Trustees hear funding options at annual meeting

Members of the Board of Trustees began the difficult work of choosing funding priorities at one of their three annual meetings this past Friday and Saturday. Since the February meetings usually focus on interacting with students, the Board heard a lot from members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, though they had little contact with other undergraduates.

The trustees are currently involved in planning for the next capital campaign, scheduled to begin in about five years. At the meetings, the Board's three committees each focused on a difference aspect of the process of defining priorities and then raising the funds to achieve them.

At the meetings the Board of Trustees also selected Jim Stern (E '72) to replace outgoing chairman Nathan Gantcher [see "Stern to become board chairman"].

The process of identifying priorities began with a presentation by the Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience. The trustees were receptive to the Task Force's overarching goal of combining education and community, but did not necessarily embrace its specific recommendations. In particular, Gantcher called the recommendation to implement a residential college system a "first stab" at the problem of expanding intellectual life at Tufts beyond the classroom.

Some of the trustee representatives' recommendations dovetailed with those of the Task Force, such as the proposal to build Phase III of the Mayer Campus Center. Phase III would complete the campus center's original plans by adding a faculty dining hall, a large multipurpose room, and an expanded recreational space, Raji Iyer, a Senate Trustee representative said.

"Right now the Board of Trustees is determining priorities before starting a new campaign," Gantcher said. The Task Force is a long-term project, and its recommendations must be "honed down into a realistic list you can afford," he said.

Given the number of spending options Tufts will have during the next capital campaign, trustees will face a number of tough decisions. The trustees on the Administration & Finance Committee, which focuses on funding issues, have yet to make any concrete decisions about where money will be allocated.

Aside from the Task Force's report, the trustees' other window into undergraduate life was through the presentations of the three Senate trustee representatives, Matt Kane, Sarah Sandison, and Raji Iyer.

Kane's presentation centered on the importance of increasing support for interdisciplinary programs at Tufts. Since such programs do not have a core faculty, they often have an inadequate number of professors, regardless of the fact that they create much of today's cutting-edge scholarship, Kane said. Interdisciplinary programs at Tufts include Community Health, International Relations, and Latin American Studies.

Finally, the Committee for University Advancement _ until recently called the Development committee _ put its focus on alumni relations and the need to create a lifelong connection to the University. Sandison suggested ways to increase valuable interaction between current students and alumni.

The February presentations to the Board are traditionally the most important task the trustee representatives perform, since they present on any topic they consider to be "of critical importance to students," Kane said. It is unclear how influential these presentations will be when the Board begins to formulate future funding priorities.

The meetings were followed by a luncheon on Saturday, attended by the trustees, and a few professors, administrators, and graduate students. Undergraduates were represented by the full body of the TCU Senate. At the luncheon, senators delivered a short speech addressing the observed disconnect between students and administrators.

As a result of these communication problems, the senators suggested re-creating the position of vice president of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. This administrator would act as a "designated point person" to whom students could bring their needs and desires for change," the senators said in their speech.

The senators' speech also stressed the importance of implementing need blind admissions and increasing the availability of international aid. "As Tufts undergoes a new capital campaign, we hope you'll think of undergraduates," the speech said.

In response, Gantcher noted that the Gantcher Center, Dowling Hall, and the Jaharis Center were examples of the trustees' response to students' needs. The trustees really do listen when the students speak, Gantcher said, although they may not be able to fulfill student's needs until well after they have graduated.