The Tufts Daily - Sunday, May 19, 2019

THE

VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 59

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

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TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

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THE TUFTS DAILY | INSIDE THIS ISSUE | Sunday, May 19, 2019

INVESTIGATIVE Tufts janitor Luz Rosello laid off after pregnancy leave see INVESTIGATIVE / PAGE 6 Daily investigation reveals Tufts has received millions in contracts from Saudi government see INVESTIGATIVE / PAGE 4

NEWS The Daily sits down with President Monaco discusses Sackler investigation, housing, university budget see NEWS / PAGE 11 Concealed camera in Harleston Hall all-gender bathroom prompts TUPD investigation see NEWS / PAGE 13 Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon to leave Tufts after 5-year career see NEWS / PAGE 14 Tufts Dining workers, students, administrators discuss a year defined by their contract campaign see NEWS / PAGE 27

FEATURES With interim staffing changes for Group of Six Centers on the horizon, the Daily looks at these Centers’ histories see FEATURES / PAGE 15 Graduating senior Emily Ki Wan Sim discusses STEM leadership, first-generation student advocacy see FEATURES / PAGE 19

ARTS Chief Curator Dina Deitsch discusses changes to Tufts University Art Galleries since 2017 see ARTS / PAGE 20 Graduating senior Eran Sabaner looks back on studies in art history at Tufts, looks ahead to graduate school see ARTS / PAGE 21

OPINION Editorial urges Tufts to cut Sackler ties see OPINION / PAGE 31 Remembering Alex Bhak: a tribute penned by his friends see OPINION / PAGE 34

SPORTS Jumbos win titles, exceed expectations in the Daily’s top Sports moments see SPORTS / PAGE 36 Daily’s Sports awards acknowledge standout athletes, staff see SPORTS / PAGE 37

The Daily Sports staff honors remarkable senior athletes see SPORTS / PAGE 37 Jumbos experience success, capture multiple NESCAC titles across spring sports see SPORTS / PAGE 42

Please recycle this newspaper

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INVESTIGATIVE....................3 NEWS...........................................8 FEATURES...............................15 ARTS & LIVING.................... 20

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Sunday, May 19, 2019

INVESTIGATIVE

Inside the Purdue Pharma-Tufts relationship

by Joe Walsh and Daniel Nelson

News Editor and Executive Investigations Editor

Tufts Medical School’s master’s degree in Pain, Research, Education and Policy (PREP) program was taught by doctors, nurses, dentists, health administrators and psychologists — experts in the multi-faceted world of treating pain.

In 2006, the PREP program began featuring another expert: anesthesiologist J. David Haddox, then an executive at Purdue Pharma, the embattled drugmaker that has sold and marketed the painkiller OxyContin, a powerful drug that can often lead to physical dependency.

Haddox’s recurring presence in the classroom — and his status as an adjunct associate professor — was one manifestation of Purdue’s close relationship with PREP, a program founded in 1999 after a six-figure gift from the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma. Tufts is currently phasing the program out due to declining student interest, according to Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins.

In a lawsuit filed earlier this year against Purdue and the Sackler family, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleges that the company’s support for the PREP program was part of a deceptive OxyContin marketing campaign that she says de-emphasized the drug’s addiction potential and bolstered prescriptions, helping to spark a statewide epidemic of opioid abuse.

Before his time at Tufts, Haddox spent the bulk of his career arguing that pain is undertreated, opioid painkillers are effective and abuse is exaggerated.

From his arrival at the university, Haddox began guest-lecturing on topics intimately connected with opioid use and the regulations surrounding their prescription, at times using Purdue-branded material.

The Daily’s investigation of the PREP program uncovered course notes, lecture slides and readings — accumulated during one student’s track through the program nearly a decade ago. A number of these notes, alongside the Daily’s other reporting for this story, shine a partial light on Haddox’s time at Tufts.

Tufts and the Sacklers Tufts’ relationship with the Sackler family extends well before the PREP program or the rollout of OxyContin. The university created the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in 1980 after sizable donations from a trio of now-deceased Sackler siblings.

Though the PREP program did not bear the Sackler family name, its connections to the family were not a secret. On the program’s 10th anniversary in 2009, Professor of Public Health and PREP Program Director Daniel Carr lauded the Sacklers for their “indispensable” support.

Following the PREP program’s establishment, Purdue redoubled its connection to Tufts, regularly dispatching its staff to the school and meeting with program leaders to discuss potential collaborations, Healey’s filing claims.

“The Sacklers got a lot for their money,” the filing alleges. “The [PREP] Program bought Purdue name recognition, goodwill in the local and medical communities, and access to doctors at Massachusetts hospitals.”

Sometimes this collaboration took the form of damage control. Donning a white lab coat, Carr lauded Purdue in a 2002 Boston Globe advertisement, noting the company’s efforts to control a then-nascent spike in prescription drug abuse. The ad included the company’s logo, acknowledged the abuse issue and declared that “Purdue Pharma is doing something about it.”

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Carr referred a request for comment to Collins.

The Sacklers also served as the namesake for a Tufts lecture series that featured pain management experts.

Purdue’s targeting of Tufts is not unique.

Other universities were also awash with Sackler gifts, but the company’s work at Tufts was extensive enough to earn its sales team praise for — according to Healey’s filing — “penetrating this account.”

According to Collins, though the PREP program initially had some financial support from Purdue, Tufts has funded the program through other sources in recent years. Purdue spokesperson Robert Josephson said the company’s financial support for the program ended in 2008.

Josephson said Healey’s lawsuit “grossly distorts and mischaracterizes” the company’s relationship with Tufts, citing a motion to dismiss filed by the company.

“Purdue has a long history of supporting pain research at Tufts University. Such collaborations between industry participants and research universities are common and widely viewed as appropriate,” Josephson told the Daily in a statement. “Purdue acted properly at all times in its interactions with Tufts.”

Tufts has begun an independent review of PREP and other Sackler- and Purdueconnected programs at the university led by former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Donald Stern, the school announced in March. Collins declined to comment on the nature of Purdue’s ties to the PREP program, citing Stern’s ongoing review.

One facet of this relationship, Healey’s filing notes, was the 2011 appointment of an unnamed Purdue employee to the rank of adjunct associate professor at Tufts. Former Purdue Vice President of Health Policy J. David Haddox held the same title. Collins confirmed that Haddox became an adjunct professor in July 2006, and was later promoted to adjunct associate professor, though his teaching role was limited to a few lectures per year. He no longer teaches at the school.

Haddox’s History Bearing an M.D. and a doctorate of dental surgery (DDS), Haddox worked as a clinician through the 1980s and 1990s before moving to Purdue in 1999. Haddox served as Purdue’s defender in the press, arguing that OxyContin abuse was less dire than media reports claimed. Haddox’s public statements occasionally ran counter to Purdue’s private knowledge of the problems mounting for its marquee drug.

Haddox spent the years before and after OxyContin’s 1996 rollout doubling down on his support for opioid painkillers. He helped prepare a 1996 statement from the American Pain Society and the American Academy of Pain Management — for which he later served as president — asserting that opioids are often useful for chronic pain and the risk of abuse in patients without a history of addiction was low.

Haddox knew Purdue had a problem by 1999, when the arrest of several doctors for illegal prescriptions led Haddox to send an email recommending a company crisis-response plan, according to a confidential Justice Department report cited by The New York Times. In the same year, Purdue’s sales staff heard reports of abuse from doctors, and the sales staff toned down unsubstantiated claims about OxyContin’s low abuse potential two years later, according to a 2015 deposition of ex-Purdue President Richard Sackler that was unsealed in February.

The company’s research into abuse was limited following the drug’s release, however. Purdue’s counsel confirmed in 2015 that the company never retained anyone to study

VIA BOSTON GLOBE

A Purdue Pharma advertisement from the March 7, 2002 Boston Globe is pictured. The advertisement was run at least three times in the Globe. addiction in the drug’s early years, according to the deposition.

Despite Purdue’s lack of studies as well as the anecdotes about abuse, Haddox disputed a 2001 New York Times article that documented opioid addiction, OxyContin overdose risk and Purdue sales reps’ aggressive practices. Haddox responded to the charges in a 2001 Times letter to the editor that did not cite any formal research, relying instead on “discussions with medical examiners in several states” to argue that abuse is oversimplified.

“The media frenzy about OxyContin abuse is interfering with good pain management,” Haddox, Purdue’s senior medical director for

health policy at the time, wrote in his letter.

“In fighting drug abuse, we must not limit patients’ access to strong analgesics to manage pain and preserve quality of life.”

Throughout 2001, Haddox repeated this claim that opioid abuse is less dire than pain under-treatment. Even more starkly, Haddox insisted at a 2003 conference that OxyContin is not addictive as prescribed, according to The New Yorker. He had instead attributed OxyContin’s widespread misuse to — according to The New York Times — ‘bad guys’ who are illegally trafficking the drug, affirming that

see PURDUE PHARMA, page 5

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Tufts janitor fired after taking pregnancy leave

by Catherine Perloff News Editor

When Luz Rosello came to the Medford campus as a part-time janitor in November 2017, she was expecting more job security and opportunity. Previously a temporary, on-call janitor on Tufts’ Boston campus, Rosello finally had a permanent job. In February 2018, she was greeted with another bit of happy news: She was pregnant. Yet, telling her employer that she was bringing life into the world seemed to bring Rosello nothing but consequences.

Knowing about the pregnancy, C&W Services — the company with which Tufts contracts its custodial labor — increased Rosello’s workload and was slow to respond to her complaints.

Rosello continued working until nine days before her due date. Then, C&W Services Account Manager Shawn Amaral insisted she return to her job only two weeks after delivering or else lose her job.

While Rosello was ultimately able to negotiate a longer period of leave, when she returned, her job was less consistent, and she was eventually fired in February of this year. Amaral’s stated reason for the firing was that the work of cleaning the campus had simply decreased, yet Rosello and other janitors say this is not true. Perhaps proving their point, Tufts has relied on three on-call janitors to fill the need left by Rosello’s absence.

Despite negotiations on the part of the union and organizing by students in Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) — including a petition to rehire Rosello with more than 300 signatures — Rosello still does not have her job back, and she has not been able to find one that is equally well-paying to her position at Tufts. While Rosello said she has been offered to work 12 hours a week, these hours are only at times when she has child-care responsibilities, which are significant as a single mother of three children. Prior to her departure, she worked 20 hours weekly.

“I had never thought of the possibility,” Rosello said, when asked if she could ever predict this outcome from telling her employer about her pregnancy. “I was planning on having my baby and then coming back to work.”

Protection against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy is mentioned explicitly both in the janitors’ contract with C&W Services, ratified in 2016, and in federal law, in the form of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.

Moreover, on April 1, 2018, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act became effective in Massachusetts, which states that “employers may not treat employees or job applicants less favorably than other employees based on pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions and have an obligation to accommodate pregnant workers.”

Logan Place, an attorney at Sherman Dunn, P.C., a D.C.-based labor and employment law firm, said that Rosello could have a valid and potentially successful claim to pregnancy discrimination in court. “[The employer] is reducing hours just after she came back from maternity leave and after there was a dispute over how long she would take and then redistributing those hours among other employees,” Place said. “It sounds like a pregnancy discrimination claim.”

Amaral did not reply to the Daily’s request for comment.

“It would be a breach of confidence to discuss any employee’s terms of employment publicly,” Christine Wickes, vice

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

A C&W Services van, parked outside Curtis Hall, is pictured on Dec. 9, 2018. president of marketing at C&W Services, told the Daily in an email, in response to the Daily reaching out to Amaral.

Director of Campus Services Gary Hill, who serves as a liaison between the university and C&W Services, also did not reply to the Daily’s request for comment. Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins told the Daily in an email that Tufts is not responsible for the employment policies of C&W Services.

“We appreciate all that C&W employees do to create an environment that is conducive to learning and working for our students, faculty and staff,” Collins said. “However, C&W staff are not employees of Tufts. The University does not hire, fire, or supervise C&W employees, and Tufts employment policies do not apply to C&W workers. As a result, Tufts plays no role in the decision to terminate C&W employees and has no authority to review or change C&W decisions.”

Unsafe working conditions Prior to her pregnancy, Rosello said her job was to clean five houses on the Medford campus. Around the time she told her supervisors she was pregnant, this number increased to seven.

Given that she was a part-time worker, this change meant Rosello was cleaning seven houses in four hours, according to a janitor who spoke to the Daily anonymously over concerns about job security.

“I told them I was pregnant, and they said nothing,” Rosello said. “They said it wasn’t their problem.”

One of the houses Rosello was assigned to clean had a cat. Cat feces are known to carry a toxin that is particularly harmful to pregnant women and their unborn children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Yet Rosello was still tasked with taking out the trash with the cat’s litter for two months of her pregnancy.

Rosello complained about her workload and conditions to Amaral and another supervisor. However, Rosello said her complaint wasn’t met with a response, but worse treatment. She said her work was increasingly monitored and her supervisors were increasingly suspicious.

“When [Rosello] was arriving, the supervisor was already there to … [watch how much] time she was going to take,” the anonymous janitor said. “She had to walk a lot, because the houses are far apart from one another and … the supervisor was always very watchful.”

Eventually, Rosello’s supervisors addressed her complaints, but only par-

tially. They reduced her workload from seven houses back to five, Rosello said.

And while another person was tasked with throwing out the cat litter, it was still Rosello’s job to clean the house that was home to the cat.

It took three to four weeks for Rosello’s complaints to be addressed, she said.

According to the janitors’ contract, employers must respond to complaints within 10 days.

“Four weeks seems like a long time to address a reasonable accommodation when they’re pregnant, Place, the labor lawyer, said. “It takes four weeks. It just seems pretty immoral and [unethical] to [make] someone, who asked not to do something like that, to keep doing it.”

Rosello would work under these conditions until Oct. 10, 2018, nine days before her official due date.

Coming back to work Rosello gave birth on Oct. 21, 2018.

She was told that if she did not return to work by Nov. 8, 2018, Amaral would fire her.

Ultimately, Rosello said she was allowed to take a longer leave after providing documentation from her doctor.

Place noted that the Family and Medical Leave Act, which normally allows employees to take 12 weeks of maternity leave, does not cover part-timers like Rosello. He noted employers are aware of this loophole and for this reason, may seek to hire part-time employees.

“In general, you see a lot of bad-acting employers instead of hiring three full-timers, hiring six part-time employees,” Place said.

Upon returning to work on Jan. 8, Rosello said the treatment she received was markedly different.

“They were treating me differently when I came back,” Rosello said.

“Shawn [Amaral] would ignore me even if I said, ‘Good morning.’ I would try to to finish the jobs or get close to done.

They were assigning me eight hours’ worth of work to complete in four.”

Not only was Rosello’s workload increasingly arduous, the tasks she was given to complete each day were less consistent and clear. Before taking leave, she had a set number of buildings to clean, and afterwards, her duties were more variable. Yet, she was worried complaining would backfire.

“I didn’t complain,” Rosello said.

“Why? Because I knew they wanted to fire me.”

see ROSELLO, page 6

Ne w s

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | INVESTIGATIVE | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Purdue executive held adjunct teaching role at Tufts PURDUE PHARMA

continued from page 3 it has a generally low rate of abuse when prescribed lawfully.

“A lot of these people say, ‘Well, I was taking my medicine like my doctor told me to,’ and then they start taking more and more and more,” Haddox told the Associated Press in 2001. “I don’t see where that’s my problem.”

In an interview with the Daily, Jane Ballantyne, a University of Washington Medical Center anesthesiologist who regularly gave lectures as part of Tufts’ PREP program, said Purdue vastly understated OxyContin’s addiction risk. She believes the company spread misleading claims about the drug’s addiction potential by suggesting that its “long-acting” preparation would make addiction less likely than other painkillers when, in reality, this difference was small and unproven, according to Ballantyne.

Despite these concerns, Purdue’s efforts to convince the public that pain is undertreated were influential in leading to the drug’s overprescription, according to Ballantyne. The culture surrounding pain treatment changed in the 1990s, she explained, and many doctors’ caution surrounding opioids for chronic pain was replaced by interest in an effective painkiller.

“Part of their promotional activity was very much to convince people not only that pain was undertreated and there was a crisis of undertreatment of pain, but also that you had a moral or an ethical obligation to treat pain as a doctor,” Ballantyne said. “If you didn’t, you were either a bad person or a bad doctor.”

Haddox’s job as a Purdue executive was anchored in decades of research into pain management, driven by a belief that opioid painkillers are effective and pain is undertreated. In a landmark 1989 paper, he claimed that many people whom doctors accused of drug addiction are not addicts at all, but rather patients with an unmet need for pain treatment. This “pseudoaddiction,” which drives pain-stricken patients to show addict-like behaviors like asking for prescriptions incessantly, can be resolved through better pain management, Haddox wrote.

Researchers funded by large pharmaceutical companies — including Purdue — began invoking Haddox’s “pseudoaddiction” term to support the notion that painkillers are under-prescribed. The idea is far from settled science, though: Some researchers have questioned the concept and, according to a 2014 review, no published study has proven the pseudoaddiction theory empirically, with most of its defenders reliant on anecdotes.

Edgar Ross, the director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Pain Management Center and another PREP lecturer, believes pseudoaddiction applies to, at most, an extremely small number of patients. Ballantyne, meanwhile, said pseudoaddiction is a problematic theory because it masks actual addiction, encouraging doctors to miss warning signs and dangerously over-prescribe medication.

“There’s no such thing as pseudoaddiction.

It’s just a concept,” Ballantyne said. “And it’s a bad concept because it encourages people to give more opioids.”

Beyond the risk of addiction, Ballantyne believes OxyContin’s benefits were wholly overstated. She says most chronic pain patients are better served without OxyContin.

“The risk isn’t worth taking, in my view, for most people,” Ballantyne said. “Most common pain conditions do better if you avoid opioids altogether.”

By the time Haddox reached Tufts in the late 2000s, nationwide prescription opioid overdose deaths had more than doubled from 1999. As overdose deaths continued to increase, he acknowledged the problem.

Haddox addressed the abuse issue by the 2010s, when concerns surrounding opioids became well-known. He wrote papers on abuse-deterrent opioids, an area of business

Other course notes indicate that students were taught about addiction and other potential risks of OxyContin use. One legal case study by PREP lecturer Srdjan Nedeljkovic, an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, described a chronic pain patient who should no longer take OxyContin. Efforts to reach Nedeljkovic for comment were unsuccessful.

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education building is pictured. that Purdue has declared itself a leader in, and he was listed as an inventor on at least three patents for tamper-resistant opioids.

Haddox, who retired from Purdue last year, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In response to Healey’s lawsuit, Josephson, Purdue’s spokesperson, cited the company’s motion to dismiss. Purdue argues that OxyContin cannot be blamed as the sole cause of an opioid abuse epidemic that is now primarily driven by heroin and other illicit drugs, and that the company’s marketing followed federal guidelines.

Josephson also cited a North Dakota lawsuit similar to Healey’s that was dismissed earlier this month. A North Dakota judge found that Purdue does not control how OxyContin is prescribed or used, so the company is not held liable for allegedly bolstering sales through marketing.

Ross, the PREP lecturer, says it is unclear whether Purdue deliberately spread misinformation, but he believes OxyContin was overprescribed and its addiction risk was underrecognized. He says Haddox, among other physicians, promoted a view of opioid painkillers that was, in retrospect, over-simplified. While opioids can be part of a treatment strategy, Ross noted, they should not be the sole means of addressing pain.

“Treatment of pain is much more complex than [Haddox] was saying,” Ross said. “His statements imply that opiates should be front and center in the treatment of chronic pain.”

Haddox at Tufts Haddox lectured for at least two separate courses in the PREP program, and on both occasions, was forthright about his connections to Purdue Pharma, a Daily review of course notes shows. Josephson says Tufts invited Haddox to speak, and he was unpaid for his work.

The first 2007 class was “PREP234: Introduction to Clinical Pain Problems,” according to the course’s archived OpenCourseWare webpage.

Haddox’s lecture week in 2007 was dedicated to opioid-related topics. He presented two slide decks, according to the course page: one on the use of urine drug testing in clinics, and one on the opioid class of analgesics — a medical term for painkillers. In both instances the slides list Haddox’s employer, Purdue Pharma, as the copyright holder for the “Restricted Use” materials.

“This lecture guide and accompanying slides are provided as a professional service by Purdue Pharma L.P,” slide four of the “Opioid Class of Analgesics” presentation reads.

The slides feature extensive disclaimers from Purdue Pharma. “Purdue provides the content of this Program for informational purposes and for your general interest only,” the slides’ “LIMITATION OF LIABILITY” sections read in part. “By using this Program you hereby agree not to rely on any of the information contained herein.”

Haddox also lectured in the Introduction to Clinical Pain Problems class on April 16, 2009, handwritten course notes and lecture slides acquired by the Daily from alumna Holly Roche (PREP ‘11) show.

There, the notes and slides indicate an evolution in his teaching style as well as in his presentation of information: He no longer featured Purdue-branded curricula.

His lecture was titled “Assessment and management of chronic pain with an emphasis on the appropriate use of opioid analgesics.” The stated objective of the class, as outlined by Haddox’s lecture slides, was to help students describe how opioid analgesics function and when to order urine drug tests.

The April 16, 2009, class also featured a discussion about the potential pitfalls of upcoming drug regulation, the handwritten class notes show. Toward the end of the lecture, a student asked Haddox about the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), a risk/benefit regulatory program that mandates producers of certain medications, like modified release oral opioids, to develop risk management safety plans for their use.

One aspect of REMS the ensuing discussion focused on was “Elements to Assure Safe Use,” a more complex regulatory mandate within REMS that would set restrictive certification and registration requirements across drug prescribers, dispensers and patients, according to the notes. The discussion mentioned REMS’ potential limitations, especially the risk that patients will be mistakenly denied medication.

References to pseudoaddiction — Haddox’s controversial theory — appeared in at least two different lectures during the PREP program: a lecture on opioids during the fall 2007 “Palliative Care and End of Life Issues” class, and readings provided to students as a part of Haddox’s lecture in the “Public Policy, Legislative, and Forensic Issues in Pain” class on Oct. 27, 2010.

Alongside academic and policy papers, the readings for Haddox’s 2010 Policy lecture included two newspaper op-eds warning that stronger restrictions on opioid prescriptions could hurt pain patients. Reading materials also include the 1996 statement co-written by Haddox that claimed opioids are often useful for chronic pain. A more tempered 2004 statement from the same organization, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, appeared during another week’s lecture readings.

According to Roche, a massage therapist who attended the PREP program between 2007 and 2011, Haddox told students during one lecture that OxyContin’s controlled-release preparation should mitigate the risk of addiction, a claim Ballantyne said is disputed. Roche said she recalled Haddox as a compelling speaker — one of the few she remembered from the class.

Evaluating Purdue Pharma and Tufts Most former students who spoke with the Daily did not feel that the program had an angle or agenda to push.

“Nobody was ever trying to lobby me, change my opinions on how these things worked,” Roche said. “Everybody said that the more strategies you try, the better everything works synergistically.”

Likewise, 2004 graduate Hallie Greenberg and 2010 PREP certificate recipient Charlene Neu say the program offered a comprehensive and balanced overview of pain management. Neither student took a class featuring Haddox, though Greenberg met with him during a PREP-related event. Greenberg believes OxyContin was overprescribed and Purdue’s marketing was misleading, but that the company’s support for the PREP program was not problematic.

“It’s very fashionable to vilify Purdue Pharma. They did some bad things.

They did not educate people correctly,” Greenberg said. “But I think that to start reviling schools that take money from big pharma is not the way to go.”

Josephson, Purdue’s spokesperson, says the company did not control the PREP program’s curriculum and Haddox’s relationship to Purdue was always disclosed.

He added that Haddox, who retired from Purdue last year, did not present about or promote Purdue’s products and that he gave factual answers if students asked about Purdue’s drugs.

For their part, three experts who lectured in PREP courses regularly — Ballantyne, Ross and workers’ compensation lawyer Paul Goodrich — told the Daily that they prepared their own lecture materials and that they were unpaid for their work with PREP. Ballantyne and Ross believe Haddox’s affiliation with Tufts is not inherently problematic as long as his Purdue ties were disclosed. According to Ballantyne, it is not unusual for pharmaceutical employees to have academic appointments.

Industry funding is common in academia and frequently useful, Ballantyne and Ross said, and disclosure is a good defense against potential issues.

“There’s an inherent conflict with the collaborative effort between industry and academia,” Ross said. “There’s also an enormous synergy.”

Ballantyne has seen this potential for conflict firsthand. When she ran Massachusetts General Hospital’s Pain Center in 2000, Purdue sponsored the hospital’s pain program, earning the program’s naming rights. Purdue offered funding for educational resources, produced glossy teaching materials and sponsored seminars, she said. She now believes the company was attempting to target her and other leaders in the pain field in an effort to market its prescription painkillers.

For Ballantyne, Purdue’s collaboration with institutions like Tufts and Massachusetts General Hospital served as one tool to bolster perceptions of OxyContin, leading to a change in the way pain is treated in the United States.

“We like to think we’re open-minded and not influenced by it,” Ballantyne said, “but then, retrospectively, yes, we are influenced by it.”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | INVESTIGATIVE | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts and Saudi Arabia: A $60 million relationship

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

The flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is displayed in the Cabot Center at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was set to speak to students at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Ibrahim Warde, an adjunct professor of international business at

Fletcher, had confirmed it in September of last year.

But Khashoggi, a fierce critic of his native Saudi Arabia, never made it to Tufts. On Oct. 2, 2018, just days after agreeing to the talk at Tufts, Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents.

The assassination was met with a swift reaction around the globe and calls for a re-evaluation of Saudi financing of American universities, including Tufts.

In the last decade, Tufts University has received more than $59.5 million in contracts from the Saudi government and government-backed institutions, a

review of federal data on foreign gifts by the Daily revealed.

The Associated Press, which first reported on a portion of the money, found that Tufts received the third highest amount of money among institutions

While the janitor and Rosello said that Amaral plans to turn Rosello’s hours into a full-time position, Place noted that firing employees is not the only way to create full-time work.

“If they’re going to turn it into a fulltime position, that’s good,” Place said. “[There are] better ways to do that than just firing staff. There are ways you can slowly transition rather than just firing someone or significantly reducing their hours. You can wait [until] people leave.

You can do it gradually.”

The union has been negotiating with Amaral and other C&W administrators for Rosello to get her job back, but talks have only resulted in dead ends, the anonymous janitors said. So far, the only offer on the table is Rosello returning to working 12 hours a week, instead of her original 20, and only at times where she is unavailable due to child care.

Place said that if the employer only offers hours at a time when the employee cannot work, it would be possible to prove that this was a tactic to push Rosello out of the company.

In addition to the efforts of the union and Rosello herself, students in TLC circulated a petition on April 23 for Rosello

to get her full job back. TLC has also tried more direct measures, visiting the office of Tufts facilities on 520 Boston Ave. three times between May 2 and May 6, according to TLC member and rising sophomore Yashi Thakurani.

Thakurani noted that when TLC members spoke to Amaral in person on May 3, he repeatedly declined to comment.

On May 6, the students were able to talk to Hill, who told them to email the human resources department of C&W Services, which the group has since done, Thakurani said.

TLC member Jesse Ryan, a rising junior, said that TLC has sent over 30 emails to Amaral, Hill and the human resources department of C&W Services.

Ryan said they have received no response to any of these emails, aside from notes that Tufts is not responsible for C&W employees and further advice to contact C&W human resources.

Thakurani said that TLC will persist in fighting for Rosello’s job.

“We students love the workers and care really deeply about them and won’t stop fighting until they get justice,” Thakurani said. “I know as students we have power.

That was really clearly demonstrated through the dining campaign.”

In the meantime, Rosello said she was able to find a new job, but one that only allows her to work 14 hours a week, where at Tufts she worked 20 hours at a higher wage. She said she would like to get her old job at Tufts back.

“It’s difficult once you have a set job for a while and then having to grab whatever you can get. I had a new baby and no job; it was difficult,” Rosello said.

The anonymous janitor emphasized the struggle of supporting three children as a single mother on a reduced income.

“Two things worried me: Her health worried me and her kids worried me,” the janitor said. “She still needs to buy diapers, milk, food and to maintain herself.”

For now, Rosello emphasized the frustration of being fired from a job which she had prided herself in.

“I cried a lot, and I became enraged,” she said, referring to her reaction upon dismissal. “I really didn’t know why [Amaral] left me without a job as I had done everything they wanted me to.”

Janitor dismissed from job at Tufts after pregnancy ROSELLO

continued from page 4 Dismissal from job Feb. 18 was Rosello’s last day at Tufts.

Five days earlier, she had received a letter firing her, saying that her job was no longer necessary for the cleaning of the university.

“The reason was that I was given, which wasn’t true, was that the university had cut hours and that the person with the least seniority was me,” Rosello said.

While Rosello was the part-timer with the least seniority, the anonymous janitor said, she was a permanent worker.

Now, three on-call janitors are completing the tasks Rosello once did, making the claim that there was simply less work dubious. The janitor emphasized that more janitors are necessary to keep the campus clean.

“I had never seen the campus as dirty as it is right now because there’s no one to do the jobs,” the janitor said. “And they’re still laying people off because what the company wants to do is save hours, pocket the money — all that they can.”

Furthermore, the on-call workers are supposed to be used on an as-needed basis, and their jobs are temporary, making their status below that of Rosello.

see SAUDI MONEY, page 7

Daniel Montoya contributed to the reporting of this article. Daniel Montoya and Isabella Montoya translated the janitors’ words from Spanish to English.

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 | INVESTIGATIVE | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Most Saudi funds came through student tuitions SAUDI MONEY

continued from page 6 of higher education in the United States, behind George Washington University and George Mason University.

The vast majority of the money, some $52.2 million, has flowed through the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to sponsor Saudi students studying primarily at the Tufts University School of Medicine, a claim confirmed by the current dean and a former dean of international affairs at the School of Medicine.

Another $2.9 million came from contracts with the Saudi national oil company, Saudi Aramco, the data show.

Nearly $2.8 million came in contracts from Umm al-Qura University, a public Islamic university in Mecca, while $1.6 million came in contracts from King Abdulaziz University, a public university in Jeddah.

Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of public relations, said that the university’s programs with Saudi Arabia are a product of Tufts’ dedication to fostering global relationships.

“Our collaborations have provided Saudi students with access to education, training and research experience in healthcare and the life sciences, which advances the cause of global health and social progress,” Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

Tufts has not publicly indicated any plans to stop accepting funds from Saudi Arabia.

A healthcare system for the King The first Tufts initiatives with Saudi Arabia began shortly after the arrival of Adel Abu-Moustafa as the inaugural dean of international affairs at the School of Medicine in 1987.

An Egyptian scientist and administrator, Abu-Moustafa began his work transforming the medical school from a Boston institution into a healthcare hub with global reach.

While Tufts’ new dean was looking for a place on the global stage for the university, Saudi Arabia was looking for prestigious universities like Tufts to help build up its nascent higher education sector.

The Kingdom, founded only in 1932, needed Western expertise to develop universities and a healthcare system from next to nothing, Liz Reisberg, a research fellow at Boston College’s Center for International Higher Education, explained.

“It was a really intensive push to build a higher education sector of international quality in a relatively short period of time, and that was necessary,” Reisberg, who has worked for eight years with Saudi Ministry of Education officials to organize higher education conferences, said.

Abu-Moustafa had no trouble getting started at Tufts.

The same year he was hired by Tufts, he led the efforts of a consortium of American universities to assemble six faculties of King Faisal University in eastern Saudi Arabia and signed a contract with the U.S. Treasury Department to develop the health sciences facilities of King Abdulaziz University in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, according to a 2009 article written by Abu-Moustafa and former Dean of the School of Medicine John Harrington, in Al Mubtaath, translated as The Scholar, a publication of the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission.

The latter project routinely had an annual budget of $1.5 million and saw hundreds of Tufts faculty fly to Saudi Arabia to teach students and faculty

at King Abdulaziz, Abu-Moustafa and Harrington wrote in the article.

In 1989, Abu-Moustafa started Tufts’ long-running cooperation with Aramco to train and equip the company-run healthcare system.

Abu-Moustafa lauded the initiatives as resounding successes for Tufts: “Now in the Middle East, everyone knows the name Tufts,” he said.

A testament to the programs he built: one of the students from King Abdulaziz who later studied at Tufts and knows Abu-Moustafa well, Dina al-Tayeb (DG ’02, DG ’04), was elected to the Tufts University Board of Trustees in 2016.

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the focus of Tufts’ cooperation with Saudi Arabia shifted to medical residencies for Saudi students, AbuMoustafa explained to the Daily.

This was possible thanks to a Saudi government scholarship program that pays the tuition for thousands of the country’s most talented students to study at medical schools across the U.S. According to the Al Mubtaath article, only seven Saudi residents were studying at the Tufts hospitals in 2005, but that number stood at 65 by 2009. AbuMoustafa said the program was bringing in millions for Tufts every year.

After 24 years as dean of international affairs, Abu-Moustafa retired in 2012.

Richard Dupee (LA ’67, M ’71), who now holds the post, says since his retirement the program has been forced to adapt to a series of challenges.

After a change in regulations, sponsored residents, like the Saudis, were no longer exempted from the highly competitive residency selection process called The National Resident Matching Program, or The Match. This year, there were around 30 Saudi residents concentrated in psychiatry and neurology at Tufts, according to Ghenwa Hakim (MG ’17), the director of international affairs at the School of Medicine.

In 2016, Aramco left for Johns Hopkins University, and the health infrastructure contracts with Saudi universities have proved increasingly difficult to secure.

“Everyone loves my ideas: sharing curriculum, and providing them with teaching,” Dupee said. “It’s not clear why these things don’t work, but it’s not because we haven’t tried.”

Still, Dupee says that the residency tuition payments remain a significant source of revenue for the university — $3.4 million in 2017 alone — along with providing considerable intangible benefits to the Tufts School of Medicine.

“The benefit [is that] we’re international, so our goal is to make sure that we have an impact on education internationally, and as it turns out it’s Middle East [that we’re focusing on] at the moment,” Dupee said.

Hakim added that the Saudi residency program brings an element of cultural exchange that is beneficial to both the Saudis and their classmates.

“A lot of people who are coming from Saudi Arabia, they may have visited the United States before, but they haven’t been able to immerse in our culture, our society, in the way that they do when they study here for three, four, five, six years,” she said.

Killing puts Saudi millions in the spotlight In the wake of Khashoggi’s murder and amid Saudi Arabia’s bloody military intervention in Yemen, the Saudis’ multi-million dollar contributions to institutes of higher education in America, such as New Haven University, Harvard University, Northwestern

University and MIT, has stirred considerable controversy.

At MIT, the outcry was such that last October the university president commissioned a review of the school’s ties to Saudi Arabia which ultimately concluded in favor of maintaining them, according to reporting by MIT student newspaper The Tech.

While no such review took place at Tufts, Collins, the Tufts spokesperson, said that the university has changed policies since Khashoggi’s murder.

“While we have policies in place to review all potential donations to the university, we are intensifying our review of any potential future donations from Saudi sources in light of our continued concerns over oppression and human rights violations, including the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, which the university forcefully condemns,” he said.

Elizabeth Prodromou ( J ’81, FG ’83), a visiting associate professor of conflict resolution at Fletcher, urged the university to exercise “extreme caution” when evaluating donations from Saudi Arabia.

Eight years on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and two trips to Saudi Arabia have convinced her that the Saudi government’s stances on freedom of thought, speech and its routine use of violence are entirely at odds with the values a university should have, and she is wary of the Kingdom’s motivations for financing American higher education. “[The Saudis] have seen education around the world, and certainly higher education, as a mechanism for penetration and dissemination of Saudi viewpoints certainly on human rights issues and on political regime issues,” she said.

However, Prodromou said that accepting tuition dollars, the bulk of the Saudi money going to Tufts, has the least potential negative effects, but she said that like any large donation from a foreign government there is the potential for a ‘chilling effect’ on the university’s commitment to speaking out against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s regime.

“It’s incumbent on any university, including Tufts, to do a very scrupulous review … of the nature of those relationships and prioritize above all the commitment to academic freedom, not only in terms of the classroom but also in terms of research publications,” she said.

Not everyone would be satisfied by a review of Tufts’ ties, like Michael VanElzakker (AG ’15), a lecturer in the psychology department at Tufts, who is calling for all Saudi ties to be cut.

VanElzakker, also a board member of Massachusetts Peace Action, a Cambridge-based anti-war activist group, says the source of the money is more important than what it goes to fund.

“If a prestigious university like Tufts were to say, ‘We’re no longer doing business with this government,’ that would make headlines and help to frame the debate. Tufts could be a leader in this regard, but instead it’s just accepting the status quo,” he said.

VanElzakker sees the funding as a way for the Saudis to buy legitimacy and worries about the influence the money could have over the university.

Dupee rejected the idea of cutting all ties with Saudi Arabia, which would also entail shuttering the residency program at the School of Medicine, calling such action a punishment to Saudi students who are not guilty of their government’s crimes.

“These are good kids, who come from good families that want to do good

things. So I have no problem with that money,” Dupee said.

He also said that in all their conversations with the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, which pays the tuition, political questions had never come up. He said he felt in no way constrained from critiquing Saudi Arabia by the money.

Hakim said the same about her contacts with Saudi officials.

“We’re focused on medical education and that’s pretty much where our conversations start and end,” she said.

In fact, Dupee argued the program was more likely to have a political influence on Saudi Arabia than the other way around. “[The residents are] given the opportunity to see what Westernized nations like ours think about these things … they’re not happy with human rights abuses, now knowing that, they’re going to go back and run [medical] departments, and that’s going to filter down,” Dupee said. “Doctors have always led the fight against human rights abuses — always. Because that’s who we are.

That’s our work.”

Reisberg, the higher education consultant, echoed that idea, saying that the Saudi residents at Tufts are the kinds of people most likely to support and advocate for social change in Saudi Arabia.

She also pointed out that Saudi Arabia is not the only country committing human rights abuses, and that cutting ties with the Saudis, while leaving intact those with the Russians and Chinese, would be inconsistent.

“I think when you start to weigh in the political stuff, the list of countries you can collaborate with gets really short really quickly,” she said.

While Tufts has received $2.6 million from Chinese sources since 2012, less than the $2.9 million from Liechtenstein in the same period, none of those sources were governmental, federal data show. Tufts has not received any significant financing from Russia.

These arguments were not good enough for VanElzakker, who hopes that Tufts would refuse funding from any country committing human rights violations.

“I do think that there’s a slippery slope argument to be made, but I actually don’t think that’s a counter argument,” he said. “Frame it in a positive way – imagine if Tufts took a principled stand on all of these governments.”

He also said that the ‘theoretical’ possibility that training Saudi doctors would lead to change in the Kingdom did not justify accepting money from the country.

“Within the last month [the Saudis] executed political activists by beheading. Did the fact that we’re training doctors prevent that? Is it the sort of thing where we say, ‘Look, we can accept a few beheadings as long as they’re training doctors because that’s how we make change,’” he said.

Prodromou called the moment an “inflection point” for the way the university does business with foreign financing.

“I think that for universities in particular, which are meant to be places of free conscious and speech, the Khashoggi event offers a very important opportunity to take a step back and re-evaluate the parameters and specifics of the relationship with Saudi Arabia and more generally with foreign governments,” she said.

8

tuftsdaily.com

News

Sunday, May 19, 2019

2015–2019: Four years in review

by Zachary Hertz and Austin Clementi News Editors

Throughout the Class of 2019’s time at Tufts, the university claimed many athletic victories, witnessed historic political changes and dealt with an uptick in controversial incidents. To look back on the Class of 2019 and their Tufts careers, the Daily is highlighting the most memorable moments of these past four years.

2015–2016 The 2015–2016 academic year was characterized by changes to academic programs, student activism and progress on several building projects.

In December 2015, University President Anthony Monaco announced the acquisition of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). The School of Arts and Sciences also announced a film and media studies program, a science, technology and society program, a Portuguese minor and an environmental studies minor focused on food and nutrition systems.

Construction on the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) started, and Tufts continued work on the new Central Energy Plant. The university’s use of nonunion construction workers for these projects sparked protests, including the use of mobile billboard trucks sponsored by the Boston Building Trades Council.

Following an uncertain conclusion to Tufts Climate Action (TCA)’s spring sitin, activism around divestment of the university’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry continued. In November, TCA demonstrated outside of a Board of Trustees meeting, distributing letters to the trustees calling for divestment.

TCA collaborated with the Tufts Office of the Provost and the Tufts Institute of the Environment to host a two-day symposium on climate change in the spring, and in May a faculty resolution urging for Tufts to create a plan to reduce carbon emissions was passed in favor of divestment.

Students marched to Porter Square in a demonstration calling for universities to more actively combat racism on campus and in their policies, as part of a “National Day of Action” organized by a group called #TheThreePercent.

Organizers also released a list of demands about the treatment of black students and faculty at Tufts, calling for increased representation, an end to increased Tufts University Police Department ( TUPD) surveillance of predominantly black events, increases to the Africana Center budget and more support for black, undocumented, international and first-generation students.

Concerns over campus safety loomed over the spring. Incidents of catfishing, spiked drinks and multiple assaults led to an email from the dean of Student Affairs detailing resources for students who have been affected by sexual violence. The end of the semester did not bring an end to safety concerns, as a car fire behind Health Services and bomb threats to several on-campus locations caused several final exams to be postponed.

2016–2017 The election of Donald Trump to the presidency saw a rise in campus

tensions and set the tone for the rest of the year.

Hundreds took part in a walkout planned by Tufts United for Immigrant Justice (UIJ) to express support for Tufts’ undocumented students and call for the university to be designated a sanctuary campus. Monaco made an appearance and while he did not explicitly support the sanctuary campus movement, he read a statement reaffirming the university’s commitment to protecting its undocumented students.

The day before election day, the Tufts Observer published an article detailing an act of hazing and sexual assault during a fraternity event. The piece called for the abolition of fraternities, and precipitated a campus-wide movement for the abolition of Greek life.

Though participation in Greek life had risen to nearly a quarter of the student body the previous year, nearly half of the members of the Delta chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi left the sorority early in the fall, following disagreements with the national organization over the chapter’s decision to extend a bid to a transgender woman. The Chi Omega sorority also saw a drop in membership, with members criticizing the national organization and Greek life as an institution.

In response to these calls, the university began investigations and placed a hold on social events and recruitment for all chapters.

Labor continued to be a prominent issue. The university barely avoided a strike while negotiating janitor contracts, and also nearly faced a National Labor Relations Board hearing over unpopular schedule changes. Graduate students in the School of Arts and Sciences voted to unionize, and part-time faculty rallied to support the renegotiation of their contracts.

Graduating senior Benya Kraus was elected Tufts Community Union (TCU) President. The TCU Senate faced controversial resolutions, including an unsuccessful resolution proposed by free speech group Student Advocating for Students calling for changes to the university sexual misconduct policy and a resolution, passed 17-6-8, that called for the university to divest from companies that TCU Senate said were involved in the occupation of Palestinian territories. Tufts celebrated its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the fall, a victory for TCU Senate, which had twice passed resolutions in support of the holiday.

Tufts had a number of visitors, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, whose presence provoked a protest and walkout. Even actor Matt Damon made an appearance, showing up twice at the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center.

At the end of the year, a group known as TuftsLeaks published documents online which included department budgets, the salaries of thousands of staff and faculty and the ID numbers of student employees with salaries listed.

previous year’s Greek life investigations and new directors at half of the Group of Six centers.

In November 2017, second-year MALD candidate Camilo Caballero published op-eds in the Daily supporting a petition to remove former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci (LA ’86) from the Fletcher School’s Board of Advisors. Scaramucci sent a letter threatening a defamation lawsuit and demanding a public apology as well as the retraction of both op-eds.

Scaramucci resigned the next morning.

The fall also saw an end to the Greek life investigations that started the previous year. One fraternity, Pi Delta, chose to dissolve rather than resolve allegations of misconduct. Two fraternities, Delta Upsilon and Zeta Psi, were suspended until September 2018. One fraternity, Theta Delta Chi, was found responsible for multiple violations of university policy and had its recognition revoked without room for appeal until 2027. Three fraternities — Pi Rho, Delta Tau Delta and Theta Chi — were placed on disciplinary probation. One sorority, Chi Omega, was placed on disciplinary probation until December 2018, and the other fraternities and sororities were found to be in good standing with the university.

In another attempt to address the ongoing housing shortage, the university made progress on the Community Housing (CoHo) housing project, which was first suggested by the Residential Strategies Working Group. The project, originally named Capen Village, was approved by the Medford Zoning Board of Appeals on Jan. 11 and opened to juniors and seniors in the fall of 2018.

Rising senior Jacqueline Chen won the election for TCU president against rising senior Adam Rapfogel.

Senate passed a number of resolutions.

One called for the pass/fail deadline to be extended to 10 weeks for all students and was affirmed by a faculty vote on Feb. 7, 2018. Senate also unanimously passed a resolution calling for the separation of the Asian American Center and Asian American identity-based housing in order to improve accessibility to the center.

The Group of Six saw major changes.

Hope Freeman, Julián Cancino and K. Martinez were hired as center directors for the LGBT, Latino and Women’s Centers, respectively. In February 2018, the university announced the creation of a first-generation student center, the FIRST Resource Center, and in April, Martinez stepped down as Women’s Center director, citing hostility at Tufts on and off campus.

The year saw another victory for labor activists, with Tufts Dining workers voting overwhelmingly to unionize in April 2018.

The end of the year was tinged with mild controversy, however, with some students expressing disappointment over the choice of former DuPont CEO and Tufts alumna Ellen J. Kullman (E ‘78) to deliver the 2018 commencement address.

Kullman faced criticisms over violations of environmental regulations that occurred during her tenure as CEO of DuPont.

2017–2018 The Class of 2018’s final year saw Tufts make national news on account of a much-publicized resignation from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy’s Board of Advisors, a conclusion to the

2018–2019 In their final year at Tufts, members of the Class of 2019 saw sweeping changes at the university and on a national scale, and they experienced events which evidenced a rise in tensions along political lines.

The year began with the initial rollout of CoHo, bringing in 45 new beds to campus for juniors and seniors. By the second semester, 39 more beds were added as the second phase rolled out, with the final phase set for next fall.

The political climate on campus was tense leading up to the midterm elections. On Nov. 1, 2018, less than a week before the midterms, reporters for the Daily discovered posters reading “It’s ok to be white” around campus, covering get-out-the-vote signs placed

by JumboVote. The posters have been linked to white nationalists, including former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

The ballot questions for that year’s midterm elections were equally important to Tufts, particularly Question 3, which threatened to exclude gender identity from a list of state-held protections. The statewide Yes on 3 campaign, which upheld transgender rights, was campaigned for aggressively on Tufts’ campus, and Question 3 passed in favor of retaining protections based on gender identity.

During the midterm elections, Ayanna Pressley was elected to represent Massachusetts’ 7th District in Congress.

Pressley is the first African-American woman to represent Massachusetts on the national stage.

In the second semester, Julián Cancino, the former director of the Latino Center, left Tufts, leaving three of the Group of Six centers without permanent directors.

The FIRST Resource Center, aiming to serve first-generation students, opened for its first academic year.

Housing in areas other than CoHo also saw major changes throughout the year.

In February, the Office of Residential Life and Learning announced that the SMFA Beacon Street dorms would house only first-years in the coming academic year due to historically large class sizes.

Carmichael Hall will house only firstyears in the coming year; Harleston Hall will house only sophomores.

In February, Rabbi Naftali Brauer found posters containing anti-Israel messages defacing the Granoff Family Hillel Center. The act was decried as antisemitic and as holding the whole of the Jewish diaspora responsible for the acts of the state of Israel.

Identity-based tensions on campus continued as a message in favor of survivors of sexual assault on the Cannon was painted over with “Trump 2020” and eggings on campus occurred. One of the victims cited “transmisogyny” as the reason for the the egging.

The year also saw rising tensions between dining workers and Tufts, as UNITE HERE Local 26 continued to negotiate for a fair contract. In particular, students and workers held a picket outside of Carmichael Hall with an attendance of over 800 as students shouted slogans in support of the dining workers. Shortly afterward, the dining workers voted to authorize a strike, which was narrowly avoided when Tufts and the workers reached an agreement on April 29.

Editor’s note: The 2015–2016, 2016– 2017 and 2017–2018 recaps in this article are reprinted from the 2017-2018 Commencement issue of the Daily.

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

9

Davis Square armed robbery shakes community, suspect still at large

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

Disclaimer: Madeleine Oliver is the executive photo editor for The Tufts Daily. She was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

Editor’s note: The original version of this article was published online on May 1. This version has been updated to reflect ongoing developments.

An armed man robbed the Middlesex Federal Savings Bank in Davis Square shortly after 10 a.m. on May 1. Over two weeks later, police continue to search for the suspect, according to Boston 25 News.

As law enforcement officers rushed to the scene, the university sent Tufts students alerts and updates throughout the morning and the afternoon of May 1.

No one was harmed during the robbery.

Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of public relations, told the Daily that no Tufts affiliates were involved in the incident.

Joao Borges, an eye witness inside the bank around 10 a.m., said that the robber walked to the middle of the bank and yelled something along the lines of “stand up” or “hold up” before firing a shot into the air from a small handgun.

“I was afraid someone was going to get killed like that,” he said. “I was shocked for a while. I [have] never seen this type of situation.”

Borges fled the bank, then spotted a Somerville Police Department cruiser and ran to tell the officer that there was a shooting in the bank.

The officer pulled to the curb, jumped out of the car and entered the bank.

“He probably [didn’t] even believe me,” Borges said. “When he got there he found out the real deal.”

Stills from a security camera released by the Somerville Police Department show that after the robber fired into the ceiling, he then pointed his gun at a teller, who gave him cash, which he stuffed in a backpack.

As the Somerville Police officer entered the bank, the robber turned and exchanged fire before escaping out the front and sprinting down College Avenue in the direction of Tufts with the officer in hot pursuit, according to The Boston Globe.

MAX LALANNE / THE TUFTS DAILY

Somerville Police Cruisers are pictured on the scene of an armed robbery at Middlesex Federal Savings Bank in Davis Square on May 1.

Just up the sidewalk, Dave Powers, a Somerville resident, was on his way to work as a web developer in Kendall Square.

“I saw the suspect fleeing and I could tell he was in pursuit by a police officer, so I was in position to react and had enough time to [intervene], so I did, just hoping to slow him down so he could be apprehended by the officer,” Powers said.

Video from a surveillance camera shows Powers shoving the robber, causing him to drop the backpack which contained the handgun and wads of cash from the bank.

The robber himself then bolted away down Winslow Avenue.

Powers was still a little shocked when he spoke to media this afternoon.

“I think I needed to see the video to believe it,” he said.

Jack Connolly, the owner of WedgwoodCrane & Connolly, an insurance firm a few paces up College Avenue from Middlesex Federal, did not hesitate to call Powers a hero.

“There’s a weapon not in the suspect’s possession, [and that is] keeping the city safe. [The robber] is hiding [under] a porch or in somebody’s garage or somewhere without a gun. We feel very safe about that,” Connolly said.

Powers passes by Connolly’s front window on his way to work almost every day, and the two have become acquainted; Connolly said he was not surprised Powers had intervened.

Trevor Quigley, the manager of Oath Pizza in Davis Square, was opening the restaurant located just across from Middlesex Federal when the robbery took place. He did not know that there had been a robbery until the corporate office called to tell him not to open the restaurant.

“Until there was like 10 [police cars], I did not think there was anything unusual,” Quigley said.

Police response was swift. Police cordoned off Davis Square and its environs as the hunt for the robber began. MBTA service to the Davis Square Station was suspended for a time, and several bus lines were diverted.

Tufts’ shuttle service to Davis was also suspended, according to Collins.

Madeleine Oliver, a sophomore at Tufts, was out for a run this morning just north of Davis Square when a line of six police cruisers sped by her, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

She told the Daily in an electronic message that she decided to head away from

Davis Square up College Avenue when another nine police cars shot past headed towards the square.

Oliver did not have her phone, so she was unaware of what was going on further down College Avenue.

“When I found out that I was really close to the robbery I was terrified!” she said. “I had no idea until like 10:30 what happened and that there was a shooter.”

Police officers from Somerville, Cambridge and Arlington flooded Davis Square, followed by K-9 units, two armored cars of heavily armed SWAT officers and FBI agents. A door-to-door hunt for the suspect commenced north of Davis Square but did not turn up the robber, according to the Globe.

By 1 p.m., Massachusetts State Police and Somerville Police had extended the security cordon up to the edge of Tufts at the Powderhouse rotary.

The Tufts University Police Department remained in constant contact with the Somerville Police throughout the day and patrolled the perimeter of campus, according to Collins.

Just after 10 a.m., students received a first Tufts Advisory about “Police Activity” in Davis Square and were told to stay away from the area. More precise details went out in an email sent at 10:38 a.m., which described the robbery and the profile of the suspected robber.

An 11:30 a.m. alert reported that a suspect was in custody, as the police believed that they had apprehended the robber. However, when it became clear that the person they had arrested had no connection to the robbery, police informed the university which in turn updated students in a 12:18 p.m. alert, Collins explained.

At around 12:50 p.m., police removed tape and left the Davis Square vicinity. By 2:30 p.m., a TuftsAlert email announced to students that Davis Square was reopened to regular traffic.

Police continue to search for the suspect and are offering a $20,000 reward for the suspect.

Max Lalanne and Jessica Blough contributed to the reporting of this article.

Alumni elect investor Lori Roth, biotech entrepreneur Kenneth Fan to Board of Trustees

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

Tufts alumni chose to elect Lori Roth (J ’86), a New York City real estate investor, and Kenneth C. Fan (E ’01, F ’07), the COO of eGenesis, a Cambridge biotech company, to represent them on the Tufts University Board of Trustees for a five-year term starting in 2020, according to Bill Gehling (A ’74, G ’79), interim executive director of alumni relations.

Roth and Fan said the results were publicly announced at the spring meeting of the Alumni Council on April 7, which Gehling confirmed in an email.

Roth and Fan will fill two of the 10 seats elected by the alumni on the 40-member Board of Trustees. The two will take the seats currently held by Hugh R. Roome III (LA ’74, F ’77, FG ’80, FG ’80) and Laurie Gabriel (J ’76), whose terms expire at the end of the year.

Fan and Roth will be officially ratified by the Board at its meeting in November, wrote Gehling.

According to Gehling, the alumni response rate for the election this year, 6.82 %, was the second highest on record, falling from last year’s record of 9.9 %.

Gehling said that the Office of Alumni Relations will continue to develop better communication with alumni for the election and regarding other issues.

“Of course, I’d love to see a larger response rate, but you can’t force people to vote,” he said.

Two other candidates were on the ballot;

David B. Meyers (LA ’96) and Sonja Bartlett (J ’90). The Office of Alumni Relations does not disclose full election results, including the share of votes received, according to Gehling.

Beyond the alumni trustees, this year’s ballot also saw the election of 10 new members to the Tufts Alumni Council, which

oversees various alumni activities and services in addition to organizing the alumni trustee election.

The newly-minted members ranged in class year from James Kostas (LA ’85, D ’89) representing the School of Dental Medicine to Sam Berzok (LA ’16). They hail from as far as Kristy Kaoru Endo (LA ’05) of Japan and as close as Abdiel Garcia (LA ’14), a resident of Cambridge.

The Alumni Council will also see an elected official join its ranks with the election of Massachusetts State Rep. Adrian Madaro (LA ’11, AG ’13), who has represented Suffolk County’s first district on Beacon Hill since 2015.

The other alumni elected to the Council were Meagan A. Edmonds (LA ’14) of Washington D.C; Jennifer J. Faucon ( J ’90) of Ashland, Mass.; John M. Kenny (E ’15) of Lexington, Mass.; Melissa S. Norden ( J ’94) of Woodmere, N.Y.; and Eugenia A. Vandoros (LA ’04, F ’10) of Athens, Greece.

Half of the candidates elected this year were women.

Roth says she was excited and pleasantly surprised when she learned of her election.

VIA LINKEDIN

see TRUSTEES, page 10

VIA EGENESIS BIO

Kenneth Fan poses for a picture.

Lori Roth poses for a picture.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

Group of Six reflects on a year of change

by Austin Clementi and Jillian Rolnick News Editor and Assistant News Editor

The Group of Six, a collection of six centers that provides resources and outlets for students considering their social identities, according to the Tufts student life website, has undergone several changes in leadership and structure over the past year.

The Group of Six is made up of the Latino Center, Africana Center, LGBT Center, Women’s Center, FIRST Resource Center and Asian American Center.

The Asian American, Women’s and Latino Centers currently lack directors.

K. Martinez, the former director of the Women’s Center, announced their departure in an April 2018 op-ed in the Daily, citing racism and transphobia they experienced on and off campus as reasons for their departure.

In the op-ed, Martinez pointed to their interview in a fall 2017 Observer article, where they explained they were approached by the Tufts University Police Department without reason.

“It seemed like we were all questioning our sense of belonging as a result of these interactions so early in the year,” they said in the op-ed.

Martinez also emphasized the importance of their role and identity at Tufts.

“Tufts University was particularly special as the Women’s Center and LGBT Center were led by two Queer Trans People Of Color under 35 for an academic year. What other institution in the U.S. could say the same?” Martinez wrote.

The former director of the Latino Center, Julián Cancino, also announced

his departure in an op-ed, written in January, without stating his reasoning.

He highlighted his experiences working as director.

“Together we made Tufts Latino Center a family of families,” Cancino said in the op-ed. “We expanded our mission and redesigned our programs to be more inclusive and diverse.”

Associate Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Robert Mack said in an email to the Daily that the positions for new Center directors have been posted and search committees are being finalized; however, Mack said the process to find directors can take several months. In the meantime, the Centers are staffed by temporary leadership.

Hope Freeman, director of the LGBT Center, now serves as the interim director of the Women’s Center following the departure of Martinez in April 2018.

“I volunteered to support the Women’s Center as interim director because the initial search for a Women’s Center Director failed last summer,” Freeman said in an email to the Daily.

Rebeca Becdach, a Peer Leader at the Latino Center, said that she felt the impact of Cancino’s departure.

“I think the other LPL’s and I noticed the shift in that things seemed up in the air for a while after Julian left,” Becdach, a rising junior, told the Daily in an electronic message. “However Keeley and Dean Ou have been great about keeping us informed about the search for new leadership and making sure that we kept having meetings and events at the center.”

Freeman added that, although the process for finding directors is taking time, finding the right director is the priority.

“The process for hiring directors vary in length and time taken … It is more important to us to have a good fit over just filling a position,” she said.

Freeman emphasized that the lack of directors is not hurting the daily functioning of the Centers, and that some staff members have made efforts to ensure the smooth running of the Centers.

Raymond Ou, senior associate dean of student affairs, and Keeley Cormac Dower, the staff assistant at the LGBT and Latino Centers, are the “designated point people for anything related to the Latino Center,” according to an email sent to Latino Center community members in February.

The International Center left the Group of Six — formerly known as the Group of Seven — collective last year due to the consolidation of the three international offices at Tufts, on the Medford/Somerville, Fletcher and Boston Health Sciences campuses, according to International Center Director Andrew Shiotani.

As a result of this merger, Shiotani said the International Center was moved from the jurisdiction of the Office of Student Affairs, under which the other Centers reside, to the jurisdiction of the Office of the Provost.

Shiotani added that the move was partially justified by the fact that the Office of the Provost and the International

Center both deal with immigration policies for campuses.

“I think our new location within the Provost’s Office has allowed us to participate in important discussions and get us better access to resources we need to improve our ability to serve our international student and scholar community,” he said in an email to the Daily.

Despite the move, Shiotani said that ties with the Office of Student Affairs continue.

“At the same time, we continue to maintain relationships with our colleagues and partners in Student Affairs and other parts of the university,” he said.

Additionally, Shiotani became the director of the International Center in January following the retirement of former Director Jane Etish-Andrews, who had worked at Tufts for 35 years.

“It’s been a year of change,” Shiotani said. “I am doing my best to fill her shoes! However, everyone has been rising to the occasion and as we get settled into a new pattern of doing our work, I think we’ll be fine.”

Shiotani emphasized that, despite not formally being a part of the Group of Six, the International Center shares many of the same goals as the other Centers and works closely with them.

“When I arrived at Tufts I was pleased that my colleagues from the other centers were among the first to meet and welcome me,” he said. “I look forward to continue to find ways of maintaining those connections and bridges in the future.” see CENTERS, page 27

New Alumni Trustees, Alumni Council discuss vote TRUSTEES

continued from page 9 “I think if you had told me when I was a student that a one point I would be a trustee, I probably would have thought you were crazy,” she said.

Roth explained that she had reached out to friends, friends of friends and classmates to get out the word about the election during voting. She thanked those alumni who voted for her and said that the election would only deepen her involvement with Tufts and the alumni community.

As her focus broadens from the the Alumni Council, where Roth will serve as a director of the executive committee starting in July, to the university at large when she takes her seat on the Board next winter, Roth says she’s now working to learn more about the entire Tufts community and the various challenges that face it.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know the different aspect, different components of the university more than I know now,” she said.

Roth spoke by phone on May 1 with Peter R. Dolan (LA ’78), chairman of the Board, to begin the process of joining the university’s governing body.

Fan said that he, too, was excited and honored to have been elected and thanked his supporters.

“I’m looking forward to serving the entire Tufts community through my role on the Board. It was wonderful to hear from so many former classmates, as well as alumni I had never met before, regarding their support and affinity for Tufts,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.

Both Fan and Roth saw the fact that this Board election had the second highest response rate ever as a promising indicator of increasing alumni involvement.

Berzok, who won a seat on the Alumni Council, was the youngest person on the ballot this year, which he says gives him a unique perspective.

“As a young alum, I think one of the things I want to bring to the table is how the conversation has evolved around students’ [lives] and sort of the overall meaning of being a Jumbo, which has definitely changed even in the four years that I was on the hill,” he said.

He hopes to join the Student and Young Alumni Engagement Committee as well as the Regional Programs Committee to work on engaging more alumni through social media by educating graduating seniors about alumni resources while they are still at Tufts and developing rural and suburban alumni chapters.

Berzok says his time at Tufts and his engagement with alumni groups motivated him to run for the position.

“I had a great experience at Tufts, [and] when I came back to New Jersey, where I currently work and live, I was looking for other resources and outlets to get involved with fellow Jumbos off the hill,” he said.

Berzok, who works in New Jersey state politics, also reached out to his friends and classmates during the campaign to promote his candidacy.

“As for folks I was speaking to about election, certainly a couple were surprised or had no knowledge of the election going on, but when I pointed to the email essentially with the voting ballots on it, they were able to find it pretty quickly,” he said.

Berzok thought the response rate could have been higher with more outreach through social media and with current students.

The new Alumni Council will begin serving on July 1, according to the Tufts Alumni and Friends website.tion of Massachusetts State Rep. Adrian Madaro (LA ’11, AG ’13), who has represented Suffolk County’s first district on Beacon Hill since 2015.

The other alumni elected to the Council were Meagan A. Edmonds (LA ’14) of Washington D.C; Jennifer J. Faucon (J ’90) of Ashland, Mass.; John M. Kenny (E ’15)

of Lexington, Mass.; Melissa S. Norden (J ’94) of Woodmere, N.Y.; and Eugenia A. Vandoros (LA ’04, F ’10) of Athens, Greece.

Half of the candidates elected this year were women.

Roth says she was excited and pleasantly surprised when she learned of her election.

“I think if you had told me when I was a student that a one point I would be a trustee, I probably would have thought you were crazy,” she said.

Roth explained that she had reached out to friends, friends of friends and classmates to get out the word about the election during voting. She thanked those alumni who voted for her and said that the election would only deepen her involvement with Tufts and the alumni community.

As her focus broadens from the the Alumni Council, where Roth will serve as a director of the executive committee starting in July, to the university at large when she takes her seat on the Board next winter, Roth says she’s now working to learn more about the entire Tufts community and the various challenges that face it.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know the different aspect, different components of the university more than I know now,” she said.

Roth spoke by phone on May 1 with Peter R. Dolan (LA ’78), chairman of the Board, to begin the process of joining the university’s governing body.

Fan said that he, too, was excited and honored to have been elected and thanked his supporters.

“I’m looking forward to serving the entire Tufts community through my role on the Board. It was wonderful to hear from so many former classmates, as well as alumni I had never met before, regarding their support and affinity for Tufts,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.

Both Fan and Roth saw the fact that this Board election had the second highest

response rate ever as a promising indicator of increasing alumni involvement.

Berzok, who won a seat on the Alumni Council, was the youngest person on the ballot this year, which he says gives him a unique perspective.

“As a young alum, I think one of the things I want to bring to the table is how the conversation has evolved around students’ [lives] and sort of the overall meaning of being a Jumbo, which has definitely changed even in the four years that I was on the hill,” he said.

He hopes to join the Student and Young Alumni Engagement Committee as well as the Regional Programs Committee to work on engaging more alumni through social media by educating graduating seniors about alumni resources while they are still at Tufts and developing rural and suburban alumni chapters.

Berzok says his time at Tufts and his engagement with alumni groups motivated him to run for the position.

“I had a great experience at Tufts, [and] when I came back to New Jersey, where I currently work and live, I was looking for other resources and outlets to get involved with fellow Jumbos off the hill,” he said.

Berzok, who works in New Jersey state politics, also reached out to his friends and classmates during the campaign to promote his candidacy.

“As for folks I was speaking to about election, certainly a couple were surprised or had no knowledge of the election going on, but when I pointed to the email essentially with the voting ballots on it, they were able to find it pretty quickly,” he said.

Berzok thought the response rate could have been higher with more outreach through social media and with current students.

The new Alumni Council will begin serving on July 1, according to the Tufts Alumni and Friends website.

Ne w s

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

11

Q&A: President Monaco addresses housing, Sackler controversy, university budget

by Elie Levine and Jessica Blough

Editor in Chief and Executive News Editor

The Tufts Daily sat down with University President Anthony Monaco to discuss this year’s events at Tufts.

The Tufts Daily (TD): What are some of the major triumphs and challenges that Tufts has faced this year?

Anthony Monaco (AM): Overall, it’s been a very good year for Tufts University.

On the undergraduate level, accomplishments are [that] the most diverse class entered with new levels of financial aid and continuing strong applications. We’re particularly proud that our female engineering class has now reached gender parity. The other highlights for the undergraduates were things like the Race, Colonialism and Diaspora [program] becoming a department — not only getting that approved, but also obtaining a $1.5 million Mellon Foundation grant to help support recruitment of faculty to that department. Another highlight of the year was the starting of the FIRST [Resource] Center and all the great work that Rob Mack and his colleagues have done. We’ve continued to make strides this year on student housing like renovating old dorms such as Miller and Houston to make them disabled-accessible, as well as creating CoHo [Community Housing].

On the university level, there’s a couple exciting areas: The trustees have agreed to a new Student Affairs Subcommittee of the Board. We also launched University College this year, which is a new effort to access more learners, either high school or adult learners, through summer session, online courses [and other] non-traditional types of courses. Out of the provost’s office, we had the Research and Scholarship Strategic Plan launched this year. Lastly, we’re very excited about the Joyce Cummings Center getting approval [from the trustees] this spring to go ahead with breaking ground this June … The final achievement, I think, is the Brighter World campaign.

[As for] challenges, one is certainly the Sackler and Purdue Pharma controversy and the Attorney General’s report that led us to assign an independent review by former U.S. Attorney General from Massachusetts, Don Stern. We believe that it’s important for us to understand what happened during that time so we can make the right decisions going forward. We also had a number of concerning incidents on campus related to the campus climate. I think we’ve learned from those experiences and we’ve held a number of forums to enhance the student experience. Although I said we’ve made strides on student housing, we still have much more to do. I think budgets and financial sustainability is always a challenge.

It’s a challenge to maintain a level of yearend surplus, which allows us to invest in our future, and that has been decreasing over the last couple of years. Additionally, the provost position is being filled this year.

We have three dean positions, executive vice president and chief information officer.

We just lost Karen Richardson to Princeton [and] Mary Pat McMahon to Duke.

TD: The dining workers ratified their first contract on April 4, bringing their working conditions and wages in line with those other universities. Can you speak about how Tufts plans to work with the union UNITE HERE Local 26 in the future?

AM: The university has a number of unions representing different workers on campus, including graduate students for [The School of ] Arts and Sciences, and we have a good relationship with them. The dining workers’ was a new contract so that always takes a lot more time. We certainly

KYLE LUI / THE TUFTS DAILY

University President Anthony Monaco poses for a portrait in front of Ballou Hall on April 30. respected the bargaining process; we bargained in good faith, but also will look forward to working with the union and joining workers and they are important members of our community.

TD: As you mentioned, rates of administrative turnover for Tufts at high levels of leadership have been high this year.

What does Tufts’ hiring climate look like for these positions? And how does it stand against the backdrop of higher education hiring at large since they’re going to peer institutions?

AM: I think people leave for one of two reasons. Either they’re retiring or they feel that their career is better suited with a promotion at another institution. We certainly respect that and try to work with all of our employees to further their careers. Tufts’ turnover per annum is in the double digits.

It’s probably higher than 10%, which is normal. So we also see this as an opportunity to bring in new perspectives and more diverse people into the higher education market. I don’t think there’s any shortage of great people out there that want to come to Tufts.

TD: How does Tufts plan to reaffirm its support for students in light of recent controversial incidents on campus?

AM: These incidents are an affront to all the values that Tufts holds into every member of our community. But they do occur and they don’t occur solely on Tufts campus — we see these kinds of events occurring on other college campuses. That said, when they occur, they do cause hurt. They diminish the campus climate. We want to make sure that people feel well-supported after these events. If there is this type of hurt around an event, how do we bring the community together so that we can learn from each other? I think the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council and the role of our chief diversity officers on our campus are essential to to that part of the broader issue. I chair the Council, so I’m intimately involved. We are thinking about further ways to help faculty deal with these issues in the classroom. For example, the Council is redoing part of the orientation [process] to highlight and have a focus

on race. We’ll continue to push new programming and new ways of supporting our community.

TD: What does the future of the Group of Six look like?

AM: From my view, the Group of Six is incredibly important for individuals with those racial identities [to have] a place to go and to be part of a group with similar identity. I have no plans myself on its future, except that I think its an important part of our community.

TD: This year has seen multiple calls from students to for increased transparency from the administration side of the university, regarding especially the budget, tuition and delegation of funding. Does the university have plans to respond to these calls? Are there plans to increase student access to university administration?

AM: We certainly are willing to have forums with students to discuss the budget, but it’s hard for students to be involved in the budget formation. There are student representatives on the Trustee Board and also on some of the Arts and Sciences committees, which involve the budget.

TD: Our next question has to do with the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate elections, and two non-binding referenda that just passed. The first of the referenda called for the placement of a young alumnus on the Board of Trustees and the second asked if students would support a requirement for the administration to respond to TCU resolutions within two weeks. Since the majority of voters did express their support passing these referenda, we’re wondering if the administration will work to make this connection with TCU Senate more entrenched.

AM: I meet every two weeks with the president and vice president of TCU Senate, and they showed me the resolution. They have also regular meetings with the dean of student affairs and others. When they have resolutions, we try to steer [the TCU Senate] to the right place to follow up. I don’t think the time calls for budgets to be decreased. As for young alumni trustee representation, that issue is going to be taken up by the Alumni Council.

TD: Recently, Tufts’ enrollment has increased, and the university plans to continue to increase its enrollment each year, which puts pressure on the off-campus housing market while also making on-campus housing more difficult to find. And the tiered housing system also increases the prices of off-campus accommodations as well as on-campus accommodations for many students. What is your and the university’s perspective on building a new dorm?

AM: We have actually produced more rooms in the last four years than the number of new students. We’ve added 437 beds, but we’ve only added 3,000 students over the last three years, and we’re going to add another hundred in the fourth year. We also hope to add another 200 beds on the Somerville side. We’ve also just bought 123 Packard Ave., which adds another 20. So given that the average dorm … on campus [has] about 186 beds, we’ve added the equivalent of two dorms faster and cheaper than it would be to build a new dorm. We’ve tried to have a strategy, which is to renovate the old dorms because they were in terrible shape, and as we do that, systematically make sure that space standards are being recognized. [If] there are offices or other things in the dorm that could be removed and made room for actual beds, then we should do that. I believe that we should do a new dorm once we feel that those things have been accomplished. We can’t afford the borrowing and the operational cost of a new dorm at this moment. I would prefer to see it planned for once the Cummings building is well under way. I’m not opposed to a new dorm, but I thought it was important as a strategy to better our existing dorms — add new rooms as we can and then think about a new dorm room when we financially can support it.

Now let me just say something about the tiered housing. Sophia Gordon Hall was one of the first upper class dorms added, and we don’t have many dorms where you have suite-like living. And now we’re going to expand that with CoHo. And let’s say we add another dorm that’s for juniors and seniors in the future. We’re going to expand that type of housing, which is much more expensive to maintain and build. And so we felt it was important to no longer charge everyone the same amount. It’s because we didn’t have much of this housing before, so we never differentiated the price. If you’re not bringing enough income on your current pricing, how can you possibly afford to offer more suite-like options? Which is what we know juniors and seniors like. You don’t want to be in a dorm with a double on a corridor for four years.

TD: Many community members have said that Tufts’ Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) payments to Medford and Somerville are not nearly enough to offset the university’s impact on the city. What is Tufts doing to address the financial effects of its expansion into and presence in our neighboring communities?

AM: We value our communities very much. All the work we do with the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and the Leonard Carmichael Society show that this is a very strong partnership. Currently, we have made voluntary contributions of $2.75 million over the last five years to Somerville and Medford. We also pay property taxes on 75 properties for an additional $1.25 million a year. So it comes as a surprise to many folks that if we have a property, which we’re paying taxes on, and then we say we’re going to use it for academic purposes, theoretically, we don’t have to pay

see MONACO, page 12

12

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

Celene Ibrahim to depart from position as Muslim Chaplain

by Bella Maharaj Staff Writer

Tufts’ Muslim Chaplain Celene Ibrahim, Ph.D., will leave the Tufts community after a five-year tenure. Throughout her time on campus, Ibrahim helped expand accommodations for Muslim students and enhance the experiences of Tufts’ Muslim community.

She will be taking up a teaching appointment in religious studies and philosophy at the Groton School in the fall, where her daughter will begin as a new student, according to Ibrahim.

Currently, no one is set to take her place in the fall; however, the chaplaincy team will begin a national search later this month to fill the vacancy.

Ibrahim’s time as chaplain has seen the creation of two additional prayer and meditation spaces on campus: one in Curtis Hall and another in Cabot Hall in the Fletcher School, according to Ibrahim.

Ibrahim said she has also partnered with Tufts Dining to ensure an array of halal options.

Ibrahim’s tenure has also aided in the continual development of the Muslim House (M-House), special interest housing for Muslim students or those interested in Islamic religion. The chaplaincy worked with a team at the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) to meet the demands of M-House, according to Ibrahim.

Her proudest milestone is the establishment of the Tufts University Muslim Alumni Association (TUMAA) in 2016, according to Ibrahim. According to the university chaplaincy’s website, TUMAA creates a forum through which Muslim alumni and friends can continue being involved in the educational mission of the university.

Ibrahim told the Daily in an email that TUMAA also allows alumni to be involved in celebrations and stay connected to the Muslim community at Tufts.

“We also have a great time getting together to celebrate Ramadan, Eid on the Green, and other such annual events,”

Ibrahim said. “Alumni continue to return to connect with friends and with the current students, and there is a real sense of community and Muslim Jumbo pride.”

Ibrahim said TUMAA now includes several dozen members.

Ibrahim’s time at Tufts has also been spent combating the growing effects of Islamophobia and bias against Muslims reflected across the country.

“The past five years have also been marked by rising levels of anti-Muslim bias in the American public sphere, and so we’ve been working very diligently as a University Chaplaincy team in collaboration with our campus multifaith groups to create spaces that celebrate our unique identities and that provide a network of solidarity across cultures and across minoritized identities in particular,” she said.

The Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Fletcher Islamic Society have worked with the Muslim communities on Tufts’ other campuses to eliminate falsities and foster authentic relationships, according to Ibrahim.

Ibrahim’s colleague, University Chaplain Reverend Greg McGonigle, recalled her early days as Muslim Chaplain. “[Ibrahim] was initially recommended to me five years ago by our previous Muslim Chaplain as a temporary Muslim Chaplain for Ramadan,” he said in an email. “When she took that role, she did not think she would be able to stay on for the Muslim Chaplain role due to other theological school teaching commitments, but she soon fell in love with our campus, and she was our students’ and our first choice in our last national search.”

He cites her numerous accomplishments and partnerships created with the ORLL, Dining Services, Tufts Admissions and the Group of Six, groups which are especially important to supporting the Muslim community on campus.

“Over the past five years, [Ibrahim] has had a transformative impact on Muslim life at Tufts, which has enriched the Tufts experience for everyone,” he said.

GRACE COOPER / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Celene Ibrahim poses for a portrait on Sept. 30, 2014.

She has worked alongside the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and the department of religion to help pave new pathways for intellectual engagement.

Ibrahim has also contributed significantly to the interfaith work with the chaplaincy team, the first-year pre-orientation program CAFE, the Interfaith Student Council and these communities.

“We will miss her very much in her current role, but I hope we will find other ways to work together in the future — Celene is a joy to know and to work with,” McGonigle said.

Najma Jama, the interfaith chair of MSA, commented on her time with Ibrahim.

“Celene Ibrahim is one of the most personable, attentive and empathetic individ-

uals I have had the pleasure of meeting,” Jama, a sophomore, said. “Celene’s impact on the Tufts community exists beyond tangible initiatives; her true impact exists in the life-long relationships and connections she has fostered with current students and alumni alike.”

Ibrahim reflected on the relationships that will continue despite her departure from the Tufts community.

“I will miss being at Tufts regularly, but the relationships, I know, will continue wherever I go. And don’t be surprised if you see me pop up on campus for a lecture or event. I am now telling myself what I tell graduating students every year: We’re a big family, and that connection spans the globe and our lifetimes,” she said.

Concluding active year, TCU Senate holds internal elections

by Robert Kaplan

Assistant News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate concluded an academic year marked by 17 resolutions with internal elections in the Sophia Gordon multipurpose room.

The elections, held on April 30, saw Africana Community Senator Sylvester Bracey, a rising senior, elected TCU Vice President from among a crowded field of candidates.

Outgoing TCU Parliamentarian and Associate Treasurer Sharif Hamidi was elected Treasurer, promising an overhaul of

the Treasury Procedures Manual that governs TCU funding to student organizations.

TCU Senators Rabiya Ismail and Finn McGarghan were elected Historian and Parliamentarian, respectively; Latinx Community Senator Carolina Olea Lezama, a rising sophomore, was elected Community and Diversity Affairs Officer.

TCU Senators Alexa Weinstein, Insiya Naim, Iyra Chandra, Jose Martinez, Elizabeth Hom and Tim Leong were all elected to the Allocations Board.

Naim was also elected Associate Treasurer.

TCU Senator Deepen Goradia was elected chair of the Administration and Policy

Committee; Ayden Crosby was re-elected chair of the Education Committee; Alex Lein was elected chair of the Outreach Committee; and Leong was elected chair of the Services Committee.

The elections follow an active academic year for TCU Senate, in which an additional $72, 319 was allocated in supplemental funding to student organizations compared to the previous year, for a total of $276,038, according to outgoing TCU Treasurer Izzy Ma. According TCU documents reviewed by the Daily, $2,029,831.06 was budgeted for fiscal year 2020, an increase of $75,722.56 over the previous year.

Ma, a rising junior, highlighted improvements made over the course of the academic year which have improved access to TCU funds for student organizations.

“The travel cap was raised to $300 … and I personally think that off-campus trips are one of the best ways to enrich your college experience,” Ma said. “I also think that the Treasury has been great at being more transparent and getting information out there.”

Outgoing TCU President Jacqueline Chen praised the work of Ma and her predecessor

see SENATE , page 13

Monaco discusses university PILOT payments, expanding number of beds MONACO

continued from page 11 taxes, but we continue to pay top property taxes on things that come on to our register if they were already on the property tax. We [also] did the intersection of Boston Avenue and College Avenue. That was a $2 million investment that we paid for to improve the safety of the crosswalk. And then on top of that, of course, we are one of the largest employers in both Somerville and Medford. We provide financial aid support for Medford residents to attend here. So we want to continue to work closely with them.

We will make a considerable increase in those [PILOT] payments because we think it’s important to support the services and

other aspects of community life that we have by being in Medford and Somerville.

TD: What are your biggest takeaways from this year? And how will you draw upon these when shaping the future of the university?

AM: One of the biggest challenges for any university president is trying to think about your strategies and initiatives and keeping them going and getting the dynamism of a team. You need to make things like University College happen as a new initiative or the Research and Scholarship Strategic Plan [and other] things that are important for the longterm future of the university. At the same time, you’re dealing with a lot of crises and challenges, which need all hands on deck.

You’ve got to get through this and get the statements out, make sure the forms are happening, feel [whether] students are supported. What I’ve learned over the years is how to manage those two competing calls in your time, because they’re completely different forms of management. One is longer-term and strategic, and the other is more immediate. You have to really take seriously when there’s a an urgent issue, and you’ve got to address it and have really good mechanisms and processes in play, so that the community feels well supported. At the same time, you can’t lose momentum on the very important and essential longer-term strategic initiatives that you’re trying to achieve for the future of the university.

TD: There have been a lot of calls from student groups and TCU Senate as well, regarding the Sackler investigation and the calls to disclose the full findings from the Stern investigation. Do you have a response to those? Will the findings be disclosed?

AM: Whatever the Stern report [discloses] to the academics, I will make open to the community.

TD: Do we know when that Stern report will be released?

AM: We’re hoping over the summer. He has to interview a lot of people and dig through a lot of old papers.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Hidden camera in Harleston Hall bathroom sparks TUPD, student responses

by Austin Clementi News Editor

The Tufts University Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) sent out an email on May 8 informing residents of Harleston Hall of the reported discovery of hidden cameras in one of the dorm’s all-gender, single-use bathrooms.

ORLL immediately reported the incident to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), which resulted in an investigation.

On May 9, students were able to receive updates regarding the case at the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs. On May 10, TUPD notified Harleston residents that the camera had additionally been placed in two different restrooms and that the individual who set the cameras had been identified.

Kevin Maguire, executive director of public safety, which includes TUPD, explained to the Daily via email the steps taken by law enforcement and the administration from the moment they were notified directly by a student concerning the situation.

“An officer [was] dispatched to respond and to investigate, and on some calls, a supervisor responds as well. In this case, a supervisor responded too,” he said.

Maguire explained the process taken to investigate the incident.

“The supervisor and the officer conduct the initial investigation, safeguard any evidence, interview witnesses or victims and make proper notifications. In this case, the students also immediately notified Residential Life, and DOSA [Dean of Student Affairs] became involved quickly,” he said.

Despite the severity of the incident, Maguire emphasized that occurrences like this are a rarity at Tufts. He noted the general respect of the Tufts population for university policies and the law as a whole helps to keep the campus secure.

A May 10 email stated that a Tufts student took responsibility for the incident shortly after the investigation began.

"From what TUPD’s investigation can determine at this time, there are no images of users of the restrooms in any stage of undress," the email read.

Maguire identified the culprit as a resident of Harleston Hall.

“The student cooperated with TUPD investigators when presented with the facts and circumstances of the case, which TUPD developed rapidly,” he said.

The May 10 email not only notified students of TUPD's identification of the individual but also discussed the involvement of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office regarding the fate of the student.

Maguire expects disciplinary action to come quickly from the Dean of Student Affairs Office.

“The Dean of Student Affairs Office takes these types of cases very seriously, works closely with TUPD, and acts swiftly to help safeguard the university community,” he said.

Hareston Hall resident Zoe McKeown was shocked to learn about the incident from another resident on the first floor shortly after TUPD left the dorm after initiating the investigation.

“I felt so gross,” McKeown said in an electronic message to the Daily. “I use those bathrooms, and I was just mad that a part of my daily routine that is private was a part of someone’s pervy scheme. It’s one of those incidents of indirect violation that actually feels worse.”

McKeown noted a change in her feeling of security on campus.

“I don’t think I’m going to feel comfortable on campus anytime soon knowing that I could be monitored at any point,” she said. “Plus, I don’t think Tufts is going to take any serious disciplinary action.”

ALEXIS SERINO / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

First-year dorm Harleston Hall is pictured on April 11, 2017.

Sofia Levy, another resident of Harleston Hall, was made aware of the incident by her First-Year Assistants (FYA). The situation startled her.

“I was initially pretty shocked that a situation like this would happen,” Levy, a sophomore, said. “All of the people I met in my dorm were very respectful, and if I ever had concerns, I knew I could trust on my FYA to address them.”

Levy thought the single-gender bathrooms in Harleston would guarantee more privacy than the communal showers in other halls. The discovery of the cameras made it clear to her that situations like this can happen in any dorm on campus. This event has altered her perspective on campus security.

“Although I feel very safe on Tufts’ campus, this event will definitely make me more aware of my surroundings both on and off campus,” she said. “I think this event serves as a reminder to always be cautious of your surroundings and to look out for yourself and others.”

Maguire agreed, saying the ordeal in Harleston Hall demonstrates the importance of maintaining a degree of attentiveness on campus and beyond. He noted that ultimately the cameras were discovered due to the alertness of the students that reported them, and he commended them for their actions.

“Although victims are never at fault for the crimes that happen to them, there are steps we can all take to raise awareness and vigilance,” he said.

Maguire also emphasized the need for education and reporting in such incidents.

“Education regarding the law and policy around use of video equipment can be undertaken. All students and staff can be vigilant regarding objects that suddenly appear in areas where residents have an elevated expectation of privacy, such as restrooms, shower areas and bedrooms,” he said. “And if you see something, say something.”

Resolutions from this year called for new residence hall building, more diverse faculty SENATE

continued from page 12 Emily Sim, whom she cited for the improvement of the TCU Treasury in recent years.

“I’m proud of how the Treasury has really remade its image over the past few years I’ve been on Senate in terms of being respectful towards student groups and its approachability,” Chen said. “I think that’s a real credit to Treasurers Emily Sim and Izzy Ma.” The 2018–19 academic year was also marked by 17 TCU resolutions, most of which were authored by TCU senators.

In October, TCU Senate endorsed Nathan Foster’s candidacy for election to the University’s Board of Trustees. TCU Senate resolved to support — in its only roll call vote on a resolution in the entire academic year — a ‘yes’ vote on Question Three on the Massachusetts Ballot in the November 2018 election, which supported a bill to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in public places. TCU Senate also articulated support for Tufts Dining Workers in their ongoing contract negotiations.

In November, TCU Senate called on Tufts to build a new high-capacity residence hall, which it has not done since the construction of Sophia Gordon Hall in 2006.

In December, TCU Senate called on Tufts to divest its endowment from the firearm industry. In response to an earlier March 2018 Arts, Sciences and Engineering Faculty vote advocating for the same, the university cited difficulty fully divesting from the industry due to commingled investment funds.

In February, TCU Senate called on Tufts to “achieve gender parity in university leadership,” which followed a 2018 Eos Foundation study that ranked Tufts 87th among 93 Massachusetts colleges and universities; advocated for the University to integrate voter registration in the Student Information System; and outlined a path to improve Tufts Dining, by opening a café in Laminan Lounge in Olin Hall, expanding late-night dining options and in other ways.

Also in February, TCU Senate advocated for “academic freedom” and “due process in Professor Thomas Abowd’s contract renewal,” which followed concern that his contract may not be renewed after controversy arose from his course titled “Colonizing Palestine.”

Following this resolution, in March, TCU Senate demanded that Tufts explain its “complicity in the opioid crisis” in relation to the influence of the Sackler family; called on Tufts to increase student voices and influence on the Board of Trustees; and called on the university to “transition to a carbon-neutral endowment.”

In April, TCU Senate called on Tufts to increase “recruitment and support for faculty of color,” and advocated for the implementation of a “shadow-grading system” for first-year students in their first semester. It also called for due process for former Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine student Tiffany Filler, who was expelled in January 2019 on charges of “grade hacking.” TCU Senate, additionally, outlined its support for the integration of “mobile wallet

technology” into the university’s ecosystem and called on Tufts to expand financial accessibility for low-income students, including through the introduction of laundry stipends.

However, some of the projects that TCU Senators worked on this year were accomplished indirectly or outside of resolutions.

Notable among these projects is the institutionalization of the Swipe It Forward meal bank as an “opt-out” program, which was mentioned in “S. 19-3 A Resolution Providing a Roadmap for Future Improvements to Tufts Dining.”

Chen, who worked to establish the program in 2017, her sophomore year, expressed enthusiasm over the achievement.

“It’s really cool to see [Tufts Dining] agree to make it easier for students to get meals from the meal bank and make it sustainable after I graduate,” Chen said.

Outgoing Community and Diversity Affairs Officer Grant Gebetsberger highlighted another project accomplished in the past year that would improve student input and inclusion in the administrative hiring process. “[The project] will create a bank of students with [the Dean of Student Affairs] to have people that we can call on to interview candidates,” Gebetsberger said. “All students can opt-in to participate in selecting the people we’re going to be working with and who are going to be advocating for students on campus.”

Goradia also addressed the challenge presented by the administration to his project, which would make available all course syllabi to undergraduate students before

enrollment in order to improve accessibility and aid student expectations.

According to Goradia, the school can’t allow TCU Senate to publish the syllabi due to legal issues related to the distribution of intellectual property.

“We’ve gotten 450 syllabi waiting in a folder on my laptop, but the school won’t let us give them out,” Goradia said. “We’re working with Tufts Technology Services right now trying to make a Canvas page next year that everyone is automatically enrolled in.”

Several senators noted additional challenges in the past year that the TCU Senate faced, which they predict will continue into the next academic year.

Gebetsberger highlighted that the university’s continuing deficit creates challenges to any project proposed by a TCU Senator.

“There’s a certain challenge of people pitting certain groups against one other that shouldn’t be pitted against one another who are fighting for resources and attention,” Gebetsberger said.

Gebetsberger added that “high administrative turnover,” indicated by the departure of Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon and several of the directors of the Group of Six centers, will continue to challenge and disrupt dialogue with the university’s administration.

“With all of these vacancies that people really stepped up graciously to perform, it’s going to be hard for Senate to interface and interact with new administrators and make sure that some of the progress that we’ve made isn’t lost,” Gebetsberger said.

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tuftsdaily.com

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon to become Duke University’s Vice Provost of Campus Life

by Liza Harris News Editor

Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon, who has been at Tufts since 2014, will leave in July to become Vice Provost and Vice President of Campus Life at Duke University, according to an email sent to the student body. In her new position, she will direct campus life across the undergraduate and graduate student bodies.

In an interview with the Daily, McMahon explained that she is excited by the new position, which has a much broader scope than the position she currently holds at Tufts, where she has primarily directed student affairs at the undergraduate level.

“I am very excited about the interdisciplinary nature of Duke’s structure and academic experience,” McMahon said. “The students and faculty that I met on the committee are very interested in thinking about ways to holistically build an undergraduate and graduate education that factors in all the different experiences people have.”

Throughout her five years at Tufts, McMahon has worked with a wide range of campus organizations and contributed to various projects across the university.

McMahon described the impact of the Student Life Review Committee (SLRC) that she helped to form in the spring of 2017 after University President Anthony Monaco commissioned it in 2016. “[The SLRC was] a trustee-led committee that took a broad, sweeping assessment of life outside the classroom for undergraduates, including Greek life, campus organizations, the centers, code of conduct, residential life and accessibility,” McMahon said.

McMahon also discussed the SLRC’s new resources and programs for students, ranging from first-year housing to additional support systems. “[The SLRC] is how we got to the first generation resource center … that’s how we got to the plan for first-year residence halls,” she said, referring to the 2018 establishment of the FIRST Resource Center and the 2017 consolidation of first-year housing.

McMahon recalled creating the Division of Student Affairs office in 2016 as well as commissioning the Supporting Undocumented Students Task Force and Equity, Access, and Student Equality organizations, which work to lower barriers to the student experience for undocumented and low-income, first-generation students.

She added that building a partnership with athletics was one of her most important accomplishments during her time at Tufts.

McMahon expressed gratitude for being able to work with students on several projects to find solutions to problems.

“I really appreciated having the chance to work with student activists on places where we could find common ground and have positive change on campus,” McMahon said. “In the fall this year, people protested the code of conduct policy, and I’m proud of the fact that we were able to sit down with those students and find a solution,” she said.

McMahon also recalled that one of her favorite memories at Tufts was working with Miguel Rodriguez Santos (LA ’18) to teach a course called “Hamilton: In Context,” focusing on the musical Hamilton (2016), as well as witnessing the candlelight ceremony the night before graduation for the first time.

“The first year I got to go and see … that concept of the light on the hill and the

EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon teaches her ExCollege course 'Hamilton: In Context' on Jan. 24, 2018. physical manifestation of that on orientation and then again on graduation … It helped me really understand that Tufts is really a special place,” McMahon said.

During her time at Tufts, McMahon has worked with a wide range of campus and student organizations, including the Tisch College of Civic Life, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL), Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) and Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS).

Members from each of these organizations spoke to McMahon’s commitment to improving campus life and supporting students.

On behalf of TUSC, rising juniors Lea Pensoy and Noah Brown noted the support from McMahon with regard to social events on campus during her tenure, in an email to the Daily.

“Over the past year, TUSC has seen a consistent increase in attendance at events, with many of our smaller scale events attracting over 300 people. There is no question that our success this year would not have been possible without Dean McMahon’s enthusiastic assistance,” Pensoy and Brown said.

TCU Senate President Jacqueline Chen added that McMahon has worked closely with TCU Senate on a number of initiatives.

In an email to the Daily, Chen, a graduating senior, outlined McMahon’s involvement in some of those projects.

“She has supported initiatives such as the TCU Senate Textbook Exchange, the SLUSH Fund, and the removal of beds from the Asian American Center so that it could become a more welcoming community space,” Chen said.

Chen added that McMahon helped TCU Senate achieve some of its goals in more subtle ways.

“These are more tangible projects, but she also has helped us incrementally work towards policy goals such as town halls on budget transparency and mental health, and working on exceptions to the residency requirement for students with extenuating circumstances,” she said.

Chen also praised McMahon’s advocacy for students during her tenure at Tufts.

“She is always willing to meet one on one to talk about projects to better

student life that we’re passionate about, and has been a consistent advocate to administrators we don’t normally interact with in order to ensure that student perspectives are in the room,” Chen said. “[She] has been an exceptional advocate for students at a school where it is not customary to incorporate student voice into decision making.”

Joshua Hartman, director of the ORLL, praised McMahon’s commitment to improving student life in an email to the Daily.

“Her commitment to deepening the levels of engagement within the residential community has been evidenced by her successful efforts to advocate for reimagined spaces for first-year students (including multiple building renovations and upgrades), enhancing the levels of support within the [ORLL] through increasing the number of student staff members in the department, and intentionally connecting the new student orientation experience with the residential communities,” he said.

Additionally, Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont praised McMahon’s support for civic-oriented events and programs across campus, in an email to the Daily. “[McMahon] has meaningfully contributed to every aspect of life on this campus, and this includes expanding opportunities for civic engagement, political participation, and dialogue across difference,” Solomont said.

Solomont also highlighted McMahon’s involvement in seeing through programs and projects at Tisch College.

“At Tisch College, we have greatly appreciated her strong partnership on many initiatives including our Distinguished Speaker Series, Civic Life Lunches, orientation programming, the new Tufts Civic Semester global program, and our efforts to embed civic learning across departments and in co-curricular activities across the university,” he said.

Solomont expressed his hopes for McMahon’s success following her departure from Tufts.

“While we are sad to see Dean Mary Pat move on from Tufts, we are not surprised that she has a new opportunity to greatly influence campus life – and civic life – in American higher education. On behalf of

everyone at Tisch College, we wish her all the best,” Solomont said.

Co-President of the LCS Alex Lein noted how deeply McMahon has impacted the organization and Tufts students as a whole.

“Mary Pat has been a huge source of support for [LCS], both on a personal and organizational level. She’s helped us out financially, in terms of supporting our events and initiatives, and she’s also just been a consistent voice of input and insight into the progress of the organization and where to take things,” Lein, a rising junior, said.

In the email to the university, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser and Dean of the School of Engineering Jianmin Qu praised the legacy that McMahon’s commitment to students and vision for the university will leave.

Glaser echoed this sentiment in an email to the Daily, saying that McMahon improved Tufts as a whole.

“Dean McMahon has brought vision, vigor, and an extraordinary understanding of current student and university issues to her role here. She’s done an exceptional job and has been an outstanding partner to me, to her colleagues in AS&E, and to university leadership,” the email read. “We’re a better university because of her.”

McMahon expressed that she will greatly miss working with Tufts students.

“It probably sounds like a cliche, but I will absolutely miss Tufts students and the team at Student Affairs,” she said. “I’ve been so impressed at Tufts students’ resourcefulness and incredible dedication to making this place better, and [their] willingness to get in the mix on a hard conversation [or] on a persistent challenge and tell me something I may not necessarily already know or want to hear,” McMahon said.

McMahon also acknowledged the role of the student affairs team and Tufts faculty in her success.

“The student affairs team is an incredibly dedicated group of people. I do want people to know that [it goes] above and beyond to support the student experience here and commit to students’ individual growth and well being,” McMahon told the Daily. “I will always be inspired by my colleagues from Tufts.”

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Features HISTORY ON THE HILL

Summertime

A

DANIEL MONTOYA / TUFTS DAILY

Five identity centers are shown.

Features Editor

With several vacant or soon-to-be vacant director positions in the identity-based resource centers at Tufts, students have been asking administrators to act quickly to fill those vacancies and commit to staffing these centers in the interim.

Searches for new directors of the Asian American, Latino and Women’s Centers are now underway, and interim staffing plans have been developed, according to Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon and Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs Raymond Ou, who spoke at the town hall meetings between students and university administrators on March 27 and May 1.

Students will also be able to participate in the current and future searches by interviewing candidates or serving on hiring committees, according to a new online form that was recently launched by the Division of Student Affairs.

Several of the identity-based centers that report to the Division of Student Affairs — the Africana, Asian American, FIRST, Latino, LGBT and Women’s Centers — have long-standing histories of student activism and involvement that have been crucial to the Centers’ development. As the Centers are experiencing change at this juncture, the Daily takes a broad look at the Centers’ histories and the pivotal roles that students have played in their founding and development.

Africana Center The Africana Center at Tufts was founded in 1969, after students protested the alleged racist hiring practices of the company that built Lewis Hall.

According to Daily articles from March 2010 and November 2014, Tufts had contracted Volpe Construction to build Lewis Hall, at the corner of Packard Avenue and Powder House Boulevard. After students from Tufts’ Afro-American Society found

out that Volpe practiced hiring discrimination, they occupied the construction site, supported by Tufts faculty and students from other Boston-area universities, on Nov. 5, 1969.

The protesters challenged the university to ensure that more “black or thirdworld” workers must be hired. Tufts initially responded harshly, obtaining a restraining order against the protesters and calling on riot police to intervene.

Eventually, an agreement was reached between the university and the protestors on Nov. 14 of that year. Tufts agreed to take action against Volpe for its racial discrimination in hiring. The protest was halted.

The 1969 protests also pressured Tufts to establish the Afro-American Cultural Center to provide various resources for students of African descent. The Center was renamed the African American Center in 1977 and the Africana Center in 2001.

Student protesters in 1969 left a lasting legacy, as the Center celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Student protesters in 1969 also called for the creation of an “Afro-American Studies Department.” This demand, unlike the others, was ignored. Students later renewed calls for an Africana studies major from 2009, leading to its creation in 2012.

Katrina Moore has served as Africana Center director since 2008. After Asian American Center Director Linell Yugawa retires this summer, Moore will be the longest-serving staff member of all the identity-based resource centers at Tufts.

Asian American Center The Asian American Center at Tufts was founded in 1983, after a racist incident against residents of the Asian American House, then known as the Asian Culture House.

Pledges from Tufts’ Kappa chapter of Zeta Psi fraternity hurled derogatory slurs at several students living in the Asian American House early on March 12, 1982, according to an apology from

tuftsdaily.com

Nate Rubright Somerville with Townie Tim

Identity-based resource centers

by Sean Ong

15

Zeta Psi brothers published in the Daily on March 19 that year.

Much debate ensued on campus as to whether the Zeta Psi chapter or the pledges themselves should be formally punished

by Tufts. The Committee on Student Life eventually issued sanctions at the end of spring 1982 against Zeta Psi for its role in the incident.

The Asian Student Center was then created a year later in July 1983, as a community resource for Asian and Asian-American students, after students called for Tufts to pay greater attention to the needs of this student demographic.

Since then, the Asian American Center has continued to grow, including an expansion of its Center space into the entirety of the Start House building from fall 2018, after students successfully lobbied for the residential space of the Asian American House to be moved out to improve the accessibility of the Asian American Center.

Director Yugawa, who is retiring this summer, was appointed to the role in 1985. Concern over the lack of job posting and administrative stability for the Asian American Center, along with several other identity-based centers, was expressed early this spring, in an op-ed written by a group of students affiliated with the Center.

A search for a new director of the Asian American Center is currently underway.

FIRST Resource Center The FIRST Resource Center was founded in August 2018 to support first-generation, low-income and undocumented students at Tufts, after years of tireless advocacy by students and staff.

The FIRST Center is supported by the Office for Student Success and Advising, led by Associate Dean Robert Mack and Associate Director Margot Cardamone.

Mack concurrently serves as associate provost and chief diversity officer for the Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses. see IDENTITY, page 16

s the great poets of the band Sublime once said, “Summertime and the livin’s easy.” If you think otherwise, just ask all the people “in the dance”; they will gladly acknowledge that Sublime is “qualified to represent the [Long Beach Community] LBC.” Hopefully, after a semester of reading this column, you will admit that your man Townie Tim is well qualified to talk about the SSC, or the Somer Side Community, which is something I am desperately trying to establish as a thing. The point is, “Doin’ Time” slaps.

Before I ride off into the sunset, let’s talk about summer. I know it was just reading period and you spent about 20% of your time studying, with the rest devoted to rewatching The Office.

I’ve been there, and all I can say is that I relate. Even though everyone in the group finished their part of the project, you still needed to spend about 15 more hours together making sure all the graphs are labeled. Don’t forget that six of those hours were spent trying to figure out where to get food that late at night.

After all the papers, projects and finals are done and students return to equal parts New York and California, Somerville — not to mention Boston in general — really clears out and the townies emerge to enjoy three months of the dog days of summer. Don’t get me wrong, having students around during the year is an essential part of our community, and Somerville wouldn’t be the same without Tufts. But it is nice to have the place to ourselves for a while. It’s kind of like that time I went on a cruise and was the last one off the boat. I realized there was this tight-knit community of staff that existed amongst the general population. Once everyone was off the boat they stretched out and relaxed.

Over the summer, we don’t have to wait in line for breakfast. Powder House Square is significantly safer, people remember my name at restaurants, the T is less crowded and everything in Davis Square just seems a little slower.

Also, it is a whole lot easier to distinguish the tourists on the Freedom Trail because all the lost Suffolk students are home for the summer. For the next three months, we get to relax in our non-air-conditioned apartments and think about how much more humid it is in other parts of the country.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and summer will give Somerville just enough time to start missing the student population. At the end of the day, we need you, Jumbos, because without you, we would be just like non-college-having fools in Malden, Arlington or Everett. I shudder at the thought.

So, take a sec and make that summertime playlist. You should also consider making plans to come back and visit your friends who are staying in Boston.

Summer is truly the time to experience this community as a local. As for me, I’ll be out there on the streets collecting stories for another time. This is Townie Tim signing off for now.

Nate Rubright is a member of the Somerville community. Nate can be reached at nathan.rubright@gmail.com.

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Megan Szostak Lisztomania

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tuftsdaily.com

THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Nostalgia

n wracking my brain for ideas on what to write for this column for commencement, memories of my high school graduation flooded into my mind, and I started to become nostalgic. Even after a year, it is still hard for me to fully grasp the fact that those four years of my life are over, and I can never go back. As a senior in high school, I unconsciously predicted that I would be feeling this way during my first year at Tufts, so I created four playlists of music, one for each of my years in high school. Each playlist included songs that were important to me at different parts of my life, songs that I associated with different events, and even songs that I simply enjoyed at different points in time. I didn’t know it at the time, but these playlists proved to be very emotionally transformative and were able to transport me back into my memories. In listening to these playlists today, they are able to evoke emotions in me, which I think is amazing. Music is incredibly powerful, and can act as a means to vividly connect us to our pasts through the awakening of previously dormant neural connections with just some simple sensory stimulation.

The amazing thing about music and nostalgia is that you never know how important a song will be to you until you hear it after a long time, and it takes you back to a specific moment or makes you feel things you haven’t felt in an equally long time. Now, if you were to listen to the songs that you frequently listened to during your first year at Tufts, your mind would likely flood with the memories of being a confused and awkward first-year and the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Songs that have recently been queued on your Spotify over and over again will forever remind you of this final semester at Tufts and your commencement.

The inevitable touching message is this: Nostalgia goes for actions as well.

As you head out into the world, remember that some of your actions may not, initially, seem to be significant but that does not mean they never will be. Your actions will continue to impact yourself and others in ways that you never thought possible. Associations between actions and reactions, just like songs and memories, will form throughout your lives, and it is important to be reminded of them and celebrate their impact. Tufts Class of 2019, your time as undergraduates on this campus has come to an end. This is a hard reality to face, but I hope that you look back fondly on the years that you have spent here and recognize that you have accomplished amazing things, and will continue to do so. If you ever find yourself forgetting this, trust me, music will remind you.

Megan Szostak is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Megan can be reached at megan.szostak@tufts.edu.

As humanities majors continue to drop, students, faculty, administrators grapple with the value of a liberal arts degree

by Mark Choi

Assistant Features Editor

Tufts University has long been recognized for its robust liberal arts curriculum and nationally ranked international relations program, while also providing research opportunities and facilities for its undergraduates. Historically, Tufts began as a small liberal arts college chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1852, joining the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in 1971. While the university gradually transformed into a national research university during Jean Mayer’s presidency from 1976 to 1993, Tufts has maintained liberal arts at its core, providing a wide range of humanities, language and arts courses for its undergraduates.

Changing demographics in undergraduate majors at Tufts Tufts’ combination of liberal arts and research continues to resonate with students across the nation and globe, attracting more than 22,700 applicants for the Class of 2023. Jessica Parillo, a first-year intending to major in English and political science, said she was first attracted by Tufts’ combination of liberal arts curriculum along with resources typically found at a research university.

“To me, a liberal arts education is about the ability to explore different academic disciplines in humanities, languages, math and sciences,” Parillo said. “[While applying to Tufts,] I liked the distribution requirement as it would expose me to a wide range of subject areas which can help me better understand what I really want to study … Tufts also seemed like a place where people with varying academic interests get to work together and collaborate [across different academic departments].”

While the university continues to provide strong humanities and social sciences curricula and programs, the university has experienced a consistent decline in its liberal arts majors, while STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors have increased significantly. According to the 2018–2019 Tufts Fact Book, the share of STEM majors in a graduating class increased from 22% to 33% over the past five years, an increase from 401 students to 594 in the 2017–2018 academic year.

Meanwhile, computer science surpassed international relations as the most popular major at Tufts, with 156 graduating seniors in spring 2018. Humanities and art majors, on the other hand, have dropped from 16% to 11% during the same period.

Potential reasons, explanations for the shift from humanities to STEM As the student body’s academic demand changes, Philosophy Department Chair Avner Baz shared his observation that might shed light on the statistics.

“Teaching various undergraduate courses at Tufts [over the past 14 years], I came to notice that there are fewer students who are as humanistically inclined as were in the past,” Baz said. “I don’t want to generalize the whole Tufts student body because this has been my experience, but that may well have been a trend … Chairs from other [humanities] departments have also reported to me that the nature of the student population has changed. It might be that the type of students Tufts attracts and admits has changed too.”

Chuan Ting Toh, a senior majoring in English and sociology, echoed Baz’ sentiment, sharing her observations over the past four years that she has spent at Tufts.

“When I was a [first-year], I saw a lot more seniors whose primary academic interest was English, international relations or philosophy with computer science as a double major or as a minor on the side. It seemed to me that many

see MAJORS, page 17

Identity-based centers at Tufts offer rich history, adapting resources IDENTITY

continued from page 15 It may be the newest of the identity-based resource centers at Tufts, but it is certainly building on initiatives led by first-generation students and other university programs. Students have spearheaded the First-Gen Collective, formerly the FirstGeneration Student Council, since 2014.

For incoming first-years, Tufts also offers two bridge programs — Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts since 2010 and Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts since 2012 — and a pre-orientation program — Building Engagement and Access for Students at Tufts since 2018.

Latino Center The Latino Center at Tufts was founded in October 1993, after students called for the creation of a culture center, much like the Africana and Asian American Centers, to provide support and a voice with the university administration.

While the Latino Center, previously called the Hispanic American Center, was not established in the wake of a protest, students in the then Hispanic American Society had been demanding for such a center prior to 1993, according to a March 27, 2018 Daily article.

The Center has been led by two directors in its history: Rubén Salinas Stern from its founding to 2017 and Julián Cancino from 2017 to 2019. Stern has been credited with the development of social justice peer education programs, while Cancino encouraged greater student involvement with the Center and oversaw the Center’s inaugural Latinx Film Festival in 2018.

The role of Latino Center director has been vacant since Cancino’s departure from Tufts in January. The Latino Center was one of three identity-based centers, along with the Asian American and Women’s Centers, that students voiced concerns about at a March town hall meet-

ing for the lack of job postings for permanent director positions. Marvin Casasola, former manager at Boston University’s study abroad office, has been appointed interim program administrator while the search for a center director takes place.

LGBT Center The LGBT Center at Tufts was founded in September 1992, but an organization for LGBTQ students predated the Center’s founding by at least two decades.

The Tufts Gay Community, the university’s first organization for gay students, was formed in spring 1972. It later expanded to include lesbian and bisexual students.

The student group also secured funding from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate for a professional coordinator position in 1988, who later became part of the university’s staff when the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Resource Center — later renamed the LGBT Center — opened in 1992.

Students, alongside faculty and staff, continued to advocate for improvements to LGBTQ student life at Tufts, such as serving on the Task Force on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues in 1992–93, setting up the Rainbow House in 1998 and changing the university’s nondiscrimination policy after a student was discriminated based on sexual orientation by a student group in 2000.

The center hired its first full-time director in 1997. Current Director Hope Freeman is the eighth person to lead the center and has been at Tufts since March 2017.

Women’s Center The Women’s Center was founded in 1972, driven by student energy and organizing from its very beginning at Tufts.

The Center was first funded as a student group by TCU Senate in 1972 and given space on campus, before hiring part-time center coordinator and health and sexuality coordinator positions in 1974. It did not

become an administrative office led by a center director until 1985.

Along the way, students have played a key role in the Women’s Center programming — from activism and peer education to violence prevention. The center’s student board, renamed Students Acting for Gender Equality in 2009, worked on the university’s gender-neutral housing policy.

Student interns at the center have also been active in organizing the weekly POC Circle discussion group and the annual Women’s Center Symposium.

Since former Director K. Martinez left Tufts in 2018, LGBT Center Director Freeman has stepped in as interim director of the Women’s Center. Martinez acknowledged the high turnover in the position in an April 12, 2018 Daily article.

The position has since been vacant for more than a year.

Most recently, Jessica Mitzner, current graduate assistant at the center and Ph.D. candidate in English, has been appointed as the center’s new interim program administrator.

This is not the first time that former and current students have stepped in to fill the staffing needs of the Women’s Center. Between the departure and hiring of directors, former graduate assistants Sue Gilbert (AG ’05, N ’13) and Bryn Gravitt (grad year??) served as interim director for two years from 2006 to 2008 and 1 1/2 years from 2016 to 2017 respectively.

“My goal in this position [of interim program administrator] is not about changing the Women’s Center, but about providing students with the support they need and working to expand the wonderful community that has already been established at the Center,” Mitzner told the Daily in an email. “We are currently moving forward with hiring for the open Director position, which will further help us support the students in the Women’s Center community.”

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Tufts sees shifts in undergrad major demographics, reflecting national trends MAJORS

continued from page 16 started with their humanities major and then picking up computer science as their secondary academic concentration,” Toh said. “But as a senior now, I see a lot more [first-years] starting off with computer science and supplementing their degrees with something else, possibly with the humanities.”

Meanwhile, the unprecedented growth of the computer science major is even more striking in comparison to the incoming first-year classes’ “potential majors of interest” as indicated during the college application process. According to an article published by Tufts Now, international relations, biology, economics and political science continue to be cited as the most popular academic interests for the incoming first-year class within the School of Arts and Sciences. Bennett Smith-Worthington, a first-year intending to major in international relations or political science, said that students’ academic interests seem to change often during their first semester in college.

“I’d have to say that people feel more pressure about their future and the job market [during their first semester in college] … In high school, what you’d be doing in college and the life after college seem pretty far away, so students are more likely to say I want to study philosophy or history because I love doing it, for example,” Smith-Worthington said.

“Once you are in college, though, you have to start thinking more about the internships and networking and how your major would play into that.”

Parillo added that she felt as though there is an increasing pressure to pursue ‘practical’ majors such as computer science and economics from the student body.

“I found that there’s this stigma around majoring in English or other humanities disciplines [at Tufts],” Parillo said. “When I told people that I am thinking about majoring in English, many responded by saying that I am not going to get a job [with a degree in English]. Some people even think majoring in English is a waste of money and not worth the investment.”

Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser, on the other hand, attributed the university’s statistics primarily to a short-term cyclical change, rather than a structural change of Tufts as an institution or of the student body.

“There is always going to be some ebb and flow [of student enrollments across different departments]. Political science, for instance, was a really popular major [at Tufts], but then the enrollment started to go down as law schools suffered in the ’90s … But the number has been coming back up again as more students are interested in studying politics in today’s political climate,” Glaser said. “I’m not sure that the things that are going on now [humanities majors’ decline] are going to be true 10 years or 20 years from now because the things that were true 10 years ago aren’t true now. Also, the overall number changes [of major distributions] haven’t been that greater, either. ” Glaser also emphasized that the current student body’s changing academic demands will not translate into the liberal arts department’s budget cuts in the foreseeable future, contrary to the nationwide cuts to liberal arts funding.

“The university has a responsibility to maintain our liberal arts environment by providing a broad swath of intellectual territory. [In that context,] not all of our

decisions about how resources are going to allocated are based on the student demand today,” Glaser said. “Student demand is most certainly an important variable [in the budget process] as the university wants to offer courses in areas — computer sciences, community health, economics, environmental science and film [and media] studies — where we experience high student demand, but we are making decisions not just for today or tomorrow but for the next 35 years … Our budgetary decisions are a balance between what is a pressing need and what is a long term need [as an institution].”

How Tufts reflects nationwide changes Despite the university’s commitment to maintaining its broad curriculum and liberal arts emphasis, Tufts faces challenges as college students nationwide are shunning humanities majors.

According to an article published by The Atlantic, humanities majors have seen a drop up to 70% among major research universities in the past decade. Even schools like Macalester College, a liberal arts college in Minnesota, now has 41% of its graduates completing a degree in STEM, up from 27% only a decade ago.

With regard to this nationwide change, Career Center Director Greg Victory cited the Great Recession of 2008 and its impact on the labor market as the primary reason. Victory explained that the financial security weighs heavily on college students today when choosing their majors more so than before.

“I think there are couple things that we’ve been learning about the Generation Z, which is the current generation of college students nationwide and at Tufts …

This is the generation that saw the financial repercussions of the Great Recession of 2008 and how it impacted their parents and families’ lives growing up,” Victory said. “[Accordingly,] it’s a generation that is consistently more concerned about [its] financial security. So more and more students are picking majors which they think will translate into a higher-paying job and create a sense of job security … There’s also this sense of uncertainty added by the rise of artificial intelligence and job automations in the future. This is why, in many ways, computer science is now the most popular major at Tufts because people think that it will lead to a job that will pay the bills and take care of people around them.”

Victory also added that the rising tuition at Tufts can be another contributing factor in how students choose their majors.

“I do think that the rising tuition adds even more pressure for students to study more ‘practical’ majors such as computer science and economics … But I always ask my students this question, is this something that you want to do for the next five, 10 years? Will this job make you happy? Will this job engage you and make you think?” Victory asked.

Toh added that an increasing number of her peers evaluate their undergraduate education from the rate of investment perspective.

“The other day I heard someone saying, I want to make sure that my tuition is going to be worth it and that my time here will be worth [the investment],” Toh said. “It was interesting to see how people were approaching the topic, as if they were trying to measure their learning in terms of what kind of job they would get and how much they would get paid afterwards … I personally did not think much about how my major would translate into a

job that would then make money … but I think it is in the minds of many other people.”

How Tufts accommodates growing majors in STEM fields Meanwhile, the student body’s ever-increasing academic demand for computer science courses has led to a perceived lack of resources and personalized attention for each student within the department. According to the 2018–2019 Tufts Factbook, the number of computer science majors of a graduating class increased three times over the past five years, from 53 students in 2014 to 156 in 2018. Emily Gheewalla, a sophomore majoring in computer science, said that the department is still relatively new and there are many areas that can be improved even though computer science is now the most popular major at Tufts.

“Even during my time here, I noticed that the computer science department is switching around its courses’ contents and materials … When I took Introduction to Computer Science, for instance, we just learned C++ as our programming language. During the next semester, though, people learned both Python and C++,” Gheewalla said. “This can be a problem especially in upper level courses when students don’t have the same building blocks to work on a project or understand the materials … Also, contrary to other departments that have been around for a while, the computer science department is still experimenting with its courses, majors and concentrations.”

Gheewalla added that the university needs to invest more in the computer science department to reflect the student body’s growing demand.

“When I was registering for my classes this semester, there were less than 10 seats available in all of my required classes in the computer science department. It was more stressful as it was just after students from the School of Engineering had registered,” Gheewalla said. “[As a student enrolled in the School of Arts & Sciences,] by the time it got to my registration time, there were only a few waitlist spots left for me …

While the department ended up adding more waitlists, it was really stressful and confusing for everyone involved … Overall, I think that the department needs a lot more faculty to meet the growing demand.”

Regarding the students’ comments, Computer Science Department Chair Kathleen Fisher introduced the university’s ongoing efforts to meet the student body’s growing demand in computer science curriculum.

“The [computer science] department’s budget has grown, but not proportionately to the growth in student enrollments. Such growth cannot happen quickly in a university setting,” Fisher said in an email to the Daily. “We are working to create new sources of revenue to better support the computer science department without taking resources away from other important areas.”

Fisher added that the university is adding undergraduate resources to meet the student body’s growing demand in computer science.

“To help manage the increased number of students, we have grown our undergraduate teaching-assistant program so that more advanced students are partnering with faculty to help with grading, answering student questions online and during in-person

office hours, running labs, and teaching recitations using faculty-prepared materials,” Fisher noted. “To support these undergraduate teaching assistants, we have created a semester-long training course for new TAs and various course-specific mentoring programs … We currently have more than 170 undergraduates helping in this capacity. We also hire more adjunct faculty to teach individual courses in their area of expertise.”

The case for liberal arts As a counterpoint to the computer science department’s struggle to meet the student body’s growing demand, many humanities departments now have to build a case for a liberal arts education and its value. Baz noted that the role of humanities and liberal arts will continue to evolve as the student body’s academic interests change nationwide and at Tufts.

“If we can make the case for the relevance and importance of philosophy and other humanities disciplines, the university will continue to invest in these academic disciplines, and students will continue to take courses from these departments without even majoring in them,” Baz said. “We are planning on hiring a faculty who would be focusing in their work on philosophy in technology, for example. We are also introducing new courses in well-being and human mind that would have a wider appeal to Tufts students … What humanities and philosophy department will continue to offer is an opportunity for our students to reflect on what they do and the significance of their work, and overall, how to live a good, meaningful life.”

Echoing Baz’s sentiment, Victory emphasized the value of a liberal arts degree in today’s society and job market.

“I know that there are more and more employers out there who want students with a liberal arts background and experience. [For instance,] we just had the head of HR [Human Resources] from Fidelity who spent his entire day on campus. His message throughout the day was that they need more people who can attack problems from multiple perspectives,” Baz said. “He said that the company wants people who can understand the cultural context of a decision, who can understand the ethical ramifications of making choices around a data set, and those who have a sense of how a policy might impact the decisions and work they do.”

Victory also encouraged students to take risks and emphasized that the university is always there to support its students. He has learned that Tufts students put effort into their careers and internships. “[ Tufts students are] the type of interns who will ask for more work to do because they believe in what they are doing. They are not afraid to tap into the problems that they’ve learned in multiple disciplines to say, ‘I am a biology major, but I took this anthropology class and I know how we can figure this out,’” Victory said. “[In today’s job market and economy,] I think the value of Tufts education is that we create these opportunities for students to try and test different things out and to be driven, knowing that it is okay to be wrong sometimes and even to fail … I want the students to know that the university will be here … to support them from their first jobs and beyond to help them have an engaging and meaningful career development.”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

SENIOR PROFILE

SENIOR PROFILE

Shaan Merchant

Parker Breza

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Shaan Merchant poses for a portrait on May 8.

by Mark Choi

Assistant Features Editor

During his four years at Tufts, Shaan Merchant has kept busy. He created his own interdisciplinary studies major in political media, served on the executive board of the Tisch Council for Philanthropic Leadership and worked as a barista at The Rez. Merchant is also a food tour guide for Boston’s Little Italy and shares his “why Tufts” as a campus tour guide.

Despite his busy schedule, Merchant said meeting new people always motivates him.

“I am very much a people person. I am one of those people who never needs alone time — I never like to be alone,” Merchant said. “It makes me happy when my presence makes everyone in the room happy and comfortable.”

Merchant said that his outgoing personality comes largely from his childhood spent in Nashville, Tenn., where he was encouraged to be creative and inquisitive.

“I went to a special type of school, also known as the Waldorf School. The school had a huge emphasis on playing outside and being creative, which was a wonderful community for me to explore,” Merchant shared. “Nashville, Tenn. also provided me with open space and freedom to explore and learn both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Though Merchant had initially decided not to apply to Tufts, he ultimately realized that he could nurture his natural sense of exploration and curiosity on this campus.

“Because my sister was going to Tufts, I was not even going to apply to Tufts. I just thought that there is no way I am going to the same school with my sister,” Merchant said. “When I visited Tufts, though, I immediately fell in love with the school … I had a sense that Tufts is [a] place where people take what they do seriously, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. While people at Tufts [are] really passionate about the work they are doing, they are willing to have fun and laugh at themselves at the same time.”

Merchant said he decided to create his own major in political media while also pursuing a major in Spanish.

“I came to Tufts with no idea about what I was going to major in, so I took a number of courses from different departments. Then I took ‘Media and Society’ in spring [of my first year] with Professor Sarah Sobieraj, who immediately became my mentor … The class piqued my interests in political science, sociology and [film and media studies],” Merchant shared.

Through his interdisciplinary major in political media, Merchant studied how our implicit and explicit biases play into our everyday media consumption.

“Unless you are watching C-SPAN …

24/7, every little bit of political information you get from the news is a secondary source,” Merchant said. “So through my major, I wanted to look at how human factors play into media and how we can address these biases that influence our everyday media consumption.”

Having conducted five independent study projects at Tufts, Merchant wrote a thesis that investigated how race and gender play roles among political comedians’ personal and public perception, using the shows hosted by Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee as case studies.

As Merchant interned for both “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah, he was able to tie in his academic and professional experiences into his senior honors thesis.

Merchant noted that as he presented his senior thesis, he realized how much the Tufts community means to him.

“As I was getting ready to present my thesis defense, I started crying because so many of my friends came to watch and support me. I was so grateful to have this supportive and wonderful community at Tufts,” Merchant said. “I just love how friendly and active the community is and how much everyone cares about making Tufts the best space that can be.”

In addition to his academic involvement at Tufts, Merchant has worked with the Tisch Council for Philanthropic Leadership, allocating donations provided by regional philanthropists to advance immigrant and refugee education, environmental justice and women’s leadership in the greater Boston area. Merchant also translated Spanish while working on a project that investigated the immigrant workforce in the food industry as a part of his internship for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.” As Merchant graduates from Tufts, he hopes to bring his academic and professional experiences together as a production assistant for a food TV show.

For the incoming Class of 2023, Merchant advised to look for “open doors” and to “talk to the professors” to make best out of their four years at Tufts.

“I’d say that a Tufts education is for intellectually curious people and for those who want to define their own education and experiences, while looking deeply at what they want to study,” Merchant said.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Parker Breza poses for a portrait on May 8.

by Michael Shames Features Editor

Since his early days growing up just outside of Minneapolis, Minn., senior Parker Breza has had a passion for student activism.

“I had been pretty active in high school around issues of social justice, and I knew that it was something I wanted to do in college as well,” Breza said.

Breza saw that the Tufts student body cared deeply about civic engagement, a mindset that resonated with him. He wanted to find an area of study that reflected those interests. Initially, he intended to study international relations, but found early on that he was not as interested in the material that the classes in the department chose to emphasize.

“I found that the program here was really focused on state to state relationships and not as much about people’s movements and the way that people relate to each other across national boundaries,” Breza said.

Breza said that he quickly found a match in American studies, specifically transnational American studies, where he felt his interests more closely align.

“What I liked about the program was that there was a very clear analysis of power,” Breza said. “I liked how it operated in terms of institutions and people’s identities.”

Now, as a graduating senior, Breza has found himself involved several social justice debates on campus, from the rising cost of higher education to the recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day to Palestinian human rights in the Middle East.

“We want to make the conditions better at Tufts for lower-income and financial aid students navigating not only those systems but also social life on campus as well as other barriers,” Breza said.

Outside of school, Breza interns for United American Indians of New England, working on statewide Indigenous Peoples Day legislation. He has brought the same enthusiasm for indigenous pride to Tufts by promoting the movement to students and administration and successfully advocating for an indigenous studies minor.

For his senior thesis, Breza chose to research Palestinian solidarity.

“My thesis is focusing on solidarity in particular and the way that students activists are conceptualizing and thinking through that concept,” Breza said.

For this research, Breza conducted interviews with many student activists, both Palestinian and not, investigating how their work impacts the way they relate to other people.

“I wanted to put [the movement] into a broader history of solidarity and anti-colonial solidarity,” Breza said.

The past two years have given Breza the opportunity to travel and present research regarding his thesis. In the spring of 2018, Breza traveled to Palestine to present a paper he had written on the Tufts divestment resolution.

“It was a really moving experience to be able to build solidarity on the ground,” Breza said.

This past spring break, Breza said that he traveled to South Africa and presented his thesis. He explained that he spoke with many South African activists about their experiences during apartheid and how they related to Palestinians through solidarity.

“I see a ton of parallels between Palestine solidarity and the solidarity movement from South Africa,” Breza said.

After graduation, Breza will begin his summer fellowship with the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights. With this organization, he will be focusing on 2020 U.S. House and Senate races as well as the increasing presence of Palestine on the progressive agenda.

Breza’s extensive student activism earned him a Senior Award from the Tufts University Alumni Association (TUAA).

“It was an honor to be recognized along with so many incredible awardees,” Breza said.

While he was thankful for the award, Breza did acknowledge that Tufts has a lot of work to do to better accommodate the culture of activism on campus.

“I wish Tufts would engage more, particularly around these issues that a lot of people have different investments in,” Breza said. “This institution does not get any better if we don’t listen.”

Breza is hopeful that the validation of his hard work by TUAA will incentivize other students to follow suit and be active in these controversial debates.

“Younger activists should have hope that their work will be rewarded someday and that they will be on the right side of history,” Breza said. “It is just a matter of time, even if it may seem difficult right now.”

F e a t u r es

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

19

SENIOR PROFILE

Eva Kahan

by Fina Short

Features Editor

Few students have been more involved in the Tufts international relations (IR) community than history and IR double major Eva Kahan. As co-director of Alliance Linking in Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), a member of the IR Student Advisory Board and founding member of Tufts Women in International Relations, Kahan has dedicated her time at Tufts to increasing engagement in IR and facilitating cross-cultural understanding across the globe.

Through ALLIES, Kahan aims to help bridge the gap in civilian-military relations by promoting civil-military education and research. She said her interest in the field was sparked by a Tufts seminar she took on the modern history of Iraq, with a focus on the Iraq war.

“I got really interested in how we understand the Arab world and what leads states like the United States to make policies, and why the civilian population isn’t engaged and doesn’t understand … what our policy is and how to fix it,” Kahan said.

Kahan began learning Arabic during her first semester at Tufts. She spent her junior year abroad in Jordan, where she studied Arabic with Middlebury-in-Jordan throughout the fall semester — then left the program to spend spring 2018 living on her own in Jordan, conducting research on Jordanian civil-military relations for her senior thesis.

“I interviewed 26 Jordanian veterans and 20 Jordanian academics, mostly in Arabic, about what they thought about my thesis research, and I was able to record them or

take notes and then go home afterwards and really process … what does it mean that all these people have had all these different experiences and they’re mostly not being listened to?” Kahan said.

From interviews with more than 40 Jordanians, Kahan said that she found many people she talked to felt as though neither the Jordanian government nor the American government heard their opinions or understood the experiences of Jordanian citizens.

“America spends 500 million dollars [per] year on the Jordanian military,” Kahan said. “When we’re not listening to the people there, when we’re not paying attention, it really has this impact on the ground and on Jordanian politics … and the exchange between Americans and Jordanians in the capital and throughout the country.”

Kahan recently finished writing her senior thesis about Jordanian military demography. She will spend next year abroad in Cairo on a Harvard-sponsored Arabic language study program; eventually, she hopes to work in public service and continue doing field research.

“I’m really interested in going into American federal public service, ideally as a researcher and analyst,” Kahan said.

“With that, I’d like to be able to spend some time in the field — one of my favorite things about being in Jordan was doing field research and going to different places and interviewing different people about their experiences.”

She expressed gratitude for the Tufts Arabic program and Office of Scholar Development Program Specialist Anne Moore’s office as well as the community that her involvement in ALLIES has brought her.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Eva Kahan poses for a portrait on May 8.

“ALLIES particularly has been an incredibly supportive community with mentors above me and below me who have been encouraging me to go abroad for a year, to do my own research, to continue with my language study and to really break out of my comfort zone,” Kahan said.

Kahan, a Truman Scholarship finalist, recommended that any fellow IR stu-

dents take the time to apply to fellowships and get involved in smaller Tufts institutions such as the Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership.

“I’ve been really grateful for the support of all these smaller Tufts institutions … I encourage future students to be engaged in these smaller organizations where you’re able to really have connections that reach all over the world,” she said.

SENIOR PROFILE

Emily Ki Wan Sim

by Fina Short

Features Editor

Ever since computer science major Emily Ki Wan Sim arrived at Tufts as the first in her family to go to college, she has worked to ensure it will be easier for others to follow in her footsteps.

In four years, Sim has served as the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Treasurer, worked as a STEM Ambassador for the Tufts Center for STEM Diversity,

interned as a Civic Technology Fellow at Microsoft and most recently, co-founded a social venture named FIRE. Hailing from Fullerton, Calif., Sim initially planned to study international literary and visual studies at Tufts. Yet she said that her view of technical disciplines completely changed after taking Introduction to Computer Science (COMP11).

“They emphasized computer science as a problem-solving class, and not necessarily a math or science class,” Sim said. “It

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Emily Sim poses for a portrait on May 8.

helped us open our eyes to a new way of creative problem solving, for problems in the world.”

As a STEM Ambassador, Sim now forms part of a small cohort of fellow first-generation students who work to make STEM fields more accessible by teaching science in local high schools.

“I think all of us are first-generation students, so for us being in STEM means reclaiming a stake in a field that wasn’t really built for us to be a part of,” she said. “We want to pave the way for future students to first see us, and be like, ‘This is possible for me to do.’”

Sim, who is a DACA recipient, aims to leverage her technical skills towards uplifting marginalized communities. She has done so in co-founding FIRE, a multilingual mobile app that seeks to protect immigrant communities against unlawful enforcement tactics.

“Especially after the Trump administration, there have been increases in duplicitous ways that ICE has been trying to deport and arrest people,” Sim said. “So as someone who’s a part of that community … I see how ill-equipped someone in my parents’ generation [could be].”

Sim said that by providing a cohesive, accessible platform of legal rights, the app aims to democratize information and provide immigrants with an easily comprehensible defense tool.

“Not only are we trying to defend our community, we are trying to make sure that we can democratize the information in multiple languages,” Sim said of the project.

Sim will join Comcast this fall as a software engineer, where she hopes to build

technical skills as a developer while working towards an eventual career in computational social science.

“For me computer science is so important as a woman and as a person who values tools to be able to attack problems with,” Sim said. “But for me my space isn’t just in industry — I want to be helping [to] orient the world in a more just way.”

Sim has also spent three years as a member of TCU Senate, where she worked to expand stipends for student leaders and streamline the budgeting process as TCU Treasurer.

“TCU Senate was really important to me to understand how to be empathetic and how to negotiate with people,” Sim said.

“Looking at what [had] been passed down to me and given to me, and looking at the emerging needs of students, I had to … really creatively question: ‘ok, why does this system look the way it does?’”

Throughout her time at Tufts, Sim stressed that those around her have pushed her to rethink conventional notions of success. She expressed gratitude for mentors including Professor of the Practice Noah Mendelsohn in the computer science department, Associate Professor of Sociology Freeden Blume Oeur and the staff of the FIRST Resource Center at 20 Professors Row. “I think at Tufts I really came out to understand how success isn’t defined by labels or traditional labels of meritocracy,” Sim said. “I think every part of this school really helps you reinforce that that’s not what learning is about and that’s not why you’re here … you’re here because you care about what you want to learn.”

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ARTS&LIVING

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Chief Curator Dina Deitsch speaks on Tufts Art Galleries’ past, future

EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Dina Deitsch, the director of Tufts University Art Galleries, poses for a portrait in the Koppelman Gallery on Sept. 12, 2017.

by Tommy Gillespie and Libby Langsner Arts Editor and Executive Arts Editor

Since Dina Deitsch took over as chief curator of the then-Tufts Art Gallery in July 2017, the gallery has changed immensely.

Even the name of the institution, from the Tufts Art Gallery to the Tufts Art Galleries (TUAG), has been subject to change. TUAG are currently undergoing a total rebrand, both online and on paper. Deitsch sat down with the Daily to discuss the art galleries’ past, present and future.

The biggest change during Deistch’s tenure as curator has been an infrastructural one, as the Tufts-School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) merger combined the art galleries of the two schools. Deitsch spoke about how she’s kept on top of having galleries on multiple campuses.

“Our print calendar is [one of the] examples or physical manifestations of what we do and have,” Deitsch said. “Either it’s a giant structural accordion shape, and on one side is what’s happening at the SMFA, and the other side of that is what’s on the Medford campus … We’ve rebranded, and we’ve built a new website that just went live.

So we finally have a way for people to find what we are.”

The galleries have hosted two solo exhibitions: one featuring Harry Dodge at the Medford/Somerville campus and the other featuring Suara Welitoff at the SMFA gallery.

In terms of which artists will be shown at TUAG, Deitsch discussed a few projects the galleries are currently working on.

“I think one of the things we’re working on is integrating … our visiting artist program that we had at the art school and bringing artists here,” she said. “So we had Harry [Dodge] come here and then do a big lecture over at the SMFA campus … and he was in conversation with Amy Selman.”

Over the past year the galleries have also received the nationally acclaimed Andy Warhol grant, which goes toward a show that will be on display in January 2021.

Deitsch elaborated further on the exhibition supported by the grant.

“[The grant is] for a project for our curator Abigail Satinsky, who’s based at the SMFA. She’s working on an exhibition for January 2021 about activism in the United States about Latin America in the 1980s,” she said.

“It’s art activism in the ‘80s in the U.S. that’s not AIDS related … It’s sort of an untold art historical narrative that people don’t realize.

So that’s a huge project and that will be traveling in a couple venues throughout the country. So that’ll be a big deal.”

In the meantime, the coming of summer means closing time for TUAG, as Deitsch and the other Galleries staff ramp up their leg work preparing for the coming seasons.

“We plan our exhibition program about two years in advance … so summertime is a great time to do research for our spring programs,” Deitsch said. “Our student graduate fellows … stay during the summer, doing a lot of helping research.”

The time is also used to explore ways to integrate the Galleries’ permanent collection.

“We have a new app for the Galleries called the Museum app,” Deitsch explained.

“This summer you’ll be able to start downloading all public art; sculptures you’ll be able to read.”

The new app represents just one example of Deitsch’s focus on moving TUAG beyond traditional notions of art galleries as singular, closed spaces as well as emphasizing the importance of public art. TUAG will now also host a Public Art Committee, which Deitsch explained in further detail.

“Because of all the sort of conversations about representation on campus, the Gallery has been busy thinking about how [it] can better enliven our campuses with public art.

We already started new initiatives on that with something called TuftsPUBLIC and [Artist] Response, which are temporary projects.”

One upcoming exhibition, beginning in the fall, will meld this ambition with one of the contemporary world’s most visible humanitarian crises.

Part of a larger collective entitled “Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System,” the exhibition will feature artist Jenny Polak.

“She’s been doing this project since the late 90s, where she’s created ICE escape signs,” Deitsch explained. “On the visual level, it looks like a fire escape sign, but talks about immigration politics and policies, and it’s just called ‘ICE Escape Signs.’”

The exhibition will bring Polak’s site-specific signs to some of Tufts’ familiar student enclaves, such as the Tisch Library and Ballou Hall.

Deitsch emphasized its intended goal of shining light on the everyday challenges undocumented people face.

“What would that day-to-day reality feel like? … When you are in a building, you might really be conscious of exit signs,” she said.

Deitsch also highlighted the questions such a project can raise about who a work of art is for.

“For populations that are not at risk, but then also for communities that are at risk, how do you create an empathetic or sympathetic, forward-thinking space about it?” she said.

This question also surfaces around another of TUAG’s upcoming projects, which, in October, will bring Sanford Biggers’ “Bam” series (2015–) to Tufts.

Deitsch underscored Biggers’ incorporation of materials that evoke earlier eras of black history into the series, which memorializes victims of police violence like Sandra Bland and Michael Brown.

“His technique is to use historic African sculpture … and he shoots them up and casts them in bronze,” Deitsch explained.

“The show features a group of these sculptures and a video piece related to them.”

Traditional textile elements will also be featured in the exhibition.

“Historically, quilts in the South and African American communities, while they are just patterns, tell a lot of stories through their structure and construction,” Deitsch said. “For the Underground Railroad, for instance, quilts actually had a messaging property.”

Other coming exhibitions will ask conceptual questions about the intersection between different forms of art, such as the “Bookworks” exhibit, beginning in August.

“The library at the [SMFA] has an amazing artist book collection, so we’re going to highlight that, mostly from the ’60s and ’70s to now,” Deitsch said. “We’re starting off with this narrative around the book as a singular object, and then we end with a book as a collective object.”

To that point, the exhibit will feature a series of performance pieces centered around artists’ books.

“Every Wednesday during open block, we’re either going to have a faculty lecture or a performance of a book,” Deitsch stated. “So some books need to be eaten — we have some books that are edible, printed on gum — we have some books that need to be smelled, that need to be used, that need to be played like a game.”

Now that Deitsch has fully settled into her role at Tufts, she is seeking to expand the Galleries’ presence beyond the limits of the university community.

“We’re looking at rebuilding our advisory board and Public Art Committee [and] working on amplifying what we do,” she explained, doubling TUAG’s commitment to the art itself. Going forward, Deitsch is looking for envelope-pushing artists who can bring Tufts into the wider artistic conversation.

“I think we bring in artists who are incredibly forward-thinking about the edge of practice, so they’re pushing the field in whatever they’re doing: performance, political action, painting,” she remarked. “And we’re very much about being able to bring in artists whom I feel like students and community members can really talk to and meet if they choose.”

These initiatives Deitsch has taken in her time as chief curator, like the new app and website, are intended to take TUAG’s collection beyond the four walls of Aidekman Arts Center and the SMFA and heighten its visibility and accessibility. Deitsch herself most aptly described her next move.

“I think now, it’s about getting the world a little bit better … and just leaving Lower Campus Road a little bit,” she said.

F e a t u r es

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | ARTS&LIVING | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Senior Eran Sabaner talks about Armenian art, graduate school plans

Tuna Margalit Review Rewind

by Setenay Mufti

he Movie: “Snatch” The Year: 2000 The People: Jason Statham as Turkish, Brad Pitt as Mickey O’Neil, Benicio Del Toro as Franky Four Fingers, Lennie James as Sol, Dennis Farina as Cousin Avi, Guy Ritchie as the director of the film.

The Non-Revealing Plot: Three separate plots are hatched to retrieve a stolen diamond.

Unofficial Genre: The film is a crime film with humorous aspects.

My Opinion (Emotional): It was hard for me to get too emotional during this movie for two reasons. First, the entire movie is Guy Ritchie performing every stylistic trick he can think of. Because this is the focus, Ritchie sacrifices the ability for his audience to feel any substantial connections to the characters.

Second, all the characters are relatively bad people, and not in the anti-hero type of way. What’s more is that they are all caricatures. I understand that Ritchie’s vision required that the characters act they way they did, but I even got tired of seeing Brad Pitt play a completely unintelligible Irish boxer — and Brad Pitt is one of my favorite actors.

My Opinion (Technical): The first thing to talk about is the characters and their actors. Jason Statham’s character is the de facto main character, as he narrates. He plays the English gangster role quite well but he is the same character in every movie. If you copy and paste his character from the “Fast and Furious” franchise (2001–), or even from “Spy” (2015) into this movie, I would probably not be able to tell the difference.

Brad Pitt’s character is kind of hilarious, at first. Also, considering “Fight Club” (1999) is my favorite movie of all time, and he plays an Irish, happy-go-lucky version of his “Fight Club” character here, I really was excited to see what this film would do with his character. But, as I mentioned before, his whole schtick eventually wore thin for me. Benicio Del Toro’s character was just uncomfortable to watch. Del Toro himself is not Jewish, yet he plays a Jewish hired thief. As a Jewish person, I can easily say that Del Toro’s portrayal was something I’d expect to see in an Adam Sandler movie or an SNL skit, not a (relatively) serious film. As for the emphasis on style I mentioned before, I actually enjoyed this aspect. Yes, it hindered the emotional capabilities of the film, but from a technical standpoint, I appreciated the camera tricks, such as the quick zoom into characters’ faces — a trick that was quite often utilized. Also, the editing was impressive. Though there was little attempt at creating long, meticulous scenes (which I usually like), and the majority of the film was comprised of quick cuts back and forth between many characters, I liked that Ritchie stuck with his methods throughout the entire movie.

Overall Rating: Good editing, consistent camera work and cool style made this film bearable. Lack of emotional depth plus off-putting characters kept me from enjoying it. I’d give this film a 4.5 out of 10.

If You Like This, You’ll Also Like: Trainspotting (1996).

Arts Editor

Disclaimer: Eran Sabaner is a former executive arts editor for the Tufts Daily.

Sabaner was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

Eran Sabaner is a graduating senior studying art history. Originally from Turkey and moving to London next year for graduate school, here’s the Tufts Daily’s conversation with this artistic dynamo.

The Tufts Daily (TD): How has senior year been?

Eran Sabaner (ES): Senior year has been great but also very overwhelming, I would say. The first semester, I interned; I was also writing a senior thesis. And this semester, on top of the thesis, I was also taking a lot of high-level seminars. So I think I concentrated on schoolwork a lot, which is not what other people experience their senior year, I would say. But I think I was very lucky in the sense that the seminars I’ve had were very interesting.

TD: Of course, you were once a writer, editor and executive editor for the Tufts Daily arts section for a couple of years. What did you take away from that experience?

ES: I think being an exec for a U.S. newspaper is very difficult because of the language barrier. When I first joined, it was difficult for me to find the editorial language people were looking for. And when you become an exec, the challenges are more related to organizational skills. So running a team of 15 people and more contributing writers, that was very difficult. I think it made me think more about how to plan things in advance, which I think is very applicable to real life and is a great skill to have.

TD: What is your senior thesis about?

ES: The title is “Neo-Ottoman Style in Turkish Contemporary Art.” I look at the style that is prominent all over in Turkey right now and how two different groups, the Islamists and the queer identities in Turkey, use this style. So I argue that for Islamists it’s for political reasons, and for queer people it’s to disrupt these binaries created through politics. When people talk about “neo-Ottoman,” it’s usually foreign policy and not necessarily style, so just doing research on style was really interesting. And there’s little research on queer Turkish art, let alone neo-Ottoman queer Turkish art, so trying a mix of these things together — post-colonialism, but also queer theory — and creating a discourage was very ambitious, and I don’t know if I succeeded fully. But also, just being able to combine different theories together to talk about this trend that I would see, but I wouldn’t see in the art history discourse in general, was cool.

TD: Can you talk a little bit about your research with Tufts’ New Initiative for Middle East Peace in Morocco?

ES: What interested me was the history of orientalism in this country specifically. Orientalism is a genre of painting in 19th-century French art, but Morocco became a protectorate in 1912, which means these depictions happened much later, and that continued up until very recent times. There’s this photographer named Irving Penn, who worked mostly with Vogue, and he does ethnographic portraits of Moroccans, which I find very problematic, so I write about that in my paper. I wrote about

COURTESY ERAN SABANER

Senior Eran Sabaner poses for a picture. this history of orientalism in Morocco that is unique in its geographical region but also its diverse identity. So that was the first part, and the second part is about how Moroccan art is today, both in the diaspora and in Morocco and how people address this issue in orientalism.

TD: How was working with Polykhroma? You’ve been there since the beginning.

ES: We founded Polykhroma, [the student art exhibit club], with eight people who worked at the gallery, and we wanted to do our own exhibitions.

And we never wanted to be Tufts affiliated because we wanted submissions from Boston schools in general, not just Tufts. And what I love about Polykhroma is when we first started, of the eight people, five of them graduated, so we had to find another group of people. And now we’re again eight people and five of us are leaving, so the next generation has to find other people. But the fact that I created something that hopefully will continue is really cool … There aren’t many platforms where creative people can be together and participate and learn and get inspired by each other.

Creating that dynamic was beautiful.

TD: You’ve been very busy! And next year you’re going off to grad school?

ES: Yes! I’m going to Goldsmiths College in London. I’m doing a program named Contemporary Art Theory, so hopefully I’ll be able to expand on my research that I’ve done here, which I’ve mostly related to post-colonialism and some queer theory, next year.

TD: Looking back, what have been some of your favorite arts-related or art history courses you’ve had at Tufts?

ES: So many! Last semester I took Art and Exchange Across Culture with Professor [Eva] Hoffman. And I loved the seminar because it combined different time periods and regions under one theme, which is “exchange”. I thought that was amazing, and it actually really helped with my thesis as well. Sophomore year I took Intro to Contemporary Art with Professor [ Jacob Stewart-Halevy], and I think a lot of the readings we did was essential to do research on contemporary art. So even writing papers now, I go back to the readings in that course. And Armenian Art [with Professor Christina Maranci] as well, because I don’t think in any other school I would have the opportunity to study Armenian art to this extent. And a lot of the architecture and art is located in modern Turkey, places I’ve been, so being able to learn extensively about places I’ve been in the past was really cool.

TD: What will you miss the most about Tufts?

ES: A lot of things. I love how the people here are … experts at one thing.

People here love talking about and teaching others about this one subject or issue or idea that they’re very passionate about. I’m going to miss that environment where I can talk to people about things I never thought about before or things that I never thought I would be interested in … finding people that changed my mind or expanded my knowledge, but also finding people with the same interests as I had and creating something with them.

T

‘Snatch’

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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THE TUFTS DAILY | ARTS&LIVING | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Drew Weisberg Hidden Panels

‘Hawkeye’ Issue 1

“

Really?” I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Your last piece of the year is going to be about the Avenger who fights evil with a bow and arrow?”

To answer your question, yes, I am.

After a semester of epic tales, highbrow social commentary and an above average amount of Batman books, I figured we should end the year with something a bit more laid back. And so, I present one of the most effortlessly cool comics of all time: Issue one of “Hawkeye” (2012) by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja. Collected in “Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon”(2012), the first issue of “Hawkeye” gets off to a roaring start as Clint Barton (our dashing protagonist) tries to emulate his grappling hook trick from the first “Avengers” film, and failing spectacularly. The comic literally opens with Hawkeye saying “Okay… this looks bad,” and falling several stories to crash into a car below him. This is a hint that the reader is not in for a superhero book.

In fact, I’d say that’s the greatest strength of “Hawkeye,” taking all the vim and vigor that one would think an Avenger would have and having him combat the more mundane crimes. Example: As Hawkeye leaves the hospital following his lost battle against gravity, he comes upon his tracksuit-wearing, mafia-connected landlord Ivan tripling the rent of his neighbor. No, Ivan doesn’t turn out to be working for Hydra, and no, he isn’t revealed to be a supervillain. He’s a cruddy landlord with the worst kind of connections who’s treating his tenants badly for profit.

Clint himself is lovable, but he’s sort of … well … an oaf. While totally proficient in combat, he does struggle with the same things as everyone else: He forgets words, tries to save money and even commits a fashion faux pas when he wears a suit and tie to a scummy underground casino. It strikes an odd equilibrium. The reader can totally believe that this guy is good enough at his day job to survive and thrive in the heat of a fight with the likes of Captain America, but he’s sort of lost when it comes to real life.

The book’s art style compliments the tone, with Aja’s pencil work being simultaneously understated and highly detailed. It makes sense; Clint’s world is objectively more simplistic than any of his fellow Avengers’ — no massive scale battles or laser blasts here. It’s a guy fighting for his neighbors and not much else.

The thesis of “Hawkeye,” in my eyes, is not to make a “superhero” comic and instead just make a “hero” comic. So much of the fantastical elements inherent in traditional comics are stripped away, leaving behind something more akin to straight black coffee, no frills but wholly satisfying. It’s not a full-on adrenaline rush, but “Hawkeye” issue one is a good bit of comic fun that will hopefully mellow things out during your stressful final weeks on campus.

Thanks for a great semester. Here’s hoping for more coming soon.

Drew Weisberg is a first-year studying psychology and film and media studies. Drew can be reached at mitchell.weisberg@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

Senior Profile: Jason Martin

by Daniel Klain

Assistant Arts Editor

Jason Martin is multitalented, if nothing else. As he graduates this spring with a degree in political science, Martin will be able to say he participated in Tufts drama department performances and independent Tufts theater shows as well as Tufts Dance Collective all in his four years here. This doesn’t even include the internship Martin had this spring with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development in Boston. To say he has taken advantage of all that Tufts can offer is an understatement.

Martin’s interest in the arts didn’t start at Tufts. Since a young age, he has always loved theater and music, and in middle school, he performed in school plays and was a part of a rock band. Then, in high school, Martin acted in fall plays and spring musicals every year, performed in the school dance group, sang in a cappella groups and even directed a one-act show.

Martin spoke to balancing so many artistic activities in his pre-collegiate days.

“In high school, I did all of these different things because it just made sense to me. They all were sort of overlapping and connected, but I was happy to be doing all of them,” he said.

As he arrived at Tufts, though, Martin took some time away from theater.

“I was trying to figure out my interests again, and I didn’t want to dive into too many things and get spread too thin,” Martin explained.

Despite this, Martin spent his first two years dancing with Tufts Dance Collective and Spirit of the Creative.

“I’ve always sort of separated dance and theater … as like two separate things of mine, and while I do love theater, I think I kind of have just more of a love for dancing,” Martin said.

Having known Martin for most of his life, this writer can attest to this love. No

COURTESY JASON MARTIN

Jason Martin is pictured. matter what the social situation, he has been the most confident person this writer has ever seen. Any song comes on at any place and any time, and he isn’t afraid to hop in and dance in front of plenty of people. It’s incredibly admirable.

As his time at Tufts went on though, Martin started to get back into theater.

In the spring of his junior year, he finally auditioned for one of the Tufts drama department shows.

“I really am glad that I got back into it, and I hope it shows that with the arts here at Tufts it’s never too late to get back into things or try new things you know?”

Martin said.

Senior Profile: Abby Schmidt

by Christopher Panella Arts Editor

Disclaimer: Abby Schmidt is a contributing writer for the Tufts Daily. Schmidt was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

For some seniors, going to Tufts was about a change of place.

“I’ve always loved traveling and seeing new places,” Abby Schmidt said.

In an open study room in the Mayer Campus Center, she’s reliving her journey from Dripping Springs, Texas — a ridiculous town name, according to Schmidt — to Boston. When picking where to attend college, Schmidt knew she wanted to leave Texas for the Northeast.

“I had this vision of the ivy-covered buildings and snow and the fall leaves,” she said.

Now, as she looks back on the four years she spent at Tufts as an undergraduate, Schmidt thinks she chose Tufts because of a gut feeling she had.

“When I visited and went on the tour,” Schmidt said, “I had a really good feeling these were the type of people I could get along with.”

She’s accomplished quite a lot since that gut feeling, from a double major in music and film and media studies to being president of Tufts’ theater organization Pen, Paint, & Pretzels (3Ps) and a semester abroad in Tübingen, Germany. Schmidt assured that she’s spent the last four years just like most Tufts students: busy.

In her first year at Tufts, Schmidt lived in Houston Hall and was originally interested in a music major and then medical school.

“I think it’s because I watched too much ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (2005–) in high school,” she joked.

Schmidt’s focus shifted toward music as a full-time pursuit, one that she could complement by joining theater groups on campus for singing and performing. As she’s reminiscing on her Tufts experience, she’s also busy planning for her senior music recital.

During orientation in 2015, Schmidt attended the 3Ps ice cream social, an event dedicated to showcasing theater organizations to first-years. Then came auditions.

“I auditioned for Lord Barnum’s Players,” she said, “and got in, which was really exciting.”

She continued to audition for different shows throughout her undergraduate education. This past year, as president of 3Ps, she found herself growing into being a leader.

3Ps is the oldest student organization on campus, an umbrella collective for groups ranging from Bare Bodkin, which focuses on original and experimental work, to Tufts University Television, a student-run filmmaking organization. Being president of all of those umbrella organizations isn’t easy, but it’s a challenge Schmidt welcomed.

“It’s a really big organization, and there are shows and money and faculty [that] are involved,” Schmidt said.

She’s been making changes as president, from how the organization is funded to how sensitive content is handled.

This past fall Martin starred as Flick in the drama department’s performance of the musical “Violet” (1997). His performance spoke a thousand words about how far he has come as an artist. Being able to see the totality of his growth, this writer was amazed by his voice and acting, remembering the days of him as the lead singer for a band at a middle school talent show.

Ultimately, Martin’s time as a member of the arts communities at Tufts speaks to the ideas of growth and commitment, both as a performer and a person. His story should attest to Tufts’ openness in its extracurriculars. For any student interested, it’s never too late.

“It’s hard being in charge because there’s no one I can go [to]. It’s [just] me,” she said.

And despite any struggles or doubts Schmidt has had, she’s hopeful she’s made an impact on 3Ps and Tufts’ campus.

Like many Tufts students, Schmidt spent a semester abroad, enjoying cafes and learning in Germany.

“It was so nice to have free time and just enjoy,” she said. “It was really worth it.”

Schmidt said she found the experience refreshing, and looking back, said she wanted to learn German coming into Tufts. She believes people should study abroad if they can, simply because it means getting to leave Tufts’ campus for a little to explore the world.

And, as she reflects, there’s a reminder that study abroad was just one positive experience on a long list of things Schmidt has enjoyed.

“I was involved in things I cared about and made friends and took classes that were interesting,” Schmidt said.

She’s thankful for the busy four years she’s had and the people she’s met.

“I really love how involved everyone is outside of the classroom,” she said. “It makes us all busy and passionate.”

Schmidt loves the size of Tufts and how the community feels so connected. She also loves that she continues to meet new people into her senior year.

After graduation, Schmidt is moving to Brooklyn, N.Y. to work at a technology public relations company. It’s an exciting move for her, and as she moves on from Medford, Somerville and the hill, she confirms that Tufts fit her well.

“Overall, I think it was the place for me,” she said.

tuftsdaily.com

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

Welcome to the real world.

Lucky thing you’ve got a support group 110,000 strong.

Welcome to the club. The moment you graduate, you automatically become a member of the Tufts University Alumni Association. For free. For life.

It’s actually kind of a big deal. Now that you’re part of our worldwide community of 110,000 Tufts grads, you can take advantage of all kinds of unique opportunities.

• Meet new Jumbos. Wherever life leads you, you’ll find regional chapters and shared interest groups where you can meet local alums, attend events with inspiring speakers, go on cultural outings, get involved in community service, and much more.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | PHOTO SPREAD | Sunday, May 19, 2019

PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE LEE AND MADELEINE OLIVER

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A r ts & L ivi n g

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | PHOTO SPREAD | THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Sunday, May 19, 2019

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR AMAZING SENIORSÂ

BETHANY KIRBY CHARLIE ZHEN DANNY KNIGHT KAYLA WILLIAMS LUPITA RODRIGUEZ ZOEEY CW

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Congratulations to the 2019 Student Organization Award Winners Collaboration Award

Presented to International Club

Community Connection Award Presented to DREAM

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Presented to American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Dot McAveeney Legacy Award Presented to Culinary Society

New Organization of the Year Award

Presented to Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

Program of the Year

Presented to TEDx Tufts

Publicity of the Year

Presented to Tufts Daily

THE OFFICE FOR CAMPUS LIFE WISHES YOU THE BEST BEYOND TUFTS!

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Sponsored by the Office for Campus Life ocl.tufts.edu

Congratulations Community Health Seniors!

Allison McGuirk Jacob Abrahams Alina McIntyre Joel Alves Katelyn Mullikin Molly Bailey Jesse Najarro Jonathan Berger Tira Oskoui Madison Bernstein Andrew Pettit Ursula Biba Emily Polinski Jacqueline Cabral Melanie Ramirez Joseph Carreiro Anjali Rao Jamie Corley Class of Lucy Ren Brendan Corwen 2019 Charlotte Robles Emily Decker Colleen Doolan Benjamin Rutberg Carly Eiduson Sivakami Satchithanandan Audrey Evers Madeline Schwartz Jessica Fan Maya Shashoua Vitoria Fonseca Isaiah Smolar Harrison Frickman Jennifer Solano Travis Gordon Maia Tarnas Emily Grussing Megan Thode Claire Heuberger Alexander True Christiana Hug Isis Van Putten Chista Irani Carina Vargas-Nunez Zarena Jafry Hedwig Veith Anna Kapral Gabriella Vinci Megan Kuhnle Shelby Wilkerson Rachel Lai Yoojin Yoon Rohini Loke Justin Zaslavsky Nicole Masozera Ilana Zelinski

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A r ts & L ivi n g

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | NEWS | THE TUFTS DAILY

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A year defined by Tufts Dining workers’ contract campaign

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

A year after voting to unionize, Tufts Dining workers ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the university on April 3. The Daily looks back at a year of organizing, negotiations and contention.

In the spring of 2018, tensions between dining workers and managers reached a breaking point. Christine Tringale, a night cook supervisor at Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run, told the Daily of her frustration at the time.

“The managers do not have our back. They constantly hide our complaints, they choose favoritism … and basically, the harassment.

They constantly try and push your buttons,” Tringale said. “It’s not right. It’s been going on too long. There’s people who’ve been there for over 20 years and they’ve seen some horrible things. We just want fairness.”

Dining workers began organizing with UNITE HERE Local 26, a Boston-based union representing hospitality workers in hotels, restaurants and university dining halls across southern New England.

Soon, 75% of the workers had pledged to support unionization and were ready to take their demands to the university.

Dining workers and students numbering in the hundreds massed outside Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center on the afternoon of April 4 and marched up the hill to Ballou Hall, toting signs and chanting.

The demonstration included Michael Kramer, no stranger to organizing campus dining workers. In the fall of 2016, he led Harvard University Dining workers on strike when contract negotiations stalled, according to the Harvard Crimson. He would later negotiate a contract with Northeastern University dining workers, narrowly avoiding a strike, according to the UNITE HERE website.

When the marchers arrived at Ballou Hall, they stood outside the building while student activists and workers rallied the crowd with a megaphone.

Meanwhile, Kramer demanded to speak to University President Anthony Monaco. Several minutes later. Kramer reemerged with then-Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell and Senior Vice President for University Relations and General Counsel Mary Jeka, as Monaco was not in his office at the time.

Kramer and Lucson Aime, a first cook at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center, presented the two administrators with a petition and asked that the university voluntarily recognize the workers’ union and put a stop to harassment by managers.

Campbell told the crowd of demonstrators that the she would be in contact with the union and would speak to anyone who was harassing workers.

A unionization vote was set for April 24. At just past 5:00 p.m. that day, a National Labor Relations Board representative announced the vote: 127 in favor and 19 against. It was official; the workers had their union.

As students arrived back on campus in late

KYLE LUI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Dining workers and union representatives picket for a fair dining contract with hundreds of students behind them on March 5.

August, the union and the university began contract negotiations, most of which took place at 200 Boston Ave., where Tufts Human Resources (HR) office is located.

During the negotiations, Tufts Dining Action Coalition (TDAC), which was formed to campaign for Dining workers, organized student support on campus. In October, Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution urging the university administration to conclude a contract favorable to the dining workers, 24 to one.

However, the Dining workers were still alleging mistreatment by managers, the issue that had motivated the movement. Tringale said she was verbally harassed by one of the managers at Hodgdon for the comments in an Observer article.

A group of students from TDAC and workers accompanied Tringale to Tufts HR where they confronted administration officials about harassment. Eventually, Tringale met with Vice President for HR Julien Carter to discuss the issue. On Nov. 2, students and workers rallied at Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run to support Tringale.

Two weeks later, the union held another rally outside Ballou Hall, marching the same route they had in the spring. In front of a crowd of some 200 students, speakers drawn from the workers, TDAC and Tufts staff attacked the university’s policies and called for Tufts to sign a contract with the workers.

Trisha O’Brien, a dining services attendant at Kindlevan Café who was part of the union’s bargaining campaign, told the Daily at the time that this marked a change from the spring rally and that workers were feeling emboldened.

“A lot of the staff were scared last time,” O’Brien said. “They were afraid to speak.”

After the winter break, however, workers said that negotiations hit a snag. At a meeting on Jan. 17, members of the bargaining committee, like O’Brien, told students that the university was refusing to accept their demands.

In late January, Kramer sat down with the Daily as the negotiations hit the six-month mark. He claimed that the university’s negotiating team was rejecting the union’s economic proposals on three key issues: wages, health-

care and the use of temporary contracts.

“I think that [is] the thing that signaled to our committee … that they aren’t yet taking this as seriously as the dining hall workers are,” Kramer said. “The university needs to do something quickly to respond, and respond in a way that they’re making some real movement toward what people are demanding.”

The union wanted a collectively bargained wage raise instead of the merit raises done on a case-by-case basis, cheaper healthcare that offered more coverage and the transition of workers on temporary contracts to full-time work. These were the issues that had moved to the center stage in a movement that had begun with workers calling for better treatment by managers.

The university insisted throughout the negotiations that it was negotiating in good faith and that progress was being made.

Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of public relations, told the Daily in a January email that by that time, the two sides had already agreed to “significant” job protections and a grievance process while the university had offered a pay raise to workers and transition many temporary workers to full-time employment.

As the talks continued into February, TDAC stepped up its activity, organizing a letter delivery campaign to President Monaco, stopping campus tours to tell them about the negotiations and posting banners around the university with messages supportive of the workers written on them.

Support for the workers also came from Tufts’ host communities with the Somerville City Council, and the mayors of both Somerville and Medford endorsed the campaign.

In perhaps the most dramatic event of the campaign, on March 5, more than 800 students, faculty, staff and community members formed a picket line circling the Residential Quad in front of Carmichael Hall.

“The next stage of this campaign begins over this next week,” Brian Lang, UNITE HERE Local 26’s president, said. “Dining workers are going to begin a discussion amongst themselves about whether or not it makes sense to take the ultimate action, and that’s a strike.”

A vote to strike was set for March 14. The crowd cheered before marching to DewickMacPhie Dining Center led by Lang and a group of workers, holding a banner showing more than 100 Tufts Dining workers under the headline “Tufts Dining: Ready to Strike!”

When that day came, workers voted 137 to 17 to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike at any time.

When students returned from spring break, a strike seemed imminent. On the same day as the strike vote, the university had sent out an email outlining its preparations for such an eventuality; at a meeting held by TDAC and UNITE HERE Local 26 on March 26, Kramer was blunt about the looming possibility of a strike.

“Make no mistake, if there is not serious action taken by the Tufts administration within a very short time period, there will be a strike on this campus. That strike will be soon,” Kramer said. “If [the administrators] want to avoid a crisis on this campus, the time to act is right now.”

Dining workers like O’Brien were nervous but defiant.

“It’s going to be tough for all of us if it comes to that. We’re hoping that it doesn’t, but we’re ready,” she said. “We’ll do whatever we have to do, and whatever sacrifices we have to make … we’ll stand united. We’re going to win.”

By that Friday, campus still waited for the announcement of a strike. Instead, that morning, the Tufts community received a word via a joint email sent out by Monaco and the union that a tentative agreement had been reached.

Dining workers would get raises and the option of more affordable healthcare, and many workers on temporary contracts would transition to full-time employment. The workers were elated, especially temporary workers like Tina Lavanga, who works at Hotung Café.

“It’s wonderful. Our paycheck is going to be more, we’re going to be eligible for benefits that we weren’t before. Everything that a regular worker gets, we get … it’s amazing. After working [at Tufts] for 11 years, I get this,” she told the Daily hours after the announcement.

Six days later and roughly a year after their initial vote to unionize, Tufts Dining workers ratified the contract in a unanimous vote.

Group of Six Centers celebrate, grapple with changes CENTERS

continued from page 10 Although the International Center is still adapting to changes, Shiotani is optimistic about the Center’s future.

“With our new mission and role of serving the entire University – not just Medford / Somerville but all campuses – we’re working to identify the needs of our students across all of our locations,” he said. “I’m working with the International Center team to develop a strategy for expanding outreach and programming so that we’re both efficient and effective in fulfilling our mandate or mission.”

Additionally, the FIRST Resource Center has completed its first year of operation and developed programs that support first-generation students on campus, according to Mack.

“The FIRST Resource Center had a great first year offering a pre-orientation program (BEAST), and offered a comprehensive student centered services to our first generation college goers, those on financial aid, and those with undocumented status,” Mack said.

Bethany Kirby, a peer leader with the FIRST Resource Center, said in an interview with the Daily that the Center holds workshops and social activi-

ties for first-generation students. A first-generation student herself, Kirby, a senior, emphasized the importance of a resource for students of this identity.

“When I came into Tufts four years ago, we had nothing. We had Dean Mack and that was essentially it. And so throughout the four years just seeing how many resources there are for firstgen students really just culminated in the creation of the First-Gen Center,” she said.

Kirby also commented on the importance of the new Center for first-years of first-generation, low-income or undocumented status.

“Incoming [first-years] are definitely going to have strong bonds with each other as first-generation, low-income or students with undocumented status,” she said.

The experience of having a center dedicated to first-generation students has impacted her own experience as well, she said.

“I think that it really has enriched my my experience in the sense that I’ve met so many more students with my identities,” Kirby said.

A goal for the Group of Six next year is to fill the vacancies in directors, according to Freeman.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | NEWS | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

Pelosi, Clark, Pressley, Trahan talk early education, child care at ‘Speaker in the House’ series

by Zachary Hertz and Jessica Blough News Editor and Executive News Editor

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Representatives Katherine Clark, Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan came to Tufts to speak about early education and child care during a Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life panel discussion at Breed Memorial Hall on May 3, following their visit to the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School.

The panel was part of Pelosi’s “Speaker in the House” series. According to a media advisory provided to the Daily, the purpose of the series is “to engage communities across the country and ensure the voices of the American people are being heard in the halls of Congress.”

The House Democrats spoke to a full crowd, including more than a dozen state representatives, Medford Mayor Stephanie Burke and President and CEO of the early education organization JumpStart Naila Bolus (LA ’87).

The panel kicked off with an introduction by University President Anthony Monaco, who welcomed the crowd and introduced Clark as the moderator, then spoke briefly about the importance of education.

“For more than 50 years, Eliot-Pearson has been an important training ground for teachers,” Monaco said. “We are honored that Tufts was selected to host this discussion on early education.”

Clark then began the discussion by talking about accomplishments made in the first 100 days of the 116th Congress.

She mentioned efforts including campaign finance legislation in the form of H.R. 1, the For The People Act and a bill aimed at reducing gun violence, H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act. She emphasized that legislative efforts mainly focused on improving national infrastructure in various ways.

“Child care is a critical part of this, that really cuts across what we are trying to do,” Clark said. “It helps parents participate in the workforce and it helps those who will add to the workforce in the future.”

Clark went on to say that under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of affordable child care that sets child-care payments at 7% of a family’s income, only one out of five Massachusetts families who need child care are able to afford it, making Massachusetts central to the discussion surrounding child care.

Speaking next, Pelosi stressed that the desire to improve children’s lives has always been central to her reasons for holding public office.

“When people want to run for office, any office, I would say know your ‘why,’ Pelosi said. “My ‘why’ has always been the one in five children in America who lives in poverty.”

Pelosi also reflected on her visit to the EliotPearson Children’s School that morning, and she commended Tufts for its forward-thinking model of child care and education.

“To see what’s happening here as really a model … this is central to what we do. Of course, housing is too,” Pelosi said. “It’s all connected, all around the children, and I congratulate Tufts for what’s happening here.”

Pressley followed Pelosi, and started by acknowledging what she called an unprecedented number of women serving in the Massachusetts House delegation.

“It would’ve been an honor for me just to share a stage with them. But the fact that I get to govern with them every day is a tremendous honor and deeply rewarding, especially given the times that we currently find ourselves in,” Pressley said.

Pressley emphasized that it was important to consider education as an issue within the greater social context. She said that families and caregivers increasingly face inequality and disparity and said that legislators have to support infrastructure to support children and families.

“We know that education is life’s great equalizer. But we are remiss and not considering the whole equation if we don’t recognize that family is life’s great stabilizer. And one cannot exist without the other,” she said. “So when we’re talking about the people, and future generations, family is the stabilizer, education is

the equalizer, and we need to support them working in symbiotic partnership.”

Speaking about seeing a robotics class at Eliot-Pearson, Trahan addressed education as an intersection between her placements on the Armed Forces and Education and Labor committees.

“When I think about where we have to go as a country, in terms of keeping up our competitive advantage in the global economy around AI, quantum computing and cybersecurity, we have to make those investments early,” she said.

In a time for questions at the end of the panel presentation, the congresswomen addressed how to increase access to Head Start, a national early education program for low-income families, as well as how child care is valued and how business can be a better partner with child care.

Addressing how business can cooperate with early education and child care, Clark emphasized the opportunities and growth that the child-care industry can bring to the future workforce.

“We need your help and we need your advocacy. We have the data and a lot of it comes from Tufts University,” Clark said. “[Low unemployment] creates an issue with retaining and attracting young parents in the workforce. Child care is the link.

If you’re looking for the workforce of the future, child care supports that as well.”

Alex Bhak: remembering the boy who was ‘happy to be happy’

by Sophie Lehrenbaum Former Managing Editor

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the 2016 Commencement issue of The Tufts Daily with minimal edits.

During the early morning hours of Saturday, April 2, 2016, first-year Alex Bhak passed away in a tragic accident in downtown Boston. He is survived by his mother, father and younger sister, Maya.

The Office of the President sent out an email to the Medford/Somerville campus community that day noting that the circumstances surrounding the death were still under investigation, and detailing that Counseling and Mental Health Services, as well as the University Chaplaincy and the Dean of Student Affairs Office, would be available to provide support for students. That evening, the university held a gathering in the Crane Room to give community members the chance to gather and process the news together, according to the university message.

In the wake of the news, a group of Bhak’s close friends painted the Cannon the following day in his honor, marking the ground beneath it with a quote from one of his favorite movies, “Fight Club,” which read, “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

Funeral services were later held on April 10, 2016 at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Bhak’s hometown of New York City, and included a visual tribute, as well as words from University Chaplain Reverend Greg McGonigle and Bhak’s friends and family members from home and Tufts. The university provided a shuttle service to and from the services for 35 students, according to McGonigle.

Additionally, the University Chaplaincy, in cooperation with the Dean of Student Affairs office and some of Bhak’s close friends, held a candlelight vigil in Goddard Chapel on April 14 to correspond with Bhak’s birthday, as a celebration of his life and to remember the boy described by parents and friends as someone who was “happy to be happy.” “[At the vigil,] we viewed a memorial visual tribute provided by Alex’s family, heard

reflections by President Monaco, Dean [of Student Affairs Mary Pat] McMahon and International Center Director Jane EtishAndrews, and listened to remembrances by Alex’s friends,” McGonigle said. “We then moved out onto the [Tisch] Library roof for a candlelight vigil and more remembrances, and we shared a reception in Alex’s honor.”

Bhak was, by all standards, a multifaceted and vivacious character, according to his friends.

“I don’t know where to start [with Alex],” Hisaam Mirza, a close friend of Bhak’s, said about his disposition. “He was a really, really nice guy, really generous, at times hilarious … he didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

It was on the fourth floor of Miller Hall where Bhak unpacked his belongings for matriculation and forged close friendships with his neighbors, including Mirza, a rising sophomore, who had planned to live in West Hall with Bhak next year.

“He was in the room next to me, and we met on the first day of orientation week…” Mirza said. “Just by virtue of the fact of living next to each other, we started hanging out more … What slowly started out as a friendship of proximity became something more meaningful, more like a bromance.”

He went on to explain that among those who knew him, Bhak was strongly associated with physical fitness. “[Alex] was really dedicated to the gym … if he was walking into Carm[ichael Hall], he was in his gym gear, either grabbing a snack before the gym or coming back from the gym,” Mirza said.

The gym is precisely where rising sophomore Harrison Rubin believes his friendship with Bhak blossomed. Rubin explained that he and Bhak were part of a group of 10 students who worked out together consistently, which Bhak called a “really big team with really big rigs.” Almost every day, the group would exercise together for close to two hours, during which Bhak would coach his friends through elaborate workout routines that he had constructed, Rubin said.

“I met Alex during my first week of school here, at the freshman carnival, and we pretty much hit it off … and we became pretty close

friends from working out. After that, our relationship took off,” Rubin said. “ I used to go to his room all the time, play FIFA with him, party with him, eat with him, go into Boston with him … we bonded over our love of Star Wars and celebrated our nerdy sides a little bit. We tried to one up each other … I wanted to buy a light saber, he already had two of them.”

Rubin sported a wristband printed in honor of Bhak, which read “happy to be happy” — a product which has been distributed across campus as a reminder of Bhak and his legacy.

“I never ever heard him talk negatively about anyone … [he was] just a really nice guy…[and] he was a coach to many,” Rubin said.

For Anna Tolette, Bhak’s girlfriend of five months, it was his generosity and genuine care for those around him that set Bhak apart from others. She explained his calm, rational presence often assuaged her stress and trepidations, and that he liked to surprise her with small, thoughtful tokens.

“One day, I was feeling really sad … and he literally came back [from Harvard] with a whole box of warm Insomnia cookies for me … he was just genuinely the nicest, most generous person I had ever met,” Tolette, a rising sophomore, said.

According to Tolette, Bhak was a huge foodie, known as much for his weightlifting sessions at the gym as his love of latenight Domino’s Pizza.

He was also fiercely proud of his diverse heritage, creating a pie-chart for Tolette to highlight his Korean-Indian-PolishFrench and potentially German background, and ensuring that he took her to try “real, authentic” Korean barbecue, she said.

Tolette also explained that Bhak had a great passion for music and poetry, showing her a few of his own compositions on occasion. She said that Bhak’s roommate had been teaching him how to DJ, walking him through how to spin everything from the electronic dance music (EDM) tracks he so loved to the music of Hozier, an artist that he and Tolette bonded over at Boston Calling l ast September. Bhak also loved drawing and

reading; Tolette laughed when she recalled her spring break trip to Florida with Bhak, where he took out Plato’s works for light beach reading.

“He is all of the best parts of both his parents, which is really amazing. They are the most wonderful people you will ever meet,” Tolette said. “They lost their son, but they were spending more time making sure I was okay. The last people in the world…[who this should’ve happened to].”

For Tolette, Mirza and Rubin, as well as many of Bhak’s other friends, a critical part of the grieving process has been the support they have found in each other, their tight-knit group of friends and from other members of the community.

“It was one of the hardest things we have ever had to go through and hopefully will ever have to go through,” Mirza said. “The fact that we have each other truly helped us get through. Everyone felt this. Sympathy is one thing. Empathy? It’s a whole other entity.”

For now, Rubin seeks solace in his memories of playing FIFA in Bhak’s room, while Mirza fondly remembers strutting down College Avenue with Bhak on Halloween, dressed as Harold and Kumar. Tolette wears the necklace Bhak gave her for Christmas and speaks with Bhak’s younger sister every day. They all remember Bhak as the happygo-lucky, bright presence he was during his life, and as Mirza explained, see a piece of him in everything they do.

“He has influenced us in ways I cannot describe. His mom said that Alex was ‘happy to be happy.’ I don’t think there is a more apt way to discuss his existence or legacy or memory … he loved … his experience at Tufts more than anything,” Mirza said. “He really liked his group of friends, was in a really happy relationship. He was really happy with his social life, routine, all the people he was meeting. He was incredibly happy here, and I think everyone in the community contributed to that.”

The Bhak family has created the Alex Bhak Memorial Fund to preserve Bhak’s legacy and to honor him through aiding others. “[The fund] intends to celebrate the life of Alex Bhak through education and research grants and scholarships,” according to the fund’s page on YouCaring.com.

tuftsdaily.com

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

F &G FUN & GAMES

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Anita: “I drank a Soylent in bed without brushing my teeth and then was braless in the Uber.”

SUDOKU

Difficulty Level: Laying out this entire issue by myself.

Today’s Solutions

Congratulations to the Class of 2019!

From the staff of Tisch Library, Lilly Music Library, and the Clark Library at the SMFA

Take us with you! Check the Tisch Library website for info about alumni library privileges.

CROSSWORD

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30 tuftsdaily.com

Opinion

Sunday, May 19, 2019

EDITORIAL

There is power in a union In the last two years, hundreds of thousands of American workers have gone on strike, including thousands of teachers in red states and large cities, 7,000 hotel workers in eight large cities and 30,000 grocery workers in New England.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Workers of the World has launched an ambitious campaign to unionize fast food restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, and game developers walked off the job for the first time in labor history. Tufts itself narrowly avoided two strikes since the fall of 2016, and dining workers formed a new union. Many of these strikes took place over the objections of cautious union leadership.

After half a century of stagnation and decline, it seems the American labor movement is finally regaining some dynamism and fighting spirit.

In some places, like Oakland, Calif., and West Virginia, the teachers’ strikes

advanced concrete political demands, with unionized workers using solidarity to combat budget cuts and systemic underfunding. Similarly, after Massachusetts rolled back extra Sunday and holiday pay for retail workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers fought back and preserved those benefits for tens of thousands of its members. At Tufts, dining workers won a fair contract after a protracted, year-long struggle, organizing and finding solidarity with students.

These successes should remind civically engaged people, particularly graduating students who are about to join non-unionized professions, that the primary power we have is in the workplace.

It’s easy to get lost in concerns about discourse, or the specific campaigns of individual candidates, but without organizations composed of and willing to fight for working people, we have rela-

tively little power. All the petitions in the world couldn’t stop Tufts from raising tuition and housing costs, but the mere threat of a strike forced the university to agree to pay its dining workers a fair share for the first time ever.

With companies like Uber on the rise, and ever larger segments of the labor force in non-unionized industries or employed precariously in the so-called “gig economy,” we must look to the successful efforts of labor radicals for guidance. It is for this reason that we feel joining or starting a union is a civic duty, especially if you are working in tech, or other traditionally non-union professions. The days of the mass militant strikes by steelworkers and coal miners are long over, but we can help start the era of the political strike by college-educated professionals and of the revival of mass blue collar unionization.

We will spend most of our adult lives working, and it is in the workplace and employment practices that many of the most pernicious forms of bigotry persist. Associations of workers that fight for workers’ interests are a powerful tool for social justice and for winning a better life for all working people. We should welcome the return of the political strike and the tentative beginnings of new unions in fast food, the gig sectors and tech workers.

The few unions that thrived during the long retreat of American labor power did so because they were able to adapt to a new American working class, they based their campaigns, led by shop stewards, and their politics on social justice advocacy. As many of us join the ranks of the American working class in the coming months, we should be honored to join a long tradition of collective struggle — class struggle.

OP-ED

Call to civic action

by Matthew Zachem The American political system has consistently failed to equally represent all of its citizens. Oftentimes, communities of color and low-income communities are not given a fair say in political decisions. During the Flint water crisis, city officials have lied to their constituents about the quality of their drinking water, despite complaints from community members. Large-scale issues like this are less likely to occur in upperclass, white neighborhoods. Some politicians have also worked to dilute the voting power of minorities with institutional barriers, including racial gerrymandering and discriminatory voter ID laws.

These issues may result from insufficient representation in all levels of government. Although the current Congress has been hailed as the most racially and ethnically diverse ever, Congress is still not truly representative. While non-Hispanic white people comprise only 61% of the population, 73% of the House of Representatives fits into that demographic. Meanwhile, African Americans, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans are all under-represented. These disparities are even more apparent in the Senate. As for wealth, the median net worth of Congress is five times the median net worth of an American household. For Americans of color and low-income Americans, this lack of representation causes disillusionment with the political process, resulting in lower rates of civic engagement.

This is borne out by voter participation rates. While whites vote at slightly higher rates than African Americans, Latinx and Asian Americans typically have turnout rates at least 10% lower than these groups. And while 74% of Americans making over $50,000 in salary voted in the last Presidential election, only 52% of Americans making below that number did the same. Clearly, many factors discourage certain groups from partaking in civic action. This continues a vicious cycle in which marginalized communities have less

of a voice in the political future of their city, state and country. So what can be done to encourage greater civic participation among all groups, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds?

A positive first step is education. By teaching youth to advocate for important issues, civic leaders can empower individuals to solve problems of their own accord. However, systemic racism is not merely political; it impacts education too.

In America, there is a “civics education gap” in which the public schools of low-income communities and communities of color receive less funding than their white counterparts. So, programs like civic action classes are often not offered to those students. Thus, marginalized communities cannot always rely on their schools to teach students how to be active citizens.

Fortunately, Massachusetts is working toward mitigating these inequalities in civics education. In November 2018, Governor Baker signed S.2631, a bill aimed at promoting civic engagement through strengthened education programs. The law mandates all Massachusetts public schools implement a social science curriculum, including civics education. The curriculum encompasses the history and functions of the United States and Massachusetts governments, the responsibilities of a citizen in a democracy, media literacy skills and history of civic participation among the disenfranchised. While this may seem like a basic AP U.S. Government class, aspects of the law will ensure that its impact is felt far beyond the classroom.

S.2631 establishes a Civics Project Trust Fund, with money from state funds as well as public and private donations. The state provides this money in the form of training grants for civics teachers. Additional resources go to underserved communities to ensure students have the same opportunities to engage with civics. This attention to low-income communities will hopefully begin to decrease the civics education gap, creating a future — at least in Massachusetts — in which marginalized groups are no lon-

ger excluded from civic action due to class or race. The goal of this program is that other states will eventually adopt similar civics education models, enabling similar ends to be achieved across the country. This bill also creates the nonpartisan Civics Project, in which all eighth grade and high school students analyze a particular community issue and propose potential solutions. This empowers youth to have a direct role in solving prevalent issues.

Overall, the law’s goals mirror the valuable work done by the Tufts chapter of Generation Citizen (GC). Members of GC Tufts, called “democracy coaches,” travel to schools in underserved communities in the Boston area and teach a curriculum designed by the national organization.

Democracy coaches work with students to develop a plan comparable to the aforementioned Civics Project, and they have the opportunity to pitch their plans to state representatives at an event called Civics Day. The Civics Projects of Boston-area GC chapters have produced tangible accomplishments, including a successful gun buy-back program organized by students at Lowell High School. Schools working with GC Tufts have also felt the positive effects of the GC “action civics” platform.

When asked by first-year Mona Tavangar how GC has engaged her students, a teacher in a GC classroom at Boston Latin Academy spoke of the actions taken by students as a result of the organization. “[Students] are [now] calling senators and representatives, researching bills, inviting elected officials to speak in class and actually seeing real results,” the teacher said.

Through these means, students are accessing their political power and are able to share with others how easy it is to do so.

One student in Mona’s class reflected on the problem-solving process.

“I’ve learned to never give up, even if you feel like something isn’t going to work,” the student said. “I thought that my class would never find a goal to achieve and at least try and accomplish, but we did and had quite a fun time doing it!”

Evidently, GC is allowing local students to get involved in the political process and achieve real solutions to community issues.

GC, however, is a very broad organization, mainly providing students with a general sense of local issues and best practices for solving them. With S. 2631 explicitly calling for public schools to partner with institutes of higher education, I believe this act could foster new relationships between other advocacy-related organizations at Tufts and local schools.

Tufts students have advocated for what they want and attained desired results, as displayed in the fight for a fair dining workers contract and ongoing calls for Tufts to adopt a carbon neutral investment strategy. Thus, Tufts organizers, whether they are from clubs related to labor, environmental, immigration or safety issues, could share their more specific knowledge with students in underserved communities through the Civics Project Trust Fund. By working side-by-side with these students to create effective Civics Projects in their areas of expertise, Tufts organizations can give back to surrounding communities.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts has not yet appropriated any money towards the Civics Project Trust Fund. While estimates of the cost are fairly miniscule, the state must designate an actual dollar amount in order to get the fund on its feet. As the act stipulates that some funding will be derived from public and private donations, it is vital that the state shows private entities it is serious about the program, thereby encouraging donors to assist with funding.

If you want to see Massachusetts put money toward empowering underprivileged students to advocate for important issues and reverse systemic inequalities, and if you want to have the chance to spread your advocacy knowledge to local youth, you should find a Massachusetts representative in the House or Senate, call them and tell them to fund the Civics Project Trust Fund.

Matthew Zachem is a member of the Class of 2022.

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.

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O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

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EDITORIAL

Tufts betrays itself through Sackler ties The time has long since passed for Tufts University to sever ties with Purdue Pharma. After the January lawsuit brought against Purdue by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey revealed the corrupt relationship between the Sackler family and Tufts University, students and faculty throughout our university, and at the Tufts University School of Medicine in particular, have felt shame and embarrassment stemming from our role in the origins of the opioid epidemic that has killed tens of thousands of people nationwide.

Writing in the CommonWealth Magazine last month, Professor Paul Hattis of the Tufts School of Medicine noted: “One of our medical students noted in my class last week that she feels as if she is attending a medical school that could be aptly named the ‘Pablo Escobar School of Medicine.’”

Where is the shame and embarrassment we would expect of our Board of Trustees? Of President Monaco?

None of this is new. Allegations of wrongdoing against the Sackler family date back to at least 2001, when Forbes Magazine reported that “addiction is fast and overdoses are easy.” That same year, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal held a hearing on opioid abuse, and on abuse of Purdue’s OxyContin in particular. In that hearing, Dr. Russell Portenoy disclosed Purdue’s unethical sponsorship of his pain research at Beth Israel Hospital. Though the full extent of Dr. Portenoy’s multimillion-dollar entanglement with Purdue and other companies would not be known for over a decade, allegations and evidence piled up.

At any point during these intervening years, Tufts could have cut ties with

the Sackler family. Instead, in 2014 President Monaco hand-delivered an honorary degree to Raymond Sackler, an architect of one of America’s worst public health disasters in modern history. In that year, more than 47,000 people died of overdoses, a number driven by opioid deaths, and Purdue was forced to pay $24 million in damages to the State of Kentucky, which put all of the money toward addiction treatment and rehabilitation. We knew then.

This dishonesty is not what our university was built on, and this must not be what we become.

The Universalist Church, under the guidance of Hosea Ballou II and the patronage of Charles Tufts, founded Tufts University 167 years ago. They did so with a dedication to intellectual openness and honesty. For over a century

CARTOON

One Last Hurrah

BY NASRIN LIN

and a half, students and faculty have tried to live with this same dedication to those principles. Now, as lawsuits implicate us in the crimes of the scions of the American pharmaceutical industry, it’s clear our leadership has prioritized wealth over our long history and tradition of intellectual honesty.

Under the leadership of President Monaco, this dedication to intellectual truth was cast aside. Attorney General Healey has produced stunning evidence of academic dishonesty and corruption at Tufts and that evidence has had months to sink in. Tufts should not wait for more evidence, more lawsuits, more death, more embarrassment or more editorials.

Though it is too late for Tufts to avoid complicity with the Sacklers, we must cut ties all the same.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | PHOTO SPREAD | Sunday, May 19, 2019

PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE LEE AND MADELEINE OLIVER

tuftsdaily.com

O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | PHOTO SPREAD | THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

OP-ED

by Akshat Rajan

Leaving with a sour taste and no degree

Dear Tufts, You welcomed me on your hill, a brighteyed first-year 7,605 miles from home. From sharing life stories in Global Orientation to the illumination ceremony, from eating my first Sunday sundae at Dewick to jamming to “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy, from sunset picnics at the docks to joining my favorite clubs, I fell in love with the people, traditions and communities I found.

I remember when your Admissions officer, Jennifer Simmons, came to my high school. I asked two questions: “As a Tufts student, can I do Semester at Sea (SAS)?” and “As an international student, do I place out of the language requirement?” Simmons said that if I could get the courses approved by Tufts professors, I could do SAS. Additionally, because I took Hindi, my first language, in high school, I could place out.

As my time with you comes to an end, those two questions remain unanswered.

I became actively involved in my communities to do my best to lead the International Club as president, vice president and senior advisor; serve as a host advisor for the Global Orientation program; lead TEDxTufts as its curator and executive organizer; become an Honos Civicus inductee; and receive the Oliver Chapman Leadership and Community Service Award.

You had become an exciting part of my lifepath, but I had been dreaming to sail around the world since I was 12. SAS is a highly ranked, accredited study abroad program, where 500+ college students visit 11 countries across four continents, taking classes taught by renowned faculty. As an international relations (IR) major, I was excited to wake up in a new country every week and immerse myself in its culture.

My (then) dean, Joe Waranyuwat, reaffirmed: “It doesn’t matter if you’re studying

on a mountain in Nepal, as long as professors approve you for credit on SIS, you’re fine!”

I applied for transfer of credits from the IR, Film and Media Studies and Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies departments. They approved my courses on Tufts Student Information System (SIS), and I was accepted into SAS! But then, I was asked to set up a meeting with Stephen Hall, the foreign study advisor. I left his office crying uncontrollably.

He told me there was a “long-standing rule established by a faculty committee” that met God knows when that didn’t approve of this specific program. How was I supposed to know this unwritten rule?

Professors on my voyage included Stanford Professor of the Year Armin Rosencranz, NobelLaureate Desmond Tutu, the Busia sisters (daughters of the ex-prime minister of Ghana) and U.S. diplomats. Previous voyages included lecturers like Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. My film class was at the “Game of Thrones” set in Girona, Spain. I got to see the world’s first camera, not just read about it. My social ventures class was in low-income schools in Ghana and Myanmar. My courses were real, my professors were better and my classroom was the world. How does a school that touts its IR curriculum not accept SAS? If Harvard, Cornell and numerous other institutions see the value in such a program, why don’t you? I wasn’t going to let you get in the way of my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, I went.

I felt more liberated on a confined ship in the Atlantic Ocean than I ever did here. I wasn’t the only one. I found Samay Bansal, a former Tufts student who transferred to Cornell where his SAS credits were accepted, and Saherish Surani, a sophomore who also received approval for her SAS classes. Will you shatter her dreams too?

You refused credit for my courses, while your money-making scheme in the form of the “residency requirement” made sure that I

would pay $15,000 of that semester’s lost tuition back to you for five summer classes (which students can pay for, withdraw from and still receive residency).

I have more credits than I ever needed to graduate. But, I’m still not graduating.

As for the second question I asked Simmons, I again found what she said to be true. Students can place out of languages by taking exams during Orientation Week. Since you don’t offer courses in Hindi, I was encouraged to schedule a one-on-one test.

In the fall of my sophomore year, you introduced a new language evaluation system. Since I was told that I could take the test anytime, I reached out to do so after SAS. Turns out I could no longer take the Tufts administered exam, but as a native speaker with an Academic Award in Hindi, I wasn’t worried. The new University of Pennsylvania exam was long and complex, and I only placed out of six semesters worth of classes, which wasn’t enough to fulfill the IR language requirement. I retook it spring of my senior year and placed into level 121, or seven semesters worth. If you gave me a similar-styled English exam within that time limit, I doubt I could achieve the same level.

Current seniors Shivika Khanna, Akshat Jain and Sidhant Chadha took the Tufts exam, after the UPenn one was introduced. Former Tufts Community Union President Gauri Seth (LA ’17) took the UPenn exam her senior year, didn’t get the desired result, and was then given the option to take the Tufts-administered test through which she graduated. In fact, Khanna even told me that she placed out of six semesters. After declaring an IR major, she didn’t even take an exam for the eight-semester exemption. After hearing stories like this from my friends who will be receiving their degrees, I was hoping that you, would be as understanding with me, as you were with them.

Maybe you think your new policy is better for new students, but it didn’t exist when

I matriculated at Tufts. I admit I should’ve done something sooner; I didn’t dream this would happen. You have a history of throwing new policies onto us ,like the new-credit system which made it hard for upperclassmen to have recent classes weigh as much as older ones. I remember, how I caught an error in the GPA calculation system. I had to fight for months to correct my GPA. For a school that takes “academic integrity” so seriously, it’s not fair that we’ve to adjust to policies so arbitrarily. Shouldn’t these policies grandfather students in? I write to you, caught in the crossfire, with the empty hope that someone will read this and help. I write so that people who invest their time, money and effort in making you a better place know the systemic barriers you raise to keep students from becoming proud alumni. As everyone around me celebrates their degrees, I’ll celebrate the people I met, the clubs I joined and some of the memories I made here with you.

At least, you gave me that.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do or who I’m going to ask for help. You, Tufts, have given me great options: waiting until next spring to take an upper-level Hindi class at Middlebury or taking a class at an Indian university and petitioning for its transfer. I’d have to base plans for my future off this decision and decline my job offer in Singapore. It should be as embarrassing for you as it is for me to answer the question: “So, why aren’t you graduating?” My response is because you, Tufts, don’t believe that traveling the world “meshes well” with international relations, and, that I can’t prove to you that I speak my first language well enough.

With a sour taste and no degree, Akshat Rajan (LA ’19?)

Akshat Rajan is a member of the Class of 2019 studying international relations.

Rajan can be reached at akshat.rajan@ tufts.edu.

OP-ED

A lasting tribute to Alex Bhak

by Anna Tolette, Max Cooper, Cody Eaton and Harrison Rubin On April 2, 2016, we lost Alex Bhak, a beloved member of the Tufts community. Alex was a friend, scholar, gym buddy and so much more. Although we only knew him for a short time, the impression he left upon us endures in the spirit of health and self-improvement he fostered and in the group of friends he brought together. Considering the lasting impact he made upon our lives, we wanted to leave a lasting memory of him on campus.

After three years of careful brainstorming, planning and meeting with the Tufts administration, we are proud to dedicate a memorial that captures Alex’s character and creates a welcoming space on campus. Located just below Tisch Library, the Alex Bhak Memorial Garden is a space where students, faculty and any other members of the Tufts community can take a moment to relax and appreciate Alex’s presence. One of his favorite poems, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

by Walt Whitman, is inscribed at the base of the memorial. Alex memorized it for a poetry class his first year, and we believe it captures some of his best characteristics: thoughtfulness, curiosity and a personal commitment to furthering his own learning and development. With the poem at its center, we hope this space provides you with the opportunity to pause, reflect and appreciate the people around you. It has already been frequented by the

MADELEINE OLIVER/THE TUFTS DAILY

The memorial to Alex Bhak is pictured.

Tufts community, and it warms our hearts to know that this will continue even once we graduate.

As we move into our young professional lives, we will continue to

remember him in our own ways, but whenever we find ourselves back on the Hill, this memorial will stand to greet us, serving as a reminder of the warm memories we made with him.

Whether you knew Alex personally or not, we hope you enjoy this space and the positive spirit it represents. And maybe even take a moment to look up at the stars.

O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

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OP-ED

Real Justice in Israel

By Anonymous On April 5, 2019, there was an op-ed published in the Daily called “Real justice in Palestine” that attempted to portray Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as hypocritical for hosting a drag show as part of its “Deadly Exchange” campaign. It engaged in quite a lot of victim-blaming of innocent Palestinians, stereotypical discrimination and rampant Islamophobia in the form of an op-ed that the Daily never should have published in the first place.

The Deadly Exchange campaign rose up again this year in order to hold the Tufts administration accountable for sending Director of Public and Environmental Safety and Tufts University Police Department ( TUPD) Kevin Maguire to Israel for “counter-terrorism training,” after the trip was brought to the campus’ attention last year in a Daily article. According to past itineraries from these “National Counter Terrorism Seminars,” officers have visited prisons where children are killed and the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. The Boston Police Department (BPD) also attended this counterterrorism trip which is especially concerning because, only last year, the Boston Globe revealed that BPD was using social media spyware, Geofeedia, to track Muslimidentifying individuals in the Boston area. If police departments that attend these trips in Israel are also surveilling Muslims, who is to say that TUPD is not doing the same to brown and black students on campus? If students of color and minority groups on campus already feel targeted by our police, and there are known instances of racial profiling of black students by TUPD at student events, including instances of TUPD officers parking outside of the Africana and Women’s Center potentially with the intent of surveilling them, then of course, military training makes students feel less safe.

The writers of that article, who completely ignore the rampant racism that is infiltrating Tufts’ campus, sought to diminish the importance of

the Deadly Exchange campaign. The audience of their op-ed was liberal students who are uninformed about the Israel-Palestine conflict. The authors spewed hatred against marginalized groups in the form of lies that cannot be backed up in order to fuel their perspectives.

Now, if there are some people who disagree with what I’ve just said and thought the op-ed had plenty of evidence to back it up, let’s examine the content of the article. We have established what the Deadly Exchange actually is, so let me explain my concerns with Islamophobia. The writers call SJP’s use of a drag show “tone-deaf ” since there are anti-LGBT practices in Sharia Law, but what’s even more tone deaf is to call Israel “an oasis of LGBT+ rights in the Middle East.”

Israel is not an oasis. It’s another arid part of the homophobic desert. To criticize the government of Hamas for being homophobic when same-sex marriage is illegal in Israel is inherently biased. In fact, in only 2017, Israel’s high court rejected the National LGBT Task Force’s petition to make same-sex marriage legal, and Israel ranks low in tolerance of LGBT people compared to 17 other countries, according to the European Social Survey. Additionally, in 2005, Israel’s Foreign Ministry started a marketing campaign called “Brand Israel,” which was intended to rebrand the country’s image as “modern” but tokenized LGBT+ people in order to further The Israel Project’s agenda of stressing Israel’s “commitment to peace and democracy.” The New York Times released an op-ed from Sarah Schulman, an opinion columnist, which said that the Israeli government paid for an international campaign to boost Tel Aviv as “an international gay vacation destination.” The Israeli government seems to be regularly used as the one and only source for New York Times articles. The growing movement to brand Israel as a modern hub of gay life, which has been called “pinkwashing,” hides the violations and abuses of Palestinian human rights. These tactics ignore the fact that homosexuality has been decriminalized in the

West Bank since 1951, ignore the existence of Palestinian gay-rights activist organizations, ignore LGBT+ and Muslim-identifying individuals, and ignore their allies.

This is not to say that life for LGBT+ individuals is easy in Palestine, but that it is hard anywhere. Not only is it hypocritical to say Israel is a oasis for gay life, but it is also Islamophobic to then say that “[Sharia Law’s] fundamentalist interpretations have resulted in the persecution of LGBT+ people elsewhere in the Muslim world.”

Assuming that Muslim populations are somehow more queerphobic than any other demographic or that religion plays into anti-Arab and anti-Muslim ideologies that are completely unsubstantiated and racist. Homophobia is prevalent, widespread and disgusting — no matter the extent and who perpetuates it. Homophobia exists everywhere, and queer resistance exists everywhere. Whether LGBT+ people are not allowed to marry, or whether they are prosecuted, homophobia is real. We shouldn’t be comparing Israel and Muslim countries as ‘better’ or ‘worse’ because there is simply no scale when gay rights are fundamental human rights.

Regarding the authors’ viewpoints on Hamas, the most important thing to note here is that criticizing Israeli apartheid does not equal support for Hamas, and criticizing Israel does not equal antisemitism. I was at the event with Lama and Amel Abed, a mother and her daughter from Gaza City, who spoke about the struggle of their daily lives, dealing with the violent Israeli police force and oppressive apartheid wall. A Tufts student disrespectfully asked them a question about living under “Hamas’ authoritarian regime,” which their chaperone declined to let them answer. This question was not only insensitive to the guests, but also a red herring, as the main topic of discussion and threat to Palestinians’ human rights is Israeli violence. Their government is clearly flawed — not everything the Hamas government does is in the interest of the citizens there, just like not everything any gov-

ernment does is in the interest of their people. An individual is not the same as their government, and there are plenty of people here who don’t think that President Donald Trump and our current government represent them, so why are we applying an unfair standard to innocent Palestinians?

Instead, let’s discuss the fact that the number one thing Palestinians are facing right now is the 11-year Israeli blockade on Gaza and Israel’s crimes against humanity, like shooting unarmed Palestinians. In 1947, the United Nations voted to split the land into two countries, and Palestinians, who saw the plan as a push to get them off of their land, rejected it. The UN partition had promised Israel 56% of British Palestine, but Israel took 77%.

This left Israelis with their own state, and Palestinians with nothing.

According to Amnesty International, “two million Palestinian people are living under an illegal blockade imposed on Gaza … they can’t enter or leave Gaza freely, to see family or friends or even to get life-saving medical care.”

Israel claims that they are defending their civilians, but Palestinians are killed every week for peacefully requesting to return to their homes.

The United Nations reported that 189 Palestinians were killed last year in the Gaza demonstrations that happened every Friday, where Palestinian refugees and their descendants seek to end the economic blockade that suffocates their people and reclaim their rightful property.

Just like the U.S. needs to be held accountable for the colonization of Native Americans, let’s not shy away from making Israel take responsibility for human rights violations in Palestine. Settler colonialist states, like the United States and Israel, do not create space to imagine what a ‘free Palestine’ looks like. So, let’s talk about all the historical injustices Palestinians have been put through and make up for those first before we start writing articles like “Real justice in Palestine.”

Letter from the editor To the Class of 2019 and all members of the Tufts community, Today marks the graduation of the Class of 2019. As you look back on your four years at Tufts, you may be thinking about the moments you spent within various communities on campus — your first-year dorm room floor, your sports team, your religious or ethnic affinity group, your major or even the group of close friends who you feel like have been around since you came here. Looking back at our semester on the Daily, several experiences stand out to us: the late nights we’ve spent in the basement of Curtis Hall editing and laying out the paper, the interviews we’ve conducted with dynamic speakers from different disciplines and the face-toface conversations we have had with student groups about important community issues. I am awed by the sacrifice of our copy, graphics and layout editors, who work incessantly to make the paper elegant and readable;

our photographers, who drop everything to take an assignment; and our intrepid reporters, who go to great lengths, like driving two hours to New Hampshire or biking to a courthouse in Cambridge to retrieve materials for their stories.

At the Daily, we know we must reconcile our identities as students with providing objective coverage of issues that affect the Tufts community. This conflict adds a layer of complexity to our work as journalists. While we are constantly learning and growing, we consistently adhere to high standards of journalistic integrity. This semester’s managing board, along with a staff of close to 200 dedicated editors and contributors, has read and edited hundreds of articles pertaining to issues both on our campus and in the global Tufts community.

This semester, Tufts changed in innumerable ways, and we shared these stories with our readers. Hateful

acts have threatened to undermine the strength of the Tufts community, and controversies abounded. The semester began with an incident of blackface as well as a postering at Tufts Hillel, the second such incident at Tufts this academic year.

Doctoral student Tiffany Filler was expelled from the Cummings School of Veterinar y Medicine for grade hacking, but maintains her innocence. A housing crisis continues to plague Tufts, and members of our surrounding communities of Medford and Somerville insist that Tufts is not giving back enough.

But the semester was marked by so many successes as well — events that the staff of the Daily has been privileged to report. On April 4, the dining workers unanimously ratified their first union contract after voting to authorize a strike a month earlier. Our sports teams also reached new heights, with the men’s soccer team winning a national champi-

onship, the women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse teams earning NESCAC titles and the women’s lacrosse team achieving their best season in years.

Looking back on a memorable semester and toward the 2019–2020 academic year, I am full of ideas for the future of this publication and our university, and I’m excited to leave this job in the extremely capable hands of next semester’s managing board. To the seniors who are graduating today, I hope you’ve felt that the Daily has been right alongside you as we’ve watched these past four years unfold. I can’t wait to see where you go next.

Best, Elie Levine, editor in chief

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tuftsdaily.com

SPORTS

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Top 10 moments of 2018–19 year

PHOTOS BY MAX LALANNE, EVAN SLACK AND COURTESY EVAN SAYLES

by Tufts Daily Sports Staff It has been a stellar year for sports at Tufts. Through the fall and winter of the 2018­–19 season, Tufts stands at No. 8 in the Learfield IMG College Director’s Cup competition, which ranks all Div. III schools by their sporting success across all varsity programs. With numerous spring sports still in contention for national titles, Tufts looks to continue its reputation as a Div. III sports powerhouse. Here are 10 of the Tufts Daily Sports staff’s favorite sports moments across the academic year.

Roger Gu wins the National championship Rising senior Roger Gu won Tufts’ first swimming title since 1982 at the 2019 NCAA Div. III national championships when he outswam all of his competitors in the 50-yard freestyle on March 20 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. Gu entered nationals with a seed time of 19.77 seconds and improved upon it by .08 seconds in the preliminaries for a 19.69 time. Emory University graduating senior Trey Kolleck was hot on his tail, boasting a 19.84 time in the preliminaries. In the finals, though, Gu posted an astounding 19.49 time, while Kolleck could only muster a 19.69. Gu’s 19.49 time eclipsed his previous personal record, the Tufts record and the NESCAC record for the 50-yard freestyle in one of Tufts’ most impressive athletic feats of all time.

Boris Sorkin proves to be the best tennis player in Div. III For the first time in history, the Tufts men’s tennis team has a national champion singles player. Rising junior Boris Sorkin claimed the 2018 Div. III ITA Cup on Oct. 13, 2018 in Rome, Ga. Sorkin, No. 4 going into the tournament, achieved a threeset victory over second-seeded graduating senior Chad LeDuff of UC Santa Cruz by a score of 2–6, 6–4, 6–2. Despite being undersized compared to many other top singles players in the country, Sorkin has used his mental acuity to wear opponents down in long matches.

Men’s soccer wins national championship For the third time in five years, the men’s soccer team was the last team standing in the entire Div. III field. On Dec. 1, 2018, at the University of North Carolina, Tufts

scored two early goals — one in the second minute and another in the 30th — and held on against Calvin College’s prodigious attack in the second half to lift the trophy.

Rising junior midfielder Calvin Aroh scored off of a deflected shot for Tufts’ first.

The second goal was from rising senior midfielder Zach Lane, who headed the ball into the net after a long throw by rising sophomore defender Ian Daly to double the Jumbo lead.

In the second half, Calvin pulled one back after rising junior Biagio Paoletta committed a foul in the box, but it was too little, too late for a team that’s played in four championship games and lost all four of them. Tufts stayed organized and disciplined for the rest of the affair, holding Calvin, the highest-scoring college team in Div. III, to seven shots after it scored the penalty kick.

Its final 18–0–3 unbeaten record is also Tufts’ only undefeated season since the program started to record statistics in 1946.

Tufts is only the third school ever to win three national championships in five years, cementing its place as Div. III’s preeminent soccer dynasty.

Field hockey finishes second at NCAAs After posting 19 wins, appearing in the NESCAC championship and stomping out Hopkins 3–1 in the NCAA Div. III semifinal, Tufts fell 2–0 in heartbreaking fashion to its NESCAC foe, the Middlebury Panthers, in the finals. The Panthers were the Jumbos’ kryptonite all season long: Tufts lost two games all season, both of them to Middlebury. Hoping for redemption after losing to Middlebury in the NESCAC title game, Tufts faltered on the neutral site in Manheim, Pa. in its fourth national championship game in 10 years. With four firstyear starters in the 2018 season, the Jumbos are locked and loaded to trample any of their opponents next year.

Women’s swimming dazzles in its best finish since 1990 The Tufts women’s swimming and diving team’s performance in the NCAA championships this year was its best finish since 1990. The team ended the first day of competition in 20th place, but it climbed its way up to reach 16th place on the final day of the tournament to match the team’s finish from 1990. Over the course of the tournament, the team also earned seven

All-American finishes and broke six of the school’s records — the 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard individual medley (IM), the 400-yard IM, the 100-yard butterfly, the 400-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Women’s squash makes best finish since 2008 Tufts women’s squash earned its best overall finish since 2008 in the 2018–19 season, largely because of its run in the College Squash Invitational. The Jumbos ultimately fell to the Bates College Bobcats in the Walker Cup championship match 6–3, but they still had a largely successful season. To reach the final, Tufts overcame St. Lawrence College and Franklin & Marshall College, crushing both teams 9–0 and 7–2, respectively. The Jumbos finished the season 12–7 overall and No. 18 in the nation, only two places behind their 2008 No. 16 finish.

Women’s basketball defeats Amherst with buzzer-beater en route to NESCAC title Tufts’ march to the NESCAC title was marked by a dramatic finish in its semi-final matchup against traditional arch-rival Amherst. As the two teams traded baskets heading into the fourth quarter, Amherst emerged with a 46–45 lead with 24 seconds left on the clock.

On the ensuing possession, the Jumbos worked the ball around, and they finally found its way to rising sophomore guard Janette Wadolowski. With just 1.8 seconds left on the clock, Wadolowski sunk her fadeaway jump shot to give Tufts the lead. In doing so, Wadolowski ended Tufts’ seven-game losing streak against Amherst and sent her team to the conference championship.

Women’s lacrosse starts 13–0, sweeps all four All-NESCAC accolades In an unprecedented performance, the women’s lacrosse team has won all four of the top accolades available in the NESCAC conference. Graduating senior attacker Dakota Adamec repeats as the NESCAC Player of the Year after guiding the Jumbos to their strongest regular season performance in a decade. Graduating senior defender Hedy Veith won Defensive Player of the Year thanks to her leadership and command of the Jumbo defensive unit. Meanwhile, rising sophomore

attacker Colette Smith, who only played in 11 games before being sidelined by a hamstring injury, provided such a dominant performance to start the season that she captured the Rookie of the Year award.

Finally, coach Courtney Shute, now in her sixth season, shares the Coach of the Year title with Middlebury coach Kate Livesay.

Much of these accolades can be attributed to the team’s tremendous 13–0 start to the 2019 season. The 13 consecutive victories tied the program record which was set by the Hall of Fame team of 1985. The team wrapped up its season with an excruciating 10–9 loss to the Middlebury Panthers in the NESCAC final — the Jumbos fell to the Panthers by the same scoreline in the regular season.

McDonald scores five touchdowns in a game, ties Tufts record The Tufts football team bears farewell to one of its most prolific offensive players of all time, graduating senior quarterback and co-captain Ryan McDonald, who accumulated more career combined yards than any other player in team history with 6,004 combined passing and rushing yards (4,177 and 1,827, respectively). McDonald capped off his historic career on Nov. 11, 2018, in a game against the Middlebury Panthers.

Although the Jumbos held a miniscule 14–13 lead going into the half, McDonald exploded in the third quarter, where he passed for an incredible three touchdowns.

McDonald passed for an astounding five touchdowns on the day, tying the school record for the most passing touchdowns in a single game.

Benji Wallace’s 16th-in-the-nation pole vault On April 6 at MIT, Wisconsin native Benji Wallace pole vaulted his way to a remarkable opening height of 4.45 meters. The graduating senior jumped three heights after that: 4.6, 4.7 and 4.8 meters. The latter height was his personal record, and still good for No. 16 in the nation at press time. He was the last Jumbo to compete, and upon obtaining his personal record, he was met with a lot of support from family, teammates, coaches and friends alike. His dad even flew out from Wisconsin to watch his son perform.

At the Div. III New England championships on May 4, Wallace finished fifth in his efforts to qualify for nationals that take place from May 23–25 in Geneva, Ohio.

O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | SPORTS | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Daily Sports awards

by Tufts Daily Sports Staff After much debate, research and fanfare, the Tufts Daily Sports Section has come to its conclusions for the annual Tufts Daily sports awards. Here’s the shakedown: Male Athlete of the Year: Roger Gu

passed the baton to graduating senior Natalie Bettez to lead the herd. The Bolton, Mass. native ran with the opportunity, shaving impressive time off last year’s marks to capture first-place finishes at the first two cross country meets of the 2018 season. Her streak continued at the All-Divisions New England championship, where she broke 18 minutes to finish first of 168 runners, including Div. I athletes, becoming the first Jumbo to do so since 1975. After hanging up her spikes, Bettez will attend Tufts University School of Medicine, where she was accepted through the Early Assurance Program.

Male Rookie of the Year: Ben Stein

COURTESY ROGER GU

After leading the men’s swimming and diving team to its first-ever conference win, shattering countless records along the way and finishing second nationally in the 100-meter freestyle, it was hard to believe then-sophomore Roger Gu could possibly top his 2017–18 season. However, the Ashland, Mass. native found a way to do just that this year as a junior. At the NESCAC championships in February, he took home three relay victories and two individual wins. He left the NCAA championships with five All-American honors, most notably first and second-place finishes in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle, respectively. The rising senior’s national title was the first for a Jumbo swimmer since 1982.

Female Athlete of the Year: Natalie Bettez

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

When 5k national champion Brittany Bowman (LA ’18) graduated last year, she

Arjun Balaraman Off the Crossbar

the regular season, Dorr set the tone by issuing statement wins at No. 1 singles

COURTESY MAGGIE DORR

and No. 1 doubles against Trinity. Then, against then-No. 5 Williams, Dorr partnered with rising sophomore Caroline Garrido at No. 1 doubles to triumph, 8–3; Dorr and Garrido’s match played a crucial role in the 5–4 win, Tufts’ first over Williams since 1991. Other highlights of the season included Dorr’s three-set triumph over then-No. 3 Middlebury at No. 2 singles (7–5, 2–6, 10–8).

Coach of the Year: Josh Shapiro

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Rising sophomore Ben Stein receives this year’s Male Rookie of the Year award thanks to his strong performance in the multi-events in the indoor and outdoor seasons of track and field. Among the 18 first-years on the team, Stein’s results in the heptathlon and decathlon impressed. At the indoor Div. III New England championships at the end of February, Stein placed sixth in the heptathlon with 4,473 points.

Then, over spring break at San Diego State University’s 41st Annual Aztec Invitational, Stein scored 5,689 points in the decathlon to capture fifth place out of a field of Div. I, Div. II and Div. III athletes.

Female Rookie of the Year: Maggie Dorr With exceptional performances in both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, rising sophomore Maggie Dorr stepped up to lead the women’s tennis team this season, ranked No. 9 in the country as of April 25. In her first NESCAC match of

YUAN JUN CHEE / THE TUFTS DAILY

Josh Shapiro has coached the men’s soccer team for almost a decade, turning the average-at-best Tufts team into a national juggernaut. Case in point: Shapiro has led the Jumbos to three NCAA titles in the past five years. For their efforts this season culminating in yet another national championship, Shapiro and his staff were named the Div. III coaching staff of the year. The last few seasons have been record breaking for the team — the team went unbeaten with an 18–0–3 record in 2018. The year before, the team boasted a goals-against average of 0.09, conceding only two goals in 21 games. The team is locked and loaded for another national championship campaign next year, as Tufts boasts scintillating sophomore, junior and senior classes teeming with talent.

Tufts Daily Sports’ senior profiles

by Tufts Daily Sports Staff

The Daily’s sports section caught up with some of the school’s most prolific senior athletes across the fall, winter and spring seasons.

Dakota Adamec Dakota Adamec is a Jumbo athlete not to be underestimated. A back-to-back NESCAC Player of the Year and women’s lacrosse’s 10th highest point scorer of all time, Adamec has secured a legacy for herself and the nickname “Lax-y Dax-y” to go with it.

Adamec has been at the forefront of the Jumbos’ ascension to a No. 4 national rank this season. She has started all 51 games that she has played in since her sophomore year, playing in 62 total over the last four years. Adamec has amassed 138 goals and 36 assists as of May 17.

The 2018 season was truly a breakout season for Adamec. She had always been a prominent scorer for the Jumbos, but it wasn’t until her junior season that she

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Dakota Ademac, member of women’s lacrosse, poses for a photo on Bello Field on May 14. reached her pinnacle, scoring 51 goals and adding 16 assists to propel Tufts to NESCAC and NCAA tournament berths.

This season, Adamec has scored 40 goals in 17 games so far.

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“My junior year all around [was a highlight of my career],” Adamec said. “I came off of a very hard sophomore year. I was very see SENIOR PROFILES, page 38

A competitive culture

W

hile the United States has one of the world’s most successful capitalist economies, its sports leagues take a surprisingly egalitarian approach. Each of the four main leagues has a draft every year that rewards the worst teams from the previous season by giving them higher picks. There is practically no financial penalty for bad performance.

But in almost every other professional soccer league in the world, poor performances are punished, rather than rewarded. Rather, the worst three teams in the league are relegated to the second division.

Continued poor performance can lead to a downward spiral of relegation and sometimes even bankruptcy. There is no draft where bad teams can turn their franchise around by acquiring a transformational talent, so teams actually try to win every single game. In the English Premier League, the only thing that is rewarded is success. With success comes financial rewards, allowing a club to attract talent.

Financial support also comes from the owners of clubs, whose influence cannot be understated. One only needs to look at the impact of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. By pumping millions of pounds into their respective clubs, these owners were able to acquire talented players and expedite the rebuilding process for their teams. Now, City and Chelsea are two of England’s “Big Six.” In 2016, Leicester City pulled off one of the greatest upsets in sporting history to win the Premier League. Its odds to win before the season were at a staggering 5000-to-1. Before and since, though, the Big Six clubs (City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United) have dominated the league. This campaign, for the third consecutive time, these six will occupy the top slots in the league table. But while Leicester hasn’t broken into that upper echelon, its success in 2016 helped provide security to the club.

Many forget the Foxes were mired in the relegation zone for much of the 2014– 15 season before dramatically winning seven of their last nine games. Claudio Ranieri then worked his magic with the squad to lead them to the title the following season. The club received a lot of money for winning, which it reinvested into building a stronger squad, and the Foxes have now become a solid mid-table side — one that doesn’t have to worry about relegation on a yearly basis. It may seem unspectacular, but Leicester’s success on the field was the key to its financial stability.

Similarly, Wolves have been the story of the league this season as they made their return to the English top flight.

Using the award money from winning the championship, manager Nuno Espirito Santo made the right signings and has his side firmly in the race for “Best of the Rest” outside the top six.

At a time when many American sports franchises have started losing games intentionally to get draft picks the next year, the Premier League has managed to uphold its standing as the most competitive league in the world, while still giving underdogs like Leicester and Wolves chances to succeed.

Arjun Balaraman is a sophomore studying quantitative economics. Arjun can be reached at arjun.balaraman@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | SPORTS | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Fall and winter sports recaps

F

by Tufts Daily Sports Staff

Men’s cross country Led by coach Joel Williams, the men’s cross country team finished 25th out of 32 teams after a two-year hiatus from national competition. The team competed at the Lake Breeze Golf Course, courtesy of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, in Winneconne, Wis., on Nov. 17, 2018.

After missing out on top-30 ranks for much of the season, the team was pleased to be one of four NESCAC teams to compete in the competition and to place within the top 30 of the nation’s best. Tufts qualified after finishing fifth out of 58 teams at the NCAA championships at Bowdoin on Nov. 10, 2018. Graduating senior Brian Reaney was the first Tufts athlete to finish the 8k, finishing 95th overall with a 25:34.5 time.

Fellow graduating senior Colin Raposo was only 0.4 seconds behind, finishing 97th.

Athletes in the race had to navigate a fall that set back over a dozen runners, including graduating seniors Hiroto Watanabe, Rory Buckman, Andrew Doherty Munro and Brian Reaney, who was able to recover to finish first for the Jumbos. Unlike many teams that have an exemplary front-runner, Tufts’ runners worked together and for each other to make their best finish possible in their best season since 2016, when two runners put in top-35, All-American performances.

Women’s cross country The Women’s cross country team finished its 2018 season in mid-November at the NCAA championships hosted at the

Lake Breeze Golf Course. The team finished 12th out of 32 teams in the 6k. It was its sixth consecutive top-20 finish dating back to the 2013 season. The squad qualified for nationals after finishing fifth at the NCAA Regional championships hosted by NESCAC rivals Bowdoin. Tufts was one of three NESCAC schools to finish in the top 15.

Graduating senior co-captain Natalie Bettez highlighted the Jumbos’ performance, racing a 22:06.1 time good for 45th overall, the fastest time a Jumbo

MADELEINE OLIVER / TUFTS CROSS COUNTRY

Senior co-captain Natalie Bettez finishes strong at the NCAA Division III National Cross Country championship in Oshkosh, Wis. on Nov. 17, 2018.

posted at the event. Bettez earned three consecutive All-NESCAC honors the past three years, multiple Athlete of the Week nominations, and was Tufts’ first-place finisher in seven out of eight meets in the fall cross country season.

Fellow graduating senior co-captain Kelsey Tierney came in second, clocking in at 22:31.4, good for 95th overall.

After suffering an injury that derailed her junior year racing season, it was a season of redemption for the Whitman, Mass. native.

Other finishers included graduating seniors Olivia Barnett, who placed 116th, and Julia Noble, who closely followed at 126th. In her first nationals appearance, rising sophomore Anna Slager was the fifth Jumbo to finish the race. Rising seniors Lydia Heely and Jennifer Jackson finished 149th and 224th, respectively.

overall record and a 9–1 NESCAC record for second in the conference. Not only was the offense potent, scoring 52 goals, but 13 out of the Jumbos’ 19 victories were shutouts, reflecting the team’s strong goalkeeping and defense all season long. In fact, first-year goalkeeper Andie Stallman boasted the lowest goals-against average in the NESCAC at 0.37.

There are several graduating seniors who will be sorely missed: co-captains midfielder Fallon Shaughnessy and forward Gigi Tutoni, forward Hanaa Malik, midfielder Claire Trilling, defender Issy Del Priore and goalkeeper Emily Polinski. Del Priore, Tutoni and Shaughnessy earned All-NESCAC and All-New England West honors, with Del Priore and Tutoni earning spots on the prestigious All-American team as well.

Field hockey Led by coach Tina Mattera, the Tufts field hockey team enjoyed a tremendous fall season, cruising to the NCAA Div. III championship game in Manheim, Pa. Thanks to a season of hard work, the Jumbos closed out the year with a No. 4 national rank, receiving a first-round bye in the NCAA tournament. At the final hurdle, the Jumbos fell to NESCAC rival and No. 2 Middlebury College by a score of 2–0, constituting the Panthers’ second NCAA title in back-to-back years.

The Panthers were responsible for all three of the Jumbos’ losses in the 2018 season, including the NESCAC title game.

Despite falling just short, the Jumbos walked away from the season with a 19–3

Football The Jumbos found immense success on the gridiron in 2018, winning seven games for just the second time this century and never once losing at the Ellis Oval. Tufts finished in third place in the NESCAC behind Trinity and Amherst, improving from their sixth-place finish just one season prior. The Jumbos finished the season ranked seventh in the New England Div. III coaches’ poll after losing just two games in the season, both of which were at the hands of the two teams who finished above them in the NESCAC.

ing a super talented team against many other talented teams at NESCACs. That was an experience that I’ve never had before.”

Bowen has also contributed to team relays with staggering success: He took part in the record-holding relay quads for the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays as well as the 200-yard and 800-yard freestyle relays.

“I would hope that my legacy would be as someone who cares for people outside of just swimming and who is invested in their teammates,” Bowen said.

Jumbos’ record for the most total offensive yards in a career, with an astonishing 6,004 combined passing and rushing yards (4,177 passing, 1,827 rushing). As a result of his offensive prowess, McDonald leaves Tufts as the Jumbos all-time leading passer with a career efficiency rating of 127.5.

McDonald found his first playing minutes as a sophomore in the 2016 season, where he played in eight games and totaled up to a combined 487 passing yards and 647 rushing yards alongside then-senior quarterback Alex Snyder (LA ‘18).

As a result of the dominating performances by the duo, the Jumbos closed out their 2016 season with a 7–1 record, the Jumbos’ best since 1998.

Following his breakout performance in the 2016 season, McDonald thrived as a leader at the starting quarterback position.

As a junior, he broke the Tufts record for the most offensive yards by a player in a sea-

see FALL AND WINTER RECAPS, page 39

Senior Profiles SENIOR PROFILES

continued from page 37 hard on myself. I was in hard classes, and I wasn’t doing well in those or in lacrosse.

Long story short: I had a total mindset shift junior year. Getting NESCAC Player of the Year [junior] year and the other awards showed me that if I put in the work … I could do whatever I wanted to do.”

What Adamec wants to leave behind when she graduates is her mentality of always putting in the extra work. She cites a team-wide mentality change over the course of the last four seasons as the main reason for the team’s improvement. Part of her role as one of the team’s senior leaders was to instill that attitude in the younger members, and it has clearly paid off.

“The mentality of what hard work looks like has changed,” Adamec said. “My [first] year, me and one other [first-year] were the only ones putting in extra time every week.

The upperclassmen did do that, but not to the extent that all of us are doing now. The team has undergone a mental and leadership change … because there are more seniors, and there’s been a talent shift too.”

While not playing lacrosse, Adamec, who is a biology major, prepared to take the MCAT and did so in March while juggling lacrosse preseason and a full course load. Despite her collegiate career being over, Adamec does not doubt that she will continue to find places to play lacrosse in the future.

Kingsley Bowen Kingsley Bowen, Tufts men’s swimming and diving’s first-ever NESCAC Swimmer of the Year, wrapped up a decorated fouryear career at the NCAA championships in March. The backstroke specialist is a 13-time All-American winner and seven-time All-American honorable mention recipient. He started off his Tufts swimming career with Tufts’ first-ever NESCAC Rookie of the Year award in 2016 after claiming

two first-place finishes, two-second places and a third-place finish at his first NESCAC championship meet.

Ryan McDonald This year, the men’s football team will lose one of its most prolific offensive players of all time in the form of graduating senior quarterback and co-captain Ryan McDonald. In his three years playing for the Jumbos, the Annandale, N.J., native played in 26 games, where he held an impressive record of 22–4.

By the time McDonald played the last game of his career, he had shattered the

see SENIOR PROFILES, page 41

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Kingsley Bowen poses for a portrait on May 8.

Three seasons later, Bowen swept all three backstroke races — the 50-yard, 100yard and 200-yard — becoming a threetime NESCAC Champion in March. He led the Jumbos to a second-place NESCAC finish. Though these three performances weren’t Bowen’s fastest times in any race, he does boast the Tufts record for all three backstroke races, which he set in the 2018 season. Bowen also holds the Tufts record in the 100-yard butterfly, with a time of 48.47, and the 100-yard individual medley, with a time of 52.77.

As one of the team’s captains this season, Bowen took on a more significant leadership role. The team took second at the NESCAC meet and 10th at Nationals.

“A lot of the highlights of my career weren’t the accolades that I won,” Bowen said. “One highlight of my season was lead-

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Ryan McDonald, member of the men’s football team, poses for a photo at the Zimman Field on May 15.

O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | SPORTS | THE TUFTS DAILY

Fall and winter sports recaps FALL AND WINTER RECAPS

continued from page 38 Offensively, the Jumbos were led by graduating senior co-captain quarterback Ryan McDonald, who was named to the All-NESCAC First Team for the first time in his career. McDonald was protected by a strong offensive line led by graduating senior offensive linemen Tim Reitzenstein and Josh Thibeault, who were placed on the All-NESCAC First Team and Second Team, respectively. This was the second time Reitzenstein received the honor in his career.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Jumbos were led by rising senior co-captain linebacker Greg Holt, who was named to the All-NESCAC First Team for the third straight year. Graduating senior defensive back Tim Preston was named to his first All-NESCAC First Team. Two other Jumbos were named to the All-NESCAC Second Team, including graduating senior co-captain safety Alex LaPiana. The season marked coach Jay Civetti’s fourth straight season with a record above .500.

Men’s soccer The Jumbos finished a historic unbeaten season in December 2018 that culminated in the team’s third national championship title in five years. History repeated itself like clockwork: the Jumbos fell in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC tournament as they did in both 2014 and 2016, but soared through each round of the NCAA tournament to eventually claim the title. The 18–0–3 season saw the team score 46 goals while conceding only 11, with 15 different goal scorers from all positions on the field finding the net.

A graduating class of four seniors have anchored the team on the defensive end over their tenure. Two-time All-NESCAC and All-New England honoree Sterling Weatherbie captained the team for two seasons and has started at left back since his sophomore year. His classmates, defender Jackson Najjar, goalkeeper Conner Mieth and forward Jarod Glover boast a 59–12– 12 record over their four-year campaign, including the team’s first ever NESCAC title in 2017, and two NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018. Junior forward Joe Braun earned his first All-American nod, being named to the All-NESCAC, All-New England and AllAmerican First Teams after tallying 10 goals and six assists. Junior midfielder Gavin Tasker received his first accolades for the All-NESCAC and All-New England First Teams as well this year. With an eight-man rising senior class, next season is sure to be an exciting one as the Jumbos attempt to recreate their success under Div. III Coach of the Year Josh Shapiro.

1Women’s soccer The Tufts women’s soccer team enjoyed a successful fall season, closing with an 11–6–2 record. The Jumbos started the season with five straight wins, giving the team the confidence and belief that they could contend for a NESCAC title and make a run in the NCAA tournament. The NESCAC regular season ended with two consecutive losses, dropping the team to No. 4 in the standings heading into the postseason. After hosting the first round of the playoffs and beating Wesleyan 2–0, Tufts faced off against eventual national champions Williams. After a hard-fought battle, Williams came out on top by a score of 3–2.

The Jumbos were given an at-large bid to the national tournament and looked poised to make a run. Once again, Tufts looked sharp in the first round, getting past Penn. State Behrend 2–0. In the round of 32, the Jumbos suffered a crushing 1–0 defeat in double overtime against William Smith College.

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Sam Weidner Weidner's Words

Five Jumbos received All-NESCAC accolades. Graduating senior goalkeeper Emily Bowers received her second straight First Team honor, while rising senior midfielders Jenna Troccoli and Sarah Maloney and rising junior forward Liz Reed all joined Bowers on the First Team. Rising junior forward Sophie Lloyd, whose season was interrupted by a concussion, earned a Second Team honor. Maloney went on to earn the even more prestigious honor of being selected to the United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America Third Team.

Volleyball The Tufts volleyball team finished the 2018 season ranked No. 5 in the NESCAC with an overall record of 16–10, and a 6–4 record in-conference. Coming off of an immaculate NESCAC season in 2017, the Jumbos transitioned into the 2018 season under the leadership of senior co-captain Mackenzie Bright and junior co-captain Maddie Stewart, both opposites/outside hitters. The 2018 season introduced three talented first-years to the program, including NESCAC Rookie of the Year outside hitter/opposite Cate Desler, who led the team in both service aces and kills, clocking in an impressive 41 and 247, respectively.

Following a victorious season opener against Clark University, the team traveled south to compete in the Emory National Tournament. At the tournament, the Jumbos went 2–2, gaining valuable experience that would help them take on conference competitors. In their first two conference matches, the Jumbos squared off against Bates and Colby on back-to-back days, beating both teams 3–0.

As the season progressed, Tufts beat Roger Williams, University of Massachusetts Boston, Hamilton, Williams and Trinity, before taking on Springfield, Babson and MIT in the New England Challenge. The Jumbos swept their competitors with three consecutive wins, making Tufts the backto-back champions of the New England Challenge. Leading up to the postseason, Tufts beat Connecticut College and fell to Wesleyan.

In the NESCAC quarterfinals, the Jumbos took on the Middlebury Panthers for the second time, beating the fourthseed team 3–0. Tufts proceeded to take on Bowdoin, the number-one seed, in the NESCAC semifinals, falling to the undefeated Polar Bears in a five-set match.

Men’s basketball The men’s basketball team relied on fresh talent this year after graduating six seniors in 2018. Vincent Pace (LA ‘18), who captained the team in the 2017–2018 season, ultimately went on to play professionally in Malta. Leveraging their young talent — 10 out of the 13 members of their roster were either rising sophomores or rising juniors — the Jumbos featured a high-octane offense in their 2018–2019 campaign,

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior guard Eric Savage dunks the ball during Tufts’ 75–71 win over Wesleyan on Jan. 26.

averaging 82.3 points per game. However, they struggled both defensively and on the road at times, posting a 12–14 overall record and a 4–6 conference record.

While sometimes inconsistent, the team certainly did not lack excitement. Tufts dethroned top-ranked Middlebury during the regular season in January and again in the NESCAC quarterfinals, which was made all the more impressive as Tufts had squeaked into the NESCAC tournament as the No. 8 seed. Ultimately, Tufts fell 89–84 to Hamilton in the NESCAC semifinal, but the team proved with the victory over top-seeded Middlebury that it has the firepower and resilience to compete with anyone in the league.

Junior guard and captain Eric Savage, who led the team with an average of 16 points per game, was integral to Tufts NESCAC title push. Under longtime coach Bob Sheldon and Savage’s leadership, first-year guard Tyler Aronson quickly rose through the ranks and became a force to be reckoned with, scoring an average of 10.1 points per game. Sophomore guards Brennan Morris, Justin Kouyoumdjian and center Luke Rogers also played key roles, delivering sharp outside shooting and aggressive rebounding in support.

Women’s basketball The Tufts women’s basketball team finished the season with an impressive 28–3 record, an improvement from the 26–5 finish last year. Tufts’ season was driven in

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior guard Jac Knapp goes for a layup during a game against Bates on Jan. 19. part by an early offensive explosion, with the team putting up more than 80 points in seven of its first nine games. This included a program record of 110 points against Brandeis on Nov. 25, 2018.

While the Jumbos fell to their traditional rivals, the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Amherst Mammoths, during the regular season, the team was able to extract a measure of revenge in the NESCAC tournament. Tufts defeated Amherst 47–46 in the NESCAC semifinals, before going one better to upset hosts Bowdoin 75–69 to claim the NESCAC title.

Tufts comfortably saw off the challenge of Western New England, Haverford and Messiah to reach its sixth straight Elite Eight appearance at the national tournament. After a close contest, the Jumbos fell 44–40 to the hosts, the Scranton Royals.

Nevertheless, for the team’s impressive performances this year, graduating senior Jac Knapp and rising senior forward Erica DeCandido were both named to the AllConference and All-New England teams.

The team graduates just two seniors — Knapp and forward Katie Martensen, the team’s two co-captains this year. see FALL AND WINTER RECAPS, page 40

Intangibles off the charts

A

s the NFL draft has come and gone once again, the scouts head back to the drawing board and begin their evaluations for next year. There are already different iterations of way-too-early 2020 mock drafts posted across Bleacher Report and Twitter. However, let’s pause for a second and take a look at how these scouts and talent evaluators look at the incoming players each year. One of the most talked about, yet most vague aspects of an NFL draft evaluation, is the notion of the “intangibles” that a player brings to the table. Nobody really knows what these “intangibles” are, because they, by definition, aren’t tangible. But everybody seems to agree that they are some of the most important things to evaluate a player by.

A quick google search of “NFL draft player intangibles” brings up over 575,000 results, with articles from The Ringer, such as “How Scouts Evaluate Intangibles,” and Bleacher Report like “10 Intangibles College Football Recruiters Always Look for in a QB.” You can say that a player has “off-the-charts intangibles” and every fan and general manager will want them on their team, but if you say they “lack intangibles,” then suddenly, though nobody can seem to articulate why, their draft stock falls.

One of the most commonly talked about “intangibles” is work ethic: How hard a player is willing to work to improve, how much a player cares about the sport and how much playing in the NFL means to a player. This one is interesting because wouldn’t you assume that almost every player in the NFL draft works hard? Typically you would think that most players in that position also care deeply about the sport. If they have gotten to that level of play — the highest level in the world — it’s fairly safe to assume that they have worked hard and that the sport they are playing holds some significance for them. Every NCAA Div. I football player attests to the grind they go through on a daily basis as well as the physical toll playing the game takes on their bodies, and none of them are necessarily getting off easy in that routine.

The concept of “intangibles” breaks down in some ways the assumption that a lot of fans and talent evaluators make that some athletes are just born with supernatural gifts while others have to overcome every obstacle possible. It’s true that there are genetic traits that help in sports. Size, speed, agility and other traits can be something some person is born better at than another, but to dismiss some athletes as simply destined to succeed also dismisses everything they or anyone else in their life has ever sacrificed to help them make it to where they are. It is no coincidence that the evaluation of player “intangibles” always seems to be racially coded.

Things like work ethic and passion for the game can obviously help a player, but GMs and fans alike need to be more careful when they take these evaluations at face value.

Sam Weidner is a junior studying mathematics. Sam can be reached at samuel. weidner@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | SPORTS | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Fall and winter sports recaps consistency and harness its full offensive FALL AND WINTER RECAPS

continued from page 39 Fencing The Tufts fencing team closed out its 2018–2019 season with a record of 8–13.

Although the Jumbos finished out the year with a losing record, they improved from their previous season in which they only won seven times, an impressive feat given the number of injuries that plagued the team throughout the year. Because of the numerous injuries, the team was forced to forfeit points in nearly every meet this season, putting them at a heavy disadvantage.

Despite their slimmer lineup, the Jumbos kept up team spirit, persevered and were pleased with how the season played out.

The Jumbos’ most noteworthy performance was at the Northeast Fencing Conference Meet in early February. At the meet in Medford, Mass., the hosts won four of their six matches, beating Smith College, UMass, Sacred Heart and University of New Hampshire while dropping matches against Wellesley and Boston University.

Graduating senior co-captain Zoe Howard and rising sophomores Allison Cheng and Hannah Fruitman proved to be essential to the team’s success this season, each individually finishing with impressive win rates.

As the Jumbos look forward to their next season, they are hoping for a healthier year as well as continued success and contribution from the younger members of the program.

Hockey The 2018–2019 season for the Jumbos is probably best classified as one of growth and development. The team finished with a 6–16–3 overall record (3–12–3 NESCAC).

The record was enough for a NESCAC playoff berth, but Tufts unfortunately fell to Trinity in a 3–0 loss in the first

ALINA STRILECKIS / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore forward Brendan Ryan gears up for an offensive attack against Connecticut College at the Malden Forum on Feb. 1. round. Looking ahead, there is a lot for the Jumbos to get excited about in the next few seasons.

The Jumbo core is young, with eight rising sophomores lining the roster. Of those rising sophomores, goalkeeper Josh Sarlo stood out with a .930 save percentage in 10 appearances and a 59-save performance against Trinity towards the middle of the season. His saves against Trinity are tied for fourth in Tufts’ history for single-game performances. Also among the newcomers were Justin Brandt and Nick Schultze, who contributed nine points apiece during the season and made noticeable impacts as forwards. Trevor Spence also made his presence known with an eight-point season as defenseman.

This young core certainly looks ahead with optimism after only one full season together. Despite their lack of overall success, the Jumbos had several big wins and consistent winning streaks throughout the season. These included a five-game stretch in which Tufts went 4–1, beating conference foes Bowdoin and Williams along the way by a combined score of 12–3. The team will look to smooth its

potential next year in the 2019–2020 season, especially after graduating only one senior in captain Clay Berger.

Men’s squash Led by coach Joe Raho in his second year at the helm, the men’s squash team played in the third tier of the squash national championships, competing in the Summers Cup for the first time since 2010.

The team finished its regular season with a 7–13 record and reached the quarter-finals of the NESCAC championship.

Ranked No. 24 in the nation following the CSA Team Nationals Summers Cup, the Jumbos were without their No. 1 player in Raghav Kumar due to injury, forcing every athlete to play up a position.

Though they lost all their matches — two of them being 9–0 asphyxiations — Tufts was among giants, competing against bigtime programs like No. 1 seeded Williams.

In the closest match of nationals weekend, Bowdoin just beat out Tufts, 6–3, for the No. 23 rank in college squash. Seven out of the nine matches went to at least four games in the Jumbos’ last team match of the season.

At individual nationals the next weekend, graduating senior Alan Litman lost to Ricardo Lopez from the University of Rochester 11–2, 11–5, 11–7. He was able to win a match against Senen Urbina from Navy, but lost the first, third and fourth matches, knocking him out of the tournament and ending Tufts’ season. Tufts graduates seniors Brett Raskopf, Aidan Porges, Imran Trehan and Litman.

Women’s squash The Tufts women’s squash team finished the 2018–2019 season with a 12–7 overall record, including a 5–3 mark in regular season conference play and two victories over rival Bates. The Jumbos fell in the first round of the NESCAC tournament to the Amherst Mammoths as the fifth seed. In the final round of the Walker Cup — Div. III squash’s third tier of competition — Tufts dropped a tight 6–3 contest to Bates.

The top seed in the Walker Cup was good for a No. 18 national ranking, capping a seven-spot leap over the past four years led by the class of graduating seniors, who helped initiate a massive turnaround for the program. Now entering his third year, coach Joseph Raho has been a major force in the program’s upward trajectory, guiding the Jumbos into the thick of the NESCAC squash battle. With new courts arriving next February, expect Tufts to continue to rise through the division ranks and challenge the likes of Amherst and Bates.

Rising senior co-captain Claire Davidson played the No. 1 position for the Jumbos all season long, making the individual national tournament for the second straight season, while rising junior Julie Yeung finished another strong season in the No. 2 position. The Jumbos graduated six seniors this year: Hannah Burns, Chista Irani, Zarena Jafry, Sahana Karthik, Olivia Ladd-Luthringshauser and Isabella Libassi.

Men’s swimming and diving It was a historic season for the Tufts men’s swimming and diving team, and a culmination of the successes built upon in recent seasons. It was just a year ago at Bowdoin College when the Tufts won their first ever NESCAC championships, and at Middlebury College this year, the Jumbos finished in a close second behind the Williams Ephs. In fact, the team increased their points tally from their 2018 total, up to 1775.5 from 1671. Coach Adam Hoyt and his team didn’t stop there,

however. At the NCAA championships in Greensboro, N.C., rising senior Roger Gu swam a NESCAC-record 19.49 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to become a national champion. Gu, who also finished second in the 100-yard freestyle, became the first Jumbo national champion since Jim Lilly (LA ‘82) won the 100-yard butterfly. Lilly was also recently inducted to the Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame.

Tufts says goodbye to decorated senior and captain Kingsley Bowen, who took home NESCAC Swimmer of the Year and was the NESCAC 4-Year High Point Swimmer. The graduating senior finished on top at the NESCACs in the 50, 100 and 200-yard backstroke races.

Fresh off a third successive top-10 finish at the NCAA Div. III National championships, the team will return in 2020 with heightened expectations.

Women’s swimming and diving The Tufts women’s swimming and diving team had their best-ever finish at NESCAC championships this year, breaking up the previous top-two duopoly of Williams and Amherst that had reigned supreme the previous three years. Rising junior Amy Socha came away with the

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore diver Amber Chong competes at the Division III regional diving championships at MIT’s Alumni Pool on March 2. lone Jumbo victory that weekend, topping the competition in the 200-yard butterfly.

The Jumbos were not done with just the NESCACs; their 16th-place finish at the NCAA Div. III championships in Greensboro, N.C. was the team’s best since 1990. Tufts had seven All-Americans, including two for Socha in the 200-yard butterfly and the 500-yard freestyle and four honorable mentions for rising sophomore Mary Hufziger. The team, coached

by Adam Hoyt since 2015, set six school records at the championships.

The Jumbos will say goodbye to decorated graduating senior Colleen Doolan, the only senior on the NCAA roster this year. Doolan was part of a relay that finished second at the NESCACs in the 800-yard freestyle relay along with Hufziger, rising junior Abby Claus and rising senior Grace Goetcheus with a time of 7:28.71, a school record. She’s taken home three all-American honorable mentions at the NCAAs. Men’s indoor track and field After finishing second at the New England Div. III championships in late February at MIT, the Tufts indoor track and field team advanced three athletes to the national championships just down the road in Roxbury, Mass.

Graduating senior co-captain Hiroto Watanabe, along with classmates Colin Raposo and Josh Etkind were the sole representatives for Tufts at the NCAA Div. III National championships held locally at the Reggie Lewis Center in

Roxbury, Mass. on Friday, March 9 and Saturday, March 10.

Though none of the athletes advanced tos the final round on Saturday, the three post-1 ed impressive nationally ranked results inO the preliminaries on Friday. Watanabe rant in the 800-meter, finishing with a 1:54.69f time, good for 16th. The top eight moved on. In similar fashion, Etkind raced in thet 60-meter hurdles and finished 14th with aa 8.36 time. In the mile run, Raposo finishedL 15th with a 4:15.25 time. He missed out onG

s h f p

o f t t MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY r Senior Colin Raposo holds off the competi- i tion during the 3k race at the annual Bran d Smith-King Classic on Jan. 26. f 10th place — and a trip to Saturday’s finalss — by only two seconds.

For the trio’s last indoor race, it was bit-a tersweet to have the race at home. o “Because the race was in Boston, it wasc amazing to have all of my teammates thereh … The atmosphere was amazing for rac-s ing,” Raposo told the Daily, days after ther race in March. “It was honestly one of thei most fun races I’ve run in a long time.”

C s Women’s indoor track and field t During the winter indoor season, thew women’s track and field team proved againM to be one of the top Div. III teams in New England. g At the end of February, the Jumbosy placed third at the Div. III New Englanda championships, behind Williams ando MIT. Under the leadership of coachb Kristen Morwick — now entering her 20thf season at Tufts — the squad has placed third or fourth at New England champi-n onships every winter since the 2014–2015s season. a Two runners also qualified for the NCAAh championships, hosted in Boston, thoughp many were in contention throughout the season. At the national meet, rising seniorC Rhemi Toth ran a personal best 4:55.13 mile to earn seventh place and All-AmericanM honors, while graduating senior and co-cap-c tain Kelsey Tierney placed 10th in the mile. N i i b i m N c

T m s d i a MADELEINE OLIVER / TUFTS TRACK AND FIELD s Kelsey Tierney stays focused during the 5k race at Springfield College on Feb. 17, 2018. s Z The Jumbos graduate some top per-2 formers, including Tierney, graduatingt senior and co-captain Evelyn Drake and graduating senior Kylene DeSmith. h A strong rising sophomore class sug-a gests that their success could contin-s ue. For example, the 4×400 relay team,N comprised of rising sophomore TaraJ Lowensohn, rising sophomore Hannahs Neilon, rising sophomore Luana MachadoI and rising senior Julia Gake, just misseds qualifying for the NCAA championships, but put up strong times all season.M Looking forward, the team is excited toc see where its potential can take it. m

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Senior Profiles

Jeremy Goldstein Anti-Bostonian

SENIOR PROFILES

continued from page 38 son with 2,601 all-purpose yards, including 1,879 passing yards and 722 rushing yards.

Over the season, McDonald compiled a total of 15 touchdowns — 11 passing and four rushing.

In his senior year, McDonald led the team as a co-captain alongside graduating senior defensive back/punter Alex LaPiana and rising senior linebacker Greg Holt.

Throughout the course of the 2018 season, McDonald showed no remorse as he tore NESCAC defenses apart, passing for 1,811 yards and holding a jaw-dropping 133.33 passer rating.

On Nov. 11, 2018, McDonald closed out his electric career with a historic five-touchdown performance in a 35–13 takeaway victory for the Jumbos against the Middlebury Panthers, tying the Tufts record for the most passing touchdowns in a game. With his multiple touchdowns, McDonald also tied the record for the most passing touchdowns in a season with 17.

McDonald leaves Tufts as the Jumbos all-time leading passer, completing 369 out of his 622 attempted passes for a 59.3 completion percentage. Accompanying his passing talents, McDonald also possessed an impressive running game, ranking sixth among Tufts’ all-time rushing leaders with 1,827 yards. Coach Jay Civetti, who is going into his eighth season leading the Jumbos, spoke in the fall about the advantages that come with having a running quarterback like McDonald. “[McDonald] is a tough kid. He’s a great competitor,” Civetti said. “When you have a running quarterback, you feel a little bit of a different kind of pressure on the defensive side of the ball, just because he’s capable of … so many different things.”

McDonald’s historic career was recognized on Dec. 19, 2018, when he was presented with the 23rd annual Joe Zabilski award by the Gridiron Club, cementing his reputation as one of the top offensive players in the NESCAC.

Connor Mieth and Sterling Weatherbie Graduating seniors goalkeeper Connor Mieth and defender Sterling Weatherbie captained the men’s soccer team to an NCAA title and an undefeated season in 2018. The pair leaves Tufts with an impressive four-year record under their belts, boasting a dominant 59–12–12 run, including four-straight NCAA tournament appearances, the team’s first ever NESCAC title in 2017 and two national championships.

Weatherbie, who started his career at Tufts as a midfielder before eventually moving to right back, provided superb speed, tackling, and aerial prowess on defense. The ex-hockey player marauded into the attack as well: In 79 total appearances and 59 starts, Weatherbie recorded six goals and three assists. After an injury sidelined the team’s veteran starter Matt Zinner (LA ’17) only a few games into the 2016 season, Weatherbie had the chance to step into the defensive role.

Mieth had his breakout season during his junior campaign; he started 12 games, allowing only two goals. One of Mieth’s standout moments was during the 2017 NCAA tournament when he carried the Jumbos through two consecutive penalty shootouts in the second and third rounds.

In 35 career games, Mieth recorded 22 shutouts and boasted a 26–2–5 record.

The hard work and humbleness that Mieth, Weatherbie and the rest of the class of 2019 brought to the team will be missed, and the duo hopes that this atti-

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Don’t be Boston sports fans

D BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Men’s soccer team co-captains Sterling Weatherbie (left) and Connor Mieth (right) pose for a photo on Bello Field on May 14. tude will remain as part of their legacy.

The class of 2019 was the last class that committed to play soccer at Tufts before the team had won any NCAA or NESCAC titles, as they would have committed in 2013 or early 2014. They have experienced the drastic shift from being a middling NESCAC team to the undisputed reigning dynasty of Div. III soccer.

“As we’re leaving, it’s easy to realize that we were by far the least-talented class,” Mieth said. “We make the joke that the team is cutting [its] dead weight this year because the guys coming up underneath us are so talented. Our legacy is that we made sure the team didn’t lose [its] grit or [its] work ethic. We came from a different era than these guys, so we knew it was important to put in extra work rather than resting on our laurels and assuming that we were the best team.”

As co-captains this year, Mieth and Weatherbie took it upon themselves to cement a culture of hard work and grit that made a third NCAA title in five years possible.

“I hope that we’ve left the team with a sense of staying grounded,” Weatherbie said. “We may not have been the best class ever, but we brought something that all of the other classes are going to need to have in order to win again. We brought a will to refuse to lose, which is something that other teams don’t have.”

Neither will be traveling too far away, with Mieth working for Standard Chartered Bank in New York City, and Weatherbie staying locally in Boston to work in commercial leasing for real-estate company CBRE. Both plan to return regularly to support the team through the 2019 season and beyond.

Jac Knapp

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Jacqueline Knapp poses for a photo in the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center on May 14.

Graduating senior guard and co-captain Jac Knapp leaves an impressive legacy behind her, having been integral to Tufts women’s basketball’s glorious recent history. Knapp’s success with the program is multi-fold: She was part of the 2016 and 2017 teams that made a run for the NCAA championship, and she will leave Tufts with a NESCAC championship to her name. Individually, Knapp also became just the 15th member of an elite 1,000-point club and the first ever Jumbo to be named to the Div. III Women’s All-Star Team.

One of Knapp’s greatest moments with the program is the go-ahead clutch 3-pointer with 32 seconds to go in the Final Four game against St. Thomas in 2017. Coach Carla Berube described Knapp, whose basket allowed Tufts to overturn a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, as having “ice running through her veins.” Knapp also led with a gamehigh 25 points to end a three-year losing streak in the NESCAC championship match with a victory over Bowdoin this season, where, according to Berube, Knapp led her team by putting “her body on the line.”

Berube praised Knapp’s commitment and work ethic as well as her love for the game, teammates and program as her defining legacy.

“She’s leaving an incredible legacy of how you go about all those things — your schoolwork, how you treat other people,” Berube said. “You just never had to worry about [Knapp]. She always represented us in the utmost, positive way … She was a terrific leader, someone that any of the younger players could always go to, but just sort of personified what we’re all about: Playing every single practice and drill and game as hard as she could and with great passion and with ‘Jac’ style, which is [with] a smile on her on her face.”

For rising sophomore guard Molly Ryan, having her cousin around helped make her transition to college smoother.

“It was honestly amazing [having Knapp here],” Ryan said. “She made my adjustment here, as well as my teammates, so much easier. She was always there for me, and she’s like an older sister. We grew up in the same town, so she just really helped me with almost everything.”

While Knapp looks forward to giving back to the program as an alumna, it is the bonds she’s formed with her teammates that she’ll miss the most.

“They’re some of my absolute best friends,” Knapp said. “It’s a bit weird thinking that next year I’m not going to be with them nearly as much. I’m definitely going to come back and visit, but I really think, especially after this year, [that] the bonds I’ve made with people [are what I’m] going to miss … the most.”

on’t be Boston sports fans, graduating Jumbos.

Consider this a push for the fandoms of graduating Jumbos, an anticipatory outreach because many of you will find work in the Boston area.

Well, what’s the problem with Tufts graduates working in the region? Isn’t that what attending a university is all about?

Unfortunately, young chaps, we fear that we will continue to oversaturate the Boston area with more young Boston fans. And what’s worse about these new fans is that throughout their Tufts experience, they were spoiled with an embarrassingly successful four years of Boston sports. Just a quick recap: the Patriots (three super bowl appearances, two championships), the Celtics (four playoff appearances, two to three conference finals appearances — still pending!), the Red Sox (three playoff appearances, one championship), and the Bruins (three playoff appearances, over two series wins) all sound blindingly awesome. But this is not an accurate depiction of the American sports landscape, which as opposed to European football, is fortified on the backs of small-market clubs enjoying success in a relatively level playing field.

So to all of you Tufts graduates and possibly new Boston residents, don’t get sucked into the booby trap. Starting off fandom with unreasonably high expectations only sets you up for a peak that will make the inevitable all the worse when it finally happens. Remember 2006? Of course you don’t, because only the Patriots of the four aforementioned teams made the playoffs, and they failed to make the Super Bowl (then they traded for some guy named Randy Moss and things got pretty close to perfect, if you know what I mean).

We don’t need another generation of fans to be frontrunners, an affliction striking every young person in the Bay Area. Use Chicago, a similarly sized market, as a baseline for sustained fandom: swaths of greatness create fans for life (see Jordan, Michael), while niche streaks of ineptitude create the ultimate vindication when winning is finally achieved (see the 2016 Cubs), or supporters feeling the wrath of a brutal Chicago winter to watch what is usually a mediocre product (the Bears, and notably the Blackhawks are not included here — they should fix that logo before they can be considered venerable).

No, I’m not going to ask, as much as I’d like to, for any of you to convert to the dark side and support the “evil empire” — cheering for New York teams. Besides the fact that most are too pathetic for even their own life-long fans, I can appreciate how sacrilegious it is to cross that aisle. I am just saying that when you nestle into your niche of fandom, you should analyze just what you may find yourself rooting for. Is the undercurrent of your rooting interests based on some deep, underlying, intrinsic will to be the best and, therefore, support the best?

Look, this is okay. But don’t just throw the first dart at the dartboard. See that it sticks, and don’t settle into the rest of your life because of one throw. Play the field a little bit, and remember that winning isn’t everything.

Jeremy Goldstein is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Jeremy can be reached at jeremy. goldstein@tufts.edu.

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tuftsdaily.com

THE TUFTS DAILY | SPORTS | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Spring sports season recaps

by Tufts Daily Sports Staff Baseball Men’s baseball had another impressive regular season, going 29–9 overall and 10–2 in conference en route to the team’s sixth NESCAC title. The Tufts Jumbos clinched the title in a seven-game thriller against the Middlebury Panthers, after securing their 11th NESCAC East Pennant on May 4 in a doubleheader against the Bates Bobcats. On May 17, Tufts will face off against Penn. St.-Harrisburg in the NCAA regional round for its eighth national tournament berth as the team looks to carry its NESCAC success to the national scale.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior outfielder Casey Santos-Ocampo sprints toward home plate during Tufts’ 24–6 win over Mass. Maritime on March 27.

The Jumbos started off their season at home with a 17–15 victory over the Brandeis Judges before heading to Virginia for a nine-game spring break road trip. Tufts went 7–2 during the stretch, including an impressive 7–3 win over then-No. 19 Randolph-Macon. Coach John Casey tweaked the lineup throughout the week, looking to determine the starting nine for the first conference weekend.

“Our goal, honestly, when we are done with that trip, our goal is to say ‘okay, here is our lineup going into the first league weekend,’” Casey said. “That’s what we are shooting for.

Hopefully we get there, but that doesn’t mean [the lineup] stays static either, so that changes a little bit as the year goes on.”

Following the trip to Virginia, the Jumbos returned home to play 14 consecutive games at Huskins Field. The Jumbos went 11–3 in the home stand, including two separate three-game winning streaks and a four-game winning streak to end the home stretch. The Jumbos then began a 10-game road stretch where they went 7–3, losing to Endicott, Trinity and the University of Southern Maine.

As of the NESCAC championship on May 12, the Jumbos have scored 324 runs in 38 games for an average of 8.5 runs per game and have batted .310 overall throughout the season. The team has also amassed a .429 on-base percentage and 26 home runs to boot. Rising junior infielder Kyle Cortese spoke to the Daily about the team’s approach when at the plate.

“No matter how many outs there are in the inning, what the situation is, your goal is just to get on base so the next guy has the opportunity to do the same thing,” Cortese said.

“Just hitting the ball hard, forcing the defense to make a play, getting guys on base. [You’re] trying to do your job as a hitter and pass the bat to the next guy in line.”

Cortese also explained that part of the team’s success is because of its mentality to never give up in a ballgame, perhaps best illustrated when rising junior J.P. Knight hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning with one strike left to raise Tufts over Middlebury and earn the team one of two places in the NESCAC tournament.

“We are a team that never gives up, [as seen] in the Trinity game,” Cortese said. “We get to choose when the game ends. As hitters, as long as we are working quality at-bats and trying to get on [base] anyway possible, we can drag the game on as long as possible. [We] play a solid nine innings of baseball and just do anything in our power that is going to put us in the best position to win.”

On the pitching side, the Jumbos maintained a 3.80 ERA throughout the season, with a 2.91 ERA in NESCAC games. With the loss of their two senior co-captains from the previous season, the Jumbos relied on new talent to step onto the mound. Rising sophomore pitcher Aidan Tucker went 6–0 with two saves and 39 strikeouts in 52 innings pitched.

As of May 13, rising sophomore infielder Peter DeMaria started in 35 games so far this season, and of the seven players with over 100 at-bats on the team, DeMaria’s .346 batting average is the third highest behind only rising senior outfielder Justin Mills’ .359 and rising senior infielder Elias Varinos’ .361. DeMaria’s .577 slugging percentage is accompanied with two homeruns so far this season.

Senior pitcher and co-captain RJ Hall emphasized the impact that the first-years have had on their success this season. “[First-years] stepped in. Pete DeMaria stepped in at first base, and he’s been having a lights-out season,” Hall said. “Aidan Tucker has turned into a weekend starter for us, which has been crucial to the success of the team.

The senior class is kind of relentless and allows nothing but everyone’s best, and the [firstyear] class has bought into that and has been performing for us.”

Men’s crew The Jumbos started their championship season this month, participating in the New England Rowing championships on May 4 and the National Invitational Rowing championships on May 12.

In the team’s final competition of the season, the first varsity eight (1V8) placed fourth in the NESCAC championship, which was part of the National Invite in Worcester, Mass. After finishing third in the second heat with a time of 6:10.168, the Jumbos continued into the petite final where they finished second.

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Members of the men’s crew team row in a regatta against Wesleyan, Bates on April 14, 2018.

The 2V8 finished fifth in the petite final, posting a 6:30.92 finish after finishing its heat with a 6:22.669 time. After finishing fifth in the second heat, the 3V8 finished as the runner-up in the petite final.

On May 4, the Jumbos took part in the New England Rowing championships hosted at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

In the 2V8 race, Tufts placed third, a mere 1.2 seconds behind the Coast Guard Academy and barely missed the chance to move on to the grand final.

Tufts responded with a resounding win in its petite final with a time of 6:33.88. The 3V8 team placed seventh in its time trial, from which it advanced to beat the Coast Guard Academy by just under 25 seconds in the petite final. With its times, the team exited the championship in seventh place behind NESCAC rivals Williams, Bates, Wesleyan and Trinity.

This spring season was a relatively successful one for the Jumbos, and perhaps part of the reason for that was consistency among the boating lineups, as graduating senior Nick Hartman explained.

“In past years, the boat lineups have moved around a lot from race to race in the spring,” he said. “This year, the lineups haven’t changed too much which has allowed the different groups to have more time to find their rhythm together.”

With their newfound rhythm, the Jumbos finished off their regular season with two regattas at Lake Quinsigamond. The final race of the regular season was hosted by Holy Cross and included three NESCAC visitors consisting of Tufts, Bates and Williams.

In the Holy Cross regatta, Tufts’ 3V8 came in second in its race for Tufts’ best placement result on the day. The boat was a hair under four seconds behind first-place Williams. Holy Cross won the 1V8 race, while Bates finished in second and Tufts finished in third. The Jumbos were just over six seconds behind the victorious Crusaders. Tufts’ 2V8 came in fourth place in its race, which Holy Cross also won.

In the Baker Cup, hosted annually by the WPI Engineers on the same lake, Tufts’ boats had one of its most successful team performances of the regular season. The Jumbos came out on top in all three of the races they participated in, handily defeating the Engineers and the Skidmore College Thoroughbreds to win the regatta.

During the successful April 21 Baker Cup, the Jumbos’ 1V8 squad finished with a comfortable lead over the Engineers and the third-place Thoroughbreds, winning the race by over seven seconds. Tufts finished the 2k course in just 6:13.0. The 2V8 team followed with a solid performance of its own, defeating WPI by just under five seconds, 6:31.8 to 6:36.57. The 3V8, which had been undefeated up to the Baker Cup, defeated WPI for the third time on the day by the largest margin of the three races at nine seconds.

The second regatta of the season was hosted by the Jumbos at the Malden River in Medford, Mass., on April 13, where the team celebrated Senior Day with the families of many of the graduating rowers. Coach Noel Wanner gave an emotional speech, which graduating senior Tamas Takata gave his perspective on.

“Coach Noel [is] always a great speaker,” he said. “But [on Saturday] you could see his emotions come out when he was talking about the seniors. You could tell he really cares about each and every one of us. He was getting teared up, and I was getting emotional myself.”

Following the ceremony, Tufts faced off against Bates, Wesleyan and UMass. The team won four out of its six races on the day, with the 3V8 winning both of its races to stay undefeated on the season. The 1V8 and 2V8 for the Jumbos each won their respective semifinal races, but both lost in the finals to the Wesleyan Cardinals’ boat in each category.

Eleven rowers were honored as part of the senior festivities, including graduating senior co-captains Ryan Bell and Isaac Mudge. Hartman, Takata, Jordan Bacher, Samson Braun, Rich Gilland, James Grant, Ted Midthun, James Miller and Alec Whipple round out the rest of the senior class.

Hartman reflected on his four years on the team, speaking about some of the memories that he and his fellow seniors have shared together.

“I think my best experiences on the team have come from the group I got to share them with,” Hartman explained. “We have a very strong team dynamic of people who can fully trust each other. It takes a good group of people to motivate you to wake up at 5 a.m. every day and fully exert yourself.”

Rising senior co-captain Paul Gelhaus noted that his graduating teammates have meant a lot to the rowers and the program as a whole.

“Those guys have presided over one of the biggest changes in any Tufts sports team,” Gelhaus said. “When I was a [first-year], and a little bit before that, we were in the doldrums of the NESCAC. We started trending upwards when [the Class of 2019] came into the fold, and now we’re pretty close to the top. Those guys have led the charge.”

Women’s crew The women’s crew team finished second out of a field of 18 teams at the National

Invitational Rowing championships (NIRC) on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., on May 12. It was the team’s last competition of the season. The 1V8’s 7:05.204 mark in the grand final was just over three seconds faster than WPI’s and just under seven seconds slower than Bates’ championship time.

In the NESCAC championship portion of the NIRC, Tufts finished third in its heat and then fourth in the petite final to finish fifth overall, based in part on Tufts’ performances from over boats.

“It’s been a long season partly because we have a drive to be super competitive and train really hard,” graduating senior co-captain Libby Lichter said. There’s also a lot of really cool things happening in Div. III women’s rowing right now. There’s so much speed and competition, and that has pushed us to be even better than we thought we could be.”

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Members of the women’s crew team row in the regatta against Wesleyan, Wellesley, Bates on April 14, 2018.

In the New England championship regatta on May 4 hosted at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., the team’s first four varsity eight boats all fared well. In the 2V8 race, the team won its heat over the likes of Williams and Colby by just under three seconds, advancing to the grand final where they placed fourth out of six.

The team also placed fourth in the women’s 3V8 grand final. Tufts closed out the day with a first-place finish in the petite final of the 1V8 and exited the tournament with an admirable fifth place out of 28 competing teams.

Just before championship season, the Jumbos held the 11th-best rank in the nation in Div. III women’s rowing. The team closed out the regular season by participating in the Brown Cup, which, like its men’s counterpart, the Baker Cup, was hosted by WPI in Worcester, Mass., and featured visits from Tufts, Clark, Skidmore and William Smith.

Tufts put four boats in the water at the Brown Cup. The Jumbos won three times in the regatta, with the 2V8, 3V8 and 4V8 teams all winning their respective races. The 1V8 participated in the largest race of the day, which consisted of all five teams attending the regatta.

In that race, the WPI Engineers came out on top with a time of 7:00.0; the Jumbos finished in third place, 18.54 seconds behind the victors.

A week prior, on April 13, the team had its last home regatta of the season on the Malden River. This was the team’s senior day, and the team celebrated its six graduating rowers. For the competition, Bates, Wesleyan and Wellesley — all of which were ranked within the nation’s top 10 — visited Tufts’ home river.

The Jumbos participated in seven races on the day, with the first three varsity eight boats all losing to Bates in their respective semifinal races and also dropping all three consolation races. The 4V8 lost its single race against Wellesley, so Tufts ended up winless on the day.

The team’s prior competitions were more successful for the Jumbos. In the opening weekend of the spring campaign on the Malden River, Tufts faced off against Trinity and the Coast Guard Academy on April 6, followed by races against Amherst and Smith on April 7. Lichter spoke about the success of the less-experienced boats this season.

“I think we’ve demonstrated a lot more depth that we’ve been able to show in the see SPRING RECAPS, page 43

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Tufts varsity sports spring recaps SPRING RECAPS

continued from page 42 past,” Lichter said. “We have significantly more speed throughout the entire team. I like to say your top boat is only as fast as your second boat, [which] is only as fast as your third boat, [which] is only as fast as your fourth boat. So those groups have really been pushing each other.”

As the spring season comes to a close, several Jumbos have finished their rowing careers. The team will graduate senior co-captains Miranda Finestone and Lichter, as well as Lauren Drohosky, Bibi Lichauco, Erika Madrian and Miriam Weiss.

“So much of ourselves and our entire experience in college has been invested in this team,” Lichter said. “Everything has gone by really fast. It feels like we were just at Head of the Charles, New England’s [our first] year.

Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess.”

Golf As spring arrived in Medford, the Tufts men’s golf team, energized by its success in the fall, opened the second leg of its season with an emphasis on development and preparation.

After qualifying for only the second NESCAC championship in school history in the fall, the team toted heightened expectations.

The team began the spring with a strong showing at the Rhode Island College Invitational. The Jumbos finished day one tied for third place with a total score of 313, led by admirable finishes from rising junior Harry Theodore and graduating senior Justin Feldman. Both carded a 76 for the day, good for a fourth place tie overall and only two strokes behind the round-leading score of 74.

Day two saw a jump to second place for the Jumbos behind strong finishes from rising senior Brandon Karr and rising sophomore Travis Clauson, who scored 77 and 78 points, respectively. Karr and Feldman both finished in the top 10 of the invitational. While Tufts scored five more strokes on day two than on the previous day, it left the tournament in second place, tied with Endicott College and a mere four strokes behind invitational leaders Johnson and Wales University.

“We came out of thinking, ‘oh, we should have won that tournament,’” Feldman said.

“Even as early as last year, we would have been jumping off the walls coming in second in a tournament. It was really cool to see everyone on the same page, driven toward success.”

The following two tournaments for the Jumbos did not reach the same heights: Tufts tied for seventh out of 20 at the JWU invitational and finished 10th at the LaFrance Hospitality Invitational. Nonetheless, there were plenty of bright spots that shed optimism for the Jumbos going into the NESCAC championship.

Leading up to the weekend of April 27 and 28, Tufts continued to look onwards toward the looming NESCAC championship. When tournament day finally came, play was delayed due to rain, and players took to the soggy course with nine holes to define their day one performances later in the day. Confidence was high, as the team prides itself on its ability to post strong scores in the midst of difficult conditions.

Three of four Tufts scorers sat at 40 by the end of the day, a less than ideal spot for the Jumbos. Rising junior Alex Honigford managed to break the team’s day-one spell with a team-leading 39 strokes. With nine fewer holes to prove themselves, the margin for error was thin going into the second round of the tournament.

Day two saw the tournament play out with a full 18 holes. The Jumbos were ultimately unable to properly recover from their performance in day one. Honigford managed to lead the team once more, this time posting an admirable score of 74. His overall finish was tied for 16th best in the tournament. Rising junior Henry Hughes also managed to card

a 74 on the day, and both players were in the thick of things for day two. The team was unable to string together enough performances to make a comeback. Instead, the focus turned more toward gaining experience in the tournament atmosphere.

“We wound up treating the tournament less like the last game of this season and more like the first game of the next season,” Feldman said.

The team ended up placing fourth out of four teams competing in the NESCAC championship. Looking ahead, the future is bright for the Tufts golf team. Throughout the tournaments, the Jumbos always managed to maintain a strong sense of consistency and drive.

Rarely did the Jumbos let errors and slip-ups bother them. And as noted by coach George Pendergast, there was a strong sense of camaraderie between the members of the team.

“The team is very cohesive, and everyone gets along very well. We compete pretty hard,” Pendergast said. “I give this season an A.” Pendergast also explained that moving forward, the team will look to tweak its game and practices to continue to drive home the its ultimate goal of making every stroke count.

“We drive the ball pretty well, almost as good as anybody else,” Pendergast said. “Our chipping and putting game suffered a bit. We will be sure to emphasize that for next year.”

The Jumbos only graduate two seniors this year, so four out of five players who competed in the NESCAC tournament will return, demonstrating the team’s promise next year.

The five first-years on the team, who now have some sizeable experience under their belts, will continue to hone and sharpen their games as well. The team also expects a slew of new first-years to compete for spots on the team in the upcoming fall season.

Men’s lacrosse This spring, the No. 3 Tufts men’s lacrosse team demonstrated the fierce, unyielding talent that has earned it the reputation as one of the top teams in the NESCAC and the nation. The team continued its quest for its first NCAA title since 2015 after making five NCAA championship appearances since 2010 when it faced familiar NESCAC foe Amherst in the NCAA quarterfinal on May 15 at home, but narrowly fell by a score of 13–11 to end a season full of success.

On Saturday, April 27, the Jumbos (19–1) competed in their last regular-season match of the season against their NESCAC rivals, the Trinity College Bantams (8–8). With the 17–8 victory, the nationally ranked Jumbos put an explosive cap on an impressive 15–1 regular season.

COURTESY EVAN SAYLES

Sophomore midfielder Bryce Adam celebrates the win in the NESCAC championship game against Williams on May 5.

This momentum established by the Jumbos during their outstanding regular season carried over into the postseason, where they won their ninth NESCAC title after winning two back-to-back sudden death overtime victories against the Middlebury Panthers and the Williams Ephs in the semifinals and championship match, respectively.

Although the Jumbos have had their share of tight, down-to-the-wire games this season, the two NESCAC tournament wins brought forth the Jumbos’ first overtime situations since April 2018.

Fittingly, the hero of the NESCAC tournament was this season’s breakout star, rising junior attacker Max Waldbaum. Waldbaum — who leads the team in goals with a whopping 67 goals and has already solidified himself as the fifth-highest single season scorer in program history as of May 13 — saved the Jumbos in both the Middlebury and Williams games.

On May 4 in the NESCAC semifinal, he miraculously sunk the Jumbos 14th and final goal with a mere six seconds remaining in the first overtime period, sending the Jumbos to the championship game against Williams.

It was at the championship game that Waldbaum was given yet another gleaming opportunity to demonstrate the raw talent and ferocity that he has shown on the field all season. A Williams’ comeback from a fourpoint deficit in the fourth quarter tied the game at 16 to force sudden-death overtime.

For almost three minutes, both teams were unable to put in the 33rd total goal of the game. But following a near-perfectly executed cradle-and-spin move, Waldbaum launched the ball towards the goal with the full force of his 6’2”, 225-pound frame.

Every fan in attendance followed the path of the little, white ball as it passed the left shoulder of Williams rising sophomore goalie Harry Gahagan, and as the ball crossed the goal line to seal the Jumbos’ right as NESCAC champions, Waldbaum turned to the stands.

As his teammates processed their victory and rushed to bound atop the shoulders of their clutch compatriot, Waldbaum calmly gave a salute towards the roaring spectators and fans that undoubtedly help propel the team to performance on the afternoon.

In the regular season, the Jumbos’ sole loss came at the hands of the No. 9 Wesleyan Cardinals (12–3), who upset the Jumbos with a close 10–9 victory. The Cardinals also defeated the Jumbos in a heartbreaking last-second 12–11 victory in the 2018 NCAA championship quarterfinal.

Despite the lone conference loss this year, Tufts still ranked as one of the three single-loss teams in the top 20 Div. III men’s lacrosse rankings as of May 15. Additionally, Tufts’ almost-perfect record sets them at a conference record of 9–1, good for the best record in the NESCAC directly atop Wesleyan (8–2), Amherst (8–2) and Williams (8–2).

The Jumbos’ dominance in the regular season in the NESCAC did not go unrecognized, as a record-breaking eight Jumbos were selected onto the all-conference team, the most out of any team in the NESCAC. The Jumbos started the season on a high note, and by the end of spring break, the team held an undefeated 8–0 record heading into its NESCAC conference-game stretch. By this point, the relentless Jumbo offense was flawlessly executing its dominating style of play, scoring an average of 18.4 goals and outscoring its opponents by an average margin of 7.9 goals. Tufts solidified the end of this eight-game stretch with a convincing 25–12 win over Trinity.

Though fans and pundits alike focused on Tufts’ high-powered offense, graduating senior defenseman Arend Broekmate, who was named as a first-team all-NESCAC player, pointed out that the focus of the team wasn’t the high score but rather the aggressive play style of the team.

“We try and judge our play not by a final scoreboard but by what we could have done better as well as [considering] what we did do well,” Broekmate said following the team’s first win against Trinity. “What’s going to drive us forward for the rest of the year is our will to improve on what we do to win those games.”

Although the Jumbos soundly defeated the Connecticut College Camels — who finished the season in the second-to-last slot in the NESCAC — by a whopping score of 24–6 on March 30 to mark the largest margin of victory win for the team under coach Casey D’Annolfo, the Jumbos soon entered their

most difficult stretch of the season as they faced five teams in the nation’s top 15, starting with the then-No. 13 Williams College Ephs.

The Jumbos survived a 15–14 contest against the Williams Ephs on April 3, only to be upset three days later by the Wesleyan Cardinals in a similarly close 10–9 bout, ending the Jumbos season-long win streak of 10 games.

Following the defeat at Wesleyan, Tufts bounced back in spectacular fashion, closing out their regular season with five straight NESCAC wins. Tufts emerged from its NESCAC battles with a 3–1 record against the other top 20 nationally ranked NESCAC teams, consisting of Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan and Bates.

Three out of these four battles were determined by a single point.

D’Annolfo explained what the mindset of the team is in performing in these tight situations, and how experience in these situations may help the team in the future.

“I think the more you [perform in the clutch], the more you feel comfortable doing it, especially when you come out on the right side of it,” D’Annolfo said. “But I think as we start to get closer to playoff time, I think our guys are starting to get more mentally locked in.”

Now, the Jumbos must focus on preparing to meet their goal of returning to and dominating in the NCAA tournament. Following a 24–7 blowout over New England College in the second round of the tournament after receiving an initial bye, Tufts demolished unranked Stevenson 19–4 on Saturday, May 11. Tufts faced No. 7 Amherst in the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, falling to the Mammoths 13–11 in what could only be defined as a proboscidean affair.

Women’s lacrosse This spring, the Tufts women’s lacrosse team capped off one of its most decorated regular seasons in a decade. Boasting a 16–2 record and holding steady at a national rank of No. 4, the Jumbos received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, including a first-round bye. The team faced Plymouth State on May 12, which it dominated in an 18–0 annihilation. Tufts will face The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) on May 18 in the third round.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior forward Dakota Adamec avoids two defenders during Tufts’ 21–7 win over Conn.

College on March 27.

Earlier in May, Tufts made one of its deepest runs in the NESCAC tournament in recent years, though it fell just one point short of winning its first ever conference title. On May 5, the Jumbos faced the Middlebury Panthers — the only team that had previously beaten them this season — in the NESCAC championship game.

In the second half of the game, Tufts jumped out to a three-goal lead, and with just over five minutes left in regulation, the Jumbos held a 9–8 lead. The Panthers pulled out a scrappy win in the final minutes of the game, scoring a pair of goals to end the game at 10–9 and trouncing the Jumbos’ title hopes.

“Middlebury is a tough team to beat, and coming off of our loss to them in the regular season, we had a new game plan and we were ready to go,” senior defender Maddy Schwartz said. “We actually played a lot better than the first time despite not having the outcome we wanted.”

In order to reach the NESCAC championship final, the Jumbos had to pull out two wins over the Trinity Bantams and

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continued from page 43 the Wesleyan Cardinals. Last season, the Bantams downed the Jumbos in the NESCAC quarterfinals, but the team made sure that it got its revenge this year, dominating the Bantams in a convincing 12–5 win.

The entire regular season was a stream of impressive victories with dominant scorelines.

One of Tufts’ closest games came against TCNJ — which reached the final four in the 2018 NCAA tournament — where Tufts escaped with a 8–7 victory. Later in the season, the Jumbos hosted the Amherst Mammoths, who they lost to last season, and managed to hold them off for a close 14–12 win. In the second to last game of the regular season, Tufts hosted Bowdoin and came back from behind to push the game to overtime, where junior attacker Emily Games nailed the sudden death goal for a thrilling 14–13 victory.

“The collective buy-in from the team has really shifted to process-driven motivation versus outcome driven,” graduating senior Courtney Grygiel said. “The people on the team are intrinsically motivated to go out and get better versus having to be asked to do something, which is definitely something that has shifted between when I was a [firstyear] and now.”

The Jumbos’ performance did not go unnoticed, with the team sweeping all four available all-conference accolades. Beyond that, the Jumbos have set a new team record for the most goals scored in a season with 297 as of May 12, which was previously set by the 279 goals completed by the 2009 team that earned the team the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC championship that year. They have also exceeded the most number of wins in a season with 17 so far.

Ten seniors graduate this month, all of whom have provided significant leadership to the rest of the team and left their mark on the program over the last four years. Graduating senior attacker Dakota Adamec will go down as the 10th highest point scorer in the team’s history with 174. The Katonah, N.Y. native has amassed 138 goals and 36 assists over 62 games as of print.

Also in the attack, Grygiel anchored the offensive unit from behind the net, resulting in her leading the team in assists with 16 this season. In the midfield, graduating senior Annie Sullivan was a force to be reckoned with, providing solid defense while also catching her opponents by surprise with long-range shots on goal. She has tallied 73 goals and 13 assists over her career.

Graduating senior defenders Hedy Veith and Schwartz commanded the defensive unit, causing 61 and 21 turnovers, respectively, in their careers. Veith, Adamec and Sullivan are repeat all-NESCAC honorees, and Schwartz was named as a Div. III finalist for the 2019 One Love Foundation YRL Unsung Hero Award. In goal, Audrey Evers played in 69 games for the Jumbos, and this year was Evers’ best yet, with an 8.20 goals against average and a 100% win rate.

The team is stronger than it has ever been before, largely due to its immense depth.

Despite the large graduating class, there are waves of underclassmen who are more than ready to step up to the challenge next spring.

Sailing The Tufts coed and women’s sailing teams have had very successful seasons with many team highlights to cherish and various accomplishments to look back on in regard to the 2018–2019 year.

In the fall, the coed team placed 15th overall at the Fiske-Harriman-Sleigh Trophy Coed Showcase at St. Mary’s College in Maryland.

Despite the weather proving to be unfriendly to the sailors on the second day of competition, the team still had a rewarding finish to its season. Another season highlight was rising sophomore Abbie Carlson’s talented fin-

ish in Michigan at the Women’s Singlehanded Nationals, where she placed 13th.

COURTESY KEN LEGLER

Senior Chris Keller and sophomore Juliana Testa navigate the waters of Mystic Lake during a Tufts sailing team practice on Sept.

21, 2018.

The spring season of the Tufts coed sailing team culminated at the New England Dinghy Coed championship, a NEISA district championship, hosted at NESCAC rival Bowdoin. The Jumbos earned seventh place overall with 105 points, just a point above the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s 104 points. Both Jumbo squadrons qualified for nationals, with the women’s team qualifying for the second time in as many years.

Rising junior Lindsay Powers described how hard it is for both coed and women’s teams to enter into nationals.

“Sailing is not a division sport, and there are few schools with the resources to build a sailing team,” Powers said. “Our district by nature is extremely competitive because the schools in it have very competitive sailing teams. Qualifying for women’s [nationals] was sick because on the qualifier it was very breezy — we were seeing puffs up to 25 knots and lows at 15 knots — and the shifts were complicating.”

Rising junior Jacob Whitney explained how the team selects those who will compete at nationals.

“Not everyone will compete at nationals. I think only 10 people are going to compete,” Whitney said. “This past weekend, we sent our best sailors to the regatta, and we also accommodated for the forecasted conditions of that regatta. For example, if light winds are forecasted, we send in the lightweights, and if stronger winds are forecasted, we send in the heavyweights. The team plans to send the same people to nationals. I could be there, but it depends if they need another heavyweight or not.”

This past weekend, graduating senior co-captain Ian Morgan’s fellow senior sailors chose him for the Senior Award,, which praises the sailor who has demonstrated the most skill and sportsmanship over the past four years. To many of the sailors, Morgan is considered as one of the most valuable sailors on the team, as explained by rising junior Evan Robison.

“In my personal opinion, the standout player overall is Ian Morgan,” Robison said.

“He’s been competing at a high level for all four years, and he did super well this year.”

To Powers, Morgan’s award was a season highlight. In addition to Morgan’s impressive skill as a sailor, Morgan was also a natural team leader.

“Morgan was one of the most talented sailors coming in and one of the most dedicated sailors on the team,” Powers said. “He radiated positivity, inspired the team to do better, and has led by example. It was definitely a highlight for the team. He has been sailing A-level events all four years here, which shows his talent. It was great that he was acknowledged for his efforts.”

The rising sophomores are deserving of attention as well, as they comprise 29 of the total 63 sailors on the team. Whitney gave praise to their efforts over the season.

“I think [a] year in college has helped the first-years.” Whitney said. “They are some of the best first-years in the country at the moment. We recruited them knowing that they were the best high school sailors. The prospects of the team look really, really good over the next two years.”

The women’s and coed sailing teams will be back on the water at the National championships in Newport, R.I. from May 20–31, following graduation.

Softball The Tufts softball team had another successful season in spring 2019, dominating its way to an impressive 32–10 record. In its NCAA Regional final against Eastern Conn.

State on May 13, Tufts fell 5–1, ending a season that included a NESCAC East Pennant and the NESCAC title. It was the team’s second NCAA Regional final appearance in as many years.

The Jumbos faced the Williams Ephs in the last hurdle for the NESCAC title on May 5.

While the Jumbos hadn’t faced the Ephs in the regular season, they came out swinging with a three-run first inning. This hot start was all the action the Jumbos’ bats would see throughout the rest of the game, going hitless for the remaining six innings and relying on the pitching of their perennial ace, rising junior pitcher Kristi Van Meter, to protect the lead.

Van Meter allowed two earned runs on seven hits through seven dominant frames to win the NESCAC title by a 3–2 scoreline.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year infielder Emma Della Volpe is pictured at bat during Tufts’ 3–0 win over Bates on March 30.

On their annual spring break trip to Florida, the Jumbos went 13–2, and in the Northeast portion of their schedule, they captured an impressive 14–6 record.

The Jumbos didn’t lose a series until their regular-season-closing doubleheader against local rival MIT, who wore down the Jumbos for two, tightly contested 2–1 and 2–0 victories. Entering NESCACs, however, the Jumbos showed no sign of letting these last two defeats slow the momentum that they had been building all season.

Tufts earned a hardfought 2–0 victory over a tough Middlebury team in the quarterfinals before dispatching Trinity 6–2 in the semifinals. The Trinity win brought Tufts against fellow NESCAC rivals Williams, a school that had beat Tufts’ graduating seniors when they were first-years in the 2016 NESCAC final. For this group of girls, who had earned the nickname “The Funk,” nothing was more exciting than getting a chance to take revenge, as their story came full circle four years later.

“This team has been special. We have such a dominant pitching staff and such depth in the hitting lineup,” graduating senior infielder/catcher Christian Cain said. “What’s great about our team is that if one person isn’t having their best day at the plate, someone else is going to pick them up. It’s really a team effort.”

While the Jumbos featured a balanced attack on both sides of the ball, rising senior third baseman Jamie Stevens and Van Meter consistently stood out, with Van Meter earning firstteam all-NESCAC honors following the Jumbos’ NESCAC title, the 14th in program history.

Ranked as the sixth-best pitcher in the NESCAC, Van Meter has posted a league-high 13 wins with a dominant 1.55 ERA. Hitters who faced her this season could only muster a .165 batting average, which helped earn Van Meter two NESCAC Player of the Week awards.

Men’s tennis The No. 19 Tufts men’s tennis team’s season culminated in securing a spot in the NESCAC tournament for the first time in two years. The Jumbos rallied hard against No.

6 Middlebury in the NESCAC tournament quarterfinals, but ultimately fell 5–3. Tufts split its final two regular season matches against No. 8 Bowdoin, losing 7–2, and Bates, winning 8–1, registering an 8–9 overall record and 4–5 NESCAC conference mark.

Coach Karl Gregor detailed the team’s improvement and focus on improving its doubles game as crucial to this year’s success.

“The biggest thing I was focusing on ways to improve our doubles,” Gregor said. “We spent a considerable amount of time on doubles and were way over .500 in doubles this year. It really helped in getting us momentum.”

The Jumbos were a young, talented squad this season lead by lone graduating senior and co-captain Ross Kamin. Ten out of the 16 players are rising sophomores or juniors. Though showing promise, Tufts was unable to break past in its matches against top 10 opponents, going 0–7 against the est teams in the country.

Among those matches, the Jumbos suffered two close losses to then-No. 7 Wesleyan and then-No. 10 Williams, falling 5–4 in the final sets in both matchups.

After being so close to pulling off the upset several times, Gregor voiced some of his disappointment.

“Just the way the conference shaped up — we didn’t beat anyone above us, and we didn’t lose to anyone below us,” Gregor said. “So, I look at it as a bit of down year. I think we really should have had three more wins this season over [California Institute of Technology], Williams and Wesleyan.”

In the NESCAC tournament quarterfinals on May 3, the No. 6 seeded Jumbos built a 2–0 lead after notching victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles against the No. 3 seeded Middlebury Panthers. Middlebury responded with a victory at No. 1 doubles and by winning four of the five next singles matches to hand the Jumbos a 5–3 loss. Tufts lost to Middlebury by a similar scoreline, 6–3, earlier in the regular season on April 13.

BEN KIM /THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Sophomore Owen Bartok prepares to return a shot during a home game against Bowdoin at Voute Tennis Courts on April 28, 2018.

On April 24, Tufts beat Bates 8–1 at home to claim the last spot in the NESCAC tournament. After Tufts tallied wins at No. 1 doubles and No. 3 doubles, the duo of rising sophomore Paris Pentousis and rising senior Zach Shaff rallied for an 8–4 win at No. 2 doubles.

Shaff revealed the challenge of dealing with high winds and the key tactics behind their win.

“The biggest thing today was dealing with the wind,” Shaff said, commenting on the Bates win. “That was a big factor. It was also my first time playing with Paris, so … doing the little things like serves and returns were a big part of our win today. Then we just stayed strong mentally and got that break to go up 5–3, and we just finished it out from there.”

After Tufts established a 3–0 lead, rising junior Boris Sorkin, the No. 3 ranked singles player in Div. III, swept Josh Quijano 6–0, 6–0 at No. 1 singles to extend Tufts’ advantage to 4–0.

Shortly after, rising junior Carl-Herman Grant clinched the win and postseason berth for the Jumbos in straight sets at No. 4 singles

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Tufts varsity sports spring recaps SPRING RECAPS

continued from page 44 against Jacob Eisenberg, 6–2, 6–1. Grant stayed tight to the baseline and struck the ball early to push his opponent off the court throughout the match.

The Oslo, Norway, native later reflected back on the victory.

“It feels awesome,” Grant said. “Last year we were in a similar position with playing Bates for a position in the NESCACs. We didn’t have our day last year, but this year was different. It was on our courts, and we came out knowing what we had to do, and we executed perfectly. It feels amazing.”

Nearly the entirety of this season’s starting lineup consisted of talented, yet young, underclassmen. Sorkin anchored the team at the top of the lineup, while Pentousis and Gorelik have also stepped up at No. 2 singles and No. 3 singles, respectively. Rising sophomore Jack Moldenhauer also starred in the No. 5 and No. 6 singles spots throughout the season.

Looking ahead to next season, it will be exciting to spectate as this wave of talented underclassmen matures with more experience and practice.

Still, the team will miss the leadership of Kamin, the squad’s sole senior, who left everything on the court after going 2–0 on his Senior Day against Conn. College on April 20.

The team will likely look toward rising senior Ethan Bershtein, who co-captained the team alongside Kamin as a junior, as this season comes to a close.

Women’s tennis The Tufts women’s tennis team broke even in the 2018–19 season, finishing in ninth place in Div. III with an overall record of 8–9 and a 5–4 record in NESCAC play. Though the Jumbos lost to the Amherst Mammoths in the first round of the NESCAC championship, the team managed to qualify for NCAAs with a 5–0 victory over the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks. Tufts’ season came to a close in the second round, however, when it lost to Middlebury by the same 5–0 scoreline.

“This year we’ve really grown together as a team,” rising senior Kat Wiley said, before NCAA play began. “I’m personally looking forward to seeing everything that each member is able to accomplish. We have a lot of talent, and I think we have a good shot at finishing the season on a strong note. Most importantly, this year has been so much fun, and we really enjoy playing and competing together.”

The addition of four talented first-years to the squad immediately bolstered the team’s potency. Rising sophomore Maggie Dorr started and ended the year playing No. 1 singles and doubles, having an immediate impact in her first season with the Jumbos.

Rising sophomore Caroline Garrido paired up with Dorr to create a competitive No. 1 doubles team. Rising sophomore Nicole Frankel claimed the No. 6 singles spot for many of the matches of her first season, and rising sophomore Anna Lowy contributed to No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles.

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Otilia Popa prepares for a serve in a home game against Williams at Voute Tennis Courts on April 28, 2018.

“My first season with the team has been amazing,” Dorr said. “We are all super supportive of each other and have a great dynamic as a team. I’m very excited to see what the end of our season has in store.”

The Jumbos had two major wins this season that helped secure their spot in the top 10 teams in the country. At the end of March, No. 9 Tufts matched up against No. 10 Williams at Whittier College. The Jumbos beat the Ephs by a close measure of 5–4, defeating Williams for the first time since 1991 and ending a 35-match losing streak.

Tufts’ second decisive win over a top-10 opponent came over No. 8 Brandeis at home in early April. Garrido played phenomenally, dropping only one game while playing No. 4 singles.

In addition, Tufts won all three doubles matches. Rising junior Patricia Obeid, playing No. 3 singles, also had an impressive performance, beating graduating senior Keren Khromchenko 6–4, 6–2 to secure the win for Tufts.

Tufts ended its regular season on a tough note, losing to Amherst and MIT 6–3 and 5–4, respectively. Although the team was eager for revenge, it lost against Amherst at Middlebury in the first round of the NESCAC tournament on May 3.

Prior to the NESCAC tournament, Wiley mentioned the team’s excitement heading into the postseason.

“We’ve had a strong season so far,” Wiley said. “We are all super excited to head into NESCACs and hopefully make it to NCAAs. This team has come so far this season, and we really build each other up. I have a good feeling about this one.”

Looking forward to their 2019–20 season, the Jumbos will be graduating two valuable seniors, Tomo Iwasaki and Otilia Popa. Luckily, the team is comprised almost entirely of rising sophomores and juniors, a major strength for the Jumbos’ future.

“I have no doubt that the underclassmen will step up to the plate next season,” Wiley said. “All of our new players have had amazing seasons, and we’re all super excited to see them continue progressing next year.”

Men’s track and field This spring, the Tufts men’s track and field team had another impressive season littered with incredible individual performances and high-placing team finishes.

On May 11, the second and final day of the All-New England championships, Tufts finished ninth amongst a field of Div I, Div. II and Div. III teams. The Jumbos’ 33 points were only one shy of the highest-placed Div. III team, the Middlebury Panthers. The event served as a jumping-off point for the NCAA championships, where multiple athletes will compete between May 23–25 in Geneva, Ohio.

On May 4, the team concluded its New England Div. III championship performance hosted at Williams College. After a series of strong finishes, including a first-place finish in the 4×800 relay, Tufts left the tournament with a total of 89.5 points, good for second place. Tufts’ only other first-place finish of the meet came in the men’s long jump decathlon, where rising sophomore Ben Stein won the event with a 6.61-meter leap.

Tufts had a similarly great showing in the NESCAC championships, hosted by Middlebury on April 26, where the Jumbos clinched second. Graduating senior Josh Etkind, rising senior Kevin Quisumbing and rising junior Matt Manteiga all took home conference titles in their events.

At the NESCAC championships, Etkind won the 110-meter hurdles for the third consecutive year in 14.82 seconds, Quisumbing won the shot put with a 14.44-meter effort and Manteiga won the long jump with a 6.95meter mark. Along with these first-place finishes, graduating senior Anthony Kardonsky broke the school record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.70, beating the time of 10.71 set by Blake Coolidge (LA ’17) in 2017.

In total, Tufts accumulated 143 points at the meet and finished behind host Middlebury, who earned 201. This was the third time in four years that Tufts has finished second at the NESCAC championships, a testament to the consistency the team has developed over the past few years.

The Jumbos started their outdoor season over spring break in California, where they competed in a number of meets across San Diego, including the Ross and Sharon Irwin Collegiate Scoring Meet, the 41st Annual Aztec Invitational and the Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) Collegiate Invitational.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Josh Etkind wins the 110-meter hurdles at the Snowflake Classic on March 30.

The team placed fifth at the Ross and Sharon Irwin Collegiate Scoring Meet and second at the PLNU Collegiate Invitational. The Aztec Invitational, a decathlon, was the next competition, in which only Stein competed, finishing in an impressive fifth place.

After spring break, the Jumbos returned back to Medford to compete in the Snowflake Classic at Tufts on March 30. Tufts finished in second place at the meet, just behind RPI. Tufts earned 151 points on the day while RPI had 171.5.

Continuing their streak of good finishes, the team then came in second place at the MIT quad meet against MIT, Bates and RPI on April 6, again narrowly being edged out by the first-place team. MIT earned 190.5 points while Tufts earned 185. The team finished out the regular season by placing fifth at the Silfen Invitational at Connecticut College and first at the Sunshine Classic held at Tufts’ Dussault Track.

The Jumbos were satisfied with how their season went as a whole.

“I think it’s safe to add this year to a list of successful seasons,” graduating senior Henry Hintermeister said. “We did not accomplish all of our goals, but I think at the end of the day, we enjoyed even the disappointments because we were out doing what we loved with people we respect and care about, and that’s all you can really ask from a season.”

Though many athletes’ seasons are done, many members of the team will continue their quest for NCAA glory in Geneva, Ohio, on May 23–25.

Women’s track and field The 2019 women’s track and field team’s outdoor season was characterized by the hard work and dedication that each individual member brought to the table, improving the overall performance of the team. While the 60-person team is divided among its respective events, the team is united under coach Kristen Morwick.

Morwick has been with the program for 19 seasons. Apart from the extensive coaching staff, the team benefits from the leadership of graduating senior co-captains Trisha Blumeris, Brita Dawson, Evelyn Drake, Kelsey Tierney and Jennifer Jackson, who work to make sure that the team functions as a cohesive unit. Although track and field is a highly individual sport, the team’s strong sense of community keeps athletes motivated and driven to succeed.

Following the success of the indoor season, which saw Tufts finish third at the New England Div. III championships behind Williams and MIT, the team looked toward a

prosperous outdoor season, which culminated in a long championship season.

On May 10 and 11, the team finished 29th among a field of Div. I, Div. II and Div. III teams in preparation for the NCAA championships.

On May 3 and 4, the team competed in the New England Div. III championships hosted at Williams College. Tufts finished 13th at the meet, with a victory in the 4×800-meter relay.

The 4×800 team of rising senior Lauren Diaz, graduating senior Julia Noble, rising sophomore Hannah Neilon and rising senior Rhemi Toth finished with a 9:09.79 time, more than five seconds faster than runner-up Bates, setting a new school record in the event.

The team finished fourth at the NESCAC championships held on April 27 at Middlebury College, landing just outside of its goal of finishing in the top three. With a team score of 93.5, Tufts was edged out by third place Bowdoin who finished with 109 points, second-place Middlebury with 145.5 points and first-place Williams, who collected 165 points at the meet.

Tufts braved rainy weather and high winds at the Sunshine Classic on April 20 to emerge victorious, as rising senior Alina Strileckis posted the season’s top performance in the 100 meters, graduating senior Sydney Ladner swept the pole vault competition, rising junior Olivia Schwern, rising senior Raquel Whiting, graduating senior Kylene DeSmith and Strileckis topped the leaderboard in the 4×100 relay, and rising junior Jacqueline Kirk set a PR in the high jump.

On April 12 and 13, the team forged through the Silfen Invitational at Conn. College with a third-place finish, closing the week with a first-place victory at the Sunshine Classic on April 20. The Silfen Invitational and the Sunshine Classic brought forth numerous season-best performances, with Tierney, Toth and DeSmith each achieving national top-15 marks in their events.

The team carried its momentum from the Snowflake Classic on March 30, where it placed first out of 20 teams, into the following weekend, where it faced MIT, Bates and RPI in the MIT-hosted quad meet. Tufts won the meet, beating runner-up MIT by a narrow four points. The Jumbo victory brought an end to MIT’s four consecutive victories at the quad meet in as many years.

For some members of the team, the outdoor season began on March 15 with the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The meet continued the team’s trend of opening the outdoor season in the South, having opened the 2017–18 outdoor season at the Sheraton UNF Spring Break Invitational in Florida.

The Shamrock Invitational showcased the strength of the first-year class, with standout performances from rising sophomore Hannah Neilon in the 400 meters and the 4×400-meter relay, where she competed with a rising-sophomore squad of Tara Lowensohn, Luana Machado and Julia Worden.

The first-year class was important to the team’s success in the outdoor season, making key contributions across the board.

“The [first-years are] some of our best athletes in a lot of events,” Toth, who was presented with All-NESCAC honors for her performance in the 4×800-relay, said. She will represent the Jumbos at the NCAA championships in Geneva, Ohio, on May 23–25.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year Danielle Page wins the 10k race at the Snowflake Classic on March 30.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | SPORTS PHOTO SPREAD | Sunday, May 19, 2019

Men’s lacrosse earns 9th NESCAC title in 10 seasons

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Here are some photos from the game and the post-game celebration on May 5 PHOTOS COURTESY EVAN SAYLES

O pi n io n

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | SPORTS PHOTO SPREAD | THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY |COMMENCEMENT| Sunday, May 19, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

“Life changes in the instant.

The ordinary instant.”

—Joan Didion