Tufts’ gym isn’t working out

ural desire. However, given the unpleasantries of the current state of the Tufts gym, the administration ought to concoct and implement a more responsible plan for the future.

Getting the proper amount of exercise is important for everyone, but it carries the utmost importance for college students. Exercise can relieve common sources of pressure in college, such as having trouble concentrating, poor sleeping habits and disconsolate moods. In addition to the obvious benefits associated with being physically fit, it is these mental health benefits that behooves a university such as Tufts to prioritize gym accessibility. It would be unfair to claim that Tufts has not been attempting to support students’ mental health in other ways, such as Counseling and Mental Health Services, whose number is printed on all students’ Tufts ID cards. Furthermore, Tufts’ various identity-based centers undoubtedly play a role in improving the mental health of members of these communities. Moreover, the newly implemented Indigenous Center proves that Tufts has remained committed to building communities to relieve the anxieties and stresses felt by these groups. Nevertheless, even members of these groups can stand to benefit from what consistent exercise offers for one’s well-being.

In the time since returning to Tufts, it has become especially clear that the Tufts gym is inadequate. Although Tufts has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 6,500 individuals, the fitness center space is about 7,000 square feet. The gold standard of college gymnasiums, the Yale gym, has 14 floors and over 12 acres of indoor space. A less jarring example is the Colby College gym, which has a three level, 13,000 square foot fitness center. Both schools have significantly larger facilities than Tufts despite having smaller undergraduate enrollments.

Since the gym is dominated by cardio machines such as treadmills and ellipticals, those looking to do weight training might find scarcer opportunities. The inadequate number of benches brings

Viewpoint

ChatGPT: Exciting or terrifying?

also has a reputation to be prone to error. The website includes warnings about how ChatGPT may provide flat-out incorrect answers or biased information. As the AI systems’ responses are based on the data they have been trained on, their systems are prone to providing biased information.

The chatbot has received positive and negative reactions, with The New York Times labeling it as “the best AI chatbot ever received by the general public” while also raising questions about how it will affect fields such as higher education, law, business and programming.

Artificial intelligence has the undeniable potential to revolutionize the way we live our lives; it is already integrated into our society through many platforms: AI-based chatbots in customer service, financial forecasting or data analysis. ChatGPT in particular has the ability to complete tasks more efficiently than humans, which may disrupt and replace traditional jobs.

One of the other concerns that ChatGPT raises is its potential effects on higher education. In addition to ChatGPT’s ability to write college application essays, it has also passed an MBA exam given by the University of

Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a B and passed tests required for medical licenses and business degrees. With such concerns about negative impacts on learning, New York City schools banned the AI chatbot, ChatGPT, on school computers and networks.

However, Cherrie Shields, a high school English teacher in Oregon with 30 years of experience, purposefully makes her students use ChatGPT to make them learn how to structure their essays and how to ask the correct questions to reach their aim. Shields also said how resources such as SparkNotes or CliffNotes have been online for years and were already available to students who were willing to cheat. She came across arguments in her department to implement trap questions in assignments to test who “cheated” through ChatGPT or to increase the in-class assignments to reduce the “risk” of using ChatGPT. Instead of implementing such restrictions, learning and teaching how to make use of this technological tool correctly is the key.

ChatGPT can be used as a personal tutor where one can ask it to explain specific things at multiple levels of difficulty. This can be highly beneficial in providing a person- alized learning experience. It can also detect mistakes in coding and advise ways to correct them which could save a programmer hours of work and enhance their productivity and efficiency.

OpenAI is also expected to release its next model, GPT-4, in the first quarter of 2023. With artificial intelligence products constantly advancing, we must find ways to correctly incorporate AI into our lives. Rather than banning or prohibiting a potentially useful resource, higher edu- a somewhat disappointing lack of variety to students looking to pursue weight training goals. cation institutions should come up with new policies and guidelines regarding ChatGPT usage in assignments. Students and learners should also be aware of their morals surrounding academic integrity.

In addition to overcrowding at the gym, Tufts physical education classes have too few offerings, which makes it difficult to land a spot in one of these courses as an underclassmen. By the time freshmen in the School of Arts and Sciences are able to register for classes, many P.E. classes tend to be completely filled.

During the New England wintertime, outdoor opportunities for exercise are scarce, and access to the Tufts gym and enrollment in physical education courses become ever more necessary. With spots in these P.E. classes filled, students turn to the gym as a last resort of sorts. Their intentions of improving their physical fitness and mental health are worthwhile, and should be more urgently considered by the Tufts administration. Students going to the gym in the early weeks of this semester will without a doubt see overcrowding no matter what time they attend, and this less than ideal experience could turn away some people who might have otherwise established very good habits. A New Year’s resolution should be yours to fail, not the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center’s.

AI brings challenges and concerns with the fear of change and the unknown, yet it also creates new opportunities for society and humanity to develop and advance. As AI products continue to advance, we must find ways to use them ethically and responsibly.

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