ResLife off-campus housing specialist discusses observations, recommendations see FEATURES / PAGE 4
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Jumbos remain optimistic despite challenging stretch
Wolfson’s musical evolution traces path from Los Angeles to Boston see WEEKENDER / PAGE 6
SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE
THE
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 20
tuftsdaily.com
Thursday, October 4, 2018
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Huw Thomas to leave role as Dean of School of Dental Medicine by Natasha Mayor News Editor
COURTESY HUW THOMAS
Dean of the School of Dental Medicine Huw Thomas, slated to leave at the end of the academic year, poses for a portrait.
Dean of the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) Huw Thomas will step down from his role at the conclusion of this academic year. Thomas has served as dean of TUSDM since 2011 after spending more than seven years as the dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, according to his faculty page. “There comes a time when it’s time to think of other things,” Thomas said. “Stepping down as dean will allow me to really start to focus on inter-professional education more within the Tufts campuses.” Thomas said that during his time as dean, two of his main areas of focus were patient-centered education and inter-professional education. To increase patient-centered education, Thomas worked on better integrating the student curriculum across all four years. “The idea was that we would try to have our students understand why they do what they do in the first two years,” Thomas said. “It becomes very important in terms of their clinical approaches to treating patients.” Thomas added that the university already had a reputation for its inter-professional environment when he joined, and he worked to further improve this. Executive Associate Dean of TUSDM Mark Gonthier explained what inter-professional education looks like in the classroom.
“Future dentists learn chair-side with future medical providers, with nutritionists, pharmacists, etc., in the overall coordination of the best care for patients,” he said. Gonthier, who has worked with Thomas since he was appointed dean in 2011, said that Thomas has spent a lot of time strengthening relationships between the Health Sciences Schools as well as with other schools in the Boston area. “Often there are many questions that need to be asked across disciplinary areas to arrive at the best way to create a treatment plan and find effective working relationships with patients,” Gonthier said. “One of [Thomas’] big emphases has been making that concept more real.” Thomas said he created faculty and staff advisory councils in an effort to open more direct lines of communication with the TUSDM administration. He worked on increasing diversity in admissions and appointed Assistant Clinical Professor Christina Pastan as TUSDM’s first director of mind-body wellness in 2015 to help improve student well-being through activities like yoga and meditation. Provost and Senior Vice President ad interim Deborah Kochevar, formerly dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, said she and Thomas both saw value in spreading inter-professional education to the veterinary school, an idea that falls under the concept of “One Health.” “We actually had some shared interests, particularly in an area that we would see TUSDM, page 2
Students seek answers after being denied entry to Senior Harbor Cruise by Jessica Blough News Editor
As many as 20 students were denied entry to the Senior’s Boston Harbor Cruise, organized by Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC), on Sept. 22, for what some of these students claim were unclear and seemingly arbitrary reasons, according to two students who were not allowed to board. The Office for Campus Life (OCL) is currently in the process of meeting with some of these students individually to determine how to resolve the issue, according to Director for Campus Life Joe Golia. Between 12 and 20 students were prevented from boarding the boat by one of the two security guards, according to senior
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Shaan Merchant, one of the students who was not allowed to board. The cruise and security were operated by Entertainment Cruises, Merchant said. According to Golia, TUSC’s senior committee planned the cruise and received logistical assistance and supervision from OCL. Golia confirmed that the OCL had no involvement in choosing the security for the event. Merchant said that the security guard asked him why he was not standing still during his security screening, and then asked Merchant if he was sober. Merchant responded that he was. According to Merchant, the guard accused him of lying and told him to leave the line and meet with OCL staff present at the event.
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“There was no justification, no communication whatsoever,” Merchant said. “We were just left standing in the corner.” While many students who were turned away exited the premises, several students in similar situations gathered to wait as OCL staff determined the legitimacy of them being turned away, according to Merchant. Among these students was Emma Brin, who was turned away after a student in front of her vomited in line. Brin, a senior, alleged that the security guard assumed that they were drunk, and asked her and a friend how much alcohol they had to drink. Brin said she was sober at the time. According to Brin, the group of rejected students waited for over an hour to see
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if they would be able to board the ship before the boat left the harbor without explanation. “I think if you got kicked out and you knew that you should have, you’re not going to fight back against it,” Brin said. “The fact that we waited so long to get back on the boat — no drunk person would do that. I wouldn’t push it unless I was really sure that they were in the wrong.” The security hired by Entertainment Cruises did not offer any option for the students to prove their sobriety, according to Brin and Merchant. Golia said that the security’s wariness of drunkenness may have been a result of the behavior of many Tufts students as they
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 WEEKENDER..........................6
see SENIOR CRUISE, page 2
FUN & GAMES......................... 7 OPINION.....................................8 SPORTS............................ BACK