CS department sends students from underrepresented FIELD HOCKEY groups to Grace Hopper and other conferences Jumbos turn up the heat in see FEATURES / PAGE 3 penultimate week Goo Goo Dolls perform hits and discuss creative evolu- SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE tion over the decades see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY EST. 1980 THE TUFTS DAILY VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 31 MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2018 tuftsdaily.com Arts and Sciences graduate students ratify first contract in unanimous vote announced. The union did not disclose how and benefits, and we have a formal grievance many ballots were cast, though 270 graduate process that we can go through if we feel students were eligible to vote, according to that our contract is being violated. Whereas Ryan Napier, a Ph.D. candidate in English and before, you could complain but nobody had member of the union bargaining committee. to listen to you.” Two representatives from Service Napier added that the contract only pro- Employees International Union (SEIU) Local tects graduate students in their capacity as 509, Matt Dauphin and Cory Bombredi, workers, and that the protections listed in the along with several graduate students, helped contract do not necessarily extend to their administer the vote. Anna Phillips and Alec work as students. Drobac, both Ph.D. candidates in physics, “We have certain rights now that we didn’t counted the ballots. before. We have certain avenues, ways to According to a document summarizing the interact with the administration if we don’t terms of the contract provided to the Daily, like the ways some things are going. We have article 18 of the contract includes an increase union representation that will help us get of 12 to 19 percent in the minimum stipend the things that we need,” Andrew Alquesta, a for graduate workers in each department over Ph.D. candidate in English and member of the the next four years, beginning in fiscal year union bargaining committee, said. 2019. Article 21 details the benefits available The graduate student union began draft- to graduate students, including 12 weeks of ing their contract with Tufts in December paid parental leave and the option to request 2017, according to Farnitano. During the COURTESY CORY BOMBREDI a sixth year of health insurance. subsequent contract negotiations, which Tufts Ph.D. candidates Anna Phillips, Andrew Alquesta, Ryan Napier, Ashlynn Keller and Alia The contract makes Tufts the first private concluded on Sept. 21, the union, represent- Wulff pose for a portrait in the Mayer Campus Center following the vote to ratify the new graduate student contract on Oct. 18. university in the United States to provide paid ed by an 18-student bargaining committee parental leave for its graduate student work- and Dauphin, met with Dean of the Graduate by Jessica Blough tion Thursday, making Tufts the third private ers, according to Andrew Farnitano, a spokes- School of Arts and Sciences Robert Cook, News Editor university in the United States to have a recog- person for SEIU Local 509. Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences nized graduate student union under contract. The contract expires on June 30, 2023. James Glaser and two lawyers representing Graduate students in the School of Arts Voting took place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Before, all of this was informal,” Napier the university, according to Napier. and Sciences (A&S) unanimously voted to in the Mayer Campus Center, after which said. “Now they’re legally required to pay cer- ratify their first contract with the administra- the votes were counted and the results were tain things and provide certain protections see UNION, page 2 ‘Female Voices in the Quran’ examines role of women, encourages religious dialogue by Connor Dale and incredibly important, but also subtle,” News Editor Ibrahim said. Ibrahim recited poetry to commence the The Tufts University Chaplaincy and the workshop. She then invited participants to Boston Islamic Seminary co-hosted “Female partake in a moment of reflection and prayer, Voices in the Quran,” a workshop that exam- called dhikr in Arabic. ined female voices throughout the religious “Even in a state of lack, what we do have text, in the Tufts Interfaith Center on Oct. 6. is each other and the sincerity of our hearts,” The event, attended by about 25 people, Ibrahim said. explored “the values and virtues that Quranic Ibrahim then shifted the conversation and female speech imparts and investigated how identified major female figures in the Quran women’s interactions with the divine and and the role they play in the verses. Ibrahim angelic realm compare and contrast to men’s,” encouraged participants to ask questions and according to a description of the event on the to contribute to an ongoing dialogue about Chaplaincy website. The workshop was the the significance of these female roles. culmination of a partnership between the “I grew to understand the variations in the Muslim Chaplaincy at Tufts and the continu- roles that women mentioned in the Quran ing education program at the Boston Islamic played and the small but key differences COURTESY SIJAUDDIN KHALIFA Seminary, according to Celene Ibrahim, in the titles they are referred to by,” Nuha Amalia Teglas (middle), staff assistant in the Center for the Humanities at Tufts, speaks with two Muslim chaplain at the University Chaplaincy. Shaikh, a first-year who attended the event, other women during the ‘Female Voices in the Quran’ event at the Tufts Interfaith Center on Oct. 6. Ibrahim led the workshop, which wel- told the Daily in an email. “There are so many comed community members with all levels of words in the Quran’s Arabic to describe their The participants broke into small groups to historical, political and social contexts of the familiarity with the Muslim faith. different titles.” discuss the presence of female voice in dis- Muslim faith. “The role that female figures play in Later, the workshop focused on the spe- tinct Quranic verses. The groups then recon- the Quran is game-changing, high-stakes cific speaking parts of women in the Quran. vened to discuss women’s voices through the see QURAN, page 2 Please For breaking news, our content archive and recycle this exclusive content, visit Contact Us NEWS............................................1 FUN & GAMES ........................6 newspaper P.O. Box 53018, tuftsdaily.com Medford, MA 02155 FEATURES.................................3 OPINION ....................................7 Mostly Sunny [email protected] /thetuftsdaily @tuftsdaily tuftsdaily tuftsdaily ARTS & LIVING ......................4 SPORTS ........................... BACK 52 / 40 2 THE TUFTS DAILY | NEWS | Monday, October 22, 2018 tuftsdaily.com THE TUFTS DAILY SEOHYUN SHIM Graduate student contract grants paid parental leave Editor-in-Chief UNION Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations “It’s very fulfilling to see that the peo- EDITORIAL continued from page 1 Patrick Collins told the Daily in an email that ple who voted unanimously agreed with Sean Ong Caleb Symons “It’s awesome to have somebody in your the administration is pleased to have conclud- the work that we put in. They like what Managing Editors corner,” Alquesta said. “SEIU did a phenome- ed negotiations and expects that the contact we did for them,” Ashlynn Keller, a Ph.D. Alexis Serino Associate Editor nal job representing us, and I go forward with will benefit students, faculty and staff. candidate in psychology and a member Daniel Nelson Executive News Editor confidence that if I or any of my colleagues “Although complex and lengthy, our of the graduate student union bargaining Jessica Blough News Editors Connor Dale have some sort of problem, I know that SEIU negotiations were characterized by a spirit committee, said. Charlie Driver has my back.” of professionalism and cooperation,” Collins With this vote to ratify, A&S gradu- Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala The bargaining committee consisted of said. “We value the contributions of our doc- ate students join their peers at New York Kat Grellman Liza Harris graduate student-worker representatives toral students to the educational mission University and Brandeis University in ink- Gil Jacobson from departments within the School of Arts of the university and look forward to work- ing contracts with their respective adminis- Anar Kansara Liam Knox and Sciences, with the number of representa- ing cooperatively with the union toward the trations. Graduate students at other private Natasha Mayor Cathy Perloff tives on the committee based on the number implementation of the agreement in the universities, including Harvard University Minna Trinh Hannah Uebele Assistant News Editors of graduate students eligible for the union, months ahead.” and American University, are also in the Shantel Bartolome Napier explained. Phillips, a sixth-year graduate student, said midst of formal contract negotiations. Austin Clementi Conor Friedmann According to Napier, the Tufts adminis- that she has been working on the unioniza- From here, the union will set up a stand- Abbie Gruskin Noah Richter tration was cooperative in negotiating with tion effort at Tufts since 2016, shortly after ing committee of graduate students who will Jessie Newman Executive Features Editor the newly formed union, unlike other uni- a National Labor Relations Board decision liaise with administration, opening up a line of Constantinos Angelakis Features Editors versities in similar negotiations. The admin- granted graduate students at private universi- communication with the university adminis- Emma Damokosh Kenia French istration initially took a stance against union- ties the right to unionize. tration, according to Alquesta. The committee Ameenah Rashid Michael Shames ization, as reported in a May 18, 2017 Daily Phillips noted the difficulty of generating will also inform graduate student workers of Grace Yuh article. long-term commitment to the cause since their rights as part of the union.