The physics department celebrated Black in Physics Week for the first time with a mix of in-person and virtual events during the week of Oct. 24–30. Black in Physics Week began inOctober 2020 with the intent of recognizing and commemorating the contributions of Black physicists to the scientific community.
The Somerville City Council voted on Nov. 9 to adopt a new ward and precinct map for the city at the recommendation of aninternalcity council working group. The map, developed by the working group in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, shifts the boundaries of the city's seven wards only minimally, while increasing the number of precincts within each ward from three to four in order to accommodate the city's growth. Somerville's population grew from 75,754 to 81,045 in the past decade, a 7% increase.
Tufts overhauled its shuttle system this semester to accommodate the increasing size of the student body and offer more frequent and efficient service for riders. The updated shuttle system has multiple routes for students to choose from depending on their destination: SMFA, Davis Direct, Davis All Stops, Hyatt Direct and Beacon Street Direct.
Senior Juliette Wu posted flyers around campus to protest the vandalization of the artist statement accompanying her art piece, which depicted the issue of language assimilation in China. Wu opted to post these flyers instead of going to Tufts administration to launch an investigation into the incident.
The ACT recentlyreleased a report which found that scores have dropped for the fifth consecutive year. While some in higher education argue that this indicates a worrying trend about students' preparation for college-level coursework, many Tufts educators see its primary cause — universities adopting test-optional programs — as a progressive development.
The TCU Senate discussed its bylaws, heard a statement from the Tufts Labor Coalition and heard supplementary funding requests in a meeting on Sunday.
Multiple residents of Harleston Hall have recently reported stolen laundry.
The Voices of Tufts Diversity Experience, a two-day program designed to introduce high school seniors to the diversity and community at Tufts University, was hosted via Zoom from October 16th-17th.
As part of its Civic Life Lunch series, Tisch College hosted a webinar with Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone titled “Somerville on the Move: A City Transformed & Forging a New Path Forward” on Oct. 27.
An estimated 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were used in 2020 to store data, which is the same amount of annual energy used by 1.27 million U.S. homes. To help reduce the amount of energy that data storage uses, a new technique that uses glowing fluorescent molecules has been developed by researchers from Harvard University and Northwestern University.
PERIOD at Tufts hosted a Red Dress Gala on Oct. 15 that raised $1,020 for the Myna Mahila Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides access to menstrual products to communities in India.
The Fletcher School launched a new Master in Global Affairs degree program this fall. The degree is designed for students who want to focus on a single area of study and complete their studies in less time than a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy typically takes.
New cutting edge technology recently installed at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University remindsCheryl London, the associate dean for research and graduate education, of the 1966 sci-fi film "Fantastic Voyage."
Mini-Med Connect, an intensive summer mentorship program for high school students interested in STEM and health care, was introduced last summer by the Center for Science Education at Tufts University. Mini-Med Connect allows high school students to explore career paths in research and medicine while also teaching important social and academic skills for STEM-related fields. The program ran virtually from June 28 through Aug. 6.
32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the union that represents custodians at Tufts University, held a rally on Friday afternoon in front of West Hall in protest of C&W Services’ failure to extend its contract and meet its demands. C&W Services is the facilities contractor hired by Tufts. The protest was held in collaboration with the Tufts Labor Coalition and was attended by workers, union representatives, students and community members.
President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package titled the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 in March. Massachusetts received about $5.3 billion in funding from the bill for post-pandemic recovery efforts. On Oct. 29, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted unanimously to appropriate around $3.6 billion of the ARPA funding.
An analysis of ancient animal DNA samples has helped identify the genetic homeland of modern horses from around 4,200 years ago. A team of archaeologists spent the last five years collecting thousands of horse samples — from bones to teeth — in locations where the animals could have originated. Researchers utilized radiocarbon dating to figure out the age of different samples and tracked several horse populations before, during and after domestication. By comparing these different populations, the team concluded in a recent report published in Nature thatmodern domestic horses originated from the steppes — which are grasslands located in present-day Russia — before spreading across Eurasia and replacing all preexisting horse lineages.
In Somerville's mayoral election, Ward 7 City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne secured 9,997 votes to City Councilor-at-large Will Mbah's 6,726. This created a margin of victory of 18.27 percentage points.
The Tufts School of Arts and Sciences decided to terminate the Portuguese minor this fall due to lower than optimal enrollments. The unexpected news was recently announced to Portuguese language students and lecturers, who previously believed that the school would preserve the program.
The Tufts Community Union Senate voted on its first resolution of the semester, heard an appeal from Tufts Republicans and heard supplementary funding requests in a meeting on Sunday.
