New illness notification process announced

9/29/09 5:02 PM

 Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser and Health Service Medical Director Margaret Higham announced yesterday a new system for students to report class absences to professors due to short-term illness. In an e-mail to the Tufts community, Glaser and Higham said the new illness notification form can be found on Student Webcenter. They said that the form should be used when students are anticipating an absence lasting for several days or in a class where attendance is monitored.   The new system came about after several summer meeting between Health Service, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife), Dining Services and Student Services to discuss ways that Tufts can conform to the Center for Disease Control’s H1N1 -- or swine flu -- recommendations,...

Holtzman elected as freshman class secretary

9/25/09 2:21 AM

Sharonne Holtzman will serve as the Class of 2013 secretary after a successful second election last night.

Programming Board ran elections for freshman class council positions on Wednesday, but forgot to include the name of one of the three candidates vying for the secretarial position. This time around, the election went off without a hitch, according to Elections Commission Chair Kevin Terhorst.

Eleven percent of the freshman class, equal to 155 freshmen, voted in the election, which ran from 9 a.m. to midnight yesterday, Terhorst, a senior, said.

--Alexandra Bogus

 

Special elections scheduled for TCU openings

9/24/09 12:30 PM

A special election to fill junior Samia Zahran's recently-vacated Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate seat as well as a vacant Committee on Student Life (CSL) seat has been set for Oct. 7. The TCU Constitution allows up to 15 academic days to fill a senate vacancy due to resignation or expulsion. Zahran officially resigned from her Senate seat Sunday, hours before the first meeting of the body.   In addition to the Senate seat, one CSL seat which went unfilled in the spring election will be reopened again to prospective candidates.   Tufts' Elections Commission (ECOM) said that the Senate special election will be initially open only to members of the Class of 2010. The Senate reserves seven seats in the body for each year; however, because only four rising seniors ran...

TUPD Security Alert: Curtis Street

9/19/09 10:24 AM

An armed robbery occurred early this morning on Powderhouse Boulevard between Curtis Street and North Street in Somerville. In an e-mail early this morning, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) notified the Tufts community of a report they received from Somerville Police of the robbery, which took place at approximately 2:45 a.m. The two victims included a male and female. The male reported that the suspect may have held a black handgun. The suspect fled in the direction of Curtis Street. A search for the suspect by Tufts and Somerville police proved negative. The suspect was described in the e-mail as a black male in his late teens or early twenties wearing a black knit stocking hat that revealed shoulder length dark color braids. He wore a black t-shirt and dark pants with several...

Joseph speaks at inaugural conversation hour

9/15/09 11:20 PM

History Professor Peniel Joseph was the featured speaker tonight at the inaugural installment of the After Hours Conversation Series held in Brown and Brew. The After Hours Conversation Series is a new initiative created by members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and led by TCU President Brandon Rattiner and TCU Senator Nunu Luo, a sophomore. It will continue to feature different professors throughout the year. The series aims to promote more informal dialogue between faculty members and the student body, according to Rattiner, a senior.   “We need to institutionalize better ways for students to have contact with their own faculty,” Rattiner said. “I’m really excited about it.”   Joseph, who is new to the Tufts faculty this year, will...

Senate elects trustee reps

9/14/09 5:02 PM

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate selected three new trustee representatives in closed-door elections held last night. Former TCU President Duncan Pickard, Adam Weldai and Emily Maretsky, all seniors, will serve as representatives from the Senate to three trustee committees.   Pickard will serve on the university advancement committee. He had previously declared his intention to run for the position in April while he was still TCU president. The Senate elected Weldai, last year’s Elections Commission (ECOM) chair, as administration and finance representative, while Maretsky, who is an editor for the Daily, will serve as representative to the academic affairs committee.   Trustee representatives serve as official liaisons of the Senate to the trustee committees....

TUPD Security Alert: Wallace Ave.

9/12/09 11:41 PM

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) announced tonight in an e-mail to the Tufts community a security alert on Wallace Avenue. A group of female students walking back to campus from Davis Square at 10:04 p.m. noticed an unknown person walking behind them. When one of the students screamed, the individual ran toward Holland Street. The students ran back to campus.

TUPD described the individual as wearing a ski mask and baseball cap. No suspects have been identified at this time, and a search following the incident by TUPD and Somerville Police proved negative.

If you have any information on the above incidents, contact TUPD at x73030 (617-627-3030 from off-campus or a cell phone).

--Alexandra Bogus

Candidates for Fall elections announced

9/12/09 2:54 PM

The candidates for positions within the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and Judiciary have been announced. Eighteen freshmen will run for seven freshmen senator positions, while six candidates will contend for one seat open on the TCU Judiciary. Two students, sophomores Manuel Guzman and William Carpenter, walked on to the Committee on Student Life (CSL). CSL had three vacancies and the positions ran uncontested. The remaining CSL seat will be unfilled. The following freshmen will run for the TCU Senate: Alice Pang, Faith Blake, Emily Sillari, Yulia Korovikov, Lane Florsheim, Ilana Linder, Ard Ardalan, Jeffrey Nii, Meredith Goldberg, Mayan Lendner, Shawyoun Shaidani, Wyatt Cadley, Michael Cooney, Sacha Suh, Jeremy Zelinger, Emil Cliggott-Perlt, Spencer...

Tufts alum Brown to run for Kennedy's Senate seat

9/12/09 2:10 PM

Massachusetts  Republican State Sen. Scott Brown (LA '81) announced today plans to run for late Sen. Edward Kennedy's seat in the Senate. "This Senate seat doesn't belong to any one person or political party," he said in a statement released before his 2 p.m. press conference. "It belongs to you, the people, and the people deserve a US senator who will always put your interests first." Brown is the front-running Republican to vie for the seat, after Andrew Card, former White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush, announced yesterday that he would not run and pledged full support for Brown. Brown faces a number of Democratic contenders for the seat held by Kennedy for nearly five decades. Among them, Massacusetts state Attorney...

Senate elections pushed back to Sept. 17

9/10/09 11:53 PM

Elections for freshmen senators and several other positions, originally scheduled for Sept. 16, will be pushed back one day due to a problem with Votenet, the online voting system used to conduct student elections. According to Elections Commission (ECOM) Chair Kevin Terhorst,  a senior, the company had difficulties uploading the voter roster for the entire student body and could not guarantee that the ballot would be ready by Wednesday. As a result, ECOM decided to push the elections back one day. Open positions include seven seats for freshmen Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators, one seat on the TCU Judiciary and three seats on the Committee on Student Life. Terhorst did not believe that the change in date would significantly affect the election. Votenet was also used last...