Tufts admitted 9.5% of students to the Class of 2027 from roughly 34,000 applicants, it announced on March 22. Acceptances were granted to the most diverse applicant pool the university has ever seen. This year’s class is one of the most selective in the university’s history, following last year’s record-low 9.7% acceptance rate.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted a Civic Life Lunch on March 14 to discuss the possibilities of bipartisanship in Massachusetts and national politics. The virtual event, titled “The Massachusetts Model: Bipartisanship on Beacon Hill,” was co-sponsored by the Political Science Department, Tufts ACTION, Tufts CIVIC, the Tufts Democrats and the Tufts Republicans.
Lee Edelman discussed his new book “Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing,” with fellow Tufts English professor Jess Keiser on March 9 at an English department event. Edelman, the Fletcher professor of English literature at Tufts, and Keiser unpacked the book’s key theses and its relevance in today’s context.
The Institute for Global Leadership at Tisch College hosted the annual Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship Symposium from March 9–11. Titled “Power and Prejudice: Race and International Relations,” the three-day event hosted several panel discussions on the prevalence of racial issues in global politics. Desirée Cormier Smith, special representative for racial equity and justice in the U.S. Department of State, delivered the keynote address for the symposium.
The TCU Senate unanimously called on Tufts to divest from fossil fuels and commit to carbon neutrality by 2030 at its weekly meeting on March 12.
Steve Tisch (A’71) made a $10 million donation toward the Schuler Access Initiative as part of the Brighter World campaign. The Schuler Access Initiative is a $25 million “challenge gift” from Jack Schuler (A’62) and Tanya Schuler Sharman (E’91), co-founders of the Schuler Education Foundation.
Dr. Sima Samar, an Afghan activist and human rights advocate, spoke at an International Women’s Day event on March 8 sponsored by The Fletcher School. Samar, a visiting scholar at Fletcher, spoke about the history and current state of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Mitchell Lunn (LA’04), an associate professor of nephrology, epidemiology and population health at Stanford University School of Medicine, received Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life’s 2023 Lyon and Bendheim Citizenship Award in Barnum Hall on March 7 for his work in representing sexual and gender minority populations in healthcare.
The Tufts University Chaplaincy held its annual Russell Lecture on Spiritual Life on March 7, with a lecture by Ofelia Zepeda, a 2021 Tufts honorary degree recipient. Zepeda, a poet and scholar, lectured on the intersection of language and spirituality, and the role of poetry in reviving indigenous languages.
Somerville’s Housing Division plans to allocate $1.6 million in federal funds towards services including rental assistance and housing stabilization by 2030. The funds were awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnership American Rescue Plan Program, an initiative that provides funding to reduce homelessness and increase housing stability across the country.
University President Anthony Monaco hosted an event in Ballou Hall on Wednesday to present the inaugural Youniss Family Professorship of Innovation to Professor Lawrence Uricchio.
The TCU Senate approved a resolution at their weekly meeting on March 5 calling on Tufts to create a center for Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) students and a resolution calling on Tufts professors to heighten transparency of course costs on all SIS course pages. At the same meeting, senators introduced a full-text resolution calling on the university to commit to institutional climate justice, created a new subcommittee focused on sexual assault prevention and approved eight supplementary funding requests.
Morphoceuticals, a biotech company co-founded by Tufts professors Michael Levin and David Kaplan, recently received $8 million in seed funding from Prime Movers Lab and Juvenescence. The company is taking a new approach to the challenge of regenerative medicine by exploring the bioelectric controls of the human body to induce the regeneration of tissue, limbs and organs. Levin hopes their work can revolutionize regenerative applications and help millions of people with various injuries and health conditions.
Tufts aims to purchase former Zeta Psi building at 80 Professors Row
The Fletcher School hosted a panel titled “How Has the Russia-Ukraine War Changed the International Security Environment?” on Feb. 27. Chaired by Monica Toft, the director of Fletcher’s Center for Strategic Studies, the discussion included Professors Daniel Drezner and Kelly Greenhill, and visiting scholars Pavel Luzin and Volodymyr Dubovyk, who is affiliated with Odesa I. Mechnikov National University in Ukraine.
Students gathered outside of the Mayer Campus Center on March 3, before the Global Climate Strike in Boston, to protest Tufts’ fossil fuel investments and rising global carbon emissions. Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School, spoke at the rally, offering support to protesters calling for divestment.
The Tufts Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies recently announced changes to its major requirements, including increasing flexibility in terms of electives and a decrease in certain required classes. Students matriculating in fall 2023 will be the first class required to adhere to the new curriculum for TDPS.
The Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism will return to Tufts for the first time since 2018 at noon on April 3 with CNN’s Abby Phillip slated as this year’s speaker. Sponsored by Tisch College’s Solomont Speaker Series, Phillip will discuss her work at CNN with Tufts alumnus and trustee Neil Shapiro (A’80).
Over 100 students, workers and union leaders rallied for a new contract for Tufts Dining Services union employees outside the Mayer Campus Center on March 1.
The Tufts Community Union Senate held a weekly meeting on Feb. 26, hearing an abstract calling on the university to fully divest from fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. During the meeting, roughly 20 students gathered in the Joyce Cummings Center atrium outside the meeting room holding posters with phrases such as “protect the right to protest.”
