THE
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 32
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
tuftsdaily.com
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Political Science Professor Eitan Hersh selected as Emerson Collective Fellow by Simran Patel Staff Writer
The Emerson Collective announced the selection of Tufts Professor of Political Science Eitan Hersh as its newest fellow on Jan. 25 . The Emerson Collective is a for-profit organization that seeks to create social change through philanthropy, advocacy and investment. They partner with entrepreneurs, experts, policymakers, advocates and creatives to promote equality and justice. Hersh is joining the collective’s Democracy Cohort, a cross-disciplinary group of fellows working to study and strengthen democratic systems. As a fellow, Hersh will receive funding to research his next book. “Pretty much all of my work is in the democracy space … but the project … I’m working on now, which I think will be my next book, is specifically about business and what role business plays in continuing our democracy,” Hersh said. He said that business leaders are powerful actors in capitalist democracies.
“Politicians don’t want to screw up the economy, usually, and so they don’t want to do big things without business on board,” Hersh said. “Voters actually like that because voters work for companies and invest in companies. No one wants the economy to get screwed up, and because of that, business people have a lot of power.” Hersh suggested that there are various ways that powerful business leaders can engage with democracy. “Should they just try to lobby for things that are good for them personally or good for their companies?” Hersh asked. “Should they try to spend time helping to pass policies in government that are good for the broader economy or good for the environment?” Business leaders have an interest in promoting public stability but also in maximizing opportunity for their own private companies. Hersh also said that big businesses and smaller ones have different behavioral tendencies in the political realm.
“When it comes to retailers or small businesses, they are generally active in local government,” Hersh said. “In a place like Massachusetts, you have employers who are involved in construction or utility or insurance — they’re always at the Statehouse, but you have huge employers in Massachusetts, including universities, hospitals [and] law firms, that don’t necessarily see why they should be advocating at the Statehouse, and for what?” Hersh’s research deals with both giant corporations at the national level and the decisions of big players in any political community. “If you think that [businesspeople] should be the adults in the room, then they need a kind of blueprint for how to do that in a way that doesn’t suppress the voices of other people,” he said. Similar to his previous book, “Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political see HERSH, page 2
COURTESY EITAN HERSH
Professor Eitan Hersh is pictured.
Tufts community reacts to Ketanji TCU Senate votes on Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS nomination community senator stipend proposal, hears election timeline by Aaron Gruen News Editor
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on Feb. 25. If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson will fill the seat currently held by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer once he retires at the end of the current judicial term. Alexandra Dingle, a member of Tufts Democrats, expressed her support and belief in Jackson. “I think that she is going to only bring wonderful perspectives and viewpoints to the Supreme Court,” Dingle said. Sam Brenner, a first-year and another member of Tufts Democrats, highlighted Jackson’s qualified experience as both an attorney and a judge. “She’s also placed a large amount of focus throughout her career on civil rights, which I think is a perspective that the Court has desperately been missing,” Brenner said. Brenner is confident that Jackson has proven herself throughout her career to be a judge that cares about both civil and human rights.
Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court and only the third Black person ever nominated. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice and an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Political Science, said Jackson’s nomination is significant in more ways than one. “She will be a historic figure on the Court, not only for being the first African American woman to sit on the Court, but also … the first federal public defender,” Lantos Swett said. “[The] Supreme Court needs someone who comes to their calling and to their high position from the perspective of having defended those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.” Breyer was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the Supreme Court in 1994 and votes with the liberal wing of the Court in most cases. Thus, it would be unlikely for Jackson to dramatically shift the ideological standing of the Court if she is confirmed. However, Supreme Court justices may persuade colleagues
to change their points of view, especially if they bring different insights and perspectives, according to Lantos Swett. “If somebody is particularly compelling, if they bring their own personal life experience to those discussions … they can sometimes, I think, persuade a colleague who is wavering,” Lantos Swett said. Jackson has served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since June 2021 and served on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for eight years prior to that. Jackson’s confirmation hearings will begin on March 21, when she will field questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee and face a vote there before making her case to the entire Senate. Deborah Schildkraut, chair of the Department of Political Science, does not believe that Jackson’s confirmation process will be as contentious as those of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. see SCOTUS, page 2
by Madeline Wilson Assistant News Editor
The Tufts Community Union Senate heard a presentation from the Election Commission and voted on a proposal calling for the compensation of community senators in a meeting on Sunday night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room. Before taking roll call, Director of the Office of Campus Life Joe Golia joined the meeting to discuss TCU Diversity Officer Jaden Pena’s proposal calling for a stipend for community senators. Golia advised TCU to think collaboratively and carefully about their decision and to focus only on the question of paying community senators, not the broader question of student leader stipends. TCU also heard from Ethan Walsey, who is in charge of technology oversight for the Election Commission, who announced the timeline for the upcoming spring elections. The general election is set to take place from April 13-14. Presidential elections will occur from April 26-27.
SPORTS / back
ARTS / page 3
OPINION / page 5
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After TCU President Amma Agyei took roll call, the floor was opened to revisions on Pena’s community senator stipend proposal. TCU Historian Mariana Janer-Agrelot read the proposal and Pena summarized the main points. The resolution proposes a semesterly stipend of $150 for each community senator and lays out the requirements for receiving the stipend. These include submitting a written report to Pena about the senator’s work throughout the semester, as well as hosting an open house or other space for community engagement every other month. In order to receive the stipend, the resolution also required that community senators work together on a semester-long project that highlights the diversity and intersectionality of the student body. Pena then answered questions about the specific events that community senators could hold and some of the amendments that were not included in the revised resolusee SENATE, page 2 NEWS
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