Five families in Somerville are facing eviction and potential displacement after their home was acquired by landlords seeking to raise rents on a property close to the Green Line Extension. The 182–184 Tremont Street home currently houses primarily Salvadoran and Haitian families, some of whom have lived there for more than 25 years.
Somerville City Councilor At-Large Willie Burnley Jr. introduced a resolution on Sept. 22 that calls upon President Biden to remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism List and pressure Congress to end the “failed policy of regime change.” Similar resolutions have been introduced by Cambridge, Boston and the town of Brookline in the past year.
The City of Somerville announced that they will establish an advisory committee to create a Pollinator Action Plan. The plan aims to protect pollinator species and preserve the health of the local urban ecosystem.
The Tufts University Chaplaincy announced that they will begin holding masses in Spanish on Oct. 16.
At the end of September, Tufts concluded its second annual Innovation Month. The program, which was launched by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, aims to educate students about resources in the greater Boston area, help them to develop applicable real-world skills and provide them with networking opportunities.
Tufts’ Parents and Family Weekend will be held on Oct. 21 and 22, marking the first time in-person programming has been offered since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Programming will include tours of laboratories and galleries, panels with deans and lectures by professors, a significant change from the virtual programming of the past two years.
Students received an email yesterday from Camille Lizarríbar, dean of students for AS&E, notifying them of an incident “when a group of students was verbally assaulted by another group in what was described as a racially motivated incident.”
The Tufts Community Union concluded its first-year senatorial election on Sept. 29. First-years Jose Armando, Thy Nguyen, Anand Patil, Dhruv Sampat, Donovan Sanders, Caroline Spahr and Savvy Thompson were chosen as the seven student senators to represent the Class of 2026.
Tufts held its annual Community Day event on Oct. 2. Students, faculty, staff and community members gathered for a day filled with performances, food, fun activities and thought provoking discussions with organizations on the academic quad.
Francesca Rubinson, a Tufts alumna (LA’20) and current Harvard Divinity School student, was recently announced as the graduate student intern at the University Chaplaincy for 2022. Rubinson studies Judaism through feminist and queer lenses and plans to serve as a resource for Tufts students while also developing her own skills in multifaith chaplaincy.
The Center for Humanities at Tufts presented “Musical Minds: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture” on Wednesday night. In the talk given by Aniruddh Patel, a professor of psychology at Tufts, he explored how biology and culture impact human musicality.
Tufts’ Counseling and Mental Health Services is now offering an online appointment scheduling system, has student Mental Health Representatives and is hosting a mental health and wellbeing fair on Monday as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.
When Caroline Genco became provost ad interim of Tufts in January, one former employee of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice knew they couldn’t stay at the university.
The School of Engineering announced that it is sunsetting the ABET accreditation for its Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering program in an email sent to BSBME students on Sept. 19
Carol Joyner, director of the Labor Project for Working Families at Family Values at Work Action, spoke with Tufts students on Sept. 22 as part of the Civic Life Lunch Speaker Series hosted by Tisch College. Joyner discussed her more than two decades of work on issues surrounding workers’ rights, including advocating for paid leave and for more comprehensive child care for workers.
TCU Senate elected new members to the Allocations Board, heard updates from community senators and discussed recent conversations with the Tufts administration during its second session of the year on Sept. 25.
Members of the congressional ‘Squad’ spoke to a crowd of supporters at the Somerville Theatre on Saturday evening. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who represents Somerville in the U.S. House of Representatives, was joined by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush at the sold-out event.
Tufts Climate Action held a rally last Friday at the Mayer Campus Center Lower Patio to demand that the university fully divest from its fossil fuel holdings. The rally drew 50–75 attendees, making it one of the largest climate demonstrations on Tufts’ campus in the last three years, organizers said.
Reducing food waste while supplying hungry students with free snacks? Talk about a two-in-one. Tufts’ “free food” email list, spearheaded by the Eco Reps group, resumed operation earlier this month after a pandemic-induced hiatus, and in just a few weeks, the email group has already offered up pastries from Tatte and Sugar and Spice as leftover food from community events.
As the Tufts community returns to campus and adjusts to the fall semester, the new school year brings new guidance surrounding COVID-19 protocols. All eligible Tufts community members are required to receive a bivalent COVID-19 booster shot by Dec. 2, as announced in a Sept. 16 email from University Infection Control Director Michael Jordan and Medical Director of Health Service Marie Caggiano.
