The Tufts Daily - Thursday, November 14, 2024 (Host Communities)
What the approved ballot initiatives will mean for Medford, Somerville
Evan Vezmar Contributing Writer
Local election results in Medford and Somerville show a largely successful campaign for proponents of the ballot questions in both municipalities.
Voters in Somerville approved Question 6, which will increase the surcharge on the Community Preservation Act from 1.5% to 3%.
Voters in Medford approved Questions 7 and 8, which both ask for overrides to Proposition 2½: a 2.5% cap on how much Medford can raise on property taxes each year. Question 7 requests a $3.5 million override in real estate and property taxes to provide more funds to the Department of Public Works, as well as teacher salaries and facilities maintenance for Medford Public Schools. Question 8 requests a $4 million tax override for improvements to Medford Public Schools’ vocational and arts programming.
Medford’s Question 6, which narrowly failed, proposed a debt exclusion to Proposition 2½ to pay for bonds to construct a new fire station on 120 Main St.
In Medford, Question 7 passed with 14,847 votes in favor to 13,304 votes against, Question 8 succeeded with 14,660 votes in favor to 13,518 votes against and Question 6 failed with 13,965 votes against and 13,458 votes in favor. Somerville’s Question 6 passed with a 69.4% majority (25,282 votes) in favor and 30.7% (11,175 votes) against.
Medford City Council President Isaac “Zac” Bears explained how the overrides will be implemented in the city come 2025.
“Question 7 will fund the public schools and Department of Public Works,” Bears said. “It will bring back full-time street and sidewalk repair crews, hiring some new folks in the Department of Public Works to better maintain our streets and sidewalks.”
Bears shared that Question 8 will go toward “increasing compensation for teachers and paraprofessionals [and] addressing some issues with the school schedule to make sure that students in our high school can attend both vocational programming as well as foreign language and band and other arts.”
Somerville City Councilorat-Large Jake Wilson explained that Somerville’s ballot question will “[double] the Community Preservation Act surcharge from 1.5% — as it is currently and has been since 2012 — to the state maximum of 3%.”
The Community Preservation Act is primarily geared toward affordable housing, although some funds will be invested in green spaces and historical preservation.
“Affordable housing is the single biggest recipient of these funds, and that’s a really good
Medford commemorates veterans with Purple Heart City designation
Tanya Dev Contributing Writer
The City of Medford has officially been named a Purple Heart City, a U.S. military honor that commemorates local residents — both living and deceased — who were the recipients of Purple Heart medals. Bestowed by the president, the Purple Heart is not only the oldest but also one of the most revered military decorations in the U.S.
On Oct. 30, there was a ceremony at Medford City Hall. Local officials, including Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, were joined by veterans, their families and community members to unveil a new memorial celebrating the new designation and paying tribute to Medford’s Purple Heart recipients.
Lungo-Koehn emphasized that this accolade not only
affirms the city’s respect for the courage of Purple Heart recipients but also nurtures a community that honors the legacy of all who have served.
“This is just another way that we’re honoring the sacrifice and bravery of those who were wounded or killed in combat,” Lungo-Koehn said.
Among the ceremony’s many highlights was the unveiling of the city’s newest tribute to its Purple Heart recipients — a granite monument. Stationed in front of the Killed in Action memorial on the front lawn of Medford City Hall, the monument features an engraved Purple Heart medal alongside an excerpt from Medford’s official proclamation.
The ceremony not only unveiled the city’s new memorial
Medford seeks resident feedback to shape next 5 years of community funding priorities
Writer
Medford, along with seven other Boston suburbs, is asking for input from residents as it develops a new plan to spend funding it receives as part of two separate programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The funding comes through the HOME Investment Partnership Program and the Community Development Block Grant Program. The former program funds the development of affordable housing and direct rental assistance to low-income residents, while the latter program funds a broader range of community development needs.
According to Laurel Siegel, Medford’s CDBG and grants manager, the city has directed these funds toward “everything from transportation for our seniors and residents with disabilities, food assistance programs, assistance for individuals with Alzheimer’s, afterschool programs [and] scholarship programs.”
One of the organizations funded by Medford through this program is Action for Boston Community Development, a nonprofit that provides a wide range of services to people experiencing poverty.
“ABCD receives funding from the City of Medford’s Community
Development Block Grant to provide rental and utility assistance for Medford residents who are in arrears,” Ntando Dube, ABCD’s deputy director of housing and homelessness prevention, wrote in an email to the Daily.
The organization provides as much as $1,200 in assistance per family, with eligibility restricted to those who earn “at or below 80% [of] area median income,” Dube wrote. “However most of the clients we serve are at or below 30% AMI which is around 39,000 for a family of two.”
The grant’s funding also goes toward infrastructure projects such as roads and parks, assistance for local businesses and a new pilot program that has allowed low- and moderate-income residents to make essential home repairs.
Siegel expressed uncertainty about how the recent reelection of President-elect Donald Trump will affect the future of these two programs.
“We have no idea what the change of administration may mean,” she said. “We do know what happened during the prior [Trump] administration and that there was some movement towards reducing or eliminating this aid. Is that likely to occur again? Anything’s possible. So we have to be prepared for that.”
During Trump’s first term, each of his four annual budget proposals would have eliminated both programs’ funding from the federal budget.
Even without cuts at the federal level, however, Siegel does not know exactly how much funding Medford will be allotted.
“The entitlement has gone down year to year, not necessarily because anything has been cut by the federal government but because more and more communities around the country have been signing on to be entitlement communities, so the pie is being split by that many more communities,” she said. “So it’s always a question mark. We don’t know year to year how much funding is going to come.”
Every five years, Medford develops a new “consolidated plan” with the North Suburban Consortium, which includes the cities of Arlington, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Melrose, Revere and Winthrop. The consortium sets regional goals together, and each city then sets its own subgoals.
One of the largest areas of focus for Medford and the consortium in the current funding cycle is developing more affordable housing. Siegel expects that focus to continue in the next consolidated plan.
“The need for affordable housing … has continued to grow,” she said. “So I think that will continue to be a very high priority for us.”
Medford City Councilor Matt Leming spoke to some of the factors that contribute to a lack of affordable housing in the city.
“It’s a problem [caused] in part by the fact that labor is just more expensive these days. Materials are often shipped from overseas, so the prices have gone up across the board,” he said. “More and more, real estate is seen as this thing that the ultrawealthy can invest in, and it’s not actually seen as a place that people live. So it’s another mechanism for a few people to extract wealth, which means that a lot of other people do end up suffering as a result.”
Leming said that, while his constituents generally voiced support for affordable housing while he was campaigning during the recent election, the issue can fade once candidates are elected to office.
“The people that need affordable housing the most are usually not the people that are coming and making themselves heard to local elected officials,” he said. “[I try] to keep that in mind when governing.”
Siegel urged residents to fill out the city’s survey before Nov. 29. The results will help to shape the programs’ funding priorities for the next five years.
“We really encourage people to take that survey because the public input is the backbone of this program,” she said. “It should and will be based on what the community wants to see with this fund, not what city hall wants.”
Marlee Stout Senior Staff
City councilors discuss implications of local ballot question results
BALLOT
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thing for the city,” Wilson said. “We have an affordability crisis in the city that plays into our housing stability crisis that sees huge numbers of people forced out of the city every year. … An estimated extra $1–2 million a year will be generated by this to put toward affordable housing.”
A new project will use the funds from the Community Preservation Act surcharge and other subsidization from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to construct around 140 affordable housing units in a new housing development in Winter Hill, a neighborhood of Somerville.
Bears expressed optimism about the impact of Questions 7 and 8 on Medford Public Schools.
“It’s going to be incredibly positive, especially for our students and our teachers. We’re going to see more programming available for students,” Bears said. “Students are not going to have to worry about teacher cuts and bigger classes, and I think parents are going to be able to have more confidence and certainty that this is a community that really wants to invest in its public schools.”
The Medford City Council is also looking towards long-term goals with the money earned from the budget overrides.
“We’re looking forward to these
investments,” Bears said. “[We’re] also looking forward to our next major project as a city, which is the ongoing project to build a new Medford High School.”
The project is still in its infancy, as the Medford municipality awaits funds from the Massachusetts School Building Authority along with the allocation of local funds.
However, not all Medford and Somerville residents were in support of the ballot initiatives, and much of the disagreements against the ballot questions stemmed from a feeling that there was a lack of transparency during proposition writing.
Medford City Councilor George Scarpelli was a prominent voice against Questions 7 and 8.
“I was firmly opposed to those questions,” Scarpelli said. “Not for the fact of not needing an override if it was needed, but [for] the lack of transparency and the process that was used in bringing these override questions to the forefront.”
Scarpelli is a member of the “All Medford” group, a coalition formed against the Medford ballot questions. They argued that the plans to put Proposition 2½ overrides before voters were not formed with enough input from Medford residents.
“All we wanted to do was have an open process to make sure that the community is informed
and involved, and they didn’t do that,” Scarpelli explained. “I truly don’t think the school department even knows what to do, or even what this process, or what this money is going to do because they haven’t talked to anybody.”
Bears, however, argued that communication was adequate and that transparency with residents can only improve.
“We’re going to just keep on pushing for more communication. As of January, we established a new agenda portal so that it’s easier for people to see what’s going on in the council. We’ve been putting out a city council newsletter,” he said.
Somerville officials also had difficulties in convincing voters to support the Community Preservation Act surcharge due to a lack of information.
“People, fundamentally, just don’t seem to really understand how it works, who it’s going to impact,” Wilson said. “We’re really just making the point to people that this is such a small annual increase. There’s a lot of fear and concern out there that we’re talking about [rent] increases in the hundreds and thousands, and that’s just not the case.” Ultimately, proper communication about government plans remains a goal for both city councils.
“I’m going to request that the mayor put together a team that would follow every penny of the $7.5 million so our residents can see where that’s going every single step of the way, so our teachers get their raise,” Scarpelli said.
“I think it’s a question of what resources and what community infrastructure is there to make sure that people are involved, engaged and paying attention,” Bears said. Wilson expressed his hope for increasing access to information for Somerville residents to vote knowledgeably.
“From our point of view, someone informed about the ballot question is a ‘Yes’ vote,” he said.
Medford seeks to honor veterans with ceremony, new memorial
PURPLE HEART
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but also brought the community together in a spirit of remembrance. Jon Santiago, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services, and City Council member Matt Leming, a current reservist, shared reflections on service and sacrifice. Christine Pierce, granddaughter of one of Medford’s Purple Heart recipients, delivered a poem honoring those lost and uniting attendees in recognition.
For Medford resident Kevin Blanton, whose family has a history of military service in the U.S. Air Force, the city’s Purple Heart designation was a source of pride.
Blanton expressed gratitude to local officials for securing a Purple Heart City designation.
“We just happened to live in a city where they went to the effort to step out and honor the recipients to get the designation. That makes me proud,” Blanton said.
Though no national registry exists for Purple Heart recipients, Medford calls several of these honorees its own. Among them is Pvt. Kenneth E. Miller, a former resident of Liberty Avenue, who, at just 19 years old, gave his life in Germany during World War II. Though his body was never recovered, he was recognized posthumously with the Purple Heart
medal and is commemorated on the Wall of the Missing in Margareten, Netherlands.
Another recipient is Cpl. Manuel John Pimentel, a Medford resident who served with the U.S. Marines and was killed in Guadalcanal in 1942.
Medford received his remains in April, and he has since been buried with his family in Cambridge Cemetery.
Medford’s James Pierce Sr., a Normandy survivor, is also a recipient of the Purple Heart Medal. Pierce returned home from the war and built a family and life in Medford. Pierce’s
granddaughter, Christine Pierce, recited a poem at the Oct. 30 ceremony.
To commemorate its designation as a Purple Heart City, Medford has installed signs at the entry points of the city declaring the honor.
“[The signs] will help bring awareness to veterans and hopefully shed light on how rich our community is with those that have served, past and present,” Lungo-Koehn said.
Veronica Shaw, the director of the Department of Veteran Services and a veteran herself, expressed that Medford is
committed to providing ongoing support for its veterans.
“Medford recognizes all veterans, and we are dedicated to them and to honoring their service,” she said. “They were doing their job defending their country, and they don’t want the pats on the back, because either they lost friends, [or] they lost parts of themselves, physically and psychologically. We all could run into Purple Heart veterans every day, and we wouldn’t know it.”
Shaw expressed the importance of community outreach toward veterans. She is
currently collaborating with veterans’ officers from surrounding cities to create programs that assist veterans in navigating healthcare systems, reintegrate them into civilian life and address other needs within the local veteran community.
“I am committed to reaching all of the veterans where they are in life and helping to tailor the programs that we offer to suit their needs,” she said.
Shaw encouraged Medford residents to contribute to the Veterans Office’s emergency fund, which is separate from the city budget and instead runs entirely from donations.
“Out of that account, we have put roofs on people’s houses, [and] we have helped homeless veterans get off the streets until they’re able to get [more permanent housing]. Because of that, the fund is solely based off of donations, [and] oftentimes it is very low,” she explained.
In the years to come, Medford hopes to put more veterans’ names on memorials and reach out to families to learn about any names they have yet to memorialize, according to Lungo-Koehn.
“We value and appreciate the sacrifice and the bravery that our local veterans, and, of course, all of our veterans in the United States, have done for us and our freedoms,” Lungo-Koehn said.
MATTHEW SAGE / THE TUFTS DAILY
Medford’s new memorial celebrating the city’s Purple Heart recipients is pictured on Wednesday.
KUNAL BOTLA, KAITLYN WELLS, RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY
Somerville’s city hall and a public park (left) and Medford’s city hall and high school (right) are pictured.
FEATURES
Explore a hidden gem — Medford Square
From historic landmarks to local eateries, Medford Square offers Tufts students a unique and enriching escape just beyond campus.
When looking to get off campus, Tufts students often head to Somerville to experience the vibrant, bustling neighborhood of Davis Square. It’s easy to see why; it’s conveniently situated only a mile from campus, shuttles run to and from Davis Square and Tufts every day of the week and it’s often what first comes to mind for students looking to eat at a new restaurant or catch a show.
However, what’s lesser known to students is the charming, quaint and similarly rich Medford Square, located just over a mile from campus and easily accessible via the 96 bus. Though far less populated by Tufts students than Davis Square, Medford Square offers a variety of shops, markets and restaurants. Additionally, the square is filled to the brim with local history, containing the historic Salem Street Burying Ground, the landmark Chevalier Theatre and the Medford Historical Society & Museum that has been open since 1896. However, when talking with local residents, it is evident that one of Medford Square’s most defining features is its close-knit community.
Colleen’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop
Medford resident Billie Jean has been working at Colleen’s Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop for about five months, but she has lived in Medford her whole life. Billie Jean has been going to Colleen’s ever since it was
known as Brigham’s Ice Cream Shop, before ownership was passed over to Colleen Hallisey in the 1990s. Billie Jean notes that Colleen’s is a staple of the Medford community.
“[Medford Square] always has a bunch of activities, especially in the summer, spring and fall, and Colleen’s is one of those [businesses] that’s a big part of the community. We help go volunteer for things, so it’s nice,” she said.
Junior Nora McCarey visits Medford Square occasionally and went to Colleen’s one night for ice cream with friends.
“Colleen’s had a very cute diner sort of feel,” she said. “There were other families in there as well, so that was wholesome to see. Sometimes I feel like, on campus, we get super trapped in our own bubbles just with college students.”
McCarey also recommended Colleen’s to Tufts students looking to get more bang for their buck.
“You definitely get more ice cream than at J.P. Licks for the same price,” she said.
Lighthouse Cafe
Another signature business in Medford Square is the Lighthouse Cafe, a diner that has been serving Medford residents for 25 years. Resident Gina Avellani has been working at the Lighthouse Cafe for eight years.
Her family has been involved in businesses in Medford Square for decades: Her father owned a restaurant for 35 years and her uncle owned a fruit and vegetables store on Mystic Ave for over 50 years. According to Avellani,
the Lighthouse Cafe used to be an opera house in the late 1800s before being rebranded as several different restaurants, and it was even visited by Paul Revere.
Avellani cites Medford’s strong community and her own family roots as reasons for why she has remained in the town all these years.
“Everyone knows each other. It’s very close knit. Everybody helps each other out and everybody looks out for each other. It’s a great place to raise a family, and [for] education,” she said.
“You can leave your front door open. You can walk down the street at [two] in the morning and you have nothing to worry about. It’s a very safe neighborhood.”
Ebisuya Japanese Market
One of Medford Square’s largest draws for many students is Ebisuya Japanese Market, a grocery store that also has an in-house sushi bar. Firstyear Annie Wu rode bikes with friends to Medford Square recently after discovering the market.
“We just rode past [Medford] Square to buy some food or some ingredients to cook dinner,” Wu said. “We drove past that area before, but I didn’t know they had a Japanese market there.”
Medford Historical Society & Museum
Focusing on Medford’s rich history is the Medford Historical Society & Museum, a museum in Medford Square with the mission to “collect, preserve, and promote an inclusive
understanding of Medford’s history,” according to its website.
The Medford Historical Society & Museum is open every Sunday from 1–4 p.m. and features both a museum on the first floor and a research space on the second floor. This research space contains an expansive collection of research materials pertaining to the history of Medford, all of which are available to the public.
The museum also hosts monthly events, which range from poetry readings with free beer to exploring the history of the Salem Witch Trials. Their next event is on Dec. 3 and will feature archaeologist Suanna Selby Crowley to discuss the early archaeology of Medford and Greater Boston.
Liz Ammons, a former professor in the Tufts English department for 46 years, has been volunteering at the Medford Historical Society & Museum for a few years since retiring from a career in teaching. At Tufts, she specialized in American literature, environmental humanities and racial studies.
Ammons enjoys the public teaching aspect that comes along with her volunteer position. “It’s turned out to be a good opportunity, sort of an extension of teaching but to the public rather than to university classes,” she said.
Ammons highlights the breadth of the research materials available to the public at the Medford Historical Society & Museum.
“We have maps, we have documents, books,
photographs. … A lot of our collection of research materials are digitalized, so you can go online. If you go to the Medford Historical Society Museum [website], you can find a lot of material and you can access it that way as well,” she said.
Although Davis Square and Medford Square are approximately the same distance from campus, several students noted Davis Square feeling closer and more accessible than Medford Square.
“I’ve maybe been once or twice, but I always go to Davis just because it’s so much closer. … I feel like [it’s] really only accessible by car, depending on where you live on campus,” junior Venice Cusumano said. Wu agreed. “[Davis Square is] closer, and it has more sit down restaurants and shops … but there are definitely shops in Medford Square,” Wu said.
Students shared the same sentiment: Once they discovered Medford Square, they hoped to make the trip more often.
“I wish it was closer, because it felt like there were just so many more options,” Cusumano said. “I was like, this is amazing. There’s a Japanese market there. … Are you kidding? I wish I knew.”
McCarey agreed. “There are so many great things here, and it’s just as close as Davis Square. I don’t understand why no one ever goes over there,” she said. “It’s fun to walk around and get snacks and just explore a different area of Medford.”
Olivia Bye Staff Writer
STELLA JEONG / THE TUFTS DAILY
Medford Square storefronts along High Street are pictured on Nov. 5.
Arts Collaborative Medford forges a community-centered hub for creativity
Dylan Fee
Assistant Features Editor
Medford has an ever-expanding arts community. For a long time, there was no physical center that this community could call home, which made it difficult for smaller artists to find somewhere to both create and showcase their work. However, after years of trials and setbacks, the Arts Collaborative Medford opened its doors in February, hoping to become a place for both artists and art lovers alike to enjoy.
“Our mission is to create [an] accessible, welcoming space for everybody and for all types of makers — it goes a little bit beyond artwork. It is just about us having a physical center that’s centered around creativity and also finding community,” Regina Parkinson, executive director of the Arts Collaborative Medford, said.
Parkinson explained the factors that contribute to the Collaborative’s success. Theory Wellness, a medical and recreational cannabis shop that owns the building, decreased the Collaborative’s monthly rent, allowing them to open with less financial burden. To cover other costs, the Collaborative uses local and regional grants, rentals in their studio space, partnerships with organizations such as Ready, Set, Kids! and individual donations. Parkinson noted that the Collaborative does not charge a general admissions fee at this time.
“It’s free for people to come in, and I very much plan to keep it
that way. So, we have to find our balance of how we’re gonna keep the lights on and also make this as accessible as possible because I don’t want anyone to feel like they can’t come,” she said.
The Arts Collaborative Medford is home to 12 in-studio artists, who use an array of mediums from painting and photography to sculpting and jewelry making. They are also in the process of creating a music program for local and college bands, solidifying their organization as a home for art in all forms.
While Parkinson wants this to be a space for as many artists as possible — especially to award their Louise-Musto Choate scholarship which gives selected artists free studio space for one year — she wants her in-studio artists to create a strong foundation within the Collaborative.
“It is a hope that [artists] come in here with a sense to build community, and they stick around to see that through,” she said.
To widen the scope of their community outside of artists, the Collaborative holds workshops with an occasional fee, open to anyone who signs up. Parkinson emphasized their importance along with some struggles the Collaborative has faced in getting them off the ground.
“It’s easy to be impatient, quite frankly. We don’t have our max capacity on our workshops when I think that we should sometimes. I do think we are slowly getting there, and we do have a core following,” Parkinson said.
“We have some generous community members that see the value, they have given us money
apply … because it seemed pretty my speed, just based on things that I’ve done before, and I’ve volunteered in a food pantry before, so it seemed like a good fit,”
MacHarrie said. “It’s been pretty awesome so far, and I am happy to be still pretty local to where I live.”
and they keep coming back for the workshops on top of that.”
On Saturday, a mending workshop hosted by Mystic Makerspace — a project of Arts Medford focused on providing a creative and educational community for adults — took place in the Collaborative.
Kerri Babish, a Medford resident and one of the main instructors from Mystic Makerspace, discussed how workshops like this are a way to achieve important connections between different generations.
“I really love the fact that [for] Mystic Makerspace in particular, our mission is to work with adults,” Babish said. “I love being in spaces where I’m learning from people who are older or younger than me. So I would invite [locals and Tufts students] to this space because that’s what this is: another place where that’s possible.”
The mending workshop was scheduled for an hour and a half. After attendees had finished trickling in, people were pretty quiet — as to be expected in a room full of strangers. However, as time passed, conversation became lively and progressed from how these clothes could be mended to why they needed mending in the first place. People discussed their jobs, kids, hobbies and hardships; once the time was up, many stayed until the room had to be vacated. Both local residents and Tufts students left with fewer strangers in the world.
Arlington resident Katerina Cai attended the mending workshop. There for practical purposes, she found the experience both educational and collaborative.
“I’m learning skills that I can really put into use,” Cai said. “They are actually relatively accessible skills, so I feel like I’m also understanding it, and the people have been really encouraging, helpful and friendly in describing them to me.”
Local resident Jamie Ryan came to the workshop to fix up some pants he needed for his work in house painting. Now
groups, a lot of marginalized groups … which is how I got interested in this particular work.”
MacHarrie was also the building manager for the Dudley H. Davis Center at UVM, a public space open during later hours of the evening.
retired from a 30-year-long career as a firefighter, Ryan is in the process of joining the Collaborative to explore his interest in art.
While the local community members outnumbered Tufts students, there were a few Tufts students in attendance. Max, a senior at Tufts with an interest in crafting, wanted to attend an event in the local community and settled on the Collaborative’s mending workshop.
Max highlighted the positive influence that Medford and Somerville have on Tufts despite the negative impact the University can have in return. They expressed that attending events such as this mending workshop could help bridge the gap between Tufts and its host communities.
This is the first time that Mystic Makerspace has hosted an event in the Collaborative. Babish discussed how the Collaborative has allowed for their organization to have a further reach.
“We do have a lot of our workshops at the library, which is fantastic because it’s central, but it’s not convenient for every part of the city,” she said. “It’s just really nice to have different spaces that are accessible to different parts [of the community].”
Babish is hopeful that Mystic Makerspace will hold future workshops within the
About a 20-minute bus ride from the Tufts campus, Project SOUP, a food pantry run by the Somerville Homeless Coalition, distributes food to the members of the Somerville community who need it the most. Founded in 1969, Project SOUP relies on volunteers to make this work happen. Taylor MacHarrie started as the Volunteer Coordinator just a month ago, a vital position to keep Project SOUP’s services running.
MacHarrie applied for the job for numerous reasons.
“It [sounded] like work that’s meaningful, so I just decided to
MacHarrie grew up in Woburn, Mass., and graduated from the University of Vermont last May with degrees in natural resources and anthropology. After graduating, he didn’t feel motivated to pursue either field from his degree. Instead, he found inspiration from his extracurricular activities at UVM, specifically his on-campus job and time spent in student government.
“I was in my school’s student government where I was the chair of the committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” he said. “During that time, I got to interact with a lot of different diverse
“We got a lot of people … [who] were generally homeless people that were just looking for warmth and food … so I got to work with a pretty good amount of the homeless population in Burlington, Vermont, and that really influenced my thinking about homelessness in general,” MacHarrie said.
After college, MacHarrie began job hunting in the Woburn area, where he currently lives. Since he began last month, MacHarrie has spent every day of work at the food pantry on Broadway, which is next to the Chuckie Harris Park. MacHarrie enjoys interacting with people visiting or living in the park.
“Some of the guys there that reside in the park, I have just really nice interactions with them,” he said. “They help us with the work we do here. There’s one man that’s homeless that stays in the park a lot that helps us do truck unloading. We don’t ask him to, he just genuinely really likes helping us.”
MacHarrie also enjoys phone conversations with the program’s clients who are homebound, who often live alone and appreciate the social interaction.
“I’ve been on the phone for 20 minutes with some people just because they want someone to talk to,” he said. “It’s just nice to talk to them and get their thoughts on the world and just hear what they have to say and be a presence for them.”
To destress after work, MacHarrie makes an effort to read, hike and spend time outdoors, especially in Vermont.
Collaborative for locals and Tufts students to attend.
Outside of the workshops, the Collaborative has formed a connection with the Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Parkinson explained past and present exhibits involving the SMFA’s graphic novel club and bookmaking class. She attributed the formation of the relationship with the SMFA to Collaborative board member Gary Roberts.
“[Roberts] came in with a mission to really make that roadway clear between us and Tufts, between us and the School of Museum of Fine Arts. There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a really strong connection,” Parkinson said.
The Collaborative has also worked closely with the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life through their Tisch Scholars Program. Parkinson wants Tufts students to know about the resources available to them at the Collaborative.
The Arts Collaborative Medford is relatively new, and Parkinson made it clear that creating a strong bond between the organization and Tufts is a priority for her.
“We are just at the beginning of a relationship with Tufts,” Parkinson said. “So if you have needs and thoughts and ideas, I want to hear from you.”
“I do a lot of things for self care and relaxation,” MacHarrie said. “It’s sort of a necessary thing with this job to unwind a bit and turn your brain off for a little bit after work because some days are hard.” MacHarrie said that some people he knows, including some he formerly worked with, have labeled homeless people as ‘dangerous.’ He thus made it a priority to truly get to know people experiencing homelessness.
“I interact with them on a daily basis, and they [are] just not dangerous people,” MacHarrie said. “They [are] just people going through rough time, and so I wanted to do more work to help that population, because really not a lot of people help them.”
KAITLYN WELLS / THE TUFTS DAILY Arts Collaborative Medford offers a creative gathering space on Mystic Avenue.
Molly Sullivan
Essentially Tufts
Molly Sullivan is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major.
MATTHEW SAGE / THE TUFTS DAILY
Kerri Babish assists an attendee of the mending workshop.
Tufts Beelzebubs showcase range, artistry on ‘Delirium’
The a cappella group’s latest album blends the preppy Bubs trademark with a modern flair.
Becker said. “And then they’ll have it stored in a computer software that they can make edits and mix with.”
The Tufts Beelzebubs debuted their 33rd studio album release on Oct. 11. With a run time of 39 minutes and featuring 11 songs, “Delirium” is a project two years in the making.
The Beelzebubs, also known as the Bubs, are a nationally acclaimed a cappella group founded in 1963. In addition to live performances on and off campus, the Bubs produce an album roughly every two years. The production process begins with the group deciding what songs to track and creating an arrangement of the original song. Each song is arranged by a different member or members of the group, with some senior performers arranging more songs than other members. The Bubs work with Somerville-based music production studio Plaid Productions to record, edit and perfect their albums.
“Everyone will record their parts individually with Plaid Productions the way we sang it live,” Bubs Music Director True
The first track is “Rio,” originally performed by Duran Duran and previously covered by the Bubs in their 1991 album “Foster Street.” From the start, the Bubs create a celebratory and regal tone by adapting the original version’s electric guitar riffs to vocal riffs. Soloist Roan Yeh’s hauntingly beautiful rendition of Simon Le Bon’s vocals kicks the album into overdrive and allows the ‘delirium’ to begin. Overall, the arrangement of this song makes you pay more attention to the intro, verse and pre-chorus as opposed to exclusively highlighting the iconic and well-known chorus.
The second song, “Since You Been Gone,” is surprisingly not a misspelled version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” but rather a cover of Rainbow’s 1979 rock song “Since You Been Gone.” This fun track keeps the upbeat energy introduced by “Rio,” but is followed by a more subdued
introduction in “Would That I.” The Bubs replace Hozier’s relaxed guitar plucking with their signature non-lexical vocables isolated in the beginning but still present in the background as the song moves on and rises to a crescendo.
The Bubs covered 2024 Spring Fling headliner Jordin Sparks’ “Battlefield” on the fifth song of the album. The group of baritone, tenor and bass singers used layering and an intricate arrangement to create a new version of Sparks’ mezzo-soprano song. Released only a year before “Battlefield,” the next song is “Check Yes Juliet” by We the Kings. Their funky, upbeat arrangement of the original emo pop-punk song loses the early-2000s grunge aesthetic, but that’s not a bad thing.
On the seventh track of the album, the Bubs cover Maximillian’s “Ripples.” The group’s vocals create literal ripples in the sound, adding to the dreamy effect of one of the best songs on this album. With just 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Maximillian is not quite ‘mainstream,’ making it
all the more impressive that the Bubs found an artist whose lyrics and composition suited their strengths so perfectly.
Michael Bublé’s “Comin’ Home Baby” (with Boyz II Men) features intricate percussion and heavily relies on the instrumental track; nevertheless, True Becker, lead percussionist for the Bubs’ cover, seamlessly adapted the acid jazz to fit the Bubs’ signature groovy a cappella sound. The star of this song is the immensely challenging and utterly stunning run of “every night and day I miss you” sung by senior and Beelzebubs President Varun Sasisekharan, which took the original to a new level.
“Grow As We Go” covers a song from the debut album of Ben Platt — an a cappella icon known for his roles in “Pitch Perfect” (2012) and “Dear Evan Hansen” (2021). The melancholy tone of the original song thankfully becomes more subdued than depressing in the Bubs’ version.
The final song of the album, “Wings,” breaks the four-song streak of somber sounds to end “Delirium” on a high note.
“Every single person has a moment where you can hear their voice isolated [in ‘Wings’], except for True, because he’s doing the [percussion],” Sasisekharan said. “I think it was really fitting to close with the song just as a testament to last year’s group and … give everyone a chance to shine at the end of the album.”
Looking ahead, the Bubs hope to build off their legacy as the Warblers on Fox’s hit show “Glee” while still making the group their own and enjoying what they do.
“The perspective for us now is, ‘How do we have fun for ourselves, rather than how do we shatter world records?,’” said junior and Bubs Business Manager Anish Guggilam. “Although both are great, I think focusing on the prior makes attaining those goals a lot easier.”
“Delirium” is an exciting collection that highlights the group’s range and unique style while still preserving the classic sound of the Tufts Beelzebubs. The album is available to stream wherever you get your music.
Julieta Grané Editor in Chief
STELLA JEONG / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Beelzebubs perform during the Parents’ Weekend Arts festival on Oct. 19.
Go see ‘Anora’
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for “Anora.”
When I walked into the theaters to watch “Anora,” I honestly had no clue what I was in for. I did not look at the plot, the themes or even the movie runtime. Instead, I went in with rave reviews from my harshest film friends, a bag of over-buttered popcorn and some old-fashioned faith. Two hours and 20 minutes later, I left the theater with a new front-runner for Best Picture at the Oscars.
On the surface, the film’s story seems to be “Cinderella” mixed with fake dating fanfiction, but it is clear it is so much more. “Anora” follows Ani, played by Mikey Madison, a young sex worker in New York who meets Ivan, nicknamed Vanya, played by Mark Eydelshteyn, a young Russian man from a wealthy family. Vanya quickly falls for Ani, and throughout several ‘dates’ and a weeklong ‘trial relationship,’ the two soon become close. By halfway through the film, the two are married; however, all goes to hell when Vanya abandons Ani in the face of his parents’ anger. Ani is hit with the reality that some men are simply not what they seem, and the ideal life may not be within reach.
The film’s writing is snapping and full of wit, brought to life by each character. The inclusion of Toros, played by Karren Karagulian; Igor, played by Yura Borisov; and Garnick, played by Vache Tovmasyan, as Vanya’s glorified babysitters makes the ride all the more exciting.
Vanya is the complete embodiment of a man-child. Despite being 21 years old and presumably from one of the wealthiest families in Russia, he spends his time drinking and snorting lines, yelling at video games and acting out against his parents. At the start, his goofy nature is charismatic, and I quickly fell in love with his boyish attitude. However, by the end, it’s clear he is no man in love; he is a boy using his power and immaturity to do as he pleases, regardless of how his actions affect others.
Ani herself is a fully fleshed character, underestimated and unappreciated by those around her. Not only is she a strong and beautiful dancer, but she’s also witty and packs a strong punch. Despite circumstances, she manages to hold her own in front of men twice her size. And yet, at the end of the day, she’s simply a girl who has been screwed over by a man.
“Anora” is a rollercoaster of emotions. Much like Vanya’s youthful parties, the film is a rush, but as the night nears the end, you cannot help but realize that the next morning will be bleak. As the story finally comes back to the ground, all that can be heard is the storm raging outside, barely covered by Ani’s gut-wrenching sobs.
Many people, including myself, go to the movies to escape the reality of life. “Anora,” in the best way possible, is a film full of reality. This film is what real life would be as a movie, and in its captivating, powerful and overwhelming glory, “Anora” is a must-watch.
“Anora” (2024) is now playing in theaters.
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners’ show is granola rock heaven
earth, folksy set turned out to be much head-bangier than anticipated.
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners performed to a sold-out crowd at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on Oct. 27 as part of their October Moon tour. RMCM and their opening band, Atta Boy, had the flannel-clad sea of rock hipsters in the palm of their hand.
The headliners, based in Bozeman, Mont., are a charming trio: lead singer Mitch Cutts, guitarist Nic Haughn and drummer Jakob Ervin. The band had an obvious onstage chemistry, stemming from their long relationship beginning in their high school days when the group first formed, and kept up an impressive energy throughout the nearly two-hour concert.
It would be remiss of me to not shout out the opening act, Atta Boy. The band shared a similarly familial chemistry and “childhood best friends” backstory, and had great stage presence that set the tone well for the headliners. The set overall shaped a very cozy, folksy atmosphere, and featured personal favorites like “Corpus” and “Walden Pond” that had the whole crowd swaying along.
As RMCM began, I anticipated them to follow a similar chill, indie folk vibe, based on the energy of their recorded discography. But right from the start with their opening song, “WET SOCKS,” it was clear that the band’s live performance would bring out more of the rock elements of their music that are not as prevalent in their recordings. What was admittedly expected to be a down-to-
But there were no complaints here. The live performance was a dynamic enhancement that added a new dynamic weight to an arguably modest discography. But they found a good balance between their classic sound and this electric rendition by following a similar pattern for most songs in the set: starting with the familiar feel of grounded chords and floaty vocals, then eventually breaking into crashing drums and killer guitar riffs to finish strong.
There were certainly moments in which the band stayed thoroughly true to their recorded sound. For instance, “Evergreen,” a sub-90-second 2017 record known for its recent TikTok popularity, was an absolute crowd favorite. If the 790 million Spotify streams weren’t proof enough, the entire audience singing along was a true testament to the song’s popularity — a main reason for the band’s recent rise in acclaim. And although the band changed essentially nothing from the record to their live rendition, something about hearing it live simultaneously sent chills down my spine and felt like a big, warm hug.
Toward the middle of the set, leading man Mitch Cutts was left alone onstage for a short solo session. He played only two songs — “St. Paul” on the piano and “Laramee” on the guitar — but these stripped-down solo renditions stood out as crowd favorites and major highlights of the show. The latter song — which Cutts said is one of his own favorites he’s ever written — was
especially well-received, with beautifully personal lyrics and a great showcase of Cutts’ voice that really struck an emotional chord with the crowd.
Overall, the band’s stage presence and performance were exceptional. However, they did unfortunately start their set on a bit of a rocky note. They seemed somewhat disorganized in the beginning of the show, taking substantial time between each song to retune and readjust. This set an awkward pace for the outset of the show and created an unignorable lull amongst the crowd. But after the first handful of songs, the band definitely got into a more consistent rhythm, and the rest of the set went significantly more smoothly.
This is admittedly my only real criticism of the show, but please take even this with a grain of salt. Though the trio has been playing together since 2017, RMCM has really seemed to only skyrocket within the past year, and Cutts said during the show that Paradise Rock Club was the largest venue the band had played to date. With that, I think a small trip-up and a few technical difficulties can certainly be excused.
All in all, the concert was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Featuring a great set of RMCM originals, as well as two contrasting covers — “Old Friends” by Pinegrove and “Elephant” by Tame Impala — the concert was a perfect showcase of the band’s impressive musical skills and stage presence, and truly a corduroy-donning folk rocker’s indie nirvana.
Maya Godard Staff Writer
MAYA GODARD / THE TUFTS DAILY
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners are shown performing at Paradise Rock Club in Boston.
Odessa Gaines is a senior majoring in psychology. Odessa can be reached at kgaine01@tufts.edu.
OPINION
EDITORIAL
An open letter to Dean Bárbara Brizuela
The Editorial Board
Tufts has undergone numerous changes since its founding. The next phase of Tufts’ largest academic program, led by Bárbara Brizuela, the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, sets the stage for the future of a liberal arts education as Tufts heads toward its 175th year and beyond.
Interdisciplinarity & Academics
Brizuela has highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary education. As a liberal arts college with the infrastructure and resources of a research university, Tufts is uniquely positioned to foster an environment where students think about more than the utility of their degree. In a society where the importance of a college degree is in question, broadening the fields that students encounter during their time here builds on the value of a Tufts education.
In her interview with the Daily, Brizuela described strategic planning as it relates to hiring new faculty. Beyond scaling hiring for “high-need” classes, Tufts should consider investing in areas already fulfilling the interdisciplinary vision.
One of these programs is architecture. Architecture is growing faster than other fields and offers an organic opportunity to invest in the interdisciplinary. It combines components of the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Now with over 60 declared majors or minors, support of a growing vision is necessary. A few stops down the Red Line at Harvard and MIT, architectural departments are a unifying space looking to tackle some of the most pressing issues related to climate change and address technical challenges our society faces — bringing together a range of disciplines.
Brizuela also discussed the importance of her multilingual background with the Daily. We urge her to support reconsideration of what the language and culture graduation requirements mean beyond a box to check off. Students of varying backgrounds can benefit from being encouraged to learn about other cultures. It is now imperative that Tufts add more language options. Taking courses in languages
spoken by immigrant populations in the Greater Boston area would help students engage with their host communities. Tufts should bring back Haitian Creole, Hindi and Urdu while also bolstering the Portuguese and Arabic programs. And since American Sign Language courses are consistently in high demand, Tufts should add more ASL courses and possibly a minor.
We’re confident that Dean Brizuela will continue to support SMFA and its growing presence in the Tufts community under the leadership of Dean Scheri Fultineer. SMFA’s studios and courses could be incorporated into some majors housed in the School of Arts and Sciences or expanded to increase the number of seats accessible for students of other disciplines to exercise their creativity and fulfill arts distributions.
Affordability
Tufts remains one of the most expensive schools in the United States; the School of Arts and Sciences should fundraise to continue its promise to make getting an education here more accessible. To reduce barriers to upward economic mobility, Tufts should offer more grants and support to students in lieu of loans. And Tufts should push toward a return to need-blind admissions. Tufts should also consider fixed-rate tuition, where students pay the same tuition cost for all semesters based on the rate determined for their matriculation year, so they can better plan for the cost of attending.
While many departments offer course credit for independent research, students often undertake unpaid work to gain lab or research experience. All students, regardless of financial need, should have the opportunity to join a lab in a paid position. Tufts and external organizations offer selective summer fellowships, but not everyone can afford to live away from home over the summer. The School of Arts and Sciences, therefore, could also provide stipends over the academic year. A schoolwide initiative would ensure comparable funding across different disciplines and labs, which may not all have the resources to pay students. Students would have time to explore their interests without sacrificing wages from a part-time job.
Additionally, the school should increase fundraising for the Summer Scholars program and the Career Center’s unpaid internship grants, which would expand the reach of those programs.
Student Life
Student life is the shared responsibility of the deans of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering. Brizuela’s past roles in the university have focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. The school should prioritize the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion in the annual budget and in fundraising. The DSDI’s identity-based centers create a crucial sense of belonging for students on campus, especially following the affirmative action ban and the uncertain future of racial diversity on college campuses. Southwest Asian and North African students deserve a permanent center with a full-time director and staff. The recently opened lounge, while a welcome addition, falls short of advocates’ calls for a full center.
Tufts students are in close proximity to Boston and its metropolitan area and everything it has to offer. Tufts should encourage students to explore Massachusetts beyond campus by offering free admission to more museums, events and programs — and develop more social and professional partnerships with our neighbors around the area. All undergraduates, not only SMFA students, should get free admission to the Institute of Contemporary Art and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Judging from the positive impression of the SMFA program, the School of Arts and Sciences should expand unlimited MBTA passes to all undergraduates, using its bulk purchasing power to subsidize the cost by building it into undergraduate fees.
Finally, Brizuela will, of course, be accessible by email and meetings, but we hope for more casual and informal ways to have a conversation. At the end of the day, it’s important that every Tufts student can reach Brizuela. Maybe that looks like office hours in Ballou Hall, a drop-in hour at The Sink — or even group bike rides with the Dean!
Justin Solis Rooted Reflections
The importance of showing up
This past weekend, I attended a concert in the Crystal Ballroom of Somerville with a friend. Much to my chagrin, he elected to leave before the opener even stepped foot on stage, citing other commitments. It was then that I knew I had a topic for my column. Every day, we are asked by others to make commitments. Whether it’s meeting a friend for lunch, completing a group project or even just going to class, the day exists in a contractual form — all activities are a series of agreements that one undertakes with others, or even themselves.
After witnessing my friend walk out of an event he purchased tickets for and was excited to go to, I realized that personal commitments, promises you make to yourself, are the most important commitments of all. If you cannot trust yourself, who can you trust? If you cannot rely on yourself, who can you rely on? By not showing up for the best part of the concert, my friend demonstrated that he could not trust agreements he made with himself. Whether it’s going to the gym, cooking yourself dinner or going on a run, upholding commitments to yourself is important. If you cannot make time for yourself, how are you going to make time for people you care about or issues you care about? A poll found that each year, 59% of people ages 18–34 make New Year’s resolutions, while 53% of all New Year’s resolutions last less than four months. Breaking these resolutions can result in anxiety and damage to one’s self-esteem. We undertake a form of “mini New Year’s resolutions” — goals we set for ourselves each day. Breaking these likely hurts us as well.
Showing up for oneself is important, as it establishes a baseline from which one can show up for others and form communal bonds. Research has shown that those who lack social and community connections have a two to three times higher risk of death as opposed to those who have these connections.
Compared to what has been previously written in this column, this article may seem less related to the environment. However, this serves as an example of how saving oneself just might result in saving the environment, too. If you can stay consistent with yourself, you have demonstrated that you can be trusted to commit to something. If you completely disregard your wants and values, how are you expected to care about larger issues that may persist? If my actions show that I hold little regard for myself, how can I hold regard for future generations in terms of environmental issues? Why would I plant a tree today if I know I will never reap the results — especially if I cannot trust myself to plant the tree in the first place?
The little things matter. To create a culture of commitment, it must be represented on every level. Go to the gym if you say you are going to the gym, do that homework you promised you would complete by class and go to the concert you told yourself you would go to. Only after proving that you can show up for yourself can you begin to show up for others.
Justin Solis is a junior majoring in political science and environmental studies. He can be reached at justin.solis@tufts.edu.
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COURTESY ALONSO NICHOLS
Bárbara Brizuela, 18th dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, poses for a portrait on Oct. 29.
Dylan Tanouye Deputy Opinion Editor
If I had to describe why I chose to attend Tufts in one word, I would say it was for the community. I’m confident I’m not alone in this answer either; I hear the word “community” tossed around all the time when students or faculty are asked to describe Tufts. In fact, the first descriptor of the student experience at Tufts on the school’s website is the “welcoming and multidimensional community.” While I’m personally very happy with the community I’ve found here, I think that we need to redefine what the Tufts community entails.
When thinking about who the Tufts community encompasses, students, faculty and alumni would likely be the first to come to mind. However, I don’t think that our community should just be limited to those who are directly part of the Tufts institution. It is important to remember that whether we like it or not, Tufts plays a significant role in the Medford and Somerville communities, and it is thus imperative to not forget our local hosts when we discuss the Tufts community.
Ideally, Tufts should strive to have a symbiotic relationship with the communities that surround it. However, Tufts has a lot of work to do in order to achieve this. Since Tufts is classified as a nonprofit institution, we owe very little in property taxes to
Redefining the Tufts community
local governments despite the 150 acres of land that our campus takes up. Thus, Tufts should make up for this loss in revenue by providing for the community in other ways.
The first initiative Tufts should take is to design and fund more community service programs in Medford and Somerville. While there are some great opportunities available for students on a national scale, there is currently not a single mention of Medford or Somerville on Tufts’ civic engagement website. This is a clear gap that needs to be filled. In Somerville, unsheltered homelessness is on the rise due to increasing rents. Tufts should
help combat this issue by investing in a local shelter, which would present volunteer opportunities for Tufts students and could help alleviate food waste from the dining halls by giving them a place to send uneaten meals that would otherwise be thrown away. There are already proven models for such a program implemented not far from us — I volunteer at a student-run shelter in Cambridge that gets food from Harvard. Tufts should follow suit for the Medford and Somerville communities.
Additionally, Tufts should be mindful of how its lack of sufficient student housing is affecting the local community. Since
Tufts doesn’t have enough space to guarantee housing to juniors and seniors, most students opt to live off campus in Medford and Somerville. This allows landlords to raise rents around campus, harming both students and longterm residents. In fact, residents now have to make $65 an hour just to afford rent for a two-bedroom unit, which is higher than similar accommodations in other parts of Massachusetts. To address this, Tufts should work to provide affordable on-campus housing to students, which would ease the strain on the local housing market and stop rents from surging. The recently announced dorm on Boston Avenue is a good
The Green Line should be extended — again
starting point, but since it is not slated to open until fall 2027, Tufts needs to address the problem in the short-term. One way that Tufts could help is to provide more funding to the Medford Housing Authority, which works to build more affordable housing to lower rents and address the housing supply shortage.
Finally, Tufts should contribute in its capacity as an institution of higher education and broaden academic opportunities for the local community. Unfortunately, its priorities seem to be heading in the wrong direction given the recent news that the Neighborhood Fellows Program may be at risk. This program funds fellowships for local community members to receive masters degrees and provides an excellent framework for how Tufts should help provide higher education to residents of Medford and Somerville. On top of ensuring such programs continue, Tufts could also admit more local students, similar to how publicly funded state schools prioritize in-state applicants.
The university should use its nonprofit status to provide not only for its students but also for the communities we coexist with. However, the burden does not just fall on the administration. As a community, we need to think beyond the Tufts bubble and remember that the buildings where we sleep, eat and take classes are just a few blocks away from two towns where thousands of people live.
Liam Chalfonte Executive Opinion Editor
When the Medford/Tufts stop opened in December 2022, it marked the end of an almost 30-year project to extend the Green Line into the Medford and Somerville communities. Since then, the MBTA has had its fair share of problems — such as a plague of slow zones as well as issues with the tracks that run through Medford and Somerville — that current CEO Philip Eng has mostly managed to navigate the T out of. Now, as the T looks forward to beginning new initiatives rather than fixing old mistakes, extending the Green Line to the West Medford Commuter Rail stop could be a great place to start.
This extension would only increase the length of the line by 1 ¼ miles and would be somewhat less ambitious compared to other projects the T is looking at, but it would still make an outsized difference for the Tufts and broader Medford communities.
As the last stop of the E branch of the Green Line, the Medford/ Tufts stop serves several different purposes — carting Tufts students to and from Boston, connecting people with other forms of public transportation, giving commuters a place to park, providing a cheaper way to get into
the city and allowing for less trafficked drives. Extending this line would improve the ability of the Green Line to serve each of these purposes. An extended Green Line would increase interaction between Tufts students and the Medford community, better connect the Green Line with the commuter rail and other forms of transportation and help alleviate the parking fiasco that has developed around the Medford/ Tufts stop.
Extending the line to West Medford could provide an economic and cultural benefit to the Medford community, especially from an influx of Tufts students. While many students view Davis Square as the best off-campus location for restaurants, pharmacies and fresh
pasta, providing easier transportation to areas of Medford might help to change this perception by opening an additional way for students to get off campus and into the local communities. Expanding transit access would likely promote economic growth, benefiting the Medford community by bringing more customers to local businesses. Even though the stop would not bring people directly into downtown Medford, the increased transportation would also have a cultural investment, as the easier access to Medford would encourage students to participate in events around the city and interact more with the Medford community. Furthermore, this extension would connect the line directly to a commuter rail
stop, which would help reduce travel times and overall traffic in the Medford area. Currently, the E branch of the Green Line, which runs directly next to the Lowell Commuter Rail line, shares a scant one stop with the Commuter Rail: North Station, the Commuter Rail’s terminus. This means that there is no walking-distance rail access to the Lowell line unless one goes all the way into Boston, even though the Commuter Rail goes through all of the same stops. Having the Commuter Rail connection would allow people who live north of Boston to access the Commuter Rail easily via the Green Line, instead of having to drive, Uber or take a bus into Boston, hence relieving traffic from the already-packed roads. Having this connection also contributes to redundancy in the transit system, which helps avoid issues stemming from shutdowns of certain lines and stations. We can see this demonstrated by the Orange Line, whose terminus at Oak Grove was built with a Commuter Rail platform and which was, in 2022, made into a permanent stop on the Haverhill Commuter Rail line. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention, North Station was closed, meaning that the trains had to stop at Oak Grove. Being
able to use the Orange Line from Oak Grove allowed commuters to have less disruption in their travel. In comparison, due to the lack of redundancy for the Lowell Line, commuters have to get off at the West Medford stop and take a bus to South Station. As anyone who has walked down Boston Avenue has seen, the parking situation for the Medford/Tufts stop is a nightmare. Given the number of people who drive to terminus stations to avoid the exorbitant fees of city parking, having the station abut a major throughway that also happens to be the main parking area for a medium-sized university leads to a nasty, crowded situation, especially since the only public parking nearby the station is street parking. Extending the line to West Medford would not solve this issue completely — while there is a parking lot at the station, it likely wouldn’t have enough spots to meet the full demand — it would be a better situation for parking than the one we have currently.
Of course, projects like these take a lot of time, money and work to come to fruition. However, expressing interest in this new extension is the first step we can take towards building a better transit system for our communities.
RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Medford/Tufts Green Line station is pictured on Monday.
JOHN MURPHY / THE TUFTS DAILY
Davis Square is pictured on Oct. 11. VIEWPOINT
Sophia DiCocco named top 30 Honoree for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award
Jack Chapleski Staff Writer
Originally published Nov. 8.
Between her 2021 NESCAC Rookie of the Year award, two Rawlings Gold Gloves and now a top 30 honoree for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, Tufts graduate student Sophia DiCocco’s resume seems to grow limitlessly as she enters her fifth year as a Jumbo.
Regardless of what statistics you believe define a player’s talent, DiCocco has been undeniably dominant since her arrival to Medford. Posting a career 1.03 ERA, her accolades on the field are just the tip of the iceberg for this superstar athlete.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award highlights athletes that have showcased excellence both on and off the field. As much as DiCocco has displayed dominance on the mound, she has also been a stellar student and an uplifting member of local communities through the duration of her college career.
“Balancing a sport like softball with my academics was definitely a challenge at first, but I think it’s been key to my growth here at Tufts,” DiCocco wrote in an email to the Daily. DiCocco studies international relations, entrepreneurship and Italian, all while competing multiple times a week, sometimes hours away from the classroom.
Outside of playing softball, DiCocco has organized and led softball camps, seeking to
uplift sporting opportunities for women. She has also volunteered for causes including the Borgen Project, which looks to reduce global poverty and aid in international affairs funding. To add to those noble acts, she has also worked as a horse caretaker for abandoned and abused horses in her home state of Connecticut.
“I’ve always pushed myself to keep raising the bar, both in the classroom and on the field,” DiCocco wrote, and the results speak for themselves. She graduated summa cum laude this year, and is a back-to-back Rawlings Gold Glove winner. Although she has always been an incredible ballplayer, she hasn’t taken anything for granted.
As an audience, it’s far too easy to focus on the outcome, but a battle is won or lost long before one sets foot onto the field. DiCocco wrote that she has “developed so much as a player” through her long hours of hard work. “The lessons from the field — like discipline, resilience, and focus — are things I’ll take with me long after I leave Tufts,” she wrote.
The traits that forged her as a person and athlete have taken the Tufts softball team all the way to the Division III NCAA tournament, a journey that DiCocco looks back on fondly. “[An] unforgettable moment was beating Salisbury in the Super Regionals,” DiCocco wrote. In that tournament, the Jumbos defeated one of the top teams in the nation to earn a spot in the College World Series.
When asked about her Gold Gloves, she wrote, “I take a lot
of pride in my defense … receiving an actual Gold Gloves from Rawlings was insane … to actually earn one feels surreal.”
Hours devoted to her team, pursuing her academics to the fullest and giving back to the community have all earned her a trip to Nashville, Tenn., where the convention for the NCAA Woman of the Year award will be held from Jan. 14–17, 2025.
When asked how it felt to receive the honor and a trip to Nashville, she responded, “I’m really honored and grateful for this moment, to be recognized with this elite group of women who have distinguished themselves throughout their college careers.” And DiCocco is deservedly and undoubtedly one of those elite women.
By looking at her achievements, it may seem all too obvious that DiCocco would be up to receiving such an award, but when asked whether she expected this to come her way, she responded, “Not at all – I was completely caught off guard!”
Although the award is meaningful to her, it’s never been her end goal. “You put in the work because you love it and you’re committed to your goals, but you don’t necessarily expect this kind of outcome,” DiCocco wrote. That intrinsic motivation has allowed her to do so much in such a short time, and that is what will continue to drive her towards taking care of any unfinished business she has this season.
In her fifth and final year, DiCocco has her eyes on the most
highly sought-after prize in the sport: a national championship.
After beating Salisbury in the Super Regionals, Tufts fought valiantly in the World Series, before falling to Belhaven University, the team that ended up coming second in the tournament.
Now a seasoned veteran, DiCocco wrote, “Leadership is about being there for others, communicating well, and putting the team before yourself.” Her implementation of those skills as a leader will hopefully take the team even further this year, giving them a chance to bring home the ultimate team accolade.
DiCocco has a busy year ahead of her. Kicking off the year with the NCAA Woman of the Year Award convention in Nashville, she’ll look to finish her season with a dogpile of teammates in Bloomington, Ill. at the 2025 Division III Softball World Series.
Using her extra year of eligibility, she’s going to make one final push to bring a national championship to Medford. Sophia DiCocco will leave quite a legacy at Tufts University, and she will surely face whatever lies ahead in life fearlessly and head on.
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The Fifth-Year Master’s Degree program allows Tufts undergraduates to continue on to a master’s degree with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or the School of Engineering after completing their bachelor’s degree.
Students
• GRE scores not required
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The Fifth-Year Master’s Degrees are offered through the following programs:
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
Data Analytics, BA/MS or BS/MS
Economics, BS/MS
Education: Middle and High School, BA/MAT or BS/MAT
Environmental Policy and Planning, BA/MS or BS/MS
Mathematics, BS/MS
Museum Education, BA/MA Music, BA/MA
Philosophy, BA/MA
Sustainability, MA
Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, BS/MA or BA/MA
School of Engineering
Bioengineering, MS
Biomedical Engineering, BS/MS
Biophotonics, MS
Chemical Engineering, BS/MS
Civil and Environmental Engineering, BS/MS
Computer Engineering, BS/MS
Computer Science, BA/MS or BS/MS
Cybersecurity and Public Policy, MS
Data Science, BS/MS
Dual Degree Program: Tufts Gordon Institute degree + other Engineering degree, MS
Electrical Engineering, BS/MS
Engineering Management, MS
Human Factors Engineering, BS/MS
Human-Robot Interaction, MS
Innovation and Management, MS
Materials Science and Engineering, MS
Mechanical Engineering, BS/MS
Offshore Wind Energy Engineering, MS
Software Systems Development, MS
Technology Management and Leadership, MS
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
Sophia DiCocco winds up for a pitch against Rochester on May 18.
Women’s soccer knocked out by Amherst 2–1 in NESCAC semifinals
On Saturday, No. 2 seed Tufts women’s soccer competed in the NESCAC semifinals versus No. 4 seed Amherst College in Middletown, Conn. The Jumbos had come away with a 2–1 win against the Mammoths earlier in the season. Going into the game, Tufts held a 13–2–1 record while Amherst held a 10–1–5 record.
“We were really working on switching the point of attack quickly, and overall, just maintaining the basics of how we play and compete,” sophomore forward Waverly Sumner wrote in an email to the Daily about the Jumbos’ preparation for the game.
To begin the game, the Jumbos quickly got possession of the ball and got a shot off within the first minute of the game, but they were unable to maintain possession as the first half played out to be competitive and evenly matched.
Bharat Singh
The Final Whistle
The Bernabéu’s Turkish prodigy
Turkish talent has dazzled European clubs with its brilliance for over a decade. From La Liga veteran Arda Turan, a key member of Atlético Madrid’s 2014 title-winning side, to Nuri ŞSahin, the former Borussia Dortmund star who now manages the club, to Hakan Çalhanoglu, who continues to spearhead Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan, Türkiye is a talent factory on an upward trajectory
“We wanted to play our style of play and get our second win against Amherst because we had a strong and clean performance against them in the regular NESCAC season,” Sumner wrote.
Twelve minutes in, however, the Mammoths were able to capitalize on a free kick opportunity and take a 1–0 lead. Mammoth midfielder Alyssa Huynh lobbed a free kick into the Jumbos’ penalty box and to the feet of forward Patience Kum, who was able to tap the ball just past the Jumbos’ goalkeeper.
Even with Amherst leading early in the game, Tufts still maintained a supportive and optimistic atmosphere. “We always emphasize being positive and thoughtful to each other, even in tough and emotionally charged situations, so I feel like there was a strong sense of belief and positive talk during the game even when we went down a goal,” Sumner wrote.
The Jumbos’ positivity appeared effective when, in the
on both domestic and international fronts. Its leading clubs, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, have rich histories. Its latest and possibly most promising icon is Real Madrid’s 19-year-old Arda Güler. With Madrid facing a mid-season crisis, the spotlight could shine brighter than ever on the boy from Altingad.
Los Blancos are in a panic after two humiliating home defeats and new additions to a never-ending injury list. Despite comfortably defeating Osasuna with an incredible hat-trick from Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid lost Rodrygo, Lucas Vázquez and Eder Militao to injury in the first half. Militao, in the worst case, is expected to be sidelined for nine months after painfully tearing his ACL. With defensive players like Aurélien Tchouameni, David Alaba and Dani Carvajal already injured, manager Carlo Ancelotti
20th minute, they were able to end the Mammoths’ lead with a goal of their own. When a ball by Amherst was misplayed into open space, Sumner took advantage of their mistake, and sent a shot into the bottom right corner of the goal. With the game tied back up at 1–1, both teams upped their intensity.
Despite both teams’ best efforts, the half ended with no more goals from either side. After an extremely competitive half in which the Mammoths put up seven shots and the Jumbos put up only one fewer, the team had much to discuss at halftime. “We knew they were going to come out hard after half as we were tied, so we just talked about winning 50–50s, keeping our composure and converting more chances while keeping it clean out of the back,” Sumner wrote on the Jumbos’ thinking at halftime.
In the second half, both sides came out with a newfound energy, but the Mammoths appeared
faces a depleted back-line with key fixtures on the horizon. Güler is not a defender but offers rare attacking creativity in a No. 10 role, which Madrid has lacked for years. This is a chance to unleash Güler’s fearless playmaking threat, which we all witnessed at the European Championships this summer. His standout moment came against Georgia with a majestic long-distance strike into the top-left corner.
Güler is quick and can drift into pockets on the left channels but also more centrally behind if space is created. Madrid’s next trip is to Anfield to face Liverpool, who currently lead both the Premier League and Champions League standings. Their frontline is prolific, but so is Madrid’s. Allowing Güler to combine with the effortless ball-carrying Jude Bellingham to supply the forward runs of Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr. would
to be dominating possession. In the first 25 minutes of the second half, the Mammoths took seven shots, as many as they took in the entire first half. The Jumbos worked to keep the Mammoths away from their net, but 71 minutes in, the Mammoths took the lead once again with their eighth shot. Similar to the first goal, the sequence began with a Mammoth free kick into the Jumbos’ penalty box, which defender Sophia Haynes was able to control and fire into the Jumbos’ net. Midfielder Brooke Ingemi got the assist.
Both teams got multiple shots off during the rest of the half but the Mammoths were just able to keep the Jumbos from tying the game up again.
The 90 minutes came to a close with Amherst up 2–1.
“Our games against Amherst are always extremely competitive because we both have very similar styles of play, so it feels like a battle every time to see
strategically test Liverpool’s defense. This might mean changing to a front two and using a midfield diamond to maintain defensive structure when out of possession. It’s unlikely that Güler will start because of the occasion but should at least contribute off the bench.
Social media has jumped on recent pictures of Güler nested in the dugout and compared them to those of Martin Ødegaard, implying a waste of talent the way the Norwegian was kept out of action during his time in Madrid. The situation, however, is slightly different. Güler is older and on a growing side where players like Bellingham, Valverde and Camavinga are still to fully mature. Ødegaard was 16 and competing with Madrid’s prime midfield.
Güler has received praise from elite players, which indicates his
who’s going to take the game, and it just happened to be them this time,” Sumner wrote about the loss.
Although their loss to the Mammoths ended the Jumbos’ NESCAC playoff run, the team qualified for and is now heading into the NCAA Division III women’s soccer playoffs. Their first game of the tournament will be played against Rowan University on Saturday at William Smith College.
“Our mentality after this loss was very much that we just needed to clean sheet and leave it in its place, and that this is just going to be our only loss for the next six games. It was a game we could have got down about and fixated on, but I think the mentality was more about thinking of NCAAs as a brandnew season and a chance for a fresh start and being proud of the work we put in in NESCACs even though it was a frustrating loss,” Sumner wrote.
natural ability and high potential. One of these was Mesut Özil, a former Real Madrid attacking midfielder. In the twilight of his career, Özil watched Güler as a youngster while playing at Fenerbache. Having Turkish roots himself, he insisted that Güler deserves all the praise he’s getting but doesn’t need more pressure as the entire nation sees him as the future.
Madrid’s upcoming La Liga games against Leganés, Getafe and Athletic Club are likely to feature Güler as Ancelotti works to close ground on Barcelona. The gap is only six points, and Real has a game in hand. The following weeks could be the catalyst for another young talent to flourish under the dreamy floodlights of the Santiago Bernabéu.
Bharat Singh is a senior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at bharat.singh@tufts.edu.
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
Jumbos battle for a corner kick against Amherst in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday.
