Anne Wermiel / Tufts Daily
Extreme makeover Tufts edition: campus improvements
Generous donations sought by Bacow have enabled extensive construction and renovation on Tufts campuses.
University Trustee Bernard Gordon gave a gift of $10 million, making possible the environmentally friendly Sophia Gordon Hall, now a favorite living option among seniors.
Completed in 2006, the residence hall was the first at Tufts to be built along Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, and uses approximately 30 percent less energy and water than normal buildings.
The Granoff Music Center, which opened in February 2007, was supported by a gift from University Trustee Marty Granoff and his wife Perry. The state-of-the-art facility is home to the music program and Distler Performance Hall, and it hosts over 180 concerts and events annually.
In the same year, producer and New York Giants executive Steve Tisch (A ‘71) committed $10 million for the expansion of Cousens Gym and athletic facilities.
Tisch Library has experienced significant changes during Bacow's tenure, including the creation of the Tower Café.
The library roof, renamed Alex's Place in 2009 in honor of former Tufts student Alex Mandell, has benefitted from public planning initiatives. Bacow believes the presence of the redesigned space will help create a stronger sense of community for students.
The newly renovated Packard Hall, now the home of the political science department, is the latest in the series of changes on the Medford/Somerville campus.
Improvements have been made on other campuses too, including the landmark addition of five additional floors to the 10-story School of Dental Medicine, completed in 2009.
Rebekah Sokol / Tufts Daily
Expanding the network: connecting students and alumni
Bacow has made strengthening Tufts' alumni network by connecting alumni to students and the university through improved resources and communication one of the priorities of his tenure.
The Tufts alumni network has expanded its regional programming for alumni, and the alumni chapter program has grown fourfold, from 15 in 2001 to 68 chapters worldwide today.
With the launch of the Tufts Entrepreneurial Network in 2009, there are now 21 alumni shared interest groups, compared to three in 2001. Additionally, more than 40,000 alumni have now joined the Tufts online community.
Tufts has also improved its alumni communications through various media, such as the Tufts Magazine, which has received many national awards for its content and design.
Bacow believes that these advances have helped strengthen the relationship between alumni and the university.
"Our alumni are a wonderful resource for the university," he said. "Connecting them to current students helps students, but also gives our alumni that many more reasons to be involved."
Anne Wermiel / Tufts Daily
Town-gown relations on the upswing: improving community relations
Tufts under Bacow's direction has strengthened its relationships with its host communities through both community initiatives and Tufts-sponsored programs.
In 2004 the university created a partnership with Medford and Somerville to support — among other programs — economic development, housing and open space, pledging $1.25 million over the next 10 years to each city.
This partnership marked the culmination of a several-year-long effort to improve community relations.
The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in 2002 started the Shape Up Somerville project, which has helped improve the health of the Somerville community through research and a citywide fitness campaign.
The inaugural Tufts Community Day took place in 2003 in an effort to promote interaction with surrounding neighborhoods. Tufts now annually invites neighbors and town residents to participate in a day of musical performances, food, presentations and celebration.
Daily File Photo
Leveling the playing field: keeping Tufts financially accessible
Tufts has retained its commitment to increasing financial aid for students despite trying economic times.
Bacow has made making Tufts more financially accessible a major priority, and the university has been making steady progress toward a completely need-blind admissions policy.
This has been helped by the almost-complete Beyond Boundaries capital campaign, a $1.2 billion fundraising effort to increase the endowment that began in 2006.
Tufts managed to offer completely need-blind admissions for the Classes of 2011 and 2012.
The financial crisis last year dealt this goal a setback, forcing the suspension of need-blind admissions for the Class of 2013 toward the end of the admission process. However, 95 percent of the applicant pool was still reviewed need-blind.
There has also been a significant increase in the number of Pell grant recipients enrolling at Tufts. The Class of 2011 experienced a 60 percent increase over the Class of 2010 in the number of recipients, with a total of 162.
Beginning with the Class of 2011, Tufts replaced loans with grants for students with household incomes of under $40,000.
Tufts in 2008 also instituted the Loan Repayment Assistance Program for graduates employed in the public service and not-for-profit sectors to assist in the payment of educational loans incurred at Tufts.
"I'm really proud of the progress that we've made in making Tufts more accessible," Bacow said.
Anne Wermiel / Tufts Daily
Money, money, money: fundraising for Tufts
Bacow's tenure as university president has seen unprecedented levels of donations to the school, as well as significant strides in fundraising for two capital campaigns.
From fiscal year 2002 through December 2009, the university's endowment grew to $1.26 billion, an increase of nearly 86 percent.
The five largest gifts donated during Bacow's tenure amount to $366 million, all of which have gone toward increasing financial aid in all schools and improving the student experience.
Throughout his term, Tufts has received landmark donations, such as the Cummings Foundation's 2004 commitment to investing $50 million in the School of Veterinary Medicine, Pierre (E '88) and Pam (LA '89) Omidyar's 2005 gift of $100 million to Tufts to create the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund and Jonathan Tisch's (LA ‘76) 2006 gift of $40 million to endow the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
The first two gifts were, at the time of their donation, the largest in the history of the university.
More recently, Tufts in 2008 received $136 million from trusts the late Frank C. Doble (A ‘11) created. The gift, which supports the Schools of Arts, Sciences and Engineering again set a record for the largest charitable gift in the university's history.
Near the beginning of Bacow's presidency in 2002, Tufts completed the Tufts Tomorrow campaign, which raised over $609 million for teaching, scholarships and improvements to campus life.
Bacow has also seen considerable success with Beyond Boundaries: The Campaign for Tufts, which launched in 2006 with the goal of raising $1.2 billion for students, faculty, research facilities and programs in citizenship and public service.
The campaign in 2009 surpassed $1 billion in donations from over 117,000 parents, alumni, friends, foundations and corporations, and recently reached $1.05 billion, bringing it close to completion.
Chair of the Board of Trustees James Stern said that fundraising under Bacow has been "extraordinary" and an integral "part of his strategy when he came to the university."
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Inching away from the red: steering through the recession
Tufts has endured the economic recession better than many peer institutions, in large part due to Bacow's guidance and leadership.
"I think it's fair to say that Tufts weathered the financial storm of 2008 and 2009 better than most," Chair of the Board of Trustees James Stern said. "A number of our competitor schools are still feeling the pinch."
Bacow, an economist by training, has stressed the need for universities to reduce the risk of their endowment investments.
The university's advanced financial planning model helped Tufts continue to increase financial aid and preserve employment during the recession, according to a press release from Kim Thurler, director of public relations.
Although the economic crisis forced the university to hold or slow down some projects — including the expansion of athletic facilities — drastic cuts in funding and employment that took place at other institutions have been largely avoided.
In an e-mail to the Tufts community in September, Bacow announced that the university managed to balance its budget for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. In addition, the university's budget absorbed the full extent of the 25 percent endowment decline.
Bacow has advocated financial stability and judiciousness during his tenure, leading the school with the motto: "A University Poised."
"I think we've tried to be very prudent in the initiatives that we've undertaken," Bacow told the Daily. "We have not bitten off more than we can chew and that's why we're in relatively good shape."
Bacow indicated his satisfaction with the steps the university has taken to steer its way through the financial crisis.
"Another thing that I'm really, really proud of is that we've been able to navigate our way through this recession with minimal if any impact on our students," he said.
The university responded quickly to the impacts of the recession with measures like salary freezes and continued to maintain open communication with students and staff about the Tufts' financial circumstances.
Although the recession hit the endowment, there has been a remarkable response in giving with record fundraising, and the endowment is on the road to recovery.
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Loving Larry: the people's president
One of Bacow's enduring legacies will be his availability and visibility on campus. Students have embraced the president and his wife Adele Fleet Bacow, evident in graduating students' chants of "Larry, Larry" at every Commencement.
Known for serving hot chocolate to students sledding down the president's lawn and doling out pancakes during reading period, Bacow is also a frequent attendee of student performances and programs.
He also launched the first-ever President's Marathon Challenge team for the Boston Marathon, which raises funds for medical research and unites members of the Tufts community through training and volunteering. He himself has completed the marathon four times.
Bacow regularly trains with members of the team and calls it one of the things he will miss most about being at Tufts.
"One thing that has become a big part of my life is the marathon challenge, just running with everybody all the time," he told the Daily. "I may come back from time to time to run with people."
Bacow also advises freshmen and sophomores and began the tradition of hosting senior dinners, in which he invites all graduating students to Gifford House. He estimates that close to 9,000 people pass through the doors of his house each year.
