Odds and ends: Justice Sotomayor at Tufts, Mapping Futures, and student activities at Fletcher

Lots going on this week, as is typical with students settled in to classes and the semester in full swing. On Wednesday we welcomed our latest cohort of Map Your Future (MYF) students to Fletcher at our annual MYF pizza lunch. MYF students get admitted to Fletcher right around the time they finish undergrad, but only matriculate after working for two or three years to gain experience. This has quickly become one of my favorite Admissions events, since it involves both lots of food and little required preparation or formal presentation. Mostly, though, it’s fun to get to know this group a bit better, since we’ve been working with them as long as 5 years, in some cases. As usual, they’re an impressive bunch who have lots of professional perspective to contribute to Fletcher.

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to attend a talk on campus by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Though the event was free to Tufts community members, tickets were in high demand, and I feel fortunate to have successfully navigated the digital scrum last week to snag one. Justice Sotomayor revealed that she is not a fan of sitting up on a dais for extended periods (an inconvenient irony, given her position), and I suspect her security detail had to be particularly on its toes as she wandered throughout the audience during Q&A, stopping for the occasional selfie and hug with Tufts students. Justice Sotomayor spoke to the importance of civil discourse both on the Court and in our broader politics, and of the Court’s need for greater experiential diversity in its composition (noting that, among the nine members, none has experience in environmental or criminal law, and only one – Justice Ginsberg – has a background in civil rights law).

Today is also the student activities fair here at Fletcher, which I wrote about last year. I always enjoy a wander through the fair to be reminded of the sheer number and variety of student organizations in the community. They range from wonky to a bit wacky (glad to see you back up and running, Fletcher Fermentation Club!), and encompass a wide enough variety of interests that most Fletcher students find themselves drawn to at least a couple. Students have plenty of opportunity throughout their time at Fletcher to get involved in these organizations, but it’s helpful to have a chance early in the academic year to browse them en masse (and for groups to have a chance to recruit new membership, as turnover is significant year to year). Looks like another busy year in the making for a lot of student organizations.