The Tufts Daily - Thursday, March 15, 2018

Professors discuss history and current relevance of co-major programs see FEATURES / PAGE 4

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Jumbos see mixed results in first weekend

‘Kanye Madness’: A breakdown of West’s best see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXV, ISSUE 34

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Thursday, March 15, 2018

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Ty Dolla $ign, Quinn XCII, Princess Nokia, Dutch ReBelle to perform at Spring Fling

by Isabel Valdelomar Contributing Writer

Tufts University Social Collective ( TUSC) Concert Board announced that the headliner for this year’s Spring Fling will be Ty Dolla $ign, with opening acts by Quinn XCII, Princess Nokia and Dutch ReBelle. Concert Board made the announcement at noon today in Hotung Café through a video featuring University President Anthony Monaco reading out the acts. Approximately 50 people were in attendance. The concert will take place on April 28.

Ty Dolla $ign, a rapper, songwriter and producer, is famous for his singles “Paranoid,” “Or Nah” and “Blasé.”

Quinn XCII is a Detroit-based indie pop artist who is currently on tour for his debut album, “The Story of Us,” released last September. Princess Nokia is a New York City-based rapper who embraces feminism and her queer identity in her work and Dutch ReBelle is a Bostonbased rapper who was nominated for Hip Hop Artist of the Year at the 2017 Boston Music Awards.

Charlotte Eccles, a sophomore and co-chair of TUSC Concert Board, said she and her co-chair Adam Meyer, also a sophomore, attempted to appeal to as wide of a Tufts student demographic as possible when searching for artists.

For this year’s concert, Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) will also be implementing changes not seen before, according to Eccles, including placing metal detectors at the entrances to ensure the safety of all attendees.

Additionally, instead of having one entrance for both Tufts students and guests, there will be one entrance for students between Ballou Hall and Goddard Chapel and a separate entrance for guests between Ballou and Barnum Halls. John Wescott, assistant director for campus life, told the Daily in an email that guests will also be required to show a government-issued ID.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Ty Dolla $ign is pictured at Yonge-Dundas Square on June 21, 2015.

Ashley Austin, associate director for campus life, said that for this year’s Spring Fling, no bags will be allowed inside the concert area. This no-bag rule will now include fanny packs and small handbags. She urged students to leave these at home to avoid being turned away.

The last major visible change being made is sectioning off Professors Row and designating it for the participating artists. Instead of having dressing rooms in

the Mayer Campus Center, artists will now be in their respective trailers, which will be parked on Professors Row, Eccles said.

Austin said none of these changes are in response to incidents or attitudes of Tufts students, but rather, they are an attempt to bring Spring Fling in line with similar events elsewhere.

“These changes are being made in accordance with industry standard around event management and open-air shows,” Wescott said.

This year, TUSC Concert volunteers will undergo Green Dot training in sexual misconduct bystander intervention, a program offered by the Center for Awareness, Resources and Education. “[Green Dot is] a pro-active and reactive Bystander Intervention program that focuses on changing our campus culture and building skills for a safer community,” Wescott said.

TAMID at Tufts hosts Michael Granoff for lecture on autonomous vehicles, electric energy

by Juliana Furgala News Editor

At an event hosted by TAMID at Tufts yesterday evening, Michael Granoff (LA ’91), founder of Maniv Mobility, presented a vision of the future that featured auton-

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omous vehicles and clean energy with Israel playing a key role. According to the TAMID at Tufts website, TAMID is a student-led consulting group that “offers programming for business-minded students through the lens of the Israeli economy.”

According to TAMID co-President Isaac

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Herman, a sophomore, the event was organized by co-President David Shepard, Director of Marketing Madison Dall and Director of Operations Spencer Zeff, all sophomores.

TAMID leaders and University President Anthony Monaco opened the event and

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introduced Granoff. Granoff began by describing his journey to electric energy and autonomous vehicles.

“I’ve been involved in the investment world and the technology world kind of

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING.......................6

see GRANOFF, page 2

COMICS.......................................9 OPINION...................................10 SPORTS............................ BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, March 15, 2018

THE TUFTS DAILY Catherine Perloff

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Michael Granoff discusses self-driving cars, clean energy

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COURTESY ALEXIS SERINO FOR TAMID AT TUFTS

Michael Granoff (LA ‘91), founder of Maniv Investments, speaks about clean energy, autonomous vehicles and the venture capital world at TAMID at Tufts’ event ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution.’

GRANOFF

continued from page 1 in tandem … I kept coming back to the topic of technology and national security,” Granoff said.

He described his discovery that oil, the “lifeblood of the global economy,” was a tool that had harmful impacts when used by some non-democratic countries.

Through a friend, he realized that in the United States, opinions on oil were split between two main groups.

“It’s a standoff between environmentalists and industrialists,” Granoff recalled being told.

Granoff continued by explaining his past predictions. In 2006, he determined that the future was based in electric technology. He met with two other entrepreneurs, Shai Agassi and Elon Musk, who, like Granoff, had very different ideas for the future. He described working with Agassi to develop a large-scale provider for electric cars and related services, an idea which failed but gave him his first experience working with electric vehicles.

In 2013, Granoff began to see the problem of gas and electric energy in a new way. He described four main components at work: gas, electric energy, mobility services and automation.

“I saw the 2D problem [of gas and electricity] as a 4D problem,” he said, emphasizing the impact of the ride-sharing company Uber and the self-driving car company Waymo.

He said his vision for today’s generation also changed.

“The real headline for this generation will be that we went from manual to automated,” Granoff said.

Granoff explained that electric is becoming increasingly inexpensive.

“The electric mile is demonstrably less expensive than a gas mile,” he said.

He stated that one obstacle to acceptance of autonomous vehicles will be consumers themselves. People often fail to analyze their own decisions clearly, Granoff noted. Yet he said he believes that despite this, it is possible to save both lives and time with fully electric vehicles. Granoff cited vehicle-to-vehicle communication and air updates in Israel.

According to Granoff, when he met a student in Israel who wanted to develop the first fully automated transport system there, he began to become more closely involved in autonomous vehicles. The interested investors who followed the idea led the project into venture capitalist territory. Seeing this system implemented globally is still far off though, Granoff noted.

Granoff introduced the idea of “new mobility,” coined by Intel, which describes the relationship that the younger generations have with transportation.

“We’re really at the beginning of this revolution. We’re at the precipice of a major disruption [where] people are finding they don’t need to drive and have all of the burdens of car ownership to have mobility,” he said. “[People] are already seeing the power of mobility as a service and I think they will see more and more, as automation comes on, that it’s a convenient cost-reducer.”

He predicted what people can expect to see in the coming years in the transportation industry.

“I expect a cyclical decrease in cars but an increase in miles … [and] a steep decline in the cost of transportation,” Granoff said.

While the changes he expects are significant, Granoff views them as positive.

“Technology today will allow us to price the road … and I think it’ll be a terrific thing. People can decide whether cost of the convenience factor is more important to them,” Granoff said.

He closed his presentation by talking about some of the products on which he has worked. One such product is Phantom Auto, which uses the idea of “teleoperations,” where a control center monitors fully automated cars and makes corrections if anything goes wrong. Granoff also spoke about the push for cybersecurity in protecting these automated cars.

With all of this rapid development, Granoff sees Israel as a major source of the technology push.

“It’s remarkable that in the past few years Israel has become a major center of global transportation innovation, and there’s every indication that that momentum is going to continue. I would encourage people to come and see it for themselves,” Granoff said.

Herman said he was satisfied with the event overall.

“Technology can and will play a huge part in the future of fixing climate change,” Herman wrote in an electronic message to the Daily. “It is important for people to know that industries, now finance and technology, are coming together to solve real problems and make the world a better place.”

TUPD uses TuftsAlert, safety training, arms police to protect community members Executive Online Editor Senior Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors Social Media Editors

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by Austin Clementi Staff Writer

In light of the recent tragedy at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as well as the recent discovery of a gun magazine clip at the McGlynn Middle School in Medford, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) has put sufficient safety measures in place to protect community members from a potential active shooter on campus, according

to Kevin Maguire, executive director of the Department of Public and Environmental Safety (DPES) and TUPD Police Chief.

Maguire said one measure the school has taken is the implementation of TuftsAlert, a system by which students subscribe themselves to be alerted, by text or email, in case of an emergency. The system was implemented in the fall of 2007 and was initially called Send Word Now before a 2013 rebranding, according to Geoffrey

Bartlett, Deputy Director of Public and Environmental Safety.

Bartlett said only 14 percent of students have not entered their contact information into the system.

He also emphasized that although subscribing to the system is an individual choice, doing so is the safest decision for all students. see TUPD, page 3

Thursday, March 15, 2018 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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3

TUPD officers discuss preparedness for active shooter

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

From left to right, Deputy Chief Mark Keith, Executive Director of Public and Environmental Health and Safety/Police Chief Kevin Maguire, Deputy Director of Operations Leon Romprey and Deputy Director Geoffrey Bartlett, who all are involved in emergency protocol in the case of an active shooter, pose for a portrait in the TUPD office located at Dowling Hall on March 12.

TUPD

continued from page 2 An email to the Daily composed jointly by Maguire, Bartlett, Deputy Director of Public Safety Operations Leon Romprey and Deputy Chief Mark Keith, outlined the steps community members should take upon receiving an alert.

“Community members should immediately seek out a secure area and await further instructions,” Bartlett said in the email. “If you are near, or traveling to campus, avoid the area and stay away until further notice.”

If an active shooter is on campus, Bartlett, Maguire and Romprey stated that students should follow the “Avoid, Deny, Defend” strategy to protect themselves from the shooter. Bartlett said this strategy was first outlined by Texas State University based on research on active shooter scenarios.

The university’s Emergency Response Guide details the Avoid, Deny, Defend response, saying that when an active shooter is in a student’s vicinity, they have three choices for how to respond to a shooter and should first avoid the threat.

“Trust your instincts and don’t delay.

Get away as quickly as possible,” the guide says.

If unable to move, students should deny the active shooter from accessing their area, taking actions such as barricading themselves in the room.

Self-defense should be used as a last resort. If confronted by a shooter, victims should do everything they are able to disarm the shooter, according to the guide.

The university’s Emergency Response Guide is delivered to all incoming undergraduate students in print form, according to Bartlett. The guide is also available online, as well as in the Tufts Mobile app, according to the Tufts Office of Emergency Management website.

Romprey emphasized that although the “Defend” aspect of the strategy may raise questions, active shooters are rarely prepared for victims to fight back. He added that people should understand that they are free to do what is necessary to defend themselves.

Maguire said that all incoming students are required to partake in a safety orientation called “Operation Awareness” during orientation week, which provides students with safety information, and has includ-

ed information on active shooters since September 2007.

Faculty, staff and student groups also receive in-person training, which has been provided to 1,000 faculty and staff since September 2016, according to Bartlett.

He also stated that members of the Tufts community can learn how to respond to an active shooter online through a video on the Office of Emergency Management website.

TUPD also works closely with the Medford and Somerville police departments, and, according to Bartlett, has a direct line of communication to these departments to get help in the event of a crisis on campus.

Maguire added that in a crisis situation such as an active shooter, other outside departments such as the Massachusetts State Police would be asked to send backup. He also spoke about TUPD’s commitment to informing the Tufts community in the event of a potential threat.

“Generally, our goal is to communicate with the community immediately when circumstances suggest a potential threat or danger,” Maguire said in the email.

In addition to these security measures, TUPD officers were armed with patrol rifles, commonly known in political discourse as assault weapons, in 2008. Maguire said that TUPD officers were trained to carry these rifles in response to the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, in which 33 people were killed and 17 injured.

Maguire added that every active TUPD officer can carry such a weapon.

However, these weapons are only deployed in certain situations, such as with active shooters or when officers know they will confront someone with a weapon.

“The benefit of having TUPD officers trained in the use of patrol rifles … is that TUPD officers are able to respond immediately with the proper equipment, in time to save lives by stopping the shooter before the shooter does more harm,” the email stated. “Fortunately, it has not been necessary to deploy patrol rifles to date … but we are prepared to do so if necessary.”

Romprey added in an interview that these weapons are more accurate at a long range and allow officers to equal the firepower of active shooters.

First-year Zac Berman echoed Romprey’s sentiment.

“Because assault weapons are so easy [for anyone] to get … [police officers] need to at least match their firepower,” Berman said.

By contrast, sophomore Ann-Marie Lee, was apprehensive about police carrying weapons.

“I can understand the desire to be prepared for an immediate threat of a shooting (we all do!) but I find the sustained profiling and heightened sense of violence and danger towards

black, brown, trans, gender-nonconforming and undocumented students and workers to be a violation of safety and shelter,” Lee wrote in an email to the Daily.

She added she personally does not feel safe around police on campus, due in large part to their being armed.

In response to such concerns, Maguire said that in general, the goal of TUPD is to ensure the safety of students.

REGISTRATION FOR THE NEW APPLICATION CYCLE Premed and predent students applying in 2018 must register with the Health Professions Recommendation Committee no later than April 1 to receive the support and letter of recommendation from our office and committee. The link to register online is students.apps.tufts.edu/apply/hprc/hprc_login.html.

Be sure to start this early and aim for registering by late March.

Also be sure to visit go.tufts.edu/apply for information about the process, timeline, requirements and more.

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Features

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Co-majors offer students interdisciplinary Lifelong Jumbo breadth, depth

Dorothy Neher How Tufts Works

I

mmediately after I entered Director of the European Center Gabriella Goldstein’s (LA ’84) office, she handed me a piece of chocolate.

After gratefully accepting it, I steered the conversation toward her background, trying to get a sense of the important themes of her life.

It was not until I unwrapped the piece of chocolate later and saw the elephant design on it that I realized it could serve as the answer to many of my questions. The chocolate was fitting for Gabriella because she is a lifelong, fully fledged Jumbo.

Starting as an undergraduate student at Tufts, Gabriella was heavily involved on campus. In her time here, she worked in a variety of jobs including at the Academic Resource Center, Dining Services and the campus pub.

Upon graduation in 1984, Gabriella was hired by Tufts Conference and Event Services to run a summer program for young adults with disabilities.

She described how rewarding it was to facilitate learning for people who were often neglected by traditional educational systems. Additionally, during the summers, Gabriella worked for the European Center in Talloires, France.

In the next phase of her career, Gabriella stayed connected to Tufts despite holding various jobs outside of the university. Notably, her experience as an administrative coordinator for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France further developed her affinity for France. Despite her travels, she came back to Tufts most summers to organize programs, conferences and events.

It was not until Gabriella took the job as the director of the European Center in 2002, though, that she made the transition back to Tufts for good. Since then, she has thrived in a position that combines her skills and passions and allows her to work in two places that she knows best.

During her summers in Talloires, Gabriella helps students respond to the challenges of being outside their comfort zones, make interpersonal connections and learn about themselves in a small and intimate setting. She said she likes the personal aspect of her work in Talloires the most because it gives her the opportunity to facilitate the growth of young people.

On top of that, Gabriella insisted that she learns just as much every summer as the students do.

“It’s a magical job in a magical place,” she said.

Upon returning from France every year, Gabriella is reminded of the reasons she was initially impressed by Tufts. As an undergraduate, she found that her peers respected each other for their different brands of intelligence, which extended beyond being book-smart. She says that this free-form smartness continues to be reflected in the “brace yourselves” quirkiness of the Tufts student body.

Mostly, though, Gabriella is deeply inspired by the passion of Tufts students and faculty. “That’s what I was exposed to here at Tufts and that’s why I’ve stayed,” she said. Tufts is clearly better off for her many years of service.

Dorothy Neher is a sophomore majoring in international relations and Spanish.

Dorothy can be reached at dorothy.neher@tufts.edu.

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

David Hammer, professor of phsyics and astronomy and chair of the education department, sits in his office on March 6.

by Jenna Fleischer

Assistant Features Editor

There are currently five courses of study that can be categorized as co-majors, according to the Registrar of the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering.

These co-majors consist of biomedical sciences, biotechnology, education, environmental studies (ENVS) and science, technology and society (STS).

The most recent Tufts Fact Book stated that out of 6,886 graduates from the classes of 2012 to 2016, there were 13 students majoring in biomedical sciences, 20 in biotechnology and 158 in ENVS. Co-majors, unlike primary majors, must be pursued in conjunction with another major. Faculty members interviewed by the Daily agreed that the experience of pursuing one of the co-majors with a complementary major is invaluable for students.

Environmental Studies The oldest of the five co-majors is ENVS, which was started in 1984 by the late Professor of Biology Norton Nickerson, who became the program’s first director.

Colin Orians, current director of the ENVS Program and professor of biology, explained Nickerson’s rationale.

“I believe environmental studies was originally designed to be a co-major, rather than a standalone one,” Orians said.

“Environmental studies is really broad, so the goal was to create a major that would add some breadth to the depth of your other, more singular major.”

As recently as fall 2012, ENVS only had three tracks: environment and technology, environment and society, and environmental science. However, when Orians started as program director in 2010, he initiated a revamp of the curriculum to add more rigor and foster a closer community.

“Our goal in the last eight years has been to build up the co-major so that students feel they can get both breadth and depth within the major, and if they add it to their other major, they can have yet another perspective and even be more competitive for jobs, graduate school, you name it,” Orians said.

Two of the three original tracks no longer exist. There are now six tracks: environmental science; sustainability, policy and equity; environmental communications; food systems, nutrition and the environment; environmental humanities; and a self-designed track. These expanded tracks allow students more flexibility and enable them to pursue the field of environmental studies in greater depth, according to Orians.

Even though ENVS is a co-major, Orians has found that many students consider it their primary major.

“There are a significant number of students who declare environmental studies before they declare their other major,” Orians said. “There’s no one type of student, but a lot of our majors come to Tufts knowing they want to major in environmental studies, so during their first two years they try and figure out what they want to pair it with.”

There will soon be a vote to determine if ENVS will offer a primary, standalone major, according to Orians.

“A lot of the process in the last year has been meeting with students and faculty to figure out what needs to be different for environmental studies to also be a standalone major,” Orians said. “The [primary] major will be more intensive, but now students who come here knowing they want to do environmental studies can really dive into the subject.”

Alexa Bishopric, a sophomore double majoring in political science and ENVS, is in favor of the creation of a primary ENVS major.

“I think to qualify the environmental studies major as a second major makes it seem like it is not as legitimate as other majors,” Bishopric told the Daily in an email. “The environmental studies major requires just as much, if not more than my political science major due to the internship requirement, and yet it does not have the same validation.”

However, the creation of the primary major will not mean the disappearance of the co-major, as Orians believes there are still many reasons to double major.

“One of the downsides of having a co-major is that you cannot pair it with another co-major. So until community health became a standalone major, students could not pursue this natural coupling,” Orians said. “However, I would encourage students to consider pursing the co-major because I do think there’s a reason to dive into a discipline and get that depth and that breadth.”

Biotechnology In 1997, 13 years after the creation of ENVS, the biotechnology co-major became a part of Tufts’ curriculum, according to Emmanuel Tzanakakis, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering. Tzanakakis, who became the program’s faculty advisor last summer, explained why the program was brought into existence.

“The biotechnology program was established to meet the needs for training in this area,” Tzanakakis said. “We see an increased number of students going into the field of biotechnology, and they’d like to be prepared for such opportunities.”

The biotechnology program has been designed with two tracks: a science track for liberal arts undergraduates and an engineering track for engineering undergraduates. Tzanakakis explained that these tracks allow flexibility depending on which school a student is in and which primary major they are pursuing.

According to Tzanakakis, most students who take up a biotechnology co-major largely come from the hard sciences and engineering.

“There are students double majoring in biochemistry, biology, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering among others, so there’s definitely a mix between the two schools,” he said. “It’s a great field to co-major in. It increases students’ marketability and also enriches their training, which employers really value.”

Currently, there are no plans to make biotechnology into a standalone major, but it is something Tzanakakis said could be re-assessed in the future. see CO-MAJORS, page 5

F e at u r e s

Thursday, March 15, 2018 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

5

Professors see academic, real-world value in co-majors CO-MAJORS

continued from page 4 “Making biotechnology a major right from the start would require much more work and entail much more risk,” he said.

“We’d like to turn it into something bigger if there’s a full-fledged need, but at this point there hasn’t been a move to make it into a separate major.”

Education Starting in fall 2015, the Department of Education introduced an education co-major, in addition to a minor that was already offered.

Chair of the Department of Education David Hammer noted that members of the Tufts Community Union Senate led the push to create a major in education, but the department made the decision to make it a co-major rather than a primary one.

“Education is more an area of interest than a particular discipline. We thought undergraduates should have some depth and experience that they can bring to their education classes,” Hammer said. “Let’s not just have students have an education in education, but also bring to the table what they learn from their primary major.”

However, like ENVS, Hammer noted that just because education is not designated as a primary major, that doesn’t mean some students don’t think of it as one.

“We actually don’t think of education as a secondary major because for some students it may be their main interest, but they do need to have that accompanying major,” he said.

With the upcoming vote for the creation of a primary ENVS major, Hammer sees the topic of education becoming a primary major potentially occurring, but he believes it’s still best suited as a co-major.

“My argument is wanting people to experience a discipline so they can experience both depth and breadth,” Hammer said. “Co-majors do a nice job of complementing primary majors.”

Currently, according to Hammer, students co-majoring can chose between one of two concentrations: educational studies or teaching and learning. However, this is likely to change in the near future with an upcoming faculty vote to change the structure of the co-major.

“We realized there’s a whole spectrum of interests and people thinking of edu-

cation in all kinds of ways, and for us to suppose we knew which track to set up for these requirements seemed unnecessary,” Hammer said. “We want students to have the freedom to construct the program that works for them and their interests, with the help of a faculty member. That way, we really get to know our students.”

Hammer said there has yet to be a substantial number of graduates with a major in education, but one former student is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy.

Science, Technology and Society The university’s newest co-major, STS, has been around for two years.

Associate Professor of Mathematics and STS Program Director Moon Duchin explained that the program came about as a result of a faculty-driven initiative that came about when the Department of Anthropology was interviewing candidates for positions in the anthropology of science and technology.

“Going to those talks made me realize the [anthropology] department did a great job of reaching out around the university and finding people who had an interest in history, philosophy, anthropology of science,” she said. “A lot of us realized how many faculty we already had doing really great work in STS.” According to Duchin, STS has helped bring people together and, as an interdisciplinary program, draws from faculty and student interest across different departments.

“We’ve got really good attendance at our events, particularly our weekly lunch seminar. It’s a good time to see who are the community of people interested in the field,” Duchin said.

“We have people who do the co-major together with a range of other fields. We have a number of math, anthropology and art dual-degrees. We’re very satisfied that we’re drawing people from all around the university.”

Currently there are three tracks of study: bodies, health and medicine; science and the state; and mathematics and modeling.

Duchin sees potential for growth.

“One way I could see us growing is building out more tracks that are tailored to both our faculty specialties

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Colin Orians, biology professor and director of the environmental studies co-major program, sits in his office on March 6. and our students’ interests,” she said.

“There’s already been some talk about an ‘art and making’ track, and that’s the kind of thing I’m excited about developing. We’ve even been asked to consider a graduate program.”

Like Orians, Tzanakakis and Hammer, Duchin believes that not only does STS work well as a co-major, but some stu-

dents also consider STS their “intellectual home.”

“Going from a co-major to a primary major could make a lot of sense, but I actually like the fact that STS is adding value to a lot of other disciplinary modes of study by breadth and critique,” Duchin said. “I think it’s really good, intellectually, for our students.”

6 tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living

Thursday, March 15, 2018

An in-depth analysis of the ‘Kanye Madness’ bracket

VIA CARRINGTON HARRISON

The Kanye Madness bracket, created by 610 Sports Radio host Carrington Harrison and friends, went viral on Twitter on Selection Sunday.

by Ryan Eggers

Assistant Arts Editor

While today is the day that college basketball fans can gush over their smart picks or fuss over their busted brackets in the NCAA tournament, social media has provided the world an outlet for a different kind of March Madness: Kanye Madness.

A bracket of 64 of the Chicago-raised rapper’s greatest hits went viral because of a tweet on Sunday, sending the internet into a frenzy. While the actual bracket will be decided by Twitter polls throughout the month, an in-depth analysis of the field is necessary to truly crack into this blessed tournament of Kanye’s best.

Each of the four “regions” are named after his mom (Donda) and his three children (North West, Saint and Chicago). Starting with the upper left bracket, North West, there is already a plethora of tough decisions to be made.

North West For anyone attempting to fill out the bracket, the North West region doesn’t make it an easy start. The No. 1 seed “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” (2007) has a pretty unfair first round against “Amazing” (2009), a track that really shouldn’t be a No. 16 seed. The closest first round matchup of the region?

“So Appalled” (2010) versus “Never Let Me Down” (2004), two classic tracks featuring Kanye and Jay-Z. Other slighted songs include “Real Friends” (2016) and “Famous” (2016) as No. 13 and 14 seeds, respectively, despite being two of the strongest tracks on “The Life of Pablo” (2016). “Hey Mama” (2005) as a No. 12 seed is pretty disrespectful, too.

Songs from “My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy” (2010) should win out in this region, though, as “Devil in a New Dress” (2010) and “So Appalled” are two of the best sleeper cuts on the album and in Kanye’s entire discography. Look out for “Love Lockdown” (2008) and “New Slaves” (2013) as songs that could make a surprising run.

Winner: “Devil in a New Dress” Runner-Up: “New Slaves” Donda Moving on to the Donda region, this set of matchups contains perhaps the most unfair bout of the entire first round: No. 4 seed “Runaway” (2010) and No. 13 seed “Blood on the Leaves” (2013). Both are seeded worse than they should be, and both have the potential to do serious damage in any Kanye Madness tournament if they didn’t have to face each other so early.

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds of this region should be chalk, as “All Falls Down” (2004) should easily trounce “Addiction” (2005), and “All of the Lights” (2010) has a clear advantage over “School Spirit” (2004). Overall, there probably won’t be too many upsets in this region — the committee that seeded this tournament did a good job with Donda.

The toughest matchup is “The Glory” (2007) versus “Get Em High” (2004), which are both excellent non-singles off of their respective albums. That decision likely won’t matter though, as everyone in this region will have to eventually run into “Runaway,” which will easily win and make its way to the Final Four. “Blame Game” (2010) off of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” could make an interesting run, too.

Winner: “Runaway” Runner-Up: “Blame Game”

Chicago “Jesus Walks” (2004), one of Kanye’s most iconic hits ever, comes through as the No. 1 seed of the Chicago region; “Murder to Excellence” (2011) doesn’t stand a chance. Everything else in the region is pretty close, with tons of tough choices like “We Major” (2005) versus “30 Hours” (2016) and “Slow Jamz” (2003) versus “No More Parties in LA” (2016).

“The Life of Pablo” in general received a lot of unfair treatment in the tournament, getting some awful seeding for the first round. In what world is “No More Parties in LA” a No. 14 seed? It’s clear the person who made this tournament is an old Kanye fan, even though they did a solid job with most of the bracket.

“Jesus Walks” should make it through without much incident, though it’ll be interesting to see how the songs from “The Life of Pablo” will hold up, especially with a lot of younger fans voting on Twitter. “No More Parties in LA” could make a run, but don’t sleep on the lasting popularity of “Gold Digger” (2005) either.

Winner: “Jesus Walks” Runner-Up: “No More Parties in LA” Saint “Late Registration” (2005) gets some serious love here, as it’s represented by four of the tracks here in the Saint region. They’re all excellent tracks, and most of them will likely fall to each other rather than any other song in the bracket.

But, if the Donda region will be known for its lack of upsets, Saint will likely be known for how many it has. “Bound 2” (2013), “Ultralight Beam” (2016), “Dark Fantasy” (2010) and “Homecoming” (2007) all have a

decent shot at taking over their lower-seeded counterparts.

“Late Registration” will win the day eventually, though; “Heard ‘Em Say” (2005) and “Touch the Sky” (2005) will meet each other in the championship of the region. “Touch the Sky” is the favorite here, but “Heard ‘Em Say” just might eek it out due to Twitter being averse to anything too popular.

Winner: “Heard ‘Em Say” Runner-Up: “Touch the Sky” Final Four Sixty-four Kanye songs entered, but only four remain. Only one can be crowned champion. Let’s not mince words here, though, it’s Twitter — “Runaway” had this tournament locked up from the beginning.

The track has been a fan favorite for years; it is the perfect song to take over a bracket challenge like this.

On the other side of the bracket, “Jesus Walks” will probably take the cake over “Heard ‘Em Say,” as its classic-ness supersedes Twitter’s averseness to popularity. And as amazing as “Jesus Walks” is, it will lose a close battle to “Runaway.”

Winner: “Runaway” Runner-up: “Jesus Walks” What a tournament. Every March should have this kind of Kanye devotion for the rest of time. Or just every month in general. The concept has already spun imitations like a Drake Madness bracket and has grabbed the attention of hundreds of thousands of Twitter users worldwide.

Kudos to the team that created this idea and the bracket, as it should make for a fun March for all Kanye and/or non-sports fans.

They only made one mistake: “Everything I Am” (2007) is nowhere to be found.

Arts & Living

Thursday, March 15, 2018 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

‘Life Sentence’ proves disease does not entail a love story

Julian Blatt Tufts Creatives

The student becomes the master

by Julian Blatt Staff Writer

Since the publication of John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” (2012) and its 2014 film adaptation, the romanticism of cancer seems to have become a staple of American popular culture. Last month, Netflix released an original film entitled “Irreplaceable You” (2018) about a woman who, after she is given a terminal cancer diagnosis, determines to live the remainder of her life to the fullest. In the wake of these successes, it is no surprise that The CW would attempt its own tumorous love story. Unfortunately, “Life Sentence” (2018–) proves to be a disease for which there is no cure.

The promising premise of the show makes its inferiority even more regrettable.

While many of the protagonists in related works eventually succumb to their illnesses, “Life Sentence” opens with Stella (Lucy Hale) receiving the news that she is cured. No longer ensnared in death’s embrace, Stella must now face her new life sentence: She has been sentenced to life, and all the pleasures and pains that come with it. As Stella adjusts to her new reality, she is shocked to discover the secrets her loved ones have kept from her, ranging from the asinine (her husband Wes, played by Elliot Knight, only farts outdoors to please her) to the jaw-dropping (her mother, portrayed by Gillian Vigman, has left her father and begun a relationship with a female family friend.) Despite its best intentions, however, Stella’s startling and inspiring adventure is not enough to keep the audience’s interest alive.

The show’s tediousness is most apparent in its incessant and contrived use of voiceover.

Another Netflix release from earlier this year, “The End of the F***ing World” (2017–), powerfully manipulated narration to add another dimension to its already larger-than-life characters and draw viewers further into the story.

In “Life Sentence,” however, the voiceover can only be described as unnecessary. For example, we hear Stella announce her plan to join the work force as a barista – while we see her standing behind the register of a coffee shop.

Although there are certainly more provocative moments, such as when Stella learns that her sister gave up a scholarship at Columbia to take care of her, the continuous narrative mainly serves to fill air time and demonstrates that showing should always be prioritized over telling.

Moreover, Hale’s performance seems incongruous with the comedic aspect of “Life Sentence.” As the star of the drama series “Pretty Little Liars” (2010–2017) and

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VIA THE CW

A promotional poster for the CW series Life Sentence (2018–) is pictured. the upcoming horror movie “Truth or Dare” (2018), Hale is undoubtedly accustomed to delivering theatrical and emotional performances and has yet to become familiar with the more lighthearted acting style that loyal CW viewers expect. Her overacting frequently hinders enjoyment of the show, most drastically for otherwise commonplace scenes. One character will make a casual remark, and Stella responds with a doe-eyed stare, unsure whether to laugh or cry, blissfully unaware that neither reaction is sensible, much less required. For many, television is a way to escape and block out the surrounding world, and doing so is impossible if we are constantly reminded that what we are watching is not real.

Luckily for Hale, the crew of “Life Sentence” covers up flawed performances like concealer disguises pimples. When Stella leaves the hospital, the gloominess instantly gives way to the dazzling brightness of the daytime sky, as though the audience, too, has been grant-

ed a second chance at life. To add to this effect, many of the songs played throughout are effervescent and defiant, suggesting that viewers, like Stella, must fight for their desires.

One often forgets that there are countless people involved in a production besides the star actors, but they deserve just as much of our attention and respect, especially when they are wholly responsible for salvaging an utterly lifeless show.

Essentially, “Life Sentence” is merely another story about the difficulty of young adulthood, lacking the rich spirituality of “The Fault in Our Stars” and the passionate agony of “The End of the F***ing World.” Thus, the show is little more than a backbone, offering viewers nothing to remember once the episode ends. If the writers had fleshed it out just a bit more, if they had allowed it to breathe, then perhaps it could have had a fighting chance, but as it stands, “Life Sentence” would be better off laid to rest in a heap on The CW’s cutting room floor.

or many of us, dancing is an activity we dare not attempt, lest we somehow manage to dislocate all of our joints and break every bone in our bodies. However, for an experienced ballerina like first-year Elizabeth Gleeson, dance is more than an “activity” or even an art: It’s a lifestyle. In fact, Elizabeth has expressed such an intense passion for dance that, last week, she was given the chance to teach a dance lesson for the first time in her life, an opportunity she eagerly accepted.

Julian Blatt (JB): Is teaching a dance class different from being a student?

Elizabeth Gleeson (EG): I realized immediately that teaching a class is an incredibly different experience compared to being a student. When you’re a student, dancing is about thinking about and focusing on yourself, but a teacher must pay attention to everyone else and try to minimize the disparity between how people are moving.

So teachers must be incredibly nitpicky and give even the most minor detail their complete concentration. Nevertheless, I greatly appreciate the opportunity, and I hope that I have the chance to teach again in the future.

JB: How did you become interested in dancing?

EG: I actually didn’t start dancing until I was 13, but I used to love watching YouTube videos of dancers, especially classical ballets, and from there I became interested in modern and contemporary. It was fascinating to me to see how diverse one art form could be, and that there are so many different ways to express oneself creatively through movement. Eventually, I thought, “Oh, that’s really cool, I want to do that.” And then one day, my friend said that she wanted to take a dance class but she didn’t want to go by herself, so I took the class with her and now I can’t imagine myself not dancing.

JB: Why is dancing enjoyable for you?

EG: It’s an emotional outlet. It allows me to physically express my creativity. Also, I’m a member of both SOC and Sarabande, which are fairly large ensembles, and I enjoy bonding with the other dancers. I’m a freshman, so I’m able to look to the older and more experienced dancers for guidance; they’re amazing role models and my primary source of inspiration.

JB: Does dancing require you to close your mind to the outside world?

EG: Definitely. At my studio back home, my teacher always talked about dance as a kind of mindfulness. Even though it’s not your classic meditation, it necessitates being present and focused on what’s going on in the moment and not letting other things distract you. I definitely think that when I am dancing, either in a dance class or rehearsal, I adopt a mindset where externalities like homework and arguments with friends don’t matter, and I can devote myself entirely to dancing.

JB: How do you hope the audience reacts when you perform?

EG: When someone creates a piece of music or a dance, he or she shapes it from something that the person feels or has experienced and wants it to evoke a particular thought process or a certain vulnerability or emotion. And that’s what we strive for as dancers — we want to convey how we’re feeling to other people and make them feel the same.

JB: Most embarrassing moment in your dancing career?

EG: In high school, I vomited on stage during a dress rehearsal. I’m still recovering from that.

Julian is a first-year majoring in cognitive and brain sciences. Julian can be reached at julian.blatt@tufts.edu.

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Thursday, March 15, 2018 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Anna: “A drug dealer and a basketball star. What a double threat.”

Comics

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Ask the Daily: Letting them down gently ANSWER BY YJ CHEE

: How do you let someone know you’re not interested in them romantically, even after it’s been made clear to that person that you’re dating someone else?

I’m really stumped.

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Difficulty Level: Trying to get out of town between nor’easters.

Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Sun Mar 11 23:50:30 2018 GMT. Enjoy!

: Hi there! I’m sorry you’re going through a difficult position with your relationships right now! It’s great that you’ve found someone you like and as a side note it’s great that other people also like you. This might be tough, but one way to really make it clear is to make it clear every time that person tries to make a move on you. This is in the hope that at some point this person would get the message. Obviously, this would be taxing on you every time, but it does the job of driving the message home each time.

Another way is to have a mutual good friend among the both of you also try hinting or even directly telling that person that you are not interested and that you are not feeling comfortable with the current situation. Sometimes, people may just need to hear it from anywhere but the horse’s mouth. That way, it could act as a signal to the other person that this is really affecting you.

And if all else fails, try taking a time-out from that friendship. I’m assuming both of you are friends, so this could give both of you the necessary time and space to clear the air and re-set your relationship again. If it’s a friendship that matters to both you and the other person, I think both parties, including the other person, would do whatever it takes to maintain at least a basic level of courtesy and respect each other’s wishes. And when the dust settles, maybe then it would be a good time to resume a relationship that could be healthy again.

Wednesday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

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Add a beer for $3 (restrictions apply) Thursday- Select 1/2 Priced App's (Bar Only) Friday- $1 Oysters & Clams (Bar Only) 4-6 Saturday-$18.95 Prime Rib w Mashed

10 tuftsdaily.com

Aneurin Canham-Clyne Red Star

What makes the Nazis?

T

he suburbs are uniquely suited to produce isolated, scared, racist, reactionary people. Despite increasing diversity, residential suburbs linked to cities primarily by car began as a way to create a class of white people detached from the urban centers. Suburban development entrenched segregation, through school funding measures, housing laws, zoning laws and access to government and private loans.

Suburbia is apocalyptically unsustainable, but that’s a whole different question — one whose answer lies primarily in sustainable urban development and policy intervention in the suburbs.

Suburban life, particularly since the decline of organized labor, makes people particularly susceptible to racist propaganda. The forces that once held this in check, from the local union to the neighborhood school to the library, are in decline or increasingly transformed into spaces that reproduce capitalist working relations.

What made the working classes revolutionary were the relationships between people. They traveled to work on the same streetcars, buses and trains, attended the same religious institutions, suffered the same poverty and found the same relief as other workers.

They lived in the same apartment buildings, barracks and villages as their co-workers. They lived, worked and died in the company of brother workers. This lived class experience created a basic revolutionary consciousness.

These relationships are the ground upon which socialist movements are built.

Suburban life, with its long commutes, dying social institutions and meagre public space, creates an atomized life. It’s not really a social life, if you don’t work the land or work and live with others. It’s not connected to nature, in that seclusion in a car and maintenance of a lawn make for a sterile and antagonistic relationship with all that grows.

It’s often not even reality, given the degree of mediation through phones, radios and televisions. All of this creates a life where people interact with power structures alone. Talk radio is probably the best example of this, as it allows right-wing agitators one-on-one access to people with long commutes. This access is one-way: an authoritative voice booming from the console of a tiny plush cell telling you all your problems are caused by the individual behavior of individual antagonists. Suburban life, lived individually, produces a world view where individual behavior is responsible for broader economic and political problems. In the absence of other people, relating only to media, it’s easy to come to believe that ‘drug users cause poverty,’ instead of the obvious ‘poverty causes drug use.’ It makes it even harder to correctly identify the forces that create poverty and inequality.

Colleges are more progressive political spaces because they have common social life.

Dorms, dining halls, mass-lectures, common transit and public spaces reproduce some of the social relations of the working classes, which is why students and workers have often had a tenuous alliance. This is just one reason why people who have a college education tend to be a bit more progressive than unorganized suburban middle-class whites who don’t, or who are far-removed from their days in the classroom.

Don’t forget the social in socialism.

Aneurin Canham-Clyne is a junior majoring in history. Aneurin can be reached at aneurin.canham_clyne@tufts.edu.

Opinion

Thursday, March 15, 2018

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Daily has an Israel problem

by Daniel Kamlarz In light of the article “Tufts Police Chief travels to Israel for counterterrorism seminar” from Jan. 26 and the recent article “Students, staff, administration respond to TUPD counterterrorism training” from March 8, one thing has become absolutely clear: The Tufts Daily has a bias against Israel.

It is one thing to publish a series of opinion pieces against Israel, it is another to publish those anti-Israel opinions as facts of news stories and features. Op-eds are a completely valid forum to express the wide range of opinions that exist on this campus. And while op-eds might not always be effective in gaining support or awareness of an issue, they do as they are supposed to do: inform of the opinions on this campus.

However, news stories are different.

They have a responsibility to inform, and not misinform, the public, however that may look like. In this case, misinforming the public looks like this: taking as fact a campaign known as “Deadly Exchange” based entirely not on facts but anti-Israel sentiment, shortening the lone pro-Israel student response to a few essentially irrelevant lines and giving as much space as possible for anti-Israel student groups

to spread their hateful rhetoric without challenge in the most widely circulated publication at Tufts.

As an Israeli student, perhaps the most personally insulting thing was how the Daily freely labeled anti-Israel groups on campus as ‘activist’ groups. The implication is obvious: If you support Israel, you are regressive. If I choose to openly identify as Israeli, thereby accepting the legitimacy of Israel, I am seen as undermining the efforts of proactive student activists.

And that is off the Jan. 28 article alone.

The Tufts Daily doubled down on its stance on March 8. Not only was the student response against the “Deadly Exchange” petition limited, it was completely absent. Readers were only shown Professor Amahl Bishara (and therefore a much more authoritative source than any student could be) repeating a similar narrative to the “Deadly Exchange” campaign: a grossly inaccurate characterization of the Anti-Defamation League’s NCTS counter-terrorism training seminar and Israel’s security framework in general.

The March 8 article’s portrayal of the petition sounds like there is no student opposition. No part of the article mentions, for example, how several students actively opposed the petitions’

association of the DACA issue to that of Israel/Palestine. While it is important to advocate on behalf of DACA, especially in light of the recent “expiration” of DACA work permits and the deportation threats made by the Trump administration, it is an inappropriate and false juxtaposition to Israel’s security framework. It is a stretch to loosely connect an urgent issue to a faulty campaign in order to make that campaign appear more legitimate. Furthermore, it does not help that the Daily article’s final line effectively serves as an advertisement that the petition “is still open for new signatures.”

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is not an issue that can be tread upon lightly, regardless of the size and specificity of the case. It has become a cliché phrase of mine, but the conflict has gone on for over 70 years; it is not going to be solved in a day. One Daily article or one petition is not going to change the playing field. Therefore, the Daily should stick to its journalistic responsibilities.

Highlight both sides and accurately inform the public, or stay clear of the conflict.

Daniel Kamlarz is a senior majoring in international relations and and Middle Eastern studies. Daniel can be reached at daniel.kamlarz@tufts.edu.

CARTOON

REBECCA TANG 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.

Sports

Thursday, March 15, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts eager for new season despite loss of Varinos, others BASEBALL

continued from back During the offseason, Tufts looked to improve its hitting by using a program called “pitch occlusion.” By watching and analyzing videos of pitchers, the Jumbos aimed to increase the speed at which they recognize pitches so that they can marginally improve reaction time when at the plate. The team spent much of its time in the offseason perfecting this aspect of the mental game in order to see better results in its hitting.

“In baseball, you only have 0.4 seconds to react, so when your mind has to decide whether or not you’re going to swing, the brain physically can’t do that,” O’Hara said.

“Your brain picks up patterns, and that’s how people hit is they recognize patterns out of the hand. We were just focusing and dialing in on that to try to improve our mental game.”

As the offseason transitioned into the preseason, the Jumbos began to narrow their focus on game-specific simulations and preparations.

“I think we’ve mostly been fine-tuning the stuff that we need for the games like situational play, making sure pitchers are getting their arms ready and hitters are seeing as many live at-bats as possible,” Day said. “I think it’s just kind of creating that live scenario to get you ready for the games and a lot of scrimmaging.”

The team will face Castletown on Friday in the first of 10 consecutive games on its spring break trip in Virginia and North Carolina. Last season, the Jumbos dominated the annual trip with an 8–1 record, including a 6–4 defeat of the Spartans.

“For the upcoming games, we want to get the rhythm for the rest of the season and set the tone early,” Day said. “We always want to get off to a good start, and we want to play baseball the way we can play it. That’s not always determined in wins or losses — and we feel like we have a good team, and we can win — but it’s important to start playing up to our potential and get better with each game as the season progresses.”

FENCING

Marturano leads Jumbos with 11 victories at Northeast Regionals

EDDIE SAMUELS / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior sabre fencer Bridget Marturano (left) lunges at an opponent at the Northeast Fencing Conference Multi-Meet hosted by Boston College on Jan. 28.

by Bradley Schussel Sports Editor

On Sunday, the Tufts’ women’s fencing team ended its 2017–18 season at the NCAA Northeast Regionals. The Jumbos traveled a few miles to Brandeis’ Gosman Athletic Center in Waltham, Mass. to compete against fencers from all across the region.

The Northeast Regionals were different from most of the Jumbos’ other fencing meets this year. Athletes competed individually in each weapon category, and Tufts fencers got the chance to face opponents from several powerhouse Div. I programs with competitive recruiting, such as Harvard and Columbia. Needless to say, the competition was stiff.

The épée and sabre competitions began at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday. The Jumbos had just one fencer in the former weapon, as junior Annie Ayala went 1–3 in pool play, defeating Queens College junior Fatima Maryam. Harvard first-year Saanchi Kukadia won 17 of her 23 matches in the competition to finish in first place.

St. John’s senior Veronika Zuikova and Columbia senior Katie Angen took home the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Three Jumbos competed in the sabre event, including standout senior Bridget Marturano. Despite being seeded 30th going in, Marturano won 11 of her 23 matches, good enough for 11th place overall among the sabre fencers. The Malvern, Pa. native’s 11 wins were the most of any Jumbo at the regional tournament.

Marturano didn’t place higher than 11th because of her performance in the final round, in which she won only one

of her 11 matches. Her lone victory in the round came against Vassar senior Annie Innes-Gold, who finished one spot behind Marturano in the final standings. According to Martuano, she tried to fence well and have fun, and she was pleasantly surprised when she found out that she had advanced to the final round of the event.

“That was a huge goal for me, but I had completely put the goal [of getting to the final round] out of my mind at that point,” Martuano said. “I’m so happy with my performance. I don’t think my season could have ended better.”

Marturano’s teammates in the sabre event could not make it out of the first round. Senior Nayab Ajaz won one of her four matches, defeating Long Island University Post first-year Danielle Haye. Ajaz finished the event in 40th place.

Tufts sophomore Lucy Pavlovich could not manage a win in her first-round matches, resulting in a 46th-place finish.

The foil competition began an hour later at 9:30 a.m., with three more Tufts fencers competing. Senior co-captain Julia O’Gara failed to win a match in the first round, placing her 43rd overall.

First-year Georgia Kollias won two of her four matches but failed to advance out of the first round and finished in 36th place.

Junior Zoe Howard came in seeded 37th and led the charge for the Jumbos, advancing to the third round and finishing 21st overall. The Weston, Conn. native won five total matches, despite facing a handful of tough opponents — including several fencers from a strong Columbia team. Howard was pleased with her performance on Sunday.

“Regionals is always a really difficult competition for the Tufts team,” Howard said. “We’re fencing Div. I schools that recruit competitively. I felt really good about the way I fenced. The 2016 Cadet World Champion [Columbia first-year Sylvie Binder] was there, and I got three touches on her, to her great annoyance. So that was a highlight of the day.”

Due to the way the competition was structured, Howard was the last Tufts fencer on the strip. Her teammates cheered her on during her third-round loss to Columbia sophomore Ester Schreiber.

The Northeast Regionals was the final meet of the 2017–18 season for Tufts. In the team competitions, the Jumbos won seven of their 20 matches. The team will graduate four seniors this year, many of whom have been key contributors: Marturano, Ajaz, O’Gara and co-captain Grace Tellado.

“I thought I was going to be so sad when my last fencing meet came,” Martuano said. “But I had such a great year. I accomplished every goal that I set for myself. I’m just so happy that I was able to have a good four years with such an awesome team.”

The senior class for next year will be relatively small, featuring just Ayala, Howard and junior Phoebe Yang. The former two have already been announced as the co-captains of next year’s squad.

Howard noted that there will be big shoes to fill in the wake of her graduating teammates’ departures.

“Bridget is one of the most incredibly dedicated teammates that I have ever had,” Howard said. “Julia O’Gara, one of our captains this year, has been an amazing leader. The girls that we’re losing this year will be sorely missed.”

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Yuan Jun Chee On the Spot

It’s squeaky bum time

W

e’re eight games from the end of the Premier League season, and as Manchester City is just about crowned champion already by everyone, it’s less certain for the positions that matter.

The top six has almost certainly become five — Arsenal are eight points behind fifth-place Chelsea and 12 behind the last coveted spot of the Champions League with just 24 up for grabs. It looks like, barring them winning the Europa League, another season of mediocrity for a club that used to be one of the top challengers for the title.

Manchester United, on the other hand, gave themselves a big boost to confirm qualification for Europe’s premier club competition with a 2–1 victory over Liverpool that puts them in a commanding position to banish the memories of Tuesday’s Champions League defeat to Sevilla.

And while we’d never say it’s a foregone conclusion, it’s almost as if West Brom’s relegation fate has been sealed.

Granted, they’ve pulled off a great escape before, and teams like Leicester have done it in recent years, but the form book — the Baggies have not won a league game since January — suggests otherwise. The real question is who is likely to join them in the Championship next year.

All the teams in the bottom six, with the exception of newly promoted Huddersfield Town, have now replaced their managers, as Mauricio Pellegrino of Southampton lost his job on Monday night. All of the new managers, except for Alan Pardew (which could probably explain why the Baggies are where they are in the table), have led their teams to more points per game than their predecessors.

The fun part for the neutral observer is how many times the current bottom six will play each other. Stoke, Crystal Palace and West Ham each play another bottom-six side at least twice, setting up the stage for multiple six-point swings in a nail-biting race to the finish line.

Making things even more interesting, the bottom six have the added challenge of facing many of the top-four chasers.

It’s a case of both sides needing the three points, but for very different reasons.

And given how tight everything is down there, it’s difficult to make a prediction on who will stay up. Huddersfield and Swansea are two of the most goal-shy teams in the league. In the battle to stay up, sometimes it’s not just clean sheets you need, but the ability to turn one point into three. In the end, experience might pay off here. Palace, for all their struggles without a full first XvI, have one of the most experienced coaches in the league. In contrast, I just don’t think that Paul Lambert is the right coach to keep Stoke up, and Southampton might have taken too long to bring change and looks likely to go down in my books.

But hey, Pellegrino’s sacking might just be what the Saints needed. Lambert may turn out to prove me wrong.

Anything’s still possible with all to play for. Newcastle, Bournemouth and Brighton, who sit above the bottom six right now, will be looking over their shoulders anxiously.

Yuan Jun Chee is a junior majoring in history and international relations. Yuan Jun can be reached at yuan.chee@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Thursday, March 15, 2018

WOMEN'S TENNIS

Tufts defeats Wellesley, falls to Middlebury in opening weekend of spring season

by Delaney Tantillo

Assistant Sports Editor

On the first weekend of its spring season, the Tufts women’s tennis team went 1–1, falling 6–3 to Middlebury at home on Saturday and defeating Wellesley 9–0 in an away match on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Jumbos visited the Blue for their second match of the weekend. Last time the two teams met, on April 5, 2017, Tufts defeated Wellesley 7–2 on the road. This time, the Jumbos were even more decisive in their victory, recording a resounding 9–0 win over the hosts.

Tufts got wins from all three doubles pairs to enter the singles matches with a 3–0 lead. The Jumbos were led by senior co-captains Zoe Miller and Lauren Louks, who recorded an 8–0 thumping of Wellesley first-year Michelle Buyer and junior Sojin Ki in the third position. Junior Mina Karamercan partnered with junior Otilia Popa in first doubles, while sophomore Kat Wiley and first-year Patricia Obeid joined forces in the second position. Both teams won their matches 8–4.

In singles, Obeid played as Tufts’ No. 1 for the second day in a row. Despite being in the rare position of playing first singles during her first weekend of collegiate tennis, the New York native maintained excellent composure in recording two wins in as many days. Against Wellesley, Obeid cruised to a 6–4, 6–2 win over junior Justine Huang.

“That’s pretty unusual, but she did super well,” Wiley said. “She didn’t look nervous or overwhelmed. It was really fun to watch.”

Obeid discussed how important it was for her to stay focused amid the excitement of the weekend.

“I was very excited to take on the challenge because I have worked really hard,” Obeid said. “It was important for me to keep my composure and make sure my opponent didn’t know what I was thinking and feeling on the court. The minute

an opponent knows you are nervous, they can use that as an advantage.”

Playing in the No. 5 singles spot, Wiley defeated Wellesley first-year Lily Chu in a decisive two-set match: 6–1, 6–0. Wiley’s experience of having played on the singles ladder as a first-year in 2017 was evident in her on-court confidence throughout the weekend.

“Comparing my first matches last year to this year, I was definitely a lot less overwhelmed this year and I felt more comfortable,” Wiley said. “I’m just a lot more familiar with college matches in general. Having the experience under my belt is pretty beneficial.”

Despite the match against Wellesley being the team’s second of the weekend, Tufts did not show signs physical or mental fatigue, which is a testament to their careful preparation.

“We definitely trained for these types of scenarios,” Miller said. “A few weeks ago, we had a five-hour practice in anticipation of long matches. We think of it as a privilege to get to play these matches, and this is what we train for.”

Wiley believes that Saturday’s loss to the Middlebury Panthers actually helped the Jumbos on Sunday, since it caused them to play with even more determination and purpose.

“In a way, losing to Middlebury the day before was kind of helpful because I think we were just as good as them, if not better, and we all knew that,” Wiley said. “We took that into account [against Wellesley], and we knew we didn’t want to have a similar situation happen again. We just went there and took care of business.”

On Saturday, Tufts opened its spring season with a home match against Middlebury.

After falling to the Panthers 9–0 on the road last season, the match was an important early test for the Jumbos.

In first doubles, Karamercan and Popa defeated the 17th-ranked pair of sophomores Skylar Schossberger and Katherine Hughes, 8–4, to give Tufts an early advantage. However,

ALINA STRILECKIS / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior Mina Karamercan returns a backhand shot during Tufts’ 6-3 loss to Middlebury at the Gantcher Center on March 10. the remaining two doubles matches went in Although the Jumbos were disappointthe Panthers’ favor, giving the hosts a 2–1 lead ed by Saturday’s outcome, knowing they heading into singles play. Louks and Rose bat- had competed well against a top-level team tled their opponents to the end but ultimately left them optimistic about the rest of the fell in a 9–7 nail-biter. season.

Obeid and Wiley were the only two Tufts “It was really exciting that [Middlebury] players to record wins in their singles matches, was the first match of our season,” Miller as Middlebury secured a 6–3 victory. Playing said. “It set the tone for knowing that we’re first singles in her spring debut for the Jumbos, right in it with the competition and that Obeid fought relentlessly to defeat Hughes all of our training in the offseason paid off.

7–6, 6–4. Obeid’s mental toughness was espe- We really saw it in how we fought against cially evident in the second set, when she Middlebury.” came back from a 4–0 deficit, winning six This was the first time in recent years straight games to clinch the match. that the Jumbos have played matches before “I just remembered to pause and think their annual spring break trip, and Miller about my game,” Obeid said. “I felt like I was believes that the team is heading to the West on the defensive a lot and not playing how I Coast on a positive note. was in the first set.”

“It was exciting to see how the team is Wiley defeated Schossberger in straight looking before spring break,” Miller said. “I sets, 6–2, 6–2 in the fifth position, but Tufts think we are doing really well. It is great [to failed to record any other wins. Louks fell have] momentum because we are going to in three sets (4–6, 7–6, 6–3) to Middlebury have some really tough matches.” junior Christina Puccinelli, while Tufts firstTufts’ next match will be played in year Kiara Rose lost a third-set tiebreaker to Northridge, Calif. against Whitman College sophomore Maddi Stow (3–6, 6–3, 10–8). on March 18.

BASEBALL

Jumbos begin quest for NESCAC three-peat with annual trip to Virginia

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Junior infielder Will Shackelford fouls off a pitch during Tufts’ game against Roger Williams at Huskins Field on April 11, 2017.

by Savannah Mastrangelo Sports Editor

After winning the program’s fifth overall NESCAC championship — and second in as many years — and making strides in another NCAA tournament run, the Tufts men’s baseball team will return to the diamond on

Friday in Virginia for the debut of its 2018 season. The Jumbos dominated last season, boasting a 30–10–1 overall record and a 9–3 conference mark.

The 2017 campaign ended, however, with a devastating 1–0 loss in the NCAA Div. III New York Regional against SUNY Oswego.

After the the Lakers scored their single run in the top of the 8th, the Jumbos were unable to even the score in the final inning. Despite last year’s many successes, the team has not lost sight of its long-term goal of winning a NCAA championship.

“Of course, everyone was happy to win NESCACs, and that’s always a goal for us every year, but I think every single person on our team would also agree that winning a national championship would be a goal every single year,” sophomore catcher/outfielder Ryan Day said. “We won NESCACs, but then we fell short of our ultimate goal of winning a national championship, so while we are focusing on the game ahead, the overarching goal of every season is to win the national championship.”

The Jumbos graduated eight integral seniors, six of whom were on the pitching staff. Speros Varinos (LA ’17) earned multiple awards over the course of his Tufts career. The Middleton, Mass. native was twice named an All-American by D3baseball.com and once by the American Baseball Coaches Association and also took home Academic All-American honors in 2017.

Additionally, Varinos was named NESCAC Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season and was selected for first-team all-con-

ference honors. He ended his final season with an 8–1 record on the mound and was ranked 14th in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.82). The team also graduated infielder Tom Petry, outfielder/pitcher Oscar Kutch, outfielder Harry Brown and pitchers Tim Superko, Charlie McQuinn, Rory Ziomek and Matt Rothstein.

With a number of arms having graduated, including Varinos and Superko — who played massive roles in the rotation last season — the Jumbos will need other players to step up and fill some very large shoes.

“You lose people every year and that’s why you recruit. We recruit hard around the country,” senior third-baseman and co-captain Tommy O’Hara said. “We had some good guys leave, but we have some players who are ready to step up, so we’re excited to start. It’ll be good for the team to go down south and compete against some good teams.”

Eight first-years will be joining the Jumbos this year, five of whom will join the pitching staff: Owen Copps, Jake Shrader, Jamie Weiss, Andrew Wood and Manny Ray. Brandon Bay will play in the outfield, while Ryan Daues and Will Burgess will help man the infield. see BASEBALL, page 11