The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, March 16, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 25

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Tuesday, March 16, 2021

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

TCU Senate establishes $1,164,000 Pandemic Activities Restoration Trust

TCU Senate passes resolutions calling for divestment, fall in-person learning

by Chloe Courtney Bohl Assistant News Editor

from,” Hamidi said. “We wanted to … do something that was meaningful in terms of programming.”

According to the resolution, the Tufts University Social Collective and the Office for Campus Life will be involved in the allocation of these funds.

“Funds totaling $1,164,000.00 shall be placed into the Trust, to be spent in accordance with the budget included in Appendix A of this Resolution, and [the Tufts University Social Collective] and [the Office for Campus Life] shall be jointly responsible for developing and providing an annual report to the TCU Treasury detailing that year’s usage of the funds in the Trust,” the resolution said.

Tufts Community Union Senate passed two resolutions in a virtual meeting on Sunday night. The first, put forward by Tufts for a Racially Equitable Endowment, calls on Tufts to divest from private prison corporations. The second, which was introduced by the Education Committee of TCU Senate, calls on the university to offer in-person components for all fall 2021 classes.

TCU Senate began the meeting by hearing one supplementary finding request.

Tufts Asian Student Coalition requested $1,070 to pay for an honorarium to illustrator Deborah Lee, who is holding a virtual illustration workshop sponsored by the club, and workshop art supplies. Seven members of the Allocations Board voted in favor of the request, with none opposed and one abstaining. The request passed TCU Senate by acclamation.

Tufts for a Racially Equitable Endowment’s resolution for private prison divestment passed unanimously, with 26 senators voting in favor, none opposed and none abstaining.

“TCU Senate calls upon Tufts University to establish a Responsible Investment Advisory Group (RIAG) to confirm the $72,000 already invested in private corporations, pursue divestment from these holdings (whether direct or indirect), and investigate investments in other corporations that uphold the [Prison Industrial Complex],” the resolution said.

The resolution also asks Tufts to “establish an official process for the intentional and ethical investment of its endowment funds in companies that promote equity and social justice.”

see ACTIVITIES, page 2

see SENATE, page 3

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts students picnic and relax on President’s Lawn on a sunny day.

by Madeline Mueller Contributing Writer

The Tufts Community Union Senate approved a treasury resolution allocating $1,164,000 of Treasury funds toward the Pandemic Activities Restoration Trust on March 7. These funds are to be used for campus events and other university celebrations when COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and it is safe to do so.

The purpose of the trust is to provide enhanced celebrations in the future for students who have been affected by pandemic-related cancellations, according to the resolution submitted by TCU Treasurer Sharif Hamidi.

The resolution passed with overwhelming support from student senators. About

half of the funds will go to post-pandemic events for students in the classes of 2020 and 2021. The other half is expected to go toward events benefiting students who will be on campus in coming years.

Hamidi, a senior, said the funding for the Pandemic Activities Restoration Trust, which comes from existing treasury funds, was already set aside exclusively for use in student activities. All funds from the TCU Treasury come from the university’s activity fee, which is part of the cost of attendance and was $396 for the 2020–21 school year, according to Hamidi.

“We were exploring a number of possibilities with what we could do with this money knowing that it was limited to being spent on student activities … because that’s what the money originates

Friedman School releases study on impact of cardiometabolic conditions on COVID-19 hospitalizations

by Fernando Cervantes Contributing Writer

Researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy conducted a study on the impact of comorbidities on COVID-19 infections in adults. The results of the study were published on Feb. 25.

The report of the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association,

found that nearly two-thirds of COVID-19 hospitalizations in American adults can be attributed to at least one pre-existing condition. These include obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart failure.

The study was co-written by Meghan O’Hearn, Junxiu Liu, Frederick Cudhea, Renata Micha and Dariush Mozaffarian.

O’Hearn, a doctoral candidate, spoke on why the team decided to research this correlation.

“As the pandemic unfolded last spring, states and countries hardest hit by the pandemic were reporting more severe COVID-19 infections (hospitalization and mortality) among individuals with pre-existing conditions like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,” O’Hearn wrote in an email to the Daily. “We wanted to take this knowledge and extrapolate to the entire US adult population, using modeling techniques our research group

regularly uses for assessing diet-related disease burdens.”

The study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 14 states as well as national data on estimated COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Examining this data through a comparative risk assessment, the researchers found a correlation between comorbid-

FEATURES / page 4

ARTS / page 6

SPORTS / back

Tufts@BNU students reflect on studying at Tufts, halfway around the world

“The Decameron Project” brings contemporary lens to Boccaccio’s classic

Alex Sharp looks forward to the NCAA Tournament

see FRIEDMAN, page 2 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, March 16, 2021

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TUSC and OCL to oversee spending ACTIVITIES

continued from page 1 Hamidi said that a significant portion of the projected budget for student activities was not spent due to the school closure and the following event cancellations in the spring 2020 semester and beyond.

“At the end of last year, it ended up being $800,000 [left over],” Hamidi said. “Using some conservative estimates of what we expect unspent funds to be this year … we did see that there was going to be over a million dollars of unspent money sitting in the Treasury.”

Hamidi mentioned that, to his knowledge, a treasury resolution such as this has not been passed before. The Senate resolutions process is primarily meant to be directed by the administration

or university leadership because its main purpose is to push for certain policy changes.

“It’s rare that resolutions get written from a treasury perspective, because usually, the Senate is able to appropriate money and do things as necessary, as long as the appropriate guidelines are being followed,” Hamidi said.

“But, you know, we’re sort of facing unprecedented circumstances and I think that calls for taking unprecedented steps, and so that’s how this trust came to be.”

TCU Senate Historian Sarah Tata confirmed in an email to the Daily that there has never been a treasury resolution passed before this most recent meeting.

According to the resolution, the plans include funding to enhance events such as Homecoming, Tuftonia’s Day

and Spring Fling, with budget items including food trucks and carnival rides. The resolution also notes that funds will be allocated to Senior Galas for the classes of 2020 and 2021 that will function as reunions. The funding for these galas includes money set aside for venue rentals, catering and entertainment, among other costs.

Hamidi said that a focus of the fund’s budget was fairness and equity for students. He emphasized that the goal of the resolution was to provide meaningful experiences to replace graduation traditions lost by the class of 2020 and 2021, as well as equal funding toward benefits and enhancements for current students who have not been able to experience traditional Tufts events.

“The purpose of the second half of the funds in the trust is so that for the next four years, everybody who is currently at Tufts will be able to experience bigger and better and more ambitious versions of those events,” Hamidi said.

Hamidi added that the events for recent alumni are expected to be free of charge for the members of these class years, including housing and food. The approved budget covers the cost of the event as long as the students are able to return to Boston.

“Taking those burdens away [will allow graduates to] just focus on sort of having this event and being in a community with their graduating class one more time because the pandemic took that away from them,” Hamidi said. “[This] was something that mattered to me.”

Researchers emphasize importance of tackling obesity in fight against COVID-19 FRIEDMAN

continued from page 1 ities and COVID-19 hospitalizations.

O’Hearn said that the biggest risk was obesity, which was responsible for 30% of excess hospitalizations. She further summarized the results of the study.

“Our new research on obesity, diabetes, and COVID-19 suggests 63% of US hospitalizations for COVID may have been prevented, due to less severe illness, if we had a metabolically healthy population,” O’Hearn said.

She expanded further on the study’s findings.

“Our main finding — the magnitude of the burdens of COVID19 hospitalizations attributable to poor metabolic health (nearly two-thirds of all hospitalizations) — was striking,” O’Hearn said. “This is a wake-up call to improve our nation’s metabolic health through improvements to diet and physical activity, both for this pandemic and the future ones certain to come.”

According to O’Hearn, the study found that if the national prevalence of the conditions was reduced by 10%, about 11% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations could have been prevented. These disparities in metabolic health may explain why there are more severe COVID-19 outcomes seen in Black and Hispanic American communities.

Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School, elaborated on how these comorbidities affect vaccine rollout in various states.

“The vaccine rollout in Massachusetts and many other states is prioritizing people with these pre-existing conditions, although that also complicates delivery and rollout compared to simple age-based criteria, like in [Connecticut],” Mozaffarian wrote in an email to the Daily.

Massachusetts is currently in Phase 2, Group 2 of its vaccination plan, which includes people with two or more certain medical conditions that increase the risk for severe illness. This

VIA TUFTS UNIVERSITY

The Tufts Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences building is pictured. would include people with obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart failure.

Micha, a research associate professor at the Friedman School, explained how the study’s findings are important in continuing conversations about chronic diseases.

“Chronic preventable diseases are a tremendous burden on individuals and societies, not just

in the United States but around the world,” Micha wrote in an email to the Daily. “This study adds to the evidence that obesity is not simply a matter of individual choices, but is a systemic issue that governments, civil society and businesses must work together to address.”

Mozaffarian underlined this point, and how it fits in with discussions about the pandemic.

“Our findings highlight the urgent need for government officials, as they are emphasizing wearing masks, hand washing, and social distancing every day — all important measures — to also highlight every day to the public the importance of eating a little better, moving a little more,” Mozaffarian said.

“Even small changes can make a difference.”

News

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Senator Jalen Little notes a split along racial lines on in-person component resolution SENATE

continued from page 1 Cameron Rusin, a representative from Tufts for a Racially Equitable Endowment, explained why TCU Senate should adopt this resolution, even though Tufts only has a relatively small amount of money invested in a private prison, and it’s not a direct investment.

“Even though it’s difficult to do and maybe not a huge percentage of the endowment, if Tufts [wants to] improve itself as an institution and create itself as an anti-racist university, then it has to go, no matter what,” Rusin said.

The Education Committee’s resolution calling on Tufts to require that every fall 2021 course offer an in-person component was also presented to the TCU Senate.

The resolution cited an exit survey conducted by TCU Senate at the end of the fall 2020 semester, which found that the student body viewed the virtual academic experience unfavorably and experienced feelings of social isolation from peers and professors.

Class of 2024 Senator Claire Bolash, a member of the Education Committee, explained why TCU Senate should pass the resolution.

“Because Tufts University has already accepted the greatest risk of COVID spreading on campus, which is having students in residence halls and having students in off-campus houses, I do not see a reason why there should not be significant steps towards making sure every student who elects to be on campus should have an in-person component for their course and for every course,” Bolash said.

Some senators expressed concern that offering an in-person component for every class would put remote students at a disadvantage.

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Academic Quad is pictured with cotton candy skies.

Education Committee Chair Iyra Chandra clarified that the resolution mandates that professors offer an in-person component, but does not require that students participate in those components. “[The resolution] just means that every class should have some optional offering that’s in-person, so there will be no class that’s fully virtual or fully asynchronous if students want to do something for the class in person,” Chandra said.

Bolash echoed Chandra.

“I personally don’t see this resolution as in any way exacerbating the difficulty for students who are taking courses online …

I personally only see it as being beneficial for those students

who are able to go in person,” Bolash said.

Sixteen senators voted in favor of the resolution, eight opposed it and one senator abstained. Although the resolution passed, several senators expressed lingering doubts about how it would negatively impact remote students.

“A lot of individuals that I’ve known, who [are] low income or might not have all the resources as others, have to be at home with the family, and they might not have the benefit of coming in person … it might lead to some dichotomy between different individuals with different identities,” Class of 2022 Senator Deepen Goradia said.

COVID-19 AT TUFTS

Later in the meeting, TCU Senate Diversity Officer Mathew Peña announced that the TCU Senate Community and Diversity Committee has been renamed the Committee on Community Diversity and Inclusion. Peña, a senior, explained that the new name better reflects the committee’s work with Tufts’ Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion and the six identity-based centers under its umbrella.

“The meaning of the name had [to do] with the fact that we want to be a lot more in line with what our work is dedicated towards and be a bit more in line with what our centers are,” Peña said.

In an open forum at the end of the meeting, Class of 2023 Senator Jalen Little commented

that the vote on the resolution to require an in-person component for all fall 2021 classes had largely split on racial lines, with students of color overwhelmingly voting against the resolution.

“In the resolution you claim to include the voices of students of color, but then in the vote it’s so clearly driven by racial lines. It can end up sort of feeling like you’re not really listening to students of color, especially the ones that are here and supposed to be working with you,” Little said.

Little said that students of color would likely be most impacted by the stratification between in-person and remote learners if the resolution goes into effect.

4 Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Features

tuftsdaily.com

Chinese international students discuss Tufts@BNU program

COURTESY MALA GHOSH

Chinese international students take online Tufts classes and in-person BNU classes through the Tufts@BNU program.

by Kevin Du

Assistant Features Editor

On March 19, 2020, Keren Chen, then a senior in high school who had recently been admitted to Tufts, began the journey from her boarding school in Minnesota to her home in Shanghai in the midst of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. Chen brought gloves, glasses, masks and 80% alcohol sanitizer and was too cautious to eat anything on the plane. After nearly 50 hours of traveling, Chen and several high school friends with whom she’d traveled finally arrived at the airport in Shanghai, China.

Despite being relieved to return home during the uncertain times of the pandemic, Chen faced the challenge of starting her journey at Tufts from thousands of miles away.

Other Chinese international students were in a similar situation, and many who were first years had never physically been to the Medford/Somerville campus.

“Both me and my parents thought after summer [break] … I could just book a ticket and [fly] back to Boston in September without any restriction. But I guess it wasn’t like that,” Chen said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the travel ban from China, largely directed at non-permanent

residents of the U.S., has been in place since Jan. 31, 2020.

Andrew Shiotani, the director of the International Center at Tufts, said that about 40% of international students are still outside of the U.S., and many of them are from China.

According to Shiotani, the widespread shutdowns of U.S. embassies and consulates in China and the requirement that travelers spend 14 days in a country other than China prior to entry into the United States further complicated Chinese international students’ attempts to get visas and return to Tufts.

“My visa expired right after I came back from high school and the embassy is still not open, so I’m still waiting for the interview,” Chen said.

However, for Tufts international students in China, finding a community in their home country is still possible.

Since last summer, Tufts Global Education has collaborated with Beijing Normal University to create the Tufts@BNU program, which allows Chinese international students to take online Tufts classes and in-person BNU classes.

Tufts@BNU started as a grassroots effort.

“Many students in China reached out to us with this request [of attending a local Chinese university partnered with Tufts],” Mala Ghosh, asso-

ciate dean and senior director of study abroad and global education, wrote in an email to the Daily.

Katie Yang, a first-year from Beijing, China, is one of the initiators who drafted a petition among Chinese international students and contacted the Tufts administration. Yang heard that other American universities, such as Cornell, were partnering with universities in China to provide local programs to international students who couldn’t return to campus.

Yang didn’t know of anyone who was pitching the same idea at Tufts and decided to push for the program.

“It [turned] out that nobody was actually doing this. I was like, okay, I probably should start all this,” Yang said.

Early last summer, before Yang had even enrolled at Tufts, Yang started to conduct surveys and collect signatures from Chinese international students through WeChat, a Chinese social media platform. Yang and a group of students then composed an email with the survey results to the Tufts administration and University President Anthony Monaco.

In the survey result, 100% of interviewees answered “yes” to the question, “Would you like to study in Chinese universities to communicate with peers and share university resources while

joining Tufts online courses?”

Seventy-eight signatures were also gathered with names and student IDs listed on the side.

Used to being “that kid in the background,” Yang was nervous throughout the process.

“It’s kind of weird … stepping up front and doing something … I’m not sure if I [am actually doing] the right thing, even though I think it is,” Yang said.

Thanks to the efforts of Yang and other students, Tufts Global Education saw the needs of Chinese international students and quickly got to work to create a partnership with the BNU administration.

“The two sides were able to reach an agreement within a short period of time and BNU staff worked overtime during the summer to get their campus ready for our students before classes started in September,” Mingquan Wang, faculty director of Tufts in Beijing, Tufts Global Education, wrote in an email to the Daily.

According to Wang, 74 Chinese students participated in the program during the fall 2020 semester and 53 are currently participating in the spring of 2021. Based on a survey he conducted, 92% of the students were satisfied or very satisfied with the program.

Shiotani, who also collaborated with Tufts Global Education, echoed Wang’s statement.

“Everything I’ve heard is that the program has been received very well, that students are enjoying being on a campus, being in a classroom,” Shiotani said.

The benefit of having a sense of a college community, however, does not erase the incredible physical and mental challenges for Chinese international students trying to bridge two academic worlds. Unstable internet and time zone differences are two major issues.

First-year David Liu said that because of the Chinese government’s censorship on web browsing, students at BNU need to use a virtual private network (VPN) to access needed online resources for Tufts courses, and it can be quite slow.

For Liu, who participated in the program in the fall 2020 semester, the internet issues cast shadows over his learning experience. Liu said that his screen would freeze for half of the class and his classmates and professors simply could not hear him.

“I remember that for my last class, I wanted to say goodbye to my classmates, but I was frozen [during] the entire class,” Liu said.

The time zone difference exerts another toll on Chinese international students. Some see INTERNATIONAL , page 5

F e at u r e s

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

Students at Tufts@BNU look forward to returning to Medford INTERNATIONAL

continued from page 4 Tufts@BNU students describe themselves as “yinjian ren,” a word used to describe those who sleep during the day and wake up in the middle of the night.

Last semester, Liu had a writing class at 10 p.m., a Spanish class at 4 a.m. and a calculus class at BNU at 8 a.m. An hourlong shuttle from where the Tufts students live to the main BNU campus made the schedule even more difficult.

Liu would then go back to the dorm at noon and sleep until 7 p.m. for his “next day” to begin. “[During my remote class at midnight], my brain was like soup … I just felt very tired at the time,” Liu said.

Yang said she could not attend club meetings because of the timezone issue.

“I like anime … [but the club’s] meeting time when translated to our time was seven in the morning, which I can never wake up,” Katie said.

Ghosh acknowledged the difficulties that Chinese international students face.

“The students have done an amazing job at balancing both schedules, but we understand that the time difference is not ideal and is a challenge for students,” Ghosh said.

Despite the long distance, Tufts has stayed connected with its Chinese international students and readily offers support.

According to Chen, Tufts bought a new router for the BNU program to help with some of the internet issues. Knowing that many students choose to use cellular data to avoid the crowded school internet, Tufts Global Education directly offered cash allowance.

“The most impressive thing that I can never forget is the 600 RMB for each of us,” Chen said. “I can feel Tufts still [cares] about us, even though we are like 13 hours away from each other.”

According to Ghosh, the students have enjoyed many group activities including celebrating Thanksgiving, doing Secret Santa, making dumplings, climbing the Great Wall and hosting talent shows.

“From what we witnessed during the fall, the students created a strong community while at BNU,” Ghosh said.

Chen believes that because Tufts students at BNU live together under the relatively loose COVID-19 restrictions in China, they actually have more opportunities to interact with each other than they would have if they had returned to Tufts in-person.

“We had fun together. We had debates together about a lot of different topics, it was a great time,” Chen said.

Yang even created a website that showcases life at BNU and their appreciation for the staff members. “[We have] pictures about … what happened in the BNU program and … little snapshots over lines [about] something we appreciate about being in the program,” Yang said.

However, being a group of “international” students at a traditional university in their home country, Chinese Tufts students reported struggling to make local connections and find a sense of belonging.

As Tufts students live in another campus of BNU, their life is separated from the main student body.

“We are just wanderers … we just [go to the main campus] for classes and food.

That’s it. We have completely different schedules and completely different classes [compared to local BNU students],” sophomore Ran Guo said.

“I feel like I don’t have any BNU friends,” Yang said. “The interaction

between me and BNU students is minimal … I don’t have the chance [to interact with them].”

The deep educational difference between the two countries further contributes to the distance between the two student bodies.

Liu said that the competition among Chinese students at BNU is extremely intense. According to Liu, professors expect students to do extra exercises and jump ahead the syllabus, which overwhelms him.

“It is not comfortable … Like you have already read your textbook…then when you’re sitting in the classroom, your professor just [talks] about questions, problem sets and concepts outside of the textbook, and all of your classmates seem to be familiar with that part … you cannot catch [up with] them,” Liu said.

Guo, a political science major, does not find his BNU class attractive. In his experience, Guo said that typical BNU students are very busy, and they take around 10 classes. Consequently, rarely anybody has the time to do the assigned class readings. The lectures have limited student-professor interactions, and the tests and papers do not require the mastery of reading materials, either.

“They don’t have homework, they don’t do reading, they just go to classes and do … their papers,” Guo said.

Chen, having been in the U.S. education system since middle school, also struggles to deal with her double identity at BNU. Chen said that local students are not familiar with the liberal arts education and are more career-focused in subjects math and science.

“When I talk about, ‘oh, I major in [biology] and art.’ And when [local students] heard art, they were like … ‘why should you take art?’ I don’t get why they think like that,” Chen said.

Although she is a Chinese student studying in her home country, Chen does not feel like she belongs.

“I do … walk on [the BNU] campus and hear people [speaking] Chinese all around me, that makes me feel like I’m home … [but it] didn’t give me a motivation to stay here to study because I don’t feel like I could learn as much compared to Tufts. So, [studying in China] does make me feel comfortable, but it didn’t give me motivation,” Chen said.

Chen talked about reconciling her American values with her Chinese identity.

“It’s to find a point that makes myself most comfortable because everybody is different,” she said. “I just follow my heart and my mind to do and say whatever I want.”

Coincidentally, Shiotani, being a Japanese American who lived in Okinawa, Japan with a Japanese family background, can sympathize with Chinese students at BNU. “I grew up speaking English in Japan.

So, I felt very American when I was in Japan,” Shiotani said. “If I just walk down the street, people think I’m Japanese … but culturally … everything about the way I was raised was American.”

Shiotani said that having a combination of cultural experiences, while challenging, is extremely important.

“We have the opportunity to … develop really important and unique perspectives on things … We have the opportunity to be bridges between different types of value systems … We have the ability to see things from different ways,” Shiotani said.

With ups and downs for Chinese international students at the BNU program, many of them wish to return to Tufts soon.

David Liu already arrived on the Tufts campus for the spring semester. He stayed in Singapore for 14 days to be cleared for U.S. entry. He now faces the challenges of adjusting to life on an American campus in the middle of the school year.

“I need to get familiar with new people and new classmates I met in the U.S.,” Liu said.

Tufts students who were unable to travel back to Massachusetts miss the Medford/Somerville campus; those who embarked upon their first year as a Tufts student in the Tufts@BNU program look forward to experiencing Tufts campus life for the first time.

“The campus experience [at Tufts] was really good … the atmosphere, what people are talking about … during our free time with topics [that we are interested in],” Guo said. “These things happen very [rarely] at BNU.” Chen is determined to come back to the U.S. for the fall 2021 semester, and she particularly wants to have her art studio experience at Tufts.

“Aiyou, zhen de xiang hui qu,” Chen said in her native language at the end of the interview. “I really want to go back to the States.”

5

Marco Sheng Transferable Skills

You don’t need to swim in self-pity

I

was pretty angry for many of these last few days. Anger is an easy but supremely unhelpful emotion.

I was angry that I failed my editors by not meeting my deadline (I didn’t publish a column last week). And I am angry because each day I’ve been failing at the values I outlined at the beginning of the column. I haven’t been curious, but judgmental. Instead of being vulnerable, I’ve put armor around me. I’ve been far from optimistic. I’m consistently vague in my thinking and task lists. Most importantly I haven’t put in any kind of effort towards compassion, kindness and generosity.

In other words, I was in a pretty bad place these past couple of weeks. Even when I felt like everything was set up for success, I failed to really get going at anything, stuck in simple, compulsive distractions or drowning in habitual self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors.

It was especially frustrating because, as mentioned in my previous column, this semester is my last hurrah, and I wanted it to be amazing.

Only hours ago I was swimming in self-pity, that oh-so-addictive state we like to wade in to gain some dopamine hit, numb the pain and remove ourselves from reality, responsibility and agency. There’s something instantly gratifying about victimizing yourself, exaggerating your deficiencies and expecting doting attention or pity as you blame the world. Until you realize that everyone’s self-conscious and self-absorbed. And no one wants to hear you complain too much.

The truth is that everyone carries suffering with them on some level. And everyone’s story is different — they say comparison is the thief of joy for good reason. If you’re feeling hopeless and helpless, if you believe that things will never get better, remember this: Things will get better, I promise you. Life is long.

College, or whatever stage of life you’re at right now, is not the end all be all. Even though your college years are put on a pedestal by society, it’s just four years of your life, and many people actually thrive more after college than during it.

So be kind to yourself. People say that all the time, though, so what does that mean? Start small. Write a daily mantra to yourself, something like “I am blessed, I am loved, I am strong.” Keep a gratitude journal (Oprah swears by this!).

Be curious about the way you talk to yourself. Don’t judge harshly when it’s not warranted — treat yourself like you would treat a friend. Being kind to yourself means thinking about your future self as well, and framing healthy activities, like exercise and healthy eating, in terms that encourage you to start.

Or if you’re a flailing, socially anxious, too-old senior, maybe that means getting thoughts from outside your swirling mind onto the fresh print of (digital) newspaper in a way that’s a little cathartic each time.

Lesson 1: Be kind to yourself. Even if you don’t believe it, fake kindness to yourself with a positive mantra. If you’re into developing more self-compassion skills, I would recommend checking out Kristin Neff online. Remember, self-compassion may be even more important than self-esteem.

Marco Sheng is a senior studying psychology. Marco can be reached at marco.sheng@tufts.edu.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2021

‘The Decameron Project’ remembers life and fiction touched by COVID-19 Assistant Arts Editor

March 2021 sits uncomfortably with many of us, a reminder of March 2020 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic’s unsettling consequences. One year ago, in response to the massive changes taking place, a certain book began flying off bookshelves. It was Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron” (1353), a collection of short stories told by a fictional group sheltered outside Florence, Italy as the Black Death devastated 14th century Europe.

The New York Times Magazine created their own “Decameron,” with short stories detailing COVID-19. On July 7, the magazine issue was published.

Then, on Nov. 10, The New York Times Magazine released “The Decameron Project” (2020) as a print book, explaining the project and presenting the 29 stories.

Victor LaValle’s “Recognition” (2020), the first story in the collection, dissects death by introducing past lives and their odd manifestations. The protagonist, unnamed, befriends a woman named Mirta.

At the end of the story, Mirta explains through her door that she recognized the character because they met in a past life. Seconds later, Mirta’s door opens and she is found dead. She has left the protagonist a note, ensuring they would meet again in another life.

Culminating quickly, the story teaches that death, though jarring, immediate and unwanted, can also connect. In the fiction’s comforting claim, guilt is mitigated by the promised continuation of friendship, assured by a supernatural ghost or a festering déjà vu.

In the preface to the collection, renowned author Margaret Atwood’s story, “Impatient Griselda” (2020), is hinted to be genius. It is.

An alien, sent as a part of an “intergalactical-crises aid package,” distracts quarantined humans with an atrociously entertaining story, all while berating humankind for their despicable qualities. Immediately, the alien’s translation device can-

not interpret the word “vegan” in a request for snacks. The suggested and obvious solution, then, is to not eat. The “little young entities” don’t like the alien’s bluntness or that it looks like an octopus. It enjoys this, as its lack of skeleton makes oozing under doors manageable.

Continuing with hilarious discrepancies in language and culture, the alien tells a folk story of sisters tricking and killing a duke.

The story is almost believable until the alien nonchalantly states that the sisters ate the corpse, a more substantive and menacing translational glitch. Still, the alien insists that “storytelling does help us understand one another across our social and historical and evolutionary chasms…” The story initially appears to prove the opposite.

Yet, the ridiculousness of the misconceptions reveals human ignorance. Fiction does unite, especially during difficult times. Those who reject this pleasure because of their natural differences should have their corpses eaten.

Etgar Keret’s story “Outside” (2020), translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen, features a character who has forgotten everything about his life before isolation. He goes outside, trying to remember if he was a social worker. His instincts are revivified by a beggar asking for food. He remembers to ignore them and walk with a head down. The story ends with the line, “The body remembers everything, and the heart that softened while you were alone will harden back up in no time.” The story is brief but insightful. Isolation stole our humanity. Yet, in the world before, were we more inhumane?

Edwidge Danticat’s “One Thing” (2020) tells the story of Marie-Jeanne remembering the behavioral intricacies of her science teacher’s husband. She is “the love of Ray’s life,” talking to his unconscious body through a phone held to his ear by the nurse also regulating his ventilator. Danticat’s beautiful writing effortlessly paints the pain of losing loved ones to the debilitating effects of COVID-19. It is an intensely moving story to end the collection.

VIA AMAZON

The New York Times Magazine’s “The Decameron Project” (2020) includes 29 short stories written during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the introduction to the collection, Rivka Galchen writes, “Memento vivere.” In Latin, it means, “Remember that you must live.” She marks this mes-

sage as the meaning of “The Decameron.” We live through fiction, reading stories that are so much like our own to remember our place in this new world.

“The Decameron Project” is available everywhere and should be purchased by anyone impacted by COVID-19 — which is everyone.

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

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by Sadie Leite

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Tuesday, March 16, 2021 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

Rebirth, revolution and respite: Fashion predictions for 2021

by Paul Osmond Contributing Writer

With the isolation of 2020, many turned to music for solace. Fortunately, listeners were gifted with album releases from pop singers like Taylor Swift and The Weeknd and rock legends AC/DC. Wrapping up the year was the Christmas Day release of “Whole Lotta Red,” Playboi Carti’s long-awaited album. It received some disappointing reviews (I personally enjoyed it), but its associated vampiric punk aesthetics reflected the 2020 TikTok phenomenon: e-girls (and e-boys).

Fashion and music have always been interconnected, and on an app that emphatically combines sounds and

visuals, these teens helped reinvigorated interest in the 1970’s punk aesthetic — dark black clothing, industrial jewelry, bleached hair, painted nails, tattoos and piercings. Though most disregard them for their cringy lip-synced videos, they nevertheless highlight the ’70s as a popular point of reference for fashion today.

The decade was revered for its vivacious youth culture focused on social revolution, and I expect the ’70s will continue to influence culture and clothing in 2021. We have already seen e-girls revive trends like platform boots, miniskirts and cropped clothing, and I suspect these will coalesce with the ambitious attire of the new year.

The absoluteness that black and white denotes unsettles many as it reflects

COURTESY PEXELS

Fashion trends toward deconstructing gender binaries and allowing for increased self-expression.

binaries. Some see it as an invitation for disruption. There is colorful exploration to be had, and most have already started experimenting. Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada’s first collaborative collection marks an early example from a luxury brand. It featured saturated yet delicate colors paired with standard black and white pieces. Referencing ’70s trends, I predict more colorful pieces and patterns will complement black and white neutral numbers, representing a departure from the standard. Along with ’70s printed designs, I have noticed the arrival of colorful knitwear with intricate patterns, landscapes and famous artwork. These will certainly permeate in 2021 and pair nicely with last year’s relaxed, oversized looks.

The internet was shattered several times in 2020, but in the fashion world, nothing was more radical or rattling than Harry Styles donning a Gucci dress for the cover of Vogue Magazine. While many commended the musician, others begged for the return of “manly men.”

Regardless of response, Styles’ Vogue debut demonstrated recent deconstructions of gender binaries in fashion.

For years, celebrities like Jaden Smith and Young Thug have worn dresses and skirts, and LGBTQ+ content creators of color established a genderqueer fashion paradigm long ago. Wearing traditionally feminine attire is becoming more widely accepted for men, and many have started dabbling in conventionally feminine forms of self-expression — nail polish, jewelry and long hair. You should expect more of this expressive upheaval in 2021. I have already added a few skirts to my wardrobe, and you might spot a few men rocking dazzling, sultry sundresses in the spring. Fashion will continue to deconstruct gender norms, irrespective of contemptuous opinions.

As much as collaboration and connection was important in 2020, many identities were marginalized. Though large brands offer widely recognizable attire, buyers wanted to express their uniqueness and identity. Do-it-yourself, customization and thrifting became massively popular in early 2020. As stores begin to reopen, I expect these trends to continue as creators sharpen their craft. During lockdown, many turned to web shops; Depop, Poshmark and Etsy were readily visited for their frugal and unique collections, and they are likely to grow even larger in 2021. Out of all my predictions, I guarantee that 2021 will bring bursting creative expression, innovative ideas and, most of all, unapologetic, unrestrained individuality.

7

Drew Weisberg A Fantastic Voyage

‘Solve Everything’ Part 2

W

elcome back to the column, friends! Last week we had what may be a Tufts Daily first, a story recap and review so massive it requires two parts to do it justice. In light of this, make sure you catch up with last week’s installment so you won’t get lost.

Despite tensions running high with Sue, Reed continues to spend more and more time at the multiversal headquarters of the Council of Reeds (see, I told you that you needed to be caught up).

After weighing his options, Reed plans to become a member of the Council, take his problem-solving abilities to new heights and be all that he can be. That is, until the Celestials attack.

Celestials are essentially the Marvel Universe’s final boss, a race of almighty god-beings who sculpted life across the stars (and made a brief appearance in James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)). Here, though, they’ve abandoned their creator roles and have come to destroy the Council and every world in the multiverse.

The battle between the Council and the Celestials is spectacular, rendered in delightful detail by the artist, Dale Eaglesham, who pulls double duty on pencils and inks while the colorist, Paul Mounts, makes each member of the Council vibrant and unique. The Reeds and the Celestials do battle with all manner of weapons, from a “universal entropy gun” to an alternate universe-powered Infinity Gauntlet. The fight is a dazzling display of classic, cosmic, superhero fun.

The fun comes to an end as the Celestials retreat. The Council’s hideout is in pieces, many members lie defeated and one Reed (the one through which the Celestials gained the location of the Council) has lost his increased intellect. “It’s gone, Reed,” he says to our hero. “My gift … how my mind worked … gone.” In a moment of despair, the depowered Reed begins to describe the real price of a seat on the Council in a chilling monologue.

“The cost of solving everything is everything … The work will consume you … Susan will stop understanding … Your children will resent you because you work too much and love too little…

All you will have left is this.” And our Reed rejects him, rejects the Council and then leaves. He goes back to his reality, to a waiting Susan. I would argue that this moment illustrates what makes our Reed the best one in the multiverse. He doesn’t seek solutions that still leave some people with problems; he believes that everyone deserves a chance at equal happiness.

It would be easy to spend your days with those that understand you exactly as well as you know yourself — to stay in an eternal comfort zone. This arc illustrates that Reed knows better than that — even the smartest man on earth always has room to learn, and to learn you have to be willing to think outside of your own thoughts.

Next week we’ll check in on the Human Torch and the Thing as their vacation to the mysterious Nu-World goes awry.

Drew Weisberg is a junior studying film and media studies. Drew can be reached at mitchell.weisberg@tufts.edu.

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Tuesday, March 16, 2021

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Difficulty Level: Watching 16 recorded lectures in one day

Monday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

9 Tuesday, March 16, 2021

OP-ED

China is not the existential threat to US national security that many may think FRANCESCA MICHIELLI China’s economic and military rise over the past 30 years has propelled it to a position of great power and influence on the international stage. The conversation around U.S.China relations has subsequently characterized China as not just a competitor for hegemony, but as an existential threat to American national security.

This narrative, pushed by both Democrats and Republicans, has wrongly conflated China as a hegemonic challenger with China as a national security threat. Although China’s increasing influence does inherently challenge the U.S.’s position as the global hegemon, it is not the existential national security threat it’s often made out to be, but instead a responsible stakeholder in the current global system.

China’s growing influence on the international stage is due largely to its economic growth and military. China, the world’s largest trader and second-biggest economy, is a permanent

Elizabeth Buehl Building Blocks

I

Modern fault lines

t has been almost 70 years since the Supreme Court made its precedent-setting decision to desegregate schools in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. While our nation has made immense progress from our former legal structures that openly endorsed blatantly segregated schools, we still have a long way to go. Approximately 6% of students currently in the American public education system are enrolled in gifted programs.

The aforementioned group of

member of the United Nations Security Council and has greatly increased its military capacity in the past decade. Yet, none of this poses an existential threat to U.S. national security, loosely defined as the ability of the government to protect the well-being, health and safety of its citizens. China does not have a military capability to match that of the U.S., currently relies heavily on trade with the U.S. for economic stability and has a stake in maintaining the current international political order.

For these reasons, China does not threaten the well-being of American citizens.

China can be considered a “responsible stakeholder”; because its economic growth can be credited to the liberal order, China depends on the stability of the system. China is incentivized to cooperate within the current bounds of the world order and avoid largescale destabilization because of the robust gains it receives from international trade. China’s inclusion in the World Trade Organization is largely responsible for the economic power

China wields today, and China and the U.S. are highly dependent on each other for trade stability: The U.S. is China’s largest export market, with about 19% of Chinese exports sold in the U.S. Additionally, China has been an active participant in and beneficiary of Western international institutions. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and major contributor to UN Peacekeeping operations, China has expanded its soft power capacities abroad and has committed to longterm participation in the current world order. The Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure and energy investment project funded by China throughout much of the developing world, is another channel through which the state further expands its soft power influence.

Because China benefits greatly from the current international system, it will be careful not to create large disruptions. China’s reliance on global stability is in the best interest of the American people, as it creates safeguards against an escalation of tensions between the U.S. and China.

Even if China wanted to challenge the U.S. in a way that threatened American citizens, it has neither the military capacity, economic resources, diplomatic ties nor internal stability to do so. China lags behind the U.S. in terms of military spending and technology; a sheer lack of resources prevents China from posing a significant military threat. As a middle-income country, China also is facing slowing economic growth, low productivity and low domestic consumption. This, coupled with the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing systemic oppression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, demonstrates the internal instability preventing China from seriously threatening the well-being of the American people. Lastly, China currently lacks diplomatic influence and secure East and Southeast Asian alliances to really challenge the United States’ international standing.

This is not to say that China hasn’t already posed some threats to American interests, including theft of U.S.-based technology and intellectual

students is overwhelmingly composed of white and Asian students, while many incredibly intelligent Black and Hispanic students are left without the same chances for academic advancement. For example, in New York City, almost threefourths of students in gifted programs are white or Asian, despite the fact that Black and Hispanic students make up 65% of the school system.

On the surface, one of the many causes of this damaging disparity is standardized testing, but when digging deeper, the apparent prevalence of racism in our society is to blame. Some efforts that have already been made to reduce this disparity include the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Children and Youth Education Act of 1987, which aims to pro-

vide more equal opportunities to underrepresented students.

While this initiative is a step in the right direction, it falls short, as exhibited by the persistence of such vast disparities in the status quo.

Just this past week, news broke of a lawsuit against the New York City public school system demanding action against these systemic inequities. The suit argues that selective admissions policies and gifted programs have perpetuated and exacerbated racial inequality within the school system. This comes in the wake of several other similar lawsuits that have been filed across the nation, including a suit in Detroit.

While I am hopeful that these efforts will not go unnoticed, I feel that in order to create widespread, long-term change,

we must create uniform politics that can be implemented around the country.

One effort that must be taken is to provide youth with increased and more equitable access to preschool programs in order to create an equal playing field for admissions procedures, which sometimes come as early as age four for gifted program entrance. We must change admissions procedures to permit students of many different backgrounds to showcase their talents and intellect.

While there are many ways to approach this, individual interviews, as opposed to standardized testing, would greatly increase fairness. Once these initiatives are underway, we can begin to dismantle the systemized discrimination that disproportionately shorts Black and

property. Instead, I am arguing that these threats are overblown in the popular narrative, and that, given the international context, China’s opportunities to act on this information are limited. Secondly, climate change as a global existential threat may provide more opportunities for cooperation between the two nations, increasing trust and stabilizing diplomatic relations.

It will be interesting to see if, and how, the Biden administration pivots from the Trump administration’s “tough on China” approach. It is in both the U.S. and China’s best interests to cooperate on as many fronts as possible, and for the U.S. to tone down the rhetoric of China as an existential threat.

Please join us in attending the EPIIC International Symposium from March 18–20. The “ChinaUS-Russia: Multipolarity or Polar Opposites” discussion will be held Friday, March 19 at 9:00 am EDT. Francesca Michielli is a junior studying economics.

Francesca can be reached at francesca.michielli@tufts.edu.

Latinx students out of gifted programs. In addition, opportunities for students whose first language is not English must simultaneously be implemented in order to bolster equality.

The achievement gap will only widen unless concrete efforts are made. If we, as a nation, truly want to create more widespread equality, then this issue must be prioritized rapidly. The Equal Education Opportunities Act promises to provide equal educational opportunities to all students no matter their identifiers, and in order to truly fulfill this promise, we must address inequality in gifted programs.

Elizabeth Buehl is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Elizabeth can be reached at elizabeth.buehl@tufts.edu.

Sports

10 Tuesday, March 16, 2021

tuftsdaily.com

The meaning of March

by Alex Sharp

Executive Sports Editor

Tufts’ advising deans recently sent an email outlining steps students should take if they’re feeling ill this semester. One message was very clear: Students feeling sick should “Stay home!” The email, which also directed students to fill out a short-term illness form on SIS if missing class, came just in time. This is because I have had an illness scheduled for Friday, March 19, and Monday, March 22, for quite awhile now. If ever there is a time to feel a faint scratch in the back of your throat, a slight spike in temperature or a very mild stomach ache, it’s during the first and second rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament.

And of course, during a pandemic, taking a symptom induced day off from class to watch twelve straight hours of basketball isn’t lazy or selfish, it’s noble.

The NCAA tournament is everything that’s great about sports condensed into three weeks of basketball. Rivalries, powerhouse teams, underdogs, comebacks, buzzer beaters — March Madness has it all. Since Magic Johnson and Michigan State defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State in the 1979 national championship, the tournament has become a staple in American sports. Many of today’s NBA stars first made names for themselves in the tournament. Think Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse in 2003, Stephen Curry at Davidson in 2008, Kemba Walker at Uconn in 2011 and Anthony Davis at Kentucky in 2012. But for every future NBA player and one-anddone superstar, there are many more rock solid upperclassmen playing their last basketball games in front of major audiences.

The tournament is known for the moments when all the stars align and something remarkable happens, so remarkable that you can’t quite believe your eyes.

Christian Laettner’s buzzer beater off of a three-quarter-court

Arnav Sacheti Olympic Torch

The scoop on race walking “Who wants to work this hard to look this funny?”

That quote is a motivating mantra for Steve DiBernado, head of Club NorthWest Racewalking in Portland, Ore. That’s because he has spent his life embodying the answer to that well-meaning, but ultimately sarcastic and disparaging quote. Working hard while looking funny in race walking has led DiBernardo to international fame and recognition.

DiBernardo is just one example of the rich history of a seemingly insane, but long-standing sport.

pass from Grant Hill, Kris Jenkins’ 3-pointer to win the national championship for Villanova and University of Maryland Baltimore County becoming the first sixteenth-seeded team to ever win a game are a few moments that will always be part of the pregame Turner Sports tournament montages. The tournament is so exciting and so full of twists and turns that your eyes have to be glued to the TV from the time the first game tips off until the final buzzer sounds and the confetti starts falling. If you look away, even for a second, you could miss the moment you’re going to tell your kids about one day.

Jim Valvano was the architect behind one of the greatest moments and Cinderella stories in NCAA tournament history. In 1983, the North Carolina State head coach led his eighth-seeded Wolfpack to a championship victory over the dominant “Phi Slama Jama” University of Houston team that had cruised to the No. 1 overall seed with future hall of famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler leading the way. NC State shocked everybody by beating Houston on a buzzer-beating Lorenzo Charles dunk, and Valvano hysterically running around the court looking for someone to hug became an indelible image in college basketball lore.

Ten years after winning the national championship, Valvano died of cancer. He was only 47 years old. Three months before his death, Dick Vitale helped Valvano slowly climb the stairs of the ESPY Awards’ (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards’) stage, where he proceeded to deliver an all time speech that has since been viewed millions of times. Valvano told the audience at Madison Square Garden that there are three things people should do every day: “Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think.

You should spend some time in thought. And number three is

A bracket comparing the 2021 NCAA basketball teams is drawn on a whiteboard. you should have your emotions In 2017, two of college basketmoved to tears,” Valvano said. “If ball’s blue bloods, North Carolina you laugh, you think, and you and Kentucky, met in the Elite cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck Eight. It was a thriller from the of a day. You do that seven days a tip, and North Carolina won on week, you’re going to have some- a game-winning jumper by Luke thing special.”

Maye with less than a second left.

Most people can find a way After the game, De’Aaron Fox and to laugh and think every day, Bam Adebayo, two of Kentucky’s but being moved to tears is best players, spoke to the press less common. Coincidentally, while literally bawling their eyes it’s not “The Notebook” (2004) out. Through tears and with his or A Great Big World’s “Say arm around his crying teammate, Something” (2014) that can con- Fox said, “I love my brothers, man.” sistently move me to tears, but The clip is enough to make anyone rather the very tournament that tear up. Moments like this are not made Valvano famous. It is the few and far between in March. human element of a single elim- Every game has a loser, and on ination tournament featuring every losing team there are a nummostly 18 to 22-year-olds that ber of players who will never again makes the tournament such a play for their coach or with their unique event. Any single shot, best friends and teammates. When foul, rebound or turnover can be people cry because something the difference between a player’s has ended, it means that thing childhood dreams coming true had meaning. The brotherhood, and suddenly crumbling to the the fierceness of competition, the ground on national television. momentum swings, the relationThe games aren’t just sports sto- ships with coaches — that’s what ries, they’re human stories, and it’s all about. the margins between the glory of But Valvano wasn’t just talking victory and the agony of defeat about being moved to tears in are razor thin. sadness. In fact, he said in his

Race walking is almost exactly what you think it is. Participants compete to see who walks a specified distance the fastest.

However, if you thought you could jump into the international race walking scene because you have a lot of experience walking quickly to high school English class before the bell, you are sorely mistaken.

According to the rules of competitive race walking, an athlete is required to maintain one foot on the ground at all times while monitored by race judges for correct form. This is incredibly difficult to maintain at high speeds and requires a lot of practice, precision and physical exertion. The fastest race walkers can maintain form and click off 6:30-minute miles during a long-distance walk, which is almost nine mph and

three times faster than normal human walking speed.

Race walking has deep-rooted origins and a long-standing culture. The idea for race walking got its start in the late 19th century during the Victorian era, when high-class individuals who rode horses would bet on which of their footmen — who would walk with them — could walk the fastest.

Soon, this evolved into an official sport originally termed “pedestrianism,” with large crowds watching sometimes week-long races and betting on winners.

With this level of fanfare and a fervent backing from powerful people during the Victorian era, race walking made its Olympic debut as a stand-alone sport in 1908. Starting out with only a 20 km race for men, today’s Olympic broadcast now features a women’s 20 km race and men’s

ALEX SHARP / THE TUFTS DAILY

20 km and 50 km races. Mexico, China and Italy feature some of the best race walkers, having won more Olympic medals than any other nations.

Over the sport’s more than a century of existence, athletes have discerned specific strategies to gain an advantage over their competition. Most high-level racewalkers use a technique called “Elvis-like hips,” in which they rotate their hips 20 degrees as they take each step. This movement optimizes energy while walking and can even generate faster times than some marathon runners.

Another strategy is slightly out of bounds: Although athletes are supposed to keep at least one foot on the ground at all times, they sometimes don’t follow this rule. At the risk of getting caught and being dis-

speech that it “could be happiness or joy.” In every tournament there are inspiring stories, underdog stories and comeback stories.

The press conferences with winning players in March are just as likely to get the tear ducts going as the ones with the losers. On Saturday, Georgia Tech won the ACC conference tournament for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Jose Alvarado, a senior guard on the Georgia Tech team that hasn’t made the NCAA tournament in 11 years, was interviewed by ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the game. “I wasn’t even supposed to be in the ACC. [Coach Josh Pastner] took a chance on me,” Alverado said. “I got my daughter in the stands, I got my dad. My family couldn’t make it because it’s just a struggle in life, but I’m just so happy I get the chance to tell them I’m a champion.”

After the game, one of my basketball teammates from high school texted me, “Georgia Tech man. Just watched the highlights and damn what a moment with Alvarado.” There are very few sporting events where fans can see and feel the meaning of sports on their TVs, and the college basketball postseason is one of them.

Every year in mid-March, around the time the spring weather starts popping, I go to my closet and grab an old whiteboard with bracket lines permanently drawn on. The spaces above the lines have faint smudges-remnants of past nail-biters and blowouts, deep runs and early round upsets.

On Selection Sunday, I watch the last of the conference tournament games and then sit on the edge of my seat as the CBS crew of Greg Gumbel, Seth Davis and Clark Kellogg unveils the bracket. I take out a trusty Expo dry erase marker and slowly fill in the bracket as the first round matchups are announced. When the 68-team field is set, the white board is still just a blank canvas, but over the next few weeks the players and teams will paint a masterpiece.

Let’s dance.

qualified, the goal is to generate higher speeds. Unlike most modern sports, racewalking still does not use technology to make violation decisions; instead, it relies on the judge’s eyes. Since the human eye’s reaction time is around 0.6 seconds, if both feet are off the ground for 0.6 seconds or less, they won’t get caught, giving these athletes an advantage that can add up significantly over long distances.

After you’re finished reading this and get up to walk, I urge you to be more conscious about how you do it. Maybe with this inside information, you could be the next great Olympic champion.

Arnav Sacheti is a sophomore studying quantitative economics. Arnav can be reached at arnavsacheti@gmail.com