The Tufts Daily - Monday, April 26, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 49

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Monday, April 26, 2021

TUFTS SECURES PFIZER DOSES

University to hold clinic, will require vaccines for next academic year

by Maddie Aitken

Executive News Editor

Tufts announced that it has acquired doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and is setting up a vaccination clinic for students, faculty and staff in the Gantcher Center; doses will be administered on April 28, 29 and 30.

The announcement, sent via email and signed by University Infection Control Health Director Michael Jordan, also said that all students will need to be vaccinated before participating in on-campus classes or activities. The deadline

for vaccination for students in the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is July 1, and the deadline for students in all other schools is the beginning of the fall semester.

Jordan noted that special cases will be considered.

“We will assist students who have limited access to [the] vaccine in meeting this requirement shortly after their arrival on campus,” the email said. “Like other vaccine requirements in place for students, medical and religious exemptions will be considered.”

Faculty and staff will have to provide documentation of vaccination, ask for a religious or medical exemption or complete a declination form that says they chose not to be vaccinated.

The email also noted that if students, faculty and staff have received their first dose elsewhere, they should not register for a second shot at the Tufts clinic. However, the email did advise that people sign up for their first dose at Tufts, even if they will not be in the Boston area in three weeks to receive their second dose due to the growing availability of doses across the country.

planning strategy designed to prevent the homeless from resting and sleeping in certain places.

Proponents of the practice argue that hostile architecture is a necessary deterrent of certain behaviors such as camping, loitering and skateboarding. Opponents believe that these design strategies unfairly target the poor and homeless populations.

Specifically, the resolution calls on the city’s director of mobility and the commission-

er of public works to work with the Massachusetts delegation to remove existing hostile architecture and to prevent new architecture from being installed.

The resolution was introduced

by Ward 7 Councilor Katjana Ballantyne and is co-sponsored by all other city councilors: Ben Ewen-Campen, J.T. Scott, Jesse Clingan, Kristen Strezo, Lance Davis, Mark Niedergang, Mary Jo

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Tufts will host a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for students, faculty and staff on April 28, 29 and 30.

GILD program Somerville City Council calls for provides students with removal of hostile architecture in Davis international experiences Square MBTA station amid pandemic

by Michael Weiskopf Assistant News Editor

The Somerville City Council unanimously passed a resolution on April 8 calling for the removal of “hostile architecture” from the Davis Square MBTA station and a ban on future hostile architecture projects on public benches elsewhere in the city.

Hostile architecture, also known as “defensive architecture,” is defined as an urban

see SOMERVILLE, page 2

MINA TERZIOGLU / THE TUFTS DAILY

Hostile architecture features of the benches in the MBTA stop at Davis Square are pictured on April 24.

by Alicia Zou News Editor

The Global Integrated Learning & Design program, an initiative that helps faculty design courses or projects with international and cross-cultural components, has provided students with the opportunity to have virtual study abroad experiences.

Tufts faculty can work with the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching to design and develop a GILD course or project and can also work with Tufts Global Education to connect with global contacts, according to Christine Hollenhorst, program administrator in the Office of the Provost.

The Provost’s office can also help fund the courses, she said.

Nina Gerassi-Navarro, director of Latin American studies, and Colin Orians, director of environmental studies, taught a GILD course in fall 2020 called Sustaining Your Drink, which takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the sustainability of coffee, yerba mate and wine.

Gerassi-Navarro described the importance of the interdisciplinary aspect of this course during a Zoom session introducing the course.

“We realized that through our conversations that … culture and science don’t always get put together and that if you’re going to look at sustainability

SPORTS / back

FEATURES / page 3

OPINION / page 7

Men’s, women’s lacrosse face Div. I Dartmouth in Sunday sweep

Children at EPCS prepped for future with code literacy

Marijuana legalization opens up questions of equity in cannabis industry

in a really serious, effective, scientific way, the best you can do is to also integrate the cultural, social element involved,” Gerassi-Navarro said.

Orians elaborated on the course structure.

“The goal here is to create a very student-centered course, not one where you have the talking head experts and the note taker, but one where the students are coming together and learning through shared experience,” Orians said. “We’ve actually [incorporated] mechanisms like a virtual cafe where the students will come together outside of the interactions with the faculty, to actually talk about things … we want them to have an opportunity to really get to know each other, and maybe they’ll form some lasting relationships because we’ve structured it that way.”

Tufts students worked with students from Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile to create a final project in the format of StoryMaps, an interactive way of presenting information through multimedia storytelling.

Gerassi-Navarro noted how having students work on StoryMaps together helped to build closer connections between students.

“Our Tufts students didn’t know how to make a StoryMap, neither did the ones in see GILD, page 2 NEWS

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FUN & GAMES

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, April 26, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Megan Szostak Editor in Chief

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Mayoral candidate Katjana Ballantyne leading effort to remove hostile architecture SOMERVILLE

continued from page 1 Rossetti, Matthew McLaughlin, Will Mbah and William White.

Ballantyne explained why she is opposed to hostile architecture in Somerville.

“I don’t support any kind of ‘hostile design’ in our Somerville urban environment,” Ballantyne wrote in an email to the Daily. “I don’t want to live in a city with bars and spikes on benches, and not with any intentionally ugly and uncomfortable street lighting or other kinds of hostile urban furniture and equipment.”

In Somerville, designs described as hostile architecture were installed this year at the Davis Square MBTA station, which was the focus of the resolution. Benches in and around the station now have armrests built into the seats.

The MBTA, which installed the benches, asserts that the architecture is designed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide easier access to seating for people with

mobility challenges. However, the Council’s resolution argues that the benches have had the effect of preventing people — namely the homeless community — from lying down.

Lisa Battiston, deputy press secretary of the MBTA, defended the design of the benches.

“Designed by the MBTA’s system-wide accessibility department, the armrests offer structural support for customers with mobility challenges when they want to stand up or sit down,” Battiston wrote in an email to the Daily.

Battiston added that benches at MBTA stations are continuing to be modified according to guidelines written in May 2020 by MBTA chief engineer Erik Stoothoff.

“Design for Benches for all new construction, repair or replacement projects shall follow standards that are consistent with MBTA’s priorities to the safety and accessibility of our passengers. As such, design shall prioritize safety, functionality, and ease of maintenance over time,” Stoothoff wrote in a memo last year.

Ballantyne, who in March announced her candidacy for mayor, criticized the MBTA for installing the benches at the Davis Square station without first consulting Somerville residents.

“The MBTA should have had a conversation with our community,” she said. “[It] should have done outreach to organization[s] which work with our unsheltered population.”

Hannah O’Halloran, emergency shelter services manager at the Somerville Homeless Coalition, described the impact that hostile architecture has had on homeless individuals in Somerville.

“Arm rests were added to all the benches inside the [MBTA] station. Although the [MBTA] isn’t meant to be a space for people to sleep, for most of the winter it provided people a safe and warm place to lay down during the day,” O’Halloran wrote in an email to the Daily. “This was especially helpful with the lack of shelter space due to COVID19. Due to not being able to sleep

inside the train station several people began sleeping in [ATMs].

This led to some of them being arrested.”

O’Halloran also pointed to another MBTA practice that has affected the homeless population in Somerville: making stations colder to discourage resting.

“To discourage the homeless individuals from [going] inside the stations for warmth, the MBTA chained the doors open,” O’Halloran said. “We had to continuously bring blankets and hand warmers to individuals sitting there to make sure they did not suffer from frostbite.”

Ballantyne, for her part, explained that she hopes that the resolution will be the start of a broader conversation regarding homelessness in Somerville.

“Let’s collaborate and not just be reactive,” she said.

“Homelessness still continues.

This is not new. Why was this hostile architecture installed?

Why now?”

GILD program to continue post-pandemic GILD

continued from page 1 Argentina, Chile or Costa Rica, so they’re working at it together,” Gerassi-Navarro said during a mid-semester meeting to discuss the progress of the course.

“They have different perspectives but they have a common goal … and [the project] has made them deal and overcome their linguistic barriers and cultural differences.”

Another GILD course called Contemporary Issues in U.S. Russian Relations, taught by Chris Miller, assistant professor of international history at the Fletcher School, along with a collaborator at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), has students enrolled from both Tufts and MGIMO. Students analyze and debate proposed solutions to issues in U.S.-Russian relations in the course.

The course was first taught in fall 2017 and was already well adapted to being taught online by the time of the pandemic because it had always been in a virtual format.

“One of the benefits of teaching via Zoom with our colleagues before the pandemic was that we were ready for COVID,” Miller wrote in an email to the Daily. “We were able to conduct the course throughout the pandemic with hardly any changes.”

Prior to the pandemic, the course included a conference in Moscow and an exchange program so Tufts and MGIMO students could spend a semester at each other’s institutions.

Hollenhorst believes the GILD program could give students insight into working beyond the structure of a course.

“In a way, a GILD experience can be more like a professional experience, where you might

be collaborating with a team in another country on a project,” Hollenhorst wrote in an email to the Daily. “You might work closely with them, maybe even on a daily basis, and really get to know them, even though you might never meet in person.”

GILD is currently in the early stages of developing more classes with faculty members in several departments, Hollenhorst said, and she believes that GILD can continue to be a beneficial aspect of Tufts’ curricula in the future.

“We hope that GILD is something that will continue across the university even when international travel and traditional study abroad programs resume,” Hollenhorst said. “We see this as a way to enhance learning that is already happening at Tufts.”

CHRISTINE LEE / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The Tufts Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching is pictured on April 8, 2019.

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FEATURES

Technological Tools for Playful Learning introduces coding to children

Monday, April 26, 2021

Jenny Lu Tuff Talks

New and old relationships

by Owen Bonk

Assistant Features Editor

Professor Marina Bers, chair of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, has been teaching the course Technological Tools for Playful Learning every spring for the 20 years that she has been at Tufts. In the class, students are tasked with creating a curriculum around ScratchJr — a coding software that Bers helped develop — and using those lesson plans to teach children ages four to seven to code.

Typically, Bers’ students teach in person at various elementary schools in the area, but this year the vast majority of schools that had previously allowed Bers’ students’ lessons chose not to participate.

In order to give her students practical teaching experience, Bers redesigned the curriculum to have her students teach over Zoom, using resources from the EliotPearson Children’s School and DevTech, a Tufts-based research group for which Bers serves as the director.

The Eliot-Pearson Children’s School serves both as an early education school and as a laboratory for Tufts’ child study and human development department. “[EPCS] is our lab school: a place for experimenting new things or demonstrating new methods of teaching or learning,” Bers said.

The Children’s School had been a partner school for Bers’ class in past years, and is accustomed to experimental teaching methods. In keeping with this innovative spirit, Bers worked with the school’s director, Hanna Gebretensae, to continue the program at EPCS virtually during the pandemic.

Gebretensae felt confident that Bers’ students could make online coding lessons engaging and exciting for the children, especially given the regular collaboration between EPCS and the Department of Child Study and Human Development.

“We knew that we couldn’t bring [the Tufts students] in person,” Gebretensae said. “But we decided that would definitely not stop us from doing [the program].”

EPCS had been holding in-person education since the fall, so by the time Bers began teaching Technological Tools for Playful Learning this spring, the staff at the EPCS had already had a semester’s worth of practical experience teaching young children during a pandemic.

Gebretensae has found flexibility to be a crucial aspect of teaching during a pandemic.

“There have been times here and there when cases would come up,” Gebretensae said. “So, when that happens, and we have to close for a day or two … [and] we’ll go virtual.”

This experience adapting to quickly changing circumstances made moving coding lessons online less intimidating for Gebretensae and the staff at EPCS. “We were able to minimize the number of kids that are working with the [Tufts] students, so that we can have a table of two kids with one or two students [on Zoom], but spread them out in the classroom, so they can really have their space,” Gebretensae said.

Both Bers and Gebretensae cited the importance of starting technology-based education early as a driving factor in their decision to continue the coding lessons virtually.

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Elementary school students are pictured using Professor Bers’ technological tools.

“Coding is a new literacy,” Bers said.

“So, if you learn how to code, you’re learning how to think in terms of abstract ideas, in terms of problem-solving. But you’re also learning how to express yourself with new media. And most important, you are learning how to be a citizen of today and tomorrow.”

Bers also cited social barriers that prevent some students from venturing into STEM disciplines as a factor that added urgency to continuing to hold the program virtually.

“By third grade, stereotypes about who is good in STEM disciplines are already formed, and it’s usually females and minorities that don’t get into this field,” she said.

Pandemic or not, it remained important to Bers to teach as many young people as possible that coding could be done by anyone.

In many ways, Bers’ course, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines, demonstrates the accessibility of coding. While students who study computer science may create more complicated projects, Bers said everyone can take something away from the course.

“We’re starting in different places and we will get to different places,” Bers said.

By teaching young children the basics of coding with ScratchJr, any student can take away an essential, baseline-level understanding of how coding and technology impacts their lives.

For Bers’ students, learning how to use ScratchJr seemed manageable, but virtual teaching was intimidating. Morgan Taylor, a first-year studying human factors engineering, said she was not prepared for the challenges that come with online teaching.

“I think we all [understood] the curriculum, and I think we all mastered ScratchJr itself, but teaching on Zoom is just a whole other ballgame,” Taylor said.

The students themselves needed to be flexible too as they made lesson plans and as the semester progressed.

“At first, I had to be really flexible and make lots of changes to my original plans that I made before meeting with the kids,” Marti Zentmaier, a first-year with an intended double major in computer science and cognitive and brain science, said. “I made changes so it was more action based — I had smaller programs

where the kids were always doing something instead of a bigger project.”

Zentmaier found that the kids’ attention spans were especially short on Zoom, so these shorter activities kept them focused.

Overall, the students felt that the most important way to help the children learn was to make activities open-ended and creative.

“We looked at coding as not just a [computer science] skill, but also a tool for creative self-expression, which kind of broadens the horizons of coding in general,” Khushbu Kshirsagar, a master’s student in science, technology, engineering and math education, said.

Taylor also explained that creativity is at the core of professor Bers’ course.

The students’ lessons were guided by a constructionist framework rather than an instructional one, meaning the curriculum was open-ended rather than uniform and command-based.

Despite the difficulties of teaching on Zoom, Taylor, Zentmaier and Kshirsagar all said that the course was both worthwhile and rewarding.

“It’s also so great that this whole thing is for a really great cause: teaching computer science education to young children,” Zentmaier said.

Fortunately, the children and their parents have shared Bers, Gebretensae and the Tufts students’ enthusiasm. When EPCS proposed the virtual partnership with Bers’ course, it was met with widespread approval from parents. The lessons, Gebretensae said, have lived up to the initial hopes.

“It’s been really wonderful to hear from the parents that the kids are excited,” she said.

While Bers hopes to offer this course in person next spring, she has been very thankful for the resilience of her students and the staff at EPCS. Gebretensae also expressed gratitude for Bers and her research group, who she said helped them immensely in the process.

“Marina [Bers] and her team at the DevTech lab have been a really wonderful asset and support to us,” she said. “It’s just great to have the laboratory there and the team there, and to be able to reach out when we need information or resources …

We look forward to continuing work with [her] team,” she said.

ear J: I recently got into a new relationship with a boy at Tufts. I really like him and it’s going well but we only have a couple more weeks together until we go back home for the summer (we live far away from each other). I think the long distance is going to be too hard on us since our relationship is still young.

How should we handle it?

J: First of all, congrats! Unless one of you is able to spare time and money to visit the other during the summer, you can’t change the fact that you will be apart for three months. But you can change your perspective on it. This can be a new stage in your relationship that will help you come back stronger when fall comes around. Dedicate time to talk to each other over FaceTime or the phone.

Long-distance relationships over the summer are the reality for many college couples, so I don’t think it’s necessarily too early in the relationship to try it. You can both get to see parts of each other’s hometowns and families. You can pick up new hobbies together, watch a show over Teleparty to have things to talk about and you can have phone sex if you’re into that.

Dear J: Should I get back together with my ex? We had a pretty tough breakup a while ago but recently bumped into each other on campus and started talking again.

J: I don’t know how your relationship with this person was or what happened during the breakup, but I would say that when it comes to exes, you always have to think twice. I think the amount of time that has passed since your breakup is important. Did it happen two months ago or two years ago? If the breakup was in the past year, it’s probably too early for all of those wounds to have healed.

Something else to consider is what you have learned about yourself since the breakup, and what they have learned about themselves.

If you come back together as the same people that you were in the previous relationship, nothing will change and you will likely find yourselves dealing with the same issues as before. I think rekindling a love that was lost because of timing, immaturity or miscommunication can be a beautiful thing as long as you can really start fresh and let go of the past. While you should treat it as a new relationship, you should sit down with your ex to make sure this is something they want as well and talk about how you can really be better this time around if getting back together is something you are seriously considering. Good luck!

Jenny Lu is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jenny can be reached at jen.lu@tufts.edu.

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Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture

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Monday, April 26, 2021

‘Nobody’ has the action, lacks the pace

by Julian Levy Staff Writer

“John Wick” (2014) ran so that “Nobody” (2021) could … walk?

In recent years, the creative talent behind the “John Wick” franchise (2014–) have found their way into many different films. “John Wick” co-director David Leitch went on to direct “Atomic Blonde” (2017), “Deadpool 2” (2018) and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (2019). Meanwhile, the main director of “John Wick,” Chad Stahelski, will be heading the recently announced movie based on the hit PlayStation video game, “Ghost of Tsushima” (2020). And, after penning the first three “John Wick” films, writer Derek Kolstad emerged with “Nobody.”

Directed by Ilya Naishuller of “Hardcore Henry” (2015) fame, the film has action pedigree behind it. Bob Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mansell, the protagonist. Odenkirk was the perfect choice for the role.

He embodies the everyman quality integral to the character, but also the quiet intensity lurking just beneath the surface. The film uses this innocuous appearance to sell his persona.

While John Wick may have been a highly trained assassin in hiding, Hutch appears to be a normal guy — he’s married with two kids, living in stereotypical suburbia and holding down a 9-to-5 desk job. His life is aggressively unremarkable. The film pulls the audience in with this monotony, with viewers vicariously experiencing the same day-to-day routine as Hutch does himself.

That is, at least, until an unexpected event pulls him out of this cycle. Here is where “Nobody” begins to show its true self. The film excels at the fast-paced, thrilling action that fans of the “John Wick” series expect. The shots are wide enough for the action to be clear while maintaining the tactile feeling of every impact and explosion.

But Hutch is a different kind of person than Wick, and his style suits the character. In the beginning, he fights scrappier than Wick. He trades blows, taking just as many hits as he delivers. He uses whatever tool is at his disposal, be it a weapon or a common household item. This adds an improvisational feel to the fighting reminiscent of “John Wick.”

Speaking of “John Wick,” one of the reasons that the franchise’s action is similarly satisfying is because the hero is not invulnerable. He takes hits and needs to be patched up after most fights. “Nobody” takes this to an extreme, however. After the first real action that Hutch experiences, he’s about as badly hurt as Wick is after an entire movie. He fights through the pain in a manner that can be described only as relentless.

Don’t be mistaken, though, because Hutch is definitely not a hero. Essentially, Hutch is experiencing an incredibly violent midlife crisis, and it just so happens that the people he’s attacking are bad people. Therefore, Hutch’s urges

VIA UNIVERSAL PICTURES

A promotional poster for the movie “Nobody” is pictured. to fight are justified. The film leans into this mindset with its comedy. The one-liners, muscle car and classic rock music all feel like what your dad might think is an action hero. Odenkirk uses this contradiction to great effect, toeing the line between gruff coolness and cringy dad humor. The film’s awareness of this irony also makes its darker

moments more effective as comedy instead of just gratuitous violence.

What prevents the film from reaching the heights of its spiritual predecessors is its pacing. It constantly feels like it’s stopping and starting, with little direction beyond which fight Hutch decides to pick next. The backstory that they tell in bits and pieces is interesting, but

it’s hurt by Hutch’s lack of goals following his first fight. Like its main character, “Nobody” often feels like it’s looking for something to do.

John Wick’s goal of getting revenge against those who killed his dog — the last gift from his deceased wife — may have been simple, but its clear end point meant the film always had a driving force.

“Nobody” is by no means a flop for Kolstad, but its structural issues prevent it from being consistent. It exhibits all of the positive elements to be expected of the writer, even if there is a lack of cohesion. For fans of gritty action with a sarcastic wink, “Nobody” still comes with a recommendation, albeit with an asterisk.

A&P

Monday, April 26, 2021 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

‘Geiger’ #1 is explosive fun

by Drew Weisberg Arts Editor

The highest praise I can give “Geiger” #1 (2021–) by writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank is that the post-nuclear tale they weave gives the end of days as much personality as 2015’s hit film, “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Though instead of high-octane supercars and endless waves of goons, the world of Geiger is a deadly, desolate wasteland that’s rendered beautifully

by Frank’s hyperexpressive art and the colors by Brad Anderson. The coloring of the book is of particular note, seeing as Anderson, Frank and Johns’ previous collaboration, “Doomsday Clock” (2017–) for DC Comics, was a tradition-

al superhero book while “Geiger” feels considerably less so. The wasteland of “Geiger” sees humans wearing hazmat suits — astronauts on their own planet who search for thin resources in a world 20 years after the bombs fell.

The protagonist is a legendary figure in the wasteland known by many names, such as “Joe Glow,” “The Meltdown Man” or “Tariq.” Though the first issue doesn’t explicitly explain Tariq’s transformation, the clues are enough to believe that the transformation was brought about by a nearby nuclear detonation, which left him with the ability to explode into a living, radioactive skeleton. The design for “Meltdown Man” gives Tariq a haunting look in his tattered cape and hood

VIA GARY FRANK AND BRAD ANDERSON

The critically acclaimed team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank unites with superstar colorist Brad Anderson to create the pictured “Geiger” #1

COVID-19 AT TUFTS

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Derin Savasan Hot Take that evokes a radioactive grim reaper stalking the wasteland. Apart from that, Tariq is superhumanly strong and fast and able to leap over a steep barrier of junk in a single bound. But one thing is clear: The radiation that killed the world helped Tariq change form. Tariq guards the opening to the fallout shelter that he sealed 20 years earlier and is accompanied by only a two-headed mutant dog and the creeping madness of his isolation. Though unknown as of yet, Tariq has the potential to be a great hero, seeing as his first appearance is so promising.

The design for the presumed villains of the book, a group of knights of the wasteland clad in radiation suits (knowing Johns’ affinity for comic history, this may be a reference to DC Comics’ Atomic Knight character), adds a fascinating element of fantasy to the post-apocalyptic fun, a genre that typically errs more on the side of science fiction. While the tone of the book feels solidly established, the genre feels more fluid, allowing for Johns’ words to mix his various inspirations and create a hodgepodge of language that feels wholly unique as the various groups and sects of the wastelands each speak distinctly. This, coupled with the lack of immediate explanation, makes for a great sense of intrigue rather than potential confusion. Plus, it’s capped off by a last-page teaser that offers a great mix of clues and questions and left this reader begging for a second issue. That said, several lines on the opening pages seemed clunky and could have stood another round of edits.

Otherwise, the pacing is masterful, with the main story not overstaying its welcome even for a moment. It’s clear that the members of this creative team are totally in sync with one another and the issue makes a tremendous first impression with haunting visuals, such as Tariq’s wall of tally marks to count his days since the bombs fell.

“Geiger #1” feels like the beginning of something huge, a cutting-edge blend of superhero comics, science fiction, fantasy and post-nuclear fiction that manages to excite, depress, thrill and intrigue. Plus, it’s stitched together by some of the biggest and best names in comics. The book also cements Image Comics as the premier destination for creator-owned books and larger-than-life ideas.

“Geiger #1” is a great start to what I believe could be a brand new comic universe, and what more can you ask for in a first issue than masterfully communicated potential?

‘Barry’ is the new ‘Breaking Bad’

F

or those of you who’ve been living under a rock, HBO’s hit show “Barry” (2018–) is about a hit man named (you guessed it) Barry trying to become a Hollywood actor. It stars Bill Hader (as Barry), Sarah Goldberg, Henry Winkler, Anthony Kerrigan and Stephen Root — each delivering the best performance of their life. And with episodes lasting no more than half an hour, the show somehow manages to make me laugh, bite my nails off and weep.

Now, I can see why my titular claim may come across as overly assertive, but I’m here to tell you that “Barry” brings something new to the table — something that “Dexter” (2006–13) or “Breaking Bad” (2008–13) never did.

And that thing is genre blending. Let me explain.

If someone were to ask me to describe “Barry” in terms of its genre, I wouldn’t really know what to say. It’s equally hilarious, terrifying and heartbreaking, which is a rare (and difficult) combo to achieve. And considering the fact that it’s about a hit man, it has some of the wildest cold opens that I’ve ever seen on TV. These cold opens do not only set the tone for how each episode will play out, but also point out the ridiculous nature of it all — that we’re essentially rooting for a hired killer to succeed, find love and be happy. The concept is ridiculous, but when it takes place in a world that’s as ridiculous to the characters as it is to us, you find yourself in the unique position of relating to a hit man. And the cold opens do just that: ease you into this world of moral ambiguity before they cut to the title.

As mentioned before, each episode of “Barry” is 30 minutes long, which is not a lot of time. Consequently, you’d expect things to get messy when you throw a bunch of genres in a constrained amount of time. But “Barry” never gets messy (in that way, at least). Whereas shows like “Hannibal” (2013–15) struggle to find this balance within a single season, “Barry” can effortlessly do so within a single episode — sometimes even within a single scene. It makes the whole premise of the show a lot less pretentious and a lot more welcoming for the average viewer. The show’s smooth transitions also make you notice those that are not smooth, which are almost always completely intentional. Without these jarring cuts, the jokes wouldn’t land the way they do, nor would many of the dramatic moments.

All and all, HBO’s “Barry” is a fantastic show that keeps you on edge with its genre blending, smooth editing and unpredictable characters — in the best way possible. It’s one of those rare shows where the writing is so good that you can’t help but root for every character, even those like Barry who are morally ambiguous, which is why I think it’s the next “Breaking Bad.”

Derin Savasan is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Derin can be reached at derin.savasan@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Monday, April 26, 2021

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Mariel: “My mom has a stash of [flu shots] at home.”

Fun & Games

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By Annalise Jacobson

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Opinion

7 Monday, April 26, 2021

VIEWPOINTS

Marijuana legalization must include efforts to dismantle systems of racial injustice

by Faye Thijssen Opinion Editor

On March 31, New York became the 15th state to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. This new legislation comes as part of a growing national trend toward legalization and decriminalization of drugs. For many people, the news of legalization implies a positive shift toward freedom for personal, recreational use. While this cultural and political change is worth celebrating, it is important to recognize the implications of these changes on the racial inequities that have long plagued the economic and legal systems of marijuana usage.

Many New York lawmakers, particularly nonwhite Democrats, advocated for nuanced legislation that would address some of the racial inequities of marijuana legality. Although Gov. Cuomo initially pushed back on these policy proposals, it was eventually decided that 40% of tax revenue

from cannabis will be redirected to Black and Latino communities, which are disproportionately affected by marijuana drug charges. Additionally, anyone who has previously been convicted of marijuana-related offenses that are no longer criminalized will have their records expunged.

These recent legislative acts highlight the racial inequities embedded in the cannabis industry, reflected throughout other states and communities in the nation.

Black and Latino individuals comprise 31% of the U.S. population, but account for nearly 50% of all marijuana-related arrests.

However, even as owning and using cannabis is becoming more widely accepted and formally legalized, those who profit off this sociopolitical shift in attitude toward weed are overwhelmingly wealthy and white; between 80% and 90% of the legal cannabis industry is run by white business owners.

The industry in Massachusetts is hardly better off in compar-

ison to the national average.

Massachusetts voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2012 and recreational cannabis in 2016, and the state made headlines for opening the first recreational marijuana stores on the East Coast in 2018. Over the past two years, the gross sales of cannabis in the state have surpassed $1 billion. However, data shows that about 73% of workers in the Massachusetts cannabis industry are white. Although the state provides equity programs for people from communities disproportionately criminalized for marijuana, as of 2019 only two out of 105 provisional and 79 final licenses were issued to applicants from these programs.

As states shift toward the legalization of marijuana and other drugs, legislation should follow the example of New York and retroactively apply legality to expunge the records of those who have been convicted for crimes that are no longer illegal.

Additionally, some portion of the revenue from taxes on cannabis should be designated to funding programs that work to dismantle the systems of racial injustice in drug criminalization.

In addition to the legislation, businesses and individual consumers should become informed about the power structures implicated in their purchase of recreational and medical cannabis. Legislation and the demographic control of the cannabis market both influence the industry and its impacts on society.

If cannabis users consciously choose to buy from dispensaries that are not complicit in upholding the dominance of large, white-owned cannabis chains, they will help to disrupt the racial inequities in the market.

Additionally, consumers can contribute to political and social efforts to encourage lawmakers to push for legislation that facilitates a more equitable industry.

It is vital to bring these conversations to college campuses, where marijuana use is common;

a 2020 report from the National College Health Assessment showed that 35.9% of college students have used cannabis for nonmedical purposes. Especially for a school like Tufts that has a predominantly white student body, it is imperative that students who use cannabis engage as conscious consumers. It is the responsibility of students — especially white students — on campus to contend with the hypocrisy and privilege of participating in a system that systematically benefits wealthy white business owners at the expense of communities of color. In order to combat these inequities, students should contribute to efforts to reform the United States’ justice, legal and economic systems to reflect the demographics of consumers and rectify racial injustices.

Faye Thijssen is a first-year studying international relations. Faye can be reached at faye.thijssen@tufts.edu.

KAYLA DRAZAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Matt Rice The Honeymoon Period

Biden’s ambitious climate agenda

O

ne of President Biden’s favorite phrases is “science is back.”

After four years of the Trump administration’s deregulatory policies, drilling permits for federal lands and denialism in the face of climate catastrophe, Biden makes a point of proving he will listen to scientists when it comes to preventing fullblown disaster.

Last week, he led a gathering of world leaders on the topic of climate change. And he made some very bold promises. From the East Room of the White House, Biden tried to reestablish America’s role as a leader on the issue of climate change.

During the course of the twoday virtual summit, Biden surrounded himself with various government officials, demonstrating his whole-of-government approach to combating this problem. From transportation to trade to energy, Biden is laying the groundwork for a multiyear clean energy strategy to reduce America’s carbon footprint.

One of the central figures in Biden’s mission is Gina McCarthy (AG’81), who serves in the recently created position of national climate advisor. McCarthy served as

administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during Obama’s second term, but many of her accomplishments in that regulatory position were rolled back by the Trump administration.

“We see multiple pathways across all sectors, across all policy levers, across federal and state and local actions to grow our economy and reduce our emissions,” McCarthy said at a White House briefing. Her international partner, Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry, also emphasized the need for diplomatic rigor when dealing with China and India, two of the world’s largest emitters of carbon.

Biden made the ambitious announcement that the United States would look to achieve a 50% to 52% reduction of its 2005 emissions level by the end of the

decade. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, who re-introduced the Green New Deal with Sen. Ed Markey on April 20, even said Biden has “exceeded expectations that progressives had.”

But Biden’s real climate agenda still faces some serious tests.

During Obama’s second term, the president was forced to meet certain climate goals through regulatory and executive actions — the Paris Climate Agreement, most notably. And of course, the Trump administration reneged on those obligations and rolled back those very regulations when it got the chance.

Obama failed to pass a climate package through Congress when he had the chance. In 2009, the House of Representatives passed a cap-and-trade bill known as

Waxman-Markey only to have the legislation die in the Senate.

That failure to produce climate legislation left only executive action, which can be easily and unilaterally undone.

Biden cannot make the same mistake. The president often talks about his ability to get substantive legislation through Congress, and he delivered with the American Rescue Plan. But if he hopes to have a lasting legacy on America’s climate resilience, he will need to prove his willingness to put an ambitious climate agenda before Congress and to push it through by whatever means necessary.

Matt Rice is a senior studying political science.

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

Sports

8 Monday, April 26, 2021

tuftsdaily.com

Division what? Tufts lacrosse teams clean up NH woods

by Alex Sharp

Executive Sports Editor

On Sunday the Tufts men’s and women’s lacrosse teams hopped on Interstate 93 North to the Everett Turnpike before getting on Interstate 89 and shooting up to Hanover, N.H. for a pair of games against Div. I Dartmouth College.

The women’s game started at 11 a.m., and less than 15 minutes later, the Jumbos were up 5–0. Senior attacker Emily Games scored the first two goals, junior midfielder Anna Clarke tacked on the next two and junior midfielder Kathryn Delaney punched in the fifth.

Dartmouth got on the board with a goal from Nina Nesselbush midway through the half, but Tufts responded less than a minute later with a score from senior attacker Kirsten Grazewski to make the score 6–1.

Games secured a first-half hat-trick on a score with three minutes to go in the first half and senior attacker Catherine Lawliss scored on a free position shot less than a minute later to give the Jumbos an 8–1 lead heading into halftime.

Lawliss and Games added two quick goals in the second half to give the Jumbos their largest lead of the day. After a Dartmouth goal five minutes into the half cut the lead to eight, Lawliss picked up a hat-trick of her own to give Tufts an 11–2 lead.

Lawliss’ third goal was Tufts’ last of the day, but the Jumbos had more than enough of a cushion to win easily and sleep peacefully on the ride back to Medford. Dartmouth put in a few junk time goals to make

LYDIA RICHARDSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts women’s lacrosse team plays Conn. College on April 17. the final score a slightly more respectable 11–5.

Junior goalie Molly Laliberty anchored the Tufts defense for all 60 minutes, saving 14 of 19 shots.

“The defense came up huge with so many stops, shot clock violations, interceptions [and] ground balls. I think it was just a really great team win where the attack came out firing from the get-go, and everybody else was ready to go with them,” Laliberty said.

It was Dartmouth’s first game of the season, and the team’s roster was partially limited by campus COVID-19 restrictions

The Tufts men’s lacrosse team plays Colby on April 10.

and injuries, but they did play 15 members of their 2020 team that was 5–0 and ranked in the top 10 of the Div. I Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll.

“Today was absolutely electric,” first-year Meg Hatton said. “Getting the opportunity to play a Div. I team was such a great test for this team, and I think this score is such a big testament to all the hard work we’ve put in throughout the fall and spring.”

For the Jumbos, the unusual Div. I-vs.-Div. III matchup served as a silver lining in the

midst of their bizarre shortened season. The team enjoyed Dartmouth’s facilities, the field and some high quality trash cans that have a special slot for pizza boxes.

“We were joking by saying ‘hashtag Div. I check,’ talking about how fancy it was … how they had an indoor locker room and … a trash can with pizza boxes. We had a ton of fun up there,” first-year Caroline Sapir said.

The undefeated Jumbos, currently ranked third in the Div. III IWLCA poll, will host the NESCAC championship

LYDIA RICHARDSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

game next Saturday against Wesleyan. As for the Big Green, they can lean on the wisdom of alum Robert Frost who said, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”

In the men’s game, Dartmouth jumped out to a 3–1 lead behind goals from Spencer Warezak, Ben DiGiovanni and Peter Lapina. Tufts rebounded quickly, putting together a dominant 7–0 run to close the half, with three goals from senior Bryce Adam, two goals from junior Cam Kelleher and a goal a piece from sophomore Sam Sturim and graduate student Matt Treiber.

Dartmouth opened up the second half with a goal from Henry Bonnie before Tufts went on another run. Goals from first-year Mac Bredahl, Kelleher, Treiber and senior Garrett Samuelson put the Jumbos up 12–4 going into the final frame. Dartmouth outscored Tufts 5–3 in the final frame, but it was too little too late, and Tufts won 15–9.

Tufts controlled the pace of play and possession for much of the afternoon, recording 74 shots to Dartmouth’s 37.

Senior Joe Theuer manned the net for the Jumbos, saving 11 of the 20 shots he faced.

Sunday’s matchup with Dartmouth marked Tufts men’s lacrosse team’s first game against a Div. I opponent since 1986, when they defeated Holy Cross 11–9. The 5–0 Jumbos, currently ranked second in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Div. III poll, will wrap up their regular season with a game against Colby on Saturday.