Tufts Technology Services recently introduced a digital web conferencing tool, Cisco WebEx, which will allow members of the Tufts community to coordinate classes, meetings and other collaborative events online.
Four Tufts freshmen on March 27 launched a new smartphone application, WeParty, which allows Tufts students to view locations of various parties and social events on and off campus.Co-founder and Co-CEO of WeParty Kofi Asante explained that he and three friends decided to create an app after struggling to find events on campus."Coming here as freshmen, we got discouraged pretty quickly that you could never go to one specific place to figure out what was going on any given night," Asante, a freshman, said.Co-Founder and Co-Developer Jared Moskowitz said that he and Co-Founders Asante, Richard Kim and Denis Bravenec have each spent upward of 700 hours working on the app."Jared and I didn't know how to use [operating system] iOS, so we didn't sleep for 100 hours and just learned it," Co-Developer Kim said.While Moskowitz said the team did not reach out to faculty for help, they did receive support from many members of the Tufts community."We got a lot of input from fellow students always asking our friends, 'What do you think we could do better here?'" Moskowitz said.According to Co-CEO Bravenec, the team utilized as many resources as they could in order to create an app that would specifically appeal to Tufts students."We met with a lot of people that have created things on this campus, like [iJumbo developer junior Amadou Crookes] and people in web development and app development," Bravenec said. "We worked on becoming technically literate. We started understanding the social scene by doing the research and seeing what the social scene is like."Being aware of the social scene is crucial, according to Asante, if the group hopes to bring WeParty to other schools that each have their own unique social culture."We want to customize this to each university, so what we went through here in terms of understanding the social scene [is] the same process we want to do in each university," Asante said.Kim said the process of creating WeParty involved downloading hundreds of other apps and looking at what features they liked in each, as well as looking into the suggestions others had sent them."We really kind of thought of each individual person who [had] tried to use it," Kim said. "The best design is when it feels good. It's been truly humbling to see how many people are willing to give their time. ... I think it's upwards of 100 people that have helped us out."Moskowitz said that since the app is currently only for Tufts students, a Tufts email address is necessary in order to use it. Once you sign in, a list of events, ranging from fraternity parties to a cappella shows, appear."You [log into] the app, and the first thing you see is a list of events for this week and beyond. ... You can also see your own private events, which can be events from the public chart. You add to it by clicking the plus button, and you can create your own event and invite people," Moskowitz said.Another feature of WeParty is the Munchies section, according to Asante, which was added when the creators realized that many students wanted to know what restaurants were open late at night."You can call in on an Android or iPhone and ask for the WeParty discount at some of the restaurants we partner with," Asante said.According to Moskowitz, these food outlets include Sweet Idea, Pizza Days, Pranzi's, Yoshi's and Golden Taste."It's about creating win-win situations for everybody," Asante said. "The restaurants get to specifically advertise to the audience they're targeting, and on the user side you get discounts from the restaurants you love and it's all in the same place."Kim said that in order for a group to have a hosting account, they must follow rules about maintaining quality events. Bravenec also said the group enjoys meeting personally with students who wish to set up a hosting account."This app is created by students and for students," Bravenec said. "When we give these hosting accounts, ... we want to meet with [the hosts] and say thank you, and we hope they post all their quality events. This is a business, but we want to keep that student feel."Bravenec hopes that WeParty will grow so that students can connect with events around Boston and, ultimately, around the globe."We want to connect students across the world," Bravenec said. "So say you were a Tufts student, and you're doing a study abroad program in Barcelona. We want you to be able to connect with all the local students and be able to see where all the local students go. Right now, we want to take over Boston."12
While Tufts is known for its emphasis on "active citizenship," a growing number of students and faculty are wishing to bring "entrepreneurship" closer to the forefront of the university experience. The Gordon Institute, founded in 1984, seeks to assist inspired Tufts students as they bring their ideas to life through a variety of educational programs and annual competitions. The $100K New Ventures Competition, sponsored by the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program (ELP) and the Gordon Institute, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Additionally, this year marked the first Tufts Idea Competition, which helps sponsor student's business ideas in their early stages.The competition selected three winning proposals, each of which received a $1,000 cash prize for their business strategy. Trapsaver, presented by seniors David Leibenberg and Willem Sandberg from the School of Engineering, was one of the winning ideas. The product would assist fisherman in recovering sea fishing traps.Thormika Keo, a clinical associate at Tufts Medical Center, and Diana Winston, a clinical instructor at Tufts Medical Center, also won for their Hadori Catheter proposal, a device that would aid physicians in visualizing colonoscopy procedures. The third winner, Syria Bicycle Company, was presented by Fletcher School graduate student Ely Teitsworth as an enterprise to employ displaced Syrians through bicycle manufacturing.James Barlow, director of the ELP, discussed the wide array of applications to the Idea Competition. "If you think about how a lot of those [business plans] have more than one team member, there's a significant number of people working on cool and interesting projects across the university," he said. "It was a really hard job to whittle down the finalists of the Idea Competition. To be honest, if we had greater capacity, it would be amazing."This year, the Tufts Idea Competition featured roughly 135 experienced applicants, according to Barlow. The competition has offered budding entrepreneurs and future leaders the opportunity to exchange business ideas and strategies. This growing sense of entrepreneurial leadership, however, was not always as prevalent in campus culture, according to Barlow. "When I started at Tufts a few years ago, the Business Plan [100K New Ventures] Competition I felt was somewhat under representative of the entrepreneurial capacity at Tufts," he said. "This is why I joined. We had 18 submissions to the Business Plan Competition [that year], and I was fairly convinced that we had the capacity of getting a lot more entries and a lot more involvement from the student body at Tufts."According to Barlow, applicants were not required to know all of the tenents of business models in order to participate in the competition, but had to develop a great idea. He discussed the ELP's efforts to organize the competition."I'm thrilled about the changes that came with the competition and the things we've done to help generate ideas [like hosting] workshops and better outreach to really plug ourselves into what's happening in the dorm rooms and the coffee shops in and around campus," Barlow said. Ely Teitsworth, one of the three winners, said her idea was inspired by the time she spent living in Damascus from 2010 to 2011. "The inspiration for ... [Syria Bicycle Company] came from a Skype conversation I had a couple of months ago with a Syrian friend," Teitsworth told the Daily in an email. "He mentioned to me that the fastest way to get from my old neighborhood to his current neighborhood would be to walk this shocked me both because that would require walking for several hours and because it used to be a fairly quick trip on the microbus."Teitsworth attributed Syria's transportation issues to increasing fuel costs a phenomenon that has affected social mobility for those aspiring toward a greater education or career change."There are so many Syrians both inside and outside the country who have been struggling to find ways to use their time productively and move forward with their lives at a time when they face so many constraints." Teitsworth said. "It has been difficult to watch the consequences of the conflict in a place I had come to feel so connected to, and the huge number of young Syrians who have had to put their education and career aspirations on hold seemed like one area in which it might be feasible for me to act." Teitsworth said she firmly believes that bicycles are the solution to the transportation problem, and believes that her venture will make them more affordable and accessible to Syrians, while simultaneously creating more employment opportunities. She said she plans to use her prize money from the Tufts Idea Competition to study bicycle frame and wheel building, in order to aid in the company's manufacturing process.12
Last fall, University President Anthony Monaco named sexual assault as one the most important issues on campus, and created a university-wide sexual assault task force to address and prevent sexual misconduct at Tufts. Currently, the university is in the process of hiring a Sexual Misconduct Prevention Specialist, who will work to develop sexual assault prevention programming. In conjunction with these recent initiatives, Tufts students are hosting a variety of programming this April as part of campaign for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On Wednesday night, students came together to share their experiences with sexual violence at It Happens Here (IHH), an event that provides a forum for survivors of sexual assault to share their stories.IHH was founded at Middlebury College in the fall of 2011 by Middlebury students Luke Carroll Brown, a current senior, and Margo Cramer, a recent graduate, and has since spread to a variety of colleges.I knew [sexual assault] was happening, Cramer said. My friends had experienced it, and I had experienced it. And there was just no conversation about it -- at least at Middlebury. We had a feminist group on campus that didnt address it directly ... There was just general silence around the issue.Cramer said that she and Brown took several weeks to decide what format would work best for a campaign about sexual violence awareness and opted to focus on initiating dialogue on campus through storytelling.We started collecting stories, she said. Sharing stories in a thoughtful manner seemed like one really important step in getting people to see this issue as an important one ... What we really wanted to do was attract a variety of submissions so that we could represent a bastion of experiences.In its third year at Middlebury, IHH has since taken off as both an online and spoken campaign. According to a Dec. 4, 2013 article published in The Middlebury Campus, the IHH campaign is currently working to establish programming at six other colleges across the country. This year, IHH was successfully launched at Tufts with the help of several sororities and the Action for Sexual Assault Prevention group.Tufts has, over the last few years, struggled with its footing in the movement of sexual assault awareness and prevention, Katrina Dzyak, a sophomore and one of the planners of IHH, said. There is a lot lacking on the administration side ... [and] it has become [the] role [of] students, of course, to create spaces that are safe and to create programs that the university has not offered or is in the process of creating, but [that havent] come to fruition.Annie Goodman, a junior who helped organize IHH, formed a small team of students and started planning for the event in February.I think this issue has really picked up a lot of national attention in the last year, Goodman said. That visibility has really started accelerating. This moment right now is a really good opportunity to push forward ... Were at a point where ... people are more familiar with the language surrounding the issue.IHH called for story submissions of any length -- from 15 seconds to 15 minutes -- and form, in order to amplify the survivors voice about a problem that is one of the largest in American universities, according to the IHH website.Some of [the stories] are merely reflections, some of them are a sentiments of reactionary emotions, but they are all very, very important, Dzyak said. A few of them critique how weve gone about publicizing the movement, and how the activist community on campus has operated and maybe excluded people. But those are very important conversations to have.Goodman also noted that there was significant variety in the submissions to IHH, which were all anonymous.I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of male submissions, she said. I think its really important for the movement as a whole to recognize that sexual violence is not just something that happens ... [to] a woman being attacked by a stranger at night. It takes on so many forms that can have equally damaging repercussions for the survivorCramer explained that the flexible structure of the event allowed for stories to be read either by their actual author or another speaker. However, it was never specified if the stories were the readers own. One of the really cool things about the event format, and something that Tufts has done a really great job with developing further, is giving people more power to decide how their story is shared, she said.IHH also featured a keynote speaker, Wagatwe Wanjuki, a Tufts alumna who started a blog called Raped at Tufts University, which works to generate awareness of sexual assault by publishing first-hand accounts of survivors stories. Since graduating, Wanjuki has become a nationally recognized sexual assault activist, with her work featured in Ebony Magazine and Feministing.com.12
Tufts Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning last Friday hosted a conference on the future of city planning in Quebec and New England.
Tufts Bikes last week added 12 new bicycles to its school bike-share program, bringing the total number of bikes in the program to 30.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions released its remaining admissions decisions last Friday, which include a record-low 17.4 percent acceptance rate for the Class of 2018. With 19,075 applications for next years freshman class, this is the third record-high pool Tufts has received in the last four years, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin. The numbers are particularly notable for the School of Engineering, where the number of applicants increased by 17 percent from last year. This is the eighth year in a row the school received a record-breaking applicant pool. Thats the untold story, the explosive growth in the School of Engineering, Coffin said. I think its ... partly because of a national trend and its partly a continued expansion of the visibility of the School of Engineering at Tufts. While the number of applications to the School of Arts and Sciences did not notably increase, Coffin said the combined acceptance rate for both undergraduate schools has dropped by 10 points in the last five years. I think some of it is the success of the undergraduate admissions website, he said. We went live in the fall of 2011 and the [applicant] pool is up almost 17 percent in the two years weve had an online recruitment platform versus a more traditional print based system ... The admissions blogs [are] a really significant draw. This years acceptance pool includes students from all 50 states, two more than last year. In particular, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of applicants from California. Tufts received 2,417 applications from this west coast state, compared to 2,441 from Massachusetts. It would not surprise me next year to see California become the number one state in the applicant pool, Coffin said. That is a function of the web. I think we have eight different admissions officers that recruit in California. Weve spent more time doing programs in the state. The admissions office also saw continued growth in applicants from outside the United States, Coffin added, in large part due to increased travel from admissions counselors and increased visibility of the school. According to Coffin, standardized test scores for the Class of 2018 remained relatively consistent with last years record scores. The mean SAT critical reading score remained unchanged at 728, and the math was at 732, slightly down from 735, but still higher than it has been for classes within the last decade. The average ACT score also remained at 32. Ninety-three percent of accepted students ranked in the top 10 percent of their class. However, Coffin noted that this statistic excludes the many students who come from high schools that do not use ranking systems. Unlike last years class, which included slightly more female students, almost an equal number of male and female students were accepted this year, according to Coffin. Approximately two-thirds of this years pool applied for financial aid a consistent number from last years applicant pool, Coffin said. The goal is to continue to raise resources to make Tufts successful, Coffin said. There is never going to be an admission cycle where that eases up. Tufts Admissions also accepted a record 342 first-generation college students this year, an increase over the 295 admitted last year. Im really proud of the increase in the first-gen community at Tufts, said Coffin, who was a first-generation college student himself. There were 3,315 total students accepted for the Tufts Class of 2018, a number that has also decreased in recent years as larger numbers of accepted students decide to attend Tufts, according to Coffin. Admitted students will have until May 1 to submit their deposit. As it has annually, the school will host three Jumbo Days on April 17, 18 and 25. Coffin encouraged current students to sign up to host the most recently accepted Jumbos.
In a widespread effort to increase the use of new media forms, the video sharing website YouTube is being used by a wider variety of organizations in the Tufts community than ever before. Tufts University Television (TUTV) premiered their latest web-series Jules and Monty on YouTube last month, while an Experimental College (ExCollege) course this semester titled YouTube: Business and Creative Success has specifically geared its curriculum toward the use of the social media website. Additionally, Tufts Community Union presidential candidates reached out to potential voters with campaign videos posted on YouTube last year.With more than one billion distinct users visiting per month, YouTube has found a unique niche in the landscape of modern media. YouTubes accessibility, combined with its ease of navigation and widespread use, has allowed the Tufts students to explore video production both creatively and academically.YouTube, as a system, is a great equalizer, Kyle Shurtleff, instructor of YouTube: Business and Creative Success, said. The fact that it is completely free to use for both consumers and creators is a great benefit to anyone just starting or very well established.A senior engineering psychology major with over 85,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Shurtleff designed his course in an effort to motivate and teach others who might not otherwise have the opportunity to use YouTube as a creative medium. Shurtleff has published over 250 gaming videos on his YouTube channel with a combined total view count of over 10 million.His course aims to provide the tools necessary for achieving YouTube success by encouraging students to be creative with a medium that they may not know how to use effectively. Shurtleff described some of the aspects on which his course seeks to focus. One of the things I like about YouTube is the fact that it incorporates lots of skills beyond just pure video making, he said. Theres lots of marketing, promotional skills [and a lot] of recording, technical, [and] writing skills. The goal [of the course] is just to enable people to learn some of those [skills] and to up themselves when they otherwise might not.Shurtleff also described some of the entrepreneurial and financial aspects of the course. Compared to other forms of media ... [YouTube is] very easy to monetize, [and] starting to make even a small income from it is as easy as checking a couple boxes, he said.Shurtleff emphasized how YouTube allows users full control over the creative process, a freedom not common in many other kinds of social media. This creative freedom has also been captured by TUTVs latest web-series Jules and Monty, a modern adaptation of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet (1597). The show is the brainchild of sophomores Imogen Browder and Ed Rosini.We all know the stories of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet (1603) and [A] Midsummer [Nights Dream] (1605). I want to see how artists can take those well-known stories and breathe new life into them, sophomore Evelyn Reidy, the shows artistic director, said.Identified by TUTV as the groups medium of choice, YouTube gives the shows creators the platform to recreate these works with TUTVs own spin for a huge audience.I think [YouTube is] extremely effective because [it] is something that everyone uses and everyones used to, sophomore Claire Brodie, Jules and Monty assistant cinematic director, said. I think its the easiest way for reaching people without spending any sort of money. So TUTV actually used to have channel that would be broadcast over campus and that stopped, I believe, in the 90s. YouTube [however] is good because its really easy to share.Reidy discussed the goals of TUTVs newest show, which has been posted in a serialized episode format on the groups YouTube channel. Episodes range from about five to eight minutes long, and feature several Tufts students.I hope that Jules and Monty has a two-fold purpose to provide the Tufts community with original, engaging content and to show Tufts what our artistic communities are capable of producing, Reidy said. I think the series really showcases how impressive an all student-made production can be, both from an acting and technical standpoint.With only seven episodes released and view counts for many episodes reaching more than 1500, students and the public appear to have significant interest in TUTVs latest large-scale production. According to Brodie, broadcasting via YouTube and regularly promoting the show on Facebook has made the dissemination of the show to an audience easy and effective.Shurtleff pointed to the various uses of YouTube around campus, from promotional videos produced by the Tufts Undergraduate Admissions Department to educational and tutorial videos used by professors in the classroom. Tufts admissions applicants even have the choice to submit a video as their optional supplement, and many students have taken advantage as an opportunity to show their creative sides. The beauty of YouTube is that anyone can do the same, according to Shurtleff.12
The brothers of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity will host a Tufts Gives Back event this Friday which will consist of a bone marrow registration drive and a used book sale and donation drive.
Wilson House will be home to transfer students for the 2014-2015 school year, according to Director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning Yolanda King. King explained that the university several years ago housed about 10 female transfer students in 92 Professors Row today the home of Sigma Phi Epsilon - but since that time has not had a dedicated home for transfers.
Duke University Professor of Economics Rachel Kranton spoke yesterday about the ways in which people act on their self-interests in group contexts when making economic decisions.
Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney will step down on June 30 to become the president of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. A graduate and former associate dean of Wellesley College, Berger-Sweeney began her current role at Tufts in 2010.
The City of Somerville recently created a new task force to review options for the development of a Curbside Composting Initiative. The idea was announced Feb. 25 by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and will be co-chaired by Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz, who is the vice chairperson of the Board of Aldermans Committee on Energy and Environment. According to Gewirtz, the program would work toward the citys sustainability and environmental goals. The initiative is part of a broader move to require businesses and residents to compost their leftover food. Food scraps that fall into the trash go to landfills and emit significant carbon in the atmosphere which is a component of our global warming problem, she said. Gewirtz explained that the creation of a program is not a new idea, and one already exists in the neighboring City of Cambridge. The City of Cambridge does it so once residents bring their compost to a designated spot, in the spring they can pick up the composted soil for their garden, she said. The city could also save money through such a program due to reduced costs in waste removal, Gewirtz said. She explained that City of Somerville residents generate 5,200 tons in food waste every year and the city estimated that it costs roughly $750,000 to remove and dispose of this waste. She said that other cities have demonstrated a significant decrease in the weight of trash and hopes that Somerville will make similar progress. According to Gewirtz, the program will be developed by a Curbside Composting Task Force, which is currently seeking applicants from the Somerville community. Members of the task force do not necessarily have to be experts on this initiative, but will instead consist of people with varying interests, Gewirtz said. Weve heard for some time that Somerville residents want to find a better way [to deal with this issue] than sending our food scraps off to a landfill or incinerator, she said. Tufts Waste Reduction Program Manager Dawn Quirk said the citys initiative is an important step in improving recycling. I would advocate for Somervilles effort to include a marketing component to encourage food conservation and waste reduction [because] estimates of total food wasted by Americans are quite astounding, Quirk told the Daily in an email. Tufts Eco-Representative (Eco-Rep) Arshiya Goel explained that the university already has its own composting initiatives at the dining halls where all food waste and napkins are composted, and in the residence halls where eco-reps work. Each dorm with an eco-rep has at least one bin, though some of them have more, Goel, a junior, said. We can compost fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, human hair and nails, unbleached paper towels among other things. The university, however, does not have composting available in public spaces like the Mayer Campus Center, Goel explained. We are working on expanding the program, she said. The more students compost in dorms, the greater worth the university would see in installing composting all over campus. According to Goel, Somervilles Curbside Composting Initiative would not directly affect the majority of Tufts students, but would benefit those who do not live in dorms. I live off campus, and we pay a composting company to take our compost twice a month, she said. If Somerville actually begins curbside composting it will be great for us. Quirk explained that the university would work with students to ensure their participation in the Curbside Composting Initiative. Once Somerville has a curbside program, off-campus students living in Somerville could request reused 1-5 gallon kitchen collection buckets from Tufts Recycles! [supplied by Tufts Dining] to help with the effort, she said. Gewirtz added that she hopes to have participation from the Tufts community. Having Tufts involved would be beneficial, and students and facultys help would be great, she said.
The Independent Film Production class is filming a promotional trailer on the Academic Quad this Sunday for a series about American women in history. The series, Half the History, was created in collaboration with Five Sisters Production Company and the Tufts Department of Drama and Dance. There is a growing realization that ?in order to really understand our history fully and know all of the things that women have been doing [throughout] history, we need to look at other kinds of stories and look at history in a different way, Professor of Filmmaking and Film Studies Jennifer Burton said. Half the History will tell the narrative of Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklins sister, according to Burton. Because the film does not have an end date, future classes will also work on the project. The point is to be able to give a teaser for what is to come later and to show that there are lots of women who did amazing things, and we dont even know what their names are, Maya Zeigler, a sophomore in Burtons class, said. While the first episode will be completed after the end of the semester, Burton said she hopes the trailer will be finished and released in May. Burton got the idea for the first episode from Jill Lepores Book of Ages, which describes the life and opinions of Jane Franklin, according to Natasha Lee, a sophomore working on the project in the advanced film class. Franklins story provides an example of how gender has shaped peoples lives throughout history, Burton explained. [The story] is really about how [Jane Franklin] spends a lot of time being pregnant and taking care of her kids as opposed to Ben Franklin who is out there working on his career, so it is a nice comparison, Lee said. At the same time, the book doesnt present Jane as a victim she is her own person. The male-focused narrative of history has left out stories, including Jane Franklins, which are representative of how America became the country it is today, according to Lee. There are a lot of people like Jane Franklin who are being forgotten, she said. Her story is extraordinary in her own way ... even though she might not have made significant political contributions like her brother did, her story is still part of history because this is how an ordinary woman lived, and that is important, too. Looking for someone to play the role of Jane Franklin in the trailer, the production team is in its second round of auditions, according to Zeigler, one of the projects casting directors. Tufts students, as well as union actors and actresses from around New England are auditioning for parts in the production, which will include 70 women, Zeigler said. In addition, historical re-enactors from the Minute Man National Park in Concord, Mass. and the Freedom Trail Foundation may help with the trailer and first films. As well as working with national parks and historic sites, the production team is working with the National Collaborative for Womens History Sites, which is aligned with the Half the History mission and provided information for the script, Zeigler said. Once the film is finished, the class will give back to the partner organizations by sharing the film, which they can then show to others for educational purposes, Zeigler explained. She hopes the film will help people realize that the current version of history is incomplete. I think the fact that we are working on a project that is run by students, students are acting in it and what it is about which is telling the stories of people who havent been able to tell them over the course of time ... I believe that it makes people think, Zeigler said. It makes people realize that there is so much more than just what is put in front of you. Burton agreed that the lack of female perspectives in current history textbooks is problematic. Simply having stories where there are female characters that have character development in the story is something that gives viewers a sense of the complexity of female human experience, and that is something that has been missing in a lot of our media, she said. In addition to providing viewers with a unique perspective on the experience of women throughout history, Half the History provides students in the advanced filmmaking class a great opportunity to develop film production skills, according to Burton. Having the ability to have classes where you are able to have the time ... to think about what kinds of things we want to put out in the world, what kinds of things we want to spend our energy making, and then having these amazing new tools to be able to make those things, is just an incredible opportunity, she said.
Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow Alison Brysk spoke yesterday to a group of students and faculty about the way in which the U.S. government uses foreign policy initiatives to promote womens rights around the world. The feedback that I get from my students is that they would like to hear more about gender issues in international relations so we wanted to do something about that, Professor of Political Science Richard Eichenberg said. I got together with a group of faculty ... and we decided to bring in several speakers. Gender issues are a growing component of foreign policy, according to Eichenberg. Issues of global gender equality are at least a nominally declared priority of American foreign policy around the world, he said. The programmatic activities have grown greatly and there are a number of initiatives under way in the foreign policy establishment ... Theres a lot going on and we thought it was about time to publicize it a bit and engage [students] in a conversation. Eichenberg explained that he experienced difficulty finding a scholar who focused on womens rights as a U.S. foreign policy objective. He added, however, that Brysk, the Mellichamp Professor of Global Governance in the Global and International Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was the perfect person to discuss global gender initiatives. Brysk said that her recent work on gender equality grew out of her previous research on human rights and human trafficking. I started working on this issue out of about 20 years of human rights scholarship and I had been running across a lot of issues related to gender, womens rights, gender equity, womens empowerment all along the way, she said. When I turned to this issue I wanted to know in what ways it follows a certain pattern with other human rights issues and in what ways there are distinctive concerns related to gender and related to identity issues and how that influences the concrete policy environment. A major problem in achieving global gender equality is violence, according to Brysk. She said that one in three women have experienced gender-based violence and one in five women have been subjected to sexual violence. She cited Malala Yousafzai as an example of her concerns. Here is a young woman who is finally gaining access to education, who is finally gaining some potential for realizing just the most basic conventional rights and equity in her society, Brysk said. Whats stopping her? Its not law; its violence. The world is becoming increasingly aware of these violent incidents, especially with examples such as Yousafzai and the recent string of Indian rapes making world headlines, Brysk explained. However, she cautioned that the number of incidents has not decreased. Social sciences is starting to really approach this seriously and were beginning to get better data and better information and that means that we can use our analytic tools and figure out where [gender inequality and violence] is happening, why it is happening, what kinds of social processes are associated with this, she said. According to Brysk, some of these new approaches include framing womens rights as a human rights issue and searching for various entry points in politics for gender equality. Health, law, security, migration are all part of the [gender equality] picture and along with that ... theres a changing role of U.S. human rights policy, she said. We always criticize the U.S. for being too bilateral ... we always want to go it alone and sanction the people that we think are doing the wrong thing and not pay attention to global institutions. Womens rights is one of the areas the U.S. collaborates the most with global institutions. This increased collaboration and international support occurs in a variety of ways, Brysk explained, including the use of sanctions, political pressure, humanitarian intervention and financial assistance. She said that while the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development give large sums of money to health and law enforcement initiatives benefiting women, the contribution pales in comparison to those of other countries, and that which is recommended by the UN. Brysk also addressed a major roadblock in the distribution of U.S. assistance: the Helms Amendment, which prevents the government from helping any organization that provides or discusses abortions. Certain administrations managed to scoot around the information part of this, but this has wreaked havoc on our ability to support global health programs, she said. In addition to ensuring that women are not simply objects to be used as a means to achieve a political or social goal, Brysk said that the U.S. must resolve the ongoing domestic reproductive rights battle. How can we do what we need to do in the world and for the world when we are still denying women basic control of our bodies at home and trying to condition essential health services abroad? she asked. Overall, Brysk labeled the glass as half full and said that the U.S. is on the proper path to integrating the promotion of womens rights in its foreign policy. We are doing pretty much some good things and we need to just evermore join with the global institutions and the local movements and some of the other countries that are doing good things, she said. Overall, U.S. cowboy foreign policy has got to grow up. Social change is a slow and spiraling process. Over time, in many fields we see improvement.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, a candidate for the democratic gubernatorial nomination, spoke at an event hosted by the Tufts Democrats yesterday evening. Coakley told the group of students that they should actively participate in the democratic process and should take advantage of the education opportunities offered by the university. I think it is important that you are at least engaged tonight in hearing from somebody who is running for governor, [not only] because it is an important office, but [because] everyone we elect is important ... whether its your school committee, or your congresswoman, she said. I hope that whether you ever run yourselves or not, that you will stay engaged in making sure that democracy works. Coakley, who graduated from Williams College in 1975, briefly discussed her own background and education. Regarding her own political experiences, she said that she is relatively new to political office. She first ran for an elected position in 1997. She explained that because she lives in Medford, she often passes Tufts. She also worked with the university during her time as the District Attorney of Middlesex County. In her current capacity as attorney general, she has worked on many issues, including sexual assault, financial malfeasance and workplace issues. I had a chance as attorney general to do a lot of things, including trying to hold Wall Street accountable for basically gambling with a lot of our money and almost wrecking our economy, she said. According to Coakley, this issue remains important in her campaign for governor. One of her goals for Massachusetts includes the promotion of a more prosperous but fair economy. She also spoke about the need for more privileged citizens to help those who are less fortunate. It is, I think, incumbent on all of us to not only do well, as you all have as students, but [also] to do good, to think about the Commonwealth, to think about what it means for people who dont have the advantage to be able to go to a college and get that education, she said. If she becomes governor, Coakley said she would make improving access to quality education a major initiative of her administration. She said she would seek improvements from pre-kindergarten through college, and advocated for a longer and more structured school day for elementary school students. Maybe, by the third grade, [a student] is not reading well, whats the reason for that and how do we figure that out? she asked. If we do not get [children] back on track ... chances are good they are not going to be Tufts students, and they may drop out of school, and they may not have the advantages ... to get a good job and to have a livable wage. As part of her education initiatives, Coakley proposed placing additional emphasis on computer science and good writing skills that she said will be increasingly important to a wide range of new professions. She also expressed concern about climate change, and hopes to move the state toward a more environmentally friendly economy. We need good people who will say, We need to think about how we are going to reverse climate change, how we are going to get people around without driving cars, and what we are going to do for smart growth for Massachusetts, she said. Health care policy was an additional concern Coakley addressed, and she said she would work to keep it affordable and to maintain its quality. She also discussed the suicide of her brother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, and said she hopes to improve the states mental healthcare system. I understand, having lived with that, how difficult that is, she said. I think in 2014 we should in Massachusetts ... be treating our behavioral and our mental health the same way we do diabetes or heart concerns. She concluded with an appeal to the broader population to assist future generations. We can grow this economy for everybody, we are going to give you a chance to get on that ladder and do well, we are going to provide our best education possible ... so that you have a chance to compete in the future, that your kids will have a chance to compete in that future, hopefully with a cleaner climate, she said. After her presentation, Coakley took questions from students about improving the economies of small towns and on what improvements are necessary for the mental healthcare system. She explained that she would provide support to small businesses and advocate for the creation of new industries in older mill towns. She also said she hopes to have Massachusetts increase its capacity for both the prevention and treatment of mental health issues.
Tufts School of Dental Medicine recently began the implementation of the new Global Service Learning Initiative, a program intended to streamline international service opportunities for students.
The City of Somerville in a March 20 press release announced that it had ended negotiations with Tufts on the redevelopment of the former Powder House Community School.
Over the past few years, Tufts club sports has expanded to include more teams and, consequently, more students. As the program has grown, however, the process of managing and financing club sports has become increasingly complex.Three years ago marked the beginning of the expansion of the program, according to Assistant Director of Athletics Branwen Smith-King.We had 11 club sports up until three years ago, she said. There [has] been this upswell of students just wanting to start [sports] clubs, or [who] were already unofficially in clubs ... Two or three years ago ... students were coming to us with a lot of requests, and we just didnt feel good saying no.In response, Tufts devised two types of club sports: tier 1 and tier II. Tier II clubs would receive, at least, access to oversight, the ability to use the Tufts name and the ability to compete against other schools. When tier II sports began, its teams received no funding from the school.Thats when I got involved with club sports, Smith-King said. I was given the task of designing tier II. What we ended up doing in the first year was using ... buffer funding to help offset some expenses.Smith-King manages most of the oversight for Tufts 22 tier I and tier II teams. Eventually, the athletic department began to receive allocated funds for club sports from the TCU Senate.What was happening [was that] sport groups were going to the senate for approval, Smith-King said. That doesnt make sense ... How can they approve a sports team without communicating to us about space? They were happy to hand that off to us.This year, the athletic departments monetary allocation for club sports was increased by an additional $35,000. The large increase, however, doesnt necessarily mean adequate funding, according to Smith-King. Team members are required to pay a certain amount of dues, based on their numbers and the coverage that they received.No matter what we do, were never going to be able to pay for everything, Smith-King said. [Even] varsity teams have to fundraise.The money gets allocated to each team, and then we have ... a buffer fund, which was developed years ago, she added. For instance, if hockey has a great season and they qualify for playoffs or a postseason tournament, thats what that money [is] for.Junior Carter Thallon, captain of mens Ultimate Frisbee club team, said his team has received some funding, but much of the expenses were left to team members, particularly in regards to travel.It might be a little under, but [we were allotted] around $2000, he said. We use it for rental cars, mainly. Dues this year were $350 a person ... and then people buy their own flights [to tournaments], which are about $300 a person. If we make nationals -- thats another flight we have to buy.Hannah Schuchert, co-captain of the womens rugby, a tier 1 program, reiterated her teams need for funding outside of the universitys resources.We definitely cant get everything we need with the money we get from Tufts, Schuchert, a junior, said. We look for funding for busses for the games ... Were limited to places we can go to and from in one day because we haven't received funding for overnight [travel] or anything like that.Schuchert also commented on the other expenses beyond travel that the team incurs.We look for funding for equipment: balls, jerseys, rucking pads, she said. [Tufts Emergency Medical Services] is another thing we need funding for -- we need TEMS at every practice and every game. We would love to get more [funding]. We dont get all that much from Tufts, from the club sports allotment.Some sports, as to be expected, are more expensive than others. Clubs like ice hockey and skiing bear higher equipment, practice and travel costs. According to freshman Caitlin Thompson who competes on the equestrian team, group members pay $50 for each of their lessons.That's the next goal -- to ... continue to get additional funding, so that we can help the more expensive sports operate and have students give less of their own money, Smith-King said.Smith-King also discussed the financial inequality between the more expensive and less expensive sports.What was happening was that teams that really didnt need a big budget were getting enough to almost fund their team, whereas [for] some of the more expensive sports, it was barely a dip in the bucket, Smith-King said.Smith-King discussed the ways in which the athletic department hopes to remedy some of the issues surrounding club sports funding.Were ... making the team leaders be more accountable, so 15 is the minimum number on club teams, Smith-King said. If we have a sport thats only funding four or five kids, thats not the purpose of the sport. Weve had a few teams that have had challenges ... with their numbers ... I didnt want to disband them, so what I did was say, Okay, youre not getting funding this year -- your goal is to increase your numbers.12
After 27 years of service, former Associate Provost and Professor of Medicine Mary Lee will leave Tufts this fall to assume the prestigious six-month Kimitaka Kaga Visiting Professorship at the University of Tokyos Graduate School of Medicine.
