The Tufts Daily - Thursday, April 22, 2021

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 47

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Thursday, April 22, 2021

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Email from Hindu adviser sparks backlash from South Asian student groups

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Academic Quad is pictured on Aug. 28, 2020.

WEEKENDER

Predicting the 2021 Oscars’ main categories

by Catherine Cahn Contributing Writer

As the 93rd Academy Awards approaches, we reflect on another year of film, despite the strangeness of 2020. While many movies had to skip their theatrical releases and land themselves directly on streaming sites, and others had their release dates postponed to 2021 altogether, there is still a well-deserving number of films that have found themselves scattered across the list for the Academy Award nominations. I want to reflect on this year’s nominees in four of the main categories: best actor in a leading role, best actress in a leading role, best original screenplay and best picture. Like every year, some of these categories are stacked with a number of possible winners, while others have a clear leader.

When I first heard that Chadwick Boseman had been posthumously awarded the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama, I thought that perhaps this was given to him as more of an acknowledgment of his life’s work and a “thank you” for his career, and less because he actually had the best performance of the year. Then I watched “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020).

Boseman’s performance fully encapsulated the hard-on-thesurface but emotionally raw character that is Levee Green. Even though the film had an abrupt and rushed ending, Boseman’s performance steadily drove the story along, making it a pleasure to watch. The Oscar for best actor

in a leading role should go to nobody but Boseman, and I only wish he were here to deliver an acceptance speech.

Although Boseman is the clear frontrunner for best actor, Anthony Hopkins’ stunning performance in “The Father” (2020) should also be recognized. Hopkins plays Anthony, an old man who is losing his memory and his grasp on his surroundings. I found the film to be too confusing, albeit the puzzlement was certainly part of the filmmaker’s plan to help the audience get inside of Anthony’s head. Hopkins was able to play a character who could flip a switch and go from gleefully tap-dancing to crying out for his mother like a child throughout the film. If there were a second-place award for best actor, I certainly think it would go to Hopkins.

If the pattern continues for best actress and the winner is once again the same as the Golden Globe winner, as will likely be the case for best actor, then we can expect to see Andra Day take home the Oscar for her fiery role as Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (2021). Part of what is so commendable about Day’s performance is the complexity of the character that she had to tackle — one who sings, fights and cares. Day’s talents allowed her to play Billie Holiday in a way that felt like we were watching the real Billie Holiday, which is no easy feat. see OSCARS, page 6

The Tufts South Asian Regional Committee, South Asian Political Action Community and Fletcher South Asia Society released a joint statement on April 2 accusing Hindu Adviser Preeta Banerjee of spreading misinformation regarding Hinduphobia in the United States and the Hindu caste system.

The statement was a response to Banerjee’s email on Feb. 24 to the Hindu Student Council, in which she discussed what she viewed as anti-Hindu incidents, including “recent evidence of

hate towards Hindus at Harvard,” a legal case in California regarding the caste system, and incidents involving musical artist Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg. The email also includes a message from the Hindu American Foundation.

Riya Matta, research coordinator and founding member of the South Asian Regional Committee, and Krithi RamJunnarkar, co-director of SAPAC, discussed the organizations’ intent behind the statement.

“The email … was alleging incidents of Hinduphobia, and see STATEMENT, page 2

Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series features ‘Pod Save America’ co-host Dan Pfeiffer

by Flora Meng

Assistant News Editor

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted Dan Pfeiffer on April 21 in the latest event in its Distinguished Speaker Series. Pfeiffer is a political communication strategist, author and a co-host of the progressive “Pod Save

America” podcast. He served as White House director of communications and later as a senior advisor to former president Barack Obama.

Jen McAndrew, director of communication strategy and planning at Tisch College, gave opening remarks and revealed see PFEIFFER, page 3

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Dan Pfeiffer, senior adviser to President Barack Obama for strategy and communications from 2013 to 2015, is pictured speaking at the Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series.

Cummings School AntiRacism Task Force to release recommendations on diversity and inclusion

by Fernando Cervantes Contributing Writer

Tufts’ Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s AntiRacism Task Force is nearing the release of its 12-month report on diversity and inclusion. The report will include recommendations to aid the Cummings School in promoting and sustaining anti-racist practices over the long term.

The Cummings School’s AntiRacism Task Force was formed in June 2020 as part of an effort to actively promote anti-racism and diversity in all aspects of the Cummings School. Since then, it has taken steps to address implicit bias and the underrepresentation of marginalized communities in veterinary medicine.

Dean of the Cummings School Alastair Cribb discussed the task force’s work. The 12-month report, approaching release, will center recommendations and goals that will sustain anti-racist practices beyond the immediate future.

“As the Task Force works towards its 12-month report, there are plans to develop recommendations on how to achieve wider diversity in our student see CUMMINGS, page 3

FEATURES

More than meets the eye: Somerville Theatre

by Lena Leavitt

Assistant Features Editor

The Somerville Theatre’s gorgeous marquee out front is framed by owls and raised by lion heads.

“Stay home and be safe,” it reads.

“We will reopen soon.” Beneath it a “Parasite” (2019) poster still sits in a frame, as if to mark the moment in the movie industry when theaters shut their doors.

The theater is in vaudeville style, its largest auditorium carved by two ornate arches: one framing the stage and one crossing the front of the balcony. Chandeliers drip light bulbs from the ceiling, illuminating the rosy ceiling and ivory walls.

Box seating burrows into the walls on both sides. Above the stage and orchestra pit, a shifting red curtain with golden trim

SPORTS / back

OPINION / page 8

OPINION / page 8

Tufts baseball takes Colby series behind offensive outburst, strong pitching

Tufts should mandate COVID-19 vaccine to protect community, return to normalcy

Puerto Rican, D.C. statehood should remain separate issues

hangs, waiting to draw back and reveal the movie screen swirling into life or, sometimes, live actors under spotlights.

Ian Judge, director of operations at the Somerville Theatre, has always been fond of the building.

“I actually grew up down the street from here,” Judge said. see THEATER, page 4 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, April 22, 2021

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Banerjee apologizes for hurting members of South Asian community STATEMENT

continued from page 1 many of those claims were false, and some of them were actually harmful because they perpetuated a political ideology that we felt was not appropriate for someone in her role,” Matta, a sophomore, said. “We basically wrote the statement because we wanted to correct the misinformation that was sent out … [and] address the harm that was done by the misinformation.”

In the original email, Banerjee characterized the caste system as “a social construct introduced by colonialism,” which Matta disagreed with.

“To claim that caste is one, a colonial invention and not tied to Hinduism is again [nonfactual] — it is inextricably tied to Hinduism, it is rooted in Hinduism,” Matta said.

“Secondly, it’s harmful because you basically invalidate and erase the experiences of lower caste people in India because lower caste people in India are oppressed, discriminated against

systemically … their lives are threatened on a daily basis by their caste status.”

Matta also took issue with Banerjee’s attaching a statement to her email from the Hindu American Foundation, which she said is linked to Hindu nationalism.

“The overarching theme of this email was that criticism of the Indian government is equal to Hinduphobia. That’s particularly harmful because not only is that incorrect, because India is a secular nation by law — that’s line one of our Constitution — but also the conflation of the Indian government with Hinduism actually has a name: it is a political ideology called Hindutva,” Matta said. “And that’s an ideology that’s peddled by the current leadership in India … that’s a particularly harmful ideology because when they say that India is a Hindu state for Hindus, [they mean] they want to evict, particularly, Muslims.”

Matta and Ram-Junnarkar, a junior, noted that some mem-

bers of the South Asian Regional Committee, South Asian Political Action Community and Fletcher South Asia Society met with Banerjee to discuss her email.

Later that day, Banerjee sent out a second email acknowledging their meeting and apologizing for sharing information without clear context.

“I’m very sorry that the message I wrote hurt members of our community. I am embracing this opportunity to better understand the concerns that have been raised and to engage in dialogue, and that work has already begun with the help of students and others, for which I’m grateful,” Banerjee wrote in an email to the Daily. “I recognize my responsibility to work with students, faculty, staff and community members to create these resources and opportunities for dialogue within our diverse community, and to grow support for those of the Hindu faith at Tufts.”

Ram-Junnarkar said she hopes Banerjee will be more attentive to students’ voices going forward.

COVID-19 AT TUFTS

“We’re really trying to support her here, and we’re trying to hold her accountable for misinformation that she may have shared,” Ram-Junnarkar said.

“And in return, I really hope that she hears us out and that she meets our needs as well, because at the end of the day, she is an adviser, and she is here for Tufts students.”

Ram-Junnarkar added that the controversy is not an abstract debate but is about lived experiences.

“I want everybody … involved in this, everyone who read the email, to remember that this is not something in the abstract — this is not theory or some far off political debate.

It’s really about people’s right to exist,” Ram-Junnarkar said.

“This is not distant from us, necessarily. It may feel that way because of varying amounts of privilege that a lot of us have, but for a lot of people it’s not distant and it’s very much a reality and it’s very much lived daily experiences.”

News

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Pfeiffer discusses experience in Obama White House PFEIFFER

continued from page 1 Tufts students’ long-running interest in Pfeiffer’s feature.

“Over the past four years since the launch of their blockbuster podcast, we have received many requests from Tufts students to bring the ‘Pod Save America’ hosts to campus as part of this speaker series, and we are so pleased to deliver on that request, virtually, today,” McAndrew said.

Tisch College Dean Alan Solomont opened the discussion by bringing up President Biden’s response to the recent Derek Chauvin verdict in the landmark George Floyd case.

“The jury handed down a verdict of guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd,” Solomont said. “Speaking about the verdict President Biden said, ‘This can be a giant step in the march toward justice … But it is not enough, it can’t stop here.’

What should the president do to ensure that the march towards justice doesn’t stop?”

Pfeiffer responded by citing new investigation efforts into

policing at the Minneapolis Police Department.

“The first thing is that Merrick Garland, the newly confirmed Attorney General of the United States, has announced that he’s going to do a pattern and practice investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department,” Pfeiffer said. “That is something that is one of the most important things to do to figure out what has happened there and make sure that this is not just about George Floyd, it’s about how you ensure that we make policing better and safer.”

He also mentioned a police reform bill that has gained renewed urgency following Chauvin’s conviction.

“The most important thing is something that the president talked about in the phone call he had with the Floyd family that went somewhat viral yesterday,” Pfeiffer said. “There is a piece of legislation, the [George Floyd Justice in Policing Act], that is before Congress. It passed the house in 2020, it was blocked in the Senate … There is some

reporting this afternoon that bipartisan negotiations have actually kicked off again for the first time in a long time.”

Pfeiffer also discussed his past work with communications for the Obama administration, which started with his involvement in media initiatives to promote communication with certain groups during his campaign.

“The challenge you have from a communications perspective is the people that we needed to get involved: young people, people who had sort of checked out of politics during the Bush years,” Pfeiffer said. “They are the people who paid the least amount of attention to traditional news sources … The view was we had to go to non-traditional places to put Barack Obama in front of people we had to bring into the process to win.”

When asked about his advice to students who are interested in journalism and the field of political communications, Pfeiffer emphasized the importance of strong writing and argumentation skills.

“What was most useful wasn’t necessarily what might be actionable facts that I learned in American government,” Pfeiffer said. “It was learning to make an argument, in writing and orally, to synthesize things, and be able to do that clearly and concisely and persuasively.”

He explained how the development of these skills can translate into a student’s performance in the workforce.

“Your first job’s going to be entry level, you’re going to start answering phones, and then someone’s going to say write something, can you draft this, and if you are someone who can write something, all of a sudden you’re going to get to write more stuff,” Pfeiffer said. “So I think really thinking about how to become a good writer, is the best way to break into political communications and then succeed in it.”

Pfeiffer also shared his thoughts on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and what the President’s message should be.

“For President Biden, what I think he should do and I

believe he will do, is to try to connect his agenda — the American Rescue Plan that was passed, the American Jobs Plan, which is often described and debated as his infrastructure plan and associated things with it, his efforts to get people vaccinated … to the larger message of unity that he had in the campaign that got him elected,” Pfeiffer said.

Solomont asked Pfeiffer how the focus of the podcast, founded in 2017, will change under a new president.

“I think the biggest challenge for Democrats over the next year and a half is keeping the people who got involved because of Donald Trump involved in politics,” Pfeiffer said. “Because Trump is gone, the threat is not gone … We want to continue to help people understand what’s happening … We also want to shine a light on the threat that still exists and keep people involved for 2022.”

Solomont facilitated questions from the audience, which Pfeiffer answered, to round out the event.

Anti-racism task force to gather feedback from Cummings students before releasing report

CUMMINGS

continued from page 1 and house officer bodies… and to develop a recommendation for how to maintain momentum long-term,” Cribb wrote in an email to the Daily.

According to Cribb, the task force’s six-month report, which was released in December, focused on immediate action, some of which has already paid off.

“The six-month report … recommended that our faculty search and selection processes be revised,” Cribb said. “This has already resulted in changes in our advertisements and processes. This has included stronger statements around diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in advertisements, a new requirement for all applicants to address this area in their application, and a test implementation of a rubric for evaluating candidates to reduce bias. A new draft Search and Selection Policy will be presented to our Executive Faculty Board shortly.”

The task force partnered with the Tufts Veterinary Council on Diversity, another group at the Cummings School aimed to increase diversity and inclusion.

Florina Tseng, associate dean for diversity, inclusion, equity and climate at the Cummings School and a member at large of the Tufts Veterinary Council on diversity, said the task force was established following widespread calls for racial justice last summer.

Tseng said the task force has developed and executed trainings on implicit bias as part of its short-term, concrete programming.

“We embedded those implicit bias trainings into already existing meetings, like faculty depart-

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, pictured here, has taken steps to promote anti-racist practices within the school. ment meetings or staff meetings or group meetings, so we were able to reach most of the campus with those,” Tseng said.

As the task force works to release its 12-month report, it plans to solicit feedback from members of the Cummings School community through a campus survey. According to Cribb, feedback will help guide the task force moving forward.

In addition to this broader involvement from the student community, the task force includes two student representatives. Cora Evans, one of

these students, said the task force is working to build more support for people of color on campus.

“I think a big aspect of the task force is creating that space so that we can get more diverse applicants, so that when they come here, they feel supported, they feel safe, they appreciated and that they want to continue their time at the Cummings School,” Evans, a second-year graduate student, said.

For Evans, who graduated from Spelman College, a historically Black college, this space for

more diverse applicants is especially important.

“I came from an HBCU, so it’s a little bit of a culture shock to come to a school where there are very, very few Black students,” Evans said.

Looking toward the future, Tseng said she hopes the task force becomes a permanent — rather than a temporary — project within the Cummings School.

“It had a one year date of expiration, but we’re certainly convinced that there needs to be more action and more ongoing sorts of involvement,” Tseng said. “One of our goals is to figure out how this

continues, not as a task force, but what sort of iteration it might be.”

Cribb hopes the task force will serve as one of many steps toward meaningful institutional change.

“It is essential that we take larger and bolder steps to address the long-standing challenges that we face with racism and lack of diversity within veterinary medicine,” Cribb said. “I am looking for strong, implementable recommendations that will [affect] change, and will be embraced by our community, and I look forward to the Task Force’s next report.”

4 Thursday, April 22, 2021

Features

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Director of Operations discusses future of Somerville Theatre THEATER

continued from page 1 “If you would ask me when I was 10 years old what my dream job would be, I would have said, ‘Oh, running that theater in the square,’ and now it’s what I’ve been [doing] for almost 20 years.”

After spending so much time in the theater, Judge knows where he likes to sit. He prefers to view the screen from above.

“I always as a spectator really like the front rows of the balcony,” he stated. “At a movie or a concert, that’s my favorite spot.”

The Somerville Theatre has been embedded in its surrounding neighborhood for over a century.

“It’s still doing the same thing for the community that it did 107 years ago: live entertainment and movies, [since] the first day it opened,” Judge explained.

The theater is a family business; only three families have ever owned it. After Joseph Hobbs built it in 1914 as part of his Hobbs building, which included a basement café, a bowling alley and billiards, the theater hit the ground running with weekly plays, vaudeville performances, opera shows and the hot new craze: films.

The theater had various connections to Hollywood in its beginnings. Busby Berkeley, the famous director who worked on “42nd Street” (1933), “Gold Diggers of 1933” (1933), “Babes in Arms” (1939) and other musicals of the ‘30s and ‘40s, also directed plays in the Somerville Theatre in the ‘20s. Tallulah Bankhead, a film and live theater star, acted at the theater early on in her career, and Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), danced in vaudeville performances.

“The early days had a lot of rotating cast like that, people who were connected to showbiz,” Judge said.

In 1926, the Hobbs family leased and then sold the the-

Kevin Zhang Tales from the T

Streetcars: An addendum

I

t occurred to me last week that, for all the time I’ve spent talking about Boston’s streetcar system, I’ve never provided any overall background on it. Not the first time I’ve jumped into something without adequately preparing beforehand (like when I declared my major), but regardless, Boston’s streetcars have a fascinating history and legacy that deserve a look in their own right.

As early as the 1850s, Boston was served by horsecars. A

ater to Arthur F. Viano, who switched to just film showings during the Great Depression.

Somehow, the theater was still able to provide fresh popcorn and various giveaways on prize nights, like household appliances and dishware. Live performances only came back to the theater in 1982, shortly before the Fraiman family took over the business.

The theater continues to get attention from big names.

“In the last 20 years that I’ve been here, we’ve had Bruce Springsteen and U2 play here,” Judge said. “Those two … were pretty remarkable for a little movie theater.”

The town of Somerville protects the building’s exterior as a historical site, and the theater still brings its rich treasures of the past to audiences today.

The main auditorium proudly boasts two antique Norelco DP-70 projectors, which show archival movies in 35 mm and 70 mm film.

As for the future of the movie industry, Judge remarked that the pandemic might be deepening problems that were already happening, such as tension between movie studios and theaters over release windows — the time between when a movie is released in theaters and when it goes to home viewing via streaming or on DVD. “Movie studios want smaller windows and movie theaters want at least 90 days,” Judge explained.

Studios control all kinds of movie-going factors, such as how many times a day a theater shows a movie and whether two movies share an auditorium.

“Very often we’ll book a Disney family movie and they’ll force you to have a late, late show, like a 10 p.m. show,” Judge continued. “Nobody’s going to a Disney movie at 10 p.m … but you can’t [show another movie] because Disney is Disney … You want to play Star Wars? Star Wars has to play in your largest audisimple concept, horsecars were efficient (running horsedrawn carriages on metal rails instead of roads reduces friction and spares riders’ backs) and fairly low-tech (as a wise man once said, “Grass goes in, fast comes out.”)

Starting in 1889, however, these horsecars were replaced by electric wire-powered streetcars, which were larger, better, faster, stronger and didn’t produce manure (unless things went really wrong). It was also around this time that streetcar companies were consolidated into the Boston Elevated Railway company, the MBTA’s predecessor.

Streetcar lines popped up on streets throughout Boston (including down College Ave and Broadway by 1925). New, dense “streetcar suburbs”

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

Somerville Theatre in Davis Square is pictured on April 15. torium for eight weeks, and if you move it to a smaller auditorium you have to pay more for it.”

Since discovering that they could sell movies straight to viewers on their streaming platform, Disney has become less reliant on theaters.

“Movie theaters are closed right now and a lot of these movies are being streamed,” Judge said. “That’s going to change, I think, how long movie theaters get movies exclusively.”

However, most studios still depend on the box office for revenue, especially for anticipated blockbusters. Ten dollars for a single movie ticket has much more impact per viewing than almost a $14 monthly Netflix subscription. Even Disney is holding Marvel’s “Black Widow” (2021) back from Disney+ until theaters open up. Filmmakers, too, want their movies on the big screen.

Judge remains optimistic for the Somerville Theatre.

“Maybe for some theaters [smaller release windows] will be a negative, but for us, we’re

really not worried about that because we’ve already played plenty of movies that were streaming at the same time,” Judge said. “[People still] want to have that movie experience … Things like ‘Roma’ (2018) or ‘The Irishman’ (2019) overall… played just fine.”

Indeed, it is difficult for a laptop to compare with the dimmed lights, widescreens and cozy popcorn aromas of the Somerville Theatre’s smaller rooms, let alone a screen spanning a 41-foot wide stage, two subwoofers, 24 surround speakers and up to 850 people reacting to a film with you in the main auditorium.

The Somerville Theatre has managed to stay for this long, and Judge does not expect the pandemic to stop the neighborhood fixture now.

“We are less at risk than, say, a chain like AMC because we are way more involved in our community and … film festivals, live performances and classic films are an important part of our mix,” Judge said. “I think that we are way more balanced than some of our competitors.

You know, if you have 19 screens to fill, you’ve got a lot to worry about. You can only show ‘King Kong’ … on 10 screens so many times … We are in touch with our audience more; I know a lot of our customers by their names and faces.”

Unfortunately, the curtain will have to remain closed for a bit more time. Still, the staff is currently doing a lot of work to maintain and restore the theater, and keep it involved in the community.

Of course, the million dollar question is: When will the theater reopen?

“My best educated guess would probably be by the end of the summer,” Judge said. “The city of Somerville is extra restrictive … They haven’t allowed movie theaters to reopen at all.”

Somerville has mandated that theaters remain “on hold” for the time being.

When it reopens, the theater will be a little bit new for everyone.

“We’re sprucing it up quite a bit inside,” Judge said. “So, we hope you guys will come and take a look.”

sprang up around these lines to cover much of inner Boston.

To carry streetcars through the crowded downtown streets, the Tremont Street Subway, the first subway in North America, opened in 1897.

Many subway stations built afterwards were designed as transfer points from which streetcar lines would radiate, and by no coincidence are still major hubs today. Examples include: Harvard, with a builtin streetcar tunnel that now carries buses; Maverick, with a strangely wide platform that once carried streetcars alongside trains; and Broadway, with an upper-level streetcar station that’s been used variously as a mushroom farm and MBTA disaster training center.

As automobile traffic began to rise, streetcar lines — which

often ran amid traffic — became increasingly unpopular. As early as the 1930s, streetcars were being replaced by cheaper and more flexible trolleybuses (buses powered by electric wires), then diesel buses. The boom in car culture and suburbanization after World War II, and the corresponding decline of transit, only hastened this trend of “bustitution.” In the decades after, Boston’s streetcars disappeared faster than rich kids from campus during “spring break.”

The last survivors of the streetcar network are the Green Line’s B, C and E branches, which still use the Tremont Street subway. (The A branch to Watertown closed in 1969, and the D branch was converted from a former railway.) The Red Line’s Mattapan trolley also uses streetcars. But perhaps the

biggest remnant of the streetcar network is the MBTA’s buses, many of which ply the same routes that streetcars and horsecars did in the centuries before.

Many plans have been floated to expand the streetcar network — for example, the Silver Line was once planned to feed into the Green Line — but besides the Green Line Extension, nothing major has come to fruition yet.

But as congestion and climate change worsen, it may soon be time to ditch our polluting cars and buses, and give streetcars another chance.

Got ideas for any transit-related topics you want to read about? Let me know via email!

Kevin Zhang is a sophomore studying civil engineering. Kevin can be reached at kevin.zhang7@tufts.edu.

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WEEKENDER

5 Thursday, April 22, 2021

Predictions for the 2021 Oscars OSCARS

continued from page 1 That being said, I don’t see the Oscars following in the Golden Globes’ footsteps for this one. Instead, I think Frances McDormand will rein in this year’s Oscar for best actress for her peaceful portrayal of Fern in “Nomadland” (2021). It seems that often when the acting awards are given, they go to whomever had the hardest or most complex role to achieve, such as Matthew McConaughey in “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013), Renée Zellweger in “Judy” (2019) or Joaquin Phoenix in “The Joker” (2019).

Although successfully playing such a difficult character is a commendable task, actors and actresses should not be overlooked for their achievements with characters who lead a quieter existence, such as Fern in “Nomadland.” McDormand played Fern in such a way that she was indistinguishable from the other nomads in the film who were actually playing themselves. For this, she deserves the Oscar.

At the root of every good film is the necessity for a strong story, and three distinguishable elements that should be found in every great screenplay are how effectively the story pulls at the audiences’ emotions, how layered the story is (which typically adds to its level of originality) and how clearly it tells what it is trying to achieve.

The five nominations for this year’s best original screenplay are quite varied — and there are a few possible winners. “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021) tells the striking true story of a Black Panther Party infiltrator whose actions ultimately lead to the murder of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. “Minari” (2020) is an intertwined story about an Asian American family and the father’s attempt at starting a farm in Arkansas. “Promising Young Woman” (2020) has the feel of a chick flick watched for

pure entertainment, but actually creatively tells a story of a woman seeking revenge. “Sound of Metal” (2019) has a very indie feeling which works to tell the emotional story of a drummer who loses his hearing. Lastly, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (2020) is about the seven defendants charged with conspiracy after the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago.

All of these screenplays were outstanding to watch played out on the screen, and each is deserving of being nominated in this category. Although the winner of this category is a bit of a guessing game, since none of these screenplays are astonishingly better than the rest, “Minari” has my vote. While many of the other nominations are just telling stories, “Minari” goes far beneath the surface and successfully intertwines so many different symbols and themes that I cannot help but give it all of my praise. At the root of “Minari” is its originality — the story of an Asian American family starting a farm in Arkansas, all while dealing with other family and work troubles, is not one I have seen before, and the story was told with rawness and authenticity.

The film’s accomplishments do not end there, however, but instead go on to incorporate unique characters, cohesive themes and individual moments of fear and symbolism. The characters of the grandmother and Paul, who works on the farm, each have a certain quirk to them that provide most of the film’s laughs, until humor no longer has an appropriate place in this film. Different elements of the story also provide the building blocks for emotional appeals, such as the development of David’s health problems, the search for what it actually takes for Jacob to help his family and, of course, the “Minari” plant, which symbolizes the resilience of Asian American immigrants in the United States.

The film that wins the best picture category, which is the most anticipated award at the Oscars, is essentially just that — the best film of the year. This often has to do with the culmination of success in all of the components of the film — one’s covered by the aforementioned awards categories along with other elements such as directing, cinematography and editing, to name a few.

All of the films nominated for best original screenplay have also been nominated for best picture, in addition to “The Father” and “Nomadland,” which both received best adapted screenplay nominations, and “Mank” (2020).

Although there are a few top contenders for this year’s best picture, “The Father” and “Mank” can immediately be crossed off the list. In fact, I’m not even sure why they received nominations in the first place.

Although “The Father” has phenomenal acting performances and high-quality technical aspects, it lacks a best picture-worthy story behind it.

Albeit watching an old man slip away from reality, with fear in his eyes the entire time, is emotionally successful, too many questions were left unanswered at the end, and the story was not as coherent as its fellow nominees.

Considering how “Mank” does not even have a screenplay nomination, it is essentially a no-brainer that it will not be winning Best Picture. And rightfully so. “Mank” is, quite frankly, a boring story that did not leave a lasting impact after the picture faded off the screen. Although it had beautiful costume design and enthralling sets, the story felt more like an attempt to exploit the success of “Citizen Kane” (1941) for further profit than anything else.

Although I don’t think the “Trial of the Chicago 7” will actually be the one to win best picture, it shouldn’t be overlooked.

The movie has compelling performances and tells a heartbreaking story that makes the

audience feel powerless at times, until the characters find ways to restore their hope. Even though it likely won’t take home the Oscar, it is absolutely praise-worthy.

“Nomadland” is the current top contender for best picture, as projected by many media outlets, but I still think “Minari” has a chance. Although “Nomadland” is well-acted, has a distinctive cast and tells a beautiful story, the easily comprehensible and well-acted “Minari” has greater complexities that drive its narrative.

As the Academy Awards approaches this Sunday, April 25, it will be interesting to see who takes home awards from a field of Oscars nominees that is more diverse than years past.

COURTESY IMDB & WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Promotional posters for the Oscar 2021 nominees are pictured.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | WEEKENDER| Thursday, April 22, 2021

Ramona Meng Xi Beyond the Underneath

Vinyl survival, Part 2

I

don’t have a turntable, but I do have a few vinyl records in my packed bedroom. I only listened to bits of them on turntables when I first bought them. Sometimes it makes me impatient seeing the records just lying there in my room. All the songs are meticulously carved on the disc, but they are sealed in silence. I like

to run my fingers around the circular lines to imagine how they would sound, even though I could easily search them up on the internet.

The most a standard vinyl record can store is approximately 44 minutes of music (22 minutes per side), which adds up to several tracks or even an artist’s entire album. But with the existence of platforms such as Spotify Premium, for example, who would ever worry about music “storage?”

About half a year ago I received an invitation from John, a DJ, to a vinyl-only night.

Instead of simply plugging in a USB that contains the full tracklist for the night, John and his

friends were going to perform using only vinyl that they had collected. It was a rare scene, at least from my perspective.

Even though I couldn’t make it to the event, I then started to pay attention to vinyl-only DJ sets and videos. The way DJs carefully took out each record from its cover, scrupulously placed the record onto the turntable and patiently matched the beat was a work of art and ceremony itself.

Maybe that’s the reason why vinyl has preserved its niche market among the prevalence of digital convenience. While digital music platforms allow me to listen to whatever I want simply by searching the names of the

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songs or artists, sometimes I lose appreciation and take music for granted. With vinyl records, people can actually see the music, feel its texture and respect it even more.

What I like about vinyl stores is that I need to be prepared to handle the disappointment of failing to find the record I want, but at the same time, I never know what I will discover by sheer chance. The burst of joy after flipping through arrays of vinyl and all of a sudden spotting a favorite album or a non-mainstream artist can light up my day. It is indeed the sudden surge of appreciation toward this unexpected luckiness that makes me feel

VIEWPOINTS

D.C., Puerto Rico bids for statehood cannot be viewed in a monolithic way

somewhat accomplished. The randomness and uncertainty are a part of the exploration, and some of the highlights of buying vinyl records. Each record, therefore, contains a tangible memory.

When I walked out of the vinyl store last time, I saw the staff pushing a cart with boxes of vinyl piled up together. People always say music is invisible and intangible, but when it is in front of you, you can sense the weight of its existence. Vinyl was never truly overtaken by the digital world.

Ramona Meng Xi is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Ramona can be reached at meng.xi@tufts.edu.

VIEWPOINTS

Vaccine mandate, equitable access are integral to in-person semester

MANDATE

CAMILLA SAMUEL / THE TUFTS DAILY

STATEHOOD

continued from page 8 residents in the territory identify as Black. Leaving this large population without a say in local issues echoes the long history of voter disenfranchisement and injustice that these groups, especially Black voters, have faced at the hands of the U.S. government.

Furthermore, as a territory with a population over 700,000 — comparable to the size of some states — D.C. is home to a lot of people who would benefit more from self-governance than federal control.

“Congress has a lot of say in local affairs/budget when those things aren’t actually a priority for congress,” Pastreich said. Thus, governance of the territory is often mishandled at the expense of its population. For example, the federal government gave D.C. far less money to distribute stimulus checks during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic than it did to any of the 50 states.

These sentiments are shared by most of the D.C. population

as well as their local government.

Pushback from residents is minimal, with Pastreich attributing some opposition to a general misconception about what D.C. statehood would entail.

“I don’t think statehood would give people who work in the federal government significantly more power… A lot of people [who live in D.C.] think that … which is not really true.”

Thus, even though this increase in power is extremely unlikely to occur, personal beliefs and differing political leanings may factor into a resident’s opinion on the issue of statehood.

However, according to residents like Pastreich, the overwhelming majority of D.C.’s communities feel they deserve voting representation and a promotion to statehood.

The situation in Puerto Rico is much more nuanced, with a 2020 referendum reporting that 53% of Puerto Rican voters favored statehood while 47% rejected it.

There are some benefits to making Puerto Rico a state rather than a territory; having full access to fed-

eral benefits would help the territory deal with financial difficulties, natural disasters and the COVID19 pandemic. Furthermore, having voting representatives in Congress would give Puerto Rico a greater say in their government.

However, many Puerto Rican citizens are concerned that becoming a state is just another neocolonial measure by a Western power. Mariana Janer-Agrelot, a first-year from Puerto Rico, wrote in an electronic message to the Daily that, “PR should be an independent country. We are essentially being oppressed by an imperialist country that does not bother to care for the needs of PR. We have suffered too much under their abuses.”

One of the most prominent and recent abuses by the United States was its handling of Hurricane Maria’s aftermath. The federal government’s lack of support for the Puerto Rican population in the wake of the natural disaster harmed many communities.

“The amount of corruption that came out of that emergency lit-

erally killed thousands because of the mismanagement of emergency resources,” Janer-Agrelot said.

Furthermore, the results of the split referendum have been regarded as illegitimate by some, following the discovery of potentially large numbers of uncounted votes and low rates of voter turnout. Thus, the recent referendum may not have accurately captured Puerto Ricans’ views on this issue.

Many Puerto Rican activists and advocates in Congress, including Reps. Alexandra OcasioCortez and Nydia Velázquez, believe that Puerto Rico should be entitled to self-determination.

Their proposal calls for a status convention where Puerto Ricans would be able to consider a range of options for the island, including statehood, independence and a more empowered association with the U.S. Ultimately, legislation like this would rightly provide Puerto Ricans the space to decide their own territorial status and allow Puerto Rican statehood to be viewed as a separate issue from D.C. statehood.

continued from page 8 health inequities have contributed to lower vaccination rates among communities of color. In the United States, Black people are being vaccinated at a rate half that of white people, and Hispanic people are getting vaccinated at rates even lower than that. A university-wide vaccine mandate without efforts to implement initiatives that enable more equitable access would convey a blindness to this data and the inequalities surrounding COVID-19 that have persisted since the beginning of the pandemic.

One way Tufts could increase access to vaccines would be to offer free vaccinations on campus.

This would make it much easier for students to sign up for vaccinations, in contrast to the decentralized, time-consuming process that students are currently navigating, which entails constantly refreshing CVS’s website or Massachusetts’ mass vaccination site websites.

Some students have resorted to Twitter accounts which notify them when new appointments become available, but many new slots are taken almost immediately. An on-campus vaccination site would streamline this process by making it easier to sign up for an appointment, eliminating the costs of transportation to a vaccination site and making the system much easier to navigate overall.

By taking steps to increase access to vaccines and enacting a vaccine mandate for the fall, Tufts has the power to provide us with the resources necessary to return to the in-person social interactions and academic experiences that we crave. Tufts must step up to the challenge during these final stages of the pandemic; our ability to succeed as college students and the wellbeing of our communities depend on it.

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Fun & Games | THE TUFTS DAILY

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F& G

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Ryan: “I woke up at noon and am now suffering the consequences.”

Fun & Games

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MY DOG: CLOUD WATCHING

Difficulty Level: Trying to eat noodles with a spoon

By Aidan Chang

Wednesday’s Solutions

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7

Opinion

8 Thursday, April 22, 2021

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Tufts should mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for students returning to campus this fall

by Emily Nadler Opinion Editor

For the past few months, vaccine rollout has ramped up significantly in the United States: About one in four adults are fully vaccinated, and as of April 21, over 134 million people had received at least one dose.

Some Tufts students have already gotten vaccinated, and all those over 16 who work, live or study in Massachusetts became eligible on April 19. This summer will hopefully mark a turning point in the pandemic as vaccine distribution continues to accelerate.

To maximize the possibility of a more normal academic and social life next semester, Tufts should both increase accessibility to vaccines and also require vaccinations for in-person students this fall.

Over the past year, the isolation arising from the shift to virtual learning and social environments has contributed to a decline in students’ mental health and a corresponding dip in academic performance.

In fact, 80% of students who responded to

the TCU Senate’s fall exit survey indicated that their mental health negatively impacted their academic, work and social lives. It’s a vicious cycle which we have unfortunately grown accustomed to by now.

A fully vaccinated student body would provide a cushion of protection that would entirely change the student experience at Tufts. The spread of new, more contagious COVID-19 variants may complicate future projections, but the prospect of widespread vaccination nevertheless paves a promising path forward, delivering an end to the pandemic. The vaccines have been shown to greatly reduce the risk of getting COVID-19: The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine proved 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior infection, and the Moderna vaccine was shown to be about 94.1% effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Scientists are unsure if vaccinated people can still have an asymptomatic infection and pass it to others without knowing, which is why vaccinated people still need to wear masks and maintain social distance.

Russia against the West

I

t’s been a busy few weeks for Moscow. President Joe Biden has formally accused Russia’s foreign intelligence service of being behind the SolarWinds hack, and has accused its government of interfering in the U.S. election and targeting journalists and dissenting parties, such as Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s behavior is nothing new. For the past two decades, Putin has worked to consolidate power by crushing the opposition. Currently, Russian oppo-

sition leader Navalny’s health is deteriorating in prison and his doctor stated that he “could die at any moment.” Through state-sponsored terror, Putin and his allies have attacked dissidents and worked to silence a free press.

In 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot in the elevator of her apartment building after reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and publishing a book criticizing Putin’s illiberal leadership. When Alexander Litvinenko, who termed Putin’s Russia a “mafia state,” investigated Politkovskaya’s assassination, he was poisoned in London.

These events lead scholars to conclude that, despite a change in Russia’s economic organization, politics in Russia is virtually no different than it was under totalitarianism.

VIEWPOINTS

The issues of statehood in D.C. and Puerto Rico are not the same. Stop conflating them

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed their guidelines to indicate that fully vaccinated people may gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks or social distancing measures. This would allow university clubs to have in-person meetings, enable social groups to host small events and make it possible to hold classes with normal desk setups, which facilitate group discussion and collaboration between students.

Additionally, analyses have suggested that college students played a large part in the virus’ spread in some communities; when students returned to school in fall of 2020, rates of infection and death in college towns rose substantially among older members of these communities. Requiring all Tufts students to get vaccinated would not only allow on-campus life to begin its return back to normalcy, but it would also protect residents of Medford, Somerville and other communities with which Tufts students interact.

Many experts agree that private universities are legally allowed to require a vaccine as long as it permits exemptions for religious or medical reasons and provides a remote option for students who are unwilling to comply. In 2021, incoming first-years are required to get a vaccine for measles and hepatitis, among other diseases; Tufts could add a requirement for the COVID-19 vaccine.

It’s important to recognize that some students will be coming from parts of the world where vaccines are not as easily accessible as they are in the U.S. As of late March, in comparison to the United States’ 39.4 vaccine doses per 100 adults, only 13.7 adults out of 100 had received doses in the European Union. Additionally, as of mid-February, 130 countries had yet to offer any vaccine at all. In order to account for this, Tufts could provide a period for students to settle in on campus and get their vaccines in Massachusetts by late September or early October.

The benefits of a fully vaccinated student body are evident, but a standalone mandate without complementary efforts to increase accessibility does not take into account the existing racial inequities surrounding access to the vaccine. COVID-19 disproportionately affects people of color, and systemic

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform passed a bill on April 14 that would grant D.C. statehood. Concurrently, the Committee on Natural Resources’ Office of Insular Affairs hosted a legislative hearing on two competing bills regarding the future of Puerto Rican statehood. There have been calls to grant statehood to Washington, D.C and Puerto Rico in the United States. for decades, with both often viewed through a similar lens in American partisan politics.

Many Republican representatives, especially in the wake of the Democratic Party’s presidential and congressional victories in the 2020 election, view the renewed interest in D.C. and Puerto Rican statehood as a power grab aimed at gaining four more left-leaning seats in the Senate.

However, it would be a disservice to both of these territories to view their potential shifts toward statehood in a monolithic way.

Distinct local issues in D.C. and Puerto Rico affect both the merits of attaining statehood and the respective populations’ general consensuses on what should be done.

Ultimately, in order to promote each of these territories’ self-determination, we have to understand the complex motivating factors surrounding each bid for statehood in their differing contexts.

For D.C. residents, the issue of statehood is a modern-day manifestation of taxation without representation.

“There are a lot of more local reasons for D.C. to be a state that are overlooked a lot,” Elena Pastreich, a senior from D.C., wrote in an electronic message to the Daily. Not having statehood leaves D.C. residents without a full set of rights, with many residents subjected to systemic inequality as a result. The district is both extremely diverse and hosts a large proportion of Black residents; 47% of

see MANDATE, page 6

see STATEHOOD, page 6

ASLI KOCAK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Brendan Hartnett Democracy in The Daily

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Is Russia’s foreign policy, thus, the same as it was during the Cold War? Russia has famously intervened in other countries to its own benefit. In September 1999, a series of apartment bombings swept Russia, which many believe were carried out by allies of Putin allies. Putin, who was the prime minister at the time, accused Chechnyans of the bombings and intensified Russia’s efforts in the region. His approval rating increased over two-fold, and he rode this popularity to win the presidential election in March 2000.

As self-labeled humanitarian intervention on behalf of Russian separatists, Putin has invaded both Georgia and Ukraine, targeting civilians in Georgia and annexing Crimea from Ukraine. Both military interventions were, in part,

by Sara Kessel

Contributing Writer

driven by increased cooperation between the two states and NATO, threatening Russia.

Putin attempted to intervene in French and U.S. elections and, likely, the Brexit referendum, in the past decade. He has even allegedly led misinformation campaigns to halt a referendum that would change the name of the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia in an effort to strike division with the EU and NATO. All of these events highlight one thing: Russia is afraid of a unified West.

As promised, Biden is rejoining forces with Europe to curb Russian obstruction. A week ago, the U.S. expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions on an array of people and corporations with ties to the Kremlin.

The Czech Republic has followed

in the U.S.’s footsteps, expelling 18 Russian diplomats, and the government seeks two Russian men connected to a 2014 warehouse explosion in the eastern Czech Republic.

Russia responded tit-for-tat, expelling American and, later, Czech diplomats from Moscow.

So, is this the West’s new style of diplomacy for handling the illiberal aggressor? That’s unclear. All we know is Russia needs the West far more than the West needs Russia, and thus a unified West placing Russia in a financial chokehold may prove effective at immobilizing Russia, halting its intervention in democracies worldwide.

Brendan Hartnett is a sophomore studying political science.

Brendan can be reached at brendan.hartnett@tufts.edu.

O p i n i on

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

OP-ED

Amma for president CAROLINA OLEA LEZAMA I first met Amma during the picture day for our pre-orientation. We were both part of the Building Engagement and Access for Students at Tufts (BEAST) pre-orientation program, which focuses on acquainting first-generation, low-income students at Tufts. We were all wearing our bright yellow BEAST shirts, but even in a sea of yellow shirts, Amma stood out to me.

I would soon get to know Amma even better through our year-long FIRST seminar, which focused on development for first-gen, low-income students, as well as our time together on Roti and Rum, Tufts’ Caribbean dance team. I got to know her as an incredibly resilient, smart and talented young woman. Little did I know that she would soon join me in the Senate as one of our communities’ fiercest advocates and become one of my dearest friends. I have seen her develop into an incredible leader in the Senate body and there is no one else I would trust more with the role. I hope to show you why you should also vote for Amma.

Amma never planned on running for TCU Senate president. Her Senate career was never focused on creating a resume for this position. Rather, Amma saw that in the current times we are living in, our communities need a leader like her.

Amma has always stepped up to the plate when she sees real problems and issues she wants to address. Amma decided to run for Class of 2022 senator our sophomore year after seeing real problems in every aspect of her Tufts experience. As an engineering student she saw many issues with the curriculum. She realized that engineers were underrepresented in the Senate and wanted to make real, tangible changes. She quickly got to working on ensuring that Africana Studies classes were added to the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences requirement for engineering students. When any academic resolutions would be proposed on the Senate floor, she made sure that engineering students were taken into consideration, as they would be impacted differently than Arts and Sciences students. She co-authored the exceptional pass/fail policy, ensuring that it was equitable for all students at Tufts, regardless of their major.

Amma does not just use words and phrases like equity, accountability or “working with marginalized communities,” she actually commits to these principles. After one year in the Senate, Amma saw that the Black community faced many challenges at Tufts. She was elected as the Africana Community Senator. As a former Class of 2022 senator and Latinx community senator for the past two years, I can say that being a community senator is the most challenging role in the Senate.

Community senators have to put a lot of emotional energy into an already draining job to ensure that our communities’ voices are heard and centered. Despite this, Amma took the role head on. Amma continuously calls out any inequitable practices or resolutions presented on the Senate floor. Oftentimes she is the first senator to call these issues out. She has never let anyone silence her or her communities’ voices. As Africana Community senator, Amma also led the Africana

Advisory Alliance, the council that overlooks all the Black Student Organizations at Tufts. She makes sure that all these organizations are supported and have the resources they need. When any “incident of bias“ has occurred at Tufts, Amma is called upon to ensure students are supported and obtain the resources they may need. Amma and I have worked together to ensure that community senators are communicating with their communities and directors. Amma does not just talk about uplifting marginalized communities; as the only community senator running for president, she is the only candidate that has real experience working for and with these communities.

I can not speak about Amma without highlighting the fact that she is a Black woman. As a woman of color myself, I know how hard it is to navigate being a student at Tufts and the difficulties that come with entering a space like the TCU Senate and advocating for our communities. For Black students, these difficulties are exacerbated. Amma is an incredibly qualified person for this position. She is a biomedical engineer with a minor in biotechnology on the pre-medical track.

This course load alone is incredibly challenging and time-consuming, and despite this she has taken on numerous other commitments, such as the roles of Black Student Union president, a teaching assistant for courses, class and community senator and a dancer for Roti and Rum. Amma does all of this while constantly experiencing racism and anti-Blackness in this institution. Despite this, she excels at everything she does. She is resilient. She is strong. She is powerful.

A vote for Amma is a vote for the first Black woman president. In the past week Amma has received official endorsements from many Black and brown student organizations like Black Student Union, Caribbean Student Organization, Association for Latin American Students and Tufts Minority Association of PreHealth Students, among many others. I ask that white students at Tufts actually listen to these voices. If you claim to want to help marginalized students, here is a perfect way to do it. Listen to what we are saying. Listen to what we are saying we want and need. Listen to our stories; listen to why Amma is the only one we trust with our vote. As a brown, first-gen, low-income woman, I know that values like equity and accountability are not only key words for Amma’s campaign; they come from real experience.

I hope that on April 22 and 23 you help me elect a brilliant and resilient student body president. Amma’s leadership will change the way that the student body functions and will actually center all students at Tufts. As the Latinx community senator for the past two years and as a first-gen, low-income student myself, I know Amma is not full of false promises; she takes action. She works to ensure that every aspect of Tufts life is better. Her campaign is one that centers not on what we can do for her, but what she can do for us, because “She’s with Us!” I am excited and hopeful to see the change that is to come.

Carolina Olea Lezama is a junior studying American studies. Carolina can be reached at carolina.olea_lezama@tufts.edu.

9

OP-ED

Why I’m together with Tim NITHYA BADRINATH If you had asked me on Aug. 19, 2019, whether I would vote for Tim if he were to run for TCU president, I would have emphatically said, “Yes!” Keep in mind that this was the day that I had my first-ever conversation with Tim, so just knowing that he was “that guy on Senate” was enough for me. Almost two years later, I would echo the same “Yes!” but now with solid evidence and confidence backing up why I would vote for him.

The jury’s still out on when I actually met Tim for the first time, but our friendship began when we both were put in the same support staff group during the First-Year Orientation CommUnity Service pre-orientation program in 2019 (thanks JulZAddy!). I immediately noticed how dedicated Tim was to getting to know our group and making sure that we could create the best experience for the incoming first-years we were about to greet. We made plans for all of us to get acquainted with each other at Dunkin’ and the rest is, dare I say, history…

Tim’s role in FOCUS is just one reason why he would make an amazing TCU president. As a member of support staff, he went out of his way to be a resource to first-years, and his enthusiasm about Tufts as well as his humility and confidence helped foster meaningful connections with our FOCUSers. He went on to co-coordinate the program in 2020, the year when the coordinators had to plan a virtual FOCUS experience from scratch, all while focusing(!) on improving the program for students of color, especially for Black and brown students, and creating a better space for reflection, dialogue and action by implementing training for leaders to facilitate conversations about social justice.

As a FOCUS leader myself last year, I was initially worried about what FOCUSers would take away from a virtual experience, since I continually cite FOCUS as the best part of my Tufts experience. My worries quickly subsided as I witnessed the care and preparation that the coordinators put into planning the program.

Throughout the program and beyond, Tim made lasting connections with community leaders and organizations in Medford and Somerville, as he led events and moderated panels with thoughtfulness, uplifted the work of leaders in our host communities and made sure that incoming firstyears had the resources to become active members of the Medford and Somerville community. The last night of FOCUS, I remember thinking, “Wow, he did THAT!” Tim is dedicated to making Tufts an accessible space for all students, uplifting the voices of marginalized students on campus and ensuring that Tufts promotes values of equity and justice. His time and accomplishments on TCU Senate are a testament to how hard he works for the Tufts community and that he can get stuff DONE. He was instrumental in the adoption of exceptional pass/fail grading, expansion of late-night study during finals at Dewick and the expansion of the Turkey Shuttle for transportation to the airport during Thanksgiving break (all things that have personally improved my Tufts experience!). When campus closed last year during the start of the pandemic and all of us were processing being on campus one

day and forced off campus the next, Tim was busy circulating petitions and talking to the administration to make sure that we adopted a progressive pass/fail option.

When the late-night study program took place in fall 2019, I remember making plans with Tim to hang out at Dewick because he wanted to take extra shifts late at night to cover for others and make sure that everything was running smoothly. These are just a few out of countless examples where Tim goes out of his way to improve Tufts and listens to the concerns of Tufts students to make sure that the administration actively responds to the growing needs of the Tufts community.

Tim is running on the values of solidarity, equity and accountability by advocating to work with campus organizations to build coalitions, amplifying the voices of all marginalized students and holding the Tufts administration accountable by students. His thorough policy plans have taken the interests of every Tufts student, as he will push for streamlining the financial aid appeals process, abolishing (not just renaming) TUPD, creating an equitable vaccine clinic on campus, expanding academic accommodations, mandating bystander training and many other policies that will greatly enhance the Tufts experience. Tim is also committed to making sure that TCU Senate is a student advocacy body that welcomes, rather than antagonizes, students of color, low-income students and other marginalized students. From watching Tim coordinate FOCUS, I know that he will not just work with his fellow senators to generate ideas, but he will also meet with students and groups on campus to find innovative solutions to our most pressing problems. Tim recognizes that being TCU President means being the leader of the Tufts Community UNION. As such, he will bring every voice to the table in his work with the administration. This is not an empty promise. Tim led an effort to bring a farmer’s market onto campus to involve local food producers and reduce barriers to accessing healthy food. Although this effort was interrupted by the pandemic’s onset, Tim will continue to push the administration as president to embrace ideas like that and much more. I know that Tim can follow through on his goals because he has already followed through on so many of his ideas in Senate.

Voting for Tim this election is an easy “Yes!” for me. I’m in awe of his creativity, attentiveness and ambition, and I know that with everything that he has achieved so far, on and off Senate, there’s no doubt in my mind that his leadership will bring the necessary improvements to Tufts that we’ve all been looking for. From his sense of humor to sense of urgency in responding to pressing issues, Tim embodies all the qualities I appreciate in a friend and would like to see in our TCU President.

I can’t think of anybody else who genuinely cares about the well-being of every Tufts student and staff member more than Tim does. To me, Tim went from being “that guy on Senate” to one of my closest friends at Tufts, so I’d be thrilled to see him become the Tufts student body’s closest friend as TCU president.

Nithya Badrinath is a junior studying international relations. Nithya can be reached at nithya.badrinath@tufts.edu.

10 Thursday, April 22, 2021

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Baseball takes 3 more from Colby in weekend series

by Jack Adgate Staff Writer

The Tufts Jumbos won three of four games against the Colby College Mules this past weekend, winning both games at home and one on the road.

The Jumbos took Huskins Field on Saturday as the home team, sending reigning NESCAC pitcher of the week Michael Volgende to the mound in the first game.

Volgende, a junior from Connecticut, was dominant again for the Jumbos, throwing six innings while only surrendering one run and striking out four batters. First-year Silas Reed took the mound in the seventh, giving up three earned runs on four hits.

The Tufts offense was powered by junior catcher Connor Bowman and junior infielder Nate Bozzella, as they each totaled two hits and five RBIs. Bozzella tacked on his first career collegiate home run on a threerun blast to open scoring in the third. Senior outfielder Brandon Bay added two hits and three RBIs. Colby showed fight in the final inning, with pinch-hitter Dylan Nastri sending a ball over the right field wall, and the offense putting up three runs.

However, the Tufts bats were too much and the Jumbos won easily, 15–4.

Sophomore right-hander Cameron Mayer got the ball in game two for the Jumbos, going four innings while giving up three earned runs and striking out five. Junior Steven Landry earned the win for the Jumbos out of the pen despite giving up three runs in one and two thirds innings. Graduate student Spencer Langdon earned the save after a scoreless inning-anda-third with two strikeouts.

After a two-run double by senior Kyle Cortese in the second, the Jumbos exploded for six runs in the bottom of the third. The outburst was opened with a tworun homer to left by sophomore outfielder Jackson Duffy, the first of his collegiate career. Bozzella would add another RBI for the Jumbos on a double to left field.

Jenny Lu In the Paint

Defending the NBA play-in tournament

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ast season, the NBA implemented a play-in tournament for the first time. With the end of last season already abnormal due to COVID-19, the NBA Bubble presented a good opportunity to try out a new format. The play-in tournament occurred after the regular season, before the first

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts baseball team played Colby on April 10.

Bozzella took home NESCAC player of the week honors for his offensive onslaught.

“What helped me this weekend was being patient at the plate and trying not to force anything or do too much,” Bozzella said about his offensive approach. “My teammates put me in a position to score runs because they did their job to get on base and into scoring position, so my job was to score them any way possible.”

Cabot Maher and Andrew Russell powered the Colby offense to six runs on two hits each despite the loss.

The Mules bounced back to take game three 5–4 on Sunday in Waterville, Maine. Tufts jumped out to an early threerun advantage, with sophomore Jimmy Evans doubling in junior Miles Reid in the top of the first. Juniors Peter DeMaria and Ryan Noone also added RBIs on sacrifice flies in the first.

The Jumbos fourth run came on a sacrifice fly from senior infielder Will Burgess in the second, but that ended the scoring for Tufts in game three. The Mules scratched back a run on Tufts junior starting pitcher Lucas Gustavson, who went four innings in his second start of the season. Colby notched another run in the fifth off of sophomore Jack Schwartz. Schwartz went two strong innings in his collegiate debut, striking out three.

Colby would tie the game at four in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs off of Tufts senior righty Brad Marchetti. The Mules then walked-off game three in extras on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Caleb Jung. Colby was bolstered by an excellent pitching performance from Frank Driscoll out of the bullpen, who threw three hitless innings.

Despite the loss, the Jumbos continued to produce offensively at a very high level.

“Our offense is very deep and that is a huge strength,” Bozzella said about the team’s success at the plate. “What makes us very successful is that we don’t need to lean on one guy for all of our production, our whole lineup can hit the ball.”

Tufts took the series victory in game four with a barrage of offense, winning 17–0. Not to be overlooked by the offensive performance, Junior righthander Brendan McFall gave the Jumbos six strong innings on the mound. McFall scattered three hits and gave up no earned runs in his first start of the season.

Sophomore Gavin Brown struck out three batters in the seventh to seal the deal on the mound for Tufts.

McFall was named NESCAC pitcher of the week for the performance, the second week in a row a Tufts arm has taken home the honor.

“I think it’s a huge testament to the work we put in as a staff,”

McFall said about the recognition. “Seeing guys step up and establish themselves as leaders has been awesome, and it’s great to see hard work rewarded.”

At the plate, Clay Sowell crushed two home runs and picked up five RBIs and DeMaria contributed four RBIs of his own. First-year infielder Patrick Solomon added three hits, while Bozzella finished his impressive weekend with three more RBIs. The Jumbos pitching staff can only be appreciative of the run support they received this past weekend.

“Having that kind of run support is the best thing you can ask for as a pitcher, especially after a tough loss,” McFall said.

“It makes it that much easier to attack the hitters and let your fielders make plays for you, and that’s what we did all game.”

Tufts will meet Bates on Saturday, April 24, and Wesleyan on Sunday, April 25, in another busy four-game weekend.

round of the playoffs. This season, it will include the seventh through tenth-seeded teams from each conference, with each team competing for the seventh and eighth seeds in their respective conferences. Prior to the implementation of the play-in, the first through eighth-seeded teams in each conference from the regular season advanced directly to the first round of the playoffs.

There was initial doubt, but fans witnessed the high-quality basketball that came from the 2020 NBA play-in tournament in the bubble, and the league decided to keep this format for the foreseeable future. However, the play-in tournament has come

under fire recently from Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and franchise owner Mark Cuban, who called the tournament “an enormous mistake.”

“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in,” Doncic said in a press conference last week. “You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs. So I don’t see the point of that.”

These sentiments surprised me. Up until this point, I really thought we were all on the same page. I understand. If the season ended today in a normal year, Doncic and the Mavericks would be headed to the playoffs as the seventh seed. But with the

play-in tournament, their spot is not safe. Especially during an already condensed season, making players play additional games could take a physical toll.

If you think of it as simply a tactic for the league to profit off of a few extra, exciting games, then I can definitely empathize with the frustration as well.

I’m not sure where I stand on the play-in tournament’s use during this unconventional season, but I think the format is a step in the right direction. The NBA has long been criticized for how predictable it is. There are superstar players and overloaded teams, making the playoffs rather cut and dry. Critics compare the professional league

to college basketball and March Madness, citing college-level play as more exciting due to there being more upsets. The play-in tournament attempts to create more drama by letting the seventh and eighth seeded teams know that their spots aren’t safe and letting fans of the ninth and tenth seeds know that they have a shot.

Overall, we’ve only seen the play-in tournament in action once. Perhaps after this season, we will have a better sense of what it brings to the table.

Jenny Lu is a first year who has not yet declared a major. Jenny can be reached at jenny.lu@tufts.edu.