As the Tufts Community Union (TCU) election season winds to a close and students have the opportunity to vote for their next TCU Senate President, many are questioning exactly how much the campus cares about and pays attention to student government.
On Easter weekend, some people return home to celebrate with their families. Many other Christians do nothing for the holiday. Isn't it about time that there was something to do for Easter that everyone could agree on? Something that reflects on the religious significance of the holiday while providing us with something that's actually entertaining to watch?
Freshman center Emily Goodman, who seemingly came out of nowhere to lead the resurgent Jumbos to a 15-8 record, continued to fill her trophy case yesterday, as she was named Rookie of the Year by the New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA).
Juniors David Moon and Moira Poe will be the two candidates on the Senate presidential ballot. The two were selected by the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate during Sunday night's meeting from a slate of four nominees. Poe's main objective will be to address the lack of student parking and housing available on campus, while Moon will focus on the lack of student choice on this campus, saying there is not enough opportunity for student input into administrative policies and Senate actions.
If there's one team out West that has even the smallest chance of knocking the Los Angeles Lakers out of the playoffs, it's the San Antonio Spurs. When these two teams meet in the second round a couple of weeks from now, the series may be a lot closer than you expect.
Earning a chance to compete against the best riders in the country, five members of the Tufts cycling team qualified for the national championships in Athens, Ohio on May 12-14. The co-ed team, which has experienced its most successful season in recent memory, was led by senior captain Dan Allis and coach Mark Abramson, a 1997 Tufts graduate.
There is nothing in High Fidelity that won't translate well to video. Then again, there's nothing about High Fidelity that doesn't do great on film, either. John Cusack's latest collaboration with friend and fellow screenwriter, Steve Pink, is a wonderful testament to what can happen when a good book, in this case by author Nick Hornby, is turned into a thoughtful and clever film. Though there isn't anything outstanding about High Fidelity, it is solid all around and leads the audience through a roller-coaster ride in relationships and love with the rare humor and intelligence that characterizes Cusack's other films like Grosse Pointe Blank.
Right now in Burma there is great tension between its citizens and the ruling military dictatorship. Here in the US, however, legislation is in the works to prevent companies from investing in the nation. Simon Billenness, a Senior Research Analyst from Trillium Investments, will speak tomorrow about the situation in Burma and the Massachusetts Burma Law that is being looked at right now by the Supreme Court. This law would allow companies in Massachusetts not to invest (divest) in Burma. Billenness will also speak about the role of students to pressure government officials and university administrators to do something about the situation in Burma.
Imagine being in your last semester of college with graduation looming in the not-so-distant future. You've got senior lectures to attend, credits to fulfill or make up, standardized tests to take for graduate school, and a senior thesis paper to complete. As if that isn't enough, imagine being CEO of the country's largest college community on the web.
As of today, the Tufts campus has awakened again for the spring semester. Students have to force themselves to get back into the swing of things, like eating in Dewick and Carmichael and rushing to class early in the morning. Speaking of class, a new semester also means new books, and of course, the joys of textbook shopping. It seems that wherever you look, there are ads for online booksellers. Turn on the TV or radio and you're likely to see and hear Tom Green screaming about www.Bigwords.com. There's also www.VarsityBooks.com, www.efollett.com, and the pioneer, www.amazon.com, for any student's textbook shopping needs. Each site has its special features and attention-getting ploys to draw in customers. Not only are there promises of fast service and cheap books, but also there are also sweepstakes entries, scholarship applications, and even offers for free pagers at the various websites. With all of the hype that has been generated within the past year about online bookstores for college students, it seems like these companies like to think that the standard college campus bookstore is non-existent. However, this is most certainly not the case here at Tufts. At this time of year the bookstore is jam-packed with students feverishly gathering all the books for their classes. The Tufts bookstore has worked hard to keep up with the competition that has arisen from the online bookstores. "It used to be that I didn't feel that we had any competition, but everyone and their mother are selling books now," said Neil LeBeau, the manager of the Tufts bookstore. LeBeau, however, does not feel that the surge of online bookstores has really hurt the amount of business that the bookstore generates. "I don't think [the online bookstores] are affecting us any more than any other bookstore," LeBeau said. He has noticed, however, that as each semester goes by, more and more students go online to buy their books. He attributes this to the fact that sometimes the prices are better online, but also notes that the Tufts bookstore's prices beat the websites' sometimes as well. The better deal basically depends on the particular case and what books are needed. The proliferation of Internet access, particularly on college campuses, has led to a boom in e-commerce, despite its risks. Most often people have different experiences when it comes to shopping online. "The folks who are going to shop online are going to shop online no matter what," LeBeau said. To better compete with the online bookstores, the Tufts bookstore emphasizes the element of personal service for its customers. LeBeau also stressed that the bookstore is able to provide used textbooks at a reduced cost for students, as well as a convenient return policy. Students can return their books up to 30 days after purchasing them for a full refund, as long as they have the receipt. LeBeau said that the biggest complaint about online bookstores that he hears is that it's difficult to return books. "Right now it's kind of a hassle," he said. Each of the online bookstores has a different return policy, but they each basically require that if someone wants to return books, he or she has to pay for shipping to return them to the company. The bookstore also buys back books at the end of each semester, and despite the sometimes laughable prices, this is a service that online bookstores cannot yet provide. Efollett.com advertises a new buyback policy, which offers 50 percent of the price paid. The fine print revealed that this only applies to books being used next semester, and that this service is not yet available at Tufts. Starting for the fall 1999 semester, the Tufts bookstore began offering the service of reserving books online through its website, www.tufts.bkstore.com, prior to the new semester. For the fall, the bookstore did not advertise this service, and only about 10 people used this service, according to LeBeau. Advertising for this service was more prominent for the spring semester, and about 125 students reserved their books in advance. Students are required to pre-pay with a credit card for this service right now, but at the beginning of last semester they could order their books and pay when the books were picked up. "We're looking to change the policy so that students can use a school debit or not pre-pay for this service in the future," LeBeau said. He also said that many students had already picked up their reserved orders at the bookstore, as of early Tuesday. LeBeau is not too worried about the potential threat of online bookstores. He strongly supports the Tufts bookstore and the services it is able to provide to the students and faculty. "We support the University and provide jobs for the student workers. We do a lot for the University that people don't always realize," LeBeau said.
Compact Disc rewritable drives, also known as CD burners, are the latest technological craze to overload our computer-intensive existence, and offer a convenient and inexpensive way for music lovers to obtain and create music. CD burners can be used to make personal CD mixes (which means you can finally throw those old cassette tapes out the window), to record and mix original CD tracks, and, though illegal, for the common practice of copying entire albums from CD to CD or MP3 to CD. The larger capacity on CD-RW disc also allows users to copy larger documents onto one CD instead of multiple floppy disks.
The Tufts Christian Fellowship is a student organization at Tufts. I am writing as a staff worker with the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF), speaking on behalf of myself and the senior leaders of TCF, but not necessarily expressing the views of every member of TCF.
After three straight losses, two of them to ECAC North foes, the Tufts hockey team has witnessed its unblemished division record go up in flames. Despite the brief slide, the Jumbos still cling to a tie for third place overall with Lebanon Valley, a mere two points behind first place Fitchburg State.
We here at the Arts department tend to get a little nostalgic every once in a while. And despite the fact that most of us were born right around the time when President Carter was leaving the White House, we can't help but look back on the music of decades past and reminisce just as if we had been there ourselves. Especially considering the rather sorry state of the modern world of music, one has no choice but to pull a few jewels from the archives. Today, we present the first of a recurring series we call 'Retroview.'
With five freshmen among the top ten players on the men's tennis team, the Jumbos expect to use their youthful exuberance to improve upon last year's disappointing 10-8 dual meet record and eighth-place finish in the NESCAC tournament.
After a hard day followed by a long swim last Wednesday night, I sat in the sauna enjoying a few moments of relaxation. Sort of. No sooner had I sat down did I hear a male student, who was sprawled on the bench to my right, remark, "Yeah, even my sister shaves her armpits with it. It works real well." Note: we are in a sauna - it's warm, it's small, it's full of wet bodies in bathing suits, it is very quiet. While I stretched my hamstring muscles, the same guy repeated with a muffled laugh, "My sister shaves her legs with it. It works real well. She also shaves her armpits." Were they talking about me, I wondered? I looked down at my unshaven legs, shrugged, and started some crunches. Then he added, "Man, you could shave an ass with it."
When the more elitist critics of the music world put together their lists of the best music of 1999, there were three works on most of their lists: Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile, Rage Against the Machine's The Battle of Los Angeles, and Beck's Midnite Vultures. While Trent Reznor, Zack de la Rocha, and Beck Hansen were certainly each born with musical ability, it seems that only Beck has an innate ability to not take himself so seriously.
Something incredible happened this weekend on the Tufts campus. If the first thought that comes to your mind is a sticky frat party, then you clearly missed out. Tufts' own 3P's presented a riveting production of Tony Kushner's Angels In America, Part I: Millennium Approaches. During its run this weekend, the cast and crew invited overflowing Arena audiences into a world of intertwining relationships and inevitable truths in Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
The men's lacrosse team lost its fourth straight game yesterday, this time falling at home to Connecticut College by a 15-4 count. The loss kept the Jumbos winless against NESCAC opponents, as they also came up short against rivals Trinity, Bowdoin, and Williams in the last two weeks. The Camels came into the contest sporting a deceiving 2-6 mark, having dropped several close games to NESCAC powerhouses.
Pierre Omidyar, a Tufts alumnus and the founder of the Internet's most popular auction site, eBay.com, has contributed $10 million to the University to promote active citizenship in its undergraduate courses, and to help kick off University President John DiBiaggio's College of Citizenship and Public Service this fall. The grant will also provide funds for innovative projects, more public and private sector internship opportunities, career workshops, a senior honors program in civic activism, faculty training workshops, and financial aid packages for 24 undergraduates each year.
