The Tufts Daily - Monday, February 3rd, 2020

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Q&A: Epstein talks philosophy research, new book see FEATURES / PAGE 3

Jumbos keep undefeated streak, defeat No. 2 Polar Bears

‘Miss Americana’ thoughtfully documented, explores breadth of effects of Swift’s fame see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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Activists protest Soleimani assassination, US Iran policy

CIRCLE poll of young Iowa voters places Sanders 1st

by Isabel Valdelomar Staff Writer

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), released the findings of its January poll of Iowa residents ages 18-29 on Jan. 24, finding the strongest support among Democrats for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at 39%.

Thirty-five percent of those polled are “extremely likely” to participate in the caucus; 39% support Sanders, 19% favor Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and 14% favor former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, according to CIRCLE’s press release on its findings. Of those polled, 72% said that they were contacted directly to support a candidate or party. CIRCLE’s release explained that these statistics are representative of a remarkable increase in voter turnout, as it had estimated only about an 11% turnout for the last elections in 2016.

This poll, which was conducted from Jan. 15 to Jan. 20, was the first partnership between CIRCLE and Suffolk University, according to David Paleologos (LA’80), the director of Suffolk University Political Research Center. Paleologos explained that the Jan. 24 release was only the first of three parts, the rest of which CIRCLE will continue to release in the future.

The joint survey aimed to understand youth voter preferences and attitudes ahead of the contentious Iowa caucuses today that mark the beginning of the primary process to select the Democratic nominee for President.

CIRCLE’s survey also provided 14 options for voters to choose from that would prioritize the most influential issue for each voter’s choice for presidential nominee. Among young Iowans, healthcare was the most selected issue at 18%, and the environment and tax rates were tied at 12%.

Young Iowan Democrats, however, selected healthcare first at 25%, with the environment second at 20% and international relations third at 12%.

For young Iowan Republicans, tax rates were considered the most important issue at 17%, followed by healthcare and immigration tied at 12%.

The poll also found that 55% of young Iowans were unaware that they had to be registered with a party in order to vote, and another 22% found it difficult to acquire information that would make it possible to partake in the caucuses.

Abby Kiesa, CIRCLE’s director of impact, explained that CIRCLE’s latest project is particularly unique because it is gathering

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state-specific firsthand data from Iowa youth, whereas CIRCLE has previously used national and federal databases for its research.

Kiesa added that there are many influences and conditions which may affect caucus turnout, and that these influences are often specific to the context of each state, such as in Iowa.

“Iowa has closed caucuses and that can be difficult for young people, especially young people who are just aging into the electorate to understand that A) these caucuses are happening, B) that people can participate in them, and C) that you can only participate if you’re registered with a political party,” Kiesa said.

Kiesa elaborated, explaining that certain circumstances in Iowa may have an effect on caucus turnout, such as competitiveness, youth outreach and the feeling of group identity that embraces voting to express views.

“We are really committed to understanding what can increase and diversify youth engagement and what can create a more sustainable and equitable system for that to happen,” Kiesa said.

Kiesa added that a state with multiple competitive elections in a year is more likely to have a higher voter turnout, that young voters being contacted by other young voters leads to a higher voter turnout and that voters having a sense of belonging associated with civic engagement also increases their likelihood of voting.

CIRCLE is a non-partisan and independent research organization established in 2001 at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, and for the past 12 years has been part of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. CIRCLE focuses on youth civic engagement across the U.S. and has conducted a variety of research following the patterns of young voters, according to the organization’s website.

Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont praised CIRCLE’s expansion to state-level research on youth voting patterns and behavior, which includes a forthcoming poll of young voters in Texas, in a statement provided to the Daily. He emphasized the importance of CIRCLE’s focus on researching young voters rather than all voters.

“In all we do, we seek to elevate the voices and views of all young people, who are the most diverse generation in history and who will shape the future of our shared democracy,” Solomont said.

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HANNAH NOH / THE TUFTS DAILY

Activists protest the Trump Administration’s actions toward Iran at the Massachusetts State House on Jan. 25.

by Hannah Noh Staff Writer

As part of a global day of protest, the Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition organized a protest at the Massachusetts State House on Saturday, Jan. 25, demanding the U.S. avoid war with Iran, not impose sanctions on Iran and remove its troops from the Middle East.

Activists in cities across the country and the world gathered to protest the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran following the U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3 that killed 10 people, including Major General Qassem Soleimani, an influential Iranian military commander and intelligence official.

Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was a key figure in planning and leading Iran’s strategic vision in the Middle East and beyond, which The New York Times reported in January. His death was part of a growing escalation between the U.S. and Iran, which led Iran to fire more than a dozen missiles upon two American military targets in Iraq on Jan. 8.

Thirty four American service members suffered injuries as a result of the Iranian assault as of Jan. 24, though no deaths have been reported yet.

The Boston area activists also gathered in frustration following the Jan. 2o deportation of an Iranian student attend-

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ing Northeastern University after he was detained at Boston Logan International Airport.

The ANSWER Coalition was joined in its global call to action by other organizations, including Popular Resistance, Black Alliance for Peace, National IranianAmerican Council, Veterans for Peace and others. The Harvard Book Store Staff Union-UAW 1596 was another endorsing organization for the protest, according to the ANSWER Coalition’s website.

Hundreds of activists met in front of the Massachusetts State House steps at 2 p.m. on Jan. 25. The protestors’ march through Boston was bookended by a series of speakers, each of whom addressed the crowd with microphones.

Protestors carried signs bearing messages written on them, such as “Their Home Is Not Your War Zone” and “America Is An Empire Time To Shut It Down [sic].”

Activists also circulated ANSWER Coalition donation buckets through the crowd, seeking to collect funds for an organization in Puerto Rico to provide emergency relief in response to recent earthquakes.

One activist underscored the urgency for working class people to organize and fight for the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

“For far too long, the United States has been using Iraq as a scapegoat in order to

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FUN & GAMES.........................6 OPINION..................................... 7 SPORTS............................ BACK

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, February 3, 2020

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by Matthew McGovern News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate heard 10 supplementary funding requests after revising tenure and promotion recommendation criteria and welcoming newly elected TCU Senators.

TCU Treasurer Sharif Hamidi provided new senators with an overview of the Allocation Board’s (ALBO) deliberation process before beginning the process of hearing supplementary funding requests from student organizations.

TCU Senate had not heard supplementary funding requests for about two months.

The supplementary funding request that received the greatest amount of time was for Tufts Friends of Israel’s travel and accommodation expenses to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., which begins on March 1.

The group’s request was approved in part by the TCU Senate, but concerns over its lodging budget, and the precedents which would be set by its acceptance, stalled the meeting and prompted additional rounds of debate and additional time for input from senators.

At the center of this issue was a request for two additional single rooms, which the group justified the need for by citing that two members felt uncomfortable with having to share a bed with colleagues who they did not know well.

One main element of the debate was the club member’s expressed discomfort over having to share a bed, as well as what solutions, besides renting another full room, could be arrived at to meet their needs.

TCU Senator and ALBO member Alexa Weinstein explained how she felt the Senate should deal with such information.

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“I don’t think it’s ALBO or Senate’s place to say what does or does not make people uncomfortable,” Weinstein said. “It is not our right or ability to say that your un-comfortability does not matter to us.

If they are saying they are uncomfortable sharing a bed we should respect that.”

Hamidi, a junior, pointed out that in prior supplementary funding requests this year, single rooms had not been requested. Other TCU senators such as Ibrahim AlMuasher, a first-year, expressed concerns about setting a precedent for approving requests for single rooms, while Trustee Representative Charming Dube, a senior, saw the vote as an opportunity to change the precedent.

After rounds of deliberation, the TCU Senate voted to accept Tufts Friends of Israel’s requests for flight and registration funding, but the funding request for lodging was tabled until next week, at the proposal of TCU Senator for the Class of 2022 Andrew Vu. All other supplementary funding requests were passed by the TCU Senate, except for the Leonard Carmichael Society’s request for $7,000 dollars to purchase a Keywatcher system, which the Senate deemed was a capital expenditure, and therefore Tufts’ responsibility to pay for.

TCU Senate also welcomed its newly-elected members, which were seniors Ben Shapiro and Dani Musoff and juniors Connor Goggins, Sarah Wiener, Grant Gebetsberger and Annika Witt. All six of these senators won uncontested elections and represent their respective classes.

After welcoming the new senators, TCU President Shannon Lee gave the floor to TCU Senator Avani Kabra, who provided some general updates.

Kabra, a first-year, told the TCU Senate that a printer had been installed in Carmichael Hall, noted the increased

availability of free menstrual products around campus and announced that there is a memo in progress with proposed changes to the Campus Center layout, which focuses on making Hotung Café a more social space.

Following Kabra’s updates, TCU Senator Iyra Chandra presented the Education Committee’s proposed changes to TCU’s protocol for evaluating and recommending faculty for tenure and promotion.

TCU Senators are responsible for reading students’ course evaluations and writing summaries of their feedback.

TCU Parliamentarian Finn McGarghan emphasized the importance of course evaluations, citing the weight of student input and perspectives in the tenure process.

“If a professor fails to get tenure, they usually leave the university, and we at Tufts have lost a lot of amazing professors,” McGarghan said. “This is the place where your voice is invaluable and where course evaluations matter.”

Overall, the changes to TCU’s evaluation procedures were minor, refining and supplying more nuance to the senators’ task. The changes focused on considering more creative aspects of teaching, such as creativity in lectures, class organization, demonstrations and examples, and communication.

The meeting closed with McGarghan notifying the TCU Senate of next week’s opening of the Senate bylaws,M providing an opportunity for senators to propose changes, among other announcements.

TCU Senate and the Office of the President will co-host the University Budgeting and Finance Town Hall on Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Barnum Hall, room 008.e They will discuss the endowment, university finance, fundraising and potentialD divestment from the fossil fuel industry. s

Activists call for working class mobilization to prevent Iran war PROTEST

continued from front page

Kristina Marchand

Rebecca Barker Jillian Rolnick Anna Hirshman David Levitsky Hannah Wells Abigail Zielinski Cole Wolk Sophie Elia Tom Guan Makenna Law Grace Prendergast Mariel Priven Kate Seklir

TCU Senate hears supplementary funding requests, welcomes new members

insert themselves in the region, in violation of their own constitution and in violation of international law,” Nino Brown, a Boston teacher and ANSWER Coalition activist, said. “[The assassination of Soleimani] is a crime and that shows you how the system works.”

Another speaker from the National Iranian-American Council shared their deep connection with recent events,

recalling the fear expressed by family members living in Iran following the Jan. 3 drone strike.

Several ANSWER Coalition activists collectively condemned the U.S. government’s willingness to spend money on war in the Middle East rather than allocate funding for domestic issues such as health care, education and housing. They referenced the rising rate of homelessness in Massachusetts since 2018 and displacement in urban areas caused by gentrification.

A teacher and union organizer for the Boston Teachers Union also decried

p n h T h the U.S. “War on Terror,” alleging that its has deepened racism toward South and Southeast Asians, Arabs and other peoplesy from the Middle East since the Sept. 11 p terror attacks.

Brown issued a call for mobilization ofp the working class, reiterating a theme oft A many of the protest’s speakers.

“We need to unite the entire workingf class. We need teachers, doctors, students,a bus drivers, taxi drivers, to come out andl stand against war,” Brown said. “The onlya war we’re interested in is the war againstd racism and the war against imperialism.” I

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Features

Q&A: Associate Professor Epstein discusses research, how he got into philosophy

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Miner Hall is pictured on Feb. 2.

by Evelyn McClure Contributing Writer

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

Brian Epstein, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, has applied his studies in philosophy to both academic and business endeavors. In 2015 Epstein published “The Ant Trap,” a book about the nature of the social world, building off of his prior research. He sat down with The Tufts Daily to discuss his book, his work here at Tufts and the role of a new child in shaping his research.

Tufts Daily (TD): Tell us a little bit about your background before coming to Tufts.

Brian Epstein (BE): I studied philosophy as an undergraduate. I started out in physics and math, but very quickly realized that philosophy was much more my speed.

After that, I was at [University of] Oxford for a master’s degree for a couple years and then decided that I had enough philosophy for a little while. I went to work for a consulting firm here in Cambridge and did strategy consulting. After a few years, I missed philosophy and went to Stanford [University] and got my Ph.D. I ended up teaching at [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University] for five years before eventually coming here.

TD: So, lots of academia?

BE: Lots of academia interspersed with some business dealings. The business side of things has also helped inform a little bit of my research, so I found that part of my life very useful.

TD: How did you use your philosophy degree in your business ventures?

BE: I actually think that philosophy is one of the most applicable and useful degrees in a variety of fields. In business in particular, you are trying to think about big scale strategic issues and where your particular space in the whole world is.

At the same time, you also have to think about the microscopic issues of day-today operations. Philosophy does a really

good job helping train you to think in these ways. The kind of philosophy we do in this department is very analytical, very mathematical; it’s this very precise, rigorous thinking.

TD: You wrote a book recently, “The Ant Trap.” Can you tell us a little about that?

BE: The topic of the book is working out the nature of the social world. One of the things that is interesting about a lot of sciences is that a lot of the time what people are working on is figuring how to make things do things. In biology, chemistry, physics you’re interested in how to intervene or how to make a chemical reaction or what the sequence of causes and effects is in the world. Those sciences also spend time trying to figure out the structure of things.

For example, the structure of an atom or of DNA is central to these natural sciences.

In the social sciences, people spend a lot of time trying to figure out what will affect what. There is not a ton of work focusing on what the nature of the social world is. People kind of assume that the nature of the social world is fairly straightforward. There are people, they have different thoughts, they take actions and interact with each other and that is what it means to be part of society. It is becoming increasingly clear that we need a more detailed investigation into the nature of the social world. Part of my aim of creating this book was to build a foundation to learn more about this and how this may apply to the social sciences.

TD: You said you have a two year old.

How do you think having a young child affects your job and thinking about philosophy?

BE: It slows it way down. When you think about the social world, there are many different parts. One part is the different social groups and how they interact, another part is the concept of money, [another is] the nature of gender or race. All of these are social constructs. The heart of my work is to understand these. One part of that is thinking about cognition; so how do groups think, how do they act, when do they bear

responsibility for those actions. So, for example we could say “Facebook bears responsibility for its effect on American politics.” What does it mean to say that Facebook bears responsibility? There’s a kind of overlap between those interested in the social world and those interested in cognition. Tufts has a historical strength in the field of cognitive science, largely spearheaded by Daniel Dennett. I’ve also been working on thinking about cognition, mainly social cognition. But cognition is a broad field, and one of the things most fascinating about seeing a baby growing up is thinking about the development of cognitive systems. This has complemented my teaching, particularly on that side.

TD: What aspects of Tufts excite you most?

BE: It’s the quality of the department and the quality of the students. The Tufts philosophy department has a great history.

We have had the best master’s program in philosophy for a long time, so it is a very distinguished department. It is also a very research-friendly department. One of the most exciting things we do is teach seminars on our latest research. Every year, even when I’ve taught courses repeatedly, students bring new ideas.

TD: What do you hope to accomplish at Tufts?

BE: The longer you go in your career, the more you realize many opportunities come up contingently that you never would have anticipated. I have the ideas and basic material for several different books that I am interested in writing. There are several things that are in the works but it is very hard to know if other things will come up.

One of the projects I’ve been working hardest on is thinking about what an institution is and how we can design policies to intervene [in] and improve these institutions. I want to keep working on these interesting topics and try to integrate these into my teaching and keep students excited. I want to teach things that are going to be useful for students in the long-term, teach them to think critically and analytically.

3 Monday, February 3, 2020

Ross Sonnenblick From seniors to citizens

Do something

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enior spring to social security. On the hill to over the hill. Graduation to… grandchildren? Here’s what seniors have to say before all is said and done.

Ilana Goldberg, a senior majoring in international relations and Arabic, refuses to take the future for granted. In the short term, that means canvassing for Democratic candidates and attending the GIM for the Sunrise Movement at Tufts.

“The only job I’m interviewing for is an environmental advocacy fellowship … We know that we’re headed toward climate disaster, and I have an instinct to drop everything and change that,” Goldberg said.

She would love to envision a world in which Tufts University wines and dines her for her 50th reunion: a world in which a holographic Jumbo statue awaits her triumphant return. At the same time, she recognizes that things must change if that is to happen.

“If we’re going to get there, the world is going to have to look fundamentally different than it does right now,” Goldberg said.

With the fate of our planet at stake, Goldberg feels compelled, quite simply, to “do something.” Goldberg says that she will never pursue medicine. She recognizes that she lacks the proper credentials, but she sounds a lot like a triage doctor when she says, “What do I think is good? What do I think needs doing? In this world, that’s a lot of things.”

Environmental concerns and immigration law top her current list of issues to address, which is why she will probably move onto law school after wrangling over climate change with stubborn politicians for a few years.

Although Goldberg allows herself to imagine a distant future in which she can dote on an environmentally-sustainable number of grandchildren, she expresses serious reluctance to look past the next decade.

“If you wedge yourself [in]to a future, it’s making plans and waiting for God to laugh at you,” Goldberg said.

Still, she dreams of graduating debt-free from a good law school so that she can enter the impecunious industry of public-interest law. She can foresee herself working for the local or state government at some point, and she definitely doesn’t anticipate making a boatload of money. A job application recently asked her to write about herself as if the year were 2045 and she were featured in her college’s alumni magazine, and she found herself cynically amused by the prompt.

“If I lead my life the way I want to, [I won’t be] making enough money for Tufts to notice me,” Goldberg said.

To be clear, the year is not yet 2045.

Goldberg is not yet “Old Lady Goldberg,” the spirited woman who will still have “something to say.” Goldberg is not even a Tufts alumna.

Here at her soon-to-be alma mater, Goldberg relishes in “walking down a street or being in Tower Café or the Rez and people walking by” whom she knows and likes.

Goldberg intends to capitalize on the fact she “go[es] to a university that has a lot of money and that [she’s] still paying money [for], ” over the next few months.

“I’m in no great hurry to leave Tufts, and I’m certainly in no great hurry to leave my friends,” Goldberg said.

When she graduates, she will most assuredly do something meaningful. For now, she still has most of a semester with her friends by her side.

Ross Sonnenblick is a sophomore studying psychology and international literary and visual studies. Ross can be reached at ross. sonnenblick@tufts.edu.

4

Monday, February 3, 2020

ARTS&LIVING

‘Miss Americana’ explores emotional intensity of Swift’s fame

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “Miss Americana” (2020) is pictured.

by Stephanie Hoechst Executive Video Editor

“Be new to us. Be young to us … Live out a narrative that we find interesting enough to entertain us, but not so crazy that it makes us uncomfortable,” Taylor Swift said describing the burden placed on female artists to constantly reinvent themselves in the new documentary “Miss Americana” (2020). Swift’s disillusioned narration plays

over a series of shots from her performances — we see her country-era concerts, back when she still donned her long curls; her “Red” (2012)-era kookiness at the 2013 Grammys; her sparkly, contemporary “1989” (2014) looks with her chopped bob; her moody, gothic “reputation” (2017) performances, complete with fog and pyrotechnics; and finally, her Candylandcolored shoot for the “ME!” music video from her most recent album, “Lover” (2019).

“Miss Americana,” a Taylor Swift documentary by Lana Wilson, takes us through Swift’s tumultuous rise to stardom, starting from the wild success of “Tim McGraw” (2006) and ending with the release and success of “Lover.” On first watch, it’s an intimate look into Swift’s life as a pop star. For any Swift fan, it’s an exciting opportunity to go behind the scenes of her larger-than-life career — to watch her hum out half-written songs with her producer, Joel Little; to see her practicing a cappella backstage before a performance; to see her speak rather candidly about her experience in the spotlight for the past 15 years. Much of the documentary is dutifully shot and thoughtfully composed, and much of it a rather compelling look about the, oftentimes, startling struggles of being someone so completely and utterly famous.

Think a little more beyond that, though, and the documentary becomes more difficult to untangle. It’s hard to deny that “Miss Americana” is a very raw and honest look into everything that comes with being as famous as Swift — she seems just about as thoughtful about her career as she can be, reflecting on her rise to stardom through her narration as though she were speaking in a particularly sobering therapy session.

However, it’s hard to know what, exactly, the documentary seeks to communicate about Swift herself and her relationship with her fame.

If one were to define a general arc for “Miss Americana,” it would be that Swift’s life and career has been leading up to the moment where she finally breaks her political silence, refusing to give in to the pressures of her fans, producers and anyone else who might be offended by her views.

“A ‘nice girl’ doesn’t force their opinions on people,” Swift narrates bitterly over footage of herself, primly dressed, on TV interviews as she refuses to answer questions about politics. “A ‘nice girl’ smiles and waves and says thank you. A ‘nice girl’ doesn’t make people feel uncomfortable with her views.”

For Swift, it seems, finally speaking out politically — supporting Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen for the 2018 Tennessee Senate race over Marsha Blackburn — was enough of a turning point in her career to necessitate an entire documentary reflecting on it.

Now, Swift has had her own share of traumatizing controversy fall upon her

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— all worth sharing — between Kanye’s disrespect at the 2009 VMAs to the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty Twitter trend to the 2017 David Mueller sexual assault trial. Her career has certainly been a dramatic and informative one, and “Miss Americana” does an excellent job of contextualizing Swift’s album releases alongside her struggles within her career for those of us who weren’t paying as close attention to it. However, the framing device of Swift’s constant self-assessment in “Miss Americana” only reinforces how entangled Swift had become with her own self-image through her rise to stardom.

It’d be going a little too far to say that Swift is a victim of her own fame; however, “Miss Americana,” whether intentionally or not, seems to suggest that she has almost always been at the mercy of it.

It is with this realization that Swift’s commentary about reinvention becomes more troubling. She is correct in that she has had to reinvent herself — it’s incredibly jarring to see how much she has changed since the release of “Tim McGraw” — but the extent to which Swift has been, over the course of her career, pushed and pulled by this desire for freshness and newness is even more terrifying. Between “1989,” “reputation” and now “Lover,” Swift has oscillated between different personas with almost dizzying frequency, constantly, it seems, seeking to find a persona that feels right to her.

And therein lies some of the dissatisfaction that comes towards the end of “Miss Americana”: we’re meant to believe that this is Taylor at her most authentic, now on the other side of this revelation about speaking out politically. Her cynical reflectiveness about her past career seems to suggest so, after all. But “Miss Americana” may have been preemptive, as we have no idea how this turning point in Swift’s career will come to impact her future work.

Can Swift’s new political awareness really undo the years of pop-star values that “Miss Americana” exposes and that Swift so very obviously struggled with? Is there a chance that we might’ve arrived at Swift’s “true” musical and public personality with the release of “Lover”? Or is “Lover” simply representative of another incarnation of the ever-changing entity that is Taylor Swift? We may, unfortunately, have to wait and see what her next album is in order to truly know.

‘Cats’ finds its next life in midnight cinema pantheon

by Tommy Gillespie Arts Editor

At a late-night screening of “Cats” (2019), there are exactly four rules that audiences must hold sacrosanct. First, judgment and jerkiness are the sole unwelcome visitors to this party — all who enter this hallowed space must respect the manner in which their fellow audience members are compelled to act. The Somerville Theatre’s second rule would make “The Room” (2003) fans shake their spoons in discontent: Projectiles are forbidden, so anyone hoping to fling some kitty litter will have to retract their claws. Third, all on-screen appearances of the evil Macavity (Idris Elba) are to be greeted with a hiss. Fourth, and so help you Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) if you ever forget this hallowed tenet: A cat is NOT a dog.

Since its trailers permanently seared their cursed images onto our corneas this

summer, “Cats” has occupied a place in cultural consciousness unbefitting of a mere movie. You can choose to ignore a movie; you can resist its curated enticements for you to step closer and investigate further. “Cats” cannot be ignored. No matter your age, background or beliefs, “Cats” demands a response. At its arbitrarily-edited hodgepodge of human and feline anatomy, we recoiled together in terror.

We shared Jason Derulo’s outrage at the studio execs’ Orwellian erasure of his Rum Tum Tugger. We let Taylor Swift sail lustily around our heads, took one sniff of her catnip and got hooked.

Through half-covered eyes, we watched this furry fantasia careen sideways at full speed into the finish line of the 2010s.

Critics attempted to intellectualize the carnage, to glue together some scattered bits of meaning scoured from the ninth circle of its Lovecraftian horror scape. Some tried to assign neat labels to this phenomenon —

it was christened “a furries-and-musicals PornHub channel” and “a musical version of ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’” (1996). But “Cats,” with the haughty flippancy of Ian McKellen hissing Ray Winstone down the plank of a trash barge on the Thames, eludes these definitions.

Reading about “Cats” is like dancing about trench warfare. No linguistic feat could even break the skin of its body of depravity. One must live through “Cats” not to understand it, but to grasp the impenetrable permanence of its incomprehensibility. “Cats” will be beamed into the Heaviside Layer and cause any alien civilization advanced and unlucky enough to decipher its atomic formulas to self-destruct.

By the end times, “Cats” will have taken on its own mass and grown large enough to swallow the entire universe as if it’s Jennyanydots (Rebel Wilson) chomping down on a horrifyingly anthropomorphic roach.

VIA IMDB

see CATS, page 5

A promotional poster for “Cats” (2019) is pictured.

Arts & Living

Monday, February 3, 2020 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

‘Sex Education’ balances absurdity, adolescent confusion

by Raga Chilakamarri Contributing Writer

I had my Google Calendar marked with an all-caps reminder for the return of the second season of “Sex Education” (2019–) on Jan. 17. In just eight approximately 50-minute episodes, which require a Herculean effort not to binge, the pilot season of Netflix’s British, teen comedy-drama had me hooked and fully invested in the absurd, venereal ongoings of Moordale Secondary.

Raunchy, hilarious and heart-tugging, “Sex Education” creates a fresh, nuanced narrative within an over-cultivated yet ceaselessly popular market of high-school inspired television.

The first season introduced 16-yearold protagonist Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), who, as the son of a sex therapist, unintentionally developed sex expertise — despite his own lack of experience in that department. Teaming up with rebel-punk-genius Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey) and encouraged by his flamboyant best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa) — who has yet to master the art of whispering — Otis creates an underground sex clinic, doling out much-needed advice to his chaotically horny classmates (and occasional teachers).

More often than not, each episode opens with some semblance of an uncomfortable sex scene, an unsubtle reminder that perhaps the show is best paired with a bag of popcorn and not your extended family.

Funnily enough, the show makes sex look … unsexy. Ditching the glamorous and unrealistic portrayals of relationships, “Sex Education” instead promotes the bumpy awkward moments of figuring out another person, in an honest and refreshing way.

Season two opens with an Otis masturbation montage (which was, dare I say, a long time coming) and a school-wide chlamydia outbreak akin to the “Cheese Touch.”

With mass hysteria formed from misinformation, Mr. Hendricks, the science/sex education/swing band/musical teacher’s “Mr. Sperm and Mrs. Egg” talks don’t quite cut it. Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson), Otis’ poised, sex therapist mother, intervenes to help Moordale address its deficiencies and unknowingly creates counseling competition against the clinic.

While well-meaning, Otis’ advice remains ineffective in comparison to Jean’s professional counseling that also leads her to form a wonderful friendship with Maureen Groff (Samantha Spiro), wife of the unloving, mean Headmaster Groff (Alistair Petrie).

Otis and Ola Nyman’s (Patricia Allison) coupling seems to be characteristically

slow yet pleasant, although is complicated by the fact that their parents are also dating (whilst sporting matching swooshes of haircuts). Maeve’s admission of her feelings for Otis, Ola’s exploration of her sexuality and Otis’ series of negative choices and selfish behavior that enwrap him in a manvs-self dilemma leave the love triangle in a tangled mess.

Maeve, the bad-girl heartthrob, doesn’t quite catch a break though in the second season. Her mother returns, touting her younger half-sister, pledging sobriety and showing hopes of changing for the better. As much as fans may twiddle thumbs in apprehension for the Otis-Maeve love story, the larger focus is on Maeve’s struggle with fitting in and realizing her self-worth, as she finagles her way back into school, the advanced program, the “Quiz Heads” (Moordale’s quiz bowl team) and as always, our hearts.

(VIA IMDB)

A promotional poster for “Sex Education” (2019- ) is pictured.

Meanwhile, fan-favorite Eric is awarded a more upbeat storyline than in the last season, involving a complex choice of his own with the arrival of Rahim (Sami Outalbali), the new, attractive French student, and Adam Groff’s (Connor Swindells) return, post-expulsion from military school. Rahim, bearing some resemblance to Drake, boldly and forwardly expresses his interest, unabashedly asking Eric out on a date and treating him with respect and romance. In contrast, Adam and Eric share wholesome nights out smashing plates, a secret rendezvous that serves as Adam’s only escape.

While difficult to know who to root for, Team Eric seems to be the best answer.

Although Adam’s character changed vastly for the better compared to season one, with realizations of his own identity against

the pressures of masculinity, his history remains rooted as Eric’s former tormentor, creating a problematic narrative of bully-turned-lover.

“Sex Education,” rich with colorful, oddball personalities finds its greatest resilience in an ensemble of recurring and new supporting characters that garner just as much interest and investment as the main-listers, especially as the second season explores multiple, fairly separate plot lines.

Lily (Tanya Reynolds), on what must have been a startlingly insane budget, brought her erotic comic books to life as writer and director of Moordale’s “Romeo and Juliet: the Musical,” a rendition ripe with genitalia-themed costumes and carnal dancing, leaving Shakespeare either turned on or turning over in his grave.

Innocently obtuse and highly lovable Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) discovers her life’s calling as a baker (reasonably explained by her love of toast), but faces a darker trauma after an unsettling incident on the bus. In a moving, powerful scene led by Aimee — and reminiscent of an angsty, female remix of “The Breakfast Club”(1985) — an unlikely gang of gals share their respective experiences with sexual harassment.

In an intense and emotional performance, Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) grapples with mental health issues stemming from social and athletic pressure, turning to a newfound hobby, theater.

Freshly added Viv (Chinenye Ezeudu), with doses of realness and an unmatched academic determination, tutors and befriends the star swimmer, helping him find his inner Shakespeare in exchange for advice “jigging” it up with her Quiz Head crush and Rubik’s cube fanatic, Dex (Lino Facioli).

Channeled through interesting personalities, the breakout stars dazzle and seize every scene. The triumph of “Sex Education” continues to find its core within its enduring platonic — not romantic — relationships, a comforting solace after a complicated and unresolved second season.

The show effortlessly balances its absurdity with relatability, attracting a wide audience beyond the typical teen drama and tackling various important issues along the way. Aesthetically blending time and location, with touches of retro to accompany its modern themes, “Sex Education” is not about one place or moment, but rather a colorful culmination of the adolescent experience.

Needless to say, my calendar stands ready to reunite with the Moordale bunch in a (hopeful) season three.

The future of 'Cats' is as cult classic CATS

continued from page 4 The psychological burden of “Cats” is far too heavy to bear alone. Its moral darkness cannot be exposed to sunlight, lest its insidious essence turns the sun black. In the month since it was unleashed upon humankind, “Cats” has already surveyed its claim in the landscape of midnight cinema. It joins movies like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) and “Plan 9 From Outer Space” (1959) in these legendary annals. Calling these films “bad” feels entirely beside the point. Surely, we tell ourselves, someone has sown a deeper truth, a portal to a higher stratum of human intellect, somewhere inside this sensory gauntlet.

To discover this diamond in the dung, we must immerse ourselves in these movies. Long after the sun dips below the horizon, we don our animatronic cat ears and paint whiskers on our faces. Before the curtain raises, we rack our brains for hidden fonts of knowledge of feline cinematic history. And when the lights dim low and the Jellicle Moon rises, we smash ourselves through the fourth wall as if propelled by a spiritual zeal for revelation. We sing along and unabashedly shout out our existential supplications.

The restorative embrace of the Heaviside Layer lifts us from our seats.

“Cats” is a religious movement in its infancy, so its rituals have yet to be codified. Should we bring tissues to aid

Grizzabella ( Jennifer Hudson) when her mucous membranes are overcome with regret and despair? Should we oil our bodies to glisten like the lithe Macavity, in the hope that we may harness some of his beguiling sexual energy? As time passes, these truths will gradually unspool, just as a ball of yarn’s charms are best enjoyed slowly. For now, we will continue this cosmic journey through midnight ceremonies the world over, harmonizing our voices in wonder and awe of the Jellicle Moon. The Jellicle Choice is made just once per year, but therein lies the irresistible hope that will bring each of us back to “Cats” again and again: that maybe, just maybe, this time I will finally realize what all of it means.

5

Aidan Menchaca Beginner Mentality

Y

Opening

ou’re really starting now?”

As of this month, I have been playing the violin for two years. Beginning as (almost) an adult, I have often been asked this question by all types of people.

Playing the violin is not a remarkable thing in itself for me to do — many people, after all, play musical instruments. But the process of learning a completely foreign skill has revealed a lot of assumptions about making art, youth and of course, how we learn and understand things as we get older.

As a culture we are obsessed with youth — the music world is no exception. The musicians and composers we idolize were all mostly prodigies.

Mozart began his musical journey when he was three and was composing at five. Beethoven began playing publicly at seven and wrote groundbreaking compositions when he was not much older than me. Now, most people assume that you can’t become good at music if you start at 20, let alone 40, 60 or even 80 years old. The ideal year to start playing music slowly creeps backward in a well-meaning desire to inspire musicality, but also in response to the arms race to get into good K-12 schools and colleges.

I have never really bought into this obsession with youth. If I had begun playing when I was six or seven, I’m not exactly sure I would have loved it.

I remember going to a Rachmaninoff concert around then. I thought it was really boring! For me, a passion for classical music came later. I remember finding Philip Glass’ music when I was in eighth grade. From there my desire expanded into all eras of classical music and opera. When I picked up the violin, it was like meeting someone I had known only in dreams.

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I remember when I got back from the rental store, I visited my brother and opened the case. I was struck by how light it was and I didn’t know the first thing about playing it.

The first few lessons with my amazing teacher Beth Bahia Cohen were tough. Humans are not made to hold the violin or the bow, really. It took me weeks to master just playing the open strings. We didn’t even get to the notes for a month and I was stuck playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

But from the very beginning, I was hooked. If someday I could play the music of my idols, I thought I would have fulfilled some grand dream.

While I’ve learned a lot at Tufts, I think that my struggle to play has taught me the most about life and what a good life might look like. There is something enlightening about witnessing your own learning which you can’t do as a kid. Playing has also been a humbling experience and more than anything has impressed upon me the need to allow to fail and to really suck at something — a need to have, in short, a beginner mentality.

Aidan Menchaca is a senior studying history. Aiden can be reached at aiden.menchaca@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Monday, February 3, 2020

F &G FUN & GAMES

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Hannah: “I just wanted to inflict pain in your eyes for one second.”

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 18)

Things may not go as planned at home.

Domestic matters could take an unexpected twist. Graceful spontaneity can win outsized rewards. Try playfulness.

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Opinion OP-ED

Barack Obama was our first black president. A number of black critics, ranging from Ben Carson to Cornel West, believed that President Obama wasn’t black enough – he spent the majority of his early professional life bouncing between elite universities and successful law firms — and thus didn’t have many of the experiences attached to the political identity of blackness he wielded.

He was, regardless of what experiences he had in his life, black. When you see Obama, you know he is black. It’s how he is legible to others in a country where race is steeped in meaning and prejudice. It was, then, unavoidable that his blackness be reflected in his campaign. Barack Obama would be America’s first black president whether he liked it or not. Barack Obama did not choose to be black.

I don’t intend to imply, by any stretch, that my handful of gay behaviors are a political form of queerness – they aren’t.

But they are, at the very least, visibly gay.

These behaviors, I’d argue, are discernably gayer than my actual sex habits, which render me clinically homosexual, but only privately so. In short: the fact that I’m read as gay has very little to do with gay sex. At its core, my public gayness is a collection of behaviors, not desires; I could alter these behaviors if I wanted to.

I didn’t choose to “want” in the way I do, but I did “choose,” in many ways, to be the way I am. Gay desire and being gay are distinct – unless “being” gay pertains exclusively to sexual desire, I choose to be gay daily. I speak with gay mannerisms, something, that although natural to me now, was not when I first came out at 15; I rave fervently and openly about bottoming; I bleach my hair seasonally; I complain loudly about the tribulations of douching; I refer to inanimate objects with gendered pronouns; I drink iced coffee in 28 degree Medford weather.

David Halpern, a professor of the history and theory of sexuality who wrote a 500-page book on the process of gay acculturation, “How to be Gay” (2012), would agree with me when I say that having anal sex with other men is among the least gay things I do on a regular basis. In fact, for me, it seems among the straightest: Sex is one of the spheres of my life where I behave most masculine; that’s how I have learned to desire sexually — a choice I don’t actively make and sometimes resent. According to Halperin, “Gayness is not a state or condition. It’s a mode of perception, an attitude, an ethos: in short, it is a practice.”

If I spent a few less nights on Grindr every month and consulted a voice coach, I could work to pass as straight. I imagine that would be a fairly pleasureless life — something many manage to attain without any structural forces working against them at all.

Say I followed through with this and “became” straight: You might suggest that my commitment to straightness, alongside my evident commitment to being miserable, would be a result of some deeply illogical concoction of internalized homophobia. I would be hesitant to agree.

Perhaps there is something I want more

than anything else, and to get it, I believe that I must repress my desire. That seems pretty logical.

In the first breath of Pete Buttigieg’s interview with The Daily, a New York Times podcast, he admits that as early as the 11th grade, he openly wanted to be president.

He then remarks, “but, in a very simple sense, especially coming from Indiana, it seemed to be a choice: you could be in elected office, or you could be an out gay person. Not both.” I don’t disagree with Pete here. Only as recently as 1974 have we had openly gay politicians in the United States; Indiana elected its first openly gay representative at the local level in 2015.

Pete Buttigieg did not come out until the age of 33, in 2015. By that point, he’d spent four years at Harvard, one at Oxford, three at McKinsey & Company, several with the U.S. Navy and most recently, several years as mayor of his hometown, South Bend, Ind. Buttigieg’s seemingly perfect résumé as a presidential hopeful has drawn as much ire as it has praise: There’s something grotesquely perfect about it.

This is discussed in his interview with The Daily, in which Buttigieg suggests a hypothetical example of a mid-career politician being sworn into office as an assistant secretary to the Middle East.

“Imagine if that person got there in one of two ways – in universe A, it’s the person who woke up one day in high school … and did everything in order to occupy that title. The other person is someone who woke up in high school and said I want to be the person who makes the United States a force towards peace.”

He concludes that the latter would be a better fit for the role. His example draws a distinction between politicians who want to “be” something, and those who want to “do” something, a distinction made similarly in Michael Harriot’s article, “Pete Buttigieg is a lying motherf***er” published in The Root.

Buttigieg would like us to believe that he’s among the doers. As Harriot rightly points out, his true motivations are something we can never genuinely know. Reflecting on some of Buttigieg’s regressive comments on education in the past, Harriot concludes, “Pete Buttigieg doesn’t want to change anything. He just wants to be something.”

In order to make this analysis more interesting, let’s assume he’s truly a doer.

The question, then, is what exactly does he want to do? In the beginning of his interview with The Daily, Buttigieg describes an initial frustration with politics he felt during his first year at Harvard in 2000, which galvanized his interest in career politics. “You had this kind of center right, and center left, both of them very committed to growth and business – but it seemed not very committed at all to … how we take care of vulnerable people around the country.”

For one, the “center left … very committed to growth and business” seems eerily familiar. The campaign Buttigieg is running, with policies amenable to swaths of Silicon Valley’s technocratic elites, is backed by several thousand undisclosed high-dollar donors.

Secondly, there are many ways to serve vulnerable people in the United States,

Monday, February 3, 2020

Matt Rice Primary Colors

Pete’s choice

by Colin Murphy

7

Gary Hart’s heir apparent

but McKinsey & Company does not rank particularly high on that list. If this is the primary ambition he claims as a politician, his résumé does not back it up – and neither does his track record as mayor of South Bend, where he’s notoriously unpopular with its black community.

When Pete Buttigieg attempted to endear himself to minority voters he hopes to court, he spoke of his experience as a gay man during the Democratic debate in early December. “I care about this because while I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country,” he said, rightfully acknowledging that the prejudices against these identities appear in vastly different ways.

Key differences between racism and homophobia are well observed by Oliver Davis, a black council member in South Bend, Ind., where Buttigieg held office.

“When you see me, you would know that I’m African-American from day one. When someone is gay or a lesbian, unless they tell or they are seen in certain situations, then no one is going to know that. They are able to build their résumés and build their career.”

His analysis isn’t perfect – many of us can hardly speak or walk without exposing our queerness — but I think Davis’ thoughts extend particularly well to Buttigieg.

Without his husband, a now central fixture on his campaign with a cult following of middle-aged white women, or his coming out op-ed in 2015, we’d never know that he is gay. For many other queer people, we are out of the closet long before we decide to be, simply because we are read as such.

Buttigieg reaped the benefits of straightness until he was 33, at which point, he chose to be gay. He has chosen to be gay in particular ways. He proudly pronounced that he and Chasten did not meet on “the app you’re thinking of” (referring to Grindr, a gay sex app which displays users by geolocation) and has also said that he doesn’t “even read LGBT media anymore.”

Despite his open disaffiliations with the gay community, Buttigieg’s identity as a gay man is central to his progressive imagery. He claims that the positive response to his coming out has been a surprise; he won his following reelection in South Bend with 80% of the vote.

I genuinely doubt that he was surprised, and I believe this aspect of his candidate profile has benefitted him on the national stage; this does not strike me as coincidence.

If Buttigieg waited until it was politically safe to come out, his claim to gayness as a political identity — a tool for connecting to other marginalized groups — is at best gauche. For Buttigieg, coming out was a decision; another step in his road to the presidency — and should be met with the same skepticism facing the other lines of his résumé.

In all likelihood, Buttigieg would not be our first gay president, but he would be our first president who chose to be gay.

Behind choices lie reasons; do not be afraid to consider those – it won’t make you a homophobe.

As the sun was setting and the skies remained gray in Bow, N.H., I turned on to a long road, riddled with cars covered in bumper stickers such as “Protect Our Care” and “Bennet for America.”

As I turned the corner into the living room, I saw at least 50 voters captivated by Senator Michael Bennet during a Q&A session. Wearing a casual pair of jeans, a blue button-down shirt sans tie and his signature Timex strap watch, Bennet commanded the room with his understanding of policy, politics and the necessity for comity in our current political climate.

As the former superintendent of Denver public schools, Bennet spoke passionately about the need for universal pre-K. “We passed universal pre-K in Denver and added 2,000 kids to the rolls of Denver public schools.

Sherrod Brown and I have been working on this issue for a long time,” Bennet said, referring to the progressive Ohioan senator.

As he put on his jacket and prepared for his flight to Iowa, I waited for Bennet in the foyer. “Hi, Matt, I’m Michael,” he said. Before I had the chance to ask him any questions, he started to ask me about Tufts, introduced me to his daughter and asked if I knew a certain Coloradan who attends Tufts.

I asked Bennet about his electability case — his ability to get to the White House as the Democratic nominee. “I’m the only candidate in this race who’s won a swing state twice … and I think that I’ve got a deep keel that’s been forged in that purple state.

My policy agenda is one that can appeal not just to Democrats but to independents as well and win back the nine million people who voted twice for Barack Obama and once for Donald Trump.”

A recent Politico article described him as the “ultimate dark horse primary candidate.”

Bill Shaheen, husband to New Hampshire’s senior Senator Jeanne Shaheen, said that he is “very strongly [supporting] Michael Bennet … he’s the person America should choose.”

Other die-hard Bennet supporters liken him to another Yale-educated Coloradan: former Senator Gary Hart. Hart won a stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary in 1984, shocking the establishment and front-runner Walter Mondale. Hart’s 1984 New Hampshire campaign was managed by none other than then 37-year-old Jeanne Shaheen.

“I come from a state that’s one-third Democratic, one-third Republican and one-third independent,” Bennet often says.

I began my question: “You often say you come from a state that’s one third—” and then he cut me off. “Ah, a third, a third, a third.” Bennet and his daughter laughed.

“I’m quoting you, quoting me.”

“I do think it’s important we have somebody who’s focused on what real, breathing, living Americans need out of the government and not just on what social media is demanding at any given moment,” said Bennet.

Bennet’s deft political abilities saved him during the GOP onslaught of the 2010 midterms and won him another difficult race in 2016. Like Hart in 1984, Bennet should not be discounted as a fringe non-factor. As former President Obama noted in November 2016, Bennet is one the Democratic Party’s most gifted new leaders.

Colin Murphy is a senior studying computer science. Colin can be reached at colin. murphy1@tufts.edu.

Matt Rice is a junior studying political science. Matt can be reached at matthew. rice@tufts.edu.

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Sports

8

Monday, February 3, 2020

Matt Goguen Keeping Up with the 617

tuftsdaily.com

Undefeated No. 1 women’s basketball edges out No. 2 Bowdoin, defeats Bates, Colby

Unpacking the Red Sox cheating scandal

T

he sports world was recently shocked after an extensive investigation unveiled seasons of cheating by the Houston Astros organization. Following the bombshell story, the MLB swiftly handed out punishments to manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, who were both released by the organization following the news.

Additionally, the Boston Red Sox were heavily involved in this investigation, as now-former manager Alex Cora served as bench coach for the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros.

Evan Drelich, a former writer and columnist in Boston, and Ken Rosenthal unearthed another cheating scandal in his report for The Athletic. Drelich claimed that the Red Sox used the replay booth to steal signs from opposing teams. As the Astros investigation continued, MLB fans were calling for Alex Cora’s head and tainting the memorable 2018 Red Sox season. Following the release of A.J. Hinch, the Red Sox and Alex Cora mutually agreed to part ways, ending Cora’s two year tenure in Boston.

I have many feelings on how this investigation was handled and publicized. To begin, I solely believe that what the Red Sox and the Astros did was cheating: They were using technology and cameras to relay signs to hitters. However, the Astros had a more extensive method since they would beat on trash cans to signal what type of pitch was coming.

Conversely, the Red Sox were “cheating” a bit differently. Instead of using noises to signal to the batter, a baserunner would use body signals that told the batter what pitch was being thrown. If you really think about it, the hitters didn’t always have an advantage at the plate.

If there was no baserunner, the hitter wasn’t being communicated with and wasn’t able to decipher the next pitch. Meanwhile, the Astros were constantly watching the catcher’s signs and were beating on trash cans almost every other pitch. So yes, the Red Sox did cheat but not to the same extent.

The Red Sox weren’t the only team that was utilizing this form of sign stealing, as the Yankees and Dodgers, two MLB powerhouses, were also wrapped up in the scandal. However, the Red Sox were getting all the media attention as many fans believed the 2018 title was won by cheating. But the Red Sox beat both the Yankees and Dodgers in the playoffs who were utilizing the exact same system! I understand that since the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 that they would receive more media attention than usual, though the Yankees and Dodgers (and the Astros) are also at fault here.

I agree with the Boston Red Sox’s decision regarding the Cora situation. As much as I loved Cora and what he brought to this organization, he is still a cheater. His reputation was unfortunately stained due to his involvement in both cheating scandals. The Red Sox have many upcoming decisions to make regarding the managerial position. Do they bring in an outside hire or promote from within? Since the manager market has dried up, should they bring in an interim manager? These are just a few of the questions that loom for the Red Sox’s Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom and his staff. It might be a long season in Boston, folks.

Matt Goguen is a first-year who has yet to declare a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.goguen@tufts.edu.

MADELEINE OLIVER / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVESS

Senior guard/forward Erica DeCandido shoots a free throw during game against Bates on Jan. 19, 2019.

by Ananda Kao

Assistant Sports Editor

With conference wins on the road against Bates, No. 2 Bowdoin and Colby, the No. 1 women’s basketball remains undefeated with only four games left in the regular season. Their 20–0 record (6–0 in NESCAC games) puts the Jumbos atop the NESCAC and No. 1 in the NCAA Div. III national rankings.

Tufts dominated Saturday’s matchup against Colby — which brought Colby’s record to 7–12 and 2–5 in the NESCAC — and maintained a lead the entire game, winning 58–36. The largest lead of the game came off of a 3-point jump shot from senior guard Cailin Harrington with 4:39 remaining, putting the Jumbos up 56–28. Junior guard/forward Emily Briggs and sophomore guard Molly Ryan led the game with 14 points each.

Going into this game, Tufts was looking to maintain and build upon its energy from its big win the night before over Bowdoin.

“It’s hard sometimes to sustain that kind of energy after a big game like that, so we just talked about being ready for this next game and try[ing] not to have a dip of energy after last night,” senior guard Sadie Otley said.

On Friday, the Jumbos traveled to Brunswick, Maine, in a much-anticipated matchup of the only two undefeated teams in the NESCAC and the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country. Tufts ultimately beat Bowdoin 97–88, securing the top spot in the NESCAC. In the week leading up to this game, the Jumbos prepared for the Polar Bears’ strong offense.

“They are a really high-powered offensive team, so just honing in on our defense and making sure that we’re

ready for the things they do,” coach Jill Pace said. “They are a great shooting team so making sure we are out on the perimeter and understanding what they do really well on offense.”

Senior forward and co-captain Maddie Hasson led the game with 29 points for Bowdoin on 11 for 17 shooting, her second-most points in a single game this season, while also adding eight rebounds.

Defensively, Tufts focused on getting out on the perimeter in an attempt to limit Bowdoin’s 3-point opportunities.

The Polar Bears ultimately shot nine for 20 on 3-pointers compared to the Jumbos’ 12 for 24.

“Bowdoin obviously is a really, really great team and we knew we were going to have to play really well for it to be a good game with them,” Otley said. “They run a lot of sets, so we went over that all week in practice and talked about getting out on shooters because they are a really great 3-point shooting team.”

Junior guard Moira Train added 17 points for the Polar Bears, while senior guard and co-captain Samantha Roy and junior forward Dorian Cohen both scored 12. However, these double-digit points were not enough to catch the Jumbos at the end of the game.

Tufts shot 100% from the free-throw line, including six clutch shots in the final minute to secure the lead. Briggs led the team with 23 points, shooting 3 for 3 on 3-pointers and 10 for 14 on field goals. Harrington added 20 points, six rebounds and three assists. Ryan and senior guard/forward and co-captain Erica DeCandido both added 19 points, while DeCandido also dished out seven assists and grabbed six rebounds.

“People just showed up ready to play — I think both teams shot really, really well and that’s why it was such a

high-scoring game,” Otley said. “We ran and executed our sets well and we had a really good shooting night.”

Tufts also secured a commanding, 65-49 win over Bates on Jan. 25.

Tufts got on the board first and remained ahead for the entirety of the 40 minutes of play. DeCandido put up 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Jumbos. Sophomore guard Mia Roy netted a game-high 22 points for the Bobcats; however, Roy’s efforts could not match the Jumbos.

Tufts’ energy as well as its capitalization on free throw opportunities (15 for 18) again contributed to the win.

“We had a strong start against Bates just from an energy standpoint, and then we sustained that pretty much the entire game,” Pace said. “They went on a little bit of a run at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. It was a great crowd and a lot of good energy … I think we did a really nice job defensively throughout the game and followed our game plan really well.”

With only four games remaining in their regular season, the Jumbos focus on their sets and defense, in addition to bringing energy and having fun together.

“We’ve been having a lot of fun in practice every day, which I think is super important,” Pace said. “The team is maintaining [its] energy, which is sometimes hard to do with such a long season that we have, so it’s been really nice to see them come to practice every day still ready to go, learn and get better.”

Tufts will look to maintain its undefeated record and will host its last stretch of games beginning with Trinity on Friday at 7 p.m. and Conn. College on Saturday at 3 p.m.