A Question of Place
September 16, 2005
I remember, almost half a year ago now, when I first set foot upon the Tufts campus. I was a prospective student then, and naturally I scouted out the place for signs of personality, for that little extra something that would distinguish Tufts from the other colleges that had accepted me. While roaming through the tree-lined quad with my parents, nothing really stood out. Beautiful campus? Check. Nice residence halls? Check. Overly-eccentric tour guide? For sure. Tufts had it all, but so did everywhere else.
Then, fortunately for me, something wonderful happened: Class let out. I think I was somewhere between Ballou and Olin when the doors opened, thousands of students leaving their classrooms, tote bags in hand, in one massive exodus. And I loved what I saw. Everywhere the faces of international students stared back at me; foreigners chatted with Americans, students of different backgrounds and ethnicities mingled, exchanging political viewpoints or discussing last night’s OC episode. It was a lawn dotted with diversity, a perfectly-constructed microcosm of the world. And it was beautiful.
I thought, so this is Tufts. Forget the propaganda about academic excellence. Shove aside the statistics on selectivity. What makes Tufts Tufts is that it’s a truly international institution, a university dedicated to diversity and committed to global citizenship. Everything about this place rings true with this ideology, from its top ranking as a study abroad school to its world-renowned
International Relations program. It was seeing this diversity fi rst-hand that convinced me Tufts was the place to be.
But now, four months of vacation and two weeks of Jumbodum later, I’m having second thoughts about Tufts. It’s not that I have trouble with my roommate, or choosing classes, or swallowing the cafeteria food, or any other one of the usual college complaints that you hear about from upperclassmen and alumni. Those things have already, I’m certain, been thoroughly argued about, debated over, and beaten to death. Instead, I’m having second thoughts about our school’s internationalism, the very reason I enrolled here in the first place.
Reading through the various campus publications, I wonder, is Tufts too focused on global affairs? Are we, as a studentbody, so obsessed with geopolitics that we’re blind to the problems that exist right here on campus? Look closely: Dozens of eclectic campus newspapers, magazines, and journals find themselves in the hands of word-hungry Jumbos each week, yet only a handful actually have something to say about life at Tufts.
The Tufts Daily is a case in point. I don’t like bashing other publications, especially one as diligent and hardworking as the Daily, but I find it scary that the major source of campus news has only two pages of, well, campus news—followed by 20 pages of articles written by random journalists who, for all we know, think Tufts is an island off the coast of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the opinion sections ramble on about the recent trends in pop culture or the latest political coup in Washington—like I really need to hear another reason why Bush needs to die.
Reading through archives of the Observer, too, I am amazed at the number of columns about life abroad. Huh? Is life at Tufts so dull, so unexciting, that we’re forced to write about life in France and England instead? Tufts students might be outspoken and opinionated about International issues, but when it comes to the university itself, the only thing we give a damn about is whether the police have broken up the frat party yet. I think it’s high-time somebody writes a column about the most intriguing, the most provocative, and the most newsworthy place of all: Tufts. I will gladly lead the charge. If you also feel that news on campus shouldn’t be confi ned to Iraq, yesterday’s Red Sox game, and the newest spike in oil prices, then I encourage you to read along with me each week. I promise: No geopolitics, no analyzing the works of dead poets, no treatise on the fate of Major League Baseball. In true Observer fashion, everything I write will come directly from my observations of life at Tufts, with a drop of personal experience mixed in, and possibly a high school flashback or two. And let’s not forget the occasional foreboding glance to the future.
I came to Tufts because I believed it was an international institution, a selfcontained mini-universe all its own. But it turns out that Tufts is just what we call the place where we eat, get drunk, and be merry—while all the important stuff happens elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an isolationist, neo-conservative spy from the Primary Source. My intention is not to infl ame or instigate, but to enthuse and inspire—to inspire you to take a closer look at your life at Tufts, as I will be taking a closer look at mine, and all of ours. With this column, I want to prove that all the news, all the information, all the insight we’ll ever need is right here on campus, right in front of us, right now. If we would only open our eyes and see it.