Not far beyond the "Help for Haiti" sign that greets athletes on their way in and out of Cousens Gym lie about 50 bags of clothing and shoes just behind the doorway to Carzo Cage.
Off−campus residents may soon become the guinea pigs for Google's new ultra−high−speed Internet connection, pending the success of Somerville's application in the company's ongoing selection process.
While most leave "Sesame Street" behind along with sippy cups and diapers, Tufts alum Dan Lewis (LA '00) recently returned to the show that is a childhood fixture for many in order to help the 40−year−old program better adapt to the 21st century.
Erin Gruwell, an advocate for educational reform and subject of the movie "Freedom Writers" (2007), last night spoke at the fifth annual Merrin Distinguished Lecture about the current education system and her views on education. She shared her experience working with children whom the system had written off. The lecture was sponsored by Moral Voices.
Although several schools are waiving their application fees to entice applicants, high school students still face steep fees when applying to many colleges and universities. Below are the standard application fees for several Boston−area schools.
Colleges in the Boston area are lacking in faculty diversity and have low numbers of African-American and Hispanic tenure-track professors, according to a recent survey by the Boston Globe. The survey reveals that at Tufts these minority groups make up only 7.7 percent of the faculty, a number on par with many other Boston-area colleges. Director of the Latino Center Rubén Salinas-Stern attributed this to the fact that minority students are deterred by the high risks associated with following an academic career path. "The students that I work with tend to be first-generation students and tend to be low-income students, and the process of becoming a professor is a very long process," he said. "It's a brutal process … I think it's really hard to get people to think that long term with so many risks involved and also thinking about the fact that they need to be out there, working, making money." Salinas-Stern also noted that full-time professor hires have decreased recently. "Universities are hiring less and less full-time professors," he said. "Universities are hiring more adjuncts and part-time professors." Some of the lowest numbers of African-American and Latino tenure-track professors are seen at Boston University, where they make up 3.4 percent of the faculty, and Brandeis University, where the number stands at three percent. Tufts' figure of 7.7 percent ranks above Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which come in at 5.8 and 6.4 percent of faculty respectively. Emerson College's percentage is slightly higher, at 8.5 percent. Salinas-Stern said that he has not seen a significant increase in the number of Latino professors since 1994, when he began working at Tufts. "We don't have substantially more Latino faculty now than we had when I arrived," he said. "I don't see the numbers growing at Tufts, at least in terms of Latino faculty." Still, Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha noted that the promotion of African-American professors has increased since 2002 when he first came to Tufts. According to Bharucha, Tufts in 2002 had one African-American full professor and eight tenured associate professors. Today, these numbers have increased to four and 15 respectively. "We've doubled the tenured ranks of tenured African-Americans," he said. "We can be proud of some progress. It's noticeable to the community." Bharucha agreed, however, that Tufts still has room to improve with regards to faculty diversity. "The numbers alone aren't enough," he said. "You need to build a culture, a community, a climate that is welcoming to faculty from underrepresented groups, whether it's African-Americans or women in fields where they're underrepresented. That takes a lot of work, and we're trying to work on that through better orientation and better workshops." He explained that a lot of his work has focused on creating role models for younger faculty. "My emphasis was on building faculty leadership at the senior level," he said. Travis Brown, manager of the Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Diversity at Tufts — established to attract and support students interested in scientific careers — noted that the presence of such role models was especially important for minority students looking to go into academia. "It's a difficult process for anyone, but particularly for underrepresented students, it's more difficult if there's no one they can look to as an example," he said. Bharucha feels that increasing understanding about bias is integral to any diversity efforts. "I think the more knowledge there is about the psychology of bias and perception of in- and out-groups and attitudes of attributions and how these things work, I think the more we can catch ourselves when we might inadvertently be biased," he said. He pointed out that research has disproved skeptics who claim that people are inherently unbiased. "These studies in social psychology and neuroscience enable us to see, scientifically, that there are biases that are unconscious that manifest themselves, and we need to work to compensate for those," Bharucha said. This research has been presented to Tufts' administration and faculty in the hopes of increasing diversity awareness. "I'm hoping that by better disseminating this new info from social psychology, more people will realize that there's a lot of work to be done still in order to create a culture, a climate where bias doesn't exist," Bharucha said. "Otherwise, many people are very skeptical of the need to diversify our university campus." Salinas-Stern said that Tufts will continue to work toward raising the number of minority faculty members. "I think you need to provide a lot of financial support, a lot of mentorship," he said. Bharucha echoed these sentiments, pointing out that diversification and equalization is a long-term process. "It's not something that has an overnight solution," he said. "You need to keep working on it and progress is slow."
The Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) decision to next year relocate the Healthy Living Program for upperclassmen to Lewis Hall has, according to students, led many to drop out of the program. Data provided by ResLife showed that this year, 122 students applied and were accepted into the program before knowing about the change, an increase from 83 last year. Only 26 of these students, however, ultimately participated in the Feb. 12 healthy living lottery, a decrease from 64 last year. ResLife defended the change as an attempt to accommodate all students interested in the program. Healthy living is intended to be a residential experience in which students practice a lifestyle promoting physical and mental wellbeing and abide by a zero-tolerance substance policy. The 12-year-old program was this academic year situated on the first floors of Carmichael and Hodgdon Halls, 45 Sawyer Ave. and most of the all-freshman dorm Hill Hall, according to Associate Director of ResLife Doreen Long. Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman explained that the relocation is an effort to ensure there is enough space in healthy living housing to meet student demand, since ResLife has in the past been forced to turn people away. "It's unfortunate that we couldn't meet student requests [in years past]," Reitman said. "So there was a push this year to try to accommodate all the requests for healthy living." Reports from students, however, suggest that the strategy may have backfired. Despite the record-high number of interested students, many changed their minds and dropped out from the program after ResLife announced the change. A large proportion of the students who withdrew from the healthy living program expressed disappointment in its relocation to Lewis Hall, which has generally been one of the last dorms to be chosen by students in the housing lottery. "I just find it ironic that the dorm with the worst facilities was chosen for Healthy Living," freshman Tiffany Tu, one of the 96 students who changed their minds, said. Current Hill resident freshman Amy Demicco felt that Lewis would not be conducive to the creation of a close-knit, like-minded community like the one present in Hill's healthy living floors, citing the likelihood that substances and raucous behavior would likely be pervasive. "We were to be in a dorm where we would be exposed to the things we were trying to avoid," Demicco said. Long, however, said that Lewis was chosen because of its design. "In Lewis the setup is really convenient, the configuration is easier," she said. "It's blocked off into wings, so if we filled up certain portions and not others, we could still keep healthy living only in certain areas." Long explained that Lewis stood out from the other residence halls considered for the program because it was large enough to accommodate all members in one location, as opposed to dispersing them among at least three dorms as has happened in the past. She noted that Hill will continue to house freshman healthy Living residents. Students reacted strongly to the change, calling it detrimental to the Healthy Living Program. "Lewis killed healthy living," Demicco said. Freshman Xiaochong Yao echoed these sentiments. "I question the motive behind ResLife's decision … because of what Lewis Hall is like," she said. "ResLife seems to discourage students [from choosing] a healthy living lifestyle." Sophomore Michelle Hayes said she has enjoyed her two-year experience in healthy living but decided to look for alternative housing options because of Lewis' questionable reputation. "Lewis is just such a gross dorm," she said. "The fact that this year healthy living is in Carmichael makes Lewis seem even worse. It doesn't make sense to put healthy living kids, who would treat the dorm facilities well, in a building that's not that great." Still, freshman Adam Cohen, a current Hill resident who chose to continue with healthy living next year, believes that Lewis is not much worse of a facility than other older dorms on campus. "I'm not quite sure what the whole deal is with people backing out," Cohen said. "The people make the place. With the proper group, Lewis could be a lot nicer than it is." Reitman shares Cohen's view on Lewis' potential to foster a strong healthy living environment. "It's not just about location or amenities," he said. "It's the program, the mix of single and double rooms. Hopefully the value and worth of the program outweighs the discontent over location." Freshman Karen Adler explained that she decided to stick with the healthy living program despite her dissatisfaction with the location because of her poor lottery number. Reitman acknowledged that students with low lottery numbers often opt for healthy living to avoid an unfavorable housing arrangement. He discouraged such actions. "I hope that the requests were to be part of a particular program and not just a means of getting in to a particular residence," he said. ResLife remains unconcerned about those who withdrew from healthy living due to locations concerns. "We were hoping that people would want to be in the program and if they choose not to be part of the program, that is completely up to them," Long said. Still, Adler feels that students should have been consulted as part of ResLife's decision-making process. "I feel like the move to Lewis indicates that ResLife doesn't care much about the happiness of people who chose healthy living," she said. Reitman recognized students' reservations about Lewis but is convinced that healthy living residents can improve the dorm's atmosphere. "The way of life there is different than in other locations," he said. "Change is slow to take hold; expectations and community values generally take a few years to settle into a place."
The newly renovated Agnes Varis Campus Center at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine campus in Grafton was in December awarded the Silver Hammer Award in recognition of its design excellence. The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce gives yearly Silver Hammer Awards to recognize projects that contribute significantly to the area's aesthetic quality or enhance the region's historical sites. "The Silver Hammer Award signifies the best institutional historic renovation within the Worcester region," Jean Poteete, senior campus planner for the Cummings School, said. The Cummings School campus center was one of three construction and rehabilitation projects awarded the prize at the chamber's 134th annual meeting, held on Dec. 8. Agnes Varis (C '03), a trustee and member of the Board of Overseers at the Cummings School, donated $4 million to the renovation of the campus center, which in total cost $10 million. The renovation began in the summer of 2007 and ended in the fall of 2008 and had been delayed for many years due to insufficient funding, according to Director of Construction Management Mitch Bodnarchuk. Bowdoin Construction Corporation undertook the building's construction, and the architectural firm Finegold Alexander and Associates drew up the building's design. The selection of the architects for the renovation took into consideration their understanding of the project's desired outcome, according to Bodnarchuk. "The architects of the renovation were chosen by their experience with the renovation of older buildings that coincided with the campus theme," he said. The original building, built in 1913, served as a dormitory for male nurses working at the Grafton State Hospital. Tufts in 1978 purchased the hospital's land from the state to establish the Cummings School. The new campus center will provide the Cummings School community with a much-needed space for both scholastic and non-scholastic activities, creating a venue that facilitates community unity, according to Tom Keppeler, associate director of public relations for the Cummings School. "[It is a] cohesive space for the campus, as we never had one place for students to eat, study and relax," he said. The renovation involved the replacement of all of the windows in the campus center and the restoration of the slate roof. The interior of the building was entirely redone, along with the addition of a new 1,000-square-foot fitness room, a cafeteria, two 1,000-square-foot lounges, a bookstore, 13 faculty offices and an auditorium. The two lounges include a "loud" lounge equipped with billiards and foosball tables and a "quiet" study lounge with a fireplace. The auditorium in the campus center is the third on the Grafton campus. The 173-seat auditorium is open to the public and has already been used by members of the Tufts Department of Music to showcase a benefit concert for relief efforts in Haiti. The new fitness center — the first on the Grafton campus — was added partially thanks to funding from the Cummings Marathon Challenge team, Team Jumbo West. Additionally, as part of the preservation of the historical site, which is today listed on the Massachusetts Register of Historic Places, a new two-story wing containing a 7,200-square-foot lecture hall was added using the original structure's materials. Beyond uniting the student community, the campus center also brings faculty and students together, as it houses private offices for Cummings School faculty. The other recipients of the Silver Hammer Award were the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts and the Rainbow Child Development Center at 10 Edward Street. Chris Candiello, construction projects manager in the Tufts Operations Division, won a 2009 Extra Mile Award, one of the Tufts Distinction Awards, in part for his work on the Grafton construction project.
Members of the Greek community this year reported a marked increase in rush participation from previous years, crediting efforts to establish a more accessible and integrated Greek community. Nine of Tufts' 10 fraternities accepted more than 10 new members, and some reported pledge classes with close to 20 people. Inter-Greek Council (IGC) Vice President of Public Relations Eric Swanson, a sophomore, noted there was almost an across-the-board increase in the size of pledge classes. "[We are] really excited about it," he said. Sophomore Jacob Schiller, president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) fraternity and IGC vice president of governance, said that the individual fraternities worked hard to distinguish the Greek community's image at Tufts from what is conventionally presented in the media. "I think that a lot of people come to college having a [stereotypical] view of Greek life, and the frats did a fantastic job of combating that [this] fall," he said. This image campaign, combined with the holistic development of an integrated Greek community, may have contributed to the increase in interest, according to Greek community leaders. "The individual houses were working really hard on improvement … towards developing the Greek community instead of the separate houses," Swanson said. Senior Sam Pollack, president of the Tufts Interfraternity Council (IFC), said that of Tufts' fraternities, Alpha Epsilon Pi took 22 new brothers, SigEp took 18, Delta Tau Delta took 10, Alpha Tau Omega took 14, Theta Delta Chi took 15, Theta Chi took 13, Zeta Beta Tau took six, Zeta Psi took 17, Delta Upsilon took 20 and Sigma Nu took 12. Zeta Psi President Byron Crowe, a senior, noted that rush numbers for Zeta Psi were the highest in a decade. He estimated that approximately 40 to 45 students rushed the fraternity. The IFC's most recent attempt to create greater inter-Greek unity is an initiative with the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service that will involve all of the fraternities on campus in a collaborative effort to raise money for local non-profit organizations. A contract signed on Sunday by representatives of the Greek community and Tisch College established the partnership. The document cites the fraternities' "strong history of philanthropy and membership of strong leaders" as rationales for the partnership and says that the purpose of the project is to "strengthen the capacity of Tufts fraternities to have a positive and constructive impact on campus, in the local area, and in the global community." Pollack said that the theme for this semester's initiative will be Local Community Affairs and Engagement. Each fraternity will choose a charitable organization in the local area on which to focus its fundraising efforts. According to Tisch College Senior Student Programs Manager Mindy Nierenberg, the partnership will "absolutely continue past this semester" because of its participants' enthusiasm. Pollack added that the theme will be reevaluated each semester. He commended the fraternities' orchestrated effort. "[The initiative is] the first time in recent memory [that all the fraternities] have really collaborated … It's a pretty original thing," he said. The chapters will officially choose their respective organizations later this week, but many have decided to maintain previously existing relationships with non-profits, according to Swanson. He added that SigEp is likely to continue donating to the Somerville Housing Corporation. Crowe said that Zeta Psi will donate the proceeds from future events to an organization that provides help for Haitians living in the area. Another recent initiative is the participation of many of the fraternities in Reach Out Campaign sessions, a Health Service program that educates representatives from student groups about health concerns so that they can pass on the information to their peers. Swanson commended fraternity involvement in the Reach Out Campaign. "[The campaign is a] good PR activity in terms of showing that the Greek community really does care about health-related issues … and it's important to [expose] issues to not just the Greeks but the campus as a whole." Liaisons have already attended two sessions, the first of which focused on alcohol-related health issues and the second on eating disorders. Schiller called the project "a great opportunity for the frats and other students to really think and help the whole community to be safe."
My heart is racing, my breath ragged. I am sweating a little under all of my layers as I power walk down an empty sidewalk. I check my phone obsessively, in between taking nervous glances around at the ghost−town campus. No, I am not afraid of being mugged. I am just late.
Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha on Friday announced the members of the search committee for the new dean of arts and sciences and expects the committee to have successfully selected a candidate by the end of the semester.
It all began the other night at a dinner party full of strangers. The questions consisted of the usual trifecta: Where are you from? What major are you? What school do you go to? And, as always, I got flak for attending a university whose name no normal person can pronounce on the first try.
Howard Zinn died on Jan. 27, 2010 — the same day as author J.D. Salinger. Due to Salinger's more eye−catching legacy, Zinn's obituary was pushed back in The New York Times — all the way to the Business section. For a man who spent most of his adult life criticizing capitalism and forcing people to rethink their beliefs about the way the country runs, it was ironic to see his obituary next to news of big business, but not surprising to those who knew anything about Zinn.
Chances are, if a Tufts student has not gotten an e−mail asking him or her to partake in a mental health survey over the course of the last month, that student knows someone who has. With students' mental health increasingly becoming a priority on college campuses, the university is once again taking the initiative by being a participant school in the 2010 Healthy Minds Study (HMS).
Black History Month celebrations at Tufts climaxed on Feb. 20 with the Africana Center's 40th Anniversary Gala at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.
The sight of people walking around in military uniforms remains a surprising one for many on the Tufts campus, as it is at most colleges in the Northeast. However, with more and more members of the armed forces returning from active duty, people with military service already on their résumé are becoming more common at institutions of higher learning.
Tufts students will soon be able to use JumboCash, the prepaid debit account that can be placed on student I.D. cards, in an increased number of ways and locations.
Every semester, as registration rolls around, Tufts students begin to shift their obsessive internet surfing away from social networking Web sites like Facebook.com to SIS Online and Ratemyprofessor.com. Such laborious research on teachers and classes should hardly come as any surprise. In fact, many students will attest to the fact that the quality of the professor often has the ability to make or break a class.
In light of the tragic earthquake that rocked Haiti in January, the Somerville community has stepped up to lead fundraising efforts, hold benefit concerts and even send a team to help the underserved regions of Haiti directly.
The representation of marginalized communities in student government has been a lightning rod for controversy, emotion and confusion for years. As a body entrusted with the responsibility of representing and advocating for all students and people at Tufts, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's support of marginalized groups has often been criticized from many different angles. Although I sincerely believe that this criticism is more reflective of the issue's sensitivity rather than a failure of the student government, the concerns of our constituents do not fall on deaf ears. Currently, four different clubs have community representatives in the Senate who act as liaisons between their clubs and the Senate. Additionally, these representatives have all the same rights as senators, with the exception that they cannot vote on financial matters. After years of frustration and stagnation, it has become painfully obvious that this system does not work and needs to evolve, and this year's TCU Senate is committed to finally addressing the problem.
