Friedman School fitness center re-named upon agreement with John Hancock Financial Services

Over the summer, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy entered a partnership with John Hancock Financial Services that involved the renaming of the school's fitness center to the John Hancock Center of Physical Activity and Nutrition.

Originally named The Center for Physical Fitness, the center was established in 1999 to create programs that would combat the problems of growing obesity and physical inactivity in the US population.

University President Larry Bacow had expressed interest in expanding the center's scope and budget, and his office worked with the Development Office to put together a proposal for John Hancock, which was accepted. "The restricted budget was not scaling up, this long-term sponsorship will allow the center to grow," said Eric Johnson of the Development and Advancement Office.

"The sponsorship is a ten-year agreement that provides significant resources, both in support for research and for outreach activities" Johnson continued. "John Hancock is excited about the goals of the center and wanted to partner with the school to accomplish these."

Dr. Miriam Nelson, who founded the Center, added that with the sponsorship, "Our goals for the center have become more crystallized. Our aims are to do solid scientific research in large-scale programs that are researching the important questions of how can we get individuals, communities, states and even eventually the country, more physically active and eating better."

Though the Center is funded from a variety of foundations, private donors and government grants, Nelson explained that this type of long-term funding represents a new milestone. "What the John Hancock sponsorship does is gives us core support that we can count on for a long time, which is enormously helpful with any university endeavors, as the funding always comes from a mixture of sources. It's helpful to know that this resource will last."

Johnson explained that the agreement between the Friedman School and John Hancock does not have any oversight rule. "We recognize this as an act of philanthropy, so we will be in contact with the company, but there is no oversight rule in the contract."

Nelson agreed that the contract leaves a lot of leeway. "Every agreement we make with anyone, not just the corporations, will always have expectations on both sides. The unique piece with this is that there is not a lot of obligation for us."

John Hancock is the primary sponsor for the Boston Marathon, and some of the company's interest in the project comes from its interest in the annual event. Some of the Tufts staff will assist John Hancock's running team by providing seminars, as part of the agreement. Tufts Marathon team runners will also be able to participate. "Our agreement is very tied in with the whole marathon effort," Nelson said.

"As part of our responsibilities we are going to be helping to organize, along with the Tufts Advancement Office and Larry Bacow, the marathon challenge -- helping to find people to run, helping with training programs, nutritional counseling and information."

The late September buy-out of John Hancock Financial Services by Toronto-based insurance company Manulife had some skeptics concerned that the agreement with the school would be affected. Manulife bought the company for stock worth $10.8 billion.

This merger makes Manulife the second largest insurance company in the United States. "There will be no change in the sponsorship," Johnson said. "Manulife said there would be no change in John Hancock's different community sports sponsorships, and we have been assured that we fall under that."

Community relations at John Hancock said only that "there will definitely be no change [due to the buy-out]."

Administrators are optimistic about the partnership. "We view this as an exciting development for the Friedman School and for the entire Tufts community," Johnson said.