Search for the Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
Medford, Massachusetts
Tufts University distinguishes itself by combining scholarly excellence with an inclusive, holistic education grounded in the liberal arts tradition. It prides itself in its mission to graduate thoughtful, engaged, literate, curious, and civic-minded students. At its core is the undergraduate “college on a hill,” which is nested in a mid-sized, research-intensive, AAU university. The University possesses a broad array of graduate and professional schools with a constantly improving scholarly and research profile, and it prospers in the higher education and high technology ecology of the greater Boston metropolitan area. The School of Arts and Sciences (“A&S” or “the School”) is Tufts’ largest academic unit and exemplifies the University’s distinctive identity.
Tufts seeks a Dean of A&S who will further meld the richness of a personalized liberal arts education with the broad opportunities of a major research university, inventing an unusually engaging intellectual experience for students and faculty and ushering the School into its next era of eminence. A&S has consistently strengthened its position as a strong student-centered, research-intensive school. The fundamentals are in place and increasingly attractive to families and students. As such, the School has the rare opportunity to build on its impressive foundation.
A&S houses the University’s renowned undergraduate liberal arts programs, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and is an important contributor to the overall research and scholarly enterprise. A&S shares responsibility for essential student services with the School of Engineering in what is called the Shared Division, which includes student-facing units such as Enrollment Management, Student Life, Academic Advising, the Career Center, the Student Accessibility and Academic Resource Center, and more. The deans of A&S and Engineering jointly govern the Shared Division.
The School attracts exceptionally strong students, faculty, and staff, competitive with the world’s finest institutions. A&S educates approximately 5,529 full- and part-time undergraduate and 1,247 full- and part-time graduate and professional students, who are known to be remarkably kind, decidedly engaged in their communities, oriented to activism, and high-achieving yet not overly competitive. At the undergraduate level, A&S is one of the most selective and desirable institutions in the country, with an acceptance rate of approximately 10% and a yield of approximately 52% for the most recent class. Tufts provides these students with an intimate learning environment marked by a 10:1 student-faculty ratio. The School’s graduate and professional programs are similarly distinguished and selective. The students are instructed by 468 full-time and 281 part-time A&S faculty members, who are known as the quintessential scholar-teachers. A&S faculty receive over 250 grants, fellowships, and awards each year, and sponsored research in the School reached approximately $25 million last year. The students and faculty are supported by 588 dedicated staff (including those in the Shared Division), who are essential members of the A&S community.
The School is on strong financial footing, with an annual operating budget of approximately $168 million (excluding the SMFA, which has a budget of approximately $35 million) and an annual operating budget in the Shared Division of approximately $255 million. The School raised $505 million toward the comprehensive Brighter World campaign, which concluded in 2023, and has raised in excess of $50 million every year for the past seven years.
The Dean will be a seasoned, transparent, and collaborative leader with broad intellectual vision and the personal qualities to inspire the diverse A&S community. Compelling candidates will bring experience crafting and advancing a vision and strategic plan for a complex academic unit; a honed understanding of the holistic student experience; a comprehensive approach to strengthening an institution’s capacity as an engine of social mobility; demonstrated commitments to education, research, and the development of faculty as scholar-teachers; experience growing and strengthening a diverse research portfolio; an intellectual curiosity that transcends and supports all disciplines across the full range of the humanities, arts, and sciences; the ability to bring people and units together across institutional and disciplinary boundaries; an innate commitment to diversity and inclusion; an entrepreneurial approach to fundraising and developing new sources of revenue; and the ability to manage strong teams of people and complex institutional budgets.
A search committee has been formed and will be supported in this recruitment by Isaacson, Miller, the national executive search firm. All inquiries, nominations, and applications should be submitted in confidence through the firm’s website: https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/tufts-university-school-arts-and-sciences/dean
Equal Opportunity and Nondiscrimination at Tufts University: Tufts is enriched by the many experiences and perspectives each individual member brings to our community. Tufts does not discriminate in admissions, employment, or in any of its educational programs or activities on the basis of race (including traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture, hair type, hair length and protective hairstyles), color, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, religion, disability, sex or gender (including pregnancy, sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct including acts of sexual violence such as rape, sexual assault, stalking, sexual exploitation, sexual exploitation and coercion, relationship/intimate partner violence and domestic violence), gender identity and/or expression (including a transgender identity), sexual orientation, military or veteran status, genetic information, the intersection of these identities or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law. Tufts is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer.
