Medford City Council begins reviewing new charter proposals
Josué Pérez Deputy News Editor
On Dec. 16, 2024, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced that her office sent an updated draft of a new city charter to the Medford City Council. The Medford Charter Study Committee — established in December 2022 — reviewed and made recommendations for a new city charter in a nearly twoyear process. The charter has not been changed since the 1980s.
Proposed changes to the charter include ward representation for the school committee and the city council, the addition of city councilors, term limits for the mayor and an extension of mayoral terms from two years to four years.
Residents have been advocating for charter review since 2014. The city council failed to approve a charter study once in 2016 and twice in 2020. Lungo-Koehn was approached by the Medford Charter Review Coalition, which included Milva McDonald, to begin a charter study committee.
“When I ran for mayor in 2019, I made it a point of my campaign to say that we definitely need to review and update our charter,” Lungo-Koehn said. “At this point, it’s over 40 years old, and it’s two pages — definitely not adequate for a city of this size.”
McDonald, chair of the Medford Charter Review Committee, explained how the committee came up with several of their proposals.
“We had a survey we put out to the whole city, and we got back between 600 and 700 responses, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but statistically, it’s pretty good. And we also had listening sessions around the city,” she said.
The review committee, the mayor and the city council also partnered with the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
After Lungo-Koehn’s own review of the Medford Study Committee’s initial draft, the Collins Center provided additional evaluation to remove any discrepancies.
“They do this work all over the state. They know what should and should not be in a charter,” Lungo-Koehn said.
City Council President Isaac “Zac” Bears explained the process of reviewing the proposed charter in city council, “Once the Governance Committee of the Council is finished with that, they’ll recommend an amended version of the charter draft to the full council. The full council will have a final vote on that, and could amend it further at that point…” he said. “I expect some changes, tweaks and adjustments from the Council.”
Somerville discusses progress on clean energy initiatives in meeting
Editor
The Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change held a meeting to discuss progress on school decarbonization, youth climate engagement and advancements in renewable energy accessibility for the community, on Jan. 7.
The efforts to transition Somerville schools to clean energy were championed by the Somerville Educators Union as well as other local coalitions including the Green New Deal for Somerville Public Schools, Somerville Carbon Free and Healthy Schools Coalition, 350 Mass, Somerville Mothers Out Front and Climate Resilient Schools Coalition.
“The city has provided no concrete plan or timeline for how or when they will reduce carbon emissions from school buildings,” the local educators groups collectively stated in a 2024 presentation to the council.
Christine Blais, director of the Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment, updated the council on steps the council has taken towards school decarbonization, which were first announced in a June 2024 memo.
Somerville is rewriting their Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change’s ordinance, adding a Somerville Public School representative to the commission.
“We’re hoping to have a [Somerville Public Schools] member on this commission, so hopefully that will provide more connectivity,” Blais said.
The Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment’s “Climate Forward” community climate action plan provides a roadmap for achieving goals including a 50% reduction in emissions in Somerville municipal and school buildings by 2030.
Blais said one of the initiatives is an Office of Sustainability and
Mayor Ballantyne celebrates work in State of the City address
Grayton Goldsmith News Editor
Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne delivered a State of the City address on Jan. 6, reflecting on accomplishments and challenges facing the city in the last year.
Ballantyne reviewed Somerville’s work towards mitigating what she called one of the city’s greatest challenges: a lack of affordable housing. Somerville’s affordable housing initiatives include a guaranteed basic income pilot program that provides $750 to 200 qualified families monthly.
“We have distributed over $9.5 million in flexible and rental assistance, helping more than 400 households stay housed. Our new Municipal Voucher Program is also breaking new ground. It provides deep rental subsidies and has moved 29 families from uncertainty to safe permanent housing,” she said.
Ballantyne also noted Somerville’s goal of using zoning to create over 12,000 affordable housing units by 2030, as outlined in Somerville’s Strategic Plan.
“As we enter 2025, we are on track not just to meet this goal but surpass it. … Our transformative plans for Brickbottom and Assembly Square neighborhoods could add another 1,200 affordable housing units,” Ballantyne said.
Ballantyne celebrated the city’s work to add new positions to the public schools in the 2025 fiscal year. She also highlighted the work made to expand after-school programs and expand the summer jobs program.
“In our fiscal year 2025 budget, we added over 35 net full-time equivalent positions to Somerville public schools. But investing in youth doesn’t stop at the classroom,” she said. “My administration has invested heavily in expanded after-school programs in new youth opportunities.”
When addressing public safety, Ballantyne mentioned Somerville’s ‘holistic’ approach to addressing the root causes of homelessness in Davis Square and East Somerville over the last year and acknowledged the partnership with the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
“In 2025, we’ll be taking on senior homelessness with our Older
Adults Bridge Program thanks to a state earmark from Sen. Pat Jehlen. This pilot program allows the Office of Housing Stability to intervene with financial and Social Services to keep low-income seniors from experiencing homelessness while they are waitlisted for subsidized housing,” she announced.
Ballantyne celebrated the appointment of Shumeane Benford, Somerville’s new chief of police.
“Our shared philosophy is that effective public safety isn’t focused on reacting after the fact — it’s focused on building trust, fostering collaboration and preventing issues before they rise,” she said.
Ballantyne also announced that a new fire station will open this spring in Assembly Square, Somerville’s first new station in over one hundred years. She also shared news about upcoming recommendations from municipal working groups.
“I am proud to share that this month we will release the recommendations from our public safety [department] for All Civilian Oversight and anti-violence working groups,” Ballantyne announced. “These reflect years of thoughtful collaborative work by task force
members, a mix of dedicated residents, city employees, elected officials and experts in public safety to drive the work forward. We are hosting a community event in February and we’ll be hiring [someone] for All Project Manager to advance the path laid out in these plans.”
Ballantyne shared the work that the city has done to improve services for immigrants and non-native English speakers.
“Recent U.S. Census Data shows almost 25% of our residents are immigrants, so I have empowered our SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs to lead citywide efforts to welcome and support immigrants and non-native English speakers.”
She noted that translation services have doubled community meeting participation in some areas and that in 2025, Somerville will launch a citywide public interpretation line for residents to access support services in their native language.
“When it comes to our immigrant residents we’re ramping up ‘know your rights’ trainings and legal support access including the grim work of helping parents and guardians create plans for the care
of their children should they themselves be deported,” she said.
Ballantyne acknowledged the results of the 2024 election at the beginning of her address, later offering a more hopeful message about the work done on a local level.
“I spoke about the threats from a change in Washington D.C. and about the growing narrative that diversity, equity and inclusion are outdated and that government has no role in making our lives better. Our work proves otherwise. When equity for people guides local action, progress for all follows.”
KAITLYN WELLS / THE TUFTS DAILY Medford City Hall is pictured on Oct. 19, 2024.
Anika Parr Assistant News
KUNAL BOTLA / THE TUFTS DAILY Somerville City Hall is pictured on Nov. 11, 2024.
Arghya
Medford considers mayoral term limits
CHARTER continued from the front
Bears and Lungo-Koehn both said that they were grateful for the work the Charter Study Committee did during the review process.
Ward representation is something that residents have wanted for a long time. The committee discovered that, from 2005 to 2021, there were two wards in the city that had had no representation on city council, and there were another two wards that were disproportionately overrepresented.
Though Medford has eight wards, the city cannot have an even number of representatives.
“We determined eight ward councilors, one from each ward, and three at-large,” McDonald said. “And that number puts Medford in line with other cities in the state, because our council
is the smallest in the state for a city of our size.”
From their research, the Charter Study Committee found that many residents advocated for term limits for all elected officials.
“When we dug into the research on that, what we found is that term limits are very popular, but they don’t tend to achieve the ends that people want them to achieve and that, particularly for legislative branches, there’s a long learning curve for legislating, so term limits can affect that,” McDonald said.
Not every council member supports the added term limits.
“I think that they’re anti-democratic. I think that they say that the voters can’t be trusted to make the choices that they want to make,” Bears said. “If the voters want someone to be in charge for 20 years, I think that’s the voters’
choice. I’m not going to die on that hill, but that’s been my opinion for a very long time.”
The committee decided to impose mayoral term limits, but not school committee and city council term limits, in consideration of community feedback.
“This was another thing that we heard over and over again from people in the city. Two years is not enough time for the executive to do the kinds of things that an executive of a city has to do,” McDonald said. “It’s also trending. In Massachusetts, many cities are lengthening the mayor’s term limit to four years.”
Medford once had the longest running mayor in the state — Mayor Michael McGlynn’s 28-year tenure — from 1988 to 2016.
Lungo-Koehn said she wanted mayoral term limits to be reviewed.
“I know that sounds crazy because I’m the mayor,” she said. “But I did think that having a sitting mayor for [about] 30 years is not something that is helpful for a city or town, so I definitely wanted term limits reviewed.”
“I think that there is a lot of merit to the idea of a four-year term for mayor, and that there’s merit for the idea of longer terms in general for elected officials,” Bears said.
After the city council approves the charter, a home rule petition will be sent to the state legislature for approval. If the legislature approves the new charter by September, then the charter will face Medford voters in November through a ballot question. The approved charter would go into effect for the 2027 municipal election, with changes to the budgetary process taking effect on July 1, 2028.
Somerville launches youth climate action project
CLEAN ENERGY
continued from the front
Environment task force connected to Somerville public schools, which will start up later this year.
"[There will] be like interdepartmental task forces that’ll take all of those actions that are in Climate Forward and break them out into actionable steps,” Blais said.
One project launching this month targets youth climate action engagement. The city is piloting an inter-school extracurricular climate change club focusing on students in sixth to eighth grade, across the Argenziano, East and Winter Hill Schools.
The program is overseen by Emily Sullivan, the climate change program manager for the office in an effort to fill a gap in the climate change curriculum and encourage students to engage with local climate action.
“As part of that, we’ve hired, so far, nine Somerville high school students to be facilitators, to work with teachers on this after-school programming to also have a workforce development job exposure or topic exposure experience for older students,” Sullivan said.
The pilot will run from the end of January through around mid-April.
Additionally, Blais announced that for the first time, the Office of Sustainability and Environment is involved in the capital improvement planning process and that sustainability has been added as a new goal of the city’s capital improvement plan.
Somerville’s new energy advisor, Shannon Taylor, was also introduced in the meeting as a resource for Somerville residents to help residents understand the available incentive programs, rebates and tax credits. The position is funded through a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant and a Community First partnership grant.
“I think the residents of Somerville are interested in energy efficiency and fairly knowledgeable from the questions I’ve been receiving so far,” Taylor noted, “and motivated as well, which has been great.”
Somerville secured a significant match from the Energy Stabilization Fund to aid an application for a Green Communities grant, which would create Somerville’s first municipally owned, decarbonized building and serve as a model for future projects.
The council then spoke about updates on network geothermal,
a heating and cooling system that harnesses geothermal energy to maintain a stable baseline temperature in homes, allowing for efficiency gains. The city is currently conducting research to determine the feasibility of this project in Somerville.
“There’s a high upfront cost, but there are much lower operating costs because of those efficiency gains,” Blais explained. “And one of the benefits we’re finding through our analysis, being an urban community, there’s lots of buildings that can be hooked onto the system, which means that it can increase the efficiency of the system overall.”
Finally, Blais noted that rates for the 100% Local Green energy option in the Community Choice Electric Program have decreased due to structural changes,
As sea levels rise, our land is also sinking
Grace Lee Contributing Writer
From deadly, destructive fires in the West to major snowstorms across the Mid-Atlantic and South, extreme weather events have dominated these first few weeks of 2025. Among other causes, the influence of climate change in the uptick of such destructive events is a topic that has been spotlighted by many. Yet, climate change’s effects extend beyond immediate weather events into other harmful but perhaps less obvious phenomena. One such phenomenon is land subsidence: the sinking of the ground as the materials below are disturbed.
While a natural occurrence, subsidence has been exacerbated by
heavy extraction of ground materials and other manmade causes.
Researchers from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey explored how land subsidence has accelerated in recent decades by measuring the vertical land motion — how much the ground’s elevation has changed — as compiled from satellite datasets. The study focused on the communities and infrastructure across the East Coast, spanning 12 metropolitan cities from Boston, Mass. to Miami, Fla., as well as 172 counties.
Suffolk County, which is home to Boston, was found to have a rate higher than 0 millimeters per year of subsidence in roughly 54% of its land area, while Middlesex County, Mass. — where the Medford/ Somerville campus is located —
was found to have a rate of higher than 0 millimeters per year in nearly 20% of the county’s area.
While these numbers don’t reach the high rates of almost 5 millimeters per year seen in counties within South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, the study defines any rate of a magnitude greater than 0 millimeters a year as substantial.
Land subsidence can increase and worsen extreme weather events like floods, especially when considering how subsidence exacerbates the already present rise of sea levels due to global warming.
In an interview with GBH, James Heiss, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, explains that subsidence contributes roughly 15% to the rise
sparking increased community interest. This option offers entirely zero-carbon, regionally produced renewable energy.
“I’ve gotten mostly positive comments,” Blais said, “and I’ve actually gotten more inquiries recently from commercial businesses which is interesting.”
The increased interest in the 100% Local Green energy option means Somerville residents will be able to source energy from cleaner sources at a lower cost. Ramon Bueno, meeting attendee, commissioner and former member of the Tufts climate economics group, expressed his excitement.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” he said. “Not everybody can afford to go to the 100%, but the [lower the rates] the more attractive it gets for people who can afford it.”
of sea levels and thus predicts that the number of king tide flooding events a year could increase from 15 to 50 by 2050.
Subsidence also has the potential to damage essential infrastructure — a matter that could cause a whole host of subsequent problems, possibly harming the economy, transportation, the availability of necessities and even human lives.
Ultimately, Boston — or any of the East Coast cities — is not exactly on track to becoming the next lost city of Atlantis. Yet, understanding land subsidence and how it is both exacerbated by climate change and, in turn, exacerbates the effects of climate change is key in making future policies to mitigate extreme events.
KUNAL BOTLA / THE TUFTS DAILY
Somerville High School is pictured from School Street on Oct. 26, 2024.
Court is in session: Inside Tufts Mock Trial
gaining an understanding of the case’s witnesses and attorneys.
The tension is palpable. Papers rustle. A chair scrapes against the floor. Someone clears their throat. Then silence. All eyes shift to the judge at the front of the room. With a deliberate nod, she signals that the court is in session.
But this isn’t your typical courtroom; it is a showdown between students armed with wit, evidence and just the right dose of drama. Welcome to a typical competition for the Tufts Mock Trial team, where students bring court cases to life.
Founded in 2003, Tufts Mock Trial has competed in over 100 tournaments, has had 11 National Championship appearances and has finished in the top 10 of the nation six times, becoming a benchmark of excellence in collegiate mock trial. The entirely student-run team has steadily risen through the ranks and currently sits at No. 26 in the nation.
However, the team’s success isn’t just measured by courtroom victories; it is measured by the relentless drive, sharp intellect and tight-knit camaraderie of its members.
Each fall, the journey begins with the release of a hefty case packet containing all the evidence and artifacts needed to analyze the case and prepare for trial. The case packet includes witness statements, affidavits, police reports, legal filings and physical exhibits. The team dissects every page with laser-sharp focus, crafting airtight arguments while
The preparation truly comes to life with a touch of theatrical flair during trial proceedings.
Armed with sharp legal minds, the attorneys deliver their opening and closing statements with precision, laying the groundwork for the real drama: the direct and cross-examinations of the witnesses. Immersed in their roles, the witnesses bring more than just facts to the table; they strive to embody vibrant personalities, transforming into characters so convincingly that they feel like real people.
“We add backstories, jokes and quirks making each witness seem as real as possible, ” Sami Feteiha, a first-year on the team, wrote in correspondence with the Daily.
For those considering law school or a career in the legal field, Tufts Mock Trial offers an unparalleled head start.
Junior Aidan Connors, a co-president of the team, reflects on the impact mock trial has had on her ambition.
“[Mock Trial] has been helpful for me as I think about a career in law,” she said.
Club members walk away with hands-on training for legal concepts like trial procedures, courtroom decorum and rules of evidence, all of which they typically wouldn’t encounter until law school. But perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Mock Trial lies in its invaluable networking opportunities for aspiring legal professionals.
Many competition judges are seasoned attorneys, law students or law professors.
“There are some fairly connected people that are excited about our trial,” Senior Ian Carson, a co-president of the team, said.
Judges often return to oversee multiple competitions, creating opportunities for repeated interactions with the same participants. This ongoing familiarity cultivates a sense of camaraderie, transforming friendly exchanges into professional opportunities.
As Connors explains, over time, judges seize the chance to forge personal connections and “offer business cards or phone numbers or things like that, to talk to us.”
These initial gestures blossom into mentorships, opening doors to career insights and real-world guidance for team members.
For many participants, these connections have a lasting impact.
“I was thinking about becoming a lawyer when I got to Tufts and then I did mock trial, and I wanted to become a lawyer even more. And that was largely the result of the connections that I think mock trial affords,” Carson said.
Whether you’re heading into the legal field, business, politics, engineering or any other career, the transferable skills honed in mock trial provide a powerful training ground for personal and professional growth. For Feteiha, the impact is clear.
“I feel like my public speaking skills have gotten a lot better. I think I can communicate a lot more effectively and in a more engaging manner. I also feel like my memorization and
critical thinking skills have [improved],” he wrote.
The relevance of mock trial is further evident in the diverse career paths of past members.
”[Among former club presidents,] one of them is now in medical school. One of them is an electrical engineer. One of them is [studying] computer science,” Carson said.
Each year, the club has drawn a growing wave of passionate and driven members. This year, interest reached an all-time high, with Connors revealing a whopping 80 to 90 applicants, a sharp increase compared to previous years.
The tryout process for the team is two-fold. First, applicants perform a brief acting component, reading a script with a chosen character direction, based on past direct examinations. In the second portion, they deliver a quick speech, either prosecuting or defending a fictional character.
“The try-out process was honestly pretty fun. I got to write a wacky speech about Michael Scott and his George Foreman Grill disaster which made Ian burst out laughing,” Feteiha wrote.
Connors emphasized that the team values applicants who communicate with confidence, clarity and authenticity. But perhaps the most important trait they seek is the ability to embrace feedback and adapt, beginning with the first tryout.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to see who we as students are going to be able to teach and help learn and grow in this activity,” Connors said.
Ultimately, mock trial is not just about the knowledge students bring when they join but also about the transformative journey they experience through the team’s mentorship and support.
This sense of camaraderie is more than just a perk of joining mock trial; it is the heart of what makes the team special. For Feteiha, one of the most meaningful experiences came during his first scrimmage last fall.
“It was tiring for sure, but spending time with my friends for hours doing something we all loved–with a Picante run in between rounds of course–felt like the first time that I really got to connect with some of my teammates. Since then, we’ve only gotten closer and continued to enjoy mock trial together!” Feteiha wrote.
The sense of connection runs deep for many team members, often bridging gaps in age and experience. For Connors, these relationships have proven to be meaningful and lasting.
“I am close friends with someone who was senior when I was a freshman, and we still hang out, get lunch and call all the time, and that has been a pretty integral part [of my experience],” she said.
And perhaps that is the greatest takeaway from mock trial: not the accolades or victories, but the relationships built along the way. The true victory lies in a team that becomes a family, in friendships that uplift and inspire and in a shared journey that leaves its mark long after the final verdict is delivered.
COURTESY TUFTS MOCK TRIAL
The Tufts Mock Trial team is pictured.
Tanya Dev Staff Writer
From Beelzebubs to ‘Pitch Perfect:’ How Deke Sharon reshaped a cappella
When Deke Sharon (LA’91, NEC’91), a renowned a cappella arranger and instructor, joined the Beelzebubs in the late 1980s, a cappella song selection was limited.
“Everybody was singing ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy.’ Everybody was singing ‘[For] The Longest Time’ by Billy Joel. Everybody was singing … whatever songs were already very a cappella or very close harmony, and they just converted them,” he said.
However, Sharon yearned to innovate, and inspiration struck him at the movies around 1989.
“The movie ‘Say Anything’ had just come out, and there’s that classic scene where John Cusack holds the boombox above his head and it’s playing ‘In Your Eyes,’” he said. “I saw that scene, I [thought], if we could do that song, everyone’s heart would melt.”
Sharon brought a record of “In Your Eyes” to his dorm room and sat down to arrange the song for the Beelzebubs as he often did prior to weekend performances. He got stuck though, trying to convert challenging sounds and instrumentals within the song into typical a cappella vocals.
“I couldn’t arrange it because a cappella then really was still one foot in doo-wop,” he said. “It’s an ooh and aah and bum bum and doo doo doo, but those syllables didn’t work with that Peter Gabriel song.”
But, ever determined, Sharon studied the individual sound components of the song closely.
“I just started writing down what I could hear. I heard talking drums and shakers, and I started writing them down, and then figuring out how to make the sounds work with my mouth,” he said.
When the arrangement was done, there were singing parts, per usual, but there were also background parts that used vocal percussion to mimic the instruments and synthesizers not often enunciated in a cappella.
Sharon’s fellow Beelzebubs were perplexed by the vocal percussion, unsure that the arrangement would sound pleasing, but Sharon convinced them to practice. After some more convincing, the rest of the Beelzebubs agreed to perform the new song at a show that weekend.
“As soon as the song was done … the audience was silent for way too long,” Sharon said. “But then it was like the end of a movie. The entire audience started screaming, and they jumped up on their feet, and they went nuts.”
That moment — the realization that vocal percussion would allow any song to be sung a cappella — kickstarted Sharon’s career as an arranger, coach and a cappella legend.
Ever since he was little, before he was a Beelzebub, Sharon had a fascination with music.
“I sang before I could speak. I would bounce my head on my pillow and sing myself to sleep,” he said.
Sharon grew up singing and performing in a plethora of groups and programs, joining the San Francisco Boys Chorus at age 7 and a barbershop quartet in high school.
“I missed the first month of fourth grade [touring] … I was in operas with Pavarotti in the opera house in San Francisco,” he said. “I loved singing. I was always in every single choir.”
Part of what sold Sharon on Tufts was a high school visit from the a cappella group he would one day join.
“When the Beelzebubs came to my high school, [it] was like a
giant shaft of light came down out of the heavens and hit me like a lightning bolt. I was like, ‘That is awesome. I want to do that,’” he said. “In fact, I would joke with people often that I was going to Beelzebubs University.”
Continuing his love of music, Sharon attended Tufts as a student in the dual degree program with the New England Conservatory.
“I learned [music] theory there and vocal technique. And, of course, I got an amazing liberal arts education at Tufts,” he said.
After graduating in 1991, Sharon wanted to take his love of a cappella and his use of vocal percussion and turn it into a career. His peers and mentors had their doubts.
“Anyone I told: ‘I’m gonna make a career of this new kind of a cappella,’ either they laughed in my face, or they laughed behind my back,” he said.
The a cappella scene was also small and nowhere near as recognizable as it is today.
“There were just about 200 college a cappella groups — almost no one in the high school level doing it at all,” he said.
But, a cappella’s quieter status was exactly what Sharon sought to challenge. He wanted to convince people that a capella was ‘cool.’ Creating an a cappella competition was the first step.
“I wanted there to be a March Madness of a cappella.” Sharon said. “So, instead of the NCAA tournament, I created the NCCA tournament, the National Championship of College A Cappella. And now it’s international, so it’s ICCA.”
A cappella has exploded since then and the competitions have encouraged groups to modernize and improve their craft.
“Now there are at least 3,000 college a cappella groups, if
not more, and a cappella is a household name. Everybody knows what it is,” Sharon said. “When I graduated, if you said a cappella, … the word meant nothing.”
Sharon also compiled a cappella recordings from the festivals and competitions he helped organize, creating records and CDs that helped disseminate all the music.
A prolific arranger — Sharon has arranged over 2,000 songs a cappella — he was hired to help with arranging on the “The Sing Off,” an a cappella competition broadcast on NBC. Sharon found that the existing team knew very little about how to arrange a cappella.
“I ran around like the dog in ‘Wallace and Gromit,’ and I just fixed everything I possibly could,” he said. “By the end of the first season, they made me a producer.”
Perhaps most famous on Sharon’s resume is the “Pitch Perfect” franchise for which he has been an arranger, on-site music director and vocal producer. The first “Pitch Perfect” movie was inspired by a nonfiction book of the same name which has a chapter about Sharon; in fact, Ben Platt’s character Benji was inspired by Sharon.
“The movie only opened in a few theaters. It was a very small opening, and then it closed. But then when the movie went on to DVD, it just blew up like crazy,” he said. “The year after it came out, it was the best-selling soundtrack of the year.”
Outside of arranging and music producing, Sharon has continued to perform a cappella with different groups and has also coached dozens of student a cappella groups.
“I love … working with existing [a cappella] groups and helping them be the best version of themselves.”
Through it all, Sharon cites the Beelzebubs as a key and defining part of his career.
“The a cappella groups at Tufts were like rock stars,” he said. “To be in a packed chapel, … that incredible energy … is something I will always carry with me as some of the most special moments in my life.”
Sharon has dedicated his life to sharing a cappella with the world, determined to, as he likes to say, “spread harmony through harmony.”
“When you sing with other people, particularly if there aren’t instruments there, there’s this incredible, almost spiritual connection that happens, and it brings people together,” he said.
“Every note, every harmony, is still electric,” Sharon said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do when I’m going around working with all these other groups, remind them how many lives that we can save and how much better this world can be if we learn how to connect better.”
Grace Nelson
The Oxford Comma
A winter’s interlude
Hi everyone! After my brief vacation — or as the Brits like to say, ‘holiday’ — the Oxford Comma is back!
As the spring semester starts up, so too approaches my next term at Oxford: the Hilary term. But before I say goodbye to the United States, I want to dedicate a column to what I’ve been up to during the winter break — more specifically, what I’ve been eating.
As Americans, I think we take for granted how amazing our caffeine scene is because iced lattes are few and far between in the U.K. I’m a Massachusetts native, so I’m used to drinking iced coffee all year round; however, this sentiment is not shared in the U.K. I only found one place with iced vanilla lattes and it was in London, so it was not exactly accessible on a daily basis. I’ve been drinking a lot of hot lattes from a cafe near Pembroke College called The Paper Boat Cafe, but they just don’t hit like American iced coffees. I’m really going to miss the Blossom from the Sink, as well as the Iced Strawberries & Cream Latte from Blank Street (if you haven’t tried it, you totally should — there’s a Blank Street right across from the Boston Public Library).
Another thing I’m really going to miss — Chobani products. Chobani yogurts are nonexistent in the U.K., which is really devastating for people like me who eat their Flips every single day. (Note to Tufts Dining: If you’re reading this, please add Chobani Flips to Kindlevan and the Commons. Thank you!) For now, I’ll have to settle for the Sainsbury’s brand of Greek yogurt. I do love a good Meal Deal, but nothing can usurp Chobani’s place in my heart.
Of course, I am going to miss other things besides iced lattes and greek yogurt. I’ll be in the U.K. until the end of June, so I am going to miss the wonderful annual phenomenon of Tufts students soaking up the sun on President’s Lawn the instant it hits 60 degrees. The weather here has been consistently gray and mild, so I can’t fathom Oxford students picnicking on the quads. However, I’ve been told that the U.K. summers can get surprisingly hot and muggy, so maybe I’ll witness a temperature above 50 degrees before I leave.
Another weird fact about Pembroke: No one is allowed to walk on the quads. Isn’t that crazy? We all have to walk on the cobblestone; walking on the carefully curated grass is viewed as a cardinal sin. I’m not sure what the punishment is for walking across it, but I’m not exactly dying to find out. However, I’ve heard that they make exceptions for the sunniest spring days, so perhaps I’ll be able to get my sunbathing fix from across the pond.
For now, however, I should really worry about packing. Have a wonderful first week of classes, Jumbos!
Grace Nelson is a junior majoring in English. Grace can be reached at grace.nelson@tufts.edu.
Claire Wood Features Editor
COURTESY DEKE SHARON
Beelzebubs alum Deke Sharon is pictured at a piano.
ARTS & POP CULTURE
Best albums you missed in 2024
and their emotionally resonant lyrics. Highlights include the dreamy single “Heaven” and the rock-infused track “The Idiot.”
2024 was a great year for music. Breakout stars Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter dominated the pop scene, while Beyoncé, Post Malone and Shaboozey rocked the country charts, and Kendrick Lamar emerged victorious in his long-running feud with Drake. However, in an industry that often prioritizes celebrity over sheer musical talent, some of the year’s finest albums emerged outside of the cultural mainstream. Let’s take a look at some of the best albums you might have missed in 2024 from artists that didn’t top the charts or win awards but deserve your attention nonetheless.
Pop
One of 2024’s best debut albums came from indie pop group Melt, a New York-based act that attracted attention for their first single “Sour Candy” back in 2017 when its members were still in high school. Now college graduates (lead singer Veronica Stewart-Frommer graduated from Tufts in 2022), the band released their debut album “If There’s a Heaven” back in September. Melt’s joyful energy comes through in their work, and the band’s lush soundscape is elevated by Stewart-Frommer’s soulful voice
Other standout albums in the pop world include “Songs About You Specifically,” the third album from the indie pop collective MICHELLE; “Lockjaw,” the debut album from bedroom pop singer Frances Forever; and “Isotope,” the second EP from jazz-pop band Wasia Project.
Rock
Listen to a few minutes of The Lemon Twigs’ “A Dream Is All We Know” and you might be surprised that it came out just last year. The fifth album from brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, “A Dream Is All We Know” is a masterclass in power pop that harkens back to the sounds of 1960s chart-toppers like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Spanning from doo-wop to progressive rock, The Lemon Twigs show off their tight vocal harmonies and multi-instrumental talents on tracks like “My Golden Years” and “How Can I Love Her More?”
Looking for something a little different? Try “The New Sound” by British prog rock star Geordie Greep, “Duck” by instrumental rock trio The Aristocrats, or “South of Here” by folk-rock band Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.
R&B/Neo-Soul
Blending a traditional pop sound with a three-part horn section, The Dip has been consistently releasing some of the best R&B albums for years. Their latest album, “Love Direction,” proves that they still haven’t lost their touch. Originally formed in 2013 by a group of music students in Seattle, The Dip will quickly win you over with their groovy melodies, lush horn arrangements and tight rhythm sections. Highlights include the energetic track “Doing the Thing,” which features a memorable guitar riff, and the easygoing “Fill My Cup.”
If you like The Dip, try the bluesy “Keep On Diggin’” by The California Honeydrops. If you want something more jazz and pop-inspired, try “Good Together” by Lake Street Dive, “Something for Everybody” by Sammy Rae & The Friends or “Conflict Resolution” by Lawrence.
Rap With her third mixtape, “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” Tampa-born rapper Doechii has made her mark as one of the biggest rising stars in the hip-hop world. Also known as the “Swamp Princess,” Doechii embraces her Florida roots on her latest mixtape, which explores the pressures of fame
and her role as a Black woman in a male-dominated genre. Doechii’s witty lyrics, stylistic versatility and infectious energy are on display throughout the album, with standout tracks including the humorfilled “Denial is a River” and the EDM-inspired “Nissan Altima.” Look no further than Doechii’s incredible Tiny Desk Concert to see her talent on display.
Country
“Beautifully Broken,” the tenth album from country star Jelly Roll, couldn’t have come at a better time. Fresh off a Best New Artist nomination at last year’s Grammys and an appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” Jelly Roll struck gold with his latest album, which explores his journey to sobriety and self-acceptance with candid lyrics and an unmistakably Nashville sound. Last year, Jelly Roll also contributed to the soundtrack of “Twisters,” the Glen Powell-led summer blockbuster that brought more than 30 country stars together for a soundtrack chock full of top-notch original songs.
Folk
Waxahatchee, the indie folk project of singer Katie Crutchfield, is finally getting the attention it deserves. Crutchfield’s sixth album, “Tigers Blood,” is a wonderfully intimate folk-country record
elevated by introspective lyrics and vulnerable vocals. Other standouts in the folk scene include “Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free” by supergroup Bonny Light Horseman and “Observations From A Crowded Room” by rising folk star Joy Oladokun.
Alternative/Indie Rock
“My Method Actor,” the third album from English indie rocker Nilüfer Yanya, is an eclectic mix of styles, seamlessly blending Yanya’s lush, emotional vocals with poetic lyrics and gentle guitar-driven instrumentation. The album explores Yanya’s feelings of melancholy and doubt, creating an impressively complex sonic landscape that will keep you coming back for more. Highlights include the moody “Call It Love” and the hypnotic “Mutations.”
Jazz
Stella Cole’s self-titled debut album, full of jazz standards from a bygone era, is a reminder that traditional jazz is still alive. Cole shows off her silky vocals and crystal-clear diction on tracks like “Moon River” and a memorable cover of Billie Eilish’s “My Future.” For something completely different, check out “Empathogen,” the latest entry from the genre-defying singer Willow.
Nate Hall Managing Editor
GRAPHIC BY ODESSA GAINES
The year ahead in arts
2024 was certainly an exciting year in the world of arts and entertainment. Whether you gave in to the energy of “Brat” and had yourself a brat summer, started playing tennis after watching “Challengers” or purchased a pair of Adidas Sambas after seeing them everywhere, there is no denying the cultural and artistic impact of 2024. However, as we celebrate the dawn of a new year, there are plenty of new releases and art moments to look forward to in 2025.
Music: “Taylor’s Version”
Coming fresh off a record-breaking 149-show world tour, Taylor Swift is a force to be reckoned with who never seems to lose momentum. Even while on the road on The Eras Tour, Swift released two of her re-recorded albums — “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” — as well as a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” While Swift has not officially announced when her final two re-recordings will be released, many fans anticipate that one if not both will come out in 2025. The two final albums Swift has yet to re-record are “Taylor Swift,” often referred to as “Debut,” and “Reputation.” In her career, these two albums hold a lot of meaning, as “Taylor Swift” was her first release, and “Reputation” was her last under her former label, Big Machine Records. With the success of Swift’s previous re-recordings — specifically the love fans have for
the “From the Vault” tracks, which were not previously featured on the album — anticipation for the final “Taylor’s Versions” remains at a high for Swifties.
Fashion: The 2025 Met Gala
The Met Gala, held on the first Monday in May and often referred to as fashion’s biggest night, announced its 2025 theme last fall. For the first time since 2003, the Met Gala will be focused on menswear, titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” As explained by Vogue, the goal of the exhibit is to examine “the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora.” Additionally, it was announced that the Met Gala will be co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and honorary chair, LeBron James. Given Domingo’s viral fashionable moments on countless red carpets during recent awards seasons and Williams’ success as the men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton (to name a few), the co-chairs this season seem up for the task and will undoubtedly bring style and flair to the carpet. The actual dress code for the Met Gala has yet to be announced, but as seen in prior years, the theme and the dress code are connected and attendees tend to draw inspiration from both for their looks.
Theater: “Sunset Blvd.”
It is hard to think of a more talked-about performance this theater season than Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond in Jamie Lloyd’s
production of “Sunset Blvd.” Completely stripped back with plain costumes and a minimalist set, Jamie Lloyd’s version of “Sunset Blvd.” is unlike any other — with technology and hand-held cameras aiding the story as opposed to sets. Not only are there differences in the visuals when compared to previous productions, but there is an inherent difference in the characterization of Norma. Norma is less of a sophisticated woman and more unhinged, constantly one second away from breaking — something that Scherzinger captures perfectly. From her occasionally unusual dance moves and physicality to her interactions with her love interest Joe (Tom Francis), Scherzinger embodies this new interpretation of Norma in a way that is incredibly fun to watch. While her acting certainly is not perfect, her vocals are truly unmatched. With her show-stopping solos “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” Scherzinger proves that she is worthy of being on a Broadway stage and the flowers she is finally receiving after being in the entertainment industry for decades are well-deserved. Scherzinger’s performance is an unforgettable experience, and even if you cannot see her in person, a live album from the show’s London run is available to stream — highly recommend skipping straight to “As If We Never Said Goodbye” to understand just how powerful Scherzinger’s voice is. Books: “Sunrise on the Reaping” Suzanne Collins found major
All the movies you can’t miss in 2025
Hollywood brought us many things in 2024, from musicals to biopics to comedy duos, and 2025 looks to be a similarly packed year. Today, we look forward to what remakes, sequels and new scripts will be finally hitting our screens over the next 12 months.
January
We kick off the new year with a buddy-cop comedy, “One of Them Days,” starring Keke Palmer and SZA. The classic ‘race against the clock’ motif is sure to be boosted by Palmer and SZA’s natural chemistry. Hitting theaters on Friday, “One of Them Days” will hopefully be a bright spot in the coming days of cinema.
February
February will finally see the return of Marvel’s Sam Wilson to the big screen, and this time, officially(?) as Captain America. After six episodes of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” on Disney+, Wilson (Anthony Mackie) seemingly disappeared from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Almost four years later, he finally returns in “Captain
Odessa Gaines Executive Arts Editor GRAPHIC BY ODESSA GAINES
America: Brave New World” to take on an international threat following the election of Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) to the presidency.
March
In a seemingly never-ending period of remakes and sequels, it’s no surprise that March will see a new live-action Disney remake gracing the screen. This year welcomes the long-anticipated “Snow White,” starring Rachel Zegler. The 2025 remake is set to deviate from the well-known classic, and Zegler is likely to bring new energy to the beloved character. Hopefully, Zegler’s stellar vocals, Pasek and Paul’s original music and Disney’s overwhelming budget will elevate this timeless story.
April
Who would have expected the new year would bring a Minecraft film to theaters? “A Minecraft Movie” will follow a group of four misfits who must master the cubic Overworld, befriend a curious man named Steve and find their way home. The cast, led by Jack Black, is packed with comedy stars, making the film a must-see this spring.
May
The world of Marvel
simply keeps on giving this year, as “Thunderbolts*” releases on May 2.
After Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) spent the last four years recruiting a team of supervillains, the Thunderbolts must come together to complete top-secret assignments for the government. Complete with all of our favorite villains (and the ones we all forgot about), the Thunderbolts may be a large step forward in bringing together Earth’s mightiest for their next big battle against Doctor Doom in Phase Six. With an ensemble cast led by Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), “Thunderbolts*” may be a new Marvel favorite.
June
The live-action remakes continue with a remake of “How to Train Your Dragon.” Following a young Viking, Hiccup, as he strives to make his family proud and hunt dragons, “How to Train Your Dragon” returns to the world of the 2010 animated classic. With an ensemble of dragons and Vikings, the film may bring about a new wave of live-action fantasy and will hopefully answer the question: Do we really need our childhoods remade?
July
In a world where the colors red, white and blue can cause alarm, Superman is here to (try to) remind us about truth, justice and the human way. Over 70 years after the first Superman film, Nicholas Hoult is set to take a stab at the titular superhero in James Gunn’s adequately titled “Superman.”
Following Superman’s connection to his roots, his familiar friends
success with the original “The Hunger Games” trilogy and the prequel novel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” The beauty behind Collins’ writing when it comes to “The Hunger Games” novels is how she embeds political commentary into her novels and encourages readers — primarily young adult readers — to question authority and the society we live in through her fictional characters in her dystopian world. With her new “Hunger Games” novel, “Sunrise on the Reaping,” Collins was inspired by philosopher David Hume’s idea of implicit submission as well as the ideas of propaganda and narrative control — seemingly very relevant themes given the political and cultural nature of the world right now. The book is set to start on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games, which fans of the original trilogy will know is the Hunger Games that Katniss Everdeen’s mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, was reaped for. Set to release on March 18 with a film adaptation also confirmed for Nov. 20, 2026, “Sunrise on the Reaping” will be a must-read for all “Hunger Games” fans.
and enemies, and our favorite dog Krypto, “Superman” may be a helpful reminder of why the superhero genre began and why it continues to be a fan favorite.
August
In a month of slow releases, one cannot help but be intrigued by the newest sequel to our family classics. “Freakier Friday,” the sequel to 2003’s “Freaky Friday” is set to see the return of Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as Tess and Anna Coleman, respectively. In the sequel, Anna, now a mom herself, faces new familial struggles. Chance once again forces the characters to switch bodies in this new family comedy. However, the newest in a long line of Freaky Friday movie adaptations, “Freakier Friday” has much to live up to.
September
Returning to the early origins of the cinema classics, “The Bride” brings us back into the gothic world of Frankenstein. After asking his creator for a companion, Frankenstein’s monster is given a bride — the reanimated corpse of a deceased woman. Together, the bride and monster spark waves of societal change through their whirlwind romance. Ninety years after the “Bride of Frankenstein,” “The Bride” will hopefully bring a modern twist to this story, while preserving the themes and elements that made it classic in the first place.
October
Television: “The White Lotus” From Hawaii to Italy and now Thailand, the third season of the multi-Emmy award-winning show, “The White Lotus,” airs on Max on Feb. 16. Similar to the previous seasons, the third season has an entirely new cast with the exception of Natasha Rothwell, who is reprising her role as the spa manager, Belinda, from season 1. One of the reasons “The White Lotus” is so successful is because it blends social commentary with satirical, dramatic and comedic performances and constantly keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. With season 1, creator Mike White tackled themes of wealth and power while season 2 focused on sex, lust and greed. When the third season was announced, White said the third season’s focus would be a “satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.” While there are limited details on the plot, many might be familiar with certain cast members like Lisa (Blackpink), Aimee Lou Wood (Aimee from “Sex Education”) and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy from the “Harry Potter” series).
November
We cannot talk about the media in November without discussing the highly-anticipated release of “Wicked: For Good.” This movie musical sequel is set to drop on Nov. 21, almost exactly a year after the release of the first part. The sequel will follow Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) as they are forced to live with their choices and choose between good and evil. For fans of the original 2003 Broadway production, familiar storylines and characters are set to appear, but new songs and an all-star cast strive to keep the story fresh and innovative even for devoted fans.
December
Christmas Day will welcome the last of our anticipated films, “Sarah’s Oil.” Based on the 2014 book by Tonya Bolden, the story follows Sarah Rector, who was once the wealthiest Black woman in America. The biopic retells Sarah’s life in early 1900s Oklahoma, where she believed oil to lie under the land. Once proven correct and striking oil, Sarah’s story becomes a classic tale of rags to riches. Although perhaps a less widely-anticipated release, “Sarah’s Oil” may tell a powerful story of a woman in a time and place when their success was unexpected.
After the seemingly never-ending biopic releases of the last few years, “Michael” finally makes its theatrical debut on Oct. 3. Following the King of Pop himself, played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson, “Michael” is sure to be a musical extravaganza. From the Jackson 5 to familial struggles to his most iconic performances, “Michael” is sure to be a must-watch for fans of the man or pop itself.
Ryan Fairfield Arts Editor
GRAPHIC BY ODESSA GAINES
HOROSCOPE
CAPRICORN
AQUARIUS
PISCES
Late Night At The Daily Dylan: “I’ve been to the Wild West, but I’ve never been to the
a Rolling Stone’ by Nate Hall
Horoscope by Defne Olgun
Arghya Thallapragada Editor in Chief
Dear readers,
Welcome back to another semester on the Hill! My name is Arghya Thallapragada, and I am the editor in chief of the Daily for the spring 2025 semester. I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Daily and tell you about our intentions for reporting this semester.
But first, thank you to everyone — writers, editors, layout, and executive and managing board members — who dedicated their talent and time over winter break to usher in the first issue of 2025, the Welcome Back edition.
Looking back, last semester saw online publication every weekday and print publication on Thursdays, including six special editions. Notably, in November we published an extended Election Day edition, which detailed student civic engagement, the status
OPINION
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Looking back and looking ahead
of swing states and even what would happen if there was a golf game between President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. The perspectives of community members outside of the Daily had a significant presence in November, in the form of both Op-eds and Letters to the Editor. In addition, The Tufts Daily Magazine, the Daily’s inaugural magazine, launched last semester, a coalescence of longer stories carefully crafted over the course of many months.
Looking ahead, this semester will mark almost half a century of reporting with the 45th anniversary of the Daily. Our Daily Week special edition will print on Feb. 25 in celebration of this anniversary, marking a change in our usual Thursday print schedule to celebrate the Daily’s ‘birthday’. In this edition, we will reflect on the Daily of the past and consider the Daily of the future.
The first of April will bring the April Fools edition, an issue
replete with absurd headlines, satirical articles and a silly masthead. A few weeks later, we will celebrate newly accepted students with the Jumbo Month edition. This paper will serve as our introduction to the university for incoming students, featuring different facets of Tufts — don’t miss the Editorial Board’s annual “Declassified Survival Guide!”
Our penultimate special edition, the second installment of The Tufts Daily Magazine, will be published as classes end. It will mirror last semester’s issue, again delving deep into stories over the course of the semester.
Finally, the Commencement edition, published in May, will mark the conclusion of the Daily’s spring semester reporting. Roughly 50 pages long, this sweeping issue will offer a thorough reflection on and celebration of the Class of 2025’s time at Tufts.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to ethical, fair
VIEWPOINT
Gretta Goorno Executive Opinion Editor
At Tufts, I am surrounded by curious students and knowledgeable professors. I have never been more cognizant of the inner dynamics of American politics, the countless Constantines of Byzantium or the various dynasties of pre-modern China. Outside the classroom, I have long conversations with my friends about politics and social dynamics.
Yet, though I have learned lots of intriguing information, I find myself missing the atmosphere of my high school classes. I feel like I am often regurgitating information onto an assigned paper, absently listening to a professor lecture or memorizing information for a test. In summary, I feel as if I am acquiring information, or learning what to know, but not necessarily learning how to think.
I love listening to lectures from my professors who are vastly knowledgeable about their subject areas. But, without a rich exchange of ideas, I tend to forget the majority of the course material after the final. What sticks in my mind
and accurate reporting. The Daily aims to serve the Tufts community and our host communities well by offering relevant and timely information. We hold the principles of journalistic integrity and inclusion in all steps of our editorial process, and we greatly appreciate readers’ feedback. If you have any concerns or questions, I encourage you to reach out at daily@tuftsdaily.com.
Additionally, the annual ethics and inclusion report will be published by the Ethics and Inclusion Committee this spring. This report, taken from data collected last semester, will provide a look into demographics and assess inclusion in staff. You can view last year’s report on our website.
I am proud to introduce the rest of the Daily’s managing board. Liam Chalfonte and Nate Hall are managing editors, and Ellora Onion-De and Erin Zhu are associate editors. Claire Wood is the production director and Alex Dai
Organizing critical thinking
is an engaging conversation like when I sit with my advisor, Marina Aptekman, and talk about her life in Russia under the Soviet Union, or when I talk to my friends in the Daily about the role of journalism. In these settings, I learn about the world from those who have experiences vastly different from my own. I engage in a dialogue. I bring in my own ideas and actively respond to the new information I learn. When I memorize information
for a test or listen to a lecture, this same level of depth is not required. The learning is more passive and requires less critical thinking.
Tufts professors should focus on creating more conversation in and out of the classroom. Attending a small boarding school, my teachers, who lived on campus, were also my coaches and advisors. Along with smaller classes, the bond between students and teachers subsequently resulted in bet -
ter dialogues in which teachers would urge us to dig deeper.
Of course, I do not expect this level of engagement at Tufts, for the student body is far larger and the professors are busy writing books and doing their own research. But I do see ways in which professors could help form a tight knit community. While the environment of intellectual exchange within a class at Tufts is largely shaped by an individual professor, the school itself can make changes to encourage beneficial dialogue.
Tufts needs to stop over-enrolling. My most intriguing classes at Tufts have been on the smaller side, allowing for a rich back-and-forth among students and professors. The setup of such classes also influences our educational experience. When I am in a dusty, dim classroom with those small pullout desks stacked on top of each other, I struggle to learn, and I notice that other students have a similar experience. In fact, there is research that proves the desk setup sets the tone for the rate of idea exchange in the class. Tufts should research what desk arrangements work
is the business director. We all look forward to a productive semester.
Looking back, my first involvements at the Daily brought me, again and again, to its office in the basement of Curtis Hall. My regard and admiration of the filled walls, crammed with cut out pages and printed pictures, led me to memorize the location and content of each page and picture. I was excited later on to see my own work appear on these walls.
Looking ahead, I hope, in your consideration of clubs to join, you discover the Daily and come to the office often; all are welcome. I hope that you will see your work on the wall and feel a sense of pride. For information on getting involved, see our join us page or email me at arghya@ tuftsdaily.com with any questions.
Pax et Lux, Arghya Thallapragada Editor in Chief, Spring 2025
best for what class and give teachers rooms based on this data. Instead of creating new buildings, they should focus on simply revamping existing buildings with new desks and brighter lights. Moreover, it is essential to push critical thinking outside the classroom. I am someone that has always wanted to dive deep into class material to expand on my thoughts with original papers. I find it far more rewarding to have research papers where I can come up with an original thesis. At Tufts, most of my classes have favored loose research papers that, while aiding writing skills, are often repetitions of in-class discussions.
Tufts prides itself on being a school of creative idea exchanges and collaboration. Frankly, this is harder to achieve if students are staring at the back of their classmates’ heads, pushed in the corner of a dusty classroom or writing a summary of a lecture or of online sources. Paying for a Tufts education is certainly not cheap, and students deserve to have the best educational experience possible.
The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free of charge to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.
EDITORIALS: Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily Editorial Board. Individual editorialists are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Editorial Board. Editorials are submitted for review to The Tufts Daily Executive Board before publication.
VIEWPOINTS AND COLUMNS: Viewpoints and columns represent the opinions of individual Opinion editors, staff writers, contributing writers and columnists for the Daily’s Opinion section. Positions published in Viewpoints and columns are the opinions of the writers who penned them alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. All material is subject to editorial discretion.
OP-EDS: Op-Eds provide an open forum for campus editorial commentary and are printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600
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appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of
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White classroom desks are pictured.
VIEWPOINT
‘New year, new me:’ Are New Year’s resolutions more toxic than constructive?
GRETTA GOORNO
Max Lerner Staff Writer
“Auld Lang Syne,” we sing as we clink champagne flutes and bid each other a happy new year; “Old Long Since” — when translated — suggests one final recognition of and reflection upon the year past. And yet, even before the cheers die down and the clock strikes 12:01 a.m., we turn our attention to the year ahead and make our New Year’s resolutions, pledging to change ourselves for the better.
The notion of making New Year’s resolutions itself is not fundamentally malign. After all, this tradition is far from new, with some believing it to date to the 17th century and others dating it back even further, to the tune of 4,000 years ago. There is truly nothing as effective as a major benchmark in time to inspire honest self-evaluation, and when coupled with genuine hope and ambition for betterment, the tradition holds the potential to spearhead a new year of social and personal prosperity. Making and keeping New Year’s resolutions can, among other things, boost one’s sense of self-efficacy, garner motivation to continue to work all year-round and inspire other friends and family to do the same.
While resolutions suggest the need to work on oneself, this need is a notion that should be realized within a spectrum of change and betterment. Change need not be instant and concrete — rather it should be viewed in terms of the gradual bettering of one’s habits and attitude. Resolving to go to the gym more or to take better care of one’s body, for example, is a ‘doable action’ that provides reasonably achieved benchmarks of success. Resolving to be skinnier or more muscular, on the other hand, merely creates a new channel for insecurity and comparison, and leaves one without any formal plan to achieve their goal. Lacking a plan, one is left only with the lingering image of who they wish they could be — an image that is both painful and discouraging.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that encourages quick and low-effort solutions. With the rise of social media and short-form content, there has been an immense decrease in attention spans and a favoring of instant gratification. Keeping resolutions requires effort and attention, the very qualities that social media usage depletes. A growing inability to keep resolutions, however, is not in and of itself a solid argument against
making them in the first place. A more sinister consequence of the overuse of social media — therefore contributing more to the tradition’s latent malevolence — is the greatly negative impact it has on people’s self-esteem. Social media promotes social comparison, the skewing of one’s self-image and the equating of likes and comments to genuine validation. In particular, social media imposes balefully superficial standards onto its users, often highlighting inalterable body parts as new sources of insecurity. This past summer, for example, tens of millions of TikTok users encountered videos of people showing close-ups of their faces from different angles and professing that they had “bad facial harmony,” a quality that was virtually unheard of before the trend, yet compiled into becoming another aspect of oneself to obsess over. “Now I have to worry about facial harmony?”, one such user commented under a video with over 32 million views. “We are our own worst critics,” another lamented.
Change should be viewed in terms of the gradual bettering of one’s habits and attitude, not in instant and concrete differences in ourselves. It is healthy to recognize what aspects of one’s character need work. The world in which we are prompted to make New Year’s resolutions, however — where we are asked what and how to change in the months to come, is one that suggests that change should be immediate and instantly gratifying, proposing that the aspect of oneself most worth changing is some abstract, arbitrary quality like facial harmony. Therein lies the danger of making New Year’s resolutions.
I have neither the ego nor the nerve to challenge a potentially 4,000 yearold tradition, but it is paramount that we as a society remain aware of how exactly we are changing, and try to adjust accordingly. After all, the lyrics of “Auld Lang Syne” propose a question — should “acquaintance be forgot?” In other words, these lyrics question the lens through which we should view the year past. We must uphold that same spirit of inquiry when we look into the future and make our resolutions. What values are we resolving to aspire to? Ultimately, if the answer is anything short of constructive and holistic, it may be time to hold off on the resolutions and focus our attention on challenging the values of immediate, material change itself.
VIEWPOINT
An economic defense of H-1B visas
Keshav Srikant Staff Writer
In recent weeks, the H-1B visa program has faced an onslaught of criticism. Intended to encourage skilled immigration to the United States, H-1B visas allow companies to hire temporary foreign workers in specialized occupations. Today, most H1-B visa holders hail from India or China, and the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program are Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
The debate over the H-1B program was sparked last month when Presidentelect Donald Trump appointed Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born entrepreneur who had expressed support for skilled immigration, as his senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has described herself as “pro-white nationalism,” responded by denouncing the appointment — and skilled immigration — as directly in opposition to an “America First” agenda. This exchange started a debate on H1-Bs with other far-right figures like Steve Bannon denouncing H-1Bs and those in the tech industry, such as Elon Musk, defending it.
It is easy to understand why the farright, who are strongly opposed to any immigration, would oppose programs like H-1B. However, self-described “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders also chimed in with a statement and a Fox News op-ed criticizing the H1-B program, asserting that Musk was wrong to support it. Sanders made two core arguments. First, he argued that H-1Bs are exploitative, as H-1B visa holders can lose their visa if they lose their job, forcing H-1B visa holders to work in lower-paying jobs or unfair working conditions. Second, he argued tech companies use the H-1B visa program to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor. His arguments seem compelling and are important to consider in full.
To support the idea that H-1B visa holders are exploited, Sanders mentioned three H-1B visa occupations that he claimed are paid as little as $58,000, $70,000 and $80,000 a year respectively. Though there certainly could be cases of exploitation, the median annual salary for H-1B applicants in 2022 was $118,000. This means most H-1B visa holders are paid well — in 2021, the median H-1B worker made more than 90% of Americans. Furthermore, before they are able to recruit these workers, H-1B employers must attest they will pay H-1B workers competitive wages typical for their role. Though reforms such as protecting the right of H-1B holders to join
unions or making it easier for H-1B holders to switch jobs without being deported should certainly be considered, there simply isn’t sufficient evidence of widespread exploitation that would necessitate ending the program.
To aid his argument that the H-1B visa program hurts American workers, Sanders pointed out that in 2023, the top 30 corporations using H1-Bs laid off 85,000 American workers while hiring over 34,000 H-1B guest workers. However, this is not actually evidence that companies are using H-1B workers to replace Americans, as companies might lay off American workers in one role or department while hiring H-1B guest workers in another. In fact, a recent paper published by the Richmond Federal Reserve found the H-1B program did not lead to the displacement of American college-educated workers.
This finding is not an outlier. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper found that when the H-1B visas cap decreased from 195,000 to 65,000, employment of similar Americans did not rise, showing companies don’t typically replace Americans with H-1B guest workers. In fact, some research has even shown American employment rise as companies hire more H-1B workers. This is not to say there aren’t specific companies or subindustries where H-1B workers may be displacing native ones — however, this doesn’t appear to be the case overall. Though this debate is about H-1B visas, it is part of a larger conversation around the impact of skilled immigration and the question of whether immigration creates jobs or takes them away from Americans. Therefore, it is important to note that the beneficial effects of immigration as a whole are even clearer than with H-1Bs. Immigrants do not take jobs from Americans or reduce wages at the national level. As I’ve written before in the Daily, immigrants have played an important role in founding some of the largest American companies and startups, made key scientific discoveries and supported millions of American jobs.
I’m not arguing that immigration is unambiguously good. The economics of immigration — in particular the winners and losers — are not yet settled and more research should be conducted to determine the distributional impacts of increasing immigration on different groups. Nevertheless, immigration makes America as a whole more prosperous. In the years to come, we should continue to support immigration, which makes our economy stronger, rather than demonize immigrants who work hard to make America a better place.
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Men’s basketball opens NESCAC play with a bang
When the Jumbos men’s basketball team returned to Medford, Mass. to resume their spring semester campaign on the Cousens Gymnasium floor on Friday night, memories of the struggles the first weekend of NESCAC play of the previous three years lingered as the Jumbos looked to sweep the opening weekend of conference play for the first time since the 2019–20 season. When the clock hit triple zeroes on Saturday afternoon, the now No. 9 Tufts had taken care of business against Colby and Bowdoin, moving to 14–2 for the season for the first time since the 2016–17 season.
Head Coach Brandon Linton identified this weekend as a potential challenge in an interview before the winter break.
”[Over the last three years,] we’ve taken a step back in the second semester, so [we’ve] got to handle this break with maturity and come back ready to go
against more stiff competition,” Linton said. This sentiment especially rang true after Tufts was upset by Nichols College on Dec. 30, 2024 in the final of the Clark University Holiday Tournament, a stinging second loss of the year.
Bowdoin entered Cousens in good form, having won their three previous matchups against Division III opponents. Additionally, they had left an impression in the national discussion with their performance on Jan. 5 at Harvard, where they were able to hold them off to a 71–65 win, leading for more than 30 minutes in the matchup against a Division I foe.
The Jumbos were also given an extra challenge in facing the Polar Bears, as they had to do it without junior guard James Morakis, the team’s leading scorer, averaging 18.9 ppg, — the second most in the NESCAC. In his place, sophomore guard Liam Kennelly received the start, looking to provide additional defensive support to help guard Bowdoin’s uber-talented Ray
Cuevas, who leads all NESCAC rookies in scoring.
From the game’s opening tip, it was clear that the Jumbos had developed an effective game plan to deal with Cuevas and the rest of the Polar Bears’ attack. All five of the Jumbos starters scored inside five minutes as they raced out to a 13–3 lead, forcing the Polar Bears to attempt 22 3-pointers. Thanks to the inside defense of junior forward Scott Gyimesi and junior center Joshua Bernstein, the Jumbos were able to crash the contest, secure the rebound and play in transition, leading to many open looks as they cruised to a 76–54 win with a double-digit margin throughout the entire second half. The Jumbos received a balanced offensive attack in the win, with sophomore guard Dylan Reilly pacing the team with 17 points, and four of the five starters reached double digits.
When asked about the win, Gyimesi told the Daily, “I think we have the deepest team in the country. We have a roster
of 18 guys ready to go on any given night, and last night’s balanced attack was a great display of that.”
Fresh off their impressive display against Bowdoin, Tufts took on Colby College Saturday afternoon, seeking revenge for a 66–64 loss a year ago. The return of Morakis was pivotal in the showdown against the 9–4 Mules, as he provided 16 points and five rebounds in only 20 minutes. On Morakis, Linton said, “When he’s right, there’s nobody in the country that can stop him.” Even better for the Jumbos, nobody on the Mules’ roster had any method of stopping Gyimesi, who scored 33 points on just 17 shots en route to his ninth double-double of the season.
Late in the game, trailing 71–65 with eight minutes and four seconds to play in regulation, the Jumbos turned to their “three-and-D” specialist Dylan Reilly, who hit back-toback 3-pointers to tie the game at 71 points. After he hit a third second-half three to give the
Jumbos a 74–73 lead, it would be the inside game of senior forward Truman Gettings alongside Gyimesi that helped seal the win. The duo would combine to score the Jumbos’ next 15 points, helping push the lead up to 7 points, with the Mules not getting within a possession of the lead at any point in the final five minutes as the Jumbos rolled to a 90–82 win, moving to 14–2 on the year. This win pushes the Jumbos’ win streak to four for the third time this season. On Friday evening, the Jumbos will travel to Williamstown, Mass. to take on the 10–4 Ephs, with an opportunity to get a third winning streak of at least five games for the first time since the 2019–20 season. When they arrive, they will be the No. 9 team in the nation, having moved up four places in Monday’s Top 25 after a weekend where numerous Top 25 teams were upset. Despite the chaos elsewhere, the Jumbos have kept on rising, leading the NESCAC after one week and proving their place among the nation’s elite with a month to go before postseason play.
Riley Daniel Staff Writer
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
The Tufts men’s basketball team is pictured above competing against Bowdoin College during their Friday game.
Squash teams take down Denison in San Diego to start 2025 with a win
Josh Solomon Staff Writer
As students made their way back to campus during the final days of winter break, the Tufts men’s and women’s squash teams headed to San Diego to play against Denison University. The men and women alike saw lots of success on Saturday Jan. 11, with the men taking home a clean 9–0 sweep and the women only dropping one match, winning 8–1. The wins were much needed to start the momentum for 2025 after both teams lost to Cornell in December.
On the men’s side, only one game was given up by the fourth-seeded junior Jared Chin, with everyone securing 3–0 wins. The most successful match saw eighth-seeded sophomore Rohan Bhatia only giving up 12 points with scores of 11–6, 11–3 and 11–3.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work the past few days on our training trip so it was nice to put that practice into play,” Bhatia wrote in an email to the Daily.
Despite their 3–4 record, the men’s team currently sits 10th in the nation, per the College Squash Association. All of their losses have come against teams with a better rank than them, and they will not have to face a better team than the 11th ranked Williams for the rest of the regular season.
“It would be great to win a lot of the tough matches we have coming up like Williams and Dartmouth, so that we can put ourselves in a good position for the NESCAC and National champs,” Bhatia wrote.
Up next for the team is a home match today against Dartmouth, ranked 12th by the College Squash Association. The Jumbos have come up short against the Big Green each of the four times they have played since 2022, but this time they look to take home the victory, practicing diligently for the occasion.
“Our preparation has included intense sessions both on and off the court,” senior Youssef Ezzo wrote in an email to the Daily.
“We lift twice a week and did many track and hill workouts during pre season to be in good condition when the season rolled around. We play matches with one another all the time to stay sharp and we make sure everyone is involved and is being supported.”
While the teams worked hard during their time in San Diego, they also got time to bond and relax, which they found to be some of the highlights of the trip.
“The trip was a great bonding experience for us all. I personally really enjoyed our morning training on the beach or in the park,” Bhatia wrote.
In agreement, Ezzo wrote, “I really enjoyed working out on the beach and then having the time to enjoy the water and weather. We played a lot of beach soccer and football and spent time relaxing with each other in the hot tub and pool at the hotel. This helped us stay close together as we were always doing activities with one another.”
The women achieved a similar result in their match against Denison this past Saturday. They took home all but one match with 3–0 wins from seniors Aleezah
Burhan and Nieve Monderer, sophomore Sora Karanja, junior Mafi Pinot, first-year Anika Parr and sophomore Bridget Schutt, in order of ranking. First-seeded senior Riddhi Joshi fell 11–7, 11–9 and 11–5. Firstyear Mia Kim took her first career win for the Jumbos, defeating Denison’s Tess Lanza 11–2, 7–11, 11–0, 11–1, dominating the last two games.
“Lots of hard work really being dug in during practice pays off in matches,” sophomore Sonya Bajaj wrote in an email to the Daily. “Our team is very [determined] and has a real passion for the sport so wanting to push new boundaries comes naturally to us. We play 5–6 times a week for 1–2 hours of hard training and twice a week [lift] at the varsity gym. We also came in 10 days early and went on a training [trip] to San diego where we played for a couple of hours a day and also did a workout. [I] think it’s phenomenal what tufts squash has achieved coming into [Division I] nationals since the past 2 years.”
Bajaj bested Denison’s Kate Manderlink 11–3, 11–3, 7–11, 11–6 at the fifth spot of the women’s ladder.
The women’s team was ranked 12th by the CSA, and although they hold a 2–5 record, the highest-ranked team they have to play for the rest of their season will be their match against 11th-ranked Dartmouth on Wednesday. The match, which will see both the men’s and women’s teams playing, begins at 4 p.m. in the Tufts Squash Center located inside the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center.
Sarah Firth The Round-Off Roundup
Ana Bărbosu and international gymnasts in the NCAA
Ana Barbosu of Romania recently stunned the gymnastics world with her announcement that she had committed to Stanford University for gymnastics. Barbosu is notable because she was the Romanian gymnast involved in the dispute with American gymnast Jordan Chiles over the bronze medal in the floor exercise at last year’s Olympics. In case you missed it: Barbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea were tied in third place with a score of 13.700. Chiles competed last and received a score of 13.666, placing her in fifth. Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, believed the judges may not have given Chiles credit for a leap element she attempted, so the coach filed an inquiry. The inquiry was accepted and Chiles’ score was raised to 13.766, placing her in third and bumping the two Romanians off the podium. After the competition, the Romanians argued in the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the appeal had been filed too late and argued all three gymnasts should receive the bronze medal. The court ultimately decided the bronze would be awarded solely to Barbosu. Barbosu and her 2024 Olympic teammate, Lilia Cosman, who has committed to Michigan State University, will become the first Romanian NCAA gymnasts. Though these two will be the first from Romania, international athletes are not uncommon among NCAA gymnasts. Most come from Canada, some from Australia and England and a number are from smaller Latin American and European countries. Pauline Tratz of UCLA, for example, was a recent high-profile international gymnast from Karlsruhe, Germany. One interesting detail is that Levi Ruivivar, who competed alongside Barbosu at the Olympics representing the Philippines, was her host during the recruiting visit.
Barbosu’s commitment is especially notable because Stanford is scheduled to compete against UCLA this season, and thus, the Romanian gymnast may go headto-head against Jordan Chiles once more at UCLA. When browsing through the list of international gymnasts currently competing in the NCAA, the Alaska Seawolves roster caught my attention. Almost half of their team are international! Kacey Pratley moved from Bristol, England to Anchorage, Alaska to compete for the Seawolves. Jamilia Duffus moved from Jamaica to compete in Alaska after a brief stint at Talladega College. Marcela Bonifasi hails from Guatemala, and Maria Jose Prieto comes from Mexico. Alaska rounds out its roster with a number of Canadian athletes: Montana Fairbairn from Alberta, Hayley Perkins and Jada Niles from Ontario and Avery Tillmans from Saskatchewan. Lastly, Grace Wellington has come all the way from New Zealand to join the team in Anchorage.
I’m curious about the reason behind the team’s international lean. Alaska has such a unique program, with a demanding travel schedule due to its remote location. Though it is a state university, there are no athletes from Alaska on the roster — likely because the state lacks a well-developed gymnastics club system. It may also be tough to recruit from the lower 48 states, which could explain the international focus. Still, making the jump from Guatemala to Alaska must be quite the culture shock.
