Tufts University

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"Tufts" redirects here. For people named Tufts, see Tufts (surname).
Tufts University
Motto: Pax et Lux
(Peace and Light)
Established: 1852
Type: Private
Endowment: $1.5 billion[1]
President: Lawrence S. Bacow
Provost: Jamshed Bharucha
Faculty: 583
Undergraduates: 4,995[2]
Postgraduates: 4,300
Location: Medford/Somerville/Boston, MA, USA
Campus: Urban/Suburban
Colors: Brown      and blue     
Mascot: Jumbo
Affiliations: NESCAC
Website: www.tufts.edu

Tufts University is a private research university in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. The university is home to the nation's oldest graduate school of international relations, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

In 1852, Tufts College was founded by Universalists who had for years worked to open a non-sectarian institution of higher learning.[3] Charles Tufts donated the land for the campus on Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford, saying that he wanted to set a "light on the hill." The name was changed to "Tufts University" in 1954, although the corporate name remains "the Trustees of Tufts College." After over a century as a small New England liberal arts college, the French-American nutritionist Jean Mayer became president of Tufts in the late 1970s and, through a series of rapid acquisitions, transformed the school into an international research university.[4]

Tufts is organized into 10 schools,[5] including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France. The university emphasizes public service in all of its disciplines[6] and is well-known for internationalism and its study abroad programs.[7]

Contents

[edit] History

Walnut Hill as it appeared prior to the construction of Tisch Library and steps, circa 1910. The road to the right no longer exists.
Walnut Hill as it appeared prior to the construction of Tisch Library and steps, circa 1910. The road to the right no longer exists.

Charles Tufts was the donor of the land the university now occupies on the Medford-Somerville line. The twenty-acre plot, given to the Universalist church on the condition that it be used for a college, was valued at $20,000 and located on one of the highest hills in the Boston area, Walnut Hill. In 1852, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chartered Tufts College. Having been one of the biggest influences in the establishment of the College, Hosea Ballou II became the first president in 1853.

P.T. Barnum was one of the earliest benefactors of Tufts College, and the Barnum Museum of Natural History was constructed in 1884 with funds donated by him. On April 14, 1975, fire gutted Barnum Hall; the collection housed in the building was completely lost, including numerous animal specimens, Barnum's desk and bust, and the stuffed hide of Jumbo the elephant.

On July 15, 1892, the Board of Trustees voted to admit women to Tufts College.

The university experienced tremendous growth during the presidency of Jean Mayer (1976–1992).[8] Mayer was, by all accounts, some combination of "charming, witty, duplicitous, ambitious, brilliant, intellectual, opportunistic, generous, vain, slippery, loyal, possessed of an inner standard of excellence, and charismatic".[9] Mayer established Tufts' veterinary, nutrition, and biomedical schools and acquired the Grafton and Talloires campuses, at the same time lifting the university out of its dire financial situation by increasing the size of the endowment by a factor of 15.[8]

[edit] Recent developments

Tufts received a gift of $136 million, the largest in the university's history, on April 9, 2008 upon the dissolution of a charitable trust set up by 1911 alumnus Frank C. Doble. As an unrestricted gift, the donation was invested entirely in the university's endowment.[10][11] The investment will help finance the construction of a lab complex integrating biology and engineering, already in the planning stages, which will bear Doble's name.[12]

Tufts is in the midst of a capital campaign, entitled Beyond Boundaries, with the intent of raising $1.2 billion and fully implementing need-blind admission.[13] Previously, the university had received the three largest donations in its history during 2005 and 2006. On 4 November 2005, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam donated $100 million to Tufts to establish the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund.[14] On 12 May 2006, Jonathan Tisch gave $40 million to endow the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, which now bears his name.[15] The veterinary school was named in honor of William S. Cummings after a $50 million donation to the school in 2005. On September 4, 2007, it was announced that Steve Tisch had donated $10 million to support a $30-million athletics and fitness facilities expansion planned to begin in late 2008. In addition, the Jaharis Family Foundation donated $15 million to renovate the Sackler Center for Health Communications and build a new campus center for the Boston campus and medical school.[16]

In August 2006, Tufts subsidiary TUDC, LLC and development partner Hines Interests LP secured approval to build a 621-foot tower atop Boston's South Station. The complex, designed by César Pelli, was conceived by Jean Mayer in 1991 as a medical research hub. Construction is expected to begin sometime in 2008 and is an example of transit-oriented development.[17][18]

[edit] Campuses

[edit] Greater Boston

View of Boston from the public area on the Tisch library roof
View of Boston from the public area on the Tisch library roof

[edit] Satellite facilities

  • Tufts has a satellite campus in Talloires, France at the Tufts European Center, a former Benedictine priory built in the 11th century. The priory was purchased in 1958 by Donald MacJannet and his wife Charlotte and used as a summer camp site for several years before the MacJannets gave the campus to Tufts in 1978. Each year the center hosts a number of summer study programs, and enrolled students live with local families. The site is frequently the host of international conferences and summits.

[edit] Academic profile

[edit] Rankings

Tufts' undergraduate program was ranked #28 overall in U.S. News & World Report's 2008 rankings of national universities,[19] tied for #102 in Shanghai Jiao Tong University's 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities,[20] and tied for #159 in the Times Higher Education 2007 World University Rankings.[21] The institution is also categorized as a "Doctoral/Research Extensive" institution by the Carnegie Foundation.

In the Princeton Review's 2006 Best 361 Colleges, Tufts was named #7 in a list of the 20 schools in the country where students are happiest, and #17 in a list of the 20 schools in the country with the best food. Typically, 96-97% of first year students return for their sophomore year.

[edit] Admissions

In the 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report's National Universities ranking, Tufts tied Cornell University as the 15th most selective university.

Tufts accepted 25% of applicants to its undergraduate Class of 2012, a 3% decrease from the previous year's admissions rate.[22] Eighty-three percent of incoming freshmen ranked in the top 10% of their high school class.

In selecting the Class of 2010, Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg added experimental criteria to the application process for undergraduates to test "creativity and other non-academic factors." Calling it the "first major university to try such a departure from the norm," Inside Higher Ed also notes that Tufts continues to consider the SAT and other traditional criteria.[23][24]

[edit] Organization

Tufts University comprises eight schools including:[25]

Each school has its own faculty and is lead by a dean appointed by the president and the provost with the consent of the Board of Trustees. In addition, the university is affiliated with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the New England Conservatory of Music.

The School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering are the only schools that award both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The Jackson College for Women, established in 1910 as a coordinate college adjacent to the Tufts campus, was integrated with the College of Liberal Arts in 1980, but is recognized in the formal name of the undergraduate arts and sciences division, the "College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College". Undergraduate women in arts and sciences continued to receive their diplomas from Jackson College until 2002.

The Fletcher School, the School of Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, the School of Dental Medicine, the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine are exclusively graduate and professional schools. All of these schools, with the exception of dental medicine, award the Ph.D.

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service was founded in 2000 "to educate for active citizenship" with the help of a $10 million gift from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. In 2006 the school was renamed after a $40 million dollar gift from Jonathan Tisch. It has been called the "most ambitious attempt by any research university to make public service part of its core academic mission."[26] Tisch College does not grant degrees; the college facilitates and supports a wide range of community service and civil engagement programs, research and teaching initiatives across the university.

Under the purview of the School of Arts and Sciences is the Experimental College, a non-degree granting entity created in 1964 as a proving ground for innovative, experimental, and interdisciplinary curricula and courses. By far, the most successful component of the Ex College is EPIIC, a year-long program begun in 1985 to immerse students in a global issue which culminates in an annual symposium of scholars and experts from the field.

[edit] Culture and student life

A fixture on the Medford campus is a replica of a cannon taken from the deck of the USS Constitution, donated to the university by the city of Medford in 1956.[27] Since 1977, it has been used by student groups and individual students who paint advertisements, political statements, birthday greetings, and other messages on the cannon under the cover of night. Painting the cannon is a competitive activity; students must guard their handiwork or risk of having their message painted over by a rival group before dawn.[28]

Football players pose with Jumbo in 1935. Jumbo was destroyed by fire in 1975.
Football players pose with Jumbo in 1935. Jumbo was destroyed by fire in 1975.

The Tufts school mascot is Jumbo the elephant, in honor of a major donation from circus owner P.T. Barnum in 1882. While Barnum gave the skeleton of the animal to the American Museum of Natural History, the stuffed remains of Jumbo were put on display in the basement of Barnum Hall until the building burned down in 1974. The alleged ashes of Jumbo currently reside in a peanut butter jar in the athletic director's office. A large plaster-statue elephant, Jumbo II, now sits on the academic quad.

The Tufts Community Union funds a number of student groups, and some 150 are recognized by the university. The Leonard Carmichael Society, an umbrella organization for community and public service projects, is the largest student group at Tufts, comprising a volunteer corps of over 1,000 and a staff of eighty-five.

[edit] Traditions

  • The Naked Quad Run takes place just before fall finals, where several hundred students unwind by stripping and running circuit around the Rez Quad. Most students run naked, but some wear costumes such as capes or shrink wrap.
  • A concert known as Spring Fling takes place in the spring semester immediately before final exams on the President's Lawn; acts over the past several years have included the Dropkick Murphys, The Roots, T.I., and Tufts alumni Guster.
  • The night before Spring Fling, the Tuftonia's Day fireworks take place on the Rez Quad.
  • The Tufts Mountain Club famously "pumpkins" the campus on the night before Halloween, placing pumpkins in prominent and increasingly absurd locations such as atop buildings and statues. Although the ritual is over 75 years old, the TMC has never officially taken credit for it.

[edit] Athletics

Tufts is a member of the Division III National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), which includes Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Williams, and Wesleyan. Tufts does not offer athletic scholarships. Men's and women's squash and coed and women's sailing are the only Division I sports at the school. The sailing team won the 2001 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Dinghy National Championship and won more championships in the 1990s than any other team. Men's Squash maintains a top 20 Division I national ranking.[29]

The Tufts football program is one of the oldest in the country. The 1,000th game in team history was played during the 2006 season. Historians point[30] to a Tufts versus Harvard game in 1875 as the first game of College Football between two American colleges using American football rules.[31]

In 1943, the Boston Red Sox used the Tufts athletic facilities during spring training due to gasoline rationing limiting the team's travel.[32]

[edit] Sustainability

Tufts University is a signatory to, and originator of the Talloires Declaration, an international campus sustainability agreement.[33] In 1999, the university pledged to meet or beat Kyoto Protocol targets and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.[34] Because of its efforts in areas like climate change, energy efficiency, local food, and recycling, Tufts received a “B+” grade from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its 2008 college sustainability report card.[35]

[edit] Campus media and publications

  • Tufts Daily, the daily student newspaper and the most prominent source of news for the last two decades; the Daily is notable for its financial independence, receiving no funding from the student activities fee.
  • Tufts Observer, a weekly newsmagazine and the oldest student organization on campus, having been founded in 1895 as the university's first student newspaper.
  • The Primary Source, a journal of conservative thought.
  • Zamboni, a humor and satire magazine.
  • Tufts Traveler, a travel journal founded in 2005.
  • WMFO (91.5 FM Medford) is freeform radio operated by students and community volunteers since 1970; the station broadcasts 365 days a year and operates out of Curtis Hall.
  • TUTV, the campus television station, operated by Tufts students in partnership with the Ex College.
  • JumboCast, a student-run broadcast group that specializes in streaming Tufts events live over the internet via webcast.
  • Hemispheres, since 1976 one of the few undergraduate journals dedicated to international relations in the United States.
  • Public Journal, an alternative literary magazine, founded in 2005, which focuses on publishing found literature.
  • Outbreath, a literary magazine which publishes short stories, poems, one-act plays, and photography.
  • Melisma, a journal of independent music and culture founded in 2004.
  • Tuftscope, an interdisciplinary journal of health, ethics, and policy founded in 2001.

[edit] Notable alumni and staff

Main article: List of Tufts University people

Tufts alumni are prominent in government and media, as well as business and academic disciplines. New Mexico Governor and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, television personality Meredith Vieira, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt, Indian actress Amisha Patel, Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon count Tufts as their alma mater.

Notable Tufts academics include philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, biologist Barry Trimmer, Nobel Prize recipient Allan M. Cormack (1924 – 1998) and retired Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Martin J. Sherwin.

[edit] Tufts references in popular culture

Main article: Tufts University in popular culture

Tufts alumni in the media have been known to write characters as students of Tufts or a thinly-veiled substitute, such as the title characters of the TV series Two Guys and a Girl and the lead character of Christopher Golden's Body of Evidence mystery novels. Fictional doctors who cite Tufts School of Medicine as their alma mater include the title character from Crossing Jordan and Dr. Jennifer Melfi from The Sopranos. The Elaine Benes character on the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld mentions she went to Tufts.

In addition, because of both the school's suburban ambience and proximity to Boston, it has been used as a filming location to represent the generic New England liberal arts college. Footage of the campus has appeared in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Next Karate Kid, and the 1968 film Charly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Johnson, Eric C. Email to author. 9 April 2008.
  2. ^ USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2008: Tufts University: At a glance
  3. ^ Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History "Tufts University, 1852"
  4. ^ Gittleman, Sol. (November 2004) An Entrepreneurial University: The Transformation Of Tufts, 1976-2002. Tufts University, ISBN 1-58465-416-3.
  5. ^ Bylaws of the Trustees of Tufts College, Article VI, sec. 6.1
  6. ^ Bacow, Lawrence S. "How Universities Can Teach Public Service." The Boston Globe. 15 October 2005.
  7. ^ Kantrowitz, Barbara. "America's Hot 25 Schools." Newsweek Kaplan College Guide.
  8. ^ a b McFadden, Robert D. "Jean Mayer, 72, Nutritionist Who Led Tufts, Dies." The New York Times. January 2, 1993.
  9. ^ Gittleman, Sol. "The Accidental President." Tufts Magazine, Winter 2005.
  10. ^ Russonello, Giovanni. "Tufts receives largest gift in university history." The Tufts Daily, April 9, 2008.
  11. ^ The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Tufts, Lesley Receive Big Gift
  12. ^ New building to integrate biology, engineering - News
  13. ^ [1] Chronicle of Higher Education.
  14. ^ Hopkins, Jim. "Ebay founder takes lead in social entrepreneurship." USA Today, 3 November 2005.
  15. ^ Tisch announces $40 million gift to Tufts University. Boston Globe. 12 May 2006.
  16. ^ E-mail sent from President Bacow to campus students, faculty and staff on September 4, 2007 at 1:18pm EST.
  17. ^ [2]
  18. ^ South Station's mega-makeover - The Boston Globe
  19. ^ America's Best Colleges 2008: National Universities. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  20. ^ Top 500 World University (101-202). Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  21. ^ World University Rankings 2007. Times Higher Education (2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  22. ^ Tufts receives record number of applicants. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  23. ^ Jaschik, Scott (2006). A "Rainbow" Approach to Admissions. Inside Higher Ed, July 6, 2006.
  24. ^ McAnerny, Kelly (2005). From Sternberg, a new take on what makes kids Tufts-worthy. Tufts Daily, November 15, 2005.
  25. ^ Bylaws of the Trustees of Tufts College, Article VI, sec. 6.1
  26. ^ Bombardieri, Marcella. At Tufts, civic engagement stretches across the globe. Boston Globe, 14 March 2004.
  27. ^ The cannon arrives on campus, 1956
  28. ^ Tufts Magazine Winter 2006
  29. ^ Athletics Department - Tufts University
  30. ^ Gridiron gridlock - The Boston Globe
  31. ^ Smith, R.A. "Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics", New York: Oxford University Press, 1988
  32. ^ Boston Red Sox spring training history: from 1901 to 2003. | Sports & Recreation > Sports, Games & Outdoor Recreation from AllBusiness.com
  33. ^ Sustainability @ Tufts. Tufts Climate Initiative. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  34. ^ Tufts Climate Initiative. Tufts Climate Initiative. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  35. ^ College Sustainability Report Card 2008. Sustainable Endowments Institute. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.

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