Bull O'Connor was among the fiercest enemies the Civil Rights activists faced. The Birmingham police sheriff attacked children seeking equal rights with police dogs and fire hoses. The Tufts Trustees are no Bull O'Connor, and many of Tufts' "activists" are no Freedom Fighters. The misfired tactics used by "over 100 students [who] turned Saturday's trustee luncheon at Dewick-Macphie dining hall into a bitter dialogue with administrators and the chairman of the University's governing board" did more to derail improvements at Tufts than achieve real progress ("Students put trustees on the spot at luncheon turned confrontation," 2/11).
First, if student activists are committed to improving Tufts, they could find better targets to take aim at than the Trustees. As President Bacow's recent e-mail letter to the student body revealed, acts of racial intolerance persist at Tufts. We are facing real problems - a student publication has been repeatedly stolen for expressing its views, some of which contain images of crude racial and gender stereotypes, and racially motivated vandalism continues to appear on campus. Effective student activists, instead of blaming authority figures, would look for real solutions.
Why not initiate workshops and discussion forums to maximize dialogue between people of different races and backgrounds, rather than verbally attacking Trustees? We could start with a public discussion between the Primary Source, the PAA, and any other interested members of the Tufts community. In complaining to authority figures - the administration or Trustees - an assumption exists that someone is to blame for our problems and that they have the power to solve them. I argue that the answers to our community's struggles with intolerance lie within us; finding solutions requires hard work. While tossing accusations at authority figures may make certain students feel more like "activists," it accomplishes little.
Secondly, Trustees should not be blamed for the problems in our community. The Trustees only visit campus occasionally and play almost no role in the day-to-day decisions-making process. Whatever our differences at Tufts, we are bound together by the success of this institution and its reputation. Tufts' success relies on money. Trustees provide the financial lifeline that keeps this institution strong and growing. They have raised over $160 million during the Tufts Tomorrow campaign.
The students who complained to the Trustees about the lack of diversity at Tufts failed to realize that fundraising by Trustees allow for student loans that help create diversity on campus. As Trustee John Dowling stated in a viewpoint on Tuesday, "over the last ten years minority representation in the student body has increased from 15 percent to 32 percent."
Lastly, the Trustees should be viewed as our allies in improving the Tufts community. They are as committed to improving this institution as any of its students.
They may need our help in becoming more aware of what aspects of student life need to be improved, but their willingness to meet with students, at President Bacow's suggestion, shows their interest. Thanks to the behavior of these "activists," students who want real improvement at Tufts may have to wait a long time for another chance to enlist the help of some of our most generous and committed alumni.
Student activism has contributed to some of the most successful political movements in modern history. Students have helped overthrow governments in Berlin and Beijing and brought equal rights to Soweto and Selma. I take issue not with student activism on Tufts campus, but with the tactics used by some of our campus' activists. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Fighters of the Civil Rights movement were successful not solely because of their use of civil disobedience. They analyzed a problem and applied the correct measures against it. Tufts student activists could benefit from taking a close look at the effectiveness of their tactics.
Glen Roth is a senior majoring in political science.
