A group of students and faculty members from the Community Health Program hosted an informal forum to discuss the state of the major.
Community Health Program Director Jennifer Allen explained that she recently began her position and convened the meeting to discuss students concerns on the program's health amid the loss of several key professors.
"One of the most important things that I feel I can do as the program director is to create opportunities for students to give us input on how things are going, and [to] work together to make things even better - I would like to do this on a regular basis throughout the semester," Allen told the Daily after the meeting. "...I had this meeting because [Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine Linda Sprague Martinez] is leaving and she is a much beloved faculty member. Students were saying, 'Why are people leaving?' so I wanted to have a forum where we could talk about it."
During the discussion, Allen explained that the among Tufts' interdisciplinary programs, the Community Health Program has major differences in its structure.
"There are a lot of different ways at Tufts in which interdisciplinary programs work," Allen said. "In a lot of them, the way it works is faculty are tenured in departments but they teach courses for [interdisciplinary fields such as] political psychology or international relations. We're really different [because] ... we're in a unique situation where we have dedicated faculty."
According to Martinez, because the Community Health Program does not offer a tenure track, faculty would officially receive the title of "full-time lecturer." This title difference impacts the faculty when they apply for research funding, Martinez explained
"When you apply for a grant as a full time lecturer, you can't ... be a Principal Investigator ... you have to ask for permission to lead your own research grant," she said. "For people like me - I'm interested in health research [and] am applying for grants [from] the National Institutes of Health - that was concerning ... When [former Community Health Program Director Edith Balbach] was here as a director she did a really good job any time a hurdle came up ... she did a lot of work in terms of getting us a blanket of approval to write or apply for our own research grants."
In order to overcome this hurdle, community health faculty are actually appointed at the School of Medicine, Martinez added.
"In the beginning, we all thought this was going to be a great idea, myself included," she said. "I thought 'this is great, now we finally have a title, assistant professor.' But I think in retrospect, that for me, I see it that we're not necessarily part of the medical school because we're arts and sciences people, but we're not arts and sciences people because we're part of the medical school ... It has blurred our relationship to both campuses, to some extent."
Martinez explained that she is leaving for a tenure-tracked position at Boston University in part due to the lack of a tenure option at Tufts. She said it is easier for faculty to obtain resources when tenure tracked.
"Assume that your scholarship and research informs your teaching and there's a relationship between the two as there should be in my opinion," she said. "If I'm not out there doing cutting edge research being funded by a national institution ... it's a very different perspective I bring as someone who is in the field ... There [are] more opportunities I can provide for students [with research grants], so it is important to be able to balance research and teaching.
In addition to Martinez, two former faculty recently left their positions, albeit for different reasons. Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine Cora Roelofs explained, however, that tenure remains an important issue and could impact the program's ability to recruit new faculty members.
"When those scholars have options, a non-tenure track job at Tufts versus a tenure track job at another university, even if it's not as desirable a university, is going to look more appealing," Roelofs said. "If we are going to be competitive as a university, we want to compete for the best scholars, the best teachers, ... Community health is at a disadvantage by not offering a tenure track position."
During the forum, students and faculty expressed concern that the department will lose courses that focus on racial and ethnic issues involving healthcare, topics on which Martinez performs research and focuses her teaching.
"I think that they should pay very close attention to the job description because depending on how the job description is written is whether or not it will attract folks focused on racial inequity," Martinez said. "I think they should be very explicit in the job description that [it] is a requirement to teach classes around racial inequality ... I think they also need to think about hiring a person of color [because] there are no people of color in community health."
Roelofs added that the lack of tenure will likely impact this recruitment process.
"[The lack of tenure] may make it more difficult to recruit a top candidate who is a person of color doing racial inequity," she said. "In terms of integrating a discussion of racism, racial inequality as a determinant in quality of health, I do that in all of my classes and I try to do that as much as possible. And I want to do that even harder in trying to create a better space for a discussion of racism in the classroom as it relates to health and well-being."
A desire for increased variety in courses was an additional concern among students.
"I'm a senior and this is the first time I'm taking a class on community mental health," Sarah Diaz said. "We know that it's very significant but we [never] go into it because it's not a focus in many of the classes."
Students also expressed a desire for the creation of an alumni network, the development of a mentorship initiative, and the simplification of program communications.
"The [Bachelor's/Master of Public Health dual degree] program is difficult to navigate in all of its assets," junior Becky Goldberg said. "We don't have our own [undergraduate] email distribution list so I often do not read the emails because they do not pertain to me."
The requirement that community health be a second major was also discussed briefly.
"The biggest problem is that it can only be a second major," junior Yaniv Rait told the Daily before the discussion. "It kind of just forces us to have to focus on things that aren't just community health. In the beginning I really didn't like that, I wished I could have focused on community health more, but I guess I've kind of realized that ... it's good that we have to have a first major because I think it really gives us a wider view. Instead of focusing solely on community health, we get to look at it from a different perspective."
In addition to discussing room for change within the Community Health Program, students also spoke about the benefits of the program including its interdisciplinary approach, course assignments that teach useful life skills and its applicability to everyday life.
"What I really value from the Community Health Program is the applicability as an undergrad," Goldberg said. "I feel like I can really apply everything I learn to extracurricular [activities] and life. I feel that even as an undergrad, you can still make a difference."
Senior Caitlyn Lahousse added that the program enabled her to keep her studies focused.
"I like being able to do a lot of my distribution requirements within community health," she said. "Since I'm not really a humanities person, it was great to explore those topics within [the program.]"
Allen said that she hopes to hold additional forums on the Community Health Program and believes that many of the suggestions can be implemented.
"We're all on the same team making sure that we're doing the absolute best in terms of the program we create, in terms of the classroom environments that we create and in terms of the relationships both within and outside Tufts that provide [students] with opportunities to learn" she said.
Seniors meanwhile are seeking broader participation in the discussion of the program.
"We're still gathering more people for our survey so we're going to be canvassing," Diaz said. "We'll also be trying to show up en masses to the town hall meeting with [University President Anthony] Monaco and we also have some meetings setup with [Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser.]"
