Trustees focus on endowment growth at forum

"It's the endowment, stupid."

The retooling of Bill Clinton's famous line summarizes the discussions between students, administrators and trustees at an invite-only forum held Monday night. Much of the evening's discussion centered on the University's financial needs and the Board of Trustees' limited ability to allocate resources until the completion of another capital campaign.

Three members of the Board of Trustees attended the forum: Irwin Heller (LA '67), H. Dana Callow (LA '74), and Dr. Bernard Harleston, who was once the dean of Arts & Sciences faculty. Callow and Harleston are new trustees, but both have had relationships with the University for decades.

Many students came to ask for increased funds for specific constituencies on campus, and though the trustees were sympathetic to complaints of aging facilities, inadequate materials, and scant funds, they emphasized that not all programs can benefit at once. Students may not be aware that the University's limited funds mean that students are competing with each other for resources, Callow said. "The better-prepared and the more facts [students] have, the more likely they are to succeed in getting resources," Callow said.

Although Tufts is in a better financial position than it was even five or ten years ago _ despite recent market woes _ the need for another capital campaign surfaced several times throughout the evening. The University's most recent capital campaign, Tufts Tomorrow, ended in June and raised over $609 million.

The next campaign will put a greater emphasis on increasing the endowment, rather than expenditure, according to Callow. Whatever portion is spent on the undergraduate schools will most likely be allocated to programs, such as the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS), rather than construction projects.

Callow, who has yet to attend a Board meeting, has made the growth of the endowment one of his priorities. He also plans to draw on his experience as a venture capitalist to help Tufts generate cash from research at the University.

"Eighty percent of what we've talked about tonight is how you allocate [resources] and set priorities," Callow said. The trustees have a "serious commitment toward building those resources," he said.

Last night's meeting also included a discussion about the University's housing policy, which forces many students to seek accommodation off-campus and has attracted scrutiny from parents and students since the death of junior Wendy Carman in a house fire a week and a half ago.

"Housing is understood to be a priority by the Board of Trustees," Heller said. Last semester, the Board of Trustees approved plans to construct a 150-bed dormitory.

But trustees are reluctant to construct dormitories and oversupply the campus with rooms because many could go unoccupied after construction, as was the case during the years after South Hall was built.

The discussions were not limited to housing policies, however, as concerns about diversity also cropped up at the meeting. Some students asked questions about the transformation of the curriculum, particularly towards one that includes more ethnic studies courses.

Senior Laura Horwitz, who sits on the board of the Experimental College, suggested that the trustees fund one class per semester on underrepresented areas of study, such as African, Latino and Asian American studies. Students welcomed her suggestions, but trustees often deferred questions about such short-term issues to the administrators at the meeting, such as Provost Jamshed Bharucha and Dean of Students Bruce Reitman.

Other issues mentioned included increasing undergraduates' interaction with the medical school, implementing need-blind admissions, and maintaining tuition costs at current levels to increase the University's socioeconomic diversity. The trustees noted these concerns but stressed the necessity of improving the University's financial position first.

The trustees frequently told students that they could become part of the solution to the University's financial problems by increasing Tufts' traditionally low rate of alumni giving.

The forum's audience consisted of students who were selected as representatives of various official and unofficial campus groups. At least 21 of the 37 Tufts Community Union senators attended, many as representatives of other groups on campus. At-large representatives who won their seats in a lottery filled about 20 of the 100 available seats.

Trustee-student forums have been relatively infrequent in recent years, though in the late 1970's and early 1980's they were held on a regular basis, according to Trustee Secretary Linda Dixon.

Compared with last year's confrontational meeting between trustees and students _ an open forum where students asked aggressive questions about diversity at the University _ trustees, students, and administrators agreed that Monday's meeting was satisfying and productive, and the mood was generally friendly. Students' questions were "intelligent, reasonable, and well-reasoned," Heller said.