page_title: Tufts University
section_title: 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: Tufts University / History / 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: Sophia Gordon Hall (SoGo) in Tufts University
context_page_description: Tufts University is an American private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to open a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. It was a small New England liberal arts college until its transformation into a larger research university in the 1970s, though its corporate name is still "The Trustees of Tufts College". It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." Tufts emphasizes active citizenship and public service in all its disciplines, and is known for its internationalism and study abroad programs.
  Tufts offers over 90 undergraduate and 160 graduate programs across ten schools in the greater Boston area and Talloires, France. It has the country's oldest graduate school of international relations, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The largest school is the School of Arts and Sciences, which includes both the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, which is affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
context_section_description: Under President Larry Bacow, Tufts started a capital campaign in 2006 with the goal of raising $1.2 billion to implement full need-blind admission by 2011. As of December 10, 2010 the campaign raised $1.14 billion. Tufts received the largest donations in its history since 2005, including a $136 million bequest to its endowment upon the dissolution of a charitable trust set up by 1911 alumnus Frank C. Doble, a $100 million gift from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar to establish the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund, and a number of $40 million-plus gifts to specific schools.
  In 2008, Hines Interests and TUDC, a subsidiary of the university, planned to break ground on the South Station Tower. Tufts had acquired the air rights from South Station in 1990, with former President Jean Meyer envisioning a tower that would be the center of medical research. Preliminary design was done by Cesar Pelli, with construction now scheduled to start in 2017.  However, Tufts withdrew from the project in 2009.
  On November 30, 2010, the university announced that Anthony P. Monaco, formerly of Oxford, would become its thirteenth president. Monaco's inauguration took place on October 21, 2011.
  As of October 15, 2015, Computer Science surpassed International Relations as the largest major at the university, with 466 declared majors.
  On December 22, 2015, the university announced that it would acquire the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The merger was completed on June 30, 2016. One of the key figures in the merger, Nancy Bauer became the dean of the museum school.
  In December 2015, the university completed a reconstruction of the Memorial Stairs. A new Central Energy Plant was under construction and set to finish in the summer of 2016. It will replace an aging 60 year old plant and provide new efficiency boilers which in addition to providing the university directly with electricity, heated and chilled water, will help the university cut emissions. The university is also constructing a new science and engineering complex (SEC). The SEC will feature laboratories and foster interdisciplinary research between the neuroscience and environmental science departments. The new building will be finished by the summer of 2017 and will join the newly rehabilitated 574 Boston Avenue in the expansion of classroom and laboratory facilities for the engineering school.
  In 2016, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen pledged a $10 million donation over four years for the creation of the Allen Discovery Centers at Tufts and Stanford. The centers would fund research that would read and write the morphogenetic code. Tufts biologist Michael Levin will lead the center with research focusing on communications between cells and the causation of birth defects, cancer, traumatic injuries and degenerative diseases.
caption: Sophia Gordon Hall (2006) is Tufts' newest residence hall
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 6", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "9.3.2", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:31 12:31:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "204", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[42, 24, 853/50]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[71, 7, 621/100]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "7561/461", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[16, 31, 56]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "32939/100", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "32939/100", "GPS GPSDate": "2016:08:31", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "5", "Image GPSInfo": "1596", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2000", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8219", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1883", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:08:31 12:31:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:08:31 12:31:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "10879/1000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7983/3509", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "10202/935", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1631, 1223, 1795, 1077]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "923", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "923", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2"}