The Tufts Daily - Thursday, October 24, 2024

LOCAL

Tufts Engineers Without Borders opens mobile greenhouse project

Hannah Rajalingam Contributing Writer

Tufts Engineers Without Borders is continuing to develop its mobile greenhouse, which opened in May 2024. Members of the club hope to give handson engineering experience to children from local elementary schools, Medford and Somerville residents and Tufts engineers. The club is a chapter of the worldwide organization Engineers Without Borders, which works with professional and aspiring engineers to construct projects within communities in need.

Despite already having two ongoing international projects in Malawi and Nicaragua, members of Tufts EWB aspired to create a project on Tufts’ campus that would allow them to give back to the local community.

“The whole Tufts community and the local community is

impacted by our project because it educates people on how global engineering is actually implemented. People often don’t even know what engineering is, so to be teaching about it and teaching about how to do it in an ethical sense is also really important,” junior and co-Project Lead

Adda Hennessey said.

The greenhouse, located near the Tufts student garden, involved many moving parts. There are eight engineering projects inside of the greenhouse, including a compost bin built by the club’s members, a solar panel and lighting and water distribution systems.

“The whole structure was engineered by a group. The whole interior was engineered by a group. There are tables and education interactives. There are a lot of different engineering projects inside of the greenhouse that

see EWB, page 2

Medford ballot Question 6 proposes debt exclusion to fund new fire headquarters

Josué Pérez Assistant News Editor

Medford residents will vote on three local ballot questions on Nov. 5, in addition to the five state-wide questions. The first of the three, Question 6, asks voters to approve a debt exclusion for a new fire headquarters that will replace the current one at 120 Main St.

The current fire headquarters was built in the 1960s. The fire and police departments shared the building up until 2019 when the police department moved to a new, separate headquarters built at 100 Main St.

Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn explained the need for a new fire station.

see BALLOT, page 3

Nic Sheff, author of ‘Tweak,’ discusses addiction, recovery during Tisch College event

Olivia Bye Contributing Writer

Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted a conversation with Nic Sheff, an author and advocate who writes about his experience with addiction and recovery. The Oct. 16 event was part of the Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series.

Sheff is known for his 2007 memoir, “Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines,” and for being the subject of the 2018 film “Beautiful Boy,” which stars Timotheé Chalamet as a young version of Sheff. The event was moderated by Tufts senior and Harm Reduction Education for Drugs and Alcohol activist, Sarah Lotsoff.

Lotsoff began the discussion by asking Sheff about how his life has changed in the years since releasing “Tweak.”

Grcevich

He noted that one of the most significant changes has been his ability to stay sober.

“When I finished ‘Tweak,’ it ends on the note of … ‘I’m in treatment, and maybe things are going to get better.’ But I still really didn’t know that it was possible to live a full, happy, beautiful life in sobriety, because I just hadn’t had that experience yet,” Sheff said. “I always thought that getting sober was gonna mean having to live this second-tier, consolation prize life … and 15 years later, I can say that that’s not the case at all. I love my life today. I love being sober.”

Sheff touched on the impact “Tweak” and “Beautiful Boy” had on his relationship with his father by allowing the pair to reconnect and forge a deeper understanding of one another’s struggles.

see SHEFF, page 2

DOMINIC MATOS / THE TUFTS DAILY

Nic Sheff, subject of “Beautiful Boy,” is pictured talking to moderator Sarah Lotsoff (LA’25) as a part of the Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series on Oct. 16.

Despite challenges, new greenhouse serves to educate

EWB continued from page 1

need to be upkept, but at the same time, they’re supposed to help the greenhouse be autonomous,” Hennessey explained.

Among the challenges that Tufts EWB faced while building the greenhouse was creating a functioning water distribution system.

“Over the summer, the water distribution system was not working, and I would say that [is] one of the most important parts of an autonomous greenhouse. So, we did have to do a lot of manual watering and checking up on the plants themselves,” Hennessey explained.

Agricultural co-Lead junior Francesca Wan elaborated on the struggle to create and maintain an automated watering system.

“We were able to have proper water catchment and have it trickle down to a big tank of water. But [for] the group that was trying to distribute and automate watering the plants, the code wasn’t working,” she explained.

Tufts EWB is also working on an educational programming aspect of the greenhouse.

Sophomore Eli Lipman and junior Zahir Bashir, the co-leads of the education group on the greenhouse project, have been collaborating with the EliotPearson Children’s School and Wild Rose Montessori School in Cambridge to create engaging ways for their students to interact with and learn more about the greenhouse. Currently, they are working on scheduling events with both schools and planning learning activities.

“It’ll just be an educational thing, where we teach them different engineering disciplines that went into making the greenhouse, teaching a little bit about the greenhouse and what it serves in terms of sustainability, and then also just have other creative activi-

ties for them, to get them more engaged with actual engineering stuff,” Bashir said.

Sophomore and co-Project Lead Matias Corona elaborated on the educational component of the greenhouse.

“Kids can interact with the greenhouse, and it’s a more effective way of learning about that sustainability, those civic goals that power the greenhouse really, and also all the engineering elements of the greenhouse,” Corona said.

“We’ve talked to these schools and they’re very excited about

[the] idea of showing these younger kids what engineering means at such a young age.”

Despite the challenges they have faced, the members of Tufts EWB hope to continue improving and optimizing the greenhouse for the local community. Going forward, they plan to implement a hydroponics system inside of the greenhouse in order to “increase the efficiency of the greenhouse for a higher output of fresh vegetables,” according to Hennessey. Members also want to allow local community members to plant their own plants in

the greenhouse and watch them grow over time.

Sophomore and EWB Agriculture Tech Lead Duncan DeFonce reflected on the team effort that has gone into making the greenhouse a success.

“It’s easy to have a group of one or two … [engineers and] make a design and implement it, but it’s more difficult with a bigger group of 10 or so people like we have,” DeFonce said. “So making sure everybody has a hand in it and everybody’s engaged is more difficult than you’d think. But it’s also super rewarding.”

continued from page 1

“When [my dad] read ‘Tweak,’ he got to see that when I was relapsing, it wasn’t that I was having fun or partying. I was in a ton of pain, and the drugs and alcohol were the only things that had ever taken that pain away from me,” Sheff said. “Reading ‘Tweak’ really helped him to forgive me and to understand what my disease was.”

Responding to Lotsoff’s question about “Beautiful Boy,” Sheff explained the thought process behind the ending of the film, which leaves the future of his character ambiguous.

“To end the movie on a note of [addiction being] behind me, or behind these characters forever, and they’re all going to live happily ever after, just wouldn’t be truthful or

fair to the people that were still struggling,” he said. “The scary thing about addiction is it’s a chronic illness. … That was something we were trying to convey in the movie without it being too horribly depressing, but also not falsely optimistic.”

Sheff also talked about the challenges of adapting a story about substance addiction to the screen without falling into common tropes about the disease.

“[Addiction stories] are very repetitive in a way that’s not very cinematic. [In] a normal movie, you have the three acts, and there’s a triumphant moment at the end. But the thing about addiction is that, so often, relapse is a part of recovery,” he said.

The typical addiction arc portrayed in film flattens some of the nuances of reality, according to Sheff.

“There were so many times in my life where it did seem like I had put my using behind me, and I was doing better, and I was working and going to meetings and stuff. And then I would end up relapsing again, and it was so devastating for everyone around me,” he said. “I would even be surprised by it; I’d find myself having relapsed and not even know exactly how I got there.”

Towards the end of the event, Sheff fielded questions from the audience. When asked about the top three takeaways people in the public should know about recovery, Sheff emphasized the importance of offering support rather than exacting punishment.

“Spreading that message of positivity and hope and love is so important, as opposed to making it a more negative, ‘You’re bad, and you’ve

been bad, and so you need to be punished’ kind of thing,” he said. “It goes back to the way that people are treated in the criminal justice system as well. As much as we can help get people into diversion programs and into treatment rather than just incarcerate people, the better.”

Sheff’s message to those struggling with addiction is to seek out support, even when it feels impossible.

“The thing that I would just urge you all [to do], more than anything else, is just to believe that the help is out there if you ask for it,” he said. “[Recovery is] not easy, and it can take a little bit of time, but ultimately, we all can find those puzzle pieces that are our puzzle pieces that are going to be the ones that help us to feel okay and comfortable in our own skin.”

SHEFF

BRIANA CHEN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The exterior of the EWB greenhouse, near the Tufts Student Garden, is pictured on Sunday.

Union urges against proposed station plans

BALLOT continued from page 1

“You have a station [without] proper ventilation, [that] probably does not meet code entirely. You have equipment right next to the kitchen with the door that’s right there. You have low morale because the building is 60 years old and needs to be, at least rehabbed, if not built entirely new. I mean, the list goes on and on,” she said.

The question itself does not specify how much the bond will be. However, the estimated figure for the cost of the new headquarters is $30 million.

A debt exclusion is a temporary tax raise to pay off a bond for a capital project approved by voters. Once the payments for that specific project are completed, the tax increase ends.

Medford City Councilor Matt Leming provided further explanation about debt exclusions.

“If they approve a debt exclusion, the city then becomes eligible to essentially take out a loan, and over a period of time, that loan, as well as the accruing interest, would be paid back. The estimate for that, … once the loan is taken out and we have to service the debt, … [is] around $2 million a year for about 30 years,” he said.

Leming also stated that the estimated 30-year period is as such because the city would need to pay the interest that is accrued by the loan. He shared that debt exclusions are usually necessary to fund largescale projects over a period of time.

“Somerville passed a debt exclusion a few years ago to fund the building of a new high school, so this is a relatively common thing in other communities to fund these sorts of buildings,” Leming said.

Medford’s stringent finances have placed an extra burden on the city government when creating the budget.

“Without that debt exclusion, those $2 million [a year] come out of the city budget from somewhere else, a city budget that is already strained, I would say, past the breaking point,” David Zabner, treasurer of the campaign “Invest in Medford,” told the Daily.

Medford firefighters union opposes Question 6

The Medford Firefighters Local 1032 Union leadership is opposed to Question 6. In a statement to the Daily, Union President Danielle Marcellino explained their opposition to the concept designs released by the mayor’s office.

“The lack of space available (for personnel, apparatus and storage) in this current design speaks to the

city’s lack of plan for the future of the city. The building also does not properly address firefighter decon (carcinogen exposure mitigation),” Marcellino wrote. “It has too few showers available for all of the firefighters working to be able to shower off as soon as possible thus reducing the exposure to cancer-causing substances we come in contact with at every fire (large or very small).”

Lungo-Koehn said she recognizes that not everyone will be satisfied with the final design, but that the headquarters planning committee has made adjustments to what the union requested.

“We’ve made multiple adjustments for our union and our firefighters per their requests. Nothing is going to be perfect in anybody’s eyes, but … we’re doing our best to try to build a new state-of-theart facility for our firefighters. And considering that it’s just concept design and the final design isn’t done yet, I hope that the residents vote ‘yes’ on the question so that we can continue to make changes,” Lungo-Koehn said.

Zabner said that Question 6 is about the bond that will be taken out to fund the new headquarters, not the concept designs.

“We can vote yes on the bond, and the firefighters and the mayor

UNIVERSITY

can figure out a design that works for both parties at the end of the day, … ignoring the issues that the firefighters and the mayor seem to have with each other,” Zabner said.

Union claims they were not involved in discussion over changes to concept designs

Marcellino said that the union was looped into the initial planning by Provisional Chief Todd Evans but was later removed from conversations that considered changes.

“The Union would love to see the headquarters committee work with the mayor and be included in the process to ensure that the design of the building meets our needs; We have asked to be included in the process,” Marcellino wrote. “The intention at the time was to have the committee work with the city because we have working knowledge of the current plan and what we would need for the future. Chief Evans convened the committee in the spring to look at the city’s proposed design plan but were still excluded from the conversation to make changes.”

Lungo-Koehn said that union members were involved at the beginning of the creation of the designs.

“I think the current fire chief [Todd Evans], … when we started to get the concept designs,

he [was] the one that made sure there was a meeting with [architect] Ted Galante [and that] some of the union members and firefighters did a tour of the building. Ted really listened to what they needed, and I’ve outlined in a press release all the changes we’ve made based on their requests and desires,” she said.

Medford City Councilor George Scarpelli said that more time is needed to reexamine and redo the designs of the new headquarters so it can adequately meet the firefighters’ needs. Until then, Scarpelli said, residents should vote “No” on Question 6.

“As soon as the firefighters find the design that works for them, it’ll run like wildfire through the city, because everybody wants a new fire station,” he said. “They deserve it.”

Lungo-Koehn believes that some firefighters do not support voting against the question.

“People will reach out to me and say: ‘Hey, I spoke to so and so firefighter, and he can’t believe that the union is asking people to vote no. That’s not the sentiment of the department,’” Lungo-Koehn said.

“As Union leadership, we are in place to voice the sentiment of our Union members,” Marcellino wrote in response.

TCU Senate discusses on-campus pub, syllabus access, club funding

Spenser Walsh Staff Writer

Originally published Oct. 22.

Editor’s Note: Kunal Botla is a deputy opinion editor. Botla was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

Sunday’s meeting of the Tufts Community Union Senate covered club funding requests, a new campus pub and its long-running effort to increase syllabus access.

In the Committee for Community and Diversity Report, TCU Diversity Officer Alexander Vang announced plans for a Community and Diversity Town Hall meeting set for Nov. 18. The town hall is an opportunity for students to pose questions to community senators about campus issues important to them.

During the Presidential section, Joel Omolade presented plans for future engagement with University President Sunil Kumar and discussed proposed plans for a new campus pub.

“The idea was that we really want to make sure that students have a safe space to drink on campus.” Omolade, who is a senior, told the Daily after the meeting. The pub would be set up in an existing location on campus, which would be converted to a pub at night.

“Obviously it would be reserved for individuals who are 21 plus and have all the legalities and safety measures,” Omolade said.

The establishment of an on-campus pub is not entirely new to Tufts. The MacPhie Pub was established in the 1970s after many states, including Massachusetts, lowered the legal drinking age to 18.

Since most students were of age, the university set up the pub in what is now the DewickMacPhie Dining Hall, hiring students as workers and bartenders and playing host to a myriad of musical performances, comedy shows and memories. Some of the performances included A-list acts, such as Phish and the Village People.

“Tracy Chapman used to play in this room for $5 and a free meal,” Tufts Dining’s Procurement Manager for Tufts Dining John Fisher told the Daily in 2017, referring to the famous Tufts alum.

After the legal drinking age was raised, the pub was phased out in 1994.

The pub is “coming out soon” according to Omolade to ensure that students who drink have the opportunity to do so in a safe, regulated environment. Plans for a “soft launch” next week are in the works, and according to Omolade and TCU Historian Caroline Spahr, Tufts Dining is seeking student input in the planning process.

The Senate addressed a long-standing initiative by the Senate to encourage professors to make syllabi from previous iterations of a course accessible to students before registration, including indicating costs of class materials. Administration and Policy Committee Chair Kunal Botla said that professors have shown increased support for the project, which has raised its profile among the administration.

“I think Tufts has a culture of sharing information, of providing students with the informa-

tion they need to make decisions about the courses they want to take on their academic journey,” Botla told the Daily after the meeting. “I think faculty recognize the importance of it, but I think the technicalities, the infrastructure needed for nearly 7,000 undergraduate students to have access to a volume of years of information is a challenge.”

Both Botla and Omolade said that the logistics of coordination between departments and professors would be among the biggest challenges.

TCU Treasurer Dhruv Sampat led votes on four supplementary funding requests.

The Senate approved $5,000 for the Tisch College Election Night Extravaganza: a col -

laborative event planned by University officials and a variety of political student clubs including Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans.

The Tufts chapter of Global Medical Brigades — a national organization that gives premed students the opportunity to volunteer abroad — received $1,440 for their new club budget. Tufts Hillel received $3,820 in funding for a board retreat.

A budget of $1,100 was approved for The Zamboni’s trip to Washington, D.C. to gather content for the upcoming general election. The proposal raised questions about whether the trip constituted a retreat or trip, which are funded differently by the Senate, and the rele-

vance of covering the election in Washington D.C. as opposed to a swing state.

Finally, the Middle East Research Group’s request for $5,838 an academic research trip to Dearborn, Mich. to talk to voters ahead of the election.

Next, Omolade discussed The Space, which is a student wellness center in the basement of Stratton Hall created by the Senate. Due to low levels of awareness about the center, some furniture has been stolen. Senators shared their ideas for how to better advertise The Space. Ideas included creating an Instagram page for the center and hiring a student employee to manage social media and deter future furniture theft.

MATTHEW SAGE / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Joyce Cummings Center is pictured on Sept. 8.

The ‘Ghost Bike’ at Tufts: Bicycle safety on campus and beyond

Where Packard Avenue meets Broadway Avenue at the bottom of the hill, there is a white bicycle adorned with flowers. This bicycle marks the spot where a 70-year-old man named Stephen Conley was killed while riding his bike in 2022. A lifelong resident of Somerville with a wife, three children and a grandchild, Conley was a block away from the Medford/Somerville campus when a car opened its door into the bike lane and pushed him into traffic.

There’s another white bike like this in Porter Square and yet another by the Somerville Market Basket on Park Street. These “ghost bikes” can be found across the Boston area, marking the sites of bicyclist fatalities.

Most of these ghost bikes have been placed by bicycle advocate Peter Cheung, who is on the board of the Boston Cyclists Union.

“The purpose of the ghost bike is to memorialize a cyclist that has been killed, and it’s usually placed at the crash site. It’s meant to make a tragic place into a more holy, solemn place,” Cheung said. “The phrase we use at the [dedication] ceremony is to ‘transform a place of death to a place of life.’ It also serves as a reminder for drivers and motorists, and also cyclists, to be aware and to share the road — for everybody, for all road users.”

Drew Nelson is a senior in the Resumed Education for Adult Learning program. He moved to Boston nine years ago to dance professionally for the Boston Ballet, and he has since spent many years using a bicycle for everyday transportation. Nelson is now the head mechanic at Tufts Bikes and also volunteers with the South End branch of the Community Pedal Power E-bike Lending Library.

“I moved to Boston in 2015. I bought a bike right away, and one of the first trips that I took was out to Harvard,” Nelson said. “On the way back I saw this white bike chained to a post at [Massachusetts Avenue] and Beacon Street in Boston and later found out that it was a bicyclist who was killed a couple weeks before I moved to Boston. Since then, I’ve been to about half a dozen ghost bike ceremonies.”

Jon Ramos lives in West Somerville and bikes around the Tufts area every day with his 7-year-old daughter and 4-yearold son. According to Ramos, he and his children pass a number of ghost bikes on the way to school, soccer and ice skating.

“We talk about it a lot. Both my kids know what ghost bikes are and what they mean,” Ramos said. “I don’t shy them away from that.”

Cheung has been creating ghost bikes for over nine years. Each ghost bike is designed to be permanently installed at the crash site. Cheung sources all the bikes he uses as ghost bikes from Bikes Not Bombs, a nonprofit bicycle store that aims to use the bicycle as a vehicle to help achieve economic mobility for marginalized people in the Boston area and the Global South.

“I usually like to tailor make it to the person that’s passed away, if it’s a little kid, or a female style [bike], or a roadie bike, to try to make it more personalized,” Cheung said.

Each time a ghost bike is placed, there is a dedication ceremony.

“At one point, we will all reach out … and touch the bike or touch a person that’s touching the bike. It’s like a human chain, we all form a bond. That’s when we actually dedicate the ghost bike,” Cheung said.

Cheung prioritizes involving the family of the victim in the ceremony, which sometimes results in a time gap between the death and the installation of a ghost bike.

“Usually after a fatality, the families don’t want to really talk about a ghost bike because they’re dealing with the funeral services and the grief of a passed loved one. So, we tread lightly,” Cheung said.

Nelson has attended a number of ghost bike ceremonies over the years.

“I remember George [Clemmer’s] ghost bike ceremony at [Massachusetts Avenue] and Huntington [Avenue],” he said.

“There was just this insanely stark contrast between our small ceremony of mourning and the incredibly loud traffic from trucks and large vehicles surrounding us constantly.”

In addition to serving as a memorial, ghost bikes bring

attention to the need for safe infrastructure at the crash site and in the Boston area in general.

“The third high-profile ghost bike that I placed was for Anita Kermann, at the corner of Beacon Street and [Massachusetts Avenue] in Back Bay. A big truck made a right hook, right turn and killed her,” Cheung said. “Since then, they’ve had protected bike lanes put at that location.”

Boston has been making progress towards having a safe network of cycling infrastructure. Still, according to Nelson, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

“The difference between 2015 and now is huge. We are very close to having a completed network of relatively safe bike lanes that can take you from one part of the greater Boston area completely to the opposite end. They’re not on every street, and we certainly have a long way to go,” Nelson said.

Despite improvements in infrastructure over the last ten years, there have been several high-profile cycling deaths this year near Tufts in Cambridge. In June, Kim Stanley, a 55-year-old mother of two visiting from Florida, was struck and killed by a box truck in Harvard Square. Two weeks later, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named Minh-Thi Nguyen was killed in the exact same manner in Kendall Square.

Most recently, 62-year-old John Corcoran was hit and killed by an oncoming SUV while riding his bike on the path on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Corcoran was a graduate of Harvard University and father to two current Harvard students.

Ramos rides his bicycle every week on the way to work past the place where Corcoran was killed.

“I’m very angry. I feel like that could have been anyone. It could have been me, could’ve been my kids, could’ve been a woman with a stroller, it could’ve been a group of students,” Ramos said.

The ghost bike marking Corcoran’s death on Memorial Drive is the most recent in the Boston area. Several hundred bicyclists attended the ceremony to dedicate Corcoran’s ghost bike and call for improvements to the safety of Memorial Drive.

Near the Medford/Somerville campus, College Avenue presents an area of very high risk to students and community members trying to ride a bicycle.

“For anyone who goes to Tufts, they know the experience of crossing College [Avenue],” Nelson said. “I am dreading the day we have to install a ghost bike on College [Avenue], and I think it’s only a matter of time.”

In addition to Tufts students, this area is also heavily used by parents as they take their young kids to swim lessons run by the swim team at the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center.

“I find that whole section of College [Avenue] heading down that hill to be just absolutely treacherous for people on bikes,” Ramos said. “I think because there’s often traffic up near the main intersection on Boston [Avenue], once people see the green light, they hit the gas and they go fast.”

Better infrastructure on College Avenue would improve things for both community members and students. Just a few changes would make great strides toward improving bicycle safety at Tufts.

“Professors Row is a great way to get through, and Packard Ave is wide enough [that] you could fit protected bike lanes in both directions,” Ramos said. “If you had [bike lanes on] Professors Row and Packard [Avenue] and College [Avenue], that’s all you would need because most of the network would feed into those streets.”

And, according to Ramos, Tufts is in a position to make the changes needed.

“Tufts University has so much land in the area that they’re the primary stakeholder for a lot of the roads that go around their campus, and they have the opportunity to be real leaders here,” Ramos said. “I think the towns are really eager to build this kind of stuff, but they don’t want to have a battle with a university. But, if the university came to the table saying ‘This is what we want,’ I think it’d get done really quickly.”

Though ghost bikes sometimes serve as a tool for advocacy, at the heart of every ghost bike is a person who left behind friends and family after they were killed.

“Every time we do one, we say, ‘Oh, this is the last one,’ and I’ve created almost 30 of them. Next year will be 10 years of me doing it, and I don’t want to do them anymore,” Cheung said.

The ghost bike near Tufts stands as a reminder to make changes before someone is killed, not after.

“We need the leaders of Tufts to engage with the city of Somerville and the city of Medford … to advocate for safety … so that someone isn’t killed,” Nelson said. “I don’t want to be the one who gives the speech at a ghost bike ceremony on College [Avenue] because it will wreck me.”

JOHN MURPHY / THE TUFTS DAILY

A ghost bike dedicated to Stephen Conley stands near the intersection at Broadway and Packard Avenue on Oct. 11.

Sarah Firth Assistant Features Editor

Professor Jana Grcevich discusses her career journey, love of astronomy

Julia Critz Contributing Writer

Originally published Oct. 21.

Science professors are sometimes saddled with the stereotype of being reclusive and spending time with their equations but not bothering to share their work with people. Spend one minute with Dr. Jana Grcevich, a part-time astronomy lecturer, and that image will be as far from your mind as Jupiter’s moon Europa is from planet Earth. Far, as she will tell you — about five years by spacecraft if you time it right.

Grcevich has avoided the pitfall of having only one career and has instead had three. She’s an academic, with degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Michigan and Columbia University. She completed postdoctoral work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and currently teaches Wanderers in Space at Tufts.

She’s also a science communicator, having taught classes for future high school science teachers, hosted shows at Hayden Planetarium and co-written a book envisioning space as the next frontier for tourism. Additionally, Grcevich is a data scientist and has worked in the television industry doing advertisements for TV companies and market research analysis. Grcevich’s broad career has been propelled by a combination of curiosity, necessity and a passion for sharing science with others.

Grcevich said that she got into astronomy through “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” with some “Star Wars” on the side. She eventually cut through all the Klingon and Galactic Basic and followed her curiosity.

“I started being curious about what was real and what was not real about science fiction that I was watching on television, and that’s what brought me to the library to read more about it,” she said.

At the library, she found Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time.” It went over her head as a middle schooler, but the fact that she didn’t understand it was what intrigued her. As an undergraduate student, she took a firstyear writing class that was focused on astronomy and got into the subtopic of dwarf galaxies because of her professor, Dr. Eric Wilcots.

“I really got into [dwarf galaxies] right away and I kind of never stopped,” Grcevich said.

However, Grcevich took many detours on her career path. One was as a planner for space vacations.

“I was finishing my Ph.D., and a friend of mine called me up and was like … ‘somebody

I know is doing this project planning space vacations. They want to work with an astronomer to do this,’” she said.

The project, called the Intergalactic Travel Bureau, engaged the public through interactive events where they would help people plan a fantasy vacation in space, were it possible. The point was to make astronomy accessible and fun to the general public.

Grcevich, at this point, flips into intergalactic travel agent mode. She asks me where I like to go on vacation and what I like to do. Before I know it, she’s recommended a ski trip to Pluto in one-tenth gravity. Her ideal space vacation is to the moon Europa, with its hydrocarbon seas and sandy landscape.

“I would love to go there and just fly around over [the] lakes and … dunes, [and] have those views,” Grcevich said.

Over the years, the project evolved from events to eventually a book, “Vacation Guide to the Solar System,” published in 2017.

After completing her doctorate, Grcevich started a postgraduate position at the American Museum of Natural History. Grcevich also led shows at the museum’s famous Hayden Planetarium, touring her live audience through the sky. The planetarium’s advanced technology allowed its scientists to show their audiences the newest findings.

“If you have a view of Jupiter that you got from a satellite, you can put that down, and actually fly around Jupiter with your audience,” she explained.

However, necessity brought her to industry after her postdoc.

“I really wanted to stay in New York City, and it was hard to find a permanent position,” she said. “So what I ended up doing was going into data science, and instead of studying the universe, I was putting advertisements on television shows using machine learning.”

Her job in data science used her skill set and knowledge of Python, but it wasn’t everything.

“It was a good experience, but it was not my true love, and I found myself really missing astronomy and interacting with the public,” she noted.

Grcevich pivoted back to Columbia by running educational programs for schools and the broader community, such as community stargazing.

“Hundreds of people would come to Columbia, and we’d do stargazing — we

would take out telescopes and things like that,” she explained.

However, once it was clear that COVID19 would cause more than short-term disruption in programming, it was time for a change. Life provided a perfect one.

“I reconnected with an old friend of mine, fell in love and ended up moving here,” she said.

Here is Somerville, Mass., across the street from Tufts University, where she’s now a part-time lecturer.

Grcevich at the Department of Physics and Astronomy with homemade cookies and a refreshing teaching style. Her style is interactive and gregarious, and she tries to engage students who are not just STEM majors.

Her teaching assistant, Tess Kleanthous, a first-year master’s student, explained that Grcevich intentionally caters to different learning styles. In a recent class, she brought students to the front of the hall to demonstrate the phases of the moon, with the students representing the earth.

“She walked around them with a model of the moon that [was] half lit up by the sun. And she walked around them as if she was the moon, orbiting them so that they could see how the moonlight changes based on where it is,” Kleanthous said.

Grcevich’s enthusiasm shines through, according to teaching assistant Casey Hartman.

“It’s very evident that she’s passionate about teaching this stuff,” he said.

Hartman said that when the northern lights were visible above Tufts, she took extra time to tell her students to go outside.

Grcevich said she is happy to focus on teaching here, but she also wants to emphasize connecting with the broader community at Tufts.

“In New York, it was great because we would take a telescope back to the street and people that [had] never looked through a telescope before would look through telescopes,” she said. “I was fed by their reactions and their questions, and it wasn’t like we were doing them a favor. It was a way to meet people and come together around a shared love.”

Grcevich remains in awe of the galaxies she studies and feels respect for the universe, and she hopes these sentiments pass on to her students at Tufts.

“That sense of wonder and that sense of understanding of our place in a larger picture is what led me to really love astronomy,” she said.

Leo Deener Minutia Matters

Baseball, semantic narrowing and language shift

The New York Yankees, my favorite team, won the American League Championship Series on Saturday and are therefore heading to the World Series. As right fielder Juan Soto caught the final out that sent them to the World Series, the announcer proclaimed that the Yankees had won the pennant for the first time in 15 years. What the hell is a pennant?

Being the avid baseball fan that I am, I know that winning a pennant means winning the championship series of the league, either in the American League or the National League, advancing them to the World Series where the champions of both leagues face off in a best of seven series. Failing to beat the weird-baseball-kid language-nerd combo, however, I knew I had to figure out what a pennant is, where that word comes from and why we use it in this context.

According to Wikipedia, a pennant is a “commemorative pennon typically used to show support for a particular athletic team.” Of course, I then had to look up pennon which is apparently “a long narrow flag which is larger at the hoist than at the fly, i.e., the flag narrows as it moves away from the flagpole.” Essentially, this word “pennant” went from referring to a commemorative, abnormal flag to meaning the champion of the American or National League in any particular season. When some hear the word “pennant,” they may only recognize the baseball-facing meaning without any knowledge of the flag that the term came from.

I found this whole situation to be an interesting example of semantic narrowing. Semantic narrowing is a semantic change that occurs when the meaning of a word or phrase becomes less general or inclusive over time. I was thinking about semantic narrowing at the same time as the Yankees clinched their world series berth thanks to semantic narrowing being the subject of the most recent episode of “Lexicon Valley” — the podcast of John McWhorter, associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. Again, not disproving any allegations.

Another common example of semantic narrowing in English is the word “corn.” Corn is an indigenous Germanic word that used to mean all types of grains but has narrowed to the type of Central American cereal plant that yields large grains set in rows on a cob, or “maize.” Even the word “indigenous” is undergoing a kind of semantic narrowing right now. The way I used it above to mean “originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native” is certainly still acceptable. But the word nowadays is commonly used to refer to “people inhabiting or existing in a land from the before the arrival of colonists.” Both examples of semantic narrowing reflect historical and cultural changes that influence both the way we speak and the meanings of the words we use in everyday life.

Semantic narrowing fascinates me not only because it’s a cool linguistic phenomenon that shows up in situations from baseball to history classes, but also because it reflects the plasticity of language and how closely it’s bound to the lived world. All living languages will continue to bend to the changes in society, giving us countless new examples of semantic narrowing, semantic widening, syntactic change and sound change. Language shift is the result of a language being spoken by different people in changing contexts across that world — and that’s beautiful.

Leo Deener is a senior studying international relations. He can be reached at leo.deener@tufts.edu.

DEFNE OLGUN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Grcevich poses with her celestial star globe on Oct. 16.

ARTS & POP CULTURE

Blood, guts and butts galore: ‘The Substance’ attempts feminist horror

Ava Dettling Arts Editor

Originally published Oct. 16.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for “The Substance.”

Much to the disappointment of women and movie-lovers around the globe, recent feminist films have seldom been able to deliver in their nouveau-age, fight-theman doctrines. “Barbie” (2023), “Poor Things” (2023) and “Blink Twice” (2024) come to mind; while highly stylized and daring, they also lacked in their message of female empowerment. Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” teeters precariously on the precipice, dangerously close to joining the leagues of its fallen sistren.

The film follows the age-old quest for youth — this time set in an idealized hallucination of Hollywood bound to neither space nor time. Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Demi Moore, is a fading celebrity and fitness instructor, who no longer has ‘it,’ according to her sleazy producer played by Dennis Quaid. With her 50th birthday and impending termination fast approaching, her life — as well as the world — might as well be ending. After a near-fatal car crash, a mysteriously youthful

nurse suggests an alternate solution: the substance. The titular fluid is luminous both in its neon green appearance and its promise of a “better version of yourself.” In her desperation, she injects the fluid and then gives birth, in Cronenbergian fashion, to this second self, Sue, played by Margaret Qualley. Sue is lithe and taut in all the areas Elisabeth is not and radiant in every way Elisabeth used to be. However, according to the rules of the anonymous drug provider, the two must switch off every seven days, without exception. While Elisabeth is left to waste away watching TV and ‘being old,’ Sue takes the reins of her consciousness and lives the glamorous, enviable life of Hollywood’s latest sexpot.

The discussion surrounding Hollywood’s inexorable beauty standards is nothing new. Often and without pity, once idolized starlets are thrown down the chute to make way for the next big thing. Turning 50 is the equivalent of death, and perhaps even more depressingly, erasure for women in the industry. I would be remiss not to acknowledge the irony in having Moore play an aging celebrity who’s no longer attractive. Yet, her casting is one of the smartest decisions in the

film, revealing how even the most beautiful and perfect of women can’t escape this fate. However, because “The Substance” dares to take on such a large subject, it struggles to add anything new to the conversation. Its cleverness and its downfall both lie in the film’s lack of subtlety: In its attempt to add something new, it throws everything at the wall to see what will stick.

Fargeat’s most obvious angle is that of the body horror genre. Living in the female body is already horrific enough, yet Fargeat dares to go further. She explores the body without hesitation or propriety, continuously probing the boundaries of what one thinks and hopes is enough. Her depiction of aging is gloriously gross, often inducing laughter and groans of disgust at the same time. However, the obviousness progresses to the point of patronization, as if she’s worried the audience might just not get it. With the two-hour and 20-minute runtime and a bloody finale that puts Brian de Palma’s “Carrie” to shame, I can promise you that we get it.

Evoking the same tropes and visual rhetoric as David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” (1986) and John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982), the camera’s treatment of

the body is crucial. Fargeat and the cinematographer, Benjamin Kracun, manage to depict the female body in a manner both humorous and grotesque, loving and punishing. However, the camera’s gaze really shines in its depiction of the young and beautiful Sue. She has now taken Elisabeth’s place as a famed fitness instructor, replacing all that’s old and drab with the new and shiny. The camera is as leery as Sue’s audience, often lingering on her scantily clad rear or perfect bosom. This sexualization was perhaps a purposeful choice on the director’s behalf,

but one that weakens rather than empowers its feminist tone. Given that similar attention is never given to the older but just as beautiful Elisabeth, the camera seems to be perpetrating the very gaze it tries to subvert.

The performances of Moore, Qualley and Quaid, which are unforgettable in their extravagant and stylized nature, are only augmented by Fargeat’s promising and witty direction. While the camera is sometimes complicit and the narrative repetitive, “The Substance” does not fail to make an impression.

Inside the rose-tinted world of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’

run began at the Harvard Square Theater and continues today at the AMC Boston Common.

Originally published Oct. 18.

Content Warning: This article contains graphic language that could be disturbing or offensive to some readers.

On the night of Oct. 12, I lost my virginity.

The host challenged me and five other lucky virgins to do an impression of a Halloween character having an “earth-shattering orgasm.” The crowd jeered us on. A few minutes later, I found myself bent over a chair as, from behind, the host popped a symbolic red balloon against me. My latex cherry lay in ruins, and I was no longer a “Rocky Horror” virgin.

The Full Body Cast has been performing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” around Boston since 1984. The shadowcast’s impressive

“We’re one of the only shadowcasts in the world to do it every single Saturday,” Coach, a member of the FBC board, said. The role Coach plays in “Rocky Horror” is an onstage as well as offstage affair; she is both a performer and the assistant director of props.

Before “Rocky Horror,” Coach told the Daily, she was looking for a creative outlet “silly enough where I could lose myself in it, but sexy enough where I could feel empowered and confident.” She has found just that in the FBC and the audience they serve.

Partaking in “Rocky Horror” is an experience like nothing else, so visceral that words and pictures can only capture shades of it. The show depends on a thrilling rapport between the movie screen,

the shadowcast and the audience. Within the walls of the AMC Boston Common, the 1975 cult film comes roaring to life.

“Rocky Horror” is defined by its campy characters. Coach’s favorite characters to play — which she plays the most — are the stereotypical square Brad Majors and the self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

“Brad is a really fun headspace to be in because [he’s] just [a] silly goofy man,” Coach said. “I know the role so, so well that I’m able to be in autopilot, and I go into Brad headspace.”

However, Frank-N-Furter is a bit taller of a task for her. “With Frank, I really love being the star of the show and being the baddest b---- on the block, but it’s also a huge responsibility, because you’re the star, so you have to perform really well,” Coach said. The night I interviewed Coach, she was playing Brad and also being the host. In performances of “Rocky Horror” across the country, it is the host’s job to warm up the crowd and officiate the virgin ceremonies.

Virgin ceremonies are an important aspect of the “Rocky Horror” culture, in which virgins (people who have never seen the film with a live shadowcast) are initiated.

“I invite them onstage and I publicly humiliate them in whatever way I see fit that evening,” Coach explained. She added an example: “For

Mother’s Day, I made a bunch of virgins reenact childbirth.”

Later in the evening, my virginal self experienced a ritual firsthand, in a spooky deluge of faked orgasms and chants. It culminated in me donning a bridal gown and getting married! Despite all the “public humiliation,” there was no shame. You are welcome at the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as long as you are willing to, in the words of Frank-N-Furter, “give yourself over to absolute pleasure.”

In the audience, the energy of the show is electric from top to bottom. The audience plays as active a role in the experience as the shadowcast does, their jokes, call-outs and props moving at a remarkable clip. To blink is to miss everything. “Rocky Horror” does not let its audience sit back and watch; it forces them to get up and do the “Time Warp” again and again.

The FBC is presented with a unique challenge every week: Keeping a half-century old movie fresh. “Everyone kind of has their own take on things,” Coach said. The personalities of the shadowcast shine through on stage, breathing new life into the characters. But at the same time, the FBC strives to parallel what’s happening on screen as closely as possible.

Coach explained how veteran cast members have inspired her acting decisions. “I look to [them] for inspiration on … how I can move my face a certain way and [I think] ‘Oh, I didn’t notice that subtle hand gesture before. Maybe if I’m able to do that it

will bring more life to the character,’” Coach said.

The FBC members support each other in all facets of the performance. Coach particularly emphasized the importance of consent, saying “[it’s] crazy, crazy important because the movie is sexual in nature, and you’re performing sexual acts with people you might not necessarily know that well.” The FBC fosters a culture of communication both during performances and behind the scenes.

The word that sums up “Rocky Horror” is “family,” according to Coach — musical alien incest be damned. “People don’t join shadowcasting just because they want to perform,” she said. “You come with the understanding that you are looking for a community.”

The rich legacy the FBC has inherited through “Rocky Horror” spans decades and nations. Theirs is the kingdom of a kind of heaven where sex, absurdity and joy are all pure and unbridled.

Coach recounted a moving moment performing “Rocky Horror” with the FBC at the Emerson Colonial Theatre last year. “I remember being Brad and holding my Janet, who was my cast member Athena, and watching [5,000] glowsticks bob around, and just being like, ‘What the f--is my life? This is bizarre.’ That was really, really special. And I’m excited to do it again.”

For certain, there’s a light over at the AMC Boston Common.

Spring LaRose Contributing Writer

COURTESY THE FULL BODY CAST

FBC "Rocky Horror" performers are pictured mid-scene on Oct. 12.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Demi Moore, left, and Margaret Qualley, right, are pictured.

OPINION

Our guide to the Massachusetts ballot questions

The Editorial Board

On Election Day, Massachusetts residents will be voting on five state ballot questions. These questions cover a wide variety of topics, including standardized testing, restaurant wages and psychedelic drugs. The Daily’s Editorial Board has taken a position on each of the five questions.

Question 1: Auditing the state legislature

Our verdict: Yes

Like many other states, Massachusetts has an elected state auditor, who is in charge of making sure state agencies act in accordance with the law. While the current state auditor, Diana DiZoglio, has access to a wide range of state documents and records, she lacks the authority to evaluate the state legislature itself. A “Yes” vote on Question 1 would give her this power. DiZoglio supports this change, explaining that the Massachusetts state legislature is one of the least transparent in the country and arguing that oversight is needed to ensure legislators comply with hiring, training, purchasing and security rules. Legislative leaders oppose this change, and the legislature will likely have a lot of leeway to resist investigations from the auditor’s office should the question pass. However, in a state where many residents see the legislature as unproductive and lacking transparency, this

is a much-needed reform that, regardless of its efficacy, would send a powerful message about voters’ concerns with their elected officials.

Question 2: Eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement

Our verdict: Yes

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, better known as “MCAS,” is a set of standardized tests that students must pass to graduate from public high schools in the state. While each school district sets its own local graduation requirements, high schoolers also need to pass their MCAS exams to get state approval. A “Yes” vote on Question 2 would still require students to take the test, but it would eliminate a passing MCAS score as a requirement to graduate. It’s true that students have multiple chances to take the MCAS and the vast majority of them earn a passing grade, but the test is a disservice to English language learners and students with learning disabilities, who struggle with standardized testing. By eliminating the requirement, the MCAS becomes a lower-stakes ordeal, freeing up teachers who are forced to “teach to the test” and giving individual districts more discretion to set standards that match the needs of their students. Eliminating the MCAS requirement does not mean a complete lack of state over-

sight; district curricula would still be informed by state education standards, and the state could eventually replace the MCAS rule with a set of required courses, similar to what students need to graduate in nearly every state in the country.

Question 3: Allowing unionization for rideshare drivers

Our verdict: Yes

Currently, Uber and Lyft drivers do not have the power to form a union in Massachusetts.

A “Yes” vote on Question 3 would create a path to unionization for rideshare workers. This process, known as sector-based bargaining, would provide union coverage for the entire rideshare sector. This method of bargaining is popular across Europe, but largely untested in the United States. The goals of the ballot question are simple: to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for drivers. While the ballot question is likely to face legal challenges if it passes, the language of the question is detailed, thoroughly explaining the unionization process in an effort to thwart any legal concerns. Opponents of the question have warned that unionization would likely increase the prices of rides, but New York City successfully implemented a pay standard for drivers without a dramatic uptick in costs. Furthermore, a successful union could make Massachusetts a national model for sector-based

bargaining, bringing increased stability and benefits to gig workers across the country.

Question 4: Legalizing psychedelic drugs

Our verdict: No

Psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin, DMT, psilocyn, mescaline and ibogaine, are currently illegal both federally and statewide. A “Yes” vote on Question 4 would make them legal at the state level, allowing them to be grown and shared by Massachusetts residents, and clearing the way for the creation of therapy centers where residents could use psychedelics under the guidance of medical professionals. Drugs like psilocybin have been shown to effectively treat a variety of mental health conditions, but much less is known about the other drugs. While the creation of therapy centers would be a step in the right direction, the proposed plan for at-home and personal use comes with very little oversight to ensure users’ safety. Allowing residents to grow psychedelics and share them with anyone is a dangerous proposal, since many of these drugs are associated with life-threatening cardiac problems and long-lasting neurological effects. Given that the therapy centers will be expensive and may take years to open, most residents will likely opt for home use, bringing heightened risks to an already legally fraught issue.

Question 5: Phasing out the tipped minimum wage

Our verdict: Yes

In Massachusetts, tipped workers like waitstaff, bartenders and manicurists have a “tipped minimum wage” of $6.75, meaning they can be paid as little as $6.75 per hour with the assumption that their tips make up the difference to the state minimum wage of $15. A “Yes” vote on Question 5 would gradually phase out this system, requiring employers to pay their staff the full $15 per hour by 2029. This change is likely to lead to increased wages in a sector where many workers struggle financially; median pay for tipped employees in Massachusetts is under $17 per hour. Opponents of the question, including the Committee to Protect Tips, have criticized the question’s proposed tip pooling system, which would allow employers to split up tips with back-of-house workers as well, but businesses are not required to adopt this change. Although this change may force businesses to increase prices and service fees for customers, the gradual rollout of the new system means that the vast majority of businesses will be able to adapt and survive. Additionally, this change could help to mitigate the effects of tip discrimination, ensuring that every employee, regardless of their background, gets a fair baseline wage.

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

OP-EDS: Op-Eds provide an open forum for campus editorial commentary and are printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY

Linda Huang Opinion Editor

As an avid TikTok scroller and Instagram Reels watcher, I get sucked into hours of mindless entertainment everyday, with short yet meaningless videos fueling my daily dose of “brain rot.”

Naturally, I’ve laughed at the “Skibidi Toilet” memes. I will also admit that there was a time when I caught myself relying on the depressed “Wojak” meme and the crying black guy meme to explain the different feelings I felt from watching two movies. I simply couldn’t pinpoint my exact emotional responses with proper adjectives and intelligible sentences. At one point, my dad overheard me on the phone with my friend using phrases along the lines of “let me cook” and “bro thought he ate,” which he immediately deemed unintelligent and nonsensical.

But looking back at those interactions and reflecting on my daily vocabulary, it has occurred to me how our generation’s chronic online consumption of “brain rot” content has reached an indescribably embarrassing and dangerous state.

“Brain rot” can be vaguely defined as low-value internet content and the apparent decline in one’s cognitive abilities due to media over-consumption. This

Monica Reilly Contributing Writer

On July 21, 1919, a young Black woman named Carrie Johnson shot and killed a white detective. She was tried for murder in the first degree, but the charges were eventually dropped because the incident happened in the midst of one of the mobs of “Red Summer,” a series of extremely violent white supremacist mobs that struck 26 U.S. cities. As her attorney argued, Johnson’s use of a gun was not a random act of violence — it was an act of self-defense, and, some may argue, of feminist resistance.

The idea that gun ownership is inherently empowering for women is a common talking point of the National Rifle Association, as heard in a 2021 Florida Town Hall meeting following the Parkland Shooting. In said meeting, NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch maintained her position that the legal age to buy a gun should be 18, not 21. Her reasoning was that young women between the ages of 18 and 21 must be able to defend themselves from sexual assault and rape — weilding the power to physically fight off attackers. The idea that guns empower women can be seen across the media. Even in a show as popular as “Stranger Things” where Nancy Wheeler, one of the main characters, uses guns throughout every

VIEWPOINT

We are cooked: ‘Brain rot’ has gone too far

content can range anywhere from Instagram Reels to TikTok videos to YouTube Shorts, and one of its many symptoms is seen in one’s constant or seemingly uncontrollable reference to internet slangs and memes.

While saying “she ate and left no crumbs” is undeniably more fun and exciting than simply saying “she did amazing,” the larger concern is that an overreliance on internet slang has left some of us unable to express ourselves without using Generation Z terminology as a crutch. Not only does our heavy usage of media slang simply make our generation appear less articulate, it also erodes our ability to maintain intelligent conversations and formality when necessary.

Additionally, this “brain rot” culture has created social disconnects in everyday interactions, not just between Gen Z and older generations but even with our own peers. It often feels like we can’t fully communicate or even understand what our peers are saying without a working knowledge of terms like “cooked,” “rizz” or “sigma.” This reliance on slang reflects poorly on Gen Z, suggesting that these madeup phrases have become the defining trait of our generation and highlighting how far our intellectual standards for social interactions have dropped.

Even worse, this sense of unseriousness, created as a result of our collective overindulgence in relentless online content, has infiltrated the realm of politics and national security. For example, the comparison of Vice President Kamala Harris to the Charli XCX album “Brat” has taken the internet by storm and unexpectedly become a tool to boost Harris’ campaign. Some young adults have expressed that they have only engaged with Harris’ proposed policies after the tweet “kamala IS brat” got their attention. While it is not

VIEWPOINT

fair to dismiss the pragmatic benefits of these tweets in advancing Harris’ presidential campaign, these phenomena spark the question: Why should we only be motivated to engage an issue as serious as voting through pop media? And what does this reveal about our values, priorities and the depth of our intellect? For those of us who view politics seriously, this integration of pop culture and media slang can feel as though it undermines our ability to understand politics. Frankly, it suggests that we don’t even need to strive to

Is it feminist to own a gun?

season. Her weapon of choice evolves from a simple handgun in season 1 to a sawed-off shotgun by season 4. While reveling in how strong Wheeler seems in every scene where she uses a gun to fight off a monster, it’s easy to view her character as feminist. She’s empowered, taking on a stereotypically masculine role of fighting off predators. When watching “Stranger Things,” the NRA’s message that women need guns to defend themselves feels especially salient.

Even though “Stranger Things” is an entirely fictional show, it can influence how we think about political issues like gun ownership. The idea that women are more empowered with a gun assumes that the main perpetrators of violence against women are random, scary strangers — or monsters, as in “Stranger Things.” However, in the past 25 years, 92% of women who were killed by men knew their killers well. This changes the circumstanc -

build the intellectual capacity necessary to grasp the policy agendas and initiatives political candidates present, as people can now be easily swayed by messages like “kamala IS brat.”

Similarly, last month, NATO posted a brat themed picture of “peace,” with the title “Summer might be over, but the goal for peace remains.” The gravity of a concept like peace should not be trivialized and reduced to a parody of a pop song album cover like brat, especially as an official message put forth by an intergovernmental military alliance representing 32 nations on their shared commitment to transnational security. This is a prime example of how even critical diplomatic issues have become unserious. It is finally time to start drawing the boundary between politics and pop media to preserve formality. While social media is inalienable to us, and I don’t envision everyone to be able to stop consuming short, entertaining videos or instantly stop making pop culture references, the first step is to recognize and confront the uncomfortable reality: Our intellect, whether in social interactions or in politics, may actually suffer a decline from chronic media usage. After all, maybe our parents are right — it really is that damn phone.

es of self-defense. Having a gun in the house can increase the risk of an abuser killing someone in a domestic dispute by 400%, regardless of whether the gun is owned by the abuser or the abused.

The issue of gun ownership has become even more relevant after Vice President Kamala Harris described herself as a gun owner in a debate with former President Donald Trump. KamalaHQ, the official Harris campaign’s Tiktok account, even posted an edit of Harris mentioning she owns a gun, presenting her as tough and powerful. It can be argued Harris has become more pro-gun ownership in an attempt to win over Republicans in the upcoming election, but edits like the one above show her gun ownership as a symbol of girl power. Harris and her campaign have utilized guns as a signifier of female empowerment in spite of the fact that gun violence disproportionately impacts Black women. Not only are Black women murdered by men at a rate three times higher than their white counterparts, there is a 91% chance the murderer knew the victim prior to the murder, and a 72% chance that the murder weapon was a gun.

Guns don’t protect women, they kill them. Carrie Johnson was an example of a Black woman successfully using a gun as an act of resistance and self-defense, but individ -

ual stories do not elucidate a systemic issue. The truth is, gun violence is built into our governmental system. The NRA has indirectly poured money into politicians’ campaigns and obtained power over political decisions. Owning a gun as a woman is not an act of feminism, because you are not defying the system, you are working within it. By advocating for women to own guns, we are simultaneously allowing gun ownership to remain unregulated, as thousands of women each year continue to be the victim of gun violence. While guns may feel like a way to protect yourself against men who are naturally stronger than yourself, there is little evidence that owning a gun as a woman decreases risk of death, with some research showing that women who own a gun are two times more likely to die of firearm homicide than those who hadn’t.

As a student at Tufts, especially one living off-campus, the idea that you may need a gun for self-protection is understandable, but you should think before you make a purchase. Consider who or what has influenced this decision, and how much owning a gun would actually protect you. A true act of feminist resistance would not be encouraging gun ownership, but dismantling gun culture as a whole.

GRAPHIC BY JAYLIN CHO

VIA PEXELS

A woman holds a black firearm.

VIEWPOINT

A horrifying double femicide in Turkey, the hundreds before

and why you should care

Derin Icinsel Opinion Editor

Content warning: This article contains mentions of suicide and murder.

On Oct. 4, I woke up to the news of yet another gut-wrenching story from back home in Turkey: A 19-year-old, Semih Çelik, savagely killed Ayşenur Halil and Ikbal Uzuner, by decapitating one of them before committing suicide by jumping off of the Theodosian Walls in Fatih. He had been admitted numerous times to psychiatric facilities in the last year and was known to be disturbing towards Uzuner, but as usual, little precaution had been taken. My social media was swarmed with photos of the event from passers-by and long paragraphs of outrage from my friends and family.

Only three days before, a man in Antalya shot his wife over an argument and a man in Aydin killed his wife, a mother of two, during a divorce settlement. The horrible news I got on Oct. 4 was followed by the deaths of 30 more women who were murdered in cold blood by their husbands, brothers and even their own fathers in unspeakable ways. As I write this article, multiple femicides continue to be committed daily.

Often, when we hear about tragedies such as these, people relate to them by saying things such as “What if she was your mother?” or “How would you feel if it was your wife?” But the fact that we contextualize women by their relationship is the issue, as these femicides show; it is often these very relationships that can be deadly for women. In 2023, 65% of femicides in Turkey were committed in the victims’ homes and in 2024, 41% of perpetrators were the victims’ husbands.

This understanding should encourage everyone, including myself, to stop valuing women by their male counterparts and instead value them as their own person, one with so much life left in them.

It goes without saying that femicides in Turkey, as well as around the world, are not at all random and are triggered by very real cultural and political factors. The political state of the country plays such a large role in these killings that the phrase “Femicides are political” has become a widely used slogan in Turkey. The last decade or so has seen a significant increase in general distaste for the ruling party, an economic crisis and most importantly Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention — an

agreement aimed at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. This withdrawal was met with universal disagreement as President Joe Biden called the decision “deeply disappointing,” saying it was a “disheartening step backward for the international movement to end violence against women globally.” The lack of international legislation on violence against women makes women even more vulnerable, and cases where the murderer is given a sentence commutation based on “unjust provocation” or even walks away unscathed have become more and more common, reflecting the devastating reality of Turkey’s failed judicial system. Following President Recep Tayyip Erdo gan’s remark that Turkey’s withdrawal from the convention “has had no effect” on the battle against violence against women, the opposition party leader Özgür Özel spoke out against him, saying that bad news is coming from all around Turkey and that the ruling party is complaining about “a culture of impunity” when they themselves caused it. In response to the lack of larger government efforts to combat violence against women, non-governmental organizations and

women’s groups such as Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracagiz, “We Will Stop Femicides” in English, have been essential in creating social awareness and a support network for victims of violence against women. After the murder of Münevver Karabulut in 2010, primarily her relatives formed the group. They began organizing protests, reporting statistical analysis of femicides and suspicious deaths, which governmental ministries still refuse to publish, following up on lawsuits related to violence against women and offering support for victims. They are also associated with the website Anıt Sayaç, “Monument Counter” in English. This database lists every known femicide and suspicious death in Turkey since 2008 and provides information on each woman, or girl, in some cases, her murderer and the current status of the case. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of names that are so familiar that they could belong to any of my friends was a devastating experience. I highly recommend visiting the site to fully comprehend the scope of this problem and read the stories of the affected women.

Reading the news of Halil and Uzuner that day, both of whom are my age, 19, I couldn’t even imagine the kind of pain they must have suffered. I

couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be savagely murdered and for my family to find me deceased, photographs of the event all over social media. I hope neither I nor any other woman in Turkey has to again. I would have liked this article to be about the marvels of my country — how beautiful and special it is, but instead, I feel a crushing sense of disappointment and shame. I write this piece from a position of immense privilege because I can choose to care, unlike the many women in Turkey who can’t escape the daily reality of these murders. I hope that you will go out of your way to learn more about the femicides plaguing Turkish women, get involved in the many organizations seeking to extend their reach internationally and see that this isn’t a foreign issue: It’s happening all over the world wherever you look. The We Will Stop Femicides platform, although focused on Turkey, recognizes it as a universal issue with resources on violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile and politics related to femicides at the U.S.-Mexico border. There’s so much in the world to care about and advocate for. You have to start somewhere.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Women protest a femicide in Kadıköy, İstanbul in 2021.

Late Night At The Daily

Matthew: “Men-board, when do we want to schedule our next meeting?. Nate: “Let’s make a men-to-meet.”

Defne Olgun Daily Directions

how to fall in love with living

congratulate yourself for every email you manage to send find a baby photo and send Little You a hug. know that you were trying your best and you may not have been the best and that’s okay. repeat with progressively older selves. forgive yourself for your existence in middle school. let go of the things you never got to in high school. find a photo from last week and send Big You a hug, too.

take yourself out on a date to Trader Joe’s and bring flowers home every few weeks be kind to future you and start getting ready for bed an hour and a half sooner than you usually do stop being nonchalant. text them. be uncool. embrace looking silly make it your personal mission to sit around as many bonfires as you can find (be the bonfire) put a Paw Patrol bandaid over every little scrape or bump you find yourself with you receive what you tolerate. stop hanging out with people who won’t step back to make a circle bigger when new people join. stop texting people who don’t tell you the next time they’re free after canceling dinner plans if you’re looking for a sign, take this as one. go do the thing.

CROSSWORD

Crossword by Dylan Tanouye

The Tufts Daily Mini Crossword: 10/24/2024

Mini Crossword by Nate Hall Horoscope

Men’s soccer draws 0–0 with No. 3 Middlebury

Riley Daniel Staff Writer

It was the game that everyone had circled on the calendar — a rematch of the NESCAC semifinal, where the Tufts Jumbos ended the Middlebury Panthers’ unbeaten streak in 2023. Both teams came in undefeated, and remain the only two without losses in the 10-team league. The Jumbos came into Saturday knowing that a win would clinch the NESCAC regular season title, with the Panthers needing at least a draw to keep their hopes of hosting a second consecutive NESCAC tournament.

In the end, the game saw seven yellow cards, two goalline clearances and 90 minutes of physical play. Yet, after all the chaos, the scoreboard ended where it started: 0–0, with Tufts and Middlebury each picking up a point to stay first and second in the NESCAC standings, respectively.

Both teams started ambitiously right out of the gate. The Jumbos earned the first corner kick just over three minutes into the game, giving junior defender Mateo Bargagna, who was unmarked at the back post, a chance to score a goal, but he could not redirect the cross on frame. Two minutes later, the Panthers got their first chance of the day, as an inswinger toward

Luke Madden, the All-NESCAC First Team defender, found him unmarked. However, like Bargagna, he squandered the chance, sending it above junior goalkeeper Nikola Antic’s net. Following those two chances, the game transformed into what senior captain Taylor Feinberg described to the Daily as, “Chaos: … classic NESCAC ball.” It started with senior midfielder Ethan Feigin getting tackled by Middlebury midfielder Shane Farrell for the game’s first caution. Four minutes later, a late challenge from Bargagna on the edge of his box added his name to the book. With 13 minutes to go in the first half, two Panthers saw yellow in the span of a minute, as defender William O’Brien and midfielder Eujin Chae were booked for tackles breaking up Jumbos’ counterattacks.

Tufts senior defender Owen Denby quickly joined the book after a late challenge nine minutes from halftime. With only a minute left in the first half, Middlebury midfielder Malik Samms sent the referees under heavy fire with an outstretched leg catching Antic in the face. Immediately, Antic, the entire Tufts bench and most of the crowd were screaming at the referee to send Samms off the field. However, after communicating with assistants, the referee decided that despite the contact, there was no malicious intent and therefore the yellow card was correct.

After the chaos of the first half, the second returned to more conventional NESCAC soccer: A highly physical but overall clean affair filled with numerous chances and endto-end play. The Jumbos came

inches from taking the lead with yet another corner kick two minutes into the half.

Bargagna, unmarked at the back post, forced Middlebury goalkeeper Joey Waterman into a kick save off the goal line.

This pattern continued with the Jumbos’ fifth corner kick of the game, with Feinberg putting a free header on the 6-yard box toward the net’s roof but parried by the Panthers’ goalie.

The Panthers responded with a few good chances themselves, forcing Antic into making four saves, including one off a rocket shot from the right foot of forward Hugo Horwitz. The Panthers’ attempts were unable to beat the Jumbos’ keeper, who recorded his seventh shutout of the season. While the Jumbos would counter with shots from junior forward Mason Schultz and junior midfielder Daniel

Yanez, they were unable to take advantage of the gaps in the Panthers’ defense, leaving both teams without a deserved point after a scoreless 90 minutes. Feinberg, when reflecting on the game, said that the Jumbos were “unlucky not to get one off a set piece,” after recording three shots on net-off corner kicks alone, accounting for all but one of the Jumbos’ shots on frame. However, he was proud of the team’s overall performance, calling it “one of our best halves of the season.” Overall, Feinberg described the week, which also included a win on the road against No. 10 Amherst College, as one that they can’t complain about, describing the mood as “definitely happy.”

With a win and a draw against the two highest-ranked NESCAC teams in the span of four days, the Jumbos have sent a message to the rest of the Division III world that they are a national title contender. While their results this week could have been enough to send them to No. 1 in the national rankings, Feinberg says they don’t particularly care. “We care more about being ranked No. 1 at the end of the season,” Feinberg said. One thing’s for certain: If they remain undefeated, the class of 2025 will achieve this goal and check off the final box remaining on their resume.

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The

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Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Art Education, BFA/MAT

Biology, BS/MS

Chemistry, BS/MS

Child Study and Human Development, BA/MA

Classics, BA/MA

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Economics, BS/MS

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Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, BS/MA or BA/MA

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Computer Science, BA/MS or BS/MS

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Dual Degree Program: Tufts Gordon Institute degree + other Engineering degree, MS

Electrical Engineering, BS/MS

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COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

Senior men’s soccer players are pictured with their families on Saturday.

Football grabs home win against Hamilton

Tufts football made sure to avoid a repeat of their loss to Hamilton College last year at their Saturday game. The Jumbos jumped out to a 17–6 lead in the first half and held on for a 20–13 win over their NESCAC rival.

In this matchup, senior quarterback Michael Berluti emphasized the importance of playing a complete game and not ”[falling] into that trap” of easing up and lacking preparedness. He noted that it “doesn’t matter if you’re playing an undefeated team or a [losing] team, the execution still needs to be high.”

Despite mentioning highs, lows and missed executions across the board, Berluti was impressed with how fired up and ready the team was going into their revenge matchup. In the end, he felt that the team stepped up when they needed to and made the necessary plays for a victory.

Berluti threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns, while

senior running back Aundre Smith and sophomore running back Christian Shapiro combined for 91 yards on the ground. Sophomore receiver Matt Rios lit a fire in the Tufts crowd as he dusted the Hamilton defense for a 46-yard touchdown in the first minute of the game. Junior kicker Vaughn Seelicke contributed his own pair of field goals to the effort, including a career-high 43-yarder.

The strong support from the crowd at Ellis Oval also contributed to the Jumbos’ victory. Berluti discussed the difficulties that came with traveling and being unprepared as the away team last year, resulting in a 36–34 overtime loss against a relatively underwhelming Hamilton team. This time around, fans made all the difference in a dominant defensive showing for Tufts.

Berluti described the “jolt of energy” he and his teammates got from having a supportive crowd in attendance. Especially in the first half, with the help of an electric crowd, Tufts put up

17 points and came out with a strong lead that they ultimately held onto.

Berluti further discussed the impact of preparation and coaching on such a win: “I think our coaches do a very good job of preparing us.” Watching film about offensive strategy and execution was crucial in helping players study, learn and understand the playbook.

“Ultimately,” Berluti pointed out, “it falls on us as players.” He highlighted that the players need to be dedicated to improving to allow the team to “execute at [their] fullest and limit hesitation.” Preparation and practice ensured that the team played to their full potential on game day.

Especially on the defensive end, execution was top-notch. As a whole, the defense accumulated four sacks and forced two fumbles, and crucial stops on late fourth downs sealed a Tufts victory.

Additionally, Berluti praised Tino Lopes for his ability to adapt to a new team and to manufacture such a strong defense

in his first year as defensive coordinator. His adaptability, as well as that of his teammates, serves as the cornerstone for a successful team.

Now in his fourth year as the Tufts quarterback, Berluti is familiar with the constantly shifting team dynamics of college football.

“You always have a new cast of guys,” he states. “No two teams [are] the same, no matter with returners or new guys stepping up.” With such variability, it can be a challenge for teams to adapt to a completely new environment every year, especially with such a short season.

When asked if the team had hit their stride by game six, Berluti replied, “absolutely,” but he made sure to note that there is still much for the team to work on. Though he feels that the team still hasn’t reached their full, four-quarter potential, he’s confident that there have been “flashes where we’re playing really good complementary football.” The team, in their leader’s eyes, just needs to do more of what they do best.

As a team, Berluti notes, consistency is key going into the final few games against Williams College, Colby College and Middlebury College. He notes that from week to week and quarter to quarter, their performance may see dips in energy, consistency and performance. For this reason, the team is most focused on playing complete games of football and on striving to be as good as they’ve shown they can be. To have a successful end to the season, Tufts football needs to focus on each game one at a time and to continue to learn how to play as a team.

When asked if there were any difficult opponents coming up to focus on, Berluti enforced a focus on the next game against Williams. “The team we want to focus most on right now is Williams, because they’re next. We can’t overlook anyone. … We’re just focused on the next one right now.”

Tufts will face Williams on Saturday, where the team hopes to build on an already strong foundation for their season.

In Photos: Avenue of the Arts

Bassil Chughtai Contributing Writer COURTESY TUFTS

The Tufts defense celebrates a sack in Saturday’s home win over Hamilton.