The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, February 8, 2022

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VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 9

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Tuesday, February 8, 2022

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

“Millionaire’s tax” could generate $1.3 billion in revenue for Mass.

by Skyler Goldberg Assistant News Editor

A proposal to amend the Massachusetts constitution to impose a 4% surtax on earnings above $1 million would raise about $1.3 billion in 2023, the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts’ Tisch College said in a nonpartisan report released on Jan. 13.

Massachusetts citizens will vote on the amendment on Nov. 8.

The report considered whether millionaires might leave Massachusetts to avoid the surtax, often called the “millionaire’s tax.” It analyzed research on cross-border moves from other states that have implemented similar taxes.

Evan Horowitz, executive director of cSPA and author of the report, explained that a millionaire’s tax would have little influence on whether residents would leave the state.

“We crunched the numbers and found that with a tax increase of this size, you would find some families that move in Massachusetts — something like 500 — but not that many,” Horowitz said. “I don’t think it is enough to dramatically under-

mine the amount of revenue that would be raised by the tax.”

Horowitz emphasized that millionaires have enjoyed autonomy over where they worked since before the pandemic.

“The other thing to keep in mind … is that people who earn a million dollars in a given year are at the head of some organization, mostly,” Horowitz said.

“So they’ve already had a tremendous amount of control over where they live their lives.”

Horowitz also explained that communal ties to Massachusetts will deter many millionaires from leaving.

“If [a millionaire] lives in Massachusetts, it’s because they chose to live in Massachusetts,” Horowitz said. “It’s because they have kids that go to schools in Massachusetts. They’ve had partners and businesses they work with here.”

Bridget Wall, a student researcher who worked on the report, explained that cross-border moves will likely be uncommon because only a small number of millionaires will be affected by the tax each year.

“Something that was really interesting is that the majority of millionaires are not millionaires for their entire life or careers; they’re mostly millionaires for just one year,” Wall, a senior, said.

Still, cSPA predicts that cross-border moves would diminish revenue from the millionaire’s tax by approximately five percent. The center accounted for this diminution in its estimate that the surtax would raise $1.3 billion.

The report suggests that tax avoidance is more likely than cross-border moves to undermine the amount of revenue that the tax would raise. It also estimates that tax avoidance will diminish the millionaire’s tax revenue by roughly 35%, which is accounted for in its prediction of the tax’s overall revenue.

Thomas Downes, an associate professor of economics at Tufts and lead researcher on the report, said he believes the report overestimates the amount of tax avoidance the tax would produce.

“They are potentially overstating the amount of avoidance,” Downes said. “The evidence is

Tufts Dining discusses food and sustainability in virtual webinar series

by Simran Patel Staff Writer

The Office of Sustainability continued its “Path to Carbon Neutrality” webinar series with a virtual panel on Jan. 25. The webinar featured commentary and perspectives from Patti Klos, director of dining and business services, and Kelly Shaw, nutrition marketing specialist.

The panelists discussed how their team works to source food locally, purchase fair trade and

organic ingredients, create plantbased menus and reduce food waste at Tufts.

“In more typical times, about two million meals are served annually, which means that we have a big footprint, and we know it,” Klos said. “This year, we’re projecting to spend over $7 million on food. That doesn’t include disposables and cleaning products.”

During the webinar, Klos reviewed Tufts Dining’s achievements in sustainability up to

this point, explaining that she joined forces with the Office of Sustainability in the early 1990s to begin thinking about the environmental impact of dining services. Since then, various members of the Tufts community have contributed their expertise to the issues of food waste reduction and carbon neutrality in dining.

“It was two [urban and environmental policy and planning] graduate students that actually helped us find a farmer in Tewksbury, which was our first iteration of composting,” Klos said. “And when that fell through, they located a waste hauler … that became the first iteration of composting that goes on today.”

In the mid-2000s, a group of Tufts students conducted a research project on the potential impact of trayless dining that caught Klos’ attention and convinced her to eliminate trays from the dining halls.

“Trayless dining got introduced in the mid-2000s,” Klos said. “Our campus wasn’t ready until a group of students did some wonderful research. … I hired a couple of them to con-

IAN LAU / THE TUFTS DAILY

Students enter and leave Dewick MacPhie Dining Center for lunch on Feb. 1.

see DINING, page 2

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

A sign for the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life is pictured on Feb. 6. sparser there in terms of the economics research.”

Horowitz, Downes and Wall all expressed puzzlement that the media tends to focus on cross-border moves as a barrier to accumulating revenue from taxes, when tax avoidance likely poses a greater issue.

Wall speculated about the cause of this feature of the media coverage.

“I just think that people moving out of the state is a lot more concrete, and … it’s a lot easier to

grasp visually and conceptually,” Wall said. “It’s a more concrete loss than tax avoidance.”

The report predicted that the millionaire’s tax is unlikely to disincentivize economic productivity. This is contrary to a study by the Beacon Hill Institute that reached the opposite conclusion.

A more recent publication by the Pioneer Institute, a Bostonbased think tank, criticized cSPA’s findings. Downes summarized see TAX, page 2

TCU Senate hears supplementary funding requests, updates on the Class of 2024 Prom

by Tess Harmon

Assistant News Editor

The Tufts Community Union Senate heard supplementary funding requests and announced updates on the Class of 2024 Prom in a Feb. 6 meeting in the Sophia Gordon Hall Multipurpose Room. Following roll call, TCU Treasurer and Class of 2022 Senator Elizabeth Hom introduced six supplementary funding requests.

T E D x Tu f t s submitted two supplementary funding requests. The first request totaled $6,078 to fund goodie bags for the attendees at its upcoming eighth annual conference. The Allocations Board recommended the Senate fund the request in full, and it passed with 20 senators voting in favor, none opposed and none abstaining.

TEDxTufts also requested $11,145 to fund the production costs for its conference,

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / 5

OPINION / page 7

Students, faculty shed light on course evaluations

‘Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ catches ’em all!

American universities must reform legacy admissions

which the club plans to host and record in the Somerville Theatre this year. The request passed with 20 senators voting in favor, none opposed and none abstaining.

Tufts Republicans requested $2,950 to fund a five-person trip to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

TCU President Amma Agyei explained that this conference aligns with the club’s mission and is an opportunity for members to hear from different speakers and to network. ALBO recommended a lower amount, $2,205, due to regulations on the amount TCU Senate can allocate for clubs’ transportation costs.

The adjusted figure passed with 15 senators voting in favor, two opposed and two abstaining.

The Math Society requested $100 to fund gift cards as prizes for its upcoming “integrasee SENATE, page 2 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, February 8, 2022

THE TUFTS DAILY Alexander Janoff Editor in Chief

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Tisch report identifies tax avoidance as primary barrier to efficacy of proposed ‘millionaire's tax’ TAX

continued from page 1 Pioneer’s criticisms of the report and voiced his disagreement.

“The main argument they’re trying to make is that in the report that Evan [Horowitz] wrote, he was only looking at a single year and was not accounting for the fact that there will be changes year to year, that he wasn’t taking a long enough

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term view. …I think [Horowitz] was actually very explicit about the fact that there’s going to be continual churning of taxpayers subject to the millionaire’s tax,” Downes said.

Horowitz revealed that over the next few months, cSPA will publish one to two additional reports about the potential for the millionaire’s tax to reduce economic and racial inequal-

ity and the potential benefits of investing the increased tax revenue in education, among other issues.

While cSPA is neutral about whether Massachusetts should adopt the tax, Wall shared her personal support for the amendment.

“I just think that it is kind of shocking in such a progressive state as Massachusetts

that we [aren’t] already taxing millionaires at a higher rate,” Wall said.

Wall hopes that Tufts students will become civically engaged on this issue.

“I think if there is rhetoric on Tufts campus about this, it’ll spread more, and people will talk to their parents about it, who might be millionaires in Massachusetts,” Wall said.

Klos discusses history, next steps for Tufts Dining’s sustainability efforts DINING

continued from page 1 duct a pilot for us that turned into the trayless initiative that we have today.”

Tufts is committed to reducing landfill waste by 3% annually. To help achieve this goal, the university introduced reusable containers, bottles and silverware that students can use in the dining halls.

“The green container … is a very sturdy three-compartment container that is washable,” Klos said of the reusable takeout container students use when taking food to go from the dining halls. “If taken care of properly, you can get about 280-300 uses [from it].”

An important aspect of waste reduction in food service is energy and water efficiency. Tufts regulates its energy and water usage by donating food, replacing equipment like dish machines in order

to save water and radiate less heat and cooking from scratch — which gives the university greater control over the ingredients it uses.

On the consumer side of sustainability, Shaw explained that the number of students at Tufts interested in vegan or vegetarian dishes is on the rise, and the university is responding to this increased demand.

In addition to implementing Meatless Mondays, Tufts is involved with Menus of Change, an organization providing chefs with recipe guidance that has overlapping health and sustainability impacts. The university has also participated in the Collective Impact Report, where it determined that protein is the most significant area of change for improving menus.

“MCURC, which is the name of the [research] collaborative, has a goal to reduce food-related green-

house gas emissions by 25% by 2030,” Shaw said. “It’s not going to be a smooth curve, but it is something that we are looking at and will continue to monitor.”

After Klos and Shaw’s presentations, Office of Sustainability Director Tina Woolston moderated a Q&A session. Woolston asked the panelists how the pandemic has impacted dining sustainability programs. “[We wanted] to work with some of the smaller local businesses [but] their ability to produce and the unpredictability where shortages occur [were impacted by the pandemic]. … It’s been very uneven, unpredictable,” Klos said.

Woolston asked about the dining staff’s involvement in sustainability practices.

“We have gatherings of the whole team at the start of the semester,” Klos said. “We try to make sure that we brief them on what our

objectives are. … Sometimes these updates happen in team huddles … through signage. … It has to take several forms to keep people apprised.”

Woolston also relayed an audience member’s question about Tufts’ role in helping achieve the New England Food Vision — an effort to source 50% of the region’s food locally by 2060.

“It’s really ambitious,” Klos said. “I think to get there requires a lot of people to be open to thinking differently … and yet that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep striving.”

Woolston and Klos urged students to support Tufts Dining’s sustainability efforts.

“Bring us your ideas,” Klos said. “There are many things that we hadn’t thought of, or maybe we’ve thought of but didn’t know that anybody else was interested.”

Ongoing Senate projects include Menstrual Product Project, Class of 2024 Prom, book fair SENATE

thetuftsdaily

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continued from page 1 tion games” contest. ALBO’s recommendation to fully fund the request passed with 21 senators voting in favor, none opposed and none abstaining.

Baseball Analytics at Tufts requested $80 to pay for a speaker gift for Tony La Russa, the current manager of the Chicago White Sox, and for Walter Robb, who connected BAT with La Russa to discuss analytics. ALBO approved the full recommendation and the request passed with 21 senators voting in favor, none opposed and none abstaining.

Tufts Gaming Hub requested $135 to pay the entry fees for the Apex Legends tournament and the League of Legends tournament. ALBO voted unanimously in favor of the recommendation and it passed TCU Senate by acclamation.

Vice President Tim Leong then opened the floor for updates from the senate’s committees.

Services Committee Chair Arielle Galinsky discussed her committee’s potential collaborations with EcoReps and the Wellness Center and shared that the Menstrual Product Project is underway. Later

in the meeting, Galinsky, a sophomore, added that TCU Senate has reached out to the Career Center to propose a “photoshoot day” where Tufts students can get professional headshots taken.

Galinsky then updated the body on the Class of 2024 Prom. She hopes to start promotion for the event this week, after creating a name and theme. The Services Committee will also hire a student marketing representative for the event.

The Education Committee announced its plans to hold a scholastic book fair this semester and collaborate with the FIRST Center to provide vouchers for low-income students.

Agyei, a senior, asked the body for their opinions on TCU potentially joining the Boston Intercollegiate Government, a group of 14 student governments in Boston. Some senators expressed interest in joining, noting that it could be helpful for networking and advocating for change at Tufts.

TCU Diversity Officer Jaden Pena then opened the floor for members of the Community and Diversity Committee to share updates.

TESS HARMON / THE TUFTS DAILY

Members of TCU Senate are pictured during their meeting on Feb. 6.

Africana Community Senator Hadiya Giwa discussed her plans to work with the Muslim Students Association to create plans with Tufts Dining for Ramadan.

LG BTQ + Co m m u n i t y Senator Blake Anderson shared a plan to make the Class of 2024 prom more accommodating for nonbinary students by organizing clothing drives. He also shared that he has been working on the Menstrual Product Project to ensure that products are accessible in

queer spaces and all-gender restrooms on campus.

Pena, a junior, then discussed plans for creating a seat for the newest senator of the Indigenous Peoples’ Center. He explained that TCU Senate’s constitution and bylaws are outdated with respect to creating new seats and require a petition with 250 signatures to approve the new position before the Senate election this April.

The body finished with a closed session before adjourning the meeting.

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Features

Course evaluations: What are they used for, where do they go and how do they fail?

by Juanita Asapokhai Features Editor

In the final weeks of each semester, Tufts students expect a familiar email in their inboxes, urgently inviting them to click on a link and complete their course evaluations. In return for completing the evaluation, students receive early access to their unofficial transcripts, allowing them to see their grades prior to the grading deadline. For most, however, the process that occurs after submitting their course evaluations remains largely unknown, along with the evaluations’ impact on faculty.

To shed light on these unknown processes, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser described the purpose and life cycle of a course evaluation for both students and faculty.

“Course evaluations give faculty feedback on the effectiveness of their pedagogy, on the resonance of their syllabus … and on their modes of evaluating students,” Glaser said. “It allows faculty to allow students to express their opinions on things that worked and don’t work.”

Glaser explained that course evaluations are processed by technology from the moment of submission. Faculty members do not have access to their evaluation feedback until final grades are submitted.

Student comments are relevant not only in making recommendations for instructors to improve their teaching but

also in tenure and promotion processes, Glaser explained. However, he added that individual evaluations are not the only relevant criterion.

“No one course evaluation is going to make a difference … patterns [are] what we’re looking for in the course evaluation,” Glaser said. “If we see patterns of concern and they’re consistent, then it allows us to approach the faculty member and try to address the problem.”

Glaser listed faculty course visits, letters from the mentees of faculty and writings from faculty members about their teaching philosophy as other assessment tools used during the semester and in tenure and promotion.

On the student end of the course evaluation continuum, sophomore Niki Karra expressed her take on the benefit of course evaluations.

“I think course evaluations can be really helpful for departments just because they give the professors a sense of how the students in the class are feeling, which, … especially in big lectures, can be sort of hard to gauge,” Karra said.

Senior Emilia Cottignoli shared that while she appreciates course evaluations as an opportunity to reflect on her coursework, she is not sure about their ability to bring about meaningful changes to the curriculum.

“I just am not sure how effective they are in affecting change that you might

BY CAMILLA SAMUEL

want to see with the professor or with the class structure in general,” Cottignoli said.

At face value, course evaluations allow professors to incorporate feedback and prepare for future semesters — but there are limitations to their application. As Keith Maddox, associate professor of psychology, points out, course feedback often consists of extremes.

“The idea is that you get really detailed descriptions from students who are particularly … influenced or passionate about the course and then … other people who just didn’t like it or didn’t enjoy it at all,” Maddox said.

The value of course evaluations is further restricted when they are influenced by biases and stereotypes. As a 2018 The Washington Post article

by Daniel Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, points out, the personal biases of respondents often leak into course evaluations .

Drezner refers to a study of course evaluations that revealed that female instructors were more often called “teacher” than “professor” than male instructors were. It also found that student feedback of female professors often incorporated evaluations of the professors’ personalities, appearance and perceived intelligence — criteria that were not included in assessments see EVALUATIONS, page 4

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Maker Space

by Ulee Wintle

The importance of making and why we should do more of it

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few years ago my girlfriend needed a coffee table. It needed to be low enough to the ground that she could sit on the floor (I thought it was weird too) and still eat at it. We could have found one online, exchanged money for it and brought it home. She might’ve taken it when she moved, or sold it or threw it away if that was easier — she could always buy another coffee table. But we didn’t do that. Instead, I took the leap and decided to build her one.

We humans have a long history of making things. In order to become the masters of our environment — thus paving the way for agriculture, society and the specialization that, today, allows us enough free time to get into arguments on Twitter — we created tools that made gathering resources easier and built shelters to protect us from the elements. It is our ability to harness our surroundings and use them to survive that makes us special, and it has allowed us, for better or worse, to dominate the planet.

Today, that great tradition of making is dwindling. Yes, it’s true that humans still produce tools, build shelters and create products. But while American auto-workers of the early 20th century “made” cars on an assembly line, it was a hollow act, lacking the creativity and individualism that craftsmanship requires. As the process becomes more autonomous and machines become increasingly responsible for the products we buy, the things we make lose that which makes them personal. The distinction that something is “hand-made” is evidence that we can tell the difference.

Making something is, unfortunately, not as simple as putting together an Ikea table. When you have truly made something, you have put your soul into it. You have tried and failed and succeeded and learned. You’ve gone off-script, been frustrated, despaired and triumphed. It is a hard and sometimes unforgiving process, and the final product never looks quite like it did in your head.

Now, my girlfriend has a coffee table.

It is by no objective standard perfect, marked by inexperience and many small failures. But she took it with her when she moved and will take it with her when she moves again. It will not be absentmindedly thrown away and cannot just be replaced. It is unique because it has a soul of its own, fashioned from creativity and gumption.

When she sits at it, she thinks about me, and that makes her happy. When I sit at it, I think about her and my experience making it, and that makes me happy.

This is the power of the things we make. If we have truly put ourselves into it, it becomes special to us and to those it touches. That is why mom-food always tastes so good, why the crappy, hand-drawn birthday cards are the ones you keep, why art and music and film can make us feel deeply. So do yourself a favor and go make something.

Ulee Wintle is a junior studying political science. Ulee can be reached at Ulysses.

Wintle@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Tuesday, February 8, 2022

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Course evaluations tend to reveal implicit biases in participants EVALUATIONS

continued from page 3 of their male counterparts. The influence of biases on feedback is especially concerning when one considers the potential impact for course evaluations on systematically marginalized groups.

“We know that course evaluations overwhelmingly privilege those who are already privileged — so white, cis-het, male instructors, tend to be evaluated more highly than those who are marginalized across any axis,” Shameka Powell, assistant professor and co-director of educational studies, said. “For that reason, I would suggest that course evaluations are limited in addressing all of the issues that we expect an evaluation to address.”

Powell also spoke about the impact of context on course

evaluations with respect to course content.

“I talk about race, racism, inequality, all as it intersects with schooling,” Powell said.

“On a macroscopic level, versus an individual [level], [students think], ‘I worked really hard. I deserve to be here.

How dare Dr. Powell will talk about structures of inequality that may have benefited me? I’m not happy, I’m going to mark them down on their evaluation.'”

Powell called for a reexamination of the power of course evaluations and to question whether they are used for “punitive measures,” or rather motivated by “formative growth.”

In light of recent discoveries and discussions, Glaser shared that the university is currently conducting an internal study into Tufts’ course evaluations. He also

said that the evaluation form was designed with the intent of selecting questions that would be less likely to make room for bias in responses.

When asked about how questions were constructed to intentionally minimize the appearance of bias, Dean Glaser explained that they were “less general [and] more specific; they’re about learning [in the classroom].”

In a 2015 op-ed published in The Tufts Daily, former Tufts student Kyle Allen made a plea for the administration to make evaluation feedback accessible to students while registering for classes, only if they filled out the prior semester’s evaluations.

Allen argued that it would enable students to make more informed choices about their course selection. That wish had previously been granted in 2006, when the TCU Senate

initiative granted student access to data from fall 2005 course evaluations.

A request for publicly available data has not made its way into a TCU Senate resolution in recent semesters — perhaps partly due to the intensive work required to display the data by a member of student government, according to Glaser. While publishing written feedback has not been up for consideration, Karra expressed concern about discriminatory beliefs presenting themselves in numerical data as well.

“I feel like that could get very biased very quickly,” Karra said. “[I] feel like [publishing numerical data] could do more harm than good.”

Cottignoli mentioned that one change she would make to the course evaluations process would be adjusting the submission deadline for students.

“[Course evaluations are requested] smack dab in the middle of finals,” Cottignoli said. “I feel like after I’ve submitted everything, after I’ve determined what my final grade is, … I can articulate my thoughts better.”

Even in the absence of course evaluation data, students are not completely without resources to prepare for a semester with new courses and professors. To Powell, making course evaluation data accessible isn’t as effective as the informal systems currently in place.

“You will always get more honest feedback from your peers than you would ever get an evaluation form,” Powell said. “And in many regards, that’s because evaluation forms, as surveys, create a boundary to a type of question. … There’s little room for elaboration.”

MY SHELTER PETS ARE MY BEST FRIENDS

OLIVIA MUNN WITH CHANCE AND FRANKIE: ADOPTED 2014 AND 2016.

THESHELTERPETPROJECT.ORG

Arts & Pop Culture

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Tuesday, February 8, 2022

‘Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ is the franchise’s freshest and most impressive game in years

by Victoria DeJoy Contributing Writer

“Pokémon Legends: Arceus” (2022) is the most distinctive and fulfilling Pokémon game to be released in about a decade. Selling over 6.5 million copies in the first week, the game has been met with positive reception from both fans and critics due to its engaging story and its long overdue revamp in mechanics and structure.

The story of “Legends” is unlike any other game in the franchise. It begins as a distortion in space and time sends the player hundreds of years in the past to the Hisui region, the predecessor of the beloved Sinnoh region from “Pokémon Diamond” (2006), “Pokémon Pearl” (2006) and “Pokémon Platinum” (2008).

After meeting Professor Laventon, the player is given the task of making the first ever Pokédex for the region. During the journey to accomplish this, the player becomes involved with Hisui’s native Diamond and Pearl Clans, helping them quell Pokémon frenzied by space-time disruptions and interacting directly with Pokémon from their legends.

It is easy to feel immersed in the “Legends” story, especially with its fresh, open-world format. For the first time in the Pokémon core series, the player is not confined to rigid town and route structures, making exploring feel more realistic and wondrous. In fact, there is only one village in the game, the rest of the region is mostly uninhabited by people.

The various areas offer many different

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types of terrain to discover and Pokémon to catch, which help prevent exploration from becoming stale.

“Legends” offers 242 total Pokémon species, all obtainable without trading.

There are also a few new Pokémon evolutions introduced in this game, and similar to the past titles in the core series, several exciting Hisuian-specific forms of previously known Pokémon are available. These well-designed variants have been received well by most fans, Hisuian Growlithe and Hisuian Zoroark in particular becoming fan favorites very quickly.

Catching and battling mechanics have been updated to compliment the new open-world design. Wild Pokémon are visible in the overworld, able to run away or attack the player upon sight depending on the species’ personality.

The player can choose to catch any Pokémon without confrontation or enter a battle with it, both of which occur seamlessly. Overall, gameplay feels much more fast-paced than it is in other Pokémon titles.

There are countless other changes introduced in “Legends” that improve the overall quality of the game. Instead of buying items, the player can collect materials from the wilderness and craft them. Pokémon stat mechanics were overhauled, making training much more simple and efficient for casual players. Side quests are now available for players who want to go above and beyond. For the first time, the player can interact directly with Pokémon

The cover art for “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” is pictured.

and the environment, taking damage from Pokémon moves or drowning after trying to swim for too long, a lesson many fans learned the hard way. All of these changes and more make the world of “Legends” more immersive than any other Pokémon game previously released. This is the kind of Pokémon game many fans have been demanding since the Nintendo Switch was released in 2017.

While “Legends” has not faced much criticism about its content, most players agree that the graphics, which are limited by the capabilities of the Nintendo Switch and the Pokémon franchise’s inexperience in making a game of this nature, could be improved. Character and Pokémon models look polished, but the game’s low frame rate and shorter than desired draw distance are distracting.

Due to these issues, environments sometimes seem emptier than they actually are, which, for some players, may detract from the immersion that the game’s story and features work so hard to build up.

However, looking past the visual shortcomings of the game, players of “Legends” are sure to have a fulfilling gaming experience. Ultimately, “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” is the most refreshing game the franchise has ever released. Its new direction opens a world of possibilities for future Pokémon games, encouraging future titles that may be more engaging and interactive than ever before.

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A Compendium of Actors: Henry Chandonnet

Vanessa Kirby and full body commitment

T

he British Invasion hit America by storm in the ’60s, and even in the 21st century Vanessa Kirby is yet another byproduct of that cultural revolution. Kirby, who found her fame initially on the stage, is experiencing a recent career boom in the worlds of film and television. You likely know Kirby from her performance as Princess Margaret in the hit Netflix show “The Crown” (2016–). 2020 brought a double feature for Kirby, with artistic masterpieces “The World to Come” (2020) and “Pieces of a Woman” (2020) premiering, the latter of which garnered her an Academy Award nomination. Kirby hits the scene yet again with her leading performance in “Italian Studies” (2021). A savant of acting, Kirby exemplifies just what it means to give a powerful performance.

The performance most demonstrative of Kirby’s personal prowess is that of “Pieces of a Woman.” In the film, Kirby plays Martha, a young Bostonian who has opted for at-home childbirth. The opening 24 minutes of the film show this birth experience, with the ultimate loss of Martha’s child. It’s a gruelingly honest sequence, with screams and agony that physically affect the viewer. Kirby needed to film the sequence all in one take, suffering through the emotional toll of acting out full body pains and stimulated horror for extended amounts of time. She was asked to capture both the physical pain of labor and the emotional pain of losing a child, a wildly daunting task. At the end of the day, Kirby is successful because of her unflinching commitment. Acting is about fully enveloping a character and their strife, despite how physically burdensome it may be to your body and well-being. It’s for this reason that truly committed acting performances can be so impressive — because they’re giving in to the art.

Kirby brings that similar commitment to her newest film, “Italian Studies,” but it manifests itself in a different form. The film follows Alina Reynolds, a writer grappling with her own severe memory loss. The film is unnerving and mind-bending, distorting the memory of the viewer like that of Alina. This performance of Kirby’s differs from that of “Pieces of a Woman.” The film is much more subtle — there is no big scene in which Alina grapples with what it means to lose everything as you move through your life, but rather that personal reckoning trickles in throughout the length of the film. This is a different type of acting prowess, being the ability to not overdramatize a performance.

Subtlety in emotion is still a strong commitment, in that the actor is committing to a director’s vision.

Kirby demonstrates the value of commitment in acting. It is trust and faith that make a performance pop and that can cement a good film. That can be trust in the director’s vision, or even trust in one’s own body and skills.

Kirby does both seemingly with ease and thus exemplifies the basic facets of good acting.

Henry Chandonnet is a first-year studying political science. Henry can be reached at Henry.Chandonnet@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Tuesday, February 8, 2022

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

Julia: “That’s what I’m saying… [LinkedIn] is like the best dating app.”

F u n & G am e s

SUDOKU LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) Domestic distractions draw your attention. Make repairs before something breaks. Take advantage of good conditions for an upgrade. Enjoy the comforts of home.

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Difficulty Level: Easy as Pie, but the Pie is Very Difficult

Monday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

7 Tuesday, February 8, 2022

OP-ED

Endowments blossomed. Will they seed fairer admissions?

by Christoph Baker Two years ago, Johns Hopkins University announced that they had quietly phased out legacy preferences in admissions decisions, beginning in 2014. Their logic was simple: Legacy preferences, admission advantages given to families of alumni, were limiting their ability to admit talented students from diverse backgrounds. Since then, news outlets have denounced legacy admissions, activists have mounted aggressive campaigns and states have passed legislation discouraging or prohibiting their use. Despite these efforts, many universities, including Tufts, have been loath to end such policies. Their principal reasoning for upholding the status quo stems from their conviction that legacy admissions result in increased donations from alumni.

Over the past year, this conviction has become significantly more tenuous. Across the United States, elite universities reported record returns on their endowments — the invested assets that generate income separate from donations, tuition and grants. In

2021, Tufts returned 38.7% on its endowment, while Harvard returned 33.6%. Together, the Ivy League’s endowment is valued at $192.6 billion, with Harvard contributing $53.2 billion. To put this in perspective, Harvard’s endowment is larger than the GDP of 123 individual countries.

The fact that university endowments ballooned to the extent they have has important implications. Foremost, donations to universities will be of less importance as endowments continue to soar and cover more operating costs.

This applies not only to the Ivy League but also to conferences such as the NESCAC, which feature many of the nation’s universities with some of the highest endowment-to-student ratio. With such wealth, institutions can continue to thrive even if donations decrease. Moreover, institutions that have amassed such wealth — to no small extent from the tax-free nature of a university endowment — have a moral obligation to prioritize a more egalitarian admissions process, even if it impacts their bottom line.

Furthermore, reports indicate that universities’ concerns over losses in their forecasted income as a result of ending legacy admissions may not be warranted.

Numerous examples point to a lack of relationship between legacy admissions and donations; one statistical analysis published in 2010 from the University of Michigan noted that legacy preferences do not positively impact university fundraising. Another analysis, published in the same year, found that legacy preference policies failed to result in significantly higher alumni giving. Real world case studies point toward similar results. For example, between the years 2009 and 2019 Johns Hopkins tripled their endowment while reducing their legacy admits by 75%. Similarly, from 1980 to 2010 Yale reduced its legacy students by almost half, while total alumni giving increased.

Eliminating legacy admissions is important because such preferences are inherently anti-meritocratic. Legacy students are not given an admissions advantage because of exceptionalism but rather because they have a familial connection to the university.

In contrast, other preferences, such as affirmative action based on gender or ethnicity, which exist outside ability or performance are still rooted in the belief of diversity as an integral part of higher education.

Additionally, these other preferences serve to offset historical and societal disadvantages faced by marginalized students, a demographic which does not include students whose parents attended prestigious schools.

The matriculation of legacy students is problematic because they are more likely to be white and wealthy. The result is displacement of students of color, immigrants and first generation students who are less likely to benefit from these policies.

Statistics from Johns Hopkins show that over the course of the decade in which it eliminated legacy admissions, Pell-elligible students rose from 9% to 19% and students from minority backgrounds rose 10 percentage points, while legacy students fell 9%.

While many believe that eliminating legacy admissions is long overdue, admissions reform shouldn’t just stop

there. Universities should take their cue from Washington University at St. Louis, which allocated an additional $1 billion to financial aid and stated that they would adopt need-blind admissions while meeting 100% of their undergraduate applicants’ financial need. Institutions would also be right to reexamine the impact of athletics on college admissions, which at elite colleges favor the matriculation of affluent white students.

There is no better time for such reforms as today. Battling through a pandemic for nearly two years has only exacerbated socioeconomic and racial disparities. Recent evidence has shown greater cancellation of school programming, mortality rates and disaster vulnerability among non-whites. As key drivers of social mobility, universities need to do more to meet expectations.

Christoph Baker is a student at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Christoph can be reached at Christoph.

Baker@tufts.edu.

8 Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s basketball claims winning record heading into final stretch Contributing Writer

This past weekend, Tufts men’s basketball took on Trinity and Connecticut College, ultimately coming out on top with two NESCAC wins. On Friday, the team defeated the Trinity Bantams 61–38 and on Saturday, they beat the Connecticut College Camels 67–50. Their record now stands at 10–9 overall and 5–2 in conference play.

Against Connecticut College, the teams exchanged points for the first half, ending the half with the Camels ahead 31–29.

Tufts faced difficulty against Connecticut College’s elite 2-3 zone defense which leads the NESCAC in steals per game. This resulted in the Jumbos giving up eight first-half turnovers. In the first half, Tufts made 13 of their 18 free throws.

After some adjustments were made defensively at halftime, the Jumbos came

A Tufts men’s basketball player in Cousens Gymnasium goes up for a hook shot.

In the first half, Tufts won the first half by a large margin dominating in the paint and cruising to a 31–11 lead. Trinity put up a fight in the second half, scoring 27 points to Tufts’ 30. Despite the Bantams’ efforts, the Jumbos were already significantly ahead because of their impressive defensive performance in the first half.

“Hopefully we can carry that defensive intensity to the rest of our season,” Thoerner wrote in an email to the Daily.

After a slower start at the beginning of their season, the Jumbos have found their stride just in time for the end of the season and postseason. Currently ranked No. 4 in the NESCAC, the team believes they have the caliber to win the league in playoffs.

“We dealt with a lot of injuries and guys being out during the first part of the season. Now we all are finally getting healthy and starting to click at the right time,” Thoerner wrote. “Our goal is to win the NESCAC, get a bid to the NCAA tournament, and make a deep run.”

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

The American football dream

B

e it college admissions, CEO hiring, the Nation Football League or the endless toil of day-to-day existence, I am endlessly reminded that I do not live in a meritocracy. Despite high profile lawsuits and ceaseless debate in political theater, the American dream continues to be an exclusive club.

On Tuesday, Feb. 1, former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores filed a 58 page, blockbuster lawsuit against the Dolphins, Denver Broncos, New York Giants and the NFL more broadly for racially discriminatory hiring practices. This is a landmark case for the NFL and a long overdue reckoning for a league that has made no significant progress in head coach diversity since the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003, a policy mandating teams interview at least two “minority” candidates for head coach and senior front office vacancies.

Flores alleges that the Dolphins set him up for failure after he refused offers of $100,000 per loss to intentionally throw games and implement illicit recruiting practices. He also claims the Denver Broncos executives arrived late and hungover to his interview, clearly only interviewing him because the Rooney Rule required it.

The crux of the lawsuit, though, comes from private text messages that allege those within the league knew the New York Giants ownership had already internally named Brian Daboll, a white man, as their head coach prior to Flores’ scheduled interview. Flores is rightfully outraged, and his tokenization as the “minority” interviewee speaks to the systemic racism that exists throughout the league.

Only two NFL owners are people of color; three NFL head coaches are, with only one Black person, Mike Tomlin, currently holding one of the 29 filled positions. Yet NFL players are nearly 60% Black and under 25% white. It only takes a glance to see the injustice in representation.

NFL owners, who ultimately control hiring, have time and time again shown they have no intention of making diversity and representation a point of their hiring.

Not in 2012, when eight head coach vacancies went to white candidates. Not in 2020, when Super Bowl Champion Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy was passed on by six separate teams for a head coach position.

So long as the current regime of owners controls the league agenda, little to no action is likely on the regulatory level, so I won’t waste time arguing for Rooney Rule revisions, something that is very much needed.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

NFL owners are unlikely to respond to any argument that does not undercut their bottom line, and there’s only one group that has the power to do that: players.

Player power is at a historical apogee.

The era of “shut up and dribble,” is over. It isn’t fair to ask the NFL Players Association, a group that depends on its relationship with league owners, to take a stand on racist coach hiring, a crisis they have done little to nothing to cause. Even so, cases like Flores’ show us it might be necessary to take immediate action.

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

TERS RES FO

NATIONAL A SS

by Caroline Cromwell

out in the second half and held the Camels to only 19 points while they put up 38 points. Tufts shot 42.9% from the 3-point range in the second half, contributing to their success offensively.

Earning his second double double of the weekend, senior co-captain and center Luke Rogers scored 18 points and contributed to 11 rebounds. Junior guard Dylan Thoerner, graduate student guard Brennan Morris and sophomore guard Casey McLaren all finished with over 10 points.

Against Trinity, Tufts scored 31 while holding Trinity to only 11 points in the first half. The win was an overall team win with three players scoring double digit points in the game. Thoerner led the Jumbos in points, scoring 12, while Rogers and Morris were not far behind, scoring 11. Rogers also greatly contributed to this win by adding 10 rebounds, giving him a double double in the game.

Sports and Society: Oliver Fox

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Oliver is a first-year studing who has not yet declared a major. Oliver may be reached at oliver.fox@tufts.edu