As final exams near, the federal government wants to make sure college administration and faculty are not left out of the examination mix. A Sunday Boston Globe article highlighted the Department of Education's attempts to introduce accountability standards into higher education in order to determine just how well and how effectively students are learning.
Two days ago Hotung re-opened to great fanfare for throngs of excited students waiting to get a panini and a bottle of Sam Adams to slake their thirst and fulfill all their fantasies of an on-campus pub.
The results of a new survey highlighting the potential benefits of a hotel in Davis Square may contribute to the ongoing development of the Tufts, Davis Square and Somerville communities. This advance is an opportunity to assess the potential benefits of a new hotel project to a vibrant and changing area.
It is disappointing to see Governor Deval Patrick's first term get off to such a rough start. After an uproar over the Democrat's opulent spending on office furniture, a suspicious telephone call during which Patrick offered himself as a character reference for a company subject to Massachusetts state regulation, and the announcement of his wife's worsening depression, the new executive is now facing charges of putting the welfare of administration insiders before that of the Commonwealth.
News of Massachusetts state Senate President Robert Travaglini's resignation to pursue private interests highlights the central role money plays in politics as well as the human scale and reality of a system that often seems larger than any one individual.
It is with high expectations that we welcome the news that the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is building a committee on student diversity.
Coming on the heels of the university's recent plans to better Tufts residential life with Stratton, this year's housing lottery was quite the disappointment, particularly for some of Tufts' rising sophomores, a group that has historically been, and is currently, guaranteed on-campus housing.
Massachusetts Senator Patricia Jehlen's bill to reduce health care administrative costs addresses a serious problem, but ultimately is not the best way to achieve her desired end. Though Jehlen's bill identifies a key problem with the American health care system, we must consider the ramifications if its passes.
Yesterday, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright gave the Issam M. Fares Lecture in the Gantcher Center before an enthusiastic audience of students, faculty and alumni. Albright, who at the time of her unanimous confirmation by the Senate was both the first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government, gave an interesting and spirited lecture on the past, present, and future of conflict and resolution in the Middle East. An overarching theme was the need for increased diplomacy in managing such conflict.
It looks as if there won't be any smiling photos of the President posing with recovering soldiers published in the near future. The Commander-in-Chief has his work cut out for him after a series of articles printed last month in the Washington Post revealed squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The problems unveiled by the Post's reporting - from black mold and rodents in recovery rooms to inadequate medical care - will not be solved by some glossy publicity and a few photo-ops.
Despite chalkings outside Fletcher, rumors of protest, and the presence of a metal detector and bag check, Saturday evening's EPIIC panel, "Global Governance and the Multinational Corporation," progressed unmarked by the high level of conflict anticipated. The event, a discussion of corporate responsibility, should be regarded as a success and a model for further discussion on campus.
At this time of year, there are a multitude of factors that make Tufts students anxious. Bad weather, worse midterm exams, and study abroad applications all combine to stress out Jumbos as they navigate the perilous slog to summer. Yet residents of Carmichael Hall have one more concern, one that won't go away until the summer: the holes in their dorm's roof.
The President's commitment to make college more affordable through the expansion of the federal Pell Grant program is laudable but sadly incomplete. In expanding the Pell Grant program, some students are aided while others are left behind.
The new Democratic governor of Massachusetts is learning that he cannot cruise through the next four years on charisma alone. His first self-admitted "screw up" in office put Deval Patrick in the limelight this week, and the publicity was not positive. As Republican critics and various media sources questioned Patrick's excessive spending - from the roughly $12,300 spent on new office draperies to a $72,000 yearly salary for his wife's new aide - the governor apologized for some, but not all, of his expenditures.
The culmination of Intercultural Week, Parade of Nations makes its annual return this weekend. Always well attended, this event allows students to enjoy a variety of ethnic foods, performances, sights and sounds and to bask in the glow of multiculturalism.
Former Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Todd Sullivan may be missed on campus, but the Greek system has learned from his tenure. This semester's low recruitment numbers aside, fraternities and sororities at Tufts have avoided the destructive scandals that marked the past few years.
On Aug. 22, 2002, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars 103rd National Convention, Vice President Cheney said that there was "no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
For many Tufts students and faculty members, the invitation of this semester's Snyder Lecturer Lawrence Summers represents the latest debacle by an insensitive administration.
The appointment of historian Drew Gilpin Faust as Harvard's next president is a historic first. As the esteemed university's first female president, Faust takes over an office that is older than the Presidency of the United States and matched by few in its public profile.
Yesterday a town meeting was convened in Cohen Auditorium to discuss race relations and stereotyping. Speakers including psychology professors Sam Sommers and Keith Maddox, Dean Robert Sternberg, Professor Jean Wu of the American studies Department, and Lisa Coleman, executive director of the Office of Institutional Diversity were on hand to describe both the underpinnings of racism and the possible steps to combat it.
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