The Daily is interviewing candidates for the Somerville School Committee before the municipal election on Nov. 4. All interviews are edited for length and clarity.
The city of Somerville hosted a meeting on Oct. 6 to discuss public safety and homelessness in the Davis Square and Seven Hills area. Residents continued to express concerns and frustrations despite city officials outlining steps they have taken to address the issue.
Eat Out in East, a new initiative led by Somerville Ward 1 City Councilor Matthew McLaughlin, intends to get residents to support local businesses — many of which are immigrant-owned — in East Somerville. The program comes amid increased activity from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts, particularly in Somerville.
During the Sept. 16 preliminary elections for Medford City Council, multiple Medford residents were told that they were no longer active voters on the voter roll. Massachusetts law requires cities to send a census every January, requiring all registered voters to confirm that their place of residence is accurate, with voters only being marked as active voters after the Medford Elections Commission receives the census. However, when some voters went to the polls in September, they were told they were inactive, despite having mailed the census.
The Medford School Committee approved the first reading of a new policy, “Use of Generative AI in Medford Public Schools,” on Sept. 22. Though the policy still must pass a second reading before it is formally adopted, the committee voted to include it in the school handbooks, offering guidance on how teachers and students can choose to responsibly use artificial intelligence while the committee takes time to adopt the policy.
Two Tufts students are among the 13 people arrested on Tuesday in the Boston Common after a 300-person pro-Palestine protest ended in a brawl with police officers, four of whom were reportedly injured.
With just 27 days left before the municipal elections in Medford and Somerville, several events have been organized to give candidates for city council, School Committee and mayor an opportunity to share their platform with prospective voters and face off against competing candidates.
A group of faculty members inside Tufts’ School of Arts and Sciences Strategic Plan Committee, led by Kasso Okoudjou, professor and department chair of mathematics, and Natasha Warikoo, professor of sociology, is crafting a guiding statement for the School of Arts and Sciences that articulates its distinctive identity.
Two questions will appear on Somerville’s Nov. 4 general election ballot: one proposing to extend the mayoral term from two years to four, and the other proposing updates to the city charter, which has remained largely unchanged since 1899.
On Nov. 4, Somerville residents will decide whether or not to adopt the city’s first new charter in more than a century and whether to lengthen the mayor’s term from two to four years. However, voters will not receive mailed explanations of the ballot questions after the City Council postponed adopting a state statute that would have required it.
Tufts professors have increasingly decided to shift their assessments from take-home essays to in-class exams due to the rise of artificial intelligence and large language models.
Efforts to access a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement between Tufts and Medford have reignited discussions over the university’s role in its surrounding communities. Tufts, which is exempt from property taxes on most of its Medford/Somerville campus due to the Dover Amendment, a Massachusetts law that negotiates agreements with the two cities to make voluntary financial contributions as a substitute for taxes.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration had illegally used the threat of deportation to silence noncitizens in higher education who protested the war in Gaza in support of Palestine. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge William G. Young reiterated evidence and information surrounding the government’s decision to revoke several F-1 student visas, including that of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk.
Tufts health officials say they will continue recommending the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines for all Tufts community members, provided they do not have medical constraints, amid recent federal changes to vaccination policy.
Faculty research at Tufts has been limited by the cancellation of grants and the withdrawal of research funding across the country since President Donald Trump took office last winter. These changes, following the shuttering of federal agencies and shifts in research priorities by the federal administration, have left faculty members in humanities departments are facing uncertainty with limited institutional support.
A group of faculty members at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University has launched a “Save the SMFA” campaign, which lists a variety of grievances and demands regarding changes at SMFA.
The SMFA Café, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts’ only Tufts dining location, made changes to its pricing method, increasing the overall cost of food. Items that had been priced according to weight will now be charged through a fixed box price with two size options.
The Tufts Community Union Elections Commission announced the newly elected senators for the 2025–26 school year this weekend. According to senior and Election Committee Chair Luca O’Neil, 920 students — approximately 13% of the student body — voted in the TCU Senate election. This semester’s turnout is about 3% lower than the previous election, which saw 16.2% student participation.
On Sunday, the newly elected Class of 2029 senators and disability senator attended their first Tufts Community Union Senate meeting. TCU reviewed proposed changes to the bylaws and elected new first-year members to the Allocations Board.
Medford is planning a citywide update to its wayfinding — the system of signs, markers and design elements that help guide people through an area — to improve navigation and highlight local landmarks.
