In a walk-out organized by Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, over 200 students and local residents rallied outside Ballou Hall, calling for the release of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk and for the university to condemn her detainment.
A group of Jewish professors, lecturers and staff members sent a letter on Monday calling on University President Sunil Kumar and Provost and Senior Vice President Caroline Genco to resist equating criticisms of Israel with antisemitism. The letter also urges Kumar and Genco to defend students with legal support, if necessary, and requests a meeting with Kumar himself.
The Tufts Community Union Senate discussed new bylaws concerning community senators, discussed changes to the resolution process and handled supplementary funding requests in their March 30 meeting.
The Medford City Council began discussions on the budget for fiscal year 2026 in its March 18 meeting of the Committee of the Whole. Amid uncertainty over federal funding, the council’s priorities included increasing support for public safety, maintaining budget allocations for schools and the library and funding affordable housing research programs, among otherinitiatives.
The mailroom for the Medford/Somerville campus will be moving locations for the 2025–26 school year to the current basement of the Tufts Bookstore, which inhabits part of the Mayer Campus Center. The mailroom is currently located on 389 Boston Ave. in the lower level of Hill Hall.
The Medford City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of a contract for Tufts School of Arts and Sciences full-time lecturers in their meeting on Tuesday. The resolution was brought forward by City Council Vice President Kit Collins (LA’15), a Tufts alum. Two lecturers presented at the meeting.
After a yearlong process, the Medford City Council proposed a new draft of the ordinance for the city’s Human Rights Commission. Established to protect the civil rights of Medford residents, particularly on issues of housing, the current version of the ordinance required modernizing, according to City Councilor Justin Tseng, who led the proposal.
In a press conference on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the visa of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was revoked. On Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and over 30 other senators and representatives of Congress released a letter demanding more information regarding the cause and legality of her detainment.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper for the district of Massachusetts ordered Friday evening that Tufts doctoral student, Rümeysa Öztürk, not be removed from the country unless otherwise ordered by the court. Respondents including Patricia Hyde, acting director of the ICE Boston field office, have until Tuesday to address the amended petition and civil complaint.
Somerville City Council voted to file a ballot initiative for Somerville’s divestment from companies in business with Israel on Thursday night, requiring activists to collect about 5,500 voter signatures to secure the question a spot on the city’s November ballot. The council’s 9–2 vote was preceded by a rally organized by Somerville for Palestine, attended by hundreds of Somerville community members outside Somerville City Hall.
Over a thousand current and former students of Tufts University have signed a petition calling for proactive protection of its community members against federal deportations following the detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts graduate student, earlier this week.
The Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at Tufts is facing uncertainty because of threats to their sources for research funding from federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Students and local activists gathered on Wednesday evening at Powder House Park to protest the detainment of Tufts graduate student, Rumeysa Ozturk, by federal authorities on Tuesday. The protest was organized by Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, formerly known as the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts, and other activist groups from the Greater Boston area.
Federal authorities detained a Tufts graduate student last night outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville. University President Sunil Kumar announced in an email around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night that the university is seeking more information about the cause and circumstances of the arrest.
Medford Fire Chief Todd Evans was sworn into his role on Feb. 24, with the inauguration ceremony taking place on Mar. 12. He had served as interim chief for 11 months, following the retirement of Chief John Freedman. The chief was chosen via assessment center examination. According to the city’s press release, Chief Evans earned the highest score out of two candidates on the assessment center exam. Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn had interviewed all five deputy chiefs, including Evans, in March 2024 to choose an interim chief.
Tufts students and faculty joined hundreds of protesters at the Stand Up for Science Rally on Mar. 7at the Boston Common. Protesters advocated in support of federal funding for science research.
On March 5 Tufts junior Meirav Solomon testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing regarding antisemitism, arguing that college campuses should focus on conversation and protecting equality for students.
Tufts accepted 10.5% of applicants to the undergraduate Class of 2029, Tufts’ admissions office announced. The acceptance rate shows an increase of half a percentage point from last year’s acceptance rate and is one percent higher than in 2023. Decisions were released on March 20.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff under President Donald Trump’s first administration, on Tuesday as part of its Solomont Speaker Series. The talk was moderated by Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts and an advocate for bipartisan discourse, who teaches a course on modern American conservatism, the first of its kind in the United States.
A presidential memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 suspended the leasing and permitting of federal spaces for offshore wind development, rattling faculty and students in Tufts’ offshore wind energy engineering programs at the graduate level.
