The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, April 6, 2021

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 37

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Carmichael Dining Center to be rebranded as gluten, peanut, tree nut-free establishment

by Alex Viveros News Editor

Carmichael Dining Center will be converted and rebranded into a gluten, peanut and tree nut free facility starting fall 2021.

In addition to a complete menu redesign to accommodate those with a gluten, peanut or tree nut allergy — the three most common food allergies on the Medford/Somerville campus — the dining center will also undergo a complete rebranding and unspecified name change, according to Kelly Shaw, Tufts Dining nutrition specialist.

“The plan is that by fall 2021, the entire unit will be free from these three allergens,” Shaw said.

“While there won’t be a stark physical change, we are completely redoing the menu.”

Patti Klos, director of Tufts Dining and Business Services, explained the motivation behind the proposed change.

“For many years we’ve provided gluten free foods in the dining centers, but because we continue to use gluten containing ingredients in those locations, students could inadvertently be affected by cross contact,” Klos wrote in an email to the Daily. “Many AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Students are pictured waiting in line outside of Carmichael Hall on Aug. 31, 2020.

Tufts research lab aids states with redistricting process

by Matt Chen

Contributing Writer

As state legislatures across the country prepare to undergo the decennial process of redrawing congressional districts, the MGGG Redistricting Lab at Tufts University has become an invaluable resource for many states.

The MGGG Redistricting Lab, which is affiliated with the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, grew out of an informal research collective called the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group. The lab is led by Moon Duchin, an associate professor in the mathematics department and director of the Science, Technology, and Society program at Tufts.

“As a lab, we have researchers, several with PhDs in different fields, like math, computer science and geography … I would say the lab is devoted to data science for civil rights,” Duchin said.

JN Matthews, a computational engineer at MGGG, explained the group’s work in an email to the Daily.

“Our group does a mixture of empirical and theoretical research in this space, public outreach, and open-source software development,” Matthews said.

The process of redistricting is generally seen as a partisan affair, but MGGG takes a non-partisan approach to the process.

“Our lab collects election and census geodata, research-

es redistricting and election reform, focuses on building free, open-source tools like Districtr, and building relationships with community partners,” Liz Kopecky, a program administra-

see CARMICHAEL, page 2

tor at MGGG, wrote in an email to the Daily.

Kopecky added that in recent years, several states established independent commissions that accept map submissions from the public to aid their redistricting efforts.

“Wisconsin and Michigan are two states that have commissions that will be accepting public map submissions and drawing district plans for Congress and the state legislature,” Kopecky said.

Matthews expanded on this.

“Our group is consulting for the Wisconsin People’s Maps Commission and the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to help them collect and analyze public input as well as to work with them to evaluate potential tradeoffs in mapping criteria,” Matthews said.

Duchin explained that split control states including Wisconsin, are especially keen on maintaining transparency during redistricting. Split control states

COURTESY MOON DUCHIN

see MGGG, page 2

Associate Professor Moon Duchin leads MGGG, examining the fairness of congressional maps.

SPORTS / back

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / page 5

Tufts softball overcomes early deficit in first win of season

Successful Tufts Energy Conference opens discussion of conference’s future

Mugler’s spring runway looks embrace gender and the body

NEWS

1

FEATURES

3

ARTS & POP CULTURE

5

FUN & GAMES

6

OPINION

7

SPORTS

BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, April 6, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Megan Szostak Editor in Chief

— EDITORIAL — ETHAN STEINBERG Managing Editor

LIZ SHELBRED COLTON WOLK Associate Editors Maddie Aitken Executive News Editor Sarah Crawford Executive Features Editor Tuna Margalit Executive Arts Editor Priya Padhye Executive Opinion Editor Julian Perry Editorial Editor Juanita Asapokhai Amulya Mutnuri Caroline Wolinsky Editorialists Alex Sharp Executive Sports Editor Jess Blough Investigative Editor Hannah Harris Executive Audio Producer Sophie Dolan Executive Photo Editor Austen Money Executive Video Editor

— PRODUCTION — YANQING HUANG Production Director Campbell Devlin Elizabeth Foster Kendall Roberts Executive Layout Editors Annabel Nied Calisa Sana Executive Graphics Editors Mariel Priven Kate Seklir Executive Copy Editors Michelle Li Tiffany Namkoong Executive Social Media Editors

— BUSINESS — EVELYN MCCLURE Business Director Rebecca Barker Jilly Rolnick Sam Russo Outreach Coordinators Etai Barash Web Manager Contact Us P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 daily@tuftsdaily.com thetuftsdaily tuftsdaily tuftsdaily

Please rec ycle this newspaper!

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself.

Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor in Chief, Executive Board and Business Director.

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts Dining seeks opinions of students with gluten, peanut and tree nut allergies CARMICHAEL

continued from page 1 of our peer institutions have a location dedicated to gluten free [dining], and think the time is right for us to take this step for the Tufts community.”

Tufts Dining hopes to redesign the dining center menu to cater to students both with and without gluten, peanut and tree nut allergies. The changes intend to minimize the burden of food-related stress for students with food allergies.

“It’s so important to make sure that all students have a safe, welcoming, consistent place to eat because eating is such a huge part of life,” Shaw said. “We want everybody to want to come to this new iteration of Carmichael Dining because the food will be delicious, and it will happen to be gluten-free.”

Shaw has been conducting focus groups with students with food allergies and using their feedback to determine what the menu of the new dining center will look like. Some ideas that have been proposed include a bagel bar, ramen noodle bar and grain bowl bar.

“It’s not just that we’re eliminating things that don’t fit with the current menu, it will have an entirely new concept,” Shaw said. “The focus will be on customization.”

Klos commented on what the menu plan may look like.

“Think delicious, freshly prepared, popular food that hap-

pens to be gluten, peanut and tree nut free,” Klos said.

Traditionally, Carmichael Dining Center has operated under a system where students and other diners pay up front to gain access to the dining center.

According to Klos, the rebranded dining center will more closely resemble on-campus retail locations, which would make the location more accessible to students living off campus, in addition to faculty and staff.

“The rebranded Carmichael Dining Center is expected to operate like [Hodgdon Food-onthe-Run] with items individually priced, meal deals and meal equivalents for each meal period,” Klos said.

Klos added that she believes the time is right for the changes to Carmichael Dining Center. While Tufts Dining has offered gluten-free options for many years, she said that some students still may be at risk for cross-contamination in centers that use gluten and other allergens.

The Carmichael changes come after pushes by Tufts Dining in recent years to make dining centers more accessible to students with food allergies.

In the 2019–20 school year, Dewick-Macphie Dining Center opened the “All9Free” station, an area dedicated to providing food free of the top nine allergens listed by the Food and Drug Administration. Students may also place alternate orders at the dining centers to accommo-

date their dietary restrictions, and all foods that contain the top 9 allergens are labeled in all dining centers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have had to shift to placing to-go orders for food ahead of time, although in-person service has resumed at the dining centers.

Shaw noted that, for students with food allergies, online ordering may carry additional burdens.

“I think the remoteness of the ordering process has created some issues because students just aren’t able to ask questions or get information or get help if they need it,” Shaw said.

Maddie Yost, who has a gluten allergy, said that the Transact Mobile Ordering application — which students use to place their orders at dining centers ahead of time — can be confusing for those with food allergies.

“I think the hard thing now is you’re ordering off the app for some places, and you don’t really know the nutrition information,” Yost, a sophomore, said. “It’s kind of been a little bit confusing with some of the ordering systems, and if I don’t really know what’s in something, I’m definitely not going to order it.”

Yost mentioned that this semester, there have been nights when she has not been able to eat foods offered at the dining centers. She added that she is excited about the changes to Carmichael Dining Center.

“I honestly think it’s amazing,” Yost said. “Having this opportunity for people to be able to eat in a safe environment would just be so great for the Tufts community … and I think it will benefit a lot of students.”

According to Shaw, in order to guarantee that all food in the redesigned dining center is free of gluten, peanut or tree-nut contaminants, Tufts Dining will be working with Kitchens with Confidence, an independent consultant that grants safety certifications to dining establishments and manufacturing facilities.

Yost hopes that members of the Tufts community will be open to the changes, as she believes transitioning to gluten-free options may be less difficult than some realize.

“A lot of the things you’re normally eating throughout the day are gluten-free,” Yost said. “You’ll be eating pretty much the same food you’ve been eating, it’s just going to be prepared safer for people that have more serious food allergies, which is going to be great.”

Shaw believes that students will be excited when they see the final menu offerings of the redesigned and rebranded Carmichael Dining Center.

“In my experience, Tufts students are really supportive of their peers, for a variety of reasons, and I hope that they continue to support their peers with food allergies or other dietary restrictions,” Shaw said.

MGGG working on projects in Michigan and Wisconsin MGGG

continued from page 1 are ones in which one party controls the state legislature, while another party controls the governor’s office.

“In split control states, there’s especially interest in transparency in the process, and in having outside experts help and advise,” Duchin said.

This is not the first time MGGG has been called in to help with congressional maps. In 2018, Pennsylvania, also a split control state, sought help from MGGG, according to Duchin.

“The governor brought me in as a consultant on their lines when their congressional plan was challenged in state Supreme Court,” Duchin said.

Kopecky mentioned that while Wisconsin and Michigan are the biggest ongoing projects, MGGG connects with people across the country. One of the ways MGGG is doing this is by holding informational sessions teaching them how to use Districtr, MGGG’s open mapping tool for creating district and community maps.

“Throughout the Spring, our lab is running our free student-led train-the-trainers sessions to introduce community mapping in Districtr,” Kopecky said. “On Monday evenings, we introduce why Communities of Interest matter in redistricting and demonstration how you might interview someone to collect their community narrative.

On Wednesday evenings, we host

hands-on workshops where folks can practice mapping together.”

Another project that Duchin, along with co-author Douglas M. Spencer, worked on was a recently published paper titled “Models, Race, and the Law,” which seeks to help people understand what redistricting is and analyze how computational thinking and math can aid in creating the optimal congressional map.

“Another major research direction for us is trying to understand the counterfactuals in redistricting — like the plans that could have been,” Duchin said While MGGG is more known for its work with state governments and public commissions, another focus of the lab is engaging with the public to make citi-

zens more civically involved with their states.

Kopecky said that in Ohio, the lab has partnered with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University to collect Community of Interest maps explaining common concerns among the state’s population.

Communities of Interest are important to consider when drawing congressional maps, given that they portray common concerns for elected officials to address.

“Prioritizing Communities of Interest is generally considered to be an essential ingredient of fair redistricting but, in practice, is difficult to implement without local knowledge,” Kopecky said.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

tuftsdaily.com

Features

Virtual Tufts Energy Conference brings increased diversity in speakers, participants

by Sarah Crawford

Executive Features Editor

The Tufts Institute of the Environment hosted the 16th Tufts Energy Conference: Tipping Points in the Global Energy Landscape last month. The conference took place from March 11–13, and unlike the conferences of previous years, this one was virtual.

The conference, which was centered on the theme of tipping points, had panels on a variety of topics ranging from renewable energy alternatives to environmental policy in the European Union and China.

Conference Co-Chair Elizabeth Dykstra-McCarthy, a second-year master’s student at The Fletcher School, expanded on this year’s theme. “[It is] the year of a health crisis, a climate crisis and a racial justice movement,” Dykstra-McCarthy said. “All three of these are things that we wanted to bring into the conference.”

The conference covered a wide breadth of topics from a variety of different perspectives.

“We wanted to have a balance and make sure that we [had] representatives … [from] the policy world, the civil society advocacy world and engineers on almost every panel,” DykstraMcCarthy said.

Although the conference was a success, transitioning to a virtual format

was a challenge. When the COVID-19 pandemic began last year, it was unclear if Tufts would be able to host an in-person event in the spring of 2021, or if the conference would be able to happen at all. Over the summer, the Tufts Energy Conference organizers eventually made the decision to start planning for a virtual conference.

“As one of the only energy environmental conferences in the university, we should be focusing on reducing our climate impact, which would mean less travel anyway,” Dykstra-McCarthy said. “It made moral sense as much as it did logistical.”

After making the decision to host a virtual conference, Conference Co-Chair Nicole Batrouny, a PhD student in the School of Engineering, began building a website that would optimize the experience of the conference and allow as much interaction between participants as possible. It was important that the website be interactive because the Tufts Energy Conference involved not only panels and lecture-style talks, but also the Hitachi Energy Showcase, which was meant to give participants the opportunity to network with attending organizations.

“We got to build an entire website [and] we were able to have the virtual trade show on there,” Batrouny said. “[We gave] each organization a booth, which is basically a page where they can upload videos or files … and then we had all of our sessions organized in our calendar.”

According to sophomore Kate Guttilla, who worked as Tufts Energy Conference’s lead sponsorship coordinator, one of the challenges in planning the conference was securing funding of over $13,000 to create this optimal virtual environment with Pathable, the website platform. “[The platform] was so interactive, and it was bringing together hundreds of people,” Guttilla said. “It cost a lot of money and we had to secure sponsorship from a lot of different companies besides the Tufts Institute of the Environment.”

Other challenges, which came closer to the conference, involved simply making sure that the participants and speakers knew how to use the platform.

“It was kind of a race to make sure that all of the panelists and the attendees … registered for the platform [and] had access to WiFi and a computer during the conference,” Guttilla said. “All of these things were really critical because if something happened then there wouldn’t be a speaker at the conference.”

Thankfully, the organizers’ careful planning paid off, and the conference ran without any major problems. The conference co-chairs also agreed that the virtual nature of the conference had some significant advantages. Batrouny noted that because the conference was online, the co-chairs and staff were able to attend more of the panels. see ENERGY, page 4

COURTESY TUFTS ENERGY CONFERENCE

The Tufts Energy Conference’s promotional poster announcing a panel-facilitated discussion on March 13.

3 Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Marco Sheng Transferable Skills

Happy people aren’t grateful — it’s the other way around

I

t’s my last semester, and the time has flown by. I can’t believe that in just mere weeks, finals will be here. For many, that means the end of an unfortunate COVID-19-dominated school year and the start of post-pandemic hope. For me, it’s those things too, but it’s also the end of six years of struggle — trying (or often avoiding) to make my way through a rough college experience.

In many ways, I’ve had a really bad time in college. I’ve ended several days this semester watching “Try Not to Cry” challenges on YouTube so I could feel something, be moved in a way that I wasn’t because I wasn’t out living my life. I’ve ended many other days on long FaceTime calls with my parents, exasperated and needing their external pressure to get that essay done at 2 a.m.

I could go on, but this is not a self-pity episode. It is, rather, a few words on attitude, hope and optimism. In the list of values in the first iteration of my column, I outlined the idea that optimism is more joyful than truth. I think I’ve done a better job of following this value of mine. I’ve been a little kinder to myself. A little more grateful, optimistic and hopeful. Because the reality is, optimism creates a more balanced truth.

Apparently, negative thoughts carry more weight than positive thoughts — negativity in our lives and in our minds is natural. But what isn’t natural is twisting reality to fit a certain narrative you have about yourself, rather than opening your eyes up to other possibilities, interpretations and perspectives. As much as I’ve often thought of myself as the center of the pessimism universe, I’m not. And frankly, being self-righteously cranky, pessimistic and cynical really only hurts you at the end of the day.

If you’re struggling with negative thoughts and harsh self-hatred, if you feel like a victim of damaging narratives and internal demons, I feel you, and I see you because in many ways, I am still there. If you feel immeasurably stuck and deeply frustrated, then I want to help pick you up.

If you’re constantly comparing yourself to those better than you, and then judging yourself for that, I challenge you to compare yourself to a past, less courageous you. If you’re constantly complaining about what you don’t have or who you aren’t, I challenge you to be grateful for what you do have, and love who you are.

Because at the end of the day, so many things don’t really matter if one specific thing does. Whether you are a future CEO or a stereotypical slacker, whether you have a trust fund or live paycheck to paycheck, whether you are a brilliant performer or a shy mathematician, it all starts with your relationship with yourself. Because the way you judge yourself will also be the way you judge others. The way you are resilient with your own emotions will be the way you are resilient in uncertain environments. The way you love yourself will open you up to being loved, and loving someone else.

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

4

THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Tuesday, April 6, 2021

tuftsdaily.com

Virtual conference makes content more accessible ENERGY

continued from page 3 “[In previous years] we were running around like chickens behind the scenes trying to get stuff sorted out, so we couldn’t be sitting in rooms listening,” Batrouny said. “[This year] I was able to [do] behind-the-scenes stuff on my computer and [listen] to the talks, which was really cool.”

According to DykstraMcCarthy, the online nature of the conference also increased conference participation.

“We had 300 registrants, which is definitely more than we’ve had in previous years, which I think is by virtue of it being virtual,” DykstraMcCarthy said. “[We had] 12 hours of content, which is also probably double what we’ve had previously, and nine panels.”

However, although the number of participants was higher, the conference did not have the

same energy as it would have if everyone had been in the same room. Also, as many students know, watching content on a computer for hours can be exhausting.

“The likelihood is a lot of [participants] logged on for one session … some people might have logged on for many, but it’ll be hard to tell, and they might not have been super engaged … because you’re just constantly listening to stuff and it feels a bit passive,” DykstraMcCarthy said.

Still, due to its online nature, the conference had a broader audience than in previous years because participants could join via their laptops rather than having to travel to Tufts for a three-day conference.

Conference Co-Chair Nikolas Westfield, a Master’s student at the Fletcher School, said he was glad the conference could reach so many people.

“I’m most proud of … how many people we were able to connect [with] both alumni and current students, with faculty with family, people that aren’t necessarily at Tufts, like they usually would be for the conference,” Westfield said.

This year, the conference also involved more international panelists who would probably not have been able to attend an in-person event.

“I’m much happier with the way our diversity and gender balance went,” Dykstra-McCarthy said.

“We … had indigenous representatives from Latin America, from Lake Turkana in Kenya, all sorts of … places that we just wouldn’t have been able to get people from [in previous years], so I think it was a distinct advantage.”

Another addition to the virtual conference was the development of asynchronous content in the form of blogs and podcasts that added to the information

discussed during the conference.

Dykstra-McCarthy was particularly proud of the asynchronous content because it moved the conference beyond discussion to focus on action steps. “[In previous years], there’s never [been] any sort of long-term movement forward,” DykstraMcCarthy said. “That’s something we were trying to change for this year, so we’re producing reports and blogs and things that are going to continue coming out over the next three months.

I think that’s a really important structural change from how we’ve done this before, that is, looking more towards concrete steps rather than just sort of talking, which is also nice, but doesn’t necessarily get things done.”

The virtual conference was successful enough that the co-chairs are considering a hybrid structure for it in future years.

“It would be nice to be able to merge the traditional Tufts

Energy Conference as it’s existed for the last 15 years, with this 16th extraordinary, different year, and potentially have this hybrid option,” Westfield said.

“Going back to having things in person [and] engaging truly with the students that are on campus is important, but to be able to also have that virtual aspect of being able to broadcast online, I think would be a really great thing in the future.”

Dykstra-McCarthy hopes the conference will continue to incorporate the asynchronous content in the future as well.

“I think it gives opportunities for students to do exciting, cool things like make podcasts [and] write open letters to companies,” Dykstra-McCarthy said.

“I also think it’s a really important part of making sure that all these conversations … are looking towards some sort of concrete policy development in some way.”

ARTS & POP CULTURE

tuftsdaily.com

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Mugler Spring RTW literally dazzles the runway

by Phoebe Wong

Assistant Arts Editor

Mugler’s spring 2021 ready-to-wear collection stays true to the label’s form while also bringing just what fashion needs to shake its pandemic slump. The full collection was designed by Casey Cadwallader and dropped through a runway video just last week. Expanding upon part one of the collection released in October, it surely did not disappoint.

You can see the video and a slideshow of all the looks here.

The first point of success was, of course, the runway cast. The show features Hunter Schafer of “Euphoria” (2019–), Dominique Jackson of “Pose” (2018–), internet personality Patia Borja and the striking artist Kembra Pfahler.

Several high-profile models such as Bella Hadid, Omahyra Mota, Soo Joo Park and Alek Wek took to the runway as well. Mugler has recently become synonymous with celebrity style, with looks appearing on Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and more.

The star-studded runway of Mugler’s latest show thus comes as no surprise, but it also is notable for its relative diversity in both body type and race. Mugler specifically released the video on March 31 as well, which is International Transgender Day of Visibility. Schafer and Jackson, who are both transgender women, wore many of the standout looks.

Designs were thus importantly framed by the bodies who wore them, but the centerpiece was undoubtedly the clothing itself. It followed the raunchy style for which Mugler is known while adding new twists, for example with the skin-tight designs of Looks 2 and 14. These bodycon gloves miraculously transform black and nude tightslike material and scandalous cut-out patterns to perfectly encase the body and accentuate a person’s unique curves. Rather than favoring one body type over another, they embrace curvier and thinner models alike. Even though they align with the in-your-face, nearly-naked vibe of Mugler’s iconic styles from the ’80s and ’90s, their sleeker

5

adaptation has really appealed to newer celebrities and put the brand back on the map.

Mugler has shown designs like these before on celebrities, but Cadwallader pushes their concept further in this collection. For example, he plays with brighter colors of the same material and style in Looks 8 and 19 through 22. He wonderfully combines the cutout designs and gauzy fabric in Looks 25 and 27, balancing tight wrappings around unusual cross sections of the body with the simultaneous ability for flowing, flexible movement. He even manages to adapt the idea of a power suit, which is normally highly structured, to a more fluid but no less striking form in Looks 14 and 23.

Models literally leap, backflip and dance across the stage throughout the video while wearing these clothes, directly proving their remarkable comfort and body coverage through what Vogue describes as a creative combination of sportswear and lingerie. This body positivity is valuable in and of itself, but especially now as the weather warms and restrictions for seeing others begin to lift. Mugler might be just what we need to move away from the pandemic sweatpants and go back to celebrating our bodies in more formal yet revealing clothing.

In fact, the almost entirely translucent, dazzling mesh suits of Looks 16 and 17 clearly stand out as the show-stopper designs. They reflect the brand’s traditionally futuristic themes by making the models look almost unreal. At the same time, the shimmering material blends into the skin so well that it seems to just enhance a natural glow. In the video, Schafer appears wearing one of these dresses while drenched in water. Then, reversed footage of the water being poured onto her reveals the shine of the dress to be nearly identical when she is dry. Effects like these through the video play deftly to the advantages of a virtual format. Despite the limitations of a remote fashion show, Mugler gets it just right.

Beyond just being visually engaging, the water effect of this specific moment also shows the quality of the clothing.

It proves to viewers that the fabric truly makes one look as though they are bathed in magically shining morning dew and (literally) provides a refreshing splash as we head into spring and summer. The material appears most impressively as a glamorous second skin covering otherwise nude models in the aforementioned looks, but it also gives a lovely effect in the top/glove combo of Looks 4 and 5. The models wearing the material help to show that it is versatile for different types of garments and different skin tones.

However, not all of the looks hit the mark. Although the brand’s original designer, Thierry Mugler, favored extreme, over-the-top looks, he left the fashion industry in 2002. Cadwallader is focused on developing a more practical side to the brand as the current creative director, and this collection exposes some of the growing pains of that transition.

For instance, the silky wrapped blouses of Looks 12 and 29 are no doubt gorgeous, but they seem like something that could just as easily be found at a chain store like Urban Outfitters or Aritzia. Meanwhile, the denim suits with thong-like color blocking in Looks 32 and 35 try to adapt Mugler’s sexiness to a more casual material but end up looking bulky and uncomfortable. Even the boxy shirts and blazers meant to reference a bright green suit designed for David Bowie in the ‘90s clash weirdly when they’re combined with cut-outs revealing tighter-fitting pieces underneath. By attempting to tone down Mugler’s classic garishness without eliminating it completely, these styles end up looking either generally cute without any originality, or slightly weird but not enough to achieve shock value appeal.

Ultimately, some of Mugler’s spring styles combine the label’s past with a modern take better than others, but the collection as a whole embraces gender, skin color and the body in a way that fashion needs at this moment. Mugler is more than its history, and evolving its classic flare for the dramatic may be integral to fashion’s post-pandemic future.

COURTESY REGAN VERCRUYSSE / FLICKR

Dresses designed by Thierry Mugler Couturissme are on display in The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Drew Weisberg A Fantastic Voyage

‘Fantastic Four’ #575–578 or ‘The City Saga’

W

e’ve got a lot of ground to cover and few words, so let’s get right into “Fantastic Four” issues #575 to #578, or what I’ve decided to call “The City Saga.”

As dutiful readers will no doubt note, I praised issue #573 for its tasteful blend of high-concept sci-fi and classic superheroics into a single issue that managed to establish a world in itself and thrill readers all at once. The four issues ahead of us accomplish all this and manage to set the stage for the prophecy that the future Franklin Richards delivered in issue #574.

The four cities are as follows: a city of mole people forced into early evolution by a long-abandoned device created by an established Marvel villain, The High Evolutionary; an offshoot of Atlantis hidden inside an underwater lake; a moon colony of alien-enhanced people known as the “Inhumans” and a nihilist cult based out of a trendy club in New York City that attempts to bring about the end times by unleashing the Annihilation Wave from the nightmare universe known as “The Negative Zone.”

My editors hate me for having to check so many spellings and corrections for nonsense words, but I nonetheless persist.

This is where Hickman makes his bones, exposition-heavy deep dives into established lore (and sprinklings of hints of plots and stories to come) which would fall apart completely if not for the suite of amazing artists willing to work their magic to service Hickman’s insane visual spectacles.

The art by Dale Eaglesham and colors

by Paul Mounts create expressive snapshots of each and every character, from the Fantastic Four themselves to the denizens of the gorgeously rendered details of each city. Mounts in particular uses warmth (or lack thereof ) to give each city a distinct visual style. From the deep earth tones of the city of the High Evolutionary to the cool blues of the Arctic, the inky void of space or the sickly greens of the inhabitants of the Negative Zone, Mounts more than pulls his weight.

“The City Saga” really is a breath of fresh air for a superhero comic, allowing for moments of calm reflection and study.

The climate feels less like our heroes are spoiling for a fight; rather they’re acting as anthropologists attempting to understand a unique pocket of their strange and wondrous world. This feels particularly true as each chapter ends with a page of stylized text explaining the events directly after each event, cataloging the adventures as part of the ever-expanding knowledge pool that Reed Richards gathers for humankind.

“The City Saga” will not appeal to everyone; it is a somewhat slow, hard scifi approach to comic books. However, Hickman’s endless creativity, charming prose and the collaboration of Eaglesham and Mounts make for a well-manicured little series of adventures that will light a fire in the hearts of all who have stared into the stars, towards the bottom of a lake or out across a field and wondered, “What could be out there?”

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

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES| Tuesday, April 6, 2021

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Everyone: “Is it Sarah Sandlow’s birthday?”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Aries (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Everything is coming together. Connect with friends for a common cause dear to your heart. Launch community projects, events and initiatives. Realize bold plans.

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

Difficulty Level: CHEM12 take-home exam

Monday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

tuftsdaily.com

Elizabeth Buehl Building Blocks

Standardized testing

C

urrent and past college students in the United States understand the pressure of standardized testing all too well. Students have been taking the SAT and the ACT, two of the most common college entrance exams, since the early to mid 20th century.

These respective examinations were created with the intent of predicting students’ success in higher education. This practice has endured, and the number of students taking these exams has

Opinion skyrocketed over subsequent years. Despite the pandemic, almost 2.2 million students took the SAT and around 1.7 million students took the ACT in 2020.

With this astronomical turnout comparable to the population of Los Angeles, Calif., one may presume that these tests are being given away for free. Yet, in actuality, their costs range from $52 to $70 per examination. The ACT and the College Board, the parent company of the SAT, have monopolized the college admissions market, funneling customers into their money-making machine. Unfortunately, the testing fee is not the stand-alone financial burden associated with these tests. Privileged families across the globe shell out astonishing sums of money for review materials, study groups and pri-

vate tutoring with rates reported as high as $1,000 per hour. We must ask ourselves how we are able to create an equal playing field for students who are barely able to afford the cost to sit for the exam and students who have received hours of pricey test prep.

The cost of these examinations is not the only barrier to higher education for minority students; the structure of the test also poses difficulties. The current SAT may appear vastly different, yet it remains inherently the same as the original test that was invented almost 80 years ago as an adaptation of the IQ test. The first rendition of this examination was overtly racist in practice, and sought to bolster a discriminatory college admissions system that aimed

to keep minority students out of prestigious institutions through carefully worded questions and unfair structure. While the test has been modified, there are still aspects of this examination that include underlying racist tones.

There are many advocates who support modifying these standardized tests, whether in structure or cost. While moderately helpful, the only long-lasting solution that will create greater equity and diversity in higher education and, ultimately, in the entirety of society is to eradicate these tests entirely. The Daily recently reported that “undergraduate applications for the Class of 2025 soared 35% since last year, with the most ethnically and racially diverse first-year applicant pool ever.” This shift

7 Tuesday, April 6, 2021 comes alongside the university’s first ever leap to a test-optional policy, clearly demonstrating the efficacy of removing standardized testing as a barrier to higher education.

Other prominent institutions, including all Ivy League universities, also shifted to test optional policies this past year.

While going test-optional is a step in the right direction, it is simply not enough. Colleges and universities nationwide must stop accepting standardized test scores altogether in order to take the much-needed and long-anticipated plunge into equitable admissions practices.

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

8 Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts softball returns, excites with doubleheader split at Middlebury

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Tufts softball player and current senior Emma Della Volpe is pictured at bat during Tufts’ 3–0 win over Bates on Mar. 30, 2019.

by Isaac Karp

Assistant Sports Editor

Tufts softball returned for the 2021–22 season with a doubleheader at Middlebury on Saturday.

In 2019, the Jumbos won the NESAC Championship, but after the pandemic denied them a 2020 season, only nine players from that championship team remain.

The first game was riddled with errors and batting struggles for both teams, as the offseason rust was palpable. It took until the bottom of the fourth inning for the first run to materialize when Middlebury junior outfielder Jen McGann doubled, and junior center fielder Sophia Marlino scored. Tufts responded with a fifth inning single from senior outfielder Reegan Coleman that scored junior first baseman Nicole Russo, knotting the score at one. In the same inning, senior infielder Emma Della Volpe grounded out, but it was enough to get sophomore outfielder Michelle Adelman home and give Tufts the 2–1 lead.

The fifth inning ended with the Panthers equaling the score,

and in the bottom of the seventh, the home team struck the final blow after a series of Jumbo mistakes and a bit of bad luck.

First, Middlebury sophomore outfielder Jordyn Johnson struck out swinging but reached first on a wild pitch. Then, Johnson appeared to catch the Jumbos daydreaming and stole second.

The next batter reached first on a fielding error at the hot corner, and with runners in scoring position, Middlebury singled to center field and sent the winning run across home plate. The Jumbos’ first game ended with a tense and unfortunate 3–2 loss.

The general mantra for the 2019 World Series Champion Washington Nationals was to go 1–0 every day. The Jumbos needed to reset and go 1–0 in a matter of minutes, but that is nothing new to them.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, and coming into the season we were told to take it day by day,” sophomore outfielder Kat Yuzefpolsky said. “Things will change and we will have to take it one day at a time and take the chances we are

given. We kept finding out we were going to play different teams, and it didn’t really hit that we had a real game until we were on the bus.”

If ever there were a time to be a goldfish with a five second memory, it’s after losing to a team that just beat you with a walk-off run.

Picking themselves up and starting all over again proved to be the Jumbos’ winning formula as the team bounced back from its disheartening first game with an offensive showcase in their second game, securing their first win of the season.

The Jumbos were in a hole early on, with Middlebury scoring three times to close the first inning with a 3–1 lead. But the Jumbos rallied back to even things up in the second with runs scored by Yuzefpolsky and first-year infielder Rachel Moore. Yuzefpolsky had a monster outing, going four for four with four RBIs and three runs scored. She also sparked the turning point in the game with a tiebreaking double that put Tufts up 5–4 in the top of the third.

“Coming up to bat with the tie and the energy high it was super

exciting and the first time I got to play in that Tufts uniform,” Yuzefpolsky said. “It was just super exciting to finally get on the field with my teammates. It was a long time coming. All I can say is exciting, exciting, exciting.”

The floodgates then burst as the Jumbos scored five more unanswered runs and ended the Panthers’ short-lived undefeated season. Tufts totaled 19 hits and zero errors in an entertaining victory that put their first loss to bed.

“After that first game it was definitely our chance to restart, refresh and take it day by day,” said Yuzefpolsky.

Disappointment followed by exultation characterized the day for first-year pitcher Sophia DiCocco, who pitched over five innings in the two games and earned both the first loss and win of her collegiate career. DiCocco closed out the second game with a four-inning gem, allowing no runs and no walks.

“I didn’t expect to have both [a win and a loss] in one day, never mind the first week of play,” she said. “The first game when

I stepped on the mound I was literally shaking because I was nervous, but the second game it was like tunnel vision. I just needed those first two innings to calm down.”

This was not only her first game, but Tufts’ first softball game since 2019.

“It almost felt like a scrimmage,” DiCocco said. “But the energy was so refreshing, and that’s the part I missed the most. In practice we were always in separate groups and this was finally our chance to play against some competition.”

DiCocco and the Jumbos had a tough break in the first game, but they kept the moment in perspective and felt fortunate to be playing again.

“I feel like wins and losses do matter, but I remember in the group circle the message was that we may have lost but at least we’re here and we were just happy to be playing again,” DiCocco said. “The first game was just an introduction. We were not sad about the loss, and we understood this was our first time back in forever.”