Tufts Screws it Up Again

Some of you might know about this issue already, but for those of you
who don't, I want to bring it to your attention.

Last week, the "Jonathen M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public
Service" (formally UCCPS) at Tufts released their new, revamped
strategic plan. From my perspective and from the perspective of many
Somerville community activists, the problem with this new plan is
two-fold:

One, the restructuring of Tisch is worrisome, in and of itself. I
encourage you to read it and to read between the lines, but the
primary shift is that Tisch wants to channel its resources (which are
vast!) towards civically-engaged faculty research. READ: Tufts wants
to RESEARCH civic engagement rather than actually DO IT. This is
elitist and deeply hypocritical. One concrete change here is that the
position of Community Engagement Coordinator will be eliminated. I
don't know if any of you worked with Lisa Brukilacchio during your
time at Tufts, but she is a talented and committed activist who has a
wealth of local knowledge and Tufts is stupid to let her go. Because
of her and the other members of that department (who are leaving for
personal reasons and Tisch does not plan to rehire), Tisch/Tufts has
developed organizational partners in the community. Many say that over
the past 5 years, our town-gown relationship has greatly improved,
because Tufts has demonstrated an honest commitment to building
capacity in the surrounding community. But what now?! Tufts has
committed a glaring breach of trust and risks damaging the progress
that has been made over the past several years. This leads me to my
next point:

The other major problem with the new plan is the process that was used
to develop it. All decisions were made by the Tisch board,
senior-level staff and hired consultants, with no input from community
partners, alum, or current scholars. It is clear to me where Tufts'
priorities are.

People on and off-campus are really angry right now. I'm working in a
Somerville org (The Welcome Project), and it's kind of ironic -- I
ended up where I am now in part because of connections that I made
through UCCPS. My own experience proves that an elite university CAN
help foster grassroots activism, but I don't trust its philosophical
commitment. Not for a minute.

I encourage you to write to Rob Hollister
(Robert.Hollister@tufts.edu), the Dean of Tisch, and CC your email to
Bacow (bacow@tufts.edu) so that they know that their alumni do not
support what's happening. I've cut and pasted my email, if you want
to use it as an example. I've also attached the Tisch strategic plan
so you can read it over. Lastly, I think that we should send a
unified message as members of TPAN, but there needs to be a little
more planning before that happens. One demand that has already been
made by members of the Somerville community is that a structure be put
into place so that "community partners" have a say in what happens at
Tisch so that future decisions reflect our interests. (A community
advisory board would help, for example).

I'd love to hear your opinions on this.

Regards,
Leah

Dear Dean Hollister,

I'm writing now to express my sincere concern about the restructuring
of Tisch College and my disappointment in the process that was used to
develop this new strategic direction.

First of all, I want to introduce myself to you as an individual who
has been molded, in part, by Tisch College. I graduated Tufts in
February 2006 as an American Studies major and was an Active
Citizenship Summer scholar in 2005. I also took Professor Wu's
Building Bridges class "Active Citizenship in an Urban Community" as a
sophomore. It was this class that first introduced me to the field of
American Studies, which was an ideal intellectual fit for me. Through
my ACS placement at the Somerville Community Corporation and my
service-learning experience with Building Bridges, I learned about
social citizenship, power, civic engagement and institutional
accountability.

This is last point is what I want to emphasize: Tufts needs to be
accountable to the communities in which it resides. The elimination
of the community engagement staff at Tisch is a slap in the face to
the supposed "partners" that you have worked to cultivate. A true
partner is one that is consulted about important decisions. Where
were the voices of your community partners (or your alums and current
scholars?!) during this restructuring process? Also, I have heard
many people in the community express their belief that Tufts'
relationship with the Somerville community has improved greatly over
the past five years or so, and I directly credit the community
engagement staff with facilitating this positive transition. Their
dedication to community empowerment and face-to-face contact with
Somerville community leaders cannot be replaced by an online matching
program. It is an offense to us, as community partners, and to your
own staff to claim that an "online opportunity matching system" is an
adequate replacement.

As a Tisch alum and a current employee of the Welcome Project, a
community organization in Somerville, I hope that my concerns are
taken to heart by the Tisch board and by President Bacow and that the
necessary structures are put into place so that future decisions
reflect the opinions and perspectives of community partners, alumni,
and current scholars. If Tisch wants to remain true to its mission to
"prepare effective public citizens and community leaders to build a
more equitable world" then the first step is to create an equitable
decision-making process WITHIN Tisch. To do otherwise represents a
deep hypocrisy and undermines Tisch's credibility altogether.

I want to be proud of my alma mater and I want future students to have
the same opportunities for community engagement that I had when I was
a student there.

Sincerely,
Leah Madsen

Tufts '06 American Studies