THE
VOLUME LXXX, ISSUE 1
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
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
tuftsdaily.com
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Welcome Back, Tufts
Majority of undergraduate students plan to return to campus this fall
Local leaders, residents slam Tufts’ reopening plans by Alexander Thompson Assistant News Editor
NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Aug. 28. by Sarah Sandlow News Editor
As of Aug. 27, approximately 5,300 undergraduate students will be studying in person for fall 2020 and only about 735 students will be studying remotely. However, this data is likely to change through the first few weeks of the semester. Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, explained in an email to the Daily that about two-thirds of returning students will be living on campus and one-third of returning students will be residing off campus.
Collins also indicated that an estimated 140 first-year students are taking a gap year. He said that it is difficult to determine the number of students who are taking leaves of absence for the semester, due to the way in which the university tracks the information, but noted that any student who chooses to study remotely or take a gap year will not be penalized for their decision. Sophomore Mayura Thomas, who is a biology major, decided to take a leave of absence for the fall semester. Participating in in-person lab courses was a critical factor in her decision not to return to campus.
“I don’t want to be going and doing [lab courses] online,” she said. “Those lab skills are pretty important to me and I don’t want to compromise on those skills.” Thomas plans to work at the same chemistry lab she worked at during a previous summer and expects to gain essential lab skills. “When I told my boss that I would potentially want to work there for the rest of the year, we negotiated learning more so it was 50/50 between doing the job and getting those [lab] skills,” she said. see PLAN, page 2
Rabbi Jordan Braunig leaves Tufts Hillel for Emory by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor
Rabbi Jordan Braunig will be departing Tufts Hillel in the fall to assume the role of Jewish chaplain at Emory University. Braunig served as the director of the Initiative for Innovative Community Building at Tufts Hillel. During his tenure at the university, the Community Building Fellows program remained a central focus of Braunig’s work. According to
the University Chaplaincy’s website, the purpose of the program is to decentralize Jewish life on campus by connecting fellows with other students. Braunig underlined that the program is intended to support students and their communities. “The real goal of the program is to empower students to organize Jewish life for themselves and for their communities,” Braunig said. He recognized that the Community Building Fellows
initiative helps hone its members’ skills as listeners and strengthens students’ ability to spread their values into the different communities they are involved in on and off campus. “One of the sweet things about Tufts is there are lots of overlapping circles of communities, and sometimes the best way to encourage people to grapple with their Jewish identity is to bring those conversations and see BRAUNIG, page 4
In recent weeks, Tufts has come under fire from local mayors, legislators and residents for its reopening plan. Critics of the plan say the return of students from across the country and globe threatens to reverse the significant progress they have made in containing the pandemic. In an Aug. 10 letter to University President Anthony Monaco, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Medford Mayor Breanna LungoKoehn called on the university’s leadership to make seven significant changes to its reopening plan, including a reassessment of the plan in conjunction with the community and cutting the number of students living on and off campus.
“Despite months of planning for a safe in-person return to class, and corresponding drastic changes to campus life, the virus is spreading widely at universities,” Curtatone and Lungo-Koehn wrote. The mayors believe that by inviting students back to campus, the university is putting residents and other members of the community at risk. “[The plan] will significantly increase the risk of transmission in our communities and catalyze a potentially unmanageable increase in infections as we enter the fall and winter seasons,” Curtatone and Lungo-Koehn said. On Packard Avenue on Aug. 19, a small group of residents turned out to a protest organized by Our Revolution groups in Medford and see RESIDENTS, page 5
Group of Six renamed to Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion by Sam Klugherz
Assistant News Editor
The collection of identity-based centers on campus, formerly known as the Group of Six, has been renamed to the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion (DSDI), and new staffing positions were added to three of the centers. This change is part of a broader restructuring that has been taking place since the fall of 2019. The centers that compose the DSDI are the Africana Center, the Asian American Center, the FIRST Resource Center, the Latino Center, the LGBT Center and the Women’s Center. Nandi Bynoe, associate dean of student diversity and inclusion, explained the reason for the name change. “The Group of Six was brought into our own division to work more closely in alignment with the deans of the school, and also to create a focus for broader support for all students of marginalized identities across the campus,” Bynoe said.
OPINION / page 16
FEATURES / page 6
ARTS / page 9
Back on the Hill, ready for a semester of advocacy
Tufts professor lectures on history of protest music, raising thousands
Innovations in dance, music classes in response to COVID-19
She added that the renaming of the group will increase opportunities for collaboration across all identity groups. “The six centers worked really closely and really well together in the past, but this was an intentional way of bringing us into a conversation and creating a cohort of folks to really advance the work, not just in each center but with an idea for intersectionality,” Bynoe said. Hope Freeman, director of the LGBT Center and interim director of the Women’s Center, explained the larger impact of the new name. “By calling ourselves the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion it really gave more muscle to the work and influence inspired by the students to whom we support,” Freeman wrote in an email to the Daily. Rob Mack, associate provost and chief diversity officer for the Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses, echoed the see DSDI, page 4 NEWS 1 FEATURES 6 PHOTO 8 ARTS & POP CULTURE 9 FUN & GAMES 12 OPINION 15 SPORTS BACK