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T HE T UFTS DAILY tuftsdaily.com
Friday, October 2, 2020
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CNN political commentator Van Jones discusses criminal justice, political engagement
PATRICK MILEWSKI / THE TUFTS DAILY
Van Jones and Tisch College Dean Alan D. Solomont are pictured during a virtual Tisch College Distinguished Speaker event on Oct. 1. by Matthew McGovern News Editor
Van Jones, a CNN political commentator, social entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, spoke to the Tufts community in a webinar on Thursday, Oct. 1, as part of the Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series. Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of
Civic Life Alan D. Solomont (A’70) moderated the event. Solomont first asked Jones what the common thread is between his wide-ranging projects, which include founding several nonprofits, leading the Green Jobs Act and advancing criminal justice reform through initiatives like #cut50. Jones prefaced his response with his own family history, and
his father’s upbringing in poverty, before outlining questions that inspire his work. “What can you do for the people with the least wealth, the least money, the least access?” he asked. “What can we do about bigotry, racism and discrimination?” Jones asserted that he has asked himself these questions throughout his career, but
noted that his answers have changed over time. Specifically, he attributed his changing views to his work in social collectives, participation in protests and political activism in the Bay Area. “I got run over by a police car protesting the World Bank in 1999, in Washington, D.C.,” Jones said. “I got tear-gassed in Seattle in 1999 in the big protest against the World Trade Organization.”
He later cited his work founding Dream Corps and other social justice initiatives, with which he has worked to have 63,000 people released from prisons across the United States this year alone. Though Jones underlined the importance of tangible action on the part of citizens, he emphasized the importance of economsee JONES, page 2
Tufts announces new Thanksgiving policy, will not allow students who travel for the break to return by Madeleine Aitken Deputy News Editor
Tufts announced a change in its travel policy, with specific new guidelines for the Thanksgiving holiday, in an email from university administrators on Sept. 25. The new Thanksgiving travel policy says that if students choose to travel off campus for the holiday, they must stay home until after winter break. Students who choose to take advantage of this guideline must finish their classes remotely and take their exams online. “Because of the serious health risks involved with travelling and coming back to campus after Thanksgiving break, we made the decision to require those who choose to leave Tufts during the break to forego returning and instead finish the semester remotely,” James Glaser, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, wrote in an email to the Daily. Glaser, along with Jianmin Qu, dean of the School of Engineering, and Nancy Bauer, dean fo the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), decided to make this decision after observing the way off-campus travel can increase the spread of COVID-19. They commended students for their success in following COVID-19 guidelines thus far, but are concerned that the community could lose that momentum if Thanksgiving travel opens.
NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY
Carmichael Hall is pictured on April 25. “We must remain vigilant; avoiding an outbreak is a priority,” Glaser wrote. Originally the plan strongly discouraged students from leaving campus for the holiday. The new policy is a revised guideline. “Our fall reopening plans were built to be flexible and have always been driven by data and modeling. The adjustment was made after close monitoring of the factors involved in potential spread on campus, as well as developments around the state and the country,” Qu wrote in an email to the Daily.
This change allows students more flexibility in the way they celebrate the holiday, provided they are willing to move online if they do decide to go home. With many students already working remotely from home and other locations, the deans said they are confident in the success of classes continuing and exams being administered to students who choose to go remote. “We also feel that making this decision early in the semester will provide enough time to prepare for a smooth transition
from in-person classes to an online format for those who make this choice,” Qu said. Although it is not yet clear how many students will take advantage of this option, universities across the country have decided to move all students online for the weeks of the semester that fall between Thanksgiving and the winter holidays. Many schools are requiring that students leave campus for Thanksgiving break, and not allowing them to return until the start of the second semester. “All university communities are different,” Bauer wrote in an email to the Daily. “We believe we have the capacity to offer students the opportunity to make a choice that works for them because we have confidence in our health guidelines and our community’s ability to adhere to them, and because of our ability to offer online instruction for those who choose that option.” Overall, the deans said they are proud of the community for their adherence to the guidelines, and hope the community will experience this same success moving forward, regardless of whether they choose to move into remote learning for the end of the semester or remain on campus. “Our goal will be the same as it was this semester – to prioritize the health and safety of our community and neighbors while preserving as much of our campus experience as possible given the ongoing challenging circumstances,” Bauer wrote.
SPORTS / back
OPINION / page 5
ARTS / page 3
Lebron and AD get first NBA finals win as duo
Dining workers need more support from Tufts in COVID-19 adjustment
Despite conventional structure, ‘Challenger: The Final Flight’ proves educational, captivating
NEWS
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ARTS & POP CULTURE
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FUN & GAMES
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OPINION
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SPORTS
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, October 2, 2020
THE TUFTS DAILY Alex Viveros Editor in Chief
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Jones encourages students to take action, speak up JONES
continued from page 1 ic development, in addition to protests, as a means of effecting change. Solomont then directed the conversation to the notion of “safe spaces” on college campuses. He quoted a speech Jones delivered at the University of Chicago, where Jones said that students should not be ideologically “safe,” and that they should be offended or upset in order to encourage dialogue and inspire each student to speak up. “I want you to be offended every single day on this campus. I want you to be deeply aggrieved … and then learn how to speak back,” Solomont said as he read the excerpt from Jones’ speech. Jones responded by elaborating on how challenging viewpoints can be beneficial to col-
lege students, and how these sentiments can encourage new ideas and action. “You want to be offended. You want that racially insensitive comment,” Jones said. “You guys need to be tough. You need to be strong and to be wise.” The conversation later focused on current issues in the media, particularly surrounding some of Jones’ areas of interest, including racial justice and the environment. Jones is uniquely positioned at the intersection of these fields, having extensive experience in criminal justice reform, spearheading the Green Jobs Act and advising President Barack Obama on the Act in 2009. He emphasized that he wants to see people out of jail and into jobs, but clarified that the jobs must be ethical, Earth-honoring and “green.”
The United States has the largest peacetime prison population in history, Jones noted, and between incarceration and probation, the country has millions of people entangled in the criminal justice system. “Six million human beings [are] trapped in the land of the free. Trapped in prison and surveillance and the revolving door between the two, disproportionately African American, Latino, Latina, Native American — almost all low income,” Jones said. “This is a massive human rights catastrophe.” The discussion then centered on the role of the media, and the importance of diversifying sources of information. Jones spoke to the difficulties of integrating opposing viewpoints into social media feeds. “Most people will say ‘I don’t want to follow these people.’ Well
then you’re no better than people on the other side who don’t want to follow you,” Jones said. “This is a challenge.” Toward the end of the event, Jones answered questions from students and members of the community. Emma Winey, a junior student studying political science, asked Jones about how Americans can reconcile widespread skepticism and distrust in news media outlets. “What I can say is that you can be responsible yourself for not passing along fake news from your side,” Jones said. “All we can do is try to have the antibodies ourselves, and not be superspreaders of bad ideas.” Jones closed the discussion by encouraging listeners to exercise skepticism while reading the news, and to remain politically attentive and engaged.
Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture
tuftsdaily.com
Friday, October 2, 2020
‘Challenger: The Final Flight’ flies high
Flo Almeda Livestreamed and Quarantined
by Drew Weisberg Assistant Arts Editor
I do not envy the task that the creators of Netflix’s Sept. 16 release, “Challenger: The Final Flight” (2020), set for themselves. How can one create a documentary that’s both informative and engaging, all while respecting the lives lost and the grief of the still-living family members of the doomed shuttle’s seven victims? To answer my rhetorical question, “Challenger: The Final Flight” does successfully fulfill all these goals, but is held just short of greatness by its adherence to convention. Cataloging the events leading up to the infamous explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, “Challenger: The Final Flight” is broken up into four roughly 40-minute episodes that pull together the various strings and moving parts into one coherent narrative. The feat is impressive, especially when one considers the vast number of testimonials, from victims’ families to former NASA top brass to ex-astronauts, that the series puts forth as a whole. This gallery of voices is where the documentary takes on a life of its own, allowing members of the audience (some of whom may have never heard of the Challenger disaster) to understand the sheer scope of the American tragedy. So too does the news footage, particularly in the fourth episode, which shifts the focus to the aftermath of the explosion and stitches together TV interviews from average citizens to the president and vice president of the United States to lay bare the trauma that swept the nation in the wake of the catastrophe. The story presented by the documentary was supposed to be one of great optimism and excitement, ultimately marred by human error. For an event that occurred several decades in the past, where much of the story may be common knowledge, the show does an excellent job allowing the audience to feel the emotions along with its subjects. Viewers may feel a particular attachment to several subjects, including Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space, as well as several other astronauts. McAuliffe becomes a point-of-view character of sorts for a bit through the use of archival footage, which shows her training
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A promotional poster for the Netflix documentary miniseries ‘Challenger: The Final Flight’ (2020) is pictured. and the process of her being accepted into the space program, and follows her until her and her crewmates’ tragic deaths. The choice to see the world as McAuliffe did was no doubt to ease the audience in with another non-astronaut, and yet the other crew members are more than deserving of more screen time, if not dedicated episodes. Sadly, the series’ structure that allows for a tight plotting also traps the film into all too familiar documentary tropes. Unfortunately, the documentary is a bit predictable, as the structure of news clip then interview, then news clip, music sting, stock footage or some other combination of the elements becomes more and more apparent throughout the series.
The music too disappoints, after the introduction’s heavy synth beats obviously inspired by the sounds of the ‘80s. This isn’t to say that the structure hinders the content, nor is it a significant strike against the documentary, though one must wonder if something more creative could have been done with the narrative given. One must also question if the documentary is hindered by its length, as it’s too long to zero in on one aspect and too short to give the appropriate development plot lines that beg for more content, such as the crew’s history, in greater detail. “Challenger: The Final Flight” doesn’t quite overcome the tropes of documentary filmmaking, but remains a welltold and engaging story nonetheless.
‘Girls With Guitars’
n the early months of quarantine, the two-time Grammy Award winning R&B artist H.E.R. began a livestream series, “Girls With Guitars,” a weekly conversation and performance with a fellow female guitarist on Instagram Live. On Episode 2, H.E.R. invited one of my biggest musical inspirations onto the show, Lianne La Havas. La Havas, a British singer and songwriter, emerged in the 2010s with a subtle, soulful sound, weaving together elements from R&B, folk and pop. Both her debut album “Is Your Love Big Enough?” (2012) and her second album “Blood” (2015) reached the top five in the United Kingdom in their respective years of release. Her third album, “Lianne La Havas” (2020), dropped in July. The livestream opened with the two artists fangirling over each others’ music, which was simply delightful to witness as a huge fan of both artists. La Havas began her performance with a cover of Aretha Franklin’s “I Say a Little Prayer” (1968). The low and gritty warmth of her vocals shone through, despite a slightly choppy Wi-Fi connection. As she sings, H.E.R. bobbed her head along and eventually joined La Havas for the final reprise. The spontaneity of their collaboration was lovely, making the session feel all the more intimate and impressive. Following this, La Havas performed one of her new songs titled, “Bittersweet” (2020). She sang: “Please stop asking, ‘do you still love me?’/ Don’t have much to say, let’s speak in the morning/ Please don’t do this, I’m too far away/ Don’t know what to tell you, babe.” A testament to the grief caused by loving from a distance, listeners can find solace in the chorus: “Bittersweet summer rain/ I’m born again/ All my broken pieces/ Bittersweet summer rain/ I’m born again.” This past summer, I would go on walks and play this song on repeat, letting La Havas’ voice wash over me. While “Bittersweet” was recorded over a year ago, there’s something poetically apt about her lyrics, especially now. In a time of social distancing and personal reckoning, I’ve found that it is the little rebirths that she refers to — a summer rain, a song, a call with an old friend — that have brought me a sense of peace. Over the course of about 30 minutes, La Havas and H.E.R. built a genuine connection with each other and their audience. Less like a concert and more like two friends catching up, this livestream was heartwarming, leaving me with an undeniable — and much needed — feeling of comfort.
Flo Almeda is a junior studying community health. Flo can be reached at florence. almeda@tufts.edu.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Friday, October 2, 2020
F& G
tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY
Alex: “I would totally become a ProctorU person and then hack everyone’s bank accounts”
Fun & Games
SUDOKU
LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY
Libra (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Sort, file and organize with Venus in Virgo. Get lost in inquiries, dreams and fantasies. Keep wonderful secrets. Savor delicious rituals, alone or with special company.
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Difficulty Level: 9:30 class at 574 Boston Ave.
Thursday’s Solution
Thursday’s Solution
CROSSWORD
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Opinion
5 Friday, October 2, 2020
EDITORIAL
Tufts Dining workers deserve better Over the past month, the Tufts community has adapted to an altered campus life shaped by extensive health precautions and constraints. Tufts Dining also underwent a massive transformation, significantly expanding its operations and shifting to accommodate new campus health protocols and guidelines. The burden of this change, however, falls directly upon the shoulders of dining workers. Tufts has failed to provide sufficient resources, staff and training to support workers, leading to overworked staff and potentially unsafe working conditions. Dining workers’ health and well-being should not be jeopardized in order to keep dining operations afloat. Tufts must better support its valued dining workers by addressing hiring shortages and effectively onboarding new hires, offering in-depth training for current staff and addressing the health-related concerns of their workers.
Tufts Dining workers have faced a history of unjust treatment, including harassment by managers and, more recently, the reduction of staff this summer. This semester, pressures from the pandemic ramped up the scale and intensity of dining staff responsibilities. Not only do workers have to prepare and serve food, but they must also package meals and in some cases deliver meals to students. New technology intended to streamline the dining process has not succeeded in practice. The novel orders-to-go have led to incredibly long lines, missed meals and heightened stress for both dining workers and students. In a recent Facebook post, Tufts Dining wrote that “some delays have occurred while staff become accustomed to new service styles, procedures and technology.” However, attributing inefficiencies to dining workers amounts to a deep mischaracterization of the problem. Delays stem from Tufts’ policy
failures, not any deficiency of dining hall staff. Understaffing and undertraining are among the most dire of issues. As of Sept. 18, the university reported having 13-plus vacancies across its dining operations. Although university officials reported having filled or being in the final process of filling 11 of those positions, the initial understaffing exposed concerns in the way dining workers are trained in approaching COVID-19 regulations with regards to dining. Undertraining of staff has led to confusion about the new dining system, with workers left with little time to learn how to accommodate thousands of people each day under new procedures. As a result of struggling to meet these increased responsibilities, dining workers are left overworked, exhausted and frustrated. Workers have also expressed health-related concerns. On Sept. 22, Hodgdon Food-on-the-
Run closed after staff members learned that one of their co-workers was in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. According to Christine Tringale, an assistant sous-chef at Hodgdon, there was widespread panic, and workers feared that if they left the facility they would face repercussions. Out of growing concerns for the comfort levels of workers, UNITE HERE Local 26, the workers’ union, quickly responded to the situation. Although the worker who had close contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 later reportedly tested negative, the incident demonstrates that Tufts Dining has inadequately prepared for its staff’s potential health-related concerns. These practices reveal fundamental flaws within the Tufts Dining system. The burdens inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic should not fall upon the staff that works tirelessly to keep our campus running. Instead, Tufts must take responsibility for
long lines and poor policy decisions by completing the hiring process for new staff and dedicating extra time to onboarding and supplementary training sessions for current and newly hired staff. Furthermore, in the midst of the pandemic, Tufts must listen to dining workers’ concerns and prioritize finding new solutions for adjusting to the circumstances of the university’s COVID-19 restrictions. Most importantly, dining workers should not have to choose between earning livable wages and safeguarding their health. Dining hall workers are essential and valued members of our community, and they are entitled to safe and fair working conditions. As Tufts Dining adapts to the conditions of the pandemic, it must also prioritize the health and well-being of its workers. As members of the Tufts community, we must continue to stand in solidarity with dining staff members and urge administrators to meet their concerns and needs.
The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor in Chief, Executive Board and Business Director.
Sports
6 Friday, October 2, 2020
Arnav Sacheti The Hoops Traveler
NBA Finals update: Lakers cruise in Game 1
NBA Bubble Party Poopers, Yugoslavian Edition
N
ikola Jokić? Luka Dončić? Goran Dragić? Nikola Vue č vić? What is the commonality between them all? If you said that their names all end in “ic,” you would be right, but you would be remiss to the point of ignorance. To give them a little more respect, these are the names of star NBA players who surpassed expectations and led their respective teams deep into the 2020 playoffs. To give some statistical context, let us compare the points per game (ppg) of each of these four players during the 2020 NBA regular season. The majority of these games were played in stadiums with fans, as opposed to the playoffs, which are currently being played in a bubble near Orlando, Fla., without fans. To list the increases of a couple of the players, Jokić went from 19.9 ppg during the regular season to 24.4 ppg in the playoffs and Dončić from 28.8 ppg to 31.0 ppg. Combining the four players, they represent an average increase of 4.45 points per game. This magnitude shows that they are not only better, but have taken on more of a responsibility for their team. It seems that these specific players have been able to find comfort in the uncertainty and pressure surrounding the COVID-19 situation. They have excelled individually and have garnered success for their respective teams. Jokić and Dragić both surprisingly led their teams to the conference finals, knocking off championship favorites in the Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks, respectively. Dončić and Vučević both played exceptionally well against these same favorites. This is surprising because basketball is a sport where the favorites almost always win, due to the length and difficulty of a seven game series. What do these players really have in common? They all have ancestors who were once residents of Yugoslavia. As exemplified in the Yugoslavian basketball program, the European style is defined by a tenacious level of hard work, coupled with a love for the fundamentals and a disdain for the extras. These unique values of the Yugoslavian program still permeate today. The league focuses far more on defense than dunks, and teaches players how to “think” about the game rather than rely solely on their physicality. According to a Rolling Stone article on the Yugoslavian national team, “Their ability to stifle their opponents isn’t reliant on being stronger and faster than the other team; it comes from discipline and mutual trust.” During a pandemic where professional basketball players are stuck inside a bubble with only their teammates to interact with, it seems as though this mutual trust shone through for these players. One thing we know now is that if you see a player trained by the Yugoslavian basketball league, be wary, and expect the unexpected. Arnav Sacheti is a sophomore studying quantitative economics. Arnav can be reached at arnavsacheti@gmail.com
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ALL-PRO REELS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James is pictured with Washington Wizards player John Wall during a game on Dec. 16, 2018. by Alex Sharp
Assistant Sports Editor
Anthony Davis scored 34 points and the Los Angeles Lakers easily defeated the Miami Heat 118–116 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Heat went on a 13–0 run and led 23–10 midway through the first quarter. It was all purple and gold from that point on. The Lakers outscored the Heat 55–25
to close out the first half and started the second half on an 18–3 run. Davis was the catalyst for much of the Lakers’ offense in his NBA Finals debut. The big man shot 11 for 21 from the field, dished out five assists and went 10 for 10 from the free-throw line. “[Davis is] just a great player. He’s focused, locked in and can really hurt you in a variety of ways offensively,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said in a press con-
ference after the game. “The bigger the moment, he’s raising his play.” In the first game of his 10th career NBA Finals appearance, Lebron James had 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green and Alex Caruso each scored in double figures with 13, 11 and 10 points respectively. Caldwell-Pope may have had the highlight of the night as he soared above the rim to block a Tyler Herro fast break dunk attempt in the fourth quarter, though the slow motion replay showed that Caldwell-Pope whacked Herro’s head as well as the ball. The Lakers dominated in just about every aspect of the game. They led by as many as 32 points, outrebounded the Heat 54–36, shot better from beyond the arc and made 14 more free throws. The Heat had two key players leave the game due to injury. Point guard Goran Dragic, who has averaged 19.9 points per game this postseason, exited the game in the second quarter. Dragic reportedly tore the plantar fascia in his left foot, putting his status for the remainder of the series in doubt. Center Bam Adebayo, who starred in the Heat’s Game 6 Eastern Conference Finals victory over the Boston Celtics, left the game in the third quarter after experiencing pain in his left shoulder, which has bothered him throughout the playoffs. Jimmy Butler led the Heat with 23 points, Herro had 14 points and Jae Crowder chipped in 12 points. With the game well out of reach, Kendrick Nunn came off the bench and scored 16 of his 18 points during the fourth quarter. “The Lakers set the tenor, the tone, the force and the physicality for the majority of the game,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said in a postgame conference after the game. “We’re much better than we showed tonight, much credit to the Lakers, and we’ll get to work for the next one.” The NBA Finals marks the conclusion of an unprecedented NBA postseason, played for the first time without fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Players and coaches on the Lakers and Heat have been living in the NBA’s playoff bubble in Orlando since early July. Game 2 will be played on Friday night at 9 p.m. EST.