The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Page 1

Applejam brings variety of music performances to campus, makes concert spaces more intimate see FEATURES / PAGE 3

EDITORIAL

Tufts must reevaluate distribution requirements

Women’s lacrosse tops NESCAC with 3 big wins see SPORTS / PAGE 8

SEE OPINION / PAGE 7

THE

INDEPENDENT

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIX, ISSUE 31

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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Tufts issues travel restrictions, academic precautions in response to coronavirus by Caleb Symons Staff Writer

Disclaimer: Esra Gurcay is a former executive social media editor at the Daily. Gurcay was not involved in the writing or editing of this article. Tufts administrators responded to growing concerns over the global coronavirus outbreak by implementing travel regulations and warning of potential disruptions to spring semester courses in a series of emails to faculty, staff and students last week. In an email to the Tufts community on March 5, administrators announced a host of travel restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus, known formally as COVID-19, to the university’s campuses. The most stringent restriction prohibits anyone traveling from a country designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a Level 3 travel warning — its highest risk level — from being on campus, even if they are symptom-free, for 14 days. Tufts also requires that such travelers self-quarantine in accordance with CDC guidance. Four countries currently have Level 3 designations: China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. It is unclear how the university plans to enforce its restrictions on travelers from these countries.

Tufts also temporarily prohibited all university-related travel to Level 3 countries and suspended several university-supported international trips scheduled for next week’s spring break. The Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) informed members of IGL-funded fact-finding missions to Colombia and Cyprus on March 5 that their trips would be suspended. Students traveling to Colombia had already scheduled interviews with sources in the country when they learned of the travel suspension, according to Sara Torres Raisbeck, president and co-founder of the Tufts Latin American Committee (LAC), which organized the trip. “It was a matter of [telling sources], ‘Oh wait, I’m so sorry, but I can’t do this anymore,'” Torres Raisbeck, a junior, said. “I’m grateful that the IGL contacted us [about the travel restrictions] beforehand. I think it was the right move, especially because it’s something that we’ve all put so much effort into.” Torres Raisbeck still hopes to conduct her research, which focuses on eco-tourism camps run by former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) militants as part of a social reintegration effort, in Colombia over spring break, since she is doing it for credit and will graduate in May. Other members of the LAC trip may be forced to see CORONAVIRUS, page 2

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The Institute for Global Leadership is pictured on Sept. 18, 2019.

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Students sit outside on the President’s Lawn and enjoy the nice weather on March 9.

Study abroad programs shuttered as coronavirus grips Italy by Madeleine Aitken Assistant News Editor

As Italy grapples with the worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Europe, some Tufts students studying abroad at pre-approved non-Tufts-affiliated programs have been forced to leave their respective programs. Nadia Sbuttoni and August Moore, both juniors, were studying abroad in Italy on such pre-approved programs, but their programs were cancelled and they were told to leave the country. Moore was on the Syracuse Florence program with Syracuse University and Sbuttoni was on Brown in Bologna with Brown University. “Tufts doesn’t have any programs in Italy, so those of us who study Italian for our language requirement mostly do pre-approved programs with other schools. In this case, I did the Syracuse program in Florence,” Moore said. The Syracuse program is popular with Tufts students studying Italian, so a number of Tufts students had the same experience as Moore. Moore explained that the Syracuse administration scheduled a question and answer session on the campus in Florence to address coronavirus questions and concerns, where they actually announced that the program was being cancelled and everyone was expected to leave by the end of that week.

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“It was a little abrupt,” Moore said. Sbuttoni experienced something similar. On Feb. 28, Sbuttoni and other students were told they had to leave by March 7. “I had to pick from a selection of flights that either had multiple lay-overs, were upwards of $1,500 for a one-way ticket, or travel to Rome on a train to get a direct flight,” Sbuttoni wrote in an email to the Daily. Despite travel woes, both Moore and Sbuttoni expressed the ease of communication with Tufts. “Initially, I didn’t hear much from them. I’m not sure if Syracuse informed them at the same time that they informed us. But a day or two later, I heard from Tufts’ abroad office, I think, saying that they had heard the program was cancelled and basically to contact my academic advising dean and other academic advisors for how to proceed,” Moore said. Sbuttoni also said the study abroad office reached out to her and asked to hear her plans. I was pleased with the communication from Tufts. They never formally asked me to leave Bologna until much after my program was cancelled which I appreciated,” Sbuttoni said. “When the CDC raised the level for Italy to a Level 3, they asked me to fill out a survey that had me answer questions about my assessment of the situation in Bologna.”

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................4

see STUDY ABROAD, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................6 OPINION..................................... 7 SPORTS............................ BACK


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