Tufts University - Jumbo Yearbook (Medford, MA)

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ABOVE: Besides being a place for students to shop, the bookstore also serves as a spot for parents to pick up some Tufts souvenirs or just something to drink when they ' re visiting the school. RIGHT: The main thing one thinks of when the bookstore is mentioned is textbooks. Here a stu¬ dent uses two arms to hol d the many books she needs for the first semester ' s courses. Bookstore: New And The campus bookstore, operated now for the second year by Barnes and Noble, underwent a number of improvements during the year. Students were not faced, as were those last year, with re¬ turning to school to find a partially re¬ modeled (and therefore partially unfin¬ ished) building at which to buy books. This time they found an establishment somewhat fine-tuned after a year of iron¬ ing out problems. The most apparent change was the ad¬ dition of the new anti-theft system. Faced with losses due to stolen text¬ books, Barnes and Noble installed the system hoping that in the long run it would more than pay for itself. Starting this year, books were magnetized so that a detector in the entrance could sense if someone tried to leave without paying. If one did pay, the clerk ran the books over a demagnetizer to stop the alarm from going off. On occasion, since the clerks weren ' t used to the system, they forgot to demagnetize the books, or at least did it improperly. The buyer then found himself in the embarrassing situa¬ tion of setting off the alarm despite the fact that he hadn ' t stolen anything. Of course, the management apologized after everything was straightened out. With time, though, clerks became more experienced at the system ' s use, and the number of false alarms fell off. While the new system slowed down the lines a bit, it should help cut the theft of textbooks, thereby holding down costs for everyone. Of course, the bookstore means more to Tufts students than just textbooks. It ' s also a place to buy paperbacks and magazines if you ' re looking for some¬ thing to read instead of doing your homework. In case you get hungry, it Improved sells snacks, and if you run out of tooth¬ paste, it ' s the place to go. It ' s probably also the only place in the world where you can buy a Tufts sweatshirt or mug so everyone will know where you go to school. In addition, it carries other useful items such as school supplies, posters, batteries in case your calculator goes dead, and tennis balls for those real emergencies. While the bookstore has a lot going for it, some problems remain. Students often complain of the ridiculously long lines to get to the cash registers at the beginning of the semester, and the in¬ flated prices they pay when they get there. While prices probably won ' t fall (you pay for convenience), judging from the bookstore ' s improvements in effi¬ ciency over last year, we may find the bookstore running even more smoothly next year. 24

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Exploring The Galaxies . . . You see them in the uphill dorms. You see them in Eaton Lounge. You see only the backs of their heads and their Levi ' s tags while they focus on video screens throughout campus. Electronic enter¬ tainment has give a whole new meaning to the old phrase of: Do you have four quarters for a dollar? In the over joy- sticked hands of the expert, those four quarters represent an entire evening ' s worth of scintillating adventures. How else can you: —travel faster than light to distant planets? —mercilessly attack and destroy radioac¬ tiv e ants? —munch out on cherries, strawberries, and oranges? —save a fair maiden from a deranged monkey? —fly a chopper through a meteor storm? —play leap-frog with a fuzz ball on a multi-colored pyramid? —engage in global thermo-nuclear war? All for only a quarter. What other form of academic procrastination do you know of that is so cheap? Experiencing a new dimension in Tufts education . . .

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I I All The Comforts Of Home . . . Some people are unconcerned with residential life at Tufts. They don ' t live here. About forty percent of Tufts students commute, as they live either in off-campus apartments or at home. To help them in their time here, Hillside House was created. This allows commut¬ ers to feel more a part of Tufts by giving them a place to rest, relax, and study. Hillside House has facilities for study¬ ing, cooking, recreation, and occasional overnight visits. It serves as a home base for students without dormitories. The commuting life offers many ad¬ vantages. Off-campus dwellers enjoy a more homelike atmosphere, and lighter expenses. If they stay at home, they don ' t have to leave the security it provides, and if they have their own apartments, it al¬ lows them to be more in control of their lives than those in dorms. Still, there are some drawbacks. Those people who tell you in September that they have an apartment close by might feel a bit dif¬ ferent when that ten minute walk to campus turns into a half hour trudge through six foot snow drifts in January. For those not fortunate enough to live within walking distance of campus, there are all the problems of driving to school. Get stuck in one traffic jam and you may not graduate when you had planned to. There ' s nothing like sitting in a car on route 128 knowing that some¬ where a few miles away your psych final is being given, but not to you. If they do manage to make it to cam¬ pus, there remains the problem all of us with cars face, parking. Sometimes it can seem your parking space is just as far from where you ' re going as your apart¬ ment. Concerned with the problem this year, the Administration decided to take action. Apparently they didn ' t think it enough that we work all summer to pay for our cars; they wanted a bigger part of the action. Seeing an opportunity to get some funds, they sent out letters over the summer announcing that the parking fee would be quintupled, to $50, to be raised over five years to an unbelievable $100. This increase was supposedly to be used to pay for new parking facilities. Of course, those of us who pay to park now would never see any of these improve¬ ments. Luckily for us, the faculty spoke up. Apparently, they are just as concerned with money as we are. As a result, the parking fee was rolled back to $10, for at least another year. There is no telling what the future holds, though, and someday we may find that our dorm room is cheaper than our parking space. ABOVE: This is a common sight for commuters on their way to Tufts. Notice there are always fewer cars going in the opposite direction. FAR LEFT: A new subway station was opened in Harvard Square this year, making it a bit more pleasant for the few commuters who get to Tufts via the subway and 96 bus. LEFT: Parking was a particularly bad problem at the beginning of the year when people were mov¬ ing in. This Latin Way resident solved the problem of finding a space close to the building by pulling up onto the walkway. 25