The Tufts Community Union Senate heard supplementary funding requests and discussed the planned defunding of the Tufts Portuguese program in a meeting on Sunday night in the Sophia Gordon Hall Multipurpose Room.
Tufts announced changes to its policy on missing midterm or final exams due to illness in an email to undergraduate students on Oct. 1. Going forward, students will no longer be able to obtain notes excusing them from midterm or final exams via walk-in appointment with Health Service or Counseling and Mental Health Services. Instead, acutely ill students will now send an online form to their professors informing them of their illness, though the form does not automatically excuse students from exams or coursework. The university cited a need to allocate limited resources and waiting room space to those in need of medical attention as the reason for this change.
Tufts University removed the basketball hoops located outside Harleston Hall in an effort to create more court space for the men’s and women’s varsity tennis teams in early October. The decision temporarily removes the only available outside space for Tufts pickup basketball players.
An FDA advisory panelunanimously voted last week to approve the use of a booster shot for the Moderna vaccine and again voted unanimously yesterday to approve a booster for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Moderna’s booster only applies to certain groups of people, such as those over the age of 65, high-risk individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 or people whose jobs put them at risk of contracting COVID-19. The individuals in all three categories should wait at least six months after their second dose to receive their Moderna booster shot. Although the FDA panel unanimously decided to approve the booster for those categories, the panel did not make any decisions on whether to recommend booster shots for low-risk adults over 18. Some members believe it is too early to make the call; they argue that as more people become eligible for the booster, it will be crucial to determine if it is effective at providing better protection against COVID-19. Additionally, some scientists say that there is not enough evidence to suggest that vaccine efficacy is decreasing, which, if true, could make a booster shot pointless.
In the midst of the national conversation about reproductive rights, the Somerville City Council sponsored a resolution on Sept. 23 calling on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection Act.
Tower Café reopened on Oct. 6 with a limited menu for the first time since it closed due to the pandemic in March 2020.
University-wide emails from the president's office were sent out on Sept. 14 and Sept. 21 to invite current students and Class of 2021 graduates to participate in a survey evaluating student impressions of antisemitism on campus.
The Fletcher School continued its Afghanistan crisis webinar series with a virtual panel on Oct. 14. The webinar featured commentary and perspectives from three members of the Fletcher community.
The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life virtually hosted its first-ever speaker series event conducted entirely in Spanish on Oct. 13 during Hispanic Heritage Month. The event, titled "The Oldest Colony in the World: Perspectives on Puerto Rico's Political Future," featured international human rights lawyer Annette Martínez-Orabona (F’08) and Ed Morales, journalist and lecturer at Columbia University. The discussion offered live translation in English.
The Tufts Community Union Senate heard its first appeal of the semester from Tufts Mountain Club, heard supplementary funding requests and discussed an upcoming resolution in a meeting on Sunday.
Madie Nicpon, a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences, suffered a tragic accident on Saturday and has since died, according to a series of emails signed by Dean of Student Affairs Camille Lizarríbar, University President Anthony Monaco and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser.
The director of veterans' services for the City of Medford, Michael Durham, was escorted from City Hall by Medford police officers on Friday, Sept. 17 after being placed on paid administrative leave by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn. At the time, Durham was given a notice from the mayor’s office explaining the action and demanding that Durham undergo psychological evaluation.
Students received an email from Student Life on Oct. 1 addressing the long lines and extended wait times at Tufts Dining locations this semester.
The City of Medford implemented a new Adopt-a-Drain program in August, allowing residents to clean storm drains in their neighborhoods and check the drains for leaves, trash and debris.
SafeRide services are currently unavailable for Tufts University students due to a shortage of campus security officers. According to Yolanda Smith, executive director of public safety, there are plans to resume SafeRide services after more security officers are hired.
The Powder House Circle, a busy intersection in Somerville, was upgraded this summer with lane improvements, bike lanes, updated crosswalks and physical barriers, intending to improve safety and navigability for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administrationgranted market authorization to an electronic cigarette company for the first time on Tuesday, approving certain products for sale in the United States. The FDAapproved three products from R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company’s brand, Vuse, in an effort to diminish the impacts of traditional cigarettes, whose carcinogenic properties contribute to an estimated 400,000 U.S. deaths each year. The FDA concluded that the reduced morbidity and mortality among smokers outweigh the risks that approving Vuse products poses to youth. Notably, 10% of high school students who use e-cigarettes said Vuse is their usual brand.
An unknown individual was arrested by the Tufts University Police Department at 1:11 a.m. on Sept. 7 after the department received a report of the person sleeping on a couch on the fourth floor of Harleston Hall.
After community discussion on how Medford and Somerville public school students should return to classes this fall, both districts implemented the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's policy mandating return to in-person, full-time instruction.
Bert Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, hosted the first event in a series of seminars titled, "Making Real-World Data Science Responsible Data Science" for computer science students on Oct. 7. The series is run by the National Science Foundation-funded T-TRIPODS Institute, a multi-department, interdisciplinary effort across Tufts University that focuses on data science.
