The Tufts Daily - Monday, March 8, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 19

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MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

Judiciary member alleges discrimination, garners national attention; members of SJP, TCU Senate face harassment

by Jessica Blough and Chloe Courtney-Bohl Investigative Editor and Assistant News Editor

Tufts Community Union (TCU) Judiciary member Max Price alleges that he was discriminated against and that his place in student government was threatened due to his Jewish identity, in a months-long conflict between arms of the TCU government and activist group Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The conflict, which began in a series of meetings between the TCU Judiciary and SJP preparing for SJP’s fall referendum, has attracted national attention and led to the harassment of members of both the TCU government and SJP. SJP’s referendum called for the university to apologize for sending its police chief to a training course in Israel in 2017, ban Tufts University Police Department officers from “attending programs based on military strategies” in the future and prevent officers who have been on these trips from being hired at Tufts in the future. The referendum garnered record voter turnout and passed with 68% of the vote.

University administration announced that they would not take action in response to the results of the referendum.

Getting the referendum on the ballot Last spring, SJP proposed and began drafting a ballot referendum as part of their campaign to “#EndTheDeadlyExchange,” a national movement to end militarized training trips for campus police departments.

“We want to send the message that the Tufts administration cannot increase the militarization of TUPD under the guise of counterterrorism,” Julia, a member of SJP, told the Daily in November. “One of the main objectives of our referendum is to hold the Tufts administration accountable for compromising the safety of students (especially [students of color]) by sending a TUPD officer to a militarized training trip in Israel.”

Part of the referendum process is getting the language of the referendum approved by the TCU Elections Commission and the TCU Judiciary; this process allows the Elections Commission and the Judiciary to “present it to interested parties for the sole purposes of

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The Academic Quad is pictured in snowfall. ensuring accuracy and lack of bias,” according to the TCU Elections Commission’s bylaws.

Price, a junior, was serving his first term on the TCU Judiciary after being elected in the spring of 2020. Price had previously spoken publicly against the #EndTheDeadlyExchange campaign as former president of Tufts Friends of Israel, which later encouraged students to vote against SJP’s referendum on social media.

“I said that I would do my best to eliminate all potential bias for my personal beliefs in the professional work of removing bias from the referendum.”

In a series of emails between SJP and the Judiciary, SJP repeatedly asked the TCU Judiciary that Price not be involved in proposing revisions to the referendum or attending meetings about the referendum, saying that Price had “demonstrated clear and public opposition to [SJP’s] campaign.”

Price said a member of the Judiciary asked that he recuse himself from deliberations on

the language of SJP’s referendum, which is within the jurisdiction of the Elections Commission and the TCU Judiciary. The Judiciary called an informal meeting on Nov. 15 to vote on whether Price previously exhibited bias that would render him unfit to work on the SJP referendum; the Judiciary voted unanimously that Price did not have to recuse himself.

“From the beginning of the process, I was transparent with my fellow Judiciary members about my personal beliefs. Like everyone, I have beliefs on this, as well as many other political issues, one of them being that I strongly support police demilitarization and criminal justice reform,” Price told the Daily in an interview. “And I said that I would do my best to eliminate all potential bias for my personal beliefs in the professional work of removing bias from the referendum.”

Nov. 16 meeting The day after the Judiciary’s informal vote, members of the TCU Senate executive board, TCU Judiciary and Committee on Student Life met with Price to determine whether he was biased and should recuse himsee TCU JUDICIARY, page 2

TCU Senate passes million dollar treasury resolution, discusses future of student government disciplinary hearings

by Chloe Courtney-Bohl Assistant News Editor

Tufts Community Union Senate voted to allocate $1,164,000 of TCU Treasury funds to establish a trust for post-pandemic campus events and celebrations and discussed the future of student government disciplinary hearings in a virtual meeting on Sunday night.

TCU Treasurer Sharif Hamidi’s resolution to establish the Pandemic Activities Restoration Trust passed overwhelmingly, with 28 senators voting in favor, none opposed and two abstaining. The trust will be used to restore and enhance post-pandemic university traditions that were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of the fund will go towards post-pan-

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demic celebrations for the classes of 2020 and 2021, while the other half will be used to augment Homecoming, Spring Fling and Tuftonia’s Day, among other future events.

“The pandemic has limited student activities and the ability of student [organizations] to benefit from the traditions and events that are central to the Tufts experience,” Hamidi said.

“I would say we have an obligation to respond and do it in a way that’s decisive.”

TCU Senate then read an abstract for a resolution introduced by Alex Lein and Claudia Guetta, two student coordinators of the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College.

The resolution calls on Tufts see SENATE, page 4 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, March 8, 2021

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SJP issues complaint again TCU Judiciary TCU JUDICIARY

continued from page 1 self from the SJP referendum process. In this Nov. 16 meeting, Price was asked about statements he had made as president of Friends of Israel, a Zionist student organization.

In a letter to Tufts administrators advocating on behalf of Price, the Louis D. Brandeis Center For Human Rights Under Law describes the Nov. 16 meeting as an “interrogation” during which Price was discriminated against on the basis of his identity as a Zionist Jewish person.

Price recalled the meeting in a personal statement published by the Brandeis Center, writing, “Student government leaders grilled me for over an hour about whether my personal beliefs and Jewish and Zionist identities impact my ability to serve on the TCUJ on this issue.”

TCU Parliamentarian Taylor Lewis disagreed with Price’s characterization of the meeting, telling the Daily that Price was only questioned about his public statements, not about his identity.

“What was asked was whether Max had made specific public statements against SJP as an organization and against the contents of the referendum process, not about his identity, not about the beliefs that he holds, but what he has publicly stated,” Lewis, a senior, said.

At the end of the meeting, Price’s impression was that the issue had been resolved, and he would not have to recuse himself.

Nov. 18 meeting Less than a week before the student body was to vote on the referendum, SJP and the TCU Judiciary were still deliberating its specific language. SJP invited members of the Judiciary to attend a Nov. 18 meeting with Eran Efrati, a former Israeli Defense Forces soldier and researcher on the military relationship between the U.S. and Israel. SJP said that Efrati could provide an expert perspective on debated points in the referendum

language, specifically regarding the relationship between TUPD and Israel after a 2017 counterterrorism training trip. SJP asked that Price be excluded from the meeting with Efrati.

Price was told by Holden Dahlerbruch, chair of the Judiciary, that he was to be muted throughout the Zoom meeting with SJP and Efrati, a compromise to SJP’s request that Price not be involved in the meeting at all. Price told the Daily that he was concerned that Efrati, a member of the national Deadly Exchange Campaign Advisory Team, would bring additional bias into the debate rather than eliminating it.

Less than an hour before the meeting began, Dahlerbruch, a sophomore, told Price that he could invite a guest speaker to represent an opposing point of view. Price went on Twitter to find someone who had publicly spoken out against the Deadly Exchange campaign and found Joshua Washington, the director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. Washington and Price had never spoken before the Nov. 18 meeting with Washington, Efrati, SJP and the Judiciary.

“I don’t know anything about him except that he has tweeted about the Deadly Exchange before,” Price said. “So given that I had 15 minutes to find somebody, which is no simple feat, I grabbed him and asked if he can jump on a Zoom call for the Tufts Judiciary, with no preparation.”

Unbeknownst to the other attendees, Washington recorded the meeting, including a moment of confrontation between SJP and Washington.

In Massachusetts, it is illegal to record a conversation without the consent of all parties.

Washington posted a clip of the meeting to his social media and YouTube, with a caption claiming that he was silenced by SJP members. Washington’s organization, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, and conservative political figures shared the clip before it was taken down by Washington on Price’s request.

SJP said they were not given advance notice that Washington would be attending the meeting, and that if they had, they likely would have refused to attend.

“Washington’s attendance at this meeting was an unorganized final attempt to sabotage SJP’s referendum,” SJP said in a written complaint to the TCU Senate, which they filed after the Nov. 18 meeting. “His attendance at the meeting was unauthorized and dangerous as he has our names and faces now.”

As the meeting came to an end, the Judiciary called a vote on the most recent version of the referendum language. The language was approved with two votes in favor and two abstaining; Price was the sole opposing vote. The Nov. 24 special elections, in which students would vote on the referendum, were six days later.

Complaint filed, hearing scheduled Following the Nov. 18 Zoom meeting, SJP filed a complaint with the TCU Senate against all five members of the fall 2020 TCU Judiciary, alleging that Price’s failure to recuse himself from the referendum process had led to bias and corruption in the TCU student government.

The complainants, who identified themselves only as members of SJP, alleged that the Judiciary had breached Article III Subsection D 4a of the TCU Constitution.

Article III Subsection D 4a states that “All persons appearing before the TCUJ have the right to a fair and impartial hearing on all matters requiring a binding vote.

Members of the TCUJ shall have no familiarity or public stance on the substance of an upcoming matter and no relationship or involvement, current, or past, with any persons who are litigants in a hearing.”

In their complaint, SJP cited Price’s public condemnation of the Deadly Exchange campaign and his position as president of Tufts Friends of Israel as evidence of his bias. SJP said

Two students are pictured walking through the Academic Quad during a snowfall.

their privacy was violated when Washington shared an illegally recorded video containing their names and faces on social media, and identified Price’s lack of recusal as the root cause of this privacy breach.

“From the beginning, Max’s lack of recusal made SJP’s referendum process longer than usual, made SJP subject to more criticism than the [Tufts for a Racially Equitable Endowment] referendum received, … put SJP in direct danger of being doxxed, and [led to] corruption in the student government,” SJP wrote in their complaint.

Though it focused on Price, the complaint also claimed that the other four members of the TCU Judiciary were complicit in Price’s failure to recuse himself.

When allegations are brought against a member or members of the TCU Judiciary,

“We are concerned by efforts to conflate Palestinian liberation with antisemitism and erase Jewish anti-zionist histothe TCU Constitution instructs the TCU Senate to conduct a hearing and determine whether to take disciplinary action against the subjects of the complaint.

Per the TCU Senate bylaws, TCU Senate Parliamentarian Lewis was responsible for organizing the hearing. He consulted with several Tufts administrators to ensure the hearing be as fair as possible. He also communicated frequently with SJP and the TCU Judiciary in the months leading up to the hearing, which was planned for Feb. 28.

Price alleges that Lewis and the TCU Senate denied his right to due process by scheduling a hearing without first providing him with a conduct officer from Tufts’ Office of Community Standards to see SJP, page 3

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Monday, March 8, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Complaint retracted by SJP in face of doxxing danger, canceling planned hearing SJP

continued from page 2 discuss the complaint and advise him on how to respond, as outlined in the Tufts Student Conduct Resolution Procedure. However, Lewis says that the Student Conduct Resolution Procedure is meant to govern university procedure violations, whereas alleged violations of student government procedure are covered by the TCU Constitution and bylaws.

Lewis maintains that although the TCU Senate did not plan to provide Price with a conduct officer, they did try to work with him to create a fair hearing process. Email communications between Lewis and Price show that Lewis tried to schedule a meeting with Price to discuss the specifics of the hearing, but Price never responded to those communications.

“I requested to meet with Max multiple, multiple times throughout my email correspondence, and he never agreed to meet,” Lewis said. “I think

“We have continued to receive threats to our safety since launching this referendum—an experience shared by many who are willing to speak out for Palestinian rights.” that if we had met, we might have worked something a little bit better out.”

The Brandeis Center gets involved Facing the potential loss of his Judiciary seat and other repercussions, Price turned to outside organizations. A friend connected him with the Brandeis Center, a nonprofit that focuses on anti-Semitism on university campuses. In a 110-page collection of exhibits — including statements, correspondences and reports of anti-Semitism at Tufts — the Brandeis Center alleges that Price was “subjected to anti-Semitic harassment targeting him on the basis of his ethnic and ancestral Jewish identity,” culminating in SJP’s complaint against Price.

An introductory letter addressed to Tufts administrators denounces the Deadly Exchange campaign and claims that it “promotes a modern blood libel.” It also alleges that Price was denied due process ahead of the planned hearing on the complaint.

This letter draws specific attention to the Nov. 18 meeting between the Judiciary and SJP, during which Price was asked by Judiciary Chair Dahlerbruch to remain muted.

“Silencing Max Price’s expression of opinion on the TCUJ Judiciary because he is Jewish and expresses a Zionist, pro-Israel opinion is flagrant

‘viewpoint discrimination’ that cannot be tolerated in a free society or in a university where the free-speech principles of the First Amend- ment govern,” the letter reads. “The university must forcefully condemn this violation of Mr. Price’s right to free expression.”

The Brandeis Center and Price said that Zionism is integral to Price’s Jewish identity, and that excluding Price from referendum deliberations based on him being an outspoken Zionist is a form of anti-Semitic discrimination.

“If you want to be part of social justice at Tufts and if you want to work on criminal justice reform and anti-racism and police demilitarization, and you’re Jewish, you have to denounce your shared heritage, your shared ancestry with Israel, which isn’t acceptable to me,” Price told the Daily. “I don’t think that there should be a religious test for participating in social justice on campus.”

SJP denies that they discriminated against Price on the basis of his Jewish identity. Their complaint to the TCU Senate is directed at the TCU Judiciary, though it does make specific accusations about Price’s role in the referendum process. The complaint does not mention Price’s Jewish identity or Zionist beliefs.

“Tufts SJP is made up of students from many backgrounds, including Palestinians, Jews, and many others who work to fight for justice and freedom. We are concerned by efforts to conflate Palestinian liberation with antisemitism and erase Jewish anti-zionist history and present,” SJP wrote in a statement to the Daily.

The letter from the Brandeis Center is addressed to University President Anthony Monaco, Provost Nadine Aubry and General Counsel Mary Jeka and makes recommendations to the university on how to respond. Specifically, it requests that the university investigate SJP’s role in the complaint and discipline its members for discrimination, Monaco publicly apologize to Price and to the Tufts Jewish community on behalf of Tufts, and the university update its non-discrimination policy to broaden the definition of anti-Semitism.

In an email to the Daily, Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, declined to give specifics on whether the university would respond to the Brandeis Center letter. He said that the university was not at liberty to comment on specific allegations or cases.

“We take very seriously any concerns raised by students — regardless of their backgrounds and perspectives — of bias, safety, privacy and intimidation, whether by organizations affiliated or unaffiliated with Tufts,” Collins wrote. “We will continue to work closely with

our students and university community to foster a productive and safe learning environment for all.”

SJP and TCU Senate fear harassment The hearing gained national attention when Jewish Insider published an article about Price’s allegations of anti-Semitism and harassment by SJP. The article quoted Price and Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center. It also linked to SJP’s original complaint, Price’s response and redacted email communications between SJP and the Judiciary from the referendum process.

With the increased media attention, SJP and the TCU Senate became concerned for their online privacy. Though SJP had wanted to remain anonymous in their complaint, the Jewish Insider article amplified the Brandeis Center’s calls for Tufts to investigate and discipline the students who had filed the complaint. Similar articles were published by other Jewish news outlets over the next several days.

In a statement to the Daily, SJP said they feared their identities would be revealed and they would be further targeted online if they continued to pursue their complaint.

“We have continued to receive threats to our safety since launching this referendum—an experience shared by many who are willing to speak out for Palestinian rights,” SJP wrote. “More recently, we received threats to publish the identities and information of the students who filed the complaint if we pursued this accountability process, subjecting us to online bullying and false accusations in rightwing media.”

Alongside this media scrutiny, SJP feared their identities would be publicized because prior to the scheduled hearing date, Parliamentarian Lewis had shared their names with the other participants in the hearing, including Price. Lewis acknowledged that this decision created security concerns for SJP, given that Price had already shared their private complaint with the Brandeis Center.

Lewis consulted with Tufts’ Office of the Dean of Student Affairs to model the hearing after a Tufts disciplinary hearing, and one takeaway from that collaboration was that in a typical university hearing, the complainants’ identities are known to the respondents because the hearing is conducted in-person, so they see and interact with each other during the proceedings. Though SJP registered their complaint anonymously, Lewis says they would have eventually had to share their identities with the Judiciary had the hearing gone forward.

They would have given opening statements and their names and faces would have been visible in the Zoom call.

Still, Lewis took the decision to expose the SJP members’ identities seriously and acknowledged the difficulty of organizing a fair hearing while also protecting the participants’ security.

“I was very conflicted, and I still don’t know if that was right,” he said. “But I think what’s clear is that we were all just trying to do our best.”

In an email to the Daily, Collins confirmed Student Affairs’ position that anonymity would not have been possible for SJP during the hearing, since Lewis was following the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs’ model for hearings.

“When [complainants and respondents] choose to participate, anonymity is not possible because each participant has a right to know who is saying what in support of or in defense against the substance of the allegations,” Collins wrote.

SJP was not the only group to experience intimidation and fear for their privacy after the publication of the Jewish Insider article. Members of TCU Senate also received unsolicited phone calls and media inquiries as the issue gained attention.

After these inquiries began, TCU Historian Sarah Tata removed senators’ names and email addresses from the TCU website. TCU President Sarah Wiener told the Daily that senators were advised to make their social media accounts private and remove their phone numbers and addresses from resumes they had posted online. She is unsure how long these privacy measures will last, or if they will be adopted permanently to protect senators from these types of invasive inquiries.

“Regardless of the circumstances, exposing members of the Tufts community to public scrutiny was an unnecessary and reckless decision.”

Wiener, a senior, added that the fear of being doxxed fell disproportionately on students of color within the TCU Senate, who would likely face greater scrutiny and repercussions if their names were published online in connection to a case like this one.

“A lot of students whose names were being shared were students of color, and how scary [is that] when there’s not institutional support and backing, and everyone’s presumptions in the job market for instance may already be against you,” she said. “That was really concerning that these voices were being threatened or intimidated even further.”

Lewis echoed Wiener’s sentiments.

“Regardless of the circumstances, exposing members of

the Tufts community to public scrutiny was an unnecessary and reckless decision,” Lewis said in an email to the Daily.

SJP withdraws complaint Disparaging press coverage, compromised anonymity in the hearing process and the precedent of being publicly identified after the Nov. 18 Zoom call all contributed to SJP’s concerns for their safety. This ultimately led them to withdraw their complaint on Feb. 25, three days before the hearing was scheduled to take place. In a statement to the Daily, they referenced concerns for their safety and privacy in light of the increased national attention that the case had garnered.

“While we are disappointed we will not see accountability through the university due to intimidation tactics and harassment, this will not diminish the voices of the students and organizations who voted yes on the referendum and are organizing for freedom and justice for all,” SJP wrote in its statement.

Price gave a statement after

“Now that my position in student government is secure, I look forward to devoting my energy to beating back the rising tides of bigotry and injustice on campus.” the cancellation of the Feb. 28 hearing through the Brandeis Center expressing relief that he was no longer the subject of an investigation, as well as disappointment that the Tufts administration did not intervene or respond to the Brandeis Center’s letter.

“Now that my position in student government is secure, I look forward to devoting my energy to beating back the rising tides of bigotry and injustice on campus,” he said.

Price told the Daily that though allegations of harassment against students should be taken seriously, he doesn’t regret attracting national attention to his story.

“I think an injustice is being done. And I think that bringing the situation under scrutiny helps to correct it,” Price said. “So while I sympathize with those who may be facing harassment now, I don’t regret bringing attention to this story.”

Price has not decided whether he will run for TCU Judiciary again when his term expires this spring.

Editor’s note: Julia, a member of SJP, requested in November that part of their name be omitted to protect their safety. Other SJP members are not identified individually due to concerns for their safety.

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TCU Senate hears two funding requests SENATE

continued from page 1 to expand the initiative’s college-in-prison degree program to offer a Tufts bachelor’s degree with a major in civic studies.

Currently, the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College program offers an associate’s degree from Bunker Hill Community College.

“This would obviously really enhance the scope and the reach of the program,” Lein, a senior, said. “It’s a huge thing for any student, let alone students who are on the inside or coming out of prisons, to be able to receive a BA from Tufts.”

In the coming weeks, this abstract will be expanded into a full resolution for TCU Senate to vote on.

TCU Senate then heard two supplementary funding requests.

Future Histories Literary Magazine requested $50 to

send copies of its magazine to members who are remote this semester. The request passed TCU Senate with 26 senators voting in favor, none opposed and one abstaining. The request passed TCU Senate by acclamation.

Tufts Asian Student Coalition requested $2,000 to pay an hon-

NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Sophia Gordon Hall is pictured on May 7, 2014. orarium to Susan Lieu, a playwright who will conduct a storytelling workshop through the club. Eight members of the Allocations Board voted in favor of the request, with none opposed and one abstaining. The request passed TCU Senate by acclamation.

TCU President Sarah Wiener then provided updates on Wellness Week, an ongoing collaboration between TCU Senate and Tufts University Social Collective to organize mindfulness-oriented programming

in place of spring break during the week of March 22–26. TCU Senate is also asking professors to assign lighter workloads during that week.

Wiener announced that in addition to Tufts University Social Collective, TCU Senate hopes to collaborate with the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, Counseling and Mental Health Services and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching on Wellness Week programming.

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and whether TCU government should be the body to handle complaints.

Multiple senators suggested that the Committee on Student Life hear future complaints because it is composed of both students and faculty.

Others suggested looking to other universities’ procedures to try to attain a greater level of impartiality.

TCU Senate will continue to discuss this issue and seek a solution that improves the impartiality of the hearing process.

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

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Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires.

The senators then split into breakout rooms to discuss the future of student inter-governmental disciplinary hearings conducted by TCU. Before it was canceled, the hearing to review Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine’s allegations of bias and corruption on the part of the TCU Judiciary brought attention to TCU Senate’s lack of preparedness for inter-governmental disciplinary actions.

The senators discussed how the disciplinary hearing process should change going forward,

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“The pandemic has limited student activities and the ability of student [organizations] to benefit from the traditions and events that are central to the Tufts experience.”

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Researchers, legislators collaborate to reduce effects of sea level rise in Boston

by Saya Ameli Hajebi Contributing Writer

Boston has become one of the first cities in the United States to have a city-wide Green New Deal, as the climate crisis seeps into the daily lives of residents.

Environmental researchers, community leaders and legislators collaborate under a ticking clock in the hopes of preventing Boston’s neighborhoods from submerging.

In 1857, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts contracted workers to begin leveling hills with steam-powered engines and build a new neighborhood over a small saltwater bay. They were not thinking that the sea could someday rise and wash their hard work away. Now, Boston is the eighth most vulnerable city in the world in terms of the overall cost damage from rising sea levels, according to a study conducted by the World Bank.

“The most we can do right now is slow down the rate of climate change, without doing something as risky as geoengineering, not reverse it,” said Paul Kirshen, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who researches climate adaptation methods for the city.

“We may only have to deal with three feet instead of seven feet of sea level rise.”

Kirshen explained that even if carbon emissions were eliminated today, enough greenhouse gas emissions are already in the atmosphere that Boston would still face significantly more sea level rise-induced flooding in the next few decades, a claim supported by a recent Climate Ready Boston report.

In August 2020, Boston City Councilor At-Large Michelle Wu released a Boston-specific Green New Deal, the first of its kind. The 49-page document,

The Mystic River, which runs through Medford, is pictured on March 3.

spearheaded by lead author Nina Schlegel, outlines an intersectional approach to battling climate change, with solutions ranging from affordable housing and public transportation to racial and economic justice.

“I’m really proud of my team and a huge coalition that came together to propose the first city-level Green New Deal in the country,” Wu said. “We put forward principles for a Green New Deal and a just recovery, 15 policies that Boston could implement that we hope could be [an] inspiration or example for other cities to take on as well.”

Wu warned that the impacts of climate change have already arrived.

“A couple of months ago, I was standing on Morrissey Boulevard at high tide to draw attention to the fact that regularly at high tide, a major stretch of roadway is impassable to first responders

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or residents trying to get to work or school,” Wu said. “I had my boots on and the water was up past my ankles standing in the middle of the road.”

Justin Hollander, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts, spoke to Boston’s development in spaces that are likely to be affected by climate change.

“A lot of the city is built in an unsustainable way,” Hollander said. “People talk about the city of Boston being progressive and addressing climate change, but when you look at a lot of the new developments in the Seaport District, [they are] basically at sea level.”

According to Hollander, Boston has historically relied on the private market to respond to environmental threats. He added that many communities consisting of people of color and low-income families are especially vulnerable to the effects of the sea level rise.

Researchers like Kirshen are actively working to push legislators to integrate climate adaptation research into urgent action to protect coastal communities.

Kirshen’s research has been instrumental in the development of the Resilient Boston Harbor Initiative, which takes an equitable approach to climate adaptation. The initiative creates sustainable jobs by investing in elevated green community spaces and flood-resistant buildings along the city’s waterfront.

These structural changes aim to alleviate the cost coastline families would have had to bear, as they protect the communities at risk.

One of Kirshen’s studies published in May 2018 considered the use of a natural harbor-wide barrier to protect Boston communities from flooding. “[The study] actually became the official policy of the city in October of 2018,” Kirshen said.

Kirshen’s intersectional approach to climate research is an example of an important collaboration between researchers, community leaders and local and statewide legislators.

Yet, even with new legislation in place, Boston still has a long way to go.

“We know how to get our emissions to zero, we know how to do mitigation and adaptation planning,” Kirshen said. “We know the answers; it’s just a lack of political will.”

He encourages students to get involved in politics and vote for candidates that will represent their values.

“Volunteering on a campaign is one of the best things you can do,” Kirshen said. “We do not have effective leadership, [and] it also reflects the will of the voters.”

However, following a new wave of political engagement with record turnout from voters in the 2020 election and rising youth activism, this dynamic may be changing.

Wu echoed this sentiment.

“Everyone has a role to play in demonstrating and agitating and pushing for our progress to match the scale and urgency of this moment,” Wu said.

After becoming the first woman of color to serve as the president of the council, Wu has decided to run for mayor this year. Wu said she is inspired by the students and youth activists who frame the climate crisis not as something to run away from or simply mitigate, but as an opportunity to advocate for justice.

Emanating the vision of her Green New Deal for Boston, she explained that the climate crisis cannot be addressed without climate justice.

“This is about reaching out and grabbing our best, strongest, most vibrant collective future together and that’s how we are framing all of our policies,” Wu said.

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MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

‘The World’s a Little Blurry’ pulls back the Billie Eilish curtain

by Stephanie Hoechst Arts Editor

Billie Eilish is incredible in interviews. She’s poised, thoughtful, articulate and intensely self-reflective. Half an hour into “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” (2021), the Apple TV+ original documentary charting Eilish’s recording of her debut studio album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (2019), I was wondering, then, why the documentary didn’t seem at all interested in interviewing her. Over the course of the almost two-and-a-half-hour film, it became clear that director R. J. Cutler is more interested in showing us what’s behind all of those super-poised interviews: a teenage girl.

“The World’s a Little Blurry” follows Eilish’s meteoric rise to fame, starting when she was touring for “Don’t Smile at Me” (2017) and was beginning to record “When We All Fall Asleep” with her brother Finneas O’Connell, known mononymously as Finneas, and ending with the 62nd Grammy Awards, where she won in five categories at the age of just 18.

Over the course of that period, Eilish went from performing at small venues to becoming one of the most successful artists in the world, producing a record-breaking and hauntingly honest album about the struggles of young adulthood.

The lore of Eilish’s wildly successful album is well known among fans: Eilish and Finneas wrote and recorded it in Finneas’s tiny bedroom in their parents’ home in Los Angeles. “The World’s a Little Blurry” keeps this intimacy at the core of its filmmaking style, eschewing any “Miss Americana”-style sit-down interviews to instead capture the relationship between Eilish and her family, who accompanies her on her tours around the world.

Finneas and Eilish’s parents actually seem to spend more time speaking to the camera than Eilish herself, framing her career in the context of those who support her.

What this intimacy allows for is a peek behind the curtain when it comes to Eilish’s personal life and her relationship with fame. While many of her press interviews dive into the complexities of her mental health with real sincerity, they do benefit from 20/20 hindsight. Cutler’s documentary, on the other hand, is able to focus on the things that Eilish struggles with as she’s struggling with them. And, as it turns out, a lot of those struggles are much more associated with being a teenager than with fame. For example, one throughline of the film is Eilish’s getting her learner’s permit and then her driver’s license. There’s a beautiful scene where her father gives her the dad talk about

driving before Eilish pulls out to drive on her own for the first time, after which her father reflects to the camera on her growing up. The car is Eilish’s dream car, a matte black Dodge Challenger, but the look on her parents’ faces as she drives away is the look of any parent when their teenager drives for the first time.

Eilish suffers from occupational hardships — she struggles with shin splints and ankle injuries for much of the film due to the physical intensity of her performances, she forgets her lyrics during a huge performance at Coachella and has to figure out how to bounce back and she and Finneas have to work on a tight deadline to record “No Time to

Die” (2020) for the new James Bond film during a tour. And yet, Eilish is balancing all of this unimaginable pressure with the issues of any 17-year-old: hard breakups, fights with her family, struggles with mental health and insecurity about her singing and songwriting abilities.

As a documentary, then, “The World’s a Little Blurry” suc-

A promotional poster for Apple TV+’s documentary on singer Billie Eilish, “The World’s a Little Blurry” is pictured.

ceeds in offering us moments during which Eilish truly feels younger than she does when she’s walking on the red carpet at the Grammys. It’s important to remember that Eilish is a teenager going through a lot of the same things that any other teenager may be going through — on top of her historic musical career.

VIA IMDB

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Monday, March 8, 2021 | ARTs & POP CULTURe | THE TUFTS DAILY

‘Tom & Jerry’ falls short of original cartoon

Derin Savasan Hot Take

by Catherine Cahn Contributing Writer

Why do filmmakers feel the need to take successful entertainment and spin it into something ludicrous? While the answer to this is often simply that production companies are willing to exploit the original story for profit, it proves upsetting nevertheless.

Unfortunately for the classic cartoon, Tim Story’s “Tom and Jerry” (2021) falls victim to just that, twisting the iconic tale into a jumbled confusion of live action actors and animated animals, turning the childhood television show into a poorly acted, nonsensical movie.

In present-day New York City, Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) are set to get married at the fictional Royal Gate Hotel, when the famous, animated cat and mouse duo threatens to ruin the event. Jerry, the mouse, has moved into the hotel, so Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz), a new employee, hires Tom, the cat, to exterminate him. As Jerry remains on the loose, Ben and Preeta’s relationship slowly unravels and another employee, Terence (Michael Peña), proves to be the antagonist.

As the cat-and-mouse chase ensues, so does the cringey dialogue, disappointing acting and failed jokes. Although the ani-

mation, cinematography and directing are smooth, the storyline is enough to amount to the film’s overall downfall. Characters are wince-worthy, clad with exaggerated personalities and nonsensical actions, and attempts at humor are unsuccessful and cliche.

Seeing as the objective of the plot is to catch Jerry and expel him from the hotel, it’s confusing that Kayla never simply snatches him and throws him out, despite all of the time Jerry spends standing in front of her, not evading any of her moves. As the plot is unnecessarily pushed along, even the jokes fall flat, with unoriginal lines as Terence mixes up social media names, calling them “Insta-bookface” and “Tiky-Tok,” a trope that has been done too many times before.

It initially seems surprising that celebrities as famous as Jost would commit to such a production, but even his performance is a let down. He seems nearly incapable of producing actual expressions and emotions to the story around him, instead delivering dialogue in a plain and uninteresting way. Jost acts more like he is supplying dry jokes on “Saturday Night Live” and less like he is playing a man on the verge of losing the apparent love of his life. Perhaps it is the screenplay’s, and not Moretz’s, fault that her theatrics are exag-

A promotional poster for the movie “Tom & Jerry” is pictured.

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gerated, but they are, nevertheless, not commendable. With an already unconvincing screenplay, the actors do nothing to help the believability of the movie.

With so many worthy screenplays out there that Warner Bros. overlooked in order to finance this, it almost seems deserving that the movie, budgeted at $79 million, was financially unsuccessful, making only $57.3 million at the box office. Though a lot of this can surely be chalked up to the state of the world (and, actually, these numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic are surprisingly good), a cash-grab film hovering in a net loss region is the opposite of what its producers were hoping for.

Hopefully, the original “Tom and Jerry” will continue to stand the test of time, remaining untainted by this disconcerting attempt at a revival. The classic characters deserve to stay in their own fully animated world, where they are not surrounded with below-the-bar acting and pounded with songs like “Don’t You Know” (2021) and “Can I Kick It?” (1990) but are instead wrapped up in simple chases that prove satisfying to giggling kids as they enjoy an afternoon cartoon.

Let this box-office flop be a message to future filmmakers that instead of deranging lovable classics into upsetting attempts at revivals, it is better to leave greatness alone.

VIA IMDB

‘Twilight’ is a comedic masterpiece

O

K, hear me out — I don’t think “Twilight” (2008) is that bad.

No, I mean it. Is it a good movie?

No. Does it have Oscar-level acting? Absolutely not. But does it deserve to be pop culture’s cinematic punching bag? I don’t think so.

Let’s not forget that this movie was released over 10 years ago. Chances are, you were a prepubescent kid with an emo side part who listened to Maroon 5 back then (I know I was). And I remember seeing this movie in theaters for the first time and actually enjoying it. I mean, how can anyone not? It’s a comedic masterpiece.

Yet, people are quick to point out the obvious mistakes and the overall cringe factor of the movie. Some have said that it supports toxic and abusive relationships, while others have voiced their distaste for the terrible acting and special effects. I mean, they’re not wrong. At one point during the movie, the vampires play baseball — which has nothing to do with the plot (and thus doesn’t get mentioned in the movies ever again).

But this cringe humor is an incredible subgenre of comedy that is a lot more popular than we realize. A lot of TV shows heavily rely on cringe humor.

Think of “The Office,” (2005–13) “Girls” (2012–17) and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000–). All of these shows have earned critical acclaim and fame for creating uncomfortable laughter among their audiences.

“Twilight” isn’t any different. Sure, it hasn’t won any Oscars, but it has this absurd level of seriousness, executed flawlessly with a young, hot Robert Pattinson, playing a sexy, 100-year-old vampire. And Kristen Stewart? She delivers the performance of a lifetime as a teenage daughter who has the personality of a wet cabbage.

The best part of it all? They fall in love, and not just in the movie.

The cinematography — striking in its bleached bleakness of the Pacific Northwest — combined with an odd, yet great set of music (it even features Radiohead!) made this movie a cultural phenomenon that shook the 2000s to its core, right when social media was taking hold. It did so well at the box office that the producers and directors decided to make another movie shortly after. Little did they know that they would make three more after that.

Now, I’m not here to convince you that this movie is perfect. There are too many plot holes and too many bad performances for that. All I’m saying is that watching this movie can be an enjoyable experience for everyone — whether they’re Team Edward, Team Jacob or Team Anti-Twilight — because everyone can find something in it to poke fun at.

(Mine is the line: “Hold on tight, spider monkey.”)

After all, we don’t always watch movies because they’re cinematic masterpieces.

Sometimes, we watch movies because they’re stupid, silly and fun. And “Twilight” is just that.

Derin Savasan is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Derin can be reached at 2derinsavasan@gmail.com.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMes | Monday, March 8, 2021

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tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Chloe: “I thought they were just mispronouncing ‘gala’”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Pisces (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Leaving is difficult now. A major revelation occurs here. Take new territory. All’s well.

You’re under pressure regarding deadlines for the next couple of days. Take two days for private meditation, as much as possible.

Contemplate your next move.

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Difficulty Level: March with no spring break

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OPINION

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9 MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

VIEWPOINTS

by Faye Thijssen

Why circulating traumatic images isn’t activism

Opinion Editor

Content warning: This article references violence and racism against Asian individuals.

Between March 16 and March 30, 2020, former President Donald Trump used the term “Chinese Virus” over 20 times in reference to COVID-19. The use of terms like “Chinese Virus” and “Wuhan Virus” focused the blame for the effects of the pandemic on China, rather than on the inaction of the U.S. government. By extension, this rhetoric has also cast blame on people of Asian descent.

Scapegoating an entire ethnic demographic has obviously not gone without consequences; the past year has seen an 150% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in major cities. Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate has documented more than 2,800 incidents of abuse against Asian Americans in the United States since the start of the pandemic.

In the early months of the pandemic, a father and his two young sons were stabbed in the aisles of their local Sam’s Club.

Just a few weeks ago, an elderly man was killed on a morning stroll through the streets of San Francisco. The only provocation for these crimes was the act of being Asian in America.

As has been the case with many other movements advocating for the rights of minorities, these jarring examples of hate crimes in recent months sparked a marked increase in awareness of this issue on social media platforms. The hashtag #stopasianhate is trending, with over 17,000 posts on Instagram and over 120 million views on TikTok, and has even given rise to a GoFundMe campaign. Although this acknowledgment of racism against Asians is much needed and long overdue, some of the methods through which people strive to draw attention to the

Matt Rice The Honeymoon Period

America’s prime minister

S

enate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell amassed incomprehensible power after claiming a Senate majority in the 2014 midterm elections. The Republican Senate conference added nine new members in January 2015, essentially giving Leader McConnell veto power over any legislation the Obama administration proposed. And he used that power quite frequently.

In 2016, McConnell famously refused to even hold hearings

issue have counteracted the goal of helping the Asian community.

Graphic images and descriptions of Asian people being beaten and harassed are placed at the forefront of many of the viral posts circulating throughout social media. Although this undoubtedly achieves the goal of catching attention, this constant exposure to traumatic imagery can also exacerbate fear and grief within the Asian community.

“I’ve been trying to spend less time on social media [because] everything I see makes me sad.

I don’t wanna watch people get violently attacked … Yes, those images are powerful but they’re also horrible to see. Especially when the victims share an identity with you or people you

love,” first-year Chloe Cheng, a third-generation Chinese American student at Tufts, wrote on an Instagram story. When graphic posts like these circulate without additional information, context or proper content warnings, they bring more harm to the very communities they are meant to help. Additionally, we shouldn’t have to resort to using sensationalized imagery in return for basic empathy from the general public.

This trend of sensationalizing traumatic imagery under the ostensible intent of activism (often referred to as “trauma porn”) is not unique to the movement against anti-Asian racism. Just last summer, many people within the Black Lives

Matter movement expressed their discomfort with broadcasting traumatic images and videos of instances of police brutality, arguing that it did little more than exploit traumatic moments.

Above all else, genuine, helpful activism takes into account the conditions of the affected demographic. This is not to say that these images and stories shouldn’t be shared at all, but rather that the content should be approached with much more careful consideration of its impact and intended purpose.

If imagery like this is broadcasted, it should be done so with proper content warnings and only with the intention of holding the perpetrators of the violence accountable. Furthermore,

in order to effectively advocate for and support Asian Americans at this time, there should be more emphasis on education and action against anti-Asian racism. Combatting this issue at its core requires addressing the long-standing history of discrimination against Asian people in America — from the effects of Japanese internment to the “model minority myth” — and promoting diverse Asian representation in media and pop culture. Ultimately, the solution to the problems which have presented themselves so evidently over this past year relies on continued support and the confrontation of systemic issues, not on temporary interest and the magnification of violent events.

BY CECILIA OROZCO

for President Obama’s Supreme Courtnominee following the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell’s lesser-known obstruction was leaving over 100 federal judgeships empty, which allowed President Trump to appoint more than 200 federal judges during his single term in office.

McConnell’s blatant obstructionism and norm breaking were the defining characteristics of his tenure as majority leader from 2015 to 2021. Had he retained his Senate majority following the 2020 elections, McConnell likely would have killed nearly all of President Biden’s proposals by the time they reached the Senate. But since Georgia elected two Democratic senators in January, the American Rescue Plan is now $1.3 trillion more than Senate Republicans

proposed. Every single Biden cabinet nominee who has gone through the confirmation process so far, with the exception of Office of Management and Budget director nominee Neera Tanden, who withdrew, has been approved by the Senate, an accomplishment that would have been excruciatingly difficult with McConnell as majority leader.

President Biden was elected with the hopes that he would be able to work with Senate Republicans, as he did during his nearly four decades in the body. But the dynamics have changed dramatically since the 1970s. McConnell was able to effectively unify his caucus in opposition to the Obama agenda, and he would have done the same to President Biden. In his new memoir, Obama notes that

McConnell’s “shamelessness” and “dispassionate pursuit of power” will not cease because his old Senate buddy now sits in the Oval Office.

“You must be under the mistaken impression that I care,” McConnell once told Biden when the then-vice president lobbied McConnell to pass a bill.

Mitch McConnell is no longer the majority leader. He can no longer unilaterally kill legislation on his Senate floor. But the Kentuckian’s period in exile may be shorter than many pundits expect. McConnell only needs a net gain of one seat in the 2022 midterms in order to take control again. His inability — or lack of interest — to work in a bipartisan way will make him the kingmaker of the Biden administration if he does become majority leader again.

His ability to hold Senate Republicans together, militant war against bipartisanship and procedural tricks make him more like a European prime minister than a caucus leader.

He dictates like a parliamentary leader, holds his group together and exerts control like a premier and has the ability to become the most powerful man in Washington in two short years.

In order to retain Senate control, Biden needs to push for aggressive legislation that removes the shackles of inequality and motivates his base to turn out for Senate Democrats.

Matt Rice is a senior studying political science.

Matt can be reached at matthew.rice@tufts.edu.

10 MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

Matt Goguen Keeping up with the 617

Assessing the state of the Celtics

D

espite the coronavirus pandemic that is overshadowing this season, the NBA has had enough drama and storylines to vault basketball into the sports spotlight in 2021. Teams with young talent have entered playoff contention, NBA superstars have been traded and new rookies are exceeding expectations.

The Celtics, however, have been nothing short of a disappointment. Entering the All-Star break

sPORTs at 19–17 and fourth in the East, the Celtics have been depleted for much of the first half of the season. Although they’ve won four straight, dating back to Feb. 26, they’ve had many questionable losses, including two to the bottom-feeder Detroit Pistons.

What has gone wrong?

Fans were quick to blame Brad Stevens for the Celtics’ most recent struggles. Although Stevens has made questionable decisions late in games that cost the Celtics some victories, he is not entirely to blame for this disastrous slump.

The Celtics have been without Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for significant chunks of the season, and Stevens was still able to scrape the bottom of the barrel and produce a slightly efficient lineup. He’s brought the best out

of a few rookies, particularly Payton Pritchard, and is still hoping to develop players such as Robert Williams III and Grant Williams.

Recently, Tatum stated that he is still feeling the residual effects of COVID-19. He said he’s sluggish while moving up and down the court and was getting fatigued more quickly than normal. His stat lines tell the same story; since coming back from his bout with coronavirus, Tatum’s PPG have dropped 2.7 points and his 3-point percentage is down almost seven percentage points.

Although the Celtics tend to rely heavily on Tatum to pull off incredible shots, the Celtics bench still has a large impact on the team. This offseason, Danny Ainge set out to trade Gordon Hayward and acquire efficient role players — he succeed-

COVID-19 AT TUFTS

ed in only one of those goals.

The signings of veterans such as Tristan Thompson and Jeff Teague have not panned out; Thompson is averaging only 7.9 PPG while Teague’s PPG is 6.4, which is his lowest per game total since 2010.

The slump that the Celtics endured toward the end of the first half of the season seemed to be caused mostly by inefficient offensive numbers, particularly from All-NBA player Tatum and the bench veterans.

This current situation exemplifies the weak depth of the Celtics; if Tatum isn’t able to consistently produce north of 25 PPG, the team is in trouble.

Yet, as the Celtics climbed out of their slump by firing up four straight wins, it seems like they’ve gelled as a team once again.

tuftsdaily.com I am absolutely not writing off the Celtics. Not yet. They’ve seemed to figure out how to efficiently score again and the starting lineup has played effective minutes. However, their bench is atrocious — I truly believe Pritchard is the only player that can give the Celtics good minutes down the stretch. If the Celtics want to inch their way into the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference, they need to trade for either a big man or an effective role player that can be plugged into any lineup. If the C’s have another long slump, Boston fans might be calling for Stevens’ job.

Matt Goguen is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.goguen@tufts.edu.