboration.

“It’s hard to do a lab with a partner when you have to social distance … we want students to be able to work collaboratively and respectfully with

another student … we still wanted to have that piece,” Gallagher said.

He added that the physics department has worked diligently to update the way in which labs are conducted and to ensure all health and safety protocols are followed. However, he recognized that some students may still prefer to do labs remotely.

“Our focus is making sure that students are having a positive educational experience,” Gallagher said. “If putting themselves in that kind of environment is going to be one they’re uncomfortable with, then we’re very happy with the students to just do the labs remotely.”

Sophomore Rachel Finkel will be doing the semester remotely, from home. Finkel considered that the risks associated with returning to campus outweighed the potential benefits, and was also concerned for her health.

She said she did not want to take a leave of absence for a semester to remain on track with her intended quantitative economics major. Finkel also underlined that she did not have other plans lined up for the fall in lieu of classes.

Although she recognized that the university is taking several measures to prevent the spread of the virus, she noted that there are many risks with reopening and other factors outside of the administration’s control.

“I think Tufts is doing the best that they can, I mean, what else can you do besides test as often as possible?”

Finkel said. “But I feel like there are so many unknowns … that it’s very hard to keep track of everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone got sent back home within a few weeks.”

BY NATHANIEL BERMAN

News

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Professor Ioannis Evrigenis named new IR director

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Professor of Political Science Ioannis Evrigenis poses for a portrait in his office in Packard Hall on March 6. Evrigenis has been selected as International Relations Program director.

by Carolina Espinal Assistant News Editor

Ioannis Evrigenis, professor of political science and classics, has been selected as International Relations (IR) Program director.

Evrigenis assumed the leadership role earlier in July and will direct the program before going on leave the following year to pursue a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

His three-year term appointment corresponds with Professor Kelly Greenhill’s temporary departure from the role.

Greenhill, who previously served as the director of the IR Program, will return as interim director for the 2021–22 academic year after spending a year in the U.K. as a recipient of the Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship.

Evrigenis’ selection was determined through a standard process directed by the deans, which typically begins with requests for input on the current leadership from department or program fac-

ulty. Evrigenis explained that the deans take the feedback, along with supplementary considerations such as which professors are on leave, into account before reaching a decision.

Professor Greenhill expressed her confidence about the program’s leadership and spoke of the notable highlights accomplished under the IR Program during past years, including the Applied IR Speaker Series, IR career webinars and the IR internship award.

“I am extraordinarily happy with the choice and the program will be in very able hands between Professor Evrigenis’ leadership and our terrific IR staff,” Greenhill said.

Greenhill said that her proudest accomplishment this year was, in partnership with other IR faculty members, helping all seniors graduate and witnessing how the program helped students navigate the difficult circumstances in the wake of COVID-19.

“I will be back and that’s another reason why I don’t have

to feel so sad. I will be back working with this terrific group and the extraordinary IR students,” Greenhill said.

Professors Greenhill and Evrigenis will both serve the IR Program and take leave for their respective fellowship opportunities, alternating leadership roles during the next two academic years. Greenhill described the Leverhulme fellowship as the opportunity to live in London, interact with a set of scholars and access unlimited historical documents. She anticipates finishing her book, “Fear and Present Danger,” and beginning a new book during this time.

Evrigenis will also be making advancements in his research through the NEH fellowship during the 2021–22 academic year, where he will work on a translation and an addition to “Six Books of the Commonwealth” by Jean Bodin. Evrigenis will then return to complete the remaining two years of his term as IR director.

As director, Evrigenis said he hopes to continue working

on initiatives that Professor Greenhill began, especially efforts to focus on student feedback. Evrigenis added that the IR Program intersects several evolving fields and requires that its staff remain current on updates within the major.

The changing conditions of COVID-19 currently shape the future and goals of the IR Program.

Evrigenis acknowledged that the restrictions on campus — the limitations of finding large open spaces, attending office hours without appointments and accommodating remote students — will raise novel challenges requiring creative solutions.

In anticipation of these challenges, Evrigenis explained that his primary goals for the upcoming academic year are to ensure that the program retains its interactive essence, and that staff, students and faculty can work efficiently and safely.

Evrigenis also connected the world’s current challenges to the importance of studying IR.

“In the midst of a lot of bad news and a very bleak picture of the world, there’s also a striking encapsulation of the relevance and significance of international relations in every conceivable aspect of the major,” Evrigenis said. “[The major is relevant] from economics to public health, from warfare to attempts to establish and maintain the peace, from issues of distribution of wealth and poverty,” he said.

Evrigenis explained that these problems call for greater engagement from those attentive to these topics. According to Evrigenis, Tufts’ IR students represent a key sample of that group.

“If I were in their shoes, it would reinforce my sense that I’m in the right place doing the right thing,” Evrigenis said.

“The collective challenge for us now is to think of ways to ensure that we remain at the top of this field, but also to figure out how we can be most useful to the world because the world needs everybody’s help,” he added.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

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Tisch College launches Mack, Sackey advance diversity report COVID-19 research initiative recommendations ROUNDUP

continued from page 2 housing for students who test positive for COVID-19 while on campus.

Tufts Dining worker allegedly beaten by police Two Tufts Dining workers, Victor R. White and Alexandros Armand, who are both cooks in Carmichael Dining Center, were arrested by Lynn, Mass. police officers during the night of June 15 and the early morning of June 16.. They were arrested on charges related to drinking in public, although they were outside of White’s home on his private property.

Once they arrived at the police station, White was taken to a holding cell where he claims he was beaten by an officer after he declined to remove his mask from around his neck.

Both White and Armand were charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and White was also charged with drinking in public and assault and battery against a police officer. However, these charges were later dropped by the Essex District Attorney’s Office.

Protest in support of White, Armand Ten days following their arrest, there was a protest in Lynn in response to the treatment of White and Armand, which was attended by many Tufts students and members of UNITE HERE Local 26, the union that represents Tufts Dining workers.

Protesters demanded that all charges against the three men be dropped and for the officer involved in the alleged beating to be charged. They also called for the establishment of a civilian review board and for the police to release surveillance camera footage from the cell in which the altercation with White allegedly occurred.

Tufts opposes ICE regulations In early July, after the announcement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency that international students would lose their visas if they

are enrolled in exclusively online courses this fall, Tufts announced that it would file an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed. ICE later reversed its decision.

New Tisch College fund for COVID-19 research The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life established an initiative called the Tisch Student COVID Response Program to provide funding to students involved in projects addressing the impacts of COVID19 in various communities.

The idea for the program was proposed by rising senior Alex Lein in mid-March following the suspension of in-person classes.

Grants have since been made to both undergraduate and graduate students engaged in self-designed and preexisting programs across the globe.

Tufts releases move-in plan In late July, a month after the release of its initial outline for the fall, Tufts provided a move-in plan that included new arrival dates and an explanation of testing and quarantine protocols.

In this plan, the university designated students as “in-region” or “out-of-region” based on their home states. Out-of-region students moved in on Aug. 16–30 with a required quarantine, remaining until they receive three negative test results, while in-region students move in Sept. 1–13 and must quarantine until they receive one negative test.

Charges dropped against Armand, White In early August, the Essex County District Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against White and Armand, as well as the third unaffiliated man. This decision came after a well-attended protest on June 26.

The Lynn police officer that allegedly beat White in the holding cell resigned from the force and an independent special prosecutor is investigating the claims against the officers.

AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

The LGBT Center and Latino Center, located at 226 College Ave., are pictured on March 3. The LGBT and Latino Centers are two of the six identity-based centers on campus that make up the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion.

DSDI

continued from page 1 notion that the new name better fits the mission of the collection of centers. He said that he thought the old name didn’t do the group justice.

“I don’t think [the name ‘Group of Six’] empowers who they are, or the work that they do, or speaks to their importance,” Mack said.

In addition to the name change, new full-time staff positions were added to the Asian American Center, the Latino Center and the LGBT Center.

Both the name change and the addition of new positions are part of recent attempts to restructure the diversity and inclusion programs across the university.

Since University President Anthony Monaco put forward a number of recommendations

in a Council on Diversity report in 2013, chief diversity officers at the university have gradually implemented those changes.

Mack, as well as Joyce Sackey, associate provost and chief diversity officer for the Boston and Grafton campuses, acknowledged that some of the recommendations proposed in the 2013 report have still not been executed.

“Many years had passed since the report, and all these recommendations hadn’t really been shepherded the way they were supposed to,” Mack said.

Even though the plan has not been fully realized, Mack and Sackey have made progress.

“One of the glaring recommendations that we really wanted to see come to fruition was that each school has its own school-level diversity and inclusion person,” Mack said.

“Joyce and I felt that would be

essential because it’s a large university, and there was a lot of work to be done.”

This resulted in the appointment of Bynoe to her current role last fall by Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James M. Glaser and Dean of the School of Engineering Jianmin Qu. The three new full-time positions were added shortly after Bynoe’s appointment.

“It’s all been part of this movement of change and this investment in the area,” Mack said.

As the fall semester begins, the DSDI plans to serve and support students, mainly virtually, with the rebrand in mind.

“In recognition of the abnormal nature of the fall, the majority of programming is going to be virtual ways of engagement,” Bynoe said. “We’re thinking about utilizing the virtual spaces to do a lot of division-wide programming.”

Jewish Chaplain Naftali Brawer commends Braunig's work at Hillel BRAUNIG

continued from page 1 those events into their circles of friends,” he said.

Jake Gould, a junior who previously served as a community-building fellow

in the program, acknowledged the large impact Braunig has had on his experience at Tufts and beyond.

“Rabbi Jordan has this incredible ability to make everyone he speaks to feel heard,” Gould wrote in an electronic

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Goddard Chapel is pictured on Aug. 28.

message to the Daily. “He changed the way I view Jewish life and Jewish community on campus.”

Braunig expressed gratitude for his time at Tufts, where he said he found a natural personality fit with the students.

“I really just felt a natural connection to the student body, to students who were really open-minded and deeply passionate about their beliefs,” Braunig said.

He added that the highlight of his job was simply getting to know the students on a deeper level and recounted some of his favorite memories working at the university.

“Specific memories of events [include] Hanukkah happening in Tamper [Cafe] on Boston Ave,” he said. “[Also] marching with students and dining hall workers, and seeing students — sometimes first-years and sophomores — taking the lead and standing in solidarity with people whom they were really just getting to know on campus.”

Apart from leading the program, Braunig taught two courses within the

Judaic studies department: Introduction to Talmud in the fall and Creativity and Queerness in Rabbinic Literature in the spring.

Jennifer Gray (E’20) was one of Braunig’s students and participated in his fall course.

“In Intro to Talmud, Rabbi Jordan built a community in his classroom by encouraging us to collaborate with new peers and always reminding us to start each study session by asking how the other was doing,” Gray wrote in an electronic message to the Daily.

Rabbi Naftali Brawer, who is the Neubauer executive director of Tufts Hillel and also a Jewish chaplain, acknowledged Braunig’s commitment to enriching Jewish life on campus and his ability to uplift those around him.

“He brings to his work the wonderful combination of deep Jewish wisdom and playful creativity,” Brawer wrote in an email to the Daily.

On Aug. 28, Tufts Hillel announced that Elizabeth Aeschlimann will be replacing Braunig in the interim as director of community building.

News

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

5

Monaco enforces COVID-19 rules in response to community concerns RESIDENTS

continued from page 1 Somerville to oppose Tufts’ reopening plan.

During the protest, Marianne Walles, a Somerville resident, emphasized that the university’s response to the pandemic is representative of the institution’s neglect of community members and their needs.

“This is another example of where the Tufts administration does not care about the community around them and that they continue to make plans that could adversely affect our community and cause our residents to die,” Walles said.

Residents also clarified their reasons for hosting and participating in the protest.

“We don’t want to stop the education process of these students. That’s not what we’re here for,” Hendrik Gideonse (A’97), a Medford resident, said. “We’re here to ensure that fewer people catch this disease.”

Residents’ concerns ranged from the safety of custodians to the amount of time it will take to process all of the university’s COVID19 tests, and many contrasted Tufts’ approach to that of Somerville Public Schools, which is using a remote learning model.

Residents also opposed Tufts’ plans at a special meeting with the Somerville City Council.

Some speakers said they see students as the greatest risk and recounted witnessing parties as the campus shut down in March or

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / TUFTS DAILY

Somerville and Medford residents protest Tufts’ reopening in front of a row of TV cameras on Aug. 19. having seen bands of maskless students return to campus.

“I am 78 years old, and I have a daughter that is not so well,” resident Daisy Montsalve told the councilors. She, like many others, expressed concern that Tufts students will not obey the health and safety rules when they are off campus.

Others looked to the administration.

“I hold nothing against the Tufts students,” Connor Blanck (A’15) said. “But there are certain to be some among that student body who will not take this seriously. All it takes is a few mistakes for an

infection at Tufts to spiral out of control … I think this is an incredibly greedy and arrogant decision by the Tufts administration.”

However, in written testimony for the public hearing, Stephen Mackey, president of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce, expressed confidence in the university’s leadership.

He underlined the money the university spends in the community and its continuous support.

“The faculty, staff, and students add millions more for our small businesses, restaurants, and family-owned shops,” Mackey wrote.

The evening before the city council’s meeting, Tufts held its

own town hall for local residents in an effort to assuage concerns.

Over Zoom, Monaco, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Kraft, Vice President of Operations Barbara Stein, University Infection Control Director Michael Jordan, Tufts University Chief of Police Gerard “Chip” Colleta and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mary Jeka fielded questions from the community, many of which centered on how Tufts intends to properly enforce its regulations.

“We’re trying to make compliance easy,” Monaco said. “We will be enforcing our policies. We understand that’s important to your safety

and health and the safety and health of our Tufts community.”

Monaco and Kraft explained that there will be “student ambassadors” roving campus with masks, but that residents should call the university’s police department if they see a gathering of more than 10 students or other unauthorized behavior.

Monaco also discussed that there will be consequences for students who do not adhere to the rules and noted that hosting a 40 or more person gathering could result in suspension from the university.

The university’s town hall, however, was not completely well received.

Multiple speakers at the Somerville City Council’s public hearing the next day described the town hall as “insulting” or “tonedeaf.” Residents also could not directly ask questions during the town hall and, instead, had to submit them in the comments section.

Christine Barber, who represents Medford and Somerville in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Katjana Ballantyne and MaryJo Rossetti, both of whom are city councilors for Somerville, and Nichole Morell, a Medford councilor, also wrote a letter to Monaco.

The quartet of local legislators raised many of the concerns residents have and added that they may oppose Tufts’ lodging license if changes by the university were not made.

“Tufts’ reopening plan fails to address some very basic questions about safety,” they wrote.

Welcome Back to Campus!

The IGL Is Looking Forward to an Exciting Year of Programming the EPIIC Fall Symposium on “Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities” • the new IGL-Fletcher Speaker Series on ‘Race, Justice and Equity” • the ALLIES Civil-Military Relations Conference on “Space” • the EPIIC Spring Symposium on “China and the World”

and much more as our student groups decide their 2020-21 programming The Institute for Global Leadership is about connecting theory to practice, visit our web site to learn about and get involved in our many programs ALLIES (civil-military program) Amnesty International Empower (social entrepreneurship) Engineers Without Border European Horizons International IGL Global Fellows Latin American Committee (LAC) Middle East Research Group (MERG) Oslo Human Rights Scholars Tufts Asian Affairs Group Tufts International Development, focusing on Ecuador, Honduras and India Women in International Relations

For more information: tuftsgloballeadership.org

6 Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Features

With musicology livestream, Pennington raises more than $10,000 for The Bail Project

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

A screen capture of Stephan Pennington’s livestream on June 4 is pictured.

by Sam Russo

Outreach Coordinator

As he began to stream at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, Stephan Pennington cautiously set a $500 fundraising goal for himself. When he signed off his computer in the wee hours of Friday, June 5, he had raised over $10,000 to support bail funds through The Bail Project, a nonprofit that works to end the bail system by paying bail for low-income Americans and advocating against pretrial incarceration. Over the coming days, Pennington’s fundraising total increased to $12,600.

During the day, Pennington is an associate professor in the Tufts music department.

At night, he is TrooperSJP, his “stream name” on the popular streaming platform Twitch, where he shares his video game screen with his 20–30 viewers.

“I have always played video games … since I was a kid, since Pong,” Pennington said. “But since I got to Tufts, I realized I wasn’t playing video games anymore because I was just always so busy.

I never made time for free time.”

As he realized that, Pennington began to watch video game streams online and discovered that one streamer he liked was a grade school teacher.

“Well, if she can stream and it’s not a problem, then I could probably stream and not get fired.

I could maybe do that,” he thought to himself. With that, Pennington began to set aside time each week to stream, playing mostly indie and role-playing games.

He built up a small following along with a network of other streamers, and as protests against racism erupted nationwide over the summer, Pennington asked himself what he was doing as an activist. When he saw that a streamer colleague was leading an effort to raise money for bail funds, he knew he wanted to participate but wondered whether he could do something unique, rather than doing a regular stream and

asking for donations during it, as other streamers had done.

“I really wanted to do something that would be valuable,” Pennington said. “Maybe I’ll adapt a couple of my lectures from the History of African American Music [course] and I’ll do a charity stream where I do that … I thought, if I do the stream, people who can’t go to Tufts can get access to it, so I’m actually doing an act of public education, which I think is in itself a form of activism.”

Pennington distilled about five lectures from his course into a fourhour lesson specifically covering Black protest music in the United States, from the Middle Passage until today. He invited both members of his academic circles — many of whom had to learn how to use Twitch for the first time — and streaming world, something he had never done before.

The songs he discussed are at times painful, raw and haunting, while others — though sometimes the same song — are empowering and unifying. Throughout the lecture, Pennington offers commentary, context, analysis and thought-provoking questions, seamlessly transitioning from reading and monitoring the live chat to explaining the history of a song to closing his eyes and silently air drumming away as a song plays.

During a particularly emotional moment almost three hours into the stream, Pennington received an anonymous $1,000 donation that pushed him over his $7,000 goal (the goal changed throughout the night). “We did not! What?

Did we make goal? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness … I am going to keep doing this talk so I don’t freak out and cry,” he said, looking shocked. Despite his best attempts, he could not hold back his tears, and it’s easy to imagine many of his viewers reacted the same way.

TrooperSJP, Pennington’s stream name, draws on different parts of his life that brought him to his work today; SJP are his initials, but trooper refers to his experi-

ences both in the military and in theater — trouper is another term for actor.

“I started as a kid doing musical theater, and theater in general, and I wanted to do acting [professionally]. I wanted to do Shakespeare, but I could not afford to go to college, so I joined the army in order to pay for college and … did military intelligence,” Pennington said.

After earning a 2.87 GPA in high school, Penningston discovered he was skilled at “school stuff” while working in intelligence for the military.

At the same time, he branched out from his roots in musical theater to music more broadly by joining a rock band in the army.

When he was acting, Pennington had to turn into someone else.

Singing, on the other hand, let him become a fuller version of himself.

“When I got more into music, I was like, ‘I can sing what I want. I can sing the songs that I want, how I want them,’” Pennington said.

In light of this newfound space to express himself, Pennington decided to return to civilian life and study music performance and composition as an undergraduate.

Encouraged by one of his professors and the realization that he would not have to pay for a Ph.D. but instead be paid in the process, Pennington went on to pursue a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Studying music academically, he discovered that much of what resonated for him personally was also what made music meaningful professionally. Just as music offered him a way to express himself, it had also been a way for everyday and marginalized people to express themselves throughout history.

“You remember when you were in middle school, and they’re teaching you world history, and it’s this king does this and this general does this … and on and on for a while?” he asked rhetorically. “I see PENNINGTON, page 7

tuftsdaily.com

You gotta know: Amanda Stone, pre-health advisor

by Kayla Butera

Assistant Features Editor

In this day and age of endless Zoom and Webex conferences, phone calls are rare. Personal ones are even rarer. A warm, welcoming voice greeted me on the other end: “Hi there, I’m honored to talk to you!”

Compassionate, positive and humble: this is Tufts’ pre-health advisor Amanda Paolitto Stone.

Pre-health or not, Stone offers insightful academic and career advice pertinent to all.

A born and raised Bostonian, Stone grew up in Cambridge and went to Tufts for undergraduate studies.

“It’s really nice to be able to come back to the campus and work with a familiar student body,” she noted. At college, Stone was immersed in giving back, involving herself with nonprofits and community organizations in the area.

While she may be a pre-health advisor, her road wasn’t — and still isn’t — exclusively bound to medicine. At Tufts, she majored in American studies with a concentration in African American studies and later continued on to Boston University, where she obtained a master’s in psychology. Helping others through education and personal growth has unfailingly been Stone’s passion, and it shows. Prior to her current role, Stone worked in a juvenile justice advocacy program and a leadership development program for Boston Public Schools.

“I think it’s always rewarding when you see a student overcome some really challenging situations or barriers, and then they achieve their goals,” Stone said. “I worked for a number of years closely with high-risk Boston high school girls who were facing poverty and unwanted pregnancies, and then I saw them grow and work, and they are so successful now.”

Committed to and energized by her mentees, Stone continues to check up on them 15 years later and is impressed by the changes they are making.

Wanting to work with these students to pursue higher education, Stone found herself working at Tufts. At Tufts University School of Medicine, Stone worked in the Office of Student Affairs, where she was introduced to how medical school worked. Similar to pre-health advising, the medical school’s Office of Student Affairs provides guidance and assistance to medical students.

“Comparing yourself to others is ultimately a detriment when everyone is unique and has something to offer.”Amanda Stone pre-health Advisor at Tufts Aside from her experience at the school of medicine, Stone has been exposed to the medical field at an early age.

“I have family members who are doctors and nurses in the health care field, so it’s been interesting to learn more about that and support pre-health students,” Stone said.

Considering her multifaceted journey, she says her mentors and role models, including students, have encouraged and inspired her.

“They got me started on the right path,” she said. “I am really inspired by the resilience of the students I have worked with and seeing what people face — people who have way less than I do and have grown up in situations that didn’t mean success — pushes me [to be] better.”

If Stone had to narrow her advice to pre-health students, one of the most important takeaways would be to, first, stay true to yourself; following one’s authentic passions leads to one’s purpose and therefore an avenue in which one can best make an impact, Stone says.

“All pre-health students shouldn’t look alike,” Stone stated. “It’s so individual, and what’s ultimately going to make you the happiest and the strongest candidate is doing things that you are good at and like doing.”

Understandably, Stone notes, one of pre-health students’ greatest (and most common) struggles is comparing themselves to others.

“It’s hard to not look at your friends, or your roommate or your parents, and compare yourself, but if you are a trombone player who wants to play for the homeless — that’s wonderful,” Stone said. “Comparing yourself to others is ultimately a detriment when everyone is unique and has something to offer.”

“Comparing yourself to others is ultimately a detriment when everyone is unique and has something to offer.”

With that in mind, Stone guides her students to follow what is genuine to them; what a student does in the medical field can be just as valuable as the experiences outside of it.

“All of the things you do can contribute not just to medical school but to you as a practicing physician,” Stone said. “How are you going to communicate with your physician? What commonalities do you have? What are the things that will bring you together with someone of a totally different experience and upbringing?”

Secondly, Stone urges students to not sacrifice success for speed.

“If you don’t feel ready as a senior to apply [to medical school], or if you need a couple see PRE-HEALTH, page 7

F e at u r e s

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

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‘No one ever talked about what According to Stone, social justice, everyday people did’: Art can shed light health professions can go hand-in-hand PRE-HEALTH With the pandemic highlighting health on marginalized histories, Pennington continued from page 6 disparities, Stone is interested to see how years after school to get your footing Tufts students will continue to address says and earn money, wonderful,” Stone said. these inequities.

PENNINGTON

“This timeline — medicine or nursing or veterinary medicine — will always be there, and waiting, rarely if ever, hurt somebody.”

Throughout Stone’s three years in the department, she has noticed a rise in the number of pre-health students. According to Stone, part of the increase is due to the evolving definition of pre-health.

“Pre-health used to mean pre-med, and now students are exploring different careers, more students are interested in pre-PA and nursing,” she said.

With COVID-19, Stone expects the volume of pre-health students to increase. “[Students] have seen a global pandemic and mass suffering,” Stone said.

“I’ve seen many become interested in public health and medicine, and it also seems to call out to some people that it’s a way they can participate in providing care to their communities. In the future, it’s going to be interesting to look back and say ‘I decided to become a doctor or nurse because of COVID-19.’”

As she concisely put it: “Nothing like a global pandemic can make you evaluate your career goals.”

Throughout the course of the pandemic, Stone has been inspired by alumni and the students around her.

“We’ve had some students who were working in emergency rooms and people were dying,” Stone said. “They have shown such resilience and compassion towards their patients.”

As for the future of pre-health advising, Stone views her role as an advocate and educator, and hopes to reduce health inequities during her time at Tufts.

“I have always been really passionate around social justice and trying to reduce racial inequities and disparities, particularly in education,” Stone said. “We have programs within health professions advising tailored to encouraging underrepresented populations to pursue health professions so that remains a really big [point of importance] for me.”

Stone says pre-health advising is trying to become more accessible, so she encourages students to be on the lookout for updates as she hopes to take health professions to the “digital age.”

After Associate Dean of Undergraduate Advising Carol Baffi-Dugan retired this June, Stone is now the sole prehealth advisor — a busy position for a school with a large pre-health population. Outside of advising, Stone has been spending time with her 2-year-old daughter, Janine.

“She’s been home with me this entire pandemic, so working a full-time job and being a full-time mom has brought its challenges, but it’s been good,” Stone said. “Students will see her in my Zoom going forward, so they can always say hi!”

At the end of the phone call, it was clear what Stone considers to be the best part of the job.

E R

W E

A

continued from page 6 remember thinking, what were poor people doing in ancient Rome? No one ever talked about what everyday people did.”

Though he was often told that these records didn’t exist, he thought to himself, “If I [want] to know what [a] marginalized person … did, I’m probably not going to find it in history books, but I probably will be able to find it in art.”

Pop culture became Pennington’s window into the lives of regular people throughout history and his vehicle for telling their stories. These questions have carried Pennington until today. He teaches courses at Tufts such as Queer Pop, History of African American Music and classes about the history of other marginzalized groups in music. Because his teaching leaves him with only limited time for other work, Pennington is taking a year-long research leave from Tufts this year to work on a book about transgender musicians over the last roughly 100 years.

When Pennington, who is Black, thought about his fundraising stream and Black people in America in the present moment, he considered how racism and the marginalization of Black and other minority voices persists.

“When the coronavirus started, I didn’t have any masks,” he said. “But I had a bandana, and I put on my bandana to go to the pharmacy in Davis Square. I walked into the [CVS Pharmacy] wearing this bandana,

and I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, what if they think I’m going to rob this place? What if somebody calls the cops and somebody shoots me?’ And every time I walked outside of my house with this bandana on, that’s what I thought. And I just didn’t leave. I just didn’t leave campus. I did not leave my house.

I left my house probably five times total since March, because it was too unsafe.”

Despite this fear, Pennington says the world is changing. Unlike during the protests in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014, now, his friends are checking in on him to see if he is doing OK in these difficult times. One friend even made him a “super cute” mask to make going out in public safer.

“My mother had to drink at the colored watering fountain when she was a little girl.

And I am not old … that is not the world we live in right now. I’m not saying it’s great. But I’m saying that we have changed so much and we changed because we didn’t stop,” Pennington said.

“You have to keep your motivation up, you cannot allow yourself to be so disheartened that you stop pushing, because then change doesn’t happen. But change can happen.”

Weeks after raising thousands of dollars for bail funds, Pennington is still stunned by the impact he personally has had. “We ended up with $12,600. That is not a number that I ever imagined. That’s unrealistic, an unrealistic amount of money to think about. I never imagined that that would happen. Like, what is that? That’s a bunch of madness.”

N E P O

FO

OU Y R

This fall, the galleries in the Aidekman Arts Center will be open weekdays only to Tufts students, faculty, and staff.

New exhibitions on view starting Sept 8th. Open Mon – Fri, 10am-5pm.

To schedule a student group visit, contact Liz Canter, elizabeth.canter@tufts.edu. *TUAG is building a Student Advisory Board in order to incorporate student voices into TUAG affairs and to make TUAG resources more available and relevant to the student body. Are you interested in helping us create this group and get compensated for your labor? Visit artgalleries.tufts.edu for more information.

SMFA at TUFTS AIDEKMAN ARTS CENTER

Boston Medford

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | PHOTO | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

tuftsdaily.com

Photos from the summer

PHOTO CREDITS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY, AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY, MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY, NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY, NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY, AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY, NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY, MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY, MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

ARTS&POP CULTURE

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Survival of the independent bookstore

Arts-related departments adapt to COVID-19 restrictions

by Megan Szostak and Stephanie Hoechst

Executive Arts Editor, Arts Editor

COURTESY PORTER SQUARE BOOKS

Porter Square Books is pictured.

by Devina Bhalla Arts Editor

Independent bookstores, like most small local shops, faced an increased challenge because of COVID-19. Many independent bookstores rely on local foot traffic and events to bring people into the store and stay open, so they had to find new ways to reach customers and engage their communities.

Bookstores turned to phone and online orders, curbside pickup and gift cards in order to keep their businesses going. Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Brookline Booksmith in Brookline and Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge all shut down and turned their focus to online and phone orders.

All of these stores are now open to in-person browsing with reduced hours and limited capacity.

Used and rare bookstores, like Rodney’s Bookstore in Cambridge, Brattle Book Shop in Boston and Raven Used Books in Cambridge had to adapt in different ways because of the reality of their inventory.

With used and rare bookstores, the stock does not include many copies of a singular title. This means they might have a lot of books, but only one copy of many of them — making an online storefront very difficult.

For Rodney’s, after 21 years in its Central Square location, it is now moving to a new space. It will stay open through the end of October and then move locations.

Some of these stores, like Brattle Book Shop, have online contact forms that customers can fill out so they can acquire the books that the customer wants. Stores also use platforms like eBay and Biblio.com to sell books instead of creating an online storefront of their own.

Unique situations forced even more business creativity. Trident Booksellers & Cafe also sells a full menu of food and drinks in addition to selling books, causing the store to have to almost run two businesses at once — retail books and a kitchen. After follow-

9

ing state guidelines, they opened the bookstore and patio dining in mid-June. They have done virtual browsing videos of their inventory that anyone could access through their social media and had takeout orders for their food.

Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury provided curbside pickups, deliveries and mail orders during the pandemic but was close to shutting down in May, according to a Boston.com article.

However, the store experienced incredible demand in June as Boston’s only Black-owned bookstore. It received thousands of orders in just a few days, mostly for the same few books, and then experienced backlash from customers for delays. Even with this backlash, the huge influx of orders and outpouring of support allowed Frugal Bookstore to stay open. It reopened to the public in mid-June for in-store browsing.

Bundles and book boxes were also used as an innovative way to engage readers and sell books during the pandemic. Porter Square Books is one store that sells book bundles that are hand-selected according to the customer’s preferences, offering a good way for someone to be connected with books they might find browsing while also being exposed to other titles they wouldn’t have thought to try.

One bundle Porter Square Books has is the “Diversify Your Bookshelf” bundle which includes three fiction titles by people of color or woman-identifying authors. Dogtown Books in Gloucester has a similar book box called the “Rise Up Book Box” that sends you three books written by people of color; the proceeds are donated to the NAACP. Another large part of many bookstores is the events that they hold, bringing people into the space while creating a community feel. COVID-19 forced a lot of rescheduling and canceling, but many stores moved programming to an online platform. Author readings and talks were accessible throughout the pandemic — some

free and others ticketed — and continue to be easy to access through any bookstore’s website.

Some events coming up in the next month or so include: Carol Hay with Tiziana Dearing through Porter Square Books on Sept.

15; Desus & Mero, popular podcast hosts and authors of “GodLevel Knowledge Darts,” through Brookline Booksmith on Sept. 19: and Deepak Chopra on his book “Total Meditation” through Harvard Bookstore on Oct. 1. Check each bookstore’s website to see information about other author events.

One of the biggest annual book-related events in Boston is the Boston Book Festival (BBF). The BBF puts on events year-round, culminating in a multiday festival featuring author readings and talks, panels and fairs each fall.

This year’s festival will take place completely online between Oct. 5–25. The BBF continues to slowly release its speakers and programming. Its One City One Story winner, a Tufts alumna, was released earlier in the summer. The BBF announced its headliners in mid-August; presenters include Ayad Akhtar, Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Michael Murphy, Guy Raz, Michael J. Sandel and Natasha Trethewey.

The BBF has also created additional programming fit for the moment we are in. There will be several relevant panels, including “Black Voters: Power and Promise” and “Elections: Is This the Best We Can Do?” The first features authors talking about voting behavior of Black Americans and the second includes authors who will reflect on elements of our political system like the electoral college and gerrymandering.

With so many local bookstores offering many ways to purchase their books, hosting free author events and with the BBF’s online festival, there is no reason to not expand your bookshelf or hop onto Zoom and listen to distinguished authors read and discuss their work, learning and opening your mind in the process.

Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Through careful planning alongside university administrators, department faculty and student leaders, the Tufts Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies has based its fall 2020 policies largely off those recommended by national theater and dance organizations.

Heather Nathans, the department chair of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies and the Alice and Nathan Gantcher professor in Judaic studies, has had a significant role in defining the department’s fall semester guidelines.

“A big change that [the department] will see is spreading out the dance classes,” Nathans said.

“Students will each have about a 12-foot radius, which is recommended for dance. The same guidelines will be observed in the theater performance spaces.”

The Balch Arena Theater in the Aidekman Arts Center is a main performance space for theater on campus, and could hold up to 230 audience members before social distancing guidelines.

Nathans expressed that the department could not forgo its regular performances, so the faculty and student planners got creative.

“Our hope is that we will be able to film and stream, either from our theater or from performers’ rooms, and edit those into a festival that we’ll be able to share this fall,” Nathans said.

The dance branch of the department has faced its own obstacles in planning for the upcoming semester. Like Nathans, Renata Celichowska, director of dance and senior lecturer, has been heavily involved in the definition of guidelines for the fall.

“Dance was one of the first curricular areas that people looked at when all this panic was happening about how to teach online,” Celichowska said.

The department has opted to move a portion of its classes to a fully virtual format, with the university’s small dance studio set up as a filming studio and virtual teaching space. Of course, virtual dance classes do pose their share of challenges.

“What we really value is that dance is a communal experience where you are moving in unison to a certain tempo or a certain quality of movement,” Celichowska said.

Because of this concern, some classes will be held live in person to maintain this communal experience, while keeping all dancers at least 12 feet apart and wearing masks.

“We want to stay true to the experience of cultivating community through movement,” Celichowska said, “and also give people the opportunity to have that physical release more now than ever.”

For new and returning students interested in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, the changes made to the upcoming semester do not weaken the community that the department strives to create.

“I would encourage students to start taking classes; that is a phenomenal way to get to know the faculty,” Nathans said. “Our production team designed a team-taught course that would welcome new students to the program, and it is taught by all of the production faculty. That is a great chance to dive in.”

Music With live performances out of the question, the Tufts Department of Music is looking for ways to adapt its curriculum to these changing times. Different courses call for different measures.

Frank Lehman, an associate professor of music and the director of undergraduate studies, who is teaching MUS 0197-01: Current Trends in Music Theory this fall, speculates that it won’t be tremendously difficult to adapt to Zoom for his course.

“I’m thinking because it doesn’t involve performance, it doesn’t see MUSIC, page 10

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Aidekman Arts Center is pictured on Aug. 28.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ARTS & POP CULTURE | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

tuftsdaily.com

2020 summer music roundup

by Christopher Panella Arts Editor

It’s easy to close your eyes and imagine — or idealize — summer. Our mouths flood with the tastes of ripe, juicy fruits and our noses smell backyard barbecues. Our minds fill with nostalgic images of childhood bike rides in suburban neighborhoods and deep sunburns.

Our skin aches for the touch of the sand and the feel of the ocean. Our lips long for a summer love. During any other year, these textures and ideas might come to us in May and be gone by August (when we’re sick of the heat and ready for pumpkin-flavored everything). But 2020 has robbed us of these experiences.

Thankfully, we’ve had music — and what a year it’s been for the music industry! New releases comforted us in our lonely beds and joined us on our bedroom dancefloors. Some artists used their quarantine time to make their best works (Taylor Swift), while others had to scrap album release plans and work with what they could (pretty much everyone else). Songs like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s award-winning “Rain On Me” (2020) and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s record-breaking single “WAP” (2020) gave us TikTok dance challenges and plenty of iconic music videos. In no particular order, here are the best releases of the summer.

Arca’s “KiCk i” (2020) Arca’s latest work is celebratory but difficult to pin down. Throughout its tracks, “KiCk i” shifts between tenderness and coldness, flesh and metal, and fun and introspection. It’s never quite clear how we should approach Arca’s work — some songs (“KLK (feat. ROSALÍA),” “Machote”) are club bangers, while others (“Afterwards (feat. Björk),” “Rip the Slit”) take time to sit with. But thankfully, we can count on Arca’s incredible visuals to help us process her work. “KiCk i” music videos are artistic accomplishments of their own, featuring demonic love interests and distorted self-images. Those self-images hit at the heart of “KiCk i,” which is undoubtedly a journey through learning more about Arca’s world, past and future.

City Girls’ “City on Lock” (2020) “City on Lock” combines Yung Miami and JT’s sass with wisdom and lyrical genius.

The result is some of the duo’s best music.

It’s certainly easy to identify “City on Lock” as a 36-minute run of party jams (or tracks to blast in your car while driving down the highway) but there’s something deeper here; the duo is vulnerable with its listeners, rapping about the artists’ pasts and their successes, all while enjoying the fruits of their labor. “Pussy Talk (feat. Doja Cat)” is an immediate highlight, a single that’s sexy, cocky and intimidating.

Taylor Swift’s “folklore” (2020) A perfect surprise drop for a quarantine summer, “folklore” is Swift’s best album — sorry, “Red” (2012) — and the prime example

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The covers of the best releases of the summer as selected by Arts Editor Christopher Panella are pictured. of why she’s one of the best songwriters in the game. The album’s focus on storytelling — characters, love triangles, longing, nostalgia, loss — makes it easy to get lost in. And the indie alternative vibe simultaneously feels like the perfect place for Swift and a foreign setting that she’s adventuring into. It all adds to make “folklore” an extremely versatile album — it’ll stand the test of seasons and settings.

Phoebe Bridgers’ “Punisher” (2020) At first, Bridgers’ intensely personal, descriptive and desperate world might seem off-putting. No other songwriter can hit you in the gut with such intensely personal stories and experiences. But despite feeling too specific to connect with, so many of these lines stick to your ribs after listening (like the absolute sobering “ICU” lyric, “I’ve been playing dead / My whole life / And I get this feeling / Whenever I feel good / It’ll be the last time) because their specificity is what makes them powerful — the connection is in the feeling rather than the experience. “Punisher” is a haunting body of work that might turn your world on its head or remind you how messy and dark the human experience is.

HAIM’s “Women in Music Pt. III” (2020) Oh, what a good album. “Women in Music Pt. III” is a foot-tapping, body-shaking experience; it’s a party that the Haim sisters decided to host, with instruments and cocktails and laughter. But these songs are stories, too — one-night stands, deeply lived in experiences, love, dreams, loneliness — and explore the lives of the three Haim sisters in equally deep measures. Each song could be considered a highlight, but “Up From A Dream,” “Gasoline,” “3 AM” and “Man from the Magazine” become earworms long after you’ve stopped listening. “Women in Music Pt. III” blends genres and plays with various

sounds to create a space of ultimate creativity where HAIM can do its best work.

Flo Milli’s “Ho, why is you here?” (2020) Flo Milli’s debut mixtape doesn’t necessarily show a rap star on the rise — singles like “Beef FloMix” and “Like That Bitch” have been smash hits across social media in dance challenges and fancams for a while now — but rather a rap star who knows her talent and is ready to take her place at the top echelon. “Ho, why is you here?” is a veracious, confident release that’s easy to listen to and perfect for summer walks and car rides. While Flo Milli’s lyrics are particularly genius (“Pussycat Doll” features some personal favorite lyrics), it’s her delivery that really hits hard.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Dedicated Side B” (2020) It’s pretty insane how easy it seems to be for Jepsen to craft songs (she’s got about 200 of them in a vault somewhere). And the fact of the matter is that she doesn’t have a bad one. But we can only relisten to her discography so much before we long for something new. Following “Dedicated” (2019) last summer, “Side B” comes just when we need it.

It’s refreshing bedroom pop that’s perfect for late night walks and silly singing in the mirror (“Summer Love” and “Fake Mona Lisa” immediately come to mind).

Charli XCX’s “how i’m feeling now” (2020) Made and released in Charli’s home studio during the early days of quarantine, “how i’m feeling now” feels worlds away by now, but it has aged well. It’s an album that feels incredibly fixed on that particular moment, but its longings for pre-shutdown life (parties, friends, no social distancing) still hit.

And while that’s partly due to the state of the world, it’s mostly thanks to Charli’s ability to

express her own personal experiences in a way that’s relatable and sharp. Sure, “how i’m feeling now” is a standout in Charli’s discography, but it still sounds familiar. These are club bops, meant to blast our eardrums and send shivers down our skins. Even in our tiny childhood bedrooms, that remains true.

Katy Perry’s “Smile” (2020) Despite being chock-full of songs that deserve to be hits, Perry’s new album is quite apologetic; it’s easy to hear how badly Perry wants to move past “Witness” (2017) and remind listeners of her previous successes.

Its themes of heartbreak, loss, fulfillment, love and confidence all combine to create cohesion and fun. And “Smile” barely slows down for its listeners while exploring plenty of sounds (disco, tropical pop, ‘80s synth, electropop) and featuring some of Perry’s strongest works (namely “Champagne Problems” and “Tucked”). It’s a palette cleanser that’s certain to set up a successful follow-up album.

The Chicks’ “Gaslighter” (2020) After 14 years, the recently renamed group hasn’t lost its spirit or spit. “Gaslighter” is a cohesive, country-pop album full of beautiful emotion (The Chicks have a lot to say about their pasts, relationships, men, love and pain) and gorgeous instrumentals. It’s certainly their most subtle album — gone are the days of “Goodbye Earl”— but songs like the title track and “Julianna Calm Down” still hit at the heart.

Chloe x Halle’s “Ungodly Hour” (2020) Wise beyond their years, the Bailey sisters managed to release a fantastic R&B album that plays well in just about any environment (backyards during summer afternoons, bedrooms with late night wine sipping, car rides through the city). “Ungodly Hour” features smart and sharp production, full of songs that can be replayed plenty of times. Even “Do It,” a highlight from the album that has been performed countless times throughout the summer, remains fresh thanks to its approachable sound, bright hook and Chloe and Halle’s stunning vocals and relatable lyrics.

Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica” (2020) On “Chromatica,” Mother Monster reminds us of the purposes of her art and the intentions of the captivating artist who makes them. This album is another world, a place Gaga travels to (and dances at) when she wants to process her pain, trauma, selfdoubt, fears and hopes. This album is Gaga’s journey to healing her traumas through dance music. On tracks like “Rain On Me,” “911” and “Replay,” the dancefloor is therapy, while tracks like “Free Woman” and “Babylon” celebrate Gaga’s ability to accept herself and party. And we’re there too — no other album this summer absolutely transported the listener to an unrecognizable place of salvation and understanding, a place where we can be whole again. Considering how lonely this summer has been, we need one-way tickets to “Chromatica” more than ever.

Arts departments adjust for COVID-19 MUSIC

continued from page 9 necessarily involve some of the really tricky musical and sonic challenges as some of the other courses involve … students are going to be leading the class presentations and discussion, but that can work through Zoom,” Lehman said.

However, in the case of Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Studies John McDonald’s two upper-level composition classes this fall, transitioning to Zoom has included a number of other difficulties.

“You can’t play ensemble music if someone is in a different location,” McDonald said, which is something that becomes an obstacle when, as McDonald puts it, “one of the things that’s important for composers is to hear their music performed.”

With restrictions put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two concert

series that McDonald had previously developed for composers to showcase their music, the Tufts Composers Concert Series and the New at Noon concerts, are now impossible.

Instead, McDonald is planning what he calls a Tufts Composers PractiCast as well as a few New at Noon concerts as a way to broadcast what the composers in his courses are writing.

Given the recent university announcement that the performance of all wind and brass instruments, as well as singing, will not be permitted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, these concerts will only include strings (orchestral and plucked), percussion and keyboard instruments, according to McDonald.

In addition to adapting to COVID-19 restrictions, McDonald is taking this opportunity to use these limitations as creatively as possible.

“I’ve been fond of talking about how composers thrive on limits, so this is a time of

crazy limitations, and limitations that you don’t expect,” McDonald explained.

Therefore, McDonald is using these limitations as a framework for some of his projects — ideas he’s been thinking about include antiphonal music (music performed with a wide space between players), asynchronous music, an unseen performer and humming projects as a way to use the bounds of COVID-19 as inspiration for new projects.

“I’m developing themes that kind of work for the time period, I suppose you could say,” McDonald said. “That’s how my mind has taken off creatively, and I love that. I love thinking it through.”

Because many of the new restrictions have caused the music department faculty to rethink their lesson plans this semester, both Lehman and McDonald stressed the importance of taking this opportunity to also create

a more inclusive curriculum with regard to anti-racist discourse.

“We can use at least some of this energy and turn it into making a more just curriculum too since we’re already revising everything that’s been on our minds,” Lehman said.

McDonald expressed a similar sentiment — that when it comes to adapting to the pandemic or to the issues of race representation, especially in academia, the only way is to keep going forward.

“We need to keep working on it constantly. Keep reinventing, keep refreshing, keep revitalizing, keep trying to understand what needs to be done and what can be done, so those two things — it could be the pandemic, and it could be the anti-racist curriculum, very different subjects, but a similar kind of thinking where you don’t go back. You’re not going to turn around,” McDonald said.

A&P A r t s & L iving

Tuesday, September 2020 | ARTS & POP CULTURE Tuesday,8, September 8, 2020 | Arts & Living| |THE THETUFTS TUFTS DAILY DAILY

11

From the Arts Editors: Our quarantine consumption Tufts Daily Arts Staff

AUTHORS HAVE DIFFERENT RANKS

To be more deliberate with my time and help diversify my literary world, I committed to only reading authors of color during my quarantine time and throughout 2020. I first read April Sinclair’s “Coffee Will Make You Black” (1994) and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (1965). Two very different books, but both so important to read. The first is a fictional story told from a young girl’s point of view as she examines colorism and her own femininity and sexuality. Malcolm X’s autobiography paralyzed me with the knowledge that I did not actually know anything about this crucial and complex man before, and I am so glad that I was able to really learn about him now. I journeyed from Malcolm X to James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” (1963), a perfect follow-up to the autobiography as Baldwin discusses Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam in this short nonfiction piece. Staying on the nonfiction side of things, I read “Between the World and Me” (2015), a striking and important letter written by a father to his son about holding on to his Black body. Ready for some fiction, I consumed “Kindred” (1979) by Octavia E. Butler and “A Mercy” (2008) by Toni Morrison both in a span of two days. Most recently, I have read “Girl, Woman, Other” (2019) by Bernardine Evaristo which was a simply stunning composition weaving together so many non-male Black lives and experiences into one complete and breathtaking story. Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere” (2017) is currently on my bedside table, along with “In the Castle of My Skin” (1953)

by George Lamming and “On Beauty” (2005) by Zadie Smith.

— Devina Bhalla At the beginning of quarantine, I created a list of films to watch in order to enrich my knowledge of cinema. I ended up watching one percent of the list and a lot of movies that weren’t on there, so I’m still nowhere near where I want to be. The movies I did get to watch for the first time (in order of how much I enjoyed them) were: “Apocalypse Now” (1979), “There Will Be Blood” (2007), “Clueless” (1995), “The Passenger” (1975), “Inception” (2010), “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), “As Good as It Gets” (1997), “Chinatown” (1974), “Frances Ha” (2013), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Joker” (2019), “Tootsie” (1982), “Drive” (2011), “Green Book” (2018), “Da 5 Bloods” (2020), “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008), “Mediterraneo” (1991), “History of the Word: Part I” (1981) and “Palm Springs” (2020). Yeah, I do realize I ranked “Clueless” above most of those classics.

I watched four TV shows in their entirety: “The Sopranos” (1999–2007), “The Wire” (2002–

BY SAM FARBMAN

2008), “What We Do in the Shadows” (2019–) and “BoJack Horseman” (2014–2020). “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” are undoubtedly in the top three shows of all time. I read one whole book, which seems pathetic until you consider that I’ve not read a single book for pleasure since Rick Riordan ruled the literary world. In a vacuum, it isn’t much, but, relatively, it’s honest work. (The book was “The Sirens of Titan” (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) I have been on a five-month musical hiatus because I am building up my ear functionality in anticipation of Kanye West’s forthcoming “Donda.” I Googled an image of “Starry Night” (1889) and that’s about it for art.

— Tuna Margalit This summer I consumed a lot of Netflix, but I’ve been told my taste in shows (“Outer Banks” (2020–), “The Vampire Diaries” (2009–2017), etc.) is not actually that good. So instead, I’ll talk about books.

Around June, I began Zadie Smith’s “Swing Time” (2016), a detailed account of growing up as a woman of color in the U.K. and coming of age in the time of the media, and I loved every sublimely composed chapter. After that, I picked up Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” (2011); I chose the author-read audio book, which made every joke that much more hilarious.

Then, as I began working for historical fiction author Greer Macallister, I had the opportunity to read her upcoming novel “The Arctic Fury” (expected late 2020), a unique story about a women-led expedition to the Arctic with a delectably twisty plot. A few days ago I finished “Expectation” (2019) by Anna Hope, a novel about life doling out the unexpected, which seemed relevant during a pandemic. And, of course, I have

to shout out my favorite podcast: “Girls Gotta Eat” (2018–).

It always manages to be shamelessly relatable, and I adore it for that.

— Elizabeth Sander After the personal, emotional chaos that came from going back and forth between “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” (2020) and “The Last of Us: Part II” (2020) this summer (two games that could not be more different if they tried), I found a lot of solace in replaying some games from my younger days, including the “Mass Effect” (2007–2017) trilogy, which, I was reminded, somehow boasts both an incredible, expansive story and some of the worst driving mechanics I’ve ever experienced. I watched all four seasons of “The Legend of Korra” (2012–2014) in an obscenely short amount of time after it dropped on Netflix, and I fell in love with the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” (2020) which was short, intimate and devastatingly beautiful. Daisy EdgarJones is a queen, and I definitely cried at the end. Thomas Middleditch and Benjamin Schwartz’s improv special on Netflix served up three fantastically funny shows, all improvised on the spot, and Hulu’s movie “Palm Springs” (2020) put a delightful new twist on the classic “Groundhog Day” (1993) formula. Beyond that, I found myself comfort-rewatching a LOT of “Parks and Recreation” (2009–2015) and “New Girl” (2011–2018), as though I wasn’t habitually rewatching those all the time already.

— Steph Hoechst A lot of music has been released since March, but Lady Gaga’s otherworldly album “Chromatica” (2020) remains on repeat. It’s an introspective

journey through trauma and healing, an album that’ll pound in post-pandemic nightclubs.

Personal biases toward Gaga aside, “Chromatica” is a standout thanks to how it uses the dancefloor as a setting for processing and discovering; these aren’t just fun pop songs to listen to on the weekly grocery store trips. Favorite tracks include “Alice,” “911,” “1000 Doves” and “Babylon” (but there are really no skips on the album, so any could be a favorite). Other music highlights include Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” (2020), Chloe X Halle’s “Ungodly Hour” (2020) and Taylor Swift’s “folklore” (2020).

Like every bored college student in their childhood bedroom, I loved rewatching “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2005–2008) and “The Legend of Korra” (2012–2014). Both are great shows, but “Korra” in particular deserves attention — it’s a deeply mature show that discusses politics, identities and healing. Quarantine film highlights include rewatching the Pokémon movies (including “Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai” (2007), the best Pokémon movie ever), the “Mission: Impossible” (1996–) films, “Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe” (2020), the perfect final season of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (2008–2020), “The Da Vinci Code” (2006) and “Angels & Demons” (2009).

“The Da Vinci Code” was pretty wacky, but “Angels & Demons” is actually incredible. Give the latter a watch — it’s got Ewan McGregor.

— Chris Panella Like many, I saw quarantine as an opportunity to bingewatch Netflix for 10 of my 14 waking hours. I tore through a few shows pretty quickly. Two of my favorites were “Shameless” (2011–), which was best enjoyed when sitting with my housemates, and “Community”

(2009–2015). I also rewatched some old favorites like “New Girl” (2011–2018) and “Gossip Girl” (2007–2012). Pretty quickly, however, I got tired and my eyes begged me to stop staring at the Netflix and TikTok screens and pick up a book. The first book I read was “Normal People” (2018) by Sally Rooney since I had heard so much of the hype around the show. I have yet to watch the show, but I cannot imagine how it could be much better than the book which was amazing. After the ensuing sadness of finishing such a wonderful book and wishing I could go back to before and have the chance to read it again, I picked up Sally Rooney’s debut novel, “Conversations with Friends” (2017), with the hope that it would be a fraction as good as “Normal People.” I was not disappointed. While the characters were a little bit older and the story different, the relationship Rooney creates between the reader and characters felt the same as in “Normal People.” I felt so connected to them that I felt everything from their happiness to heartbreak.

— Colette Smith When presented with a guilt-free opportunity to stay indoors and endlessly devour media, I jumped from medium to medium to catch up on everything I’d been too busy to check out. For TV shows I blew through “Tiger King” (2020) in under 48 hours and experienced a similar mix of horrified delight as the saga unfolded. I also dove headfirst into HBO’s “Doom Patrol” (2019–), a dark yet heartfelt look at a group of superhero-ish misfits and their adventures that range from zany to mind-bending insanity. My favorite books begin with Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell’s “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made” (2013), an emotional and hilarious behind-the-scenes look at Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” (2003), the so-called “worst movie ever made” through the eyes of Sestero, the film’s line producer and co-star. Much like “Tiger King,” the discomfort is high and matched only by the book’s cavalcade of humor to lighten an otherwise cringeworthy look at ego run amok on the part of writer, director and star Wiseau. My second favorite read was the DC Comics Inc. epic, “Doomsday Clock” (2017–2019) by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Frank.

The series chronicles a desperate attempt by a ragtag group of costumed characters as they journey to the world of DC to find “Watchmen” (1986–1987) lead Dr. Manhattan to avert a catastrophe on their world.

The series is tight and gripping, on account of Johns’ masterful storytelling, and beautifully realized in Frank’s dynamic art with special care given to the series’ cinematic-scale battles and beautiful covers.

— Drew Weisberg

12

THE TUFTS DAILY | F&G | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

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Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

15 Tuesday, September 8, 2020

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Class of 2024, welcome home Dear Class of 2024, On behalf of the entire Tufts Daily, I’d like to be one of many to officially welcome you to Tufts!

My name is Alex Viveros, and as is traditional of the Editor in Chief for the first issue of the year, I want to use this letter as an opportunity to introduce you to both The Tufts Daily as well as our school as a whole.

First and foremost, it’s important to recognize that your class is embarking on a journey unparalleled by any previous incoming class. I can imagine that the uncertainties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic may appear daunting when coupled with the traditional anxieties brought forth by beginning a new chapter in your life. With that being said, I want to assure you that your new family at Tufts is here to support you. We admire your persever-

ance, and no matter where in the world you’re joining us from, we’re excited to welcome you home.

You see, the unique spirit and thriving energy of Tufts is one that transcends borders and connects us as one, global community. Whether you’re on campus, remote or taking a leave of absence this semester, your voice and experiences will help shape the collective Tufts identity. As a student newspaper, it’s our job to give you a platform to share those stories. This summer, the Daily thought about what it means to be a Jumbo as we prepared for this semester. We decided to pioneer four special issues, which will be released monthly and reflect what we believe to be the core aspects of what makes Tufts, well, Tufts.

The first of our four special issues is “Welcome Back, Tufts,”

which you’re reading right now! In my experience, Tufts students are some of the most welcoming and kindhearted people you’ll ever get the chance to work with. This is a place where the collaborative energy of learning is valued, and with this issue, we want to give you an introduction to what collaboration at this school looks like in the form of our beloved paper.

Within the large Jumbo family, there are many individual communities that intermingle and contribute to Tufts’ collective identity. In our second special issue “Communities at Tufts,” we will highlight these spaces on campus, allowing our readers to share what makes Tufts a home for them.

As the smallest independent college newspaper in the country, the Daily recognizes how impactful every individual’s voice can be

in inspiring important change. As we approach the November election, we want to give the members of the Tufts community the chance to talk about the issues on the ballot that are significant to them. Our Election Guide will be released on Nov. 3.

The spirit of Tufts is perhaps captured most endearingly upon reflection at the end of the semester. As we prepare for finals, we have time to look back on all that we accomplished in a semester; the subjects we learned, the friends we made and the causes that we fought for. To cap off the Daily’s fall print run, we will be publishing a Winter Edition in December.

My biggest piece of advice to the Class of 2024 is to use your experience at Tufts to push yourself to try things you’d never expect to. As a Jumbo, you have

the unique opportunity to combine all of your different interests. Whether it be by joining a new club, taking a class outside of your major or reaching out to someone with a different life story than you, use our collective global space to transcend your limits. A senior gave me this advice during my first week at Tufts; following it led me to find both the work and the people I love at the Daily, and it led me to write this letter to you.

One day, one of you will be writing this letter, and I am excited to see what your class has in store.

To the Class of 2024, I wish you the best of luck. Your Tufts family is always here for you, and we welcome you to our light on the Hill.

Pax et Lux, Alex Viveros Editor in Chief, Fall 2020

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING BOARD

Let’s get to work

On behalf of The Tufts Daily, welcome back to the Hill. We know this is a time of unique challenges, but we know this semester will undoubtedly yield meaningful experiences as well.

As journalists, we are inspired by the advocacy and strength of our community. We watched and reported as you provided resources for those in need as campus closed, joined social justice movements and lifted each other up. With your example, we recognize our role: to inform and bring the Tufts community together through journalistic consistency and vital pursuit of the truth.

As the Managing Board worked tirelessly over the summer to ensure, we will continue providing informative, high-quality content to our readers in a safe manner. For the first time in our paper’s history, production this semester will take place in a mostly virtual format; we will print physical copies of our paper every Monday and publish online issues Tuesday through Friday. We will also publish a daily newsletter alongside our weekly newsletter, keeping our community consistently informed and connected. In addition to summarizing top news stories, our online newsletter will spotlight some

of our Tufts Daily staples, such as the Weekender. We are also excited to expand our paper’s breadth and depth through the development of monthly special issues and increased investment in our Education Committee and Intentionality & Inclusivity Committee.

The success of these initiatives hinges on the unity and safety of our staff. Acknowledging that virtual communication is preferred, we developed detailed reporting guidelines for in-person scenarios such as live events or interviews, written to ensure the safety of our staff and community. We are offering both virtual and in-person staff

meetings and remain committed to following Tufts’ COVID-19 guidelines. All writers — whether remote or in person — will and must have the opportunity to fully contribute to the Daily, and we are committed to making that opportunity a reality.

We affirm that these procedures come second to our staff’s comfort and safety, and we commit to ensuring a fulfilling reporting experience for all writers; this lies central to prioritizing wellness, connection and captivating reporting.

We enter this semester devoted to connection, awareness and advocacy in our Tufts community. Our content —

from arts to opinion, news to sports, features to audio and video too — will unequivocally serve these tenets in full.

We hope you sanitize your hands, pick up (or click on) a copy of the Daily and experience our journalistic dedication firsthand. Jumbos, we are so excited that you’re here. Let’s get to work.

Sincerely, Alex Viveros, Editor in Chief Hannah Harris, Managing Editor Rebecca Barker, Managing Editor Jake Freudberg, Associate Editor Jilly Rolnick, Associate Editor Kevin Zhang, Production Director Robert Kaplan, Business Director

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

tuftsdaily.com

EDITORIAL

Welcome back, Tufts Whether you are a returning student, new to Tufts, in-person or remote, welcome back, and welcome home. This semester will be a time of readjustment and uncertainty; we begin school against the backdrop of a pandemic and institutional change. It is evermore important that as a community, we remain united, resilient and critical of the world around us.

This fall The Tufts Daily remains committed to this mission, using our platform to cultivate conversations about issues impacting our community and spurring our administration to take action.

Over the past months, the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly spread across the globe, shutting down life as we knew it.

Last semester, we discussed the various challenges that

our community faced during this time, including increasing financial pressures, trouble securing housing and transportation, limited access to academic resources and feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

While Tufts’ extensive preparation for the fall addresses some of these problems, concerns persist. Remote students may struggle with meeting deadlines, collaborating with in-person students and accessing the same class materials.

While we commend Tufts’ recent decisions to allow students to transfer credit from community colleges and select the exceptional pass/fail option for fall 2020 courses, our work this semester will focus on ensuring that Tufts faculty unequivocally give remote students the same quality of edu-

cation and resources as their in-person peers.

In reviewing Tufts’ decision to return to campus this fall, we applaud the university for taking measures to limit the spread of the virus while preserving a Tufts-standard education; however, we must not let our in-person aspirations stand in the way of an honest, critical evaluation of health risks. By the same token, it is crucial that we are diligent in wearing face masks and social distancing in all public spaces in order to protect the Tufts and MedfordSomerville communities.

The pandemic also highlighted pervasive racial disparities that exist in our world.

Following the deaths of George Floyd and many other unarmed Black individuals, millions engaged in protest and stood

EDITORIAL CARTOON

BY ANNABEL NIED

with the Black Lives Matter movement, demanding an end to police brutality. Tufts itself has been the site of multiple incidents of racism and discrimination, a history that it must work to actively address.

In the fall and beyond, the Daily is committed to continuing these difficult discussions about racial injustice, listening to and elevating the voices of marginalized groups and advocating for justice-centered institutional and cultural change at Tufts.

When reflecting on social injustice on our campus, it is also necessary to reexamine the role of Greek life at Tufts. While the university made changes to address students’ concerns including system remodeling to promote inclusivity, implementation of a Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force and the

Tufts Panhellenic Council’s suspension of fall 2020 recruitment, many argue that there remains much work to be done.

As we return to campus, it is important that we reflect on the role that Greek life plays at Tufts and hold organizations accountable for sexual assault and racial, financial or gender-based exclusivity.

As we enter this fall, we face myriad challenges — COVID19, the persistence of systemic racism and violence against Black Americans, a daunting presidential election, among many others — but we also face a unique opportunity to take action. In the midst of darkness, we hope that the Daily’s editorial board can be a light of guidance in shaping Tufts to be a more healthy, inclusive and just community.

O p inion

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

17

OP-ED

An alumna’s call to burn Greek life to the ground LAUREN BORDER Editor’s note: This op-ed was originally published online on Aug. 9.

Content warning: This article mentions sexual violence and exclusion based on racial, sexual and gender identity.

Over eight years ago, I wrote an op-ed in the Daily, arguing that Greek life and its gendered hazing practices were toxic to the Tufts community and inherently anti-feminist.

I described how I wore a shirt to Spring Fling with “Kappa Kappa Gamma” plastered on the front — a sorority that does not exist at Tufts — to satirize the role of Greek life, urging students to forgo the pledging process and pursue activities that better reflect Tufts’ values.

The backlash against my article was swift and severe.

I woke up to dozens of Facebook friend requests from members of Greek life, which, according to a sorority member, was a coordinated intimidation effort. The comments section of my op-ed looked like it could have been pulled from the movie “Mean Girls.”

I didn’t attend the next Spring Fling concert after my friends

heard members of Greek life threaten my physical safety.

My analysis at the time, and reply to my critics, did not wade into other intersectional issues it could have.

Fortunately, events and discourse at Tufts since my writings in 2012 have exposed the transphobic, homophobic, classist and racist underpinnings of Greek life. In 2016, the national Alpha Omicron Pi sorority balked at the idea of a transgender woman joining the Tufts chapter. That same year, a queer student at Tufts detailed a hazing incident where they were forced to watch other students perform oral sex on two women. Most recently, even students affiliated with Greek life have called for its abolishment. The conversation outside Tufts has followed suit: Feminist icon Jessica Valenti has advocated for the end of Greek organizations since they “perpetuate gendered and racialized power dynamics that open doors for the most privileged, while marginalizing everyone else.” And in 2018, a piece in The Atlantic characterized fraternities as legal gangs — organizations that are equally violent and dangerous to women, but are normalized

due to their overwhelming privilege and whiteness.

On July 29, the Tufts Panhellenic Council decided to suspend fall recruitment to “decide what the best course of action is for Greek Life at Tufts.”

This is not a new response — recruitment was also suspended for the spring 2017 semester in the wake of the 2016 controversies. So let me unequivocally say what I wouldn’t — or couldn’t — almost 10 years ago: It’s time that Tufts act in accordance with its purported social justice values by abolishing Greek life.

At the time it was published, I was surprised that my op-ed (though admittedly inflammatory) received such a hostile reaction. I was naïve to think my article was simply stating the obvious: that Greek life is problematic. In 2020, that fact seems less controversial, and finally, perhaps, even obvious.

The backlash my article received almost a decade ago showed that although I had hit a topic ripe for review, the social climate hadn’t progressed far enough.

No one was ready to implement changes to the Greek system, let alone abolish it.

But we now find ourselves in a radically different socio-

political atmosphere.

To attempt to summarize the events of 2020 here would be a Sisyphean task. What is clear, though, is that if Tufts does not take this opportunity to end Greek life, as conversations about institutions that privilege the wealthy and white and oppress Black, Indigenous and people of color are arguably at historic highs, its insidious effects will remain intact for years to come.

Tufts seems to have more strictly enforced its code of conduct in recent years, resulting in the suspension or permanent removal of many of the Greek life chapters that were around when I was a student. Although addressing issues with Greek life piecemeal may be easier public relations, especially given concerns about Greek-affiliated alumni donations and loyalty, it is not a solution. Individual chapters are not the issue; the problem is systemic and incapable of repair.

And Tufts is in a unique position to tackle this systemic problem head-on by categorically abolishing all Greek life organizations: The majority of students are not Greekaffiliated. Tufts has long prided

itself on its emphasis on inclusion and social justice. Davis Square and Boston provide social outlets that don’t exist for schools within the NESCAC in more remote locations that have already abolished Greek life, such as Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Connecticut College, Middlebury and Williams. To say that abolishing Greek life at Tufts is unrealistic is to willfully put one’s head in the sand.

The Greek life system is irreparably broken. But Tufts can be on the right side of history and serve as the beacon of social justice we all desperately need now. Dismantle Greek life on campus. Abolish it. Tufts owes this to its students of color who are burdened by the university’s decision to allow racist organizations to play a role on campus. Tufts owes this to the many students raped at fraternities. Tufts owes this to its LGBTQ folk, to its students who are excluded because they can’t afford to pay membership dues. Burn it down. End it. And watch a more equitable social system arise in its absence.

Lauren Border is an alumna from the Class of 2013 and graduate of Stanford Law School. Lauren can be reached at laurenborder1@ gmail.com.

OP-ED

Greek life was my safe space. Don’t burn it to the ground.

RON FISHER Editor’s note: This op-ed was originally published online on Aug. 20.

On Aug. 9, Lauren Border, an alumna from the Class of 2013, penned, “Op-Ed: An alumna’s call to burn Greek life to the ground,” detailing horrible offenses committed by the Greek community. Fully acknowledging her grievances, I admit that many of these organizations must transform.

However, I take issue with the portrayal of these grievances as representative of the Greek community at large, and, with the inaccurate and incomplete characterization of its members. The Greek community has also had an immensely positive impact on members of the very communities she claims it has harmed. While I agree during this period of unprecedented social strife, it is appropriate to reflect and critically evaluate all institutions we hold dear, doing away with the Greek system is not the answer to creating a more inclusive campus.

As a fellow alumnus, an LGBTQ member and a former fraternity brother, I am compelled to offer a different perspective from Lauren’s narrative about Greek life at Tufts. Fifteen years ago, before gay marriage in the U.S. was remotely conceivable, before

LGBTQ representation became commonplace in the media, and at a time when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was still “normal,” I was a closeted young boy trying to figure out who I was. I was a sophomore in Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), living in the fraternity house, and I had taken on the responsibility of rush chair. I had no gay friends, few gay role models to show me the way, and a family that I was not sure could ever accept a gay son. To be quite honest, I was scared — terrified really — and had no one to turn to.

Once I made the decision to come out of the closet, I knew there was no turning back. I feared the worst for how my actual family would take it, let alone my college family. The brothers were still using phrases like “that’s so gay” and on rare occasion would throw around the F-word, so I did not have reason to expect they would understand. In sheer anxiety I made mental arrangements to pack up my bags and move to Wilson House assuming my friends would all turn their back on me. One by one, I revealed my truth to my closest brothers until I felt I had told enough people that word would spread to the rest of the brotherhood.

They would finally know that I wasn’t like them and I was not who I had represented myself to be when I joined the fraternity.

Their reaction ranged from …

non-reactions (“so what?”) to outright hugs filled with love and acceptance.

Fast forward to our final brotherhood meeting where I had to face all my brothers fully out of the closet. There, many of the brothers thanked me for being courageous with them. Their language had evolved. They no longer used pejorative gay terminology, and they were ensuring people outside of the fraternity did the same.

All of this said, I must also acknowledge my own privilege at the time — being a white cisgender male who could hide his identity to fit in.

Many members of historically marginalized communities do not have the ability to conceal who they are, and they should not have to. This means that the opportunity here is to use the institutions of fraternities and sororities as another tool to further society’s embrace of those who have been traditionally excluded. While perhaps more difficult than simply “burning it all to the ground,” going “through the fire” of growth and transformation is more meaningful because it will force these institutions, and their members, to undergo self-reflection, rather than continuing to polarize the privileged from the marginalized.

In this age of division, we don’t need more vilification, we need

more acceptance and integration. By joining a group that unexpectedly accepted me, I gained brothers who learned how good it feels to embody greater empathy toward other identities that they may not yet understand.

As a young gay Jewish man, AEPi, a Jewish fraternity, was my “safe space.” Our community, one primarily composed of Jewish people, which also included non-Jewish individuals of varying races and religions, was a community that protected me, and stood by me for the person I truly was (and it continues to stand by me, to this day). While my fraternity no longer exists on campus due to decisions made long after I was gone, I can tell you firsthand how a fraternity can rise above stereotypes to become a haven that drives forward the empowerment of those who are different.

To mischaracterize fraternities as “homophobic” and to say “Tufts owes this to LGBTQ folks” is to dismiss experiences like my own. I am not here to say that fraternities and sororities do not have any sexist or racist issues that must be taken seriously. However, what I can say, with full conviction, is that Greek organizations have been, and can continue to be, a mechanism for all different kinds of people to be loved and included within

a community generally perceived to be exclusionary. This is the type of bridge building we need to model for society at large — demolishing stereotypes and transforming what is perceived to be possible.

Instead of abolishing the organizations that I have personally seen create lasting and meaningful connections between distinct peoples, let us find a way to remove the barriers and lift the burdens for those who are not able to participate in these types of experiences. More specifically, Greek organizations can offer scholarship opportunities for students in financial need to support their dues, they can create positions within executive leadership for community outreach to help build relationships with a diverse mix of students to attend rush events, and lastly, they can assist in establishing majority minority fraternities or sororities on Tufts’ campus with their own houses that are also open to any who choose to rush. These are just some of the many ways Tufts fraternities and sororities can work together as a community to reconstitute the system to better serve those who have been marginalized by it historically.

Ron Fisher is an alumnus from the Class of 2008. Ron can be reached at ron@rondovfisher. com.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

tuftsdaily.com

NESCAC athlete paved way to the NBA NBA

continued from page 20 shooter, and I know he went off against us.”

When Tufts faced Williams at an away game on Feb. 8, 2014, the first-year Robinson had a commanding presence on the court — 25 points on 9–12 shooting to pair with 10 rebounds and six assists. The Jumbos hung with the Ephs through the maiden 15 of the first half, the score sitting at 23–23 with five left to play.

Then, Robinson flew off a screen and splashed a shot from behind the arch, plus a foul. Williams went on to run away with the contest 93–70.

“He’s the best shooter I’ve ever played against,” Haladyna said.

Right away, it was clear that the first-year from New England had elite potential. Sheldon, who’s held the position for 32 years, reflected on the impact Robinson had on the Ephs.

“It’s not common at all to see first-years like Robinson,” Sheldon said. “You see good freshmen who can play, but not ones who are gonna lead your team. Duncan was their leader, that’s special and does not happen pretty much at all. That’s a chemistry thing, that’s a maturity thing. We’ve had good freshmen in the past, freshmen of the year and all those things, but none of them did what Duncan did.”

The Feb. 8 loss against Williams came in what Tufts coach Bob Sheldon deemed a “transitional year for the program.” That season, the Jumbos were missing the previous year’s NESCAC rookie of the year, Tom Palleschi (LA’17), due to heart surgery. The team finished 13–12,

down from a 17–9 finish during the 2012–13 season. The team managed back-to-back victories over Colby and Bowdoin and went into the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament, where they once again went face-toface with Williams.

But Robinson would not be the one to beat them this time.

“We put a bigger guy on him and told him to stay right with him,” Sheldon said. “Whenever he got the ball we were all over him. We knew he was going to make shots but only difficult shots, we didn’t want to give him any open looks. We tried to push him around and get physical with him because we didn’t want to give him any open looks.”

Then-sophomore Haladyna was sometimes tasked with the assignment.

“We have one guy face guard completely, and not give any help defense off of him,” Haladyna said. “Basically in his face at all times to tire him out. That’s the other thing about Duncan is that he moves so well without the ball, you see it now for the Miami Heat. He’s constantly moving on offense.”

The Jumbos hung tough with the 22–3 Ephs, even leading by four with over a minute to play in regulation, but flash forward to 11 seconds on the clock and they found themselves down one at 66–67. Then-senior guard Kwame Firempong (LA’14) was fouled with three seconds remaining and sank one of two from the stripe to send the game into overtime.

“The pressure wasn’t on us, it was on the team that was favored to win the game like they were,” Haladyna said. “We knew as long

as the game was close towards the end we would have a chance.”

Entering the overtime session, Sheldon’s scheme held the talented Robinson to just eight points on 3–11 shooting from the field, but his layup with 87 seconds left put Williams up eight and effectively iced Tufts’ season.

“We held him to 10 and I’ve actually mentioned that to him several times,” Sheldon said.

This would be Robinson’s lowest tally for the remainder of the season, including a 30 point outburst in the NCAA Div. III semifinals against rivals Amherst.

For the Jumbos, securing a late-season near-victory over the second best team in the nation validated Sheldon’s tactical nous and provided needed momentum to build up for the program.

With the returning Palleschi and fortified by the growth of 2013–14 first-year Hunter Sabety, the Jumbos blossomed during the 2015–16 season. A 23–7 season was capped off with a narrow loss in the NCAA Div. III quarterfinals to rivals Amherst and cemented that the program was back on track to succeed.

For Robinson, the 2015–16 season would mark Robinson’s first in Div. I basketball. According to Sheldon, Williams coach Maker connected with John Beilien, the then coach of Michigan, sending him Robinson’s first-year highlight reel.

“Rumor has it that Beilien watched the tape and called him up on the spot,” Sheldon said. “I think the Div. I people [initially] passed on him a little bit because of his body. When he was at Exeter he was skinny, even when he was at Williams he was thin. I think the best thing

he ever did for himself was take that year off and work with his strength coach.”

After red-shirting a year to gain necessary strength to compete at the Div. I level, Robinson became a starter during the 2015–16 Michigan season and never looked back. He was named the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year for the 2017–18 season, a year in which they rode a string of late season form all the way to the national championship game (where they lost to Villanova University).

It also gives Robinson the distinct accomplishment of becoming the only individual to play in both the Div. I and Div. III national championship games.

“It was incredible, I loved the experience,” Robinson said during a press conference regarding his Div. III Final Four experience, prior to his Div. I go-around.

“In the moment it’s everything. In the same way that this is everything to us, that was everything to me back then. The level obviously in the national eye is different, but when you put in the hours with your teammates and you practice for 12 months out of the year, it means just the same. Level, that stuff, it doesn’t really matter.”

Undrafted following his senior season, Robinson was scooped up by the Miami Heat and sent to their G-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He succeeded in Miami’s developmental pipeline that has churned out talents like Hassan Whiteside, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder and others into capable rotation players.

Robinson was called up to the NBA team by the end of the 2018–19 season and in doing so,

became just the fifth former Div. III player and first NESCAC player in NBA history.

“It’ s a little fluky, but not stupid fluky,” Sheldon said. “There are guys in NESCAC every year who play in Europe. [Former Tufts guard] Vinny Pace (LA’18) played in Malta, their team won, and he was actually MVP of the [championship series], and he made a little bit of money. There are pros coming out of NESCAC, but not NBA [players].”

Just as he always did, Robinson has made his mark in the NBA behind the arch. He shot 45% from deep last season in a roll à la Atlanta Hawks’ Kyle Korver, the same percentage he shot as a redshirt sophomore at Michigan.

Robinson making his mark at Williams will have an indelible effect on the future of NESCAC basketball. Sheldon cited a positive uptick in recruiting gained from notoriety of Robinson’s success. NESCAC players are emboldened to seek out Div. I pastures while at a NESCAC school, such as former Tufts center Hunter Sabety (transferred to Hofstra University) and recent Wesleyan point guard Austin Hutcherson (transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

“Guys can see there’s a very high level of talent playing in the NESCAC,” Haladyna said. “A lot of guys that play for us can play for low Div. I colleges in the area, just to come to Tufts and NESCAC schools like Williams, you get the high academics and the high-level basketball play.”

Robinson cited a move to Michigan over other schools due to Michigan’s academics. He’s laid the road-map for Div. III success: Will anyone follow in his footsteps?

Sports

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Fitness facilities to be restricted on campus

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center is pictured on Aug. 28.

Executive Sports Editor

In the midst of the Tufts COVID-19 reopening plan, the university has placed restrictions and regulations on many facilities on campus. Included among these restrictions are the athletic facilities and fields, where social distancing protocols will be placed in order to curb the traffic flow and limit the number of students and faculty that seek to use these mutual spaces. The gym will be open only to students and faculty that have opted for “in-person” or engaged in the COVID-19 testing protocol, but the process for using the gym will be different during the fall.

There will be a limit on the number of students allowed to use the gym at the same time along with other physical distancing arrangements.

Similar to dining reservations made at Dewick-MacPhie and Carmichael dining centers, there will also be a reservation process in order to access the gym.

Additionally, there will be a time limit of approximately 40 minutes that will be placed on students and faculty reserving spaces in the gym. These reservations can be made a week in advance to schedule use of specific equipment in the gym including “treadmills, upright and recumbent bikes, ellipticals, arc trainers, stretch/ab mats, one stair master, dual pulley cable machine, hammer racks and bench” while other equipment such as “dumbbells, rollers, ropes, bands, and belts” will be unavailable for use.

Equipment will be spaced farther apart, and other areas of the gym will be closed off entirely. The gap in reservation times will allow for proper disinfection protocols in

between use, and the Tufts custodial staff will also circulate the facility to disinfect the spaces several times during the day. Like all other areas on campus, masks will be required to use the facility, and those using the equipment will be asked to sanitize after use.

Water fountains will be closed off and people using the facility are encouraged to bring their own water. The fall campus guide released during the summer states that the gym will now have signs and floor markings that will aid in directing people within the facility.

Other areas of the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center such as the Gantcher Center, Cousens Gymnasium, Chase Intramural Gymnasium and the Squash Center will not be open for general use. The tentative hours of operation and guidelines regarding fitness center use can be

accessed on the facilities page on the gotuftsjumbos.com website. Outdoor fields and recreation spaces will also be available for student use with proper safety precautions. Currently, the Ellis Oval outdoor track, Vouté tennis courts and Triangle Park are among the recreational spaces open to use if following physical distancing and other local guidelines.

“We are planning to open the Tisch Sports and Fitness Center this fall using a new reservation system and following all state and University issued guidelines,” Assistant Athletic Director Matt Malone wrote in an email to the Daily. “We will be updating the facilities’ page on GoTuftsJumbos.com this week with additional information on how the fitness center will operate, as well as the reservation system and the extra precautions that have been put in place.”

Varsity sports, club sports and intramural sports have all been suspended for the fall semester. However, the athletics department and the Office for Campus Life are creating non-contact and esport programs for students to participate in during the semester.

Additional resources are located on the “COVID-19 Fitness & Wellness Resources” page on the athletics website, where students can find at-home fitness videos made by Tufts strength and conditioning coaches and the Tufts sports medicine staff along with other free fitness resources.

Reservations are currently closed but will open to schedule in the coming weeks. According to general information listed on the athletics website, the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness center is expected to open on Sept. 15.

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Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Duncan Robinson: From the NESCAC to the NBA bubble

by Jeremy Goldstein Sports Editor

Forget the “one-and-done” stereotype so typical when imagining the path talented teenagers take from high school to the NBA. The Eastern Conference semifinals matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat should aid in dismissing such conceptions.

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, a lanky teenager at 18 playing in the Greek second division, was plucked with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft, standing at 6 feet, 8 inches. He now stands 6 feet, 11 inches and is the presumable favorite for a second consecutive MVP award.

Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler went from homeless in Tomball, Texas to junior college just outside of Dallas. It was only after impressing there did he get a shot at Marquette University, a Big Ten school located in Milwaukee, of all places.

Bucks forward Pat Connaughton and Heat forward

Duncan Robinson were just one year apart on their local Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, the Middlesex Magic. Connaughton, the superior athlete who received numerous Div. I offers in both basketball and baseball, opted to play both sports at the University of Notre Dame after weeks of deliberating between options.

Robinson opted to transfer to Phillips Exeter Academy after graduating high school, still searching for an elusive basketball sponsorship. According to Tufts basketball coach Bob Sheldon, when it didn’t come, he was left with two NESCAC choices in the fall of 2012: Williams or Tufts. Sheldon said that Duncan chose to attend Williams after its coach, Mike Maker, put the squeeze on him to sign.

Six summers later, Connaughton and Robinson would work out together in the Tufts University practice gym with their former AAU coach Michael Crotty, according to Sheldon. Connaughton was a Portland Trail Blazer

and Robinson had just graduated from the University of Michigan.

Steve Haladyna (LA’16), a former guard for the Jumbos, is used to playing with and against talented players. At St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass., he played alongside Connaughton, winning the 2011 state championship. Along the way, the duo squared off against future All-NBA forward and center Anthony Davis, upsetting his Perspectives Charter School team from Chicago.

He also had the dubious task of guarding Duncan Robinson when Tufts faced Williams in 2014.

“He was 6’6″, pretty skinny, no more than 200 pounds,” Haladyna said of Robinson. “He was tall, but they had a lot of talent around him. You want to crowd a shooter like that, not give him any open looks early, have a guy attached to him. I remember the first time we played him we kind of thought of him just as a see NBA, page 18

ALL-PRO REELS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson is pictured on March 8.

NESCAC who’s who – fall 2020

by Alex Sharp and Alex Viveros

Assistant Arts Editor, Editor in Chief

Amherst Located in western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, Amherst College was founded in 1821. Amherst has been a Div. III athletics powerhouse in recent years, winning 11 NCAA team championships in the past 10 years. Amherst’s greatest rival in the NESCAC is Williams College, perhaps because Amherst was founded when the president of Williams attempted to relocate the college. The Amherst vs. Williams football game began in 1884 and is referred to as the “Biggest Little Game in America.”

Bates Bates College is located in Lewiston, Maine. The Bobcats’ greatest athletic flex might be the Olympic medals won by alumnus Andrew Byrnes, who was a member of the Canadian Olympic rowing team that took gold in Beijing in 2008 and silver in London in 2012.

Byrnes’ success demonstrates a strong rowing tradition at Bates. The women’s rowing team at Bates is currently in the midst of a mini dynasty, winning national championships in four of the past five years.

Bowdoin Bowdoin College is located in Brunswick, Maine. Bowdoin’s northern coastal location allows for the survival of its Polar Bear mascot, a species usually only found in the Arctic. Bowdoin teams were often found in the basement of the NESCAC standings this past year. The Tufts football team defeated Bowdoin 49–0 on Homecoming weekend. As if the Polar Bears didn’t have enough to worry about with climate change…

Colby The White Mules from Colby College got their nickname in 1923 when an editor for the student paper noted that as a result of the football team’s success, the team could no longer be referred to as a dark horse.

Colby is located in Waterville, Maine. It would be wise not to ask any White Mules about last year’s NESCAC men’s basketball championship game. The incoming first-year class ranks top-20 for men’s tennis, second in program history.

Connecticut College Connecticut College, the “youngest” in the NESCAC, was founded in 1911 as the Connecticut College for Women. Nearly six decades later, in 1969, the school began admitting men. That same year Mike Shinault, a former Navy officer, volunteered to coach the new men’s basketball team. The players on the team wanted a mascot, and Shinault recalled a team he had seen while serving in Pakistan called the Camels — and the nickname stuck. The Connecticut College campus resides in New London, Conn.

Hamilton Na m e d after f a m e d founding father and pop culture superstar Alexander Hamilton, who was on the school’s inaugural board of trustees, Hamilton College is the only school in the NESCAC not located in New England. For the Jumbos, competing with the Continentals means enduring long travel times, as it takes around four and a half hours to travel to their home in Clinton, N.Y. Over the years, the Continentals have handed the Jumbos a few upset defeats, however they have not won a NESCAC championship since men’s golf in 2003.

Middlebury In recent years, Middlebury College has emerged as a NESCAC powerhouse. Last fall, the Panthers shocked the rest of the conference as their football team went on a NESCAC-leading 9–0 run. Over the past decade, the school located in Middlebury, Vt.

has shown arguably the most dominance in field hockey, where it holds the last three consecutive NESCAC championships and NCAA championships.

Trinity Located in Hartford, Conn., Trinity College has historically wreaked havoc on the rest of the conference on the football field. With five 8–0 seasons, Trinity still holds the record for the most undefeated football seasons out of any team in the NESCAC. Last fall, the Jumbos made history as they upset the Bantam football team in a monumental 14–8 win, breaking a nearly 12-year losing streak. Arguably, Trinity’s strongest sport is squash, where both the men’s and women’s teams have won every conference championship since 2007.

Wesleyan Wesleyan University was founded in 1831 and is located in Middletown, Conn. The school that produced such talents as “Hamilton” (2015) playwright Lin Manuel Miranda also boasts an impressive corps of talent on its athletic fields.

Known colloquially as one of the “Little Three” alongside Williams and Amherst — a reference to the Ivy League’s “Big Three” — Wesleyan boasts some of the biggest challenges in its men’s lacrosse and women’s tennis teams.

Williams Named after founder Ephraim Williams, the Williams College Ephs are among some of the fiercest competitors in the NESCAC. Locked into a 199-yearold rivalry with the Amherst Mammoths, the Ephs have long been competing for top spots in the NESCAC as a staple of Div. III sports. In the 2018–19 academic year, the Ephs won their 22nd Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup award, which is annually presented to the school that earns the most cumulative success in Div. III competition. The award has been in place for 24 years. With an undergraduate population of 2,073 — of which 33% compete in varsity sports — the competitive drive at Williams is reverberated throughout New England.