Dear new and returning Jumbos,
Hello, and congratulations on getting into/back to Tufts! We probably haven't met, so I'll introduce myself: Matthew Diamante, LA '09 (History). Have you got a minute? Super, because there's something I'd like to discuss with you.
By the start of your first class on the Hill, you'd been exposed to a certain theme many times over. It began with the initial Tufts.edu visit, permeated the campus tour, featured in your admissions package and was reaffirmed by then−University President Bacow or University President Monaco when you finally arrived. You've heard it from friends and family as you nodded along, and you've probably repeated it a few times yourself. It goes like this: "Tufts is a place of boundless opportunities and unfettered thought. If you contribute a good deal of hard work, a nugget of inspiration and a judicious amount of responsible levity, you'll soon find yourself on a fast track to the world itself." It's a pleasing, inspiring refrain, and one that seems only appropriate, given all the trouble you undertook to earn your place here. Best of all, it's mostly true.
There is, however, one immense part of the American experience that you may well never hear about at Tufts. It's a huge employer, a major player in international politics, a unique form of service and an absolutely vital organization to the country. I speak, of course, of the United States Armed Forces.
I may as well recount some of my own experiences here. As a lifelong San Franciscan, I grew up in an entirely civilian culture. Although one of my grandfathers and uncles each served brief enlistments post−WWII, I wasn't aware of it — nor did I ever think of my family in military terms. I thus arrived at Tufts never having considered, or been asked to consider, such service.
On the Hill, the armed forces continued to be conspicuously absent from day−to−day life. If our ROTC programs did any outreach to the student body, I certainly didn't see it, and since Tufts hasn't given academic credit to their (off−campus) courses since the Vietnam era, I would have had trouble participating and graduating on time even if I'd been inclined to. But particularly striking, in retrospect, was the university's general silence on the matter: In his 2005 Matriculation Address, Bacow mentioned healthcare, AIDS in Africa, Hurricane Katrina and the Boston Marathon, but made no reference whatsoever to either the present−day military or the two wars the country was in the thick of. Nor did he acknowledge them in his 2009 Baccalaureate Address, though he did make room for the Red Sox, a television personality, the economy and of course, the Boston Marathon. And though he's just begun his tenure, Monaco followed suit with this omission in this year's Matriculation Address. (Neither men, you will not be surprised to hear, are veterans.) As a freshman, I heard Bacow declare that Tufts' "curriculum offers you the freedom to explore," and during my next four years, that held true for such credit−yielding subjects as the works of Jane Austen, the symmetry of two−dimensional shapes, yoga and more. With respect to military service, however, his statement must surely be considered incompletely true at best.
And, lest anyone feel compelled to bring it up, the former "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was not a sufficient excuse for this disregard. I myself was entirely pleased to see it retired this fall, and sympathize with those who objected to the military on account of it — but given its status as a federal law, it was a matter for the people, not the military, to resolve. Indeed, Tufts' lackadaisical response to the policy's demise suggests that its disinterest in the armed forces wasn't due to concerns over civil rights, but rather to a cultural aversion to the forces themselves — an attitude aptly illustrated by Professor of Physics Gary Goldstein's university−embarrassing April declaration that military service is "hardly public service as we usually know the meaning of public service." Furthermore, it goes without saying that the same logic applies to individuals' feelings regarding the military's current and recent involvements overseas. The armed forces belong to all citizens, regardless of how one feels about any specific president or engagement, and all citizens are also therefore accountable to some degree for how their military is put to use.
My purpose in writing all this is not to suggest that anyone join the military, as that question is a deeply personal and potentially life−changing one. I do, however, urge all able−bodied persons to give the matter serious thought — something I myself never did until a year after leaving the Hill. I also recommend that every Jumbo read Kathy Roth−Douquet and Frank Schaeffer's book "AWOL" (2007), available from the Ginn Library and online. I once saw them promote it in the Cabot Intercultural Center, and when I did decide to consider military service, their highly insightful work was the first source to which I turned.
In the book, Roth−Douquet and Schaeffer make many compelling arguments for service, not the least of which is an impassioned warning to not allow the military to become representative of only one kind or class of American. The mostly liberal Tufts community may not much approve of America's involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan, but if few to none from their neighborhoods or income brackets stand a chance of ever going there, how likely are they to debate such matters with fellow citizens, or call on elected leaders to change course? It's especially ironic for a diversity− and inclusion−trumpeting institution like Tufts to utterly ignore the military, thus encouraging recruiters to increasingly target those with fewer life opportunities and connections. Moreover, so long as the university encourages students to take out public loans in order to help pay its private staff's salaries, it's simply wrong for it to ignore the armed forces to the extent that it does.
For my own part, I enlisted in the Navy this March, and begin an eight−year term of service in November. It was a 2006 Daily editorial, "Our unjust lack of involvement in the military," that led me to Roth−Douquet and Schaeffer's book; if this piece persuades so much as one Jumbo to give military service serious consideration, it will have succeeded in opening an avenue of thought to which Tufts as a whole remains far too removed.
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Matthew Diamante graduated from Tufts in 2009 with a degree in history. He recently enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
