The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, March 10, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 21

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

New substance-free theme house for upperclassmen to be established in fall 2021

SPORTS

BREAKING: NESCAC teams to compete this spring

by Alex Sharp

Executive Sports Editor

SARA RENKERT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Varsity sports may finally be returning to Tufts. On Tuesday at 5 p.m. the NESCAC presidents released a statement clearing the way for spring sports competition. The announcement comes almost exactly a year after the NESCAC shut down all athletic competition on March 11, 2020.

The entirety of the spring 2020, fall 2020 and winter 2020–21 seasons were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With the spring semester now underway at all NESCAC institutions, the NESCAC Presidents

have reached agreement on a limited schedule of conference competition for spring sports.

Due to variations in local conditions, institutional policies, and state travel restrictions, each institution will make its own determination whether to participate,” the statement read.

Although the Tufts administration has yet to come out with an official statement, the Tufts University Athletics Department released a statement shortly after NESCAC’s decision anticipating Tufts’ resumption of varsity athletics. Multiple spring sport athsee NESCAC, page 8

22 Bellevue St, one of the houses designated for Community Housing, is pictured on Feb 11, 2019.

by Coco Arcand

Assistant News Editor

A new substance-free house for upperclassmen will open on campus in the fall of 2021. This house was created through the “create your own theme house” program, which provides an opportunity for students to apply for a house based on common interests or passions.

The create your own theme house program launched in 2019 as an addition to the Office of Residential Life and Learning’s special interest housing. The first house created through the program was the Green House, a sustainability-focused house. This year, a substance-free house for upperclassmen was chosen.

Su McGlone, director of fraternity and sorority life, wrote in an email to the Daily about the original mission of the create your own theme house program.

“We created it as an opportunity to keep the theme/special interest house program dynamic and fluid and to give students an opportunity to create a program for themselves that is of importance to them,” McGlone said.

McGlone also described the timeline of the application process as well as the requirements for applicants.

“Students are able to apply for a house for the following year during the regular theme/ special interest house application timeline … [which] is usually a little bit before the regular

housing lottery,” McGlone said. “[Applicants] fill out an application which includes the purpose and mission of the house, ways they hope to enhance their mission by living together, and also attach a roster and provide a staff or faculty advisor contact information.”

The mission of the upperclassman substance-free house is to remove the stigma around substance-free living and provide a substance-free housing option for older students once they leave the first-year substance-free dorm, Wilson House, according to the house application.

Mindy Duggan, a sophomore, spearheaded the upperclassman substance-free house application. Duggan described her positive experience living in Wilson House.

“I lived in Wilson House when I was a freshman, and it was such an incredible experience,” Duggan said. “[Wilson House] is a really tight-knit community, and everyone relates to each other in the sense that they don’t want to go and party on Friday or Saturday nights, they’d rather stay in.”

After freshman year, Duggan and her friends were disappointed that they could not return to Wilson House and tried to create their own substance-free suite in Hillsides.

“We did end up making a suite in Hillsides and our suite was substance free, but that didn’t work out for a lot of rea-

sons,” Duggan said. “The people around us were not very accommodating and it was very loud and we were just not used to it.”

Applying for a theme house provided a solution that would allow Duggan and her friends to guarantee a shared living space built around a shared interest in substance-free living.

“A group of my friends and I applied with a substance-free theme, hoping that this will be a launching point to allowing sophomores to also live in the theme house with us,” Duggan said. “[This will create] a continuous experience throughout the college years, but that’s something for the future — right now it’s only for juniors and seniors.”

Marc Wolf, a sophomore, described why he is planning on living in the substance-free theme house.

“My freshman year, I was living in Wilson House … and it was a really good experience,” Wolf said. “[Wilson House residents] still stayed in touch and Mindy Duggan brought up the idea that we take that magic from freshman year and bring that into a themed [Community Housing option], and that’s when I got involved.”

Duggan also emphasized that the upperclassman substance-free house was not created in response to judgement from students who may see SUBSTANCE-FREE, page 2

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

The entrance of the Gantcher Center is pictured on Aug. 28, 2020.

Bridging Differences Grant program to provide new funding to projects with explicitly anti-racist focuses

by Rebecca Barker

Outreach Coordinator

Amid Tufts’ various, newly launched anti-racist initiatives, the Bridging Differences Grant program announced a new round of funding for projects with stronger and more explicit focuses on anti-racist efforts in an email sent in January.

The Bridging Differences Grant program is now in its third year, having been formed with the initial intent to fund projects that allow for discussion and communication about topics on which there may be diverging perspectives, according to Bridging Differences co-chairs Rob Mack and Joyce Sackey.

Mack, associate provost and chief diversity officer for the

FEATURES / page 4

ARTS / page 5

SPORTS / back

Students reflect on Texas storms, hope for political change

King Gizz drops another whirlwind of an album

AL East a tossup in 2021

Medford/Somerville and School of the Museum of Fine Arts campuses, and Sackey, who holds the same position on the Boston and Grafton campuses, noted that the Bridging Differences Grant program’s mission did not initially have a specific emphasis on funding anti-racist projects.

They saw the need to review this aspect of the program when Tufts announced its commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution in June.

“The [Bridging Differences] task force revisited our mission and vision statements and revised them to reflect this new priority for the University,” Mack and Sackey wrote in an email to the Daily. “As such, this year see DIFFERENCES, page 3 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, March 10, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Megan Szostak Editor in Chief

— EDITORIAL — ETHAN STEINBERG Managing Editor

LIZ SHELBRED COLTON WOLK Associate Editors Maddie Aitken Executive News Editor Sarah Crawford Executive Features Editor Tuna Margalit Executive Arts Editor Priya Padhye Executive Opinion Editor Julian Perry Editorial Editor Juanita Asapokhai Amulya Mutnuri Caroline Wolinsky Editorialists Alex Sharp Executive Sports Editor Jess Blough Investigative Editor

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Substance-free house will host events for all interested in substance-free programming SUBSTANCE-FREE

continued from page 1 not share the same belief in substance-free living. Duggan said she rarely faces judgement from fellow Tufts students, whether they live a substance-free life or not. “[Tufts] is actually a really accepting campus, as far as I’ve seen … I have not personally been to any of the parties or bigger events where drinking does happen so I can’t speak to whether or not there

is that pressure,” Duggan said.

“But at least among my friends that are not from Wilson, if they invite me somewhere, there’s no pressure for me to [use substances]; they’re really understanding.”

Another requirement of the create your own theme house program is that the house must host events that further the theme house’s mission.

Duggan described plans for creating events that would be substance free and based on

common college activities that may traditionally have substances.

“We were thinking of doing a substance-free dance,” Duggan said. “You have everyone dress up and we have a backyard so we could do it outside.”

According to the substance-free house’s application, they plan to host events on historically high substance-use days like Homecoming, Halloween and Spring Fling.

The application also said that

the house wants to host cookouts or other activities, partially subject to what COVID-19 restrictions look like next fall.

Duggan said they will aim to do virtual events if necessary.

Wolf expanded on the intentions behind the theme house’s plans for substance-free parties and other events.

“If there are people who want to have a good time and not be around [drugs or alcohol], we’re going to be an outlet for those people,” Wolf said.

Initial findings from Tufts Medical Center study show promise in diagnosing infants with rare genetic conditions

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The Tufts Medical Center is pictured on Aug. 28, 2014.

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In an effort to minimize the amount of time required to diagnose newborns with rare genetic conditions, researchers at the Tufts Medical Center launched the Genomic Medicine for Ill Neonates and Infants (GEMINI) study in 2019. The study, which published its initial findings on Feb. 15, uses a targeted genomic sequencing platform to screen for over 1,700 genes which may be linked with genetic abnormalities.

Some infants are born with rare genetic conditions that can negatively influence their health and present life-threatening complications during the first few weeks of life. In order to treat these newborns, clinicians are given the often difficult task of performing diagnostic genetic tests to find the root of the problem.

However, diagnosing rare genetic conditions can be a long and arduous process. Too often,

infants go either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. Even when an accurate diagnosis does occur, it typically takes years for clinicians to pinpoint the specific site of the genetic abnormality.

For newborns that present with urgent conditions — such as seizures — a lengthy diagnostic process may not be an option, as it could potentially result in the infant’s death.

Whereas these older forms of testing for genetic conditions can take years, the GEMINI study is able to provide answers within a week.

In the most urgent cases, clinicians can use the genomic sequence to diagnose infants within 72 hours.

The study, which to date has enrolled over 250 infants suspected of having genetic conditions, has already saved lives.

Dr. Jill Maron and Dr. Jonathan Davis, who together serve as principal investigators of the study, shared the story of an infant who presented with seizures shortly after birth.

“We were giving this baby very large doses of multiple anti-seizure medications, and we could not control the baby,” Davis, the vice-chair of pediatrics and chief of neonatology at Tufts Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, said. “So we entered the baby into the study.”

Using GEMINI’s targeted genomic sequencing platform, the researchers were able to diagnose the child with a rare vitamin deficiency, caused by a genetic abnormality, within 48 hours.

“As soon as we gave the baby the active form of the vitamin … seizures stopped immediately,” Davis said. “Within hours, we were taking [the baby] off of all these seizure drugs, and within a day the baby started to wake up.”

Several days later, the infant was able to go home. Davis said that had it not been for the diagnostic technique presented by the study, clinicians

would have struggled to find the source of the seizures.

“It’s a very powerful technique,” Davis said. “It’s still early in the process, but that sort of gives you an idea of the power of these techniques to really enhance our abilities to make the right decisions and to treat [diagnoses] in a timely fashion.”

Unfortunately, not all newborns who are diagnosed with a genetic condition survive. A number of the genetic conditions that the GEMINI study screens for are fatal.

“Some cases aren’t always happy endings,” Maron, the executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center and professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine, said. “It works both ways in these studies, where sometimes we can come in and tell the family that [the condition] is fatal … and they can find peace.” see GEMINI, page 3

News

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Nine projects approved for funding out of 24 applications from the past year

VINTUS OKONKWO & ALONSO NICHOLS / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Rob Mack (left) and Dr. Joyce Sackey (right), the co-chairs of the Bridging Differences Grant program, are pictured.

DIFFERENCES

continued from page 1 for the first time since [Bridging Differences] was established, we have explicitly included projects and ideas that address the specific focus of addressing systemic racism in our call for proposals for the seed grants programs.”

Last year, the task force was able to provide funding for nine projects out of the 24 applications the program received, according to Mack and Sackey.

One of those projects was co-led by Stéphanie Khoury, a lecturer in ethnomusicology in the department of music. Khoury partnered with

Victoria Johnson (F’22), the other project lead, to organize the “Refugee Integration Conference and Arts Festival,” which was held online in October 2020. The event provided a platform to present research and ideas from the “Refugees in Towns” research project, which was created by Karen Jacobsen, the Henry J. Leir professor of global migration, in 2017 and is hosted at the Feinstein International Center at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, according to Khoury.

Khoury said that the seed funding provided by the Bridging Differences task force

was integral to ensuring the project’s success.

“The grant from the [Bridging Differences] program allowed us to bring to the forefront artists and researchers who helped the audience to understand the process of refugee integration and generated awareness in a way that cultivates the inclusion of diverse identities, values, beliefs and cultures,” Khoury wrote in an email to the Daily.

Khoury also noted how the conference and festival promoted anti-racist initiatives at Tufts.

“This event allowed us to highlight the way diverse modes of expression (painting, theater, music, dance, photography) can

be relied on to model inclusivity and integration,” she said. “The contribution of the seed grant from the [Bridging Differences] program significantly helped an event that strongly supports anti-racist initiatives and promotes a more inclusive approach to refugee populations and individuals.”

Khoury said that based on the positive outcomes of the event, she is looking forward to making the conference and arts festival a regular occurrence.

Seed grant recipients include the Center for Awareness, Resources and Education Outreach and Education Initiatives; Color of Us; and the Generational Leadership

Advancements for Minorities Series, among others.

Although Mack and Sackey noted that it is too early to determine what kind of impact the revisited mission of the Bridging Differences Grant program will ultimately have on achieving the university’s goal of becoming an anti-racist institution, they are hopeful that the explicit focus on such initiatives will expand funding for more projects.

“We hope that the new focus on antiracism, along with the original goal of the [Bridging Differences] initiative will expand the application pool for seed funding this year,” Mack and Sackey said.

Tufts researchers use new techniques to save infant lives GEMINI

continued from page 2 In addition to sequencing the genome of newborns, the GEMINI study offered targeted genomic sequencing to the families of enrolled infants.

Maron explained that clinicians can then use the sequencing results to inform parents of the risks of genetic conditions, including fatal ones, in subsequent pregnancies.

“We are able to guide care in the appropriate way and inform future reproductive choices to the family,” Maron said.

The GEMINI study uses a targeted platform to sequence 1,722 specific genes that are known to be associated with genetic conditions. While full genome sequencing has become increasingly accessible over the past decade, Maron explained that there may be cost barri-

ers and ethical concerns that come with sequencing the entire genome of newborns.

“When you sequence the entire genome, you may come across incidental findings, or adult-onset diseases,” Maron said. “Is it okay to uncover that a newborn may have significant heart disease when they’re older, or may have a devastating neurological disorder when they’re older?”

Of the newborns that participated in the interim study, 45% were discovered to have a genetic abnormality. It remains unclear whether the remaining 55% of enrolled infants truly did not have a genetic condition. Maron suggested that current limitations to genomic research may be precluding accurate results for children with undiagnosed genetic conditions.

The study intends to enroll 400 members by its conclusion. Davis predicts that in the long term, GEMINI may have far-reaching benefits in the diagnosis of genetic conditions in newborns.

“This is going to be a revolutionary change in the field of genomics,” Davis said. “It’s going to be a revolutionary change in the way we manage babies as well.”

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Features

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Tufts students see opportunity for change following Carmichael Texas winter storm, energy crisis

Casey Cummings Coffee Talk

Dining Center

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art of the first-year experience is the premium meal plan. Despite costing an arm and a leg, a premium plan gives first-years the luxury of swiping into a dining hall, guilt-free. (I remember entering Carmichael Dining Center last year to grab a single chocolate chip cookie on many occasions.)

However, as a sophomore, I decided to switch to the cheapest meal plan that Tufts allows sophomores to purchase: the 160 meal plan. For just 160 meal swipes, sophomores are charged $2,366 a semester; that is $14.79 per meal.

Regardless of which meal plan you are on, I think we can all agree that they are expensive. So, let’s talk about how to make the most of our meal plan.

There’s a heated debate over which dining hall is better: Dewick or Carm. In all honesty, both dining halls are like my children; I can’t pick a favorite. However, today we are going to be talking about Carm: where the dining staff members are always happy, smoothies occasionally make it on the breakfast menu and, of course, fresh berries are served almost every morning.

So, what do I get at Carm?

Breakfast: Banana pancakes. If I see those on the menu, I will take the hike up Packard Avenue rain or shine. I also grab fresh berries, a banana, Greek yogurt and a vanilla almond milk. Then, when I get back to my room, I add a little bit of Greek yogurt (hot take, I know), sliced bananas and berries on top of those pancakes. If I’m feeling fancy, I might sprinkle some cinnamon and honey on top, too. My advice: Get creative with the toppings, live your truth.

How I finesse the menu: Let’s talk about the berries. If you grab too many, they will rot in your fridge. Wasteful, right? So, what I do is I grab a bunch of berries and freeze them. I do the same thing with bananas. Then, I take the frozen fruit and throw them in my blender with some almond milk to make a smoothie! If you don’t have a blender (which is honestly an essential) you can microwave frozen berries for about 15 seconds to defrost them before adding them to your pancakes, oatmeal or yogurt!

Something that had to be said: The amount of trash we are creating with these paper bags is insane!

Keep a reusable bag in your backpack so you don’t have to keep taking new paper bags at the dining centers. If you forget to bring a reusable bag and have to use a paper one, try to reuse it before recycling it. I have used them as trash bags in my room, wrapping paper and packing fluff!

Casey Cummings is a sophomore studying international relations. Casey can be reached at casey.cummings@tufts.edu.

ZOE GARDERET / THE TUFTS DAILY

Snow falls on trees and President’s Lawn on Feb. 7.

by Sam Russo

Outreach Coordinator

When first-year Robert Yepes moved from Thailand to Texas in the middle of this academic year, he didn’t expect to be part of a major news story. However, when unexpected cold temperatures and an energy crisis struck his new home state in the middle of February, causing his family to lose power and water, Yepes found himself and his family in the national spotlight.

“Having been raised outside of America, I feel like a lot of the news is about America, and now I’m in it, which is definitely weird,” Yepes, who is studying remotely this semester, said.

Though the freezing temperatures and snow were initially exciting — Yepes and his family even made a snowman — that excitement quickly wore off.

“Cold weather and losing power doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it looked like a zombie apocalypse when I went outside. The sky was all grey; the streets were empty because no one here knows how to drive on icy roads and there had already been a few accidents,” Yepes said.

Without power and Wi-Fi, it was difficult for students studying from Texas to attend class and do their work, but Yepes said that his professors were supportive.

Similarly, second-year philosophy master’s student Matthew Koshak, who had also been studying remotely in Texas during the winter storm, lost cellular service and Wi-Fi, so he had to walk around his neighborhood to find spots where he could email his professors. He agreed with Yepes: “The faculty was concerned; the professors I had were flexible.

Tufts institutionally came through in a way that other universities might not have.”

For students on campus who are from Texas, the storm presented a different set of challenges as they worried about their families and at times struggled to contact them.

Sophomore Katelyn Young, a Houston native, said, “My mom and I are really close. I remember she would text me and be like ‘Katelyn, please don’t text me. I have to try and save battery on my phone.’ [This] was really scary for me because I wanted to help so badly but being on campus, I couldn’t help her.”

Just as during the pandemic, when the best way to help others is to stay apart, the best way for Young to help during the storm was by not reaching out to her family in Texas, including her older grandparents, which caused her to feel further from them.

Bo Johnson, also a sophomore from Houston, felt this tension and looked for a way to support his home state. Turning to Twitter, he discovered a phone bank, run by former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, through which he called elderly Texans to check in on them and connect them to local resources. While the system was the same one used for political phone banking events, this time there was no need to convince anyone of anything — only a desire to spread kindness and support others.

While the people Johnson reached were generally safe, others who volunteered with the phone bank provided potentially life-saving assistance to seniors in distress.

“Some other people helped [people who] hadn’t eaten in a couple of days.” Johnson said, “Through the phone bank they were able to connect them with people who could bring them food or water.”

As most people throughout the state now have their power and water restored and are generally safe, Johnson and Young expressed hope that the problems revealed by this crisis will galvanize statewide changes in leadership and energy policy. Johnson said that while some issues he was already concerned about were exposed, he also learned about previously unfamiliar shortcomings in Texas’ politics and energy systems.

“The national attention on Texas was probably good because it exposed a lot of issues I didn’t know about and I’m sure most Texans didn’t know about [in relation to] the power grid in the state,” Johnson said.

Specifically, unlike the power grid of the other 47 contiguous states and Washington D.C., Texas’ power grid is not connected to the rest of the nation’s, with some exceptions near the state’s edges. This means that the state is not subject to certain federal regulations and that other states can’t provide energy aid as easily in times of crisis. This decadesold system was a source of frustration for some students, but it was dwarfed by their disillusionment with Texas’ leaders, in terms of both how they govern the state and their stance on climate change.

“At the very least I hope that people recognize that there are certain figures in Texas politics that seem not to care very much about people being in the cold and waterless,” Koshak said. “I hope that that leaves a sour taste in people’s mouths, and that some Texans — if they don’t believe the narrative about [climate change] — can not like certain politicians enough to vote them out of office.”

After sophomore Alex Hovsepian’s parents and brother

lost power, water, some furniture and part of their roof during the storm in Houston, Hovsepian said that the crisis has led to new conversations among his family and friends.

“It started some good conversations with members of my family and with other people I knew from Texas, about what the leadership is like and if it is necessarily what is best for the state,” Hovsepian said.

Koshak and others expressed cautious optimism that the crisis will also force Texans and state leaders to confront the changing climate and the implications that it will have on their state.

However, all of this hope comes with an acknowledgment of loss. In addition to the suffering of the students’ families, dozens of deaths have been recorded in connection with weather and power problems.

“I see this as a very manufactured crisis,” Koshak said.

“While I am happy that there are politicians that are having their feet held to the fire … counting that [as] progress [in light of the deaths], particularly of people who are less privileged, is a hard thing to do.”

While there is no way to recover the lives lost or reverse the suffering, students from Texas echoed the hope that this can be a turning point so that something like this will never happen again.

“From my viewpoint, I find that a lot of people in Texas find it easy to stay away from problems because they’re like, ‘It doesn’t affect me,’ but the fact that so many people were affected by this problem [makes it] I think — I hope — a catalyst for change,” Young said. “Not that I’m glad it happened, but I’m glad that it brought attention to problems that people try to stay away from.”

ARTS & POP CULTURE

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s ‘L.W.’ is organized chaos

by Geoff Tobia Jr. Arts Editor

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is a hard band to classify as anything. Psychedelic rock, art rock and acid rock are decent attempts at trying to describe the overwhelming variety of genres that King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, also known as King Gizz, has experimented with. The six-member Australian group has grown their fan base mostly thanks to their musical explorations beyond the scope of rock.

Since 2019, the group has released four studio albums and each of them is shockingly different, yet all high quality. “Fishing for Fishies” (2019) was their exploration into boogie and blues rock, yielding very fun and electronically influenced dance and rock bangers. “Infest The Rats’ Nest” (2019) was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2019 and one of the band’s best albums. It was also their first foray into thrash metal, with King Gizz fans and metalheads celebrating jointly as many considered it one of the best metal records of the year.

“K.G.” (2020) is the precursor to their latest studio album release “L.W.” (2021). The albums are subtitled “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 2” and “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 3,” respectively. Microtones play a key role in the melodies and chord progressions in each song on these records, as they did in “Flying Microtonal Banana: Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 1” (2017), one of their five studio album releases in 2017.

Microtones are the result of notes played at a frequency between semitones — for example, a note played between A and A# or between D and D#.

Microtones are rarely used in

Chris Panella Comfort Cartoons

Neo-noir and gothic ‘Batman: The Animated Series’

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n this installation of “Comfort Cartoons,” I’m focusing on “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992–1995), the iconic neonoir crime television show that began the DC Animated Universe (DCAU).

Following the episodic adventures of Batman, Robin and Batgirl, the series takes on a darker tone that feels inspired

Western music because many Western instruments, such as the piano, cannot play microtones due to their natural tuning; the instruments either have to be tuned or modified to play microtones.

In the music video for “Honey” (2020), we see vocalist/ guitarist Stu Mackenzie playing a very neat acoustic guitar with its frets aligned to play microtones. So, with cool moments like this song found all around “K.G.” (2020), another edition of this microtonal adventure ended up being another solid album in King Gizz’s discography. This nine-track record also envelops their post-2017 discography well, combining elements of psychedelic rock with boogie and thrash metal to create an organized mess of sound.

Kicking things off is “If Not Now, Then When?”, which goes immediately into the electro-boogie that we can recognize from “Fishing for Fishies.”

Mackenzie’s vocals are very highpitched, giving it an even more robotic feel. Despite the song’s groovy nature, its lyrical message is chilling. The song calls for action against the world-destroying consequences of humanity, singing “When the forest’s nearly gone/When the hole’s in the ozone/When the bees are gone/ If not now, then when?”

Then there’s the thrash metal twist of “Pleura,” which contains a very topical theme amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The pleura itself is a part of the lungs and the song represents lung damage that victims have endured as a result of COVID-19. As with songs all across their discography, “Pleura” is from the point of view of a character, this one being a person who wants to return back to “normal life” in light of the pandemic restrictions. One of the most hilarious moments on the album is at the conclusion by both Tim Burton’s two Batman films and the ‘70s and ’80s comic books. Those interpretations are seen in every detail: Gotham City’s skies are dark even during the day, the buildings are tall and gothic and gangsters sneak around in alleys and side streets.

All of this feels timeless in Batman’s world, which is always meant to be brooding and gloomy. But “Batman: The Animated Series” plays with what makes the Caped Crusader classic. While it embraces his realism and complexity — which becomes even clearer when compared with the DCAU’s later endeavors, like “Superman: The Animated Series” (1996–2000) and “Justice League” (2001–4) — it establishes “Dark Deco” visuals and designs that make Batman more of a ‘40s noir detective than a superhero.

But just because the show fronts a more serious and sty-

VIA GENIUS

The cover of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s new album “L.W.” is pictured. of the track when the heavy guitar riffs continue and Mackenzie sings, “Cheat me out of living my life?/ I exercise my right to die,” which immediately transitions into the light and heavenly intro of “Supreme Ascendency.”

The second half of the record is even messier than the first but does not falter in terms of quality.

The tracks “Static Electricity” and “East West Link” are high-tempo songs filled with woodwind instruments and acoustic guitar melodies that sound sitar-esque, which recall the feeling of a desert course in Mario Kart.

Then there’s the garage rock-style “Ataraxia,” using cymbals heavily to create a subtly lulling feeling over an electric guitar riff.

Overall, “L.W.” seems more inspired than “K.G.” from a lyrical and artistic standpoint,

even if the album seems less organized. And, of course, like after every King Gizz release, its fanbase will be heavily anticipating the band’s next release, with no good guesses of where it will go next.

listic approach doesn’t mean it lacks absurdity. The Joker’s just as insane and funny as ever (thanks to Mark Hamill’s impeccable voice acting) and Poison Ivy’s plots, involving stealing plants and turning Gotham’s elites into trees, are wacky.

These are characters that feel ripped out of comic book pages, colorful costumes and all, but set in a new environment. And it’s not just Batman’s typical rogues — most episodes explore new villains, giving time to overlooked characters like the Ventriloquist, Scarface, Maxie Zeus, Count Vertigo and the Clock King.

“Batman: The Animated Series” manages to maintain all of that faithfulness to its source material while having a complex and fresh take.

That combination made it my favorite television show as a child; it maintains that status

years later, with each re-watch revealing exciting new details and richness. And I think a major part of my love for the show is its dedication to interesting storytelling and developing relatable villains.

Rather than making a morally black-and-white children’s show, with good cops and bad villains, creators Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm chose to emphasize these characters’ complexities. The Clock King’s desire for revenge is understandable, Baby Doll’s story is tragic, Detective Harvey Bullock is frustrating even when he’s right and Mr. Freeze’s redemption is particularly notable.

The same applies to Batman.

“Batman: The Animated Series” makes an effort to note the similarities between Batman and his villains. In episodes like “Fire From Olympus,” Maxie Zeus’

fantastical delusion that he’s the Greek god Zeus is compared with Batman’s seemingly separate identities of Bruce Wayne and Batman. Two-Face and Catwoman receive similar treatment. In every instance, the writers treat Batman as both a human and a largerthan-life figure, someone who can empathize with his villains’ struggles.

This is all to say that “Batman: The Animated Series” stands as a monumental story in the larger DC Universe. Not only does it draw from previous works, but it also broke ground as one of Batman’s most mature and exciting iterations.

“Batman: The Animated Series” is streaming on HBO Max. Chris Panella is a senior studying film and media studies.

Chris can be reached at christopher.panella@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Wednesday, March 10, 2021

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tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Kate: “I wish [Fauci] wasn’t married, I want to set him up with my grandma.”

FUN & GAMES

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By Julia Petrocelli

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Opinion

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7 Wednesday, March 10, 2021

OP-ED

Transformative technology: China’s leap into the future ATREY BHARGAVA AND LEO WESTGARD

Through the course of the past year, we have been part of the 2020–21 Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship curriculum, and our chosen area of interest has been the intersection of technological growth, surveillance and privacy in China.

The salience of such issues within the United States magnifies the relevance of this interest. The U.S. does not have any centralized federal legislation about data privacy and lacks strong regulations of it at the state level. This may come as no surprise when one considers how ill-informed many lawmakers have demonstrated themselves to be in congressional hearings, including in April 2018 when Sen. Orrin Hatch asked Mark Zuckerberg, “How do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?”

While the level of congressional inquiry has improved since then, the fact remains that lawmakers have largely let companies develop their own data protection policies, expecting Americans not to

Eli Striker The Strike Zone

US, China and Taiwan

T

he historically strained relationship between the United States and China has seen rising tensions in recent months, as President Joe Biden has promised to reinforce American presence in international institutions and promote a pro-democracy ideology that threatens China’s authoritarian efforts to annex the democratic island of Taiwan. Negotiations between the United States and China regarding Taiwanese sovereignty date back to the Cold War. This topic is an especially

use monopolistic services such as Facebook if they have concerns about their data privacy.

The main difference between the U.S. and China is the level of state control and access to data.

Despite increasing regulations over time, the Chinese state has access to big data directly via governmental programs and indirectly via its involvement in corporations. This access to vast stores of data may rival that of Facebook and Google, but unlike social media companies, the Chinese state has the unilateral power to imprison its citizens. That is why its capabilities and practices are complicated, and perhaps more dangerous.

Governmental practices include the use of cameras (an estimated 1 billion worldwide by the end of this year), facial recognition, internet surveillance, biometric data, the social credit system and the ability to access people’s computers and phones.

In fact, most of China’s security apparatus is focused on maintaining domestic stability, with a large portion of its budget going toward these tools. Given this focus, we are motivated to inquire about the regulations that govern the

relationship between the Chinese government and the Chinese tech sector. These regulations extend to many aspects of this relationship, including, but not limited to, tech funding capabilities, government access to corporate owned-data and government intent in using that data to monitor civil society and relevant security threats.

The complicated nexus of control between Chinese tech giants and the Chinese state government is accentuated with the rise of Chinese technology in mobile phones, semiconductors (a historically dependent but recently developing industry) and other tech advancements (e.g., TikTok and Baidu) across the world. Not only does this give rise to the need for appropriate practices and safeguards within the issue-prone areas of intellectual property regulations and the quality of Chinese technology, but it also has direct effects on which country will win the technological race of our lifetimes. In our understanding of the nature of the China-U.S. technological and economic relationship, it is integral for the two countries to navigate opportunities for collaboration and development within the realm of technology.

The future of technology in China holds direct implications for the future of technology growth, privacy and surveillance across the world. In a world with increasingly few barriers between the private and the public, the outcome of the technological competition race has direct effects on our behaviors, connectivity and freedom. The extent to which the Chinese state controls the growth of domestic private technology has direct effects on the norms, practices and ethics of global data privacy, surveillance and intellectual property regulations. It is our responsibility to become informed about the dynamics of Chinese technological growth in order to better respond to the evolution of the global techno-ethical infrastructure during our lifetimes.

In order to discuss some of these questions, the panel on China and Technology in the EPIIC Symposium (March 18 – March 20, 2021) brings together a diverse range of speakers and includes academics, journalists and professionals from think tanks, companies and eminent universities. At the moment, the list of speakers includes academics such as Qing Wang (Warwick Business School),

specialists such as Robert Williams (executive director of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School) and journalists such as Rebecca Fannin (Forbes).

With debates that include not only the science and engineering aspects of technology, but also the societal, legal and economic implications of Chinese technological dominance, this conversation aims to bring together students of all disciplines, faculty and the broader public in an effort to educate ourselves about and better understand the nature of the international technological revolution that we are in. We are very excited for this panel and sincerely hope that you can join us.

contentious issue for ChineseU.S. relations, because China believes that the U.S. government reneged on promises to acknowledge Chinese control over Taiwan. The United States has pledged to defend Taiwan for moral reasons, as the U.S. sees itself as a standard-bearer for democracy worldwide. From this standpoint, the choice for the United States is clear: Taiwan must be defended to protect the institution of democracy as well as the individual rights of Taiwanese citizens.

However, the U.S. government often fails to walk the proverbial walk when it places human rights-based ultimatums on other countries, and it has a history of neglecting democracy when it benefits America economically, even going so far as to overthrow democratic governments for its own economic

means. Recently, President Biden declined to penalize Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman for human rights abuses, including the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi; this indicates that although Biden promotes a pro-human rights rhetoric, he is willing to abandon this when it conflicts with American political interests.

Tragically, history indicates that if faced with an ultimatum, the United States may cede control of Taiwan to China if it deems doing so politically necessary.

Although this solution would undermine Taiwanese sovereignty and infringe upon Taiwanese citizens’ human rights, it would result in an immense improvement in Chinese-U.S. relations.

For all-too-influential realist foreign policy thinkers, who prioritize maintaining political power, the potential political

pitfalls of protecting China outweigh the United States’ moral imperative to uphold democracy and defend human rights worldwide. For nearly all of his term, President Trump ignored human rights abuses in China, most notably by initially failing to punish — and allegedly endorsing — China’s persecution of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province.

Although Biden portrays himself as Trump’s political polar opposite, his administration has also hesitated to punish China for its human rights abuses, because despite the government’s hawkish anti-China rhetoric, China remains the United States’ largest trading partner. Moreover, other “progressive” nations in the European Union have also eschewed sanctions for China’s genocidal actions, demonstrating the power of realist policies

worldwide. Considering the current global recession, realists find little reason to expect the Biden administration to prioritize foreign human rights issues over domestic economic recovery.

President Biden must not yield in his pledge to uphold democracy in Taiwan. However, his administration has so far done little to punish China — or other perpetrators, such as Saudi Arabia — for its rampant human rights abuses. Because of historical context and the current political atmosphere, I fear that American policymakers will prioritize mutual economic gains over the sovereignty of Taiwanese citizens when making foreign policy decisions.

Atrey Bhargava is a senior majoring in economics and international relations. Leo Westgard is a sophomore majoring in political science and civic studies.

Both are in this year’s EPIIC program on “China and the World” and are organizing a panel on Chinese technology for the March 18-20 symposium. Atrey can be reached at atrey.bhargava@tufts. edu and Leo can be reached at leowestgard@gmail.com.

Eli Striker is a sophomore studying international relations. Eli can be reached at eli.striker@tufts.edu.

8 Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts varsity sports will resume this spring NESCAC

continued from page 1 letes also reported to the Daily that their coaches told them the administration had given the go-ahead.

“We are very excited at the prospect of seeing our Jumbos compete this spring along with our NESCAC partners,” Tufts Athletic Director John Morris said in the statement.

The NESCAC presidents’ statement said that the season will take place from mid-April to mid-May — an abbreviated version of the normal March to May schedule. The statement also notes that a minimum of six (out of 11) NESCAC teams in each sport will need to opt in and field teams for the conference to sponsor play. The affected sports are baseball, golf,

lacrosse, rowing, softball, tennis and track and field.

Although specifics were not provided, the presidents’ statement made clear that there will be a number of COVID-19 precautions in place at all NESCAC competitions.

“To protect the wellbeing of our students, staff, faculty, and broader communities, the NESCAC Athletic Directors,

working with medical personnel and other experts, have developed comprehensive health and safety protocols for spring competition,” the statement said. “These protocols exceed NCAA guidance and complement the robust COVID19 testing already taking place on NESCAC campuses.”

Several Tufts teams are expected to be very competitive this

spring. Most notably, the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are currently ranked first and second in Div. III, respectively, according to US Lacrosse Magazine.

The presidents’ statement also brought good news for Jumbo fans hoping to catch a game on campus, as it shared that attendance will be allowed for anyone within a host school’s testing protocol.

Big bats, new faces and old rivalries: Previewing the American League East

by Ethan Grubelich

Assistant Sports Editor

Since 2014, each team in the American League East has won the division at least once, made multiple playoff appearances and reached the AL Championship Series at least once. The fact that no other division in baseball comes close to boasting even one of these accomplishments over this seven-year span is a testament to the year-to-year competitiveness and unpredictability of the AL East division. 2021 appears no different, as three teams — the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and reigning AL champions Tampa Bay Rays — are expected to compete for this year’s AL East crown. Here is a look at each team’s situation heading into the new season, which hopefully can help you determine how things will stand once the 162 regular season games are in the books.

Baltimore Orioles Good news, Orioles fans: The worst is most likely behind you. The bad news? The Orioles will not be competing for a playoff spot in 2021. In the shortened 2020 season, particularly the first half of it, the Orioles were playing competitive baseball. The offensive prowess that won the Orioles a handful of games early on was the first real sign of promise that the team had shown since initiating a complete rebuild in 2018. Though most of the players involved in that glimmer of success were lost to trades and

Henry Gorelik Off the Gridiron

Palcic’s Revenge

W

ith Lori Locust and Maral Javadifar on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ sideline and Sarah Thomas serving as a referee, Super Bowl LV exemplified the reality that women can and will be successful in the National Football League. Thomas was the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl while Locust and Javadifar became the first female coaches to win a Super Bowl. Earlier this week, Maia Chaka made history

free agency this offseason, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about the Orioles offense in 2021. The veteran and leader of this team, first baseman and outfielder Trey Mancini, returns to the lineup fully healthy after a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis cost him his 2020 season. Breakout candidates include outfielder Anthony Santander, who had an impressive 11 home runs and 32 RBIs over the course of 37 games in 2020 and Ryan Mountcastle, who batted .333 in his first 35 games as a major leaguer in 2020. If there is a decisive reason why the Orioles will remain uncompetitive in 2021, it is because of their lack of pitching talent.

Boston Red Sox Though only two years removed from a World Series title, the Red Sox found themselves in a more dire situation than the Orioles in 2020. Departures and injuries hampered their rotation, which was woeful in 2020 and only backed up by a historically bad bullpen. The rotation should be helped by the return of left-handed pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez after his long battle with COVID-19 and ace left-handed pitcher Chris Sale, who is scheduled to return from Tommy John Surgery later in the season. Even without star outfielder Mookie Betts, who won his second World Series ring in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020 before signing a 12-year extension with the club, the lineup that showed signs of life toward the end of the shortened season returns mostly intact for 2021.

Keep an eye on outfielder and designated hitter J.D. Martinez, who the Sox will count on to bounce back if they hope to compete in 2021. If that doesn’t happen, there’s still a strong offense around him, which includes Xander Bogaerts, Bobby Dalbec, Rafael Devers, Enrique Hernandez and Alex Verdugo, who can keep the team in playoff contention if they catch fire.

Toronto Blue Jays The up-and-coming Toronto Blue Jays got their first taste of October baseball after finishing with a winning record and squeezing into the expanded AL postseason as the eighth and final seed. They were swept in two games by the eventual AL champions Tampa Bay Rays, but many believe this is only the start of a new era of winning baseball in Toronto. This offseason, the Blue Jays added experienced and dynamic sluggers, George Springer and Marcus Semien, to accompany the strengths of the lineup’s blossoming prospects, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, consequently becoming one of the strongest lineups in the league. A rotation led by HyunJin Ryu appears to have the depth needed for a postseason run, but the team will need help from the bullpen, which was one of Toronto’s weaker areas in 2020.

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays had a spectacular 2020 season, which saw them finish the regular season with the best record in the AL and defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros en route to the AL pennant. Their

season ended not so spectacularly in Game 6 of the World Series after manager Kevin Cash, in what many saw as an overzealous act on analytics, pulled pitcher Blake Snell in the sixth inning of a dominant display which had protected Tampa Bay’s 1–0 lead. Snell was traded this offseason, and the Tampa Bay starting rotation was also afflicted by the loss of former All-Star Charlie Morton to the Atlanta Braves. They are replaced by free agent pitcher signings Chris Archer and Michael Wacha, while Tyler Glasnow and Ryan Yarbrough step into more prominent roles in the rotation. Second baseman Brandon Lowe, center fielder Kevin Kiermaier and rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena, who dazzled in the 2020 AL postseason, return as the best hitters on a Rays lineup that was neutralized by the Dodgers in the World Series. The bullpen of Nick Anderson, Diego Castillo, Peter Fairbanks, Collin McHugh and Chaz Roe, among others, has the capacity to deliver many close wins in late innings again for the Rays, but it’s hard to see this team take a step

when she was hired as the NFL’s first Black female referee. It is clear that women are becoming increasingly involved in the NFL. While Thomas, Chaka, Locust and Javadifar have captured the national headlines recently, one very talented woman in the NFL has flown completely under the radar.

On Friday, Feb. 22, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced that they had hired Amy Palcic to lead their public relations department. Palcic’s first stop in the NFL was with the Cleveland Browns, where she served as the director of communications from 1999 to 2009. Her potential was quickly recognized, as she became the only member of the organization selected to attend the Stanford Executive Leadership Program for

future NFL Executives during her time with the Browns.

Palcic became the director of communications for the Houston Texans in 2013 and was eventually promoted to vice president of communications. In this role, she managed J.J. Watt’s public appearances and organized the Texans’ appearance on Hard Knocks, as well as basically all aspects of the Texans’ public relations.

In 2017, she was named one of PRNEWS’ Top Women in PR and led the Texans’ PR team to the Pete Rozelle Award, an honor given to the top NFL club public relations staff by the Pro Football Writers of America. Additionally, Palcic was instrumental in J.J. Watt’s fundraiser in which he raised $41 million in 19 days in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. In 2019, Palcic was

awarded the Women in Sports and Events Woman of Inspiration title and the Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business honor.

Through her work for the Browns and Texans, Palcic has become one of the most respected public relations people in the entire NFL. Despite her accomplishments and high regard within the NFL, Palcic was fired by the Texans in November, as she was not “a cultural fit” anymore in Houston. Upon the news, countless members of the NFL community came to Palcic’s defense, including Donte Stallworth, Watt, Field Yates and Peter King. Jeff Darlington tweeted, “If Amy Palcic isn’t a ‘cultural fit,’ then the Texans’ culture is absolutely rancid.”

After giving up All-Pro Wide Receiver DeAndre Hopkins last offseason and Palcic during this

forward as World Series champions in 2021 given how much the competition around them has stepped up.

New York Yankees Yankees fans were disappointed as the big spenders were eliminated in the AL Division Series by the small market Rays. There is very little that is weak about the New York Yankees and they are strong contenders for a World Series title in 2021. They re-signed second baseman DJ LeMahieu this offseason. He and Aaron Judge will lead easily one of the strongest lineups in baseball, but it is critical that they overcome the injury bug that plagued them in 2020. The starting rotation is headlined by strikeout machine Gerrit Cole and will hope to benefit from the free agent signings of Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon. Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton form as reliable a bullpen as any and will be able to deliver a lot of close wins. This Yankees team will be a playoff team, but will they finally win the World Series again after 12 years? Only time will tell.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Ryan Yarbrough, left-handed pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, is pictured in 2018. past season, it seems as if the Texans are allergic to talent. The irony is that the Texans could really use a talented PR person to deal with the current standoff between management and franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson. There was no logical reason for the Texans to fire Palcic, but the Texans’ loss has become the Jaguars’ gain. Palcic will be tasked with drumming up public excitement for the Jaguars, who have had one winning season in the last 10 years. By staying in the AFC South, Palcic will have the opportunity to face her former employer twice a year.

Henry Gorelik is a sophomore studying international relations. Henry can be reached at henry.gorelik@tufts.edu.