The university's partner in the President's Marathon Challenge (PMC) starting next year will cut in half the number of Tufts community members it sponsors to run the Boston Marathon.
For the past nine years, John Hancock Financial Services has been the primary sponsor for the 200 charity numbers given to Tufts as part of the challenge. University President Lawrence Bacow originally brokered the relationship between John Hancock and Tufts, a contract that was originally meant to last 10 years. The two institutions made the deal to cut the PMC participants by half — to 100 runners — this semester in exchange for extending the partnership for two years beyond the original 10-year agreement, according to Executive Director of University Development Eric Johnson.
To participate in the marathon, all runners must either meet strict qualifying times or receive a charity number that waives the requirement if they raise funds to donate to a charitable cause.
In return for bypassing the qualifying stage, PMC participants must raise a certain amount of money in order to run. Students are required to raise $1,000 and non-students, including faculty, alumni and parents, must raise $2,500 to benefit programs at the Friedman School of Nutrition.
John Hancock did not make the change for economic reasons, but that instead cut the grants because it is seeking to diversify the charitable activities it benefits, according to Johnson.
"John Hancock is very interested in supporting a broader range of nonprofits," Johnson told the Daily. "This was a way of kind of getting what both sides wanted … and [giving] them the opportunity to provide to more nonprofits in Boston besides Tufts."
PMC Director Don Megerle, who called the challenge one of Bacow's legacies at the university, was disappointed with the decision and said the change could threaten the dynamics of the team, which runners have grown accustomed to over the years.
"It was a discussion that we had with John Hancock last fall. We were trying to figure out a way to extend our relationship beyond two [more] years," Johnson said, adding that the original contract would have allowed for only two more years with 200 challenge runners.
"It would have been difficult to go from 200 members to all of sudden having nothing, so now we have four years [with 100 runners each]," he said.
Johnson added that the university would continue to negotiate with John Hancock to try to lengthen the relationship beyond two additional years, but that such an extension has not yet been finalized with the company.
Megerle said it is too early to tell how the change will affect the relative number of students, faculty, alumni and friends who can participate in the challenge, although Johnson — who has run the race with the team nine times — said the proportions would likely remain the same.
"We'll have the same kind of balance we had with 200 members," he said. "There will obviously be less on all of them, but we'll try to make sure there is strong balance for all of those groups."
Ryan Kring, a senior who is running on the PMC team for the first time this year, said he was disappointed with the change but noted that it reflected parallels with the Boston Athletic Association's recent trend toward making the marathon more of a competitive athletic event.
"It's a great program that Tufts has, and it's unfortunate that they're reducing their numbers," Kring said. "I love being on the team. It's amazing."
"For Tufts, it's really been a good program and has helped the school's reputation, as well," he added.
Kring expressed hope that the challenge would continue under University President-Elect Anthony Monaco.
If John Hancock representatives saw firsthand Tufts students' dedication to the challenge, Kring said, they might change their minds about reducing the numbers of Tufts students that could participate.
"If they ever come to a place like a Tufts or a Harvard [University] … watch what goes on, see the inner workings of the training and the bonding of the team and the life-changing that goes on in the kids, they'd say, ‘Gee, this is much more than running a marathon,'" he said. "To do an event as awe-inspiring as the Boston Marathon really makes you feel good about yourself and makes you feel like you accomplished a lot."
