Following closed-door meetings on Saturday morning, the University's Board of Trustees met with students, faculty, and administrators for a formal lunch in Dowling Hall that afternoon.
Over lunch, the attendees discussed a range of topics regarding Tufts, outlined with leading questions created by senior Chike Aguh, one of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's trustee representatives.
One priority expressed was the enrichment of the intellectual atmosphere with increased thesis rates, which currently hovers around 20 percent.
"This is unacceptably low for an institution that values its faculty-student interaction," University Provost Jamshed Bharucha said.
Students also discussed how other non-thesis opportunities for valuable undergraduate research were not as visible as some would like. Sophomore TCU senator Jessica Feinberg said that, as a Psychology major, the undergraduate research opportunities she knew of were few and far between.
"It's not highly publicized," she said. "I don't know how to get into research."
Such programs are expanding and efforts are being made to encourage research during study abroad, Bharucha said.
One such effort, highlighted by Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, is the Tufts Summer Scholars program, which aims to increase the quality of intellectual involvement in the Tufts community.
The program pairs students with professors to perform on-campus research projects in the summer. Last year, the program received approximately 100 proposals for 30 spots. "This year we've gotten 200 proposals, and we're not even close to the deadline," Glaser said.
Housing for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, also featured prominently in the discussion. "There is a panoply of recommendations from the Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience [on housing], and many of them are starting to happen," Glaser said.
He said that Hill Hall was being newly designated as a freshman dorm for the 2005-2006 academic year. Glaser said that it is important for freshmen to be together for the first few months of the school year, for networking purposes.
The construction of Sophia Gordon Hall was an important step in this process, he said, which would help ease the housing crunch for juniors and seniors.
Junior TCU Senator John Valentine said, however, that off-campus housing would still remain a hassle for juniors. "We've got to find a way to determine a fair market rent around Tufts," he said. "It's ridiculous - the market is such a seller's market."
Valentine suggested the development of a database that would keep track of information about landlords and their houses and allow students to compare prices and value.
Housing is no picnic for faculty either, Physics Professor Hugh Gallagher said. He said that he was only able to make initial payments for a house from selling his house in Minnesota where the cost of living is far lower. For the average junior professor, "It's just not affordable," he said.
Cultural differences, Trustee Ed Swan said, can also discourage minority professors from settling in the area.
The issue of diversity of faculty, staff and students was discussed throughout the lunch. "Hospitality in Boston is a real problem for African-American professionals," Swan said.
Keeping young alumni involved was another high priority, with emphasis on the tradition of giving back to the school in both monetary and other forms.
Senior Matt Pohl said that as a soon-to-be alumnus, he would like to stay involved with the community, even with minimal monetary contributions. "I want to stay emotionally connected to my school," he said. "We want to attract younger alumni back with connections other than finances."
The attendees also considered how to better the college experience in order to sustain alumni connections.
History Professor Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe described how there is a "lack of access between faculty members and students."
"I don't know about their problems or their lives," she said. Baghdiantz-McCabe said she wants to get to know her students personally and be able to help them, to an extent, on matters beyond the strictly academic.
Daniel Lutz contributed to this article
