The role of an editor on a newspaper is a type of a gatekeeper. It is up to each editor to decide what should run, and what should not. Which style fits within the rest of the newspaper and which pieces are more appropriate for another forum, such as a magazine.
But Tufts University does not have alternative publications, at least none on the scale of The Tufts Daily. This may seem like an arrogant assertion, but the Daily is the most widely-read piece of print on campus, and although it may not always be perfect at disseminating minority views, it is the place where students go when they want to raise an issue on campus.
Well, I am tired of it.
This is a campus of nearly 5,000 young, bright students. The best of America and a few other countries, we are told. So why is it that the outlets for the ideas on this campus seem to be floundering?
The Primary Source, after being a strong advocate for change and a well-spoken challenger of the status quo my freshman year, has now fallen into a state of irrelevance in the campus rhetoric. The sensible and clear-headed arguments for conservative ideals once attracted great political essays and biting commentary on national, local and campus political issues. Now, the publication is a shadow of its former self, with the inability to rationalize an argument or look at itself with a critical eye.
The Tufts Observer converted itself into a magazine and has never fully adjusted its style or mission to the new format. There are flashes of brilliance that give me hope that the campus will once again have a well-written, well-edited and well-read weekly publication, but unless the improvement speeds up, we will be waiting a long while. With a weekly publication schedule, it could cover items with an in-depth journalistic edge; instead it reports on stale news and soft-ball feature stories.
Tufts publication for radical thought, Radix, arrived and then disappeared. Last year's commencement issue was abandoned in Curtis Hall, never delivered despite the thousands of dollars from the TCU Senate which funded the printing of its glossy covers. Not that it would have mattered. All of the articles in the May 2004 issue contained stories more applicable to February or March than May or June.
TUTV has gotten its technical issues under control, but in the past four years has only offered Jumbo Love Match and a the odd student films.
I know that I am starting to harp, and I apologize. As a member of a publication on campus, I understand the hard work that goes into all of the groups above, and I do not want to demean those students' effort. But all of the members of these media groups must ask themselves what their purpose on campus is. If it is to propagate information and discussion and ideas, then I can unequivocally state they are failing miserably.
The Daily has its own issues that it needs to deal with, and for every part of the newspaper which has improved over the last several years there are others which have worsened. But we are striving to be better, to be a leader of the Tufts University student body.
I have always viewed my responsibility as editor-in-chief of a college newspaper to provide the structure and knowledge of journalism to fellow students, and try to work with them so that they love journalism just as much as I do.
I do not feel that the publications on campus are currently doing that. And, yes, this includes the Daily. I do not exclude us from the groups which need to improve on this issue.
Let's allow the voices of this campus to rise up, and then we can have a real shouting match across the Hill and give this campus a richer discourse.
Hopefully it will teach generations of Tufts students to add their opinions to the world's discourse and encourage everyone on campus to become intellectually involved.
