Senators discussed undergraduate access to the Ginn Library at The Fletcher School, reviews of tenured faculty members and funding requests, among other items, at the Tufts Community Union Senate’s meeting on Sunday.
Tufts’ recent policy for painting the cannon — the site of a longtime Tufts tradition — has drawn student criticism since its implementation. As of this year, the university now paints the cannon gray every Thursday, along with periodic cleanings. According to Tufts, the shift was made to quell student fears about painting over other groups’ messages, while some students argue that the new regulations limit their free speech on campus.
Millions of Americans came together in peaceful protest on Oct. 18 against President Donald Trump’s administration’s policies at over 2,600 “No Kings” events across the country. According to Rebecca Winter, the executive director of Mass 50501, there was a greater student presence than at their previous events, but the overall number of student protesters was relatively low. She expressed disappointment at the lack of student engagement, which has been a new trend in American politics.
The Tufts Community Union Senate discussed an upcoming tuition transparency event with senior university leadership, as well as projects, initiatives and funding requests in its Sunday meeting.
Tufts is introducing changes to its undergraduate orientation next year, implementing a plan to place students into randomly assigned groups. The format will mimic that of the university’s pre-orientation program and will be led by student leaders who will aim to provide a more welcoming and close-knit environment for new students through various events and bonding activities.
Tufts Climate Action hosted a banner drop in support of Make Polluters Pay on Oct. 3. The campaign aims to raise public and legislative support for climate superfund bills. Organized with student groups Sunrise Smith, Sunrise UMass and Sunrise Harvard, the banner drop was preceded by the gathering ...
On Sunday, the Tufts Community Union Senate shared project updates from each General Board Committee and reviewed Treasury spending thus far.
A substantial increase in the H-1B fee, issued by President Donald Trump on Sept. 19, may significantly affect the ability of international students at Tufts to work in the United States after graduation. The new one-time fee of $100,000 upon submission of any new H-1B visa applications, applies to all petitions filed after Sept. 21.
Canvas shut down early Monday morning due to an ongoing failure of Amazon Web Services. Piazza, a forum utilized for out of class questions between students and professors, is also out of service.
This year Tufts’ Center for Awareness, Resources and Education is rolling out the CARE Community Integrity Program, an educational initiative geared toward helping students who have caused, or are concerned about causing, harm to another member or group in their community. CCIP is a revised version of the national Science-based Treatment, Accountability and Risk Reduction for Sexual Assault program, which was created for people found in violation of sexual misconduct law, opting for a more personalized approach.
On Wednesday from 10–11 a.m., Tufts Public Safety will host a training session on civilian responses to an active shooter. The training, which has been offered every semester since 2022, equips students with strategies to address and reduce the risk of a potential active shooter situation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
