Wednesday, April 20, 2016

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WOMEN’S TENNIS

Tufts dominates Wellesley, Brandeis in 9-0 wins

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SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXI, NUMBER 57

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Introducing the candidates

by Hannah Uebele

Assistant News Editor

The Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) will be holding an election tomorrow for

the office of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate President for the upcoming academic year. All members of the student body are eligible to vote throughout the day on Thursday using their SIS accounts.

A Presidential Forum will be held for students to learn more about the candidates, TCU Senators Ryan Johnson and Gauri Seth, tonight from 9:30-11:00 p.m. in the Sophia

Ryan Johnson

COURTESY THE RYAN JOHNSON FOR TCU PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN

TCU Senator Ryan Johnson served as a trustee representative on the TCU Senate for the 2015-2016 academic year before being elected to a first term as a Senator this spring. Johnson, a junior, is also co-founder of Cheese Club and a member of other student groups on campus.

He explained that his hands-on experience of helping run student groups, combined with his year of involvement in Senate, has led him to him believe that the TCU Senate needs to provide more transparency and inclusivity to the entire Tufts community.

“I have had a year now of experience on Senate, and so I’m familiar with all of the rules and all of the proceedings…and [from my experience with student groups], I’ve had a lot of interaction with administrators [and] people in Dining Services and so I’ve gotten that sort of network of connections which I can leverage when working face to face with the administration and with student groups,” Johnson said.

Johnson explained that he decided to run to serve as TCU President upon joining the Senate last year and feeling that the Senate was not as inclusive with the Tufts community as he would have liked.

“My year on Senate showed me that a lot of it was exclusionary, people didn’t really know about Senate or what we did and that it was really kind of a space that I feel like needs a lot of reform, so that drove me to run — this feeling of exclusiveness that pervades Senate

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Gauri Seth

as it stands and the fact that so many people just don’t know what it does,” he said.

Johnson’s platform covers various areas, but he emphasized that his key priorities for the position are reforming club sports funding and improving sustainability efforts on campus.

“We really want to let student groups and environmental action groups know that Senate will, under my presidency, support their causes and really push the administration to take concrete steps,” he said.

If elected, Johnson said that he would also push for the creation of an on-campus pub and the introduction of an on-campus food truck.

Johnson said that through his campaign, he hopes to listen to as many voices as possible from the grassroots level. “[We want] to show people that TCU Senate is not as exclusive as it once was and that we really want to champion getting more voices heard and getting more opinions working on solutions to their own problems,” he said.

He hopes that at tonight’s Presidential Forum, attendees will be able to learn about his platform, which he said emphasizes real changes on campus.

“I really hope that students will…see the motivations behind my campaign in that we’re not running because it’s the next step in our career; we’re not running because it just is what we’ve planned on doing since being a freshman,” Johnson said. “We’re running because we really want to make these changes…and that’s what I want people coming to the forum to take away.”

Johnson explained that his experience working with students groups outside of the TCU Senate make him the best candidate for the position of TCU President.

“I think something very unique is that ‘outsider’ element,” he said. “Almost every presidential candidate in recent memory has been on Senate for two or three years and has devoted themselves to that path at Tufts, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I feel like to truly understand the needs of the student body and to try to get things done, people need to have experience working and leading student groups and being out in different communities kind of at a grassroots level.”

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tuftsdaily

Gordon Multipurpose Room. The Daily sat down with the candidates, who announced their candidacies last Thursday, to discuss their campaigns and platforms.

tuftsdaily

COURTESY THE GO FOR GAURI CAMPAIGN

TCU Senator Gauri Seth has previously served as a Senator since her first year, Outreach Committee co-chair and Senate Parliamentarian, along with serving on TCU’s Allocations Board and as TCU Vice President for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Seth, a junior, explained that her experience working with TCU has taught her about funding and lobbying the administration, which she said are the two main facets of Senate work.

She thinks that her experience qualifies her to meet the demands of the presidential position.

“I’ve had that varied experience, which is very important because that’s such a big part of what Senate does,” Seth said. “I’ve also worked on a lot of different projects, so I’ve gotten to meet with a lot of different administrators and build relationships with them and be able to use those relationships to further what students want, which I think is really important.”

Seth said that she decided to run for the position for many reasons, noting that one of her greatest motives is to learn about and represent the many different voices and views on campus.

“I think a really big part of it is that over my three years on Senate, I’ve been able to have so many conversations with different people on this campus

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about what they want, and that’s what my platform is,” she said. “It’s not just about what I want to do. Of course, it reflects what I want for the student body, but it also reflects so many of these different conversations I’ve had.”

While her presidential platform covers a variety of issues and ideas, Seth explained that one of her main priorities, if elected, would be to focus on student housing reform.

“I’ve very intimately seen a lot of the problems within ResLife [and] as someone who now lives off campus, I have very intimately seen the problems with landlords, rising rents, trying to find an apartment and it’s really difficult,” she said.

Seth noted difficulties for students living both on- and off-campus, which she hopes to address, if elected.

“I’ve been on the Residential Strategies Working Group this year, so I’ve had a lot of conversations and gotten insights into where the administration is and where students are and where students want to be so that’s definitely a really big topic for me,” she said.

Seth added that her platform preaches collaboration with as many different on-campus groups as possible.

“A huge emphasis for me throughout this campaign has been and will continue to be working together and just making sure that every voice in our community is heard within Senate,” she said, “Because Senate, a lot of times, gets to have conversations with administrators that not every other student does, so it’s super important.”

Seth said she hopes students can learn more about the different platforms during tonight’s Presidents Forum.

“I have one Tufts experience; I have one voice,” she said. “I can’t know the answer to everything, but I very much have an idea that I will work with other people to explore these issues, and where I have an answer, that answer’s in my platform.”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, April 20, 2016

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Editor-in-Chief

‘The Monologues’ adaptation strives to expand inclusivity, create space for more voices

EDITORIAL

by Sofie Hecht

T HE T UFTS D AILY Sarah Zheng Nicholas Golden Mengqi Sun Managing Editors Nicholas Pfosi Associate Editor Arin Kerstein Executive News Editor Isha Fahad News Editors Abby Feldman Melissa Kain Sophie Lehrenbaum Emma Steiner Ariel Barbieri-Aghib Assistant News Editors Kyle Blacklock Gil Jacobson Robert Katz Liam Knox Catherine Perloff Vibhav Prakasam Hannah Uebele Joe Walsh Kendall Todd Executive Features Editor Nicole Brooks Features Editors Nina Joung Jake Taber Diane Alexander Assistant Features Editors Constantinos Angelakis Emily Cheng Emma R. Rosenthal John Gallagher Executive Arts Editor Lancy Downs Arts Editors Justin Krakoff Josh Podolsky Jonah Allon Assistant Arts Editors Cassidy Olsen Eran Sabaner Hannah Hoang Dorie Campbell Emily Karl Erin Sifre Stephen Dennison Abigail Feldman Shannon Geary Allison Merola Cassie Bardos Miranda Chavez Frances DeFreitas Jake Goldberg Emma Henderson Michael Lefkowtiz Anita Ramaswamy Noah Weinflash

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Maclyn Senear Executive Sports Editor Ray-Paul Biron Sports Editors Ross Dember Phillip Goldberg Alex Schroeder Chris Warren Yuan Jun Chee Assistant Sports Editors Maddie Payne Eddie Samuels Noah Smith

Executive Photo Editor

Approximately 250 people attended each of the two performances of this year’s production of “The Monologues,” which featured 14 monologues written and performed by students on the evenings of April 14 and April 15 at 51 Winthrop St. The shows were completely sold out, and those without tickets were able to stand in the back of the room, according to co-director Morgan Freeman.

Freeman and the other co-director Miranda Perez explained that they aimed to distance this year’s show from plays like Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” which served as the inspiration for past Tufts’ adaptations and the seed from which “The Monologues” has evolved, according to a Nov. 11, 2015 Daily article. Freeman and Perez, both sophomores, said that “The Vagina Monologues” restricted the types of gender identities allowed in the performance and explained that this year’s production would be open to all female-identifying, gender non-conforming and gender-queer individuals.

According to Submissions Committee member first-year Julia Yun, of 67 submissions, 15 pieces were chosen for the final performance by the committee, and 14 were performed at the production. Half of the student performers read their own work, while other pieces were read by actors who auditioned for the parts.

The directors opened “The Monologues” with a short skit, posing

questions to be addressed by some of the following monologues.

Freeman began with “How do you experience life in your body? What is your monologue?” and Perez continued with “Why does it often feel so hard to love ourselves?” and “Who am I right now … who will I be in the future?”

During the introduction, the directors acknowledged that while they hoped to represent a wide variety of individual experiences at the event, the show might still be “limiting.”

Freeman asked “How do we begin to find the answers to these questions?” before both Freeman and Perez said in unison, “This show is unfinished; this show is whole.”

The show was tied together with certain themes, namely body image, sexuality, racism, mental health, language and self love, but each monologue was an individual story. The first monologue, “Lite Ethnic,” written by junior Becca MacLean and performed by senior Rebeca Pessoa, was about resisting racial stereotypes and being a Latina woman. The second, “Hotel Rooms,” written and performed by first-year Mar Freeman, explored gender expression and individual growth.

Some monologues were addressed to specific individuals or to the writers themselves, such as “A Letter to My 12-Year-Old Self” by Al Ellison in which Ellison, a sophomore, cautioned her younger self about the life ahead of her but ultimately expressed support and love for herself. “I Looked Up Your Name to Write This,” written by Katie Saviano, a junior, and performed

by Allyson Blackburn, also a junior,

was directed to a stalker. Others were reflections on particular parts of the author’s identity or body.

Each piece elicited support from the crowd through cheers and snaps, before, during and after the piece.

Following the performance, Yun said she appreciated that “The Monologues” helped her find a new, supportive community. Others expressed similar experiences.

“The space has been really healing and really warm,” first-year Submissions Committee member Yaa Kankam-Nantwi said. “[The show is about] hearing other people’s narratives and using that to affirm your own.”

Friends and family of writers and performers came to the show both nights. Some members of the audience, including junior Claire Walter, had also seen last year’s show. “[It has] changed so that it feels a little more relevant to me,” Walter said.

One of the directors of last year’s “Not Your Mother’s Monologues” — the previous iteration of “The Monologues” — junior Aishvarya Arora, described this year’s production as building upon last year’s effort to be more inclusive. “[ This year’s show was] pushed in some more directions, in terms of including more identities beyond the last show,” Arora said, describing this year’s monologues as “flawless.”

“What happened this year couldn’t have happened without what happened last year,” junior Abby Lord, member of last year’s Submissions Committee said.”[The changes are the] first step in making it the space it’s supposed to be.”

Sofie Hecht Executive Photo Editor Alex Knapp Caroline Ambros Picture Tufts Editor Ray Bernoff Staff Photographers Laura DeArmas Maria Ferraz Henry Hintermeister Katlyn Kreie Mia Lambert Jiaxun Li Nora Nord Nicholas Pfosi Julia Press Evan Sayles Angelie Xiong

PRODUCTION Julie Doten

Production Director Astrid Weng Executive Layout Editor Jewel Castle Layout Editors Abbie Gantner Leila Li Allie Merola Brianna Mignano Mandip Pokharel Ellie Powers Annabelle Roberts Emily Sharp Andrew Stephens Sebastian Torrente Shirley Wang Petrina Chan Allison Merola Dana Pek Belinda Xian Jack Ronan Dan Strauss Meagan Adler Alison Beach Arthur Beckel Lancy Downs Alison Epstein Andrew Kager Melissa Kain Sarah Kalinowski Reena Karasin Sophie Lehrenbaum Rachel Salzberg Arielle Sigel Caroline Watson Maxwell Bernstein Nitesh Gupta Evan Sayles

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Saba Davé, a junior, performs her piece “Selfish Love” during “The Monologues” on Thursday, April 14.

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BUSINESS Yiran Xu Executive Business Director Qinyue Yu Receivables Manager Evan Sayles Online Advertising Eva Sachar Ad Managers Jay Hayes

Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

News

3

TEDxTufts presents its second annual event, ‘Verge’

by Jack Ronan

Executive Copy Editor

TEDxTufts presented its second annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) event, “TEDxTufts: Verge,” to an audience in Cohen Auditorium on Sunday afternoon.

The event, which was co-sponsored by the Tufts Institute for Innovation, Tisch College, the Tufts Office of the President, Tufts Alumni and Anna’s Taqueria, was independently organized under the general guidelines of the TEDx program and was designed to bring members of the Tufts community together to share ideas and experiences through spoken presentations, according to the TEDxTufts website. The event sold 430 tickets, 10 tickets from selling out, according to sophomore Dani Kupfer, the partnerships director of TEDxTufts.

This year’s event theme, “Verge,” was highlighted by the division of the program into two halves titled “Converge” and “Diverge.”

“The stories shared on our stage all interact with this concept — whether they serve to consolidate different ideas to create something new, or break from traditional modes of thought to find a radical, uncharted space,” Slide Kelly, the curator of TEDxTufts, told the Daily in an email.

The event featured 13 speakers in total, including undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni and professors — all from the Tufts community. Five undergraduate students, beginning with senior Jordin Metz, who is a chemistry major, spoke at the event.

Metz, whose presentation was titled “Chemistry is All Around You,” spoke about society’s perceptions of chemistry and the subject’s application to everyday life.

“The ‘I could never [study chemistry]’ response was ubiquitous,” Metz said, describing results from a survey he took.

“Chemistry is too abstract, too math-y, too small to comprehend.”

He challenged audience members to see chemistry in a more nuanced way.

“We know the ‘how’ but not the ‘why,’” he said, providing an example about the painkiller Advil, which many people consume without understanding the chemical processes behind the drug.

Metz ended his presentation by comparing the microscopic nature of chemistry’s scope to viewing the Earth from space.

“Look at the world from outer space and find the courage to jump,” he said.

Jimena Sanchez Gallego, a senior triple majoring in international relations, community health and French, discussed the stigma surrounding mental illnesses in her presentation titled “Mental Well-Being.”

She discussed the impact that mental illness has had on her and her family, opening up about the toll that her sister’s mental illness had on her own well-being.

“It is extremely difficult to care for yourself when someone you love is sick,” Gallego said.

She demonstrated the stigma surrounding mental health through a poll completed by her friends on Facebook. When asked which words they associated with mental health, the most common answers were negative, including “depression,” “stigma” and “crazy,” Gallego said. Negative perceptions of mental health impacted her view of her own mental health.

ALBERTO RIVERA COURTESY STEPH CLELAND

Jordin Metz (LA ’16) presents “Chemistry is All Around You” at the Annual TEDxTufts event on April 17.

“Emotional equaled weakness,” she said, reflecting on her previous attitudes toward mental illness. “Emotion equaled irrationality.”

Gallego asked audience members to recognize the stigma surrounding mental health, to start having conversations about mental health and to work toward its acceptance and prevention.

“Let’s strive to be healthy people, not just healthy bodies,” she said.

Next, Sam Weiser, a junior, a dual-degree student at the New England Conservatory studying computer science and violin performance, spoke about the role of classical music in modern society during his presentation, “Storytelling and Accessibility in Classical Music.”

He argued that music, like other forms of art, serves to tell a story.

“Music is at its very core a narrative art form,” Weiser said.

He believes that classical music is often ignored by young people, who have a difficult time connecting with pieces by composers like Mozart and Bach. Classical music, he said, is like any other genre of music.

“Not every piece speaks to us,” he said.

“It’s the nature of art … We treat classical music as a historical relic, and that takes away from its narrative potential.”

Weiser ended his presentation by encouraging audience members to try listening to classical music and looking for these narratives.

“What’s important is that we work to break down the barriers surrounding classical music,” he said. “It’s a book that a lot of us are missing out on.”

In “Don’t Fear Artificial Intelligence — Get Involved,” Max Bennett, a senior majoring in cognitive brain sciences and computer science, talked about the role that robots and artificial intelligence (AI) play in modern society.

“Studying artificial intelligence is studying ourselves,” he said.

Bennett explained that in the Human Robot Interaction Laboratory where he works, researchers seek to positively shape the interactions between humans and robots. He discussed the negative connotations surrounding AI and the idea of an “AI apocalypse” offered in science fiction.

“What people don’t realize is that these dramatized and sensationalized sci-fi movies are just that — sensationalized,” he said.

He ended his presentation by asking audience members to reconsider AI in a positive way and to see the role that robotics has in improving our everyday lives.

“Think about how we might make a smarter, more familiar, more welcoming world for us all,” Bennett said.

The last Tufts undergraduate to present was Soubhik Barari, a senior majoring in mathematics and computer science. He discussed the relationship between data and stories in “Numbers and Narratives: Why Both Matter.”

“There’s something interesting about the way people think, analytically or anecdotely,” he said.

Barari compared characters like Dr. Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes of the television series “House, M.D.” (2004 – 2012) and “Sherlock” (2010 – present), who think in terms of statistics and data, with characters like Han Solo from the “Star Wars” franchise, who accomplish their goals through instinct and intuition.

He argued that the best policies are made at the intersection of these two modes of thought, where data scientists and social scientists come together.

“I propose less intellectual monogamy,” he said, calling for more “statistician storytellers” to bring together quantitative and qualitative ideas.

“We are all seeking out evidence for the same truths,” he said.

In addition to the undergraduate speakers, eight other speakers from the Tufts community spoke.

Howard Woolf, the director of the Experimental College and associate dean of

undergraduate studies, discussed reinterpreting the learning relationship between students and teachers in universities.

Neal Jawadekar, who graduated from Tufts in 2014 with a BA/MPH, discussed improving food safety with data.

Lecturer in the peace and justice studies department Laura Graham spoke about the relationship between truth and reconciliation in conflict resolution.

Sasha Chanoff, who received his master’s from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, reflected on the role that difficult decisions with moral consequences have on our personal development.

Ph.D. candidate in social psychology Jennifer Perry spoke about the relationships between racism, psychology and human empathy for others.

Cristina Rosa, a lecturer in the drama and dance department, presented on different forms of Brazilian dancing and the ways in which movement shapes our identities.

Mahmoud Jabari, a graduate student at the Fletcher School, gave a talk on promoting new partnerships to promote social and economic change and his experience using a video game to promote gender equality at summer camps in Palestine.

Another graduate student at the Fletcher School, Ameya Naik, discussed the nature of complex issues and how we tend to simplify them.

Kelly, a junior, gave the closing remarks, encouraging audience members, in the spirit of TED, to continue spreading ideas beyond the TEDxTufts stage.

“We are constantly writing and researching and producing at this university, but it is so rare that we take the time to celebrate all that we produce.” Kelly told the Daily in an email. “TEDxTufts is about making this time and creating a space where brilliant minds from all corners of this campus can be truly heard.”

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Features

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Rayn Riel Bridge the Gap

Enigma and the Tufts Daily Political Climates Survey shows little faith in the election process among students

by Shirley Wang and Yibin Mao

Creative Director and Contributing Writer

The Tufts Daily and the Tufts Independent Data Journal (Enigma) collaborated to produce this article. Go online to tuftsdaily.com or tuftsenigma. org for more results and analyses.

Dean of Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life Alan Solomont may as well have coined the term “civic life” at Tufts, as it relates to millennials and students in higher education. It’s a phrase that encompasses students engaging on a daily basis in political issues such as discourse and participation in voting, non-profit work and public service. Recently, the $15 million donation from Tufts Co-Chairman of the Board of Trustee Jonathan Tisch (A ’76) shows Tisch College’s continued commitment to civic activity.

This endowment comes at the crucial time where a study from the Tisch College Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) shows that young people from the ages of 18-29 have a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections and have shown much better turnout rates during the primaries in general.

To gauge the political climate at Tufts in the midst of the current presidential primaries, the Daily and the Tufts Independent Data Journal (Enigma) sent out a survey to the student body.

The survey opened on March 1 — Super Tuesday — and closed on the following Sunday, March 6, allowing people to respond for a total of five days. The survey received a total of 294 responses from both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering.

Party alignments and elections

In terms of party affiliations, the survey results show that 72 percent of Tufts students align themselves with the Democratic party, while seven percent with the Republican party, two percent with the Libertarian party and 19 percent are Independent voters.

This is different from a recent Gallup poll from January 2016, wherein on average 43 percent of the United States identified themselves as Independent, 30 percent Democrat and 26 percent Republican.

However, in terms of the 2016 presidential election, while the “RealClearPolitics” polls show that Clinton is barely ahead of Sanders in the Democratic primary and Trump is dominating the GOP primary, the survey results tell a different story.

The survey results show that both Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, are strongly favored by Tufts students, each receiving 43 percent and 37 percent, respectively, of the total votes of the survey. While Sanders defeats Clinton and wins the Democratic nomination, among Republicans, Marco

Rubio would win the GOP nomination (the survey was released before he suspended his presidential campaign). The results also reveal that Sanders would become our next President, if all candidates from both the GOP and the Democrat compete in the general election.

Political issues and social topics

Survey responses regarding candidate support

43%

1%

37% 5%

3%

2%

Regarding social justice topics or sys*6% of respondents chose “Other”, 3% of respondents chose “Not Voting”. temic equality issues, Tufts students have a GRAPHICS BY FRANCESCA KAMIO firm and mostly unanimous stance, which is unsurprisingly further left than the Regarding U.S. support for Israel general population. and Saudi Arabia, responses were According to a March report from inclined towards “oppose,” but most the Williams Institute, recent U.S. respondents remain relatively neutral political trends support all LGBT about these topics. rights, despite North Carolina passing However, regarding attitude towards a controversial anti-trans public bath- Syrian refugees, the results show that room bill that requires all people to 59 percent of the respondents “stronguse bathrooms that match their birth ly support” and 30 percent “support” sex, regardless of their present gender accepting refugees, despite the survey identity. When the Jumbos were asked not specifying to which country.

Amongst the most unanimous opinwhether or not they support transgender rights, the survey shows near unan- ions were stances supporting a ban on assault rifles, which receives 83 perimous support of 92 percent. cent of the responses, and subsidizing energy sources such as wind, solar Tufts students are mostly liberal on and hydro power, which receives 89 social justice or systemic equity issues percent.

Support Trans rights (92%) Neutral (6%) Oppose (2%) Support min. wage increase (81%) Neutral (10%) Oppose (1%)

Other equality-related topics, such as affirmative action programs and minimum wage increases, were by the majority of Tufts students either “strongly supported” or “supported.” One of the issues is the voter ID law. Supporters of this law assert that this mandate would protect the integrity of our democracy and prevent voter fraud. However, 63 percent of Tufts students take the opposite view, in line with critics who believe this law would disenfranchise minorities.

When it comes to international affairs, respondents were less sure how to feel, and the survey results were less unanimous. However, in the administration of the survey, most questions did not explain or describe the topic. When asking questions like, “Do you support/oppose the Iran deal?” response choices included “neutral” but did not include “do not know.”

Additionally, for the question about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries aimed at promoting economic growth, about half of the responses were neutral and the percentages of support and opposition were roughly the same.

Political Engagement on Campus

With organizational efforts to engage students in turnout and other political discourse, such as the institution of JumboVote 2016, 84 percent of Tufts students think that civic education in a democracy is “very important,” with second-year students valuing it the most out of all four classes. About 50 percent of students talk about politics “all the time” with their friends, while another 43 percent talk about it “sometimes, if it comes up.”

On the other side, regarding attitudes of political engagement, on average, the survey respondents rate the U.S. election process a 4.2 on a scale of 10 (with 10 being the best) based on efficiency, fairness, equal representation and other factors. Juniors are the least optimistic about this process and gave it an average rating of a 3.6, while sophomores are the most optimistic with a 5.5.

How would you rate the Election Process?

4.2/10 On Average

3.7/10 STEM Majors

2.6/10 non STEM Majors

Soubhik Barari and Tafari Duncan both contributed research to this article.

Marathon Monday

T

he Boston Marathon is supposed to occur only once a year. But for many in the region, it’s a marathon to get to school or work on time every single day.

Boston is facing an identity crisis: is it a global city with ample night life opportunities or a New England town shutting down the MBTA before midnight? In many respects, Boston’s identity is based upon its backbone — its outdated, stressed transportation infrastructure.

Boston has many narrow and convoluted roads, designed prior to the prevalence of the automobile. To add a bike lane, add a bus lane or expand the sidewalk with plants, benches, lighting, bike backs and bus shelters is particularly challenging. However, narrow roads in European cities are far more bike-friendly, so it is certainly possible to redesign, if the will is present. In Amsterdam, a city with more canals than Venice, it’s easier to bike than it is to drive.

Streets should not only be about moving cars quickly. They should move people, bikes and rapid transit as well without hurting vehicle throughput, improve safety and create public spaces to live, work and play.

In many ways, our country has become more disconnected. Our politics are polarized, our communities are segregated and our very lives are lonelier. According to Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone,” we connect with our family, friends, neighbors and democratic structures far less often because of changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers and women’s roles. Intersecting all of these factors is urban design. Rethinking our roads, which are the vast majority of our public spaces, can help us reconnect our lives through more choices for transit. Our roads do not only need asphalt; they need narratives.

However, the United States is unwilling to pay for good public transportation, even though the quality of infrastructure is directly linked to the country’s competitiveness, as it improves quality of life and makes businesses more productive. The World Economic Forum now ranks the United States 16th for infrastructure quality, behind France and Spain, a place that increases accidents and inefficiencies and costs individuals and companies hefty sums of money. And all of that added commuting time takes a huge toll on our bodies, minds and spirits.

Because American polarization is often split between liberal urban and conservative suburban interests, with race and racism playing a role, funding public transportation in the United States is often a partisan issue that is largely irrelevant in other countries. Even in liberal Massachusetts, the MBTA is woefully underfunded, partly also because citizens recall the waste, fraud and abuse of the Big Dig, creating distrust in the government to handle their money.

This is a valid concern, considering that the Green Line Extension project is $1 billion over budget. Meanwhile, the Toei Oedo Line in Japan cost $560 million per mile, the Berlin U55 cost $400 million per mile, the Paris Metro Line 14 cost $368 million per mile and the Jubilee Line of the London Underground cost $700 million per mile. In New York, the Second Avenue Subway costs $2.3 billion per mile.

The United States has a transportation cost problem, and until that is solved, commuting in Boston will be a lot like running a marathon.

Rayn Riel is a graduate student in city/ urban, community and regional planning.

Rayn can be reached at rayn.riel@tufts.edu.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

ARTS&LIVING TV REVIEW

‘Orphan Black’ hurtles into fourth season with strong premiere

by Stina Stannik Staff Writer

BBC America’s sci-fi thriller “Orphan Black” (2013 - present) returned last week with a stellar fourth season premiere, promising stronger episodes ahead after a mediocre third season.

The episode, “The Collapse of Nature,” transports viewers back in time to events before the first episode of the first season. Originally, “Orphan Black” fans were introduced to the show’s world through Manning ( Tatiana Maslany), a character who sees a woman who looks exactly like her step in front of a train and kill herself. Sarah, a con artist and petty thief, steals the woman’s purse and her identity; she studies videos of the woman, police officer Beth Childs (also Maslany), to learn her mannerisms. Additionally, she changes her hair, accent and clothes to fool Beth’s boyfriend Paul (Dylan Bruce) and her partner on the police force, Art (Kevin Hanchard). Sarah slowly discovers that Beth is not a long-lost twin but a clone, that there are potentially dozens of women who share her face created as part of a pilot program and that someone is trying to kill them.

“The Collapse of Nature,” then, moves back in time to before Sarah’s

VIA FLICKR USER GAGE SKIDMORE

Tatiana Maslany speaks at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International. introduction to this world of scientific intrigue, focusing on Beth Childs. This creative framing decision is an excellent choice. Because both Beth and Paul are dead in the present timeline, the nature of the flashback is immediately apparent, but the episode none-

theless provides entirely new information which challenges the audience’s assumptions. We meet a new clone, a paranoid woman known only as MK (also Maslany); together, Beth and see ORPHAN BLACK, page 6

TRAILER SPECULATION

Let’s talk about ‘Rogue One’: Analysis and predictions

by John J. Gallagher Executive Arts Editor

Four billion dollars seems like an awfully high price to pay for a galaxy far, far away, but when Disney shelled out for the rights to “Star Wars,” they weren’t just buying the rights to make a new trilogy but rather the potential to create a constellation of films set against the rich backdrop George Lucas inaugurated with “A New Hope” (1977).

Every question the original trilogy left unanswered is a possible story: “What is a Bothan? And why did many of them have to die to bring us this information?” “Who is this Boba Fett?” and “Where did Han Solo come from?”

And with the sequel trilogy successfully picking up where “Return of the Jedi” (1983) left off, Disney is planning on answering these questions with a collection of stand-alone films.

The teaser trailer for the first of these stand-alone films, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” released last week and, predictably, convulsed the parts of the internet that are invested in such things. The reaction was mostly positive, though the trailer didn’t quite measure up to the impossibly high standard set by the first trailer for “The Force Awakens” (2015).

The trailer opens with a moody rendition of the first bars of John William’s iconic theme, delivered on a single, mournful piano. A voice, speaking with the imperious, English-accented snarl

WALLY SKALIJ VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

see STAR WARS, page 6

Felicity Jones arrives at the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015.

5 tuftsdaily.com

Vidya Srinivasan Screen Time

‘Let’s touch God’

F

or the show that inspired me to apply for this column slot in the first place, it’s sure proved difficult to write about “Friday Night Lights” (2006 - 2011). Seriously — I put it off for months, hoping I’d eventually be able to pinpoint just what makes this show so damn great. But here I am at the end of another full rewatch, filled to the brim with adoration anew, yet still tongue-tied.

The understated brilliance of “Friday Night Lights” (“FNL”) always catches me off-guard.

When I watch this show, a 43-minute lump lodges resolutely in my throat from the first bars of the theme song; I swear time stands still.

Maybe it’s the reverence for this small, broken, post-oil boom town that permeates every shot — long drives on unending country roads, empty store windows and packed stadiums. Though its music is exquisite, maybe it’s the show’s fondness for contemplative, wistful silences.

Maybe it’s the uniquely indie-movie feel of it all: the three-camera setup, the shakiness, the eschewing of marks and soundstages in favor of unrestricted blocking in rented-out local houses. If I could be an actor on any show, I’d choose this one; trusting the cast to improvise and alter dialogue draws out amazing, subtle performances from leads and tertiary actors alike.

Or maybe it’s the patient, unflinching look at Middle America, at fatigue and limited horizons, at boys who grow up too soon and men who never will, at the women for whom this town never has space. Though never cruel for cruelty’s sake, neither does “FNL” shy away from the tough lessons its working-class young heroes learn about navigating expectations and wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Even when in later seasons we leave everything we’ve known of Dillon, the show keeps us oriented by continuing to ground itself in an exploration of masculinity.

The best men remain those who f*ck up, who are let down, who face obstacles beyond their control — yet keep trying to live with clear eyes and full hearts.

Look, I get that this show isn’t perfect.

Despite being set in Texas, we somehow never get a substantive Latinx character.

There are kids like Devin (Stephanie Hunt), Tinker (LaMarcus Tinker) and Hastings (Grey Damon) who exist on the sidelines, waiting for storylines and focal episodes that never come.

And there’s much to be said about the racialized implications of Coach (Kyle Chandler) as a surrogate father figure — particularly to talented young Black players from single-mother homes.

But despite this, “FNL” is a work of art. I may never understand why its ratings were so low or why Zach Gilford, Connie Britton, Gaius Charles and so many others didn’t walk away with fistfuls of Emmys, but of this I am sure: I will catch myself rewatching this little show — in full, and with no justification other than an unshakeable feeling deep in my stomach — many more times over the course of my life.

Hidden Gem: Grantland’s oral history of the show or maybe that compilation of every Tami Taylor (Britton) “y’all.”

Selectively Forget: Season two. #RelationshipGoals: This time, it’s not just a tongue-in-cheek way to point out a cool pairing. Coach and Tami are my actual relationship goals, forever and ever amen.

Vidya Srinivasan is a senior majoring in international relations. She can be reached at vidya.srinivasan@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Wednesday, April 20, 2016

tuftsdaily.com

‘Orphan Black’ bounces back from mediocre third season ORPHAN BLACK

continued from page 5 MK investigate their origins and keep ahead of Paul and other “monitors,” people close to the clones who have been recruited to spy on them. The Dyad Institute, the shady organization which runs the clone program and supports a movement of “self-directed evolution” called Neolution, is also seen at its peak before Sarah and her sisters begin to wreak havoc.

Despite the many revelations as the premiere provided, little was clarified for the rest of the season. Beth and MK seem to have unearthed details of the cloning program that Sarah and her sisters, including Alison, Helena and Cosima (all Maslany), have not yet dis-

covered in the course of the first three seasons. Self-awareness among clones remains a conflict; the fate of Cosima’s former lover and Dyad employee Delphine (Evelyne Brochu), presumed dead last season, is now debated.

Mistrust runs rampant through most relationships, with masks and deceit featuring prominently in “Collapse of Nature.”

Maslany, who has received only one Emmy nomination, despite playing about a dozen distinct characters with unique physicality and personality, could carry a lesser show with her acting alone. Fortunately, the writing and production quality are also consistently stellar, as are the strong cinematography and dis-

tinctive music. Nowhere has “Orphan Black” excelled as notably as in the layering of characters — Maslany has portrayed Cosima pretending to be Allison, Allison pretending to be Sarah and so forth — in its mastery of shocking twists and reveals. This episode does not disappoint in either of these realms.

Beyond its high entertainment value, “Orphan Black” is important and relevant in and of itself for its humanization of clones. The humanity of Sarah and her sisters is never in question; though the clones themselves worry about what they are and how others perceive them, they are continually presented as complicated, unique, conflicted individuals.

Outside of the show, human cloning remains unlikely, but the questions posed in the show merit discussion.

To the Dyad Institute, the clones are a science project, but the women live with very real effects of their origins.

None of the clones, with the exception of Sarah and her twin Helena, can have children; many have developed serious or even fatal physical ailments, and they are constantly plagued by mistrust of and from family, friends and colleagues.

“Collapse of Nature” is an incredibly strong episode. The previous season lost audience interest for a myriad of reasons, but if this premiere is any indication, “Orphan Black” remains high-quality, must-watch TV.

‘Rogue One’ darkens tone of Star Wars for first stand-alone film STAR WARS

continued from page 5 that has come to define calculating villainy in American cinema, rattles off an impressive list of prior crimes.

Our hero, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), has quite the rap sheet.

After its opening, the almost two-minute long trailer spends the rest of its run cutting between action sequences while a voiceover hints at plot details. The trailer does an admirable job tantalizing fans by revealing just enough to fuel speculation (like this article!) and build hype ahead of “Rogue One’s” December release.

From the trailer, it appears that Jyn Erso will continue the trend of strong female leads in “Star Wars” that began with Rey in “The Force Awakens.”

Though, Erso seems to have a harder edge than the sometimes wide-eyed Rey (Daisy Ridley).

The original “Star Wars” trilogy was notoriously White and male, so it is a welcome change to see a more diverse galaxy in the new films. But there were moments in “The Force Awakens” where the film seemed perhaps too self-congratulatory about “Star Wars’” feminist turn. The scene where Rey and Finn (John Boyega) argue about holding hands in the midst of an imperial strafing run is, for example, a ham-fisted acknowledgment of a cliché.

Disney is clearly anxious to declare loudly and often that “Star Wars” is feminist now, but hopefully the writers of “Rouge One” will allow a strong female lead to simply be a strong female lead, without feeling the need to inanely trumpet the fact.

It is impossible to say how well Felicity Jones will perform as Jyn Erso, but there is one moment in the trailer where she is particularly cringe-inducing. After being confronted by Mon Mothma about her unpredictable personality, Erso response dryly with the positively wince-inducing line, “This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.” — The whole scene recalls Emilia Clark’s Daenerys Targaryen at her most unimpressive. Hopefully the writers endow Erso’s dialogue with more substance than this poorly-executed one-liner.

“Star Wars” has always presented an oddly sanitized look at armed conflict, most likely in effort to remain family friendly. Starfighters explode with nary a thought given to their pilots and combatants in firefights crumple when

hit, a black scorch mark the only evidence of injury. But the darker, grittier tone of the “Rogue One” teaser hints that this film may be different.

It might be a bit much to expect Disney to sanction an R-rated “Star Wars” picture with bleak intensity of a grinding war film like “Fury” (2014), but a harsher depiction of the realities of warfare and resistance would be a welcome change of pace for “Star Wars”, which has been curiously bloodless till now.

The “Rogue One” teaser, by design, doesn’t reveal much about the final product, but the clear tonal departure from the main films leads us to believe that “Rogue One” will be more than a shameless attempt to mine fan dollars in between main trilogy releases. Roll on, Boba Fett and Young Han Solo.

Seniors: Congrats on your upcoming graduation!

But let’s not say goodbye.

Let’s stay in touch in the new Online Community: tuftsalumni.org/olc BENEFITS: • UPDATE your contact info to stay connected to Tufts and fellow Jumbos • SEARCH for friends in the Online Directory • NETWORK with alumni in your field • Hear about EVENTS in your area • . . . and more, right at your fingertips!

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Opinion

8 tuftsdaily.com

EDITORIAL

Gauri Seth will bring leadership, experience to TCU Presidency The time has come again for the student body to make the decision of who will be the next Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate president and who the student body believes can help lead Senate in making necessary change on this campus. Both of this year’s candidates, juniors Gauri Seth and Ryan Johnson, focus on the core issues that students are concerned with, from housing and club sports funding, to academic reform and financial aid, to diversity and inclusion on campus. However, the candidate with the experience, leadership and know-how to implement the vision spelled out in both candidate’s platforms is Gauri Seth.

Amid the perception that Senate is a bureaucratic entity that lacks transparency, Seth is refreshingly accessible. While a vote for Seth is in many senses a vote for the establishment,

considering her three-year long tenure in Senate and two years as an executive within Senate, the work that Seth has done in her roles on Senate has consistently bridged the gap between what the Tufts community wants to see happen and what the Senate works on. She recognizes that her biggest obstacle is breaking the bubble that Senate can seem to be operating within, in order to represent and fulfill the interests of all students at Tufts, and both her platform and campaign team champion engagement with all communities on campus.

Seth has been a part of major accomplishments that Senate has had in recent times, including replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day and not only retaining but expanding Late Night Dining services. Her ideas for the year ahead look both internally at Senate to address

structural problems within the body, its funding allocations and its outreach mechanisms, and externally at how Senate can lobby the university to better serve students on matters great and small. While Johnson is right that Senate needs reform — the disengagement between the student body and Senate is clear with consistently low election turnout and a small pool of “career” candidates — the candidate who has the best shot at fixing those issues is Seth.

Voting for Seth is not a vote for the status quo but a vote for the continued progress that Senate has made this year and movement toward real solutions to existing problems. If elected, Seth will not only be the first woman to be TCU President since Melissa Carson in 2002 but also the only one of the candidates who can transform words and platforms into a reality.

CARTOON

Boston Marathon 2016

BY ALLISON MEROLA

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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.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Luke Sherman Earth On Fire

Free trade, continued

N

o issue has roiled this year’s Democratic presidential contest more than free trade.

At a debate last week, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) charged that during her tenure as a senator former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “voted for virtually every disastrous trade agreement, which cost us millions of decent-paying jobs.”

In a previous column, I argued that the recent implementation of free trade agreements (FTAs) has shifted the energy-intensive production of goods to countries that lack stringent health, environmental and labor standards, in a process known as “race to the bottom.” These agreements have benefited multinational corporations and consumers in the developed world at the expense of a stable climate. Because of the word limit, I didn’t have the chance to fully explore the ways in which FTAs have contributed to skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions. I will instead do so now.

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution nearly 30 years ago, a free trade frenzy seized Western diplomats, who pushed for the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 and China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. These accords transferred enormous power to multinational corporations by allowing investors to sue governments that had allegedly unfairly discriminated against foreign firms international court.

Known as the “investor-state dispute settlement,” the use of this tactic in 2012 forced the government of Ontario to overturn a previously passed law that mandated that the province source more of its electricity from renewable energy companies. In order to make the legislation more politically palatable, elected officials had required that a significant percentage of the equipment produced to comply with the law originate from Canadian suppliers, which the WTO found to violate Canada’s trade policy.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Vattenfall, a Swedish energy firm, sued the German government in 2009 for nearly $2 billion in damages for violating the Energy Charter Treaty. The state’s environmental minister, in response to significant local opposition and the increasing threat of climate change, had sought to delay the construction of a coal-fired power plant. Germany settled the suit with the company and obliged the local government to issue the contested permits for the facility’s erection. The plant began operating in 2014.

Numerous other examples of firms effectively forcing governments to abandon their clean energy policies abound. As the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soars ever higher, we need to loosen the constraints on local and regional decision-makers so that they can respond to the urgent threat of global warming.

It’s for this reason Senator Sanders’ record and statements on the United States’ trade policy deserve far more praise than Secretary Clinton’s. The secretary’s full-throated support of NAFTA in the 1990s and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the largest proposed FTAs in a generation, during her tenure at the State Department disqualify her as a climate champion.

Luke Sherman is a senior majoring in environmental studies. Luke can be reached at luke.sherman@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

Opinion OP-ED

Can you name your TCU President?

by Zach Merchant (Spoiler: it’s Brian Tesser.)

I bet more of you than you’d like to admit struggled with that question. After an election in which Tesser ran without a single opponent and still managed to scrape together barely the votes necessary, it’s clear that the disconnect between the Tufts community and its elected representatives is gaping.

At a school like Tufts, though, that feels odd. Every incoming class is filled with countless high school student government officers, hopeful diplomats-in-waiting and wannabe congressmen. This environment of political activity is levied by an immense presence of social justice activists on campus. Tufts Climate Action, #thethreepercent, SJP, Tufts Labor Coalition and countless other groups have shone spotlights on the issues they fight for. There is, without question, no lack of political engagement on campus.

So why not engage with TCU? For starters, no one knows how. Or even, for that

matter, much of anything about what our student representatives actually do on campus. TCU right now is a seriously opaque organization. When club funding requests are submitted, club finance officers are forced to navigate through a series of TCUenacted financial regulations so complex that clubs are frequently forced to request more money than they will ever actually need to account for percent-of-total-budget clauses. Last year, as club sports budgets fell in the face of a TCU budget deficit, some sports lost their affiliation (and with it their right to use the school’s name in their official team name), even though they did nothing to justify being dropped.

In both cases — and the many others like these — club members’ questions were met with answers that cited TCU’s existing bylaws and the responsibility of its senators to work within that framework. The underlying logic of those bylaws was rarely addressed.

In fairness, TCU has commendably begun to address this issue of opacity on

its own. Its members have recently worked to popularize Two Minute Thursdays — short videos that share major issues at play in TCU from week to week. It’s a good step in the right direction, but it’s not nearly enough.

This lack of clarity was TCU’s only problem, though it wouldn’t be a great leap of faith to assume that of the many politically-minded students on campus, some would step up to change the system. But few do, especially if they don’t get involved with TCU right out of the gate their freshman year.

This is due to the fact that TCU has created a culture of exclusivity. Its archaic bylaws and the often-lukewarm explanations of their logic are part of this problem. Even more responsible, though, is the fact that per the TCU Constitution, only TCU senators are allowed to run for TCU president.

That means that in a campus of more than 5,000 students, there are only a few juniors even eligible to run for the right to represent their fellow students.

Why circle the wagons like this? The role of TCU president is to represent the entirety of the Tufts community, not just the community of TCU. By demanding that the student body president comes from within its own ranks, TCU has managed to stifle a campus that is filled with vocal leaders from all walks of life. The campaign for student body president should be a platform to amplify the voices of all who want to impact our community — not just those preselected by TCU. With the presidential campaign season about to begin, I hope that both the candidates and the rest of TCU take this issue to heart. TCU has its flaws, but our representatives are undoubtedly good people dedicated to representing the student body as best they can. Expanding the pool from which the TCU president can come from will only serve to strengthen this group and our community.

Zach is a junior majoring in political science. Zach can be reached at william. merchant@tufts.edu.

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TUFTS SUMMER SESSION 2016

Orientation 2016 Support Staff Positions Available

prepare. eXpaND. Develop. school of arts and sciences | school of engineering

Three sessioNs: May 25–July 1 | July 5–augusT 12 | May 25–augusT 12 go.tufts.edu/summer

Help support Orientation 2016. Assist Coordinators with all logistics during Orientation week for the Class of 2020. *Must be available to move back to campus as of Monday August 29, 2016 and work through Monday September 5, 2016. * Cannot hold any other early arrival required leadership position or other employment during Orientation week. *Must be full-time undergraduate student for the 2016-2017 Academic Year. *Must be a student in good standing relating to academics and student behavior. *Paid position, $10.00 per hour.

For more information and application go to go.tufts.edu/orientation or stop by the Office for Campus Life to pick up an application.

Applications due Monday April 25, 2016.

For further information please email orientation@ase.tufts.edu with questions.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Comics

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Sarah: “We can just misquote him.”

Comics

SUDOKU

JUMBLE

Difficulty Level: Getting Wednesday confused for Tuesday this week.

Tuesday’s Solution

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

CROSSWORD

Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Sports WOMEN'S TENNIS

Jumbos return to winning ways in emphatic fashion

by Yuan Jun Chee

Assistant Sports Editor

No. 15 Tufts women’s tennis recovered from its narrow loss to a high-powered Middlebury team last week with two emphatic 9-0 victories over Wellesley on Thursday and Brandeis on Saturday to 9-3 this season. Eighth and ninth victories of the season means the Jumbos have now won more games than they did the entire of last season.

“I believe the team is much stronger this year than it was last year, and we are still continuing to improve and looking forward to more success,” said sophomore Lauren Louks in an email to the Daily.

Junior co-captain Conner Calabro agreed that the team has grown over this season and improved from recent years.

“Last year was a bit of a rebuilding year — we didn’t have any upperclassmen, and so we didn’t have that much experience,” Calabro said. “Now the combination of the experience of the returners with the talent and energy, the awesomeness of the first-years, I think we’re going to go very far this year.”

On Saturday, the Jumbos recorded their first victory away from their home Voute Courts since spring break with a 9-0 victory over the Brandeis Judges. The doubles were once again 3-0 for the seventh time this season. Louks and first-year partner Mina Karamercan continued to show why they play in the No. 1 doubles position as they comfortably dispatched Brandeis’ first-year Olivia Leavitt and sophomore Haley Cohen 8-3. Junior Jacqueline Baum and first-year Tomo Iwasaki defeated seniors Emily Eska and Maya Vasser by the same score while Calabro and first-year Otilia Popa beat first-year Sophia He and sophomore Charlotte Aaron 8-5 to round out the Jumbo sweep.

In singles play, Iwasaki and junior Chelsea Hayashi both recorded 6-2, 6-3 victories over He and Vasser, respectively, while Karamercan beat Leavitt by a similar score of 6-3, 6-2. Calabro saw off first-year Keren Khromchenko 6-3, 7-5 while Louks was pushed to a tiebreaker in the second set before eventually defeating Cohen 6-2, 7-6 (4). The Jumbos only dropped one set in

the entire matchup against Brandeis, with Miller recovering from losing the first set to Eska on her way to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory.

The improved performances throughout the season meant the team now holds itself to a higher standard of play.

“We didn’t want to look too far ahead, but we’ve always had the goal of making NCAAs and NESCACs,” Calabro said. “I feel our success has made us hold ourselves to an even higher standard, we go out and have a physical match and expect a lot from ourselves to put up a good fight whatever the outcome is. I think our goals have stayed generally the same [to win a national title], but I think our expectations for ourselves have been higher because we’ve been performing so well.”

The Tufts squad looked even more dominant on Thursday with a complete lockdown, winning all its singles matches in straight sets against No. 31 Wellesley. This ended Wellesley’s own six-match winning streak.

Louks defeated first-year Justine Huang 6-3, 7-5. It was Karamercan who was pushed to a tiebreaker this time around, as she saw off sophomore Emily Olson 6-0, 7-6 (8-6).

Calabro gave up only one game in a comfortable 6-0, 6-1 victory over first-year Tristan Lorich while Iwasaki saw off the challenge of junior Samantha Stone 6-2, 6-2. Miller defeated junior Dasha Kostikina 6-1, 6-3 as Hayashi beat first-year Rosanne Hu 6-3, 6-1.

“To take every single set against Wellesley is impressive — they’re a very solid team,” coach Kate Bayard said. “I was happy with how every Tufts team member just stayed in the moment and focused on playing each point as it came.”

Like almost every other previous match, the Jumbos were dominant in the doubles, giving up just nine games in their three doubles matches against the Blue. The LouksKaramercan pair defeated the Olson-Huang pair 8-3, while Calabro and Popa defeated Kostikina and Stone 8-2. Iwasaki and Baum completed the rout in the third position with an 8-4 victory over Hu and Lorich.

With Tufts on a two-match winning-streak, it travels to No. 5 Amherst on Wednesday afternoon to kick off a stretch of five NESCAC matches to end the season. After Amherst, the team then

SOFTBALL

on Bantams’ sloppy defense to push the final score to 13-4 before the game was called in the sixth.

The Saturday afternoon game between the teams started out much less eventfully, as both were unable to score any runs in the opening innings. A double by Willner-Giwerc that reached deep left scored Copacino in the bottom of the third to break the stalemate, and the Jumbos maintained the lead for the rest of the game. During the bottom of the fifth, the Jumbos widened their lead with three runs, highlighted by Fournier’s triple to right field, scoring Galbiati and Siciliano. Tufts added two more in the bottom of the sixth as Wilner-Giwerc drove in junior Marly Becker. Copacino then scored on a bases-loaded walk to Fournier.

Although Trinity was able to score a single run at the top of the seventh inning to prevent the shutout for Galbiati, who went the distance for Tufts on the mound, the win was still decisive.

“We had some great performances on Saturday,” coach Cheryl Milligan told the Daily in an email. “Finnigan and Wilner-Giwerc had outstanding contributions, as did [Galbiati] on the mound.”

Having swept the Bantams, the Jumbos not only continued their recent successful stretch

Nicole Brooks Jersey Over Apron

A flawed meritocracy

T

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tomo Iwasaki (LA ‘19) hits the ball during the Tufts women’s tennis matches against Colby in the Voute Tennis Courts on April 1. heads to Conn. College on Friday and to Wesleyan on Sunday for its last two games on the road, before returning home for a final doubleheader.

“We’re really excited for Amherst because this is a big opportunity for our team, as in my years at Tufts, we’ve never beat them, so this would be a very big win in terms of that,” Calabro said. “If we continue playing the way we did in other previous matches and are pumped up for it, we can definitely beat them. They’re going to be a challenging opponent, no question, but I feel that no matter what they give us we can take it on.”

Bayard wants to continue to take each game at a time and is confident of the team’s ability to continue to compete strongly.

“Right from the start, we decided we wanted to stay in the moment and take one match at a time,” Bayard said. “We do feel confident every time we go out there that we have a good shot of winning each match, but we just take one match at a time and [do] not look far ahead. There are so many teams out there that are really strong, so every match is a tough match.

We’ve got a very strong schedule.

Softball looks to keep NESCAC East undefeated streak alive at Bates this weekend continued from back Tufts and Trinity wrapped up the series with a doubleheader on Saturday. In the morning game, the Trinity Bantams began the first inning explosively with two runs. The Jumbos struck back in the second, as Fournier scored after a base-hit by sophomore Sarah Finnigan, who advanced to second on an error by the Bantams. Sophomore Samantha Siciliano singled, scoring Finnigan and evening the score. The top of the third saw a strong showing from Trinity, which got two runs back, but Tufts struck back in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run homer by Fournier to right-center. Later in the inning, junior Carrie Copacino doubled in Finnigan and then scored herself on a single from Siciliano, giving the Jumbos a 6-4 lead that they would only grow throughout the contest.

Tufts scored twice in the fifth inning after an uneventful fourth. Fournier rounded third and scored on a double by Summer Horowitz, who in turn was able to score a run after a hit from Siciliano. Siciliano drove in three runs in the contest, as did sophomore Sara WillnerGiwerc. Willner-Giwerc’s RBIs all came from a double in the sixth. The Bantams’ five errors played a large role in the Jumbos’ dominating win, and with 15 hits, the hosts capitalized

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since spring break but also brought their winning-streak against NESCAC East opponents to 57 games, dating back to 2011. Milligan was proud of the team for securing the first seed in the NESCAC East for another year.

The Jumbos’ momentum was interrupted last night, however, when they fell at home to the MIT Engineers in the first game of a doubleheader rescheduled from last week. The Engineers struck early with a run in the first and then roughed up Jumbo senior co-captain starter Erica County for five runs in the second to take a lead that they would not relinquish. County settled down to shut out MIT for the rest of the game, but her offense could not manage to overcome the deficit.

In the second game, Galbiati continued her strong season on the mound by blanking the Engineers until the fifth. Meanwhile, the Jumbo offense, helped out by several defensive errors, lit up Engineer starter Ravenne Nasser for seven runs in the first to take a commanding lead. Cain, who has been hot at the plate lately, highlighted Tufts’ 15-hit performance by going three for three with a home run and three RBIs. Tufts, battling through a busy stretch of games this week, looks to start a new winning-streak in their doubleheader at Endicott tomorrow.

he reasons why we like sports can vary on a spectrum, but for the most part, our attraction to sports comes from three things, one of which is its unpredictability. Without this factor, the essence of competition would be completely lost. Not to say that people don’t like for victories to be planned, as anyone can observe in the continuing success and profitability of the WWE. But even the main point within that sort of sport-based entertainment is the fact that spectators still don’t know the planned outcome. Secondly, there is, of course, the social relatability factor which arguably invites all social factors and different demographics to be united within a common cause or identity. A prime example of this can be seen in the Olympics, as national identities and stories are harnessed to rally national pride to support one’s country’s athletes. Lastly, the third of our core attraction to sport is how society perceives sports largely as one of the last forms of a “pure” meritocracy.

Now as an American, the idea of meritocracy has been instilled in our ideologies since we were born. Work hard, and you’ll reach success. It’s mirrored in sports documentaries, embellished by politicians and blockbuster movies and embedded within the framework of the American educational system. Nonetheless, with any meritocracy there are flaws, with which we have come to grips as we observe the political arena embedded with corruption and the cyclic pattern of privilege within the American society. Within any arena of society, the availability of resources plays a key role in determining the likelihood of success. Sure, rags to riches sports stories do occur, but deconstructing them shows the exception rather than the rule. Our continuing infatuation with the American sports dream has allowed for these inherent inequalities of a flawed meritocracy to continue to be cast aside as successful athlete’s glory distracts us from the true reality.

A large flaw within sports being a meritocracy is the changing access to resources aligned with demographics and geographic location. When I say resources, you might think of access to playing fields or types of organized play. Notably, organized play is becoming increasingly privatized, as access to public recreational resources is diminishing alongside the rise of private sponsored teams, and pay to play youth leagues are dominating pre-professional sports. Nonetheless, this is only the beginning of resources necessary for athletes. Other resources include time within their lives to hone their craft.

This can be limited to families stricken by economic toil, where work is more valued than recreation to aid with financial burdens. Other resources that are often overlooked is the access to nutritional food and access to some kind of healthcare to sustain a healthy body. Hard work can’t overpower the basic needs of life.

All of these aforementioned resources provide obstacles for any athlete and aren’t fully accessible to everyone across the board.

With this knowledge, it shows that rags to riches stories still include forms of privilege, no matter how small. And with the inclusion of privilege, a meritocracy largely fails — a fact that has continually been overlooked by the distractions and false beliefs inherent in the American Dream.

Nicole Brooks is a features editor at the Tufts Daily. Nicole is a senior majoring in history and minoring in communications and media studies and can be reached at nicole.brooks@tufts.edu.

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Sports

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

SOFTBALL

Tufts sweeps Trinity to stay undefeated in NESCAC East

by Isabel Banta

Contributing Writer

Over the weekend, Tufts swept a threegame series at home against NESCAC East foe Trinity to stay undefeated within division play and atop its division, with just one more division series against Bates remaining before the conference playoffs next month.

The team’s winning-streak of nine games, the Jumbos’ longest of the season, came to an end yesterday afternoon though in a 6-3 loss to the No. 22 MIT Engineers. Tufts bounced back in the second game of the doubleheader to beat MIT 11-2.

On Friday, what would become an extra-innings contest began with the Jumbos scoring just a run each in the second and third to jump ahead. In the bottom of the second, sophomore utility player Raina Galbiati was walked and a double to right center from first-year shortstop Christian Cain drove in Galbiati. In the bottom of the third, Galbiati singled with the the bases loaded to drive in sophomore catcher Michelle Chisdak.

Trinity came back in the fourth with three runs to take the lead, which would last until the bottom of the sixth when the hosts tied it back up. Down 3-2, Galbiati scored for the Jumbos after hitting the team’s second double of the game. She advanced to third on a Trinity error and scored on an infield hit by sophomore Raven Fournier. With the game going to extras, senior co-captain Christina Raso walked in the eighth and advanced third after another walk to Galbiati and a base hit

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Summer Horowitz (LA ’17) hits the ball in Tufts’ 7-5 win against Bowdoin on April 1. by junior Summer Horowitz. With the bases loaded, Fournier hit a shallow fly ball to left, and Raso was able to tag up and score to give the Jumbos the 4-3 walk-off win.

“I think over the course of the season the

team has really learned more how to play as a unit,” Cain told the Daily in an email. “We have learned how to play together and united, to rely on one another and to trust another. We spend a lot of time together, in and

out of practice. Our relationships have gotten stronger, which has really helped our on-field chemistry.” see SOFTBALL, page 11

SAILING

Co-ed, women’s sailing teams put up mixed results ahead of nationals qualifiers

by Eddie Samuels

Assistant Sports Editor

The last two weeks have shown mixed results for the co-ed and women’s sailing teams. The co-ed team managed a win at the Mystic Lake Invitational, hosted by Tufts, on April 10 and finished eighth at the Thompson Trophy regatta, hosted by the Coast Guard Academy this past weekend. The women’s team finished 16th at Conn. College’s Emily Wick Trophy, on April 10 before notching a sixth-place finish this past weekend at Boston University’s President’s Trophy Intersectional.

Coming off a string of strong performances, the co-ed sailing team came into this weekend’s events with high expectations. The team finished day one in the middle of the pack, the ninth place team of 17. Day two of the race saw the Jumbos advance, albeit only one spot, to finish in eighth. Yale finished in first, with a total of 294 points, which put it well ahead of the pack. Tufts finished with 387, just behind Stanford and St. Mary’s College, which both tied at 381.

“This past weekend we had a pretty good showing,” junior tri-captain Liz Fletcher said. “We’ve been really focused on practice. [Our goal is] definitely to make it to nationals this year. We’re feeling pretty good going into the co-ed qualifier in two weeks.”

The previous weekend, the Jumbos continued their dominance of Mystic Lake this

season with their third first-place performance in as many regattas that they’ve hosted there, this time in the Mystic Lake Team Races. The team’s win was propelled by the combinations of senior skipper Casey Gowrie and Fletcher as his crew, senior skipper James Moody and junior crew Caroline Ambros and junior skipper Alex Tong and sophomore crew Lara Dienemann. The team pulled out an 11-1 record and won a best-of-three sail-off against second-place Brown to secure the win.

“That was a really fun event,” Fletcher said. “We hosted it in our brand-new boats

at our new boathouse. It was nice for the other teams to try out the new boats and hang out at the lake for a weekend. It felt really good to come out on top.”

Senior tri-captain Pierre duPont noted the constructive nature of the meet, which both improved team confidence and gave younger sailors some competition experience in a familiar setting.

“It was pretty awesome,” duPont said.

“We had two teams competing, there was the all-freshman team, which got fifth. We host three or four times a season, but it’s really nice to win at home.”

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts sailors compete in a race at the April 10 regatta at Tufts sailing team boat house on Mystic Lake.

The women’s team also competed the last two weekends, most recently at Boston University’s President’s Trophy Invitational. The team finished day one in eighth place and managed to move up two spots on day two, finishing in sixthplace out of 17 teams. The team’s success largely rested on the duo of junior skipper MaryClaire Kiernan and senior crew Amanda Sommi, which won two races and finished second in a third.

The team finished with 149 points, just one point ahead of seventh place Rhode Island College.

The weekend before that race, the Jumbos struggled at the Emily Wick Trophy. They finished in 16th out of 18 with a score of 182, only beating out Fordham and University of South Florida.

The Jumbos finished seventh in the A division and last in B division. Brown won the event, with a score of 83-25 points ahead of any other team.

The women’s team has a tough weekend ahead, with New England Championships at Yale across Saturday and Sunday as the team looks to qualify for nationals, while the co-ed team competes at Kings Point’s Admiral’s Cup as it prepares for its own nationals qualifiers in two weeks.

“We’re looking to qualify for both,” duPont said. “We were a little bit disappointed last weekend because we didn’t qualify for New England Championship, but our goals remain to qualify for nationals and do as well as we can.”