2007-2008
Following the July 26 death of Professor of History Gerald Gill from arterial sclerosis, the Fares Center, the Department of History and Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha launched the Gerald R. Gill Lecture Series. Gill was a beloved member of the Tufts community and a well-respected figure in the fields of civil rights and black history. The series aimed to stimulate on-campus discussions about black history in honor of Gill's academic research, with Indiana University Professor Khalil Muhammad delivering the inaugural lecture on Feb. 25.
The summer was also marked by the untimely deaths of two recent alumni: Paul Farris (LA '06) and David Rawson (LA '07).
Crime was a prevailing theme on and off campus, most notably with the embezzlement of over $300,000 from student activity accounts. Then-Director of the Office of Student Activities (now Office for Campus Life) Jodie Nealley was subsequently fired for stealing the money and the university was forced to take a closer look at the way in which student funds are handled.
Somerville resident Nicholas Chacon in the fall was arraigned for five sexual assaults he committed in the area in April 2007, providing relief for members of the Tufts community. Conversely, the Tufts community was shocked to discover that Kenneth Hall, an employee in the Office of Residential Life and Learning, had been convicted as a sex offender and subsequently fired. In light of the previously mentioned crimes and a spate of armed robberies on campus, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate proposed changes to the university's police escort service. Public safety also gained attention as a central theme in then-sophomore Duncan Pickard's (LA '10) successful bid for the TCU presidency.
The year marked a significant milestone in regard to student financing. In a major move toward increased economic diversity, the university announced in January that all loans for students from families in the sub-$40,000 income bracket would be substituted for grants. Tufts additionally announced that it had been operating under an unofficial need-blind policy in part due to recent large gifts from alumni, and that the class of 2011 had been successfully admitted need-blind. The university introduced its Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which applies to alumni working in the nonprofit or public sectors and forgives all student loans.
The university's finances also received a marked boost in part due to a major gift from Frank Doble (E 1911) upon release of his trust fund. The Doble donation amounted to $136 million, the largest single gift in Tufts' history.
The Hill attracted the socially conscious rapper Common and the "Celtic punk" Boston-based Dropkick Murphys for Spring Fling. Co-host of NBC's "Today Show" and contributing anchor for Dateline NBC Meredith Vieira (J '75) delivered the commencement address to the class of 2008.
2008-2009
Concern about the worsening financial situation came to the forefront during the 2008-09 academic year. In November, University President Lawrence Bacow in an email to the Tufts community discussed the recession's effects on the university and the endowment in particular. Bacow predicted a 25 percent drop in the endowment; the figure was later increased to 35 percent. In response, the university was forced to make budget cuts across the board amounting to $36 million, as well as delay capital projects and lay off staff.
The university's financial situation faced another setback with news of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, of which Tufts was among many affected institutions. The university lost $20 million through 2005 investments made in the hedge fund Ascot Partners, Bacow announced in an email to the Tufts community.
Even amid financial turmoil, the university remained positive. Tufts upheld its commitment to meet the financial need of enrolled students and the financial aid office's budget saw a 12-percent increase in anticipation for increased need among Tufts families. The unofficial need-blind policy, however, was suspended.
Students received even better news when recovered funds from an embezzlement scandal were made available to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate for allocation at the start of the academic year. The Senate received $902,338 in response to the theft of student activity funds between 2001 and 2007 by former Director of the Office of Student Activities Jodie Nealley and former Office of Student Activities Budget and Fiscal Coordinator Ray Rodriguez.
After much deliberation during the fall semester, the Senate decided to allocate $87,780 to student groups, place $300,000 in a savings account and use some of the funds to repay debts. Controversy ensued, however, in the dispersal of the recovered funds. Tufts' student-run radio and TV stations, WMFO and TUTV, respectively, received funds without a hitch, but the Senate faced heavy criticism when it voted to allocate $230,000 to the Tufts Mountain Club for the construction of a new Trips Cabin near the Loj in New Hampshire. Student protest against the project specifically pointed to the Trip Cabin's off-campus location and limited benefit for the majority of the Tufts community.
Students did have good reason to flock to New Hampshire, as it turns out, because of the heavy canvassing that led up to the fall 2008 presidential election. Jumbos of every political persuasion traveled to the neighboring swing state to campaign for their respective candidates, and political organizations such as Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans — as well as nonpartisan groups Tufts Hillel and Tufts Votes — all sponsored initiatives to increase student turnout on Election Day. When the results finally poured in and Barack Obama was officially declared president, students flooded the Res Quad and Davis Square en masse, celebrating and singing patriotic songs.
Enthusiastic celebration continued at the annual Spring Fling concert, with performances by Ludacris, the Decembrists and Asher Roth. Irresponsible behavior, namely heavy drinking, led to a "mass casualty incident," as the number of students requiring medical attention overwhelmed the medical staff on duty and later forced administrators to examine the alcohol policies governing the concert.
Student behavior also manifested itself in negative ways when an intoxicated freshman harassed members of the Korean Students Association, uttering racial slurs and initiating a physical alteration. The student's actions led to a wider discussion about race on campus, peaking in an anti-bias rally on the Tisch library patio.
The Hill attracted a variety of notable speakers, including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), conservative activist David Horowitz and culinary aficionado Anthony Bourdain. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the Isaam M. Fares Lecture, in which he focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and "Hardball" host Chris Matthews spoke at the annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) addressed graduates at the Commencement ceremony.
2009-2010
This year was one of many changes to Tufts students' social lives. Students returned to campus in September to discover that the administration had implemented a more stringent alcohol policy: Underage students caught drinking would no longer simply receive a warning, but would be placed immediately on level-one disciplinary probation. (The policy would be reversed the following year.)
The three largest school-sponsored social events — Fall Ball, Winter Bash and Spring Fling — all underwent major changes. Fall Ball was made a ticketed event and attendance was capped at 2,500. Winter Bash was moved off-campus and students were charged $10 to attend in an attempt to reduce a perceived recklessness in alcohol consumption in previous years. Also in response to alcohol-related concerns and the previous year's mass casualty incident, students were for the first time barred from bringing alcohol to Spring Fling; OK Go and Drake performed.
In October, the I-Cruise organized by the International Club was cut short when overly intoxicated students led the boat captain to refuse to leave the mooring. In the wake of inappropriate conduct by intoxicated students at the first Senior Pub Night in September, the administration canceled the events for the rest of the semester. Pub Nights returned in the spring semester without major incident.
Tufts made national headlines — and late-night monologues — when the Daily reported in September that a new university guest policy for on-campus housing explicitly barred students from engaging in any sexual act while their roommates were present. The story was picked up by outlets from CNN and The New Yorker to Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.
But changes were not limited to the social realm. University President Lawrence Bacow on Feb. 8 announced his decision to step down from his post at the end of the 2010-11 academic year, completing a 10-year tenure. A 13-member Presidential Search Committee was subsequently formed and spent the semester consulting members of all of the campus communities in their search for Bacow's replacement. Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg left the university at the end of the academic year.
In November, the Board of Trustees adopted a Declaration on Freedom of Expression that was engendered by two controversial articles by The Primary Source, published the year before the class of 2011 arrived on campus, which had a deep impact on the Hill. The document praised access to freedom of expression and inquiry but said that those rights "are not absolute."
Mother Nature made her mark on the year as well. Tufts was not spared from the H1N1 flu epidemic; scores of students came down with the strain and were quarantined or sent home by the university in an attempt to stem the flu's spread. In the face of unanticipated demand for the H1N1 vaccine across the country, Health Service struggled to maintain sufficient supplies.
In the spring, abnormally heavy rains caused rampant flooding in residential and academic buildings across campus. A water main break on May 1 — the day of Spring Fling — made tap water on both the Medford/Somerville and Boston campuses undrinkable. A power outage in October left much of the Medford/Somerville campus in the dark for nearly an entire day; another blackout in January lasted three hours.
International tragedies also affected the campus. January and February earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, respectively, spared members of the Tufts community working and studying abroad; several student groups rallied to raise money and awareness for the two tragedies. A group of students from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy used crisis mapping to aid rescue and relief efforts in Haiti.
Financially, the university fared well. Bacow expressed optimism about Tufts' recovery from the financial crisis; his hallmark capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries, reached a key milestone of $1.05 billion; and the School of Engineering received $40 million from Trustee Emeritus Bernard Gordon (H '92).
2010-2011
Members of the class of 2011 returned to the Hill to the last year of an era at Tufts, as administrators across the university's schools and campuses prepared to depart. In November, the Daily reported that University of Oxford geneticist and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Anthony Monaco would replace Lawrence Bacow next year as university president.
A number of other senior administrators announced their intentions to leave Tufts with Bacow and the senior class. Among them was Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha, who in February announced that he would assume the position of president at The Cooper Union in New York City starting this July. Also informing the community that they would be stepping down at the end of academic year were Dean Robert Hollister of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Dean Eileen Kennedy of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Dean Lonnie Norris of the School of Dental Medicine. Ellen Zane, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center, announced that she would retire at the end of September.
Several policy changes went into effect. The university implemented at the start of the academic year a revised alcohol policy, scaling back what were considered overly harsh punitive measures, and a bolstered sexual assault judicial policy.
The Daily learned in March that the university would no longer sanction Naked Quad Run (NQR), the decades-old tradition in which students partook in a large-scale, clothing-free sprint around the Res Quad to celebrate the end of fall semester classes. The decision was reached in large part over concerns that the event, which has been characterized by the over-consumption of alcohol in recent years, could escalate to a student's death. In an op-ed in the Daily, Bacow wrote, "Even if I did not act now, NQR would end some day. The only question is whether a student has to die first." Reaction to the decision was divided, with some students seeing it as a prudent choice and others an overreaction.
Following the passage of a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate resolution in support of the creation of an Africana studies department, Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney in February launched a task force to consider integrating Africana studies into the Tufts curriculum; its findings are expected to be announced by September.
Later in the spring, roughly 40 students gathered on the Academic Quad during April Open House in support of the department and to inform prospective freshmen about the racial climate on campus. Many of them wore T-shirts reading either "Ask me about white privilege at Tufts" or "Ask me about being a student of color at Tufts," a move the Office of Undergraduate Admissions considered inappropriate for the event.
Another incident raised similar discussions. An African-American male in December was carrying a ratchet wrench on campus that was mistaken from afar as a handgun by a caller to the Tufts University Police Department. The incident prompted a poster campaign and conversations between students and administrators regarding race on campus.
Dining Services also enacted changes, ridding trays from the dining halls following a months-long effort by members of an environmentally focused class the year prior. A new student group brought an equally environmentally friendly initiative to fruition: a bike-share program.
Discussions surrounding a change to the community representative position on the TCU Senate came to a head in September, when Referendum 3, which offered community representatives the ability to vote on fiscal matters, passed by a single vote against its competitor referendum. Despite the changes, only two of the four cultural houses put forth a candidate in April.
The Senate's April election season was also marked by low interest. Only 17 students submitted paperwork for the 21 seats open for sophomores, juniors and seniors, and they all walked onto the positions.
The month of April brought three particularly noteworthy speakers to campus: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited the Hill for the inaugural Alan D. Solomont Lecture, television journalist Katie Couric spoke at the Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism and journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame headlined the Richard E. Snyder Presidential Lecture.
And as the class of 2011 makes way for the class of 2015, this year also saw the largest-ever applicant pool and lowest admissions acceptance rate in Tufts history. An 11-percent rise in applications dropped acceptance rates from 24.5 to 22 percent for the class of 2015.
