U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled to move Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s case to Vermont on Friday, denying the government’s motion to dismiss Öztürk’s habeas corpus petition and request to transfer the case to Louisiana, where Öztürk is currently held.
In a U.S. District Court hearing in Boston Thursday afternoon, lawyers for Rümeysa Öztürk argued over the presiding Massachusetts judge’s jurisdiction over Öztürk’s case while a lawyer from the Department of Justice argued it should be transferred to a court in Louisiana, where Öztürk is currently being held.
Tufts first-year students Jesse Kitumba and Thomas Yi founded The Political Union, a campus club that will serve as a forum for structured, nonpartisan academic debate. “We exist to discuss and debate political issues today, and we want it to be a space where we can academically and intellectually challenge ourselves and others,” Yi said. “We’re going to be more confined to the political [topics].”
Tufts Democrats and Voters of Tomorrow Boston held an event Tuesday evening, bringing students together to directly call elected officials to demand support for Rumeysa Öztürk, a graduate student who was detained on March 25. Apart from this event, students and other supporters have taken several paths to advocate for her release, from participating in protests to signing petitions to donating money to her legal fund.
Beginning in March, all Tufts students and faculty gained free access to every Harvard museum through a program offered by Harvard to local universities for an annual fee.
In a walk-out organized by Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, over 200 students and local residents rallied outside Ballou Hall, calling for the release of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk and for the university to condemn her detainment.
A group of Jewish professors, lecturers and staff members sent a letter on Monday calling on University President Sunil Kumar and Provost and Senior Vice President Caroline Genco to resist equating criticisms of Israel with antisemitism. The letter also urges Kumar and Genco to defend students with legal support, if necessary, and requests a meeting with Kumar himself.
The Tufts Community Union Senate discussed new bylaws concerning community senators, discussed changes to the resolution process and handled supplementary funding requests in their March 30 meeting.
The mailroom for the Medford/Somerville campus will be moving locations for the 2025–26 school year to the current basement of the Tufts Bookstore, which inhabits part of the Mayer Campus Center. The mailroom is currently located on 389 Boston Ave. in the lower level of Hill Hall.
In a press conference on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the visa of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was revoked. On Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and over 30 other senators and representatives of Congress released a letter demanding more information regarding the cause and legality of her detainment.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper for the district of Massachusetts ordered Friday evening that Tufts doctoral student, Rümeysa Öztürk, not be removed from the country unless otherwise ordered by the court. Respondents including Patricia Hyde, acting director of the ICE Boston field office, have until Tuesday to address the amended petition and civil complaint.
Over a thousand current and former students of Tufts University have signed a petition calling for proactive protection of its community members against federal deportations following the detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts graduate student, earlier this week.
The Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at Tufts is facing uncertainty because of threats to their sources for research funding from federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Students and local activists gathered on Wednesday evening at Powder House Park to protest the detainment of Tufts graduate student, Rumeysa Ozturk, by federal authorities on Tuesday. The protest was organized by Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, formerly known as the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts, and other activist groups from the Greater Boston area.
Federal authorities detained a Tufts graduate student last night outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville. University President Sunil Kumar announced in an email around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night that the university is seeking more information about the cause and circumstances of the arrest.
Tufts students and faculty joined hundreds of protesters at the Stand Up for Science Rally on Mar. 7at the Boston Common. Protesters advocated in support of federal funding for science research.
On March 5 Tufts junior Meirav Solomon testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing regarding antisemitism, arguing that college campuses should focus on conversation and protecting equality for students.
Tufts accepted 10.5% of applicants to the undergraduate Class of 2029, Tufts’ admissions office announced. The acceptance rate shows an increase of half a percentage point from last year’s acceptance rate and is one percent higher than in 2023. Decisions were released on March 20.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff under President Donald Trump’s first administration, on Tuesday as part of its Solomont Speaker Series. The talk was moderated by Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts and an advocate for bipartisan discourse, who teaches a course on modern American conservatism, the first of its kind in the United States.
A presidential memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 suspended the leasing and permitting of federal spaces for offshore wind development, rattling faculty and students in Tufts’ offshore wind energy engineering programs at the graduate level.
