Throughout the last several months, I have read the Daily from afar, keeping myself abreast to the events at Tufts. A campus always active with voices heard from each extreme of the ideological spectrum, Tufts in the Daily this year has been plagued by battles between a small minority of students. The campus is a community of thousands of people, yet a few ardent individuals are garnering all the headlines... too often in inappropriate ways.
The issues being fought over are legitimate and, in fact, appropriate topics for a top-flight college. Sexism, racism, labor relations, Constitutional rights. Instead of hearing the substance of the debates, however, the majority of the interested on-lookers are being greeted by hyperbole and inflated rhetoric. The "activists" actions are clouding their messages, their words chosen to provoke, accuse and insult. If I have learned one lesson in my brief law school experience, it is that words should be chosen carefully. For the past several months, the authors of these viewpoints and protests have chosen the wrong words to gain the attention of the administration and the thousands of students staying silent.
The behavior of extremists on campus has to be self-regulated. Both sides run to the administration and complain about the other, yet cannot seem to resist verbal barbs at each other. As a centrist, I often find I do not agree with either side. I think the Source should not have published some of the materials they did. I do not believe a feminist perspective deserves its own slot on a democratically based Senate structure, or that President Bacow deserved the public tongue-lashing Iris Halpern offered up through this very section of the Daily. However, regardless of one's view on these issues, the methods of discussion can be agreed to by all. Yelling, screaming, kicking, and fighting is what youth do. Having civil discussions is what adults engage in. There is a reason for it.
The current administration is filled with good people working for the entire student body. Just because something does not happen immediately, or come out your way, does not make them wrong, evil, or some conspiracy-machine out to crush justice. Tufts is privileged to have Larry Bacow as its new president. However, if you want his respect, or that of a Board of Trustee member used to working for thousands of stock holders in a multi-national business, you need to reciprocate.
Tufts is suffering some of this controversy because we are fortunate enough to have the Daily. At Washington University, where I currently find myself, the paper is not daily nor does it enjoy the readership of this paper. As a result, students live in what can only be deemed blissful ignorance. Many issues do not arise because the mode of communication is greatly reduced. Unfortunately, some Tufts students have the notion that if they say or do something outlandish enough, they will earn headlines and allow their cause to be heard.
Meanwhile, thousands of students and professors here are doing amazing work yet going unrecognized. We label the "activists" as those on the extreme, yet Tufts boasts a student body filled with students making the world a better place with their activities. These are the true activists who deserve attention. Every day we are greeted in the news with the extreme actions of a few, not the majority. This is the nature of media but perhaps it is time to look for the harder to uncover story - but a story nevertheless. The majority of the Tufts population is not fighting, but rather loving the four greatest years of their lives. You would never know that by reading the exploits of the front-page moguls of 2001-2002.
Finally, I would like to weigh in on the topic of diversity. While there has been legitimate discussion on the need for expansion of diversity in faculty and curriculum, students have forgotten to mention just how far the University has come in its student body. Racially, the Class of 2005 boasts a class that is around 20 percent Hispanic/Latino/African-American, by far the highest ever in the history of the school.
This is an accomplishment of the administration that goes unappreciated, perhaps because many of you were not around to see what it used to be like. Likewise, compare the statistics of the student-body diversity with those of comparable universities like the Ivy League or other NESCAC schools. Tufts stands at, or near the top, in racial diversity.
Factor in the rather large international community Tufts boasts, mix in the Asian-American population, and the class Tufts presents is not that of 1950 sit-com America. It is a fantastic opportunity for interaction, communication and mutual understanding of those not from similar backgrounds. Trust me, you do not find that everywhere (it comes no where close here at WashU).
There will always be speed bumps in the learning process. With diversity comes intolerance by a few. Those individuals must learn to embrace the diversity or they chose the wrong university to attend. Those that have felt the discrimination? You have made the right choice. The next step is to integrate campus with understanding on race, religion, ideology, and interaction. These initiatives lie chiefly within the student body. With time, curriculum and faculty will match your efforts - you just need to have a little trust.
Doug Burns (LA '00) majored in political science.
