Nearing the close of his first year in office, University President Sunil Kumar sat down with the Daily on April 29 to discuss all matters Tufts and reflect on the year marked by student activism and the university’s future.
Look back on the highlights of the Class of 2024's time at Tufts.
As Tufts’ newspaper of record, the Daily sees many students contribute to its black-and-white newsprint pages, but not all work their way up to its masthead. The Daily staff spoke with eight members of the Class of 2024 who have all served on the newspaper’s managing or executive board and left their mark on the organization’s history.
“If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu,” Joel Omolade says. “And I really want to make sure that more students are able to be a part of that table, to be a part of the conversations that are happening.”Omolade will serve as president of the Tufts Community Union Senate for the 2024–25 academic year. In an interview with the Daily, he looked ahead to his term as president, pledging to embody the ethos of his “Better Starts Now!” campaign and prove his commitment to bringing meaningful change to the community.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent bombing and ground invasion in Gaza sparked widespread protests and activist demonstrations on campuses across the country, including at Tufts University. Throughout the last eight months, students have urged Tufts to divest from its Israeli connections and acknowledge a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The following article provides an overview of recent activism on campus.
Professors of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts held their first-ever bargaining session with the university on April 24, seeking a contract that would guarantee wage increases, enhanced research support and more transparent employment policies, among other negotiations. This marks the first time that SMFA professors of the practice have initiated a bargaining agreement since Tufts merged with the SMFA in 2016.
Tufts has begun the search for a new dean of the School of Arts and Sciences to succeed Dean James M. Glaser. Glaser, who has been the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences since 2014 and a Tufts faculty member since 1991, will assume the position of executive vice president and provost at Santa Clara University in July.
This semester, Incorporated, the Delta Chi chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority — a historically Black sorority — opened at Tufts. The chapter currently has just five members and the Zetas will seek new sisters in the fall.
Arielle Galinsky, the Tufts Community Union Senate President, sat down with the Daily to reflect on her fourth and final year on student government, highlighting accomplishments and responding to criticism.
It’s no secret that the college admissions process is in turmoil. Regardless of political conviction, higher education has become a prime target for those who are disgruntled with both the current state of American society and its projected future. What was once deemed the “great equalizer” is now viewed by many on both sides of the political spectrum as distinctively elitist, further entrenching socioeconomic divides rather than breaking down barriers.
In March, several Tufts students approached the university with intentions of reestablishing the Medford Alpha Epsilon Pi Eta Deuteron fraternity chapter on campus. Tufts denied the request to officially recognize AEPi, and the chapter remains unaffiliated with the university.
Due to budget challenges at the university level, administrators and deans of the Schools of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering have instructed faculty to prepare for budget cutting measures that will aim to address financial challenges forecasted in the fiscal year ahead.
On April 19, Daniel Dennett, University and Fletcher Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, passed away at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. His death was caused by complications from interstitial lung disease.
In February, the University of Pennsylvania announced it will begin offering an artificial intelligence major, open for enrollment in fall 2024. The major will be offered through Penn’s School of Engineering. Several other universities have announced AI-specific degree programs in recent years; MIT began offering one in fall 2022 and Carnegie Mellon has had one since fall 2018. Although Tufts computer science students have the option of focusing their studies on AI, Tufts currently does not offer an AI-specific degree program, but that could change in the future, according to Kyongbum Lee, dean of the School of Engineering. When developing new AI-based courses, he hopes to focus on ethics in computing and “how to make AI curriculum more accessible” to all students, rather than just those pursuing math-based degrees.
The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at The Fletcher School held its International Conference on April 18 and 19, featuring guest speakers from universities across the globe, from Harvard University and Boston College to Cairo University and Radboud University.
Bárbara Brizuela, the current dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will serve as the undergraduate school’s interim dean, as announced by the Office of the Provost on May 7. Brizuela, a professor in Tufts’ Department of Education for 23 years, will continue to serve in her current role while overseeing operations at Tufts’ largest undergraduate school.
Protesters began dismantling the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Academic Quad Friday night. The encampment, starting on April 7, had stood on the Academic Quad for nearly a month.
The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” has grown, despite the university’s warning on Tuesday that protesters will be considered trespassing if they do not leave the Academic Quad. Now, almost 50 tents and a makeshift barrier built from tables, chairs and other items surround the encampment’s “Apartheid Wall.” Student protesters, who erected the encampment on April 21, have previously vowed to remain on the quad and continuously demanded the university heed calls for Israeli divestment.
The university has confirmed that a meeting between protesters and University President Sunil Kumar occurred today.
In an email sent to Tufts community members on Sunday evening, university President Sunil Kumar and four other university leaders addressed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” for the first time since student protesters erected it on April 7, requesting that the tents be taken down to allow the university to prepare for Commencement. Shortly after, Tufts Students for Justice for Palestine reaffirmed in an Instagram post that they will not leave the Academic Quad until the university divests from Israel, ends the sale of Sabra and other Israeli products at Tufts dining locations, “acknowledge[s] the genocide in Gaza” and “apologize[s] for previous statements.”
