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VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 22

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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tisch College Community Research Center announces seed funding for community organizations by Charles Bunnell

Assistant News Editor

School, the School of Engineering and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and two from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, according to Salacuse. Vice Provost Kevin Dunn, who worked with the faculty working group to develop the senate, said that it will benefit both the faculty and the administration to have a cross-school senate. “The purpose of the senate is for the faculty to bring issues to the administration and for the administration to bring issues to the faculty,” Dunn said.

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life’s Community Research Center (TCRC) has awarded $25,000 in seed grant funding to two organizations this year: Medford Conversations, a series of community dialogues regarding community issues, and Shape Up Somerville, a group focused on community health and food security. Tufts announced the grants in a Feb. 2 press release. TCRC focuses primarily on funding groups in Tufts’ host communities that address issues of inequality and injustice, according to its website. Past projects funded by the TCRC include Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, Immigrant Youth: Health and Resilience and the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health. TCRC has been in existence for about 10 years but has seen an increase in support in recent years, according to Doug Brugge, director of the TCRC and professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts. “Originally we had less money to give out, and we gave out fewer grants,” Brugge said. “We used to give out one grant at maybe $10,000 or $12,000 a year, and now we’re giving out two grants for a total of about $25,000. So we have grown in the last three to four years.” Brugge also commented on the competitiveness of the grants. “It’s an open call, there’s a deadline, we try to disseminate it broadly and we’ve gotten different numbers of applications in different years,” he said. “At most, we’ve had nine applications. We review those applications, and based on the frame we have and how many grants we can give out, we make a decision about which to back.” In addition, TCRC offers micro-grants of between $100 and $300 for undergraduate students involved in research at the community level.

see FACULTY, page 3

see GRANTS, page 2

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Medford City Council holds its regular meeting in Medford City Hall on Feb. 28.

Medford City Council passes ordinance requiring Tufts to submit off-campus addresses by Catherine Perloff News Editor

Medford City Council unanimously passed the University and College Accountability ordinance yesterday, which requires Tufts to provide the city with an anonymized list of all student-owned, -leased, -rented or -operated properties in Medford. The list of addresses must be provided on a per-semester basis. The ordinance applies to any postsecondary institution in Medford.

Similar ordinances are already in effect in Somerville and Boston, according to Medford City Council Vice President Michael Marks. The goal of the ordinance is to ensure that Tufts students are not violating Medford zoning rules, which limit occupancy in any given housing unit to three unrelated individuals, Marks said. “I think this is a helpful tool to help code enforcement and provide safe apartments for Tufts students,” he said. “This is not vindictive. This is to provide

safety for the students and to hold landlords accountable.” Medford Code Enforcement Officer John Bavuso noted that students who violate Medford’s occupancy law, either because they are trying to save on rent or because they were misinformed by their landlord, are putting their safety at risk. “I don’t want them to get injured or die because they couldn’t get out [of an overcrowded house],” Bevuso said. “It’s safety-driven.”

Tufts forms faculty senate to encourage discussion of university issues by Daniel Caron

Assistant News Editor

Tufts is establishing a university-wide faculty senate this semester. The senate, which has been approved by the faculty of all eight of Tufts’ branches, will include representatives from each school who will come together to advise the administration, according to The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Professor Jeswald Salacuse. Salacuse noted that the faculty senate’s bylaws, which are the result of a working group that he chaired, were recently adopted by the university’s Board of Trustees.

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According to the bylaws, the senate will meet at least monthly during the academic year and will assist with forming university-wide policies, advising current policies and discussing other issues that it believes to be important. In particular, it will be consulted on the structure of the administration, the university’s budget and university-wide education policy, the bylaws noted. The senate will consist of a total of 29 faculty members — seven from the School of Arts and Sciences, five from the School of Medicine, three each from the School of Dental Medicine, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the Fletcher

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, March 1, 2017

T HE T UFTS D AILY Kathleen Schmidt Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

Jei-Jei Tan Miranda Willson Managing Editors Joe Walsh Executive News Editor Zachary Hertz News Editors Gil Jacobson Robert Katz Liam Knox Daniel Nelson Catherine Perloff Emma Steiner Hannah Uebele Ariel Barbeiri-Aghib Assistant News Editors Charles Bunnell Emily Burke Daniel Caron Aneurin Canham-Clyne Juliana Furgala Elie Levine Natasha Mayor Jesse Najarro Minna Trinh Costa Angelakis Executive Features Editor Becca Leibowitz Features Editors Jake Taber Emma Rosenthal Emma Damokosh Assistant Features Editors Zach Essig Elie Levine Jessie Newman Sean Ong Hermes Suen Grace Yuh Eran Sabaner Executive Arts Editor John Gallagher Arts Editors Cassidy Olsen John Fedak Assistant Arts Editors Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Paige Spangenthal Anita Ramaswamy Executive Op-Ed Editor Stephen Dennison Cartoonists Shannon Geary Noah Kulak Lydia Ra Miranda Chavez Editorialists Julia Faxon Hannah Kahn Lena Novins-Montague Lanie Preston Eddie Samuels Executive Sports Editor Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editors Maddie Payne Maclyn Senear Liam Finnegan Savannah Mastrangelo Assistant Sports Editors Brad Schussel Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman

Ray Bernoff Executive Photo Editor Scott Fitchen Staff Photographers Lilia Kang Max Lalanne Rachael Meyer Zachary Sebek Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Angelie Xiong Ezgi Yazici Executive Video Editor Olivia Ireland Executive Video Admin. Ana Sophia Acosta Staff Videographer

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Medford Conversations, Shape Up Somerville receive seed funding from Tufts GRANTS

continued from page 1 Ben Echevarria, a community co-chair for TCRC and executive director of Somerville’s Welcome Project, emphasized the importance of TCRC for community groups. “I think what we have in community and academic partnerships strengthen both the community as well as the academic,” Echevarria said. “The community may not have the resources or know-how, and having something like [TCRC], where we can be paired with someone who will help us and communities find professors in answering these questions, has value moving forward.” Shape Up Somerville, a department within the Health and Human Services Department in the City of Somerville, received $11,000 in grant funding from TCRC this year, according to the press release. The funding will be used for a community food security assessment, which will lead to a more comprehensive food system assessment in the future. Shape Up Somerville Director Lisa Robinson said the initiative she leads has existed for about 15 years and was born out of a partnership with Tufts, Cambridge Health Alliance and the City of Somerville. “Shape Up Somerville is sort of like a backbone for convening everybody, so that’s what role we’ll be serving in our comprehensive food system assessment that TCRC is funding in partnership with the Somerville Food Security Coalition,” Robinson said. According to Echevarria, this year the Welcome Project is working with different community groups in order to help them reach their goals. Most recently, the Welcome Project has been working with Shape Up Somerville on their food assessment plan. Robinson said the Shape Up Somerville initiative began with a comprehensive research plan and then became a citywide program that promotes healthy living and food security. “The study itself was looking at first and third graders in the school system and seeing how you could bring back the energy balance on a multi-level, multi-targeted, comprehensive approach: looking at before, during and after school,” Robinson said. “[These

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Doug Brugge, professor of public health and community medicine, is photographed on Jan. 30, 2013. interventions were designed] as they relate to policies within the school, the environment [and] the food itself.” In addition, Medford Conversations, which has held a series of community dialogues about race relations in Medford, will receive $14,000 for its study on whether its structure of conversations is successful in advancing social capital and creating a more civically engaged community. According to Medford Conversations’ grant proposal, the TCRC funding will be used to research and assess the project, in order to help it continue and expand in the future. One member of the Tufts faculty leading this research is Professor Ninian Stein in the Environmental Studies Program. Stein has been working with Earthos Institute, where she serves as both a researcher and board member, to pur-

sue research that would hopefully allow Medford Conversations to receive additional grant funding in the future. Stein also hopes that Tufts students in her environmental studies classes will gain field experience in communications and research in the social sciences by helping evaluate Medford Conversations. “Both of my classes are pretty heavily involved … I taught both of these courses last year, but this is new to have Medford Conversations involved,” Stein said. “[Introduction to Environmental Fieldwork] is an introduction to different research methods in the environmental sciences and social sciences. [The students] traditionally get practice learning how to conduct interviews, and in this case they would learn how to interview with Medford Conversations.”

Wednesday, March 1, 2017 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

News

Tufts hosts roundtable on national opioid epidemic by David Nickerson Staff Writer

A roundtable discussion entitled “The Opioid Epidemic: What Happens Next and Who Will Decide?” was held yesterday in the conference room of the DewickMacPhie Dining Center, as part of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life’s Civic Science Roundtable series. 15 people reserved a spot at the event and seven people attended, according to Jonathan Garlick, the event’s organizer and a professor of oral pathology. Garlick told the Daily that the overall goal of the Civic Science Roundtable series was to bring together students of different backgrounds and to provide them with the space and structure they need to discuss divisive issues relating to science. “The series was created to give people the space they need to talk to each other … about polarizing issues in our society,” Garlick said. “[Our goal] is to build bridges across these issues and expand our perspective.” While introducing the event, Garlick said that the roundtable series also relies on having a scientific expert at the event with whom to consult when questions arise. “Science is complex, science is uncertain and science is divisive,” he said. “[So] we have an … expert in the room who can share their knowledge.” Garlick then introduced Daniel Carr, a professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts School of Medicine, who served as the event’s science expert. Carr began his remarks by briefly explaining the history of opioid use in the United States. He said that different

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Students and faculty moderators exchange opinions during ‘The Opioid Epidemic: What Happens Next and Who Will Decide?’ an event hosted by Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life as part of Civic Science Roundtable on Feb. 28 factors led to a dramatic increase in the number of opioid abuse cases. In particular, between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, there was widespread liberalization of opioid use by almost all players in the health care system, an increased value placed on profit motives and a constant desire among patients to avoid pain. Carr also said that, more recently, new opioids have entered the market causing a spike in opioid abuse and a second epidemic. He said that a combination of all of these factors from the 1970s to now has caused the number of people suffering from opioid addiction to reach staggering levels.

Carr added that 25 to 30 percent of the American population knows someone who has had an opioid-related problem. “This crisis of untreated pain and overdose is [now] the paramount conversation of today,” he said. Despite the fact that much of United States is suffering from this epidemic, politicians have still not come up with a way to address the problem nationally, Carr said. “What has happened is that there has been a torrent of comments from every individual stakeholder,” he said. “[Yet] there’s no argument that the issue is staggering.”

At the end of his remarks, Carr noted that the causes of the opioid epidemic are unique, but drug epidemics themselves are not out of the ordinary. “Maybe about once a decade there is an outbreak of some sort of drug abuse,” he said. “There is always something new that people become addicted to.” After Carr finished his remarks, the roundtable was turned into an open discussion, during which all the attendees were encouraged to speak about how their experiences have shaped their own opinions on the opioid epidemic.

New faculty senate to give professors a platform for feedback about university policies FACULTY

continued from page 1 Jillian Dubman, secretary of the faculty for Arts, Sciences and Engineering (AS&E), said the senate will create channels of communication between faculty and administration to help create better understanding between the faculty and the administration. “The elected senators will provide an important perspective to the central administration in a way that has not been possible before,” Dubman said. Dunn expressed that the administration is very open to feedback from the faculty. “Increasingly, we’re doing a lot of things across schools and [the faculty] wants to and should have a voice in that,” he said.

Dubman agreed that a crucial role of the senate will be to offer a platform for feedback and discussion. “The senate will provide faculty and the central administration with an opportunity to enhance discussion of important issues affecting faculty members across the university,” Dubman said. Last year, a working group consisting of two representatives from each school was convened by Provost David Harris to find ways to give the administration and the faculty of Tufts’ eight schools a direct line of communication, according to Salacuse. “[We wanted] a vehicle where the faculty of all the university — that is all eight schools on the three different campuses — [could] convene to discuss and give their advice to the administration about issues affecting the university,” Salacuse said. Salacuse added that, after consider-

ing various models, the working group found that most research universities like Tufts have faculty senates. During the process of creating the faculty senate, the group was careful not to undermine the autonomy of the different schools, Salacuse noted. For that reason, each school will independently decide how to conduct its elections and who is qualified to serve as a senator. “Everything’s going to depend on the people who are elected [and] how committed they will be to working on university matters,” he said. Faculty input to the administration will also help the university create better solutions to the problems that confront it, according to Salacuse. “You have a lot of smart people on the faculty with lots of expertise,” Salacuse said. “[I hope] that they will

mobilize that expertise and … help the university solve its problems.” Dunn similarly stressed that the senate will help the university create policies that are more in touch with the faculty. “Personally, I spend a lot of my time working on policies that have a deep effect on faculty and I don’t want to write those without talking to faculty first,” Dunn said. “[They] have a lot of experience and wisdom around all these things that need to be drawn upon.” Further, Dunn explained that the faculty senate is important because of the crucial role the faculty have in the university. “Universities … are not like businesses. They can’t work top down because … the important work of the university is done by its faculty for its students,” Dunn said.

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SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2017 Visit our website at: commencement.tufts.edu University Commencement Office telephone: 617.627.3636 E-mail: commencement@tufts.edu Donâ€™t forget to stop by the Commencement Fair at the Campus Center on April 5 during Senior Days, to pick up graduation announcements and other commencement-related information.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

ARTS&LIVING CEREMONY RECAP

by Cassidy Olsen

Pablo Neruda on creating space

Arts Editor

COURTESY A24 FILMS

‘Moonlight,’ written and directed by Barry Jenkins, won Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards. managed to snag six wins out of its 12 Host Jimmy Kimmel was at his Jimmy nominations. Kimmel-est, teasing Matt Damon throughThe gaffe wasn’t the only moment that out the evening about their fake feud, made history during this year’s show. Viola mocking people’s names and occasionally Davis, who won best supporting actress for doing bits from his show, such as making her role in “Fences” (2016), became the first normal people on the street look dumb black actor to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a and forcing celebrities to read the mean Tony for acting. Her acceptance speech was (and usually funny) tweets these normal arguably the best of the evening, blending people make about them. personal anecdotes with a powerful, poetic message supporting art and passion. see OSCARS, page 6

Vlogging in the BuzzFeed era: more content, less substance by Eran Sabaner

Executive Arts Editor

When YouTuber Safiya Nygaard posted a photo of her vlog group LadylLike last month to announce that she was quitting her job at BuzzFeed, fans already knew why. In fact, her statement of resignation felt unnecessary. Over the last year, several vloggers from BuzzFeed’s YouTube channels left the company for similar reasons. Any “Why I Left BuzzFeed” video will reveal the same list: the company’s insistence on quantity over quality, the pressure to come up with click-worthy content, the hostile work environment and different creative visions between the company and the vloggers. While BuzzFeed’s

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Abigail McFee Advice from Dead Poets (and Some Living)

Oscars 2017 try and fail for a year without controversy On Sunday night, just as it seemed like #OscarsSoWhite was rearing its head once more in a final, predictable best picture win for “La La Land” (2016), the film’s producer Jordan Horowitz said, “There’s a mistake,” before revealing the greatest gaffe in Academy Awards history: “Moonlight” (2016) had actually won the award. Thanks, Bonnie and Clyde. The incredible mix-up was met by a sea of dropped jaws and a flurry of explanations. Presenter Warren Beatty, who hesitated in confusion upon seeing Emma Stone’s best actress card in his hands before co-presenter Faye Dunaway made the mistaken announcement, tried to explain his part in the drama to little avail. Eventually, a visibly upset though gracious Horowitz passed the trophy off to the stunned cast and crew of “Moonlight.” “Very clearly, very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true. But to hell with dreams, I’m done with it, ’cause this is true. Oh my goodness,” “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins said upon taking the stage to receive the award. Although the moment will surely go down in Oscars history, it wasn’t the moment it should have been for the cast and crew of “Moonlight,” a film with an all-black cast about the personal narrative of a poor, gay man that many believed did not stand a chance in the wake of 2016’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the Academy’s history of overlooking excellent performances from people of color. It seems as though the Academy’s attempt to acknowledge its previous mistakes did not have the intended effect, however, with the confusion that was ultimately caused by Brian Cullinan, a managing partner at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers tasked with counting Oscar votes, who handed the presenters the wrong envelope. “Moonlight” collectively won three major awards, including best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali. Even though it did not win best picture, “La La Land” still

vision of collective video making is certainly groundbreaking in various terms, it is also damaging the creative, free nature of Internet culture. Nygaard is one of the co-founders of “Ladylike,” a YouTube series under the umbrella of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. A female counterpart to the hit BuzzFeed series “The Try Guys,” “Ladylike” features product reviews and style tips. Popular videos include “Women Taste Edible Makeup” and “I Got Styled By Ladylike For A Week.” While most of the content is fluff true to BuzzFeed form, the series occasionally touches on more serious subjects such as gender norms and beauty ideals with videos such as “Women Take a Quiz

About 1954 Home Ec” and “Women Get Photoshopped Into Cultural Beauty Standards.” “Ladylike” is one of the most popular series to air on BuzzFeed, expanding the BuzzFeed Yellow channel by 1.7 million subscribers alone in 2016. The series can be seen as a case study to reveal the good, the bad and the ugly of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. On the one hand, BuzzFeed has the resources to bring together various talents and can afford to pay high production costs. In addition to the team’s core six members, production of a video requires writers, editors, producers and crew members. While see BUZZFEED, page 6

ast summer, a few of my friends and I decided to start a book club. It was nothing original — mainly an excuse to get together once a week and eat brownies. The club withered after we made our first selection (a 600-page novel, which only half of us even started). After that, we hung out and snacked without pretense. My favorite meeting was the first and only one, when we sat in my living room late at night and read our favorite passages of all time aloud. My friend Emma read a translation of a sonnet by Pablo Neruda: “XVII” in his series of “One Hundred Love Sonnets” (1959). Neruda begins by shunning the traditional imagery used to describe love — gems and flowers — and says instead: “I love you as one loves certain obscure things, / secretly, between the shadow and the soul. / I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries / the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself.” Sometimes, when you read or listen to a poem, a certain image creates a feeling of space inside of you, like taking a breath. I hardly listened to the rest of Emma’s reading after those lines; I clung to the image of the stunted plant. I thought it spoke to every time in my life that I had hovered close to what I wanted without reaching it, to every time I had folded inward in conversation or expressed feelings that weren’t returned. I thought it was the saddest, sweetest thing I’d heard in a long time: “the plant that doesn’t bloom, but carries / the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself.” For me, the personal resonance of the lines had nothing to do with the feeling of loving someone, but I loved the lines immediately. This week, I have felt overwhelmed by my classes and jobs and activities. I have wanted to say what my iPhone says to me all the time: “Not Enough Storage.” Please make some space. For me, poetry is a way of creating space. I return to those Neruda lines again and again. I know I’m not really understanding them in the way he intended. But I need that image of a sad little plant that never blooms or becomes what it should have been. I need it as a balm for living. “In Poetics of Curriculum, Poetics of Life” (2016), Mary-Elizabeth Vaquer writes, “Most poems cannot be digested in one cursory read. It is only through lingering and searching through possible meanings that personal spaces are carved out within the poetic boundaries.” Vaquer places a lot of emphasis on the concept of lingering. I think it’s a way of experiencing something so that it becomes part of you. It’s a way of taking ‘obscure things’ you find in the world and making them into a light that you carry, hidden, within you. Abigail McFee is a senior majoring in English. Abigail can be reached at abigail. mcfee@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Wednesday, March 1, 2017

MJ Griego Mind the Gap

The emotional toll of being poor on campus

often forget how rich the people sitting next to me in class are. Most of my close friends at Tufts are also low income, and other friends are not likely to talk openly about their class (or even realize the privilege it holds). There is a certain stress that exists when you have grown up poor: you are more likely to know about parents’ finances (because you’re worried about how bills will get paid), you recognize how easily one can become homeless, you start to feel that making ends meet means pushing different debt around. I got to Tufts acutely aware of how lucky I was to be able to afford higher education through so much money in grant aid. Getting used to being here freshman year was a little bit like touring Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory: I saw every resource as a new kind of magic. Simply being accepted was a testament to the amount of privilege I had, yet my week was riddled with proof of how different I was from so many Tufts students. I looked at the price of my premium meal plan (now around $3,000) and thought about how many weeks of groceries my family could buy, how many months of bills they could pay. I felt the pressure to acclimate to such extravagant standards. Everywhere, I would keep spotting proof of such normalized luxury: most iconic has been the Canada Goose “parka,” an $800 purchase in a city where the temperature rarely drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes, I think to myself how lucky it is that thrifting gained popularity when it did: The scavenging I was taught as a kid is now en vogue, and I can exist on campus looking ‘alternative’ instead of feeling constantly awkward. In middle school, I saw my thrifted wardrobe with just as much pride, but I always felt estranged from the kids who got Uggs and gaucho pants (remember those?), and I would have never told anyone I got my pants from K-Mart. When friends disdainfully conclude “there’s nothing interesting here” at Goodwill, I can’t help but think of all the people who use such a store to buy plain shirts when their current ones are threadbare or sneakers for their 10-hour standing shifts. Perhaps the most tiring part of being poor at an elite university is the creeping fear that I won’t ‘move up.’ In the back of my head, there is a sense that if I don’t graduate and reach a middle class income, I will deserve to struggle to make ends meet. The year of medical leave I took was partly due to that fear eating me up. Now, I am on campus with a goal of normalizing the existence of poor students in higher education. With financial aid application season in full swing, I want to give value to all the time my fellow students put into proving their often complicated financial situations. And for all the ways Tufts has reminded me of how different I am from some people, it has also provided the resources for me to experience a sense of childhood, of not having to feel anxious over food or bills during my first year. As of now, I inhabit this kind of in-between identity: poor in upbringing and wealthy in resources. I try to reconcile that privilege with my struggle. MJ Griego is a junior majoring in sociology. MJ can be reached at madeline. griego@tufts.edu

tuftsdaily.com

Political commentary subtle at Oscars OSCARS

continued from page 5 Of course, national politics were always lurking in the background and occasionally bubbled to the surface (Kimmel sent the president a “u up?” tweet on air), but the politics of the show were rather muted in comparison to those at the Golden Globes. One of the biggest political statements came in the form of an acceptance speech by Anousheh Ansari on behalf of Asghar Farhadi, director of the Iranian drama “The Salesman,” which won best foreign language film. Farhadi did

not attend the ceremony in protest of President Donald Trump’s now-frozen travel ban, and his acceptance speech reiterated his condemnation of what he referred to as the “inhumane law.” Another notable winner was Casey Affleck, who received the award for best actor for his role in “Manchester by the Sea” (2016) despite allegations of sexual abuse and harassment that were settled out of court in 2010. Many critics believe Affleck’s award perpetuates a culture of sexism in the industry, as it will invariably lead to his gaining more money, power and

influence in Hollywood despite his history. The award’s presenter and last year’s best actress winner Brie Larson refused to clap, while model and social media star Chrissy Teigen, who was among Affleck’s detractors, could be seen pretending to sleep during his acceptance speech. For an awards show that put so many elements in place to avoid controversy — a lukewarm host, candy falling from the ceiling, black nominees actually winning — the final result was anything but forgettable. The bar has somehow been set both so high and so low for 2018.

Time constraints drain creativity of content makers

The BuzzFeedVideo YouTube channel, pictured here on Feb. 28, offers polished but often superficial content.

BUZZFEED

continued from page 5 Ladylike members do the aforementioned jobs on a rotating basis, they still need additional help. And the end result is substantially more polished than the work of an independent vlogger. Following her departure, Nygaard decided to upload videos on her channel, yet the production quality of the videos has certainly decreased. Although BuzzFeed is successful at bringing together creative people, the end result is often unsatisfying. Because BuzzFeed values quantity over quality and profit over acclaim, its videos are often silly and superficial. There’s no deeper meaning to be found in videos like “Women Try Boob Masks.” The occasional videos that promote body

positivity and feminism address these issues in a watered-down way. “Women Take a Quiz About 1954 Home Ec,” for example, acknowledges the ridiculousness of the tips that this quiz offered to 1950s-era women but fails to thoroughly investigate the condition of women at that time. Moreover, it is understandable why Nygaard and so many others would like to move on from largely pointless, politically neutral content like edible makeup reviews. Yet the worst of BuzzFeed’s approach to video making is the sheer amount of content it produces. BuzzFeed’s multiple YouTube channels (differentiated by different colors) produce videos daily, so there isn’t much space for content that would take more time to create. The time constraints and

pressures can be a burden for a lot of creators, ultimately draining their creativity. The titles of Ladylike videos are all too similar to each other, perhaps because there is no time to think outside the box. BuzzFeed offers fun content aiming to entertain a wide audience of viewers. It is therefore unrealistic to expect more complex work from the company. However, when producers are pressured to produce content that will make the company the most money, it is understandable why so many of the producers are quitting the company. While BuzzFeed’s presence satisfies viewers seeking harmless entertainment, it is also a sign of danger for independent content makers unable to compete with the giant company.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Joe: “Medford is the Paris of New England.”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Not loving the new Garfield comics on this page.

Tuesday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

Tuesday’s Solution

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I’VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY MY HUMAN WON’T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT HER LEASH. I THINK SHE’S AFRAlD OF GETTING LOST. BUT IT’S OK, I KIND OF LIKE SHOWING HER AROUND. — HARPER adopted 08-18-09

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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Opinion EDITORIAL

which choreographers for each dance decide who gains admittance. While there may be value in having like-minded people in the same dance or in recruiting dancers who write funny responses to the application questions, that value seems dubious when the tradeoff is the exclusion and questioning of self-worth that goes along with rejection from a dance. Unlike many other groups on campus, which accept members on the basis of talent in a certain area, rejection from TDC implies something negative about one’s social characteristics — that their application wasn’t funny enough or that they did not know the choreographers well enough. It is true that there are logistical constraints, and there is no way that TDC can accept all applicants. However, there should be a different basis for deciding who gets to participate. Meanwhile, all of this comes at a cost to the student body. According to the budgets posted on the Tufts Community Union Senate’s website, TDC’s total budget is $13,912, larger than 85 percent of other funded clubs. The student body is paying $2,100 for pizza between shows, $800 for dancers’ photos and over $1,800 for costumes. Especially given its large budget and prioritization for funding, TDC can and should implement reforms

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Khuyen Bui Dear Jumbo

Rethinking TDC As the Student Life Review Committee undertakes its assessment of undergraduate student life culture, including Greek life, other exclusive social organizations at Tufts should be examined as well. Tufts Dance Collective ( TDC) is one group in which social capital plays a large role in participation. TDC has long been a part of Tufts tradition, with shows going back to at least 1992, and it is an undeniably fun way to bring the Tufts community together. However, there are several aspects of the organization that could be improved. It is apparent to anyone who has seen the 9:30 p.m. TDC show that alcohol consumption plays a large role in the group. As a former TDC dancer and choreographer admitted in an op-ed that appeared in the Daily in December 2013, there is an extensive ‘mid-game,’ when dancers binge drink between the early and late TDC shows. The drinking is so severe that this past fall, several dancers were held off the stage for the second performance. The exclusivity of the application process is another cause for concern. While TDC mandates that three members from each class year be included in each dance, this does not change the impression that it is a university-funded, exclusive social club in

to become a safer and more inclusive space on campus. These criticisms are not new; in fact, TDC reduced its number of participants in 2012 to address safety concerns. But the attempt at reform did not go far enough, as it did not deal with the underlying problem of excessive drinking and potentially exacerbated the issue of exclusivity by reducing the group’s size. There are two reforms that we believe would address the issues at hand far more effectively. The first is with regards to TDC’s application process. Similar to the way Tufts Burlesque Troupe handles its applications, TDC could have signups for particular dances on a firstcome, first-serve basis. The second reform we propose is restructuring the schedule of the dances. To avoid the ‘mid-game’ and binge drinking that occurs between shows, TDC could host two shows, each on a different night. This idea has been suggested by a former member of TDC but has not been implemented. Splitting up the dances would also make cleanup easier for the Cohen Auditorium staff who have to deal with the messy aftermath from the mid-games. We hope that TDC will consider these reforms, as every group on campus has an important role to play in making the Tufts community a welcoming and safe environment.

HOPE DURING MIDTERMS

LYDIA RA The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

DTR

his phrase caught on in my mind like a meme when a friend taught it to me a few weeks ago. I would tell people, “I just learned this really cool phrase: DTR!” to which they would ask, “What does it stand for?” The moment I said, “Define The Relationship,” everyone’s eyes lit up: “Oh yeah, I know exactly what you are talking about.” I soon figured out that it is one of those things that everyone talks about but few people do. Let me share my experiences with DTR. I used to hate DTR. I remember my first relationship in high school, which most people didn’t know about until much later because I resisted every attempt to ‘call it a thing,’ much to the frustration of my then-partner. Being too serious was my problem. I asked myself constantly, “What is the point of dating if we most likely would not marry each other?” Worse, the potential of mislabeling scared me much more than the uncertainty of the relationship itself. I’d rather not have anything at all than have something that was not quite right. Unsurprisingly, the relationship was doomed from the start, but at least it taught me about the messy nature of relationships. Alas, what a nightmare to the analytical nerd who later became attracted to computer science and philosophy, two fields where nothing can ever get done without a clear definition. Since then, I’ve also learned to accept the ambiguity of human relationships and even thrive in it. Ambiguity could be full of risk or possibility, depending on how we look at it. At the same time, the old part of me that strives for a crystal-clear understanding is still there. Running on top of my Realistic Operating System is a new romantic theme. DTR = Describe The Role Recently, I’ve been doing a relationship mapping exercise with my close friends, in which we describe the main role that each serves for the other. It was a revealing experience to see what I specifically meant to someone as well as articulate what they meant to me. For example, the main role I play for one friend is to listen to her, while her main role is to charm me. (It’s a real role by the way. People really need to be charmed. Otherwise, social life gets too boring, and I’d dive into books instead.) The beauty of the exercise is in illuminating the misalignment between what I think I do and what she wants me to do. I highly recommend doing it regularly with people you care about. As each of your relationships keeps evolving over time, its definition needs to be regularly updated. But wouldn’t defining something so clearly kill all the joy of a relationship? Not really. As my experiences revealed, many of us may shun DTR because we are afraid of boxing something inaccurately or prematurely. But defining something doesn’t necessarily mean putting it in a box. Rather, it can be making the box itself. By DTR this way regularly, we can both rejoice in understanding the relationship more deeply as well as shape its future together. So go ahead, spice up the dreaded DTR talk. And don’t forget to keep me posted at bit.ly/dearJumbo. Khuyen Bui is a senior majoring in computer science. Khuyen can be reached at g.khuyen@gmail.com.

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Sports

Strong individual showings the highlight for Jumbos MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

continued from back This was the highest the Jumbos have placed in the NEICAAA Championships since before 2000. Northeastern won with a score of 177 points. Even though the Jumbos finished ninth, they finished third out of all the Div. III teams competing at the race, only losing out to Middlebury, which finished sixth with 33 points, and the Coast Guard Academy, which finished eighth with 27.5 points. Senior tri-captain Tom Wang was happy with how the team competed against non-Div. III teams. “Better competition will always be motivation to step it up, so it was fun to see our guys race other respectable ath-

letes in other divisions,” Wang said. “At the same time, I don’t think this scared anyone or changed anything about how we prepared for this meet. We know we are good. We know we can compete amongst some of the best in New England.” The Jumbos will host the Tufts Final Qualifying Meet on March 4 in Gantcher Center. This will be the Jumbos’ last chance to earn qualifying times for the NCAA Championships on March 10–11. Currently, sophomore mid-distance runner Hiroto Watanabe, Nichols, O’Connor, Etkind and Duvivier have all qualified for nationals. Usoff thinks there are still some Jumbos who will be able to qualify, however.

“There are definitely a lot of people who are close [to qualifying],” Usoff said. “It just takes one good meet and we definitely have the advantage being on the home track, so we will try to utilize that. We’re pretty hopeful more guys can hit the mark.” Wang also has high hopes for the Jumbos’ ability to qualify for nationals, especially the 4×400 relay team. “[At the Final Qualifying Meet], the 4×400 will be a fresh ‘A’ team,” Wang said. “They are going to surprise some people. We also have a good group in several different event groups that are in the top 30 nationally who will be looking to make big moves this weekend.”

Jumbos four spots ahead of last year’s end-of-season ranking WOMEN'S SQUASH

continued from back “Dickinson’s number one player [sophomore Hedvika Suchankova] is really good, and based off of U.S. squash rankings was ranked a lot higher, so that was huge. All the way down, everyone was fighting so hard.” In the second position, Burns lost a close four-game match to her Dickinson opponent, first-year Domenica Romo. In the fourth position, Banner took home a 3-1 win, finishing with a dominant 11-0 shutout in her last game. Tirmizi, in the sixth position, fought for five full games,

winning the first two and dropping the second two before locking up the victory in the last game. Irani, in the seventh position, dropped her first game, but came back to win the next three in a row. In the eighth position, Meggitt followed similarly to Irani, dropping the first game by a close margin of 14-12 before winning the next three to add another win to the Jumbos’ tally. Salomon, in the ninth position, was the only Jumbo to sweep her opponent, holding her competitor to just four points in their second game.

“Being able to beat Dickinson was awesome,” Ladd-Luthringshauser said. “We’d had a really close 5-4 match with them in January, so to meet them again and then come out with an even bigger victory was great.” Ladd-Luthringshauser described the Jumbos’ No. 19 national ranking as a major accomplishment for the team. “It’s huge. Being top 20 is so exciting, especially since we finished last season at 23,” she said. “The best that we were ranked during the regular season was 18th, so just being able to end our season high up again was awesome.”

Passionate about sports? Have a unique perspective on student athletics? Interested in covering the intersection of sports and the larger Tufts community? Write for us! Contact dailysports@gmail.com!

Bradley Schussel The Coin Toss

Whaddya say, more NBA?

elcome to “The Coin Toss,” where I make some bold and unlikely predictions about your favorite profes-

sional sports. Last week’s picks were all duds. Call them ‘alternative predictions.’ I had Kristaps Porzingis putting up 30 points against the Cavs. He went out with an injury in the second quarter and finished with eight points. I had the Pelicans winning their first game with Demarcus Cousins, and they got blown out by the Rockets. The Warriors ONLY scored 112 on the Nets, where I had them getting to 140. On to the next week. Let’s get to this batch of NBA picks … Washington Takes Two-of-Two from Toronto The Raptors and Wizards, who are both fighting for the second seed in the Eastern Conference, will face off twice this week. The Raptors have to be the favorites to win at least once. They have the better record and more talent. However, Kyle Lowry is injured, which will give John Wall and Bradley Beal an advantage against a depleted backcourt. In the Raptors’ first game without Lowry, DeMar DeRozan led his team to a one-point win over the Knicks with a game-winning jump shot. However, DeRozan can’t carry the team like that every night. Plus, they needed a game-winner to beat the Knicks. As a Knicks fan, I know how unimpressive that is. Long story short, I’m taking the Wizards to beat the Raptors twice. Celtics Upset Cavaliers in Boston We all know who the favorite is in this one: the defending NBA Champions. The Cavaliers are the best team in the East, and they’ve beaten the Celtics twice this season. Additionally, Avery Bradley is injured, so Boston will be missing some valuable defense on the wing. However, I still like Boston in this game. Their two losses to Cleveland were on the road, and this game is at TD Garden. Even without Avery Bradley, the Celtics have strong perimeter defense, with Jae Crowder containing LeBron James. Also, Jaylen Brown has been playing great recently. He’s hot off a 13-point, five-rebound performance in which he sunk a game-winner over the Pistons. The stars will really have to align for the Celtics to get a win tonight, but I think they will. I have them beating the Cavs at home. The Nets Win a Game! Not bold enough for you? Take a look at the last 16 games for Brooklyn; you won’t find the letter W. The Nets are on a 16-game losing streak, but I think they’ll break it this week. They have games against the Kings, Trail Blazers and Grizzlies. But don’t think think any of these games will be easy. All three teams are in the mix for a playoff spot in the competitive Western Conference, and the Nets are the worst team in the much weaker East. Still, I think the Nets will win at least once. They traded away a lot of talent at the deadline, but they kept Brook Lopez, who is quietly having a nice season with 20 points and 1.8 blocks per game. The Nets have no motivation to lose. They don’t have their draft pick this year. That hasn’t stopped them, but I think they’ll be eager to break the losing streak. The pick is in: the Nets will win a game this week. Bradley Schussel is a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering. Bradley can be reached at bradley.schussel@tufts. edu.

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Sports

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

Jumbos place 9th in NEICAAA Championships by Liam Finnegan

Assistant Sports Editor

On Friday and Saturday, men’s track and field competed in the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. The meet included teams across all athletic divisions, and the Jumbos faced tough competition. Overall, the team finished ninth out of 31 teams and had a number of its athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships. The meet kicked off on Friday with some good showings from the Jumbos. Junior jumper Stefan Duvivier won the high jump, clearing a height of 2.10 meters and earning his fourth straight win in the event. His score ranks third nationally. Duvivier also set the new Tufts school record for the high jump, replacing the old record of 2.08 meters, which he set earlier this season. Senior tri-captain Luke O’Connor took third in the finals of the 5,000-meter run with a time of 14:52.11. O’Connor and Duvivier’s combined scores resulted in 16.2 points for Tufts on the day and put them in third place at the end of Friday. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, senior tri-captain sprinter Nick Usoff missed out on qualifying for the 400-meter finals by .001 seconds.

On Saturday, sophomore hurdler/ jumper Josh Etkind finished seventh in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.29 seconds. He finished second in the preliminaries however, running a 8.16 time that broke Tufts’ school record and replaced the record of 8.25 he set last year. His time ranks him seventh nationally. The 4×400-meter relay team, composed of senior Usoff, junior hurdler Andrew DiMaiti, sophomore mid-distance runner Thomas Doyle and firstyear long sprinter/long hurdler Billy Witrock finished fourth, improving on their season-best time with a 3:18.31 and scoring five points for the team. DiMaiti went on to place seventh in the 400meter dash, adding two more points to the team’s total. First-year short sprinter Robert Jones garnered a point for the team in the 60-meter dash by running a time of 7.05 and placing eighth in the race. The 4×800 relay team, made up of junior mid-distance runner Tom DePalma, sophomore mid-distance runner Christian Swenson and first-year mid-distance runners Roman Lovell and Matthew D’Anieri, also earned a point with an eighth place time of 7:53.49. The Jumbos ended the meet with a total of 27.2 points, finishing ninth out of the 31 teams competing at the event. see MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11

EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Then-junior Tim Nichols races in the New England Div. III Indoor Championships on Feb. 20, 2016.

WOMEN'S SQUASH

Jumbos return home with a No. 19 national ranking by Mackenzie Bright Contributing Writer

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year Sahar Tirmizi swings at the ball in a match against Dickinson at Harvard's Murr Center on Jan. 20.

The Tufts women’s squash team (17-7) return from the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships in Princeton, N.J. ranked 19th in the country. On Sunday, the Jumbos faced off against William Smith College (14-8), and they were victorious with a 6-3 win. First-year Claire Davidson fought a long five-game match in the first position. She won the first two, dropped the next two and came back strong to wrap up the last game. Sophomore Hannah Burns in the second position won in four games, as did sixth-position firstyear Sahar Tirmizi. In third position, first-year Catherine Shanahan swept her opponent, playing dominant first and third games. Sophomore Sahana Karthik, in fourth position, dropped in four games, resulting in the Jumbos’ first loss. Junior Lauren Banner, in fifth position, posted a clean sweep of her opponent, with scores of 11-6, 11-5 and 11-1. Sophomore Chista Irani, in seventh position, was swept in a tough three games, as was ninth-position first-year Katherine Deveaux. Eighth-position sophomore Sinclair Meggitt fought for a four-game win, tying up the last game with a tidy 11-5. After beating the Dickinson Red Devils (9-12) the day before, the Jumbos progressed to face the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats (7-13) on Saturday in the semi-finals. The Diplomats proved to be much stiffer competition, sweeping the Jumbos 9-0.

The first six positions were swept by Franklin and Marshall in three games each. Seventh position Irani put up a close five-game fight, winning the first game for a strong start, but ultimately fell 11-6 in the last game. Junior Gabrielle Salomon, in ninth position, fought for four games. She held her opponent to five points for the first game, but proceeded to drop the next three. “Franklin and Marshall is really good,” sophomore Olivia LaddLuthringshauser said. “It was an understandable loss. We just had to put them in the past, understand that there are a lot of really great players on that team, and focus on William Smith.” The Jumbos began their weekend with a close 6-3 win against Dickinson. “I think we started the weekend a little nervous,” Irani told the Daily in an email. “But the minute we lined up against Dickinson, we knew that we had to bring everything.” Eight of the nine matches went to at least four games, with three of them going to five. All three five-game matches were won by Tufts players: Shanahan, Ladd-Luthringshauser and Tirmizi. Shanahan, in the third position, and Ladd-Luthringshauser, in the fifth position, were both down 2-1 before fighting back and winning. In the first spot, Davidson scored a 3-1 win, keeping her opponent to only five points in both the first and last match. “Claire [Davidson] had a massive upset,” Ladd-Luthringshauser said. see WOMEN'S SQUASH, page 11