The Tufts Daily - Monday, September 16, 2019 by The Tufts Daily

‘Ad Astra’ combines old-school sci-fi with contemporary film see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

AFRICANA CENTER Africana Center celebrates 50th anniversary SEE FEATURES / PAGE 4

THE

VOLUME LXXVIII, ISSUE 7

Football defeats Trinity, starts 1–0 see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY Monday, September 16, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts ups PILOT to Medford, Somerville as Boston sees cuts by Elie Levine and Alexander Thompson News Editors

Tufts increased its payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the cities of Medford and Somerville to $450,000 each for fiscal year 2019 up from $275,000 in 2018, or a 64% increase. The City of Boston also received $450,000 for fiscal year 2019, but this was down from a contribution of $584,147 last year, a cut of 23%. Tax-exempt organizations like universities voluntarily give PILOTs to their host communities to reflect a portion of the taxes a taxed institution would have paid. Tufts’ PILOT payments have been a source of tension in Medford and Somerville for years. Rocco DiRico, director of government and community relations for the university, wrote in an email to the Daily that the goal of the increase was to strengthen the relationship between the university and its host communities while creating parity among them, as they will now receive the same amount. “We are committed to having a positive impact in Boston, Medford and Somerville, and look forward to continuing a strong relationship with each city,” he wrote. He also underlined the value of the non-monetary community benefits that Tufts provides to the communities including use of sports facilities, SAT prep programs, waived application fees at Somerville and Medford high schools, $1.9 million in financial aid to local students and the economic benefits of the university. Since the last agreement expired in June 2018, the university and the cities of Somerville and Medford have been in negotiations over a new comprehensive PILOT agreement that would include the monetary payments Tufts makes every year as well as the community benefits. In their response to the increased payments, local elected officials kept their focus squarely on negotiations for a long term agreement. A release from Medford Mayor Stephanie Burke’s office, which broke the news of the new payments on Sept. 4, stressed that negotiations were still ongoing and that the payment was accepted in good faith. A spokesperson for Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, Denise Taylor, told the Daily in an email that Somerville too had accepted the check from Tufts and that the city looked forward to signing an agreement with the university. The increased payment was not coordinated with the PILOT negotiation teams from both cities and came as a surprise, according to Somerville City Council

Please recycle this newspaper

Partly Cloudy 75 / 54

/thetuftsdaily

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Somerville City Hall is pictured on Dec. 31, 2011. President Katjana Ballantyne, a member of the Somerville PILOT negotiating team. “It was unexpected because we haven’t finished the negotiations,” Ballantyne, who represents Ward 7 south of Tufts, said. “I was not aware as part of the negotiating team.” DiRico said that the increase was based on what Tufts had heard from the communities in negotiation meetings last academic year. “It was clear from those meetings that both cities wanted an increase in PILOT payments and parity with Boston,” he wrote. Ballantyne was more specific, saying that along with parity, the negotiation team was pushing for a PILOT amounting to 25% of appraised taxes, half of that in a cash payment and half in the value of the community benefits the university provides. Under the previous agreement, Tufts’ PILOT was only 4% of appraised taxes to Medford and Somerville while it paid just short of 25% to Boston from 2015 to 2018. Joyce Shortt, a member of both the Somerville PILOT committee and Our Revolution Somerville, a progressive advocacy group, said that this year’s payment did not meet the 25% threshold. She pointed to a 2018 analysis by Our Revolution which found that Tufts’ hypothetical tax bill could run as high For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

as $6.7 million for Somerville alone. To meet the 25% target, Tufts would need to pay a total of $1.675 million to Somerville, half of which would be community benefits. The cash payment, then, would need to total $837,500 to meet Somerville’s goal. “What we saw was not so significant, and it doesn’t change the impact on the negotiations between the city and Tufts,” Shortt said. Parity was achieved by a cut to the amount Tufts paid Boston. Erin DiBenedetto, a member of the Medford negotiation team and a Medford School Committee member, said that in light of this, the payment was more a reallocation than an increase. The cut marked something of an aboutface for Tufts as the 2019 fiscal year marked the first time since 2014 that the university did not pay the full PILOT requested by the City of Boston. Previously, Tufts had been unique among the city’s major universities to fulfill the entire request. Even after having cut its contribution to 88% of the request, Tufts still leads the pack with Boston University at 86%, Harvard University at 79% and Boston College at a mere 10%, according to statistics released by the city’s assessing department.

The Town of Grafton, where the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is located, also saw a small adjustment in its PILOT from Tufts, which fell from $69,413 last fiscal year to $64,613 this year, according to the Grafton Treasurer’s office. Back in Medford and Somerville, some, including Breanna Lungo-Koehn, the vice president of the Medford City Council, saw the increases as a move in the right direction by Tufts, but one that came only after sustained community pressure inside and outside the formal negotiations. “The increase in payment is a good first step, but the council and community need to be kept in the loop with regards to the other important aspects of the agreement. The fact that no agreement has been reached is unfortunate and discouraging,” Lungo-Koehn told the Daily in an email. However, DiRico maintained in the email that the payments elicited a positive response from Tufts’ host communities. Some members of the cities’ PILOT committees said the payments did little to change the state of PILOT negotiations, the next session of which is slated for Sept. 20. “I understand that there was a check that came in, but we haven’t finished,” said Ballantyne. “We’re far apart, and we’re still in negotiations.”

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING.......................6

FUN& GAMES..........................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, September 16, 2019

THE TUFTS DAILY Jessica Blough Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL Ryan Eggers Justin Yu

Managing Editors Mykhaylo Chumak Austin Clementi Alejandra Carrillo Abbie Gruskin Liza Harris Robert Kaplan Elie Levine Natasha Mayor Alexander Thompson Nico Avalle Andres Borjas Conor Friedman Bella Maharaj Matthew McGovern Sara Renkert Madison Reid Jilly Rolnick Anton Shenk

Fina Short Sidharth Anand Amelia Becker Emma Damokosh Kenia French Jessie Newman Sean Ong Michael Shames Kevin Doherty Akash Mishra Dorothy Neher

Steph Hoechst Tommy Gillespie Rebecca Tang Danny Klain Yas Salon Tuna Margalit Megan Szostak Elizabeth Sander Colette Smith Geoffrey Tobia Sami Heyman

Tufts Women in Computer Science holds its 3rd annual conference by Rhys Empey Staff Writer

Associate Editor Executive News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors

Executive Features Editor Features Editors

Assistant Features Editors

Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Assistant Arts Editors

Tufts Women in Computer Science (WiCS) held its annual Women in Technology (WiT) conference in the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (CLIC) on Sept. 14. During this conference open to students of all gender identities, organizers held a series of events including a career fair, a series of keynote speakers and workshops, which offered tutorials on skills like machine learning and managing social media. The conference was open to the community and wanted to call specific attention to women and non-binary people in the technology community. However, event president Lexi Walker emphasized that the event was a celebration of women in technology. The conference featured diverse content, with many women working in different sectors talking about different career paths. All four floors of the CLIC were buzzing with activity, especially the fourth floor,

by Austin Clementi

Alex Viveros Julia Atkins Tim Chiang Jake Freudberg Liam Finnegan Jeremy Goldstein Savannah Mastrangelo Haley Rich Noah Stancroff Josh Steinfink Sam Weidner Helen Thomas-McLean Caleb Symons Seohyun Shim Mengqi Irina Wang Anika Agarwal Mike Feng Meredith Long Julia McDowell Evan Slack Kirt Thorne Caleb Martin-Rosenthal Ann Marie Burke

Executive Opinion Editor Editorialists

Editorial Cartoonists Cartoonist Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

Assistant Sports Editor

Roy Kim Sean Ong Christopher Panella

Luke Allocco Alexis Serino

WEDNESDAY “Special Library Tour with Darin Murphy” Details: Head of W. Van Alan Clark Library at the SMFA Darin Murphy will lead a critical tour of Tisch Library examining whose voices are represented through the publications in the library. When and where: Tisch Library; 12:15– 2:15 p.m.

THURSDAY “TCU Senate Fall Election Day” Details: Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate will elect representatives for the Class of 2023 out of 12 candidates. Candidates can be found on the TCU Senate website.

FRIDAY “Tufts Goes to the Climate Strike!” Tufts students, including members of Tufts Climate Action, will meet on-campus to attend the Boston Climate Strike at the Boston City Hall Plaza as part of a global effort demanding action against climate change. When and where: Campus Center; 10:15 a.m.–2 p.m.

Executive Photo Editors

TCU Senate elects trustee representatives

Staff Photographers

by Alexander Thompson News Editor Executive Video Editor Video Editor

Aidan Menchaca

Nathan Kyn Ryan Shaffer Rachel Isralowitz David Levitsky Chloe Lyu Justin Tavares Ethan Resek Jesse Rogers Aadhya Shivakumar Russell Yip Abigail Zielinski

MONDAY “Tufts Constitution Day — Free Speech or Premeditated Violence? A Conversation with the Tufts Alum Behind the Landmark Charlottesville Suit” Details: Tufts alumna Amy Spitalnick (LA’08), executive director of Integrity First for America, the organization behind the lawsuit against white nationalist organizers in Charlottesville, Va., will hold a discussion with political science professor Debbie Schildkraut. When and where: Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center; 12–1:15 p.m.

Deborah Lipstadt” Details: Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University Deborah Lipstadt will come to campus to discuss her work and the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses. When and where: ASEAN Auditorium, Cabot Center; 4–5:30 p.m.

TUESDAY “Antisemitism: Here and Now with

Production Director

Jesse Rogers

out of talk feeling inspired, I will be happy,” Tran said. Other speakers covered topics that ranged outside a strictly computer science realm. “I’m moderating the tech for social good panel, [which includes] women talking about how they apply tech knowledge to completely different from big tech,” Tran said. With such a broad range of speaking topics, Tran said she hoped to increase attendee’s exposure to topics related to computer science. Agrawal also emphasized that the event was available to high school students, saying she is a member of an organization which reaches out to students at local high schools to bring them to the conference. The workshops were spearheaded by women who recently graduated and now work in STEM fields. According to the WiT website, the workshops spanned from emphasizing performance testing to researching cloud-based data transformation.

Investigations Editor

PRODUCTION Kristina Marchand Daniel Montoya Alice Yoon Mia Garvin Jordan Isaacs Maygen Kerner Isabella Montoya Kiran Msiner

which held the career fair. Women representing tech companies, like Wayfair, met with Tufts students and high school students from the area. Mahima Agrawal, the WiT member in charge of moderating the event, told the Daily the goal of the conference was for women outside of computer science disciplines to explore careers in technology. Emily Tran, co-president of WiT, echoed Agrawal’s statement, saying the conference was aimed toward all women with an interest in technology. One of the many highlights of the conference was the speaker talks. “Dr. Laura Vertatschitsch was the keynote speaker that worked on technology used to take the first picture of the black hole, I’m really excited about the speaker,” Walker, a senior, said. Tran, a junior, hoped that the speakers would have a long-term impact on the students who attended. “[I am] very excited to see speakers [and] more excited about the impact it will hopefully have. If one person walks

Events on the Hill — Week of Sept. 15 Executive News Editor

Tys Sweeney Olivia Brandon Sonal Gupta Mikaela Lessnau Kaitlyn Meslin Amulya Mutnuri Michael Norton Elizabeth Shelbred Simrit Uppal Julia Baroni Christina Toldalagi Yoon Sung

tuftsdaily.com

Executive Layout Editors Layout Editors

Executive Graphics Editor

Executive Copy Editors Copy Editors

Assistant Copy Editors

Executive Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors

Outreach Coordinators

BUSINESS Jonah Zwillinger Executive Business Director

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate elected Veronica StewartFrommer, Charming Dube, Tiffany Xie, Kevin Gleason and Philip Miller to the five open slots for student representative to the Tufts University Board of Trustees at its meeting in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room last night. There were seven students who ran for the posts. TCU President Shannon Lee told the Daily following the meeting that she and TCU Vice President Sylvester Bracey appointed Dube, Miller and Gleason as a non-voting representatives on the Administration and Finance Committee, Academic Affairs Committee and University Advancement Committee respectively. Xie and Stewart-Frommer will be suggested by the Senate to the Board for the single post of a voting member of the Student Affairs Committee. The Board will choose between them. The decisions were made based on the Senate preference vote, according to Lee. Lee said that all the students the Senate elected showed through their interviews, which took place in a closed session of the Senate before the open meeting, that they are passionate about making students’ voices heard on the Board. “The Board of Trustees can be an intimidating place, but they’ve all demonstrat-

ed that they are all very committed to learning and listening to the process.” Lee said. “I also think that they come from very different parts of campus, so they’ll be able to represent students very meaningfully.” Andrew Vu, a Class of 2022 senator said that the candidates had stressed making the position of trustee representative more accessible to students in their interviews. “A very good thing that they all brought to the table was that they are problem-solvers … and their history of how they interact with student government made me really confident that the people I voted for are going to make a much bigger impact than we’ve seen,” Vu said. He highlighted a proposal Dube had made in his interview of engaging directly with student groups to get their input, which Vu thought would be a novel way of involving students in the workings of the university’s governing body. Class of 2021 Senator Ayden Crosby stressed the preparedness of the elected candidates during their interviews. “It was really clear that they could hit the ground running at the Board of Trustees meeting, because there’s only three of them and they need to act quick and adapt really quickly. They’re also all really well spoken and it was clear they would be able to stand up when needed to,” Crosby said. The election, however, did not go off without a hitch; after the first round of

voting produced a tie, the senators went into a tiebreaker vote. The 21 senators still managed to tie the tiebreaker, forcing a third vote at a meeting that ran more than three hours. After the trustee representative elections were finished, the senators heard a presentation from Matt Soderberg and Patrick Liu of the Tufts Community Outreach Project on their upcoming Outreach Day, during which hundreds of students will head into Medford and Somerville to work with 17 local community organizations to do service. The organization is funded through partnerships with the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs. The pair also said that a focus of the day would be educating students about Tufts’ host communities. Liu said that while the program is funded by the university and they have worked with the Tufts’ office of government and community relations to create the materials, the presentations will provide positives and negatives of the relationship. The final order of business for the night was a discussion of the rubric on which senators write their reports on teaching evaluations of professors up for tenure. Senators made suggestions on changes centered on making sure that professors are approachable for all Tufts students and efforts to increase affordability.

tuftsdaily.com

Monday, September 16, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

4 tuftsdaily.com

Ryan Gell JumboCash

Foundations of Investing

Features

Monday, September 16, 2019

Africana Center celebrates 50 years of black excellence

ith a myriad of unique jargon and opinionated talking heads in the media, finance can seem esoteric, intimidating and confusing. Through my column, I intend to simplify the field and equip students with the knowledge to make informed investing decisions. Whether you work in the financial services profession or not, investing will play a key role in your life, and it can be a powerful tool to improve your own happiness. I hope I can guide you along the journey to financial literacy. Some of the most basic — but most valuable — lessons can be learned by understanding the origins of stocks. From the 15th to 17th centuries, during the Age of Discovery, European sailors conducted several expeditions to the Americas. They hoped to find valuable natural resources that they could sell upon returning to Europe. To raise money to fund such voyages, the teams created joint-stock companies. They sold shares of the company to the public, and in return, they offered a slice of any profits they made from the trip. Needless to say, such trips were dangerous and expensive: crews had to navigate the Atlantic Ocean, find items of value to bring back and hope to make it back alive. However, there was also the possibility for incredible riches if the crew returned to Europe with gold or silver. The formation of joint-stock companies provides a great example of the most important relationship in investing: risk and return. In finance, there is a positive relationship between risk and return; that is, the more risky an investment, the more investors will need to be compensated with a higher return to bear such risk. Think about the price of a share of a shipping company that was exploring an unknown region compared to one making a journey that had a reliable record of bringing in profit. In the first case, there is much more risk, so investors would have to be compensated for that risk with a lower price than the safer route. Given the lower relative price, investors would have the opportunity to earn a higher return, whereas the higher price for the safer route would reduce return. The shipping example also introduces the core concept of diversification. As an investor, it would be beneficial to purchase shares in a variety of companies sailing to different areas. If you only purchased shares in one company, you would expose yourself to a higher level of risk: storms could decimate the ship, the company might not find anything and disease could wipe out the crew. By investing the same amount in a variety of expeditions, you would reduce the risk of events specific to one investment; losses from one expedition would not be crippling if you have shares in many different voyages. Although the origins of the joint-stock company are hundreds of years old, the same benefits of diversification, as well as the relationship between risk and reward, apply to investing today. Ryan Gell is a senior studying economics. Ryan can be reached at ryan.gell@tufts.edu.

I A i i C b a J h g d

h b e

A A A c n A h C t c a [ s r s SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Katrina Moore, the director of the Africana Center, poses for a portrait. by Sean Ong

Features Editor

A student protest sparked the founding of the Africana Center, then known as the Afro-American Cultural Center, in 1969. Students’ creativity produced the first edition of the black student literary magazine Onyx in 1984. Decades of student activism prompted the creation of the Africana Studies program in 2012. Students’ outrage led to The Three Percent rally at Tufts in 2015. Right from the start, students have been the driving force behind the Africana community at Tufts, and this fall, the Africana Center will be celebrating just that as it commemorates 50 years on the Hill. A slew of events for former and current Jumbos have been planned, including an ongoing exhibition at Slater Concourse Gallery titled “Student-Facing, StudentFocused,” and the Tuftonian Wakanda Gala on the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. “When we first started talking about how we’re going to celebrate, first and foremost in my mind was that we are talking about five decades of students, and so we have to make sure that we have something for everybody — [something] that will resonate with them,” Katrina Moore, director of the Africana Center since 2008, said. “We wanted it to be a weekend of not just a celebration for the alumni, but for current students to be able to see [their] excitement and to hear the stories of alums, as they are trying to make their way on campus today.” Domonique Johnson (LA’10), program manager of the Africana Center, expressed excitement at bringing students together with alumni of all ages at the 50th anniversary celebrations. “I am a fan of inter-generational conversation … As people of color, those are the spaces that we tend to grow up in — it’s not just your parents and you, sometimes it’s like grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents,” Johnson said. “Sometimes college students [are]

in a bubble. We don’t really think about the fact that there are people outside of the 16-to-23 age range. It really gives students a chance to network with alums, but also it normalizes and legitimizes their experience here too, because we all have that one thing in common, which is Tufts.” Moore and Johnson worked with Kristen Valenti (AG’19), former graduate fellow at the Tufts University Art Galleries, to curate the “Student-Facing, Student-Focused” exhibition, on show until Dec. 15. The exhibition highlights the Africana Center’s past and present efforts to directly support students and advocate on their behalf with other university departments. “We take very seriously our role to be advocates [for black students] on campus to highlight policies, procedures, activities that are happening on campus that need to be elevated or changed,” Moore said. “In addition to our student focus, we are student-facing; we are looking at all aspects of their life on campus and making sure they’re able to thrive wherever they can.” The “student-focused” wall of the exhibition features a graph comparing the representation of black students at Tufts with the proportion of African Americans in the overall U.S. population over time. This graph is juxtaposed with a timeline that marks the founding years of all the different student groups affiliated with the Africana Center and a showcase of physical ephemera from those student groups. “[At the exhibition] you will be able to see a timeline of the contributions that students’ voices have made over the 50 years. It’s a way for us to talk to the students who are here today, so that they know about those contributions, encourage them to speak up when there are things that are happening on campus that are making their time here more difficult [and remind them] that they do have the power to effect change and use the Africana Center as a resource,” Moore said.

The other side of the gallery shows the long history of the Africana Center and its “student-facing” programs and initiatives, stretching even before the Center’s inception in 1969 to around the 1890s when the first students of African descent enrolled at Tufts. Valenti shared that this exhibition drew upon the Africana Center’s historical records as well as materials from an exhibition titled “Another Light on the Hill” that the late history professor Gerald Gill curated to showcase the accomplishments of black Tufts students. “It’s important to know the history of what a university has done, and [look] at who the university is prioritizing and who occupies space. I think this [exhibition] is a great look at the history of how the Africana community has done that and looking at where they’re going now,” she said. Moore applauded the Tufts administration for accepting students’ initial demand to establish the Africana Center in 1969 and for sustaining it over 50 years, especially when identity and cultural centers in other universities have faced cuts or consolidation into a multicultural model. Tufts’ own identity-based centers were just in flux last spring after several staff departures and unfilled vacancies, according to a March Daily article. “During [the 50 years], there have been lots of centers that have been collapsed into a multicultural model, and Tufts has, with a lot of encouragement, kept this model of having the identity-based centers,” Moore said. Johnson shared that the importance of the Africana Center takes on an immense personal significance, having benefited from this affinity space as a student at a predominantly white institution. “Though we are all intersectional when it comes to [the six identity centers], it feels like [Tufts administrators] do understand that we also need separate spaces as well based on culture.

see AFRICANA CENTER, page 5

F e at u r e s

Monday, September 16, 2019 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tuftonian Wakanda Gala, Hotung after party among Africana Center's 50th anniversary events AFRICANA CENTER

continued from page 4 It feels safe, especially in this era of America that we’re currently in, which is very interesting for the fact that this is one of the reasons why the Africana Center was created in the first place — because of the particular era in America and black students needing that safety,” Johnson said. “That is something that I honestly hope and pray that Tufts keeps going because this is something they’re doing right.” In Johnson’s view, the Africana Center has also become more inclusive as the black demographic at Tufts has expanded over the past five decades. “Back in 1969, it was the AfroAmerican Cultural Center, [then] the African American Center, and now it’s the Africana Center. That’s just a clear indication of how the demographic of blackness on Tufts’ campus grew. It wasn’t just African American students anymore. We had a nice amount of African students, Caribbean students come through. In the last decade, maybe half a decade, the conversation of our Afro-Latinx students and where they fit in to the diaspora [grew] as well,” Johnson said. “You can see that in our art, you can see it in the representation that we have with our student employees.” Even in the Africana Center’s more recent past, from Johnson’s time as a Tufts

2019/5780

undergraduate to her current role at the Center, she has witnessed the ever-growing presence of black students and their involvement in activities outside of the Africana community on campus. “[Our students] did not apply to come to Tufts to be Africana students — they came here to be Jumbos. We support them in helping them to mesh all of those identities together through the umbrella of the African diaspora,” Johnson said. “I just love the way that students spread out. There always have been multiple black students doing various things outside of the Africana Center, but it feels like they’re a lot more visible in what they’re doing.” The diversity of black students and their activities on campus will be reflected in the myriad of celebration events planned for Homecoming weekend on Oct. 18–20, including the Tuftonian Wakanda Gala held at Gifford House, the university president’s residence, on Oct. 19. “I am envisioning hair color and melanin everywhere. It is Tuftonia’s and Wakanda. That gives you a wide range of very many styles that you can come in with. We probably might have people who cosplay, which is perfectly great, because at the end of the day, blackness is not a monolith,” Johnson said. The gala will be followed by the Throw It Back After Party at Hotung Café, which

will feature two DJs — a current student and an alum — serving up five decades of Africana music, harking back to the Capen House parties of yesteryear, according to Johnson. In planning these events, Moore and Johnson have worked closely with many offices and departments across campus, including Senior Director of Annual Giving Sean Devendorf and Associate Director of Alumni Relations Gerry Wawrzynek in the Office of Alumni Relations. Devendorf spearheads the “50 for the 50th” fundraising initiative for the Africana Center. “So many alumni were part of the Africana Center when they were students and benefited from its programming and community. We work to help connect alumni back with the center, recognize its significance as part of Tufts, and help raise needed funds for current and future activities and outreach,” Devendorf told the Daily in an email. Wawrzynek oversees marketing the Africana Center’s 50th anniversary events to alumni, in partnership with the Tufts Black Alumni Association. “[There’s] always a special significance to celebrating 50 years. It is a great occasion to deepen relationships with our most involved alumni, and also to reawaken the ties of those who haven’t stayed as close to Tufts since graduation. All who come back really want to con-

Rosh Hashanah September 29–October 1 Yom Kippur October 8–9

ROSH HASHANAH

YOM KIPPUR

SUNDAY, S EP TEM B ER 2 9 , 2 0 1 9 • Traditional Inspired 6:15 pm | Hillel Center

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019 • Pre-Fast Dinner 4:45 pm | Hillel Center

• Reform Inspired 6:15 pm | 51 Winthrop Street

• Reform Inspired 6:00 pm | 51 Winthrop Street

• Dinner 7:15 pm | Hillel Center

• Traditional Inspired 6:00 pm | Hillel Center

MONDAY, S EPTEMB E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9 • Traditional Inspired 9:45 am | Hillel Center

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 • Traditional Inspired 9:30 am | Hillel Center

• Reform Inspired 10:00 am | 51 Winthrop St.

• Lunch 12:30–2:30 pm | Hillel Center

• Traditional Inspired Yizkor 12:30 pm | Interfaith Center (58 Winthrop St.)

• Tashlich–Shaping the Year to Come 3:30 pm | Meet at Hillel Center and walk together to the Mystic River

• Traditional Inspired Mincha 4:45 pm | Interfaith Center (58 Winthrop St.)

• Traditional Inspired 7:15 pm | Hillel Center

• Dinner 8:00 pm | Hillel Center T UE SDAY, O C TOB ER 1, 2 0 1 9 • Traditional Inspired 9:45 am | Hillel Center • Lunch Following Service 12:30 pm | Hillel Center

252185 2019 Tufts Hillel_High Holidays DailyAd.indd 1

tribute positively to the Africana Center’s future. It’s our job to find ways for them to do so,” Wawrzynek told the Daily in an email. Moore has been touched by the enthusiastic response she has received from colleagues in other departments on the Africana Center’s 50th anniversary. “Not only did I get the response that, ‘Yes, we would like to help support,’ but I received lots of messages of how important the celebration, the milestone [is] — an acknowledgement of the work that the Center’s done over the years. That was an extra response that I wasn’t necessarily expecting, but I was very happy to receive,” she said. Moore reiterated her commitment to upholding the student-facing, student-focused legacy of the Africana Center. “I feel that I want to create an environment that helps students know how important they are and that they deserve the best. I strive every day to make sure that we are doing those little things that help [students] to know that we are taking extra steps to make this a place they deserve to have and they deserve to come into and feel comfortable because they deserve it. That’s just it,” she said. Tickets for the Africana Center’s 50th anniversary events are available online, at the Center’s website.

• Traditional Inspired 6:10 pm | Interfaith Center (58 Winthrop St.) • Reform Inspired 6:15pm | 51 Winthrop Street • Break-the-Fast Dinner 7:00 pm | Hillel Center (fast ends 6:54)

See tuftshillel.org for more info and to register! Due to space constraints, High Holidays services and meals are only open to members of the greater Tufts community. This includes current students, visiting family and friends, alumni and their family and friends, faculty and staff. Registration is required for meals and should be purchased in advance at TuftsHillel.org. Please print your confirmation email and bring it with you to all meals. For security purposes, registration for services is required. Current students can bring their Tufts ID in lieu of registration. Register at TuftsHillel.org.

8/22/19 1:00 PM

6 Monday, September 16, 2019

ART&LIVING

tuftsdaily.com

FILM REVIEW

‘Ad Astra’ puts style before substance by Tommy Gillespie Arts Editor

“Retro” may seem like a misplaced descriptor for “Ad Astra” (2019), director James Gray’s effort in Hollywood’s recent surfeit of introspective, big-budget sci-fi. The future of the Brad Pitt-headlined picture takes on a distinctly contemporary grimness. A man-made catastrophe threatens Earth’s survival. The moon, sporting a commercialized landing terminal complete with a Subway and a Hudson News, is beset with conflict over resources. Yet, for all the praise that has been heaped upon “Ad Astra,” what works and doesn’t work in the film boils down to one simple fact: It is, at its core, an old-fashioned space adventure. To its credit, “Ad Astra” knows that it cannot pass judgment on the future without engaging with the past, and it gives us a protagonist who knows this better than most. We meet astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) in a mesmerizing opening sequence, during which a power surge of unknown origin destroys an antenna that stretches to the highest echelons of the atmosphere and sends him hurtling down to Earth with a punctured parachute. A debriefing cuts quickly to the point. The series of cataclysmic surges originates from the vicinity of Neptune, where McBride’s long presumed dead father (Tommy Lee Jones) embarked on a mission in search of extraterrestrial life when Roy was a teenager. Fearing the elder McBride has gone rogue, the military higher-ups’ imperative is simple: find and stop him. Gray himself has noted the film’s parallels with the novella “Heart of Darkness” (1899). “Ad Astra” knows nothing if not its history, and stylistically, its 1960s Space Age-inspired world is its greatest triumph. Production designer Kevin Thompson crafts a stunning vision of outer space in the sleek, symmetrical tradition of designers like Ken Adam and films like “Gattaca” (1997). The worldbuilding of “Ad Astra,” with its pedestrian, matter-of-fact commercialism, is similarly inspired. Gray and co-writer

Ethan Gross produce a finely-tuned melding of the mid-century optimism of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) and the apocalyptic seediness of “Blade Runner” (1982). The future depicted in “Ad Astra” feels logical and foreseeable, with even Las Vegas landmark Vegas Vic making an appearance on the moon. Vegas Vic also hints at the Wild West-like lawlessness that pervades on the moon, including a lunar rover chase that ranks as one of the film’s highlights. Unfortunately, the writers do not give the characters the same care. Where cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema closely studies Pitt’s face, delicately sifting through his furrows and grimaces, the script reduces his character to a stock singular hero. An increasingly annoying thread of Pitt’s narration (framed, of course, as routine psychological evaluations) lazily paints broad-strokes of his personal conflicts: he’s mad at his dad for leaving, he becomes an expert in bottling up his feelings, his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him because he is too distant, yadda yadda yadda. “Ad Astra” does have intriguing ideas. For one, it chooses to make the McBrides explicitly religious, which provokes questions about the parallels between singularly-oriented progress and religious extremism. Where other films only pay lip service to humanity’s state of sheer loneliness, “Ad Astra” places this terrifying solitude front and center. The sight of McBride wrestling with his father below the rings of Neptune, hypnotically captured against the deep, mystifying blue of the eighth planet, sticks firmly in the mind. Yet, the film fails to emotionally connect with these ambitions. It squanders complex performances from Pitt and Jones and criminally wastes the rest of its cast, including Donald Sutherland and Ruth Negga. Its desire to isolate McBride ultimately turns watching the film into a guessing game of what sort of contrived nonsense the script will produce to get newly introduced characters out of the picture. Sci-fi often sacrifices richly layered personal storylines in service of its wider-reach-

VIA IMDB

The promotional poster for ‘Ad Astra’ (2019) is pictured. ing goals, but “Ad Astra” resorts to narrative cliches and clunky, on-the-nose dialogue too often for its philosophical aims to resonate. Without that crucial connection, “Ad

Astra” ultimately feels derivative, and it is a gorgeously rendered piece of cinema that, like its protagonist, hides its emotions behind a polished exterior..

INTERVIEW

Susannah Grant talks about creating Netflix’s powerful series ‘Unbelievable’ by Christopher Panella

Executive Social Media Editor

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault and rape. In December 2015, ProPublica and The Marshall Project published “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” an in-depth piece focusing on the survivors of a serial rapist and a police investigation that took place in 2011. The story begins with an 18-year-old girl who, for the purposes of the piece and a later “This American Life” podcast episode, goes by her middle name Marie. She told police in 2008 that she was raped, and then, with pressure and confusion, told them she made the story up. It wasn’t until long after that she received some sort of name clearing and closure, if that can even fully exist after horror and trauma. Now, Netflix’s “Unbelievable” (2019) adapts that story — names are changed, although locations and some details

remain the same — into a limited series that explores both the aftermath of the attack on Marie (Kaitlyn Dever) in Washington as well as the two detectives in Colorado who spearhead the hunt. Last Thursday, a roundtable of journalists sat down with Susannah Grant, a co-creator, executive producer, director and writer for “Unbelievable,” to talk about the background of the series and the importance of telling this particular story today. “I read the article that it is based on,” Grant said in a conference room at the Boston Harbor Hotel. “And I thought, at least for me, it was a new perspective on the issue of sexual assault, looking specifically at the investigative process both from the point of view of the victims of sexual assault, and from the point of view of a couple of really great investigators and what it takes to do that job as well as they did.” For Grant, “Unbelievable” takes the social issue and makes it intensely personal — the story of Marie is especially harrowing and sickening. It becomes clear throughout the series

that there are visible differences between how Marie’s case is handled when compared to other victims. The two detectives in Colorado, Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever), are more experienced in understanding trauma. “The detectives that Toni and Merritt’s characters are based on had both had a lot of experience with sexual assault,” Grant said, “and they understood how trauma effects the memory of an assault victim and what it does to the way they can tell a narrative.” The viewers of “Unbelievable” experience this broken narrative in the first episode of the series, as Marie remembers her attack in bits and pieces. These flashbacks are terrifying, as the viewer is put in the perspective of Marie, one eye peeking out of a blindfold, watching her attacker. “It was a very deliberate choice right from the get-go to make the experience really a subjective one. I didn’t see how we could portray that in a way that didn’t feel voyeuristic unless we were inside her experience,” Grant said.

She also notes that since the story relies on the questioning and doubt of Marie’s truthfulness, it was necessary to see these flashbacks from her view. It’s notable that throughout all of Marie’s story in “Unbelievable” — from moments right after the attack to working different jobs months and years later — Dever’s performance makes everything feel lived in, natural and raw. It’s inarguably one of the best performances of the year, and Grant mentioned the authentic effectiveness of the cast as a whole. “Merritt and Toni are just staggeringly good actors who embody something so fully and with such complexity and manage to find things in every moment that sometimes you had no idea were there, having written it,” she said. And for Dever, Grant heaped nothing but praise. “One of the things I love most about her character is that she can really embody

see UNBELIEVABLE, page 7

tuftsdaily.com

Monday, September 16, 2019 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

Writer, director, producer of ‘Unbelievable’ shares creative experience UNBELIEVABLE

continued from page 6 the full impact of this horrible trauma this young woman is going through and still never lose that little feeling of hope that it’s all going to turn out better. In every scene, she’s both simultaneously drowning and staying afloat.” Dever’s performance in “Unbelievable” comes a few months after “Booksmart” (2019), Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut. Grant noted that Dever told her she was

in her last week of shooting “Booksmart” when she came into audition. “It’s not just that she has range over the course of a year, she has that range in the course of a day,” Grant said. And Dever isn’t the only person showing range in “Unbelievable” — Grant herself occupied many roles, including showrunner, throughout production and commented that it was quite busy. Grant joked about letting her family know she’d see them in a couple of months.

“It’s busy, but it’s good busy,” she said. As for the aftermath of “Unbelievable,” Grant hopes there is an “active and engaged” conversation around the series and sexual assault. “There’s a shame associated with it, and if there can be some conversation that takes the shame off it and brings people out of the shadows, that’d be great.” “Unbelievable” is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.

Discover the unsearchable Discover the forest

Find a trail near you at DiscoverTheForest.org

Sammy Park Bangers and Bops

Mitski and the death of the American Dream

am a piano lesson dropout. Despite my parents’ best wishes, the only keyboard I touch these days is on my laptop and the only tune I know how to play is the storied “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” So this column, ostensibly centered around not only bangers but also bops, will not be about chord progressions or the history of music genres. Rather, it’s an exploration into lyrical content and an excuse for me to overshare (quirkily). It would be a gross underestimation (and misinterpretation) of Mitski Miyawaki’s songwriting prowess to say that “Your Best American Girl” (2016) is a romantic pining anthem. While the single on her fourth album begins with Mitski crooning, “If I could, I’d be your little spoon/And kiss your fingers forevermore,” it progresses into a ballad that cuts to the very core of the Asian American experience. “Your Best American Girl” is about more than a singular romantic relationship and more than Mitski wishing to be with this “all-American boy.” Throughout the song, Mitski is not only mourning the loss of a potential boyfriend but also the loss of the American Dream, accented with riffs from a distorted guitar. For most Asian American communities, the American Dream has been defined by assimilation. Ideally, we name sons after Jesus’ 12 apostles and daughters Esther or Grace; we go to college and we’re all mathematicians. This blueprint that the Asian American community has often followed has made us become the so-called model minority. Besides the offensive assumption that other communities of color should follow in our lead, it is even more troubling that for some, this label is a source of pride. However, despite the denigrating title of model minority, we are still firstly defined by race, not nationality. Assimilation is not about deconstructing the hierarchy that privileges whiteness but about trying to assert proximity to whiteness. In the Supreme Court case Ozawa v. United States, Takao Ozawa did not challenge the racist law that prohibited the naturalization of Asians. Instead, his argument was that Asians were “free white persons.” This is where Mitski enters the conversation. With the line “I guess I couldn’t help trying to be your best American girl,” Mitski summarizes the Asian American journey to assimilation. The track builds up to a layered, loud heart-breaking chorus where Mitski declares that the differences between her and this man cut deeper than that he’s “the sun” and she’s “the moon”; they are inherently racial. Her use of “all-American” is a loaded gun. By evoking the imagery of the WASPy high school linebacker, contrasted with “your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me,” she can assert that there is an in-group and out-group relationship: even in the supposed post-racial American melting pot. Her conclusion that she “finally” approves of herself is larger than that the approval of the all-American boy’s mother doesn’t matter. By declaring that the (dis)approval of this mother is irrelevant, Mitski is advocating for the idea that the worth of people of color is not dependent on whether or not they are accepted by white America. Whether or not proud “model” minorities are willing to accept this, the truth is that the approval of Asian Americans has always been conditional and tied to the idea of subservience. Despite every attempt to be the good kind of immigrants, proximity to whiteness is not and should not be construed as equality. Sammy Park is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Sammy can be reached at samantha.park@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN&GIMES | Monday, September 16, 2019

F &G FUN & GAMES

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Austin: “Guess the length.”

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

SUDOKU

Virgo (Aug. 23–Sept. 22)

Discuss arising financial opportunities. Listen to all views. Draw up plans and don’t rush. This could be a profitable move. Keep it practical.

Difficulty Level: The acorn head becoming sentient.

Friday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

Monday – Friday

With your Tufts ID

We Accept

373 Main St, Medford

(781) 396-8337

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

LETTER FROM THE OPINION EDITOR

We encourage community commentary Dear Tufts, The news published in the Tufts Daily impacts all of us and cries out for active conversation. The recent investigative report on Saudi involvement with this institution is shocking. Commentary about legacy admissions prompts questions about the future of our university. A compelling and beautiful review of Lana Del Rey’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell” (2019) perhaps influences many students’ play-

list. Whether you’re unsettled, intrigued, infuriated or curious, your voice helps to shape campus discussions. Whether you love our work, or you disagree, I encourage you to write letters to the editor and op-eds. I encourage you to write, whether it is a 100-word letter on a recent news piece, or a 600-word conversation starter. I want to hear from you: Did you love Chris Panella’s poetic adoration of

Lana, or were you saddened by the conditions students lived through during the Miller and Houston renovations? Tell us. Community engagement and conversation is the highest purpose of journalism. Sincerely, Tys Sweeney Executive Opinion Editor opinion@tuftsdaily.com

CARTOON

Back to school moods

BY NASRIN LIN

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

Monday, September 16, 2019

John Little Gray Areas Matter

Athletic preference in college admissions

ecruiting athletes to selective universities is a tricky issue. Opponents of the practice claim that the system unfairly gives advantages to students who possess no differentiating academic talent, or worse — are less qualified than their non-athlete counterparts. Proponents cite the high rate of minority participation in the collegiate staple sports — basketball and football — relying on an argument not dissimilar to that used by the architects of affirmative action. Today, we’ll take a look at athlete admissions at elite colleges. According to former Dartmouth admissions officer Michele Hernandez, approximately 40% of first-year classes are reserved for what are called “hooked students” — i.e. minorities, legacies and athletes. Half of those reservations are for athletes, making it the largest group of hooked students by a wide margin. Not only are athletes the largest single group of hooked students, but they are also given the largest boost in admissions. William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, found that at 30 selective schools in the U.S., athletes received an average 48% increase in odds for admission versus 25% and 18% to legacy applicants and minorities respectively. Light into Harvard’s athletic recruitment policies was buried in a 168-page report that the university’s admissions office provided the public during its legal battle involving allegations of discrimination against Asian American applicants. According to Harvard’s legal filings, Harvard relies on a system of ranking athlete applicants on a scale from one to six, with a score of six reserved for applicants with the highest grades and test scores, and one for the opposite — an athlete with little to no qualifying material for a Harvard admissions letter. Of applicants with a score of four, 70% received admissions letters during the last cycle. During that same cycle, non-athlete applicants with identical credentials were admitted 0.076% of the time, which is nearly a staggering 1000 times less than their athletic counterparts. Is there any ethical justification for these numbers? Some groups claim that the schools are providing kids with opportunities at institutions that they would not otherwise have. In other words, the beneficiaries of athletic boosts are disadvantaged minority students who need the advantage over wealthy white individuals. It is true that at many collegiate football and basketball players are black, but in reality this is largely insignificant. In the Ivy League, 65% of varsity athletes are white. In the NESCAC, 79% of varsity athletes are white. In both conferences, athletic scholarships are prohibited so schools aren’t able to promise prospective athletes from low-income backgrounds support at the front door. The result is that a large portion of recruited athletes in the Ivy League and NESCAC come from affluent families. According to the Harvard Crimsons survey of the Class of 2022, 46.3% of first-year athletes come from families with annual incomes over $250,000. Only 3.7% of recruited athletes came from families with incomes less than $40,000. Some part of this admissions process benefits disadvantaged athletes, but largely it seems to be a mechanism that benefits the wealthy who can pay for the expensive equipment, travel and team dues that are required to perform at a high athletic level. John Little is a sophomore studying computer science. John can be reached at john. little@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Monday, September 16, 2019

EDITORIAL

Sensitivity is necessary when mandating instruction in diaspora cultures Tufts University prides itself on diversity, and when it comes to classes in non-Western cultures, the university does remarkably well about hiring instructors with roots to the heritage they teach. It is regrettable that this excellence does not extend to classes on South Asian culture, half of which are led by instructors of Western descent. Two of four cultural instructors in the distribution this semester are white. This fall, Tufts students walked into the Jackson Dance Lab for their first class on Kathak, a traditional North Indian dance. They were greeted by a Caucasian dance instructor wearing a salwar kameez — a South Asian outfit comprised of baggy pants and a long top. She handed out mithai, a sweet dessert, arranged neatly in a colorfully foiled box. Students of the South

Asian diaspora in the class had enrolled in hopes of rekindling a connection with their Indian roots through dance, yet there they stood: listening to a white woman informing them that her mastery of Kathak entitles her to enlighten her students about South Asian culture and society. They are not alone. “Intro to Hinduism” (REL-0044) is taught by a white professor, too. Though well-versed in the field of religion with decades of expertise in India and Hinduism, he does not come from Indian roots. Those who have grown up in a Hindu household will recognize that Indian culture and Hinduism are deeply entangled with one another and find that an outside perspective is not as useful as a native one when seeking a deep dive. One can study Kathak or the intricacies of Hinduism as a religion, but rarely

can expertise replace experience. Tufts acknowledges this and has taken this into consideration for other diasporas represented on our campus by hiring instructors whose lived experience is embedded in the culture that they teach to their students. The South Asian community continues to stand alone. The majority of other non-Western culture classes are taught by professors and instructors who are of that culture. “Africa in the Middle East” (AFR-0047/ ARB-0091), a course that takes students “through the history (19th century onwards) into contemporary political and cultural life to think about the complex presence of Africa in the Middle East,” is taught by an instructor of Middle Eastern descent. Within the Tufts dance program the course “African Music &

Dance Ensemble” (MUS-0078) is taught by a “prominent master drummer from the Ashanti Region of Ghana.” Culture is more than fact; it is the emotion, habit and ritual formed from accumulated and shared experience. It flows from community. Why does the Tufts administration acknowledge this for Russian, African and Middle Eastern culture, but not South Asian culture? The university must be cognizant of the complexities of culture when hiring instructors for culture classes, especially since it is a requirement for undergraduates to enroll in non-Western cultural instruction. When the university abrogates this responsibility, it is imperative that instructors do their utmost to make students of diaspora cultures feel welcome and empowered.

THIS IS AN AD THAT SAYS YOU SHOULDN’T DRIVE HIGH

Sports

Monday, September 16, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Arjun Balaraman Off the Crossbar

A rivalry that became a rout

he summer of 2016 signaled a time of excitement for soccer fans in Manchester, U.K. After Leicester City’s miraculous run to the Premier League title during the 2015–16 season, both Manchester City and Manchester United appointed new, world-class managers as the sides looked to rebound and mount title challenges. City named Pep Guardiola, while José Mourinho took over from Louis van Gaal at United, after a dreary two years for the Dutchman. Years earlier, the two managers were at the helm of Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively in Spain, where they formed a legendary rivalry coaching two of the best teams in the game’s history, and English fans expected a similar battle. Fast forward three years, and City, living up to the expectations, has established itself as one of the best teams in recent memory, while United has struggled and barely limped to a sixth-place finish last season. Where did it all go wrong for United? For starters, it was never going to be easy for the Red Devils after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson — their legendary manager under whom they won 13 Premier League titles in 21 years. But even the gloomiest of United fans could not have imagined the past six years, where United has landed outside the top four more often than not. Worse still, after Sir Alex labeled crosstown rivals City as simply United’s “noisy neighbors,” Guardiola’s success means that the Red Devils are still second fiddle even in their own city. From the very start of the post-Ferguson era (CEO David Gill, responsible for all transfer activity, also left simultaneously), United lacked a real vision. It churned through managers: David Moyes, then Van Gaal (who later revealed he was never once asked about his soccer philosophy before being appointed) and finally Mourinho. It chased top available players with no strategy — breaking its transfer record for diminutive midfielder Juan Mata despite acquiring the burly 6-foot-4-inch Marouane Fellaini to play the same position months earlier. United opted for quick fixes instead of logically thinking out its rebuilding process. City, on the other hand, granted Guardiola full autonomy, resources and time to shape the squad according to his vision of how he wanted the side to play. In his three years at the club, it has spent more money than any other club in England — as Pep got rid of the dead wood while bringing in the players he wanted. The results are evident. Now, finally, United seems to have committed to manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for the long term, as he rebuilds the squad from the ground up. Ole has shown a clear strategy in the transfer market, seeking out young, athletic players. Guardiola’s City and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have established themselves at the top of the modern game, but both managers struggled in the early parts of their tenure until new players were brought in and the teams learned their new systems. While the results haven’t been there yet for Solskjaer, the Red Devils must learn from their bitter rivals and persevere with his long-term vision for the storied club. Arjun Balaraman is a junior studying quantitative economics. Arjun can be reached at arjun.balaraman@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Monday, September 16, 2019

Jumbos take down 3-time defending NESCAC champions Trinity

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Quarterback Ryan McDonald (LA‘19) prepares to pass the ball while (from left to right) offensive line Nick Roy (LA‘19), sophomore wide receiver Tanner Gordon and offensive line Dan MacDonald (LA‘19) block defenders in the homecoming football game at Bello Field against Bates on Sept. 29, 2018. by Noah Stancroff

Assistant Sports Editor

The Jumbos opened the 2019 season with an impressive 14–8 victory over the three-time defending NESCAC champions the Trinity Bantams on Saturday at Ellis Oval. Tufts’ win marks its first win against Trinity since the 2007 season. Additionally, the final score of Saturday’s game deviated from recent history in that Trinity has put more than 20 points on the board against Tufts in every meeting since 2012. Tufts coach Jay Civetti, who is a Trinity alumnus and was a captain for the Bantam football team, spoke about the win. “Any time you get to get a win in this league it feels great,” Civetti said. “I was certainly happy for our guys and happy for our program. But again, it’s one game and while it’s a big one we need to make sure we’re moving on from it.” The sturdy Jumbo defense led the way as its allowed the Bantams to gain only 281 yards of total offense, 189 yards fewer than their meeting just 11 months ago. The Trinity offense only found the end zone once and was never able to put the football through the uprights, as it missed its one extra-point attempt and its one field goal attempt early in the third quarter. The Bantam defense was responsible for the other two points that the team added to the scoreboard when junior running back Mike Pedrini was tackled for a loss in the end zone. The defense was led by senior co-captain and linebacker Greg Holt, who totaled 10 tackles along with a standout performance by sophomore defensive lineman Jovan Nenadovic, who added nine tackles, five of which were for a loss. Nenadovic’s five tackles for loss and three sacks doubled and tripled his numbers from the 2018 season, respectively. For his breakout performance, Nenadovic was also honored as the Jumbos’ first NESCAC Defensive Player of the Week for the 2019 season.

When asked about the honor, Nenadovic emphasized that his performance — including his three sacks — was a result of following his assignments. “I kind of just wanted to go out and … just do what I’m supposed to do, follow my gap assignments,” Nenadovic said. “With the rest of the defensive line behind to fill their gap so I was just the one open [to make the sack].” The Jumbo defense was firing on all cylinders as they held a Bantam offense led by the 2018 NESCAC Co-Rookie of the Year, sophomore quarterback Seamus Lambert, to only 111 yards passing. To add insult to injury, the Trinity quarterbacks, Lambert and senior Jordan Vazzano, were each intercepted once by Tufts’ stingy defensive backs. Additionally, the Jumbo secondary was able to successfully limit the damage done by All-NESCAC First Team receivers junior Jonathan Girard and senior Koby Schofer. The Bantams finished the game with a third-down conversion rate just above 13% as they were forced to punt the ball nine different times. Civetti spoke about how they worked around Lambert, praising his team’s work ethic against a formidable Trinity opponent. “It was certainly part of our emphasis to make sure we were getting [Lambert] off his launch point and getting him uncomfortable in the pocket,” Civetti said. “Ultimately, our kids just took the coaching and did an awesome job doing that.” On the other side of the ball, the loss of the 2018 NESCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year, former quarterback Ryan McDonald (LA’19), did not seem to hurt the Jumbos. While the offense was unable to take advantage of several key opportunities, they performed in a manner that would eventually lead the Jumbos to victory. Senior quarterback Jacob Carroll piloted the offense from under center after only having

attempted one pass in his previous three seasons in the brown and blue. Carroll spoke about his first start for the Jumbos and praised his team for its stellar performance on both sides of the ball. “It felt good to be playing again,” Carroll said. “I really love being out there with my team … I thought we really played well and the defense played a really good game.” The infrequent but ever-important scoring began with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter when Girard went over his defender to come down with the ball in the corner of the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play. After a missed point-after attempt, Trinity took a 6–0 lead, its only lead of the afternoon. While the Jumbos took a little longer to get settled offensively, they finally found the end zone early in the second quarter. The drive, which started at Tufts’ 16-yard line, got off to a hot start as Carroll completed a 44-yard pass to junior wide receiver Brendan Dolan. A few plays later Carroll found Pedrini in the flat, who broke a one-on-one attempted foot tackle and sprinted into the end zone from 12 yards out. After the Jumbos took the lead with the extra point they wouldn’t look back. Throughout the rest of the second half, neither team would add to the scoreboard, as neither the Bantams nor Jumbos were able to put together a drive more than seven plays. The beginning of the second half pushed the momentum in Tufts’ direction. After the Bantams missed a field goal attempt on their first drive, the Jumbos took over at their own 20-yard line. Tufts spent the next five minutes moving 80 yards down the field. The drive was saved by Carroll’s legs on a fourth-and-two play in which coach Civetti elected to go for it. On the Trinity 18-yard line, Carroll scrambled for eight yards to gain the crucial first down. Several plays later, Carroll found senior tight end Jack Donohue in the end zone for Carroll’s

second touchdown completion of the day, giving the Jumbos a 14–6 lead. Carroll credited both his offensive line and the performance of his receivers when asked about his team’s lengthy and successful offensive drives. “The [offensive line] did a good job getting me some time back there,” Carroll said. “Guys made good catches and good runs after the catch.” After a safety by the Bantams defense in the fourth quarter, the score was 14–8. The Bantams got the ball back with 44 seconds left at their own 37-yard line, needing just a touchdown and extra point to pull off the comeback. On a crucial third and 10, recently inserted Trinity quarterback Vazzano found Schofer at the Tufts 18-yard line for a 34-yard completion, which was then moved to the nine-yard line following a penalty on the Jumbos. For a moment, it looked as though Trinity was destined to get their 12th straight victory against the Jumbos. However, two plays later, with virtually no time left on the clock, Tufts junior linebacker John DeLuca explosively met Vazzano in the backfield, bringing him down for a threeyard loss in the backfield, promptly ending Trinity’s comeback hopes. With no timeouts remaining, the Bantams were unable to stop the running clock following the sack. Upon the realization of their victory, hordes of Jumbo players stormed the field to celebrate the stunning defeat of one of their most bitter NESCAC rivals. The Jumbos look to continue their winning ways on Saturday, as they travel to Williamstown, Mass., to take on the Williams Ephs (0–1). The Ephs fell to the Middlebury Panthers in a close battle, and they will be looking to redeem themselves as they host the Jumbos for their first game on home soil this season.