Danielle Abrams, professor of the practice in the performance department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, has passed away unexpectedly, Interim Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Nate Harrison and Faculty Affairs Advisor to the Dean Eulogio Guzmán announced in an April 21 email to the Tufts community.
A message painted on the Tufts cannon by Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine was anonymously defaced on April 20. Tufts SJP painted the message — which read “Free Palestine” — for Israeli Apartheid Week, the club’s annual series of events raising awareness of “Israel’s apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” The cannon was found covered by blue spray paint on Thursday. The identity of the perpetrator remains unknown.
COVID-19 cases are on the decline following a surge on the Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus. The university reported 25 new cases on Friday, down from 79 new cases on April 12th, when Tufts set a record for the most positive cases reported in a single day. The previous record was set on Jan. 3 and April 8, when the university reported 68 cases in a day.
After selecting housing for the 2022–23 school year on April 7, rising sophomores received an email from the Office of Residential Life and Learning on April 8 informing them of plans to redo the selection process for all doubles and triples groups on April 11.Students who wished to select housing in the general selection category, originally scheduled for April 8, were told by ORLL that their registration would be moved to April 12.
The past week was active for many of the faith communities at Tufts, marking the celebration of Passover and Easter, the ongoing celebration of Ramadan and a belated Holi celebration. The University Chaplaincy offered in-person events to mark these holidays after two years of virtual celebrations.
The Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts announced the winners of the $100k New Ventures Competition following the virtual final round of competition on April 8. First-place winners included startups dedicated to technological innovation, advancements in wound care and building Black generational wealth.
The coronavirus is spreading more rapidly than ever before on Tufts’ campus, forcing hundreds of students and some professors back into their bedrooms and onto the Zoom screen in a routine that’s become all too familiar after two years of pandemic learning.
Taina McField was appointed the new associate dean for strategy at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life this month, the university announced in a statement.
The Tufts Community Union Senate Education Committee held a resources fair on April 6 to educate students about the resources and organizations available to help them with academic work, keep them safe and enhance student life on campus.
The psychology department hosted its second annual Psychology of Anti-Racism Series talk titled, “What We Learn From Where We Live,” on April 15. The Zoom webinar featured Dr. Neil Lewis Jr., an assistant professor of communication and social behavior at Cornell University, who spoke about how to foster an anti-racist society by understanding the connection between people and the places in which they live.
The Tufts Community Union Senate heard supplementary funding and capital expenditure requests and voted on resolutions about the presidential search committee and student mental health on Sunday night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room. The meeting was the body’s last of the semester.
Jana Dia has never been to the United States before, but she knows she wants one of her first stops to be Medford, Mass.
For the first time in three years, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will welcome thousands of high school seniors to campus this month for a batch of rebranded Jumbo Days — known as ‘Bo Days — in hopes of offering members of the admitted class a glimpse into life at Tufts. In-person events, divided across six days, will supplement a month-long supply of virtual programming for admitted students, a remnant of the pandemic.
Tufts will transition to a “hybrid” model of arming its university police department based on the recommendations of the Working Group on TUPD Arming, according to a March 29 message to the Tufts community from Executive Vice President and WGTA Chair Mike Howard. The working group recommended that authorities transition to a hybrid model of arming that specializes the response to the nature of the call.
Tufts announced on April 8 that it will open a new Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice (CBMHRJ) within the School of Medicine. Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, the Julia A. Okoro professor of Black Maternal Health at the Tufts University School of Medicine, will direct the center.
Tufts announced revised COVID-19 isolation procedures in an email to the university-wide community on April 13 as The Mods and hotel rooms used for isolation neared capacity.
Tufts University Executive Vice President Mike Howard discussed divestment from Russian securities — which currently amount to $5.7 million out of the approximately $2.5 billion in Tufts’ endowment — at a special session of the University Faculty Senate on March 23. Howard said that fully divesting from these securities would be “too risky for the endowment,” but that the university is working with its investment managers, who are seeking to minimize their funds’ exposure to Russian money.
U.S. Congressman and Tufts alumnus Peter DeFazio, D-Ore, spoke about his work as the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and his time in Congress with Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science Deborah Schildkraut as part of the Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series. DeFazio (A’69) has represented Oregon’s 4th Congressional District for 36 years and plans to retire at the end of his current term. Although originally scheduled to speak at Tufts in person, DeFazio joined the event via Zoom from his office because he recently tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
The Tufts Community Union Senate held their annual Budget Day — allocating $2,608,225 to over 200 student organizations for the 2023 fiscal year — and heard two resolutions in a meeting on Sunday night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room.
COVID-19 cases have increased on the Medford/Somerville campus following students’ return from spring break. The University reported 28 new cases on Saturday and 68 the day before. This marks the second time Tufts has reached the highest recorded number of cases in a day. The average number of COVID-19 cases in a day increased by around 10% in the past week, with an average of 29 students testing positive each day in the week before Saturday.
