While reading last Thursday's issue of the Daily, I came to a shocking realization. How is it possible that a campus with a primarily liberal student body cannot manage to have a functioning liberal journal? Conservative students are acknowledged as the minority on campus, often claiming that their beliefs are not given credence, yet there exists a clear, readily available journal dedicated to airing the conservative idea. There is no equivalent liberal publication.
Supposedly, the initiative for academic freedom currently being supported by the Tufts Republicans (as well as other groups) is intended to foster a diversity of viewpoints in the educational sphere. If such is the intent, then it seems that the next logical step is to encourage a diversity of views in the non-academic part of college life, specifically in the publications available to students.
If, as the article ("Tufts' student liberal magazine Radix de-recognized by TCUJ" April 28) states, Radix is unable to fulfill this necessary role in the realm of campus publications, another organization must be formed to do so. It is unconscionable that a liberal campus such as this one can allow for such a lack to exist. It isn't that there is not enough support for the liberal view; it is that Radix did not make its presence known.
As an incoming freshman, I only recently learned there even was such a group. Had there been a well-publicized, well-organized general interest meeting, then support would have been found to keep the group alive and publishing. The foundation is there already; the liberal underclassmen must step up and breathe life back into a dying group.
In order to thrive, a group needs to keep its momentum going. It needs to make use of the resources available, but most importantly, it needs to reach out to the student body. Radix signatory Joshua Koritz said in the article, "it is really a shame that there was such a lack of interest." It is not that there are too few liberals to make a publication worthwhile. As a majority of the students, the liberals are apparently apathetic to the need to spread liberal opinion and create a forum for expression.
This is especially surprising considering that the country is currently Republican led. Liberals may be the campus majority, but in the rest of the world, this is not the case. A publication is needed to encourage interest and action. The Tufts Republicans are not the group that first comes to mind when considering the conservative view, it is the Primary Source. The Tufts Democrats need a similar presence; something seen every week, all over campus, a reminder of the issues important to liberals. A motivator is needed and a publication can do that, but apparently that publication cannot be Radix as it currently stands.
Radix was run, according to TCUJ Advocacy Chair Jordana Starr, "... mostly by seniors and graduate students." It is the undergraduates' and especially the underclassmen's responsibility now to take over and create a viable publication. Diversity of available views must be maintained.
In the very same issue of the Daily, there was an article summarizing the results of a poll conducted by the paper. The fact that a group dedicated to liberal ideas has just been de-recognized by the University seems to indicate a decline in interest in those views has taken place. In reality, according to the Daily's own poll, the liberals are still strongly represented in the campus population.
Seventy-two percent of the 346 students polled were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the current administration in the White House. Eighty percent of students polled said they supported embryonic stem cell research, a program supported mainly by liberals. Where is the forum available to express these ideas? Where is the liberals' Primary Source?
While it is the liberal students who must create a publication in which to unify their views, it is in the best interest of all the students on campus to support this initiative, regardless of their personal beliefs. We are a school that prides itself on diversity. We need to act on this idea.
Margaux Birdsall is a freshman who has yet to declare a major.
