The Tufts Daily - October 16, 2017

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Student groups hope to spark new friendships through conversation see FEATURES / PAGE 3

FOOTBALL

Jumbos suffer brutal loss to Bantams after long pick-six

Japanese Breakfast serves somber, sunny-side up songs see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

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TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 26

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Monday, October 16, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Same Roots, Different Soil explores African diaspora with weekend-long conference

MIKE FENG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Members of S-Factor perform at the closing ceremony of the Same Roots, Different Soil conference in Barnum Hall 008 on Oct 15. by Anar Kansara News Editor

“Same Roots, Different Soil”, a three-day long, student-run conference held this past weekend, explored the art, religion and politics of the African diaspora through speakers, panels, art shows and a workshop. The event, which spanned from Oct. 13–15 at different locations on campus, was hosted and organized by the African Students’ Organization (ASO), Caribbean Student Organization (CSO) and the Cape Verdean Student Association (CVSA).

According to junior Caila Bowen, the director of events for CSO, a total of 113 tickets were sold for the conference and 500 were sold for the after-party. The conference was attended by students from a wide variety of colleges and universities in the Northeast, including Yale University, Brown University, Vassar College, Harvard College and others, according to CSO Director of Public Relations Kella Merlain-Moffatt. The conference’s main purpose was to explore the different backgrounds of the African diaspora and bring students who

identify with those backgrounds together through the various events, MerlainMoffatt, a sophomore, said. “Same Roots, Different Soil is a conference of exploring blackness through the context of Africa and the Caribbean,” MerlainMoffatt said. “We truly believe that this conference will be able to bridge gaps and that our participants will be able to leave with new knowledge.” According to Merlain-Moffatt, the idea of the conference was conceptualized in the spring of this year by a group of friends who felt there was a lack of spaces that

explored blackness through the African and Caribbean lens. Rebecca Antwi, president of ASO, agreed, saying there was a need to look at the African and Caribbean perspective among area college students. “We wanted to have a conference exploring blackness, not only through the American perspective but through the Caribbean-African perspective because a lot of people here are either international students or first-gen students from the Caribbean and Africa,” Antwi, a senior, said. “We have clubs, we have meetings, but we haven’t had a chance in the Northeast to come together and have a conference, specifically talking about our roots, our culture, the similarities and differences we have while being black in America at the same time.” According to Antwi, this conference was the first of its kind and involved months of careful planning and coordination. She mentioned how it was important for her and other executive board members of ASO, CSO and CVSA to strike a balance between fun and educational events. Desmond Fonseca, the treasurer of CVSA, said that organizers also worked to ensure the conference reflected the various identities present in the African diaspora during the planning process. “We’d have meetings that would go on for two or three hours just about what we want the conference to look like,” Fonseca, a sophomore, said. “The name of the conference is [Same Roots, Different Soil] — so this idea of roots being a very powerful one — just so that we can be stronger as a community, whatever community means in terms of the African diaspora.” Fonseca added that professors and other advisors assisted in the planning of the conference. Antwi said the conference was an important avenue to start conversations see ROOTS, page 2

TCU Senate discusses plans for upperclassmen village, housing lottery reform by Seohyun Shim News Editor

The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate met last night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to discuss themed housing project Capen Village, review the social scene around homecoming and hear a presentation from Associate Director of Housing

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Operations Matthew Austin of possible changes to the housing lottery system. TCU President Benya Kraus opened the meeting, reporting on the progress of Capen Village, the university’s housing renovation plan to increase on-campus housing opportunities for upperclassmen, first suggested by the Residential Strategies Working Group. Kraus said that the plan will entail conFor breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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verting Tufts’ owned houses, especially the ones located between Winthrop Street and Fairmount Street, into junior and senior dorms. She noted the first houses will become available in fall 2018, and the project will be complete by fall 2019. Kraus also introduced the developing concepts for “identity housing,” and other themed housing arrangements

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that will open in Capen Village. She said the village will give upperclassmen a housing solution, with a current shortage of on-campus housing for upperclassmen and rising rents in the area. Later in the meeting, Kraus shared additional details on the plan for Capen Village. The tentative blueprint of the plan presented showed 145 see SENATE, page 2

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................5

COMICS.......................................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK


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