New alumni association focuses on activism

A group of Tufts alumni have founded a new association because they feel the University's primary association does not sufficiently represent their interests.

The Tufts Progressive Alumni Network (TPAN) was founded this year, partly in response to the bitter debate that surrounded the revocation of an Alumni Association award from one student activist last year.

"The Tufts University Alumni Association does not have a monopoly on the voice of alumni, and we are not going to let them silence progressives," TPAN Steering Committee member Louis Esparza (LA '03) said. "We provide an outlet for people who want to give back to the university but feel that the Alumni Association does not represent their interests."

But neither Alumni Relations nor the Alumni Association had heard of TPAN until this Wednesday, according to Director of Alumni Relations Tim Brooks.

According to the group's mission statement, TPAN will support activism at Tufts, act directly to influence Tufts policies, provide community for progressive Tufts alumni through social and political events, and will provide resources for graduating progressive seniors.

The group is also awarding an annual prize to a progressive senior. Nominations are due by March 1. The criteria for the award are "commitment to social justice, leadership ability, and potential to be future change agents."

The group has attracted about 50 members so far, according to Esparza. The other members of the steering committee are Cindy Chang and Rachel Jones, who both graduated last year.

Esparza was a well-known left-leaning activist during his time at Tufts. He was a member of Radix, a liberal student publication, and the Coalition for Social Justice and Non-Violence. Esparza is currently a doctoral student in sociology at Stony Brook University.

But Esparza said the organization's represents a variety of alumni interests.

"Our alumni were involved in a diverse array of student organizations," Esparza said. "We have representatives from Radix and the Tufts Republicans. We have engineers, lawyers, computer scientists, and aspiring paperback writers."

Although the Alumni Association is the main alumni group -- every graduate automatically becomes a member -- there are 12 other alumni groups, according to the Association's website. Other groups include the Association of Tufts Alumnae, the Black Alumni Association, and the Tufts Hillel Alumni Alliance. However, none claims to be an alternative to the Alumni Association as TPAN does.

TPAN is currently focused on several initiatives, including establishing a relationship with the University's office of Alumni Relations -- which is independent of the Alumni Association -- and the Social Justice Fund, a fund within the endowment that is directed to social justice activism at Tufts.

According to the minutes of a Jan. 3 TPAN meeting, the organization is interested in how Alumni Relations could help TPAN increase membership. The organization also said the University could benefit from increased alumni participation.

Palmieri has hopes for a positive and productive future between the Alumni Association and TPAN.

"What TPAN is doing is a very positive thing," Palmieri said. "I just hope its goal is to further improve the entire alumni experience as a whole."

According to TPAN's website, the organization is not necessarily looking for an immediate relationship with the Alumni Association, and stressed that "TPAN should keep its autonomy."

"There is nothing militant or aggressive about TPAN, but it remains to be seen where they'll go, or how they intend to fix their problems," Brooks said. "My door is open to help them."

Some of TPAN's members became disillusioned with the Alumni Association last year when the association revoked a Senior Award from Elizabeth Monnin.

Monnin, a prominent campus activist and a co-chair of the Tufts Feminist Alliance, was told by the Alumni Association last February that she would receive an award, given each year to 12 seniors for academic excellence and outstanding leadership. But the decision was reversed only weeks later after the association learned about her involvement in a protest at the 2003 Fares Lecture delivered by Former President George H.W. Bush.

Monnin was one of a small group of students who stood up and shouted protests during Bush's speech. They were then escorted out of the speech by police officers.

"The Alumni Association really put off a lot of people when they took away Ms. Monnin's award," Esparza said. "The action that the Alumni Association took last year brought national shame to this university and violated the basic tenant of the Tufts Vision Statement, 'that active citizen participation is essential to freedom and democracy, and a desire to make the world a better place.'"

The controversy attracted coverage in The Boston Globe and the Alumni Association received a "dishonorable mention" in The Boston Phoenix's sixth annual "muzzle awards."

The faculty also unanimously passed a resolution condemning the decision.

Esparza added that the Alumni Association failed to provide an appropriate response to Monnin's situation, and did not follow through with its mission statement of "instilling a sense of belonging that will extend beyond graduation."

"If the Alumni Association was fulfilling its mission statement properly, there would not be as much interest in the Progressive Alumni Network as there is," he said.

Brooks maintains that the Alumni Association was justified in its final decision. "One tenet for the Senior Award was the 'potential for alumni leadership,'" he said. "The Award Committee was right to question whether Ms. Monnin truly fit that criteria."

Monnin now chairs the selection committee for TPAN's progressive senior award.

Alumni Association President-Elect Ann Palmieri understands the delicacy of the situation, yet hopes that "people wouldn't let a single event affect how you judge an entire organization."

Although Esparza said the controversy was not the singular driving force behind TPAN's inception, "it highlighted a general problem that we seek to address: the lack of support for progressive activism on campus."