The Tufts Daily - Thursday, April 20, 2023

T HE T UFTS D AILY

UNIVERSITY

academia weighs likely end of raceconscious admissions

by Elizabeth Foster Senior Staff Writer

This year, Tufts accepted its “most compositionally diverse” class yet, citing student identities, especially racial identities, as an indicator. However, in October 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments regarding the future of race-conscious college admissions in cases between Students for Fair Admissions Inc. and Harvard College, as well as SFFA and the University of North Carolina.

Given the conservative Supreme Court majority’s recent history of overturning decades-old precedent, experts predict that the Court will

overturn the precedent established by the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, which was reaffirmed in 2003, 2013 and 2016. Their ruling on this case could be announced as soon as next week or in June 2023. Depending on the decision and when it will be announced, the ruling may affect the next college admissions cycle.

Natasha Warikoo, the Lenore Stern professor in the social sciences in the Department of Sociology, studies racial and ethnic inequality in education and has authored two books on the subject in the past year: “Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions” and “Race

at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools.”

Warikoo was one of 1,241 social scientists and scholars to sign an amicus brief last year in support of race-conscious admissions. She predicts that there will be a narrowing in the ability to consider race in the college admissions process, as schools will not be able to directly ask applicants what their racial identity is.

“You can have … some kind of diversity related [essay] question,” Warikoo said. “I think, like all selective college campuses, Tufts will need to do more

see ADMISSIONS, page 3

BREAKING

Elections Commission releases election results

The Tufts Community Union Elections Commision released the results of the 2023–24 TCU election on April 19. 1,309 people voted, representing 20.14% of TCU members. The final Class of 2026 senator will be decided in a runoff between Anand Patil and Savannah Thompson during the TCU presidential election. The results are as follows:

Community Senators

Africana: Tolulope Adewumi ’25

Asian American: Thy Nguyen ’26

Disability: Itamar Oelsner ’25

FIRST: Alexander Vang ’26

International: Toluwani Oso ’25

Latinx: Odalis Vargas ’24

LGBTQ+: Donovan Sanders ’26

Women’s: Krystal Mutebi ’25

Indigenous: Vacant

SMFA: Vacant

Committee on Student Life

Erika Effenberger ’24

4 Vacancies

Class of 2026

Rhoda Edwards

Bethel Hineshim

Jose Armando

Caroline Spahr

Dhruv Sampat

Arman Tendulkar

Class of 2025

Anika Buder-Greenwood

Varun Nagpal

Joel Omolade

Nessren Ourdyl

Mikayla Paquette

Aniyah Perry

Natalie Rossinow

Class of 2024

Emily Childs

Hadiya Giwa

TCu senators are working to make disability community center a reality

UNIVERSITY by Kaashvi Ahuja

Contributing Writer

Tufts Community Union senators Itamar Oelsner and Jose Armando recently launched

a petition to establish a permanent Disability Center on campus. Oelsner, elected in February, is the TCU Senate’s first disability community senator; through the proposed cen-

ter, he and Armando hope to provide a physical space where students with disabilities can feel supported.

“Even if you do not personally identify with the disabled community, it is very likely that you know someone that does or, at the very least, can empathize with students who struggle because of the inaccessibility of this campus,” Oelsner, a sophomore, wrote in an email to the Daily.

Armando, a first-year, believes that a dedicated center could prove a space for people with disabilities to connect.

“The goal behind a disability center would be to provide support and resources to students and build community with peers who share those experiences, just like the other identity centers that can be found around campus,” Armando wrote in an email to the Daily.

Caroline Spahr, assistant treasurer of the TCU Senate, expressed similar views on the project.

“I thought that the establishment of the Disability Senator was important and voted in

TCU Judiciary

Jacob Ackiron ’26

Jack Eftink ’24

Erika Kim ’26

Ethan VanGosen ’25

Caroline Vandis ’24

Lucas Wong ’24

1 Vacancy

favor for many reasons, but especially for the advancement of resources for students on campus,” Spahr wrote in an email to the Daily.

Similar to how existing community centers on campus operate, the Disability Center would offer Tufts students resources that they need to navigate college with a disability.

Armando noted that while the Student Accessibility and Academic Resources Center exists as a resource for students with disabilities, its goals are different from other community centers on campus.

“Many may argue that we already have that, referring to the StAAR Center,” he wrote. “Yes, the StAAR Center is helpful in many ways, but they don’t focus entirely on disability, which is needed.”

Spahr agreed that, while Tufts has the StAAR center, “the authors of the [resolution] emphasized that a disability center would provide students

Arielle Galinsky

Sophie Rice

Wanci Nana

Michelle Sun

Gavin Clouser

with emotional and physical support to navigate college life given their experiences.”

Oelsner has been working with the StAAR Center to collect survey data on how many students on campus have a disability and what experiences students have had concerning their disabilities.

“This begins with gathering evidence on behalf of the student body that proves that there is a need and desire for such a venue on campus,” Oelsner wrote. “The petition is a great way to show this interest, and I encourage everyone to sign it–whether they identify with the community or not,” Oelsner wrote.

Oelsner said that the administration has expressed interest in the proposal but raised concerns about logistical obstacles to creating a new center.

“The establishment of any center is a long and arduous process—but we have to start

SAMANTHA POKORNY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Itamar Oelsner, disability community senator, is pictured next to Ballou Hall on April 10.

THE

TCu s enate calls for TEMs compensation, investment in pedestrian infrastructure

UNIVERSITY by Matthew Sage News Editor

The TCU Senate passed a resolution during their weekly meeting on April 16 calling on the Tufts Department of Public Safety and Tufts University Health Service to compensate all Tufts Emergency Medical Services student members. The senate also passed a resolution calling on the university to invest in outdoor pedestrian infrastructure, citing safety concerns on multiple streets around campus.

TEMS emergency medical technicians, who provide 24/7 ambulance service to the university’s campus, currently receive no compensation from the university.

According to the resolution calling for compensation, TEMS EMTs are on call for 10–14 hour shifts and respond to calls which may include but are not limited to asthma attacks, automobile accidents and heart attacks.

“The goal of the resolution is to ensure that all EMTs from TEMS get a fair financial compensation for the amazing work they do,” Senator Varun Nagpal, who co-authored the resolution, said. “They’re hoping to achieve that by getting a full semester stipend for all the EMTs on TEMS.”

TEMS EMTs George Natsis, a junior, and Pooja Shah, a first -year, attended the senate meeting to advocate for the resolution’s passage. They noted that TEMS responds to around 400 calls each academic year and that the service guarantees a five minute response time, requiring EMTs to leave class if on shift.

“One of the most egregious parts of this is the students who are most affected by TEMS being voluntary … are individuals who find themselves already impacted by financial constraints,” Natsis said. “Lack of financial compensation serves as a financial barrier for those students, those [applicants] who wish to join TEMS.”

Shah said that many students opt to work for a near-

by private ambulance company, Armstrong, that pays EMTs $29 per hour. According to the resolution, other schools like Brown University, Dartmouth University and Arizona State University provide stipends or pay their EMTs by the hour.

“It’s a twofold issue, because not only are the students not allowed to join and get professional experience, it also prevents TEMS from getting the most qualified candidates … to serve the Tufts community,” Natsis said.

According to the resolution, students usually acquire their EMT certification through the university’s EMS training course, which costs students $1400. The resolution also says TEMS members have recently crowd-sourced a scholarship fund that will cover enrollment fees for “students in need of financial support.”

The resolution argues that compensating TEMS workers would make the organization “more accessible and equitable for students of all backgrounds.”

After around 15 minutes of deliberation, the senate passed the resolution. It officially calls for a meeting and written response from Yolanda Smith, executive director of public safety; Marie Caggiano, medical director of health services; Sonya Satinsky, executive director of health and wellness; and Police Captain Mark Roche.

The senate also passed a resolution calling on the university to improve and modify sidewalks around campus to increase pedestrian safety.

“I’ve been very dissatisfied with a lot of different components of our sidewalks, our intersections,” co-author and senator Anand Patil said. “I really do feel like the general quality of it does impact everyday campus life.”

Senators passed the resolution after 25 minutes of debate. It officially calls for a meeting with Theodore R. Tye, the chair of the Board of Trustees committee on buildings and grounds, Jeffrey M. Moslow, chair of the trustee committee on

Senators Itamar Oelsner, Jose Armando launch petition for disability center DISABILITY

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somewhere,” Oelsner wrote. That, he explained, is the reason for his and Armando’s petition.

Oelsner recognized that since disabilities exist in many forms and often do not manifest physically, students can use the petition to open up about their individual experiences.

“Since becoming senator, I have opened a lot of conversations with Administration regarding having a more accessible Tufts,” Armando wrote.

“Now we are making even more progress in spreading awareness, as Itamar does an amazing job

concentrating his work for the community he represents.”

The second stage of the project timeline involves passing a formal resolution through the TCU Senate to the administration. Finding a location and resolving logistical questions comes next, Oeslner said.

For now, Oeslner said, the goal is “fostering a formal dialogue around the need for a space.”

“The establishment of a Disability Center would certainly allow for a large portion of the student body to find community, and it is imperative that we begin making those strides now,” he wrote.

administration and finance; Lori Roth, chair of the trustee committee on university advancement; Minakshi Amundsen, executive director of campus planning and development and Rocco DiRico, executive director of government and community relations, before May 12.

The senate also heard full texts for a resolution calling on the university to “streamline the name change process” in Tufts computer systems for students and staff in order to avoid cases of deadnaming and for a resolution calling on the university to “support Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration.” The two resolutions will be voted on in a future senate meeting.

The senate passed $4,600 in event funding for the Arab Student Association.

The senate passed $950 in event funding for Jumbo Ventures.

The senate Allocations Board passed $189 in funding for food and plates for the Wuzee dance team.

The Allocations Board passed $167 in miscellaneous funding for JumboCast.

The Allocations Board passed $400 in transportation funding for the Spirit of the Creative dance team.

The Allocations Board passed $440 in funding for merch and a room organizer for Ears for Peers.

The senate passed $650 in funding for a retreat for the Roti and Rum dance team.

The senate passed $645 in funding for the Ballroom Dancing team to register in an MIT competition.

The Allocations Board passed $419 in miscellaneous funding for the Tufts Gaming Hub.

The senate passed $750 in event funding for the Caribbean Student Organization.

The Allocations Board passed $150 in funding for recruiting supplies for the Society of Women Engineers.

The senate passed $1,228 in funding for a bowling trip for the Tufts Vietnamese Students Club.

The senate passed $3,880 in funding for a competition for the Tufts Electric Racing team.

The senate passed $1,300 in funding for the Ladies of Essence spring showcase.

The Allocations Board passed $150 in funding for executive board bonding for Women’s Higher Education Now.

The senate passed $1,350 in funding for the Tufts Rock Climbing team’s trip to nationals.

The senate passed $3,825 in funding for video editing for TedxTufts.

The senate passed $1,470 in funding for 180 Degrees Consulting’s formal and final semester symposium.

The senate passed $5,000 in funding for event speakers and training for Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine.

Finally, Itamar Oelsner was named Senator of the Week and the meeting was adjourned.

Tufts EMTs are pictured in front of Ballou Hall in November 2022.

Professor Natasha Warikoo speculates on future of admissions

ADMISSIONS

continued from page 1

recruiting in predominantly minority schools and areas.”

Currently, schools must demonstrate that they have tried race-neutral alternatives and that protected categories, such as race, are used sparingly in the application process.

“You have to show that your policy is what they called ‘narrowly tailored,’ and that means that it’s the most minimal use of that category as possible,” Warikoo said.

In the future, rather than including a checkbox where an applicant indicates their race, a college application may include an essay with a diversity related question. A November 2022 email to the Daily affirmed that the Tufts admissions office is considering modifications to their practices.

“The Admissions Office is evaluating various possibilities so that we are ready to make any necessary adjustments once the Court issues its deci -

sion,” Dean of Admissions JT Duck wrote. “It would not be appropriate for us to speculate about the potential impact of the Court’s ruling without knowing its exact details.”

In August 2022, Tufts signed an amicus brief along with 32 other colleges and universities calling for SCOTUS to affirm the legality of race-conscious admissions. At the time, University President Monaco wrote in a statement to the Daily that “one of the most distinctive attributes of a Tufts education is the multitude of backgrounds and perspectives that our students bring to campus that enrich the student experience.”

Duck affirmed the admissions office’s intention of “carrying out a thorough, holistic, and contextual review process in service of meeting our enrollment objectives.”

Still, the removal of race-conscious admissions has decreased the diversity of the enrolled student population.

The University of California

banned race-conscious admissions with Proposition 209 in 1996, and eight state schools have since followed. In general, according to Warikoo, these schools have been unable to return to pre-ban levels of diversity.

“We know from those states that [banning race-conscious admissions] leads to lower graduation rates for underrep -

resented minorities,” Warikoo said. “At those kinds of ‘reach’ schools, they’re more likely to graduate because everybody’s more likely to graduate.”

A study observing eight of the states that have banned race-conscious admissions found a 5% decline in underrepresented minorities in medical schools; Warikoo also pointed out that the race of

a patient’s doctor, particularly for Black patients, has an impact on the quality of their healthcare.

“At Tufts and at most liberal colleges, administrators want to serve a broader student body [and] have racially diverse student bodies. It’s just a question of how we best do that. And that’s a tough question,” Warikoo said.

professor Craig wilder talks relationship between slavery, higher education during annual Coit-phelps lecture

by Ella Kamm Deputy News Editor

Originally published April 18

Professor Craig Wilder spoke about his work to uncover higher education’s connection to the slave economy on April 12 at the inaugural event for the Slavery, Colonialism, and Their Legacies at Tufts project. The event was co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Tufts, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and the Office of the Provost.

“Today’s lecture is part of a larger effort to examine the history of slavery and colonialism and their lasting [effects] on higher education across America,” University President Anthony Monaco said in his introduction. “This work is difficult but necessary as a step in our university-wide commitment to become an anti-racist institution.”

Wilder is the Barton L. Weller Professor of History at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of multiple books, including his most recent publication in 2013, “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities.”

“He’s a historian of American institutions and ideas,” Caroline Genco, provost and interim senior vice president, said. “His work has really had a profound effect on higher education, pop culture … scholarship, history and society at large as we challenge our understanding of how elite institutions have been built.”

Wilder began the talk, titled “Knickerbocker Renaissance:

Slavery & Education,” by telling the story of how the education system in Flatbush, N.Y., was able to flourish due to the expansion of slavery during the 17th and 18th centuries.

“The escalation of the African slave trade and the spread of plantation slavery integrated regional and local markets, transforming elementary and advanced education in the Northern colonies,” Wilder said. “Wealth from the slave economy stabilized, finally, the earliest British American colleges … and brought a major extension of higher education in its wake.”

Wilder mentioned that Erasmus Hall, in New York City, was founded in Flatbush, a town with a remarkably large population of enslaved persons. He said that a 1786 census, taken just after the first meeting of Erasmus’ founders, found that 46% of Flatbush’s population were enslaved people. Wilder called Flatbush “the gravitational center” of New York’s slave economy and by extension, the center of the slave economy of the entire Northeast.

“Key sites in the development of American slavery were also, in fact, key sites in the history of American education,” Wilder said. “Erasmus’ charter trustees owned more than 100 human beings, including at least a quarter of all the Black people in town, and they came from the most prominent slave-owning families in Kings County and the state.”

Wilder explained that colleges and academies were reliant on the slave economy in many more ways than they are typically considered to have been.

“To put it a little bit differently, the presence of enslaved people on college campuses is an evocative but misleading measure

of the academies’ reliance upon slavery,” he said. “Few unions actually rival the intimacy of slavery and education.”

After Wilder delivered his prepared remarks, there was a Q&A section led by Kendra Field and Kerri Greenidge, professors of history and race, colonialism, and diaspora studies. Field and Greenidge established the African American Trail Project at Tufts and are co-directors of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Field and Greenidge took turns asking Wilder questions about his work and its implications for universities such as Tufts and MIT.

In response to a question about how the trajectory of research has changed over time, Wilder said that his recent work has grown from questions of why certain minority groups, such as Native Americans, were allowed to attend certain universities before others, namely Black Americans.

“[My findings] suggested, actually, that colleges have a kind of role

in shaping racial civilization that I hadn’t thought of before,” Wilder said. “They weren’t these innocent institutions that sat in the background and just observed, but they were actively participating in shaping racial culture.”

Wilder was also asked about challenging the mythologies of racial progressivism that universities often have surrounding their founding.

“MIT wrapped itself in a sort of abolitionist myth: that it was founded in Boston long after slavery ended, and therefore, it was effectively an abolitionist school,” he said. “It would be difficult for us to have more ties to slavery. We were founded by a Virginia slave owner who spent most of his career as a professor … [and] as a slave owner who used, in fact, an enslaved man in his research.”

He also spoke about the field of engineering’s deep connections to slavery.

“The great engineering project of the 18th century is the slave

ship,” Wilder said. “The history of engineering has always been a history of slavery, and so we’re wrestling with that.”

Field, Greenidge and Wilder concluded the talk by discussing the important role that students play in uncovering the racial histories of their universities.

“For 20 years, student activism … has forced campuses to deal with their pasts,” Wilder said. “From Georgetown to Brown to MIT, now, student activism has been transformative.”

In addition to activism, he spoke about the large role that undergraduate research plays in his work and the power of students researching their own institutions.

“[One reason I emphasized undergraduate research] is purely political. It’s hard to argue against Williams students studying the history of Williams for Williams,” Wilder said. “If you don’t like that idea, you know, I dare you to say it out loud.”

Bendetson Hall, home of the Tufts admissions office, is pictured on April 12.

Professor Craig Wilder of MIT presents the annual Coit-Phelps lecture at Barnum Hall on

Tufts’ connection to slavery, part 4: how community stakeholders are addressing the legacy of slavery

by Guillem Colom Assistant Features Editor

The initiatives to address Tufts’ connections to slavery are broad and growing in strength. As previous and current Tufts students contribute to conversations and scholarship surrounding Tufts’ connections to slavery, community stakeholders outside of Tufts are not only continuing to address this history but seeking ways to improve public knowledge of it.

One community stakeholder that provides education on local slavery history is the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Mass. Purchased by Isaac Royall Sr. in 1732 and inherited by Isaac Royall Jr. in 1739, the Royall House and Slave Quarters was the locus of the Medford slave economy until slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783. Enslaved people were forced to labor in tasks including wool and cider production, along with other agricultural work. The Royall House and Slave Quarters has been made into a museum that serves as a critical resource to examine the lives of the enslaved people who lived there and how they fit into broader conversations surrounding the legacy of slavery.

The museum works with Tufts historians on initiatives to research the history of enslaved people at the property. Kyera Singleton, executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, outlined her hopes for future collaboration with Tufts beyond the existing research.

“I think that not only is it about doing the research and getting Tufts students involved, getting Tufts students on site … but also offering internships,” Singleton said. “There [are] a lot of different collaborations that I can see happening between the Royall House and Slave Quarters and Tufts.”

Alexandra Chan, an archaeologist and former visiting assistant professor at Vassar College, worked as a project director for the Royall House and Slave Quarters in the early 2000s. Chan wrote her 2015 book, “Slavery in the Age of Reason: Archaeology at a New England Farm,” based on archaeological work she conducted at the site.

Chan discussed how she got started writing her book through a class she took as a graduate student at Boston University: Archaeological Ethics and the Law taught by Professor Ricardo Elia.

“[Elia] mentioned the Royall House … and I was just utterly shocked that I could be in graduate school and have grown up in the Northeast, and not [have] known that there was slavery

in New England,” Chan said. “I overcame my natural inhibitions and introversion to go straight up to Professor Elia at the end of class. … I started as a member of the crew the first

year, and then I took over the direction of the project the second and third years as I made it my Ph.D. project.”

English professor and students create a college literary canon

by Owen Bonk Features Editor

Originally published April 18

Do you remember the books you read in high school English?

If you grew up in the United States, chances are your reading list bears striking resemblance to the syllabi of students across the country. It’s also likely that titles like “The Great Gatsby” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” bring back not-so-fond memories of color-coded annotations and slideshow presentations put on by apathetic classmates.

Such is the status of American literary education: English classes have transformed a standard list of great works of literature into ‘high school books.’ The characteristics of the high school canon are well known: identifiable, stable, formulaically taught, tried-and-tested.

For better or worse, these books form students’ first foray into the world of adult literature. The issue is not without controversy: High school reading lists contain cultural touchstones like Shakespeare and Homer, and yet many have criticized this canon for a lack of diverse authors and themes. The introduction, in other words, is far from comprehensive.

Many students’ literary education expands beyond high school

— that is, if they choose to pursue English coursework or read on their own time. The question, asked on behalf of these continually curious readers, is: How should college reading pick up where high school left off? What books might round out one’s literary education? What books might serve as good companions for this new phase of students’ lives? The Daily asked a professor of literature and a pair of English majors to suggest titles they consider ideal for college students.

Though each had a different vision, there was a common tendency toward expansion, exploration and playfulness.

Ichiro Takayoshi, an associate professor of English, said college, like many phases of life, has a particular set of books that are especially compatible.

“I do believe in this age appropriateness theory of reading. … You can divide life into various phases, and you can subdivide these phases, and then each phase seems to match a particular set of texts,” he said.

Takayoshi identified the naïvete and imaginative capacity of college students as a privilege that diminishes with age and suggested his texts based on this state of mind.

Many of the students’ picks reflected a quintessential element of the college experience: the sense of entering a wider world.

“When you come to college … you’re leaving your place where you’re from, where it’s kind of a bubble … and you’re suddenly encountering people that come from all over and have all these different life experiences,” junior Anna Goldstein said. Goldstein emphasized the importance of reading a range of literature that reflects this diversity.

Senior Julia Bernicker also highlighted diversity as an important element of the college reading list.

“I want [books] to kind of shake my worldview a bit,” she said. “I feel like I’m at the point where I do have a sense of the world and who I am, and I want books that are going to help me challenge that and help me grow.”

Julia Bernicker

“My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante

“This is a must-read because it is a coming-of-age story that explores the intensity of female friendship, but in a way that any student can relate to,” Bernicker wrote in an email to the Daily. “Ferrante is also an author I’ve never seen on a classroom syllabus and is a great first exposure to contemporary, translated literature.”

“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt

“This is Donna Tartt’s first novel, and a campus classic that draws on themes of intense friendship and coming of age,” Bernicker wrote. “This is a book that you will tear through and think about for weeks to come.”

“Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer

“Krakauer has become one of my favorite authors and is a great entry point to exploring works outside of fiction. Into the Wild tells the true story of Chris McCandless, who decides to set off into the Alaskan wilderness after college, where he is eventually found dead,” Bernicker wrote. “While maybe no one should go off the grid without any gear or experience, McCandless’ story captures the feeling of being lost and a desire for an alternative lifestyle that, as I near graduation, definitely calls to me.”

“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” by Joan Didion

“Didion was also an author I didn’t discover until I came to college, which I think is the perfect age to be introduced to her,” Bernicker wrote. “This collection of essays exposes readers to something other than a novel and describes Didion’s experiences in California during the 1960s. … With something for every reader, Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a great introduction to a classic American author.”

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

“If you haven’t read Morrison in class or on your own by now, please do,” Bernicker wrote. “The Bluest Eye is Morrison’s first novel and tells the story of a young African-American girl growing up in Ohio after the Great Depression. … With gorgeous writing and complex characters, this novel is a must for everyone.”

Anna Goldstein

Anything from Toni Morrison’s oeuvre.

“My personal belief is that Toni Morrison should be taught to [Shakespeare’s] level, where people know her canon and have read a couple of [her books] at least,” she said.

Goldstein commented that one of the values of Morrison’s writing is her stylistic innovation. She expressed that high school might be too early to fully appreciate Morrison’s work. “Having it forced down your throat creates a resistance, and that’s not really productive for anyone,” she said.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez

“There’s a lot like it now, but it was one of the first to do that whole magical realism epic thing,” Goldstein said.

see SLAVERY, page 5 see

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Harvard Law School library in Langdell Hall is pictured.

Greater Boston institutions examine their legacies of slavery

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Chan formulated the research design and excavation plans, examining over 65,000 artifacts for the project. Since the Royall House and Slave Quarters is a museum and open for public events, the team had to use particular methodology to conduct their archaeological work.

“We couldn’t just strip back all of the soil and look at everything that’s under the ground, so we had to come up with a plan that would help us systematically and representatively test what was underneath,” Chan said. “Remote sensing techniques were key; we used ground penetrating radar, and resistivity. … After the remote sensing, we created a grid pattern … and decided to put one square meter excavation units at set intervals to get our bearings and see what might come up.”

The work conducted by community leaders like Singleton and Chan is central to conversations that attempt to reconcile the long-term consequences of slavery on social, economic and political systems. Their work forms a basis upon which institutions of higher education are also starting to examine their own connections to slavery and its generational impacts.

Harvard University is one such institution. Harvard’s 29th president, Lawrence Bacow, established the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery in 2019 to study Harvard’s relationship to slavery. The initiative was led by Harvard

faculty members, who were tasked with studying how slavery made racism deeply institutionalized at Harvard. The committee released its report, “Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery,” in 2022 with support from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb university professor at Harvard, served on the committee. As a distinguished Harvard historian, Gordon-Reed has won 16 book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” which made national headlines for its revelations of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with an enslaved woman named Sally Hemings.

Gordon-Reed spoke to how she got involved in the committee and her general reaction to its findings.

“I was asked to be on the committee by [Bacow],” GordonReed said. “I found out much more about slavery in New England than I knew before. … I didn’t know how close ties were between Boston and the West Indies, so it was eye-opening for me. Most of my work is about Virginia and the South, or Texas. This was a chance to see something that I had been studying in another context in the setting of New England.”

One key figure Gordon-Reed emphasized in Harvard’s connection to slavery was Royall Jr. — one of the more prominent slave owners in New England in the 18th century, who maintained intimate relationships

with not only the Tufts family but also with Harvard University.

Gordon-Reed detailed how Royall Jr. became embedded at Harvard.

“[Royall Jr.’s] family was based in Antigua, and [with] the money that he got from his sugar plantations, he gave a request to create a professorship at Harvard,” Gordon-Reed said. “The first law professorship at Harvard came from money from the Royall family, and we traced the beginnings of the [Harvard Law School] to that.”

The committee’s report outlines how Harvard’s connections to slavery with Royall and other slave-owning families cemented systemic racism at the institution. Chapter 4 of the report details how the legacy of slavery fomented a culture of scientific racism at Harvard Medical School and throughout the institution. According to the report, by 1850 the medical school “had become a focal point of scientific theories and practices rooted in racial hierarchy, racial exclusion, and discrimination at the University.” This commitment to race science enabled faculty members to support the eugenics movement that promoted the creation of a perfected human race that excluded minority populations deemed to be inferior.

Gordon-Reed discussed how the emergence of race science was a manifestation of the longterm implications of slavery.

“[The report] talks about all of Harvard’s connections to racist eugenics,” Gordon-Reed said. “If you think about slavery as

helping to create and maintain a racial hierarchy, it is not a surprise that these kinds of things would be a feature of life at Harvard as well.”

Harvard is not the only higher education institution near Tufts that is reconciling with its history of slavery. At the inaugural event for the Slavery, Colonialism, and Their Legacies at Tufts project on April 12, Craig Wilder, the MIT Barton L. Weller professor of history, gave the annual Coit-Phelps Lecture and talked about the broader connections between higher education and slavery. Wilder is the author of “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities,” which was published in 2013 and examined how slavery laid the foundation for American higher education.

Wilder reflected on the work that MIT faculty and students are undertaking to understand the history of slavery at MIT.

“Part of the reason that we have partnerships at MIT is to keep our students in conversation with students on other campuses,” Wilder said. “Student activism has kept this conversation alive. On [campuses], it has been undergraduate research and graduate student research that has been the beginning of a lot of what we do.”

Wilder further discussed how he got involved in his 2013 book project through the research students have conducted.

“When I was working on the book when I went to Princeton

[University] to do research for the first time … I went into the archives,” Wilder said. “When [I looked through] all the family history collections, presidents’ papers and all, I realized that a young woman [at Princeton] … wrote her senior thesis on slavery in the town of Princeton. So I got it and I sat there for half a day, taking extraordinary notes. [So] it has been undergraduate research … transforming these institutions.”

These larger conversations on the relationships between higher education and slavery can enable a better understanding of Tufts’ own connections to slavery. The contributions made by community members, Tufts faculty and students build off each other to create a collective understanding of how slavery is entrenched in the history of local institutions.

Singleton spoke about the optimism with which she views this work.

“I’m always optimistic about doing historical and archival research because we do not know everything,” Singleton said. “We’re always going to have encounters in the archives that push us to think deeper, that push us to think broader. … I hope that whatever work I start then lays the foundation for someone else to take it somewhere. … To me, that’s the best part of doing this work: not only adding to the historiography, but also opening up pathways for people to continue to do this work … and to ask new questions.”

Members of Tufts’ English department share their college must-reads

CANON

continued from page 4

“Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Goldstein picked “Crime and Punishment” to be the only classic on her list. “Of all the classics that I’ve read, the one that I’ve gained the most from and that I would recommend the most highly is ‘Crime and Punishment,’” Goldstein said. “It deals with so many bigger philosophical questions, and it really warps your understanding of reality.”

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston

“It kind of subverts what people think literature should be,” Goldstein said. “‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ is such a beautiful book, and it’s so emotionally rich, and it has a fabulous story, but it’s not written in that classic way,” Goldstein said.

“Tracks” by Louise Erdrich

“[Erdrich] also uses quite a bit of magical realism, which is really fun,” she said. Goldstein thought Erdrich’s whole oeuvre deserved recognition but chose “Tracks” as her strongest offering. “She’s from the Chippewa tribe, and writes a lot about … North Dakota and ‘Tracks’ deals with specifically the Dawes Act, which is when the indigenous land was being

sold off to white settlers, and it talks about a specific family,” Goldstein said. “It’s just a really really powerful story.”

Ichiro Takayoshi, associate professor of English

“The Prelude” by William Wordsworth

Takayoshi described “The Prelude” as an epic poem in which “[Wordsworth] takes stock of his life up to that point.”

“In a way, he was thinking like today’s college students: … ‘have I learned enough, have I done enough, … what kind of skills do I have now?’” Takayoshi thought the poem would serve as a good companion to students as they face these kinds of existential questions.

“The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens” by Wallace Stevens

Takayoshi thought college students possessed a precious yet fleeting “fantasy life” which can be dampened when they enter the workforce. “While you have it, I think you should wallow in it,” he said.

He also believed certain readings paired well with this state of being. “As you wallow in it, it’s nice to have … some kind of linguistic drug, I would say,” he said. “This book has plenty of a linguistic verbal drug that can induce in you

this deep, gorgeous, hallucinatory inner world.”

“Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison

“It’s a story of a loss of innocence, and I think that’s one of the many experiences that today’s college students are going through,” Takayoshi said.

“The Castle” by Franz Kafka

“Another archetypal college experience is, I think, the feeling of alienation,” he said. “The whole world feels alien to you, and as a result of that, you feel as though you are an alien to the world.”

Takayoshi thought this book served as a kind of medicine for that feeling. “Castle makes this whole experience of alienation surreal and comical,” he said.

“The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway

“It’s a book about having a good time, or how to have a good time,” Takayoshi said. “Hemingway seems to be saying it’s a project, and [that] some people are better at having a good time than others,” he said.

“I think college students are going about this project in a pretty spontaneous, unconscious way, but Hemingway can teach college students to be more intentional about what they are doing,” Takayoshi said.

Talking with Fease ahead of spring Fling

by Matthew Winkler Assistant Arts Editor

After winning Tufts University Social Collective’s Battle of the Bands, the Tufts student band Fease will be opening Spring Fling on April 29. Other live Fease performances can be heard Thursday at the Burren at 7 p.m. and at the Cantab Lounge on May 2 as the opener for Mega Mango. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Jack Goldberg; lead guitarist Ben Schmelkin; bassist Jack Wish; vocalist and keyboard player Jojo Martin; drummer Jake Rubenstein; vocalist Sophie Rubin; vocalist Mari Shoop; trumpet player Zack Burpee; alto saxophonist Jonah Fox; and tenor saxophonist Andrew Kerpel.

The Daily recently sat down with band members Goldberg, Martin, Rubenstein and Kerpel to talk all things Fease ahead of Spring Fling.

Fease was born in the fall of 2021 when Goldberg, then a firstyear, organized a few jam sessions for him and his friends to make music together.

“I really wanted to be in a band,” Goldberg, a sopho -

more, said. “At the beginning of freshman year, I was pretty friendly with Jojo, who was friends with Jake, [and] Andrew and I are from the same hometown. … So one night, I just went around and texted everyone. I was like, ‘Alright, I’d love to just jam with everyone. It’s nothing serious, but let’s all learn the songs.’ … Everyone was just really excited and really enthusiastic.”

After booking their first show at the end of the fall 2021 semester, these jam sessions among friends quickly turned into band rehearsals as they built their repertoire.

“That show really solidified us as a group as a unit more so than [as] a jam session because we were able to show off all this work that we put into these 15 songs,” Goldberg said.

As Fease became a reality and gained traction, the core intention of the group still centered around a bunch of friends having fun.

“At the end of the day, we’re a bunch of schmucks,” Goldberg said. “We’re just a bunch of guys making music, having fun.”

“It kind of feels like one inside joke that went too far,” Rubenstein, a sophomore, remarked.

The playfulness inherent to the band helps create an environment of mutual respect among members, marking

another key aspect of how the band functions.

wicked Queer film festival makes Boston a little more gay

by Henry Chandonnet Executive Arts Editor

From March 31 to April 9, queer cinema invaded theaters across the Boston area. From bigger venues like the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art to smaller film locales like the Brattle Theatre, Wicked Queer film festival put LGBTQ+ stories on the silver screen. With feature films and shorts alike, the festival provided a rare opportunity for queer filmmaking to take the spotlight.

Founded in 1984, Wicked Queer is the fourth longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in North America. Formed by local film programmer George Mansour, the festival is run by an army of volunteers coming together with a singular mission: to make a home for queer cinema in Boston.

Shawn Cotter serves as the festival’s executive director. Cotter reflected on the founding of Wicked Queer, and how the festival made its way to 2023.

“I always tell people, our festival really started with a glory hole,” Cotter said. “[Mansour] started booking the gay adult films there … and put a glory hole in the bathroom [of the theater], and he realized that after that glory hole went in there, their sales revenue went up $1,000 a day.”

Now, Wicked Queer is able to screen a broad variety of films, from documentaries to dramas to comedies. No matter the style or genre of the film, they are all undeniably queer.

“I consider myself a queer propagandist. I want to celebrate

queer lives, queer histories, and make sure that our stories are not being shoved to the bottom of Netflix or HBO Max,” Cotter said.

“I’m tired of straight people, I’m tired of their stories, I’m tired of their illusion of control over us.”

In curating the festival’s film offerings, Cotter was intentional in telling a multitude of stories. This includes centering trans and nonbinary individuals, especially in light of recent drag bans across the United States.

“In conversation with what’s going on in the country, I want to shove drag down people’s faces,” Cotter said. “I want to shove trans stories down people’s faces.”

Curating a diverse film festival also means digging through the archives of queer cinema, and often means running into problematic or untimely films. This year’s festival featured 1991’s “Daddy and the Muscle Academy,” a documentary that Cotter believes likely would be crafted differently in the modern landscape.

“[What] interests me is to not only celebrate the new … but also revisit our histories. What can we learn from it? Is it cringy? How does it read in 2023?” Cotter said. “We’re never going to learn from our histories unless we unpack it a little bit.”

Wicked Queer also works hard to center LGBTQ+ filmmakers from across the world. Among these creatives was Steph Farber (LA’14), a Jewish lesbian filmmaker. Farber’s short film “Digital Warfare” (2023) was featured among the festival’s comedy shorts.

Presented with nine other comedy shorts at the Paramount Center, “Digital Warfare” fol -

lows two sisters fighting over whose turn it is to refill their popcorn bowl. What ensues is a dramatic, farcical thumb-wrestling battle.

“I have a weirdly strong thumb muscle and I don’t really know why,” Farber said. “Because of that, I was like, oh, wouldn’t it be really fun if there was this movie about someone who was in this underground thumb wrestling ring?”

This singular vision has taken Farber to a multitude of festivals and showings, ultimately returning to Boston for one of the short’s final screening opportunities. For Farber, this was a sort of homecoming.

“It was really nice to walk through some of the familiar

spaces from when I lived here, but also have this entirely new experience and reason to be here,” Farber said. “It’s a very powerful thing to be back in an old space as a new version of yourself.”

Farber, who majored in English at Tufts, didn’t begin experimenting with filmmaking until long after college. Her advice for aspiring creatives? Start now.

“Do the things that scare you while you have the resources of your college to help you to support your dreams,” Farber offered. “I let myself feel really intimidated by a lot of things that I did not need to feel intimidated by. And so, don’t feel intimidated, just do the things.”

Though this year’s festival may have passed, Cotter and all those at Wicked Queer are looking forward to future programming. This includes an upcoming documentary festival, as well as their next annual celebration, which will usher in Wicked Queer’s 40th anniversary. Even as they celebrate 40 years, Wicked Queer’s mission stays the same: creating community.

“There are spaces for us, which are bars, but not everyone is interested in drinking. I think that, if we can gather in places that offer a space for everybody, I think that that’s something that we’re missing,” Cotter said. “Anytime that we can get together and gather and dialogue I think is important and revolutionary.”

COURTESY LEXIE GILBERT

The band Fease is pictured. see FEASE, page

Shawn Cotter is pictured.

Fease discusses origins, inspirations, friendship

FEASE continued from page 6

“I think one of the things that’s consistent across the board is how much we care about each other and how kind we are,” Kerpel, a sophomore, said. “I think that’s a huge driving force of why we function so well as a band. It’s because we also function really well as people.”

This environment of respect also benefits the band’s music.

“We’re not scared to give each other feedback in rehearsal,” Goldberg said. “We’re not scared to just say what’s on our mind, because we know it’s this really safe space and this awesome collaborative space that we’ve created for each other.”

While the band emphasized that each member has their own voice, Goldberg, who is studying mechanical engineering, is clearly respected by the others as a leader.

“I also don’t want to undermine that Jack Goldberg is the … mind of Fease,” Martin, a sophomore, said. “None of this would’ve happened without him. That’s just a huge testament to who he is as a person, that he’s juggling one of the hardest degrees at this school … and the amount of hours that he puts in [to Fease] is pretty disproportionate.”

But from a music standpoint, what actually is Fease? What kind of music can be expected from them at Spring Fling? While the group had trouble pinning themselves to one genre, naming funk, rock, jazz, R&B and pop as inspirations, the main musical feature of the band is improvisation.

“I think [Fease] is really characterized by improvisation,” Rubenstein

said. “We all love to improv and we like to communicate to each other through our solos and try to one up each other, and it’s kind of like friendly competition there. … So it’s very, very spontaneous. … Sometimes we use a pop song with a set structure to just open it up and make it 15 minutes long and just do a lot of solos.”

The spirit of improvisation constitutes another important part of Fease’s identity.

“We take a lot of that [idea of improvisation] into performing and into rehearsals,” Martin said. “Very [often] that improvisational flow works its way into more than just the music and [into] the way we roll.”

But improvisation does not undermine cohesion in a song.

“I think it’s a big testament to the rapport we’ve developed as a group, where we’re comfortable and familiar with each other’s playing styles to the point where we can predict where other people are going and land at the same point,” Kerpel said. “I’m consistently amazed at how well we seem to roll together. We’re on the same page, even when experimenting.”

Spring Fling marks a special milestone for Fease, as they have had ambitions to play at the festival, at first jokingly, since 2022.

“It started with Spring Fling last year. … Dayglow canceled and they announced it, and we were all like, ‘Get Fease up there, we’re there, we’re ready,’” Martin recalled, chuckling.

“Flash forward about a year and TUSC announces that the prize for Battle of the Bands is to play Spring Fling,” Goldberg said. “And so we really wanted to capitalize on that.”

In preparation for Spring Fling 2023, the group has been working on a setlist of covers and originals, with the ratio between the two “TBD.”

“We’re in a weird place because we feel really confident with our originals. We’ve been putting in the work and we have them more fleshed out than ever,” Rubenstein said. “I think this is a good opportunity to really show that … we can do covers and have a good time, but we’re our own band. It’s really important to have your own sound and your own artistic vision. But at the end of the day, [Spring Fling is] a big party. The people want to see what they want to see. … If they can’t sing along to it, it might be difficult. So we want to set a balance between those two.”

In addition to Spring Fling, with an upcoming EP and being an opening act for Mega Mango, Fease has big plans on the horizon.

“We really do believe that each song we’re putting out [on the EP] has a pretty different feel and sound to it, which is something that we wanted to do,” Goldberg said. “It’s not done yet, but I think we’re on track to put out some pretty good stuff.”

While born as a joke and a way to have fun among friends, Fease has now evolved into a real band with streamable music that shares the stage with the likes of Flo Rida, Cheat Codes and Mega Mango. Yet the heart of Fease remains firmly in human connection and having a good time.

“If at the end of the day we look back in 15, 20 years, and we’re like, ‘This is just a really fun thing we did, and this is how we got close to all these people,’ that’s all it needs to be for me,” Rubenstein concluded.

Jack Clohisy Queeries

Sasha Colby takes the crown

The season finale of the 15th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (2009–) came to a glamorous conclusion on April 14 when Sasha Colby took home the crown as America’s next drag superstar. Colby’s win couldn’t have come at a better time, as she stands to highlight what trans and drag representation and excellence look like despite the slew of anti-trans and anti-drag bills attempting to harm such communities across the country right now. Joining an elite club of two, Colby joins Vanessa Van Cartier as the only two queens to hold the title of Miss Continental, an international drag pageant competition, and to claim a “Drag Race” franchise crown.

Colby devoured this season, and her solo finale performance of “GODDESS” was to die for. With her signature hair flips, Colby showcased her drag prowess and skill across the main stage. What could be more iconic? The closest comparison: her two lip-sync battles against runner-up Anetra. Colby left no stone unturned this season as she never placed into the bottom two, winning four main challenges and ultimately the crown.

The queens of season 15 showcased the diversity and celebration of drag. Anetra, a self-described stunt queen, provided flips and dips worthy of national coverage. Nothing was more explosive than her lip-sync with seventh-place contestant Marcia Marcia Marcia, who frequently touted her BFA from local Berklee College of Music’s Boston Conservatory.

The title of fashion queen of the season, outside of Colby, should go to finalist Luxx Noir London, with her looks often paying homage to drag legends past and present while adding her own upscale glitz and glamor.

Victim of the edit? Most likely Loosey Laduca. While she had to “let loose” of her dreams to win the crown, she did manage to pick up Twitter’s interest with her iconic single from the talent show performance during the season premiere.

Season 15 was sprinkled with contemporary queer icons, with none other than Ariana Grande returning to the judges’ table for her second appearance, this time as the season premiere’s featured guest judge. Other judges included Maren Morris, Amandla Stenberg, Janelle Monáe, Megan Stalter, Harvey Guillén, Julia Garner, Ali Wong, Orville Peck and “Lesbian Jesus” Hayley Kiyoko.

If there’s anything certain about this season’s legacy, it’s that RuPaul’s coming to take her eighth consecutive Emmy home for outstanding host for a reality or competition program, because with the talent and excellence showcased throughout the season, how could “Drag Race” not have its moment in the sun?

As Aura Mayari’s folded fan stated during her season finale intro, “DRAG IS NOT A CRIME.” Drag is a means of expression. It is a means for queer and trans survival. It is art, and this art form will never stop shining its light.

Jack Clohisy is a senior studying computer science. Jack can be reached at jack.clohisy@tufts.edu.

SUDOKU - PUZZLE BY ANUSHKA SINGH

CROSSWORD - PUZZLE BY LUCAS CHUA

Difficulty Level: Getting eight hours of sleep.

MISSED CONNECTIONS

When: Every Wednesday Where: Daily newsroom PDFing very late.

You: Domino’s Me: Alexander Janoff

VIEWPOINT

US college rankings: Do they measure what matters?

by Talia Wilcox Staff Writer

If you’ve been through a college application cycle, then you’ve surely heard of the U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings report, which prides itself on having “expert advice, rankings and data to help you navigate your education journey and find the best college for you.” But how accurate is this ranking? How heavily should we rely on its advice? The U.S. News ranking uses 17 “measures of academic quality” such as class size, faculty salary and graduation rate, which are then weighted on a 100-point scale. These factors do impact a student’s college experience. However, the report’s focus misses critical aspects of what makes a school a good fit for its students, such as successful job placement in a field relevant to a student’s major, student happiness and a feeling of belonging on campus.

Although the U.S. News ranking has taken prominence in college decision making, proponents should acknowledge its authors use both a limited quantitative ranking and a subjective element. Factors such as class size, high school class standing, graduation rates and faculty salaries are boiled down to numerical values. However, despite the report’s mission to provide a resource for students to choose where they want to invest their next four years (and money), the focus on these rankings has created a toxic, misleading culture of superiority, where universities jockey for a coveted, highly ranked position.

Last year, Columbia University was exposed for using “outdated and/or incorrect methodologies” to secure its No. 2 spot; they were downgraded to No. 18 after the scandal. Does this

Eli Striker

The strike Zone

manipulation reflect qualities we want to see in our best universities? Or the values for which we want our system of higher education to strive?

In the wake of this scandal, some universities have had a change of heart. Harvard and Yale law schools pulled out of the U.S. News ranking, saying that its methodology does not reflect their values. Sixteen law schools, including Stanford University, University of Michigan and Duke University;

12 medical schools, including Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago; and three undergraduate institutions have pulled out of the U.S. News report since November 2022.

We are experiencing a cultural shift as higher education institutions respond to the con-

were connected to government buildings in the airplane’s cockpit through central highways. Brasilia’s designers hoped to create an egalitarian city which could be inhabited by government ministers and blue-collar workers alike.

Originally published April 18

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, completed its construction in 1960 with the intent of using modernist architecture as a tool to forge a futuristic utopian society. The city was designed around urban planner Lucio Costa’s airplane-shaped “Plano Piloto.” A series of residential “superquadras” along the plane’s wings contained dwellings, hospitals and schools and

Unfortunately, Costa’s utopian dream has not been fully realized. Today, Brasilia is plagued by urban sprawl and class inequality, as most of the metro area’s residents live in lower-income satellite cities surrounding the capital. Although Brasilia’s designers considered car-centric urban planning to be futuristic, this planning is not compatible with sustainable urban design, which often features walkable, public transit-oriented urban planning. In the span of half a century, Brasilia’s novel design went from futuristic to antiquated.

troversy over these rankings. These institutions need to realize why their happiest and most successful students choose not just to enroll, but also to stay. Arguably, factors beyond those prized by the U.S. News make a university the “best.”

For example, Princeton University is listed as the nation’s top university for the 2022–23 academic year. Yet Princeton is experiencing a student mental health crisis, reporting an all-time high of appointments made at their counseling services office.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University make up the U.S. News report’s No. 2 and 3 best universities, respectively. Yet both make the list for universities with the highest suicide rates. In contrast, according to

Today, Brasilia deals with many of the same challenges as other Brazilian cities: unchecked sprawl, a shortage of affordable housing and congestion. Costa’s Plano Piloto was designed for 500,000 people, but currently, Brasilia’s metro area has nearly 5 million inhabitants. The vast majority of the city’s residents, including the bulk of the working class, live in 27 satellite towns surrounding the city center. This suburban ring arose without any overarching plan, and Costa’s balance between architecture and nature is nonexistent in these areas.

The capital’s founders hoped that Brasilia would become the first Brazilian city without favelas, or shantytowns, on urban peripheries built without regulation. However, the city’s very

a survey done by The Princeton Review asking the question “Am I happy at my school?” Tulane University ranks first, followed by Vanderbilt University and Auburn University. According to the U.S. News ranking, Tulane is No. 44, Vanderbilt No. 13 and Auburn No. 97.

These contrasts are important because the students and counselors working with college admissions and higher education have become so obsessed with a top ranking that both university administrators and prospective students severely undervalue factors outside the U.S. News report calculation.

I applied to six universities; none of them were in the U.S. News’ top 10. I fell in love with Tufts not because of its ranking (No. 32 if you’re curious), but

construction catalyzed the formation of Brasilia’s first favelas, as impoverished workers were forced to live in temporary settlements outside the city center. Today, Ceilandia, a satellite town in the greater city center designed to house these workers, contains the community of Sol Nascente, one of the largest slums in Latin America. Brasilia quickly outgrew Costa’s Plano Piloto, and the planner’s failure to predict this growth has meant that Costa’s utopian vision is nonexistent for most of the occupants of the metropolis that he designed.

Although the city’s car-centric design makes it an untenable model for environmentally sustainable growth, the present-day city is still dynamic and liveable, rather than a sterile relic of past utopian ideas. In fact, Brasilia’s

because of our campus, our community and opportunities to get involved in activities and intellectual endeavors. I love that Tufts feels small enough to see familiar faces, but big enough to offer opportunities to try new things. I love our campus traditions, like sledding down a snowy Prez Lawn and painting the cannon. I love encountering new ideas compelling enough to make me change my major. And I loved discovering the Tufts ballroom team, the music community and the Daily. Administrators should highlight and support the unique opportunities they offer at their institutions and rankings should only be one of many factors for potential students to consider — it’s really about what makes a school No. 1 for you.

Human Development Index is on par with that of wealthier countries like England and France. The wealth disparity between Brasilia and its satellite cities remains omnipresent, but residents of Brasilia enjoy living there, and most would not consider moving to another Brazilian city, according to Steffen Lehmann, the director of University of Las Vegas’ School of Architecture. Although Brasilia did not become an egalitarian metropolis that radically altered Brazilian society, the city can still be considered a moderate success, as its recent revival indicates that a functional, liveable city can be forged from modernist utopian design.

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

Bendetson Hall, the Tufts admissions office, is pictured in 2021.

VIEWPOINT

When politics override science: Another attack on abortion access

by Esma Erdem Staff Writer

Originally published April 18

On April 7, another step was taken to restrict abortion access. Matthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas, put the Food and Drug Administration’s 20-year approval of a commonly used abortion pill, mifepristone, on hold.

The discussions started when a coalition of anti-abortion groups called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine filed a lawsuit against the FDA last year for disregarding the evidence suggesting that chemical abortion drugs “cause more complications than surgical abortions,” according to the website of Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion legal advocacy group. The case challenged the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a drug that is taken with misoprostol to terminate a pregnancy.

Although AHM claimed that the FDA didn’t adequately review the safety risks of the medication, the FDA approved the medication in September 2000 and had fewer restrictions on the pill over the past decades due to research showing it is safer than drugs like penicillin or Viagra.

If the federal government’s appeal to this ruling is unsuccessful, many abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, Aid Access and Abortion on Demand will have to switch to a misoprostol-only protocol. This particularly concerns women’s health,

as research has shown that the single-pill regimen has additional side effects. According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than half of all abortions in the United States are done through medication, so the verdict significantly affects the future of a fundamental women’s right and access to a safe abortion.

President Joe Biden said that the decision may have nationwide far-reaching effects and emphasized the importance of the FDA remaining safe from political and ideological attacks. Biden also described the ruling as “the next big step toward the national ban on abortion that Republican elected officials have vowed to make law in America.”

The FDA and the Department of Justice also disputed the lawsuit and reaffirmed their decision on the approval of mifepristone.

The rulings have also sparked concern among the biopharmaceutical industry, whose leaders worry that the Texas decision undermines the FDA’s authority and sets a precedent that could allow politics to override science.

To condemn the ruling to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, more than 500 heads of reputable biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, including the CEO of Pfizer, signed a letter.

In the letter, they called for a reversal of the ruling and criticized how the decision diminishes the FDA’s authority over drug approvals and how it ignores “decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent.”

Everyone should be able to obtain medical care where decisions are based on science, not politics. This is a dangerous affront to healthcare as it undermines the importance of making policies based on evidence-based research and commitment toward upholding individual autonomy and human rights.

Although the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the federal judge’s ruling, the final decision will drastically impact access to abortion and determine whether Americans will be one step closer to 1972, when women didn’t have reproductive freedom. Recent attempts to restrict women’s access to abortion have accelerated, culminating in the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade; this political interference in women’s reproductive rights is a growing

concern. When politicians intervene in reproductive choices, they are essentially taking away individual autonomy. These kinds of political impositions on abortion also disproportionately affect marginalized groups such as low-income women, women of color and LGBTQ+ individuals as they face significant barriers to healthcare access and even more difficulties in reproductive healthcare.

It is a sad irony that the decision-makers who claim to protect the unborn seem to have little regard for the mental and physical well-being of women. The attempts to impose personal beliefs on science and restrict access to safe abortions put women’s lives at risk and deny them the autonomy to make decisions about their own bodies. Those who claim to be pro-life should be equally commit-

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

ted to ensuring that women have access to comprehensive health care, including mental health services, contraceptive methods and prenatal care. It is hypocritical to claim to value life while ignoring the needs of women and disregarding the social and economic factors that contribute to unintended or unwanted pregnancies.

The reality is that reproductive rights are fundamental human rights, and women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies and their own lives. Access to safe and legal abortion is essential for the health and well-being of women, and any attempts to restrict or prohibit it are a violation of these rights. Let us stand up for the rights of women, free from political interference and oppressive policies that disregard science.

Data can help us talk about gun violence

by Nicole Schuller

Originally published April 19

I applaud The Tufts Daily Editorial Board for calling on the university to establish a Center for the Study of Gun Violence in its April 6 editorial, “Tufts should step up to fill the gun violence research gap.” The board raises excellent questions detailing our lack of understanding about gun ownership and our culture, as well as mental health and access

to firearms, and how we can collectively work toward gun safety that can’t fall prey to the trappings of politics — by looking at data.

When we do that, we have access to irrefutable facts such as gun violence becoming the leading cause of death in children and teens age 1–19 in the U.S.; that 120 people are killed every day from gun violence in this country; that more than 80% of children who die by firearm suicide use a gun belonging to

a family member. We also know there’s a lot we don’t know.

As a member of the local Medford group of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, I think our work to prevent gun violence would be greatly enriched by the research from Tufts. It could go a long way to strengthen not just the efforts we’re working toward in our own community but across the country.

Nicole Schuller Cotting Street, Medford

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The United States Supreme Court building is pictured.

ChatGp T: love it or hate it, you have to understand it first

by Anushka Singh Staff Writer

If you have been active on social media over the last four months, it is very likely that you have heard about the hype of ChatGPT. You might have experimented with it or used it for an assignment. But do you know how it works? Is it going to replace your job? Is this the start of an artificial intelligence powered apocalypse?

To understand ChatGPT, let’s take a step back and see how we reached this point. The field of AI started in the 1950s when mathematicians, logicians and scientists started trying to mimic the logical reasoning and problem-solving methods used by the human brain in machines. All of the newest AI models seen in the news today are generative models, which means that the models are able to generate data that has

not been directly selected from any other source.

ChatGPT is a generative predictive text model, meaning it gives text outputs based on a certain input. At its core, the model is trying to predict what the next word in a sentence is. Peter Nadel, digital humanities and natural language processing specialist at Tufts Technology Services, explained that ChatGPT is a big black box model based on GPT 3.

“There’s a GPT 3 model and that is a 175 billion parameter, a word to [vector] model. So, what it does is it takes this enormous, enormous amount of text,” Nadel said. “They pass it into this really complicated algorithm that can assign Bayesian weights to each of the words so that basically what you’re training for is a model that can predict the next word of a sentence. And so that’s what the GPT series are built around.”

GPT 2, which was the version of the model that preceded GPT 3, is a casual language model. This means to use it, a person has to pass the first two to three words in a sentence and the model can complete that sentence. To develop ChatGPT, the team at OpenAI used a strategy known as reinforcement learning with human feedback based on the feedback given by GPT 3 — a method called “few shot learning.”

“You basically give it a text document where you say, 10 plus 10 equals 20, 20 plus 20 equals 40, and then you say 40 plus 40 equals and then you just leave it blank, and the task is to predict the next thing, and it already knows that 40 plus 40 equals 80,” Nadel explained. “It knows that just from the massive amount of information that is held in the GPT 3 model, what you’re teaching it, really, is how to respond

to a question, and that’s what’s fundamentally different about ChatGPT versus GPT 3.”

The newest GPT 4 model has expanded on the training data and capabilities of GPT 3, to be able to support multiple languages and images in its response. The wording of your input determines what kind of output you get from the model, which means that if you are looking for the best response, you might have to try a couple of inputs with different prompts.

ChatGPT does have its downsides. A machine learning model can therefore only give out information that it learned from its input. If the input is biased, incomplete or not large enough, the machine learning model may give out a result that it deems correct but is far from the truth.

An example of this bias in action is with facial recognition software, where the algo -

rithm is often trained to recognize white people more easily than Black people because of the data used in training the model. Since the performance of these artificial intelligence models heavily depends on the data inputted into the model, bias in such models can perpetuate oppression that already exists, and it’s why AI tools can give out false information. If the user does not realize that the output is incorrect, that can lead to harmful misunderstandings.

These predictive text models can be used for writing essays, poems and cover letters, but if a model is asked a factual question, make sure the response is cross checked with some actual research.

AI hasn’t replaced my job as a journalist yet, but it’s nearly impossible to predict what the future of AI will look like.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT website is pictured on April 19.

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s oftball sweeps doubleheaders at williams, Middlebury

by Henry Blickenstaff Staff Writer

Unfazed by a 5–4 loss at No. 25 MIT on April 11, just their second loss of the season, No. 9 Tufts went 4–0 on this weekend’s road trip, improving to 26–2 on the season and a perfect 10–0 in NESCAC play to lead the conference. The Jumbos kept the momentum up during the week, beating the Babson Beavers 1–0 on Wednesday.

Jumbo softball began the weekend with a 4–3 win over the Williams Ephs. Tufts broke the scoreless tie in the top of the third with a two-run single by senior utility player Josie Steinberg and a two-run double by senior utility player Rachel Moore. That was all the offense they needed, as the Ephs’ comeback bid fell just short.

The Jumbos won more comfortably in the second leg of the doubleheader. They took the lead for good with a three-run fourth inning, but also added a run in the fifth and two in the sixth.

First-year utility player Kaitlyn Perucci had a pair of doubles and knocked in three in the Jumbos’ 7–2 win.

Tufts traveled to Middlebury for another doubleheader on Sunday, which it also swept. The first game saw junior pitcher Sophia DiCocco blank the

Panthers over five innings, while Perucci drove in five more runs on two triples, leading the Jumbos to a 9–0 mercy rule win.

Later that day, first-year pitcher Emilie Doty threw a complete game, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out six batters over seven innings. The offense was hot right out of the gate, scoring five runs in the first two innings as the Jumbos rolled again, winning 6–1.

Perucci and Moore led the offense, combining for 14 hits while driving in 14 of the team’s 26 runs this weekend. Following Wednesday’s game, their season OPS marks improved to 1.057 and 1.178 respectively, the latter of which leads the team.

Pitching was solid once again. Doty, DiCocco and sophomore pitcher Sky Johnson covered all 26 innings of the weekend and held opponents to just six runs and 17 hits in the four games. The trio struck out 14 batters and walked only three.

Doty earned NESCAC Pitcher of the Week honors for her performance. For the week as a whole, she pitched 16 innings and gave up just three earned runs, 11 hits and three walks while striking out 14. She improved to 7–1 on the season with a 0.77 ERA and a 5.5 strikeout-to-walk rate. Her 62 strikeouts on the season lead the team, and Doty is still trying

to process her outstanding start to the year.

“I definitely didn’t expect this this early on.” Doty said. “I’m surprised that I won this award, and I guess I just didn’t expect any of it to happen.”

Tufts pitchers have allowed just 44 runs in their 29 games, pitching to a 1.21 team ERA, holding opponents to a .199 batting average and striking out 155 batters while allowing only 26 walks. Without a set starting rotation, Jumbo pitchers have to stay on their toes, knowing they could be called on to pitch at any time.

“There’s not much time to mentally prepare, but I guess it would just be a bullpen [session] if [Head Coach Laura Ebstein] tells me to just go warm up.” Doty said. “I don’t know when I’m going in. But I know that if it’s going to happen, I’m just going to have to go out there and do my best.”

Because NESCAC standings are determined by in-conference record, matchups against rivals carry extra weight. The Jumbos enter each conference game with extra motivation. Doty identified an individual opponent as a motivating factor for her this weekend.

“The freshman pitcher for Williams, Sadie Leonard, she has an incredible ERA,” Doty said. “Before we played them, she had

a 0.40 ERA while I had a 0.41, so that really motivated me to do a little better than she did.”

After getting off to such a hot start in the regular season, the Jumbos are playing with a well-earned chip on their shoulder. This team has goals that go well beyond the 10 games remaining in the regular season.

“All of us know that we have the potential to go really far this season,” Doty said. “We all get along together, and we’re all really motivated to get to the national championship.”

The Jumbos look to stay undefeated in NESCAC play this weekend. They’ll play two more doubleheaders, one at home against Wesleyan on Saturday and away at Trinity on Sunday.

No. 1 men’s lacrosse dominates wesleyan in statement win

by Spencer Rosenbaum Staff Writer

There is a common saying in sports that getting to the top is hard, but staying there is harder. The Tufts men’s lacrosse team moved up to No. 1 in all three major polls last week despite tight wins against Williams and Connecticut College, and followed that up with a 20–7 victory on April 12 against a Bates side that sits toward the bottom of the NESCAC. Then, on Saturday the squad left Middletown, Conn. with a 25–16 statement win against Wesleyan to defend its rank as the nation’s top Division III side.

The Jumbos wasted no time attacking the Cardinals. Within

the first 12 minutes of the first quarter they put up nine consecutive goals — including two goals from first-year midfielder Jack Regnery and two goals from senior attacker Tommy Swank — and held the Cardinals to none.

After the Cardinals scored two of their own, the Jumbos entered the second quarter ahead 9–2. Despite this early advantage, the squad refused to take its foot off of the gas, dominating the second frame by a score of 10–3. This put the Jumbos up 19–5 at halftime, essentially burying any hope of victory the Cardinals had.

Coming off somewhat underwhelming performances by the Jumbos’ standards, surely this control right from

the beginning of the game was related to an elevated level of hunger. First-year long-stick midfielder Ben Frisoli confirmed the team’s extra motivation for this game in particular.

“Absolutely Wesleyan is a very good team and we knew they can come out hot. We knew we had to come out firing right at the beginning or they could have gotten an early lead,” Frisoli wrote in a message to the Daily.

Whether due to familiarity with Wesleyan as a result of the early season scrimmage between the sides, the preparation and intense scouting of the Jumbos on Wesleyan, the mere grit and hunger of the squad to prove it deserved its top rank or some combination of the three, the Jumbos exhibited how strong of a team they can be on Saturday. Frisoli discussed what might have contributed to the squad’s utter command over Wesleyan.

“Our scout on them and watching film helped, but I think our effort and urgency in the first half was what did it. We were just relentless for that first 30 [minutes] of the game,” Frisoli wrote.

In the second half, after the game was already out of hand, perhaps the team’s relentlessness waned as Wesleyan fought to prevent the ugliest

of score lines. The third quarter went back and forth as the Cardinals added 5 to the scoreline and the Jumbos added 4 to make it a 23–10 game heading into the fourth quarter. Finally, in the fourth quarter, the team put two goals away while Wesleyan scored six to end the game at 25–16.

This performance displayed the squad’s depth in magnificent fashion as 16 different players put their names on the score sheet. Swank recorded four goals, Regnery and senior midfielder Joe Murtha each recorded three goals and senior midfielder Jack Boyden and senior attacker Kurt Bruun each scored two goals.

A goal each was scored by Frisoli; senior midfielder Sam Sturim; junior attacker Kevin Christmas; sophomore midfielders Charlie Tagliaferri, Cam Delcristo, Sam Frisoli and Louis Timmins; sophomore attackers Max Ettinghausen, Joey Kraft and Callum Wood; and sophomore defender Joey Waldbaum. This tremendous depth is one aspect of the squad’s game that has allowed it to be so successful.

“Some of the best players in the country are guys on our bench. The competition in practice sometimes looks like two teams going at it,” Frisoli wrote. “We love pushing the

pace which allows our defensive players to get in the transition game and score some goals as well.”

Having so many capable players not only benefits the squad by providing it with significant options on gameday but also by boosting competitiveness during practice so that every individual, and most importantly, the team as a whole can get better every single day. This daily improvement is a major tenet of the program as any player or coach constantly refuses to look past the next game approaching and instead finds ways to best prepare and get even better.

“We’re not looking into the postseason just yet. We have a full week to get our minds set on Hamilton,” Frisoli wrote. “We have a lot of time to focus on what we can improve on and learn how we can get better before that game.”

Although seeing blowout performances by the Jumbos makes you wonder just how far in the postseason this squad can go, they will refuse to look at anything except the present. It is a ‘one game at a time’ mentality, and that game, for now, is against Hamilton at 1 p.m. on Saturday for Senior Day — a game where the team will continue its fight to stay at the top.

BOWIE BELLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

A member of the softball team is pictured on April 2.

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

Men’s lacrosse is pictured on April 12 in its game against Bates.