EDITORIAL
‘Cold War’ brings bygone era to life see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4
Tufts should break with Sacklers, Purdue Pharma
Super Bowl LIII will be game of contrasts see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
SEE OPINION / PAGE 8
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 6
tuftsdaily.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Carmichael to house only first-years, Harleston to house only sophomores next year by Liza Harris News Editor
Starting in the 2019–2020 academic year, Carmichael Hall will be a residence hall for only first-year students and Harleston Hall will house only sophomores. The new policy seeks to maximize bed space and improve the housing options for both first-years and sophomores, according to former Associate Director of Housing Operations Matt Austin. The decision was made because of a lack of beds for sophomores in Carmichael Hall and an abundance of beds for firstyears in Harleston Hall, Austin told the Daily in an interview last semester. “If we kept our building mix the same this year to next year, we would have way too many first-year beds and not enough sophomore space,” Austin said. “To make things balance and have enough beds for sophomores and also have the right amount of beds for incoming first-year students, this change was necessary.” Joshua Hartman, director of residential life and learning, said that upperclassmen were also taken into consideration when making this decision. “In order to maximize the number of junior and senior lottery numbers we can distribute, we need to align building capacity with expected class size,” Hartman said in an email to the Daily. However, the decision has other significant impacts, including the creation of an all first-year residential quad. “Having a first-year residential quad between Miller, Carmichael and Houston is hugely impactful. I think that that will be a really great addition to our community,” Austin told the Daily. Hartman echoed this sentiment. “We believe that a strong first-year
quad experience provides an exciting new opportunity for programming, residential engagement and increased opportunity for interaction between buildings,” Hartman said. Austin believes that the decision will positively affect sophomores, as well, because they will have access to the single bathrooms in Harleston Hall. “Sophomores … would prefer to have [single] … bathrooms … so moving sophomores into Harleston where we have those [single] … bathrooms is a huge plus,” Austin said. “In theory, things should get better as you go through the housing here.” In addition, Austin told the Daily that much of Latin Way will house sophomores next year, creating a potential sophomore community downhill. “We’re excited about what that could look like for our sophomore community,” he said. “Our ability to fold in CoHo [Community Housing] has really helped us have more space for sophomores in Latin Way.” Hartman said that reactions from students have generally been positive. “When the decision was made last year to have Harleston shift to a first-year building, many rising sophomores were upset by the loss of the opportunity to live in Harleston,” he said. “We have shifted back to provide Harleston as an opportunity for sophomores and we have heard positive things so far from students about the shift.” Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon described the change as a win-win. “We’ve always had a lot of first-years who live in singles and don’t want to live in singles … But we have a shortage of singles for other people or less than the demand is,” McMahon said. “So Carm makes a lot of
BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY
Harleston Hall is pictured on Jan. 29. sense for a first-year residence hall, especially with the community space downstairs.” Construction on Harleston Hall will take place over the summer to ensure that the building is ready for sophomores next fall, according to Hartman. “Harleston will have significant roofing work completed this summer in time for students to move back in August,” Hartman said. According to Austin, the Office of Residential Life in conjunction with the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs made this decision. The idea to change the housing options for different classes has been in the works since the summer of 2018 but was finalized late in the fall 2018 semester. “It’s been a few months that I’ve at least been thinking about it, but in terms of really getting the change implemented, that’s been probably in the last six weeks,” he said.
Austin acknowledged that the building switch does not address the housing shortage for juniors and seniors that many students have protested. “There’s not really a big effect [on the housing shortage] in this particular change because sophomores and firstyears are all required to live on campus, so whether we have this building as firstyear or this building as sophomore doesn’t really matter,” Austin said. However, he also said that the university recognizes students’ desire for more on-campus housing options. “If we had more housing or if we could build faster, I’m sure we would fill it,” Austin said. “Students would want to live on campus. So I think we’re on the same page about recognizing the need for housing, it’s just a matter of folks at the university pushing that agenda forward.”
Board of Trustees creates subcommittee on student affairs by Charlie Driver News Editor
The Tufts Board of Trustees voted to create a Student Affairs Subcommittee in November in hopes of further progress towards the recommendations the Student Life Review Committee (SLRC) made in spring 2017. Mary Pat McMahon, dean of student affairs for the School of Arts and Sciences, said that Deb Jospin (J ’80), then a trustee and a member of the SLRC, led the creation of the committee. According to the bylaws of the Board of Trustees, the subcommittee will exist under
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the larger Academic Affairs Committee, which previously was the main arena for Trustee input on student life. Insiya Naim, the student representative of the Academic Affairs Committee, said that the decision would formalize student life as a focus for the Board. “Prior to the introduction of this subcommittee, the Board’s agenda didn’t have a concrete section on student life, but now, through the subcommittee, we will be able to critically analyze what is helping and hindering student life,” Naim, a sophomore, told the Daily in an email. The chair of the subcommittee, Trustee Kalahn Taylor-Clark (J ’99, M ’01), said
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that the subcommittee would feature voices from the Board of Trustees, as well as those of students and alumni. According to McMahon, the specific student and alumni representation on the subcommittee has yet to be decided. Taylor-Clark explained the benefit of trustee input on student life. “The value of having trustees addressing student life is that their leadership and commitment of resources are reflected in their abilities to understand where gaps exist and to identify holistic solutions to improving student life at Tufts,” she wrote in comments provided to the Daily by email.
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According to the Tufts Office of the Trustees website, all of the trustees who will sit on the subcommittee are alumni of one of Tufts undergraduate and graduate programs. One, Maria Madison (J ’82), is a parent of two Tufts students. The trustees are aware that their experience as students differs in many aspects from the life of current Tufts students, McMahon said. “The Tufts trustees tend to have this really deep appreciation of the fact that there are aspects of the current experience that really resonate with their experience
NEWS............................................1 ARTS & LIVING.......................4 OPINION.....................................8
see TRUSTEES, page 2
FUN & GAMES.........................9 SPORTS............................ BACK
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, January 30, 2019
THE TUFTS DAILY Elie Levine Editor-in-Chief
EDITORIAL
David Levitsky Anita Ramaswamy Managing Editors Luke Allocco Jessica Blough Austin Clementi Charlie Driver Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala Kat Grellman Abbie Gruskin Liza Harris Zach Hertz Gil Jacobson Rachael Meyer Cathy Perloff Hannah Uebele Joe Walsh Alejandra Carrillo Robert Kaplan Noah Richter Jilly Rolnick Alexander Thompson
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Student affairs subcommittee will study student life across Tufts campuses TRUSTEES
continued from page 1 as undergrads, or graduate students,” she said. “They’re very open to the idea that it’s not exactly the same thing.” Naim appreciated the trustees for being willing to learn from current students, saying that the subcommittee will be a great way for them to become more informed. “I think that having student representatives on the Board, both graduate and undergraduate, will allow the board to understand the student perspectives that are prevalent on campus,” she said. The subcommittee will look at student life across all five Tufts campuses, according to the bylaws.
McMahon said that the Trustees’ wide focus will help integrate her work on the Medford/Somerville campus at the undergraduate level with the rest of Tufts. “They’re going to be helpful partners in contextualizing the work that we do, helping frame out why we’re prioritizing [and] what we’re prioritizing,” she said. The long-term vision for student life at Tufts is the creation of a college experience that gives students social know-how, as well as academic knowledge, McMahon said, pointing to the trustees’ knowledge of trends in higher education outside of Tufts as something that she is hoping to draw from. “I’m hoping that we’ll have some really good conversations about an organizing
principle that looks at the connection around the ways people learn in formal settings as undergrads and [how] we think about the complementary learning that happens,” she said. Naim and McMahon both discussed that changing student life at Tufts is a gradual process, rather than one that can be accomplished within a semester or two. Naim is confident that the results will be worth it. “It may be difficult for the improvements to show right away,” she said. “However, I do believe that with time and the right communication, there will be vast changes in student life on campus.”
Police Briefs — Week of Jan. 28 by Jenna Fleischer News Editor
Stop calling me maybe On Jan. 18 at 12:52 p.m., Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) received a report from the International Center that they had been receiving daily calls since the end of November. The caller had questions concerning immigration and obtaining a work visa but never gave their name and contact information or elaborated on their questions. TUPD is currently investigating the matter. Use your noodle On Jan. 20 at 3:45 a.m., TUPD responded to a fire alarm at Hodgdon Hall. When officers arrived, they found smoke coming from the kitchen and visible flames in the microwave. Officers extinguished the fire,
caused by microwavable noodles, with a fire extinguisher. The fire marshal was notified and a further investigation is taking place. Tell me how I’m supposed to eat with no air On Jan. 21 at 3:55 p.m., TUPD responded to a medical call concerning an airway obstruction in the Carmichael Dining Center. TUPD and Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) assisted a student who was found choking in the Carmichael Dining Center bathroom. The student was later transported to the hospital for further evaluation. Say you’ll admit me again On Jan. 23 at 2:08 p.m., TUPD was notified by the Fletcher School’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid that a non-
Tufts affiliate had contacted the office indicating that they had received a letter of acceptance for Tufts undergraduate school from Fletcher admissions. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the individual was scammed by a supposed educational consultant who had been hired to help the individual with college applications. Crank that On Jan. 24 at 1:51 p.m., TUPD received a report from a student that they had witnessed a man in a dark colored vehicle on Professors Row masturbating. By the time TUPD was notified, the vehicle could no longer be found in the area. TUPD is currently investigating and asks anyone with any information regarding the incident to reach out.
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ANNUAL QUEER STUDIES LECTURE with Fawzia Mirza, actor-writer-producer-artivist
In Chicago Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza) is a thirty-something American-Pakistani lawyer who lives with and cares for her recently widowed, TV-obsessed mother (legendary Indian actress Shabana Azmi). Alma (Sari Sanchez) is a free-spirited Mexican-American bookshop owner. After meeting in a bar, the two quickly fall into bed with each other and embark on a romance…but problems aren’t far behind.
Film Screening & Lecture Friday, Feb 8, 2019 12:00 PM - 3:30 PM Olin Center/RM 011 180 Packard Ave/Medford, MA 02155 Lecture by Fawzia Mirza with Q&A Lunch provided. RSVP requested to wgss@tufts.edu
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ARTS&LIVING
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
MOVIE REVIEW
‘Cold War’ seethes with melancholic glamor
VIA IMDB
A promotional poster for ‘Cold War’ (2018) is pictured. by Tommy Gillespie Arts Editor
As “Cold War” (2018) draws to its end, the penultimate scene places its protagonists, Zula ( Joanna Kulig) and Wiktor ( Tomasz Kot), on opposite ends of a table in a dilapidated
labor camp shack, staring emptily at each other. The star-crossed lovers of Pawel Pawlikowski’s searing romantic drama never could have predicted that they would end up here: Yet there is an air of inevitability to their meeting, a sense that the film’s fastpaced 88 minutes have been point-
ing to this godforsaken quarry in a forgotten corner of Poland all along, without a frame wasted. As Wiktor and Zula journey across the Iron Curtain and back again, from the bombed-out, desiccated ruins of their home country to the sun-drenched promenades of the Dalmatian coast and the sultry streets of Paris, we are taken on an odyssey through the peaks and depths of the human soul. “Cold War” is Pawlikowski’s first project since 2013’s “Ida,” which took home Poland’s first ever Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. While there are certainly thematic parallels between the two, “Cold War” has its own story to tell, loosely based on the courtship of Pawlikowski’s parents. The film opens in 1949, with musician Wiktor traveling around the nation’s reeling countryside alongside his cynical partner Irena (Agata Kulesza), and a disingenuously perky Quisling-type government official (Borys Szyc), recruiting folk musicians on behalf of the new Communist Polish People’s Republic. Ostensibly, their mandate is to preserve Poland’s cultural heritage, a claim that one look by Irena skewers and reveals its true purpose: creating a musical propaganda troupe. They set up a music academy in an elegantly decaying manor house, and Zula quickly catches Wiktor’s eye, beginning a tumultuous romance. Pawlikowski is a cinematic master of the unsaid, and his sparse method of storytelling both oozes film noir allure and perfectly captures the reality of people faced with war and totalitarianism on both sides of their history. We learn Zula’s name not from a personal introduction, but an offhand correction in a dance rehearsal. A fight after Zula reveals she is being blackmailed into informing on Wiktor is resolved not with a kiss-and-makeup, but simply by a gorgeous shot of Zula floating down a stream and singing. The very value of speaking is called into question; against a backdrop of unspeakable destruction and hopelessness, emotion is conveyed with the most delicate of glances and insinuations. Shots like that earned “Cold War” an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, along with nods for Best Foreign Film and Best Director for Pawlikowski. Shot in a deliciously
old-school black and white, the film is, to put it simply, stunningly beautiful. Cinematographer Lukasz Zal (one of many holdovers from “Ida”) works in consummate synchronization with Pawlikowski, creating an arresting mood. The camera penetrates directly to the heart of the film; in conversation it pokes and prods, moving delicately but deliberately around the palpable, swirling emotion of the script. In quieter scenes, it hangs in judgment, standing resolute like the eyes of God. The highlights are too numerous to mention, but one particularly exquisite shot early in the film of the group’s van driving in a blinding, snowy landscape. In a matter of seconds, it weaves an otherworldly landscape, unsure if it is heaven or hell, and pushes the characters unsparingly to the precipice of figuring out which is which. The film’s characters are more than a match for its technical prowess. Kot’s Wiktor is a picture of hope, melancholy and longing as he seeks both freedom and love, remaining somberly defiant in the face of the realization that his aims are impossible. Kulesza impresses as well in her short turn as the despondent Irena, a role reminiscent of her turn as ‘Red Wanda’ Gruz in “Ida.” “Cold War,” however, undoubtedly belongs to Joanna Kulig’s Zula. From her introduction as a fraud and a con, she grows into the film’s fierce, broken and resilient soul. Kulig imbues each delivery with the celluloid sheen of a bygone era, yet at the same time Zula remains remarkably real, believable and heartbreaking. She is pure, world-weary, brash, reckless and afraid all at once. In short, she is humanity, with all its highs, lows and torpid, decomposing indifference brutally intact, and Kulig shines as bright as Zula’s reality is bleak. “Cold War” is an unforgettable story of intimate love pitted against a megalithic world of forces far beyond its characters’ control. Everything about it is simply stunning, from the acting and script to the picturesque camerawork. With this film, Pawlikowski continues to cement his place as one of the world’s foremost cinematic auteurs, and he has met his match in Kulig, its resplendent star. Where its characters are downtrodden, “Cold War” is triumphant.
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Arts & Living
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY
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THEATER REVIEW
‘Othello’ at A.R.T. allows Shakespeare’s words to shine
VIA NATASHA MOUSTACHE
Alejandra Escalante and Chris Butler in the American Repertory Theater’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of ‘Othello.’ by Abby Schmidt
Contributing Writer
Content warning: This review discusses racism and gender-based violence. One of the beautiful things about the work of William Shakespeare is that it’s in the public domain, and therefore artists are free to adapt, edit and perform it at will. Theatre companies can update the setting, cut and rearrange the play, or even add scenes to create a dialogue with texts from over 400 years ago. However, sometimes the most powerful production of a Shakespeare play is one that lets the text speak for itself. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s (OSF) production of “Othello,” currently playing at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square, presents the famous tragedy with minimal cuts, clocking in a runtime of a little over three hours. The play is updated to a contemporary time period, but there is no flashy concept choice or major edits to the text. Instead, the company puts on a well-acted, compelling performance that highlights the continued relevance of Shakespeare’s work.
“Othello” centers around the title character, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and his scheming ensign Iago. Iago, furious that Othello promoted Cassio to lieutenant instead of him, devises a plan to trick Othello into believing his wife Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Jealousy drives Othello mad, eventually leading him to kill his own wife. When Iago’s plan comes to light and Othello realizes what he’s done, he takes his own life. By presenting the text nearly in full, OSF’s “Othello” highlights how deeply themes of racism and xenophobia are woven into the play. While Othello, a Black immigrant, outwardly has earned society’s respect, other characters constantly comment on his heritage, sometimes outwardly mocking his accent and using slurs. Members of the predominantly white Venetian society in particular take issue with his marriage to Desdemona, a white woman. Iago capitalizes on Othello’s feelings of insecurity and otherness to manipulate him into believing that Desdemona does not really love him. The social context of the play adds complex layers to the tragedy, highlighting the dangers of bigotry and
alienation while also maintaining Othello’s accountability for the violence he commits. The key to getting these themes across lies in the phenomenal acting from the OSF cast. These actors are known as some of the best Shakespeareans in the U.S., lending dynamics and clarity to the bard’s long soliloquies and complex language. Chris Butler plays the titular character with captivating sincerity, making him so likeable that the violence he displays later in the play is even more upsetting. Danforth Comins’ Iago possesses an almost manic energy, allowing him to transition smoothly from his outward image as a charismatic soldier to the unhinged villain he proves to be in his asides to the audience. Alejandra Escalante plays an outgoing and quick-witted Desdemona. Watching her slowly realize that her beloved husband now poses a danger to her is one of the most heartbreaking aspects of a very tragic play. “Othello” is masterfully directed by Bill Rauch, OSF’s current artistic director. The three-hour play goes by quickly thanks to the brisk pace and use of humor throughout. Rauch
and the actors strike a great balance between the need for a heightened tone to match Shakespeare’s words and the more natural acting style that audiences are accustomed to today. Importantly, the production doesn’t gloss over any of the play’s ugliness, particularly in Othello’s treatment of Desdemona. The moment where he strangles her to death is brutal and unflinching. The portrayal is extremely difficult to watch, but it avoids the all-too-common trope of romanticizing a female character’s death. The set design and costumes are well-done but not showy, allowing the audience to focus on the story and the language. The OSF production of “Othello” is not particularly innovative or radical, and that’s okay. By presenting the play in its near-entirety with topnotch acting, smart directing and sleek design, “Othello” allows viewers to revel in the power of Shakespeare’s writing. The plot reflects the issues that plagued society in the 17th century: racism, bigotry and violence against women. Watching “Othello” in 2019 brings a painful awareness that perhaps we have not come that far after all.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Wednesday, January 30, 2019
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SEASON OVERVIEW
‘True Detective’ continues to struggle with pace
VIA WIKIPEDIA
A promotional poster for HBO’s ‘True Detective’ (2014–) is pictured. by Daniel Klain
Assistant Arts Editor
After some wild ups and downs, the hyped third season of HBO’s “True Detective” (2014–) came back down to earth. Starring Mahershala Ali, this season focuses on two detec-
tives attempting to solve the kidnapping and murder of two children in 1980 over the span of two and a half decades. The story sticks to three main timelines in the years 1980, 1990 and 2015. After debuting the first two episodes to start the season, the outlook
was pretty good. The third season smartly took some ideas from the first season and expanded into new territory. While Ali’s performance involved some wigs and makeup, in the same vein of Matthew McConaughey’s character’s famous look from season one, Ali so far has gone mostly in the opposite direction. Subtle and controlled, even when he acts scenes in his character’s oldest timeline who is suffering from severe memory loss, Ali has done a great job of balancing performing high-concept moments with the simple procedural ones that come with any police television show. Most importantly, the first two episodes stayed relatively grounded. Rather than focusing solely on themes of evil and time and going as highbrow as the first season, the third season aimed to show you it could just do the work it needed. Much of the first two episodes had classic moments from procedural genre television, but were incredibly well-written. On top of that, the show started out balancing three timelines well, keeping everything straightforward and each timeline relevant. In the 1980 timeline, with partial thanks to well-done production design, we were able to explore the world of this rural Arkansas community as they grieve, in the 1990 timeline we quickly learned that one of the victims is still alive and in the 2015 timeline we were curious as to how it all came together. Overall, the first two episodes seemed like they properly mixed the successful parts of what worked in past seasons of the show and were able to apply them and learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately though, these two most recent episodes have started to suggest that the practice of reusing certain notes can be largely attributed to a lack of creativity. The last two episodes have been incredibly stagnant. In the first two episodes, in order to get a sense of the whole town and world, the show set out a wide net of characters, including secondary characters who help add some reality and depth to the town. Despite them being secondary characters, we’ve spent large amounts of time
with them, such as Brett Woodard, the trash man. Even though viewers have a fair bit of knowledge on characters like Ed, they cannot yet determine why he is relevant to the case, and even with this background, it still feels like Ed lacks any depth. With all these different characters to follow, it seems like much of the show is just exposition rather than narrative progress. Another mistake seems to be simultaneously using the three timelines. In the first season of the show, the narrative used two timelines. For a majority of the first season the most recent timeline was mostly just a vehicle to enter the story of the original case, and once we got up to date in that timeline we moved forward with the most recent timeline as our main focus. The structure may have seemed complex, yet keeping the narratives rigidly connected and linear allowed everything to feel comprehensive. This season has decided to flash back and forth between not just two but three separate timelines, leaving nuggets of knowledge along the way to try and maintain our focus and interest. The problem is that each timeline is deep enough to be its own season of True Detective and because we have to spend time servicing each timeline, we barely make any larger progress in the grand scheme of the story. What is really frustrating is that the case is moving at a glacial pace. If the audience just watched the investigation in the 1980 timeline, little has been done to solve the case or at least get it to the end result when the case is reopened in 1990. Two episodes in a row have gone by, and while we have seen our two lead detectives do a decent amount of investigating, no interesting leads have arisen. The investigation in the 1990 timeline has just gotten back underway, and based on what we know in the 2015 timeline, the case was not solved then either. So halfway through the season, viewers still have no lead and very few pieces of evidence to keep us as an audience intrigued. The two past seasons of “True Detective” have had their good and bad moments, and it seems that this third season will be no different.
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Opinion
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019
EDITORIAL
Tufts should cut ties with Purdue Pharma, Sackler family The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma used Tufts University as a staging ground for promoting their mainstay opioid painkiller OxyContin. The close relationships pursued between Purdue Pharma and Tufts helped ignite the current opioid crisis, which has claimed the lives of 400,000 Americans and damaged countless more. Documentation from a lawsuit brought against Purdue this month by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey confirmed what many suspected — the Sacklers used the wealth of their pharmaceutical empire to push pro-opioid messaging through Tufts’ Sackler Graduate School of Biomedical Science starting in the late 1990s to as recently as last year. In shaping the curriculum at this university, they encouraged doctors-in-training to over-prescribe highly-addictive OxyContin to patients they characterized as “opioid-naïve.” Describing addiction as an epidemic erases the agency of the individuals and institutions who caused this
crisis. The opioid crisis did not break out like other epidemics — it was created by people like Richard Sackler, co-chairman and former president of Purdue. The Sacklers made billions of dollars hooking pain-stricken patients on OxyContin. The lawsuit alleges that when the drug’s inventor, Robert Kaiko, warned Sackler that the pill was highly likely to be abused, Sackler responded, “How substantially would [that] improve your sales?” Purdue sales representatives went on to market OxyContin as a non-addictive treatment for pain. Since 1999, over 200,000 Americans have overdosed on prescription painkillers. If the American criminal justice system provided an avenue to combat unethical business practices equally, regardless of industry, the Sacklers and the Purdue staff who were aware of this deceit would be treated as harshly as any cartel heads. We cannot be content with leaving justice up to the courts. The opioid crisis was engineered in our own backyard:
Tufts’ Sackler Graduate School. Though OxyContin didn’t hit the market until 1996, the Sacklers donated money in 1980 to found the school, and later used it to legitimize OxyContin’s use. Purdue granted the Sackler School funding for a whole new degree program, a Master of Science in Pain Research, Education and Policy. Purdue staff lectured Sackler students at courses on opioid policy, hosted events to encourage their widespread use and developed research protocols and publications on pain management for the school. Tufts even promoted a Purdue employee to be an adjunct professor in 2011, four years after Purdue pleaded guilty to intentionally misleading doctors and patients about OxyContin. Tufts has crossed a line past complicity. Tufts should cut all institutional, professional, financial and personal ties with Purdue and the Sacklers, and remove all educational content produced by Purdue from Tufts curricula. As suggested by Somerville Mayor
Joseph Curtatone, the university should also rename the Sackler School and the Sackler Center for Medical Education and dedicate substantial funding to humane opioid addiction treatment. Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins told the Daily in an email that Tufts is “committed to the highest ethical and scientific standards in research and education.” Collins said that Tufts will review its connections to the Sacklers for violations of conflict of interest guidelines. If the Massachusetts Attorney General is to be believed, Tufts has violated any reasonable interpretation of conflict of interest, and should be held accountable. Allowing private companies to market drugs under the guise of academia is moral corruption. It is time for Tufts leadership to take its role as a force for progress seriously, even if that means turning money away. Tufts must help remedy the crisis it helped create.
CARTOON
Late night thoughts with Shannon, part II
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY
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LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Elie: “Bay Area, LA, same shit.”
FUN & GAMES
SUDOKU
LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY
Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 18)
Brilliant ideas, solutions and resources arise through your social networks. Friends share good connections and opportunities. Offer support and receive it when you need it.
Difficulty Level: Having a full week of classes.
Monday’s Solutions
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Wednesday, January 30, 2019
before anything else, we’re all human rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Tufts faces Amherst on Friday with huge playoff ramifications WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
continued from back The day before, Tufts defeated Conn. College 66–45. The Jumbos never trailed in that game, but were put to the test in an even first quarter that resulted in a 14–14 tie after 10 minutes. Berube described the game as “hectic,” as both teams had players that were in foul trouble. Tufts’ starters each finished with at least three personal fouls, while Conn. College’s junior guard Sami Ashton and junior forward Dana Muckstadt were also in trouble with four personal fouls. “They were calling it really tightly both ways,” Berube said. “We were having a little trouble just containing one of their guards and once we were able to do that and have our help defense be there we were able to just get stops and get scores out of our stops.” Tufts started the week with a 68–31 victory over WPI on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Once again, the Jumbos led from the start, and put on a defensive masterclass; they held the visitors to single-digit points in each of the first three quarters. Two underclassmen, sophomore guard Erin PoindexterMcHan and first-year guard Janette Wadolowski, led Tufts’ scoring off the bench, putting up 11 and 13 points, respectively. “Our whole bench played amazing and that’s something that we need coming into these bigger games … We do need to be able to have sparks off the bench,” Knapp said. “Erin and Janette and a few others really stepped up and made some really big plays and I couldn’t be more happy for them.” In Tufts’ last four games of the regular season, it faces three conference opponents, most notably its arch-rival Amherst on Friday night. The Jumbos’ chance to finish first in the NESCAC
since the 2015–2016 season rides on this highly anticipated matchup. The Jumbos have faced the Mammoths on seven occasions in the last three years, with the Jumbos’ last victory coming on Feb. 6, 2016 when they eked out a one-point 52–51 road win. Berube pointed out that coach G. P. Gromacki’s team is a challenging outfit to play against. “Against Amherst, you’ve got to be able to score the basketball,” Berube said. “They’re such a great defensive team that we’ve got to find ways to put the ball in the basket, working on ways to do that. They have a couple really good players that are great offensive weapons, so we need to have a full team defensive effort and then hopefully that can lead to easy offense.” Knapp believes the team needs to demonstrate its strength and depth once again if it wants to come out victorious. “We really need to have a great week in practice this week to make sure we’re focused and we’re ready,” Knapp said. “It’s going to take one through 17—every member of this team is going to have to be locked in. We’re all really excited to get another chance to play Amherst and if we play as a team we execute our offense and we play great defense, I think we’re going to come out on top.” Wadolowski, who had a breakout week, knows she’ll be ready when called upon from the bench heading into the final games of the regular season. “Our bench is going to be very important in the upcoming games and has been in previous games as well,” Wadolowski said. “Coach always stresses about having our bench be ready to go in at any time and just helping out the starters and just being there for each other honestly, so I
MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts sophomore guard/forward Emily Briggs prepares to take a shot during Tufts’ 72–51 victory over Bates on Jan. 19. think it’s very important just to have a good team as a whole, be out there on court cheering each other on.” Third-in-NESCAC Amherst looks to overtake second-place Tufts in a
pivotal battle with post-season implications. The Jumbos tip off against the Mammoths at 7 p.m. in Cousens Gymnasium in what is sure to be a Proboscidean classic.
Men’s swimming and diving win 3 races in loss at MIT in preparation for championship meets
ETHAN CHAN / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES
Tufts men’s swimming competes at the NESCAC Championship on Feb. 18, 2016. by Jeremy Goldstein Sports Editor
The Engineers of MIT brought their full toolbox to their home swimming pool on Friday, defeating the Jumbos by a convincing score of 215.5–80.5. Tufts did not perform in full force; however, many of its swimmers are gearing up for the NESCAC Championships that start on Feb. 22. MIT, the sixth-ranked team in the nation, capped off their seventh straight win of the season with impressive performances across the swimming spectrum
on Friday. This included victories in 14 out the 16 possible events on the evening. The Jumbos walked away victors in three of the 16 races. Because Tufts senior tri-captain Kingsley Bowen finished dead even with MIT first-year Henry Hu in the 100-yard backstroke, the swimmers shared the victory. They both finished in 51.90 seconds — a shock to some, but Bowen wasn’t entirely flabbergasted by the result. “It definitely happens periodically,” Bowen said. “They’re pretty rare but it happens on occasion.”
Junior Roger Gu came away with the other two first-place results for the Jumbos. The freestyle specialist, who also walked away with multiple victories last week against Wheaton and Boston College, continued his fine form with a pair of top spots in both the 50 and 100yard iterations of the crawl, finishing them in 20.31 and 44.96, respectively. “Roger tends to be a soft spoken guy but really is a great leader both with his actions and his voice,” coach Adam Hoyt said. “He’s also a tremendous athlete [with a] high capacity for applying himself really well.” The Jumbos finished second in a variety of events from relays to individual races. Included among these was the 200- yard medley where Bowen, firstyear Nate Tingen and juniors Matthew Manfre and Gu raced to a second-place showing. They finished in 1:33.36, less than one second behind the first-place MIT team. Later in the day, a 200-yard freestyle relay consisting of Bowen, Gu, junior Costa Camerano and sophomore JJ Batt tag teamed their way to a 1:24.11 time, under a second and a half off the Engineers’ first-place time. On the individual front, first-year Tar Tar Jarusinchai stroked his way to a 59.06 second-place finish in 100yard breaststroke. Also in the runner-up position was junior Tommy Gillespie, wrapping up the 1000-yard
freestyle just under the ten minute plateau at 9:59.53. The dual meet was not the first time the Jumbos ventured to MIT this season. Their last trip at the MIT Invitational on Dec. 1–2, featured a neck-and-neck battle between the Engineers and the Jumbos, with the former finishing in first out of the six team field with a score of 2,012 points; Tufts was just behind them with 1,886. “We went into MIT knowing they’d be really strong,” Hoyt said. “But really our main focus was executing races that sets us up for championships … It puts our athletes to set us up at the Boston Winter Open next week and NESCACs.” Those not competing at the NESCAC Championships are preparing for their final race of the season at the BU Invite, hosted by the meet’s namesake on Feb. 8–9. The rest of the team looks ahead to the NESCAC Championships at Middlebury from Feb. 22–24. “I’m looking forward the most to see how the team creates the right circumstance for it,” Bowen said. “”I think our team really thrives when we are put in the right circumstance, [which is] something we need to get in the habit of doing.” Ultimately, the Jumbos remain optimistic after suffering a tough loss against respectable competition. This may prove vital in helping defend their NESCAC Championship in three weeks.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Patriots, Rams to face off in Super Bowl LIII by Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editor
If the Patriots’ dynasty started with their upset win over the thenSt. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, many hope that it finally comes full circle this time around 17 years later. While much has changed about the league since then — most notably, the Rams are now based in Los Angeles — Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have somehow managed, for the most part, to stay on top of things. The duo are headed to their ninth Super Bowl together as a coach-quarterback tandem, a feat that is even more impressive when one considers that no other franchise has been to the Super Bowl more than them. The legendary duo faces upstarts in the rams’ third-year quarterback Jared Goff and second-year head coach Sean McVay. The popular duo is emblematic of how the league and its fans have become obsessed with young, talented, offense-minded teams and coaches. As a sign of the times, the running joke is that if one has had coffee with Sean McVay in the last two years, they’re likely to be in consideration for a head coach or offensive coordinator opening somewhere in the league. For the Patriots, the defensive key to the game will be stopping the Rams’ run game. Rams running back Todd Gurley finished third in the league with 1,251 rushing yards, while the pickup of CJ Anderson has done nothing but complement the Rams’ backfield. Anderson was instrumental in the Rams’ 30-22 Divisional Round victory, picking up 123 yards on the ground. Patriots fans also need not be reminded of the kind of damage Anderson has done against their team in years past while the Berkeley graduate was on the Denver Broncos. Stopping the run game effectively puts the ball in Jared Goff ’s hands, which for the Patriots is the lesser of two evils. While Goff has put up the fourth-most yards in the regular season and has a passer rating of 117.1 when in a clean pocket, Goff doesn’t perform so well when he is
YUAN JUN CHEE / THE TUFTS DAILY
put under pressure; he rates at just a 59.8 under the rush. Even though the Rams have some of the best pass rushers in the league in Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh, the Patriots have also been equally capable of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks this year. The Rams, meanwhile, have to deal with a newly improved Patriots run game. While the Patriots have shown their ability to run the ball in bits and pieces this season, their breakout game came against the Buffalo Bills in Week 16 as they pounded the Bills with 273 yards on the ground. They followed this up in the post-season, recording over 100 rushing yards in both playoff victories so far. The Patriots will also probably like their running-back matchup in the pass game against the Rams’ linebackers.
Controlling the line of scrimmage and effective use of their running backs will invariably allow the Patriots to control the time of possession, something they did to devastating effect in the first half against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Bill Belichick has, of course, made a career out of devising game plans to nullify the opponent’s big threat. One can expect the Patriots to continue to use a lot of man coverage — they lead the league on this front — and repeat their game plan against the Chiefs by putting Stephon Gilmore not on the opponent’s number-one receiver but on their number-two guy to effectively remove him from consideration. What is less appreciated is McVay’s ability to do the same. He was effective in switching defensive schemes from one week to the next so far in the play-
offs, and he had a lot of success in shutting down elite running backs such as Ezekiel Elliott, Mark Ingram II and Alvin Kamara after struggling to shut down the run in the regular season. Sunday’s battle can be described as a game of contrasts. The young upstart that is Jared Goff and Todd Gurley against the old, wily foxes of Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski. The freshness that is the LA Rams offense faces off against the experience embodied by the number of Super Bowl trips this Patriots team has made. The supposedly offense-minded nature of McVay against Belichick’s reputation as a defensive mastermind. But if the shifting Vegas odds were anything to go by, one can expect a game that will be fought by two well-coached teams, which will hopefully go down to the wire.
Women’s basketball displays defensive prowess in key conference victories by Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editor
Tufts consolidated its defensive turnaround since the start of the year with a home victory over Worcester Polytechnic Institute ( WPI) and two important conference road wins to keep pace with the NESCAC leaders Bowdoin. With the three wins, the Jumbos move up to fourth in the nation and sit at 19–1, just one game behind the Bowdoin Polar Bears in the NESCAC. Even with the improvement the Jumbos have shown on defense, coach Carla Berube said she believes her team can still get better. “It couldn’t get any worse [from the start of the season],” Berube said. “We’re in a better place but there’s
still a lot of room for us to grow and get better. It’s great having this week [as] a full week of practice, we’ll get in the gym again and have some really important practices in too to keep working on our defense and all facets of the game.” In a key double-header on the road on Saturday, Tufts picked up a 71–48 win at Wesleyan – ranked eighth in the NESCAC – to keep its momentum heading into the business end of its regular season. In a powerful first-quarter performance, Wesleyan was held to just four points on its own home court. The Cardinals fought their way back into the game in the second quarter, but the Jumbos entered the break with a 30–20 lead. Berube attributed the problems in the second quarter to making
too many turnovers, an assessment senior co-captain guard Jac Knapp agreed with. “In the second quarter, we kind of let our defense down a little bit,” Knapp said. “We were getting caught on screens, we weren’t really talking or communicating, we weren’t playing like any help defense. And then on offense, we are forcing things and normally our defense drives our offense so it wasn’t working, but we were able to calm down, regroup and be able to do better in the second half.” Tufts came out of the break firing on all cylinders, leading to a 28–14 third-quarter performance. Knapp led the game with 23 points, including 15 from the free-throw line. Much of the Jumbos’ success in this game came from their ability to convert foul
shots, as they went 86.7 percent from the line on a season-high 30 attempts. Berube spoke to both the tactical and mental adjustments the team made in the game that allowed the team to dominate the way it did. “We settled in the second half a lot better and made some plays defensively that I think led to easy offense and got us to the line a lot,” Berube said. “We attacked a lot in the second half and Jac Knapp getting 16 free throws is just awesome, she was in attack mode throughout the whole game. Once we did a better job on the defensive boards and got to the passing lanes, got some easy opportunities offensively we were able to just settle in and play our basketball.” see WOMEN'S BASKETBALL, page 11