Friday, April 21, 2017

‘The Leader’s Bookshelf:’ Dean Stavridis gives book recommendations see FEATURES / PAGE 4

MEN’S TENNIS

Jumbos shatter losing streak against Bates

Public Harmony blends rhythm with community see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 52

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Friday, April 21, 2017

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T-Pain cancels Spring Fling appearance, Tinashe to headline

by Kathleen Schmidt Editor-in-Chief

T-Pain will no longer be performing at this year’s Spring Fling concert due to what his agent said was a “personal obligation that cannot be avoided.”

According to Assistant Director for Campus Life John Wescott, T-Pain’s agent Taylor Schultz informed Wescott of the cancellation in an email at 7 p.m. last night, clarifying that the obligation was T-Pain’s son’s birthday.

Tinashe, originally set to be an opener for T-Pain, will now be headlining the show, while Metro Boomin will join Amine as an opener, Wescott said.

“We are shocked that T-Pain will be breaching his contract with us. We had no reason to see this coming, as we

were well underway in advancing the show with our production staff and his managers,” Wescott told the Daily in an email. “In fact, we had just received his travel information earlier today.”

Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) Concert Board Co-Chair Alex Mitchell said he was also shocked by T-Pain’s cancellation, especially considering he had been booked since the end of October 2016. However, Mitchell tried to remain optimistic.

“We did our best to recover, and Metro Boomin will be able to deliver a good set, and we think Tinashe can hold her own as the headliner. We’re disappointed that we lost T-Pain, but we’re committed to maximizing Spring Fling given the circumstances,” Mitchell, a junior, told the Daily in an electronic message.

According to TUSC Concert’s yearly budget, $100,000 is budgeted for talent at Spring Fling. Mitchell stressed that T-Pain would not be receiving any of the money and that most, but not all, of the funds would be going to Metro Boomin.

Wescott also tried to stay positive in the face of the news.

“I know how much the Tufts community looks forward to Spring Fling each year and think that they will be very pleased with this lineup, maybe even more than they would have been with T-Pain’s performance,” Wescott said.

Wescott stressed that there would be no changes in the ticket sales process nor to tickets already purchased.

He encouraged students to contact the Office for Campus Life at ocl@tufts. edu with questions.

see PART-TIME FACULTY, page 2

see MENTAL HEALTH, page 2

News Editor

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Adjunct professor Andy Klatt addresses a crowd at the Tufts Labor Coalition action in support of adjunct faculty on April 20.

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Klatt mentioned a few goals parttime faculty have in the re-negotiations, including improving job stability for lecturers by guaranteeing each staff member a certain number of courses per semester, expanding certain protections granted in the original contract to part-time faculty who have worked at Tufts for five years or

by Liam Knox

Andy Klatt, a part-time Spanish lecturer and a member of the bargaining committee participating in the negotiation process, addressed a crowd of activists, students and prospective student families with these concerns.

“We made a lot of gains three years ago … but we discovered that the university believes the first contract completely resolved the issue. We see it as a first step,” he said.

by Hannah Uebele

Tufts’ Mental Health Task Force, formed by University President Anthony Monaco last semester, has begun to conduct listening sessions with student organizations to collect input on student mental health.

The task force is charged with reviewing the state of mental health for students on all Tufts campuses, examining the successes and limitations of the university’s mental health resources and offering policy and outreach recommendations, according to the Office of the President’s website.

“The goal of the listening sessions is to engage students in a dialogue to gain a better understanding of the needs, concerns and potential solutions to strengthening student mental health at Tufts,” Jacklyn Varela, communications and project administrator of the Office of the President, told the Daily in an email.

The first listening sessions started this month, and Varela explained that the task force plans to continue them into the next school year.

“We very much see these listening sessions as the beginning of a dialogue and look forward to continuing these conversations into the fall,” she said.

Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs Raymond Ou, who co-chairs the task force’s working group on undergraduate students, explained that the listening sessions are a way for the task force to gain information on how to best achieve the group’s charge and purpose.

“Understanding the student experience, needs and concerns is vital to our ability to make informed decisions.

Emerging themes will help the working group prioritize its work over the summer,” Ou told the Daily in an email.

Varela explained that, in a listening session, she and a member of the working group typically attend to introduce

Students stage rally advocating for part-time faculty, amidst contract re-negotiations Students from Tufts Labor Coalition ( TLC) gathered outside the Activity Fair tent on the Academic Quad during Jumbo Days yesterday afternoon to call on the university to meet the demands of part-time faculty, who are currently in the midst of re-negotiations over their contract expiring June 30.

Part-time faculty at Tufts won their current contract in October 2014, after an organizing campaign led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and TLC. The contract gave lecturers significant gains such as increased job security and pay increases. It was widely touted as an important precedent for adjuncts at other universities seeking similar improvements.

But while they went into this summer’s re-negotiations hopeful that this trend would continue, TLC activists and part-time faculty alike say that this round of negotiations has been disappointing and frustrating so far.

“We’re here because the negotiations have been very antagonistic on the part of administration,” TLC member sophomore Zoe Schoen told the Daily. “There’s been almost no engagement with [part-time lecturers].”

Listening sessions held to gather information on student mental health

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, April 21, 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 Op-Ed Editor Stephen Dennison Cartoonists Shannon Geary Noah Kulak Haebin Ra Miranda Chavez Editorialists Julia Faxon Hannah Kahn Lena Novins-Montague Lanie Preston 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 Thaw Htet Lilia Kang Max Lalanne Rachael Meyer Zachary Sebek Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Angelie Xiong Sitong Zhang Ezgi Yazici Executive Video Editor Olivia Ireland Executive Video Admin.

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Mental Health Task Force hopes to hear student opinions on awareness, policy MENTAL HEALTH

continued from page 1 students to the task force’s role, facilitate the conversation and take notes.

Sessions are organized as an opportunity for students to share their thoughts.

“We have a list of prepared questions, but so far we have found these sessions tend to flow organically and cover a range of intersecting issues. For us, it’s really about listening,” Varela wrote.

Sophomore William McKenna serves as an undergraduate representative on the working group that focuses on undergraduate students. McKenna, who is a member of the executive board of Active Minds at Tufts, works as a liaison between students and administrators.

The listening sessions will be held with different groups and spaces on campus, including the Asian American Center, Africana Center and Latino Center, in the hopes of hearing the many voices of the Tufts community, according to McKenna.

“Our goal is to go to many diverse populations within the Tufts community, because different parts of your identity will affect your experience with mental health, your experience within Tufts and your attitude towards resources,” McKenna said.

The listening sessions further attempt to gather information about what barriers certain groups within the school feel in relation to accessing Counseling and Mental Health Services as well as stories they’ve heard from other students and their beliefs about the school’s policies, according to McKenna.

McKenna added that open panels are also being held for all students to attend, but he described how it can be hard to attract a large turnout.

“I think a hard part about it is getting people to learn about these open meetings,” he said. “The whole barrier of having people [be] aware of these sessions is an issue within itself, but that’s

ALEX CHERRY / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVE

Counseling and Mental Health Services is located on the corner of Curtis Street and Curtis Avenue. something that we have acknowledged as the task force.”

McKenna further noted that there is a website where members of the Tufts community can share their own experiences anonymously to the task force.

“That’s important because a hard part about going to these conference meetings is that you’re a face associated to a story, and you might not feel comfortable associating with your story yet,” he said.

Jennifer Stephan, associate dean of undergraduate advising to the School of Engineering and co-chair of the working group focused on undergraduates, explained that the task force hopes to use the information it collects to understand students’ concerns and experiences about mental health.

“We’re planning to use the qualitative data that we collect through these sessions to help us gain a better understanding of our students’ experience using and accessing the range of services available

and identifying barriers and gaps along the way,” Stephan told the Daily in an email. “We are also eager to better understand, in the most holistic sense, Tufts’ culture and how it may mitigate or exacerbate student mental health.”

Stephan further explained that the task force’s goal is to make preliminary recommendations next fall, in part by using the information it learns from the listening sessions.

“We have been asked to provide recommendations in three areas: (1) education, outreach and mental health promotion, (2) services and resources and (3) policies and practices,” Stephan said.

Varela described how the task force will continue working to achieve its goals and what it has planned next.

“Next, we’d like to engage faculty and staff in a similar fashion. Over the summer, our plans are to really dig deep into fulfilling the work laid out in the charge,” she said.

Part-time lecturers seek greater pay, job security PART-TIME FACULTY

continued from page 1 fewer and a pay increase commensurate with cost of living.

Klatt situated the negotiations in the larger struggle for wealth equality.

“Tufts is an institution that represents the opinions of its trustees, who represent the top one percent of wealth earners in this country,” he said. “The response we’ve gotten so far from the university has been ‘No, we can’t give you these things, we need the flexibility.’ Well, to us, the flexibility of the one percent seems arbitrary.”

Schoen told the Daily that one of the main issues that needs improvement is the pay gap between part-time and full-time faculty. Part-time faculty are paid a minimum of $7,300 per course, according to the current collective bargaining agreement. By comparison, the university’s 2016–2017 Fact Book lists $101,496 as the mean salary for an assistant professor in the School of Arts and Sciences.

“We want to see fair compensation for course loads,” she said. “Right now, there’s a pretty ridiculous discrepancy between part- and full-time faculty to an extent where part timers are effectively subsidizing tenured faculty. We don’t want to create divisions among faculty — everyone

deserves fair pay, but these discrepancies are unbelievable.”

TLC member Nicole Joseph said that the contract re-negotiations are not only failing to improve on shortcomings in the original contract but may actually result in certain losses for part-time faculty.

“We may actually be going back a little, because we could lose some parts of the grievance process,” she said, referring to the process for adjuncts to redress complaints that was included in the original contract.

“We may lose mediation, which is a key step because it includes a neutral third party.”

Schoen addressed the crowd during the rally and asked prospective students visiting for Jumbo Days to factor treatment of workers and faculty into their decision to attend one university or another.

“Our relationship with our teachers is a big part of our education, and when they don’t feel secure in their job or are struggling with money, that affects our ability to learn,” she said. “Look for a place that treats their teachers as well as they treat their students.”

Senior Daniel Weaver spoke about his participation in the organizing preceding the successful contract in 2014 and asked students take the struggles of part-time faculty seriously.

“Students don’t know just how exploitative Tufts’ policies are toward part-time faculty,” he said.

In an electronic message to the Daily, Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins said, “Our part-time faculty make important and valuable contributions to our community that we value and appreciate. Because we are currently engaged in negotiations, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on proposed contract terms.

We are hopeful that we will be able to find common ground and look forward to continuing our discussions.”

Throughout the rally, TLC members handed out leaflets to prospective students and their families. Joseph said that the choice to hold the rally during Jumbo Days was intentional.

“The university does a good job of presenting its services, but a big part of that is the workers and faculty, and we want [prospective students] to know how Tufts treats the people who provide those services,” she told the Daily.

Schoen agreed, adding that prospective students and their families are in a unique position to put pressure on university officials.

“It’s a very powerful position to be a prospective student, [because] you’re basically a consumer thinking about buying the university’s product,” she said.

Friday, April 21, 2017 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

News

3

Malakia Silcott named assistant director, career advisor at Career Center

by Johanna O'Neil Staff Writer

The Career Center recently hired Malakia Silcott as the new assistant director and career advisor to fill the vacancy left by Nicole Anderson, who is now associate director of alumni career services. Previously, Silcott worked at several different colleges including Brandeis University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and most recently Bunker Hill Community College.

According to Director of Career Development Donna Esposito, Silcott’s role with the Career Center will involve working with first-year and sophomore students and helping facilitate the Career Center’s relationship with various clubs and student organizations around campus.

“Malakia’s focus will be general career advising,” Esposito said. “She is going to be seeing students across all majors, [career interests and class years], as well as doing some programming around early engagement, meaning helping the Career Center continue to engage firstyears and sophomores.”

Gregory Victory, executive director of the Career Center, said Silcott has lived up to these expectations the Career Center looks for in its employees, namely a focus on first-generation and low-income students, as well as diversity.

“She has a great sense of humor, which adds to the positive and fun atmosphere that we try to strike on a daily balance.

She does a lot to help continue to make sure that the Career Center is a welcoming place,” Victory told the Daily in an email.

Esposito clarified that the Career Center’s focus on first-years and sophomores is not new, and that such engagement has been a growing trend over the past several years.

“The earlier that you engage students in terms of the resources, the services and the … career development [process], the more time they are going to have to take advantage of opportunities and to build their skills and competencies for preparing for life after Tufts,” Esposito said.

Silcott said she will be organizing a conference in the upcoming year for sophomores to address these needs.

Esposito added that the Career Center is looking to shift how it works with students, to make services more accessible and to boost awareness about opportunities the Career Center offers.

“We’ve always done work with both first-years and sophomores, but this year we decided to take a different approach and offer a series of programs that were open to both, so that a first-year student or a sophomore could select which programs they want to focus on,” Esposito said. “We also want to do more outreach to student clubs and organizations. It’s a way to market our services and be more present on campus.”

Silcott expressed excitement about being a part of the Tufts community and learning from her Career Center colleagues, alumni and students as well.

“I feel like there are a lot of intelligent people doing some great things and I would like to be a part of that,” she said.

Silcott explained that she wants

Police Briefs – April 21 No Exit Strategy A Residential Assistant (RA) reported on April 9 at 1:10 a.m. that an exit sign on the third floor of Harleston Hall was ripped from the ceiling.

The drop ceiling was also damaged.

Tufts University Police Department ( TUPD) officers responded to the vandalism report and Facilities Services was notified to repair both the exit sign and the ceiling. No one was seen around the site when the damage was discovered, and it is unknown who was responsible for the damage.

Raising an Alarm On April 9 at 11:20 a.m. TUPD officers responded to a fire alarm activation at the Central Energy Plant, which is still under construction and has not yet opened. The alarm was on the second floor. The Tufts Fire Marshal and the construction site supervisor were notified to check out the system so it could be reset. The cause of the alarm was not determined.

Hot Wheels On April 11 at 8:50 p.m. a student reported that the rear wheel of their bike was stolen in front of Anderson Hall. The bike was left for around two hours at the Anderson bike rack.

Upon the student’s return the back

VINTUS OKONKWO / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Career Center’s new Assistant Director and Career Advisor Malakia Silcott poses for a photo in her office in Dowling Hall on April 19. to help students make connections and strategize. Additionally, she is interested in working with students entering underrepresented fields or fields into which they are the first in their family to enter.

“I like the networking — getting students to understand or open up to the big world out there, and making those connections a little bit smaller,” Silcott said.

“I look forward to connecting people to

real life careers and the people who are doing those careers.”

Both Victory and Esposito agreed that Silcott has many qualities and experiences to contribute to the Tufts community.

“Malakia has hit the ground running, absorbing as much as she can about Tufts and our students, and jumping in with both feet to provide advising and coaching,” Victory said.

Planning a party for Spring Fling?

wheel of the blue Trek hybrid bike was missing. Nothing else was taken.

The wheel was not recovered and the person who committed the theft is still unknown. The incident is currently under investigation.

Bagged A student called TUPD after her purse was stolen out of her vehicle around 4:50 p.m. on April 17 near the Latin Way dorms. She had parked her car at the Lower Campus Road and when she returned she found that her vehicle had been broken into.

Nothing was taken except for the purse. The student was advised to cancel all debit and credit cards and check statements for any unusual charges. The incident is under investigation.

Legging It TUPD and Tufts Medical Emergency Services ( TEMS) went to Bello Field after a report of a sports-related leg injury at 7:50 p.m. on April 18. The injured student was visiting from another lacrosse team and sustained the injury while playing in the lacrosse game. The student was taken to the hospital.

—by Juliana Furgala

If you live in a Small Group House or off campus residence come to a:

Party Host Training Monday, April 24th 7:00pm-8:00pm Health Service Conference Room 124 Professors Row (basement level) This training will cover: • Hosting a safe and fun party • Planning Guidelines • Talking to Neighbors • Noise • Alcohol and Social Host responsibilities • Keeping your guests safe A limited number of Party Packs with snacks and essential party supplies will be available.

Contact Beth Farrow at beth.farrow@tufts.edu or 617-627-3752 with any questions.

4 tuftsdaily.com

Features

Q&A: James Stavridis on his new book ‘The Leader’s Bookshelf’

Friday, April 21, 2017

Polykhroma Polykhromatic

On using your privilege

M

VINTUS OKONKWO / THE TUFTS DAILY

In an interview, Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy James Stavridis discusses his latest book ‘The Leader’s Bookshelf’ and current events revolving around it at the Cabot Intercultural Center on April 19.

by Constantinos Angelakis Executive Features Editor

Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy James Stavridis, a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the Supreme Allied Commander at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), co-authored “The Leader’s Bookshelf” (2017) with R. Manning Ancell. Published in March through the Naval Institute Press, the book lists 50 works of literature based on the suggestions of over 200 four-star military officers, along with leadership lessons that can be drawn from the text. Stavridis, who spent several years working on the project with Ancell, believes that leadership can be strongly influenced by the books one reads. On Wednesday, Stavridis sat down with the Daily to discuss his book and current events. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Tufts Daily (TD): Was your inspiration for this book based on your experiences in academia and also in the military, from those reading lists or from your conversations with other military officers?

James Stavridis (JS): The inspiration for the book really derived from many conversations with friends and peers during the course of my career in the military. We spend a lot of time in the military thinking about history, thinking about biography, thinking about the lessons of leadership. And as I came along in my career, I was exchanging book ideas with lots of different folks, and over time, the idea of compiling all of that into a list that might be of use to others seemed to make some sense.

TD: At the beginning of the book, you had a bit of an introduction, and you mention your daily routine of media consumption. Much of what we read is from the media every day. I know there’s been a lot of information out now about “alternative facts.” Has your media diet changed in any way?

JS: I believe that the places I go for my

information remain pretty good. And I’ll start with The Economist magazine, which is published weekly and is an excellent global compendium. I read The New York Times. I think it’s quite fact-based and has very high journalistic standards. In terms of online resources, I use a wide variety, and I think that’s the best way, because you can sort of fact check against other sources. But I like The Huffington Post, and I like The Daily Beast. I look quite a bit at Foreign Policy, and I like Time magazine online.

TD: What time period of your career were you able to read the most?

JS: I read the most when I was assigned to ships at sea, because — as everyone would appreciate — ships operate when they get close to land, but you have a lot of transit time.

And it’s not like an airplane, where you can just be on an airplane for five or six hours and go from San Diego to Hawaii. It takes a ship like five days to do that. And so there’s always opportunity for reading in quiet moments and, perhaps more importantly, to reflect on what you’ve read and to take notes and to converse with others about it. So I’d say, while on sea duty, which was about half of my 37 career years in the military.

TD: Later on in the book, you mentioned that a lot of younger military officers are being discouraged from publishing more and more, and you had said that that was a negative trend. Can you elaborate on that?

JS: It worries me a little bit that there is a strain of thought out there that says, ”Hey, if you publish, you’re sort of getting out of your lane, you’re bucking the system, you’re putting yourself out there.” And boy, I disagree with that. I think the qualities we would like in any young person include the courage to publish, the courage of their convictions, whether popular or unpopular, and a desire to share their ideas with others. And so, I worry when a big, heavy institution like the military in any way suppresses that. And so, in the course of my

career, I published quite a bit. I do everything I can to encourage young officers and young people to publish.

TD: In terms of recent events, one thing that I’ve noticed across the board is a rise in authoritarian leadership in a lot of ways, and I know that definitely conflicts with the servant leadership that you’ve promoted in the book. North Korea obviously comes to mind, and in Turkey a few days ago, constitutional reforms were passed. What is your opinion of those, in light of the leadership that you’ve promoted?

JS: I worry a great deal about this rise of authoritarianism, and I think we ought to be mindful of that. About 100 years ago, the world comes out of World War I, and after a series of controversial decisions, both economic and political, we see the rise of authoritarian leaders. We see the rise of fascism in places like Germany, Japan and Italy, nations that had deep culture and history, and it was a shocking turn of events. And I think none of that is impossible to imagine. A book that I think is worthwhile thinking about in that regard is Winston Churchill’s “The Second World War” (1948), which was the epic story of how the world had to beat back authoritarianism in the form of fascism. And when you read that book and see the effort that it takes to overcome authoritarianism once it’s in power, it’s an extreme cautionary tale to all of us who treasure democracy that we should do all that we can to ensure that those kinds of regimes don’t rise.

TD: On the more domestic side, you met with President Donald Trump, after he was elected, in Trump Tower. I believe you spoke about some foreign policy issues and cyber issues. Coming from a president who has famously said that he doesn’t have much time to read, do you think you could pick out one book in particular from the 50? see STAVRIDIS, page 5

y childhood was filled with trips to museums. I remember seeing an Amedeo Modigliani exhibit at the Jewish Museum with my grandparents and going on field trips to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was natural for me to take art history in high school and continue my studies at Tufts. I look forward to starting a master’s program in this field, and yet something doesn’t feel right about continuing on this path blindly.

I had the privilege of growing up seeing my white face in the paintings at The Met. My grandparents grew up learning about European art and were eager to pass along their passion. Would I have had the same connection to art if I hadn’t recognized myself in these paintings? Had I not attended an elementary school across the street from The Met, would I have gone on as many museum field trips?

I love art because I have the privilege to do so. That’s not to say that non-white people or people who aren’t upper-middleclass don’t go to museums, because they do. But it would be remiss to assume that we are all given equal opportunity to enjoy art. Museums require an entrance fee. Not all schools are located right in the middle of Museum Mile, and most don’t offer art history. Lastly, the art history canon is historically elite and Eurocentric.

The art world is changing but not quickly enough to catch up to the social progress over the last few decades. Now, I think that Tufts does a pretty good job of diversifying its art history courses. This semester, there were courses that covered art in Mexico, the United States, France and Italy, as well as overarching courses that focused on the art of Islam, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean. However, it is hard not to wonder about art history’s institutionalized bias when the department offers a course called “Intro to the Arts of Africa” this fall. Would there be a course entitled “Intro to the Arts of Europe?” I’d like to see courses centered around specific African countries and movements, the way we focus on the Italian Renaissance and French Impressionism. This requires an examination of the discipline of art history beyond Tufts.

The Met Breuer just closed a retrospective of Kerry James Marshall, a black American artist whose work “synthesizes a wide range of pictorial traditions to counter stereotypical representations of black people in society and reassert the place of the black figure within the canon of Western painting,” according to The Met’s website. The inclusion of female, POC and queer artists in major museums is a huge step toward equality in the art world. However, we cannot let these exhibitions become diversity tokens. All four of the current exhibitions at the Breuer display work by white artists. The same art world that presented the Marshall retrospective skims over non-European art in academia every day. We cannot become complacent as viewers, consumers and art historians. It is our responsibility as viewers to demand the presence of non-white artists in our institutions. It is our duty as students within the field to research and curate their work thoughtfully.

-Chloe Hyman, Polykhroma Polykhroma is an independent curating collective founded by eight students excited to encourage active engagement among our community with the arts.

Friday, April 21, 2017 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

F e at u r e s

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At Home in the South: Schmidt discusses Texan friendliness, food, strengthened identity

by Sean Ong

Assistant Features Editor

Editors’ Note: This is the third and final piece of a three-part series on Tufts students from the South.

Abigail Schmidt Abigail Schmidt is a sophomore majoring in music. When Schmidt was five, she moved from Austin, Texas to the town of Dripping Springs just 30 minutes away, where she lived until her high school graduation.

“It is definitely a very small town,” she said.

“There’s a Facebook group called ‘Dripping Springs Neighbors,’ where everyone gossips.

It gets really petty, but it’s kind of entertaining.

I’m still a member of it, because I really like to keep up with the small town drama. It definitely is an everyone-knows-everyone place.”

Schmidt finds it simpler to strike up a conversation with people on the streets and easier to trust strangers in Texas.

“If I’m in a coffee shop in downtown Austin, I could leave my computer on the table and go to the bathroom more easily than I could in downtown Boston,” Schmidt said. “There’s definitely more interaction with people you don’t know [in Texas]. We would always meet interesting strangers growing up. Maybe I have been looking at it through rose-tinted lenses … but it was nice meeting cool people.”

As Schmidt did not identify with the political or cultural views of many fellow Texans, she felt an urge to head up north for college.

“While I was living [in Texas], since my parents are from the North, I wanted to move and I did not feel like I belonged,” Schmidt said. “[I] painted the Northeast as this liberal utopia where some of the things we had to deal with — i.e. homophobia, sexism — we thought would go away.”

Her experience with religious diversity at Tufts so far is something that she treasures deeply.

“Because it was so overwhelmingly Christian [in Texas], it’s been really cool … learning about different religions,” Schmidt said. “My friend invited me home with her for a Passover Seder, which was really fun. I’ve

met some Muslim friends here and a lot more atheist friends than I had down there.”

When Schmidt introduces herself as a Texan, she often encounters surprise as she proves some people’s assumptions about Southerners wrong.

“I get that a lot, this assumption that people don’t appreciate the fine arts in the South.

It’s this weird assumption that people only watch ‘Duck Dynasty’ and listen to country radio. They are a little taken aback to find out that I act and sing classical music quite a lot,” she said.

Often, Schmidt also has to defend her home state against some commonly held stereotypes about its environment and people.

“I would say that I’m from Texas and I’ve had a couple of people go, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’

We live in a liberal environment here and Texas is not so much, so they automatically think that it’s a hellscape where everyone is carrying an automatic weapon. That’s not exactly the reality. I always find myself having to say that Texas isn’t that bad,” she said.

Having to repeatedly defend Texas irks Schmidt, even if people are receptive to what she says.

“It’s frustrating. It’s not super frustrating because usually people listen when I explain to them. Obviously it’s a stereotype and I think I, and most other Texans that I have met at Tufts, are living proof that the stereotype is not super valid. But it’s still kind of frustrating having to defend my friends who still live there,” she said.

Schmidt mentioned missing the culture of “Southern friendliness,” Texan food and the familiarity of living in a small town.

“While I was [in Texas], because that’s where I grew up, I had a natural desire to leave and explore other parts of the country. Coming here and being away from Texas makes me appreciate … the things that I miss more than I did when I lived there,” Schmidt said. “[For instance], the food is a lot better in Texas. There are some great restaurants [in Boston], but the average quality of restaurants is much higher there and it’s a lot cheaper too.”

She recounted a time during the summer where she and her sister drove around Texas.

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Abigail Schmidt poses for a portrait on the stairs outside Tisch Library on April 17.

“One day, my sister felt like going on a long drive during the summer, so we just drove for two hours to a different town, stopped at the restaurant, ate some pie and then drove back.

But that is not abnormal; people do that. It’s more of a fun thing [in Texas],” she said.

Missing home has made Schmidt consider more seriously the prospect of returning to Texas after graduation.

“I kind of want to [return]. I had never thought I’d say that. I definitely didn’t think I would ever go back to Texas when I first left, but I think being away from it has made me appreciate it more and want to go back at least

for a few years, when I’m finding my way and my career,” she said.

For Schmidt, coming to Tufts — a place so far away and different from Texas — has strengthened her identity as someone who grew up in the South.

“It’s a natural human thing to do, to try to assert and find what makes you unique,” Schmidt said. “Coming here, where most people are from the North, I latch on to the thing that makes [me] more unique, which is the fact that I’m from the South. It just helps you form an identity which is always an important and comforting thing.”

Stavridis discusses authoritarianism, Trump, foreign policy in light of leadership lessons STAVRIDIS

continued from page 4 JS: Here, I would really direct you to a piece that I wrote in Foreign Policy. There are actually five books on the list from “The Leader’s Bookshelf” that I recommended to President Trump, but I’ll put at the top of my list that he should read “Team of Rivals” (2006) by Doris Kearns-Goodwin, which is about Abraham Lincoln. And in my view, every American president has to be measured to Lincoln, for all the obvious reasons, and one of the many things Lincoln did very well from a leadership perspective was that he built a team of rivals. He was unafraid to reach across the political spectrum to get things done. I think that would be a good lesson for President Trump, and I hope he reads the book. And if he doesn’t want to read it, he can listen to it on audio tape. Or, he can read the summary in “The Leader’s Bookshelf.”

TD: Also featured in the book are Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, friends of yours. How do you feel that their experiences and maybe even their book suggestions have influenced their positions today?

JS: I think they are two of the best-read people I’ve ever met. They both have extensive personal libraries, they both draw on the

lessons of history extensively, they both have a good sense of humor, and I think both of them are terrific leaders who resonate to the ideas in the “The Leader’s Bookshelf.” And I think they’re both off to a pretty good start in two very difficult jobs.

TD: I know President Trump had sort of a different foreign policy earlier on.

JS: He seems to be coming toward the center, and I think that’s a good thing for the country.

TD: Finally, do you have any particular suggestions for college students from “The Leader’s Bookshelf” or from your personal repertoire?

JS: I’ll give you two. One is a classic that many of you will have read, but go back and read it again, and the book is “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960) by Harper Lee, which is a story about a trial in the South. But it’s also a story about human nature, about parenting, about racial issues, about justice, what really matters. It’s a very powerful book by a woman of deep, deep character. The second book I’d recommend is from the 19th century, and it’s Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1889), which, on the surface, is a story about an engineer scientist who goes back a thousand years in time and lands in King Arthur’s court. And of course, by definition, he’s the smartest person in the world.

He has all this scientific knowledge, he knows the world is round, he knows it’s not flat. He’s brilliant. But, he can’t convince anybody, and he has no real means of driving innovation.

And it’s a book about how hard change is and how difficult innovation is and also how hard it can be to be the one who knows the right answer in a world that doesn’t seem to be

listening. That’s a pretty powerful scenario to put yourself in. So there’s a couple of books for Tufts readers. And some will say, “Well, I read it already.” I think re-reading books is a powerful thing, because every time you open a book five years later, you bring five years more experience in life to that book, and that makes it a better book and makes you a better reader.

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6

WEEKENDER Friday, April 21, 2017

COURTESY PUBLIC HARMONY

A member of Public Harmony plays at a nursing home in Cambridge, Mass. on Feb. 25, 2016.

Public Harmony unites music and community service through perfomance

by John Fedak

Assistant Arts Editor

Tufts social outreach and music group Public Harmony is hosting a Spring Showcase in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room tonight from 8:30–10 p.m. The free performance will be the group’s first on-campus event since their creation last spring.

“We became TCU-recognized this fall, and we’re a student organization that unites music and service.

We bring student musicians into the community to perform at venues including assisted living facilities, shelters and Tufts-area communities, with the purpose of increasing access to live music where opportunity is limited while also giving members the chance to collaborate and perform,” sophomore Marissa Birne, one of Public Harmony’s co-presidents and founders said.

The group was created by Birne and co-president Anthony Benja-Athon, a sophomore, and started out as just 10 student-musicians who wanted to explore the intersection of community service and music.

“During that first spring, our pilot group performed twice at St. Francis House, Boston’s largest day shelter, and once at the Women’s Lunch Place, a women’s shelter in Downtown Boston,” Birne said.

The group originally consisted of only 10 students with cello, voice, piano and guitar all represented as part of the music’s repertoire. Since then, Public Harmony has expanded, and after being recognized as an

official group on campus, there are now over 60 members who regularly participate in Public Harmony.

Public Harmony’s sound has become increasingly diverse as the group has grown, ranging from classical to contemporary music played on an array of different instruments. The group is now looking to further expand their audience to the Tufts community, as much of their focus has so far been helping communities outside of the university.

“It’s going to be very laid-back, an opportunity to learn more about what Public Harmony does, hear some great music and support friends,” Birne said.

Sophomore Coral Yang, one of the featured performers, said she was excited about the chance to share the group’s music with Tufts and hope that people will be able to get to know the performers through the showcase. “[I want people to] know that this organization exists, and there are a lot of talented people that are giving back to the community,” Yang said.

Normally, Public Harmony performs at locations like shelters and assisted living facilities in the greater Boston area, helping to bring live music to places where it’s usually inaccessible.

“It’s a group performance as well as an individual [one] for the students, and the impact is that we get to reach people who have no access to live music, whether that’s for socio-economic or mobility issues,” Benja-Athon said.

Many of the elderly people Public Harmony serves are unable to travel,

and people in shelters often can’t spend money on concerts. The group provides a free and engaging solution to these problems.

“Music has a really great impact in ways that sometimes other forms of community service can’t … Music is the universal language,” Benja-Athon said.

According to Tony Nguyen, the club’s music director, there are many small moments that make the student experience worth it. When performing for elderly people who live in assisted living, Public Harmony will often choose older songs the people there may know, helping to bridge the gap between the students and the elderly.

“When we go to assisted living facilities, I love to perform songs that the people know. There are a lot of nonverbal Alzheimer’s and dementia patients that as soon as they hear the music of their childhood immediately light up and react. Some even tap their feet, which to me is the most amazing experience, that someone that is usually silent and inactive becomes so empowered,” Nguyen said.

Public Harmony is typically very well-received when they perform, with positive interactions between students and community members another highlight of the performances. According to Benja-Athon, performances sometimes feature singalongs in assisted living facilities and occasionally audience performances as another way to engage with community members.

“We get a lot of questions … and spend a lot of time afterwards talking

to people. It’s a very equal space,” Benja-Athon said.

Birne noted that while Public Harmony does hold mini-auditions each semester for interested members, they welcome anyone who is interested, with the auditions serving to help them get a feel for each individual student.

“We don’t make any cuts, but it just gives us a chance to think about how they will best fit into the group,” she said.

Students can attend as many performances as they want each semester as part of the group’s mission to provide a low-stress environment focused on making music. “[Music] brings together people into a mental space where they’re all feeling a similar emotion. It’s that shared experiences that makes me really happy to perform,” Nguyen continued.

Today’s performance is the last event Public Harmony has planned for this year, but they’re already thinking about possible performances next semester and plan to return to the organizations they’re familiar with while also expanding their student base and outreach.

“We’d love to continue to be a welcoming, open space for Tufts musicians. I think there are a lot of people who want to keep making music after high school, and Public Harmony offers a fun way to do that while also giving back,” Birne said.

A full list of the featured artists for Friday’s performance can be found on the official Facebook page for the event, “Public Harmony Spring Showcase.”

7

Friday, April 21, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Joe: “My high school was among the dorkiest around.”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Making it through to summer

Thursday’s Solution

FOR RELEASE APRIL 21, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 African currency 5 Tater __ 9 U.K. equivalent of an Oscar 14 Burnt toast indicator 15 Heroic poetry 16 Noble objective 17 Compressed “Blue Suede Shoes” as sung

by Elvis?

19 Make happen 20 Imply 21 Compressed syntax topic?

22 Ecol., e.g.

25 Traitor 26 Canal locale 27 Emerson’s “jealous mistress” 28 Compressed piece of hardware?

32 Nordic counterpart 33 Heat source 34 Judgment concern 37 Nothing, in Nice 38 On the other hand 39 Salinger title character with professional singing aspirations 40 Creative singing style 41 Home sick, say 42 Perfumery compound 44 Compressed Homeland Security role?

47 “That’s awful!”

49 Lush 50 Tiebreakers, briefly 51 Old anti-Union gp.

52 Compressed carnivore?

54 Manuscript marks 56 Austrian composer Berg 57 Compressed gastric complaints?

61 Author known for teddy bear stories 62 Amos at the piano 63 The last Mrs. Chaplin

By Paul Coulter

64 Latin clarifier 65 Smart answer, sometimes 66 Terrible time DOWN 1 Elephant predator of myth 2 Brouhaha 3 Scorpio mo.

4 Remnant 5 Willed?

6 Sleep inducer 7 Binge 8 Identity thief’s target: Abbr.

9 Crescent-shaped 10 Purim month 11 Like a Middle Ages social system 12 It’s a stunner 13 It may be red 18 “Friends” episode, now 21 Knock ’em dead at the jazz club 22 Lasting marks 23 Infant illness 24 Like high-level treason 26 Put out 29 It’s spotted in Westerns 30 Way to go

4/21/17

Thursday’s Solution Thursday’s Puzzle Solved

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

31 “Drink __”: 2014 Luke Bryan #1 country hit 35 Gather 36 1965 march site 38 Target 41 __ about 42 Diana’s Greek counterpart 43 Spanish seashore 45 Early online forum 46 Chopper parts

4/21/17

47 Savory taste 48 Very cold 53 Beige cousins 54 Portico for Pericles 55 Conan Doyle, for one 57 The CSA’s eleven 58 The sixth W? 59 “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” artist 60 KLM competitor

8 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Friday, April 21, 2017

MEN'S TENNIS

Jumbos fall to No. 1 Middlebury, bounce back against Bates

by Caleb Symons Contributing Writer

Playing through the heart of its schedule, Tufts fell to a trio of top-ranked opponents. In the span of a week, Tufts dropped matches to No. 4 Middlebury, No. 8 Wesleyan and No. 9 Williams. The team did manage to rebound, defeating No. 28 Bates on April 20.

“For a lot of us, it [was] our first experience playing some of the top teams,” firstyear Zach Shaff said. “A lot of NESCAC teams are in the top 15 in the country, so we’re getting used to it.”

Playing on their familiar Voute Courts, Tufts got off to a strong start against Bates, winning two of the three doubles matches. The Bobcats were able to stay in the match by defeating Tufts’ juniors Rohan Gupte and Zain Ali in number one doubles. The Jumbos were able to secure the much-needed win by taking three singles matches. After first-year Nathan Niemiec and sophomore Ethan Chen recorded victories, Ali provided the clincher from the number two position.

Looking to rebound from back-to-back losses, the 20th-ranked Jumbos hosted the Williams Ephs on April 16. Despite a hard-fought match in which three of the six singles matches lasted three sets, Tufts ultimately fell 6-3. At number two in singles, Gupte recorded a comeback victory (5-7, 6-4, 7-6) after dropping the opening set. Shaff took his number four singles match (6-4, 2-6, 3-2) after his opponent retired with an injury midway through the third set.

Shaff’s play continued to be a highlight for the Jumbos, as he also won his doubles match (8-6) alongside senior Ben Battle.

With victories against Bates, Williams and Wesleyan, the Shaff/Battle partnership improved to 8-3 on the season. “[Ben’s] a really talented player … and he has a lot of experience, so it helps to learn from him,” Shaff said. “Even though I’m a [first-year], when I play with him I feel like we’re on the same page.”

The previous day, the Jumbos were edged 5-4 by the visiting Wesleyan Cardinals. Despite a 2-1 advantage in doubles, Tufts could not hold on for the win, dropping four of six singles matches.

One bright spot for the Jumbos was the play of Gupte — the team’s typical number one singles player — who was dropped to the number two spot by coach Karl Gregor following the match against Middlebury.

By defeating Cardinals senior Michael Liu

(6-4, 2-6, 6-2), Gupte snapped a streak of five consecutive singles losses dating back to March 21.

“You have to treat every match equally and respect every opponent you play,” Gupte said. “I think [the change] worked in our favor, but I just played like I usually [do].”

Junior Dan Coran also registered a three set victory in the number three singles match (5-7, 6-4, 10-6), but Tufts was unable to register an all-important fifth victory. The defeat was the Jumbos’ third this season in matches decided by a 5-4 scoreline, a fact that the team simultaneously laments and looks to for encouragement.

“We know that we’re right there with [these teams],” Gupte said. “If we’re able to clean a few things up, I think we could swing the matches in our favor.”

On April 9, the Jumbos got a taste of the top-10 competition, falling 7-2 to a stacked Middlebury Panthers side.

Middlebury jumped out to a 2-1 lead in doubles and never looked back, winning five of six singles matches.

“We realize the importance of getting a strong start in doubles,” Shaff said. “In a lot of the matches, we’ve gone down in [doubles], and it’s [tended] to carry on in singles when it shouldn’t.”

It’s tough to pin the loss solely on Tufts’ lack of momentum, though, as Middlebury boasts an extremely talented lineup, led by sophomore Ludomir Cuba, the No. 2 ranked player in Div. III. The Panthers were pushed to three sets in just one of their five singles victories, although Niemiec continued his successful campaign, winning 6-2, 6-2 in the number five singles.

With its victory over Tufts, Middlebury improved to 5-0 in the NESCAC (15-1 overall) and jumped to No. 1 in the nation in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

The recent results dropped Tufts to 3-4 in the highly competitive NESCAC (6-6 overall). The good news for the Jumbos is that the most difficult stretch of their schedule is behind them. Until the regular season finale against No. 4 Bowdoin, the highest ranked team that they will face is No. 34 Brandeis.

“If we keep playing like we have against the top teams, I think we’ll end up winning a lot more matches,” Gupte said.

Tufts will play a doubleheader on Saturday, taking on Hamilton and the Coast Guard Academy at home.

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior Benjamin Battle hits a low backhand in the match against Amherst on April 1.

Must-see marathon moments

by Eddie Samuels

Executive Sports Editor

Kenyan Geoffrey Kirui set the pace in the 121st Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line with a time of 2:09:37. Fellow Kenyan Edna Kiplagat claimed the women’s title with a time of 2:21:52. At 37 years old, Kiplagat was the second oldest woman to ever win the marathon.

While the titles are the biggest story of the event, the focus since the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 has been as much on the human side as the race itself.

In 2014, Eritrean-born American runner Meb Keflezighi crossed the marathon’s finish line wearing the names of the victims of the prior year’s bombing proudly on his chest. This year, Keflezighi announced that this would be his last time running in the Patriots’ Day race. Keflezighi finished 13th in the race and embraced the family of Martin Richard, the 8-yearold victim of the bombing.

In what went down as the iconic image of this year’s marathon, Jose Luis Sanchez, a Marine who lost part

of his leg to an improvised explosive device (IED) while serving in Afghanistan, ran the marathon on his prosthetic leg carrying the American flag. He finished the race in 5:46:13.

Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with an official number in 1967, participated in the 50th anniversary of her groundbreaking run. In 1967, she entered by signing up with her initials, giving officials the impression that she was a man. Switzer had not participated in the Boston Marathon since 1976, and

her run marked the 40th marathon of her career. She finished with a time of 4:44:31.

The Tufts Marathon Team sent 35 runners to participate in the marathon, as it does every year. According to the team’s fundraising webpage, it raised a combined $239,454 to support nutrition, medical and fitness programs at Tufts, including research on childhood obesity at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. This topped the 2016 total of $228,830.