Well, they say the Bahamas are nice this time of year. Today is our last issue of the semester, and I'm planning on taking my nonexistent paycheck, hopping into the Daily's private jet and enjoying some sunshine and relaxation.
This semester has been one heck of a ride, with plenty of ups and downs to keep the journey interesting. Both locally and nationally, financial issues have seeped through dialogues in a sobering way. On the Hill, the semester began with students grappling with new hues of betrayal following the indictment of Ray Rodriguez; the community felt cheated and was calling for action, only to later receive an opportunity in the recovered funds. Nationally, the economic slowdown has forced Tufts to reexamine its core priorities as brick and mortar construction projects come in conflict with need-blind admissions.
Still, there have been plenty of highlights to go along with these tough situations. Students returned to Tufts in September enthusiastic about the prospects of choosing a new president, and the excitement reached a fever pitch as November drew closer. Our campus has united in a meaningful way these past few months, not necessarily around political beliefs, but around the fundamental hope that our generation can make a new name for young voters. There was a grassroots war against apathy on college campuses, and the results were encouraging.
And then there was the silly. For starters, for the first time in recent memory, it rained in the Daily office. Or that's what we thought — until we realized that rain typically isn't yellow and that we work right under a bathroom. But all of that, of course, is overshadowed (quite literally) by the beleaguered tree on the President's Lawn. It was certainly interesting to see that Tufts' most well-publicized social activism experiment of the semester ended with a student in a banana suit climbing and protecting a tree that was never meant to be cut down.
But more than anything, this semester (for me) has been defined by the friendships stemming from this 60-hour-per-week job. It's all too easy as a college student to compulsively diversify, to join as many groups as there are hours in the day in hopes of packing as much meaning as possible into four years. There's certainly nothing wrong with this tendency, but this semester has clearly shown me that intense dedication to one group can bring plenty of meaning.
The experience of spending so many hours in a windowless basement can easily be lost on our readers. On a somewhat regular basis, I hear students talk in passing about the Daily, and several times they have mentioned that we take ourselves too seriously. We do, after all, have an ethics code exhaustive enough to make even our own heads spin. But that misses the point. This is a consuming activity, and one that is only rewarding for us if we can strive to bring you the most complete, accurate coverage possible.
In this process, there's still room for a fair amount of fun, and it's the ability of all of the editors on our masthead to push themselves while still enjoying their time here that I will miss most after today.
I hope all of you have enjoyed reading the Daily as much as we have enjoyed producing it. And while you're perusing our issues, remember that behind the scenes, in the basement of Curtis Hall, a bunch of college students are dealing with some very real-world scenarios.
Well, this is the last time that you'll be reading me on this page. I'd like to say more, but my jet beckons.
Sincerely,
Rob Silverblatt
Editor-in-Chief
