To everyone stepping onto campus for the first time and to everyone returning for another year, welcome to Tufts. We enter this fall semester with remaining uncertainty about COVID-19 and the increased prevalence of newer variants but also with the added comfort of vaccinations — bringing us just a little closer to some sense of normalcy.
Dear Class of 2021 and the Tufts community,
Head is pounding, sunlight hurts, body aches and there’s a mysterious bruise. Sitting in bed with a Pedialyte and a treat from Magnificent Muffin won’t fix it — it’s a hangover that can’t be slept off. It’s not going away unless we fight it off. It’s not from The Pub, the Burren or Mike’s; it’s from Belarus, Algeria, India, Hungary, Egypt, China, the United States and even the United Kingdom. Maybe we should call TEMS? Democracy’s down bad.
The financial aid system is notoriously difficult to navigate. At Tufts, a school with one of thewealthiest student bodies in the country,this problem poses a particular threat to the equality of education and opportunities for students across campus.
Can you imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to be invisible? Yes — invisibility is often people's superpower of choice, but what if it wasn’t a choice? Our names are Emma and Avani and we are two people who know what it's like to feel invisible. To our friends, professors, coaches, peers and often the administration, we appear to be perfectly able-bodied — from the looks of us, no one would think that we both manage a lifelong chronic disease.
Building more housing on campus is an issue of economic justice, as the current shortage leaves few options for low-income students at Tufts and for low-income renters who are being priced out of our surrounding communities. These problems risk getting worse in the years ahead with the Green Line’s imminent arrival to Medford, something that could contribute to further surges in housing prices.
Growing up Jewish wasn’t easy.
As a Puerto Rican who has worked at Tufts for the better part of a decade, I was heartened to read Sara Kessel’s April 22 Opinion article:“The issues of statehood in D.C. and Puerto Rico are not the same. Stop conflating them.” I commend her for writing about this often ignored topic, and I share her view that D.C. and Puerto Rico should not be thoughtlessly lumped together. Furthermore, I join the Puerto Rican student quoted in the piece in asserting that independence is the only option that respects Puerto Rican nationhood, and that being absorbed into the country that invaded the island 123 years ago is not a truly decolonial outcome.
As members of the Class of 2021 enter their final days at Tufts, now is an appropriate time to reflect on what its members have accomplished in their time here. Finishing college in circumstances that no one could have even imagined four years ago, Tufts’ graduating seniors have shown respectable resilience in the face of a challenging year. But beyond just doing the bare minimum, this is a class whose members have looked out for others in addition to themselves. In the year since this pandemic first shook the world, members of our student body — led by graduating seniors — have turned outward rather than inward, continuing our community's commitment to social justice and its tradition of activism. And compared to many of Tufts’ peers, our community has avoided the worst COVID-19 outcomes, owing largely to the behavior of students, including the graduating seniors who have sacrificed traditions enjoyed by previous generations of Tufts graduates.
Content warning: This column discusses mass shootings and gun violence.
The housing system on campus and its various issues have long been a source of frustration for students. However, the effects of COVID-19 have only exacerbated the problems students have experienced with the system. The pandemic introduced barriers to building friendships and expanding social connections, placing unique pressures on the housing process for rising sophomores. The level of anxiety and frustration students have toward the system will not change unless Tufts actively makes strides to improve the housing process.
Two reprehensible incidents of hate occurred on our campus in the past week. In the first, several Asian students were verbally assaulted with hateful anti-Asian rhetoric by the occupants of a passing vehicle while walking on Professors Row. In the second, a large swastika was painted on the Bello Field shed, and was found by members of a Tufts athletic team. The Daily stands in solidarity with the communities impacted by these despicable acts. When confronting this tide of hate, it is imperative that we do not become desensitized to these attacks, and instead that we act with urgency to promptly deliver justice
In November 2019, Evo Morales, Bolivia’s longtime president, resigned from office after an audit uncovered inconsistencies in the recent presidential election. Morales, Bolivia’s president for nearly 14 years, was only allowed to run for a third consecutive term because of a 2017 court ruling which critics claim was slated in his favor.
On March 31, New York became the 15th state to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. This new legislation comes as part of a growing national trend toward legalization and decriminalization of drugs. For many people, the news of legalization implies a positive shift toward freedom for personal, recreational use. While this cultural and political change is worth celebrating, it is important to recognize the implications of these changes on the racial inequities that have long plagued the economic and legal systems of marijuana usage.
One of President Biden’s favorite phrases is “science is back.” After four years of the Trump administration’s deregulatory policies, drilling permits for federal lands and denialism in the face of climate catastrophe, Biden makes a point of proving he will listen to scientists when it comes to preventing full-blown disaster.
At Tufts, like many other predominantly white institutions, curricula often center around the Eurocentric perspectives of Westerners — particularly white men — narrowing the worldview to which students are exposed. Not only does this reality undermine Tufts’ liberal arts foundation of exposing students to a wide array of subjects, it also fails to prepare students for civic stewardship in which they directly engage with the effects of patriarchy, colonialism and racism.
A fully vaccinated student body would provide a cushion of protection that would entirely change the student experience at Tufts. The spread of new, more contagious COVID-19 variants may complicate future projections, but the prospect of widespread vaccination nevertheless paves a promising path forward, delivering an end to the pandemic.
It would be a disservice to both of these territories to view their potential shifts toward statehood in a monolithic way. Distinct local issues in D.C. and Puerto Rico affect both the merits of attaining statehood and the respective populations’ general consensuses on what should be done. Ultimately, in order to promote each of these territories’ self-determination, we have to understand the complex motivating factors surrounding each bid for statehood in their differing contexts.
If you claim to want to help marginalized students, here is a perfect way to do it. Listen to what we are saying. Listen to what we are saying we want and need. Listen to our stories; listen to why Amma is the only one we trust with our vote. As a brown, first-gen, low-income woman, I know that values like equity and accountability are not only key words for Amma’s campaign; they come from real experience.
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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