Welcome back, Jumbos! And to the newly-matriculated Class of 2029: Welcome to Tufts! My name is Dylan Fee, and I am excited to introduce myself as the new editor in chief of The Tufts Daily. I would like to take a moment to acquaint you with the Daily and our incredible team.
On a Tuesday in March, I had spent most of my day working on my dissertation proposal and started to feel exhausted and hungry. It was the holy month of Ramadan, and I was fasting. Once finished, I quickly got ready to attend an iftar dinner, throwing on my hoodie, sweatpants and a jersey headscarf — definitely not a day for being fancy. I was looking forward to taking a short walk and catching up with friends at the Interfaith Center, when I was suddenly surrounded and grabbed by a swarm of masked individuals, who handcuffed me and shoved me into an unmarked car.
Dear Class of 2025 and the Tufts community, congratulations on an impressive finish to your undergraduate journey here at Tufts. All of your hard work has culminated in this moment of celebration and accomplishment. Your contributions over the years, in the classroom, on the field and in the studio, have enriched the Tufts community and our collegiate experience. Thank you.
The 2024–25 Diversity & Inclusion Report continues the Daily’s effort to gather insights into the composition of our staff and their experiences in our organization. The report was created by a group of Daily staff members under the purview of the paper’s Ethics & Inclusion Committee, formerly known as the Intentionality & Inclusivity Committee. The Daily is committed to upholding accuracy and inclusivity in our coverage and fostering an equitable environment for all staff. We seek to continually move the organization forward by improving our internal and external facing practices. To this end, the Ethics & Inclusion Committee has compiled this third annual report to offer transparency into our newsroom, identify ways in which we can work to better inform our coverage and assess how to make the Daily more inclusive and representative of the communities we serve and cover.
Dear Class of 2025, As you walk across the stage and receive your diploma, remember that this is your Commencement — a beginning. It is the start of your life as a Tufts graduate! When you graduate, you automatically become a member of the Tufts University Alumni Association, a 130,000-plus person network of Jumbo alumni that I am proud to lead as president.
On the first night of Passover, when Jews around the world reflect and celebrate the Jewish people’s passage from oppression to freedom, my mind was preoccupied with the fate of Rümeysa Öztürk. Öztürk is a Turkish Fullbright Scholar now pursuing a degree in Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, where I lecture. As I sat down for the Passover Seder, she sat in deplorable conditions in an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, awaiting a hearing brought by her defense team to get her released or at least returned to the Northeast.
As incoming president of the Tufts Debate Society, I recently had the displeasure of going through the budgetary approval process for the 2025–26 academic year. To say that this process was predatory and untransparent is an understatement. I strongly encourage there to be a reevaluation of the way this process operates.
What if there was a world where every kid with cancer was given the chance to fight for a brighter and more fulfilling life? What if we had the power to make that world a reality? Last year, Congress held this power in its hands. They had the opportunity to pass the Give Kids a Chance Act, which would allow companies to study pediatric cancer and develop life-saving drugs to ultimately give children the same chance as adults at living cancer-free lives. However, on Dec. 18, 2024, the House of Representatives was threatened on social media by Elon Musk. Representatives were warned that they could be pushed out of office if they voted in favor of the end-of-year package that included the Give Kids a Chance Act and three other important acts relating to pediatric cancer. The next day, the bill was crushed by the House before it could even come to a vote, reverting the efforts of patient advocates to square one.
I am a proud alumnus of Tufts University (LA’93) and an even prouder alumnus of the Daily, serving as executive business director and a sports columnist during my years on campus. I am also a member of the Tufts Daily Alumni Council.
Last fall, while filling out the tiny ovals on my mail-in ballot for the state of Florida, I found myself questioning everything. As I scanned Question 4, I read, “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” followed by the description, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, ...
On March25, Rümeysa Öztürk, a member of the Tufts University community,wasdetained by theDepartment of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville.The next morning, she was transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. As of the issuance of thisstatement, a federal judge has transferredÖztürk’s detention case to Vermont.
The evening of March 25, federal immigration officials detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk — a move widely suggested to have been a response to an op-ed she co-wrote for the student paper, The Tufts Daily. Last week, Tufts University made clear it “has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention.” Tufts further clarified that Öztürk’s op-ed drew no complaints and was protected under the school’s free expression commitments. In fact, Tufts points out that “a search of The Tufts Daily will reveal op-eds on multiple sides of the issue with opinions that were shared just as strongly as the op-ed Ms. Öztürk co-authored.”
Museums, libraries and arts institutions that hold our living and breathing story as a nation are under attack. On March 27, President Donald Trump engaged in this attack by signing an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” These attacked organizations make up our cultural heritage like a patchwork quilt stitched together from diverse fabrics, each representing contributions from different communities. This executive order, however, aims to rip out specific patches under the guise of restoration, leaving behind an incomplete tapestry.
A couple of years ago, on Valentine’s Day, I gifted Rumeysa this little book that lists 50 reasons why she’s my best friend. Now when I think about it, I find that I have more than 50 things that I like about Rümeysa. So, here is the story of our friendship during times of hardship and ease…
We stand in solidarity with the current student body at Tufts, and other alumni, in condemning the lack of due process in the detainment of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk. The rise of authoritarian attitudes in recent months has manifested in troubling ways, including attacks on the integrity of government institutions, outrageous threats to the sovereignty of other nations and the inhumane deportation and detainment of immigrants living in the United States to foreign prisons without judicial oversight.
These are dark times in our community, our city, our state, our nation and our world. Wars rage across the globe, economic uncertainty looms and our basic freedoms are under assault.
It is now several days following the arrest, and the statements received from the university to date concern its lack of “pre-knowledge” of ICE’s actions, its support for Muslim students and campus resources for international students. What we have not heard — and what we hope to hear — is an unequivocal public statement by Tufts leadership affirming its absolute commitment to protecting academic freedom, a free press and the First Amendment.
Dear Tufts unions, as we know, President Donald Trump’s administration’s horrific attacks on immigrants and its repression of the antiwar movement have only escalated in the wake of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University. After being abducted near her home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Tuesday, Tufts graduate student and member of Service Employees International Union Local 509 Rümeysa Öztürk has been locked in a Louisiana ICE detention facility and is threatened with deportation.
On Tuesday, masked federal agents in an unmarked vehicle abducted Tufts doctorate student Rümeysa Öztürk off the street in Somerville. She was transported to a detention center in Louisiana, despite a court order ruling that she be kept in Massachusetts. This incident not only presents a grave physical danger to Tufts students but also a chilling effect on free speech as a whole. The Tufts administration must take action to mitigate the impacts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s activities targeting Boston to ensure the security of both U.S. citizens and international students.
We write as alumni of Tufts University and members of the Class of 1989, urging the Tufts administration, faculty and students to be steadfast in demanding the immediate release of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk. History has shown us that authoritarian regimes target academics first, fearing ...
Op-ed submissions are an integral part of our connection with you, our readers. As such, we would like to clarify our guidelines for submitting op-eds and what you can expect from the process.
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