The Tufts Daily - Thursday, February 7, 2019

Page 1

Alum Jim Kaklamanos relives Tufts memories, discusses career see FEATURES/ PAGE 4

ZACH GROEN

From Tufts to the Super Bowl: Alum finds his niche

Tufts should build new high-capacity dorm see OPINION/ PAGE 9

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 11

tuftsdaily.com

Thursday, February 7, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

404 students hand-deliver letters to President Monaco urging action on dining contract

JESSE RYAN / TDAC

Students line up to give University President Monaco letters shortly before noon on Feb. 4. by Alexander Thompson Assistant News Editor

Throughout the day on Monday, hundreds of students delivered letters to University President Anthony Monaco expressing their support for dining workers in their contract negotiations with the university. This student action, organized by Tufts Dining Action Coalition (TDAC), was done in solidarity with a similar campaign on Friday in which dining workers hand-delivered letters to Monaco, according to TDAC organizer Jesse Ryan, a sophomore.

The letters read, “I support the Tufts dining workers’ demands. I’m committed to win because …” leaving several lines for students to write their individual reasons. TDAC reported that 404 students had dropped off letters at Monaco’s office in Ballou, although Ryan said that the number of letters delivered was larger as multiple students delivered letters on behalf of friends. Patrick Collins, executive director of public relations, said in an email that the university did not count the letters which it had received but had no reason to dispute TDAC’s count. “We always appreciate student input, and we will certainly take the comments

that were provided into account as we continue with the negotiating process,” Collins told the Daily in an email. “We share the hope that we can come to an agreement soon.” The letter writing campaign comes as contract negotiations between the university and UNITE HERE Local 26, which represents the dining workers, enter their seventh month. Ryan said the letters were intended as a show of support before the talks that took place on Tuesday. “The impact will be that Monaco and the people who will be going into negotiations tomorrow morning will feel a lot of pressure from the student body, and also from the 100-plus workers who did this action on Friday,” Ryan said. Monaco, however, did not receive the letters personally. Yvette Terry, assistant to the president, collected them from students in the second-floor hallway of Ballou. Ryan accused Monaco of hiding from students. “Anthony Monaco’s been hiding from us but we know he’s in Ballou because people saw him this morning,” Ryan said. According to Collins, in the negotiations that took place on Tuesday morning, the university responded to all open proposals and presented the union with a draft final agreement. The university is waiting for the union’s response at the next session of talks which will take place later this month, Collins said. Representatives of UNITE HERE Local 26 had not responded to multiple requests for comment by press time. Christine Tringale, a night cook supervisor at Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run who participated in Friday’s worker action,

said that the workers had decided to do the letter writing campaign to voice their concerns about changes they want to see directly to Monaco. “I wrote that I need a change for my family, to lower insurance payments and raise our wage, as well as asking for respect,” she told the Daily in an electronic message. Emma Ishida, a junior, delivered her letter as part of a group of around 50 students who assembled in front of Ballou before noon on Monday and marched up the stairs to the Office of the President. “This is more confrontational than in the past,” said Ishida. “The message is that we are physically here to support the dining workers.” Ishida said that the message she had written on her letter was that she knows what it is like not to be heard, and she urged Monaco to listen and hear the dining workers. Micah Kraus, another TDAC organizer, said that students had been very willing and excited to participate in the action and that this support was not superficial. “[Students] are also curious about the details. They’re not just doing it as a surface-level action,” Kraus, a first-year, said. “They want to know why, and they know that our dining workers need affordable healthcare, job security, fair pay, all just basic human rights.” Steven Becker, a junior, delivered a letter just after noon on Monday. “It’s really important to me that there’s justice in the institutions from which I benefit, and part of that means making sure that workers have dignity and a voice in their own future,” Becker said.

Fletcher set to launch new online master’s program by Anton Shenk Staff Writer

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will launch an online masters degree in global business beginning in May 2019. According to its website, students will be able to complete the new online degree program in 16 months or two years, with each student able to set their own pace. Applications are open for the program’s inaugural class. The degree program, according to Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti, is aimed at working professionals who would not be able to attend Fletcher otherwise.

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“Many people [don’t] have the luxury or the opportunity to study at a place like Tufts,” he said. “We don’t want them to be left out of the education process.” Chakravorti said that students enrolled in the program may come from a wider variety of backgrounds than those receiving their degree on campus. “We expect people who might be in a different part of the world or working and unable to take time off or have life circumstances that don’t give them an opportunity to attend class,” he said. Chakravorti also said that as the new program was being developed, it was important to both maintain what works in traditional settings

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and explore the new opportunities an online program can offer. “There are many elements of the university we want to recreate and allow the student to experience the school,” he said. “We can take students outside the classroom as well, to a situation in a very different part of the world. Technology lets us do a lot of things that might be difficult to do in a traditional setting.” Executive Associate Dean of the Fletcher School Gerard Sheehan told the Daily in an email that the program follows from several recommendations in the school’s 2015 strategic plan including expanding Fletcher’s executive education offerings, developing a more

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diversified revenue stream and using technology in innovative ways. Sheehan said that the online program could benefit those taking classes in Medford. “[I’m most excited about] being able to use the latest and most advanced methods of content delivery and bring elements of that back into the residential programs at Fletcher,” Sheehan said, adding that he was excited about the opportunity to teach students who normally would be constrained from attending Fletcher. Steven Block, professor and academic dean at Fletcher, echoed the

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING....................... 7

see MASTER’S, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK


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