Earlier this month, Tufts students joined hundreds of local Massachusetts residents in a “50501” protest against the latest actions of the administration of President Donald Trump. Born on social media, the 50501 movement encompasses the simultaneous occurrence of 50 protests in 50 states on a single day.
The Medford City Council Public Health and Community Safety Committee is reviewing an ordinance “securing the rights of individuals seeking gender-affirming care” in the city. The committee discussed the ordinance draft during a Feb. 4 meeting, voting to keep the draft in committee considering the lack of urgency on the state level and until it can undergo legal review. The legal review for the draft will be done by KP Law and will be completed later in the week.
The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy received an anonymous donation of $10 million on Jan. 30 for student financial aid. This is the second largest donation since the $20 million gift in 2001 from the Friedman Family Foundation that led to the school’s name change in honor of Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman.
The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition held a drop-in name change clinic on Feb. 11 in collaboration with the City of Cambridge LGBTQ+ Commission. This clinic was hosted at the Cambridge Public Library.
Earlier this week, Tufts University joined a dozen other universities in a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services over President Donald Trump’s Feb. 7 executive order to restrict federal grants covering the indirect costs of university medical research. The executive order was temporarily blocked on Monday, the day it went into effect, by Massachusetts federal judge Angel Kelley.
Tufts admissions announced its highest number of applicants to the School of Engineering, a lower number of applicants to the School of Arts and Sciences and a slight decrease in undergraduate applicants in its current admissions cycle for the incoming Class of 2029. Tufts reportedly received over 33,400 applicants this year.
Tufts Residential Life notified first-years of impending changes to housing assignments for several dorm buildings for the next academic year.Hill Hall will be converted from freshman to sophomore housing while Wren Hall,still containing10-person suites, will house the incoming Class of 2029.
Superintendents in both the Medford and Somerville school districts sent messages to students and families in late January reaffirming existing policies on immigration enforcement after President Donald Trump rescinded a federal policy that prevented immigration raids in schools.
The Medford Community Development Board approved Tufts’ proposed new dorm at 401 Boston Ave. on Feb. 5, allowing construction to begin this spring. The dorm will be a two-building complex with 299 units, and will house almost 700 upperclassmen when it is scheduled to open in 2027. The board expressed their reluctance to make the decision, recognizing the project’s strong public opposition, but focused the decision on whether existing legal restrictions were enough to deny the proposal.
The Tufts Pre-Med CONNECT Program, a one-week immersive program for first-years and sophomores interested in careers in medicine, will pilot over spring break. Students participating in the 5-day program will commute from the Medford Campus to Tufts Medical Center.
Ayanna Thomas will serve as the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, as announced in an email to the community on Feb.3.Thomas will continue to serve in her current role as rean of research until an internal search for the position is complete, according to Bárbara Brizuela, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.
Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn delivered her annual State of the City Address on Feb. 5 in City Hall, covering housing, zoning and transportation issues while reassuring residents about changes to federal policy.School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Graham and City Council President Zac Bears also provided updates from their respective body’s work.
On Jan. 31, University President Sunil Kumar and Tufts’ Director of Athletics John Morris released a letter to the greater Tufts community. The letter included an executive summary of the independent investigation into a Tufts men’s lacrosse team workout held last fall that led to 24 of the 61 student participants being diagnosed with Exertional Rhabdomyolysis.
Sitting Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Jake Wilson announced his intention to run for mayor in the upcoming November election, on Dec. 16, 2024, becoming the first to challenge two-term incumbent Mayor Katjana Ballantyne.
On Jan. 29, an annual point-in-time (PIT) count of sheltered and unsheltered people took place in the state of Massachusetts. This year the cities of Medford, Everett and Malden came together with Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) to organize the count with the help of volunteers from across the three areas.
The Medford City Council passed a Welcoming City Ordinance on Jan. 14 with a 6–1 vote to establish Medford as a sanctuary city for immigrants and to ensure the Medford Police Department continues its policy of non-involvement with federal immigration enforcement.
Somerville residents and wildlife experts are raising concerns over the high frequency of bird deaths over the past months. Two owls were reported dead in Somerville over a two-week period in December 2024 with necropsies revealing internal bleeding indicative of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, according to the founder of the nonprofit Save Arlington Wildlife.
The Tufts Community Union Senate willhold special elections this week to fill vacant positions for the spring semester of the 2024–25 academic year. Voting will begin at noon today and end at the same time on Saturday.
The City of Medford is launching a new program to offer participating landlords up to $750 per year for renting to veterans as a result of an ordinance passed by the City Council in January. Veterans will be vetted by the city and then partnered with landlords through Housing Families, a local non-profit that works to ensure housing stability. The city is prohibited from giving money directly to citizens.
The Tufts Community Union Senate tackled club funding and discussed a resolution calling for the expansion of language offerings during their weekly meeting on Feb. 2. Parliamentarian Kunal Botla introduced the first resolution of the semester: Class of 2028 Senator Jesse Kitumba’s call to expand language proficiency testing options beyond the languages included in the UPenn Language program.
