The Somerville Board of Health voted unanimously on Thursday to end requirements for masking indoors, propelling the city into the next phase of the pandemic and aligning its policy with Medford, Cambridge and other municipalities in the Greater Boston area.
COVID-19 cases have declined on the Medford/Somerville campus after reaching their all-time high two weeks ago. The university reported 12 new cases on Friday and 148 in the week before.
The Medford Board of Health voted unanimously to lift the city's indoor mask mandate for private businesses, effective Feb. 16.The decision comes in light of falling COVID-19 positivity rates in the community.
Jesse Zhang(E'14) was selected as a 2022 honoree of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the social media category. Zhang is the co-founder of Beacons, a startup that provides the tools for content creators to generate a website with their information and other relevant links.
Somerville introduced its new Child Care Access and Affordability Program on Feb. 3. The program will provide families with financial assistance to send their children to daycare and preschool.
A crowd of Tufts students, alumni and community members gathered at the Mayer Campus Center on Wednesday to show their support for the people of Ukraine.
The Massachusetts House of Representativesapproved a bill on Feb. 16 that would allow undocumented residents to obtain driver’s licenses.The Work and Family Mobility Act, or H.4461,passed with 120 votes in favor of the bill and 36 against.
Tufts Women in Computer Science (WiCS)has revived its mentorship program, which matches Tufts computer science alumni with current undergraduate students majoring in computer science.
A team of Tufts students and faculty members is working with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW), a Cambridge-based grassroots organization that helps communities prepare for climate change-induced severe weather, to survey Chinatown and Roxbury residents on their level of preparedness for extreme weather events. The aim of the survey is to examine how social connectedness within communities can help build climate resilience.
The City of Somerville awarded $2.7 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding to various organizations in the area. This funding is funneled annually to organizations that work to preserve historic sites, maintain open spaces, develop outdoor recreation facilities or create affordable housing. Funding recipients include the Elizabeth Peabody House, the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Somerville Hispanic Association for Community Development and the Somerville Museum.
The City of Somerville is moving forward with plans to build a new public safety complex at 90 Washington St. in East Somerville after stalling for more than three years. A virtual meeting was held on Feb. 16 to gather input on the project from members of the Somerville community.
In a Tufts Community Union Senate meeting on Feb. 6, TCU Diversity Officer Jaden Pena announced the creation of a seat for the newest senator of the Indigenous Center. In addition, Student Life sent out an email on Feb. 10 introducing the new Indigenous Center director, Vernon Miller.
The Fletcher School hosted a conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion in diplomacy with Brian A. Nichols (LA '87) on Feb. 24. Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, previously served as a U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe.
The Tufts Community Union Senate heard supplementary funding requests and a presentation on Black Legacy Month in a meeting in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room on Sunday night.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts' Seventh Congressional District spoke to the Tufts community about the path to building a multiracial democracy on Feb. 24 as part of Tisch College's Solomont Speaker Series. It was thesecond time in recent years that Pressley has been featured in a Tisch College event, with the first coming just months after she first assumed office in 2019.
Tufts’ COVID-19 booster shot requirement for students, faculty and staff went into effect on Feb. 15. As announced on Dec. 16, 2021, all community members who were eligible to get a booster shot before Jan. 15 are expected to have uploaded proof of their additional vaccination, or documentation of a valid medical or religious accommodation, to the online health portal.
COVID-19 case numbers have shown noticeable signs of improvement after they peaked following Valentine’s Day. The university reported 21 new cases on Thursday and 171 in the week before, which are much lower than the record-breaking spike set in just the last two weeks.
Amid a nationwide college mental health crisis, Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Services reports that students are being scheduled to see counselors in a timely fashion, aided in part by the addition of two counselors from outside provider Mantra Health.
Tufts Digital Collections and Archives launched Newspapers @ Tufts, a digital collection of thousands of issues of the Tufts Weekly, the Tufts Observer and the Tufts Daily, in January 2022. The collection documents 124 yearsof university history through the lens of student media.
One of Robert Kaplan’s first assignments for The Tufts Dailywas an article about an invasive beetle that was wreaking havoc upon Somerville’s ash trees in fall 2018. He remembers the story piquing his interest in journalism.
