Are they kidding?

Once again I was shocked at how this administration can pat itself on the back for something so blatantly negative ("Changed Alcohol Policy leads to More TEMS use" Feb. 17).

They congratulate themselves on having almost 50 percent more students having to use TEMS for alcohol related incidents in the fall semester as compared to all of last year. This administration lauds its own changing of the disciplinary policy as the only reason for this increase rather than considering the fact that they have pushed drinking further into dorm rooms where hard liquor is easier to sneak in and students are drinking in smaller groups. It seems the administration thinks this is an acceptable replacement to the crowded fraternity parties where students are in large groups and have to force their way through crowds to get one beer every half an hour.

I, like many others, thought there would be an increase in TEMS calls at the beginning of the year for the reasons mentioned above, not the ones presented by Veronica Carter and Bruce Reitman. In my four years at Tufts I have never seen this campus so quiet on weekends, as more and more students are heading into surrounding neighborhoods and to other schools instead of hanging around on the Hill. I know of no one who views this as a positive, and as we seniors get ready to leave in a couple months this past year is going to leave a lasting impression.

The academics here are incredible and combined with an active extracurricular and social life they mold our four years into something we will, hopefully, remember fondly as we receive those donation cards in the mail. This administration has all but ignored the social desires of their students and in doing so have neglected an important facet of what shapes us as students as well as human beings. While these statistics aren't conclusive of anything, this administration should spend more time looking into how to make students happier and safer rather then praising themselves in the newspaper for how they "successfully" oversaw fourteen more students call for emergency help.



Michael Tonelli

LA '04