The Tufts Daily - Thursday, April 13, 2023 (Jumbo Month)

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T HE T UFTS D AILY

shapE, a new pre-orientation program, to focus on local civic engagement

by Taylor Escudero Staff Writer

Tufts Student Affairs recently announced the creation of a new summer pre-orientation program called SHAPE, short for Students Heightening Actionable Political Engagement. Although the program is still in development, SHAPE aims to invite civically-minded and politically curious students to solve pressing issues in the Tufts community and beyond.

The program advisors for SHAPE include Kevin Kraft,

associate dean of student affairs, and Peter Ciccarone, assistant director for student affairs for orientation.

Advisors have been working with student coordinators

Sophia Chung and Naheim Washington, both sophomores, to create a four-day experience for incoming firstyear students to make an impact at Tufts before the first day of classes.

Including SHAPE, Tufts now has nine pre-orientation options, ranging from programs like Tufts Wilderness Orientation, a multi-day

UNIVERSITY sen. Cory Booker talks fight for justice in solomont speaker series

backpacking operation, to Students’ Quest for Unity in the African Diaspora, which fosters and celebrates relationships within the African diaspora. Kraft spoke on the decision to add a new pre-o program to the roster.

“Civic engagement is an important part of what makes Tufts special, so we decided to add an option to the already strong lineup of pre-orientation programs that would give incoming students a chance to jump right in and start their

see SHAPE, page 2

by Daniel Vos Deputy News Editor

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke about his work on building bipartisan consensus, criminal justice reform, farming and gun control legislation on April 10 as part of the Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series. He was joined by dean emeritus of Tisch College and former U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra Alan D. Solomont, who moderated the talk.

Booker started off the discussion by recounting how his work in the Senate challenged his assumptions of Republican colleagues. In one instance, he found common ground with conservative former Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., working together on a legislative amendment to help unhoused and foster children despite their deep personal disagreements.

“That would not have happened if I got stuck in this mode, where my hurt, or my offense or my own real substantive pain was where it was [before],” Booker said.

According to Booker, however, there is still a long way to go to bridge the ideological gap in politics, specifically on issues of race and justice.

“What is really frustrating to me is, I thought that legalizing marijuana would have a democratizing force on our country,” he said. “We’re not seeing the kind of

expungements with people who are using marijuana now legally. … If you’re Black in America, you are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than somebody that’s white.”

The senator also spoke about prison reform, highlighting the disproportionate number of incarcerated women in America and the dehumanizing conditions they continue to live in.

“I [visited] Danbury, Connecticut, a federal lockup,” he said. “On the way in [with] this tough warden, I asked her, how many women here are survivors of sexual trauma, violence? And this tough woman stops, looks vulnerable to me, and she goes, ‘90, 95%.’”

Booker cosponsored the bipartisan First Step Act in 2018, which reformed criminal sentencing laws.

“We have a system that is so tortured, that we would rather spend more and more money creating the problem or on the back end of the problem than making the humane investments on the front end that would not necessitate these so-called prisons in the first place,” he said.

Booker still believes in the Democratic Party’s message going into 2024 — despite unfavorable polling numbers brought up by Ambassador Solomont. He commended President Biden’s legislative work, including an ini-

see BOOKER, page 3

A display of Tisch College programming is pictured in Barnum Hall on April 12.

THE

Medford City Council passes ordinance to establish affordable housing trust

by Carly Cohen Contributing Writer

The Medford City Council recently passed an ordinance to create an affordable housing trust for the city. This trust would allow a selected board to buy small properties and secure land to turn into more affordable housing. Medford residents would be able to buy or rent property from the city, and that property would be kept under market rates.

This ordinance was originally proposed in 2020, although the pandemic and other financial pressures became the top priority for the council at the time. Medford is joining over 100 other communities in the state that already have an affordable housing trust.

“A lot of the city effort was spent on trying to stabilize our revenue situation and deal with the pandemic response,” Medford City Councilor Justin Tseng said. “It is a matter of priorities, and I think we could have gotten to work on this sooner.”

Medford City Councilor Kit Collins (LA’15) expressed her relief that this ordinance was finally passed.

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“The fact that we are only just passing an affordable housing trust in 2023 means that we’re behind the eight ball,” Collins said. “There is already a need. People have been displaced in Medford for years. We are not in a good place, so thank God we didn’t do this any later.”

According to Collins, now that the ordinance is passed, trustees will be picked and the work to find assets for the trust can begin.

“Through the affordable housing trust, what we can do is take certain units off of the market and protect them for affordable housing in perpetuity,” she said.

The funding for this trust will likely come primarily from the Medford Community Preservation Act, according to Roberta Cameron, Somerville’s CPA manager. The Medford CPA uses property taxes and state-allocated funds for historic preservation, affordable housing and outdoor recreational facilities.

According to Cameron, other sources for funding are also being considered to help subsidize development, such as a real estate transfer fee.

“Having the affordable housing trust is going to send a message to the development community that Medford is serious about building affordable housing,” Cameron said. “We want them to come, and we’ll help them to provide resources to make housing more affordable.”

She described that one of the issues when creating the trust was finding a way to make it equitable for the workers who were building these projects. Cameron explained that it was difficult enough to get developers to build affordable housing in Medford without requiring that they pay their workers a premium wage.

“Subsidizing that labor to a premium comes at the direct expense of affordable housing,” Cameron said.

Eventually, the council came to a compromise: to create a strong preference in the ordinance for fair wages without requiring them.

“Admirably, some very labor-focused counselors and proponents of the ordinance said ‘A prevailing wage agreement is a good thing,’” Collins said. “We’re saying in the text of the ordinance [that] the city really wants to work with developers that are in good faith, offering the best deal possible to

their workers while still making sure that an affordable housing trust will result in affordable housing.”

Tseng said that Tufts’ lack of guaranteed housing for third and fourth-year students adds to the need for affordable housing in Medford.

“It’s kind of a lose-lose,” he said. “[Tufts students] are losing because there’s a lack of housing security, … but Medford residents are also on the losing end because … [Tufts students] not having guaranteed housing drives the demand, which means that our shortage problem is even more of a crisis and it drives up the rental prices.”

Collins said that Tufts students can get involved in advocacy to help alleviate the housing crisis.

“I think [the crisis is] a really important thing for Tufts students as Medford constituents to be aware of and to think of as something to contribute to, as people who contribute to the housing situation in Medford,” Collins said. “There are a lot of community groups in Medford that are working on affordable housing and housing equity, including Housing Medford. … [Students are] very, very welcome to get involved.”

Collins added that Tufts students also have a lot to gain from the affordable housing trust, especially for those that plan to live in Medford post-graduation.

“A lot of people that go to Tufts are wealthy, but not all are, and a lot of them want to stay in Medford,” Collins said. “I stayed in Medford after I graduated; having [affordable housing] available on the macro level is good for the housing market in Medford.”

Collins also hopes it will increase diversity in Medford.

“I think everybody stands to benefit from an affordable housing trust in the abstract and that everybody benefits when communities are more equitably accessible to people from the range of income and job backgrounds,” Collins said.

Tseng is excited to see the city government taking action to create more affordable housing.

“[This is] just a massive accomplishment for our city in terms of indicating that housing is an important issue to our government,” Tseng said. “We hear the residents. We hear people who are being priced out, … and we’re actually doing something about it.”

New pre-o aims to work with government, neighbors to solve problems

SHAPE continued from page 1

Tufts career with civic engagement,” Kraft wrote in a statement to the Daily.

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Ciccarone added that SHAPE aims to provide new undergraduates with an opportunity to meet peers who share a common purpose.

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“The new student experience is a special time, and we look forward to helping SHAPE participants kick off their Tufts career with a memorable experience,” Ciccarone wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Students who participate in SHAPE can expect to form connections and friendships that help them transition into Tufts. And they can take pride in having their first act at Tufts be to make a positive impact on the community we all share.”

Although SHAPE’s schedule is still in development, a typical day may include daily rec -

reation, off-campus community engagement experience and bonding and social activities. Additionally, the program will consist of three essential themes: learning about civic engagement, practicing civic engagement to make a realworld difference and getting connected to Tufts.

“Possible activities include seminars and workshops on navigating situations where there is a disagreement or a tension between two values, hearing from Tufts alums who work in public service, and working with city officials and neighbors to solve problems,” Kraft wrote. “Participants will also be getting to know each other and Tufts with fun social activities, mentoring relationships with peer leaders, and adventures in greater Boston.” SHAPE differentiates itself from First-year Orientation CommUnity Service, another service-minded program, by work-

ing on civic topics in particular. The program will involve working in “think tank” groups that shape policy and problem-solve in conjunction with local governments and neighbors.

“The think tank will be a combination of incubator and team builder where SHAPE participants will be provided with a challenge and a set amount of time to provide their client with innovative solutions for their challenge.

Each SHAPE team will pursue specific areas such as: community engagement, communication, scaling and sustainability, etc., all designed to address the client’s goal,” Kraft wrote.

All pre-orientation programs at Tufts, including SHAPE, are student-led. Chung shared her goals for the program.

“We want to have designated times and spaces for the freshmen to get to know and build relationships with the

peer leaders and with each other, not only within their cohort of five but also within the general program as a whole,” she said. “One of my goals is to make it a less overwhelming and more accessible experience to build those firstyear relationships.”

Advisors are still in the process of determining which local governments, community partners and Tufts alumni students will be working with. Additionally, the number of students accepted into the program this summer will be capped at 30.

Program advisors and students are excited to see how the program evolves and grows in the coming years to reflect Tufts’ values.

“The inaugural class of SHAPE participants and leaders will be starting a new tradition at Tufts and will get to leave their mark on something that will last for the long term,” Kraft wrote.

Medford City Hall is pictured on April 9.

Booker recounts bipartisan experiences, New Jersey political roots

tiative included in the bipartisan infrastructure law to replace lead pipes nationwide.

“We think it should be a part of the social contract in America, right? You have clean drinking water,” he said. “We just didn’t. Kids were being poisoned every day in America, still are in some cases. But now we have a president that’s prioritized finally getting every lead pipe out of the ground, fighting these legacy environmental injustices.”

First-year environmental studies major Penelope Kopp asked Booker about the status of his Farm System Reform Act, which aims to place a moratorium on large concentrated animal feeding operations. Booker said that reform efforts have faced legal challenges from both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“We think these massive industrial factory farms that are being driven by these handful of international food companies, that there has to be controls put on them to protect the environment to protect against environmental dissolution, not to mention the kind of conditions in which animals and oth-

ers are being raised in,” Booker responded.

Speaking just hours after a mass shooting in Louisville, Ky., Booker responded to a question on gun violence from a student from Sandy Hook, Conn., the site of a 2012 mass school shooting.

“The fear that you feel is becoming epidemic in our country,” he said. “Fear is like a cancer. … We are now in this nation, in this dystopian present, where we have more active shooter drills in America than we have fire drills.”

Booker called for more pressure to be put on legislators demanding change.

“I’ve seen what some great students have been able to do after shootings, maybe not passing federal laws but passing laws in some states,” he said. “But I can’t beseech you enough and everyone in here enough, to begin to take more responsibility for this issue and begin to do more to demand change. Because every single day we don’t, about 100 Americans are killed by a gun, and hundreds more are wounded.”

Booker also offered some inspiration to students thinking about civic responsibility. He reflected on a conversation he had with his mother as a graduate student.

“I remember her asking me what I was going to do when I graduated, which is the worst thing you should ask a child when they have no clue. With my mom, I felt like she was poking the wound of my anxiety and my insecurity about what the heck was I going to do. … But she said something different to me that I never heard her say to me before,

and she just basically said, ‘Son, I’m worried that you’re going to make a decision out of fear and not faith.’ And she goes, ‘I want you to think of the boldest thing that you can do. In fact, I want you to tell me what you would do with your life if you knew you couldn’t fail.’”

He believes life is about always staying in motion.

“The secret sauce for me, I think, has been I’m willing to fall flat on my face — which I often have,” Booker said. “But making don’t forget to pick something up, a lesson or some wisdom when you get there. And be bold. Be as bold as you possibly can. What is your wildest dream of service that you have? And go and pursue that.”

Edward r. Murrow award given to state department’s daniel langenkamp

by Matthew Sage News Editor

Originally published April 12

Members of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy gathered on April 5 to award the Edward R. Murrow Award to Daniel Langenkamp, a U.S. State Department public diplomacy officer who served in Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion. The event, titled “Public Diplomacy on a Digital Planet: The View from Kyiv,” was co-hosted by the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World and the Institute for Business in the Global Context.

“The Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy is an award given each year to a U.S. State Department employee by Fletcher,” Tara Sonenshine, the Edward R. Murrow professor of the practice in public diplomacy at Fletcher, wrote in an email to the Daily. “State chooses someone who best exemplifies the

standards of dedication, integrity, courage, sensitivity and excellence in the PD field.”

Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School, was the first to speak at the event.

“We’re delighted to partner, as we often do, with the State Department,” Kyte said. “We’re here to honor and recognize one of its finest, Daniel Langenkamp.”

Kyte then introduced Liz Allen, the Department of State’s senior official for public diplomacy and public affairs and President Joe Biden’s nominee for Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy. Allen oversees about 5,000 U.S. public diplomacy officers worldwide.

“Central to our efforts in Ukraine is the work of public diplomacy, and public diplomacy officers who, in Russia and Ukraine and those stationed around the world, are helping disseminate accurate and timely information to audiences and are strengthening our relationships with civil society lead-

ers,” Allen said. “This is where the work of Dan Langenkamp comes in. Few people are more intimately acquainted [with] what has gone on in Ukraine than Dan, which is what brings us here today.”

According to Allen, Langenkamp was the “sole public affairs officer at U.S. Embassy Kyiv when Russia invaded Ukraine.” Langenkamp added that he was involved in the embassy’s decision to return to Ukraine shortly after.

“His dedicated public service … and exceptional work in Kyiv both before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought recognition from across our government,” Allen said, adding that he was integral in the effort to preempt Vladimir Putin’s actions leading up to the war.

“Dan was really the tip of the spear in this effort,” she said. “He was instrumental to our State Department effort to disseminate accurate information to the public as events were unfolding so quickly.”

Langenkamp graduated from The Fletcher School with a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 2002, previously graduating with a bachelor’s from Columbia University in 1992. During his career, he has worked for organizations including the International Rescue Committee and as a reporter for The Boston Globe.

“I carried Fletcher in my heart ever since I left,” Langenkamp said during the ceremony. “I left Hungary, where I had been a reporter, deeply involved in its internal politics … and Fletcher gave me the breadth to transition to this career that I have now.”

Langenkamp has worked at U.S. embassies in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Uganda and most recently in Ukraine, where he served as a press attaché, scheduling press interviews for Deputy Chief of Mission Kristina Kvien. As a former reporter, Langenkamp took an aggressive approach in managing the State Department’s press relations in Ukraine.

“I honestly thought when I left Ukraine that I had hurt my career because of some of the things that we had done, some of the risks that we had taken,” Langenkamp said in an interview with the Daily. “So to me, the award is important because it validates that approach.”

Langenkamp’s job involved combatting Russian misinformation.

“Russia was bearing down on Ukraine and … we were seeing this disinformation machine be as aggressive as the kinetic military machine that they were building up,” Langenkamp said. “We realized that we had to step up to the plate. We had to get aggressive in our own media strategy and our own outreach to be able to push back on this.”

Langenkamp cited a viral meme posted to the U.S. Embassy Kyiv’s social media accounts as one such example of this innovative approach. Langenkamp said the meme, comparing early cultural development in Kyiv and Moscow, was a retort to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim, which Langenkamp paraphrased as “Ukraine has no history, no culture, no language of its own.”

During the award ceremony, Sonenshine moderated a panel conversation between Langenkamp, Allen and Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business and professor of the practice, on public diplomacy in the digital age. Much of the conversation focused on the State Department’s work in Ukraine at the time of Russia’s invasion of the country in February 2022.

Sonenshine asked panelists about the role of digital media in international affairs.

“What gives us, the U.S. government, a strategic advantage in social media is our credibility,” Allen said. “Keeping the social media accounts of the embassy online was so important because, amidst all the noise out there, we were a credible source of information in [the] country, not just for American citizens but for the Ukrainian civil society.”

Bhaskar praised the resiliency of Ukraine’s tech infrastructure for softening the blow on the country’s economy. The tech industry is the country’s third largest export, he said, and grew 25% by the end of 2022 — despite the war.

“We have the benefit of having truth on our side, particularly in Ukraine,” Langenkamp told the Daily. “Now is more important than ever for American officers all over the world to be talking about values that people believe in: democracy, transparency, merit, free markets. These concepts are under threat all over the world, and if we don’t talk about why they’re important, they will get trampled.”

Daniel Langenkamp is pictured receiving the Edward R. Murrow Award on

Sen. Cory Booker speaks at Barnum Hall on April 10.

asian american Center celebrates 40th anniversary, power of student activism

by Kendall Roberts Features Editor

The Tufts Asian American Center was founded in 1983 as a resource for Asian and Asian American students, and this year marks its official 40th anniversary on campus. The center’s anniversary underscores a rich history of student activism and demands for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on Tufts’ campus.

The AAC was originally the Start House, a women’s dormitory which transformed into the Asian Culture House residential community in 1973. After members of the Zeta Psi fraternity yelled anti-Asian hate speech outside the Asian Culture House in 1982, Tufts students, staff and faculty advocated for the formation of the Asian Student Center on the first floor of the Start House, now known as the Asian American Center.

According to AAC Associate Director Emily Ding, the center has gone through major changes and renovations since its founding as a result of student activism, including hiring three full-time staff members and expansion of the center to all three floors on 17 Latin Way.

“Everything that we have now, which is more staff, the full space [and] all the little things, were fought for,” Ding said. “I think, also, students don’t know what big of an act student activism can have. It’s easy to take for granted how things are.”

Ding emphasizes that the 40th anniversary represents a powerful milestone not only

for Tufts but for college campuses across the country.

“I would say 40 is a big number for us, not only because it’s our 40th anniversary this year, but because there’s only 40-something Asian American centers in colleges in the U.S., and we happen to be one of the oldest,” Ding said.

AAC Director Aaron James Parayno also highlighted the importance of the 40th anniversary, given that many Asian American centers in the United States have formed out of pushback to racism and marginalization of minority groups.

“I think it’s important to really think about multigenerational and intergenerational connections because I think the issues that students are facing in 2023 in some ways are similar to the issues that students were facing in 1983,” Parayno said. “40 years on a scale might not sound like a lot, but … the consistent thread has been around activism and really just community and belonging, so I think it’s really important to celebrate that and remember our roots and where we came from.”

According to Parayno, the Africana Center’s 50th anniversary served as inspiration for the AAC staff to organize their own celebration, so he hopes to continue collaboration across identity centers.

In honor of the center’s 40th anniversary, Ding and Graduate Assistant Yuuki Nishida co-curated an art exhibition in the Slater Concourse Gallery titled “Our Histories, Our Futures.” The exhibition explores the legacy of the AAC

as well as the dreams for its future.

Nishida explained that he aspired to record the histories of not only Asian Americans at Tufts but also Asians in the United States as a whole.

“It’s very important to document and memorialize these kinds of histories, especially when taken within the broader context of being Asian in America,” Nishida said.

Within the exhibit, one wall displays a timeline of the AAC from the 1970s to the present day. The history of the AAC is complemented by interviews with AAC alumni as well as photographs and other historical documents over the course of the center’s 40-year history.

According to Parayno, it was important for the AAC staff to reach out to alums for the 40th anniversary so current students can learn from their past experiences and foster a sense of intergenerational community.

Junior Arnav Patra is a student intern at the AAC who helped in conducting archival research on the center and speaking with alumni about their experiences. Patra explains that it was very interesting to speak with past members and learn how the center has evolved over time.

“By being in a space like the Asian American Center, I’ve been able to appreciate a lot more of the history, the politics and the activism that goes

with Asian America, which I just didn’t really know before that because it’s not something that’s necessarily taught in our K–12 education,” Patra said.

One of the things Patra found thought-provoking in his research was how the categorization of Tufts demographics changed over time.

South Asian students were once listed as “Caucasian” in Tufts records and this group was not formally recognized as Asian Americans at Tufts until the Class of 1993. In addition, the university used the term “Oriental” to describe Asian populations and did not update this terminology to “Asian/ Pacific Islander” until 1978.

see CENTER, page 5

lesser known majors offer rich academic experiences

by Kaitlyn Wells Executive Features Editor

Picture the trunk of a tree, and imagine that it is an academic department. Its branches are majors, and perhaps its leaves can be students. Majors are the primary way through which Tufts students consolidate their intellectual pursuits. Some of them exist outside of the spotlight, yet despite being younger or smaller in size, they are no less in value and profundity. The Daily spoke to faculty from four such departments to learn more.

The Department of Earth and Climate Sciences will be undergoing considerable changes over the next couple of years, including a reform of its major offerings. Additionally, Associate Professor Jill VanTongeren shared that three new faculty members will be starting in the department in the fall 2023 semester with

more hiring expected the following school year.

“We are transitioning … with several new faculty coming in in the next couple of years, into having two majors,” VanTongeren said. “One in earth sciences, so that’s sort of the classical geology, … and then we’re going to have a parallel track in climate science which would be more geared towards understanding the rock record and historical evolution of Earth’s climate system.”

As an undergraduate, Jack Ridge, Tufts professor and chair of the earth and climate sciences department, became interested in the field as a way to apply his interests in physics and the outdoors. He believes that the ECS majors at Tufts are accessible because they offer introductory courses that don’t have natural science prerequisites.

“Earth sciences is a little different than the other sciences because most students haven’t

had it in high school. … A lot of our students … find [our majors] by accident; they happen to take [a] course and say, ‘I didn’t know any of this existed, this was pretty cool,’ and they decided to major in it,” Ridge said.

For VanTongeren, ECS is a unique science due to its lack of control experiments, which prompts earth scientists to take different approaches to understand the immense time scales they deal with.

“Geology, in general, … has a lot of the same techniques, inferences and puzzle pieces that need to fit together to be able to understand — particularly past — climate and environment,” VanTongeren said.

“We have no control experiment, because we can’t go back four or five billion years ago. … We have to make the inferences based off of processes that are going on today, or [through] detailed experiments that we can do in the lab.”

There can be advantages to majoring in a smaller department like ECS, which VanTongeren describes as having a “family-like atmosphere.”

“Our undergraduates might get more personalized attention because classes are smaller, and the primary students that we’re dealing with are undergraduates,” Ridge said. “The other science departments at Tufts all have graduate programs.”

Moreover, ECS students are able to engage in special opportunities beyond the classroom such as lecture series, collaborations with the civil and environmental engineering department department and various fieldwork trips.

“I just took … my students out to the coastline to go and look at a bunch of volcanoes that erupted 600 million years ago,” VanTongeren said. “Turns out Boston used to be part of Africa, and it got sort of slammed onto North America

during the formation of Pangea, and all of those volcanoes that signal that collision are sitting right at Salem, in Marblehead.”

ECS students may also find themselves flying in an airplane with Professor Ridge to survey Plum Island just north of Boston. They might even study geologically interesting landscapes across the country — trips that the department ensures to make financially inclusive.

“Every other year, we try to take a trip to the Southwest,” Ridge said. “We’ve started going to Death Valley, and we actually stay in a national park and the department pays for … everything; all the students have to do is get themselves to Las Vegas, and then have money for food. If they can’t afford that, or let’s say they can’t afford field boots or something, the department helps them with those

The Asian American Center is pictured on Nov. 20, 2017.

‘Our Histories, Our Futures’ art exhibit reflects on legacy of Tufts Asian American Center

CENTER

continued from page 4

Patra believes that it is important to explore the histories of what it means to be Asian American at Tufts.

“Part of our anniversary was to acknowledge those histories and recognize that we only exist as a space because of the voices of students,” Patra said. “So our job and our goal at the end of the day is to be responsive to the needs of the community.

In addition to the reflection on the AAC’s history, the art exhibit’s displays submissions from Asian and Asian American Tufts students.

Nishida explains that the student artwork helps to connect the past history of Asian Americans to what work still needs to be done for the future.

“On the right side of the wall … are the imaginations of our future of the current generation,” Nishida said. “When you start to take a look at the

past and think about what kind of work has been done [and] the student activism that led us to where we are today, … [we] think about what do we want our future generations to have? What do we want to fight for now so that people in the next 40 years can celebrate the work that’s being done today?”

Parayno also appreciated the artwork of current Tufts students and how it ties into the Asian American experience.

“Something that I’m just astounded by is just how creative our students are. … A piece that was particularly moving for me was this photo set done by Reina Matsumoto,” Parayno said. “It was portraits of her and her mother. … I think that was just something particularly moving to me, and thinking about … our home communities … really [helps] us persist.”

Patra explains that working on “Our Histories, Our Futures” was one of his most memorable projects at the AAC.

Majors thriving outside of the spotlight

MAJORS continued from page 4

funds because we don’t want anybody excluded from the trip.”

After graduation, Ridge has seen ECS majors continue onto all sorts of industries, including environmental law, lab research, science writing, nonprofit work, consulting, entrepreneurship or even working as geologists for banks. VanTongeren elaborated on the upcoming window of opportunity due to shifts in the workforce.

“Particularly with the baby boomer generation all retiring really soon, … there’s projected to be about a 50% deficit in the geologic workforce in the next five years,” VanTongeren said. “We don’t have enough geologists to replace them, which is really a problem because geology is [how] we get all of [our] resources — all of the rare earth elements that go into your phone, or into a Prius or into all of this green technology.”

Music, sound and culture is the main undergraduate major offered by the Tufts music department, alongside a noteworthy minor in music engineering. Melinda Latour, assistant professor of musicology and director of undergraduate studies for music, elaborated on the intentions behind an overhaul of the program in 2017.

“We take music seriously across the entire domain of sound. That’s why we [renamed the major] music, sound and culture — that it’s not just about the kind of elite classical tradition that used to be the subject of an academic music department. … That’s just one of many things that we do,” Latour said.

According to Latour, the major examines how music intersects with a wide variety of domains, including history, politics, identity and healing.

“Often … students just think about performance,” Latour said. “Whereas what we do in the music department is so much richer and so much more integrated with … the liberal arts curriculum.”

Alessandra Campana, an associate professor of music, hopes for the music department and Granoff Music Center to be a physical, spiritual and cultural hub open to the entire student community. She addressed a potential misconception about studying music at Tufts.

“Many institutions … think of music as something that you need to [have worked] hard at since when you were 3

or something like that,” Campana said. “But [at Tufts], that’s not the case. Many of our students start learning an instrument from scratch when they arrive.”

Latour explained that the music, sound and culture major allows undergraduates to connect the dots of their own experiences.

“Think about the musical genres that you are immersed in, and how you’re actually an expert listener, often, … in some aspect of music,” Latour said. “It just hasn’t maybe historically been valued in the academy. You actually already have a skill even if you don’t really know how to talk about it yet.”

Students majoring in music, sound and culture are often pursuing two majors; some common pairings include community health, international relations or forms of engineering. There is also an option for undergraduates to apply to a program that grants them both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music within five years.

Ultimately, students emerge from the music, sound and culture major with training in empathy and an understanding of humanity that Latour argued cannot be replaced by technology.

“Whatever it is that they’re doing, they do it better, with … a kind of ability to … be flexible and sensitive to

“This year, I’m very proud of, obviously, the work on the gallery … because I saw it come from just an idea that we had at the end of spring semester last year,” Patra said. “To see it physically as a space and welcome people in was just really special and powerful.”

In addition to the “Our Histories, Our Futures” art exhibit, the AAC has also been organizing other events throughout 2023. The AAC hosted Ocean Vuong, a queer Vietnamese American writer, as a keynote speaker on March 30.

According to Ding, this event was one of the most attended events organized by the AAC.

“There was just so much excitement over it and [over 400] tickets sold out in … a few days,” Ding said. “This was our Spring Fling for the Asian community.”

In addition, the AAC is hosting its annual Arts and Crafts Festival on April

the world around them,” Latour said. “I think that’s one of the things that studying music in this liberal arts context can do, and it can help us to actually understand people better.”

Science, technology and society is an interdisciplinary major at Tufts which has been available since spring 2016. Samantha Fried, the program manager for STS, explained why it is a co-major, meaning that STS cannot be a standalone degree and can only be pursued alongside another major.

“A lot of courses at Tufts are offered in the realm of science, technology and society … but there wasn’t before a place … to intentionally plan curricula around those themes,” Fried said.

STS faculty are each based in their own “home department” at Tufts, allowing an STS major the flexibility to take courses across a range of disciplines.

“Faculty can have a pretty broad variety of expertise and training,” Fried said. “I think it means that classes encompass really different … canonical ways of thinking.”

Nick Seaver, a professor of STS and anthropology, described the value of linking natural sciences with social sciences.

“I think that we have a tendency to think about science [and engineering]

14 as well as continuing its peer mentorship program for incoming Tufts students.

As the 40th anniversary of the AAC continues, Parayno hopes that this encourages Tufts students to explore Tufts’ Asian American history and what it means to have this identity space on campus.

“I just hope that folks take time to really connect with us and really think about learning about stories that are different from their own,” Parayno said.

Ding echoes Parayno’s sentiments and encourages students to explore the AAC and its resources.

“We have such a long history of student activism here and such a great, long history of community within our center, so I would really encourage students to take advantage of our center and what we have to offer,” Ding said.

“Our Histories, Our Futures” will be on display at the Slater Concourse in Aidekman Art Center until April 16.

as though it happens in a vacuum,” Seaver said. “Like it’s just people having ideas and pursuing them for their own sake. … So one thing that courses in STS often focus on are things like how specific social contexts shaped the way that technologies are built.”

Both Fried and Seaver mentioned the STS Lunch Seminar Series, which features weekly speakers from nearby or even abroad. It runs every semester and is open to the public or can serve as a one-credit course that students can enroll in.

As a relatively new major at Tufts, the rise of STS represents a burgeoning interest in the institutional histories and social consequences of science and technology. Like most majors at Tufts, it strives to tie together multiple perspectives and academic dimensions, cultivating skills that are perennially in demand and valuable.

“There is often a fear among students that if one doesn’t major in something recognizable, that one won’t get a job,” Fried said. “I think most people’s jobs have very little to do with what they major in. … It’s not so much the major but the set of skills that you learn in that major, and critical thinking [is] so important for any kind of job that you end up doing.”

students are pictured at Mushroom Rock in Death Valley in January 2019.

Through snow and springtime, pE students earn credit training for a half-marathon

by Sarah Firth Staff Writer

At Tufts, students can gain credits on a pass/fail basis for running a half-marathon — or at least seriously training for one. The physical education department offers a section of Physical Fitness specifically designed to train students over a semester to run the 13.1-mile race. For some, this might be harder than taking a traditional academic course.

“It’s not like you have to sign up for a half-marathon, but I think [the class] is a training plan leading up to it,” Mark Waterman, who teaches the section this semester, said. “So, by the end of the semester, at least, you’d be prepared if you want to sign up.”

Waterman is an assistant coach for the Tufts men’s soccer team. Before Tufts, Waterman was captain of the Denison University soccer team as a midfielder.

“I got into running once I was done playing soccer in college, and it’s something I really enjoy,” Waterman said. “I’m going to run the Boston Marathon [this year]. … I think that’s also helped with running the class, because I’ve been training for a marathon too.”

Gaby Ackermann Logan is a senior studying environmental engineering enrolled in the half-marathon training course this spring.

“I ran cross country in high school and track, and I kind of wanted to get back into running,” Ackermann Logan said. “I was honestly mad at myself for not running a half-marathon when I was already up to the mileage.”

Though the primary focus of the class is training for a half-marathon, Waterman also aims to foster a sustained passion for running.

“If they get into running, even if they don’t run a half-marathon, I’d consider that more of a success,” Waterman said. “If they’re like, ‘Okay, now three times a week, I’m going for a 4-mile run,’ rather than just like, ‘Alright, I ran that half-marathon, I’m never doing it again,’ they’d probably get more out of that.”

Despite its lofty ultimate goal, the class begins with a more manageable mileage, starting with 1 to 2-mile runs for the first few weeks and slowly building from there.

“I think it’d be pretty overwhelming or pretty stressful if it’s like, ‘Okay, welcome to class, first day of class we’re going to go run 10 miles.’ I don’t think that would go over well for everyone,” Waterman added.

The training program aims to prevent injury by pairing running with other forms of exercise, especially as the mileage increases.

“You have two days off, and then you up your mileage on Saturdays and Sundays, and then once a week, you do cross-training,” Ackermann Logan explained. “So it can be like cycling or walking or weight lifting or swimming, whatever you want, which I really liked.”

Although Physical Fitness is a beginner-level class, Waterman also caters to advanced runners. In fact, one of the students is simultaneously training for a full marathon.

“[One student is] using this class as supplemental training of sorts, or a way to get credit for training for the marathon, even though this is preparing her for a half-marathon. So, she has to [adjust] the workouts accordingly,” Waterman said.

It can be difficult to find time to run the actual race with the flurry of events that often comes towards the end of the semester. According to Ackermann Logan, many students in the class had been very keen on running a half-marathon in Providence at the end of April. However, plans have changed now that the date coincides with Spring Fling. Some students intend on running a half-marathon together after finals.

In addition to the health benefits stemming from exercise, students in this class have also developed connections with each other.

“We’ve gotten into the habit of telling stories or updating each other,” Ackermann Logan said.

One challenge students face while training is the cold weather. Students have the option to run on an indoor track or a treadmill, but Ackermann Logan prefers to run outside no matter the weather.

“I’m used to running in the cold, so I still ran in the cold [this semester],” Ackermann Logan said. “It’s only when it was really icy, that little bit in February, that I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I won’t risk falling,’ then I ran inside.”

Given the trajectory of the seasons, the spring semester

training schedule aligns well with the warming of temperatures.

“The tricky part is in the middle of the winter: It can be pretty miserable running outside, [but] they’re shorter [runs],” Waterman said. “Getting into the year when now you’re doing like, an 8-mile run, or a 10-mile run, it’s all of a sudden nicer.”

Alec Driver is a sophomore and member of the Tufts Running Club. He agreed that the weather doesn’t present too much of a problem for outdoor training, even if he is used to warmer weather in his native California. An indoor alternative he suggested is the indoor track at the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center on the Medford/Somerville campus.

“You do eventually warm up,” Driver said. “If it ever gets too bad … the indoor track is sometimes available. If you go up there and there’s no ‘track is closed’ sign, just go for it.”

Unlike other courses in the physical education department, this half-marathon training class does not currently have a high representation of student-athletes.

“My boss, Kyle Dezotell, the head men’s soccer coach, he coaches golf, and that [has] — from the sounds of it — a lot of Tufts student-athletes,” Waterman said. “The majority

of the [half-marathon] class are just regular non-student athletes.”

Students who aren’t involved in varsity athletics may feel intimidated by Tufts PE classes when the majority of the class is very experienced, despite the best efforts of PE trainers to cater to all ability levels.

“In the weight training class, it was very athlete-heavy, and I walked into the varsity gym for the first time, with all of them throwing, like, 25-, 50-pound plates, and I’m standing there like, ‘I do not belong,’” Ackermann Logan said.

However, Ackermann Logan was encouraged by the welcoming environment created in the half-marathon class.

“[Coach Waterman] really has made it a beginner’s class and more chill,” Ackermann Logan said. “[It’s for] people who aren’t athletes but who really like running, or want to get into running, or are just there to have a good time. There [are] a few athletes in it [too].”

Unfortunately, the half-marathon training class is highly coveted, so securing a spot in the class requires an excellent registration slot.

“I would say 75, 80% are seniors, and then the rest are juniors. … Four of them are in my major, and we’re all

engineers,” Ackermann Logan said. “Since we [had] the [earlier class registration] time slot, we got it.”

Since it can be challenging to enroll in the class, interested students can also look to the Tufts Running Club as another avenue to find a tight-knit group of runners.

“It’s, I think, a really great community and everyone there is incredibly nice — some of the nicest people I’ve met at Tufts, which I feel like is overall a pretty welcoming school anyways,” Driver said.

The Running Club can be an alternative source of structure to encourage physical fitness.

“You not only get to hang out with a ton of new people, but you get to exercise, [and] finding the willpower to exercise, I know, can be hard sometimes, but doing it with a group of people makes it so much easier,” Driver said.

At the end of the day, if a Tufts student wants to try running, they have a wide variety of options to choose from.

“Whether or not you join through the running club, through [the] Tufts Marathon Team or a PE class, you end up in the running community no matter which way you enter,” Driver said. “Tufts has plenty of options.”

COURTESY MARK WATERMAN

Students enrolled in the spring 2023 half-marathon PE class are pictured.

a rts editors by day, Tufts d ance Collective choreographers by night

by Jack Clohisy and RaiAnn Bu Arts Editors

On Jan. 4, we had the pleasure of attending the advance screening of “M3GAN” (2022) at the AMC Boston Common 19. Our infatuation with M3GAN began long before this premiere, as we were first introduced to her by RaiAnn in a late-night viewing of everyone’s favorite YouTube videos. Watching M3GAN eat up her choreography and the horror genre simultaneously, we were wonderstruck. How could we best pay homage to the living legend herself other than in the spirit of dance? From the moment we saw the promotional dancers for the movie looking like random women pulled from the street wearing Party City honey-blond wigs given five minutes to learn the choreography, we had our inspiration. In came Tufts Dance Collective, affectionately known as TDC.

The catch? Most themes for TDC dances incorporate a combination of two elements that mesh well together — see: SigMAs, aka Sigma males meets “Ma” (2019) with Octavia Spencer. Who could better maximize the power of M3GAN than her other Meg sisters, that is legends such as Megan Thee Stallion and Meghan Markle?

From there, we actualized our vision into a dance titled M3GAN Thee Stallion. We laboriously spent time hunched over RaiAnn’s laptop on GarageBand, better known as “cooking in the stu,” curating the most immaculate soundtrack to accompany our spirited dance. Incorporating the promotional song for the movie — “It’s Nice To Have A Friend” (2019)ww by Taylor Swift — as our opening song, we were sure to have a killer performance.

As pop culture enthusiasts, we wanted to do justice to the

dance by pulling in references from our iconic Megs while keeping the audience wanting more. This blended songs and pop culture sound bites including the iconic Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry asking, “Were you silent or were you silenced?” Or the flawless interlude of Jennifer Coolidge’s performance in season one of “The White Lotus” (2021–) into “Her” (2022) by Megan Thee Stallion: “Oh, mother mother mother. My moth-HER.” High-energy moments came from the choreography of Megan Thee Stallion’s hits “Savage” (2020) and “Body” (2020) along with personal favorites such as “Megatron” (2019) by Nicki Minaj. Taking inspiration from the Vogue style of dancing, “Her” was turned into Jack’s favorite moments of

the choreography. M3GAN’s signature sways and twirls were incorporated into the dance by including her cover of David Guetta’s “Titanium” (2011) while sprinkling in TDC’s quintessential crawl with a wink of irony. In coordination with our dance, we were tasked with creating memorable and iconic costumes for 20 people under $80. The traditional route often includes bulk buying T-shirts and decorating with markers and fabric scissors to maximize our budget. However, given RaiAnn’s disdain for free T-shirts and adherence to sustainable fashion, another idea came into mind. The inspiration for the dance came from a trend predicted in RaiAnn’s “Fall/winter fashion 2021 revives old trends, looks to the future,” a play on ballet -

core. Thus came to be crop tops and short shorts adorned with bows in order to convey a dolly yet hot girl summer experience. The bows were certainly strategically placed in order to enhance certain aspects of our dancers and bring a playfulness to the stage.

As two unprofessional dancers with certainly no choreography experience, turning over a three-minute dance in six weeks felt like an enormous challenge. But the premise of TDC is a sense of student-led creativity without judgment. The dance could be essentially whatever we wanted such as doing the worm for onefifth of the dance. TDC offered a free space to undertake a new creative medium for both of us with the support of our dancers and fellow club members. With each rehearsal, we felt more and

more confident in our dancing ability to turn out a semi-coordinated performance. Tickets for the TDC showcase sold out in minutes and when the time for performance came, we made only a moderate number of minor mistakes. After we were all done, each dance was met with thunderous applause.

Tufts prides itself on interdisciplinary curricula and activities, and TDC most definitely checks the boxes as a dance-based group catering to those with little or no dance experience. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to watch our piece come to life on stage and end Jack’s last semester of college with a stanky leg and split twerk. When you come to Tufts, don’t be afraid to try something new. As the old adage goes: Well-behaved Megs seldom make history.

spring performance roundup: what to see and when

by Odessa Gaines Arts Editor

Tufts has a wide and eclectic arts scene, with everything from children’s theater to stand-up comedy available for the average student to view. As the spring semester comes to a close, many of these organizations present their final artistic offerings, providing a vast schedule for the everyday theatergoer. Here are some of the most exciting performances coming up this spring.

“Little Women”

Torn Ticket II presents “Little Women” from April 13–15 at 8 p.m. each night in ASEAN Auditorium.

Directed by Alexandra Everbach and Lucy Morrison, “Little Women” is stage managed by Violet Johnson and music-directed by Matt Torres

and Elijah Sarvey. Tickets are available on Tufts Tickets.

Co-director Lucy Morrison shared a description of the show:

“Torn Ticket II’s production of ‘Little Women the Broadway Musical’ runs this weekend in ASEAN Auditorium after just three weeks of rehearsals. Based on the classic novel and author Louisa May Alcott’s actual life, ‘Little Women’ is the timeless tale of four sisters living in Concord, Massachusetts during the Civil War: traditional and romantic Meg, wild and passionate Jo, timid but loving Beth, and artistic and playful Amy. The musical tells the tale of the characters’ various struggles and pursuits and, through the lens of Jo’s imaginative ‘Operatic Tragedy,’ proves that humor and joy can triumph even

in dark times. Jo ultimately learns that, though some dreams may look different than others, all are equally important.”

“Morning, Noon, and Night”

A rare workshop reading featuring Tufts students, “Morning, Noon, and Night” offers students the opportunity to get up close and personal with a burgeoning dramatic production. By Kirsten Greenidge, the play is working its way toward a 2024 world premiere. See it here first!

Company One, a Bostonbased theater company focusing on social justice and artistic excellence, presents this workshop reading on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater and over livestream.

Free tickets are available through Company One.

Kirsten Greenidge is no stranger to absurd realism. This new production tracks a mother-daughter relationship as they navigate generational difficulties. The new dramatic work also tackles other ultramodern topics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and social media.

“Falsettos”

Ever since its 2016 Broadway revival with Stephanie J. Block, Andrew Rannells and Christian Borle, all eyes have been on “Falsettos.” Both intensely funny and emotionally devastating, “Falsettos” is the musical rollercoaster that you’ve been waiting for.

Produced by Torn Ticket II, “Falsettos” runs April 20 and April 21 at 8 p.m. and April 22 at 2 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. “Falsettos” is directed by Will

Flamm, stage managed by Reilly White and music directed by Aviva Senzon. Tickets are available on Tufts Tickets.

Director Will Flamm shared more about the production:

“Falsettos is the story of a large, eccentric, dysfunctional – but loving – Jewish family in New York at the end of the 1970s. Initially, Marvin seems blessed with the perfect family. He has a caring wife, Trina and a young son, Jason. Nevertheless, the family is soon broken apart when Marvin leaves Trina for a man called Whizzer.

Trina, meanwhile, ends up romantically involved with the family psychiatrist, Mendel. All the while, their son, Jason, is stuck in the middle. Included in the mix

COURTESY JACK CLOHISY AND RAIANN BU

The members of TDC’s spring 2023 dance, M3GAN Thee Stallion, are pictured.

In Photos: Tufts springs to life

PHOTO CREDITS: DAVID KIM AND QUAN TRAN

In Photos: Play ball!

PHOTO CREDITS: BOWIE BELLO, CLINT CHEN, DAVID KIM AND QUAN TRAN

Iwas 16 years old when I realized that my attraction to individuals lacked the typical gendered format. This led to a chase for my sexuality. I was looking for a faultless description to describe myself. One day, feeling brash and bold, I expressed my frustration to my sister who unknowingly voiced my confusion to my parents. I had never been scared or sad about my sexual orientation, so I had not anticipated the feeling of relief that overcame me when my dad called me to tell me, “It’s okay, none of this matters.” Unfortunately, this relief was short-lived.

My father was born and raised in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Being an Islamic Republic does not mean that Iran is anti-human sexuality; in reality, it means that it enforces a positive outlook on sex. The Qur’an makes clear that sexuality was part of Allah’s plan for human life. However, Islamic jurists do not teach this as the case under all circumstances. Sexual activity is only moral between a man and a woman under Islam. Because of this, when moving to the United States, my father was forced to undergo a cultural transformation and learned about the varied national ideals of the United States, gaining a more Western context. This included a more accepting thought around the LGBTQ+ community. This played a large role in my lack of alarm when my parents learned about my struggles in defining my sexuality.

The feeling of acceptance I first experienced regarding my father’s reaction was euphoric. I no longer stressed about finding a label for myself or dreaded having to eventually “come out of the closet” and disclose my personal relations to my parents. After more time went on, my two-year-long relationship with my high school boyfriend ended, and I eventually started to date a woman. This engendered issues in my bond with my father. At first, our exchanges revolved around the acceptance of our family abroad in Iran, where being in a same-sex relationship is illegal.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission calls attention to the problematic fundamental intention behind the Iranian Penal Code. Under this code, same-sex actions are discussed in the same section as rape, sexual assault and incest, giving the implication that these actions are deviant and violent. Under this code and more social expectations from our family abroad, my dad would have been seen as someone who had deviated from the norm, raised his child incorrectly and sinfully and would lose his privilege and status with his family in Iran.

This endangered his masculinity as he would be seen as someone who went to America and failed. His masculinity was associated with succeeding because, as aforementioned, it meant being competent and in control of every domain — especially at work and with family — and following the Iranian view of the traditional American lifestyle, which did not include having a bisexual daughter.

Spring performances at Tufts

PERFORMANCES

continued from page 7

are lesbian neighbors Dr. Charlotte and Cordelia. When Marvin’s lover, Whizzer, is diagnosed with AIDS, the entire family –non-traditional as it may be – must put aside their issues and come together.”

“Eurydice”

Who doesn’t love the retelling of a classic? In the age of “Hadestown” and “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” it seems that mythological adaptations are all the rage. Yet none are more daring, and ultimately more expressive, than Sarah Ruhl’s masterpiece “Eurydice.”

The 3Ps present “Eurydice” on April 27 at 7:30 p.m., directed by Leah Cohen

and Ken Crossman and stage managed by Odessa Gaines. The show is open admission — no ticket needed — and will take place on Tisch Roof.

Director Leah Cohen explained the play as follows:

“A classic and eternal tale of love and loss, Eurydice reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice not through Orpheus’s infamous pilgrimage to retrieve his bride, but through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. Told through a mixture of narration, poetry, and piercing and intimate dialogue, this show

asks: is it better to have loved and lost, or to not know love at all? Can love transcend time, space, and even the world of the living and dead? Join our heroes as they fight for love on a journey to hell and back. Content warnings: Death of a parent/loved one.”

Other Happenings

Tufts’ departmental spring dance concert takes place Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Sarabande Dance Ensemble presents its spring show, “Dream State,” Thursday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m.

S-Factor performs in its spring concert, “The Love Factor,” on April 21 at 7 p.m. Tufts Burlesque Troupe presents “Generation XXX” on May 1 at 9 p.m.

How my sexuality changed my immigrant dad to a conservative American

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Aidekman Arts Center is pictured in 2020.

F UN & G AMES

Last Week’s Solutions

SUDOKU - PUZZLE BY ANUSHKA SINGH

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

Aaron: “I’d pay to watch an orphan fight a widow”

MISSED CONNECTIONS

You: The Daily’s April Fools sudoku. Me: Unable to figure you out. When: The Hunt. Where: The basement of Brendan’s office.

You: Pushing your pet ferrets around in a black mesh stroller at Starbucks. Me: Questioning the nature of my reality (and picking up my iced tea)

You: Washed up. Me: Kendall Roberts. When: All semester. Where: Tufts Daily

MINI SUDOKU - PUZZLE BY ANUSHKA SINGH

Difficulty Level: Not talking about Vermont in the office

CROSSWORD - PUZZLE BY LUCAS CHUA

Difficulty Level: Counting to three

VIEWPOINT

How to make the most of campus life at Tufts

by Riley Hemsi-Walters Contributing Writer

For most Tufts students, the Medford/Somerville campus is a central part of life. I have compiled a list of some great places, buildings and businesses around campus which you may not know about, and which hopefully can help you get the most out of your time on campus.

One of the most important parts of a campus are its buildings and the services and experiences that they provide. There are a few different types of buildings on campus that really stand out to me. First, my top place for studying is the Edward Ginn library. Ginn has a beautiful rustic aesthetic, relaxing low lighting and is never too loud or too full. While I think Ginn is the best building for studying, the best study room is Room 313 in Tisch Library because it has dimmable lights and is the perfect size. As for Tufts dining, although Hodgdon is closed right now, it is clearly the best food option that Tufts provides. The burritos are delicious, and you can use meal swipes to get snacks and drinks, which is fun and useful.

The best restaurant near campus is Picante Taqueria. It has amazing Mexican food and uses the Chipotle style: make your own burritos, quesadillas, tortas or tacos. There are always lots of Tufts students grabbing dinner there, probably because a burrito only costs $9! Picante is great

by Justin Solis Opinion Editor

“Low” (2007), “Right Round” (2009), “Good Feeling” (2011). Most people can recognize the melody or lyrics of these songs even if they may not attribute them to Flo Rida. At first glance, Flo Rida being selected for Spring Fling seems like an ideal choice: easily recognizable songs that match the energy and spectacle that Tufts tries to achieve at Spring Fling — a day filled with live music and energetic Tufts students celebrating in order to forget the looming threat of finals season. However, underneath the seemingly harmless surface of Flo Rida lies a more ominous truth.

Before I get to the overtly concerning and disturbing aspects of Flo Rida, whose actual name is Tramar Dillard, it is first important to address the fact that this year Tufts chose to bring in an artist whose last studio album was released in 2012 and whose last EP was released in 2015. For reference, Obama was still

for lunch and dinner, but if you want a change from cereal and dining hall eggs for breakfast, Diesel Cafe is a great option. It’s in Davis Square, so it’s a little farther away, but it has a great feel and is packed on weekend mornings. Of all their amazing food, the breakfast sandwiches are my favorite. For shopping, Porter Square is the most convenient place to go near campus. It has a Target, CVS, a nice little hardware store and some other small businesses. It’s also pretty easy to get there — it’s a nice 30-minute walk through Medford or a quick 10-minute bus ride.

There are also many cool outdoor places to go around campus. Mystic Lake is the best place to swim close to campus and if you haven’t been yet, I would highly recommend it, especially as we get closer to summer and the water warms up. A cool place for having a picnic, bringing a pet or just taking a walk is Nathan Tufts Park, which is also only a five minute walk from campus. A niche place that I found on a morning run is a small bridge over Mystic River that leads to an ice cream shop, which would be a really cute place to bring a date or just go for a relaxing walk. I have to add Spot Pond to the list as well, even though it is kind of far away, simply because of how beautiful it is.

I’m assuming most people at Tufts have never been to Spot Pond, but I highly recommend

it because it’s a stunning lake with great lookout points onto the water and some very modest and pretty walking trails.

I’ve just gone through a lot of great stuff on and around campus, but there is always room for improvement, and I have some suggestions for how to create new spots at Tufts. Right now, there’s a lack of restaurants in close proximity to campus, and I think that at least one more restaurant, especially a Thai or Indian place (my two favorite types of food), would be a great addition and would definitely

VIEWPOINT

attract a lot of customers. An area that I think does not fully live up to its potential is the Academic Quad. Other than some ceremonies and the club fair, this space is basically deserted and so much more could be done with it. I think that some fruit trees and benches would make great additions, but if not that, there must be some way to make this space more appealing in the everyday life of students. The improvement which Tufts most desperately needs is a new gym and indoor sports facility. This is a bigger project, but it would

The sinister side of Spring Fling

the president, Malcolm Butler’s interception won the Patriots the Super Bowl, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was released in theaters and I was in fifth grade. Because this is only the second Spring Fling in four years, it is understandable that the organizers want a glorious return to the Spring Flings of pre-COVID-19 times; however, I do not think that Flo Rida is nearly contemporary enough to be relevant in today’s music scene. While I can recognize the infectious appeal of some songs, I am dissatisfied with the dated choice of the artist.

Another relatively minor gripe is the fact that Tufts’ Spring Fling is by no means unique this year. Before the Spring Fling announcement dropped on March 29, Boston College publicized the fact that Flo Rida would perform at their “Marathon Monday” festivities a week earlier. So not only do we have a dated artist with a concerning past, but we also have him the same year he performs at Boston College. Flo Rida is not nearly strong enough as an artist to make it worthwhile for

Tufts to play second fiddle to Boston College.

The main issue with Flo Rida playing at Spring Fling is that Tufts is bringing in an artist who is very problematic and has faced multiple scandals. Tabloids like The Daily Mail and The New York Post have frequently reported Flo Rida’s alleged neglect of his son, who has a rare neurological disorder called hydrocephalus. In 2018, the mother of his son, Alexis Adams, won a court case mandating monthly child support payments.

Recently, his son tragically fell from a fifth-floor window and was in intensive care. Flo Rida put out a brief statement on Instagram thanking his fans for their support following the tragic accident, but according to Adams, he is not willing to pay for the medical care his son needs after the incident. This is not to say he can’t afford it — the artist recently won an $82 million lawsuit against the popular drink company Celsius.

As the campus gears up for Spring Fling, there is no doubt that it will be a fun time regard -

instantly improve campus life for many and it would make the current gym less crowded. The indoor sports part of the building would also be great in the winter so sports teams have more space to train while at the same time offering space for recreational sports players.

This article definitely doesn’t contain all of the amazing parts of Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus, but hopefully it gave you some new ideas for fun stuff to do on and off campus so you can get the most out of your time living at Tufts.

less of the headliner. However, before the stage is even assembled on the Academic Quad, it is important to consider what artist you want Tufts to endorse financially and with a headline spot. What is the goal of Spring Fling? Is it to pick an artist with

throwback songs that everyone knows or to make a statement about what kind of behavior is appropriate in the music industry? There are certainly artists that combine both traits, but unfortunately, Flo Rida isn’t one of them.

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Academic Quad is pictured on April 20, 2021.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Flo Rida is pictured performing in 2012.

Dissent: The case for living uphill

Brendan Hartnett and Faye Shen Li Thijssen Editorial Editor and Editorialist

Fundamentally, we disagree with the Editorial Board’s decision to endorse downhill living but respect the deliberative process which led five of our seven board members to argue in favor of lower campus life. As such, we have decided to write a dissenting opinion in response to the Board, with whom we could not reach an agreement.

by The Editorial Board

At a tier-one research university full of econ bros, political activists and long dining hall lines, The Tufts Daily — that’s us — tries to do the impossible: create a guide that will help you survive four years at Tufts University.

Live downhill, go to Carm for lunch. This one should be obvious. Downhill dorms yield close communities in ideal proximity to many of Tufts’ dining locations and with easy access to Davis Square. However, ever since Carm changed its dietary restrictions, there’s been some magic in those gluten-free recipes.

Do not go to Kindlevan right after classes get out. The line is simply not worth it, and you will have to make awkward eye contact with everyone you know in the SEC while you wait alone for upwards of 20 minutes. Just wait until the line dissipates to order your Tropikale.

Fill your water bottle BEFORE you get to Cummings.

This should go without saying, but wear shower shoes. Foot fungus is real, and ‘the dogs’ should not be fully out in communal showers.

You will need to be on Tufts Tickets early if you want to see the Tufts Dance Collective or Burlesque performances.

Take the 96 bus from Davis. Buses in general are underrated, especially if you live on the Medford side of campus.

As a rule of thumb, if you need to be on time, don’t take the T. Alternatively, take the T, but budget an additional hour into your trip. Sections of the Green Line and Red Line have been slowed, and it can result in painful, seemingly arbitrary delays. Also, they occasionally catch fire.

Utilize the career-related resources available to you. Tufts has a plethora of opportunities that most undergrads don’t know about. To avoid this common mistake,

meet with the Career Center and (if you’re interested in research) the Office of Scholar Development.

You should also use the academic resources available. Tisch Library has subject-specific librarians who are familiar with different subjects and curricula and can lead you to sources, data and even a thesis statement, using their content expertise. You should also use the services provided by the Student Accessibility and Academic Resources Center, such as its writing fellows and course tutors.

Do a pre-orientation! Even if you don’t become best friends with your pre-O group, it’s a good way to get to know classmates that you otherwise might not encounter through your siloed interests at Tufts. Plus, you never know, you might just end up a former editor in chief of the Daily living post-graduation with a friend you made during TWO.

Bonus piece of advice: Join the Daily!

While this practice is new to the Daily, it occurs occasionally when editorial boards at other student newspapers fail to reach a unanimous consensus. While we maintain that a twothirds supermajority must be obtained by Board members for an editorial to be published, these dissenting opinions will voice the concerns of the Board’s minority when a unanimous consensus cannot be reached — writing as individual writers, rather than as the voice of the Daily.

It is in this position that we have come to argue against living downhill. Given the high concentration of academic departments located on the Academic Quad, uphill residential life enables easy access to the university’s academic resources. This proximity not only allows for a brief commute to the Academic Quad but also leaves the uphill climb for the trip back to your dorm, reducing the risk of sweat stains developing on your way to class.

We are forced to concede that the lower campus has superior dining facilities, and most off-campus destinations — Davis Square, the Pub and Teele Square — are more accessible when living downhill. But, this advantage has already started to recede following the opening of the Medford/Tufts Green Line station in December, which gave uphill residents direct access to Boston.

Further, with the construction of a new dorm on Boston Avenue, the opening of the Joyce Cummings Center’s Starbucks and Tufts’ purchase of 325–331 Boston Ave., which we hope will become a campus pub, uphill’s superiority will become only more pronounced.

The collection of benefits to living uphill leaves us no choice but to respectfully disagree with the Editorial Board’s decision to endorse upper-campus living.

GRAPHIC BY BECKY POVILL

by The Editorial Board

As the Tufts Dining website states, “There’s no place like Tower Cafe.” Unfortunately, that is true: This year, there has been no Tower Café — at least not an open one.

Tower Café closed in March 2020 when Tufts transitioned to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it reopened for order-ahead beverage-only service in October 2021, it has since closed, leaving students caffeine-deprived while studying and other grab-andgo locations overwhelmed. We believe Tower Café should reopen to reduce overcrowding at other dining locations and bring community back to Tisch Library.

The infrastructure remains in the atrium where the cafe operated. There sits a waste of space that not only deprives students of in-house access to espresso but also could be used to address the long lines and overcrowding reported at other Tufts Dining locations.

Bring back Tower Café

Tufts Dining Services has faced complaints about long wait times since students returned to campus in fall 2020. When Carmichael Dining Center was transformed into the gluten-, peanut- and tree nut-free Fresh at Carmichael in

fall 2021, Tufts Dining acknowledged long lines and extended wait times at dining locations.

Kindlevan Café in particular has been overcrowded with long lines all year. By the time Hodgdon Food-On-The-Run closed for renovations in March,

Kindlevan was seeing over three times as many customers as it did when it opened in 2017.

Reopening Tower Café, in its central location, could help reduce congestion at campus dining locations. As evident by the high demand seen at

Kindlevan, students seek grab-and-go options for quick meals squeezed into their days packed with academics. By opening for beverage and grab-and-go food service, Tower Café could help divert some of this foot traffic.

Reopening Tower could also re-solidify Tisch as a meeting point on campus and bring students to the library, in turn making other study spaces on campus — like the Joyce Cummings Center or the Mayer Campus Center — less congested.

And at the end of the day, a library should have a cafe. A library is where students go to study, hang out with friends, check out a book, get tech help or work on a particularly stressful group project. Coffee, tea and pastries can make a stressful assignment a pleasant endeavor — or at least a manageable one. And at Tisch, this is true all the same. It’s simple: Students should be able to grab a cup of coffee in the library.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free of charge to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily Editorial Board. Individual editorialists are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Editorial Board. Editorials are submitted for review to The Tufts Daily Executive Board before publication.

VIEWPOINTS AND COLUMNS Viewpoints and columns represent the opinions of individual Opinion editors, staff writers, contributing writers and columnists for the Daily’s Opinion section. Positions published in Viewpoints and columns are the opinions of the writers who penned them alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. All material is subject to editorial discretion.

OP-EDS Op-Eds provide an open forum for campus editorial commentary and are printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 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.

ADVERTISEMENTS All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the editor in chief, executive board and business director.

MINA TERZIOGLU / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tower Café inside Tisch Library is pictured on October 18, 2021.

despite progress, sTEM professions still lack gender representation

by Tvisha Goel Staff Writer

Edith Linwood Bush followed in her father’s footsteps, graduating from Tufts University in 1903. She was the head of mathematics at Chelsea High School and principal of Provincetown High School before being appointed as the assistant professor of mathematics at Tufts University in 1922. While this story doesn’t seem to be anything special today, it is one of its kind since, according to the Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History, this made her the first female professor to teach in the College of Engineering.

One hundred years later, men still dominate the STEM work field, including professorships. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2021, women made up about 50% of the U.S. workforce and still only constituted 27% of STEM-related careers. Similarly, as Yale Scientific reported, “Women make up 34.5% of STEM faculty at academic institutions.” The census also reports that even within the STEM fields, women make up more of the social science, math, life and physical science occupations than in jobs that require computer workers and engineering. While women who hold STEM-related jobs earn more than their nonSTEM counterparts, the gender pay gap persists in the STEM world as well.

At Tufts, the faculty is about 49% female and 51% male. In

the School of Engineering, this ratio is about 1:2.5, female to male respectively. Tufts began a coeducational program in 1892, 40 years after the university’s founding. However, along with negative responses from faculty, administration and trustees, the president at the time, Frederick Hamilton, was also an opponent of coeducation. Seeking an alternative, in 1910, Jackson College, a separate institution for women as a part of the main university, was born.

Women in STEM followed the stride at Tufts many years later. Aside from Bush in 1922, Kathryn McCarthy was also appointed as a physics professor in 1946; McCarthy also later became the first female provost. Another woman of note is “Mrs. Castendyk,” the university’s first female instructor in the physics department, according to The Tufts Weekly.

In more recent years, Karen Panetta remains a strong female figure in the STEM field at Tufts. She is a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Tufts, conducting research to develop more effective algorithms for simulation, modeling, and signal and image processing for biomedical applications. In fact, she is the first woman to receive tenure in the department and the current dean of graduate education.

Her accomplishments were often accompanied by obstacles exacerbated by societal norms and expectations.

“You shouldn’t dress up; you shouldn’t wear makeup,” Panetta said. “I came to class in a hot pink outfit the very first day, … and students didn’t know what to do with me. They thought ‘Oh she can’t be a serious engineer because she looks like this.’ So I saw that there were these huge biases against women to act and assimilate. But in the almost 30 years I’ve been at Tufts, I’ve never lectured in pants.”

Panetta overcame many of the stereotypes and stigmas that accompanied her journey to where she is now. She wants to pass these experiences and lessons learned to girls who may still be struggling to combat these gender disparities. She heads a program called the Nerd Girls program, which empowers young girls through media to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

“Through the Nerd Girls program, which went international, I changed the way nations view the contributions of women in STEM,” Panetta said. “I got to work with different cultures where women weren’t even allowed to be educated and we finally learned to say that by educating women, you’re strengthening the family. … Working on these international projects, I learned … that you couldn’t just project what you think is best on somebody else. You have to meet them where they’re [at].”

Women’s experiences with gender exclusivity can vary due to a myriad of factors such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity and more.

According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, while Black workers make up 11% of all jobs, they only constitute 9% of STEM jobs. Similarly, while Hispanic workers account for 17% of all jobs, only 8% work in STEM-related careers.

Among women, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2019 detailed that about 66.02% of women in STEM identified as white, while only about 14.58% identified as African American/Black.

In the Tufts School of Engineering, the racial breakdown of women in STEM is as follows: 59% white, 21.3% Asian, 3.3% Black, 1.6% Hispanic, 1.6% multiracial, 9.8% unknown race/ethnicity and 3.3% U.S. nonresident.

Women’s experiences can vary across many demographics. Beyond this, women can simply encounter different environments that cause variations in their experiences with certain obstacles.

While Panetta’s experiences with gender disparities were more explicit, Catherine Freudenreich, biology department chair and professor, encountered and combated more subconscious stereotypes.

“I do think that at each step, there’s always a little bit more difficulty when you’re in the minority when you’re

a woman,” she said. “For me, I’m a fairly petite woman, [so] maybe [I] don’t command the same kind of physical presence as some of my male colleagues.”

She explained that this is not an issue she sees in her current work environment. As she became more established, she gained more respect in her chosen field. Freudenreich continues to bolster her already-strong standing in the department through her extensive research in genetics and molecular biology, focusing on genome instability. However, it was definitely an issue she saw in her younger years while she was just starting out in the scientific world.

Freudenreich also commented on the idea of imposter syndrome, which can cause women to second-guess their abilities.

“[Some women have been] made to feel like [they were recognized] because they were a woman, not because of their actual worth in their field,” she stated.

While women have made great strides throughout history in the fight for equality, there is clearly still a long way to go.

“We’ve excluded 50% of our most valuable resource in the world, which is women,” Panetta said. “Engaging women give such beautiful perspectives and new innovations on any team. … People always say, ‘You are a pioneer.’ But people that know, that have been there and done it know that it is not [about] being a pioneer. It’s [about] being a warrior.”

SAMANTHA POKORNY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Science and Engineering Complex is pictured on Dec. 5, 2022.

13, 2023

Oliver Fox Sports and Society

Don’t punch your teammate

Throughout the season — and to the surprise of very few — Rudy Gobert punched his ticket as the centerpiece of one of the worst trades in NBA history. And then he punched Kyle Anderson.

The Timberwolves traded for Rudy Gobert during the offseason, giving up Patrick Beverley, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, their 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029 first-round picks, their soul, a mortgage on their house, a sizable Bitcoin portfolio and a crisp high-five. Then he decided to punch the emotional leader of their team.

That part was pretty surprising, but I was floored by the damage control campaign the Timberwolves ran after issuing Gobert a one-game suspension. Here, I’ll let the oracle of all things basketball, Adrian Wojnarowski, tell you:

“The Timberwolves had to suspend Gobert for throwing a punch but accepted that it was a shot to chest with no intent to injure Kyle Anderson and understood that Anderson called Gobert a ‘b—-’ repeatedly on a night Gobert was playing hurt, sources tell ESPN,” Adrian Wojnarowski posted on Twitter on April 10.

Because Wojnarowski included a typo — forgetting to add the “the” before “chest” — he likely copied and pasted much of this tweet from a text from the Timberwolves front office. The cowardly language shows us a team floundering to defend a now-indefensible trade. They imply that they did not want to suspend him but had to and that Gobert’s use of violence may have even been justified.

Not only is this a pathetic attempt to save face but it also promotes a false moral argument: that violence can be a proportional response to name-calling.

When I was 6 years old, I punched my brother for some reason. This lapse in judgment resulted in my lawyer-mother making me sign a nominally binding contract agreeing that I would never hit my brother again for any reason. Regardless of the legal validity of the document, the message was not lost on 6-year-old me: There is a tiered difference between verbal attacks and physical ones.

The Timberwolves apparently missed this memo, and disclosing Anderson’s language beforehand is a sly attempt to coax supporters to Gobert’s side when they should be unconditionally condemning him.

As with Will Smith’s assault on Chris Rock or Draymond Green’s on teammate Jordan Poole at practice, the reactions of the responsible parties were inadequate. The incidents call into question how workplace misconduct is handled in professional sports. If Gobert worked for an accounting firm rather than an NBA team, he would have been fired, not just sent home for a day, so it is worth asking if the punishment should be more severe.

In any case, physical force, when to make a point or — in Gobert’s case — to express frustration, is never justified. In Wojnarowski’s tweet, we got a magnum opus of excuses. A simple statement that violence in the workplace is never justified — not even if you were playing hurt, got called mean names or didn’t mean to hurt the guy — would have sufficed.

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

Tufts baseball wins crucial series at amherst

by Ethan Grubelich Sports Editor

This past weekend, the Tufts Jumbos baseball program traveled to Amherst for a three-game series. Though typically NESCAC rivals, the three-game series did not count towards either team’s conference record since NESCAC baseball is divided into two divisions with the Jumbos residing in the East Division and the Mammoths residing in the West Division. The Jumbos’ victory in Saturday’s rubber match meant that they won the series by a margin of two games to one.

On Friday, for the first game of the series, right-handed pitcher E.J. Nevills took the mound for the Mammoths in the top of the first inning, where he allowed a single to Jumbos’ senior right fielder Jimmy Evans up the middle. Evans punished Nevills for his lack of command of his pitches advancing to second base on a passed ball, advancing to third base on a wild pitch and scoring on a passed ball on a swinging third strike to make the score 1–0. Nevills was strong throughout the rest of his outing, finishing with a line of three hits, three walks, five strikeouts and one unearned run allowed across five innings pitched.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, senior right-handed pitcher Connor Kinney gave up a one-out double down the left field line to the Mammoths’ catcher Ben Smith. Smith scored on a two-out double to center field hit by designated hitter Jack Sampedro to tie the game 1–1. Kinney was subsequently replaced by senior right-handed pitcher Jack Schwartz with a final line of four hits, one walk, one earned run and two strikeouts across 4 2/3 innings pitched.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Mammoths took a 2–1 lead on another two-out double this time hit by left fielder Jack Dove down the left field line.

The Jumbos responded as sophomore left fielder Ben Leonard led off the top of the seventh inning with a single to right-center field. With one out,

Leonard stole second base, and with two outs he advanced to third base on a passed ball and scored on a fielding error by the Mammoths’ third baseman to tie the game 2–2.

Senior center fielder Jackson Duffy led off the top of the eighth inning with a single through the left side of the infield. He advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by senior catcher Connor Bowman and scored on a single by sophomore second baseman Henry Fleckner down the right field line to give the Jumbos a late 3–2 lead. Fleckner advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Leonard down the left-field line to extend the Jumbos’ lead to 4–2.

Tasked with protecting a 4–3 lead, Jumbos’ graduate closer Brendan McFall allowed no hits, no walks and no runs across 1 2/3 innings and struck out the final two batters of the ballgame. The 4–3 win marked Tufts’ sixth straight, following a pair of wins against UMass Boston and MIT as well as a NESCAC home series sweep against Bates.

Following a 15–2 beatdown in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Jumbos came back to win the second game 8–7 in extra innings. Trailing 2–0 in the top of the fifth inning of the rubber match, Tufts’ junior third baseman Patrick Solomon and Fleckner singled back-to-back. Junior shortstop Ozzie Fleischer singled to the Mammoths’ pitcher in the next at-bat and Solomon scored on the pitcher’s throwing error. The error set up runners on second and third base for Evans, who drove in a run on a groundout to the Mammoths’ first baseman to tie the game 2–2.

Later in the game trailing again 5–2, the Jumbos lineup put together a huge eighth inning to jump out to a 7–5 lead. Two walks and a hit-by-pitch set up bases loaded and one out for Bowman, who drove in a run with a single to center field and reloaded the bases in the process. A walk by Leonard in the following at-bat cut the Jumbos’ deficit to one run. With two outs and the bases

still loaded, Fleckner smacked a threeRBI double to left field, which gave the Jumbos a 7–5 lead.

“When I came up to bat all that was going through my head was ‘find a way on by any means’ as that would mean the tying run would cross the plate for us,” Fleckner wrote in a message to the Daily. “[I knew] a fastball was coming. Coach Svagdis told me if it was right there I could rip it, so I just locked all in on a fastball down the middle and that’s exactly what I got. Overall, [I] was just trying to do anything I could to keep the inning and rally alive for my team, and [I] couldn’t be any more happy with the outcome of the at-bat.”

Despite pitching dominantly in the seventh and eighth innings, McFall struggled in the ninth, allowing the first two batters to reach base and allowing the game-tying RBI single when there were two outs. The two earned runs were McFall’s first allowed of the season and came at the back end of a season-high 2 innings pitched.

In the top of the 10th inning, the Jumbos loaded the bases with no outs via a walk by Duffy, a single by Bowman through the left side and a walk by Leonard. Duffy scored to put the Jumbos in front 8–7 when Solomon grounded into a double play. Junior right-handed pitcher Liam Wilson got the win in the bottom of the 10th, only allowing a single in the process.

“I think the team did a fantastic job competing throughout the series,” Fleckner wrote. “Game 1 was a very tight one and we were in it the whole way. We remained focused on the task at hand of finding any way to get a W and we persevered. After a tough outcome in game 2, our main focus was to come out and give it our best and compete. … The team did a very good job of staying in the game knowing we could come away with a W in the end.”

Tufts will take on Bowdoin at home for a weekend NESCAC series with one game on Friday at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12 p.m.

BOWIE BELLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

Pitcher Connor Podezswa is pictured during Tufts’ game against UMass Dartmouth on March 13.