Echoes of students chanting "re-sign or resign, we need our Title IX" vibrated inside Ballou Hall as more than 100 students formed a human-circle around the administrative building, protesting the university “revoking” the agreement it signed with the Department of Education’s Office ...
Anne-Marie Slaughter will deliver the commencement address to Tufts' Class of 2014 today. The president and CEO of the New America Foundation, Slaughter was the first woman to serve as the Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State from 2009-2011. In 2012, she published "Why Women Still Can't Have it All" in The Atlantic, which sparked a national dialogue about gender equality in the 21st century. Slaughter is also an esteemed name in the field of education, holding titles at Harvard Law School and Princeton University, where she was the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She will receive an honorary doctorate of laws at the commencement ceremony.A lightly edited version of the conversation the Daily had with Slaughter follows.The Tufts Daily: Will the commencement ceremony on May 18 be your first visit to Tufts?Anne-Marie Slaughter: No, goodness, no. I taught at Harvard Law School for many years, so from 1994 to 2002 and before that, I was a student in Cambridge and visited Tufts often.TD: With the announcement of the commencement speaker, many students have been discussing your contribution to the ongoing dialogue on work culture and the potential changes it can have on family life. Is work-life balance a theme you wish to address during the Tufts commencement speech?AS: Yes. I will be talking about work life in, I hope, some new ways. I'm going to be talking about that much more than foreign policy.TD: It's been nearly two years since the publication of your article "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" in The Atlantic. What is the most memorable response you have received since then?AS: Oh my goodness, that's an impossible question to answer. I've gotten hundreds and hundreds of letters and emails, and I've spoken to ... thousands of people since in different speeches. I would say there's just been an extraordinarily rich tapestry of comments and writing and talking ... This turned into my life for the last few years, so the most astounding thing was that [the article] went up online on a Wednesday night, and a week later, a million people had read it, or at least a million people had gone on the website. You had a million unique visitors and in just one week that's an extraordinary response. One of the things that did surprise me was how many responses I got from men.TD: Many students are graduating with some job experience, typically through on-campus work study or internships. What are some of the ways that college students can address the problems of our modern work culture at the university level? Is it possible for Millennials to address these issues before fully entering the workforce?AS: I think that Millennials are addressing these issues by themselves [by] thinking about the kind of life they want. And many Millennials do, I think, place a healthier emphasis on things like having time to work out, and question why they always have to be sitting in an office when they can do that work just as well from home or at Starbucks ... So I think the best thing Millennials can do is ask questions ... [like] 'Why do we have to do it this way? Why can't it be done a more flexible way, a way that will fit my work and non-work life together?'TD: Your work is primarily in public policy and the nonprofit sector. Obviously, your expertise appeals to the vast number of students who are looking toward careers in government and public service. But how do these matters transcend these fields? Do you offer similar advice to aspiring doctors, artists, engineers, etc.?AS: Yes. I talk about work and life in terms of breadwinning and caregiving, but it touches everybody. For people who don't have kids, they have parents or siblings or spouses or friends. The need to balance connection to others and relationships with others and your professional identity with others that's pretty universal.TD: As a lawyer who has shifted into the nonprofit sector through the New America Foundation, what are the predominant policy issues you are focused on?AS: New America focuses on a wide range of issues. We have a whole set of foreign policy issues. We're mounting a big project on the future of war, which is, of course, quite far from work and life. We have a very active education policy program, everything from early education to pre-K through 12 to higher education, and we're thinking a lot about that. We do social policy and financial inclusion, [surrounding] how you can build assets for people in the population who don't have them. We are doing a bunch of policy issues around breadwinning and caregiving [and] things like the coming retirement crisis. I'm expecting a lot of parents to start moving back in with their kids.TD: Do you see more of the "sandwich" generation where people are taking care of kids while also taking care of their parents as something one particular generation identifies with, or is that something that will continue with Millennials?AS: I think that's going to continue. It's going to continue in part because everybody is going to live longer. You are going to find that you may not be sandwiched, but you are certainly going to have the experience of having to care for your parents and your children, should you have children. But again, this issue of taking care of your children, ... it could be your biological family, it could be a constructed family ... [but] it's the people in your life who have cared for you and ... you also will care for them.TD: In your article, you address this issue by suggesting that schools should adjust to fit their schedules around the work schedules of men and women. Is there any sort of tangible effort you have seen in that regard?12
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney will leave Tufts this summer to become the 22nd President of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Berger-Sweeney, who served as dean for four years, will be replaced by an interim dean who is expected to be named soon, Provost David Harris told the Daily in an email. Harris said the search for a permanent dean will follow. During her tenure, Berger-Sweeney's focus has been in supporting interdisciplinary programs, improving diversity and inclusion across the university and making changes to undergraduate admissions. Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser said Berger-Sweeney's support for both strategic hiring efforts, which have linked faculty across departments, and interdisciplinary programs was particularly noteworthy. "We have strengthened across departments, and I think it's allowing us to have a whole that's bigger than the parts," Glaser said. University President Anthony Monaco emphasized Berger-Sweeney's initiative to hire clusters of individuals in departments that share interdisciplinary studies. "Dean Berger-Sweeney was a strong supporter of interdisciplinary programs without ever forgetting that such programs must have, as their foundation, outstanding scholarship in each discipline," Monaco told the Daily in an email. "Exemplifying this were the school's cluster hires in areas such as environmental studies; race and ethnicity; food, science and society and digital humanities." Interdisciplinary programs started in the past four years include the Africana studies major and minor, the cognitive science Ph.D. program, music engineering and the finance minor, as well as a colonialism studies minor that the faculty approved on May 7, according to Berger-Sweeney. "It's not just that we've hired additional faculty," Glaser said. "It's that we're hoping that there will be some synergies that happen between these new members of our community, particularly with regard to pedagogy, and [from which] our students would benefit." Berger-Sweeney also left a legacy at Tufts based on the strides she has taken toward diversifying the faculty at Tufts, according to Glaser. "I care deeply about diversity and have tried to approach it from many different angles to make the school a more inclusive place," Berger-Sweeney said. Glaser said that faculty diversification has been a priority, and that much planning has been going into the hiring process, but the process itself does require time. "It has been something that has been an overall goal for the division," Glaser said. "For the faculty, it's required the participation of many people, but I think the tone was set at the very top and the goal was set at the very top and there's been demonstrable results." Berger-Sweeney said that the school has added 50 more full-time faculty members in the past 10 years, and that, in the past four years, the racial and ethnic diversity of the faculty has increased by 10 percent. "We really moved the needle," Berger-Sweeney said. "Not just brought people in while others left, but actually increased the overall diversity of our faculty." Berger-Sweeney said she worked with Dean of the School of Engineering Linda Abriola and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs of the Engineering School Margery Davies to articulate policies that afforded faculty better support during parental leaves and time off for family and non-academic issues. Diversity also increased within the university's leadership, specifically in the Board of Advisors of the School of Arts and Sciences, who are ambassadors for the school and serve as philanthropists and advisors, Berger-Sweeney said. Berger-Sweeney also opened the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and served as vice chair of the Council on Diversity with Monaco, where she drafted a set of recommendations that defines the role diversity plays in the university's mission. Though the strength of enrolled students and the university's popularity has increased over the last four years, continued diversification will be important to ensure Tufts' relevancy, Berger-Sweeney said. In this regard, financial aid has also been a point of focus. "There is still not enough financial aid to go around to admit all of the incredible, strong students that we want to," Berger-Sweeney said. "We're giving a higher percentage of our money to financial aid and still trying to do some of these other really great things. But still, you want to do more." In terms of policies and procedures, Berger-Sweeney said, during her time at Tufts, there have been several positive changes, including revisions to the advising system for undergraduate students. "We're on a better trajectory," she said. "We still have a ways to go, but we're so much further than we were four years ago when I walked in the door." Glaser added that the Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts , an initiative that gives support to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, has been another major success Berger-Sweeney initiated. "It has been a very ambitious and already successful venture in supporting a cohort of students who the university was not supporting well before," Glaser said. "I know that's a very big accomplishment of hers, and I think she has taken great pride in that."12
Reversing Tufts' "revoked" signature from the university's agreement with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights , University President Anthony Monaco said he has made 22 changes that bring the school's sexual assault policy into compliance with Title IX.The ...
Tufts Universitys Office of the Vice Provost for Research hosted its 10th Research Day on May 2, focusing on the emerging field of data science a topic that looks to analyze enormous amounts of data collected by modern technology, such as sequencing techniques, electronic medical records and social media outlets. "Now, thinking about data science is almost like how we used to think about reading and writing," Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Shafiqul Islam said. "How do we get insight? Most of the data is noise. The challenge then for academic communities is to figure out ways to get the signal from the noise." Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science Soha Hassoun, chair of the Research Day Committee, proposed data science as this year's topic because the field is expanding and she feels that Tufts should join the dialogue surrounding the subject. Hassoun explained that the committee had three objectives for the Research Day. First, it wanted to identify what problems are being worked on in data science at Tufts, what techniques are being used and what data sets could be shared. Next, the committee wanted to identify people with different skills who can collaborate on big data issues. Lastly, it aimed to start a conversation at Tufts to discuss enhancing infrastructure for research and education in data science. "There are lots of people from different disciplines talking about data science," Hassoun said. "Harvard, MIT, Columbia, University of Virginia and other schools are already ahead of us in their various initiatives, and it would be really good for us as a community [to see] what we can do with our resources." The day was broken up into three rounds of lightning talks. The first session, "Big Data Analysis: From Fundamentals to Engineering Applications," provided attendees with background information about data science, according to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. Session two, "Data-Driven Discoveries," examined how researchers use large data sets and what they are discovering within those sets. The third session, "Data Enabling Medicine," explored medical applications for large data. "[The Research Day] features three very different areas to give you a flavor of what's going on here at Tufts," Barbara Booras, project administrator in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, said. "Broadly, we are using the day as an educational tool to educate about resources that we have already available to faculty and students related to data." The lunchtime digital poster session gave graduate and Ph.D. candidates the opportunity to share their research in areas of data science. According to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the goal of the Research Day was mainly to educate the Tufts community about the available resources connected to data. Tisch Library, for example, had a table during the poster session to answer questions and talk about its data management plan that is currently in place for students and faculty. "So many times faculty say, 'We want to collaborate across campuses but how do we facilitate those collaborations?'" Booras said. "This is an opportunity to bring people together to start a conversation that can continue outside of the event, as well." Sophomore Mary O'Kane, a quantitative economics major, was one of approximately 10 undergraduate students who attended the event. O'Kane said she appreciated hearing about all the opportunities to get involved with Tufts research in the field of data science through the poster session, but wished that more undergraduates had been able to attend. "Listening to what the graduate and Ph.D. candidates are doing was really cool," she said. "It would have been great if Tufts had scheduled it at a different time. If it wasn't during finals period ... [they] probably would have gotten a better undergraduate response." The day concluded with a panel presentation that focused on the infrastructural and educational importance of continuing to develop data science at Tufts. A discussion and question and answer session followed, in which participants and attendees debated how Tufts could best improve its data science courses. Some panelists, including Professor of Computer Science Carla Brodley, advocated for the strategic hiring of more data science researchers. Others, like Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean for Research Elena Naumova, argued that the priority should be pooling Tufts' preexisting resources in order to broaden course offerings. "We don't have a statistics department," Naumova said. "I feel that's a tremendous limitation. I feel our students have very limited access to high level courses in statistics. We need to put more resources into building a wide range of courses our students can take." Namouva also emphasized the importance of communicating across various departments and levels of the university. Islam echoed Namouva's sentiments. "I think the first thing we need to do is to pull together the resources we currently have," Islam said. "Once we do that, we can identify the knowledge gaps. Then we can decide what can be done to fill these gaps." O'Kane agreed. "One thing that stood out to me that was brought up was the lack of cohesiveness between the departments," she said, reflecting on the panel discussion. "[We] just ... [need to] have an awareness of what people are doing and utilize [that] expertise. They talked about needing to hire a lot of people, and a lot of it comes down to simple infrastructure issues and management."12
Tufts former Senior Vice President for University Development Thomas Murnane (A 58, D 62, DG 65, AG 68), who was an influential member of the Tufts community for nearly 50 years, passed away on March 20 at the age of 77. While working at Tufts, Murnane helped raise over $1 billion for the university, according to current Vice President for University Advancement Eric Johnson. After receiving a Doctor of Dental Medicine, an Advanced Dental Certification and a Ph.D. from the university's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Murnane practiced dentistry for a short time. He quickly moved into an administrative role, however, and became the interim dean of the School of Dental Medicine in the early 1970s. "He did that for a few years before [former University President] Jean Mayer tapped him to take on a fundraising and alumni relations role," Johnson said. "Even though he wasn't a practicing dentist, he still kept his hand in it, since he taught anatomy classes at the dental school." Murnane worked closely with Mayer, who was, at the time, the associate dean of the School of Dental Medicine. Together, they established a veterinary school, which had not existed in New England for 75 years, according to a March 17 Tufts Now article. "We were pretty sleepy at the time a regional school just staggering along and we didn't know what we were doing as a college or as university," Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor of Judaic Studies Sol Gittleman said. Gittleman, who served as Tufts' provost during most of Murnane's tenure, emphasized the important partnership Murnane formed with Mayer. "He was remarkable in that he played as much [of] a role as the president did in transforming Tufts," Gittleman said. "[Murnane] and Jean Mayer started really the first capital campaign in Tufts history in 1979," Johnson added. James Stern (E 72), the former chair of the Board of Trustees, explained that when he first joined the board during Mayer's presidency, there were three people who were known as the "troika:" Gittleman, who as provost ran the academic side of the university, Steven Manos, who served as executive vice president and Murnane, who raised the money required to bring Mayer's vision for Tufts to life. Upon joining the board, Stern said he understood that the university's last attempt at a capital campaign to raise $7 million had failed. When Murnane first proposed an ambitious capital campaign to raise around $20 million, many of the board members resigned, according to Gittleman. "They thought he was crazy, that we couldn't raise that kind of money, but we did," Gittleman said. Mayer subsequently put Murnane in charge of fundraising campaigns with a new goal of raising $145 million, Gittleman explained. According to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler, Murnane completed that campaign and then ran two more successful ones, including one for $250 million and another for $600 million. "This was a school that was not known to raise money," Stern said. "In each of these campaigns, the dollar goal of the campaign exceeded our endowment when we first started the campaign." Murnane's efforts put Tufts fundraising in line with other accomplished universities, Johnson added. "Prior to 1980, places like Brown and Dartmouth and some of our peer institutions had been raising funds for years, while Tufts didn't have a history of fundraising," Johnson said. "But at the end of [Murnane's] tenure, Tufts was raising similar amounts as peer institutions and that is largely due to [Murnane]." With the money raised, when Mayer advocated for new professional schools to improve the undergraduate college, Tufts was able to build new schools for veterinary medicine and nutrition, according to Gittleman. He said the campus center was also built as a result of Murnane's fundraising campaigns. "Tufts today is unrecognizable to the Tufts when Tom Murnane took over development," Gittleman said. He described Murnane and Mayer's relationship as symbiotic because of their deep trust in one another a view which was also echoed by Manos. "Tom and Jean Mayer were perfect soul mates because they were both very creative, both dreamers [and] they were both ambitious." Manos said. "They were both ready to take chances, were both ready to court failure [even], because they had a vision of something better." Gittleman added that Murnane and Mayer's charisma contributed to their fundraising prowess. "Tom had a political gene, and he was wired in the State House in Massachusetts," Stern said. "He was very well-connected there, and it was important for Tufts ... He was what you would expect of someone doing that kind of work, but Tom was a good guy a real good guy." Johnson said Murnane was a mentor who taught him how to manage and organize, as well as how to effectively build relationships with other people. The current students at Tufts, and the generations of students who will follow, are the major beneficiaries of Murnane's efforts, Stern added. "For those of us who were lucky enough to be a part of it, it was a lot of fun to watch and to play a small part in," he said. "But I cannot underestimate the role that [Murnane] really played in the university's development."
When TuftsLife launched a redesign last March in an effort to streamline the site and make it more accessible from mobile devices, many students were disappointed with the changes. Finding the new version difficult to navigate, some stopped using the website altogether. Now, the website is primarily used to post classified ads, but juniors Tony Cannistra and Tara Kola are heading a small team of student programmers to bring TuftsLife back to its original role: an aggregator of all events happening on and around the Tufts campus. "TuftsLife became basically dead," Kola said. "Tony and I were both among the students who didn't feel too positively about the redesign, which is why we wanted to take another shot at it." Last year's relaunch was not executed with the average user in mind, Cannistra explained. Rather than updating event postings and classified listings, the students in charge of that redesign focused on features many students don't want or use, such as adding apps and news. Additionally, many found the three-column layout confusing; some even said creating a simple post became problematic. John LiBassi, a staff assistant for the Department of Sociology, has been trying unsuccessfully to use TuftsLife since last year's redesign. "As a staff member, I often need to publicize department events to the Tufts community," he told the Daily in an email. "Without access to TuftsLife, staff and faculty are limited to posting on department websites, taking out advertisements in the Daily and circulating flyers. None of these methods are as convenient or immediate as TuftsLife, and they are likely to reach a smaller audience." The site's plunge in popularity has caused the Tufts community to question its ownership and management. According to Joseph Golia, director of the Office for Campus Life , staff and administrators often assume the OCL is in charge of the site and call him when they experience difficulties using it. In the past year, however, the students in charge of the new TuftsLife have not contacted the OCL at all. "It's a point of frustration for our office," Golia said. "We don't have any answers. ... We are just as lost and in the dark about TuftsLife. It's a student organization, [but] we have no contact information. We don't know that much about it." Junior Tyler Lubeck, who has been working on the project since the beginning of the semester, said that TuftsLife is a student organization that receives Tufts Community Union Senate funding, which goes toward paying for server space and the site's domain name, among other things. "The university definitely does have involvement with the site," he said. "They let us do what we want, but they also do the funding so we can exist." Kola said further administrative support would be helpful, particularly if the university were to pay students to work on TuftsLife. "It's not uncommon for the university to pay students who work on other things, like Tufts WebServices," she said. "[TuftsLife] is a product that is so useful to the student body, and a better product might come out of it if students felt like they were being paid for their work." Golia said TuftsLife has come up in recent discussions with the TCU Senate. While students have been working on the site all year, no one in the OCL has been updated on their progress, he said. In particular, there have been some discussions about whether TuftsLife should remain a student group or be operated by the administration. "There are so many different ways to look at it whether it does become a university thing or [remains] a student group that's funded [by TCU]," Golia said. "If they come to us, certainly, we would help ... it was a student thing, and if students want ... [support], then they should bring it back. We would be interested if students wanted to come talk to us about how the administration can help them manage this year to year." Regardless of whether TuftsLife seeks out administrative assistance, Cannistra said he believes the new site will be ready for the Tufts community in the coming months. "Ideally, it will be available in the fall," he said. "I'm going to stand by that." Kola explained that the group has been designing the new TuftsLife from the ground up, Kola said. "One of the issues with the current TuftsLife is that the code is so messy, [so] we are starting completely from scratch," she said. "We're going a lot slower with building the site, so as a result, we're spending a lot more time talking with people and making sure we've created features that are meaningful to the student population. Cannistra explained that one of the issues that is particularly relevant to professors and faculty is automatic post approval. Unfortunately, this feature sometimes fails to work. The team is hoping to find a better solution and incorporate it into the revamped version. Cannistra also noted that the layout of the site will change, making it easier for users to find events that appeal to them. "The new TuftsLife is going to feature a pretty calendar-heavy approach," Cannistra said. "We're definitely still going to have a classifieds section, but the main focus is getting the word out about events." "We're focusing on separating events and listings into two separate pages or tabs on the same page, so people aren't bombarded with both," Kola added.12
The Tufts Community Union Senate concluded its 2013-14 session last month, marking a year of many accomplishments and little conflict. Former TCU Senate President Joe Thibodeau, a graduating senior, explained that one of his primary objectives for the Senate this year was to achieve a meaningful and productive analysis of pertinent, on-campus dilemmas, and to follow through by drafting and passing corresponding resolutions. "This year we tried to foster a setting that encouraged civil debate and talk about issues that impact a lot of students in their everyday lives issues of equity and justice," he said. Over the course of the year, the Senate debated and passed a number of resolutions, with some resulting in new school-wide policies. In early September, the school added a Good Samaritan clause to its alcohol policy, limiting the judicial consequences for students found to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The change was initially proposed in a Senate resolution passed last school year. Other policy changes supported by the Senate are currently pending administrative approval, including the establishment of an undergraduate education major and the construction of an outdoor beach volleyball court. The resolutions reflected senators' broad range of objectives, including facilitating student transportation in and around campus, assisting students with the voter registration process, improving the school's extracurricular athletics programs, enhancing on-campus social life for upperclassmen by building an on-campus bar and eliminating economic barriers that may prevent students from enjoying the complete Tufts experience. According to former TCU Vice President Stephen Ruggiero, a graduating senior, the Senate was particularly successful this year in using input from outside organizations while drafting its resolutions. For instance, the Department of Education contributed to the resolution calling for an undergraduate education major, club volleyball players were consulted on the resolution calling for a new outdoor volleyball court and members of the Tufts Garden Club helped to push for the construction of an on-campus greenhouse. "I'm happy that we were able to talk about a lot of projects with our key stakeholders, rather than just hearing from members of the Senate," Ruggiero said. "We made sure that a lot of student voices were heard, and we were receptive of a lot of student groups." During the fall semester, senators passed a resolution calling for a late-night dining option to be available with meal swipes, and they saw their idea come to fruition this semester when the Commons Deli and Grill began accepting meal swipes on Friday and Saturday nights. In order to make the change, Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos worked closely with members of the Senate Services Committee. Newly elected TCU President Robert Joseph said he hopes the Senate will continue to work with outside groups to make necessary and important changes across campus. "The biggest success for the Senate was that we came together to work with student groups across campus, which allowed us to lay down the foundation for even more great projects," Joseph, a rising senior, said. Joseph added that senators were generally able to function well together as a unit, and he hopes that the organization will continue to maintain this positive collaboration. "There were very few, if any, internal conflicts on the Senate this year, and none of them were particularly big," he said. "We were able to cooperate well and move forward on a lot of projects. We [laid] down the groundwork for next year, [and] I'm really excited to see a lot of these projects come to fruition." Ruggiero said he is confident that the Senate will continue to serve a valuable role on campus next year, especially as the university enters a transitional period marked by a major fundraising campaign and the arrival of several important new deans and administrators. "Next year is a big year on [the] Senate and a big year for Tufts," he said. "I think [the Senate] will be able to get ideas on the table and build things effectively." With his tenure as TCU President now over, Thibodeau said his experience on the Senate was worthwhile. "It has been a real honor and a real privilege to serve in the positions we've held over the past year," he said. "We're really grateful for the opportunities the Tufts community provided for us and the trust which they instilled in us. This has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my Tufts career, and it has helped me to grow as a person."
Updated: Tufts University plans to meet with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the next week to discuss its sexual assault policy and compliance with Title IX.Following a four-year investigation into a Title IX complaint filed by a student in 2010, Tufts had signed ...
Tufts University plans to meet with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights within the next week to determine whether its current sexual assault policy violates Title IX. Busy with today's White House endeavors to fight sexual assault on college campuses, the OCR has not confirmed ...
Tufts Engineering Mentorship Program hosted its end of the year ceremony last night, wrapping up its first year with awards for its dedicated participants. The mentorship program was started this fall by junior brothers Michael and John Kenny, who explained that they realized the school was lacking such a program after transferring from University of Massachusetts Lowell before their sophomore year. "We were talking with my older brother, and he has sort of been a mentor to us, and we were talking about how we can make an impact on campus," Michael said. "In our own lives we had noticed that there were a lot of things we found out too late, [things we] wish we had known sooner. It really started about a year ago ... with going around, talking to professors, getting their ideas, talking to students, seeing if they were interested and the response was overwhelmingly positive. We were able to get some departmental support, even at the end of last year, to host this initial meeting that we called our launch party." John added that he and Michael looked into other school's programs and discovered very few universities had similar programs. "One of the biggest things you find is in huge corporate businesses, all of them are starting to incorporate mentorship programs if they don't already have them," John said. "That's something that grabbed our attention. As we researched other schools, some of them have online mentorship programs, but none of them really have a peer-to-peer mentorship program where it's students mentoring other students. ... That's something that we thought would be really cool ... It's really valuable having someone to kind of share the inside knowledge." John explained that the current program is limited to 70 students 35 mentors and 35 mentees and seeks to connect students on both a personal and professional level. He said the program began with a speed dating event, where students could find someone who shared similar academic and non-academic interests. "We'd like it to be a relationship outside of the academic atmosphere," he said. "We found the big problem with advisers was no one felt comfortable with their adviser ... We wanted to build on top of that, as well as expand the reach of the mentor." Michael divided the program into three pillars, including peer mentorship, professional mentorship and career mentorship, and explained that each accomplishes a unique goal. One of the program's major components is hosting biweekly events to encourage participants' professional and academic growth. John added that the group has brought in various professionals, including a venture capitalist, to discuss the value of networking. "The engineering school brings in speakers, but they're really targeted to the graduate students and the professors," he said. "We started to take in from our own network and our professors' networks, and bring in these interesting speakers." Darryl Williams, the faculty adviser for Tufts Engineering Mentorship Program, said that the university is supportive of the students' efforts, as it fills an important role in the School of Engineering. "We basically see the value added in being able to develop a whole engineer," Williams, who is also an associate dean for recruitment, retention and community engagement, said. "There [are] the technical aspects they're gaining ... but there [are] also the social skills that they need to be competitive students beyond their Tufts experience, so I think the Engineering Mentors Program is another avenue for them to gain those skill sets." Williams said that he hopes the program continues to expand and develop its mentorship objectives. "I'm looking at it from the community engagement perspective, so I can really see how the school can leverage the program as a way of creating an environment that allows students to build those lines of communication." A major component of the program is branding, according to both Michael and John, who explained that they have sought to hold high caliber events. "One of our main focuses has been building the brand, and we've put a lot of extra time into making sure that we don't put anything out that's not up to our highest standard of quality," Michael said. "We've really worked to build our email list. We'll have a speaker come in, and we'll offer a door prize, and to get the door prize you'll have to RSVP and show up to the event." Michael added that because the program is student-run, it is better equipped to reach out to students. "The fact that it's run by students, I think, makes other students more comfortable with it," he said. "One of the things we've heard ... feedback from the administration is ... they don't know how to move students ... There's all this social media stuff going on, so we have an advantage in being aware of what's effective with students." John and Michael expressed gratitude for Williams and the program's other advisers, including Associate Director for Employer Outreach and Engineering Career Services Robin Kahan. At last night's ceremony, the program organizers handed out two awards, one of which was the Linda M. Abriola award named for the dean of the School of Engineering and was presented to Kahan. The second award, John explained, was a blue jacket created as a symbol to distinguish the Tufts Engineering Mentorship Program from other groups. "People who have shown a longtime commitment to the program are those who are considered for the blue jacket, which is really the ultimate thanks," he said. "We're really excited to be able to give that award out. It does take more time and [is a more of a] serious commitment than the typical leadership position."12
Juniors Safiya Subegdjo and Amber Rose Johnson were recently chosen by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to become two of the nation's 59 2014 Truman Scholars. According to the foundation's website, the Truman Scholar title is awarded to college juniors on the basis of their academic achievement, leadership and the likelihood they will pursue careers in government or the non-profit sector. Students were chosen from 655 candidates nationwide to receive this scholarship, which provides $30,000 for graduate school, along with priority admission to leading graduate schools and access to internships with the federal government. Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Alan Solomont expressed excitement for the selections of Subegdjo and Johnson. "We're very proud to have two students, both of whom have really not just excelled, but been exemplars of active citizenship and civic engagement," Solomont said. Johnson could not be reached for comment prior to publication; however, Subegdjo explained that she first heard about the scholarship over the summer and began the application process at the beginning of the school year. "The application was really extensive and time consuming," she said. "There were eight to 10 little essays ranging from talking about your leadership experience to your public service experience and what you wanted to do in the next three years, what you want to do in the next seven years. You really had to know every detail about your future." The last part of the application was a policy proposal in which applicants crafted a solution for a problem they saw in the world, Subegdjo said. "I wanted to do something that I was already interested in and had already done work in, and I do a lot of work with TU-RAP [Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program]," she said. "So in my proposal I talked about implementing mental health screenings for resettled refugees." Subegdjo explained that refugees often come to the United States from war-torn countries where they have fled persecution and violence. Upon arrival, they lack treatment and access to beneficial physical and mental health care. "One of the ways I [sought] to fix this was implementing a 15-minute questionnaire survey for refugees once they come into the U.S. to kind of assess where they are in terms of their mental health status and see ... whether they had any kind of condition that could be treated earlier on, rather than later," she said. "Because when you have a mental health condition, that's obviously going to be a huge barrier to achieving independence in a completely new foreign country." Once screened, patients would be paired with the right services to receive treatment, Subegdjo added. The Truman Scholarship emphasizes choosing people who are confident that they will spend their futures in public service, Subegdjo said. "The Truman Foundation only wanted to pick people who they thought would actually carry out the mission and their passion they had written about in the application," she said. "So for me, I ultimately want to work on health issues within refugee and immigrant communities. I'd like to get my medical degree, so that's where I'm probably going to be using the resources." Subegdjo stressed the importance of not only picking a problem that was personally relevant, but also one for which she could realistically provide a solution. According to Subegdjo, the most valuable aspect of the reward, beside the $30,000 for graduate school, is the connections to those in public service. "In the first few hours after being notified that I'd won, my inbox was flooded with dozens of emails from Truman Scholars just congratulating me and welcoming me to the community," she said. "I was just blown away by the warmth and in an instant I was immediately connected to some of the most prominent public service people in the country, so I was really excited about that." "[Subegdjo] is a great example of everything we wish for in the Tisch Scholars Program, and we're just delighted that she [has] been recognized this way," Solomont said.
Renata Celichowska, director of dance in the Department of Drama and Dance, estimates that over 700 students at Tufts participate in some form of dance activity on campus. Despite this substantial number, most students may not be aware that more than 15 student dance groups exist on campus. While larger groups like Tufts Dance Collective (TDC), Sarabande and Spirit of Color (SoC) are fairly well-known, Tufts boasts many smaller outlets for dance, as well. According to Celichowska, the dance community lacks a broader institution that binds individual groups together. She said that she would like to see the various troupes become more unified. "In the way that [Pen, Paint, & Pretzels (3Ps)] acts as an umbrella organization for the drama groups on campus there doesn't seem to be that for dance," Celichowska said. "And that's a pity because ... [the drama department] really form[s] such a huge support network for a lot of community engagement [and] socialization. But I understand the need for autonomy from all the other commitments on campus, [and] for [dance] students to just really have their own thing." Flora Cardoni, a member of Sarabande, agreed that an extensive, close-knit community for dance groups does not exist on campus. However, Cardoni described Sarabande's efforts to connect to other dance groups through performances. "I think that some groups are closer than others," Cardoni, a sophomre, said. "Sarabande gets to know groups a little bit better because we invite a lot of guest groups into our shows between each of our dances is a guest group. That's cool because it's not only a performance opportunity for them, but it also makes our show more encompassing of what Tufts has to offer." Hayley Grossman, a sophomore in SoC, also discussed the effort to create a sense of community by forming stronger connections between groups like SoC and Sarabande. "There's definitely camaraderie, especially because half of Sarabande is on SoC there's a really big overlap," Grossman said. "I know I make a point to know all the Sarabande people, and we both perform in each other's shows." Madhuri Khanna, a member of Tamasha, a Bollywood-South Asian fusion group, described a similar sense of unity between the different Indian dance groups on campus, which she attributes to their mutual relationship as part of Tufts Association of South Asians . Additionally, their relationships extend to other aspects, like sharing resources. "Sometimes there's a little bit of rivalry ... but ... I think that, with time, we've all become way more supportive of each other," Khanna, a senior, said. "When I first came in, the teams were a bit broken in the sense that they didn't really interact much, but over the past few years we now [help] record each other when we need to send in audition tapes." Despite a lack of institutional support for the many student-run dance groups, the Department of Drama and Dance provides opportunities for student involvement, offering about 12 classes a semester that range from "The Art of Salsa" to "Advanced Ballet." The Department of Drama and Dance, with no academic major, offers a minor that graduates approximately four to eight students in any given year. That number, however, is growing, along with the number of students who have been consistently involved in the department without receiving a minor, according to Celichowska. While there is no official affiliation between the department and student groups, Celichowska explained that there is potential to develop a stronger connection. "I think in terms of the partnership between the dance program and the dance groups, I would love to continue to build that support because I feel like it's really nice when it flows," Celichowska said. "I have the directors of the dance groups come in, and we chat, and it's an exchange of ideas, and it gets beyond the logistics." The Department of Drama and Dance puts on a program concert each semester, which is a combination of class performances where students can share what they have learned throughout their respective courses. In addition to these performances, there are shows put on by student groups that give dancers a chance to see their peers from other groups perform from SoC and Sarabande shows that include guest acts to Parade of Nations, Tufts Best Dance Crew and culture shows. Some groups, like Tamasha, have even taken their dancing to competitions and exhibitions.12
Members of Tufts Labor Coalition last Wednesday held a rally and march in support of the school's janitors, presenting demands to the administration after discovering that custodial service provider DTZ/Unicco appeared to be in breach of its contract. Rae Axner, TLC vice president and one of the event's organizers, explained that the janitors' employer has been manipulating the workforce and its schedule. "The janitors are clearly in a precarious situation because they are not employed by Tufts University; they are employed by their contractor DTZ/Unicco," Axner, a senior, said. "There [have] been a lot of problems with the contractor in the past couple of years. There are three major issues that are going on right now, two of which are contractual violations, one of which isn't specifically a violation of the contract it's just mistreatment." Axner said that DTZ/Unicco's main issues are having too few full-time employees at Tufts, the janitors not receiving weekly paychecks during time off and having increasingly large workloads. "The janitors are not being employed full-time at the rate that their contract states that they should be," she explained. "The contract says that 75 percent of the janitorial staff should be full-time employees and that DTZ should be aspiring to employ 90 percent of the janitorial staff full-time. Currently, about 58 percent are full-time and that number is corroborated between the janitors, the union, DTZ and Linda Snyder, the vice president of operations at Tufts." Snyder explained that the contract DTZ negotiated with the union, Service Employees International Union , was agreed upon last year. "With respect to the obligation to reach a goal of 75 / 25 in full-time / part-time employees, DTZ has told us that it believes it is not in violation of the contract," she told the Daily in an email. "The SEIU contract requires that the goal be reached through attrition, which is a provision that the SEIU negotiated to avoid layoffs. DTZ says that attrition, in which an employee voluntarily leaves employment, in the university custodial workforce is very low and therefore has not been sufficient to reach the goal." Axner, however, suggested that the issue is complex and expanded upon the hiring practices of DTZ. "When janitors leave full-time positions, they are not replacing those full-time positions, but rather letting people continue to work part-time and really just dividing that workload among part-time employees, reducing the staff, not actually hiring to replace full-time employees and not promoting within the staff from part-time to full-time," she said. She suggested that DTZ has engaged in schedule manipulation in order to avoid paying for the benefits that come with being a full-time employee, including healthcare and paid time off. "It is our understanding that DTZ has actually been manipulating the schedules of the janitors specifically so they don't have to grant full-time status to employees that are essentially working full-time," Axner said. "For example, they will have full-time hours for two weeks, and then their hours will be reduced for one week so that they aren't working full-time for the amount of time that they would legally have to be [in order to be] considered full-time employees." Giovanna Castro, the incoming TLC vice president and current chair of the group's janitors and dining hall workers committee, led the rally, which consisted of students, professors and janitors. She said the rally was purposely planned during the lunch breaks of many custodial workers. "We had a bunch of posters and ... a fair amount of janitors came and they also had their posters," Castro, a junior, said. "Three of the janitors came up and spoke, and I translated for some of them. One of the things that just really touched me was that one of them said, 'Remember, kids, you are the engine of this university.'" Rally participants marched down Professors Row, up Packard Avenue and over to Ballou Hall where they presented a list of demands to Snyder and other administration officials. One of the other demands included fixing the pay schedules for workers on vacations, who, according to Castro, are supposed to receive checks every week. "That's something they want and that DTZ isn't doing," she said. "That's an issue that DTZ has been [confronting] nationwide, so if we win at Tufts, it could be a huge win for DTZ employees nationwide." While not an actual violation of the contract, the increasing workloads of DTZ employees are unjust, according to Axner. "Their work strain has gone way up, and the quality of their work has gone way down," Axner said. "They take great pride in the quality of the work they do. ... We have janitors who are assigned to three, four, five buildings every day and DTZ also does not keep staff on retainer to cover when other janitors are sick." Axner said that this means DTZ is likely cutting corners and providing less to Tufts than it is contractually obligated to do. Snyder explained that the contract cost to the university was agreed upon in last year's negotiations, and she could not speculate on how costs could potentially change in a new contract. The agreement runs through July 31, 2016, according to a copy of the contract Axner provided to the Daily. "[The contract] is signed and final," she said. "We are very conscious of the fact that the costs of operating the university, including the costs of custodial services, contribute to the cost of higher education and therefore tuition."12
Founded by six members in the fall of 2011, Tufts GlobeMed, a chapter of the national organization that pairs students with international community-health groups, has vastly increased its presence on campus over the past three years. This year, GlobeMed has partnered with a new organization, Practical ...
Between Hurricane Sandy and the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers last year, Tufts staff stayed hours beyond their normal working days on several different occasions. To honor their work, junior Gabe Rothman organized a staff appreciation reception -- a tradition he will continue this year.
Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross , spoke about the current state of the organization and challenges facing the group's humanitarian efforts at the The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's ASEAN Auditorium in the Cabot Intercultural Center yesterday afternoon. His lecture, entitled "New Battlefields, New Actors and New Weapons: Challenges of Humanitarian Protection in the 21st Century," coincided with the 151st anniversary of the foundation of the ICRC.
After a more than 12-hour delay, junior Robert Joseph was elected the next Tufts Community Union President, defeating opponent Andrew N??ez, a junior. Joseph received 1151 votes, or 65 percent of the vote to N??ez's 35 percent and 627 votes."I am literally overjoyed, and just stunned by the love and support and caring of everybody at this school," Joseph said. "I really have to thank everybody on my campaign team, especially Ben Kaplan, my campaign manager, and I am overwhelmed just so much by all the love and support from my friends and everyone on the campaign who helped out. I really owe it to all of them they kept me sane over the last few months, and they kept me going, and they are a big part of why I ran ... I am so excited to continue working with everyone at the school, to start making positive changes and to start working with students to make strides toward a better school."One thousand eight hundred and eighty-three students, or 32.5 percent of undergraduates, voted in the election a significant decrease from last year when there was a 57.5 percent voter turnout rate. While turnout was the highest among freshmen, with 45 percent voting, 36 percent of sophomores, 35 percent of juniors and 24 percent of seniors also cast ballots. In addition to the votes allocated to Joseph and N??ez, 105 people voted to abstain."While we always hope for a higher turnout, the distribution of votes across classes is in line with past elections, and the overall turnout percentage was also in line with past elections and predicted by ECOM based on this particular election," members of the Elections Commission said in a statement released to the Daily.Despite glitches in the voting system, VoteNet, and a delay in the release of final results, Dan Johnson, the chair of ECOM, said he does not foresee any future issues. Johnson explained that while there were initial concerns that students could have voted twice once through the online system and once by email ECOM was able to verify that there was only one vote from each student while maintaining anonymity. ECOM requested that students who emailed in their votes provide their temporary username and password, as well, so as to ensure there were not two votes aligned with those login credentials. ECOM stated that they were satisfied with the results."Despite these setbacks, we feel confident in validating the election after conferring with the TCU Judiciary, the TCU Senate, the Office [for] Campus Life, Tech Services and VoteNet," the statement said. "Having a normal distribution of votes through classes and an acceptable total turnout shows that the issues that some students were experiencing were not drastically affecting the outcome of the election."Joseph said that, while the wait was frustrating, he is relieved that the process is over."It was the most anxious, nerve-racking 15 hours, possibly of my life," Joseph said. "Over the past week I've been telling myself, 'At least it will be over on midnight after the elections on Tuesday.' Of course, that proved not to be true, which was very frustrating. Right now, I think I am so incredibly relieved to be done with the campaign."During the campaign, Joseph had emphasized his history of engaging with relevant student groups who may have been impacted by Senate resolutions. He has worked with the Tufts Transit Coalition in fighting for the University Pass, which would enable students to ride the MBTA for free, and has met with the university's Department of Education to work toward the creation of an education major."Tufts is a relatively small campus, so Robert and I made the decision early on to have as many face-to-face conversations with students as possible," Kaplan told the Daily in an email. "Robert spoke with hundreds of students across campus about his platform, his values and his ideas to improve Tufts next year. I credit our victory to the extraordinary work of our campaign team and Robert himself, who made sure to have as many meaningful conversations with voters as possible."Both campaigns were fairly active on campus with "N??ez Now" and "Run with Rojo" signs dotting the library steps and campus walkways. While the influence of external factors, including Generic Candidate and the abstain campaign cannot be measured, Joseph was happy that neither campaign resorted to mudslinging."What I would like to think is ... we ran an incredibly positive campaign," he said. "We refused to bend to making any attacks or campaigning in any negative way. We really kept it on the positive side."Johnson agreed that while there were problems with the voting system and external influences, both candidates ran fair campaigns."Other than the problems with the voting issues and some problems with Generic Candidate and the abstain campaign, the two campaign staffs themselves did a great job," he said. "They both performed very well at debates. It was a very smooth campaign from both ... staffs. There were no issues with campaign violations."N??ez said that he is still mulling his options and will decide in the coming days whether or not he will remain on Senate for the next academic year. He added that he is considering running for Diversity and Community Affairs Representative of Senate's Executive Board, a position that is elected in-house."I've been in contact with people who have run for president in the past and who haven't made it, and [I am] just getting their experiences and trying to reach out and figure out what they decided to," N??ez explained. "I am heavily considering running for the DCA position. ... I think that with my very extensive experience with students of color, queer students and the perspective of marginalized students on campus, that that would be a very effective position for me to make sure that the experiences of those students are at the forefront of the conversation of Senate, as they often are not."12
Making the newest marks on the Tufts literary scene are PostScript and Melisma, a political journal and music magazine, respectively. While PostScript is breaking ground as a new politically-focused publication for independent opinions, Melisma was founded in 2004, but is recreating itself with a new emphasis on music. Both publications, however, seek to fill gaps in the literary scene that its members see at Tufts."[PostScript] is a political magazine," Austin Berg, a senior and one of the founders of PostScript, said. "It came out of there not being any alternative political voice at Tufts besides dominant, 'progressive' discourse, and I think a lot of kids were frustrated by that that they didn't have a place where they could voice opinions in a supportive environment." While PostScript hopes to provide an environment for open political discussion, Melisma hopes to cover Tufts bands and the local music scene, according to Rebecca Sanai, managing editor of Melisma. "The music scene at Tufts seemed to be dying down for the past few years," she said. "There were less shows on campus and fewer opportunities for student groups to get exposure. We wanted to showcase that Tufts really has an amazing music scene; although it's small, there are people who are interested. If we bring attention to it, it will only benefit the music community in general."PostScript currently exists only as an online forum, but will be releasing its first print edition before the end of this semester. According to Berg, the articles featured in the magazine will focus largely on political discussion, aiming to establish the journal's presence on campus."We've got an article on tuition increases [and] there's an article on political dialogue at Tufts, which makes sense because it's the first issue of a publication designed to foster better political dialogue at Tufts," Berg said. "[There are] a lot of different perspectives. There's nothing specifically in this issue that would be called conservative; it's mostly independent [perspectives]."Although the first issue of PostScript is still being assembled, Berg said he hopes the magazine will be successful on campus."I got good responses on the first article posted online on political dialogue at Tufts," Berg said. "So if the whole thing gets feedback as good as that, I'll be happy."Berg also discussed his disappointment with the current status of the literary scene on campus."Kids are afraid to write what they feel because of how polarized things are about certain issues," he said. "I'm trying to fix that with [PostScript] ... I think that if you're able to create a well-respected political journal where different swaths of opinions are accepted, then there's not much need for other avenues to express political thought."While PostScript is just picking up steam, Melisma has made a transition of focus. The magazine has narrowed down its previously broad emphasis on arts and culture to focusing strictly on music. Established in 2004, Melisma has gone through periods of success and struggle, and has changed how often it prints several times."I think it was very underground for a long time; not many people really knew about it," Mitch Mosk, the current editor-in-chief of Melisma, said. "It was run by small groups of people and small groups of friends."One of the problems that limited the success of the magazine over the years was the lack of focus, according to Mosk."Looking at previous issues, it sometimes ranged from being a 20-page magazine to an 80-page magazine," Mosk said. "We changed the title from being music, arts and culture to just [a] music magazine."According to Mosk, Melisma staff members needed to carry out numerous changes to the magazine this year to rejuvenate its presence on campus."The executive staff determined that music, arts and culture were already covered by other publications," he said. "We wanted to really hone in on one aspect of the Tufts sphere that could not only be our niche, but also what we've covered so far which is the Tufts music scene and the local music scene."Another important aspect to reestablishing Melisma on campus was recruiting more writers, editors and publication designers, according to Mosk."When I became editor-in-chief this year, it was myself and two or three managing editors," he said. "Marketing is a huge thing. Nobody heard of Melisma last year. To most people, Melisma is a new magazine, but that's just not true. It's been around for 10 years. We put on a really big campaign to writers and staff members alike to say, 'Hey, this is a real thing and you're going to know our name.'"Sinai echoed Mosk's emphasis on Melisma's outreach as being critical to its success."I'd say just the name Melisma is more well-known than it was before," she said. "We're working on getting a stronger community of writers, but it's hard because people don't know if they can write about music."Her exposure to Melisma began during a campus-wide push to bring back the vibrant Tufts music scene of previous years.12
