Wrestling in some form or another has been around for most of the history of mankind. It is one of the simplest and most basic sports, pitting man against man. Professional wrestling, however, has a much shorter history.
I welcomed the opportunity to write this piece to try to dispel some of the notions that seem to surface every year. In general, our relations with the towns of Medford and Somerville are healthy and positive. They could most definitely be better, but they could also be much worse. Those who think we have bad community relations have probably never seen truly hostile town-gown situations. We are fortunate not to have that situation.
I am writing in response to Associate Professor Brown's Viewpoint, published in yesterday's Daily ("Whose rights? Who's right?"). As faculty member, Mr. Brown is in an influential position to cultivate students' minds. He has every right to his personal beliefs, however bigoted they are, but he does not have the right to express them to the student body in a hateful manner. He has publicly stated that homosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals, repeating that gays live a "sinful life," and arguing with Biblical quotes that a bisexual woman should not be allowed a leadership position in a TCU-funded organization, solely on the basis of her sexuality. That one interpretation of the Bible should supercede a clear and fundamental civil rights issue is a ridiculous enough standpoint for an adult. But as a professor, Brown implies that a gay student would be discriminated against in his class and undermines the integrity of his job.
On Monday evening, Mark and Rhoda Berenson spoke to a group of around 40 professors and students about their daughter, Lori Berenson, an MIT anthropology student who was sentenced to life in a Peruvian prison.
Tufts University has concerts, sports, theater, and its own coffee shop. That certainly seems like plenty to do on campus. However, why is there no Sesame Street, climbing-gym playground, giant mechanical lobster, or model of a typical 1950s house? Since Tufts seems to have no immediate plans to build such an entertainment center, you can only go to the Boston Children's Museum to satisfy this craving. For those willing to forget their prejudices against the place and just play for a few hours, there's a lot to do.
The Tufts women's basketball team entered the 1999-2000 season unsure of what to expect. After a 9-12 campaign a year earlier, and with a freshman starting at center, the team appeared to be on shaky ground at best.
Massachusetts Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy spoke on Friday to an overflowing Cabot Auditorium about his experiences in Congress. In his speech, entitled "Making a Difference in the US Senate: Public Service Issues and Careers," Kennedy discussed the strides he has made on the issues of education, health care, and worker's wages during his tenure in office. The lecture and discussion were the next segment of President John DiBiaggio's class and community forum "Leadership for Active Citizenship."
Nationally renowned Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank shared his witty and often humorous political insight with a group of about 30 students on the seventh floor of Cabot yesterday. Frank was brought to Tufts by the Lincoln-Filene Center.
The baseball team won three of four games this weekend, sweeping Wesleyan on the road on Saturday before splitting at home yesterday against Colby. Despite the wins, the disappointing loss to a sub-.500 Colby squad may factor into the Jumbos' chances at reaching the NCAA tournament.
Nationally renowned dance choreographer Donald Byrd spoke to a full Cohen Auditorium last Thursday, launching the Student of Color Outreach Program (SCOPE) weekend. Byrd, a Tufts alumnus, utilized video clips to illustrate the incorporation of thoughts, ideas, and issues of race and gender into his choreography.
The National Hockey League playoffs have been underway for just a week, and one of the league's best regular season teams already has its back against the wall. Among the biggest surprises in the first round is Pittsburgh's 3-0 lead on the Washington Capitals, and the Pens tried for the sweep in last night's game.
The rather-routine process of electing new Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senators to fill vacated seats took an interesting turn yesterday. Once the polls closed at 7:30 p.m., Elections Board (ELBO) began to tabulate the votes, slowly reaching a surprising conclusion. Neither Paul Fridman nor Charlie Needelman won the sole open junior seat in the Senate, as the 40 votes cast by members of the junior class went 20 for Fridman, 20 for Needelman - a tie.
It was 20 years ago today that Tufts campus got its first glimpse of a small publication called The Tufts Daily. A group of ten studnets came down to the basement of Curtis Hall, sat down at some typewriters, and put their hearts into writing, editing, and laying out a few articles. Little did they -- or anyone else -- realize tht those first four pages would spawn two decades of student reporting. They had no idea that, over the next 20 years, almost 600 students would become editors, or that Jumbos would wake up every morning expecting their news and crossword puzzle. At that inauspicious beginning, they had no idea what The Tufts Daily would become.
John Janky is not the average 26 year-old ex-Marine that bounds up the stairs to the gym at 170 Pleasant St. in Malden, MA. Not that anyone who comes to this gym could be considered average. John's pilgrimage to this gym began 2,500 miles away in Idaho. John and his wife Julie loaded their car, drove across the country, and transplanted their lives so that John could train to be a professional wrestler.
University President John DiBiaggio presented world-renowned economists Amartya Sen and John Kenneth Galbraith, Ph.D. with the first-ever Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in a ceremony at the Fletcher School on Monday.
Juniors Paul Fridman and Charles Needelman, who ended up tied in a previous election, were both given seats on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate after Elections Board (ELBO) decided to open up the vacant senior seat to the junior class after no seniors ran for the post.
Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur was the keynote speaker at a Friday night dinner which served as the centerpiece of the International Relations program's small states conference. The conference, entitled Small States in a Changing World: Globalization, Regionalism, Culture, and Identity, featured a series of panels, films, and discussions designed to help identify challenges facing small states today and involve participants in creating solutions to these problems.
Adverse wind conditions kept times down, but the women's track team pulled through for a fourth-place finish out of 14 schools after a long day in the sun this past Saturday at the Tufts Invitational.
