Opinion

Opinion

Spring Fling debate focusing on wrong problem

February 24

With this year's Spring Fling on the horizon, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and the Alcohol Task Force are busy deliberating on one of the perpetual sources of concern surrounding Tufts' major events: how to regulate and moderate student alcohol use. Following last year's disaster of mass underage drinking and subsequent medical issues, a steering committee is seeking to make changes to the structure of the event in order to reduce such incidents and to increase Spring Fling's potential for being a fun, safe event.

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Opinion

Teddy Minch | Off Mic

February 23

Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., Glenn Beck declared that "it is still morning in America, it just happens to be kind of a head−pounding, vomit−for−four−hours morning in America." Beck echoed that same note throughout his speech and concluded his keynote CPAC remarks by reaffirming that "we know tomorrow it will again be morning in America."

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Opinion

Is God part of the problem or the solution?

February 23

On Wednesday night, Feb. 17, a talk moderated by David Coleman, the director of Tufts University's Third Day Gospel Choir, and featuring social historian Anne C. Bailey, aimed to answer the above question. I believe that the answer comes down to how we conceive religion, and it must focus on one concept — as the world of monotheistic theology agrees, God is love.

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Opinion

Healthy living switch handled poorly

February 23

After a record number of students showed interest in the Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) Healthy Living Program this year, the number of those who will actually be participating has fallen to new lows. Of the 122 students who applied, a 47 percent increase from last year, only 26 ultimately chose to take part. Many students have named ResLife's decision to house healthy living upperclassmen in Lewis Hall next year rather than Carmichael Hall as largely responsible for this discrepancy.

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Editorial

Unchecked editing of digital textbooks risky

February 22

This August, major publishing house Macmillan will introduce new software that allows individual professors to edit digital textbooks. With the software, called DynamicBooks, professors will be able to upload syllabi, notes, videos and related materials to the digital file, but they will also be able to edit specific paragraph content, equations and diagrams. The textbooks will be completely customizable, and Macmillan will not require that professors' changes and additions be approved by the publishers or the textbook authors.

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Opinion

The light on the Hill: A beacon for immigration and education

February 22

The future Class of 2014 is currently doing one of two things: either eagerly perusing the Tufts Class of 2014 group on Facebook.com or anxiously awaiting May 1 and filling out financial aid paperwork. We all went through the infuriating maze of fees, tests and supplementary essays that eventually landed us at Tufts. However, imagine this: Somewhere in the tangled process, you realize that you weren't actually born in the United States. Your parents brought you over as a child, and there is no independent method for undocumented children of immigrants to become citizens. Thus, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) papers in your hand are useless, and the prospect of a college education has disappeared.

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Opinion

Take notice! The time is ours!

February 22

Neil Young, after the Kent State shootings in 1970, penned the lyrics: "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming/ We're finally on our own/ This summer I hear the drumming/ Four dead in Ohio."

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Opinion

Tufts should lead the way in football safety

February 21

According to Malcolm Gladwell's Oct. 19, 2009 article in The New Yorker, "A football player's real issue isn't simply with repetitive concussive trauma. It is, as the concussion specialist Robert Cantu argues, with repetitive subconcussive trauma. It's not just the handful of big hits that matter. It's lots of little hits, too … In an average football season, a lineman could get struck in the head a thousand times, which means that a ten−year NFL veteran, when you bring in his college and high−school playing days, could well have been hit in the head eighteen thousand times."

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Editorial

Woods pays the price of fame

February 21

This past Friday, Tiger Woods joined the ranks of the many politicians and celebrities who have had to face the media with an official recognition of and apology for their personal transgressions. In his long−awaited press conference, Woods addressed his automobile accident on Thanksgiving night of 2009 and the reports of his infidelity that later emerged. While he expressed his deep apologies to his family, fans and those involved in his foundation, he also admonished the media for its intrusion into his private life and the lives of his family members.

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Editorial

Stimulus spending on the right track

February 17

Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. The President yesterday stated that the program so far has run smoothly and successfully. Obama acknowledged some of the shortcomings of the program, such as the current high rate of unemployment, stating that the stimulus plan has achieved much in a temporary sense and is an ongoing project.

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Opinion

Elisha Sum | Our Genderation

February 17

Tori Amos once sang, "and the man with the golden gun thinks he knows so much."

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Opinion

Women and EPIIC

February 16

In the early 1990s, the United Nations and the World Bank began to argue that the empowerment of women "may well be the highest−return investment available in the developing world." Because developing states are prone to rigid social hierarchies, women must contend with positions of inferiority and ineffectual powerlessness. With this in mind, it is supposed that nations with history of women in political power correlate with higher levels of gender equality, but this is an obvious generalization. In the context of South Asia, women have held the premier office of prime minister in four countries: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. However, all of these countries still lag far behind in the World Economic Forum Annual Index Report on Gender Inequality. This raises the point that change in society requires bottom−up strategies of development.

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Opinion

In support of the Schumer-Van Hollen Bill

February 16

The Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which holds that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts during elections cannot be limited, has generated a significant amount of controversy in political and media circles. Supporters consider the decision a victory for free speech, and the opposition, largely consisting of Democrats, considers it a misapplication of the First Amendment that will have disastrous consequences.

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Opinion

Letter to the Editor

February 16

Dear Editor,

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Opinion

Teddy Minch | Off Mic

February 16

In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Barack Obama declared that "jobs must be our number one focus in 2010" and called for the creation of a new jobs bill. Obama also called for a renewed sense of bipartisanship on the Hill. Both calls to action seemed to be, if not promising, then at least moving in a quasi−positive direction as of the middle of last week.

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Opinion

An argument for a traditional Winter Bash

February 10

This past Friday many of us experienced Break the Ice — the first Winter Bash to be held off campus. For all of you who weren't there, I'll try to convey the feel of the evening in one word: chaotic.

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Opinion

Elisha Sum | Our Genderation

February 10

Tori Amos once sang, "If the sharpest thing where you come is a blade of grass, take me with you."

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Editorial

A challenge to the tenure system

February 10

In a Feb. 4 interview with the Associated Press, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee revived a contentious debate in academia by calling for a reassessment of the tenure process at research universities. The country's highest-paid public university president and the head of the largest university in the nation, Gee acknowledged that while individual professors "should gain recognition at the university for writing the great American novel or for discovering the cure for cancer," the tenure review system as a whole is outdated. In putting forth his support for reform of the tenure system, Gee should be commended simply for his boldness in speaking out against a system in which he himself is deeply invested.

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Opinion

A policy with troubling implications

February 9

For those who have been following the U.S. government's War on Terror, or "Overseas Contingency Operation" as it is now called, it should be apparent that President Barack Obama has not thus far initiated the drastic changes that many of his supporters believed he would, based on promises he made during his campaign. For example, in his first year in office, Obama ordered more drone missile attacks in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region than former President George W. Bush ordered in his last three, and he added 30,000 more troops to the area. In addition, America has continued to abduct foreign suspects and transfer them to prisons in countries that allow torture without charging those suspects of any crime. The Daily understands that it is difficult to implement drastic changes rapidly, yet there are some instances in which it is unacceptable to leave former policies in place that completely contradict the declarations that Obama made during his campaign.

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Opinion

Letter to the Editor

February 9

Dear Editor:

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