Tufts announced on Nov. 17 that Sunil Kumar will be the 14th president of Tufts. Kumar will succeed current University President Anthony Monaco, who has held the office for 12 years, beginning in July 2023. Kumar was welcomed to Tufts’ campuses on Thursday and Friday to celebrate the announcement and meet members of the community.
A delegation of Tufts students and faculty attended the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20. The 27th Conference of the Parties, or COP27, is an annual opportunity for world leaders, activists and professionals across the climate field to share their work with an international audience and negotiate on foreign policies that mitigate the impacts of global warming.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University published early data on youth voter turnout and its impact on the 2022 midterm elections. During this year’s election, CIRCLE focused on how 18- to 29-year-old Americans voted, what impacted their decisions and what the newfound statistics mean for future youth representation.
Editor’s note: Marianna Schantz is an editorialist at the Tufts Daily. Schantz was not involved in the reporting, writing or editing of this article.
Sunil Kumar has been chosen as the next president of Tufts University. Kumar will be the 14th president of Tufts and the first president of color. He will succeed current University President Anthony Monaco — who has served as president for 12 years and announced his upcoming departure in February — beginning July 1, 2023.
The union bid represents the latest development in a yearslong struggle between university administrators and resident assistants, who now seek recognition from the National Labor Relations Board.
After a three-year hiatus, Action for Sexual Assault Prevention continued its tradition of holding “Take Back the Night,” a candlelit walk from the Residential Quad to the roof of Tisch Library to show solidarity with survivors. After the walk on Nov. 15, students and speakers from ASAP, the University Chaplaincy, CARE and Ears for Peers gathered to share a variety of on-campus resources.
Professor Jeffrey Berry and Associate Professor Kelly Greenhill of the political science department spoke at a panel entitled “What Happens Next? Understanding Election Results” in conjunction with Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans on Nov. 14. The panel focused on major winners and losers of election night, the likelihood of bipartisan compromise in Congress and the local, national and international implications of the election results.
The TCU Senate met in Sophia Gordon Hall on Nov. 13. They introduced a resolution calling for the expansion of the American Sign Language Program at Tufts and voted on a resolution calling for Tufts University to voluntarily recognize the Tufts resident assistants’ union, ULTRA.After TCU Historian Julie Baik called attendance, TCU Parliamentarian Zachary Ferretti began the meeting and introduced an abstract for Resolution S. 22-5, tentatively titled “A Resolution Calling on Tufts University to Expand the American Sign Language (ASL) Program and Recognize Its Status as a Language.”
A group of Tufts resident assistants who have collectively organized to form a union — citing no wages, limited benefits and ambiguous contracts among other factors — held a protest on the academic quad on Nov. 14, calling for the university to voluntarily recognize their union. Students gathered outside Packard Hall and then marched to Ballou, where they delivered a petition with 1,000 signatures to university administrators.
Tufts announced the appointment of Cigdem Talgar as the vice provost for education, a new position within the Office of the Provost, in an email to the Tufts community on Nov. 3. Talgar’s official start date is Dec. 1.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life closed its 2022 Solomont Speaker Series on Nov. 9 with a lecture by Sherrilyn Ifill, a preeminent civil rights lawyer. Ifill gave an overview of the state of American democracy and discussed the urgent need to fight for it.
On Nov. 8, COLOR Magazine and Tufts’ Chief Diversity Office sponsored the 12th annual Men of COLOR Leadership Conference. The event was part of Empower Week, a multi-day Boston-based conference focused on empowering professional men of color and leaders in diversity.
Last weekend, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts hosted its first in-person Art Sale since the pandemic began. The annual sale, which serves as one of the primary fundraising campaigns for the SMFA, attracts visitors from the Tufts and SMFA communities and the greater Boston area.
The Association of Mixed People at Tufts and Tufts Eco Reps co-hosted an event called “Discussion on Cultural Origins & Fusion of Food” on Nov. 7. This discussion focused on how food is intrinsically linked to cultural identity, colonialism and sustainability.
Tufts’ sex health vending machine opened on Oct. 7. Located on the lower level of the Campus Center, the machine is fully stocked with free condoms, lubricant and dental dams, in addition to $15 Plan B.
The MBTA released an updated draft of its Bus Network Redesign, part of the Better Bus Project, on Oct. 27. Following the release of the first draft in May, the bus map underwent revisions based on community feedback.
Tufts will offer a new course, officially titled “Conversational Italian,” starting next spring.
Tufts Resident Assistants are unionizing following months of planning. In a letter to University President Anthony Monaco and Director of Residential Life and Learning Christina Alch, members of United Labor of Tufts Resident Assistants said that over 80% of the RAs have signed union authorization cards, declaring their intent to form a union and requesting that the university voluntarily recognize it.
This election day, Massachusetts voters will determine the fate of a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. On Nov. 8, Question 4 will ask voters to either accept or reject the Work and Family Mobility Act, a state law passed in June which would allow undocumented Massachussetts residents to apply for driver’s licenses, effective July 2023.
