The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, February 13, 2018

TUFTS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Students juggle combined degrees, studying abroad see FEATURES / PAGE 3

Jumbos close regular season with victory over Bantams

‘Amen’ a strong debut for Rich Brian following rebranding see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXV, ISSUE 12

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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Professors submit proposal to replace PJS major with civic studies

by Simran Lala

Assistant News Editor

Faculty and administrators are proposing to cancel the peace and justice studies (PJS) major, retaining the PJS minor but replacing the major with a new civic studies program. PJS has been under continued review since last semester, when the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences considered canceling the major on account of dwindling support from faculty.

Associate Professor of Philosophy Erin Kelly, who currently directs the PJS program, explained that the faculty is reviewing the program’s requirements and consulting with students to design a more viable program going forward.

“We developed a proposal to change the major to civic studies, which broadens it in some ways, while still retaining connections with the PJS curriculum,” she said.

Kelly told the Daily that the aim of these reforms is to bring together more faculty from different departments in order to make the new major a more interdisciplinary one.

On Feb. 2, Kelly, along with Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tisch College Peter Levine and Professor of political science and Classics Department chair Ioannis Evrigenis, have submitted a proposal calling for revisions to the civic studies major to the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, according see PJS, page 2

ERIK BRITT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Erin Kelly, the director of Peace and Justice Studies at Tufts, poses for a portrait on Feb. 5.

Panelists address religious literacy, ethnic discrimination in discussion on Rohingya crisis

by Shantel Bartolome Contributing Writer

Panelists spoke about Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis, covering historical religious tensions and ethnic discrimination, during a panel last night entitled “Myanmar in Crisis: What Happens Next?”. The event, held in the ASEAN Auditorium at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, was hosted by the Fletcher Islamic Society, Fletcher Humanitarian Action Society and the Fletcher Diplomacy Club.

Kathleen Hamill, an adjunct professor at The Fletcher School and a practicing human rights lawyer, moderated the panel. The speakers were May Sabe Phyu, director

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of the Gender Equality Network and human rights activist, Ambassador Derek Mitchell (F ’91), former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar and senior advisor to the Asia Program at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Reverend Susan Hayward (F ’06), Senior Advisor for religion and inclusive societies at USIP. The event was co-sponsored by The Henry R. Luce Foundation and World Peace Foundation. Close to fifty people were in attendance, including Tufts faculty, Fletcher students, undergraduate students and May Sabe Phyu’s family.

The panel focused on the importance of religious literacy, defined as “the ability to discern and analyze the fundamental intersections

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of religion, politics and cultural life through multiple lenses.” According to the Fletcher website, the panel is part of a speaker series emphasizing the universal importance of religious literacy.

Hamill opened the discussion by establishing the gravity of Myanmar’s current Rohingya crisis.

“We are here today to talk about the country of Myanmar in crisis and to examine the question: What happens next?” she said. “Since August of 2017, over half a million Rohingya have fled their homes. Myanmar has been [plagued] by internal strife and ethnic tensions for decades with extreme and disproportionate use of military force in the Rakhine state.”

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The speakers then explained that the Rohingya crisis is rooted in deep historical and ethnic tensions, worsened by their geopolitical placement between India and China and emboldened by strong Buddhist nationalism.

May Sabe Phyu explained that the politicization of religion exacerbates tension in Myanmar and highlighted three key aspects of the crisis.

“I would like to reiterate [the] three key things that are happening right now. The first is belonging. People are displaced from where they belong …

The second is equality and fair treatment,” she said. “And third, the most distressing, recurring thing is the

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see MYANMAR, page 2

COMICS....................................... 7 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, February 13, 2018

THE TUFTS DAILY Catherine Perloff Editor-in-Chief

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Former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, human rights crisis leaders discuss Rohingya tragedy MYANMAR

continued from page 1 attacks against ethnic minorities …

These are three things you have to consider to understand Myanmar.”

Mitchell further elaborated that it is important to not simplify or generalize the crisis in Myanmar.

“What I learned very early on is … there was a vision for unified national identity, where there is justice for everyone equally,” he said. “But unfortunately there clearly hasn’t been [a] working out of this problem of social trust and identity.”

Finally, the speakers reflected on steps toward equality and justice.

Hayward observed that citizens have started to move away from the cycles of conflict and discrimination.

“The issue needs to be more about these communities advocating for the state implementing laws that can help promote religious harmony,” she argued.

The event ended with a question-and-answer session.

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continued from page 1 to Kelly. The proposal outlines the new civic studies major, suggests that a PJS minor be retained and lists the requirements for both.

Faculty will vote on the matter on March 7, according to Kelly. If approved, the new major will begin next fall in place of PJS. Kelly also noted that the PJS program has held four or five open meetings with students who wanted to express their thoughts about the proposed changes.

“We have been gathering input, shaping the proposal and [increasing] interest in the student body through ongoing … conversation,” Kelly said.

According to Kelly, the new civic studies program, if approved, could include a PJS track within the major.

“The new program will help students get an angle on dimensions of social change and action, some pieces of which are missing in the current PJS major,” she explained.

Abigail Alpern Fisch, a sophomore majoring in PJS, said she is disappointed that Tufts is moving away from PJS as an independent academic discipline, despite support from current

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students, alumni and faculty who feel strongly that the major is valuable.

“I am disappointed that future classes will not have the opportunity to focus their education at Tufts with a major in Peace and Justice Studies,” Fisch told the Daily in an email.

According to Fisch, though current sophomores and first-years can major in PJS, future classes will not have such an opportunity if the faculty votes to drop the major on March 7.

Fisch, along with junior Marissa Birne, created the Peace and Justice Society last semester. Fisch said the group plans to brainstorm ways to continue the society despite the potential replacement of the major.

“I believe that there can still be a place where students on campus who are interested in focusing on issues of peace building and social justice within our local community and further can be supported,” Fisch said.

Fisch also created a collection of testimonies that makes the case for keeping PJS as a major.

Fisch is not alone in this sentiment.

In a recent article in the Tufts Observer, seniors Maya Pace and Colette Midulla argued that the university should be supporting, not defunding, programs like PJS.

“[Civic studies and PJS] … differ in their pedagogies and how they frame learning. PJS works within a concrete framework of lived experiences and case studies that exemplify theory within the conversation of change-making.

Civic Studies will be based primarily on theory,” Pace and Midulla wrote.

Levine and Kelly discussed their plans for civic studies.

“PJS mainly involves sociology, however now we want to incorporate philosophy, political science, anthropology, religion and history to an extent.

We are also working on including child development, psychology and economics,” Kelly said.

The subject areas Levine and Kelly are considering for civic studies fit with the interdisciplinary nature of the major.

“There will … be a new introductory course on civic studies, which will be co-taught by different departments,” Levine said.

He went on to mention that if approved, the major will be the first of its kind to exist.

“We are hoping to highlight strengths of Tufts and distinguish Tufts as a university at the forefront of such an area of study,” Kelly said.

Police Briefs – Week of Feb. 12

by Jenna Fleischer

Assistant News Editor

Executive Online Editor Senior Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors

MIKE FENG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Panelists discuss the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar in front of an audience of Tufts students and faculty in ASEAN Auditorium on Feb. 12.

Faculty proposes to replace PJS with civic studies, students disappointed PJS

Liam Knox Investigative Editor

Alexis Serino Rachel Hartman Mike Feng Ray Bernoff Erik Britt Sophie Dolan Shaivi Herur Ben Kim Rachael Meyer Vintus Okonkwo Evan Sayles Seohyun Shim Annette Key Ana Sophia Acosta Olivia Ireland Asha Iyer

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One ring to sprain them all On Feb. 6 at 8:30 p.m., Tufts University Police Department ( TUPD) and Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) were called to the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center where a student had injured their ring finger playing basketball. TUPD drove the student to the hospital where they sought medical attention and further evaluation.

Two for one The same day, approximately 20 minutes later, TUPD and TEMS responded to another student at the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center who had a sprained and swollen ankle.

TUPD drove this student and the aforementioned injured student to the hospital where they also sought medical attention.

Not for the faint of head On Feb. 8 at 10:30 a.m., TUPD received a call from Schmalz House that a student had fainted. The student woke up on the floor with a migraine but was unsure if it had resulted from an injury sustained during the fall. TUPD transported the student to the hospital for medical attention and further evaluation.

Verbal attaxi On Feb. 9 at 1:56 a.m., Medford Police Department (MPD) received a call of an alleged assault in progress. When MPD and TUPD arrived at

the Hill Hall parking lot, there was no assault, although a disagreement had occurred between a taxi driver and two students over fare. The students had used racial slurs towards the driver, and they were written up and referred to the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs as a consequence.

Give me a brake On Feb. 11 at 10:48 a.m., TUPD responded to a minor vehicle accident on the corner of Professors Row and Curtis Street. A student in a Jeep Grand Cherokee hit the fence surrounding Fletcher Field as they were turning onto Professors Row. The car had to be towed, but the student was unharmed.

The Facilities Services Department was notified to secure the premises.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Features

3 tuftsdaily.com

Alexa Weinstein The 617

Race for governor

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SMFA’s main building, 230 the Fenway, is pictured here on March 24, 2017.

Combined degree students navigate degree requirements, study abroad opportunities

by Sidharth Anand Staff Writer

Students in the five-year BFA + BA/BS combined degree program between the School of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts are immersed in a rigorous program of study as they balance degrees in the liberal arts or the sciences and an extensive concentration in the visual arts.

In addition to taking studio-based and art history courses to fulfill the requirements for their Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree, combined degree students must also fulfill all the foundation, distribution and major requirements from the School of Arts and Sciences, as stated on the program’s website.

Georgia Oldham, a second-year combined degree student who is majoring in art history and film and media studies at Tufts while focusing on illustration and communication at the SMFA, spoke about the difficulty of being in the combined degree program.

“It has not been easy … balancing classes, clubs and life across two campuses, along with all the requirements you have to fulfill,” she said.

Sasha Didkovsky, a second-year combined degree student who is majoring in English in A&S and focusing on studio art at the SMFA, mentioned that these guidelines often restrict the capability of students to take courses purely for interest.

“I think that some of the requirements, like the language requirement, amidst the other extensive requirements we have, prevent us from taking advantage of the breadth of courses Tufts has to offer in a variety of disciplines,” he said.

However, these rigorous requirements do not preclude combined degree students from studying abroad, according to Sheila Bayne, associate dean and director of programs abroad.

“Since the SMFA became a part of Tufts, the Study Abroad office has worked

closely with the school to create two new Tufts programs designed for SMFA students. These are in the University of the Arts London (UAL) and in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA),” Bayne said.

According to the Tufts Study Abroad website, students can study for a full year or during either semester at UAL, or only in the spring semester at ENSBA. Both program options offer studio-based art courses.

In addition, Bayne mentions that combined degree students can also participate in other Tufts study abroad programs designed for Arts and Sciences and Engineering undergraduates, as well as various non-Tufts programs that offer courses in the fine arts.

Oldham mentioned that she is considering studying abroad under a nonTufts program at the Glasgow School of Art, while Didkovsky stated that he is interested in studying abroad under the Tufts-inGhana program.

He noted that most study abroad programs do not offer a balanced combination of studio art and liberal arts courses, which poses a unique challenge for combined degree students.

“Planning for these programs adds difficulty to an already rigorous curriculum,” Didkovsky said. “Programs like Tufts-inGhana and UAL either present a curriculum void of art classes, or one with only art classes. So, when you get back to Tufts, you have to take a semester [or year] of either all art classes or all non-art classes. You don’t get the same choice of variation you get at Tufts when you go abroad.”

Echoing this sentiment, Oldham added that the strict requirements of the combined degree may force students to forego opportunities like studying abroad.

“As a [combined degree] student, you often have to craft your own path and this may often involve sacrificing a balance between art and non-art courses in your fourth year or having more limited choices as to where you can study abroad,” she said.

Another challenge with studying abroad, according to Oldham, is deciding when to schedule it in one’s academic career at Tufts.

“Most of my friends in Arts and Sciences and Engineering study abroad during their junior year. I want to study my junior year as well, and I thus have to decide how to balance my requirements with this timing,” she said.

Though both Didkovsky and Oldham acknowledge the intrinsic challenges of navigating studying abroad, they also point to the realistic ability of SMFA and combined degree students to study abroad in a variety of programs.

Bayne noted that combined degree students are provided with support in navigating these obstacles by both the Study Abroad office and various advisers to help with course selection, credit transfer and planning.

“The Study Abroad office helps [combined] degree students choose programs that will fit their chosen majors and programs of study, while the SMFA and credit transfer advisers in each department help the student choose the specific courses they will take abroad,” Bayne said.

Despite the many courses and credits that combined degree students are responsible for, both Didkovsky and Oldham acknowledge the value of the program.

“It has a lot of kinks to work out, and I think that many [combined degree] students feel that way, but I believe that it is an extremely valuable program,” Oldham said.

Didkovsky shared that students in the combined degree program benefit greatly from the distinctive interdisciplinary curriculum of the SMFA at Tufts.

“The SMFA is different from many art schools in that there is no restrictive hierarchical organization. You are allowed to be as interdisciplinary as you want, working with different professors from a variety of disciplines throughout your five years,” Didkovsky said.

n Massachusetts, the race for state governor has been in full swing for almost a year. Massachusetts has had a history of electing Republican governors. Of the state’s four most recently elected governors including Governor Charlie Baker, all but one — Deval Patrick — are Republican. Why? States don’t always like to practice what they preach. While Massachusetts citizens consistently take progressive social and economic stances on a federal level — take a look at our two senators — the same doesn’t seem to apply in our own state. But it’s not as if any Republican could win the race. For example, Mitt Romney ran for governor as a pro-choice, fiscally conservative candidate.

Research shows that Massachusetts residents feel more strongly against increases in state taxes than on the federal level. In reality, Massachusetts citizens prefer the fiscal conservatism that Republicans offer.

According to a January poll by WBUR, incumbent Baker has a 74 percent approval rating among Massachusetts voters. With Baker being one of the most popular governors in America standing for re-election, it raises the question of why this race even matters. This election will be all about getting to the polls. Any race conducted off-cycle, as in during a different year than the presidential race, draws lower turnout among younger voters. This means that the more consistent elderly voters who have more conservative views will dominate the polls. If Democrats want to win, it’s time to offset that imbalance and tap into the youth of Massachusetts. The governor’s main job is to preside over the state budget and set executive policies. This is incredibly important as these are the policies that directly affect us as Tufts students. If we care about fighting for a higher minimum wage in Massachusetts, elect a Democrat for governor. If we care about safer working conditions for employees, elect a Democrat for governor. If we care about making public transportation safer and more efficient, elect a Democrat for governor.

Who’s running? There are three candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. Jay Gonzalez was the Secretary of Administration and Finance under former governor Deval Patrick. He later served as the president and CEO of a healthcare company.

Setti Warren is the former mayor of Newton and has experience serving in the Navy.

Lastly, Bob Massie was the former executive director of environmental nonprofit Ceres and has extensive experience advocating for climate change issues. All three candidates differ vastly; the race to clinch the nomination has begun.

In the following weeks, I will spotlight each of the three Democratic gubernatorial candidates. It’s not too early to get involved in the race! Each of the Democratic candidates have differing visions for the Commonwealth, but all share a goal of creating more progressive legislation in Massachusetts. These primaries are important to pay attention to and get involved in. Democrats need to hit the ground running in order to try and unseat an extremely popular Republican governor.

Keep your eyes out for when the candidates stop by Medford or Somerville and be sure to attend events that they host. In 2018, it’s time to elect more Democrats to office.

Alexa Weinstein is a sophomore majoring in political science and history. Alexa can be reached at alexa.weinstein@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

ARTS&LIVING

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Nikki Margaretos Is this thing on?

What’s in a [stage] name?

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COURTESY 88RISING MUSIC AND EMPIRE

Album cover for Rich Brian’s “Amen.”

The introspective braggadocio of Rich Brian’s ‘Amen’

by Nicholas Darell Contributing Writer

At a time when artists are rewarded most by social media savvy and internet virality, there are fewer barriers than ever to mainstream music success. Indonesian rapper Rich Brian (real name Brian Imanuel), exemplifies this trend of internet phenomena being able to grow beyond their internet roots.

Rich Brian continues steadily rising above expectations and surpassing limitations in a harrowing ascent to hip-hop legitimacy.

Music was not always in the cards for Imanuel. He first developed a knack for creating darkly funny content on platforms like Vine and then mastered social media entertainment and eventually crossed over to music with “Dat $tick” (2016), a parody of the trap genre that showed a bit too much of real rapping talent to be a complete spoof. Released under the name Rich Chigga, this track became an internet sensation, charting well but never received as a serious rap debut. His name presented a particular problem, since “Rich Chigga” is an appropriation of obvious origin that many found offensive. Since then, Imanuel has scrapped that identity and started anew as Rich Brian, releasing “Amen” (2018).

Production on “Amen” was handled mostly by Imanuel himself, which grants the record an individuality that further cements the project as his most convincing and mature statement yet.

The album kicks off with “Amen,” a hard-hitting track that features Rich Brian rapping over a skeletal beat with no hook. Rich Brian’s flow is technically impressive, firing off a steady stream of bars that sticks tightly to the instrumental. “Amen” is a confident title track that displays many of the finer qualities Rich Brian has to offer, yet also highlights his main weakness: lyrical content. Most tracks on the album employ a blend of self-deprecating, humorous and classically boastful lyrics that range in quality. Rich Brian comes off as earnest and sincere across the board, but that is not necessarily conducive to the emphatic, quoteworthy lines coming from the best rappers around. Even with an appearance from Migos’ rising star Offset, the album’s fifth track, “Attention,” feels slightly flat and lacks the Atlanta flair it should have.

Songs that seek to emulate some of the most successful trap artists like Migos do not dominate the record, however.

Production shifts to a more melodic and lowkey style in some of the most listenable songs on “Amen.” Featuring Joji, the musician and internet sensation also known as Filthy Frank, “Introvert” is set over a pretty instrumental with distinct percussion and a solid groove. The lyrics on this song remind us how young Imanuel is, contemplating how he “coulda kissed that girl, but it ain’t relevant / Coulda made that move, I’m regrettin it.” He is only 18 after all, and lyrics that resonate with a teenage audience will be an asset for growing his fan base.

Other highlights include “Cold,” an atmospheric cut with warped pianos that continues the album’s autobiographical theme, providing some of the finer lyrics on the project: “I don’t take drugs I just take naps.” Although Rich Brian’s lyrical shortcomings do not take away from how easy it is to enjoy this record, this is hard to reconcile with the fact he can certainly do better. The era of hip-hop we are in is more production and melody-focused than ever, with some of the most prolific artists such as Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert offering little substance in their lyrics. It is an expressionist form of making music that strikes audiences with emotion the way music should, but it never requires them to think too hard.

Highly talented producers have now become more visible than ever, bringing legitimacy and anticipation even to records of weaker artists because people care about exciting new beats.

Rich Brian is indeed a talented producer, and “Amen” includes the best work he has done on this front. The project’s sonically original cuts are the most intriguing, and Imanuel has the potential to become an essential voice in the genre. In order to do so, he will need to focus on honing his storytelling and lyrical craft while expanding upon the themes of “Amen.” The essential ingredients are all there, as Rich Brian has already proven his talents beyond what the world expected with the release of this album. And to think it all started off as a joke.

ome singers were born with names that were simply made for the stage. I’m talking about the Beyoncés, the Rihannas, the Biebers. But for the rest of Hollywood, choosing the perfect title is as much about personal style as it is about effective branding. Some celebrities go the “memorable” route (try Katy Perry), whereas others are just trying to cause as much controversy as possible with their stage names. The ability to rename themselves can allow singers to share a piece of who they are. 3OH!3 hails from Boulder, Colo., where the area code is 303. Halsey is an anagram of her first name, Ashley, as well as the name of a subway stop in Brooklyn. But some singers get a little more complex.

There are the names that are hard to pronounce. SZA, whom I have an enormous crush on, takes her stage name from “Savior, Zig-Zag, Allah,” as well as from derivatizing RZA, one of her influences. SZA is pronounced like “sizzah.”

Another of my favorites, Danish electropop singer MØ, has her English-speaking interviewers at a total loss. Danish for “maiden,” the word “mø” isn’t exactly in the repertoire of English sounds; I would most closely describe it as how the French teach their children the cow noise: “meuh.”

Other artists have regrets. The Chainsmokers said in an interview, “If we had known we were gonna be this big we probably would have named ourselves something else.” The duo claimed that in their beginning, they had a show one night and simply scrambled to call themselves something at all. They also have alleged that they don’t actually like smoking cigarettes, but unfortunately for them, the name stuck.

Some have taken a different approach all together. Rapper XXXTENTACION might have one of the most bizarre aliases out there right now. His name is two-part: “Tentación” is Spanish for temptation, and he says the X is supposed to represent the unknown. I’ll do the math for you: Together it’s “unknown temptation.” When asked as to why he chose three X’s, the performer replied, “Um I don’t really know to be honest.”

Alternatively, or thankfully, some artists kept it simple. I like Drake, who uses his middle name, because it cuts right to the chase. Also, maybe because “Aubrey” doesn’t really scream “rapper.”

21 Savage is also pretty straight forward…

He’s telling us that he was a total savage at the age of 21. Okay, maybe this is sort of legit because he’s referring to the fact that he was shot six times on his 21st birthday.

Last but not least, there are the singers who wouldn’t let you forget their names.

I’m sure we all remember that familiar intro, “J-J-J-JASON DERULOOOO.” Thankfully, this trend of shouting your name at the beginning of the song seems to have died out; maybe producers decided that Americans had evolved enough to Google songs. It’s hard to say. All I can say is that luckily I am tone deaf, so I won’t ever have to stress about what my stage name would be.

Nikki Margaretos is a senior majoring in economics. Nikki can be reached at nikoletta.margaretos@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Tuesday, February 13, 2018

tuftsdaily.com

‘Your Name’ shows history reimagined

by Rebecca Tang Staff Writer

Partnering with UNIQLO USA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston presents “The Boston Festival of Films from Japan” throughout February. The program screens Japanese films from different genres, including live action, documentary and animated. The last genre, a quintessential part of modern Japanese media, is represented by the highest-grossing anime film of all time, “Your Name” (2016).

Directed by Makoto Shinkai, “Your Name” tells a fantasy tale of two sporadically body-swapping adolescents.

Mitsuha, a high school girl living in the fictional town of Itomori, feels confined by the enclosed landscape and social atmosphere of her small town and yearns to become “a handsome Tokyo boy in [her] next life.” Soon after her playful wish, she finds herself periodically exchanging bodies with a Tokyo boy named Taki. The two teenagers quickly become enthralled by this unusual phenomenon. However, the novelty soon wears off and turns traumatic when Taki discovers an annihilating comet crash that has happened in Itomori three years prior to the start of his body-swaps with Mitsuha.

“Your Name” gathers the essentials of a commercially successful anime film: magic, young love and spectacular visuals, all of which make the film a fun and cathartic escape from reality. The film offers fantastical explanations of little-understood psychological phenomena such as dreaming and déjà vu. In the film, the body-swaps between Mitsuha and Taki occur during their sleep and remain as vague and surreal memories after they wake up. Therefore, the two protagonists at first regard the recollections of their body-swaps as merely déjà vu or memories of dreams. By framing these seeming illusions as true experiences later in the story, the film invites its viewers to reconsider fantasy and cheerfully reimagine the possibilities of human life.

Such interplay between fantasy and reality is mirrored in the film’s portrayal of the simultaneous joy and vulnerability of young love. As body-swaps occur more regularly, Mitsuha and Taki start to recognize the reality of their experiences and begin leaving each other notes to communicate. The two adolescents gradually develop affection for each other, although their feelings are not explicitly revealed until near the end of the film.

Mitsuha and Taki enjoy each other’s spiritual company but are constantly subject to the insecurity of losing it. And they eventually do, as they have absolutely no control over the frequency and duration of their body-swaps. This quote from Taki in the film epitomizes such a paradoxical sense of both absence and presence in young love: “I’m always searching for something, for someone. This feeling has possessed me I think, from that day … That day when the stars came falling.” The film’s rendering of young love seems to please humans’ inexplicable appetite for bittersweetness.

Meanwhile, beautiful scenes of the serene Itomori and the sublime night sky with a falling comet provide both visual and auditory pleasure for viewers. Quite contrary to its American counterparts, namely Disney, Japanese animated feature films tend to be less theatrical and closer to real life. In “Your Name,” the consistent color palette of emerald green and silence (except for the sound of cicadas) sketch an idyllic outlook for the town of Itomori. In illustrating the falling

COURTESY AMUSE ANIMATION

A promotional poster for “Your Name,” the highest grossing anime film of all time. comet, the film adopts a futuristic and enigmatic color palette mostly consisting of purple and navy. The colors’ saturation recedes as they extend toward the horizon, thus creating a sense of abysmal depth and cosmic awe.

That being said, there is a darker side to “Your Name.” The comet disaster that destroys Itomori is likely an innuendo of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The depiction of the victims in “Your Name” strongly resembles that of the film “Barefoot Gen” (1983), which explicitly illustrates the Hiroshima bombing. In “Barefoot Gen,” two siblings curiously stare at the plane that is about the drop the atomic bomb and wonder about its purpose; Mitsuha and her sister similarly gaze and marvel at the falling comet in “Your Name.” Both films also emphasize the innocence of the victims. Victims shown in “Barefoot Gen”

are mostly siblings, mother-child-pairs, the eldery and even pets, all of whom, due to their cuteness or vulnerability, tend to stereotypically generate the most empathy among all possible subjects. In addition, the story makes clear that the big round lake in Itomori was formed by a similar comet crash a long time ago.

Therefore, the comet crash depicted in the film results in two comet craters in Itomori, which correspond with the two bombings of Japan during World War II. The body-swaps between Taki and Mitsuha serve as fictional testimonies of the inseparability of the past and present. Mitsuha’s grandmother poetically explains in the film, “The braided cords that we make … represent the flow of time itself. They converge and take shape. They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break and then connect again.” History does not have an abso-

lute start or end; it contains intervals instead. Meanwhile, Taki’s attempt to find Mitsuha and eventually revive the residents in Itomori in “Your Name” symbolizes contemporary Japan’s desire to empathize with and rewrite its WWII trauma. On that account, “Your Name” affirms the trope regarding animation that it primarily seeks the “happily-ever-after.” While this practice is often criticized in animation since it can be interpreted as sugar-coating reality, the pursuit of happy endings can be read as genuine expression of the universal human desire for good and recovery from pain.

Despite the seemingly unrealistic format of animation, works of famous directors like Hayao Miyazaki to Makoto Shinkai still feel like fantasy-world roller coasters that always ultimately wind their way back to reality.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Shim: “None of us asked to be born. Would you be born, if given the choice?”

Comics

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Difficulty Level: Knowing you’ll never be as fit as the Tongan flag bearer.

Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Mon Feb 12 01:40:40 2018 GMT. Enjoy!

Monday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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1/8 FULL I’VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD AD WHY MY HUMAN WON’T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT HER LEASH. I THINK SHE’S AFRAlD OF GETTING LOST. BUT IT’S OK, I KIND OF LIKE SHOWING HER AROUND. — HARPER adopted 08-18-09

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

by Ana Sofía Amieva-Wang In regards to the article published on Feb. 1, “Asian American Center to become nonresidential, community-focused space,” I wanted to express my concern that the news of the Asian American Center expansion and the relocation of the Asian American House was published in a short story below the fold, over a week after the announcement. This was a very important decision made by the administration that will have

Opinion Letter to the Editor a significant impact on the Tufts community and specifically Asian/ Asian American identifying students.

The decision was the result of a great deal of time and energy on the part of many of my peers. There are too few spaces on this campus intended for students of marginalized identities, and I feel that it is important that our fight for space be acknowledged and given appropriate recognition.

A story below the fold regarding a decision that has come about from decades of frustration and activism

negates the importance of this victory. It sends a message to the community that space for marginalized students is not important, and runs counter to our project of making students of marginalized identities aware that there is space on this campus that exists intentionally for them, and people that are fighting to make those spaces accessible.

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 4 p.m., a crowd of excited students and faculty filed into the Cabot Intercultural Center’s ASEAN Auditorium. They had trekked through the snow and ice to hear Hank Azaria speak on a panel about substance abuse and substance abuse prevention.

This piece isn’t about that panel. But his return does give us the opportunity to finally have an open conversation about his role in propagating stereotypical depictions of South Asians in the media. Azaria is a very well-known and versatile voice actor; most famously, he has voiced a slew of widely loved characters on the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” for over twenty years, including Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (an approximate amalgamation of two different Indian names), the Indian immigrant proprietor of the town’s Kwik-EMart. I want to address Azaria’s stereotypical portrayal of Indian immigrants through Apu, that portrayal’s history at Tufts, and its broader implications.

In 2016, Azaria was invited to speak at Tufts’ commencement ceremony.

Toward the end of his speech, he introduced the audience to several of the “The Simpsons” characters he voiced, including Apu. In his “Apu” accent, Azaria said to the crowd: “Uh, greetings to everybody here. Tufts students and myself, we have very much in common.

We both worship an elephant. And there he is. It’s a tremendous honor for me to be staring at an elephant. Remember, please children, that in life, there is nothing that is not so disgusting that it cannot be sold on a heated roller at a nearly criminal mark-up.” Not only was the accent inaccurate and stereotyped (India is a very diverse and populous country so English is not spoken in the same way everywhere), but the content of this paragraph was nothing more than exoticizing offensive stereotypes of Hinduism and Indians. And yet his comments were met by uproarious laughter.

Why is the accent harmful? According to Hari Kondabolu, a stand-up comic and writer of the documentary “The Problem With Apu,” “It’s not an offensive thing, it’s a little insulting, especially when I was a kid. To me, it’s like, how did that happen, how does that still happen, how do we keep doing it?

It’s not like it’s over. We still think about representation, we still think about erasure or one-dimensional representation. This is a classic example, but it’s one example.”

So how was such an offensive portrayal of an Indian immigrant char-

Nesi Altaras Looking Out

Looking Out: Partly free

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apology for profiting from a stereotypical and harmful accent and more of an expression of disappointment that people are offended. For now, though, that seems like its all we’re going to get.

But why has nobody ever brought this up? I mean, with all the social justice movements which have sprung up in the last decade, if this were really offensive, wouldn’t someone have said something by now?

Unsurprisingly, no. South Asian/ South Asian American issues tend to fly under the radar, for myriad reasons.

In fact, stereotypes of South Asians are so entrenched that, as evidenced by the YouTube comments on the video of Azaria’s radio interview, even some South Asians take characters like Apu as a given and don’t see any reason to challenge them, because that is how it has always been. There needs to be more visibility for these issues. If there were already, I don’t believe Azaria would have been invited back to speak at Tufts after his 2016 commencement speech, regardless of the subject.

If you are looking for such a conversation, here’s your chance: on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. in Olin 110, Tufts South Asian Perspectives and Conversation (SAPAC) will be holding a screening of “The Problem With Apu,” Kondabolu’s hour-and-a-halflong documentary about Apu, Azaria and stereotypical portrayals of South Asians in the media more broadly. The movie will be followed by a discussion.

The documentary provides a much more comprehensive overview of the history discussed in this piece, and incorporates interviews with celebrities like Kal Penn, Hasan Minhaj and Utkarsh Ambudkar, among others, about Apu’s impact on their lives.

Finally, a disclaimer: Neither this article nor this event claim to be the final word in the discussion about the portrayal of South Asians in the media, or stereotypical portrayals in general; they are restricted necessarily to this one character and this one actor. To extend the conversation beyond this one portrayal to all harmful portrayals of South Asians and other people of color in the media would be to undercut the necessity of having separate, in-depth conversations about other stereotypical portrayals. The goal is to spur further conversation about and critical analysis of other famous characters whom we accept without question just because they’re “funny.”

Nikhil Srinivasan is a sophomore majoring in French. Nikhill can be reached at nikhil.srinivasan@tufts.edu

Nesi Altaras is a junior majoring in international relations and economics. Nesi can be reached at nesi.altaras@tufts.edu

Ana Sofía Amieva-Wang is a junior majoring in American studies and anthropology.

Ana Sofía can be reached at ana.amieva_wang@tufts.edu.

Thank you, don’t come again acter born, and how was it allowed to remain on screen for over two decades?

As stated by Mallika Rao, arts and culture reporter for the Huffington Post, “As Hank Azaria himself told me in an interview about Apu three years ago, he came up with the iconic voice before knowing any Indians personally.” In fact, the voice was based on another movie character, specifically Peter Sellers’s character in “The Party,” in which Seller dons brownface in addition to an accent.

There are conflicting reports about the origins of the character of Apu. According to one version, it was the producers who first expressed qualms about Azaria impersonating someone of a different ethnicity. In “Indian Accents: Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film, author Shilpa S. Davé writes, “‘We were worried he might be considered an offensive stereotype,’ producer Al Jean once said.

‘But then we did the first read-through, and Hank said, “Hello, Mr. Homer,” with his accent, and it got such a huge laugh; we knew it had to stay.’” But in a 2007 interview, Azaria explains: “Right away they [the producers] were like, ‘Can you do an Indian voice and how offensive can you make it?’ basically.”

Azaria responded: “‘It’s not tremendously accurate. It’s a little, uh, stereotyped,’ and they were like, ‘Eh, that’s all right.’” No matter which version of the story one chooses to believe, Azaria’s complicity in the creation of Apu is undeniable.

This isn’t the first time Azaria has expressed misgivings about the character of Apu. In a 2013 Huffington Post article, Azaria comments on a viral rant

by Kondabolu on the FXX talk show “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” in which Kondabolu identifies Apu as one of the only representations of Indians/ Indian Americans on television during his childhood. “If the only representation of Jews in our culture was Robin Williams’ impression of a Yiddish guy [from “The Birdcage,” starring both Williams and Azaria], I guess I might be upset with that too,” Azaria says in response. But acknowledging the issue of representation doesn’t mean fixing it — Azaria continues to play the character of Apu to this day.

Azaria has also commented on the matter more recently. “Definitely anybody that was hurt or offended by it, or by any character or vocal performance, it’s really upsetting that it was offensive or hurtful to anybody,” he said in a December 2017 interview with TMZ. However, this statement is less of an

tuftsdaily.com

ess than a month ago, the 2018 edition of Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World report was released. It focuses on the political climate in every country and their civil and political rights. Mostly, there are no huge changes from year to year: most dictatorships remain repressive and democracies remain free, to some extent.

For many years, Turkey was in the middling but aptly named “partly free” category.

Into the 2000s, Turkey had military tutelage where generals saw themselves above the civilian administration. There were courts (DGM) designed to prosecute political criminals, torture was rampant, forced disappearances and unresolved murder of high profile individuals were common. Not to mention the central festering issue of Kurdish linguistic, cultural and civil rights.

Turkey showed improvement in the late 2000s. It abandoned many of these practices and institutions, and even took steps towards Kurdish rights. With these steps, Turkey was squarely in “partly free” territory. As of 2018, Turkey is “not free” according to Freedom House.

“Not free” is the designation the people of Turkey know but cannot accept. Because the guise of democracy still exists, more so than other “not free” countries pretending to have elections like Russia or Egypt, Turks try to ignore the lack of political and civil rights. The Freedom House move to “not free” should be a reminder of the sorry state of liberty in Turkey. There is no free press to speak of and any journalist who dares to veer too far off from the government line is jailed.

There is no rule of law to speak of as the judiciary became a cudgel for the regime to punish its enemies. One of the major parties in parliament has been thoroughly criminalized, its leaders, mayors and MPs jailed, its offices ransacked. Free and fair elections are nowhere to be found after the alleged rigging of last year’s constitutional referendum and claims that there was rigging led to the blocking of Wikipedia, which still persists. Type F prisons, those designed for political thought criminals, are overflowing with journalists and politicians. Torture has returned.

Though an uplifting example exists across the Mediterranean, the only one in the region. In the sea of repression that is North Africa, Tunisia has achieved the status of “free.” The only post-revolution democracy since the Arab uprisings, Tunisia’s short experience with democracy has been a welcome surprise. It has made strides at an incredible pace, from a dictatorship for its entire independent existence to a true democracy where people freely discuss their opinions without fear in public, online or on television. Its political life is open, and its elections are free and fair by all accounts.

In less than a decade after the Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia has become exemplary.

It practically skipped from “Not Free” to “Free” without lingering in the “almost-democracy with some kinks” limbo that Turkey was stuck in for its entire Republican existence. Now that Turkey is at rock bottom, “not free,” maybe it can learn from Tunisia and leapfrog to freedom.

OP-ED

by Nikhil Srinivasan

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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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.

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

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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Sports

Tuesday, February 13, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Tufts defeats Trinity in regular season finale

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Sam Weidner Weidner’s Words

A tipping point for Michigan State Athletics

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EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts senior guard and co-captain Thomas Lapham rises for a shot against Trinity on Feb. 11.

by Eddie Samuels Sports Editor

Wrapping up its regular season with a final home win before the NESCAC playoffs, Tufts (6–4 in the NESCAC) hosted Trinity (4–6) in a Sunday afternoon game. With the Jumbos sitting at sixth in the conference and the Bantams seventh, the game had the potential to flip the standings ahead of the NESCAC tournament, but the hosts pulled out a 76–71 win.

The game was slow to start, especially for the Jumbos, who failed to put points on the board in their first six possessions. The Jumbos recovered, but only after sophomore guard Eric Savage collected a pair of fouls, sending him to the bench for most of the first half.

Savage’s fouls were hardly the exception, as contact was common in the contest. The game continued to heat up, even after the Jumbos pulled ahead 16–11 midway through the first.

Only five Jumbos put points on the scoreboard in the first half, but strong showings from a trio of senior guards — co-captain Vincent Pace (nine), co-captain Everett Dayton (seven) and KJ Garrett (seven) — kept the Jumbos afloat.

Pace explained that despite the frequency with which fouls were being called, the Jumbos adapted quickly.

“You don’t really change the game plan [because fouls are getting called],” Pace said. “You just have to adjust to the way they’re calling it. [Senior guard and co-captain Thomas Lapham] did a great job taking charges because they were quick with the whistle. That gave us a lot of momentum.”

Trinity pulled ahead 32–30 at the end of the first half on the back of a three from sophomore guard Joseph Bell. Bell’s three pointer was only the second of the half by the Bantams of eight attempts from behind the arc. Both teams were lackluster from the field in the first half, with the Jumbos shooting 32.1 percent, while the Bantams managed 40.6 percent.

The biggest differential, however, was in free throws. Tufts made 11 of their 18 free throws, while Trinity only shot 4-of-8 from the line.

While the first half ’s physicality continued in the second half, both teams found their offensive rhythms as well, playing like their seasons depended on it. More than once, players leapt over one another to chase down a loose ball, and neither team pulled ahead by a substantial margin in the second half.

The largest lead of the half belonged to the Bantams, who led by six, 49–43, with 11:57 left to play.

Tufts coach Bob Sheldon explained that it was important for his players to remain calm in the face of Trinity’s physicality.

“We said they’re going to be chippy, they’re going to push you, they’re going to take little cheap shots,” Sheldon said. “You’ve just got to put the team first. Take the person out of it. If you get a cheap shot, don’t retaliate, just play and let the referees call the game — don’t get baited into that.”

The Jumbos made up that ground, however, and finally pulled ahead, 66–64, with 2:37 left in a chippy final stretch. The fouls were not superficial, as plenty of hard contact was made on both sides of the ball, and the last five minutes of the game saw 14 fouls between the two teams. While the Bantams equalized twice at 66 and 69 points, they never led and ultimately fell 76–71.

While a few Jumbos monopolized the first-half scoring, the team eventually had nine players aid in the offensive effort. Pace led the way with 18 points, despite only connecting on 5-of-15 shots from the field. Dayton was second on the scoreboard, recording a double-double, with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Garrett dominated in other aspects of the game, providing the Jumbos with three steals and three offensive boards to go along with his nine points.

The Jumbos were given no shortage of free throw attempts, with 22 in the second half alone. Tufts converted 27

of its 40 free throws attempts, leveraging those opportunities to secure the win, according to Pace.

“We made a run and got some baskets that were unanswered,” Pace said.

“But we really hit our free throws down the stretch to pull away.”

While the Jumbos made their free throws in crunch time, Sheldon explained that he wants to see the team improve on the 67.5 percent conversion mark that it recorded on Sunday.

“We’d like to get that up into the 70s,” Sheldon said. “We told our team, and especially with six seniors, you don’t want your career [to] end because you couldn’t make a free throw. We’re shooting free throws every day, and we’re putting importance on it, because now it’s win and move on or lose and you don’t.”

Shooting three-pointers was also a serious issue for the Jumbos, who average 33.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc. On Sunday, however, Tufts connected on three of their 17 threes, managing just 17.6 percent.

Pace explained that while the team has definitely noticed an issue with three-point shooting, it’s not something he’s worried about.

“We haven’t been shooting it as well as we’d like, but we have confidence in our guys to take the shot when it’s open, and we have faith that they’ll knock it down,” Pace said.

Sheldon agreed that shooting was an area in which the Jumbos needed to improve heading into the postseason.

“We’ve been in a little bit of a slump over the last couple weeks with our shot-making,” Sheldon said. “Part of that is getting better shots, but part of that is also knocking down the open ones. We did a little better than we have in the past — we’re making the right steps — but that was the biggest thing [Sunday].”

With the win, Tufts secured the sixth seed in the upcoming NESCAC Tournament. The Jumbos will face the third-seeded Hamilton Continentals on Saturday in the first round of the single-elimination tournament.

he Larry Nassar case has been prominent in the news recently.

Nassar, a former team physician for USA Gymnastics, as well as for Michigan State University (MSU), had been committing egregious and frequent acts of sexual assault and harassment from as early as 1990 up until recently, when these acts came to light. While his case has been tried and widely addressed, his years of abuse are made even worse by the knowledge that far too many times, people in positions of power looked the other way. Individuals within the Michigan State Athletics Department received complaints as far back as 1997.

The case has also placed a spotlight on the Michigan State Athletics Department as a whole, particularly on the school’s football and men’s basketball teams.

When football coach Mark Dantonio was asked this past summer about current sexual assault accusations facing four of his players, he claimed, “This is new ground for us … it has not happened previously.” Dantonio’s statement is blatantly false. Since he took control of the program in 2007, 16 of his players have reportedly been accused of sexual assault or violence.

Dantonio had control over discipline in at least one of these cases.

Men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo has also had his own share of cases during his tenure. These include one case involving a former Michigan State player-turned-assistant coach, Travis Walton, who continued coaching after a case in which he was charged for punching a female MSU student in the face at a bar. Later, Walton and two other MSU men’s basketball players were accused of rape by another female student. Walton was fired that time, but the two players were reportedly not punished. Izzo has yet to issue any official public response to any of the allegations against his team.

Michigan State’s Athletic Department is in a precarious position, and it has a chance to take a strong stance. Athletic Director Mark Hollis’ stepping down on Jan. 26 was a good first step.

The Michigan State administration should now place similar pressure on Izzo and Dantonio to leave as well. They are both important figureheads, representative of the entire MSU Athletic Department, and they are leaders of the school’s two athletic programs with large numbers of unresolved sexual misconduct cases. The deeper investigation into their conduct has shown that Izzo and Dantonio have failed, in many instances, to take necessary action against players facing sexual misconduct allegations.

While their accused players haven’t been convicted in a court of law, the argument for their departures should not be based on legal loopholes. Rather, it should focus on an unhealthy culture fostered by the men with institutional power continually looking the other way.

Despite losing accomplished coaches, Michigan State football and basketball would maintain their legacies through a change of staff. But if the university chooses to do nothing, it will only continue the pattern of negligence and inaction.

Sam Weidner is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Sam can be reached at samuel.weidner@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts senior guard and co-captain Lauren Dillon plays defense in a game against Babson on Jan. 29.

Jumbos see off Bantams in final regular season game

by Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editor

In the final game of its regular season, the Tufts women’s basketball team crashed Trinity’s Senior Day celebrations, defeating its hosts 59–40. The Jumbos demonstrated their defensive resilience, holding the Bantams to more than 20 points below their season scoring average.

Tufts first-year guard/forward Emily Briggs said the positive result reflects the team’s preparation.

“Leading up to the game … we spent a lot of time on our defense, and it really showed in the game,” Briggs said. “We held them to 40 points, which is definitely one of our goals … so it’s nice to see that the hard work we put it in practice is translating into the games.”

It was a high-octane start to the first quarter, as both teams tried to assert their position defensively. As they have countless times this season, the Jumbos never trailed, taking the initial lead on junior guard Jac Knapp’s free throws 40 seconds into the game. Trinity started all four of its graduating seniors, each of whom had little game time overall this year. It showed, as Tufts’ success came from holding its hosts to just six points in the first quarter, while going on an 11–4 run to finish the quarter up 17–6. In particular, Tufts limited some of Trinity’s top scorers to single-digit points on the night. Courtney Erickson,

who averaged a team-high 12.3 points per game, had just the single free-throw made, while Peace Kabari, who had a season-average of 10.2 points, only put up five against Tufts.

The strong start set up Tufts to close out its final regular-season game with relative ease.

“It was really important to get off [to] a good start,” senior co-captain and guard Lauren Dillon said. “The team [that] starts off better usually wins games in the NESCAC because every game is so close [and] every team is so talented that whoever gets an early lead has a better chance of holding onto it at the end.

So we always try to start games with a lot of energy, and energy leads to great defense which leads to our offense.”

The second quarter took a while to get going, with the first score for either team coming after two minutes had been played. Again, Knapp made two free throws, as the Jumbos looked to pull away. First-year forward Angela Alibrandi converted a layup about 1:30 later to extend Tufts’ lead, before Trinity junior forward Erin Cunningham’s three-pointer and jump shot closed the lead to 10 with 3:03 to play before the half. The teams then went back-and-forth, as Tufts went into the break up 32–18.

Dillon, the reigning NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year, had high praise for Knapp’s performance.

“Jac was great. She really did it all on Sunday, offensively making plays especially in that first quarter, but more importantly on defense,” Dillon said. “She had a really big match-up against [sophomore guard/forward] Peace Kabari, who is a great scorer and really strong and tough, and Jac was able to shut her down and keep her off the boards. She was a big part of our success on Sunday.”

A 10–4 run at the start of the third quarter gave Tufts the necessary cushion it needed to see out the game, with its biggest lead of the game (22 points) coming when Briggs grabbed an offensive rebound off Knapp’s missed layup and converted herself. The Jumbos were once again able to hold their opponents to single-digit points (eight) in the quarter. Tufts coach Carla Berube was then able to empty her bench in the final quarter, with first-year guard Erin Poindexter-McHan and senior guard Gina Doyle each getting a basket off the bench, as Tufts rode its early dominance to success.

“We just had to be more disciplined in our defense [going into the second half] and being able to put it in the basket in the offensive end,” Briggs said.

“One of their good three-point shooters, [Cunningham], hit two threes so just making sure we contested her and picking up the energy on defense, we definitely came out with a mentality to stop them and not let them score.”

In a game that had an unusual number of three- and five-second violations, Trinity turned the ball over on 18 occasions, compared to Tufts’ 10.

The Bantams’ miscues led to 12 points for the Jumbos, while the visitors gave up just three points off turnovers.

Tufts also out-rebounded Trinity 33 to 27, and scored six more points off second-chance points. While Tufts’ overall three-point shooting was below 25 percent, the team shot better from the field than its counterparts, going 22-for57 (38.6 percent), compared to Trinity’s 14-for-46 (30.4 percent) effort.

Overall, the Jumbos were led by Knapp, who had team-highs in points (12) and rebounds (six), while Dillon contributed nine points and a gamehigh six assists. Sophomore guard Cailin Harrington added eight points and four boards off the bench. On the Trinity side, Cunningham put up 13 points off the bench — the same total as the team’s starting five, combined.

Tufts finished its regular season with the third-best record in the conference (21–3 overall, 8–2 NESCAC), behind the undefeated defending national champions, Amherst, as well as second-place Bowdoin (Tufts lost to both teams in the regular season). On Saturday, the Jumbos will host the Conn. College Camels, whom they beat 75–54 on Jan. 26 in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament.