Last fall, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the Snyder Presidents Lecture Series, a number of Tufts students mobilizedin protest against Scalias politics and the universitys decision to host him.Although this event sparked some dialogue about race and gender politics, with roughly 20 students involved, it remained relatively small, calling into question the activeness of theprotest culture at Tufts.
In comparison to the outrage that erupted at Brown University during a lecture by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly -- where over 100 students heckled Kelly off the stage, according an Oct. 30, 2013 Associated Press article -- Tufts remains much more tame. The protest culture scene, which consists of occasional rallies on the Tisch Library steps or posters in the campus center, is not as active as it purports to be, according Professor of Sociology Paul Joseph.
[Protest at Tufts] is less than at some schools such as [UC] Berkeley, which has a longstanding protest tradition, Joseph, who has taught the course Sociology of War and Peace for over 20 years, said. Theres a very impressive record at Tufts. [Were] toward the top, but not at the very top.
Joseph also noted that the frequency and intensity of protests at Tufts is issue and time dependent. Historically, students at Tufts and across the country were involved in protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960sand nuclear weapons testing in the 1980s. According to Joseph, topics of protests have continued to evolve over time.
Over the time Ive worked here, there have been several important instances of Tufts protests about our investment portfolio, Joseph said. South Africa, Hydro-Qu?bec ... climate change right now -- on those issues, Tufts has a strong record of protest.There have been a lot of successes, as well.
Joseph explained that, about 30 years ago, Tufts returned a monetary gift from Imelda Marcos, the wife of then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, after students protested against it. According to a May 2, 1983 Harvard Crimson article, Marcos planned to donate $1 million towards Tufts endowment.
There was student protest about taking money from [this] repressive regime in the Philippines, Joseph said. The gift was blocked. It was returned.
Divestment continues to be a popular movement on the Hill. Tufts Divest has urged the administration to remove fossil fuel companies from Tufts investment. A group that turned heads nationally last spring after several members interrupted an information session for prospective students, Tufts Divest is still working toward its campaign goals, despite a recent no from the Board of Trustees.
Evan Bell, a junior who is heavily involved in Tufts Divest, explained that this response from the administration does not mean the end for the divestment movement.
We are definitely hoping to escalate our campaign in some way, he said. We havent decided to do anything crazyyet, but ... we are hoping to convene a big town hall-type meeting [to] address this problem of how we can get the student voice more active.
In the past, Tufts Divest has held rallies outside of Tisch Library and led marches from the Mayer Campus Center to Ballou Hall. Devyn Powell, a senior who is also a Tufts Divest member, explained that when student activists turn to radical protest, it is often because they have no other choice. The interruption of the information session was one example -- after several weeks of the administration ignoring Divests requests for a promised meeting with the Board of Trustees, Divest members determined that they needed to take more action, according to Powell.
The reason why you do actions that are disruptive or pushing the envelope is because ... we tried asking nicely and they ignored us, Powell said. We had to work with what leverage we had.
It was actually very successful, Bell said. Its unfortunate that it alienated a lot of people, even within the group, but ... it made people talk. It made people have to think about what was going on.
Change doesnt happen just because its a good idea, he continued. Students have to actually mobilize and fight and develop campaigns and escalate. A lot of groups on campus are still just realizing this and starting to feel it, and certainly Tufts Divest is. Its a learning process, and were all sort of trying to get it right.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a student group that aims to promote the Palestinian narrative on campus, erected an eight-foot tall, 30-foot wide mock checkpoint wallduring the annual Israeli Apartheid Week. Munir Atalla, a junior and SJP member, explained that the purpose of the checkpoint was both to highlight the difficulties that Palestinians face with the Israeli occupation and to force Americans to realize their complicity with this system.12
