Colleen M. Ryan will assume the role of vice provost for faculty on July 1, Provost Caroline Genco announced in an email on Thursday. Ryan currently serves as associate vice provost for faculty at Indiana University Bloomington, where she is a professor of Italian and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Gender Studies.
Culminating an 11-year leadership tenure, chairman of the Board of Trustees Peter R. Dolan will step down this November. The board has elected Jeffrey M. Moslow, the current vice chair, as his successor.
Undeterred by rain, families and guests of the Class of 2024 turned out to Tufts’ 168th commencement ceremony on Sunday. After opening remarks by University President Sunil Kumar, students heard from this year’s keynote speaker, Durham University chancellor Fiona Hill. Shortly after the start of the ceremony, around 100 students walked out and assembled outside the event gates, leading chants and demanding that Tufts disclose its financial holdings and divest from Israeli companies.
Nearing the close of his first year in office, University President Sunil Kumar sat down with the Daily on April 29 to discuss all matters Tufts and reflect on the year marked by student activism and the university’s future.
Look back on the highlights of the Class of 2024's time at Tufts.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent bombing and ground invasion in Gaza sparked widespread protests and activist demonstrations on campuses across the country, including at Tufts University. Throughout the last eight months, students have urged Tufts to divest from its Israeli connections and acknowledge a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The following article provides an overview of recent activism on campus.
Professors of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts held their first-ever bargaining session with the university on April 24, seeking a contract that would guarantee wage increases, enhanced research support and more transparent employment policies, among other negotiations. This marks the first time that SMFA professors of the practice have initiated a bargaining agreement since Tufts merged with the SMFA in 2016.
Tufts has begun the search for a new dean of the School of Arts and Sciences to succeed Dean James M. Glaser. Glaser, who has been the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences since 2014 and a Tufts faculty member since 1991, will assume the position of executive vice president and provost at Santa Clara University in July.
This semester, Incorporated, the Delta Chi chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority — a historically Black sorority — opened at Tufts. The chapter currently has just five members and the Zetas will seek new sisters in the fall.
In March, several Tufts students approached the university with intentions of reestablishing the Medford Alpha Epsilon Pi Eta Deuteron fraternity chapter on campus. Tufts denied the request to officially recognize AEPi, and the chapter remains unaffiliated with the university.
Due to budget challenges at the university level, administrators and deans of the Schools of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering have instructed faculty to prepare for budget cutting measures that will aim to address financial challenges forecasted in the fiscal year ahead.
In February, the University of Pennsylvania announced it will begin offering an artificial intelligence major, open for enrollment in fall 2024. The major will be offered through Penn’s School of Engineering. Several other universities have announced AI-specific degree programs in recent years; MIT began offering one in fall 2022 and Carnegie Mellon has had one since fall 2018. Although Tufts computer science students have the option of focusing their studies on AI, Tufts currently does not offer an AI-specific degree program, but that could change in the future, according to Kyongbum Lee, dean of the School of Engineering. When developing new AI-based courses, he hopes to focus on ethics in computing and “how to make AI curriculum more accessible” to all students, rather than just those pursuing math-based degrees.
The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at The Fletcher School held its International Conference on April 18 and 19, featuring guest speakers from universities across the globe, from Harvard University and Boston College to Cairo University and Radboud University.
Bárbara Brizuela, the current dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will serve as the undergraduate school’s interim dean, as announced by the Office of the Provost on May 7. Brizuela, a professor in Tufts’ Department of Education for 23 years, will continue to serve in her current role while overseeing operations at Tufts’ largest undergraduate school.
Protesters began dismantling the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Academic Quad Friday night. The encampment, starting on April 7, had stood on the Academic Quad for nearly a month.
The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” has grown, despite the university’s warning on Tuesday that protesters will be considered trespassing if they do not leave the Academic Quad. Now, almost 50 tents and a makeshift barrier built from tables, chairs and other items surround the encampment’s “Apartheid Wall.” Student protesters, who erected the encampment on April 21, have previously vowed to remain on the quad and continuously demanded the university heed calls for Israeli divestment.
The university has confirmed that a meeting between protesters and University President Sunil Kumar occurred today.
In an email sent to Tufts community members on Sunday evening, university President Sunil Kumar and four other university leaders addressed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” for the first time since student protesters erected it on April 7, requesting that the tents be taken down to allow the university to prepare for Commencement. Shortly after, Tufts Students for Justice for Palestine reaffirmed in an Instagram post that they will not leave the Academic Quad until the university divests from Israel, ends the sale of Sabra and other Israeli products at Tufts dining locations, “acknowledge[s] the genocide in Gaza” and “apologize[s] for previous statements.”
Joel Omolade will serve as the next president of the student body and the Tufts Community Union Senate for the 2024–25 academic year, as announced by the Tufts Elections Commission on its website earlier today. Total election turnout was 30.36% of the student body, and over half of those students voted for Omolade — putting him ahead of the next candidate by 429 votes.
In the largest protest Tufts has seen this semester, over 300 students, faculty, nearby residents and Somerville High School students rallied on Friday in solidarity with Gaza. The demonstration, stretching from the Academic Quad to the front steps of the Mayer Campus Center, follows a wave of heightened student activism across the country.
