Eaton closed for Veteran's day?

Its 10 a.m., Veteran's day morning: another cloud-enshrouded New England day. I pull on my study clothes -- a Tufts sweatshirt, sneakers and loose-fitting pants. A long day of paper writing looms over my head.

First on my list: breakfast at the Commons. As I approach the Campus Center, however, something seems amiss. No glaring florescent lights? No glazed-eyed students guzzling caffeine on the patio? It is closed? In a way I am not surprised. It is a holiday, and the Commons seems to have quite haphazard hours in general. I figure, although Brown and Brew is a bit further, it has better coffee. I am just anxious about getting to work on my ever-looming 10-14 page paper.

And oddly enough, Brown and Brew is open. I understand Tufts even less as I get closer to graduation and further from freshman year. Nevertheless, in a few minutes I am climbing up the memorial steps, feeling ready to tackle my work, armed with a freshly toasted bagel in one hand and a steaming latte in the other. Another student, evidently with a similar mission, also clad in lounge wear, reaches the front door of Eaton just ahead of me. We exchange knowing looks. She reaches for the door handle (my hands are full with a bagel and coffee.) It does not budge. Just then I realize, as before, the lack of lights and students milling about. It is closed.

It's closed?!?

We look at each other, not knowing what to do. She asks in a foreign accent, "What the f--k I am going to do?" I have no idea.

It is a Tuesday, mid-November, peak work-load time; what am I going to do? And why is Eaton closed?

The last time I checked, students do not really keep normal schedules like the rest of the world, and our school usually caters to that. Our gym is open later on Sunday nights than Fridays; the Tisch library is open for 23 hours each day during a seemingly random week in December and May, and the ever faithful Carmichael and Dewick dining halls are open all day during the week. But yet, all I wanted to do was write a paper!

So I went back down the memorial steps to Anderson. I figure, in the least, the engineers must be working. And yes, the EPDC has a hand written sign announcing that it will open its doors at 12 noon. I sit down with some other students waiting for the prospect of internet and Microsoft Word. We wait. 12:00 comes and goes. Then 12:30. We then venture to call the Tufts Police. But they just remind us that:

a) they have no idea what really happens on campus;

b) that it is indeed a holiday (oh, gosh for a second there I forgot.)

End of conversation. So we wait longer, if only for a lack of another plan. Gradually some of the students get up and leave.

Just then, in a cool, leaf-filled breeze, a tour group of prospective students enter the foyer. They stand staring at us. My fellow over-stressed, computer-lacking students are an exciting show for them. The tour guide is lost for words; "If the EPDC were open..." he begins, not knowing how to continue. Yet, strangely, the lack of open academic facilities does not seem to faze the tourists.

So I ask, how has Tufts gotten away with this all these years? I believe I know the answer. Many students, like my previous working-computer-owning self, are not dependent on the school's facilities for digital access. The majority of students have a computer, be it a bulky old Mac circa 1998, a deck-of-cards-thin laptop, or something in between. When most students find themselves in my position, they just trudge on back home. Maybe productivity is lower with the fridge calling out every 15 minutes and the TV somehow finding a way to turn on by itself, but they still have access to a computer.

However, some of us are not as fortunate. Some of us, like myself and my dejected foreign friend outside Eaton, may not have computer access due to financial constraints, technical problems, or refusal to cart an expensive piece of machinery on a transcontinental flight. And, like many students, I never had to deal with Eaton's fickle hours. That is, until my unreliable laptop decided to fight with its hard drive, leaving me dependent on Tufts' computer facilities.

There is no dearth of computers on the campus; yet somehow, students have limited access to them. Although I hate hearing Tufts constantly compared to other private schools of its caliber, it must be said that the majority of such schools do have libraries and computer labs open for more than a few (or in the case of Veteran's day, zero) hours. These schools may have more outside funding and/or private donations, I am aware, yet I would think that academic work would be a high priority here (and not, say, repaving walkways and grooming the lawns.) Exactly how much does it cost to open Eaton? Does it, for instance, cost as much as keeping the bookstore open all day?

Though the Commons was not open on Tuesday, nor the computer lab, and Tisch had 'special' (i.e. limited) hours, it is interesting to note that the bookstore (a.k.a. the souvenir shop) was open all day -- presumably to allow those prospective Tufts students and parents to purchase a Tufts sweatshirt before climbing back into their Land Rovers and heading home. The kids can use them when they study next year.

I just hope it is not a paper they are expecting to write.

Ali Kosiba is a senior majoring in Biology.