Opinion

Opinion

The death of Osama bin Laden and the reaction of the American people

May 19

Waking up in Dakar, Senegal, to the news of Osama bin Laden's death has sparked a whirlwind of emotion and confusion for this young American. Living for the past four months with a devoutly Muslim family in a country that is more than 90 percent Muslim, my opinion of Islam and of religion in general has shifted greatly throughout my time here in Senegal. Arriving as a self-prescribed atheist, I viewed the idea of religion in general in a less-than-positive light; it was easy for me to see religion as something that only created conflict and led to fanaticism, as seen in the likes of Osama bin Laden's distortion of Islam for his own political purpose and his grave distortion of the notion of jihad as a vehicle for politically motivated violence.

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Opinion

Looking forward, the Senate must improve student outreach

May 19

As seniors leave the Hill this spring, new opportunities for transformation, growth and improvement of the ever-changing Tufts community are bestowed upon their successors. Nowhere on campus are these opportunities more present for students than within the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate.

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Opinion

Picking up where Bacow left off

May 19

Throughout University President Lawrence Bacow's tenure, Tufts has experienced enormous change and growth. Since Bacow took the reins a decade ago, he has led the campus through periods of student-body growth, an increase in university prestige and, most recently, national economic uncertainty. While lauding his accomplishments, however, we must be mindful of his shortcomings and urge President-elect Anthony Monaco to address these issues as Tufts moves into a new era of leadership.

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Opinion

Unrealized potential

May 1

After a nearly year−and−a−half−long effort to obtain more power for community representatives in the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, individuals elected to the position finally are on par with senators in their voting rights. Referendum 3, following a year's worth of debate, passed by a single vote this fall. Now that the contention is over and the Senate has spent this semester working to codify the process, it is disappointing that two of the four seats open for community representatives remain unfilled. Blame has been pointed at various organizations, but it seems that the real problem goes far beyond one or two student groups not pulling their weight in advertising and instead highlights a case of unrealized potential across student government.

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Opinion

Ashish Malhotra | Follow the Leader

May 1

Business tycoon Donald Trump has been dominating the latest news cycle with his potential presidential aspirations and his incessant pestering of President Barack Obama to prove his citizenship. Obama eventually succumbed to Trump's demands, releasing his long−form birth certificate last Wednesday after requesting it from the state of Hawaii five days earlier.

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Opinion

On extraordinary public service

May 1

Tufts has been far ahead of other institutions in supporting the service of our Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) cadets. Harvard made big news a few weeks ago when it announced changes to its ROTC policy that merely brought it in line with what Tufts has been doing for years. For example, Tufts supports the program monetarily by paying for student attendance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the current program is taught. Tufts also hosts a commissioning ceremony for cadets and supports ceremonies on Veterans Day and other events that recognize the commitment of those who serve in uniform.

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Opinion

An undue comparison

May 1

Every year around April both Armenian and Turkish communities relive the same set of events. As April 24, the day of commemoration for Armenians, comes and goes, the struggle to legitimize the Armenian genocide claim gets another boost by the Armenian diaspora. Some parliament of some country will pass an Armenian bill as if it were an authority on matters of history, and somewhere in Armenia a Turkish flag is burned. It's a vicious cycle for those who endure the same play every year.

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Opinion

Provost search committee should make racial issues a priority

April 27

The Tufts community earlier this week received an email announcing the launch of a search committee to find a permanent replacement for outgoing Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha. As white students, we have found from our own experiences that the Tufts community generally avoids race as a topic and therefore chooses to actively ignore how race operates within all of our lives at Tufts. Currently, we see the social and academic climate at Tufts characterized by a defensive and hostile racial environment resistant to change. With the arrival of a new president and the ongoing search for a new provost, the administration has the opportunity to shift the campus to one that actively engages racial issues.

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Opinion

Be gay in whatever way you want to be

April 27

I found Molly Wallace's review of ABC's "Happy Endings" ("No happy ending in sight for ABC's latest," April 25, 2011) incredibly offensive. In particular, the description of Adam Pally's character, Max, rubbed me the wrong way. For those who did not read the review, it read, "[Adam] Pally steals the show with his nonstereotypical depiction of a gay character. Max is Dave's bro−ish and sloppy best friend, an incredibly refreshing departure from the flamboyance so often seen in primetime (a la Chris Colfer in ‘Glee' or Eric Stonestreet in ‘Modern Family'). I would go so far to claim that Pally gives the most realistic portrayal of a gay character on television …"

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Opinion

Letter to the Editor

April 27

Dear Editor,

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Opinion

An unacceptable opacity in policy

April 27

Each year on April 20, Tufts students gather on the Tisch Library roof to engage in the annual "4/20" celebration, an unofficial holiday in which many people engage in marijuana use. Some students came to the roof this year with the expectation of smoking marijuana, others attended to watch the event and socialize, but no students headed to the roof with the expectation that they would be handcuffed and tackled to the ground by Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers. Unlike in previous years, this spring's 4/20 celebration was marked by intense enforcement from TUPD officers, the presence of administrators and one instance of physical force and handcuffing that left students, many of whom had experienced a peaceful event for the past few years, flabbergasted.

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Opinion

Letter to the Editor

April 26

Dear Editor,

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Opinion

ECOM misses the mark again

April 26

After the 2010 Tufts Community Union Senate (TCU) presidential election, most of the criticism was directed not toward either candidate but toward the TCU Elections Commission (ECOM). Headlines in the Daily have read, "Hold ECOM officials accountable," "ECOM handled TCU election poorly," "ECOM: Wallis overspent," and, most recently, "Once again, ECOM flouts its responsibilities."

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Opinion

Prashanth Parameswaran | The Asianist

April 26

Last Tuesday morning, with my head still buried under the pillow, I groped for the blaring phone on my desk. Upon finally reaching it, I flipped it up and pressed it against my ear, ready to grumble at a friend for interrupting my deep slumber. I was rudely awakened, however, when I heard a man with a British accent begin, "Hi Prashanth, I'm calling from the BBC and…"

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Opinion

Time to look elsewhere for funding

April 26

Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine stands to face funding cuts from the commonwealth of Massachusetts as state officials debate next year's budget. Though it is a private school, it has always maintained a strong relationship with the state and has received supplementary funds over the years. Now, budgetary aftereffects from the recession have forced the government to reconsider its commitment to the Cummings School. The Cummings School may eventually be better off autonomous from government funding, but Massachusetts should refrain from cutting the school's funding in the short term.

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Opinion

Elisha Sum | InQueery

April 25

This semester I've tried to expose the Tufts community to various aspects of queer issues and politics with which the majority probably never engages. I touched base with both theory and lived experiences through topics ranging from semiology and transfeminism to hate crimes legislation (HCL) and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). My intention was to bring attention to relegated voices and offer their perspectives and viewpoints as alternatives to the mainstream narrative, which didn't even really exist for some topics (i.e., biphobia, transphobia, prison industrial complex, transfeminism). And in the instances that my chosen topic was already mainstream (i.e., same−sex marriage, DADT, HCL), I tried to present it in a new light. I opened an inquiry on these topics with the intent to share ideas and standpoints that are radical in the sense that they are not given the space to be deployed within the larger space of public discourse. I did this because I firmly agree with Audre Lorde's wise words: "Difference must be not merely tolerated but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic."

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Opinion

Richards for president

April 25

Ben ran for senate freshman year because he wanted to make a difference and he felt that he represented the average student at Tufts, not the fringe minority groups that dominate our school, that take their causes and launch them onto every student as if they are issues of life or death. There is a time and a place for groups like that, but it is not at the center of our student body's voice. It is time that we restored our campus voice to that of the majority of our students and not just those who yell the loudest and make the most threats. I think we all started off wanting to make change at some point in our lives. The big difference is that I know Ben still has that will to make changes where others have fallen complacent in preserving the status quo.

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Opinion

Letter from the Managing Board

April 25

Dear readers,

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Opinion

Garcia for president

April 25

I've been around for two presidential campaigns and active in both of them. Now, as I approach my third, I'm seeing something unique among all of them. I've had the opportunity to support some great people over the years, like Chas Morrison and Sam Wallis, and, as it was with those candidates, I'm happy to see that Tomas Garcia has been running a solid campaign worthy of this university.

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Opinion

President Bacow's scarecrows: Of joints, TUPD and our wayward president

April 25

Watching the behavior of the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) during last week's short−lived 4/20 celebration on the Tisch Library roof, I couldn't help but be reminded of a vaudevillian song and dance. Like a well−choreographed performance, TUPD surrounded revelers, and at the strike of 4:20 p.m., as joints were lit, they promptly moved in. The atmosphere was almost calm as TUPD officers summarily collected IDs from smokers, all the while ignoring the prodigious amount of smoke emanating from crowds around, near but not on top of, Tisch Library. Such a spectacle highlights the ludicrous state of Tufts' drug and alcohol policy and its effects on students. As the year winds down and Tufts prepares to find a new president at its reins, it is hard to see the current administration's drug and alcohol policies as anything but a failure. University President Lawrence Bacow's administration has pursued policies that encourage a damaging relationship with the student body and obscure the actual problems that exist in Tufts' drinking and drug culture. The motivations for these policies are difficult to square with an earnest and primary concern for students' welfare. Moreover, in the process of legitimizing these failed policies, Bacow and his administration have devalued essential student organizations like the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and the Daily.

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