Approximately 100 students and administrators gathered in the Sophia Gordon Hall multi-function room last night for a "Community Conversation on Social Life."
The conversation honed in on two main issues: Students spent the first hour of the meeting discussing a perceived increase in aggressive tactics by the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD). Most of the second hour was spent discussing the recent Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate proposal of capitalizing on a planned renovation of Hotung Caf?© to convert the space into a pub.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman and TCU President Mitch Robinson hosted the town hall-style event, which was open to the entire Tufts community and attended by representatives from the TUPD, Dining Services, the Office of Residential Life and Learning and several members of the TCU Senate.
The event was motivated by calls for dialogue during last week's Town Meeting on Intellectual Life at Tufts. According to Reitman, frequent Viewpoints in the Daily and a Facebook.com group entitled "Bringing Back the Social Life at Tufts" also prompted the meeting.
More seniors attended than any other class, with some sophomores, juniors and only a handful of freshmen attending.
"To some extent, issues about social life are an annual event as our neighbors react to the return of Tufts students," Reitman said at the beginning of the meeting. Still, he recognized that concern has been particularly high this fall and expressed his willingness to hear ideas from the student body.
He also made it clear that the meeting's title was something of a misnomer.
"If you look at the most broad definition of social life, there are tons of things to do at Tufts," Reitman said. "But I admit that all the conferences, films and lectures are passive social programming. It's different from partying. We're not talking about social life. We're talking about partying."
"Students continually say that they 'feel like they have no outlet,'" Robinson said. "The question I want to pose is - what can we do to improve the social life?"
Robinson's solicitation of ideas was not answered until the second half of the meeting. First, students raised the most contentious issue of the night, which involved perceived mistreatment from the Tufts, Somerville and Medford Police Departments.
"I wake up every morning and hear new stories about parties being broken up at 10 p.m. and people being kicked out of their own houses," senior Eli Cohn said. "The police, especially our police, must acknowledge that there are two sides to this conflict. They can't treat us the way we've been treated this year."
Cohn is responsible for a set of two Daily Viewpoints on this subject and for raising the issue at the academic town hall meeting last week.
Two more seniors, Aaron Miller and Ross Johnson, joined in Cohn's indictments of off-campus policing.
"I'm glad we brought up alcohol," Miller said. "That's what we're here to discuss, not the social life ... and there's a difference between responsible and irresponsible drinking." Miller described a situation in which he claims that a small barbecue he attended was broken up by the police by 8:30 p.m.
"That night, we were drinking responsibly. That should be respected, not punished," Miller said to applause.
"The delineation is not being made between responsible and irresponsible drinking," Johnson said. "Police officers are dropping f-bombs and calling us stupid. That wouldn't happen with my 56-year old neighbors."
Tufts' Director of Public Safety John King stepped up to the microphone to address these charges.
"This duty is not fun," King said. "We don't enjoy being seen as restricting your social life or restricting some rights. The police officers should always treat the public professionally, courteously and to gain the respect of you or others.
"If our police officers don't do that, we want to know about it."
King said that the TUPD is always open to hearing complaints about officers, a statement reiterated by Captain Mark Keith, head of the Medford and Somerville campus' TUPD branch.
One of King's main points was that many of the complaints about police behavior may need to be directed to the Somerville and Medford Police Departments.
For the first five weeks of this semester, the Somerville Police Department asked the TUPD to work with the SPD in a new joint effort to be more proactive about shutting parties down earlier.
After the meeting last night, King told the Daily that he has yet to conduct a full assessment of the program, but that "this type of feedback [at the town-hall meeting] goes into the evaluation progress."
Senior Adam Nadolski expressed a desire to hold a similar type of meeting with the Somerville and Medford Police Departments, and King said that the TUPD would do everything in its power to help facilitate such a meeting.
After an hour of discussion revolving exclusively around the police, Reitman and Robinson made a point to turn the conversation to suggestions for improvement.
"We're looking for suggestions to draw people back to campus," Reitman said. "Are there suggestions for different types of activities? Would a pub help?"
The majority of students who spoke said that a pub would be a good idea, but the devil was in the details. Some students defended the Senate-endorsed idea of converting Hotung, while others said that Brown and Brew would be a better venue for a pub.
"Hotung renovations will begin in November," Robinson said. "This is a good opportunity to figure out what you want to see there."
Students suggested various ways for the school to use on-campus resources to develop a suitable social environment at Hotung. Robinson said that the Senate would conduct a survey of Tufts students to gather ideas.
Both Robinson and Reitman called the meeting successful, but only a starting point.
"Now it's the responsibility of the TCU Senate, and most importantly the student body, to get behind improving the social life," Robinson said.
