Tufts Observer
table of 2. Out of the Archives and to the Streets: Contemporary Anti-Imperialist Activism at Tufts
By Joyce Fang and Billy Zeng
6. Biting Back: Student Resistance to Updates to the Tufts Meal Swipe Policy
By Miles Kendrick 8. No More Dirty Money: Tufts Climate Action Files Legal Complaint Against Tufts’ Fossil Fuel Investments
By Tufts Climate Action 11. Drowning the Palestine Sunbird
By Anna Farrell
12. Rest Is Resistance for Bodies Like Mine
By Emara Saez
14. Tufts, It’s Time: Boycott and Divest from israeli Apartheid
By Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine
18. Creative Inset
By Aviv Markus 20. Home is Where the 7 Train Sings
By Sophie Fishman
22. The ADL is Complicit in Racism and Police Repression. But Better Alternatives Exist. By Anonymous Students
24. Tufts Takes the Pole: Introducing the Tufts Pole Dance Collective by Juanita Asapokhai
26. It’s Not Easy Being Green (Line) By Basil Hand
28. I Two Declare: Double Major Culture at Tufts By Sofia Valdebenito
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Solidarity
it means more than just unity amongst peoples. its a way of being rooted in collectivity, a rejection of individualism, and an acknowledgement that none of us are free until all of us are free.
Out of the Archives and to the Streets
By Joyce Fang and Billy Zeng
Editor’s Note: Joyce Fang is a member of the Tu s Asian Student Coalition, which is part of the newly formed Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tu s.
is article is the second in a two-article series on past and present anti-imperialist activism on Tu s campus. Read part one in the Observer’s Issue 2 published earlier this semester.
Building on the rich legacies of previous anti-imperialist student organizers, present-day organizing continues to hold Tu s University accountable for its economic investments across the world. is activism is most prevalent in regards to the Global South, as explored in part one of this article: From the Archives: Tracing the History of Anti-Imperial Activism at Tu s. Recent student momentum for anti-imperialist campaigns has centered on Palestine and calls for Tu s University to divest from Israeli apartheid.
Anti-Imperialist Student Organizing in the 2000s
Note: is is not a comprehensive history. Many more materials exist at the Tu s Archival Research Center that dive into recent anti-imperialist student campaigns in much more extensive detail.
Since the student movement against South African apartheid saw success when Tu s divested in February 1989, several student and faculty coalitions formed in the early 2000s to oppose investments made by Tu s that supported oppressive or imperial states. Students and faculty saw themselves as part of a larger global struggle against American imperialism, leveraging their power within their institution. Calls for Tu s divestment from Israel began as early as 2002, when faculty at Tu s organized a petition calling on Tu s to divest from Israeli companies and companies selling arms to Israel. Alongside students and faculty from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Tu s faculty criticized Israel’s “continual military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli armed forces and settlers.”
In the same year, students and faculty also developed a group called the Tufts Coalition to Oppose the War in Iraq. is coalition protested against US military intervention in Iraq and President Bush’s calls for increased aggression. Alongside the petition to divest from Israeli apartheid, students and faculty developed movements to oppose US imperial power in the Middle East. During the early 2000s, both of these movements recognized the nancial and political role the university played in perpetuating this violence abroad.
ese movements were built upon in 2005, when faculty and student activists joined national calls for universities to divest from companies operating in Sudan in opposition to the Darfur genocide. A group called the Tu s Coalition for Endowment Transparency formed to pressure Tufts’ trustees to disclose their investments in Sudan and ultimately divest. The group met directly with trustees in February 2007, although the outcome of these meetings was not published in Tu s newspapers.
In this period of intense student and faculty activism, the coalitions saw an opportunity to build solidarity between their causes through united calls for divestment.
e Coalition for Endowment Transparency and the Coalition to Oppose the War in Iraq held a joint vigil calling for increased student input in endowment and investment decision-making. In a statement to the Tu s Daily, Gabe Frumkin, a TCOWI representative noted that he was “not requesting what [he] sees as radical changes,” from the Trustees, but rather, “a way of exercising [their] rights as shareholders without threatening the viability of [their] money managers or the pro tability of [their] endowment.”
Throughout the movements of the early 2000s, students and faculty directly targeted the university’s nancial complicity in violence across the world. e vigil’s organizers highlighted the impact of past student movements for Tu s to divest from South African apartheid as a precedent. In an op-ed to the Tu s Daily published in 2007, TCOWI member Nicole Zeller wrote, “Divestment is a step universities can take to remove their funds from companies that are directly or indirectly nancially supporting humanitarian crises, such as the genocide in Sudan or the war in Iraq…The most
prominent example of a successful campaign, especially in the arena of university divestment, was during the era of the South African apartheid.” e methods of organizing against South African apartheid, among these other student movements, continue to inform anti-imperialist activism from the early 2000s to the current day.
Present-Day Organizing
In recent years, Tufts students have built upon the legacies of past student activism by continuing to mobilize against the university’s connections to American imperialism through economic investments. Student activists, for example, have directed much of their efforts towards criticizing companies like defense weapon manufacturers that come to campus to recruit students as prospective employees. These efforts have expanded the antiimperialist movement beyond divestment towards mobilizing students to resist the military-industrial complex.
In 2019, students and o -campus activist organizations such as Massachusetts Peace Action protested the presence of Raytheon, a widely known weapons manufacturing company, at the February career fair. As the Tu s Daily reports, Tu s has direct ties to Raytheon, as the founders of the company’s precursor were Tu s alumni.
Student protests at Tufts career and recruiting events have become commonplace. Brian, a current senior and member of the Revolutionary Marxist Students who asked to be identi ed only by their rst name, described some of this activism in a written statement to the Tu s Observer ey wrote, “for a couple of years now, I have been working with Revolutionary Marxist Students on anti-imperialist work at Tu s and throughout the country as a whole. Much of this work has centered around protesting events like career fairs or recruitment events for companies [such as] Raytheon and General Dynamics and government entities [such as] the CIA and the US Army among others.”
According to the Tufts Daily , at the most recent September 2023 career fair, protestors called attention to about a dozen companies involved in militarism and imperialism. eir goal was reportedly not to discourage Tu s students from seeking jobs,
DESIGN BY HAMI TRINH, ART BY STELLA OMENETTO
but to encourage them to think critically about who their careers would impact.
In recent months, Tu s students have organized sustained campaigns against Israeli apartheid and the attacks in Gaza.
ough notably active right now, the movement for Palestinian liberation at Tu s—led primarily by Tu s Students for Justice in Palestine—has consistently organized over the 13 years it has been active, since its founding in 2010.
Movement for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts
Note: Refer to this Observer article published in 2021 for a quick history overview of student activism at Tu s related to divesting from Israeli apartheid since 2010: Dedicated to Divestment.
Responding to the urgency of the mass death toll of Gazans by the hands of the Israeli army, student activists have escalated their two-decades-long demands for the university to cut ties with the 75-year Israeli occupation. Since October 7, as Israel’s violence against Gazans has intensi ed, casualties have risen up to 11,200 as of November 13 and US military funding to Israel has also increased. ese events have led Palestinian human rights organizations, residents of Gaza, and US citizens with family members impacted by Israel’s ongoing assault to sue President Biden and other federal o cials for failing to “prevent an unfolding genocide.”
In response to these events, students have organized protests, teach-ins, and other actions to challenge the university’s complicity in these atrocities. On October 23, 2023, Tu s SJP published their o cial demands to the university through the organization’s Instagram page. ey demand the following: “an immediate cease re and end to israel’s siege on Gaza and all US funding to israel, [that] the university disclose its direct and indirect investments and fully divest from any companies that pro t o or fund israeli apartheid, President Kumar release a statement condemning the genocide in Palestine, [and] the university end all programs and funded trips to the entirety of occupied Palestine.”
Tu s SJP is not the only student group
on campus making demands of the university. Around mid-October 2023, a group of anonymous South Asian students and alums wrote a public statement addressed to President Sunil Kumar and the greater Tu s Community. is statement directly responded to President Kumar’s message titled A personal note on October 11, 2023, which responded to Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7.
In their anonymous statement, the group wrote that they were “deeply appalled by [President Kumar’s] lack of sensitivity in this [statement and how his] personal note demonstrates [his] worldview as being one entrenched in Islamophobia, settler-colonial rhetoric, and white supremacy.” ey noted that “absent from President Kumar’s email is any mention of the thousands of Gazans killed (not including the bodies still unpulled from the rubble) in relentless bombings at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces over the past few days.” Furthermore, they demanded President Kumar to “mobilize [his] power to ght for Palestinians… [starting] with cutting Tu s’ ties to Israel. Pressure from donors, alumni, and the administration should not change [his] moral obligation to protect [his] students.”
e group of South Asian students and alums speci cally cited President Kumar’s own South Asian background in their argument, drawing parallels between the Israeli occupation and “India’s violent settler-colonial regime in Kashmir.”
On November 4, dozens of Tu s students disrupted President Sunil Kumar’s conversation with the Tu s Community Union Senate (TCU), calling for the university to divest from Israeli investments. In a video posted on Instagram byBDS Boston, a group dedicated to building the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in Boston in solidarity with Palestine, student protesters were seen chanting, calling for Tu s to divest, and staging a die-in during the event.
Tu s SJP wrote in a statement to the Tu s Daily that the group did not plan the protest, although some of its members may have been in attendance. In the statement, Tu s SJP wrote that they understand this protest to be a “result of grassroots word of mouth organizing,” demonstrating that “a great number of students and the global majority
are showing solidarity with Palestine.”
In a written statement to the Observer, Kalimah Redd Knight, senior deputy director of Media Relations, notes that the administration takes heed of student demands. Knight writes that “while more visible forms of feedback, such as demonstrations, tend to garner the most attention, the reality is that student input is built into the university’s everyday decision-making processes. For example, the president’s o ce meets monthly with the leaders of the TCU Senate, who represent student priorities and sentiments on a variety of issues and frequently present the president’s o ce with petitions on issues of the day.”
However, many student activists are not convinced that the TCU Senate is the best channel for students to voice their frustrations and concerns with the administration. For example, on Wednesday, November 8, Tu s SJP posted on their Instagram explaining why their organization is focusing on direct action instead of structured communication with the administration. ey write that “direct action and disruption are how [they] put pressure on the university to meet [their] demands.” In addition, they cite that “past student organizing through o cial channels has been ignored by the university” and reference two initiatives that the TCU Senate enacted in 2017 and 2020 urging Tu s to divest from Israel, both of which were rejected by the administration. e following ursday, November 9, student organizers at Tu s responded to a call made by a national coalition of Palestine liberation organizations for a nationwide walkout in solidarity with Palestine. e action began at 2 p.m. with a rally at the Lower Campus Center and led to a 10-hour sit-in of the Mayer Campus Center’s main oor until its closing at midnight.
A member of Tu s SJP, who requested to go by the initials C.B., said that “[they] will continue to show up and disrupt business as usual until [their] demands are met. As people living in the belly of the beast, [students] are inherently complicit in the imperialist activities of the US government. Tuition dollars and tax dollars are currently and have been funding genocide.”
Reminiscent of past coalitions Tufts community members built to oppose imperialism, the November 9 rally was
organized by the newly formed Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts. The coalition consists of 11 student organizations: Alternative Jews at Tu s, the African Students Organization, the Eritrean and Ethiopian Students’ Association, the Indigenous Student Organization at Tu s, the Pan-Afrikan Alliance, the Revolutionary Marxist Students, South Asian Political Action Community, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Tu s Asian Student Coalition, and Tu s Labor Coalition.
At the rally, two students who spoke on behalf of the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts announced their formation and their purpose. “Today we gather as Jewish students, Muslim students, Asian students, Black students, Indigenous students, queer students, white students, and Palestinian students to hold those that try to divide us accountable and show that Palestinian liberation is global liberation,” the students said.
Beyond protests and other forms of visible demonstration, student groups have also leaned on educational tactics to advance their activism. Political education has been a strong tool for students to continue anti-imperialist e orts both in Tu s’ past and present. For example, in 2002, TCOWI held a teach-in about opposing the Iraq War. According to a Tu s Daily article, “the event was an attempt to educate members of the Tu s community on the issue, and speakers advocated anti-war action on campus.”
In the context of modern-day Palestinian activism, C.B. emphasized that the media alone may fail to properly educate students and faculty on what is happening in Gaza. “ ere is so much propaganda from our government and the mainstream media,” they said, “that people either have never heard about Palestine or are completely misinformed about Palestine. Tufts SJP holds events on everything from the basic history of Palestine to how topics like environmental justice intersect with Palestinian liberation.” C.B. writes that “political education is crucial for mobilization and increases student support at our events by educating students about the truth of what is happening.”
Institutional Roadblocks
Since the 2010s, the anti-imperialist ac-
tions led by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation have been entirely student-led. Although faculty were involved in the earliest coalition movements against investments in Sudan and Israel as well as the war in Iraq, in recent years students have been the sole organizers. In a written statement to the Observer, History Professor Emeritus Gary Leupp said, “My sense is that faculty are not leading students but instead lagging behind them politically.” As students continue to lead organizing for Palestinian liberation on the ground, it is unclear how Tu s faculty will respond to current student mobilization.
The university’s response to student momentum on campus has involved an increase in policing. Hours a er SJP’s rst rally on October 20, the Tu s O ce of Public Safety issued a statement that declared, “To ensure our community’s continued safety… Tu s University Police Department has increased its foot and cruiser patrols.” Knight writes that “[they] acknowledge that the presence of additional police and security may make some members of [the Tu s] community uncomfortable. However, [they] are also working hard to ensure that there is also a positive feeling of safety and community on campus during these anxious times through direct outreach and engagement.”
C.B. stresses that “[they] are disappointed but not surprised that the university has increased police presence, as [they] know police do not make [campus] safer. Given Tu s’ history of sending o cers to ‘counterterrorism’ training in Israel through the deadly exchange, Tu s cannot call itself an ‘anti-racist’ institution. It is clear that Black, Brown, Indigenous, Arab, and Muslim students feel deeply unsafe in the presence of TUPD and that their presence at [SJP’s] protests is an intimidation tactic to stop [them] from showing up.”
Despite pressure from TUPD and Tu s administrators, student organizers remain undeterred and steadfast in their goals. As C.B. wrote, “administration loves to wait for [organizers] to graduate and hopes that student organizing follows [them] out, but [they] know that will never be true.”
From the earliest movements to divest from Israeli apartheid, genocide in Sudan, and the war in Iraq to the present organizing
for Palestinian liberation, students at Tu s have dedicated themselves to international solidarity with communities in the Global South. C.B. noted, “Global liberation solidarity movements are here to stay… Over decades of student organizing, the university remains complicit in these systems of violence. Students have a responsibility to resist the university’s attempts to sti e our movements which have always been key to the struggle for global liberation.”
Near the close of November 9’s sit-in, a student activist declared that the ght for Tu s to divest from South African apartheid lasted 12 years and, similarly, that the student movement for Palestinian liberation was “here to stay.”
Similar to activists who came before them, current students understand their struggle for Palestinian liberation to be ongoing. C.B. reminds the Tu s administration that “students will keep showing up and disrupting until this institution acts. We will not back down until that happens.”
BITING BACK
RESISTANCE TO UPDATES TO THE TUFTS MEAL SWIPE POLICY
By Miles Kendrick STUDENT
On Sunday, November 5, animated by the quiet nods and gentle snaps of student senators, Resolution S. 23-8, A Resolution and Petition Calling on Tufts University to Allow Students More Freedom in their Use of Meal Swipes, unanimously passed in the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate. Addressing issues like one-swipe maximums, price gouging, and guest swipe limits, the resolution gives voice to hundreds of students feeling fed up and underfed by recent dining policy changes.
ily lifted during COVID-19 but otherwise status quo.
In response, Patil explained that “These past two years… showed us how much better the [less restrictive] option is, and I think that the student body deserves this flexibility permanently.” As such, the resolution addresses the “increasingly restrictive” nature of the premium meal plan.
cially at the start of the school year, we had some dining staff telling us you can only go from Dewick to Hodge, but you can’t go from Hodge to Dewick, some people saying there’s a 30-minute limit… I even thought about emailing [Klos] just to figure out what was actually changed because we just didn’t know.”
Among other restrictions, the updated meal swipe policy limits students to one swipe per meal period at retail locations like Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run and Kindlevan Café. While in the past students have been able to stock up on Hodge or double-dip at Kindlevan, the updated policy forces even premium plan users to ration their swipes.
It was after a failed attempt to doubleswipe at Hodge early this semester that sophomores Anand Patil and Corey Title resolved to do something about it. “We were sitting at this desk right here,” said Patil, a TCU senator, pointing at a wooden table in the TCU Senate office, “when we decided we were going to create a petition.” What began as an idea between friends wanting more out of their meal swipe became a university-wide initiative, garnering nearly 1,300 signatures by the end of October. The petition inspired the creation of Resolution S. 23-8, which was collaboratively authored by 10 TCU senators in the freshman, sophomore, and junior class years.
In defense of the changes, Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos explained in an interview with the Tufts Daily that this semester’s meal swipe policy has been the policy for years, temporar-
For Leyla Mandel—a junior combined-degree student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts who has been on the premium plan since her freshman year— the plan “used to be a way to make sure that I always had a meal when I wanted one.” She explained, “I’m no chef, and I don’t really have time to cook meals because I’m taking six classes.” So, when given the chance to renew her premium plan this summer, she took it.
Unbeknownst to Mandel, however, the updated policies complicate the plan’s perceived benefits. With fall meal plans beginning on September 3 and ending on December 22, students on the premium plan have 107 days to use 400 swipes, accounting for the four-day dining closure over Thanksgiving break. With the updated one-swipe maximum at retail locations, however, students are hard-pressed to make the most of their plan. “There’s no way that anyone’s going to ever use all of the swipes,” said Mandel. “It’s just not possible.”
When asked if she knew about the changes before selecting her meal plan, Mandel answered, “I had no clue. I was shocked when I came to campus.” When asked if knowing would have impacted her decision, she answered bluntly: “Oh, for sure.”
Mandel was not alone in her surprise. “I think students found out basically with a screenshot on Sidechat,” said Patil. “Espe-
The recently passed resolution addresses this confusion, demanding that Tufts “[commit] to complete clarity and transparency on all details related to Tufts Dining services and changes made to the use of meal swipe services.”
Among complaints regarding transparency and clarity lies the suspicion that Tufts inflates prices at retail locations. The resolution explains that “the price of items in retail dining locations are often higher than normally found and increase in price each year, which diminishes the effective value of a meal swipe equivalency.” For many, the confusion stems from a lack of clear pricing, which makes data on price gouging hard to find. “Hodge has the prices on all of their items, but not really all of them,” explained Mandel. “Sometimes when you’re buying certain drinks the price is on it, but say I want to get an [ice cream], the price is not on that.”
The fear, then, is that Tufts Dining, under a veil of confusion, can upcharge prices with little consequence. To address this, the resolution includes a clause asking that Tufts Dining not mark up food items more than 20 percent of what they paid for it.
In addition to transparency and clarity, the resolution also aims to address the impact of policy changes on students at the SMFA. Kunal Botla, a freshman combined degree student, TCU senator, and co-author of the resolution, explained that
for SMFA students, “flexibility [in the meal swipe system] just doesn’t exist.”
Unlike the Medford/Somerville campus, the only dining option for students at the SMFA is the SMFA Café, a retail location that accepts just one meal swipe per meal period under Tufts’ updated policy. Botla, like all first-year students, is on the premium meal plan, and when asked how often he uses JumboCash in addition to his meal swipe, he answered, “Anytime I eat at the SMFA Café.”
Additionally, Botla explained that “Tufts Dining… bases its schedule and protocols off [the Medford campus’],” creating problems for SMFA students taking later classes. “In the evening, [SMFA Café] closes at 6:30, but studios usually end between 7:30 and 8:30, so you’re kind of dependent on the professor being able to structure class in a way where there is a break for students to get dinner.” Even when professors do allow time before closing, Botla pointed out, “the food at SMFA Café [still being served] at the end of the day isn’t enough to make a meal.”
With the new resolution, however, Botla has regained some optimism. “I’m hopeful that [Tufts Dining] will be receptive to more of the administrative suggestions and concerns that [the resolution is] bringing up, especially because there’s, at least from our perspective… a pretty clear path to mitigation.” Going forward, Botla added that Tufts Dining must implement “some kind of plan… to solve greater issues regarding food insecurity and general quality food access [on campus].”
Increased food insecurity is another issue addressed in the resolution, with many claiming that the recent policy changes exacerbate already prevalent concerns regarding easy access to quality food. “On the Senate, we have been working and are continuing to work… with the Dean of Students and Tufts Dining on combating food insecurity on campus,” explained Patil. “So when I saw the [policy] changes, my first thought was, this is just such a major step backward for our food security initiatives.”
One way the changes have backtracked these initiatives is through the creation of guest swipe limits. While in the past, students could use any number of meal plan swipes to swipe in a friend
or family member, Tufts’ updated policy states, “Guest swipes are separate, additional swipes and do not draw down your meal plan balance.” This is to say that students are limited to eight, six, two, or zero guest swipes per semester depending on the price of their plan.
According to Jose Armando, the cochair of TCU Senate’s Food Insecurity Subcommittee, the implementation of guest swipe limits ends a campus-wide tradition of underclassmen swiping upperclassmen into dining halls. This system worked to “[reduce] the amount of students facing food insecurity” by assisting upperclassmen who “pay their own rent and don’t have a meal plan” and are therefore particularly vulnerable to food insecurity.
In addition, there is a worry about the policy changes’ impact on low-income students, many of whom face some level of food insecurity already. In a 2023 campus survey, 11.82 percent of Tufts respondents said that they did not eat despite being hungry due to financial constraints within the past month, and 26.32 percent of Tufts respondents said they did not eat despite being hungry due to a lack of access to food sometime in the past month. With this in mind, the resolution states that “Tufts has committed to being an equitable institution” and that “these dining hall policies increase the true cost of eating… which disproportionately af- fects low-income students by requiring additional ex- penses beyond a meal plan.”
On Monday, November 6, TCU senators met with Vice President for Operations
Barbara Stein, Executive Vice
President of Tufts University Mike Howard, and Klos herself to discuss next steps. While the three administrators requested that no press be in attendance, meeting notes from that night shared with the Observer revealed a promise on behalf of the administration to “carefully look at the resolution and [TCU senators’] requests, crunch numbers, analyze data, consider alternative options, and come back to the table in a month to continue the conversation.”
The fight, then, is not over, but both senators and administration seem hopeful that a compromise is within reach. “The administrators appreciated hearing firsthand the students’ concerns,” said Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, in a written statement to the Observer. “[We] expect to follow up with them before the end of the semester.” The resolution’s authors share a similar sense of optimism. “What I hope will happen is that… [the administration is] responsive to our concerns and… we create at least a plan to fix some of these issues,” said Patil. “We just need that spark, and that’s what the resolution gives us. It gives a meeting. It gives us attention from the higher-ups, and that’s how change happens.” O
No More Dirty Money:
Tufts Climate Action Files Legal Complaint Against Tufts’ Fossil Fuel Investments
By Tufts Climate Action
As members of Tufts Climate Action, when we all first chose to commit to Tufts, none of us ever imagined that we would be taking legal action against our own university—yet on October 30, we collectively submitted a legal complaint to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell. As a club dedicated to organizing for climate change issues and its impacts on our campus, we are calling for an open investigation into Tufts University’s $90 million invested in the fossil fuel industry. Not only do Tufts’ investments in the fossil fuel industry directly contradict the university’s claims that Tufts is a sustainable institution, they also violate state law. The Massachusetts Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act says that universities, as nonprofit institutions, have an obligation to use their money responsibly and to “consider the charitable purposes of
the institution and the purposes of the institutional fund.” Tufts’ continued investments in industries that are polluting the air, warming the planet, and destroying the environment are utterly irresponsible and dangerous. In Massachusetts, climate change is predicted to exacerbate illnesses such as heat stroke and asthma, increase infrastructure damage through heavier rainfall, and produce extreme weather patterns that will delay emergency responses—all of which would directly threaten the livelihood of all state residents, including Tufts students. By investing in fossil fuels, Tufts is actively funding this bleak future and breaching its charitable mission as a nonprofit institution.
Tufts is not the only school facing legal pressure for its investments in fossil fuels. TCA’s legal complaint was filed alongside five other universities: University of Chicago, University of Penn-
sylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Pomona College, all of which historically and currently invest money in the fossil fuel industry.
But why legal action, and why now? Inspired by the divestment movement against South African apartheid during the 80s, which called upon individuals and institutions alike to end business with and investments in corporations funding the apartheid system, TCA formed in 2012 as part of a national movement to adopt these same tactics to convince universities to divest from fossil fuels.
The argument for divestment is both financial and moral. Financially speaking, fossil fuels are not a reliable long-term investment since they are increasingly losing their value as the globe moves toward greener energy. Divested portfolios have been found to be just as, or even more, profitable as portfolios with fossil fuel
investments. Ethically, to invest in fossil fuels is to show support for the fossil fuel industry and its harm to the environment. Divesting from fossil fuels would not only mean taking a moral stance against this industry; it would also put public pressure on these companies to change their polluting practices or face political and economic isolation.
Since its founding, TCA has put pressure on the university to divest in the form of two TCU resolutions calling for divestment, a sit-in at the President’s office in 2015 that led to multiple students facing disciplinary action and weekly climate strikes outside of Ballou Hall in 2019. Ultimately, relentless activism led to the formation of the Responsible Investment Advisory Group, a panel of
university administrators, faculty, and students (one of whom was a member of TCA) that met in 2021 to decide whether the university should continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry. This was the first time that TCA members were able to have a legitimate conversation with the administration about divestment. The RIAG decision did lead to two major breakthroughs: first, the RIAG called on the university to publicly reveal the percentage of Tufts’ endowment invested in fossil fuels, and it also called on the university to invest $25 million in sustainable initiatives, both of which the university did. The RIAG did not decide, however, that Tufts University must divest from fossil fuels.
The RIAG decision can be seen as a form of greenwashing—the act of making false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a practice— by the institution to make it seem as though the Tufts administration cares about how the endowment is contributing to climate change, even when this is not the case. One of the key points of
the RIAG decision was that Tufts would not make any future investments in coal and tar sands, but Tufts never had any investments in coal and tar sands to begin with. The university’s fossil fuel investments are all in other sectors of the fossil fuel industry, namely oil and gas—although the university has not disclosed specifically which fossil fuel companies it is invested in, despite our calls for greater transparency. To someone unfamiliar with the university’s endowment, this portion of the RIAG decision would give the false impression that Tufts made substantial financial change to reduce their ties to the fossil fuel industry, when in reality, this performative statement did nothing to change the university’s endowment.
Another problematic element of this RIAG decision was that it prohibited another RIAG from opening for another two to five years. This policy fails to recognize the urgency of climate change.
As seen from the natural disasters that occurred just this year alone, from wildfires in Maui to the flooding in Vermont, it is clear that the climate crisis is only accelerating and demands urgent action sooner than the university’s proposed timeline. It’s important to note that, as climate justice and racial justice are intrinsically linked, the university’s commitment to being an anti-racist institution must also include decisive climate action. People of color and indigenous communities especially cannot wait any longer for definitive action against the fossil fuel industry as they are disproportionately harmed. Given the university’s unwillingness to reopen another RIAG, Tufts Climate Action felt it needed a new way to put pressure on the university to reevaluate their decision and put their money where their mouth is.
Around the same time as our RIAG decision, there was another major breakthrough in climate activism: headlines stating that Harvard had divested from fossil fuels, after years of organizing by the campus student divestment group. How did the students of Harvard convince their Board of Trustees, who had been adamantly refusing to divest for
years, to change their tune? Notably, the school decided to divest the same year that Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, a coalition of Harvard students, alumni, and faculty, filed a legal complaint against their school. We could not help but wonder: could this have been why Harvard ultimately divested?
Knowing that the university was not going to willingly sit down and talk about divestment with us again for a couple of years, we decided in 2021 that we would use a legal complaint to force Tufts to reevaluate their fossil fuel decisions on our timeline. We began to work on our legal complaint with the Climate Defense Project, an organization involved in legal climate activism across the nation. When we connected with the Climate Defense Project, we learned that the organization was also helping other activist groups file legal complaints against their respective universities. Together, Tufts Climate Action and divestment activist groups at UChicago, UPenn, Penn State, WashU, and Pomona College banded together to form Solidarity Six, an alliance of student-led organizations all looking to legally hold their schools accountable for their fossil fuel investments.
We have spent the past two years quietly working to produce the extensive 61-page document that we delivered to the Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s desk on October 30. In this document we outline how Tufts’ investments in fossil fuels violate Massachusetts law,
the various ways in which the fossil fuel industry is harmful to society, the financial prudence of divesting from fossil fuels, and Tufts’ ties to the fossil fuel industry. The legal complaint also describes how two members of the Board of Trustees have political and financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, a clear conflict
DESIGN BY AVIV MARKUS, ART BY AUDREY NJO
of interest. Trustee Dan Zilberman is a member of the Executive Management Group for Warburg Pincus, a company which purchased oil and gas wells in Oklahoma in October 2021. Trustee Peter R. Dolan was formerly chairman of Allied Minds, a company whose portfolio includes investment in Orbital Sidekick, a company that develops hyperspectral imaging for fossil fuel companies. Given these members’ ties to the fossil fuel industry, it is unsurprising that the Board has consistently refused to support divestment.
If Campbell chooses to open a case after reading the complaint, Tufts could face legal consequences for violating the UPMIFA.
This document is a necessary wake-up call for Tufts to begin practicing what it preaches. How can Tufts be a “light on the hill,” a beacon of progress, when our money is still going to industries responsible for species’ extinction, air and water pollution, rising global temperatures, and natural disasters? Despite the obvious legal and ethical concerns surrounding the school’s investment in the fossil fuel industry, Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations at Tufts, has stated in
response to our legal complaint that “the university is and always has been in compliance with the Massachusetts Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act.” The over $90 million dollars in our endowment funding the most polluting industry in the world say otherwise.
Now more than ever, with a legal complaint on Andrea Campbell’s desk and the truth of Tufts’ unethical fossil fuel investments making national news, we need Tufts students to show their support for divestment. We urge students to email President Sunil Kumar calling for full fossil fuel divestment and to sign our petition to become a signatory on our legal complaint. We need you to boost news articles about our complaints and share our social media posts to keep the university under public scrutiny. For students who want to get even more involved, we invite you to our weekly meetings on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. in the Terrace Room of Paige Hall.
While our legal complaint is a critical next step in the fight for divestment, it should not have taken a decade of activism and a legal complaint for the university to open its eyes. When the Tufts administration finally decided to divest from South African apartheid, it joined a broader divestment movement whose influence was so powerful that it has been credited as one of the factors that ultimately led to the end of the apartheid. Tufts has the opportunity once again to join a larger justice movement that could genuinely curb the influence of these
monumental fossil fuel companies— yet disappointingly, it has refused to learn from its history and is hesitating again to make the morally right choice. However, the university still has the chance to divest from fossil fuels and invest in green initiatives. It’s time for Tufts to stop greenwashing and commit to divestment so that its $2.4 billion endowment accurately reflects the values on which this university prides itself. To President Sunil Kumar, Chief Investment Officer Craig Smith, Vice Chair Jeffrey Moslow, and the Board of Trustees, all eyes are on you. What choice will you make? O
Lunch.
Drowning the
Palestine Sunbird
My closest friend offers me his celery and carrots, revealing beneath the lid of his cracked tupperware: fresh hummus—grooved and tangy.
It’s the third time this week. He can’t stop making it, he confesses, following his grandmother’s recipe, meticulously, like it’s the one thing he can do for her; the key is an extra squeeze of lemon and thoughts of home in Bethlehem.
We share this piece of his grandmother’s legacy, of home. He tells me about her, his swollen lips unable to carry the words when they hold so much grief.
He washes between floods of accusations and applause; Floods of outcry wash him between accusations and applause the torrent screams martyr and murderer, leaving no space in between. And now he can’t remember how to feel like a person, to speak without being silenced.
By Anna Farrell
He sinks deeper into the deluge, grasping for his recipe: soak the chickpeas drain and boil add tahini, garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon—for Teta— rinses and repeats because when he holds onto home in any other way, mourns his family and his country, the virulence of his grief is mistaken for violence.
REST IS RESISTANCE FOR BODIES LIKE MINE
By Emara Saez
Throughout my childhood, I was never alone. No matter what space I was in, there was always another body in close proximity to mine. Another being to ground and anchor myself in when I felt myself disconnecting from reality. My grandmother is the person with whom I spent the most time, observing and internalizing how a Cuban woman should inhabit a body. Her body was always whirring around, never resting in one spot for too long. She was always tending to the constant influx of friends and family at my house, and when there
weren’t any guests to tend to, she would fuss over my younger brother and me. Rest was a concept as foreign to her as she was to this land.
My body replicated the rhythm of hers. It was the only way I knew how to be; she and I were always in “go” mode, and being around others helped us stay “on.” I felt that whenever I was alone, I’d fall into a state of relaxation that would disrupt my productivity permanently, which was a thought that coming to college exacerbated.
I had grown up with the belief that being in community and with others was the way to replenish myself. After all, my grandmother had managed to sustain all 84 years of her life tending for those around her. Following her example, I internalized the idea that taking time away from community to rest was a betrayal of what I stood for and who I wanted to center in my life. Hard work, perseverance, and endurance were the traits I learned to prioritize through my grandmother’s example. Success was tied directly to these characteristics, and I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders when reflecting on the expectations from my community to embody them—everyone was rooting for me, as my success was directly tied up in theirs. There was no time for rest in the masterplan outlined for my life.
Relaxation—as a byproduct of solitude—felt like the enemy, like an indulgence that I could not afford to give myself. It felt wrong to rest in solitude given the context I come from, where so many of my family and community members break their backs to provide for themselves, yet barely have enough to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck.
In an effort to overcome
the guilt I associated with rest and solitude, I surrounded myself with people at all times. Starting in early adolescence, I began to use the presence of others as a way of hiding from myself. Rest was a luxury many around me could not afford, so I thought, How could I, living the cushy American lifestyle, stop to take a moment for myself? I was always surrounding myself with a multitude of friends, seeking out my family when friends weren’t available, and resorting to existing in busy public spaces to distract myself when even family wasn’t available. The lengths I went—and occasionally still go—to avoid being alone were at best mildly concerning and at worst extremely selfdestructive. When I arrived at Tufts, there was no way I would have made it through freshman year on my own, as being around other people helped soothe my anxiety and distracted me from the guilt.
The guilt consumed me in the brief moments that I was alone and engaging in self-care throughout freshman year. This was the life that my parents sacrificed so much for, the life they dreamed of giving their children, yet I felt so much shame about living it out. It wasn’t fair that in their twenties my parents were planning their escape to America, while the hardest thing I had to plan was what classes to take each semester. So I coped with the guilt in the only way I knew how, which was by throwing my body into constant motion with activities, schoolwork, classes, and other commitments to avoid being alone with it.
I was successful at this game of avoidance up until the fall semester of my sophomore year. It became unsustainable for me, when life’s rhythm made it impossible for me to be with
others at all times.
I found myself sitting alone in dining halls, in my dorm, in crowds at parties. It hurt at first. Every second spent in solitude felt like a thousand paper cuts to the soul. But eventually, like a healing papercut, the sting of solitude faded.
It wasn’t by choice, but I finally learned how to be alone simply because the people I used to rely on moved on from me, busier than before with classes and other obligations. My body, forced to slow down once it was left alone, finally came out of its productivity trance. It seems silly to think that one would have to learn how to be alone; I can’t pinpoint exactly when or how the shift happened, but I learned to love myself as my own best company, as a person inhabiting a body that was worthy of rest.
She picks out an outfit at night for me to put on the next morning. She washes her hair for me because she knows I feel the best with freshly washed curls. She makes sure to do her nails every two weeks because she knows long acrylics have become an essential part of me. She calls her parents everyday to make sure I stay grounded. She advocates for what she wants to read, learn, and experience for her younger self who was denied those opportunities. She knows what to say to me when no one else does. She cares for me better than anyone else in my life. She does so much for me, even when I don’t recognize it. I never thought I would learn to love her like I do now, but I am so glad that she and I are finally getting along. It has made being alone easier.
Beyond that though, the more important lesson that I am still learning is that rest is a revolutionary act and one that I should not feel guilty for. In the words of Audre Lorde, “caring for myself is not selfindulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.”
This is especially true for people who occupy bodies like mine, that of an Afro-Latina. My grandmother’s body, my mother’s body,
and my body were never meant to be able to afford the luxury of rest in a capitalist society that constantly pushes the narrative of the American Dream being tied to the grind. By taking time for myself and encouraging my community to rest, I am actively pushing back against these harmful narratives we’ve been fed as immigrants and children of immigrants. The ways that we—as people of color, as immigrants, as part of the working class—perceive productivity as more important than selfpreservation are remnants of settler colonialism and capitalism ingrained within us. It is only by sitting in solitude and caring for my body that I can begin to chip away at this part of our collective consciousness.
As people who are actively working to restructure a world that seeks to marginalize us, our constant need for stimuli and our collective exhaustion is counter-productive to our organizing. How are we to tend to the needs of our community if we do not tend to our own needs first? I’ve been reframing my own solitude as fulfilling rather than isolating, as an opportunity for recharging rather than a reflection of laziness, and as a chance to slow down and reconnect with the life around me rather than as a severance from the rest of the world. It’s easier said than done, but it is necessary for sustaining myself so that I may care for the
needs of those around me. So yes, my rest is political, and yours should be, too.
Tufts, It’s Time Boycott from israeli Apartheid
What’s Happening in Palestine?
Over the past month, we have witnessed israel violently bomb hospitals, refugee camps, churches, and schools that are sheltering tens of thousands of Gazans. israel is cutting off electricity, fuel, and internet service, intentionally starving Gazans and forcing media blackouts. As we write this article, over 600 Palestinian families have been wiped from the civil registry—this means that every single family member from every generation was murdered by israel. Between October 7 and November 11, over 11,000 Gazans were slaughtered, over 4,000 of whom are children, not counting the thousands of Gazans still trapped under rubble. israel has forcefully expelled over 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza from their homes—more than half the entire population. In the West Bank, the israeli government has forcefully displaced over 900 Palestinians and is also arming settlers to commit violence against Palestinians. There is only one word to describe this dehumanization and targeted murder of
of the prisoners are being held without trial. By the time this piece is published, thousands more Palestinians will be murdered and displaced.
What is BDS?
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, calls for an international, targeted boycott of goods, services, and initiatives that provide economic, social and political support to apartheid israel. BDS seeks to make it economically and politically unviable for israel to continue its violent occupation and colonization of Palestinian land by compelling governments, institutions, and corporations to withdraw their support from israel. This can be practiced on an individual level as a consumer by boycotting goods and companies that are complicit in israeli colonization, on an institutional level by demanding that institutions divest their holdings in corporations that fund and aid israeli apartheid, and on a governmental level by advocating for states to impose sanctions on israel for its actions.
checkpoints and for facial recognition to surveil and uphold systems of apartheid. Travel companies like AirBnB and Expedia support israel’s tourism industry and profit off the displacement of Palestinians. These companies do not just support israeli occupation rhetorically. Their operation and existence actively displace and perpetuate violence against Palestinians every day.
Targeted boycotts are most effective, as they display a unified front against the companies that are most complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. BDS also urges people to be involved in long-term campaigns for divestment from holdings that support israel’s genocidal regime.
BDS additionally encourages “grassroots” boycotts that have emerged against corporations like McDonald’s and Burger King, which have provided support to the israeli occupation forces since October 7. In short, it is encouraged to boycott all complicit entities, but collectively, we should focus on boycotting those companies strategically chosen by the BDS movement.
Let us be clear: this genocide did not begin in the days following October 7. The zionist colonial project began over 75 years ago, even before the 1948 Nakba—which means “the catastrophe”—when zionist militias ethnically cleansed over 750,000 Palestinians from their homelands. The Nakba has continued since 1948 as israel has depopulated villages, imprisoned Palestinians, and enforced a system of apartheid through segregated conditions, separation walls, and checkpoints. israel has forcefully removed indigenous Palestinians to establish a settler colonial state on stolen Palestinian land. These conditions have led organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to deem israel an apartheid state and an occupying power. Due to israel’s violent repression of journalists in Palestine and the imperial interests of dominant western controlled media outlets, the numbers we are seeing do not capture the extent of this devastation. In addition to indiscriminately targeting journalists, israel has doubled its number of Palestinian political prisoners since October 7. Right now, over 10,000 political hostages are being held by israel. Over 2,000
The Palestinian call to BDS is modeled after international boycotts of goods and campaigns for divestment and sanctions that were used in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Historically, collective boycotts of goods and divestment campaigns mark shifts in public opinion and make it unprofitable for states and companies to keep funding violent oppression.
How to Boycott
The Palestinian BDS National Committee supports all boycotts of complicit entities but urges people to focus on companies that most directly support israel. As of November 5, the BDS National Committee has called on the international community to boycott a specific list of targets. This list includes companies like Sabra, Pillsbury, Puma, Sodastream, AirBnB, Ahava, and HP as “consumer targets” on an individual level. It also includes institutional boycotts of Elbit, Hyundai, CAT (Caterpillar), Google and Amazon, AirBnb, Expedia, and RE/ Max. Elbit Systems is an israeli weapons manufacturer with an office in Cambridge, MA that builds the bombs and munitions being used to bomb Gaza right now. HP and Amazon’s technologies are used at
In 2022, Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine launched our own BDS campaign, specific to this campus. Our boycott list includes Pillsbury and Sabra products sold at campus dining locations; clubs that materially or politically support israel, like Friends of israel, J Street U, and the TAMID Group; and university-endorsed programs such as studying abroad in israel and Birthright trips.
Groups and Initiatives to Boycott at Tufts
FOI, a self-described “pro-Israel advocacy community,” has shown unequivocal support for israel’s terror against Palestinians. In response to israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza following October 7, FOI asserted they “will continue to support Israel’s justified response against Hamas.” More disturbingly, they also wrote, “We similarly recognize the pain and suffering this will cause innocent Palestinian citizens.” FOI both justifies and defends israel’s genocidal collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza, which is a war crime under international humanitarian law.
J Street, a political organization that presents itself as an alternative to more overtly zionist groups, claims to be “pro-peace,”
yet they ultimately have not demonstrated support for Palestinian freedom. As of November 13, J Street U at Tufts has not yet publicly called for the bare minimum of a ceasefire. Last year, J Street U Tufts cosponsored an event featuring Sarah Mandel, an israeli settler living in the occupied West Bank, whose presence on the land is illegal, according to international law. This event contributed to the legitimization of illegal settlement on stolen Palestinian land and the normalization of the ongoing occupation of Palestine. The actions of J Street U Tufts and their silence on Palestine this past month make it clear that they are not dedicated to ending the occupation.
TAMID, a financial consulting group that claims to be “apolitical,” materially contributes to israel’s economic growth by consulting and interning for israeli companies. Furthermore, the organization contradicts its own claim of being “apolitical” with its engagement in “Israel-related advocacy and contributions.”
Finally, Birthright trips, which are supported by the university, give Jewish young adults around the world the opportunity to take a free trip to israel while exiled Palestinians in diaspora are forbidden from returning to their homeland. These propaganda trips paint israel as a safe-haven for Jewish people globally, hiding the daily violence israel commits against Palestinians. They serve to encourage Jewish young adults to settle in israel and justify israel’s expansion.
The powerful pro-israel lobby and western media have spent decades normalizing israel’s crimes and manufacturing broad support for the apartheid state among the American public. Similarly, all of these programs, clubs, and initiatives provide the ideological, political, and economic support that is necessary for israel to expand its colonial project. We call on Tufts community members who stand with Palestinians to join the BDS call and boycott these products, clubs, and initiatives on our campus.
Tufts’ Complicity and Years of Student Activism
Tufts has yet to disclose its investments, but we know a few things about the university. Tufts still sells products like Sabra and Pillbsury at dining locations, provides
university support to initiatives like TAMID and Birthright israel, approves school credit for study abroad in israel, and uses HP printers and ink products. Tufts has hosted weapons manufacturers like Raytheon, General Dynamics, and more at career fairs.
Tufts has a long history of ignoring student activist demands with regards to Palestine, even when pursued through official channels. For example, Tufts refused to honor the overwhelming 2020 vote by the student body to end Tufts’ participation in the Deadly Exchange, a police exchange where u.s. police officers go to israel to exchange “worst practices” with the israeli military on how to use violent tactics against oppressed people. Tufts also refused to apologize for sending former TUPD chief Kevin Maguire on one of these trips or to ban these exchange trips altogether.
Additionally, in 2017, Tufts SJP successfully passed a resolution through the Tufts Community Union Senate that encouraged Tufts to divest from G4S, Elbit Systems, Northrop Grumman, and HP, all of which are involved in the direct arming, funding, and aiding of genocide in Palestine. Although students overwhelmingly supported the divestment effort, the Board of Trustees repeatedly refused to meet with SJP to even discuss divestment. This refusal indicates the presence of shady investments that likely include weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and more. Tufts’ lack of transparency implies they do have something to hide regarding the funding of genocide—if they didn’t, they would have no reason not to disclose their investments.
Call to Action: Demanding Divestment
The fight for Palestinian liberation did not start on October 7, and it does not stop after attending one rally. To practice daily support for Palestinian liberation, we must practice BDS on all levels. As students in the u.s., our tax dollars directly fund israel’s atrocities in the billions. The u.s. continues to use its veto power within the United Nations to shut down internationally-supported resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza, and the u.s. House of Representatives voted on November 2 to send $14 billion in extra aid to israel, with zero dollars going to humanitarian aid in Gaza. Instead of going toward
housing, healthcare, or education, our tax dollars are funding genocide.
Through our tuition, tax dollars, and consumption, we are directly and indirectly financing the white phosphorus, bombs, and missiles that israel uses to kill Palestinians. Each of us has a responsibility to unequivocally stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation. As beneficiaries living in “the belly of the beast,” we have an obligation to follow Palestinian leadership. By engaging in their call for BDS, we can partially counter this complicity by pressuring corporations and institutions to end their involvement in the occupation. Boycotts have always been most powerful when we act together. The struggle for Palestinian liberation is one with the struggle against capitalism, settler-colonialism, anti-Blackness, racism, patriarchy, and all other forms of oppression.
In 1989, Tufts finally divested its holdings from companies that were still doing business in apartheid South Africa, claiming it to be “a symbolic act in many ways” but “an important statement about what we believe about equality.” This statement and the decision to divest were only made possible by 12 years of strong student activism that the university—and the world—could no longer ignore. This included sit-ins, camp outs, and more. The struggle for divestment is a long-term process, and each one of us must continue to sustain pressure on the university as students and future alumni.
Across the world, millions of people have taken to the streets in support of Palestinian liberation. Activists have shown up in Oakland and Portland to physically block arms shipments from the u.s. to israel. In Spain, port workers have pledged to not allow weapon shipments to israel to leave. At Tufts, hundreds of students have repeatedly shown up to rallies and walked out of class to demand action, even shutting down the campus center for 10 hours. This is a beautiful moment of international solidarity. Palestinian survival and resistance on the ground must inspire us to do everything we can here to support their struggle.
The urgency of this moment demands immediate action. On an individual level, refuse to let your money go to companies that support this genocide. On a collective and community level, labor unions and oth-
er organizations can pass BDS resolutions to affirm their commitment to Palestinian liberation. On a university level, continue to pressure Tufts to divest. On a national level, call your representatives to demand an immediate ceasefire, and an end to blockade, occupation, and apartheid. Our individual actions are not enough if they are not met with institutional and governmental action. We call on all Tufts students and faculty to pressure the university to immediately divest by signing our divestment petition. It is our moral responsibility to practice BDS until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.
The Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine divestment petition can be found on Instagram @SJPTufts.
Note:
The decision to lowercase “u.s.” and “israel” is meant to encourage the reader to consider the colonial conditions through which the settler states of israel and the u.s. were founded and frame such processes as illegitimate.
Home is Where the 7 Train Sings
By Sophie Fishman
Ilike to remember my grandmother in Queens. Even though I spent most of my precious August afternoons the summer before sixth grade wrapping up her porcelain dishes in layers of brown butcher paper, even though I rode in the back of the Manhattan-bound U-haul alongside all her furniture, clinging on tight to my brother’s arm each time we hit a pothole, and even though I was the one to help her thread her shiny new key onto her blue plastic keychain, what I remember most about her is her accented voice behind the shaking rhythm of the seven train above.
On the weekends of my childhood, my parents dropped my brother and me off at my grandma’s house in Flushing, Queens, for slow walks through Corona Park and bowls of vegetarian split pea soup around the oval mahogany table in the center of her living room. On nights like those, I found my mind drifting to her choice of wallpaper, which peeled at the molding. The light that managed to fight its way through the layers of dust and rayon that made up her curtains was swallowed by the dark brown hue of her walls. The tan floral overlay on top bore no resemblance to the salmon hydrangeas that patterned her sunken cream sofa and matching recliner. The velvet leaf accents, which made up the top layer, shed fuzz that found a home between the fibers of her green shag carpet. Nothing in her house matched, and nothing made sense.
Even though the same family photos lined the walls, the same crystal ju-
daica laid dusty on her wooden bureau shelves, the same long black linen skirts hung neatly folded over hangers in her closet, and the same mismatched furniture made it over the Queensboro Bridge—her collection of things never looked quite right against the white walls of her new Manhattan home. Although she was able to physically replicate her Flushing home in Manhattan, I could not figure out why her new house never seemed to embody her spirit.
Six years after her move, starting in January of last year, I worked at the Paul Revere House in Boston’s North End as a museum interpreter. While I was in this position, I answered three main questions from visitors about the structure of the home.
When was this house built, and who built it?
It was built in 1680 for a wealthy Puritan merchant. If you look up, you might be able to make out some of the builders’ marks from the original construction. When the Reveres moved in in 1770, they built an extension onto the house, including the kitchen you entered through.
What type of wood did they use to build it?
It would have been a mixture of oak and pine. The pine probably would have come from the Virginia colony, and the oak would have been brought over from Europe.
I heard he had 16 kids. How could they have fit in this house?
Of his 16 children, only 11 survived into adulthood. They were also born over a fairly long period of time, so we estimate that only five to nine children would be living in this home at one time. That being said, several of Paul Revere’s 51 grandchildren did live here at various points. But, we think anywhere from three to five children would share any given bed.
Aside from these three questions and the nervous giggles that accompanied the loud creaks of footsteps upstairs, visitors were largely uninterested
in the house outside of Revere. Located on Boston’s Freedom Trail, American flag-clad tourists and talkative amateur history buffs liked to get their money’s worth hearing about the heroics of the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere. Although I spent hundreds of hours standing in, talking about, and pointing at the Paul Revere House, I was not able to pinpoint why his home, specifically, was such a resonant site of his memor y and legacy.
In one of my final weeks at the Revere House, a visitor asked me a question that I had been asked hundreds of times before—who built this house? I started to give my typical response, describing the original owner of the house, a wealthy slave-owning British shipping merchant named Robert Howard before I was interrupted. Well, he didn’t build it himself, did he? I thought back to the binders full of information that I read over the course of my training, and after a long pause, I admitted to the visitor with an embarrassed laugh that I didn’t know. I knew the name and address of the wallpaper manufacturer, the shapes of pegs that held the floorboards together, and the chemical composition of the stained glass windows, but I did not know the identity of the hands that created the home.
After some independent research, I found that an English architect named John Jeffs likely built the home after the Boston fire of 1676. What struck me more in my investigation, however, was what happened after the Reveres left. In 1800, Paul Revere sold the home, and it was converted into a boarding house. Hundreds of sailors would have called this place their home—whether for a night, a week, or months. Later into the 19th century, while the top floor was still used for housing, the bottom became a cigar store run by Italian immigrants until its purchase by a Revere descendant in 1902. The Revere House, as a structure, houses the memories and legacies of thousands of people and
is in line with the North End’s tradition of housing working class and immigrant communities. While the names of many of its inhabitants have been lost to time, their legacies have shaped our collective memory, conscious or not, of the symbolism of this site and its place in the narrative of American history.
Those who are close to me know that I would do anything for an anecdote, and this job came as part of a larger pattern of holding odd gigs in recent years, like optical shop employee or podcast-making intern. Often when I tell friends, family, and acquaintances about my seven months at the Paul Revere house (which I affectionately call Paul’s House), I do it with a laugh—at least I didn’t have to wear a corset! While experiences like sanding down the sharp edges of 74 pieces of sheet copper so a group of fifth graders could safely make engravings like Paul Revere did at his copper rolling mill makes for great party small-talk, my time at the Paul Revere House opened my eyes to how the stories we tell are inseparable from the spaces we inhabit. We live in connection and in constant communication with the legacies of those who occupied our spaces before us.
for herself. Her spirit cannot be removed from the place where she developed her community, fell in love, and had her children and eventual grandchildren. Her legacy is intertwined with Queens, and so long as the Flushing Express stays running, she lives on with me. O
So what can Paul Revere tell me about my grandmother?
It was always my grandmother’s dream to live in an apartment with a view of Central Park. While her new apartment in Manhattan overlooked a liquor store and a highway, it only took her 15 minutes to walk to the Harlem Meer at the northern end of Central Park, where she liked to feed the ducks slices of rye bread from her purse. On one of our walks to the park, she turned to me and said I didn’t realize how nice Corona Park was until I moved here. Even though she lived and breathed in her Manhattan apartment and died in it three years later, and even though her friends and family mourned her there, her memory doesn’t reside there. It is impossible to separate my grandmother’s memory from the place she, as an immigrant, worked tirelessly to create a life
The ADL is Complicit in Racism and Police Repression. But Better Alternatives Exist.
By Anonymous Students
On October 25, the Anti-Defamation League sent out an open letter to colleges urging them to investigate all university campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. This statement came alongside an international crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. In October, the faces and names of pro-Palestinian Harvard students were displayed on mobile billboards titled “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.” In France, the government issued a national ban on all pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and in Germany, protestors were met with water cannons and pepper spray at pro-Palestinian rallies.
Founded in 1913 after the wrongful conviction and later lynching of Jewish-American Leo Frank, the ADL is a prominent nongovernmental organization that seeks to combat antisemitism and extremism. On their website, the group’s stated mission is “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” However, the ADL has fallen short on the second half of their mission. In fact, both at Tufts and around the world, the ADL supports apartheid, promotes repression, and is complicit in genocide—all of which are contradictory to securing “justice
and fair treatment to all.” Considering the ADL has leveled allegations against activist groups—such as accusing student groups of supporting terrorism—as well as the ADL’s history of anti-human rights behavior, it’s time to reconsider support for this organiza tion and explore alternatives that prioritize both the fight against antisemitism and human rights for all.
The ADL’s October 25 open letter has contributed to the aforementioned sup pression of pro-Palestinian groups. Among other accusations—many without evi dence—the organization claimed that SJP chapters “are providing material support to Hamas.” This rhetoric is dangerous and absurd. Since Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the US govern ment, providing the organization with material support is a felony. Thankfully, human rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have already begun to reject the ADL’s calls for campus investigations.
Conflating support for Palestine with support for Hamas’ terrorism is dangerous rhetoric that incites racism against Palestin ians and other Arabs in the United States. The New York Times has reported that hate
crimes against both Jews and Arabs have risen substantially since October 7, 2023. In Illinois, a landlord murdered a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy by stabbing
times. Investigators concluded that the murderer attacked the boy and his mother due to his suspicion of their Muslim faith. By unjustly associating Arabs and Muslims with terrorism, the ADL worsens this already violent climate.
While the organization does work to combat antisemitism, it also actively suppresses the voices of other marginalized groups and progressive movements, notably the Free Palestine movement. Nationally, the ADL has funded programs allowing American police officers to travel to Israel to train. When they return, these police forces bring with them repressive policing tactics—modeled after the Israeli military—that harm individuals and communities. Many residents of America’s most overpoliced neighborhoods describe the police as an occupying army. American police forces also enforce the denigration and maltreatment of people of color. The parallels with Israel are obvious. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and besieged the Gaza Strip since 2005, treating non-Israelis as second-class citizens across all of occupied Palestine.
The effects of the ADL’s dangerous rhetoric are felt locally as well. At Tufts, the ADL has participated in the Tisch Summer Fellowship in the past, where students have interned with the group. Considering that the ADL has dangerously charged student groups with providing material support for terrorism, this partnership should not exist in the future. Students who continue to support and engage with the ADL also enable this libel against their peers. Additionally, until several years ago, the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) participated in Israeli police training. This arrangement, aptly nick-
named the Deadly Exchange Program, saw the former chief of TUPD travel to Israel to participate in “counterterrorism seminars.” Despite Israel’s horrific human rights abuses, including the crime of apartheid, the ADL funded the trip for TUPD officers.
This example is merely one of many, as the ADL has a long history of repressing progressive movements. During the McCarthyism era of the 1940s and 1950s, the ADL fed information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about alleged communists. In the 1990s, the ADL spied on the United Farm Workers and anti-racist activists. At one point, one of their spies was even caught selling sensitive information to Apartheid South Africa, a government the ADL viciously defended. Nowadays, the ADL has encouraged blanket surveillance of Muslim communities and, in one of their most morally repugnant acts, urged media outlets to legitimize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
encourage intervention in antisemitic incidents. Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, founded in 2012, advocates for the elimination of injustice and inequality. On their website, the organization emphasizes commitment to various social issues, one notably being “fighting antisemitism.”
Despite targeting progressive movements, much of the public opposition to the ADL comes from the far-right. In September, fascists and Neo-Nazis began pushing the hashtag #BanTheADL on X (formerly known as Twitter). This movement was founded by Keith Woods, a vitriolic antisemite with connections to Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. Soon, it was picked up by Neo-Nazis such as Nick Fuentes and by X owner Elon Musk. Unfortunately, this opposition to the ADL is not based on any egalitarian principles or a moral revulsion at the ADL’s complicity in genocide, but because the ADL is Jewish-led and the ADL does research into far-right groups. It is important to note that opposition to the ADL does not mean allyship with fascists or far-right extremism.
It is also critical to state that ending support for the ADL does not mean ending the fight against antisemitism. Antisemitism is rising at an alarming rate, and it is essential to support groups that work against this evil. Fortunately, the ADL is not the only organization that claims to do this, and many have a much less questionable history.
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, founded in 1990, is committed to fighting antisemitism, racism, and economic exploitation. The organization has recently confronted New York City’s rising antisemitism head-on by leading community initiatives to
The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in 1971, focuses on monitoring and suing hate groups. Much of their work has been towards combating antisemitism, especially among the white supremacist groups in the United States. In 2017, the organization successfully sued neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin for using his website, The Daily Stormer, to launch a campaign of antisemitic harassment. The ACLU, founded in 1920, defends the rights of everyone in the United States. Naturally, this includes defending the rights of Jewish-Americans. These four organizations are among many that fight antisemitism without endangering the livelihoods of other marginalized people.
Lastly, two of this article’s anonymous authors are Jewish. We know how important it is to combat this rise and protect our communities. However, the ADL is not the solution to this crisis; combating antisemitism should go hand in hand with protecting other marginalized communities, which is a task the ADL has failed to do.
It is important to recognize the ADL’s direct involvement in suppressive police tactics, its targeting of other human rights organizations, its support of Apartheid South Africa, and other aspects of its troublesome history. Now, in 2023, the ADL has continued this pattern by demonizing human rights activists and accusing them of supporting terrorism without actual evidence.
There are other organizations that are committed to ending antisemitism that do not share the ADL’s track record. It is time to redirect support for the ADL to them. As students at a university that takes pride in its supposed commitment to active citizenship, it is crucial to advocate for the human rights of all people. Reconsidering support of the ADL is a small but important step towards ensuring justice for all.
TUFTS TAKES THE POLE
Introducing
the Tufts Pole Dance Collective
By Juanita Asapokhai
Sturdy, eye-catching, and impressively versatile in its uses, poles have been utilized across cultures to intrigue rapt audiences and demonstrate feats of strength and agility. During the Song Dynasty of ancient China, male Chinese pole athletes performed acrobatic routines on tall rubber structures, suspending their bodies in the air while holding elaborate positions. From India comes Mallakhamb, or literally “wrestler pole,” a training technique involving gymnastics and a pole to build dexterity and strength for wrestling competitions.
The alluring, languid dance performed on a pole that is immediately invoked when one thinks of “pole dance” did not, however, emerge in the United States until the 20th century. When the Prohibition Era criminalized the sale and consumption of alcohol, racier bar attractions, like burlesque dance and stripteases, found secret audiences in speakeasies. Today, a showcase of strength, agility, dancing technique, and artistic sensuality converge in modern pole, a dance form and sport that commands both its erotic history and athletic character. At Tufts, the Tufts Pole Dance Collective has been fostering a space for students to explore pole dance in all its forms, inviting students to learn and develop their skill. For the PDC, pole is the medium, and body liberation is the resounding message.
The PDC was formed in Fall 2022 by juniors Gabby Fischberg and Alice Zhou, who fell in love with pole dance after taking classes at Fly Together Fitness, a pole dance studio in Somerville. “We did [classes] all through freshman year, and then sophomore year, we were like—we should start a club. Maybe we can get funding from Tufts, maybe we can get more people interested,” Fischberg said. “It’s sort of grown from there.”
Now, a year later, the club partners with Fly Together Fitness to host Tufts students and provide them with introductory pole lessons at a discounted price at the local studio. On campus, Fischberg, Zhou, and other PDC e-board members lead classes that do not require a pole. These include low-flow, characterized by sensual movements at the base of a pole, and heels classes, where pole dancers elevate their performance with high-heeled shoes. These two classes belong to a larger subset of three major styles of pole dance: exotic pole, artistic pole, and pole fitness. Exotic pole is distinguished by its emphasis on sensual movement and “a lot of stripper influences,” according to Fischberg, while artistic pole is marked by lyrical movements similar to contemporary dance. “Then there’s pole fitness, which emphasizes the strength part of pole. It’s lots of calisthenics, like human flagpole type stuff,” Fischberg said.
Alongside celebrating the diversity of pole and the various paths dancers can take within the form, many pole dancers make it a priority to recognize the origins of pole in sex work—and the stigmatization it has received from people outside and within the pole community as a result. Modern pole dance is a part of the lineage of sensual dance that started with “Hoochie Coochie” performances, famously showcased at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a celebration of 400 years of American history. In these Hoochie Coochie shows, which originated as carnival attractions before being incorporated into bar entertainment rosters, dancers performed sensual movements, incorporating belly dancing and gyration, in traveling acts across America. The erotic elements of vaudeville shows—which incorporated burlesque performance, comedy, song, and dance—also laid the groundwork for pole dance following the
Prohibition Era. Partly as a safety measure to provide dancers with stability as they performed stripteases and other erotic dance in speakeasies, the pole became a staple of Prohibition Era bars and set the momentum for the birth of strip clubs in the 1950s.
By the 1980s and 1990s, pole dance became a fixture in strip clubs around the world and simultaneously began a transition from its origins in sex work into the mainstream. Canadian dancer Fawnia Mondey brought pole out of the strip club when she began hosting instructive classes in the late 1990s. Soon after, the popularity of pole exploded and expanded into the fitness world. Several pole fitness studios, including one led by Mondey herself, opened in Canada and the United States. In 2009, the International Pole Sports Federation was founded, and began working towards the first World Pole Sports Championship, which eventually took place in 2012.
As a dynamic dance form, nightlife crowd pleaser, and budding sports community, pole has installed itself in North American culture. The popularity of pole fitness, however, also reflects a desire to purge pole of its background in erotic dance. In an article for Glorious Sports, writer Kate Baskerville discusses the tendency within and outside of the pole community to avoid the erotic origins of pole in speakeasies and strip clubs.
Instead, some favor focusing on the ancient roots of athletic pole to deflect from the sex negativity that stigmatizes it, reflecting a broader outlook that views sex and sexuality as “inherently seedy or shameful.”
“A lot of modern polers will cite [athletic] influences to sort of distance themselves from the sex work industry and from strippers,” Fischberg said. For members of the PDC, it’s important to not only name this historic connection and the cur-
rent stigma, but actively work against it in class sessions.
“We shouldn’t be ignorant of the fact that sex workers and strippers paved the way for pole to become a sport and [exist] where it is right now,” said junior Hibi Carrillo, e-board member and graphic designer for the PDC. The group is currently planning a workshop discussing pole history, bias, and stigma.
In fact, the attempts to shirk pole’s legacy in sensual performance erase some of the essential elements that draw people to pole dance. “I think that’s what makes pole so unique, in the sense of… people want[ing] to explore that area of their bodies,” Carrillo said. The PDC is a “positive sex work environment” and a “positive sexual liberation environment,” Carrillo said.
As the history and culture surrounding pole has progressed, it’s become “less for the male gaze, but more so for women and everyone—it became for all ages, all genders, more inclusive of everyone,” Carrillo explained. In fact, the International Pole Sports Federation has included a youth category in the global competition since 2013. The dance form/sport also provides an efficient way to intertwine both creative expression and exercise. “It’s a great combination of strength and dance, and flexibility, body weight, strength,” Fischberg said. “I didn’t realize there [was] a perfect way to combine it all.”
For students picking up pole through the PDC, the community that exists within the club makes the experience feel safer and more conducive to learning. “We take the Green Line together to Magoun Square, where the instructor will greet us [at Fly Together Fitness],” said senior Saffiyah Coker, who started pole classes while abroad in London and continued when she returned to Medford.
“We’re all doing warm-ups together, and then it’s about two people per pole… It’s just a really nice environment because people are clapping for each other, cheer-
ing each other on being like, ‘hey, I actually don’t know how to do this, how did you do this?” Coker said. “It’s really nice and inclusive.” The PDC’s attendees include students across class years, ethnic backgrounds, and gender identities, a diversity that is reflected by the e-board and contributes to the inclusivity of the space. Fischberg says queer people are well-represented in the club’s membership, as well as “people interested in body liberation.”
“I think maybe people feel more comfortable coming because they see an e-board, or just a group, that reflects [that you] don’t have to look one way to do this, as opposed to other spaces,” Coker said.
Part of the appeal of pole for students involved in the PDC is the pleasure of acquiring a new esoteric skill. Popularized in media like P-Valley, an NAACP Image Award-winning play-turned-TV show that narrates the lives of strippers in a club in Mississippi, #striptok, and famous X threads alike, pole dance is increasingly valorized for its technical features and expression of creativity and sexual/body liberation. “It’s so beautiful and mesmerizing, I think, as an art form, and I think it’s empowering in a very particular way,” Fischberg said. “You get taught a couple spins, and [you’re] like, wow, I’m literally pole dancing right now. It’s such a good feeling to be able to use your body in a way that’s very practical. There are very tangible results.”
At the same time, many dancers have come forward to draw attention to the fact that the glamorization of stripper culture—including pole dance—on social media does not always address the cultures of sexual harassment or racialized and violent aspects of sex work and pole. For many, it is a privilege to participate in pole as a workout for fun rather than as a means of survival.
The PDC is committed to creating a safe space for students doing pole. “We work to make pole more accessible for everyone no matter your gender, sexual ori-
entation, race,” Carrillo said. “We want to be inclusive of everyone [and] push pole as more of a sport and for body liberation.”
Coker echoed these sentiments. “I feel like the Tufts Pole [Dance] Collective brings something different [to campus]. I really appreciate the fact that they’re making pole more accessible by slightly reducing the cost and lowering those barriers to entry and framing it as this really awesome workout that you can do that [simultaneously] builds confidence.”
Making pole financially accessible for Tufts students is a central goal of the PDC, which includes getting funding for poles on campus. After establishing a full e-board for the Fall 2023 semester, the club is currently embarking on the process of getting TCU recognition that will put them on the path to this goal. After having met informally for a couple of semesters, interest in the club is at an all-time high. “At the club fair, we got over 100 signups, which was really cool because we’re not even a recognized club,” Fischberg said. In the meantime, interested students can continue to expand their skill set on campus through attending open-calls and polerelated classes led by PDC e-board and other Tufts community members, like ankle flexibility class led by sophomore Drew Nelson.“I look forward to attending other people’s pop-up workshops,” Coker said.
With a boba sale set to take place in mid-November to raise funds for the continued discounting and potentially full coverage of pole classes held at Fly Together Fitness, the future of pole dance at Tufts University is bright.
“One of my favorite things about pole club is… the community we’re building and people getting to know each other through pole, and I’m getting to know new people through Pole,” said Fischberg. “Building this whole community has been awesome. It’s really fulfilling and satisfying to be able to see this grow into something.”
ByBasilHand IT’SNOTEASYBEING GREEN(LINE) “S
creech. Halt. Pause.” Over the intercom, a dreaded announcement comes on stating the train has stopped temporarily and will resume shortly. This experience was common over the summer of 2023, a period of many fixes and adjustments for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), colloquially known as the T, meant to improve the transit system. With frequent rail closings, substitute shuttles, and slow zones increasing travel time by up to 30 percent, unfavorable public opinion and bad press continue to haunt the transit system. The last few weeks have added even more fuel to the fire of the MBTA as a whole: the new extension, not even a year old, has recently shown a major infrastructural issue, with the rails being installed too closely together. As a result, 80 percent of the rails along the Medford/ Tufts part of the Green Line Extension (GLX) need to be replaced. Along with this news comes the revelation that MBTA officials had knowledge of the misplaced rails as early as April 2021.
The proposed solution for this error is 10-14 days of work from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the rails and shuttle buses as a substitute. General Manager of the MBTA Phillip Eng says the process should be quick. “It’s not months, it’s not years to address this,” Eng said to the MBTA Advisory board in October of 2023.
This is not the only issue that the MBTA has dealt with in the past few years. In fact, it seems that no rail is safe from decline. Specifically, riders on the Red Line have been dealing with a plethora of slow zones, which are zones of track where the subway
cannot exceed 10 miles per hour. Both the Red and Green Lines have the most slow zones in place right now, with some slow zones along the Green Line limiting speed to three miles an hour. Due to these slow zones, the average speed of the Red Line is 40 percent reduced, running 13 miles per hour as opposed to 18 miles per hour, and a total of 43 minutes are added to the commute time of the entire system.
The Red Line subway stations themselves have also been facing disrepair, including falling ceiling tiles and two fires underneath the subway cars. That’s just this year: in 2022, the Orange Line caught on fire on tracks over the Mystic River, putting 200 passengers at risk and even causing one person to jump into the water for safety. These hazards are more than just time delays—these are matters of passenger safety. While these instances did not ultimately result in harm to any passenger, there have been malfunctions that have. In April 2022, a man was killed by the Red Line, and in May 2023, a man fell under a Green Line trolley and was fatally injured at the North Station stop. The GLX also took a year longer to open than projected. The opening of the Medford Branch was projected to be in December 2021, but supply chain and labor shortages delayed the opening year. Despite the time delay, the issue of the tracks being improperly spaced was not disclosed to the public nor was it addressed in construction.
Although public perception of the T has improved over time, many riders remain critical of the system, with 24 percent of respondents rating the T’s quality as “poor” as of October 2023, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll. These ratings reflect the significant impacts of the T’s issues on Tufts students
and the greater Medford/Somerville community. Riders rely on transit to get on and off campus and commute to work or internships, “I would take the Green Line to work every Sunday, but it was always extremely slow... I would be late to work multiple times and therefore got paid less,” said sophomore Lorin Sleet. A trip into the city from Medford could take anywhere from 24 to 40 minutes, while it’s a 20 minute drive by car. This variance in travel time depends on a few factors: the time it takes for trains to arrive—7-18 minutes depending on what time of day you take the T; the presence of slow zones depending on which branch you take into the city; and how long your train lingers in a station.
With the unreliability of the T, riders are now having to choose between driving their own car or rideshare against public transit. Time considerations aside, there also is not a guarantee that your station will be open. Recent issues with pantographs along the Green Line have led to sudden midday closures of lines. Unlike other station closures that are announced with weeks’ notice, these pantographrelated closures are often announced on X before any news coverage. So even if riders do decide to take the T, they may unexpectedly end up having to walk to a different station, adding additional time to their commute.
Riders of the T are not the only ones taking issue with it, as higherups have weighed in on the state of the transit system. During a safety inspection, the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) issued a special directive that required new tracking and training. There’s additional pressure on the MBTA beyond the local level. One month ago, the FTA issued a new set of safety requirements for the T to adopt. This set of requirements is meant to help ensure worker safety, as between April 2023 and September 2023, four MBTA workers were involved in near misses, meaning a train barely missed hitting and injuring them. This is not the first call to
order from the FTA; since their first survey of the T last year, the FTA has required that the MBTA implement safety improvements, or else risk having funding pulled from the T system. According to their first report, there are “several areas where [the] MBTA is not meeting its own written requirements.” As a major source of funding of the MBTA, FTA’s requests take “leading priority,” said Eng, meaning that the MBTA has to focus on fixing problems that the riders don’t directly see such as worker safety requirements.
With all this work ahead, the MBTA needs money, and the ridership isn’t making enough profit to fund the light rail system. The MBTA just received a budget of $2.7 billion for 2024, but with the asterisk that this amount might not be enough to fix all the issues the T has. Some of this financial woe comes from the postpandemic rider numbers and the lower-than-expected fare revenue. The MBTA has yet to see its pre-pandemic levels of riders matched. The number has been slowly rising, but this year, the growth declined, potentially due to speed restrictions. Currently, the ridership is increasing once again, potentially due to the gradual but noticeable removal of slow zones along all of the transit lines, but this increase is not seen equally throughout the lines, as the Red and Orange Lines are still below 50 percent of their pre-pandemic ridership.
Despite these obstacles, it does seem as if the new faces in state government are recognizing and working towards fixing the T’s problems. Governor Maura Healy recently increased the salary of T workers in hopes of attracting more workers to join the Massachusetts transportation system and stay with it. According to the Boston Globe, there has been a 13 percent attrition rate for employees over the past year, partially due to the nature of the “very stressful career,” according to Eng. He appears to be prioritizing the Green Line’s most pressing issue and has fired two head managers of
the GLX extension for not informing others about the rail misplacement. In regard to other issues, he has stressed the importance of transparency on behalf of the Transit Authority and his belief in the power of the MBTA. Eng has set his sights high for the future, saying that “moving forward, we will be innovative, open to new ideas” with entertaining a Red/Blue Line connection. Riders hope that future sight doesn’t blindsight where the MBTA currently is.
When considering the T, the phrase two steps forward, one step back comes to mind. The transit system is currently in the midst of a step backward, but with the increased funding and Eng’s optimism, it seems that a step forward is not too far away for riders. In fact, as of November 2023, a section of the Red Line has had its slow zones removed after a month of closure, and public reception has been positive about the commute time along the Ashmont branch of the Red Line. The T certainly has its challenges and is likely to face more— but this recent fix bodes well for the T’s future and the potential of an effi cient and reliable pub lic transport system once more through out Boston. O
I Two Declare:
By Sofia Valdebenito
About a third of students at Tufts are double majors, with an estimated 50 percent having at least one minor. These figures reflect a common interest among students in formally pursuing a variety of academic disciplines.
In recent years, it seems that students in higher education have begun to see the allure of pursuing the double major, an accomplishment that showcases a student’s ability to take on multiple tasks in high-pressure settings. The phenomenon is so popular that it seems commonplace to pursue two degrees. Tufts only asks for students to declare one major—so what makes students so eager to take on the challenges of a double major?
Tufts offers nearly 150 majors across the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). Within this wide variety, students take on classes that fulfill and intersect with their interests. Even if students desire to remain within their academic discipline of choice, Tufts requires that students satisfy general education “distribution requirements,” which vary from school to school. For example, in the Arts and Sciences, these include the social sciences, language, mathematics, and more. The hallmark of the Tufts experience lies in its mission statement: interdisciplinary learning.
However, Tufts students often factor the career projections of their majors alongside their personal interest when choosing what subjects to study. For Leslie Correa, a second-year pre-veterinary student, double majoring in biology and mathematics was appealing in part because of the increased career opportunities.
“I am doing a double major because I love the two subjects and because I want to be secure with a job in the future,” Correa said in a written statement to the Observer “Even though being a veterinarian is my dream job and the ultimate goal of my studies, if I suddenly don’t want to pursue that, I would love to be a mathematics teacher. The math major would allow me to secure that job and have options behind
me if being a veterinarian doesn’t work out.”
Many students like Correa view their second major as a backup plan. While this planning can stem from uncertainty about what comes post-graduation, Sheryl Rosenberg, associate director of the Tufts Career Center, maintained the idea that “uncertainty is inherent in career planning.” It is critical that students accept the unknown, she argued, and think carefully about “why they’re making the choice that they’re making to double major or to not double major or minor.”
According to Rosenberg, “One of the benefits of a liberal arts education is that it is [a] broad curriculum that will prepare [students] for a variety of career opportunities in the future, because it provides the foundational skills that are needed in the workforce.” When taking classes in an assortment of academic fields, diverse skills are acquired without necessarily needing to pursue a double major.
When reflecting on his undergraduate college experience, Samuel Sommers, professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology, said his single major allowed him to take classes outside of his comfort zone, like art history. Even so, he wishes that he had taken courses in music and beyond. Post-graduation, opportunities to explore one’s interests can be fleeting. Sommers said that when declaring a double major, students “cut down on the flexibility [they have and] miss out on the best things that Tufts has to offer.” When students begin to box themselves into the criteria needed to complete certain academic disciplines, they run the risk of losing the breadth of academic experiences that may be harder to acquire in the same way after college.
Rosenberg provided a different perspective. “[One’s] major doesn’t need to restrict [their] thinking,” she said. “Through the liberal arts curriculum, whether you have one major or a double major, or a double major and a minor, when you take all these other foundational requirements in this broad curriculum, you are expanding your worldview, developing creative
and critical thinking skills.”
Going beyond interdisciplinary studies on the Medford campus, Tufts provides a handful of comprehensive avenues for students to further develop these skills in the form of combined degree programs. Students with strong passions in studio arts and music can pursue five-year programs on multiple campuses. 57 percent of the 552 students enrolled full-time at SMFA in 2022 were part of the Tufts-SMFA combined degree program, which invites students to graduate with a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree and either a bachelor of science (BS) or bachelor of arts (BA) degree to blend their studio training with a liberal arts education. The partnership between Tufts and the New England Conservatory offers a similar program, where students can participate in a demanding music curriculum to earn a bachelor of music alongside their Tufts BA or BS.
For second-year Arianna Shalhoub, a film and media studies and studio art student, the SMFA combined degree program allows her to continue her lifelong passion for art at a higher level while maintaining her academic interests.
“I wanted to pursue a dual degree because I didn’t want to have to choose between art and my potential major,” Shalhoub said in a written statement to the Observer. “I wanted to be able to explore the variety of options that a liberal arts school like Tufts has to offer… in addition to the studio classes at the SMFA.”
Kat Guzman is a third-year SMFA combined degree student studying art history and studio art. While she sees these fields as interrelated, and can cross-count some courses, she said it is “a really different thing to think as an artist and then to think in academia.”
The limits for cross-counting courses appear consistent with the university’s goal of encouraging students to take advantage of its many schools and departments. Within the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and the Experimental College, students experience opportunities to participate in civic engagement and to learn through small participation-based courses that expose students to subjects and lecturers beyond traditional classrooms, helping them thrive as individuals by guiding them through diverse experiences.
However, at times, the course load of the Tufts-SMFA program certainly can limit the scope of opportunities students can take outside of their academic disciplines.
When asked if she had taken any ExCollege classes, Guzman said, “That’s definitely one [opportunity which] I don’t think I have space for… but I feel bad saying it doesn’t feel worth it. Unfortunately, I really don’t feel like I have space.”
Students restricted by the requirements of multiple degrees have less room in their schedules to explore. “It’s really easy to take [a] class and then find out that it’s worth nothing [in major or distribution credits] and now I’m like, ‘Ooh shoot, I’m held back a semester,’” said Guzman.
Rosenberg voiced her hope that students are able to at least be involved in some opportunities outside of their course load that they are intrigued by. As
she explained, the Career Center “want[s] students to graduate ready to navigate the work world and their personal world as it changes and as they change, which means that they have skills that they can use in multiple roles in a variety of settings, and a variety of industries.”
Like any curriculum, the challenge in pursuing a double major is striking a balance between the restrictions and opportunities. As Rosenberg said, whether students decide to double major or not, through Tufts’ liberal arts curriculum, “when you take all these other foundational requirements in this broad curriculum, you are expanding your worldview, developing creative and critical thinking skills.”
