We write to support Glen Roth's Viewpoint ("Taking aim at the wrong target," 2/14) regarding the closest re-enactment of the "showdown at the OK Corral" at Tufts since the 1997 April Fool's Day snowball fight on the President's Lawn. We are referring, of course, to last week's Trustee Luncheon in Dewick.
Tufts will accept the best students, regardless of where they are from, what they look like, or with whom they sleep. Students who accept the honor of attending this University should realize that by doing so, they are accepting the responsibility of becoming members of the community. That responsibility extends beyond merely "exercising students' right to free speech," as Noris Chavarria advocates, to using their formidable collective intellect to direct your efforts where they will be most effective.
In explaining what makes people really effective at achieving their goals, author Stephen Covey quotes a proverb about the difference between hacking wildly at the leaves of a tree and methodically chopping at the root. It is beyond doubt that some students present at last week's luncheon deliberately asked questions and made points in a way calculated to pressure University trustees and paint them into a corner. While that may have made a few individuals feel like real "activists" - standing up to "the Man" and not backing down - it surely was not an effective way to address the real problems that students profess to care about.
We don't believe that anybody can rationally suggest that the trustees and the Administration don't care about diversity. They are philanthropists that have given not only their money, but who have volunteered their time and expertise to help this University grow. It's really kind of ridiculous to think that alienating them is going to make things happen faster. The trustees have always had, and will always have YOUR best interest in mind.
That said, we don't believe that Ballou Hall controls the Tufts experience, the students do. We strongly believe that herein lies a great opportunity to strike at the root of diversity issues on campus.
The bottom line is that you as students have more power to improve the "quality of the undergraduate experience" than the administration could ever have. It is your University. It is your community. The best things that the administration can do are ensure that we get the BEST professors and the BEST students and then stay out of the way. It is up to those professors and those students to create the BEST community that they can. We urge the community to find a better way to address diversity concerns than whining about the administration and going after the trustees.
Make the undergraduate experience one that will help make you a better person. Look past religious, cultural, and racial lines and accept each other as members of the Tufts Community. Focus on aligning peoples' interests, not publicly proving that others occupy the moral low-ground (especially if they might be able to help you do great things!). Maybe then by your example you can teach the world something that really matters.
