Opinion | Editorial

A lukewarm WinterFest

When former University President Lawrence Bacow announced last March that the Naked Quad Run (NQR) would not continue, a committee of Programming Board members and Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senators set to work selecting an event to celebrate the end of fall semester classes. The event decided upon, WinterFest, was to feature a tubing course, a snow sculpture competition, a smores station and a heated tent featuring a DJ.

A good allocation

The upcoming Spring Fling stands to be a more star-studded affair than in years past. The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate Allocations Board allocated $65,000 in buffer funds to Programming Board for the Spring Fling budget last Sunday. The amount is up from the $25,000 the Programming Board requested and is an addition to the annual $85,000 reserved for Spring Fling. Therefore, the budget for Spring Fling this year has jumped to $150,000, up from the usual $110,000.

Transgender rights bill should have gone further

Earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law the Transgender Equal Rights Bill, which outlaws discrimination against transgender individuals in education, housing, employment and credit. The law also updates the language of the state's hate crime laws to protect transgender individuals.

UC Davis police acted improperly

Responses to the Occupy movement have varied from community to community, with some protesters facing harsher crackdowns than others. One college campus that witnessed one such crackdown is the University of California (UC), Davis.

Parental email reflects lack of trust

Many students' cell phones were abuzz yesterday afternoon with calls from their parents or guardians. Other Jumbos checked their inboxes and were greeted by not just an email from Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman but also one sent by a concerned — or in some cases, amused — parent or guardian.

An unfortunate, but constitutional ruling

Smoking is bad. These days, it's almost impossible to escape this truth.

Winter housing for all international students

Safety first, political correctness second

After a female student was assaulted near campus over the weekend, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) sent an email alerting the student body of a series of similar nearby assaults that appear to have been committed by the same attacker.

Privacy beyond passwords

Tufts students likely have huge amounts of their data stored on remote servers because having physical possession of all of one's private information is an impossible task in the digital age.

Some perspective, please

Welcome to the school of hard knocks

Among some of its more notable alumni, Tufts can claim former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (LA '70), J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (LA '78), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (LA '88), and "Wicked" (1995) author Gregory Maguire (GSAS '90). Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass., LA '81) is also on that list.

Waging war on the free press

Less than a week after the high−profile acquittal of Amanda Knox, Italy is once again making international headlines.

The world is flat

Rick Perry doesn't believe in man-made global warming, and he thinks the federal government should play no part in protecting the environment against it. So how does he reconcile his own beliefs with the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that global warming is real?

A reflection on the Career Fair

Obama's debt plan doesn't go far enough

President Barack Obama yesterday announced a plan to cut the national debt by about $3 trillion over the span of a decade. The initiative, much like the jobs plan introduced last week, is no doubt part of Obama's effort to keep his own job come next election.

Tufts should offer gender-neutral housing

Students Acting for Gender Equality (SAGE) earlier this semester submitted a proposal to the administration for the creation of gender-neutral housing at Tufts. The proposal, titled "Recommendations for Gender Neutral Housing at Tufts" outlined an "option in which two or more students may share a multiple-occupancy bedroom, in mutual agreement, regardless of the students' sex or gender."

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

I have now spent three days digesting the news of Manny Ramirez's retirement, and my feelings on the subject remain conflicted.

Don't forget to think before you support

On Tuesday, March 8, The Tufts Daily published an article, "Senate backs more lenient marijuana policy," in which sophomore Alex Baskin, president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), adamantly fights for ... well, what exactly was it again? The right to smoke weed? You have a better chance of being disciplined for talking after quiet hours than you do for smoking marijuana outside. In the article, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman was quoted as saying that he did not believe anybody had been disciplined for marijuana this year. Yet SSDP garnered the support of 500 students who would like to challenge the policy and "reduce" it to a fine. Choosing an enforceable fine over an unenforced policy is hardly sensible.

Tufts should sign with union contractor

Tufts' janitors are in limbo as a new contract negotiation could either ensure the security of their futures at Tufts or put their jobs in jeopardy. Tufts is in the midst of searching for a new janitorial services provider following the expiration of the university's contract with ABM Janitorial Services over a year ago. The university's justification for finding a new provider is to update the current contract and come up with one that is "more efficient," according to Dick Reynolds, vice president for operations.

Tufts should embrace endowment transparency

State Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) and State Rep. Michael Moran (D-Brighton) on Jan. 25 introduced legislation called the Higher Education Transparency Bill that would require private universities in Massachusetts to increase their financial transparency. The new legislation, which would apply to colleges and universities with holdings of over $10 million, calls for the disclosure of individual conflicts of interest of trustees and directors, information about staff members who earn over $250,000 and information regarding financial arrangements over $150,000 with outside parties.