Thursday, April 27, 2017

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Pressure and progress: the student activist experience at Tufts see FEATURES / PAGE 3

Jumbos match regular season win total from 2010-11 season

Save the NEA: Arts organizations protest Trump’s proposed budget see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 56

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Thursday, April 27, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Benya Kraus elected TCU President

by Joe Walsh

Executive News Editor

Junior Benya Kraus was elected Tufts Community Union (TCU) President for the next academic year, following online elections yesterday. Kraus, currently the Diversity and Community Affairs Officer in TCU Senate, ran unopposed in the election.

Kraus won 70.96 percent of the 699 votes cast, with 19.31 percent for write-in candidates and 8.58 percent abstaining, according to TCU Elections Commission President Klavs Takhtani. Voter participation this year was 12.34 percent, compared with 24.95 percent in last year’s two-candidate election and 11.65 percent in 2015’s uncontested election, according to 2015 and 2016 Daily articles.

“We were happy with the [turnout] result as we knew going in the motivation to vote is lacking with only one candidate,” Takhtani told the Daily in an email.

“We accredit that a lot to Benya’s campaigning and wish her a ton of luck as the next TCU Senate president.”

Kraus said she is grateful to have been elected TCU President and appreciative of people’s support, and she looks forward to carrying out her SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY campaign platTCU President Benya Kraus poses for a portrait in front of Ballou Hall form. Her next on April 20. objective, for the remainder of the semester, is to engage in turnout was important because it could discussion with student groups and cam- lend greater recognition to her platform. pus leaders.

“I really want to be able to back this Additionally, Kraus noted that even platform with as much student support as though the election was not contested, voter I can get,” Kraus said.

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by Joe Walsh

Executive News Editor

now a lecturer at Boston University’s School of Education, submitted the database, according to Goldberg.

Goldberg is interested in the award’s ability to spread the database to a wider audience. The data is available in an Excel spreadsheet to assist researchers and in a visual format for the general public.

“One thing that’s interesting to us, and is something that we want to spend time thinking about, is: ‘How do we make these data accessible to people?’” Goldberg said.

“What the visualization can do is provide a different way of accessing the information or thinking about it.”

ASL is the language of many deaf Americans, but it is rarely taught early on in childhood, which results in language deprivation, according to Caselli.

“The experience of not having any language right in the beginning of life has lasting consequences on language processing and cognition,” Caselli said. “I wanted to know whether there were long-term effects of language deprivation on how people process signs.”

In order to further research this question, Caselli — then a graduate student under Goldberg — reached out to Karen Emmorey, a professor and researcher studying sign language at San Diego State University. She looked to obtain more data on the amount that specific signs are used in conversation,

Abi Williams has been named the new director of the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), beginning on July 1. He was also appointed as Professor of the Practice of International Politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Williams’ term will follow Founding Director Sherman Teichman’s three decades as IGL head, which ended with his retirement in May 2016.

Williams is currently president of the Hague Institute for Global Justice, a think tank in the Netherlands. Previously, he worked at the United States Institute of Peace and served as director of strategic planning for two United Nations Secretaries-General, according to an announcement by Provost David Harris.

Williams referred to his appointment at Tufts as a “homecoming,” having graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and a Ph.D. in international relations. Williams has also participated in the IGL’s Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program.

Williams said the IGL’s programs, particularly EPIIC, are critical to educating future leaders, and he hopes the IGL will continue to focus on issues of peace, justice and security. His primary goals are to link the IGL to other Tufts departments, maintain IGL’s academic rigor and engage alumni and Tufts administrators.

“I am committed to IGL’s distinctive mission to prepare new generations of leaders and citizens — this mission is even more important and urgent today than it was when IGL was founded three decades ago,” Williams told the Daily in an email. “The prospect of mentoring students and working with IGL staff was irresistible.”

According to Senior International Officer Diana Chigas, who was on the search committee for the IGL Director, more than 110 people applied for the position. She explained that the search committee looked for a director with both practical and academic experience, and that Williams’ experience in both teaching courses and serving as a foreign policy practitioner made him stand out.

“Abi distinguished himself as someone who had all the qualities we were looking for: significant experience in both academia and policy and practice, as well as a strong and demonstrated commitment to teaching and

see LINGUISTICS, page 2

see IGL, page 2

Tufts professor, other researchers win award for sign language database Karen Emmorey, a professor at San Diego State University, said that the database currently has around 1,000 signs. It includes data on subjective frequency, iconicity — which is how closely a sign looks to an English word — and phonological properties, with an attached video of each sign. These factors are all worked into the interactive design of the database, Emmorey ALEXIS SERINO / THE TUFTS DAILY Ariel Goldberg, co-director of the linguistics minor, poses for a por- said. For example, trait in the Tufts University psychology building on Feb. 17. high frequency signs are displayed

by Luke Briccetti with larger icons than low frequency signs, Contributing Writer making them easier to find for users.

Additionally, the database is notable due A group of researchers, including to the lack of comparable databases for ASL, Associate Professor of Psychology Ariel according to Emmorey.

Goldberg and former Tufts graduate student “This is completely novel, there isn’t anyNaomi Caselli, were awarded a National thing like this,” she said. “In fact, there isn’t Science Foundation (NSF) visualization really anything like this in the world.” award for ASL-LEX, an interactive and As a result, ASL-LEX won the 15th annual searchable lexical database for American NSF visualization award in the “Interactive: Sign Language (ASL).

People’s Choice” category. Caselli, who is

Tufts appoints new IGL director

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2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, April 27, 2017

T HE T UFTS D AILY Kathleen Schmidt Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

Jei-Jei Tan Miranda Willson Managing Editors Joe Walsh Executive News Editor Ariel Barbieri-Aghib News Editors Zachary Hertz Gil Jacobson Robert Katz Liam Knox Daniel Nelson Catherine Perloff Emma Steiner Hannah Uebele Charles Bunnell Assistant News Editors Emily Burke Daniel Caron Aneurin Canham-Clyne Juliana Furgala Elie Levine Natasha Mayor Jesse Najarro Minna Trinh Costa Angelakis Executive Features Editor Becca Leibowitz Features Editors Jake Taber Emma Rosenthal Emma Damokosh Assistant Features Editors Zach Essig Elie Levine Jessie Newman Sean Ong Hermes Suen Grace Yuh Eran Sabaner Executive Arts Editor John Gallagher Arts Editors Cassidy Olsen John Fedak Assistant Arts Editors Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Paige Spangenthal Anita Ramaswamy Executive Opinion Editor Stephen Dennison Cartoonists Shannon Geary Noah Kulak Lydia Ra Miranda Chavez Editorialists Julia Faxon Hannah Kahn Lena Novins-Montague Madeleine Schwartz Daniel Weinstein Eddie Samuels Executive Sports Editor Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editors Maddie Payne Maclyn Senear Liam Finnegan Assistant Sports Editors Savannah Mastrangelo Brad Schussel Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman Ray Bernoff Executive Photo Editor Margot Day Staff Photographers Scott Fitchen Lilia Kang Max Lalanne Rachael Meyer Vintus Okwonko Zachary Sebek Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Angelie Xiong Sitong Zhang Ezgi Yazici Executive Video Editor Olivia Ireland Executive Video Admin.

Ana Sophia Acosta Staff Videographer

PRODUCTION Sebastian Torrente Production Director Connor Dale Executive Layout Editors Ezgi Yazici Morgan Berman Layout Editors Jewel Castle Julie Doten Peter Lam Nasrin Lin Brianna Mignano Ellah Nzikoba Emily Sharp Astrid Weng David Westby Sharmitha Yerneni Alice Yoon Peter Lam Executive Graphics Editor Gil Jacobson Zachary Hertz Jack Ronan Arthur Beckel Caroline Bollinger Reena Karasin Bibi Lichauco Katie Martensen Netai Schwartz Nihaal Shah Liora Silkes Dan Strauss Mary Carroll Madhulika Gupta Anna Hirshman Tess Jacobson David Levitsky Ali Mintz Alexis Serino Anahita Sethi Seohyun Shim Hannah Wells Jiayu Xu Vanessa Zighelboim

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BUSINESS Josh Morris

Executive Business Director

tuftsdaily.com

Winners of $100k New Ventures Competition selected

by Gabriel Cano

Contributing Writer

The annual $100k New Ventures Competition — a contest organized by the Gordon Institute’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program that awards funding to several startup teams — selected the winners for this year’s competition two weeks ago.

The three winning teams will all receive capital and other services to kickstart their enterprises, according to Tufts Institute for Innovation Project Administrator Christina Fogarasi. The three tracks that contestants could compete within were healthcare/life sciences, social impact and general/high-tech.

Fogarasi said that 57 teams initially entered the competition, and after screening, more than 20 were selected for live pitches. The finalists were chosen by a panel of judges, most of whom were lawyers, startup founders, professors and venture capitalists.

“Finalist judges determine the winners of the $100k after hearing their pitches … and reading their business plans, which include a financial statement. These judges are then asked to consider these and effectively act as an investor,” Fogarasi told the Daily in an email. “Which teams would they invest in?

What sort of impact will [the] business have?”

Mark Ranalli, associate dean and executive director of the Gordon Institute, noted that the victors typically use their winnings to fund marketing or product development. He added that this year’s competition was very competitive and had strong winners.

“Each year, the quality of the competitors has increased,” Ranalli told the Daily in an email. “We’re seeing greater representation of entries from across the entire university.”

The first-place victory for the healthcare/ life sciences track went to the Tarsier, which is developing a device that could allow doctors to diagnose glaucoma earlier. Earlier diagnosis of the disease, which can lead to total blindness, could allow for improved treatment, according to Tarsier co-founder and senior Andre Newland.

“The current procedure [for diagnosis]

is incredibly flawed.

It kind of works like a video game, where a light shines on a screen and a person clicks a button whenever they think they see a light,” Newland said. “But that clicking on a button creates patient bias … the patient isn’t necessarily in the right state of mind, and it’s easy to lie COURTESY ASHLEY MILLER [regarding one’s vision] Peter Sacco (F’17), the founder of startup Adelante Shoe because no one else Company, speaks to members of 180 Degrees Consulting on actually knows.”

Nov. 17, 2016.

Newland explained that the device would detect when a person families, which means affording healthcare sees the light instead of relying on the person [and] education,” Sacco said. to indicate. He hoped that the added accuraAccording to Sacco, part of Adelante’s goal cy of that procedure will make a significant is to encourage other businesses to be more long-term impact. socially responsible.

“That precision allows us, theoretically, “The bigger picture is that we as a comto have diagnosis up to three years earlier,” pany prove that there’s a huge market for Newland said. products that are produced in a socially In the future, Newland said that responsible way,” Sacco said. “By proving Tarsier hopes to patent its technology and that that’s profitable, we can start to change then affiliate itself with doctors and hospitals. the standards by which other businesses The first-place prize for the social operate. That’s the bigger picture goal — that impact track was given to Adelante Shoe 50 years from now, all companies are doing Co. Adelante was founded by Peter Sacco, this because people care.” a student at The Fletcher School of Law Finally, the general/high-tech winner and Diplomacy graduating in May. Sacco was Epic CleanTec, which builds on-site sysexplained that, two years ago, he set out to tems that can process and treat buildings’ make a business that produces socially-re- wastewater. Aaron Tartakovsky (LA ’12) from sponsible footwear.

Epic said that the company will use its new “What the company stands for, more than funding to improve technology and prepare anything, is paying workers a fair enough for building installations. Tartakovsky noted price to live well for their families in return that their victory in the competition was for work well done,” he said. “It’s the idea testament to the organization’s “unorthodox” of responsible international business and approach. business not having to be a zero sum game, “Our team is attempting to shake up although many times it is.” an industry in which none of us have any Sacco noted that Adelante works with direct connection, and conventional wisdom craftsmen in Guatemala, many of whom are would say we have no place being there,” second- or even third-generation shoe mak- Tartakovsky told the Daily in an email. “We ers. He added that he hopes Adelante can are firm believers in the triple bottom have a positive impact on society. approach to our work, which is to say, a truly “I hope that what happens is that we pay sustainable business must be good for peoour craftsmen enough to live well with their ple, good for the planet, and good for profits.”

Researchers create database allowing for visualization of American Sign Language LINGUISTICS

continued from page 1 based on subjective personal ratings from native signers.

“I’ve been working with these subjective frequency ratings for a long time, where you have to control or think about frequency,” Emmorey said.

Caselli and Emmorey then began to collaborate on creating the database with the help of Goldberg, who has a background in linguistic research, as well as research into how relationships between sounds of speech contribute to language.

Although the database was originally geared towards researchers, the research

and corresponding visualization has been useful to other groups as well, Caselli said.

“As we carried on, it became clear that educators and people learning sign language, whether it’s deaf children or people taking sign language in classes, would also benefit from being able to access the information,” she said. “We wanted to figure out how we could make it more approachable to non-researchers.”

According to Caselli, developing the database came with challenges, particularly in the small details relating to the struggles of not having a written basis for the language.

“One of the challenges and one of the advantages for ASL-LEX, because there is

no way of writing down what each sign is, is trying to keep track of which sign it is that we’re talking about, making sure that there’s not duplicate items,” she said.

ASL-LEX will likely continue to expand with the assistance of funding from a separate NSF grant that the team received to work on the database, according to Goldberg. The researchers hope to continue psycholinguistic and behavioral research using the funding, he said.

“Right now we have a little bit under a thousand signs, and part of what the money from the grant will go towards is adding 1,500 more signs to the database,” Goldberg said.

New IGL director hopes to emphasize links between Institute and Tufts departments IGL

continued from page 1 mentoring students, and a collegial personality and approach,” Chigas told the Daily in an email.

Fletcher School Professor of International Politics Richard Shultz, also a member of the search committee, said that the search began last fallx and the committee made its decision last month.

He said that Williams stood out given his mix of experience, and that Williams is a

notable and well-recognized figure in the international relations field.

“It was really rewarding to see that Tufts could attract someone like this,” Shultz said.

“He will be terrific for IGL.” Chigas said that, in addition to teaching EPIIC and leading the IGL, Williams will likely reach out to Tufts faculty and students to better understand the role that the IGL should play.

“He will also be exploring ways to enhance interest and participation in IGL’s activities

among a broader and more diverse range of Tufts students,” Chigas said.

Williams emphasized that he is looking forward to returning to Tufts. He particularly wants to encourage the IGL to connect academics, policy and the private sector.

“IGL is at an important juncture in its history, and the best institutions value continuity, while embracing change,” he said.

“The work that IGL carries out, on behalf of students, must be one of the attributes that underlines the excellence of Tufts.”

Features

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Activism at Tufts Part IV: Activism, exhausting for students, has pushed change at Tufts

3 tuftsdaily.com

Rebecca Redelmeier Tufts by Numbers:

Graduation inequalities

W NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Provost David Harris delivers an announcement after the noncompliance protest at the Stand with Survivors at Tufts: Rally for Title IX Compliance outside Ballou Hall on May 1, 2014.

by Liam Knox News Editor

Editor’s notes: This series was reported

by The Tufts Daily’s Investigative Team.

Reena Karasin and Cathy Perloff contributed reporting.

This is the final segment of a four-part series exploring the past, present and future of activism at Tufts.

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.

In the spring of 2013, students signed an open letter demanding a re-evaluation of Tufts’ sexual misconduct code. University President Anthony Monaco responded by creating the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Task Force.

About a year later, Tufts was found non-compliant with Title IX by the federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for the university’s poor handling of a 2010 sexual assault case, according to a Boston Globe article. The university initially disputed the OCR’s finding.

Ultimately, Tufts’ policy was expanded and revised after students voiced demands, not just in the setting of the task force, but through demonstrations and action as well.

Student action as a catalyst for change Many students saw the university’s official rejection of the federal condemnation as a way for the university to avoid taking responsibility for the shortcomings in its methods of dealing with sexual misconduct. In response, over 100 student activists marched in protest outside Ballou Hall in the spring of 2014 demanding, among other things, a more comprehensive review of the university’s sexual misconduct policy.

According to a May 2014 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the protests resulted in a meeting between activists and administrators in Ballou, in which they discussed “the university’s interaction with the Education Department and its handling of sexual-misconduct reports,” and reached some agreements.

According to Allyson Blackburn, a member of Action for Sexual Assault Prevention at Tufts (ASAP) who sat on the task force and attended the meeting, it was only through these protests that any comprehensive change came about, even though the previous years’ meetings had supposedly been focused on making that change happen.

“Honestly, I think we accomplished so much more in that six-hour meeting in the basement of Ballou than we did in a year on the task force,” Blackburn, a senior, told the Daily.

Blackburn said that this is in part because on most task forces, administrators hold final say over the direction and proposals the members take, which she feels can be used to contain and undermine the frustrations of students who actually deal with the issues being addressed.

“If you’re someone like me who’s survived violence here and you’re trying to make sense of it, or if you are an undocumented immigrant trying to make sense of your experience here, or if you’re trying to understand why all your friends of color are dropping out of school, that’s where the distinction lies between administrative understandings and student activist understandings,” she said. “I think some administrators care more about hearing those narratives than others … The experience didn’t have to be unfortunate — it became that way.” see ACTIVISM, page 4

COLUMN GRAPHIC

6-year graduation rate by ethnic group

SOURCE: TUFTS UNIVERSITY FACT BOOK GRAPHIC BY REBECCA REDELMEIER

hether in mere weeks or many many years, the days of test-taking, essay-writing and finals will end for each and every Tufts student.

Graduation will come, and we’ll put grades behind us. This week, in anticipation for this big, exciting, scary day, I took a look at graduation rates at Tufts and within Massachusetts.

Each year, Tufts publishes the fouryear and six-year graduation rates for the graduating class, including breakdowns that examine the rates by gender, race and ethnicity. These statistics are also available on a state-wide and national scale. Examining these graduation rates, I explored how graduation rates differ within Tufts and between Tufts and the rest of the nation.

At Tufts, the overall four-year graduation rate has hovered right around 87 percent for the past 10 years and the six-year graduation rate has stayed around 93 percent. In the gender breakdown, female students are consistently at least one percent more likely to graduate than male students.

In the race and ethnic group break downs, the distinctions are a little larger. White and Asian/Asian-American students have had six-year graduation rates at Tufts above 90 percent for the past decade. However, Hispanic/Latino students and Black/African-American students’ six-year graduation rates at Tufts have gone through greater fluctuation over the past decade and are typically lower.

The differences between racial and ethnic group graduation rates are reflective not only of historical power structures and privileges, but of state-wide and national trends as well. According to research done by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on graduating classes of 2013, four-year private colleges in Massachusetts have a 75.5 percent sixyear graduation rate. The NCES, which tracks the completion for first-time, full-time, degree seeking undergraduate students, reports that the statewide gender and racial breakdown is reflective yet also more polarized than the rates recorded by Tufts. Just at fouryear private colleges in Massachusetts, on the upper end of the spectrum, 84.5 percent of Asian/Asian-American students were graduated within six years while 57.9 percent of American Indian students graduated within six years.

Examining the discrepancies between the graduation rates of different groups, we see that walking across the stage at graduation isn’t of equal opportunity to all. That Tufts has a less extreme difference in graduation rates between ethnic and racial groups when compared to state-wide trends is heartening but cannot be all-forgiving.

We cannot ignore that inequality exists on our campus in graduation rates.

Rebecca Redelmeier is a sophomore majoring in English. Rebecca can be reached at rebecca.redelmeier@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Thursday, April 27, 2017

tuftsdaily.com

Students critique effectiveness, value of administration task forces ACTIVISM

continued from page 3 Following the protests — and Tufts’ subsequent reversal of their decision to dispute the OCR’s findings — the university’s Sexual Misconduct Policy was expanded dramatically at the recommendation of the task force.

Blackburn asserted that this progress would “absolutely not” have been made without the pressure and labor of student activists.

“The OCR would have had a field day if students hadn’t intervened sooner,” she said.

In addition, Blackburn said that students on the task force who urged critical reflection and urgent action were patronized and ignored by the administrators and faculty who had final authority.

Blackburn added that when students on the task force asked about the possibility of compensation for their work, their contributions were trivialized by administrators.

“Administrators compared doing an administrative task force, writing policy and coming up with education initiatives for the student body to being a part of a pep band, and then saying it was unfair to compensate students on the sexual misconduct task force because they do not compensate students on other task forces,” she recalled. “[This] to me is a system that is deeply exploitative of student labor.”

In an email to the Daily, Tufts General Counsel Mary Jeka, who co-chaired the task force, acknowledged disagreements on the task force but said that student input was appreciated.

“Notwithstanding differences of opinion, discussions were constructive and collegial, overall,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to have committed students who worked alongside staff and faculty to adopt strengthened policies and procedures for the Tufts community.”

But Blackburn said those constructive discussions would likely have yielded minimal change if not for the student action following the OCR’s finding in 2014.

“Frankly, I don’t care if administrators like or dislike student activism, or think that it doesn’t necessarily benefit them,” she said. “Student activism works, and it’s shaped the way Tufts currently exists.”

Activist burnout and the exhaustion of going unheard Last February, an article in the Brown Daily Herald discussed the toll of activist work on students’ grades. Earlier this semester, an article in the Tufts Observer illuminated the ways in which student activism at Tufts has been harmful not only to activists’ academic performance, but also to their mental health and general well-being. This pattern of exhaustion and frustration among student activists — which Observer writer Wilson Wong aptly titled “The Cost of Student Resistance” — is a phenomenon known as activist burnout, and for many student activists, it’s simply a part of life at Tufts.

“Activist burnout is so real, it’s honestly depressing,” Tufts alum Andrew Núñez (A ’15) said. “That’s something people don’t talk about, what kind of impact this has on students.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students who spend 16 hours or more per week working outside the classroom have significantly lower GPAs than those who spend 15 or fewer.

Sophomore Parker Breza is quoted in the Observer article as saying “student activists are unpaid consultants for the university. Our work is a full-time job.”

University of Iowa Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies Cassie Barnhardt, however, argues that asking administrators to take on this work would be detrimental to the growth of the institution.

“The corporatization of the university … is a structural arrangement that reduces service, and pushes much of the organization of the institution onto administrators and moves students and faculty away from that,” she said. “You need some of that, but pushing these things out to the distance they [are at] creates these

cleavages where the burdens become so fragmented that students are looking to others to do that work when it’s actually a shared responsibility.”

Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell and Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon said they value student activists’ role in helping the university move forward.

“If the question is do we learn from our advocates, the answer is yes,” Campbell said.

Organizing and activist work is often even more straining for students of color, as much of the efforts of marginalized communities are to first ensure equal access to resources and opportunities.

Tufts alumna and former co-president of Tufts Pan Afrikan Alliance Jameelah Morris (A’13) said that her experience with activism as a woman of color was especially exhausting.

“Historically, students of color and [those] from marginalized communities on campus are not prioritized,” she said.

“So then you have the same students who have to struggle just to live on campus having to also fight for more resources and equal treatment.”

According to McMahon, the Office of Student Affairs has undertaken efforts to educate administrators and other university employees about the needs and experiences of students, especially those from marginalized communities.

“One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my team is continuously build people’s awareness of the current college experience,” she said in an October 2016 interview. “I think it follows that working with staff who are generally conversant in the stuff that students are thinking about [will improve relations].

And that’s just a different approach than we’ve done here before.”

Activists hope for more cooperation, but stress administrative responsibility Campbell told the Daily that while she may not agree with activists on many issues, she is respectful of their right to “express their views.”

“I think the community is at worst tolerant and at best welcomes people expressing their views,” she said. “If they cross a line where they’re violating a policy or making it hard for the campus to function we feel we have to take an action, whether it’s discipline or something beyond that, but mostly it’s been opportunities to interact or quasi-negotiate and end the disruption so that we can move on.”

For Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) member Nicole Joseph, this desire to “move on” rather than engage with student concerns is indicative of many central administrators’ adversarial attitude toward the work done by her group and others like it. Joseph said that following a TLC action advocating for workers’ rights staged at a Jumbo Days event in April 2016 the group received no offer from the university inquiring to discuss their concerns.

“We only have communication in the sense that if they think we’re about to [stage an action], they might send us an email asking us if we’re doing it and outlining the disciplinary measures we could receive,” Joseph said.

According to Joseph and many other student activists who spoke to the Daily for this article, this kind of reactionary communication comprises the majority of the dialogue between activist groups and the university.

Tufts Climate Action (TCA) member Shana Gallagher said that she hopes a more collaborative approach can be taken to pursue progress at Tufts, and believes that while the initiative should lie primarily with administrators, activists share some responsibility for the tension.

“I understand that it’s often easier for activists to paint it as more black and white, that administration is bad and we’re good,” Gallagher, a senior, said. “I think there’s some responsibility on both sides to repair this relationship … but from what I’ve seen, I think that maybe administration should be putting more effort into coming up with tools and strategies to try to bridge this gap better.”

Thursday, April 27, 2017

ARTS&LIVING

National Endowment for the Arts among programs Trump proposes to cut

by Setenay Mufti

Assistant Arts Editor

With daily breaking news and general commentary on President Donald Trump’s positions, plans and actions, one proposal threatens to slip under the radar: the intent to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in a new federal budget plan. The plan would also end funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Trump’s first budget proposal, titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” would cut all $148 million of the NEA’s current budget.

That funding makes up approximately 0.003 percent of the national budget of $4 trillion, and costs 46 cents per person per year. The blueprint, released on March 16, will in turn increase funding to the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. Although the Republican Party has a long history of cutting funding for the arts, this announcement marks the first time a president has suggested these programs be eliminated entirely.

Almost instantly, directors and spokespeople for museums, arts advocacy groups and public radio stations have expressed their opposition to Trump’s position. Non-profit literacy advocacy group PEN America, alongside other organizations including Daily Kos and the Asian American Arts Alliance, created a petition demanding that Congress reject the budget — it has already received over 200,000 signatures. In Boston, directors of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Massachusetts

Institute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Harvard Art Museums and the Museum of Fine Arts jointly penned an open letter advocating for the NEA and its influence in the arts world, although it does not explicitly reference Trump. Most recently, the Boston Ballet released a video on April 19 on its website and Facebook page called “Dance Is.” Choreographed by Principal Dancer John Lam, the work features 22 dancers showing, through ballet, what their work means to them. Viewers are encouraged to share the video in support of the NEA and its preservation.

The reality is that many of the most famous and prestigious arts and radio organizations, like National Public Radio or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, can weather the federal cutoff. Most at risk are the smaller, local organizations that pen no famous dissent letters but play instrumental roles in their communities.

The NEA in particular is the only funder in the country that offers arts grants in every congressional district. And even though its current funds are modest, its funding makes a big difference. Berea College in Berea, Ky. received $30,000 last fiscal year to fund free art programs for preschool-age children in rural communities who are otherwise isolated from larger creative programs. The Hydaburg Cooperative Association of the Haida tribe in Alaska relies on similar funding to pay local artists to carve traditional totem poles, preserving a native tradition that has existed for thousands of years.

Vermont’s famous Poetry Out Loud initiative uses federal funds to run a massive state-wide high school poetry com-

petition. Alex Aldrich, who until recently was the Vermont Arts Council’s executive director, told the Washington Post, “More students participate [in Poetry Out Loud] than play organized high school football … This program cuts across all ethnic, socio-economic and religious lines.”

Similar arguments have been made for the preservation of the CPB. Public radio provides an invaluable free service to millions of Americans who might not necessarily receive critical and relevant news through other means. CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison released a statement, noting, “There is no viable substitute for federal funding that ensures Americans have universal access to public media’s education and information programming and services.”

However, on the day of the budget release, the Director of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney defended the White House’s position, calling the proposed budget a “hard-power budget.” Mulvaney said in an interview on MSNBC, “Can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs? The answer was no.” The CPB received $445 million in federal funding as of last year, 0.01 percent of the entire federal budget.

Mulvaney failed to acknowledge that public news and arts initiatives are invaluable in keeping communities informed and engaged in the political, social and cultural movements across the country. Although it will be up to Congress to draft the final budget, the unprecedented position of Trump and his team indicates an ignorance, or unwillingness, to preserve a communal cultural stronghold of the United States that has enriched millions since 1965.

5 tuftsdaily.com

Fury Sheron E for Everyone

The Stanley Parable

W

hy should you play “The Stanley Parable” (2013)? Because it makes you sincerely, wholeheartedly want to play through the same short series of absurd events over and over until you fully realize the awesome power of office tedium, game in-jokes and devastatingly sarcastic fourth wall breaking.

What started out as a “Half-Life 2” (2014) mod was remade at full-scale in the Source engine by a very small team called Galactic Cafe. Within three days of release, Galactic Cafe sold 100,000 copies, which was far more than it thought it would sell as an indie developer. Also, to the team’s surprise, “The Stanley Parable” was nominated for four BAFTAs. It was clearly well-received critically, so let’s talk about what it really is.

You are Stanley. You love doing your job, pushing buttons. This is your story, and throughout it, you will be presented with choices. Your every action will be narrated by the talented Kevan Brighting, a very British man. Here’s the catch though, Stanley.

He doesn’t just talk about you out loud.

Sometimes he talks directly to you, and you have no idea whether to trust him, whether he’s a friend or enemy or how to react. You also can listen to what he tells you to do or not. It’s up to you, Stanley… or is it?

By now, you’re probably asking yourself just what kind of game this is, and for you Wikipedia-types, the answer is that it’s a first-person piece of interactive fiction with a lot of satire and replayability. Many people in the gaming community affectionately refer to such narrative-rich experiences as ‘walking simulators’ because the game is compelled forward by in-world navigation rather than combat, solving puzzles or other more tangible mechanics. Also, you can’t jump.

I want to avoid talking about what actually happens in this game, because experiencing it for yourself is the entire point of this genre. However, its website simply claims: “The Stanley Parable is an exploration of story, games, and choice. Except the story doesn’t matter, it might not even be a game, and if you ever actually do have a choice, well let me know how you did it.”

The explanation is inarguably a confusing yet simultaneously compelling sentence. If you’ve ever wondered to yourself, “Just what is a game?,” going through “The Stanley Parable” will probably help you draw your own line, and that’s why it’s so special.

“The Stanley Parable” is available for purchase on Steam for $14.99 and is frequently on sale for $4.99. You can also download the free demo at stanleyparable.com. Available platforms are Windows OS X and Linux. The average playtime for this game is 2–4 hours, but because one of the achievements is playing the game for the entirety of a Tuesday and another is not playing the game at all for five years, who knows how much you’ll actually end up playing it. However long you do though, I assure you it’ll be an experience like no other.

Fury Sheron is a junior majoring in Japanese. Fury can be reached at lahna. sheron@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Thursday, April 27, 2017

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SURE, AT FIRST I WAS A LITTLE TAKEN ABACK

BY THE WHOLE PEEING STANDING UP THING. BUT I TAUGHT HIM TO THROW A STICK AND NOW HANGING OUT WITH HIM IS THE BEST PART OF MY DAY.

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Thursday, April 27, 2017 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Offices of Residential Life & Learning & Facilities

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Residence Hall Closing Bulletin

617-627-3248  reslife@tufts.edu  https://students.tufts.edu/student-affairs/residential-life

End of Semester Schedule: Continuous Quiet Hours: Begin at 11pm Tues., May 2nd - Fri., May 12th Reading Days: Wed. May 3rd & Thurs. May 4th Final Exams: Fri., May 5th - Fri., May 12th

CLOSING CHECKLIST Staffed and unstaffed halls must complete this checklist. You may be charged for damages including, but not limited to, furniture, walls, floors, ceilings, closets, etc. Failure to properly check out of your room will result in a $50 fee assessed to your student account. Also, failure to properly clean your room will result in an Excessive Cleaning Charge of $250.00.

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 Make sure all furniture is accounted

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for in your room.

Clean out micro-fridge and contact TSR for pickup instructions.

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Empty and clean all closets, dressers, desks, and drawers.

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Donate unwanted items to Drop locations on campus.

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Complete the Room Check-Out Process with your RA or ORLL Staff member. Failure to do so will result in a $50.00 improper check-out charge assessed to your student account.

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7

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Thursday, April 27, 2017

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Ezgi: “He’s drunk when he’s sober.”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Accepting that T-Pain cancelled

Wednesday’s Solution

FOR RELEASE APRIL 27, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Letter from school 6 Tabloid fodder 12 Pop singer Spektor 14 Safari guide’s weapon 16 Saws with wisdom 17 Auburn University’s avian battle cry 18 Jewish ceremony for a newborn son 19 Photographer’s buy 21 Elastic wood 22 __ fide 23 Four-time discus gold medalist 24 “The Gold-Bug” author 25 Admin. aides 27 Bentley of “Ghost Rider” 28 1930s N.Y. Giants star Lefty 30 Earn 31 Pay attention to 33 Land mentioned in the spiritual “Go Down, Moses” 34 1959 Gidget player 36 Classic V-8 38 What the nose knows 39 “That’s amazing!”

42 Blow one’s top 43 Chum 44 Alarm 46 Remote button 47 Ohio aviation city 50 Literary alter ego 51 Comic strip outburst 52 Matures 53 Treated with a pack 54 Nabisco chocolate treat 56 Extra number 58 Hose connections 59 Tottenham tint 60 John of “Fuller House” 61 Gives a hand

By Neville Fogarty

DOWN 1 Source of party gifts 2 *One of a romantic dozen 3 Versus 4 Tries to unearth 5 Storm’s dir.

6 Learns new technology, say 7 __ Islands: Danish archipelago 8 *Neighborhood TV host?

9 __ crossroads 10 The Stooges frontman 11 Remove from consideration 13 Regarding 15 Banister post 17 *Computer network component 20 Took another plunge?

26 *Many a dorm accommodation 29 Vat filler 32 Last part 33 Istanbul : Constantinople :: Tokyo : __

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Wednesday’s Solution Wednesday’s Puzzle Solved

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

34 Nurse 35 Extra purchase 36 Boot reinforcements 37 Like some e-readers 39 “Outstanding!”

40 Diner call ... and what the answer to each starred clue literally contains

4/27/17

41 Gardening tools 42 Lab units 43 Way around the city 45 Chewing gum ingredient 48 “We __ please” 49 Tiny bit of time: Abbr.

55 Airport near Citi Field: Abbr.

57 Masked drama

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Opinion EDITORIAL

The decision on Greek life and why transparency matters As the semester comes to an end, the future of one important institution on campus still remains uncertain: Greek life. One potential reason the issue has not been resolved is a lack of pressure on the people responsible for making the decision, perhaps because many students do not know who has the power to determine Greek life’s future.

One such group is the Committee for Student Life (CSL), which is mostly known for hearing appeals of disciplinary decisions and cases. However, its mandate also includes “concern for student circumstances, activities and affairs” and “[ensuring] that the ideals, principles and ethical values characteristic of academic institutions are maintained.” This could include deliberations over the future of Greek life.

Indeed, according to a Feb. 27 Daily arti-

cle, CSL Co-Chair Tafari Duncan, a senior, gave a committee update to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, saying the CSL was still reviewing Greek life and the language of one of the university’s social policies.

In addition to the CSL, many other administrative bodies could be involved in the decision over the fate of Greek life, but exactly which ones are involved is unknown. For example, University President Anthony Monaco created the Student Life Review Committee on Dec. 22, 2016 to “address social issues at Tufts” in light of the Greek life scandal broken by the Tufts Observer in November 2016.

It is unclear if the Student Life Review Committee will be taking on some of the authority previously given to the CSL, if it will deliberate with the CSL to

make a decision on Greek life, if these bodies will make independent decisions or if they will even be the ones to make decisions.

Other groups that are presumably involved with the future of Greek life are the Office for Campus Life, the Office of Student Affairs, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and the Office of the President. Again, it is unclear what each office’s responsibility is on this matter or who students should be lobbying if they are in favor of one outcome over another.

The issue of Greek life has been polarizing, but if the student body can agree on something, it is that it is time to take the matter out of limbo and make a decision with as much transparency and student input as possible.

UNICORN FRAPPUCCINO

NOAH KULAK The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself.

Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

9 tuftsdaily.com

Anna Tolette The Elephant in the Room

All the cool things I will never discover

I

have never been particularly gifted at math and science. In fourth grade, I only got an “S” for satisfactory (instead of very good or excellent) on my multiplication tables and definitely couldn’t do the “Mad Minute” math worksheets as quickly as other kids could. Heck though, I was in all the advanced learning programs for reading and writing and could rip through a Wordmasters test like no one else. This isn’t me bragging about my elementary school academic prowess, but rather a long-winded way of saying that my mind has always been more oriented to language and literature than long division and logic. If you cut open my skull, I feel like the right side of my brain would be a nice, plump grape while the left side would look like a raisin.

Last night, my suitemate came in with her finished cell biology project that she had been working on for the entire semester. I looked at the poster, which gave detailed explanations of hypertension in cells and something called phosphorylation, and I could honestly not understand the majority of what it was talking about.

Granted, I haven’t been taking a cell bio class all semester and while that may be the Rosetta Stone to deciphering the meaning, it dawned upon me that the things that we end up studying in college become so specialized and specific. I am a film and media studies major focusing on communications and a sociology minor. In other words, I have gotten really good at avoiding numbers like a plague. It’s not that I’m so bad at math, it’s that it takes so much more effort to get to a level where I am confident in my abilities, unlike my efforts in the humanities, so I prefer not to do it.

I think that this mindset that I, and surely others, have is problematic. If the point of a liberal arts education is to be able to get a well rounded education in all fields, I’m really not doing so great because I haven’t touched a math class in two years and the idea of coding terrifies me. It’s such a different world that I feel like if you’re not naturally disposed to the numerical and rational, there are limited options for those pesky math and natural science credits. I would be so interested in taking marine biology, but BIO-13 is a prerequisite. I have avoided the notorious pre-med ‘weed-out’ class in the name of my GPA but, in doing so, have closed the door to many curiosities. I think that the whole concept of intro classes being designed to be ‘weed-out’ classes deters many from even dipping their toe in.

I’m bummed that I’m going to have to use one of my credits taking Math of Social Choice because it’s the only math class here that is notable for non-math people.

We are so focused on what we are good at that we don’t expand our interests beyond what is comfortable. And the thing is, while I can write this whole column about how I wish I could branch out, I know that I’m not going to because sticking to what you know is the safer option.

Anna D. Tolette is a sophomore marjoring in film & media studies. Anna can be reached at anna.tolette@tufts.edu.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Thursday, April 27, 2017

2017 BIRGER LECTURE SERIES

“Cities in the Developing World” Presented By: Edward Glaeser Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor Glaeser teaches microeconomics theory, and occasionally urban and public economics. He has served as Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government,

Professor of Economics

Harvard University

and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He has published dozens of papers on cities economic growth, law, and economics. In particular, his work has focused

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Required pre-departure meetings: Non-Tufts Study Abroad Tufts Programs Abroad all meetings in Braker Hall 001

all meetings in Braker Hall 001

Non-Tufts Africa/Asia/ Caribbean/Latin America/Middle East Wed., 5/3 @ 10:00 am

Tufts in London**/Madrid** Oxford**/Paris**/Tübingen Wed., 5/3 @ 1:00 pm

Non-Tufts UK/Ireland/ Australia/New Zealand Wed., 5/3 @ 3:00 pm Non-Tufts Europe Thurs., 5/4 @ 1:00 pm

Tufts in Chile**/China/ Japan Thurs., 5/4 @ 3:00 pm **for those who did not attend the group presentation with the Resident Director

PLEASE NOTE:

on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

If you cannot make your scheduled non-Tufts meeting, please attend another non-Tufts meeting. If you cannot make your scheduled Tufts meeting, please attend the other Tufts meeting.

5:00—6:30 p.m.

Meetings are required.

Tisch 304

Questions? Call x7-5871.

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th 27

Thursday, April 27, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

S p o rts

Jumbos to face final test against No. 4 Williams WOMEN'S TENNIS

continued from back team I’ve ever had – and there are never any issues with people not getting along.”

The other three seniors who starred on Saturday included Calabro, Meltzer and Hayashi. Hayashi consolidated Tufts’ lead with a double bagel victory over Morse.

Meltzer won her match against Haffer 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3, while Calabro won 6-1, 6-0 over Weeks at No. 4. The victory was sealed earlier as Karamercan defeated Tang 6-1, 6-0. In fact, no Jumbo gave up more than three games in what was a comfortable outing for the team.

For only the fourth time this season, Tufts failed to record a victory in doubles play on Friday as they eventually went down 6-3 against No. 7 Bowdoin. While Karamercan put Tufts on the board in the first position against with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory against senior Joulia Likhanskaia, who is ranked 49th nationally, it was not to be for Tufts. First, Bowdoin senior Samantha Stalder recovered from 6-1 first set loss to take the next two 6-2, 6-4 against Iwasaki, before first-year Tasha Christ sealed a more straightforward 6-4, 7-5 victory over Wiley.

Meltzer (6-4, 6-0) and Calabro (6-1, 6-2), however, were able to pick up consolation victories in the fifth and sixth position over senior Pilar Giffenig and first-year Sasa Jovanovic respectively.

The defeat, according to Meltzer, provided the impetus for the team in its two recent 9-0 victories.

“I think it was a good wake-up call for us because we had just come off a great win against Amherst, and when we came out against Bowdoin we were a little bit flat while they were playing at the top of their game,” Meltzer said. “We need to be ready to go on every time we step out there no matter what team we’re playing, and we took that to heart and that’s how we were able to come out on Saturday against Hamilton and win 9-0 handily.”

On April 19, the Jumbos overcame the resilient Amherst Mammoths in a 5-4 split.

Wiley and Popa fell 8-2 in the second position, but Iwasaki and Keller levelled the scores soon after with a comfortable 8-3 victory over seniors Megan Adamo and Claire Carpenter. Karamercan and Louks recorded an 8-4 win over sophomore Kelsey Chen and first-year Camille Smuckler to

hand Tufts the advantage going into the singles matches.

Iwasaki was unable to follow up her doubles victory in the singles as she lost 7-6 (4), 6-0 to first-year Anya Ivenitsky in the third position. However, Louks then put Tufts back in front with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 victory over Chen. Amherst simply did not go away as Smuckler, ranked 34th nationally, defeated Karamercan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first position to make it three-apiece. However, Wiley and Calabro won their matches at the fourth and sixth to seal victory for Tufts.

The team’s final regular season match takes place at No. 4 Williams on Saturday, before it heads back to the same venue for the NESCAC Championship a week later.

According to Calabro, the team is looking forward to the challenge.

“I think our team is in great shape for our last match of the season, no matter who it is we play (Williams or any other team),” Calabro told the Daily in an email. “In my four years, our team has never beat Williams in a dual match before, so I think everyone (especially the seniors) are hungry to get the chance this year, since this is by far the best team I’ve been on while at Tufts.”

11

Vinny Donofrio Vinny's Variety Pack

Rookie fantasy studs

T

he draft is TONIGHT. Holy sh*t am I excited. There are a lot of implications that come from the NFL draft: position battles, division superiority, Super Bowl frontrunners, etc. The most fun ones though, in my opinion, are the fantasy football implications. Every year, there are a handful of fantasy studs that emerge from the rookie class. Hidden in each draft, there’s the next Odell Beckham, Ezekiel Elliot, Michael Thomas or Dak Prescott. It’s hard to predict who the next star is going to be, especially when you don’t even know what team they are on yet. Unfortunately, this is my last column (I think) so I have to do this now. Enjoy!

Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU Writing this column is hard because the players I pick have to be good no matter what team they are on. Fournette is that type of player, given the teams that will draft him. There is no way that he is going to make it past the Panthers’ number eight pick, which realistically leaves him to be drafted by either the Panthers, Jags or Jets. On any one of these teams, Fournette will dominate.

He’ll become the number-one ball-carrier and will have excellent backs to compliment him — the perfect formula for a good fantasy running back.

O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama O.J. Howard is an absolute football machine. He is strong, quick, tall and has terrific hands. He is a match-up nightmare and can play anywhere on the offensive side of the ball. Before the combine, he was projected to go sometime in the first round — sometimes even as late as the 23rd pick (God willing). Now though, there is no question that he will be gone in the top 10.

It literally does not matter which team Howard gets drafted by, he will absolutely dominate the NFL. David Njoku, TE, Miami Njoku is almost as good as Howard.

He’s a little slower, a little smaller and a little weaker, but he is far more athletic.

Njoku is that tight end that surfaces once in a blue moon. He just happens to be surfacing at the same time as O.J. Howard, which moves Njoku’s draft stock down a bit. This means that he can literally be taken by any team from pick 6-32 — I don’t think even the experts have a clue of where he will go.

One thing is for certain, wherever he ends up, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

Chris Godwin, WR, Penn State Okay, so here is my dark horse.

Honestly, I didn’t know much about Godwin until a friend from Pennsylvania literally would not shut up about him.

Godwin is a deadly combination of quick, strong and tall. Most importantly, however, Godwin is a playmaker.

When the game is on the line, and you need a guy to get the job done, Godwin is that guy. He excels under pressure and tore up the turf in all of his bowl games. In the NFL, where every game feels like a primetime game, Godwin will be a star. If he gets drafted to the right team, don’t be afraid to spend a last round pick on him.

Vinny Donofrio is a senior majoring in clinical psychology. Vinny can be reached at vincent.donofrio@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Thursday, April 27, 2017

WOMEN'S TENNIS

Tufts cruises past Trinity, Hamilton in pair of 9-0 wins

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year Katherine Wiley dives to return a shot during Tufts’ 5-4 win against Amherst on April 19.

by Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editor

Tufts moved to 13-4 with a pair of victories over Trinity and Hamilton. These came on the back of a loss to Bowdoin and a victory over

Amherst. With the Trinity result, the program records the most regular-season wins since the 2010-11 season, in which it recorded 13.

“I’m not really looking at wins and losses right now, I’m looking more at how we’re improving as a team,” coach Kate Bayard

said. “I’m impressed with the team, certainly at some of the [wins] they pulled out over solid teams, but I’m more impressed with their work ethic and how eager they are to get better with each match.”

This feat was achieved on Tuesday, as Tufts claimed two 9-0 victories by romping to victory at Trinity in the penultimate regular season match. The Jumbos’ leading doubles pair sophomore Mina Karamercan and junior Lauren Louks got the team going with an 8-0 victory over junior Vanja Babunski and first-year Julia Brogan.

Sophomores Tomo Iwasaki and Otilia Popa then moved Tufts two ahead, winning 8-2 against first-years Jillian Winer and Krista Jiranek. Senior co-captains Alexa Meltzer and Conner Calabro then quickly followed with an 8-1 victory of their own in the third position.

Iwasaki put Tufts in an almost unassailable position when she defeated Jiranek at number three without dropping a single game. The Jumbos locked up the win when Louks’ opponent Brogan retired in the second singles position down 6-0, 3-0. Karamercan continued her strong season by dispatching Babunski 6-2, 6-0. Calabro then followed with a 6-1, 6-0 victory of her own. Classmate Chelsea Hayashi maintained her unbeaten run in singles play this year (4-0) with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against junior Sara Curtis. To wrap up the match as a contest, Meltzer came from behind to defeat Winer 4-6, 6-2, 10-3.

“I was most impressed yesterday with how much confidence very single person played with,” Bayard said. “What I’ve been telling them is a mid-court ball is a midcourt ball no matter who you’re playing, and if we can continue to treat it the same way regardless of what team we’re playing, then we’re in great shape.”

The Jumbos commemorated Senior Day on Saturday with an emphatic 9-0 sweep of the Hamilton Continentals. Four of the team’s five seniors suited up to play in their final tennis match on Tufts’ grounds.

Bayard rotated her third doubles position pairing as senior Jacqueline Baum teamed up with sophomore Julia Keller to beat sophomore Claudia Morse and first-year Iona Forrester 8-0. It was business as usual in the other two doubles pairings, as Karamercan and Louks continued their fine partnership with an 8-1 victory over senior Winnie Tang and sophomore Jane Haffer. At No. 2, Wiley and Popa defeated senior Claire Keyte and sophomore Samantha Weeks 8-5.

Speaking about the contribution of the seniors, Bayard was quick to praise the ethic they embodied.

“All five of the seniors have been amazing role models in terms of their commitment to the team and how much they’ve taken ownership of the culture,” Bayard said. “It speaks to their leadership when you’ve a team of 14 people – which is the largest see WOMEN'S TENNIS, page 11

MEN'S GOLF

Golf finishes regular season in at Wildcat Invitational

by Liam Finnegan

Assistant Sports Editor

On Saturday and Sunday, the men’s golf team competed in their last tournament of the spring season in the Wildcat Spring Invitational at Cranston Country Club in Cranston, R.I. The team played well over the course of the two days, and it was a proper send-off for senior tri-captain, Owen Elliott.

On Saturday, the Jumbos had a good performance in the first round of the tournament. Elliott shot Tufts’s best round for the first day with a 76, finishing the day tied for third place. Junior tri-captain Taylor Nordan was only two strokes behind with a score of 78, tied for 12th heading into the second round. First-year Brandon Karr carded an 80 to finish tied for 23rd. Sophomore Justin Feldman’s 81 (tied for 29th) and junior tri-captain Aaron Corn’s 87 (tied for 62nd) rounded out the scoring for the Jumbos. Over the course of the first round, the team accumulated 315 total team points, the fourth lowest score out of the 17 competing teams. There was just a six-stroke gap between fourth place Tufts and first place Western New England University heading into finalround action.

On Sunday, the team saw a big improvement in the second round, with each of the five Jumbos scoring within the 70s.

Elliott led the team once again, shooting a team-low of 74, but it was a bittersweet moment; this was Elliott’s final tournament as a Jumbo. However, he ended his career in a great way. He finished with the lowest individual combined score (150) out of the 85 golfers competing at the tournament to take individual medalist

honors. The threetime All-NESCAC Conference Second Team veteran sealed out his time as a Tufts golfer by draining a five-foot putt on the 18th hole. Elliott also continued his streak of shooting consistently within the 70s, a streak he started in the fall and has continued for 11 rounds.

“It’s definitely sad, but it hasn’t hit yet … it was definitely one of those moments that you know will be meaningful when you look back, so I tried my best to take it all COURTESY BRIAN GOLDEN in and really enjoy Owen Elliott makes the final putt of his career to take first in the match on April 23. the round,” Elliot said. “I think the saddest part for me is that my days as the tournament and overtook Rhode patient, as, like every two day event, a teammate are over. I am going to play Island College, which was in third it is a 36-hole marathon. The guys did competitive golf after school, but that is going into the second round. Tufts only just that.” an individual endeavor. There is some- lost to Babson College’s score of 619 Overall, it was a successful spring seathing special about being on a team, and Western New England’s 612. son for Tufts golf. The team placed high committing to each other and pursuing Coach Brian Golden lauded the in all their tournaments, taking first place a collective goal, that I am sincerely Jumbos’ efforts at the tournament. at two of them and never falling below going to miss.”

“Once again, the playing conditions fourth place in any tournament.

Corn stepped up his game in for the first round were miserable, sim“The team played great [this season],” the second round and shot a 77, a ilar to both rounds of the Hampton Inn Elliott said. “We have had so little practice 10-stroke improvement from his first- Invitational,” Golden told the Daily in time this spring that our results are close round score of 87. Feldman and Karr an email. “The team handled the ele- to a miracle. We have posted great team each shot a 78, and Nordan shot a 79. ments and course well to place them- scores in every round this spring and I The team posted a score of 307 on the selves in striking distance of a very solid think it’s a testament to our improvement day and earned a combined score of Western New England team. One thing as a ball club. We have a lot of good golf622. The Jumbos took third place at I kept reminding the guys of was to stay ers on the team right now.”