On Oct. 13, a Jumbo Beat blog post called “The Perks of Dating a Foreign Student” was published. It has since been removed due to its offensive content.
This piece exoticized whole portions of Tufts' student body. It was blatantly exclusionary in the audience it sought to address -- namely, domestic students with U.S. citizenship. It cast international students as curiosities and learning opportunities for the audience in question rather than as full members of the Tufts community. It used the experience of living in the U.S. as an undocumented person as a punchline. In short, it was wholly unacceptable, and there is no excuse for its having appeared on anything that bears the name of a publication that strives to respectfully represent and inform everyone who studies, works and lives on Tufts' campuses.
I deeply regret that this piece was ever able to see the light of day, and I sincerely apologize to everyone at Tufts -- but especially international students and undocumented students -- for its publication.
Jumbo Beat is the official blog of the Tufts Daily. As such, the Daily’s Editorial Board is as responsible for its content as we are for the content that appears in our print papers and on our main website. Unfortunately, as a relatively recent addition to the Daily, Jumbo Beat has never been properly assimilated into our editorial workflow. This has allowed posts to be published without being subject to the highest level of editorial supervision under which all of our other articles fall -- that is, my own supervision and editing or that of the Managing Board.
I am embarrassed that I’ve allowed this egregious structural flaw to persist in spite of the obvious problems it poses to the integrity and consistency of the Daily. No new content will appear on Jumbo Beat until it is resolved.
I encourage you to contact me with your questions, concerns and anger at thetuftsdaily@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Joe Palandrani
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