Members of the Tufts Community Union Senate, which has officially been in session for over two months, report feeling both spirited and productive. With seven new senators from the Class of 2027 in its ranks, various projects have begun to take shape, many of them led by first-year senators.
Kesem at Tufts University hosted their annual fall Friends and Family Day in the Aidekman Arts Center on Nov. 5. A chapter of the national organization Camp Kesem, Kesem at Tufts offers programming to support children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer, such as year-long support services and a free, week-long camp each summer. Club member and sophomore Josie Miller described Tufts’ recent Friends and Family Day as “a way to touch base with some of the families of children that we’re still supporting […] throughout the year.” During the event, club members played games such as Jeopardy and charades with the families in attendance as well as other bonding activities.
Jessica Lander, award-winning teacher, policy consultant and author, visited the Cabot Intercultural Center on Nov. 8 to discuss her book “Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education” (2022).
Hassaan Khan, assistant professor in Tufts’ Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, spoke at a Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lecture on Thursday about the intricate water challenges in Karachi, a major city in Pakistan.
Erin King, civic life coordinator for Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, unpacked the history of pet policy and its complex ties to racism and housing inequity in an Oct. 24 Civic Life Lunch hosted by Jonathan M. Tisch College. King is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate specializing in human-animal interaction and has been a civic life coordinator since 2017. She earned her Master of Science at Tufts where she studied the link between animal cruelty and other forms of domestic abuse.
At least 250 students staged a walkout and 10-hour sit-in at the Mayer Campus Center in support of Palestine on Thursday. The protest was organized by the newly formed Coalition for Palestinian Liberation. “Hundreds of students walked out of their classes, many skipped their classes, their clubs [and] their obligations for the whole day to show Tufts that they stand against the ongoing genocide in Palestine and to demand that Tufts divest from Israeli apartheid,” a representative for Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine said. “It shows that there are more and more students joining the cause, we have momentum and we aren’t going to slow down anytime soon.”
The Tufts Community Union Senate announced major changes to club funding procedures on campus during an open meeting earlier this semester. New measures aim to improve access to campus life by minimizing barriers to club participation and enhancing student experiences through additional funding opportunities, according to TCU Treasurer Dhruv Sampat. The TCU Senate voted unanimously to pass the 244 changes to funding procedures. Sampat, who spearheaded creation of the new Treasury Procedure Manual last summer, emphasized the importance of collaboration when drafting revisions.
University leaders condemned all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia while reiterating community values and protestor guidelines in a community statement on Nov. 8. The email cited community members’ concerns about campus climate following the Israel-Hamas war.
The Fletcher School hosted its fifth annual Decolonizing International Relations Conference on Oct. 20. The symposium featured five different panels with a variety of faculty from both Fletcher and other leading institutions in international affairs in addition to a decolonization-themed fashion show. The keynote speech was given by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, professor of American studies and anthropology at Wesleyan University.
Somerville has a rat problem. “I mostly see them in parks and around my house, especially at night,” Elizabeth Lohr, who lives near Davis Square, said. “You can hear them scurrying around and sometimes darting into the path.”
The first Gen Z member of Congress, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, visited the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life during a Solomont Speaker Series conversation on Oct. 30. The conversation, moderated by Tufts ACTION President Alison Cedarbaum, covered topics including gun legislation, the future of Congress and voter registration.
An open Tufts Community Union meeting with University President Sunil Kumar was quickly cut short on Sunday by student protesters calling for the university to divest from Israeli companies. Immediately after Kumar delivered opening remarks at the 8 p.m. meeting, protesters began chanting and posted signs with an image of Kumar underneath the words “genocide enabler.” Video obtained by the Daily showed protesters engaged in a die-in, lying on the ground around Kumar and obstructing his ability to leave the room.
A Tufts student might soon represent local residents as city councilor in Somerville’s upcoming election cycle. Jack Perenick, a member of the Class of 2025, is running for the Ward Five city councilor position against Naima Sait, an Algerian immigrant and long-time educator. At bimonthly meetings, the Somerville City Council is responsible for passing ordinances on issues ranging from zoning laws, creating special boards and commissions and approving mayoral budget modifications. Ward Five encompasses the center of Somerville and includes the business districts of Magoun Square, Ball Square and Porter Square. Council positions are part-time and span two years.
Medford City Councilor Rick Caraviello is running against incumbent Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn in the city’s municipal election on Tuesday. Both candidates plan to give Tufts students more recreational and dining opportunities and revitalize the city as a whole.
Tufts Climate Action filed a legal complaint with the attorney general of Massachusetts’ office on Monday. They claim the university’s estimated $90 million in fossil fuel investments constitutes a violation of their duties to the public as a nonprofit institution. The filing was made alongside five others at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Pomona College, Washington University in St. Louis and Pennsylvania State University. TCA’s filing was co-signed by several professors and local and international organizations.
Shortly before the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Affirmative Action in June, Massachusetts legislators introduced a state bill that, if passed, would discourage colleges and universities from using admission practices that favor wealthier applicants.
Clean Water Action and the Mystic Valley area branch of the NAACP held a public forum at Medford City Hall on Saturday to discuss the problem of lead contamination in drinking water and how communities in the Mystic Valley area can protect themselves against it. The presentation was hosted by Maureo Fernández y Mora, Clean Water Action’s state co-director for Massachusetts. Fernández y Mora focused on the relationship between environmental contamination and social justice.
“The Charge and the Challenge: Tufts Presidents from Ballou to Kumar,” a new exhibit by the Tufts Archival Research Center, opened on Oct. 6. The exhibit celebrates the legacy of Tufts presidents for the inauguration of President Sunil Kumar. The exhibit features wall graphics at the Tisch Library main entrance formatted as a timeline of each of Tufts’ presidents since former university president Hosea Ballou in 1852, as well as an online component featuring artifacts curated by TARC with a connection to each of the presidents.
The Department of Music at Tufts presented an installment of its “Tufts Composers” series in the Distler Performance Hall on Oct. 19. Titled “Might as Well, Now That We’re Back,” the variety concert was curated by Professor of Music John McDonald and featured pieces by McDonald, guest composer Julia Werntz, faculty guest composer Stephan Pennington, faculty composer and alumnus Sid Richardson, alumni Jason Coleman and Yasaman Ghodsi and eight current students.
Students across campus walked out of classes and protested yesterday in solidarity with Palestine. The walk-out, which was organized by Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, began at 2:30 p.m. when more than 120 students congregated to chant and hear speeches outside the Olin Center for Language and Cultural Studies.
