Dear Tufts Community,
Welcome back, Jumbos! And to the newly-matriculated Class of 2029: Welcome to Tufts! My name is Dylan Fee, and I am excited to introduce myself as the new editor in chief of The Tufts Daily. I would like to take a moment to acquaint you with the Daily and our incredible team.
But, before I talk about the Daily and why it’s the best student publication ever, I wanted to give you some advice. I came into college with no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and that’s a good thing! I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian, teacher, lawyer, paramedic, mathematician, professor and countless other professions, each of which only stuck for about a week.
Then, during my sophomore year, a close friend introduced me to the Daily. Flash forward two years: Now I want to be a journalist — a job that was never even on my periphery.
I’m not saying that joining one club will determine your entire future; it took me a lot of trial and error to discover my passion. I will say, however, that college is the time to try new things, even if you’re scared. I don’t know what my future would hold if I had never joined the Daily, but I’m glad I don’t have to find out.
The Daily, founded in 1980, is the only financially independent newspaper of record at Tufts, which means we make all editorial decisions, from interview to print, under no influence but our own. While offering an ongoing logistical challenge — student organizations, if you want an advertisement in the Daily, please do reach out — by remaining independent, we ensure the continued strength and integrity of our voice and the voices we represent.
I’m sure when you think of joining a newspaper, the first thing that comes to mind is writing. However, we have over 20 sections spanning across editorial, multimedia, production and business — so there’s something for everyone!
We publish content online every weekday, and our print paper can be found on newsstands around campus and in the Medford/Somerville community every Thursday. After this publication, we will have five special editions: Local Communities, Parents and Families, our satirical Halloween paper, Elections and, to end out the semester, we will have our third issue of The Tufts Daily Magazine!
In the spring 2025 semester, the Daily published over 600 articles across our News, Features, Arts, Sports, Opinion and Science sections. We had over 25 columns, including our first-ever Spanish publication, Perú Publicado, and we published our 56-page Commencement issue that included written content, beautiful photos and graphics, and was accompanied by uplifting senior profile videos — all work that we are incredibly proud of.
The Daily also faced unprecedented circumstances for our organization. Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was tragically detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and spent 45 days in ICE detention. The revocation of her F-1 student visa that led to her detainment and detention was directly correlated to an op-ed she co-authored for the Daily in spring 2024.
Our news team worked around the clock to cover the status of Öztürk and her case, the university’s response as well as subsequent student and local activism, while our opinion leadership team and managing board worked tirelessly to protect the safety of our international student contributors. So many staff members stepped up and took on extra responsibilities to keep our paper running, and I’m so thankful for and proud of the Daily team for what has been accomplished.
Over the summer, Öztürk bravely submitted another op-ed — that we co-published with Vanity Fair — on her experience in ICE detention. An abridged version is featured in this edition — I strongly urge you to read it. Freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental, if not the most fundamental, aspects of being a free nation. As long as the Daily is publishing, we will do everything we can to give voice to the voiceless and protect our writers to the fullest extent possible.
If you’d like your voice to be heard by the Tufts community or want to let us know how we can improve our coverage, you can submit an op-ed or a letter to the editor to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. You can find our updated guest opinion guidelines on our website.
Just like everything else in college, the Daily is a learning experience for our staff. While our goal is to provide accurate and objective coverage for everyone in our community, mistakes sometimes happen. However, we are always trying to better ourselves, and a great way to help us do that is through reader feedback. Feel free to reach out to me at dylan@tuftsdaily.com with any concerns you may have, submit a letter to the editor or send us an anonymous tip.
If you’d like to report on breaking issues, share your opinion, take a picture worth a thousand words, make others’ work look and sound more beautiful or just join a great community of people, consider joining the Daily. You can find information on how to join in the calendar on our Instagram. If not, you can read our content online or in print. We are, after all, where you read it first.
Pax et Lux,
Dylan Fee
Editor in Chief, Fall 2025
