Thursday, March 10, 2016

Squash season wraps up following CSA Individual Nationals see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

Parade of Nations celebrates the international community at Tufts

Track and field teams head to Iowa for NCAA Championships this weekend see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

SEE WEEKENDER / PAGE 7

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXI, NUMBER 32

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Thursday, March 10, 2016

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Students for Justice in Palestine hold demonstration as part of Israeli Apartheid Week

by Catherine Perloff Assistant News Editor

Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) staged an educational demonstration yesterday on the Tisch Library Patio as a part of its annual Israeli Apartheid Week.

The demonstration involved four stations focusing on the city Hebron in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and a Bedouin community in the Negev Desert. Each station represented an area of Israeli occupation, according to SJP member Sophia Goodfriend. Two of the stations featured tents that represented illegal Jewish occupation on Palestinian land.

Israeli flags were hung near the tents to reflect Israeli encroachment.

“We try to draw attention to how the Israeli state systematically discriminates [against] and segregates its Palestinian citizens and those living in occupied Palestine, including those living in the West Bank in exile,” Goodfriend, a senior, said.

At each of the stations, SJP members were available to discuss political issues relevant to the station’s area of focus. Members of SJP also distributed zines and leaflets about concerns with Birthright Israel programs

New working group formed to develop master plan for campus housing

by Joe Walsh

Assistant News Editor

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Lindsay Sanders sets up a tent on the Tisch Patio to represent Israeli settlements as a part of Israeli Apartheid Week on March 9. and Israeli’s settlement policy, including a publication the group created, titled “Zintifada.”

“We were talking about the continuous colonial nature of the occupation as more settlements are being built,” SJP member Mile Krstev told the Daily in an email.

The demonstration was part of SJP’s presentation of Israeli Apartheid

Week, an international movement which aims “to raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people,” according to a Israeli Apartheid Week website.

“We’re trying to get people to realize that [apartheid] is a paradigm with see SJP , page 3

A new university working group is in the process of gathering student feedback, assessing campus facilities and analyzing the overall residential experience at Tufts in preparation for the creation of a housing master plan by the end of the semester.

The working group, comprised of Campus Planning, Facilities Services, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife), Student Affairs and the Office of the Provost, aims to examine students’ opinions about housing and evaluate the current state of the university’s facilities.

Based on that information, the group hopes to provide suggestions for potential changes and assess the impact of these possible revisions, according to Space Management Planner Heidi Sokol.

“We don’t know what [the master plan is] really going to say at this point,” Sokol said. “[But] this master plan is really going to help us make informed decisions moving forward.”

Sokol said that a draft of the master plan will most likely be completed

by May and presented to a separate but related body, the Residential Strategies Working Group (RSWG). The group, led by Provost David Harris, was initiated in the spring of 2015.

Harris explained that the RSWG will examine the financial impact of changes and make a set of recommendations to University President Anthony Monaco in May. The RSWG reported some early findings to the Board of Trustees during a February meeting, according to a Feb. 16 report from University President Anthony Monaco. However, Harris said that the RSWG will not release any recommendations to the general public this semester.

“Identifying recommendations is challenging due to the large number of constituencies involved, our strong commitment to the student experience and the significant budgetary impacts that accompany many proposals,” Harris told the Daily in an email.

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Margaret Ringler explains the Israeli Apartheid Week event on Tisch Patio to onlookers on March 9.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, March 10, 2016

T HE T UFTS D AILY Sarah Zheng Editor-in-Chief

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University works to develop long-term housing strategy HOUSING

continued from page 1

Gathering student feedback This week, the working group plans on releasing an online survey to gauge student opinion on the current state of residential living. The group hopes that this survey will reach a wider range of students than previous efforts have, according to Sokol. In the survey, students will be able to identify on a map parts of campus that they like, areas they frequently visit, areas that present problems and other details about residential life at Tufts.

“The focus is housing, but we want to understand how people are using other [spaces],” Sokol said. “The survey will seek to find out “if there are any ancillary spaces that make sense to be part of … the residential hub.”

Earlier this semester, the working group began working with Sasaki Associates, a planning and architecture firm, to study the housing system and its users, according to Sokol. Bryan Irwin, a principal at Sasaki, explained that Sasaki’s engineering team recently finished reviewing the university’s housing stock, and are currently gathering information from students about how the residential experience can be improved.

“The basis for the study in many ways was coming out of an understanding that the residential life experience at Tufts is a fundamental part of what makes Tufts, Tufts,” Irwin said.

Sasaki Associates held two meetings on campus — one in January and one in February — during which they heard a wide range of comments and suggestions from students, Irwin said. During the sessions, students discussed their desires for more informal study spaces and offered other small-scale suggestions, while speaking about the importance of the first-year experience.

Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon explained that Tufts has collected anecdotal feedback from students on many occasions, but that the formal survey will provide a structured way to inform the university’s decisions.

“The broader survey should give us the opportunity to review aggregate student input in a more systematic way,” McMahon said.

Housing capacity Harris said that the prospect of expanding the housing system is a major issue that the RSWG is examining. Sokol explained that no decisions have been made yet about how capacity will be expanded, but the master plan will look at the effects of building a new dorm and expanding or retrofitting existing dorms.

In particular, the upcoming survey will ask off-campus students why they decided not to live on campus and what their living situation is currently like, as well as examining whether they

would choose to live on-campus if given the opportunity, Sokol said.

Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate Vice President Gauri Seth, who is a member of the RSWG, concluded that many upperclassmen live off-campus because of a lack of apartment-style housing on-campus.

“Building more dorms is definitely something that is on every single student’s mind,” Seth, a junior, said.

Last semester, the housing system was functionally at full capacity last semester with only 12 vacant beds on campus, according to a Sept.

30, 2015 Daily article. As a result, ResLife vetoed plans to house transfer students together, opting to place them in temporary, non-traditional assignments such as culture houses, the article reported.

According to ResLife Director Yolanda King, there are far more on-campus housing vacancies this semester, which has allowed ResLife to reassign transfer students if requested. King explained that it is normal for the number of vacancies to increase dramatically in the spring semester as students go abroad or graduate early, but that last semester was unusually full.

Currently, ResLife lists 66 vacant beds, all of which are in double rooms.

However, 17 of those vacancies are in suite-style or apartment buildings, which King said are more difficult to assign people to in the middle of the year. Nonetheless, King anticipates that the housing system will reach full capacity once again next year. She said that ResLife will again attempt to house transfer students in one area, but that it may not be possible.

According to Harris, the RSWG is considering the feasibility of expanding housing capacity for the next academic year, but those changes would have to be minor due to time constraints.

First-year residential experience Irwin said that first-year students’ residential experiences are of particular interest to Sasaki’s research. Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon said that depending on the ongoing studies, the university may decide to increase the portion of first-year students that live in buildings reserved exclusively for first-years. Currently, there are 720 beds in first-year-only dormitories, according to King.

“My understanding of student feedback right now is first years who live in first-year only spaces are generally glad they do, while many who live in mixed-year housing might actually prefer to be in first-year only spaces,” McMahon wrote in an email to the Daily.

Additionally, King explained that ResLife is considering whether firstyear dorms should be adjacent to each other. However, McMahon said that

any changes to first-year housing would likely not affect students above the Class of 2021.

TCU President Brian Tesser, who is a member of the RSWG, explained that students want ResLife to use an intentional approach for first-year housing because the residential system is important to building a community.

“One of the things that we’ve been really trying to stress is that it makes sense for first-years to live together,” Tesser, a senior, said. “When you put a first-year … in a dorm with no other first-years, a sense of community and kind of shared experience that you get in college is gone.”

Short-term changes In tandem with the master plan’s long-term planning process, Sokol said short-term issues will inevitably also be identified. McMahon explained that focus groups have already identified immediate changes that can be made, such as improvements in signage and building access.

TCU Senate organized an ad-hoc committee last semester where four of its senators, who are members of the RSWG, collected housing feedback from students, according to Tesser. Seth said that the committee observed several recurring themes, including challenges of finding off-campus housing, disparities in dorm quality and the importance of first-year housing.

As a result, Tesser explained that the committee has been focused on four short-term goals: creating a housing survey for rising sophomores, offering more support for off-campus housing, reassessing first-year housing and reexamining the first-year housing survey.

“The RSWG has got some pretty lofty long-term goals,” Tesser said. “In conjunction with that … the goals for this semester [for the ad-hoc committee] are to look at what some of those recommendations are, and then get student feedback on them.”

King said that she has worked with TCU Senate on several of these projects. In particular, she said that they are considering creating a new position within ResLife to support off-campus housing. Seth added that they have already created a housing survey for rising sophomores.

Sasaki’s study and the overall master plan will address certain changes that can be made right away, as well as policy considerations such as students’ thoughts on the housing lottery, according to Irwin. The focus, however, will primarily be on long-term goals.

“Tufts has made it very clear that they also want a 10-to-15 year capital plan,” Irwin said. “This study is very much also about setting a longrange strategic vision for housing at Tufts and a road map for accomplishing this vision.”

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Students for Justice in Palestine hosts annual Israeli Apartheid Week SJP

continued from page 1 which you can see this situation,” SJP member Noah Habeeb said.

Krstev said that while he acknowledges that the term “apartheid” can alienate people who would not identify Israel as an apartheid state, he feels it is the most appropriate language to describe the situation.

“Apartheid is continuously using oppression and actions to continue supremacy of one side over the other,” he said. “It doesn’t sound nice but it’s the name we need to use.”

The event was not publicized beforehand unlike the other events of Israeli Apartheid Week, which include speakers, panel discussions and a play on Saturday that tells the story of a Palestinian citizen killed by the Israeli police, according to the event’s Facebook page.

Goodfriend explained that the demonstration was not advertised to ensure its success.

“We’re just really trying to educate people and we didn’t want to make a big fuss beforehand to make people who might not agree with us prevent us from doing the action,” she said.

SJP has had a history of clashing with other student groups focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Notably, on Oct. 28, 2015, SJP demonstrated at Friends of Israel’s (FOI) annual “Taste of Israel” event, according to an Oct. 30, 2015 article in the Daily. Protestors claimed that FOI was appropriating Palestinian food as part of Israeli culture, a claim which FOI co-president Itamar Ben-Aharon denies.

However, Ben-Aharon, a sophomore, said that he did not object to SJP’s demonstration yesterday.

“I thought that they did it very respectfully, while I disagree with a lot

of what they said,” he said.

Specifically, Ben-Aharon explained that he disagrees with the group’s claim that the Israelis removed indigenous Palestinians from their land.

He argued that the Israelis were just as much indigenous to the land as the Palestinians, and that while the Jews did get more land, much of it was from the desert and was not useful.

Keren Hendel, vice president of the Tufts American-Israel Alliance and member of the Tufts Students for Two States coalition, also did not object to the protest, but said that she felt the information could have been better presented.

“SJP has the right to express their opinions, just like any other group on campus,” she said. “I just wish they used tactics that promoted a more nuanced dialogue on our campus about a very complicated conflict.”

Andrew Goldblatt, co-chair of J Street U Tufts, also did not agree with the facts presented at the demonstration.

“At J street U we agree that settlements in the West Bank are problematic and are a road block to a two state solution,” he said. “We don’t believe Israel is an apartheid state or a settler colonial enterprise and don’t support events that paint Israel as such.”

Ultimately, SJP members wanted to show that they want to open the discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with their peers, according to Habeeb, a senior.

“There’s often a perception that we’re not willing to have open discourse which to us is nonsense,” he said. “We have open coffees every Friday where anyone can come and speak with us [and] we have educational events like this where we’ll engage with anyone when they walk about.”

a hairbrush.

Recycle me.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Thursday, March 10, 2016

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ARTS&LIVING ARTS NUGGET

“House of Cards” continues prophetic topical storyline in its new season

by Jonah Allon Arts Editor

Writer’s note: spoilers for Season four of “House of Cards” (2013-present) to follow.

No seasoned political observer could have foreseen one of the wildest moments of this presidential election season so far. But a handful of TV writers did.

Several days after Donald Trump refused to disavow the white supremacist positions of former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) David Duke, the fourth season of “House of Cards,” the hit Netflix show starring Kevin Spacey as President Frank Underwood, became available for streaming. The show still retains many of the dark and unsettling elements that have made it so popular. But in the third episode, the narrative hits closer to home. Seeming to predict the firestorm over Trump’s recent comments, the episode depicts Underwood’s scrambling to manage

a crisis created by a leaked photograph seeming to link him with the KKK, whose specter looms large over his home state of South Carolina. The image is so damaging that an AfricanAmerican Democratic congresswoman and her daughter, who were stumping for Underwood, are forced to distance themselves from his campaign. The fallout from this scandal mirrors the numerous public condemnations from Republican party leaders in the wake of Trump’s inflammatory comments.

This is not the first time “House of Cards” has anticipated real-life current events. On the day that the third season — which about a storyline involving a fictional Russian leader with a penchant for silencing dissidents — premiered, news broke that prominent Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov had been killed mysteriously.

Whether the show can continue its clairvoyant streak is up for debate. What is clear now, however, is that it may not be fair to dismiss it as political caricature anymore.

Kinsey Drake Channeling Ina

My favorite food podcasts I love a good podcast. Maybe it’s because I grew up listening to “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” and “Fresh Air,” or maybe it’s because there’s nothing better to listen to while you’re hanging out on the Red Line. Either way, it’s probably one of easiest, most entertaining ways to stay up to speed on current events and trends if you’re a busy college student. Not surprisingly, many of my favorite podcasts are all about food. I have a rotation of shows that teach me new things about food culture, history and science every week. Here are a few of my favorites:

Chapter Five Editor’s note: This column is part of a fictional weekly serial.

T

For those of you unfamiliar, Food 52 is like the Washington Post of online food publications (America’s Test Kitchen is the New York Times equivalent, obviously).

The website features well-vetted recipes, expert columns and hotlines for novice cooks. The podcast, on the other hand, features celebrity chefs and guests like Ruth Reichl and Nigella Lawson. The coffee episode, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Coffee,” is not to be missed.

Kinsey Drake is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry. She can be reached at kinsey.drake@tufts.edu.

Stina Stannik is a senior majoring in peace and justice studies. She can be reached at Stina.Stannik@tufts.edu.

Spilled Milk, by Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton: This show will make you laugh out loud until you cry. Every episode tackles a different ingredient or dish in around 20 minutes. The conversation between the hosts is lively and runs the gamut from factual and informative to just plain silly.

My favorite episodes are “Day of Perfect Meals” and all of the junk food episodes from countries around the world.

Gastropod, by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley:

The Sporkful, Dan Pashman:

DAVID GIESBRECHT VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Stina Stannik After Years

he land behind her grandfather’s house might have been a barnyard once, if with imagination one reconstructed the stone walls and weeded the garden. Cecilia had come outside to call Ian once she could be sure he would be at work and it would go straight to voicemail. Dusk encroached but she didn’t move from the uncomfortable deck chair, looking at the lawn, already looking to escape the people she’d come to visit. Whatever her grandfather had actually done with his life, she was only just beginning to be able to see him as a person instead of an abstraction, and she needed to romanticize his humanity before she could consider that he had had some other, hidden existence. She imagined him moving to the United States for college, a transition not dissimilar from the one she had made when she first left home. She imagined him standing on the edge of a party, feeling the thump and slam of music and bodies and desperately, desperately missing the farm, wanting to be back on the land. She didn’t know how a dance floor was supposed to compare to the hardened, tilled ground thawing from a November frost, or the food in the cafeterias to the comforting weight of a potato eased from the dirt with gentle fingers, or a bro’s handshake to the thrusting nuzzle of a cow’s warm nose at the end of the day.

Her mother whooshed onto the porch, the door banging against the siding and breaking Cecilia from her reverie. She pretended she’d been texting, feeling guilty and foolish. Alicia didn’t allow her any time for vulnerability, however.

“Ceel, that conversation obviously wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, but — I need you to trust me on this.” Ah, the t word. Did that ever work on anyone? “Your grandfather is harmless, don’t worry, but he was sent here for a reason.

From what I hear he was never a particularly good spy, but he stumbled into the middle of an international syndicate and things got complicated… He doesn’t know it, but he wasn’t recalled by the government to protect him. The syndicate put him here so they could watch him. And now, for whatever reason, he’s decided it’s time to dig up those old messes. Only trouble is, he doesn’t know who he’s actually working for.”

“This whole thing is ridiculous, you know that?” Cecilia surprised even herself with her calm. “This is like my one vacation a year, I don’t have time for any of this.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything to stop him or help him or whatever. Just… run it by me first, before you do anything, okay?” Alicia waited for a response, and getting none she added gently, “I know what I’m doing here, sweetie. Let me take care of it.”

Her gravity was new, and her daughter felt that there was an angle (or five) being played here to which she wasn’t yet privy.

Cecilia watched her mother go back into the house with the distinct, eerie feeling that in actuality she knew her mother only slightly better than she knew the grandfather she’d just met.

“Gastropod” is all about food through the lens of science and history (also known as my only true interests in this world).

Every week, the hosts bring in experts and provide a thoroughly researched show about anything from bitter flavors to microbes. (Check out the episode with Tufts Biology Professor Ben Wolfe!)

Kevin Spacey in season four of “House of Cards.”

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Tufts alumnus Dan Pashman (A ’99) wants to teach us how to “eat more, better.” With debates like “Is a hotdog a sandwich?” this show is neither highbrow nor snooty, and it appeals to everyone. Make sure you listen to his episode that was recorded at Tufts this past fall.

America’s Test Kitchen Radio: All of the video hosts of “America’s Test Kitchen” come together on this weekly show that runs similarly to their TV show on PBS (clearly, the theme to my childhood was public television and radio). In one full hour show, Chris Kimball takes you through recipes, equipment reviews, taste tests, food science, call-in questions and even a famous celebrity guest. The episodes are long, but boy are they chockfull of nerdy kitchen information. Start with the episode with Yotam Ottolenghi as the special guest, and you will not be disappointed.

Burnt Toast, Food 52:

tuftsdaily.com

Weekender

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THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016 | ARTS & LIVING | THE TUFTS DAILY

After over three decades, Parade of Nations continues to dazzle Tufts community

by Justin Krakoff

the spring of her first year after participating in the Parade of Nations.

Now in its 32nd year, the The previous president International Club’s Parade of Nations had asked Kok to be the has become a staple here at Tufts. show’s emcee and to Founded as a platform to showcase help out with the various Tufts’ international diversity, the intricacies of organizing Parade has become one of the biggest the event. Following the culture shows on campus. With over Parade, Kok assimilated 400 tickets sold, this is the first time into the club and evenin recent memory that the Parade tually made her way to of Nations has completely sold out, her current position as which stands as a testament to the the president. efforts of the International Club “The Parade of (I-Club) in organzing a unique show.

Nations is kind of like Leading up to this year’s Parade, my baby,” she said. “It is the event was billed as “The Dance my fourth year doing it, Event of the Year.” With performances and this year has been a by acts such as Envy, La Salsa, African significant improvement Dance Collective, Wuzee, Jumboraas from the last three years. and Spirit of Color, the show sought I-Club is stronger than it to meet the expectations set by this has ever been after previmarketing campaign. Putting on a ously struggling to define show with so many moving parts, how- itself and work together MAX LALANNE / THE TUFTS DAILY ever, required an intense amount of as a club. The evolution in Tufts Envy all-female step team performs at annual Parade of Nations show in Cohen Auditorium. preparation and time on behalf of the terms of organization has I-Club’s dedicated members. proven that I-Club has “It takes a lot of coordinating with done such a fantastic jobthis year.” what it means to be female — what it 23rd year, Oliver Chapman’s nephew the different groups,” sophomore Ashley This year’s Paradetook place on means to be feminine,” Leviss, a first- Martin Chapman spoke and presentMiller, who is a member of the I-Club’s the night of Saturday, March 5 and was year, said. “A lot of times, sexuality is ed the significant achievement to Kok executive board and co-director of the a resounding success for the I-Club. placed differently [from] sensuality, and along with vice president Abboud. show with junior Martha Rimniceanu, Hosted by first-year Ayush Choudhary Middle Eastern Dance emphasizes that In response to her win, Kok said that said. “[I-Club] has been reaching out and Ciel Sriprasert, the show opened and allows us to get in touch with that.” she was very grateful and honored to to various culture clubs and dance with a video montage featuring the varNivedhitha Ramesh, the captain be the recipient. groups to ask who wants to perform. ious dance groups slated to perform of the Indian fusion group Pulse, also “The award for me isn’t a reminder Coordinating logistics is also a big thing, and then a greeting from the emcees. echoed these sentiments as she stated of outstanding leadership or service to and this year we have been making a With Cohen Auditorium practically filled the importance of conveying diversity the international community but simpush for marketing, which led us to sell to capacity, all-female step team Envy here at Tufts. ply a reminder of some of my favorite more tickets than ever before.” kicked off the Parade with a zookeep“I think a lot people don’t realize that experiences at Tufts,” she said.

Vice-President Eric Abboud expand- er-inspired performance melding step just because we do hip-hop and fusion The show closed with its hallmark ed upon these sentiments as he dis- dancing and humor. Performances by music that we [also] have very traditional flag parade, featuring over 30 councussed the importance of organizing the high-energy Bhangra and Turbo fol- roots that are our ingrained in this form of tries, including Germany, Malaysia, an event such as the Parade. lowed, ensuring the show would contin- dance,” Ramesh, a senior, said. “The ability Bolivia, Pakistan, Cuba, Italy, Tanzania, “It is a great way to bring together ue to electrify the sold-out crowd. to be part of a show and parade that really Japan, India, the United Kingdom and lots of cultural groups because there By bringing together so many showcases each group’s individual iden- Kenya. First year Megan-Kang talkare many different shows [on campus] dance groups, the Parade has created tity and background is really important, ed about the importance of being on that will only showcase certain cultures,” a unique experience for Tuft’s different because we don’t always feel like we have stage to represent her country.

Abboud said. “The Parade gives a little dance groups to showcase what makes the chance to portray that on campus.”

“I am sure that there a lot of countries bit of everything, which makes it stand them special. Becca Leviss, a member of For many groups, the Parade is an that are unrepresented [at the Parade], out compared to these shows.”

Middle Eastern Dance, talked at length opportunity to proudly show off the and I am glad that somebody found Yet the Parade would have arguably faced about why she felt it was important that cultures they represent. Examples of me to pick up the flag of my country many more challenges if not for the efforts her group was involved in the Parade. this include Bhangra’s celebration of because it reminds me of my home, of Shanice Kok. A senior and the president of “I think that Middle Eastern Dance Punjabi culture and energy whenev- which is in Korea,” Kang said. the I-Club, Kok got involved with the I-Club celebrates a really beautiful part of er they perform, as well as BlackOut’s Phil Hicks, who represented the respect of stepping’s South United States during the Parade along African origins. Both of with sophomore Alex Kowalick-Allen, these groups represent also felt this sense of belonging was a two wholly distinct art critical aspect of the Parade. forms and the joy of com“Especially here at Tufts, people have ing together to highlight more of a global mindset, and I think the performance arts here this is a place where I have found a at Tufts. home here with the international stuIn addition to being a dents,” Hicks, a sophomore, said. “The platform for Tufts’ diversity of beliefs has pushed me to dance groups, the winner learn new things from different people, of the Oliver Chapman and everyone has experiences that are Award is announced at the just so unique [in the international Parade. First established community].” in the spring of 1993 in Thanks to the efforts of Kok and the honor of Oliver Chapman, I-Club, the Parade has come a long an international stu- way in a few short years with the show dent from Panama who and its global groups reaching a bigger passed away in 1992, the audience than ever before. award is intended to cel“It is important to demonstrate how ebrate a senior who has different groups on campus perform,” been active in the inter- audience member sophomore Steven Lin national community said. “Each group has their own unique here at Tufts or locally or celebration of their culture in their performance, which is the result of them MAX LALANNE / THE TUFTS DAILY internationally. In honor Student dance groups perform in Cohen Auditorium during the 32nd annual Parade of Nations show pre- of the award entering its putting in the time to practice their art.” sented by the International Club.

Arts Editor

8 tuftsdaily.com

Opinion EDITORIAL

Gender imbalances in student organizations From Tufts Democrats to Tufts Debate Society, the male to female ratio in many Tufts clubs is hugely lopsided. While there is no central database for students enrolled in each club, many club leaders have stated their male to female ratio is as high as six to one. This problem extends to even our representatives in the student government. The TCU website reports that only ten of the 27 current Senators are women, while only one woman has run for TCU president over the past five years. Plus, all five of those elected have been male.

“Who is on the top of the Hill?”, an infographic created

by Lyla Wilton using research collected by Rebecca Sinai, Annabelle Roberts, herself and additional political science student researchers at Tufts, shows gender disparities within the department. According to their research, women tend to feel less comfortable in large classes. This phenomenon may also get carried over to on-campus clubs. But what’s causing this problem at its core? One cause may be Imposter Syndrome, which is a social symptom that can affect women in large numbers. It is characterized by one’s feeling of not deserving success and the fear of being deemed as an unworthy fraud by others. This affects how women can feel welcome or unwelcome in club leadership and leadership off-campus, too. The second problem, however, is positive feedback. When a club is mostly made up of male upperclassmen, first-year female students often don’t feel as comfortable or welcomed. That is not to say that no women join the club, but these social reactions certainly inhibit the ability of a club to balance out the gender ratio and rectify the problem.

Some may claim that there are plenty of all-women clubs on campus. If they want to have a voice in the comedy community, for example, why not just join Tufts Funny Women? The all-female groups on campus do great things for our community, but it would be misguided to state that women who do not feel welcomed in co-ed groups should only stick to the all-female ones. The experiences and opportunities in co-ed and single-sex clubs are complementary and not substitutable.

Membership in most on-campus clubs should not pose the problem of mutual exclusivity.

Therefore, we need to have greater awareness of the gender imbalance as well as greater representation in our university leadership to render greater visibility to women in our clubs. Women faculty members are still underrepresented in many departments, from Engineering to International Relations. Having more faculty, staff and student leadership roles for women at Tufts can help remove the perception that women aren’t leaders as often as men, which can help diversify our clubs, our representatives and our classrooms. Clubs should be encouraged to make female members feel welcomed at the beginning of the school year.

COURTESY OF LYLA WILTON Many club leaders have reportParticipating in on-campus clubs is one ed that having a “Ladies’ Night” various of the main ways in which students can times early on in the school year helps influence the dynamics of life on campus, female first-years feel more welcomed and by voicing their views and opinions. By not appreciated. As such, the retention rates creating an actively welcoming community for women in these clubs has increased. for women, clubs with a lopsided gender It’s time for club leaders to step up to make ratio take away valuable voices and para- Tufts a more inclusive learning and living lyze women’s positive contributions. environment for all of us.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

BY STEPHEN DENNISON

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 oped@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.

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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Aren Torikian The Arena

Rubiover

W

ith the internship season rolling around, resume-fudging is at its peak. You never know what special skill will get you that gig with Google. But if you’re looking for accomplishments to put on your résumé, look no further than the Republican primaries. You (and I) both earned as many delegates as Marco Rubio did on Tuesday. Zero. Millions of dollars and more endorsements than Peyton Manning (shout out to Papa John’s) got Rubio as much as us: nothing. Add that to your LinkedIn profile.

Rubio’s plan was always to stick through his home state primary in Florida next week, but he may have to consider dropping out just to consolidate support. I’ve already said that Rubio and John Kasich have been splitting support, and this continues to be the case. In Michigan, Kasich missed out on second by fewer than 10,000 votes. Take Rubio out of the equation and he surely finishes in the top two behind Donald Trump.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders pulled off one of the most shocking victories in recent electoral history.

His win in Michigan came after polls put him twenty points down. Sanders has struggled with the African-American vote, but Michigan proved to be different. Sure, he only brought in around 30 percent of the demographic, but this is his best rate yet. Compare this to Mississippi, where he brought in just 11 percent of the AfricanAmerican vote, and the campaign can be quite proud of its grassroots efforts. I also think Sanders benefitted from potential Clinton-supporting independents voting on the Republican side in an attempt to block Donald Trump.

The math is still bleak for Sanders.

Because the Democrats assign delegates proportionally, it’s difficult to make up ground, and he is already pretty far behind Clinton. The Democrats also have a group of “superdelegates,” usually party elites, who can vote for whomever they want.

As you could imagine, Clinton is cleaning this vote up.

But it’s becoming more obvious on both sides that this race is far from over. Sanders will take Clinton as far as he (and his funding) can, moving the party to the left in this probably futile process. It could take until May or even June for Clinton to finally pass the delegate threshold.

On the Republican side, we may not have a candidate until the convention in July. With a few winner-take-all states coming, these will prove the best chance for Trump to break open his lead or relinquish it. Florida for instance gives 99 delegates to its winner, and this alone is around 8 percent of the delegates needed for nomination. Especially if there is no further consolidation, we may be in line for a brokered convention.

Finally, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he wouldn’t seek a third-party candidacy. If you were worried about a Trump presidency, this would have been the clearest path. Bloomberg would split Democrats,and maybe a few Republicans, while allowing Trump to win with a plurality. Smart call, Mr. Mayor.

Aren Torikian is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major. Aren can be reached at Aren.Torikian@tufts.edu.

Thursday, March 10, 2016 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

O

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OP-ED

For Israel/Palestine, take caution with the word “indigenous”

by Chad Kramer “When we speak our language, we’re resisting. Our languages were destroyed.

The Wampanoag had to actually revive their language. That’s resistance.” This is how indigenous dissent manifests itself, according to Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of United American Indians of New England and a panelist at “Settler Colonialism in the Americas and Palestine: A Legacy of Indigenous Resistance,” which was hosted on Monday by Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She couldn’t be more on point. A century ago, a large segment of my people returned to our homeland and revived our language as well.

Despite Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman and Islamic incursions, Hebrew thrives in the 21st century Israel.

Notwithstanding the commonalities between our centuries of resistance – enduring genocide and resisting imperialist erasure among them, Munro and SJP unfortunately fail to acknowledge the Jewish connection to Israel. While there are parallels between and lessons to be learned from the settler trends in the West Bank and what is now the United States, SJP repugnantly embellishes the settler-colonial analogy by referring to the Palestinians as indigenous and contrasting their status with that of the Jews, who were portrayed by the panelists as the foreign interlopers in this dynamic, on the same plane as the Western Europeans who conquered the Americas. While working to expand the protection of Palestinian rights is commendable, proselytizing an ideology that portrays the inherent Jewish link to Israel as abstract and even fictitious not only hinders justice but also undermines my people’s self determination.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stresses how, given the diversity of the groups involved, an “official definition of ‘indigenous’ has not been adopted by any UN-system body,” though some key criteria have been identified, including: “Self-identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member.”

By definition Jews are from Judea and Palestinians are from Palestine — two names for one tiny slice of soil and rock. The radical renditions of both narratives neglect the grievances of the other, and the panelists and SJP fall into this polarizing trap.

“Distinct language, culture and beliefs.”

Hebrew is the land’s aboriginal vernacular. The earliest known Hebrew inscription (dating from 1000 BCE) was exhumed in the dusty ruins of a fortress in the hilly Judean hinterland, but there are thousands upon thousands of ancient Hebrew inscriptions that have been dug up over the years in hundreds of excavated settlements. The inhabitants of those communities also abstained from pork and worshipped a God named Yahweh. Meanwhile the Arabic language, now spoken by hundreds of millions of people, traces its roots to pre-Islamic nomadic tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. It spread throughout the Middle East in expansionist conquests of the 7th century CE. Though Arabized, the Palestinians nonetheless retain a distinctive culture as well.

“Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies.”

The Jewish people and religion coalesced in prehistoric Canaan. Two

Jewish states rose and fell there. And in contempt of expulsion by imperialist forces from what had become the Roman province of Judea, a continuous, though at times small, permanent Jewish community has remained ever since. Despite nearly 2,000 years of separation, the Land of Israel has prevailed as a cornerstone of Jewish life – Israel and Jerusalem are embedded in daily prayer, ritual, culture and literature.

Jewish attachment to Israel is not just in the Bible, it’s in our blood. Try and defame us with whatever polemic, but extensive genetic evidence outlining our Levantine origins cannot be overlooked.

Archaeological consensus as well has a curious story to tell — one of a revolutionary social movement that began in the 13th century BCE. Rebelling against corrupt overlords, growing bands of Canaanites absconded the lowland urban centers which were in decline.

They fled to the hill country, formed a separate society and established distinct religious and ethnic customs.

This was the “Israelite revolution” — a process of profound agrarian social reform. The proto-Israelites emerged from the Canaanites, not abroad as claimed in the Bible. The remaining urban Canaanites — they’re ancestors of today’s Palestinians; the world’s most intractable geopolitical issue is indeed a feud between two brother nations.

The world has sufficiently demonstrated the necessity of a Jewish national refuge, and one need not discredit Israel’s legitimacy to support a sovereign Palestine alongside it. In a bitter twist of fate much like every other idiosyncrasy of the conflict, Tel Aviv is built on formerly Philistine territory while the West Bank is comprised of Judaism’s historical heartland. The Jews

living in the West Bank are through an immoral occupation usurping what has been Arab land for generations, and continued settlement expansion could certainly ultimately destroy Israel’s only shot at remaining a democratic and Jewish state (a two-state solution). That said, the land those Jews are settling in was called Judea before it became Palestine – their presence, unlike that of the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch conquerors in America, is not without precedent.

According to Munro “we resist by surviving and being alive. Because most of our ancestors died…we resist by having a relationship with the land that we come from.” I and thousands of Jews – students, parents and Holocaust survivors – chanted these words while marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau, at Treblinka, at Majdanek and in Jerusalem. In defiance of expulsions, inquisitions, forced conversions, pogroms and genocide, we’re still here. And despite all the odds, we’ve established and built up a state in our homeland that, imperfect as it is, is an effervescent and pulsating manifestation of indigenous resistance. Panelists and SJP, I adjure you to acknowledge both Palestinian and Jewish rights to self-determination and redemption in our native lands.

So long as SJP continues to evangelize a self-defeating, offensive and inherently flawed understanding of Israel/Palestine and its Jewish inhabitants, it will continue to alienate the demographic that could have been its strongest ally.

Chad Kramer is a junior majoring in Economics and Chinese. He can be reached at chad.kramer@tufts.edu.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Thursday, March 10, 2016

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Thursday, March 10, 2016 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Quad-captains poised to score big points for Jumbos in Iowa WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD

continued from back weekend, she had her biggest throw ever, heaving the standard 50 ft, 10 3/4 in for fourth overall. If Anyoha can keep this momentum going in the outdoor season, she will be a strong scoring threat for the Jumbos at NESCACs. In other action from the weekend, senior quad-captain Sydney Smith was seventh in the 800 meters in 2:16.67, junior Kelly Fahey was 13th in the 3000 meters in 10:21.90 and sophomore Annalisa DeBari was seventh in the 60-meter hurdles in 10.04 seconds.

Smith used this race as a tune up and later learned that she was a national qualifier in the one mile run.

“The coaches and I were fairly confident that the mile would scratch down after looking at the lists,” Smith said. “You lose girls to the 800, 3k, 5k and DMR. We gambled on people picking their better event, and luckily, it paid off.”

Next weekend, a few Jumbos will take to the Charles Benson Bear ’39 Recreational and Athletic Center for the Div. III National Championships.

Senior quad-captain Alexis Harrison, who has been on a tear this season, will be taking on the nation in the 60-meter dash. Harrison, who has made huge improvements and has dropped massive PRs all winter, is currently tied for third in the nation in 7.63 seconds. Although senior Nia Joiner from Illinois Wesleyan University is the clear-cut favorite, coming in with a seed time 0.09 seconds faster

I SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts senior Audrey Gould, front, and sophomore Brittany Bowman compete in the Women’s 5000 M run during the Final Qualifying Meet in Gantcher Center on March 4. than the next closest competitor, Harrison has an outside shot at a national championship. Regardless, she is a huge favorite for second, and an overwhelming favorite to be an All-American.

Allen will also go into the national championships looking to add the title of “AllAmerican” to her resume. Last year, she just missed garnering All-American nods, placing ninth with an 8.92 second time, just missing the honor by 0.01 seconds.

Smith will be making her second appearance at a track national championship. Seeded at No. 13 in the mile, Smith was 10th in the 1,500 meter at last spring’s

outdoor national championships, just missing All-American honors. In her final indoor season, Smith has a viable shot to run herself onto the podium.

“Last year’s races will definitely be in the back of my mind going into the weekend,” Smith said. “Having past experience at the national level definitely gives me much more confidence in my ability to contend for an All-American spot than I had last year.”

Last year, the Jumbos came home with no All-American titles. This year, they will hope to return to Medford with three.

Stanco, Porges fall at CSA Individual Nationals as squash season comes to an end Assistant Sports Editor

The squash season officially came to an end this past weekend for both the men’s and women’s teams as first-year Aidan Porges of the men’s team and senior captain Paget Stanco of the women’s team competed in the College Squash Association (CSA) Individual Nationals. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, both Porges and Stanco lost in the opening round and in their consolation games, both lost to the eventual winners of their brackets.

Porges, who was ranked No. 90 in the country, faced off on Friday against Yale University junior Kah Wah Cheong, who was ranked No. 17 in the country. Like Porges, Cheong plays in the fourth position for the Bulldogs. However, the upperclassman’s experience prevailed in the first round on Friday, as Cheong won comfortably in three games 11-1, 11-7, 11-2 in the A bracket matchup of the Molloy Division.

Porges then competed on Saturday against University of Pennsylvania sophomore Derek Hsue in the consolation round. Hsue had lost his first match against St. Lawrence University first-year George Willis in five games 9-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4. However, Hsue was still

able to top Porges in the consolation matchup in straight games 11-7, 11-7, 11-5, and the firstyear Jumbo exited the tournament without a win. Still, just making it to the CSA Individual Nationals and representing Tufts is an impressive feat in itself for the rookie and is indicative of the men’s team’s budding young talent.

On the women’s side of the draw, Stanco, ranked No. 66, failed to overcome No. 31 Trinity College first-year Jennifer Haley. While Stanco kept the score close in the first two games, she eventually lost 11-7, 11-9, 11-2.

In the consolation rounds, Stanco was unable to avenge her pair of regular season losses to Wellesley College sophomore Sarah Zhang, as she fell to Zhang again this weekend in their third meeting of the season.

Zhang beat Stanco 11-9, 11-3, 11-8 in their first matchup in January, and when the two players renewed their rivalry in February while facing off at the CSA Team Nationals in the first position, Zhang won that closely fought encounter 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 8-11,11-5.

Zhang swept the series on Saturday, winning the third meeting 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-3.

“Sarah and I have always played amazing matches, and I definitely went into it hoping that it would be ‘third time’s the charm,’” Stanco said. “But, I think we have

really competitive matches, and we both play a really different game, and to compete together is always quite enjoyable.”

This also marked Stanco’s last ever game as a Jumbo squash player, though she foresees herself contributing to the program in the future.

“I joined as a sophomore, and squash has been a huge part of my life growing up,” Stanco said. “It was always more about having fun and who your teammates were [than just rankings] … It was pretty amazing to watch a team I played number one on for three years to move up the rankings, and it was my honor being a two-year captain for the team. I think overall Tufts was an awesome experience to learn so much outside of the court, and it’s really sad that it’s over, but I’m going to stay involved as much as I can.”

She is the only senior graduating from the program and is excited for the team’s future.

“The only way is up really, and we got really good recruits this year. Everyone’s young, everyone’s hungry and wants to win and move up the national rankings,” Stanco said. “With the level of players we’re now having on the team, I think Tufts Squash is a huge program that is growing, and I’m very excited to watch this.”

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Ryan Schneiderman Outisde the Boot

Chinese Super League: here to stay?

SQUASH

by Yuan Jun Chee

11

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n the January transfer window, one league surpassed all others in total spending. Take a guess. The Premier League you say? Nope. La Liga? The Bundesliga? Serie A? Ligue 1? Keep guessing. Alright I’ll tell you: it was the Chinese Super League. Following Chinese president Xi Jinping’s vision of China becoming a soccer superpower, wealthy owners started to splash the cash. High profile names such as Ramires (bought for £21 million from Chelsea), Jackson Martinez (bought for £31 million from Atlético Madrid) and Alex Teixeira (bought for £38 million from Shakhtar Donetsk) all moved to clubs in the far east. The CSL not only outspent the Premier League by over £19 million, it also outspent the other four major European leagues combined by almost £60 million.

While it is all too common for European clubs to scoop up the best talent from leagues around the world, a movement in the other direction is almost unprecedented. It is true that the MLS has recently been a landing spot for legends of the game (David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Kaká and Frank Lampard to name a few), but all of these players were in the latter stages of their careers.

That is what makes these transfers so surprising. These aren’t players looking for a relaxing end to a long career, these are players in their primes. Money is surely a factor (Ramires will earn over £200,000 a week). But the question is, are these players really just mercenaries in search for the biggest pay check, or do they share President Xi’s vision?

I suspect the former. The Chinese president’s vision is simply unrealistic for really one reason: the UEFA Champions League. While the World Cup is the premier competition for footballing nations, there is no comparable international competition to the Champions League in club soccer. It has always been the most prestigious club competition, a competition exclusive to European clubs. In this way, Europe has had a monopoly on elite soccer talent.

To forgo the opportunity to test oneself against the best players in the world is to take oneself out of contention to be the best player in the world. When the recipients of the Ballon d’Or (soccer’s most prestigious individual award) were reevaluated for the years before 1995 when the award was only considered for players on European teams, only Pelé (who it is unanimously agreed would have won many times) came from a non-European club. How could one have aspirations of being the best without beating the best?

But to forgo Champions League soccer is also to forgo superstardom.

The 2015 Champions League Final had an audience of 380 million. The 2015 Super Bowl, which set the record for the most viewed Super Bowl ever, had an audience of 114 million. To win the Champion League is to become immortalized in soccer history. The Chinese Super League will never truly be an elite league because it will never be able to compete with that. It can offer money, and maybe even a competitive league, but what it will never be able to offer is the opportunity to secure a place in the pantheon of football legends.

Ryan Schneiderman is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science. He can be reached at ryan.schneiderman@tufts.edu

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Thursday, March 10, 2016

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD

Men’s track and field improve qualifying times as seven Jumbos prepare for nationals

by Bradley Schussel Staff Writer

As the indoor track and field season reaches its climactic end this weekend with the NCAA Div. III National Championships, the men’s track team is poised for a strong showing on the national stage. Tufts competed in two of its final indoor meets this weekend. The first was at home on Friday for the Tufts Final Qualifying Meet, and the second was at Boston University on Saturday for the IC4A Championships. At both meets, multiple Jumbos ran season-best times and several more put up qualifying times for nationals, raising the total of Jumbos competing this weekend at Grinnell College in Iowa.

In the IC4A Championships at BU, the only group in action for Tufts was the 4×400 meter relay team, consisting of sophomore Andrew DiMaiti, senior tri-captain Alex Kasemir, junior Nick Usoff and senior Veer Bhalla. The foursome ran a season-best time in the 4×4, clocking in at 3:16.75, which was converted to 3:19.90 because of BU’s banked track.

Although the time was the best on the season for the Jumbos, it came up just short of qualifying the team for the national championships. Kasemir and Bhalla have already qualified individually for nationals, though, with Kasemir competing as part of the distance medley relay team and Bhalla seeded sixth nationally in the 800 meters.

Kasemir’s distance medley relay team in fact turned in one of the Jumbos’ few nationals-worthy performances at the Tufts Final Qualifying Meet on Friday. The team of first-year Colin Raposo, senior Alex Apostolides, senior tri-captain Mitchell Black and Kasemir ran a time of 10:02.51, which will qualify the four of them for the DMR at nationals.

“The DMR was very satisfying,” senior tri-captain Alex Kasemir told the Daily in an e-mail. “The competition at the meet was intense and really allowed us to run a good time. And, of course, we had some great legs, specifically the mile leg by Mitchell Black. It is always exciting to qualify for nationals, so I am glad to have the opportunity to run against some great athletes again.”

Senior Bryson Hoover-Hankerson finished his indoor track career at the Last Chance Meet by setting a new school record in the 60-meter dash, shaving 0.03 seconds off of his time of the previous school record of 7.07 seconds

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts senior Alex Kasemir passes on the baton in the Men’s Distance medley during the Final Qualifying Meet in Gantcher Center on March 4.

Kasemir’s time qualified him for nationals. that he set earlier in the season to establish the new record of 7.04. Despite the impressive feat, Hoover-Hankerson was unable to qualify for nationals this weekend and will now look to prepare for the outdoor track season.

In addition to Black, Bhalla, Kasemir, Apostolides and Raposo, juniors Tim Nichols and Luke O’Connor will also compete at Grinnell this weekend. Nichols and O’Connor, both cross country stars who competed in the cross country NCAA national championships last fall, are competing in the 5,000 meter race at their first track national championships.

Undoubtedly the most qualified and most competitive Jumbo heading to Iowa is Black, an eight-time All-American who has competed at every indoor and outdoor track national championship in his four years at Tufts. In addition to leading Tufts’ DMR team, Black will compete alongside Bhalla in the 800 meters, the event in which the tri-captain

and All-American is the defending national champion.

Senior James Traester is also heading to Iowa with the team and will serve as the alternate in the DMR. The Jumbos have high hopes heading into this weekend as the seven of them competing represent the most the team has sent to a national championship since the 2012-2013 season, when they finished 15th as a team.

Tufts finished 14th in 2014 and 15th last year, though they are set to turn in their strongest showing in years and beat 16 points, the most the team has ever received at nationals.

“After a hard long season you just have to relax and trust your body to perform,” Kasemir said. “Also, it’s important to remember that nationals is just another meet where you try to run fast. It’s what we do every weekend. The athletes that run best realize that and relax and don’t lose themselves in

the bright lights.”

The Jumbos are already in Iowa and will begin competing at Grinnell tomorrow and finish the meet on Saturday.

“As a team I think we had a great season,” Kasemir said. “This is definitely the most talented team I have been on, and we are threetime NESCAC champions. The freshmen bring excitement and strong performances and the veterans have been bringing it. We are extremely optimistic that we will continue to bring the energy. I am excited to see what the team can do.”

Whatever the results are at nationals, the Jumbos can take pride in their indoor season. The Jumbos have fought hard, and already turned in one of their strongest seasons in years. They will look to cap off the indoor season with a strong showing at nationals before moving on to the outdoor season this spring.

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD

Allen, Harrison and Smith punch their tickets to national championships

by Chris Warren Sports Editor

Over the weekend, Tufts hosted the annual Last Chance Meet at the Gantcher Center.

This meet, which features competition from all across the country, gives athletes on the bubble one final shot at qualifying for the NCAA Div. III National Championships next weekend in Grinnell, Iowa.

Senior quad-captain Marilyn Allen far and away had the performance of the day. Last year, Allen qualified for the national championships in the 60-meter hurdles early in the season. However, this season she struggled to replicate her success from last year, getting tenths of a second off her PR in many races until the Div. III New England Championships,

where she ran 0.06 off her PR. She had not qualified for the national championships, but that all changed on Friday.

Allen’s championship form returned during Last Chance, running a blazing 8.91 in the preliminaries then returning for the finals and racing to a huge PR of 8.84 seconds. After her huge race, she rose from not being in the top 15 nationally to hopping all the way up to 10th in the nation to punch her ticket to Iowa. Allen is now an outside favorite for an All-American title.

“I was really excited because not only was I able to qualify for nationals, but also I was able to break the 60-meter hurdles record every year since I’ve been at Tufts,” Allen said. “I think working on my start and speed in between hurdles during practice

has helped, and I didn’t think about the time in this race. Instead, I thought about competing and the fact that the race could have possibly been my last indoor hurdle performance of my track career.”

However, her day was not over, and she followed her impressive race by matching her PR in the finals of the 60-meter dash, grabbing fourth overall in 8.11 seconds. Firstyear Sydney Ladner made the final of the 60, placing sixth in 8.41 seconds. In the prelims, she grabbed a new PR of 8.37 seconds.

“I think [running the 60 meter dash] helped me run well in the hurdles because I was running all the way up to the final,” Allen said. “I usually do my best when I have little time to cool down from the prelims.”

Other highlights of the day came from the sophomore class. Sophomore Brittany Bowman PR’d again in the 5,000 meters, running 17:30.84 for fifth overall, a 10-second improvement upon her old best. Her time ranks 24th nationally. Senior-quad captain Audrey Gould was right behind her, running 17:36.78 for 10th overall.

Sophomore Amylee Anyoha also had a very impressive day in the weight throw, emerging this season despite being a part of such a small throws crew. Coming into the season, Anyoha’s PR in the weight throw was 46 ft, 4 in. However, she made huge improvements this season, dropping PR after PR week by week. This past see WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD, back