The 10@10 Campaign

Hello Loyal TPAN members:

We are pleased to announce a new campaign to document progressive
happenings at Tufts. It is a new spin on an old idea. We're calling it
10@10: Ten people volunteering 10 minutes a week to document
progressive history at Tufts.

How you can help:

1. Visit the Tufts Progressive History Project
2. Take 10 minutes to add something from your experience as an
activist at Tufts to the wiki.
3. Come back in a week and do it again.

That's it! And its a big deal!

We figure, if we can get 10 people to collectively spend almost two
hours a week to help out Tufts activists, then we will be saving a lot
of people a lot of trouble trying to re-invent the wheel.

Thanks for pitching in!

As always, we love you,

Cindy Chang LA'03
Mara D'Angelo LA'02
Louis Esparza LA'03
Gary Goldstein, PhD
Eva Skillicorn LA'06
Tahira Pratt, LA'08
Danika Kleiber, LA'03
Jean Wu, PhD
Jenny Lau LA'10

Oxfam Cafe Task Force Report

The Oxfam Cafe Task Force Report has been released. It describes in detail, the transition in management occurring at Oxfam Cafe.

Rally Against Racial Bias at Tufts: Thursday

This just posted to the 04.09.09 Bias Incident at Tufts University Facebook Group:

On Thursday, April 16th, 2009, from 12:30pm-1:30pm, please join us in front of Tisch Library for a public rally in support of the victims of the bias incident on 04.09.09. As you all know that morning, a group of Korean American students were assaulted with racial slurs and physical violence while practicing for their culture show. This public demonstration will promote awareness on not just this bias incident, but also the history of discrimination against Asian Americans on college campuses that has been rendered invisible. The rally will shed light on measures that the Tufts administration can take to prevent such and other related incidents from happening on campus.

Asian Americans are but one of the many populations that suffer from racial discrimination and marginalization. Therefore, this rally encourages all those who have experienced similar bias incidents and those who consider themselves to be allies to be present and show their support. Because this incident is just the latest of several bias incidents that indicate the need for change of the Tufts campus climate, we will rally together in calling on the administration to make effective institutional changes towards ensuring that all students at Tufts have a safe environment in which to pursue their higher education. On Thursday, please wear red to show your support for victims of all incidents of bias, racism, and racial discrimination.

We hope to see you there and thank you for your support.

Financial Aid goes up 12%!

The Tufts Daily reports,

Despite cutting back on virtually all other expenses, the university has decided to increase the financial aid budget by 12 percent for next year.

This is of course fantastic news to those of us who are concerned about working class students having to drop out of Tufts for financial reasons. Danika recently wrote about what gets us progressives interested in donating to Tufts (through the Social Justice Fund, guys), which produced a Letter to the Editor from the Assistant Director to the Tufts Fund and productive email exchanges with others involved with the Tufts endowment! Eva and I recently wrote about the importance of supporting financial aid and the goal of need blind admissions.

This is a great semester for TPAN! Shoot Larry Bacow an email thanking him for such a noble policy stance in the face of tough budget decisions.

Read More:
Financial aid budget to increase by 12 percent

TCU Senate windfall should support need-blind admissions

The Art of Giving

I wrote an op-ed for the Daily about transparency and ethical investment, and they published it today. I thought my shout out to TPAN and the SJF was particularly cleaver. Check it out:

http://www.tuftsdaily.com/1.1371530-1.1371530

Love,
Danika

SJF Grants now available

The Tufts Progressive Alumni Network announces a February 15th deadline for applications to its Social Justice Fund. The Social Justice Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects, or community organizing, with a focus on projects that have an impact both on the Tufts campus and on a larger scale.

Please note that due to shrinking funds, the SJF committee has tightened the number of grants we may give. At the same time, we seek to be more transparent about our grant-making criteria and have posted them on our website. Please visit http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm.

Any further questions should be sent to Cindy Chang, LA'03 at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

Support the Social Justice Fund

Dear Friends,

The Social Justice Fund is an important supporter of Tufts campus activism. Since its inception it has funded many of the campaigns and projects that trained us as social justice activists and made us who we are today.

The Social Justice Fund has existed in various capacities for almost ten years. Over the past few years, it has achieved renewed successes, supporting numerous amazing projects. In 2007 alone, the committee granted almost $5,500 for social justice activism at Tufts

With the Fund’s help, Tufts student activists have recently:

- Campaigned for Tufts janitors, the cause for which the Fund was started.
- Completed a video archive of queer history at Tufts from 1969 to the present.
- Brought the “AIDS Quilt” to Tufts and raised awareness about the global AIDS pandemic.
- Built a mock refugee camp on the Quad to raise awareness of refugee rights.
- Campaigned to reduce consumption of bottled water on campus.
- Organized a “Hip Hop for Social Change” festival.

But our pool of money is shrinking! At the current rate of disbursement, the fund will cease existing within the next two years.

That is why we need your help. As Tufts progressive alumni we ask for your
assistance in keeping social justice alive on the Hill.

Contributing to the Fund is easy, and can be achieved in a number of ways. Please see the end of this email for complete instructions.
With your help, we can keep this valuable institution going, so that future activists can inspire Tufts and the larger world to be the places we know they can be.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Yours in peace and solidarity,
Cindy Chang
Mara D’Angelo
Gary Goldstein
Douglass Hansen
Rachel Jones
Eva Skillicorn

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

Click here for more information on recipients and the fund.

It’s easy to give to the Social Justice Fund!

Option 1: Give online via credit card. Enter your personal information to The Man. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the Gift Designation 3 box.

Option 2: Give through the mail via check. Send a check to Tufts University, P.O. Box 3306, Boston, MA 02241-3306. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the memo line.

Option 3: Give through Cindy Chang, administrator of the Social Justice Fund, via check and she will write her own personal check to Tufts of an equal amount. Keep your personal info from Tufts while she gets all the junk mail. Contact her at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

THANK YOU for your support!

Disclaimer: For those of us who have objected to donating to the University in the past, please know that while contributions to the Fund are kept with the University’s endowment, our reserves and interest received are for the exclusive use of the Social Justice Fund. We are otherwise completely independent from the University.

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

For more information on recipients and the fund, please visit http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm

Alumni suggest community and social change for TCU

Here are the seven responses from the survey last week. All are from alumni:

Supporting groups that encourage community involvement-- particularly organizing and activism in ways that help to strengthen the local communities of which Tufts plays a part!

I think some of the money should go to groups that facilitate funding for social change and service projects for students such as the Social Justice Fund.

Endow scholarships to bring students to Tufts who would otherwise be rejected because of need.

Support for Group of Six and related student groups and activities. More funding for arts and culture group.

Donate the money to the Social Justice Fund, to support progressive activism on campus.

Provide former OSA employees with retroactive raises and benefits which were withheld.

I think they should set up an Activist Center to provide institutional support for activism and active citizenship on campus.

The $700,000 Question

Thanks to a tip from TPAN member Leah Madsen, we have learned that the TCU Senate has come into a large sum of money totaling $714,291.72. This is compensation for the funds that were embezzled last year. For more information, read this Tufts Daily article.

The Tufts progressive community should ensure that these funds are used in a responsible manner. TPAN has set up a very brief survey (two questions) to collect ideas on how these funds should be used. Please fill it out and forward the link to other progressive Tufts alumns and students.

Best,

The TPAN Team

Student Liaison Update

As far as I know the contract negotiations with the janitors went well.

YAY for a success story!

Currently, we are working on reassembling those involved in last semesters open letter so that we can continue to discuss our concerns with the administration and board of trustees. Thanks to all members of TPAN who supported us in that effort and signed the letter.

As you may have heard the director of the LGBT Center left Tufts for a job at Emory. Her replacement will start in a few weeks. I am very interested to see what his priorities will be and how he will work with the social justice community. New directors have also been hired and have started at the Women's Center and Africana Center (we like to think the open-letter contributed to these positions FINALLY being fulfilled). I am equally interested in the contributions of these two new directors.
There have been some recent concerns about trans issues on campus. An area that I pay special attention to (as I identify with that community).

Based on my experience, I have my own personal concerns regarding the lack of awareness and openness of administrative officials to trans issues, and I think this could become a flashpoint issue.

Finally, many of us have been working hard on Carl Sciortino's re-election campaign. I know I have hit the streets of Somerville to knock on doors for Carl and so have many other progressive Tufts students. With the primary this Tuesday, I hope everyone who lives in the district will make it to the polls and write in Carl!
Sorry for the lateness of this update and its brevity. If there is anything TPAN would like me to pass along to the open-letter coalition or other groups on campus (Tufts Dems, The Centers of 6 etc) let me know.

Peace,
Sofia Nelson
TPAN Student Liaison

August Update

---------------------------------------------------------------------
TUFTS PROGRESSIVE ALUMNI NETWORK
August 2008 Update
www.tuftsprogressives.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------

In this issue:

1) Campus Outreach
2) SJF Update
3) Support Carl Sciortino
4) Blog Updates
5) Vicky Cristina Barcelona

-------------------------------------
1) CAMPUS OUTREACH
-------------------------------------

As the Fall semester gears up, so is TPAN. We have expanded our
membership by over 10% in the

last few months and have taken on a new campus liasion. We welcome
Tufts Senior, Sofia Nelson

to the outreach team. She will keep us up to date on the latest
campaigns happening at Tufts

so that TPAN can provide support and to aid the Social Justice Fund in
identifying where the

activist needs are on campus. You can reach Sofia at
sofia.nelson@gmail.com.

We will also be having elections this Fall and will be looking for
someone to Chair the

Outreach Committee. If you are interested in stepping up, contact
Elections Chair Mara

D'Angelo at mara@tuftsprogressives.org.


------------------------
2) SJF UPDATE
------------------------

Dear Friends,

Have you ever heard of:
• SLAM (Student-Labor Action Movement)?
• Radix?
• Coalition for Social Justice and Non-Violence?

These are just some of the many groups at Tufts that the Social
Justice Fund (SJF) helped

start or support over the years. SJF began as a campaign for Tufts
janitors’ rights and has

grown to stand for the equality, justice, and peace we know we can
achieve in the world.

At our current rate of disbursement, the Social Justice Fund will
cease to exist in two years.

We don’t want to lose this critical resource for current and future
Tufts students who will

build the cornerstone of their activist work at Tufts, just as we did.

As former Tufts activists, you know how important it is to have alumni
resources behind you.

This is why we ask you to join us today. Support the Social Justice
Fund. Below, you’ll find

ways to contribute, and we hope you will.

Help support the next social movement at Tufts.

Yours in peace and solidarity,

Cindy Chang LA’03
Mara D’Angelo LA’02
Prof. Gary Goldstein, Ph.D.
Douglass Hansen LA’02
Rachel Jones LA’03
Eva Skillicorn LA’06

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where
there is a critical lack

of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides
grants of $100-$900 for

campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with
a focus on projects

that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

For more information on recipients and the fund, please visit
http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm

It’s easy to give to the Social Justice Fund!

Option 1: Give online via credit card. Enter your personal information
to The Man at
http://www.alumniconnections.com/donate/tufts/. Be sure to designate
your gift
by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the Gift Designation 3 box.

Option 2: Give through the mail via check. Send a check to Tufts
University, P.O. Box
3306, Boston, MA 02241-3306. Be sure to designate your gift by writing
“Social
Justice Fund” in the memo line.

Option 3: Give through Cindy Chang, administrator of the Social
Justice Fund, via
check and she will write her own personal check to Tufts of an equal
amount.
Keep your personal info from Tufts while she gets all the junk mail.
Contact her
at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.


-----------------------------------------------
3) SUPPORT CARL SCIORTINO
-----------------------------------------------

Carl Sciortino LA'00, former Chair of TTLGBC (now Gay-Striaght
Alliance), is a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives. He represents the 34th
Middlesex district, including

neighborhoods in both Somerville and Medford. He serves on the Joint
Committees of

Transportation, Public Health, and Community Development & Small
Businesses. He was first

elected in November 2004, defeating a conservative Democratic
incumbent.

Carl is up for re-election and is facing some stiff competition
against a much less progressive challenger. To learn more about Carl
and support his campaign, visit http://www.electcarl.org/


------------------------------
4) BLOG UPDATES
------------------------------

-Pregnant Man Gives Birth to Baby Girl
-Mark Goldberg deals with Despots
-Bitch Magazine is hiring
-Freedom House is hiring

All this and more at tuftsprogressives.org/blog


----------------------------------------
5) Vicky Cristina Barcelona
----------------------------------------

The moment you've all been waiting for is almost here. Woody Allen's
latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Penelope Cruz & Scarlett
Johansen starys playing on Friday. Its going to be so awesome! View
the trailer: http://www.trailersforall.com/vicky-cristina-barcelona-2008-theatrical-trailer/
If I weren't stuck in a Third World country, I would go see it with
y'all, but I will have to wait. . .



Peace Out,


TPAN EXEC BOARD

Cindy Chang LA'03
Tom Chen LA'04
Mara D'Angelo LA'02
Louis Esparza LA'03
Gary Goldstein, PhD
Liz Monnin-Browder LA'03
Eva Skillicorn LA'06
Jean Wu, PhD

2 accused of stealing nearly $1m from Tufts - The Boston Globe

Here's an update on the Tufts Student Activities Office scandal. We've blogged about it before. Wow, one million dollars of our student activities fees. Gone.

Janitor Negotiations.

Support Tufts Janitors in their campaign to earn a living wage and decent health care.

> Sign the Petition

> Get Updates

> Jumbo Janitor Alliance

Rally for Tufts Janitors

If you are in the Tufts area this Wednesday, be sure to check out the rally for Tufts Janitors on campus. If not, read Lou's post to find out other actions you can take on this issue.

Tufts Janitor Contract Negotiations

The saga of Tufts' contract negotiations with the janitors continues. On April 24th, SEIU, the janitors' union, will begin negotiations with their employer, OneSource/ABM.

Join this Facebook group to keep updated: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16055330131

Social Justice Fund Announces Spring Grantees

The Social Justice Fund is proud to announce the grantees from its spring application round. We are proud to support the work of these students and student groups in their quest for social justice at Tufts and beyond.

• Tessa Henry and the Emerging Black Leaders for support of the Emerging Black Leaders Symposium. Find out more at http://www.tuftsebls.org/site/ ($500)
• Erin Baldassari and the Synaptic Scholars for support of the Tufts Hip Hop for Social Change Festival ($500)
• John Chiosi and the Tufts chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility - for their display and awareness campaign around the AIDS Quilt ($660)
• Morissa Sobelson - for her summer research on the Community Health movement in Boston ($700)
• Emma Mayerson and the Jumbo Janitor's Alliance - for Dorm Clean-up events. Read about the Jumbo Janitors Alliance in the Tufts Daily.

April 3 - Climate Justice Series at Tufts

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Beverly Wright (Xavier University and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice) and Ted Glick (U.S. Climate Emergency Council and the Climate Crisis Coalition) will speak on behalf of their work in environmental justice.

Thursday, April 3
Reception from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. at Rabb Room Lincoln Filene
Lecture at 6:00 p.m., Braker 01

Save the Date: Van Jones at Tufts UEP

Save the Date
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

In celebration of its thirty-five years of graduate education, UEP welcomes Van Jones to Tufts University.

3:30–4:30 p.m. UEP Community Networking Reception–Remis Sculpture Court
4:30–5:30 p.m. UEP Community Dialogue with Van Jones–Balch Arena Theater
(Open to UEP alumni, students, faculty, and staff only)
6:00–7:00 p.m. Van Jones–Public Lecture, Cohen Auditorium
(doors open at 5:45 p.m.)

Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP)
will celebrate its 35th anniversary on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 (Earth Day). The special guest
speaker for this event will be civil rights leader and activist Van Jones. Join fellow UEP alumni, faculty, students, and staff at this free event.

RSVP by April 4 for UEP Community Networking
Reception: 617.627.3394 or e-mail uep@tufts.edu.

Van Jones is the founder and board president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California-based nonprofit organization that works to prevent youth violence and incarceration. Through its Green-Collar Jobs Campaign, Jones and the center have expanded their work to address global climate change and advance the emerging green economy by lifting people out of poverty through employment and other opportunities in green construction, clean technology, urban agriculture, and energy.

To learn more about Van Jones, go to www.vanjones.net.

TSAD Revisionism

Remember D-Bags? Well, a new book by Stephen Nelson features the former Tufts President, John DiBiaggio, as Nelson weaves a revisionist tale about what went down during the Tufts Students Against Discrimination days.

Aside from several inaccuracies about the details of the story, including claims that Julie was running for President of TCF and that DiBiaggio spoke with TSAD personally on the first day of the sit-in (p. 72), Nelson throws analytic rigor to the wind, glowing that:

[During the sit-in] phase of the controversy, DiBiaggio again demonstrates his trademark, "wait, wait," patience (an important leadership trait in handling confrontational situations, especially when instantaneous responses appear to be required)... DiBiaggio describes the students as contending that "'the policy doesn't speak to self-acceptance.'" Wearing his hat as an educator, DiBiaggio replied, "'Well, explain that to me. How could a policy speak to whether you accept what you are?'" (p. 73)

Nelson's only source throughout this entire narrative is a 2003 interview with the former President, despite that the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, and The Tufts Daily all have extensive coverage of these events and the people who were involved are easily accessible. In this half-baked book published by a non-academic press, Nelson appears to be nothing more than a cheerleader for college Presidents as they face the harsh reality of their jobs. But his shoddy scholarship undoes the complexity of college campuses and undermines the agency that students have exhibited again and again as being the moral voices in their communities. If students do not take the initiative and put pressure on their college administrations to do the right thing, they never would.

Alumni who were students at Tufts in 2000 will be interested to know that Nelson does pique our suspicions that former Provost, Sol Gittleman, wanted the protesters arrested. Nelson writes:

DiBiaggio had to leave on a brief trip and while he was away, one of the senior administrators wanted to break up the sit-in. DiBiaggio continues the story: "I said, 'No. Wait, wait....You can't do that [arrest them] without me....Just let them sit in for the night and I'll talk to them when I come back.'" (p. 73) [ellipses and brackets in original]

Ignoring the fact that Nelson gets it wrong again (DiBiaggio was in California at the time of the sit-in and had to cut his trip short), it looks like TSAD has DiBiaggio to thank for keeping that senior administrator-who-shall-remain-unnamed at bay.

This kind of revisionism is expected from disreputable right-wing groups on the internet--and of this there is plenty. But the publishers of this book, the American Council on Education and Praeger, ought to have higher standards. Nelson's book is a pony show of college Presidents and is far from being an objective analysis.

Social Justice Fund fall grantees

The Social Justice Fund was pleased to be able to support three student groups through our fall funding cycle.

$655 Education Action! group to support a panel on No Child Left Behind Act. Read more

$472 Jennifer Bailey and the Social Justice Arts Initiative to support their Guerrilla Theater Event and Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. You can read about their events here and here.

$200 Lizzie DeWan and the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign to hold the World Water Challenge this past November 5th.


We continue to encourage social justice activism on the Tufts campus through grants throughout the year. Any questions, please contact sjf@tuftsprogressives.org