Potty Talk: The final flush
Today, we join our spiritual predecessor Larry Bacow and come out of retirement. Just as Larry left in search of a better life, today we too say our goodbyes. We hope, however, to leave one nugget of our wisdom behind.
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Today, we join our spiritual predecessor Larry Bacow and come out of retirement. Just as Larry left in search of a better life, today we too say our goodbyes. We hope, however, to leave one nugget of our wisdom behind.
Editor’s note: Presently incarcerated persons featured in the article are not identified by name, as per the instruction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction.
At the start of each school year, students adjust to new classes, living situations, social dynamics and more. For the past three years, the “more” part of this sentence has included a spate of guidelines designed to protect the Tufts community from COVID-19.
It seems, fellow potty talkers, that our semester together must now draw to a close, and with it, our exploration of the annals of Tufts’ historied restrooms. Much like the conclusion of any good mid-lecture bathroom break, we meet this moment with a mixture of melancholy and relief.
Most liberal arts colleges have psychology, computer science and philosophy majors. Few, however, have cognitive and brain science (CBS) or similar majors, which are often more simply called cognitive science. These courses of study give students the opportunity to analyze different parts of each of the three fields with the lens of trying to understand the human mind. With a mashup of required courses offered by the computer science and psychology departments, along with electives in philosophy, child studies and education, some students go through the major wondering what exactly CBS is and where they might go with a degree in it. The Daily set off on a mission — guided by faculty from various departments — to answer these questions.
Having formed some of our most cherished childhood memories at Jewish Community Centers (JCC) throughout the country (but really just Northern New Jersey, the most densely JCC-ed region of our great nation), we were excited to hear that Tufts was getting our very own JCC. Given the prevalence of IBS within the Jewish community (including among yours truly), we knew this building would be home to powerful bathrooms for sure!
“Where does a ragtag, volunteer student body in need of a shower somehow find a bathroom in their darkest hour?” When Lin-Manuel Miranda first posed a version of this question circa 2015, he did not realize the degree to which his question would resonate with his NESCAC rivals.
A week ago, we spelunked through the spooky cellars that are Ballou Hall’s downstairs bathrooms. But this week we reveal the real horror as we board Ballou’s regal elevator and soar to its higher floors. Tufts’ administrators are living in plush pottydom while we, the people, survive with odd smells and ugly tiling.
Many connoisseurs of spookiness have agreed that Boris Johnson is perhaps the spookiest man alive. And the only building at Tufts that we could find photo evidence of Johnson having entered is Ballou Hall. By the transitive property, then, we know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Ballou Hall is the single spookiest place at Tufts. Join us as we plunge into the monument to capitalism, single-ply toilet paper and hotter-than-average bathrooms that is Ballou Hall.
We once had a vision: find a bathroom so splendid it warrants a 30-minute walk, even if it just meant we’d get five minutes of glory. Alas, it was not to be.
We’ve all been there. You sit down in class on a hot day, only to realize that you just don’t smell as good as you should. You can blame it on the weather or the hill, or you can take matters into your own hands with one of the showers nestled in some of Tufts’ bathrooms, a feature that’s oddly omitted from every tour.
Philosopher Robert Pirsig famously asked, “What is quality?” Clearly, the Tufts University Department of Philosophy does not care. Its headquarters, Miner Hall, houses two options for bathroom goers — or students tired of hearing about Marxism (kidding, kidding, Tufts students never tire of that). The two spaces offer a study in contrasts.
For the last three semesters, many buildings and facilities on campus have sat either empty or at severely reduced capacity. Scores of Jumbos have never seen Tufts' campus in all its glory, with students milling between classes and avoiding that person whom you haven't spoken to since they shared their deepest secrets with you during “Bridging the Herd.”
Masking is something that most students have been discussing only in the past year and half, but for a smaller group of Tufts students, it’s a term that has been on their mind for nearly their whole lives. For neurodiverse people, masking means trying to hide their disabilities and pass as neurotypical. This is just one of many additional considerations that neurodiverse students at Tufts contend with, from ensuring that they can take tests in the environments given to them to making friends who share their experiences.
Many seniors are excited to enter the workforce when they graduate from Tufts. They have interesting new roles, are moving to new places or are looking forward to being financially independent. Graduating senior Eve Abraha is anticipating her next steps after graduating for a different reason, though.
When Tufts students have birthdays these days, they don’t look forward to hosting a big party or trying a new restaurant or bar. Instead, they know that when they announce their birthday as they check in at the COVID-19 testing center at 62R Talbot Ave., they’ll be given a warm smile and a “happy birthday” from whoever is checking them in.
When first-year Robert Yepes moved from Thailand to Texas in the middle of this academic year, he didn’t expect to be part of a major news story. However, when unexpected cold temperatures and an energy crisis struck his new home state in the middle of February, causing his family to lose power and water, Yepes found himself and his family in the national spotlight.
First-year Violet Kopp has been an engaged Democrat since middle school, but she wasn’t filled with joy when she heard that President Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 7. “My first thought was ‘thank God,’” she said. “And then my second thought was ‘if we don’t have the Senate, it almost doesn’t matter who’s president’ … with the partisan gridlock we’re experiencing in this country right now, Biden would just not be able to function as a president and get anything done [without Democrats controlling the Senate].”
As the Tufts student body was hunkering down for a cold night one winter, Jen Bokoff (LA’08) was thinking about how the homeless people she volunteered with would be spending the freezing night. Rather than waiting to find out until morning or the next time she saw them, Bokoff invited one of her clients into Harleston Hall’s basement and gave him shelter for the night.
As he began to stream at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, Stephan Pennington cautiously set a $500 fundraising goal for himself. When he signed off his computer in the wee hours of Friday, June 5, he had raised over $10,000 to support bail funds through The Bail Project, a nonprofit that works to end the bail system by paying bail for low-income Americans and advocating against pretrial incarceration. Over the coming days, Pennington’s fundraising total increased to $12,600.