Opinion

Viewpoint

‘Clique culture’ has come to dominate clubs at Tufts

By Michaela Loughran | April 17

Have you ever walked into a club meeting and immediately felt unwelcome? Maybe it was because your fellow club members were already so engaged in conversation with one another that they didn’t pause for a brief moment to greet you. Maybe you tried to say a friendly hello, only to continue being ignored. If something like that has ever happened to you, you are certainly not alone, nor are you at fault. Experiences like this are most likely due to something much bigger — the toxic “clique culture” that has come to dominate countless organizations at Tufts.

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Column

Through Indigenous Eyes: Indigenous education

By Sorsha Khitikian | April 17

On March 27, the Rapid City Area Schools district in South Dakota received a letter from the Trump administration’s Office of Civil Rights. Having concluded a 14-year investigation into school-based racial discrimination about a year ago, the district had finally agreed to provide equitable access to education for Indigenous students, who had disproportionately high disciplinary rates compared to their white peers. A civil rights agreement was settled, and an action plan was implemented to combat Indigenous discrimination. Now, President Donald Trump has nullified this agreement due to “DEI” and the district is no longer obliged to treat students equitably.

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Guest

Op-ed: Why we need human factors to save democracy

By Yahav Manor | April 17

Last fall, while filling out the tiny ovals on my mail-in ballot for the state of Florida, I found myself questioning everything. As I scanned Question 4, I read, “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” followed by the description, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, ...

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Column

Coffee Table Socioeconomics: The rich should want to save the legal system

By Linda Huang | April 16

One of the seven core principles of conservatism is the commitment to the rule of law. It’s a principle that ensures stability, predictability and fairness — the very conditions under which societies flourish and individuals thrive. Hand in hand with this is another value conservatives proudly uphold: the pursuit of economic growth and wealth accumulation through a free market economy. These principles intertwine because without a robust legal system that regulates the market, the ultimate goal of profit cannot be achieved.

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Column

Ukraine at War: A reflection on the deadly attacks in Kryvyi Rih and Sumy

By Mariia Kudina | April 15

On April 4, I was co-moderating a discussion on risks and art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University for the event “Arts and Society: Dialogues.” I was looking at my phone and going over the sample questions to ask the participants when I received a text from my mom saying, “We were outside with your brother and our dog, the explosion felt far but the ground was shaking.” Momentarily, I tracked back my thoughts to before the event. Right before the discussion, I saw a notification that there was an air raid alert in Kryvyi Rih, possibly due to the missile carriers being launched in Russia. I had a feeling that this was not a precautionary alert, yet never in a million years would I assume that the attack would be that deadly.

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Viewpoint

Diseases are making a comeback — we need to take action

By Evan Wang | April 11

On a quiet summer day in 1978, then-40-year-old medical photographer Janet Parker came down with chicken pox, or so she thought. Within nine days, Parker was admitted to the hospital, being too sick to stand. She had developed sores that covered her body, blinded her eyes and caused renal failure. During this horrifying ordeal, Parker’s father suffered cardiac arrest due to stress and died, while Parker’s boss committed suicide, believing he had allowed the virus to leak from the lab where he and Parker worked. Soon, Parker developed pneumonia and could no longer respond verbally. Exactly a month after her symptoms first appeared, Janet passed away.

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Viewpoint

The attack on libraries is an attack on knowledge

By Sorsha Khitikian | April 11

My local library was my favorite place as a kid. I would climb the stairs to the second floor children’s section, making a beeline for The Boxcar Children books that were shelved in a model boxcar. I would check out audiobook CDs to listen to while I fell asleep. I read every Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Magic Tree House book the library had. Now at Tufts, Tisch Library, Boston Public Library and Somerville Library have all been mainstays of my college career, where I check out books for both research and leisure reading. But libraries serve many more purposes than just having books to be checked out. For example, the Boston Public Library provides free Wi-Fi to patrons and a safe space for kids. The library itself is a community space, with staff dedicated to knowledge dissemination and creating a safe and welcoming environment that anyone can depend on. However, right now, libraries are under attack by President Donald Trump and his administration.

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Editorial

The Daily’s 2025 declassified Tufts survival guide

By The Editorial Board | April 10

Welcome to Tufts! If you’re reading this article, you’re likely a newly admitted student — so congratulations! The Editorial Board of the Tufts Daily (us!) looks to impart some wise words on you (or current students who are reading this for fun).

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Viewpoint

It gets better: Making the most of your college experience

By Max Lerner | April 10

It’s nowhere near revolutionary to say that moving to college is a major adjustment. We are thrown into an entirely new world. For the first time in most of our lives, it is completely up to us to decide how we spend our time, who we surround ourselves with and what we make of ourselves. To put it simply: It’s a lot, especially in tandem with difficult classes and our uncertain futures ahead.  

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Viewpoint

How the Trump administration targets education to push its fascist policies

By Monica Reilly | April 10

We’re all familiar with the book burnings of Nazi Germany, with the images of bright fires engulfing literary works clear in our minds. In the generations since, this depiction of extreme fascism is often used to discuss the idea of censorship — the silencing of ideas that the fascist government found to be dangerous. While this discussion is true and continues to be relevant in our modern day, these burnings are more specifically emblematic of an attack on education. Now more than ever, we need to remember that a fascist government can only become successful through the spread of misinformation.

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Guest

Op-ed: A bipartisan statement on the arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk

By Tufts Republicans and Tufts Democrats | April 10

On March25, Rümeysa Öztürk, a member of the Tufts University community,wasdetained by theDepartment of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville.The next morning, she was transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. As of the issuance of thisstatement, a federal judge has transferredÖztürk’s detention case to Vermont.

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Column

The Conversation: Are Democrats standing up to Trump?

By Evan Wang and Sadie Roraback-Meagher | April 9

Sadie Roraback-Meagher: Heya, Evan. Evan Wang: Hey, Sadie. How’s your week been? Sadie: Oh, you know, the usual. This week has been too long, and this weekend has been too short. Evan: Speaking of short things, Cory Booker’s speech certainly wasn’t. Sadie: Somehow, I just know you have something ...

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Guest

Op-ed: Tufts takes a stand for free speech — others must follow

By Connor Murnane | April 9

The evening of March 25, federal immigration officials detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk — a move widely suggested to have been a response to an op-ed she co-wrote for the student paper, The Tufts Daily. Last week, Tufts University made clear it “has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention.” Tufts further clarified that Öztürk’s op-ed drew no complaints and was protected under the school’s free expression commitments. In fact, Tufts points out that “a search of The Tufts Daily will reveal op-eds on multiple sides of the issue with opinions that were shared just as strongly as the op-ed Ms. Öztürk co-authored.”

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Viewpoint

Blood in, blood out: The bleeding Congo

By Alexander Degterev | April 8

For far too long, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been deprived of a large portion of the tremendous wealth beneath their land. This large-scale,multi-decade mineral theft has been carried out not only by their closest neighbors and regional rivals, but also by an interconnected network of international players who have actively worked to bolster the industry.

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Guest

Op-ed: Under attack from above and within

By Neil Osborne | April 7

Museums, libraries and arts institutions that hold our living and breathing story as a nation are under attack. On March 27, President Donald Trump engaged in this attack by signing an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” These attacked organizations make up our cultural heritage like a patchwork quilt stitched together from diverse fabrics, each representing contributions from different communities. This executive order, however, aims to rip out specific patches under the guise of restoration, leaving behind an incomplete tapestry.

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Guest

Op-ed: Rümeysa, a friend with a kind heart and uplifting spirit

By Anonymous | April 4

A couple of years ago, on Valentine’s Day, I gifted Rumeysa this little book that lists 50 reasons why she’s my best friend. Now when I think about it, I find that I have more than 50 things that I like about Rümeysa. So, here is the story of our friendship during times of hardship and ease…

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Guest

Op-eds: Alums respond to the detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk

By Tufts Alums | April 4

We stand in solidarity with the current student body at Tufts, and other alumni, in condemning the lack of due process in the detainment of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk. The rise of authoritarian attitudes in recent months has manifested in troubling ways, including attacks on the integrity of government institutions, outrageous threats to the sovereignty of other nations and the inhumane deportation and detainment of immigrants living in the United States to foreign prisons without judicial oversight.

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Viewpoint

Militant vegans are fighting a losing battle

By Olivia Zambrano | April 4

Typically, society associates vegans with the classic stereotype of preachy, accusatory environmentalists and animal rights defenders. Still, some sources estimate that the number of vegans in the United States has increased. While it’s difficult to determine the exact rise in veganism, a few factors can aid in illustrating the increase in veganism across the United States. Retail sales of plant-based foods are a primary indicator of the jump in veganism. In the past six years, plant-based food companies in the United States have experienced an approximately 5 billion dollar increase in retail sales. Further, from 2020–23, they’ve raised more money from investors than they did in the 14 years prior. Although veganism seems to be becoming more popular, the stigma associated with it has not dissipated.

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Guest

Op-ed: The detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk is wrong. And we stand against it.

By Tufts Friends of Israel | April 3

These are dark times in our community, our city, our state, our nation and our world. Wars rage across the globe, economic uncertainty looms and our basic freedoms are under assault.

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Column

Through Indigenous Eyes: Indigenous invisibility is once again the norm

By Sorsha Khitikian | April 3

President Donald Trump has been on a DEI purge since taking office — removing almost any content that remotely resembles support for diversity from government websites. Many aspects of life, from science to performing arts, have been affected. Now, to be sure, I expected a lot of vital data to disappear under the DEI banner. I did not expect the removal of data concerning murder and missing persons.

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