As the environmentalist movement reaches previously unseen heights and ever more urgent updates on climate change continue to populate major news outlets, the looming question remains: What is standing in the way of climate reform? The answer will not surprise many who follow politics: congressional corruption, especially on the right.
Starting your life from scratch is not as glorious and fulfilling as people normally think. As someone who moved to another country at the age of 15, I can personally testify that — as liberating as it sounds — starting over has its own burdens. A few of the main obstacles that one faces when embarking on the college journey is creating new relationships from scratch and ultimately creating a solid friend group. One of the most common ways to achieve that goal, as portrayed by the media and television, is by joining Greek life. wWe have all seen movies or TV shows where the protagonist meets their best friends and has the time of their lives upon entering Greek organizations, such as sororities and fraternities. While Greek life can be an intriguing part of your college experience, it is not the key to building your desired friend group. Many undergraduates, such as myself, have found their closest college friends through other means, such as classes, parties, clubs or even in ordinary settings such as dining halls.
People have long stopped discussing Tom Hooper’s infamous “Cats” (2019), which features flat jokes, horrifying visuals and an Idris Elba cat that somehow manages to be so much more naked than any of the other cats. And I’m here to do the thing nobody asked for: bring it back.
If I know anything about the environment, it’s that connections between issues can be far-reaching. Though you’ve likely heard that water scarcity will be a massive, looming issue in the near future, it can be hard to see the big picture in the U.S., where freshwater seems so readily available and consumption is rampant. Today, many water sources — which sustain local ecosystems and our growing population — are becoming stressed. As the climate continues to change rapidly, the issue of water scarcity is anticipated to only become more dire.
Introduced in the 1989 spring summer collection, the Tabi shoe has become the most iconic piece synonymous with the French luxury, high fashion brand Maison Margiela. Its polarizing silhouette, a split-toe sock reminiscent of hooves, has amassed a ‘colt’ followingready to defend Tabis to their very last breath.
A century ago, the Ottoman Empire was ridiculed as the sick man of Europe. This is no longer the case. Among the great powers which I have detailed as likely to return to the scene, Turkey is one I am especially bullish on.
In the words of 2000s pop icon Hannah Montana, “Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days.” In my case, days were entire semesters spent sorely mistaken. This fortnight I’m shedding light not on the greatness of “Hannah Montana” (2006–2011) and other such defining shows of Disney Channel’s golden age — they need neither defense nor endorsement to be enthusiastically and unapologetically appreciated — but on the naivety of first-year me, who on any given day unhesitatingly answered with undue confidence “Dewick” to the age-old question of one’s dining hall preference.
During the winter of 2020, my first semester at Tufts, I often had doubts if I had picked the right school for me. COVID-19 restrictions were tight, and the tension of final exams swirled in the air. There were moments when a sleety, wintry mix whipped across the Residential Quad and it felt as though the beige cinderblock walls of my room were closing in on my wooden desk and creaky twin-XL bed. I would be lying if I told you I never thought of packing up my sweaters and taking the next flight back home. All I knew of a college education was awkward Zoom breakout rooms, silent, solo study sessions, and virtual office hours with professors I had never met in person.
Idaho adopted an abortion bill that closely resembled Texas’ abortion ban on March 23. Idaho’s new abortion law bans most abortions after about six weeks and allows anyone to sue an individual that may have had a hand in the procedure. It is similar to Texas’ bill in nearly every sense, but unlike Texas’ abortion bill, Idaho legislators deemed it reasonable for abortions to be carried out in cases of rape or incest.
The French are known to possess a bit of a superiority complex; they think their food is better, their wines are better, their cheeses are better, and they think their way of doing politics is better too. This isn’t entirely without a cause; historically, France’s sphere of influence has been formidable, extending at various times from encompassing most of Western Europe to possessing colonies in the Americas, India, France and Southeast Asia. In an age of monumental political changes with the absence of waning American influence, it almost makes instinctive sense that France would continue to be among the nations that rise above the rest.
“Legally Blonde” (2001), “Neighbors” (2014) and “American Pie 2” (2001) are just a few examples of Hollywood’s many attempts to portray an unrealistic stereotype of college life. Of all the phases we experience throughout our lives, from learning how to read to seeing our grandchildren grow up, many claim that college is by far the best out of them all. “It will be the best four years of your life,” my family said. Growing up, all I cared about was working as hard as I possibly could to get into a prestigious university; I was more than ready to experience the most unforgettable and thrilling four years of my life. You can imagine my disappointment as I began my first few weeks as a first-year when I slowly realized that college life was not even remotely similar to how Hollywood movies and my relatives had depicted it. The ultimate truth is that the four years you spend in college might be the best of your life but they also might not.
If you spend a large amount of time on social media, it may be likely you have seen videos of colored liquid being poured into molds and onto wood slabs. And though it’s satisfying to watch the shimmering epoxy resin flow like water into various gaps and channels, spreading into every nook and cranny, these videos hide a secret war that has enveloped the craftsperson community.
This weekend, along with the rest of the Tufts-in-Paris program, I boarded an early-morning train from Paris’ Gare Montparnasse and set off toward Bordeaux, a city in the southwest of France and a part of the country’s Aquitaine region.
Perusing through stores like H&M and Forever 21, it’s difficult not to be struck by how affordable clothing has become and to wonder how clothing companies, especially those known as fast-fashion brands, can peddle clothing so cheaply. Most people are aware of the textile industry’s connections to child labor and worker exploitation in developing nations, but it is also important to address the industry’s heavy contribution to our worsening environmental crisis.
My mother was not happy about my last column’s raw egg-eating revelation. Immediately after I sent her the link, I received a text reading “Girl!” (my mom texts like she just stepped off the set of “Clueless”), “This is not how I raised you! What were you thinking!” I countered with some salient points about my current aliveness and frequent consumption of raw cookie dough and received a trio of spiral-eye emojis in response. So, in an effort to please the payer of my tuition, this week I will set aside the poaching and make an attempt with my old standby, the electric kettle.
Boston and its surrounding cities are beautiful places. One thing decidedly not beautiful is the litter that mars the woods and streets throughout Greater Boston. Unfortunately, I have, at times, seen a similar scene on campus. Though Tufts facilities might clean up litter occasionally, the responsibility for keeping our campus beautiful is a community-wide one. Littering is a serious problem in the U.S.;in a national litter study done by Keep America Beautiful in 2020, it was determined that there were “nearly 50 billion pieces of litter along U.S. roadways and waterways” throughout the country. That equates to 152 items of litter for every person in the United States per year.
This week, rumors flew around Tufts’ campus. Everyone could feel a disturbance in the plumbing as someone of great import was touring our bathrooms. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, was hanging out in the Campus Center trying to make new friends. In that process, she probably ended up using at least one of the Campus Center’s many bathrooms. In the wake of this monumental occasion, I chose to take on what are likely to be some of the most trafficked facilities at Tufts University — the Mayer Campus Center bathrooms. Specifically, I will attempt to tackle both the Hotung bathrooms and the all-gender bathroom.
We’re lucky enough to be offered discounted T passes through the university, so if you want to have unrestricted access to the T for a semester, I’d encourage you to check that out. However, you might want to make sure you ride the T enough to justify the price tag.
As cannabis legalization continues its march across the country and investment in legal cannabis continues to grow, many previously veiled aspects of cannabis cultivation have come to light, including a surprisingly damaging environmental cost. High water and energy usage, pesticides and fertilizer poisoning, degradation of public lands and potential ozone effects have all been linked to cannabis cultivation.
Most Tufts students probably haven’t been in Dowling Hall since their campus-touring days in high school. Others visit frequently to pick up the newest copy of JUMBO Magazine. Whichever camp you fall into, Dowling Hall’s bathrooms are indubitably the gateway into Tufts lavatories.
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