The Tufts Daily - Friday, October 23, 2020

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Friday, October 23, 2020

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

TCU Senate assigns committee placements, discusses online transition of Senate activities

by Flora Meng

Contributing Writer

New Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate members were recently placed into various Senate committees after ranking their choices by preference following their retreat — an annual event that was held virtually this year.

There are five committees, each one specializing in different initiatives to enhance student life: Administration & Policy, Community & Diversity, Education, Outreach and Services.

Each committee chair gave a presentation on their individual projects and responsibilities during the retreat, and all new and existing senators received interest forms that asked them to rank committees by preference, according to TCU Vice President Grant Gebetsberger, a senior.

During a typical school year, each committee is involved in an assortment of initiatives.

Gebetsberger explained that the see COMMITTEE, page 2

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Jumbo statue is pictured at sunrise on Oct. 14.

Coalition calls on Middlesex sheriff to protect votes of incarcerated people ahead of election

by Ella Kamm

Contributing Writer

The Election Protection Behind Bars Coalition wrote a letter to Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian on Oct. 9, asking him to take further steps to protect the right of eligible incarcerated voters to cast their ballots in the upcoming election, and to provide guidelines for sheriffs statewide.

The coalition is composed of various organizations, such as Common Cause Massachusetts, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the League of Women Voters, according to the press release.

“We came together this year … to ensure that people who are incarcerated and maintain the right to vote can actually exercise that right in practice,” Kristina Mensik, assistant director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said. “There is no statewide system to ensure that that happens … people who maintain the right to vote who are incarcerated are de facto disenfranchised.”

Mensik noted that the coalition has two goals, the first of which is to protect voting rights of incarcerated eligible voters in the upcom-

ing Nov. 3 election. This includes providing them with absentee ballot applications, election information and a secure way to get their ballots back to the elections commission.

According to Mensik, Koutoujian is the president of the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association and has already committed to gathering information from others about what steps it is taking to protect ballot access.

“That’s a good step, but it’s one that should have happened about three months ago, if not years before,” Mensik said. “So our ask of him is that he … provide recommendations that are based on what he’s actually doing in the Middlesex Jail itself, which we’re a bit murky on.”

Jesse White, pro bono and policy counsel at Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, related mass incarceration to issues of racial injustice.

“Our modern prison and policing systems are rooted in a long history of slavery, racism, and white supremacy in the United States, which has led directly to Black and brown people being disproportionately put behind bars,” White wrote in an email to the Daily.

According to White, the Massachusetts prison population is 54% Black and Latinx, while these demographics only make up 22% of the general population.

“The Commonwealth has an opportunity and an obligation to ensure that incarcerated eligible voters … are not disenfranchised due to a lack of guidance and leadership on this issue,” Lizz Matos, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, said in the press release.

In 2018, elly kalfus, a coordinator with the Emancipation Initiative, led a project to find whether or not eligible incarcerated voters are able to vote.

“What we found was that Massachusetts had no system in place, so it was up to volunteers in each county,” kalfus said. kalfus noted that these volunteers walked sheriffs through the rights of incarcerated individuals who are eligible to vote and how they should ensure that the incarcerated individuals are aware of their rights and have access to ballots.

The Initiative released a report last year identifying factors that prevent eligible incarcerated people from voting and barriers vol-

unteers face when working with sheriffs departments. The report now guides the work of the coalition.

This year, the pandemic has added an additional obstacle to putting the report in action, according to kalfus.

“Because of [COVID-19], almost all the sheriffs have been saying volunteers can’t come in to provide absentee ballot applications or answer questions,” kalfus said. “It’s been a lot harder to try to find out what’s actually going on inside.”

With Election Day near, the coalition’s statement emphasized that the sheriff’s departments have little time to act.

“We’re three weeks out from Election Day … this week would be the week to proactively identify any eligible voter who is incarcerated in their county, to provide them proactively with absentee ballot applications, information on the candidates and key deadlines,” Mensik said.

There are also concerns about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to transport the ballots of incarcerated individuals.

“We’re all worried about delays in the mail meaning that our vote isn’t counted this fall, and it’s exac-

SPORTS / back

ARTS / page 4

First-years have unique start to Div. III careers, eager to compete

Review of Open Mike Eagle’s latest album ‘Anime, Trauma and Divorce’

erbated for people who are facing delays of prison mail,” Mensik said.

According to Mensik, a statewide legal solution is necessary to completely remove these barriers to voting for incarcerated individuals.

“There are going [to] be a lot of people who we know aren’t going to be able to vote this fall, both because of [COVID-19] and because of the lack of power that we actually have over sheriffs,” Mensik said. “There will be people who our coalition can’t get access to. That’s why it’s so important that there is a legislative fix next session.”

White echoed Mensik’s sentiments by emphasizing that voting is fundamental to democracy and that it is imperative that his clients are able to exercise their right to vote.

“We should always encourage civic engagement. Instead, we discourage it for those who are incarcerated,” White said.

Mensik said that citizens concerned about this issue should contact their representatives.

“For folks at [Tufts University], tweeting at Sheriff Koutoujian is a great thing to be doing right now,” Mensik said. “I think that he would be responsive to hearing from people in Middlesex County.”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, October 23, 2020

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TCU Vice President explains goals of Senate committees COMMITTEE

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continued from page 1 Services Committee handles questions of infrastructure on campus.

“So things that are really tangible and physical, like dealing with printers, dealing with laundry … They also run certain yearly things like the Turkey Shuttle,” Gebetsberger said.

Gebetsberger also anticipates that the Turkey Shuttle, which typically transports students from campus to Logan International Airport and South Station during the Thanksgiving holiday, will not be running this year.

The Outreach Committee is another of the service-based committees.

“We also have Outreach, which tries to make Senate more accessible and tries to connect senators with the student body to collect feedback and publicize our office hours and to really work to make sure that we have solid channels to communicate with students,” Gebetsberger said.

The Community & Diversity Committee is more community-based and is composed of the eight TCU community senators.

“The membership of that committee is all of our community senators … so that membership is already kind of predetermined,” Gebetsberger said.

Gebetsberger emphasized the importance of the Community & Diversity Committee in supporting the six Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion (DSDI) centers.

“It’s really special because I think it’s one of the only spaces on campus where members who are involved with all of our [DSDI] centers get together on a regular basis,” Gebetsberger said.

“So those folks tend to work a little more closely with the [DSDI] centers specifically, and then we come back and we think about ways to structurally support those centers.”

The Administration & Policy Committee deals with the policy and regulation side of the university.

“Looking at the university budget, looking at tuition increases, looking at any work on Senate that would go towards climate change divestment from our endowment,” Gebetsberger said.

One of the critical responsibilities of the Administration & Policy Committee is the organization of town halls, which connect students with administrators so they can ask direct questions.

The Education Committee focuses on issues related to academics, such as the curriculum and the academic calendar.

“The chair, Iyra [Chandra], was really involved in the project to reform the world civilization requirement,” Gebetsberger said. “[ The Education Committee] also have been really helpful in pushing for exceptional pass/fail.”

Given COVID-19 restrictions, all committees are currently facing the challenge of adjusting to an online format for Senate meetings. Chair of the Senate Education Committee Iyra Chandra expressed her concerns with the transition to online meetings and the possibility of meeting in person.

“I’m currently trying to figure out if we can do in-person meetings,” Chandra, a junior, said. “I think only three people can be in the Senate office now so we can’t do our meetings there.”

Chandra explained that she reached out to her committee members to ask for their preferences, and they reached a consensus in favor of a mix of in-person and Zoom meetings.

Despite these obstacles, Gebetsberger emphasized his pride in the way senators continue to seek innovative solutions.

“We’ve all adapted really well and I’m really impressed with all of the committee chairs for finding creative ways to make this work,” he said.

Gebetsberger noted the particular effectiveness of social media in spreading TCU Senate information in a time when media literacy is growing, and he commended the TCU senators who have had a hand in that.

For instance, Senator Hadiya Giwa created a graphic that explained what TCU Senate does and how it works, which was posted on the Senate’s social media pages by the Outreach chair.

Giwa, a first-year, explained how social media was useful in sharing her platform during her campaign for Senate.

“It’s definitely different than past years because everything pretty much had to be virtual, ” Giwa said. “Most, if not all the candidates really took advantage of social media platforms, especially Instagram, creating separate accounts for their campaign, and using that to post what their platform was all about.”

Looking forward, Gebetsberger expressed optimism toward how the pandemic will push TCU Senate to refine itself.

“I think one thing that has arisen from COVID is rethinking our internal structures and what matters,” Gebetsberger said. “What do we need to keep, and what is not as important [or what] can we streamline?”

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Friday, October 23, 2020

‘We Are Who We Are’ ticks all the boxes

by Derin Savasan Contributing Writer

At first glance, HBO’s “We Are Who We Are” (2020) seems like the love child of “Euphoria” (2019–) and “Skins” (2007–2013) — another teen drama that portrays the ups and downs of adolescence and self-discovery. But as with all of filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s projects, there’s more than what meets the eye.

With a star-studded cast featuring both Hollywood newbies (Jack Grazer, Jordan Kristine Seamón) and pop culture legends (Chloë Sevigny, Scott Mescudi — better known as “Kid Cudi”), “We Are Who We Are” tells the story of two American families living on an American military base in Italy in 2016.

The audience is first introduced to Fraser ( Jack Dylan Grazer), an outspoken, eclectic 14-year-old who is unafraid to unapologetically express himself through his sense of fashion, music and poetry. Having lived in New York City all his life, Fraser is having a hard time adapting to this new environment into which he was abruptly dragged when his mom (Chloë Sevigny) was appointed as the new colonel of the base.

Struggling to make friends with the other American kids on the base, Fraser gravitates toward his tomboy neighbor Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón), whose MAGA-hat-wearing military dad (Scott Mescudi) is a captain on the base. After catching Caitlin in drag at a bar one day, Fraser befriends her and her two brothers, who introduce him to the rest of their friend group.

As Fraser and Caitlin’s platonic alliance grows, we see them help each other out in their journeys toward self-discovery.

The show’s focus soon broadens to Caitlin’s tight-knit circle of friends and their identities — Christian and Muslim, American and European, white and Black, military and civilian, all thrown together in a limbo that’s both America and Italy, and yet, at the same time, neither.

What makes this series unique is that it’s essentially about a group of American teenagers stuck in a foreign land. The moment these kids step outside of the military base, they find themselves in Italy. While they have made this rigid base feel like

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “We Are Who We Are” (2020) is pictured. home, they can’t stay blind to the outside world. It is this friction between the inside and the outside world that drives these kids to search for who they are and who they want to be. Perhaps, this is Guadagnino’s take on Americans and their need to

build this concept of “America” everywhere they go — even at a military base in Italy.

Echoing the cinematographic traces of “Call Me By Your Name” (2017) and its sultry, sun-kissed Italian feeling, Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are” manages to go

beyond the realms of a typical teen drama and quite realistically explores the ideas of family, politics, gender, sexuality, alcohol, drugs, friendship and “finding your people.” After all, we all go through phases in life in which we really don’t know who we are.

It’s a story that fits with every generation.

With a few episodes yet to be released, “We Are Who We Are” could go in a lot of different directions, but it already feels like one of the best things 2020 will offer.

When life throws you a financial challenge, you’ve proven you have what it takes to ace it.

Now it’s time to tackle your retirement savings at AceYourRetirement.org

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Pop Culture | Friday, October 23, 2020

tuftsdaily.com

ALBUM REVIEW

Open Mike Eagle’s new album ‘Anime, Trauma and Divorce’ doesn’t deliver what it could

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

Content warning: This article discusses trauma.

Open Mike Eagle is a rapper of tragicomedy. Indeed, he has an album called “Dark Comedy” (2014). The rapper is most distinguished for his lyrical wit, his keen eye for political idiocy and his personal confessions — though the latter is usually done in an ironic tone.

In his song “Dark Comedy Late Night Show” (2015), which was released in an extended play after “Dark Comedy,” Eagle mocks the war hawk Congress and the national security regime, among many others, while bemoaning the simultaneous exploitations of racial capitalism (“And I see the Super Bowl of the Future: / The Ferguson Blacks vs. Missouri State Troopers”). The title, “Dive Bar Support Group” (2016) is literally an oxymoron since support groups are supposed to help people become sober; the mellow hook speaks from the voice of a paralyzed group of people who are at the dive bar and can’t put up with each other, but want to avoid going home.

Open Mike Eagle’s latest album, “Anime, Trauma and Divorce” (2020), as its title suggests, is his most vulnerable one yet. Each of the three elements occupies a unique place in the album and culminates in an admirably personal tale of loss, confusion and anguish.

Part of the album’s shortcoming lies in the relative monotony. The album is markedly slower than Eagle’s usual work, both in terms of the speed of his rapping and the overly melodramatic melodies.

The fast-pace and strong percussion in “Ziggy Starfish” and “Dark Comedy Late Show” bring out the best of Eagle’s quickfire wit and allows his self-deprecating jokes to land at the right places without feeling overdone.

This technique doesn’t work as well when the song is slow and the lyrics only ostensibly confessional. The problem is the most present in the opening track “Death Parade” and the lead single “Bucciarati.” When Eagle does get confessional, for example in “Bucciarati” when he says, “Part of me struck an original trauma / Part of me wears an invisible armor / Part of me knows I have all that I need / Part of me hurts when the other succeed,” we get none of his usual wit.

“The Black Mirror Episode,” the track most explicitly about divorce and described by critics as “nightmarish,”

Florence Almeda Livestreamed and Quarantined

A

Yaeji

s I start to dip my toes into the production side of music making, I look to Korean American DJ, producer and songwriter Yaeji as a major source of inspiration. Whether I’m writing a paper at The Sink on a Monday morning or Ubering downtown on a Friday night, somehow Yaeji’s music manages to be both energizing and relaxing at the same time, melding to whatever mood I find myself in.

On April 2, she dropped her debut fulllength album, “What We Drew,” and on Aug. 28, she performed songs from it for the first time on the Boiler Room’s YouTube

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The cover for Open Mike Eagle’s album “Anime, Trauma and Divorce” (2020) is pictured. discusses an unnamed “Black Mirror” (2011–) episode that ruined his marriage … and that’s about it. We’re left with little idea what episode it was or how it sabotaged the bond between the couple.

The more interesting tracks in this album include “Wtf is Self Care.” The approximately two-minute song mocks the notion of self-care but reminds the audience of his need for healing; its shortness and bizarre tone paradoxically brings out the lines, “Yeah, it’s like journaling, writing s— that feels nurturing / I tried it out and found pain I was circling / And started crying so hard I was gur-

gling” very well. He picks up the speed in “The Edge of New Clothes,” which has a smooth flow and Eagle’s usual all-encompassing lyrical depth, though the track is regrettably short. Eagle’s son, Lil A$e, also delivers a memorable performance in the last track, “Fifteen Twenty Feet Ocean Nah.” The puzzling thing about the album is one can feel Open Mike Eagle’s genuineness without learning much about either his anime, trauma or divorce. Though he compares himself to a “JoeStar” and discusses other anime concepts, even listeners familiar with “Jojo’s Bizarre

Adventure” (2012–) or “Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1995–96) cannot figure out what either anime series mean to him other than surface-level relatability.

Divorce we learn of little, perhaps for good reason.

“Anime, Trauma and Divorce” falls short of Open Mike Eagle’s trademark wit, dark humor and knack for social critique; some portions of it are overly melodramatic, with unoriginal verses. Despite these deficiencies, Eagle remains one of the more interesting rappers to listen to for his general lyrical complexity and musical excellence.

channel. In my opinion, the livestream of the album encapsulated what it is about Yaeji that I admire most. In it, not only does she continue to effortlessly weave together lush tapestries in Korean and English, but the creativity of the livestream itself highlights the seriousness and silliness that I find so characteristic to her sound as an artist.

Born in Queens, N.Y., Yaeji moved to South Korea at a young age and lived there until she returned to the United States for college. Her career as a DJ and producer started after she performed at the student-run radio station at Carnegie Mellon University. Drawing from elements of Korean indie rock, electronica, hip-hop and techno, the singles and remixes she’s released so far have been dark and ethereal, like shimmering fistfuls of black glitter. What feels like the perfect soundtrack to a rooftop rave in Brooklyn, her songs feature deli-

cate vocals hovering above fizzy samples, crisp hi-hats and a beat that seems to never stop pushing you forward.

In place of a canceled international tour, I knew this performance would be far from the typical bedroom set. Lounging on a couch in what looks like a room in a neon green dollhouse, Yaeji nonchalantly rap-sings into the microphone as two floating Animoji heads emerge from the windows behind her and proceed to bounce around her head. She goes on to perform “When I Grow Up,” as pencil-like doodles grow and skitter around the border of the screen. Later on, she uses FaceTime to call some of the featured artists and friends on her tracks, letting them perform their own parts in lieu of a real-life collaboration.

As zany as the visuals are, the lyrical content of the album itself speaks more to the “gentle celebration of self-care and small domestic victories,” according to the

music blog Loud and Quiet. Yaeji herself expressed the simplicity and intimacy that she hoped to convey in “What We Drew.”

“Each track is almost like a snippet of my life, a look into my diary or something, where it’s reflective of how I was specifically feeling during that time,” Yaeji said.

And to me, it really did feel like I was walking through the pages of her diary as we wandered the neon green, doodle-filled dreamscape. She concluded the livestream with a song called “so.called,” a slow, lo-fi track by nooon. As the lights dimmed on the livestream, she curled up in a blanket on the couch. And in her repose, I felt a stillness too — one that allowed me to revel in a newfound affinity for not only her music, but her creative process in its entirety.

Florence Almeda is a junior studying community health and music. Florence can be reached at florence.almeda@gmail.com

Friday, October 23, 2020 | Fun & Games | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Sports

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Getting to know Tufts athletes: First-year students acclimating to student-athlete experience

by Sophia Antezana Contributing Writer

Among the members of the Tufts Class of 2024 that arrived on campus this fall are dozens of student-athletes. The newest members of the Jumbos athletic community transitioned to college life during unusual times, and being an athlete has certainly affected this transition as well.

“My transition to Tufts has been aided tremendously by being an athlete,” Wanci Nana, a first-year center midfielder on the men’s soccer team, said. “The athlete community within Tufts is very closeknit which allowed me to form various friendships prior to, and once I moved onto campus.”

These friendships among teammates are enhanced this year, as most first-year athletes were placed in the same residential cohorts as their teammates in order to limit their exposure to those not on the team.

“Living with our teammates has given us a better and easier chance to get to know one another,” Ashley Zolin, a first-year midfielder on the field hockey team, said. “Given the social distancing circumstances, I think if we were in different dorms, then it would be much harder to spend time with one another.”

Athletes being in the same residential cohorts as their team members was certainly a silver lining to the way the pandemic impacted the fall. First-year track and field athlete Brian Kwarteng expressed that he liked being in the same cohort as his team.

“I like rooming in the same cohort as my team because I am surrounded by individuals who follow the same sort of schedule,” Kwarteng said. “We all try to push each other whether it is academically or athletically.”

With regard to playing this fall, athletic teams have been able to have small team training sessions as well as lifts. To adhere to COVID19 guidelines, these small team training sessions are divided into athletic cohorts so that players on large teams are not all coming into contact with one another. These cohorts are divided by position.

Furthermore, team training is different from years past in that it consists of noncontact drills. This took form differently for each sport.

Nana shared his experience with regard to the small team training for men’s soccer.

AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Community members exercise on the track on Oct. 14.

“Our small sessions are a bit more technique, fundamentals and fitness based,” Nana said. “We go through various passing patterns, movements with the ball and defensive simulations to try and mimic the real game as much as possible while still remaining in compliance with the COVID regulations.”

This experience contrasts with the noncontact sports that do not need to worry about athletes coming into direct contact while training. Track athletes have a fairly similar physical training regime as they did before the pandemic, despite the stricter regulations.

Across all sports teams, players wear masks during practice and lifts.

Lifts also look different this year, as athletes each have an individual weight rack where they remain for their 30-minute lift session. The weight racks are separated with curtains and are sanitized in between each lift session. These lift sessions and small team trainings have allowed athletes to train, despite not having regular season competition.

Even though teams do not have a regular practice schedule or season, they still dedicate a good amount of their time to their crafts, wheth-

er it be in lift sessions, small team training or working individually.

Combining these athletic responsibilities with coursework can certainly be challenging, especially for first-years who are adjusting to life as college athletes.

“I would say my schedule is busy.

However, it has given me a lot of structure,” Zolin said. “I always say I do best in season because it’s easiest to map out my time for schoolwork given a consistent schedule.”

The student-athlete camaraderie at Tufts is certainly very special and has helped aid first-years in their adjustment to life as college athletes. Athletes also have a support network that includes teammates and coaches who can help aid in the transition to college.

Coaches and older teammates are aware of the difficulty of acclimating to college under regular circumstances, but the current circumstances are a new territory to navigate as the semester picks up and training continues.

“It has also helped me adjust to college because it has provided me with a network of people that I can collaborate and learn with,” Nana said.

Coaches and the athletics department have been instrumental this fall, putting in a lot of time and effort to ensure that teams are training both safely and effectively. They have been key in ensuring that athletes not only arrived prepared, but that they use the fall to improve, despite circumstances not being ideal.

“Our coaching staff and athletic department has done an amazing job adjusting to the times and capitalizing on the opportunity to continue getting better,” Nana said.

Many athletes, especially firstyears, took advantage of the summer to prepare for the fall.

“The coaching staff has made sure all of us were well prepared by giving us a great workout packet and slowing building up the intensity of each practice,” Zolin said.

First-year student-athletes have just begun a journey at Tufts. Having a future to look forward to, firstyears set personal goals, as well as goals for their program. Athletes are looking forward to the full return to sports for the chance to compete at the college level and heightened competition.

“I am looking forward to winning national championships, forming

lifelong relationships and having an immense impact within the Jumbo community … along with strengthening the culture within our community, doing things that have never been done before and by simply spreading love,” Nana said.

Zolin shared a similar goal of winning a national championship, and she hopes for a chance to compete soon.

“I am looking forward to growing as an athlete, student and person,” Zolin said. “I would love to be a part of a NESCAC and national championship team. I truly think our whole team has the talent and dedication to be the best of the best.”

Kwarteng also shared high aspirations for his time at Tufts.

“My personal goals are to break a couple of the records at this school,” Kwarteng said. “I want our 4-x-4 to make a name for Tufts. I think me being an addition to the roster can promote a big change for the Tufts quarter-mile racing.”

In all, these three student-athletes, as well as the rest of the firstyear class, certainly have a lot to look forward to during their time at Tufts, as their athletic careers are just getting started.