Ellora is the executive features editor. She is a sophomore studying international relations and can be reached at ellora.onion_de@tufts.edu.
At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, founding father Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
On Oct. 6, Emma Do will be flying over 8,000 miles home to Vietnam after having to say a premature goodbye to their beloved Tufts community.
Daniela Aldrich was living in New York City as a professional ballerina and had just finished apprenticing with the NYC Ballet when she began to feel disillusioned with the idea of a ballet career and yearned to go back to school. So Aldrich attended Dickinson College and during her time there, studied abroad in Brazil. While in Brazil she got to know local farmers and realized she wanted to make a career in farming. New Entry Sustainable Farming Project provided Aldrich with the opportunity to do just that.
This past summer, six members of Tufts’ Engineers Without Borders traveled to Solomoni village in Malawi to install a water tower system at the Chigumukire primary and secondary schools. The new system provides running water to the schools, so the facilities now feature sinks as well as showers. This allows students to practice better hygiene — and also enables them to conduct experiments in their science laboratory.
A key, and sometimes frustrating, aspect of a Tufts student’s experience is using SIS, the Student Information System. Students must navigate this system to access services like academic transcripts and bills. Most critically, SIS provides the interface for students to sign up for courses every semester. For many, this can be a stressful process — so stressful that SIS becomes the target of student ire and anxiety. But here’s the disappointing news: There’s no single system to blame.
The recent resignations of Claudine Gay as President of Harvard University and Elizabeth Magill as President of University of Pennsylvania sparked a public debate over Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies on U.S. campuses.
Upon entering the Tufts University Art Galleries’ (TUAG) exhibition of Véxoa: Nós Sabemos (We know) you are greeted by a vibrant variety of colors, mediums, and sounds. Véxoa, originally showcased in the Pinacoteca de São Paulo in Brazil, found its new home at Tufts this September. The exhibit, curated by Naine Terena, features the work of 22 contemporary Brazilian Indigenous artists from a wide range of regions and peoples. Terena herself is a member of the Terena people of Brazil, making Véxoa the first art exhibit in Brazil to be curated by an Indigenous person. Claudia Avolese, a senior lecturer in the Visual Media Studies department at the SMFA, has led the project through its transition from São Paulo to Medford as TUAG’s guestorganizer of Véxoa. “I moved to the US in 2019. So, when I was still in Brazil, as a professor at the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo, I was following the whole process of putting together the concept of the exhibition, the invitation to [Terena],” Avolese said. “So when I moved and was hired at Tufts, this was in my mind because Boston … is the place with the largest Brazilian community outside of Brazil.”
Anushka Dharia and her father Neel Dharia from Chandler, Ariz., sat at a sunny table outside of Dowling Hall on Oct. 3, as they pored over Tufts admissions brochures, waiting to convene for their campus tour. Anushka, a high school senior in the beginning of her college application process, said she had heard of the reports that Tufts recently declined in two major national college ranking lists a couple weeks prior, but did not seem worried.
