To the Tufts community,
Whether you’re returning to campus or stepping foot on the hill for the first time, it’s my pleasure to welcome you home.
It’s traditional for the editor in chief of The Tufts Daily to introduce our paper and offer words of welcome and wisdom, but since you’re certain to hear plenty of advice during the first few weeks of the school year, I’ll keep this letter brief.
To the newest Jumbos, the Class of 2027, first and foremost: Congratulations! To get here, you navigated not just one of the toughest admissions cycles in history, but a high school experience dominated by COVID-19 to finally arrive at one of the top universities in the world.
Right about now, you’re probably feeling a mixture of excitement, anxiety and exhaustion. Who can blame you? Essentially overnight, you’re expected to find new friends, begin classes, join clubs and figure out how to use the Boston public transit system (you’ll get the hang of it eventually).
You may find yourself — as I did — grappling with the dismaying feeling that, somehow, everyone else has it all figured out: Fellow first-years have already found their life-long friends, classmates managed to score prime summer internships, high-school peers seem to be out partying every night, all while you’re feeling a sense of deep uncertainty about what comes next. But here's the truth: None of those people actually know what they're doing, either.
This is all to say, resist the urge to compare yourself — socially, academically and in all other ways — to anyone else. College is hard enough without wondering whether you're doing it right. You are — we all are. (And you aren’t — we all aren’t.)
And remember, you’re not the only one new to campus; our president is starting his first year on the hill, too!
To President Sunil Kumar, congratulations on your historic appointment. As you’ve surely experienced, Tufts is a community unlike any other; we Jumbos are inquisitive and infectiously kindhearted. When we work together as a herd, even the most formidable challenges are no match for us. We’re excited to have you with us, and we’re rooting for your success.
Finally, it’s a pleasure to introduce you all to the Daily, Tufts’ student-run, financially independent newspaper of record. Since 1980, we’ve been covering stories large and small from across Tufts’ four campuses, from breaking news to long-form features and even a video tour of the president’s house.
Over the years, we’ve made it our mission to adapt to suit the ways our community consumes news, introducing video and audio sections and expanding our presence on social media. In that spirit, I’m excited to share that the Daily has a new website. Many semesters in the making, it isn’t just prettier than the old version — it’s more functional, too, allowing us to deliver a higher caliber of journalism as we make multimedia more central to our reporting.
If you’re similarly passionate about storytelling, I encourage you to join the Daily. Anyone can get involved, regardless of experience, by sending us an email at daily@tuftsdaily.com, attending one of our general interest events or visiting our recruitment site, tuftsdaily.com/join-us. And if you’re looking for a platform to add your voice to the campus conversation, send an op-ed to our opinion editor at opinion@tuftsdaily.com.
While we strive to tell stories as accurately and fairly as possible, we sometimes make mistakes. If you read something in our paper you disagree with, or notice there’s an important story we aren’t covering, I invite you to send a letter to the editor or leave us an anonymous tip.
Finally, I hope you’ll follow along with our coverage this semester, in print on Thursdays and online Monday through Friday. While none of us at Tufts may know exactly what we’re doing or where we’re going, the Daily is always here to help the Tufts community figure it out.
On behalf of the Daily staff, welcome to Tufts.
Pax et lux,
Aaron Gruen
Editor in Chief, Fall 2023
