I love Tufts, I really do. And this, unlike some other columns, is not a Tufts-bashing column. This is a Tufts-helping column. I want to improve this campus so that one day future Jumbos can run around the best school in the country. Because I think Tufts has that potential, it just needs a little prodding in the right direction.
Tufts is like the little campus that could. We don't have the best facilities, and we don't have the largest endowment. We don't have the most famous faculty, and we don't have the highest ranking. We're not in the Ivy League, and we weren't around when Washington walked the earth. We don't have a fancy national charter, or sports teams that attract millions of fans and millions of dollars. But you know what? We have a great school with great teachers and great students.
That being said, most students here could have gone to many different schools besides this one (I say most, because my choices were slim...). And eventually, the small, seemingly insignificant aspects of this school that set us back from the pack that we belong in will catch up with us, and then no one will want to go here. These are things unnoticeable to the untrained eye (cough, trustees and administration, cough) but any Tufts student could write a ten-page research paper on any of these problems in under an hour. (It's Tufts. We get lots of practice.)
It's the little things, like wireless Internet. When my sister was touring colleges, we went to Seton Hall. Seton Hall had a completely wireless campus. Back then in my high school freshman innocence, I was like, "Whatever, big deal." But now, when trying to do simple research in a place not located in a "conventional" research place, I realize the beauty of wireless Internet. I mean, Tufts wants us to think outside the box, and even Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg will soon require you to be creative to go here. Then why do they lock us in a box to do research or even just check our mail! We want to be free!
Also, it looks like I faked my Tufts ID. Seriously, if I were a computer science major, I could totally make my own Tufts ID. How many fake computer science students do we have on this campus? Doesn't that freak you out?
And those lame IDs are pretty confusing. Like, why do we have so many points? Just because I go to Tufts doesn't mean that I am a genius and was born with the knowledge of the multi-point system. My sister goes to BU. She has a cool-looking card, and she can slide that card anywhere to get anything. I can't even do my laundry half the time because the little cash to Points converting machine never works. News flash: If I had cash, I wouldn't need Points, now would I? So when I don't have cash, I can't get Points, and I can't do laundry. That is just ridiculous.
We can't add or drop classes online, and many sophomores can't get many classes they want, period. We're too advanced for unlimited intro classes, and the seniors and juniors take up the classes we need. What's up with that?
I could go on (no soap in the bathrooms, no uphill campus eatery, only being able to use points after seven p.m., not using all the technology on Blackboard, etc.) but why kick us when we're down? The problem is, eventually the kids who go here are going to tell all the kids at their old high school about these issues, and they are going to realize that Harvard and Duke and Yale and Washington University in St. Louis and Penn and Emory and Rice probably don't have these problems. And ta-da! We slip further and further down the rankings.
I think that it is in Tufts' best interest to invest a little money in these problems. That money will go a long way. Maybe it's not books for the library or new dorms, but these little things impact our lives as students in countless ways. I think that the trustees and administration, being good business people, will see that these are steps towards the future that Tufts needs to take. I think that our new favorite people, the Omidyars, would realize that too. They have given a total of $125 million recently, and I think that a little tiny chunk could be used to improve campus life. Obviously they know the value of a good investment... because they have $125 million to give to Tufts! Clearly that money had to come from good business somewhere down the line.
In conclusion, I love Tufts, and I want to see it blossom in the future. My future Jumbos should be able to spend my money in whatever points they want! But in all seriousness, just because Tufts doesn't have a business major doesn't mean that we can't practice a little good business here and there. Because I need to do my laundry, and I don't have any cash.
Meredith Pickett is a sophomore majoring in history. Se can be reached via e-mail at Meredith.Pickett@tufts.edu.
