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Crafts Center increases programming, hosts workshops
December 5The Crafts Center, located in the basement of Lewis Hall, has long been frequented by Tufts students seeking a space for a relaxing, art-oriented atmosphere. The centers free resources are often used to complete class projects or banners for sports teams and clubs.
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Author speaks about mass incarceration as New Jim Crow
December 5Michelle Alexander, a well-known civil rights advocate and associate professor of law at Ohio State University, delivered the Center for the Study of Race and Democracys inaugural Gerald Gill Keynote Lecture in Cohen Auditorium last night.
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Transgender operations to be covered in faculty health plan
December 5The universitys faculty health insurance plan will this January offer new benefits to transgender faculty, including coverage for gender reassignment surgery.
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Tufts joins IIE Syrian Consortium to aid student in midst of civil war
December 4The university last month became an official member of the Institute of International Education (IIE) Syrian Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis after the Office of Undergraduate Admissions agreed to become involved with the organization. The decision resulted from an Oct. 14 Tufts Community Union Senate resolution calling for Tufts to join the nearly 40 colleges and universities that have chosen to offer scholarships to Syrian students through the program.
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Tufts ranks high in health and fitness, campus initiatives promote health consciousness
December 4Earlier this year, Tufts was ranked as one of the top 25 healthiest colleges in the United States by Greatist, an Internet media startup focusing on health and fitness. Between late nights at Tisch Library, running to club meetings, going to class and attempting to get enough sleep, college is a true balancing act. Finding the time to eat properly and exercise often falls by the wayside, so when it comes down to it, how healthy and nutrition-conscious are Tufts students?A study by the American College Health Association , which surveyed more than 150 schools and more than 96,000 students, found that while only about five percent of national college students reached USDA fruit and vegetable intake recommendations, an impressive 20 percent of Tufts students reached those levels.One resource to help students stay healthy is Balance Your Life , a healthy lifestyle club from the Department of Health Education at Tufts.Beth Farrow, health education and prevention specialist and a staff member of BYL, explained that Tufts students are typically highly cognizant of health issues.I think Tufts students are very much aware of health issues and wanting to maintain a healthy and balanced life while in college, Farrow said.The struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle begins as soon as Tufts students arrive on campus, according to Farrow. As freshmen, students are required to be on the unlimited meal plan. While there might be a tendency for students to overeat in the dining halls, this kind of buffet mentality dissipates after being on the meal plan over time, she said.With the most popular meal plan option being 160, Tufts Nutrition Marketing Specialist Julie Lampie said she believed that students are probably eating healthier in the dining halls than they would be by cooking for themselves.The more choices that are available, the better, she said. Students tend to make better choices having greater variety. According to data from last years dining survey, students ranked a desire for more variety as the third most important factor to improvement of the dining halls and a wish for healthier options as fifth.When looking at the top choices for dinner, the number one item is General Gaus chicken, followed by breaded chicken tenders and salmon. According to Lampie, while the first two items are deep fat fried, salmon has recently become a much more popular item, appearing five times in the top ten food items.There was a time when very few students ate salmon, and you can see it is our number one fish by popularity, so food trends do change, Lampie said.According to Lampie, more people have also been asking for more vegan and vegetarian options.Over time the vegetarian population has definitely increased, Lampie said. I think some of that interest in eating lower on the food chains is for environmental reasons, but for the most part its about health.Lampie discussed the deliberate layout of the dining halls in order to encourage students to make healthy choices. For example, in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, the station closest to the entrance serves vegetarian food.If you watch the pattern, students will go through that line to see if anything looks good, Lampie said. They are not thinking, Oh this is vegetarian. If it looks good they are going to take it.Sophomore Jenn Rabbino, education materials coordinator of BYL, agreed that the layout influences what students choose to eat.In [Carmichael Dining Center], the salad bar is in the center, so you gravitate towards it, she said.Lampie said she always strives to include fresh ingredients when selecting the menu and recently has been trying to incorporate more locally grown and seasonable vegetables. Three vegetables are offered for students so that they are encouraged to find one that is palatable, she said.At Tufts its not all about the least expensive option, she said. The priority is first quality, nutritional value, thirdly price. We try to balance that out.The Real Food Challenge, a new student group on campus currently seeking Tufts Community Union Senate recognition, aims to increase the amount of sustainable and fairly sourced food available in the dining centers.While the creators of The Real Food Challenge are currently working through some administrative hurdles, co-founder Meghan Bodo said that Tufts Dining is supportive. Bodo, a junior, got the idea last summer and the group has about ten members so far.Tufts Dining already values sustainably produced food and as such has been supportive of our request, she said.Sophomore Mel Goldberg said that although Tufts offers healthy food options, she would like to have more information about where the food actually comes from.We have a great salad bar, and we have a good rep for being such a veggie friendly and sustainable dining hall, she said. But I really have no idea where any of the produce is coming from, so I think it would be really interesting to get more clarity on that.The Real Food Challenge is just one way that Tufts students are expressing their interest in nutrition-related issues. Tufts Dining has responded by including healthier options on menus and by changing dessert portion sizes, like cutting brownie sheets into 84ths instead of 70ths.When we try to put new menu items on, Im not looking for deep fat fried high saturated fat items, Im looking for a fresher more nutritious product that we can bring to students, Lampie said.Lampie offered her best tips for eating right in the dining halls.One of the strategies is always of course to either look at the menu ahead or peruse the choices before taking your plate and actually taking food, she said.12
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Students launch app for location-based messages
December 3Four students last Tuesday unveiled the new iPhone and iPad application, Marko, which allows users to leave photos and notes in physical places that can only be viewed from the location in which they were taken.
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Panel discusses felon disenfranchisement
December 3Tufts Democrats, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and the Peace and Justice Studies program yesterday evening hosted a panel discussion on felon disenfranchisement in the United States.
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ASAP, QSA push for Rainbow Steps name change
December 2Members of Tufts Action for Sexual Assault Prevention and Tufts Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) last Sunday laid rainbow bricks along the steps located near Wren Hall, as part of a campaign to change the stairs name to the Rainbow Steps.
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Tufts Greek and Athlete Christian Fellowship connects religion, college experience
December 2Many students hope to continue their involvement with faith and fellowship in college, but find it challenging to make the connection between religion and other aspects of their college experience. Tufts Greek and Athlete Christian Fellowship, a group geared toward students involved in Greek life or athletics, aims to provide a safe and supportive place for students to discuss religion and build a relationship between their faith and the rest of their experience at Tufts.
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ASAP, QSA push for 'Rainbow Steps' name change
December 2Members of Tufts Action for Sexual Assault Prevention and Tufts Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) last Sunday laid rainbow bricks along the steps located near Wren Hall, as part of a campaign to change the stairs' name to the "Rainbow Steps."
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Tufts Idea Competition to run in conjunction with $100K Competition
December 1The Tufts Gordon Institutes Entrepreneurial Leadership Program (ELP) will offer a new Tufts Ideas Competition this spring semester, allowing participants the opportunity to have their preliminary business ideas judged in a competitive environment.
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Somerville named among most walkable U.S. cities
November 25The City of Somerville was earlier this month voted the seventh most walkable city in the nation up from its previous position in 10th place as a result of successful ongoing initiatives by the city to encourage walking and biking.
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Professor discusses Egyptian, Roman cultures
November 25Caitlin Barrett, assistant professor in the Department of Classics at Cornell University, spoke yesterday evening on the topic of Egyptianizing iconography, as seen in the Pompeian house of the upper-class Roman Publius Cornelius Tages, a freed slave.
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Strategic Plan approved by Board of Trustees, ready for implementation
November 24When the strategic plan initiative was announced last October, University President Anthony Monaco declared it a process of identifying the priorities and values of Tufts that will create a road map for the universitys next 10 years.This is an opportunity for us, as a community, to envision a trajectory for Tufts where it needs to be, and should be, in a decades time, Monaco announced to the community.On Nov. 2 of this year, the Board of Trustees officially approved the T10 Strategic Plan. The full plan is a 45-page document focusing on four themes: Foundational Initiatives, Transformational Experiences, Engaging and Celebrating Commonalities and Differences and Creating Innovative Approaches to Local and Global Challenges.After months of planning and a series of student focus groups to incorporate perspectives from across the university, the plan was completed. According to Provost David Harris, students will begin to see specific change at Tufts very soon related to interdisciplinary learning, diversity, gap years and financial aid.What it isnt is a detailed roadmap for the next 10 years, Harris, who led the initiative, said. What it is, is a framework for the university ... Its a 10 year plan, but that doesnt mean that nothing happens for 10 years. Some of these things youre going to start seeing very soon. Interdisciplinary learning One key component of the Strategic Plan is Bridge Professorships. This involves the hire of two new faculty members who will be tenured in more than one department in order to help bridge the gap in interdisciplinary ventures, according to Associate Provost Kevin Dunn.The purpose of this [program] is to enable those new fields and knowledge to be productively pursued here at Tufts, Dunn said. What we felt here from the beginning is that they are being pursued and the faculty are trying to do this. So instead of simply being in their way, the administration is trying to say, Here, let us help you.Current faculty members will be able to make proposals for new bridge professorships.[The program] allows [faculty] to say, The field Im working in is really important, let me have a colleague, Dunn said. Its also forcing them to work with people in other schools, other departments, other units.Provost Harris highlighted the immediate changes that these positions will bring to current students.These are folks who will come to campus as new senior faculty members and they will affect immediately the curriculum, he said. Diversity, gap years and financial aid Another change that Harris said will immediately affect students is the plans initiatives regarding issues on diversity. The third theme, Engaging and Celebrating Commonalities and Differences, focuses on diversity, and has created a short-term goal of hiring a university-wide chief diversity officer who will ensure that the goals of the new Presidents Council on Diversity are implemented completely.Ive already committed that by the end of this calendar year, we will have launched the search for the diversity officer, Harris said. Thats something concrete.The plan also launches an initiative that will encourage students to take gap years, called the 1 + 4 Undergraduate Program. The program provides students with opportunities to participate in national or international service during their gap year before attending Tufts. The plan intends to make each program financially accessible through fundraising.The idea is that theres a whole notion of the gap year, theres a notion of service and then theres another issue around access, Harris said. We believe there is value in service and there is value in a gap year.According to the plan, the university may partner with approved service programs through Tisch College to support students during their gap year and provide transformational experiences as they explore new communities.We dont think that [gap years] are something that should be reserved for wealthy kids. Culturally, there are some kids [for whom] its not really part of their thinking, Harris said. We want to make it possible for a broad number of students to consider.The Strategic Plan also focuses on enhancing and expanding undergraduate financial aid. The university is no longer incorporating need-blind financial aid practices but is striving to continue to widen opportunities for students with need.In the short term, the president asked for a two year goal of $25 million, and were already over $20 million raised, Harris said. That is more resources for us to bring in students who need financial aid and that will have an impact on the class entering this year. There are people who will come to Tufts that would not have been able to.According to Harris, the university hopes to achieve need-blind admissions policies eventually, but must be sure that the university is up to the high standards of quality that current students need.12
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TCU Senate update
November 24The Tufts Community Union Senate held its next-to-last weekly meeting of the semester in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room last night, which included discussion on projects relating to diversity, food availability on campus and the off-campus housing search.
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Black Student Union hosts week of activities
November 24Beginning last Sunday, Tufts first Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a week-long series of events in hopes of gaining official Tufts Community Union recognition next semester.
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Tufts takes third place in Mock Trial tournament
November 20Tufts Mock Trial hosted the 6th annual Mumbo Jumbo Invitational Tournament over the weekend of Nov. 9 and 10 in Anderson Hall. Tufts claimed third place behind Suffolk University and Boston University.
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Adjunct Action: SEIUs national movement for unionization of part-time faculty
November 20In a mail ballot vote that ran from Sept. 11 through Sept. 25, part-time faculty members at Tufts voted to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This move makes them the only group of unionized faculty at Tufts. The union will now be the intermediary in most negotiations between the Tufts administration and the universitys part-time lecturers.
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Alum to become national political columnist
November 20Yahoo! News on Nov. 12 announced its decision to hire Matthew Bai (LA 90) as a national political columnist.
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