Two African-American faculty members denied tenure at Emerson College last May are filing complaints against the school, claiming they were rejected because of their race.
Tufts students are continuing to scour the globe despite tough economic times, as the Office of Programs Abroad reported little change in the number of applicants this year compared to figures from years prior.
For thousands of upcoming college graduates, the thought of entering into the labor force is dismal, if not completely unbearable. A sagging economy coupled with a rising unemployment rate have made the prospect of finding an interesting, decently paying job seem to be a task of Herculean proportions. All over the country, firms and corporations are slashing jobs in a desperate effort to conserve funds and stay afloat amidst the current economic turmoil. But despite the national trend towards downsizing and centralization, one firm is looking for eager and willing workers -- the United States Foreign Service.
After nearly four decades without any significant up-grades, the Pearson Chemical Laboratory is slated for a renovation to begin in March and to finish before the start of the fall semester. The renovation will fix several problems in the lab, including extreme temperatures, outdated equipment and crowded conditions.
Andrew Wilson, a professor of the archaeology of the Roman Empire at Oxford, is visting campus this week as the speaker for a four-part lecture series sponsored by the Department of Classics. The last two installments of the Balmuth Lecture Series will take place tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Cabot 206 and tomorrow at the same time in Braker 001. While on the Hill, Wilson took a moment to sit down with the Daily's Carter Rogers.
Braving the wintry weather on Sunday night, students trekked to Ball Square to have breakfast for dinner.
Participants bid on everything from tennis lessons to musical performances during the Asian American Alliance's (AAA) annual charity auction on Friday. The event, which was in Sophia Gordon Hall, raised $1,600 for the Friends of the Chinatown Library campaign.
Sophia Gordon: Tufts' ultimate on-campus housing. The location is ideal, the building is brand spanking new and the lucky few who live there can even take an elevator to their room.
With University President Lawrence Bacow's office no longer able to provide student groups with co-sponsorship funds, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate has stepped in to fill the void.
This is a column that I'm really excited to write. On Friday, if you didn't see it, senior Kevin Dillon wrote an op-ed in the Daily called "Things Tufts' Campus Needs," which basically criticized me and my column, specifically the one titled "Unnecessary activism." As an apparent necessary activist, I am not surprised Kevin took issue with some of the ideas from my column. But that's not (directly) what this column is about. With Dillon's passionate and somewhat jumbled response piece as exhibit A, I'm hoping to discuss that characteristic of Tufts that everyone surely is intimately aware of: the proclivity to get offended. I can't imagine how those at Tufts who commonly get offended — so offended, in fact, that they may write an angry letter to the Daily — will fare in the future. I really worry about people like Dillon who seem to get worked up very quickly and often, even about things that really aren't a big deal. This column? Not a big deal. The Jumbo Janitor Alliance, of which Mr. Dillon is the founder, is not the biggest deal in the world, either — although, after mentioning them in a column, several people have defended them, both in person and in print, so I'll leave that alone. I don't want to focus on one person, though. Dillon isn't the only one who gets irrationally offended by irrelevant things. Ben Silver, author of the infamous Feb. 5 op-ed attacking the Primary Source for their cover featuring President Obama as the messiah, also appears to be offended very easily. I worked with Silver on the Obama campaign, so I realize this is an issue close to his heart, but ... really? Of all the offensive things the Source does, this is what you pick out to criticize? And then the editors of the Primary Source, not to be outdone in the easily offended department, were eager to respond in similar fashion, nitpicking and attacking Silver's letter. Is that what the Daily's op-ed section has become — a forum for silly flame wars? Why do people do this? Think of the boy who cried wolf. But I suppose this is more like the upper-middle-class white kid who cried, "That's offensive!" What will happen if I start saying truly inflammatory things? It could happen. The activists who would lead an uprising have already used their primary weapon, the sanctimonious letter to the editor — so what next? After my next "offensive" column, will there be rallies and demonstrations on the quad, replete with signs featuring creative slogans? It actually seems like people at Tufts enjoy getting worked up and offended, so much so that they invent things to get upset about. Why? Illogically, Tufts people often seem to seek out things that are unrelated to themselves to get offended by. Take the Primary Source, for example. One would think that the primary offend-ees of the Source would be the groups it tends to attack — Muslims, African Americans, peace and justice studies students — the list goes on and on. But who do we see writing angry letters to the editor about the offenses the Source commits? Self-righteous liberals — a sad trend, especially because I am a proud liberal, although apparently my level of self-righteousness is not quite up to par. While I work on that, I have an assignment for the (surely myriad) readers of this column. I want this column to be participatory. I know I'm not the only one with ideas about stuff Tufts people like; in fact, this column was partially inspired by a suggestion from a reader. So e-mail me your ideas! Or, better yet, write an indignant op-ed in the Daily. Even if it's not always complimentary, I want to hear from you.
As the economic downturn forces students to seek alternate forms of income wherever possible, Tufts' resident assistant (RA) program has seen a sharp rise in applicants for next year's positions.
Boston students who are interested in buying tobacco products may not find it so easy to do anymore. As of Feb. 9, college campus stores and pharmacies have been ordered to remove tobacco products from their shelves — a move the Boston Public Health Commission approved last year. The commission also made adjustments to Boston's 2002 workplace smoking ban by prohibiting smoking in nearby outdoor areas, banning new smoking bars such as hookah and cigar bars and giving current smoking bars 10 years to remain open. "The Boston Public Health Commission has the feeling that places that are supposed to be protecting our health, as in pharmacies with over-the-counter products — places that you should reasonably rely on to make you healthier — should not also be selling tobacco products," Edith Balbach, a community health senior lecturer, said. The commission hopes that the new ban will prevent many college students from smoking, because tobacco products will not be as readily available. "For the most part, if people are going to start smoking they start before they're 19 years old, so one of the key times of smoking uptake is the first year out of high school," Balback said. "For [about] 25 percent of the population that is their first year in college, so the thought was to put one more barrier in front of smoking uptake for 19-year-olds. If you have to actually physically leave campus to go find cigarettes, that is one additional barrier in the environment to try to get people to stop smoking — or even better, to just not start." While the potential positive health effects of the ban are encouraging, some feel that the strategy of banning certain things from students is not appropriate and will not be effective. "I think anything that prevents students from smoking is a good thing, but on the other hand, students should be allowed to buy what they want," freshman Adam Shepro said. Balbach agrees that restricting students could be risky. "The U.S. has a very libertarian philosophy — anything I want to do to my body I get to do to my body," she said. "Not allowing alcohol consumption by people under 21 has not been effective in preventing the use of alcohol in college dorms. We all have this basic libertarian instinct to want something badly that we can't have. So I always worry a little bit about specifically restricting certain things." One different and potentially more effective way of approaching the tobacco problem, according to Balbach, might be to try to persuade students that they don't want tobacco, by doing such things as broadcasting its negative health effects. "In public health, there are supply-side strategies and demand-side strategies," Balbach explained. "Supply-side means you try to interrupt the product from getting to the person, and demand-side strategies stop the person from wanting the product. I'm a real believer in demand-side strategies. If you handed me a pack of cigarettes right now, I would not take them. It's not the supply of cigarettes that makes the difference in my case; I have no demand for them. "I think the strongest policies we have in public health area are … the ones that convince people that they don't want the product," Balbach continued. "The strategies that try to stop the product from getting to the people I tend to think are much less effective. Those haven't worked all that well with cocaine, marijuana or any of those drugs. It's a much harder thing to do because if you have willing providers and consumers, you tend to have people getting the products." Demand-side tobacco prevention strategies are no stranger to the Bay State. "Massachusetts used to have one of the best tobacco control programs in the country, until the legislature gutted it," Balbach said. "It had a very effective media campaign, and even on TV now you see some of that truth campaign, so media campaigns are very effective." Another venue the government can pursue to reduce tobacco sales is a tax. "Tobacco tax increases are also very effective, because they make the product so expensive that you don't want it," Balbach said. "Also, making dorms and offices smoke-free, those are the things that are effective, because you create an environment for the product in which people can't use it. Those are all considered demand-side strategies." Balbach does feel, however, that the recent tobacco ban will be effective on campuses in preventing a lot of the positive tobacco advertising that is often ubiquitous in convenience stores and markets. "I think that not having sales on college campuses is probably a really good idea because as soon as convenience stores start selling cigarettes, they blast students with tobacco ads on all sides," she said. "Pro-advertising companies for cigarette sales are problematic, so from that standpoint I think it's useful not to have tobacco on college campuses." Although many students will inevitably be angry about the ban, the effects on Tufts will likely be minimal, especially since the on-campus convenience store, Jumbo Express, stopped selling cigarettes long prior to the recent policy changes. On a whole, smoking is also not as popular on college campuses as it used to be, according to Balbach. "Smoking follows an educational and social class gradient. College students are not a population that smokes a lot, so it's not a big deal to them. I think they are more aware of the health effects, and I think that there's probably more stigma associated with being a smoker," she said. "I think it's perceived as a negative behavior. When I was in high school … smoking still had that cool cache, but I don't think among this generation smoking is perceived as cool. The idea that smoking is the rebel behavior is long past … you guys have different ideas of what rebel behavior is."
Dean Stephen Bosworth of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will oversee the United States' North Korea policy in a newly created position, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Friday in Seoul during a four-nation tour of East Asia. Bosworth, who was U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1997 to 2001, will help coordinate U.S. involvement in the six-party talks on North Korean denuclearization and will also focus on human rights and humanitarian issues. He will remain in his role as dean despite the new position. The appointment, which media reports last week said was in the works, comes at a time of increasingly aggressive rhetoric on the part of North Korean officials. The reclusive Communist nation said on Thursday that it was "ready for an all-out confrontation" with South Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported. North Korea recently announced a termination of diplomatic relations with South Korea, and it is reportedly preparing to test a long-range ballistic missile. Clinton last week issued a warning to North Korea on the potential missile launch, which North Korean officials deny, but indicated the United States would reciprocate any actions by the North to verifiably shut down its nuclear program. In his new role, Bosworth will consult with senior State Department official Sung Kim on the six-party talks, which include the United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Kim worked closely with previous chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill and will serve as U.S. envoy to the six-party talks. A 2007 deal promised North Korea the equivalent of 1 million tons of fuel oil if it agreed to close its Yongbyon nuclear facility, in addition to other nuclear weapons-related concessions. The talks fell apart in December, though, after the North failed to agree to a verification process for the dismantlement of its nuclear program. A State Department official told the Daily yesterday that he was unsure whether Bosworth would attend the six-party talks. Kim will "probably" attend, he said, as well as lead day-to-day efforts and coordinate with other nations participating in the negotiations. Bosworth traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month on a five-day private visit during which he did not represent the U.S. government. While he was in the North Korean capital, he met with officials involved with foreign affairs, defense and the economy, he told reporters afterward, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Bosworth also told reporters that North Korea expressed a readiness to speak with U.S. officials about resuming the talks. "We can continue to work towards eventual denuclearization of Korean peninsula," Bosworth told reporters in Beijing, according to the AP. By creating a higher-ranking position to deal with North Korea than that previously held by Hill — one similar to the roles held by other new special envoys to hotspots around the world — the United States has shown it is likely to give more attention to the issue, according to Sung-Yoon Lee, an adjunct assistant professor of international politics at the Fletcher School. "I think it sends the message that the new Obama administration is very serious about dealing with North Korea," Lee said. "I think it's a positive message." Bosworth brings a familiarity with the region to the newly created State Department position, experts on North Korea told the Daily. "Dean Bosworth has had a long history of working on Korean affairs at a high level" and commands respect among officials in the United States and in the region, Lee said. "He has the age, rank, experience and gravitas necessary to negotiate with the North Koreans." Under a 1994 agreement, North Korea agreed to halt its nuclear weapons program in exchange for a promise to build two light-water reactors, an effort which has since collapsed. The North Koreans "have made the completion of these reactors a condition for the dismantlement of the plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon," Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, said. Bosworth served as executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization — a consortium created to oversee the construction of these reactors — from 1995 to 1997. "He became intimately familiar with this project," Harrison said. "That is very important." "Beyond the official negotiators, like Chris Hill, he's probably had more contact with the North Koreans than anyone else in the United States," said Daniel Drezner, associate professor of international politics at the Fletcher School. "He's eminently qualified for this." Bosworth also served as ambassador to the Philippines from 1984 to 1987, and to Tunisia from 1979 to 1981. University President Lawrence Bacow praised the appointment. "I have promised Steve that we will do whatever we can to support his mission," Bacow told the Daily.
The annual Norris and Margery Bendetson Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) symposium concluded yesterday after five days of panels on topics ranging from finance to terrorism. Entitled "Cities: Forging an Urban Future," the symposium brought together experts from around the globe. Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) Director Sherman Teichman called the programming a "slam-dunk victory." "The content has been just galvanizing," he told the Daily. "The interactions have been extraordinary." In the symposium's first lecture, Columbia University Professor of Sociology Saskia Sassen spoke about the state of the world's cities in a time of financial crisis and evolving power structures. In her talk on Wednesday night entitled "Global Cities/Global Slums," Sassen termed the global city as "one of these grand strategic places" where powerless, informal political actors have the chance to execute their projects. "The global city is a frontier space, which means that two actors from different worlds encounter each other, but there are no rules for engagement," she said. "Then the work begins." Turning to the global financial downturn, she talked about the destructive power of financial investors and their role in causing the subprime mortgage crisis. Above all, though, she encouraged those in attendance to continue their inquiries about global urban politics. "I have questions. I want to understand the making of power, the making of politics, the making of powerlessness," Sassen said. "Where does this become complete and critical?" In a Friday panel, "Targeted Cities: Terror in the 21st Century," speakers discussed terrorism and counterterrorism in the context of urban areas. Specifically, panelists focused on why terrorists target specific places and on how attacks influence the evolution of cities. Before the panel began, senior Saumini Shah and junior Nethra Madurai showed "Tribute to Mumbai," a narrated slideshow accompanied by a vocal performance. Following the slideshow, Gwyn Prins, the director of the London School of Economics' Mackinder Programme for the Study of Long Wave Events, talked about his experiences with terrorism in cities. Prins addressed the distinction between conditional and unconditional terrorists. Unconditional terrorists, he said, have no interest in negotiation; they can only be preempted or surrendered to. Conditional terrorists, meanwhile, have demands and can be deterred. As an example of unconditional terrorists, he referred to the planners of the Mumbai attacks. He also argued that, paradoxically, Barack Obama's international standing, not India's financial markets, was the principal target of the attacks. Like other panelists, Prins warned of future attacks. "The next 9/11, when it comes — and we haven't had it yet — … will have the added components," he said. "It will include dirty bombs, it will include chemical weapons." Panelist Yona Yahav, the mayor of Haifa, Israel, focused his presentation on the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. Yahav argued that Haifa should serve as a model for the rest of Israel. The city, Israel's third-largest, has a mix of Muslim, Christian and Jewish citizens who coexist in relative peace. He noted that years before the war, he had fought for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. As a result, he questioned why Hezbollah chose to attack his city. "The whole war was, for me, a personal slap in my face," he said, highlighting the efforts he took to save lives and maintain stability during the fighting. The third panelist, retired Marine Major John Williams, discussed the military side of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts in urban areas. According to Williams, who is currently the deputy director at the U.S. Naval Academy's Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, these campaigns are difficult and should used sparingly. "I'd like to state early and clearly and emphatically … that employing military forces in a town or city is to be avoided at all costs, absolutely," he said. Still, he conceded that these tactics are occasionally necessary to secure certain ends, like neutralizing enemies or providing security and stability in a city. The main focus of such operations is "winning the hearts and minds" of populations in terrorist strongholds, Williams said. He spoke at length about collateral damage and about the need to secure the trust of local citizens during counterinsurgency campaigns. A 1,000-pound bomb, for example, can eliminate enemy forces, but it can also create new enemies as a result of collateral damage, he noted. Throughout the symposium, organizers aimed to integrate arts and humanities into the programming. Specifically, the symposium featured poetry and vocal performances. According to Teichman, EPIIC alumni were struck by this focus, which differentiated this symposium from prior ones. Teichman also praised the efforts of current EPIIC students. "Those students performed wonderfully," he said. "You know you've done it when your students are regarded as highly as they are by professionals in the field."
With billions in federal funds on the horizon, Somerville has joined the statewide fray to secure a portion of the newly minted stimulus package.
With the quick swipe of a student ID and a plastic brown tray in hand, Megan Kono is left standing in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall faced with a serious dilemma. As she moves from station to station, she must fight the ever-present temptation to grab a slice of fresh tomato pizza or dish out a serving of macaroni and cheese. She must walk quickly past the tub of French fries and the trays of cookies that Dewick offers on a daily basis.
A Feb. 18 article, "School of Medicine professors push to reform to medical education ethics," misspelled the name of Jerome Kassirer, a professor at the Tufts School of Medicine.
A Tufts research institute earlier this month introduced a program to examine agricultural-induced deforestation in the Amazon Basin.
As college freshmen pack up their belongings and make their way to college, those who are involved in romantic relationships must inevitably face an age-old, difficult decision: break up or stay together?
