The Tufts Daily - Thursday, March 7, 2018

WEEKENDER

Tufts should improve budget transparency see OPINION / PAGE 8

Harry Dodge discusses his art, creative process

Two runners qualify for Div. III Indoor Championships see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

SEE WEEKENDER / PAGE 6

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 31

Thursday, March 7, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

SMFA Beacon Street dorms will house only first-years in 2019– 2020 academic year

MENGQI IRINA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

The outside of the Office of Residential Life and Learning is pictured on March 4.

by Bella Maharaj

Contributing Writer

The Beacon Street residence halls at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts are scheduled to accommodate only incoming first-years for the 2019–

2020 academic year, according to Director of Residential Life and Learning Joshua Hartman. The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) is working to provide alternative living accommodations for rising sophomores, according to Hartman.

The SMFA campus has three residence halls on Beacon Street. Currently, 1047 and

1023 Beacon Street house first-years and 1025 Beacon Street is reserved for upperclassmen, according to Hartman. The three residence halls accommodate 77 students total, excluding first-year advisors, Hartman explained.

Hartman said the anticipated SMFA class size for the 2019–2020 first-year

class is 76 students, filling all spots in the Beacon Street residential halls; the one remaining dorm room will be used for urgent room changes.

Rising sophomores will not be housed in the SMFA Beacon Street residence halls. The ORLL is dealing with this situation by designating a number of rooms in Harleston Hall for sophomore SMFA students, according to Hartman. He explained that all Bachelor of Fine Arts sophomores who have applied for housing on the Medford campus immediately qualified for housing in Harleston Hall.

The school has also looked at Northeastern University to find housing accommodations for SMFA students.

“We worked closely with Northeastern University and [were] able to have some of the BFA students invited to Northeastern’s off-campus housing fair which highlights the numerous off-campus opportunities in Boston in the vicinity of the SMFA campus,” Hartman said.

Similar to the Medford campus, upperclassmen at the SMFA are not guaranteed on-campus housing and are able to be placed on a housing waitlist, according to the SMFA website.

In the event that a room becomes available in any of the Beacon Street residential halls, Hartman said rising sophomores being housed in Harleston Hall will have first priority should they prefer to live on Beacon Street.

see SMFA, page 2

Tufts named top producer of Fulbright students for 6th consecutive year

by Robert Kaplan

Assistant News Editor

Disclaimer: Arman Smigielski is a former associate editor and executive opinion editor at the Daily. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

Tufts University is a top producer of Fulbright students for the 2018–2019 academic year. Tufts was listed alongside other top-producing institutions for the sixth consecutive year in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s February report on Fulbright awards.

The highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides funding for college graduates and professionals to study,

Please recycle this newspaper

Mostly Sunny 29 / 16

/thetuftsdaily

research or teach English abroad for a period of six months to one year, according to the program’s website.

According to The Chronicle on Higher Education’s report, 10 of the 44 applicants from Tufts received Fulbright awards.

Anne Moore, program specialist in the Office of Scholar Development, attributed the success of Tufts applicants to multiple factors.

“I think the language requirement for students has a lot to do with [Fulbright success],” Moore said. “I think the strength of the [international relations] department, the general global priorities of Tufts are part of it [and] the high percentage of students studying abroad has a lot to For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

do with why we have so many Fulbright applicants.”

Moore also outlined the combination of resources that help students prepare strong applications for programs like Fulbright.

“The faculty members who help give students feedback on their application materials, the students themselves, the graduate writing consultants who work on it, we’re all coming together with this shared goal of helping the student envision and actualize the best version of what it is they hope to do after graduation,” Moore said.

Moore also explained that her previous experience as a graduate writing consultant at the Academic Resource

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

Center informed her philosophy on guidance and advising in the Office of Scholar Development.

“I feel really confident that the application process in and of itself is a pedagogically valuable experience,” Moore said.

Moore noted that the structural differences between the Fulbright program and other prestigious fellowship programs may contribute to Tufts’ notable success.

“Unlike some of the other competitions that come through my office, we don’t have to narrow the applicant pool at all,” Moore explained. “For Truman scholarships, for instance, you can only nominate four stu-

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 WEEKENDER..........................6

see FULBRIGHT, page 2

FUN & GAMES......................... 7 OPINION.....................................8 SPORTS............................ BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, March 7, 2019

THE TUFTS DAILY Elie Levine Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL

tuftsdaily.com

Ten Tufts graduates receives Fulbright scholarships, most to teach English abroad

David Levitsky Anita Ramaswamy Managing Editors Luke Allocco Jessica Blough Austin Clementi Charlie Driver Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala Kat Grellman Abbie Gruskin Liza Harris Zachary Hertz Gil Jacobson Rachael Meyer Cathy Perloff Seohyun Shim Hannah Uebele Joe Walsh Alejandra Carrillo Robert Kaplan Noah Richter Jilly Rolnick Alexander Thompson

Grace Yuh Costa Angelakis Jenna Fleischer Sean Ong Michael Shames Fina Short Sidharth Anand Amelia Becker Mark Choi Sarah Crawford Claire Fraise Jacob Fried Mitch Lee Ellie Murphy Ananya Pavuluri Libby Langsner John Fedak Tommy Gillespie Setenay Mufti Rebecca Tang Stephanie Hoechst Christopher Panella Danny Klain Amanda Rose Yas Salon

Aneurin Canham-Clyne Arlo Moore-Bloom Yuan Jun Chee Ryan Eggers Liam Finnegan Jeremy Goldstein Savannah Mastrangelo Maddie Payne Haley Rich Brad Schussel Josh Steinfink Sam Weidner Julia Atkins Tim Chiang Jake Freudberg Noah Stancroff Helen Thomas-McLean Alex Viveros Daniel Nelson Madeleine Oliver Christine Lee Anika Agarwal Ann Marie Burke Mike Feng Ben Kim Max Lalanne Meredith Long Julia McDowell Evan Slack Kirt Thorne Caleb Martin-Rosenthal Ann Marie Burke Annette Key

Associate Editor Executive News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors

Executive Features Editor Features Editors

Assistant Features Editors

FULBRIGHT

Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Assistant Arts Editors

Executive Opinion Editor Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

Assistant Sports Editors

Investigative Editor Executive Photo Editors Staff Photographers

Executive Video Editor Video Editors

Daniel Montoya

Production Director

Isabella Montoya

continued from page 1 dents per institution. For Fulbright, we nominate 50 students every year.”

Moore also explained how students success in the Fulbright and other competitive fellowship programs has contributed to Tufts’ undergraduate academic reputation.

“It’s a big deal for Tufts in terms of our national profile,” Moore said. “When I think about some of the labor that these students are doing for the university, a lot of it is about the way they’re representing Tufts on the national stage.”

Around 70 percent of Tufts Fulbright students from 2013 to 2017 were awarded English Teaching Assistantships, whereas the other 30 percent carried out research in their field of study, according to the Fulbright program’s grantee directory.

Charlotte Hoffman (LA ’18), a Fulbright scholar who is student-teaching English in Germany, emphasized the contribution made by her major advisors, Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Eichenberg and Senior Lecturer in German Saskia Stoessel.

“I firmly attribute my success with receiving a Fulbright to both of my major advisors,” Hoffman said in an electronic message to the Daily. “Both of them read over my essays and gave advice that truly changed my concept and made me much more confident.”

Drew DiMaiti (LA’ 18), a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Paris, noted the guidance and support he received from the Office of Scholar Development as part of the success of his application process.

“I attribute my success to the support I received, specifically from Anne Moore,” DiMaiti said. “I think it is our incredible staff there which has helped set Tufts apart in terms of numbers of Fulbright awards received each year.”

DiMaiti also explained how he believes the Office of Scholar Development uniquely prepares and assists applicants.

“I think that the [Office of Scholar Development] helps Tufts students to craft a Fulbright application package that best highlights how their skills, background and experiences make them a strong candidate for the position to which they are applying,” DiMaiti said.

However, Hoffman added that the Office of Scholar Development could still improve, specifically with regards to the timeline of the application process.

Hoffman explained that many interested seniors learned of the program only shortly before the Tufts deadline.

“Luckily, I had started the application over the summer,” Hoffman said. “But there were at least 20 seniors … who had no idea about the imminence [of the] Fulbright timeline because the Office [of Scholar Development] hadn’t been proactive enough with advertising over the summer or during junior year.”

Arman Smigielski (LA ’18), a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Yerevan, Armenia, described his response to learning of his award after submitting his application in October and being notified of his semifinalist status in January.

“The wait after that was a bit difficult,” Smigielski explained. “Then, on April 13, as I was walking to a double date, I got the email that I was selected for the award. I was surprised and shocked. I never thought that I would win something as prestigious as Fulbright.”

Administrators, students respond to SMFA housing changes

PRODUCTION Ryan Eggers Catalina Mengyao Yang Mia Garvin Jordan Isaacs Maygen Kerner Aidan Menchaca Kiran Misner Alice Yoon

VIA TUFTS NOW

The 10 different countries to which Tufts Fulbright awardees will travel are pictured.

Executive Layout Editors Layout Editors

Executive Graphics Editor

Myshko Chumak Justin Yu Caroline Bollinger Rachel Isralowitz Nathan Kyn Ali Mintz Nihaal Shah Liora Silkes Avni Ambalam Rebecca Barker Simone Lipkind Chloe Lyu Ethan Resek Ryan Shaffer Aadhya Shivakumar Filipa Sturm Russell Yip Abigail Zielinski

Executive Copy Editors

Deepanshu Utkarsh

Executive Online Editor

Esra Gurcay Rebecca Tang Asli Akova Ercan Sen Amy Tong Mitch Navetta Amanda Covaleski Olivia Ireland Lillian Miller Christopher Panella

Executive Social Media Editors

Copy Editors

Assistant Copy Editors

Social Media Editors

Assistant Social Media Editors Outreach Coordinator

BUSINESS Olivia Davis Executive Business Director

SMFA

continued from page 1 This is the first time this issue has arisen due to the increased number of students entering the SMFA’s class of 2023, according to Hartman.

Rising BFA sophomores living in Harleston Hall will now have to commute from the Medford campus to the SMFA campus everyday, a major inconvenience for BFA students like Lily Oliver.

“It’s important to be close to our school,” Oliver, a sophomore, said.

The distance from the SMFA campus to the Beacon Street residences is about a 20 minute walk, with shuttles running regularly, according to Oliver.

“It’s no commute compared to having to take a shuttle in Medford for a class that starts at 9 a.m. in Boston,” Oliver said.

Mackenzie Baker, president of the Student Government Association (SGA) at the SMFA, said the housing situation has caused serious concern among many BFA students.

“There are many problems that are arising from this that leave many of the students panicked and concerned about their housing situations,” Baker, a senior, said. “While many of us are fortunate enough to have found housing, … finding places in the Boston are near the SMFA campus can be high competitive and very expensive.”

Baker and other student representatives from the SMFA have been meeting with Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate and Tufts deans to find solutions to this housing issue, according to Baker and Maia Lai, a sophomore who acts as

a liaison between SGA and TCU Senate.

These meetings have centered around trying to find solutions to the housing problem, Lai told the Daily in an electronic message.

This housing issue, however, does provide rising BFA sophomores with an opportunity to live alongside Medford students and be a greater part of the Medford community. Oliver has noticed a growing trend of BFA students wanting to be more involved on the Medford campus.

“I’ve noticed that particularly this year’s freshmen classes are really interested in living in Medford and traditional campus life,” Oliver said. “And I think that’s due largely to the fact that the Tufts name is more solidified, so they are coming in expecting to be part of the Tufts community.”

Police Briefs — Week of March 4

by Jenna Fleischer News Editor

pound off using the eye wash station.

The student signed a medical refusal.

Chem fatale On Feb. 28 at 9:53 a.m., Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) responded to a chemical spill and minor injury at Pearson Chemistry Laboratory. A student accidentally splashed methylene chloride on their face and immediately afterwards washed the chemical com-

Mr. Toad’s wild SafeRide On March 2 at 12:17 a.m., TUPD responded to a report on Electric Avenue of a person unconscious, but breathing, inside a Tufts SafeRide vehicle. The student was treated by Tufts Emergency Medical Services and then transported to the hospital for further evaluation.

An a-chair to remember Later that day at 1:30 a.m., TUPD responded to a report of a disturbance at Houston Hall. A student reported hearing loud banging noises from a room nearby and found pieces of a broken chair in the hallway. TUPD confirmed that a chair had been broken and identified the individual responsible. The case has been handed over to the dean of Student Affairs.

Thursday, March 7, 2019 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

MIGRATION in a TURBULENT WORLD The 34th Annual Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium

BEGINS TODAY BEGINS TODAY BEGINS TODAY KEYNOTE SPEAKER : SIR PAUL COLLIER on

“SUSTAINABLE MIGRATION” TODAY, 4:00-5:15pm, ASEAN Auditorium Paul Collier is “one of the world’s most influential development economists” according to the Financial Times.

Sir Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College. From 1998–2003 he took a five-year Public Service leave during which he was Director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank.

He is currently a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Director of the International Growth Centre.

He has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanization in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organizational cultures.

Recent books include The Bottom Billion, which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize and Exodus: How migration is changing our world. In 2014, Collier received a knighthood for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.

“The humane form of globalisation is bring jobs to people, not lure people across the sea to jobs which very often don’t exist. That’s the humane strategy. Public policy should be making globalisation work for African societies.

“We can do that by the million. Africa needs jobs by the million. Instead, we’re luring Africans by the thousand to get into boats. That is deeply irresponsible and unethical because, once Africans get to Europe, they discover the reality, but they’re trapped.” -- Paul Collier

AND AT 7:00PM TODAY IN ASEAN AUDITORIUM, JOIN EPIIC FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION ON

Barriers To Belonging: Integration, Adaptation And Exclusion • Fouad Ben Ahmed, Liaison between residents and the Local Government in Département 93, Bondy, Paris • Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy • The Rt Hon David Lammy, MP, Labour Member of Parliament, Tottenham, United Kingdom • The Hon Ratna Omidvar, C.M., O.Ont., Senator for Ontario, The Senate of Canada; Co-Author, Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada

FOR MORE INFORMATION: TUFTSGLOBALLEADERSHIP.ORG

3

4 Thursday, March 7, 2019

Features

tuftsdaily.com

Alumni Q&A: Dan Kass

COURTESY DAN KASS

Dan Kass is pictured.

by Grace Yuh

Executive Features Editor

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Alumni Series aims to create a diverse collection of experiences at Tufts through highlighting notable alumni.

Dan Kass received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Tufts in 2013 and is currently the co-founder and executive director of JustFix. nyc. The Daily spoke with Dan on his experiences at Tufts and his path after graduation.

Tufts Daily ( TD): What was your pathway to Tufts, and why did you decide to attend?

Dan Kass (DK): So I’m actually from a pretty rural place in upstate New York, and ironically enough, my high school guidance counselor actually didn’t know what Tufts was. I had heard about it from … some friends of mine that I went to summer camp with. I was really interested in being in a more populated place and I didn’t want to have a college experience directly in the city, so Tufts seemed like a good balance. What I was really looking for was a pretty well-rounded … liberal arts experience.

I went in for a pretty technical degree,

but even from the beginning, I was just looking for something that felt like I was learning from different areas and different subjects and getting to meet people who are so many different things. I visited for a weekend once as a pre-frosh and had a really wonderful time. I was like, “Okay, cool, I want to go here.”

TD: What did you study at Tufts?

DK: I was a computer science (CS) major.

TD: Did you always plan on studying computer science?

DK: Not entirely. I like to say that I was a CS major before it became a big deal.

My graduating class was like 20 or 30 people. It’s crazy that CS is a bigger program than [international relations] right now. I had done a little bit of coding before I got to college, and I thought it was just really engaging. I like doing the problem solving, and it felt very creative in that you can use the things that you can build, so there’s a lot of creative opportunity. I started in the School of Engineering, then within my first semester transferred to the School of Arts and Sciences because you can major in CS in either school. It seemed way more important [to go] back to originally getting to take classes outside of my CS degree like sociology, art and design classes, as well as multimedia studies, which was my minor.

These were classes that really could inform

the technical parts of my education but gave me a larger perspective. That’s really what influenced the certain things that I’ve done with my CS degree after Tufts.

TD: In what ways was the computer science department different when you were at Tufts?

DK: I think they were just starting to have certain capacity issues. But you know, computer science was much more theoretical, and I’m sure that the classes now are much more tailored to some sort of job preparation. We had some really great courses on things like web development and web engineering, but that wasn’t a core part of the curriculum in the way that it is now.

TD: What were some memorable classes or professors that you had at Tufts?

DK: One of my favorite classes and one that I got to be a TA for was through the data visualization class that was taught by Remco Chang … It was so influential to me because my interests in terms of CS were about the human-computer interaction side and thinking about how we create user interfaces — how we can display data and really translate the technical into the visual.

My advisor was a guy named Ben Hescott.

He was one of the biggest reasons why I went to the Tufts. He was a CS professor that really … understood the broader con-

text of not just the technical profession but really how it plays out on a larger human level perspective that I still think about sometimes in the work that I do.

TD: What were some non-academic activities that you were part of at Tufts?

DK: The biggest non-academic thing I got to do at Tufts was the community [in general]. It was at Tufts that I got a sort of stronger perspective on social justice and political causes. That is the most important thing that I … bring to my day-to-day life at the moment. I was at Tufts while the Occupy movement was happening and a lot of people got involved in Occupy Boston. These were all just really important learning experiences on what organizing looks like, what social justice looks like and how to align the personal values and ethics that you have into a larger sense of your community and the work that you’re doing. So that is, to me, the most important thing that I took away from my experience.

I was [also] involved with a program at Tufts called Lift, which was sort of doing volunteer social work and getting to work with folks who lived in Medford. That was very instrumental to the work that I do now.

On a more fun side … just a lot of nature trips, hiking and camping to Maine and New Hampshire and just going to Fells on a random day.

TD: What were some other social causes that were big at Tufts during your time there?

DK: One of the biggest ones was the divestment campaign, where I got to work a little bit on some of the research. It was about how the Tufts endowment fund had investments in oil and defense companies. I think folks who were really engaged in doing climate change work were working really hard to pressure the administration. Though I wasn’t involved with this directly, we also had a number of sit-ins in terms of getting the Africana Studies program more legitimacy and more recognition within Tufts as well.

TD: What are some of the most memorable moments you had at Tufts?

DK: I was really, really fortunate that I had a really strong, tight-knit community of folks. I am still in almost-daily contact with some of them, even today. That’s what defined my perspective on doing social work and it’s what has really driven me in a career perspective. But when I think back on moments at Tufts, it’s also … house concerts and camping trips and the conversations that we’d have that, in many ways, are a core part of me. It’s been a long time since I was in school, but those memories really plant seeds in the things that continue to be important to you, the choices you make in your life and in your work and your relationships.

TD: What did you do after graduating from Tufts?

DK: I felt just a huge disconnect between the kinds of conversation I had with my friends and Tufts who might have been sociology majors or American studies majors and the types of job opportunities I had with a CS degree. It didn’t feel good to not be focusing on these really, really crucial problems that folks are facing across the gamut of social and economic and political justice. So I worked for several years as a freelance software engineer working at a number of different companies. I worked for media companies like Time Inc., as well as Spotify. At the same time, on nights and weekends, I was really involved in a number of grassroots organizing groups in the city and learning about

see ALUMNI, page 5

F e at u r e s

Thursday, March 7, 2019 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

CS alumnus works for fair housing in NYC ALUMNI

continued from page 4 how data housing policy worked. I was really just looking for opportunities to contribute with the skills that I had.

TD: What do you do now?

DK: So in 2015, I got invited into this fellowship program called the Blue Ridge Labs Fellowship program that is specifically dedicated to folks who have backgrounds in tech and design to work on issues faced by everyday New Yorkers. This was where I met my two other co-founders, and we … took these very informal sorts of projects and we developed it into JustFix.nyc as an organization. JustFix.nyc is a technology-based nonprofit. We’re an independent 501(c)(3), and we have a staff of about eight people. We primarily build technology to serve both tenants as well as community organizers in doing anti-displacement work here in the city. New York is a major urban area that is experiencing a lot of gentrification and displacement, and it happens on a very individual level through things like landlord harassment where tenants are forced to struggle with inadequate living situations and discrimination. A lot of these tenant communities are working-class communities [with nonnative English speakers], people of color — we are in a moment of crisis. The work that we do is developing really easy-to-use tools that help tenants be more informed of their rights, understand the process they need to fight back and take action while also looking at things form a larger systemic change perspective. We’re

using this data on a larger scale to reform things like policy, campaign organization and legal cases, as well as a lot of media work. We’ve served over 15,000 New Yorkers in the past two years.

TD: Have you had any thoughts about expanding JustFix.nyc to areas around college campuses for college students?

DK: There is something that plays out with academic institutions in a number of places. In New York, we have Columbia, which owns a lot of real estate around its campuses, and there can be a lot of tension between the local residents, especially as the university growing. I think that any academic institution, especially a progressive one, has a responsibility to the communities that it’s a part of to support, maintain and uplift these communities and make sure that they’re giving back. Tufts does get so much from being in a place like Somerville and Medford, so I think there’s a lot of responsibility there. Our key focus is the folks that are most in need of our services but we do see a lot of potential use for college students, especially college students who might also themselves be first-generation or immigrants that don’t have a big support structure behind them to know how to secure safe and reliable housing in a way that allows them to just focus on their studies and succeed in school. It’s not a primary focus but it’s definitely there.

TD: What is one piece of advice you have for incoming first-years at Tufts?

DK: Find your community. Try to meet as many people studying different things

as possible. When I was a CS major, I had friends in the CS department, but most of my friends were studying a lot of different things. It’s so important and so influential to me and the work that I do now, how I translate computer science into all these other areas. And also, just really enjoy the creative capacity that you have at school.

It’s just so hard to find when you’re out in the world and having to support yourself.

You really do have the opportunity to start projects, and to really think more abstractly, and you should take advantage of that because it’s something that you really miss when you’re on the grind and having to pay rent and do all sorts of stuff.

TD: What is one piece of advice you have for seniors at Tufts?

DK: For seniors entering the world, I think the thing that I wish I could have told myself is to just breathe and take your time. You’re not going to find your … dream job off the bat. It’s going to be a process and there’s going to be a journey, but the more that you can really identify and continue to develop your own personal values and ethics and understand what really drives you, the easier it is to make decisions on that pathway. But at the same time, don’t be afraid to kind of do things that might be completely random and not in line with your career goals and anything like that, because every new job or experience that you have is going to teach you something of great value.

5

Douglas Berger Ripple Effect

I

The Charity Dilemma

nternational charity is borne of the noblest of intentions. But does it work as intended? Actually, quite often, it does. The pioneering work of a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in health comes first to my mind: The Carter Center’s near eradication of Guinea worm disease across tropical Asia and Africa, Doctors Without Borders’ efforts to provide care to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the World Health Organization’s recent successful vaccination of war-torn Yemen’s children for measles and rubella. There are numerous success stories as well in other areas, like education, economic development and water management.

However, we shouldn’t let this success blind us to the ethical pitfalls to which charity can fall prey. Even the reputable NGO or charitable venture can run into moral quandaries — especially when they operate in poor, autocratic countries.

NGOs providing basic services in such countries run the risk of inadvertently supporting repressive governments. Even brutal dictatorships have an interest in providing things like basic education, sanitation and sustenance — though they may not always do so well.

If an organization provides a service the government would have provided anyway, they are indirectly funding the repression and corruption that keep that regime in power.

Herein lies the moral predicament.

An NGO would probably provide a better elementary education to more children than would a dictatorial government in a poor part of the world. Yet, they would also be helping to perpetuate the government structure in part responsible for the problem. Give, and aid a corrupt system. Withhold, and watch children miss out on a quality education.

Even the most well-run NGOs face choices like these. After the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, poverty relief charity Oxfam sent 25 trucks to Sri Lanka to distribute aid to the effected population. These were immediately impounded by the Sri Lankan government, which demanded a 300 percent import duty. Oxfam faced a moral decision. It could pay up and contribute to a corrupt government, fleecing an aid group critical to its own population — or it could refuse and allow thousands to suffer without aid. Oxfam chose to pay.

This charity dilemma is a moral gray area. There’s no way to objectively measure whether withholding funding from autocratic regimes is more important than helping the people in need living under them.

I don’t know that any of us — least of all me — are in a position to pass judgement on these kinds of tough decisions.

That a charity as careful as Oxfam was forced to pay an exorbitant fee by a relatively democratic government speaks volumes. This kind of extortion is probably commonplace, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Douglas is a senior studying international relations. Douglas can be reached at douglas.berger@tufts.edu.

6

Thursday, March 7, 2019

WEEKENDER

tuftsdaily.com

Form and flow: Conversations with Harry Dodge

SETENAY MUFTI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Artist Harry Dodge is pictured while leading his gallery tour on March 6.

by Setenay Mufti Arts Editor

On Wednesday, artist Harry Dodge came to the Tufts University Art Gallery to give a tour of his current exhibit “Harry Dodge: Works of Love.” In this collection of Dodge’s work from largely the past 10 years, Dodge goes from room to room, choosing pieces from the exhibit to explore physicality, space and the metaphysical world they inhabit.

Dodge is a sculptor, author, performer and educator. Although he came into the art world ‘late,’ i.e. his late twenties, he has been an important member of the California art scene since the ’90s. He was a founding member of the San Francisco performance space, “The Bearded Lady,” described by the gallery as “a touchstone for a pioneering, queer, DIY literary and arts scene.”

His former exhibits include “Mysterious Fires” in 2017 at the Grand Army Collective, “The Inner Reality of Ultra-Intelligent Life” in 2016 at Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts and “The Cybernetic Fold” at Wallspace in 2015. “Works of Love” is his first solo exhibit in Boston. Currently, he is working on his fourth book, “My Meteorite (or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing),” which will be published this year from Penguin Press. Dodge is a multi-talented and multi-disciplinary creator: he works with cast bronze, spray paint and found objects. He also loves books, frequently referencing them in his art. He plays automatons, fake YouTubers and elderly people in his films.

“Pure Shit Hotdog Cake” (2017), a multi-tiered structure dripping with colors, is chief curator Dina Deitsch’s first choice from his oeuvre.

Dodge explains that, despite its messy flair, this is one of his more organized pieces.

“It was one of the only pieces where I had actually drawn out the thing beforehand. That doesn’t happen that much,” Dodge said. “Normally, when I’m in the studio I work I don’t know what’s gonna happen, and I really like to dance with the materials, and let them resist, and have a conversation … It’s a more improvisatory model.”

Despite the logistical planning, it’s clear that Dodge isn’t afraid to improvise. His first attempt accidentally led to a different sculpture in another room, “Multiform Elsewhere.”

“I was making ‘Pure Shit Hotdog Cake,’ or so I thought, and then all of the sudden something happened,” he explained.

“I was listening to the materials … and I was like ‘Yeah, that’s done.’ I tried to make it again, and I ended up making ‘Black Transparency.’”

One gets the impression that every creative process for Dodge is an odyssey of ideas. In his 2003 work “Emergency Weapons,” Dodge laid out sticks and everyday objects for himself, and then made himself construct a weapon in less than three minutes. The result is a hodgepodge row of upgraded knives and Play-Doh containers in resin with nails sticking out.

“Often I would take part of a dish soap bottle and stick a nail halfway out, then put clay to stop up the holes around the nail, and then pour in this two-part resin I have that dries in like, two and a half minutes, and then just put some handle down in there,” Dodge said. “They came out to be kind of like popsicles and kind of cheery in a weird way, and also these awful, brutal, horrifying weapons.”

This is by far the most political of the “Works of Love” exhibit, and Dodge created it response to the Patriot Act of 2001. If the government should come for our civil liberties, “Emergency Weapons” suggests, what could we grab and go?

But as soon as we make the work literal, more questions arise.

“There was this added idea that in this military industrial complex we’re in right now they’re not gonna be helpful, as brutal as they are,” he said. “[The] edginess of the vigilante, this kind of DIY-justice — and that’s awful as well.”

Dodge loves to play with materiality.

“I’m a sculptor. I love objects. I’ve always loved objects. You know, it’s so intense, how much I love matter and materials and objects. And so there’s a kind of loving feeling, or a kind of libidinous feeling that I’m exploring and celebrating,” he explained.

He treats them not as static rocks in the stream of life, but a part of them. Dodge almost befriends his materials before he works with them.

“I need to see them peripherally for months maybe, or years sometimes. And so … when a sculpture comes together, it could come together pretty quickly,” he explained. “[But] when I get a new studio, it’ll take months sometimes to be able to become fertile.”

Dodge uses language in a different way than physical materials, but language also plays a major role in his work, from captions on his drawing to his wry and obscure titles.

“I tend to think that my body is a few steps ahead of language, and so if I let my body work with materials, I’ll get answers that leap ahead of things I might come up with in language, in my mind,” he explained.

“It’s rare that a piece will surprise me because I’m trying to be with it while it’s being made,” he observed. “I have a lot of knowledge about what I’m doing in a non-language kind of knowing … I usually finish a whole body of work, and I’ll title for three or four days … And I sit down will all of the pieces, and I try to look at them one by one, try to figure out what the vibe was … and what I wanted to get across.”

There are other interactions between the material and the immaterial that Dodge explores in his work, particularly through technology.

“The virtual is material, which is to say thought is material, or sometimes I even call them thought-object,” he explained.

“It’s not that that doesn’t have form, it’s not that it’s formless, it’s a mental set of energies that has a form and it’s very, very specific. And I’m interested in reminding myself of all the times those things are specific, they’re not nebulous. They’re just hard to pin down in language, is what it is.”

Dodge’s language is not non-physical either; he loves gesticulating, and the complex philosophical ideas he suggests seem to invigorate him more than draw him into pensiveness. He can even be whimsical at his own work; he checked his reflection in a mirror embedded in a sculpture of cast-iron bronze seconds before the talk started. But even with the bold colors and humorous captions of “Works of Love,” the performative is not always false.

Dodge said that when he experiences fear as an artist, he tells himself, “Well, you gotta just tell the truth.”

“If you try and fake it,” he said, “it’s gonna go wrong.”

“Harry Dodge: Works of Love” is on exhibit at the Tufts University Art Gallery through April 14.

Thursday, March 7, 2019 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

F &G FUN & GAMES

7

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Alexander: “I’m sorry, frat boys read the Crimson?”

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Pisces (Feb. 19–March 20)

A personal phase dawns with this new moon in your sign. Take charge to realize a personal dream. Grow your talents, capacities and skills.

CORRECTION Difficulty Level: Submitting files at 2:41 a.m.

Tuesday’s Solutions

In the March 6 issue of The Tufts Daily, the photo spread entitled “Protesters at Tufts picket for a fair dining contract” misattributed two photos. The image in the upper left corner of the page of the dining worker against a backdrop of protest signs was taken by Kyle Lui, not Julia McDowell; the image in the upper right corner of protesters chanting was taken by Julia McDowell. The Daily regrets these errors.

CROSSWORD

Opinion

8 tuftsdaily.com

Thursday, March 7, 2019

OP-ED

How migration alters gender dynamics

by Madison Reid and Nicci Mattey Migration has the capacity to provide labor and education opportunities that can alter gender dynamics and shift power within families and societies. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), gender identity and the societal implications of gender “significantly affect all aspects of the migration process, and can also be affected in new ways by migration.”

Gender underpins every step of the migratory experience. It can inform the decision to migrate, and it increases the physical perils of movement. Gender also plays a huge role in adaptation and acceptance in the receiving country, labor and education opportunities there and resulting familial dynamics.

Individuals of every gender identity are impacted differently by migration, but there is a lack of available research on gender and migration as it pertains to non-binary and trans-identifying individuals. An article by Donato et. al. in International Migration Review acknowledges the gendering of this discipline, stating that “[t]he gendering of the disciplines themselves, along with decidedly gendered professional and scholarly practices within disciplines, consistently worked to sidetrack or to marginalize theories and findings about gender.”

That said, this op-ed will focus on the impact migration has on gender dynamics and familial power dynamics specifically for the 48.4 percent of migrants who identify as female, according to the 2017 UN Migration

Report, whom we have more accurate information on.

Migration is more dangerous for women and gender minorities than men, plain and simple. Even if the migration is not forced, gender-based violence may spur women to move in the first place. Once they’re on the move, they are susceptible to violence during the journey, whether through exorbitant smuggling fees, trafficking or other forms of abuse and violence.

Fortunately, most migration involving women is voluntary. Just like men, women choose to move based on rational incentives and expanded opportunities. More recent and inclusive scholarship notes that there is in fact a myriad of factors that influence the decision to migrate and that make it more or less possible for women.

Boyd classifies these factors as relating to gender relations and hierarchies, status and roles of women and structural characteristics of the country of origin.

Voluntary migration poses an enormous opportunity for women, for personal, familial and economic growth. According to Donato et. al., through the process of migration and the resulting exposure to different norms, values and social structures, migrants “often become particularly aware of the relational and contextual nature of gender as they attempt to fulfill expectations of identity and behavior that may differ sharply in the several places they live”.

Thus, subjugation and discrimination that they might have endured in their country of origination no longer becomes acceptable.

For many women, migration is seen as an escape from traditional patriarchy and, better yet, as an alternative to forced marriage.

Once migrated, women are often able to further alter and reconstitute the patriarchy and the structure of their families through a redistribution of labor. Nazli Kibria argues that “[t]he transformation of the domestic division of work … is based upon the balance of power between men and women and their access to resources”.

Enhanced access to resources and opportunities, particularly economic ones, allows women to reclaim or create an identity for themselves. Economic opportunities for women generated by migration also have the ability to improve the global economy and familial well-being, explains Fleury. Through the process of remittances, in which portions of a migrants income are sent home to their origin country, women can help stimulate the economy of their origin country. In fact, the IOM’s research suggests that “women tend to send a higher proportion of their income … more regularly and for longer periods of time” back to their origin country than men, meaning that their economic impact is disproportionately positive.

Despite the myriad doors that migration opens for women, many female migrants still find doors being shut in front of them.

As a result of shifting gender dynamics caused by migration, familial tensions may worsen, as women’s migration may mean that the men left behind must take on additional domestic responsibilities,

although “other female family members often take on the additional burden,” as a study by O’Neil et. al explains that returning migrants who have adopted new norms and skills may face “resistance or stigma and struggle to reintegrate into their families and communities.”

Migration through regular channels (i.e. not through trafficking or smuggling) has an immense capacity to empower women and girls. While these women are a powerful force who engage economically and change gender dynamics daily, it is important to note that they are still a vulnerable population.

How can we mitigate the unique challenges migrant women face? If you are interested in learning more about migration, join the Institute for Global Leadership and students from around the world at this year’s EPIIC Symposium: “Migration in a Turbulent World,” from March 7 to 9. A panel specifically on Gender and Migration is being held on Friday, March 8 at 12:30 PM. The symposium will be three days of far-reaching discussions on issues critical to understanding the pressing challenges on migration.

Madison Reid is a junior who has not yet declared a major. Madison can be reached at madison.reid@tufts.edu.

Nicci Mattey is a first-year studying international relations. Mattey can be reached at nicole.mattey@tufts.edu

OP-ED

Transparency and the university budget

by Sarah Wiener and Connor Goggins When housing prices increase, where does the money go? Why are we in a deficit, and what is the university doing to change it? Decisions made on our university’s budget are often obscured from student view. While of course there are some aspects of university spending that should not be disclosed to students, such as work-study salaries, and professors’ salaries, it seems that both students and administrators would benefit from more transparency regarding university budgeting. The core factors in the experiences of students and faculty at Tufts, from academics to housing, deserve transparent budgets that reflect their importance to those here at Tufts.

We realize that even the university’s most senior administrators may not know the answers to all student concerns. However, even outlining what budgetary information can or can’t be shared and why would ease tension that exists between students and administrators. More transparency regarding budgetary spending would have a multitude of benefits for students’ perception of administration and the student experience more broadly. First, stu-

dents would not see the administration in a negative light as we often do now, because we would not feel left in the dark or frustrated with answers that can easily be reduced to ‘it’s just the way it is.’ Second, there would be less backlash from students to university budget decisions because students would understand why certain decisions are being made, leading to less frustration and animosity towards administrators.

In short, we could and would trust our school’s spending more.

The Tufts administration would also benefit from more budget transparency with students — students would be able to ask for more pragmatic, targeted changes if they knew more specifics of the budget. Furthermore, the administration would be more apt to focus on budgetary decisions that make the largest impact on student voice. Spending would be more efficient in improving Tufts’ quality if the administration took information students provide directly into consideration. Actually hearing student voices that are informed about university spending makes for better budgeting practices.

Taking the administration’s word for why they do what they do does a dis-

service to their relationship with students. There is much to be gained for both students and administrators from having more clear communication and justification for the university’s spending priorities. As the university increases enrollment, it should be able to communicate to its students why enrollment increase is the solution to our university’s deficit. Furthermore, we should know what the university is planning to do to offset the costs to student resources that the increase in enrollment will cause. For example, what is the long-term vision for housing given the expectation for large rent increases in the surrounding area?

How is financial aid going to account for fulfilling the 100 percent demonstrated need of these new students?

We should know how the construction of the Cummings Building will be different from that of the Science and Engineering Complex to prevent a further dive into austerity. It is not just our university’s budget that is at risk: It is the lives and college experiences of its paying customers — the students — and the community members, like our dining workers, who depend on Tufts for their livelihoods.

The large budgetary changes that the Board of Trustees and other parts of the administration create that affect student life ought to be communicated to the student body. Ideally, this would be done through a formal process where individuals can request information about the university’s budget, and the university would be required to respond either with the information itself or the justification as to why the information cannot be communicated.

When the university makes a financial decision that students may find objectionable and feel they cannot explain or justify to the Tufts community, they must at least communicate why some information cannot be shared. In the long term, this transparency should grow into true communication between students and administration regarding budgetary spending, so that not only is spending more efficient, but it is also in line with what students expect from our university.

Sarah Weiner is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Sarah can be reached at sarah.wiener@tufts.edu.

Connor Goggins is a sophmore studying quantitative economics. Connor can be reached at connor.goggins@tufts.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, March 7, 2019 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Noah Mills Spaceship Earth

9

,

9

The positives of being carbonnegative

W

Before anything else, we are all human.

It’s time to embrace diversity.

Let’s put aside labels in the name of love.

Rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com

SHELTER PET & FASHION ICON Amazing stories start in shelters and rescues. Adopt today to start yours.

TOAST 325K+ Instagram Followers

ith protests and public opinion on climate change finally rising to impactful levels, the goals of these movements need to be defined. As we prepare ourselves for the oncoming conflict, defining what “fighting climate change” really means becomes critical for the creation of a movement with a clear and achievable goal. We must ask whether we are simply trying to fight the symptoms that this global threat will create, or if we are willing to truly combat the causes of this whole awful ordeal.

The first option is possibly easier and has a variety of methods to reduce the immediate consequences of climate change. Working to reduce plastic waste and encouraging sustainable measures in day to day routines are also extremely beneficial practices that can significantly reduce a community’s environmental impact. These groups may also work to build stockpiles of resources for when disaster strikes: guaranteeing that victims of extreme weather get access to food and shelter is essential. The danger that climate change causes on an individual basis can become significant, particularly in underserved communities, and providing relief from these hazards can do a meaningful amount of good. However, this is not truly a solution to the problem.

Just as Aspirin might make a broken bone hurt less in the moment, without a doctor and a cast, the problem will continue to demand constant attention. In this way, we must also work to find and resolve the sources of climate change that are causing problems in the first place. This means doing things like asking the question of why people and companies choose to pollute. Is it a lack of caring, which can potentially be resolved by a conversation about how pressing and urgent this matter is, or is it possibly something more nefarious? Is it less expensive to be environmentally destructive, and if it is, why do we have an economic system that enables and supports this kind of behavior? If profit is the primary motive of business, and businesses use that profit to manipulate the government, can meaningful legislation on climate change ever happen?

Although groups working to fight climate change are all commendable, we are strongest when we all come together with defined and transparent goals. We must refuse to be divided and weakened or to be appeased by small compromises that fail to truly make progress against climate change. We must constantly be learning more and adjusting our strategies so that they are always as impactful as possible. Every day brings us nearer to some potential climate disaster, but such a future is not set. I know that we can get out of this mess with a world better than it was before this fight began. The path forward is certainly one full of conflict, be it with stubborn family members, businesses or governments, but if we build networks to support and strengthen one another, and we identify the true sources of climate change, it is possible to make a difference.

Noah Mills is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Noah can be reached at noah.mills@tufts.edu.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Thursday, March 7, 2019

tuftsdaily.com

c f h

w t

s s B

i a

I’VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD 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

b J a n t

L L 1

Sports

Thursday, March 7, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Jumbos fall in competitive draws at individual nationals

11

Arjun Balaraman Off the Crossbar

The Changing Identity of the MLS

I

ALLISON CULBERT / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Junior Claire Davidson returns the ball during the College Women’s National Team Championship on Feb. 18, 2018.

“He’s definitely one of those guys who’s a top 16, top 20 player in the country, so it was a really tough match,” Litman said.

Lopez played in the second position for the 14–4 Yellowjackets, who fell to Trinity Bantams in the A Division semifinals in the previous weekend at team nationals. After beating Litman, Lopez advanced to the semifinals of the South Division, losing to eventual champion Enzo Corigliano of St. Lawrence University.

In his consolation round match, Litman proved to be a much tougher opponent, though he still lost to Navy senior Senen Urbina (11–6, 7–11, 11–4, 11–5).

“This was the highest level of squash I’d ever seen at a tournament I played in, for sure,” Litman said.

Despite a tough postseason as a team, Litman continually put out competitive four and five game showings in the NESCACs and the CSAs. The environment in his draw, however, felt more

SMOKEYBEAR.COM

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

TERS RES FO

Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires.

relaxed than the regular season. All of these players were coming off grueling regular seasons, but Litman found it hard to take his foot off the gas in his final showing as a Jumbo.

A graduate of Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania — the same high school that Kobe Bryant attended – the senior tried to embody Bryant’s competitive attitude in his final collegiate squash event.

“Kobe’s a ridiculous athlete and super driven,” Litman said. “I have to say he’d probably be the best squash player in the world if he trained at it.”

Despite putting on the Tufts uniform for the final time this weekend, Litman can’t help but feel excited for next year’s up-and-coming squad.

“With new facilities and a new head coach who’s doing a great job, I think we’re going to recruit some excellent players and keep moving up the rankings in the years to come,” Litman said.

NATIONAL A SS

SQUASH

continued from back page fer team squash, even though it’s much higher stakes.”

With such a promising team, it’s no wonder Davidson feels compelled by the team side of the game.

“Keeping a regular fitness and practice schedule in the off-season is going to be super important in pushing us over to the B Division,” Davidson said.

Apart from her short individual play, reaching the B Division with her team is Davidson and her team’s number one goal next year.

For Litman, this year’s individuals were a bittersweet end to his four year career. The Jumbos’ number one player had a concussion, and the number two and three players opted not to participate, so Litman happily seized the opportunity.

Opening play against senior Ricardo Lopez of the University of Rochester, Litman fell in three games by a score of 11–2, 11–5, 11–7.

FO

U N D E D 192

0

n the MLS’s 23rd season kickoff this weekend, the Los Angeles Galaxy commemorated its best-known No. 23 and star, David Beckham. The Galaxy unveiled a statue outside their home stadium of the international icon, who moved to the MLS in 2007 at the age of 32 in a benchmark moment for the budding league.

Beckham was the first of many famous players to “retire” into the MLS at the end of their bountiful careers.

Celebrating the contribution of an aging superstar is an appropriate metaphor for the ‘retirement league’ image of MLS. Beckham’s commitment to LA Galaxy was never clear — he went off to play for AC Milan twice, missing the start of two MLS seasons. It also overlooks the contribution of other Galaxy stars like the American soccer legend Landon Donovan, the league’s all-time leading goalscorer.

To be fair, Beckham did a lot for the MLS. The Galaxy won back-to-back championships to end his stay; he gave the league an unparalleled level of publicity and his arrival paved the way for stars like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Andrea Pirlo, other aged superstars who entered the American fray at the twilight of their careers.

But as these players enter the moratorium and leave only statues behind them, the MLS may be entering a renaissance.

Paraguayan midfielder Miguel Almiron joined Atlanta United for its inaugural MLS season in 2017 when he was just 23.

Almiron and Atlanta took the league by storm with their exciting, attacking style of play which culminated in an MLS title last year.

In a moment of pride for the MLS, English club Newcastle United paid a club-record fee of over $20 million in January to pry Almiron from Atlanta. Now he has the chance to showcase his talents in arguably the most competitive league in the world. If Almiron proves his worth, European clubs will open their eyes to more MLS talent.

Other teams should learn from Atlanta’s strategy of using their three designated player spots to recruit young South American players, not aged superstars.

The MLS is slowly morphing into a selling league, the role almost every other league in the world plays outside of Europe’s top five leagues. Instead of losing money on short-term, glittering investments like Pirlo and Gerrard, MLS teams are moving to more profitable team-building schemes.

The money Atlanta received from selling Almiron will now be used to spend on other young players, perpetuating the cycle.

There have been other sporadic successes in the MLS. German giants Bayern Munich signed 18-year-old Alphonso Davies from the Vancouver Whitecaps in January, while 16-year-old Efrain Alvarez, who notched an assist in the Galaxy’s first game, has European clubs salivating for the Mexican-American international. The better these players perform abroad, the better the MLS looks in the eyes of the rest of the world.

In order to take the next step as a league, the MLS needs to shift its focus away from older, aging players and prove itself as a worthy breeding ground for young talent. Only then can it start attracting the best young players that the Americas have to offer.

Arjun Balaraman is a sophomore studying quantitative economics. Arjun can be reached at arjun.balaraman@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Two track and field athletes prepare for upcoming NCAA Championships

MADELEINE OLIVER / TUFTS TRACK AND FIELD

Junior Rhemi Toth runs a fast 4x800-meter relay leg as her teammates cheer her on at Springfield College on Feb. 17, 2018.

by Maddie Payne Sports Editor

Two Jumbos travel to the nearby town of Roxbury, Mass. this weekend to compete in the Div. III NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships. Senior co-captain Kelsey Tierney will be making her first trip to represent Tufts at the NCAA, while junior Rhemi Toth returns for the second consecutive year. With the meet happening so close to home, it is easier for supporters to attend compared to last year, when the meet was held in Ohio. The two athletes are excited for the opportunity to represent Tufts on what feels like home turf.

“I think having it be a home meet is super special just because usually at nationals, no one else is there except the people who qualify,” Toth said. “Since it’s so close to Tufts this year we’ll have a big

fan base; lots of people from the team will be there. My family will also be there.”

Tierney specializes in long-distance running, while Toth’s focus is mid-distance races. The duo comprise a far smaller squad compared to the six that travelled to Nationals last year.

“I think it’s definitely harder,” Toth said, regarding the smaller national group this year. “I am usually motivated by the team and having my teammates there. Just being one of two people makes me want to do my best and hopefully bring back a title.”

The list of qualifiers was selected on Saturday from the entirety of the Div. III field. Tierney placed third in the 3k with a time of 9:42.49. The time was a PR for her as she was able to shave five seconds off her previous PR of 9:47.49 at the Div. III New England Indoor Championship on Feb. 22–23. Her qualifying time this year was an astounding 53 seconds faster than

the 10:24.82 time that she ran in the 3k on Jan. 19, less than two months ago. “[I] had never seriously raced the 3k before this season, had raced it a couple times freshman year,” Tierney. “I shaved off the most seconds from my time when competing under high-stakes, high-intensity situations.”

Meanwhile, in the mile run, Toth placed 14th nationally with a qualifying time of 4:57.39. Toth recorded this time at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 9. It marked a more than five-second improvement on the 5:02.47 time that she ran on Jan. 26 at the Branwen-Smith King Invitational. Toth attributed her success to hard work in practice.

“Workouts are usually the same intensity,” she said. “Taking care of your body, working hard, being mentally ready is all important.”

At last year’s NCAA tournament, Toth was one of six Jumbos who contributed to the team’s 11th-place finish. She took part in the distance medley relay in which Tufts placed 10th. Despite fewer Jumbos representing Tufts at the meet, Tierney’s third seed achievement is extremely promising. Last year, long-distance powerhouse Brittany Bowman (LA ‘18) was the seventh seed heading into the 5k race before she eventually took the crown. Tierney only lags behind two other athletes: fellow senior Emily Forner of Allegheny and junior Rory Kelly of Middlebury. She is less than 1.29 seconds off the top time — a national championship is well within her grasp.

“Regardless of what happens, I am happy to be competing,” Tierney said. “I’m seeded third, so [placing] in the top three would be amazing. I’m [1.29] seconds away from being first seed, so winning is within reach. Winning would obviously be the ultimate goal.”

Litman, Davidson represent Tufts at College Squash Association individual nationals

by Henry Molot

Contributing Writer

Junior Claire Davidson and senior Alan Litman wrapped up Tufts’ 2018–2019 women’s and men’s squash seasons by representing the Jumbos at the College Squash Association (CSA) individual championships at Brown University in Providence, R.I. this weekend.

Litman competed in the Molloy Cup South Division, while Davidson squared off against opponents in the Holleran East Cup. Both players were top players on their respective teams this season; Davidson led the women’s side at the No. 1 position, while Litman occupied either the No. 3 or No. 4 position.

Davidson, a Rhode Island native, found little home-court advantage in her opening round match, considering her opponent was sophomore Alexa Jacobs of Brown. Jacobs, who plays No. 1 for the Bears, has more than just her lineup position in common with Davidson, who earned her second straight appearance at the individual championships.

The two squared off in Rhode Island for high school squash and have also spent the summers training together. Davidson didn’t feel fazed by her familiar foe.

“Lots of her team were there, but she’s a girl I know really, really well,” Davidson said.

In a sport where ranking can usually tell the story, Jacobs held the early edge with a 4.7 to Davidson’s 4.2.

Jacobs triumphed over her rival, knocking off Davidson in a 11–4, 11–3, 11–4 sweep.

With a win over her training partner and longtime friend, Jacobs advanced to the quarterfinals where she was defeated in three games by first-year Elle Ruggiero of Princeton. Davidson was knocked down to the consolation bracket to face Mount Holyoke senior Nadindhi Udangawa. The match was much tighter than Davidson’s round of 16 contest, but she eventually lost by a score of 11–5, 11–4, 12–10.

Going into the match, Davidson knew it may well be the final time she steps onto the collegiate squash court until her senior season at Tufts.

“I couldn’t change my game plan just because it was the last game of the season,”

Davidson said. “We try to play each match as hard as we can, and I felt like it could have gone either way. She just outplayed me.”

Davidson left this match with a reaction similar to the one that her team had following last weekend’s CSA team championships, where the Jumbo’s lost in the final to Bates. It was an extremely tight match in a sport that sometimes casts predictive ranking and seeding to the wind.

In such an individually minded game, however, Davidson says she relishes the team element.

“At individuals, you definitely lose the spirit that comes with team play,” Davidson said. “There’s no doubt I pre-

see SQUASH, page 11