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T HE T UFTS DAILY Thursday, March 9, 2023
VOLUME LXXXV, ISSUE 7
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
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Climate strike takes on fossil fuel finance, Ukraine war by Daniel Vos
Deputy News Editor
Originally published March 7 Students gathered outside of the Mayer Campus Center on March 3, before the Global Climate Strike in Boston, to protest Tufts’ fossil fuel investments and rising global carbon emissions. Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School, spoke at the rally, offering support to protesters calling for divestment. Kyte described a dark future for institutions tied to fossil fuel finance. She highlighted growing pressure on the university to ban such investments, of which Tufts currently holds an estimated $90 million. “I’m glad that you are going to put pressure on this uni-
versity to follow other universities around this issue. … This investment is not going to produce the kinds of equitable growth that we need going forward,” she said. “People are going to lose money. And the people who will lose money at the end of the day will normally be the taxpayers who will suffer as a result of public bailouts of private institutions that will ask for help.” Her speech centered on fighting the climate emergency at every level of society. She called on governments, universities and students to reevaluate their role in the crisis and become leaders for change. “We have a governor [of Massachusetts] and a mayor of Boston now fully aligned,” Kyte said. “You need to keep the pressure up domestically.
The Inflation Reduction Act is an important move forward. It’s not everything, we need much more than that. And you need to keep the pressure up in solidarity with people like you in every corner of the world. Because this has to work for everybody. There is no way we succeed in making this transition with just the 1% ending up better off than they were before.” Artem Dinh, a Ukrainian and Vietnamese senior at Tufts, spoke to protesters about the influence of petropolitics in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, condemning European countries for purchasing gas from Russia and, as a result, perpetually funding Russian aggression. “Every single missile and the bullet that comes on Ukrainian
Executive News Editor
Tufts aims to purchase former Zeta Psi building at 80 Professors Row Zeta Psi, which currently owns the more than 150-year-old building, planned to demolish the old fraternity house; however, the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission effectively denied the fraternity permission to demolish the house, unanimously deeming it “historically significant” during a March 7 meeting. The Tufts chapter of Zeta Psi was disbanded in 2021 following several COVID-19 policy violations; however, the national fraternity still owns the house on Professors Row. Rocco DiRico, executive director of government and community relations at Tufts, said during the public meeting that the university now intends to purchase the building. “Tufts University has been negotiating in good faith with the owners of 80 Professors Row for months,” DiRico
said during the commission meeting. “Tufts intends to use this property to provide more on-campus housing for our undergraduate students.” Tufts Public Safety has a new comfort dog A highly trained black Labrador puppy will be available as a mental health resource for students through the Tufts Department of Public Safety. She will be able to interact with students who need comfort after experiencing a traumatic event, and she can recognize when students and other members of the community are hesitant to interact with her and will be respectful of their boundaries. The puppy is a rescue dog trained by Hero Pups, a nonprofit which works to match veterans and first responders with comfort dogs. The puppy and her handler, Officer Rob Moschella, will attend various campus events as representatives of Tufts Department of Public Safety. As part of her introduction, students can vote on the dog’s name on the TDPS website.
soil and hits Ukrainian people is actually paid by European taxpayers’ money,” Dinh said. “How come? Well, because Europeans
[pay] for gas and oil that they import from Russia. … And all see CLIMATE, page 2
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Headlines from the Hill by Aaron Gruen
AARON GRUEN / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts Climate Action rallies at the Mayer Campus Center on March 3.
Green Exercise Initiative installs energy-producing treadmill The Green Exercise Initiative installed an energy-producing treadmill in the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center last weekend after four students — juniors Olivia Landau and Aoife Schmitt and seniors Marcus Hardy and Evan Ensslin — proposed the project for an engineering management class. “And at the end of our class, our professor told us that the project is actually feasible,” Landau, the project leader, said. The group was awarded $5,382 by the Green Fund to purchase, ship and install the treadmill at the fitness center. Energy produced by the treadmill will result in a profit of $138 per year, and depending on the success of the pilot project, Tufts Athletics may explore the possibility of replacing all gym equipment with energy-producing equivalents. Landau said that the goal of the project is to make students more conscious of their energy usage. “Hopefully, by using our treadmill, students will realize how much effort it really takes to produce energy,” she said.
Murrow Forum will return to Tufts with CNN’s Abby Phillip on April 3 by Aaron Gruen
Executive News Editor
Originally published March 6 The Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism will return to Tufts for the first time since 2018 at noon on April 3 with CNN’s Abby Phillip slated as this year’s speaker. Sponsored by Tisch College’s Solomont Speaker Series, Phillip will discuss her work at CNN with Tufts alumnus and trustee Neil Shapiro (A’80). “I am thrilled to headline the 15th Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism at Tufts University,” Phillip wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Murrow’s legacy is more relevant than ever in our changing media landscape, and his impact on journalism remains profound. I look forward to a robust conversation about the future of media and reporting, and to sharing my experiences and perspectives with the Tufts community, especially students.”
Phillip is CNN’s senior political correspondent and anchor of “Inside Politics Sunday,” an hour-long dive into the week’s most important political stories. Phillip joined CNN in 2017 to cover the Trump Administration and served as White House correspondent until 2019. In January 2020, she moderated CNN’s Democratic Presidential Debate in Iowa, and in November 2020, she anchored special coverage of 2020’s Election Night in America. “Tisch College is proud to welcome Abby Phillip to campus as this year’s Murrow Forum speaker,” Dayna Cunningham, the dean of Tisch College, wrote in a statement to the Daily. “As an anchor at CNN, and a leading journalist of color, her voice is shaping political analysis and reporting in this country, at a time when our democracy is strained, our institutions are see MURROW, page 3
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