On Sept. 27, a protest outside this semester’s career fair in Gantcher Center condemned the inclusion of national defense and military research recruiters, making it the latest Tufts career fair in the last year faced with student demonstrations. Spray-painted messages denouncing the presence of groups such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory were found on the doors of Gantcher.
A group of roughly 15 Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine protesters lined the walkway into Gantcher, chanting as students and recruiters entered the fair: “Hey Lincoln Labs, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today? Hey U.S. Army, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?”
Protesters held signs reading “Lincoln Labs makes a killing off of war,” “No militarized police!” and “MITRE is Murder.” They stayed for the duration of the fair from 11:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
MIT Lincoln Labs is a federally funded research and development center for defense technology under the Department of Defense and in contract with the U.S. Air Force. Similarly, MITRE is in operation of six FFRDCs including the DoD. At the spring and fall career fairs in 2023, protesters affiliated with Tufts Marxists criticized the presence of the same representatives.
“Many of the companies recruiting at the career fair are directly funding and arming this genocide,” a representative of SJP wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Lincoln Labs and MITRE make the missiles and bombs that rain down on Palestine and Lebanon, while the US army (which is stationed in “Israel”) directly occupies land across the world, including here on Turtle Island.”
Protesters also reiterated their demands for Tufts to divest from corporations connected to Israel. They chanted “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Tufts, your hands are red. 200,000 people are dead.”
“Tufts’ complicity in genocide must end. As students attending an institution that has funded the destruction of every single university in Gaza, we have a moral and political imperative to disrupt business as usual,” the representative wrote. “That is why we protested the career fair, and why we will not allow the people who fund and arm genocide to have another moment of peace.”
Hours before the fair started Friday morning, spray-painted messages were found by Tufts University Police Department on some of Gantcher’s outside walls and doors.
“Divest Now,” “Free Palestine” and “Tufts Kills” were written in red and green.
According to the posting restrictions listed in Tufts’ updated protest guidelines, spray-painting is considered a violation of university policy.
SJP said to the Daily that the action was unaffiliated with their organization.
“Overnight, in the hours leading up to Friday’s career fair, vandals painted graffiti on some of the external walls and doors of the Gantcher Center. Once the graffiti was discovered, it was quickly removed and had no impact on the fair. TUPD is actively investigating the matter, and if those found responsible are members of the Tufts community, they will be held accountable through the Tufts disciplinary process,” Yolanda Smith, chief of TUPD, wrote in a statement to the Daily.
A post including pictures of Gantcher before the spray paint had been removed was published on the online platform “Unity of Fields,” a self-described “anti-imperialist propaganda front,” on Sept. 28. The photos and written statement were also posted on Instagram under the username “tufts_intifada,” an account which according to its bio is “not affiliated with tufts sjp,” on Tuesday.
“This action took place under the nose of the TUPD officers and cars stationed outside of Gantcher last night to prevent something like this from happening,” the posts read. “We call on everyone, at tufts, at other schools, in the wider community – to follow in our footsteps of autonomous action. The consequences of such actions may feel daunting, but they are incomparably small to the risks Palestinians face by existing in Palestine. That is why we all must escalate. War profiteers out of our campuses!”
Tufts’ career fair protest is among multiple university career events across the nation that faced protests in the last two weeks, including Cornell University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvey Mudd College, University of Florida, North Carolina State University, University of Utah and Temple University.
During the fair, officers were present inside and outside the venue. According to the Unity of Fields post, TUPD officers were stationed outside Gantcher the night leading up to the fair.
“The Career Center routinely has TUPD at the career fairs. This is in case of any emergencies that may occur due to the size of crowds that our fairs typically attract,” Esposito wrote.
In the face of multiple career fair protests, Tufts’ Career Center does not plan to exclude the involvement of the opposed organizations in future fairs.
"We have discussed these concerns a number of times over the years. Ultimately we follow best practices within our profession. Our goal remains to provide access to a broad range of internship, part-time and full-time job opportunities to meet the demands and interests of our diverse student body,” Donna Esposito, the Career Center’s executive director, wrote in an email to the Daily. “An employer’s presence at a Career Center event should not be interpreted as a university endorsement of the organization.”
