The Tufts Daily - Thursday, February 29, 2024

TCU Senate to vote Sunday on genocide acknowledgment, university divestment

Coalition for Palestinian Liberation proposed four resolution drafts to TCU Senate targeting university connections to Israel.

Carly Cohen University News Editor

On Sunday, the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts introduced four full-text resolutions to the Tufts Community Union Senate which, if passed, will

call on the Office of the President and other senior leadership to acknowledge Israel’s continued assault on Gaza and to end all ties to the country. Senators will vote on finalized versions of all four resolutions at next week’s meeting, just two weeks after the introduction of abstracts on Feb. 18.

“The Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts has introduced these four TCU Senate resolutions to emphasize the importance of institutional boycott and divestment from Israel at multiple administrative levels,” CPLT wrote in a statement to the Daily. “These resolutions demonstrate that any and all measures that the university and its officials can take to end Tufts’ complicity in

Israel’s genocide on Gaza are crucial to the broader goals of the [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement.”

While resolutions are all based on the shared premise of Israel’s human rights violations, each of the four takes a different approach to cut the university’s ties to the country.

The first, S.24-1, calls on Tufts Global Education to end approval for external study abroad programs in Israel. According to the Global Education website, the school currently approves programs at Ben Gurion University of Negev, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, University of Haifa, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.

New TCU senators elected in 2024 special election

Josue Perez Staff Writer

Four representatives, including the new Southwest Asian and North African community senator, join the ranks of the Tufts Community Union Senate following a special election, while the Indigenous community senator seat remains vacant. Polls were open from Thursday at 12 p.m. to Friday at 12 p.m.

After collecting votes, the Elections Commission (ECOM) announced the new senators as follows:

Class of 2025 Senator: Lexis Lokko

Disability Community

Senator: Amelia Farrar

International Community

Senator: Mathew Letua

SWANA Community Senator: Iman Boulouah

There were no candidates for the Indigenous Community Senator seat, leaving it vacant for the time being. ECOM wrote in an

email to the Daily that it plans to “work closely with the Indigenous Center and [Indigenous Students’ Organization at Tufts] for the upcoming Spring elections in order to fill the Indigenous Community Senator seat.”

Around 18% of the student body participated in the voting, which ECOM described as “on the lower end as spring special elections generally are.” The commission plans to work with JumboVote to increase voting averages in the upcoming spring elections.

All new senators attended their first Senate meeting on Sunday and have expressed excitement on getting to know their constituents and begin working on projects.

Sophomore Iman Boulouah is the first person to hold the newly created Southwest Asian and North African community seat. She ran for the seat because she believes there is a “lack of representation for SWANA students.”

Boulouah said that it felt “nerve wracking” but also “exciting” to be the first SWANA senator.

“I am setting this foundation [to provide] more [perspectives from] SWANA students,” she said. “I want to focus on having events and many other things that can allow different communities to know SWANA students because I feel like people don’t really know them or anything about our cultures.”

One project Boulouah is excited to work on is the creation of a SWANA identity center. “A SWANA center had been something that people have been working on in the last year, which … didn’t get as far as they wanted,” Boulouah said. “And I want to continue that and see if there are ways we can finally have that be a space.”

Boulouah wants to diversify other students’ knowledge of cultures through her position as SWANA senator.

S.24-1 “urges Tufts University to end its study abroad programs in Israel indefinitely” and “to not approve or offer new study abroad programs in Israel.” The resolution, if passed, will solicit a written response from Tufts Global Education within two weeks.

The second, S.24-2, calls for Tufts Dining to end the sale of Sabra, Pillsbury and other products connected to Israel at Tufts. In its proposal, CPLT explained the reasoning behind this request.

“Sabra has documented ties to human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is ‘a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, a multinational corporation and Israel’s largest food and beverage company.’ …

The Strauss Group has materially supported the Golani Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. … Pillsbury, a food manufacturing corporation owned by General Mills, operates a factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone. … The factory has displaced Palestinians and profits off of their land, water, and other resources,’” the resolution reads.

The resolution “urges the Tufts Dining office to stop selling any Israeli products immediately and indefinitely” and requests a written response from Tufts Dining within two weeks.

CPLT’s third resolution, S.243, demands that “[University President Sunil Kumar], Deans, and

Local publication to end coverage of Somerville

Almer Yu Staff Writer

Following a national trend of local newspaper closures, the Somerville Wire — a municipal news service which has now served the city of Somerville for the better part of three years — will soon close its doors for the final time. Its editor, Jason Pramas, announced the closure earlier this month, crediting the decision to the service’s inability to raise sufficient funds to pay the service’s two staffers.

Pramas estimated that since its creation in 2021, the publication had amassed an audience of about 2,000 readers. The Wire’s mission, Pramas said, was not to compete with other news outlets, but rather to “put more news into the news ecology.” In fact, any news outlet is welcome to republish anything produced by the Wire, as long as they are not run by a major corporation.

The Wire and its fiscal sponsor, the Somerville Media Fund, were

the brainchilds of the Somerville News Garden project. Pramas, also the executive director of the Somerville Media Fund, explained that both were created even amid what he called “several interlocking crises” that have caused “the terminal collapse of journalism.”

One of these crises, Pramas said, is large corporations’ increasing ownership of local media. He explained that when corporations purchase local, family-owned publications, they gradually reduce the staffing and regionalize the sales operations in order to maximize profit.

For example, the Cambridge Chronicle was purchased by Gannett — the largest newspaper publisher in the country — and ceased local coverage in 2022. The Somerville Journal and Medford Transcript, two papers that serve Tufts’ host communities, were also purchased by Gannett and merged into one weekly publication in 2022.

visi t tuftsdaily.com/masthead

Founded in 1980,

The Tufts Daily is the entirely student-run newspaper of record at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. An editorially and financially independent organization, the Daily’s staff of more than 100 covers news, features, arts and sports on Tufts’ four campuses and in its host communities.

Haley campaign makes an appeal to Tufts voters

Grayton Goldsmith Staff Writer

Jennifer Nassour, the Massachusetts state chair for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign and former chair of the Massachusetts GOP, shared her reasons for supporting Haley and answered questions from students during an event organized by Tufts republicans on Feb. 21.

Although the republican primary field initially consisted of more than a dozen candidates, Haley is the last woman standing in what many observers have dubbed a coronation ceremony for former President Donald Trump. Despite facing a clear deficit in all five republican nominating contests held thus far, Haley has vowed to stay in the race.

Last week’s discussion came just days before voters would cast their primary ballots in Haley’s home state of South Carolina on Saturday. When asked by one student what the campaign would consider a strong performance in the state, Nassour shared what percentage of votes the campaign is aiming for.

“I would like to see 40%. I think 40[%] would be great, I think if she gets anything over 35[%], she’s fine,” Nassour said.

After the event, Trump beat Haley with 59.8% of the vote, as opposed to Haley’s 39.5%.

When asked by one student about Haley’s path to victory, Nassour emphasized that winning delegates is more important than winning states.

“The media is really hung up on the whole ‘winning states’ issue. Winning a state is not the issue. Winning the delegates is the issue, and the magic number is 1,215,” Nassour said. “As

far as Nikki and the campaign are concerned, nothing changes until someone gets to that 1,200 number.”

Although she acknowledged that it will not be easy to reach that “magic number,” Nassour believes that it is important for voters to have an alternative choice on election day.

“I think that the republican Party has missed a standard bearer, and Trump has had, from the beginning, 34% of the republican Party. … Well, where’s the rest?

Last time I checked, 34%, you don’t need to be a math major, is not a majority,” Nassour said.

Echoing familiar Haley campaign rhetoric, Nassour positioned Haley as the sensible alternative for voters who are both disillusioned with Trump’s republican party and have worries about President Joe Biden’s age.

“One of the things about Haley that you don’t see in Biden or

Trump is that, at 52 years old, she has a full runway ahead of her. She has another 40 to 50 years to look forward to,” Nassour said. “The only thing that Trump and Biden have is looking in the rearview mirror.”

One student asked whether Nassour believed Haley should endorse Trump if he is the eventual GOP nominee.

“I actually don’t think that she should. I think there are a lot of people that would be very upset, and I think she loses a tremendous amount of credibility,” Nassour responded.

Nassour, who has been working on political campaigns since age 19, spoke to Haley’s electability over figures like Trump. When asked about Haley’s perceived “branding problem” in trying to appeal to both moderate and conservative voters, Nassour commented on partisan issues.

“I don’t think she has a branding problem at all. I think the republican Party has an issue because there are two parties in this country, republican and Democrat. There’s no MAGA party,” Nassour said.

Nassour also spoke to Haley’s place within the republican Party.

“The republican Party looked and sounded like Nikki Haley until Trump came around,” Nassour added.

Ultimately, Nassour stressed the importance of casting a ballot in the upcoming presidential primaries, which will be held on March 5 in Massachusetts.

“One of the things I’m going to ask you all is please make sure, whether it’s this election on [March 5] or [your home state’s] elections … please make sure you vote in primaries, because 22% of our electorate actually picks who goes forward into the general election,” she said.

CPLT resolutions take aim at university connections to Israel

RESOLUTION continued from page 1

Land Acknowledgement

The

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Provosts release a statement both recognizing [and] condemning the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza.” The resolution further calls on the administration to “release a statement apologizing for their previous statements” and “urges the Office of the President and the Deans of the school to hold a public open meeting with the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts.”

The resolution asserts that the “Tufts Administration and President have made several biased statements in the Fall semester of 2023 about the ongoing genocide, under the name of ‘Israel-Hamas War.’” Last semester, the university put out several emails addressing the conflict, and Kumar released a video message on campus discourse at the beginning of the spring semester.

In this resolution, the coalition requests a written response from the university president, deans and provosts within two weeks.

The final resolution, S.24-4, takes specific aim at the school’s investment portfolio.

S.24-4 “urges the Tufts University investment office to immediate-

ly disclose all investments, with emphasis on any and all direct and indirect investments in companies based in or which profit from partnership with Israel.” The resolution urges the university “to divest from Israeli Companies [and] to divest from companies invested in Israeli Apartheid and with ties to Israel.”

S.24-4, as well as S.24-3, cite a TCU Senate resolution passed in 2017, titled “A resolution Calling for Tufts University to End Investments in The Israeli Occupation.” Despite this, the university has continually reiterated its opposition to the BDS movement and has not publicly shared its full investment portfolio.

“With Tufts continuing to not comply with this resolution, we reiterate that it is more important than ever that we do not invest in companies that provide weapons to Israel, or any Israeli companies that are built on stolen Palestinian land,” CPLT wrote in the S.24-4 abstract. “Many groups on campus have expressed concern over the Administration’s refusal to disclose what investments they hold in Israel and companies tied to it. We are also concerned about other investments that Tufts holds, which do not com-

ply with their ‘Anti-racist’ promise, and, in this sense, we are asking for the investment office to disclose all the investments they have so that all students are made aware of where tuition dollars are spent.”

Both S.24-3 and S.24-4 also reference Tufts’ divestment from South Africa during apartheid, in response to student and faculty activism.

“Just as students fought for and ultimately won Tufts’ divestment from apartheid South Africa, Tufts students are once again fighting for the university’s divestment from apartheid, occupation, and genocide; by making clear the specific ways in which the university is complicit, these resolutions also make clear that divestment is entirely actionable, and that the student body demands these tangible steps be taken against the occupation of Palestine,” CPLT wrote in its statement to the Daily.

S.24-4 requests a written response from Tufts Investment Office and the Office of the Board of Advisors within two weeks.

“resolutions are a vehicle for students at Tufts to advocate for a given change and may be proposed by anyone in the Tufts Community

Union,” the TCU Senate Executive Board wrote in a statement to the Daily. “This extensive and exhaustive process allows for students to propose reform which then, based on the vote, is directed towards administration or the appropriate management at Tufts. While the Senate takes necessary steps to follow up, the final onus rests on the administration and management, not us.”

Class of 2026 Senator Anand Patil reiterated that the Senate will carefully examine each of the four resolutions, asking questions and debating before finally voting.

“These resolutions will bring strong opinions and feelings from many members of our community, so all who are planning to attend are strongly urged to treat the resolution process, TCU Senators, and fellow students with the utmost respect and civility,” Patil wrote in a message to the Daily.

Senators will vote on the four resolutions at next week’s open meeting, taking place on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Joyce Cummings Center in rooms 160 and 170.

Matthew Sage contributed reporting.

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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is pictured speaking with supporters at a campaign event.

First SWANA Community Senator elected

ECOM continued from page 1

“I’m already a regional rep at the African Student Organization and my job is to make sure that the organization also includes cultures from North Africa,” she said. “I already plan events that allow people to understand more of Africa and North African culture. … I want to do the same with SWANA where I can collaborate with other communities and just have everyone know what SWANA is. Because right now if I were to tell someone: ‘Hey, do you know

what SWANA is?’ They wouldn’t really know what that means.”

For first-year Amelia Farrar, being the disability community senator is about using her past experiences to help others on campus.

“Having ADHD myself and having dealt with that for a long time in my life, I wanted to be able to bring the issues that I face on this campus and the issues that that community on campus faces to light,” Farrar said.

Farrar wants to begin her work by getting to know the community more.

“I want to be sure that I’m talking to the community and making sure that, if there are any issues that [a majority of individuals with disabilities] have on this campus, then I want to address that first and foremost,” she said. “I want to just be sure I’m keeping an open mind when I’m thinking about what I want to accomplish.”

Sophomore Mathew Letua said being the newly elected International Community Senator is “all about growth, all

about seeing new opportunities, all about seeing what people go through, all about listening to people’s concerns and ideas.”

Letua also wants to work on providing increased aid to international students.

“I know some who are here under financial aid and struggling with returning home,” Letua said. “It’s a big challenge for them.”

The new Class of 2025 senator, Lexis Lokko, underlined her motivations for joining student government.

“[There are] a lot of things that I feel Tufts can do better in supporting us in totality, not just supporting us only when it comes to academics,” Lokko said.

Lokko shared her hopes as a TCU senator.

“I hope to be able to listen and learn from the [Tufts] community … and [other] communities I’m not a part of,” she said. “I’m also in the African community, but as a senator, I’m representing the whole community. So it’s very important [to make] sure that I’m learning from them.”

Somerville Wire to close doors after three years of local news

WIRE continued from page 1

Pramas also took issue with the lack of aid that local publications receive from government and grant foundations. The Wire had previously reached out to the City of Somerville with concerns about outdated state laws that distribute legal notice money strictly to print publications, ones largely owned by newspaper chains like Gannett. In consequence, digital entrants and nonprofit publications like the Wire struggle to acquire funding.

Amid the Wire’s closing, there is concern that Somerville is in danger of becoming a “news desert,” commonly considered a community devoid of a credible, relevant information source.

Willie Burnley Jr., Somerville city councilor at-large, shared that he was initially apprehensive when learning of Pramas’ announcement.

“I do remember feeling a bit worried at the initial announcement that we were going to have potentially either one less publication or a publication that was focusing less on our community,” he said. “I’ve seen people express support for local journalism in Somerville and concerns when there are publications that do not have fair representations of what’s going on.”

The Wire is a testament to the power of the local community. In his editorial, Pramas wrote, the mission of the Wire was “to demonstrate that it was possible for a community in danger of becoming a news desert to organize to provide professionally-produced news on its own behalf and to create a replicable model that other communities could use toward the same goal.”

Despite the Wire’s closure, Pramas wrote in his editorial that

he believes Cambridge gets more news coverage today than of the time of the publication’s inception. The city continues to be served by the Somerville Times, and both the Cambridge Day and the Boston Globe recently launched weekly newsletters to cover both Cambridge and Somerville.

“I think it was quite clear that there was a gap in the Somerville media ecosystem,” Burnley said of the Cambridge Day expansion. “There was a real opportunity to inform people and have new readership from focusing on issues pertinent to our community.”

That gap is obvious to Chris Dwan, a Somerville resident of 10 years who gets his information from many different sources, including city council meetings, local activist groups and various mailing lists.

“It’s possible to stay informed but there’s no one central place to

SCIENCE

go to feel like you reasonably have a pulse on what’s going on,” he said.

While the Daily also serves the communities of Medford and Somerville, Pramas believes that the paper has been historically inconsistent in its coverage of local news, especially between a change in leadership every semester. However, he has hope that a greater partnership can form between the student journalists at Tufts and local news outlets to bridge the local news gap.

Dwan believes that while the Wire’s model of maintaining only a select few reporters on payroll is “the right idea,” finding funding for their salaries might be harder than it seems.

“I think it comes down to money,” he said. “I think it comes down to being able to pay people for their work and putting out news for its own sake.”

The MiniTouch: A new future for artificial limbs

Anish Guggilam Contributing Writer

Originally published Feb. 27.

Thanks to recent technological developments, amputees can now sense temperature through prosthetic limbs.

Known as the MiniTouch, this heat-sensitive prosthetic hand has a thermal sensor embedded within it, allowing for a realistic sensation of temperature. The technology depends on the phenomenon of a “phantom limb,” which occurs when messages transmitted to nerve endings in the residual limb are perceived as still connected to the absent limb.

Solaiman Shokur, a senior author of research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, and his colleagues conducted a study with intriguing findings. They found that when thermal electrodes stimulated by coming in contact with hot or cold objects were placed on the residual limbs of amputees, the subjects felt these temperature touches in their residual limb.

Using this finding as the basis for their research, Shokur and his colleagues created the MiniTouch technology. When the

embedded sensors indicated a deviation from the baseline temperature of 32 C, this sensation was transmitted to a component of the prosthesis in contact with the skin of the residual limb.

57-year-old Fabrizio Fidati, whose arm was amputated below the elbow, was chosen to test the device. After analysis, the researchers found that Fidati was able to distinguish between various temperatures with 100% accuracy when fitted with MiniTouch and merely 33% without. Moreover, with the device, Fidati was able to distinguish between a variety of materials, including copper, glass and plastic, when blindfolded.

According to an interview with the Guardian, Fidati said, “When I had my accident when I was 20 years old, I tried a prosthetic hand that gave me a simple movement; instead, with these new technologies, I can understand better what I am touching.”

Aside from the benefits of object and temperature perception, Shokur added that the MiniTouch could be a potential segue to social aspects. Lee Fisher, a biomedical engineer at the University of Pittsburgh, told The Smithsonian, “[Touch

Pramas wrote that while the future source of the Wire’s funding — the Somerville Media Foundation — is still undecided, there is hope for a revival of local Somerville media. According to Pramas, the Somerville Education Foundation is in the process of converting into the Somerville Foundation, capable of raising more money than the Somerville Media Foundation and which will include a “media and journalism ‘domain of action.’”

“I wouldn’t say that we’re quite a news desert yet, but it is quite concerning for me — as an elected official — to see fewer publications that are focusing on Somerville,” Burnley Jr. said. “We have real issues in our community. As far as I’m concerned, there is news that is made here every single day that deserves to be covered.”

is] part of how we interact with other people, and it’s also part of how we recognize our limbs as our own.”

In regards to future endeavors, Shokur added that researchers are developing enhancements to prosthetics to assist in areas of proprioception, or your body’s ability to note movement

and body position. “The next step would be to put them all together, and that’s where you have the full palate of sensations,” Shokur said.

However, this technology is still in the early stages of execution. Dr. Sigrid Dupan, an expert in sensory feedback for prostheses at University

College Dublin, noted that “people can’t expect the implementation of these new devices into our healthcare system in a short timeframe.”

Nevertheless, this is a significant development in the field of prosthetic limbs and will open up new doors for how amputees experience sensations.

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Prosthetic limbs are pictured.

‘I took the one less traveled by’: An abortion provider’s journey

Halia Frishman Deputy Features Editor

The beige brick building is nondescript. Every window has its blinds pulled tightly closed, leaving the impression that the interior is barren. There is no indication that the building is a reproductive healthcare facility. Upon my arrival at the clinic last spring to interview Dr. Laurent Delli-Bovi, the founder and medical director of Women’s Health Services — which is an ambulatory surgical center specializing in providing abortion care — I was, for a moment, nervous that my Uber driver had dropped me off at the wrong place. But, of course, it dawned on me: Unlike the emergency room, abortion clinics don’t have flashy red signs to announce their presence.

After my identity was verified, I was buzzed into the building with a warm welcome. DelliBovi was coming straight out of a procedure and still sporting her blue scrubs.

Delli-Bovi didn’t grow up knowing that she was going to be a doctor; it wasn’t remotely on her radar. She was born in Fairfield County, Conn., to an artist father.

“My dad was an artist and sculptor, and so he had a tremendous number of friends who tended to be very liberal — if not socialist [or] communist — so the ideas I was exposed to early on were pretty progressive,” she said.

She described this exposure to her father’s friends and their varying beliefs as an advantage, as her town was otherwise “fairly conservative.” She majored in visual and environmental studies at Harvard with the intention of going to architecture school.

It wasn’t until her senior year of university that DelliBovi discovered she was in the wrong field.

“I really wasn’t very into designing buildings, and I thought about what I could do that would be challenging and satisfying and socially purposeful,” she said.

So, Delli-Bovi found herself in a slight predicament: She decided she wanted to go to medical school but had taken almost no pre-med classes nor had the grades to apply. After a year and a half in New york, working at a hospital and rockefeller University, she attended Pennsylvania State University, a relatively new medical school.

What happened next in DelliBovi’s journey to becoming the abortion provider she is today, for lack of better words, seemed like fate. After medical school, she returned to Boston for her OB-GyN residency in 1976 at the Boston Lying-In Hospital, which today is known as Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kenneth ryan, the chair of Obstetrics and

Gynecology at Boston Lying-In Hospital, believed that abortion should be a part of the training in the OB-GyN program. In fact, according to Delli-Bovi, it was the first program in the country that formally incorporated abortion training.

This was only three years after the roe v. Wade ruling, which made abortions protected under the Constitution (until it was overturned in 2022), and one year after Dr. Kenneth Edelin, who had been a chief resident at Boston City Hospital, was convicted of manslaughter in 1975 after performing a legal abortion.

During this tumultuous time for abortion access, Delli-Bovi said, “Most of the older doctors that I’d worked with at the LyingIn [Hospital] were tremendously supportive of legal abortion because so much of what they’d seen during their training, and the years after, had been the really horrible consequences of illegal, unsafe abortions.”

Fresh out of residency, DelliBovi was a junior partner in a private practice. She was asked by the senior partner if she was comfortable with the office providing abortion care. Her answer was “yes.”

Delli-Bovi had chosen OB-GyN to meet all the health needs of her patients, and that “included the decision not to have a baby.”

“Most of [the patients seeking abortions] were women who had had children, which is true of most women that have abortions. They wanted access to abortion, and they wanted to be discreet about it,” Delli-Bovi explained.

Over time, she noticed that fewer and fewer doctors were performing abortions in their offices, so abortion options were increasingly limited to hospitals. In 1992, after almost two decades in the field, Delli-Bovi

decided to start Women’s Health Services to address the issue of access.

“We started it with the idea of focusing on the people that weren’t getting care,” she said.

Delli-Bovi explained that patients with health insurance who lived somewhere where abortion services were legal and available were in a generally good spot; however, not all patients seeking an abortion were in this position.

“If you didn’t have health insurance that covered abortion, or if you were underinsured because you had a gigantic deductible, or you didn’t have insurance at all or your employer excluded abortion coverage, then you were out of luck,” she said.

In 2008, Massachusetts added strict legal requirements for clinics providing abortion care. This caused Massachusetts clinics, like WHS, to face overwhelming challenges in providing care.

The new requirements dictated that private practices using general anesthesia had to become ambulatory surgery centers. To meet federal requirements to be an ambulatory surgical center, the clinic needed an elevator, HVAC systems, piped-in oxygen and suction and specific space requirements. Complying with ASC requirements is extraordinarily expensive.

On top of the new expensive requirements for becoming a licensed ASC, the owner of the building where WHS was located tripled their rent, hoping to push the clinic out. It became apparent that the clinic would have to move, a mission that would take four years and facing a lawsuit.

Delli-Bovi searched for a location for two years.

“A lot of times over that twoyear period, we would find a place and we would research

in 2019, we ended up almost closing because we were almost half a million dollars in debt. I was like, ‘We just can’t go on this way. It’s all on me; I can’t take any more risks,’” Delli-Bovi said.

At this point, the clinic had two options: close or raise monumental sums. With virtually nothing to lose, the clinic did what is unthinkable in the realm of abortion providing: They actively sought publicity. They got coverage from Boston television stations, the Boston Globe and Bloomberg News. They started getting donations from all over the country. People mostly donated small amounts of money, but the donations added up quickly. Delli-Bovi said she would sometimes receive letters along with donations, including one from a woman in her 90s that said “I’ve been fighting for this all my life.”

who owned the building. We would contact them, and the minute we told them what we wanted to do, they would be absolutely uninterested in dealing with us,” she said.

Finally, they were able to get a lease in Brookline. Delli-Bovi and her husband put up half the money, about $750,000, for the ASC renovations.

Beyond real estate hurdles, social challenges stood in the way of moving WHS into Brookline. A group of residents tried to prevent the WHS from opening. They weren’t opposed to the work Delli-Bovi was doing but argued that their neighborhood was not the place for it.

“Basically, all hell broke loose. I mean, it was a three-ring circus with a grim reaper showing up and all the anti-abortion people,” Delli-Bovi said. “They were against it, not because they were against what we did, but because they felt that it was going to be terrible for the community and for children in the community to see the protesters and their signs and things like that. So, our attitude was, ‘If you can’t do it here, where can you do it?’”

After a two-year legal battle, WHS was finally able to open in February of 2010.

The group of people the clinic set out to serve, people who, without affordable options, aren’t able to get any care, pay out of pocket at a discounted rate. Patients, who may otherwise have to pay thousands more at a hospital, can have a procedure for $700 at WHS.

“There’s no comparison,” Delli-Bovi said.

Devoted to giving abortion access to those in need, WHS was performing procedures and being reimbursed after the fact.

“[For] 70% of the people we take care of, were being reimbursed at a rate that’s lower than our cost of care. Which is why

The clinic was able to raise enough money to stay open, but the systemic funding problem remains. The clinic is still operating on an immense annual deficit of around $450,000 per year.

“We’ve been trying to set up a nonprofit, a fundraising arm that is separate from Women’s Health Services P.C., that would raise money to help support it and to support the mission of continuing to take care of people whose only option other than hospitals is us,” Delli-Bovi explained.

Because the center provides abortions, many insurance companies refuse to provide general liability insurance, property insurance or worker’s compensation.

“There’s discrimination against abortion in the insurance world,” Delli-Bovi said.

Despite the numerous financial, legal and personal hurdles associated with creating the clinic, Delli-Bovi greatly appreciated the support and work done by organizations within Massachusetts.

“We’re lucky because it is Massachusetts, because there are groups like reproductive Equity Now and Planned Parenthood that have worked … to eliminate some of the antiquated laws around abortion,” Delli-Bovi said.

In addition to advocacy organizations and movements, Massachusetts itself has additional programs that specialize in resources and education related to sexual and reproductive health.

“This state is incredible. … This is one of the only Departments of Public Health in the country that has a family planning department,” DelliBovi said. “In some ways, we’re extraordinarily lucky and feel incredibly well supported and in some ways, the challenges are just always going to be there.”

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Protesters rally in Washington Square Park following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Despite the challenges present in states like Massachusetts where abortion is legal, WHS, with Delli-Bovi at the helm, has been providing safe care to patients for over 30 years.

“[Patients vary] from patients that have resources to patients that have no resources to patients that are coming from all over the country to get services that aren’t available where they live, or [patients who are] coming from the surrounding New England states,” Delli-Bovi said. “They are single mothers, they are women with substance abuse problems, they’re women that are homeless, they’re women that have mental health problems — you name it.”

Over her career, she has seen countless patients, each with a different story to tell, each that had to face and make a difficult decision. One of the first patients Delli-Bovi saw, who required care at the hospital, was a married 32-year-old woman with two children.

“She started coughing up blood, and she got a workup, and she turned out to have metastatic lung cancer. She wasn’t a smoker. She had a very poor prognosis,” Delli-Bovi said. “And so she was faced with this terrible decision.”

Delli-Bovi spoke to the types of questions that this patient would have to ask herself.

“Do I try to continue this pregnancy, even though there’s a very good chance that I’m going to die before the end of the pregnancy?” she said. “Do I run the risk of needing an emergency delivery of a premature infant?”

Choosing to continue the pregnancy would have led to a scenario where her husband was left alone to bring up two children and a premature infant with medical issues.

Another couple came to the clinic to terminate a pregnancy due to a “devastating fetal abnormality” and were met by a crowd

of protesters outside. Delli-Bovi remembers them explaining that they had wanted this baby. The woman’s husband said to the protestors, “I want you to understand how cruel you’re being. … This is such a hard thing to do, and you’re making it harder.’”

Delli-Bovi emphasized that not all patients who choose abortion have abnormal pregnancies that threaten the life of the fetus or themselves; however, only the patient can make their own health decisions.

“IT’S NEVER PURELY ELECTIVE. NOBODY GETS PREGNANT SO THEY CAN HAVE AN ABORTION.”

DR. LAURENT DELLI-BOVI

“The point is that everybody is looking at their entire situation and deciding what is in [their] best health interests, and that’s a decision that only they can make,” she said. “It shouldn’t and can’t be made for them.”

Delli-Bovi is proud of the care she provides, and she never hides it.

“It’s always been a question of whether, outside of your work, you discuss the work that you do,” she said. “And I’ve always felt that it’s really important to do that, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. And I just put it right out there.”

When Delli-Bovi is confronted by someone who exclaims, “Well, I don’t agree with what you are doing,” she responds with, “Well, I totally understand that, and that’s your right. But if you could see the infinite range of circumstances that lead someone to make this decision, you might feel differently.”

She further explained that sometimes people object to abortions when they are “purely elective.”

“It’s never purely elective. Nobody gets pregnant so they can have an abortion,” she said.

In Delli-Bovi’s office, there is a large gold disk on a small pedestal with the engraving from robert Frost’s poem, “The road Not Taken.”

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both … / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”

I asked if the quote had any particular meaning to her.

“I love it because it’s kind of like I took the one less traveled by,” Delli-Bovi said.

Throughout Delli-Bovi’s life, just like anyone else’s, she has encountered the so-called places in the woods where the road diverges: architecture or med school? Plastic surgery or obstetrics and gynecology? Hospital or clinic? Trudge along in silence or speak out? Each little decision, even the choice she made to accept my interview, has brought her down the path she is on and paved the way for others.

The path is not an easy or safe one. Delli-Bovi has received threats, including a message on a Mass Pike toll booth calling her a “baby killer” and giving out her home address.

Delli-Bovi explained the significance of the poem to her career and her hopes for the future.

“To me, [the poem] exemplifies my choice to do something that was not the road more traveled by,” Delli-Bovi said. “I just realized over the years that I do this because I was trained to do it, because I care about doing it well. And because over the last 50 years, there are fewer and fewer people that are doing it. I want to teach people. I want to make sure that it goes on, [that it is] able to be provided by the next generation and the generation after that.”

Max Druckman

Munching with Max

Boston bites

Since 1630, Boston has stood strong. Many, from the British redcoats to the Los Angeles Lakers, have tried and failed to conquer this great city. However, it has taken until 2024, some 394 years, for Boston to meet its greatest foe — Max Druckman. yes, the cuisine czar, master muncher, yours truly, has finally taken his taste buds to the streets of the “City Upon a Hill.”

First on my Boston escapade was Peach Farm in Chinatown. A welcoming and lively family atmosphere, the tables were massive and the portion sizes even bigger. With a menu like a syllabus, the variety in seafood jumped out. Since I was dining with my family, we ordered generously. To start, we chose the “No. 2 Tidbits.” The chicken fingers were crisp and tasty, complemented with duck sauce. The fried shrimp, however, was overpowered by its breading. Unfortunately, I couldn’t try the beef teriyaki, as my overzealous brother inhaled it (insert eyeroll).

For entrées, the scallops with vegetables was plentiful and delicious. The scallops were fresh and juicy, with a subtle white sauce. Additionally, the spicy shrimp with peanuts was mouthwatering. The contrasting peanuts and shrimp were a masterful flavor combination and seasoned perfectly. The sweet and sour chicken was scrumptious, with a tangy sauce complementing the steaming-hot chicken. Lastly, the chicken fried rice offered a succulent array of flavors befitting of an exemplary side dish.

Next, a trip to Newbury Street to a restaurant befitting its name — Crazy Good Kitchen. A funky dive with unabashed confidence, the burger list was just five items long. I ordered the “Hot Mess & Cheese,” a Philly cheesesteak in burger form. The patty was thin and cooked perfectly, simultaneously tender, crisp and juicy. The griddled onions added a kick and the additional shaved steak made every bite filling. The “Better Than Ketchup” sauce added extra sweetness, and the American cheese was beautifully melted into the patty. The only downside to the burger was the “& Cheese,” or the house cheese sauce, which was overly artificial. I blame this on myself, as I should have picked differently to avoid what was effectively Cheez Whiz. On the side, the “Classic Fries” were delectable. Firm and crispy, they were cooked to perfection. To cap things off, the “Peanut Butter Slide” shake was calling my name. Loaded with peanut butter, reese’s Pieces, reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and pretzels, it was bliss in a cup. The only downside was that it stayed frozen for too long.

As always, my gut reactions…

Peach Farm: With an incredible atmosphere, it’s truly one of Chinatown’s jewels. The bountiful portions and flavors make it a must visit.

Crazy Good Kitchen: One of the best burgers I have had recently. The perfect burger/shake spot in one of Boston’s nicest neighborhoods.

For those of you expecting me to bash uncontrollably as per usual, sorry. Maybe next time. Instead, today, let’s savor the culinary delights of the city whose horizon looms brightly over our campus. A world of taste is a few T stops away, awaiting hungry Jumbos.

Max Druckman is a first-year who has yet to declare a major. He can be reached at max.druckman@tufts.edu.

Julieta Grané Managing Editor

Editor’s note: The author’s father, Luis Grané, directed the short film “Nowhere Stream” which was included in the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival’s 2024 lineup.

One year away from its 50th anniversary, the longest-running genre fest in the U.S. put on a display of aliens, artistry and amusement. The 49th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, which ran from Feb. 14–25 at the Somerville Theatre, featured a hybrid of in-person and online events, including screenings, panels and parties. In its first iteration several decades ago, the event was exclusively a marathon of films; however, Boston SciFi is now a traditional multi-day festival of film screenings. The robust and captivating diversity of the festival has earned it several accolades, such as a spot on FilmFreeway’s list of the Top 100 Best reviewed Festivals and a 2023 Best Program award from Filmocracy for their 24-hour movie marathon.

The capstone of the festival is the 24-hour nonstop screening of movies, known as the “Marathon.” According to Violet Acevedo, the former assistant festival director in 2023, this event is Boston SciFi’s most well-known feature. In its 49th iteration, the Marathon brought an audience of almost 400 attendees between noon on Feb. 18 and noon on Feb. 19.

While dozens flocked to this day-long affair equipped with sleeping bags and red Bulls, downstairs in the smaller theaters, a very different sort of programming was going on. The festival featured 70 short film screenings over the course of eight days. As someone with a short attention span, I appreciate the low commitment required by a short film. Short films tend to run anywhere between three and 40 minutes, and some shorts undertake the challenge of developing the same setting, characters and exposition as a feature film in a fraction of the time frame. Others, such as experimental videos, take a more abstract approach and offer their audience a unique visual and auditory experience open to individual interpretation. regardless of the specific undertaking, there is a unique value in short-form filmmaking that makes it worthy of praise.

“It really is great when you watch a short film, a 20-minute or 15-minute piece of art, that impacts you the way that you might be impacted sitting in a theater watching something for two hours,” Suzzanne Cromwell, head curator of short films at Boston SciFi, said.

Cromwell curated 11 blocks of short film programming this year, allowing for a brief but immersive experience into the world of science fiction films. Each of the short film programs was named “‘star’ or a star-inspired phrase in Hawaiian, Arabic, Welsh, Gaelic and other beautiful languages,” the festival’s program states. The first seven programs occurred in person in the Somerville Theatre, while the final four blocks were screened online on Filmocracy.com.

I attended four of the seven in-person screenings: CSILLA, ITrI, HOKU, and SUTArA.

CSILLA

On Feb. 15, after a long day of classes, I headed over to the Somerville Theatre, Davis Square’s locally-owned, independent movie theater. When I entered Theater 3, 15 minutes before the start of

& POP CULTURE

ARTS & P OP CULTURE

WEEKENDER

Boston Science Fiction Film Festival returns to Davis Square

the screening, the room was filled with excited energy from a small but mighty group of older folks with partners, parkas and popcorn. Surprisingly, I also noticed a sizable group of young people in attendance. The six films featured a range of sci-fi subgenres with focuses on comedy, fantasy and dystopia. Adolfo ruiz’s “Meditations” stood out for its use of stunning, vibrant backgrounds to bring a dystopian world to life in only 10 minutes. Overall, it was an enjoyable enough experience that I felt excited to return for more.

ITRI

Bright and early on Feb. 17 (at 1 p.m.), I returned for round two. Likely because the weekend offered employed adults and school-age children time to attend, this program attracted several families. The theater, which holds 109 people, looked quite full and sounded lively. The first short film of the day, Lalithra Fernando’s “A Capsule for robin” could have easily been an episode of “Black Mirror.” Its screening at Boston SciFi marked the film’s U.S. premiere, and I truly hope this short travels far and wide because everything from the production quality to the script and acting was of outstanding quality. Later in the program, Aaron Zier’s “Alienation” was played for the second time after kicking off CSILLA on Feb. 15. While the script was not my personal favorite, the film featured humor that understood its audience; each joke seemed to land perfectly with the alien aficionados among me. Similarly, Joe Bowers’ “Speedman” had even the reluctantly entertained like myself chuckling. This animated short film about a god-like platypus set in outer space had all the key sci-fi elements on display: aliens, super powers and intergalactic conflict.

HOKU

Only four hours after the end of IT r I, I was back in the Somerville

Theatre. This screening took place in the much smaller micro-theater adjacent to Theaters 2 and 3. While the screen was unfortunately smaller, the enclosed space created a closer sense of community among the festivalgoers. HOKU included both the longest — ryan Serrano’s “Jump” — and the shortest — rylee Arenson’s “Space Case Cadets” — films I saw at the festival back-to-back. “Jump” had a decidedly slower pace and a 45-minute running time that allowed for a deeper development of the father-son protagonists. Conversely, “Space Case Cadets” lasted only four minutes and featured several unnamed characters, yet told an equally beautiful and entertaining story. By the end of the afternoon, I was beginning to understand the true breadth of sci-fi as a genre. While many films did feature aliens, the flexibility of the word “science” means that directors can bring their individual fantasies to life in incredibly unique ways.

SUTARA

As the saying goes, the festival saved the best for last. The final in-person short film program featured six phenomenal films representing animation and experimental video from four different countries of origin. The first and shortest film of the program was Luis Grané’s “Nowhere Stream,” an experimental video that leaves a lot to the imagination. Without any explicit mention, the film aptly touches on themes of technology, relationships and the environment through a dystopian lens. Similarly, Neeraj Bhattacharjee’s “record. Play. Stop.” invites you into a visually stunning world of mesmerizing visuals and music without the use of any characters or dialogue. The final two films of the program originated from France and the United Kingdom, respectively, and employed humor in a way that genuinely

made me laugh out loud. Jean-Michel Tari’s “Dark Cell” told a full-length story complete with character development, twists and turns in only 25 minutes and entirely in French. George Atkinson and Alan Ciechalski’s “From Here to There!” featured admittedly corny humor, but still appropriately introduced the niche intersection of romantic comedy and science fiction.

At the end of the in-person portion of the festival, I was left with the impression that this festival was very well planned. Each film seemed to fit well within its program and under the theme of science fiction. I commend the organizers for their intentional focus on promoting historically marginalized voices through their film selections. The vast majority of the films I saw featured protagonists of color, and five of the films I saw were made outside of the U.S. Cromwell commented, “We craft our programming around our audience — who our audience is and who we want it to be.” Clearly, the festival values and features underrepresented voices in a way that is both refreshing and unexpected for a genre that I once considered to be lacking in diversity.

The annual festival is entirely run by volunteers, and the festival’s organizers welcome any community members interested in participating as film critics, social media liaisons or operations assistants. Cromwell encouraged interested students at Tufts to get involved with the festival.

“If you have a passion for film of any kind, especially science fiction, if you have a passion for storytelling, if you love people and love sharing your own knowledge or even your own desire to learn more, we totally welcome you to be involved with the festival,” Cromwell said.

COURTESY LUIS GRANÉ

A still from Luis Grané’s “Nowhere Stream.”

Natalie Bricker The Bookmark

‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ by Gabrielle Zevin

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” (2022).

Welcome back to “The Bookmark,” your go-to column for book reviews! Last week, I featured the famous science-fiction masterpiece “Dune” (1965). This week, we’ll be returning to contemporary novels with a popular fiction story…

Let’s talk about “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin! Anyone who has keyed into BookTok, Goodreads or any other form of book-focused social media has likely heard of this book. It won Goodreads’ Best Fiction in 2022, a big deal in the book world. Since every reader was talking about it, I, as a self-appointed book reviewer for the Daily, took it upon myself to see what all the hype was about.

At first, I totally understood why this book was so celebrated. This positive feeling didn’t last through the entirety of the book, though, and I found myself frustrated with some of the author’s choices toward the end.

This book was very similar to Ernest Cline’s “ready Player One,” which is one of my favorite novels (I know I say that for a lot of books, but this one is truly worthy of that praise). With the perfection that was “ready Player One,” there was already a high bar set for books featuring young geniuses inventing a new type of video game. And, honestly … “ready Player One” did it better! The pacing, the characters, the specific callbacks to other games — I found it worked better in Cline’s version.

I do appreciate the creativity of authors who are able to not only write an excellent book but also create games within the book that would be popular in real life. The detailed descriptions of games created both by Zevin and by Cline are so creative that they should seriously consider going into video game making themselves.

I enjoyed the pacing of “ready Player One” better than “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” though, and felt that the latter’s plot dragged a bit at the end. Or maybe that was just because I loved Marx’s character so much and missed the levity and humor he provided — there was so much tension between Sam and Sadie that I needed the addition of Marx. So, it just wasn’t the same after he died!

And while I appreciated the creativity of Zevin’s second-person narration for the chapters detailing Marx’s death, it felt kind of random and unnecessary. The second-person point of view felt like an

experiment that the author just wanted to throw in and didn’t actually fit well in this novel. It would have been a cool short story, but it really threw me off when I read it.

Don’t misunderstand me, this was a good read! I really enjoyed the depth of Sam and Sadie and the complexity of their relationship — their ‘origin story’ was really unique. Sam’s apology to Sadie via video game was entertaining to read, and I appreciated when the games mirrored their reality: “If this were a game, he could hit pause. … He could search his inventory for the item that would make Sadie not leave.”

But I don’t think it was worthy of winning Goodreads’ Best Fiction of 2022 award. If you’re looking for a really good book that immerses you in the world of video game creation, my advice would be to pick up “ready Player One” instead. I’ll leave you, as always, with a quote to ponder — this one will resonate with anyone still figuring out their identity.

“Sadie was twenty-two when Ichigo was launched, and she hadn’t figured out who she was in public yet. (She barely knew who she was in private.).”

Summary: “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” was pretty good, but not as good as other books that have essentially done the same thing before — namely, “ready Player One.”

Natalie Bricker is a senior studying English. Natalie can be reached at natalie.bricker@tufts.edu.

Paul Osmond For the Culture

Why do some rappers promote violence?

As Tufts’ artist-in-residence, professor of the practice and activist Dee-1 has poignantly noted, the promotion of violence in hip-hop is overwhelmingly common. According to Billboard, at the end of 2023, at least four of the five top rap artists incorporated violent lyrics in their discography. recently releases from Lil Baby and 21 Savage include references to violent retribution: in “350” (2023), Lil Baby raps, “My advice to you, get out my way, I’m ‘bout to go off / Men ‘posed to be with me, we slip and knocked lil’ bro off,” while 21 Savage, in his track, “redrum” (2024) (‘murder’ written backwards), raps, “Thought a n---- said something / G Block, all we know is redrum / redrum, redrum, redrum, redrum.”

Although Lil Durk’s 2023 Grammywinning record, “All My Life” features positive lyrics about prison reform, overcoming drug addiction and challenging systemic oppression, he fails to address the prevalence of violence within the hip-hop community. Additionally, in his most recent release,

“Old Days” (2024), Lil Durk incorporates similar lyrical themes, but once again fails to address violence directly. In fact, Lil Durk raps: “Play with me, get backdoored, he rather let the oppers do it / Don’t get shot on my block ‘cause St. Bernard ain’t got no trauma unit.” So, how does an artist whose most popular record promotes positivity fail to address the most negative trend affecting the hip-hop community?

As mentioned, hip-hop culture is Black culture, and the problems that plague the hip-hop community translate directly into the problems that plague the Black community. regrettably, the presence of violence in hip-hop reflects the presence of violence in Black communities. years ago, hip-hop media personality DJ Akademiks received backlash for his coverage of the ongoing violence in Chicago in his youTube series entitled “The War in Chiraq.” Although DJ Akademiks has since concluded his coverage, the violence in ‘Chiraq’ continues.

In 2020, Lil Durk’s collaborator, close friend and fellow Chicago native King Von was shot and killed outside an Atlanta nightclub. While the murder occurred in Atlanta, King Von was well known in Chicago for his perpetration and promotion of violent crimes both in the media and his music. In fact, the tracks that garnered Von his mainstream breakthrough, “Crazy Story” (2018) and “Took Her to the O” (2020), feature intensely violent lyrics documenting Von’s experiences on O-Block, a Chicago block known for its gang activity. yet, despite suffering the loss of an intimate friend to this violence, Lil Durk continues to either rap about violence or avoid the denouncement of violence in his music.

Why is this? Well, I suggest two potential reasons. Firstly, rap is hyperbolic. As with traditional poetry, hyperbole is an important literary device. Since hip-hop relies almost exclusively on rap, the genre is more likely to incorporate hyperbole (and other poetic devices) than other genres (e.g., metal, classical, techno). Accordingly, the themes that rappers discuss — violence, sex, drugs — are more likely subject to hyperbole — an instance of minute gravity may become gargantuan for poetic effect. Secondly, hip-hop is an overwhelmingly competitive industry dominated by male artists. Directly connected to notions of masculinity within the Black community, male artists in hip-hop vigorously compete against one another. Ultimately, the musical bouts become personal attacks as rappers attempt to demonstrate their dominance. Unfortunately, rappers’ attempts to one-up their contemporaries generate the detrimental promotion of violence in hip-hop: I mean, what better way to show that you are a ‘real man’ than killing more people than your competition?

Paul Osmond is a fourth-year combined-degree student studying English. Paul can be reached at paul.osmond@tufts.edu.

Elizabeth Foster Confessions of a Cooking Fanatic

Substitution secrets

Originally published Feb. 28.

My journey with substitutions began when I was a senior in high school. I was planning to visit one of my dearest friends in college and decided to bring her a batch of dairy-free chocolate chip cookies, made with coconut oil. Then one of my closest friends in college didn’t eat eggs, so the chocolate chip cookie recipe evolved to include a flax egg.

So when embarking on a commitment to further explore baking (and vegan baking, at that), I was prepared with some solid substitutions in hand.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

While this is a solid chocolate chip cookie recipe, I believe I baked these for too long. The recipe wasn’t kidding when it recommended taking the cookies out of the oven when the centers were barely set. When searching for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, I was looking for one that didn’t call for browned butter (I don’t have a vegan butter that does this yet) and one that I could confidently bring together with a fork, silicone spatula and elbow grease. However, when committing to the elbow grease route, be careful to avoid over mixing.

Strawberry Sumac Cake I was so excited for this recipe — and it delivered! This recipe brings to light one of the best perks of the New york Times Cooking app: the comments. Now, some comments are absolutely insane (someone once complained that ashwagandha was not a great substitute in Eric Kim’s Matcha Latte Cookies), but some offer great advice. In this case, one commenter suggested doubling the sumac in the cake. Because this was an olive oil cake, I only needed to swap out the half and half with a mixture of oat creamer and oat milk and swap out three eggs with three tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid that chickpeas come in). Because the recipe requires the eggs to be whipped, aquafaba is a better substitute than flax seed eggs because it will adequately whip. For example, aquafaba is used in several vegan meringue recipes.

English Scones

I stumbled across this recipe when looking for a good Sunday morning baking project with a friend. We chose this recipe simply because it produced more scones than similar recipes. Vegan butter and oat milk served as substitutions for butter and whole milk. This recipe is a solid base, so we added spices (cardamom) and dried fruit (prunes, leftover from this recipe). It brought me so much joy to reheat these scones throughout the week.

Elizabeth Foster is a fifth-year master’s student studying computer science. She can be reached at elizabeth.foster635086@tufts.edu.

Late Night At The Daily

Natalie: “Throw 17 more articles at me, see if I crumble!”

Choosing a favorite bean.

OPINION

Capitol Hill is turning into an assisted living facility and Biden is the most

Kevin Golub Opinion Editor

Voters in America are complacent. For years, we have elected and reelected politicians who, despite their supposed experience, are far too old to be serving at the highest levels of politics. Senior politicians have devolved into senior citizens. The current president is certainly not the only one with lapses in mental processing: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 83, misspoke when referring to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, r-Ky., 82, has frozen multiple times during press conferences and Trump’s mental fitness has been questioned by fellow republican candidate Nikki Haley. Prior to her death at age 90, Senator Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., had been absent from panels and hearings for more than two months due to shingles, an age-associated illness. Several politicians over the age of 80 have indicated their intentions to pursue reelection — most notably, Biden and Trump — even as some members of Congress receive prescriptions for Alzheimer’s medications. Given all these examples, we might have to add nurses, aides and attendants to the 2024 election ballots.

Trump and Biden are both over 75 years old and have displayed varying degrees of worsening mental acuity. As the incumbent,

Mariia Kudina Ukraine at War

Two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion

The past weekend saw the two-year anniversary of the full-scale r ussian invasion of Ukraine. Earlier last week marked 10 years since the beginning of the illegal annexation of Crimea. While shooting a short film about the impact of the war on Ukrainians in the United States, I often speak with people about their experience of the first day of the full-scale invasion and the

‘senior’ resident

Biden’s competence receives considerably more media attention. He recently confused the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.

Biden also addressed the special counsel’s report that described his memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” While his memory is clearly diminished considering his many recorded gaffes and mixups, he denied the accusations, responding to the group of reporters that his “memory is fine.” There are so many other examples of Biden displaying a memory that is far

ways r ussian aggression has been influencing their lives since 2014. The amount of pain the war has brought for the Ukrainian community never ceases to stun me.

Although I cannot disclose the stories from my film until the project is completed, I can share my own memories of Feb. 24, 2022, which echo those of many Ukrainians who fled the war. I woke up at around 7:20 a.m. in my apartment in Kyiv. I opened Instagram, where the first thing that I saw was a message from my friend: “I’m not normally a religious man, but for what it’s worth, I’m praying for your safety tonight,” it read. I skimmed the news and realized that I would have to leave my home for an undefined amount of time.

Between 7:20 a.m. and 3 p.m., I withdrew some cash after

from perfect and mental fitness so inept that it would require a whole other article to list them all.

On the other side of the aisle, Trump has not been free from the occasional slip-up. Most recently, he confused Haley and Pelosi. He also falsely alleged that people need voter ID to purchase a loaf of bread. Compared to Biden’s gaffes, Trump’s gaffes receive less attention. Nevertheless, each one’s missteps should be a cause for concern for the average voter.

The age question extends beyond the West Wing. Given that as of 2023, the median age in the

waiting in a line for about two hours. Many people in Kyiv were unprepared for such a rapid russian attack, so the city was extremely chaotic as everyone tried to stock up for the road or to shelter for the next few days. I packed an emergency backpack with some clothes, documents and medicine, and took the subway to get to my aunt’s apartment on another bank of the Dnipro river. I even managed to get some work done. While on the train, I actually thought that there was a chance that I would return to my apartment for the night. I never did.

With r ussian troops so close to the capital in those first months and the state of shock and confusion among citizens with no idea how to adapt to war, Kyiv did not feel safe. I spent the next couple of weeks in a village in the west -

U.S. is 38.9 years old whereas the average ages in the House and Senate are 58.4 and 64.3, respectively, we are living in a gerontocracy, a government by the elderly. Among these politicians are notable names like McConnell, 82; Pelosi, 83; Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.y., 73; Sen. Chuck Grassley, r-Iowa, 90; and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 82. Just yesterday, McConnell declared his intention to retire in November. The others have yet to make similar statements.

There are several working theories as to why some older

ern part of Ukraine followed by six months in Poland. As traumatic as such a rapid change of circumstances and uncertainty was, my case was far better than many others. Some of my friends were trapped in temporarily occupied (now liberated) towns around Kyiv; others had their apartments or houses demolished or lost their family members due to the attacks — the list of horrifying events is neverending. yet my story is representative of what many Ukrainians went through: having to unexpectedly leave everything that they worked for and seek protection far from home, constantly frightened for the safety of their family and friends still facing r ussian attacks.

While filming a Boston rally held to commemorate two years since the start of the full-

politicians refuse to step down, but the ones I’m most inclined to believe are denial and ego. Too many politicians — namely the ones over 65 years old — probably believe that they’re indispensable, a self-centered claim that in no way prioritizes the needs of the country. Voters need to start electing politicians who are not only young but also genuinely care about their constituents.

Biden’s presidency proves the importance of youth in the White House. The geriatric commander in chief has taken more time away from the White House than his predecessor. Each time he appears before the media, it looks like ‘Escape from Bellevue.’ Comedian Shane Gillis accurately joked that “anytime Biden finishes a speech, he transforms into a roomba,” a quip that carries a great deal of truth as seen here. Confusion with direction is another symptom of Alzheimer’s.

Most importantly, though, we need term limits. Voting out the existing elderly politicians is just a temporary fix. I personally think politicians should be allowed to serve a maximum of two terms in the Senate and four in the House. Haley is right to call for competency tests for those over 75 years old. We have to stop electing and reelecting old politicians with dated politics, worsening health and compromised mental faculties. Putting America first starts with electing younger, competent politicians.

scale war this past Saturday, I thought about the stories of over a hundred people who came to the event. Even in the greater Boston area, there are so many Ukrainians who had to rebuild their lives after losing nearly everything they had to r ussian aggression, while simultaneously trying to help relatives fighting for Ukraine on the frontline or close family members who had to stay in the temporarily occupied regions. The war, although it takes place on another continent, is closer than it might seem, and Ukraine needs continuous support from the West in its fight for freedom and a chance for its citizens to have a peaceful and stable future.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free of charge to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily.

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GRAPHIC BY RACHEL WONG

Mariia Kudina is a junior studying studio art. Mariia can be reached at mariia.kudina@tufts.edu.

VIEWPOINT

Recent strikes show need for change within rideshare, food delivery industries

Matthew Rampe Staff Writer

As a college student, I find food delivery services and rideshare apps essential to my daily life. Although these apps are convenient, we must examine the human cost they have had on the people providing these services. On Feb. 14, drivers from Lyft and Uber staged the largest national rideshare driver strike yet, protesting against inadequate wages, unclear pay calculation practices and sudden account deactivation. r ideshare drivers are classified as independent contractors which limits their ability to benefit from minimum wage laws, health care and other government benefits in the same way company employees do. Millions of Uber users — over 131 million users at its peak in 2022 — depend heavily on the drivers who keep these apps running, making it essential that these workers are protected.

Before Ubers and Lyfts gained prominence in America, taxis were the cornerstone for transportation in large cities. The difference between taxis and ridesharing apps now is

that taxi drivers enjoy many protections that rideshare drivers lack. Taxi drivers in New york have been unionized since 1998, allowing them to negotiate fairer wages and enjoy employee benefits and protections. rideshare companies give their drivers none of these benefits or protections. As independent contractors, drivers must pay for their own maintenance and gas expenses and are exempt from laws forcing companies to pay out benefits to

their workers. Because of this, many rideshare drivers are paid less than the minimum wage in their state at just $9.21 per hour. With prices continuously increasing nationwide, this lack of a dedicated wage leaves many drivers unable to pay for their needs.

The problems facing the rideshare industry are also found in the food delivery industry. Food delivery drivers face many of the same issues as rideshare drivers. For instance,

VIEWPOINT

even though food delivery drivers recently saw an increase in hourly wages in New york City, Uber drivers have ended up being punished for this with apps limiting the hours they can work. Ultimately this may be forcing drivers to work faster and accept more trips to make ends meet, which actively causes many to lose money if they cannot fit into these new constraints. The drivers cannot even take legal action in the same manner as other workers

Copyright protections are too strict

With the addition of Disney’s 1928 short “Steamboat Willie” into the public domain, discussions surrounding copyright law have once again become relevant. A large point of debate is over the necessity of restrictions on the public domain. Admittedly, it feels strange to see the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse as the main antagonist for a horror game, or the entire Steamboat Willie cartoon uploaded to youTube for free. However, the importance of the public domain cannot be understated and current copyright laws are far too strict.

Currently, creative works made by companies enter the public domain 95 years after their first publication. Works by individuals will enter 70 years after the individual’s death. However, in the original Copyright Act of 1790, the individual works waiting period was a maximum of 28 years. The reason for these drastic changes largely has to do with Disney’s influence. The U.S. extended copyright laws in 1831 and 1909 mostly to match the European system, allowing for up to 56 years of copyright protection. This lasted for quite some time until Disney had to consider the prospect of Mickey Mouse entering the public domain. After heavy lobbying from Disney, Congress extended copyright protections to last up to 75 years in 1976, and then up to 95 years in 1998.

Clearly, copyright protections need to exist in some form. Companies should be able to profit

from their work, without the threat of plagiarism. However, 95 years is far too long. Studies show that typically, creative works generate over 97% of their revenue in 15 years, and nearly 100% in the following 15. This means that towards the end of their copyright term, many copyrighted works have very little value. Therefore, limiting copyright protections to 15 years would likely have little to no impact on the work’s profitability.

Copyright also heavily limits the public’s access to the protected work. A study discussing book publication on Amazon found that the availability of a book on Amazon heavily corresponds to its copyright term. In the first couple

years after their release, books are widely available, as the publisher responds to initial high demand. However, after their first 15 years, most books lose the vast majority of their profitability, and publishers will print fewer and fewer copies. For the general public, accessing this work becomes significantly more difficult. Interestingly, the listing of books significantly increases again once they enter the public domain, and publishing them becomes significantly cheaper and easier.

Oftentimes, arguments for maintaining strict copyright laws have to do with the reuse of existing intellectual property. Characters, stories and worlds cre-

because of their classification as independent contractors.

However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Drivers have scored many small victories in the past few years. In California, a previous proposition that labeled drivers as independent contractors, not employees, was overturned in 2021. However, it was reinstated in 2023 showing how the businesses still have a large amount of control over the industry. In Boston, Uber drivers have begun to speak out in support of a new bill that would allow drivers to unionize, thus allowing them to negotiate wages and benefits better.

These are all steps in the right direction. However, for there to be complete reform in this industry, the federal government must take action and acknowledge the mistreatment of drivers by these companies. There must be federal reforms to add national protections for drivers and call for rideshare companies to finally recognize them as full employees. As customers who benefit from these apps, we have a special responsibility to take action and support these drivers in their fight for equitable conditions.

ated by artists or companies are often reused or expanded upon across multiple works. In recent years, this has become significantly more prevalent and can be seen through the increasing popularity of franchise films. In 1997, around 21% of widely released films were non franchise. This had increased to almost half by 2023. Companies’ increasing reliance on existing IP is made possible through copyright law. By monopolizing ideas, companies can safely churn out similar content without having to risk resources on new ideas.

This way of thinking inhibits creativity. By drastically reducing copyright protections, IP would enter the public domain much

faster. Companies would then be forced to either divert resources to making original projects in order to maintain their umbrella of content under protection or compete against other companies or individuals to create projects using their expired property. When everyone has access to a company’s IP, regurgitating the same formulaic stories no longer becomes an option — standing out from the crowd is a necessity. This would create a more engaging product for consumers, as companies would be forced to innovate much earlier and focus on creating more original content. Either way, limiting the copyright term for companies’ IP would likely increase creativity rather than limit it. reducing copyright protections from 95 to 15 years certainly seems radical. Movies, songs, books and other creative works published before 2009 would all be freely available in the public domain. However, public access to creative works would skyrocket, and creators would likely suffer little to no loss of revenue. Artists would no longer see their creations suppressed into obscurity by draconian protections that only marginally benefit a select number of the richest companies in the world. Companies would be forced to be more creative with reboots, remakes and sequels, or let existing IP take a backseat to more original projects. Copyright protections, or lack thereof, should inspire innovation. But, the current laws do the exact opposite. If we want to encourage a more creative society, copyright restrictions need to change.

VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Uber app is pictured in the foreground of a taxi cab.

Rory Myers Contributing Writer

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Steamboat Willie is pictured.

SPORTS

Men’s basketball falls to Trinity in NESCAC semifinal, turns eye toward NCAA tournament

Keriann Slayton Staff Writer

Men’s basketball came up short in a back-and-forth battle against the Trinity College Bantams in the semifinal game of the NESCAC tournament, but the team’s strong offensive performance is building momentum as NCAA tournament play approaches. Tufts entered the contest as the No. 4 seed in the conference, primed to face off against the No. 2 seed Trinity in a rematch of Tufts’ competitive Senior Day game that ended in a close loss. Although the Tufts defense managed to limit Trinity’s leading scorer — forward/center Ben Callahan-Gold — to only 4 points, a late 12–2 run by the Bantams sent them to the conference championship.

“Earlier in the year, the first time we played them, we knew that wasn’t really us,” sophomore forward Scott Gyimesi said. “We had had a long overtime game the night before against Wesleyan, so we knew just getting back to it and getting back to our tendencies as a team and playing together, that’s what we needed. … We were able to hang with them and get closer than we did the first time.”

Sophomore guard James Morakis led the scoring for the Jumbos with 19 points, followed closely by Gyimesi’s 18. Combined with his 10 rebounds, Gyimesi notched his 18th double-double performance of the season, and his offensive production kept the score close throughout the contest.

“I thought we played a pretty solid offensive game,” Gyimesi said. “We moved the ball well [and] we got each other involved. Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to take care of the defensive end.”

The lead changed hands eight times in the first half, but eight 3-pointers propelled Trinity to a 43–35 advantage at the break. Tufts came out strong in the second

Henry Blickenstaff Extra Innings

Spend more money

Originally published Feb. 26.

Iam well aware that just last month, I went on a tirade claiming that baseball was broken because of the lack of spending limits. But, just because I don’t like the system doesn’t mean certain teams aren’t stupid for not taking advantage of it. Boston red Sox and Chicago Cubs — I’m looking at you.

These are two of the most popular sports franchises in America playing in two of the largest media markets in America. Both have parlayed that combination into insanely high revenue. you’d think that would correlate to high spending, but the Cubs and red Sox payrolls ranked 11th and 13th in baseball last year, respectively.

These clubs’ lack of spending has been in the news lately. On Tuesday, r afael Devers, red Sox third baseman, spoke to the media, calling out the front office through a translator for not giving the team enough support.

“They need to make an adjustment to help us players too, to be in a better position to win,” Devers said.

half, bringing the deficit to as little as one point multiple times. Despite consistently knocking on the door, the Jumbos ultimately paid the price for their 15 turnovers, as the Bantams outscored them on turnovers 25–11. Though the final outcome was disappointing, the game solidified Tufts’ team identity, which aided in Gyimesi’s offensive success and will be central to a strong performance in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

“This year is very unique in the fact that we had an entirely different starting lineup, so to begin this year we had to establish roles,” Gyimesi said. “We’re at [a] point right now where we know who we are as a team; we know who we are as individuals. [I’ve been] just letting the game come to

Given that a lack of starting pitching has crippled the red Sox for several seasons, he was probably referring to the fact that the only real help Boston has gotten this offseason in that department is Lucas Giolito, who had an E r A near 5.00 last year.

It’s not just this offseason, either. Since their 2018 World Series win, Boston’s most notable free agent signing has been Trevor Story, and let’s just say that hasn’t been a great story.

I guess the front office was too busy trading Mookie Betts, a trade which was more or less encouraged by ownership as they were unwilling to spend what it took to keep him in Boston.

As for the Cubs, the purchase of the team by the r icketts family in 2009 has been largely beneficial compared to the tenure of the negligent Tribune Company, the previous owners. But since the Cubs’ 2016 World Series title, by far their biggest free agent signing has been Dansby Swanson and, overall, they’ve consistently shied away from swimming in the deep end of free agency and the trade market. This offseason, the club played a stupid game of chicken with free agent and 2023 Cub Cody Bellinger, and although they re-signed him for three years at $80 million, the contract allows Bellinger to walk after either of the first two years.

If you read that and thought that ownership lacks money, you’ll be sur-

me; I don’t think about it too much when I’m out there.”

Tufts received an at-large bid in the NCAA Selection Show on Monday and will play Stockton University on Friday at New york University. The Ospreys boast a 17–10 record on the year but most recently dropped their conference final game to The College of New Jersey with a final score of 75–62. Tufts and Stockton had very similar conference tournament journeys, which should make for a competitive matchup in the opening round.

“I think we have a chip on our shoulder in the sense that we know we can’t afford a loss anymore because that means that our season’s over,” Gyimesi said. “There is no option now.”

prised to learn about the r icketts’s many recent financial undertakings; the family embarked on a $550 million renovation of the historic Wrigley Field in 2014, bought substantial property surrounding the park. They’ve turned Wrigley and the public space adjacent to the park, Gallagher Way, into a ‘baseball Disney World’ and a huge cash cow. Did they really make this investment to avoid spending big money on players?

Despite effectively being able to print money, r icketts suggested on Monday that it would take even more revenue to increase spending and the team was reluctant to exceed the competitive balance tax threshold. He also praised the Arizona Diamondbacks for their playoff run on a low payroll. With all due respect to Arizona, the Cubs have no business following the Diamondbacks’ model, given the massive revenue gap between the two teams.

Big-market teams should not behave this way. The devotion of red Sox and Cubs fans makes the team owners obscene amounts of money and the owners should spend that money on putting together a consistently competitive team. They owe it to the fans.

Henry Blickenstaff is a junior studying history. He can be reached at henry.blickenstaff@tufts.edu.

Zachary Gerson In the Crease

Jack Adams Award predictions

This week’s focus is on the Jack Adams Award, which is awarded to “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.” Each year, one coach is honored as the season’s best coach.

Jack Adams Award Winner: John Tortorella, Philadelphia Flyers

Coming into the season, many — including myself — predicted the Flyers to be a bottom-tier team that wouldn’t sniff the playoffs. This is far from what transpired this season. Despite not being a very talented team, the Flyers have been finding ways to win; many think the main reason for this is their coaching. The Flyers have been playing very structurally sound, meaning on defense, players are in the right positions and are not allowing high-danger chances. A team’s structure is established and implemented by the team’s coach, and Tortorella has clearly put into place a great system that has been yielding positive results. The Flyers also have the No. 2 penalty kill percentage in the league, which goes to show this defensive structure and system. Philadelphia is way ahead of schedule on their rebuild, thanks in large part to the exceptional job Tortorella has done in getting the most out of his players and getting them to play the right way, all of which has led to wins. There is no coach in the NHL that has done a more exceptional job this season than Tortorella, and therefore he deserves to win the 2023–24 Jack Adams Award for best head coach.

Jack Adams Award Runner-Up: Rick Tocchet, Vancouver Canucks

In Tocchet’s first full season as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, he has his team sitting in first place in the entire league. After not making the playoffs last season, this one-year turnaround has been very impressive. The fact that a very similar roster in prior seasons with different coaching was not able to make any noise while being seen as a Stanley Cup contender under Tocchet shows that he has been instrumental to the team’s success and has established a system that works. This team clearly has a good amount of talent. However, that talent is meaningless unless the coach is able to put a system in place that fits his players’ strengths and pushes their buttons in the right way. Fortunately for the Canucks, Tocchet has done exactly that, which — along with the team’s vast improvement — clearly demonstrates why he is an obvious finalist for the Jack Adams Award.

Jack Adams Award Third Place: Rick Bowness, Winnipeg Jets

Coming into the season, many were questioning if the time had come for the Winnipeg Jets to initiate a rebuild. However, the Jets, under Bowness, have proven all the doubters wrong. The Jets have all but solidified a spot in the playoffs, and despite losing some key players over the offseason, Bowness has gotten his players to play together as a five-man unit. Though there have been a few ups and downs for the Jets this season, all in all, they are considered to be a Stanley Cup contender, and being in this conversation after all the doubt cast around the team before the season is a testament to Bowness’ exceptional coaching.

Zachary Gerson is a first-year who has yet to declare a major. He can be reached at zachary.gerson@tufts.edu.

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

James Morakis is pictured in the Feb. 17 game against Middlebury.

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