Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Saturday, July 27, 2024
The Print Edition
Donate | About | Join Us | Advertise
Subscribe to our newsletters

Opinion | Guest

LSE_protest_against_zero-Covid_policy_Friday_2_December_2022
Guest

Op-ed: Protests in China reveal possibilities for change

By Anonymous | December 8

​​On Sunday, Nov. 27, a rare anti-lockdown, pro-free speech protest broke out in Beijing. Demonstrators crowded the Liangmaqiao diplomatic district, holding up pieces of blank, white paper to show their opposition to China’s draconian zero-COVID policy. Protests also broke out in other major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu following a fire in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, where at least 10 lives were lost due to COVID-19-related “barricades and locked doors” that slowed down the fire evacuation.

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: Why Djokovic isn't the GOAT despite Federer's departure

By Kevin Golub | November 22

During his trophy acceptance speech at the 2017 Australian Open, newly crowned champion Roger Federer acknowledged the competitive nature of the match against longtime rival, Spain’s Rafael Nadal in a simple yet meaningful way: “Tennis is a tough sport, there are no draws. But if there was going to be one, I would have been happy to accept a draw tonight and share it with Rafa, really.”

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: Legacy admissions and grilled cheese

By Haitong Du | May 3

The annual Tuftonia’s Day carnival took place less than four weeks after our Faculty Senate passed a resolution to end legacy consideration in admissions processes. Both ideas work well in theory: While the latter allows the university to take one step further into becoming an anti-racist institution where students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds may obtain greater representation, the former allows the current Tufts community, of which many members celebrated the elimination of legacy admissions and other pro-egalitarian measures, to enjoy the magic of dizziness-inducing rides as well as food trucks, ranging from apparently Asian dumplings to the classic American grilled cheese. 

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: SJP’s boycott perpetuates antisemitism on campus

By Jacob Fridman and Ian Kaplan | April 29

Terrorist attacks in Israel in late March and early April have claimed the lives of 14 Israeli civilians. Many are worried that the region is again spiraling into war. Yet when messages of hope and calls for dialogue are most needed, Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine has expressed support for violence against Israeli civilians: “SJP supports the full range of Palestinian resistance against settler-colonialism,” students wrote in a Tufts Observer op-ed published prior to the attacks. SJP has also begun calling on Tufts students to boycott a number of Jewish-led student groups, including Tufts Friends of Israel, in which we serve as student leaders. Tufts Friends of Israel condemns this recent effort to marginalize Jewish students.

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: Corporate Tufts needs to go

By Tufts Labor Coalition | April 29

As universities like Tufts become increasingly ensnared in corporate practices, an ominous cycle develops: Workers face unjust conditions, community members demand action, and administrators deflect responsibility. The history of violence from which Tufts has built its capital, including the seizure of Massachusett, Pawtucket, Nipmuc and Wampanoaglands and the Royall family plantation,undergirds the system of racialized labor which now poisons the university. Today, worker exploitation — which we identify with the corporatization of Tufts — has eroded possibilities for solidarity among an increasingly vulnerable workforce whose labor keeps Tufts viable as a corporation. First, we will look at how exploitative corporate policies affect workers at Tufts. Then, we will look at the framework of the endowment which legitimizes administrative decisions. Lastly, we will provide our demands. 

Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-12.52.53-PM
Guest

Op-ed: Pena for president

By Arielle Galinsky and Claire Bolash | April 26

If you want a TCU president who will be a voice for all students, advocate for campus mental health at the highest levels, stand against sexual assault on campus, consistently support the new Indigenous Center and call for equitable academic policies, then Jaden Pena is the candidate for you.

The Setonian
Guest

Op-Ed: Migration as a remedy for global inequality

By Brie Mcgowan and Ian Boldiston | March 31

Globalization, defined by Merriam-Webster as “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy,” is inextricably tied to the global inequality that has shaped the lives of billions across the globe. Economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez suggest globalization has led to an increasing gap between the rich and poor. The 2022 World Inequality Report highlights this gap, finding that the globe’s richest 10% have 75% of global income while the poorest 50% of individuals share just 2% of income. The issue of global inequality is exacerbated by a number of factors like gender and race. For example, research shows that women make up just 27% of individuals in the top 10% of the income distribution and less than 17% at the 1% income level. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, racial discrimination is also prevalent in the discussion of global inequality, with white workers earning approximately 22% more than Black workers. Other data strengthens this finding, highlighting that a median Black family owns $24,100 in wealth compared to the average $189,100 held by a median white family. Globalization has certainly played a role in increasing this high level of global inequality.

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: The future of cooperation aboard the International Space Station

By Meera Rohera | March 30

Tensions between the United States and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine have made their way to the outer space domain. The packet of sanctions announced on Feb. 24 included measures directly targeting the Russian space program. Addressing this, President Biden remarked that “[the sanctions] will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program.”

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: We need to change the way we manage waste

By Margo Muyres | March 29

This year, the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship class run by the Institute of Global Leadership at Tufts has been guided by the theme “Problems without Passports.” As an environmental studies and international relations major, the relevance and urgency of this framework is evident. Environmental scholars increasingly cite the interconnectedness of the global ecosystem, which calls for understanding an ‘instance’ of environmental degradation on a wider spatial and temporal scale. Just as the effects of climate change are dispersed over time and space to be felt unevenly by those who have had little hand in causing it, pollution and toxicity created in one place will not be neatly contained out of sight and out of body.

The Setonian
Guest

Op-ed: Social media: Contending with extremism and misinformation in the digital age

By Joseph Lim and Janya Gambhir | March 11

Social media has revolutionized terrorism, acting as a tool to streamline communication in underground networks and make the recruitment of individuals more accessible. This has resulted in the increased dissemination of extremist content online, facilitating radicalization. Terrorist or extremist groups can readily communicate their opinions and misinformation in an immediate and widely accessible format, sharing information with a large, global audience, while also tailoring their messages to specific audiences at local levels. As stated by expert Dr. Maura Conway, “Today's Internet does not simply allow for the dissemination and consumption of ‘extremist material’ in a one-way broadcast from producer to consumer, but also high levels of online social interaction around this material.”

Trending
The Tufts Daily Crossword with an image of a crossword puzzle
The Print Edition
Tufts Daily front page