Last weekend, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts hosted its first in-person Art Sale since the pandemic began. The annual sale, which serves as one of the primary fundraising campaigns for the SMFA, attracts visitors from the Tufts and SMFA communities and the greater Boston area.
The Association of Mixed People at Tufts and Tufts Eco Reps co-hosted an event called “Discussion on Cultural Origins & Fusion of Food” on Nov. 7. This discussion focused on how food is intrinsically linked to cultural identity, colonialism and sustainability.
Tufts’ sex health vending machine opened on Oct. 7. Located on the lower level of the Campus Center, the machine is fully stocked with free condoms, lubricant and dental dams, in addition to $15 Plan B.
Tufts will offer a new course, officially titled “Conversational Italian,” starting next spring.
Tufts Resident Assistants are unionizing following months of planning. In a letter to University President Anthony Monaco and Director of Residential Life and Learning Christina Alch, members of United Labor of Tufts Resident Assistants said that over 80% of the RAs have signed union authorization cards, declaring their intent to form a union and requesting that the university voluntarily recognize it.
Leading up to the midterm elections, Tufts political groups have organized across campus, urging their peers to head to the voting booths.
Editor’s note: Emily Thompson is the Executive News Editor of The Tufts Daily. Thompson was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
The Tufts Department of Public Safety announced recent changes made to meet recommendations from the Tufts as an Anti-Racist Institution initiative in an Oct. 19 email to the Tufts community. In addition to an updated mission statement and core values, changes include an expansion of training for all Tufts University Police Department officers, the addition of more unarmed campus security officers and a new position to support communication.
On Nov. 2, Tufts was presented the University Award for Philosophical Diversity from the American Humanist Association. Nadya Dutchin, executive director of the AHA, came to Tufts to deliver the plaque and remarks on the purpose of the AHA, how it connects to humanism and why Tufts was the chosen recipient.
Kelli Morgan, director of curatorial studies and professor of the practice in curatorial studies and history of art and architecture, founded a new graduate certificate program this year, the Anti-Racist Curatorial Practice. Morgan developed the program, which currently offers five online courses designed to be completed in one to two years, to counter the systemic racism often found in museum curation.
Sadeq Ali Quraishi, an anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center and clinical faculty member at the School of Medicine, was arrested on Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security on charges of attempted sex trafficking. Tufts Medical confirmed on Friday afternoon that Quraishi has been fired.
Majors Month, a new series coordinated by the Career Center, University Chaplaincy, academic advisors and Tisch Library to aid undergraduates in their search to choose a major, started on Oct. 17. The series will run from Oct. 17 to Nov. 16, featuring events ranging from an alumni panel on unique major choices to an academic inquiry panel on robots and AI.
Debaters from the Tufts Democrats, Tufts Republicans and Tufts Young Democratic Socialists of America answered questions on current political topics in the ASEAN auditorium on Oct. 26. During the hour-long event, students from each group discussed national policies on health care and student debt in the “Triple Threat Debate” hosted by Tufts Cooperation and Innovation in Citizenship.
The Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lecture Series hosted a discussion with David Bond on Oct. 27 titled “Environmental Justice in the Age of Upheaval.” The discussion explored how certain refineries dumped pollution into unsuspecting communities during the time of reduced government oversight due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tisch College and the Tufts University School of Medicine hosted a Solomont Speaker Series event titled “The Aftermath of Dobbs - Abortion in America” on Oct. 26. The panel considered the implications of June’s landmark Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in the intersecting realms of healthcare policy and legislation.
Tufts Assistant Professor Sarah Fong, alongside two visiting assistant professors, presented research on the “Histories of Black and Native Schooling” at an event sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Tufts on Oct. 19. In a panel moderated by Mary McNeil, an instructor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora, the three speakers discussed their research exploring the oppression of Black and Indigenous people in the United States through the lens of the legacy of state-sponsored schooling.
Director of the Experimental College Howard Woolf announced his retirement on Oct. 5. The university is currently in the process of conducting their search for the next director of the ExCollege, which they hope to announce in the spring of 2023.
Activist Kerry Bowie was the featured speaker at the latest Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lecture on Oct. 20. The Tufts Environmental Studies Program sponsored the event, where Bowie delivered a lecture titled, “Achieve a Just Energy Transition: Creating Jobs, Building Wealth, and Reducing Energy Burden.”
Nearly 30,000 people have signed a petition calling on Tufts to remove Alex de Waal from his position as director of The Fletcher School’s World Peace Foundation, alleging that his comments on the crisis in Northern Ethiopia “directly [promote] human right violation and atrocities” and violate international law. De Waal says the comments originate from Ethiopian war propagandists. Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins confirmed that the university does not intend to remove de Waal.
Helen Boucher was announced as the dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine, effective immediately, in an email to the Tufts community on Friday from University President Anthony Monaco and Michael Dandorph, president and CEO of Tufts Medicine. Boucher, who will also serve as the chief academic officer for Tufts Medicine, is the first woman in the medical school's 129-year history to serve as dean.
