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Women’s ski team closes out historic season see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
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VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 39
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
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Tufts announces review of its relationship with Sackler family by Charlie Driver News Editor
The university has recruited Donald K. Stern, a former U.S. Attorney for the district of Massachusetts, to review Tufts’ relationship to the Sackler family and its pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, according to an email the Office of President Anthony Monaco sent this morning to the Tufts community. Tufts has a long-standing relationship with the Sackler family. The university received multiple gifts from the Sackler family, including a 1980 endowment that established the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Studies, as well as the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education, according to Monaco’s email. The Sackler family also funded the Master of Science in Pain Research, Education & Policy (PREP) degree program within the Sackler school, according to a Jan. 15 memorandum from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. The nature of this relationship has been called into question in the wake of recent litigation and controversy over the role that the Sackler family and Purdue played in the emergence of the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 200,000 people have died from overdoses involving prescription opioids since OxyContin, a painkiller manufactured by Purdue Pharma, came to market in 1996. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey brought a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in June 2018, according to the New York Times. The Jan. 15 memorandum detailed the state’s case against the company and the Sacklers. In the docu-
ment, Healey accuses the Sackler family and Purdue of pushing doctors to prescribe OxyContin at higher doses and for longer periods despite knowing that this put patients at a higher risk of addiction and overdose. The cities of Medford and Somerville both filed lawsuits related to the case. Specifically, Medford is suing the Sackler family while Somerville will sue Purdue Pharma and other companies. In addition, according to CNN, more than 600 municipalities and Native American tribes have sued Purdue in federal court. Healey’s case against Purdue and the Sacklers involves Tufts’ relationship with the family. The memorandum cites the family’s “intense relationship” with Tufts as an effort to promote Purdue’s products. The memorandum devotes particular attention to Tufts’ PREP program, which it alleges was influenced by Purdue Pharma to use the university as a platform to convince doctors to use its products. Purdue responded to these allegations in its motion to dismiss, quoted in a March 4 Daily article. The company denied the claims put forth by Healey and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, asserting that the links between the company and the opioid epidemic were fabricated and sensationalized. In the wake of these revelations, Tufts students have expressed a desire for the university to end its association with the Sacklers. According to a March 11 Daily article, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution calling for the university to “release information regarding potential complicity by the Tufts administration in allowing the School of
Medicine’s academic curricula to be unduly influenced by Purdue.” According to the article, a group of students met with the administration earlier this month to discuss the issue in person. The email from Monaco references the concern of the Tufts community. “The anguish that opioids have inflicted on so many individuals and families is tragic and deserves our serious attention,” the email says. “I know that many members of our community are concerned about the involvement of Tufts University with members of the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.” Stern, who is employed by the law firm of Yurko, Salvesen & Remz, P.C., will review “the activities of the PREP program and other programs related to opioids that received funding from the Sackler family, the Sackler family foundations, and Purdue Pharma,” according to Monaco’s email. The email states that Stern will determine if the relationship was within Tufts’ policies and best practices. According to Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins, following the review, Stern will present his findings to a group of academics drawn from inside and outside the university, and together Stern and this group will produce recommendations for the university. The email specifies that the final recommendations will be shared with the Tufts community and says that changes to Tufts’ existing relationship with Sacklers will be made if needed. Critics of Tufts’ relationship with the Sacklers found positives in the announcement of the review but were quick to highlight what they saw as its limitations.
The advocacy group Sack Sackler, which is comprised of a dozen or so undergraduates, graduate students and alumni of Tufts, according to member Nathan Foster (LA ’18), wrote in a statement posted on the group’s Facebook page that the investigation will delay action that they believe should be taken. “We simply do not need to wait on [the outcome of Stern’s investigation] to take decisive steps — President Monaco’s reluctance to act comes across as delay, not deliberation,” the statement reads. Senior Jonah O’Mara Schwartz, a TCU Senator and co-author of the resolution calling for transparency, agreed, explaining that Tufts knows enough from the Healey memorandum to act now. “I would argue that even a lot of the current evidence that’s been released from the Maura Healey investigation warrants removing the Sackler name from some of the buildings,” O’Mara Schwartz said. Collins explained that there is no concrete timetable for the review. “Mr. Stern has been told to take the time that he needs to conduct a thorough and comprehensive review,” Collins said. As reported by The Guardian, Columbia University and the University of Washington have both announced that they have stopped accepting gifts from the Sackler family. In fall 2017, the University of Washington ended a postdoctoral program funded by the Sackler family, according to Crosscut. Collins said that the Tufts review will not be influenced by the decisions of its peer institutions and will only focus on the university’s own relationship with the Sacklers and Purdue.
halls and alleviate several of the issues on-campus housing faces. “Tufts needs to add beds on campus, but it also needs to ensure that existing beds are in well-maintained residential facilities,” he said. “Both goals are achieved when we invest deferred maintenance and capital funding into housing projects.” While Hogan described updating in Harleston as comparably less intensive than renovating Tilton and Bush, a significant change to the building will come in the form of electronic dorm room lock installations. Bush and Tilton will experience more extensive work as pipes, bathrooms and lighting will be replaced or renovated to enhance the overall living experience, in addition to new common space furnishing.
“The planned work will bring vibrancy to the spaces and provide the residents more inviting options to gather outside of their rooms,” Hogan said. “The new bathrooms will maintain the previous single-use bathroom layouts, but new tile, lighting and fixtures will create a much cleaner environment.” Regarding changes coming to 123 Packard Ave., the updates will focus on adding standard dorm features such as security cameras, keycard access and WiFi, according to Hogan. Nevertheless, the distinctive features of the former fraternity house, such as the basement, will not be subject to any major construction. “No construction is planned in the common spaces, except perhaps for a new coat of paint,” Hogan said. For Andrew Vu, a current resident of Tilton, the coming changes are essential for the sake
of keeping the building a sound living space. “The bathrooms are disgusting,” Vu, a firstyear, said. “This dorm is suffering to a point [that] it is sometimes inhospitable.” Georgia Moore, another Tilton resident, echoed Vu’s thoughts. Having experienced everything from closet doors falling off hinges to broken mailboxes and drying machines, Moore, a first-year, said she is ready for Tilton to change. “Tilton needs to catch up to other dorms,” she said. Despite her grievances, Moore maintains that living in Tilton is an important and positive aspect of her first-year experience. “Tilton builds a community around the idea that Tilton is horrible. Honestly, it makes the people closer,” she said. “In the end, I have a roof over my head and a warm building to sleep in.”
Tufts to renovate several residence halls over the summer by Andres Borjas Contributing Writer
Tufts has scheduled renovations for Bush, Tilton and Harleston Halls this summer, as well as 123 Packard Ave., the former house of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity, which the university purchased last month and will transform into a residence hall starting fall 2019. Christopher Hogan, construction program manager, said the upcoming restorations are part of the deferred maintenance program. “[It] can be easily described as periodic upkeep to make sure all of our buildings are operating at an acceptable standard,” Hogan said in an email to the Daily. According to Hogan, the university selected Tilton and Bush for maintenance to preserve the standard of quality in residential
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, March 26, 2019
THE TUFTS DAILY Elie Levine Editor in Chief
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Experimental College courses announced for fall 2019
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Tufts’ Experimental College (ExCollege) announced the new courses for the fall of 2019 in a March 7 email to the Tufts community. According to ExCollege Board Member and Mechanical Engineering Professor of the Practice James Intriligator, the focus of this year’s programming will be research and problem-based instruction. The ExCollege offers courses outside the range of normal Tufts classes. Undergraduate students, graduate students and other experts teach the courses. The ExCollege Board selected the courses from an initial list of more than 700 potential courses, Intriligator said. Efforts to include students extend to the selection of classes, with students and faculty equally represented on the board, according to Director of the ExCollege Howard Woolf. The shared responsibility for selecting ExCollege courses allows for input from both experienced professors and students in the Tufts community, according to Woolf. One student on the board, May Hong, believes ExCollege courses challenge students to think differently within the classroom. “They’re interested in pushing beyond the conventional classroom structure and challenging students to creatively pur-
sue their academic interests,” Hong, a junior, said. “Classes reflect the world we live in.” The ExCollege has expanded the academic opportunities for Tufts students, according to Woolf. He explained that the courses offered by the ExCollege represent students’ interests and current events. “By design, the ExCollege does not want to look for specific courses,” Woolf said. “We want to see what comes in as a barometer for what’s really out there in student culture.” Woolf noted that the search for faculty often includes reaching out to faculty of color. Woolf told the Daily that in this past round of applications, the board reviewed many proposals for courses on the topic of immigration. Maggie Morgan, an immigration law attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and a graduate of Harvard Law School will teach a course entitled Seeking Refuge: Central American Asylum Seekers in the U.S. The class will explore the topic of seeking asylum in the United States with a particular focus on immigrants coming from Central America, according to Intriligator. “It is an important class in this particular moment in time … [and an] important skill for students to get or be exposed to,” Intriligator explained. Hong echoed Intriligator’s sentiments. “[ExCollege courses] reflect the world
we live in in such an immediate way that it often makes them seem novel and unexpected against the backdrop of traditional higher education,” Hong said. ExCollege curators take into account that professors have individual sets of guidelines and expectations for each course, according to Intriligator. The course selection and rotation every semester allows for the curriculum to shift along with Tufts students’ interests in art, politics and life skills. As an example, Personal Career Development, a lecture series taught for athletes by Greg Victory, executive director of career services, is tailored to Tufts sophomores and juniors and examines the transition to the professional world for student-athletes, according to the fall course list. Intriligator and Woolf both expect the repeat class Argentine Tango: Culture, Music, and the Dance, taught by Harvard Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature Thomas Wisniewski, to be among the most popular as it combines analysis, history and practice, according to Woolf. Hong is looking forward to #outfitoftheday: Clothing, Culture and the Global Implications of Getting Dressed, which will discuss the implications between culture of the global fashion industry and sustainability.
CORRECTION A previous online version of the Feb. 27 article “4 candidates campaign in Trustee Election, university works to boost turnout” unintentionally omitted a section of the original print article. The article has been updated to include the entirety of the original article. The Daily regrets this error.
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Allison Morgenstern Making my (Den)mark
Abroad Housing
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oday, I went to my first ever real soccer game. Scratch that — my first ever football game. Am I European yet? It was a good team — Copenhagen won — but I’m definitely still a bigger fan of American football. This football match is just one of the many activities my housemates and I have done together. I live in the Visual Arts Learning and Living Community (LLC), so we have weekly events that incorporate either visual or performance arts or other cultural topics. I was pretty nervous about living in the arts house at first. I mean, I was nervous about living with new people in general, but I was intimidated by all the talented people with whom I was going to be sharing an apartment. It turns out that everyone is good at something different, and everyone is really respectful and encouraging of each other. We all love sharing our artwork and seeing what we all can do. Additionally, it was really nice at the beginning of the semester to have an immediate circle of friends. We’d go out to restaurants, find new bars to try, get lost in different grocery stores trying to read Danish and attempt to figure out public transportation together. After two months, we’re no longer getting lost, but we still spend a lot of our free time together. Each week, we have an LLC night, during which we go to some new art exhibit or a show of some sort. We join with the Performance Art LLC (our downstairs neighbors) for all our events. Some of my favorite events have been a professional street art performance, a visit to a contemporary art exhibit and a trip to see a comedic, Tony-award winning play. It’s been really great to have exposure to these activities that I otherwise would not have discovered on my own. Each LLC also has to complete a semester-long project and for ours, we’ve chosen to paint a mural. The best part is that we got approved to paint on an actual wall in one of the DIS program’s buildings. I’ll literally get to leave my mark here in Copenhagen, even if only DIS people get to see it. We all came up with our own sketches for the mural, but ended up combining most of our ideas. Of course, we had to include the iconic, colorful Nyhavn buildings, but the mural will also include a Danish flag on which we will write phrases and words that describe our favorite things about Copenhagen and DIS. It’s super cute and a little cheesy but I think it’ll be a perfect addition. I really lucked out with my housing. Not only am I living on the same street as the DIS class buildings, which is ideal for “commuting” to my 8:30 a.m. classes, but I’ve also gotten to meet really great new people. There can definitely be some negatives to living with a big group, but for the most part, my LLC has been a really great part of my abroad experience, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Allie Morgenstern is a junior studying child study and human development. Allie can be reached at allison.morgenstern@tufts.edu.
Features
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Alumni Q&A: Wilnelia Rivera Part II by Amelia Becker Staff Writer
The Tufts Daily (TD): After Tufts, you got into politics. How did that start? Wilnelia Rivera (WR): I actually started off as a union organizer with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). What made that a unique experience, and what also made it political, was that it was a multifaceted organizing campaign that I was part of. It’s called the Resurrection campaign — Resurrection Healthcare is a chain of Catholic hospitals in the greater Chicago area. And by multifaceted, what I mean is it wasn’t your traditional workers’ rights campaign where you’re trying to get workers to sign on to a card and be part of a union — it also had a community organizing element. We had a legislative organizing element because we were also trying to organize a safe staffing bill around it. There was also a corporate responsibility element. So coming out of college, first of all, I actually got training to be an organizer, which is not something that a lot of people get. And then second, I got an experience over a threeyear period where I was exposed to all the different kinds of organizing that can exist. In experiencing all of those different forms of organizing, I realized the part that I really enjoyed the most was the pieces that brought community, politics and planning together. Coming out of Tufts, I struggled a lot because a lot of people just told me I should go to law school. I ended up in organizing because I actually took the time to ask friends, to ask peers that were a little bit older than me, and tell them, “I don’t really know what I’m doing.” I knew I didn’t want to be a social worker because I don’t have the patience for that — it’s just not who I am. I believe in meeting people where they are, and more importantly, allowing them to build the capacity to make their own change. Because when people don’t have agency, you can give people subsidies and you can do whatever is necessary for someone to survive, but what are they going to do beyond that survival? Within the union organizing world, I saw that politics and planning were about changing systems, and ultimately when you change systems, you change the capacity of all the actors in any region, whatever the issue might be. I grew up in an immigrant family where the number one goal was to get good grades and go to college. I grew up in a family that was raised in a dictatorship. My mom was the first one to go into a democracy when she came to the United States. So my time at AFSCME was important because it really gave me an introduction, beyond just what the labor history and the books said, and the reality of how all this stuff really works. The reality of what I learned was that, if I’m going to do this work anywhere, I’m going to do it at home — I wanted to dedicate my life in service to the place that gave so much to me. It’s also why I ended up focusing on state-level policy, even though that’s not what I studied at all when I went to college. I do think it’s better to spend more time on domestic policy, especially at the state level, and that’s why I’ve really forged my work around that. Neighbor to Neighbor was a perfect combination of all those things. It did local organizing in local communities. It did capacity building and political education within those communities. It did lobbying at the state house, and it did political campaigns with labor and other organizations. So I really got the
COURTESY OF WILNELIA RIVERA
Wilnelia Rivera poses for a picture. opportunity to be the jack of all trades, but also got to focus on the parts of the trade that I really enjoyed: the political pieces, the coalition pieces, the policy pieces. What I experienced a lot were environments where the results of the work were more rewarding for the people doing the work than for the people they were trying to impact. For me, I’ve always told myself I don’t and I can’t be a part of that, because of how I grew up, where my family comes from and because I actually do believe that we can bring the Commonwealth forward and the country forward if we start looking at our problems from a different perspective, instead of having an outdated debate about what the right answer is, because we’re all wrong. So for me, my pursuit and my desire to eventually leave the regular organizing world really came out of that analysis — I really want to think about this work and I want to think about solutions in a creative way and not necessarily because the politics of today say that’s possible. As a strategist, that is your job, but you’re really trying to think about things more expansively. I’m a big believer that we need to think in Cadillac terms so that wherever we end up it’s a better option, because when we think in terms of just a small step, what we get is nothing. I think that’s also part of what led me to become a consultant, because the reality is that when working for a state government, or working for an elected official or working for an organization, you have to adhere to protocol in a way that’s very different. Whereas as a consultant there’s more nuance. I can get to pick and choose who I get to work with. TD: Before you started out consulting on your own, what were you doing?
WR: I was working in Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration. I was the director of external affairs and I was a senior staff member there. While I was there, I was also finishing up my planning degree at Tufts. The combination of those two experiences is where I really decided that I wanted to take my political experience that I had acquired up to that point and really combine it with policy and projects. I really wanted to do implementation work. I wanted to get away from campaigns and everything to do with that. Before the governor’s office my political home, as I always like to describe, was as an organizer. I spent 10 years as an organizer. I started off in Chicago, right after I graduated Tufts, at AFSCME Council 31 as a union organizer. I was there for maybe two or three years, and some of my friends kept telling me that this amazing man was running for governor of Massachusetts and that I should come home. And that man was Deval Patrick. At the time I didn’t know who he was, but I wanted any reason at that time to come home — so I did. I ended up working at Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts as a political organizer and became the political and policy director there. Honestly, that’s where I spent the majority of the last 16 years. I always called it my political home because it’s where I really learned the nuance behind doing this work. You can learn the training, you can go to school, you can do the entry-level work, but it’s not really until you understand the nuance that you can really get good at understanding what it takes for systems and people and oppor-
see RIVERA, page 5
F e at u r e s
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Wilnelia Rivera speaks on her political experiences, career after Tufts RIVERA
continued from page 4 tunity to come together to really make an impact. I was at Neighbor to Neighbor for six years before I went on to the governor’s office and from there launched my career into being a consultant. Even though I was really comfortable doing that work for a couple years, I realized after the 2016 election that even though my life was pretty comfortable at that point, I’d pretty much achieved the things I thought that I’d always wanted, especially thinking about it from the viewpoint of my younger self. I just realized that my life was too comfortable, so I started doing political research for donor advisors here locally working as an executive coach to reproductive justice organizations, doing movement-building work which felt very safe. Soon after doing this research and coaching work, I sat down with Ayanna Pressley. Even though I was always a big supporter, the last thing I ever would’ve thought was that it would’ve been me running this race. At that time, I took a six-year break because I, as a woman of color, had reached the glass ceiling really quickly at 30 years old, and that was a lot for me to handle. That’s really what motivated me to do my consulting work because I was like, “I can’t wait for the opportunity when I have to create it.” I think that that’s one of the things that I’m always deeply appreciative of from my time in the governor’s office of Governor Patrick because working for him — and also being part of his [reelection campaign] before that — you really get to understand that there comes a point where you make a choice on whether you can create your opportunity when it’s not available. That’s an easy thing for anyone to say and I understand that there’s a lot of priv-
ilege behind a statement like that, but at the end of the day, if the opportunity is not being given to you, you have to engineer it — I’m just a big believer in that. I share that because it’s what got me to say “yes” to Ayanna, because I knew that many people in the ether would say over and over again, “Why would she run, it’s not her turn, this is Massachusetts, you’re not supposed to do these things, it’s the cardinal rule.” The reality is the majority of my working career, and also my [life] as an adult, in the district, whether that was in Somerville or whether that was in parts of Cambridge or in Boston which I’ve been in the majority of that time, it was almost like this is the ultimate graduation. Even though maybe she and I really believed that we could win, it took us a long time to get everyone else to jump on the bandwagon with us. I think we both recognized that we knew what the path was to get there; it was just a matter of putting basically everything we’ve ever worked for at that point on the table in order to really make it all come together. It’s one of those things where the result could have been very different obviously, but I’m glad that I’m on the other side of it. TD: What was your role with U.S. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s campaign? WR: I was the chief strategist, which is a fancy way of saying that I hired everyone. I built all the policies, and by policy I mean infrastructure policy — who’s going to get hired by when, contracts, etc. My particular specialty within all of that was data integration analytics as it relates to electoral victories and electoral maps. So this entails crunching numbers and then understanding how those numbers change over time, and leveraging new and old tactics to understand
how the support is actually moving over time … Which means basically that I’m behind the scenes a lot of the time. Part of the work I’m doing this year is actually becoming more external-facing, because I realized for a long time I’ve done this work pretty silently and pretty quietly, and I actually want to take on more work. I’ve been doing a lot of work nationally for a long time and Ayanna’s campaign is actually what made me realize that I need to double down back at home again. Which is why my firm is leading the way on two city council campaigns right now — we’re managing Alejandra St. Guillen for Boston City Council. TD: What advice do you have for Tufts seniors, particularly those who are looking to go into consulting or the political field? WR: Start reaching out to people whether they know you or not. And this honestly connects back to finding your peeps. That really shouldn’t be something you do one time and then drop it off and then think that because you’re just so uniquely smart and you went to Tufts that things will work out. The truth is, in this world, it’s about who you know. Will some people be impressed when you say “I graduated from Tufts?” Yes, but the truth is it depends on what part of the country you’re in. My whole advice is: Do not wait until your senior year to build the kind of network that’s going to build the rest of your life. And don’t think about the rest of your life as being like your whole life is going to come. At the end of the day, it’s all coming year to year, so you have time. My best story is this example — how did I go back to Tufts for grad school? At that time I was working full-time, so I was like, “I’m going to UMass Boston,
it’s more affordable, I know I’ll be able to find easier grants and scholarships and it won’t cost me that much, fine.” My boss at the time at Neighbor to Neighbor, Juan, he’s like, “Oh come to this event with me.” I’m like, “I really don’t want to go.” He’s like, “No come with me” and I’m like, “Fine.” Who did I meet at this event? James Jennings, a tenured professor at the urban and environmental policy department at Tufts. I think in the world of networking, networking doesn’t mean you have a relationship with someone, it just means you’re a random connection. But if you come to an event or you come to something where I meet you and I see that you know this person that I know, I’m more likely to respond to you the next time you talk to me. All of this is to say: be relational. And it does make you uncomfortable, because it makes me uncomfortable. I’m comfortable with it now, but I spent most of my twenties fucking uncomfortable to be honest, being like, “Let me just email this person over and over and call them over and over” until they finally say yes because they’re just embarrassed because they’ve seen me at events so many times that now they’re like, “Oh my god let me just sit down with this girl.” I see a lot of young folks coming out of college and what they struggle with is that part. They know that they might have some connections here and there, but they haven’t really done the relationship building. Digital is important in terms of creating mass connection, but it doesn’t translate to job opportunities, or fellowship opportunities or learning opportunities for that matter. I feel like a lot of the opportunities that I’ve been blessed with over the course of my career, it’s because of networking.
Honos Civicus Society
6 Tuesday, March 26, 2019
ARTS&LIVING
Tuna Margalit Review Rewind
‘Reservoir Dogs’
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he Movie: Reservoir Dogs The Year: 1992 The People: Harvey Keitel as Mr. White; Tim Roth as Mr. Orange; Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink; Michael Madsen as the psychopathic Mr. Blonde; Quentin Tarantino as the first-time feature film director, Mr. Brown; Edward Bunker as Mr. Blue; Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie Cabot; and Lawrence Tierney as the gruff Joe Cabot. The Non-Revealing Plot: A failed diamond heist by six for-hire criminals, who only know each other’s aliases, leads to a search for the undercover cop within the group. Unofficial Genre: The film is a heist film that never shows the heist itself. It could be argued that the film is more a crime drama than purely a heist action film. My Opinion (Emotional): This movie is almost wholly violent, so it was hard to derive many emotions while watching it. None of the main characters are particularly redeeming, and some are downright evil. Only one scene, the film’s most iconic one (featuring “Stuck in the Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel playing in the background), is guaranteed to generate an emotional response. If there had been a greater investment of the script in examining the main characters, there would be a greater emotional attachment to them. Possibly the point is to not be attached to them and their brutality; perhaps we are just meant to observe their violent ways. If that were the case, I’d rate this film lower. My Opinion (Technical): I’m a huge fan of the work Tarantino has done with large budgets, specifically when he’s been able to use effective dialogue and plot structure while creating exciting stories, characters and settings. “Reservoir Dogs” is interesting because it’s his lowest budget film. All the brilliant dialogue is prevalent, as is the plot structure. However, I found the story being told to be a bit too minimalist. I gave that somewhat of a pass while watching, however because I understood that Tarantino was operating on a very low budget. Regardless, the amount to which the main characters were examined was much too little for my liking. In “The People” section, I couldn’t even add any descriptive language for some of the main characters because there was nothing unique about them. I felt that some shots were iconic, some lines were impeccably delivered, but not a single character stuck with me or affected me in any way. I liked the general Los Angeles setting because it wasn’t too in-your-face, and yet, it was clearly in the background of the entire movie, and set a good tone for the film. Overall Rating: Brilliant dialogue, interesting plot structure, good setting and good acting benefited this film, while a disappointing story and a lack of character depth hindered it. I’d give this film a 7.2 out of 10. If You Like This, You’ll Also Like: Pulp Fiction (1994), The Departed (2006) and The Hateful Eight (2015). Yes, it’s low-hanging fruit to suggest two other movies made by the same person but, hey, there’s no dialogue writer like Tarantino. “Pulp Fiction,” specifically, is a good recommendation as I see it as an upgraded version of “Reservoir Dogs,” albeit with different stories and plot themes. Tuna Margalit is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Tuna can be reached at yonatan.margalit@tufts.edu.
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FILM REVIEW
‘Us’ scares, provokes, delights by John Fedak Arts Editor
With Jordan Peele’s breakout hit “Get Out” (2017), the director proved to the world that he possesses both a prolific power for story-telling and the ability to tacitly discuss America’s ongoing class and race-based struggles. Of course, fans have been eagerly waiting for more, and “Us” (2019) does not disappoint. With terrifying performances, the movie cultivates an atmosphere of horror while also serving as another lens through which to question America’s dark and bloody past. The movie opens in 1986 as a young girl, Adelaide Thomas (Lupita Nyong’o), wanders into a funhouse while on vacation in Santa Cruz, Calif. While inside, she encounters her doppelgänger and barely manages to escape with her life. Fast-forward to the present, and Adelaide returns to her family’s beach house along with her husband Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke), her daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and her son Jason (Evan Alex). When they arrive, Adelaide quickly becomes uneasy, and her worst fears are confirmed; later that night, the family notices a group of four strangers gathering in their driveway. The four strangers quickly break into the house, and the Wilson family is in for a terrible surprise: These apparent strangers are all doppelgängers of each family member. The Wilsons become separated by their doubles and must fight for their lives to escape from the mysterious clutches of the strangers before it’s too late. As should be expected of Peele, the movie is rife with symbolism and metaphor, which (most of the time) work to great success. The title of the movie itself exemplifies the layers of depth present throughout the film: “Us” implies audience participation in the themes depicted onscreen while also reinforcing that this movie is about the United States and its past. In fact, while the plot is good enough to refrain from spoiling, the movie’s overall message is about the consequences of repressing history and the dangers that await those who refuse to confront the past. The horrifying doppelgängers themselves are a comment on how the greatest enemies are the things that people hide from the world and further reinforce the danger of self-repression and erasure. The idea of doubles is another interesting motif which is reflected, quite literally, time and again throughout the movie. Whether it’s an alarm clock that shows the time 11:11 a.m. or the surplus of mirrors, the movie signals once again that we are our own worst enemies — we are ones who contribute to the problems found in today’s society. The themes in “Us” connect to societal issues like race and class in a way that feels natural; the only problem is that at times there is too much to absorb, too much symbolism. With that said, Peele balances delivery so that this message never feels forced and retains its depth, even if he does have trouble settling on a central message. Of course, this is not just a political film, but also a bona fide horror experience, and “Us” succeeds here, too. Everything about its plot is
VIA COLLIDER
A promotional poster for ‘Us’ (2019) is pictured. designed to unnerve the viewer, and the movie’s pacing is cultivated to elicit real scares over and over again, all the while deftly weaving in development. Peele clearly has creative muscles to flex, and the result is atmospheric horror at its finest. Perhaps the main reason the film is so frightening stems from the wonderful performances each actor delivers. While there are standouts among the entire cast, including powerful acting from Duke and Alex, the standout is, without a doubt, Nyong’o. Each actor also plays their character’s doppelgängers, so seeing them switch to a completely different (and chilling) personality is rewarding, but Nyong’o is in a league of her own. The shift in her mannerisms allows the audience to see just how capable she is of playing completely different characters, and her skills add layers of despair and, again, horror to “Us” that simply would not be present with another lead. Not only does she add
immense emotional depth, but she is also truly terrifying, and the film is much better because of her performance. Finally, the film’s soundtrack and cinematography are not the best in the business but deserve praise; a few clever shots and wellplaced tracks steer audience attention through the story beats. Backed by such solid acting and pacing, the overall creation is one that feels refined, developed and poignant. As a whole, “Us” is an experience not to be missed, and certainly not one to be taken lightly. While Peele suffers from a few missteps, they are extremely minor, and the movie’s strengths far outweigh any possible weaknesses. Like his first film, this is a must-see, especially for those tired by the horror genre’s tendency towards the generic. With another success under his belt, it’s clear that Jordan Peele has more to say about America, and we need to listen, or we risk falling under the spell of destruction.
TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER
Arts & Living
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY
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MOVIE REVIEW
‘Ash is Purest White’ is a tender enigmatic tale of loyalty, change by Setenay Mufti Arts Editor
Let’s talk about righteousness. It is the prevailing idea of Zhangke Jia’s newest gangster film, “Ash is Purest White” (2018). Part love story, part crime drama, part political rumination, this film follows the relationship of crime lord Bin (Fan Liao) and his girlfriend Qiao (Tao Zhao) from the early 2000s to the present. “Ash is Purest White” begins like any good gangster flick — a young couple on top of a crooked world thick with cigarette smoke. In mahjong rooms and dance halls, the “jianghu,” roughly translating to “gangsters,” assert their power and live in luxury. But when power skirmishes result in Bin getting targeted by rival gangs, things get ugly. Qiao takes a fall, both end up in jail, and five years later Qiao runs back into the world, eagerly awaiting Bin — only he’s nowhere to be found. The following years see Qiao learning to hustle and live life on her own, though she is stuck in a continual, cyclic chase with Bin. In the early years, we hear that the price of coal is dropping rapidly in Datong, but Bin isn’t worried. He assures her that the land is theirs for the taking. But economic tensions rise, and soon after comes the Three Gorges Dam project in the Hubei province, a government initiative that would dramatically change Chinese infrastructure and even displace citizens in its way to build the world’s largest power station. After her release from jail in the river town of Fengjie, Qiao could settle somewhere in the north, but she wonders what would be waiting for her. In one surreal sequence, she gets on a train down the Yangtze River and meets a man who runs his own tourism service for UFO sightings in
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Cast members of ‘Ash is the Purest White’ (2018) are pictured at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Xinjiang. She and the man both lie to each other and consider running off together to a life of mediocrity. Qiao seems to be the image of prudence when she leaves him behind, until she sees a strange object lighting up the sky. Qiao looks for an escape beyond both the injustice from Bin and the economic failures of the Chinese government. She finds it in the “jianghu” again. As movie reviewer Glenn Kenny points out, the “jianghu” is “untranslatable… it means not just ‘gangster’ or something like it; it connotes a particular code of ethics.” This code of ethics is all she has and all she knows. But
as Bin loses his loyalty he is left with nothing but an attachment (and debt) to Qiao. Both of their paths are tragic, and neither quite adapts to the changing world around them. Yet the film asks, what are the options for poor youth in Datong? What did labor camps do for Qiao? What will happen to the coal industry? Is technology what’s changing China? Are its volcanoes still active? “Ash is Purest White” was a ChineseFrench collaboration, and much of the film has a French New Wave quality. Even though it jumps forward by years at a time, it is paced slowly. The dialogue between
lovers is deliberate and filled with tender close-ups. The scenes between the Qiao and Bin alone are some of the best in the whole film, and Tao and Fan’s powerful acting forms a fantastic, doomed chemistry. It would not be at all surprising if the film were filled with enigmatic or incendiary inner references to political or cultural markers of the early 21st century, but this reviewer and fellow American audiences will struggle to identify them. Nevertheless, “Ash is Purest White” is an indeed pure, and often challenging, statement on love and self-determination.
Hey, Class of 2021! Come celebrate
Wednesday, March 27 @ 4:00pm Alumnae Hall
*Free Food & Giveaways* Brought to you by the Tufts Alumni Association & TUSC:
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tuftsdaily.com Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY
F &G FUN & GAMES
tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Myshko: “I vape holy water.”
SUDOKU
Difficulty Level: Cutting Fun&Games from the paper and recieving angry messages.
Monday’s Solutions
CROSSWORD
COVERING IMMIGRATION IN THE TRUMP ERA
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Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY
An Evening with Award Winning New York Times Journalist Nicholas Kristof Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Columnist, two time Pulitzer Prize winner, and CNN contributor, joins the Tufts Hillel Merrin Moral Voices to speak on the topic of immigration. Often hailed as one of the most important journalists of our time, he will be discussing the media coverage of immigration through the past few presidencies
TUESDAY, MARCH 26TH 8PM | COHEN AUDITORIUM
Tickets available Monday March 11th at 10:30am at the Campus Center and Online at https://tuftstickets.universitytickets.com
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Noah Mills Spaceship Earth
Two Minutes to Midnight
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n 1947, artist Martyl Langsdorf designed the Doomsday Clock to demonstrate how close mankind was to global catastrophe as a result of the newly designed nuclear bomb. At its creation, it was set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight representing catastrophe. Since then, members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board have maintained the clock, which reached its historical high — farthest from catastrophe — in 1991 at 17 minutes to midnight when the United States and the Soviet Union signed an arms reduction agreement, marking the end of the Cold War. The historical low took place in 1953 when the clock reached two minutes to midnight, after the United States tested its first thermonuclear bomb and the Soviet Union followed suit with their own. Now the clock has been set at two minutes to midnight once again. Citing the rise of neo-nationalism, modern nuclear weapons and the failure of world leaders to respond to climate change, we are once again on the precipice of global catastrophe. In the 65 years since the last time, we came to understand far more about how humans can shape our world, and how close we are to destroying it. This is scary news, and it can easily make an individual feel hopeless. What power do we have to fight nuclear weapons, neo-nationalism or climate change? The truth is, more than we may think, particularly when it comes to climate change. Each of us can do things to fight climate change every day. Reducing meat consumption is the best way to reduce one’s individual impact on the environment, but beyond that one can strive to use public transportation more often or to walk and bike more. It’s easy to find new ways online to live a carbon neutral life, but it’s clear that individual actions alone are not going to fix all of the problems. Something brilliant about humans as a species is our ability to unite and tackle all sorts of problems. Our ability to band together to achieve a collective goal is the best method we have of making lasting and meaningful change. Together we have the capacity to create the change we not only want to see in the world, but the change we desperately need. Talk to those around you about your feelings on climate change and about the impacts as mentioned in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report. Find or establish environmental groups in your community and get connected to broader movements. Look to see if there is a 350 organization that meets near you, or if your local Democratic Socialists of America chapter has an eco-socialists working group. There are many people who care about our planet and in our age of communication connecting with them is easier than ever before. Find others who care and then actually go to meetings and actions, and real change is achievable. Together we can push the hands of the clock backwards, but the time to act is now. Two minutes is far too close for comfort, and as our government is idle, we must choose to act. Noah Mills is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Noah can be reached at noah.mills@tufts.edu.
Opinion
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
EDITORIAL
Students should improve community relations through action It is easy for us to get stuck in the “Tufts bubble.” Many students, especially underclassmen who live on campus, do not involve themselves in the world beyond Tufts. But, as members of the Medford/ Somerville community, it benefits both our campus and its surrounding neighborhoods when students learn more about issues in our community, make an effort to be good neighbors and partake in activities beyond campus. One way to start is by joining conversations in Medford and Somerville either informally, or formally though groups like Medford Conversations. Tufts professor Dale Bryan helped organize Medford Conversations in 2015 in order to create a space where people with different backgrounds and outlooks, from students to lifelong Medford residents to members of political and religious institutions, can have conversations about pressing issues in the city. In the past three years, the group has discussed race and ethnicity, living costs and connections within the community. Medford Conversations co-chair and Tufts alum Alison Kuah told the Daily in an interview about the divide between Tufts students and members of the Medford/ Somerville community.
“I think there is a divide … because a lot of students don’t make a point to get to know the people that they’re kind of invading,” she said. Kuah said she believes that student involvement in the wider community can help remedy the issue. “There are ways that students can take responsibility for that and leave the Tufts bubble. There are ways that the Medford community is trying to have opportunities for students to actively participate,” Kuah said. Kuah also said that students need to be involved, as exploring communities and getting involved in them is central to the experience of moving to a new place. “The most important reason why you should get involved in the community is because Tufts students are a part of Medford and Somerville. To behave like that is not true shows arrogance,” Kuah said. There are many issues in Medford and Somerville that present opportunities for student involvement. Lifelong Medford resident and first-year Tamar Brandes-Krug expressed the need for student awareness of issues affecting the community. Based on her experience growing up in Medford, Tamar noted a lack
of student representation and engagement in her community. “There is a lot of racism in Medford,” Brandes-Krug said. “We need representation in the community from students, especially from students of color.” While the Office of Community Relations at Tufts tries to bridge the gap between Tufts and its neighbors in Medford, Somerville and Chinatown, its efforts are at times complicated by its official affiliation with Tufts. Avenues for engagement that lack official affiliation with Tufts are available, and can sometimes be more effective than formal initiatives. Student organizations like Tufts Housing League (THL) and Tufts Labor Coalition foster solidarity between students and other Medford and Somerville residents through political, social and labor organizing. Events like THL’s community block party offer a real opening for students to escape the Tufts bubble. Solidarity between students and community members is impossible without sustained, meaningful contact between us and our neighbors. We are Somerville and Medford residents, and we should start acting like we have a stake in these towns.
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.
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Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | SPORTS | THE TUFTS DAILY
Women's ski team finishes 8th overall at nationals in 9Jackson Hole
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Sam Weidner Weidner's Words
Izzo’s March Madness
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COURTESY TUFTS SKI TEAM
The Tufts men’s and women’s ski teams are pictured.
WOMEN'S SKIING
continued from back page Despite the unfamiliar environment, the team was able to rise to the occasion and have an incredible time in the process. “It was really cool being out west and being able to reach this thing that we’ve been working towards all season,” Rubin said. Talbott was also proud of the team’s performance at nationals. “Really our goal was to get used to competing in nationals and to be in the top half of the field,” Talbott said. “We really wanted to show that we belonged there.”
The team’s eighth place finish cemented Tufts’ reputation as a top-notch skiing program within the USCSA, and established a precedent for sending future teams to nationals. Moving forward, Talbott has lofty goals for the program. “I’d love to qualify a men’s and a women’s full team into nationals,” Talbott said. “It’s very doable and should be our goal moving forward.” Talbott — who believes the program is stronger now than ever before during his three-season tenure — hopes to see the women’s team finish within the
top five at nationals next season. As the head coach of an 82-person team, Talbott believes that the team’s unique combination of talent and sportsmanship is the secret to the team’s success. “We are very fortunate to have a very dedicated group of core athletes,” Talbott said. “We’ve been able to teach a lot of kids how to ski race, and part of that is because they are in such a supportive environment where they feel willing to go out and try something new and really push themselves.”
arch Madness kicked off again over this past weekend with the first and second round games. Stories surrounding Zion Williamson and Duke’s near loss as well as the play of Ja Morant are on every news outlet, but one event beyond the performance of the teams that stood out was the criticism that Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo faced after he berated a player during a timeout in the first round. Izzo was questioning the effort of Michigan State first-year forward Aaron Henry, as the team had some difficulty knocking off 15th-seeded Bradley University. Many sports fans and players alike, as well as most players who have spoken out, believe that the criticism is an overreaction. However, the incident is less interesting because of the debate about coaching styles, but rather for how it once again reveals the way that coaches and fans view players in the NCAA. Izzo responded to the incident by flipping the questioning back at the reporters, saying, “I get a kick out of you guys. Get after somebody because you’re trying to hold them accountable. I don’t know what kind of business you’re in, but I tell you what, if I was a head of a newspaper, and you didn’t do your job, you’d be held accountable.” The irony of his response is plain to see given that being an NCAA athlete is not a job, which the NCAA makes quite clear every time that question is raised. However, Izzo’s analogy seems to suggest that his players are his employees. The distinction between an employee and a student-athlete is made clear by the fact that one is compensated and the other is not, but it is not always apparent in the way that student-athletes are treated. Even in a professional league like the NBA, in which the players are actually employees, you would be much less likely to see a coach treat his players in a way similar to how Izzo and many other former and current NCAA coaches treat theirs. Arguments can be made that these players in the NBA are older or that they have paid their dues and earned higher levels of trust from their coaches, but regardless, the lack of concern from most fans about the treatment of players in college shows how most view the place of student athletes: they should have no agency in regards to their time and athletic experience. Izzo is a legendary coach in the NCAA, and in the larger scheme of things this incident will blow over, but as events like this continue to stack up and questions continue to rise about the treatment of and respect for student athletes, the question of how long the NCAA will be able to stay on course without any change remains.
Sam Weidner is a junior studying mathematics. Sam can be reached at samuel. weidner@tufts.edu.
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Sports
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Green in Greensboro: Gu’s national title marks another top 10 showing for men’s swimming and diving by Jeremy Goldstein Sports Editor
Junior Roger Gu and the Tufts Jumbos had the green light to success at the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, N.C., placing 10th overall to mark the third successive season in which the Jumbos finished in the top 10 nationally. “There are a lot of teams that crack the top 10 from time to time,” coach Adam Hoyt said. “Our goal for our program [is] to be there consistently, [and for us to do that] speaks volumes about these athletes and the culture they’ve help[ed] create.” Gu, who had the trademark moment of the four-day championships, was one of the athletes responsible for the showing; On Wednesday, the Jumbo junior became Tufts’ first national swimming champion since 1982. Gu entered with a seed time of 19.77 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle and broke his personal best by swimming a 19.69 in the preliminaries. Emory senior Trey Kolleck was his closest competitor, who swam for a 19.84 mark. While Kolleck was able to improve in the finals with a 19.69 time, Gu managed to stay ahead of his challenger. In the finals, he boasted a staggering 19.49 mark to claim Tufts’s first individual national crown since Jim Lilly (LA ‘82) won the 100-yard butterfly in 1982. “Nationals is really the cherry on top [to the season],” Gu said. “All season we work for conferences, we try to perform well there, and being able to represent Tufts at [an even] bigger stage is really such an honor.” Gu was not done for the week, let alone the day. He was also part of a four-man medley relay featuring fellow juniors Matt Manfre and Costa Camerano with senior captain Kingsley Bowen for a seventh-place showing, with a time of 1:29.44. These strong performances put the Jumbos in sixth place after the end of racing on the first day. However, the Jumbos weren’t done with their podium finishes, and Gu was right back in the center of the action the next day. On Thursday, a 200-yard freestyle relay team of Gu, Bowen, Camerano and sophomore JJ Batt set another NESCAC record with a 1:20.66 time, good for second overall and marking Tufts’ best relay finish in pro-
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
Junior Roger Gu is pictured. gram history. This score helped the Jumbos stay in seventh after Thursday’s races and then ninth after Friday. On Saturday, the final day of competition, Gu faced off against Emory’s Kolleck for one last showdown. In the 100-yard freestyle, Gu got the better of Kolleck in the preliminaries (43.87 vs. 43.98) but fell just short in the final (43.70 vs. 43.31) to cap off a valiant week for the Jumbo. “It was fun [competing] against Kolleck,” Gu said. “He swam a good race, I happened to be a bit off and he got me in the finals … that one was well deserved.” Hoyt recognized Gu for his outstanding performances. “It’s very special for Roger, it’s very special for our team and says a lot about his commitment level to our sport, his ability level and the work he’s put in,” Hoyt said. “To go from not scoring an individual point
at NCAAs [his first two years] to finishing first and second in the 50- and 100-[yard freestyle], it’s just a great accomplishment and we’re really proud of him, [especially] to be there with him and celebrate that title with him, everyone on the team and the coaching staff.” In all, Tufts walked away with 11 AllAmericans. This also stands as the final meet for seniors Bowen and Noah Cagley. The former finishes his Jumbo career with 20 All-American awards, and the latter with three. “Kingsley’s [first] year we had three men at the [National] meet, including Kingsley,” Hoyt said. “He has really helped continue this developing program. If Kingsley hadn’t come to Tufts we would not be where we are right now. We’re going to miss him a ton, we’re going to miss his leadership ability, his swimming ability …
As his coach I’m just really appreciative of everything he’s given us, he and the rest of his classmates, they’ve done a lot for our program, and certainly won’t be anything we overlook, ever. Kingsley will graduate as the most decorated men’s swimmer ever — it’s pretty special.” There will be no more tapering for the Jumbos this season. Tufts will enter the off-season on the heels of another successful season, and led by Gu, will seek another top 10 showing at Nationals next spring. If the team’s success in relays is a testament to the strength in numbers stance of the team, the Jumbos have the depth to remain in good hands. “Now we’ve all seen what’s possible,” Gu said. “This year we definitely made a statement, and having everyone do so well really sends a message that we’re here and we’re here to swim.”
Women’s ski team impresses at nationals by Helen Thomas-McLean Assistant Sports Editor
Disclaimer: Annette Key was a former executive video editor at the Daily. Key was not involved in the writing or editing of this article. The Tufts women’s club ski team ended its historic season with an eighthplace finish in the Alpine Ladies division at the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) National Championship in Jackson Hole, Wyo. College teams from across the nation, including both club and varsity programs, gathered in Jackson Hole to compete in men’s and women’s nordic, freeski and alpine skiing events as well as men’s and women’s snowboarding. The Tufts women’s ski team raced in the women’s giant slalom (GS) and women’s slalom on Tuesday, March 12 and Thursday, March 14, respectively. Junior captain Sami
Rubin, junior Olivia Wentzell, sophomore Annette Key, first-year Pippa Hodgkins and senior Taylor Hart composed the team representing Tufts at Jackson Hole. Although this was the first time in program history that a Tufts team qualified for nationals, Rubin attended nationals in 2017 as an individual competitor. While a team needs to place within the top five in their USCSA region in order to qualify for nationals, the fastest competitor from a non-qualifying team can be eligible as an individual. From Rubin’s perspective, competing with a team was far better than competing alone. “It’s not even comparable, being with the team was 100 percent better,” Rubin said. “It was so great to have such a supportive group around me.” In the GS race, Tufts finished ninth out of a group of 21 teams with a combined time of 6:41.65. The team carried its momentum from the GS race into the slalom race two
days later, where it placed eighth with a combined time of 5:50.45. Unlike the men’s team, which does not have a clear preference between slalom and GS, slalom is widely considered to be the women’s strongest event, according to coach Brent Talbott. Talbott explained that while the team placed fifth in GS at regionals, they were able to come in third in the slalom “very easily.” Entering the slalom race, Rubin explained the team had high expectations for their performance. “There were definitely a lot of nerves coming into the slalom race,” Rubin said. “As a whole, this was our better event, so we all felt some pressure to compete to our best.” Rubin explained that the Jackson Hole slalom course was slightly faster than the team had expected, which challenged the team to push its limits. While the team had anticipated a faster combined score, it was content with its eighth place finish.
“It was nice having slalom be the last race of the year because we were able to work all year on being calm and channeling our nerves,” Rubin said. In the individual event, Rubin led the pack with a seventh place finish in the slalom race, posting an impressive combined time of 1:46.68 between her two runs. Competing at nationals forced the team to make adjustments to their style of competition. According to Rubin, the snow at Jackson Hole was softer than the icy snow on the east coast, and facing new competitors out west was both exciting and intimidating. The entire competition was live streamed, which meant that the group’s friends, family and teammates were able to watch the team perform. “I think the live stream definitely made people a little more nervous,” Rubin said. “To be able to perform in front of our friends is pretty rare.”
see WOMEN'S SKIING, page 11