The Tufts Daily - February 16, 2023

T HE T UFTS D AILY

breaKING: hodgdon

Food-On-The-run

to close

renovations, temporarily relocate to dewick

by Aaron Gruen Executive News Editor

Hodgdon Food-On-The-Run, commonly known as “Hodge,” will close for renovations after March 9, according to Patti Klos, director of dining and business services at Tufts. The popular dining location is set to be revitalized with a new layout designed to minimize overcrowding and streamline the grab-and-go system.

“Especially since we introduced mobile ordering during COVID, we find that the way we designed that space back in 2007 no longer really meets our need,” Klos said in an interview with the Daily.

While Hodge is closed, dining services will open a “mini”

version of Food-On-The-Run in the lobby of Dewick-MacPhie dining hall, offering a selection of grab-and-go options as well as hot food beginning on March 27.

“We’ll have breakfast sandwiches and the bagel bar in the morning, [and] we’ll have a rotation of popular items at lunch and at dinner,” Klos said.

The pop-up version of Hodge and the Dewick dining hall will remain open until 10 p.m. on certain days, and according to Klos, “General Gao’s will be [available] more often.”

Klos said that construction on Hodge will take around 20 weeks and is expected to con-

Faculty split on using ChatGPT as university prepares to confront aI boom

by Ethan Steinberg News Editor

A surge of new artificial intelligence tools is stirring concern among some faculty while others embrace it as university administrators move to address the new reality marked by chatbots capable of spitting out code and writing assignments in mere minutes.

The emergence of so-called generative AI, exemplified by

for

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has spurred some instructors to modify their syllabi this semester to defend against cheating. Others, however, see the sudden popularity of human-like chatbots as an opportunity to rethink their pedagogy and engage students in a fresh way.

“I think with these technologies, like others, there’s opportunities to use them productively, and there’s also opportunities to short-circuit

learning designs,” Milo Koretsky, a professor in the Department of Education and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, said. Koretsky studies engineering education with a focus on engagement and the development of disciplinary practices in the college classroom.

Koretsky has yet to play around with ChatGPT, but he said he imagines one way to use it would involve querying the program before having students critically analyze its response. The tool’s near-mastery of declarative knowledge — like facts that students memorize — could prompt educators to shift away from educational models that emphasize rote memorization, Koretsky said.

“Whenever you have a situation where you set up rules that people benefit from breaking — that’s a delicate system,” he said. “So in one sense, these technologies like ChatGPT might provoke a crisis within the education system, which leaves us to reconsider how things are taught.”

students, community members protest military industrial recruitment at career fair

by Henry Chandonnet Staff Writer

Students and community members gathered outside of the Gantcher Center on Feb. 10 to protest student recruitment at the career fair by military-industrial organizations. Sponsored by the Tufts Career Center, the fair featured booths from defense organizations like The MITRE Corporation, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the U.S. Army New England, among other non-military organizations.

The protest began outside with a crowd of more than 30 protesters chanting, before moving the demonstration inside Gantcher.

Maya Morris, who graduated from Tufts in 2022, is a leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Students Group, the protest’s primary sponsor. Morris gave her own speech at the start of the protest and led a variety of chants.

“A lot of us got together because … we want to oppose the university’s relationships to these companies, government agencies, think tanks [and] entities in general that have a relationship to the military industry,” she said.

The organization claims to have over 200 signatures on their petition to end on-campus recruitment by companies with ties to national defense.

“Tufts university, and many alike, are organs of the ruling class, serving it’s imperialist interests in several ways,” the petition states. “We further condemn the University’s role in encouraging us, the students, to take part in organizations that perpetuate and sponsor systematic violence against the people.”

Donna Esposito, executive director of the Tufts Career Center, said that employers’ presence at a Career Center event

Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run is pictured at night.

THE

TuPIT celebrates first volume of the resentencing Journal, success of educational programs

by Ella Kamm News Editor

Originally published Feb. 15

The Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College celebrated the release of the ReSentencing Journal, Vol. 1, a compilation of creative submissions from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, at an exhibition in Barnum Hall on Feb. 7.

TUPIT, which began in 2016, runs multiple programs aimed at connecting incarcerated students with educational resources and helping students who are returning home from prison. TUPIT connects the Tufts community with students in prison to offer incarcerated individuals the opportunity to earn college degrees.

“TUPIT is an extraordinary educational opportunity for all of our students,” Dayna Cunningham, the dean of Tisch College, said at the opening of the event. “The work that you all are doing to understand the state of our society in a carceral framework and to build relationships, despite all of the violence and hatred embodied in a carceral society, is a model for how we need to build a society overall, for everybody.”

John Lurz and Hilary Binda, the co-editors of the journal, came up with the idea for ReSentencing several years ago and began the long process of securing grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Tisch College agreed to match the funding.

“As government things go, it took forever,” Lurz, a professor in the English department, said at the event. “Ten months later, Hilary calls me and says, ‘John, we got the grant.’ And I said, ‘For what?’”

Over 150 submissions were selected to be published by an advisory board of scholars affiliated with schools including Tufts, New York University, the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

“Being able to … form a community with people across the country through a publication was more spiritually incredible than I could have anticipated,” Binda, the founding director of TUPIT and a senior lecturer at Tisch College for

Civic Life, said at the event. “We got so many letters from people saying that they felt joy hearing that they were being published, that they felt heard, that they felt seen, that they felt like somehow a part of them had gotten out.”

Binda then introduced a series of speakers related to the journal and to TUPIT, including participants in their MyTERN program, which is a four-course certificate program designed to prepare formerly incarcerated individuals to continue their education and find employment upon their release.

David Delvalle, a formerly incarcerated member of TUPIT, spoke about a writing assignment which “really brought something out of me,” where he describes the birth of his daughter.

“The art of storytelling is breeding empathy in other people,” Delvalle said. “A lot of my friends who read the stories weren’t fathers themselves, so they didn’t really have insight on what it was like to see their kids born and have that father daughter connection that’s just been an unbreakable bond.”

Nurudeen Alabi, a MyTERN participant who returned home from a 15-year prison sentence last year, spoke about the role that the program played in his process of readjusting to life outside prison.

“It’s not easy to come home after being incarcerated so long,” Alabi said at the event. “I was 17 at the time [I was incarcerated], now I’m 32.”

Alabi was enrolled in a program at Boston College, but they did not offer a transitional program, so TUPIT offered him a spot in MyTERN.

“I met Hilary [Binda] the second day I came home,” he said. “She helped me with my email, she helped me [learn] how to use an iPhone, she helped me with everything, and I had just met her that day.”

Alabi said the MyTERN program helped him and other formerly incarcerated individuals have a smoother transition to life outside prison, and that being a part of the program has allowed him to work on building a different life for himself.

“While I was incarcerated, an individual asked me, ‘What is your legacy?’” he said. “That’s when I thought, ‘What would my legacy be?’ My legacy, I wanted it to be something positive; prior to that, it wasn’t positive. So I knew education was that way of leaving a better legacy for me and my family.”

Alabi will begin working to complete his Bachelor of Arts this summer at Boston College.

David Baxter, another speaker, earned his bachelor’s degree through a program at Emerson College. He is now a community organizer and was published in ReSentencing.

Baxter, who has been home from prison for seven months, said that while this was not his first time being published, it was “the most

meaningful … because I have had the honor and privilege to be published amongst my fellow incarcerated individuals.”

His essay, titled “Privilege and Power,” deals with his thought process and emotions surrounding the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota in May 2020.

“I’ve come to realize I write my best when I’m in the most pain,” Baxter said. “For some reason, that’s the way it works. … In this writing, I question, was it the officers’ fault? Or was it a deeper rooted issue?”

Kentel Weaver, who earned a degree through TUPIT, was the final speaker at the event. “One of the things that [TUPIT] did for me was … I feel like I already possessed the intelligence and all of that, but it just amplified what I already had,” Weaver said.

Weaver was sentenced to life in prison at 16 and was released on parole in November after almost 20 years inside. Now, he expects to complete his bachelor’s degree at the Medford/Somerville campus.

“Now, I got this hunger for education. … You’re gonna see me more,” he told the audience in Barnum.

Copies of the ReSentencing Journal are available for order with a suggested $75 donation to TUPIT, which will support future editions of the journal along with an effort to purchase new computers for incarcerated students at MCI-Concord. A sample of the work included in the journal is on display in the lobby of Barnum Hall.

HODGE continued from page 1

clude before the start of the fall 2023 semester. The time needed for construction means there is no way to complete construction without working during the school year.

“We can’t get it done in the summer [alone], so there’s really two options: start in the spring, or be ready [by] October,” she said. “Our preference … would be to take [Hodge] offline at spring break or around spring break … and

have it ready for when students return in the fall.”

Although Hodge’s physical footprint will not be expanded, the island in the center of the room will be removed and the space will be optimized to enable a better workflow for staff. While renovations are ongoing, all current Hodge employees will be offered their same schedules either at the Hodge pop-up in Dewick or at other dining locations on campus.

In addition to Hodge, Klos said Kindlevan Café will be reno-

vated over the summer to better keep up with student demand.

“When Kindlevan opened, we were not accepting meal swipes at that time, and we’d serve maybe 300 people a day,” Klos said. “We take some meal swipes there now, but some days we [serve] 1000 people. … It can get very congested.”

Klos also revealed that funds have been allocated to renovate Dewick in the future. The goal of these renovations will be to optimize seating arrangements, manage lines and

potentially add a wider variety of menu items.

“We’ve done an initial analysis and now, hopefully in the next year, we’ll begin to do a more detailed analysis [and] invite student input,” Klos said on the plans surrounding Dewick.

Klos said there are no plans to accept meal swipes at Commons while Hodge undergoes renovations.

“Commons is not built to be able to handle the volume that Pax [and] Hodgdon can handle,” she said.

‘Mini’ Hodge to open at Dewick, Kindlevan will be renovated over summer

NATALIE BROWNSELL / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Barnum Hall is pictured on April 5, 2022.

FeaT ures

brand ambassadors on campus: who are they and what do they do?

by Sophie Axelrod

Contributing Writer

La Colombe Coffee, Guayakí Yerba Mate, Notion? These are just some of the brands that Tufts students have been ambassadors for. Students will act as ambassadors for various brands to help promote them, encourage business, network with employers and expand their interests. Each position may function differently and involve various responsibilities, but each ambassador network aims to build meaningful connections with students.

Sophomore Alexa Brust is a La Colombe Coffee Campus Ambassador. La Colombe Coffee is a major producer of artisan coffee based in Philadelphia specializing in selling canned lattes in supermarkets and convenience stores, in addition to 32 café locations across the United States.

Brust first looked into the position because she loves La Colombe’s coffee. She applied to see if there were free perks or discounts associated with the role. She joins a fellow Tufts student as a representative for the brand on the Tufts campus. With a 15% off discount code and three packs of 12 coffee cans of her choosing each month, she gets compensated with free coffee rather than money.

Her main role is posting on social media, primarily TikTok

and Instagram, to grab the attention of both friends and a greater population.

“I have to post six stories a month featuring any of their products, and then I will have to do an in-person sampling [for] students at some point,” Alexa Brust explained.

Experimenting with different photography techniques is an enjoyable way that Brust uses to help market the product.

“I think it’s fun, just to be creative with the posts. … I do enjoy photography, and it’s cool to have a vision and see it come out nice,” Brust said.

Brust is interested in marketing and advertising. She has found the ambassador role useful as it helps her get experience with customer insights and the effects of advertising by doing the posting as she creates a smaller-scale consumer report.

“Once I take a story I have to basically screenshot all the analytics and my account has to be public, so I can see how many views and interactions I got on the post. I have to make a monthly report, kind of like a lab report almost.” Brust added.

Freshman Éva Tóth is both a Guayakí Yerba Mate and a Notion ambassador and loves learning more about the brands and their stories. Guayakí Yerba Mate is a caffeinated tea company that is based in Sebastopol, Calif. Guayakí’s mission is to help seek a positive global

impact through their “market-driven regeneration” business model. Tóth explained that the mission of Guayakí is what drove her to look into becoming an ambassador.

“They have a really interesting business model, [market-driven regeneration], … so basically the money that they make goes back into the community of people that are working to produce their products.” Tóth said. She is interested in majoring in quantitative economics and finds this unique business practice special.

Tóth heard about the Guayakí ambassador program from her friends on campus. She applied for the position in the fall and got accepted a few months later. Tóth works in a mostly online capacity for Guayakí. Online, there is a website where she is able to connect with other campus ambassadors across the country through her profile to see and meet a variety of people. Tóth is also able to go to various events Guayakí hosts around Boston to network with business people and learn more about the brand.

In contrast to Brust’s experience displaying the product, Tóth’s Guayakí role allows her to do more social interaction.

“It’s a little bit less focused on advertising their product for them and a little bit more focused on building community and networking among peers,” Tóth said.

Tóth also gets a discount from these positions, benefitting from a 50% off ambassador discount and a free 12 can crate of Yerba Mate. She gets free merchandise from Notion but is not compensated for either of these positions.

Notion is a computer productivity lifestyle program where there are templates and pages to do various different tasks all in one centralized online webpage.

“Basically it’s just like one page that I can always pop open on my computer with everything that I need to know about the current state of my classes and schoolwork,” Tóth explained. She uses Notion to help stay organized every day managing her 18-credit course load and is able to manage her tasks by looking at her to-do list and calendar sections.

Tóth just started work for Notion this semester. “[I] basically host an event like once a semester that’s Notion-based,” Tóth said. “[It’s] just a way for them to have people on campuses across America … know how to use Notion and use it for a lot of different things.”

Junior Lexi Grein was a Guayakí Yerba Mate ambassador but has now evolved into a role as field marketing assistant for the company.

“Over the summer, my main responsibilities were to find events to set up at and do samples of Yerba. So, we did

some 5k races, we did a Boston Greenfest, … and now that I’m back at school, my goal is to get Yerba out to clubs, teams and organizations on campus,” Lexi Grein said.

Grein enjoys her job and the opportunities she is able to get from it. Besides dropping off cans of Yerba Mate for Tufts customers, she works in Boston to promote the brand further. She is able to network with others and take advantage of opportunities she otherwise would not have the chance to.

“I’ve also had a lot of cool opportunities dropping off for artists. … I went to the Kendrick Lamar concert because we dropped off product for them. There’s a lot of cool opportunities, just very random and out of the blue,” Grein explained.

Like Tóth, Grein uses Yerba Mate to connect with peers. She is able to show people at Tufts what the mission of Guayakí is and how to interact with the company.

“Doing the drop offs for teams and other organizations … is kind of building connection, like putting a face to a brand. That’s kind of our main goal. Once you create a personal connection with someone then it kind of creates a community” Grein said.

Grein is employed by Guayakí and is paid for her work as field marketing assistant. Before that, she was an ambassador for the brand for about a year. She works on a team alongside two other students in Boston from Berklee College and Boston University.

“[As a field marketing assistant], I take on the role of actually getting the product, having access to the product, doing sampling, which is just handing out cans. … It’s a little more responsibility [than the ambassador program],” Grein added.

Being a brand ambassador while in college can be a way for students to explore industries they may be curious about working in after graduation.

“I‘m just trying to learn more about what kind of companies are out there [for] post-graduation, like who I would want to work for and getting an inside look on the way these companies run and how they view their customer relations,” Tóth said.

Brust also emphasized the ease of the experience and the reward she has gained in the past month she has been an ambassador.

“If anyone is wanting to be an ambassador or if they’re really passionate about a company and their mission, … look into ambassador programs or just email them and they could even create one,” Brust said. “I think [ambassador programs] are a huge up-and-coming field.”

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

La Colombe Coffee’s flagship store in Philadelphia is pictured.

Sacha Waters

Personal Praguenosis On set

Have you ever sat through the credits after a movie and watched thousands of names roll across the screen? I used to think there couldn’t be that many people in the country, let alone on a set. There are millions of titles I don’t even know the meaning of — key grip, best boy, script supervisor — all coming together to make one 90-minute feature.

Film production is an inherently collaborative discipline, which is both a blessing and a curse. People worry about actors, but without a proper crew, you’re dead before you can shout “roll camera.” Your favorite director is nothing without a director of photography, a sound mixer and an art department.

The thing about film production is that it brings together a large group of strong personalities, puts them in a cramped space and gives them a highstress activity to complete together. I’ve seen people walk off film sets. I’ve had a huge argument with one of my closest friends about how much head space to include in the frame. Working on a set with your friends — or with strangers — can be one of the happiest times of your life, as well as one of the most frustrating.

This past week, I’ve been on eight such film sets. My class section at Prague Film School was assigned four hours each to shoot various short films. The roles switched every shoot — you would direct your own project, then be director of photography for someone else, then boom operator, then gaffer and so on. Tensions ran high. On one shoot, the director and assistant director had a massive fight. I argued with the sound guy about boom placement on another, and on the last shoot, an actor got drunk after mistakenly consuming real alcohol. That night, my friends and I met up at a bar and washed the week away with tequila shots, toasting to the end of the project.

But there were so many wonderful moments. On my friend Jordão’s Sunday shoot we had to wait 15 minutes between takes for church bells to stop ringing (an extremely high-stress situation when you only have four hours). He could have complained or rushed people, but instead, we started singing “Country Roads” (1971) by John Denver. As the only American, I sang the verses, and everyone joined in for the chorus. We clapped and stomped our feet to the beat. After, we sang “Beautiful Girls” (2007), and one of the actors got up and danced.

Working on a film with someone is like speedrunning a friendship — or even a marriage. You have to place all your trust in them. You have to be there for them at their best and at their worst. Everyone has to do their best, and everyone has to support each other — the production simply won’t work if they don’t. And sometimes, you have to let go of your frustration and sing “Country Roads” a cappella until you can go back to working in harmony.

Sacha Waters is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Sacha can be reached at sacha. waters@tufts.edu.

Tufts alumni reflect on campus expansion through the years

by Vedant Modi Assistant Features Editor

Tufts University has no doubt brightened its “light on the hill” since its establishment in 1852 through its development across the Medford and Somerville area. Starting from the present-day Ballou Hall, the university has spread its roots throughout the area with newer buildings, like the Collaborative Learning & Innovation Complex at 574 Boston Avenue.

The campus has responded accordingly to changes in our world, including many positive aspects but at the same time contributing to rising local housing costs and proliferation into nearby communities. For Jason Aliotta, despite the larger footprint the campus holds, alumni still feel that the intimate campus character is not lost to time.

“Looking back on it … the experience that I had living on campus was amazing,” Jason Aliotta (A’93, M’99), a Tufts alum whose daughter is a current Tufts firstyear, said.,“[Tufts is] a contained campus, yet at the same time, you feel like you are part of the community with Somerville and Medford. [You also] have incredible accessibility to Boston, so … it really is the best of [both] worlds. I can’t imagine having gone to another type of university.”

Aliotta, who is an associate professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, has found that the university has changed positively in some respects. For one, he has found the administrative positions, especially the university president, to be far more accessible and engaging.

“[When I was a student at Tufts], we had less accessibility to the administration, certainly the president, both in person [and through] any form of media, other than announcements that we would get via email which was still even at the time in its infancy,” Aliotta said.

Now, Aliotta notes that the university is far more engaging through events like Matriculation Day, at the start of the fall semester.

“I went to my daughter’s matriculation day, and I thought that that was one of the coolest events that I have ever been to at Tufts,” Aliotta said. “It was amazing to hear about … the academic achievements and the diversity of the incoming class. It was amazing to hear the a cappella group singing: They are just as amazing as they are now as they were back when I was in school. … It made us feel like we are truly part of the Tufts community.”

As the university has grown, Tufts has attempted several solutions to provide adequate on-campus housing, but it was not always so hard to live on campus.

Klaus Bartels (E’72) is an adjunct faculty in the math and engineering departments at San Antonio College in San Antonio, Texas. He has interviewed prospective Tufts students for more than 15 years. Nearly 50 years ago, he lived on campus in Houston Hall and Hill Hall, sponsored mainly by a three-year scholarship from the Air Force as a student in the ROTC program.

Juli Lin (A’22), a recent graduate and former resident of Bush Hall during her first year at Tufts, followed the standard Tufts’ residential timeline, living on-campus for the first two years and off-campus for the last two years. In an email to the Daily, she described the process that she took to secure her off-campus apartment.

“I lucked out a little bit with off campus housing,” Lin wrote. “I joined a house of 3 seniors in my junior year, and ‘inherited’ their apartment after they [graduated,

which enabled me to fill] it with my friends so I did not have to deal with the housing search, which saved a lot of stress.”

Tufts continues to sustain a strong on-campus residential presence. In fact, the university has plans for a new apartment-style housing and retail development for advanced undergraduates to be completed by fall 2025 around Boston Avenue.

Aliotta noted that alumni like him are hesitant about the construction and its effects on the Medford and Somerville community.

“[I am] skeptical [and] I do not know how much it is going to benefit the community at large,” Aliotta said. “I think [the building]’s going to certainly benefit the university much more [in] that it can provide stable housing [for more students]. The cynical part of me [finds that the construction would let the university] charge [students] for housing that would ordinarily leave and find housing off campus.”

A benefit of off-campus housing could be greater integration between Tufts and the Medford and Somerville area, especially through different ventures targeting students.

“[It is] good for Tufts students and the Tufts community to expand further outside the walls,” Aliotta said. “In some ways, I think it certainly benefits the community [because] new businesses have opened up that cater to the student population.”

The forces pushing Tufts students outward from the campus naturally escalate the price of housing. When visiting Tufts this summer, Aliotta found that areas around Davis and Teele Square have increased their costs of living.

“[It is interesting to see] the stretch of land just south of the Tufts campus towards Davis Square and Teele Square [change],” Aliotta said. “That area was much more affordable, much more working-class [and] blue-collar area. I [now] feel like [has] changed in many ways. The real estate values are much higher, [and] I think it has probably priced out a lot of the folks that have traditionally lived in that area.”

The local gentrification witnessed by Aliotta has seen small, 2,500 square-foot homes in the immediate areas of Tufts be valued at over $1 million.

Back within Tufts’ campus boundaries, older alumni have noted that the Academic Quad has not changed much since their studies with the exception of

the Olin Center for Language and Cultural Studies being built in 1990.

The Carmichael Dining Center now offers gluten-free food, which Aliotta remarks is a major improvement.

“The dining hall [in Carmichael Hall] is now where all the gluten-free food is, which is obviously a huge change,” Aliotta said. “The food back when I was there … was not terribly interesting [with little] variety. Oftentimes, the plethora of cereal options was better … than the hot dinners.”

New to Bartels are the renovated Science and Engineering Complex, the Joyce Cummings Center and the Green Line Extension at the intersection of Boston and College Avenue. The presence of the former two represents the major paradigm of STEM emphasis that Tufts has engaged in, as they both primarily house those subjects. The Tufts engineering program that Bartels knew was drastically different.

“There wasn’t much of a graduate program at [Tufts] back then,” Bartels said. “That is one of the reasons I went to MIT to get my master’s in electrical engineering. [Tufts professors are now] getting involved in research, which is great. So … there are [probably] not as many teachers teaching as much the undergraduate [introductory] courses … as there used to be, but … that is probably fine. … There [are] more research opportunities now, which is great for students.”

The Joyce Cummings Center has been a major recent addition to campus and academic life.

“I think [the Joyce Cummings Center] opened a little before I graduated,” Lin wrote. “I recall spending some time in the JCC during finals, and it was an awesome study space. I’m definitely jealous that Starbucks opened after graduating though. It is a beautiful space and so conveniently located! I do wish it had opened earlier, [since] I lived so nearby it and would have gone to study there frequently.”

From his own recollection and interactions with prospective students, Bartels finds that these expansionary efforts affect the physical composition of campus, yet he still perceives Tufts to have retained its original character.

“One of the things I think has not changed at Tufts [is that] it’s a smaller family, community where everyone … [is] helping students succeed,” Bartels said.

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Academic Quad is pictured.

envision’s ‘how we Got On’ hits play on black joy and creativity

by RaiAnn Bu Arts Editor

“How We Got On” (2012) debuted Friday night to a packed Curtis Hall as the first production by Tufts’ Black theater company, Envision, created by sophomores Chance Walker and Elias Swartz. The show tells the stories of three suburban Black teens and their growing passion for the art of rap during the inception of the hip-hop genre. As the show goes on, main characters Hank (Dylan Bell), Julian (Moriah Granger) and Luann (Marsha Germain) cycle through the stage like tapes in a boombox, telling their stories of growing pains and an MTV-fueled passion for rap.

“How We Got On,” written by Idris Goodwin, plays like an album itself. As the show introduces the idea of mixing and sampling, the characters crossfade back and forth like verses and stories chanted in a beat of their own. The Selectors (Donovan Sanders, Sanaa Gordon, Laure Mandiamy and Nia Goodall) are the guides between the audience and the story, offering important background information through dreamy interludes from scene to scene. What builds the story together are the different musical techniques the characters build

on: writing, sampling and freestyling. They take on three forms in the story, first in the literal music, then in the metaphorical storytelling and finally as allegorical lessons for the characters to live by.

Director Chance Walker intentionally chose “How We Got On” as a representation of Black joy.

“I think it’s a story that brings out Black joy. … So to have these teenagers just talking about hiphop and not trauma or anything like that, it’s just really beautiful,” Walker said.

“How We Got On” is a story celebrating the underdog tale of hip-hop culture, focusing on celebrations of inventiveness, persistence and authenticity consistent in Black art. Watching the growth of hip-hop and music innovation through the lens of teens in the ‘80s brings context to better appreciate how hip-hop has grown into one of the most popular music genres. The story strays from the popular tropes of art depicting Black people in contexts of slavery and Jim Crow. These stories, though important, may diminish the Black experience to a struggle and fight rather than a celebration of the culture and community that has changed modern pop culture.

The creation of “How We Got On” and Envision is paved with love, duty and ambition.

“[My] idea is to come out really big, and come out swinging and make Envision’s debut larger than life,” Walker said.

Elias Swartz, the co-creator of Envision and stage manager for “How We Got On,” came into the project with little theater experience but thoroughly dedicated himself to the project.

“If I wasn’t involved in the club, I would really appreciate having a Black theater club to be able to hear Black stories,” Swartz said. “[I felt a] sense of duty to the community. I wanted to give this to the community [to] help build a stronger space and help people hear Black art.”

The first of our three leads introduced is Hank, a 15-yearold rapper on The Hill trying to make the best suburban rap song by living, breathing and dreaming of rap. Hank, or his stage name, John Henry, reflects the perseverance and creativity present in Black art. He creates a mixtape out of a mic and recorder, a reflection of the ingenuity of Black art arising from unexpected places. That creativity is best conveyed by the Selectors: “You see cardboard box, I see dance floor. You see train, I see

canvas. You see record player, I see instrument.” Bell gives a steady performance as the main character the audience wants to root for, demonstrating his range in acting, rapping and comedy. Julian, a teen struggling with mounting expectations of success from the other side of The Hill, mimics the confidence and bravado in the rap performances he sees on TV despite the turmoil in his home. To him, rap is a place to be vulnerable. Granger is someone who director Chance Walker noted to watch out for. She brings an enrapturing stage presence that astounds during each rap performance. Finally, the play’s last character, Luann, is driven by her love for rap despite familial pressure and gender barriers in music. Marsha Germain, who plays Luann, brings stylistic intonations and inflections drawn from her background in poetry. The cast, each with harmonizing talents, is a pleasure to watch as they perform so intimately while the trains echo.

It’s also important to note that none of the actors are performing arts majors. Before the creation of Envision, Tufts had not seen any Black performing arts groups in years. Apart from “Almanac,” Walker’s initial inspiration for Envision, features for

Fans ‘surrender’ to the magic of Maggie rogers

by Madeleine Aitken Senior Staff Writer

Maggie Rogers exemplifies the dream-come-true star. Hailing from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, she grew up playing banjo and started writing songs in eighth grade. She went to NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and in 2016, she wrote “Alaska” in 15 minutes for a homework assignment. Pharrell Williams ended up being a surprise guest that day, and it was a random happenstance that he heard her song. But he loved it, a video of the interaction went viral and Rogers got a record deal. “Alaska” made it onto her 2019 album “Heard It in a Past Life,” and four years later, she’s now touring her 2022 album “Surrender.”

Rogers kicked off The Feral Joy Tour in Boston with a sold-out three-night run at Roadrunner, a huge accomplishment and one that demonstrates how far Rogers has come. Opener Del Water Gap set the tone for what was a truly electrifying show with his energy, passion and talent.

Samuel Holden Jaffe, the artist behind the solo project Del Water Gap, makes music that in sound tends to be upbeat but in lyrics is full of yearning and heartbreak — à la Theo Katzman’s “Heartbreak Hits” (2017). Jaffe led with “Hurting Kind” before

moving into “Sorry I Am,” “Better Than I Know Myself” and later “I Hope You Understand,” all from his 2021 self-titled LP. He played his Spotify Singles cover of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” (2022) and a song called “Losing You” from his forthcoming album, which he announced would be released this summer. Ending on “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat” (2020), he thanked the crowd for listening and “for knowing my music.”

Jaffe’s presence at the show and on the tour is especially meaningful because Rogers got her start as a member of Del Water Gap before the two decided to pursue their own independent work. They have remained close, and Jaffe proclaimed about halfway through his set that “none of you are bigger Maggie Rogers fans than I am.”

When Rogers took the stage, she was wearing a navy sequin mini dress and kneehigh boots. She jumped right into her first song, “Overdrive,” which is also the first track on her album “Surrender.” She played “Want Want” before greeting the crowd and then a jazzed-up version of “Say It,” from “Heard It in a Past Life.”

After a quick run offstage, she returned laughing, as she explained that she needed to add more tape to her outfit. “I love

glitter,” she said, “but I’m making this dress work on the fly.” This offhand, casual and comfortable way of addressing the audience encompassed the feeling of the whole show. It felt like we were a bunch of friends in a room singing and dancing together. Rogers herself did a lot of dancing and running around the stage, clearly having fun while also exemplifying what it means to be an engaging performer.

Rogers played “Honey” before noting how fitting it is that her tour is starting in Boston. “I cannot imagine a more perfect place in the world to start this tour,” she said, sharing that she had turned in “Honey” for a homework assignment this time last year. In between two spectacular albums, Rogers found the time to go to graduate school, pursuing a master’s degree in religion and public life at Harvard Divinity School. She wrote her thesis, titled “Surrender: Cultural Consciousness, the Spirituality of Public Gatherings & the Ethics of Power in Pop Culture,” in tandem with her album “Surrender.”

She played “Love You For a Long Time,” a single released in between the two albums, and then “Shatter,” one of the

Black and brown performers in Tufts theater had been sparse. It’s easy to relate this emptiness in the space to the lack of Black and brown performers at Tufts, a predominantly white institution, but Envision clearly demonstrates the strength and talent of Black performers already present on campus. Swartz reflected on this mass of talented Black performers on campus.

“The script we had for this was initially supposed to be for three people. … But when we had our auditions, we had a surprisingly large turnout from what I expected,” Swartz said. Envision exhibits the need and impact identity-based communities have on campus as they propel creativity and diversity.

“How We Got On” was truly a production of the community. Envision’s status as a TCUrecognized organization is currently pending, which means they did not receive TCU funding for their first show. Because of this, the production team needed to be resourceful.

“We were really lucky in that we were really well connected with the community. So for that backdrop you saw, we had a friend paint that and we helped

angrier tracks off her second album. She announced to the crowd that she needed a minute to calm down before the next song “because I’m mad.” But she explained that that feeling is the idea behind the name of the tour, feral joy: “There’s no joy without anger.”

Rogers brought Jaffe back out to play one of the songs they wrote together when they were in Del Water Gap called “New Song,” which was released on a 2020 compilation album by Rogers called “Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011-2016” and included songs

S. and Jack Clohisy Queeries

Valentine’s Day Special

Valentine’s Day is a holiday branded with chocolate-shaped hearts and heart-shaped candies.

Boyfriends buy their girlfriends bouquets of red roses and sparkling diamond jewels. Girlfriends write about the futures that they crave with their boyfriends. It is a day dedicated to celebrating romantic, heterosexual love.

Modern media capitalizes on this idealized image of love and consumers get lost in a sea of unrealistic portrayals of relationships. Even the movies that taught you about love when you were younger have an underlying message that love is transactional like in “Pretty Woman” (1990) with Julia Roberts having a field day with Richard Gere’s wallet on Rodeo Drive. Even more recent films communicate that homosexual romances don’t last with the heartbreaking last scene of “Call Me by Your Name” (2017) when Oliver tells Elio that he’s soon to be married.

Similarly, in the movie “Valentine’s Day” (2010), which integrated a gay couple Holden (Bradley Cooper) and Sean (Eric Dane), the minor plot surrounding queerness is about a breakup. Sean hasn’t come out as gay because he plays professional football, and Holden can’t understand why that’s holding him back from being open about who he is. The immediate thought here is that homosexual relationships portray the doom of lovers and promote the trope that gay relationships are toxic and dysfunctional. Not to mention that the two men playing gay characters are straight, white and cisgender, further promoting the toxic masculinity that already exists in the gay community.

Time and time again we see the portrayal of queer love squandered: “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “My Policeman” (2022). There is an evident push for greater queer representation on screen, but what is interesting is that the audience is rarely given successful queer relationships to model. Queer tragedy exists, that is undeniable, but so does queer joy, queer yearning and queer existence beyond despair.

The notion of “queering” is the idea in which queer identities are placed onto seemingly or confirmed heterosexual characters in media to create space for representation where representation does not exist. Throughout much of the twentieth century, queer people had a number of heterosexual and “heterosexual” (those who couldn’t live openly queer) icons in media. Some of the earliest forms of representation for queer people in the 20th century include Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand: white women who were given mainstream media attention but also women who were beloved within the gay and sapphic communities for their resilience in a male-dominated society (in which queer people could relate a sense of struggle with) and for their public and private appreciation for the community.

Today, there is on-screen representation of queer love, but oftentimes the narratives focus on the pain surrounding queerness. If society would take a step back and reflect, then they might realize all the joy and celebration queer love in media has to offer.

Saba S. is a columnist at the Daily. Jack Clohisy is a senior studying computer science and cognitive and brain science. Jack can be reached at jack.clohisy@tufts.edu.

Envision puts Black joy on full display

ENVISION

continued from page 5

paint it too,” Swartz said. “We asked [for] favors here and there.”

Envision’s first production promises a growing space for Black creativity. As for the future of Envision, Walker hopes to create a community space to celebrate local Black artists in addition to a performing group.

“I think Envision will go far and be really big,” Walker said. “There’s just so much untapped potential. … I hope a ton of other schools in Boston and nationally start their own Black theater.”

The group hopes to create a sustainable organization to serve future students and continue their mission of featuring Black stories and creators.

Maggie Rogers stuns on Feral Joy tour

ROGERS

continued from page 5

written and recorded before her breakthrough hit “Alaska.”

“A little over 10 years ago I moved to New York to play music, and I was in a band called Del Water Gap,” she started. The crowd began cheering immediately, many of them knowing what was coming; at a Del Water Gap show at the Sinclair last October, Jaffe brought Rogers out to play “New Song” with him. “This is the last song we wrote when we were in a band,” Rogers continued. “We were 18.”

Rogers swapped her guitar for a banjo, and together she and Jaffe sang a beau-

tiful rendition of the slow, heart-wrenching song.

Rogers then went back to her first album with “Alaska” and “The Knife.” She performed “Alaska” with a particularly ethereal quality that can be only described as supremely shimmery. The beauty of “Horses,” a song that uses the titular animals to convey Rogers’ desire to run free, came through perfectly live, and her performance of “Anywhere With You,” the perfect scream-sing track from “Surrender,” was top-notch. She ended with “Light On” (2018) and “That’s Where I Am,” introduced her band and headed offstage before being called back on for an encore.

s CIeNCe

In a set that lasted nearly two hours, Rogers took fans through almost her entire discography: the sad, slow tracks; the upbeat, dance-around ones; the impassioned stompers; and the ones that show her growth between the first and second albums. But the feeling that ran through the performance, that tied all these sometimes-disparate songs together, was that Rogers was having so much fun. With energy, vigor, zeal and a truly feral joy, she gave the audience the sense that she was extremely comfortable up there, just doing her thing — almost like she was dancing alone in her bedroom, and we were lucky enough to steal a peek.

bite- size science: sweetgreen’s robotic model

by Amber Abdul Staff Writer

The redefinition of the salad-making worker is upon us. Heralded by Sweetgreen, what once was a person in a plain Sweetgreen uniform now has the potential to be a singular robotic arm. In 2021, Sweetgreen acquired Spyce, a robotically staffed, automated restaurant. Together with Spyce, technology is being developed to roboticize Sweetgreen’s salad-making experience.

There is, however, competition on the horizon. Dexai Robotics, an MIT startup, also creates robots to service restaurants. Sweetgreen’s strategic acquisition of Spyce over Dexai Robotics represents the intersection of science and business models.

Nicolas Jammet, Sweetgreen’s co-founder, notes that their model is made around assembly. Spyce robots are designed in a way that they must be used in a restaurant fully made for them.

Dexai’s robots, however, are easy to generalize — they can be placed anywhere to perform a specific task. Sweetgreen’s business model will require a refurbishment of locations to accommodate Spyce robots.

Taking the form of an off-white metallic arm, the Dexai robot sits affixed to the counter. It is faceless, voiceless and is rather jarring to the eyes. The only things essential to its function are a suction cup, light, camera and lever. With this essential equipment, it picks up tools and uses a weight-based system to correctly portion the items in your order. Not much different from a human, it makes mistakes and

is messy. They spill things or put too many ingredients, needing a human supervisor to correct them. These new robots do not eliminate the need for human workers, but merely reduce the scope of human responsibility on the job. Sweetgreen’s decision signals new headway being made in the restaurant industry. Yet, many questions remain unanswered. One of them, about unions, has already been broached by Jammet, who believes that unionization “will obviously accelerate the move to automation.” Will humans in service-based industries eventually become obsolete? As the robotics industry evolves, new conceptions of science and its interactions with business models will be found. For now, workers will continue to don their plain Sweetgreen uniforms and add a more friendly face to the salad-making experience.

Saba

Members of Envision rehearse “How We Got On” by Idris Goodwin on Feb. 7.

The storefront of the Upper East Side Sweetgreen is pictured.

Some CS, engineering professors allow ChatGPT

CHATGPT

continued from page 1

University administrators are in conversation with faculty about how to navigate the issues of academic integrity that come into play with ChatGPT, according to an emailed statement from James Glaser, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Kyongbum Lee, dean of the School of Engineering. The duo anticipates they will “potentially” construct formal recommendations on generative AI’s use and will consider updating the academic integrity tutorial new students are required to complete each year.

“These tools have lots of promise and create new possibilities for learning and teaching, but they also raise important questions, including whether there are any implications for academic integrity,” Glaser and Lee wrote in their statement.

In certain courses, ChatGPT is banned entirely for assignments. An example is the introductory computer science class, CS11, which considers “lifting partial or complete solutions from anyone,” including online sources, to be in violation of the standards of academic honesty, according to the online syllabus. While the syllabus makes no direct reference to ChatGPT, it instructs students not to search the internet “about assignment-specific code or strategies.”

ChatGPT can solve portions of traditional CS11 homework assignments in seconds. The Daily sat down with a former CS11 student who pulled up the class’ homework assignments from fall 2022 and input them to ChatGPT.

One homework problem, for example, asked students to write a program that could identify and list, in descending order, the three largest numbers, given a file with a list of values. In less than a minute, ChatGPT responded to the prompt and assembled a program that worked, according to the student, who requested not to be named.

While the program used notation prohibited in CS11, the student was able to quickly rearrange the code into a submission that they believed could receive full credit.

Megan Monroe, the CS11 instructor, and Jackson Parsells, a teaching fellow for the course, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Jeffrey Foster, the department chair.

CS11 will administer an in-person final exam this semester, according to the syllabus, in a departure from last semester’s exam, which was scheduled to take place virtually even before reported bomb threats in December sent all assessments online. The move seems to follow a popular remedy used to mitigate plagiarism: handwritten work. It is unclear exactly why the CS11 exam’s modality was shifted.

On the other end of campus, the English department has grown concerned over tools like ChatGPT and their abilities to compose essays, generate ideas and pull information together from the farthest corners of the internet.

Sonia Hofkosh, chair of the Department of English, wrote in an email to the Daily that her department has not yet adopted an official policy regarding the use of generative AI, but

Students confront military at career fair

PROTEST

continued from page 1

should not be interpreted as a university endorsement of that organization.

“We respect the right of students to exercise their free speech rights and to express their opinions in accordance with Tufts’ policy on Gatherings, Protests, and Demonstrations, which they did,” Esposito said. “We also know that many students are interested in hearing about the varied job and internship opportunities available. … The Career Center consistently encourages students to select opportunities that best align with their personal interests and values.”

Nick Rabb, a Ph.D. student in the computer science program, co-led the movement and offered a call to action in his speech outside Gantcher.

“A group of us saw that the Career Fair was bringing certain military-industrial companies … like MIT Lincoln Labs, MITRE, State Department, the Army, et cetera,” Rabb said. “We were pretty disappointed by that because we know that these companies are involved in manufacturing things like missile systems, aircraft systems [and] artificial intelligence that’s designed for warfare.”

For Rabb, the son of a Pakistani immigrant, the decision to protest was personal.

“I know, from my family’s stories and experiences, very intimately, what these types of companies end up doing to people’s lives,” Rabb said.

Rabb believes Tufts has not done enough to inform students of the work done at certain companies invited to the fair.

“Tufts has relationships with the U.S. government, the Army, these types of military industrial companies, and we want them to cut ties with these companies, because they give them a lot of power in the world,” he said. “Whether they are recruiting students to these companies,

inviting them in for recruitment events, it gives a huge platform to these companies. At the very least, if they didn’t do anything, I think that Tufts should commit itself to actually saying what these companies do.”

Sophia Duncan, a senior at Tufts studying Spanish and international literary and visual studies, protested inside Gantcher.

“We’re not here to criticize or blame any of our peers,” Duncan said. “We’re supporting them because the university is disingenuine about the organizations it promotes.”

Duncan stood next to the Army recruitment booth during the protest, holding a sign that read “U.S. Army, you can’t hide, we can see your war crimes.”

“I think that anybody would be nervous, right? Standing beside the U.S. military,” Duncan said. “But the people standing behind these booths are people too. They’re people and they’re members of our community.”

Morris remains doubtful that the university will act on their protest’s demands.

“We want the university to see that opposition, both through our protests and through this petition, and for them to cease to invite all of these entities to campus,” she said. “Do I think they’ll do it? No. So that’s a challenge: Take it up, Tufts.”

plans are in motion to draft a policy soon. Hofkosh also said she plans to meet with the academic resource center and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching to discuss ChatGPT’s use in the classroom.

For now, Hofkosh said, using ChatGPT to write an English essay without the instructor’s permission would be considered plagiarism.

Other courses are taking a different approach to the new artificial intelligence tools. Erica Kemmerling, a professor in the mechanical engineering department, adopted a policy that encourages her students to explore ChatGPT and employ it as a helping tool. Students in both of her classes are permitted to use the AI chatbot “without limits” for any assignment other than a quiz or exam, according to Kemmerling’s AI policy, which she shared with the Daily.

However, students who opt to use AI help must also submit a record of their interactions with the chatbot in addition to the assignments themselves. Kemmerling incentivizes her students to follow the rule by offering a bonus point for each conversation submitted alongside the homework.

Back in the computer science department, Ming Chow, who teaches Introduction to Security, is another proponent of ChatGPT. He not only permits but expects his students to use artificial intelligence, according to Chow’s AI policy, which states that some assignments will even require its use.

“Learning to use AI is an emerging skill,” reads the policy, which Chow said he adopted from Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick. “I am happy to meet

and help with these tools during office hours or after class.”

Although ChatGPT has been reported to have done everything from passing an MBA exam at Wharton to writing a biblical verse about removing a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR, its rise to prominence does not come without flaws. The tool has flubbed basic arithmetic, and it has been shown to regurgitate racist and sexist content without hesitation. Conservatives also allege the AI chatbot leans liberal.

But its biases can also be used to pinpoint issues of equity in humans too, since the AI’s conversations reflect information originally added to the internet by real people. Koretsky is currently studying how artificial intelligence programs reflect racial biases in grading, for example, examining whether they award higher marks to students who write in a style most familiar to white middle- and upperclass students.

Koretsky said he and his researchers may be able to extrapolate from the results where biases are likely to exist in instructors. The research is one example of the way artificial intelligence can be used to shape educational policy in the future.

“I think you need huge perturbations to the educational system to knock it into a different equilibrium state,” Koretsky said. “Depending on the response of educators and education institutions and larger society, we have an opportunity to land in a better place.”

Difficulty Level: Existing while being single on Feb. 14

MISSED CONNECTIONS

You: Asked me for my phone number Me: Got so flustered that I accidentally put in the wrong number but didn’t realize it until later so now I will be alone forever

You: Trying to finish your test and obviously struggling since everyone’s left and it’s literally 15 minutes after class should have ended. Me: Pretending I need to stay late to ask the teacher a question which I could have easily asked them over email and then refused to look at you or talk to you the entire day to make sure it wasn’t obvious.

Aaron G: “I’m entering my tricky Dick Nixon era”

Tufts recently purchased 325–331 Boston Avenue, a property on the corner of Boston Avenue and Winthrop Street in Medford that formerly housed Hillside Hardware. We believe that the property should become an on-campus pub to cultivate a safer, more cohesive community.

The property, which was sold in December for $1.7 million, “is in poor shape and will require significant renovations in order for it to be usable,” according to Robert Chihade, the director of real estate at Tufts. Tufts does not currently have a timeline for the renovations nor a specific vision for the purchased space. In an email to the Daily, Chihade wrote, “We are evaluating options for the building’s future use.”

Unfortunately, the plot of land is simply too small to address Tufts’ housing crisis. The property rests in a commercial zoning area, and therefore we hope that this undesignated space will be transformed into an on-campus student pub.

Tufts already has plans to develop commercial properties on Boston Avenue with the construction of a new residence hall on Boston Avenue slated to open in 2025. The new dorm will be a prime example of mixed-use development with retail space on the ground floor

under the dorms. With this, as well as the increased traffic the area has gotten since the opening of the Medford/Tufts Green Line Extension, further retail space will complement the area — and make it a bit less dry.

On-campus bars are not a foreign concept in the Boston area.

Harvard has the Cambridge Queen’s Head, a student-run pub where many extracurricular events are hosted.

Across the Charles, Fuller’s BU Pub at Boston University offers a dining menu and drinks. It also accepts the BU equivalent of JumboCash.

There was a time when Tufts students enjoyed the same perks as Harvard and BU students. The MacPhie Pub, which has since been transformed into the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center, was once home to pints, concerts and comedy shows alike. Though it largely placed a spotlight on Tufts student performers, it featured well-known artists like alumna

Tracy Chapman and the band Phish for students to enjoy. In the past, Hotung Café has also served alcohol.

It should be noted that MacPhie and Hotung thrived when the drinking age was lower than it is today. In 1971, Massachusetts lowered the drinking age to 18 to align with the new voting age, but by

1984 it was raised back to 21 to access federal highway funds. According to Patti Klos, the director of dining and business services, “Everything changed when the drinking age went up.” In 1994, the beloved MacPhie Pub went out of operation. However, the current drinking age is not a worthy reason to disregard the great value that an on-campus bar would add to Tufts.

The Medford campus has a notable of-age population, including many undergraduate juniors, seniors and graduate students — at least half of students at the university are estimated to be of age. As noted in a 2014 editorial, these students don’t enjoy the same sense of community that underclassmen find in dorms, even with irregular events organized such as Senior Bar Nights hosted at various bars in downtown Boston.

An on-campus pub would also provide an alternative to bars further from campus and a safer one with the recent uptick in roofying across the greater Boston area. The private Facebook group “Booze in Boston,” which was launched in the spring of 2022, has compiled a list of bars and clubs where roofying incidents have been reported, including many frequented by Tufts students.

Thus, a new on-campus pub could provide a space for harm reduction — working to both stamp out drink spiking and respond appropriately when it does occur in this supervised setting.

An on-campus bar could also help cultivate responsible drinking habits among Tufts students, shifting focus away from binge drinking by serving food in addition to drinks and imposing a drink limit — as Hotung has in the past.

Additionally, an on-campus pub would provide student employment opportunities. When MacPhie Pub was in operation, most of the workers and bartenders were Tufts students. The reopening of an on-campus pub could provide new employment for Tufts students, especially given that working in bars is often more lucrative than other service industry positions.

As the campus recovers from the pandemic and its isolating aftereffects, Tufts needs designated spaces for students to socialize and establish camaraderie now more than ever, particularly for upperclassmen removed from campus life. A pub would provide the venue to improve Tufts’ social life, creating a lighthearted environment for meeting new people and gathering with friends.

While there certainly is merit to the argument that cultivating campus culture should not be centered around alcohol, we envision that the pub could serve as a more general hub of student life and space for events. The venue could have alcohol-free nights and regularly serve ‘mocktails’ and other nonalcoholic beverages for students who do not wish to consume alcohol.

It can also be a place to establish connections with Tufts faculty. As occurs at other schools, during the day professors and students could hold events and meetings over a meal or a cocktail.

The pub could also serve as a central campus location for Tufts bands, comedy shows, trivia nights, film series, sports watch parties and other student performances which may have struggled to regain an audience post-lockdown.

So long as students use the proposed bar responsibly, a Tufts pub could transform campus life for the best. Since the pandemic, Tufts students have increasingly realized a need for campus connection with peers. With the purchase of new real estate on Boston Avenue, Tufts should make the move to prioritize socialization and open a space where community can flourish.

Tufts’ newly purchased property should become on-campus pub

GRAPHIC BY KAYLA DRAZAN

by Sairah Aslam

Across social media, calls have been mounting for the U.S. and the EU to lift sanctions against the Syrian government. One particularly influential post, which accumulated over two million views in just three days, claimed, “the US and EU refuse to lift the sanctions which prevent Syrians from receiving direct aid from many countries. Remember this the next time they lecture the world about human rights.” It seems that this take has garnered considerable popularity, especially among younger liberals who are genuinely wrestling with the legacy of a complex and morally ambiguous history of U.S. foreign policy.

It is also massively problematic, misleading and oversimplified. More alarmingly, it is propaganda — very likely propelled by a Russian disinformation campaign that can be traced back long before there was a humanitarian justification — put out in support of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s dictator.

First, it is important to understand that sanctions are leveled

by Bela Silverman Staff Writer

February: a month to anxiously await the groundhog’s forecast, celebrate Valentine’s Day and prepare for internship season. As winter comes to a close, the last-minute frenzy to edit resumes, write cover letters and find the perfect interview outfit begins, sweeping across college campuses as students strive to finalize their summer internship applications.

For a long time, I felt that an internship was a necessary stepping stone toward entry into the workforce. As early as middle school, students have been taught that trading our time, energy and money for internships is a worthy exchange for future career opportunities. While internships undeniably enhance LinkedIn pages and pack resumes full of ammunition, I question how effective they are in providing valuable work experience.

Over winter break, as I started my hunt for summer internships, my pros and cons list became markedly unbalanced as a bolded “UNPAID” dominated my con column. Within the finalized list of 12 internships typed into my google sheet, six were unpaid. I

OP-ED

Bashar al-Assad is manipulating you

against the Syrian government in order to mitigate al-Assad’s oppression of his own people.

His brutal tactics have included the use of chemical warfare, torture and extrajudicial killings.

He is also infamous and directly culpable for shameless diversions of aid. One study found that Damascus, the capital of Syria, retained “51 cents of every international aid dollar” channeled through the government to be spent in 2020. Although the U.S. still makes exemptions to sanctions for humanitarian aid, Western countries are still rightfully wary of giving bilateral aid to Damascus because of its persistent practice of massively exploiting and depriving other regions within the country of said aid.

Indeed, the northwest region of Syria is more likely to face renewed reprisal from the national government rather than assistance. This is because the region is controlled by various opposition groups with whom the national government fought bitterly during the decade-long civil war. A ceasefire was finally tenu-

ously negotiated in 2020. Based on his deplorable track record, it is clear that al-Assad has no real intention of helping the victims of the earthquake. Instead, he is taking advantage of the international community’s sympathy and shock following the earthquake to leverage the disaster in two ways. First, as a bargaining chip to shame Western countries into lifting the sanctions, and second, as a public relations platform to improve his own political position. At the same time, he is holding back direct aid sent by Iraq, Algeria, Russia, United Arab Emirates and more from the victims, arguing that empowering the rebel groups would be a violation of national sovereignty. Soon, al-Assad may well weaponize aid funds to renew conflict in the region while he has the upper hand against the weakened opposition groups. A breach of the ceasefire would pile even more suffering on Syrians already struggling to recover from decades of bloody civil war, brutal repression, economic collapse and one of the worst natural disasters of the century.

VIEWPOINT

As for the U.S. response to the crisis, the U.S. is, in fact, the single largest contributor of humanitarian aid to Syria. Rather than working with the corrupt and repressive national government, it funds multiple local, reputable and experienced aid groups that are already on the ground responding to the crisis, including the White Helmets (also known as the Syria Civil Defence), the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations.

Crisis response in Syria was indeed delayed, shockingly so in comparison to that of Turkey. This delay is far more attributable to structural problems that arose during the war rather than any direct impact of sanctions. Some of these problems include weakened infrastructure and the isolation of rebel-controlled northwestern Syria from other regions of the country and from Turkey. To illustrate, there used to be four humanitarian corridors between Turkey and Syria. Russia successfully lobbied for three of them to be closed. The sole remaining corridor was rendered impassable by damage from the

Unpaid internships: The price of privilege

only had a 50% chance of scoring an internship that would pay for my time, and I felt convinced that I had just struck out of the internship season.

Every winter, thousands of students are confronted with the same problem. Teen Vogue summarized data from the Center for Research on College-Workforce

Transitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and reported that “between 31% and 58% of all internships in the United States don’t pay.”

Such exploitation begs the question of why students continue to begrudgingly enter the application cycle year in and year out. Aside from the devil sitting on our shoulders convincing us we will end up jobless if we lack internships and a packed resume, employers still consider field-related work experience to be a top priority for job candidates. According to a report published in 2021 by the Harvard Business Review, “research shows that more than 80% of all Big Four accounting firms have employees with internship experience, and the trend extends to tech companies like Facebook, Google, and IBM.”

While statistics make it clear that unpaid internships are valuable, students do not rest on equal ground. Unpaid work pres-

ents issues of getting a second job, living at home for another summer and skipping out on dinner dates; the caveats of such positions target marginalized communities.

Unpaid internships can widen the economic divide, deepen generational wealth gaps and impede equal chances of opportunity. A study conducted in the spring of 2019 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that out of the 4,000 seniors surveyed across 470 colleges, Hispanic and Latino students were the least likely to have had an internship by graduation, and Black students overrepresented the percentage of unpaid interns.

Economically disadvantaged students simply cannot afford to take the summer off from their seasonal income, much less afford the living expenses that come with location-based work.

As put in an article by University of Chicago student Dillon Cory, “unpaid internships give an implicit advantage to wealthier students who can afford to go spend a summer doing unpaid work and not worry about tuition bills or living expenses.”

The direct correlation between unpaid internships and socioeconomic privilege extends into the workforce, dispropor-

tionately reserving the majority of well-paying, highly coveted entry-level jobs for the privileged, previously unpaid interns. With all things considered, there is no single solution to resolve the socioeconomic privilege tied to unpaid internships. However, steps can be taken by state and federal governments, universities and independent businesses to mitigate the economic hardships that low-income communities face. For one, micro-internships — short-term, paid projects for a company, college or research team — can offer assignments throughout the year, thus increasing opportunities to gain experience and build

earthquake until Thursday, and local Syrian groups tried at first to prevent humanitarian workers from entering with aid. The first UN aid convoy was finally able to enter Syria on Thursday, four days after the earthquake happened, meaning the necessary help was not able to reach affected areas for the first 96 hours.

Going forward, the best thing that the international community can do is negotiate additional crossing points for aid to reach Syria before it is too late. A single crossing — choked by complex geopolitics that dehumanize the inconceivable suffering of many thousands of victims — is criminally insufficient to meet the dire need of Syrians at this critical moment. At the same time, we must also donate to the incredibly brave groups currently racing against the ruthless clock and bitter cold to ensure that they have the money and resources they need to save lives.

Sairah Aslam is a student at The Fletcher School studying international relations. Sairah can be reached at sairah.aslam@tufts.edu

connections before applying for bigger internships. Additionally, universities can provide students with connections to companies and research fellowships that not only build strong networks in the workforce but also promote paid internships from university relationships. Real Clear Education suggests that “institutions can also provide training for on-campus employers, such as university departments, on how to treat student interns more like employees.” While none of these solutions guarantee a break in a generational wealth barrier, they show promising points of action to address and close the privilege divide of internships.

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Men’s basketball prepped to take on Middlebury

While the Cardinals’ poor free-throw shooting down the stretch kept the Jumbos alive, it was the squad’s lack of late-game awareness, featuring a technical foul resulting from a timeout called when the team had none left, that kept them from coming away with the victory. By the end of the game, the Jumbos had lost 85–82. Although these late-game mistakes are painful in the short term, as first-year forward Scott Gyimesi — who had an impressive all-around performance with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals — mentioned, it is good to get those mistakes over with now.

“Obviously, those are mistakes that happened, and we [have] to live with that, but it’ll only help us learn. Thankfully, that didn’t happen in the playoffs, so if anything, it may help us out in the future in terms of learning from that experience,” Gyimesi said.

As the squad traveled within Connecticut from Middletown to Hartford, its will to win was evident with its utter domination of Trinity from start to finish. Throughout the first half, the Jumbos shot the ball well, allowing them to get out to a 40–20 lead over the Bantams at the half. In the second half, the squad continued to control the game, finishing the day with a 74–59

victory. While the team had contributions deep into its lineup, senior guard Tyler Aronson led with 14 points, and Gyimesi provided strong support with a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

“We came out really aggressive. We were very physical, and I think that the energy just sort of spread throughout the entire team. Once we got a lead, we all knew we weren’t going to lose that game; there was no doubt in our minds that we were going to win,” Gyimesi said.

After battling an ankle injury early in the year, Gyimesi has fought hard to earn his playing time, indubitably becoming a key player for the Jumbos as of late. Gyimesi humbly explained his recent contributions as another indication of this team’s depth.

“Like our captain says that every time, we’re 17 deep, and we have a very deep rotation,” Gymesi said. “I think anyone on any given night is looking to step up, so I’m sort of just contributing to what the rest of the team has been doing all season.”

It is well accepted that in college basketball, the deepest teams tend to succeed in the playoffs, and the squad will need to capitalize on this as it matches up against one of the best teams in the country. The Tufts Jumbos take on the national No. 12 and NESCAC No. 4 Middlebury Panthers on Saturday, Feb.

18 at 4:30 p.m. in Middlebury, Vt. The squad fights for its season in a game that is not merely a NESCAC playoff game but likely a game with an NCAA at-large bid on the line. Nonetheless, if the Jumbos come out as aggressive as they did in performances like the Trinity game, they will certainly have a shot at walking away with the victory.

“I think it’s just the same mentality we’ve had all season: to go into a game being aggressive, being physical and getting to our shots and running our stuff the best way we know how,” Gymesi said. “Obviously, we’ll be preparing scoutwise, running through their plays and stuff, but it’s just about preparation. And if we prepare correctly, I think it gives us a very good opportunity to hopefully come out with a win.”

The squad has proven time and time again this season that it can compete with anyone in the nation when on its game. If everyone is focused and ready to play on Saturday, then they will put up a fight and will have a good shot at coming away triumphantly. The question is: Which Jumbos team will show up?

“I think everyone’s ready,” Gymesi said. “No one wants to go out; no one wants the season to end. Up to this point, this is the largest game of the season, so yeah, I think everyone is hyped up for it — a lot of energy.”

Only time will tell.

Women’s swim and dive clenches 2nd consecutive NESCAC win

SWIMMING continued from back

breaststroke with a time of 29.07 seconds, setting a new team record in the process. Dunn (4:52.59) and Brennan (4:52.74) finished first and second in the 500-yard freestyle while clocking the fastest and second-fastest times in the event in team history, respectively. Klinginsmith finished second in the 200-yard individual medley while setting a new team record with a time of 2:00.95. Ulmer won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.38 seconds. In 1-meter diving, senior Sydney Ho placed fourth with 27 points.

On day three, Dunn won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:00.90, which broke the team record, Bowdoin pool record and NESCAC Championship Meet record.

“I think in the [1,000-yard freestyle], I just swam my own race and wasn’t focused on anyone else in the heat and I think that helped me stay in my own

head and not get distracted by little things,” Dunn said.

Klinginsmith broke the team record and pool record in the 100-yard fly with a winning time of 53.56 seconds. Brennan won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:49.15. Klinginsmith (26.19), first-year Quinci Wheeler (28.86), first-year Jade Foltenyi (24.84) and Ulmer (22.82) earned third place in the 200-yard medley relay with a total time of 1:42.71, which set a new team record. Klinginsmith’s backstroke split of 26.19 seconds to lead off the relay also set a new team record.

“I think I did a lot better pacing myself and not going out too fast because I kind of tend to go out too fast,” Brennan said. “But I knew that the girl next to me has a really strong back half, so I just tried to make sure that I had enough energy on the last 50 to make sure that I could stay ahead of her.”

On day four, first-year Madeleine Dunn set a new Tufts team record in

the 1,650-yard freestyle with a winning time of 16:51.90. First-year Lily Klinginsmith shattered the 50-second barrier and the team record in the 100-yard freestyle with a winning time of 49.92 seconds. In the final event of the meet, senior Elle Morse (51.11), Isakoff (50.74), senior Katelin Ulmer (51.71) and Klinginsmith (49.12) took first place in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a total time of 3:22.68.

Members of the Tufts women’s swimming and diving program will compete in the February Invitational at Wesleyan on Sunday, Feb. 19 before preparing to compete in NCAA Diving Regionals at NYU on Feb. 24–25 and NCAA Championships in Greensboro, N.C. on March 15–18.

“I want to have as much fun as possible and also score as many points for Tufts as possible,” Dunn said. “We want to place high as a team at NCAAs, so I want to make sure that I can help contribute.”

Henry Blickenstaff extra Innings

Thoughts on the MLB’s 2023 rule changes

Originally published Feb. 15

Given that I was disappointed when a new collective bargaining agreement in 2022 forced the National League to adopt the designated hitter, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m not the biggest fan of the rule changes that the MLB is introducing for 2023. And yet, like the universal DH, I understand why the league is making them.

The first change is banning the defensive shift. Currently, every team in the league employs a shift against certain hitters. Knowing where hitters are more likely to hit the ball, teams position three defenders on whatever side of the infield they think the batter will hit the ball. This year, teams won’t be allowed to do this — the new rule states that teams must have at least four infielders, with at least two on either side of second base.

The league is also implementing a pitch timer in 2023. Pitchers now must begin their motion within 15 seconds of receiving the ball with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on. They’re also limited to two ‘disengagements’ — stepping off the mound or a pickoff move — per plate appearance. Batters must be in the box and ready by the eight second mark on the clock. Pitchers who violate their rules are given an automatic ball and batters, an automatic strike.

Finally, the league will use bigger bases, moving to 18-inch bags in favor of the old, 15-inch ones. This will also slightly decrease the distance between bases, but the difference is negligible.

I know I said before that I understood why the league is making these rule changes. Banning the shift is the exception. The league’s reasoning is that by eliminating the shift, they will increase the batting average on balls in play, making for more excitement. But banning the shift won’t address the real reason the league’s batting average was a 54-year low .243 last year — strikeouts. Thirty years ago, the strikeout rate was 5.59 per nine innings, but last season, that number was 8.40. Banning the shift, which protects against pull hitters who hit for power, will incentivize teams to hire those same hitters who have been largely responsible for the rise in strikeouts. The batting average on balls in play might rise, but the number of balls in play will fall, working against the league’s goal of making the game more exciting.

While banning the shift makes no sense to me, I have no issue with bigger bases, and I understand the pitch timer. Baseball’s slow pace is a big reason it struggles to appeal to younger fans, and nowhere is the deliberate nature of the game more evident than in between pitches. Pitch timers will speed up the game, and that’s good for attracting fans. But, as a former player, I know that there’s a science to the time between pitches. Hitting is about timing, and hitters don’t like it when pitchers rush them. But under the new rule, they’ll be charged with a strike if they step out of the box for too long. Still, as much as I wouldn’t like this as a hitter, I know it will accelerate the slowest part of the game. So while the player in me doesn’t like it, the fan in me understands it.

Henry Blickenstaff is a sophomore studying history. Henry can be reached at henry.blickenstaff@tufts.edu.

Oliver Fox

sports and society

Unfairly psychoanalyzing referees

Refereeing is literally impossible. That makes no sense, so I’m going to explain it with my favorite overly-complex comedy bit: responding to an imaginary heckler. Action.

Imaginary Heckler: “Ahem, that’s uh … (fixes glasses) NOT what the word literally means. Heheh.”

Ok, listen here, Mr. I-haven’t-evolved-mysense-of-humor-since-the-seventh-grade, you were supposed to comment on the egregious take that refereeing is impossible, but I guess I don’t control what you choose to spend your very limited portion of this word-limited column on.

Here’s a definition you may find useful: Literally, adv.

1. In a completely accurate way

2. Virtually; used to exaggerate, very nearly At the highest level, the difficulty of refereeing deserves some near-impossible exaggeration, as the outcomes of games matter to most people and — because sports betting is now ubiquitous — huge sums of money may be riding them.

Super Bowl LVII found referees once again called to the forefront of the sports world to defend their conduct before the utterly biased and not-exactly-independent court of public opinion, in which the jury curiously happened to consist of 12 Eagles fans. A holding call on Eagles’ cornerback James Bradberry in the waning moments of the Chiefs’ final drive gave Patrick Mahomes and his team the ability to run out all but a few seconds from the clock, kicking a chip-shot field goal that literally won them the game.

Now, Bradberry himself admitted to tugging on receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s jersey, which is a textbook hold. Whether the referee should have thrown a flag on such a decisive play is an open question, such as what happened when Ravens’ cornerback Jimmy Smith harassed 49ers’ wide receiver Michael Crabtree on the decisive play of Super Bowl XLVII.

I am not sure if either was holding. I am not sure if either referee should have thrown a flag. This ordeal has only made me sure of one thing: Refereeing is completely absurd.

In the live broadcast, I couldn’t even see Bradberry touch Smith-Schuster. I had literally no angle with which I could decide if there was a penalty or not, yet my first reaction when the flag was thrown was a loud groan of disappointment. I didn’t care what I saw next. My mind had decided that — for the purposes of maximum enjoyment — there could not be a penalty on that play. It was too crucial.

The fact that I even had that thought is telling of the impossibility of refereeing. I consume more football than the Food and Drug Administration has deemed calorically responsible, yet my emotional response to a penalty I just didn’t want to exist was that the official should not have thrown it.

Don’t think I forgot about you, Imaginary Heckler. Just like the word literally and the whole basis of this column, the referee has to operate in margins of weirdness that the rest of us simply are not comfortable with. They are somehow expected to watch the greatest spectacles we have invented and pass off instantaneous, dispassionate and correct verdicts. Literally all of them could have gone either way, and it was up to the referee’s imperfect human nature to decide the difference. Anyone got a better idea?

Men’s basketball splits with wesleyan and Trinity, sets up playoff date with Middlebury

by Spencer Rosenbaum Staff Writer

Coming off of a three-game win streak that culminated with a dominant 37-point victory over Colby-Sawyer, Tufts entered the weekend with confidence but awareness of the challenges ahead. A win in Friday’s away game at Wesleyan would’ve guaranteed the Jumbos a home game in the first round of the NESCAC playoffs and likely a more favorable matchup — if such a thing exists in the

tough, hard-fought conference. Meanwhile, Saturday’s matchup against Trinity held the potential to serve as a momentum builder going into the postseason as well as an opportunity to secure the best seed possible in the NESCAC tournament.

Immediately from the tipoff of the Wesleyan game, the team brought the intensity, battling through a back-andforth first half that would eventually end with the Cardinals up 9. As the second half began, the squad refused to go away,

cutting the lead to 1 point on multiple occasions, including senior guard Carson Cohen’s and-1 free throw with about 10 minutes left in the second half and senior guard Dylan Thoerner’s 3-point conversion with 14 seconds remaining. Thoerner was an unstoppable force all night, recording a career-high 33 points off an outstanding 12 for 13 from the field and 8 for 9 from beyond the arc.

women’s swimming sets records en route to victory at 2023 Nes CaC Championship Meet

by Ethan Grubelich Sports Editor

In 2022, Tufts won their first-ever NESCAC Women’s Swimming and Diving title, which ended Williams’ streak of seven consecutive titles. Tufts capped off their best-ever season in 2021–22 by winning their first-ev -

er NCAA titles in women’s swimming — won by then-senior Mary Hufziger (LA’22) taking first in the 200-yard freestyle and by a team of Hufziger, Abby Claus (EG’22) and current seniors Claire Brennan and Katelin Isakoff in the 800-yard freestyle relay. However, a question remained: Was 2021–22 a small bump in the road for Williams, or

was Tufts an emerging superpower that toppled a NESCAC dynasty?

At the 2023 NESCAC Championship Meet last weekend, Tufts answered this question with authority. Whereas Tufts only beat Williams in the 2022 NESCAC Championship by a 50.5-point margin, they defeated runners-up Williams in the 2023 meet by a score of 1,984.5 to 1,614.5 — a margin of 370 points. Tufts’ final tally of 1,984.5 points marked the fourth highest in NESCAC Championship Meet history in what was a thoroughly dominant display from start to finish. Along the way, Tufts’ proven winners continued to dominate while their first-year swimmers set numerous records.

On day one, two of the reigning national champions in the 800-yard freestyle relay, Brennan (1:48.31) and Isakoff (1:50.51), teamed up with Klinginsmith (1:49.41) and senior Chloe Deveney (1:51.95) to capture the event with a total time of 7:20.18.

On day two, Ulmer (23.63), junior Jillian Cudney (23.53), Klinginsmith (22.95) and Morse (22.76) teamed up to win the 200-yard freestyle relay with a total time of 1:32.87, which was the second fastest in team history. Wheeler placed third in the 50-yard

Oliver Fox is a sophomore studying history. Oliver can be reached at oliver.fox@ tufts.edu.

The men’s basketball team is pictured on Feb. 3.

COURTESY COLBY COLLEGE

The Tufts women’s swimming and diving team won their first NESCAC Championship on Feb. 13, 2022.

see SWIMMING, page 11