THE TUFTS DAILY
Friday, October 9, 2009
3
NEWS | FEATURES
Khazei visits Tufts as part of grassroots campaign for vacant Senate seat KHAZEI continued from page 1
Washington. “It has always been the young people who brought change to this country,” Khazei said, citing the civil rights movement, opposition to the war in Vietnam and the movement to make Earth Day a national holiday as examples. “It’s you all who elected Barack Obama,” he told the students. Khazei cofounded the service program City Year and served as its CEO until 2006. He also founded and currently runs Be the Change, Inc., an organization dedicated to mobilizing citizens across the country to serve their communities. Kennedy formally endorsed Khazei yesterday, beginning a four-day joint effort with the candidate to garner support across the state. Kennedy echoed Khazei’s calls for continued efforts to overhaul the Democratic Party, citing a deadlock in Congress even after the 2008 elections stacked the advantage in the Democrats’ favor. “We have sixty Democratic senators, and we still can’t pass health care,” Kennedy said. Kennedy managed his late uncle’s 2000 re-
election campaign. Khazei organized his visit to Tufts little more than two days ago. Freshman Eric Peckham, who runs the group Tufts for Khazei, said students rushed to publicize the event through their Facebook.com pages and by other means, with some members skipping class this morning to hand out fliers. This last-minute scheduling is consistent with Khazei’s larger campaign, as the candidate announced his candidacy considerably later than his competitors did. He hopes to sweep the Jan. 19 special election with a unique grass-roots effort. As Khazei describes it, he has no money, no political name and no large organization backing him. He has sixty days to do what Barack Obama did in a year. “I started with zero,” he said. Khazei has refused to accept campaign donations from political action committees or lobbyists. “I’m not taking a dime,” he said. “I don’t want to be beholden to anybody except you, the citizens and voters of Massachusetts.” Khazei’s first step is to secure himself a place on the ballot, an effort that will kick off with a petition drive at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Khazei called on Tufts students to help in his last-ditch efforts. “I’m going to ask you to dig deep, look at your schedules, put off your other extra-curricular activities and — don’t tell your professors — maybe skip a class or two,” he said. “An hour is like a day, a day is like two weeks,” Khazei continued. “The pundits and the experts all say this can’t be done in sixty days. We need to show them it can be done.” Khezei stressed the need for a “transformational approach” to multiple crises, citing the economy as the most immediate one. In addition to stressing the need for green jobs and universal health care, Khazei supports charter schools and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy on homosexuality. Khazei also told the Daily in an interview after his speech that he opposes a troop increase in Afghanistan unless Obama sets specific objectives for U.S. efforts. He also said Obama must set an appropriate timetable for American involvement in the country. Khazei hopes to draw on his role in the Senate and his experience in service organizations to build coalitions of experts and
launch mass movements. “I understand that you have to build movements for change,” Khazei said. He applauded Tufts’ effort to promote active citizenship, such as the university’s LRAP loan forgiveness program for nonprofit service and the efforts of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Khazai stressed that citizens of all ages and from all sectors must mobilize to bring about grassroots change. He also emphasized his efforts working with the U.S. Congress over the past 22 years to pass legislation, most recently the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expanded funding and volunteers for AmeriCorps and similar organizations. Regardless of whom they support, Khazei stressed that students should be involved in current politics. “The best way to honor Senator Kennedy is to have a gigantic turnout in this election,” Khazei said. Khazei’s wife Vanessa Kirsch (LA ’87), who sits on the board of Tisch College, also spoke at the event. Earlier in the day, Khazei addressed students at Harvard University, his alma mater, where he enjoyed another big turnout.
JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY
The LGBT Center is one resource available to the queer community on campus, and hopes to reach out to the wider student body through interactive events.
Expansion of queer studies department in the works LGBT continued from page 1
students at 371 colleges. Students were asked to respond “yes” or “no” to the statement “Students, faculty and administrators treat all persons equally regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/ expression.” Bourdon’s main concern about the results of the survey lies in how prospective students will interpret them. “Teenagers typically don’t stop to ask what measures were used, and who had the opportunity to actually respond to the questionnaire,” he said. Nevertheless, Bourdon noted that potential students have many other resources at their disposal when trying to determine if a campus is accommodating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. One such resource is Campusclimateindex. org, which uses more than 50 measures, and gives Tufts 4.5 out of 5 stars. Another is The Advocate’s “Guide for LGBT Students,” in
which Tufts ranks among the Top 20 “Gay Point Average” scores. “I don’t think it’ll knock us down, but to have other reports that put Tufts on top is good for us,” Alex, a senior involved with the LGBT community and activities, said. Alex did not give her last name because she wanted her sexuality to remain private. More important than lists, however, are actual Tufts students’ experiences. “I feel both safe and accepted here at Tufts,” Kim, a senior, said about her experience on campus. Kim asked to be quoted anonymously out of concern for the privacy of her sexual identity. “I personally have never come across anyone who has an issue with my sexuality or who I am dating here at Tufts and I have also found that professors and staff on the whole are also very accepting.” Alex added that despite a few discrimination incidents off campus, her experience has been positive. Bourdon reported an increase in students visiting the Tufts LGBT
Center “just to hang out,” noting that it has always been one of his main goals “for the Center to feel like a space that students consider their second home.” While the LGBT Center is a useful resource for many students, Kim feels many students do not feel the need to take advantage of it. “A lot of gay people on campus do not even feel the need to go to these resources because they are so well accepted by their Tufts community as a whole,” she said. While Tufts has achieved much in the way of creating a welcoming environment for LGBT students, Alex feels there is still work to be done. “There’s a need for people to be more active in the community and not to be complacent,” she said, adding that studying in a liberal state like Massachusetts may lead to false assumptions that all states are equally as accepting. “[If more people] were more active and continued to fight it may improve things even further,” she said.
Bourdon expressed similar opinions, and he noted that one of the LGBT Center’s main goals is to encourage all people, not just gay students, to get involved in order to achieve a more universal understanding of LGBT issues. Events such as “Guess the Straight Person”and LGBT training with different departments are ways in which Bourdon hopes to bring community members together. Cindy Stewart, co-chair of the LGBT Faculty/Staff Caucus, explained that the Center is also working on an initiative to bridge the gap between LGBT students and faculty. This program focuses on “providing support and social networking for LGBT staff and faculty as well as creating an awareness that there are gay faculty members,” Stewart said. Alex expressed excitement about the program. “Having faculty members who identify themselves as queer individuals will be really beneficial, because they’re an additional resource,” she said. Another way in which the LGBT
community is expanding its audience is by offering more courses like Intro to Queer Studies. After an immensely successful spring semester, Professor Jennifer Burtner was asked to offer the course again in the fall due to the high student demand. Whereas the first semester attracted students who were already active in the LGBT and Women’s Centers and had wanted to take the course for a while, this semester has drawn students who are not necessarily familiar with queer theory. Burtner, along with other faculty members, is currently in the beginning stages of expanding Tufts’ queer studies department and course offerings in order to meet the needs and requests of students. Burtner explained that interest in LGBT issues is no longer limited to queer individuals. “[It is] not just about an identity; it’s a way of looking at the world, human rights and public service, understanding who you are and how you relate to people in larger society,” she said.