The Board of Trustees meeting this weekend was cut short because many of its members had to go on a University trip to India.
The trip - held in conjunction with two alumni travel programs - is in part to attend a meeting of the International Board of Overseers.
About 80 people are taking part in the combined trip, including University President Lawrence Bacow and Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha.
The group will meet with local alumni, cultural figures and members of the government. Participants will speak to author Jairam Ramesh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Tufts alumni Davinder Brar, the chairman of GVK Biosciences, Bollywood actress Amisha Patel, Ashok Misra, the director of the Indian Institute of Technology, and United Nations Under Secretary General for Communication and Public Information Shashi Tharoor will also speak to the group.
Before he left, Bharucha said the trip could lead to research opportunities for students and faculty. A small medical school and dental school, he said, could provide Tufts medical and dental students opportunities to practice in different environments.
"We'll be signing some agreements with different organizations," he said.
Bharucha also said the trip may result in study abroad programs for students. He emphasized the need to open up relationships in India, as well as strengthening Tufts' international profile.
The trustees and administrators, as well as alumni on the Tufts in the World program, left over the weekend and will return Friday. Alumni participating in the Tufts Travel-Learn program left Monday and stay until Nov. 20. They have more time for sightseeing, including the Taj Mahal and Emperor Akbar's Agra Fort.
All three groups will fly into Mumbai and fly back from New Delhi.
According to Bharucha, the returns of the trip outweigh the costs. Last November's Tufts in the World trip to Mexico City, he said, led to the Mexican government paying half the tuition of Mexican PhD students at Tufts. The connections with institutions and alumni in the area will also help the University raise money, he said.
Under the auspices of the Board of Trustees, there are several boards of overseers, which have no authority but make policy recommendations to the University and help raise money. There are overseers for each school in the University, one for athletics, and one called the International Board of Overseers.
The International Board of Overseers encourages international students to apply to Tufts, looks for financial aid for international students, and promotes the University's reputation abroad, according to Trustees Secretary Linda Dixon said.
The group meets twice a year, each time in a different country. Last spring's meeting was in Mexico.
Next year's Tufts in the World trip will take place in China.
At a lunch for trustees who did not go to India on Saturday, trustee Alfred Tauber said his work kept him from going to India. Tauber is a professor at Boston University, and his wife is also an academic.
"We really have to change our lifestyle," he said.
-- Brian Loeb contributed to this article.
