In a recent conversation with the Daily, University President Lawrence Bacow cautioned against pushing bricks and mortar at the expense of people. As Wall Street continues to disappoint and the economy plunges, the university will be pushing a lot less bricks in coming months and maybe even years. The planned construction of a sports complex and a lab facility are two of the casualties, with work on them being pushed back as Tufts tightens its belt and pulls in the reins on the endowment.
While these delays are unfortunate at best, they are certainly prudent. A part of Tufts' burgeoning endowment has always been set aside for physical improvements, but that has never been the primary purpose of the ongoing capital campaign. The money flowing into the university's coffers over the past years has instead been an overwhelming endorsement of our commitment to need-blind admissions.
So we now find ourselves at a crossroads. Cuts and delays are inevitable, so the only question is whether we endorse buildings or people. And the answer should be simple enough: people. It is the other students and professors -- not the physical infrastructure -- that students will ultimately remember from their time on the Hill. It is for that reason that we support the university's decision to continue to protect what's really important: the quality of the students and professors.
What that boils down to is a commitment to hiring and holding onto the best professors and making sure that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic situations, can afford a Tufts education. Tufts' quality professors must continue to inspire students even as the endowment performs anemically, and need-blind admissions cannot become a casualty of the slowdown.
In order to make ends meet, budget cuts are inevitable, and the university has correctly decided to put large capital projects on hold. Still, this is not a license to keep them on the backburner indefinitely.
For example, the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center construction will eventually add to the currently ailing facilities at Cousens Gym and the Gantcher Center. Additionally, Barnum Hall, home to the biology department, is increasingly an outdated and second-rate space for Tufts' first-rate faculty. Because of the credit crisis, the university is holding off on building a laboratory on Boston Avenue meant to facilitate interaction between engineering and biology efforts at Tufts. The facility will one day open new opportunities on a campus that has not added a new lab building in nearly 20 years. Once the credit markets ease, we urge the university to move forward with these projects and others as quickly as possible.
In these difficult times, the university must continue focusing on what's important: its students. Tufts' excellence derives from its people. Guaranteeing student financial aid and professor salaries will help the quality of the College Avenue experience flourish in spite of poor performance on Wall Street.
