Opinion

Guest

Op-ed: Hatikvah, The Hope

By Tufts Friends of Israel | October 16

For the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, the families of the hostages can finally breathe again. After nearly two years of waiting, praying and fighting for their return, all of the living hostages are back in the embrace of their loved ones. As members of Tufts Friends of Israel, we are deeply relieved and grateful to witness these reunions. No community — on campus or elsewhere — should overlook the suffering these families have endured and the human lives at the center of this tragedy.

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Viewpoint

Everyone watches women’s basketball, even men who belittle it

By Olivia Zambrano | October 16

In 1996, after much struggle to prove that women’s sports are a viable business model, the NBA Board of Governors approved the concept of a women’s-only league. On June 21, 1997, the WNBA officially began competition. On Saturday, the WNBA capped its 29th season with the Las Vegas Aces crowned the 2025 season champions. Initially a league of only eight teams, the WNBA now boasts 13 active teams and recently announced expansion efforts to five new cities to accommodate the immense surge in viewership and attendance in recent years. In 2024, the WNBA set an all-time viewership record — its most-watched season in 21 years. Online viewership wasn’t the only statistic that improved during the 2024 season — in-person attendance also skyrocketed, shooting up 48% from the 2023 season and marking the highest total attendance in 22 years. All 12 teams saw an increase in home game attendance, with the Indiana Fever leading the pack with a 319% increase. Recently, WNBA officials announced that the league has already broken its single-season attendance record for 2025.

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Column

The Bigger Picture: Let Maggie Cheung tell you about wealth and identity

By Linda Huang | October 16

On my flight back to Boston from Hong Kong, I watched “Comrades: Almost a Love Story” (1996), a Hong Kong film directed by Peter Chan and starring Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung — the perfect ending to my summer. The bittersweet emotions this romantic melodrama evoked quickly earned it a place at the top of my list of Hong Kong classics, despite its poorly translated English title. The original Chinese name, “Tian Mi Mi,” literally means “Sweet Honey,” a far better description of the film’s tender yet heartbreaking tone.

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Guest

Op-ed: Apply for the Eurasian House!

By Marina Aptekman and Sadie Roraback-Meagher | October 15

Since at least the ’60s, theRussian, Slavic and Central Asian house, formerly known as the Russian House, has served as an essential cultural hub for Tufts students.

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Guest

Op-ed: More classes should engage with nature

By Sada Schumann | October 15

A lot of my classes are, quite frankly, hard to get through. While sometimes it’s because I am not interested in the subject or because the lecturer has a voice that lulls me to sleep, it’s often the quality of the classroom itself that determines how much I like each class. Many of my classes have taken place in small, dark basements, and, of those, only a few have windows. As I sit there, minutes start to feel like hours and I cannot wait until the clock changes to finally go home.

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Viewpoint

The MBTA must crack down on fare evasion

By Keshav Srikant | October 14

In September, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, responsible for Boston’s public transit network, announced they would be cracking down on fare evasion — the practice of traveling on public transit without paying. This move comes after the MBTA has already lost tens of millions of dollars from unpaid fares. According to a 2021 MBTA analysis, the system lost between $5 million and $6 million in annual revenue from unpaid fares on subways, trolleys and buses. Including the commuter rail, the MBTA lost an additional $10–20 million each year. When an NBC investigative team scoped out several Green Line stations near Boston University, they found that almost every passenger boarded the train without paying.

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Viewpoint

Zohran Mamdani and the power of leftist policies

By Monica Reilly | October 10

Ever since President Donald Trump was voted into office in 2016 — and arguably even before that — Democrats have scrambled to regain their voter base. We saw these efforts succeed in former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election but then falter in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss. In the midst of defeats among Democrats that followed, a politician by the name of Zohran Mamdani drew sudden attention.

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Viewpoint

Let us not take inspiration from comrade Mamdani

By Evan Wang | October 10

As the New York City mayoral race enters its final stretch, it is looking increasingly likely that, without anything drastic happening, Zohran Mamdani will be crowned the eventual winner — and a lot of progressives are excited. Mamdani, relatively new to the political scene, is expected to shake up the Democratic scene with his youthful support base and socialist policies. While this might win him the election in overwhelmingly leftist NYC, it should not serve as a blueprint for Democrats across the nation as they try to win back Congress this midterm season. 

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Viewpoint

To be human is to be chimpanzee: The legacy of Jane Goodall

By Kaashvi Ahuja | October 10

I remember little from my early years in central London, though the city still feels like an echo of home. I was 4 years old when we left, and my childhood memories exist mostly as fragments: my favorite park, the hum of traffic and a toy monkey. This monkey was about the size of a small bag of potatoes, poorly stuffed with uneven stitching, and it was my favorite thing in the entire world. I would sleep with it; I would eat with it. I was devoted to this humble lump of fabric and, as far as I was concerned, it was under my protection. We all remember our childhood object of affection, fiercely defended with disproportionate love. To protect something fragile simply because it cannot protect itself — this is, in retrospect, our first expression of selflessness and empathy, an instinct we too often unlearn as we grow and mistake detachment for maturity.

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Column

Through Indigenous Eyes: Tribe-run tourism

By Sorsha Khitikian | October 10

After spending our first night with a family member in Las Vegas, my mom and I hit the first destination on our road trip: the Grand Canyon. A bucket-list item for both of us, we decided to make the most of the drive. Along the way we stopped at cool sites such as the Glen Canyon Dam and Wahweap (where I even got to touch the Colorado River!). But by far the standout of these stops was Upper Antelope Canyon.

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Editorial

Editorial: The Daily’s guide to spectacular sips

By The Editorial Board | October 9

The last day of Starbucks’ operation in the Joyce Cummings Center was marked by confusion and disappointment, as the closure was announced with only two days’ notice. The grab-and-go, pick-up only cafe not only provided fast drinks and bites to students and faculty going in and out of one of Tufts’s busiest buildings, but it was also a place for socialization, studying, networking and conversations over coffee and sweet treats. Starbucks was also a convenient place for the numerous guests coming in and out of the JCC while touring Tufts and a hot spot for families that visited. The grief from much of the student body is justified: Tufts lost a popular multipurpose cafe that served a wide range of audiences.

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Viewpoint

Cat-didates or candidates? What a cat election tells us about the state of politics

By Jachin Lam | October 9

On Sept. 16, a new, special mayor was announced in Somerville: one who emerged from a tight, grueling race over the summer, in a campaign that had residents sitting on the edge of their seats. Oh, and the preliminary elections for Somerville mayor happened too.

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Column

Forgotten Fronts: USAID cuts will kill millions in Sudan and leave America destitute on the world stage

By Alexander Degterev | October 7

President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development was never just a budgetary decision; It was a political declaration that welfare abroad be damned — ushering in a new era of direct and in-your-face U.S. intervention. 

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Viewpoint

Reap the entrepreneurial benefits that Boston has to offer

By Linda Huang | October 7

On Sept. 19, I attended the Cross University Student Innovators Mixer at Tufts, hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center, right after 2025 Startup Boston Week. While Elaine Chen, director of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center, kindly told me that I, too, am an “innovator” despite never having started a business myself, I knew I was part of the majority of Tufts students who have never seriously considered launching a startup at this stage in life. To put it bluntly: There are far fewer startups coming out of Tufts compared to many other universities, and I’m one of the reasons why there isn’t one more.

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Editorial

Editorial: Defending free media starts with sustaining local news

By The Editorial Board | October 2

On July 24, President Donald Trump’s Rescissions Act was signed into law, stripping over $1 billion in allocated funding from NPR and PBS and marking a dark day for public broadcasting. From providing educational programming like “Sesame Street” to delivering breaking news, public broadcasting has long served as an integral part of American life across all divides and is a vital resource to staying informed.

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Guest

Op-ed: A crash course in seasonal work

By Soeren Euvrard | October 2

I stood outside a hangar at the Anchorage airport, facing the morning sun, one week after finishing my first year at Tufts. If I had turned around and flown home at that moment, no one would have faulted me — and my heart might have stopped trying to leap out of my throat. The last thing on my mind was school. Gone was the friendliness of my dorm, but gone too was the pressure and low self-esteem that had dragged and dragged on me all year. I blinked hard, walked inside and thus began my journey through seasonal work.

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Viewpoint

Consider eating less meat this fall

By Keshav Srikant | October 1

As a new semester at Tufts begins, food is everywhere — at dining halls, social bonding events, late-night study sessions and parties. It is ubiquitous, a triviality many of us neglect to consider, yet essential for survival — and for most Americans, food is also synonymous with meat. 89% of Americans include meat as part of their regular diet, while only 4% of Americans identify as vegetarian and a minuscule 1% as vegans. However, as we enter the fall, I would like to respectfully urge those who enjoy meat to consider eating just a little less of it this semester, or at least consider the notion before rejecting it immediately. 

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Column

The Bigger Picture: How I see the world through the camera

By Linda Huang | September 30

Most people who have read my viewpoints probably know by now that I am an enthusiastic opinion-haver on political and socioeconomic issues (check out my previous column “Coffee Table Socioeconomics!”). What they might not know, however, is that I’m also an avid movie-watcher and amateur reviewer. Combine these interests, and this column is born. 

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Viewpoint

Nice try, Tufts

By Liam Chalfonte | September 25

After over a year of debate over a neutrality policy, Tufts has adopted a position of “institutional pluralism,” involving a plot in which the word “neutrality” has been swapped out for “pluralism,” to make it seem like Tufts is actually doing something productive. Spoiler alert: they’re not.

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Column

Through Indigenous Eyes: A great (Native) American road trip

By Sorsha Khitikian | September 25

Hello! Welcome back to another semester of “Through Indigenous Eyes.” I realized that I never introduced myself last semester: My name is Sorsha Khitikian, and I am a junior at Tufts. I am Yurok, a tribe on the Klamath River in Northern California, but I grew up away from my tribe’s reservation, making me an ‘urban Indian.’

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