Features

Features

Renovated Somerville West Branch library offers dynamic space to community

By Amelia Becker | September 20

Many have walked by the West Branch of the Somerville Public Library on the way to Davis Square, watching the renovations over the years, without ever stepping foot inside. Built in the Classical Revival style, the West Branch has maintained many of its historic features since the renovations while adding modern upgrades to make the space more usable for the community. 

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Features

Seniors share college wisdom with first-years

By Jillian Collins | September 16

Your new white sneakers are demolished from orientation week floors, the pre-orientation group chat is no longer active and you now have a take on the Carm vs. Dewick debate. Now what? Classes are starting and the daunting feeling of four years at Tufts might be creeping up on you. No need to fret; every Tufts student has been there. 

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Features

Conversations on camp with Jo Michael Rezes

By Keira Myles | September 16

Jo Michael Rezes' existence rests in camp, the concept first established by Susan Sontag in her 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp'" as an aesthetic absurdity that is artificial, passionate, serious; easy to see but hard to explain; and includes the seemingly unconnected examples of Tiffany lamps, Swan Lakeand women's clothes of the 1920s. As a Tufts Theatre and Performance Studies Ph.D. student and an ardent devotee of queer temporalities in camp, Rezes is instructing the new Experimental College course, “Camp: Bad Taste, Humor, and Cult Classics” this fall.

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Features

A zen conversation with new Buddhist Chaplain Ji Hyang Padma

By Kayla Butera | September 14

A sedan intersects with a Trans Am car. Fiberglass flies everywhere. At 14 years old, Ji Hyang Padma, now the Buddhist Chaplain at Tufts University, witnessed a car crash that altered the course of her life. Though she was a naturally restless teenager, this car crash left her frozen.

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Features

Boxed in by the pandemic: Tufts mime group shares enthusiasm for live semester

By Chris Duncan | September 14

How do live performers continue their work during a pandemic? A live performance's ability to affect the viewer hinges on the viewer and the performer being tangible to each other — meaning, most of the time, in the same room. That kind of energy does not translate well to Zoom.

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Features

New and existing volunteer student organizations optimistically enter upcoming academic year

By Katie Furey | September 10

Despite the barriers to connecting with each other created by the COVID-19 pandemic, several Tufts students were able to create new communities during the 2020–21 academic year in the form of volunteer organizations. Two of these new clubs were Tufts chapters of the national organizations Project Sunshine and Camp Kesem. In addition, Teach-in-CORES was able to adapt to a new virtual format.  

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Transfer students look to increase their voice on campus

By Kayla Butera | September 10

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a lot of moving pieces — and for some, this meant moving to another school. Transfer students experience hurdles in moving universities, ensuring their course credits follow them, and ultimately succeeding academically and socially in their new institution. That’s where the Tufts Transfer Student Association comes in.  

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Students returning to Tufts following gap semesters and years reflect on unique, rewarding experiences

By Raga Chilakamarri | September 8

The uncertain circumstances prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic forced many students to carefully consider their plans for the 2020–21 academic year. While many chose to continue attending classes at Tufts as previously planned — enrolling either remotely or in person — others decided to take time off, engaging in a wide array of unique experiences.

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Features

Looking back on two years of pandemic education

By Ari Navetta | September 8

The pandemic has forced a reckoning in all aspects of education. While initially blindsiding educators and administrators across the world, looking back on the past two years, this process seems to have been a long time coming. COVID-19’s impacts on education continue to devastate, but they have also revealed the possibility of a new way forward — a more thoughtful, if complicated, way of teaching that emphasizes individual learning styles and allows experimentation to lead the way.

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Senior Profile: Bhargava conducts international research with focus on economics and human rights

By Kevin Du | May 11

After four demanding yet rewarding years, graduating senior Atrey Bhargava is ending his undergraduate career as the Wendell Philips Speaker of the 2021 Baccalaureate Ceremony at Tufts. Every year, this honor is awarded to one senior who demonstrates “both marked ability as a speaker and a high sense of public responsibility,” according to theUniversity Chaplaincy.

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Columns

Tales from the T: New train just dropped

By Kevin Zhang | May 11

I think by now it’s time to address the elephant in the station — and I don’t mean Jumbo’s flattened corpse. Let’s talk about the Green Line Extension, or GLX: What is its history, what will it bring, why did we spend $2 million to name one station, I mean seriously, who on Earth thought that was a good idea?

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Senior Profile: Wiener soars during time at Tufts

By Kayla Butera | May 10

To say that Sarah Wiener was busy during her time at Tufts would be an understatement. Throughout her four years here, Wiener has become the Tufts Community Union president and a Tufts Wilderness Orientation leader, started a swim group, given campus tours, taught an Experimental College class and double majored in philosophy and political science, with a minor in colonial studies.  

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Features

Reflecting on civic education this year with CIRCLE's Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg

By Katie Furey | May 7

A goal of Educating for American Democracy is to make students feel empowered to be active participants in democracy when they grow older. According to Kawashima-Ginsberg, civic education and culture at the college level are a vital next step in the process of fostering democratic ideas among young people. She noted that, at Tufts, a culture of civic engagement already exists but can be improved upon.

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Senior Profile: Abraha rises to challenge, advocates for marginalized students

By Sam Russo | May 6

Many seniors are excited to enter the workforce when they graduate from Tufts. They have interesting new roles, are moving to new places or are looking forward to being financially independent. Graduating senior Eve Abraha is anticipating her next steps after graduating for a different reason, though.

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Columns

Transferable Skills: Audience of one

By Marco Sheng | May 6

They call it Commencement instead of graduation. I guess it's based on this idea that the transition from college bubble to adult stratosphere is full of amazing possibilities.

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From roommates to best friends: Stories of seniors who lived with their first-year roommates throughout college

By Jillian Collins | May 5

As the school year comes to a close, many goodbyes are in order. For a lucky few seniors, changing roommates was never necessary. Now they are facing the harsh reality of saying goodbye to the only roommate they’ve ever known. 

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Senior Profile: Gomez talks engineering, mentorship and everything in between

By Amelia Becker | May 5

Since high school, graduating senior Mateo Gomez knew that he wanted to study civil engineering in college. He also knew he wanted to move away from his home in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Boston seemed like the perfect place. 

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Local sororities disaffiliate from national organizations, hope to build more inclusive communities

By Sarah Crawford and Olivia Tan | May 4

The Ivy and Thalia, two newly established local sororities, started accepting members this spring. Last fall, members of these new organizations disaffiliated from the national chapters of Alpha Phi and Chi Omega, respectively, partly in response to the criticism of Greek life on campus. Zoe Reid, a director of the membership application process for The Ivy, as well as Kelly Bernatchez and Ryen Delaney, co-executive directors of Thalia, hope that the local organizations will be more equitable and inclusive spaces for female-identifying and nonbinary students.

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Tufts Mock Trial finishes 2nd at nationals in most successful season yet

By Delaney Clarke | May 4

Tufts Mock Trial’s A team placed second in its division at the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) National Championship Tournament. The tournament took place over Zoom from April 16 to April 18.  This second-place win finished off a season that Tufts Mock Trial co-president and A team co-captain Bennett Demksy described as one of the strongest seasons in Tufts Mock Trial history. According to Demsky, the team placed better in tournaments than it had in previous seasons and achieved a higher number of individual awards than ever before.

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Columns

Coffee Talk: Uncommon Grounds

By Casey Cummings | May 4

Following a 7 a.m practice, nothing sounds better than a fat stack of pancakes. Luckily, Uncommon Grounds (which is on the way back from Tufts’ indoor practice tennis courts) in Watertown offers a fun selection of pancakes, waffles and french toast on their menu. Being the great students that we are, we placed our breakfast orders the night before so we would have enough time to eat our pancakes and make it back in time for our morning classes. Yet, choosing what to order off a menu where everything made my mouth water resulted in my scrolling through Uncommon Grounds’ menu for almost an hour. 

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