The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, September 29, 2021

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 10

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tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Facilities Services in high demand as pests plague student housing

Athletics Department upholds firm COVID-19 protocols

by Jack Adgate

Assistant News Editor

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Wren Hall is pictured on Sept. 14.

by Madeline Mueller Staff Writer

The start of the semester marks the return of students, professors and staff alike to campus, which means the facilities department is inevitably in high demand. This year, among other issues, students are facing pests in their dormitories.

Sophomore suitemates Tommy MacArthur and Aaron Klein experienced a series of issues in their suite in Wren Hall.

“When we first moved in, there was just tape everywhere, and chipped paint,” Klein said.

“Our [bathroom lock] was busted off and recreated using Gorilla Tape. … One of our

suitemates also has no screen in his window.”

MacArthur decided to contact Facilities Services when they discovered they also had a pest problem in the dorm: cockroaches.

“Our second night here, I was going to bed, it was maybe 2:30 in the morning,” MacArthur said.

“Aaron knocks on my door, says, ‘There’s a roach in my room, come kill it.’”

Klein said his suite filed multiple work orders to alert facilities about these problems.

“Pretty quickly, I put in three work orders,” Klein said. “I put in a work order for the bathroom stall lock, which was made of Gorilla Tape. I put in the work

order for a missing screen in our common room window … and then I put in a work order about roaches.”

Yu Otaki also contacted Facilities Services for a pest problem in her dorm. Otaki, a sophomore, said she and her suitemates found rat droppings and cockroaches in their suite in Hillside Apartments.

“We found some rat poop laying around on the kitchen and the floors,” Otaki said.

“We’ve also found cockroaches in our bathroom … We actually had called maintenance separately for rats and for cockroaches … they put down see FACILITIES, page 2

With Vouté Courts still unusable, Tufts varsity tennis teams continue use of South Courts

by Skyler Goldberg Contributing Writer

The Vouté Tennis Courts on Professors Row remain unusable due to the modular housing units installed on top of the courts in 2020. This has caused Tufts’ varsity tennis teams to hold practices and games on the South Courts by Harleston Hall, as they did last year.

For now, two modular units cover half of the Vouté Courts.

The other half of the courts remain in poor condition from two units that were removed this past summer. Vice President

for Operations Barbara Stein explained that the university removed these units due to the improving outlook for COVID-19 at the time.

Stein noted that The Mods have been a significant cost to the university.

“Leasing, preparing the site and operating the Mods has cost over $7 million and is part of the university’s ongoing multi-million-dollar response to the pandemic, covering expenses related to testing, PPE, infrastructure, maintenance, cleaning, technology, dining and other needs,” Stein wrote in an email to the Daily.

Prior to a Friday, Sept. 17 volleyball game between Tufts and Connecticut College, a Connecticut player tested positive for COVID-19. No Tufts athletes tested positive after the game.

Although it is unknown whether or not the player was vaccinated, Tufts varsity teams are only permitted to play schools with a vaccine mandate according to John Morris, the university’s director of athletics.

“With vaccines being widely available, a new protocol for this year is a policy of scheduling games only against institutions that require vaccinations (or requiring a waiver from the Tufts medical staff if we face an opponent that doesn’t mandate vaccinations),” Morris wrote in an email to the Daily.

Because of the vaccine mandate for Tufts athletes and their opponents alike, the quarantine procedures in the case of a positive COVID-19 test are vastly different from last year.

Lucas Ferrer, a linebacker for the Tufts football team, hasn’t found the guidelines to be a problem thus far.

“At the end of the day, I feel like everyone’s really grateful to have the opportunity to play right now, [so] we’ll accept the inconveniences [of COVID-19 protocols] and just keep moving forward,” Ferrer, a junior, said.

Most of the procedures that the athletic department is following align with the overall policies of the university, the conference and NCAA guidelines. Morris said that his colleagues in athletics have done an excellent job in minimizing the effects of COVID19 among sports teams.

“Like last year, our Athletics staff, coaches and student-athletes are following the COVID protocols issued by the University, the NESCAC and the NCAA,” Morris said. “We are pleased that our sports medicine team has been able to monitor very closely the twice-per-week testing of student-athletes to support the university’s efforts to identify positive cases early and help reduce spread.”

Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Cora Thompson found that despite the situation the team faced while playing Connecticut, the protocols in place were effective in ensuring the game could be played without sacrificing the safety of the players and staff.

“When situations like this come up, the directors of Sport Medicine on both campuses directly connect about the concern at hand and make sure to agree with a plan that complies not only with institutional policies but also conference policies,” Thompson wrote in an email to the Daily.

Specifically for the volleyball team, Tufts policies differ, as it is the only fall sport to be played indoors. However, masking rules can become slightly ambiguous depending on the opponents.

“The NESCAC conference has agreed that we can play ‘NBA style’ meaning players on the court can be mask free if they choose but the full coaching staff, bench and support staff … and fans … must remain masked full time,” Thompson said. “As a general guideline this year, the institution with the most restrictive COVID policy will be the school that determines game day protocol.” see ATHLETICS, page 2

When removing two of The Mods, the university left in place the anchors securing the units and did not re-install the chainlink barriers that formerly kept balls on the courts. The surface of the tennis courts were also visibly damaged by the presence of The Mods. The university is waiting to refurbish the space in case an uptick in COVID-19 cases on campus requires the university to reinstall The Mods.

“Connections for utilities were maintained on the site to allow the university to set up new modular see TENNIS, page 2

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Huskins Field is pictured on Aug. 8, 2020.

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / page 5

OPINION / page 7

Effective Altruism club sparks conversations about rethinking social impact

Representation of the reservation: Hulu’s new show tackles Indigeneity and coming of age

Biden losing grip on allied relations

NEWS

1

FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, September 29, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Madeleine Aitken Editor in Chief

— EDITORIAL — MARIEL PRIVEN KATE SEKLIR Managing Editors

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Students eager for Facilities to manage pest issues FACILITIES

continued from page 1 mousetraps and cockroach traps.”

Cory Pouliot, senior facilities director, coordinates the yearround activity to keep campus life running smoothly,and said the facilities department takes reports of pests seriously.

“Tufts provides extermination and will respond immediately when we learn of a pest concern in any of our buildings, especially residential halls,” Pouliot

said. “We partner with a great pest control company that is very responsive and has been proactive with addressing student concerns.”

Pouliot shared that Klein, MacArthur and Otaki were not the only students submitting work orders soon after move-in.

“From the time students began to return in August through Sept.

15, we have received more than 2500 work requests,” Pouliot said.

Otaki noted that Facilities Services has responded quickly to

her requests, and Klein echoed this.

“With all my personal interactions with [Facilities Services], they’ve been nothing but kind and understanding,” Klein said.

Klein and MacArthur said they saw fast action from facilities staff to try to resolve their problem.

“The first [work order] that was marked as completed was actually the roaches,” Klein said. “That was marked as completed, I’d say, within about two days.”

However, the attempts have not been completely successful.

“We saw roaches after that point, so as far as I can tell nothing happened,” Klein said. “The tricky part is, admittedly, roaches are not an easy thing to deal with.”

Otaki agreed that Facilities Services’ response did not fully resolve the problem.

“We just had a cockroach yesterday, and they did all that stuff,” Otaki said. “Every time I go into the bathroom I get a little freaked out.”

Volleyball’s fall experience to serve as test run for indoor winter sports ATHLETICS

continued from page 1 For Ferrer, missing game and practice time is a big risk with the current protocols. However, he said that it’s necessary to keep the community safe.

“And also, if anyone gets sick, COVID or non-COVID, they’re not allowed to participate in practice or anything like that,” Ferrer said. “I feel like everyone’s doing their job, trying to make sure that everyone stays safe.”

For Thompson, many of the protocols in place are dependent on the players staying safe and

making the right decisions off the court.

“During this pandemic our actions directly affect our teammates, coaches and support staff so we are having to be more mindful than we have ever had to be with our social choices and off campus exposure decisions,” Thompson said. “Our health and well-being is tied closer together than it has ever been and that is a challenge.”

So far this fall, Tufts has been able to minimize the effect of COVID-19 on in-season teams, but the same cannot be said

for its opponents. On Saturday, Sept. 25, the Tufts field hockey team had a game against Colby College canceled due to COVID19 cases in Colby’s program.

Overall, there is a sense of gratitude from the fall sports programs, as they lost their entire season to COVID-19 last year.

“At the end of the day, we are so grateful to have our good health while practicing and competing so you won’t hear many complaints from us at all,” Thompson said.

As winter sports approach, the question remains of how Tufts will continue to limit the

spread of COVID-19 in its athletic department, despite all sports moving indoors. Morris said that the best way forward is to continue following the guidance of the university.

“Athletics will continue to follow the guidance of the campus medical professionals when it comes to indoor winter sports,” Morris said. “At this point, we anticipate that everyone in the indoor venues … will be required to wear face coverings at all times, except for the vaccinated competitors while actively warming up and competing.”

COVID-19 Mods render Vouté Courts still unusable for tennis TENNIS

continued from page 1 units if and when health conditions warranted their addition,” Stein wrote. “At the moment, the university is closely watching the number of COVID cases on campus and assessing whether additional units will be added as a precaution. If that step is taken, the university will obtain necessary permissions from the city of Somerville.”

The move from the Vouté Tennis Courts to the South Courts has posed challenges for both varsity tennis teams.

According to Karl Gregor, head coach of the men’s tennis team, the surface of the South Courts was uneven before the 2020–21 school year. The university improved the condition of the courts in the summer of 2020.

“They gave it a facelift,” Gregor said. “They shaved the old court, made it a little even and then they put a nice new paint coat on it.”

However, Gregor said the courts are still not in ideal condition.

“For a limited budget, they did a good job,” Gregor said. “[But] to really get this to the standard we’d want would be a significant project.”

The amount of court space has also posed an issue for both tennis teams. There are eight courts on Professors Row but only four courts by Harleston Hall. So while 16 players can play simultaneously in singles on the Vouté Courts, only eight can do so on the South Courts.

The limited space means that matches will last five to seven

hours because the men’s and women’s teams will need to share the courts. The teams have also had to run several smaller practices rather than a single joint one.

Jack Moldenhauer, a senior on the men’s varsity tennis team, believed that players are getting the same amount of practice as in a normal year, just with more planning required on the coaches’ end.

“As long as we have tennis courts, we’re motivated, dedicated enough,” Moldenhauer said.

“We’re still pursuing our goals as long as we have tennis courts on campus.”

Kristin Shiuey, a sophomore on the women’s varsity tennis team, disagreed with Moldenhauer’s view that practice time has been maintained.

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Vouté Tennis Courts are currently unavailable to student-athletes as they continue to house The Mods.

“Sometimes we don’t get to do the things that we want to do during practice, like singles play, and we have to break it up,” Shiuey said. “Sometimes you don’t see everyone every single day.”

Despite the limited court space, Shiuey gives credit to Kate Bayard, head coach of the women’s varsity tennis team, for leading the team through the situation.

“I think my coach has done a great job maneuvering all of the COVID stuff, but I think overall it has [still made an impact],” Shiuey said.

According to Shiuey, the divided practices have made it harder for members of the men’s and women’s teams to get to know each other, since they are not able to practice at the same time as they normally would. Nevertheless, Shiuey does not think the split practices have hampered her ability to get to know her teammates.

Even as the teams have adjusted to the South Courts, players are eager to return to Vouté. “[The Vouté Courts are] beautiful courts,” Moldenhauer said. “They’re in the middle of campus, so there’s people always around watching, which is fun. They are our team colors, which is great.”

While the tennis teams expect to return to the Vouté Courts once the pandemic is over, Gregor acknowledged that even this is uncertain.

“There’s a scenario where the school may move the tennis courts down near the other athletic field,” Gregor said. “It’s very much up in the air, and there’s no definitive one way or another.”

tuftsdaily.com

Features

3 Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Effective Altruism club hopes to promote a deeper understanding of doing good on campus

by Mark Choi Staff Writer

Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement concerned with finding the most effective ways to make the world a better place, according to Graeme McDonough, a junior on the Effective Altruism club’s executive board.

“At its core, effective altruism is really about philosophy and thinking about how we can

analyze giving back to the world.

But in practice, it’s really about thinking about giving back and also about in what ways you might go about doing that,” McDonough said.

Rachel Weinberg and David Gantt, co-presidents of the Effective Altruism club on campus, are working closely with 15 other members to seek the club’s university recognition by the Tufts Community Union Judiciary in mid-October. The

renewed push for TCU Judiciary recognition represents an effort to reinstate the club after Effective Altruism first arrived at Tufts through Dillon Bowen (A’16) who learned about the movement during his year abroad at the University of Oxford.

One of the advantages of joining Effective Altruism is career exploration.

“In terms of actionable items, especially if you’re a student,

[effective altruism involves] actually just taking the time to think about what careers might benefit the most people. Think about your skills and your interests and how you can best give back,” McDonough said.

McDonough added that while effective altruism as a philosophy shares many common tenets with utilitarianism, the movement does not officially subscribe to any specific school of thought.

“[As I see it,] effective altruism is the idea that what is ethical, and by extension what is the right thing to do, generally improves the quality of life or improves the happiness of the most people and in the greatest quantity,” McDonough said.

“Utilitarianism as a philosophy on its own has a lot of flaws …

It can easily slip into minority underrepresentation or marginsee ALTRUISM, page 4

MARK CHOI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Members of the Tufts Effective Altruism club are pictured at the club’s general interest meeting on Sept. 19.

Sam Russo and David Wingens Potty Talk

Tisch Library

F

or the last three semesters, many buildings and facilities on campus have sat either empty or at severely reduced capacity. Scores of Jumbos have never seen Tufts’ campus in all its glory, with students milling between classes and avoiding that person whom you haven’t spoken to since they shared their deepest secrets with you during “Bridging the Herd.”

But perhaps most tragically, there are two classes of students on campus with no idea how to

navigate the bathrooms of Tufts University. This column will strive, at its best, to shine a light on the darker corners of Tufts. No, we are not the Daily’s Investigative team digging up illicit meetings with Saudi princes. We are instead the Sanitation Scorers, giving out frank opinions on some of our beloved school’s most sacred places.

First up on our whirlwind waterline tour is one of the places where you’re bound to spend miserable hours ‘studying’ and ‘reading’: the venerable Tisch Library.

Perhaps the most well-known bathrooms on campus are Tisch’s all-gender, main-floor restrooms.

At peak hours, you cannot simply enter this lavatory; you must first come face-to-face with every bathroom goer’s greatest nightmare: a bright red “in use” sign. You’ll wait in the small nook outside, where

you will inevitably make eye contact with the previous occupant.

Upon reaching the bottom of your Instagram feed, the door swings open to reveal a bathroom replete with a full-sized desk, folding chairs, a Squatty Potty, out-of-use hygiene product dispensers and stagnant floor water to clean the soles of your shoes. In some ways, these two glorious chambers are the Kmart of bathrooms: They have everything you could possibly want but still you prefer to go elsewhere.

The obedient among us will dutifully follow the instructions printed on the door to proceed to the gendered restrooms on the third floor. While the main floor threatens to overwhelm you with features, the third floor is more quietly luxurious. Its

gentle mint-green walls offer a sharp contrast with the ground floor’s unapologetic emerald hue while the cream floors lure you into a sense of comfort. This bathroom is exceptional only for how totally pedestrian it is; it’s the sort of space you might see in a B-list movie about middle school.

But where Tisch bathrooms really soar is in the Hirsh Reading Room. Spacious and lush, these bathrooms have none of the overdone gaudiness of their first floor companions but all of their privacy. Their cork boards offer ample room for club posters, etchings of life affirming quotations or encouraging reminders of our shared humanity. Our only qualm lies in the puzzling height of the toilet and sink — it is as if to force a certain discomfort that

might encourage one to return to their studies.

Overall scores: Top floor: 7/10 — squarely above average Main all-gender: 6/10 — quirky, but someone went too far Reading room all-gender: 9/10 — a special space on campus With that, we humbly invite you to join, fellow students, as we flip every toilet seat, use oodles of paper towels and lock every door, all in pursuit of exposing Tufts’ dirty secrets.

Sam Russo is a junior studying computer science and cognitive and brain science. Sam can be reached at samuel.russo@tufts. edu. David Wingens is a junior studying international relations.

David can be reached at david. wingens@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Wednesday, September 29, 2021

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Club encourages students to think more expansively about giving and social impact

ALTRUISM

continued from page 3 alized communities underrepresentation. But certainly, with some tweaks, there’s something called prioritarianism, which is where you prioritize underprivileged communities over others, even if it means a slightly smaller increase in happiness overall.

So with some tweaks, Effective Altruism is really based on that.”

In explaining effective altruism, Gantt introduced quality-adjusted life-year (QALY), a way to measure and quantify the effectiveness of doing good.

Gantt discussed how a charity could compare two disparate interventions: contributing to a cancer treatment or contributing to a deworming initiative in a low-income country. “For a cancer treatment, it costs between $30,000 to $50,000 per year to extend one person’s life by one year. Whereas with the latter option, you can do that for a matter of cents. If you take QALY as a metric, you can begin to compare one cause against another.”

By quantifying a charity’s effectiveness, some critics point out that the movement comes across as calculating and cold-blooded. Weinberg, however, explained the rationale behind Effective Altruism’s approach.

“If we want to support people equitably, we need to support causes unequally, because some causes help people more effectively than others,” Weinberg said. “We should be pouring our

resources into causes which can help people the most per dollar and hour that we spend.”

Weinberg added how Harrison Sweet, a first-year who joined the club, understands Effective Altruism’s premise in the context of mindfulness. “[Sweet] said meditation is in part about increasing the distance between impulse and your action in an intentional way,” Weinberg said. “In Effective Altruism, we want a similar thing: everybody has all these natural impulses to help people, and that’s good, but we want to intentionally consider how to best channel that into effective action, rather than acting on first impulse.”

On top of that, it is important to note that Effective Altruism is not all about charity and there is no one right way to join and help the cause. McDonough explained the importance of prioritizing your skills when giving back.

“Since I’m studying chemical engineering, I’m not going to swerve paths and start introducing climate change legislation. I don’t have those skills … [I could instead focus on] developing carbon capture systems for climate change action,” McDonough said.

As the Effective Altruism club grows in size, Weinberg hopes that the club can foster an intellectual and mindful community where its members engage deep-

ly with what it means to do good for the world.

“We are trying to get students to think more deeply about a question, which is, how can you have the most impact possible, the most positive way possible?”

Weinberg said. “Our mission is not to really answer this question — our goal is to think really deeply about it together, consider it… read all sorts of things that we can together and also get many different perspectives.”

The Effective Altruism club also attempts to examine how people extend their moral circle beyond their immediate communities, Weinberg explained.

“If you look at history a few 100 years ago, people didn’t care about people who were outside of their country, outside of their race or outside of their religion,” Weinberg said. “We should look at ourselves critically and think, maybe we aren’t taking into account everybody that we ought to care about.”

According to many effective altruists, including Weinberg and Gantt, people’s moral circles should encompass all sentient beings, including animals.

“Seventy-two billion land animals are killed for food around the world every year,” Weinberg said. “Animals have the capacity to feel the same, or at least a significant fraction of joy and pain we do, and yet 97% of our philanthropic funding goes only towards humans… We should expand our compassion to [animals] too.”

Despite how demanding it may come across as a philosophy, Gantt added that effective altruism can imbue one’s life with a profound sense of purpose and meaning in return.

“Something that people can get out of effective altruism, I think, is a sense that your work, whatever it may be, can carry great meaning, ” Gantt said.

“To feel that you can have an immense impact by consistently giving a portion of your income to a charity or a cause is what effective altruism can offer.”

Drawing from their experiences and involvement with the Effective Altruism community, Weinberg and Gantt organized a fall fellowship program that will run from Oct. 10 to Dec. 4 this semester.

Joining the fellowship program will be the best way to get involved with the club and participate in the cause, Weinberg said. It will also serve as an opportunity for participants to discuss and debate a wide range of pertinent ideas.

“The fellowship is about an hour of reading and an hour of discussion per week,” Weinberg said. “It’s super interdisciplinary. Anybody, regardless of their interests, can help us. We have a place for anybody who wants to have an impact.”

Weinberg added that there will be more regular meetings and club events once the club is recognized by the TCU Judiciary this fall.

“We will have a few meetings [where] club members can give presentations on EA-related issues they care about,” Weinberg said. “We are definitely interested in running a follow-up, more in-depth fellowship program next semester as well.”

Moving forward, the club hopes to encourage students to have conversations about pursuing careers that maximize social impact. They also plan on helping the Tufts community donate and contribute to organizations and causes that can best actualize their goals, Weinberg explained.

According to Weinberg, the club aims to discuss and address three main areas of interest: global health and poverty, animal welfare and protecting humanity’s long term future. “[These] three areas are highly neglected and tractable to make a difference,” Weinberg said. “We need to preserve humanity so that future generations, who will be wiser than we are, can take humanity to its full potential.”

Weinberg reflected on how joining Effective Altruism has changed her life.

“I think a lot of college kids don’t know what they want to do with their careers,” Weinberg said. “Overall, being involved with the EA community has given me a clearer sense of purpose and direction in life, which has made me much happier.”

ARTS & POP CULTURE

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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

‘Reservation Dogs’ is changing the representation game

by Emmy Wenstrup Assistant Arts Editor

The name Taika Waititi on any project makes it worth watching – the Māori actor/director/producer extraordinaire seems able to add his certain flair to anything and make it work, whether that be a satirical yet moving look at a brainwashed Hitler Youth in “Jojo Rabbit” (2019) or a vampire mockumentary in “What We Do in the Shadows” (2014).

More recently, he has lent his star power as an executive producer and writer for “Reservation Dogs” (2021–), his second teamup with FX on Hulu after the success of his “What We Do in the Shadows” spin-off series.

“Reservation Dogs” chronicles the lives of four Indigenous teenagers working their way toward leaving their rural Oklahoma reservation for the elusive dreamland of California.

To save up the necessary funds, they steal a chip truck in a frantic heist and sell illness-causing meat pies among other absurdities. It’s a simple premise, but the show is less concerned with the mechanics of its plot and is able to work so seamlessly because of its clever writing, strong ensemble, and honest approachability.

The eponymous Reservation Dogs, the nickname for the group, form one of the best and most honest ensembles to hit the small screen in a while, but the show allots an episode to each of them: Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) deals with his absent father, Cheese (Lane Factor) goes on a ride along with Officer Big (Zahn McClarnon), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) goes

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hunting and Elora (Devery Jacobs) takes her drivers test.

Each has individual issues that need sorting out, but the show is more interested in its sense of place. The characters, yearning for the opportunities of California, seem to think of the reservation as some sort of inescapable black hole that swallowed up the late fifth member of the group. The show seems intent on proving them wrong.

The individual episodes may make some viewers want to compare the strength of the show’s formidable yet lesser-known main actors, but to do so would be unjust to the nature of the show. This ensemble is too impressive to break apart; they speak and interact with each other with almost unbelievably natural chemistry and ease. The show fundamentally puts the group’s needs over individual ones — in one episode, Elora confronts Bear about his liberal spending policies that keep the group from going to California sooner. “Reservation Dogs” very delicately balances the needs of its individual characters with those of its ensemble, thanks to the commitment of its lead actors to the cohesiveness of the whole production.

Clearly a show that balances content well, “Reservation Dogs” deals with some rather heavy topics without weighing down the show. Its comedy is so light and fresh that the more sensitive topics can’t possibly overwhelm the plot. For example, the fourth episode, “What About Your Dad,” juxtaposes Bear’s feeling of abandonment with a catchy music video about greasy fry bread and a phallic microphone

medallion. Most of the comedy wouldn’t sound that amusing upon description, but it works seamlessly with the easygoing structure of the show.

The writers also aren’t afraid to dabble in the supernatural, which helps bring that air of lightness into the show while also making a point about problematic representations of Native Americans in other

media. Bear keeps seeing a spirit named William Knifeman (Dallas Goldtooth) who plays on Native American stereotypes — when we meet him for the first time, the show’s aspect ratio and style shifts to mimic that of an old-school Western movie. His arrival on majestic horseback contrasts with his actual character, who frequently speaks of how the coldness of

needs to change to help the environment, it is sometimes unclear what steps in the production process can be changed to make improvements.

Unspun is one company trying to change the status quo by making jeans with a software and production method to make custom jeans for each customer. The company defines itself as “a robotics and digital apparel company,” and it has the following ambitious goal: “Our mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing.” Beyond the revolutionary software that fits customers based on their 3D avatar, Unspun locally sources its materials, using low-im-

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This on-demand manufacturing process means that the brand has moved past the widespread issue of clothing brands wasting significant leftover inventory. Traditional industry methods lead to an annual production of 100 billion pieces of clothing, about 60% of which goes to the landfill within a year. Unspun notes that this current norm of production results in everyone losing: “The retailer juggles excess inventory, devastating markdowns, and waste; the factory gets pushed to make more and more for less and less; the consumer gets frustrated with having to find where they fit the product instead of where

the product fits them; and the planet slowly (or not so slowly) gets destroyed by greenhouse gas emissions, never-ending waste, and toxic pollution.”

Overall, Unspun has created a more productive business model that improves everyone’s shopping experience.

While environmental benefits are at the core of Unspun, the company also acknowledges other issues with the fashion industry and addresses how its custom fit technology can improve these issues. On the topic of inclusivity and sizing, the company says the following: “Discrimination and bias are inherently baked into the fashion industry. Sizes are built upon the concept of assumption – assuming how a body

VIA HULU

“Reservation Dogs” is a comedy series created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi that follows four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma.

the spirit world affects the hardness of his nipples. His presence in the show uses comedy to deal with a legacy of harmful representation and adds a new layer that prevents the show from getting stale.

“Reservation Dogs” is thus an outstanding show in terms of entertainment, but it’s also somewhat revolutionary. It’s the first TV show entirely written and directed by Indigenous creatives, which fosters an undeniable honesty and realness embedded in the show’s essence. For some shows, representation is only tokenism, a prized trophy to show off and brag about. This is not the case for “Reservation Dogs,” where representation is at the core. It’s not a show about white people with Indigenous characters in it, it’s about Indigenous characters in an explicitly Indigenous world. The show has effortless and genuine representation worked into the premise of the show without having the self-important preachiness that some other shows (“Sex Education” (2019–) comes to mind) take on. It’s unfortunate that we seldom get these types of stories, and “Reservation Dogs” sets an impressive example for a more inclusive future of television.

There isn’t much bad to say about “Reservation Dogs” — it’s funny and important without being obnoxious or showy. At only eight half-hour episodes, it’s a great watch for students bogged down with early-school-year work. It’s hard to call anything a perfect show, but “Reservation Dogs” is certainly one of the best of this year. should be. There is a lot of institutional and racial bias embedded in sizing, and we need to get rid of sizes altogether and instead custom-fit products around actual people in real time.” The idea that Unspun has considered how it can improve the issues in the fashion industry around inclusion and sizing is evidence of how it is truly a mission-based company. But with all of that said about how Unspun stands for such positive ideas, it is also worth noting that its jeans have an amazing fit because of the revolutionary fitting technology.

Colette Smith is a senior studying quantitative economics.

She can be reached at colette. smith@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Wednesday, September 29, 2021

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Opinion

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7 Wednesday, September 29, 2021

VIEWPOINT

America is back — and Trumpier than ever

by Daniel Chung

Contributing Writer

On the campaign trail, now-President Biden spoke of bringing America back to the table to lead a “united front” of democracies in confronting 21st-century challenges from climate change to the growing threat of authoritarianism. In a March 2020 op-ed in Foreign Affairs, he laid out a plan to achieve these ends. But recent foreign policy blunders, especially those regarding France-U.S. relations, betray that his words may only have been empty air.

Over the last week, a submarine missile deal gone wrong has caused France-U.S. relations to break down.​​This started when Australia announced that it was pulling out from a $66 billion deal to buy Frenchbuilt submarines. In exchange, it would pursue an alternative peddled by the United States and Britain as part of a new AUKUS trilateral security pact. The resulting anger from France is understandable, considering that France’s military will be suffering a massive loss of another potential revenue stream, stolen out from under

Jacob Fridman A Better Consensus

The importance of civic education Everyone has suggestions for how national politics should be run, but with my background in independent journalism, civic education and opinion and interview podcasting, I have the experience of explaining complex topics, starting conversations, and promoting new ideas. This is “A Better Consensus.”

Civic education matters because it’s how liberal democracy thrives, but if citizens don’t vote or are uninformed with the issues, then it fails. History has shown how bad actors take advantage of people’s lack of civic understanding and suppress our

its nose by Americans who, to them, seem intent on inserting themselves in every deal on the international stage.

These recent diplomatic moves elicited a furious response from China, who viewed the security pact as a challenge to its regional stability and power. While Biden did promise to get tough on China, he also said that managing competition between the two superpowers before things break out into conflict would be a key component of his new doctrine.

Biden’s lack of consideration toward the broader geopolitical effects of the deal casts into doubt Biden’s commitment to a constructive China policy.

However, the devastating effect of the submarine deal on France-U.S. relations cannot be overstated. The bond between the two countries arguably has not been this strained since the two nations fell out over the Iraq War. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the deal as a “unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision” to “exclude a European ally and partner such as France” that “shows a lack of coherence.” These observations are not without merit. By leaving France

completely in the dust, Biden is actively continuing Trump’s practice of undermining traditional allies to pursue American self-interest. While some may argue that Biden simply anticipated Europe’s intent of selling out to China — after all, Europe relies on the People’s Republic of China for most of its trade, giving soft power to China to wield over the continent — it couldn’t have hurt to try to rally the world’s dominant democracies together.

When it came to dealing with European allies, Donald Trump abandoned America’s traditions of maintaining a strong, respectful relationship, motivated at least partially by a desire to bring Europe closer in line to his vision for international trade. Now, Joe Biden, like his predecessor, seems to have no real principles in international relations, acting completely in accordance with domestic political incentives.

Republicans threatened to frame Biden as soft on terror if the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was reinstated and so Biden let his only chance of diplomacy with Iran fall by the wayside, despite knowing that Iran was on the brink of electing a new government

even more reluctant to negotiate with the West. On another count, China is seen as the greatest threat to American hegemony overseas. Biden abandons any facade of approaching them diplomatically in a transparent move designed to undercut China’s force projection, simultaneously betraying traditional European allies to achieve this end.

At times, the new president’s political philosophy — or arguably lack thereof — has produced somewhat positive results, like when he effectively relied on favorable polling among a majority of the American public to justify pulling out of Afghanistan, finally ending the nation’s longest war. However, this reversion to the Trumpian habit of simply playing to a domestic base undercuts American leadership and weakens our relationships with our allies, clearly running contrary to Biden’s campaign promises. Ultimately, the capacity of the United States to act as a moral leader and maintain international trust diminishes the more that the United States turns away from its allies, and this is no different under Joe Biden’s self-interested foreign policy.

freedoms. They thrive off of ignorance in order to push through unpopular policies, divisive agendas and power grabs.

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts once said in response to the rise in fake news, “the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.” To be informed not only allows our government to be more representative, but also fights fake news and conspiracy theories that divide the country on basic facts. Case in point, the false claims of the ‘stolen’ 2020 election, and the COVID-19 era debates over masks and vaccines. In both instances, the failure of the masses to develop good citizenship habits has led to destruction of norms, democratic principles and human lives. The January 6th insurrection, over 680,000 COVID-19 deaths and a vaccination rate that is now lagging behind our allies have all laid bare the importance of a public that needs basic

facts on how the government works, what the government can do for its citizens (especially in times of crisis) and what liberal democracy even means (spoiler: it’s not calling everything rigged when you lose elections).

So, what can we, as Generation Z, do? First, we can learn how the government works and how we as citizens interact with it using free sources like Khan Academy, Wikipedia and Crash Course.

We can also take advantage of our time at Tufts with classes on American government, citizenship and how to look up basic information without going down the rabbit holes of Instagram and Reddit.

Second, we can be up-to-date on the latest news on domestic politics and the world at large with trusted and straightforward sources like the Associated Press and this very paper. Third, we can get involved in anything from local politics to the highest levels of the federal govern-

ment. Register to vote with JumboVote; call or write a letter to your local, state or federal representatives to voice your opinion on issues you care about; or simply talk to other people, gain new perspectives and shape your own opinions.

If we, as a society, do these things now, we can end voter apathy, combat disinformation and help people talk to each other about controversial yet critical topics. Gen Zers need to be on top of these issues because it’s how we prepare to lead the world we’ll inherit in this decade (and hopefully the next one). We want to change the world, but if we don’t prepare now, we can’t make that happen and we’ll be a nation acting at the whims of disinformation and conspiracy theories and not reality.

Jacob Fridman is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jacob can be reached at jacob.fridman@tufts.edu

8 Wednesday, September 29, 2021

SPORTS

tuftsdaily.com

Volleyball wins 2 in Maine, falls to Springfield

by Steven Landry Staff Writer

Coming off of a five set match where Wesleyan handed Tufts volleyball its first defeat of the season, the Jumbos had a few days to sharpen their skills in preparation for three consecutive road games. Tufts fell to Springfield College 3–1 last Thursday before defeating Bowdoin 3–1 and Maine Maritime Academy 3–0 in Brunswick on Saturday. These three games brought the Jumbos to 8–2 on the season and 2–1 in NESCAC play.

The last game of the weekend road trip was against Maine Maritime, who entered the game at a modest 5–4. In their most recent meeting in 2019, the Jumbos took all three sets, with the Mariners failing to reach the 20 point mark in any of the three sets. This year’s match was no different, as the set scores were 25–19, 25–13 and 25–17. Sophomore outside hitter Christine Audette was on target, with 11 kills and only three errors.

The victory over the Mariners was preceded by a match over another team from Maine, the NESCAC conference rivals Bowdoin Polar Bears. Although both teams’ rosters looked vastly different when Tufts faced Bowdoin in the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2019, upperclassmen will remember the five set match that ended in a Jumbos defeat.

This time, however, the Jumbos started strong, taking the first two sets by a score of 25–21 and 25–22. Super senior middle hitter and co-captain Jennifer Ryan contributed seven kills in the first two sets and quieted the crowd with a block on the final point to clinch the second set for the Jumbos. The Polar Bears took the third set 25–20 before being beaten in the fourth and final set. Senior outside/opposite hitter and co-captain Cate Desler chipped in with three kills, two blocks and an ace in

Oliver Fox NFL Week in Review

Rookie QBs

L

et me make one thing clear: Rookie quarterbacks are not treated fairly in the world of sports criticism.

Rookies at most other positions face a completely different set of expectations and reactions throughout their first rodeos. Take 2020’s number four overall pick Andrew Thomas, who led the league in sacks allowed from left tackle last season, for example. His poor play has largely been ignored because he’s – well – a left tackle.

QBs, on the other hand, are mercilessly ripped apart by fan bases and pundits because they are both the easiest to blame for a team’s on-field ineptitude and simultaneously the easiest to analyze by statisticians because of how much they touch

COURTESY MICHAEL LEGRIS

The Tufts volleyball team celebrates during a game against Maine Maritime Academy, which the team played at Bowdoin and won 3–0, on Sept. 25. the final frame. This was an important conference win as the Jumbos head into the month of October, when more than half of their games will be NESCAC games.

Last Thursday, Tufts traveled to western Massachusetts to take on the scorching hot Springfield College Pride. Coming into the match boasting a perfect record of 10–0, Springfield oozed confidence in front of their home fans, who tallied a season high in attendance.

The Jumbos were faced with an 14–8 deficit midway through the first set, but they clawed back to come within one at 23–22 before they were narrowly defeated 25–23. The intensity spilled over to the second set, when there were a total of 16 lead changes. Tied at 24 apiece, the Jumbos took the set with two consecutive points thanks

to a kill by sophomore middle hitter Cora Cunningham and a clutch ace from sophomore setter Maddie Yu. The third set ended with the Jumbos being edged out 26–24, before being caught on the wrong side of a 15–7 run in the fourth set, which concluded 25–13 to Springfield and sealed the match 3–1 in the Pride’s favor.

While this was the second consecutive loss for the Jumbos, who had fallen to the Wesleyan Cardinals five days earlier, the Tufts players showed resilience in a tough atmosphere — a resilience that helped them bounce back and win their next two games.

“Being in that environment, having all that energy was a good learning experience,” junior outside hitter Jennelle Yarwood said. “It was good competition for

us, hopefully we’ll see [Springfield] again at some point.”

Yarwood added three key kills down the stretch in the action packed second set.

With 10 games down, this 2021 squad is finding their way as a team by prioritizing making the routine plays and, ultimately, proving hard to beat.

“We really focus on serving, passing, the fundamentals,” Yarwood said. “If we’re playing our high level of game we know that we’ll be successful.”

The Jumbos will return to Cousens Gym for a home match at 7 p.m. tonight against the Endicott College Gulls, who hold a 7–3 record. Tufts will then go on another road trip to Hamilton on Friday and Williams on Saturday for two more crucial NESCAC matchups.

the ball. Rookie QBs are often given an out from their struggles in the form of referencing their situation and surrounding talent. Granted, an NFL team is made up of 22 starters and 53 man rosters, not just one man.

As for the three players who have started all three games this season, we have number one pick and Jacksonville Jaguars starter Trevor Lawrence, number two pick and New York Jets starter Zach Wilson and number fifteen pick and New England Patriots starter Mac Jones to look at. I will buy the argument that Jones’s struggles are mostly not his fault, but as for Wilson and Lawrence, the data says something else.

These young play callers have netted one win across nine collective games through Sunday. And while Jones and the Patriots seem to have some level of football competency, both Lawrence and Wilson are on teams that look completely and utterly over matched.

The Jaguars boast respectable offensive talent, but also a defense that couldn’t stop a penny from falling through a subway grate. Wilson and the Jets seem devoid of much talent on either side of the ball and apart from a few contributors, this team looks totally lost through three games.

But the struggles of Wilson and Lawrence go beyond the obvious. Yes, Lawrence and Wilson lead the league in turnovers with seven apiece. Yes, they are a combined 0–6 to start their careers.

Those stats can be dismissed by situation, but once we look closer, it gets harder to defend the top two picks.

Wilson and Lawrence rank second and third to last, respectively, in total quarterback rating (QBR) among passers that have played all three games, a metric developed by ESPN that adjusts a Quarterback’s rating based on the strength of the opponent and evaluates a QB at a play-by-play level. Furthermore, Wilson and Lawrence held the same

spots in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA), a stat cooked up by sports analytics group Football Outsiders that compares each individual player to the average of the entire league in a similar situation play-by-play.

Both metrics have their drawbacks, but they do a good job eliminating matchup or situational excuses from a quarterback’s performance, good or bad. In the cases of Lawrence and Wilson, it’s been bad.

I’m not here to call either player a verified bust just yet. The two are undeniably talented and have flashed some of the skills that made them the top two selections last April. But, talent doesn’t always transfer to NFL success and neither man has shown that they were worthy of the spots they were taken – at least not yet.

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

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER