Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and a new City Council and School Committee were sworn in on Jan. 4 as the city prepares to move forward with its rezoning project and build a new Medford High School.
The Office of Public Safety announced temporary “security enhancements” for buildings on the Medford/Somerville and Grafton campuses in an email to the Tufts community Monday afternoon.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper granted Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s motion for a preliminary injunction Monday afternoon, ordering the government to immediately reinstate her Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record retroactive to the date it was terminated — March 25.
Concerned Tufts staff members have distributed a petition in conjunction with Tufts Labor Coalition demanding that no workers be laid off as part of Tufts’ Operating Model Transformation, an initiative restructuring the university’s administrative functions.
Six courses at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University were canceled this fall after failing to meet the required minimum enrollment of eight students. This fall semester saw an unusually high number of cancelled classes that left some professors of the practice without opportunities to teach as many courses and some students facing last-minute schedule changes.
On Thursday, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts heard arguments on a motion for a preliminary injunction that seeks to require the government to reinstate Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record. U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper did not issue a ruling, but committed to making a prompt decision.
The Fresh at Carmichael Dining Center has closed for the rest of the fall semester due to flooding following nearly a month of intermittent closures.
Tufts University will launch a comprehensive planning study of Boston Avenue in early 2026, aiming to address concerns about pedestrian safety, tree loss and the overall streetscape. The study, funded through Tufts’ community benefits package tied to the new Boston Avenue residence hall, is expected to take several months and conclude by September 2026.
The announcement of a plan to move Medford’s trash pickup from weekly to every other week has sparked strong pushback from residents and officials, many of whom are demanding greater transparency from Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn.
JumboVote and Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement recently reported on trends in participation in this year’s elections, both here in Medford and Somerville, as well as around the country in state and local elections. With Tufts students, participation greatly varies by year. Last year, JumboVote had an influx of attention due to the presidential election, but engagement this year was lower, according to junior Teagan Mustone, co-president of JumboVote.
Professor Yu-Shan Lin, former chair of the Department of Chemistry, will become an academic dean for the School of Arts and Sciences in January 2026 following the departure of Dean Sam Thomas, who will assume a new role at the University of Rochester.
The Tufts Community Union Senate will host a town hall early next semester to explain how tuition and fees are spent across the university as the overall cost of attendance continues to rise. TCU Senate President Dhruv Sampat, a senior, argued that annual tuition hikes have made Tufts one of the most expensive schools in the country. For the 2025–26 academic year, the sticker price rose to $96,078, nearly $4,000 higher than the year prior.
Tufts’ current and former political science professors Jeffrey M. Berry, James M. Glaser and Deborah J. Schildkraut published their new book, “Everyday Democracy: Liberals, Conservatives, and Their Routine Political Lives,” on Tuesday.
Many in Somerville found themselves among the roughly 1.1 million Massachusetts residents who were left in limbo when a federal government shutdown delayed the distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The federal program provides monthly assistance to low-income individuals and families to help them purchase groceries.
Somerville celebrated the unveiling of “Letters Rewoven” on Nov. 8, a new public artwork by local artist Anna Fubini at Lou Ann David Park. The piece was created through the combined efforts of community members, who wrote messages on scraps of paper that were turned into a pulp mixed with wildflower seeds. The mixture was then plastered onto the sculpture’s panels and will eventually grow into flowers. The installation was supported by the Somerville Arts Council and will remain on display until spring 2026.
Within the next few years, Tufts is poised to own three retail spaces along the 700-yard stretch of Boston Avenue between College Avenue and Winthrop Street. Two existing properties — the recently vacated Starbucks location in the Joyce Cummings Center and a property by the intersection of Winthrop Street and Boston Avenue — are currently empty. The third upcoming retail space will be located on the ground floor of the new Boston Avenue dorm.
The second round of Project: Pop-Up Medford will transform 348 Boston Ave. into a shared retail space for three small businesses from November 2025 to January 2026. The project — a collaboration between the City of Medford, Tufts University and retail incubator consulting firm UpNext — provides microenterprises with the opportunity to promote their work, try new business models and learn how to operate a retail storefront.
The Tufts Office of Public Safety has advised members of the Tufts community to avoid Soarbody Therapeutics, a sports massage therapy business in Somerville, due to inappropriate behavior by its owner, Sam Peck.
The Office of Residential Life & Learning ended its use of professional cleaning services in on-campus apartments and woodframe houses over the summer, requiring students and theme house managers to clean the residences themselves. The change, which was announced to students living in these houses in an August email, has led some students and faculty advisors to raise concerns about the burden on residents.
Chair of the Tufts Board of Trustees Jeffrey Moslow (A’86) and his wife, Linda Moslow, made a $4 million donation to establish a Women’s Health and Menopause Initiative at the university, aiming to promote a more holistic approach to medical care for women and advance the under researched field.
