An Interview with President Lawrence S. Bacow
April 18, 2008
Tufts Education
The Observer: What does a Tufts education mean? What do you hope students will get out of Tufts when they graduate?President Bacow: John Dewey once said “Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself,” so I hope that when a student comes to Tufts they will get more than preparation for a job or a career. They will develop their intellect, they will develop a lifelong passion for learning, they will come to appreciate who they are, and what role they might place as a constructive member of society. That’s why we believe that all our students should be active citizens. If you go back to the original conception of education…education was created to educate citizens about democracy. I sometimes worry that we have lost sight of that. Education is both investment and consumption. Investment in the sense that you come to college to get a degree because it will enhance the present value of your future. But education is also consumption. There are certain things you study not because they will earn you more money in the future but because they are going to make you a more interesting person. You study them because they are going to help you understand the world in ways you would not otherwise understand. You study them because they will enrich your life. That’s why most people study art, literature, music, philosophy. I want to make sure that when students graduate from here they understand what that’s about. It’s not just about that you hope you have a job when you graduate. It’s more than just that.
O: What progress has the university made in its goal of increasing financial aid awards?
B: We have made enormous progress. The class we just admitted was the most socioeconomically diverse class in history. We have record numbers of students both on financial aid and in the neediest categories of financial aid, and that’s something I’m proud of. I’m proud of it because these are academically gifted and talented students who in the past we would not have been able to admit because we couldn’t afford to help them. This is no longer the case. The campaign has had a tremendous impact on this. We’re not done yet. There is more work to do. This class would have looked very different if we had the financial aid resources we did five years ago.
O: Do you feel that your strives as President have helped Tufts become what it is today?
B: No President accomplishes anything by themselves, it’s a group effort on behalf of everybody. What has been rewarding to see is how our donors have responded to our appeal to make financial aid a priority. I think most people get it. One of the things that distinguishes this country from others is that we have a large degree of social and economic mobility due in large part to higher education.
Undergrad Life On Campus
O: Next year record numbers of Juniors and Seniors will be living off campus. Does the absence of upperclassmen living on campus detract from the undergraduate community?B: I think Tufts would be a better place if we were able to house all of our students on campus. We’re not there and we’re not going to be there in my lifetime. Part of what has gone on this year is that we have a larger number of expected rising sophomores. During my time we have built a new dormitory exclusively for seniors so we try to pull them in out of the neighborhoods and we are trying to create more housing that is attractive to seniors. However, we are land constrained. Additionally, in my conversations with students they have said that they would like to have housing guaranteed for all four years but not be required to live in that housing.
O: Are there plans to expand the campus in the near future?
B: We try to be very respectful of our host communities. We went through a master planning process several years ago in which we looked at the land resources we have today and we think we can accommodate the growth of the campus. We already own enough land to accommodate the buildings that we know we are going to have to build in the foreseeable future. However, this is not enough to build sufficient dormitory space to house every undergraduate on campus. That has never been a goal.
Greek System
O: The Greek system at Tufts has seen a number of controversies over the last few years. How do you view the system?B: The problems that the Greek system are experiencing are entirely self-inflicted and I know that the committee that imposes sanctions against the Greek organizations has heavy representation on it by members of the Greek system so its self-regulating. It’s not the administration that is trying to get rid of the Greek system, its fellow Greeks who are saying ‘you have rules and you pledged to follow them and you didn’t’. This is not our problem, its’ your problem. The sooner that the houses accept responsibility for their own actions, the sooner we will have a better Greek system.
O: So you would say you are disappointed with the current situation?
B: I would say I am disappointed anytime people say they are going to do one thing but do another. I don’t think that is what it means to be a responsible member of the community. Whether we are talking about a member of a fraternity or a sorority or any other student group or any individual, being part of a community means agreeing to abide by the rules of the community. People join the Greek system voluntarily and when they do so they take a pledge. That pledge stipulates that members agree to follow the rules and regulations of Tufts, individual houses, and national organizations, and that members follow the values of the Greek system, including leadership, responsibility, and service to the community. When people don’t live up to their own pledge the system is holding them accountable to that, and I am disappointed when such things happen.
Crime On Campus
O: Simply put, crime on campus is a problem. What is the university doing to address the problem?B: First, I would like to note that Adele and I live on this campus. We walk around the campus ourselves, individually and collectively, and at night. We live in the same environment as our students. We exercise the same kind of prudent caution that we have used everywhere we have lived. If you’re going to live in an urban area, whether it is on a college campus or elsewhere, one has to be cautious, especially if you are going to be out late at night. We take crime when it occurs very seriously, but I would be lying to you if I told you that for an open campus in an urban area we are capable of protecting students against any incidents of crime.
O: You can’t protect everyone, but is TUPD doing all it can to protect students? Are there enough resources to adequately address the problem?
B: The economist in me wants to come back to you and ask, what’s adequate? I don’t think students want to see Tufts turned into a police state. I don’t think students want to turn and see a police cruiser on every corner of this campus or encounter a policeman at 2 a.m. walking down every street. That kind of police presence is not conducive to the kind of community I think our students want to live in. Students want to live in a place that feels safe, which is where police do not have a large presence but students know that if they need the police TUPD will be there. If you take a look at our response time to events, if someone says they need the police, the police are there very quickly. Also, a lot of the recent crimes have not occurred on campus itself, but have occurred off campus several blocks away. The university cannot be responsible for every potential criminal act that can occur. We have put on extra patrols when there have been events and the perpetrators escaped, and in fact we helped to apprehend somebody not too long ago in the area off of Winthrop. We actually do very good police work. Unlike many campus police forces TUPD officers are armed, have gone through a very rigorous training program. Unlike many campus police forces, they have been certified. I think we have a terrific campus police, does that mean that there will never be a crime on campus? No.
Most of you elected to go to Tufts because it was located in an urban area. You didn’t want to go to school in the hills of Vermont or in Western Mass some place — this is part of the deal. I’m not saying I’m happy about the crime, but it is a reality of living in an urban area.
O: With institutions like the Tisch College, Tufts University attempts to place an emphasis on active citizenship and public service. Are students receptive to these initiatives?
B: You’d be better judges than I would. What we’ve seen is that more students come to Tufts in part because of our commitment to educate active, engaged, effective citizens. I’ve been delighted with the growth in certain organizations, like the Leonard Carmichael Society, the Greek system, Hillel, and other religious groups. The senate sponsored a variety of different activities that supported our community. I was in New Orleans with the Clinton Global Initiative and Tufts had one of the largest student delegations there. When I was there Scott Cowen, my counterpart at Tulane, thanked me for the work of our students and in some cases our faculty who have been down there continuing to lend their assistance years after Katrina. I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made.
Future Of Tufts
O: Can you talk briefly about future construction plans on Tufts’ various campuses?B: At the vet school we’re building a new campus center, a new physical diagnosis and simulation clinic at the med school and we’re building an addition to the dental tower at the dental school. On this campus we’re doing the Doble Lab and improvements to the athletic facilities which will be the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. We’re also renovating Packard Hall and the old Sacred Heart church — it will be function space available to students and others for a variety of purposes. It will work well for a theatrical performance, for a lecture, for a large meeting; we’ve listened to people who’ve said that we need more function space on campus and responded.
O: Tufts University encompasses far more than its undergraduate colleges on the Medford campus. Can you tell me about the goals for Tufts’ graduate schools?
B: So, I’m sometimes asked what my job is, if I had to say it in a nutshell, my job is to work with others to enhance the scholarly reputation of Tufts. That means teaching and research: to the extent that we do both of those better, we are a better place. So that’s my job university wide. It’s also the job of every dean of every school — each school should constantly be improving. They should constantly improve teaching, research, service, and strengthen the environment that supports great teaching and scholarship. So the answer to your question is yes, we want to enhance the reputation of all of our schools. Do we want to enhance the size of them? In most cases, no, but in a few cases, yes. We know that in at least two professions, medicine and dentistry, there will be a shortage of physicians and dentists over the next 15 to 20 years, purely a function of demographics. When baby-boomers retire, it’s not as if they’re going to stop needing medical and dental care. Medical organizations have issued a call to increase class size, we are trying to be responsive to the needs of society.
O: If you could do anything with unlimited resources, what would you do?
B: It’s not very interesting solving an optimization problem if you remove the budget concern. With unlimited resources we could do unlimited things so that’s not an interesting thing. With finite, incremental resources, where do you invest them? We just answered that today. We put the money into support for students and for faculty. We build buildings only because they provide a nutrient rich scholarly environment. It’s all about attracting, supporting, maintaining, and nurturing the very best students and the very best faculty. When the day comes there’ll be plenty to do when my successor takes over, because I think that’s the job of every president of a university, always keep the momentum going.