Sen. Barack Obama yesterday became the first black man to be elected president of the United States, defeating Sen. John McCain in a victory that reflected the nation's economic woes and tinted the electoral map decidedly blue.
Voters in Massachusetts leaned hard on the Democratic lever yesterday, supporting Sen. Barack Obama and sending back state and national incumbents with overwhelming mandates.
The historic nature of yesterday's presidential election has rightfully cast a shadow over every lesser race this cycle. Yet, amid the hype and hope of one of the wildest and most stunning campaigns in recent memory, voters will be affected in ways large and small by the lesser-known ballot initiatives on state election slates across the country. Here, then, is a sample of the ballot initiatives we flagged as interesting, weird or noteworthy in some way — and how they fared.
Massachusetts state Rep. Carl Sciortino (D- 34th-Middlesex), a Tufts alum whose district includes parts of campus, won reelection comfortably yesterday in an uncontested vote.
Even students swamped with midterms and locked behind the counters of their on-campus jobs found time to follow the election last night. Students in both Brown ‘n Brew and the Tower Café studied furiously before running home to tune in, while others studied with their laptops nearby streaming live coverage. The students working in both locations remained huddled in masses behind the counter with laptops open — the students at the Tower Café even had multiple tabs of news sites open, in hopes of gaining well-rounded campaign information.
Sen. Barack Obama won the election in a landslide yesterday, taking 338 electoral votes to Sen. John McCain's 163 as of press time. In comparison to 2004, when President George W. Bush won a second term in the White House by a 286 to 252 margin over Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Obama took yesterday's election in a convincing fashion reminiscent of the Nixon and Reagan years. Unlike Bush's chief strategist Karl Rove, who focused on garnering just enough votes to win the election, the Obama campaign devised a 50-state strategy that refused to discount even the reddest of states. It paid off: Obama took swing states Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, putting the Democratic Party back in the White House for the first time since the Clinton administration left office in January 2001.
An eager crowd in Hotung erupted into an explosion of joyous screams and chants after counting down the seconds until the closing of West Coast polls and the official CNN projection that Sen. Barack Obama would be the 44th president of the United States.
Exit polling in Somerville and Medford indicated a resounding mandate for Barack Obama yesterday, as most citizens fell in line behind the Democratic nominee.
Over the last few weeks, hundreds of out-of-state students have requested and returned absentee ballots while those from Massachusetts have patiently waited until today to cast their votes. This week, the Daily asked students which issues were most important in helping them choose between the candidates. What is the most important issue of this election?
Popular satirical shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show" have been quick to jump on any blunders in speeches made by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during her recent campaign, but thanks to Tufts alum Jordan Kolasinski (LA '04), Palin's fans and critics now have even more ways to entertain themselves.
Students in the Class of 2012 received a very simple homework assignment from University President Lawrence Bacow during their matriculation ceremony. "All those who are eligible to vote are expected — perhaps I should say required — to vote in the upcoming election on Nov. 4," Bacow said.
Questions continue to swirl around a man who promised to send financial assistance from Italy to students hoping to canvass for Sen. Barack Obama in swing states, after the supposed benefactor pulled out on Oct. 25.
Eliza Bikvan makes her way down a driveway to a quaint, wooden house nestled in the rural New Hampshire trees. It is a nice scene, but after five hours of canvassing and with rain clouds looming overhead, she is business-minded. Her primary concern is to figure out which door to knock on.
Even when the Sunday sun glistens and the crisp fall wind beckons a potential afternoon spent outside, many Tufts students still find the day the most dreary, depressing one of the week. Looming papers, midterms and problem sets win over the beauty of nature, and it's off to the basement of Tisch for a day dealt to diligence.
During Dewick's slower hours, an employee stationed at the pizza oven spies a few hungry students wandering solemnly about the empty heated trays. She watches their crestfallen expressions as they recognize, drifting towards the sandwich bar, their doomed meal prospects.
Since taking over as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center's new director at the beginning of the year, Tom Bourdon has focused on establishing an academic program dedicated to queer studies and increasing LGBT awareness on campus.
Massachusetts voters tomorrow will consider whether decriminalizing marijuana would lead to greater drug abuse and crime or provide relief from unnecessarily harsh laws and benefit law enforcement agencies and taxpayers.
A delegation of six U.S. university presidents will visit Iran thanks to an invitation from Sharif University of Technology President Saeed Sohrabpour in Tehran. With the sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences, American scientists have been participating in an exchange program with Iran recently, establishing a forum for communication and a basis for understanding. The presidents' trip seeks to expand on these exchanges and further the progression of the two nations' educational ties. The trip has been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State and is being organized by the Association of American Universities, a non-profit organization that concentrates on issues important to research universities. The Richard Lounsbery Foundation, which has been involved in the National Academy of Sciences' exchanges, will cover all the delegation's travel expenses. The presidents come from three private and three public institutions: Carnegie Mellon University; Cornell University; Rice University; the University of California, Davis; the University of Florida; and the University of Maryland, College Park. All schools have had some type of previous contact with Iranian educators. While the visit comes at a time of mounting tension between the U.S. administration and the Iranian government, Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow said this type of academic exchange between rivaling nations is not unprecedented. "Even during the Cold War, U.S. academics met with their colleagues in the Soviet Union," Bacow said in an e-mail. "Such contacts can pave the way for other diplomatic initiatives." Bacow credited these meetings with the eventually successful negotiations of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. University of Florida spokesperson Janine Sikes told the Daily that this trip is about more than political tensions. "This is not a political trip," Sikes said in an e-mail. "Rather, it is about strengthening scientific and educational ties." But the plan has drawn some criticism. The trip's press release on the Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site reveals a variety of sentiments on the issue. "Would they have visited South African universities under apartheid?" wrote one commenter named, "Alan." In addition to visiting various universities, the teachers will hold meetings with Iranian scientists and engineers, and conduct an open forum with the students of Sharif University. Robert Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, said in a press release, "Prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979, a very high percentage of the faculty at Iranian universities was educated in the United States; since that time, and especially since 9/11, that number has declined dramatically. We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying the groundwork for greater understanding and rebuilding what was once a very healthy collaboration in science and higher education."
Students love to hate them, professors hate to give them, most colleges refuse to part with them ... and they are rampantly on the rise. Grades -- the catch-22 of the modern university -- have steadily increased in recent decades, and grade inflation is now a larger concern in the academic community than ever.
