When the strategic plan initiative was announced last October, University President Anthony Monaco declared it a process of identifying the priorities and values of Tufts that will create a road map for the universitys next 10 years.
This is an opportunity for us, as a community, to envision a trajectory for Tufts where it needs to be, and should be, in a decades time, Monaco announced to the community.
On Nov. 2 of this year, the Board of Trustees officially approved the T10 Strategic Plan. The full plan is a 45-page document focusing on four themes: Foundational Initiatives, Transformational Experiences, Engaging and Celebrating Commonalities and Differences and Creating Innovative Approaches to Local and Global Challenges.
After months of planning and a series of student focus groups to incorporate perspectives from across the university, the plan was completed. According to Provost David Harris, students will begin to see specific change at Tufts very soon related to interdisciplinary learning, diversity, gap years and financial aid.
What it isnt is a detailed roadmap for the next 10 years, Harris, who led the initiative, said. What it is, is a framework for the university ... Its a 10 year plan, but that doesnt mean that nothing happens for 10 years. Some of these things youre going to start seeing very soon.
Interdisciplinary learning
One key component of the Strategic Plan is Bridge Professorships. This involves the hire of two new faculty members who will be tenured in more than one department in order to help bridge the gap in interdisciplinary ventures, according to Associate Provost Kevin Dunn.
The purpose of this [program] is to enable those new fields and knowledge to be productively pursued here at Tufts, Dunn said. What we felt here from the beginning is that they are being pursued and the faculty are trying to do this. So instead of simply being in their way, the administration is trying to say, Here, let us help you.
Current faculty members will be able to make proposals for new bridge professorships.
[The program] allows [faculty] to say, The field Im working in is really important, let me have a colleague, Dunn said. Its also forcing them to work with people in other schools, other departments, other units.
Provost Harris highlighted the immediate changes that these positions will bring to current students.
These are folks who will come to campus as new senior faculty members and they will affect immediately the curriculum, he said.
Diversity, gap years and financial aid
Another change that Harris said will immediately affect students is the plans initiatives regarding issues on diversity. The third theme, Engaging and Celebrating Commonalities and Differences, focuses on diversity, and has created a short-term goal of hiring a university-wide chief diversity officer who will ensure that the goals of the new Presidents Council on Diversity are implemented completely.
Ive already committed that by the end of this calendar year, we will have launched the search for the diversity officer, Harris said. Thats something concrete.
The plan also launches an initiative that will encourage students to take gap years, called the 1 + 4 Undergraduate Program. The program provides students with opportunities to participate in national or international service during their gap year before attending Tufts. The plan intends to make each program financially accessible through fundraising.
The idea is that theres a whole notion of the gap year, theres a notion of service and then theres another issue around access, Harris said. We believe there is value in service and there is value in a gap year.
According to the plan, the university may partner with approved service programs through Tisch College to support students during their gap year and provide transformational experiences as they explore new communities.
We dont think that [gap years] are something that should be reserved for wealthy kids. Culturally, there are some kids [for whom] its not really part of their thinking, Harris said. We want to make it possible for a broad number of students to consider.
The Strategic Plan also focuses on enhancing and expanding undergraduate financial aid. The university is no longer incorporating need-blind financial aid practices but is striving to continue to widen opportunities for students with need.
In the short term, the president asked for a two year goal of $25 million, and were already over $20 million raised, Harris said. That is more resources for us to bring in students who need financial aid and that will have an impact on the class entering this year. There are people who will come to Tufts that would not have been able to.
According to Harris, the university hopes to achieve need-blind admissions policies eventually, but must be sure that the university is up to the high standards of quality that current students need.12
