Students of color share experiences with diversity in a capella
Football: Jumbos look to tackle 0–7 Mules see SPORTS / PAGE 8 New initiative aims to address lack of STEM diversity see FEATURES / PAGE 3
SEE WEEKENDER / PAGE 4
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 40
tuftsdaily.com
Friday, November 3, 2017
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Tisch College, Jumbo Vote host Medford Mayoral Debate between Burke and McKillop by Robert Katz News Editor
The two Medford mayoral candidates, incumbent Stephanie M. Burke and David McKillop, Sr., discussed the past and future of Medford at the Medford Chamber of Commerce Mayoral Debate. The debate, hosted by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and JumboVote, was held in Cohen Auditorium on the evening of Nov. 2 in preparation for the mayoral election on Tuesday. Opening remarks were given by Dean of Arts and Sciences James Glaser and Tina Caruso, president of the Medford Chamber of Commerce. The debate was hosted by Dan Kennedy, an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University and a panelist on WGBH-TV’s Beat the Press. Kennedy offered ten questions over an hour, which touched on subjects such as infrastructure reconstruction, supporting the review of the town’s charter, how to preserve housing for current residents as housing costs rise, how to address the opioid epidemic and whether or not to establish Medford as a “sanctuary city,” or a city that promises to limit cooperation with federal authorities to prosecute undocumented residents. McKillop criticized Burke over various aspects of her tenure as mayor, including the execution of her Medford Square Master Plan, her use of capital from the Complete Streets Funding Program and the efficiency of her response to the continuing opioid epidemic. The incumbent, meanwhile, defended the initiatives she had begun since her term began in January 2016. In particular, she encouraged the town to protect undocu-
mented residents. Medford is not officially designated a sanctuary city, though the city council passed a resolution by Burke affirming the city’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in November 2016. “Sanctuary city isn’t really defined anywhere. It’s a philosophy,” Burke said. “It’s how you treat people that you come across.” Burke added it is especially important that immigrant status not factor into local law enforcement. “What I wanted to make sure with the [police] chief, is if someone is volunteering information about crime, that we’re not asking them, ‘are you a US citizen?’ It really doesn’t matter,” Burke said. “We want them to be volunteering information to us. We can’t put up that wall [of threatening federal intervention] so that they feel like they’ll be scooted away.” McKillop, meanwhile, argued that the city should focus on other priorities. “It’s already been defined that we will take care of the people that are in the city,” McKillop said. “But … the law is the law. My job as the mayor is … to focus on something that’s even twice as important, and that’s the opioid crisis.” Kennedy said in an interview with the Daily that he did not notice any significant differences in answers from the candidates, with the answers tending to be more subtly different. In the most divergent instance he mentioned, as the candidates discussed funding the reconstruction of the Medford Public Library, McKillop stated that the town police and fire station should have been renovated prior to the library, while Burke implied that she had dealt with police facilities concurrently.
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Medford mayoral candidates Stephanie M. Burke and David McKillop engage in debate in Cohen Auditorium on Nov. 2. “That seemed like the clearest difference that I heard between the two of them,” Kennedy said. “I’m not sure if it’s a major difference but it was something people could pick up on and say, well, you know, that’s interesting.” JumboVote, which co-hosted the event, was originally created to support student political learning and engagement during the 2016 presidential election season. However, the project has continued to branch out in its operations, including into local politics, according to Jen McAndrew, director of communications strategy and planning at Tisch College, which houses JumboVote. “When the opportunity came to host the mayoral debate on campus through
JumboVote, it’s sort of one and the same [with involving students in politics], so we decided to get engaged and help sponsor,” McAndrew said. “We obviously don’t take a side in these things, as this is a non-partisan event, but we do think it’s a great opportunity for political learning on our campus to have the candidates from one of our host communities.” Hosting the debate allowed JumboVote to encourage a two-way relationship between Tufts students and the Medford community in terms of political engagement. “There’s two sides to why this is important,” McAndrew said. “It gives an opportunity for Tufts students to hear from people who see DEBATE, page 2
New Athletic Hall of Fame to honor past, unite present
Coach John Casey, who helped found the poses for a potrait in his office at the Steve Center on Oct 26. by Honor Kalkin Contributing Writer
The Tufts Athletics Department instated its very own Athletics Hall of Fame
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this September. The Hall of Fame will honor and celebrate the full history of athletics at Tufts, inducting its first honorees in the spring of 2018. Although it does not yet have a physical space on campus, the hall’s existence is a step BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY toward the unificaAthletics Hall of Fame, tion of the greater Tisch Sports and Fitness Tufts athletics community. Long in the works, the Athletics Hall of Fame finally came into fruition under the leadership of the Director of Athletics John Morris. According to Baseball Coach and Assistant Director of For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily
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Athletics John Casey, Morris was the main impetus behind making the hall a reality. “Like any process, it’s been going on for a long time,” Casey said. “I like to say that things percolate for a while… You get all these wonderful ideas and great things, but it usually takes someone to really grab the bull by the horns and say ‘okay, we’re going.’ John is the guy who’s done all that [for the Hall of Fame].” When asked who he believed responsible for finally setting the project into motion, meanwhile, Morris named Casey as “a proponent of the idea for years” in an email to the Daily. Morris also mentioned that the project would not have been feasible without the support from coaches, staff, administrators and alumni, as well as the Office of Alumni Relations. Tufts is now on the same page as many of the NCAA Div. I, II and even many other Div. III universities who boast Athletic Halls
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of Fame. This group includes multiple fellow NESCAC members, including Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Conn. College. “With our long and rich tradition of Jumbo athletic excellence,” Morris said. “The time was right to create our own athletics hall of fame here at Tufts.” While the Hall of Fame now officially exists, the first inductees will not be revealed until the spring. Meanwhile, the question of where and how to erect the physical hall is still up in the air. Casey was satisfied that the project finally came to fruition, even despite the delay before the first inductions. He knew that once in existence, the hall would continue to develop until it reached its full standing as a physical and symbolic point of pride for the university. “There’s still some details to be ironed out, but I think halls grow as times go,” Casey said. see HALL OF FAME, page 7
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 WEEKENDER..........................4
COMICS.......................................6 SPORTS............................ BACK