Disappointment with Trustees

As one of the participants chosen to attend the trustee luncheon this past Saturday, I am sorely disappointed by both the orchestration of this event as well as the response to student concerns by some of the trustees.

An obvious problem with this luncheon was not simply the fact that it was invite-only, but that the invitations were limited to TCU senators, and with much provocation by TCU Chair Abby Moffat, two representatives each from the TCUJ and CSL. Understanding that the open forum that was offered two years ago resulted in unproductive outbursts, surely there is a means to open up this event to a wider range of students, whether through an application process or by RSVP.

Even more frustrating was the response by trustees to legitimate student concerns. As a non-liberal, I have been disappointed by a lack of ideological diversity among our teaching staff at Tufts. Although we have a talented and ethnically diverse group of educators, I'm aware that an important aspect of my education is missing due to the limited number of non-liberal professors. Realistically speaking, the ideological background, not the religion or skin color, of our professors are what most influence their teaching and the classroom environment.

Instead of listening to that very real concern I brought up, the trustee moderating the discussion immediately became very defensive, labeled this concern as "dangerous," and proceeded in a yelling tirade, first declaring that professors must be neutral, but then defending liberalist ideology as acceptable within the classroom. He also asserted that that there are no conservatives in academia, a laughable claim. Not one trustee called him on the blatant disrespect he displayed towards the students present, never mind the flaws in his argument.

Appallingly enough, I later learned that this was not an isolated incident, but rather there has been a history of certain trustees actually screaming at students, more specifically, students who don't fit well into the liberal mold. I was both shocked and saddened by this response and have lost a great deal of respect towards the people who supposedly care about Tufts students.



--by Jordana Starr