A year after it was proposed, a program to improve relations with Chinatown - the Boston neighborhood that hosts Tufts' school of medicine - is beginning to take shape. The program, "Building Bridges," is being run by the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS).
According to the program's coordinator, David Hendrickson, the aim is to acknowledge and eliminate deep-rooted tensions between Chinatown and Tufts. "We are trying to help build a long-term relationship with Chinatown to help develop a trusting relationship," he said.
Through the program, Tufts students tutor middle school students from Chinatown in literacy and math. Earlier this month, participants took a field trip to Tufts' Medford campus to spend the day with faculty and students. The visit aimed "to show them [the campus] in a safe and friendly way and to let them interact with students in a way that is inviting rather than intimidating."
The program is similar to other initiatives such as the student-designed and implemented Sharewood program, which offers free medical services to Chinatown residents.
Ill will between Tufts and Chinatown is based in a long history of poor interaction, according to Hendrickson. In the 1940s, "gross injustices were forced on Chinatown as a community," he said. "The community was plagued by internal conflict between families and over-development, profiteering, and special interests further divided the community."
Chinatown is flanked by I-93 and the Mass Pike, which limits its expansion space and discourages potential business ventures, said Jeremy Liu (LA '94), who directs community projects at the Boston-based Asian Community Development Corporation.
Tufts officials once proposed a parking garage construction project that could have further hindered neighborhood development. "A third of Chinatown is taken up by non-profit organizations," Liu said. "And the University wanted to build a ten-story parking garage, which would only take up more space."
According to Liu, there have been other disagreements between Tufts and the neighborhood, such as limited opportunities for Chinatown residents to use New England Medical Center (NEMC) meeting rooms.
The neighborhood is also affected by urbanization, a phenomenon affecting cities across the nation, and a process that institutions housed in low-income neighborhoods can often control, Hendrickson said. "It's part of a top-down development where a major institution like the US government or a university dictates what goes on in a community," he said. "Chinatown is one of Tufts' host neighborhoods and there should be a special relationship developed that symbolizes this."
Tufts moved into Chinatown in 1950, opening NEMC in its new location. University officials and Chinatown residents and merchants interacted very little, Hendrickson said. In the '80s, Tufts began addressing the area's financial and social problems when Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel joined Tufts' community relations department.
Rubel says Tufts' relationship with Chinatown is "amicable, but somewhat wary." Rubel said that while the NEMC has been in the area for more than 50 years, Chinatown has not existed as an organized community as long. To change negative perceptions, Rubel says the University hopes to increase dialogue with local residents and merchants.
"There are always these community perceptions that the institutions are the usurpers, and that affordable housing is a better use of land than institutional buildings - even when it means training doctors or caring for critically ill patients," she said. "In recent years, we have learned more about how to work with Chinatown, how to understand and appreciate their concerns."
But Liu said the University has been uninterested in the needs of the residential or business communities of Chinatown in the past. "They ignored seniors, families, all of those who lived around the NEMC," Liu said. "Tufts paid lip service to Chinatown, but they had no commitment to the community outside of their own agenda."
The mentoring program, Liu said, is as a "great first step" in improving relations between Tufts and its downtown home, but the University should take more concrete action, such as funding scholarships for students from the community. "Students are the University's cheapest resource, they are paying to get their education," he said.
"I would like to see more tangible measures like in Hartford, where Trinity [College] will subsidize low interest loans to low-income families. We want to see more full scholarships for Chinatown students - we want to know that our community has value to the University."
The concerns of Chinatown residents will also be addressed in the classroom next semester. American studies Professor Jean Wu is offering a course called "Active Citizenship in Urban Communities: Race, Culture, Power, and Politics," for which she will use Chinatown as a case study of a local urban community. The course will encourage students to participate in "Building Bridges."
Hendrickson said the mentoring program has made Tufts undergraduates aware of a nearby community from which they are generally removed. "Tufts' mentors seems to be learning as much as the students they are teaching," he said.
Omidyar Scholar Leslie Wang, who is participating in "Building Bridges" for her Omidyar scholarship citizenship project, said she has enjoyed interacting with Chinatown students, but that it hasn't been easy.
"I have found the experience to be very frustrating at times, due to the wildness of the students, but as I continue to help out weekly, I enjoy seeing the relationship grow between the students and me," she said. "The most rewarding thing is to see the student succeed whether it be academically or socially."
According to Hendrickson, the mentoring program serves a broader purpose for the University: shifting "the paradigm back to the original purpose of universities: to aid the community."
