After reading John K. Atsalis' letter to the editor printed on March 5, I was dismayed that someone could so severely misinterpret the intentions of the Tufts Student Fund (TSF). My motivations for responding to Atsalis' letter are twofold: to address what I believe to be his underlying concerns and to correct his faulty assumptions and misconstrued view of the TSF.
The women's distance medley relay team (DMR) went into the weekend's ECAC Championships in the Gantcher Center with one goal in mind: improving upon its provisional qualifying mark with the hopes of cementing a spot at Nationals.
The Feb. 24 article "RA applications on the rise" said that 125 people applied to be residential assistants this year. In actuality, 30 current RAs also applied, for a total of 155 applications.
Household income spent on food away from home rose from 25 percent of total food spending in 1970 to nearly 50 percent in 1999.
This is the second installment in a two-part series examining endowment transparency at other colleges and universities. The first part, which was printed in Friday's paper, examined what other schools have done and are doing to open up the investment process to students. Today's article will discuss the pros and cons of allowing student involvement in investment decisions.
Tufts' newest student publication, the fashion magazine Infusion, released its first issue last month filled with style and entertainment advice for fellow Jumbos.
It's time for us to move on. For the good of the game, the lives of the players and my sanity, it's time to let go!
This is the first article in a two-part series examining endowment transparency at other colleges and universities. The first part will examine what other schools are doing to enhance financial openness. The second part, which will be printed in Monday's paper, will discuss the pros and cons of allowing student involvement in investment decisions. Some say that ignorance is bliss, but when it comes to a university's investment and endowment situation, some agree that students have the right and responsibility to play an active role in their school's financial decisions. Student participation in these choices is quickly becoming a reality at peer universities all over the country, including Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, Amherst College and Williams College. "From a transparency perspective, Tufts is very much behind, but if schools like Columbia and Williams have found that [this type of transparency] is not a problem, then Tufts should be able to do it," Morgan Simon, Swarthmore alumnus and founder of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, told the Daily. "Essentially, it's about accountability — colleges and universities who are bound to follow their mission statement. It's important for anyone from the college community to ensure that the school is following its values. More and more, it's becoming the norm for a school to [disclose] its investments to the school community through a password-protected Web site." In 2007, Tufts received an F in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement on the College Sustainability Report Card. According to the report card, released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the mark was the result of the confidentiality of Tufts' proxy-vote record and the fact that its list of endowment holdings is available to investment committee members only. Gabe Frumkin, junior and student chairman of the Tufts Advisory Committee for Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), believes that this can and must change. "The university can make some parts of the endowment transparent in ways that would protect the security of the investment strategy, which has been done at other … peer institutions," he said. "Enabling this responsible transparency would allow interested community members the opportunity to know more about a part of the university of which they are normally ignorant." This year, Tufts fared slightly better on the report card with a C in endowment transparency. But Frumkin believes that the boost is undeserved. "To be honest, I think Tufts received a C erroneously … In the explanation of the grade, [the Sustainable Endowments Institute] explains that Tufts makes a proxy-voting record available to the university community on a password-protected Web site. This is false; no such information is available to the university community, and the ACSR struggled to find out that same information last fall," he said. There are deeper problems with the Tufts transparency policy than just the dearth of information publicized within the community, though. Tufts' financial policies seem to be directly at odds with its goals as an institution that promotes active citizenship and student engagement. "Financial transparency is about democratization," Alissa Ayden, a sophomore at Amherst and chair of its Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI), said. "Every single member of a college or university community has a stake in the endowment. The students' educations are made possible by the endowment, workers and professors are paid by the endowment, and alumni and even current university community members pay into it directly. Financial transparency says knowledge is power and everyone should have some. If the status of the endowment affects everyone, how come only a small number of people actually know what is going on with it?" Ayden explained that, aside from democratizing knowledge, the main reasons for endowment transparency are practical. "If we don't know what our investments are, there is no way we can be engaged shareholders," she said. Many other Northeast schools utilize students like Ayden, who form committees that advise the university on socially responsible investment decisions. According to Simon, students research two things. First, they investigate how the school should vote on its shareholder resolutions and how it should use opportunities to engage with companies and improve practices. Second, they research proactive market-rate investment opportunities in green energy and low-income communities. Anne Murray, a student at Swarthmore College, explained her role as a student member of the Committee on Investor Responsibility. "I perform research and write recommendations on shareholder proposals," Murray, a sophomore, said. "As an investor, the college owns stock in many companies and has the right to vote on shareholder resolutions. Prior to the formation of the committee, the investment companies that manage our portfolio would vote on the college's behalf. That's still more or less the default." "Each year, [however], the committee selects a number of proposals related to various social issues that it feels are important to the mission of the college," she continued. "Student committees research both sides of the argument and also spend a lot of time looking into the college's history of involvement with the issue to determine where the values of the college community lie. We then write up a recommendation. The college's investment board votes on our recommendation and instructs the companies managing our investments on how to vote on the proposal." Amherst is enforcing similar policies. The Amherst ACSRI is in its first semester of operation and is made up of representative members of the college community, including faculty, staff, students and alumni. They advise the Board of Trustees on how to vote on proxy resolutions that contain social, ethical and environmental issues. They also ensure that the entire college community can access online lists of all common stocks held directly by the college and the endowment's investment managers. In the future, the group is planning to hold town hall meetings once a semester, open to the entire college community, so that anyone can voice concerns about the school's investments. "We hope to increase our actions as active shareholders over time to include practices such as corporate letter-writing and maybe even co-filing or filing resolutions," Ayden said. "We will listen to the voices of the college community and use them to guide … our actions." Frumkin looks to such policies as a model for Tufts' future. "Tufts could turn to many of the 23 percent of the universities surveyed in the Sustainability Report Card that make their proxy voting records available to the community or to the 33 percent of universities surveyed that make lists of endowment holdings available to the public for inspiration or constructive direction," he said. "We do not need to invent a new process; we only need to find what is right from other schools and perfect it for ourselves."
This weekend's Major:Undecided (M:U) show will be decidedly major. At 8 p.m. tomorrow in Cabot Auditorium, the sketch comedy group will host its most inclusive performance to date, featuring work by Cheap Sox, The Institute and sketch-comedy troupe Boris' Kitchen of Brandeis University. The show, titled "A Comedy Extravaganza! Live in 3D!," will further differ from M:U's traditional format in that audience members will be encouraged to make a donation to Operation Smile, a charity that helps children with cleft palates afford surgery.
R. Nicholas Burns, the former highest-ranking career diplomat at the State Department, began the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies' annual conference yesterday afternoon, delivering the first keynote address to an overflowing Cabot Auditorium.
Bands must find new ways to distribute their music in the wake of the problems facing the music industry today. Greed, digital rights and label-artist relations are just a few of the issues at play. Groups like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have used their artistic power to sell and distribute their own music without the help of a label. Mae, a rock band from Virginia, has also found a unique way to share its new music with the world, all the while helping Americans in need.
President Barack Obama's announcement last week of his intention to nominate Tufts professor Kathleen Merrigan to the No. 2 position at the United States Department of Argiculture (USDA) has been met with praise from colleagues and outside experts in the field.
The "Jonas Brothers: 3D Concert Experience" is pure pop crap, the kind a 13-year-old girl will love now but will forget in a few years (or months, if she's lucky). It has no lasting quality. Nevertheless, tweens and teens alike are sure to adore getting up-close and personal with the Jonas Brothers through a movie that makes them feel as if they had a front row seat to the Jonas Brothers's 2008 summer concert tour, "Burning Up."
Rap artist Ludacris will perform at this year's Spring Fling concert, according to an unconfirmed post on the artist's MySpace.com page.
In 2004, Tufts sophomore Sam Johnson was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy until May 2007 and fortunately survived, but he still has to undergo monthly blood tests and endure the unsure life of a cancer survivor.
After speaking yesterday to a political science class, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift met with the Daily to discuss the Bay State's response to the financial crisis.
Up and down the East Coast yesterday, students enjoyed powdery snow and a reprieve from classes.
The red carpet, although now highly regarded for its tanorexic and over-blinged splendor, is fascinating considering its development into a global phenomenon. The tradition began in 483 BC when King Agamemnon returned home from the Trojan War to walk on a crimson path in the same fashion as the gods. This gratifying gesture later manifested itself as a hospitable convenience used to usher the affluent jet-set to and from their luxury trains, cars, yachts or private jets.
When I picked up a copy of last Monday's slimmer Tufts Daily, I noticed the sports page had been supplanted by a full-page advertisement. Intrigued, I read on. It was hard to ignore the block print and the myriad of signatures dotting the bottom of the page. Billing itself as the Tufts Student Fund, the ad explained an initiative to "support a fellow classmate who is in financial need" by providing a one-year scholarship to "ensure a student's continued presence at Tufts." I read on incredulously as protests and objections rose to the top of my mind. Since this initial reaction, further contemplation has only solidified my opposition to the Tufts Student Fund. After sharing them with my friends, I decided it would be beneficial to share them with the community, if only to start a discussion about just what "active citizenship" is or whether we are truly stepping up or only going through the motions.
