Trustees meet to discuss University issues, elect new members

The Board of Trustees meeting saw the departure of four of its trustees earlier this month, including Chairman Nathan Gantcher.

Michael Jaharis, Edward Budd, and Marilyn Ducksworth have each served on the Board for ten years. Gantcher has been a trustee since 1983, but since he was elected, trustees have been limited to two five-year terms.

Four new trustees were also elected at the meeting. However, the new trustees will not be told that they have been considered until they are approved by both the Board and president Bacow, who then approaches the candidates and offers them to accept or decline the invitation. "We do this so people don't get disappointed," Trustees Secretary Linda Dixon said.

The 37 trustees arrived on the morning of Friday, Oct. 31 to hold committee meetings. The audit committee met with both internal and external analysts to review the University's bookkeeping.

The academic affairs committee divided into two groups, one for faculty issues and one for student issues. The faculty group met with the deans of the School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering (AS&E) to examine faculty salaries and teaching loads. The student group focused on AS&E graduate students, meeting with Dean of the Graduate School of A&S Robin Kanarek to address issues of graduate student housing, and visibility on campus.

Graduate students "make great contributions but they need more recognition," Dixon said. The committee discussed offering more stipends and fellowships to attract top-caliber graduate students.

The administration and finance committee met to begin examining the University's investments and endowment before considering the budget proposal at the February meeting.

Trustees then attended a presentation by two Summer Scholars groups. Senior Tom Baran worked with professor Karen Panetta in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department last summer to research image compression. Senior Jennifer Cho worked with Dr. Cynthia Cole and Dr. Jim Hagadorn, from the School of Medicine, to examine blindness in premature infants.

The University development committee met with Vice President for University Relations Mary Jeka to discuss the relationship with Medford and Somerville, including issues of new construction projects and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs).

Director of Alumni Relations Tim Brooks, Director of Career Services Jean Papalia, and Assistant Director of Career Services Leslie Warner then proposed the idea of career services for alumni. "They need career service help as much as students," Dixon said.

Finally, the committee met with VP for University Advancement Brian Lee and VP for Information Technology Bruce Metz to discuss a new $7 million University information system, which is expected to be tested for the first time at the end of this year. The database will include students, alumni, professors, administrators, and donors. "Anyone in the world with a connection to Tufts will be in this system," Dixon said.

That evening, the trustees gathered at Gifford House for a reception for Gantcher's departure. New Board chair James Stern announced that the trustees had contributed a total of $1.25 million to endow the Summer Scholars program in Gantcher's honor.

The program gives students stipends to conduct research with faculty members over the summer. In its inaugural year, 30 students received the grant. Next year's program will expand by ten students and be renamed the Gantcher Scholars program. "[It is] a very attractive extra feature and makes Tufts enormously competitive" in the area of undergraduate research, Dixon said.

The reception was followed by a dinner in honor of Gantcher at the Golden Temple Chinese restaurant in Brookline, Gantcher's favorite when he was growing up in Boston.

The following day, the trustees traveled to Grafton to mark the 25th anniversary of the School of Veterinary Medicine. There, Bacow presented the first in a series of dashboards (reports that can give the University's financial, academic, and administrative situation at a glance) to the trustees. These dashboards were requested by the trustees at their March retreat.

The trustees then undertook a complete review of the bylaws, a process that had not been attempted for over five years. Dixon said the bylaws were modified to reflect current practices.

At the final meeting, the new trustees were elected and Stern was officially installed as chairman.

Upon leaving the board, Budd, who was the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Travelers Corporation until his retirement in 1994, stressed the importance of viewing University achievements as collaborative efforts, rather than the successes of individual trustees.

Budd hopes the Board will follow through on proposals made by last year's Task Force for the Undergraduate Experience. "There is work to be done on housing and work to be done on the next campaign to get our endowment per student a little more competitive than it is," he said. He also hopes more connections are made between Tufts' eight schools, "so that the University turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts."

Along with Budd, Jaharis, Ducksworth, and Gantcher will be missed as they depart.

Jaharis is now the Chairman of Kos Pharmaceuticals after serving as the CEO and President of Key Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences on Tufts' Boston campus was named after his donation.

Ducksworth is the Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Executive Director of Penguin Putnam, Inc. She has personally handled publishing for Tom Clancy, Amy Tan, Larry King, and Bill Cosby.

Gantcher is currently the Co-Chairman, President, and CEO of Alpha Investment Management. Previously, he was the President, COO, and Co-CEO of Oppenheimer and Company, Inc. He was the Board of Trustees Chairman since 1995.