The Tufts Daily THE
INDEPENDENT
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E S T. 1 9 8 0 Medford/Somerville, Mass.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
VOLUME LXXXVIII, ISSUE 1
MATRICULATION 2024: DEFINING MOMENTS FROM THE LAST YEAR UNIVERSITY
RA union ratifies first contract with university Matthew Sage
Managing Editor
Originally published Sept. 27, 2023. The United Labor of Tufts Resident Assistants voted to sign a union contract in agreement with Tufts University on Sept. 25, 2023. The contract signing ends a sevenmonth-long effort that included an organized strike to earn benefits and union representation for the university’s 141 RAs. On Sept. 23 and 24, 2023, 99 RAs, represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153, cast their ballots. 95 RAs voted in favor, while four voted against signing the contract. Under their inaugural contract, RAs will receive 80 meal swipes and a $1,425 stipend per semester worked. RAs are also no longer considered at-will employees, meaning they now require just cause to be fired by the university. “We’re pleased to have reached agreement on a three-year contract with the RAs,” Patrick Collins, executive director of public relations at
Tufts University, said. “Our provision of free housing, an annual stipend of $2,850, and 160 free meals a year, as well as other meaningful measures, is generous and fair. With the union’s ratification of the contract complete, we’re looking forward to working productively with the union as we move ahead implementing the new contract terms.” Senior David Whittingham, an RA for two consecutive years, has worked on the union’s bargaining committee since their first negotiation meeting with the university in February 2023. He voted to accept the contract. “I think we did what we needed to do and we were successful,” Whittingham said. “You never get everything you ask for, but I think that in the end … we won.” According to Whittingham, 70% of Tufts RAs are on financial aid and 70% have to work one or more additional jobs during the academic year. “This sort of payment will allow people, if they want, to hopefully cut back on the work that they have to do and be able to spend more time on their academics or on other
things in their lives,” Whittingham said. “So to me, that’s the biggest thing that I’m happy we got.” The contract also limits an RA’s number of residents on their floor to 50, including a maximum of 30 first-years. RAs will also not have to move into campus more than eight days prior to when first-year students move in. “We’re important mentors to our students,” Whittingham said. “We’re there to help guide them, especially for the first-years, through their first year of college. … Having the extra compensation will allow people to not have other commitments; I think that makes people be able to be more available to the residents.” During contract negotiations, ULTRA organized and executed a workers’ strike during first-year student move-in day on Aug. 29, 2023. “I think it made a difference,” Whittingham said. ”[Tufts] had been refusing since May to put the stipend into the compensation package, and then they were willing to move on that afterwards.” Senior Daphne Garcia is excited about the new contract. She is serv-
LOCAL
ing as a first-year RA for the third time and attended two bargaining sessions. “I was never really expecting much,” Garcia said. “I was expecting maybe around $1000 … Once they were able to offer us more than $1300, I was happy with that. I mean, these are going to go directly to my [student] loans.” ULTRA’s contract is set to expire in August 2026. “I think it’s a good amount to receive now,” Garcia said. “I hope that future [RAs] can definitely ask for more money.”
‘Site of solidarity’: Students set up encampment for Palestine on Academic Quad
Anna Fattaey News Editor
Estelle Anderson and Julieta Grané
Originally published April 9.
Executive News Editor and Editor in Chief
Originally published April 25.
ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY
A Somerville Police Department patrol car is pictured outside SPD headquarters on Jan. 31, 2020. whom she then rejected. The mayor’s office did not respond when contacted for comment by the Daily. Ballantyne’s decision has garnered mixed reactions from those involved in the search. “We did the work. We came
Garcia said that she has saved almost $30,000 in housing costs by becoming an RA. She says this money “is huge for her family,” and that, while she receives financial aid, the stipend “is not enough.” “There’ll always be a certain degree of tension or opposition,” Whittingham said. “They spoke at the bargaining table about how they want a positive relationship, they want there to be trust, things like that. But I think my only thing would be that trust has to be earned. And so if they hold up their end of the bargain, so to speak, I think we’re happy to as well.”
UNIVERSITY
Mayor Ballantyne rejects police chief candidate, sending search for a replacement into a fourth year Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and Somerville’s Police Chief Search Committee announced on Nov. 9, 2023 that their search for the next chief of the Somerville Police Department will continue. Somerville has been in the process of selecting the new chief since December 2020, when former Chief David Fallon retired. According to Jesse Clingan, Somerville city councilman and member of the Police Chief Search Committee, the nationwide search for a police chief produced three finalists, all from the general area. Those finalists were announced in October and following live interviews, the committee selected one candidate for Mayor Ballantyne to approve,
AARON GRUEN / THE TUFTS DAILY
Resident assistants picket in front of the Joyce Cummings Center on Aug. 29, 2023.
together as a community with the understanding of what the City of Somerville needs. … We were all in agreement on at least two of those candidates,” Clingan told the Daily. “I’m not happy about it.” see POLICE, page 3
Amid a national wave of encampments for Palestine on college campuses, Tufts students have set up tents on the Academic Quad to demand that Tufts divest from Israel and that charges against student protesters across the country be dropped. Protesters first put up the tents on April 7 but temporarily took them down on April 17, in order to focus on a separate demonstration where they installed an “Apartheid Wall” on President’s Lawn. Students rebuilt the tents on Sunday evening, after the arrest and suspension of more than 100 Columbia University students at their encampment
4 FEATURES
6 ARTS & POP CULTURE
10 OPINION
13 SPORTS
TUPIT working to lock up prison recidivism
No encore for music dual degree program page 7
Editorial: Jumb-dos and Jumb-don’ts
Tufts lacrosse nets nationals
over the weekend. “In this moment of massive mobilization, we think it’s especially important to take up space on campus,” one student at the encampment said. ”[We think it’s important to] provide a hub for organizing and engagement where people can plug into the ongoing efforts and find out what they can do that will be meaningful in solidarity.” “One of our main demands is dropping the charges on students across the country who have received disciplinary violations and arrests in response to encampments,” one student explained. “As long as these demands are not met, we will continue to hold this encampment.” “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” have been set up on college campuses across the U.S., includsee ENCAMPMENT, page 2 News Features Arts & Pop Culture Fun & Games Opinion Sports
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