Tufts alumnus Neil Swidey spoke at the Tisch College Civic Life Lunch about his work on the Alray Scholars Program, which aims to support Boston Public School students in completing their college degrees, on Feb. 5 in Barnum Hall.
Students in Carmichael Hall reported an uptick of mouse sightings and encounters following their return from winter break, with the university formally addressing the problem of pest control on Jan. 19 via an email from the Office of Residential Life & Learning.
On Feb. 6, Medford became the third city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel, following just over a week after the cities of Somerville and Cambridge called for the same. City Council Vice President Kit Collins proposed the resolution, passed in a 5-1-1 vote during last week’s city council meeting after public testimony from dozens of constituents.
In early January, Rep. Ayanna Pressley hosted a community roundtable with Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and local authorities to discuss affordable housing, specifically, the plans for the Clarendon Hill Redevelopment Project. This project seeks to add 375 apartments to Clarendon Hill’s original 216 units, totaling 591 units of mixed-income housing across three buildings and several townhomes.
In a walkout from classes on Thursday, students assembled in front of the Mayer Campus Center to protest Israel’s continued war in Gaza, which has now taken the lives of over 28,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023. The protest, organized by the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts, coincided with similar demonstrations at other schools in a National Student Day of Action for Divestment.
In the school’s first round of admissions since the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action, admissions officers lack access to any part of applicants’ racial background, leaving the Class of 2028’s racial makeup, for now, ambiguous.
The Massachusetts Department of Correction announced on Jan. 24 its plans to close the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord, a medium-security men’s prison, by summer 2024, falling in line with Gov. Maura Healey’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget recommendation.
Club leaders from media, programming and performance groups met with Tufts Community Union Senate leaders in the Alumnae Lounge on Friday for a shared lunch, part of a five-part series where the TCU Senate invites different club presidents to lunch. These meetings were coordinated to discuss problems these clubs face and to foster a stronger connection between TCU Senate leaders and student organizations.
The City of Somerville has created an overnight warming center for unhoused residents that will stay open for the winter season. Located at The Armory at 191 Highland Ave., the new center is a partnership with two local nonprofits: Housing Families and the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
Community members gathered at the Somerville Public Library West Branch on Jan. 29 to critique an updated commercial area plan for Davis Square. Somerville city planners shared their progress on their plan to redesign Davis Square’s commercial core, then opened the floor to local residents for feedback.
In late January, Somerville became the first city in Massachusetts to pass a resolution calling for an enduring ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution, which was brought forth by City Council President Ben Ewen-Campen, was passed in a 9–2 vote after close to three hours of testimony and deliberation on Jan. 25.
The Tufts Community Union Senate heard and denied the Singaporean Indonesian Malaysian Students Association’s request to fund an additional off-campus retreat on Sunday, and heard from Dean of Students Camille Lizarríbar on her plans to promote “restorative justice” on campus in order to “build community” and “strengthen relationships among students.”
The university held its annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in the Joyce Cummings Center on Jan. 31, featuring keynote speaker Christian Walkes, who studies race and inequality within the U.S. education system as a PhD student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. The event centered around the theme of a “single garment of destiny,” a concept first described by King in his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” highlighting the shared nature of the future.
In March, students will have the opportunity to dedicate their spring breaks to civic engagement through a new program, Jumbo Spring Break, which was collaboratively designed over the last semester by the Dean of Students Office, Tufts Community Union Senate, Tisch College of Civic Life, Career Center and the Chaplaincy.
The Massachusetts House passed Bill H.4217, which protects employees’ right to paid time off in order to be able to vote. The bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. This bill would allow any employee to request paid time off on Election Day to exercise their right to vote in person with the condition that they give employers three business days’ notice.
Sanjana Paul, the co-founder and executive director of Earth Hacks, explored the philosophy of her nonprofit’s mission to make hackathons more environmentally conscious on Jan. 25. The event, titled “Hacking the Climate Crisis: Environmental Hackathons as a Vehicle for Justice-Centric Climate Action,” was part of the environmental studies department’s ongoing Hoch Cunningham lecture series.
More than 50 students gathered by the Mayer Campus Center’s lower patio and later marched through campus in an “emergency protest for Palestine” on Friday, organized by the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts. The group’s first protest of 2024 follows a semester marked by activism over the Israel-Hamas war.
Hemispheres: The Tufts University Journal of International Affairs, the country’s oldest undergraduate international relations journal, officially launched its magazine counterpart on Jan. 24.
Maya Roman — the family member of two women kidnapped by the U.S.-labeled terrorist organization Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 — spoke in front of over 120 students at Tufts Hillel on Wednesday. At the Hillel-branded “Critical Conversations” event, Roman spoke about her experience and subsequent activism to earn the release of Israeli hostages — including one of her family members still held captive.
The Tufts Beelzebubs performed at the annual holiday open house at the White House on Dec. 9, 2023. The a cappella group got a phone call two weeks before the performance and canceled a show they had planned for that day to fly to Washington, D.C., group members said.
