CMS associate director to retire after 21 years

Susan Eisenhauer, associate director of Tufts’ Communications and Media Studies (CMS) Program who has throughout her tenure developed strong relationships with current students and alumni and grown the program’s internship component, will retire at the end of the academic year.

Eisenhauer has been a member of the Tufts community for over four decades, having graduated from the university in 1971 and returned to join its faculty in 1992.

When she first started work at Tufts, Eisenhauer was the only employee in the CMS Program, which was known at the time as a “cluster” and only offered a few classes. The program now allows students to minor in one of three areas, puts on campus-wide events and supports related courses in other departments.

Eisenhauer has played a pivotal role in growing the CMS program since its earliest days, according to Director of the Experimental College Robyn Gittleman.

“Without Susan there wouldn’t be this program, because she’s the continuum that has kept it going,” she said.

Eisenhauer cites one of her major accomplishments as having grown the internship programs in which students can participate during the school year, over the summer and during winter break.

“A major area of [Eisenhauer’s] responsibility has been to run our internship program,” CMS Program Director Julie Dobrow told the Daily in an email. “Over the years Susan has helped to build and grow this program, and I think it is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful internship programs at Tufts.”

In order to strengthen the internship options and support current students, Eisenhauer has worked closely with alumni involved in media-related fields.

“I had a lot of contact with alumni in setting up internships, events, working with them on career development for our students,” she said. “After 21 years, you develop quite a number of people that you can call on for help for the current population, and that’s really one of the most heartwarming parts of the job.”

Eisenhauer explained that during her time at Tufts she has also been involved with Dobrow on supervising the CMS senior projects and has been active with the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program for over 20 years.

“She’s the perfect person for what she was doing, and people just normally gravitated towards her,” Gittleman said. “She had the background, the information.”

Gittleman and Dobrow noted that Eisenhauer’s warm personality and the interest she took in individual students set her apart.

“Susan has cultivated wonderful relationships with students,” Dobrow said. “She’s always been there with an open door, an open ear and an open heart. Generations of Tufts students have fond memories of her warmth and encouragement.”

Eisenhauer said she will most miss the students she interacts with after her retirement this spring.

“It’s been just an honor and a pleasure to work with so many students over the years,” she said. “And I still hear from so many students that I did internships with ... that work in the fields now. It’s so great to hear from them as they advance in their careers and they tell me about what’s going on in their personal lives. That’s the most fun part of the job, I’d say.”

Even after she retires, Eisenhauer plans to stay involved with the Tufts community.

“I’m quite confident that I’ll continue to have a presence in some way on special projects in the future, whether it’s working on senior projects for students or some other smaller project,” Eisenhauer said.

The CMS program has not officially launched the search to fill Eisenhauer’s position, according to Dobrow.