Opinion | Guest

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Letter from the Editor in Chief: The semester in preview

By Rachel Liu | January 17

Welcome back to the Hill! My name is Rachel Liu, and I am the new editor in chief of The Tufts Daily. As the Daily resumes operations, I owe a major thank you to the numerous writers, editors and designers who invested time over their winter breaks to craft the first issue of 2024. This semester, we will publish online every weekday and in print on Thursdays, though for the first two weeks we will be operating on a reduced schedule. Sign up for our newsletter to never miss an issue.

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Op-ed: On protesting the crisis in the Mideast

By Soha Hassoun, Kamran Rastegar, Suhad Zendah, Neda Moridpour and Amahl Bishara | December 11

 We write in a moment of urgency for the university and the world. Since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 that took approximately 1200 Israeli lives, an Israeli military campaign and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding for Palestinians in Gaza.   

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Letter from the Managing Board: With love to the Dailmunity

By The Managing Board | December 7

As our tenure as managing board comes to a close, we wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the semester.

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Op-ed: The antidote to pre-med burnout? Caring connections.

By Andreea Liao | November 28

As an undergraduate pre-med student at Tufts University, I decided to pursue medicine because I wanted to ease the immense mental health burden and apprehension that patients and families feel when facing serious illness or disability. I’m also a second-year transfer student who, incentivized to immerse myself in the world of healthcare with other similar, like-minded individuals, came to Tufts excited to prepare myself for the journey to become a doctor. But here’s a secret: Lately, the nonstop stress and grind of the pre-med track makes me sometimes lose sight of the purpose that inspired me in the first place.

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Op-ed: Introducing the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts

By Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts | November 17

The Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts is a coalition of student organizations fighting for a free Palestine by demanding action from our institutions. As we engage in the long work to end Tufts’ complicity, we also rally students to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to the siege on Gaza and an end to all aid from the so-called U.S. to apartheid Israel. We believe there is nothing more powerful than community and solidarity, and we reject the attempts of those in power to divide, isolate and intimidate us. CPLT aims to learn from one another and educate the student body on how our struggles are deeply intertwined. We believe that the liberation of Palestine is connected to the liberation of all oppressed people and thus seek an end to all interlocking systems of oppression through collective action and solidarity. We stand proud as we build on a rich history of student organizing, including the 12-year struggle for Tufts to fully divest from apartheid South Africa. Together, we are growing student power and will not stop until the university heeds to all our demands and divests from Israeli apartheid.

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Op-ed: Go to Washington, D.C.

By Michael Granoff | November 13

Go. It was exactly this time of year — early November. I was a freshman at Tufts. There was a girl I had a date planned with. But on the appointed day, she told me she was traveling two subway stops away to Harvard to hear a lecture of some sort. So, I went with her.

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Op-ed: Tufts’ campus climate is unsustainable for Jewish and pro-Israel students

By Tufts Friends of Israel | November 8

On Oct. 7, the worst terror attack in the history of the State of Israel occurred. What took place on this day was devastating and horrific. This indescribable massacre affected so many — innocent women, children and elderly civilians. If we truly value moral clarity, humanity and decency, condemning these attacks should not be controversial. Calling out these attacks for what they were — barbaric and atrocious — is a must. As of Thursday, there were still over 240 innocent Israelis being held hostage by Hamas terrorists, about 30 of whom are children. We are praying for their safe return.    

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Op-ed: An uphill battle in the fight for fossil fuel divestment at Tufts

By Tufts Climate Action | November 3

For over a decade, the Tufts community has called for the university’s divestment from fossil fuels. For over a decade, we have met with administrators, hosted sit-ins and rallies and unanimously voted for a TCU Senate resolution calling for divestment. But even today, an estimated $90+ million of our tuition still lines the pockets of fossil fuel billionaires. All the while, Tufts prides itself on its standing as a progressive institution that prioritizes students’ voices and our ability to ask bold questions. It highlights its work in “creating a sustainable path to a brighter future.” Today, we ask this bold question: How is that possible while Tufts actively funds the destruction of our planet, fueling ecological disasters and massive injustice? Sometimes, this work feels like pedaling a bike we didn’t realize was bolted to the ground.

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Op-ed: Russian Program at Tufts needs to be decolonized

By Artem Dinh | November 2

Let’s imagine a hypothetical world where I was a Tufts freshman aspiring to become a diplomat and save the world. I immediately enrolled in classes offered by the Chinese Program in the Department of International Literary and Cultural Studies on Chinese language, culture and history. I believed that knowledge of Chinese language and culture would help me to one day secure a dream job at the state department.

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Letter to the Editor

November 2

Dear Editor, I was deeply disturbed reading Professor Emeritus Gary Leupp’s recent letter to the Daily. It is astounding that a professor of history could either be so ignorant to the real and legitimate fears of Jewish students on campus, or so callous that he does not care. Leupp claims that ...

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Letter to the Editor

November 2

Dear Editor, On Oct. 25, The Tufts Daily published my letter to the editor in which I asserted that an op-ed by the “Revolutionary Marxist Students,” submitted in response to the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, violated Tufts’ standards on free expression and constituted prohibited ...

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Op-ed: It’s time to acknowledge antisemitism on campus

By Elijah Fraiman and Micah Gritz | October 30

More Jews were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, than on any day since the Holocaust. Innocent Israeli civilians were kidnapped, sexually assaulted and violently slaughtered by Hamas in a massacre some are calling Israel’s “9/11 moment.”

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Letter to the Editor

October 30

Dear Editor: I’d like to comment on the response of alum David Spalter LA’89 to the op-ed by the Revolutionary Marxist Students published last week in the Daily. His letter matches a national template, as pro-Israel forces in this country, stunned by the manifestations of local support for the Palestinian national cause, struggle to control the narrative. The gist is that students should not be allowed to voice support for the Palestinian people violently resisting occupation, or to refer to Israel as a colonial settler state, as such statements constitute “hate speech.”

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Letter to the Editor

October 25

Dear Editor, The Tufts Daily has recently published an op-ed titled “Looking toward Palestinian liberation and the death of imperialism,” authored by a group calling itself “Tufts Revolutionary Marxist Students.” Just a bunch of students exercising their right to the free expression of ...

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Op-ed: Looking toward Palestinian liberation and the death of imperialism

By Tufts Revolutionary Marxist Students | October 24

An open letter to The Tufts Daily, the Tufts Board of Trustees, President Sunil Kumar and the Tufts community: We must first commend the statements of both Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine and the coalition of anonymous South Asian students and alumni in their willingness to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the face of backlash from a unified coalition of universities — including our own — the media and government perpetrators of genocide. These students have rightfully indicted Israel’s war of eradication on Palestine as well as the campaign being waged both locally and around the world, to silence those who stand against it.

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Op-ed: The Indian judiciary’s self-restraint is bad for marriage equality

By Padmini Das | October 24

The Supreme Court of India recently rejected a petition to legalize same-sex marriage, setting back the goal of marriage equality in the country even further. In a country estimated to have at least 2.5 million LGBTQ+ people (as of government figures from 2012), the realization of same-sex couples entering into legally recognized marriages or gaining adoption rights remains at large. 

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Op-ed: One Jew’s view on the problems of Israel and Palestine

By Joel Rosenberg | October 19

I know this is overdue — but my hesitation is part of the story. As director of the Tufts program in Judaic Studies, I’ve been puzzling for some time over an appropriate response to the horrific events that have befallen those who live at the juncture of three continents at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. That realm has long been a preoccupation of mine — both in my biblical studies courses and in my film studies courses, where (in the latter, at least) a central preoccupation is what I’ve called the Era of Catastrophe (1914–45), regarding especially the perils of human rights and the plight of stateless persons and peoples.

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Op-ed: Leaving Medford

By Makram Bekdache | October 17

Freshly landed in Boston, I was sitting in an Uber heading for Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus on move-in day in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic was seemingly finally starting to recede after more than a year of being mostly stuck at home, and there I was halfway across the world on the cusp of starting my college education in the United States. Tufts had not been part of my initial shortlist, but I kept hearing increasingly good things about it. I felt it was starting to gain name recognition at my school and in my home country of Lebanon.

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Op-ed: Women legislators are working together to support women across the Commonwealth

By State Representative Christine Barber | September 5

We are facing many challenges in Massachusetts. I continually hear from families and individuals around Somerville and Medford who are having trouble affording basic needs, worrying about health care and fearing their rights for themselves or their children.

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Op-ed: The importance and virtue of reserving judgment

By Kyongbum Lee and James M. Glaser | July 14

A story last fall in the Daily reported on anonymous allegations about the admissions office and its leadership, including allegations of a “toxic” admissions workplace and questions of alleged bias and discrimination. The story also disclosed the existence of an investigation into the complaints. The story was deeply troubling to our community and to us as deans. And it was especially devastating to JT Duck, dean of admissions and enrollment management for the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, with whom we share a commitment to making Tufts a diverse and welcoming community for all — as evidenced by the admission under his leadership of the most diverse classes in the university’s history. 

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