The Tufts Daily - Friday, February 1, 2019

MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

Actor Jussie Smollett targeted in hate crime see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

Jumbos top the field in second meet of season

Tufts should have acknowledged International Holocaust Remembrance Day see OPINION/ PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 7

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Friday, February 1, 2019

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Monaco’s letter to Department of Education criticizes Title IX sexual harassment reform proposals

by Alexander Thompson Assistant News Editor

University President Anthony Monaco condemned Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ proposed changes to Title IX sexual misconduct policies in a letter released to the Tufts community yesterday morning. Monaco’s letter, dated Jan. 30, critiqued a number of the proposals, including limitations on the definition of sexual harassment, the range of Title IX, changes to adjudication and restriction of employees held responsible for misconduct.

The Department of Education drafted the new proposals, which were released on Nov. 16, 2018. In a press statement, the department announced a 60-day public comment period. Monaco’s letter was submitted on the final day of the period.

The letter’s first target was the limitation of the definition of what is considered sexual harassment and assault.

Wendy Murphy, a former prosecutor and current adjunct professor of sexual violence law at New England Law Boston, who has won Title IX lawsuits against Harvard University and Princeton

University, said that the new guidance would raise the bar on what is considered to be sexual harassment.

Murphy explained that the existing standard requires colleges to investigate reports of any “unwelcome” behavior linked to sex as sexual harassment, whereas the new proposals require that behavior be severe, be pervasive and present an obstacle to education access to be investigated.

Murphy called this an insurmountable barrier to reporting, as the most egregious violations may not be pervasive or prevent access to education.

In the letter, Monaco wrote that the new definition would make it more difficult to stop behavior before it became severe and pervasive, and that this would have the greatest negative impact on traditionally marginalized communities.

Murphy stressed that this definition treats women as second-class citizens, as it would make the standard for sexual harassment more stringent than discrimination based on race or national origin; these categories which would maintain the lower “unwelcome” standard.

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Ballou Hall pictured on May 5, 2016.

Monaco also addressed the proposed limitation of investigations to misconduct that took place on campus. He cited the fact that the nearly all Tufts graduate students, faculty, staff and 35 percent of undergraduates live off campus.

“To impose an enforcement boundary at the campus perimeter would unduly limit the school’s ability to meaningfully address sexual misconduct in our community, see TITLE IX, page 2

Tufts promotes global initiatives, resources, collaboration with launch of new website

by Rachael Meyer News Editor

In a Jan. 9 email to the Tufts community, Tufts’ Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President announced the official launch of Global Tufts, a website that provides online resources about global initiatives to the Tufts community.

According to Diana Chigas (F ’88), senior international officer and associate provost, who led the project, conversations inspired by the 2013 T10 Strategic Plan prompted Tufts to recognize the need for a central space for international information and resources. Chigas said her current role was created in 2016 as a result of the plan, with the goal of promoting Tufts’ global initiatives and coordinate efforts to engage and support students and faculty.

Chigas explained that shortly after, talks with the Office of Communications and Marketing about the creation of the Global Tufts website began, resulting in a soft launch of the website in late March of last year.

The idea for the webpage came from looking at the websites of other glob-

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ally-minded universities and hearing requests from the Tufts community for more visibility and internal networking opportunities for global work, Chigas said.

“A lot of international alumni note that Tufts is doing a lot of great stuff, but it’s very modest and not as visible as other places,” she said. “I get a lot of requests from faculty members who … don’t know each other, or they don’t know what the process is for hiring people if they want to hire somebody abroad for their projects.”

Chigas hopes the site will alleviate these issues by providing a “one-stop shop” of international resources, such as access to the Travel Registry, international internships and Where’s Tufts, an interactive map that allows users to find people and activities by region.

Talloires Network Executive Director Lorlene Hoyt anticipates this tool being especially useful in her work to connect faculty across universities who are doing similar community-engaged work.

“Instead of having to rely on word of mouth and digging around on the Tufts website more generally, I can now go directly to a country and do a search there and make those connections,” she said.

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Program Administrator Christine Hollenhorst singled out a globally-integrated events calendar included on the website.

“There are so many different calendars here at Tufts … so if someone is interested in international things, it’s right on our website,” she said. “You don’t have to be clicking around to every different school or miss out on things entirely because you never heard about it.”

Hollenhorst also mentioned the introduction of Global Tufts Week, which will take place from March 2 to March 9. She explained that the week will be an opportunity for organizations and individuals at Tufts to advertise their international initiatives through the Global Tufts website and self-organize events that promote their work.

“Our hope is that various schools, various students, faculty … everyone in the Tufts community will organize their own events to showcase international things and then they’ll enter them into our calendar and we can help promote them,” she said.

Student groups, academic departments and student-faculty collabo-

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rations can also apply for Global Tufts Week funding, which will help get new ideas off the ground or enhance existing events happening over the course of that week, Hollenhorst said.

Noshir Mehta, the associate dean of global relations at the Tufts School of Dental Medicine, is one of 20 faculty members and administrators who make up the Global Advisory Board, which, according to the Global Tufts website, advises Tufts on global strategy and priorities. The board is made up of a faculty member and an administrator from each school at Tufts.

According to Mehta, the board is vital in its work facilitating collaboration and connections between Tufts’ schools.

“It’s great to have the repository exist and have everybody with the same issues be able to talk to one another across the table and then come up with … solutions [that] are through the university rather than the individual schools,” Mehta said.

He also stated that he is looking forward to the site’s ability to advertise different global dental programs, such as

NEWS............................................1 ARTS & LIVING.......................4 OPINION.....................................5

see GLOBAL TUFTS, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................6 SPORTS............................ BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, February 1, 2019

THE TUFTS DAILY Elie Levine Editor-in-Chief

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DeVos' Title IX proposal will discourage sexual assault reports, Monaco says TITLE IX

continued from page 1 hinder accountability and most assuredly inhibit reporting,” he wrote.

Murphy called this proposal “mind-boggling,” as the university has the ability to intervene in other off campus student behavior.

The draft rules would also replace the investigator-based model with a hearing during which the the accused could, through an advocate, cross-examine the accuser, according to the letter.

According to Monaco in yesterday’s letter, Tufts has previously used the hearing process but did away with it in favor of the investigator-based model following concerns raised in the Tufts community. The letter said that this move was followed by a “substantial” uptick in investigations and disciplinary action.

“We are concerned that the proposed regulations’ requirement of a formal, adversarial court-like hearing for sexual misconduct matters would significantly and negatively impact our community members’ emotional and physical well-being and be detrimental to Tufts’ ability to ensure a safe and accountable campus,” Monaco wrote.

Peter Lake, professor of law at Stetson University College of Law and director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, said that the proposed regulations would cause more disruption than the Department is willing to admit especially concerning the hearing system. “[The proposals are] essentially a federal mandate to create college courts even in private schools, and that’s a very controversial, complex decision,” Lake said.

He said that the complexities that these hearings entail would discourage people from seeking formal recourse while increasing litigation which would force universities to respond more informally.

“I think the watchword for these regulations is ‘disruption’,” he said. “It’s going to cause significant change in existing models of dispute resolution for most people with some uncertain outcome, and it could potentially raise the stakes on the accountability in colleges in the legal system in a way that we could see increased litigation.”

Finally, the the proposed regulations would only hold schools liable for sexual

misconduct if that misconduct is reported directly to a Title IX Coordinator or an employee with the ability to make corrective action, according to Monaco’s letter.

Monaco argued that a majority of Tufts community members have the responsibility to report sexual misconduct, citing statistics on the number of people who have taken training courses in the recent years.

The draft rules give schools the option as to whether they want to maintain the preponderance of evidence standard in cases of sexual misconduct — more likely than not — or raise it to a standard called “clear and convincing.”

Tufts will keep the preponderance of evidence standard, Jill Zellmer, the executive director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, said.

Zellmer added in an email that other procedures would have to be reviewed, such as the university’s adjudication process which would be affected by the hearings.

The Department of Education, when asked for comment, referred the Daily to the Nov. 16 press release.

In the release, DeVos said that existing procedures were unfair and that the draft rules sought to remedy this.

“By following proper legal procedures and receiving input on our proposed rule, we will ultimately have a final regulation that ensures that Title IX protects all students,” she said.

The criticism of the the draft regulations has not been unanimous.

In a comment to the department filed Jan. 30, the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education commended the proposals.

“The proposed rules take the rights of both complainants and accused students seriously, and they make important strides toward ensuring that complaints of sexual misconduct will be neither ignored nor prejudged,” wrote the organization.

“Though not perfect, the proposed regulations will go a long way towards restoring meaningful due process protections to campuses — to the ultimate benefit of both complainants and respondents alike.”

Campus sexual assault and harassment guidelines have been a source of contention for some years now.

In the spring of 2011, the Obama administration issued what is know as a Dear Colleague letter to colleges nationwide advising them of their requirements under Title IX for procedures for dealing with sexual assault and harassment. In the fall of 2017, the Department of Education sent out another Dear Colleague letter, which rescinded the 2011 guidance and a 2014 clarification.

“The 2011 and 2014 guidance documents may have been well-intentioned, but those documents have led to the deprivation of rights for many students — both accused students denied fair process and victims denied an adequate resolution of their complaints,” the 2017 Dear Colleague letter read.

Students from Action Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP), Peer-Health Collaborative and Green-Dot were consulted in the drafting of Monaco’s letter at a meeting on Jan. 17, according to Han Lee, ASAP’s co-head of education and outreach.

Lee, a junior, said that the final draft reflected many of the students’ edits and suggestions.

“Overall it’s good to see that Tufts is listening to students’ needs, and that they are including students in these types of letters, it’s really important in terms of moving forward,” she said.

Lee said the draft regulations had terrified her when they had first been reported as she believed they would counteract much of the work ASAP has done.

However, much about what the finalized rules will look like remains vague, as the department could make changes to the draft proposals in light of the comments or Congress could force the department to revisit the proposals, according to Lake.

Lake said that Monaco’s letter could have an impact on the fate of the proposals.

“It’s certainly not nothing. We all listen when college presidents speak, even if we don’t agree,” he said.

Murphy contended it would be possible to sue a university under Massachusetts state law for relaxing sexual harassment policies in line with DeVos’s federal regulations.

“If Tufts dares to discriminate in anyway, and then points to the DeVos regulations as giving them permission to discriminate, that’s a lawsuit, and I will file it myself,” she said.

Hoyt, who also sits on the Global Advisory Board, is expecting Global Tufts to give researchers like her more opportunities to connect and collaborate with peers.

“It’s my hope that faculty, staff possibly, and other universities will be

able to find out more readily where I’m doing research and then connect with me based on some common interests that we have,” she said. “This could be a really fruitful opportunity for future collaboration that I think is really exciting.”

Global Tufts consolidates information on international opportunities GLOBAL TUFTS

continued from page 1 the Global Service Learning Program, which sends dental students to seven sites in six countries to support oral health infrastructure, and student and faculty exchanges.

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ARTS&LIVING

Friday, February 1, 2019

Attack on ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett being investigated as hate crime

by Tommy Gillespie Arts Editor

“Empire” (2015–) star Jussie Smollett was attacked in Chicago by two unknown assailants early on Tuesday morning in an incident that police are investigating as a hate crime.

According to the Chicago Police Department, Smollett was leaving a Subway sandwich shop around 2 a.m. in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood when he was approached by two individuals wearing ski masks allegedly attacked Smollett, shouting racist and homophobic slurs.

Before fleeing the scene, police say the attackers also doused Smollett with an “unknown chemical substance” before placing a rope around Smollett’s neck. Smollett, who reportedly told police he was able to fight back at the attackers, was well enough to transport himself to the Northwestern Hospital, where authorities report he is in “good condition.” Initially, it was reported by several news outlets that the assailants had shouted “MAGA country” in reference to Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Police initially denied this claim, but later confirmed it.

Smollett, who began his career as a child actor, rose to mainstream fame in 2015 when he was cast as Jamal Lyon in Fox’s “Empire.”

The runaway hit drama depicts the musical empire of the Lyon family, who jockey with one another for control of Empire Entertainment, the record company that family patriarch Lucious (Terrence Howard) founded.

Since its inception, the series has won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for female lead Taraji P. Henson’s performance as Cookie Lyon. Smollett’s character has also gained a great deal of attention as one of the few Black LGBTQ characters on network television. Smollett was in Chicago for filming “Empire” at the time of the attack.

After Tuesday’s attack, a wide cross section of Smollett’s collaborators, fans and

other celebrities have expressed their support for the actor via social media and the press. “We are deeply saddened and outraged to learn that a member of our ‘Empire’ family, Jussie Smollett, was viciously attacked last night … the entire studio, network and production stands united in the face of any despicable act of violence and hate — and especially against one of our own,” a 20th Century Fox representative said in a statement to CNN. “Wish what happened to my baby was just one big bad joke but it wasn’t and we all feel his pain right now. @jussiesmollett is pure love to the bone AND THAT IS WHY SO MANY ARE FEELING HIS PAIN BECAUSE IT IS OUR PAIN!!! I tell you one thing HATE WILL NOT WIN!!!! My baby is resilient and love still lives in him,” Smollett’s co-star Taraji P. Henson shared in a heartfelt post via Instagram.

“Empire” creator Lee Daniels, who also identifies as gay, shared an emotionally charged reaction to the incident in a video on Instagram.

“You didn’t deserve nor anybody deserves to have a noose put around your neck, to have bleach thrown on you, to be called ‘die f–got n–ga’ or whatever they said to you. You are better than that. We are better than that.

America is better than that. It starts at home.

It starts at home, yo. We have to love each other regardless of what sexual orientation we are because it shows we are united on a united front and no racist fuck can come in and do the things that they did to you. Hold your head up, Jussie. I’m with you. I’ll be there in a minute. It’s just another fucking day in America,” he said.

Daniels’ post reflected a wider frustration with the state of racial and sexual politics under the Trump administration, given that the attackers invoked Trump’s campaign slogan in their attack. As of Wednesday night, Chicago Police have released photos of two potential persons of interest in the case.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Jussie Smollet is pictured at PaleyFest LA 2016.

Boston museums offer immersive, fun ‘First Fridays’ events

by Libby Langsner Executive Arts Editor

Boston’s art museums and centers have made Thursdays and Fridays great times for guests to enjoy these spaces outside of regular hours. Many of these events offer live entertainment, special screenings and, depending on the museum, drinks in order to elevate the typical art experience during (as the name would suggest) the first Friday or third Thursday of every month. At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISG), these events evoke the original ways in which the museum was used, as Isabella herself would often throw lavish parties with food and music alongside her incredible art collection.

For those who are not yet 21, the most accessible events would be South of Washington’s (SoWa’s) First Fridays and

Third Thursdays at the ISG. SoWa is part of Boston’s South End, and it is home to more than 200 artist studios and galleries. On First Fridays, artists’ studios are open to the public, and visitors can even watch artists as they create new works. Attendees can also peruse the local shops during their extended hours especially for the event. SoWa’s first Fridays will be happening this Friday, Feb. 1, from 5 to 9 p.m., and is free to the public.

On Feb. 21, the ISG will hold its own event, Third Thursdays. The nice aspect of having this event on a different day is that it does not coincide with any other art events, and one can attend without feeling like they have to rush from one event to the next. The event is an extension of their Neighborhood Salon Luminaries Program, which encourages dialogue between the museum and Boston creatives. The event will feature dancers, playwrights, photog-

raphers, community organizers and graffiti artists. Third Thursdays is a great event for those who want to take advantage of what the ISG has to offer and wander around Gardner’s palace to have the closest possible experience to her own.

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) also offer a first Friday events to those who are over 21. The MFA First Fridays offer drinks, tapas and live music. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the museum, but tend to sell out quickly, so make sure to jump on this unique opportunity quickly. First Fridays at the MFA occur the first Friday of every month from 6 to 9:30 p.m. For those who are more into contemporary art museum experience, the First Fridays event at the ICA poses a great alternative. Feb. 1’s event will include music from DJ Eloy, samba performanc-

es and dance lessons from SambaViva, as well as, you guessed it, more drinks.

The theme is red attire (for Valentine’s Day!) and there will even be opportunities to make valentines with local artist Kit Collins. Speaking of Valentine’s Day, the ICA store will be holding extended hours and will close at 7 p.m. Although advance tickets have already sold out, it is still possible to attend this event, as walk-up tickets will become available starting at 5 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are free for ICA members and $15 for non-members.

First Fridays and the ISG’s Third Thursdays are a great way to get involved in Boston’s art scene. From mingling with arts to learning Samba from professionals, there is so much to gain from attending these fun events. So go on, have your own “Night at the Museum” moment this Friday.

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Friday, February 1, 2019

Opinion

5 tuftsdaily.com

EDITORIAL

The silence of forgetting How much is lost if we do not try to remember the past? On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27th, we must think about the transience of memory. It is easy to get caught in the rush of the everyday, if we aren’t reminded to step back and reflect. At Tufts, it was easy to forget this day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, as there was no reminder or service anywhere on campus. Nor were there emails from organizations or even the university. There was no commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tufts’ campus.

Other universities in Boston hosted film screenings and panels. It is ridiculous to make students go off campus to commemorate the Holocaust, when we have the Cummings/Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education right here at Tufts. This day is not the only time we should remember the Holocaust and those who perished, but it is a very public reminder, and our community should acknowledge it.

The Holocaust is not distant history. For many students, the memory of the Holocaust persists in the form of family members who survived it. Those who perished are an absence that we cannot forget. The end of the Holocaust did not bring the end of anti-semitism.

For many, the process of persecution continued while the ideological forces that birthed the Holocaust were never fully exorcised.

The erasure of history remains.

Thriving centers of Jewish life in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Budapest and countless other cities were annihilated, never to be repopulated. Six million people, two thirds of the Jewish population were murdered by their neighbors, while the United States knew but did nothing.

Only old synagogues, often without congregations, remain. The cultural legacy of these communities is preserved in the works of writers, theorists, poets and scholars who shaped those cities, even if the places they once lived were destroyed.

Zalmen Gradowski, a Polish Jew who died leading an uprising in 1944, wrote while in the camps. In his manuscripts, which were found hidden in the soil near Auschwitz’s crematoria, he remarked: “Can the dead mourn the dead?”

How do we commemorate whole villages and families massacred in broad daylight? Is forgetting any help in mourning?

Mourning is a communal experience. There is nothing poetic about the Holocaust. The sheer will of those in the camps to create and live, to prove to the world that had forsaken them that they too, were human beings full of life and potential still matters.

It is the task of newspapers to document these communal processes of healing. We invite all Tufts students to take time out of their day, whenever they read this, to reflect on the Holocaust, not only to remember and mourn those who were murdered, but to learn more about what they created and tried to preserve under the direst circumstances.

The lack of acknowledgment of International Holocaust Remembrance

Day disturbs us. We ask the administration and campus organizations who email us daily: why? Where were all of you? With white supremacist politicians in America openly denying the Holocaust, and parties like the Alternative for Germany and Jobbik in Hungary growing, now is the time to speak up. Who are we to watch this growing hatred in silence?

We seek to remember the past, so as to not repeat it.

The 11 million people who died at the hands of Nazism, including Jewish, LGBT, disabled, Romani people, resistors and other ethnic and opposition groups, were killed at the end of a political process. This number does not include many people who were killed in cold blood or starved and whose deaths went unrecorded. May their memories be a blessing.

The silence this past Sunday was deafening. It was the silence of forgetting, but also of unacknowledged pain.

Tufts should acknowledge this silence and be sure not to repeat it.

CARTOON

Alarming

BY NASRIN LIN 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.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Friday, February 1, 2019

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Sports

Friday, February 1, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Ninth fastest mile in the country highlights women's track and field's success at ‘The Bran’ WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

continued from back page vidual winners,” Morwick said. “Overall, [it was a] pretty solid meet. It was kind of a gong-show in here — it was like 21 teams and it was just overwhelming. But, all things considered, we had some nice performances.”

Earlier on Friday, Lowensohn, Gake, Machado and first-year Hannah Neilon raced the 4 x 400 meters relay at Boston University.

Their time of 3:59.82 was 3.05 seconds short of their season best from the Bowdoin Invitational, but it was the best finish in the event by a Divison III team at the meet.

“We met our goal which was to break four minutes in the [4 x 400-meters],

which was amazing,” Machado said. “The good thing about it is that after having that experience, as a relay team we know that we can do better, we know we can improve, and we know that from here on out, we will get faster. Our time wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be, but we know we can do better, and that’s just going to motivate us a little bit more.”

Morwick explained she also sent the relay team to the BU meet to prepare for high-level competitions later in the season.

“The future goal is to qualify a [4 x 400-meters relay team] for nationals, so it was just for them to get on a bank track and have the experience of running under

a lot of competition and start to put that relay together,” Morwick said.

Saturday’s home meet was the second annual competition named in honor of Branwen Smith-King for her 35 years of work in Tufts Athletics Department.

Smith-King, a native of Bermuda, was the women’s track and field and cross country coach from 1982 to 2000 before transitioning to an administrative role as assistant director of athletics and senior administrator from 2000 to 2017. She also had a successful career as a runner at Springfield College. One of her daughters is a Bermudian Olympian.

Smith-King made a surprise appearance at the meet, according to Morwick.

“We haven’t seen her in a while,” Morwick said. “It’s a really nice tribute to her because she has done so much for the track and field programs here, and also just Tufts athletics in general. It’s a special meet for us to host.”

In the spirit of Smith-King’s legacy of greatness, the Jumbos hope to build upon their success this weekend.

They will send a distance medley relay team to New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston on Friday and then will host the annual Cupid Challenge at the Gantcher Center on Saturday.

Fencing faces stiff competition at Brown University Assitant Sports Editor

The Jumbos’ season resumed on the road with its first event in 2019, the Northeast Fencing Conference multimeet held at Brown University last Saturday. Tufts competed against six teams, including Dartmouth, Vassar, Brandeis, MIT, Boston College and Brown.

The Jumbos started off strong with an 19–8 win over the Big Green but fell to the swords of its opponents in the following five meets.

In their opening meet, the Jumbos went 9–0 in foils and 6–3 in sabre bout but lost in the épée category with a score of 5–4. Senior captain Zoe Howard, sophomore Georgia Kollias and first-year Allison Cheng all went undefeated in foil. Firstyear Dorothy Waskow, sophomore Subin Jeong and junior Elliot Pavlovich won six of the nine sabre bouts for the Jumbos.

Despite missing an injured squad member and having to forfeit three bouts, senior captain Annie Ayala and first-year Hannah Fruitman only fell short by one bout in their 5–4 loss in épée.

“For épée, we only had two-thirds of our squad fencing,” Ayala said. “Our third member was out with an injury, yet she still showed up to cheer us on and support our team. We had to forfeit three of our bouts. We may have lost overall, but between the two of us, we were fencing really well and giving it our all.”

Jeong’s success was an impressive feat considering this multi-meet was her first ever major competition in the sport. “[Jeong] is new on the team and she has never really fenced before,” Howard said. “This was her first big competition, and she did really, really well for someone who is new to the sport.”

Following their victorious first match, Tufts faced Vassar. The Jumbos battled for the sabre in a nail-biting 5–4 win and just missed the foil by a single bout, but Vassar barreled through Tufts’ épéeists, winning 8–1 and defeating Tufts by an overall score of 17–10. Pavlovich put on

a clean performance for the Jumbos in sabre, winning all three bouts and clinching the 5–4 win.

Brandeis beat Tufts 15–12 in the third round of the multi-meet. Howard swept through foil yet again with two assisting wins from newcomer Cheng to grab the 5–4 win. Jeong and Pavlovich continued their momentum with two wins apiece in sabre for another 5–4 win. However, the Jumbos had shortcomings in épée yet again with a loss of 7–2. Cheng surprised the team with her skill in her first major competition.

“We have a lot of new recruits to our team and the freshmen have been doing very well,” Ayala said. “One of our foilists, [Cheng], is participating in major competition for the first time and is really shining through.”

Cheng further cemented her prominent role on the team with a commanding performance in foil against MIT, leading Tufts to a 6–3 win. But the Jumbos were not able to come up with the épée or sabre bouts, falling 17–10 to the Engineers.

For their final two rounds at Brown, Tufts fell by larger margins — Boston College and Brown both beat Tufts 22–5. Though these losses stung, the Jumbos knew these two teams were their biggest competition going into the multi-meet.

“A lot of schools that we were fencing at the meet are very experienced, especially Brown and Boston College,” Ayala said.

“They are notorious for having great fencing teams and we learned a lot from our matches against them.”

As the team begins their 2018–2019 season in earnest, they are looking to improve their technique and figure out strategies to lead them to success with so many fencers out due to injury.

“We always improve as the season goes on,” Howard said. “This was one of our rustier meets, but it was our first meet back and we had a long and hard lineup. It’s really frustrating right now because we have a lot of people down on the team and we

EDDIE SAMUELS / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Senior épéeist Annie Alaya lunges at an opponent at the Northeast Fencing Conference Multi-Meet hosted by Boston College on Jan. 28, 2018. have to forfeit points, but everyone is doing very well and I think it’s only up from here.”

Co-captains Ayala and Howard believe much of the team’s strength comes from how supportive they are of each other, despite a negative outcome.

“This sport is a marathon, not a sprint,” Ayala said. “It is difficult to keep

energy up, but as a whole this team is great at supporting each other and great at making sure we don’t get in a bad head space. We have fun with it through thick and thin.”

The Jumbos compete next Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Carzo Cage in a second Northeast Conference Multi-Meet.

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Sports

Friday, February 1, 2019

Men’s track and field claims first victory of season

by Nate Hartnick Staff Writer

On Friday and Saturday, the Tufts men’s track and field team emerged victorious at the second annual Branwen SmithKing Invitational held at the Gantcher Center. In their second scoring meet of the season, the Jumbos competed against 18 other teams, putting up a total of 121 team points, improving on their second-place finish in last year’s inaugural Branwen Smith-King Invitational. The Stonehill Skyhawks finished second with 107 points, while the Amherst Mammoths put up 100 points to round out the top three.

The Jumbos put forth a particularly strong performance in the field events, claiming three wins off of the track. Senior Benji Wallace won the pole vault by clearing 14′’ 11”. This mark was good for 23rd in the NCAA Division III national collegiate rankings, as of 12 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sophomore Kevin Quisumbing also came in first in the shot put. He threw a whopping 49’′ 8½”, which placed him at 32nd in the country and beat the record for the Branwen Smith-King Invitational, which he also set last year with a mark of 49’′ 7¼”. Although he was recovering from a injury riddled football season, Quisumbing was pleased with his performance.

“This has definitely been a much slower start to the track year since I’ve been battling injuries from football,” the dual athlete said. “I had a pretty underwhelming day, but before I threw, one of my track rivals told me that I had the Branwen meet record. It reminded me that I had the skill to achieve my goal of throwing far.

There were well over 60 throwers and most stayed to watch the final flight of throwers.

Once you get that feeling that everyone is watching you, you start to feel like nothing can stop you.”

First-year Tommy Bhangdia was among four Jumbos to win an event, recording a leap of 21′’ 11½” in the long jump. The impressive display from the first-year jumper spoke to the strength of the team’s rookie class.

“I was especially excited to see an outstanding performance from Tommy Bhangdia,” Quisumbing said. “It’s always

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Colin Raposo holds off the competition during the 3,000-meter race at the annual Branwen Smith-King Classic on Jan. 26. hard to adjust to the intensity of collegiate competitions and to earn a victory in the long jump at such a big meet is an awesome accomplishment that shows that we are talented across all years.”

Another notable performance came from first-year Ben Stein in the heptathlon. His score of 4,255 granted him a third-place finish at the meet, along with a No. 30 national ranking. Additionally, firstyear Nicholas Delaney placed second in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:34.89.

He spearheaded a remarkable joint effort by the Jumbos, whom together finished second, third, fourth and fifth in the event.

The upperclassmen also held their weight; Senior Josh Etkind came in second in the 60-meter hurdles. His time of 8.36 seconds was good enough for No. 23 in the nation. Senior Thomas Doyle also finished as the runner-up in the 600 meters with a personal record time of 1:21.80. Senior Tommy Miller placed sec-

ond in the 60-meter dash with a mark of 7.10 seconds in the final round of sprints, and finally, senior James Gregoire finished second behind Bhangdia in the long jump, covering a distance of 21’ 7¼”. Tufts put on a show in the long jump, recording four of the five highest scores.

The Jumbos will have a chance to build on this success when they compete this weekend at the All-New England Championships, held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury Crossing, Mass.

Athletes not competing at the All-New England Championships compete at the Cupid Challenge held on Saturday at the Gantcher Center. Gregoire said he sees the All-New England event as a pivotal moment in the Jumbos’ season.

“I’m thinking that this is the point of the season where there starts to be more of an emphasis on strong performances,” he said. “The previous meets were sort of a trial run: just getting back

into competing. Now everyone is looking stronger every day. And at this upcoming meet, I think we can potentially have the most people qualify for Division III New England’s.”

Quisumbing echoed these sentiments but emphasized the need to see the bigger picture.

“The All-New England Championships is a great competition for individuals to compete against some of the best talents of the area,” he said. “But our sights are definitely set on winning New England Div. III Championships. I look forward to seeing how my teammates perform, but we are in a pretty heavy portion of our training and it won’t be until we taper off that we will start performing to our full potential.”

Clearly, the Jumbos are keeping their ultimate goal in mind as they progress through the early successes of their season.

4 first-place finishes highlight a busy weekend for women’s track and field

by Jake Freudberg

Assistant Sports Editor

At the second annual Branwen SmithKing Invitational hosted at the Gantcher Center last Friday and Saturday, Tufts athletes captured first-place finishes in four events. The Jumbos finished second out of 19 teams on Saturday and third out of 13 teams on Friday. Earlier in the day, the team also sent four runners to Boston University’s John Thomas Terrier Classic to compete in the 4 x 400-meter relay.

On Saturday in the Gantcher Center, the Jumbos scored 130 points, good for second place out of a field of 19 other teams: Amherst, Brandeis, Bridgewater State, Colby-Sawyer, Conn. College, Emmanuel, Keene State, Merrimack, MIT, Plymouth State, Regis, Smith, Stonehill, UMass Boston, Wellesley, Wentworth, Wesleyan, Wheaton, WPI and Worcester State. Stonehill won the meet with 157 points.

The most impressive result of the action-packed day was junior Rhemi Toth’s first-place finish in the mile with a personal record of 5:02.47 — currently the ninth best time in the country once the time is converted to a banked track time. Senior and co-captain Kelsey Tierney also ran a personal best of 5:12.23, earning her third place in the mile race. Toth commented on her nationally ranked performance.

“It was just all the training that I put in in the fall and leading up to this,” Toth said. “Ideally by the end of the season I want to break [five minutes]. That’s probably one of my main goals and I also want to run as the mile leg on the distance medley relay that we might send to nationals.”

In the 600-meter run, first-year Tara Lowensohn came in second place at 1:41.00, setting a personal record. Firstyear Luana Machado won the event with a time of 1:38.77 in her first time competing in the event in collegiate competition.

“I had two main goals. The first one was just to qualify for [the New England Div.

III Championships], and then the second one was to break 1:40,” Machado said. “I thought I could do it, but at the same time I was doubting it. But I did, and I felt really good afterwards.”

Other first-place finishes include junior Lauren Diaz, who won the 1,000 meters in 3:03.97, and senior Natalie Bettez — a cross country runner who has not raced in a track and field meet since December 2017 — who won the 3,000 meters with a personal record of 10:29.83.

The pentathlon, which was held on Friday, also featured three Tufts athletes in the top five. Senior Kylene DeSmith came in third and set a personal record with 2,975 points, and sophomore Hannah Norowitz came in fourth, setting a personal record of 2,726 points in the process.

Sophomore Scarlet Bliss came in fifth with 2,723 points in her first collegiate pentathlon.

“Those three girls crushed it and they were awesome,” coach Kristen Morwick said. “They all PR’d [and] they all quali-

fied for New Englands, so that was really impressive.”

Tufts also had noteworthy performances in several other events. In the 800-meter run, junior Julia Gake (2:23.77), senior Julia Noble (2:26.80) and sophomore Emily Murray (2:26.92) placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Senior Caitlin Porrazzo set a personal record in the 3,000-meter run in fourth place with her 10:39.66 finish.

The 4 x 200 meter relay team of junior Raquel Whiting, junior Franny Kiles, sophomore Kristen Andersen and sophomore Olivia Schwern finished in second place at 1:50.13, and the 4 x 800-meter relay team of Murray, junior Lydia Heely, sophomore Alexandra Wolf and Tierney also finished in second place at 10:01.71. Senior and co-captain Evelyn Drake put up another strong performance in the weight throw at 48’ 4”″ (14.73 meters).

“We didn’t have everyone competing in their top events, but we had a lot of indisee WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11