The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate partook in a lengthy debate on Monday night. At stake was a resolution that failed to pass by a narrow margin of three votes. The debate and resolution weren't about a topic like financial aid, diversity or sustainability, but rather about an optional Tufts admissions essay question and the definition of the word "nerdy."
The resolution in question called for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to replace one of its six optional response topics in the Tufts supplement to the Common Application. The topic in question tells applicants, "Celebrate your nerdy side."
The resolution argued that the topic can restrict the pool of applicants who could answer to those who have a nerdy side and that "nerdy" has negative connotations. Before the close vote that shot down the resolution, the senate debated the resolution for about an hour and spent a good deal of that time focusing on what exactly the word "nerdy" means.
That our student government representatives spent so much time debating a resolution protesting a completely optional college application response is indicative of larger problems with the TCU Senate. If some members of the senate hope to move into politics after graduation, they're getting good training: The body as a whole can act just as ineffectually as the real U.S. Congress.
As for the resolution itself, the Daily believes that it is making much ado about nothing.
Not only is the "nerdy" response one of six options — and therefore completely avoidable — it is no more restrictive than Tufts' highly publicized YouTube application option. That option arguably discriminates in favor of individuals who are charismatic and photogenic, and who have access to high-quality video equipment.
Furthermore, the prompt does not require respondents to be full-fledged nerds in the traditional sense. It only requires them to have a nerdy side: It does not exclude members of stereotypical high school cliques like the goths, preps, jocks, hippies, greasers and plastics. As long as they have some semblance of a nerdy side, they're more than able to answer the optional question.
Since members of the Tufts Class of 2015 had a mean high school rank in the top five percent of their class, it's hard to argue that admitted Tufts students don't all share a nerdy trait: academic excellence.
Tufts itself has an inherent nerdy quality that the response option embraces. One of our most popular sports is Quidditch. We crowd around our TVs to watch an a cappella group compete on NBC's "The Sing-Off." Our library has a tapestry written in binary. The Department of Computer Science shares a building with the Athletics Department. Tufts is a nerdy school, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.
While the word "nerd" certainly has historically negative connotations, there's no reason nerds can't work to own the term as people who are intelligent and interesting. The optional question itself is more inclusive than restrictive — it does nothing to discourage the "cool kids" from applying, but it does let nerdy people know that it's OK to be themselves.
