As one of the main cultural hubs on the eastern seaboard, Washington, D.C. fosters a strong intellectual culture of discovery through its museums. As Tufts students, we’re spoiled with fairly easy access to incredible museums in Somerville, Cambridge, Boston and the outskirts of Massachusetts through the T.
On the day that sophomore Grace Acton broke her foot, she found herself crutching down Memorial Steps when going from her class in Braker, a building with no elevator, to Kindlevan, the closest dining option. She took her normal route, which able-bodied students normally take. However, with her new temporary disability and lack of knowledge about closed side paths in the winter and accessible transport, Acton had to hop with her crutches in one hand and use her other hand to hold onto the railing.
While previous installations of this series have highlighted the humanities (including Law and Education), STEM-oriented students at Tufts also have the opportunity to pursue 4+1 degrees, including through the School of Engineering.
Hi fellow dreamers! Today, I would like to share a story that is very fitting for the Daily: a story about a journalist. David Armstrong is currently a reporter for ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative journal. He graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and went on to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
The spring break that we all know and love can be traced back to the 1930s when the Colgate University swim team popularized the idea of going to a sunny and warm destination at the midpoint of the semester. From there, the concept took off, and spring break now serves as a perfect window of time for college students across the country to travel with their friends, relax and make poor decisions. For me though, spring break brought something else: an opportunity to cook some scrumptious food in a non-dorm kitchen for the first time in seven weeks. So, while visiting a friend in Brooklyn, we whipped up a delicious meal of goat cheese and squash pasta, pesto tomato crostini and banana bread. Therefore, I present to you Dorms, Dishes and Delicacies: spring break edition.
The transition from high school to college can be a daunting experience, especially for those traveling far from home to spend the next four years in Medford/Somerville.
Typically, I structure my munching around a specific theme or location. However, for this edition, I’m relaying a valuable life lesson — your plan may not always pan out the way you expect, kids. In the iconic words of Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” And so, due to my meal planning failures, I present a menagerie of munching.
In a post-COVID-19 fitness era, in-person workout classes have regained popularity and traction, especially among students and 20-somethings. These energetic group workouts and sessions foster a greater sense of community through movement and accountability, motivating the attendee to perform their best. From classics like SoulCycle to newer options like The Energy Barre, the ever-growing fitness empire in the Boston area has options for everyone.
This past summer, six members of Tufts’ Engineers Without Borders traveled to Solomoni village in Malawi to install a water tower system at the Chigumukire primary and secondary schools. The new system provides running water to the schools, so the facilities now feature sinks as well as showers. This allows students to practice better hygiene — and also enables them to conduct experiments in their science laboratory.
Throughout my tenure at Tufts, I’ve learned that there are three constants of college: work, tiredness and sickness. There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t been at least one of those constants. Even as I write this article, I am stressed from midterms, tired from the Tufts gardeners who have decided that 7 a.m. on a Monday morning is the best time to mow the lawn and sick from my third iteration of the freshman plague. Nonetheless, no matter how sick or tired I — or anyone at Tufts — may be, the continual stream of work never ends until the semester does. And, of course, this persistent stream of work also inherently disregards our genetic desire to dilly-dally. In turn, it forces us to lock in. Tufts, and schools in general, deny us of our innate trait of monkeying about and pressurizes us to get in line.
Every other Thursday, the kitchen of the Tufts Hillel building is bustling with dough-makers, braiders and bakers alike, all helping to bake about 70 loaves of challah to be sold for charity through Challah for Hunger, a philanthropic program organized by Hillel.
For today’s column, I performed what I am calling a “Green Line Extension World Tour” on my way to visit Union Square station. In my travels, I passed through all sixGLX stations plus Lechmere. For those interested in visiting Union Square, you can take the Green Line from the Medford/Tufts station to Lechmere and then transfer to an outbound Green Line D.
A classic divide among Tufts students is the uphill vs. downhill debate. Students who hail from dorms uphill boast a convenient location to the Academic Quad, proximity to the Green Line and close access to friends who are fellow ‘uphill-ers.’ Downhill residents, on the other hand, have easy access to the larger (and some would argue better) dining hall that is Dewick, are close to the Campus Center and have a short walk to Davis Square. What about the students who are not truly uphill or downhill residents, though? To see what it’s all about, I brought my kitchen supplies to The Court at Professors Row (specifically, 93 Professors Row) to cook up an easy yet delicious evening snack: pizza bagels.
Monday through Thursday morning from January to April, students from Boston Public Schools arrive at the large brick building at the corner of Clarendon Street for an hour of fun. Stepping off the bus, they find themselves immersed in a world of dance.
Last weekend was the second weekend I spent in Rabat since the beginning of the semester. My host mom decided to commemorate the special occasion by having a quintessential Moroccan Saturday: We went first to the Souk Sebt, a massive flea market about an hour away from Rabat; then we went to a traditional Moroccan hammam, a communal bathhouse prominent in the Muslim world; then, of course, we had an enormous Moroccan dinner.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the national spotlight has settled on Republican-controlled states that have restricted access to abortion or enacted total bans. But as the Planned Parenthood Action group at Tufts, formerly known as Tufts Students for National Abortion Rights Action League, will tell you, there is more work to be done to protect and advocate for reproductive health and rights, especially on college campuses and even in the most liberal states.
If New York is the city that never sleeps, Washington, D.C. is the city that always eats.
Few Supreme Court rulings shook the bedrock of upper education as much as Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. These two cases, separately decided but very much intertwined, made consideration of an applicant’s race in admissions decisions unconstitutional, upending 45 years of race-conscious affirmative action in higher education.
Touring Europe during your time abroad and craving an affordable meal away from tourist traps? Here are two sandwich shops that I still think about. Thank me later.
Among the 37 Experimental College courses available to students this spring semester, one was brought about by initiatives in Tufts’ Office of Sustainability. Sustainable Spring is a one-credit introductory course taught by Professor Ann Ward, the Education and Outreach Specialist in the Office of Sustainability. The office team, including Ward, assembled this course as a way to teach first-year and sophomore students about sustainability at Tufts.
