The cranes and girders of the University's many construction projects are not the only evidence that major changes - from possible changes in requirements to increased accommodations for students with disabilities - are taking place at Tufts. A revamping of the University's way of operating continues, and the current system has been reviewed over the course of the year, as evinced at the May 17 meeting of the faculty of the Arts and Sciences.
Using the results gleaned from last year's Higher Education Initiative (HEI), the four main HEI committees have been meeting throughout the year. They have attempted to reconcile the administration with the student body, establish firm policies on full and part-time faculty hiring, better integrate the curriculum, and create a more efficient method of faculty self-governance. Three of the four main HEI committees - excluding the committee on faculty governance - gave their yearly reports, accompanied by reports from the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) and the Oversight Panel of the Task Force on Race.
At the heart of the HEI are the issues of faculty development and hiring, and it was on these areas that the faculty's reports focused. The faculty Committee on Development, Teaching, and Research brought back recommendations that the number of full-time tenure-track faculty be increased, in order to lessen the reliance on part-time faculty, while integrating the current part-time faculty into the University and faculty communities. In addition, the committee recommended the bundling of a number of part-time positions into consolidated, full-time posts.
The Committee on Coherence and Connection, chaired by Dean of the Colleges Walt Swapp, recommended the creation of a "faculty center," which Swapp said would "provide for the needs of the faculty" by giving library and software resources, consultation, and "hanging out space" to those faculty members who use it. The committee also proposed the hiring of distinguished visiting faculty members, in order to fill what are defined as areas of great need.
The third committee, represented by deans Bobbie Knable and Robert Hollister, presented a set of less concrete recommendations. Their Committee on Community and Communication pressed for a change in the overall environment which would improve communication among students, as well as between the administration and the student body. Knable explained that the University "needs to make a distinction between imparting information and real communication." While methods for achieving this hoped-for community are difficult to pin down, the committee recommended expanded use of e-mail, monthly meetings between administrative and student leaders, and a much larger schedule of University-sponsored programming as means to this elusive end.
Two more tangible areas of concern, racial issues and distribution requirements, were addressed by the Oversight Panel and the EPC, respectively. Associate Professor of Geology Anne Gardulski, chair of the Oversight Panel, countered the assertions made by some student politicians this year that the Task Force on Race had been ignored and forgotten.
According to Gardulski, all 24 of the Task Force's "priority one" recommendations had been dealt with, and specific reports on planned actions were given to the offices of the president and vice president.
"All priority one recommendations have had some progress made on them," Gardulski said. "In this coming year, we will move on to priority two recommendations."
Gardulski emphasized, as did Knable and Hollister, that communication between the students and administrators is severely lacking. "We must come up with better ways to communicate directly with [the student body]," she said.
The EPC's report closed out the faculty meeting, making a preliminary proposal on changes to the distribution requirements before the faculty retired to its annual champagne reception. Associate Professor of German, Russian, and Asian languages Charles Inouye presented a possible revision to the requirements, one which would reduce the number of overall requirements from ten to eight. Students would be required to take one course each in the mathematical and natural sciences, as well as one "floater" course in either mathematics, natural sciences, engineering/technology, or computer science. They would also need to take one course in the humanities, one course in the arts, and one course in the social sciences, in addition to two floater courses in any of the three aforementioned disciplines.
"They say changing the curriculum is like moving a cemetery," Inouye quipped. "This is just a preliminary report, just to get people thinking."
This recommendation, if eventually approved at the EPC's June 25 meeting, will then be presented to the faculty for a vote next year, making what is now a preliminary proposal into a potential reality.
