To the undergraduate students who made informal presentations at the Trustee luncheon on Saturday:
I am a graduate of Tufts University and an Arts & Sciences Overseer, as well as a Trustee. As you are probably aware, the Trustees annually have a lunch with elected representatives of the college and the graduate schools wherein these representatives make presentations to the Trustees followed by a question-and-answer session.
However, as you know from the Daily, our new president, a man of extraordinary intelligence and energy, determined that the Trustees would benefit from a weekend dedicated to student housing, life and learning. He felt that rather than being "talked to" at meetings we would profit by visiting dorms, labs, etc. particularly, inasmuch as he has appointed a task force of members of the faculty and administration assigned to report back to the Trustees on these issues.
Therefore, rather than the normal student/Trustees luncheon at Gifford House, the Trustees had lunch at Dewick-MacPhie and this created an open forum where students rather than asking questions chose to read provocative statements.
During our weekend, the president had fully briefed the Trustees with respect to recent unfortunate incidents on campus and his reaction was covered in his letter of Feb. 8, 2002 to the entire Tufts community.
The student body should be aware that Trustees devote a considerable amount of their time to the benefit of the University. Some fly across the country, others across the Atlantic to attend meetings and those Trustees who are also Overseers and members of committees devote as much as a month a year to their responsibilities. Further, of the some $582 million raised to date in the Tufts Tomorrow Campaign, $160 million of that represents gifts of Trustees and Overseers. I submit this is indicative of dedication to the University and its students.
It is my observation that the qualities one recognizes in an educated person are humility (an insight into how little we know rather than how much) and respect for the opinion of others.
The aforementioned statements read by students on Saturday were strident, ill-mannered, and disrespectful.
The Trustees are committed to diversity. Over the last ten years minority representation in the student body has increased from 15 percent to 32 percent. The Trustees are totally committed to diversity in the faculty as well; however, along with other universities similar to ours find this to be a difficult task.
Therefore, a forum created by the president which could have resulted in a fruitful, constructive dialogue during a difficult time was instead a hurtful, disappointing experience.
I am sad for those students who have not achieved the ability to communicate in a more constructive fashion and I am doubly sad for the college, as our high aspirations for our student body are clearly not being fulfilled in some quarters.
