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Tufts redirects here. For people named Tufts, see Tufts (surname). Tufts University is a private university in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts, suburbs of Boston. The school emphasizes public service in all disciplines and is well-known for internationalism and its study abroad programs. The university is home to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In 1852, Charles Tufts founded Tufts College and donated the land for the campus on Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford. Tufts said that he wanted to set a "light on the hill." Originally affiliated with the Universalist Church, Tufts is now non-sectarian. The name was changed to "Tufts University" in 1954, although the corporate name remains "the Trustees of Tufts College." In the late 1970s, the French-American nutritionist Jean Mayer became president of Tufts and, through a series of rapid acquisitions, transformed the school from a small New England liberal arts college to an international research university.
Institution Tufts employs 3,500 people, with 8,500 students from across the United States and more than 100 countries attending classes on the university's three campuses in Massachusetts (Boston, Medford/Somerville and Grafton) and one in Talloires, France. In addition, the university is affiliated with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and with the New England Conservatory of Music. Tufts is currently ranked 27 on the America's Best Colleges 2007 list by U.S. News & World Report, and the school has been recognized as a "Doctoral/Research Extensive" institution by the Carnegie Foundation. The media often refers to Tufts as a "Little Ivy" or one of the "New Ivies." In the Princeton Review's 2007 Best 361 Colleges, Tufts was named Admissions Admission to Tufts University is highly competitive and extremely selective; in 2006, the university accepted 25% of roughly 15,300 applications to its undergraduate class of 2010. In selecting the class of 2011, Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg added experimental criteria to the application process for undergraduates to test "creativity and other non-academic factors." Calling it the "first major university to try such a departure from the norm," Inside Higher Ed notes that Tufts continues to consider the SAT and other traditional criteria. Organization Tufts comprises eight schools, including: The Jackson College for Women, established in 1910 as a coordinate college adjacent to the Tufts campus, was integrated with Tufts College in 1980, but is recognized in the name of the undergraduate arts and sciences division, the "College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College". The campus land that was Jackson College is in the city of Somerville. Women continued to receive their diplomas from Jackson College until 2002. The Experimental College, often called the "Ex College", was created on the Medford campus in 1964 as a proving ground for "innovative", experimental, and interdisciplinary curricula and courses. The college is governed by a board of five students and five faculty members who set policy and select courses. By far, the most prominent feature of the Experimental College is EPIIC, a year-long program begun in 1985 to immerse students in a global issue, culminating in an annual symposium of scholars and experts from the field. The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service was founded in 2000 "to educate for active citizenship" with the help of a $100 million gift from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. In 2006 the school was renamed after a $40 million dollar gift from Jonathan Tisch. The Tisch College has been called the "most ambitious attempt by any research university to make public service part of its core academic mission." Campuses Greater Boston The Medford/Somerville campus on Walnut Hill houses the undergraduate campus and university administration. Administrative offices of the university are centered on Ballou Hall, the oldest building on the hill, and extend into the surrounding neighborhoods and Davis Square. The Fletcher School is also located on the Medford campus. Prominent exterior spaces on the campus include the Academic Quad, the Rez Quad, the President's Lawn, and Professors Row, which has been declared a historic site by the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission. The hill is often cited for having two of the three best views in the greater Boston area of the city skyline. The medical school is located on a campus in Boston adjacent to Tufts-NEMC, a 451-bed academic medical institution that is home to both a full-service hospital for adults and the Floating Hospital for Children. All full time Tufts-NEMC physicians hold faculty appointments at Tufts. The veterinary school is located in Grafton, Massachusetts, west of Boston on a 634-acre campus. The school also maintains the Ambulatory Farm Clinic in Woodstock, Connecticut and the Tufts Laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole on Cape Cod. Satellite facilities Tufts has a satellite campus in Talloires, France at the Tufts European Center, a former Benedictine priory built in the 11th century. The priory was purchased in 1958 by Donald MacJannet and his wife Charlotte and used as a summer camp site for several years before the MacJannets gave the campus to Tufts in 1978. Each year the center hosts a number of summer study programs, and enrolled students live with local families. The site is frequently the host of international conferences and summits. Culture and Student Life The school colors of Tufts University are brown and blue. The shade of brown is generally called chocolate brown, and the blue is variously described as between light and middle blue, or dusty sky blue. Though this color combination was chosen by the student body in 1876, the colors were not made officially the colors of the school until 1960, when the Trustees voted on the matter. A fixture on the Medford campus is a replica of a cannon taken from the deck of the U.S.S. Constitution. The city of Medford donated the cannon to the university in 1954. Since 1977, it has been used by student groups and individual students who paint messages on the cannon under the cover of night. Painting the cannon is a competitive activity. Students must guard their handiwork or run the risk of having their message painted over by a rival group. Over the years, the cannon has sported political messages, rallying cries for athletic teams, birthday greetings, and wedding proposals. The Tufts school mascot is Jumbo the elephant, in honor of a major donation from circus owner P.T. Barnum in 1882. While Barnum gave the skeleton of the animal to the American Museum of Natural History, the stuffed remains of Jumbo were put on display in the basement of Barnum Hall until the building burned down in 1974. The alleged ashes of Jumbo currently reside in a peanut butter jar in the athletic director's office; the elephant's tail is also preserved. A large plaster-statue elephant, Jumbo II, now sits on the academic quad. The Leonard Carmichael Society is the largest student group at Tufts, an umbrella organization for community and public service projects. LCS is comprised of a volunteer corps of over 1,000 and a staff of eighty-five. The student body of the undergraduate population is known as the Tufts Community Union (TCU). TCU government consists of three major branches: the TCU Senate, the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ), and the TCU Elections Commission (ECOM). Traditions On the first night of reading period during the fall semester, several hundred students let off steam by stripping and running around the Rez Quad in the Naked Quad Run. Most students run naked, while many wear body paint or costumes. The event attracts many Tufts students to participate or watch as well as members of the surrounding community. In 2003, the Tufts Community Union Senate introduced the simultaneous Nighttime Quad Reception as a way to legitimize and help improve safety at the event. A concert known as Spring Fling takes place in the spring semester immediately before final exams on the President's Lawn; acts over the past several years have included The Roots, Less than Jake, and Tufts alumni Guster. The night before Spring Fling, the Tuftonia's Day fireworks take place on the Rez Quad. The Tufts Mountain Club famously "pumpkins" the campus on Halloween night, placing pumpkins in prominent and increasingly absurd locations such as atop buildings and statues. Students and faculty awake to the unique decor the next morning. Although the ritual is over 75 years old, the TMC has never officially taken credit for it. Campus media and publications A cappella groups Tufts notably has an active and competitive a cappella scene, being home to numerous prestigious a cappella groups that (somewhat humorously) each lay claim to a particular niche of Tufts culture. Competition and performance dance Athletics
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