Opinion | Editorial

Editorial

Unchecked editing of digital textbooks risky

February 22

This August, major publishing house Macmillan will introduce new software that allows individual professors to edit digital textbooks. With the software, called DynamicBooks, professors will be able to upload syllabi, notes, videos and related materials to the digital file, but they will also be able to edit specific paragraph content, equations and diagrams. The textbooks will be completely customizable, and Macmillan will not require that professors' changes and additions be approved by the publishers or the textbook authors.

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Editorial

Woods pays the price of fame

February 21

This past Friday, Tiger Woods joined the ranks of the many politicians and celebrities who have had to face the media with an official recognition of and apology for their personal transgressions. In his long−awaited press conference, Woods addressed his automobile accident on Thanksgiving night of 2009 and the reports of his infidelity that later emerged. While he expressed his deep apologies to his family, fans and those involved in his foundation, he also admonished the media for its intrusion into his private life and the lives of his family members.

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Editorial

Stimulus spending on the right track

February 17

Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. The President yesterday stated that the program so far has run smoothly and successfully. Obama acknowledged some of the shortcomings of the program, such as the current high rate of unemployment, stating that the stimulus plan has achieved much in a temporary sense and is an ongoing project.

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Editorial

A challenge to the tenure system

February 10

In a Feb. 4 interview with the Associated Press, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee revived a contentious debate in academia by calling for a reassessment of the tenure process at research universities. The country's highest-paid public university president and the head of the largest university in the nation, Gee acknowledged that while individual professors "should gain recognition at the university for writing the great American novel or for discovering the cure for cancer," the tenure review system as a whole is outdated. In putting forth his support for reform of the tenure system, Gee should be commended simply for his boldness in speaking out against a system in which he himself is deeply invested.

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Editorial

Private lenders should not leech off students

February 8

The House of Representatives in September passed a student loan reform bill that addresses President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the nation's student loan system by slowly removing banks from the process and upping federal funding to the Pell Grant. The bill is currently in the U.S. Senate but is being threatened by strong lobbying from private lending companies. Sallie Mae, the largest student lending company in the country, has doubled its lobbying spending in an effort to prevent the passage of this bill, which would end the government subsidies that private lending companies currently enjoy.

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Editorial

Bacow more than an administrator

February 7

Since his inauguration in 2001, University President Lawrence Bacow has proved himself to be far more than simply a figurehead of the Tufts community. It is easy to recount Bacow's many measurable achievements and contributions to the university as a whole, but the impression that he has left on the Tufts undergraduate campus, though more difficult to quantify, is equally important.

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Editorial

It doesn't pay to Break the Ice

February 1

Programming Board has taken various steps in an attempt to make this year's Winter Bash a safer, less alcohol'minus;sodden student event. However, several of the changes for Winter Bash 2010 - now known as Break the Ice - compromise the event's role as a safe, fun night for all Tufts students.Break the Ice marks the first time that one of Tufts' major student events has charged for tickets, and last semester's Fall Ball was the first time tickets were required at all. Winter Bash last year required only that students show up at the door on the night of the event with their student IDs. Requiring that students get a ticket beforehand is a measure that reasonably seeks to regulate attendance and make the event more organized, and while the long lines of last semester served as deterrents for some students, the event was still widely accessible. Charging for tickets, however, unfairly targets those students who are on a tight budget.Break the Ice cannot fairly be called an event for all Tufts students. Charging $10 for a night out dancing is enough to be prohibitively expensive for some students, given the free alternatives available for partying on campus. Programming Board is estimating that attendance will be more than 1,000 people fewer than at last year's Winter Bash. Break the Ice does not feel like the all'minus;inclusive gathering that it was when tickets were free.An even more potentially troubling change for Break the Ice has been to move the event off'minus;campus. Students will take shuttle buses from campus to the Sheraton Boston Hotel for the event. Former Tufts Community Union Senate President Duncan Pickard has called the move off campus 'prudent' with regards to 'security concerns.' But it is hard to see how transporting thousands of Tufts students off campus to a location in the heart of downtown Boston is a safer choice than keeping students on campus where the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) can keep a close watch on the event.Last year's Winter Bash was marred by drinking'minus;related problems like public urination and harassment of volunteers. Spring Fling was declared a 'mass'minus;casualty incident,' as over 30 students called Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS), and more than 10 were transported to local hospitals.Given this precedent, it is reasonable to believe that drunkenness will cause at least some problems at Break the Ice, but simply moving students to a different location is not going to solve this problem. As the event will take place off campus, students may be even more likely to drink heavily beforehand, since they will be anticipating a 20'minus;minute bus ride to and from the event. Once there, TEMS will not be a phone call away to deal with potential alcohol poisoning, and students are potentially less likely to call for help if they have to call 911. Any problems with public drunkenness will have to be dealt with not by TUPD, but by the Boston Police Department.It is laudable that Tufts and the Programming Board are trying to strike a balance between offering fun events for the whole campus and keeping students safe. However, the measures taken for Break the Ice come at the cost of student welfare. Charging for tickets in an effort to reduce attendance unfairly targets students without a disposable income, and shoving the potentially messy problems associated with the event off campus will not necessarily solve the issue of excessive alcohol consumption. Hopefully Break the Ice will be a fun, safe event for those who attend, but Programming Board and the administration should reconsider the steps they have taken in light of fairness and student safety.

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Editorial

Senate survey reflects students' opinion

January 26

For college students, public discourse and debate are staples of life. Throughout the past several months, debate over the installment of Tufts' alcohol policy has been on the minds of students on the Hill. The administration has undoubtedly had good reason to take action in an attempt to increase alcohol-related safety and awareness on campus. As overseers of campus life, it is the administration's duty to do its best to look out for its students. The university cannot simply ignore the fact that excessive consumption of alcohol and underage drinking are both serious problems on campus.While the Daily agrees that alcohol safety is certainly a vital concern, responses from the student body have made it clear that the current alcohol policy is extremely problematic and is not supported by the majority of students. Although past Tufts Community Union Senate surveys have been criticized as only interviewing a small subset of students on campus, the Senate's most recent survey took this potential bias into consideration. The Senate worked with Professor Kent Portney of the political science department to create a more accurate survey that reached a greater diversity of students on campus and addressed possible issues that might slant the survey in one direction.Results from the new survey show that 61.7 percent of students who participated claimed that the policy has not affected their drinking habits. Data also showed that 44.5 percent claimed that they are less likely to call Tufts Emergency Medical Services in a dangerous situation involving alcohol for fear that repercussions under the policy will lead to negative consequences for the students involved. Portney pointed out that this number may be skewed, because students who disapprove of the policy may have falsely reported their response to this question, but it nevertheless remains true that the policy has made many students uncomfortable looking to the university for help when an alcohol-related problem arises.The results of the Senate's new survey serve to reinforce a sentiment that students have been attempting to convey since the inception of these regulations: The benefits do not outweigh the problems with the policy.We appreciate that the administration is trying to help students, but ultimately, we should have more of a say in the decisions that are made on our behalf. The Senate exists so that students can have a say in the policies on campus and so that new rules are made as a community. If the administration refuses to listen to the pleas of the student body and its representative student government, the democratic function of the system is essentially nonexistent. The alcohol policy may have been well-intentioned, but overall it has become clear that the installment was not successful.We urge the administration to take the Senate survey results seriously and listen to what the student body has to say. If we cannot work together as a unified Tufts community and listen to each other's opinions, relations between students and the administration will undoubtedly become strained.

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Editorial

Tough Times

January 24

As the first age group to be reared with computers close at hand and as students with tight budgets and high tuition, our generation has come to expect that nearly everything we need in terms of information and entertainment can be found for free through the magic of the Internet. This belief, however, is about to meet new opposition. The New York Times last week announced that beginning in 2011 it will make its full online content available only to those who pay a flat fee. Under the new Times policy, an allotted number of free articles will be available to readers every month, after which they will be asked to pay for access to material on the site.The Daily understands the dire financial situation that has made it necessary for the Times to make such a difficult choice. With ad purchases in a downward spiral and more people opting to get their information from easy and free sources on the Internet than from print newspapers, it's no mystery why the Times had to make some drastic changes. But it is nonetheless a sobering reminder that quality and accurate journalism does not come for free.As members of the very age group whose constant Internet usage is said to be a primary factor in the decline of print media, we feel that this move by the Times will prevent greater readership of its coverage by the younger generation. Publications like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, both of which have had relative success with charging for online content, are geared toward older and wealthier readers for whom business news is a focal point of their occupations.While it is certainly true that there are a number of Times readers from this age group, it is also clear that the Times' broader coverage appeals to a larger demographic that includes a swath of younger people, many of whom are college or graduate students and young professionals. College students in particular, who are notoriously strapped for cash, are unlikely to pay for online readership. Additionally, even those younger people who have graduated and may have landed a job are so accustomed to getting news for free that the Times' new fees will merely spur them to look to other sources for their news, especially for major stories that are likely to appear in a variety of media, whether that be in print, online or on television.In this way, the Times seems to be almost removing itself from younger people, alienating them by effectively limiting their access to sound reporting and journalistic excellence and making it even more unlikely that newspapers will regain their place as a touchstone of everyday life in the coming generation.

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Editorial

Haiti cries for not only supplies, but security

January 20

As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti's ability to cope with the massive earthquake that hit the area on the evening of Jan. 12 is limited. The United States, one of Haiti's closest neighbors and the richest country in the Western Hemisphere, needs to pool its resources and wealth to give substantial aid to the suffering people of Haiti. So far, the United States has been actively responding to the disaster. Both government agencies and non-governmental organizations have been making an effort to help the Haitian people. Non-profit organizations such as UNICEF, the American Red Cross and World Vision have been seeking donations from the public to help Haitians and providing direct on-the-ground support in Port-au-Prince, the country's capital. In addition, the U.S. government has been providing provisions directly to the people.In the past year, it seems that the Republicans and Democrats of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have been unable to agree on any policies. However, despite their inability to agree on issues such as health-care reform, Republicans and Democrats have been able to see eye to eye on one thing -- that providing intensive aid to Haiti should be a priority of the U.S. government. Though the United States has taken initiative and is actively responding to the disaster, the issue of security has not yet been properly addressed. To allow for the provision of effective and far-reaching aid, the excessive looting and overall chaos that has overtaken Port-au-Prince needs to be quelled.According to an article that appeared in The Washington Post on Jan. 19, much of the medical care and food provisions already in the country have not been making it to the city's suffering population because the civil unrest has caused utter chaos in the streets. The Post said that 'security has emerged as one of the most formidable challenges in this earthquake-shattered capital ... limiting the ability of the United Nations and relief officials from elsewhere to distribute the food and medicine beginning to pile up at the airport.' Even though the U.S. military has come to Haiti to assist the struggling United Nations peacekeepers, the efforts have been focused primarily on distributing supplies rather than securing the situation.Because people are too afraid to leave their few possessions to seek medical care and food, they are dying of starvation or of wounds that could be taken care of by relief workers. Without securing the city, the medical supplies and food sources cannot get to the people; effectively controlling the chaos needs to be the top priority of the U.S. military.The U.S. government's efforts to aid the Haitian people in the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince have been laudable. Unlike with its response to Hurricane Katrina, the government has taken immediate action to alleviate some of the suffering that ensued after the quake. If the U.S. military can further secure Port-au-Prince, then the distribution of aid will be a much smoother process, and aid will reach a far greater segment of the population.

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Editorial

Simplistic rankings do little justice to colleges

December 7

Kiplinger, a personal finance advice magazine, recently rated Tufts as the 22nd most valuable college in the nation, and once again high school students and their families are left wondering how accurate — or useful — these ratings actually are. Walk into the home of a high school senior and one is likely to find an array of college guidebooks, brochures and various charts printed from the Internet. US News and World Report's annual college ranking often sits at the top of this pile.

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Editorial

Headline goes here

December 7

Unbeknownst to many Tufts students, primary elections will be held today in the race for the U.S. Senate seat vacated after the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Although publicity for the election has been sparse, its results could hardly be of greater import. Aside from assuming all the responsibilities characteristic of a U.S. senator, Massachusetts' new representative will enter Congress in the midst of the most important debate over health care reform in decades. Every Tufts student registered to vote in Massachusetts is urged to head to the polls today and again on Jan. 19 for the general election.

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Editorial

Major election deserved more publicity

December 7

Unbeknownst to many Tufts students, primary elections will be held today in the race for the U.S. Senate seat vacated after the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Although publicity for the election has been sparse, its results could hardly be of greater import. Aside from assuming all the responsibilities characteristic of a U.S. senator, Massachusetts' new representative will enter Congress in the midst of the most important debate over health care reform in decades. Every Tufts student registered to vote in Massachusetts is urged to head to the polls today and again on Jan. 19 for the general election.

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Editorial

A mandate for no mandate

December 6

"Mandate" — it is a word that has been tossed around frequently as of late by everyone from pundits to politicians to news anchors and analysts. Every public opinion poll result, election or protest seems to somehow be a political mandate for one party or the other, justifying that party's actions and ideologies. While it is true that votes are one of the clearest ways to quantify support, one would be remiss to draw the conclusion that because people vote for a particular candidate or support certain aspects of an ideology, their views line up entirely with those of one political party.

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Editorial

Medical school costs affect more than just students

December 2

$157,607: That's the average debt owed by graduating medical students in 2008, according the American Medical Association (AMA). That's enough for roughly 300 flights to the Caribbean, a small apartment in the Boston suburbs or one very nice car.

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Editorial

Climate talks could produce no more than hot air

November 30

World leaders from 192 countries will convene in Copenhagen next week for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). President Barack Obama has promised to attend the conference and has set out definitive emissions-reduction goals. However, a deadlocked U.S. Senate and a cooperation stalemate with China threaten to make any agreement reached in Copenhagen a mere political charade.

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Editorial

More holistic approach key to health education

November 30

Lincoln University is about to graduate its first crop of students to have gone through college under what may be the school's most singular requirement: Students who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher must complete a fitness course in order to graduate.

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Editorial

Paying premium for less-than-premium health care

November 23

Student health care plans are exempt from the rules that regulate insurance coverage to the general public. Insurance companies do not have to abide by a minimum coverage percentage for people in school. This allows Aetna Student Health, the company that provides Tufts' student health coverage, to put only 63 percent of insurance premiums towards medical coverage. The coverage that students on the Tufts plan receive has a capped limit on prescription drugs and mental health care, and is not enough to fund preventive care and dental procedures. State reform of student health care is necessary to ensure that students are receiving the maximum coverage that their premium can provide and that there are multiple premiums available for students with different health care needs.

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Editorial

Tufts romance begins with... binge drinking?

November 16

On Sunday, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution suggesting reform to Tufts' current alcohol policy. The changes would mean that instead of being placed on probation one (pro-one) after their first offense, students would be required to take an alcohol education course. This is an attempt by the Senate to combat certain alcohol-related problems on campus through positive, proactive means, as opposed to relying on the threat of punishment as an empty deterrent.

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Editorial

Charity an inappropriate leveraging tool

November 16

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to cut its social services programs if Washington, D.C. passes a law allowing same-sex marriage. With this announcement, the archdiocese makes it clear that it would rather revoke charitable services to city groups it has long believed in than allow the government to offer equal treatment to homosexual employees and couples seeking to adopt.

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