Federal authorities detain Tufts student in Somerville
Samantha Eng Managing Editor
Editor’s Note: The information in this article reflects the state of this situation on its original publication date.
Federal authorities detained a Tufts graduate student last night outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville, University President Sunil Kumar announced in an email at around 11:30 p.m. on March 25 Kumar wrote that the university is seeking more information about the cause and circumstances of the arrest.
The student, Rümeysa Öztürk, is a Turkish national and doctoral candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. Öztürk is a teaching fellow, works as a doctoral research assistant at Tufts’ Children’s Television Project and completed a master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, as a Fulbright Scholar.
Öztürk’s attorney filed a petition in the Massachusetts federal court for her to appear before court. Öztürk is currently being held in Louisiana, according to the university.
“The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share
any information with federal authorities prior to the event, and the location where this took place is not affiliated with Tufts University,” Kumar wrote in an email to the Tufts community.
The university did not immediately provide additional comment to the Daily.
Dylan Fee and Josué Pérez Editor in Chief and Executive News Editor
Originally published May 11.
Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk returned to Massachusetts on May 10 and spoke publicly to a crowd of reporters at
Boston Logan International Airport following her release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Öztürk was joined in speaking by members of her legal team, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
Initially detained by plainclothes officers outside of her Somerville home in late March, Öztürk spent 45 days in ICE custody, before U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III ordered her release on bail on May 9.
Standing next to her lawyers and part of the congressional delegation that visited her while she was in detention, Öztürk spoke at the end of the conference and thanked her fellow students, her legal team, the Tufts Grad Workers Union and those who sent her letters while she was in Louisiana.
“[The United States] is the greatest democracy in the world, and I believe in those values that we share,” she said. “I have faith in the American system of justice. This has been [a] very difficult time for me, for my community at Tufts, at Turkey.
New Boston Avenue dorm to house almost 700 students, contain mix of apartment styles
Originally published Oct. 3, 2024.
Following Tufts’ Sept. 12, 2024, announcement of plans to build an upperclassman-only dorm on Boston Avenue, the university has released new details about the project, which is set to be the largest residence hall in Tufts
history. To be located at 401 Boston Ave. next to Dowling Hall, the building is planned to host 677 beds across multiple different unit layouts and feature retail store space on the bottom floor.
“The proposed project will include approximately 300 apartment units … with the predominant unit being 4-bedroom apartments, with two shared bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room,” Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director
of media relations, wrote in a statement. “The unit mix will also include 1-bed studios, 2-bedroom, and 6-bedroom apartments to offer a range of configurations and price points for Tufts upper-division students.”
Tufts first announced plans to build a new dorm on Boston Avenue in December 2022. At the time, the university said it aimed to construct a residence hall that would host 398 juniors and seniors and open in fall 2025. However, those plans fell through.
“The University’s first announcements envisioned a different approach to the project, but changing market conditions made that approach no longer economically feasible,” Collins wrote.
The new dorm, now planned to open in fall 2027, will match Tufts’ efforts to create more on-campus beds in recent years.
“Over the past eight years, Tufts has added more than 700 beds through multiple projects that have expanded housing options on campus,” Christina Alch, director of residential life and learning, wrote in a statement. “This new housing will continue to meet the university’s goal by significantly increasing the number of juniors and seniors who are able to live in University sanctioned housing.”
Students at Tufts are not guaranteed on-campus housing beyond their sophomore year, meaning that upperclassmen face the choice of either entering the on-campus housing lottery or searching for an off-campus house. The house-hunting process can be strenuous for students, who often have little clarity on rates, timelines and how and where to search for houses.
First-year Max Kogan said he will “most likely live off campus” as an upperclassman, noting that the low chances of winning the lottery make it difficult to live on campus. Kogan, who might have a chance to live in the dorm come 2027, shared his thoughts on the project.
“I definitely like how there [are] going to be options for juniors and seniors for housing,” he said. “Increasing the amount of people that have on-campus housing is definitely a benefit, because having multiple options [means] you can decide for yourself, rather than just, ‘Oh, I guess I’m forced to live outside of campus.’”
The housing rates for the Boston Avenue dorm will be higher than the rates for older residence halls on campus, Collins said. According to Tufts’
see DORM, page 2
MATTHEW SAGE / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk speaks at a press conference at Boston Logan International Airport.
Toby Winick Senior Staff Writer
RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY
Dowling Hall overlooks Boston Avenue and the Medford/Tufts station.
of record at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. An editorially and financially independent organization, the Daily’s staff of more than 100 covers news, features, arts and sports on Tufts’ four campuses and in its host communities.
office is
on the colonized land of the Massachusett people and within the territories of the Nipmuc and Wôpanâak (Wampanoag) tribes.
International graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk detained by ICE
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Tufts administration was told that Öztürk’s visa has been terminated, but the university has yet to confirm whether that is accurate and is attempting to learn more about the incident.
Coalition for Palestinian
Liberation at Tufts and Palestinian Youth Movement called for an emergency rally to take place at 5:30 p.m. on March 26 in an Instagram post.
“We will fill the streets of Somerville and Raise Our Banners.
We won’t let Trump take our students and immigrant neighbors without a fight,” the post reads.
In March 2024, Öztürk coauthored an op-ed in the Daily, calling on Kumar to endorse Tufts Community Union Senate resolutions for the university to recognize genocide in Gaza and divest from Israeli corporations. Canary Mission, a website with the stated purpose to “document people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses,” cited the article as “anti-Israel activism.”
“Rumeysa was likely targeted after being recently doxxed
by Canary Mission,” the CPLT post reads. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Öztürk’s arrest marks the first deportation effort to impact the Tufts community following President Donald Trump’s January executive order to deport non-U.S. citizens who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. On March 8, ICE officers detained Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil on campus for his role in organizing pro-Palestinian protests.
The Department of Education sent a warning letter to Tufts, one of 60 universities under investigation for reports of antisemitism, on March 10. On March 17, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow on a student visa from India was detained by ICE. A federal judge ordered that officials not deport him on March 20. On March 25, a federal judge ordered to block efforts to deport another Columbia student and green card holder from South Korea for her participation in pro-Palestinian protests at Barnard College.
Öztürk speaks on ICE detainment, detention and release at Logan Airport
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But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, thanked some of the attorneys working in Öztürk’s case, involved judges and all those who advocated for Öztürk’s release.
“We are grateful to all of the advocates, the courts,” she said. “The judges, too, have shown great courage, from judges here in Massachusetts to Vermont to the Second Circuit in New York and beyond. They have checked unlawful executive action and have defended the rule of law.”
The other speakers echoed this sentiment and criticized Öztürk’s detention. Mahsa Khanbabai, Öztürk’s attorney, said the fight for other international students who have been arrested across the country will continue.
“I call on the government to focus their resources on actual threats to our nation, not talented
international students, international scholars, immigrants who have been wrongly vilified and placed into detention facilities, essentially prisons,” Khanbabai said. “These immigrants make our country vibrant.”
Rose noted that the administration has not produced proper evidence to support Öztürk’s arrest and detention.
“It’s really important to keep in mind that she was never charged with any crime,” Rose said. “The government never produced any evidence that she had done anything wrong, that she had done anything anti-semitic, that she had done anything supportive of any terrorist organization.”
Pressley shared details from when she and fellow politicians Markey and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., visited Öztürk and other women detained in the Louisiana ICE facility in April. She detailed their conversation with Öztürk, who primarily focused on the accounts of other detainees.
“You carried with you in your heart and in neatly copious written notes, like the qualified researcher that you are, their stories, their fears, their urgent medical conditions, their worry that they had been abandoned,” Pressley recounted. “I was haunted by those words Rümeysa said: ‘The women here have cried aloud: Has God forgotten about us? Has the world forgotten about us?’”
Markey praised Öztürk’s courage and her words to the delegation while she was detained.
“Rümeysa’s first instinct was not to talk about her, but to talk about all those women who have still not had their rights protected. That’s who Rümeysa is. She’s courageous,” Markey said. “She’s an inspiration, and we will not forget those other women, not just there in Louisiana, but all across the country, and men as well, who are right now having their constitutional rights be absolutely compromised.”
Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts,
highlighted Sessions’ message about the First Amendment and due process, as it pertains to Öztürk’s case, during the bail hearing on May 9.
“The federal judge in Rümeysa’s case unambiguously stated that the government’s arrest and detention of Rümeysa raised serious First Amendment and due process concerns,” Rossman said. “He repeated that multiple times from the bench, and it is critically important that all of us listen to that repetition.”
Pressley emphasized that while this moment is an “important victory,” there is still much to be done by those who spoke at the press conference and anyone else who has shown support for Öztürk.
“Rümeysa is released on bail, but her deportation proceedings continue,” Pressley said. “Our work is not done, but we are stronger together.”
Matthew Sage contributed reporting.
Construction on upperclassmen dorm underway
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Residential Life & Learning website, the upperclassmen housing rate is currently $11,960.
“The rates will need to be competitive with, or comparable to, the cost of living in off-campus housing in the Medford/ Somerville area,” Collins wrote, pointing to inflationary pressures, construction and operating costs and interest rates.
For students considering living in the dorm, the university is “committed to making sure that all eligible students will be able to be part of this new residential community regardless of their financial means,” Tufts’ Executive Vice President Mike Howard wrote in the initial community announcement about the dorm last month.
The new dorm is partly an effort to alleviate the impact of student rentals on Medford and Somerville communities by housing upperclassmen
who would otherwise live off campus. Through freeing up more units for Medford and Somerville residents, the university hopes to drive down rental rates for students and locals alike, Collins wrote.
“This has been something that the residents and the students have been asking for for a long period of time, so it’s nice to see follow-up on that,” Medford City Councilor Matt Leming said.
“With Medford, one issue that I ran into when canvassing is that residents, particularly in the Hillside area, would sometimes [complain] about undergraduate houses where there are parties on Friday nights. They generally didn’t like that too much,” Leming added. “Simultaneously, I think that a lot of students at Tufts, would like to be able to have guaranteed on-campus housing during their duration there and not have to go hunting around Medford and Somerville for private housing.”
Leming expressed concern about residents being affected by disturbances caused by the construction project.
“As with any construction project of this scale, there will be some inconveniences during the construction phase, such as noise, occasional traffic impacts, and the need to use a few of the on-street parking spaces during the project’s construction phase,” Collins wrote.
“The university and Capstone, the development team, will work to minimize these impacts to the community to the greatest extent possible.”
Tufts has partnered with Capstone Development Partners for the new dorm, a firm based in Alabama that specializes in student housing. In September 2024, it completed a multi-use project at Florida Polytechnic University containing 430 beds, social media studios and office space.
According to Collins, Tufts and Capstone will hold
meetings with local government officials and residents to solicit feedback about the new dorm project.
“We have already begun preliminary meetings with city officials and on Thursday held our first community meeting with neighbors. Ultimately, the project must be approved by Medford’s Community Development Board,” Collins wrote.
The Community Development Board consists of seven members — six mayoral appointees and one state appointee — and meets twice a month. Tufts has not formally filed the development proposal to the board yet.
Alch noted that the development plans for the new dorm are solidified and encouraged students to give their input.
“The development team will be seeking input from current students in surveys and focus groups, so I would encourage students to participate and provide feedback when possible,” she wrote.
What the honk? Geese descend on Tufts campus
Emily Sullivan Staff Writer
Originally published Feb. 20.
Webbed footprints litter the snow. A cacophony of honks echo across the lawn. Green-tinged excrement coats the sidewalks.
Students reluctantly recreate events from “Make Way for Ducklings” on their way to class. All of these resulted from the influx of Canada geese — also known under the misnomer of Canadian geese even though they lack Canadian citizenship — on the Medford/Somerville campus.
Attitudes towards these creatures may be varied; however, questions universally remain. Why are the geese here after decades of gaggle-less winters? Is it climate change that brought them to our lawns? How can we peacefully coexist?
Professor Michael Reed of the biology department and self-designated ‘bird guy’ provided some answers. He explained that the sudden arrival of the geese is actually quite simple.
“They’re always looking for a food source, and they tend to travel in large groups — flocks, as it were. And when they find a good place to eat, they tend to eat there until the food level drops; then, they find some other place to be,” he said.
Reed continued to explain that once one flock finds a food source, others will congregate around and share that source until it dwindles. Once they run low on grass, they spread back out until a new foodrich area is discovered.
Even if the reason the geese chose Tufts is similar to why a student chooses Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center — a practical availability of food — students and
faculty are still confused by their arrival. Geese’s migratory habits to warmer climates are common knowledge to those accustomed to life in the Northeast, so it seems bizarre that the birds have settled here while snow still coats the ground.
Christina Roberts, a junior, shared her speculation on why the geese had descended on Tufts in this frigid weather.
“I think there’s a lot to do with climate change and things. I think geese are supposed to migrate south. I study [economics], but I know that much,” Roberts said.
Similarly, Robert Griffith, a sophomore, expressed the concern he and his friend had about the conditions in Canada for the geese to have chosen Boston.
“Geese are migratory birds, and it’s cold here — like they are migrating from Canada. What’s going on in Canada if they are coming here to have a warmer experience? Canada must be crazy right now,” Griffith said.
In reality, land use likely has more influence on Canada geese migrations.
Reed responded that although Boston may seem cold for us here, for a goose originating in northern Canada, Boston is quite comfortable.
The geese’s decision to land here is likely by chance; however, local environmental changes may have had some influence. Reed first highlighted a migratory phenomenon called short-stopping, which explains that bird migration patterns have become less extreme as lawn sizes have grown. Migrating birds in search of grasslands to feed on have to travel less distances north and south to find
food thanks to these large fields, and instead, land somewhere in between the two extremes.
He also suspects that land use changes are a contributing factor to the geese appearances this winter.
“There’s actually more forest around here than there used to be. We’re actually short of grasslands. So it could be that as farmland disappears, they’re moving more into suburban areas. … Grassland birds are actually declining in a lot of New England because so much forest is occurring,” Reed explained.
The drop in farmlands since the 18th and 19th centuries has led to greater forestation rates as that land returns to its original state. Furthermore, as Reed describes, a heavy tree harvest half a century ago has led to migratory birds, like Canada geese, having difficulty finding flat land to graze.
Students may wonder how they can best share the campus with the new residents and how friendly the geese may be. Roberts shares her thoughts on this matter.
“I really want to feed them, and my mom was like, ‘Don’t do that.’ We grew up feeding geese, and … I had a loaf of bread, but I was scared that
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I was going to be attacked and end up on Sidechat,” she said.
Even with her concerns about being a goose attack victim, Roberts shared that she is in fact pro-goose and that she has enjoyed seeing them.
However, according to Reed, there is a low risk of aggression from the geese. The birds are often more aggressive during summer breeding months and when they have goslings with them. Although, he still advises students to minimize interactions.
“Just like at parks, don’t go out and feed them. They’re wild animals. Leave them alone. Don’t make friends with them,” he stated. “I think it’d be unusual for them to be very aggressive and certainly not in the winter unless you try to grab them. Don’t do that. … Don’t pick up the geese.”
If following this advice is not enough to prevent an encounter with an aggressive goose, Reed gave additional recommendations.
“If they come towards you, I wouldn’t run away because that usually triggers a chase response in animals. I would just take my backpack off and hold it in front
of me, between me and the goose, and keep walking. Eventually, they’ll leave you alone,” he said.
There is little cause for concern though, as the geese are much more interested in what the campus can offer them rather than its students.
Even with goose violence being a non-issue, student and faculty attitudes towards the geese seem varied. Griffith’s perspective spans both sides.
“I have two conflicting sides of me that are pro and anti, and I think they cancel out. I’m pro-geese because we’re animals too. We are like, ‘It’s our world,’ but in reality, it is their world too. … And honestly, the other part of me is like, ‘I don’t think so.’ They’re annoying and they’re loud and they poop everywhere,” Griffith said.
It seems like the Tufts community may have to learn how to coexist with these feathered visitors. It may mean adjusting to dodge excrement and ignore goose honks, at least until the birds run out of food sources on campus. It is up to the geese whether or not their presence becomes an annual occurrence or perhaps just this winter.
Tufts full-time lecturers ratify third contract with university
Originally published June 18.
Tufts full-time lecturers union in the School of Arts and Sciences ratified their third contract with the university on Wednesday.
The FTLs, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 509, began negotiations for workload and salary adjustments in April 2024.
The FTLs announced several changes in their contract: Their new title will be “Teaching Professor,” they will receive 3% annual raises while minimum salaries for each rank will be increased by at least 16% and professors will receive course equivalences or overage pay for their work, overseen by a faculty-led committee. The professors will receive back pay from Sep. 1, 2024.
The cost of living in the Greater Boston area and student enrollment both outpaced salary adjustments and increases in full-time faculty, according to the union.
According to the FTL union, the cost of living for full-time lecturers has increased by 21% since 2020 while salaries only increased by 13.1%.
From 2019–23, undergraduate enrollment in the School of Arts and Sciences increased by 12.4%, while there was only an increase of full-time faculty by 6.8%, according to the union.
Penn Loh, distinguished senior lecturer and union member, wrote in a statement to the Daily: “It’s been a long road to this contract, with many challenges. But we never gave up hope and we showed that when we stand together, with broad support from our students,
colleagues, and community, we can win more livable salaries and sustainable workloads. We now hope that our contract can help our SMFA Professor of the Practice union achieve the same.”
Bárbara Brizuela, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Samuel Thomas, senior dean of academic affairs for the School of Arts and Sciences, wrote in a statement to the Daily that the university had adhered to its philosophy to wage increases by considering faculty compensation in general as well as external market and internal equity.
“The new contract reflects changes resulting from a collaborative effort to align the contract with the evolving needs of both the institution and our faculty colleagues,” Brizuela and Thomas wrote. “While we never want to see work stoppages, the
university’s approach remained consistent throughout this negotiation, focused on shared problem solving and collaboration, which we have established over more than a decade with the union.”
The FTLs held a twoday walkout on Jan. 27–28.
Medford and Somerville City Councils passed resolutions on March 25 and Feb. 13, respectively, in support of the FTLs. They also received support from the Tufts Community Union Senate in a statement read out during a Senate meeting on Jan. 26.
Josué Pérez Executive News Editor
DYLAN FEE / THE TUFTS DAILY
Full-time lecturers union and community rallies in front of Ballou Hall in the afternoon of Jan. 29.
DYLAN FEE / THE TUFTS DAILY
A gaggle of grazing geese are pictured outside of Tisch Library on Jan. 27.
Tufts first-year housing guide
Originally published April 10.
Miller and Houston Halls
Miller Hall and Houston Hall face each other across the Reservoir Quad: some say in a friendly rivalry. These dorms are mirror images of one another, besides slight differences — for example, Miller’s accent color is a fiery orange while Houston’s is a soothing blue. I lived in Miller in a quad-facing room with the perk of beautiful sunset views. Don’t expect the rooms to be gigantic, but many of them come with ample built-in storage. My room’s layout had both beds in an L-shape along the walls; our desks faced each other in the center of the room (get used to studying together). Especially on upper floors, rooms will run hot in the early fall, but a strong fan will do the trick. The elevator is also a nice bonus when doing laundry and moving in!
These dorms were last renovated in 2019. The hallways zigzag, giving certain rooms more privacy but also lacking the quintessential college floor vibe where you can see straight down the corridor. However, the comfortable, well-lit common spaces provide lots of potential for floor community. There are smaller private study rooms and a modern kitchen. In nice weather, you’ll find all sorts of backyard sports ongoing on the quad, and you’re close to lots of other first-year dorms. You can’t go wrong with either Houston or Miller … but for me, it’s Miller forever!
Carmichael Hall
I loved living in Carmichael Hall — in fact, I have had group chats named “Home Sweet Carm,” “Carm House Pancakes” and “Chicken Carm.” The first word that comes
to mind is “majestic” — Carm is gorgeous, and walking home there every night always reminded me of how magical our campus is. We were plagued by rats and roaches, but we were blessed with beautiful views, large rooms and a nice sense of community. Living on the upper quadrangle lent itself to lots of familiar faces, and being able to go to breakfast without stepping outside was a gift. It’s a little dingy and dank on the inside, but don’t let that deter you! Carm is the best.
Wren Hall
While I never lived in Wren Hall myself, my mom lived in Wren her first year, and she has some interesting anecdotes from her time there. She and her friends found some entertainment in throwing buckets of water at the exposed brick (the wall was so dry it soaked it right up). According to her, Wren has excellent acoustics, so she could hear her Beelzebub boyfriend singing from the second he entered the floor. And finally, it was always a fun surprise for her to see what stranger had fallen asleep on her common room couch on the weekends.
Wilson House
Wilson House is a small, white dorm exiled from the shinier buildings on campus. It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it — and most people aren’t. The furniture is mismatched and a little worn, but that’s never stopped anyone from sinking into the couches after a long day. When people ask where I live and I say, “Wilson, the substance-free dorm,” I usually get a confused look. It’s not on the campus tour route, and it doesn’t carry the legacy or clout of the bigger dorms. But what they don’t realize is that the very things that make Wilson different are what make it special. It’s the hub for Friday night karaoke, poker games and hot pepper shenanigans.
It’s the site of the forgotten flood — that chaotic night when the hallway turned into a river. We should’ve been panicking, but instead, someone brought out water guns, someone else ordered pizza and before long, we were sloshing around in our shower shoes, cracking jokes and turning a minor disaster into a soggy rite of passage. That’s Wilson in a nutshell: a group of people who meet inconvenience with humor, turn messes into moments and somehow make a leaky hallway feel like home. I didn’t expect to find such a tight-knit group of people in the “quiet dorm,” but now, I can’t imagine my first year without them.
Metcalf Hall
Metcalf Hall may not be the most modern or conventionally “nice” building on campus, but it is most definitely in the best location. You can’t ask for more, being situated at the very bottom of President’s Lawn and having a 30-second walk to Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center, the Mayer Campus Center, Tisch Library, the Davis shuttle and various other amenities. Nothing beats avoiding the long trek up or down the hill in the midst of winter after a long day of class. The rooms are big (unless you get a forced triple on the eastern side, in which case, I’m sorry), and the amenities are decent. I currently live in a large western side Metcalf triple, and while the tile floors and somewhat questionable bathrooms may give a bad first impression, the location and Metcalf community were crucial to my first-year experience. I have been able to get to know many of the people on my small floor, and most nights, the Metcalf common room is a regular spot for first-year gatherings ranging from study sessions to DJ sets.
Court at Professors Row Yes, the name is literal. The Court at Professors Row is
located on old tennis courts — this is a glaring reality that I was not aware of until move-in day. This also means that they do not look pretty. HOWEVER! I have come to believe that the Courts are actually the best first-year dorm for the following reasons. One, they are brand new. Although the decadesold Tilton Hall or Metcalf might possess some inherent charm, the Courts possess modern amenities, such as a well-furnished kitchen, quality bathrooms and, most notably, air conditioning. Two, the entire dorm is one hallway (around 50 people)! This makes it so easy to meet people in your dorm — since you will literally walk by everyone — and build a community. Finally, they are in a prime location. Being on Professors Row means you are equidistant from the two major dining halls: Dewick and Fresh at Carmichael Dining Center, meaning the options are limitless!
resident assistant and her boyfriend emerge from one, only in towels, while you’re on the phone with your parents in the hallway.
Speaking of hallways, good news! The lights reflect so brightly off the chartreuse walls, that if you are ever relegated (sexiled) to the hallway, you’ll stay awake — avoiding a fate á la Marty from “Gilmore Girls.” If you find yourself in a forced triple, as I did, fear not! Yes, you will spend the entire year tripping over your roommates. But, if they are anything like mine, you’ll snag two lasting friends out of the experience.
Tilton Hall
Richardson House Richardson, oh Richardson. As a consequence of being a remodeled house, the rooms themselves aren’t very uniform: My roommate and I lived in what I believe was one of the smallest dorms on campus and shared the only closet that actually had a rod to hang clothes. By the time our room’s electricity went out for the fifth time, I was feeling quite annoyed with the dorm; however, what Richardson House is perhaps most known for is its community (for better or worse). I won’t touch on that too much, but I will say that Richardson is where I met my amazing roommate and future housemate. A word of advice for all incoming Jumbos: The dorms themselves all have their quirks, but what’s most important are the people you meet in (and outside) them.
Hodgdon Hall
As far as first-year dorms go, Hodgdon Hall is certainly one of them. Hodge-dwellers enjoy scenic views of downhill Tufts and delight in waking up to thundering trash trucks vacating waste from bins outside. The building itself is laid out in an L-shape, and along with a common bathroom, each floor additionally has a single bathroom, uncommon for many firstyear dorms. Are single bathrooms a good thing? Perhaps. But they can make for an incredibly awkward moment when you see your
Don’t get me wrong, I love living off campus. But if I had the chance to live in Tilton Hall again as a senior, I’d have a hard time saying no. Tucked among the trees in a grassy field, Tilton feels private and serene, even though it’s next to several other dorms. Plus, it’s steps away from Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run, and not much further from Dewick or the Campus Center. What makes Tilton truly special, however, is its personality. Each floor has a unique vibe, so whether you’re a member of the queer community, a student-athlete or a film nerd, you’re sure to find likeminded people to hang with. Oh, and did I mention the private unisex bathrooms?
Bush Hall
The thing I loved most about Bush Hall was the people; I built a great community on my floor, and we spent so much time together during my first year. While my room was pretty small, since we were such a tight-knit group, my friends and I would hang out in the common room, which was super spacious and had modern furniture. While the hike to classes often left me heaving for breath, having Hodgdon Foodon-the-Run right next door was a huge win, especially during my first year when we could double-swipe — at least you get Late Lunch (colloquially known as “Munch Time”) now. I’ll always be a downhill gal, and Bush is the reason why.
‘No Other Land’ aims the lens at West Bank cruelty to sobering effect
Noah Goldstein Staff Writer
Originally published Feb. 20.
In Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets in the southern West Bank, life is synonymous with conflict. Bulldozers come to destroy family homes. Mothers’ cries are met with soldiers’ orders. Foundations come crumbling down, only to be put back up inside of caves. Conflict is everywhere.
It’s even present for the two protagonists at the center of “No Other Land” (2024), the Oscar-nominated documentary that explores this issue. Palestinian activist Basel Adra calls Masafer Yatta home, while Yuval Abraham, a Jerusalem-based journalist, tries desperately to spread the word of the demolitions in Masafer Yatta despite being an outsider.
Shot in vérité style by the duo, along with Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal and Israeli cinematographer Rachel Szor, the work is perhaps the clearest example of the occupation’s injustices to be put to screen. It won the prize for best documentary at the Berlin Film Festival, captured the New York Film Critics Circle award and looks to be an Oscar frontrunner as well. However, unlike previous documentary darlings such as last year’s Russia and Ukraine-centered “20 Days in Mariupol,” “No Other Land” is punishingly calm in its approach. Save for a few shocking moments, showcasing the Israeli military’s violence is not the film’s goal. Instead, it points to ways in which the Palestinians native to
the land are ignored. Often, soldiers just push them to the side — business as usual.
“No Other Land” is not merely a documentation of injustice, but rather, a form of protest. The camera is Adra’s weapon as he defends his land; often, crying out, “You’re
being filmed,” is the only way he gets any response at all. But as much as they film and as many articles as Abraham writes, the film makes it clear that the decadeslong struggle in Masafer Yatta has yet to get the attention it deserves. In fact, a seven-minute visit by
former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair was the only event that got the Israeli state to halt the demolitions.
Nonetheless, activism is almost second nature for Adra. His father, Nasser, has been fighting similar battles for his entire life and made sure that the spirit was passed down to his son. It is there, inside the family’s fight for freedom, that another plotline unfolds. At multiple points, Basel questions whether he is built to carry on his father’s legacy.While riding in the car with Abraham, Basel admits that the work demands more energy than hecanmuster.Later,afteraclashwith the military, he is forced to lay low for a while.
In “No Other Land,” it becomes clear that the Israeli military aims to destroy slowly, demoralizing Palestinians one by one. A slow and painful death. “Every week, a home,” the voiceover explains. “Every week a new family must decide: Endure, or leave their land.”
Though the scenes of bulldozers and protests are somewhat redundant, they are included, one after another, to show the incessant strife the residents must endure.
But humanity persists, even through demolitions and rubble. The picture is able to function as a work equally shocking and rage-inducing because it does not view the inhabitants of Masafer Yatta as simply victims but as true individuals. At night, the men sit around and smoke hookah, while the children lay in bed playing on their iPads. There are even moments of humor; a mother jokes that her son is too lazy to get out of
bed for school but jumps up immediately when it’s the military knocking.
As expected, the result of their protests is not successful, and what comes after — the collective wrapped shooting in October 2023 — is assumed to be even worse. The last piece of footage they were able to film in Masafer Yatta showed Israeli settlers raiding a village, and as a title card explains, Masafer Yatta’s fate is yet to be determined.
Despite a growing number of terrible obstacles Palestinians must overcome, the film’s one truth remains: They’re not going anywhere. While President Donald Trump stated the United States’ intentions to “take over” Gaza and relocate its citizens, “No Other Land” is an example of the plan’s flaws. It’s unlikely that the estimated 2,500 inhabitants of Masafer Yatta would accept to move anywhere, and even so, a Trump Tower would still likely be at the bottom of the list.
But with Israel’s crimes against humanity being well-documented, it’s naive to say that they would even have a choice. This is why “No Other Land” is crucial viewing. There is no better way to understand the Palestinian perspective than to see it authentically. Unfortunately, distributors in the United States won’t touch the film; it’s not in their best interests to get in the middle of geopolitics. Still, some producers are independently working to get the film in theaters. A difficult watch, but it’s essential nonetheless, and every ticket counts.
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham are pictured at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.
‘SINNERS’ IS AN EXPLORATION OF OUR BLUES
Originally published April 17.
Ryan Coogler has struck gold with his new Southern gothic horror period piece “Sinners.” Set in 1932, the movie follows a set of twins, Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan), as they return to their hometown in Mississippi after a seven-year venture into the casino scene of Chicago. The two businessmen plan to open a juke joint for their home community to enjoy food, drinks and — most importantly — the blues. Smoke and Stack travel around their small town, recruiting old friends to help put together a new space for the largely nonwhite community — a necessity, especially in the era of Jim Crow.
Just in time for their grand opening, the juke welcomes the community for a night to remember. However, things quickly take a turn when three white vampires appear, looking for entry into the nonwhite space. When denied at the door, they turn to play their folk music just outside, soon drawing in more and more people to their cult while sucking the life — and music — out of their victims. Full of allegory, music and a touch of horror, “Sinners” unfolds a fascinating story in its 137-minute runtime.
The cast is packed, with Jordan pulling double duty as the close, yet very distinct, twins Smoke and Stack. Smoke, the older of the two and decked out in blue accent colors, is protective of his younger brother and greater family. Stack, cunning in his red accents, is always ready to jump into an opportunity or risk. Jordan molds a distinct personality for each twin and allows for their relationship to speak for itself. While simple camera tricks and splitting Smoke and Stack up for a large portion of the film allow Jordan to fall deep into each role,
some of the best moments come when the two brothers are working together.
Jordan’s work with the twins is also evident in their respective love interests. Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) is Stack’s former girlfriend — a biracial woman who was able to marry into privilege after their relationship ended. Stack’s return to the South and the juke venture bring the two back together. Unfortunately for everyone, Stack’s undying love for Mary and the arrival of a trio of white folk allow for evil to seep into the venue. Smoke is also able to reconnect with a lost love in Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a Hoodoo conjurer. The two, while sharing limited screen time, have a connection that transcends the physical realm. In the end, it is the love they share for each other that allows their souls to find peace together.
Li Jun Li’s performance as Grace Chow, a grocery store owner and unofficial sign designer, is also captivating. Although Li may not have as much screen time as her co-stars, she brings raw energy into her most powerful scenes. Grace’s decisions reflect the struggles and complexities of motherhood when sacrifices must be made to protect those we love. Grace is perhaps the most sympathetic and intriguing character to connect to throughout the film. Likewise, Pearline (Jayme Lawson) is a force of beauty and talent. Pearline’s live performance of “Pale, Pale Moon” at the juke is a reason in itself to see this film.
A delightful addition to this cast is someone you may not have known was the focal center of “Sinners” — Miles Caton as Preacher Boy Sammie. Caton makes his film debut as Sammie, the younger cousin of Smoke and Stack. The son of a preacher, Sammie spends his days working on the plantation to help provide for his four younger siblings. Although he works out of duty to his family, Sammie’s heart is in music and the blues, with his guitar
constantly in his hand for most of the film. Despite the marketing, “Sinners” is about Sammie and follows a single day that, although one of the best of his life, changes things forever for the boy. Caton delivers the most outstanding performances throughout the film, infusing every scene with an addictive energy that the cast can’t help but feed off of.
In addition to the cast, the biggest draw of Coogler’s script is its intimate relationship with time. The heart of the film lies in its ability to blend together time, allowing the ancestors to live in its space as a guide and a reminder. In one powerful scene, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) explains to Sammie and Stack how he knows the prisoners singing on the side of the road as they performed manual labor in the hot sun. Slim recalls the stages he once shared with the men, the joy they all created through their music and their ambitions to escape their small town. These ambitions were quietly squashed when one of the men was unlawfully lynched by a group of racist men in a train station. As Slim tells the story, we can hear the past events in the background, although they are not shown on the screen. Slim then breaks out into song, the music simply fighting its way through his lips. This moment racks over your body, reminding the audience that, although we may not always be able to see them, the ghosts of our ancestors linger around us. While history may be erased, the consequences can still be felt.
Another major highlight of the film can be found in its music and scoring.
Scored by the legendary composer Ludwig Göransson, “Sinners” delves deep into the music. From blues to gospel to traditional Irish folk, Göransson elevates the film by using music as a connection to the world around these characters. The score fills almost every moment of the film, rooting it into the beloved tunes of Southern households. The moments in which the
film is silent thus become full of tension, allowing us to sit in a world where music is slowly being drained away. Göransson and Coogler also find a way to make a traditional Irish song, “The Rocky Road to Dublin,” sinister as it’s performed by the ever-growing vampire cult in the dark.
Göransson’s composition shines through most when Sammie begins to perform his original song “I Lied to You.” As he sings, the world seemingly falls apart to allow for the veil of time to fall away. The living, the dead and the not yet existing perform together with distinct styles and peoples moving through the space. In a moment in which an entire community becomes one with their past and future, there is nothing to do but sit in awe. With Caton having learned the guitar just months before filming, the scene holds a rawness to it.
“Sinners” also moves away from the so-called ‘Blaxploitation’ genre, not shying away from the real struggles Black Americans face and cruelties performed by the Ku Klux Klan, but also detailing the joys created by Black Americans. The final confrontation sequence offers a new ending to a well-known story, one in which it is possible to overcome the oppressors. The film delves into the music and faith created by Black Americans, with the blues being part of its DNA.
Through its in-universe and created community, “Sinners” explores a different and often overlooked narrative of being a person of color in America — a place that will suck the life out of you, regardless of what it claims.
There are many other highlights to “Sinners,” including its stellar production design, spot-on Southern accents, religious complexities, costuming and spin on the tired vampire trope, but the most significant part must be its exploration of time and human connection. So, do yourself a favor and go see it in theaters anywhere.
Odessa Gaines Former Executive Arts Editor
COURTESY OLIVIA CSEH
The cast of “Sinners” is pictured.
Aaron Bolonick Staff Writer
Originally published April 17.
To this day, my grandfather mentions an English class he took his first year of college, where a professor taught him how to form his own arguments. Similarly, my father often mentions, with fairly vivid detail, lectures he attended and papers he wrote that sparked his intellectual curiosity during his undergraduate years. I know that, when I am older, I will talk about the two classes I took with Professor Sam Sommers with the same kind of wistful enthusiasm.
Sommers was one of those professors who, throughout his time at Tufts, gained celebrity status among students. Non-psychology majors would take a class with Sommers just to experience his famed teaching style. He had an amazing ability to make almost any topic seem interesting and important. I’m incredibly saddened that no future students will be able to experience what was a major highlight of my college experience.
A tribute to Professor Sam Sommers
Despite his celebrity status, I heard less talk of what exactly made Sommers’ teaching so special. So, I felt that it would be a fitting tribute to examine why his teaching was so special and what lessons we can take away from it.
Sommers made an extraordinary commitment to ensure the size of a class did not hinder his ability to interact with his students. When he would pose a question to the 250-person class, he would always walk around the auditorium, calling on students even in the farthest back rows.
Sommers also made the lecture halls feel smaller in a more curious and, dare I say, magical way. When he lectured, it felt as if he was talking directly to each student. When I went to his office hours for the first time, I was taken aback when he asked for my name. For a split second, I completely forgot that he only knew me at that point as a small face in a crowded lecture hall who occasionally raised his hand. In my mind, we were already fairly well-acquainted. That’s how much Sommers was able to connect with his students. Although I’m not exactly sure how he produced
this wonderful illusion, it probably was the result of his ability to thoroughly break the boundary that traditionally exists between teacher and student. One of the ways he did so was by bringing anecdotes from his personal life into lectures in an endearing and often hilarious way. For example, in one lecture about social perception, Sommers showed a video of a series of social psychological ‘experiments’ he had conducted with his children when they were very young. He also frequently used his relationship with his roommate during his first year of college to illustrate certain social psychological principles (and to subtly roast, in a friendly way, his former roommate).
And I could not end this article without mentioning how Sommers also always went the extra mile to seem as far from a stuffy academic as possible. He never sacrificed his articulateness and extreme intelligence along the way. Sommers would ingrain his lectures with humor, from incorporating Lizzo into lectures to using “Seinfeld” clips that illustrated the course’s topics. While I can completely understand professors not wanting
to bring their personal lives or potentially distracting pop culture into class, Sommers’ liberal use of examples from his personal life, combined with his relatable humor, made him seem all the more human to his students.
Because of this, he was much more than simply a person standing at the front of the classroom imparting wisdom onto his students. He was a truly magical presence on the Tufts campus, and he will undoubtedly be missed.
How effective is fact-checking on social media really?
Originally published April 22.
Back in January, Meta made a bold move — it dropped third-party fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram and replaced it with community notes. The company said this change was about deepening its “commitment to free expression.” But not everyone is buying that explanation. Critics argue that there might be political motivations at play, and they’re worried that this shift could make
it even easier for disinformation and toxic content to spread on their platforms. These concerns are valid, but there are larger questions lurking underneath all of this: Does fact-checking actually work? I mean, can it really stop people from believing falsehoods? And how distinct are facts from fiction?
In all honesty, fact-checking isn’t the magical cure-all that some may see it as. Sure, when it comes to non-polarizing topics, it can help people avoid falling victim to false beliefs. But once you dive into more divisive
territory, like climate change, politics or vaccines, it becomes a whole different story. If someone has already made up their mind about a certain topic, a little “factcheck” label isn’t going to change it. Indeed, Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscience professor at University College London, found that when people were shown information that aligned with what they already believed on climate change, they simply became more entrenched in their views. And when they were presented with information that challenged those beliefs? They didn’t budge.
So while fact-checking might help keep more neutral, factual topics from turning into battlegrounds, it’s not doing much to heal the information divide once it’s already there. In a country as polarized as the United States is right now, that divide isn’t likely to shrink anytime soon — no matter how many fact-check labels you slap on a post.
Fact-checking itself can be inherently controversial, as it rests on the belief that one can clearly establish what a fact is and what it isn’t. This belief is simply not true. In many fields, the issue at hand is more debatable than it may seem at first glance. Throughout history, we see a wide range of ‘facts’
which were eventually disproven: bloodlettings, lobotomies or the idea that the sun revolves around the Earth in astronomy. Evidently, it isn’t as easy to establish a fact as some may assume. Indeed, settled facts can be quite evasive.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was quite a bit of myth-spreading regarding the origin of the pandemic. One piece of information initially labeled false — or even racist — was the lab leak theory, which held that the virus that causes COVID-19 originated in a virology lab in Wuhan. Current understanding of the pandemic has changed and the Central Intelligence Agency now considers the lab leak theory at least plausible. In fact, Meta even initially curbed the spread of this theory on Facebook and Instagram by removing posts promoting it, only reversing the ban in May 2021.
The problem with such measures is that they prevent genuine debate about topics. This has serious negative consequences. By stifling debate, Meta may have contributed to the growing distrust of scientists and public officials in the United States. By requiring institutions to fact-check everything, we are making them arbiters of truth in situations where the truth can be hard to establish.
While fact-checking may be bad, community notes may not be much better. The closest thing to Meta’s community notes is X’s community notes. X’s community notes have so far failed at flagging misinformation in time. But there are other models for this sort of tool, — such as Wikipedia — which are seemingly more successful at community-based fact-checking. This is mainly because of Wikipedia’s insistence on verifiability for the claims made by its writers. Even so, community notes on social media have yet to be proven effective in any meaningful capacity.
So, while it’s still too early to judge the impact of Meta’s adoption of community notes, it’s clear that fact-checking isn’t the straightforward solution it’s often made out to be. Psychological biases and philosophical ambiguities blur the line between truth and belief, turning fact-checking into a contentious and often counterproductive tool. Far from settling debates, it can stifle them. In theory, fact-checking aspires to uphold truth; in practice, it risks becoming a blunt instrument — one that, without nuance, may do more harm than good.
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COURTESY SAM SOMMERS, 2020 Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers is pictured.
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A Tufts student scrolls Meta’s Instagram app.
It gets better: Making the most of your college experience
Originally published April 10.
It’s nowhere near revolutionary to say that moving to college is a major adjustment. We are thrown into an entirely new world. For the first time in most of our lives, it is completely up to us to decide how we spend our time, who we surround ourselves with and what we make of ourselves. To put it simply: It’s a lot, especially in tandem with difficult classes and our uncertain futures ahead.
Last year, I found myself having a difficult time adjusting to college, for reasons that I wrote about last semester. Since then, I have fortunately had a better go at living “the best four years of my life.”
At the risk of grabbing at low-hanging fruit, my first piece of advice is to join clubs. Like many Tufts students, I spent my high school career filling my resume with activities like debate, Model UN and mock trial. To be clear: I participated in my extracurriculars out of passion, but they demanded a heavy commitment nonetheless.
Coming to college and feeling the release from the shackles of college applications, I refrained from joining any club that would take up too much time, seeking leisure and repose. What I found instead, however, was boredom and stagnancy. This break from extracurricular activities made me realize that clubs give you a place to be, people to see and nonacademic tasks to complete.
Clubs offer an enriching experience by providing a so-called third place: a place outside one’s home and workplace (or classes, in the case of college students) to build connections and gain meaningful experiences. Third places allow people to develop and affirm their identities, fighting off the omnipresent shadow of imposter syndrome — the persistent doubting of one’s identity and abilities — that occurs frequently on college campuses. Spending time at club meetings and events achieves just that, creating opportunities to both foster and bolster your sense of self. This ultimately benefits not just your resume but your mental health as well.
Tufts has been tough. Will you be?
Evan Wang and Sadie Roraback-Meagher
Originally published April 10.
Sadie Roraback-Meagher : Heya Evan!
Evan Wang: Hey, Sadie. How’s your semester winding down?
Sadie: “Winding” doesn’t seem very fitting. A better question would be: How is it crashing down in flames?
Evan: Wow, I sure am going to miss your pessimism this summer. What will I do without you?
Tufts boasts over 350 organizations, offering various unique third places to discover. While many of them are similar to those offered in high school, I have found the most enjoyment in trying completely new activities. Joining the Tufts Dance Collective, for example, was an experience that truly defined this past semester. As Tufts’ no-experience-required, all-inclusive dance group, TDC provided me with a fun and new third place to explore a creative aspect of my identity that no other organization has matched. While dancing may not be for everyone, trying new activities is something that I have found vital to making the most of my college years.
Experimenting with new activities extends beyond joining clubs. Even within my class schedule, finding time to take new and interesting classes — even a two-credit Experimental College course — has made me feel like I am truly getting my dollar’s worth out of college, especially at a school known for its liberal arts education.
As an English major, which only requires ten classes, I recognize my privilege of having more space to take non-major classes — a liberty not possible for every major. Still, another way I’ve enriched my experience is by simply cultivating my interest in the major that I’m studying. I’ve spent more time talking after
Sadie: Well, you can always look at the news to cheer you up!
Evan: Sigh.
Sadie: You know, despite all the doom and gloom in the world, Tufts has been giving me hope. Compared to its peer institutions, Tufts has shown exceptional resilience in light of what has happened on our campus. From University President Sunil Kumar co-signing a letter pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on universities to filing a school-backed declaration in support of Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts has been taking a stand against the current threats facing higher education.
Evan: It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. While Tufts has certainly made moves supporting international students and combating President Donald Trump, it is still lacking
classes with my professors, joined the Tufts English Society and made an active effort to — for a lack of better terms — romanticize my studies. Shifting my perspective on my academics, which are typically a source of stress, has definitely improved my overall academic experience.
Apart from these specific avenues, getting more out of my college experience comes down to simply leaving my dorm more often. Taking that first step of reaching out to friends to meet for meals, get coffee at The Sink or study together can very well be the difference between spending hours spiraling and spending hours being content. Being a part of a 10-person suite in Wren Hall has also been a major source of positivity for me (hence my devastation after learning that it will be converted into first-year housing). Having study partners, friends to talk to and people to get meals with at almost any time of the day has given me the emotional support system that I truly need. Still, even with this wonderful living situation, it is the intentionality and effort that I put into my friendships that truly made my year.
College is not a passive experience: If you want something to happen, chances are that you are responsible for making it happen. This might sound scary, but it’s also what makes college such a
when it comes to engagement with the general community. Just look at the carpenter protests or the full-time lecturers’ walkout. Tufts hasn’t done much to address these demonstrations, all while carrying on like it’s a normal Tuesday.
Sadie: Well, well, look who’s the pessimistic one now! But I see your point. Tufts is not free of flaws, even though it has been doing a good job presently. As seen in the case of Columbia, whose administration floundered in the face of Trump, things could always be worse.
Evan: Is that optimism I’m hearing?
Sadie: I’m just trying to brighten the day for the grads.
Evan: In that case, let me be the negative one instead.
I question if institutions should be political juggernauts. How
unique and enjoyable place — a place that allows you to constantly make mistakes and keep exploring
until you find what you truly enjoy. At the end of the day, college is what you make of it.
much should universities be wading into the political deep end — shouldn’t that be the job of individuals and communities?
Sadie: I agree with you a bit, but your point actually has me thinking about something else: How will this graduating class go forward in the wake of political threats?
Personally, I’ve been quite moved by the number of op-eds from Tufts alumni that the Daily has received in the wake of Öztürk’s detainment. I hope this graduating class will continue to be engaged with the Tufts community.
Evan: I agree. Seeing all those community members join in the conversation was encouraging, but I wonder if it will truly change the university’s politics. I’m inclined to believe donors are the ones who have the biggest sway.
Sadie: Well, I can’t say that money doesn’t talk, but I think
you are underestimating how important a vocal alumni network can be.
Evan: Sure, I can see what you’re saying. But for this alumni network to be impactful, more people need to join in. Whether that means signing a petition or submitting op-eds to the Daily, I hope that this graduating class will make an effort to join in the conversation and show what change really looks like.
Sadie: Agree! It will certainly be an uphill battle going forward.
Evan: Well, that’s just life on the hill for you.
Evan Wang is a junior studying history and biology. Evan can be reached at ewang14@tufts.edu.
Sadie Roraback-Meagher is a junior studying political science. Sadie can be reached at sadie.roraback_meagher@tufts.edu.
Max Lerner
Associate Editor
GRAPHIC BY JAYLIN CHO
The Conversation
Ice hockey’s season concludes in NESCAC title game for second straight year
Keriann Slayton Staff Writer
Originally published March 13.
Tufts ice hockey battled through the conference tournament, beating Bowdoin in a thrilling overtime and routing Colby 6–2 to earn a spot in the NESCAC championship game against Hamilton in Clinton, N.Y. In the semifinal matchup against the Mules, the Jumbos kicked things into high gear offensively, exploding for four goals in the third period to eliminate the No. 3 seed team and advance to the conference final. While the score may not make it evident, the Jumbos actually came from behind against the Mules, facing a 1–0 deficit early before tying the score about halfway through the first and taking a 2–1 lead before the first intermission. Though Colby responded in the second by evening things up at 2–2, Tufts put on a show in the game’s final frame, taking a 3–2 lead only 14 seconds into the third period that just kept expanding, topped off by junior forward Brendan Fennell’s empty-net goal. The 6–2 win sent Tufts to face the No. 1 seeded hosts Hamilton in the title game.
The moment was familiar for the Jumbos, who fought their way to the final game in 2024 as well, but the title remains elusive to them. The Continentals secured the program’s first-ever NESCAC championship in shutout fashion, stifling the Jumbos’ offense on the way to a 3–0 victory. Tufts had no shortage of chances offensively, outshooting Hamilton 32–27, but success during man-advantages made the difference in favor of Hamilton, who scored on two of their four power plays and put the game away with an empty-netter. Goalie Charlie Archer proved why he was a first-team all-conference selection, notching 32 saves for his fifth shutout performance of the season. He stepped up in a big way in the first period of the title game, stuffing a breakaway chance by sophomore forward Marcus Sang — a deflating blow for the Jumbos. Archer’s offense backed him up in the second period, with forward Grisha Gotovets opening the scoring off of a rebound from forward William Neault’s shot from the point. Hamilton went on a power play late in the second following a cross-checking penalty by junior defenseman Chris Throndson and cashed in with less than four
minutes remaining in the period to take a 2–0 lead heading into the final frame. The Continental defense won them the title in the third, as they added only five shot attempts but also kept the Jumbo offense quiet. An empty-net power play goal by Hamilton player Ben Zimmerman with only 39 seconds left to play propelled the final score to 3–0 and wrote the 2024–25 Hamilton squad into the college’s history books.
Sitting atop the NESCAC standings for the entire season and ranked No. 8 nationally, Hamilton emerged as a formidable powerhouse this season, and junior forward Liam O’Hare paid respect to the quality of the other school’s team. “They’re pretty highly regarded as a team, and they got good players, and obviously that’s why they were the number one seed and the host,” he said. “It was loud, I believe it was sold out, a lot of energy in the building, which the guys kind of fed off of, and I think they really played well.”
Despite the outcome, the Tufts team proved to be a perennial title contender. With each tournament appearance, the motivation to overcome that final hurdle and hoist the team’s first-ever NESCAC
championship plaque grows stronger. O’Hare commented on the chemistry the team developed over the past few years, which has helped them become a more consistent championship threat.
“I think this has been a group that we’ve been together for a long time, and obviously making it all the way to the championship last year was great, and we wanted to get back to [the] championship game,” he said. “Obviously [we] wanted to end up going all the way, but [it] didn’t quite work out as we wished. We plan on trying to get back to it next year and be on the other side of things.”
The loss ended the collegiate careers of seven Tufts seniors — captain Tyler Sedlak, Harrison Bazianos, Marek Pechr, Brennan Horn, Sami Hakkarainen, Clark Bolin and Spencer Rose. The
veteran group leaves behind a legacy of reinvigorating the program’s culture and establishing Tufts hockey as a routinely competitive force in the NESCAC. After notching only six wins in their freshman year, the squad put together three consecutive double-digit-win seasons and two consecutive conference final appearances, demonstrating their commitment to cultivating an environment of excellence and bringing Tufts hockey to bigger stages. O’Hare described the seniors’ leadership and what they brought to the program over the past four years. “They really ingrained [the culture] into everyone and made sure everyone was bought in and everyone was contributing, everyone was involved,” he said. “I feel like they came in and changed the game, which says a lot.”
Jumbos’ 13-goal run moves them one step closer to NESCAC crown
Originally published April 28.
The top-ranked Tufts men’s lacrosse team earned a decisive 20–11 victory over Williams in the NESCAC quarterfinals on Bello Field on April 26. This win not only marks the 14th consecutive victory over Williams but also propels Tufts into the NESCAC semifinals in pursuit of their sixth conference championship in the last seven years. In the first nine minutes of play, Tufts struggled to find their rhythm, registering eight failed shot attempts — four of which missed the frame — while also surrendering two turnovers under pressure from the Williams defense. The breakthrough came from senior attacker Max Ettinghausen, who
found the back of the net off a wellplaced assist from junior attacker Brooks Hauser. Less than 90 seconds later, junior attacker Beau Keough tallied his 15th goal of the season, followed by an unassisted rip from junior midfielder Garrett Kelly to give the Jumbos a 3–0 lead to end the first quarter. After a faceoff win from senior specialist Parker Merrill and a ground ball snag from junior longstick midfielder Ben Frisoli, Tufts moved the ball with precision, setting up sophomore attacker Will Emsing for a clear look at goal; Emsing’s shot streaked just beyond the outstretched reach of Williams goalie Matt Wetmore. After a shot from junior attacker Jack Regnery clanged off the crossbar with 13:43 left in the second quarter, Williams was able to capitalize, where, after clearing the ball, defenseman Drew Nicholson found midfielder
Jesse Shapiro for the score just 30 seconds later. As Tufts committed three more turnovers, Williams capitalized again, narrowing the gap to 1 point with 6:06 remaining in the second quarter with two additional finishes from attackmen Harrison Cross and Shapiro.
It was after this string of Williams’ goals that Tufts flipped the switch. Throughout the season, they’ve had some slower starts, often needing time for their high-volume shooting strategy to find its rhythm. However, this early lull is typically followed by an offensive surge — marked by rapid ball movement and scoring runs that are nearly impossible to disrupt once they gain momentum.
This was blindingly apparent against the Ephs as the Jumbos shook off a sluggish start, erupting for six goals in the last five minutes of the second quarter, stretching their lead to 7 points by halftime. Regnery added the punctuation mark to the Jumbos’ early goal barrage, netting his 49th and 50th goals of the season. His 50th goal came in style as Tufts’ leading goal scorer rolled back before approaching the goal line extension, leaving his defender trailing behind and giving Regnery room to move his feet through X, cutting around the back of the crease and finishing with a low-to-high snipe to close the half.
While the rest of campus was transfixed by Spring Fling headliner Tinashe and her hit single “Nasty,” the men’s lacrosse team
pulled away from Williams with a nasty seven-goal run to open the third quarter, effectively sealing the game before the start of the fourth. Tufts wasted no time coming out of the break, scoring four goals in two and a half minutes, with the damage done by Hauser, Regnery and Emsing.
“We do our best to focus on the next play, regardless of what the scoreboard says or what we’ve done previously,” junior long-stick midfielder Ben Clarke wrote in a message to the Daily. This short memory mindset is a major reason why Tufts competes at full speed through every possession and fights for every 50/50 ball, refusing to let the score dictate the quality of their play.
A key factor in the offensive momentum was the dominance at the faceoff dot, where Merrill and junior faceoff specialist Victor Salcedo showed strokes of brown and blue excellence. Merrill and Salcedo worked seamlessly together, alternating in their roles to control the faceoff circle, combining for an impressive 23 wins out of 26 attempts on the day. Ball possession is crucial for establishing and sustaining offensive pressure; Merrill and Salcedo’s ability to consistently put the Jumbo offense in prime scoring opportunities and face-break chances has been instrumental in the team’s success this season, allowing them to break away from tight games with relentless offensive possession.
This staggering 13-goal run was finally halted by a swift strike from Williams attacker
Will Doran, as Williams began to show signs of life late in the third quarter. The Ephs went on to command the final stretch, outscoring the Jumbos 8–3, closing the game with a late scoring surge. With 7:19 left in the game, Williams’ Shapiro completed his hat trick on the day, assisted by Cross. Just 20 seconds later, at the 6:58 mark of the fourth quarter, Cross netted Williams’ final goal of the day, while Cross finished with a hard-earned four goals and one assist. Williams will aim to bounce back next season, as Tufts decisively closed the chapter on Williams’ 7–9 campaign. While no one should be underestimating this formidable squad, the Jumbos don’t need added motivation to pursue the conference title that eluded their otherwise exceptional Division III championship run last year. “We’re really looking forward to our game against Middlebury. … We have important goals we want to accomplish, but all we’re focused on is the next game, playing our best lacrosse, and continuing to improve,” Clarke wrote in a message to the Daily. Clarke’s comments perfectly capture the Jumbos’ approach: staying locked into the moment, refusing to let future aspirations distract them and never growing complacent with past successes. The undefeated Jumbos will look to take on a not-yet-determined NESCAC competitor on May 3 at Bello Field in the NESCAC semifinals.
Ben Medd Contributing Writer
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
Junior attacker Jack Regnery is pictured celebrating.
COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS
The Tufts ice hockey team is pictured on March 8.
SCIENCE
The solitary bee’s knees
Carmen Smoak Former Executive Science Editor
Originally published March 4.
When you think of bees, what comes to mind? It might be the sweet taste of honey or an ever present buzzing next to your ear. It may even be the 2007 cinematic masterpiece, “Bee Movie.”
What you might not expect is that the grand majority of bee species do not produce honey or even live in hives. Roughly 77% of the bees on earth are classified as solitary. This classification exists in contrast to social bees, which are those that organize themselves into hives, with each bee serving a role to protect and sustain the community. On the other hand, solitary bees do it all themselves, with females building and provisioning nests with no assistance.
Solitary bees are wildly fascinating and incredibly diverse in their morphology and behavior. However, they have long been the underappreciated relatives of social bees. No more! Let’s dive into what makes these little creatures so special, and why we should protect them.
Bees emerged from a group of hunting wasps over 120 million years ago. These wasps feed on arthropods and insects, whereas bees get their nutrition from protein-rich pollen. This means that, in the simplest terms, bees are vegetarian wasps.
So what pushed this shift from predation to “vegetarianism?” One idea is that eudicots, which represent 75% of flowering plants, emerged in the fossil record at almost the exact same time as bees, roughly 125 million years ago. While there were forms of flowering plants and pollinators before this dual emergence, eudicots and bees represent an explosion of biodiversity and the origin of pollination as we know it today.
Even more interesting, bees predated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which the dinosaurs went extinct. After the asteroid impact,
rate of diversification, leading to the roughly 20,000 described species on earth today.
Of those 20,000 species, roughly 15,400 are solitary. These bees build individual nests for their larvae in an awe-inspiring variety of materials. Solitary bees are known to build nests in everything from wood to soil to reed structured plants. In urban and suburban settings, they will even create homes in fences and in the walls of sheds and homes.
To build their nests, the female bee must excavate the substrate material and provision the nest with floral oils, pollen and nectar. She will then lay her eggs within the brood cell, which will be home to her offspring while they mature. If her nest is poorly constructed, it could expose her larvae to flooding, parasites, predators or freezing, all of which could result in the death of a gen-
It is important to note when collecting resources for food and nest provisioning that not all pollen is created equal. Or at least, not all bees like all pollen. Solitary bees fall onto a spectrum between oligolectic and polylectic. The former means that a bee species will only feed on one plant family, or perhaps a few genera of plants. The latter is the opposite end, where a bee will feed on many plant families.
Why does this matter? As it turns out, most solitary bees are oligolectic. This may be for a few reasons. One is that bees will generally choose to feed on plants with the highest pollen nutritional value. Another reason is that by specializing in one plant family, bees can adapt to collect pollen from those plants in the most efficient manner. A final theory is that by harvesting from only one type of plant, bees require less
Whatever the reason, the majority of solitary bees being oligolectic means that bee species are very vulnerable to the loss of their host plants. In fact, habitat change, be that in the form of fragmentation, loss or conversion, is the leading human-imposed threat to bee populations. This issue is faced by both social and solitary bees; however, it seems to affect solitary bees most heavily. In fact, the majority of threatened bee species in Europe are solitary.
Why is this the case? Besides being oligolectic, solitary bees lack the social infrastructure of a hive, making it more difficult for them to forage far away from their nests. A study by Gathmann et al. found that the foraging range for solitary bees averages between 150 and 600 meters. This shows how important local habitat structure and host plant availabil
Flashback Flicks
It is not enough to have a few host plants for each solitary bee species in an area. A study by Müller et al. showed that, for 85% of solitary bee species examined, the entire pollen content of over 30 flowers is required to provision and rear one larvae. This does not account for the fact that only 40% of a flower’s pollen is accessible to a bee at any given time, which makes the number much higher in natural conditions. And so, if we want to build habitats that can sustain solitary bees, we must ensure a local abundance of proper host plants. Knowing all of this information is critical to protecting, building and conserving solitary bee populations. With 90% of plants on earth requiring pollinators to reproduce, this mission could not be more important. So next time you see a bee, get excited instead of scared. After all, it has way more important
GRAPHIC BY ISRAEL HERNANDEZ
GRAPHIC BY GRACE LEE / PHOTOS BY KAITLYN WELLS, RACHEL LIU, VERONIKA COYLE AND SOPHIA KHAN
