This semester, the Experimental College (ExCollege) brings students a new opportunity to interact with faculty outside of the classroom via a weekly lecture series. "A Taste of Tufts: A Sampling of Faculty Research" will present some of the university's most prominent researchers in a discussion of their work with students.
Featuring the research of professors and administrators across various disciplines, the series kicks off tomorrow at noon with a presentation by Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger−Sweeney, and will span the course of the semester.
"The idea is to get faculty from a broad range of areas — sciences, humanities, engineering — and give them an opportunity to talk about their research and how they got to be interested in that area," Cindy Stewart, the assistant director of the ExCollege, said.
Senior Sara Harari, a civil engineering major, proposed the original concept to ExCollege Director Robyn Gittleman in the fall.
"Last semester, I was in the bookstore, and I was looking at all of the different textbooks, a lot of which are written by different Tufts professors," Harari said. "I was really thinking, ‘I'm an engineer, I'm never going to get to take those courses.'"
Though many seniors have likely already completed core work and exhausted available extracurricular opportunities, Tufts has more to offer that many graduating Jumbos have yet to experience, according to Harari.
"[I] approached the Experimental College with this idea for a class where the professors would come in and just talk about what they were interested in," she said.
In presenting this concept to Gittleman and the Experimental College Board, comprised of five faculty members and five students, the challenges for offering this type of course were evaluated. According to Gittleman, she and Harari had numerous meetings to address the issues and reshape the initial proposal.
"I thought it was a great idea, but there wasn't any cohesion to it," Gittleman said. "We couldn't see where the center was for it to be a real academic course, and therefore credit seemed to be one of the issues. But we agreed the information that she felt students would like to understand and learn was very valuable."
As a result, the classroom experience was morphed into a luncheon lecture series instead. Once this was put into action last November, Stewart took the reins and co−coordinated the event with Harari.
"We divided things up between Sara and I," Stewart said. "She would make the contacts with the faculty members and administrators, and I would do more of the behind−the−scenes logistics."
Stewart says that funding for the event comes from the ExCollege budget, with additional support from the SPIRIT (Students and Professors Integrating Recreation, Intellect and Teaching) Fund, administered through Dean of Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies Carmen Lowe's office. The primary cost for the event will be the lunch provided to attendees, Stewart said.
Harari's responsibilities include choosing, contacting and scheduling faculty members for the presentations.
"The idea is to have some of the best lecturers at Tufts who are doing the coolest research come in and talk about it," she said. "So I asked my friends about their favorite professor. As soon as I started talking about it, people would say things like, ‘you know I really wanted to hear from this professor.'"
Most of the professors she has talked to have been very willing to participate. Associate Professor of Physics Hugh Gallagher, who will present his research later this month, is excited to share his work.
"We do what we do because we're fascinated by it, and we're always thrilled when people want to hear about it," Gallagher said. "So I was really honored to be asked, and I'm looking forward to doing the talk."
Harari is reaching out not only to professors, but also to other prominent members of the Tufts community. Besides Berger−Sweeney's presentation this Friday, University President Anthony Monaco is scheduled to present his research in March.
"President Monaco was actually the first person I contacted," Harari said. "He was really enthusiastic about the series." She is also currently reaching out to researchers at Tufts' graduate schools, including the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and the Fletcher School.
According to Stewart, the goal was to get faculty members that have an extraordinary presence in lectures and a reputation for being engaging. The administrators, however, are entirely different because they are not usually seen in the classroom setting.
"You don't always get to hear about [Monaco's or Berger−Sweeney's] research, and yet both are world−renowned researchers," she said. "So this is an opportunity to realize that Tony Monaco, for example, isn't just the president of Tufts, but someone who has an incredible wealth of information that he can share."
Gittleman and Stewart both expressed that this type of event exemplifies the mission of the ExCollege, which emphasizes student participation and engagement. The lecture series, a student−initiated event where undergraduates can interact with faculty in an informal setting, complements the objectives of the ExCollege.
"The important thing about the Experimental College is that we really respect the undergraduates, and when they come to us with some idea that seems feasible in some fashion, we work very hard to make it into a reality," Gittleman said. "We always think that there are many ways of learning, and this proved to be one way."
On a broader level, the lecture series will do just what it suggests: offer a "Taste of Tufts." Specifically, undergraduates will be given the chance to go beyond their experiences in the classroom to see what else Tufts supports, Gallagher said.
"Tufts is unique in being, on the one hand, a leading research university, and at the same time, being a small, liberal arts university," he said. "So there are opportunities for students to take advantage of both of those worlds."
Associate Professor of Music David Locke, who will present next Friday, Feb. 10, is appreciative that students can learn the research aspect of their professors' responsibilities.
"It's good for students to have a chance to interact with professors in a non−evaluative framework, to see professors as people that do interesting things in a setting other than a course," he said.
Harari believes that students will benefit in many other ways as well.
"If there's something that you're interested in, you should come to that lecture because it's an opportunity to learn more about it, to see if you should take a class or, if you're like me, a last−semester senior, to get a taste of what else is here," she said.
As of now, Stewart said that they are planning on about 25 attendees for each presentation. Depending on the response from both students and faculty members, the lecture series can become a lasting event sponsored by the ExCollege. Regardless, the reaction now is a positive one, Stewart said.
"I give Sara all the credit in the world for coming in and saying, ‘I don't want to miss these opportunities while I'm still at Tufts,' which I think is a perspective that a lot of students seem to have," Stewart said. "So I think it was a great idea, and hopefully it will be successful."
