Reflections from the provost

Congratulations, Class of 2003!

Graduation is a special day, a milestone in life in which one can look back to the accomplishments of the past and ahead to the excitement of the future. For you, graduates, and for your family, faculty, and friends, this day represents both achievement and promise.

I share a special connection with you, the Class of 2003. Your graduation is my first commencement at Tufts. Accepting President Bacow's invitation to join him as his new Provost and Senior Vice President has been the most important professional decision of my life, and these past nine months have proved to be the most exciting and rewarding. The people at Tufts - faculty, students, and staff - are extraordinary. I have enjoyed getting to know some of you and look forward to seeing you in the future as alumnae and alumni.

Tufts is one of the few research universities in which students are at the center. The faculty are passionate about their students and passionate about their teaching and mentoring. At the same time, they are actively engaged as leaders in their disciplines and at the intersections between disciplines. This organic integration of teaching and research makes Tufts distinctive, and marks it as an institution others seek to emulate. Many research universities keep their students at bay, and most small colleges lack the research activity that allows students to take part in the process of discovery and creation.

The new Summer Scholars program, launched this spring, will capitalize on Tufts' winning combination of teaching and research. The program will enable Tufts undergraduates to conduct research during the summer with faculty across the University and in the affiliated teaching hospitals. It connects the schools on all three Massachusetts Tufts campuses as well as Tufts-affiliated hospitals and clinics, and enables undergraduates, graduate students, and professional students to work and learn side by side in an immersing atmosphere outside the classroom.

The richness, diversity, and challenge of your Tufts experience will set you on paths you may never have anticipated, and will enable you to recognize and seize opportunities you may never have contemplated. You graduate into an increasingly complex world, one in which the certainties of the past can no longer be taken for granted, and in which borders are blurred. I assure you that the Tufts education - an environment that fosters individual discovery coupled with a concern for others in the community and around the world - is the very best anyone could wish for.

Your time at Tufts has been one of growth and change. You have seen the building of the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center, the opening of the Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences on the Boston campus, the development of the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, the centralization of student services now provided in Dowling Hall. You have been at Tufts for two presidents and two provosts. In the coming years, Tufts will see a new music building as well as improved facilities for Arts, Sciences & Engineering that will enable teaching and research to rise to the next level of excellence. It will see the new Sophia Gordon residence hall for undergraduates and better housing options for graduate and professional students. Those of you who have studied on the Boston campus will be happy to know that we are taking steps to create a more integrated campus and to improve the student experience within it.

Tufts is on the move. It is the most poised institution of its kind. The hallmark of excellence is striving always to be better. As we seek to take the U niversity to new heights, we will pay particular attention to ensuring that a Tufts education is affordable, and that the student experience is exceptional. I am proud to be a part of Tufts, and I am confident that as alumni you will be increasingly proud of your Tufts degree, as the institution catapults from strength to strength.

Although this is graduation, it is not goodbye. As alumni you are forever part of Tufts, and I hope you will return often. Your impact on Tufts has been profound, and I know that you will continue to have an impact. You go out as ambassadors of Tufts through the example you set in life.

I wish you all the very best.