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University responds that it ‘will not limit’ student internships with U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton

Tufts University “will not limit” students’ internship opportunities with U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, the institution stated Tuesday after its political science department chair suggested otherwise in a comment to the lawmaker’s office last week.

Moulton, (pictured left) a Massachusetts Democrat, angered transgender advocates last week when he said he would not want his daughters to get “run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”

“… as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” Moulton said in a New York Times article.

The comment drew criticism from, among others, Professor David Art, (pictured right) who chairs the political science department at Tufts, a private university in Massachusetts.

In a phone call to the lawmaker’s office Friday, Art said his department would stop student internships with Moulton, according to the Boston Globe:

[The professor] “said he consulted with his colleagues and doesn’t want our office to contact Tufts about internships and they won’t facilitate internship opportunities for students with us.”

During an interview, Art was evasive about what exactly he said but told [the Globe] at one point “I definitely said other things in addition to that.” He said he emphasized the need for Moulton’s office to clarify its stance on Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in any schools receiving federal aid.

“[Tufts is] teaching their students that you can’t debate contentious issues. And that’s frightening. That sounds like China,” Moulton told [the Globe] in an interview. “This hurts the Tufts students that don’t meet their professors’ ideological purity tests,” he said. If Tufts can’t even accommodate an opinion shared by most Americans, how will it deal with Republican students? Moulton said he wondered “what will these professors do then?”

Responding Tuesday, Tufts University stated on X that the school will continue to work with Moulton.

“We have reached out to Congressman Moulton’s office to clarify that we have not–and will not–limit internship opportunities with his office,” the university wrote.

“We remain committed to fostering an inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives, and our Career Center will continue to provide students with a wide range of employment opportunities across the political and ideological spectrum,” it stated.

Moulton also reiterated his “authentic concerns about transgender women participating in competitive athletics” on Monday in a statement on Facebook.

“Sadly, too many fellow Democrats feel like there isn’t a place within our party for them to say certain things out loud – even when it’s a reasonable, majority opinion in our country,” he stated.

The lawmaker urged people to “stop canceling and start having these important conversations.”

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IMAGE: Tufts University, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton

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