Viewpoint
Trigger warning: Andrew Tate
By Idil Kolabas | September 22Content warning: This article mentions rape, racism and homophobia.
Opinion | Viewpoint
Viewpoint
Yes, it’s still happening: Refocusing on the war in Ukraine
By Henry Murray | September 20In early 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Though Russia was certain of a swift victory over their neighbor, Ukraine has proved resilient over the last seven months. Reports on the war have been somewhat inconsistent, hampered by Russian authorities’ efforts to restrict the flow of information, at times explicitly targeting journalists.
Viewpoint
The End of the World Has Just Begun: Sri Lanka and supply chains
By Daniel Chung | September 16A recent case study that signals the breakdown of the globalized system is the crisis in Sri Lanka. To those who observe from the sidelines, it seems that the crisis flared up on July 9, when demonstrators stormed the presidential palace. This sequence of events forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee to the Maldives and eventually step down from his position, handing it over to Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran of the political scene.
Viewpoint
Op-ed guidelines from the editor
By Reya Kumar | September 14To our readers and contributors in the Tufts community,
Viewpoint
A new school year, a new global health emergency
By Idil Kolabas | September 6Watching the news has been difficult this summer, from conflicts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to the horror of American politics, where a Supreme Court decision stripped the American people of their right to make choices about their own bodies. On top of these regular violations of human rights across the globe, we are also still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic while fearing the next global health emergency: monkeypox. Data displays how far from over the COVID-19 pandemic is, especially for the United States, as the U.S. remains in the top five countries for new COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Viewpoint
From the classroom to the hospital and back again
By Ethan Jaskowiak | May 22I can’t remember when I had my first seizure, but it must’ve been at least eight years ago. I’m sure it happened like most of them — a few seconds of confusion, a sprinkle of vision loss, shaking arms and that signature, distant look my friends have since come to recognize. It started as a curiosity, something to be experimented with, often by standing up suddenly to see if I could trigger one, whatever they were. It was easy to dismiss them in high school as a strange quirk springing to life a dozen times a year: odd, but nothing to worry about. The arrogance of a young man was enough to protect me, I was sure of it.
Viewpoint
The Class of 2021 deserves closure and celebration
By Reya Kumar | May 21This May, Tufts is holding an in-person ceremony celebrating the deserving students of the Class of 2022. We are also celebrating the students of the Class of 2020, whose college experience was unceremoniously cut short by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is undeniable that these students missed out on the communal rituals that signal the end of an undergraduate education, it is also important to acknowledge the similar experience of the Class of 2021.
Viewpoint
COVID-19 compromise: The city of Philadelphia versus its residents
By Henry Murray | April 29This week, a group of Philadelphia business owners and residents filed a lawsuit against the city for reinstating a mask mandate. The plaintiffs fear the repercussions of a mask mandate for businesses and feel that the mandate is invalid considering the current advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city’s lack of authority on the decision. The plaintiffs’ complaints are valid; mask mandates can hurt local business and the city is going against the decision of the state. The city’s response, however, is valid as well. When the suit was filed, Philadelphia’s case count had increased by more than 50% in the previous 10 days. Earlier this year when the omicron variant became the dominant strain in the U.S., an increase in death rates followed a few weeks later, with tolls surpassing those of the more deadly delta variant. Though we do not know how deadly the new omicron subvariant will be, the increased transmissibility of omicron variants means it still poses a significant threat to public health. In order to look after those that are immunocompromised and also respect the livelihoods of the people of Philadelphia, a compromise must be made between these two arguments.
Viewpoint
The attack on reproductive rights continues
By Reya Kumar | April 25Roe v. Wade,the landmark Supreme Court case that has served as the primary protection for abortion rights since the 1970s, will likely be overturned this summer. Oral arguments were heard last December for the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which asks the Supreme Court to re-evaluate Roe v. Wade. With the current 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, a decision to overturn — or, at the very least, limit — Roe is expected.
Viewpoint
France marches on!
By Makram Bekdache | April 20The first round of the French presidential elections came straight from a textbook. Held on April 10, the elections sent current President Emmanuel Macron, head of the centrist political party La République En Marche! (“The Republic On The Move” in English), to the second round with an admirable 27.85% of the vote.
Viewpoint
The Class of 2026: More selective and diverse than ever
By Henry Murray and Reya Kumar | April 15Two weeks ago, Tufts released information about the admitted students of Class of 2026. The selectivity and demographic diversity of the admitted students pool offers vital insight to Tufts’ future.
Viewpoint
The Point of No Return: Why the Amazon should be a priority
By Henry Murray | March 17The destruction of the Amazon rainforest has been profound and consistent over the last several decades, but in the last few years it has drastically accelerated and is nearing a critical point. As we have seen little progress from conservation efforts, our only hope has been that the rainforest can rebound on its own, but research is showing that this will not always be the case. The damage to the Amazon is making it more susceptible to and less equipped to recover from environmentally damaging events and activities like droughts, logging and fires. The changes to the rainforest are becoming irreversible.
Viewpoint
Double standards in international responses to the war in Ukraine
By Reya Kumar | March 15Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, international attention has been focused on the war. This full-scale invasion is a drastic escalation in a long-running conflict. In 2014, the Maidan protests against the Ukrainian government's decision to back out of an association agreement with the EU prompted pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to flee. Taking advantage of the situation, Putin’s Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in Southern Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists in the southeastern Ukrainian region known as Donbas.
Viewpoint
The judge in shining armor: Ketanji Brown Jackson
By Kristin Shiuey | March 10The United States Supreme Court consists of nine justices, and currently, six of these judges hold conservative views. This ratio has sparked intense discussion around the country because of Roe v. Wade: a historic case by the Supreme Court that protects a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion without government restrictions. With a majority conservative court, many predict that Roe v. Wadewill likely be overturned as states like Texas took to state courts to ban abortions past six weeks, a frightening ruling considering that women, on average, find out they are pregnant between weeks five and six. This means that some women may not even know they are pregnant and by the time they do find out, it might be too late or too little of time to make such a life-changing decision. And President Biden understands the severity of the situation.
Viewpoint
‘Don’t Say Gay’: The rise in state anti-LGBTQ legislation
By Reya Kumar | March 9Content warning: This article mentions suicide.
Viewpoint
Putin goes rogue: Russia’s diplomatic terrorism is exposed
By Makram Bekdache | March 8Since the late 2000s, Russia has adopted a decidedly aggressive tone in its foreign policy. Eager to prevent NATO from expanding around his borders, Vladimir Putin used the relatively low-stakes annexation of Crimeato show the world he would not be afraid to pursue new strategic interests for his country. Back then, the West reacted in a lukewarm fashion. Sanctions only mildly hurt the Russian economy as they did not effectively target the specific industries or the oligarchs that funded Putin’s endeavors.
Viewpoint
Missed connections: The separation between graduate and undergraduate life at Tufts
By Chelsie Wei | March 8Walking in the streets of Tufts’ Medford campus, you may hear undergraduate students chattering about the latest IR midterm, frat party stories and housing lotteries. But have you run into any graduate students in your daily socials, club meetings and pickup sports? About 49% of the student population at Tufts consists of graduate students, with about 30% studying on Medford campus through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and the Fletcher School. However, the undergraduate population at Tufts rarely interacts with this significant portion of the campus community outside of class, whether it be in club meetings, at sporting events or at social gatherings. My peers and I often wondered what graduate students might be doing after their classes if not participating in the activities most undergrads associate with the traditional Tufts experience. There, instead, seems to exist an unrecognized problem brewing in the undercurrents among graduate student life — their lack of an on-campus presence in major academic organizations and culture clubs.
Viewpoint
A closer look at Tufts' COVID-19 trends
By Kristin Shiuey | March 3The Tufts COVID-19 Dashboard has become a site frequently visited by students. For many, guessing how many COVID-19 cases there are on campus in a given week is almost like a game. Two weeks ago, the dashboard displayed skyrocketing numbers that had students wondering whether we would be sent back home.
Viewpoint
Harvard lawsuit follows national trend of institutions' ignoring sexual harassment
By Vihaa Kapadia | March 2Three Harvard graduate students last month filed a criminal complaint against the prestigious Boston-area university, claiming it mishandled sexual misconduct accusations brought forth against the long-standing anthropology professor John Comaroff.
Viewpoint
The 'Eteri Girls' and the mistreatment of young athletes
By Reya Kumar | March 1Content warning: This article mentions eating disorders.
