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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, November 21, 2024

News | University

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University

Tufts alum talks corporate climate change action in Hoch Cunningham lecture series

The Environmental Studies Program held its final Hoch Cunningham Environmental lecture series on Thursday, featuring Tyler McCullough (LA’17), manager of corporate climate action at the environmental advocacy firm Ceres. In the lecture titled “Investor Advocacy and Business Working to Address Climate Change,” McCullough discussed how Ceres facilitates corporate sustainability and how companies are transitioning to clean energy while maintaining financial ambition.


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University

TLC hosts first letter writing event for incarcerated artists

Tufts Labor Coalition hosted an event on Monday in partnership with the Justice Arts Coalition where students wrote letters to support incarcerated artists. Sophomore TLC member Hunter Payne organized the event along with other JAC volunteers. Payne worked with the JAC this previous summer in Takoma Park, Md. In a message to the Daily, Payne wrote that similar events were also being set up at other colleges by the organization.


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University

Daniel Dennett calls for ethics in AI development

“It’s emerging, it’s everywhere. It’s going to be even more everywhere, … and it’s scary and inspiring at the same time,” Jad Oubala, president and founder of the Tufts Artificial Intelligence Society, said when describing AI. For this reason, TAIS brought together computer science researchers and renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett to discuss the ethical concerns of developing AI technology at a panel discussion titled “Ghost in the Neural Net: Traversing the Ethics of AI” on Nov. 15. Matthias Scheutz and Tina Eliassi-Rad, both computer science professors at Tufts and Northeastern University respectively, joined Dennett on stage. Oubala, a first-year student, moderated the discussion.


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University holds winter mental health webinar for employees

As winter temperatures begin to drop, so will many people’s moods. The Tufts Employee Assistance Program facilitated a webinar titled “Maintaining Mental Health During Seasonal Change,” for employees on Nov. 15. Hosted by employee wellness organization KGA and sponsored by Tufts Human Resources, the webinar covered topics ranging from broader seasonal mood changes, how seasonal affective disorder can impact daily life and the risk of holiday-related stress.


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University

TCU senators reflect on first months back in session

Members of the Tufts Community Union Senate, which has officially been in session for over two months, report feeling both spirited and productive. With seven new senators from the Class of 2027 in its ranks, various projects have begun to take shape, many of them led by first-year senators.


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University

Kesem at Tufts hosts annual fall Friends and Family Day

Kesem at Tufts University hosted their annual fall Friends and Family Day in the Aidekman Arts Center on Nov. 5. A chapter of the national organization Camp Kesem, Kesem at Tufts offers programming to support children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer,  such as year-long support services and a free, week-long camp each summer. Club member and sophomore Josie Miller described Tufts’ recent Friends and Family Day as “a way to touch base with some of the families of children that we’re still supporting […] throughout the year.” During the event, club members played games such as Jeopardy and charades with the families in attendance as well as other bonding activities.





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University

Erin King discusses race, equity, pet ownership at Civic Life Lunch

Erin King, civic life coordinator for Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, unpacked the history of pet policy and its complex ties to racism and housing inequity in an Oct. 24 Civic Life Lunch hosted by Jonathan M. Tisch College. King is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate specializing in human-animal interaction and has been a civic life coordinator since 2017. She earned her Master of Science at Tufts where she studied the link between animal cruelty and other forms of domestic abuse.


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University

Students stage walkout and sit-in for Palestine in the Campus Center

At least 250 students staged a walkout and 10-hour sit-in at the Mayer Campus Center in support of Palestine on Thursday. The protest was organized by the newly formed Coalition for Palestinian Liberation. “Hundreds of students walked out of their classes, many skipped their classes, their clubs [and] their obligations for the whole day to show Tufts that they stand against the ongoing genocide in Palestine and to demand that Tufts divest from Israeli apartheid,” a representative for Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine said. “It shows that there are more and more students joining the cause, we have momentum and we aren’t going to slow down anytime soon.”


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University

TCU Senate revamps funding procedures

The Tufts Community Union Senate announced major changes to club funding procedures on campus during an open meeting earlier this semester. New measures aim to improve access to campus life by minimizing barriers to club participation and enhancing student experiences through additional funding opportunities, according to TCU Treasurer Dhruv Sampat. The TCU Senate voted unanimously to pass the 244 changes to funding procedures. Sampat, who spearheaded creation of the new Treasury Procedure Manual last summer, emphasized the importance of collaboration when drafting revisions.



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University

Fletcher hosts fifth annual DIR Conference, explores settler-colonialism

The Fletcher School hosted its fifth annual Decolonizing International Relations Conference on Oct. 20. The symposium featured five different panels with a variety of faculty from both Fletcher and other leading institutions in international affairs in addition to a decolonization-themed fashion show. The keynote speech was given by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, professor of American studies and anthropology at Wesleyan University.



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University

Students protest Tufts’ Israeli investments during TCU meeting with University President Kumar

An open Tufts Community Union meeting with University President Sunil Kumar was quickly cut short on Sunday by student protesters calling for the university to divest from Israeli companies. Immediately after Kumar delivered opening remarks at the 8 p.m. meeting, protesters began chanting and posted signs with an image of Kumar underneath the words “genocide enabler.” Video obtained by the Daily showed protesters engaged in a die-in, lying on the ground around Kumar and obstructing his ability to leave the room.


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University

Tufts Climate Action files legal complaint against trustees

Tufts Climate Action filed a legal complaint with the attorney general of Massachusetts’ office on Monday. They claim the university’s estimated $90 million in fossil fuel investments constitutes a violation of their duties to the public as a nonprofit institution. The filing was made alongside five others at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Pomona College, Washington University in St. Louis and Pennsylvania State University. TCA’s filing was co-signed by several professors and local and international organizations.


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University

TARC opens exhibit celebrating Tufts presidents

“The Charge and the Challenge: Tufts Presidents from Ballou to Kumar,” a new exhibit by the Tufts Archival Research Center, opened on Oct. 6. The exhibit celebrates the legacy of Tufts presidents for the inauguration of President Sunil Kumar. The exhibit features wall graphics at the Tisch Library main entrance formatted as a timeline of each of Tufts’ presidents since former university president Hosea Ballou in 1852, as well as an online component featuring artifacts curated by TARC with a connection to each of the presidents.


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Music department concert showcases innovative compositions featuring cactus, ladle, bike pump

The Department of Music at Tufts presented an installment of its “Tufts Composers” series in the Distler Performance Hall on Oct. 19. Titled “Might as Well, Now That We’re Back,” the variety concert was curated by Professor of Music John McDonald and featured pieces by McDonald, guest composer Julia Werntz, faculty guest composer Stephan Pennington, faculty composer and alumnus Sid Richardson, alumni Jason Coleman and Yasaman Ghodsi and eight current students.


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University

Students rally in solidarity with Palestine

Students across campus walked out of classes and protested yesterday in solidarity with Palestine. The walk-out, which was organized by Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, began at 2:30 p.m. when more than 120 students congregated to chant and hear speeches outside the Olin Center for Language and Cultural Studies.


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University

Panel discusses barriers to housing for formerly incarcerated people

The Petey Greene Program, Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College and the City of Boston’s Office of Returning Citizens hosted a documentary screening and panel discussion on Oct. 18 titled “Overcoming Housing Barriers After Incarceration,” featuring social entrepreneur Yusuf Dahl. When Dahl moved to Allentown, Pa. two years ago, his application to rent a house was denied because of a drug distribution sentence from 25 years prior. Frustrated that he couldn’t move to the school district he felt would best support his daughter’s education, Dahl wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in 2022 and made a documentary with VICE Media called “Backgrounded.”