Tufts Engineering Has Strong Female Presence, Study Finds
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Today: Sunny and Wind THE TUFTS High 22 Low 10 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper Partly Cloudy and Wind Since 1980 High 28 Low 17 VOLUME LIII, NUMBER 15 DAILY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2007 Tufts engineering has strong Student mothers aim for housing BY ERIN BALDASSARI mute to school. That takes a lot of time,” female presence, study fi nds Daily Staff Writer she said. Senior Yissy Perez, also a mother, said BY SAMUEL WEBB When analyzing these numbers, The Tufts Alliance for the Advancement that members of the administration were Contributing Writer Abriola and Davies decided that there of Mothers (TAAM) began circulating initially supportive when mothers came is no single reason for the SOE’s suc- a petition earlier this month request- to them last year to talk about housing, Compared to its peers at the nation- cess. “We decided it was a combina- ing on-campus housing in which Tufts but then seemed to imply that granting al level, the Tufts University School tion of a number of factors,” Abriola students who are mothers can live with their requests would tarnish Tufts’ repu- of Engineering (SOE) has been very said. their children. tation. successful at recruiting and retain- One of the most important, she said, Currently, the Office of Residential “They didn’t want ‘that’ image,” she ing female engineers, according to a is the general atmosphere at Tufts, Life and Learning (ORLL) does provide said. “[They] didn’t want to portray Tufts report published by two members of where engineering students often inter- some off-campus housing for graduate as a community college.” the Tufts community. act a lot with peers from the School of students and faculty members with fam- Stevenson said that the biggest Dean of Engineering Linda Abriola Arts and Sciences. This is particularly ilies. Though ORLL promises on-campus obstacle has not been whether or not and Director of Education and helpful for students who have a vari- housing to all undergraduate freshmen resources are available, but whether the Development for the School of Arts, ety of interests, she said, noting that and sophomores, because children are administration wants to allocate those Sciences, & Engineering Dr. Margery many engineers double major in a not permitted to live in the dormitories, resources for specialty housing. Davies wrote the report, which is called non-engineering field. “They come to student mothers cannot live on-campus Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman “Attracting and Retaining Women in Tufts because they feel they can pur- with their children. disagreed, saying that appropriate hous- Engineering: The Tufts Experience.” sue a balance,” she said. “We are not asking for free housing, es may not be available on campus. Nationally, the percentage of engi- SOE Freshman Claire Rollor agreed. just the same equal access that is pro- “There are a lot of regulatory issues neering bachelor’s degrees obtained “I didn’t want to be just a hardcore vided to all students regardless of gen- about whether or not particular places by women has hovered at around 20 engineer,” she said. “At Tufts I felt like der, sexual orientation, religion, creed or are safe environments for toddlers,” he percent for the past eight years, creat- I could express myself in other ways, disability,” mother and TAAM founder said. ing a job market dominated by men. like music.” Anne Stevenson (LA ’06) said . “You can imagine that a lot of our [on- But at Tufts, the numbers are much The success is also due to conscious Central to the request of the group is campus buildings] have stairways with more favorable. Last year, 26.8 percent efforts to enroll female engineering the feeling that it is impossible to effec- no protection for the stairs and no pro- of the engineering bachelor’s degrees students, Davies said. tively participate in student life if they tection for the space between two par- were awarded to women and this year According to the report, the accep- live too far away from campus. “If you’re allel stairs,” Reitman said. “Doorways, nearly 31 percent of SOE freshman are tance rate is 41 percent for female not on campus, you can’t really partici- elevators — there are all sorts of issues.” female. engineers compared to the overall SOE pate as a student,” Stevenson said at a Many houses also have lead paint, which Beyond that, Tufts boasts a 99 per- acceptance rate of 34 percent. TAAM meeting. makes them unsafe for toddlers, he cent four-year graduation rate for its Tufts also makes an effort to attract Beyond that, transportation and long said. female engineers, according to Davies. female engineering faculty. The SOE commutes are an issue, according to Perceptions of Tufts’ image, he said, This is particularly important has nearly doubled the national aver- Interim Director of the Women’s Center have nothing to do with the administra- because, according to Abriola, one age for female engineering faculty Susan Gilbert. tion’s stance. “I think that it should be reason that the national percentage of members, Abriola said. “Transportation is one of the biggest the university’s interest to provide any female engineers is so low is that many challenges. Many of the mothers are “get discouraged and drop out.” see ENGINEERS, page 2 living at home, and therefore must com- see MOTHERS, page 2 Campus Center brings Sex Fair back Curtatone elected mayors’ BY LAURA HILL Contributing Writer organization president Visitors to the Mayer Campus Center on Valentine’s Day opened BY JEREMY WHITE prospect of a new face in the the door to discover phallic bal- Daily Editorial Board governor’s office gives heart- loons, condom roses and a “vulva ening news to members who wishing tree,” which were deco- Supported by a strong back- criticize a rift that grew under rations for the “Sex Fair,” hosted ing for his progressive-minded former governor Mitt Romney. by VOX: Voices for Choice. leadership, Somerville mayor “I think, first and foremost, “The goal of the Sex Fair is to Joseph A. Curtatone was cho- this year will be to re-establish create a dialogue about sex on sen Jan. 13 to be the 2007 a strong working relationship campus,” senior and VOX mem- president of the Massachusetts between the cities and com- ber Megan Ault said. Mayors’ Association (MMA). munities of Massachusetts and Ault ran the masturbation The MMA, a subgroup of the governor,” Beckwith said. table, which was the most popu- the Massachusetts Municipal “[Romney] had delegated out lar booth at the fair, according to Association, provides a forum the responsibility of dealing VOX co-president senior Chelsea for the state’s mayors to con- with municipal issues, and Toder. front issues affecting their cit- with the occasional exception “People are a lot more enthu- ies and offer collective solu- was not fully engaged in work- siastic than I thought they’d be,” tions, Executive Director of ing with mayors on a regular Ault said. the Massachusetts Municipal basis.” The fair featured a world map Association Geoffrey Beckwith Curtatone stressed this dete- on which students could mark said. riorating relationship when the different locations they have “The association includes all he endorsed Deval Patrick in had sex, and another map, enti- of the mayors of the common- the 2006 gubernatorial race tled “Where have you touched wealth who meet on a regular because, according to him, yourself at Tufts?” Ault said that basis with a common agenda Patrick represents a golden the masturbation map helped to strengthen the cities and opportunity for progress. include a wider range of people. communities of the state,” he “Part of the excitement is “You don’t necessarily have to said. working in this atmosphere of be sexually active to participate At the MMA’s annual meet- hope and opportunity with the and feel involved,” she said. ing, a group of Curtatone’s new administration and work- Student turnout was high peers chose him to lead for the ing together to achieve a true ANNIE WERMIEL/TUFTS DAILY despite the inclimate weather. “In Displays like this at the fair yesterday aimed to inform students about sex. duration of 2007. partnership between the state some ways, maybe [the weather] According to Beckwith, this government and the munici- helped turnout,” sophomore contributed by running booths There’s something for everyone.” position puts him at the fore- palities,” he said. Morissa Sobelson said. “People that covered a wide variety of Sobelson worked at the HIV/ front of a host of issues includ- Curtatone also hopes that want to go somewhere warm and issues. AIDS collaborative and distrib- ing reducing reliance on the his visibility as president of the cozy — why not the Sex Fair?” Visitors could learn about uted AIDS awareness ribbons. property tax and finding a way MMA will help catalyze chang- According to Toder, VOX head- “reproductive rights or choice The Tufts Anthropology to combat high housing costs. es at the state level similar to ed up the fair and several other or sexual health,” Toder said. Although the MMA is a campus clubs and organizations “There’s an AIDS collective. see SEX, page 2 nonpartisan organization, the see CURTATONE, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections ‘C’ IS FOR COOKIE CALL ME EZRA News 1 Viewpoints 9 And Tina Ye’s cookies are good Tufts’ own Ezra Furman enough for the Daily and the Harpoons land Features 3 Comics 11 a record deal Weekender 5Classifieds 13 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see WEEKENDER, page 5 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Thursday, February 15, 2007 WORLD IN BRIEF COMMUNIST PARTY TO NOMI- Special interest housing might be a solution for mothers NATE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN RUSSIA MOTHERS stigma on campus.