First, let me be honest. I'm not actually graduating in a few weeks; I still have two more years on the Hill. Nonetheless, the nostalgic and reflective mood of my friends in the senior class has pervaded our campus, and it is impossible to walk around without feeling it. It seems that everywhere we go - the library roof, the quad, the gym, Sagra (I know, I know, not on campus, but you get the point) - there are graduating seniors taking pictures and saying goodbye to each other.
In a few short days, the senior class will be sent out into the world: to graduate schools, jobs or volunteer opportunities. Wherever they go, they will take a piece of Tufts with them. My question is: what is this piece of Tufts that graduates, new and old, carry with them? What defines our Tufts identity?
This question is one that I've been struggling with for quite a while. In fact, since arriving at Tufts, I've had a hard time finding ways to define our community. With students coming from around the world, with a variety of backgrounds and experiences, it can often seem like there is little cohesion in our community. Tufts embraces this diversity, and provides a myriad of activities and opportunities to please those among us with even the most diverse interests. So, the question remains: Do we have a unified community?
This question continued to plague me and I decided, as any Tufts undergraduate would, that some research was in order. I thought about heading to Ginn, but realizing that I was already in a fragile state after finals, the thought of facing stares from the Fletcher students was too much to bear. So, again, like any good Tufts undergraduate, I logged on to Facebook.com.
Here, I thought, was where I could find what unites us as a community. First, because everyone is honest with the information they list on their Facebook profile. Second, because stalking people on Facebook was more appealing than running around campus asking strangers about their interests. The results were telling. Over 500 of us enjoy the show "Lost." Interestingly, over 500 people (not sure if there were some repeats) also enjoy the show "24." Seventy-two people list Food Network as one of their interests, while only 50 people list working out as one of their favorite activities.
We were getting somewhere; music was my next category. Two hundred and three people cited Dave Matthews Band as one of their musical inspirations. One hundred and ninety-nine pointed to Jay-Z. Much to the dismay of my mother, no one listed Barbra Streisand, though I once heard her voice drifting through the third floor of South Hall; if you were the one playing it, it's time to put Barbra as an interest on Facebook - you're messing with my research.
So, where did all my painstaking research leave me?
Nowhere. It seems that even in TV, music and activities, we are an incredibly diverse community. Frustrated, though not disheartened, I continued to creep on Facebook, but expanded my sample size.
Searching through profiles and pictures of friends at other schools, I found plenty of school spirit and communal identity. For example, looking at photos of my friends who attend the University of Pittsburgh, I saw thousands of students at Pittsburgh Panther basketball and football games. I felt as though I had hit a goldmine. This was their school identity, something for the entire student population to rally around. The only task left was to replicate this at Tufts.
It was while I was writing my carefully worded e-mail to President Bacow, extolling the virtues of a new 10,000-seat basketball arena and a 60,000-seat football stadium, that I had the opportunity to sit down with my good friend and former TCU President, Mitch Robinson.
Talking to Mitch, I began to explain how I had figured out a huge problem at Tufts: a lack of community identity. I then proceeded to tell him that by creating something we could all rally around, we could create a strong Tufts. Mitch, the elder statesmen, delicately told me that yes, we do lack a strong community identity at Tufts, but we already have the tool we need to build a strong community - each other.
As is often the case, I did not fully understand what Mitch was talking about until a few days after our conversation. As I began to look around our community, I realized that Mitch was right. Our biggest strength and unifier is each other.
Other schools use sports teams, reputations or traditions to unite their student body. Tufts has all three of these things: exciting athletics, a reputation for preparing tomorrow's world leaders, and myriad traditions (NQR, painting the cannon, etc). Our strengths do not end there.
As I thought about all of the Facebook stalking that I had done over the past few days, I began to realize that our strength lies in the diversity that exists on our Hill. It's not something that is easily quantifiable or that can be easily advertised in an admissions packet, but it is something that helps to define our campus.
Certain types of diversity are quantifiable. For example, we have a general idea of how many racial backgrounds are represented at Tufts. But the diversity I'm talking about extends way beyond racial diversity. At Tufts, we have students and faculty representing countless ethnicities and religions. There is diversity of thought and diversity in our experiences before we reached Tufts. We certainly have socioeconomic diversity as well as geographic diversity. Educational backgrounds and political views differ depending on whom you talk to. This is just a taste of all that exists on our campus.
It is entirely possible that in your economics lecture, the kid sitting to your left was born in Dubai, but attended high school in London where he lived with his Christian mother and Muslim father. He now spends his time doing biomedical research at Tufts New England Medical Center and has just returned from a Tufts-led medical relief trip to Nicaragua. The girl on your right was born in rural Indiana, the daughter of farmers trying to get by with the recent decline in farm aid. Her first time out of the country was when she studied abroad in Florence, but, exhilarated by the experience, she plans to attend graduate school in Hong Kong.
Both of these people have amazing stories to share and both add much to our community. That is the true identity of Tufts, a school where every person brings something new and interesting with them, whether they know it or not. My na'vet?© was thinking that we needed to create a Tufts identity. We already have one. Our job now is to make sure that these experiences are shared across our community.
To the graduating seniors, I want to say good luck in all of your future endeavors. I also want to thank you. Each person who leaves this place, as I learned from my research, leaves it a little different than it was when he or she came as a freshman. You have given this community a lot; whether in the stories you shared, the ideas you defended or the actions you performed. You are also leaving this place, I hope, a person more informed about the world around you - not just because of the classes you have taken, but because of the people you have met along the way.
To those of us who will be here in the years to come, we have our work cut out for us. A stronger Tufts identity will not be created overnight, but the foundation has already been laid. It is our job to continue to get to know the people around us; not just their name, but also their story. These interactions will happen everywhere, at Fall Ball and Winter Bash, in Fletcher and Ginn, at Sagra and Powderhouse, in Pearson 104 and the the Chem Lab; the important thing is that they happen.
Then, on the day that we too leave the Hill, we will be able to look back and say that our community is as strong as it is diverse.
Neil DiBiase is a sophomore majoring in history and the incoming TCU president.
