Somerville, Chelsea sue Trump admin to protect sanctuary city policies
Anika Parr Assistant News Editor
The cities of Somerville and Chelsea filed a lawsuit in a Massachusetts district court challenging federal immigration policy on Feb. 24. The cities, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, argue that recent federal actions unconstitutionally pressure sanctuary cities to participate in federal immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit claims that President Donald Trump’s administration’s directives ending federal funding to sanctuary cities violate constitutional principles such as separation of powers, due process and states’ rights.
“The president cannot use federal funds as a weapon to bend cities to his will,” Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights, said. “He cannot sign executive orders and with the stroke of a pen, take away the right of both governments to make decisions that keep their residents safe.”
Local officials argue that they are best equipped to meet their residents’ needs and that sanctuary city policies ultimately serve the public safety of their communities.
“Our residents know that communities are safer when police focus on preventing crimes and leave federal immigration enforcement to the feds,” Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne said.
“When immigrants feel safe, our entire community is safer,” Somerville’s City Council President Judy Pineda Neufeld said. “We’ve seen firsthand that
public safety is best served when trust between law enforcement and the community is strong. So today, Somerville stands with Chelsea and with every sanctuary city across the country to say, ‘We will not be silenced.’”
“These punitive actions seek to instill fear in our communities and undermine local governments that are doing the work of serving and protecting all of our residents,” Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez stated in a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “We will not allow federal policies to dictate how we can care for people that call Chelsea home.”
The lawsuit also asks the court to affirm that Somerville and Chelsea are not attempting to interfere with federal law enforcement by upholding their sanctuary city policies.
“As a welcoming community, we keep our officers focused on the job they are trained and hired to do, which is local public safety,” Ballantyne said. “That means they neither carry out nor do they interfere with federal immigration enforcement.”
Ballantyne stressed that Somerville should not have to divert its limited resources to federal immigration enforcement.
“They want to tell our traffic cops to shift time away from making sure kids get safely to school and workers to their jobs and to instead carry out family separation,” Ballantyne said.
“They want our brave police officers to reduce resources for protecting victims of domestic violence or for stopping drunk drivers and instead to raid our
UNIVERSITY
SMFA professors of the practice continue contract negotiations
Josué Pérez Deputy News Editor
Professors of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts most recently held a bargaining session for their first contract with the university on Feb. 25, continuing negotiations that began in April 2024. The professors are seeking wage increases, heightened research support and increased transparency on hiring practices from the contract.
Megan McMillan, a SMFA professor of the practice and a Service Employees International Union member, provided an update about the state of negotiations.
“We’re still very much in the middle of it, so we have negotiations that are ongoing. So far, we’ve had some productive conversations, but we’re still kind of trying to establish these benchmarks,” she said. “The major things that we’re concerned about, salary, workload — those are not at a place
where we have made significant movement.”
“The university continues to negotiate with Service Employees International Union Local 509 on a first contract for the professors of the practice,” Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, wrote in a statement to the Daily. “We have reached tentative agreement on a
UNIVERSITY
number of proposals and continue to be engaged in productive negotiations with the union over remaining proposals, including wages.”
39% of the PoPs live over an hour away from SMFA because of the expensive cost of living in the Boston area, McMillan said.
Tufts Democrats hosts lobby day kickoff event
Michael Onysko Deputy News Editor
On Tuesday, Tufts Democrats decided to lobby in support of a bill that would improve accessibility for homeless individuals applying for Massachusetts identification cards. The group began preparing for the multistep lobbying on Beacon Hill at the Massachusetts Legislature.
After brainstorming potential political topics to focus on, members of the organization looked through bills currently moving through the state legislature. Voting between bills addressing college legacy admissions, requiring financial literacy in Massachusetts public school curriculums, the waiving of state identification fees for homeless people and more, members opted to support Bill HD.1085 titled “An Act to provide identification to youth and adults experiencing homelessness.”
Bill HD.1085, presented by State Reps. James O’Day and Sean Garballey, would waive
the typical fees of obtaining a state ID for homeless individuals. By eliminating the financial cost of obtaining official identification, the bill would — if passed — allow homeless individuals in Massachusetts access to more resources by having state IDs, a member of the Tufts Democrats said.
Bailey Asbury, a first-year, recommended addressing the topic of homelessness and pitched the bill to be considered.
“I had attended a session with the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth a couple weeks ago, and they were partnering with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and were talking about this bill,” Asbury said. “There were a few youth in attendance that either were currently homeless or had experienced homelessness, and they were talking about how impactful this would be if they didn’t have to shell out $25 for something as simple as an ID. So I was touched by that human factor.”
Junior Curran Holden, the secretary of Tufts Democrats who helped run the meeting, shared the importance of organizing events like these to mobilize students.
“It’s really important for people to have experience and get comfortable with the legislative and executive side of politics, not just the election side of politics. That’s the broad source of why we do it,” Holden said. “It’s important for people to understand that their legislators work for them, and it’s important to get used to asking your legislators for things and telling them to do their jobs because they have a lot of power.”
Despite members of Tufts Democrats not necessarily being residents of Massachusetts, Holden shared why students should still participate in lobbying.
“Massachusetts is a place with [millions of] people, it does not matter whether you’re from Massachusetts, you still, I presume, want those [millions of] people, if
RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts is pictured on Feb. 1.
see SMFA, page 3
KUNAL BOTLA / THE TUFTS DAILY
Somerville City Hall is pictured on Nov. 11, 2024.
Pedestrian deaths raise concerns about Medford road safety
meaningfully fix the safety gaps without further delay.”
Originally published Feb. 27.
Concerns are growing over pedestrian safety among Medford residents and elected officials after two elderly men were fatally struck by vehicles in recent months.
Dan Dill, a professor at Boston University, passed away in January after being hit by a car on the Mystic Valley Parkway while walking his dog in December 2024. More recently, Arthur Webber died in February when he was struck by a vehicle in the Salem Street rotary near Medford Square. Both men were crossing the street legally, according to Medford City Councilor Emily Lazzaro.
On Feb. 11, the Medford City Council unanimously passed a resolution honoring Dill and expressed their “hope that this senseless tragedy will not be in vain and will not be repeated.”
Lazzaro, the resolution’s sponsor, has taken up traffic safety as a key issue and says simple additions like speed bumps and crosswalk signs could go a long way in curbing the number of vehicle-related accidents.
“It’s very fixable. … We can put a flashing sign, we can put a cone, we can put a sign in the middle of a crosswalk. It’s crazy how much that does to slow people down,” she said.
A letter from many of Dill’s neighbors was attached to the resolution and asked the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation — which maintains the parkway — to “urgently and
Residents have called on the state to make several safety improvements, including implementing speed limit enforcement signs, adding road markers and increasing speed enforcement by state police.
“It’s a life and death issue,” Lazzaro said. “We can prioritize this above a lot of other things where death is not the result of inaction.”
She added that improving safety on Medford’s centuries-old roads is challenging, particularly with vehicles that are built to protect drivers over pedestrians. The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s limited budget and cautious spending can prove especially difficult for the city’s many state-controlled streets like the Mystic Valley Parkway, Lazzaro said.
“It is still a road that is managed by a parks department when it should be managed by a transportation traffic department, or if the city could manage it, we have a traffic department that would happily make some changes to intersections and road design to make it safer,” Lazzaro said.
Nonprofit organizations are aiming to use public improvement projects as mechanisms for advocating for and bettering pedestrian infrastructure.
The Mystic River Watershed Association launched the Mystic Shoreline Initiative, which plans to enhance pedestrian areas along the Mystic Valley Parkway by constructing footpaths and upgrading crosswalks.
The current parkway’s wide design — which weaves
through the wooded and residential bank of the Mystic Lakes — makes it easy for drivers to pick up speed and fail to see pedestrian crossings, according to Karl Alexander, the senior manager of Greenways Programs at MyWRA.
He said that when it comes to pedestrian safety, the MyWRA’s project centers around two goals: safe routes to schools and parks.
The initiative must receive approval from the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which will fund the project to begin development and construction. Alexander adds that the cost and amount of work to be done have slowed the process.
“It’s gonna be a $10–15 million project. That’s not something they can just snap their fingers and do, and they’ve yet to adopt it formally” he said.
“They need to take responsibility and say, ‘We’re going to adopt it as a project in our capital plan.’”
The department plans to improve the area near the accident involving Dill, but Alexander hopes that efforts to improve pedestrian safety will become more proactive.
“They’re reacting to death right now,” he said.
Locals are also sharing their fears online about the safety of the Salem Street rotary, which provides access to Interstate 93 and Medford Square.
Katie Montgomery, a Medford resident, started a Facebook thread that became an outlet for neighbors’ outrage over the fatal February accident. Her husband, Christian Nachtrieb, has been
injured in multiple vehicle-related incidents while walking and on his bike.
“There have been so many times where I’ve been mid-crosswalk, and I’ve had cars angrily swerve around me and honk as if I had the audacity to be crossing the street,” Montgomery said. “Having more pedestrians and cyclists lessens the amount of vehicular traffic on the street, so let’s all share the road. There’s such a ‘me, me, me first’ mentality in this state.”
She says the area lacks sufficient signage and information for both pedestrians and drivers. “There needs to be a sign that says stop for pedestrians,” she said. “We need to make sure that pedestrians and drivers alike know the rules of the road.”
A lack of oversight of state resources and the city’s makeup makes it difficult for local resources to be fully utilized, according to Alexander.
“The tax base is largely residential. There isn’t much commercial tax base and as a result, you don’t have a lot of money to work with as a municipal budget,” he said.
The city of Medford has made several efforts, however, in its partnership with the Massachusetts Legislature to implement pedestrian-friendly safety measures. More pedestrian signals, including countdown signal heads and flashing beacons, as well as a raised crosswalk and speed tables, have been installed throughout the city.
“It can be pretty complicated to make changes, but I do think progress is being made,” Lazzaro said.
Julian Glickman News Editor
JOHN MURPHY / TUFTS DAILY
A stoplight on Mystic Valley Parkway is pictured on Feb. 22.
Professors of the practice emphasize salary, workload as contract negotiations continue
“I can’t afford to live nearby, and I particularly can’t afford to have studio space nearby,” she said. “I have a pretty fantastic studio set up in Rhode Island — which I’m fortunate to have been able to develop — but it means that my students are not able to come to my studio to work in the same capacity.”
Lauren O’Connor-Korb, another SMFA professor of the practice, explained how difficult the long commutes can be for student-faculty connections.
“It’s really hard to build that community when all your professors are either commuting long
distances to come in because they can’t afford to live in the city, or they are preoccupied with living paycheck to paycheck, which a lot of us are,” she said.
PoPs at SMFA also seek greater support for their research in a finalized contract.
“We’re looking at studios and research support,” McMillan said. “Research is really artistic practice as well, and [if] we’re evaluated on that criteria, then we really have to be enabled to do the work. So we need research support, space to do that work and time to do that work.”
As the negotiations approach a year since they began, PoPs anticipate the negotiations continuing
Tufts Democrats prepare to lobby for state IDs for homeless individuals
DEMOCRATS
continued from the front
they find themselves to be homeless, to be able to get an ID,” she said.
Now that Tufts Democrats have chosen a bill to lobby for, members will begin meeting with and calling local legislators before convening with other nearby chapters of College Democrats of Massachusetts to join lobbying efforts.
Holden reminded members to treat legislators as people too in order to effectively convey political messages.
“If legislators have taken action that you are hoping they would take, you should thank them. If they have taken action that you were hoping they wouldn’t take, tell them you’re disappointed,” Holden said.
In a follow-up meeting roughly a month from now, members of the club will write a one-pager, stating why constituents need the bill, to then reach out to state legislators.
Holden acknowledged that while one group of college students might not make a difference for a single bill, the collective and sustained effort of multiple groups helps efforts eventually see success.
“What makes the difference for the bill is over a long period of time [are] interest groups, concerned citizens, groups like Tufts Democrats going to legislators again and again and again and pushing that bill just a little bit further,” she said.
While it can be difficult to measure success, Holden highlighted the importance of putting voices behind lobbying efforts no matter the perceived impact.
“The number of people that lobby their legislators is really small in this world,” she said.
“That makes the number of people who do lobby their legislators inordinately powerful. It’s important to be in that group if you want to make the world a better place.”
still longer, though the timeline is uncertain.
“I think that’s also entirely up to Tufts, right? They could settle this contract tomorrow,” O’ConnorKorb said. “None of the things that we’re asking for are that crazy.”
“We have been working on this for well over a year, and we are really committed to [SMFA] and to Tufts and being part of this, and we want to make progress,” McMillan said. “The slowdown is not on our end at all.”
For O’Connor-Korb, the new contract is not just for the current PoPs but also for those who come after.
“I want the world to be left in a better place than I found it and that
seems like that’s increasingly hard, but I think it’s my duty as someone who sees all these institutional spaces as a place that I hopefully open the door for a different, more broad group of people to come behind me,” O’Connor-Korb said. “I want to try to leave these spaces more equitable with better worklife balance, with realistic expectations [and] with livable wages.”
McMillan shared that they have received a lot of support from other Tufts unions and student groups, such as the School of Arts and Sciences Full-time Lecturers Union and the Tufts Labor Coalition.
“Our students are absolutely, enthusiastically on our side. They are our very best allies and
support,” McMillan said. “We’ve had incredible support from the Tufts Labor Coalition. They are incredible partners.”
In October 2024, SMFA PoPs, A&S full-time lecturers and School of Engineering graduate workers protested in demand that Tufts meet their contract demands and delivered a signed petition to the Tufts administration at Ballou Hall. McMillan said she has seen great support from other unions this year.
“We have a lot of cross-pollination in the conversations that happen around actions, and we’ve had nothing but support from the FTLs and vice versa,” she said.
Local politicians speak out against Trump’s immigration policy
schools, workplaces, hospitals and churches.”
Officials of Somerville and Chelsea see the threat of losing federal funding without due process for upholding their sanctuary policies as a direct attack on their communities and residents.
“We know that weaponizing federal funding threat-
ens the health and safety of all residents, be it your neighbor who relies on Meals on Wheels for dinner or a veteran who needs help accessing job resources,” Ballantyne said.
A Somerville resident who works in Chelsea said she was glad to hear about the legal action and “felt very proud” to be working and living in the two cities.
“I definitely think it feels a lot more scary — the idea that local law enforcement could be
partnering with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. I know that New Hampshire has already started that process, which makes me really scared for my friends who live and attend school there,” she said.
Another Somerville resident, Tristan, expressed his wish that the cities would comply with federal immigration enforcement, though other residents might not
outwardly voice similar opinions.
“They should assist in enforcing federal law,” he said. “At this point, it’s gone way too out of control.”
Overall, a strong showing of public support was evident at the press conference.
Somerville and Chelsea leaders stressed the importance of the lawsuit in safeguarding the constitutional right for local affairs to be handled at the state level by
those who best understand their constituents’ interests.
“This lawsuit is not just about Somerville; it’s not just about Chelsea,” Neufeld said. “It’s about the fundamental rights of our cities and towns across the country to decide how best to keep our residents safe.”
“We urge the administration to honor our constitution and let us serve our communities as we know best,” Ballantyne said.
RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Massachusetts State House is pictured on May 10, 2024.
Hubbub Studios’ newest episode brings urban planning research to life
Editor’s note: Raffaella Vogt is a contributing writer for the Daily. Vogt was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
Hubbub Studios is home to a video series that explores current and pressing urban environment research and issues in order to distill them into easyto-follow videos. Hubbub is led by Professor Justin Hollander of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning in collaboration with some of his students. They are offering new content that presents research in a fun, engaging and accessible way.
Since its first video in 2018, Hubbub Studios now has eight episodes, covering a range of topics from “Urban Social Listening” to its newest episode, “Blockchain and Web3 Technology in Urban Planning,” released on Jan. 20.
In an interview with the Daily, Hollander explained that Hubbub was created to share department research and to educate students about the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning.
“I realized that the young people that I was meeting in the classroom, especially before they got to college, spent a lot of time watching videos, and so I thought that this would be another way for us to tell the story about what we’re doing here at Tufts … in a fun, engaging and hopefully funny format,” Hollander said.
While the research behind the videos is by Hollander and his department, the Hubbub Studios videos are written, filmed and produced in collaboration with Tufts students.
“[The students] know my vision, my goal, and I’m fortunate that the university provides me with some resources to support my research, and so I have a very small amount of funding,” he said. “I’m able to hire them to be able to just come up with the concepts based on recent research that I’ve been part of.”
These videos are conceptualized through Hollander sharing his current projects and research with students, asking if any resonate with them and could be turned into a compelling video.
“What I’ve always done with my students is, I tell them about a bunch of projects. I send them some articles and papers [or] reports and say, ‘What do you think?’” he explained. “They have always picked the kind of topics that they thought would resonate and would be funny and an interesting watch.”
Sada Schumann, a sophomore combined degree student majoring in environmental studies and studio art, recently joined Hollander’s team as a
video producer and director. She described the process behind creating Hubbub Studios’ newest episode.
“That video was about blockchain and Web3 technology, which are cryptocurrency concepts, and how those can be applied in an urban planning sphere to help efficiency and incentivize community involvement,” Schumann said.
Schumann explained that the first step in the creation process is simplifying the research for a broader audience.
“First, we start kind of looking at studies and research and then working on translating that into something that is a little bit simpler and kind of takes out a lot of the technical vocabulary. … It’s taking the paper and bringing it down to the essence: ‘What is this trying to say?’” Schumann said.
From there, Schumann, alongside sophomore Gus Gladstein, worked on writing a script for the episode, which featured a scenario model.
“We wanted it to sit a little bit more in the entertainment space but still be based on things that are factual and educational,” Schumann said.
Not having engaged with cryptocurrency projects beforehand, Schumann collaborated with Hollander throughout the creative process. Hollander also emphasized the collaborative nature of Hubbub Studios.
“Sometimes I’ve been, over the years, involved in helping to
give them some guidance, but I find the most successful episodes are where they really just run with it,” he said.
Students like Schumann not only produce and write but also are involved as actors, helping bring each episode to life.
“A goal we want to work towards is, ‘How do we engage the Tufts community at large? How do we get people from very different areas involved and interested in the project?’” Schumann said.
Raffaella Vogt, a third-year majoring in studio art who was recruited by Schumann, was an actor in the latest episode and is a graphic designer for Hubbub Studios. She described the filming experience and her acting role.
“[The script and production run-down] was super helpful for … nailing down who I was going to be as city councilor, and what my values and aligned goals were with the rest of the cast,” Vogt said.
Vogt also noted that student actors were able to put their own spins on roles and not always strictly stick to the script.
“The other actors took really fun creative liberties and experimented a lot with their characters. It was cool to see them be able to take their lines, mess with them and put them in a silly voice or cater them to be more like their characters,” she said.
After filming is wrapped, the episodes are edited and produced. Schumann explained how it pushed her to learn new animation and graphics skills.
“It takes a really long time to make everything perfect because there’s just so many details to consider, and I think our concept was based a lot on being able to explain things through graphics and through voiceovers,” she said.
The “Blockchain and Web3 Technology in Urban Planning” episode was screened at an event hosted by the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning on Feb. 3. The screening featured a meet and greet with the actors and brought together students and faculty from across departments.
“Talking with people at that event, it really was people from everywhere. Most of them had taken an urban planning class or had thought about those ideas,” Schumann said. “It really is applicable to just about everything you could be interested in. I’m an art student, and I’m finding ways that it is applicable to me.”
The feedback from the screening is valuable for future Hubbub Studios projects.
“Getting a sense of those reactions helps inform my next project [by] seeing what people latch onto, and what people like or what was confusing … [and] getting to know different people who might want to act in the future, might have an idea for a next episode,” Schumann said.
Since the launch, students have expressed interest in joining Hubbub Studios.
“I’ve had students come up to me and say they want to now volunteer and help out and be
part of it. So I think the word is really starting to get out,” Hollander said.
From Hubbub Studios’ videos, Vogt hopes that people gain an understanding of urban planning, emphasizing that it involves not only evolving technology but also psychology, engineering, finance and natural sciences, all of which impact our daily lives.
“Being able to cover such an interdisciplinary field of all these different studies really makes it a rich thing that I hope a lot of people will understand has more dimensions than it seems through the Hubbub videos,” Vogt said.
Episodes are currently available through the Hubbub Studios website and YouTube channel. Schumann also noted that they want to broaden their outreach to new platforms.
“We’re in the process of developing an Instagram … [and] we want to break a little bit more into the short form video space, because that’s a way to grab that initial audience,” she said.
Looking to the future of Hubbub Studios, Hollander said that they are going to continue to innovate through collaboration with students.
“We’re going to tap into the creative ideas of the students that are amongst us here at Tufts and see what they think are better ways to tell stories that are going to be engaging and if they’re going to help spread those ideas,” he said.
Elizabeth Zacks Features Editor
COURTESY RHONE-ANN HUANG
Sada Schumann speaks during the Hubbub launch on Feb. 3.
Freebites app makes free food a click away
Executive Features Editor
College campuses are responsible for around 22 million pounds of food waste every year. On Tufts campus, a group of students is helping to lower that number by making free food one buzz away with their mobile app, Freebites, which launched on Oct. 15, 2024.
Anyone who has the app can post about a free food opportunity on campus, browse through others’ posts, turn on notifications for any time there is a new post and access chats for status updates on available food in real-time.
Co-founder Sarah Jun, a senior, conceptualized the app and brought a team together to help see her vision through.
“I’m a first [generation] student, so I was trying to find ways I could give back to my community. And I realized there’s a lot of food waste on campus,” Jun said. “So, I just got a group of friends [together] who were also looking for a project, and they’re the kind of friends who are kind of down to do anything.”
The other co-founder and technical lead, Clarence Ye, is a senior who joined the Freebites team in 2023. He was brought on for the development side of the app where he, along with the team he built, was able to code a mobile app, a skillset that goes beyond the teaching of Tufts’ computer science department.
“Tufts is a really good program to teach you those fundamentals. But when it comes to a specific language, you’ve got to learn it yourself,” Ye said.
Senior Alice Fang joined the team in July 2023, initially as a UI/UX designer. After the app was developed, she shifted gears and became the head of marketing, where she introduced Freebites to the Tufts community through her advertising strategies.
Initially, the team marketed the app through word of mouth to friends and posts on social media. Fang, in collaboration with Jun and another member of the Freebites team, incorporated the app’s mission of free food into their marketing strategy.
“We do these boba giveaways which have been really helpful in introducing the app to Tufts students, especially in the undergrad community,” Fang said.
Since last semester, Fang has been adding people to the marketing team, leading to even more creative
marketing ideas. Recently, Freebites wanted to ride the wave of the trending show “Squid Game” by going around popular areas on campus and playing the one-on-one Korean card game Ddakji that was featured in the show with students. If the student they played with won, they would get a free treat; if the Freebites member won, the student would have to download the app.
“We try to create a very college, unserious, friendly and approachable brand image. I think that’s why we try to do a lot of these interesting activities,” Fang said.
To fund these marketing activities and other things such as server costs, Freebites has received various grants for their efforts. They plan to continue applying for grants, enter entrepreneurial competitions such as Tufts New Ventures Competition and potentially become a nonprofit organization in the future.
Freebites is a student-run organization that is completely third-party independent. However, that was not always the case.
“Initially, we were supported by TCU on their food security initiative, which is currently not operating,” Jun said. “I think that really pushed us to keep going because we thought we found someone who believed in what we were making outside of us for the first time.”
Even though Freebites was originally a Tufts Community Union Senateaffiliated organization, there was a possible “miscommunication” between the Senate and the university, as the Tufts Mobile app recently came out with similar features to that of Freebites.
“We started developing our apps not knowing about each other. And then a year in, we were made aware of each other,” Ye said. “At that point we were like, … ‘We can’t really turn around and not do it.’”
In addition to Freebites and the Tufts Mobile app, there are other options for accessing leftover food on Tufts campus, such as an email list for free food opportunities. Ye noted that students do not have to choose between Freebites and these other resources.
“As the official stance, we are not meant to be replacing [the email list]. In terms of design … notifications go straight to your phone. The overall user experience is a little bit more streamlined,” Ye said.
Emily Sullivan
Boston Book Crawl
Narrative
If exams, papers and projects are consuming all of your time during this midterm season, and a trip to one of Boston’s many bookstores is not feasible, then I have great news for you. There is still a way to have this author’s recommended dose of bookstore browsing at a lovely shop right here in Tufts’ backyard.
Located down the road from Gong Cha in Davis Square is Narrative, a bookstore with a mission to uplift marginalized voices and provide a gathering space for the community.
The store features forest green walls and a small but cozy seating area with a plush, yellow couch that swallows an entire corner. The limited shelf space is carefully curated with a range of genres mixed together and organized by author. Puzzles and local artisan-crafted goods replace books on select shelves. In the back corner is a used book section featuring a much broader collection of books sold at a discount.
For the advertising side of things, Fang shared a similar sentiment.
“We’re just coexisting with them, and I don’t think our marketing intends to market Freebites in any relationship with the [email] list resource but more so as an app itself,” she said.
Even with these other free food options, Freebites has amassed a large user base and would like to continue growing that base within Tufts and beyond.
“[We have] 1,000 users at Tufts, and Tufts is kind of a small school, so we’re really excited to see how many more students we can help if we start expanding to nearby universities,” Jun said.
Ye agreed, noting that the Tufts’ version of the Freebites app serves as a kind of trial run before they introduce it to other academic institutions.
“We’re testing out the product and making sure it’s all fine and dandy before we start [at other] schools,” Ye said.
For expansion, the group plans to start small. Freebites has one member who attends Brown University, opening the door for Brown to potentially be the second university the app is available to.
“We want to use a campus ambassador model, where there’s going to be representatives at each campus [to help us] publicize and market our app to the campus’ people and to gauge their feedback and maybe report back to our current team,”Fang said.
The Freebites team hopes to see an expansion to other universities within the next few semesters. Before then, there are still things they hope to improve, such as making their app available to Android users, as it is now only available on iOS.
“On our end, we have to make sure that it’s secure enough for other students to use, not just Tufts. So, that’s what we’re working on right now,” Jun said.
As Jun, Ye, Fang and the other senior members graduate, they hope to continue helping Freebites in a more advisory capacity, but they have built a solid team to lead the future endeavors of the app.
“Behind the scenes, a lot of students are putting in so many hours, pulling so many all-nighters, just to make this happen,” Jun said.
Books surround the space without the claustrophobic sense that many bookstores evoke. These books — fiction and nonfiction — span age groups and are from authors with a range of racial, cultural, gender, sexual and class identities. Lacking the typical genre organization, it becomes much easier to pick up a book outside your comfort zone.
Walking in, I was immediately greeted by the sounds of Mila Hossain, the owner and only staff member, deep in a conversation with a customer over which fantasy book would be a perfect gift. After much deliberation, the customer took Hossain’s recommendation and left content. The bookseller then welcomed a new customer and dove into conversation with them, creating an atmosphere of easy banter as I explored.
The store is quaint, and conversations flow from group to group as sound travels easily through the room. Customers entered discussions with groups of strangers with a polite, “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but…” Drawn into a conversation, I chatted with Hossain about publishing scandals (there are more than you’d expect) and her plans for the space. With plenty of monthly events, including craft nights and open mics, Narrative is fulfilling its goals of community gathering. Hossain is quite passionate about her bookstore and loves getting to know her customers, which gives her plenty to talk about.
Narrative is a store for when you are unsure what you want, thanks to its curated collection. You may not find the recent bestsellers, but you will find unexpected gems. Narrative, in total honesty to you, is a store I frequent whenever I have some extra time in Davis. I enjoy browsing its collection and seeing books that I adore and others that are new to me. As someone who has spent years searching for books that contained characters that looked like me — something like the book I bought — Hossain’s mission hits close to home.
I left with a copy of T Kira Madden’s “Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls,” a memoir that I plan on digging into when I am free from the grips of midterms.
Emily Sullivan is a junior studying clinical psychology and English. Emily can be reached at emily.sullivan654577@tufts.edu.
Dylan Fee
DEFNE OLGUN / THE TUFTS DAILY
The team for Freebites, a new app that shares campus free food alerts, tables at the farmers market on Oct. 4, 2024.
ARTS & POP CULTURE
‘Cabaret’ is a powerful reflection and a call to action in today’s political landscape
Fiona Hinrichsen Assistant Arts Editor
“Cabaret” has been performed and reimagined time and time again, uncovering new meanings as societal contexts evolve. Today, under the direction of Professor Barbara Wallace Grossman, this iconic musical takes on new urgency amidst the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s return to power, inviting audiences to reflect on its poignant relevance in our turbulent political landscape.
“The resonance between these two dark historical moments –Germany in 1929-1930 three years before Hitler became Chancellor and the start of the second Trump presidency – is as striking as it is chilling,” Grossman wrote.
While Grossman recognizes that declaring “Cabaret” a cautionary tale for our times may be overstating its purpose, she believes that staging the play in the present day can serve as an empowering call to action.
“The arts can help us not only cope, but to activate and advocate in our own way,” Grossman noted.
“Cabaret” marks the 16th campus production and seventh musical directed by Grossman, a professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her passion for musical theater, along with her commitment to Holocaust education, made “Cabaret” particularly enticing, especially given its relevance to the current political climate. The show is being performed at Balch Arena Theater through Sunday.
Set against the backdrop of Berlin during the waning years of the Weimar Republic — a time marked by the rise of the Nazi Party prior to Adolf Hitler’s chancellorship — the musical explores a city recovering from World War I and grappling with the harsh restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Berlin, reminiscent of present-day New York City, was a hub of artistic, sexual and political freedom. Yet beneath its vibrant surface lay a powder keg ready to explode.
The musical follows themes of sexual freedom, anti-semitism and oppression, connecting deeply with contemporary struggles for LGBTQ+ rights, immigration justice and reproductive freedom.
Grossman directed the play in Balch with a full theatre-inthe-round staging. This unique space generates a built-in energy as the audience surrounds the stage and becomes fully immersed in the performance. To complement this, she opted for minimalist scenic design, enhancing the fluidity between
the two settings of the musical: Cliff Bradshaw’s (Jake Pandina) bedroom in Fraulein Schneider’s (Katie Spiropoulos) boarding house and the lively scenes set in the Kit Kat Klub. The narrative seamlessly transitions between these two worlds, with Sally Bowles (Bella Juhaeri) and the Emcee (Nathan Elmer) being the only characters who appear in both settings. This departs from the original 1966 production, which showcased an elaborate set design by Boris Aronson.
The scenes in Cliff’s bedroom unfold on a raised platform with the pit underneath; this is the first time the pit has been situated beneath the stage in Balch. The club scenes, however, were treated environmentally, occurring in any part of the theatre — whether on staircases or around the platform. This immersive approach made the audience a part of the musical, metaphorically transforming them into visitors of the Kit Kat Klub as dancers glided down the railings, playfully teasing them with flirtatious glances.
Upon entering, the ambiance exuded a swanky allure, with dimly lit cafe tables surrounding the stage, enhanced by neon Kit Kat Klub signs hanging above.
The club’s performers, known as the Kit Kat Kids, appeared in provocative outfits with striking avant-garde makeup, sensually dancing throughout the theater.
A recurring motif in the performance is the image of a hand, prominently featured on many costumes, especially those worn by Sally. The imagery signifies the emergence of Hitler’s regime and the ominous shadow beginning to loom over Berlin. The tumultuous changes that would soon come to the city are reflected not only in the costumes but also in the music throughout the production.
The performance is enhanced by a full orchestra of 10 talented musicians, who play keyboard, saxophone, clarinet, flute, violin, guitar, banjo, trombone, trumpet, drums and double bass. This musical experience evokes emotions that transcends the spoken word, deepening the performance’s ability to inspire political change.
The song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” for example, is performed twice over the course of the show, transforming in significance as the political climate in Berlin evolves. In the 1998 Broadway version directed by Sam Mendes, the emcee comes out with a gramophone, sits cross-legged on the floor and puts on a record playing the song. Grossman found this decision arbitrary, and instead, she drew inspiration from the 1966 version, where four Kit Kat Klub waiters sing the song. In Tufts’
rendition of “Cabaret,” a choir of Kit Kat Kids, directed by the emcee, stand on the staircase, beautifully singing the song, evoking a sense of nostalgia for pre-Hitler Germany. The scene remains still, capturing the calm before the storm. In stark contrast, the subsequent rendition transforms into a war song, signaling the rise of the Nazi Party and the dramatic changes unfolding in Berlin.
The choreography in Tufts’ rendition of “Cabaret” diverges from earlier interpretations, particularly the 1972 film version famous for Bob Fosse’s signature jazz style, which incorporated sensual and provocative movements along with props like bowler hats, chairs and canes. Choreographer Holly Stone opted for a modern approach, blending elements of jazz with contemporary styles reflective of queer nightlife, such as vogue and waacking. This fresh perspective not only emphasizes the sexual freedom of Berlin but also highlights the current restrictions on sexual freedom in the United States.
The ending of “Cabaret” invites vast creative interpretation. Grossman seized this opportunity, drawing parallels between fascist Germany and the current political landscape in the United States. The Kit Kat Kids are portrayed as if trapped in a Jewish internment camp, suffering on stage before dragging themselves off. Above, a montage plays featuring speeches from both Hitler and Trump, a bold political statement that leaves the audience in stunned silence. Grossman’s direct comparison between the two leaders underscores her cautionary message about the alarming similarities between the rise of Nazi Germany and the current climate in the United States, emphasizing the urgent need for collective action.
Grossman echoes the sentiments of Anne Bogart, renowned theater and opera director, who reflects on the significance of Erich Korngold’s opera “Die Tote Stadt” (“The Dead City”), set in Hamburg and Cologne in the wake of World War I.
“We can stay awake together. We must stay awake together. We cannot afford to be passive, waiting until conditions improve,” Bogart said.
Tufts’ production of “Cabaret” stands as a powerful call to action, urging the community to respond to the political shifts occurring in the United States. It emphasizes the necessity for decisive action from all citizens to safeguard American democracy.
“Cabaret” is running in Balch Arena Theater until Sunday. Tickets are available on the Tufts Drama & Dance ticket website or at the Aidekman box office.
COURTESY NILE SCOTT STUDIOS
Bella Juhaeri is pictured performing in “Cabaret” at the Balch Arena Theater.
English or Spanish?
Comparing ‘Culpa Mía’
and its newly released English remake, ‘My Fault: London’
Raffaella Vogt Contributing Writer
Originally published Feb. 27.
This past year, the film industry has seen a plethora of bookto-film adaptations, with new spins on beloved tales succeeding on streaming and in the box office. In 2017, Argentine author Mercedes Ron released her first of three Wattpad-to-print stories, “Culpa Mía.” The book follows a teenage girl named Noah, who is moving in with her mother’s new billionaire husband and son. An outsider to this world of wealth and luxury, Noah struggles to adjust to her new lifestyle and her new stepbrother, who is equally as annoyed at their new circumstances. Over the course of the story, wild events such as drag racing, fist fights, romance and car chases ensue, putting Noah and Nick through the paces of their friendship and their developing attraction to each other. To address the elephant in the room: Yes, Nick and Noah are stepsiblings who fall in love. Considering its unique selling point, this high-octane love trilogy became one of the most popular pieces of writing in its genre, getting picked up by Amazon Prime for a three-movie deal.
“Culpa Mía,” the first film adaptation, was released in 2023 and immediately gained a cult following. The film follows the same premise as its source but focuses on setting up the next two movies rather than on craft and quality. The sequel, “Culpa Tuya,” was released in December 2024, and during its press tour, it was announced that there would be an English remake of “Culpa
In
Mía” coming out this February. Released on Feb. 13, “My Fault: London” took the American audience by storm, retelling the same story of the central characters from “Culpa Mía,” Nick and Noah, but in English. As reviews came in, “My Fault: London” crushed the ratings of “Culpa Mía,” with many arguing that “My Fault: London” was far superior and better written. This divide prompts the question: Are the ratings of both movies a result of the culture and language they center around, or is one genuinely better than the other?
Each film leans into the cultural aspects of their settings — Spain and London, respectively — using slang and events such as parties, dinners and outings to world-build and move the plot forward. “Culpa Mía” leans into the lively and sunny atmosphere of the Spanish coastline, highlighting boardwalks and dirt race tracks as the settings for its pivotal scenes. “My Fault: London” opts for shiny skyscrapers and cosmopolitan living, with dimly lit underground parties, parking garage drag races and ornate British homes playing the same role. These changes not only reflect the realities of their setting but also the personalities of the characters and how they operate.
Almost all of the characters from “Culpa Mía” undergo changes to their personalities and backgrounds to accommodate their new cultural idiosyncrasies. In “Culpa Mía,” Noah is brash and childish, while in “My Fault: London,” Noah is much more mature and playfully snarky. Both girls follow the same track but navigate their relationship with Nick differently. Nick, billionaire
“daddy’s boy,” as affectionately deemed by Noah, varies vastly between the two films. Both Nicks have the same characteristics of being quite rude and standoffish, participating in “Fight Club” style boxing matches and illegal drag racing. The “My Fault: London” version of Nick is a true British dandy, looking after Noah and focusing on protecting and helping her over objectifying her. The “Culpa Mía” version of Nick, on the other hand, is a walking red flag, going all in on objectification and toxicity towards Noah. Rather than starting off as friends, the two immediately take a liking to each other, setting up for an emotionally explosive relationship on both ends, while the “My Fault: London” version of Nick and Noah find their conflicts in their friendship first. As a result, fan preference swings more towards the “My Fault: London” version
of Nick because of his authentic personality in comparison to the “Culpa Mía” version of Nick, who is unpredictable and has a closedoff nature.
Considering the differences and similarities between the two films, it’s clear which film is more liked by their audiences. While most fanfictions and their adaptations rely on tropes and dramatic twists, “My Fault: London” approaches things differently. It provides a true connection, showing how a situation like Nick and Noah’s would realistically play out, leaving tropes aside. With “My Fault: London” releasing two years later, it’s no surprise that the writing and storytelling are much stronger, as there were previous critiques to consider. The interesting thing about remakes of beloved originals is that creative liberties can be taken, which, in this case, made for a much better film.
Photos: Women’s lacrosse faces off against Conneticut College
Fiona Hinrichsen Trunks Full of Treasures
Past On Vintage brings thrifting to Tufts campus
Thomas Gradente, founder of Past On Vintage, has been a highlight among students at Tufts for nearly 15 years, bringing incredible vintage finds and vinyl records to campus. He has hosted several pop-up shops this past fall and most recently held a pop-up in the Mayer Campus Center on Feb. 11. In addition to his popups at Tufts, Gradente has organized events at Connecticut College, Wesleyan University, the University of Hartford and Trinity College.
Surprising to most, Gradente visits the same thrift shops that all of us do, but he’s able to uncover unique finds that others often overlook. His ability to see potential where others may not ensures that every visit to his pop-up promises an extraordinary selection of finds.
In vintage fashion, clothing transcends its physical value; it embodies a collection of memories. The pieces Gradente selects not only reflect the past lives of their former owners but also reflect his personal experiences as he meticulously chooses each item.
Gradente first began collecting vinyls in the ’60s, spending his childhood beneath the record player, fully absorbed in his parents’ music. It was during the psychedelic ‘60s, however, where he truly found a deep connection with music, finding understanding in music like Jim Morrison and The Doors. This early passion for music shaped his appreciation for art and influenced his creative journey.
His two daughters have been a significant source of inspiration for his journey into the fashion business in particular. From a young age, both showed a keen interest in fashion, and they now work in the industry in New York City. Fashion has become a meaningful channel of connection between him and his daughters.
As the weather warms up, expect to see more pop-ups on campus from Gradente, each promising fresh finds. By bridging his interests in vintage fashion and vinyl with an appreciation for human connections and history, Gradente creates a space where nostalgia meets contemporary style.
Fiona Hinrichsen is a first-year who has yet to declare a major. Fiona can be reached at fiona. hinrichsen@tufts.edu.
VIA PRINTERVAL
The movie poster of ‘Culpa Mía’ (2023) is pictured.
SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 23
Cliques on campus
Club Member: I would like to request that you advise me on how to deal with the TOXIC CLIQUINESS of various organizations on this campus.
Dear Club Member,
As usual, I would like to thank you for writing to Sage Advice to ask for support. As I prefaced in my first column, I’ll do my best to speak from personal experience and give you some semblance of an answer to the perennial problem of “toxic cliquiness.”
While your request doesn’t include much detail on the exact predicament you find yourself in, I am well-versed in the inevitable tensions and feelings of contempt that can brew between students on this campus.
This can create an environment that is discouraging and downright demoralizing for members who don’t identify with the in-group — never mind those who simply joined the organization late or aren’t able to participate as often. In my encounters with club-adopted cliques, I’ve often felt it impossible to escape the pervading group norms or adopt the perfect personality needed to fit into a preexisting social fabric. Even more, I’ve found that involving myself with just one organization at a time has often left me more vulnerable to the effects of toxic cliques.
Lucky! NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 21
OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 22
Groups — whether due to bold personalities, ambitious goals or a competitive work environment — can often form within the ranks of a larger organization to produce this phenomenon that you, myself and many others have encountered through the trials of campus life. When these groups within groups eventually become entrenched over time and turn hierarchical, their mere existence — good or bad — can begin to define every aspect of spending time with a club.
While an easy fallback on college campuses, resist the temptation to let your classes and clubs define every aspect of your social circle and sense of self. From my experience, it simply isn’t healthy to lean on a single campus group for all of your needs, and rarely is an organization capable of doing so. Every group offers something different — whether that be friendship, professional skills or competitive fervor — so find a few that appeal to you and figure out what exactly you hope to get out of the time you spend with them. Toxic cliquiness can be a difficult problem to grapple with, but finding multiple sources of community can make you more resistant to its effects.
I hope my advice, however vague, can help you navigate the murky waters of toxic cliquiness and traverse the social peaks, canyons and plateaus often found at Tufts.
Sincerely,
Matthew Sage
You won’t be lucky this week but your friends and loved ones will be! Try not to be too bitter when they see success.
Maybe you’ll be so lucky that you’ll see a unicorn this week or even a leprechaun.
AQUARIUS
DECEMBER 22-JANUARY 20 JANUARY 21-FEBRUARY 18
You might bomb a test. Oops! Don’t worry. Your luck will return next week.
PISCES
FEBRUARY 19-MARCH 20
CROSSWORD
Matthew Sage Sage Advice
Ahmad Abdul-Basser Contributing Writer
The American retail market can be described with three words: variety, variety and still more variety. Anything and everything one could need is available for purchase at the biggest retail providers. Just walk into the closest Target, Walmart or Aldi, peruse the meticulously organized aisles and walk past the food, makeup, hardware, clothes, toys and technology. Tell me you haven’t found exactly what you’re looking for. Now, imagine you could indulge in that same sense of pure bliss, calm and convenience from the comfort of your home. Fortunately, you can with Amazon.
Brought to life in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, the multinational conglomerate began as a small online bookselling service operating out of a rented garage. By 1999, Amazon had seen such success in the bookselling market that Bezos was named Time’s Person of the Year. By 2001, Amazon had a market cap of around $4 billion and was staffed by approximately 8,000 employees. Bezos had always maintained that Amazon’s true purpose was not bookselling but rather becoming a technology company intended to facilitate online transactions and deliveries to users. Bezos’ vision was partly represented by the creation of Amazon Web Services, a data service and cloud storage provider.
Given Amazon’s widespread reach, we must ask: How has
Sorsha Khitikian
Through Indigenous Eyes
What’s in a name?
For weeks, a battle between the administration of President Donald Trump and The Associated Press has raged over Trump’s executive order that changed the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America.” The AP has stated that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as such and has since been barred from White House press briefings. Now, the issue is being brought to court, with the AP suing Trump administration officials for violating the First and Fifth Amendments. But in that same executive order, another name was changed —
OPINION
VIEWPOINT
From Prime to predatory
the ascension of Amazon as America’s largest online retailer affected our economy, our working conditions and even our relationship to consumption?
Amazon’s corporate activities are so strongly associated with an uptick in available employment that the company is often subject to large tax breaks and subsidies. Just in 2022, Amazon squeezed over $5.1 billion in combined subsidies and tax breaks from state and federal sources. The most profitable of Amazon’s subsidiaries, Amazon Web Services, controls a dominating 32% of the cloud infrastructure market, providing massive data storage capabilities for several facets of the U.S. government.
Is it wise to have the heart of the American economy represented by a parasitic megacorporation — to have employees trapped in
one that the AP Stylebook has been updated to reflect.
Trump ordered that Mount Denali, the highest peak on the North American continent, be renamed Mount McKinley.
“McKinley” was the name given to the mountain by American gold prospector William Dickey, but it has been known as Mount Denali to Native Alaskans for centuries.
“Denali” comes from the Koyukon, an Athabascan people that settled near the mountain. The name, “Denali,” was first federally recognized 10 years ago as a testament to the Indigenous peoples who inhabit Alaska and their fight for recognition. Changing the name again to McKinley destroys this recognition, and who it’s named after makes the issue worse.
The mountain was named for William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. He implemented American
a Kafkaesque nightmare, working endless hours in barren Amazon warehouses and lacking the most basic of rights? Amazon has repeatedly been issued citations for maintaining grueling working conditions in its warehouses, shortchanging employees’ checks and fostering open hostility towards unions.
Looking past the impressive origin story, the real face of Amazon becomes clear, and it is not pretty. The Federal Trade Commission, in partnership with 17 U.S. states, has been impelled to sue Amazon for “illegally maintaining monopoly power.” The case claims, among other practices, that Amazon biases search results to prefer its own products over those of higher quality. Amazon has previously been accused of overcharging small distributors while restricting their sales on other platforms.
expansionism, overseeing the occupation of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War and the annexation of Hawaii. He believed that “Christianizing” Indigenous peoples was an act of kindness, and during his presidency, the government continued to forcibly convert Indigenous children through Alaska’s residential schooling system. He also pursued Manifest Destiny policies, approving the Curtis Act in 1898. The act took away around 90 million acres of Indigenous land for white settler use and dismantled tribal governments.
Why does Trump want to rename Mount Denali after McKinley? In his executive order, Trump explicitly praises McKinley for his implementation of tariffs, despite McKinley’s shift toward a more negative view on tariffs before his assassination. Trump
U. S. representatives have even called into question the efficacy of their own antitrust laws. In its need for ever greater profit margins, Amazon has become an overbearingly dominating force across many markets, and its ‘benevolent founder’ is not free from blame. Several internal sources claim that Bezos pioneered the same exclusionary practices during his 27-year stint as CEO, which ended in 2021.
Unfortunately, the government’s intervention in the Amazon problem seems to be an empty gesture, especially as government contracts and patronage represent part of Amazon Web Services’ revenue of over $90 billion. Many Americans find it hard to believe that the federal government is fighting the good fight against Amazon when the digital infrastructure of many
might also admire McKinley for his expansionism, given his agenda to buy Greenland.
So what makes this name change so important? A name represents what the people who use it value. Under the name “Denali,” the mountain represents what the original word means — “the High One.” The mountain towers over the surrounding landscape. “Denali” is a daily reminder of Alaska’s great natural landmarks. “Denali” also recognizes the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and their continued involvement in American life. The name “McKinley,” on the other hand, represents America’s history of genocidal expansionism that has resulted in the mass loss of Indigenous culture across the United States. Reinstating the name McKinley replaces hundreds of years’ worth of Indigenous history with the
government agencies, including the National Security Agency, U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Navy are serviced by Amazon Web Services. Our technological overlords at Amazon should have neither access to the databases of the most integral American intelligence agencies nor your personal information.
Amazon’s monopolistic behavior constantly seeks to redefine the relationship between “producer” and “consumer” — dehumanizing users into nothing more than potential sources of profit. We must refuse to offer our hardearned money to a morally bankrupt conglomerate that uses its political and financial influence to increase its profit margins at the cost of its employees.
Amazon thrives on our convenience, but that convenience itself is, in turn, a form of exploitation. That exploitation takes the form of practicing wage slavery, overworking employees, crushing small businesses and increasingly controlling the market with no regard for fairness or ethics. Every dollar spent on Amazon strengthens its grip on the economy, fuels its exploitative practices and allows it to tighten its stranglehold.
But we are not powerless. By choosing to support local businesses, independent retailers and ethical alternatives, we can chip away at Amazon’s dominance. Every person able to participate should boycott all Amazon products from March 7–14. The question isn’t whether we can afford to boycott Amazon — it’s whether we can afford not to.
history of one man who never even set foot in Alaska.
Let’s be clear: Most Alaskans are against the name change. Both Alaskan senators in Congress have expressed their disapproval, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski calling the change an “awful, awful idea.” The Alaska Legislature voted to condemn Trump’s executive order, and Indigenous leaders have spoken out in opposition. Just because Trump changed the name doesn’t mean people will use it. A name is not something you can just reassign. It represents identity and what people value. Alaskans, both Indigenous and not, are clear: They value Denali.
Sorsha Khitikian is a sophomore majoring in clinical psychology, history and civic studies. Sorsha can be reached at sorsha.khitikian@tufts.edu.
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VIA FLICKR
An Amazon package is pictured.
VIEWPOINT
The bare necessities: Centering Indigenous voices at COP30
Ahuja Staff Writer
“We have so many dreams of being able to do so many different things — of not just fighting to exist,” Vanda Witoto, a nurse and Indigenous activist, said in an interview with the United Nations Foundation.
Witoto hails from Parque das Tribos in Manaus, Brazil. This Indigenous region, while home to 35 Amazonian communities that have existed alongside this land for millennia and maintained a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest, has been historically neglected. Now, these people’s livelihoods depend on the preservation of an ecosystem that is being ravaged for its land and resources. As of today, more than 30% of the Amazon rainforest is in ruin. For many of us, especially those privileged enough to pursue our dreams in college, the threat of losing our homes to climate change feels remote — a crisis that we can watch from afar. Yet, for people like Witoto, whose education and aspirations are constantly overshadowed by the urgent
need to fight for the survival of her community, this fight is not a choice but a daily struggle to protect the land that sustains us all. Witoto and those like her experience constant reminders that this planet is our home, and we should all be fighting to preserve it.
This year’s Conference of the Parties will convene in Brazil from Nov. 10–21, marking the debut of this crucial climate summit on Brazilian land. Yet, its symbolic importance transcends far beyond a typical political dialogue; it lies in the soil, air and water of the forest as the conference will unfold in Belém, the heart of the Amazon rainforest. This ancient and sacred biome is one of our planet’s final frontiers, standing at the precipice of the relentless destruction that is human-induced climate change. Undeniably, it will be a critical moment in the global fight against climate change — a summit in which Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to discuss policies needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and his target of achieving zero
deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, among other pressing matters. As politicians, representatives from private corporations and researchers from universities all gather in Belém to discuss solutions, they must also confront the uncomfortable fact that the people who are most affected by this climate crisis, who have remained stewards of the land, have continued to be disregarded in these very discussions.
This conference must not repeat the colonial history that has ravaged the Amazon for years. The war of exploitation that has been waged in this region, underpinned by colonial ambitions and modern corporate greed, has, as with any war, disproportionately affected the innocent. The flora, the fauna and the Indigenous communities of the land now find themselves at the front lines of its destruction. This year’s climate conference must center Indigenous voices because they are custodians of knowledge and wisdom that has been passed down through generations, holding the key to living sustainably in harmony
VIEWPOINT
with nature. Excluding them from the decision-making process would continue the colonial narrative that sought to erase their voices, their rights and their existence.
We must move beyond the irony of holding a climate conference in the heart of the rainforest without including the very people whose futures are most intimately tied to its survival. Indigenous communities cannot simply be passive subjects of environmental policy. If the purpose of hosting the conference
within the Amazon is to amplify a message, let that message be conveyed by its inhabitants, not just by guests who arrive in private jets and expensive suits, detached from the very culture of the land they claim to care for.
Let this conference be a pivotal moment where we listen to voices like Witoto’s — those who have fought tirelessly to protect the Amazon — so that the future of our planet is shaped by those who have always known how to safeguard it.
A WWE executive’s dreams of killing public education
President Donald Trump recently proclaimed that U.S. schools are “last in education out of 40 [countries],” but “No. 1 in cost per pupil.” Despite both of these statements being false, Trump is clearly determined to lift our nation’s failing public education system out of the gutters. More than one in three public school students are behind in grade level, while around half of Americans say K-12 education is going in the wrong direction.
Who did Trump, in this hour of darkness, pick to save our
public education system? He, of course, picked a long-time World Wrestling Entertainment executive, twice failed U.S. Senate candidate and defendant in a striking sex abuse lawsuit: Linda McMahon.
This choice is somehow worse than Trump’s pick for secretary of education during his first term, Betsy DeVos. From 2017–20, DeVos muddied sexual assault regulation, promoted privatization of the school system and scuttled Obama-era protection for defrauded students. McMahon is ready to pick up right where DeVos left off. She is in favor of ending Title IX protection
for transgender students, significantly expanding so-called “school choice” and implementing financial restructuring at the Department of Education. During her confirmation hearing, McMahon repeatedly failed to answer simple questions about legislation concerning children with disabilities and low-performing schools. McMahon will also now serve under a president who is actively seeking to eliminate her job. If confirmed, McMahon will be devastating to an already precarious public education system that has faced years of declining test scores.
All of this is to say that McMahon is acutely unfit to become head of the Department of Education. However, as McMahon has now been confirmed by Congress, it is helpful to examine her major policy goals. McMahon is uniquely focused on the idea of advancing school choice as a solution to America’s educational challenges. School choice refers to a recent reform movement that seeks to channel taxpayer money — in the form of vouchers — to be used as funding for educational institutions other than public schools. This could include private schools, charter schools, online schools or homeschooling, effectively diverting taxpayer money towards elite private institutions.
The implementation of such an initiative would effectively deal a death blow to the public school system. I’ve already written about the poor performances and drawbacks of charter schools. Online schools have been shown to have huge negative effects on children’s wellbeing, while homeschooling often results in educational neglect. It is quite clear that more funding to these alternatives will not benefit American children but will instead have huge adverse consequences for the future of education in this country. McMahon’s support for school choice runs much deeper than how schools should be funded. Her vision for a privately run yet publicly funded education
system is fundamentally incompatible with the American Dream. The American public education system should provide quality education to all American children — from rich to poor, from inner cities to rural farmsteads. However, a school voucher program will likely only result in a flood of students into already elite private schools with little to no oversight. An audit in Arizona found that vouchers have been spent on “educational” activities ranging from televisions to horse-riding lessons. Thus, under a school choice system, students already rich enough to be enrolled in private schools essentially get “subsidized” by taxpayer money, while students who truly need assistance are left out to dry. This will only deepen educational inequalities within this country. I, for one, do not want my taxpayer money going towards some CEO’s child’s horse-riding lessons.
Private schools that could be paid by these school vouchers hold the right to reject students based on test scores, religion, disability, English proficiency or LGBTQ+ status. Every child within this country should be guaranteed a good, well-rounded public education. Children in this country should never be denied an education because of test scores, disabilities or sexual orientation. Say no to school choice. Say no to privatizing public education. And say no to Linda McMahon.
Kaashvi
VIA FREE MALAYSIA TODAY
Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon is pictured at her Senate confirmation hearing.
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The official logo for the 30th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties is pictured.
Evan Wang Opinion Editor
With early NESCAC tournament exit, men’s basketball looks to make noise in March
Luke Fredericks Staff Writer
Basketball, at its best, is about momentum. Build it, ride it, hold onto it for as long as possible. Lose it, and things unravel quickly. The Tufts men’s basketball team saw both ends of that equation in the NESCAC tournament. A strong second-half surge carried them past Williams in the quarterfinals, but against Trinity in the semifinals, they lost their grip. The Jumbos suffered a 74–51 loss, cutting short their bid for a conference title. But the season isn’t over — far from it. The Jumbos are still dancing with the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship up next.
Surviving Williams’ comeback bid
Facing Williams in the quarterfinals, Tufts controlled the game early, bolting to an 18-point lead in the first half behind a barrage of 3-pointers from sophomore guards Dylan Reilly and Zion Watt. But Williams didn’t fold. The Ephs stormed back with a 21–5 run to cut the Jumbos’ lead to just 2 points at halftime.
The second half was a dogfight, with both teams trading leads until the Jumbos took over late in the period. Down 6 points with 10 minutes to play, Tufts found its spark — Watt, again. The sophomore drilled four straight threes in a four-minute span, turning a deficit into a lead. Then came junior forward Scott Gyimesi, who controlled the glass, dished out seven assists and iced the game late. The final score read 80–70, sending Tufts to the semifinals for the third straight year.
A rough afternoon in Middletown Momentum carried Tufts into its showdown with No. 6 Trinity, but it did not stick around. The Jumbos opened strong, jumping out to a 7–1 lead behind 5 quick points from junior center Joshua
Bernstein. But the Bantams absorbed the early punch, then threw one of their own. An 18–3 Trinity run flipped the game, and Tufts never fully recovered.
The numbers tell the story. Tufts shot just 32.8% from the field — its second-worst mark of the season. The rebounding battle was not close. Trinity dominated the boards, out-rebounding Tufts 50–33, the worst margin Tufts has faced all year. Foul trouble was another issue, forcing head coach Brandon Linton to rotate lineups more than usual.
Bernstein led Tufts with 11 points on a perfect four-for-four shooting day, but Tufts struggled to generate offense elsewhere. Gyimesi managed just 6 points but grabbed 11 rebounds, while junior guard James Morakis added 10 points. Every attempted Tufts run was met with a quick Trinity answer, and by the time Tufts cut the lead to 13 points with 15 minutes to play, Trinity slammed the door shut.
Trinity’s defense tightened, forcing rushed possessions and denying Tufts clean looks from the 3-point line. The Jumbos, who had relied on their perimeter shooting all season, found themselves unable to generate open shots against the Bantams’ aggressive closeouts. On the other end, the Bantams capitalized on second-chance points, punishing the Jumbos with offensive rebounds and putbacks. By the four-minute mark, the deficit had ballooned to 26 points, and any hopes of a late rally faded. Tufts had no answer for Trinity’s frontcourt dominance, and as the final buzzer sounded, Tufts was left with only one option — turn the page and move on.
Looking ahead
With the NESCAC tournament behind them, the Jumbos now turn their attention to the NCAA tournament.
Bernstein and the Jumbos know they cannot afford to dwell on the NESCAC semifinal loss. “I truly believe we have the best team in D3 basketball 1-18,” Bernstein wrote in a message to the Daily. “And I think that is really the point of emphasis this week. We can’t overreact to a bad 24 hours of Tufts men’s basketball. Our squad has won important games, from last year’s Sweet 16 run to beating top 25 teams this year. We just need to hop back on our brand of basketball — sharing the ball, executing plays, and being a bit tougher both mentally and physically. When we do all of that, we are really unstoppable.”
Tufts will host Yeshiva in the first round on Friday, aiming to regroup and make a deep run in the tournament. The Maccabees come into the tournament after an 18–10 season, finishing 12–4 in their conference. They are led by guard Zevi Samet, a dynamic scorer averaging 22.4 points per game on 39.4% shooting from deep. Alongside him, guard Max Zakheim adds 15.3 points per game while orchestrating the offense.
Tufts is already familiar with Yeshiva, having beaten them 82–74 earlier this season. In that game, Bernstein dominated with a career-high 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Have the Jumbos shown their ceiling? At their best, they are a team that can knock down threes in bunches, dominate the paint and suffocate opponents defensively. At their worst, offensive struggles and rebounding issues can creep in. The challenge they face now is simple: to find their best form at the right time. March is unforgiving, but it also offers second chances. The Jumbos have theirs. Now they have to take it.
The lasting legacy of ‘The Machine’
This column started as an attempt to compare New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge with St. Louis Cardinals legend Albert Pujols. But after a particularly long session of Baseball Reference scrolling, I decided I didn’t want to write about Judge at all. That’s because I discovered something that I’ve never heard discussed by any baseball journalists: There will never be another hitter like Pujols. Pujols’ career rate statistics are very impressive, but they don’t remotely do him justice, since he sacrificed them in an effort to hit counting statistic milestones late in his career: 700 home runs, 3,000 hits and 2,000 RBIs. To truly understand the greatness of “The Machine,” you need to look at his peak.
From 2001 to 2011, Pujols put up one of the greatest and most consistent stretches baseball has ever seen. He slashed .328/.420/.617 and averaged 40 home runs, 41 doubles and 121 RBIs per season. Playing at that level for one season usually means you’ll run away with the MVP award, and Pujols averaged those totals over 11 seasons.
There’s one statistic I didn’t mention — one that illustrates Pujols’ greatness more than anything else. Over those 11 seasons, he struck out in just 9.5% of his plate appearances. He had 271 more walks and 211 more extra-base hits than strikeouts. For a player to have more walks or extra-base hits than strikeouts in one season is rare enough, but Pujols did both handily over 11 years.
The only players in today’s game who avoid strikeouts as well as Pujols did are contact-first hitters without much power. In 2024, there were only three players who struck less than 9.5% of the time, and they hit 27 home runs combined — fewer than Pujols averaged by himself over 11 straight years. By the same token, the only hitters today with Pujols’ slugging ability strike out at far higher clips. Judge, currently the best hitter in the world, can match and exceed Pujols’ raw power, but he has 1,209 strikeouts and 493 extra-base hits in his career. Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout, the best player of his generation, has already surpassed Pujols’ career total for strikeouts in 6,394 fewer plate appearances. Even New York Mets’ Juan Soto, whose prodigious power and plate discipline earned him the largest contract in North American sports history, still struck out in over 17% of his career plate appearances.
The only players who are even remotely in Pujols’ shadow today are Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Cleveland Guardians’ José Ramírez, who have good power and low career strikeout percentages. However, both are now 32 years old — presumably past their prime — and their respective career OPS marks of .897 and .856 are lower than Pujols’ worst single-season OPS from 2001 to 2011. Neither has had a 40-home run season, a mark that Pujols hit six times in those 11 years.
As strikeouts have become so much more common in baseball, there are only a handful of hitters remaining with elite power and plate discipline; within those that remain, none are either as powerful or as disciplined as Pujols. Slugging and avoiding strikeouts are almost mutually exclusive in today’s game.
Among the players who have come after him, Pujols has no equal. He was the pinnacle of pure hitting, and because of the changing dynamics of baseball, we’ll probably never see a hitter like him again.
Henry Blickenstaff Extra Innings
Henry Blickenstaff is a senior majoring in history. Henry can be reached at henry. blickenstaff@tufts.edu.
LIA FAYNBERG / THE TUFTS DAILY
Junior guard James Morakis shoots in the NESCAC quarterfinals game against Williams on Feb. 22.
No. 2 Tufts women’s lacrosse goes 3–0 to open 2025 campaign
Riley Daniel Staff Writer
When a team that finished the 2024 season 16–4 — making the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive season — returns many of its starters from the quarterfinal, the No. 2 ranking in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association’s poll seems appropriate. This week, the Jumbos more than proved their mettle by taking care of three opponents with double-digit victories to start their 2025 season.
The season opened Saturday afternoon with a visit from NESCAC opponent Connecticut College, who were looking to build off a 7–8 season from a year ago. The Camels started strong defensively, with goalie Ava Virga recording four saves in the first six minutes of play before being a woman up when the Jumbos’ senior defender Caroline Cromwell received a yellow card. Ironically, playing down a woman proved to wake the Jumbos up, as halfway through the penalty, senior midfielder Ella Lesperance scored the Jumbos’ first goal of the season off a transition opportunity. Under a minute later, after winning a free position, junior midfielder Elsa Schutt, making her first career start, buried another shot into the back of the net, giving the Jumbos a 2–0 lead before the penalty expired. After graduate student midfielder Madeline Delaney scored her first goal of the season, the Camels scored the last two goals of the quarter, leaving the Jumbos up by only one goal.
Throughout the second quarter, the two teams traded blows,
with the Jumbos outscoring the Camels 4–2 across a quarter that featured 12 fouls. With the game still full of suspense, the Jumbos delivered a devastating blow with 17 seconds remaining in the first half with the skill of graduate student midfielder Emma Joyce. She weaved through the entire Camels’ defensive line and sent Virga the wrong way to give the Jumbos a 7–4 lead heading into the second half.
In the second half, after conceding an early goal to cut the lead back to two, Jumbos’ head coach Courtney Shute made a brilliant tactical change — introducing senior attacker Kate Mastrobuono into the lineup. Mastrobuono, the tallest Jumbo at 6-foot-2, used her height to see over the Camels’ defense, allowing her teammates to get into their normal offensive flow. Goals by Joyce and Mastrobuono came just seconds apart, before Mastrobuono passed to senior attacker Margie Carden on the goal’s doorstep, putting the Jumbos up 10–5. After Camel attacker Kate Coughlin performed a hat trick to score, sophomore midfielder Schuyler Lloyd restored the Jumbos’ 5-point lead. Receiving a pass from Mastrobuono for a goal with only 15 seconds left, the third period ended at 11–6. The Camels would get the first goal of the fourth period, cutting the lead to 4 points. At this point, the Jumbos decided to step up to their reputation, limiting the Camels to only three possessions the entire quarter and outscoring them with seven goals through the final 13:29 of the game.
The Jumbos’ offense was led by Joyce, who scored four goals; junior attacker Allie Zorn, who recorded a hat trick in the span of 10 minutes in the fourth period; and Lesperance, who completed her hat trick in the game’s final minute. Senior goalie Pascale de Buren would finish with five saves on 12 shots, while Virga made 13 blocks.
Mastrobuono, who finished with three assists and a goal, spoke after the game about the team’s ability to play in transition. “Coach always says one thing we can control is being the most athletic team on the field, so that’s something we want to … use to our advantage,” she said. When asked about the team’s long-term mentality, she highlighted what Shute had mentioned in her preseason preview about being focused on the
present rather than the longterm goals of the team.
This mentality would prove successful again on Sunday in Bristol, R.I. in a dominant 20–7 win where the Jumbos led for all but the first five minutes of play. The nonconference matchup would feature more squad rotation, with 11 different Jumbos recording a goal, including careerfirst goals for first-year midfielders Annie Bergeron and Anna Mollahan. Additionally, Zorn recorded her second consecutive hat trick alongside Conaghan and Delaney, who reached three apiece themselves. Cromwell, who became a starting defender after moving out of the midfield halfway through the 2024 season, scored in her new position, while fellow senior Carden became the first-ever Jumbo to score 200 career goals minutes later.
GAMES
De Buren would have a phenomenal performance, saving 10 of the 17 shots she faced in the afternoon before getting the fourth quarter off to give sophomore goalie Sophie Powless and firstyear goalie Devon Chipman some experience. For Roger Williams, defender/midfielder Kimmy Creegan led with two goals, while no one else recorded multiple points on a frustrating afternoon for the squad.
After the 2–0 weekend, Tufts returned to Bello Field on Wednesday afternoon to play Endicott, racking up their third win of the year with a 20–6 victory. The team will continue NESCAC play on Saturday at Trinity, the first of eight matchups against ranked opponents in Tufts’ regular season campaign, as the long-term goals of the No. 2 team in the country roll into their present challenges.
JOHN MURPHY / THE TUFTS DAILY
Junior attacker Allie Zorn handles the ball during the game on Saturday.