The Tufts Daily THE
INDEPENDENT
STUDENT
N E W S PA P E R
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UNIVERSITY
E S T. 1 9 8 0
Medford/Somerville, Mass.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
VOLUME LXXXVIII, ISSUE 7
Welcome, Parents & Families! LOCAL
Rising rent around Tufts worries students, residents of host communities Carly Cohen Staff Writer
Rent prices in neighborhoods surrounding Tufts are rising rapidly, raising concerns for students and local residents alike. In Massachusetts, a minimum wage worker must clock 120 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom rental home. “There is no place in the United States where a minimum wage job will get a family affordable housing,” Laurie Goldman, a senior lecturer in the department of urban and environmental policy and planning, explained. Massachusetts has the second-highest housing wage, or the hourly wage a full-time worker needs to make to afford a reason-
able rental home, in the country. To afford two-bedroom housing, a full-time worker needs to make $44.84 an hour. Near Tufts, this number is even higher, with an average housing wage of approximately $65 an hour. “Anyone I know that is searching independently and isn’t inheriting a lease is paying $1200 or more,” Natalie Meulenbroek, a sophomore who recently signed a lease in the area for the upcoming year, said. Kit Collins, vice president of the Medford City Council, noted the growing unaffordability in the area. “You shouldn’t have to have two six-digit incomes in a household to be able to live here, or afford to buy a home
Tufts Health Services now providing medical abortions
here,” she said, “but unfortunately, displacement has been going on for years.” One problem Collins noted could be contributing to increased housing prices is that housing is increasingly owned by external corporations and not local residents. “They don’t have any incentive to keep housing prices human-scale,” Collins explained. Meulenbroek speculated that the landlords surrounding Tufts may also be taking advantage of Tufts’ limited supply of on-campus housing. “They know that Tufts doesn’t guarantee off-campus housing, so students need to find a place
Carly Cohen See page 4
In Photos: Falling for Tufts Student-run food vendors to continue hosting events Carly Hope See page 2
see RENT, page 3
UNIVERSITY
Student groups collaborate to host annual farmers market Shayna Levy
Contributing Writer
The Student Garden Club, Sustainable CORE Fellows, TCU Senate and the Tufts University Social Collective collaborated for the third annual farmers market, which was held at the Campus Center on Oct. 4. The market featured local produce and student artwork, along with educational tabling regarding environmental justice and food insecurity at Tufts. With the purchase of a $5 ticket, students could take home fresh produce from local farms and the on-campus Student Garden, purchase subsidized student artwork through TUSC and visit tables from various student groups on campus, including Engineers Without Borders. Fresh produce came from local farms like those associated with the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. It’s “important for students to
have access to fresh produce and know where their food is actually coming from,” Jules Lee, Garden Club’s maintenance manager, said. To increase sustainability, the farmers market sourced its food from the Student Garden and New Entry Farms, a Tufts University Friedman School and Nutrition Science and Policy initiative. “Everything that’s not taken is either given back to the dining hall for them to use or composted on campus,” said TCU Historian Caroline Spahr, a junior who has spearheaded the market since her freshman year. Two main goals of the farmers market are “getting people in touch with local resources,” and making “fresh fruit and vegetables accessible to students,” Sierra Moll, a senior and co-program coordinator of the Sustainable CORE Fellows, explained. The market was walkable and easily accessible for students, since it was held on
DEFNE OLGUN / THE TUFTS DAILY
The team for Freebites, a new app that shares campus free food alerts, tables at the farmers market on Oct. 4. the Tufts campus. Moll also highlighted that because the produce was sourced entirely from the Student Garden and New Entry, rather than “big, industrialized agriculture,” the market was sustainable in that way as well. Spahr started the farmers market in her first year as one of her projects as senator. “I’m
from Central Pennsylvania, so there’s a lot of farmers markets where I’m from,” Spahr said. “I kind of wanted to emulate what I have at home and bring it here because that was just something I kind of missed from home.” “We’ve continued it because it’s extremely successful every single year,” Spahr said.
4 FEATURES
6 ARTS & POP CULTURE
9 OPINION
12 SPORTS
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Men’s basketball suffers conference losses
page 7
For each market, TUSC brings in around 2,000–3,000 pounds of produce, but they “rarely have stuff left over,” Spahr said. “We definitely keep track of what’s popular and what’s not.” In recent years, the market has expanded beyond local see MARKET, page 5 News Features Arts & Pop Culture photos Fun & Games Opinion Sports
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