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Admissions confident in branding strategy
May 22The once-annual declarations that the "best class ever has just been admitted to Tufts" may be dwindling in the coming years.
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Campus Comment | Snowball fights! Late nights! And, of course, NQR
May 22The end of spring giving way to the beginning of summer frequently marks not only the end of a season, but the end of an era. Aside from the classes, exams and papers that characterize any student's four years in college, there are also the candlelight ceremonies at the beginning of freshman year and the end of senior year, Homecoming, a capella concerts, late-night cannon paintings, hangouts on the rooftop of Tisch, semesters spent abroad and, of course, the Naked Quad Run and Spring Fling. Jumbos thus often find it hard to single out their one favorite time which best caps their Tufts experience. Junior Cynthia Medina, who has spent the past semester studying abroad in Paris, recalls the first snow storm of her freshmen year as her favorite memory. In the grand tradition of sledding and snowball fights along the President's Lawn, Medina remembers a bonding experience with her floor-mates in the Massachusetts cold. "All the people on my floor went out to play in the snow," Medina said. "We played football and went sledding ... Afterwards, we went inside and hung out in the lounge to sing Christmas carols and drink hot chocolate. It finally felt like Christmas!" When sophomore Ara Cho reflects on her time at Tufts thus far, she thinks fondly of late nights spent with friends, "staying up super late, ordering food, eating ice cream and just hanging out," she said. "But there was one time where we played a 'Punk'd' sort-of scenario on some of our friends," Cho said, laughing. "We prank called them using fake voices and personas. And then we got them out of the room so we could hide in there and scare them." On the other hand, sophomores Amod Rajbhandari and Rodrigo Armstrong share a rather unique memory: partying with one of their professors. "Every year, Roberta Oster Sachs, who teaches 'Producing Films for Social Change,' promises her students that she'll party with them, but she never does," Rajbhandari said. "Until this year," Armstrong added. "She finally did." Rajbhandari and Armstrong described how different yet fun it was to dance and laugh alongside one of Tufts' most well-liked professors, who is leaving the University this year. Though it may be fun to get down with your professor, sometimes nothing beats a good old-fashioned floor-wide celebration. Freshmen Kate McCaffrey and Lindsay Forys, who lived on the fourth floor of Lewis Hall this past year, have fond memories of a floor-wide party where the only required item of clothing was underwear. At a school where stripping down in the cold is a time-honored tradition, the underwear party was not too surprising. "It was really fun ... everyone was going crazy and we were having a great time," the girls said. "Until TUPD came and broke it up." Sophomore Meredith Pickett's fondest Tufts memory comes from a scantily-clad night as well - the Nighttime Quad Reception, also known as Naked Quad Run, or NQR. "When I was in West for NQR this past year, my friend Erica fell into me on the steps because the stairs were still wet from the snow. I fell down the stairs and I mean ... we went down hard," Pickett said. "We got up and tried to walk it off like we were fine," she added. "But as soon as all the people who saw us left, we hobbled back up to our friend Liz's room." Though the memory may conjure up images of painful bruises, Pickett begs to differ. "I told everyone that Erica pushed me down the stairs," she said. "It was actually pretty awesome." Junior Becky Hayes remembers a moment unique to students who spend time exploring another country and studying abroad. Hayes, who spent the fall of her junior year in Central America, remembers evenings in Leon, Nicaragua, when street kids would dress up in intricate costumes depicting a huge elegant woman and a smaller man with only a large head. "Every night, at dusk, in the main park by the cathedral, all these kids would come out dressed up and perform a dance with drumming to earn money," Hayes explained. "It symbolized Nicaragua's fight for independence against Spain." Hayes, who watched the dancing while backpacking from Costa Rica to Nicaragua and Guatemala, described the tradition as a four-hour evening ritual, with the children wandering around the city and stopping at different bars and cafes as well. "It was amazing," she said.
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Jonathan Tisch endows University College with $40 million naming gift
May 22Jonathan Tisch (LA '76), chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, Corp. and University trustee, will donate $40 million to endow the future of Tufts' University College.
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Tufts student musicians take to the road this summer
May 22For most of us, the last day of school once opened a world of possibility. The seemingly everlasting summer was for the taking to accomplish all the brilliant plans one's grade school mind could think of. Unfortunately, as the number of three-month-long summer breaks that we can enjoy dwindles, the euphoria of finishing finals fades fast with the quick onset of the realities of summer jobs, internships and the looming shadow of the "real world."
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The grandson of Nelson Mandela has followed in his famous grandfather's humanitarian footsteps
May 22As seniors graduating today ponder their futures, one Tufts alumnus has a message to spread: get involved.
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Cycling | Tufts finishes 13th at National Championships
May 22In only its second-ever team appearance at Nationals, held at Kansas University on May 13-14, Tufts finished 13th in a 35-team field of Div. II and III schools. While individuals have gone to Nationals in past years, this year's team appearance demonstrates the strides that the program has made in recent years.
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In Katrina's wake, displaced Tulane students found refuge - and a new life - at Tufts
May 22Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many universities across the United States opened their doors to Tulane University students who were seeking a place to study during the fall semester as the cleanup continued in New Orleans.
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General Joseph Hoar
May 22General Joseph P. Hoar, United States Marine Corps (retired), a Boston native, graduated from Tufts in 1956 before pursuing a distinguished 37-year career in the United States military.
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Reverend Gloria E. White-Hammond
May 22Reverend Dr. White-Hammond wears many hats: pediatrician, pastor, humanitarian, medical missionary - and Tufts graduate.
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An atypical summer is in store for these scholars
May 22While most students are excitedly waiting for the semester to come to a close so that they can get a break from their studies, some Tufts students have chosen to stay on the Medford campus for the summer and continue their research.
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Changing the world, one internship at a time
May 22Junior Maisie Ganz did not want to spend her precious summer months organizing files and making coffee in an air-conditioned office. In fact, she did not want her summer plans to involve air conditioning at all.
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Men's Track and Field | Team braves elements, takes seventh at New Englands
May 22Despite horrid weather and the fatigue of a long and grueling season, the men's track and field team was still able to finish an impressive seventh place in the New England Open Championships, which took place at MIT on May 13.
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Daily Digits: A Year in Numbers
May 221,174Career points scored by women's basketball senior tri-captain Jess Powers, who is third on the all-time Tufts scoring list. She became the eighth Tufts player to hit the thousand-point mark in a Dec. 10 win over Wellesley.
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Andrew Bauld | You Can't Steal First
May 22It ain't easy being a Jumbo some days. As Elaine from "Seinfeld" once memorably exclaimed, "Hey, I went to Tufts! It was my safety school! So don't talk to me about hardship."
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Athlete Spotlight | Williams among 58 NCAA post-grad award winners
May 22Look no further than Facebook.com for evidence of the high esteem in which senior Trevor Williams' peers hold him.
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ROTC students keep Pass in Review tradition alive
May 22Tufts was represented in all three branches of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at an annual pass in review ceremony on Apr. 28.
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Tufts Theater: Year in Review | From vampires to vaudeville, variety graced Tufts' stages
May 22Be they Niels Bohr, Ben Affleck, Demetrius and Helena, or vampire school girls, a wide cast of characters has entertained Tufts theater audiences this year.
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Azaluna: blue-green eggs and ham?
May 22The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine raises its own free-range eggs - and they really are free. The chickens are housed on the Veterinary School campus in a safe roost and are free to roam, scratch, and feed during the day. The chicken feed is free of antibiotics and hormones commonly used to stimulate growth or egg production. In addition, the chickens produce eggs of a distinctive bluish-green color. Dr. Seuss jokes aside, the unique color helps to contribute to the eggs' marketability and brand name of "Azaluna." The eggs are currently being test-marketed under the "Azuluna" brand at two Massachussetts supermarkets, Roche Brothers in Acton and Shaun and Gerry's in Westboro. They currently sell for $3/dozen. The Azuluna brand is in charge of selling the eggs, whose hens are descended from Araucana chickens, which originated in Chile. Dr. George Saperstein of the Cummings School said that the Azuluna brand came out of the Cummings School's project. "A consultant helped us develop the logo and the name," Saperstein said. "Tufts trademarked the brand." The Azuluna brand hopes to produce a series of livestock products that taste better because of the production methods. "We hypothesize that consumers will pay a premium price for these kinds of products which in general cost more to produce," Saperstein said. He also said that the Azuluna brand could not supply Tufts Dining Services because the brand has only a few hundred chickens, and the project is very costly. "In our model, we're trying to get producers to voluntarily agree to keep the chickens outside," Saperstein said. "If any producer does not uphold the free range, the others will gladly kick him out. It's self-enforcing for the sake of the brand," he said. "Our product is not meant as a replacement for what's on the market. It's meant as an alternative for consumers who can afford [it] because [the free-range eggs] truly taste better." Saperstein is hopeful for the future of the Azaluna brand. "We're hoping the next phase will be to find an entrepreneur who wants to license the brand, follow our protocol, and take over the business," Saperstein said.
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Baseball Recap | NESCAC runners-up Jumbos end season short of NCAA bid
May 22It only seemed appropriate that the baseball team concluded its season with a loss to NESCAC West rival Middlebury in the conference title game.
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