This summer marked the 40th anniversary of the 'Summer of Love.' College students across the nation commemorated the event by spending eight hours a day in fluorescently lit cubicles, drinking cheap beer in a high school friend's pool and closely tracking the implosion of Britney Spears' career.
Renowned historian and beloved professor Gerald Gill passed away on July 26 at the age of 58. Although Tufts' public relations office could not confirm a cause of death, the Boston Globe reported it was arterial sclerosis.
David Rawson (LA '07) passed away on June 28 in California after an artery ruptured in his chest. He was 22.
The Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service released a fresh strategy for active citizenship last month that aims to increase the number of students it reaches. But some students within the college say that important parties were not consulted about the strategy and question whether certain portions of it are appropriate.
Tufts alum Paul Farris (LA '06) was killed in Somerville on May 27 after a driver fleeing from the police hit a taxi he was riding in with his girlfriend. Farris was 23.
Tufts will award approximately 2,437 degrees at today's Commencement ceremony, which will take place in two phases.
For the second straight year, senior co-captain Stacey Watkins was one of 16 regional players selected to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) New England West Region First Team. The roster was announced yesterday and included players from each of the 10 NESCAC schools, with conference champion and NCAA Quarterfinalist Bowdoin raking in five.
Just hours after it was released on May 10, the Committee on Student Life's (CSL) decision finding The Primary Source guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment was thrust into the national media. For many free speech experts, it seemed to land with a dull thud.
On the eve of the annual school-sanctioned Nighttime Quad Reception (NQR) last December, controversy brewed at Tufts University. No, not because of this Tufts tradition and the absurdity that is a bunch of students crowded into dorms, getting liquored up, and then ripping off their clothes as they aimlessly streak around the academic quad, but because of the outrage that ensued from a tongue-in-cheek Christmas carol published in Tufts University's Journal of Conservative Thought, The Primary Source. The publication had published a Christmas jingle intending to poke fun at affirmative action. "O Come All Ye Black Folk," as the poem was absurdly named, was written in poor taste, and The Primary Source's Editor-in-Chief exercised no judgment in allowing the piece to hit the press. More recently, the Source came under fire for publishing a poorly crafted piece that attacked radical Islamists and moderate Muslims who stand idle as extremists hijack their religion. However, the issue in my mind is not whether the author's views hold an element of truth; it is simply whether or not he has the right to say what he believes. In an open Tufts Community Union senate meeting, immediately following the publication of the carol, students pledged to fight until the Source lost its recognition as student group, or at the very least, for the publication to lose its university funding. One individual even took the liberty of physically ripping the Source to pieces - sourly reminiscent of book burning - before the overcrowded room. One popular source of discontent concerns the fact that the journal draws its funding from the student activity fee - a mandatory fee that goes to support student groups and events (including NQR) which all undergraduates pay. Currently, it is $248 per year per student. Students claim that their money should not go to support a journal that publishes opposing and sometimes "offensive" views. The students followed through with their initial pledge; fueled with more ammunition with the piece on radical Islam, they filed a complaint with the Committee on Student Life (CSL) almost a half year later. The CSL's incentives to find the Source guilty of "harassment" and "creating a hostile environment" were extreme. The committee's chair, Barbara Grossman (the wife of former Democratic National Committee chairman, Steve Grossman), has donated over $70,000 to democratic candidates in the last four years and was unable to contain her frequent, biased comments throughout the hearing. As expected, a week and a half after the five-and-a-half-hour hearing, the committee found the publication guilty of both charges. The consequence for these heinous crimes from the Source, you might ask? All authors are required to sign their work. From this decision comes a sense of impropriety from both the complaining and defending parties. The complaining party believes that if it is truly harassment, then I believe that the fight to censor such free speech is a weakness of my fellow students. Frankly, it is appalling that students at such a "liberal" university would even call for these measures to be taken. As has become apparent, America's top university students now consider the expression of unpopular beliefs to be a crime. It is precisely liberalism that has truly promoted free speech and open dialogue. If The Primary Source were to be censored, in any way, freedom of speech would be violated. As it is, a chilling effect has fallen on writers across this campus. Let's assume that a dean, or even the Tufts Community Union senate or judiciary, would scan every issue before publication. This would only ensure that the views of the reviewer are endorsed and not the views of the author. This would silence the students and only let a single, unified voice to be heard - not a sign of a diverse institution. As it is, writers are afraid to speak on controversial topics as they might be accused of a serious crime. The university handbook, which warns that students might encounter controversial topics in the course of their liberal arts education, may no longer have to worry about that. I cannot not think of a more devastating place to censor free speech than a college campus. It is my personal belief that The Primary Source's decision to publish the carol in question was a lapse in judgment and antithetical to the mission of the group. I believe that they have unfortunately learned this the hard way. Nonetheless, the publication as a whole, and any individual, should be encouraged to express opinions - especially ones that will undoubtedly not be heard elsewhere on campus. As it is, I have yet to take advantage of the hot coffee, warm donuts and cold December air offered at the NQR, instead choosing to abstain from this sort of event. Moreover, I have not sat in a discontented silence. I have utilized my freedom of speech to voice my dissatisfaction with the University for sanctioning the NQR and other similarly ridiculous activities. I came to this school not to run around naked with my peers, but to talk about vital issues which are plaguing the world around us - political theory, foreign policy, domestic affairs and, yes, even race relations. In the coming years, I hope we will be able to have honest dialogue on this campus, without reverting to the threat of censorship.Daniel Halper is a sophomore majoring in political science and philosophy and is the outgoing chair of the TCU Judiciary. He can be reached at Daniel.Halper@tufts.edu.
First of all, I just want to say I've had a great time writing this column this year. It's been a pleasure getting to share some of my own, as well as friends' awkward experiences with you - almost as fun as actually going through them.
In our last days in the District two of my friends and I thought it would be fun to tour the monuments, like good little out-of-towners all decked out in our best clothing, and take glamour shots.
First, let me be honest. I'm not actually graduating in a few weeks; I still have two more years on the Hill. Nonetheless, the nostalgic and reflective mood of my friends in the senior class has pervaded our campus, and it is impossible to walk around without feeling it. It seems that everywhere we go - the library roof, the quad, the gym, Sagra (I know, I know, not on campus, but you get the point) - there are graduating seniors taking pictures and saying goodbye to each other.
When I graduated from Tufts last May, things were changing. On the surface, we were being re-branded. According to the marketing folks, "Uppercase Tufts" was an old, New England ivy-league wannabe; while "Lowercase Tufts" is a progressive, contemporary "New Ivy."
Three years ago now, the reality of my impending graduation began to set in. Friends were getting jobs at law firms, banks and in commercial real estate. I panicked, found myself a career counselor, spent way too much money at Men's Wearhouse, and started applying for jobs. I had a couple of interviews, but there was a mutual feeling of disinterest between the employers and myself.
I want to begin with a story I learned from my friend Moshe Waldoks. He has a friend who is a sculptor and every once in a while, she saves up enough money to buy a really big, beautiful piece of wood. Then she'll spend the next few days walking around the wood block, looking at it and touching it and contemplating it from every angle.
For my Holistic Formation class at Boston College, we read a series of articles. Two of these articles were on the subject of time. One was written by Janet Ruffing for Pneuma (a journal on spiritual direction and formation for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada). The other was by Judith Shulevitz who has written the Close Reader column for The New York Times Book Review. Both these articles resonated with me because at this point in time, I'm not doing very well with time. I have been constantly racing from one thing to another at Tufts, at BC and to this, that, or another place. It's always something. I'm speeding down the highway of life at what seems to be 200 miles an hour. At this point, I just want to shout, "Enough of this already! ENOUGH!" Ruffing discusses what she calls "the demon of busyness." Her definition of busyness is that it's a "state of mind and a habit of the heart rather than merely a result of the number of tasks to be accomplished in any specific unit of time ... this love of busyness is profoundly destructive to self-intimacy, intimacy with God, reflective thought, interrelationships, the social fabric of our society, our care for the planet and our own psychological and physical health." OK, I admit it - I've got this demon of busyness. But, no way do I love being busy - not this busy! Racing against the clock has become a fact of my present life. I am busy being busy with little time to relax, enjoy relationships and take time for spiritual reflection. How did I get myself into this situation? Maybe you see yourself in a similar situation. When I am busy do I see myself as achieving something useful? Worthwhile? Am I afraid of wasting time? Our culture certainly supports keeping busy and not wasting time. In her article, Shulevitz says our relationship to work is out of whack. I feel like I'm both divided and distracted - in mind and in heart. Shulevitz says it is within our power to hold this wackiness at bay. But I don't see a way out of my situation - at least not presently. What do I really want? I want to experience being centered, relaxed and present - rejoicing as my day unfolds and welcoming each person I meet as well as welcoming myself. I want time to reflect and distance myself from daily demands rather than constantly being in the grip of what Ruffing calls "compulsive busyness." Christian tradition talks of focusing one's internal energies and consciousness on the deeper reality underlying the present moment. I agree with Ruffing that our culture has an addiction to busyness and the answer lies in harnessing an environment that allows us self-observation and to notice the distractions that are self-generated and the distractions that are externally generated. This has to become a habit of the heart. To find God in all of this involves developing attentiveness. Ruffing calls this the "quality of presence in the present that is aware of all that is really there." I miss this if I continue to allow the busyness to control me. There is a wonderful quote in Shulevitz's article from Rabbi Elijah of Vilna that all of us need to stop and ponder when it comes to time and "compulsive busyness": "God stopped to show us that what we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so ... We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to remember." This speaks volumes about time and how we - and I - use it. It has to become a way of thinking and a habit of the heart.Ann Penick is the Associate Catholic Chaplain at Tufts University.
Sitting here in my room in Amman, I, unsurprisingly, often feel very detached from life at Tufts. However, reading "Bacow and the real bigotry" by Matthew Gardner-Schuster has left me in a state of near disbelief, and I feel it is necessary that his piece sees a response. Although separated from Tufts by many miles and just as importantly, an often unreliable Internet connection, I was able to read the Source's "Islam - Arabic Translation: Submission" as well as President Bacow's response and several of the related Daily news stories on the controversy that followed.
Three years of watching an endless cycle of offense by The Primary Source and waste of energy in response to it has frustrated me to the point of voluntarily writing while on a break from school - quite a feat indeed. I wrote this viewpoint to address a problem I've noticed in the Tufts community in general, but I was moved to write it after reading the April 18 Viewpoint "Stand up for the Islamic community" and the subsequent firestorm of Viewpoints once again inspired by The Primary Source.
As the semester draws to a close many will seek to manage, manipulate or even dominate time, yet few of us seek to cohabitate peacefully with this elusive life partner. Of all the lessons learned in tragedies such as those at Virginia Tech, for me I am again reminded that time is indeed a gift to relish, one which seeks covenant rather control.
The Tufts Interfaith Council of Medical Students is a committee of students representing a multiplicity of backgrounds and religious faiths. We are dedicated to mutual understanding, respectful dialogue and tolerance.
