A needless safety hazard
September 21The intersection of Powder House Boulevard and Packard Avenue, marked only by flashing red traffic lights, has long been the cause of anxiety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.
The intersection of Powder House Boulevard and Packard Avenue, marked only by flashing red traffic lights, has long been the cause of anxiety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.
Tufts, like every other college campus it seems, has an alcohol problem. And it's embarrassing. And it's starting to limit our student activities. And that's a shame.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in Dewick during my freshman orientation week, and I was feeling pretty seasoned. The head−start that I had on some of my classmates from Wilderness pre−Orientation had bestowed me with what felt like a lifetime's worth of knowledge, and I was anxious to share my new−found wisdom with a classmate I saw contemplating the coffee choices. "Sometimes they put out French vanilla," I suggested eagerly. "It's really good." The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm a senior," she scoffed before briskly walking away. I was taken aback — this girl was nothing like the students I'd met throughout the week, thirsty for friendship and willing to feign interest about my hometown, dorm and anticipated major.
The outcry from within the Tufts community over the recent remarks of Tufts School of Medicine Assistant Clinical Professor Keith Ablow has been, to say the least, palpable.
I am constantly asked what is the best part of my job as president of Tufts University. The answer is simple: the students. They are smart, positive and engaged, not only in their studies and research, but in all aspects of Tufts life — from drama, music and art, to athletics and keeping fit, to community service both locally and abroad.
I love reading. But, there is one glaring caveat: I do not love reading textbooks. Recently, I opened my first one in two years and found that it took me forever to finish 10 pages. But even so, I still love reading: the act of finding meaning everywhere and anywhere.
President Barack Obama yesterday announced a plan to cut the national debt by about $3 trillion over the span of a decade. The initiative, much like the jobs plan introduced last week, is no doubt part of Obama's effort to keep his own job come next election.
Would you spend $20,000 on a text message? Tomorrow, you will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate will allocate that amount for the creation of a text−messaging system. But before you vote on Referendum 1, you'll want to ask yourself a few questions: Do we need it? Would it work? And would it be worth it?
After two long weeks of getting your campus newspaper fix every other weekday, here it is: your first true daily Daily of fall 2011.
In Tuesday's school-wide Tufts Community Union Senate election, students will be voting on Referendum 1, which would allocate $20,000 to TuftsLife to lease and operate an SMS short code, TUFTS (88387), for 12 months.
The Obama administration's China policy came under scrutiny again — this time over Taiwan.
In May 1971, upwards of 17 years into the Second Indochina War and not long before the Watergate scandal brought down Richard Nixon, a photograph of South Vietnam's vice president appeared on the cover of Ramparts Magazine. Next to him were the words: "Marshal Ky: Biggest Pusher in the World?"
Raise your hand if you know how Tufts Mock Trial performed last year. Seriously, go ahead, put your hand up; the dining hall is too crowded for anyone to notice.
For the second time in two years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is threatening to close its Tufts branch.
Clear the mechanism," says a weary Billy Chapel for the last time in his illustrious 19−year career. Suddenly, he no longer hears the grinding of the D Train that rumbles through the Bronx, nor the thundering echoes of the 56,000 New Yorkers that populated Yankee Stadium on that historic September night. Chapel was chasing perfection. For the final time, the tall, slender 40−year−old grips the fastball that had brought him within reach of baseball's most prized pinnacle. He records the final out of the game and for the first time in its history, the Cathedral in the Bronx falls silent.
For incoming freshmen, Fall Ball is a Tufts rite of passage. The event has the potential to be a blast, but there's just one problem: actually getting into the venue.
A curious thing happened while I was ordering a book for my Classics class, "Latin, Greek, and Arabic." When I order books online, I tend to look at the reviews. This particular book, "Greek Thought, Arabic Culture," focuses on the medieval period when Islamic Arabs in Baghdad translated countless books on science and technology from the ancient Greeks; this knowledge then spread to medieval Europe, which sparked the Renaissance. The book, however, received some extremely negative reviews not because it had been written poorly or inaccurately, but because the author had made some controversial comments at the outset of the Iraq War several years ago. In fact, it is important to note that the two worst reviews of this book were written in 2004, a time when anti−Islamic emotions reached a pinnacle.
The beginning of the new school year means that those of you in the Class of 2015 must begin to think about not only what you want to be, but also who you want to be. For our returning students, it provides an opportunity to reflect on your previous years and to make adjustments both in your coursework and also in your decisions about your life in the community. For most of you, this is a fine−tuning process; pushing yourself to pursue something you have wanted to try and maybe finding the willpower to avoid something that has caused you concern. For new students, this is inevitably a time for experimentation. This was the first big social weekend of the year. It seems to me that the experimentation didn't go so well for too many new students, and that there are some things for all of us to reflect upon.