The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Early Assurance programs offer acceptances to committed candidates for Tufts health science schools see FEATURES / PAGE 3

NATIONAL TEAM ATHLETES

Jumbos swap out blue and brown for national threads

‘Common Threads’ weaves stories of perseverance, identity at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 23

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Students rally in support of sexual assault survivors

by Alejandra Carrillo and Anton Shenk Contributing Writers

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.

About 50 students and university staff and faculty gathered for a “Survivor Speak Out” rally yesterday in front of the Goddard Chapel. The event was sponsored by Action for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) and Tufts Student Action (TSA). Students congregated around the cannon, painted with “We Believe Survivors,” to bring attention to the importance of sexual assault prevention.

The rally comes in the wake of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, a confirmation process which reignited conversations about sexual assault at the national level.

“A big reason [why] I wanted to organize this is because I noticed there was a lot of conversation happening around campus,”Amira Al-Subaey, a member of TSA, said.

Al-Subaey, a senior, believes the dialogue was sparked by Kavanaugh’s recent confirmation.

The rally provided a platform for sexual assault survivors to share their experiences, vent their frustrations and inspire others on campus and in the community to get involved.

“We don’t want the energy people have right now to fall out of public memory because that is what often happens when there is a survivor publicly coming out and everyone is talking about it for one news

RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Attendees at the rally in support of sexual assault survivors pose next to the painted cannon on Oct. 9. cycle,” ASAP co-President and event organizer Erin Viola said.

Fellow ASAP co-President and organizer Isabella Spaulding echoed the sentiment, describing the organization’s work as survivor work.

“It isn’t a one-and-done because we have this public Supreme Court mess,” Spaulding said.

Spaulding, a junior, added that the organization plans to continue offering support beyond recent national developments.

Viola, a junior, introduced the event as “a platform for survivors to speak and have their voices heard.”

“We want to center the voices of survivors in the movement to combat sexual violence,” she said.

The event then featured a number of student speakers. Speeches covered topics from sharing personal experiences of sexual assault to criticizing the treatment of victims, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and other women who brought accusations against Kavanaugh.

“My trauma is not a punchline. Is that too much to ask for?” one speaker said. “Our voices have power and our actions create change.”

“What I’ve seen in the news this past week confirms what I’ve known throughout my

entire life,” another speaker said. “The problem isn’t that nobody believes survivors; it’s that nobody cares.”

The speaker then criticized the university’s handling of past sexual assault allegations and the overall adjudication process, adding that the university does not provide sufficient resources to survivors.

The student speaker called for additional funding and staff for the Center for Awareness, Resources and Education (CARE), an office on campus that works with students, faculty and staff on prevention and awareness with the goal of reducing sexual violence.

These frustrations were not unique.

“Tufts is not an exception to rape culture — it’s a part of it,” another student said.

The speakers emphasized the importance of listening to oft-marginalized and silenced survivors.

In addition to discussing sexual assault, Al-Subaey broadened the discussion to recent violence faced by transgender individuals.

“Let us not forget also that 22 trans people have been murdered this year so far,” Al-Subaey said. “14 of them were black trans women.”

Al-Subaey continued by saying that the individuals most harmed by the violence are often ignored.

The rally ended on a hopeful note, however.

“I dream of a world where survivors like me cannot just survive but thrive,” one student said.

Former Virginia Governor McAuliffe speaks about youth voting, midterms, democracy

by Liza Harris News Editor

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe spoke at ASEAN Auditorium in the Cabot Intercultural Center on Tuesday as part of the Jonathan M. Tisch College Distinguished Speakers Series. The discussion was facilitated by Tisch College Dean Alan Solomont and was later opened up to solicit student questions.

McAuliffe spoke on a wide range of topics, including how he became involved in politics, the role of young people in elections, his worst and best moments as governor and the current state of politics in America.

McAuliffe got his start in politics by working on President Jimmy Carter’s 1980 reelection campaign. He focused on

Please recycle this newspaper

Mostly Sunny 83 / 62

/thetuftsdaily

MAX LALANNE / THE TUFTS DAILY\

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe laughs as he is introduced at a Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series event in ASEAN Auditorium on Oct. 9. the campaign’s fundraising efforts, even wrestling an alligator to secure a $15,000 donation.

McAuliffe also discussed the importance of young people in the upcoming midterm elections.

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

tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

“I think young people are more engaged than I’ve ever seen them before,” McAuliffe said.

He traced that engagement to two recent polarizing political events: the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In particular, McAuliffe praised attendees of the March for our Lives rallies in March.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an additional discussion with Solomont after the event.”Our Congress was incapable when five and six year olds were murdered at Sandy Hook. After Vegas and after Parkland, I think young people have said ‘Enough.'”

He also said that the country’s treatment of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford fueled that fire.

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

“After seeing Ford speak up and the way she was denigrated, I think young people are fired up,” he said.

McAuliffe came out in firm opposition to Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. He said that Kavanaugh’s environmental policies had initially dissuaded him, and that Kavanaugh’s actions during the heated congressional hearings were further proof that he was unfit to serve.

“After watching his performance, this man does not have the temperament to be on the Supreme Court,” McAuliffe said. “I Believe Dr. Ford. [People] have justifiable concerns.”

McAuliffe said that the Supreme Court’s legitimacy began its downward spiral in 2000, when the Bush v. Gore case politicized the court.

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................4

see MCAULIFFE, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................5 OPINION.....................................6 SPORTS............................ BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, October 10, 2018

THE TUFTS DAILY Seohyun Shim Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

Sean Ong Caleb Symons Managing Editors Alexis Serino Associate Editor Daniel Nelson Executive News Editor Jessica Blough News Editors Charlie Driver Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala Kat Grellman Liza Harris Gil Jacobson Anar Kansara Liam Knox Simran Lala Natasha Mayor Cathy Perloff Minna Trinh Hannah Uebele Shantel Bartolome Assistant News Editors Austin Clementi Conor Friedmann Abbie Gruskin Kunal Kapur Noah Richter

Jessie Newman Executive Features Editor Constantinos Angelakis Features Editors Emma Damokosh Kenia French Ameenah Rashid Michael Shames Grace Yuh Sidharth Anand Kevin Doherty Assistant Features Editors Jacob Fried Justin Yu Tommy Gillespie Executive Arts Editor Antonio Bertolino Arts Editors John Fedak Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Julian Blatt Assistant Arts Editors Stephanie Hoechst Christopher Panella Ruijingya Tang Deeksha Bathini Jesse Clem Maria Fong Shannon Geary Nasrin Lin Lydia Ra Rebecca Tang Emily Burke Carrie Haynes Yuan Jun Chee Ryan Eggers Liam Finnegan Savannah Mastrangelo Arlo Moore-Bloom Maddie Payne Haley Rich Brad Schussel Delaney Tantillo Tim Chiang Sejal Dua Jeremy Goldstein David Meyer Josh Steinfink Ethan Zaharoni

Executive Opinion Editor Cartoonists

Editorialists Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

David Nickerson Investigative Editor Rachel Hartman Executive Photo Editor Anika Agarwal Photo Administrator Erik Britt Staff Photographers Andrea Chavez Allison Culbert Mike Feng Kenar Haratunian Ben Kim Max Lalanne Christine Lee Julia McDowell Madeleine Oliver Evan Slack Ana Sophia Acosta Executive Video Editors Annette Key Asha Iyer Video Editor

PRODUCTION Alice Yoon

Production Director Aidan Menchaca Executive Layout Editors Daniel Montoya Amanda Covaleski Layout Editors Connor Dale Anna Deck Jordan Isaacs Maygen Kerner Omeir Khan Isabella Montoya Katharine Pinney Executive Graphics Editor Luke Allocco Executive Copy Editors David Levitsky Sara Bass Copy Editors Caroline Bollinger Mary Carroll Myshko Chumak Zachary Hertz Anna Hirshman Will Hollinger Rachel Isralowitz Tess Jacobson Maria Kim Katie Martensen Ali Mintz Netai Schwartz Nihaal Shah Liora Silkes Hannah Wells Jiayu Xu Avni Ambalam Leah Boisvert Sarah Crawford Assistant Copy Editors Dylan Koh Allie Morgenstern Abbie Treff Yuval Wolf Ani Hopkins

McAuliffe urges young people to run for office, get involved in politics MCAULIFFE

continued from page 1 “That was the beginning of the unwinding,” McAuliffe said in an interview. “The damage that Donald Trump has done to the prestige of the Supreme Court will last a very long time. If I were a young person today, I would really question the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Solomont also questioned McAuliffe about what it would take for Democrats to win the White House in 2020. McAuliffe stated adamantly that focusing on the midterm elections was crucial before any decisions regarding the 2020 presidential election can be made.

“2018 is what’s most important right now,” he said.

McAuliffe, who describes himself as a pro-business, fiscally conservative and socially progressive Democrat, refused to say whether he will be running as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election.

Instead, he offered insight into how he transformed Virginia, historically a red state, into a blue state.

“I worked in a bipartisan way [and] got bills on economic development and transportation. I made it about Virginia and not about myself,” McAuliffe said.

Executive Online Editor Senior Online Editor

Ercan Sen Executive Social Media Editors Amy Tong Asli Akova Social Media Editor Elisabeth Blossom Assistant Social Media Editors Shaivi Herur Asha Iyer Lillian Miller

BUSINESS Joe Walsh Executive Business Director

As far as considering a bid for the presidency, McAuliffe stated that there are several things to look at.

“Anyone who’s thinking of running has to look at family. I have five children and that’s an important endeavor. [Deciding to run] is a hard, thoughtful process,” McAuliffe said in an interview with the Daily.

McAuliffe then discussed the current state of politics in the United States.

“Trump, what he’s done to our allies around the globe, the tariffs … he has no moral core.

I’ve known him, I’ve known him for 20 years.

It’s all about him. It’s not about America,” McAuliffe said. “We need to secure our borders — I’ve always said that. If you’re here illegally and you do something awful, you need to be deported. But for the other people, like people in [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], there should be a pathway toward citizenship.

Democrats are for national security. How do we do that effectively? That’s the key issue. If I were president of the United States, I would never separate a mother from a child.”

McAuliffe discussed his best and worst moments as governor of Virginia, citing the worst moment as witnessing the white supremacist riots that erupted in Charlottesville in August 2017.

“I was crestfallen as an American citizen,” McAuliffe said. “I told [the protestors] to get the hell out of our state and our country. They pretend they’re patriots, marching around, but they’re cowards.”

However, McAuliffe’s time in office was marked by more than the Charlottesville riots. The former governor recalled his best moment as restoring the voting rights of 200,000 felons.

During his discussion with Solomont and in answering audience questions, McAuliffe repeatedly touched on the importance of young candidates.

“If 100 young people wanted to run for president tomorrow, go do it,” he said.

“That’s the whole idea I’m trying to get out: Go do it. I want young people in politics.”

Finally, McAuliffe discussed the state of democracy in America during his follow-up discussion with Solomont.

“In today’s hyper-partisan environment, not a lot is getting done,” McAuliffe said. “We are still a strong democracy, but we are a fractured democracy.

Donald Trump deliberately creates culture wars. He may think it’s good for him — it’s not — and it’s really bad for the country.”

The Rez opens after week-long closure due to Campus Center plumbing issues

by Daisy Hu

Contributing Writer

Assistant Sports Editors

tuftsdaily.com

The Rez, the student-run café located in the Mayer Campus Center, was closed from Sept. 21–27 due to plumbing issues in the Campus Center, according to Bryce Terman, the financial manager for the Rez. Terman, a senior, discovered the problem at the end of his Sept. 20 shift. When counting out the daily revenue, he found unclean water in the sink and on the floor.

“It was the excess of what I expected because the crew has already left and [the Rez] is usually spotless when we leave for the night,” Terman said.

Terman responded by calling Tufts Facilities Services to ask for help in cleaning, but when more water flooded, he realized that there might be a plumbing issue. He contacted the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) and was put in contact with an on-call plumber to explain the situation.

Noah Harris, a senior and the personnel manager for the Rez, notified employees on Sept. 21 that the Rez would shut down for a few days.

Terman said that Facilities Services came the next day and cleaned the Rez.

While the plumbing issue was fixed over the weekend of Sept. 22–23, the Rez still needed to be recertified by an inspector from the Somerville Board of Health to reopen, according to Terman. Ensuring that water was only coming in from the clean water side was a major hurdle the café had to pass.

“Out of precaution, we have to clean everything and make sure that our appliances are okay as well,” he said.

The Facilities Services report noted a 125-foot clog in the main drain of the Mayer Campus Center, Associate Director for Campus Life Ashley Austin said. An outside plumbing company then came in to snake the drain. Facilities Services believes the issue was caused by people flushing things that should not be flushed, like paper towels.

The health inspector carried out an examination of the premises on Sept. 24, according to Sara Bass, a senior and operations manger for the Rez . Everything was in order, except the managers were told to clean everything that might have been touched by contaminated water and certify the ice machine, Terman said. “[We needed] to make sure that none of the dirty water could come into the ice machine,” he said.

Terman added that the managers cleaned the Rez after the health inspector left and the ice machine was inspected and certified on Sept. 26. The health inspector did a final inspection on Sept. 27, re-certified the Rez and the café reopened immediately.

Austin was in frequent contact with the managers throughout the whole process and noted the appropriate steps were carried out.

The Rez managers made initial contact with the health inspector, met with the inspectors in-person and carried out the deep-cleaning efforts while Austin ordered the facility cleaning and scheduled the health and ice machine inspections.

Harris, who has been working at the Rez for the past two years, recalled that the Rez was also shut down two years ago because of a refrigerator malfunction. The refrigerator was not maintaining a proper temperature and the Rez was closed until a new refrigerator was ordered and arrived.

“We are lucky that issues like this that require us to close for multiple days don’t happen that often,” Harris said. “Usually, things are pretty minor, so it’s a rare circumstance that we have to close for about a week.”

Muddled acting, uninspired writing poison 'Venom' VENOM

continued from page 4 choices. The list is endless, from Drake’s plan to colonize space that involves forcing human-alien symbiosis, which has an abysmal success rate, to Venom randomly deciding he wants to help save the planet because he’s also a ‘loser’ like Brock, and the symbiote Riot, the main antagonist of the film, who wants to bring millions of his kind to conquer Earth (though the movie goes to great lengths explaining that the odds of finding a perfect host for any one symbiote are incredibly slim). Oh, and a reliance on lucky coincidences are the final straw: The overall result is a hackneyed mess of contrived events which are painful to watch unfold onscreen.

Much as the plot is uninspired, so too are the characters who enact it. Drake is flat enough to be a pancake, and the fact that he bonds with a symbiote does nothing to

improve his illogical character motivation. In fact, he’s the perfect example of how not to do an evil genius: pretentious, uninviting and irrational. Weying’s character cannot catch a break, either. She is written as if the screenwriters wanted her to be more just “the girlfriend” but could not commit to having an independent female lead, and her character feels irrelevant instead of badass as a result.

The rest of the supporting cast are, if anything, caricatures instead of characters, and they do nothing to fill the movie’s insatiable hunger for likeable, three-dimensional characters. Even Brock is no exception; Hardy’s acting is simply not good enough to save his character from mediocre writing.

Speaking of three-dimensional, the special effects are also unimaginative and muddled, despite the excellent source material the film has to work with. Aliens that bond with humans and make literal weapons out

of their bodies should not be hard to mess up, but the movie doesn’t succeed here, either. The computer-generated imagery looks glossy and fake, and the aliens are little more than piles of writhing, colorless goo (although the combined form of Brock and Venom manages to come across as terrifying). Even the final fight scene looks wrong, with gooey explosions that further disorient an already hard-to-follow action sequence. Much like the rest of the movie, it is all a hard pass.

“Venom” will certainly leave viewers paralyzed, but with boredom and disinterest instead of fear and excitement. The film’s ending leaves room for a sequel, and given its incredible opening weekend, it might receive one. If Sony has even an ounce of foresight, it will close the chapter on this mishandled villain instead of letting it propagate a lackluster franchise.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Features

Early Assurance programs offer accelerated path to schools of medicine

3 tuftsdaily.com

Matt Rice The Tide

Lucy McBath

G

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is pictured.

by Emma Damokosh Features Editor

Tufts University has become synonymous with health science in many ways. With the Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the university has a lot to offer in terms of furthering the education of students seeking to enter health-focused professions.

According to the Tufts University Fact Book 2017-18, for the classes of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Biology is one of the more popular majors at Tufts. Many of these majors go on to pursue careers in the health fields which oftentimes require further schooling.

Early Assurance (EA) programs at medical, veterinary and dental medicine schools help Tufts find highly qualified and committed candidates, according to Bradford Barnet, assistant director of admissions at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

“We have higher matriculation rates amongst those in early acceptance than we do [in] the general pool, and they’re really strong applicants,” he said.

Barnet says that not only is the EA program beneficial for the school itself, but also completely positive for applicants and accepted students.

“There’s really no negatives to applying to the program, it can only help you out by giving you feedback or ideally an acceptance,” Barnet said.

According to Barnet, the feedback he mentions comes in the form of a consult for students who aren’t accepted into the EA program. This meeting with staff gives them the benefit of receiving constructive criticism far in advance of general applications.

For the initial read of EA applications, GPA and standardized test scores are key components in order to secure interviews due to the intensity of the curriculum of veterinary school.

However, once applicants make it past

the first round of cuts, being able to speak about their desire to be a veterinarian is crucial in order to secure a final admittance.

“In an interview we’re not going to trip them up in any way, it’s more just about the realistic idea of the contribution they can make, the things they find appealing … and also why the vet profession and a health profession in general,” Barnet said.

Barnet also mentioned that an ideal candidate for their program can not only speak intelligently about the veterinary profession but has also thought deeply about what it really means to be a caretaker for animals.

“The health professions in general are challenging, whether in means [of] putting down an animal … or the emotional and compassion fatigue that comes with being in a health profession and making sure that they have an outlet that allows them to prioritize their own health so that they can be the best doctor they can be,” Barnet said.

Juniors Emma Mitchell-Sparke, Paul Katsiaunis and Sharmitha Yerneni, EA program acceptees last year, shared their experience with the EA program.

Katsiaunis said the program attracted him as being a doctor was his profession of choice from early on.

“I had no doubts that I wanted to pursue medicine, and thought applying early was the right choice for me because of that,” Katsiaunis said.

Mitchell-Sparke said that the application process for EA challenged her to really think about why she wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor.

“I enjoyed the application process because it led me to spend a lot of time reflecting on why I was actually interested in being a physician, and what I hoped to gain out of the EA program itself.”

EA application process require transcripts, GPAs of certain calibers, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation and other supplementary materials, according to the university Student Life website; however, both Mitchell-Sparke and Yerneni pointed

out that associated cost with EA programs is lower than that of applying with the general pool of medical school hopefuls.

“If you are accepted and decide to take the opportunity, then you don’t need to take the [Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)] or apply to 30 medical schools in your senior year of college, allowing for greater freedom and less stress the last two years of college” said Mitchell-Sparke.

Yerneni also said that not having to take the MCAT removes much weight from medical school admits.

“Taking the MCAT requires months of preparation and is a stressful and expensive process to go through. By not taking the MCAT, students who are admitted can spend these months gaining valuable time in an internship, traveling, or focusing on expanding their interests.” she said.

Barnet also pointed out that EA programs relieve a large financial burden of applying to health professional schools.

With travel for interviews, MCAT study materials and application fees, applying to medical, dental, or veterinary school is no cheap ordeal and not having to deal with any of the associated costs can be a huge relief to students.

However, on the other side of the financial coin, Tufts Medical School is one of the most expensive medical schools in the country according to U.S. News and World Report, with a $60,704 price tag per year as of 20172018. This is certainly a large financial commitment to make as a sophomore in college. “[EA] does link directly to Tufts School of Medicine, an expensive private medical school, so most likely your in-state medical school is a lot cheaper,” MitchellSparke said.

Mitchell-Sparke, however, said that applying for EA program has many benefits.

“I would say that no matter what, if you’re interested in medical school, going through [the EA] application process is a valuable, meaning process because it forces you to reflect on why you are interested in this field and the program itself,” she said.

eorgia’s 6th Congressional District vaulted into the national spotlight early last year. Its sitting representative, Tom Price, had been confirmed as President Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, triggering a special election in the suburban district just north of Atlanta. The runoff between Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and former congressional aide Jon Ossoff, a first-time political candidate, was seen as a referendum on the young presidency. Handel barely edged out a win in the district formerly held by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and she is facing a substantial reelection fight this fall.

Last year, Ossoff was painted as an out-of-touch, Washington-based political operative who cared more for his own ambition than he did for the district where he had grown up. This fall, Representative Handel must overcome a well-funded, inspiring opponent.

Lucy McBath has never run for office, much like many other candidates this cycle. Her experience as an organizer is likely to help her in a district Trump narrowly won in 2016.

McBath grew up in Illinois, where her father served as president of the state’s NAACP chapter, allowing her to organize alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as a young girl in the 1960s. However, her path to civic activism was marred by tragedy.

In 2012, her son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at a gas station. The shooter claimed Davis refused to turn down his music. McBath has turned her grief into a crusade for her community and against Handel and the NRA. Prior to running for Congress, McBath started several local charities and non-profits while serving as the national spokesperson for the gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety.

McBath is also running on a fairly progressive platform for a district as red as the 6th. She frequently speaks out against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, supports reforming the Medicare eligibility age to include people over 55 and has supported a woman’s right to choose.

Following the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, polls have indicated that over 60 House seats held by Republicans are up for grabs next month, and the Georgia 6th is one of the Democratic Party’s top targets. Considering her life story, experience and policy positions, Lucy McBath’s congressional district is likely to send its first Democratic representative to Washington since 1976. Gingrich was elected to his first term in 1978.

Georgia’s 6th Congressional District is one of 25 House districts won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 that is now represented by a Republican. The Democrats only need 25 seats of the 60 toss-ups to win the speaker’s gavel, and their path to victory likely runs through the Georgia 6th.

Matt Rice is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.rice@tufts.edu.

4 tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Zachary Hertz and Brady Shea Cheeses of Suburbia

EXHIBITION PREVIEW

‘Common Threads’ documents the evolution of Born for sticks textile as medium of storytelling

Z

achary Hertz (ZH): Given recent political events, we’ve chosen Paramore’s “RIOT!” (2007) this week, starring Evgeni Dobranov, a serial tennis player with a mild interest in computer science whose love for “Misery Business” constantly prevents other people from using the shower. We have Pizza Days sticks, which surprisingly arrived on time! Sadly, Pizza Days is another misery business because I haven’t seen anything as tragic as these sticks. 3/10 from me.

Brady Shea (BS): I’m immediately disappointed. They’re so soggy! The most 4/10 mozzarella sticks I’ve ever eaten.

The breading is so sad, Alexa should play “Despacito 3.”

Evgeni Dobranov (ED): It’s like they’ve accidentally breaded a cheese stick, but in the bad way. It’s a solid 4.5/10 — honestly, I could make it better if I fried cheese, and the only thing I can cook is cereal. It’s no surprise that Pizza Days isn’t known for anything except their socks. Brady, are you a mozzarella connoisseur?

BS: Not yet, but the more I do this column, the more I experience different breeds of mozzarella stick. As for the album — I love Paramore. They have a frontwoman, which is rare for punk and music in general. Hayley Williams was only 19 when this album came out, and her voice is unreal.

Fun fact — Paramore is super religious, but chill. They could technically be considered Christian Rock, and though they don’t focus on it in their music, you can catch glimpses of it in some songs, like “Hallelujah.”

ZH: Evgeni, “Misery Business” is next. Got any professional thoughts?

ED: It’s a real head-banger that fits on both a shower and road trip playlist. It’s the Roger Federer of punk rock, so to speak.

ZH: When I think pop punk, I think angsty, but this song subverts that expectation while keeping the classic pop punk sound — the narrator got her guy and is rubbing it in your face.

BS: Yeah, you have emotional and hype pop punk but Paramore hits both in “Misery Business” as well as “RIOT!” My favorite is “Let The Flames Begin” — it screams “try to take us down” and has a follow-up on their self-titled album. After two members left the group, the sequel is more “try to take me down — even though people left, the spirit of the band is here.”

ED: I feel bad relating the sticks to these songs, because effort was put into these, unlike the sticks. They’re quite displeasing.

BS: “Born For This” is an anthem that’s more of a chant than a song at the post-chorus. This is Paramore saying they know they’ll make it big with this album.

Overall, “RIOT!” is a 7/10 from me; even though it’s a favorite, Paramore matured with time.

ED: I’d give it a 7/10; I prefer their older works — I grew up listening to these albums and it’s very invigorating music, but the acoustic “Misery Business” is weird.

ZH: I’ll give it a 7.5/10; Hayley Williams is my goddess, a real “Miracle” and my crushcrushcrush.

Zachary Hertz is a senior studying political science. He can be reached at zachary.hertz@tufts.edu. Brady Shea is a senior studying computer science. He can be reached at Brady.Shea@tufts.edu.

by Ruijingya Tang

Assistant Arts Editor

Contemporary artists know no boundaries among mediums. In their hands, paintings become sculptures, and ordinary objects become art. Indeed, not even the more artisan-oriented medium of textile has escaped being stretched beyond its conventional materials. The current tapestry exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, “Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time,” showcases textiles from the hands of historical and contemporary weavers and craftsmen alike.

Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei’s “The Mending Project” (2009–18) weaves both symbolic and literal connections across space. The interdisciplinary installation is at once performance-based, participatory and visual. Upon encountering the artwork, viewers see hundreds of spools of threads pinned scatteredly across two walls in the gallery’s corner, forming colorful constellations. The thread from each spool is sewn onto a particular article of clothing or puppets among a garment compilation, placed on one end of a long table. On the other end sits a volunteer mender who sews additional items. Across from them is a seat where patrons are welcome to start conversations with the mender. The expansive complex of spools and garments physically connects the three planes that these objects occupy — two walls and the floor — bridging different dimensions in the most literal sense.

Meanwhile, for Lee, the threads are representations of more abstract and deeper connections. According to Lee’s words printed on the wall tag for the installation, “There are so many things that are broken in the world now, with politics, the climate, relationship between people, between countries.”

But do Lee’s metaphoric threads hold any genuine power of remedy in the real world? The answer is positive for both Lee, himself, and for the participants in the exhibit. “The Mending Project” is an artistic reenactment of Lee’s per-

sonal experience during 9/11. At the time of the attack, Lee’s partner was supposed to be working in the Twin Towers. Luckily, he was out of office for a meeting that morning and hence escaped the tragic fate that befell many of his colleagues. When Lee’s partner went home that night, Lee started mending all of their clothes that were in need of repair without thought.

For Lee, sewing became a healing mechanism for the trauma that he had temporarily experienced upon the thought that his partner might never come home.

Mending also brings the exhibit’s volunteers and viewers together. The menders recruited for “The Mending Project” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum gathered before the exhibition’s opening to hear about the project from Lee, himself. While the installation is on view, museum visitors are welcome to bring items to the menders or simply to talk with them. They may also glimpse items left behind by previous visitors. Lee unites individuals who would not have interacted otherwise in acts of care and conversation through the medium of material objects.

“Many Came Back” (2005) by the Nigeriabased Ghanaian artist El Anatsui is a similarly modern, mixed-media reinterpretation of textile. “Many Came Back” is one of many Anatsui’s signature “tapestries” made of tiny aluminium sheets and copper wire. The artwork is a screen of golden radiance dotted by hues of black, red, blue and white, bearing striking resemblance to Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” (1908). Meanwhile, the stunning object assumes a considerable size (213.3 × 292.1 cm), comparable to that of a medium-sized wall tapestry. The lustrous and expansive “tapestry” emits an authoritative beauty that humbles viewers.

However, a closer examination of “Many Came Back” gives away its kitsch nature. The aluminium squares are made of flattened industrial scrap metal, many of which bear printed names and logos of foods and beverages, namely alcohol. Anatsui’s metal sheets piece together a mosaic of the transatlantic

slave trade, which was partially fueled by the exchanges of rum for African slaves. Yet Anatsui contextualizes such oppressive colonial legacies within a landmark African cultural symbol: the tapestry.

The top and bottom sections of “Many Came Back” bear references to the repetitive geometric pattern of interweaving parallel lines, which is prevalent in traditional African tapestry. Anatsui combines ancient artistic glory and a relatively modern history of exploitation to create a coherent representation of the African identity. Many other creative minds in the pan-African community, such as “Beloved” author Toni Morrison, also wrestle with the dynamic intertwinings between cultural identity and a history of suffering. “Many Came Back,” representing a once intimate and personal medium using mass-produced metal wastes, also speaks to a cultural shift on a global level: the continuing process of consumerism and industrialization.

Of course, the exhibition would have been incomplete had it lacked representations of traditional textiles or those from Isabella Stewart Gardner. The museum’s Tapestry Room hosts an alternative part of the exhibition, which features Gardner’s collection of five 16th-century Flemish tapestries that illustrate selected events from the life of Cyrus the Great, ruler of Persia. The five large tapestries span most of the wall in the dimly lit room, sealing off viewers from the twenty-first century outside. To perfect the immersive experience for the visitors, the Tapestry Room provides headsets that play “true pearl: an opera in five tapestries,” an opera composed and written by David Lang and Sibyl Kempson specifically for the exhibition. This multimedia approach pays homage to the former purpose of the Tapestry Room as Gardner’s Music Hall.

The exhibition is open from Oct. 4, 2018 to Jan. 13, 2019 at the Hostetter Gallery and the Tapestry Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

FILM REVIEW

‘Venom’ suffers lack of direction, poor character development

by John Fedak Arts Editor

Just as the rise of a superhero begets the appearance of a supervillain, the surplus of superhero films in today’s cinema will no doubt spawn supervillain films in the near future.

Sony Pictures’ “Venom” has attempted to kickstart this villainous takeover, telling the story of the titular, parasitic anti-hero. However, confusing plotlines, one-dimensional characters and lackluster special effects are among the many failures preventing this fledgling film from achieving critical success.

The film revolves around Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), an investigative journalist living with his fiancée, attorney Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), in San Francisco. Eddie is given the order to interview Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the controversial CEO of a large bioengineering corporation known as the Life Foundation. He loses his job and his fiancée after stealing classified information in an attempt to confront Drake over recent allegations.

Unbeknownst to Eddie, the Life Corporation is more nefarious than it seems: On an exploratory space mission, one of their probes discovered a comet teeming with gooey aliens that Drake calls “symbiotes,” which possess

superhuman powers but must bond with a host to survive on Earth. Unless the host is a so-called “perfect match,” the pairing will fail and the host will die an unpleasant death.

Surprising to absolutely nobody, given Ahmed’s heavy-handed portrayal as an evil genius, Drake begins tricking San Francisco’s homeless population into volunteering for human testing. Multitudes die after each attempt at symbiosis fails.

Six months after his life has fallen apart, Brock is contacted by scientist Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), who shares this reprehensible information with him and then breaks him into a testing facility to expose Drake. One large mishap later and Brock encounters the symbiote named Venom (voiced by Hardy), which finds him to be a perfect fit. Possessing body augmentation, super-strength and regenerative abilities thanks to the nefarious alien, Brock must adapt to his new life as he fights to take down Drake once and for all.

In a movie mired by decisions ranging from bad to terrible, the one thing “Venom” does well is its portrayal of the interactions between Brock and Venom. Brock frequently talks to himself as he attempts to control and reason with the alien inhabiting his body, injecting moments of comedy into the faltering movie.

Admittedly, these moments are more than cheap laughs: Tom Hardy does a fantastic job juxtaposing Brock’s confusion with Venom’s sadism, and he creates some genuinely funny scenes by pure virtue of his acting.

Unfortunately, “Venom” is not a comedy — in fact, the movie does not know what to do with itself. It starts on a serious note with an overwhelmingly generic plotline about an evil company that abuses the impoverished, but abruptly lurches into slapstick comedy after Brock bonds with Venom. Then, “Venom” wants to be heartwarming, and in the end, it crash-lands back into comedy. The film cannot even fully commit to its violence thanks to a PG-13 rating, which is a shame considering that Brock/Venom is quite literally a gargantuan monster oozing teeth, weaponry and predatory instincts. Instead, viewers must settle for off-screen decapitation, which declaws Venom as a character and heavily diminishes his terrifying appearance.

The plot doesn’t fare any better, being exactly as dull as it sounds. Suspension of disbelief is required for every major event in the film, which is overflowing with questionable see VENOM, page 2

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

F& G

5

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Caleb: “It’s a neck that’s shaggy.”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Libra (Sept. 23–Oct. 22)

With negative self-image, get out of your head and into conversation with someone who loves you. Profitable opportunities increase with Mercury in Scorpio.

__________________________________

Tuesday’s Solution

ALL ARE WELCOME Submit a Tufts-related piece of 600 words to:

N O I IN

OP

tuftsdailyoped@gmail.com

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _L_ _ _ _

Difficulty Level: Spending $120 on camel milk

BE AN OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR FOR THE TUFTS DAILY

Release Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by RichCROSSWORD Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Vice president after Hubert 6 Harry Potter’s lightning bolt, e.g.

10 Cauldron stirrer 13 Intense passion 14 Big strings 15 “We’re on __ way” 16 Vice squad operations 18 Prefix with angle or athlete 19 Make very happy 20 “__ Go”: cellphone game 22 Mess up 24 PC core 26 Sorvino of “Mimic” 27 Hawaiian garland 28 Fictional feline that could disappear at will 32 Ultra-masculine 34 Underwater detector 35 Sister of Laertes 38 Major turf battle 42 They may be pumped or bumped 44 Neutral shade 45 “Talladega Nights” actor 50 Meadow 51 Sheriff Andy Taylor’s boy 52 Ewe call 53 ISP option 54 “Oh, puh-leeze!”

58 African country whose name begins another African country 61 Wee one 62 It eases tension in some serious tales 66 Baton Rouge sch.

67 Occupied, as a restroom 68 Award for “Moonlight” or “Spotlight” 69 Some Caltech grads 70 “Gee whiz!”

71 Cautious (of) DOWN 1 Liquid from a trunk 2 Golf instructor

3 Social class prominent in “The Great Gatsby” 4 Churn up 5 White-bellied ocean predator 6 __ salt 7 Movie excerpt 8 Big name in footwear 9 Put in peril 10 One may pick up an embarrassing remark 11 Goddess of the dawn 12 Be amused by 14 Dessert pancake 17 Draw with acid 21 Come into view 22 Sailor’s patron 23 Use a scythe 25 Navy vessel letters 28 Infant’s ailment 29 Gluttonous sort 30 Once __ while 31 Asked for an opinion on, as an idea 33 Playboy founder 36 Mideast nation: Abbr.

37 Had breakfast

39 Whole-grain food, and a description of each set of circles 40 Quite a while 41 Bona fide 43 Family vacay participant 45 Push rudely 46 Vote against 47 Continuity break 48 Renaissance Faire weapon

49 Dragon’s den 55 Vaper’s smoke, briefly 56 Stereo preceder 57 Fast Aussie birds 59 Earth sci.

60 “What __ can I do?”

63 “Kinda” suffix 64 Piece of corn 65 Cook, as spring rolls

Tuesday’s Solution ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By C.C. Burnikel ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

10/10/18

10/10/18

6 tuftsdaily.com

Opinion EDITORIAL

Tufts should expand career advising for humanities, social sciences majors On Sept. 28, the Tufts Career Center hosted its ​Fall Career Fair​, which strives to establish connections between students and prospective employers. Unfortunately, many students have expressed that the Career Fair did not present ample opportunities for them, particularly those studying the humanities and social sciences.

The most important takeaway, according to an interview conducted with Career Center staff, is that communication between students and the Career Center needs to be improved — a change that will not occur unless both parties meet each other halfway.

In an ideal world, every student would find a plethora of opportunities tailored to their intellectual and professional interests at the biannual career fairs.

Sadly, this is not the case. Career Center staff Saqi Mehta, associate director of employer relations, and Gregory Victory, executive director, provided information about the industries represented at the fairs. “The fall fair is heavily populated by tech, finance, consulting and engineering, because those are the industries that do their massive recruiting in the fall,” Victory said, explaining that the spring fair tends to lean more towards education, government and nonprofits.

However, career fairs are not the only platform for students to network and learn about internship and jobs. Mehta and Victory said that the Career Center also hosts industry nights focused on different fields, such as healthcare and life sciences, education and advocacy, sports and entertainment and art and design.

According to the Career Center, recruiters from the respective fields attend these events to scope out possible candidates for employment, making them excellent opportunities for students to get a foot in the door in those fields.

Nonprofits and public sector organizations, which are often small, face limitations in attending career fairs that other big companies do not. “For some of these organizations, they have a limited number of schools that they recruit at,” Victory said. This is one of the main reasons why companies that are not STEMfocused are inadequately represented at career fairs; they may not have the same amount of resources as a tech company, and this translates to less representation at university career events. Perhaps Tufts could sponsor recruiters from these smaller organizations to attend such events.

Seeing that these companies offer valuable opportunities, it is disconcerting that they do not even get a seat at the table due to financial constraints.

To provide humanities and social sciences majors with easier access to career opportunities, the Career Center could also organize a special event on how to navigate different industries, network with employers and find a job as a non-STEM major. Furthermore, creating a position in the Career Center specifically for advising humanities and social sciences majors would be beneficial, just as there are dedicated advisors for students who are keen on careers in finance and consulting, engineering and computer science and the creative arts.

On the other hand, students should be more aware of the opportunities that the Career Center offers, as publicized on Handshake and the weekly e-newsletters. If students have suggestions on ways that the Career Center can improve to provide them with unique job opportunities, they should also contact the Center to offer that information, thus strengthening the relationship between students and the Career Center for the benefit of students in the future. Mehta also said that students in their job search should make sure to approach a variety of companies, even those which, at first glance, don’t seem to have opportunities for them. “Usually, the people who are coming here to represent [their company] are usually not even the same people who registered for the event,” she said. “[They] could be someone from communications or marketing.” Making a point to proactively ask people at fairs about job opportunities could allow students to realize how many companies actually have jobs catered towards their interests and skills. Although the Career Center could improve in providing greater access to certain career industries, it is also on students to make full use of the resources around them.

The goal of the Career Center is to help students take their first steps into the industry. By improving communication and providing more dedicated programming for those studying the humanities and social sciences, events such as career fairs will be sure to benefit a wider population of Tufts students.

CARTOON

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

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

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

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself.

Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Tys Sweeney Pretty Lawns and Gardens

Where is the Kindle curve?

A

mazon’s Kindle debuted in 2007.

It was expensive and pretty ugly.

Today, after more than a decade of development, the Kindle is an affordable and high-quality product, but I’ve always had a lingering question: Is the Kindle an environmentally sound option?

In this week’s piece, I will investigate what it means to be environmentally sound, and estimate under what parameters a Kindle can be a green choice for a consumer.

First, what do I mean by environmentally sound? By that I mean, is the carbon footprint of the Kindle’s production and ongoing charging needs greater than or less than that of the production of new books purchased? For the first calculation, so as not to deal with distributed carbon costs, I will be placing the full value of a book’s carbon footprint on its original owner; second-hand and library books have a carbon footprint of zero.

For a simplistic calculation, we need a few numbers. How many books on average do Americans read per year? According to the Pew Research Center, it’s 12. How much carbon is released per physical book produced? Cleantech estimates seven-anda-half kilograms. And how much carbon is produced in production of a Kindle?

Amazon doesn’t disclose its production data, but independent research puts the production footprint at 290 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Assuming a five-year lifespan for a particular Kindle, charging costs would be about 20 kilograms more, putting the grand total at 310 kilograms.

At this point the math is easy: over its fiveyear lifetime, one Kindle has an equivalent footprint to 41 books. That’s just over eight books per year, lower than the American average of 12. So buying a Kindle makes sense if the consumer would otherwise buy eight brand-new books or more each year.

But this isn’t realistic. Consumers often borrow books from libraries or friends and purchase second-hand books. If a person never purchases a new book, then even considering distributed carbon footprint, it would make very little sense to buy a Kindle. To use a particular example, residents of Tompkins County, N.Y., borrowed the non-fiction book “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” 42 times in 2015.

That puts the carbon footprint per reader of the book at 0.18 kilograms, and for more popular books the number would further approach zero. Considering this number as an example, a Kindle would need to displace more than 1,700 similar library books over five years to reach efficiency.

In conclusion, the Kindle can be an environmentally sound option, but only within certain parameters. Only if a given consumer will purchase more than eight new books per year for five years would the Kindle be the environmental choice. Given the enormous upfront cost of producing a Kindle, for many people, borrowing from the library or even buying second hand books would be a greener decision. Technology has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions, and Kindles have proven both popular and effective, but we shouldn’t forget the good that can come from simple reuse.

Tys Sweeney is a sophomore studying political science. He can be reached at tys.sweeney@tufts.edu.

Sports

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Jumbos take on international competition on the field, the court and in the pool INTERNATIONAL ATHLETES

continued from page 8 er — Rodrigo Miquelarena, the president of the Argentina Lacrosse Association — is in his 30s and has a wife and child.

Katsiaunis cited the tournament’s opening ceremony as one of the highlights of his experience.

“The biggest thing for me was walking down the street and seeing the Team USA and Team Canada guys — the guys who were on posters in my room from when I was 12 years old — in uniform with me at the opening ceremony, standing 30 yards from me,” Katsiaunis said. “That was absurd, just knowing that I’m not just next to them but playing in the same tournament as them.”

Both Mendy and Katsiaunis spoke passionately about contributing to the expansion of lacrosse in their home countries.

“It was awesome to see so many people coming together for the sport,” Mendy said.

“Lacrosse is a sport that doesn’t get a lot of coverage, even here in the United States, but the fact that we’re growing the game is what matters. It gives … people so many opportunities, especially here at Tufts. As much as I can, I want to give back to the lacrosse community because it’s given me so much.”

The concept of gift exchanging was a common occurrence, with Mendy leaving the tournament as the proud owner of an jersey emblazoned with “España Lacrosse.” Both Mendy and Katsiaunis cited the cultural exposure that the athletes enjoyed as a result of their living together for the duration of the tournament as a unique aspect of the experience.

Another Jumbo in the international spotlight is sophomore Justin Kouyoumdjian, a guard on the Tufts men’s basketball team.

Kouyoumdjian has played for the Under-20 Armenian basketball team for the past two years. Like Katsiaunis and Mendy, he is a citizen of the country he represents, and Armenian was his first language.

Most recently, Kouyoumdjian participated in the 2018 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Europe Under20 Championship, held in Sofia, Bulgaria

from July 13–22. According to Kouyoumdjian, he was contacted directly by the Basketball Federation of Armenia as it was attempting to strengthen its national program by incorporating Armenian-Americans. Armenia finished 21st at the European championships with Kouyoumdjian averaging 11.7 points over seven games.

Kouyomdjian noted the interactions with opposing players, who represented a multitude of cultures, as a highlight of the tournament. Even the Armenian team, itself with an amalgamation of native Armenians, Armenian-Americans and RussianArmenians, had to navigate a diverse mix of backgrounds.

“We played against Russia, the Netherlands, Hungary and other … countries,” Kouyoumdjian said. “We’d meet the each team before and exchange gifts. It was so cool to just hear the different languages and see the different faces of people from different places.”

The highlight of the tournament for Kouyoumdjian was Armenia’s final game against Moldova on July 22, in which the Armenian team clinched its only victory of the tournament, 75–66. Kouyoumdjian was the game’s leading scorer with 29 points, and he explained that he was motivated by thousands of fans in Armenia and across the globe, who tuned in via its live stream.

“In Armenia, people had placed bets on our games,” Kouyoumdjian said. “We had all these people watching us, so we wanted to do well for them.”

Sophomore swimmer David Gelfand has also represented his nation in international competition. Gelfand, a paraplegic, competed for the United States at the Para Swimming World Series in both 2017 and 2018. The global series was comprised of six meets in as many countries in both 2017 and 2018, beginning in March and stretching into the summer.

Gelfand competed in two meets both years.

Gelfand was born with a shortened thigh bone in his left leg and walks with a prosthetic leg. He swims in the S9 division, as the competitions are split into 10 classifications, ranging from most severe physical impairments (S1) to the least severe (S10).

As USA Swimming — the national governing body of competitive swimming in the United States — is far more established and well-funded than the programs that Katsiaunis, Mendy and Kouyoumdjian have navigated, the recruiting process was much more structured.

In 2015, Gelfand was selected to the U.S. Paralympic Emerging Team. At the Para Swimming World series in Berlin in July 2017, the Weston, Conn. native earned gold medals in both the 4×100 medley relay and in the 4×100 freestyle relay. Gelfand swims in every meet with a singular goal: being selected for the 2020 Paralympics team that will compete in Tokyo. Before that, however, the 2019 Para Swimming World Championships will be held in Malaysia, and the Para Pan-American games are set to take place in Lima, Peru shortly thereafter.

“To go to Worlds … [is] my big goal of this coming summer,” Gelfand said. “The important parts of these meets are getting the qualification times and having the international experience of competing at a higher-pressure meet somewhere different from where you train and live. The [2020 Paralympic Games] are the most important event for me. My goal is to make the team, and you get selected based on where you are in world rankings compared to the other male athletes.”

In the meantime, Gelfand is gearing up for the Tufts season, which begins in November.

After the season ends in February, Gelfand will be continue to train with coach Adam Hoyt and the rest of the Tufts staff thanks to an NCAA waiver.

“The meets that I go to with the U.S. Paralympics are definitely a lot more pressure,” Gelfand said. “The Tufts meets are so much more fun. It’s okay if we don’t win the meet, and I’m not actually fast enough to be really important for the championships, so the Tufts meets are a good way to see how fast I can go and see what I can do.”

Though all four student-athletes’ international competition experiences differed, the sense of pride that underscored their participation was clear. There will undoubtedly be more Jumbos to follow in their footsteps in the years to come.

Jumbos close NESCAC doubleheader with win and loss VOLLEYBALL

continued from page 8 Tied at two sets, the final set proved to be just as adrenaline-inducing as the previous. Amherst was in a promising position with three match points, but a pair of kills from Desler and Stewart, along with an ace by Holz, brought the Jumbos back in it.

The teams again found themselves knotted at 14 points, but attack errors by Desler and Stewart gave the deciding set to the Mammoths. The come-from-behind win was Amherst’s first over Tufts since 2015.

“It was obviously a tough match and Amherst did a better job of adjusting than we did,” coach Cora Thompson told the Daily in an email. “They changed a few things after we took the first two sets and we didn’t adjust well to their change. At the same time, our ball control declined and we weren’t as effective offensively as we were in sets one and two.”

Coming off a strong win over Williams the weekend prior, the team looked confident going into their match against the UMass Boston Beacons Tuesday night.

“We wanted to bring solid focused play and energy for the entire match [against UMass Boston],” Thompson said.

“Historically, UMass Boston plays very well at home, and we knew we would have our hands full on Tuesday night.”

The Jumbos accumulated a significant lead to begin the match, claiming

JULIA MCDOWELL / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior middle hitter Christina Nwankpa serves the ball during the Tufts’ 3–1 home win over Brandeis on Sept. 12. eight points before the Beacons won their first. Thanks to numerous attack errors by UMass Boston and powerful kills from Stewart, Bright, Desler, Holz and Nwankpa, the Jumbos maintained a dominant lead throughout the set. At 24–16, UMass Boston sophomore setter Carsen Komminsk committed an error to give the Jumbos the first set.

The second set seemed to continue the same trend as the first, with the Jumbos creating a six-point gap early on. First-year setter/opposite Ariel Zedric wrapped up the victory 25–12 with an ace to put the Jumbos ahead 2–0. While the beginning of the third set proved to have the tightest score throughout the match with the teams knotted at seven, Tufts managed to pull away courtesy of a kill by Bell and an ace by Desler. Although the Beacons did not trail by much throughout the rest of the set, Desler’s kill at 24–20 closed out the win for the Jumbos.

“I was very proud of their discipline throughout the match and their tough serving,” Thompson said. “UMass Boston has a quick and tough offense when they are in system so we needed to serve them tough to neutralize it. Our team did that well.”

The Jumbos will recover with a matchless week before they face the Middlebury Panthers away on Friday night. Thompson spoke of Tufts’ need to keep performing at the highest level if it is to compete successfully going forward.

“Our focus remains on doing what we need to do, and can do, well. If we are the best version of ourselves, it doesn’t matter what or who is on the other side of the net,” Thomspon said. “We will work to be disciplined and confident in our game against a team that will challenge us every point. We are looking forward to having another awesome opportunity to play great ball and improve.”

7

Jeremy Goldstein The Anti-Bostonian

The case for the Celtics’ motley cast of characters

F

or my money, the most compelling part about the Boston Celtics is their eclectic cast of characters.

From all walks of life and all corners of the globe (considering it may not be round in this instance), the Celtics present a crew that almost mirrors the city itself. Hard, working-class strongmen are complimented by cerebral craftsmen who prefer to do their damage outside of the painted area. Some are slowly rebuilding their strength; some are young talents eager to prove their worth in an environment full of competition.

This charming microcosm was on display in the playoffs last season when the Celtics were without top scorer and top troller Kyrie Irving, who was battling a knee injury. Here, the city rallied around a team without a star who had set the Eastern Conference ablaze all season. The Celtics turned to the cast of characters around him — an unheralded mix of personalities striving for a common goal. And they strove.

Of course, this starts from the top down. Danny Ainge is not on the court anymore, but a master puppeteer behind the scenes. Playing the game of chess for him is Popovich-in-waiting Brad Stevens, engineer of team basketball and getting Kyrie Irving to play only slightly below-average defense. They’re respected. They’re trusted. Ainge has the blue-collar ex-player reputation. Stevens is the revered professor but is down to earth enough to reach the Boston crowd.

There’s Big Al Horford in the middle, hard to miss. He earns the crowd’s plaudits in his willingness to put the team first. A passing big man who can’t rebound? But he can shoot? It’s futuristic and anachronistic at the same time, somehow. Gee, I bet he’s under-appreciated in his contract?

He makes over $28 million a year? Oh well.

Backing him up is hard-man Aron Baynes, who surprisingly decided to shoot nearly 48 percent from downtown in the postseason. He has the tenacity, the beard, the aggressiveness, the rebounding and the beard (did I say that already) to hold up the backbone that Horford can’t quite provide. A quality mix.

On the wing there’s Gordon Hayward, a Stevens disciple from his days at Butler University, back from a gruesome injury that occurred in the opening minutes of last season. Jayson Tatum — who by no fault of his own is just a tad overhyped — is a Danny Ainge success story who could turn out to be the gem of his draft class. He’s fun, he’s fearless and he’ll dunk over Lebron (not hypothetically — he actually has).

Up top there’s the charming, yet aptly named “Scary” Terry Rozier, who is frightening when he goes on a scoring barrage like he did against the Bucks in last season’s playoffs and terrifying Eric Bledsoe into a McGregor-like submission. Marcus Smart, who has already been ejected from a preseason game for a skirmish with old-faithful bugaboo J.R. Smith, brings the brawn. There’s pesky Semi Ojeleye, the aforementioned Kyrie, chess-playing Jaylen Brown and maybe even the ghost of Avery Bradley.

Stay tuned, but don’t expect a parade down Boylston St. just yet.

Jeremy Goldstein is an assistant sports editor on the Daily. He is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Jeremy can be reached at Jeremy.Goldstein@tufts.edu

8 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Tufts student-athletes fly flag high for college and country

COURTESY PAUL KATSIAUNIS; RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY; COURTESY JUSTIN KOUYOUMDJIAN; RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

From left to right: junior Paul Katsiaunis, senior Raul Mendy, sophomore Justin Kouyoumdjian and sophomore David Gelfand.

by Maddie Payne Sports Editor

For student-athletes, sports are a source of fun, a way to stay in shape or a social activity, but most importantly, they are a passion. Many of these individuals will pour thousands of hours into training during their college careers, and for the elite few, playing their sport in college is a pathway to the major leagues. In Div. III, it is widely touted that “academics come first,” and pursuing a sport beyond the collegiate level is uncommon and unexpected. However, rare opportunities give some students the chance to compete on a national level, with four such individuals on this very campus.

Junior Paul Katsiaunis founded the Greece Lacrosse Association in 2014 and has captained the side ever since. After a four-year effort spent building the team and establishing a presence in Greece in order to introduce and spread lacrosse, Katsiaunis’ work culminated at the 2018 Lacrosse World Championship in July, where the Greek side played seven games and finished 19th of 46 teams.

The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) approved Greece’s membership only a year earlier in May 2017. In the months that followed, Katsiaunis navigated a chaotic process of pulling athletes from different backgrounds and ages to compete.

“The idea came into my head right around the time that I realized that I didn’t have much of a future in football,” Katsiaunis said.

“In 2014, I was in Greece watching the [World Lacrosse Championship], and I realized that Greece didn’t have a team. That made me furious — I hated that. After the games ended, I was able to get in contact with the [executive director] of Israel Lacrosse, and he gave me the resources to start a Greek program that summer.”

The FIL dictates that each national team can have up to four “non-national passport holders” on its roster.

Lacrosse’s sparse presence in Greece meant that Katsiaunis had to scour the lacrosse rosters of American universities and pick out people purely by their name in the hope that they held a Greek passport and were interested in joining the team.

“Between 2014 [and] 2017, I did a lot of recruiting and a lot of managing of logistics and fundraising,” Katsiaunis said. “The most time-consuming was the recruiting — writing out emails to Greek players, contacting college coaches, going down local rosters and seeing someone with a really really long last name made my eyes light up. There [is] no better feeling than waking up to an email from a Div. I stud that wants to play on your team, who also knows some friends who play professionally who want in.”

Senior Raul Mendy, a defenseman for the Jumbos, had a similarly unconventional path to captaining the Argentina national team at the same tournament.

He came across a little-known Instagram account for the Argentina Lacrosse Association, and reached out via direct message to learn more information. Like Greece, Argentina was only approved as an FIL member nation in 2017. Despite playing scarcely during his recovery from a torn ACL in the spring of 2017, Mendy made the Argentinian roster as a passport-holding player.

Mendy and Katsiaunis were not the only members of the Tufts community involved in the FIL World Championship. In fact, Tufts was the best-represented New England university at the tournament. Jordan Korinis (LA ’12) joined Katsiaunis on Team Greece, scoring nine goals, while Dan Leventhal (LA ’14), who was part of Tufts’ national championship-winning squad in 2014, netted eight goals for Israel. Ernesto Melero (LA ’14), who was on the Jumbos’ roster as a firstyear and a sophomore, scored 14 goals for Mexico — the team’s second-leading scorer of the tournament.

The Argentinian team convened in Munich, Germany for a week, before heading to Netanya, Israel for the tournament from July 12–21. Although the team was in game mode upon arrival, the tournament gave the players an opportunity to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds.

The team itself represented a diverse blend of personalities: Its youngest member was still in high school, while the oldest playsee INTERNATIONAL ATHLETES, page 7

Volleyball responds to Amherst disappointment with dominant win over Trinity

by Haley Rich Sports Editor

Tufts sits third in the NESCAC with a 11–7 record (5–2 in-conference) with a pair of wins this week. The team dominated UMass Boston (11–7) on the road on Tuesday before falling to NESCAC rival Amherst (12–3) at home on Friday night.

The Jumbos then bounced back to take down the Trinity Bantams (8–6) at Cousens Gym on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday, the Jumbos rolled through the Bantams in a quick threeset match that demonstrated the hosts’ superiority over their conference foes.

Tufts started off quickly, gaining a 14–5 lead, and Trinity first-year middle hitter Alexandra Kelly ultimately sealed the first set with an error that gave Tufts a 25–14 win. The Jumbos were equally dominant in the second set, pulling away to an 11–5 lead that they maintained throughout the rest of the set with little contest from the Bantams.

Kills from senior outside hitter/opposite

and co-captain Mackenzie Bright and first-year middle hitter/opposite Gracie Jendrezak, with junior setter/opposite Rachel Furash assisting both, clinched the second set for Tufts, 25–13. The third set unraveled in like fashion, with an ace by junior outside hitter/opposite Brigid Bell clinching a 25–16 victory.

“Every new season brings new challenges and when faced with adversity, this group is great at refocusing on the task and opponent ahead of us,” junior middle hitter/opposite Heather Holz told the Daily in an email. “Considering Friday’s loss to Amherst, I’m really proud of how we came out strong and continued to play at a consistent level throughout the match against Trinity.”

First-year outside hitter/opposite Cate Desler believes communication played a big role in Tufts’ success against Trinity.

“A big theme this season has been communication,” Desler told the Daily in an email. “For our match against Trinity, we focused on always saying something while

we are on the court and this emphasis brought us success this Saturday.”

The Jumbos played their first home match in two weeks on Friday night against the Amherst Mammoths, who held fourth place in the NESCAC standings.

The first set was very tight, with the teams trading points back and forth for the majority of the set. The set was marked by strong offense and few errors from both sides. The Jumbos, at one point, found themselves down 12–9, but responded swiftly with a five-point swing that included two aces by Bell to make the score 14–12. Tufts’ lead remained slight until the very end of the set, when the team began to pull away. A kill by junior outside hitter/opposite and co-captain Maddie Stewart claimed the first set for the Jumbos, 25–18.

The second set proved to be as tight as the first, with Amherst trailing by only a few points throughout. The Jumbos kept their play controlled, committing no more than five errors throughout the second frame. Down 21–16, the Mammoths threat-

ened a comeback, climbing their way back to 21–19, but kills by Bell, Desler and junior middle hitter/opposite Christina Nwankpa proved too strong, and the Jumbos took the second set 25–20.

The third set began with numerous lead changes and substitutions from both sides. With the score tied at 18, Amherst made a move for the set. Kills by a host of Mammoths, including junior outside hitter Emily Kolsky, paired with a couple of Tufts errors were enough to grant the Mammoths the third set, 25–20.

Up 14–11 in the fourth set, it appeared that the Jumbos might capture the set and the match. However, the Mammoths clawed back to tie up the score at 14. The set remained tight for its duration, with the teams knotted at 24 and 25 points apiece before a kill by Amherst sophomore outside hitter Jamie Dailey and an attack error by Bright handed it to the Mammoths, 27–25. see VOLLEYBALL, page 7