Tufts University - Jumbo Yearbook (Medford, MA)

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4 $ . O 5 o CO .§ § I o o £ Off Campus Living Part of growing up with Tufts in¬ cludes the experience of off-campus living. As freshmen and sopho¬ mores, we were all required to live in dormitories or campus houses. But as Tufts does not guarantee housing to the junior class, many people choose, or are forced, to live in apartments in the surrounding neighborhoods of Somerville and Medford. Approximately one-third of the junior and senior classes ex¬ perience the off campus lifestyle. Off campus life includes the ini¬ tial battle of finding an apartment. Sophomores find themselves treck- ing up and down Boston Ave, Col¬ lege Ave, Bromfield Road, Sunset Street, Capen Street and Powder- house Boulevard knocking on doors in search of landlords who are will¬ ing to rent to students. The good apartments go quickly and many late starters find themselves ending up with a long, cold walk to campus. Once that apartment has been found, and the lease signed, you have to buy furniture. This is no easy task. Suddenly the rooms look incredibly large and barren. The couches and beds you get on a good deal never seem to fit through the doorway or any of the windows. Usually you end up with a house¬ hold of unmatched furmniture that parents and grandparents no longer want. You soon discover why; the legs of the coffee table break when your roommates sit on it. The televi¬ sion doesn’t get any sound and the picture stays clear only if someone holds the antenna as you watch. Stuffing falls out of your favorite chair every time someone sits down, and the rugs always clash with the couch and the chairs. Somehow you get used to it and after a while you don’t even notice the plaid couch next to the flowered drapes. The apartment itself is usually in a state of disrepair, and even if the landlord promises that he will take care of it, somehow things never seem to change. Thus you learn to live with a toilet that is constantly running, a heater that neither shuts off in the summer nor turns on in the winter, and a back door that doesn’t lock. And, although the landlord may neglect repairing things in the apartment, he never forgets when it is time to collect rent, even if you do. In addition to facing the payment of rent every month, there are other bills that never concerned us in the dormito¬ ries, such as gas, electricity, and oil. Furthermore, the companies that come to read the gas or electric me¬ ters, or to deliver oil every month somehow always manage to show up at ungodly hours early in the morn¬ ing (after a late night at the Pub). You are now responsible for taking your own trash to the curb once a week, and for remembering when there is a holiday iri a week to take the trash out one day later than usu¬ al so your neighbors (who are not students, and don’t appreciate you living so close anyway) do not ac¬ cuse you of littering the streets. Keeping the apartment clean is important to insuring that unpaying guests like mice and roaches do not decide to move in with you. They seem to have taken quite a liking to several off-campus student apart¬ ments. Precautionary measures in¬ clude sweeping the floor (and occa¬ sionally washing it), putting all food away, washing all pots, pans, and dishes, dusting, and vacuuming - all activities foreign to dormitory dwellers. It is a wonder how students living off-campus ever find time to study with all of these chores. Somehow you adapt and manage. Soon a great appreciation for the privacy and tranquility of apartment life that could never be found in dormitory develops and you can’t imagine yourself living anywhere else. In ad¬ dition, you have the facilities to cook for yourself (or, at least, you are no longer bound to the Tufts meal plan). Luckily, Espresso’s, An¬ drea’s and Somerville House of Piz¬ za all deliver to apartments too. You can even have your own parties (despite Tufts social policy) as long as the noise level does not bring complaints from unsympathetic neighbors and consequently the lo¬ cal police force. These challenges and responsibilities entertained by those students who experience off- campus living cannot be found in the classroom and are all part of growing up with Tufts. by Jessica Bussgang 24

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The Campus Center, Carmichael, Dewick, Hodgdon, MacPhie and Pound ... all choice dining! Daily dining at Tufts is full of choices. From deli sandwiches at Carmi¬ chael to make you own pizza at Hodgdon to “tunafish at every meal” (a la Jean Mayer), there is something around campus to please almost everyone. As freshmen, the chosen dining hall depended on the location of the 10:30 class or one’s dorm room. As sophomore year rolled around, we braved our way across the campus to suit our palates. Pizza, burgers, fries and ice cream were available on a daily basis at Hodgdon. The place for scoping and socializing was unanimously Carmichael, and MacPhie was definitely the place to do serious eating, and simultaneous¬ ly enjoying the music at the Pub. When we heared about Pound from upper-classmen, more than one of us tried to sneak our way in. Howev¬ er the carding policy there was even stricter than many of the local bars. Dinner was another story alto¬ gether. Dining choice was usually based on weather conditions. Rain, snow and sleet tended to keep uphill people up and downhill people down. But the (now extinct) option of Candlelight kept us happy even when tofu lasagne didn’t bring us running to the dining halls. The coming junior year brought about new rites of passage: lunch at Pound. Din ing with Fletcher stu¬ dents in a small room was not as great an attraction as was the real ice cream that you could scoop for yourself. Pound’s attraction lagged slightly when attended too often — the line often inched forward and seats were all but impossible to find at the 12:30 crunch. In the second half of junior year, a new dining ex¬ perience appeared to replace the sorely missed Curtis Hall, it was the Campus Center. At last there was a place to dine with friends or profes¬ sors who did not subscribe to the mealplan. And the do-it-yourself salad bar was not forgone! Now it seems that new options for eating are cropping up every day. Instead of waiting for the bi-annual Pancake Festivals, we can indulge in Waffleworks nightly. It presents us with a last chance to put on those “freshmen 15’’ (which we all learned can strike at any time, re¬ gardless of one’s class standing). On-campus dining means a lot more than the food (which we all enjoyed complaining about). Meet¬ ing people for lunch constituted ma¬ jor social events. Dining halls were a place to see and be seen, to talk with that friend you never seemed to run into anymore, to try new concoc¬ tions and eat creatively at the salad bar. The staff made a difference as well. What would MacPhie be with¬ out Ellie, or Carmichael without Lil? They were our surrogate moth¬ ers, clucking if we hadn’t been eat¬ ing properly. Dining services kept our plates and bellies full — and many of us employed. The experi¬ ences and conveniences of on-cam- pus dining are not things we are likely to encounter again. by Donna Elgart Dining On Campus 26 St udent Life