Issuu

After initial losses, men’s squash team bounces back for impressive season start see SPORTS / PAGE 10

Foo Fighters rehash familiar formula on new EP

Panelists at Fletcher event reflect on recent Myanmar election see FEATURES / PAGE 5

see Arts and Living / PAGE 7

the

i n de p e n de n t

stude n t

n e w s pa p e r

T ufts

u n i v e r sity

est. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXX, NUMBER 53

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tufts research team helps evaluate local support program

a four-part series by the Tufts Daily

Janitorial Restru

by Isha Fahad Staff Writer

A research team with the EliotPearson Department of Child Study and Human Development has been providing feedback to Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM), a publicly funded program run by the Children’s Trust Massachusetts to support young, firsttime mothers. The researchers are part of the Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluation Research (TIER) group, according to Dr. Ann Easterbrooks, one of the four principal investigators at TIER. Easterbrooks, who is a professor in the Eliot-Pearson department, explained Tufts’ involvement in evaluating HFM. “As independent evaluators, we provide feedback to the HFM program about the way in which the program is operating across the Commonwealth, how participants experience the program, and the program outcomes and impact,” Easterbrooks told the Daily in an email. “We are gratified that the Children’s Trust utilizes our research finding in fine-tuning program goals and practices, training home visitors, and working to enhance the lives of children and families.” Tufts is doing longitudinal research to see the long-term effects of the HFM program, which serves parents and families from a mother’s pregnancy until the child’s third birthday, according to Dr. Rebecca Fauth, a project director at TIER. “We currently are conducting a longitudinal investigation, following the children into their primary school years, in order to examine the potential for longterm effects of program participation,” Fauth told the Daily in an email. “We also have other research and evaluation projects housed within TIER.” Rogers added that they expect to see that children whose parents were in their program are still doing well in the long run. “We are quite pleased with the results and are still looking at ways to continue strengthening our program,” she said. “This is also why we are committed to see CHILDREN, page 2

Rain 44 / 41

tuftsdaily.com

c turing:

t Par t on e: Concerns abou ancustodial work load, cle ke wa in liness of campus arise ring of janitorial restructu Nicholas Pfosi / Tufts Daily Archive

Students, janitors raise concerns about custodial work load, campus cleanliness in wake of janitorial restructuring by Emma Steiner News Editor

Editor’s note: This article is the first installment of a four-part update on the restructuring of Tufts’ custodial staff earlier this year. Members of Tufts’ janitorial staff and Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) have reported that janitors are being overworked and that the cleanliness of campus buildings has declined as a result of the university’s custodial reorganization and janitorial layoffs, which occurred between June and August. According to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler, the reorgani-

zation implemented by Tufts and the university’s custodial contractor, DTZ – originally estimated to result in 35 layoffs — ultimately displaced 18 custodians, seven of whom are no longer working with DTZ, from their former positions. “The reorganization has been completed, and we were able to maintain our priority of supporting DTZ in efforts to minimize job loss, offer alternative positions to the small number of people laid off and treat each person with respect,” she said. According to TLC member Nicole Joseph, a total of eight — not seven — janitors were laid off as a result of the reorganization, but the number was

Evan Sayles / Tufts Daily ARCHIVE

unclear due to worker movement since the initial layoffs. Thurler said in a Nov. 16 email to the Daily that, on the Medford/Somerville campus, one custodian “proactively resigned,” four transferred to different DTZ locations and four declined open DTZ position offers, which the university took to be acts of resignation. Among the custodians who declined other DTZ positions, two people were offered three other positions within DTZ and declined all three. Seven other custodians “accepted ‘open’ positions on the Medford/Somerville campus,” Thurler said. One custodian from the Boston campus “accepted a voluntary layoff” and one janitor from the Grafton campus voluntarily resigned, according to Thurler. In addition, assignments for several temporary workers ended after the reorganization, she said. According to a June 11 Facebook post by TLC, the open positions that janitors were offered in other DTZ locations were not comparable to the positions that they had at Tufts. “Most are only temporary jobs, are far from janitors’ homes and inaccessible by public transportation, are part-time and do not include benefits, and would constitute a significant decrease in pay,” the post read. Senior Sofia Adams, a member of TLC, added that these open jobs were located in far away locations, such as near Gillette Stadium in Foxborough,

Janitors, TLC members and members of the Tufts community marched in front of Ballou on Wednesday, April 8 to protest proposed cuts to the janitorial staff.

For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit

TUFTSDAILY.COM

/thetuftsdaily @tuftsdaily

News............................................1 Features.................................5 COMICS.......................................6

see JANITORS, page 3

Arts & Living....................... 7 OPINION.....................................9 Sports.....................................10

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, December 1, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

News News

T HE T UFTS D AILY Joey Palandrani Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Lancy Downs Abigail Feldman Managing Editors Sarah Zheng Executive News Editor Marianna Athanassiou News Editors Melissa Kain Reena Karasin Arin Kerstein Safiya Nanji Sophie Lehrenbaum Emma Steiner Annabelle Roberts Roy Yang Isha Fahad Assistant News Editors Miranda Willson Mengqi Sun Executive Features Editor Kendall Todd Features Editors Arin Kerstein Nicole Brooks Becca Leibowitz Nina Joung Assistant Features Editors Joshua Podolsky Executive Arts Editor Anjali Nair Arts Editors Yotam Bentov Assistant Arts Editors Merilla Michael John Gallagher Ascher Kulich Justin Krakoff Yuki Zaninovich Nick Golden Erin Sifre Katie Matejcak Hannah Hoang Ty Enos Fury Sheron Natasha Khwaja Nick Golden

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editor

Cartoonists Editorialist

Alison Kuah Executive Sports Editor Ross Dember Sports Editors Alex Schroeder Chris Warren Steven Hefter Phillip Goldberg Ray-Paul Biron Josh Slavin Evan Sayles Executive Photo Editor Sofie Hecht Photo Administrator Caroline Ambros Picture Tufts Editor Merilla Michael Executive Jumbo Beat Editors Rachel Allen

PRODUCTION Andrew M. Stephens Production Director David Westby Executive Layout Editors Nick Golden Julie Doten Layout Editors Molly Harrower Allie Merola Annabelle Roberts Emily Sharp Natasha Statz-Geary Sebastian Torrente Astrid Weng Shirley Wang Creative Director Alison Epstein Executive Copy Editors Sophie Lehrenbaum Iqra Asghar Copy Editors Arthur Beckel Noah Habeeb Jonathan Heutmaker Andrew Kager Melissa Kain Reena Karasin Serena Kassam Claire Mullany Rachel Salzberg Caroline Watson Kayla Williamson Assistant Copy Editors Sarah Kalinowski Nitesh Gupta Executive Online Editor Max Bernstein Executive Tech Manager

Tufts research team works with Health Families Massachusetts to help program support local families CHILDREN

continued from page 1 looking at the longitudinal effects of the program — we expect that we’ll see that children whose parents were in HFM are still thriving.” Director of Newborn Home Visiting at the Children’s Trust Sarita Rogers explained that young mothers and fathers face many of the same challenges as older parents, as well as a unique set of needs that come with their own development as adults. “Programs like HFM connect young parents to a caring, well-trained professional who can provide information and other support that helps strengthen their parenting and their ability to meet their own health and other goals, link them to other services in the community and set their families off on a great start,” Rogers told the Daily in an email. She added that home visiting programs like HFM are not just for young parents, with many other countries like England providing home visiting to parents of all ages and backgrounds in order to ensure that all families get the support they need. “Children don’t come with instruction manuals, and most of us struggle as we take on the challenge of nurturing and caring for this new, tiny being we love so much,” she said. Over the course of almost 20 years, the Tufts team has used a developmental approach to the evaluation designed by Francine Jacobs, a professor within Eliot-Pearson and the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, according to Fauth. Fauth explained that TIER employs several methodologies to address its research questions, including quantitative, observational and ethnographic methods of data collection. “We use standardized questionnaires and observational assessments, participant interviews, information provided by the HFM home visitors and administrative data from state agency records (e.g., Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Children and Families, Department of Public Health and Department of Transitional Assistance) to address the research questions,” she said. Rogers explained that the cooperation with Tufts came about because the authorizing environment for social services programs, especially federal funders, was moving to prioritize funding programs that had been evaluated by Randomized Control Trial (RCT). “We were interested in being able to definitively attribute the results we were seeing to the program as well,” she said. “To meet all of these needs, we chose to do the RCT to see the progress that HFM was (and

wasn’t) making on achieving its goals. We worked with us on our research and were very proud to have partnered with evaluation.” According to Rogers, the Children’s Tufts/Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development to com- Trust has 10 staff members who work plete the Randomized Control Trial (RCT) directly with the HFM program staff in various capacities, with Rogers acting on HFM.” Fauth explained that the TIER team as the liaison to the evaluation project firmly believes in the importance of for budgeting and management, among an effective feedback loop between other responsibilities. “We do also have an infrastructure here research and practice. “If our research demonstrates at Children’s Trust where we are doing a finding that could have immediate ‘evaluation lite’: we have an extensive relevance to improve HFM program- data system and use these data to gauge ming, we discuss it with the Children’s programs’ performance on the 28 meaTrust, Massachusetts before any formal sures in their contracts and to provide technical assisfindings are tance, dissemireleased,” she nate best pracsaid. “We meet tices, continue to with them regularly to discuss “We chose to do the [Ran- develop a culture quality,” Rogers the research domized Control Trial] to see of told the Daily in questions that they want the progress that [Healthy an email. “We deliver a subset answered and Families Massachusetts] of data points to that will help them improve was (and wasn’t) making on our network each quarter, with a full program serachieving its goals.” annual report at vices for famthe end of each ilies; we send year.” them bimonthRogers said she ly updates on feels that the Children’s Trust’s programs emerging findings.” Easterbrooks explained that HFM have gotten better at understanding and used the evaluation feedback to include using their data to improve their program’s a broad programming focus on parental practice and to instill a sense of accountmental health and well-being, which ability and excellence in their staff. “Tufts has been able to do the was as an additional goal of the program in-depth analyses, using tools that may after the first phase of the evaluation. Fauth said that one of the benefits be too invasive to use with participants for Tufts from working with HFM is in a home visiting relationship and stratthe enormous amount of training for egies like interviews, but also follow involved students — from undergrad- participants after they have exited the uates to post-docs — across multiple program,” Rogers said. “As partners, we think that the results Tufts generates in disciplines. “Providing opportunities for students evaluation build on what programs have to be part of a large research effort seen in their program specific data.” According to Rogers, all of the particthat has direct implications for children, youth and families, and to understand ipants, mothers and fathers of HFM are the policy and program implications of residents of Massachusetts and come from all across the state. Data provided their work, is a real benefit,” she said. During the last few years, the TIER by Rogers shows that in the last fiscal year, team has consisted of approximately 30 the HFM population was distributed as to 60 members per year and consisted of follows: 17 percent in the greater Boston faculty, staff, postdoctoral associates, area, 19 percent in central Massachusetts, graduate students and undergraduate 20 percent in northeastern Massachusetts, 24 percent in southeastern Massachusetts students, according to Easterbrooks. “We have established a successful and 20 percent in western Massachusetts. Rogers said that Children’s Trust will mentoring model in which, for example, graduate students learn how to mentor continue to partner with the TIER team through their relationships with faculty to further analyze current data, as well as and postdoctoral associates, and then continuing data collection at additional they also participate in the mentoring time points to have longitudinal data on of undergraduate students,” she said. the HFM participants and children. “We hope to keep learning how HFM “Since 1998, approximately 27 Ph.D. students, 100 M.A. students, 150 under- is working and with whom, how the graduates, five Tufts Summer Scholars program can be refined and what can and six undergraduates from other insti- we learn that matters not just in HFM tutions participating in the Leadership but in home visiting across the counAlliance/Mellon Scholars program have try,” she said.

Corrections BUSINESS Kristie Le Executive Business Director Chris Chininis Ad Director Yiran Xu Receivables Manager Eva Sachar Ad Manager Evan Sayles Jahlyn Hayes Qinyue Yu Caroline Talbert Marketing Director Qinyue Yu Marketing Manager Scott Geldzahler Social Media Editor Vera Masterson

The article titled “Department of Romance Languages approves Portuguese minor, addresses declines in enrollment,” published Nov. 20, stated that according to the data provided to the Daily by Birdsall and Palou, Italian is the language with the lowest course enrollment at Tufts. This is incorrect – Portuguese has the lowest course enrollment within the Department of Romance Languages, and no comparison should have been made to enrollment in other language courses outside of the department. The Daily regrets this error. The article titled “Africana Center symposium to highlight black institutional history at Tufts,” published Nov. 19, misleadingly attributed the symposium’s organization to the Africana Center alone. In fact, the event’s organization was a collaborative effort between the Africana Studies program and the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, as a workshop of the Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora. The article also used the acronym “CSRCD” to refer to the Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. The correct acronym is RCD. The Daily apologizes for these errors.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

News

Tufts Labor Coalition raises money to support janitors who lost their jobs in custodial restructuring JANITORS

continued from page 1 Mass. According to Adams, several of the DTZ employees who were rehired after layoffs lost their seniority and were not given priority to reclaim the shifts they had previously worked. Joseph, a sophomore, explained that in negotiations among representatives from the administration, DTZ and TLC, students involved in TLC were assured that workers who were laid off from Tufts would be the first to receive opportunities to fill open positions at other DTZ sites. TLC, however, was skeptical, suspecting that other openings would not come with benefits comparable to the ones that janitors receive at Tufts, Joseph said. According to TLC member Anna Gaebler, many workers who were not laid off left their jobs because the shift reorganization created scheduling conflicts with other jobs or family responsibilities. “Several people left their job because of the reorganization,” Gaebler, a senior, said. “So they were basically forced to leave their jobs.” Former Tufts janitor Lorena Arita, who was laid off at the beginning of the summer, said that losing her job has been difficult for her and her family economically and psychologically. “Personally, as a mother, I feel very frustrated because my children are in school, and because of the sudden stop of work, we really have experienced trauma,” Arita said in Spanish. “We are not free of economic problems, and I need work.” Gaebler said that these cuts have increased the individual workloads of the remaining janitors and has decreased the overall quality of cleaning around campus.

Adelaida Colon, a custodial worker at Tufts for 18 years, explained that she and her colleagues feel overworked and overwhelmed as a result of the reorganization. “My experience in the past was much better than it is now,” she said in Spanish. “I am not thinking only of myself, but also of my colleagues who are overloaded with work and schedule changes.” Colon said she worked for the past 17 years in Blakeley Hall — the dormitory for students attending the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy — where she and a partner cleaned the building together. “I did the bathrooms, the kitchen and the common areas [of Blakeley], but I had a partner,” she said. “My partner did the staircases and took out the trash, and together we did this work. But we were two people. Now there is one person in that building who has to do everything.” Colon, who now works in the Health Service building and another downhill building, said that several members of the janitorial staff have had to quit their other jobs as a result of the reorganization and are feeling economic pressures at home. Gaebler said that since the cuts, some janitors have had to find extra time — by skipping lunch breaks, for example — to keep up with the amount of work they are now assigned. “Some workers have been…returning later after they’ve finished their shift or during their lunch break to finish the cleaning, which is completely unacceptable,” she said. Custodial worker Maria Coreas, who works in four different buildings, said that while she has much more work, she

does not feel pressured to finish everything in one day. “Yes, I have an excess of work,” she said in Spanish. “But my supervisor does not force me to do things that I cannot do. For example, if I don’t finish something, at least until now, he hasn’t punished me for what I haven’t done. I can say that I am doing well because I am not feeling pressure … I eat my lunch and I work during my hours of work.” Arita believes DTZ is giving custodians more work than they can handle as a tactic to encourage workers to resign. “The company is giving my colleagues work in four buildings,” she said. “This suggests to me that DTZ is looking for strategies to ensure that people leave because by giving my colleagues more work, they are going to feel [doubly] stressed and will not be able to complete the work that they have been assigned. DTZ is automatically going to start giving ‘warnings’ and by the third warning they will fire the person.” Arita explained that when she was at Tufts, she would clean Bendetson Hall and West Hall in 25 hours. Now, her colleagues have to clean four buildings in the same amount of time. Within buildings, janitors also have more work; custodians who were previously only responsible for cleaning a building’s bathrooms now having to do the added responsibilities of vacuuming, taking out trash and cleaning the stairs, she said. “People who clean offices only have 15 minutes to do so,” Arita said. “The administration doesn’t have experience cleaning, so it is easy for them to say, ‘Do one office in 15 minutes and then another in 15 minutes.'” Thurler said that members of Tufts’ custodial staff are responsible for areas

of fewer square feet than custodians at other universities. “While we recognize that there has been a period of adjustment, the area that each Tufts custodian cleans is significantly less than industry standards for similar institutions,” she told the Daily in an email. “Comparisons based on gross square feet per custodian show Tufts below other institutions.” According to Thurler, the university used Sightlines, a facility assets advisor, to determine industry benchmarks for custodial efficiency in terms of the number of gross square feet (GSF) cleaned by each full-time custodian. Based on data from Sightlines, the average custodial efficiency of 10 of Tufts’ peer institutions, including schools such as Boston University, Brown University and Northeastern University, was 32, 749 GSF per custodian, Thurler said. In comparison, Tufts custodians cleaned an average of 27,501 GSF — about 19 percent less than the average. Using the Sightlines data, DTZ and Tufts made a plan to improve efficiency on all three university campuses, finding that Tufts had 700 hours of excess cleaning time, amounting to around $900,000 a year, according to Thurler. “This meant that our work force has been larger than it should be to clean the university, indicating significant opportunities for savings,” she said. Gaebler, on the other hand, said students and staff members have experienced a difference in the quality of the cleaning on campus since the reorganization. “I’ve heard backlash from professors,” Gaebler said. “Everything is so dirty and the trash is overflowing in the bathrooms. I work in Eaton [Hall] and it’s see JANITORS, page 4

Sofie Hecht / The Tufts Daily

Tufts students, custodial staff and members of the Somerville community protest proposed cuts to the Tufts custodial staff in a march from Davis Square to Powder House Square to Tufts led by TLC and the Service Employees International Union on Thursday, April 30.

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, December 1, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

News News

Administrators, custodial workers encourage students to report problems with campus cleanliness JANITORS

continued from page 3 really gross. The garbage is overflowing there, too.” Thurler explained that part of the reorganization included an adjustment to the amount of cleaning certain areas on campus receive. She said that “high use areas,” which include residence and dining halls, bathrooms, libraries and athletic facilities, are cleaned more frequently, while administrative buildings have had their cleaning services reduced. “We deliberately decreased services in individual administrative offices, so that staff could focus efforts on high use areas,” she said. Gaebler added that, since the reorganization, administrators have been expected to help maintain cleanliness by taking out their own trash. Thurler also said that students worried about the cleanliness of the facilities they use should either submit a work order or reach out to Director for Campus Services Gary Hill. “We understand that custodians, students, faculty and staff need time to adjust to the new routines,” Thurler said. “If there are concerns

about cleanliness that have not been addressed, we very much want to hear about those concerns. We believe we have responded to everyone who has reached out to us with questions or comments so far, and the number of complaints that we’ve received since the start of the semester has significantly declined.” Joseph said many janitors have likewise encouraged students who are unsatisfied with facilities’ conditions to submit reports to the university and are also unhappy about the cleanliness of campus since the reorganization. “A lot of [janitors] take a lot of dignity in their work,” she said. “Having this campus be a not sanitary place for students is not something they would feel good about or comfortable with.” Colon said she frequently notices areas that appear dirty that would never have been dirty before the reorganization. She explained there simply isn’t time to do all the work required. “The university is not interested in whether the worker feels comfortable in their work,” she said. “They are making us overworked … You can see that the campus is dirtier.” Arita added that it’s not fair that par-

ents of Tufts students pay large amounts of money to the university when the campus is not clean and janitors are struggling under heavy workloads. “I can feel the frustration of my colleagues, and they are feeling pain,” she said. “The excess work that DTZ has given each of my colleagues is not going to be possible. My colleagues are not going to be able to continue doing a good job because they have too much work. This is unfair to the students.” In response to the custodial reorganization, TLC has raised over $5,270 from over 95 donors through the Justice for Janitors Community Fund to support custodial workers like Arita who lost their jobs, according to the YouCaring crowd funding site used to collect the donations. The fund, made up of donations from students, parents and alumni, was started last semester to create a resource for janitors whose jobs were most threatened, according to Gaebler. TLC’s goal is to raise $8,000 in total — $1,000 for each janitor who lost their job. TLC also raised funds using campus events, such as the TCU Cause Dinner on Nov. 17 that TLC organized in conjunction with the Tufts Freethought Society.

At the dinner, students had the option to donate meal swipes, meal money or Jumbo Cash to the janitor’s fund. “The money raised will go to the eight janitors working at Tufts who were laid off over the past year,” the Facebook event read. “All could use financial support, and about half are still unemployed and struggling to pay for housing and food for their families.” TLC is also holding a fundraising event on Friday — the “Justice for Janitors FUNdraiser.” The proceeds of tickets, sold on a sliding scale from $1 to $20, will go to the janitor’s fund, according to the event page. Arita said that the janitor’s union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the university have not done sufficient work to support janitors like herself who have been laid off. “The union is not doing the work they need to do,” she said. “The university only sees us as people who clean bathrooms, not as real people who also have feelings and families depending on us. We need to bring a check home to support our family and our children. Emma Steiner translated interviews from Spanish into English.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Features

Fletcher School panel discusses recent elections in Myanmar by Constantinos Angelakis Contributing Writer

On Nov. 8, Myanmar held elections that resulted in the victory of the nation’s opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Convening to discuss recent developments regarding these elections, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy held a panel called “Myanmar in Transition: Unpacking the Recent Elections” on Friday, Nov. 20. The panel featured three speakers: U Shwe Maung, a member of the Myanmar Parliament and board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights; David Dapice, an associate professor in Development Economics in Southeast Asia at Tufts and an economist at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School; and Ayesha Jalal, the Mary Richardson Professor of History and Director of Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies at Tufts. The panel was co-sponsored by several institutes, including the Institute for Global Leadership and the Harvard Law and International Development Society. Panelists also spoke about the persecuted Rohingya minority and the increase in Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar. Myanmar was a former British colony that gained its independence in 1948. In 1962, the military successfully staged a coup and ruled the country until 2011. In the years since, Myanmar has begun a transition to a democratic state. According to the panelists, with such uncertainty surrounding the elections, the success of the NLD was not a guaranteed outcome. Thaw Htet, a first-year at Tufts from Myanmar, said that he was surprised by the election results. “Before the elections, I personally was not sure [what would happen],” Htet said. “And most of the news reports said that the NLD would get a majority but not by that much. Maybe [they would get] about 50 percent or 40 percent of the seats, but not this…super-majority of the seats.” Despite the NLD’s success, the military still maintains some control within the government, appointing 25 percent of Parliament and controlling the critical ministries of border security, internal security and defense, Jalal noted.

Though the NLD and military have different political aims, there seems to be room for compromise between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader of the NLD, and the military, according to the panelists. This would allow greater power in the government for the democratic party, which could be necessary to bring about change in a country that is newly emerging from a long military dictatorship. Jalal said that Suu Kyi will encounter numerous difficulties along the path to establishing democracy. She pointed out examples of other countries, like Pakistan and Nigeria, that have seen military regimes transition out power. “In recent times, we’ve seen politicians in military-dominated countries, powerful militaries, forging a sort of ‘partnership’ [with elected non-military leaders]” she said. “It’s invariably an asymmetrical relationship, but unfortunately, when countries have military rule, they have to go through this process. And it takes many decades and many electoral cycles before any kind of civilian supremacy can be registered.” Jalal also noted that the current support for the NLD has the potential to wane. “It’s interesting that people are generally very impatient with elected governments but have all the patience for military governments,” Jalal said. “I mean, look at Myanmar; [the military has] ruled it [from 1962] onwards. So in that sense, to expect miracles would be foolhardy, I think.” The treatment of the Rohingya people is also still a matter of contention in Myanmar, and it is an obstacle to holding fair elections, according to the panelists. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority who have been long persecuted by the pro-Buddhist government, according to a June 13 article in The Economist. Some human rights groups have descibed the treatment of Muslims in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing. The population of about one million is essentially a stateless people. They have lived in Myanmar for centuries, but the Rohingya are not “recognized as one of the country’s national races” and are not considered citizens, according to a May 25 CBC News article. Many have left Myanmar but have not always been able to find safety and security. Some have died on the journey or have been kept in overcrowded detention centers in neighboring countries. Member of Parliament (MP) Shwe Maung

Stuart Leavenworth / McClatchy DC / TNS

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi applaud outside the National League for Democracy party headquarters in Yangon, Myanmar, after the party announced early election victories on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015. Myanmar held its first contested elections since 1990 on Nov. 8.

himself is a Rohingya, and therefore a “stateless MP,” as he put it in the panel. In a Nov. 2 New York Times op-ed, he wrote about how the government has not only prevented him from running for reelection but also have refused many Rohingya the right to vote, among other civil rights violations. Htet noted that his family was reluctant to let him go to the panel because they are part of the group of Rakhine Buddhists. According to the CBC article, the 2012 rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by Muslim men sparked deadly riots and violence against the Rohingya. The violence inflicted upon the Rohingya by the Rakhine ethnic group have forced thousands to flee the country, according to a March 15, 2014 New York Times article. Some Rohingya have been detained in interment camps, according to a July 29 NPR article. The panelists discussed the ethnic tensions between the Rohingya and the Rakhine, noting that they present a significant obstacle to full democracy in Myanmar. During the panel, Dapice mentioned a quote from a Myanmar official who had claimed that the elections were “free enough and fair enough.” Jalal took issue with this statement, noting that although the elections were a positive sign of progress, there were also significant issues surrounding them. “I would say that they may have been free, if by free we mean the right to exercise your vote,” Jalal said. “But they were certainly not fair in the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas … One needs to strengthen the electoral process. I think there are too many problems in Myanmar with the constitution, [which contains] amendments that were introduced by the military that need to go … I think that it would be quite erroneous for us to assume that you can perform miracles overnight. [Myanmar has] a very deeply entrenched military authoritarianism.” However, first-year Phu Soe, also from Myanmar, recalled that there were positive signs of progress in Myanmar before she came to Tufts. Her father is also a supporter of the NLD, and she observed that most people seem to be happy with the recent election results. “Back home, before I came here, I was actually starting to see changes,” she said. “[Foreign governments have] started lifting the [economic] sanctions [placed on the country in response to the military dictatorship and human right violations]. So international businesses are in [Myanmar] now … Before, we didn’t even have that.” Recognizing that the elections are a move in the right direction, the panelists were keen to point out the many obstacles Myanmar will nevertheless face along its road to democracy. “So I think we’ll have to watch…and keep our fingers crossed and hope that [Suu Kyi] can [create positive change], but [it] is a huge challenge”, Jalal said. Jalal also hopes that there will be a follow-up event held in the spring to analyze the outcomes of the election results. “I think the panel addressed the immediacy of the newsworthy aspect, which is the elections, but then [there are] more lingering issues ,” she said. “So I think we had a very good discussion on really where [those issues come] from — the historical context, the colonial rule, what’s happened in recent times.”

5 tuftsdaily.com

Clara Wagner To Life, Sincerely Clara

An open letter to Thanksgiving

ear Thanksgiving, I’ve never known exactly what to make of you. My family never had big get-togethers, and my being vegetarian tends to limit my turkey consumption. Plus, I’m guilty of framing you in my head as a pre-Christmas of sorts. But in recent years, I’ve started trying to give you more credit. Now that you’ve passed, leaving my stomach stuffed and my fondness for home refreshed, I’d like to take some time to appreciate you. When you boil it down, Thanksgiving revolves around three things: prosperity, gratitude and sharing. We celebrate our blessings, give thanks for all that we have and come together with the people we love. The more I think about it, the more important this specific grouping seems. At a place like Tufts, most of us have a lot to be thankful for. The majority of us come from families that are at least decently well off, and many grew up in families with abundant resources and opportunities. Sometimes, that becomes a loaded subject. As a generally liberal and socially minded campus, it’s easy to fall into an economic version of survivor’s guilt. Personal wealth becomes a subject to avoid discussing; we prefer to talk about it only as a generalized concept from which our own lives are apart. But when you think about it, doesn’t it seem kind of backwards to feel ashamed of prosperity? It’s not a bad thing to be thankful for what we have — maybe sometimes it’s worth stepping back and just thinking, “Yeah, I am pretty lucky,” without feeling guilty. After all, at the end of the day, aren’t we all working towards a world of prosperity? Being open and thankful about our own might be a place to start. That said, the third element of Thanksgiving is sharing. Because who wants to eat an entire Thanksgiving feast all alone? A bounty of food is best enjoyed when shared with others, and the same goes for everything else, too. It’s kind of like the idea of paying it forward. We’re not supposed to reject good things that happen to us — we’re just supposed to use them as a motivation for improving the lives of others. I’m not just talking about material wealth, either. Personally, I’m prosperous in the realm of family support and love — others are rich with talent or physical ability. Celebrating and sharing these are just as important as with food or wealth. Don’t feel like you need to downplay your own intelligence because not everyone is as “smart” — celebrate the fact that you were born with an awesome brain, and spread your knowledge to everyone around you. Be joyful and proud for whatever it is that enriches your life; prosperity is a wonderful thing, and it’s by spreading it, not by shunning it, that we’ll leave everyone better off. Sincerely, Clara Wagner Clara Wagner is a first-year student who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at clara.wagner@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Tuesday, December 1, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

Comics

Late Night at the Daily have a weakness FOR Mengqi: RELEASE“IDECEMBER 1, 2015 for cuteness.”

Comics

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis Crossword

ACROSS 1 With 69-Across, filmmaker born 12/1/1935 who directed and wrote five films in this puzzle 6 Apparel 10 Sacramento’s state, briefly 13 “Most certainly!” 15 Language that gave us “khaki” 16 Spanish she-bear 17 Look that way 18 With 59-Across, 1980 film by 1-/69-Across 20 Suffers from 21 Sneaky tactic 23 Kosher 24 Diagnostic machine 26 Make __ for: argue in favor of 27 2011 film by 1-/69-Across 31 Being kept cold 32 Sardinian six 33 1971 film by 1-/69-Across 36 1973 film by 1-/69-Across 42 Junio, por ejemplo 44 Low voice 45 1995 film by 1-/69-Across 52 Like a softly blowing fan 53 Nincompoops 54 Windy City airport 55 One of the deadly sins 56 Camp bed 59 See 18-Across 61 Camden Yards ballplayer 64 Spanish gold 65 Sit for an artist 66 Have a place to call home 67 “__ the ramparts ... ” 68 Figure (out) 69 See 1-Across

DOWN 1 Genie’s offer 2 Most fit for service 3 Keats works 4 __ Bums: Brooklyn Dodgers nickname

41 Fish eggs 43 Husbands and wives 45 Cow sound in “Old MacDonald” 46 Response from another room 47 Supermodel’s allure: Var. 48 Prefix with scope 49 Annoying types 50 Info on a store door: Abbr.

by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

JUMBLE

Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

NIRKD MEVORE

PIMKSY

Answer here: Yesterday’s

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

(Answers tomorrow) Jumbles: GROOM SWOON MODEST BICKER Answer: The TV chef came up with the new salad concept in her — DRESSING ROOM

Monday’s Solution

Non Sequitur By Wiley Miller

12/1/15

51 Helicopter component 56 Slinky shape 57 Merrie __ England 58 High schooler, typically 60 Letters that promise payback 62 Stephen of “The Crying Game” 63 Alcatraz, e.g: Abbr.

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

CAKOL

Difficulty Level: Getting used to Carm after home-cooked meals.

Monday’s Puzzle Solved Monday’s Solution

5 “Despite that ... ” 6 Tailor’s inserts 7 Major thoroughfares 8 Nutritional meas. 9 Sack material 10 Mountain lion 11 Birthplace of St. Francis 12 Coffee drinks with steamed milk 14 Hip-hop headgear 19 Prefix meaning “ten” 22 “That’s awful!” 24 Ancient Peruvian 25 Personal bearing 27 Unruly group 28 Words before flash or jiffy 29 Cacophony 30 Zip, in soccer scores 34 Novelist Tan 35 Smooth, as a transition 37 Black, to a bard 38 “CSI” actor George 39 Tire pressure meas. 40 S.C. clock setting

Check out the new, free JUST JUMBLE app

SUDOKU

12/1/15

By Jeffrey Wechsler

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

ARTS&LIVING Album Review

7 tuftsdaily.com

Maya Blackstone A Semester of Netflix

‘Everwood’

Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times / MCT

Foo Fighters perform at the 54th annual Grammy Awards during the outdoor concert at the Nokia Theater next to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on Feb. 12, 2012.

Foo Fighters’ EP ‘Saint Cecilia’ has familiar feel, predictable energy by Anjali Nair Arts Editor

A full year after releasing an ambitious eighth studio album, the Foo Fighters are back with a new five-song EP almost out of the blue. Following the mindset of their previous album, “Sonic Highways” (2015), the new release, “Saint Cecilia,” was recorded in DIY fashion in the Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin, Tex. during the weekends of the Austin City Limits music festival. It was released as a free download a month later, on Nov. 23, with a letter from frontman Dave Grohl. In this letter, Grohl writes about the

idea behind the EP. Since their previous album, fans have seen the release of Foo Fighters’ Emmy-winning HBO documentary series “Sonic Highways” (2014), which followed their on-theroad recording process as they drove across the United States, the band’s 20th anniversary, and a world tour spanning six continents, most of which saw Grohl performing with a broken leg. To conclude the tour, the band decided to record this EP to thank the fans and remind them to celebrate life, music and the bond they share. Although this was the original intention, just prior to the EP release and the end of the tour, the gruesome terrorist

attacks in Paris put a halt to their final four dates. Because of this, the new hope for this release is to “bring a little light into this sometimes dark world.” The titular opening track starts out rather eclectically, with a soft version of the verse and chorus building into the kind of intense beat that one has come to expect when Taylor Hawkins gets behind the kit. The classic American rock and roll sound that the Foo Fighters have been developing for the last two or three albums is apparent, with sprinkles of light synths here and there. The chorus and bridge see FOO FIGHTERS, page 8

TV Review

‘Chicago Med’ debuts formulaic premiere by Merilla Michael Assistant Arts Editor

Award-winning producer Dick Wolf strikes again with the third installment of his interconnected Chicago-based shows. Like its counterparts, “Chicago Med,” which premiered Nov. 17, doesn’t boast a well-known or experienced cast. This, coupled with fairly flat dialogue, doesn’t work in its favor. The season premiere opens with a terrible train wreck that leaves many dead and many more injured. Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell), the new trauma surgery fellow at Chicago Med, happens to be on this train and does all he can do to help the patients and get them to the hospital. As he arrives at the hospital, the rest of the main cast is introduced, most of whom fall into predictable tropes. Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss), the senior resident in the ER, is the typical overconfident and talented doctor who is immediately put off by Rhodes’ similar personality. Rhodes has also garnered the see Chicago Med, page 8

Elizabeth Sisson / NBC

Nick Gehlfuss plays the chief ER resident on NBC’s new “Chicago Med.”

couple of weeks ago, I won an online contest through my synagogue for a free television show on Amazon. I was excited about it, especially because I knew it would open up my options when writing this column; however, the pickings were extremely slim. I ended up choosing the drama “Everwood” (2002 – 2006), set in the fictional small town of Everwood, Colo. The series starts with the arrival of Dr. Andy Brown (Treat Williams), a widower who leaves his job as a neurosurgeon in Manhattan in the wake of his wife’s death in order to better get to know his two children, Delia (Vivien Cardone) and Ephram (Gregory Smith). This is the first drama I’ve watched in a while, and I was excited to get back into the genre. Most episodes of “Everwood” have arcs dealing with Dr. Brown’s patients’ problems, which always get miraculously solved by the end of the hour, and a story line involving drama related to the main characters. These plots almost always focus on the relationship between Ephram and local sweetheart Amy (Emily VanCamp) or a conflict between Ephram and his dad. Issues for the family also include a hidden pregnancy and the death of a basketball legend and town superstar at the hands of Dr. Brown. The show is strong throughout all its seasons and does an excellent job of bringing back previous drama to build on existing plot lines. As unrealistic as the plot was at times, I really got emotionally sucked in. It was intense watching Ephram and Amy grow up from early teens into more fully formed adults, and I was rooting for their love for all four seasons of the show. One really special thing about this show is that it illustrates the sort of mundane aspects of everyday life not usually seen in most televisions shows. There are countless lengthy scenes that show Amy in her room with friends, on the phone or on the computer. There are also many shots of Brown family members taking food out of their refrigerator and then eating it, with no other action. I think that this was the result of unintentially bad screenwriting, maybe to help fill time in the show. However, this actually helped to create more believable characters, something that I think few television shows actually manage to do. The relationships between characters really made me want to be a part of “Everwood.” This was especially a result of binge-watching the show because, every day for a week, I felt like I lived alongside the characters. I also found myself less interested in the drama of the main characters and more invested in the actual medical cases of the patients, especially trying to figure out what caused their ailments before Dr. Brown did. Watching the show was also a throwback to a time 10 years ago I barely remember. It was sometimes even jolting being so immersed in a pre-iPhone world while watching the show and then coming back to reality. Maya Blackstone is a junior majoring in drama and peace and justice studies. She can be reached at maya.blackstone@ tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Tuesday, December 1, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

A&L

ARTS&LIVING

Message-laiden EP feels like last hurrah FOO FIGHTERS

continued from page 7 are filled out with harmonies by Texan singer-songwriter Ben Kweller, and it is on this bridge that the listener can hear Grohl return to his iconic screams atop the layered vocal section. The whole song is in form with much of the newer side of the Foos’ catalog — so much so that, at times, it seems like they are revisiting old melodic and songwriting cliches. It’s the next track, “Sean,” that really sounds like a facsimile of the Foos’ past. It starts out strong, with the verses leading into ’70s-style riffs with guitar

harmonies, but the chorus tag is taken straight from their own book. This sort of thing usually goes unnoticed, but since the tag was right from “Feast and the Famine,” one of the leading singles from their previous album, it sticks out a little bit more. “Savior Breath” boasts a much more raw, punk-driven sound reminiscent of The Stooges and Motörhead. There is usually at least one fast-paced track with gritty, distorted vocals like this on a Foo Fighters release, and although this is one of the EP’s more driving songs, it unfortunately does not seem to take the listener anywhere new.

The following track, “Iron Rooster,” bring things down and starts to set a mood with ambient keys fading in accompanied by an acoustic guitar. The instrumental section features blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr., which adds an interesting musical touch. But, once again, the chord structure and verse melody seem very familiar — although, this time, the comparison lies with “Old Man” by Neil Young (1972). The final track, “The Neverending Sigh,” is possibly the strongest song on the EP. It starts off slowly but quickly builds into a driving force. The riffs and harmonies are a prime example of the

now-iconic three-guitar Foo Fighters tone. It’s a shame, however, that the song fades out right as the band starts to let loose and get in the groove. Overall, “Saint Cecilia” seems to have its commendable moments, but they appear few and far between. In the letter Grohl released with the EP, he also hinted at the Foo Fighters taking a long hiatus, and after this last year, no one could blame them. Knowing this, it makes it more apparent that these songs were written at a crossroads for the band, one last hurrah before things change. Although this EP is interesting for this reason, change is never a bad thing.

‘Chicago Med’ struggles to find rhythm Chicago Med

continued from page 7 attention of many of the female doctors in the ER, including Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto), the pregnant ER pediatrician who is revealed to be single. In this premiere, viewers get a glimpse of many different injuries and how each member of the ER team handles them. Halstead and Rhodes are confident in their abilities, but they disagree on how to handle some cases. Sarah Reese (Rachel DiPillo), a fourth-year medical student, seems completely out of place in the ER. For instance, she is forced to break a little girl’s ribs while performing CPR — which eventually saves her life — and this bothers her for the rest of the episode. Her growth could prove to be an interesting component of the series.

The premise of the show is that each week patients will come in with new problems and the core group of doctors will have to work together to treat them even as they deal with drama among themselves. The main problem with “Chicago Med” is that it’s essentially like any other hospital show, namely the overdone “Grey’s Anatomy” (2005 – present). “Chicago Med” doesn’t provide any evidence that it will bring any innovative twists to the hospital show genre, at least in its premiere. An additional problem with the show, specifically for and with the cast, is that much of the dialogue and acting don’t quite flow as seamlessly as they should. The uninspired dialogue comes off as flat, especially during emotional scenes like one in which a woman needs

to take her fiancé off of life support. The cast hasn’t quite got their bearings or figured out their internal chemistry, something that will likely come with time. The opportunity for creativity presents itself in the crossover episodes with the other two parts of the Chicago franchise. Knowledge of the other two television series isn’t necessary to understand the plot of “Chicago Med,” but for fans of the franchise the crossover episodes might be a reason to give this newest Wolf-created series a try. Though the show has some issues it needs to work out to be able to forge its own unique path, there are some positive elements that make the premiere entertaining. The premiere was fast-paced, switching between differ-

ent characters while remaining comprehensible, making sure viewers got a well-rounded view of the core group. The premiere also introduced a plethora of injuries and ailments. From the train wreck, a little girl suffered a broken leg, an older man suffered a fatal head injury and a pregnant surrogate overcame a head injury after going through surgery. “Chicago Med” suffers from the growing pains of a new show that unfortunately aren’t remedied by dialogue or acting. If the writers can somehow find a way to put a new twist on the medical drama genre, then there is hope that the show will improve vastly. “Chicago Med” airs on NBC on Tuesdays at 9 p.m.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Opinion Op-Ed

You’re both wrong about trigger warnings by Nicholas Pfosi Like all political debates, someone is right and someone else is wrong when it comes to trigger warnings on college campuses. Or at least that’s what the tsunami of think pieces chiming in on the debate would have us believe. Doubt me and just Google it to get a sense of the righteous indignation on either side of the issue. And there are two sides. We have the activism camp full of people who value trigger warnings and want to see their usage proliferate. And we have the free speech camp full of people who go to bat for the greater good of us all defending the First Amendment tooth and nail. How will this unsolvable conflict be solved? Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Well, make some popcorn and pull up a seat because, like most political debates, everyone’s missing the point. But first, some context. Trigger warnings center around instances of trauma in order to help survivors of it navigate day-to-day life. A survivor of sexual violence, for instance, might hope for a trigger warning on a video shown in class that depicts rape. This warning would help prepare that person for the material and knowingly engaging with it. It gives the student the opportunity to do whatever they felt necessary to stay healthy and attentive during that segment of class. Fortunately for their professor, adding a trigger warning to potentially graphic material is easy. Just type the words “trigger warning” on their syllabus or lecture slides. Bullet dodged. Unfortunately, this simple-enough request from survivors of trauma has been muddied by free speech vigilantes. “Where is the line?” they ask. “When is enough, enough?” They challenge unique curricula for certain students and sometimes take time to decide for survivors whether survivors’ feelings are legitimate or not. These (mostly older) warriors are saving us from our coddled selves, swooping in on politically incorrect steeds to staunchly defend their right to offend. And so we have the debate. Angry twenty-something activists on one side, with every Baby Boomer, including Obama, on

the other. Well I’m here to make a suggestion. Relax, lay off your indignant Facebook posts and ask yourself some tough questions. Are trigger warnings difficult to implement? No. Do trigger warnings result in students disengaging with or avoiding material? Not even close. So then what’s the problem, again? It’s fear. Professors are afraid of litigation, of being censored, students are afraid of, well, being triggered, or of being called out by their peers. See, no one wants to be caught up on the wrong side of morality or feel like they’re a bad person. By accepting trigger warnings, professors make themselves vulnerable to not triggering warning enough and facing the consequences. For activists, losing the fight for warnings means potentially being traumatized while in class. Needless to say, for these folks, the stakes are high. However, what neither side is considering is that “the possibility that trigger warnings might be ineffective, impractical and necessary for creating safe spaces all at once,” as Roxanne Gay argues. In this debate, we have fear. We have students in pain. We have professors wringing their hands. Neither side has an air-tight argument, and neither side is ready to concede. And that’s why they’re missing the point. What Gay is clearly pointing out is trigger warnings aren’t the panacea activists want them to be or the demise of free speech Baby Boomers decry them as. Trigger warnings are simultaneously impractical, flawed and important. Can a professor reasonably anticipate every potential trigger in every possible moment? No. Can TV stations anticipate every scene that ought to have “viewer discretion advised” screens put before them? Of course not — but they sure try, anyway. Can simply putting the word “trigger warning” on a syllabus address in any considerable way the trauma those students experience? Doubtful. But is it a start. Does it help? Definitely. The lesson here is put down your weapons, people. Find some common ground. The two little words, “trigger warning,” pale in significance to other issues faced in American higher education. College stu-

dents are struggling economically, hurting mentally and literally dying. One in four college women will be assaulted while at school, and it is more than likely, if the crime is reported, that the college will mishandle it. Anxiety is on the rise within this age group, as are depression and bipolar disorder. More college students are dropping out than in previous years, and mental health resources for coping with all this strife are often woefully inadequate. Simply put, we have bigger problems. Yes, perhaps young activists go too far sometimes, even if they do acknowledge it later, and perhaps, “Liberal Arts Professor” has some good points, even if he is barking up the wrong tree. But at the end of the day, we need to dial this back a bit, relax and layoff the internet lambasting. Professors, put trigger warnings if it seems smart. Students, use your (inside) voice, cut your elder a break and recognize that change will come, albeit maybe more slowly than you’d want. What this debate needs to move forward is not more public figures coming out on one side or the other or another parallax-scrolling think piece more impressive than the last but a new framework. Instead of re-inscribing the narrative of black and white justice onto these conversations of social justice and equity, the debate needs to learn to listen and grow. Activists need to cede that no space can be completely safe, and professors and administrators need to realize the psychological and mental realities of their students. Trauma doubters are not a new phenomenon, and it’s a misnomer to consider students today as simply “more sensitive.” Let’s spend less time debating the merit of each other’s realities and more time taking action toward growth and change. And if you’re still thinking trigger warnings are for the coddled baby in every college twenty-something, heed Kevin Drum’s advice: “…sometimes worthwhile progress gets its start from even the dumbest movements.” Nicholas Pfosi is a senior majoring in child studies and human development. He can be reached at nicholas.pfosi@tufts.edu.

Editorial Cartoon by Ty Enos

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 oped@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 Executive Business Director.

9 tuftsdaily.com

Isabella Garces El Locutorio

Airport

irports are human-crafted spaces that demand a special type of obedience resembling that of highly qualified military personnel. They require a certain uniform acquiescence inherent to forming long lines and waiting patiently. They test how easily you acquire the necessary knowledge of what goes under a metal detector and what does not (even though everyone knows nothing is exempt from the metal detector — your momentary near-nudity can attest to that). They also test your ability to read, comprehend and successfully report to numbered terminals in the fashion of cattle going to the slaughter. The airport is a military-esque complex set on assuring that things run smoothly — except, unfortunately, passengers are not trained personnel. If anything, they tend to be quite the opposite. It seems almost as if they purposefully slow down the efficiency of the airport complex. The line at security, for example, usually extends for miles because people are confounded by the concept of metal detectors. They don’t understand that cellphones and Rolexes are not an extension of their limbs and that they can, surprisingly, go without them for two seconds without suffering fatal blood loss. What’s even worse is that most of these individuals are veteran passengers and yet they somehow believe that next time they won’t have to take their boots off or store their laptop in a separate plastic bin. So they repeat this ritual like the habitual miscreant who continues to rob or not pay for the metro in the hopes that next time they won’t get caught. The continuous faux-pas of airport behavior are endless. Women continue to wear startlingly massive heels, which are the antipode of comfort and efficiency. At least the only people they are harming are themselves. Passengers who impose their newborn’s hyena shrieks on everyone deserve their own isolated aircraft. Other people, for example, have yet to comprehend that the conduct of electric walkways is similar to that of escalators. Not everyone wants to lounge on a step while waiting for a grandiose human invention to transport their static existence onto another floor. Thus it is widely accepted that stationary individuals keep right so that those in a hurry can smoothly make their way past them. And yet some people don’t seem to translate this knowledge into their use of electric walkways. Even though the physical exertion needed to take one step is minimal, they remain static, not only obstructing the right side of the walkway but the left as well. Passengers foster the subtle chaos that we associate with airports themselves. And even though these nuisances grate on our nerves and only seem to heat up our impatience, if we look at it objectively, it does harbor its own unique and diverse experience. Airports are really just meeting grounds for all the human traits that usually permeate our world on a more diffuse level. Airports contain us humans and our quirks and faults splayed out. What’s not to love about that? Isabella Garces is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at isabella.garces@tufts.edu.

Sports

10 tuftsdaily.com

Phillip Goldberg Fantasy Football with Phil

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

men’s squash

Week 13 rusher preview

he Philadelphia Eagles are an exploding train wreck drenched in failure. If Detroit can drop 45 points on them, it is scary to imagine what damage the Patriots will do. Start Brandon Bolden and LeGarrette Blount with confidence. The Broncos appear ready and willing to roll with Brock Osweiler at QB for the rest of the season. Whatever excuse they give, Peyton Manning simply doesn’t increase the likelihood of a Broncos W. That said, Osweiler’s inexperience shifted the Broncos’ offense to a run-first attack punctuated with deep shots to keep defenses honest. CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman both have standalone value. The Chargers are one of the easiest teams in the league to run on, so Anderson is a recommended start for Week 13. The human bowling ball, Eddie Lacy, is finally back. Lacy posted back-to-back 100yard rushing games for the first time this season and draws the toothless Lions defensive line in Week 13. If the Packers can establish the run, this matchup has the potential for a shootout. Under offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, Matthew Stafford and the Lions are attempting more deep passes and running more plays from shotgun and the pistol. For their part, the Packers struggle against tall receivers and opposing No. 1 options. Against the Packers, Demaryius Thomas caught eight balls for 168 yards, Keenan Allen caught 14 balls on 15 targets for 157 yards and in their first matchup Calvin Johnson totaled six catches for 81 yards. Look for Johnson’s line this time around to be more like Thomas’ and Allen’s. The matchup between the Jets and Giants is always interesting, and this year the Jets likely have the upper hand. The Giants allow the 13th-most yards to running backs at over 100 yards per game, setting Chris Ivory up for a solid outing. Brandon Marshall has either posted a touchdown or 100 yards receiving in each of his last five games, and the Giants are a good bet to limit Marshall. My projection is 8/80/1 with an additional 5/60/1 for Eric Decker. For the Giants, everything depends on Odell Beckham Jr.’s production, which, in turn, depends on whether or not Darrelle Revis returns from his concussion. If Revis plays, the Giants’ hapless run-game and one-dimensional passing attack will leave OBJ stranded on Revis Island. Despite the forgettable offensive performance from the Saints, Mark Ingram nearly totaled a combined 100 yards. After a rough home game against Carolina, the Saints’ schedule features cushy run-defenses for the rest of the season. Ingram is a sneaky trade target as game-flow has artificially depreciated his value over the last few weeks. Perennial fantasy tease Jeremy Hill posted his first game over five yards per carry against a respectable Rams defense. He suffered multiple ankle sprains, but if Hill plays next week he could take advantage of the Browns who give up an NFL worst 138.8 yards on the ground per game. That said, his last matchup with the Browns resulted in 52 yards. Phillip Goldberg is a Sports Editor at The Tufts Daily. He is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major and can be reached at phillip.goldberg@tufts.edu.

Nicholas Pfosi / Tufts Daily Archive

Then-sophomore Aditya Advani, now a senior co-captain, wins his first game of the match 11-4, defeating BC at the No. 1 spot at the Belmont Hill courts on Jan. 29, 2014.

Tufts sees early season success, starts 4-2 by Chris Warren Sports Editor

Tufts began its 2015-2016 campaign on a high note, starting the season 4-2 — an early indication that this season could be more successful than the last. Last year, the team went 6-15. This year, after just six games, the team has already earned two-thirds of the wins it had last season. After dropping the first two games of the season, including a narrow loss to Stanford and a blowout loss to University of Virginia, Tufts is on a four-game winning streak, having defeated Boston University, Bryant University, Hamilton, and Brandeis by large margins. The Jumbos completely shut out the Brandeis Judges 9-0 in dominating fashion on Nov. 23, the most recent of the team’s four straight victories. Senior co-captain Aditya Advani, again playing in the first singles position, took home a victory for the Jumbos, posting a dominating 11-4, 11-6, 11-3 score. Out of all the dominating victories on the day, however, sophomore John Patrick’s victory was perhaps the most emphatic. Patrick won his match 11-2, 11-1, 11-3 in the eighth position. The victory over Brandeis showed that the team has the capability to completely obliterate opponents. The day before, Tufts played Hamilton at Harvard, defeating them by a margin of 6-3. In the first singles position, Advani defeated Hamilton’s Tucker Hamlin, dropping the first set 9-11 but recovering to take the next three sets 11-5, 11-8, 11-4. First-years Alan Litman, Cameron Ewan, Aiden Porges and Imran Trehan, along with sophomore Sandeep Rishi all scored key victories for Tufts — especially Ewan, who was in a back-andforth match until he took the victory in five sets (13-11, 8-11, 11-3, 5-11, 11-8).

“We met one of our goals of the season, which was to get a NESCAC victory [against Hamilton],” Advani said. “The first two teams we faced this year are more competitive than us, and it is early in the season, but I think in a few months we would have seen a better result playing them.” The weekend before Thanksgiving break was when the Jumbos began to heat up. In the first game of the weekend on Saturday, Nov. 21 at Belmont Hill, Tufts defeated Boston University by a score of 7-2. In the first singles spot, sophomore Braden Chiulli lost to the Terriers’ Marwan Salam in four games, 7-11, 11-6, 8-11, 8-11. But Tufts picked up big victories in the second through sixth positions, as well as the eighth and ninth positions, including a big comeback win by Ewan (12-14, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 13-11) and a five-set victory by sophomore Alec Goodrich (13-11, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5). Later in the day, the Jumbos faced off against the Bryant University Bulldogs, also defeating them by a 7-2 margin. Tufts was led by Litman’s victory over Bryant sophomore Chase Ruben in the first singles spot, posting scores of 11-6, 3-11, 11-5, 11-6. Litman took the first set by a comfortable margin and was able to recover for the victory after being blown out in the second. First-years Porges, Imran Trehan and Matt Memmo as well as Patrick, junior co-captain Danny Fischer and Goodrich also took home easy three set victories for Tufts. Before the Jumbos got on the hot streak, however, the team started the season 0-2 on losses to Stanford and Virginia at Harvard on Friday, Nov. 20. In the first match of the season, the Jumbos lost 5-4 to the Cardinals — the same score as their matchup last season. In the first singles position, Advani was blanked by Stanford’s Yousef Hindy, who won with a score of 11-6, 11-3, 11-1. Litman, in his

first collegiate squash match and playing in third singles position, scored a big fiveset victory, as did Chiulli, playing in the second singles position. Ewan, also in his first collegiate squash competition, lost a five-set heartbreaker in the fourth position. First-year Brett Raskopf took home the victory in the eighth position with a score of 13-11, 11-9, 11-9. Hoping for improvement, the Jumbos played the Virginia Cavaliers later that day but were blanked as Virginia posted a 9-0 score. Litman and Goodrich were both able to play their opponents to a fourth set, but unfortunately fell as the Jumbos could not get anything going. “So far the season has gotten off to a good start,” Patrick said. “I think the key to winning four straight matches after losing the first two was just the fact that we needed to get re-accustomed to playing in matches and dealing with the pressure that goes along with these types of tournaments. Once we were able to get back into the swing of things, though, it all worked out.” This year’s squad is very young; Advani is the lone senior on the team among six first-years. Advani and Patrick both believe that the first-years have played key roles in the team’s early success. “The freshmen have created a huge impact within our team this year,” Patrick said. “Both last year and the year before, we have struggled with the depth of our team and being able to win games in the 6-9 positions. This year, though, all of the freshmen are extremely talented and provide us with a chance to win those middle matches.” Tufts will next compete at Haverford College on Saturday, where they will take on both Dickinson College and Haverford. On Sunday, Tufts will face off against NESCAC opponent Conn. College, to whom they narrowly lost 4-5 early last season, and 0-9 later in the season.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Sports

men’s cross country

Jumbos complete standout 2015 season by Soven Bery Staff Writer

On Nov. 21, Tufts wrapped up their season at the 2015 NCAA Div. III Men’s Cross Country Championship at Winneconne, Wisconsin. The team placed 17th overall out of 32 teams with a score of 433, six points ahead of 18th-place Carnegie Mellon and 13 points behind 16th-place Wesleyan. Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the meet with a score of 135. Junior Tim Nichols ran the best meet for Tufts, finishing 19th individually with a time of 24:46.20 over eight kilometers and earning All-American Honors. His performance was the best finish for a Jumbo in the national championship since Matt Rand finished 19th in 2011. “My season finished well, [and] I was lucky enough to reach All-American status at nationals, which I was happy with,” Nichols said. However, the NCAA Championship meet was a troubling one overall for Tufts. “The NCAA championships were a bit tough with a couple guys getting caught in a pileup and needing post-race stitches,” coach Michael Schmidt said. “But they handled the adversity well, and aside from that road bump, the group exceeded expectations tremendously.” At the very beginning of the race in Wisconsin, three of the team’s runners were involved in a pileup and were trampled on, which negatively affected their performance. Junior Luke O’Connor needed stitches in his head, and firstyear Christian Swenson had stitches on his back. Despite that setback, both O’Connor and Swenson completed the

race. O’Connor ended up finishing second for Tufts with a time of 25:22.50. Despite the rare circumstances of the race, the season was a success for the Jumbos. “The team progressed very strongly through the season, with the guys racing their best at championship time in the end of the year,” Schmidt said. “They are a close group and worked off of each other well in races, nicely packing together and pushing the tempo as a unit in the second half of the year.” The season was full of great moments, despite the injuries that plagued the team throughout the season. “The group elevated expectations through the year, week by week always someone putting together a big race and keeping momentum rolling along,” Schmidt said. “We had some injuries early on in the season, as well as a couple scattered through the middle. In the future, as always, we’re looking for the best balance of heavy training with health through a full year of running.” The team finished in first place at the Bates Invitational to start off the season on Sept. 19, came in third out of 11 teams at the NESCAC Championship on Oct. 31 and finished third again out of 55 teams at the NCAA Regional Championship on Nov. 14. “In terms of what the group was able to accomplish, the season was undoubtedly a success; we have a huge first-year class that has been well-integrated and is starting to figure out collegiate cross-country,” Schmidt said. “Top to bottom the guys ran PRs and made big strides from prior seasons, we placed better than last

Courtesy Alyssa Rivas

The men’s cross country team placed 22nd at Nationals on Nov. 22, 2014. year at all our big championship meets, and we qualified for NCAAs for the fifth year in a row.” Nichols also commented on the size and talent of the first-years. “Personally, my season highlight would have to be breaking 27 min in the 8K at the Connecticut College Invite on Oct. 17,” first-year Hiroto Watanabe said. Watanabe was part of a standout first-year group that should be able to carry the team in the foreseeable future. Schmidt and assistant coach Jamie Norton helped the group stay afloat as they dealt with hurdles and setbacks en route to a successful finish. “Because of some shuffling around, Schmidt was placed as interim head coach, which he completely deserved,”

Nichols said. “Not only did he have our training in mind, he also did a great job bringing our team together and highlighting great performances throughout the season.” Nichols also noted that this Tufts team is the best it has been since he joined, and that it has the potential to be even better next year. “For the first time in recent years, we will return the majority of our NCAA lineup (six of eight travelers) and a particularly strong group at the front,” Schmidt said. “Next year’s team has an opportunity to be among the best ever for Tufts.” With some of the best athletes from a standout 2015 returning in 2016, the team will look to expand on an amazing season and reach greater heights.

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, December 1, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

Careers in Tech – Network with 1/4 Tufts alumni

1/8

Get tips & advice for exploring career possibilities in technology.

Join us Tamper café

for drinks & appetizers

TOMORROW, December 2nd, 5–7pm

1/2

RYAN FLOOD ConforMIS, Inc.

ANDRE LOLI SHYFT Analytics

JEREMY JO Zagster

LYNDSEY YORK LabCentral

RSV P yourtechcareer.eventbrite.com