Genuine at the Gifford House

The mailing to announce the annual rite-of-passage senior dinner arrived in my mailbox without much pomp or circumstance. Although I was appreciative of the obvious step-up from electronic mail to real mail, I certainly was disenchanted to see the exact same letter addressed to myself and my three other senior housemates. "Yeah, this is nice," I thought, "but just another cheesy Tufts event where they'll announce in some circuitous fashion that they want my money."

But even to this sardonic college student, this event had a bright spot in my mind. "Sure -- they just want my money... but it could be fun." I immediately got to e-mailing some fellow seniors to plan on going together so we could make a night of it. I wanted to go with a few buddies so that it would be a guaranteed fun time no matter how cheesy the night might be just because we'd be together.

As the days grew closer to the event, there was a moderate buzz among seniors, and unsurprisingly, the typical college mix of skepticism and excitement continued right up to the dinner. I was scheduled to attend the dinner on Wednesday: my only available night. This sadly conflicted with the great theatrical and intellectual experience that is Professor Lee Edelman's Postmodernism and Film -- I was truly disappointed that I would be missing our first and much-awaited discussion of 'The Matrix.' Regardless, going into Wednesday I was confident that I had made the right decision: the dinner would worth it.

A fellow senior informed me only an hour before that the dinner wouldn't be worth my while. I was told how fake the whole thing would be, how President Bacow would awkwardly greet each Senior by shaking hands while attempting to smoothly read their nametag and greet them personally, and how alumni would give speeches about wanting our money. I wasn't surprised but I remained certain that my friends and I would make the most of it.

Contrary to earlier opinion, I'm pleased to say that the senior dinner was in fact well worth my time and turned out to be a significant and memorable experience. In fact, I believe that the whole event neatly encapsulates so many things about college life, our attitudes and our mindsets.

The truth about the senior dinner was that it was a genuinely nice night during which the President of our university and his wife entertained one hundred seniors in their home.

It is true that we were greeted personally by the President. We did hear speeches by alumni. But these transactions were far from underhanded attempts to get future alumni donations from the class of 2004. These transactions were sincere efforts to create a warm environment for socializing, for sharing memories, and talking about the future.

On a personal level, many of my friends and I found our best experiences at Tufts through playing Ultimate Frisbee together, and President Bacow has always been an enthusiastic supporter of our team. He has attended many of our games, has been first to congratulate us in victory, and always makes an effort to check up on the team. So we thought that it would be a nice gesture to have all of the seniors on the team sign a Frisbee and present it to him as a token of appreciation.

In light of the skeptical and sarcastic attitude of so many college students, plenty of people thought this was a strange move. But one person certainly thought it was a nice move: President Bacow. He was sincerely thankful for the token of our appreciation and shook our hands each once more with a spark of personal connection.

This personal part of the evening was just a speck of the complete experience. I enjoyed catching up with other seniors in a new environment, grabbing a better-than-par (and free) buffet dinner, and letting the advice of doting alumni sink in.

For us, as such a privileged group of students, to look at an event like the senior dinner with a critical attitude is simply a shame. To think that President Bacow is some manipulative figure who gains anything by greeting us personally is ludicrous. And to think that the alumni came for our money is just not true. Each of these players came to make us aware of the indelible mark that Tufts has left on us.

The spectrum of attitudes expressed about the senior dinner shows the different ways that we can all perceive identical events. It's easy to be so "college" and call this kind of thing "lame." But I've got a newsflash: it's a pretty sweet deal to hang out in a nice house with 100 friends and eat a gourmet dinner. This is far from lame. What will sadly be lame is a year from now when 5000 stimulating, unique, and young people are not around us anymore. We'll be aching for a repeat of senior dinner. So have fun with it for now... While you can.