Following the strong response to last week's Viewpoint, I wrote the followig speech and intended to give it in front of Deans Sternberg, Glaser and Reitman yesterday at the Town Hall Meeting. However, since they insisted that the topic of the meeting remain "intellectual life" and not the sad state of the social life on campus, I couldn't express many important points. Now I can.
"I recently wrote a Viewpoint that was published in The Tufts Daily last Monday entitled, "If the freshmen only knew." I wrote this piece because I noticed a growing problem at Tufts that many other students have also noticed, but no one has yet communicated in a public sphere.
That same Monday, three sophomores created a group on Facebook.com called "Bringing the Social Life Back to Tufts." Today, over 1,500 Tufts students have joined this group, and the strength and swiftness of their response should, in itself, be enough to prove how desperately these students want a voice and how dire the situation has gotten. [Editor's note: At press time, the Facebook.com group called "Bringing the Social Life Back to Tufts" had 976 members.]
For years, there have been grumblings on campus about the slow and steady decline of the social scene, and there have been Viewpoints in the Daily similar to mine pointing this out. The question is: Why, then, are students rallying now? The fact of the matter is, this issue has finally reached the breaking point.
With regard to their treatment of the students this year, the police are using basic fear and intimidation tactics. They drive fast, park on sidewalks, and yell at groups of students to scatter and go home. Then, they grab the unlucky student who decided to ask why he had to go home, and they drag him to their car while calling him a selfish college student and swearing at him.
I saw this happen, because I was that unlucky kid. Now, I am on a first-name basis with two TUPD cops. The problem is, I don't ever want to see them again.
This shouldn't be; I shouldn't feel scared on my own campus. I pay full tuition for my college experience, and an important part of it is [now] being suffocated by a team of overzealous and irresponsible law enforcement departments.
It makes me wonder if protecting us and upholding the law is really what they [TUPD officers] care about. Lately, it seems like they are just into kicking people out of their own houses.
Now, we are all fully aware that with freedom comes responsibility, but so far this year, the students haven't even been given a chance to prove themselves. Since the on-campus nightlife scene has taken such a hit, the police knew the epicenter of the social life would shift off campus. Their approach in dealing with this has been to cut parties down before they even start.
But, the fact is, every school needs a healthy social life as much as a productive intellectual life. Killing it before it grows will not make the need for it disappear; it will just make it more closed-door, underground and dangerous.
Now, don't get me wrong. Most of the administration's reasoning for closing the fraternities was justified. Dangerous conditions at parties, tragic events, including hospital visits and near-death experiences - these are all legitimate reasons to discipline the fraternities. The point is that their absence has left a sizable hole in the Tufts social scene that this administration has not yet been openly willing to acknowledge.
Students are now replacing Frat Row by gathering in dorm rooms and off-campus houses. And as we all know, having 60-person parties in dorms is not only illegal, but dangerous, too; they create bad situations for everyone involved. But, rest assured, they will continue to happen if something is not done to fill this increasing social void.
Off campus, where some members of the community have always routinely complained about noise, there have been numerous instances during which gatherings were broken up before curfew hours. The cops busted in, they berated the students, then hit the kids who lived in the house with $200 fines for having 15 people over for dinner. It truly seems like they enjoy breaking up our fun. But that's beside the point.
No Tufts student is foolish enough to doubt that the administration has legitimate safety, legal and community concerns in mind. The problem is their refusal to consider student concerns. A dialogue between the administration and the students is long overdue. When the police come yelling onto our property at 8:30 p.m., we can only assume that the administration has told them that this is perfectly O.K. Well, I think I can speak for all Tufts students when I say that this is not O.K.
We must be allowed to gather respectably and responsibly. The social aspect of student life is important to any university. If the students are unhappy, the school is not doing well. And while Tufts has been making strides in many respects, it has strayed too far away from the current students' interests and concerns. We do not just go to school here; we also live here. And if students are not having fun, everything from academics to college rankings will suffer.
Now, don't get me wrong. A new crew house is great, this new meeting hall in Sophia Gordon is beautiful, and the music building will no doubt be incredible. But, if otherwise intelligent and distinguished students are routinely treated as potential criminals every time the sun goes down, it makes it increasingly hard for me to be proud to be a Jumbo.
Eli Cohn is a senior majoring in political science.
