A protest, a plan to create a new minor, and a proposal to modify academic requirements were all on the agenda at yesterday's faculty meeting, which was held at noon in Ballou Hall's Coolidge Room.
At the meeting, Professor of Sociology Paul Joseph presented a resolution on behalf of nearly 20 faculty members calling for a day of protest against the Iraq war.
The proposed protest would take place on April 19 and would be part of a campus-wide Day of Non-Cooperation sponsored by the newly formed Tufts Action for Peace (TAP).
Entitled "A Call to Walk Out on the Iraq War," the resolution calls on members of the Tufts community to join them by "setting aside ... normal academic routines" in favor of the protest.
The date of the protest, however, is potentially problematic because it coincides with one of the days of the April Open House, during which admitted students will be touring the campus with student hosts.
Joseph, who is a member of TAP, told the Daily in an e-mail that the sponsors were not aware of the conflict with the April Open House when they decided on the date.
"Every day that we considered had some problem attached to it. [April 19] just seemed to be the best from a logistical standpoint," he said.
Joseph also indicated that while the group will consider changing the date, the end of the semester is approaching and there are not many other days on which the group can hold the protest.
Freshman TAP member Gabe Frumkin told the Daily that although he understands the concern about protesting while prospective students are on campus, he also thinks that seeing the event would reveal an interesting facet of campus life.
"A very important part of Tufts to me is the very dedicated faculty body and student body that [take] action on important current issues of our day," he said.
Still, the proposed protest was met with a variety of concerns from faculty members.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman feared that members of the community might pay more attention to the cancellation of classes than to the cause of the protest.
"The [question] may be raised by students about whether we can cancel class and we can lose sight of exactly what we are looking to address," he said.
Reitman proposed that a referendum regarding the protest be presented to students to avoid "splintering the community."
The idea of canceling classes also bothered Associate Professor of History Jeanne Penvenne, but she said that she would participate in a campus-wide anti-war protest if it were to take another form.
Professor of Philosophy Daniel Dennett was unhappy as well with the idea of using a walkout as a means of protesting.
"Walking out is too easily dismissed as a ... holiday. A teach-in would be better. There are some activities that would have more impact than a walkout," he said.
University President Lawrence Bacow offered a mix of praise and caution to close out the debate on the resolution, on which faculty members were ultimately unable to reach a consensus.
"We should act on a basis of principles. We should ask ourselves how we would feel if students acted on their own and decided not to attend our classes," he said.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Sam Kounaves, the co-chair of the Education Policy Committee (EPC), also presented a resolution at the meeting to introduce a new leadership studies minor.
According to the resolution, the minor would be an interdisciplinary program which analyzes the effects of "historical, political, economic, psychological, and technological forces on effective leadership and leadership models."
The resolution also stated that students would have to take six classes from three different lists, or "tiers," of courses from a range of departments in order to complete the minor.
According to Professor of Economics George Norman, who chaired the steering committee responsible for designing the minor, the Tier 1 classes are the "core courses" of the program and students pursuing the minor will be required to take two of them.
They will also have to take two Tier 2 courses and one additional course from either Tier 1 or Tier 2.
Norman said that the tiers have still not been finalized and that he expects more courses to be added to both Tier 1 and Tier 2.
The final course is a "Tier 3 capstone project," which is a seminar that integrates the material from the other courses with a "practical leadership capstone experience," according to the resolution.
Possible activities that fulfill the leadership capstone experience include editorship on a campus news source and participation in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. (ROTC), Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said.
The resolution, however, states that students can bypass the leadership capstone experience with a senior thesis on leadership, provided that they have permission from the director of the program.
Many faculty members wanted more integration with other disciplines, especially in light of the extensive interdisciplinary nature of the program. Some also questioned the lack of an introductory leadership studies course.
Norman stressed that the integration should come in a course at the end of the minor, since "one integrating course may apply to one group of students and not another."
The faculty will vote on the resolution next week.
A resolution to change the policy regarding exceptions to the required eight semesters for graduation was also presented and passed unanimously during the meeting.
Prior to the resolution, students could only substitute four Advanced Placement (AP) credits or four credits from a Tufts summer session, but not a combination of the two, in exchange for one semester at Tufts, according to Glaser.
"The inability to mix and match summer school credits and AP/pre-matriculation credits seems quite arbitrary and capricious," the resolution said.
It proposed that students should be allowed to combine the two types of credits in order to skip up to two semesters. At the same time, it also raised the number of credits required to bypass a semester from four to five, and the number required to bypass two semesters from eight to nine credits.
