The Board of Trustees, during their most recent meeting on Feb. 8, discussed the implementation of the Strategic Plan (T10) and divestment from fossil fuels, among other issues.
According to a Feb. 12 letter from University President Anthony Monaco, the full Board of Trustees discussed and approved a report from the Tufts Divestment Working Group that Monaco established last April. The Board then made three primary recommendations based on the report: to refrain from divestment at this time, to pursue the establishment of a Sustainability Fund and to expand curriculum and research in climate change issues.
The Academic Affairs Committee discussed three T10 initiatives that are currently underway, according to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler. These initiatives include the creation of Bridge Professorships, through which the school will hire new faculty whose scholarship crosses into various academic departments, and the creation of a Chief Diversity Officer position. The third initiative was the development of the new Tufts 1+4 Program, which allows incoming students to engage in a year of fulltime national or international service prior to their freshman year, Thurler told the Daily in an email.
The Office of Trustee's Secretary of the Corporation Paul Tringale explained that the Buildings and Grounds Committee also approved an energy master plan. The plan's target is a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission and it recommends investing in major energy-saving projects, such as a campus-wide metering system, cogeneration and a central chilled water plant, as well as improving energy conservation measures and upgrading existing equipment, according to Tringale.
"The energy master plan is pretty exciting, and it encompasses planning for current and future needs of the Medford / Somerville campus, as well as taking advantage of new technology that is more energy efficient," Tringale told the Daily in an email. "[It is] quite an investment in Tufts' future."
The Board, during its committee meetings, also heard from three Senate Trustee representatives - seniors LiaWeintraub and Rose Mendelsohn, and junior EnxhiPopa - who presented on their venture projects, according to Weintraub. She said that she gave a presentation to the Committee for University Advancement, where she spoke about the need to create a new model for internship funding. The model she proposed was the work of collaboration between the Career Center and the Senate.
"Instead of 45 internship grants given annually, there would be an eligibility for all students on financial aid to receive one internship grant throughout their tenure at Tufts," Weintraub said. "We also want to have 10 workshops that will make the process more equitable and get rid of the problem of an early deadline."
Weintraub also cited a need for additional professionals in the Career Center to help with the increasing demand for more appointment times. She explained that the trustees recognized the importance of career support for students and acknowledged that the resources currently allocated to the Career Center are inadequate.
Mendelsohn spoke about her presentation on first-generation students at Tufts, and how Tufts and schools across the country are struggling to fully support these students.
"Specifically at Tufts, while there is not a ton of quantitative data, there are a lot of groups and initiatives forming now to better support first-generation students that demonstrate that this a problem here," said Mendelsohn.
One of these groups was the First-Generation Student Council, which was formed last spring by Tisch Scholars, according to Mendelsohn.
"I wanted to share with the Board with what is going on with first-generation students at Tufts and how the Board can make it more of an institutional priority," she said.
Mendelsohn said the Board was receptive of her ideas.
"There was a generally positive response from the trustees," she said. "I talked to Provost [and Senior Vice President David] Harris before I presented and already got [the] sense that he would be supportive, since he and Monaco ... were first-generation students themselves."
She said she hopes that their responses will elicit positive future actions.
"Based on these conversations, it does seem like there is a shift of framework with first generation students," Mendelsohn said. "My hope is that this will open first-generation students as a population that the administration will be thinking more of when they're making these policies."
In addition to the implementation and discussion of new initiatives, four trustees, who began five-year terms in November, participated in formal orientation with their mentors and administrators, according to Tringale. The newly elected trustees are: Elizabeth Cochary Gross (N '82, NG '88), Bruce Grossman (LA '85), Elyse Newhouse (LA '82) and John Bello (A '68).
"I'm looking forward to working with them, and I know they will bring great depth of experience to the board," Tringale told the Daily in an email.
The Board also recognized the loss of one of their own members and an active alumna of the university, Alison M. "Sunny" Breed (J '66, G '72).
Monaco, in his letter, described Breed as "a tireless advocate for Tufts, whose commitment exemplified the dedication shared by all our trustees."
