Ayanna Thomas will serve as the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, as announced in an email to the community on Feb.3.Thomas will continue to serve in her current role as rean of research until an internal search for the position is complete, according to Bárbara Brizuela, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.
On Jan. 31, University President Sunil Kumar and Tufts’ Director of Athletics John Morris released a letter to the greater Tufts community. The letter included an executive summary of the independent investigation into a Tufts men’s lacrosse team workout held last fall that led to 24 of the 61 student participants being diagnosed with Exertional Rhabdomyolysis.
The Tufts Community Union Senate willhold special elections this week to fill vacant positions for the spring semester of the 2024–25 academic year. Voting will begin at noon today and end at the same time on Saturday.
The Tufts Community Union Senate tackled club funding and discussed a resolution calling for the expansion of language offerings during their weekly meeting on Feb. 2. Parliamentarian Kunal Botla introduced the first resolution of the semester: Class of 2028 Senator Jesse Kitumba’s call to expand language proficiency testing options beyond the languages included in the UPenn Language program.
Unionized full-time lecturers in the School of Arts and Sciences rallied on Monday and Tuesday during a two day walk-out, following 10 months of negotiations with Tufts administration. The 122 A&S lecturers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 509, seek salary adjustments to compensate for rising costs of living in the Greater Boston area and increases in student enrollment.
Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts reiterated their demands for Tufts to divest from Israeli corporations in a protest on Wednesday, three days after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect. Drawing roughly 30 protestors, the protest was announced by CPLT in a joint Instagram post with Somerville for Palestine and Medford for Palestine on Jan. 18.
The Tufts Community UnionSenate covered committee work, handled supplementary funding requests and voted on critical policy issues during a packed meeting Sunday night.
About 80% of full-time union lecturers in the School of Arts and Sciences are walking out on Monday and Tuesday in an effort to bargain for a third contract with Tufts administration. The full-time lecturers will not be working for two days in support of livable salaries and manageable workloads.
Tufts’ Institutional Neutrality Working Group hosted a total of five listening sessions to hear input from faculty, staff and students on a potential statement of institutional neutrality. On Jan. 15 and Jan. 16, the working group held two final virtual listening sessions for all Tufts community members to voice their thoughts, questions and concerns.
Following President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, political student groups on campus including Tufts Democrats, Tufts Republicans and Planned Parenthood Action at Tufts are preparing for a semester under the new presidential administration.
Khan Asfandyar Shairani will permanently serve as the Muslim Chaplain,the Tufts University Chaplaincy announced onJan. 16.Previously serving as the Muslim Chaplain ad interim, Shairani will continue supporting and educating students interested in the Islamic tradition.
The Tufts School of Engineering will launch a new master’s program centered on artificial intelligence in the fall of 2025. The first applications will close on March 15.
The Tufts University Chaplaincy has hired Ven. Vineetha Mahayaye as its new Buddhist Chaplain, a role focused on supporting Tufts’ Buddhist community and organizing educational programming around Buddhist teachings. A monk from Sri Lanka and a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, Mahayaye officially started his new role Monday.
This fall saw a critical drought warning issued for most of Massachusetts, including the Medford and Somerville regions. As a result, the state saw red flag warnings coupled with several fast-moving brush fires which dampened air quality on several days in October.Since then, rain has alleviated immediate concerns.
The governing body of the Tufts Alumni Association, the Tufts Alumni Council, passed a new set of bylaws “modernizing” the association’s constitution on Nov. 3.
University President Sunil Kumar joined members of the Tufts Community Union Senate in hosting a panel discussion on student advocacy and preprofessional student groups on Nov. 20. Led by TCU President Joel Omolade, a senior, and Class of 2027 Senator Isabela Silvares Lima, the event was largely attended by presidents of advocacy groups and preprofessional organizations on campus.
Monroe France, vice provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, hosted Tufts University President Sunil Kumar for the first in a series of community webinar conversations with Tufts administrators on the “joys and challenges” of leadership in higher education on Nov. 20. The conversation touched on topics including recent university protests, the daily schedule of a university president and the accessibility of a Tufts education.
Planned Parenthood Action at Tufts held an event on Nov. 20 featuring the “Bad Old Days Posse” — a group of women telling their stories about life before “Roe v. Wade” — who shared their experiences of the state of abortion rights in the ‘60s and‘70s.
The Tufts’ Political Science Department, International Relations Program and Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted a panel on Nov. 21 examining the outcome of the 2024 election.Panelists discussed the implications of the election results on domestic and international politics.
The Tufts Community Union Senate covered committee work, checked in on projects and approved supplementary funding in their last meeting before Thanksgiving. The meeting began with a look at the work of the various Senate committees.Alexander Vang, a junior and the FIRST senator and community & diversity committee chair, reported an unexpectedly high turnout to a community and diversity town hall meeting that took place in the Mayer Campus Center on Nov. 18. The town hall allowed students the chance to meet and question their community senators.
