The Tufts Daily - Thursday, April 21, 2022

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 48

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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Thursday, April 21, 2022

Tufts abandons plans to drop mask mandate as infection rates swell

City of Somerville partners with Fenway Health on plans for supervised consumption site, considers Davis Square location

By Aditya Acharya News Editor

A student wearing a mask at Tisch Library is pictured on April 17.

By Ella Kamm News Editor

The coronavirus is spreading more rapidly than ever before on Tufts’ campus forcing hundreds of students and some professors back into their bedrooms and onto the Zoom screen in a routine that’s become all too familiar after two years of pandemic learning.

Infections have risen steadily since students returned from spring break in late March. In the last week alone close to 6% of undergraduates have tested positive for COVID-19, a rate that eclipses what has been reported at local, state and national levels. Isolation housing has been clogged, leaving some COVID-19-positive students in their dorm rooms to isolate, and uncertainty has swelled as the university braces for its final weeks of in-person learning this year.

The current gripping surge represents a stark change of pace from a month ago when the university appeared poised to join schools from across Boston and lift its indoor mask mandate. But as trends reversed and infections, again, began to mount, university health officials announced that the mask mandate would remain through at least early May and that universal surveillance testing would continue, raising tensions among

students and prompting mixed reactions from Tufts community members.

The announcement, sent via email to the community on April 7, initially faced criticism on the anonymous social media platform Sidechat, and some community members took to an online petition titled “Tufts: Drop Mask Mandate NOW!” to express disagreement with university policy.

The petition, which has 479 signatures, notes policies from neighboring schools, many of which have chosen to lift their indoor mask requirements.

“We demand Tufts to follow state and federal recommendations and drop the mandate!” the petition says.

“Masks have an impact in our mental health much bigger than the actual impact of a virus in an almost entire immunized population.”

But university health officials maintain that the decision to keep the mask mandate in place was made to ensure that high rates of COVID-19 transmission would not interrupt students’ academics or the various events planned for the end of the semester, including in-person Commencement ceremonies for the Classes of 2020 and 2022.

“The steps we have announced are necessary because we continue to see a

IAN LAU / THE TUFTS DAILY

high incidence and prevalence of positive COVID cases on the Medford/Somerville campus, particularly among the undergraduate student population,” Michael Jordan, the university infection control health director, wrote in an email to the Daily. “Without our indoor masking requirement, the recent surge that has resulted in so many undergraduates testing positive would have been much worse.”

Jordan also clarified that the university’s original plans to lift requirements for masking rested on the contingency that infection rates would remain low. He said masking policies for next semester have not been decided yet.

One element of the planned policy change announced on March 16 remains in place.

Performers are no longer required to wear masks or use other forms of personal protective equipment during their shows, though they are still required to do so during practices and rehearsals.

John McCann, director of the Tufts Wind Ensemble, expressed appreciation for the university’s prioritization of health and safety.

“My feeling is that the Tufts administration has set policy conservatively in their attempt to keep everyone safe and learning in-persee MASKS, page 2

The city of Somerville partnered with Fenway Health in March to prepare for the opening of a supervised consumption site where people who use drugs can consume drugs in a safe environment under medical supervision to prevent overdoses. Somerville signed a $40,000 contract with the healthcare and research organization — which caters specifically to people in the LGBT community, people of color and other underserved communities — to determine optimal locations for the supervised consumption site, establish a community advisory board and study existing

models of drug use monitoring to determine how the site should operate.

Carl Sciortino, executive vice president of external relations at Fenway Health, explained the need for supervised consumption sites.

“We have roughly 2,000 people that die of overdoses in Massachusetts annually, and the covid-19 pandemic has only made things worse for people who use drugs,” Sciortino wrote in an email to the Daily. “Supervised consumption sites provide a place for people to bring pre-obtained drugs and use in the presence of trained staff who can intervene and keep them alive in the event of an overdose.” see CONSUMPTION, page 2

Tisch College appoints Taina McField as new associate dean for strategy

By Charlotte Chen

Assistant News Editor

Taina McField was appointed the new associate dean for strategy at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life this month, the university announced in a statement.

McField was chosen by Dean Dayna Cunningham, who previously worked with McField at the MIT Community Innovators Lab. The lab helps facilitate “the interchange of knowledge and resources between MIT and community organizations,” according to its website.

McField also fills her resume with service at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a Jewish philanthropic organization. During her time as a programs officer, she invested time into issues related to climate, economy and racial justice.

“With over a decade of experience working in a philanthropic institution rooted in the Jewish tradition,

SPORTS / back

FEATS / page 4

ARTS / page 5

Ten-game streak sends men’s tennis to top of NESCAC charts

Lots to touch in Hillel’s not-so-spiritual bathrooms

‘This Is Us’ pushes out a weakly written final season

I have learned to listen to, trust, and invest in the work of individuals and community organizations at the forefront of innovation and social change across a range of sectors including: racial and economic justice, climate change, arts and culture, and religious traditions,” McField wrote in an email to the Daily.

Cunningham discussed why she chose McField to fill the position at Tisch College.

“There was not a search committee because she was an outstanding candidate. … And she’s really well respected in the fields of philanthropy and in community planning for her tremendous strategic insight and experience,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham — together with her leadership team, including Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Peter Levine; Director of Communications, Strategy and Planning Jen McAndrew and the newly appointed McField — have see MCFIELD, page 3 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, April 21, 2022

THE TUFTS DAILY Alexander Janoff Editor in Chief

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tuftsdaily.com

Petition urges Tufts to drop mask mandate MASKS

continued from page 1 son,” he wrote in an email to the Daily. “I appreciate that as someone in an at risk group due to my age.”

While student performers were required to use special PPE until mid-March during performances, they can now play their instruments as normal.

“It is much easier to play without the PPE," McCann

wrote. “Various instruments respond differently to masks, bell covers, and bags around the instruments, but in general tone quality, volume, and intonation can be affected.”

Matt Freedberg, webmaster of the Tufts Wind Ensemble, echoed these sentiments.

“I was relieved to learn that we no longer have to wear masks during performances,”

Freedberg wrote in an email to the Daily. “At our final concert of the semester last Monday, we finally took off all of our PPE, and I think it was clear how much of a difference it made in terms of sound quality.”

Regardless of the PPE requirements, McCann said he is glad his ensemble is able to gather and play their instruments in any capacity.

“Even with PPE in place, being able to play our wind instruments this year has been a gift,” he said. “Pre-Covid who would have guessed that that is something we’d be thankful for. Last school year we played boomwhackers exclusively, mostly out in the football stands. We had a reprise in our concert last Monday, just for old times sake.”

Legal concerns, stigma pose challenges to proposed supervised consumption site CONSUMPTION

continued from page 1 Dr. Mark Eisenberg, a primary care physician who specializes in infectious diseases and addiction medicine at MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center, noted the importance of supervised consumption sites in mitigating the risk of needle-transmitted diseases.

“The idea is to have people who are injecting drugs and not ready to stop … be able to do it under supervised conditions with sterile equipment so that they don’t overdose and die or acquire HIV, Hepatitis C or other bacterial infections that are complications of unsafe drug use,” Eisenberg told the Daily.

While the main purpose of a supervised consumption site is to provide supervision of drug use, Sciortino explained that such sites can also provide access to medical care and treatment options.

Joseph Curtatone, former mayor of Somerville, was an avid supporter of opening a supervised consumption site due to the high occurrence of overdoses in Somerville, but his plans to do so were delayed by the pandemic.

“Somerville has many years of experience dealing with the loss of community members to overdoses, and each year first responders are called out for over one hundred overdose calls here,” Sciortino wrote.

According to Sciortino, Fenway Health already offers other drug-related health services, including syringe exchange, disease testing and on-the-ground outreach.

“Fenway Health currently runs a comprehensive drug user health program called ACCESS. We have … an array of services offered out of our Cambridge location, including syringe exchange, Narcan and overdose prevention, HIV/HepC/STI testing and treatment and other core clinical and harm reduction services,” Sciortino wrote.

“We also operate a mobile van that does street outreach in the region, including in Somerville.”

The supervised consumption site in Somerville would be the first of its kind in the state.

Supervised consumption sites worldwide have an exceptional track record of harm reduction, Sciortino wrote.

“There are more than 120 supervised consumption sites

KATRINA AQUILINO / THE TUFTS DAILY

A Fenway Health medical clinic, located at 142 Berkeley Street in Boston, is pictured on April 15. in existence around the world. … Across all of these programs, not a single person has died of an overdose in a supervised consumption site, while thousands die on our streets when they don’t have access to an SCS,” he wrote. “We are looking at a range of models that have been developed to ensure what is created in Somerville is based on best practices and address the needs of people here in our community.”

In a needs assessment and feasibility study conducted in June 2021 by the city and researchers from Brown University, Davis Square and East Somerville were identified as the two neighborhoods that would benefit most from a supervised consumption site.

“We are exploring options in those areas, and doing community forums and oneon-one conversations to help engage the community in this conversation before a site is determined,” Sciortino wrote.

Of community members surveyed in the study, 56% said they would not be concerned if the supervised consumption site were in their neighborhood.

Eisenberg explained that one barrier to opening a supervised consumption site is the federal illegality of doing so under the “crack house” statute codified in 21 U.S.C. § 856.

“[Under] the Crack House statute, … you can’t knowingly operate a residence or facility in which people are using illegal drugs,” Eisenberg said.

“There’s been some fear that if you were to open a building, the federal government would come in and seize it and arrest everyone present, including providers.”

Eisenberg noted that the statute is up for interpretation in the case of supervised consumption sites because they are medical facilities, and that federal law enforcement often will not act upon the statute unless the attorney general or district attorney authorizes it.

“Our local U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins has been on record saying that she supports opening [supervised consumption sites],” Eisenberg said. “[Massachusetts Attorney General] Maura Healey, who is running for governor, also said that she supports opening it.”

Eisenberg added that the federal government has not yet intervened in New York City, where the country’s first two supervised injection sites opened in November.

Margie Skeer, Weiner Hailey family professor and associate professor in public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine, spoke about the stigmatization of people who

inject drugs as another significant barrier to the establishment of a supervised consumption site in Somerville.

“We talk about the population of people who inject drugs as a quote-unquote ‘throwaway’ population,” Skeer said.

“Often, they feel like society has discarded them, [that] they’re not worth it. … If they need medical care in a supervised consumption site, they have somebody there that actually cares about them as human being and wants them to live.”

Both Skeer and Eisenberg mentioned NIMBYism as a barrier to establishing a supervised consumption site. NIMBY, or “not in my backyard,” refers to the concept that, while individuals may agree with the purpose of supervised consumption sites, they may oppose living near one.

“What we know from decades of experience is that opening an SCS actually improves the quality of life in a neighborhood by reduces public drug use, reduces the discarding of syringes in public places, and preventing overdose deaths in our community,” Sciortino wrote. “This often seems counterintuitive, so it’s important to actively engage the community to develop a full understanding of the fears and address them respectfully.”

News

Thursday, April 21, 2022 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Deans discuss upcoming initiatives as McField begins time at Tufts MCFIELD

continued from page 1 begun the planning process for a new initiative called North Star. “[North Star is an] aspirational direction that Tisch College would begin to … pursue,” Cunningham said. She said the initiative is about “building multiracial democracy and driving the institutional transformations that can sustain it.”

McField explained her goals for her new position.

“My position as Associate Dean for Strategy at Tisch College allows me to partner with Dean Cunningham and the Leadership Team in advance and implement the North Star: to build knowledge, train a generation of citizen leaders, and co-create research-based solutions, grounded in community that advance multi-racial democracy and support the institutional implementation,” McField wrote.

Cunningham enumerated the questions her leadership team and Tisch College as a whole aim to tackle.

“And the question for Tisch is: What is ours to do now?” she said. “What is the impact we want to be held accountable for? And that is a question we need to ask across all of our programs, across all of our labs, across all of our events.”

Cunningham said.

Associate Dean for Programs and Administration Diane Ryan, another member of Cunningham’s leadership team

for the North Star initiative, discussed how she believes McField can help Tisch College succeed in its many missions.

“I’ve been at Tisch College for five years,” Ryan said. “And in that time, Tisch College has more than doubled in size [and] in the number of staff that we have. We serve a lot more students … we have more programs.”

“And while all this growth was happening, we didn’t really grow our leadership capacity until we added this position.

So adding another team member to the leadership team is going to help us to sustain that tremendous growth we’ve had and then position us to think toward the future.”

McField has been working in her new position for a few weeks so far, and she expressed enthusiasm about the people she has had the opportunity to work alongside.

“I have been delighted to get to know the amazing and dedicated community at Tisch College – from the thoughtful and passionate student body and staff to the committed community partners – we have a robust network of local, national and international partners,” McField wrote.

McField shared her eagerness and anticipation for her projects to begin picking up speed within the upcoming months.

“I’m most excited about unpacking the rich histories, impactful research and programs, and deepening the value … our programs, people and partners bring to the world,” McField wrote in the email.

Taina S. McField is pictured on April 2.

COURTESY DANIELLE FINNEY

4 Thursday, April 21, 2022

David Wingens Potty Talk

The chosen potty

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n honor of Passover, the Jewish festival of digestive problems, I have taken it upon myself to review the bathrooms of Tufts’ Jewish community at Hillel.

AMBIANCE The most notable element of the bathrooms here are signs that hang above the toilets that read, “Our aim is to keep this bathroom clean, your aim will help!” and “Please wipe up floor

Features and seat, if you miss.” These papers are mainly disturbing because they are found on a college campus, where most people are meant to be adults, and I can only imagine the kind of event that must have preceded the posting of these signs. They make the bathroom feel slightly hostile, which, in addition to the uninspired decor, merit this bathroom a 3.6/10 (although I must admit that the toilet was remarkably clean).

PRIVACY The problem with the privacy in these bathrooms is that on a regular basis there are people in Hillel doing work but not making very much noise. Given the proximity of the bathrooms to the

front desk and some of the workspace, this may raise the concern that those just trying to sit outside can hear everything going on in the bathroom. I am quite confident that this is not the case, but the thought just could not leave my head. These somewhat unfounded concerns get the Hillel bathrooms a 5.4/10 on privacy.

CONVENIENCE Not amazingly located for trips around campus, but well located if services are running a little long. 3.6/10.

HOW MANY THINGS DO I HAVE TO TOUCH These bathrooms really have a remarkable number of touch points. First, the lights are not automatic, so there is

a good chance you will have to touch the light switch. Then, you have to open the door to the stall that is in the bathroom and lock that door because you want to feel safe behind multiple layers of locked doors just in case you forgot to lock the main door (for more on this type of bathroom, see my ASEAN review). The lock on the stall door is a small metal nub, and you may need to attempt to touch multiple times before successfully locking.

Next, the sign above the toilet raises the possibility that you may have to get down on all fours like it’s musaf on Yom Kippur and start wiping up the floor with toilet paper to ensure

tuftsdaily.com cleanliness. Once you are done with that, neither the sink nor the soap are automatic, and then the greatest sin of all comes in drying your hands. There is no hand dryer — just paper towels. This paper towel dispenser is operated by turning a small piece of metal that pokes out the side. You have to crank it in order to get the paper towels to flow, and the metal has been ground down over decades so that it feels rough and grimy. 1.8/10 Outdated Hillel gets a low but auspicious score of 3.6.

David Wingens is a junior studying international relations. David can be reached at david.wingens@tufts.edu.

Arts & Pop Culture

tuftsdaily.com

Thursday, April 21, 2022

‘This Is Us’ wraps up a shaky but satisfying final season

by Nate Hall

RaiAnn Bu Micro-Trend of the Week

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Staff Writer

COURTESY IMDB

The promotional poster for the final season of “This Is Us” (2016–2022) is pictured. her late 70s, and never fails to impress, stealing the spotlight in both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments.

Moore’s ability to play her character at any age is also a testament to the series’ hair and makeup design, which allow the actors to transform into their roles as the series jumps around in time. Additionally, the costumes and set design effectively situate audiences in the show’s countless settings, whether it’s 1990s Pittsburgh, 2020s LA or 1970s Vietnam. The series is also enhanced by its music, with an original score by Siddhartha Khosala and a wide-ranging selection of popular songs.

This season, the show’s biggest weakness has been its writing. While the show continues to deliver with emotional moments that tug at your heartstrings, it has struggled with pacing. This season has used flash-forwards to hint at how the series will end, but sometimes it seems like the writers came up with an

ending before figuring out how they’re going to get there. Kevin’s story arc this season has been slow and unfocused while Kate’s arc has been devoted to her crumbling relationship with her husband Toby and her eventual marriage to Phillip, a peripheral character who has very little chemistry with her. While it looks like all the loose ends will be tied up by the time the series finale airs this May, it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride getting there.

It’s hard to keep any show going for six seasons and over 100 episodes and — despite Season 6’s weaknesses — in many ways, the series remains as strong as ever.

The show began nearly six years ago with a simple concept, and since then, it has grown into an expansive, ambitious story about the life of a unique family. With only a few weeks left before the series finale, viewers will have to wait and see if the show is able to reach a satisfying conclusion.

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

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Since its premiere in 2016, the NBC family drama series “This Is Us” has become known for its honest portrayals of family dynamics, its punchy emotional moments and its interconnected plotlines that chronicle the life of the Pearson family over the course of several decades. The series has been received with critical acclaim, and it has seen high viewership at a time when network television has struggled to compete with streaming services. As it wraps up its sixth and final season, the series continues to engage viewers, albeit without some of its original charm.

The main characters of the series’ multigenerational Pearson family are siblings Kevin ( Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) — also known as the “Big Three” — and their parents Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia). In 1980, Rebecca becomes pregnant with triplets, giving birth to Kevin and Kate; when the third child is stillborn, Jack and Rebecca decide to adopt Randall, a Black child born on the same day. The show’s episodes feature storylines in many different time periods, following the lives of the Big Three as adults in the present day along with flashbacks that feature their childhoods and teenage years in Pittsburgh, including the tragic death of their father Jack in 1997.

In the sixth season, Kevin is co-parenting with his ex-fiancee Madison, Randall is a city councilor with big political ambitions, Kate is at odds with her husband Toby, and Rebecca — now remarried and in her 70s — is struggling with memory loss. The season’s plotlines jump between Philadelphia, Los Angeles and several other locations as the story of the Pearson family comes to a close.

One of the series’ biggest and most consistent strengths has been its cast, whose chemistry and charisma are always impressive. Because of the show’s frequent use of flashbacks, several characters are played by three or four actors at different points in their lives. The younger actors are well cast, and they admirably mirror the performances of their older counterparts.

Sterling K. Brown gives an emotionally layered performance as the Pearsons’ adopted son Randall as do Susan Kelechi Watson as his wife Beth and Chris Sullivan as Kate’s husband Toby.

However, the strongest performance comes from Mandy Moore, who plays Rebecca Pearson, the matriarch of the family. Moore plays Rebecca across six different decades, from her early 20s to

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Look how they did the toes

ntroduced in the 1989 spring summer collection, the Tabi shoe has become the most iconic piece synonymous with the French luxury, high fashion brand Maison Margiela. Its polarizing silhouette, a split-toe sock reminiscent of hooves, has amassed a ‘colt’ following ready to defend Tabis to their very last breath.

The Tabi, however, is not a silhouette coined by Martin Margiela himself but adopted from the traditional Japanese footwear of the same name.

The Japanese tabi holds rich historical and cultural significance, originating as socks used to accommodate traditional thonged footwear. They later evolved to a boot form to function both outdoors and indoors. Tabis are required to be worn with formal traditional spaces such as Noh theaters, Kabuki shows, traditional stage performances and tea ceremonies. Their colors and styles signify social status, occupation and occasion, with white shoes limited to tea ceremonies and weddings.

In my mind, this begs the question: hat exempts this piece from being called cultural appropriation given the responses to other brands passing off cultural pieces as their own invention?

Margiela credits the popularity of the shoe to have behooved his career. “The Tabi boot is the most important footprint of my career. It’s recognizable, it still goes on after 25 years, and it has never been copied,” Margiela said in 2015. The irony of his last statement is unfortunate.

It is possible the lack of critique of Tabis comes from their high art status. It can evade criticism through the paradoxical way high art is viewed: Critique can be rebranded to the uncouthness of one unable to appreciate true art, ignorant of the symbolism of a piece. Praise, however, is welcomed!

Subsequently, criticism is disregarded by those who should hear it the most. Instead of a copied design, these shoes are avant garde, deconstructive, symbolic of Margiela’s “insubordinate spirit.” Of course, someone like you wouldn’t understand.

The Tabis are an example of how optics reign supreme. What is more important than art is the perception of the artist, the language in which they are described, the context in which they are seen and the audience of their fans. How notoriety and reputation are protected and more important than reality.

I can admit there is faultiness in my argument for the moral grayness of Margiela’s claim to the Tabi, such as the clear accreditation of Japanese culture in his website itself. But in this case, the Tabi is an example of a larger phenomenon of how important the artist plays in the context in which we classify their work.

Yeah the Tabi is cool, but Maison Margiela is probably cooler.

The camel had to be airlifted by crane — it was a camel tow.

RaiAnn Bu is a sophomore studying community health. RaiAnn can be reached at raiann.bu@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Thursday, April 21, 2022

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

Elizabeth, to Charlene talking about dreams: “I had a dream that six people applied for layout exec.”

Julia: “That would be a dream.”

Fun & Games

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Taurus (Apr. 20–May 20)

Stretch your wings. Imagine dreamy destinations. Explore a subject of your fascination. Investigate options and clues. Research leads you in a lucky direction.

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

Difficulty Level: Trying not to refresh the Tufts Tickets page.

Wednesday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

Daniel Chung Managing Multipolarity

Ye old Ottomans

A

century ago, the Ottoman Empire was ridiculed as the sick man of Europe. This is no longer the case. Among the great powers which I have detailed as likely to return to the scene, Turkey is one I am especially bullish on.

The main justification for Turkey as a returning great power is simply the neighborhood in which it finds itself and the fact that nature abhors a vacuum, especially in political life.

To begin, Turkey is surrounded by failed, or failing, states which in a post-American-led world would easily fall to the influence of a region-

al great power. Iraq and Syria have been chaotic regions ever since the war on terror.

Although Iraq has somewhat stabilized, with its own elections, the recent departure of the American military signals an opportunity in the next three to five years for another more regional power to seize control of the situation. Turkey has already taken action to this effect by damming up Iraq’s water supply, thus leveraging control over Iraq’s heavy dependence on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Meanwhile, Syria is far from achieving stability; it consistently is determined as a failed state by several official measures which often invites the meddling of other countries.

This has been demonstrated by Russia’s attempts to attain strategic depth in the region, and Turkey’s own military actions, which would suggest that Turkey has already situated

DumpsterMag_4_625x4_875.indd 1

itself to enforce its influence in much of the Northern Levant.

Second, the Balkans and the Caucasus are both facing deep crises that may put them in the same situation as that of Iraq and Syria as states ripe to be seized.

The Balkans and Caucasus both face depopulation crises which, as I’ve discussed, can debilitate state power through things like loss of labor. The same can be said for the political side, with the Balkans facing the possible disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina and deep conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turkey is already making moves to secure a position in those regions in the aftermath, choosing to ally with Azerbaijan and sending mass shipments of drones while also making power plays in the Balkans.

Finally, neighboring states which are normally seen as strategic challenges are, in reality, too weak to do anything about

any of this. Russia, the “bear,” has had its system revealed as a fraud. Its population is in terminal decline, characterized by diseases of despair. Moreover, its military faces strategic defeat in Ukraine. Additionally, the parts of Russia which stand in contrast to this average of mass population decline are all Muslim or Muslim adjacent, like Chechenya and Tatarstan, which could all join a Turkish sphere of influence over the long term.

Meanwhile, the Saudis and Egyptians both have weak militaries that could do little in the face of Turkish expansionism.

All of this, on top of Turkey’s favorable demographics and strong military, set it up as a probable future regional power.

Moreover, the “West” will likely allow Turkey to rise to regional power given that, in comparison to the fundamentalist Saudis and Iranians, Turkish nationalist ideology is more favorably moderate. Further, as time goes on,

7 Thursday, April 21, 2022 strategic interest in the Middle East will diminish, and Turkish expansion could be allowed by the international community as long as it stops at Belgrade’s Iron Gates, which could mark a new “gate between the Islam and West.”

The main challenge faced by Turkey is its current leadership under Erdogan which has generated a dangerous debt burden.

However, this could be turned around in the 2023 elections, where the more effective opposition parties have effectively agreed on a pact to get Erdogan out of power and stand a legitimate shot at defeating the current autocratic government. Ultimately, only time will tell if Turkey is able to establish the kind of competence at home necessary to sustain an empire abroad.

Daniel Chung is a first-year who has not yet declared a major.

Daniel can be reached at daniel. chung@tufts.edu.

5/6/11 10:32 AM

8 Thursday, April 21, 2022

SPORTS

tuftsdaily.com

Pair of weekend wins moves men’s tennis streak to 10

By Steven Landry

Assistant Sports Editor

The Tufts men’s tennis team played its first home matches of the season last week — facing off against NESCAC rivals Bates College on Thursday and Bowdoin College on Saturday. The Jumbos didn’t drop an individual match in their 9–0 win against the Bates Bobcats and were dominant again on Saturday in an 8–1 win against the Bowdoin Polar Bears.

The Jumbos, now winners of 10 straight matches, improve to 11–1 (NESCAC 6–1), while the Polar Bears’ second loss of the year sits them at 13–2 (NESCAC 5–1). This decisive victory pushes the Jumbos into sole possession of first place in the NESCAC as the only team with six wins.

However, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Williams are all 5–1 and have four conference matches remaining as opposed to Tufts’ three.

Thursday’s match against the Bates revealed differing levels of skill between the two teams.

Tufts went three for three in doubles and only dropped one set throughout six singles matches.

With the 2020 season being canceled due to COVID-19 and several NESCAC teams declining to play in 2021, this group is finally witnessing what months of training have brought to fruition.

“It’s exciting to see that all the work we put in during COVID19 is finally showing us results,” junior Josh Belandres said.

The Jumbos’ upward push in the conference standings was not the only reason Saturday’s match was a landmark win; this is only the second victory for Tufts against Bowdoin since 2007.

Timothy Valk The Wraparound

Vegas’ season crumbling despite salary cap cheat code

W

ith just four games left to play, the Vegas Golden Knights’ season is teetering on edge. Yes, the same Golden Knights who had the third best odds to win the Stanley Cup at the year’s commencement, and yes, the same Golden Knights who acquired superstar center Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres in November.

Fingers can be pointed in different directions. Injuries have

First-year pair Derin Acaroglu and Vuk Vuksanovic earn a win against Bates College in a home match on April 14.

QUAN TRAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Coming into Saturday, both teams held Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 10 national rankings. Bowdoin ranked No. 9 while Tufts ranked No. 3, trailing only The University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University.

On the individual level, Tufts senior singles ace Isaac Gorelik dons a No. 3 regional singles ranking. Across the net from him on Saturday was Bowdoin’s Tristan Bradley, ranked No. 5.

Bradley commanded the first set 6–0, but Tufts’ No. 1

took the next two sets 6–4, 6–4 to clinch the match. Junior Rishabh Sharda won in the second position 7–5, 6–2, and first year Vuk Vuksanovic followed in the three spot with a 6–3, 7–5 win.

No. 4 singles senior Paris Pentousis dominated, denying his opponent a game in a 6–0, 6–0 takedown. First-year Derin Acaroglu won a three-setter in the No. 5 position 7–5, 7–6, 10–8 and Belandres completed the singles sweep with a 6–2, 7–6 win.

The Jumbos won two out of three doubles matches against the Polar Bears. Pairing Belandres and Sharda won 8–7 and Gorelik and Pentousis won 8–2. Vuksanovic and Acaroglu dropped a close match 8–7.

With only four matches remaining in the regular season, it would appear that this team is hitting its stride right on time.

While the Jumbos boast undeniable talent and depth, one of the key factors in this team’s success lies outside the lines.

“It’s really important that we all connect well and we’re friends off the courts,” Belandres said.

“When we’re out there competing in high-pressure situations on the court, it’s just reassuring to see one of the guys next to you competing.”

Belandres and the rest of the Tufts’ men’s tennis team will be in Cambridge for a match against MIT on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. then will be back on their home courts on Saturday at 2 p.m. against NESCAC rival Colby.

gone through the team like wildfire. Backup goaltenders played too often. But the true downfall for Vegas was the moment they tried to cheat their way towards a Stanley Cup. Now, owner Bill Foley’s hockey club hasn’t actually strayed from the rulebook. The shenanigans they’ve pulled off merely resemble the salary cap loophole exploitation that a couple of championship teams have used in the past.

The Chicago Blackhawks started this in 2015, putting Patrick Kane on Long Term Injured Reserve due to a broken collarbone shortly before the regular season’s end.

Kane’s entire $10.5 million cap hit was erased from Chicago’s books — allowing the team to stock up for the playoff race and ultimately unleash a postseason roster that’s above the salary cap ceiling.

It’s a clear loophole in an otherwise binding money-man-

aging mechanism that the NHL has refused to address. Last year’s champs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, took the procedure a step further, announcing that Nikita Kucherov (and his $9.5 million salary) would require hip surgery and miss the entire season — that is, until game one of the playoffs. Kucherov was back on the ice for Tampa’s entire Stanley Cup campaign, passing pucks to teammates worth $9.5 million more than he should have been.

But back to Vegas, who, this year, have acted like the Lightning and Blackhawks on steroids. In February, the Knights put captain Mark Stone on LTIR, suspiciously not revealing his exact injury. After all, Vegas was in desperate need of cap space after taking on Eichel’s hefty contract.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon had a rosy picture of a cap-bloated roster thrashing its way through the

playoffs – but Vegas still had to make the playoffs.

And with five games to go, the Knights are three points below the playoff line. Their pursuit of the higher-placed Los Angeles Kings reached code red status, forcing them to elevate Stone from LTIR on April 13 and designating three other players as injured to balance the cap scale. Not having Stone — a six-time 60-point player — for four weeks hurt the team, and Vegas now must face the reality of likely missing the NHL’s prized, invitee-only tournament.

Other thoughts from around the hockey world: 1. Sixteen-year-old Connor Bedard, playing for the Regina Pats, became the youngest player in WHL history to hit the 50-goal mark in a single season. Bedard, destined to be the first over-

all pick in the 2024 NHL Draft since birth, is posting numbers eerily similar to another Connor at his age…

2. As an utter non sequitur, what do we make of McDavid’s seventh NHL season? One hundred ten points in 75 games is a mouth-watering total but nonetheless is down from his 1.875 pointsper-game pace last year.

Maybe it’s unfair to compare McDavid seasons against themselves — and unnecessary too, with the Oilers headed for the playoffs.

Enjoy the action this week!

Timothy Valk is a sophomore studying quantitative economics. Timothy can be reached at timothy.valk@tufts.edu.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER