News
December 3
In the 150 years since Tufts was founded, the nature and boundaries of religious life on campus have constantly shifted. Tufts, which was founded by Universalists, was the first university in Massachusetts not founded by Congregationalists, and has a strong tradition of being a pluralistic campus.
Universalism, founded as a denomination in 1833, is a sect of Christianity that believes that salvation is not limited to those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. In keeping with Universalist ideology, Tufts was founded as a school at which students of all faiths were welcome, requiring no religious tests for admission.
Deciding where to build Tufts "was a toss-up between Medford and a site in Vermont," said Reverend Hank Peirce of Medford's Unitarian Universalist Church, who also acts as Chaplain for Universalist and Unitarian students on campus, said. But Universalist Charles Tufts, who wanted to put a light on the "bleak hill over in Medford," donated land and money; consequently, Medford was decided upon.
Universalist minister Hosea Ballou II was installed as the University's first president, but a school of religion wasn't put in right away because the University wanted to be open to all faiths, Peirce said.
At the time, such an open-minded attitude towards religion was a rarity.
"At the Park Street Church [in Boston], the minister preached anti-Catholic sermons, and Protestant mobs went and burned down convents," Peirce said. "When the Convent of the Ursuline Sisters in Somerville was burned, one university said, 'That's what Catholics get.' Hosea Ballou spoke up and said, 'Don't be an idiot. This was a tragedy.' He spoke up for minority faiths."
Tufts' School of Religion was founded in 1869. Renamed for Thomas Crane in 1906, it was designed as a non-sectarian theological center. The school had a small endowment and low enrollment, however. The highest enrollment ever was the year of 1937-1938, when the school boasted 60 students.
Despite the University's foundation upon acceptance of all faiths, Tufts was not always true to its idealistic roots. Its first four presidents were Universalist clergymen, and in the early 20th century, the University employed a quota system to limit the numbers of Jewish and Catholic students attending the University. "This was especially true for Jackson, the women's college, which had very strict quotas," Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Chaplain of Jewish students, said.
The Reverend Gene Adams, who attended Tufts as an undergraduate and graduate student, was enrolled in the Crane School, which eventually closed in 1968, during its most populous years. When he was at Tufts in the 1930s, there daily chapel attendance was mandatory. Freshman and sophomores went at one time, and juniors and seniors at another.
"I decided to break this rule of compulsory religion," Adams said. "I protested and supported Dean Skinner. We boycotted the place and refused to go." Clarence Skinner served from 1933-1945 as the dean of Crane, drawing from Christianity, other religions, and more secular influences.
"He always had trouble at Tufts," Adams said. "He was a pacifist and a friend of the Socialists. He was always disliked by the administration, particularly Leonard Carmichael, which made it tough on him and his students."
Nonconformist religious attitudes such as those of Adams and Skinner were more widely accepted during the 1950s, when Tufts' first Catholic Mass was held and the number of Jewish students on campus began to increase. During the mid-1970s, the University's first full-time Hillel director was hired. In 1978, a full-time rabbi was hired.
"I came in 1979. Literally, Hillel was on the second floor of Curtis in a small room," Summit said. "In those years, if there were 30 people for a Shabbat dinner it was a huge deal. Now on Friday nights, we regularly get between 100 and 180 people."
Through the 1980s, Summit said, the nature of Tufts' Jewish population began to change, becoming more organized, active, and integrated. In the early '90s, growth and involvement were strong enough to necessitate a Hillel center where Jewish students could gather for worship. Goddard Chapel, though officially open to worship of all faith groups, was too explicitly "Christian" to work for Jewish worship and gathering.
In 1995, the Granoff Family Hillel Center opened, built on land given by the University and funded by alumni and parents. Since then "Jewish life on campus has been vibrant," Summit said. "Hillel is very active with other campus groups. For example, this year Hillel and the Islamic Society cosponsored the Break Fast for Ramadan program."
Cooperation between different religious groups is of the utmost concern to University Chaplain David O'Leary. "I'm the umbrella," he said. "If a religious group has any problems, I am there as a recourse."
O'Leary, the only Chaplain paid by the University, describes his niche as a support to all religious beliefs. "That's why I wear a jacket and tie despite the fact that I'm a Roman Catholic priest in good standing," he said.
One of the first things O'Leary did when appointed University Chaplain this past July was to appoint Anne Penick, Director of the Catholic Center, Tufts' first female Associate Chaplain. He also appointed Nouradinne Hawat as Tufts' first Muslim Associate Chaplain.
Hawat has been with Tufts since 1998. Unlike the Catholic and Jewish chaplains, who are not paid by the University but are paid by their religious organizations, Hawat is not paid at all; his is basically a volunteer job.
"Islam in the USA is not established at the same level as far as budget and organization," Hawat said, "and political events can delay the advancement of a Muslim community."
In 1990, University administration considered dismantling the school's Department of Religion and placing its classes under other departments for budget-cutting reasons. Student protests and outcry in campus publications ensued, and TCU unanimously called for increase in religious faculty. As a result, the Department of Religion not only continued to exist but actually gained new faculty members and was renamed the Department of Comparative Religion in 1997.
That same fervor and respect for religion and religious studies remains in evident on campus today. Hawat has noted a definite growth in student interest in Islam since he came to Tufts, and the weekly 10 p.m. Catholic mass is the largest weekly gathering on campus.
Protestant students meet Sunday evenings with Protestant Chaplain Steven Bonsey, and Buddhist, Hindu, and Orthodox groups have recently been started. "There are many active religious groups on Tufts' campus-and we know they're active, because they have to be to get funding from TCU," O'Leary said.
Though there has been an increase in students who express no religious affiliation in recent years, "students on the Tufts campus tend to be connected to their religious traditions very strongly," Summit said. "Religion plays a very important part in the Tufts community. The issue is how we can learn from one another to model a community of mutual respect."
Such a community may well be what was envisioned by Tufts' Universalist founders. "It's dangerous to say 'they would have loved this,' but I think Hosea Ballou would be happy with how Tufts is today. He wasn't bogged down in provincialism," Peirce said.
