Tufts University - Jumbo Yearbook (Medford, MA)

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HOLLOW PILLARS: How Solid Is Our Fou Between East and Packard Hall lies a noticeably unnoticed stone. Inscribed on its face are a few lines by former Tufts professor and poet John Holmes. They read: “This is this world, the kingdom I was looking for.” As we pass from the world of Tufts, we must all decide if this has truly been the kingdom we searched for. Education can be viewed as a mountaintop, that allows one to reflect upon the past, to better form the future. In assessing our years at Tufts, were we really on a mountaintop, or is the term “hill” an appropriate irony? Four years ago, we all had the good fortune to select a school with an excellent faculty. We also joined a student body which by anyone’s criteria was among the most outstanding in the country. We also came to a school with an identity crisis. We came to a school which struggles to compete with neighboring institutions on their terms, rather than max¬ imizing its own unique strengths. We came to a university so ambitiously driven toward staying afloat in the big pond, that it feels justified in allowing the undergraduate college to sink. Rather than employing its small school intimacy as a foundation for the future, the Mayer Administration has let the undergraduate become crushed by the new big school mentality. For years the Tufts graduating class has marched under Bowen Gate, proceeded through the pillars of Ballou Hall and taken their seats proudly. This year the tradition has fallen victim to the busy pragmatism of ad¬ ministrative decisions. The powers that be in Ballou Hall would like to expedite the confering of degrees - so all seniors will forego the Bowen Gate tradition for a new processional meeting place. While Princeton graduates march past Nassau Hall with bells ringing and Annapolis cadets will toss their caps in traditional joy Tufts graduates will meet in the handsome parking lot behind the Bookstore. Another time-honored tradition is the commencement speaker’s address to the graduating class. We have no personal disrespect for this year’s chosen sp eaker. He will, as Jean Mayer said, “probably make a pretty good speech.” He is not, however, the speaker we wanted. The most insulting aspect of the selection procedure is that the graduating class is divorced from the decision making process. The choices in recent years have been very disappointing. Though we would welcome a distinguished speaker from virtually any field of expertise we deserve the courtesy of some meaningful input. Tufts has little to offer in the way of modern or impressive facilities; it must compensate for material shortcomings by treating the desires of its students with sensitivity and respect.

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Real Universities Don’t . . . — have an infirmary where students fear for their lives. — require reservations to find a seat in the dining halls. — have athletic fields that can double as glass recycling centers. — force their Drama department to stage productions in facilities which are known fire hazards. — have chemistry labs which are too dangerous to work in. — take five weeks to repair the Health Services steps. — close their switchboards at 6 p.m. — have busy signals before 6 p.m. — put cement poles in fire lanes. — let their buildings burn before renovating them. — go to a significant expense to change the name of Buildings and Grounds (or is it Grounds and Buildings?), while the intramural program can’t afford to buy new bases for softball. — limit their students to one piece of fruit at lunch. — have irresponsible and inaccurate weekly newspapers. — have campus radio stations which are infiltrated by non-students. — conduct national searches to replace a Dean led by the Acting Dean who eventually wins the search. — watch campus organizations settle their own disputes and then victimize both sides. — write letters home to Mommy about the alleged drinking problems of their supposedly adult children. — have a President who organizes a highly publicized Alcohol Awareness Seminar - and then can’t find the time to stay for the entire presentation. — send out fund raising brochures which omit a description of the Undergraduate College. — use their Arts and Sciences school budgets to finance graduate school expansion. — have hollow pillars in front of Administration buildings. — deserve hollow pillars in front of Administration buildings. REAL University? jects. We have also read about the financial windfall which Tufts will reap from its $31 million dollar fund drive. In the face of all of this, is it not understandable that students should be enraged over the university’s failure to construct a Campus Center, which would cost a mere fraction of these other projects? We realize that Tufts has financial problems, but only a handful of our criticisms concern issues which involve a significant expense. The others repres ent a less tangible problem — one of administrative attitude, an attitude which gives students the clear impres¬ sion that their concerns will be ignored. Although the Administration may sincere¬ ly be striving to improve the University as a whole, doing so at the expense of the undergraduate experience is irresponsible and inexcusable. If Tufts is ever to become a five star institution, it must rededicate itself to the bedrock of the University - its undergraduates. Until then, like the pillars of Ballou, Tufts will remain a hollow shell of what it yearns to be.

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DATION? One of the greatest attractions of a small school is the family-like at¬ mosphere that permeates campus life and academics. Students come to Tufts, rather than to an Ohio State or a Cornell, because of the accessibility of professors and administrators, and the compassion and caring that are said to be grounded in University policy. Tufts has forsaken many of these traits. While faculty members are accessible, school policy is too often estranged from the interaction between administration and undergraduates, that should characterize a small university. A small school that preaches peace and light should not make rules so inflexible that freshmen are thrown out of university housing for non-malicious forget¬ fulness. Such a school would not react to ignorant racism with non¬ productive and grossly hypocritical punishments. Can we be proud of our “’quaint little school” when it defiantly displaces Chinatown residents, in¬ vests in South African apartheid, accepts money from fascist dictators, holds fundraisers in an anti-semitic racist country club, and tells our parents that their 21 year old children have serious drinking problems? We are reacting to a sense of disappointment. We were attracted to Tufts by a sense of promise in 1978. A magic was in the air; it seemed that Tufts had the “right stuff to make our college years memorable and satisfying. But four years have hardened our vision of the university. The promise remains; the magic has been elusive. The Mayer administration has failed to respond to the needs of undergraduate students: the people whose tuition has been used to help finance graduate school expansion and inefficiency. The goal of building a strong university for the future does not justify shortchanging the students of the present. It is ironic that the pillars of Ballou Hall are hollow, for they are a symbol of the University’s failures. Real pillars are solid to the core and emanate strength and respectability. As casual observers four years ago we saw Tufts as a pillar of strength. But after four years of frustrations we realize that the university’s appearance is deceiving: The Class of 1982 has had a college experience tainted by Administrative oversights. The promise of John Holmes’ dream remains, but the light on the hill has begun to flicker. Don’t let another four years pass without demanding that the dream become reality.