Five years from now, Tufts University will be a vastly different place from the one we know today. The recently passed Strategic Plan will play a large role, but the greatest impact will be felt from the 2017 arrival of the new Green Line T Station at College Avenue.
Tufts Dental School is raising the bar by making active citizenship and public service a core component of its student experience. The school's new Global Service Learning Initiative, which works to make international service opportunities for students more accessible and sustainable, speaks volumes to how Tufts prioritizes community service across its many schools. Along with the recently announced Tufts 1+4 program - which will allow select, incoming undergraduates to embark on a gap year devoted to national or international service on Tufts' dime - the dental school's program is a promising step forward by instilling service opportunities as one of the central parts of a Tufts education.
Just this week, the recently inaugurated mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh, announced his intention to launch a much needed city-wide reform of rental housing. In previous years, nearly every one of the tens of thousands of annual apartment inspections throughout the city was provoked by tenant complaints. In an effort to preempt complaints and prevent tragedies, Mayor Walsh is sending a team of city inspectors to examine 150,000 apartments in search of problems that will subsequently be addressed before residents bring them to the city's attention. Additionally, Mayor Walsh will begin working to ensure that most apartments in Boston are inspected a minimum of once every five years, and that special attention will be paid to landlords with previous offenses or a history of complaints. Efforts such as these will undoubtedly force property owners to clean up and maintain their properties, and will help to keep tenants safe.
The old adage goes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But who exactly is this beholder? Any feminist will tell you that beauty should be defined on a woman's own terms, but in many cases, it is the voice of patriarchal society that tries to be the so-called beholder for all women. I'm hardly the first one to complain about this issue, but a discussion on street harassment at the Women's Center's First Friday Luncheon a while ago got me thinking about what's at play when objectification rules our world. The presenters, Andrew Culler and Shannon Mackey from Smith College's School of Social Work, defined objectification as "the experience of being treated as a body (or collection of body parts) valued predominantly for its use to (or consumption by) others." They then went on to define something that I think is at the crux of this problem: self-objectification. In their words, self-objectification is "internalizing the objectifying eye: evaluating oneself, consciously or unconsciously according to the terms and perspective of the objectifier." This struck a chord with me. Self-objectification is when I order salad on a date not because I love kale, but so I don't look like a girl who eats too much. It is when the slogan "touchably smooth" makes me re-read an advertisement as I subconsciously run my fingers up my shin to see if indeed, a guy would deem me "touchable." It is when I hear myself rated on a numerical scale of physical attractiveness and no matter what I do, I can't get that pesky little number out of my mind.
As a freshman, I found many of the demonstrations and events hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in the recent week before break quite appalling. I was stunned by the implicit message many of these events sent about Israel as a whole. In my opinion, these events, at least from a neutral perspective, left a lingering anti-Israel aura, rather than a clear message of needing to provide humanitarian aid to those Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Friday, Feb. 7, I gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees about the need to support new initiatives in the Career Center that maximize the way it supports students.The ideas I presented came from the hard work of many professionals within the Career Center who had listened to students and had thought diligently about how to best meet the needs of today's Tufts students. The suggestions also came from students I had talked to who had expressed frustration about the internship grant process and about getting an appointment with a career counselor. I met at length with Jean Papalia and Donna Esposito in the Center and I believe that the plan we created will maximize support for students' unique needs and would set Tufts on the cutting edge of universities in preparing its students for entering the working world.
In the last few weeks, a series of art installations have popped up on a variety of walls around campus. Featuring the faces and words of prominent voices of color, the installations have helped to spark vibrant discussion via a new and exciting medium on the university's campus.
Theres a myth out there that a degree in the humanities is a ticket to post-graduation employment behind a fast-food counter. As shown in a Tufts Daily article published last week, weve begun cultivating another myth that humanities and English majors in particular are only eligible to become journalists, teachers or publishers. The idea that English majors might understand something like (*gasp*) business has, apparently, become ludicrous.
Friday, Feb. 7, I gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees about the need to support new initiatives in the Career Center that maximize the way it supports students. The ideas I presented came from the hard work of many professionals within the Career Center who had listened to students and had thought diligently about how to best meet the needs of todays Tufts students. The suggestions also came from students I had talked to who had expressed frustration about the internship grant process and about getting an appointment with a career counselor. I met at length with Jean Papalia and Donna Esposito in the Center and I believe that the plan we created will maximize support for students unique needs and would set Tufts on the cutting edge of universities in preparing its students for entering the working world.During my time at Tufts, I have found that most if not every student wants to do an internship related to their career interests. Eighty-five percent of Tufts students have had at least one internship before graduation. Students know that, in a competitive job market, internship experience is one of the most powerful pathways into employment. Nationally, somewhere between one third and one-half of all internships are unpaid. Likewise, 40 percent of Tufts students internships offer no compensation. To ameliorate this financial burden, Tufts offers 40-45 internship grants to students who will not be paid for their summer work. The grant application process is competitive with a deadline in late March. There are a number of challenges with this model. First, 45 grants are not enough to match students needs. Also, many students do not hear back from employers before the March deadline, thus disqualifying them from applying for the grants. Even with these challenges, the Career Center receives more than 100 applications for the internship grants and has to turn away over half of all applicants.With the increasingly mandatory nature of internships, this seems unfair. Tufts must support its students to gain meaningful work experience that jumpstarts their careers, especially those students that need financial assistance. Students whose parents or guardians have the financial means to accommodate an unpaid internship should not be at an advantage for gaining this experience. We need funding for all students on financial aid who wish to work an unpaid internship for the summer. Equalizing the playing field allows Tufts students to succeed, no matter their financial background. I have heard stories of students who would not even apply to full-time unpaid internship programs, because they knew that they would not be able to financially support the experience. I know others who worked nights and weekends to support themselves, in addition to working full time at an internship. Simply stated, we need more internship grants. We need a system that allows all students on financial aid to be eligible to receive one internship grant to support an otherwise unpaid summer internship. In the proposed system, students would be able to receive this funding after meeting a set of prerequisites, including attending an internship prep course or workshops offered by the Career Center. These classes could cover topics ranging from narrowing in on a career field to writing cover letters and resumes. The workshops equip students with the tools that they need to search for and land an internship. With more funding there would be greater flexibility in deadlines, making grants much more accessible to students who need them the most. In order to support this plan, it is imperative that we hire more employees within the Career Center. Williams College is half our size, yet has roughly the same number of career counselors that we do. Tufts is falling behind many of our peer institutions in the ratio of career counselors to undergraduate students. Having more counselors will allow the Career Center to match the increasing demand among first and second year Tufts students. This past year, there was double the amount of consults with first and second year students as there were even five years ago. The greater desire for meetings among younger students means that there are fewer meeting times for juniors and seniors. The wait time for a one-on-one consultation averages around three weeks. When you have an application deadline in two weeks and you want someone to look over your resum? beforehand, this system is failing you. Hiring professionals focused on targeting first and second year students would address their unique needs and would allow for greater specialization for juniors and seniors. Instead of providing general support, career counselors would be able to be sector-specific coaches, with counselors specializing in a particular career field.At my meeting, the trustees spent a considerable amount of time discussing the need to change the Career Center to reflect the reality of the 21st century, and discussed the possibility of online work and group meetings. While I think this is valid, it does not apply to the student who wants someone to look over his resume or wants specific advice based on his experiences. Students still desire the one-on-one connections with career professionals. They also want connections with alums. The Alumni Association made clear that alums overwhelmingly want to support students trying to navigate the job and internship markets. We should capitalize on this convergence of interests and facilitate more interactions and mentorship possibilities between students and alumni.12
In the last few weeks, a series of art installations have popped up on a variety of walls around campus. Featuring the faces and words of prominent voices of color, the installations have helped to spark vibrant discussion via a new and exciting medium on the university's campus.
My pharmacist is an Arab. My taxi driver is Uzbeki. I live with a Russian woman. The girl in the coffee shop is chatting away in French. That M-16-clad soldier in the olive uniform over there is a Bedouin. My friend's mom is Moroccan, and her father is Japanese. Her friend's grandfather is from Austria. The winner of the national 2013 beauty pageant I watch on my laptop is Ethiopian. Now, take a guess. What country am I in? That's right, it's Israel. All these people are Israelis.
One of the integral components of being a Jumbo is joining one of the hundreds of clubs and activities offered at the university. From the Tap Ensemble to Shir Appeal, participating in a school organization allows students to involve themselves into the Tufts community in a productive way. However, many of these clubs can be expensive to participate in. Competitive sports club teams often require more than just signing up for a club or activity. Participation in a club like Mock Trial is often contingent on a $50 to $100 participation fee that Tufts Community Union (TCU) imposes on members of clubs and activities that request funding in order to supplement costs of the groups' activities.
Last month, the Committee on Student Life revised its policy on student religious and philosophical groups, no longer allowing religious groups to apply for a "justified departure" from the University's non-discrimination policy. This has sparked discussion and debate on campus, including a Feb. 24 Daily op-ed written by Edward Lowe and David Foresy entitled "Compatibility between non-discrimination and religious inclusion."
In May, the Board of Trustees will meet to discuss the approval of a four percent increase in the annual price of tuition and living at Tufts, which will increase to a staggering $61,000. The proposed tuition increase would make Tufts the second most expensive university in all of Massachusetts.
I think I first heard the phrase Israeli Apartheid when I was a sophomore here at Tufts. It wasnt something I had ever heard before, and Ill admit that I was taken aback. Thats an understatement: I was repulsed. Comparing the struggle of Israelis and Palestinians over ancient lands and modern dreams was, to my mind, nothing like the blatant denial of human dignity to which South Africa subjected a subset of its own population on the basis of skin color. To appropriate the struggle of blacks in South Africa to demonize the state of Israel disgusted me.
Many have discounted the educational value of majoring in fields that lie outside of the science, technology, engineering and math arenas, yet an education in humanities is not the professional death sentence that it so often gets branded as. In fact, studying literature, philosophy and other humanities-based subjects can even be considered an essential part of all students' educations. Learning about the humanities can create a more well-rounded person, something that is certainly beneficial in the professional realm. Indeed, in certain job markets, someone who knows a little about a lot may actually be more employable than one who is an expert in just one area.
It is most fitting, in a most disturbing manner, that Israeli Apartheid Week at Tufts University should be inaugurated on the heels of breaking news that, over the past year, Israel has doubled its rate of settlement construction in the illegally occupied West Bank. According to Israels Central Bureau of Statistics, 2,534 new housing units were begun in 2013, compared to 1,133 in 2012. Most major media outlets omitted this story from their headlines for March 3 of this year, and they could almost be forgiven for doing so. The story of Israels dismemberment of sovereign Palestine is one of the most tired news stories of our contemporary world. What has also become tired, almost desensitized, to the tragedy of Palestinian oppression is the collective global conscience of mainstream society. Israel has made routine out of subjugation and banality out of persecution. This status quo is utterly disgraceful and unacceptable.
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