The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Podium startup seeks to improve students’ media literacy see FEATURES / PAGE 4

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Jumbos push win streak to 7 games, remain undefeated

Tufts should cut ties with Sacklers, fund recovery programs see EDITORIAL/ PAGE 9

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 40

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

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Nicholas Kristof discusses immigration, journalism at Hillelsponsored lecture

by Elie Levine and Jessica Blough

Editor in Chief and Executive News Editor

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof presented a lecture on immigration largely focusing on individual narratives yesterday night for the annual Tufts Hillel Merrin Moral Voices Lecture.

The event, titled “Covering Immigration In The Trump Era: An Evening With Award Winning New York Times Journalist Nicholas Kristof,” filled Cohen Auditorium to over half its capacity.

Kristof, who has worked for The New York Times since 2001, writes a column on human rights and global affairs. He previously worked as a foreign correspondent and has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting.

Kristof last visited Tufts in 2007 for the second Merrin Moral Voices Lecture, when he gave a talk titled “Raising a Moral Voice.”

The Merrin Moral Voices Lecture is part of a student-driven program led by Tufts Hillel to highlight “moral voices” and inspire students to take positive action in their communities, according to the Hillel website. Each year, the Merrin Moral Voices program invites a speaker to campus to share their experience pursuing social justice issues.

Last year, Tufts Hillel invited Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, for a lecture on reproductive rights.

Naftali Brawer, Neubauer executive director of Tufts Hillel, introduced the lecture by connecting this year’s theme, immigration, with the Jewish faith and the mission of Tufts Hillel. “[The Torah] instructs us 36 times to love the stranger,” Brawer said.

After a dedication to Anne Heyman Merrin by Lauren Bloom, assistant director of Tufts Hillel, sophomore Alex Smith introduced Kristof.

Kristof spent the majority of his talk next to the podium, supplementing his words with lecture slides. He said that the topic of immigration directly reflects on personal morals.

“I see this as a way of addressing a larger topic, which is our own communities and our own values,” he said.

Kristof said that America has historically held two differing positions on immigration, one that welcomes immigrants and refugees and another that embraces xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. He referenced the mistreatment of Catholic and Irish, as well as Japanese internment and hostility toward Jewish refugees.

“We discount the lives and wellbeing of foreigners; we ‘otherize’ them,” he said.

Throughout the presentation, Kristof referenced slides with phrases that people might use to justify ignoring the issue of immigration or opposing immigration, the first of which was, “Why should we care?”

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MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

As part of the event titled ‘Covering Immigration in the Trump Era,’ New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof addresses the audience in Cohen Auditorium on March 26.

“The best answer to that is to focus on individual stories and the community humanity,” Kristof said.

Kristof told several individual stories throughout his presentation, beginning

with the story of Elena, a Honduran girl whose family had fled the threat of gang violence after a gang member forced her

see KRISTOF, page 3

At rally for dining workers, union, activists tell students of preparations for strike

by Alexander Thompson News Editor

Student activists and representatives from the Tufts Dining workers’ union updated a standing-room only crowd of students on the state of contract negotiations between the university administration and the workers last night in the Alumnae Lounge.

Mike Kramer, the lead negotiator for UNITE HERE Local 26 which represents the dining workers, was blunt about the prospect of a strike, which has been looming over campus since workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike two weeks ago.

Kramer said that the union would prefer to avoid a strike, as it would be difficult for dining

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workers, but that the workers are prepared to make that choice.

“Make no mistake, if there is not serious action taken by the Tufts administration within a very short time period, there will be a strike on this campus. That strike will be soon,” Kramer said. “If [the administrators] want to avoid a crisis on this campus the time to act is right now.”

He urged students to continue to support the dining workers by putting pressure on the university and said that more details about the strike would be released in the coming days.

No announcement of a strike has been made yet, but the union’s bargaining committee could call for one at any time.

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The meeting was led by Luca Rogoff and Jaclyn Tsiang, two members of Tufts Dining Action Coalition (TDAC).

Much of the meeting was devoted to instructing students on what to do in the event of a strike.

Rogoff, a first-year, told meeting attendees that students with meal plans who wish to support the dining workers should still go to dining halls because they have already paid Tufts.

He added that offerings in dining halls would likely be curtailed and encouraged students to be vocal about any reduction in services.

“If services are not up to par, which, if all of our staff is gone, is probably going to be

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the case, start reporting that and start complaining and saying, ‘I’ve already paid for my meals, I don’t understand why you’re not getting food on this campus, and why you’re treating [your] workers so poorly that they can’t come into work,’” Rogoff said.

Rogoff announced that fundraisers will be held to raise money for the union strike fund and encouraged students to donate, as workers would not be paid during a strike.

However, Rogoff said that students should not pay Tufts for food at places like Kindlevan Café or the Campus Center.

TDAC will carry out a series of actions in the coming days, Tsiang, a junior, said. The

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, March 27, 2019

THE TUFTS DAILY Elie Levine

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Students get clarification on possible dining worker strike

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KYLE LUI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Mike Kramer, lead negotiator for UNITE HERE Local 26, updates the community on dining worker actions in Alumnae Lounge on March 26.

DINING

continued from page 1 group will lead delegations of students today and on Thursday to confront administrators in their offices about the negotiations.

Tsiang also asked students to join dining workers in a “practice” picket outside Carmichael Hall that will take place on Friday afternoon.

Since the strike authorization vote on March 14, the two sides have met three times, twice with the presence of a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, according to both Kramer and Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of public relations.

Collins said that the two sides had made progress on the issues of wages, healthcare and “a small number of other issues.”

“We are hopeful that we will come to an agreement soon, and look forward to resuming our negotiations with the union later this week,” Collins said.

Kramer disagreed with this view in an interview with the Daily, saying that on the key issues of wages, healthcare and the use of temporary contracts, the two sides are still “far apart,” echoing comments he made to the Daily two weeks ago.

However, Kramer said that the presence of a federal mediator simply indicated that the negotiations are contentious, and that this is not a sign of the direction of negotiations.

As the university braces for a strike by dining workers, many student dining workers have also pledged to not show up to work if the bar-

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expressing how they would support the dining workers in a strike.

On her card, Chen wrote, “I commit to joining a delegation and visiting admin offices and to support the workers through a strike.”

Jesse Ryan, a member of TDAC, said that the goal of the meeting was to bring students together, distribute information and ease any anxieties that students may have about the about the possible strike. Ryan, a sophomore, thought that the meeting largely succeeded in this regard.

Ryan asserted that most students are with the workers.

“We’re not getting a sense that there’s a large [amount] of confusion or a large amount of anxiety or stress about the strike in the Tufts community, we just wanted to make sure that all concerns anybody might have were addressed,” Ryan said.

Several dining workers attended the meeting, some still wearing their Dining Services uniforms.

Trisha O’Brien, a Dining Services attendant at Kindlevan, said that the meeting was “spectacular” and that she was amazed by the continued support from students.

O’Brien was resolute in her commitment to a strike.

“It’s going to be tough for all of us if it comes to that. We’re hoping that it doesn’t, but we’re ready,” she said. “We’ll do whatever we have to do, and whatever sacrifices we have to make … we’ll stand united. We’re going to win.”

Steve Locke, artist of planned Faneuil Hall installation, delivers talk on his works

by Robert Kaplan

Deepanshu Utkarsh Roy Kim

gaining committee calls a strike; two of them, Mia Lambert and Samee Mushtak, also spoke to the assembled students.

Lambert, a senior who works at the Central Kitchen and Bakery, said that almost 70 percent of student dining workers have signed the pledge.

“I want to say for myself and a lot of other student workers that this was not an easy choice.

A lot of us really need the money we make, and it’s not easy to say that we’re not going to work,” Lambert said. “At the same time, we are making that choice … because all of these people are doing a lot of really difficult things.”

Tufts Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos sent a short statement emailed to the Daily that closely mirrored the email sent by senior administration officials to the Tufts community on March 14.

“If a strike occurs, Tufts Dining Services has developed a contingency plan to ensure that all students on the Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses have access to food and services,” she said.

She declined to comment on questions regarding whether Dining Services is stockpiling food, intending to close campus eateries or hiring scabs, all of which occurred during a dining workers’ strike at Harvard University in fall 2016, according to the Harvard Crimson.

Claire Chen, a senior who attended the meeting, said that she had been worried about what would happen to underclassmen who rely on the dining halls if a strike occurred, but was reassured by the announcements.

Towards the end of the meeting, Rogoff and Tsiang asked those present to fill out note cards

Steve Locke, who is the City of Boston’s artist-in-residence for 2018, explained his past and current projects during a Civic Life Lunch yesterday afternoon entitled “Monuments & Movements: The Art of Protest.” The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted the lunch.

Senior Director of Tisch Programs Mindy Nierenberg introduced Locke and highlighted his proposed installation at Faneuil Hall, which garnered press coverage when the Boston Globe published an editorial in July 2018 expressing support for it.

“Steve’s proposal, and his work as an artist has sparked debate over how to come to terms with [a part of Boston’s] history,” Nierenberg said.

Locke, a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, described the subject and form of the installation, which is called “Auction Block Memorial at Faneuil Hall: A Site Dedicated to Those Enslaved Africans and African-Americans Whose Kidnapping and Sale Here Took Place and Whose Labor and Trafficking Through the Triangular Trade Financed the Building of Faneuil Hall.”

According to Locke, the installation will consist of a bronze plate about 10 feet by 16 feet, composed of two rectangles,

the larger representing the auction block where enslaved people were sold and the smaller rectangle representing the place where the auctioneer would stand. Locke added that the plate would be heated to human body temperature year-round and that the surface of the plate — at level with the surround pavement — would be etched with a map of triangular trade routes and a diagram of the ship that carried enslaved people across the Atlantic Ocean.

Locke explained that the installation’s construction is imminent.

“It got approved from the city, and from property management who runs Faneuil

see CLL, page 3

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Locke discusses monument to slave trade at Tisch College lunch CLL

continued from page 2 Hall, [and] the [Edward Ingersoll] Browne Fund gave us $150,000, though we have to raise about $100,000 more,” Locke said.

“The parks department approved it, the Freedom Trail Foundation approved it, so it’s going to go forward.”

Locke summarized what he believed was the rationale for some of those opposed to the installation, or those who would prefer to rename Faneuil Hall, which bears the name of the wealthy colonial merchant who financed the construction of the building and profited from the slave trade.

“People are conflating Faneuil Hall with monuments to racists and post-civil war monuments,” Locke said. “It’s not called Faneuil Hall because Peter Faneuil was a great man and we named it after him. It’s because it was his building and he built it.”

Locke also dedicated time to highlight another of his works, entitled “Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie (A Memorial for Freddie Gray),” which was installed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from June 2018 until January of this year.

Y Locke described how he planned and designed the installation, which memorialized the 25-year-old black Baltimore resident who died from spinal cord injuries he sustained when he was arrested. d “I took some images of Mr. Gray while he was alive … and used pixel averaging tsoftware to figure out the colors, and then I smixed those colors in paint, and then I took ethose samples to Benjamin Moore and had

paint made,” Locke said. “So [the colors are] ‘Freddie Gray Street Corner,’ ‘Freddie Gray Arrest’ and ‘Freddie Gray Hospital.’”

Locke added that his work inspired several other works across the country.

“It became part of the For Freedoms billboard project in all 50 states ahead of the 2018 midterm elections,” Locke said.

He added that the work was also redeveloped in Baltimore, and at Hillsborough Community College in Florida.

Locke also answered questions posed by moderator Kendra Field, associate professor of history and Africana studies and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.

Field compared her own work to Locke’s.

“The way you were speaking about your research process reminded me of some of the questions that I have doing historical work, trying to excavate the lives of, in some cases, my own ancestors, the care and integrity that’s required,” Field said.

Locke added that various historical and social developments explain people’s reluctance to discuss the past, affecting himself and his work as a result.

“Think about all the people who didn’t come home in the 40s and 50s, think about the people who went away for war and came back shattered and didn’t have access to care, think about the people who had their livelihoods taken away from them because of the Homestead Act,” Locke said. “I understand why my grandfather didn’t want to talk about the past, like I get it.”

VIA THE BAY STATE BANNER

Boston artist-in-residence Steve Locke is pictured.

After answering guiding questions from Field, Locke answered questions from the audience.

Locke explained that he is one of seven artists-in-residence for the City of Boston, each charged with reflecting on “resilience” in Boston, which creates the challenges of creating art that exists in the public sphere.

“Municipalities don’t really understand art, they don’t really trust art,” Locke said. “I had to hire a 501(c)(3)

to represent me because the city won’t give money to an artist. They’ll give money to a nonprofit, but they won’t give money to an artist.”

As the Civic Life Lunch came to a close, Locke emphasized the importance of determination in public artwork, given the lack of understanding of those in government and the public.

“The hard part about having a vision is that you have to believe in it, even if nobody else does,” Locke said.

Merrin Moral Voices lecture covers immigration, refugee crisis

hKRISTOF continued from page 1 into a relationship. e “The idea that we would then send Elena and her family back to that gang … eI just find that unconscionable,” he said.

His second point of rebuttal, to the phrase “But immigrants are a burden,” focused on the contributions that immigrants have made to the U.S. He highlighted the story of Tanitoluwa “Tani” Adewumi, an 8-year-old New York state chess champion and Nigerian refugee. y “[That’s] another example of how refugees and immigrants fundamentally are not ta burden but enrich the country,” he said.

For the third phrase, “We can’t help everyone. It’s hopeless!,” Kristof point,ed out what he called the “backdrop of rprogress” globally and called for more focus on this progress. e “We in journalism and those in the humanitarian community always focus on the problems,” he said. “If you always focus on the problems, never the progress, you leave people feeling this compassion fatigue.”

He said he has seen progress on many of the human rights issues that he has written about and studied.

Kristof said that the empathy gap between those who are affluent and those who are not is a result of lack of exposure and otherizing, and urged audience members to work to bridge this gap. He told the stories of Olly Neal, the first African-American district prosecuting attorney in Arkansas, as well as of people facing brutal treatment in Myanmar and children starving in Yemen, asking audience members to acknowledge the U.S.’s role in the famine in Yemen.

Kristof referenced his August Times column, titled “Anne Frank today is a Syrian girl,” and related it to current immigration crises.

“Anne Frank today is a Guatemalan girl at the border, Anne Frank is a Yemeni girl,” he said.

For the final phrase, Kristof refuted claims that attempts at addressing the crisis around immigration and refugees are “all just a drop in the bucket.” He

told the story of his father’s immigration from eastern Europe to the US, using this as an example of the significance of making a difference in a single life.

“Even if it is a drop in the bucket, I believe in drops in the bucket,” he said.

“That is how we fill buckets.”

Kristof took inquiries from the audience in a brief question-and-answer session after the lecture. The first question referred to the impact of economic factors on policymakers’ efforts to push forward policies inclusive for immigrants and refugees. Kristof responded that journalism, specifically photojournalism, is effective in swaying policy.

He commented on the power of photos to inspire people to act, as well as the importance of building a fairer economy.

The second question addressed how Kristof’s journalism brings out individuals’ stories while also referencing a broader need for social change. Kristof suggested that storytelling is not enough, stressing the impact of concrete action.

He gave an example of an individual’s impact on a larger audience, saying that

Tani’s parents donated the money he received to African immigrant families in similar situations to their own.

“The solution is to have more institutionalized, structural ways to address homelessness and child poverty,” Kristof said.

Another question referred to the ethical and moral ramifications of reporting on individuals in difficult situations.

Kristof said that he offers assistance, financial and otherwise, to interviewees in need, which has led to ethical concerns among his colleagues.

“Fundamentally, we are humans first and journalists second,” he explained.

In response to another question, Kristof objected to the idea that deeply upsetting images of poverty, war and immigration, referred to as “poverty porn,” are empty attempts to gain empathy. He explained that with the permission of those pictured or their parents, these images can be a powerful way of fighting back.

“Horrifying images end up changing policy,” he said.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Nate Rubright Somerville with Townie Tim

Broadway Bridge

W

elcome back! I hope your adventures over spring break have returned you to Tufts rested and ready to finish the semester. While you were out, Somerville was hard at work brewing a traffic nightmare in the form of the Broadway Bridge closure. I know most students do not drive, or even venture too far past Ball Square, but as your townie-in-residence, I feel obligated to make you aware of this local debacle.

If you are not familiar with the situation, shame on you, because the signs have been all over Somerville since February. But if you have been living under a rock, or more probably, in Tisch Library, let me explain: in order to build the Ball Square stop for the Green Line Extension project, the section of Broadway that crosses over the train tracks will be demolished and replaced.

This project is slated to take a full year.

I am so excited.

As a townie, about half my conversational time is spent on traffic conjecture. This includes discussing the best ways to get around Somerville, what streets do not require parking permits, how Google is trash when it comes to navigating Union Square and of course, the latest construction projects. Normally, a lane closure or repaving project is enough to stir the townie heart into all kinds of consternation. I remember when they repaved the first section of Powder House Boulevard.

There was so much panic about how it was impossible to get to Alewife Brook Parkway, and the street was not even fully closed! Now, we have a situation where Somerville is basically going to be split in two, with the busiest road in this entire city severed at its halfway point. This is basically the Super Bowl of local construction projects.

By the time this article gets released, it will be about a week since the bridge closed. I will be surprised if there is not at least one car that tries to drive through the barriers and over the bridge. If you look at the rerouting options it only gets worse. The nightmare goes from one of those where you are falling and don’t know why, to one where you are investigating your own murder — it feels so much more personal. They expect us to either go all the way to Highland Avenue, which will add a minimum of 30 extra minutes, or into Medford via Harvard Avenue. If you do not know about Harvard Avenue, just look up some pictures of the moon’s landscape and add a few more craters.

I swear, it’s like someone comes by at night and just jackhammers holes into that road. Getting around the bridge closure will be like choosing a port-ajohn during the Boston Marathon: All options are bad options.

For the next year, we get to watch as the entire traffic pattern of Somerville shifts. Maybe you already knew this, but your boy Townie Tim lives in Ball Square, and has a front-row seat to all this action.

It is going to be a heck of a year.

Nate Rubright is a member of the Somerville community. He can be reached at nathan.rubright@gmail.com.

Features

tuftsdaily.com

Through new Podium of expression, students aim to improve media consumption, engagement

by Fina Short

Features Editor

American confidence in the media continues to decline. A 2018 Knight Foundation survey found that 69 percent of U.S. adults’ trust in news media decreased in the past decade. In light of widespread cynicism toward media organizations, Tufts undergraduates Jia Wen (Covie) Goh and Daniel Lewis have dedicated the past year to changing the landscape of American media altogether.

With their startup, Podium, the pair aim to bring sought-after public figures and experts closer to their audiences through crowdsourced interviewers and concise video recordings. “[Podium] is a platform to facilitate crowdsourced conversations,” Goh, a senior, said.

“People can submit questions, and people can vote on the questions they want to get asked. That gives the power to the users to ask questions.”

Lewis, a junior majoring in political science, said that he was moved to co-found Podium in 2018 after noticing what he believed to be significant shortcomings in American media.

“The biggest thing to come out of the 2016 [presidential] election was [that] a lot of people looked at the ways in which media was consumed and saw that it was wrong,” Lewis said. “On top of that, people have looked at revenue models for media companies and seen that they don’t work.”

He added that Podium seeks to overcome increasing skepticism in the credibility of news organizations and mistrust of journalists.

“Other things that came out of this is the notion of people seeing large media organizations as sort of the ‘fake news’ media organizations,” Lewis said. “The way that we seek to alleviate some of those pressures is that you … take out the middleman, which is the journalist, and you give people direct access to some of those individuals.”

He stated that traditional interview formats, such as talk shows, leave the viewer minimally engaged with the politicians or celebrities from whom they hope to hear.

“Typically for interviews, it’s more of a oneway conversation,” he said. “Questions are asked based on who gets the mic first, or in the case of online interviews, who posted questions first. Ultimately, that gives little autonomy [to] the user to ask questions.”

Through making user-submitted questions and interviews readily available online, Lewis believes Podium can hone in on audience members’ desire to connect with influential figures who are typically out of reach.

“What people really like from video is feeling like [they’re] having a conversation with someone,” Lewis said. “When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posts an Instagram Live story of herself, it feels like she’s talking to you— more than it does when you read an article.”

Co-founder Goh, who’s double majoring in computer science and cognitive and brain sciences, concurred that he believes Podium holds a unique draw to those in front of the camera.

“In terms of the appeal for the interviewee, having a face-to-face direct link with your user base is something that is really exciting for them because it increases the intimacy of the conversation,” Goh said.

Through polls posted on Podium’s Facebook page, Lewis and Goh determine the questions that audiences seek to ask experts, then film these experts answering the most popular questions.

COURTESY DANIEL LEWIS

Podium founders Daniel Lewis and Covie Goh are pictured at the NAB pilot challenge in Seattle, Wash. on March 27.

“[Podium’s] focus is finding: what are the questions that are most important to us? And then getting answers to those questions in an entertaining, civil and informative way,” Lewis said.

In the past few months, the pair has conducted a series of interviews with experts including professors from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Indiana University, discussing topics ranging from race and voter turnout to the United States government shutdown.

Dr. Deborah Schildkraut, a Tufts professor of political science, found her recent interview with Podium to be an improvement over experiences she has had with other media organizations.

“I think I’m not alone with other professors who feel this way,” Schildkraut said. “Sometimes we get calls to do interviews with the media — I may spend a good 20–30 minutes talking with a journalist and they might end up using one or two sentences that I gave them, or they might not use any sentences at all.”

According to Schildkraut, Podium provided a platform for her fully formed thoughts on the issue of immigration in a way that other media organizations often do not.

“That’s basically what’s nice about it … the information that I think is valuable on this topic is presented in a relatively unfiltered way,” Schildkraut said.

Schildkraut went on to commend Goh and Lewis for their composure during the interview, stating that she was impressed by their preparation and informative explanations of Podium.

“I would just reiterate how professional I thought the operation was considering how new and small they still are,” Schildkraut said.

“Even before we had sat down together to do the filming, they really seemed to know how to present what they’re doing and why.”

Podium has enjoyed a wave of success in its first year, winning the Tufts University Montle Prize and taking second place at the National Association of Broadcasters PILOT competition. Despite their achievements, Goh and Lewis stated that their vision for the app remains far from realization.

“Essentially, what we see ourselves creating is a new form of communication between influencers, politicians and the larger audience,” Goh said. “We hope to widen options in terms of facilitating conversations in very different fields, be it politics, sports, whatever.”

Going forward, Lewis and Goh noted that they hope to hire a full-time web developer.

They encouraged anyone interested with experience in development or design to reach out to them at team@podiuminterviews.com.

While they aim to develop a web prototype for Podium by the end of summer 2019, Lewis and Goh hope that the final form of Podium will be an app where interviewees can record themselves responding to user-submitted questions.

“Ultimately, what we anticipate is we would never have to go anywhere to film [the interviews],” Lewis said. “Someone could get an interview scheduled and they could just record themselves on their own phone responding to it — so instead of it taking 2 hours to go to an interview, it takes 15 minutes.”

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

ARTS&LIVING

Evan Zigmond Out on the Town

Green space spring preview

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Torn Ticket II explores high school, mental health in ‘Heathers: The Musical’

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hile Boston is an entertaining city with lots to do, the cold often acts as a strong deterrent from leaving campus, let alone exploring the city. With spring on the horizon, however, the gentler climate allows for much easier sightseeing. I look forward to spending as much time outside in the city as I can, so I would like to highlight some green spaces in Greater Boston that welcome visitation in warmer weather.

The South End and Dorchester neighborhoods include many small green spaces that can be reached with short walks from multiple T stops. Notably, the area contains a community garden. Located near Back Bay, Berkeley Community Garden should bloom with fruits, vegetables and flowers fairly soon. I look forward to visiting this area, which was likely barren and boring in the winter.

Brighton is home to a few large green spaces including Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, a free outdoor nature museum stretching for more than 2.5 miles. When I searched the Arboretum in Google Maps, I saw photos of a variety of verdant trees, the highlight being a large cherry blossom tree. This space, nestled at the south end of the Orange Line, is a bit of a trek. I have a hunch it is worth the trek, though. Seeing the trees regrow their leaves there will be a special treat.

Spring green spaces are not limited to the U.S. mainland. Within Boston’s city limits lies Georges Island, accessible via ferry for a reasonable price. Located a few miles off the coast to the East, Georges Island is quite large. For tourists, it contains hikes, beaches and even the historic Fort Warren, erected during the Civil War. The ferry departs multiple times a day, so one has flexibility in planning their trip to the island. This is an especially tantalizing prospect, one that I’ve been waiting to finally visit.

For the morbidly curious, cemeteries are sprinkled throughout Boston’s many suburbs. Looking at a map, the largest of them is the Forest Hills Cemetery, aptly located in Forest Hills. Cemeteries in Greater Boston often contain graves dated earlier than other parts of the country due to the age of the area. I find that stopping at graveyards here gives me a small glimpse into revolutionary, and occasionally even colonial, life. I’m excited to cover this cemetery in greater detail.

Even in our own town of Medford, the Middlesex Fells Reservation should be much more welcoming in the coming weeks. Just north of campus near Medford Square, one may indulge in various hikes and other outdoor activities. According to Mass.gov, you may even rent a kayak or canoe and explore the large ponds on the reservation.

With the exception of Georges Island, all of these sites may be accessed for less than $5. Hopefully, this warmer climate will encourage us all to go out into Greater Boston and grab some Vitamin D.

Evan Zigmond is a sophomore studying music. Evan can be reached at evan.zigmond@tufts.edu.

VIA TORN TICKET II FACEBOOK

An advertisement for ’Heathers: The Musical’ is pictured.

by Stephanie Hoechst Arts Editor

Disclaimer: Amanda Rose is a former assistant arts editor at The Tufts Daily.

Rose was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

This weekend, Torn Ticket II will tackle “Heathers: The Musical” as one of its spring shows. The student production has come together in just six short weeks, a feat considering how ambitious the show itself is.

“Heathers” was originally based on a 1988 film. The show takes place in a high school during the ’80s, and follows student Veronica’s foray into the world of three popular girls, all of whom are named Heather.

According to senior Amanda Rose, the choreographer for the Torn Ticket II production, “it’s kind of a mix of ’80s pop meets ‘Mean Girls.’”

“Heathers” features plenty of rock songs, which both Rose and music director Josh Kim, a junior, have been working hard on these past few weeks.

“It’s a rock musical. It’s not like your classic Sondheim or something like ‘Hamilton’ with a full orchestra. It’s just a band,” Kim explained.

“It has really iconic choreography,” Rose added, “so about half of the choreography is from the original Broadway production … There’s a fair amount of movement and dancing through the show, which keeps it going at a good pace.”

“Heathers” is, however, a dark comedy, navigating heavier themes related to violence and mental health as Veronica falls in love with a boy in her class named J.D. First-year Thomas Levy, who plays J.D., said in an interview with the Daily, “It quickly becomes clear that [ J.D.] is emotionally unstable and very lonely. He hooks on to Veronica and begins to murder their peers in hopes that he can live a life with Veronica alone, away from the drama of high school.”

“Ultimately, ‘Heathers’ is a highstakes story about high schoolers trying

to figure out what’s important to them and what they want in life,” Levy added.

Rose explained that while the show features darker elements, “we use Veronica as a vehicle to talk about these larger issues. It ends with more of a plea to society in large, but also to be kind to each other and to watch out for each other and to not indulge these darker impulses that we have.”

The directors of the show have been working to make sure that these themes are addressed in the most constructive way possible.

“It’s a very heavy show,” Rose said. “It’s difficult because it’s also a satire, so there’s a lot of power that comes in taking these subjects and using comedy to explore them and unpack them and also empower anyone who’s struggling with any of these issues, or knows someone who is.”

“It’s a little difficult to navigate these topics as a student production because the musical itself seems to and could be interpreted as making light of mental health issues and other serious events,” Kim added. “And we as a student production definitely value the progressive experience of providing not only trigger warnings, but also better content — content that doesn’t downsize these problems. So we’ve had to make a lot of stylistic choices in making sure that these narratives aren’t minimized or made fun of.”

Despite these challenges, though, Rose noted that she was glad the cast has been able to explore such provocative issues. “It’s been a work in progress, but I’m proud of us for tackling it. A lot of times people shy away from shows, like, ‘Oh, that’s too difficult. I can’t handle it.’”

In addition, Rose said that the cast, while larger than most Torn Ticket productions, has been incredible to work with.

“What’s really exciting is that we have sixteen cast members, half of whom are freshmen. It’s so fun. And

for a lot of them it’s not only their first student theater show, but it’s their first show at Tufts,” she said.

Levy added, “I am so amazed at the kind of professional work my friends are doing. My cast rocks … It’s so clear that everyone who’s a part of this process is dedicated to putting up a really good show.”

On top of the weighty content, the cast and crew have had limited time and resources to produce this show, meaning they’ve had to work extra hard to get it done. Torn Ticket II usually does one “Major” and one “Minor” production per semester — “Heathers,” however, lies somewhere in the middle.

According to Kim, “It’s a ‘Minor Plus,’ which is like a ‘Minor,’ but a little bit of a larger scale. But what this entails is that we’re basically still putting on a ‘Major,’ musical-wise — it’s a ‘Major’ musical. It still requires that [many] resources, but we’ve been doing it with three fewer weeks overall — three fewer weeks of rehearsals, three fewer weeks of learning the music, of seeing the music in front of us. So this has been — I don’t know what the right word is, almost like an underdog tale — it’s been a struggle, for sure.”

He added, “With that in mind … we’ve put so much work and so much effort into this.”

Rose echoed this sentiment.

“I would definitely say don’t let the content warnings frighten you from not seeing the show. This show is definitely not for everyone — it’s a difficult show to watch at times, but that being said, it’s really really fun, and it’s a balance of being very fun, but also very thought-provoking,” she said.

Torn Ticket II’s “Heathers: The Musical” will be showing in Cohen Auditorium this Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and can be purchased at the Campus Center or online at Tufts Tickets.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Wednesday, March 27, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

The state of horror

VIA PIXABAY

An image of the Grim Reaper is depicted.

by Tuna Margalit Staff Writer

The recent shift in the horror genre of film directly coincides with the ever-increasing public awareness of mental health. What horror movies can do, which other genres can’t often do, is discuss and depict surreal truths that are deemed ‘touchy’ or ‘inappropriate.’ As is the case with any film touching on sensitive topics, there is a thin needle to thread of not glorifying, over-exaggerating, under-exaggerating or just generally misrepresenting certain perspectives and stories.

However, the past couple of years have seen horror films handle issues of psychological trauma with greater deftness.

This is not to say that these movies did not exist up to this point. Movies such as “American Psycho” (2000) and “Black Swan” (2010) are two of the more revered films of the 21st century. Still, a breakthrough around 2014 catapulted the subgenre of psychological horror to the forefront of the genre.

Two films, “The Babadook” (2014) and “It Follows” (2015), both popularized with the help of Netflix, unearthed the subgenre that had only been seen in sporadic bursts throughout the

years. These two films garnered respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 98 and 96 percent, respectively, though their box office scores were not up to par with the more conventional horror movies of these years. And yet their influence was immediate — movies like “Split” (2016), “Gerald’s Game” (2017), “Mother!”(2017) and “Hereditary” (2018) were released, and the psychological horror subgenre started becoming more prevalent.

The shift can also be attributed to the desire to tell new stories. Many conventional horror films from 2010 until today have been either successful both critically and commercially or only commercially. Films such as “Insidious” (2010), “The Purge” (2013), “The Conjuring” (2013) and “Annabelle” (2014) spawned series due to their low budgets and wildly high box office scores. But the films of these series, regardless of their critical scores, told similar stories or contained similar thematic elements in each film.

Each of the aforementioned psychological horror films tell vastly different stories because the human psyche is unique. When the main source of horror in a movie is internal as opposed to external, there are many more ideas to explore.

There is an argument to be made that the successful psychological horror movies of the past few years hover closer to the psychological thriller genre than the horror genre often associated with classics such as “Halloween” (1978) and “The Thing” (1982). However, this is a flawed argument that assumes that classic horror films are the determinants for what is truly horror and what is not. Manifestations of external horror, such as a masked murderer chasing the protagonist with a knife, can be just as terrifying as those of internal horror, such as an anthropomorphized manifestation of grief wreaking psychological havoc on a widow.

It is likely that the trend of psychological-horror films will continue for a while — probably until their market becomes inevitably oversaturated and consumers start negatively responding by not watching these films anymore. With this oversaturation comes a decline in effort and a tendency towards formulaic-ness that will only push the current state of the genre back to what it was when popcorn flicks dominated the horror movie landscape. However, there is no sign that this fate is coming anytime soon.

These popcorn flicks haven’t gone away completely, either. Just this past year the three highest-grossing horror films were “A Quiet Place” (2018), “The Nun” (2018) and “Halloween” (2018), none of which focus on the psychological elements of horror.

So it seems that the shift is not complete in any sense, nor is it definitely headed to one extreme. It is possible that multiple horror subgenres will take up the responsibility of leading the genre through its evolution.

Regardless, more variety in the genre is good for horror fans. As long as horror filmmakers continue trying to tell original stories in smart ways, especially ones of mental health, audiences will continue to be receptive.

One point of worry is that recent successful horror movies will revert back to the cycle of spawning repetitive sequels.

If this happens, the genre will falter again.

This is why the upcoming sequel to “A Quiet Place” is worrisome.

Recent variety in the horror genre has set it apart from a movie landscape plagued by redundancy. Let’s hope the genre doesn’t pull a classic horror movie protagonist move and head down a road that obviously will lead to a grisly end.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Wednesday, March 27, 2019

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Opinion

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EDITORIAL

A response to the President’s letter on the Sackler family How many people have to die before Tufts cuts ties with the Sackler family? Is 50,000 nationwide too many? How about 2,000 in Massachusetts? Seventeen in Medford? Sixteen in Somerville?

President Monaco’s email stated that Tufts will investigate whether “we adhered to our policies and if our policies adopted best practices with respect to academic and research integrity and conflicts of interest in accepting those funds.” This is not the issue that matters. Focusing on whether Tufts followed its own self-ascribed policies is irrelevant. What matters is that people are suffering and dying and that our school has taken money from the family most at fault for that pain, refusing to end the relationship.

The Sacklers admitted in their own emails that they were trying to market OxyContin in a dishonest and dangerous way. Other institutions, including Columbia University and the University of Washington, have pledged not to take any more money from the Sackler family.

Tufts has not done the same. However, even that pledge is not justice. We don’t

want Tufts to just walk away. We want Tufts to take responsibility for its actions and work to prevent more deaths.

From 2015 to 2017, 87 people died from overdoses in Medford and Somerville. Add in Boston and Grafton, and 846 people died in cities where Tufts has a campus. That data doesn’t even include the past two years, during which the crisis did not abate.

The editor of this section has lost count of the people he knows who have died in this epidemic. How many more students have to lose count too?

If Attorney General Maura Healey is right, Tufts has been complicit in the deaths of at least 846 people.

But the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Every person who died in this epidemic was as human as you. They didn’t set out to be addicts or to die of an overdose. Companies identified human pain as a source of perpetual profit and knowingly created addictive and lethal substances to exploit that opportunity.

This act was the ultimate perversion of medicine, a corruption of the relationship of trust and care that ought to

exist between healthcare workers and the sick. Tufts took money from a company and a family whose fortune was based on knowingly creating addicts and lying about it. Tufts is still willing to take money from them.

Tufts should use the sum it received from the Sacklers and invest it in research-backed recovery programs, like methadone and suboxone treatments and humane care. To atone for Tufts’ role in the opioid crisis, which included creating curriculum that promoted their products, Tufts must provide some measure of dignity and care to people hurt by OxyContin.

No one should have had to die for Tufts to investigate whether it did something wrong. It is too late to reverse past harms, but Tufts has the power to begin alleviating the problems it helped create. Simple policy solutions like proper funding for recovery programs, needle exchanges and mental health care can reduce harm.

Tufts must sever ties with the Sacklers and then try to repair some of the damage it has done.

CARTOON

How to Make Whey for Ducklings

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

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

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

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

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Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Deeksha Bathini America is dying

The individual mandate

P

resident Trump’s oh-so-beloved tax agenda was signed into law in 2018. Even though it was a tax bill, the name is deceiving. This bill has a lot of implications for Obama-era healthcare reforms. In a rally in Michigan last spring, Trump even noted, “Some people would say, essentially, we have gotten rid of [Obamacare].” This, of course, is false, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still the law of the land.

That being said, the Trump Administration did strip an integral part of the ACA: the individual mandate. This mandate is likely the most contentious part of Obamacare. Basically, this clause of the ACA requires that all people, regardless of their health status, buy health insurance. Failure to do so results in a financial penalty, which could be as high as 1 – 2.5 percent of your annual income. This law was meant to encourage healthy, young individuals to buy into the system as a means to offset the cost of older, sicker people. It was so controversial that the mandate reached the Supreme Court in 2012. Ultimately, however, it was deemed to be constitutional under the government’s taxing discretions.

With the death of the mandate, the question of its practical effectiveness has surfaced. In many ways, the mandate was a failure. Not only was there a widespread malaise among Republicans regarding the government’s coerciveness in forcing people to purchase insurance, but the penalty for opting out was too low to sufficiently compel citizens to buy Obamacare.

When the premium to get insurance was consistently higher than the penalty, the incentive to get insurance diminished.

Additionally, the federal subsidies that allowed low-income families and individuals to purchase health insurance at a reasonable cost were simply inadequate.

The mandate is the closest the United States has ever come to “socialized medicine,” and it really didn’t make the splash that everyone was expecting. In 2016, 6.5 million Americans paid the penalty that came to be an average of $70 to avoid paying a premium, and Obama even expanded exemptions so more people could opt out of buying Obamacare with no consequence. Ultimately, the individual mandate was far too modest to have any substantial effect on day-to-day Americans. Perhaps higher penalties and more subsidies to cover low-income people would have created a more robust law, but of course, that would increase taxes, which no one likes.

My point is that the individual mandate wasn’t the answer to decreasing the number of uninsured Americans, but neither is the new tax bill. American healthcare reform tends to be piecewise, meaning that it simply puts a Band-Aid on existing problems and waits to see what happens. It’s hard to reform a system that’s so fragmented piece by piece. The American system is governed by markets and exchanges and socialized programs, so it’s impossible to ensure that all people can access care. Fixing this mess will require us to put piecewise change on the backburner for a moment and take a leap of faith to reevaluate the entire system.

Deeksha is a sophomore studying community health. Deeksha can be reached at deeksha.bathini@tufts.edu.

10

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Sports

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts baseball defends its title on southern road trip

11

Jeremy Goldstein The Anti-Bostonian

Gronk leaves Pats for the fraternity of retirement

S

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Senior Will Shackelford stands on third in a game against Colby on April 21, 2018.

by Jacob Dreyer

Contributing Writer

Tufts baseball returns home after posting an impressive 7–2 record during its weeklong trip to Virginia, putting its overall record at 8–2 to start off the season.

Tufts concluded its road trip against Randolph-Macon, securing a 7–3 win.

The victory against Randolph-Macon, currently the No. 9 ranked team in Div. Ⅲ baseball, signals that the Jumbos are poised for a strong season.

“Overall, it was a pretty good week,” sophomore pitcher Manny Ray said. “I think we really battled. We have just got to keep working hard, and playing clean baseball is our focus. Finishing off with a win against Randolph-Macon was really big; it showed that we definitely have the ability.”

The Jumbos started the scoring with two runs in the top of the second on a two-run triple from junior outfielder Justin Mills. First-year infielder Peter DeMaria homered in the top of the fifth to put the Jumbos up 3–1. The Jumbos got three additional insurance runs on an RBI double from sophomore infielder Ryan Daues and an RBI single from DeMaria in the top of the seventh inning to increase the lead to 6–3. An unearned run in the top of the ninth gave the Jumbos an additional run that consolidated the win.

On Friday, Tufts lost the eighth game of their road trip in a hard-fought 5–4 game against the University of Lynchburg.

The day before, the Jumbos’ pitching crew stepped up as they won a close game 3–0 against Roanoke. Junior pitcher Brent Greeley had a near-perfect start, throwing six scoreless innings allowing only two hits. First-year pitcher Lucas Gustavson threw a scoreless seventh inning and Spencer Langdon threw two scoreless innings to record his second save of the season. The offense was powered by senior outfielder Casey SantosOcampo, who had two RBIs, and sopho-

more infielder Kyle Cortese, who had two hits and an RBI. On March 19, Tufts’ offense and pitching came alive with an impressive 17–2 win against Averett University. Mills had a big day, recording four hits from the leadoff spot. Sophomore infielder Will Burgess drove in three runs, and senior co-captain and catcher Harrison Frickman contributed three hits along with three RBIs. Tufts also got stellar pitching once again from senior co-captain R.J. Hall, who pitched six innings giving up only one earned run. Gustavson, sophomore pitcher Andrew Wood and sophomore pitcher Jamie Weiss each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

“Going into your first start, there is always going to be a little rust to get off,” Hall said. “It was really about setting the tone on the mound and just being aggressive right off the bat.”

The day before, Tufts picked up a 6–4 win against the Guilford College Quakers.

Once again, Tufts opened up the game with three runs in the first inning, while scoring once in the sixth and twice in the seventh to hold off a potential comeback from the Quakers. The Jumbos got RBIs from junior outfielder/catcher Ryan Day, sophomore infielder Ryan Daues, senior catcher Eric Schnepf, and firstyear infielder Nate Bozella. First-year Aidan Tucker earned the win, pitching five innings while only allowing two earned runs on four hits. Another firstyear pitcher, Steven Landry, came in and pitched three innings in relief, giving up just one unearned run on four hits. Firstyear closer Michael Volgende, pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his first save of the year.

The day before, the Jumbos beat St. Vincent College 8–4. The offense started off strong, scoring three runs in the first inning on RBIs from sophomore infielder Ryan Daues, junior outfielder J.P. Knight and junior infielder Elias Varinos. The Jumbos never looked back as they relied

on a strong start from Ray along with solid relief outings from Wood and Langdon.

“It really helped coming into the game with a three-run lead. It was a weight off of my shoulders,” Wood said.

Tufts played one game March 16 as well, losing a close game 8–7 against Stevens Institute in Hampton, Va. The Jumbos started out the spring break road trip red-hot with dominating wins over Castleton, 17–2, and against Apprentice School, 14–3, also in Hampton, Va. In the second game of the day, DeMaria contributed with four RBIs while junior pitcher Brent Greeley had an impressive outing, throwing seven scoreless innings and only giving up two hits.

In the first game of the spring break trip and its second game of the season, Tufts’ offense exploded for 17 hits as well as home runs from Santos-Ocampo and sophomore outfielder Brandon Bay. The team also got strong pitching from Hall and Tucker.

“We have that attack mentality in the beginning innings to score first,” Burgess said. “We want to get out in front because playing ahead is a lot better than playing from behind. When we jump out to those leads, it fuels our offense to keep going.”

Hall knows what this team is capable of.

“We have every right to be a top-25 team in the nation,” Hall said. “If we focus game by game, and play the way that we are supposed to, we have a genuine shot at making it to the College World Series this year.”

Tufts relied heavily on scoring first to maintain the tempo of each game: they scored first in every single game in Virginia, with a .329 batting average and a .492 slugging percentage to boot across the season’s entirety. After a long seven-game away trip, the Jumbos return home to Medford for their next 15 games. Tufts begins its current undefeated home record defense this afternoon against Massachusetts Maritime Academy at 3 p.m. on Huskins Field.

pring break for the Patriots doesn’t mean time off from work, but it does mean the Gronk Party Bus is out of Brady’s classroom. This time, school is dismissed — forever.

No longer parking itself between the Patriots offensive line and the outside wide receiver, the Gronk Party Boat will instead run post routes to the heavenly waters of the Boston Harbor instead of the end zone. He’ll go from working with teammates to working with his brothers (Dan, Chris, Glenn and Gordie Jr.) aboard his new frat-line cruiser: DDG (that’s Delta Delta GRONK, for those non-Panhellenic folks).

Rob Gronkowski managed to live up (or down) to every stigma a football player has.

Hulking, masculine, loud and outgoing, Gronk somehow was a genius craftsman on the field in ways that seemed to supersede the capacity of his brain. More importantly, however, was that he knew his strengths — his combination of speed and size, love Gronk or hate him, was absolutely freakish — and he used it to torment everyone from undersized defensive backs to sluggish linebackers. He was, at his worst, a nuisance, and at his best, unguardable.

In his later stages, however, Gronk turned to a willing blocker, paving the way for some surprisingly effective rushing attacks to take some pressure off of Tom’s throwing arm. He was like having two men on the field, and his retirement means the Pats have two holes to fill.

The untimely nature of its decision will ultimately leave the Patriots offense in flux. Ultimately, the inevitable cliff that the Patriots are inevitably inching toward now suddenly seems like it’s just one left turn away. Yes, Bill kills offseason after offseason (they don’t “Kill Bill” — at least not yet), but a perpetual talent drain is an unsustainable laurel to continue to rely on. The talent sucking cannot continue, can it?

The departure of Gronk marks yet another outside target who has left the Pats’ coffers. With Josh Gordon leaving the team, the Patriots were left with zero wide receivers who are six feet or taller, except for special-teamer Matthew Slater, who has not caught a pass since 2011. Again, it’s nice to beat teams over the middle of the field, but how many Julian Edelman and James White gadget-type players can you have? Combine this with Brady’s diminishing arm strength (it’s called aging, people), and you wonder how the Pats could stretch a defense in 2019.

The Pats offensive line continue to take blow after blow, too. Without Gronk to act as a swing-tackle on the outside, the offensive tackles will be even more important.

Well, John Gruden and whatever-the-Raiders-are-doing just plucked left tackle Trent Brown for $66 million, leaving the onus on untested first rounder Isaiah Wynn, who has yet to play a snap.

Maybe it’ll work. Somehow, the Patriots never seem to make a wrong decision. But sometimes one has to bank on process over results, and using Super Bowl victory after victory — including some playoff marches by the slightest of margins — to pepper over the cracks is not the soundest strategy.

The fall will come sooner rather than later.

Jeremy Goldstein is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Jeremy can be reached at jeremy. goldstein@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Women’s lacrosse posts unprecedented 7–0 start to the season

KYLE LUI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts women’s lacrosse team in a game against Endicott on March 24 at Bello Field.

by Maddie Payne Sports Editor

The Jumbos made a historic start to the season after four wins in the last week to go 7–0 and reach the top of the NESCAC standings.

The seven-straight-win mark is their best start to a season since 1989, when Tufts went 13–0 en route to an ECAC championship, a conference the team used to be in. With their flying start, the Jumbos move to seventh in the nation, their best rank so far this season. In its string of victories, Tufts overcame The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), the 2017 NCAA tournament runner-ups, 8–7, in its toughest match so far this spring. The team also beat out NESCAC foes Colby, by a score of 15–8, and Trinity, with a 12–6 victory. Tufts also overcame a non-conference opponent in the Endicott Gulls, 17–5.

In their second home game of the season, the Jumbos held the Gulls to their lowest number of scored goals this season in a comfortable win. The Gulls gained an early 2–1 advantage, but six straight unassisted goals spurred the Jumbos to a 7–3 lead going into halftime.

First-years consolidated the win in the second half for the Jumbos: Attacker Mae Briody came off the bench and registered two goals and two assists, while classmate and fellow attacker Colette Smith, a goal-scoring powerhouse for the Jumbos, netted three goals of her own after being contained by the Gulls defense for the entire first half. Smith remains the Jumbos’ leading point scorer with 23 goals and seven assists on the season.

Sophomore midfielder Catherine Lawliss netted a game-high four goals, closely followed by hat tricks from Smith and junior attacker Emily Games. On the defensive

end, senior goalkeeper Audrey Evers saved 10 out of 15 shots, compared to Endicott’s senior goalkeeper Bella Rino’s save rate of only 7 out of 24. Tufts closed out the game with seven unanswered goals to cement the final score at 17–5.

A day earlier, the Jumbos emerged dominant after a slow start to beat their conference rivals, the Trinity Bantams, 12–6. A tense first half ended with a 3–2 score to Tufts’ advantage. Both defenses held strong, with the Jumbos taking 12 shots, and the Bantams managing 11.

“On the attacking end it was a lot more pressure than I had anticipated,” Smith said.

“They pressured us out very far, which made us sit back. The defense played very well and came up with great plays to hold them back. At times the defense even ran out [Trinity’s] shot clock, so the problems were mainly on the attack because we weren’t expecting such a high-pressure defense. Once we calmed down we played a lot better.”

In the second half, Tufts offense began to click with a three-goal run in under 90 seconds. Senior midfielder Annie Sullivan led the charge with three goals in the game, all of which were scored from free positions. Seven of the Jumbos’ 12 goals were scored off free positions, likely a result of Trinity’s high defensive press which limited the Jumbos’ ability to execute drives. Instead, the attacking unit found a different route to goal that paid off for a 12–6 win.

Meanwhile, the defensive unit was tested by long offensive possessions by the Bantams but did a good job of preventing the team from completing their shots.

“I think we could have done a better job of getting more ground balls in the eight,” senior

defender Hedy Vieth said. “Sometimes we wouldn’t come up with the ball and Trinity would get another shot off and reset the shot clock, so it led to us having very long defensive sets which was very tiring. That makes us realize how much harder we need to work during clears to get the ball back to our attack and letting them do their job too.”

On March 20, the Jumbos travelled to Ewing N.J. to face the TCNJ Lions in their toughest match of the season thus far. The historically strong Lions have had a rough start to the season, with the loss moving them to 4–3. Until facing the Jumbos, however, the Lions had been undefeated at home.

“TCNJ is always a great team every year,” first-year attacker Colette Smith said.

“They’re very aggressive on defense and their goalie is a returning All-American. I’d say that was the toughest game so far this season, and it was the game that left us all the most tired. It was a tough win but it was great to beat them on their turf.”

Four different scorers provided Tufts with a 4–2 advantage in the first half-hour. It was thanks to this lead that the Jumbos came away with the eventual win, as the Lions, in a tenacious comeback, came within one goal by the end of the match. TCNJ’s advantage in draw controls in the second half of the game proved vital to their almost-completed comeback.

The contest was 60 minutes of physicality: The Jumbos endured 24 fouls against them, while committing only 12. The TCNJ fouls culminated in 15 free-position opportunities for the Jumbos to score, but they only completed six. Luckily, their early advantage sealed the narrow 8–7 win.

“We spent a lot of time playing defense over break, and I think that everyone did a great job,” Vieth said. “In practices leading up to these games we really focused on strong one-versus-one defense and good communication, and those really translated in the games. Particularly with the TCNJ game we focused on staying patient and not getting too hectic because it was a very physical game.”

At the beginning of spring break, on March 16, Tufts handed Colby its first loss of the season in a comfortable 15–8 win at home. Tufts went into the second half with a 10–4 advantage, and as a result were able to ride out a 15-minute scoring drought comfortably. In response to the Mules’ three-goal run, the Jumbos went on one of their own to end the game.

“Lacrosse is a game of runs, and there are always going to be those moments of pressure, but I think compared to years past, this season we’ve done a much better job of just trying to stay calm and keep things under control and accept that we’re going to make some mistakes,” Vieth said. “We’ve tried to stay really positive and default back to our fundamentals.”

Senior attacker Dakota Adamec, the reigning NESCAC Player of the Year, was named NESCAC Player of the Week on Monday thanks to the nine points that she contributed over the last week. The highlight of Adamec’s week came against TCNJ, where she was responsible for three of the teams eight goals.

After the taxing stretch of four games in nine days, the Jumbos look forward to an entire week between games to recover. The team faces NESCAC rival Conn. College (1–4), who sit at the bottom of the standings, on Bello Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.