Tufts University

Tufts University
Motto	Pax et Lux
Motto in English	Peace and Light
Established	1852
Type	Private
Endowment	$1.11 Billion [1]
President	Lawrence S. Bacow
Provost	Jamshed Bharucha
Academic staff	1,210[2]
Undergraduates	5,016[2]
Postgraduates	4,773[2]
Location	Medford/Somerville, MA, USA
Campus	Urban
Colors	Brown      and blue
Mascot	Jumbo
Affiliations	NESCAC
Website	Tufts.edu

Tufts College, 1853.

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 ten 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]

History

19th century

In 1852, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chartered Tufts College, noting the college should promote "virtue and piety and learning in such of the languages and liberal and useful arts as shall be recommended." 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. Having been one of the biggest influences in the establishment of the College, Hosea Ballou II became the first president in 1853, and College Hall, the first building on campus, was completed the following year.^[8]

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 to house his collection of animal specimens and the stuffed hide of Jumbo the elephant, who would would become the university's mascot. The building stood until April 14, 1975, when fire gutted Barnum Hall, destroying the entire collection.

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

On July 15, 1892, the Tufts Board of Trustees voted "that the College be opened to women in the undergraduate departments on the same terms and conditions as men." At the same meeting, the trustees voted to create a graduate school faculty and to offer the Ph.D. degree in biology and chemistry.

20th century

Tufts expanded in the 1930s with the opening of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the first graduate school of international affairs in the United States and a collaboration with Harvard University. In 1955, continued expansion was reflected in the change of the school's name to Tufts University.^[9]

The university experienced tremendous growth during the presidency of Jean Mayer (1976–1992).^[10] 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."^[11] 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.^[10]

Tufts is currently in the midst of a capital campaign entitled Beyond Boundaries, with the goal of raising $1.2 billion and implementing full need-blind admission by 2011.^[12] As of February 22, 2010, the campaign had raised $1.05 billion.^[13] Tufts has received the largest donations in its history since 2005, including a $136 million bequeathment to its endowment upon the dissolution of a charitable trust set up by 1911 alumnus Frank C. Doble,^[14][15] a $100 million gift from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar to establish the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund,^[16] and a number of $40 million-plus gifts to specific schools.^[17][18][19]

Campuses

The University has four main campuses—three in the Boston area and one in southern France.

Greater Boston

Tufts' main campus is located on Walnut Hill in Medford, about 5 miles (8 km) from Boston. While the majority of the campus is in Medford, the Somerville line intersects it, placing parts of the lower campus in Somerville and leading to the common terms "Uphill" and "Downhill." Many points on the hill have noted views of the Boston skyline, particularly the patio on the Tisch Library roof. The offices of the president, the provost, and several vice presidents and deans are located in Ballou Hall, and administrative offices occupy the surrounding neighborhoods and nearby Davis Square, where Tufts makes payments in lieu of taxes on some of its tax-exempt (educational) properties.^[20]

The Schools of Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Dental Medicine, and the Friedman School of Nutrition are located on a campus in the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston, adjacent to Tufts Medical Center, a 451-bed academic medical institution. All full-time Tufts Medical Center physicians hold clinical faculty appointments at Tufts School of Medicine.

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is located in Grafton, Massachusetts, west of Boston, on a 634-acre (2.57 km²) campus. The school also maintains the Ambulatory Farm Clinic in Woodstock, Connecticut and the Tufts Laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole on Cape Cod.

Talloires

The Tufts European Center on the Talloires campus

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.

Organization

Tufts University comprises ten schools including:^[5]

• The School of Arts and Sciences (1898 or 1903)
• The School of Engineering (1898)
• The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1933), America's oldest graduate school for international relations and foreign affairs
• The School of Dental Medicine (1899)
• The School of Medicine (1893), whose primary affiliated hospitals are the Tufts Medical Center and the Baystate Medical Center
• The College of Special Studies (1939), which awards the degree of bachelor of fine arts through a cooperative arrangement with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts
• The Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences (1981)
• The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (1981), the only graduate school of nutrition in North America, with the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center
• The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (1978), the only veterinary school in New England
• The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service (2000)

Each school has its own faculty and is led 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.

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 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. The school was renamed in 2006 after a $40 million 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."^[21] Tisch College does not grant degrees; the college facilitates and supports a wide range of community service, 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.

The Crane Theological School was opened in 1869 and closed in 1968.

Academics

Rankings

Tufts' undergraduate school is ranked #28 overall on U.S. News & World Report's 2009–2010 rankings of national universities^[22] and #39 in Forbes' list of America's Best Colleges.^[23] The university ranks #101 in Shanghai Jiao Tong University's 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities^[24] and #157 in the Times Higher Education 2008 World University Rankings.^[25] Tufts' Medical School and Research Institute are ranked #33 and #44, respectively, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2010 rankings of Best Medical Schools in primary care and research,^[26] and the Sackler School likewise ranks #56 in their rankings of Best Graduate Schools, Biological Sciences.^[27] Tufts is counted among the "Little Ivies" and was named by Newsweek as one of the "25 New Ivies."^[28] In The Princeton Review's 2010–2011 "Best 363 Colleges," Tufts was ranked #14 for the happiest students and its study abroad program was ranked #3 in the country.^[29][30]

Admissions

In the 2010 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Tufts ranked as one of the top 20 most selective schools among national universities in the United States.^[31] Tufts accepted 24.5% of 15,437 applicants to its undergraduate class of 2014, the lowest since 2001.^[32] For the matriculating class of 2014, ninety-one percent of incoming freshmen rank in the top 10% of their high school class (up one percent from the previous year).^[33] The class of 2013 had an average SAT score is 2176.^[34] Tufts expects approximately one-third of its admitted students to enroll.^[35]

In 2006, Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg added experimental criteria to the application process for undergraduates to test "creativity and other non-academic factors," including inviting applicants to submit YouTube videos to supplement their application.^[36] 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.^[37][38]

Libraries

The Tufts University Library System contains over three million volumes. The main library, Tisch Library, holds about 2.5 million volumes, with other holdings dispersed at subject libraries including the Hirsh Health Sciences Library on the Medical campus in Boston, the Edwin Ginn Library at the Fletcher School, the Lilly Music Library in the Granoff Music Center, and Webster Library at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine on the Grafton campus.

Culture and student life

The Tufts cannon painted with birthday wishes

The Princeton Review has since 2005 listed Tufts in its "Best Campus Food" category, ranking it as high as second.^[39][40][41] The undergraduate student body is ethnically and socioeconomically diverse,^[42] despite a "notable amount of self-segregation."^[43] The Advocate ranks Tufts as one of the top 20 gay-friendly campuses.^[44] Over 150 student organizations dominate campus life, led prominently by a dozen a capella groups. The school is also home to a variety of longstanding traditions and celebrations, most notably the cannon on the Medford campus, which is frequently repainted overnight by individuals and student groups.

Notable alumni and faculty

Tufts alumni hold prominent positions in government, media, and business: eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, former Prime Minister of Greece Kostas Karamanlis, United States Senator Scott Brown, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, journalist and TV personality Meredith Vieira and The New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. count Tufts as their alma mater. Although Tufts does not have a business school or major, three alumni are CEOs of Fortune 50 firms: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, and DuPont CEO Ellen J. Kullman.

Notable Tufts faculty include philosopher Daniel Dennett, former American Psychological Association president Robert Sternberg, retired Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Martin J. Sherwin, and Nobel Prize recipient Allan M. Cormack (1924–1998).

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 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 on Crossing Jordan and Dr. Jennifer Melfi on The Sopranos. Elaine Benes from Seinfeld claims that she attended Tufts, calling it her "safety school," a common Tufts stereotype in the 1990s.

Because of both the school's suburban ambiance and proximity to Boston, it has been used as a filming location to represent New England liberal arts colleges. Footage of the campus has appeared in television series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Next Karate Kid, and Friday Night Lights, as well as the 1968 film Charly.

References

External links

• Official website