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Where You Isolated T-storms Read It First 73/56 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 6 FRiday, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013 TUFTSDAILY.COM “YOLO” admissions question sparks controversy BY JULIA MCDANIEL Proud members of the Tufts commu- Daily Editorial Board nity on Twitter appreciated the continued “quirkiness” vibe at Tufts, while others con- This summer, after the Office of demned the school for “trying too hard to Undergraduate Admissions released its target teenage applicants.” There were mul- college supplement questions for the class tiple complaints that college essays have of 2018, one prompt in particular ignited become “pointless,” and that the school is a frenzy in the media, among publica- not taking the college application process NICK PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY tions including the Huffington Post, Good seriously, according to Twitter feeds. Tufts’ National Dialogue on Race Day featured a panel discussion commemorating civil rights. Morning America, The Atlantic and TIME Some of the most cutting words were Newsfeed. written by one of Tufts’ own just a month Suggested by a freshman, one of the six ago when Garrett Gilmore (LA ’12) posted Panel celebrates National options for applicants’ third supplement on Vice.com. He highlighted what many essay asks: “What does #YOLO mean to articles have dubbed the “cool dad” phe- you?” quoting hip-hop artist Drake’s song, nomenon, which describes the attempt “The Motto.” to seem cool in the eyes of a younger Dialogue on Race Day Tufts is known among applicants for its generation by making references to cur- BY JOSH WEINER racism.” He explained that this can be seen unusual essay questions. According to the rent pop culture. Daily Editorial Board in areas such as the American prison system, Huffington Post’s article published in July, “Stuff like this is little more than an which does not “acknowledge stubborn rac- the question is “encouraging applicants to appeal to the desire of upper-class white Students celebrated Tufts’ first annual ist inequalities in outcomes.” have some fun when they introduce them- applicants to feel like they’re being con- National Dialogue on Race Day with a panel Joseph emphasized the importance of selves to Tufts.” sidered as something other than a col- presentation in Cabot Auditorium last night hosting a dialogue analyzing such critical The Atlantic Wire’s writer Alexander lection of test scores and financial data,” at 7 p.m. issues before fielding a series of questions to Nazaryan, however, was more critical of Gilmore wrote. This event, sponsored by the Center for his panelists. He began by challenging them the quirky essay question. Sophomore Mel Goldberg, agreeing with the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), to assess America’s advancements towards “Setting itself up for certain mockery, Gilmore to an extent, said that Tufts is using featured six panelists who addressed issues achieving racial justice in the past 50 years. Tufts University is plopping face-first into the Drake quote to try to appeal to the cur- of racial disparity and social inequality in Michael Curry, president of the Boston the shallows of contemporary culture with rent generation of applicants. contemporary America. chapter of the National Association for the an essay question that is revealing, more “I certainly feel like the question itself History professor Peniel Joseph, a Advancement of Colored People, said that than anything, of the state of academia is just mindless pandering to young peo- founder of CSRD, served as facilitator of the United States has made much progress today,” Nazaryan wrote in July. “The ques- ple. I don’t think it’s intentional cultural the event. He acknowledged the signifi- in decades past but noted that disadvan- tion is an obvious instance of pandering, appropriation,” Goldberg said. “I think cance of holding such an event in the taged non-white communities still exist in of Tufts announcing that it is cool, that its they’re trying to appeal to what the demo- wake of the 50th anniversary of the March major cities across the country, including in admission officers get it, unlike those fusty graphic of their potential applicants are on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Harlem, Roxbury and Chicago’s South Side. Ivy League colleges.” interested in.” assessed the United States’ current posi- “If you look at any Latino or black com- The Twittersphere blew up with com- Lee Coffin, dean of undergraduate tion in light of the decades-old goals laid munity in any of these cities, you will see a ments as well, and support for and oppo- admissions, sees the question differently. out by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. tale of two Americas,” Curry said. “Disparities sition against the question came in a Coffin said all six choices for the third “50 years ago, we had institutionalized exist across the board, and that is where the storm. Many poked fun by posting other supplement essay seek insight in the appli- racial segregation, and blacks and whites problem lies.” essay question ideas including “Describe a cant’s self-identity, and the point is to make had separate existences,” Joseph said. Kimberly McLarin, assistant profes- moment when you had to make a difficult Tufts accessible. “Today, segregation is gone [and] we have sor of writing, literature and publishing at decision: Team Edward or Team Jacob?” “Our goal as admissions officers is to be more racial diversity in our politics than ever Emerson College, added that there has not and, “If Justin Bieber could meet one per- as universal as we can be,” he said. “A good before, but also growing racial inequalities.” been enough of an effort to aid these impov- son living or dead, who would you want it Joseph linked the problems prevalent in to be?” see YOLO, page 2 modern American society to “color-blind see DIALOGUE, page 2 Minor glitches plague new iSIS BY DENALI TIE T JEN tragic,” she said. “There wasn’t to address that problem.” Daily Editorial Board anything that we couldn’t resolve Enrollment issues with recita- pretty quickly. We didn’t know tions were due to quotas that indi- Despite technological issues what problems there were going vidual departments had set, not involving the Integrated Student to be. Otherwise they wouldn’t the system, Irish explained. She Information System (iSIS), the have happened in the first place. added that students should clear project team is satisfied with the But things do happen, and it was their browser’s caches and cookies, new system’s functionality and was relatively smooth.” as well as use the iSIS navigation prepared for problems that arose In the time it took for iSIS icons — rather than the browser’s once class enrollment opened. administrators to respond, howev- back button — when navigating During the first week of school, er, some students faced problems the system. students reported issues with with scheduling courses. Irish stressed that the implemen- iSIS regarding class locations and “My major problem had to do tation period of iSIS is not over, as financial aid processing, accord- with my registration for mandatory the project has entered a one-year ing to Tufts Technology Services recitations for my language class,” “stabilization period” during which Director of Communications sophomore Michele De Mars said. improvements will be made. The and Organizational Effectiveness “Essentially all the recitations were next step may include a one-time Dawn Irish. Some students who filled, so I couldn’t register for my login for Trunk and iSIS, she said. had recently submitted tuition lecture class even though the lec- “We appreciate students’ payments were locked out of iSIS ture was still open. It waitlisted you patience as we address all of these completely. for both.” issues,” Irish said. “We’re really just “We did expect we’d see some Students have also cited com- excited. It’s new technology. We issues here and there,” Irish said. plaints that the iSIS interface is haven’t implemented a new sys- “Many of the things we imple- confusing to navigate. tem in almost 30 years.” KYRA STURGILL / THE TUFTS DAILY mented we couldn’t test until we “iSIS is a lot more complicated One of the primary goals of the Although some students encountered problems while registering for classes on went live — until a student actually than at my old school. You can’t iSIS project was to streamline all iSIS, Tufts Technology Services worked to resolve issues as quickly as possible. tried to log in and do something.” click back, which was really frus- the data and information from According to Irish, the team trating,” Laura Andreola, a junior Student Information System newer systems over the years, like they didn’t talk to each other. You addressed problems as quickly transfer student, said. “Sometimes (SIS), the former student infor- the financial aid and learning man- had to log into 18 different sys- as possible. when I’d log in, I’d have error signs mation system that iSIS replaced agement systems,” Irish said. “And tems, and you had a different user- “I don’t think there was any- all over my screen, and I had to last spring. all of those things existed, but they thing that came up that was too delete my browser history in order “We had integrated a lot of were on aging infrastructure, and see ISIS, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s sections The “Hippie Chic” The second season of News/Features 1 Classifieds 11 exhibit at the Museum “The Newsroom” has a of Fine Arts celebrates more compelling plot Arts and Living 5 Sports Back the 1960s and 70s. than its predecessor.