For those seniors who were abroad in the spring or those freshmen that were relishing the final months of high school, allow me to paint you a picture from earlier this year. Imagine six of Tufts' most popular (and intelligent) professors hunched over a table in Hotung Café desperately trying to correctly spell the name of the erupting Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. While they repeatedly scribbled and erased futile guesses, over 200 students jammed into tables, booths, second−level chairs and staircases and crouched on the floor, eagerly attempting to accomplish the same task.
That remarkable evening was the inaugural Experimental College "Are You Smarter than a Faculty Member?" Trivia Night. With a lavish grand−prize package and school−wide bragging rights up for grabs, students challenged the elite squad of professors for the title of trivia champion (a team of students won). That was then, this is now.
The Experimental College (ExCollege) brings you "Are You Smarter than a Faculty Member?" Trivia Night: Decision 2010 Edition. The ExCollege's mission is to fill in programming holes where they exist. The midterm elections will affect all of us, and as "active citizens" it is our duty to be aware of the results. By holding this event, the ExCollege fulfills its duty to supplement the conventional curriculum while also supplying a fun, informative atmosphere in which students can live up to their own Tufts−made expectations of engagement.
No matter your political leanings, these midterms will have a profound impact. Therefore, it is important for everyone to be aware of their outcomes and what they will mean for our country. The accomplishments of the first two years of Barack Obama's presidency hang in the balance as they could face a dismantling by a potentially Republican−controlled House of Representatives.
Thus, this trivia night is more than just a good time. At its core, the event tonight is about acknowledging the importance of the election and its educational value while encouraging students to engage and pay attention through friendly competition. After the game's conclusion, students can remain and listen to a panel of political experts discuss what's happening across the country, analyze results as they pour in and predict what lies down the road ahead for Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party movement and the United States.
The ExCollege prides itself on fostering interaction between students and faculty — tonight is about coming together as a university community, and, in the process, eating free food, winning cool prizes, learning about different political races and, hopefully, watching the country avoid going to hell. Our expert panelists have the intellect and experience to explain precisely what has happened and to predict what might happen in the unclear future.
Please join us at 8 p.m. in Hotung on this critically important election night. Ignore the pundits and the partisan hacks who have predicted and re−predicted the day's outcomes for months. The only way to really know what's going on is to wait and see, and there is no better place to do that than with hundreds of your classmates and teachers.
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Benji Cohen is a senior majoring in history. He is on the board of the Experimental College.
