The Tufts Daily – Tuesday, October 6, 2020

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Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Demonstrators protest Confucius Institute at Tufts, claim it advances Chinese government’s agenda

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

Demonstrators gather on Packard Avenue at a protest on Thursday, Oct. 1 in front of the Confucius Institute at Tufts.

by Sara Renkert and Alexander Thompson

News Editor and Assistant News Editor

Editor’s note: This article was originally published online on Friday, Oct. 2.

More than 50 protesters from the local Tibetan, Hong Kong, Uighur, Vietnamese and Taiwanese communities marched across campus on Thursday to protest the presence of the Confucius Institute

(CI) at Tufts, which has financial ties to the Chinese government.

The activists and community members blasted the renewal of Tufts’ contract with the CI, a language and cultural education organization operated by Hanban, which

is an agency closely linked with the Chinese Ministry of Education and Beijing Normal University, according to the CI’s website.

Olo Bayul, the president of the Tibetan Association of Boston (TAB) and one of the main organizers of the event, led protesters across campus. “[The CI is] suppressing academic freedom, promoting self censorship,” Bayul said.

The TAB created a petition calling on the Tufts Board of Trustees to eliminate the CI at the university and has lobbied members of Congress to take action, according to Bayul.

He said that the association has urged University President Anthony Monaco for several months to shutter the center.

The crowd of protesters included members of We The Hongkongers, Boston Uyghurs Association and the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

Last year, the university announced it renewed the CI’s contract after an extensive review process that was instigated by concerns over the Chinese Communist Party’s influence and suppression of

academic freedom. No evidence was found of Communist Party propaganda being disseminated through the institute, according to a previous report from the university.

However, the committee did establish that the CI presented serious “reputational and ethical concerns” for the university.

The contract was amended last year to address these concerns.

Many of the demonstrators did not believe the findings of the report. Phuni Meston-Eams, a member of the TAB, dismissed the idea that the CI’s main goal is educational.

“It’s truly not trying to learn about Chinese culture … [it] is really a front for propaganda,” she said.

The protest occurred on China’s National Day, and only one day after the raising of the Chinese flag at Boston City Hall sparked outrage among activists. Meston-Eams said that the TAB’s own request to fly the Tibetan flag was rejected.

“Are we a country of only thinking about money, profits and busisee INSTITUTE, page 2

Rural organizer Matt Hildreth discusses progressive causes, election

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

Matt Hildreth, executive director of RuralOrganizing. org, a national organization that advocates for progressive causes in rural America, spoke to the Tufts community in a webinar on Monday. The event was part of the Civic Life Lunch series hosted by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, and was moderated by Jessica Byrnes, program administrator at Tisch College.

Byrnes first asked Hildreth whether the coastal progressives’ perception that rural voters are more likely to be conservative has merit.

While Hildreth acknowledged that rural voters are more likely to be conservative or moderate, he said it is inaccurate to assume that the farther away a nonurban area is from a city, the more conservative it is.

Byrnes then inquired about the challenges Hildreth has faced in organizing in rural communities.

Hildreth explained that his organization is an online net-

MIKA MIZOBUCHI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Jessica Byrnes (left) and Matt Hildreth (right) discuss rural organizing at the Civic Life Lunch: Fighting for Change in Trump Country. work precisely because he realized that the remote location of rural areas made outreach to them difficult. He also noted that President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 took advantage of social media platforms, primarily Facebook, to reach rural communities, a strategy Democrats did not adopt.

In addition, Hildreth explained that Republicans and Democrats have advanced negative stereotypes of rural voters, making them feel alienated from the political process.

“Democrats tend to think that rural voters are all Trump

voters, or they’re all locked in on the Republican Party, so they have kind of walked away and given up,” he said. “I think most Republicans think rural voters are all white, racist and conservative, so they perpetuate those stereotypes through their messaging.”

Byrnes also asked Hildreth what he thinks about the idea of “civic deserts,” a term coined by researchers at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tisch College, which describes regions, especially rural areas, that lack the infrastructure and

opportunities for people to become civically engaged.

Hildreth explained that his team has incorporated the findings of the research into its practice.

“I actually don’t think you can understand rural communities and rural issues without understanding this concept of civic deserts, so that has been fully integrated into our work,” he said.

Byrnes then asked Hildreth to speak more about his recent op-ed calling for Joe Biden, should he win the U.S. presidential election, to establish a national Office of Rural Prosperity.

SPORTS / back

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / 4

Gym allows members to take off mask while working out

Local restaurants get creative with COVID-19 response

New York Times Bestselling author gives book talk on telling family story

Hildreth explained that the idea was inspired by Laura Kelly, the governor of Kansas who established the Office of Rural Prosperity soon after winning the gubernatorial race in 2018.

Hildreth believes that, due to the location of rural populations and bureaucratic complexities surrounding government programs, rural voters are unable to take advantage of programs that assist them. The office he proposes would be a space where they can navigate such programs.

“Our idea is to create a centralized office where these programs can be focused on and also that we can unify the strategy of all these different agency areas to have a real focus,” Hildreth said.

Hildreth noted that other programs like government subsidies do not benefit the targeted population and are instead absorbed by large corporations, such as Walmart, which pull money out of rural communities.

“The way that we’re subsidizing those communities results in see RURAL, page 2 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, October 6, 2020

THE TUFTS DAILY Alex Viveros Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL

Local advocacy groups express concern over Confucius Institute's presence in US colleges INSTITUTE

Rebecca Barker Hannah Harris

continued from page 1

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and scholars,” Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

He also noted that the university respects all viewpoints.

“We respect the right of people, both affiliated and unaffiliated with the university, to express their opinion,” he said.

Nicci Mattey, president of Tufts Amnesty International, attended in personal support and in club sponsorship for the event. She spoke to the importance of standing in solidarity with local communities and for global human rights campaigns.

“We were really honored that they thought that we could be of help in this because it ties in so closely to the work we do in speaking out when we see

human rights violations abroad and here at home … it’s really about mounting enough pressure such that the administration can’t ignore us,” she said.

Maya Mitalipova, a member of the Boston Uyghurs Association and a human stem cell researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also attended the protest. She said she feels it is her moral obligation to speak up for members of her community who remain in East Turkestan, what Uighurs call the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where officials suspect that the government has detained millions in concentration camps.

“They cannot speak up. If they will be speaking anything that’s

sensitive, they can lose their jobs,” she said. “If they are restricted even abroad, I have to do something, to use my education, to use my position as a scientist,” she said.

Chris Choi, an activist with Hong Kong Social Action Movements in Boston, is worried about his family in Hong Kong. He said the situation has worsened after the implementation of the controversial national security law in the region earlier this year.

He does not want to see China’s influence grow in higher education institutions.

“We want them completely out of all the colleges in the U.S.,” he said.

Hildreth calls for creation of national office focused on rural prosperity RURAL

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ness relations? Are we thinking about human beings and values that will sustain global connection and global alliance?’” she said.

Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations at Tufts, expressed awareness of efforts to eliminate the presence of the CI on campus.

“We took very seriously the concerns expressed in some critiques offered by organizations and individuals outside Tufts that a Confucius Institute could in the future attempt to make more active efforts to influence the curriculum, limit freedom of expression or pressure Chinese students

continued from page 1 Editorial Cartoonists

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population loss, results in the consolidation of industries,” Hildreth said. “It’s just not a unified strategy … we want to make sure that we’re keeping rural dollars rural.”

After the event opened to questions from the audience, a student asked Hildreth why Ohio has become more firmly Republican this election cycle,

and how progressives can best engage with issues rural Ohioans care about.

Hildreth argued that those living in rural Ohio felt ignored by both parties, which allowed Trump’s anti-establishment tone and unconventional style to attract them.

“Because of the ‘civic deserts,’ people feel disconnected from institutions making decisions about their lives … they kind of knew [voting for

Trump] was a crazy Hail Mary pass,” Hildreth said. “Trump convinced them this idea of ‘draining the swamp,’ rural voters are very anti-corruption, very anti-corporate and Donald Trump tapped into that messaging.”

Hildreth emphasized that Democrats and progressives should focus on issues relating to healthcare and COVID19 in rural Ohio. He noted that the stereotype of rural

economies being centered on agriculture was vastly inaccurate and that health services are essential to these regions.

“A key to understanding rural voters is to understand that, yes, agricultural economies directly impact communities, but when it comes to people’s day-to-day income, that’s much more connected into things like healthcare and education,” Hildreth said.

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Features

Davis Square restaurants innovate in response to pandemic precautions

EMMA BOERSMA / THE TUFTS DAILY

Mr. Crepe is pictured on Sept. 29.

by Alexandria Hwang Staff Writer

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the restaurant industry, forcing many to rethink and redesign their ways of service. From outdoor seating implementations and menu changes to developing innovative methods of food delivery and takeout, restaurants have shown just how adaptive they can be during the pandemic.

Oat Shop was among the many restaurants and cafes in Davis Square to implement various new safety measures during the pandemic. Founder Alan Donovan discussed several of the measures the store took to satisfy the needs of customers and the company.

Starting in March, changes included increasing levels of sanitation of all store surfaces and ending the use of reusable bowls. Corporate catering ended almost overnight, and soon after, Oat Shop had to close for a number of weeks, Donovan said.

“At that point no one knew what was going to happen so my thought was we just had to shut down. The store is really small, so there’s no real way for staff to social distance,” Donovan said.

Reopening was a slow process for Oat Shop, especially through the execution of many drastic changes, like a decrease in the number of staff and the addition of a home delivery service to surrounding towns.

“We take preorders and then deliver all sorts of stuff you would find in-store,” Donovan said. “The idea being, most of us are stuck at home, let’s stock up and do it in a really contactless way where we can just drop it at your door and you can be set for the week with some healthy and interesting options.”

The process of transitioning to COVID-19-friendly measures has been one plagued with challenges and hardships for those in the food industry. But Donovan has made the most of it, using it as an opportunity to experiment with new ideas for the cafe.

“There’s been a lot of change in figuring out as we go,” Donovan said. “It’s definitely been a big struggle … we’re not doing nearly the amount of sales we did in the past, but we’ve managed to kind of survive, which I think is all you can really do at this point.”

Mr. Crêpe, a beloved crêperie in Davis Square, has also found new ways to connect with customers during

COVID-19. Bleona Gashi, barista manager, shared how the restaurant established a new website.

“We got the website after the pandemic because we saw that people felt safer ordering online. They can just pick it up and then get to eat at their houses,” Gashi said.

In addition to takeout, Mr. Crêpe was one of the few Davis Square restaurants that created socially-distanced outdoor seating. While many restaurants simply put out tables and chairs for customers to use, Mr. Crêpe went a step further to construct outdoor dining areas separated by physical walls.

“To get the outdoor seating areas, we had to actually ask the city if they’d allow us to take the parking spots,” Gashi said.

Gashi shared some of the challenges she and her co-workers faced when adjusting to the new COVID-19 protocols and procedures.

“If we have a line and 10 people out of that line give us money in cash, we’d have to take the money, wash our hands, then go to the next person. So that has taken us more time, but thankfully people are very understanding right now,” Gashi said.

Neighboring Davis Square establishment Tsurumen has made similar efforts to adapt to the current pandemic status. Josh Lyons, full-time worker and operations manager, has been by owner Masuo Onishi’s side throughout the transition process.

“Prepandemic we were strictly dinein only, no take-away whatsoever.

People would come line up and we

didn’t take reservations. As soon as the pandemic hit we had to shift pretty rapidly. Now we’re on Grubhub and Uber Eats. We also use Square for an online ordering system, and we have a SimplyBook.me account where people can make reservations,” Lyons said.

With a limited maximum capacity of 20 people, both indoor and outdoor, Tsurumen initially grappled with the idea of takeout dining.

“Offering the takeout was a pretty big thing for us,” Lyons said. “There are some things we just don’t feel we can do adequately in order to make it takeout.

Our bowls of ramen are very difficult to do takeout simply because it’s supposed to be served hot and fresh.”

Lyons added that one takeout-friendly alternative to classic ramen is their Tsukemen, or dipping noodles.

“You get a separate bowl of soup and noodles. Nothing is going bad because they are supposed to be kept separate. We include a little bit of dashi to loosen them up and you take them out, dip them in the soup and eat them,” Lyons said.

When it came to additions to the menu, owner Masuo Onishi came up with a creative and modern spin on ramen that made it easier for takeout.

“We call it the Makitate … we mix our noodles in a sauce and then throw it into a tortilla with some other raw ingredients like cilantro and lettuce to add freshness,” Lyons said.

Despite the initial setbacks of the pandemic, many restaurants have taken this time as a unique opportunity to expand their businesses and adapt to the new norms of dining.

Those in the restaurant industry have certainly come to learn a lot from these challenges.

“At least for me I can say I appreciate the customers that do come in a lot more nowadays. It used to be kind of a grind, but now it’s much easier to be thankful for those things,” Lyons said.

Donovan noted important lessons as well.

“The biggest takeaway is watching and asking for what your customers want … Do you need healthy options delivered, do you need a place that you can pop out to if you’re working from home? I think just being flexible has been our biggest change and takeaway,” Donovan said.

EMMA BOERSMA / THE TUFTS DAILY

The front sign of the Oat Shop is pictured on Sept. 29.

3 Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Jenny Lu Tuff Talks

Love in COVID times

Dear J: “I started talking to this guy, but it’s hard to spend time together due to the new COVID-19 policies. How do I pursue a relationship right now?

-Socially Distanced Dear Socially Distanced: Firstly, I applaud your efforts to put others before yourself and practice social distancing. Continuing to connect with others during this time is extremely important, and taking it slow right now can make your relationship stronger in the future!

Although you won’t be able to visit this person’s dorm or invite them over for now, there are other things you can do!

Take advantage of the nice weather and your picnic blankets right now to have meals outside on the lawns. Alex’s Place on Tisch roof is a date-worthy place to hang out. Taking the SMFA shuttle into Boston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts for free or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are also safer options with their COVID-19 policies. I wish you luck!

Dear J: “I have a crush on someone and I want to ask them out but I don’t want to spring a relationship on them during COVID-19 because if confessing to her goes horribly wrong, I fear losing her emotional support. We go to the same school but are apart right now since we are living at home.”

-Lonely Lover Dear Lonely: I’m glad that you have found a reliable support system in your crush. Because both of you are currently living at home for at least this semester, I would recommend holding off on confessing your feelings. The university will resume normal operations eventually and you will be reunited on campus soon. Tell her in person then instead of over FaceTime or text right now. This will give you clarity on whether or not this crush is real or just the result of quarantine blues, and you will have the chance to thank her for being your rock throughout this time. For now, keep supporting her and keeping in touch with her as a friend as she has done for you.

Dear J: “Usually I have all the space I need in my college dorm, but living at home with my parents means I have no privacy. How do I stay sane?”

-Going Crazy Dear Crazy: Since you will be at home for at least three more months, it’s important to bring this up with your parents before it starts affecting your academic life or mental health further. Call a family meeting and tell them your feelings. Make sure to set specific boundaries and schedules such as, “Please text me before coming into my room unannounced because I might be in class” or “Study hours from 8 to 10 p.m. worked for me in college so I’m going to start doing that after dinner every night.” Taking time to yourself and going outside for a little each day can help a lot, whether it’s practicing yoga in your backyard with headphones in or going for a walk around the neighborhood by yourself.

Please submit your questions anonymously here: cutt.ly/tufftalks.

Jenny Lu is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jenny can be reached at jenny.lu634410@tufts.edu.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Ariana Neumann searches through her family history to tell stories untold

by Maeve Hagerty Contributing Writer

Content Warning: This article contains mentions of antisemitism.

“This book is not a history book,” Tufts alumna Ariana Neumann (LA ‘92) said at the onset of her Sept. 30 webinar. The event was organized as the first History Alumni Authors Series presented by the Tufts History Society and Tufts University Department of History. The subject was her 2020 New York Times Bestseller “When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains,” which has won her international acclaim.

The book tenderly describes her journey of discovery and reconciliation with the history her father had kept secret for decades.

Neumann, who graduated Tufts in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in history and French literature, didn’t know her family history until after her father’s death in 2001. She described in Wednesday’s webinar the childhood curiosity and amateur sleuthing that shaped her.

“I didn’t know that the biggest mystery I would solve would be that of my father,” she said. Neumann retold what it felt like to grow up in Caracas, Venezuela with a father who was “so engaged in the present and so excited about the future he never really spoke about the past.”

And yet, Hans Neumann’s past was more complicated than his daughter had ever expected.

Born to a Jewish-Czech family in the decades before the Nazi occupation of Prague, Hans Neumann was forced to outwit the Gestapo as his family was moved to concentration

MAEVE HAGERTY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Ariana Neumann answers a question from Tufts student Phoebe Sargeant during a virtual History Alumni Author Series event on Sept. 30. camps. The book follows Ariana Neumann’s accounts of the hours she spent poring over old Czech police and tax records as she pieced together her family’s story. Slowly, as the picture of her family’s history became clearer, she tells how she decided to compile her findings into a book.

During the webinar she said, “I slowly realized that if I didn’t tell these stories, these stories would die with me.”

The stories she tells are remarkable. Her father escaped the Gestapo three times while living in Prague until the spring of 1943, when he went into hiding inside a makeshift 6-by-3 footroom inside his family-owned paint factory for three months. Hans Neumann later fled Prague with his friend Zdenek’s passport and took the train to Berlin, where he would live undercover with Zdenek as a chemist under the Nazi Party for two years.

Reading from her book, Ariana Neumann shared her father’s firsthand account about his fateful train ride from Prague to Berlin. With Zdenek’s passport in his pocket, and a cyanide pill tucked behind his molar should he be discovered, Hans Neumann documented the journey and later placed the accounts in the box he left for his daughter.

When Ariana Neumann decided to undertake a similar train

ride along the same route 75 years later with the papers her father had written clutched in her hands, she wrote in her book, “I hope that he felt me cradling him, holding his hand across a world of time and experience.”

Neumann’s is a story about bridging historical gaps and finding the threads that bind us across generations, as she explained in her webinar. Describing her love for history, Neumann said, “numbers and dates never moved me … what really moved me tended to be the human experience.”

She also told of how this love was realized while attending Tufts. “I studied history to not repeat the mistakes that were made in the past,” Neumann said. He continued in a rather sentimental tone, stressing that to do so “we have to retell history in a way that appeals to as many people as possible.”

In the second portion of the webinar, senior Phoebe Sargeant, president of the Tufts History Society and a history major, posed some questions to the author. When asked how the Holocaust affected her, Neumann responded that “trauma, even when it’s silenced, trickles down all the same.”

Hans Neumann’s story is not the only one to go untold.

Countless lives and countless histories are buried in the depths of time and experience through which Ariana Neumann herself searched. As numerous and diverse as those histories may be, Neumann has urged us through her writing and her Tufts webinar to consider that “we have to find what it is that binds us and celebrate it, rather than what separates us all from each other.”

And, at least for Neumann, looking to the past was the best way to tighten the threads that bind her to the present.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2020 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

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‘Ted Lasso,’ latest Apple TV+ comedy, capitalizes on feel-good formula

by Stephanie Hoechst Arts Editor

In the world of “Ted Lasso” (2020–), positivity trumps all — a well-worded pep talk, a heartfelt apology or a can-do attitude can usually right any wrong. So goes the philosophy of the most recent Apple TV+ comedy, whose commitment to feel-good stories greeted us with open arms beginning in the middle of a harrowing summer.

“Ted Lasso” is based on (funnily enough) a series of NBC Sports ads from 2013 promoting the channel’s coverage of Premier League soccer — or, as the English call it, football — in the United Kingdom. Now a full-on sitcom with 10 halfhour episodes, “Ted Lasso” follows Ted ( Jason Sudeikis), a Kansas college football coach who’s hired to coach AFC Richmond, an English Premier League club on the verge of relegation. Unbeknownst to Ted, the club’s owner, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) has hired him to lead the team to its downfall, as AFC Richmond was the pride and joy of her despicable ex-husband.

“Ted Lasso,” which Sudeikis helped create, landed on a slate of original programming on Apple TV+, Apple’s originals-only streaming service whose scripted shows have received critically mixed reviews across the board. However, “Ted Lasso” does seem to rise above its peers (though the bar isn’t incredibly high) for committing to a feel-good formula relatively well, especially during a time when there’s so much chaos on live TV. The meat of the show comes from Ted’s relationship with the team’s players, all headstrong and macho soccer stars who eventually learn to soften from Ted’s idiosyncratic yet ever-buoyant coaching style on and off the field. Besides all the fish-out-of-water jokes — Ted doesn’t like tea, Ted thinks there are four quarters in a game of soccer — and corny

dad jokes (“We’re gonna call this drill ‘The Exorcist’ cause it’s all about controlling possession”), much of the comedy comes from seeing these players balk at Ted’s methods only to melt their hardened exteriors to, say, read “A Wrinkle in Time” (1962) for advice on leadership at Ted’s request or do karaoke together after one of their games. At its core, “Ted Lasso” is all about this kind of feel-good, people-are-nicer-than-they-seem storytelling that usually hits the mark in making us, as Ted would probably say, feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Where “Ted Lasso” can sometimes struggle is balancing this remarkably heartwarming formula with the conflict and stakes necessary to drive a show like this forward, especially in the streaming age. When your main character is someone hell-bent on forgiving and forgetting, consequences seem to go out the window. Loose ends are either tied up all too quickly or simply fade into the background. A few episodes stand out, with “Make Rebecca Great Again” being the most interesting and enjoyable because, for once, we actually get to see Ted break down and finally wonder what will happen next.

However, for the rest of the season, Ted soldiers on with his constant positivity, providing more laughs and good moments, yes, but detracting from the depth of his character. The show’s female leads, Rebecca and Keeley ( Juno Temple), a model dating one of Richmond’s players, refreshingly don’t descend into stereotypes — the two develop an authentic friendship, and Keeley is perhaps one of the wisest characters on the show.

However, all of these strengths don’t necessarily add up to create a knockout show — the characters are good, the setup is good, the jokes are funny, and the sequences that do take place during the soccer matches were a pretty good

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “Ted Lasso” (2020-) is pictured. substitute for all the real-life sports that got canceled this summer. All together? It’s a cute show, even if it’s not blowing anyone’s mind.

Does “Ted Lasso” have legs as a series? Sure! It’s already been renewed for a second sea-

son! It’s a great feel-good distraction during these confusing times. While it’s probably not worth a subscription to Apple TV+ on its own, “Ted Lasso” is funny and worth a watch if you do happen to have access.

You’ll laugh, you’ll smile, you’ll

sometimes wonder why you didn’t feel more satisfied by the plot. Ultimately, though, you’ll feel a little more hope about how far an unflaggingly good attitude can take you, which isn’t a terrible thing to keep in mind these days.

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Matt Rice The Countdown

What we can learn from Trump’s diagnosis President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis is a lesson of how serious this virus really is. While a number of Americans have followed public health guidelines in the past six-and-a-half months, the president convinced himself that he was somehow invincible. This tone-deaf behavior extends beyond Trump — from America’s billionaires vastly expanding their empires or mega yacht owners fleeing to the open ocean, I can only hope the president’s diagnosis teaches our ruling class just how indiscriminately dangerous this virus can be.

Opinion I will say right off the bat that I genuinely hope Trump recovers. I am not grotesquely awaiting his death with bated breath. But over the course of this year Trump has, at every turn, prioritized the health of his political career over that of hundreds of millions of Americans. He has felt little remorse when confronted with the fact that his inaction and idiocy put lives at risk.

It’s not surprising that Trump got COVID-19. Trump has refused to wear masks for fear of looking weak. He and his campaign violated public health guidelines in Minnesota, North Carolina and New Hampshire by holding massive, largely mask-free rallies in order to soothe his ego. At a White House ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court last weekend, mask-wearing and social-distancing guidelines were near-universally ignored. Since then, at least 11 attendees have tested positive.

“Every time you see [ Joe Biden], he’s got a mask,” Trump said derisively at the first presidential debate, suggesting that doing so made him somehow weak.

For months, Trump has believed that he and his inner circle should not have to abide by his own government’s public health guidelines. Yes, he might have done so in order to project a sense of normalcy and recovery in the lead-up to this election, but he also did this to save himself. Just like when his casino went bankrupt and his party failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he threw anyone and everyone under the bus in order to save face. It seems he doesn’t care about the well-being of people who don’t surround or support him.

Yes, many may argue that the president — no matter who it is — must be respected as a national, unifying leader.

But Trump has clearly forfeited that right.

7 Tuesday, October 6, 2020 His arrogance, selfishness and abject cruelty make him unworthy of your respect or concern.

All we can hope for is that he quickly recovers, and that his brush with this deadly virus inspires him to re-engage in containing COVID-19. It’s becoming increasingly clear that he has a good chance of losing next month’s presidential election, so if he learned anything from his illness and wants to end his presidency on a high note, I hope he will mandate mask-wearing at all times on the White House grounds, scale back the size of his rallies and do more to demonstrate the severity of this disease.

But based on what he said before leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Monday night, I doubt it.

Matt Rice is a senior studying political science. Matt can be reached at matthew. rice@tufts.edu.

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8 Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Tisch Sports and Fitness Center opens for semester with restrictions, reservations Knee-jerk reac-

Matt Goguen Keeping up with the 617

tions to the Celtics’ playoff exit

It’s never truly a NBA postseason unless the Boston Celtics fail to live up to expectations. Every year the Celtics roll over teams in the regular season just to disappoint with an unexpected playoff exit. This year’s narrative was slightly different due to COVID-19, as the NBA shifted to a bubble after a two month postponement. However, the Celtics continued to raise expectations as their early play in the bubble was efficient. They convincingly swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and were building hope among the Celtics fanbase. As they faced the defending champion Toronto Raptors, the Celtics were clamping Toronto’s offense and most likely would’ve won in five games if OG Anunoby hadn’t played hero in Game 3. They squeaked out a series victory and then ran into the Miami Heat, the Cinderella team of the bubble. They lost control and momentum early in the series and the young core of Miami never let off the gas pedal.

Once again, the Celtics exit the postseason with more questions than answers.

The main problem with this exit is that the road to the NBA Finals was ideal for the Boston Celtics; the title favorite Milwaukee Bucks were knocked out by the Miami Heat in the second round and the Heat were due for a shooting percentage regression.

Additionally, the Celtics matched up perfectly with the Heat, whose young core had littleto-no playoff experience. Yet, even with Brad Stevens’ efficient defensive game plan, Tyler Herro continued to drain contested 3-pointers and essentially carry the Heat to the NBA Finals. The Celtics simply couldn’t close out games during this series; in each of their four losses, the Celtics held a fourth quarter lead.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown disappeared down the stretch and the Celtics relied on a volatile Marcus Smart to sink clutch shots.

Their clock management was atrocious and the shot selection by Tatum and Walker was perplexing. It seemed like on every fourth quarter possession the Celtics felt rushed and chose shots that were completely contested. Their rebounding was horrific down the stretch as well; you simply cannot rely on Daniel Theis to efficiently rebound and box out big men.

So what’s next for the Boston Celtics? Their championship window is closing as Jayson Tatum and their young core are due for contracts in the next few years. The easiest way for them to free up cap space is to find a trade partner for Gordon Hayward. Although most of his regression is due to his gruesome ankle injury in 2017, Hayward was a liability on the court for most of the season. Find a trade suitor where Hayward will fit, and in return receive draft picks and a big man, which the Celtics definitely need. I have faith in Robert Williams III and Enes Kanter as solid rotational pieces, but I do not trust them as starters. Defense wins NBA championships, and if the Celtics want to add another title to their impressive repertoire they need to close out in games and desperately need a competent big man to solidify their starting five. Am I expecting a Celtics championship next season? Absolutely not. But if the Celtics continue to improve and are aggressive in free agency, I wouldn’t count them out for a Cinderella run in 2021.

Matt Goguen is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.goguen@tufts.edu.

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

The inside of the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center is pictured on Sept. 23.

by Sruthi Kocherlakota Executive Sports Editor

Now that the fall semester is in full flux, students have numerous facilities open for use. Along with academic locations on campus, the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center has been available to those who are engaging in Tufts testing protocols.

The gym opened mid-September and has not run into any major issues that have prevented it from staying open.

As outlined on the athletic department’s website, students and faculty are allowed to access the gym at different times during the week. For faculty members, the gym is available for use from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., Monday to Friday without reservations as long they present a Tufts ID. However, students must make reservations in advance to use specific equipment. The reservation time slots are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and Sunday, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. There is a limit of three reservations per week for students and only one reservation is allowed per day.

“The reservation system has been working really well,” Director of Sports Performance Dan Kopsco wrote in an email to the Daily. “There are always challenges to rolling out something new, but I’ve been very impressed by the understanding and cooperation of our students on campus, as well as how well our fitness center staff has adapted.”

In order to make a reservation at the gym students must first select a space to reserve during their visit and then select a corresponding time slot available. The website will redirect users to their Tufts login to confirm their reservation. Students can view their reservations under the “My reservations” tab and also cancel their reservations here. There are no consequences for students who cancel their reservations

in advance; however, if a student misses a few sessions, they will be locked out of the software.

Some of the equipment is in higher demand or has fewer spaces available to reserve, thus the need to reserve in advance might fluctuate.

“Most reservations seem to be made a day or two in advance, but some are made only a handful of hours beforehand,” Kopsco said.

Depending on the day and the weather, the amount of gym users varies, but Kopsco estimates there to be about 60–100 people making reservations per day. To ensure that the high traffic space does not pose discomfort to students who want to use the sports center, cleaning protocols are put into place to sanitize the spaces. The 20-minute gap between reservations is utilized to disinfect and clean the equipment in between use.

“The gym is thoroughly cleaned at the end of every hour (we run reservations for forty minutes allowing another 20 minutes for cleaning each hour),” Kopsco said. “In addition the custodial staff does a special deep cleaning at 1:30 every day and again before the facility opens in the morning. There are also both spray bottles at all the stations and cleaning wipes available for users to use for added safety and comfort.”

Those who use the gym must wear a mask upon entering the gym and entering their reserved spaces. Once those have reached their designated equipment, users are allowed to remove their masks for their exercise as long as they are remaining between the barriers of the various workout spaces. To ensure that students are following the protocol, the gym has doubled the amount of on-floor personnel that monitor the area.

“I do feel comfortable using the gym, and there is a reason why I say that. It’s because at least when I went, there were very few people actually there,” Brandon

Sun, a sophomore, said. “I also had the opportunity to sanitize the equipment before using it and then the fact that there were so few people there I felt safe. Of course, if there were more people there I might feel a little bit more uncomfortable.”

While the reservation system does not allow as much freedom while working out as do normal gym conditions, it allows the gym to be open this semester and safe for those to use.

“It is somewhat annoying that I can’t use more than one kind of equipment at a time. I am the type of person to use multiple pieces of equipment in a single workout,” Sun said. “I like to run on the treadmill and also do some weightlifting, so I suppose that is an inconvenience when working out. But I understand that logistically it is not possible for us to use more than one area at once.”

Despite all of the new protocols implemented when using the gym, students are still able to exercise regularly at the gym and take some solace in knowing that the reservation process will guarantee them a space to workout.

While the gym remains open for the semester, there are other outdoor locations, such as the Ellis Oval, that can be accessed for working out purposes, so those who feel uncomfortable using the sports center can still engage in other fitness activities.

“I think the University and the Athletics Department have done a tremendous job making sure options are open to our students to remain healthy both physically, and mentally,” Kopsco said. “I also recognize a lot of students are still very cautious about being indoors, and as such I see far more students this year choosing to engage in outdoor activity around campus. So while the location of students’ activity might vary a bit, I think the Tufts student body is still prioritizing fitness and health.”