University President Anthony Monaco, who took office on Aug. 1, 2011, is coming to the end of his first academic year at Tufts. As the semester draws to a close, Monaco's initiatives have already left a lasting impact on the university, emphasizing his dedication to interdisciplinary, cross?school integration, student input and collaboration.
In his first two semesters, Monaco and his administration have established several councils and faculty?led groups to tackle these issues. One of his current initiatives is the formation ofThematic Area Working Groups.
"[My administration and I are] organizing a number of faculty?led, interdisciplinary, research?oriented groups focused around different themes, [with] representatives from all the schools," Monaco said. "What I want from that is a better integration of our activities, understanding of who's doing what, where to put focused investment, what's missing in the critical mass, how can we have a bigger input, [and if] any of these themes ... could have graduate programs that are cross?school."
Monaco added that the themes will address "big world challenges" and that he hopes these working groups will overlay the current university structure and organization and provide insight into how resources can be marshaled across departments in order to maximize their impact.
Another initiative that Monaco's administration has launched is the Tufts Campus Sustainability Council, the goal of which is to reduce campus emissions, waste and water usage. Three working groups - each composed of faculty, administrators, staff and students from across various university departments and schools - will make recommendations to the council on how to improve these areas.
The administration has also recently established the Council on Diversity at Tufts, formed with the goal of developing a proposal on how best to deal with issues of diversity on Tufts' three campuses. Made up of faculty, staff and student representatives, the council laid out several questions that it wants its three working groups to answer. One working group is for tackling administrative policies, community engagement and faculty and staff issues, and the other two deal with the undergraduate experience and the graduate and professional school experience.
"We laid out a number of questions that we'd like three working groups to focus on," Monaco said. "Then we basically went around the room and asked people what [they thought] about these questions, what were their personal experiences in their school, what they wanted to bring to the committee and also what questions hadn't we asked. And that helped us develop the questions further."
The presence of student appointments on both the Sustainability Council and the Diversity Council falls in line with Monaco's commitment to student collaboration in developing university policies. He referred to last semester's march on Ballou Hall and the subsequent discussion with those students about their demands regarding the creation of an Africana studies department as another example of his communications with students.
"Most of [that] meeting we discussed how they were going to formally get involved in the process and development of the curriculum," Monaco said. "It's very important that the faculty work among themselves, but there's got to be entry points where students can put their input."
As a result of the discussion following the sit?in, Monaco said, the administration established a set of agreements to factor student input into the development of an Africana studies program.
"I thought it was a good day for Tufts," he said.
Monaco's willingness to include students in curricular and policy decisions extended to the choice of this year's commencement speaker.
"What I've tried to do is open up the nomination process to the Tufts community, which I don't think they did before," Monaco said. "So this year, we took in a large range of names, we had an open nomination process where a short form had to be filled out by students and the Tufts community."
He added that the administration received and sifted through many of the forms and t hat the commencement speaker and several of the honorary degree recipients were chosen from among the community nominations.
Although the administration does have the final say, Monaco says he prefers an equitable nomination process in which students can give their input.
"I don't think it should be behind closed doors, in the sense of who's nominating," he said. "We have nominations that are made by our trustees, but we also have lots of nominations that are made by the Tufts community itself, and I would prefer that latter process because it's more inclusive."
While Monaco has worked hard to listen to the student body, he has also gone to great efforts to integrate himself into the Tufts community through his usage of social media.
"I started with LinkedIn very soon after the announcement [that I would be Tufts' new president]," he said. "I realized it was a fantastic tool to connect with a new institution I was just trying to get to know. So I started looking up people from Tufts, asking them to connect."
When Monaco would connect with his new professional colleagues at Tufts, he would send brief messages introducing himself, commenting on the work they were doing and, most importantly, asking for their opinions on what areas of the university they felt it was important for him to focus on.
"I'd get really nice responses," Monaco said. "Not books, but I'd get a couple paragraphs from individuals, [and it] really allowed me to introduce myself to over a thousand people before I ever came."
Monaco added that he eventually expanded his social media use to Twitter and Facebook and has found that both are incredibly useful ways to connect and interact with students.
"Some of the students I met at the Tufts?in?Oxford program after the announcement asked me to be their friends on Facebook ... So I said yes, and it just kind of grew from there and now I use it as a very nice tool," he said. "Students message me ... and I'll send a message back. It's a way for me to see what's happening in their lives, what they think is important."
Monaco also uses Facebook and Twitter to share links to campus events in an effort to encourage attendance.
"[Students] also ask me to help support some of their events, because they know I have a lot of followers or connections," he said. "So I can support something by sharing the link and saying a few words about why I think it might be worth going to."
Monaco's efforts to reach out to students have occasionally extended to their parents as well. In response to dangerous drinking behavior on campus, Monaco's administration is beginning a comprehensive overhaul of alcohol education for students and, in some cases, parents.
"We're trying to put a focus on prevention through various interventions that we'll be rolling out over the next year, [like] a social norms campaign [and] some interventions that we hope to do with the parents, particularly of incoming students, that have been shown to work at other universities," Monaco said. "[We're] trying to educate students with a structured conversation with their parents and guardians, so that they understand ... the issues of the dangers related to alcohol intoxication."
In other cases, Monaco has made a concerted effort not to connect with students in terms of alcohol education.
"I decided not to continue what [former University President] Larry [Bacow] did, which was to meet with students who were transported," he said. "I looked at the data, and the number of those students that re?offend is incredibly low. I think getting transported in an ambulance, intoxicated and having to spend [the night in a hospital] is probably a pretty strong wake?up call that you don't want to do this again."
He added that he didn't see enough of a payoff from this practice to consider it an effective way to educate students.
"I didn't see that my meeting with them was going to reduce the overall problem we have on campus, so that's why I've put my efforts into working with the alcohol steering group and the [Tufts Community Union] Senate representatives about thinking of ... more preventive interventions that are known to work," Monaco said.
Although his initiatives up to this point have been far?reaching, Monaco's overarching goal for the university is to continue to expand its global presence.
"I want to see Tufts have a bigger impact on society through our teaching, research, active citizenship and building up a diverse community that's inclusive," he said.
