Leading up to the midterm elections, Tufts political groups have organized across campus, urging their peers to head to the voting booths.
The Somerville School Committee has unanimously endorsed voting “Yes” on Question 1, a ballot initiative proposing the Fair Share Amendment. If passed, the Fair Share Amendment would apply to Massachusetts residents whose annual household income is above $1 million. The so-called “millionaire’s tax” would impose an additional 4% income tax on income above $1 million.
Editor’s note: Emily Thompson is the Executive News Editor of The Tufts Daily. Thompson was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
The Tufts Department of Public Safety announced recent changes made to meet recommendations from the Tufts as an Anti-Racist Institution initiative in an Oct. 19 email to the Tufts community. In addition to an updated mission statement and core values, changes include an expansion of training for all Tufts University Police Department officers, the addition of more unarmed campus security officers and a new position to support communication.
On Nov. 2, Tufts was presented the University Award for Philosophical Diversity from the American Humanist Association. Nadya Dutchin, executive director of the AHA, came to Tufts to deliver the plaque and remarks on the purpose of the AHA, how it connects to humanism and why Tufts was the chosen recipient.
Kelli Morgan, director of curatorial studies and professor of the practice in curatorial studies and history of art and architecture, founded a new graduate certificate program this year, the Anti-Racist Curatorial Practice. Morgan developed the program, which currently offers five online courses designed to be completed in one to two years, to counter the systemic racism often found in museum curation.
Sadeq Ali Quraishi, an anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center and clinical faculty member at the School of Medicine, was arrested on Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security on charges of attempted sex trafficking. Tufts Medical confirmed on Friday afternoon that Quraishi has been fired.
The office that decides who gets a Tufts education suffers internally from discrimination and poor leadership, employees allege, prompting the university to hire an outside law firm to investigate.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted a seminar on Nov. 1 called “Can Libraries Save Democracy?” as part of their Civic Life Lunch series. The event featured Tamara King, chief equity officer and engagement officer for Richland Library in South Carolina, and Kelly Linehan, director of the Waltham Public Library, and was moderated by Dorothy Meaney, director of Tisch Library.
Last month, the Tufts University School of Medicine released a gun safety study in partnership with 97Percent, a bipartisan gun safety organization. The study was led by Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of public health and community medicine at TUSM. Dr. Siegel was assisted by student researchers Kathleen Grene, an MD and MPH student at TUSM, and Amani Dharani (AG’22).
Majors Month, a new series coordinated by the Career Center, University Chaplaincy, academic advisors and Tisch Library to aid undergraduates in their search to choose a major, started on Oct. 17. The series will run from Oct. 17 to Nov. 16, featuring events ranging from an alumni panel on unique major choices to an academic inquiry panel on robots and AI.
Debaters from the Tufts Democrats, Tufts Republicans and Tufts Young Democratic Socialists of America answered questions on current political topics in the ASEAN auditorium on Oct. 26. During the hour-long event, students from each group discussed national policies on health care and student debt in the “Triple Threat Debate” hosted by Tufts Cooperation and Innovation in Citizenship.
The Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lecture Series hosted a discussion with David Bond on Oct. 27 titled “Environmental Justice in the Age of Upheaval.” The discussion explored how certain refineries dumped pollution into unsuspecting communities during the time of reduced government oversight due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members of the Somerville community came together on Wednesday evening for the city’s annual Domestic Violence Vigil, mourning lives lost to domestic violence this year. Held at the West Branch of the Somerville Public Library, the vigil was organized by the Somerville Commission for Women and RESPOND, New England’s oldest domestic violence prevention agency. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne gave opening remarks at the vigil.
Tisch College and the Tufts University School of Medicine hosted a Solomont Speaker Series event titled “The Aftermath of Dobbs - Abortion in America” on Oct. 26. The panel considered the implications of June’s landmark Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in the intersecting realms of healthcare policy and legislation.
Associate Professor Amahl Bishara presented a book talk on her new book, “Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression,” on Oct. 26 through the Center for the Humanities at Tufts. “Crossing a Line” focuses on the political practices of Palestinians living on both sides of the Green Line, the line that delineated the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights as outside the border of Israel based on an armistice reached at the conclusion of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Bishara is the chair of the anthropology department and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora.
Tufts Assistant Professor Sarah Fong, alongside two visiting assistant professors, presented research on the “Histories of Black and Native Schooling” at an event sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Tufts on Oct. 19. In a panel moderated by Mary McNeil, an instructor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora, the three speakers discussed their research exploring the oppression of Black and Indigenous people in the United States through the lens of the legacy of state-sponsored schooling.
Director of the Experimental College Howard Woolf announced his retirement on Oct. 5. The university is currently in the process of conducting their search for the next director of the ExCollege, which they hope to announce in the spring of 2023.
Activist Kerry Bowie was the featured speaker at the latest Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lecture on Oct. 20. The Tufts Environmental Studies Program sponsored the event, where Bowie delivered a lecture titled, “Achieve a Just Energy Transition: Creating Jobs, Building Wealth, and Reducing Energy Burden.”
Michael Beckley, an associate professor of political science, spoke to students and community members on Oct. 17 about the launch of his new book, “Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China” co-authored with Hal Brands. A Q&A session with attendees followed Beckley's lecture about U.S.-China Relations.
