Grieving processes and rituals have perpetuated throughout vastly different cultures for thousands of years. But in today's age of technology, some aspects of dealing with death have taken an unexpected turn. With the use of social networking sites and other innovations, people can now keep their loved ones present online long after they have passed away.
This year's Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate student survey, administered today, differs substantially from past surveys thanks to the work of political science Professor Kent Portney and his class. Portney and his students helped design and analyze the survey using professional research methods.
MONDAY "Costa Rica's Vision on Sustainable Development and Climate Change" Details: Ambassador Jairo Hernandez Milian (F '90), permanent representative of Costa Rica to the UN, will discuss Costa Rica's goals for international environmental policy. When and Where: 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.; Cabot 206 Sponsored by: Tufts Energy and Climate Forum, the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, Tufts Institute of the Environment, Department of Economics TUESDAY "Word or Image: Lexicography, Factography and the Visual Culture of Stalinism" Details: Anna Wexler Katsnelson (LA ‘99), a Mellon postdoctoral fellow, will speak about her research on Stalin. When and Where: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.; Center for the Humanities, 48 Professors Row Sponsors: Center for the Humanities at Tufts "Mixed and Asian - A discussion about identity, assumptions and all of the politics" Details: Jen Chau, founder of Swirl, Inc., an organization that confronts society's ideas about race, will speak about multi-racial identities. The event is followed by a free reception dinner at the Start House. When and Where: 6 p.m. to7 p.m.; Pearson 104 Sponsored by: Asian American Center WEDNESDAY "Can President Obama Avoid War with Iran?" Details: Juan R. I. Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan, who has worked for years chronicling the relationship between the West and the Muslim world, will speak about the future of relations between the United States and Iran. When and Where: 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; ASEAN Auditorium Sponsors: The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, the International Security Studies Program "Guantanamo Bay, National Security and Immigration in the Courts" Details: Lee Gelernt, (LA ‘84), deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, will speak about the changing role of a public defender in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and his time as a public defender at the ACLU. When and Where: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Braker 001. Sponsors: Experimental College, Peace and Justice Studies Program, Department of History, International Relations Program THURSDAY "Sixth Annual Debate on Energy and Climate" Details: William Moomaw, professor of international environmental policy, and Bruce Everett, adjunct associate professor of international business, will discuss climate change and clean energy in an annual debate. When and Where: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; ASEAN auditorium Sponsors: Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
For many Jumbos, throwing roaring parties in the absence of vigilant resident assistants (RAs) marks the transition to off-campus housing. Gone are the days when hosts kept the music down and stood on the lookout for RAs.
While the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is internationally known for educating scientists, engineers and mathematicians, the university hopes to add one more title to that list: leader.
This year's Winter Bash will barely resemble the crowded Gantcher Center event of years past.
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate has broken its silence on the university's new alcohol policy.
There was a time some months ago when the threat of swine flu was easy to ignore, when the dreaded H1N1 virus had yet to hit the Tufts campus and there remained a possibility that the entire epidemic was all just overblown media hype. That time has come and gone. Flu masks populate the Health Service office and H1N1 e-mail updates appear in some students' inboxes even more frequently than Facebook.com notifications.
The Tufts Timmy Foundation hosted a gala at Goddard Chapel last night, offering students the chance to interact with professors outside of the classroom while raising money for a Guatemalan non-profit.
Boston is a city in which the economy and culture is built, in part, on the many institutes of higher education that populate the area. The ones that immediately spring to mind are the big-name universities: Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Boston College and, of course, Tufts.
Junior Rebekah Holtz feels the strain as a female physics major in a field of study dominated by men. Holtz is one of just seven women, compared to 16 men, currently majoring in physics in the College of Liberal Arts at Tufts. Holtz said the gender disparity has never made her "uncomfortable" but that it does change her attitude towards her studies. "Being in a class with mostly males puts more pressure on me to do well," Holtz said. "Whenever I take a test, I feel that my performance is reflective of women in general. I worry that if I do poorly in a physics class, it reinforces the notion that women may not be as strong in science as men." Holtz is enrolled in two physics classes this semester, one of which she said contains four females out of 45 students total. This marked gender gap isn't exclusive to physics and other natural sciences, nor does it solely skew in the direction of a male majority. A search of Tufts White Pages found particularly notable discrepancies in art history (five males out of 57 declared majors), computer science (eight females out of 50 declared majors in the College of Liberal Arts) and child development (15 males out of 107 declared majors). The women's studies department currently has no male majors. Women make up close to 30 percent of the School of Engineering's student body, a low proportion despite being nearly double the national average male-to-female engineering student ratio, according to the school's website. "The child development major draws mostly women, and this is unfortunate all around," George Scarlett, Child Development Deputy Department Chair, said. "We have fantastic majors, but the major itself would be enriched by the presence of men." Scarlett said the significant lack of gender parity within the field of study "isn't because the major and department are better suited to women. It has more to do with misunderstanding than it has to do with people making rational choices about what to major in." "The primary misunderstanding has to do with the question, ‘What can you do with a child development major? The correct answer is, ‘Anything you want,'" he said. Scarlett cited alumni in health-related professions, public policy, the law, education, psychology and research as examples. "Without this understanding that majoring in child development can lead almost anywhere, I think men on campus see it as headed for education careers only and not for careers that men typically gravitate toward … [It] may be that we still live in a culture where the interests of children are associated with women's work," he said. Sociology Professor Susan Ostrander, too, cites a sex-segregated work force as a cause for the gender gap in some majors. Ostrander teaches Sociology 30: Sex and Gender in Society, in which the topic of gender roles in the labor force is a component of the curriculum. "Some jobs [are] reserved for men and others for women," Ostrander said. "It's not surprising that students often end up in majors that match the kind of paid work they will have later. Only a few women and men defy the odds and major in fields where they are a minority," like women in the natural sciences and men in child development, Ostrander said. For Ostrander, a "solution" to the gap could be found in the establishment of "gender equality in paid work," she said. Pay equity in the work force would allow students to choose majors based not on the particular traditional gender association (and correlated earning potential) of a profession, but based on their interest for the subject regardless of societal norms. Women, who Ostrander said are more likely than men are to work in professions like teaching, social work, nursing and child development, are currently paid 78 cents for each dollar earned by men, according to a presidential proclamation released in April. "The jobs that women are most likely to do are paid less," Ostrander said. Still, students majoring in fields of studies traditionally (and statistically) associated with the opposite gender overwhelmingly said they felt comfortable and were not aware of any modicum of classroom sexism. "I think it's almost a cycle because the lack of women could make other women feel out of place. But I don't feel uncomfortable because I'm used to it and I don't think it's a big deal," senior physics major Erin van Erp said. "I sometimes wish my classes were more gender-balanced, but I accept that there's something about physics that just appeals to more men than women. I would probably be confused if I had a class that wasn't mostly guys, but no one has ever questioned whether I belong in this major." "All that really matters is whether or not [a potential male child development major] is really interested in the study of child development," junior child development major Spencer Ross said. "If child development is really something that he wanted to pursue, then it shouldn't matter that the classes are made up of mostly women." According to sophomore physics major Michelle Cohen, "There's nothing wrong with being outnumbered in your field. It would be stupid to turn down a major because it's all guys."
Drunken students and clean energy activism didn't mix well yesterday.
As alcohol-related incidents continue to weigh on the minds of students and the administration, the Red Watch Band, a nationwide organization designed to train students in how to respond to binge drinking, has come to Tufts.
Sometimes I miss the pre-school days when yellow-green-purple outfits were considered fashionable. It's not that the clashing colors were acceptable back then because we were too naïve to form opinions about one another's belongings. It was that the colors made us cool. The more colors, the cooler; the most colors, the coolest (with our superlatives still fresh in our minds). And there was one possession that — if you were among its lucky owners — made you part of an elite class, the cool-hunters of cool, the envy of show-and-tell, color-possessors of the universe: the Crayola Big Box.
More than a week into the annual Asian American Month, a mix of discussions, sporting events and celebrations has descended on campus with the goal of spreading awareness about Asian-American culture and issues confronting people of Asian descent.
Lazy boy The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) responded to a report at 1 a.m. on Nov. 8 of a student passed out on a chair on the porch of the Delta Upsilon fraternity house at 114 Professors Row. The student was transported to Somerville Hospital. Dude, democratic peace theory has never seemed so real … TUPD officers were dispatched at 2:54 a.m. on Nov. 8 to Blakeley Hall, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's dormitory building, after a smoke alarm was activated.
Harvard University lost $1.8 billion from its operating budget, largely from high-risk investments, it stated in a financial report released Oct. 16.
Like one's 16th and 18th birthdays, the 21st represents a turning point, conferring new legal status on those celebrating it. And in some ways, it also represents the last of the landmark birthdays — save 25, when one can rent a car, and 65, when one begins receiving social security.
For Jumbos who have waited eagerly to see Tufts finally climb to the top of the college rankings, the day has finally come — but this is probably not exactly what they had in mind.
