New faculty find the Tufts community welcoming in both formal and informal ways, and that outreach from both students and other faculty is helpful as they make the transition to Tufts.
Visiting Professor Carla Brodley, new to the computer science department this fall from Purdue University, said the Tufts community's welcome was much better than her initial reception at Purdue. "At Purdue, it was kind of like 'here's the key to your office. I thought Tufts did a wonderful job," Brodley said.
New professors find other faculty a helpful resource as they transition to Tufts. "I think there is a sense of community within my department and I know for the new faculty, one of the second-year faculty members has organized meetings for new faculty about once a month," said art history Lecturer Monica McTighe, who arrived at Tufts in the fall.
Assistant Professor Chih Ming Tan, who came to the economics department last semester, described the social atmosphere of the economics department as helping him in his transition. "This is a truly tight-knit, collegial department where people like one another, not just as colleagues but also as individuals, at the personal level," Tan said. "And we enjoy meeting one another for coffee just to have an opportunity to talk about our work and to bounce off ideas."
Academic events provide new professors with a chance to interact on a social level and get to know their colleagues and work their way into the academic community network. "One of our regular department 'outings' is for faculty members to share rides to seminars and workshops at Harvard, MIT and all the other great schools in the Boston area," Tan said. "The existence of so many highly-ranked departments in one area does a lot to facilitate the exchange of ideas and research."
New professors suggest that Tufts could better facilitate interdisciplinary networking for new faculty, as this is an area where some difficulty is encountered. "One thing that's hard when you're new is to find faculty from other disciplines who work on areas relevant to your interest," said Assistant Professor Deborah Schildkraut, who is new to the political science department.
McTighe agreed that more faculty interaction between departments could be an area for improvement. "I'm not sure if this would be the administration's responsibility, but it would be nice if there were a more formal way to get together more regularly, with other faculty members, not just the new ones," McTighe said.
Faculty coming from other universities have a unique vantage point which enables them to compare Tufts students with those of other institutions. Brodley pointed to students as a positive force following her move to Tufts. "The undergrads and graduates were incredibly welcoming," she said. "Out of all the universities I've been associated with, this is the most friendly."
Christian Benes, Assistant Professor in the mathematics department, came to Tufts after pursuing doctoral work at Duke University. He described Tufts as "a smaller university, people are a little friendlier and the students are not as grade-obsessed, despite being just as smart," Benes said.
Class size at Tufts allows professors more student interaction, a factor that draws new professors. Small class size "allows students and professors to get to know each other very well and fosters a much richer and significantly more rewarding learning experience for the students," Tan said. "It also makes teaching so much more rewarding for professors."
Housing in the overwhelming, expensive and often cutthroat Boston area real estate market can be a challenge for new professors trying to find a new place to live in what may be a short amount of time.
Tan described finding housing as a "rather stressful period," which was eased by a kind gesture from his economics department mentor, Yannis Ioannides. "[They] offered us their house for as long as we wanted it while we completed the purchase of our own house in Lexington," Tan said.
To ease the real estate pressures on new faculty, Tufts provides temporary housing for incoming professors close to campus. History lecturer Awad Halabi took advantage of this perk when he came to Tufts in the fall of 2003 and found it made his move to the area much easier. "[The housing] facilitated my early stay here - I'm still intimidated by the real estate market here," Halabi said. "It was very helpful to me."
Though some professors choose to commute longer distances, Brodley said one of the things she enjoys about her new home is living close to campus in a student area. "I love walking to work," she said. "I think my street was the one most cited for parties, actually, but I don't really hear it."
"I like living in a student neighborhood because people are out late and I can feel safe walking at night," she added.
McTighe said that she did not move into a student neighborhood, but didn't see faculty residence as having any effect on the community feel of Tufts. "When you go home, you're with your family," she said. "In my undergraduate education, the coffee shop was the central place."
