Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement concerned with finding the most effective ways to make the world a better place, according to Graeme McDonough, a junior on the Effective Altruism club’s executive board.
For the last three semesters, many buildings and facilities on campus have sat either empty or at severely reduced capacity. Scores of Jumbos have never seen Tufts' campus in all its glory, with students milling between classes and avoiding that person whom you haven't spoken to since they shared their deepest secrets with you during “Bridging the Herd.”
On June 1, Tufts University Infection Control Health Director Michael Jordan sent out an email describing much-anticipated changes in health guidelines for the fall 2021 semester. Among them were the addition of a vaccination requirement and the removal of outdoor mask mandates and physical distancing protocols. The changes were indicative of the potential for a socially safe semester. Naturally, those working for the Office for Campus Life and Tufts University Social Collective became optimistic about a return to near-normal social life at the university.
Welcome to Tales from the T part 2: Electric Boogaloo! Each week we’ll be diving into a story about the T and other forms of Boston transportation. Who knows, some of them might even be interesting.
Masking is something that most students have been discussing only in the past year and half, but for a smaller group of Tufts students, it’s a term that has been on their mind for nearly their whole lives. For neurodiverse people, masking means trying to hide their disabilities and pass as neurotypical. This is just one of many additional considerations that neurodiverse students at Tufts contend with, from ensuring that they can take tests in the environments given to them to making friends who share their experiences.
Few people know Tufts as well as Michael Ullman, senior lecturer of English and music, who expects to retire soon. Ullman spent much of his childhood exploring the Medford/Somerville campus, as his father started working as a professor of sociology at Tufts in 1946, one year afterUllman was born. To this day, Ullman proudly keeps a plaque of his father’s first Tufts contract on his desk in the Granoff Music Center.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
