I came to Tufts in 1992 as a self-centered 18-year-old with little interest in the full liberal arts experience. I graduated in 1996 and am now the owner of a $2 million software company and a part-time graduate student at the Catholic University School of Philosophy. My change of direction while at Tufts is due largely to former Asst. IR Director John Jenke. I am completely confused why a man who has selflessly invested in so many hundreds of students is not good enough for Tufts.
John Jenke made me angry a lot. He makes a lot of people angry. But it's not because he is a condemning man. It is because he loved, as a true educator loves, me and my fellow students too much to keep silent about what he saw as wrong decisions we were making.
I left John Jenke's office one day so angry because, after hearing my speeches about social justice, he asked me if I had read one solitary book on the topic. I returned, hat in hand, and asked him what to read. He asked me what I thought justice was. I didn't know. He pointed me to courses on justice taught by Robert Devigne and Norman Daniels, and so began my journey into philosophy which is now culminating in my graduate degree.
I am confident that whoever he angered last semester was unwilling to learn the management skills required to manage passionate employees. If only employers like President Bacow and I had more passionate employees like John Jenke that occasionally need to be put in their place. But not fired.
John Jenke, as I recall, selflessly served Tufts by sacrificing his personal time - through non-stop office hours and Admissions-related trips around the country - to do the work that many professors don't want to do. I'm surprised the professors don't revolt simply because Jenke's workload will now be borne by them!
If John Jenke wants to return, I urge President Bacow to personally invite him back, not because when his hundreds of alumni advisees learn of this they will not give to the school, but because it is the right thing to do.
Ken Archer
Class of 1996
