The tournament director peered across the room, his reddish beard crinkling as he grinned. “Where are the Jumbos of Tufts University?” his voice boomed, amplified by the microphone. Three hundred competitors turned in their seats to look at us. “Jumbos,” he said, “Do the elephant thing you do!” We glanced at each other, laughing nervously. We stood, and in a low whisper, “Ready? Jumbos on three. One, two, three … BPPRHHHFF!” Students and coaches from around the nation cheered as we trumpeted.
We were in Washington, D.C. It was my junior spring. Tufts Mock Trial had brought not one, but two separate teams to the National Championship Tournament -- unprecedented in our history. We were welcomed as two of the top 48 teams in the country by none other than Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. And then, after arguing our case in federal courthouses against schools from as near as Brown and as far as the University of California, San Diego, we were making elephant noises in the nation’s capital.
That moment, I remember. Calculus II? Not so much. As a graduate of this university, I can say with complete confidence that the opportunities I was afforded to compete with Tufts Mock Trial meant more for my Tufts experience, and more for my post-graduate trajectory, than anything I ever did in a classroom. These teams create student communities, provide role models and mentors and, in the case of mock trial, plop undergraduate students down in courtrooms and expose them to the practice of law. Without those key support systems and extraordinary experiences, I would have neither the confidence nor the incredible privilege to be writing this op-ed from Harvard Law School, urging the TCU Senate to save our teams.
The Senate is now considering a radical policy shift which would strip all student activity groups of any funding used to travel and compete. For groups engaged in debate, dance and a myriad of other competitions, this would mean the end. If we cannot compete, we cannot exist.
The problem is not that Senate is simply cutting budgets. If, as TCU Treasurer Adam Kochman notes, the budget surplus has been “depleting” over the past several years, it is understandable that we need to start spending more responsibly. Rather, the problem is that the proposed solution -- cutting all travel expenses -- has a disproportionate impact. For our travel teams, travel funding is everything. In one fell swoop, Senate is positioned to destroy Tufts’ ability to compete on intercollegiate circuits, telling students they can only compete if they can fund their own tickets to the competitions and pay for the university’s registration fees. It is one thing to require student contributions to competition costs; it is another to shift the entire burden to the students.
Kochman hopes that the move could mean “There will be more money available, hopefully, for events on campus.” What about the events that transform our students’ experiences outside of the borders of Medford and Somerville? Why are these student activities suddenly, for 2015-2016, unworthy of support?
If the Senate was to suddenly halt all funding used to take students off campus, it would prevent Tufts from competing with other universities. It would seal Tufts into a bubble which no student organization could independently afford to escape. It would strip away the learning and growth that our teams provide far beyond the classroom, and far beyond this hill.
Every year, over 500 mock trial teams strive to secure a spot at that coveted National Championship Tournament. Since before I matriculated to this campus, Tufts has consistently stolen those spots from our rivals, making a name -- and an elephant noise -- for this university in our small corner of the national student activities space. We are not alone. We see the same success in our Model UN teams, our debate teams and our dance teams. The year Tufts stops winning national recognition should be the year our Jumbos stop earning it, not the year the Senate stops valuing what we bring to the Tufts community.
Senators, we can continue to succeed if you continue to believe in us. Don’t ground us now.
Senators, save our teams.
