Opinion | Editorial

Editorial

Tufts supports students through major decisions

November 2

As Tufts sophomores begin to contemplate declaring a major, many struggle to find a faculty advisor. With only two full semesters of courses behind them, sophomores have limited experience talking to professors, and only a fraction of the professors they have taken classes with would qualify as potential advisors for their major. Many students find themselves at a loss as to whom they can ask, and they often are in the somewhat uncomfortable position of sending an e-mail to a professor whom they have never met in person.

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Editorial

Representation, not token inclusion

November 2

Ask any high school senior to talk about diversity at the colleges she is applying to and she could list some pretty accurate percentages on ethnic groups. Many colleges, including Tufts, are able to boast some attractive numbers in terms of diversity. But community representatives serving on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate are feeling unheard and unsure of their role in the body. There is concern over how to attain a sensitive balance between adequately representing student groups in the Senate while still ensuring that those groups do not override Senate members who are meant to stand for a broader constituency of students.

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Editorial

Cutting costs, compromising education

October 26

Universities both public and private are struggling to deal with the financial realities of this national recession without compromising their commitment to education. Economic constraints have made budget cuts unavoidable for most universities, and the California State University (CSU) system, hamstrung by a particularly tight state budget, has cut costs in ways that directly harm student education. The CSU's decision was unwise, but all the blame cannot be placed on the schools, subject as they are to California's capricious state funding.

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Editorial

Blue Dogs should take the muzzle off of progress

October 19

My constituents will abandon me. They say this plan smacks of socialism. They're afraid it will force them to lose their coverage. They are sure the president is going to destroy private industry.

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Editorial

Benefits of anonymous posting outweigh costs

October 14

As technological developments facilitate the transition from old to new media, readers' online comments are revolutionizing the public's relationship with the news. But this modern method of discourse often comes at a cost. User anonymity and newspapers' rights to censorship have become issues that need to be addressed, even here at the Tufts Daily.

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Editorial

Tufts must publicize mental health resources more

October 12

On Tufts' campus, nearly every student knows that, in the case of physical injury or illness, Health Service is the place to go. Students know where it is located and what it offers. The same cannot be said of the Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS). Of those students who know about the service, few could tell you where it is or what it offers. A similarly small number of students could list the symptoms that indicate someone should seek help at the CMHS. This ignorance is more dangerous than it seems. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-to 24-year-olds — it's one that Tufts experienced firsthand a few years ago — and the community cannot afford to stay in the dark about psychological issues or the resources available to address them.

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Editorial

In Memoriam: Fallen alum embodied Tufts ideals

October 5

As members of the Tufts community mourn the dreadful passing of a beloved alum, we have the opportunity to reflect on and grow from his remarkable achievements and his outstanding embodiment of the active-citizenship values this university hopes to promote.

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Editorial

Selling sex, the news media sell out

September 30

The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, US News and World Report, CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and countless other national news sources have all taken on an issue of grave importance that they feel they must cover — despite the fact that it only affects a small group of a few thousand young adults in the Boston area.

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Editorial

Obama, advisor should rethink Sudan policy

September 28

Since word of genocidal conflict first broke out in 2003, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the entire country's identity have become inextricably tied to one conflict-embroiled region: Darfur. While organizations such as STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition and the Enough Project have been calling for foreign intervention, the leaders of the developed world have, for the most part, remained silent.

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Editorial

Internet commitment is long overdue

September 23

Hooking up on Tufts' campus is often impossible. By that, we mean hooking up to the Internet. Tufts lags behind most of its peer institutions when it comes to providing wireless Internet to students. In 2006, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Services Committee found that Bowdoin College, MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, Emory, Harvard and Northeastern Universities already had campus-wide wireless access. Three years later, the Internet remains inaccessible in many common rooms and classrooms at Tufts, and it is only sporadically available in campus dining halls. The university has finally set a target date for solving this problem, as reported in yesterday's front-page article, "Tufts hopes to put wireless access in all buildings within 3 years."

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Editorial

Alcohol policy values discipline over discussion

September 15

There have been some notable changes on the Hill since the end of last semester. Packard Hall has been completed, sophomores are once again allowed to have cars on campus, and –— most notably — a student's first alcohol-related offense now lands him or her a direct ticket to level-one disciplinary probation, or pro-one. No warnings, no My Student Body-earned freebies. Yet while Tufts has instituted a decidedly harsher policy, it has not put forward any considerable effort to increase dialogue on the subject of underage drinking. Even more disturbing, the university continues to uphold the misbegotten policy — now rendered even more dangerous — in which a student who calls for assistance from Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) for alcohol-related issues also receives an alcohol violation.

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Editorial

Tax proposal ignores the intangible

September 13

State Rep. Denise Provost (D-Somerville) is co-sponsoring Massachusetts House Bill No. 2759, which would effectively revoke the non-profit tax-exempt status of all independent colleges and universities in Massachusetts. Provost stated that her decision to back the bill can be directly traced to what she sees as the imbalance of benefits, fiscal and otherwise, between her home community of Somerville and its resident independent university — Tufts. We at the Daily can certainly understand some of the concerns Provost has brought to light. But we also understand that community benefits encompass more than mere tax revenue.

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Editorial

Ability to unite gives Rattiner the edge

April 26

    After a week and a half of campaigning including debates, concerts, face-to-face introductions and interviews with various campus organizations, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) presidential race has narrowed to a battle between two equally qualified and thoughtful individuals: junior Brandon Rattiner and sophomore Chas Morrison. Having served on Senate for two years apiece, both possess the leadership skills, knowledge base and general vision to excel as president. All things considered, these two individuals have put together memorable campaigns focused, foremost, on uniting the Tufts community.     Having followed both candidates, listened to their debates and spoken to each individually, we believe Rattiner will ultimately better serve the university during the 2009-10 school year due to his more polished, well-rounded and realistic vision for the school, in addition to his approachable style of leadership.     Although both Rattiner and Morrison have similar political résumés — Rattiner having served as co-chair of the Senate's Education Committee and Morrison as chair of the Senate's Administration and Policy Committee — Rattiner's extra year at Tufts shows through in his policy objectives. Both have emphasized the need for more campus involvement, especially among upperclassmen, yet Rattiner's vision for fostering campus unity is more realistic — likely the result of the perspective awarded by his extra year on the Hill.     While Morrison argues that the university should offer upperclassmen more reason to come back to campus for activities — most specifically, he believes Hotung Café should host a Senior Pub Night — Rattiner has clearer ideas on how to diversify between on- and off-campus programming.     Rattiner's vision seems born from a greater understanding of the relationship between upperclassmen living off campus and their school community. Rather than bringing students to the school, Rattiner believes the school should bring itself to the students, a policy that will not only be better received by a group of students intent on developing a certain level of independence from the school but will also increase the physical boundaries of the university to the bordering neighborhoods.     During their two years on the Senate, both candidates have similar voting histories, although on one of the most contentious of issues — the Senate's allocation of $230,000 of recovered funds toward building a Trips Cabin alongside the Loj in New Hampshire — the two fell on different sides of the argument. While we commend Morrison for his judgment and disagree with Rattiner's decision to support the initiative, we do not think this is a make-or-break issue in his bid for the presidency. We respect the opinion of those who disagree, and we certainly expect that Morrison's caution with the recovered funds will win him plenty of votes in today's election. But Rattiner's defense of his vote reveals a deep understanding of the forces at play in the Tufts community. We believe Rattiner will carry this deep level of thoughtfulness with him to the presidency.     We support Rattiner with the firm belief that he will more aptly connect with students across all four years through a vision that is experience-driven and realistic. Morrison is disciplined and ambitious; his approach keeps a keen eye on long-term growth and improvement. While Morrison would no doubt be an effective leader, we still lean toward Rattiner; on a personal level, his leadership style is laid-back and approachable while at the same time remaining policy-focused and articulate. While both candidates possess the necessary knowledge and experience expected of a president, we believe Rattiner to be the one best equipped to unite the Tufts community.

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Editorial

The middle-class squeeze

April 21

    In a March 11 e-mail to the Tufts community, University President Lawrence Bacow wrote, "To our knowledge, no undergraduate has had to withdraw from Tufts due to financial distress."     Anecdotal evidence and common sense suggests some students may be affected more than Bacow and the administration are aware. Amid a deepening recession and the rising cost of tuition, families everywhere are having more and more trouble keeping their students in college. Though Bacow and the Tufts administration can pledge to fill students' financial needs, this may prove to be a very difficult promise to keep. While their intentions are good, and they have taken several positive steps in order to maximize funding for students, such as the financial aid budget having been raised by 12 percent, there is no guarantee as to when the recession will end and no assurance Tufts will continually be able to meet enrolled students' needs.     This issue is part of a larger problem, however, that is by no means limited to our own campus. Across the nation, universities with limited funds are struggling to maintain current levels of financial aid, and universities like Tufts that seek to practice need-blind admissions have an even more difficult task before them. By pledging to meet the need of any student who is accepted, these universities are forced to spend large amounts of their funds on students from lower-income backgrounds, while a significant number of middle-class students are being shortchanged the relatively small amount of funds they need to get by.     This is a difficult conversation to have, partly because it threatens to upset the careful progress Tufts has made toward a need-blind admissions process — in itself a worthy goal. But Tufts needs to be focused on ensuring the financial stability of as many of its students as possible, and middle-class students need to be part of the equation.     That is not to say that Tufts should prioritize students with fewer financial needs over students with more. Ideally, qualified students (and certainly current attendees) should not be hamstrung by circumstances that are almost entirely out of their control. Nevertheless, amid a deepening recession, Tufts needs to recognize the plight of its students and look for creative (and often unpopular) ways to manage their well-being along with that of the university as a whole. In an effort to remain competitive with other top-tier institutions of higher learning, Tufts must necessarily improve and expand — whether that means raising prices, cutting budgets or acknowledging the difficulty of an entirely need-blind admissions process.     There are no simple solutions for these problems. Tufts finds itself in the unenviable position of having to make difficult choices between losing top students, losing its need-blind status and losing its competitive edge. None of these options is appealing, and any step forward requires significant sacrifice, but we at the Daily hope that the Tufts administration will recognize that there is something wrong. The road to recovery will not be easy — but the first step is admitting we have a problem.

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Editorial

Solving the piracy problem

April 14

    Over the past week, the news has been peppered with reports of ships of all different countries of origin and a diverse range of cargo being hijacked off the coast of Somalia by bands of pirates. While that may conjure up the image of an eyeliner-sporting Johnny Depp and a recognizable Hans Zimmer score, the Somali pirates have become a serious threat to the safety of ships and crews en route from Asia to Europe and North America via the Suez Canal. Although President Obama has vowed to combat the piracy and is considering shipping envoys accompanied by naval gunships for protection or using the navy to locate and attack the pirate "mother ships," this only serves to address the symptom of a much larger issue that is going almost entirely ignored by the rest of the world.     Most pirates, both historically and currently, are in the business for plunder and profit. There is no doubt that the Somali pirates have made profits, raking in an estimated $150 million last year alone. The pirates, however, say their actions are not motivated by material gains. The pirates say that their actions are a direct reaction to the exploitation of unprotected Somali waters after the government's virtual collapse following the civil war during the 1990s. Foreign fishing vessels regularly fish clandestinely for yellowfin tuna off the Somali coasts, and many countries have seen fit to dump toxic chemicals and waste into Somali waters. With secessionist sentiments rampant in many of the nations that comprise Somalia, more authority is wielded by local officials and tribal leaders than by the internationally recognized central government, leaving it as powerless to bring an end to pirate attacks as it is to stop international abuses of Somali waters.     The internal political situation and the role of many of the "victimized" countries in creating the current situation in Somalia seems, however, to have escaped the notice of those who are currently attempting to "fix" the problem, including the United States. Naval actions and private guards on commercial shipping vessels may protect the interests of the countries and companies whose ships are the focus of the attacks — some of which are illegally in Somali waters. But these actions do absolutely nothing to address the actual issues: resentment over international abuses, a broken and dysfunctional government and tribal desires for secession. If nothing else, the United States' defense of the countries that have long been exploiting Somalia's weakness will create even more resentment and make the pirates even more determined to continue their actions — in reaction to a joint U.S.-French rescue mission on Friday that left five of their own dead, the pirates captured two ships today and took a total of 60 hostages.     The international community, and specifically the United States, needs to look beyond its own commercial interests and recognize that combating the symptom of the problem is not a viable long-term solution. They need to acknowledge the validity of the pirates' concerns and work with Somalia to establish control of its waters and surrounding countries to prevent further abuses as opposed to fighting fire with fire and augmenting the severity of the situation.

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Editorial

Knowing our limits

April 5

    During his visit to Europe for the G20 summit this week, President Barack Obama made an effort to emphasize to many European leaders that the United States would support Turkey becoming a member of the European Union (EU). While European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have not indicated that there are necessarily unfriendly relations with Turkey, Obama's support of Turkish membership was met with a cool reception, with many EU member states feeling that the United States should not be attempting to intervene in an organization of which it is not a part. Although we at the Daily understand that Obama's intention is to extend a hand of friendship to the primarily Muslim Turkey, we also understand that the EU is an entity beyond American control and that President Obama should take note of the protests throughout Europe concerning the United States' tendency to dictate the policies of other countries and should respect the decisions of the EU.     Although Obama has openly stated that he intends to better the United States' relations with Muslim countries like Turkey, the EU is a completely inappropriate forum in which to do this. Not only is the United States not a member of the EU, but bullying our allies and friendly countries into a decision that may conflict with their best interests does not bode well for perpetuating the cooperative, respectful, world-conscious image of the United States that President Obama values so highly. With the economy currently floundering, health care reform desperately needed and the auto industry failing, the president should have enough to concern him before Turkey's potential EU membership.     This is not to say that foreign relations are not important; after all, most of those who voted for Obama were thoroughly distressed at the former administration's foreign policy failures. This action, however, crosses the line, exhibiting an American tendency to attempt to dictate events beyond its control — exactly what the many demonstrations throughout Europe this week have been protesting. If the president wishes to improve relations with Turkey — or any Muslim country, for that matter — it should do so on its own and not vicariously through avenues like the EU.     Pushing for Turkish membership in the EU during Obama's G20 visit not only lessens the friendly and cooperative atmosphere of the summit but also puts many nations that are still gauging how to interact with the new face of the United States on their guard, despite Obama's stringent attempts to show that the country is turning over a new leaf. The world will be more receptive to American demands and suggestions when the economy is on track again, jobs are stable and banks aren't failing — and these are the problems that the summit was organized to address, not the EU membership of Turkey. President Obama needs to remember his priorities and be conscious of the image he projects to the rest of the world lest we begin anew the cycle of unilateral decision-making and alienation from the world community.

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Editorial

Conflicts of interest

March 30

Just over two weeks ago, the Tufts Committee on Ethics formally rescinded an informal invitation to Paul Thacker, a top aide of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), deciding not to allow him to speak at Tufts' symposium on conflicts of interest in the medical field in May. Ironically, the committee came to this conclusion because of the conflict of interest regarding the Senator's ongoing probe into a Tufts professor.

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Editorial

Preaching to the choir

March 29

    Despite the fact that less than six months ago, the world rejoiced with many in the United States over the election of Barack Obama, it seems that old resentments die hard. As President Obama prepares for the G-20 summit in London, groups throughout Europe are preparing to protest his visit and the United States' — what they see as the source of the global economic recession — attempts to dictate recovery plans and diplomatic policy to the rest of the world.

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Editorial

Palling around with diplomacy

March 8

    In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, President Barack Obama stated that he believes the United States is losing the war in Afghanistan and that he would be open to having the U.S. military negotiate with more moderate members of the Taliban, hopefully imitating the success of negotiations with Iraqi Sunni militants. This does appear to be an enactment of one of Obama's most controversial campaign promises — namely, to be open to negotiations with "terrorist" countries without preconditions — and while it is certainly still a large unknown, it is certainly a step toward stabilizing Afghanistan.     With the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003, much of the attention that was devoted both militarily and politically to Afghanistan, the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the aftermath of Sept. 11 shifted to Saddam Hussein and Iraq, especially when the situation in Iraq didn't clean up quite as nicely as was hoped. Much of the trouble in controlling Afghanistan stems from the fact that the country is in many ways disunited with a range of views and loyalties to tribes, governments and ethnicities. President Obama hopes that in opening talks with the Taliban, as General David Petraeus did with Sunni "radicals," he will be able to isolate and negotiate with more moderate and open members of the Taliban and its supporters to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and understanding between Afghanistan and the United States.     We at the Daily wholly support President Obama's openness to talks with an "enemy" of the United States — if nothing else, these potential talks present an opportunity to promote understanding, if not agreement, and respect, if not friendship. President Obama's openness to dialogue, for those who are in agreement with Gov. Sarah Palin's accusations during the presidential campaign that President Obama would be "palling around with terrorists," shows the world that his administration really is committed to reaching out and closing the cultural and political gaps that provide support for organizations like al-Qaeda. It is a demonstration that Obama is willing to go beyond rhetoric and catchphrases and bring the change he advocated for during the presidential race.     It is through the use of dialogue, the promotion of understanding, and the openness to both that the United States can hope to resolve the issues that still fester in Afghanistan and maybe, with some luck, lessen the grip of extremism and fundamentalism that clouds negotiation and taints political relations. And while this is certainly not a guarantee of peace, negotiations or even talks between the United States and Afghanistan, it is at least a step in the right direction.

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Editorial

Internships should be based on merit

March 1

By the middle of the spring semester (or, for those who are more on the ball than the average college student, the end of fall), the pressure is on as the seemingly impossible scramble for summer jobs and internships comes to the forefront of most students' to-do lists. With the downturn in the economy, it seems that no matter how many opportunities a student seeks, no matter how good the résumé, the odds are stacked against the modern college student, even for smaller unpaid internships — and the phenomenon of the paid internship seems to have faded into myth.

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