As the 2012-2013 academic year comes to a close on the Hill, the November release of its 10-year Strategic Plan is also at hand. Last month, the Plan's steering committee, seven working groups and four core committees released the Prelude to the Strategic Plan in the hopes that community conversations would begin about how Tufts can improve over the next 10 years.
The vision for developing an action plan for the university and its three campuses was launched in October 2012, with University President Anthony Monaco and Provost and Senior Vice President David Harris guiding the process.
"[President Monaco] decided that it was time for the university to have a university-wide strategic plan, and given that the core mission of the university is academic and that the Provost is the chief academic officer, it was right that the provost lead this effort," Harris said. "When I came in last year I knew from the start that I would be leading this effort."
The Process: Working Groups and Core Committees
The project is comprised of seven working groups and four core committees that, according to the Strategic Plan website, "review the preliminary reports of the working groups and produce briefings that address important overarching issues as well as topics not covered by the working groups." According to Harris, the working groups' reports were due on Dec. 15 and the core committee's reports were due on Jan. 15, in order to allow the core committees to consolidate the working groups' reports.
"The downside was [the core groups] had to incorporate the working groups' reports into their reports," Harris said. "The working groups are more in depth and in detail and narrower, and they roll up to the core committees, which identify with three major areas of the university."
Tufts' three core objectives, as outlined in the Prelude, are teaching and learning, research and scholarship and impact on society and individuals. The working groups and core committees, including the Student Experience Working Group, the Teaching and Learning Core Committee and the Impact on Society Committee, are meant to reflect these goals.
Despite the importance of Strategic Plan's proposals of action in November, Harris emphasized that nothing will be concretely required -- rather, it will be analyzed and implemented from within.
"The key is that in the end this is not the kind of document that is going to say, 'We believe that the university should increase the budget of the Fletcher School by $3 million dollars and decrease the budget of another school by $2 million,' or 'There are too many philosophy majors and too few French majors,'" Harris said. "The deans will be looking at their own schools as a result of the plan ... we are not sending out a mandate."
Student Engagement
Students have been involved in the planning process from the start, with one or two undergraduates and graduates on each working group or core committee.
"I was invited [to a working group] from the get go," senior Wyatt Cadley said. "As [Tufts Community Union (TCU)] president it was my job to nominate one undergraduate to each of the committees."
Harris says that along with participating in working groups, there are many opportunities for students to get involved in the process. He recommends more students get engaged in the planning process by reading the Prelude Document online, and participating in the open and closed surveys located within it. Students may also engage via The Conversation, a blog created to allow for increased online discussion about the Prelude. In addition, open forums and office hours to discuss the Prelude have been hosted around campus.
Freshman Charlotte Clarke said she planned on going to several of the open forums to discuss the Prelude, but due to scheduling conflicts could not attend.
"I have talked to some people who have been to them and they said they were cool because the office hours were sparsely attended," Clarke said. "It's great that there's the opportunity to have these conversations and input."
Despite these options for participation, concerns have been raised that students are not involved enough in the strategic planning process. Cadley said that he believes that most students are unaware of process behind the Plan. Some have suggested the initiation of a 10-year Student Strategic Plan in place of or alongside the Tufts Strategic Plan. Cadley, however, disputes this idea.
"You have to have T10 first ... if you have students putting out their own Student 10 it does not include trustees and alumni and administrators," Cadley said. "I think it could be shortsighted and narrow, and ignoring what expertise others can bring in. I think there is an incredible value in what this [T10] document can put forward."
According to Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Students John Barker, in order for students to feel like they are a part of the conversation they must engage in the planning process and review the Prelude.
"The reason the Prelude is out is for people to read it and have questions and come back and have that conversation. My aspirational hopes are that it improves campus climate, allows students to live intentional lives here and allows them to pursue what they want to pursue," Barker said.
Harris agrees, saying that now that the working groups and core committees have made real steps on their reports, community engagement is the crucial next step in revision of the Plan. According to him, the input gathered from ongoing discussions and office-hours will shape the final Strategic Plan that emerges in November.
"At this point what we're doing is we're gauging people. We're not saying 'Do this or that,'" Harris said. "We have a conversation going based on the working groups and the core committees."
"There's really been a lot of engagement ... The public forums have been extensive," Cadley added. "By the end of this process if you're complaining about not providing feedback [Harris] doesn't want anyone to be able to make that critique. I don't know how someone who has been at this school for the past year can say with a conscience that they couldn't get involved."
The Student Experience Working Group
Cadley participated in the Student Experience Working Group along with 13 faculty members. The Working Group held an open forum last Wednesday, which according to Harris was a well-attended and insightful discussion. Cadley recalled a positive working experience with the group.
"What made the committee so great was that there were so many people with so many different experiences," Cadley said. "We engaged and challenged each other's predetermined convictions."
According to Cadley, every week the Student Experience Working Group would bring in different university stakeholders and representatives from the community.
"We had a broad constituency," Barker said. "We interviewed more than 20 different groups: Campus Life, Fraternities and Sororities, Residential Life, Co-Curricular services, Disabilities Services ... everything we could think of that is a significant part of the undergraduate experience."
"Near the end we had a long brainstorming session. We talked about what we wanted to say," Cadley said. "We transformed all the critiques that we heard and tried to turn it into a positive suggestion for the university."
According to Harris, the Student Experience Working Group was formed so that Tufts could refocus its attention on providing students with a transformative experience that gets them out of their comfort zones in the best way possible. The group's discussions ranged among topics like orientation, the advising system, diversity and sexual assault procedures.
Cadley and Barker agreed that the first-year experience comprised much of the group's discussion.
"We need to focus on changing orientation and advising and connecting students with resources," Barker said. "That will get students grounded in the first year."
Barker said that orientation will be "unpacked" over six weeks and will discuss "wellness, safety, diversity, civility [and] international awareness." It will also include informational videos about transfer-student life, athletics, housing and advising. Barker pointed to advising as a particular issue that the Working Group has discussed, specifically how students are paired with their pre-major advisors.
"We know that advising needs to be looked at," he said. "We need to have more conversations to come up with an advising model. We haven't looked at our curriculum in 45 years, and while there have been minor changes, our curriculum is tied to our advising, so we have to look at both."
Part of the Student Experience Working Group's conversation focused on diversity as well.
"A major part of our conversation was campus climate," Barker said. "Students should come to campus and feel valued and like they can express their ideas and not feel marginalized. They don't need to have the same experience, but they need to have the same access to having this [ideal] type of experience."
"You can see this on the April 2013 Council on Diversity Progress Report. If you're a first-generation college student or from a different socioeconomic background you're at a real disadvantage at this school," Cadley said. "We're still not a need-blind institution and we've never been a need-blind institution. It makes you question how we as a school can fulfill this goal of getting the best and the brightest, when it's got to be about supporting the best and the brightest too."
In order to create this nurturing environment, Barker said that he hopes that the housing crisis that occurred this year can be avoided by initiatives that the Working Group may suggest.
"It was a perfect storm this year: we had a big class two years ago and a lot of students still wanting to live on campus," Barker said. "We want to look at a systematic way for addressing these issues."
According to Barker, the Student Experience Working Group has discussed the construction of a new dorm building that may be focused towards seniors. Barker also commented on other uses of space on campus, such as Brown and Brew as a space for movies and lectures.
Sexual assault and Tufts' related procedures, as well as drinking culture, were both prominent topics in the Working Group's discussion.
"There are two things that need to happen: education and protection," Barker said. "We know that incidents spike in the first week of college with sexual incidents. How do we make sure that's not the ... person's [first] experience when they come to college? We need to have safe spaces and build outlets for students."
"We want to have a culture where we take care of people," Cadley said. "I think the university has a ways to go where that is the culture: where everything you do is a point of pride."
"I am taking more of a role next year and working with Ian Wong to do outreach," Barker said on the issue of alcohol policy and drinking culture.
The Teaching and Learning Core Committee
The Student Experience Working group's discussions complemented those held by the Teaching and Learning Core Committee on how to make the Tufts learning experience as effective as possible. Specifically, both groups supported increasing the number of student-led classroom environments, where students would lead problem sets in class and interact with recorded lectures outside of class.
"It's really important that we be student-centered, but that we build on research done here on how people learn and how people teach, and fold that into how we actually do things here," Harris said about the Teaching and Learning Core Committee's conversations.
"What also drove us was that students spend 15 hours inside the classroom and significantly more time outside of the classroom," Barker said. "How can this time be intellectually engaging?"
Harris also outlined the types of questions that the Teaching and Learning Core Committee asked in sessions.
"How do you create an inclusive classroom? How are you offending someone?" Harris said. "What happens in a classroom to the climate when you say 'We're going to talk about the labor market, but not women because they come in and then leave,' or when you say, 'Oh, you're Latino, can you tell me about your experience?' You think, 'Who does that?' but it happens."
The Impact on Society Committee
The Impact on Society Committee created a four-step plan to address how Tufts affects local communities, the methods it uses to do so, and the manner in which students and faculty are rewarded for bettering society. According to Harris, the principal question was, "How do we take what we do here and make a positive impact out there?"
"The idea in the report, if it survives everyone's input, is a radical one that would set Tufts apart from the competition," member of the Impact on Society Core Committee Peter Levine said. "What we do now is we say we care about research, teaching and service. It is a criterion for hiring and everything else."
The Prelude Document states that teacher assessments should be completed to further engage the curriculum of the university with impact on society, something that the Impact on Society Core Committee discussed, according to Levine.
"Service is a dead end, in my opinion. It sounds like you get points for just doing hours ... But service is not equal to impact," said Levine. "It actually doesn't count. Nobody really gets tenure because of service."
Digital and Online Initiatives Working Group
As the Teaching and Learning Appendix of the Prelude details, the question for Tufts is not whether online learning opportunities will be launched, but when.
Chair of the Digital and Online Initiatives Working Group and Professor of Mathematics Boris Hasselblatt said that Tufts has been working with online course technology for some time now.
"In summer school there have been a few offerings of online courses," Hasselblatt said.
Hasselblatt cited Assistant Professor of History Kris Manjapra as using technology and online learning to benefit the classroom experience by connecting students via live feed with students in Pakistan.
The main goal that the working group laid out was to use online learning and new technology only if it enhances learning and reach in the classroom. For example, the Working Group recommended using caution in assessing the relevance of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs).
"You can see potential there, but we just felt like we wanted to urge some caution, we should think about what the purpose is of offering such a course," Hasselblatt said. "We should think about why would Tufts do it. Would it add something to the experience of our students? Would it add revenue? Enhance the recognition of our brand, that might be a plus, and we have to weigh these things against the downsides."
Hasselblatt emphasized that the Prelude Document is not a mandate.
"It doesn't make sense to mandate a method," Hasselblatt said. "It makes sense to demand developing the best pedagogy available. Looking at how online methods fit best into our structure."
According to Hasselblatt, the Digital and Online Initiatives Working Group noticed that during the 10-week period of drafting its report, the online and digital world had already changed significantly. Hasselblatt was concerned that recommendations the working group might make may become obsolete within a year, which the Strategic Plan will need to take into account.
What now?
Harris said that the university would be assessing and measuring the effects of the Strategic Plan each year.
"You're going to see metrics," Harris said. "People will be able to see what progress we're making."
While Provost Harris said that the Prelude does not provide specific initiatives for the community to carry out right now and only provides a conversation platform, he said that changes are already starting to happen around campus.
"Conversations are already informing financial aid," Harris said. "Conversations are informing the positions that the deans have on approving faculty positions."
The Prelude also indicates a change in the mission statement of Tufts. The original vision statement, which is about a page long, was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1994. The proposed vision statement would simply say that Tufts embodies the vision of knowledge, inclusion, innovation and impact.
Provost Harris remarked on his vision of what the Prelude and the Strategic Plan will be able to do for the university.
"I think it helps us to tell the story of Tufts," Harris said. "[We are] creating a climate in which everyone can thrive and feel like this is their home, their Tufts. The reasons why people may not feel that way can vary. We want to reduce these. The student experience is really about climate. It's about intentionality about learning. We are clarifying what that is."
