The Tufts Daily - Thursday, October 23, 2025 (Parents' Weekend)

Welcome, Parents & Families!

Tufts plans groups for orientation to foster community among first-years

Tufts is introducing changes to its undergraduate orientation next year, implementing a plan to place students into randomly assigned groups. The format will mimic that of the university’s pre-orientation program and will be led by student leaders who will aim to provide a more welcoming and close-knit environment for new students through various events and bonding activities.

As part of the changes that began last year, students are being charged a $500 fee for orientation

Blakeley Hall residents report ongoing maintenance, safety issues following renovation

Carlos Del Canal Fernandez and Zoe Herrmann

Contributing Writer and News Editor

Originally published Oct. 17.

Residents of Blakeley Hall, Tufts’ newly renovated sophomore dorm, have reported a series of maintenance problems that have raised concerns about the building’s safety and overall functionality.

Students report that recurring maintenance issues — including power outages, waterlogged ceilings and broken showers — have affected bathrooms on multiple floors.

“There [were] times where there was no electricity in the bathrooms and there were no lights. It would happen for a couple days at a time and we would have to call somebody … it would be fixed for a couple hours and then it would happen again,” Emma Rose, a sophomore living in Blakeley, said.

Tufts Construction Program Manager Christopher Hogan

said efforts to remedy the issues were ongoing.

“The contractor is actively working to repair the showers and restore service in those rooms. 16 showers remain open for use in the building,” Hogan wrote in a statement to the Daily.

Rose said that students were forced to use flashlights when using the toilets and showers

on her side of the floor, or else go to the other side of the hallway. She added that maintenance workers were still taking measures to repair the damages caused by a leaking pipe from the second-floor bathroom.

“They fixed [a leak] pretty quickly, although right now

see BLAKELEY, page 4

to a $550 fee if they choose to participate in a Pre-O program. The funds will go, in part, towards paying next year’s orientation leaders.

Mary Kate Kelley, the director of Orientation and Student Experience, said the changes came as a response to student and family feedback from surveys that suggested a lack of connection during orientation.

“This [fee] is going to help sustain the student arrival experience changes we previously made, add more social programming, and create orientation leaders as a paid

see COMMUNITY, page 2

TCU Senate discusses project updates, Treasury spending

Shayna Levy Assistant News Editor

Originally published Oct. 22.

On Sunday, the Tufts Community Union Senate shared project updates from each General Board Committee and reviewed Treasury spending thus far.

TCU Treasurer Brendan French, a junior, shared a budget overview of how much money the Treasury has spent so far this school year. As of Sunday, the Treasury has spent $163,138 for on-campus events, off-campus events, new club budgets and equipment and supplies. The largest percentage of that has been spent on off-campus expenditures, which totals $112,925.

“We spend a lot when it comes to off-campus stuff, and that’s kind of just the nature of things. Travel is expensive whenever people travel off-campus,” French said.

TCU President Dhruv Sampat, a senior, shared

updates regarding an upcoming meeting with Tufts’ Athletic Director, where he plans to discuss issues for club sports, including gym size and financial barriers to participation.

He also mentioned plans for a new amenity within the Boston Avenue residential hall, which is currently under construction.

“They’re hoping to put up a new gym in the new residential hall,” Sampat said. “That’s a new space that’s coming.”

Sophomore Spencer Kluger, chair of the Administration & Policy Committee, shared updates regarding ongoing projects, including the creation of a mail room dropbox for non-business hours.

“There’s a lot of packages that are being left outside of the bookstore. It’s not ideal. It could lead to theft,” Kluger said. “It could lead to misplaced packages, rain damage, anything like that. [Our goal is] finding a way that we can

SENATE, page 3

Amelia Sammons Assistant News Editor

DAVID KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Dowling Hall is pictured.

ARIANNA HELLMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Blakeley Hall courtyard is pictured on Sept. 29.

Medford residents to vote on city charter in November

Evan Vezmar News Editor

Medford residents will vote on a new city charter during the Nov. 4 election after the Massachusetts state legislature voted to approve, and Gov. Maura Healey signed, the charter on Sept. 19. The charter, which establishes the city’s government, was last changed in 1986 and was only two pages long.

The new city charter, should residents vote to adopt it, will shift the composition of the City Council from seven at-large members to three at-large councilors and eight ward representatives.

Mayoral terms would be capped at four terms, each four years long, and the School Committee composition also would shift to a combination of at-large and district-based members.

Other changes include holding annual joint budget meetings for the City Council and School Committee, and a provision that the School Committee will elect their own chair rather than the mayor automatically being chair.

The city council, school committee and mayoral changes would start in 2027 for the next election cycle while other provisions, such as random positionings for candidates on ballots and opportunities for resident participation in the City Council, would be implemented once the city clerk certifies the ballot question’s result.

Charter Study Committee Chair Milva McDonald explained the process for the charter’s review.

“There was a group called the Medford Charter Review Coalition that … asked the mayor to appoint a committee to review the Charter, which would then go through the council and mayor and be sent to the State House as a Home Rule petition, and

if passed, result in a special act charter,” McDonald explained. “So that is what the mayor agreed to do, and she formed the committee in late 2022.”

The committee, made up of Medford residents who applied and were selected by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, culminated after 20 months with a list of recommendations for a new city charter. The committee also sourced feedback from the Medford community, holding city hall events, listening sessions and surveys. The committee also interviewed current and former city officials.

Committee Member Ron Giovino emphasized the importance of having a committee made up of residents to design the charter.

“I think what it did was it allowed us to meet a lot of people who had a lot of different ideas, that came from a lot of different beliefs,” Giovino said. “It was a great opportunity to listen to and try to disseminate the reasons why people wanted what they want.”

Lungo-Koehn agreed with Giovino and discussed residents’ role in planning.

“During the process, I really tried to take a step back. I wanted this to be community driven, and I wanted what the community wanted,” Lungo-Koehn said. “[The coalition] has the community’s interests at heart.”

McDonald explained how the committee compiled responses to create recommendations for the new charter.

“One of the rules of thumb that I think we learned early on was that there’s a lot that can go into a charter, but it’s important to try not to put things in the charter that can be put somewhere else,” McDonald said.

The charter also introduces “citizen participation mechanisms,” which would enable

residents to influence city council priorities. A group petition would allow residents to collect 100 signatures to put a measure on the City Council agenda, while an initiative petition procedure would allow residents to get a measure passed in a citywide ballot question.

“If there’s a group of residents or a resident that wants to get a measure put on the ballot and passed, there’s a signature collection process for that and a process for putting it on the ballot so that voters can vote on it,” McDonald said. “There’s a process for collecting signatures to overturn a measure that passed by the City Council or the School Committee. And there’s a process to recall the mayor.”

The charter with new recommendations was reviewed by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at University of Massachusetts Boston and edited by Lungo-Koehn before passing to the City Council. Giovino shared how discussions occurred between the Lungo-Koehn, the City Council and the Charter Study Committee.

“Finishing the charter was only the beginning of the process, and then the debate moved on,” Giovino said. “I would say 90% of what the committee put

Orientation groups build community

COMMUNITY continued from the front

position,” Kelley wrote in a statement to the Daily.

Although Kelley does not expect this fee to change next year, there will be options for waiving the fee based on financial need.

Eli Benatar Faranesh, a sophomore who participated in the Tufts Wilderness Orientation Pre-O program, had similar feedback, saying that orientation was not as successful in welcoming students as it could have been.

“We didn’t have as many events, compared to my friends at other schools,” Benatar Faranesh said. “I really think that Tufts could do a better job of making you feel overly welcomed and throwing so much stuff at you … as positive as possible.”

Kelley’s office looked at orientation programming at other universities to decide what format would be the most effective at addressing this issue and providing a more welcoming environment for students.

In the spring, Tufts will hire roughly 300 orientation leaders as well as additional support staff,

both of which will be compensated positions. Any student who wishes to apply should expect a similar process to the one for Pre-O leaders. Recruitment for these positions will open at the beginning of next semester, with applications closing in February.

Students who want to be a part of Pre-O staff are also encouraged to apply to be an orientation leader and can be selected for both positions.

Some students disagreed with the decision to implement a fee for orientation programs. Benatar Faranesh says it is “silly” to make students pay for a mandatory event.

Evan Outwater, a first-year student who participated in the First-Year Orientation CommUnity Service Pre-O program, wished Tufts would find another way to fund the events and leader compensation.

“I don’t know if the student should fund it because it’s mandatory to come to orientation, so I feel like you shouldn’t have to pay for that,” Outwater said. “I feel like they could find money somewhere to pay the leaders without taking away from the students.”

Iman Boulouah, a senior who worked as the Logistics and Operations Coordinator for orientation this year, is hopeful that changes to the structure of orientation will provide more support for new students.

“I think it would be a lot more helpful to have a group or just one figure that students can rely on. When you’re coming in from high school, you’re not really sure about what’s going on,” Boulouah said. “I think it would be a lot more supportive.”

Outwater said Pre-O offered structured opportunities to make friends before classes began.

“Most of my friends now are from my [Pre-O] group, so I couldn’t imagine not doing it and then coming here in orientation not having anyone to hang out with,” Outwater said. “I imagine, having a group for just regular orientation, that would help a lot of students.”

Benatar Faranesh said his Pre-O group developed a strong bond that lasted throughout the year.

forward is in the charter today, so I’m pretty proud of that, but there were certainly some negotiations. … Ward representation was on the docket for the debate, and also the other big one was the role of the mayor on the School Committee.”

McDonald expressed a hope that ward representation would enable candidates to be more involved with their ward constituents as opposed to being at-large and more removed from smaller communities.

Lungo-Koehn noted that the new charter implements a mandatory charter review process, where the charter must be reviewed in five years and every 10 years after the first review.

“I think it’s a really strong document, and it’s one that is well overdue,” Lungo-Koehn said. “I urge people to vote yes. If there’s a portion of the charter that one may not like, please know that we are going to be reviewing it every five years and making adjustments accordingly.”

“I’m very proud of the fact that the document that we created is a true representation of what we heard from the people,” Giovino added. “What we put together is a fantastic document that should last forever with a lot of changes as people want change.”

Outwater said orientation, however, did not foster a sense of community for him or allow him to connect with other students on an individual level. He was optimistic that the implementation of orientation groups would encourage students to form tighter bonds with their peers.

“I think it’ll really help people make a baseline of friends, because in groups, you’re bound to run into one or two people you want to hang out with more,” Outwater said. “Being forced to hang out with the same people every day, you’ll eventually grow closer to them and bond with them.”

Kelley shared hopes that more structured orientation groups could create a stronger sense of community for new students.

“We are really excited about this change and are looking forward to creating a better transition for our new students,” Kelley wrote. “We think this will benefit students who do not participate in a [Pre-O] and help students that do a [Pre-O] make connections with other students outside of their [Pre-O] group!”

“We know that we have that connection and that we can go to each other if we need anything,” he said. “I think that’s a really special thing to have.”

GRACE ROTERMUND / THE TUFTS DAILY

Medford City Hall is pictured on March 12, 2021.

TCU senators propose new programs

SENATE continued from the front

mitigate that and have a better solution there.”

Kluger also discussed expanding the textbook exchange program.

“We really want to get it at a higher level, get more textbooks involved, get it potentially into a more accessible, central place on campus, so more people can get textbooks, give textbooks,” he added.

Finally, Kluger addressed improving athletics for non-athletes at Tufts.

“We’re primarily, right now, figuring out a way that we can get equipment for free rent, either in the athletic center or the library, so students can just get outside more and have the equipment to do so,” Kluger said.

Education Committee Chair Gunnar Ivarsson, a sophomore, also shared updates regarding work on an upcoming event titled Major Insights.

“It’s just a time for students to come in and talk a little bit more about their major and sort of give advice, especially to underclassmen who

haven’t declared their major yet,” Ivarsson said.

Ivarsson added that the committee was working on changing wording around introductory courses.

Rewording introductory courses involves “making [the language] more inclusive for students who aren’t necessarily first-years that are taking introductory courses,” he said.

Class of 2028 Senator Ruby Appleton shared that she is working with Residential Life and Learning to create an initiative to help first-years in their housing selection process.

“I’ve been interested in setting up a program where [firstyears] can tour sophomore dorms, just so they know where they’re going to live, because it’s right on campus,” Appleton said.

Members from the Committee on Community & Diversity also shared updates on their projects.

FIRST Senator and sophomore Perla Fernandez shared that she is working on “making sure that Tufts provides toilet paper, paper towels to first-gen students and having a place where they can come and grab stuff.”

Disability Senator and firstyear Kirthi Vengat is also working on adding more downhill stops to the Davis Square Shuttle.

Class of 2029 Senator Sydni Wheeler is working to secure free cleaning supplies in dorm common rooms for a Services Committee project.

“I was in the [Hodgdon Hall] common room and talked to my friend, and there was a func[tion] in the common room last night. There were a bunch of random chip bags and empty wrappers everywhere.” Wheeler said. “And the custodians don’t come on the weekend.”

“I just figured that having a dustbin, even when you’re cooking in the kitchen, like dish soap and a sponge … they would just make the living experiences a little bit easier,” Wheeler said. “I think having that would allow students

to take some sort of accountability for their common room.”

The Outreach Committee is also working on posting coupons for restaurant partnerships in which Tufts students can get a discount at specific restaurants.

“We have three restaurants participating,” Outreach Committee Chair Aaron Dickson, a junior, said.

Class of 2027 Senator Anastasiya Korovska also shared that she is working on educational materials regarding the Treasury.

“I’m working on publishing a Treasury educational series on our Senate [Instagram] account, which helps with the transparency of the Treasury to students, and also with the preparation of clubs who come to [Allocations Board],” Korovska said.

The Senate then considered funding requests proposed by the Allocations Board from four student groups: South Asian Political Action Committee, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Black Student Union and Singapore, Indonesian, Malaysian Student Association.

After some debate about the Allocation Board recommendation regarding SIMSA’s request, all supplementary funding recommendations were passed by the Senate.

Editor’s Note: Gunnar Ivarsson is a former chair of the Daily’s Ethics and Inclusion Committee. Ivarsson was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

•

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RACHEL LIU / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Joyce Cummings Center, site of the TCU Senate meetings, is pictured.

Tufts Climate Action hosts banner drop for Make Polluters Pay

Originally published Oct. 22.

Tufts Climate Action hosted a banner drop in support of Make Polluters Pay on Oct. 3. The campaign aims to raise public and legislative support for climate superfund bills.

Organized with student groups Sunrise Smith, Sunrise UMass and Sunrise Harvard, the banner drop was preceded by the gathering of around 25 signatures and a march across the academic quad. TCA’s signatures contributed to around a total 7,500 signatures that were delivered to Massachusetts’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee and Gov. Maura Healey at a rally at the State House on Tuesday.

The Massachusetts branch of the Make Polluters Pay campaign is driven in part by 350 Mass, an organization run by the Somerville based nonprofit Better Future Project. Massachusetts will start a vote on a bill entitled “An Act establishing a climate change superfund” on Nov. 1. The bill is supported through collaboration between local and outof-state allies, including New York and Vermont, who have already passed superfund bills.

As opposed to carbon pricing, which allows fossil fuel producers to raise prices to compensate for the tax, climate superfunds are a one time payment from profits already made, preventing companies from transferring the cost to consumers.

According to Olivia Amitay, Communications Manager at nonprofit Fossil Free Media, the superfund is modeled after the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, which requires chemical companies to clean hazardous waste sites. In Massachusetts, the Better Future Project expects the superfund to generate billions of dollars over 25 years, 40% of which will directly benefit environmental justice communities.

TCA president sophomore Audrey Hufnagel wanted the organization to get involved with the Make Polluters Pay Campaign

because she believed Tufts students’ ability to organize and bring people together would help put pressure on fossil fuel companies.

“Redistributing funds is this concrete way to address some of the climate impacts that we’re currently seeing around the state, around the world,” she said.

Hufnagel worked with 350 Maine, now Maine Climate Action Now, in high school, and contacted 350 Mass while serving as TCA vice president last semester.

“It’s amazing to be able to show student power across the state, and to have that kind of activist network,” she said.

Sophomore Julia Vela, who joined TCA in hopes to help her community under the Trump administration, participated in the protest and felt safe being surrounded by her peers.

“I think sometimes the idea of doing a protest on Tufts campus, where everybody knows everybody, it feels a little vulnerable,” Vela said. “I’m glad I did it, because now I’m not afraid of it. … I just want to be more of an advocate towards the issues I care about, including climate justice.”

Dan Zackin (LA ‘21), former TCA member, is the legislative manager of 350 Mass is working on passing a bill that addresses the climate concerns of this protest.

“Right now, taxpayers are on the hook for 100% of the costs, and this bill is about making sure that these companies pay their fair share for damages,” Zackin said.

While not everyone can attend a midday rally, Zackin claimed that “73% of voters in Massachusetts support a one time fee on the fossil fuel industry.” The petition delivery is a way to demonstrate this widespread support.

First introduced in 2023, the superfund bill stalled in the legislature. The bill was reintroduced this year with new and returning sponsors. This year’s vote will be the first time a recorded tally will be taken on the bill.

“Unfortunately, the mentality in our state house is that bills rarely go through the first session they’re introduced,” he said.

This session, Zackin feels more optimistic about the bill’s

chances of making it through initial voting, but is worried about whether the State House’s ways and means committee would pass it.

“They have a lot to share about what implementation looks like and what they are available for,” he said.

Zackin emphasized how the one-time bill may turn out to be more cost-effective in the long run.

“When you look at the cost that we’re currently paying for climate damages, including $39 million for just one extreme storm, the flooding in Western Mass two years ago, it’s actually not that much.

And when you compare it to the annual profit that any one of these massive, massive fossil fuel extractors is making, it is an extremely fair and

reasonable demand for restitution,” Zackin said.

Hufnagel hopes to keep TCA involved in the Make Polluters Pay Campaign and the youth coalition.

“Having that kind of infrastructure and network of young people who care about justice and who care about things like climate change, but also other systemic issues, that’s super important and powerful.”

Blakeley Hall suffers leaks, malfunctions just months after rebuild

Hogan wrote that issues are being addressed through standard maintenance procedures.

it’s not 100% done. They just put new drywall up after they repaired the leak and they were in there a couple days ago trying to fix that still,” Rose said.

Other residents raised safety concerns related to the building’s construction and upkeep.

“There’s many things, like a box of the exit signs … just sitting around,” Erica Adler, a sophomore resident, said. “They didn’t put the door handles on properly … There was a cleaning lady trapped in the room [once]. She couldn’t get out. She was banging on the glass because the handle fell off on the inside.”

“Issues are reported to the project team through the facilities work order system. Once received, issues are investigated by the contractor and corrected in a timely manner,” Hogan wrote.

“We closely monitor the building so we can address the issues, and appreciate those students who submit work orders!”

Adler said that the building’s many issues made her dislike living in Blakeley.

“It’s not right to put students in a dorm that’s so blatantly not finished,” she said. “The anger and the frustration [are] because you cannot opt out of this. It’s like upwards of $10,000 to live here … Why are they charging this

ridiculous price for somewhere where there’s no functionality of the showers and the paint is falling off the walls?”

Blakeley residents said their frustration stems not only from the problems themselves but also from delays and limited communication from the university. Students have continued submitting work orders, often with minimal success.

“I had to put in a work order for [an issue with the temperature handle of the shower.] They had to transfer the work order to construction, and then I had to call construction, but nobody answered,” Rose said.

“[The administration is] not communicating at all because they only do what’s in their best interest,” Adler said.

Rose noted that the lack of communication existed even before Blakeley opened for residents this fall. She said students were unsure whether or not the renovations would be completed by the start of the school year.

“I didn’t get any communication from Tufts about that,” Rose said. “People were left to their imaginations.”

Rose said that having a platform for feedback could improve communication and help administrators better understand student needs.

“If we could leave comments on what we thought should be done for the construction … I think that would be helpful,” Rose said.

Residents said that progress on repairs is being made — albeit slowly — on the showers and electricity problems.

“There’s still just a few little unfinished things around the dorm. It’s nothing that really impacts us too much, besides the bathroom situation,” Rose said.

Despite the ongoing maintenance issues, Hogan confirmed that Blakeley Hall passed inspections and was cleared to open this fall.

“A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) and Lodging House license was issued in August after satisfactory inspection by all authorities having jurisdiction. When newly renovated space is placed into service, it is not uncommon for issues to arise,” Hogan wrote.

He added that he anticipates “open punch list and warranty items” — tasks that arise at the end or after a construction project — to be resolved by the end of October.

Sophie Herron Assistant Arts Editor

EMMA CHENG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Climate Action is pictured.

BLAKELEY continued from the front

FEATUrES

Epitomizing intellectual curiosity: The students behind Tufts’ 2025 Summer Scholars program

One day at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts this past summer, fifth-year combined-degree student Clara Davis took a box of 10,000 photos of legs from her locker and laid them out like a mosaic on classroom tables. This is just one example of what a typical day could look like for a Tufts Summer Scholar. The Summer Scholar program is a 10-week program that allows rising juniors and seniors to conduct independent research projects on campus under the guidance of a faculty mentor.

The Summer Scholars program encourages students from any discipline to conduct research on a topic of their choice, while providing each accepted applicant a $3,500 stipend for living expenses and an additional $1,000 for their research budget. The research conducted by students is then shared with the Tufts community at a poster session, allowing the student researchers to present on their topics and interact one-onone with attendees. This year, the poster session will be on Friday at the Tsungming Tu Complex Atrium from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Program Manager Emily Palermo emphasized the importance of providing research opportunities to undergraduate students across the three schools at Tufts.

“[Research] can mean so many different things depending on your discipline,” Palermo wrote in an email to the Daily. “We ensure that we provide opportunities for any student to conduct research, whether they’re in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, or the SMFA.”

One particularly unique element of the Summer Scholars program is getting to spend an extended period of time on the Tufts campus with a small group of other students, all of whom are working on extremely unique and varied projects. According to Palermo, this aspect of the program is intended to encourage students from all disciplines to learn from one another.

“[The] program is specifically organized to provide regular opportunities for students to talk about their research with people who aren’t in their field. We strive to build a community of bright, curious individuals who are all learning from each other,” she wrote.

Davis noted that, despite often being surrounded by students working on vastly different projects, she felt a solidarity with her peers.

“I’d see all these people doing their lab rat stuff. I was like, ‘Wow, this was kind of hilarious that we’re all doing [this program] together.’ But I feel like I could relate to them to a certain extent,” she said. “Whether you’re in the lab

… poking your rat … or if you’re in the studio, we’re all … trying to answer some question ... poking at whatever we’re poking at.”

For Davis, who is studying English and studio art, these 10 weeks in the program were dedicated to investigating the phenomenon of point-of-view leg selfies on Pinterest. She hopes to utilize her summer research to create an artist book that explores the significance of these photographs. Davis, whose work is often focused on internet culture, first got the idea for her project after noticing the trend of leg selfies on social media.

“It’s an interesting category because it doesn’t have the face in it, so it has a level of anonymity and you can project yourself onto somebody else’s legs,” she said. “There’s also just a vast diversity of the types of pictures that people take of their legs, depending on who they are and what they’re trying to say.”

Davis’ research was also interested in the cyclical nature of posting these leg selfies, and the ways in which viewers participate in the culture.

“Especially on sites like Pinterest, where it’s not based on people that you actually know, it is like you’re … becoming part of this collective movement. And what that movement is doing I think is an open question,” she said.

Maggie Zhang is a fourthyear combined-degree student

studying psychology and studio art. Zhang focused her project on intersectional microaggressions among women of color. Her summer was spent designing a survey that asked participants about their experiences with microaggressions, with a particular interest in the experiences of individuals with intersectional identities.

“We are hypothesizing [that] for women of color, based on different historical contexts or their past experiences, they will reflect a pattern for their microaggression examples,” Zhang said.

However, Zhang’s study is unique in that she is not assuming that the outcome will be strictly focused on a race-gender combination. Instead, the survey gives participants the choice between many different identifiers before narrowing it down to the two identifiers that participants found most central when experiencing microaggressions.

“We’re collecting data from their own [experiences] … and then just trying to explore if there’s any other patterns [that] show up, or if they’re following a gender or race pattern as the previous research talked about,” Zhang said.

Zhang is currently preparing to launch her survey in a matter of weeks. In November, she plans to conduct a pilot study of the survey by releasing it to students in the Introduction to Psychology class at Tufts. Zhang then plans to publish the survey on Prolific, an online

platform that helps researchers recruit participants for their online research, where the study will reach a national pool and a wide variety of participants. Zhang has set the goal of 420 participants for both rounds of the study.

Zhang noted the essential role that her faculty advisor Aerielle Allen, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, played in encouraging her to aim for a wide participation pool.

“I started to ask Dr. Allen … ‘What do you think is an ideal number for the amount of participants?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, maybe 420.’ I was like, ‘420 for [the first study]? I’ve never seen that [many] people in my life.’”

At the School of Engineering, junior and engineering physics major Julian Sutaria is also undertaking an ambitious project. His research focused on developing a method of modifying an atomic force microscope to measure the electrical properties of neurons. While the microscope is typically used to measure the physical properties of a sample, Sutaria hopes to use it to measure neuron action potentials.

“The ultimate goal is to use this data to develop a theory of how electrical signals propagate in networks of neurons. So if we detect an electrical signal in one neuron and it’s connected to other neurons, what neurons after that are stimulated and themselves send signals?” Sutaria said.

In order to achieve this with the atomic force microscope, Sutaria had to modify his research in several ways, which included adding devices to the microscope that allowed it to send signals to the test chip and writing software to enable the instrument’s time-resolved capabilities.

“Normally, [the microscope is] just measuring something over space, and you can’t get any evolution in time. Whereas here I was writing software so that you could use this instrument to measure stuff over time,” Sutaria said.

The Summer Scholars program often acts as a head start for students to begin working on their senior thesis or undertake the first step of a larger research project. While neither Davis, Zhang nor Suteria’s projects were done by the end of the summer, they are each continuing to work on them throughout the school year to achieve their projects’ various goals.

Palermo expressed that the research projects are not meant to be contained within 10 weeks during the summer but instead are intended to provide a path into future research.

“This program (and undergraduate research as a whole) is all work of futurity,” she wrote. “[When] there are intrepid scholars asking questions and being curious about the world around us, the future is always going to look a little bit brighter.”

Olivia Bye Assistant Features Editor

STELLA JEONG / THE TUFTS DAILY

West Hall during a rainy day in Academic Quad on Monday.

Theater at Tufts: A place of community, passion and so much love

Abilene Adelman Contributing Writer

Editor’s Note: Katie Spiropoulos is a former deputy news editor of the Daily. Spiropoulos was not invovled in the writing or editing of this article.

Ben Platt opened his intimate “An Evening with Ben Platt” show in the Granoff Music Center on Oct. 11 with a cover of Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” seemingly singing directly to the place that he was inhabiting — a college campus full of students always in need of a reminder that there is more to life than their upcoming midterm.

For many students at Tufts, the music and theater departments and programming are spaces that provide an accessible ‘Vienna’ right on campus — a place to create and perform among a close-knit community of wonderful people. Senior August Kittleson, president of Tufts’ theater program — Pen, Paint and Pretzels (commonly referred to as 3Ps) — found a community in Tufts theater from the first play he ever did.

“Basically my entire friend group is in the theater scene, and that’s been developing since [my first] year,” Kittleson said. “Theater inherently is a collaborative, collective event. … You [don’t] do it in isolation. You do it with so many others, especially as an actor.”

3Ps, founded in 1910, is Tufts’ oldest student club on campus. The club produces four completely student-run plays per year: one workshop and one mainstage in both the fall and spring semesters. The main stage productions are done in a bigger

venue and with a bigger budget, while the workshops are spaces where students can showcase their own self-written work or experiment with directing a play for the first time. 3Ps also hosts weekly community meetings for anybody interested in joining the theater community at Tufts.

“We kind of embody the spirit of a theater camp in how free-spirited we are,” Kittleson said. “And truly, every production is completely different. We have this general frame for how every production should go, but the choices that are made, the styles, the plays themselves are all selected by the community.”

Similarly, Torn Ticket II produces a variety of workshops and main stages every year.

There are five Torn Ticket II shows every year, including an orientation show for incoming first-years that the organization prepares for over the summer, as well as one mainstage and workshop per semester. Their fall workshop is the 24-hour musical, a musical that is cast, directed, organized, rehearsed and performed in only 24 hours.

As the 3Ps is organized, the shows put on by Torn Ticket II are chosen democratically. These democratic functions of the theater groups at Tufts help foster their reputations as community-oriented spaces that are open to all experience levels and interests.

“Theater at Tufts is just so miscellaneous,” Kittleson said. “One semester you’re doing a department [production], another semester you’re doing 3Ps, another semester you’re doing Torn Ticket [II] … or you’re doing

some other performance opportunity in a class here. It’s kind of all around, really.”

The Tufts’ theater, dance and performance studies department shows are the highest commitment of the different theater offerings — these shows are put on by the university, with a large budget, a large audience and a wealth of faculty connections and support. The university’s current department show is titled “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” a play inspired by certain parts of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

In an exciting turn of events, the cast of this play was invited to sing a song with Platt to conclude his visit to Tufts, a moment which meant a lot to Torn Ticket II president and “Great Comet” cast member and senior Katie Spiropoulos.

“I had a double reaction,” Spiropoulos said. “I found out [Platt] was coming, and then like, three or four days later … [the cast] found out that we would be performing with him. So that was a double thing of, like, ‘What do you mean? I’m gonna be in the same room as Ben Platt? Oh, I’m gonna be on the stage with Ben Platt.’”

TDPS is different from traditional theater conservancy programs. A conservancy program is an immersive program that focuses on developing actors to be immediately ready to enter the professional world after graduation from their respective programs. Tufts, on the other hand, offers students interested in studying TDPS a Bachelor of Arts program, which follows the same trajectory as all other majors through Tufts’ School of Arts and Sciences. While a BA program offers a less fully immersive

environment for aspiring actors, Tufts’ departments still provide students with connections and opportunities for enrichment.

“I think people sometimes underestimate how many performance opportunities, like with Ben Platt, but also just like networking and exposure, that Tufts and our music and theater department have,” Spiropoulos said. “That is something in Torn Ticket [II] that we really try and advertise to our community members who maybe start out with student theater and think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to take classes. I don’t want to be a major; therefore, I can’t be involved.’ But … anybody can audition for the department shows, and you get a whole world of opportunities that you might never encounter somewhere else.”

Kittleson similarly credits Tufts as providing him with a wealth of opportunities related to his theatrical aspirations.

“We not only have access to Broadway-level stars that come — I know a couple of years ago, Maria Friedman came, who is also a Broadway star and director, and she sang just like Ben Platt,” Kittleson said. “But also it speaks to the amazing facilities we have here. And although we could always have more funding, the funding we do have, both in the department and even as student theater, is amazing compared to other schools that don’t have as much access to these things as we do.”

These sentiments are echoed by faculty in these creative departments as well.

“Ever since the music building opened, the Department of

Music, and Tufts in general, has been fortunate that the Granoffs have wished to sponsor someone of Ben Platt’s pedigree to perform in these special, one-night-only events,” Jeffrey Rawitsch, the Granoff Music Center manager, wrote in a statement to the Daily. “For our students to be able to witness [these performers’] artistry would be reward enough. But, in the instances where they have been invited to sing with the performer and pick their brains about what life is like in the professional music and/or theater world, it has led to some of the greatest memories and learning that any budding musician or actor could hope to have.”

Tufts is a place where people from different backgrounds can come together and bond over their unique and quirky interests, often ones that defy stereotypes and expectations. The fact that the Platt showing was held at the same time as the Homecoming football game meant that students were streaming into the theater all decked out in their browns and blues — an image that speaks to the diversity of interests at the university and the gathering power of music and theater.

“To fully lean into the cheesiness, theater at Tufts has been everything to me. It’s where I got so many of my closest friends. … I know that I would not be the person that I am today [without it],” Spiropoulos said. “Everybody talks about Tufts in general, like, it’s about the people. But that is especially true in the theater community. They’re the most accepting, kind, excited, passionate people I’ve ever met.”

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Granoff Music Center, home of Tufts’ music department, is pictured on Aug. 8, 2020.

On your parents’ dime

Eloise

Bernstein Worth Going Broke?

Even the best dining halls at Tufts can only do so much, and, after over a month of the same options every day, I’m desperate for something new. (Sorry, DewickMacPhie Dining Center!) Even Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run, my beloved, can get tiring after having salads or Chipotle-style bowls for almost every meal during the week. As much as I want to get the most out of my meal swipes, there is no way I’m setting foot in a dining hall this weekend while my parents are in town.

My Google Maps is already dotted with restaurants and cafés I’ve been waiting to try, and I fully intend to take advantage of a free meal (or two) while I have the chance. This weekend, I am excited to spend time with my family, show them around campus, tell them about my life and even argue with my little brother. The off-campus dining is just a highly appreciated added bonus to getting to spend time with the people I love.

As of right now, I already have three reservations lined up because, as my dad likes to say, all I think about is food. But while I have everything sorted out, I know some of my Tufts peers may not know where to go for a good meal that’s worth their money (or their parents’). Here are my recommendations:

My first suggestion is Thai food because, honestly, it’s probably my most-craved cuisine. There’s a restaurant in Porter Square called Sugar & Spice that’s known for having the best Thai food in the area. Their chicken satay is delicious, and don’t worry, your server will tell you how spicy each dish on the menu is, so you won’t be in over your head with heat. (However, I know my mother will be searching for whichever dish is rated four peppers or higher.)

Next up, pizza. There are many pizza places in the area — many of them good, some not so much. Ciao is where I would go to get the best kind of pizza: Neapolitanstyle (not to start controversy or anything). Only a 13-minute walk from Aidekman Arts Center, Ciao is a great place to sit down with the family. The pizza is thin, the crust is delicious and the pie can be fully covered with toppings.

On the topic of pizza, I would also suggest American Flatbread in Davis Square. This restaurant is half pizzeria and half bowling alley, making it super fun for the whole family (and pretty rowdy, especially in the evenings). Be warned, though, the bowling lanes fill up fast, so make a reservation!

Now, if you’ve been eating a lot of Tufts dining hall pizza and are looking for something different, look no further than the critically-acclaimed Yume Ga Arukara. The restaurant will no doubt be busy, but do not worry because they work like a machine, churning out bowls of hot and cold udon

every second. You can’t make reservations; you just have to show up and get in line. Someone with an iPad will come up and take your order, then you will be escorted to a table. I am a huge supporter of cold noodles, so my order is always the spicy cold udon. If the place is too full or not where you end up this weekend, swear to me that you will visit another time, it’s so worth it.

If you’re looking for a place to grab breakfast and a coffee with your parents, there are many options nearby. Tasty Cafe & Kitchen is great — their banana cinnamon latte is delicious — but since it’s so close to campus, it tends to be super crowded, which isn’t ideal when you are trying to sit down with your whole family. If you’re willing to drive, I would recommend Sofra Bakery, a Middle Eastern bakery and café with amazing lattes, intricate and flavorful pastries and many mezze to pick from. I’m a sweets person, so I always get a coffee and a pastry to enjoy while sitting outside on their porch. The other coffee shop I suggest is called Asaro Bakery and Cafe (a place that I want to gatekeep with everything in me, so you are welcome for this). Get their “not-so classic” breakfast sandwich with a vanilla latte on the side and enjoy.

This list wouldn’t be complete without tacos. A suggestion I’m going to pass on from my Somerville-native parents is Anna’s Taqueria in Davis Square. The al pastor tacos are so delicious, I eat them almost every Saturday for ‘breakfast’ at 12:30 p.m. (don’t judge me). Or, if you want to take your parents on a little field trip, go to Felipe’s Taqueria in Harvard Square. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and they come highly recommended by multiple friends. Sit on the rooftop, order the churros and thank me later.

My last suggestion is for those of you who just want a burger: Boston Burger Company in Davis Square. The restaurant is the epitome of American food, and while burgers are its namesake, what really stood out to me was their dessert menu. Right now, the frappe of the month is called The Fall Guy, and it consists of a pumpkin spice coffee frappe topped with a pumpkin whoopie pie, pumpkin spice bacon, candy corn and — of course — sprinkles.

That’s my mini suggestion guide to where your parents can take you while they’re in town! Sure, there’s no shame in sticking to Dewick or Fresh at Carmichael Dining Center if you’re feeling lazy, but why not take the chance when there’s so much to explore?

Even if nothing on my list catches your eye, there’s a whole city of restaurants waiting for you.

My advice: Follow your cravings, take a few extra steps off campus and enjoy some genuinely delicious food and quality time with your family. Honestly, a weekend like this is basically a free pass to eat like a monarch without judgment. Trust me, your stomach will thank you.

KINGS

Photos by Amelia Vander May, Claire Wood and Callie Zimmerman

In

FALL FOLIAGE

Photos:

Photos by Briana Chen, Arianna Hellman, Stella Jeong, John Murphy and Sam Pokorny

ArTS & POP CULTUrE

A cappella at Tufts hits all the right notes

Grace Lee Associate Editor

Over 60 years ago, the Beelzebubs and Jackson Jills set the stage for a cappella excellence at Tufts; today, that tradition has expanded into a thriving community of 10 different groups. All with distinct styles and identities, they can be overwhelming to keep track of, so here’s your guide to all the a cappella groups here at Tufts.

Beelzebubs

Widely regarded as the inspiration to the Treblemakers of the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, the Beelzebubs have had a long and storied history at Tufts since 1963 — voicing the ensemble Dalton Warblers in “Glee” and competing in the first season of the NBC reality competition “The Sing-Off” (2009). The Bubs’ influence on collegiate a cappella is also significant, with former Bub Deke Sharon (LA’91, NEC’91) being hailed as the “father of contemporary a cappella” thanks to his novel use of vocal percussion in arranging covers. With their iconic red suits and energetic TikTok presence, the Bubs truly embody their motto: “Fun Through Song.” Check out their most recent album, “Delirium” (2024), and a selection of recent performances on their website.

Jackson Jills

The Jackson Jills, Tufts’ oldest all-femme a cappella group, have been a pillar of campus a cappella since their founding in 1963. Named after the historic Jackson College — and Cornelia

Maria Jackson, its namesake — the Jills have created and continued a powerful legacy of musical talent and lifelong sisterhood. Their arrangements are characterized by both vocal and structural intricacies — a feat that has won them much critical acclaim and has brought them to stages like Boston’s Symphony Hall. Be sure to stream their most recent album, “Game Night” (2024), filled with hits like “The Weather” (2020) OPB Lawrence and “... Baby One More Time” (1998) OPB Britney Spears.

Amalgamates

Tufts’ oldest all-gender a cappella group, the Amalgamates, was founded in 1984 to create a unique, mixed-voice ensemble, different from the existing all-male and all-female groups. The ’Mates describe themself as “a group of close friends who share a passion for making great music” — and great music they do make. This group’s musical prowess is evident when listening to their current repertoire — filled with covers of songs like “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” (2024) OPB Billie Eilish and “Hammer To The Heart” (2023) OPB Teddy Swims — and has garnered them national and international recognition. Check out their latest album, “Who Crashed The Car?” (2023), and their latest single, “Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live from WMFO)” from 2024.

sQ!

sQ!, self-billed as the “freshest all-gender all-genre a cappella group,” most definitely lives up to its name, performing songs

like “Blackbird” (1968) OPB The Beatles, along with mashups of “Training Season” (2024) OPB Dua Lipa and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” (1979) OPB ABBA. Founded in 1994, this group has a history of celebrated performances, with recent features at the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championship and a winter tour throughout Chicago — all while still closely guarding the true meaning of the letters sQ!. Make sure to stream their latest EP, “Wavelength” (2024), anywhere you stream music.

The Ladies of Essence

Also founded in 1994, The Ladies of Essence is an all-femme identifying group that specializes in music of the African diaspora and tradition. Delivering powerful arrangements in genres like R&B, soul, gospel and hip-hop,

The Ladies of Essence are vocal superstars — a claim highlighted by the fact that they were crowned as the winners of RiffOff for two consecutive years. Beyond their musical skill, Essence truly is a tight-knit sisterhood and maintains a close relationship with their “brother group” S-Factor. Check out some of their covers on their YouTube channel: a “Euphoria” (2019–) medley of “I’m Tired” (2022) and “All For Us” (2019), both OPB Labrinth and Zendaya, at their spring 2023 show; and “Golden” (2004) OPB Jill Scott. Shir Appeal

Tufts’ only Jewish a cappella group, Shir Appeal, has been a hub for “Hebrew pop and rock, traditional and liturgical songs, Jewish world music, and English songs with Jewish themes” on campus since 1995. As the first non-secular feature on one of the “Best of Collegiate A Cappella” albums, Shir Appeal performs at a variety of locations: synagogues, day schools and more. And with annual retreats and heart-warming gratitude-focused traditions, this group’s focus on community is unmistakable. Stream their latest album, “Skylight” (2024) on all platforms.

S-Factor

Founded in 2006 as an allmale group dedicated to performing music of the African diaspora, S-Factor was formed as a brotherhood where they could create and share this art with the Tufts community. “Soul Factor” (2010), their first album, showcases some of the top genres that define their style: reggae, gospel, hip hop, R&B and so much more. Beyond just the music, community service and fire Instagram edits also define the group. Check out some of their recent covers on their YouTube channel: “Jealous” (2014) OPB Labrinth from their fall 2024 concert and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” from their spring 2025 concert.

Enchanted

Self-proclaimed as the “most magical a cappella group” at Tufts, Enchanted truly delivers. Specializing in music from Disney and other childhood classics, this student group will not only bring

you back to the ‘good ol’ times,’ but they’ll also add new fun, musical layers to the classics you love. Performing on campus and for the local community, Enchanted spreads the magic everywhere. Next time you’re feeling nostalgic, check out their eponymous EP from 2023, filled with hits like “Friend Like Me,” originally in the “Aladdin” (1992) soundtrack. Also, their chalk art is consistently the best on campus.

Full Sound

The only a cappella group at Tufts that focuses on music by Asian artists, Full Sound is another more recent addition, founded in 2016. With iconic stairwell covers featuring songs originally published by artists like Laufey, Olivia Rodrigo and Mitski — interspersed with some delicious food outings — Full Sound fully brings the energy. Stream their first single, released this year, “Cupid,” on all platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. Also, make sure to catch their repertoire from their recent spring 2025 concert on their YouTube channel.

Low-Keys

Founded in 2023, the LowKeys are the newest addition to the Tufts a cappella consortium. As an all-gender, no-audition group, they focus on building a welcoming, inclusive environment for all who enjoy a cappella. Adorned with their signature merch, the Low-Keys always bring high-key good vibes. Check out some of their recent covers on their YouTube channel: “Sweet Dreams” (1983) OPB Eurythmics from their fall 2024 concert and “Dog Days Are Over” (2008) OPB Florence + the Machine from their spring 2025 concert.

Want to see some live performances? Check out these a cappella groups in action this weekend! The Jills, the Bubs and the ’Mates will have their annual Homecoming show on Friday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Joyce Cummings Center ballroom; and the Jills, sQ!, the Low-Keys, the Bubs and Enchanted will be featured at the Avenue of the Arts Festival on Talbot Avenue on Saturday. If you love great voices and good vibes, the Tufts a cappella scene is where you want to be.

STELLA JEONG / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Jackson Jills perform at the Riff-Off on Nov. 15, 2024.

r.F. Kuang visits Tufts, discusses fear, form and fairytales

suggested, are the ones that leave it and still find their way home.

On Oct. 10, author R.F. Kuang joined the Tufts community for a discussion on writing, identity and the questions that shape her fiction. Hosted by the Asian American Center, the event drew a full audience to Distler Performance Hall, where students eagerly awaited with notebooks and copies of “Babel” and her other works in hand. Over the course of an hour, Kuang spoke warmly about her craft, academia and the delicate balance between critique and care.

She began by reflecting on her relationship with writing. Kuang started at just 19 years old, drawn by the thrill of the unknown. She still loves the feeling of being a beginner, which is why she refuses to stay in one place or genre for long. Her body of work reflects her restless curiosity: “Yellowface” takes the shape of literary satire, “Babel” explores historical fantasy and “Katabasis” draws from traditional mythology. Each new project becomes a way of starting over.

Much of the evening was spent discussing aspects of academia, a setting that threads through all her work. Having spent much of her time on campuses, Kuang spoke with passion about wanting to remain in the classroom for as long as she can. She called universities their own kind of fairyland — places shimmering with magic and ambition, yet shadowed by distortion and exclusivity. It’s easy to get lost in the bubble; the best stories, she

Her fiction lingers in that tension between belonging and distance. In “Katabasis,” the university is both sanctuary and trap, a place where knowledge and cruelty intertwine. Yet, Kuang resists the idea that her work is meant to tear institutions down. For her, critique is an act of love: To analyze or challenge something is to want better for it. She imagines a world where universities and fairytales can coexist, and remains committed to staying in her classroom for as long as possible.

When asked about her place in the Asian American literary canon, Kuang hesitated. She avoids being defined by ethnicity, pointing to earlier authors like Amy Tan who bore the weight of stereotype and expectation. Writers of color, she said, are often read as cultural representatives rather than artists. For Kuang, identity is not a label to sell books but something inseparable from craft. She hopes that she and other Asian American writers can be read for their language, ideas and storytelling, not only for how well they speak for a community.

Her reflections on form extended to finding a balance between her roles as novelist and scholar. She spoke candidly about the difficulty of writing both fiction and criticism — of learning to find her nonfiction voice after years of creative work. Academic writing demands restraint; fiction asks for risk. Each requires a different kind of precision, and she is still learning where they intersect.

Kuang also spoke about learning how to listen to feedback. Editors, she said, are often right about what’s missing but wrong about how to fix it. When criticism stings, she steps away before deciding what to keep. The goal isn’t to defend the work but to understand it more deeply — to put something on the page that allows others to see what she sees.

When asked where her stories begin, she smiled. They often start, she said — with irritation — with something that unsettles her enough to demand a story. That instinct has guided her to very different worlds: the publishing industry’s hypocrisies in “Yellowface,” the legacies of imperialism in “Babel” and the burnout and disillusionment of academia in “Katabasis.”

Looking ahead, Kuang hinted at her fascination with the ’30s and ’40s, especially the political and moral ruptures surrounding World War II. She offered few details, only that she remains drawn to the moments when language, power and philosophy converge and begin to fracture.

After the conversation, Kuang stayed to sign books for a line that wound around the auditorium. Students clutched copies of “Babel,” “Yellowface,” “Katabasis” and “The Poppy War” trilogy, still murmuring about what they had just heard. The room softened into a quieter rhythm, with the shuffle of pages and the faint scratch of a pen on title pages. It was a fitting close to an evening devoted to the slow, deliberate work of thinking — and rethinking — the stories we tell about the worlds we inhabit.

High Fidelity Clipse returns home triumphant on ‘Let God Sort Em Out’ tour

Kasra Salehi

Pusha T and Malice are on top of the world, and they know it.

Clipse’s return album after 16 years away, “Let God Sort Em Out,” arrived this summer like a rainstorm after a drought. Every slick punchline Malice made in a song and every abrasive statement Pusha T made in an interview was met with ferocious acclaim. The once proclaimed “favorite rapper’s favorite rappers” are not so secret anymore.

This was clear when I saw the legendary duo in concert this summer in their home state of Virginia. Early in the show, they unleashed the Pharrell Williams- and Cam’ron-featured “Popular Demand (Popeyes).” It is a statement song about their legacy, which is even more relevant 16 years later. The crowd cheered with every repeat of the main refrain: “I’m back by popular demand.” And they were.

Surprisingly, despite the extensive back catalog of fan favorites, it was the songs from the new album that went over best throughout the night. While classics such as their feature on the 2002 track “What Happened to That Boy” and their 2006 song “Mr. Me Too” were met with general excitement from the crowd, the new songs were ravenously received. This is a testament to the quality of “Let God Sort Em Out,” one of the best rap albums of the decade. “M.T.B.T.T.F” and “F.I.C.O.” enraptured the crowd, who hung onto every word and the one-two punch of the advance singles from the new album, “Ace Trumpets” and “So Be It,” also went down a storm.

The brothers moved around the stage slowly, taking time to point and stare at the many in the crowd rapping along word for word. They were patient throughout the performance, often standing silently for multiple beats or leaving the stage in between songs. They were not scared to make the audience wait or to stand and bathe in the applause.

And they took their time to get to the highlight of the concert, the performance of album opener “The Birds Don’t Sing,” which closed the main set. For the first time all night, the crowd fell silent, not rapping along but listening to the brothers’ heartfelt tribute to their deceased mother and father while watching the pictures of their parents displayed on the screen behind them.

Clipse are simply above-average performers but would definitely not be characterized as ‘show stoppers.’ The roughly 50-year-olds were not exceptionally energetic, and the crowd, which largely matched the performers’ age, was certainly not rowdy. It was not the loudest venue I’d been in and there were definitely a few empty seats in the house.

Instead, the night was special because of what it represented. In an age of music designed for instant gratification, Clipse fans had waited nearly two decades for their newest albums. Their music is intended to be listened to, not as background music, but with an eager ear. The night was special because everyone was ecstatic to be there, to finally hear music they cared about getting its due, even if it felt long overdue.

The acoustics of the venue were horrific, the parking was a joke and the concert started late but no one cared: Clipse were back.

Kasra Salehi is a first-year who has yet to declare a major. Kasra can be reached a kasra.salehi@tufts.edu.

Annika Pillai Executive Arts Editor

BRIANA CHEN / THE TUFTS DAILY

R.F. Kuang is pictured speaking in Distler Auditorium

MINI CROSSWORD

Family Ties

CROSSWORD

‘Family Ties’ by Maya Godard

‘Parents’ Weekend’ by Shayna Levy

SUDOKU

Difficulty Level: Trying to get college student to call you back.

The Editorial Board

Dear beloved parents and families,

Welcome to Tufts! Whether this is your first or fourth Parents and Family Weekend visit, we hope you are taking your time to experience life on the Hill and see what your child has been up to in this beautiful fall weather.

This year, the Editorial Board has decided to provide a list of

OPINION

Editorial: Lesser-known perks for Tufts students

hidden gems of free resources and discounts that students can make use of. As the total cost of attendance has skyrocketed to $93,182 for firstyears in the 2025–26 school year, we know you are looking for ways to save just a little bit more. Whether you are a student looking to get the most out of your Tufts experience or a frustrated parent trying to make sense of this hefty price, this article is for you!

1. First, let’s talk about the Career Center. There is a Professional Development Fund that many students don’t know is available. It is a grant of up to $200 given to qualified students for costs associated with professional organization involvement, like student membership dues, conference registration and workshops, as well as purchases of business attire. You can only receive the stipend once, but it is

a great opportunity to gain professional support!

2. Career Lab drop-in hours are also offered at several locations (Joyce Cummings Center, Tsungming Tsu Complex, Dowling Hall, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University; where students can come for resume and cover letter reviews, networking tips and job hunting advice across various fields, including

engineering, tech, finance, consulting and the arts.

3. At the Mayer Campus Center Information Booth, you can find many cool things to buy. Our favorite is the discounted AMC tickets you can buy for only $10!

4. The Health Service also has many unexpected finds. If you are on the Tufts Student Health Insurance Plan, you are eligible for acupuncture, cupping and gua sha services through New England Integrated

Autumn leaves fall in front of Ballou Hall on Sunday Oct. 19. Health with no copay. Chiropractic services are also included for no additional charge. Simply book your appointment through the Tufts Health Service portal and head to 126 Professors Row!

5. The Counseling and Mental Health Services center provides Mental Health Mini Grants of up to $500 for students interested in leading initiatives aimed at raising awareness and addressing mental health issues. Tufts also offers a free, four-week mindfulness course — a great way to learn how to offset academic and personal stress.

7. Tufts also makes transportation safe and easy.

The Safe Ride Service offers free Lyft rides for students traveling between campus locations and into surrounding neighborhoods at times when they feel unsafe traveling by other means. There is also a Stop & Shop grocery shuttle that departs from the Campus Center every Saturday at hourly intervals, providing convenience to students who cook on their own or just simply want to go shopping. You can also borrow bikes at the Tisch Library circulation desk.

8. Through Tufts Dining, you can also get a free Grubhub+ student membership that applies $0 delivery fee on certain qualified off-campus deliveries. The

6. For movie lovers, we encourage you to take advantage of the free Kanopy subscription and make use of JumboSearch, where you can search the title of the film you want to see: Click on “Resource Type” then select “Video Recordings.” Chances are, you will be able to find some great films!

best part is, you can order with JumboCash!

9. Speaking of JumboCash, it is mindblowing how many popular off-campus vendors accept them. Here are some places we’d love you to know: Tasty Cafe & Kitchen, Davis Square CVS, Davis Square H Mart, Davis Square Gong Cha, Campus Mini Mart, Tufts Convenience Store and Picante Taqueria.

10. Mango Languages, free through Tisch Library, provides language learning courses and resources for over 70 languages. Whether you’re looking to extend your Duolingo learning, fulfill your Tufts foreign language requirements, complete your eight-semester international relations language requirement or simply love another language, we believe it will be a great platform to supplement your learning!

11. If you take the MBTA Red Line down, you will be able to visit every museum at Harvard — the Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments — all for free!

12. The Swipe It Forward program, funded through the generous donations of Tufts-mealplan-havers, grants up to 15 free meal swipes per semester to students who are having difficulty finding what to eat. If you are no longer on a meal plan, this can be a great resource for you. If you are on a meal plan, specifically the 400-swipe one, this would also be great for you — donate some! (Let’s be honest, you won’t finish all 400!)

13. And lastly, as a newspaper ourselves, we would like to highlight the free news subscriptions offered through the Tisch Library: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and even The Boston Globe (in the form of a daily PDF)! Having news literacy and staying informed is extremely crucial, so be sure to take advantage of these resources!

So, as you enjoy Parents and Family Weekend and take in the view from the Hill, we hope you now feel slightly more assured that there are some perks to paying Tufts tuition, outside of just the ability to call the Hill home. We hope to see every student make the most of the benefits given to them as much as possible!

Warmly,

The Daily’s Editorial Board

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OP-EDS: Op-Eds provide an open forum for campus editorial commentary and are published Monday through Friday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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SAMANTHA POKORNY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Olivia Zambrano Deputy Opinion Editor

Think Sink: The Sink as a community space on campus

If you’ve walked through the Mayer Campus Center between 11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., there’s no doubt you’ve heard Charli XCX blasting from the sink-shaped nook just to the right of the second-floor stairs. A warmly-lit hideaway in the normally fluorescent Campus Center, The Sink is the perfect spot to catch up with a friend or pretend to be studying — if you can find a table. Hordes of students line up to grab one of The Sink’s latest collaborative drinks or classic concoctions, like “Lucy in the Chai,” “Girl Grass” or “Blossom.”

The ambiance of this upstairs hideaway is exactly what you’d expect from a Tufts student space, featuring a photo wall with pictures of the employees, hand-drawn menus, punch cards lining the fridge and a miniature zine library. The mismatched assortment of decor encapsulates the eclectic vibe of the staff, creating a personalized space for Tufts students to congregate. The Sink is a prime example of a community organization on campus that dedicates itself to not only providing a physical space for students, but an opportunity for them to feel seen, appreciated and advocated for.

The Sink is by the student body, for the student body. In addition to being 100% student-run, they are in ongoing collaboration with the Tufts University Prison Initiative and have a “pay-it-

Sorsha Khitikian Opinion Editor

As a Tufts student, I am always paying attention to the cannon. A central part of student life, the cannon represents student voice, interests and activism. Whether you’re a member of the Tufts Cheese Club advertising the Cheese Ball or anonymous activists writing political messages, you can make your voice heard and seen by the broader community on the cannon. Every time I walk to Tisch Library or to a class near the Academic Quad, I stop by and see what students are up to. This is how I first noticed the cannon painted a blank sheet of blue by the Tufts administration.

This isn’t the first time the Tufts administration has painted over student speech. I wrote an article last semester when Tufts facilities were found painting over pro-Palestinian messages after a political back-and-forth between

forward” voucher system for students who might not be able to afford their drinks. Fliers and posters line the drink pick-up counter, each promoting different student organizations and events. The Sink has a long history of hosting special drink menus for holidays, seasons and collaborations with student organizations for heritage months. Most recently, The Sink collaborated with PERIOD at Tufts for Period Action Day, Tufts Association of Latin American Students for Hispanic Heritage Month and WMFO, Tufts’ student and community-operated radio station. The Sink’s employees value identity-based drinks, and their collaborations with the identity centers range from drinks that celebrate Black Legacy Month with the Africana Center to events with the LGBT Center, like the recent “performative masc lesbian contest,” co-hosted by the LGBT Center and The Sink.

When The Sink isn’t hosting events for the student body or cooking up unique drink combinations, they’re actively promoting and taking part in civic action. Fliers posted around the space encourage the Tufts community to attend panels about social injustices, vote and become active members of the Tufts and Medford/Somerville communities. In preparation for the upcoming Nov. 4 elections, The Sink initiated a collaboration with JumboVote to encourage student voter registration by distributing QR code stickers that lead

to Tufts’ voter registration website. Similarly, The Sink promotes their partnership with Green Dot through a QR code on the drink pick-up counter, prompting students to apply to the Green Dot Executive Leadership board. Tufts is known for its engaged and civically active student body, and The Sink is a vital part of furthering student involvement.

Senior Spencer Pickering, the operations manager, and junior Fin Jones, a barista, both highlight the role of The Sink in Tufts’ community. When Pickering became manager last spring, he knew The

Sink “should get more involved in the Tufts community.” Hence, this year, they’re “trying to do as many collabs as possible.” Jones, too, notes that The Sink is “a very community-reliant business, so paying respect to that, paying homage to that, celebrating other people’s interests … is the main stuff.”

The Sink provides Tufts’ student body with a physical space on campus that invests in them and their interests, something that is invaluable in every young person’s life and especially important on college campuses.

Tufts admin, leave the cannon alone

Tufts Republicans and anonymous students. I argued then that it was a completely inappropriate move by the Tufts administration. Not only was there little precedent for the repainting, but the political climate of the time — with Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s detention for expressing her voice in this very newspaper — made student speech even more vital to protect. Instead, Tufts opted to silence student speech in what I believe to be a move to limit potential backlash from the administration of President Donald Trump. Now, seven months later, Tufts has fully regulated the cannon, systematically painting over it once a week.

I was so angry when I first saw that administration-approved blue that I began a two-week watch period. I went to the cannon every day to see when the cannon was painted over — it seemed to be every Wednesday night or

Thursday morning. The official statement on the cannon justifies the repainting policy, claiming it seeks to “allow Tufts community members to share a wide array of thoughts, ideas and viewpoints without necessarily having to cover up someone else’s message.”

I have so many problems with this reasoning, mainly because it doesn’t accomplish its intentions. By painting over the cannon, the Tufts administration is hoping to avoid the qualms students might have with covering up other student speech. This is something that Gretta Goorno, former executive Opinion editor and current managing editor, voiced last semester in an article published in tandem with my previous cannon article. However, instead of providing a solution to painting over our peers’ speech, Tufts is doing the job all on its own. The administration is forcefully inserting itself as a mediator of public discourse by actively covering up student voices. For the other six days of the week when the administration isn’t painting the cannon, students are still painting over each other’s work anyway.

I think that Tufts’ reasoning is nothing more than an excuse to intrude into student speech. What they didn’t have the precedent to do last year, they are building precedent for now. If Tufts finds itself in a similar situation as last semester, when something students write on the cannon goes directly against the Trump administration, in tandem with financial pressure on the university, Tufts can point to this

policy when covering it up.

As I said last semester, I understand the logic of covering up controversial student speech. Much of the political quagmire Tufts has been embroiled in since Trump took office hasn’t gone away. The university is still facing federal funding losses and pressure to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs. At any moment, Trump and his cabinet could bear down on Tufts for seemingly any reason, making it almost impossible for the institution to function independently. But I said it in March, and I’ll say it again: These reasons do not make it right for the Tufts administration to dictate what students can or cannot say.

People can disagree with me, but the fact that the Tufts administration website omits the true history of the cannon says everything about its current actions. The cannon painting tradition started as student civil disobedience. In 1977, students who were against a $1.5 million donation from Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the Philippines at the time, painted the cannon in protest. Instead of acknowledging this history, the Tufts administration has chosen to sanitize it by only highlighting non-political ways the cannon is painted. Denying this political history doesn’t erase it. In fact, it only shows how consistent the university has been in stamping out student activism.

It’s also ironic that Tufts purports to promote a civically-minded student body while continuing a history of stifling student civic engagement. It’s hypocrisy if I’ve

“We’re just a bunch of students that like coffee and tea and like to make it,” Jones said. “One of the best things about college is that you’re able to explore those interests with other people.”

The Sink’s active involvement with the student body and genuine dedication to student livelihood make it a community space on campus that is impossible to ignore. Next time you’re in the Campus Center, take a moment to not only appreciate The Sink’s well-crafted drinks but also their commitment to uplifting student organizations and giving back to the community.

ever seen it. Tufts has an entire college dedicated to teaching civics to students, which is the only one of its kind in the country. As a civics studies major myself, I have witnessed the importance of civics lessons under our current political climate. Painting the cannon is part of that. Every time students paint the cannon, we see principles of civics — group participation and deliberation, for instance — put into practice. By butting into the cannon painting process once a week, Tufts both disrupts this expression of civic engagement and positions itself as a biased mediator of student speech. Students should have the right to paint the cannon with messages that criticize our political leaders and our academic institutions. They also should have the right to advertise their clubs, promote fun events and celebrate holidays. One type of speech should not be prioritized over another, as Tufts is clearly doing in its own statement. I don’t know whether this is a new policy concerning the cannon, or whether it is an older policy that is finally being enforced. Either way, it is a terrible example of administrative overreach.

Tufts now has the precedent of covering up student political speech. Be that as it may, we students can’t let the administration think that repainting the cannon, even for seemingly valid reasons, is right. We need to protect what cannon painting originally stood for — what it still stands for: student speech, in all its forms.

DAVID KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Sink is pictured.

Tufts researchers redefine how students learn STEM

As enrollment numbers for the introductory chemistry and physics courses reach around 600 students each this semester, the need to understand how students learn in STEM classes only becomes more crucial.

While typical bench research is a major focus at Tufts, the university also hosts many faculty members researching science, technology, engineering and math education — a topic that directly impacts every student taking STEM courses at any level of academia.

Professor Ira Caspari-Gnann, a member of both the chemistry and education departments, and her lab examine how chemistry learning — as well as STEM learning, more broadly — happen in the moment. That includes studying lectures and problem-solving sessions when learning is actively being facilitated.

In order to research active learning in the classroom, her lab records and later transcribes discussions between learning assistants, professors and students. Additionally, a researcher sits in on the class to observe and take notes on general classroom dynamics. After discussions are recorded, students and instructors may be interviewed to understand how they were thinking about learning in that instance.

Caspari noted one interaction between students and a learning assistant that her lab looked at:

“We showed it to the students as a group, and we showed it to the professor teaching the class and then external researchers also looked at it,” Caspari said. “Everybody had a different opinion on whether they’re learning and why they’re learning.”

To measure whether students are learning, Caspari looks for “continuity” and “discourse change” in a conversation. For continuity, she monitors ideas throughout a conversation to see if they are connecting with each other as well as with students’ perspectives. On the other hand, discourse change is when new ideas are brought into the discussion and developed.

As a member of the chemistry department, Caspari has taught many classes, including general and organic chemistry, and she’s been able to implement active learning strategies in her classroom as a participant in her own study.

Caspari deduced from research on her own class is that the learning assistants were guiding students to answers more than she intended. These assistants are undergraduate students who have previously taken the course and whose role is to help facilitate learning and to be an approachable figure for students to talk to.

Caspari has since adapted her facilitation methods so that learning assistants are less solution-oriented and more process-oriented. “I changed my setup. And then, in the next data collection, we actually saw that the facilitation that we’re doing on the student learning was also changing,” Caspari said.

Caspari also looks at problem design and how that can change the learning process. Particularly, she is focused on how the format of a question can be changed so that, instead of there being just one correct answer, students can reason through the problem in multiple ways.

Caspari uses the flipped classroom model to have more productive small group discussions.

Before using this model, she spent more class time explaining and lecturing.

“That was mirroring, or showing, what the expectation was as a whole. So then in the small groups, they weren’t really exploring either,” Caspari said. “So I shifted to do more … whole class discussions where I hear several different ways of reasoning. And then I work out of like, ‘What works in this one, what works in this one, how do we put that together to actually solve the problem?’”

Caspari is also trying to strike a balance in her classrooms between exploration of ideas and explaining the answer to a problem.

“It’s a lecture-to-lecture base. … [Sometimes in lecture we] really went into exploring things, and students really started to value their own ideas, and we [brought] in multiple perspectives. But then I’m like, ‘Okay, next lecture, I’ll also need to make sure that students are developing an understanding for these things,’” Caspari said.

Students also need time to figure out a balance when introduced to this flipped classroom model, as it can seem like watching pre-recorded lecture videos outside of class is more work than the typical problem set. To combat this, Caspari will often set up meetings to discuss the format and how to manage it.

“We talk about how ultimately they’re not spending more time working by themselves on things, because I’m doing much shorter problem sets,” Caspari said. “So, a student doesn’t spend more time on [this] class than in a traditional class. It’s just now, more problem-solving is in class, and more listening to explanations is out of class.”

Outside of chemistry, researchers in the physics department are also studying how students learn.

Miguel Vasquez-Vega, a third-year graduate student in the physics department, studies how “unscoring” practices in classes affect a student’s ability to make sense of what they’re learning. His research was inspired by a desire to improve the way people learn — beyond the traditional lecture-style format of physics classes.

“Learning is not just absorbing information from somebody who knows to somebody who doesn’t know,” Vasquez-Vega said. “It’s more about creating a lot of connections between what you already know in what you’re learning in whatever subject it is.”

By observing how students are able to create connections within material they are learning, Vasquez-Vega is able to gain insight on how students are understanding the material at hand.

“I particularly am studying and trying to understand how students show evidence of them making sense of what they’re saying on their responses to, say, problem set or homework assignments,” Vasquez-Vega said.

Through teaching Physics 11 with Professor Hugh Gallagher, he’s been working on seeing how “unscoring” practices, specifically, affect these learning outcomes.

The rationale behind unscoring is twofold: to allow students to focus more on the learning than the grade, and to give instructors and TAs more time to discuss how to approach learning subjects in class — instead of how to divvy up points on an exam.

Measuring whether learning outcomes are still comparable with unscoring, though, is not so simple. “It’s a lot of conversations,

a lot of philosophical conversations, about what it means to explore, what it means to make sense, what it means for a student to to engage in these practices that we want them to be engaging in,” Vasquez-Vega said.

Unlike typical grading rubrics, he develops the rubrics for evaluating student learning in his research, not based on whether an answer is right or wrong, but rather based on the engagement and sense-making present in students’ responses.

In the end, Vasquez-Vega emphasized the importance of doing this STEM education research and changing the perception of learning physics: “We want to … transform that idea that people have of physics as a subject that you learn and more as a tool to make sense of the world around you.”

Even beyond the world of physics, he has discovered that the ways we learn have broad applications.

“It’s so pretty and so useful to understand how the world around you works, and I’m talking about physics. But it can also be like how the social world around you works, how the political world around you works, how the psychological world around you, the biological world around you works,” VasquezVega said. “I think it’s so useful and awesome to understand better how to move through the world or how the world moves around you.”

Caspari echoed the critical impact of education research in STEM classes: “It’s so central because we’re working with humans. We’re not working with chemicals or physics experiments or something. We are working with humans. So we do need to understand how humans are, how students are learning and what they need to help them learn.”

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Pearson Chemistry Lab is pictured on Sept. 23, 2021.

Grace Lee and Aisha Karim

Associate Editor and Staff Writer

Women’s soccer scoreless in draw to Middlebury

Morgan Baudler

Contributing Writer

No. 4 Tufts faced top NESCAC opponent No. 10 Middlebury in an away game on Saturday. The top 10 matchup proved to be a difficult test for the Jumbos, ending scoreless.

“We knew that this was going to be a tough game, as it was against another highly ranked team. Our energy was very high as a team after our Amherst loss and we were very united and supportive of each other,” senior forward Elsi Aires wrote in a message to the Daily.

Tufts came out aggressively with back-to-back attempts in the first minute. Middlebury, however, easily dealt with both shots and transitioned down the pitch.

Still, it didn’t take long for the Jumbos to gain momentum. They linked passes up the field but couldn’t find quality final passes. After regaining possession, they went over the top. Aires took a shot from distance, forcing a Middlebury save in the eighth minute.

A loose ball gave Middlebury their first good chance in the ninth minute. Sophomore defender Phoebe Marsick blocked the long-range effort, keeping the game level. A short pass just a minute later gave Middlebury another chance, but junior defender Maggie Rogers got to the ball before Middlebury could get a quality shot.

Link-up play gave Tufts a corner in the 14th minute. Aires’ shot from outside the box took a deflection, but the Jumbos got another chance with an open look for Rogers, whose shot went wide.

Another loose ball in the box in the 23rd minute looked to be a good opportunity for the Panthers, but Marsick was able to handle it. Shortly after, a deflected pass in the Jumbos’ half gave the Panthers another look. They had a promising cross in, but the Jumbos cleared.

Tufts created a promising chance of their own in the 25th minute. The Jumbos strung together passes, switching the ball back-and-forth on the pitch. Their cross in, however, was cut out by the Panthers. They got another

opportunity immediately when senior defender Anna Griffin won the ball back in midfield. She went long to Aires, whose shot from distance went wide.

The Jumbos had a couple more good looks with 15 minutes left. The Jumbos linked passes down the left side and delivered a quality cross in the 30th minute. However, no Jumbo could get on the end and the ball went out for a goal kick. Immediately, they attacked down the left side again, sending the ball toward goal for Aires. Panthers goalkeeper Livia Davidson came out to prevent the shot.

Tufts kept up the pressure after halftime. Sophomore midfielder Maren Jones took a shot from midfield, the Jumbos won three corners and junior forward Waverly Sumner had one more shot from distance on frame in the final minutes. Davidson saved and the first half ended scoreless.

Despite the even score, Tufts had the advantage in the first half, with 10 shots to Middlebury’s two and six corners to Middlebury’s one. “Defensively, we had great communication and awareness of their players. We didn’t give them many chances, which is what we strive to continue to do each game,” Aires wrote.

The Jumbos struggled with loose passes, however, giving the Panthers some opportunities and costing them shots of their own. “We are looking to improve on our ability to take care of the ball and maintain possession for as long as we can,” Aires wrote.

The beginning of the second half was dominated by Middlebury. They pushed into the final third in the 53rd minute and neither team controlled the ball. Middlebury defender Kacy Walker was left open but shot well wide from distance. Soon after, the Panthers connected passes to get an open look but were offside.

The errant passes continued for the Jumbos, giving Panthers midfielder Chloe Swindle an open look in the 62nd minute. Junior goalkeeper Gigi Edwards came up big with a diving save to keep it level. The Panthers immediately got two more chances by quickly winning

possession back and finding open space, but the Panthers were unable to put the ball in the back of the net.

Griffin gave the Jumbos their first promising chance of the half in the 64th minute, intercepting a Panther pass and taking the ball all the way up the pitch. Middlebury’s defence blocked the shot.

In the 69th minute, the Panthers’ pressure forced the Jumbos back. Another loose pass gave Panthers midfielder Taya McClennon a chance, but her shot didn’t have the pace to get past Edwards.

In the final 20 minutes, the Jumbos’ offense found its rhythm. Griffin drew a foul in the final third in the 72nd minute and senior defender Lena Sugrue sent in a dangerous ball. Soon after, the Jumbos strung together passes up the length of the pitch. Aires’ shot was blocked, but the ball fell to junior midfielder Emily Nicholas, who forced the Panther save. A loose Panthers’ pass fell to Aires who shot it just wide, and first-year forward Jordyn Miller took a shot from distance that Davidson saved.

With five minutes remaining, Tufts pushed hard to break the deadlock. Miller won a corner, Sumner shot from way out and Sugrue took a long free kick. The Jumbos, however, struggled to create quality chances.

The Panthers responded with a quick shot from outside the box in the 89th minute. Edwards dove to tip the ball out for a Panthers corner. Middlebury couldn’t take advantage, sending the corner-kick out of play.

The Jumbos scrambled to get one last opportunity but couldn’t get past the Panthers’ back line. The game ended 0–0.

Despite dropping points, Tufts remains at the top of the NESCAC with a 6–1–2 conference record and one conference game remaining.

“We plan on continuing our one game at a time mentality and focusing on the first opponent ahead of us. Overall, I am very proud of our team’s success this year and am very excited to see what we can do with such a talented group!” Aires wrote.

The Intangibles

LaVar Ball and the parent’s ambition

Jonah Cowan

LaVar Ball deserves credit for painstakingly molding his three sons, Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo, into elite basketball players and celebrities from their earliest years. The three brothers became a sensation in 2016 at Chino Hills High School, and now two of them are established NBA players. The middle child is a rapper.

But what happens when the manufacturing of children into elite athletes fails?

Take Jamie Newman. Newman wishes he could be Ball. He took a position as a high school basketball coach to give his fifth-grade son Julian (whom he had trained intensively since age 3) the opportunity to play against better competition. Julian did quite well for a fifth grader playing varsity (which is no small feat), and the national media loved the story. Through this attention, Newman was able to profit from his son. However, it turned out that Julian never grew taller than 5-foot-7 and never achieved more than an unceremonious and brief stint at Bethesda University. He is now an influencer. In a basketball sense, Julian’s ‘prodigy’ was ultimately little more than a vessel for his father’s profit and ego.

Parents like LaVar Ball and Jamie Newman are simultaneously altruistic and selfish. While they receive the vicarious satisfaction of reviving their own unlived dreams, their true intention lies twofold in a predatory benevolence. The psychotic strictness, the imposition of an adult professional athlete’s regimen upon their child, arises at first from a genuinely good-hearted interest in their child’s success. But this desire for their child’s development seems to slowly mix with their own desires, and the parent-child relationship is corrupted by the parent’s self-interest.

While there are parents like this in every field, I believe the dynamic is far worse in sports. Unlike chess or mathematics prodigies, a true prodigy in athletics is an unknown quantity until at least adolescence. LeBron James, probably the greatest basketball prodigy of all time, could have arguably played in the NBA at 16 (and this is incredibly generous). Yet the LaVars of the world maintain the belief in their young children as athletic ‘prodigies’ and are often dragged into an extreme developmental sunk cost fallacy. All the while, they attempt to market their children in an attempt to profit from their work.

Now, while a parent pushing their kid isn’t inherently bad, there is sometimes a fine line between a push and a shove; and in these parents of prodigies, it is hard to make out the difference between a well-intentioned desire for development and a proclivity towards exploitation.

In the most famous cases where ambitious parents succeeded in their plans — Tiger Woods, the Williams sisters and (two of) the Ball Brothers — we must remember that under their triumph lies a mountain of broken dreams and childhoods colored by trauma, wasted by parents whose dreams took precedence over the child’s. The biggest tragedy is that this dynamic of parental sports exploitation will be perpetuated in part because these stories serve as an inspiration to parents. And for every LaVar Ball, there’s probably a thousand Jamie Newmans.

Jonah Cowan is a senior studying internaional relations. Jonah can be reached at jonah.cowan@tufts.edu.

STELLA JEONG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior midfielder Caroline Kelly defends the ball on Oct. 7.