The Tufts Daily - Friday, April 29, 2022

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 LXXXIII, ISSUE 51

tuftsdaily.com

Friday, April 29, 2022

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Somerville School Jaden Pena wins TCU presidential Committee approves election evangelical private school

by Emily Thompson Deputy News Editor

by Aaron Gruen News Editor

The Somerville School Committee voted on April 25 to approve Real Life Learning Center’s application to establish a K–8 private school. The vote came after a months-long standoff between Somerville’s subcommittee on Education Programs and Instruction and Vida Real Church, the founders of RLLC, who say they were unfairly targeted based on their religious beliefs.

Vida Real, a local church composed largely of Hispanic immigrants, originally applied to the City of Somerville to establish RLLC in September 2021.

Christian Cole, an administrative pastor at Vida Real who put together RLLC’s application, told the Daily that the School Subcommittee on Education Programs and Instruction repeatedly asked him to rework the application since it lacked necessary information. Despite the

back-and-forth, the committee ultimately approved the school.

RLLC will be a private Christian school in Somerville. Documents submitted to the school committee by Vida Real suggest that RLLC will teach creationism and use methods of nouthetic counseling, which is based on conservative evangelical interpretations of the Bible in place of traditional emotional counseling with students. An RLLC handbook provided to the committee said that students found “talking about or engaging in illicit acts … such as fornication [and] homosexuality … are subject to suspension or dismissal.”

During a meeting in March, the Subcommittee for Educational Programs formally recommended that the school committee reject RLLC’s application. Before voting to recommend rejection, Sara Dion, a member of the subcommittee, argued that RLLC’s educators would lack technical see SCHOOL, page 2

With 58% of the vote, Jaden Pena won the Tufts Community Union Senate presidential election on April 26–27. Both referendums on the ballot passed this year: one in favor of giving TCU the power to establish additional community senator seats, the other in favor of permit-

Staff Writer

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life recognized the service and leadership of 19 undergraduate and graduate students with Presidential Awards for Civic Life at an April 22 ceremony in Breed Memorial Hall. Amber Asumda, Claudia Guetta, Emma Downs, Jay-Miguel Fonticella, Leanne Loo and Maycon Santos, all seniors, are this year’s undergradu-

ate winners. Ricardo Moreno, Delia Burns, Lark Escobar, Avis Carrero, Logan Schwartz, Iris Montes, Joshua McLinden, Qimei Liu, Cora Evans, Charles Christopher Hines III, Anshelle Reen Tucker, Tara Ahmadi and Alex Coston are this year’s graduate winners.

Un i v e r s i t y Pre s i d e n t Anthony Monaco opened the event by congratulating all 64 nominees.

Following Monaco, Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of Tisch College Dayna Cunningham spoke directly to

the awards recipients, hailing them as a new generation of leaders who will bring about a multiracial democracy.

“We know we will be a multiracial society, but will we be a multiracial democracy?”

Cunningham asked the audience. “That is the question for us. Looking around this room, and learning about all of your incredible accomplishments, the depth and breadth of your service learning, your community engaged research, your campus leadership and your far-reaching social impact, it’s clear to me that you are the core of this mission.”

Cunningham noted that the award celebrates Tisch College’s core values as an institution.

“At Tisch we work to create new knowledge, to cultivate a generation of leaders in our students who can solve the complex problems of an emerging multiracial society and to work with communities to catalyze the institutional changes needed to support a multiracial democracy,” Cunningham said.

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life reception office is pictured.

TCU Senate and chaired the committee on community diversity and inclusion. His platform includes plans to improve mental health resources on campus, revitalize campus life after COVID-19, fight to construct a wellness center and support first-generation, low-income students. The other candidates, Enrique Rodriguez and Max Morningstar, earned 23% and 13% of the votes, respectively.

COURTESY JADEN PENA

Jaden Pena, the TCU president-elect, is pictured.

Tisch College recognizes 19 students with Presidential Award for Civic Life

by Evelyn Altschuler

ting the addition of two Indigenous community senator seats.

Pena reflected on the campaign process and expressed hopes for his future as TCU president.

“It’s been an incredible journey and I’m so excited to work with you all to make Tufts a better place,” Pena, a junior, wrote on his campaign Instagram.

Pena served as the diversity officer on the executive board of the

see AWARD, page 2

University Chaplaincy seeks to fill Africana spirituality chaplain position

by Simran Patel Staff Writer

The University Chaplaincy is hiring for the role of Africana spirituality chaplain. Its goal is to find a staff member who can aid in creating a space for worship and fellowship that is welcoming to students, staff and faculty who identify as members of the African diaspora.

University C haplain Reverend Elyse Nelson Winger is leading the search committee for the position. Other members are Lynn Cooper, the Catholic chaplain and associate director of the University Chaplaincy; Anthony Cruz Pantojas, the Humanist chaplain; and Montez Paschall, associate director of the Africana Center.

Cruz Pantojas said they believe that filling this role will enhance the student experience at Tufts.

“As perhaps the first position in the United States, with

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / page 4

OPINION / page 6

Tufts professors downvote Sidechat

Matsukawa hits all the right notes

Op-ed: BDS targets Jewish life on campus

knowledge about Africana spiritualities and chaplaincy, it is a historical moment for higher education chaplaincy and the visibility of ancient traditions, philosophies, and religious experiences not often represented in academia or chaplaincy,” Pantojas wrote in an email to the Daily.

The University Chaplaincy previously had an Africana spirituality advisor, a 14-hour per week position that had different minimum qualifications regarding chaplaincy experience and advanced degrees.

That position became vacant in September 2021.

“When this position opened up, however, we were able to move it to a chaplain position, and the next Africana Spirituality Chaplain will work 21/hours per week like the other chaplains on our team,” Winger wrote in an email to the Daily. “We are excited about this opportunity, see CHAPLAINCY, page 7 NEWS

1

FEATURES

3

ARTS & POP CULTURE

4

FUN & GAMES

5

OPINION

6

SPORTS

BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, April 29, 2022

THE TUFTS DAILY Alexander Janoff Editor in Chief

— EDITORIAL — PERI BAREST SAM RUSSO PHOEBE WONG Senior Editors

ELIZABETH FOSTER KENDALL ROBERTS Associate Editors Chloe Courtney Bohl Executive News Editor Delaney Clarke Executive Features Editor Maeve Hagerty Executive Arts Editor Faye Shen Li Thijssen Executive Opinion Editor Makenna Law Editorial Editor Isaac Karp Executive Sports Editor Alex Viveros Investigative and Science Editor Aaron Klein Executive Audio Producer Mina Terzioglu Kiana Vallo Executive Photo Editors Ty Blitstein Executive Video Editor Michael Wu Executive Graphics Editor

— PRODUCTION — MAC CALLAHAN Production Director Mike Kourkoulakos Maddy Noah Charlene Tsai Executive Layout Editors Julia Shannon-Grillo Abigail Vixama Executive Copy Editors Elise Fong Sydney Spivy Executive Social Media Editors

— BUSINESS — CAMPBELL DEVLIN Business Director Hannah Harris Emily Walker Outreach Coordinators Joe Posthauer Web Manager Contact Us P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 daily@tuftsdaily.com thetuftsdaily tuftsdaily tuftsdaily

Please rec ycle this newspaper!

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.

VIEWPOINTS Viewpoints represent the opinions of individual Opinion Editors, Staff Writers and Contributing Writers for the Daily’s Opinion section. Positions published in Viewpoints are the opinions of the writers who penned them alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. All material is subject to editorial discretion.

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.

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

tuftsdaily.com

New private school in Somerville to teach creationism, calls homosexuality an ‘illicit act’ SCHOOL

continued from page 1 expertise and that the school failed to meet state law regarding emotional development.

During this meeting, Dion also cited a recent Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior study that found LGBTQ youth to be at higher risk of substance abuse, bullying and suicidal ideation and actions. Dion declined to comment on this article.

Following the subcommittee’s recommendation of a rejection, lawyers for Vida Real Church wrote a letter to the school committee accusing it of blocking Vida Real’s efforts to establish RLLC because of its religious views. The letter also criticized Dion by name, claiming she expressed “overt hostility against Vida Real based solely upon its religious beliefs.” First Liberty Institute Counsel Ryan Gardner and Massachusetts Family Institute President and General Counsel Andrew Beckwith signed the letter.

The First Liberty Institute and Massachusetts Family Institute are legal not-for-profit organizations working to protect religious liberty. The MFI opposes the LGBTQ rights movement, the legalization of marijuana and mandated sex education in public schools. The organization advocates for protecting “biblical principals” and argues that America was founded on “affirming the Judeo-Christian values” upon which the family is based. Beckwith told the Daily that MFI got involved after Vida Real reached out in February for advice in answering the committee’s questions.

In a statement provided to the Daily, Mary Skipper, superintendent of Somerville Public Schools

and school committee secretary, and Andre Green, school committee chair, pushed back against the MFI letter’s characterization of the committee’s decision.

“The Somerville Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of religion or any other protected class,” they wrote.

Once MFI became involved in the case, Beckwith said they “were concerned that the school committee members didn’t really know what they were doing, or were taking advantage of their position to pry into the inner workings of the church and school in a way that the law doesn’t permit.”

According to Beckwith, many Christian parents are turning to private schools because they want “to have more influence over their children’s education because they see themselves rightfully as the primary educators of their children.” Beckwith also claimed that public schools nationally are “promoting transgenderism [and] diverse sexual practices … in a propagandistic type way, in kindergarten, first grade, [and] preschool.”

Under Massachusetts state law, a private school must be granted approval by the local school committee in order to operate. In order for a private school to gain approval, it must be equal in “thoroughness and efficiency… [to] the public schools in the same town.”

School committees cannot reject applications on the basis of the school’s religious teachings.

Peter Sumners, the attorney representing the school committee in hearings, explained during a committee hearing that the “committee evaluates the overall proposal and determines whether or not the compulsory education that’s required by the law as

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Vida Real Church, located in Somerville, Mass., is pictured. being provided in a public school … but doesn’t give the school committee the right to dictate minute details about how that instruction is provided.”

Before voting to approve Vida Real’s application, several school committee members said that while they personally disagreed with RLLC’s policies, they had no legal choice but to approve the application. During the committee meeting on whether to approve RLLC’s application, Emily Ackman, a member of the committee, said “if we didn’t vote to approve, we would be sued and we would lose.”

Ellenor Barish, another committee member, echoed Ackman’s message at the meeting. “While I feel that some of the values expressed in this application run contrary to my own and to the values of Somerville Public Schools, it isn’t our task to eval-

uate the philosophy behind the proposed school or their teaching methods” Barish said.

During the vote, all present members of the school committee voted to approve the application, with only Dion voting not to approve.

Following the vote, the school committee passed a resolution to improve support for LGBTQ students at Somerville public schools and extend support to all youth in Somerville who seek it. The committee also passed a resolution calling for the state to revisit the guidelines for approving new private schools, calling the current criteria “vague and limiting.”

Since RLLC is a private school, it will not be subject to the oversight of the Somerville School Committee now that it has been approved, according to Skipper and Green.

Students honored for their leadership, service and civic engagement in annual ceremony AWARD

continued from page 1 “Your achievements are indicative of one of the essential beliefs at Tisch College, that there are countless pathways to getting involved in civic life,” Cunningham added.

The 19 recipients come from a variety of Tufts schools, disciplines and civic experiences.

During the ceremony, students were presented with their awards by the person who nominated them. Each nominator gave a brief speech about the recipient and their accomplishments.

John Wescott, associate director of campus life, nominated Asumda.

“[Asumda] embodies the values of Tufts University — the excellence in the areas of leadership, public service and academics,” Westcott said. “I cannot think of anyone more deserving.”

Tisch Scholars program administrator Brianda Hernández nominated Loo. “Leanne co-created a resource guide to support undocumented Asian communities,” Hernández said.

“I really could go on and on about Leanne’s accomplishments. … She sprinkles joy and humor into her work, and listens compassionately to the needs of those around her.”

Ellise LaMotte, associate dean of diversity and inclusion, nominated Fonticella.

“Jay-Miguel continues to demonstrate their commitment to social justice by actively improving access to resources for historically marginalized populations,” LaMotte said.

Cunningham nominated Emma Downs.

“After discovering that Massachusetts had the biggest increase in food insecurity in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Emma created JumboSwipes, a group on campus that helps mitigate this issue in the greater Boston area by repurposing students’ extra meal slots,” Cunningham said. “Emma also interned for Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz in 2020. Continuing her championing of accessibility, [Downs] created … a directory of free Massachusetts legal services.”

Hilary Binda, senior lecturer in Visual and Critical Studies and founding director of the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College nominated Guetta. Binda recalled meeting Guetta for the first time through TUPIT. “I knew this was someone with the courage and curiosity that it takes to care about others,” Binda said. “With each week during her first semester, Claudia’s understanding of justice and the extensive health impacts of the criminal

legal [system] grew exponentially. … She is currently the program coordinator, and in many ways, the co-director of TUPIT, a full college in prison program that offers associate’s and bachelor’s degrees to incarcerated students.”

Dawn Geronimo Terkla, associate provost for institutional research, assessment and evaluation, nominated Santos.

“During the first summer when we were all dealing with COVID, [Santos] worked with scholars at 14 institutions across the world to develop videos using a rhinoceros to provide educational content to underprivileged students around the world,” Terkla said. “With hard work, determination and perseverance, he’s survived and excelled and exemplifies the Tufts spirit.”

The ceremony continued for graduate students, featuring students from The Fletcher School, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and more.

tuftsdaily.com

Features

The Sidechat storm: An anonymous social media application takes over Tufts campus

by Kaitlyn Wells

Assistant Features Editor

Sidechat is arguably the hottest online development to have struck Tufts’ campus this year. It is a smartphone application where users can post short messages and images completely anonymously in a domain accessible to anyone with an active Tufts email account.

On Sidechat, usernames do not exist.

Other features include anonymous commenting, direct messaging between users and a system of points, known on Sidechat as “karma.” This feature tallies how many times a user’s posts or comments have been upvoted or downvoted: The karma level of an individual user can only be viewed by that user. The exception to this is a public leaderboard of the top ten levels of karma that users have reached – none of which are attached to a name.

Sidechat was developed by the New York-based company Flower Ave Inc. The CEOs of Flower Ave Inc. declined the Daily’s request for an interview.

Prithvi Shahani, a first-year in the School of Engineering, is an active Sidechat user and claims to hold one of the ten highest karma rankings at Tufts Sidechat at the time of his interview with the Daily.

Shahani estimated that Sidechat surfaced at Tufts at the beginning of the spring 2022 semester. He described how Tufts students have engaged with the platform.

“I feel like it’s just a way for people to relate with their community and share funny memes that people at Tufts can relate to, or talk about what’s currently going on, such as … recently, some Senator visited, I believe, so everyone was like, … ‘Oh, my God, Elizabeth Warren was here, oh my God, she used the washroom in the Commons,’” Shahani said.

J.P. de Ruiter, a professor in the Computer Science and Psychology departments, shared his concerns with the application’s anonymous feature, particularly as the lack of usernames on the platform disables users from verifying the continuity of the original participants.

“I’m a bit worried about [Sidechat] as a dialogue researcher because it does take away something extremely important in dialogue, which is coherence,” de Ruiter said. “Having no identity is something [different] than having anonymity.

Anonymity is that there is an identity at the other end, but you don’t know where they live, and how old they are, and how they look, but there’s still a unique identity. Whereas [on Sidechat], you just also get rid of identity.”

Shahani added that it can be difficult to determine whether the contents are credible in the first place.

“Honestly, I just don’t believe anything on the app … I’ll just assume everything on the app’s a joke. That makes my life so much easier,” Shahani said.

Samuel Sommers, professor and department chair of psychology, elaborated on the implications of Sidechat’s anonymity from a psychological perspective.

“Being anonymous makes us feel less accountable to some of the social expectations and norms that otherwise govern our behavior. … People put things online that they would never ever say to other people in regular conversations face-toface,” Sommers said.

GRAPHIC BY MIRIAM VODOSEK Illustrating Sommers’ insight, de Ruiter cited the lyrics of Brad Paisley’s “Online” (2007). “If you just look at the lyrics you’ll see … it’s about a kind of a loser type sitting in [his parent’s basement]. But online, he’s like a superstar with a Maserati and 17 girlfriends. It’s really interesting how Brad Paisley sings about that,” de Ruiter said. “So [the song] suggests … that there can be, of course, a very big difference between people’s online personality and real personality.”

Overall, Shahani recalled that activity on Sidechat increased after the leaderboard was introduced around what he estimated to be late February to early March. He also noticed a general shift towards more discussion around controversial subject matters over time.

“At the beginning, it was pretty much really basic things like campus happenings, but people started actually making memes for the app. But at the same time, people have also started [talking about] edgy, controversial topics on the app since it’s anonymous and it can’t be linked to them,” Shahani said. “[It’s] sometimes good to have that kind of discourse but at the same time, [it’s] sometimes bad since their opinions could be harmful to the community.”

In light of this development, Sommers and de Ruiter underscored the salience of community standards and moderation for social media platforms such as Sidechat.

“It does feel like things can deteriorate on anonymous message boards to the point where they have to be moderated or they have to have some community standards in place,” Sommers said.

“The kinds of bullying and kinds of problematic commentary that maybe we as a community don’t want to see … [is] always going to be at risk [on anonymous platforms].”

According to Shahani, it appears that Sidechat may hire students to act as moderators on the app. Shahani was reached out to by Sidechat to become a moderator himself. He was not interested in the role, however, and he subsequently declined the offer.

Shahani shared that he has been banned from Sidechat multiple times, ranging from about one hour to 48 hours.

When users are banned from the platform, they can still access the app, upvote and downvote, but they cannot post or send direct messages, Shahani detailed.

Shahani shared his misgivings about the way moderation is carried out on Sidechat.

“I feel like they selectively choose what content they want on the platform and … that’s a really dangerous game to play because that pretty much, … could like control the narrative. … For example, I believe [there] was some sort of conflict outside of Hodgdon like a week or two ago, and they were banning people left and right for that,” Shahani said.

“Otherwise, … if there were fights on the app, or people going full anti-masker back when [COVID-19] was extremely bad, they were cool with that kind of content. So, I’m not really sure what’s up with that.”

Sidechat does indeed have community guidelines, yet the only way the Daily was able to access them was through a hyperlink buried in their terms of service.

Brian Schaffner, Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies, first heard about Sidechat through a Slack channel of current and former students from his Public Opinion Lab. Schaffner suspects that self-moderation might naturally take place on Sidechat because each unique user belongs to the same institution.

“An app that’s sort of specific to one university is likely, even if it’s anonymous, … to be less problematic just because … there’s already a sense of community, like a sense of physical community here,” Schaffner said.

Moving forward, Schaffner added that Sidechat has the potential to shape wider campus public opinion as the application continues to become more popular among Tufts students.

“People probably go on [Sidechat] to feel some sense of validation, … [which] can probably help to crystallize opinion, I guess, in a more aggregate way. … I think that would have an effect on public opinion in a way that might matter beyond the app,” Schaffner said.

As Sidechat is still in the early stages of development, its users are the primary determinants of the ways in which students will engage on the forum. Sommers underscored the responsibility of the application’s users in this context.

“What I would suggest is that if people feel like an anonymous platform like this is a useful part of the Tufts conversation, then, you know, use it for good,” Sommers said. “I’m skeptical because sometimes these things don’t go [in] that direction. But hopefully we can make the best of this platform while it’s around and have it be a plus for the university and not … a source of stress or disparagement.”

3 Friday, April 29, 2022

JoJo Lee Innocent Pleasures

Nature’s poetry

S

pring: The flirt of the seasons, in turns coquettish and bold and shy, is now upon us — at long last! Though loath to be disparaging of any such earnest enthusiasm (and respectful of the very real impacts of seasonal affective disorder), I cannot number myself among those rejoicers.

I’m not immune to its charms: The abrupt reintroduction of green (a color I forgot could exist on trees), the direct beams of sun that make you feel like God’s favorite when they hit your face just so, the texture of windy days that remind you you’re alive, the possibility of any and all forms of precipitation; only spring has the range to deliver all of that, all at once. Officially, my favorite season is whichever one we’re presently in. If pressed, however, I will say spring — coincidentally (or is it?) the current season. Aside from it being the Laundry Day of seasons, representing rebirth, renewal, etc., it features the most ambiguously seasoned days. There is a prototype of the ‘perfect’ spring day that induces the masses to descend upon the President’s Lawn, but spring is inherently changeable and capricious. This issue of “Innocent Pleasures” therefore glorifies a notable constant throughout the season and indeed every season that serves as a fount of inspiration no matter the weather or calendar month so that the arrival of spring may be heralded not as deliverance but as new backdrop for this continual delight.

The sky is more than the subject of too many of my college app essays, my Halloween costume and a key component of two of my favorite architectural features: skylights and skybridges. It is the single greatest thing to exist, an infinite source of beauty and joy, the simplest of pleasures despite its complex inner workings (or so I imagine, being allergic to STEM). It is what sustains me throughout everything — and, in addition to being available from anywhere in the world, it’s free!

“Nature’s poetry,” as the Cloud Appreciation Society affectionately calls the object of their admiration, can be enjoyed in and of itself, yet it also allows for hours of entertainment with the practice of pareidolia, or seeing shapes in the clouds. But the fun the sky offers doesn’t necessitate clouds. While I respect CAS’s work, I take issue with their manifesto’s snide remark on “cloudless monotony.”

The clarity of ‘plain’ blue or white sky makes for the perfect background for eye floater spotting, an endlessly engaging exercise that only requires you, the sky and microscopic fibers casting shadows on your retina. Next time you’re tempted to deem the sky too cloudy or not clouded enough, look up and let your gaze unfocus. It’s a more solitary diversion than cloud spotting or identification, but a testament to the sky’s versatility.

As my 17-year-old self thought essential to tell every other school besides Brown and Tufts University, the sky “will never again look as it does in this moment.” As spring continues to be a fickle mistress, I urge you to keep your head in the clouds, ever-changing yet always there, and cherish them, come what may.

JoJo Lee is a sophomore studying English. JoJo can be reached at josephine.lee@tufts.edu.

4 Friday, April 29, 2022

WEEKENDER

tuftsdaily.com

Q&A: Audio engineer Sean Matsukawa on taking ‘Scream’ (2022) creative charge, maintaining motivation in music

Sacha Waters Public Cinemy No. 1

is just another soulless reboot

T

he “Scream” franchise has always been self-reflective. Since “Scream” (1996), the movies have reflected, subverted and, at times, invoked various horror tropes. Throughout the initial installment and four sequels later, it has been praised for its clever — and at times feminist — genre commentary. But the newest flick, “Scream” (2022), the first in the installment not directed by Wes Craven, has perhaps taken the schtick one film too far.

The fun thing about the Hollywood “requel” (which the “Scream” characters explain is a term combining “reboot” and “sequel”) trend is the genre awareness it requires. From other sequels such as Marvel’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) to “Child’s Play” (2019), audiences are rewarded by understanding the embedded references to prior material. It feels fun — like we’re in on the joke. But this kind of playfulness should be reserved for subtextual comedy, not form the backbone of the movie’s concept.

“Scream” (2022) was made for nostalgia, not bolstered by it. This is clear from the opening sequence, which features a new teenage girl receiving an ominous phone call in a tediously similar manner to Drew Barrymore’s character in the original. As the plot unfurls, more previous characters appear — Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley and Sidney Prescott alike. And the jokes! It seems as though every other line is the characters musing on this “requel” concept. One or two jokes like that can be funny, but without moderation they become smug, tedious or both. Why care about the film when every other quip is the creative team shrugging at their own lack of originality?

“Scream” (1996) was a masterpiece of satire and self-reflection by a slasher writer disillusioned with his own medium. As the fifth installment, “Scream” (2022) can do little to advance the story beyond adding iPhones. “Scream” attempts to target reboot culture in the same way the original targeted the slasher genre, but its commentary falls flat. Maybe it’s my inner cynic, but I find it patronizing and overfamiliar. Whereas the 1996 film was a genuine reflection by an artist contemplating his work, the 2022 one is just a corporation taking digs at its dough-raking efforts to more effectively rake in dough. And because one was artist-directed and one was studio-directed, the first was done subtly and cleverly, while the second was done tediously. None of it is new; it’s lampshading Hollywood greed.

If “Scream” (1996) is a love letter to horror, its 2022 counterpart is a 3 a.m. “u up?” text to capitalism. The characters explain that “requels” introduce new characters and storylines while still invoking the original formula, but this film literally ends with conflict inside the same house as the original. Requels can be done right — the 2019 “Child’s Play” reboot is arguably my favorite horror film — but they have to bring something new to the table. “Scream” (2022) doesn’t. It puts the original inside a salad spinner and oversalts it with winks and nudges. The film epitomizes reboot culture and all it represents. It’s just another soulless attempt at capitalizing on nostalgia.

Sacha Waters is a sophomore majoring in political science. Sacha can be reached at sacha.waters@tufts.edu.

by Geoff Tobia Jr.

Assistant Arts Editor

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

Hailing from Torrance, Calif., Sean Matsukawa is a man of many musical talents. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, producer and solo artist with a signature sound coming from his eight-string guitar and experimental tonal environments. Some may know him for his songs “Palm” (2018) and “Spiderweb” (2017), but most of his recognition comes from his work as a recording engineer and a mixing/mastering engineer. Matsukawa’s track record is very impressive as well, as he has worked with Rosalía, BROCKHAMPTON, Daniela Andrade, 3passmidnight and Westside Boogie. Upon the recent release of Vince Staples’ “Ramona Park Broke My Heart” (2022), of which Matsukawa and frequent collaborator LeKen Taylor co-wrote the song “AYE! (FREE THE HOMIES)” (2022), the Daily spoke with Matsukawa about his artistic vision.

The Tufts Daily (TD): What are some aspects of your recording, engineering and mixing/mastering work that you enjoy the most or consider the most fun?

Sean Matsukawa (SM): I think most people’s perception of engineering is a very technical thing, which in a lot of ways it is, but I think that there [are] very creative aspects in it, and I think the older I’ve gotten … I’ve gotten more accustomed to not thinking of it as rigid. … You can make more creative contributions. … You’re not just trying to get the level right on a mic preamp … or putting a mic in the right position. It’s more about how you set it based on what creative aspects, or even being a little bit forward with some of your creative approaches. … With certain artists more recently I’ve been more assertive as far as adding certain effects that I thought would be cool on it without even asking [laughs]. … I’ve gotten to a place now with a lot of artists that they either have known about work I’ve done before or I’ve been referred to them by somebody that they really trust, so they gave me that creative control as an engineer, … and I really appreciate it.

TD: Do you have any advice in terms of getting connections? How does the process work with high-profile artists?

SM: It’s really funny because most of the connections that I have now were ones that I started back when I was in like high school, when I was on Twitter and just being a fan [at] 14 years old, just hitting these people up on some random conversation stuff, and also being that kid that was like, “Can I send you some music I’ve

worked on.” I will say, one of the only people that was always cool about that from the jump was Michael Uzowuru [known for Frank Ocean’s “Nights” (2016) and FKA twigs’ “Cellophane” (2019), among others]. … Most of the bigger stuff that I’ve ever worked on was really because of him, because he facilitated a lot of those things before even meeting me in person. … LeKen [Taylor] is another one too, but LeKen and I is funny because we grew up not that far from each other. Once we found out that we had mutual friends, we started kicking it at each other’s houses and going to sessions together and working on music a lot. … There’s not one way to go about it; it’s a people/relationship thing. There’s no handbook on that; you just have to interact with people.

TD: Could you discuss some of the differences that come with working with your friends and artists in the local LA scene versus working with higher-profile artists?

SM: It’s been a very interesting thing for me in my career juggling those two. It’s like two worlds, really. I really enjoy both aspects. With the higher-profile artists, it’s typically been … pretty straightforward with engineering [work], for the most part.

With people that are in the local LA scene or people I work with from the ground up, it’s all-encompassing, more producing, [I] even help write a little bit, maybe even do random background vocal spots. … I was really grateful for this experience with Vince [Staples] in particular, because it was a higher-profile artist and someone I’d really admired artistically forever. … He and his whole team were very open to me contributing creative-wise. … I ended up playing guitar and [helping] produce more in that week [in a Malibu, Calif. studio] than I did engineer, to be honest.

TD: [You seem to] care more about making cool, artistic work as opposed to something [that] you can just kind of hang out to and relax.

SM: “Palm” and “Spiderweb” were fun to make because they were about trying to keep it as simple as possible to focus on songwriting. Even “Maple” (2017) in general was just about, like, ‘F--- the production, just take your guitar [or] whatever, keep it as bare bones as possible, and just work on my songwriting.’ … [Then] “Left Hand, Right Hand” (2019) was ‘[Let’s] make really great songs and also make crazy production.’ But I needed the one before [“Maple”] to be the step for that.

TD: You’re involved with baseball, both as a player and a fan. Does that, or any other thing maybe people wouldn’t expect, inspire your music?

SM: Oh for sure. Baseball, honestly, in a lot of ways, … it’s helped me view things

IMAGE COURTESY SEAN MATSUKAWA

Sean Matsukawa is pictured.

in certain frameworks. … I’m a big [Los Angeles] Dodgers fan, their [President of Baseball Operations] [Andrew Friedman] used to work as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. And they were famous for not having a lot in their budget for building a roster, so he had to get real crafty and find these players … that had this one statistic or these two statistics that show that they’re really good at these two things … and only deploy them for these two things. … And he built really good teams just off of using data, and being very crafty, and then he came here [to LA] … and they’ve just become this powerhouse. So with music, I try to think of the same approach as far as, objectively speaking, when it comes to making the best music possible, we can get as crafty as it gets. It doesn’t have to be about all the bells and whistles, or the go-to things. … We can be very open-minded. We can be firm on the objective but fluid in the approach…

Another aspect of baseball is there’s a lot of failure involved. … They say a .300 hitter is a good hitter … .300 means you hit 30% of the time you come to the plate, so that is 70% failure. … Training yourself mentally to have that type of resilience is kind of important. … If you really care about doing well, that patience is necessary when it comes to music. If you’re working on albums and you’re trying to deliver at a really high quality, you’re going to have to walk out of the studio sometimes and not be fully satisfied. … It’s really not about hitting a quota in a given timeframe; … it’s about delivering the best musical product possible.

Matsukawa’s new single “BLEED.” (2022) will be released on streaming services Monday, May 2.

Friday, April 29, 2022 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

F& G

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

A r t s & P o p C u lt u r e

Abi (via text): “Just saw Alex drinking beer on the sidewalk. Classic!”

SUDOKU

THINGS AREN’T SO BAD

Difficulty Level: Zero night of production with the fall ‘22 m/exec boards.

By Greg Osha

Monday’s Solutions

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

CROSSWORD

5

6 Friday, April 29, 2022

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

OP-ED

SJP’s boycott perpetuates antisemitism on campus

by Jacob Fridman and Ian Kaplan Terrorist attacks in Israel in late March and early April have claimed the lives of 14 Israeli civilians. Many are worried that the region is again spiraling into war. Yet when messages of hope and calls for dialogue are most needed, Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine has expressed support for violence against Israeli civilians: “SJP supports the full range of Palestinian resistance against settler-colonialism,” students wrote in a Tufts Observer op-ed published prior to the attacks. SJP has also begun calling on Tufts students to boycott a number of Jewish-led student groups, including Tufts Friends of Israel, in which we serve as student leaders.

Tufts Friends of Israel condemns this recent effort to marginalize Jewish students.

All the groups targeted by the boycott — Tufts Friends of Israel, J Street U Tufts, TAMID, Visions of Peace and the Tisch summer fellowship with the Anti-Defamation League — either are Jewish or have Jewish leadership. The boycott forces Jewish students to renounce their Zionism in order to be accepted on this campus, imposing a

litmus test on Tufts’ Jewish students that implies that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Jews. We oppose this attempt to divide Tufts’ Jewish community.

Moreover, the boycott implicitly targets Jewish life on campus more generally, using language that certainly includes Hillel and Chabad.

SJP even explicitly attacked Tufts Hillel in an April 7 Instagram post, asserting that the Jewish organization “support[s] a genocidal, settler-colonial state” and calling for the creation of an “alternative Jewish community.” Jewish students of all backgrounds rely on Hillel and Chabad for religious services, weekly Shabbat dinners, social events, study sessions of Jewish texts and programming on a whole range of Jewish issues and ideas. To attack Jewish groups that do not focus primarily on Israel is shameful and leaves little doubt that SJP does not aim to advance justice but to vilify Jews.

SJP’s renewed advocacy of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement on our campus may inspire more antisemitic attacks against our community. This is not hyperbole. Research from the AMCHA Initiative, an antisemitism watchdog group for college

campuses, has found a strong correlation between BDS activity on college campuses and the targeting of Jewish students. The group reported that “56% of schools with evidence of BDS activity had one or more incidents that targeted Jewish students for harm, whereas of the schools with no evidence of BDS activity, only 23% had incidents targeting Jewish students.” For a student population that is ~20% Jewish, an increase in attacks on Jewish students would be catastrophic.

We at FOI are particularly disturbed by this boycott because it attacks the very existence of the state of Israel. The idea of Israel goes back thousands of years in Jewish history; what started as a religious and spiritual yearning to return to the land of Israel after 2,000 years evolved into a coalition of pious and political Jews, from all walks of life, attempting to resurrect a civilization in its ancestral homeland. The state of Israel, for all of its flaws, is still an integral facet of Jewish identity for the vast majority of American Jews and Jews worldwide. The state of Israel is important for a multitude of reasons: it advances the security of the Jewish people, it promotes Jewish culture and it realizes religious val-

ues embedded in the Jewish tradition. Boycotts such as SJP’s seek to undermine all of these ideas.

SJP’s boycott also undercuts productive dialogue by advocating that students refuse to engage with those who hold different perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Refusing to engage in civil conversation with those who hold perspectives from one’s own is contrary to the university’s academic mission and reflects a lack of confidence in the strength of one’s arguments. FOI believes that engagement with a wide range of ideas concerning the conflict is crucial to advancing and strengthening the political discourse on this campus.

We provide a forum for multidimensional discussion of Israel and we offer a space for members to voice their criticisms of the Israeli government. We have repeatedly reached out to SJP student leaders to have a productive conversation about these issues. These requests have never even received a reply, indicating that SJP is not interested in dialogue about the Middle East but the silencing of Jews who support Israel — which is to say, the overwhelming majority of us.

FOI demands that the university take steps to promote robust

and multifaceted discourse about Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to counter SJP’s attack on open dialogue. In a Jan. 20 email, President Anthony Monaco called for “conversation, dialogue, and discussion forums on understanding better the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.” To that end, Tisch College of Civic Life and the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at The Fletcher School ought to host a wide range of events with speakers who represent the multitude of opinions of Israelis and American Jews. Given the complexity of the conflict, it is vital that students hear from all perspectives.

Jewish life at Tufts is in peril if Jewish students cannot engage with all aspects of their identity — which, yes, includes their ancestral homeland. FOI stands against this boycott and proudly affirms its commitment to Zionism and the state of Israel.

Jacob Fridman is a fist-year who has not yet declared a major. Jacob can be reached at jacob.fridman@tufts.edu.

Ian Kaplan is a fist-year who has not yet declared a major. Ian can be reached at ian.kaplan@tufts.edu.

OP-ED

Corporate Tufts needs to go

by Tufts Labor Coalition As universities like Tufts become increasingly ensnared in corporate practices, an ominous cycle develops: Workers face unjust conditions, community members demand action, and administrators deflect responsibility. The history of violence from which Tufts has built its capital, including the seizure of Massachusett, Pawtucket, Nipmuc and Wampanoag lands and the Royall family plantation, undergirds the system of racialized labor which now poisons the university. Today, worker exploitation –– which we identify with the corporatization of Tufts –– has eroded possibilities for solidarity among an increasingly vulnerable workforce whose labor keeps Tufts viable as a corporation. First, we will look at how exploitative corporate policies affect workers at Tufts. Then, we will look at the framework of the endowment which legitimizes administrative decisions. Lastly, we will provide our demands.

As a consequence of the shift toward a corporate structure, Tufts has created more high-level administrative positions at the expense of workers, reallocating space on campus according to this new power structure. In 2018, while administrative space across campus increased, the administration reduced the size of the carpenter shop and the stockroom at 520 Boston Ave. This change made the area inaccessible for facilities workers, who felt disrespected by the higher-ups. As one

worker wrote in an anonymous op-ed concerning the situation, “Tufts Management — who once embraced the community, students, and the environment — has now drastically changed and has followed suit with the rest of corporate America, only caring about the bottom line and not students, staff and its workers’ needs.”

This shift toward managerial bloat has negatively impacted working environments beyond the spatial realm. According to the Tufts University Fact Book, from 2011 to 2019, there was a 23% increase in full-time operations managers while there was only a 5% increase in total full-time operations workers (including technical workers, skilled-crafts workers, and service-maintenance workers). Tufts left out this section of the fact book in their 2019–20 edition and their 2020–21 edition. As management has increased, so has its immunity to the increased complaints of abuse and disrespect from workers.

For example, grounds supervisor Gregory Mellet was only recently fired despite intimidating and retaliating against workers for years. His dismissal was only possible due to union involvement, student involvement and extensive worker documentation. Similarly, numerous complaints of a hostile work environment have been brought against the current director of facilities, Gary Hill.

Alongside the rise of top-down management, managers have started to rely heavily on outsourcing work, which accomplishes three

main goals of the administration.

First, outsourcing saves money, as the administration neither pays out-sourced workers full-time salaries nor gives them benefits. When Tufts outsourced its janitorial services to The University Cleaning Company in 1994, it saved the administration $500,000 that year and an estimated $1.5 million in the coming years. In 1998, 20 laidoff janitors struggled to obtain food. More recently, Tufts has started outsourcing snow removal in order to cut more costs. Second, increased employee turnover as a result of outsourcing suppresses efforts by workers to form connections and solidarity with each other, which is vital for both community-building and organizing for improved conditions. Third, Tufts stays out of contract negotiations between contracting companies and unions. The university refers to that neutrality as the reason it has no influence over problems outsourced workers face.

So why, while University President Anthony Monaco boasts about the endowment growing during his tenure and Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins celebrates the bloat in student population as a boon for the entire university, are the ones who take care of us continually being harmed in the name of cutting costs? The logic behind the university’s endowment offers some clues. Reckless risk-taking in the financial sector fueled by Wall Street deregulation, exemplified by the 2008 crisis, has made

a casualty of university finances — with disastrous results for workers. Universities increasingly invest their endowments in expensive and unregulated “alternative” investments that, according to researcher Kelly Grotke’s writing in The American Prospect, “often lock up investor money for years, preventing … universities from accessing it during a crisis,” and tend to perform little better than cheaper, traditional investments such as index funds. Based on the university’s endowment report for the 2021 fiscal year, we estimate that 40% of Tufts’ endowment is held in investments of this type.

Universities like Tufts thus shell out millions in “investment management fees” for endowments that actually hamper their ability to cope with financial hardship, while simultaneously claiming that outsourcing workers and squeezing their wages and benefits is a “necessity” when difficult times inevitably arrive. This is, in part, why universities across the country, including Tufts, have failed to draw upon these “rainy day funds” to protect their workers throughout the financial crisis precipitated by the pandemic.

As more “rainy days” are inevitable, Tufts can still reverse these trends and create a university where students, workers and faculty alike are taken care of. We demand the following: 1.

2.

A clear chain of accountability for managerial oversight.

A clear report on hiring

3.

4.

5.

numbers by EEOC category, as well as a numerical distribution of outsourced workers.

That Tufts University affirms its commitment to job security and respect for all workers.

A clear and comprehensive list of all Tufts investments, published annually, as well as the decision structure for these investments and the amount of investment management fees incurred.

A yearly forum open to all persons affiliated with Tufts University. At least three members of the Tufts administration deemed responsible for managerial oversight will commit their presence at this meeting.

This forum will provide a venue for Tufts University workers and students to express grievances regarding administrative, managerial and worker relations.

Author’s note: We are not the first group of people at Tufts to call for structural change in the administration. In summer 2020, a coalition of faculty members known as the Tufts Action Group made a comprehensive list of demands to address white supremacy’s structural hold on Tufts. In solidarity with their struggle, we have borrowed from this list for our own demands to address this recent trend of corporate behavior.

Opinion

Friday, April 29, 2022 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

7

VIEWPOINT

COVID-19 compromise: The city of Philadelphia versus its residents

by Henry Murray Staff Writer

This week, a group of Philadelphia business owners and residents filed a lawsuit against the city for reinstating a mask mandate. The plaintiffs fear the repercussions of a mask mandate for businesses and feel that the mandate is invalid considering the current advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city’s lack of authority on the decision. The plaintiffs’ complaints are valid; mask mandates can hurt local business and the city is going against the decision of the state. The city’s response, however, is valid as well. When the suit was filed, Philadelphia’s case count had increased by more than 50% in the previous 10 days. Earlier this year when the omicron variant became the dominant strain in the U.S., an increase in death rates followed a few weeks later, with tolls surpassing those of the more deadly delta variant. Though we do not know how deadly the new omicron subvariant

will be, the increased transmissibility of omicron variants means it still poses a significant threat to public health. In order to look after those that are immunocompromised and also respect the livelihoods of the people of Philadelphia, a compromise must be made between these two arguments.

The city instated the mandate through an emergency order despite the fact that neither the state of Pennsylvania nor the CDC is currently requiring a mask mandate. The plaintiffs believe it should not be up to the city to make that decision. Although the General Assembly does have the authority in this matter, Philadelphia is making its decision based on the unique circumstances of the recent rise within the city. The city itself has seen a more significant rise in cases than the rest of the state, so it is fair for Philadelphia to respond on its own based on its own standards in order to protect its residents.

Mask mandates are proven to be effective, but they also have

damaging effects on small businesses. Measuring the effectiveness of mask mandates is not a simple task, but the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia conducted a causal inference study investigating how countries with mask mandates have fared over the pandemic. The results suggest that mask mandates help prevent the spread of COVID19, especially in highly populated areas. While some business owners embrace mask mandates because of the protection they offer, others have reservations and fears. For some time in New York, only businesses within the city had to enforce a mask mandate, and there were reports of customers leaving to shop just outside of the city and confrontations with business owners.

The business owners in the plaintiff group want to avoid a similar situation even though they recognize the benefits of mask-wearing.

Philadelphia has seen a drastic increase in COVID-19 cases recently. The death and hospitalization rates, however, have not

yet had the same level of growth.

While this may help the case of the plaintiffs, the people of the city and people everywhere should not feel relieved yet. The numbers of cases and deaths from when the omicron variant became the dominant COVID19 variant in the U.S. show a trend that we should be wary of.

When the cases of omicron rose, the rise in death rates followed, although it was delayed by about two weeks. This is likely due to the fact that the virus takes about two weeks to have serious effects on a person. The new rise in cases may lead to a rise in deaths in the coming week.

Philadelphia, finding itself stuck between a lawsuit and the health of its citizens, modified the mandate to “strongly recommend” masks on April 22.

However, given the fact that this will be an increasingly common situation, there should be a more structured way to compromise. I believe in order to compromise

and still ensure the safety of the people of Philadelphia, the city should have instituted a 10-day pilot mask mandate. The 10 days would likely only minorly impact businesses and at the end of it, we would know more about the severity of the effects of the subvariant. If it proves to be deadly in the rest of the country, Philadelphia could keep the mandate going, and if not, they could remove it. The motivation for instating a mandate is now based on the number of cases, but if the virus seems to just have minor effects, businesses should not have to suffer the effects of the mask mandate. I also believe this middle ground would offer the most even-keeled precedent if similar conflicts arise in the future. If the plaintiffs won the case completely, it would be challenging for cities to protect their citizens in the future, and if the city won, it would be challenging for businesses and citizens to stand up to their government.

NEWS

Chaplaincy seeks student input for new Africana spirituality chaplain position CHAPLAINCY

continued from page 1 which is now posted on the Tufts Careers website.”

Previously, the Africana spirituality advisor led extensive programming.

“Last year, the advisor, Azmera Hammouri-Davis, served on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium committee and facilitated the creative involvement of students in the virtual celebration; co-hosted the inaugural Unlearning Retreat with the Hindu Chaplaincy, centering the diversity of African diasporic traditions and practices; organized a Healing Vigil in response to violence in Africa in collaboration with the African Student Organization; and built relationships with campus partners, the chaplaincy team and students,” Winger wrote.

The new Africana spirituality chaplain will complement the events and activities hosted by the Africana Center.

“The new Africana Spirituality Chaplain will centers the needs

of the Tufts students of African descent by … offering collaborative programs with both the University Chaplaincy and the Africana Center; … providing spiritual and pastoral care and leadership in service, social justice, and multifaith initiatives; supporting the administrative needs of the Africana Spirituality Chaplaincy; and connecting the Tufts community with the greater afro-indigenous and afro-diasporic communities of metro Boston,” Winger wrote.

The chaplaincy is beginning the process by seeking input from the student body and the Tufts community via an online survey.

“We’d love for students to complete this survey so that our next Africana Spirituality Chaplain can be responsive to student interests and needs,” Winger wrote.

Pantojas joined the University Chaplaincy team in August 2021. They are working with the search committee to create the job description and

a survey to elicit feedback from the community, especially students, regarding their hopes for the new chaplain.

“We are now sharing the posting with our professional networks as well as various graduate programs and national organizations across the country with knowledge about Africana spiritualities and chaplaincy, and will begin reviewing applications later this month,” Pantojas wrote.

Hadiya Giwa, the Africana community senator, said she is glad the University Chaplaincy is prioritizing student needs as it conducts its search.

“It’s really the students that define what they value and think is most crucial in the Africana Spirituality Advisor role,” Giwa, a sophomore, wrote in an email to the Daily. “As Africana Community Senator, it’s exciting to see that the search committee will be working hard to find someone who best suits the needs of the Tufts community, especially as our population of Black students continues to grow.”

Softball sweeps Trinity and Brandeis SOFTBALL

continued from back “I think the pressure has been on us since day one,” DiCocco said.

“And it’s just as hard on us now.

Because with each team we play, we know they’re coming at us trying to win.”

The Saturday games were much higher-scoring affairs. Both games went in favor of Tufts, but the first game was much messier. The first inning went poorly for the home team as Trinity hit a home run. But senior infielder Nicole Russo responded quickly with a long shot of her own that scored three. The run continued in the third as the Jumbos scored the rest of their eight runs. Junior

Rachel Moore doubled to left field scoring one, and then outfielder Keila McCabe sent a solid ball into center field that ended up being a sac fly to score Steinberg. Junior catcher Emma Jacobson then hit a short ball that the catcher couldn’t get to in time, scoring Russo. Tufts scored two more runs before the inning ended, while they held the Bantams to two more runs for the rest of the game, finishing with a 11–5 win for the Brown and Blue.

The final game of the series featured a better defensive showing from the Jumbos who won 4–1. The game started out slowly until the fourth inning, when the Bantams scored off an unearned run. Tufts answered back in the bottom of

The interior of Goddard Chapel is pictured.

CECILIA WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Pantojas offered similar insight, saying that their identity shapes their attitudes and perspectives about the new role.

“As an Afro-Boricua Humanist, I find synergy between Afrodiasporic traditions and freethought,” they wrote. “The Africana Spirituality chaplain would provide additional opportunities to explore this intricate synergy through com-

munity building and visionary world-making.”

The search committee is in the process of identifying student representatives and plans to invite two students to join the committee before reviewing applicants and beginning interviews.“ Students interested in learning more about the search should contact me at Elyse.nelson_winger@tufts.edu,” Winger wrote.

up between non-conference opponents. Brandeis gave Tufts some trouble last season, but the Jumbos played the Judges well this year. In the first game, the Jumbos scored half of their runs in the first inning. In the top of the sixth, sophomore infielder Bela Jiminez went yard to give the Jumbos a 4–0 lead. Jiminez went 3-for-4 on the day and is having a solid year batting .318 after coming off a shoulder injury last season. DiCocco held the Brandeis Judges to a goose egg until the seventh inning, when she gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Tufts won the bout 6–2 and went straight into the next game of the doublehead-

er maintaining their momentum.

The second game was a high scoring affair with Tufts jumping to a three-run lead at the end of the second. The Judges mounted a quick comeback in the next few innings taking the lead in the bottom of the fifth to make it 4–3. The Jumbos responded in the sixth as Slayton doubled to score two. In the seventh, McCabe doubled to give the visiting team a 7–4 lead, and sophomore infielder Lexi Grein put the nails in the coffin by sending one over the fence to make the final score 9–4 in favor of the Jumbos.

Tufts plays Bates in its final three games of the regular season this upcoming weekend.

SPORTS

the fourth when first-year catcher Keriann Slayton smashed a threerun home run, and then Moore stole home to score the final run of the game. The Jumbos ended up winning 4–1.

DiCocco commented on what the team did to regroup and pull off these wins after losing some key games midway through the season.

“This season was off to a good start,” DiCocco said. “And then I think it was like a week or two ago, we had lost four times in a row, the first game of each series. And that was really tough. So we sat down as a team a few times and tried to work things out.”

Tufts played Brandeis on Wednesday in a midweek match-

SPORTS

8 Friday, April 29, 2022

Aiden Herrod The Intangibles

I

Signing off

’ve written about sports for four years now. I joined the Daily’s sports section as a freshman, first taking on game recaps as most early writers do. Eventually I edited, wrote features and started this column.

I spent a year as a podcaster. Every year at Tufts, through thick and thin, I have always returned to my desk to write about sports. I’ve approached organized sports from every angle. I’ve broken down trades, given fantasy advice, previewed playoffs and even tried my hand at power rankings.

But it was once I was robbed of sports that I began to shift my perspective. The pandemic changed my entire approach to sportswriting. The shuttering of professional leagues made me realize how deeply I care about the presence of sports in my life. And the slow, oftentimes surreal, return of the NFL draft and the NBA bubble allowed me to understand what made sports so special to me. It was then that I began harnessing the space my column provided to think deeper about the role sports play in our lives.

Sports are one of our most inherently human fixtures in society. They ebb and flow seemingly parallel to the events of our ever-more-warped world. They are never a perfect escape, oftentimes reminding us that hardship is never avoidable. It’s hard to ignore the scores of empty seats in 2020’s once-packed ballparks, or the absence of certain nations from Olympic events intended to bring the entire world together.

But what’s truly special to me is the perseverance of sports through these challenges. The leagues that run them are sprawling corporate machines that seemingly stop for nothing, sure, but there’s a degree of comfort in knowing even they are never immune to the human condition. We screw up and fail to impose justice. Teams and players will cheat and taint their legacies.

Sports can often remind us how much of a mess we all are.

But for every moment that hurts to watch, there’s a million more to remind us there’s hope. Beautiful moments happen at a seemingly breakneck pace across every major sports league, but they never cheapen one another. Every highlight play, momentous upset or championship ring brings joy to untold millions. Beautiful moments in sports never wear out their welcome but instead live on for generations to be revisited countless times. I find myself revisiting moments I never even witnessed or lived through again and again, basking in the unmistakable warmth they provide.

If there’s one thing four years with The Tufts Daily has taught me, it’s that there is no cap to how, when or what you enjoy about the advent of sports.

From the most casual of pickup games to the biggest professional stages, and everything in between, there is limitless joy to be had. I hope my writing, and the writing of all my peers here at the sports section, can be a small part in aiding you to find that joy.

Aiden Herrod is a senior studying film and media studies. Aiden can be reached at aiden.herrod@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

Softball sweeps Trinity and Brandeis as the postseason nears

by Isaac Karp

Executive Sports Editor

After spending the first part of the season in Florida, Tufts softball came back to Medford with the end goal of winning back-to-back NESCAC Championships. Their ace from last season, Kristina Haghdan, is now working as a coach for the Jumbos.

Rookie of the year Sophia DiCocco (12–4) is tearing up her sophomore season leading the NESCAC with a 0.6 ERA, an entire point ahead of her competitors while also pitching more innings than anyone else in the conference.

DiCocco was recently named to the Schutt Sports/NFCA National Player & Pitcher of the Year Watch List and has looked as sharp as ever against her recent opponents. DiCocco talked about her improvement this season.

“I think what’s really allowed me to perform better is just a softball IQ when I’m pitching,” DiCocco said. “Because I feel like I always get ahead in the count, … but I think this season I’ve been able to seal the deal.”

Tufts locked in this past week and swept Trinity and Brandeis in five games, extending their winning streak to seven. On Friday, the Jumbos took on the Trinity Bantams in a close

defensive battle that ended with the Brown and Blue pulling through with a 1–0 victory.

DiCocco threw a two hit shutout, but most of the action came in the bottom of the third inning when freshman outfielder Lindsay Neumann singled to leadoff, and then junior infielder Katrina Yuzefpolsky got to first on an error from the hot corner. The bases got loaded after junior outfielder Michelle Adelman

was hit by a pitch. Tufts finally got on the board after junior infielder Josie Steinberg smashed the ball to right center, sending Neumann home. That was the only scoring the whole game as DiCocco locked down the Bantams. DiCocco spoke about the level of competition they face after winning the NESCAC Championship last year. see SOFTBALL, page 7

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

The Tufts softball team is pictured during their game against Bowdoin on April 4.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAM

MASTERS OF ARTS IN TEACHING SPANISH

Whether you are new to the language, on your second year and considering a major, or already working on your Spanish major, you should know that Tufts University offers a Masters of Arts in Teaching of Spanish (for grades k-12)

10-12 CREDITS: 8 COURSES THROUGH THE DEPT. OF ED. AND 2-4 COURSES IN SPANISH (AND/OR HISPANIC CULTURE) OF THE 100 LEVEL

ONE YEAR AND TWO SUMMERS (INCLUDING ONE YEAR OF PRACTICUM AT A PARTNER SCHOOL)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Teaching is a truly rewarding career, and there is a high demand for Spanish Teachers in our area and across the US. To know more about the program or hear about successful Tufts alumni please contact:

Prof. Juliana Berte Department of Romance Studies Liaison to the Department of Education for Spanish Teacher Certification Juliana.Berte@tufts.edu Olin Center Office 220

PERSONAL WORK WITH PROFESSORS, ADVISORS, AND MENTORS AT THE DEPT. OF ROMANCE STUDIES, THE DEPT. OF EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS WHERE CANDIDATES ARE TEACHING.