This has without a doubt been the longest semester of my college career. For the fated few of us on the Daily's managing board, it's become standard to call it an early night if we get to head home before 2 a.m.
But that's for good reason: There was plenty to cover this semester. Our front page featured coverage of items from the administration's revamped underage drinking rules to its new policy on freedom of expression. Meanwhile, the members of the Tufts community again demonstrated their engagement and concern with the news going on around them through thoughtful contributions to our op-ed page. (I, for one, found it telling that no reader felt the need to write in on the sex policy, despite the nation's fleeting obsession with it.)
And through our editorials, we did our best to shed light on concerns that these issues raised. We urged the administration to confront the campus' culture of underage drinking at its roots rather than simply employing castigatory policies that could ultimately help bring about the very type of tragedy that the university hopes to prevent. We also urged students to adopt a greater sense of responsibility in situations that involve alcohol. We poked holes in the idea that it shows nothing more than blind "political correctness" for a community to reject a flyer making fun of someone's racial background. We cautioned that any policy that purports to govern free speech without guaranteeing it outright is a step in the wrong direction — especially within a community that, time and again, has proven so apt at responding on its own terms to hateful expression.
We've also been working behind the scenes this fall to bring our Web coverage up to par with that of the nation's most advanced college news sources. This semester, we created the Daily's New Media Department; thanks to this addition, we have produced a steady stream of videos and slideshows and have remodeled our blogs, making them vastly more visually engaging and readable. When Shepard Fairey unveiled a new mural at the campus center, we supplemented our articles with an online photo slideshow. When the flyer incident hit Tufts, we scampered around campus to compile a video of students weighing in on the issue. When the Task Force on Freedom of Expression released its declaration last month, we included an interactive timeline with links to past articles on the topic.
The New Media Department did not accomplish every innovation we had envisioned, but there's always next semester. And judging by the talent and dedication of everyone who will be stepping up next month, the Daily is bound only to get stronger. With these new hands on deck, our readers can expect the Daily and TuftsDaily.com to continue growing, innovating and — most importantly — keeping pace with the constant forward motion of this dynamic campus.
Sincerely,
Giovanni Russonello
Editor-in-Chief
Tufts Daily
