Opinion | Column

Column

Rooted Reflections: Not all conservation is equal

By Justin Solis | October 3

In a previous Tufts Daily article, I advocated for summer jobs that are intrinsically linked to the local community and ecosystem. This was not merely out of a desire to create a generation of fishermen and farmers. In isolation, it is too easy to believe idealistic rhetoric that disregards practical solutions to tackling environmental issues. I believe that those emotionally removed from the land around them place undue value on preservation rather than conservation.

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Column

The Death of Education: In defense of the humanities

By Evan Wang | October 2

When I first began to apply to college, one seemingly easy question haunted me for many nights: What do you intend to major in? Even from a young age, I was drawn to the allure of history. From the tales of knights in shining armor to the details of gruesome diseases that ravaged the land hundreds of years before me, history was my passion. But when it came time to pick a major, I was hesitant.

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Column

Hey Wait Just One Second: Desire paths

By Max Turnacioglu | October 1

“Step outside but not to brawl,” Anthony Kiedis croons in my ear, and I oblige. The midnight wind is cold, not chilling, drifting across the Wren bridge. Light orange, brown leaves pepper the sidewalk, still soft underfoot — “Autumn’s sweet, we call it fall.” I wander in the general direction of Haskell Hall, dodging construction zones — “I’ll make it to the moon if I have to crawl” — with only a gentle glow to guide me. Past Fletcher, I round an arcing stretch of well-trodden grass, fading yellows drowned out by freshly exposed dirt, down the hill towards the Courts. I diverge from the pavement, freeing myself from its rigid hold as I follow in the footsteps of my peers. My path, imprinted in gentle footfalls, overlays hundreds and thousands of others before it, constructing a collective path of passion — otherwise known as a desire path.

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Column

Ukraine at War: Russia attacks hospitals in Ukraine

By Mariia Kudina | September 26

When I was leaving Boston this May to spend the summer break back home in Ukraine, I was certain that there would be opportunities for me to visit various Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Odesa. However, the Russian offensive severely intensified, making these trips far too dangerous. Even staying in Kyiv, which is typically considered a relatively safe city compared to other places in Ukraine due to its air defense systems, I experienced a few dire attacks.

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Column

The Death of Education: The final defeat of affirmative action

By Evan Wang | September 25

Ever since the Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, colleges and universities across the country have been scrambling to address the fallout of this decision. Major newspapers and non-profits decried the decision as disastrous for diversity and inclusion in America’s higher education system. Yet, after the release of admission data for the year 2024, it has become abundantly clear that the dismemberment of affirmative action has not proven to be damaging for diversity in most colleges and will allow Americans to put a divisive issue behind them. 

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Column

Hey Wait Just One Second: Dreams

By Max Turnacioglu | September 24

Every night I dream of Jumbo. The “Everything Dreams Book” tells me that these lurid, pachydermic visions portend “wealth, honor, and a steadfast character.” However, when I bring my good fortunes up in conversation, people seem to look at me strangely. Dreams are uniquely “intimate and decidedly singular,” yet we all inevitably succumb to them. They are an intensely personal experience but simultaneously universal, a form of a sleeping contradiction.

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Column

A Jumbo’s Journey: We are SO Back

By Ben Rachel | September 11

In short, we are SO back. Actually, we have never been more back than we are right now. As a newly christened sophomore, I can officially say that I am back. Whether you are like me and have one year under your belt and are still forced into a meal plan or you just had your last FDOC, we are BACK!! Freshies, you all have a lot to learn.Coming back to campus in late August was surreal. Driving through the Cummings intersection and around Professors Row was a wash of nostalgia. A four-month break from Dewick and overpriced coffee changed me as a person. At least for me, the summer was a refreshing, relaxing and grounding experience — a detox. It was so much so that toward the end of July, Tufts started to feel like a fever dream. All those parties, brutally boring lectures and quirky people seemed like a figment of my imagination. It seemed all too fanciful to be real.

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Column

GC in DC: Living through (and living up to) the burden of history

By Guillem Colom | September 9

To say that the past 100 days transformed the trajectory of American history would be a gross understatement.Our generation has experienced significant upheavals merely in the past few years: the desolation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing threats against elected officials and the rollback of legal precedents, ranging from abortion rights to long-standing environmental regulations.

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Column

The Policy Perspective: Reasons to hope

By Keshav Srikant | April 22

I’ve spent the last year writing columns about how U.S. public policy can be improved. From housing to public transportation to education to climate change, there are many areas where we can do better. For my last edition of this column, however, I wanted to write about beneficial public policies that have been passed and that are often missed or ignored in a media consumption environment with a strong negativity bias.

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The Casual Death of Education: The constant assault on education by the American Right

By Evan Wang | April 19

The American education system is in crisis: a shortage of teachers, post-pandemic declines in learning and lack of proper funding plagues an already battered education sector. Instead of helping to reform this crumbling system and helping America’s youth, political figures on both sides of the aisle seem more willing to engage in culture war nonsense. While the left isn’t innocent in any of this deadlock, the main failings when it comes to the politicization of education still belong to the right.

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Ukraine at War: Ukraine desperately needs more air defense systems

By Mariia Kudina | April 19

On Wednesday, Russian missiles killed at least 18 people in Chernihiv, a Ukrainian city located 60 miles from the border with Russia. Over 60 people were injured in the aftermath of the attack, which happened in the morning as people were rushing to work and school. The country’s capital, Kyiv, is considered to be relatively safe; despite the frequency of attacks, missiles are often intercepted with the Patriot missile defense system, lowering the number of casualties. Other Ukrainian cities, especially the ones closer to the Russian border like Chernihiv and Kharkiv, are under a higher threat of another tragedy due to the lack of advanced protection equipment.

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The Policy Perspective: Blue states are floundering

By Keshav Srikant | April 8

Clean energy is a core part of the Democratic Party’s platform. The 2020 Democratic Party platform calls for building a “globally competitive clean energy economy”[a]. Yet in 2024, the state with the most installed solar infrastructure is not New York or California, where Democrats dominate state government, but Texas, a Republican-controlled state[b]. This isdespite billions of dollars spent by California’s state government to invest in solar[c].

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The Casual Death of Education: The failures of American sex education

By Evan Wang | April 5

Public education isn’t all about math and reading. There are many other topics students need to experience and learn about to become healthy and functioning members of society. With discourse around sex education becoming increasingly common, we must understand what adequate and competent education concerning sex looks like for America’s youth. However, the state of sex education in our public education system is in shambles and the public must take notice and address the ever-expanding problem.

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From Classroom to Clinic: Massachusetts and mental health parity

By Deeksha Bathini | April 4

During my psychiatry rotation at Tufts Medical Center, I found myself in the emergency room, helping determine whether a patient should be involuntarily hospitalized. The task of committing someone against their will is riddled with ethical dilemmas. Throughout my medical education, the notion of patient autonomy stands paramount to any other ethical principle. But, in the ER, the tenet completely unravels.

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The Casual Death of Education: As students vanish, so does the future

By Evan Wang | March 29

When I was in middle school, I became seriously sick due to an asthma attack. While I recovered relatively well, I continued to use my sickness to persuade my parents to let me stay home which resulted in me missing weeks of school. While I felt great about not having to listen to my teachers or learn algebra, the results were predictable: I failed most of my classes during the last quarter of seventh grade. The ramifications of my actions continue to this day, as I struggle deeply with math because I skipped so many days of class back in seventh grade. My experience is not unique; chronic absenteeism, as this phenomenon is called, is a persistent problem for millions of American students.

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Ukraine at War: Remembering Ukrainian students killed by Russian aggression

By Mariia Kudina | March 28

The “Unissued Diplomas” exhibition is a collection of short stories about Ukrainian students who were killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine. To honor their memory, a series of digital postcards was created, detailing their majors, interests and the tragic stories of their deaths.

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Ukraine at War: Oscar-winning film shines a light on the darkest parts of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine

By Mariia Kudina | March 14

On March 7, the International Relations Program at Tufts hosted an intimate screening of the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol.” The film reveals a unique first-person perspective of the siege of a Ukrainian port city of almost 500,000 residents by the Russian army in the spring of 2022. Director Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko were the last remaining journalists who stayed in the area during the initial stages of the full-scale invasion and were thus able to capture the war crimes committed by the Russians in Ukraine.

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The Casual Death of Education: Publicly funded private schools

By Evan Wang | March 8

American politicians often lambast so-called shadow governments and praise the necessity of accountability in politics. Yet, what if I were to tell you that there is a parallel system in the U.S. primarily supported by the rich and powerful, with little transparency and actively funded by the U.S. ...

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From Classroom to Clinic: Is medicine a calling or a job? Why not both?

By Deeksha Bathini | March 6

This week, I attended a Grand Rounds lecture centered around Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum’s New England Journal of Medicine piece titled “On Calling — From Privileged Professionals to Cogs of Capitalism?” In this paper, Rosenbaum highlights the intergenerational shifts occurring in medical training wherein medical trainees are viewing medicine as a job rather than a calling.

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The Casual Death of Education: Lots of children left behind

By Evan Wang | March 1

Imagine that you are a kid in middle school, and you are struggling with algebra. You go in, take a midterm and score a C. Not bad, but also not great. To improve your next test score, you’re hoping to receive some extra attention from the teacher and maybe some out-of-class tutoring. Now imagine if none of those things happen. Instead, your school is closed, your teachers have been fired and you must move to another school. Unfortunately, this isn’t an imaginary situation, it is the reality being lived by millions of American students and teachers at this very moment.

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