Monday, February 5, 2018

MEN’S BASKETBALL

A look at the government shutdown with Professor Jeffrey Berry see FEATURES / PAGE 3

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture’ portrays troubled comedy legend see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

Jumbos split weekend NESCAC bouts

THE

VOLUME LXXV, ISSUE 7

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY tuftsdaily.com

Monday, February 5, 2018

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

TUPIT examines education in prison at first-ever symposium

by Jessica Blough

Assistant News Editor

The Tufts University Prison Initiative at the Tisch College of Civic Life (TUPIT) hosted its first symposium on Feb. 1 and 2, focusing on providing perspectives on education in prison and solitary confinement through presentations by experts and formerly incarcerated people. The two-day event, entitled “Prison and Education Symposium: The Responsibility of Engagement,” featured panels, presentations and film screenings in the Aidekman Arts Center.

TUPIT is a program that focuses on linking students at Tufts with students pursuing education in prisons. Directed by Hilary Binda, who also serves as the director of the women’s, gender, and sexuality studies department at Tufts, TUPIT’s initiatives include the Inside-Outside course, according to Nora Maetzener, one of the symposium’s co-directors.

Binda emphasized that TUPIT is focused on education rather than prison reform.

“We are absolutely not a policy or advocacy group,” Binda told the Daily in an email. “We are developing educational programming.”

The symposium was directed by three undergraduate students — Maetzener, a sophomore, Maude Plucker, a senior, and Sophie Pearlman, a senior — and two medical students, Anusha Jayaram and Yoelkys Morales, both first-years. Plucker and Pearlman took Binda’s course “Mass Incarceration and the Literature of Confinement” last fall. According to an Oct. 2017 Daily article, the course runs as an “Inside-Out” prison exchange class com-

posed of Tufts (“outside”) students and incarcerated (“inside”) students. Tufts students travel to a nearby prison to take classes alongside currently incarcerated men.

Binda selected and contacted the panelists while the student organizers planned the schedule, recruited co-sponsors and handled logistics, according to Maetzener, Plucker and Pearlman.

Both Plucker and Pearlman cite the “Inside-Out” course as their inspiration for putting together the symposium. Pearlman said this motivation stemmed in part from discontent because she felt unable to properly explain to her peers the impact that the “Inside-Out” class had on her, especially regarding her friendships with incarcerated students. Plucker and Pearlman said they wanted to prioritize incarcerated people’s voices in explaining the prison system. They believed this would help foster the same empathy in their classmates as the “Inside-Out” class had fostered in them.

“I think with any form of prison reform or justice or advocacy, the more that you can hear from and learn from people who have experienced it, the richer your knowledge and understanding is of the issue,” Pearlman said. “Our class was an opportunity to connect with the students inside as people rather than as incarcerated individuals, and I think … having the symposium allows others in the Tufts community to do the same.”

The symposium began on Feb. 1 at the Boston Health Sciences campus, where five formerly incarcerated professionals led a panel titled “Prison, Patients, and Healthcare.”

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

A member of the Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch College (TUPIT), reads opening remarks at the second day of TUPIT’s event The Responsibility of Engagement: Prison & Education at Remis Sculpture Court on Feb. 2.

Moderated by Assistant Professor of Medicine Alysse Wurcel, the panel focused on healthcare conditions in prison and treatment of incarcerated people.

Later in the day, the symposium moved to the Medford/Somerville campus, commencing with a keynote address by Andrea James, the founder and executive director of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. After a performance by Essence, the all-female a-cappella group focusing on music from the African Diaspora, the night concluded with a screening and discussion of the PBS Frontline documentary “Last Days of Solidarity.”

The symposium resumed the next morning at 9 a.m., starting with breakfast and a

reading of letters from Tufts’ incarcerated students. Some of these letters praised the university for its initiative to educate prisoners, while others demanded education and action from those on the outside.

Immediately after the reading, Binda moderated a panel of seven formerly incarcerated individuals, including James, titled “Learning in and in Spite of Prison.”

Each of the panelists had spent several years in the prison system and each had either taught or taken a college-level course while incarcerated. These panelists highlighted the necessity of education in discouraging released prisoners from recidivating, as well as explaining the difficulty of studying in prison see SYMPOSIUM, page 2

Biden brings American Promise tour to Medford

by Joe Walsh News Editor

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden discussed his upbringing and values and shared memories from his eight years in Barack Obama’s presidential administration during an event at Medford’s Chevalier Theatre Thursday night.

The event, which was moderated by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, was part of a nationwide speaking tour coinciding with the release of Biden’s new book, “Promise Me, Dad” (2017). Biden did not address speculation that he is considering a run for president in 2020, instead focusing on his personal story.

Biden’s book deals heavily with the death of his son Beau Biden, the former Attorney General of Delaware who died in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer.

Please recycle this newspaper

Sunny/Windy 39 / 21

/thetuftsdaily

At the event, he explained that he hopes the book will preserve the memory of his son for his family, while also conveying how he dealt with the tragedy to a wider audience.

“I wanted people to know there’s a way through this enormous grief,” he said.

In addition to his son’s recent passing, Biden also faced the untimely deaths of his wife and daughter in an automobile accident in 1972. He said that, through these experiences, he has found “relief in purpose,” and felt a strong duty to continue his work, rather than turn inward in sorrow.

“If you can turn your grief into a purpose that you think would reflect what the person you lost would want you doing,” Biden said. “I think there’s a way out.”

Sharing childhood stories, Biden highlighted two values he inherited from his

For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

father: an abhorrence of abuse of power and a strong belief in treating everybody with dignity. He added that the current state of affairs — with President Donald Trump’s equivocation around alt-right demonstrators and counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va. last year — defied dignity.

Regarding Trump, Biden said that he senses a combination of embarrassment, fear and anger in many people with whom he has spoken. Beyond the current administration, however, he expressed concern that establishment figures in both major parties have forgotten about working-class and middle-class people.

He says this is a mistake because jobs are a source of personal dignity and selfworth and because the nation’s working-class labor force is essential to the country’s success.

Contact Us P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 daily@tuftsdaily.com

“There is a growing realization on the part of the public at large [that] we’ve got to focus on the things that made us who we are,” Biden said. “The glue that holds this country together is the working and middle class. That’s why we’ve had economic stability. That’s why we’ve had political stability. That’s why we’ve had social stability.”

Ultimately, Biden is optimistic that the United States is well-positioned for success in the 21st century, with a productive and highly educated workforce, strong publicly-funded research universities and plentiful venture capital. To that end, he added, he hopes people feel an obligation to participate in government in response to Trump and argued that millennials need to become more politically involved.

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................5

see BIDEN, page 2

COMICS.......................................8 OPINION...................................10 SPORTS............................ BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, February 5, 2018

THE TUFTS DAILY Catherine Perloff Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

Mary Carroll Zachary Hertz Managing Editors

Arman Smigielski Elie Levine Juliana Furgala Melissa Kain Anar Kansara Robert Katz Arin Kerstein Simran Lala Sophie Lehrenbaum Natasha Mayor Seohyun Shim Emma Steiner Joe Walsh Jess Blough Jenna Fleischer Liza Harris Daniel Weinstein Minna Trinh Sean Ong Emma Damokosh Jessie Newman Emma Rosenthal Michael Shames Fina Short Grace Yuh Jenna Fleischer Kenia French Ilana Goldberg Michelle Kwon Ameenah Rashid Alison Epstein John Fedak John Gallagher Tommy Gillespie Justin Krakoff Setenay Mufti Cassidy Olsen Ryan Eggers Issay Matsumoto Jack Ronan

Associate Editor Executive News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors

Executive Features Editor Features Editors

Assistant Features Editors

Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Assistant Arts Editors

Hannah Kahn Executive Opinion Editor

Maria Fong Shannon Geary Lydia Ra Rebecca Tang Deeksha Bathini Emily Burke Carrie Haynes Joseph Lim Sarah Nechamkin Madeleine Schwartz Caleb Symons Yuan Jun Chee Liam Finnegan Phil Goldberg Savannah Mastrangelo Eddie Samuels Bradley Schussell Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman Emily Burstein Ryan Eggers Arlo Moore-Bloom Haley Rich Delaney Tantillo

Cartoonists

Editorialists

Assistant Sports Editors

Executive Photo Editor Photo Administrator

Executive Video Editor Staff Videographer

PRODUCTION Ellah Nzikoba

Production Director

Isabella Montoya Seohyun Shim Bridig Bell Betty Cao Caroline Cohen Connor Dale Julie Doten Jordan Isaacs Maygen Kerner Honor Kalkin Omeir Khan Allison Kumarasena Emai Lai Frank Ma Aidan Menchaca Daniel Montoya Khaliun Naragerel Sebastian Torrente Alice Yoon Ezgi Yazici Sitong Zhang Maria Fong Peter Lam Joseph Lim Khaliun Narangerel Belinda Xian Astrid Weng Anna Hirshman Nihaal Shah Norrie Beach Anna Dursztman Madhulika Gupta Tess Jacobson Melissa Kain Adam Kercheval Lauren Kim Maria Kim David Levitsky Katie Martensen Jack Ronan Arielle Sigel Madeleine Schwartz Hannah Wells Jiayu Xu Vanessa Zighelboim Deepanshu Utkarsh Juliana Furgala Asli Akova Mitch Navetta Ercan Sen Lexi Serino Elisabeth Blossom Rachel Hartman Shaivi Herur Olivia Ireland Asha Iyer Lillian Miller Amy Tong

BIDEN

continued from page 1 Biden shared his approach to governing during the Obama administration, explaining that he learned about foreign leaders’ goals and personalities by fostering personal relationships. This was possible, he said, because Obama placed a great deal of trust in Biden and delegated important tasks to him.

Biden was not initially interested in serving as vice president, he noted, but he decided to join the Democratic ticket in 2008 because of his admiration for Obama. He said that he and Obama share a similar set of values and claimed that, while they occasionally disagreed with each other on tactics, they always agreed on larger strategic issues.

“I watched this man make incredibly difficult decisions, and all I saw was character,” Biden said. “He has more character than any president I have ever worked with.”

Executive Layout Editors Layout Editors

VIA FLICKR

Former United States Vice President Joe Biden speaks at an event in Merrimack, NH on Sept.

22, 2012.

Prison Symposium examines relationships between prisoners and students SYMPOSIUM

Liam Knox Investigative Editor

Alexis Serino Rachel Hartman Mike Feng Ray Bernoff Erik Britt Sophie Dolan Shaivi Herur Ben Kim Rachael Meyer Vintus Okonkwo Evan Sayles Seohyun Shim Annette Key Ana Sophia Acosta Olivia Ireland Asha Iyer

Biden talks relationship with Obama at Chevalier Theatre

continued from page 1 Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

tuftsdaily.com

and the demand for committed, empathetic professors.

In the panel discussion, James reflected on the importance of elucidating the prison experience through the voices of those who have lived it. She referred attendees to the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls website to learn more about supporting incarcerated people and policy change.

“The more that institutes of higher education open the door and give a platform for formerly incarcerated people to be heard, the closer we’ll get to changing this system in a meaningful way,” she explained.

A brief performance by the a cappella group S-Factor followed, focusing on songs of encouragement and praise from the African Diaspora. The performance showcased the kind of songs that three members of S-Factor plan to teach to current prisoners as part of a recent TUPIT initiative to create a choir in a prison.

After a break for lunch, the symposium continued with a showing of the

seven-minute documentary Solitary Voices, which centers the narratives of people who have been held in solitary confinement for extended periods. The documentary concluded with a panel discussion led by Cassandra Bensahih, the coordinator of Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement Coalition, which featured Nico Machado, a representative from Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement who has firsthand experience with solitary confinement, Khari Charles, community engagement manager at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and Elizabeth Matos, attorney at MA Prisoners’ Legal Services.

The final event of the symposium involved three separate breakout workshops. The first focused on changing local legislation to advocate for incarcerated people. The second was led by current Tufts students involved in the Petey Greene Program, which brings Tufts students to prisons to tutor incarcerated individuals. The workshop focused on the experiences Tufts students had while regularly entering a prison and building relation-

ships with inmates. The final panel was a roundtable conversation targeted at Tufts faculty, encouraging them to consider teaching a college-level course in prison.

Speaking on the impact of the symposium, Plucker explained that she hopes it will push Tufts community members to get more involved with TUPIT and other programs that promote the understanding of incarcerated students.

“I’m hoping that people will draw that these [people] are human beings, that injustices have been committed to lead them to where they are, that Tufts community can do something about it and is doing something about it, and that sitting there and listening to the voices that carry these experiences is the first step in that direction,” she said.

Binda said she is pleased that the “outside” students involved in organizing the event could learn from their experiences with prisoners.

“I learn more from the humor, resilience and critique that emerges under these circumstances than I do from almost any other situation in life, and I have now watched my wonderful ‘outside’ Tufts students have similar experiences,” Binda said.

TCU SENATE SHARES ELECTION UPDATES, HEARS FUNDING APPEALS

by Seohyun Shim News Editor Executive Graphics Editor Graphics Editors

Executive Copy Editors Copy Editors

Executive Online Editor Senior Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors Social Media Editors

Assistant Social Media Editors

BUSINESS

Rayane Haddar Executive Business Director

Romain Dard Receivables Manager

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met in Remis Sculpture Court on Sunday at 3 p.m. to hear funding requests and share committee updates.

The meeting was rescheduled to 3 p.m. from its regular meeting time of 7 p.m. due to the Super Bowl, according to Parliamentarian Adam Rapfogel, a junior.

TCU President Benya Kraus opened the meeting, announcing that the special election, which had been scheduled to take place on Feb. 3, would be postponed until further notice from the Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM). According to Kraus, ECOM will amend its internal bylaw to allow the candidates running unopposed to be appointed to their respective roles immediately without an election.

Kraus added that change in ECOM bylaw would become effective after an approval vote by the Senate Executive Board and the TCU Judiciary.

TCU Vice President Anna Del Castillo then opened the floor for committee updates.

TCU’s Student Services Committee shared with the body that it has been working with the Tisch Library for possible changes in printing and its hours of operation.

Administration & Policy (A&P) Committee shared that Trustee Representative Nathan Foster, a senior, will open a discussion with the Board of Trustees to ensure that they factor in economic diversity among students in its decision-making process. A&P Committee member and Class of 2021 senator Grant Gebetsberger shared that he is looking to hold a town hall meeting about campus mental health. There were no other significant updates from other committees.

Next, TCU Treasurer Emily Sim, a junior, took the floor to introduce supplementary funding requests.

The body voted to match initial recommendations of the Allocations Board (ALBO) for the following groups: $50 to Tufts Teach-in-CORES for its new whiteboard for classes; $575 in funding to Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts (SWAT) for its registration for College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI); $390 in funding to Tufts Anime Brigade for six of its members’ admission to

Boston Anime Convention; $1,138 in funding to Sino-US Relations Group Engagement (SURGE) for its future speaker events; $2,450 in funding to TURBO for Turbomania, the organization’s annual event; $4,954 in funding to Computer Science Exchange (CSE) for its future events; and $1,451 in funding to Vietnamese Students Club (VSC) to send six people to the 4th Annual Vietnamese Empowerment Summit.

The body tabled Tufts University Social Collective’s (TUSC) additional funding request for Tuftstonia’s Day 2018. ALBO initially recommended providing $12,000 in funding out of TUSC’s original request of $16,000. After a brief debate phase, senators motioned to table the request as several senators mentioned the lack of details in some items, especially regarding the $6,300 in funding requested for T-shirt giveaways.

The body will vote on a new number in the next meeting, according to Rapfogel.

Before the meeting adjourned, Kraus shared with the body that the university has plans to install a gender-neutral bathroom in the Mayer Campus Center within the next three weeks.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Features

3 tuftsdaily.com

Ross Sonnenblick The Tuftonian Dream

Baby showers and superpowers

W

JIAXUN LI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Jeffrey Berry, professor in the political science department, talks during an interview in his office in Packard Hall on Feb. 10, 2016.

Q-and-A: Professor Jeffrey Berry talks about partisan politics and government shutdowns

by Jessie Newman Features Editor

Jeffrey Berry is the John Richard Skuse Professor of political science at Tufts. He focuses on urban government, American politics, media and nonprofits. Berry spoke to the Daily on the recent government shutdown, as well as on how the current trend of partisanship and gridlock in Congress has been growing since the 1960s.

The Tufts Daily ( TD): Was the shutdown in January comprehensive?

Jeffrey Berry ( JB): There is never a full shutdown because essential services like the armed forces never shut down and will continue operating.

Exactly what these essential services are from year to year definitely has a little bit of massaging at the edges, depending on who is president. Most of the government is shut down.

TD: Do shutdowns always come from an inability in Congress to agree on a budget?

JB: When the government shuts down, there is a failure to reappropriate funds in order to pay people’s salaries. The consequence of this is that you are told not to show up because the agency within the bureaucracy is unable to pay you. If you show up for work, you expect to get paid. It’s not more complicated than that.

TD: What were the key reasons for the short shutdown in January?

JB: The immediate context was that Democrats for the first time had some leverage in blocking legislation in the Senate that they did not like. Many of the previous decisions were based on a process called reconciliation, which simply means that when it is a budgetary matter, they cannot be filibustered.

The Senate created a rule for itself that said, yes, we have the filibuster rule but there can be exceptions and one of the exceptions is budgetary items. The Republican majority extended what is a budgetary item to the furthest reach,

such that most things that came to the floor were budgetary and, therefore, they did not need 60 votes to terminate a filibuster, they only needed a simple majority of 51 votes, which gave the Republican party more power in the budget talks.

TD: How did DACA and the DREAM Act come into play with this shutdown?

JB: So this goes back to the leverage that the Democrats had, to force Republicans to negotiate with them.

One of the things that they chose to negotiate over was DACA, and Republicans refused to cooperate and push any legislation forward, so essentially it became a game of chicken with Congress [being] willing to let the government shut down over the weekend so people did not really feel it, and then the Democrats blinked.

TD: Could you foresee the gridlock being experienced in Congress leading to future shutdowns during the Trump administration?

JB: Yes. However, … to explain what is going on, it is best to look back before looking forward. The growth of polarization and partisanship goes all the way back to the civil rights movement when the parties basically got reformulated. The newly enfranchised African-American voters moved to the Democratic party, and conservative white groups, especially conservative white Southerners, moved out of the Democratic party and into the conservative party. The Republican party became more conservative and the Democratic party became more liberal. Policymaking in the middle, the moderates, the center of policymaking began to dwindle. Now we have parties that are more ideologically homogeneous and conflict grows out of this.

TD: Has the polarization been growing since the 1960s, or have there been any points in history where it has eased up or moved closer together?

JB: The reality is that politics incorporates a significant degree of antag-

onism and partisanship, so there [are] not a lot of time periods in American history where we can say that things were really calm and cooperative. You can work back in time and look, not during the McCarthy era, not during the Nixon years, not during the Reagan years. Republicans look at the Clinton and Obama years as awful periods. The reality is that [polarization] is a matter of degree, but that degree has seemed to grow recently.

TD: Can you point to any factors other than the shifts in the voter blocs to account for the polarization in American politics?

JB: Weaponization of the media. The ideological media that has emerged on both sides. It is denser on the conservative side with Fox News and talk radio. The left side has it, but does not have as much of it. Media that appeals to high-octane voters, people that are really interested in politics, really ideological and disproportionately vote in primaries. They overweight in Republican and Democratic primaries.

TD: Has the Trump administration exacerbated this?

JB: President Trump is unique. All presidents have been polarizing to the opposing party, but Trump is more combative, more vulgar and much more narcissistic than previous presidents of either party. He pushes himself to the center of every fight, but he is a part of a longer-term trend.

TD: Is there a breaking point when a country cannot be as divided as it is?

JB: That is a question that political scientists are struggling with: when do institutions become too broken? There is a lot of discussion about that today with the release of the Nunes memo but I don’t know of a clear answer. A consensus has not been reached. It is very hard for political scientists to make such cataclysmic judgments in real time.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

hen you were young, you maybe had a dream. You were going to fly to the moon, pass EC 5, cure cancer. Then you grew up. You cut your hair, chose your major, changed your outlook. You changed a lot, but did you change your dream?

Last week, sophomore Timi Dayo-Kayode watched a video for his Introduction to Cognitive and Brain Sciences class. One scene depicted a bustling city at night, with hurried little people scurrying about and swirling into an indistinct blur. Granted, Timi was watching the video at twice its standard speed, but he never wants to feel like a blip on a busy screen. His eyes convey an urgent fire as he states, at half his standard speed, “I want to have a real meaning.”

Timi grew up in Nigeria, where from the age of five he realized that he wanted to work in the magical realm of technology, but because the field of software programming is almost alien and inaccessible in Nigeria, he didn’t really discover his particular passion until one night when he was 16. His family had recently immigrated to the United States, and as he sat in his darkened living room watching “The Internship,” he experienced a eureka moment. In the movie, the protagonist approaches a whiteboard and confidently writes lines of programming code, and Timi’s future instantly coalesced into sharper focus. He explains, “I was like, ‘Holy s—! This is interesting.’ I have a phone, an app, a Facebook, but I never thought about how that app got there. Seeing [that code] blew my mind.”

He spent the next month and a half feverishly learning everything he could about programming and over the course of his senior year he hopped from hackathon to hackathon as quickly as he could get reimbursed for his previous trip. He arrived at Tufts as a determined computer science major, but now he says, “I don’t see myself ever using my degree.” He recognizes the possibility of “working for a corporation and making like six figures out of college,” but his dream has taken a more philanthropic turn. At Tufts, Timi splits his time between completing his homework and promoting his nascent startup company, which aims to help tech companies diversify their workforce. This year, Timi has pitched his plan to a number of potential investors, and their excitement fuels him through long nights of laborious brainstorming, mounds of Comp 40 homework and limited sleep. “Maybe I do actually know what I’m doing,” he thinks. “It’s like a pregnant woman and her baby shower — everyone is excited for what’s to come.”

Like any entrepreneur, Timi wants his startup to be impactful, and he wants to harness his influence for noble causes. Some heroes wear capes, and some go back to Nigeria to “establish some kind of tech school for the youth.” According to Timi, “some people just go to work, get groceries, feed the dog, rinse and repeat.” Clearly, he does not want to be one of those people. In Timi’s opinion, “the access to tech gives you some kind of superpower. It changes nations. It changes everything.”

Ross Sonnenblick is a sophomore majoring in psychology and international literary and visual studies. He can be reached at ross.sonnenblick@tufts.edu.

4

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Monday, February 5, 2018

1/4

1/8 FULL AD 1/2

tuftsdaily.com

Monday, February 5, 2018

ARTS&LIVING

‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture’ revamps the comic biopic

5 tuftsdaily.com

Alec Provost The Art of Games:

‘What Remains of Edith Finch’ is a joy of tragedies

W

VIA NETFLIX

A promotional image for ‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture’ is pictured.

by Julian Blatt Staff Writer

A child of negligent and unloving parents can travel one of two diverging roads. He can either wallow in misery his entire life, each day more crushing and cruel than the last. Or he can become the man who will change comedy forever. Fortunately, this is the path Douglas Kenney chose to follow, and the world of satire and absurdity has never been the same since.

The Netflix movie “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” is not like the typical biopic. Detailing Doug Kenney’s ( Will Forte) victories, as well as his trials and tribulations, as co-founder of the humor magazine National Lampoon and writer of one of the most profitable movies of all time, the film maintains a brisk pace, delivering laugh after laugh. It also makes clear, though, that even the funniest man alive must face moments of utter loneliness and despair. Thus, at its core, “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” offers a glimpse into the mind of a comedic yet suffering genius, whose inability to connect with the people who loved him would ultimately lead to his downfall.

However, what truly separates this film from others of its genre is the extremity of its self-awareness. The movie begins with a snippet of an

interview with “Modern Doug” (Martin Mull), even though Kenney died in 1980, so by all accounts this character should not even exist. Yet Modern Doug refuses to acknowledge this basic fact, making his voice heard throughout the movie as both an on- and off-screen narrator, and at times even going so far as to interact with the other characters. Sometimes, the meta nature of the film verges on societal critique. For example, when the original National Lampoon writers are introduced to the audience, a black couple angrily questions why all of the writers were white, to which Modern Doug replies, “If it makes you feel better, we also had very few Jews.” Many recent movies that take place in mid-20th-century United States depict the blatant and rampant discrimination that was characteristic of the time, but very few address it so directly. The extent to which “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” strives to be self-referential deserves absolute respect and proves just how much time and effort were involved in its creation.

Also noteworthy is the incredibly vibrant color scheme. Everything from the sets to the costumes is bathed in bright hues that appeal to the eye and draw the audience in. Additionally, the overall design perfectly captures the carefree atmosphere of the ’70s, offering viewers a refreshing and

much-needed respite from the pervasive gloom and doom of the current era. The film’s visually stimulating style pairs well with its hilarity, and not a single camera shot or line of dialogue goes to waste.

Sadly, as with many of Hollywood’s greatest, hopelessness struck Kenney like a bolt of lightning and threw him hurtling from the sky. Abandoned by both his wife (Camille Guaty) and Lampoon partner (Domhnall Gleeson), Kenney could find happiness solely in his work, desperate to become rich and famous, just to prove to his parents that his life had value. Yet, after doing so, he only grew more miserable.

As punishment for the pressure he subjected himself to, Kenney squandered his money on cocaine, developing an addiction that slowly began to replace work as his escape from reality. And sadly, in 1980, Kenney’s life came to an end when he fell off the 35-foot Hanapepe Lookout in Kauai, Hawaii. However, despite his tragic death, Doug’s friends and family honored him with amusement, namely the futile and stupid gesture of turning his funeral into a food fight. In this way, “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” beautifully conveys that it is not what we do while we are alive, but what our loved ones do after we die, that defines us and gives our lives meaning.

A big step for Bughead and a double homicide in Chapter 25 of ‘Riverdale’

by Alison Epstein

Executive Arts Editor

Every television show always has a few select episodes that viewers can point to and say, there, that was a watershed moment for this show.

Twenty years from now (yes, we are still going to be discussing “Riverdale” decades into the future), we are all going to look back on this week’s episode of “Riverdale” (2017–), “Chapter

25: The Wicked and the Divine,” and know that this was the episode where “Riverdale” finally and truly went off the deep end. At long last, “Riverdale” completely succumbed to its own “Riverdale-ness,” and honestly it was kind of incredible to watch.

Guys, Betty is actually a full-on cam girl now. She has resurrected her Dark Betty™ wig from the Chuck-ina-hot-tub incident (never forget) and now spends her evenings in a lacy bra

cooing at guys through a webcam. As much as Chic is loving the new family business, he has also gotten himself a job at the local movie theater so he can pay rent to stay at the Coopers’. Hal is not cool with this and leaves. Okay, bye Hal, maybe you should just go join the farm cult with Polly.

Betty and Chic aren’t the only ones securing jobs in this town, though. see RIVERDALE, page 6

elcome to the newest addition to the Tufts Daily Arts section: The Art of Games. In this new weekly column, I will be reviewing games, giving my thoughts on the state of the industry and just taking a look into the world of games. Without any further introduction, here is my review of the video game “What Remains of Edith Finch” (2017).

“What Remains of Edith Finch” is one of the most profound interactive experiences to come out of 2017. A first-person adventure game, you play as the titular character, Edith Finch, Jr., a 17-year-old girl who returns to her childhood home hoping to confront her family’s past and investigate an alleged curse behind the deaths of all her relatives. What results is a thought-provoking experience consisting of fun gameplay, interesting characters and heartbreaking moments.

The house that you explore through the game is just as much a character as any of the Finches. Its secret passageways and locked rooms are handcrafted and feel real in spite of the house’s impossible structure. A particular standout is a recreation of an elementary school classroom, which was so spot-on that it brought on nostalgia for my own elementary school days.

The game’s short length is what allows for this level of detail; clocking in at just three hours, Edith Finch is a short game by any definition. However, it never gets boring, and the length is a worthy trade-off for the level of detail in the world. Constantly crossing the line between real and fantastical, the Finch house is representative of the rest of the experience.

In spite of its fantastical and whimsical nature, “What Remains of Edith Finch” is not a happy game. Rather, the game continually returns to tragedy, with the player experiencing the death of each of Edith Finch’s ancestors through a series of oneoff experiences. Although often lighthearted and fun on the surface, these experiences never let you forget that death is at their core. All of them are thought-provoking and many of them employ a playful nature that makes their morbid subjects all the more profound.

“What Remains of Edith Finch” is not without flaws, however. Perhaps the most significant annoyance is the controls for some of these one-off experiences. While the majority play without issue, some have controls which are inexact, leading to frustration. Alongside frustrating controls, your goal is often unclear, further adding to the annoyance. While these issues would have been less problematic in another game, they stand out in “What Remains of Edith Finch.” Instead of being small complaints, they can turn what was intended to be a profound experience into one of frustration. These issues are only present in a few of the experiences, however, and the majority control without flaw. Whether you are taking pictures with a polaroid camera or jumping from tree branches as a cat, all of these experiences are engaging and wondrous, if depressing — a statement that applies to the game as a whole.

Alec Provost is a junior majoring in history. He can be contacted at Alec.Provost@ tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Monday, February 5, 2018

tuftsdaily.com

In Chapter 25, a confirmation is followed by not one, but two murders

COURTESY DANIEL POWER FOR THE CW NETWORK

KJ Apa as Archie and Camila Mendes as Veronica in Chapter Twenty-Five of the CW’s ‘Riverdale.’

RIVERDALE

continued from page 5 Archie has landed a sweet new internship as Hiram’s errand boy. Archie is already doing a great job with the dry cleaning and the food delivery, but then Hiram finds out Archie beat up a defenseless, bedridden Nick St. Clair, and is so impressed that he invites Archie to work the Lodge family’s poker game. Moral of the story, kids: Beat up a teen with two broken legs and you just might land yourself a promotion.

The reason the extended Lodge family is in town is for Veronica’s much-awaited confirmation. Veronica is excited, but she is slightly concerned about renouncing Satan because she thinks her family business might be unethical and that she might end up hurting Archie. Hey sweetie, it’s probably a red flag if what you’re doing is so bad that it makes you worried you can’t renounce the literal devil. Just saying.

But let’s forget about Veronica and her heinous confirmation dress for a minute to discuss what is truly important: the reintroduction of the Bughead romance. Jughead is stressing because the sheriff is trying to evict all the Serpents. Sheriff Keller and Mayor McCoy are claiming it’s because of the decapitation of General Pickens’ statue (even though they have no proof a Serpent did it), but Jughead figures out the whole thing seems to be an excuse to get rid of the Serpents and continue their sketchy plan with the Lodges.

Jughead has another problem though, and that is the return of snake charmer/devil incarnate

Penny Peabody. She is (understandably) unhappy that Jughead sliced off a chunk of her arm, and is willing to help the Serpents with their legal battle, but only if Jughead gets kicked out of the group. Oh and also, she wants to cut off Jughead’s tattoo too … with a dirty knife. Whoa, hope you got your tetanus shot, Juggy.

All this sends Jughead running off to Betty, the only one who understands him, and the only one sick enough to not be turned off by the fact that he, as he puts it, grabbed and cut a woman.

Actually, she definitely was kind of turned on. Never change, Betty.

Betty and Jughead plan to put up flyers to crack the case of the missing head in order to save the Serpents and prevent baby Jug from getting scalped, but first they have to have an awkward conversation about who they’ve hooked up with during their relationship break. Jughead admits he got with Toni, but specifies that they did “some stuff but not everything.” Classic high school. Then he asks Betty if she did anything with anyone, and she straight up lies and says no, even though we all know she kissed Archie right before she was forced to almost bury him alive.

And considering Cheryl is aware of this hot gossip, it’s sure to not stay secret for long.

Speaking of hot gossip, Archie gets an earful over at Hiram’s poker game.

While plunging the toilet, he overhears this one mobster named Papa Poutine (he loves poutine, okay?) saying that he wants to “remove” (aka murder) Hiram.

This puts Archie into kind of a sticky

situation because he’s still working for the FBI so he probably shouldn’t be helping Hiram, but it also probably isn’t great for his relationship if he gets his girlfriend’s dad killed.

Now it’s time for the confirmation, where Veronica and Josie sing “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (1997) because that’s an appropriate choice of song for a confirmation ceremony. Side note, as she prances down the aisle (is there typically a lot of prancing in confirmations?), Kevin at first looks incredibly proud but then his face drops, definitely because he finally lays eyes on her dress. Veronica also is able to successfully renounce Satan, but only after seeing Archie’s sweet, innocent face in the crowd. Too bad Archie’s on his way to becoming even darker than Dark Betty (and we know what a feat that is).

At the after-party, Archie warns Hiram about Papa Poutine’s evil plan so that Hiram can protect himself, and next thing you know, Papa Poutine is discovered with a bullet in the back of his head. Godfather Hiram strikes again. When questioned by the FBI, Archie claims to not know anything, so it looks like he’s really in deep with Hiram now. Welcome to the family business, Arch.

Also during the after-party, Betty and Jughead get a tip that a tall man in a Serpents jacket had deposited the Pickens statue head in a scrapyard, which can only mean one thing: It was Tall Boy! It doesn’t seem like Tall Boy is that unusually tall, but oh well, it’s in his name so okay, we can all pretend this makes sense. Once FP finds out

Tall Boy is to blame, he kicks him out of the gang.

Back in the trailer, Betty uses her newfound cam girl confidence to mount Jughead so they can finally lose their virginities to each other. Bughead shippers, rejoice, the holy day has finally come. Between the dramatic unzipping of Betty’s dress and the extremely passionate kissing (Cole and Lily, have you been practicing or something?), it was a pretty steamy scene.

Betty returns home all glowing and smiley, but her happiness quickly turns into horror when she walks in on her mom and Chic cleaning up the blood of some guy who had showed up on the doorstep earlier but now is bludgeoned and dead on the floor. Looks like the Lodges aren’t the only killing family in town anymore.

So there you have it, a Bughead virginity loss and a double murder.

It’s not even a mid-season finale.

There were as many murders tonight as the total number inflicted by the Black Hood, which really just goes to show how lame the Black Hood actually was. This episode was so bizarre (still not over “Bitter Sweet Symphony” at the confirmation) and over the top, especially with all the mob drama and “Godfather” references. ( The Serpents also sent the Lodges the statue head at the end of the episode, because apparently that’s the closest thing they could find to a horse’s head.) Say what you will about “Riverdale” — this reviewer certainly does — but at least it always keeps you on your toes.

Monday, February 5, 2018 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

1/4 AD

1/8 AD 1/2 AD

7

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Monday, February 5, 2018

Comics

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Cathy: “That’s a daddy thing.”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

Difficulty Level: investing in bitcoin with no idea of what it is because all your friends are talking about it.

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

Thursday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

Thursday’s Solution

Monday, February 5, 2018 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

9

Help High School Students Beat the Odds!

1/4 AD

Volunteer with Let’s Get Ready! As a College Access Coach, you are on the frontlines of educational justice as a teacher, role model, and mentor.

Serve as an SAT tutor to a small group of high school students in your community and support them through the college application process.

1/8 AD

PROGRAM

Coaches in Let’s Get Ready’s College Access Program teach the math, verbal, or both sections of the SAT and guide students through the complexity of the college admissions process. College Access Coaches commit to:   

Coach 3 hours a week in the evening for 9 weeks Dedicate 1 hour a week to prep time Serve as a role model and guide to your students

Let's Get Ready provides a detailed curriculum, training, and support.

WHERE & WHEN Medford High School 489 Winthrop Street Medford, MA 02155  Spring 2018  Tuesdays & Thursdays  5:30 – 8:30 PM Somerville High School 81 Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02143  Spring 2018  Mondays & Wednesdays  5:30 – 8:30 PM 

LEARN MORE & APPLY

1/2 AD

http://letsgetready.org/ coach/

Questions? Contact Stephen at sbissonnette@letsgetready.org

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Monday, February 5, 2018

tuftsdaily.com

OP-ED

The masquerade of justice

by Tys Sweeney To begin this piece, I lift the words of two of history’s greats. The first is Victor Hugo, romantic author of “Les Misérables,” a book which gave voice to the trodden-upon in the 19th century and earned for Hugo immortal dignity. On war, Hugo contemplates: “Civil war? What does this mean? Is there any foreign war? Is not every war between men war between brothers?

War is modified only by its aim. There is neither foreign war nor civil war; there is only unjust war and just war.”

The second is Simón Bolívar, the Latin American revolutionary who led the fight for freedom against the Spanish Empire for most of his adult life. His words? “Doing the right thing costs so little and is worth so much.”

What do these words mean in today’s world, one wracked with as many troubles as the world of the

1800s? They mean the same as they did then. Here, I would like to apply them to the air war carried out by the United States in the Middle East. Though traditional aircraft are present in the skies over Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries, many of the Hellfire missiles that rain from the sky are deployed from Predator Drones, a combat unit originally designed to “defeat Soviet tanks on the plains of Europe.” It is war, they say. We were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and we are fighting back. It is total war. American civilians perished on that day. It was a vicious attack. And this is true. It is also wrong, and morally flimsy.

The Guardian reported less than a month ago that the drone war has become “increasingly indiscriminate.”

Drones were employed as a weapon of terror and destruction by the Bush and Obama administrations, the actions of which have severely undermined

any moral high ground America still retained internationally. In Donald Trump’s first year in office more than 10,000 coalition airstrikes have been carried out in battle zones across the Middle East. What is more, several nations previously excluded from our hellfire have now been added to the list of battle zones. Among these: Yemen and Somalia.

It is horrific that religious zealots bent on dealing a vicious blow to the pride, power and impenetrability of the United States attacked us. We must tread carefully when discussing American terror campaigns abroad, but in our ruthless, often inaccurate attacks across the region in response to 9/11, we have killed thousands of civilians. It is illegal to target civilians, so most civilian deaths are mistakes.

Whatever the reason for their deaths, can America truly say to them that it is in their best interests to die for our

cause, that it is a necessary piece to restoring peace? As an American, and as a person coming of age in a time of brutal conflict across the globe, I cannot accept this view. It is wrong to kill noncombatants. That is a fact. Nobody disagrees, until they blind themselves with the enigma of total war. We are all combatants in a global struggle. No. We are people. People should not kill people. People should especially not kill noncombatants. It is murder. It is “unjust war.”

So what do we do? We say to ourselves, “Doing the right thing costs so little and is worth so much.” We say to ourselves, we are Americans; we will take the higher road; we will rise above violence. I welcome challenge and disagreement, but in my commitment to the value of human life, I will remain firm.

Tys Sweeney is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Tys can be reached at tys.sweeney@tufts.edu.

CORRECTION ‘Tufts Police Chief travels to Israel for counterterrorism seminar,’ published on Jan. 26, has been updated to remove any reference to Zeff’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, as it was misrepresented, and to clarify the link between the ADL exchanges and an NYPD policing program. The Daily regrets this error.

O p inion

Monday, February 5, 2018 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

COLUMNIST INTRODUCTION

Letter from the managing board: Spring 2018 columnists This week, we will be starting daily production and the beginning of regular columns. We’re excited to announce our lineup of columnists, who we hope will introduce a variety of interesting perspectives on Tufts and the wider world.

For the opinion section, former executive opinion editor Anita Ramaswamy will be writing “Anita’s Angle” each Monday where she will discuss and analyze contradictory topics in our lives ranging from technology to politics. On Tuesdays, Nesi Altaras will continue writing “Looking Out” and offer his perspective on various international events.

Aneurin Canham-Clyne will be bringing a Marxist lens to culture and politics in his column, “Red Star” each Wednesday, and on Thursdays Paris Sanders will continue to write “P.S. …” and explore contemporary social and political issues.

Our features columns will aim to shed light on unique perspectives at Tufts.

On Mondays Ross Sonnenblick is writing “The Tuftonian Dream,” where he will interview various students about their dreams. Tuesdays will have “The

617,” featuring Alexa Weinstein covering Massachusetts politics. Derek Castle will be writing about the experiences of students and staff in the R.E.A.L. (Resumed Education for Adult Learning) program in R.E.A.L. Talk. Dorothy Neher will profile different working populations at Tufts in Thursday’s “How Tufts Works,” and Hayato Miyajima will give color to life as an exchange student in “Jumbo Exchange,” published on Fridays.

Arts will start each week with Alec Provost’s “The Art of Games,” which will feature reviews of video games and discussions of video game culture. On Tuesdays, Nikki Margaretos returns with her column “Is This Thing On?” where she will comment on and analyze popular artists and music. Christopher Panella will be writing “A Column From a Galaxy Far, Far Away” on Wednesdays, focusing on all things Star Wars. Wrapping up the week for Arts on Thursdays is Julian Blatt with his column “Tufts Creatives.” Each week, Julian will interview a Tufts student from a different artistic discipline who is currently creating something.

CARTOON

BY JESSE CLEM

The Sports section features Arlo Moore-Bloom returning with his column “The Equalizer,” which discusses U.S. Soccer on Mondays. On Tuesdays, Sam Weidner will be writing “Weidner’s Words,” where he will discuss institutional biases and corruption in professional and collegiate sports. David Meyer will return on Wednesdays with his column “Postgame Press” that looks at off-thefield topics in professional sports, and on Thursdays, Yuan Jun Chee returns with “On the Spot,” covering the English Premier League and world soccer.

We hope you follow these columnists throughout the semester. If you want to engage with any of these perspectives, we encourage you to email the columnists or us directly at daily@tuftsdaily.com.

Sincerely, Catherine Perloff, Editor-in-Chief Mary Carroll, Managing Editor Zachary Hertz, Managing Editor Ellah Nzikoba, Production Director Arman Smigielski, Associate Editor

11

Anita Ramaswamy Anita's Angle

The singularity is near As graduation looms nearer for many of my friends, I can’t stop thinking about the realities of the job market and having daily existential crises. Even if I have the next step figured out, what about the one after that? Is my liberal arts degree marketable? Should I have bought Bitcoin? Am I saving enough for retirement?

Some people tell me I’m overthinking it, but for someone who delays the line at Hodgdon because I take too long to agonize over what I want in my quesadilla, you can imagine how much trouble I have making big life decisions. Besides, the stakes for our generation are higher than ever. Not only do we have to contend with higher Social Security costs and environmental degradation (thanks, mom and dad!), but we also have more student debt to pay off than our parents did. All in all, my nervousness about the future seems justified.

But maybe we’re asking ourselves the wrong questions. The job market has adapted to prior technological change, from industrialization to the internet, but this time around could be different. Automation of lower-level jobs has the potential to make the world a better place by increasing the demand for highskilled human labor and reducing inequality.

I’m an optimist, but there are certainly enough skeptics to balance out my point of view. Either way, fundamental societal change is on the horizon, and it will affect our institutions and norms on a structural level. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank, believes that thirty years from now, smart robots will equal or outnumber human beings on this planet. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have publicly jousted over whether or not artificial intelligence will precipitate the apocalypse. The singularity, the moment when machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, could indeed be near (the year 2045 is a popular estimate). Being qualified for a job now does not translate into being qualified for a whole career.

By the time we’re ready to move on from our first jobs or graduate schools, our longterm concerns will be completely different.

Google’s Pixel Buds, competitor to Apple’s AirPod headphones, can translate foreign languages in real time. This is my favorite fact to recall when I’m frustrated with the liberal arts language requirement. Wouldn’t our resources be better spent requiring students to learn the fundamentals of computer science than on rote memorization of a skill that has already been automated? Although academic institutions have done a great deal of research on automation, schools and students alike could do much more to account for it in everyday decision-making and implementation. On a university level, we have to think bigger. Curriculum requirements and career counseling must find a way to preempt, rather than react, to technological change. Every member of the Tufts community should be thinking about their role within it and how we can fundamentally change our institutions to mirror our fundamentally changing world. As Tufts students, though, perhaps we can find some peace in the idea that our tendencies to plan our careers forty years in advance are decidedly futile.

Anita Ramaswamy is a columnist and former executive opinion editor at the Tufts Daily. She is a junior majoring in political science. She can be reached at anita. ramaswamy@tufts.edu.

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

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

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

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Monday, February 5, 2018

Arlo Moore-Bloom The Equalizer

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Tufts splits weekend results against Amherst and Who’s who in the Hamilton USSF presidential

F

RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Miles Bowser drives towards the basket in a home game against Hamilton in Cousens Gym on Feb. 2.

by Ryan Eggers

Assistant Sports Editor

With its regular season and NESCAC schedule coming to a close, the Tufts men’s basketball team squared off against Amherst and Hamilton on Friday and Saturday, finishing the weekend with a win and a loss.

On Saturday, the Jumbos hosted the No. 21 Hamilton Continentals (19–2) in what was likely their biggest remaining test on the regular season docket.

Hamilton is by far the best offensive team in the NESCAC, scoring an average of 87.7 points per game.

While the Jumbos didn’t allow the Continentals to reach that number, they still struggled to keep up with the visitors’ high-octane offense. The first half started slow, with neither team scoring until about two and a half minutes into the first half. The squads remained close throughout the half: the largest lead by either team was a mere six-point advantage by Hamilton.

The teams headed to the locker room with the Continentals up 29–25.

The Jumbos’ lack of shooting came to haunt them in the latter half of the game. While they held their own throughout the first 10 minutes of the second period, the team started unraveling as Hamilton’s offense came to life.

After sophomore guard Eric Savage’s three-pointer cut the Jumbos’ deficit to one with 14 minutes remaining, the Continentals pulled away on a 25–10 run that put the game out of reach. It ended 74–57.

“We kind of let them get away from us,” Savage said. “They killed us on the offensive glass and got a lot of second-chance opportunities.”

Overall, Tufts shot just 24.1 percent (14-for-58) from the field during

the game, which wasn’t enough to keep up with an offensive power like Hamilton. Tufts put together a decent defensive effort, holding Hamilton below its season averages in points per game, field goal percentage (40.4 percent vs. a season-average of 46.2 percent) and three-point percentage (18.2 percent compared to 36.2 percent), but the shots just weren’t falling on its own end.

“We’ve been struggling with bringing the energy every given night,” Savage said. “Other teams seem to be out-energizing us, and you can’t win a lot of basketball games if you’re being outworked.”

On Friday, the Amherst Mammoths (14–7) came to town for a gritty, downto-the-wire matchup that ended with the hosts on top, 60–56. Neither team shot particularly well — Amherst knocked down 34.8 percent of its field goal attempts, which slightly topped Tufts’ mark of 33.8 percent. As such, the game came down to pure determination and some clutch free throws, the latter of which Tufts converted at a higher rate (12-of-16 vs. Amherst’s 5-of-10).

The teams traded buckets throughout a hotly contested first half.

Senior guard and co-captain Vincent Pace dropped 13 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, as Tufts went into halftime with a 29–24 lead.

The second half was just as backand-forth, with both teams holding leads for a few minutes at a time. The Jumbos appeared to be in danger with five minutes to go, as the Mammoths grabbed a 50–46 advantage. However, Pace nailed a three-pointer and converted an and-one layup in successive possessions to give Tufts a 52–50 lead.

Tufts did not relinquish its lead for the rest of the game. Any time

the Mammoths came up with a bucket to tie the score, the Jumbos came right back with a score of their own.

Free-throw shooting might have been the difference, as Tufts converted all seven of its attempts from the charity strike in the final three minutes, while Amherst went 2-for-4. The Mammoths’ trips to the line could have either tied the game or cut their deficit to one, but both times they missed a free throw. Tufts sealed the 60–56 victory with two clutch free throws by sophomore center Patrick Racy with a few seconds remaining.

“Down the stretch [at Amherst] we were able to play good solid defense,” Savage said. “It’s been a staple of our game the past few weeks, which is something that we didn’t really expect to be a staple of ours at the beginning of the year.”

Pace’s spectacular scoring night ended with a game-high 27 points.

He also contributed eight rebounds and four assists. Other notable performances included Racy, who put up six points and eight boards in 20 minutes, and senior guard and co-captain Everett Dayton, who posted a line of nine points, three boards and two assists. “[Pace] kind of carried us,” senior guard and co-captain Thomas Lapham said. “He was making a lot of big buckets down the stretch.”

The Jumbos are now 16–7 in the year, with a 5–4 record in the NESCAC. They have one game remaining on their regular season schedule, as the Trinity Bantams (14–7, 3–4 NESCAC) come to town on Sunday before the conference tournament begins in mid-February.

“Our tournament starts this weekend against Trinity,” Lapham said. “We just have to take it weekend-by-weekend and win.”

election?

ans and pundits alike have compared the 2018 United States Soccer Federation (USSF) presidential race to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. At first glance, the two frontrunners — Kathy Carter and Eric Wynalda — appear to reflect traits of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, respectively.

Carter, the current President of Soccer United Marketing (SUM) — the commercial arm of Major League Soccer (MLS) — has been a member of the top brass in U.S. soccer for decades. With support from outgoing president Sunil Gulati and MLS commissioner Don Garber, her vague status quo campaign aims to “make soccer the leading sport in America.”

Wynalda is a USSF outsider with mainly playing and television broadcasting experience. For many, Wynalda’s agitated, radical, populist campaign speaks for the soccer communities that have been overlooked by the U.S. Soccer establishment. Sounds familiar, no?

But after careful investigation, Carter appears more Trump-like, and Wynalda appears, if anything, more in the vein of Bernie Sanders. Similar to Trump’s questionable conflicts of interest, SUM — Carter’s employer — has a close relationship with USSF, which has raised eyebrows for years.

For example, since the USSF exempts from its conflicts-of-interest policy “any … affiliated member of U.S. Soccer,” members of for-profit companies like SUM vote on USSF policies that can directly benefit the very same companies. This grants members the power to grow their companies while limiting their competitors.

Carter recently stated that the U.S. Open Cup, the oldest club soccer competition in the U.S., should be partly owned by MLS, an organization she works with through SUM. As the USSF president, would she be unbiased and treat all soccer organizations equally, regardless of their relationship with the USSF? In an interview with ESPN that raised these issues, Carter pivoted to explain the financial benefits of SUM and the cozy relationship with the USSF. Wynalda seeks to disrupt these conflicts of interest.

“I propose a threat to a monopoly because that’s what this is,” he said in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Currently, only MLS franchises can compete in the top professional tier of U.S. Soccer, which is why Wynalda calls it a monopoly. That’s what Wynalda seeks to undertake through the implementation of promotion and relegation (pro/rel), a league system used globally that stimulates investment through financial incentives.

Carter has stated that pro/rel “is not a viable option at this time,” because professional leagues are still developing. As MLS enters its 23rd season, however, the North American Soccer League (NASL), a lower-tier league, has sued USSF over alleged antitrust violations.

Wynalda’s record is not unblemished. His campaign is partially funded by Ricardo Silva, the owner of a NASL franchise and media company behemoth MP & Silva, which also suggests possible conflicts of interest.

Arlo Moore-Bloom is an assistant sports editor at the Daily. He is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Arlo can be reached at arlo.moore_bloom@tufts.edu.