The Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) claim that it was able to fully meet student demand at the lottery earlier this month was met with contention after several students reported they were waitlisted for housing.
This is the first article in a two-part series addressing LGBT issues and the work that senior Sofia Nelson has done to eliminate biases. The first installment will focus on Nelson's work at Tufts. The second article, which will be printed in Thursday's paper, will focus on her work at the state and community levels. Growing up in a small agricultural town in a conservative, religious part of Michigan, being a member of the queer community was not easy for senior Sofia Nelson. While living in this area, which was frequented by violence directed against gays, she developed a strong desire to fight for reform in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. Now an established member of Tufts community, Nelson has worked relentlessly to achieve these goals. "I appreciate my hometown, but I was very excited to come to Tufts and have the opportunity to be who I am — I didn't feel safe to be back at home," she said. Tufts' commitment to the gay movement, small classes and friendly professors appealed to her. But while she loves Tufts and the opportunities it has afforded her, she recognizes that the university is not perfect. "When I think Tufts is doing something wrong, I usually have not kept quiet … but I would not spend so much time trying to change Tufts if I did not really care about Tufts, she said. "Like any place, it can do better." Nelson has worked at Tufts LGBT Center since her freshman year. She has become involved with coordinating various programming events as well as creating and implementing policies. In 2004, the Tufts administration added gender identity and expression to its non-discrimination clause. Since arriving at Tufts, Nelson has worked to ensure that this policy is integrated seamlessly into the community. "I wasn't part of [the creation of the policy] because I was still in high school, but since then there have been efforts to make sure we stick with that non-discrimination policy," she said. "Just writing it down is not enough; we need to implement it. Everyone from human resources to professors needs to understand what that means and how their actions need to be augmented in accordance with that." Nelson is particularly interested in transgender issues. At Tufts, she has worked on the labeling of single stall bathrooms on campus. As a result of her efforts, the two single-stall bathrooms in the reading room of Tisch Library, which just a few years ago were labeled male and female, are now labeled gender-neutral or unisex. "I've worked on making sure that all single-stall bathrooms are gender neutral, to allow gender nonconforming students a space to feel safe when using the restroom," she said. Nelson also focuses some of her efforts on increasing awareness of and support for the transgender community. "I have worked to make sure programming around campus involving queer issues brings in more transgender speakers focusing on the transgender community," she said. "I think having conversations with the administration about broader transgender issues is important in order to educate people. Lots of people haven't heard the term or don't know what it means. There is a lot of education that needs to be done around these issues to make sure that people aren't acting in a way that hurts other people without even knowing it. This is the first step to creating change." In her efforts to bring change to the Hill, Nelson has been involved in LGBT awareness events like Coming Out Day and Day of Silence and has helped bring in speakers like Staceyann Chin, a poet and artist who speaks about the intersection of gender, class, race, sexuality, and nationality. One LGBT project sticks out to Nelson as her one of her proudest accomplishments at Tufts: the Open Letter Coalition. "Basically, a bunch of students were hurt by various events on campus — incidents involving the Primary Source, the university's response to those incidents, the lack of diversity training for students and faculty, the lack of faculty of color, the low retention rates of students of color," she said. "So we wrote a letter/ad that appeared in the Daily and got many signatures directed to the administration about changes we felt were necessary in relation to issues of diversity at Tufts." The open letter was a collaborative process; students from all types of groups on campus, from the Muslim Students Association to the Africana Center to the Asian American Center to the LGBT Center participated. According to Nelson, at least ten students contributed pieces of writing to the open letter, and it was coalesced into one document. "I think that that collaboration is really important — students from all these groups coming together to talk about issues of class, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity … to have these kinds of conversations," she said. Nelson feels that the open letter has been successful at creating a dialogue between the administration and students and in helping the administration understand student concerns and students understand the constraints the university is under. "We've had conversations with many administrative officials about student concerns, and the administration has been very cooperative. Groups of students [and I] have met with a trustee, the provost and others to talk about what we can do to make things better for minority groups on campus," she said. Nelson is proud that she is using her education to create positive change in the community. "I feel like I'm putting my academic understanding of intersexual impression into practice in collaborative work environments with other students to create the change we felt was necessary, to begin the process to create that change."
The organizer for a Tufts conference on medical research ethics has recused himself from planning the event after his committee rescinded an informal invitation to a congressional staffer over a potential conflict of interest.
Hillel's Moral Voices brought Gary Hirshberg, who serves as the president, chairman and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, to campus last night. Hirshberg talked about corporate responsibility and brought along free samples from his company, which produces organic yogurt.
After months of rumors and speculation, Apple iPhone was officially introduced to the world on June 29, 2007. In addition to an iPod and cell phone combination device, the iPhone has become popular for its large database of downloadable applications. While these applications began as playful distractions, similar to low-tech games found on other phones, they have since taken on more practical functions. There are now many applications that programmers, like Tufts sophomore Alex Williamson, refer to as "life-hack applications" — programs designed for help in everyday life. They include applications for splitting a restaurant check, identifying songs on the radio, translating speech and helping people with stuttering problems. Designers of the programs have a wide range of experience. Many professional programmers have used iPhone application development for business-related reasons. Others, like Williamson, design and program these applications as a hobby. "For me, creating these applications is a way of broadening my knowledge of computer science," Williamson said. "As a computer science and economics double major, most of the classes I take at Tufts are taught in C++, which is not the language of Macs and the iPhone, so I decided to download the Apple [Software Developing Kit] and have been fooling around with developing simple programs like a coin-flip application and a solitaire program." Unfortunately, creating and testing these applications is not free. As a result, Williamson creates most of the programs on his computer but is unable to test them out on his iPhone in order to tweak them and get them ready for mass distribution. "The big problem with creating iPhone applications is paying to put them on your phone," he said. "Obviously, I am a college student on a limited budget, so I don't really have the funds to be continuously paying to download the newest versions of my programs to test how well they work." As the popularity of the iPhone and its applications continues to increase, the question of whether or not the applications will start being used in everyday life as serious tools or retain their role as playful distractions for iPhone users remains unclear. And since the iPhone is still an extremely expensive luxury well beyond many budgets, some wonder whether or not such life-hack applications will ever be able to be programmed for phones from different companies. According to Williamson, even if people begin to see similar programs in other phones, the iPhone is likely to remain the most popular. "The iPhone will likely remain at the top of the application market because it is a niche market, and the iPhone already has a solid reputation, but also because the iPhone applications are so easily mass distributed and the iPhone has very broad options," Williamson said. "There are already over 20,000 iPhone applications available, with more being created and perfected every day." Some users are convinced that some iPhone applications are already witnessing widespread use as serious tools. Junior Nicholas Renner, an iPhone user, says he uses his iPhone applications for more than just fun. "I am constantly using my iPhone applications," he said. "The unit converter is very helpful for my homework, and I use Shazam [a song identification program] and Urban Spoon [a city restaurant guide application] all the time. I wouldn't say these applications are necessary, but they definitely do make my life easier — having them right on my phone — and I think that's all people are really looking for. To be fair though, I do still use my iPhone mostly for phone calls, music, and playing Risk." While there is a great deal of money to be made in the iPhone industry, there are many developers competing for original ideas, according to Williamson. "The biggest challenge associated with iPhone programming is coming up with a unique idea. With so many applications already created and so many people doing it, finding something new to do is quite a difficult task," he said. "[But] there is still money to be made in perfecting the ideas of others, and while I got started to expand my computer science knowledge, I definitely hope to turn this into a money-making hobby after college."
People at Tufts love thinking that they are the first to have an idea or hold a particular position, but if that's not a tenable stance, Tufts people act this out by staking out extreme positions. This is particularly popular when it comes to politics. There aren't a lot of moderate Democrats or conservative leaners, but there are lots of people who could be called radical. Conservatives at Tufts especially like to venture into wingnut territory.
As part of the latest wave of thefts, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers responded to a burglary in progress on Whitfield Road at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.
David Horowitz, a conservative writer and activist, spoke last night in Barnum Hall about academic freedom and liberal biases in higher education, telling an audience of around 40 that liberal professors across the country are indoctrinating students with their ideology.
Social experiments are usually viewed within the realm of science, but what happens when the scientists conducting the research are artists? Often, the results are a form of art that creates a powerful view into humankind's complex and often contradictory nature.
Experts discussed renewable energy infrastructure in front of a capacity crowd in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room during Saturday's Fourth Annual Tufts Energy Conference.
Despite cutting back on virtually all other expenses, the university has decided to increase the financial aid budget by 12 percent for next year.
The Gantcher Center indoor track turned into an source of emotion and hope on Friday night during the Relay For Life benefit for the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Tufts is playing host to a number of conferences this weekend, ranging in focus from microfinance to energy. "Microfinance from Below: The Power of Savings and Savings Groups in Frontier Economies" Details: Speakers from many different sectors have come to the Hill for a conference on the role of savings groups in microfinance. The conference began yesterday and will continue today, with an optional third day for practitioners. For more information, see front page. When and Where: Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Cabot Auditorium Sponsors: The Center for Emerging Market Enterprises at the Fletcher School, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Oxfam America and the Feinstein International Center at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy "US-China Relations Symposium" Details: In this three-part symposium, speakers will address the future relations between the United States and China, focusing on China's current economic and environmental issues. Following opening remarks at 1:30 p.m., economic experts will spend the first part of the day discussing China's role in the global recession. In the second panel that begins at 3:30 p.m. and ends at 5:30 p.m., policy writers and researchers will switch the focus to environmental issues, including China's pressing energy concerns. Retired Navy Adm. Eric McVadon will conclude the symposium with a keynote address at 5:30 p.m., which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. When and Where: Friday, 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Cabot Intercultural Center Sponsors: The Institute for Global Leadership's Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services and the International Relations program "New Strategies for the Obama Era" Details: Noam Chomsky, author and linguist, and political activist Bill Fletcher, Jr, will kick off the opening session of the "New Strategies for the Obama Era" conference today at 6 p.m. in Pearson Hall. They will be joined by several other notable speakers. The event will focus on grassroots initiatives and opportunities for the Obama administration and Congress to deal with challenges while staying centered on peace, justice and environmental sustainability. Students can register at www.afsc.org/newstrategies2009. When and Where: 5 p.m. Friday to 9 p.m. Sunday; Pearson Chemical Laboratory and Cabot Intercultural Center Sponsors: The American Friends Service Committee and Peace and Justice Studies "Global Green Infrastructure: Powering the 21st Century" Details: The fourth annual Tufts Energy Conference will tackle the challenge of creating a sustainable energy network. The conference will examine sustainable energy infrastructures in the United States and developing countries. Three panel discussions will look at new technologies, revitalizing the national infrastructure and powering the developing world. When and Where: Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room Sponsors: The Institute for Global Leadership's Tufts Energy Forum (TEF) and the Tufts Climate Solutions Coalition
An unprecedented number of people have submitted proposals for Experimental College courses for the fall semester, and the ExCollege staff is struggling to keep up.
Every year, a slew of soon-to-be freshmen, eager to settle in and meet their future classmates, arrive on campus early to participate in pre-orientation programs. Whether they choose Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT), International Orientation (IO), Freshman Orientation Community Service (FOCUS) or Tufts Wilderness Orientation, the experience is commonly described as an unforgettable one.
Students are now able to grant faculty members temporary access to their academic transcripts using a new feature of WebCenter, Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser announced on Wednesday in an e-mail.
Refined cuisine is often overlooked in typical college life. Sometimes the evolution from consuming meals named "wake-up", "dinner" and "Pizza Days" to eating ones called "breakfast," "lunch" and "dinner" comes only with age. But some students are looking to the Tufts Culinary Society, founded by freshman Manuel Guzman and sophomore Alix Boulud this past fall, for an alternative.
Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," will headline this year's Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism, which will grapple with the implications of the media's pattern of prying into the lives of politicians.
Gregory Maguire (LA ‘90), the author whose novel inspired the musical "Wicked," spoke yesterday evening in Sophia Gordon Hall as part of the panel "Opting In: Balancing Career and Family," sponsored by the Women's Center, the Women's Studies program and the Office of Development. Maguire was joined by Professor of Education Kathleen Weiler; Amy West, the administrator of the art and art history department; law student Anne Stevenson (LA '07); and Michelle Botus (LA ‘07), a state social worker. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sarah Pinto moderated the discussion.
A new honor society called Honos Civicus will spotlight graduating seniors who have accomplishments in both the academic and active citizenship arenas.
