The Tufts Daily - Monday, April 11, 2022

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VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 43

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Monday, April 11, 2022

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

New temporary dormitories on Professors Row to house 150 firstyears this fall

by Zoe Kava

Deputy News Editor

Temporary housing at the current site of The Mods will be used to house 150 first-year students in fall 2022, Dean of Student Affairs Camille Lizarríbar informed the Tufts community in an April 8 email. Construction of three separate buildings, which will house 50 students and three resident assistants each, will begin once the university’s plan is approved by the City of Somerville.

The new housing, which does not yet have a name, will be located at 91, 93 and 95 Professors Row. The university does not plan to continue its use of the Hyatt Place in Medford to house incoming first-years and will instead utilize the new temporary dormitories.

“Because this year’s incoming class was larger than expected, we have taken steps to increase our residential capacity on campus to accommodate our rising sophomores and the incoming class next fall,” the email read.

Each building will include a kitchen, common area, study

space, bathrooms and a laundry room, the email said. The rooms will be primarily doubles, with a small number of singles in each building. The new temporary units will be part of Tufts’ first-year housing offerings for at least the next five years, while The Mods that currently occupy the Vouté Tennis Courts will be moved to the Fletcher parking lot.

Tufts University Transportation and Parking announced that the Fletcher parking lot would close for construction in an email to the Tufts community on April 1, citing “a need for additional modular housing on campus.”

Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins said that while the new dormitories may resemble The Mods from the outside, the insides will be an upgrade from the current modular housing units.

“While their exterior shapes might seem similar to the COVID units, the new units will be significantly different,” Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

“While COVID units were intend-

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Mods are pictured on the Vouté Tennis Courts, the site of the planned temporary housing. ed to house students temporarily and keep them isolated, the new units will offer comfortable living spaces and higher quality finish-

es and encourage social connections and community building.”

In her April 8 email, Lizarríbar said that Tufts is seeking to

expand and optimize its housing offerings outside of its consee DORMS, page 2

Somerville police staffing study ignites CIRCLE finds climate controversy over speed of police reform change as top issue driving youth political engagement

by Michael Weiskopf News Editor

Local activists and some elected officials have criticized a recent study of Somerville Police Department’s staffing. The City of Somerville announced on March 8 that its Racial and Social Justice Department had contracted a consulting firm to conduct a study on the Somerville Police Department’s staffing procedures, prompting frustration

over the speed of police reform in Somerville.

The RSJ Department contracted with Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. in order to analyze the SPD’s operations and facilitate Somerville’s goal of reimagining policing, according to a March 8 statement issued by the city.

“Raftelis has been tasked with measuring the workload of the SPD, studying staffing, operations, and organization, and analyzing that data,” the

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

A Somerville police cruiser is pictured responding to a call in Teele Square on March 1.

FEATURES / page 3

Musical notes on what it’s like to be in a Tufts band

City of Somerville wrote in the statement. “Once completed, this analysis will help inform both the Administration as well as community members who engage in reimagining efforts on the City’s public safety resources and needs.”

Denise Molina Capers, the director of racial and social justice for the City of Somerville, wrote in an email to the Daily that the RSJ Department hopes to “Gain a comprehensive understanding of SPD … Analyze operations management and organization… [and] Analyze staffing and workload.”

The SPD staffing study is expected to take approximately two to four months to complete, worrying some residents and city councilors that the city is moving too slowly toward the goal of reimagining policing.

Somerville City Councilor At-Large Willie Burnley Jr. told the Daily that he thinks the city has fallen behind on many of the promises it made during the nationwide reckoning over racial justice in 2020. see POLICE, page 2

ARTS / page 5

by Rohith Raman Staff Writer

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life recently released a report titled “Youth Concern About Climate Change Drives Civic Engagement.”

Based on the idea that global warming is an issue that is increasingly affecting more and more people across the globe, the report found that “youth concern about climate change has emerged as one of the top issues driving both their activism and their participation at the ballot box.”

“Young people are given fewer opportunities in terms of [political engagement] … especially with an issue like climate where it affects future generations’ well-being, [it is important] to really give more voice

and input to young people,” Sara Suzuki, who led the research team at CIRCLE, said.

This has made it all the more important to examine youth engagement with climate change and ways to address this unequal engagement.

The process of writing the report began by working with data about youth engagement across a variety of different issues and analyzing it.

“Our data comes from a survey CIRCLE — in partnership with professional survey companies — fielded,” Suzuki said.

“It’s a subsample but it represents the U.S. youth population in 2020. One of our questions in that survey was ‘Which are your top three issues that impact who you’re going to vote for president?’ and that is the data that we were analyzing.”

Alberto Medina, communications team lead at CIRCLE,

OINION / page 7

z’Bridgerton” trades lust Editorial: Tufts must adfor love triangles in dress rising enrollment, second season and that doesn’t mean just adding more beds

see CIRCLE, 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 | Monday, April 11, 2022

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Temporary housing to remain a fixture of Vouté Tennis Courts for next 5 years DORMS

continued from page 1 struction of the new temporary housing. She said the university has “added beds through optimization programs,” is getting ready to convert more university-owned homes into upperclassmen apartments and is planning a new residence hall for 370 upperclassmen that is slated to open in 2026.

Residential assistants assigned to the new dorm were initially confused when they saw the name “Packard” as a housing assignment. According to Collins, Packard will not be the official name of the new housing.

“I found out about my 20222023 housing assignment back in March,” Zanna A., an RA assigned to the new temporary dorms, wrote in a message to the Daily. “It was listed as Packard which was a real

head-scratcher because I was then unfamiliar with any existing dorm of this name — I was soon informed that the placement was the temporary building in the works.”

Avi Belbase, another RA assigned to the new dorms, also had many questions when he first heard about his dorm assignment.

“The details about the housing have still been a little confusing so students have simply been referring to it as ‘the new mods,’” he wrote in a message to the Daily.

Zanna, a sophomore, explained that she expects her responsibilities as an RA to remain the same.

“As it stands, my duties will remain the same — probably with a heavier focus on community building to remedy the awkwardness of living in the memei-

fied housing unit,” Zanna wrote.

Avi, a sophomore, added that he feels being housed on campus is the most important thing for incoming freshmen.“I’d much rather be on campus in the mods than off campus (sorry Hyatt kids)!” Belbase wrote.

Zanna said she is unsure what exactly the new temporary housing will look like, but that despite its location, she expects it to be nicer than the current modular housing.

“Although I do not have much insight on what the dorm will look like, I imagine that it will be quite the upgrade from the mods,” she wrote.

Zanna said she was excited when she received the dorm placement, mainly because of its prime location.

“I know it’s a hot take, but being the first cohort of Jumbos to be placed into this

transient trailer town is kind of cool,” she wrote. “I understand that the optics of the situation are laughable, but if there’s anything I know about this incoming class, it’s that they are resilient to the challenges of change. Despite the assumed aesthetic alienation, I am sure that my fellow RA’s and I will do more than enough to make Packard feel like the place to be.”

Like Zanna, Avi was not concerned about his dorm assignment, and he emphasized that the new dorm is in a great spot for first-years to be located.

“I personally don’t spend much time in my dorm anyways so I’m not really concerned about myself,” he wrote. “I’m more curious as to whether it will have a significant effect on the morale of my residents.”

tice and police violence, which were about defunding the police, about reallocating funding to social services and alternative crisis response,” Burnley Jr. said.

Burnley Jr. believes the RSJ Department’s staffing study is a distraction in place of what he sees as more tangible reforms.

“It is quite concerning how the [original] demands … have been distorted to essentially say … ‘Let’s do a staffing study on the police,’ even though Somerville has done two in the last 20 years, ‘And let’s have the staffing study be based primarily upon what the police believe the staffing should be,’ Burnley Jr. said. “How did we go from ‘Defund the police’ to

‘The police should determine how the police change?’ To me, it’s bizarre and strange and defeatist.”

Somerville Ward 5 City Councilor Beatriz Gómez Mouakad declined to comment.

Burnley Jr. believes that the entire conversation surrounding police reform in Somerville needs to be dramatically reframed.

“We need to be having a broader outreach when we’re determining how to restructure our government in order to meet our goals around this and to actually live up to our values,” Burnley Jr. said.

“Currently, I do not believe we’re having that conversation as a city.”

Police reform lags in Somerville

POLICE

continued from page 1 “At the time, there was a commitment from the City of Somerville, from [Mayor Joseph Curtatone], that we would begin this process of ‘reimagining policing,’” Burnley Jr. said. “[ W ]e were having these conversations in the summer of 2020. We’re in the spring of 2022, and we are only just starting to do the work. And to me, that is really disappointing.”

Molina Capers said that the City is trying to be intentional about the staffing study being a community-driven process.

“Police and public safety reform is not linear and has its

complexities,” Molina Capers wrote. “Very often, similar efforts have occurred in a vacuum, where voices of the most impacted and vulnerable are not sought out, not heard, and not considered when developing evaluation processes and recommendations.”

Burnley Jr. also takes issue with the phrase “reimagining policing,” saying it mischaracterizes calls from activists to defund the police.

“I find the phrase ‘reimagining policing’ to be a watereddown and co-opted phrase that was inserted by folks who have ideological concerns about what were the true demands of the 2020 reckoning on racial jus-

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Climate change among leading issues for young voters CIRCLE

continued from page 1 elaborated on how this data analysis focused not only on the issues youth activists deem important but also on the existing inequities and discrepancies in youth engagement. According to Medina, CIRCLE sourced data from both its own polling and from exit polls conducted by the Associated Press.

“We’re interested in how concern on an issue like climate, which is so widespread, can be a pathway [into more engagement with civic life],” Alberto Medina said.

The ultimate conclusion from CIRCLE’s analysis was that youth heavily prioritized climate change when considering who they would vote for and why they wanted to be politically active.

Additionally, CIRCLE analyzed who is currently engaged in climate activism and how that relates to other forms of civic engagement.

“What we were finding was that young people overwhelmingly rate climate change as one

of the top issues that influence who they vote for president, and it’s an issue that they really strongly care about,” Suzuki said. “At least 13% named it as the number one issue. … A lot of young people rate multiple issues highly, so we think that these differences are actually an opportunity to engage young people further by thinking about the intersection of different issues … with climate change.”

These intersections are necessary to understand the ripple effects that global warming has on other policy issues, and CIRCLE’s findings show how that understanding has increased engagement with climate activism. The report reflects on how youth in different areas across the country deal with climate change differently because of societal factors.

“A lot of it comes down to not treating young people as a monolith,” Medina said. “It might not be the same for a young person in the West or on the Colorado River experienc-

ing droughts versus a person in another part of the country that isn’t having those direct experiences with the consequences of climate change. … You can build strategies to reach them and to engage them not based on this general idea of ‘young people want this or need this,’ but on the actual needs and concerns that you’re directly hearing.”

Reports like this one are often the first step in understanding and acting on disparities in engagement. Working with organizations like Action for the Climate Emergency and AP VoteCast gave the writers access to detailed polling data about voters’ perceptions of the election and different issues.

Analyzing this data about activists’ behavior is important for the prospect of engaging them politically.

“Reports give validity to what we see ‘on the ground,’” Julia Silberman, a member of Tufts Climate Action’s executive board, wrote in an email to the Daily. “They can show those in power that we care about these

issues and that their (electable) positions could be in jeopardy if their constituents feel they do not prioritize climate change. Also, it is always useful to increase involvement when others see that there is a strong base supporting an idea/doing activist work; it’s a bandwagon effect.”

However, there are still barriers to youth organizing around climate action. To Silberman, utilizing this “bandwagon effect” can be the key for activists to continue pushing for change and providing valuable solutions.

“We understand that the climate crisis isn’t just going to shape our future — it is our future,” Silberman, a junior, wrote. “Psychologically, I think there’s a barrier of ‘climate doom.’ Little victories can feel pointless/useless in the face of corporations and stagnating politics. … To support youth organizing, it is useful for others to offer resources, validity (such as a renowned professor signing onto an initiative), or people power!”

tuftsdaily.com

Features

Tufts student bands talk music, performing

3 Monday, April 11, 2022

Kate Seklir Kate in Paris

In Bordeaux

T

COURTESY RILEY BRAY

Emperor Jones is pictured performing at The Tufts Daily Tiny Desk Concert on March 12.

by Kaitlyn Wells

Assistant Features Editor

From the rumbling practice rooms in the Granoff Music Center to various basements and stages across Tufts’ campus, student bands are drawn together by a shared love for live music. These bands are independently formed groups as opposed to registered student organizations. Some of them — Honeymoon, Fease, Salt Hog, Emperor Jones, Fossil and Chowder — are featured here, sharing their stories with the Daily.

While these bands vary in musical style, they all have a degree of rock influence.

Zelda Mayer, a second-year student in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts dual degree program, is the guitarist and one of the singers of Salt Hog. She explained how each member adds a distinctive twist to the musical makeup of the band.

“I think any band would be uncomfortable with genre naming, but like, [Salt Hog] has its own different sound, you know. I can tell you my influences, but I think we all have our own personal influences, so when we come together, it’s just all something completely different. I mean, I sure hope so,” Mayer said.

It can be difficult to reconcile the range of musical tastes and backgrounds that might exist within a band. Mofe Akinyanmi, a first-year student in the Tufts and New England Conservatory dual degree program who plays guitar and sings for Chowder, elaborated on this.

“I think one of the challenges was definitely trying to find a groove and settle on a sound. And I think we’re still very much still exploring different types of genres and stuff — like Owen, who plays guitar, he’s been blues trained for a long time, which was something that I wasn’t very familiar with. So we’ve been experimenting with a lot of different stuff,” Akinyanmi said.

Bands also have the daunting task of agreeing on a name. Junior Henry Scherb, who is the creative director and a guitarist

for Emperor Jones, reveals that the band’s name is derived from the eponymous 1920 play by Eugene O’Neill.

“My dad had a band in college, and they were called Emperor Jones,” Scherb said. “[Emperor Jones is] a super empowering play, just about a central theme of going against the grain, just defying all odds.”

Emperor Jones, Chowder, Salt Hog, Honeymoon and Fease were all founded during the current academic year, whereas Fossil started rehearsing in 2020.

“Even though we started making music together over a year ago, almost two years now, we didn’t really have a chance to perform until … this year, now that you can; it’s more social and open … so it was the dedication of getting us ready to that point where we’re able to actually get on a stage and do the other half of the music making process,” Fossil’s drummer, junior Joe Sinkovits, said.

For Drew Cohen, drummer for Chowder — an all-first-year band — the pandemic impacted his journey as a growing performer.

“I … sort of started playing in high school and really picked up when [COVID-19] hit, and for [an] obvious reason, that’s good for practicing on your own, but it’s hard to play in front of an audience and with other people … so the major challenge for me was basically learning how to play drums live with other people,” Cohen said.

As the obstacles to live concerts continue to wane, student bands are getting more opportunities to perform.

“We draw so much in our performances from the energy of the crowd,” junior Max Chow-Gillette, lead vocalist of Fossil, said.

Mayer expressed a similar sentiment.

“It’s been exciting to play at different places for us, just because everything has a different feeling. And regardless of the crowd, even if you have … a crowd that’s not very reactive, I think it just builds up your confidence as a performer,” Mayer said.

Cohen gives a positive review of the atmosphere that bands face at Tufts.

“The music scene of Tufts is extremely welcoming … after every show all the other bands that played … are the first to come up and welcome you and say what a good job you did, even if maybe you didn’t even do a good job,” Cohen said.

Tufts’ musical groups also bring together students from different campus communities, guitarist and lead singer of Honeymoon, Rayn Schnell, explained.

“All of us [in Honeymoon] are musicians but in different ways, coming from different campus clubs and organizations … we have people from orchestra, from jazz orchestra, pit band, Public Harmony, so all these different campus music groups that have come together to make our own kind of music,” Schnell said.

Jack Wish, the bassist for the nine-piece band Fease, was pleasantly surprised by the talent of his peers when arriving at Tufts as a first-year this year.

Asked what surprised him about being in a Tufts band, he answered, “definitely just the caliber of musicianship, … I didn’t come to Tufts because of the music scene.

It’s not something I knew about. So I was definitely expecting to jam with people, but I wasn’t expecting, you know, a ton of great musicians. Everyone here can really play, so it’s been a real privilege just to get to know everyone here.”

While there seems to be a supportive climate for student bands at Tufts, Sinkovits pointed out a drawback stemming from Tufts’ population size.

“I wouldn’t say that the music scene at Tufts is incredible. It’s a small school, so it’s a small scene — there’s just not a whole lot of bands. … if you wanted every band at Tufts to play at one event, you could probably figure it out, and it wouldn’t be a terribly long event,” Sinkovits said. “That being said, though, I think the audience response can be really, really strong. You can pull a lot of people on campus to go to events if they’re advertised right.” see BANDS, page 4

his weekend, along with the rest of the Tufts-in-Paris program, I boarded an early-morning train from Paris’ Gare Montparnasse and set off toward Bordeaux, a city in the southwest of France and a part of the country’s Aquitaine region.

While many places that I visited this semester have made for entirely new experiences — full of previously unknown cuisines, cities and customs — Bordeaux was already somewhat familiar to me. In my sophomore year of high school, I spent a little over a week in Bordeaux while I participated in an exchange program. I stayed with a host family that had a daughter my age over my school’s spring break, and the following fall she came to stay with me in New York when her lycée visited my high school.

I was unsure what to expect as I prepared to return, now over five years later. When I first came to Bordeaux, I was 15 years old, and the trip was the farthest I had ever traveled without my family. It was the first time I was fully immersed in French language and culture, the first time I navigated living with a family that was not mine — four other people whose quirks, lifestyles and schedules I had to quickly adjust to.

And even with the fondness of that experience rolling around in my mind, I felt something a little like nerves as our train pulled slowly out of the station. So much had happened in the last five years — I had graduated high school, started college, turned 20 years old during a pandemic, moved into my own house — the list goes on. It seemed like returning to Bordeaux — the place that had planted the idea of studying abroad in France firmly in my mind and since served as my motivation for continuing with French — might reveal just how much I had grown in the last five years.

Once we arrived in the city center, I was able to have lunch with my host sister from Bordeaux and a friend of hers who had also participated in the exchange. Our conversation flowed more easily now, thanks to my five additional years of French practice. We had both changed physically and charted new paths academically as we entered our early adulthood years on opposite sides of the Atlantic. But the essential components of our lives had stayed the same, and conversation came easily. Bordeaux itself did, too. As I walked through the Place des Quinconces, strolled alongside the Garonne River and visited the city’s recognizable Place de la Bourse, the city that inspired this semester abroad began to materialize once again, and small experiences forgotten from five years ago came rushing back.

There’s something about visiting a place you haven’t seen for years that reflects your own changes back at you.

I felt instantly comfortable in Bordeaux — the apprehension that characterized much of my exchange trip replaced by confidence. The street signs were easy to read. I didn’t need to rely on a translating app to get me through a meal. But much had stayed the same, such as, most importantly, the joy I felt both then and now to explore and to immerse myself in a new environment. While Paris is presently the center of my study abroad experience in France, it really was Bordeaux that started it all.

Kate Seklir is a junior studying political science. Kate can be reached at kate.seklir@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Monday, April 11, 2022

tuftsdaily.com

Student-run bands enliven Tufts' campuses BANDS

continued from page 3 The camaraderie and convenience of forming a band among Tufts students can also serve as a limiting factor in outreach efforts, first-year Spencer Vernier — the manager of Chowder — said.

“An issue that I think bands have at Tufts [is] getting outside of the Tufts sphere … it’s kind of a challenge to book gigs outside of Tufts because people don’t really know you,” Vernier said. “It’s not an insurmountable thing, but it’s something that I guess we have to think about, how much we want our foot in the Tufts world and how much we want to be outside of it as well.”

A successful band can take many shapes, and thus opinions differ on what the crucial elements of a band are. Despite that, many of Tufts’ musicians agree on the importance of supporting each other. “[An] important part is that you have to believe in everyone in the band. You have to be a big fan of your bandmates … That works in your favor because you have confidence in your band, but also, you know that they admire and appreciate the work that you do,” Mayer said.

Salt Hog’s bassist and singer, second-year SMFA student Lily Piette, added a different perspective.

“I think roles do matter in a band. I don’t think hierarchies should ever exist, but I think in a band knowing … who’s the person that’s doing what is important,” Piette said.

For a band like Fease, the members’ relationships as friends underpin their relationships as bandmates, according to Wish and first-year Jack Goldberg,

who the band described with a long list of roles, ranging from “Founder/guitar/epic dude” to “king/princess” and merch designer.

“One of the most special parts about being in a band, too, is you kind of get to know people’s musical personalities in addition to their ones in real life,” Wish said.

Goldberg added, “I think we’re all friends at the core of it, which is why we really kind of mesh.”

Scherb emphasizes how the band, while requiring dedication, should serve as a respite from the chaos of everyday life.

“We’re all very busy people outside of the band — everyone here at Tufts is extremely busy, so the added commitment to being in a band is definitely not something that’s necessarily easy to navigate,” Scherb said.

“I don’t want Emperor Jones to be something that stresses people out. It should be a place where you can calm [down] and just unwind and play music together.”

Cohen speaks about college as a special place to get involved in a band for the first time.

“You can sort of redefine yourself. I don’t think that’s necessarily unique about my college experience, but it’s definitely what’s made it easier to just say, ‘What the heck? Why not be in a band and just start playing gigs?’” Cohen said. “At my high school, I wouldn’t feel like I was ready or like it would be ‘me’, but there is no ‘me’ at college yet so you can just do whatever you want. And that’s pretty awesome.”

The independent music scene, particularly in rock and alternative styles, very often has an imbalance in demographic representation.

Who’s in the bands?

Chowder

Fossil

Max Chow-Gillette ‘23 Brandon Karavitch ‘22 Joe Sinkovits ‘23 Geoff Tobia ‘22

Fease

Jack Wish ‘25 Jack Goldberg ‘25 Jojo Martin ‘25 Jake Rubenstein ‘25 Andrew Kerpel ‘25 Sophie Rubin ‘25 Sawyer Banbury ‘23 Zack Burpee ‘24 Ben Schmelkin ‘25

Honeymoon

Halla Clausi ‘25 Mofe Akinyanmi ‘26 Drew Cohen ‘25 Spencer Vernier ‘25 Owen Ackerman ‘25

Emperor Jones

Henry Scherb ‘23 Samson Bienstock ‘23 Lucas Ferrer ‘23 Nina Zimmerman ‘25 Emmett Stein ‘22 Harry Skopas ‘23 Matt Gomez ‘24 Griffin Edwards ‘25 Lila Felser ‘23

Layla Sastry ‘23 Elli Sol Strich ‘23 Rayn Schnell ‘23 Jadyn Mardy ‘25 Sarah Stampleman ‘25 Daniella Rothstein ‘24

Salt Hog

Zelda Mayer ‘24 Lily Piette ‘24 Roman Barten-Sherman ‘26 Elliot Trahan ‘22

GRAPHIC BY MADDY NOAH AND FAYE THIJSSEN “This music scene is extremely white, but I do think having three women, one of them being a trans woman …

I just feel like we don’t have the standard masculine energy … and I’m really proud of that,” Mayer said.

The bassist for Chowder, first-year Halla Clausi, hopes for a greater awareness of existing band performers from minority groups.

“The big names in indie music or indie rock are generally white guys who are complaining about their lives, which they have the right to as well, but I definitely think that I do see this as a sort of move toward more women and more POC in the this kind of field because again, a lot of indie rock or alt music is really about kind of talking about the pains of life, and who else should talk about

that other than people who are generally marginalized?,” Clausi said.

Her bandmate Akinyanmi sees Chowder as a means of encouraging people of all backgrounds to get involved with music.

“I’m hoping that other people feel similarly inspired to go out and take risks and also make music and see that … it’s something that should be for everybody,” Akinyanmi said.

Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture

tuftsdaily.com

Monday, April 11, 2022

‘Bridgerton’ is back with a more emotional, complex second season

Ellie Lester and Sadie Leite The Art of Good Soup

Lucky and charming

by Ryan Fairfield

W

Staff Writer

In 2020, Season 1 of “Bridgerton” (2020–) was the most-watched original series on Netflix, with 82 million households watching the series within 28 days of its initial release. Adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels, the series follows the Bridgertons, a noble family in 19th-century Britain, as they attempt to find love and their place in society. The first season followed the eldest daughter, Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), as she debuted in London society and set her heart on finding a husband, only to fall for the most desired man in the city — the Duke of Hastings, Simon Bassett (Regé-Jean Page). The second season turns its focus to the eldest son of the Bridgerton family, Anthony ( Jonathan Bailey), who has finally decided to settle down and find his match.

Anthony does not anticipate that finding love will be an easy task, but it only becomes more complicated when the Sharma family arrives from India.

Anthony starts courting the younger sister, Edwina (Charithra Chandran), only to start falling for the older sister, Kate (Simone Ashley).

Season 2 of “Bridgerton” is easily defined by two aspects: the love triangle and the enemies-to-lovers arc between Kate and Anthony. Initially, Anthony courts Edwina, much to Kate’s disapproval. In the first episode, Kate overhears a conversation between Anthony and his friends in which he lists off his requirements for a wife in a very objectifying way, while also implying that marriage is not about love and more so something that he is just expected to do. After this conversation, Kate decides that Anthony is not worthy of her sister and does everything in her power to prevent him from courting her. However, Edwina herself catches feelings for the viscount and thinks he would make a good husband for her, which leads to the two families spending much more time together. As time goes on, Anthony and Kate find themselves caught in a love triangle — the two of them fall for each other, but Edwina is still in love with Anthony.

Unlike the relationship between Daphne and Simon in the first season, where much of their relationship seemed based on sex and lust, Anthony and Kate’s relationship feels much more emotionally complex. Through their relationship, Anthony and Kate both come to terms with traumas from their past that continue to have an impact on them. Anthony makes peace with his father’s death, the way it thrust him into the fatherly, head-of-the-family role at such a young age and the resulting pressure it puts on him.

Kate, similarly, deals with the imposter syndrome she feels in her own family due to her father’s death. Mary Sharma (Shelley Conn), is Edwina’s biological mother, but not Kate’s, as Kate’s father already had her prior to marrying Mary. After her father’s death, Kate feels the need to prove her worth to her new mother in order to keep her place in the family. In one of the best scenes of the season, Kate confronts Mary and discusses how she feels like

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COURTESY IMDB

The promotional poster for “Bridgerton” (2020-) Season 2 is pictured. she owes it to her, since she took Kate in as her own, helped Edwina find her match and supported the family however she could. Mary says to Kate, “You never had to earn your place in this family … love is not something that is ever owed.” This conversion not only allows Kate to find peace in her own internal struggle with her family, but with her mother and sister’s love and forgiveness, she has the confidence to finally tell the viscount how she feels about him.

The Sharma family is one of the best additions to the second season.

Not only are all the actresses incredible in their own right, but together they create a beautiful, strong family, while also bringing representation to South Asians, who are rarely featured in media. Indian culture is featured heavily in the season. From a Haldi ceremony, a pre-wedding tradition in many Indian weddings, to the frequent use of jewelry with Indian notes and South Asian-inspired clothing, “Bridgerton” shines a light on a beautiful culture, without it coming off as tokenism. Oftentimes in media, many of the struggles of nonwhite characters come from the color of their skin, whether they are battling racism and discrimination or internal struggles about their identity. “Bridgerton” does not make race the sole personality trait of these women, which is refreshing to see.

“Bridgerton” also delivers another impeccable soundtrack, which it became known for in the first season. Throughout the course of “Bridgerton,” violin covers of various pop songs are used in important scenes. This season features widely popular songs, including “Sign of the Times” (2017) by Harry Styles and “Wrecking Ball” (2013) by Miley Cyrus.

The use of these violin covers is a creative choice and always adds depth to the scenes. One of the best uses of music this season was a cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” (2010). The song was used in the first dance scene between Kate and Anthony and what makes the song work in this scene is that, while it sounds beautiful on the violin, those who know the lyrics of the song are able to apply them to the characters and understand the position they are in.

The second season of “Bridgerton” is definitely less raunchy and sexual than the first season, to the dismay of some viewers, but makes up for it with a complex storyline and multifaceted characters. The love triangle between Anthony, Kate and Edwina is well thought out and the actors capture the emotions of their characters perfectly, while also having great chemistry with each other. A release date for the third season has yet to be announced, but it is already confirmed that both Kate and Anthony will return, and viewers can only get more excited to see their relationship grow.

e are tired. Sadie has purple feet (and them dogs are BARKING). Ellie ate salsa for breakfast. With salt. But it was pico de gallo, which makes it a little better?

Given our exhaustion, we decided that this week we would start an important and potentially contentious commentary. It is about time we ask the difficult question: What is the definition of soup?

To test this question, we engaged in a study. Our independent variable was milk. Of the oat variety. It should be noted at this time that the last science class we took was Big Bang to Humankind. Sadie is also in Human Nutrition, but that doesn’t count for much. She would let anything inside her body. Like whole milk, and other things.

Our dependent variable was Lucky Charms. Of the magically delicious variety. Although, we did not eat them, because that would disrupt the experiment, and we are scientists with integrity.

We chose Lucky Charms for their distinguished combination of marshmallows and cereal pieces.

With this in mind, we considered the widely accepted properties of soup. It must, first and foremost, be liquid. But it can contain chunks. It can also be cold. It doesn’t always have to be hot. However, cold soup, like gazpacho, sucks. I mean, at that point you might as well slurp some tomato sauce.

What is gourmet about some mushed-up tomatoes in a bowl? That’s just baby food, really. And we are gorgeous girls with sophisticated palates and a deep, deep hatred for cold things that taste better warm.

We are aware that cold pizza reigns supreme. Our findings and opinions are not generalizable to other food groups.

But liquid alone does not make for a particularly exciting soup. So, we’ve decided another criteria is texture. How viscous is the liquid? Do stews and chowders make the cut? What about applesauce? Or hot fudge? Or yogurt? Or a bowl of salsa with salt?

If you look at it that way, anything can be soup. But maybe we should not be quite so liberal. Because a steak in a bowl is not soup, nor is a child in a bathtub.

Would cereal in milk make the cut?

We say yes. After a few minutes of soakage, we poked and prodded our masterpiece with a fork. Spoons are only used for rating good soup. The cereal bobbed about as we examined the melted marshmallows. Their colors had bled into the milk, creating a fascinating swirl of blue and green. Like the Earth from space, or a bunch of Lucky Charms stirred with the wrong utensil.

You could argue that today’s specimen was neither good nor soup. But what truly makes a soup good is the slurper you slurp it with. Unfortunately, we hate each other.

Kidding. So go forth and spoon with your friends. Or the cute boy you like. Any soup is good soup. It’s all relative. Except maybe don’t spoon with your relatives.

We rate this soup 2 spoons. That’s it. Bye. Ellie Lester is a sophomore studying sociology. Ellie can be reached at eliana.lester@tufts.edu. Sadie Leite is a sophomore studying English. Sadie can be reached at sadie.leite@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Monday, April 11, 2022

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tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Faye: “Well, a child in a bathtub could be soup if you try hard enough.”

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Opinion

7 Monday, April 11, 2022

EDITORIAL

Tufts infrastructure fails to accommodate student enrollment

Ethan Jaskowiak Ethics of the Environment

The consequences of fast fashion

P

erusing through stores like H&M and Forever 21, it’s difficult not to be struck by how affordable clothing has become and to wonder how clothing companies, especially those known as fast-fashion brands, can peddle clothing so cheaply.

Most people are aware of the textile industry’s connections to child labor and worker exploitation in developing nations, but it is also important to address the industry’s heavy contribution to our worsening environmental crisis.

dents, making Tufts home to over 6,500 undergraduates this year. Given this unprecedented growth, infrastructural change must be made to accommodate student needs.

With a steadily climbing enrollment over the past few years, students have seen more crowded libraries and difficulty registering for necessary coursework, including the required first-year writing seminar.

Additionally, despite the construction of the Joyce Cummings Center this year and its dozens of new study spaces, for many students, the campus feels just as crowded as ever. Students have also expressed fears over the dilution of university resources, such as those of Counseling and Mental Health Services.

As uncontrolled acceptance has put an ever-increasing quantity of students into dorms, the number of cars in Tufts’ parking lots has also gone up. Rather than making more parking available, Tufts recently closed one of its lots — ironically, to accommodate more modular housing. When winter storms force individuals to park their cars in garages, students, staff and faculty, have scrambled to relocate their cars before lots fill up, showing how Tufts’ overenrollment has negatively impacted its own employees as well.

Tufts is sacrificing the quality of its students’ college experience

— along with the well-being of its employees — in pursuit of expansion.

These concerns are particularly salient with the issue of housing. This year, the university scrambled to accommodate housing for all students, which required the last-minute conversion of West Hall from sophomore to first-year housing and forced the university to house approximately 100 students off campus at the Hyatt Place. This is not the first time a crisis of this sort has arisen. In 2007, for example, university officials offered students the option of living at the Hyatt Place to alleviate housing strains. While the plan was ultimately scrapped, the university’s prior ignorance of housing troubles has continued into the present.

Tufts expansion can’t be met without infrastructure changes.

The university has long alluded to the possibility of building a new, high-capacity dorm and recently confirmed they are planning the construction of a 370-person dorm by fall 2026, but these efforts are too little, too late. Even if Tufts adheres to this goal, the university will have gone 20 years without building a new dorm.

Conversations around adding more on-campus housing began with President Monaco’s arrival to campus in 2011, but the end of Monaco’s tenure is in sight, and Tufts students continue to

grapple with patchwork housing solutions.

Tufts has focused on maximizing its current residence halls, using the pleasant-sounding term “bed optimization,” which is really just housing students in forced triples. These “optimization” methods have frustrated students, and the university’s conversion of Medford’s woodframe houses into Community Housing notably displaced many long-time faculty residents.

Tufts has added more than 450 beds in the past five years, yet according to the Tufts University 2020–21 Fact Book, Tufts only had on-campus beds for 65% of its full-time undergraduate students — and that was before the unprecedented increase in student population that came with the Class of 2025.

A lack of on-campus housing also pushes a number of students into the Medford/Somerville housing markets, which has contributed to gentrification in the area. In 2018, Katjana Ballantyne, now mayor of Somerville, remarked that this puts Tufts in “direct conflict” with the goals of our host community. Especially given that these issues will likely worsen with the opening of the Green Line Extension, we urge Tufts to accelerate its plans for a new, high-capacity dorm.

As recently as 2018, the university had planned to continue increasing enrollment by approx-

imately 100 first-year students per year until 2020. It’s apparent, however, that such increases in enrollment did not halt then. The continued expansion of Tufts has strained university resources and infrastructure alike. The university has tried too many temporary solutions — Tufts simply cannot enroll more students without infrastructural development.

Although university expansion privileges students with increased opportunities for collaboration and contact with diverse peers, the university infrastructure simply cannot support more students at this moment.

Overcrowding was already a concern before this multiyear expansion plan was announced, and the fact that this program has continued unimpeded and even accelerated is ill-advised. Given the rapid expansion this year, Tufts should halt its expansion program until adequate resources can be provided for current students.

Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser has promised that the university is finding the equilibrium between the number of students and the resources that are currently available, but, until that equilibrium is met, Tufts students will continue to struggle with overcrowded conditions. Tufts must reconcile this imbalance by reducing its student expansion plans or by making serious investments in accommodations.

As it has grown throughout the last few decades, fast fashion is a movement in the clothing industry that aims to satisfy consumers’ appetites for shopping and consumerism in the Global North. It involves the mass production of low-quality, disposable clothing engineered to take maximum advantage of today’s rapidly changing trends. In the past, fashion brands would typically release two new collections a year; yet today, fast-fashion brands release 52 ‘micro-collections’ a year to keep up with the internet’s accelerated rate of trends. This increased rate of release is mirrored by a massive augmentation in production, as the industry now produces 400% more clothing than it did 20 years ago. Unlike the clothing produced in the past, however, today’s clothing is designed to be thrown away after only a few uses. Poor fabric quality and increased consumption mean that the average piece of

clothing today is only worn seven times before being thrown out, and only 20 to 30% of the clothing in the average woman’s closet is being worn. This gluttonous consumption comes with a great environmental cost, especially to those in the Global South.

Cotton consumes huge amounts of water: One kilogram of cotton requires 10,000 liters of water to produce, meaning that the average cotton T-shirt requires 3,000 liters of water to be produced. By the time the cotton is grown, harvested and dyed, the production of an average pair of jeans could have consumed around up to 10,000 liters of water, equal to the amount that the average person drinks in a decade. In addition, the dyeing process is incredibly toxic and polluting: 20% of global wastewater (tainted water unfit for consumption) originates in the textile dyeing processes in the fashion industry, making it the second

largest freshwater polluter globally. Over 70 harmful chemicals are present in modern textile dyes, most of which end up in rivers and oceans. This problem is especially impactful in the Global South, where access to water is scarce and precious. The amount of water used in India’s textile industry could provide 100 liters a day to 85% of its 1.24 billion people for one year, a monumental figure for a country where 100 million people do not have access to safe drinking water.

The fashion industry also has a massive impact on emissions, producing 1.2 million metric tons of CO2 every year — more than the combined emissions of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. In addition, the industry cuts down 70 million tons of trees every year in order to produce fabrics like rayon and viscose, endangering forests critical for biodiversity and eliminating crucial carbon sinks.

One of the most obvious and accessible ways to combat this trend is to ‘thrift,’ or buy clothing secondhand. Giving discarded clothes another life rather than buying more firsthand is an excellent way to reduce the climate impact of your apparel. Many companies, including Marks and Spencer, are investing in the secondhand apparel market, increasing the availability and selection of thrifted clothing. Another way to reduce your personal impact is to make sure your clothes are produced in places with comprehensive and enforced environmental regulations. Ultimately, the best way to combat fast fashion is to invest in clothing designed to be well-used and repaired: It’s always prudent to repair rather than replace.

Ethan is a senior studying biology. Ethan can be reached at ethan.jaskowiak@tufts.edu.

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For Tufts students, it’s clear the university is expanding — it’s also clear that Tufts cannot bear this expansion. From longer lines in the dining halls to difficulties registering for classes, and the ever-present chaos of housing strains, the university is already struggling to accommodate the needs of all its current students.

Last week, Tufts announced that to accommodate incoming first-year students, the university will be constructing temporary housing at the site of the current modular housing units. Though officials promise the new dorms, which are still awaiting approval from the City of Somerville, will be an upgrade from the current COVID-19 units, students deserve a better housing arrangement from Tufts. It’s clear that these “luxury mods” are a simple Band-Aid fix for a much larger problem.

While this year brought unanticipated increases to the student population, the expansion of Tufts is no accident; the university is currently halfway through a multiyear expansion plan, and the program plans to continue increasing undergraduate student enrollment to 6,600 fulltime students by 2026.

From fall 2015 to fall 2021, full-time undergraduate student enrollment increased by 25.3%, with the most recent incoming class being the largest in Tufts history with a size of 1,807 stu-

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8 Monday, April 11, 2022

SPORTS

tuftsdaily.com

Women’s tennis improves to 8–2 with trio of wins

by David Cooperman Sports Editor

The Tufts women’s tennis team, ranked No. 10 nationally, pushed its record to 8–2 overall and 3–2 in the NESCAC with a strong two weeks that included three dominant wins against Babson, Brandeis and Connecticut College, along with a tightly contested defeat against Wesleyan.

The Jumbos kicked off their home season with a match against the Babson Beavers on April 3.

Tufts won all of the doubles matches, with senior Nicki Frankel and sophomore Rebecca Lim delivering a resounding 8–1 victory on the No. 3 court. The No. 2 pairing of junior Madeline Suk and sophomore Zoe Kava earned an 8–2 win, while junior Casey Cummings and first-year Elle Christensen earned the final doubles victory by a score of 8–5 in the No. 1 matchup.

The Jumbos continued their dominance throughout the singles matchups, only dropping one point after Christensen was forced to retire on the No. 1 court against the Beavers’ Olivia Stoffer. Lim would clinch the match for Tufts with a 6–0 victory over Morgan Mann. After four other two-set victories, the dust would settle on an 8–1 Jumbos win.

The same day, six other Jumbo players traveled to Connecticut

College for a road tilt against the Camels. The other half of the Jumbo squad delivered an equally emphatic 9–0 win, with the Camels not earning a single set in the singles matches.

In doubles, juniors Kennedy May and Michelle Shub earned an 8–1 win to start the day, while the duos of seniors Maggie Dorr and Caroline Garrido as well as sophomore Kristin Shiuey and first-year Sophie Wax both defeated their opponents 8–3.

“Our team is very deep,” Garrido said. “We all feel confident enough that [we could] split the team in half, and we had two very decisive wins.”

On April 5, the Jumbos welcomed the Brandeis Judges to the Lower Campus Courts, promptly seeing them off with another 9–0 victory. With the full squad back together, it was Dorr and Garrido who delivered during the first doubles match, earning a hard-fought 8–6 win over Bhakti Parwani and Sabrina Loui.

The duos of Kava and Suk and Frankel and Lim earned 8–2 wins on the No. 2 and No.2 courts, respectively, to complete the doubles sweep. Cummings provided a 6–1, 6–0 victory at third singles, while Lim officially clinched the match for Tufts with a 6–0, 6–2 win over the Judges’ fifth singles player Jiayi Zhang.

The Jumbos returned to NESCAC play for a matchup

CECILIA WANG/THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts women’s tennis players are pictured competing against Brandeis University on April 5. versus the undefeated No. 5 Wesleyan Cardinals in what was sure to be a tight affair between two teams ranked nationally in the top 10.

Dorr and Garrido continued their strong play on the No. 2 doubles court, taking an 8–3 win over Sophie Henderson and Nika Vesely. Suk and Kava ensured that Tufts held the lead moving into singles play with an 8–5 victory, while Christensen and junior Tilly Rigby were bested on the No. 1 court, 8–6.

Rigby battled from behind at No. 1 singles to earn a 2–6, 6–3, 7–5 win over Caitlyn Ferrante, while Cummings earned the only other singles win for the Jumbos on the No. 4 court.

However, the Cardinals took the remaining four singles matches to take the match, with Katie Fleischman clinching with a 6–2, 3–6, 6–4 victory over the Jumbos’ Frankel.

Despite the loss, the competitive nature of the match left Tufts

feeling confident as it finishes up regular season play and looks toward the postseason.

“We believe that we’re probably going to face [Wesleyan] again in NESCACs,” Garrido said, “Next time it can go either way, and hopefully it will go in our favor.”

Tufts returns to conference play with a home match against the No. 15 Bowdoin on Saturday, April 16.

Alexander Janoff contributed reporting to this article.

out of the midfield to open up space for Messi.

If there was any doubt about Pedri’s claim to the title of Spain’s next midfield king, it was settled in summer 2021. Pedri represented Spain at the Euros where defeat to Italy would send La Roja, Spain’s national team, home in the semifinals. Weeks later, Pedri traveled to Tokyo for the Olympics, where he’d fall short in the gold medal match against Brazil. By the end of the summer, which saw Messi depart for PSG, Pedri had played over 1,068 minutes of international football, but the teenager showed no signs of slowing down.

Fast forward to today and Pedri is an invaluable piece of the Barca setup. The 2021–22 season didn’t start as planned for the club, and Ronald Koeman was sacked after failing to show consistency in the league. The appointment of club legend Xavi as manager excited fans as they hoped to see a renaissance of the Barcelona style. Heavy losses against Benfica and Bayern Munich meant that Barca had been eliminated in the group stage for the first time since the 2000-01 season, back when Xavi was an upcoming talent himself.

Since Xavi’s arrival, Pedri has been given the license to operate as Barcelona’s creative centerpiece. As a player, Pedri

lacks physicality, weighing just 132 pounds, but his diminutive build gives him unmatched agility on the ball. Like Iniesta, Pedri’s value to the team isn’t visible in the overused statistics of goals and assists but rather in numbers more deeply woven into the fabric of each game. For example, Pedri’s shot-ending sequence involvement was an impressive 6.2 per 90 minutes, ahead of that of his teammate Sergio Busquets and Real Betis star Nabil Fekir. In his debut season, Pedri had 26 key pre-assist passes — defined as the pass to the player who assists the goal — and only trailed Messi himself.

Last month, Pedri rocked the Santiago Bernabéu in a 4–0 thrashing of Real Madrid as the 19-year-old showed glimpses of his breathtaking passing ability.

On April 3 against Sevilla, Pedri scored one of the first goals of the season as he sat down two Sevilla players before launching a powerful low strike from outside the box. Now, the second in La Liga and favorite to win the Europa League, Barcelona looks like a team reborn and Pedri deserves much of the praise for this turnaround. It’s clear that Spain’s new No. 10 will lead his country and Barcelona into the future, and fans can only dream of what else he will bring to the game.

The genius of Pedri Gonzalez

by Bharat Singh

Assistant Sports Editor

Every generation, the football world is blessed with a handful of talents who come to define the game. These stars aren’t just serial winners but rather those who redefine their positions and the tactical philosophies embedded in them.

In the 2010s, the great Spanish central midfielder led by goalkeeper Iker Casillas was a collection of such players, anchored by the midfield duo of Iniesta and Xavi. Perfectly poised, the pair that was built in the famous La Masia academy controlled matches with precision and delicacy. Industrious yet elegant in possession, Iniesta and Xavi became a template for the modern midfielder. At the club level, their brilliance would take a backseat with the spotlight on Lionel Messi, as the trio formed the crux of Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning dynasty. Last summer, Messi’s departure from the Camp Nou marked the end of an era as the club lost the final piece of its timeless trident. Questions were raised about Messi’s heir and whether Barcelona would adapt to the dynamism and speed of teams like Bayern Munich and Liverpool. A club that seemed faded and lost needed a new hope, but none would

have foreseen it coming in the form of a shy teenager from the Canary Islands.

Born on the island of Tenerife, Pedri Gonzalez grew up in a family that adored FC Barcelona to the point where its plates had the club badge design on them. At a young age, Pedri joined the local youth academy of CF Juventud Laguna where he immediately stood apart from his teammates.

Ayoze Hernandez, the academy coach at the time, said that Pedri’s tenacious playing style frustrated opposing coaches as he would dictate play from all parts of the field.

At just 15 years old, the talented youngster was already showing signs of being a mature player and earned a trial at Real Madrid.

In February 2018, during his trial, the Spanish capital was hit with heavy snowfall, and the academy was closed. During that week, Pedri only got to train twice and was deemed unfit to continue at the club who could have signed him on a free transfer.

In May 2018, second division side Las Palmas signed Pedri for their youth team where he continued to develop. The following year, Pedri was given his first professional contract at the age of 16 and was promptly promoted to the first team after impressing head coach Pepe Mel. After making his debut in August

2019, Pedri became Las Palmas’ youngest ever goal-scorer as rumors spread of a young midfield prodigy. Early that season, FC Barcelona secured his signing for a modest 5 million euros, as Pedri would join the Catalan giants the following season.

Before the 2020–21 season, many expected that Barca would loan Pedri out so he could gain some first-team experience before returning to the Camp Nou. In the preseason, however, Ronald Koeman was dazzled by Pedri’s tactical maturity and skill, deciding to include him in the first team. In his early weeks, Pedri would sometimes commute to games via taxi as he was too young to drive and the club hadn’t expected having to accommodate him. Although he made his official debut with a substitution appearance in a 4–0 victory against Villarreal, his first real showing would be in El Classico against Real Madrid. Despite a 3–1 loss, Pedri was praised for his ability to tame Vinícius Júnior. on the wing and go toe-to-toe with veteran midfielders Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić.

Four days later, Pedri would star in a 2–0 Champions League victory against Juventus where the youngster put up an impressive 95% passing accuracy rate and showed incredible spacial awareness as he drifted in and