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.
Chris Hayes, the anchor of the MSNBC primetime show “All In with Chris Hayes” and the “Why Is This Happening?” podcast, headlined the 16th annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism on Nov. 18. Tufts alumnus Neal Shapiro, the former president of NBC News and CEO of WNET, moderated the conversation.Hayes, who has hosted his point-of-view show since 2013, spoke for nearly an hour in front of an audience of roughly 200 in Barnum Hall. The event — named after the influential broadcaster and war correspondent Edward Murrow, whose son was in attendance — was sponsored by the Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series.
Tufts University Nuclear Activists held a Nov. 14 speaker event with Dr. Ira Helfand, a renowned nuclear disarmament activist who discussed his position on nuclear weapons and why students should join the movement against them. This was the first solo event hosted by TUNA, a new club that is currently in the process of obtaining official recognition from the university.
Sophomore and Tufts Community Union Senator Michael Glueck, along with other senators, has successfully pushed for periodic free weight deep cleans and the posting of additional hygiene signage in the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center after many students raised concerns about the cleanliness of the equipment.
Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine announced its “formal break and disaffiliation from Tufts University” on Nov. 15, following the university’s decision to officially suspend Tufts SJP through Jan. 2027.
The Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch College of Civic Life held its Community Conversations Dinner on Nov. 14. The event featured TUPIT students and welcomed community partners to learn more about the work being done by the Tufts Education Reentry Network, or MyTERN, program.
Tufts’ Department of Earth and Climate Sciences will introduce two new majors, Earth Science and Climate Science, along with a new minor in Earth and Climate Sciences, starting in fall 2025. The current departmental offerings — majors in environmental geology and geological sciences and minors in geology and geosciences — will be phased out with students who graduate in spring of 2027.
