IGL weathers recession storm

Tessa Gellerson
Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Tufts Daily

This article is the second in a four-part series about how the recession has affected different parts of the university.

The economic downturn has found its way to the Tufts campus as both a blessing and a curse for the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), an organization that relies entirely upon external contributions from its network of donors.

"Many of our board members and underwriters, as people of economic means, have been hit inevitably by the crisis," IGL Director Sherman Teichman told the Daily in an e-mail. "Yet they are still responding wonderfully to our needs -- meeting their pledges and many increasing their giving significantly."

Despite continued support from these patrons -- some of whom have seen the floundering economy as a philanthropic call to arms -- the IGL has had to make several significant compromises in preparation for this semester. Two workshops, one designed to discuss sustainable cities and the other a discussion of citizenship and urbanization in Latin America, have been postponed. "Our Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Distinguished Lecture Series was likewise frozen," Teichman said.

Specific programs within the IGL have been hit particularly hard. Infrastructure for the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program, an intensive IGL course run through the Experimental College, has experienced financial setbacks, according to Teichman. Meanwhile, the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP) will have to rely for the first time on Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate funding.

"If we do not succeed in getting TCU support, we will be inhibited in our ability to run on-campus programming as well as [publish] our annual Insights Journal that serves as an avenue for Tufts students to publish their work," NIMEP co-leader David Mou, a junior, told the Daily in an e-mail. Should the Senate not delegate adequate funding, the journal will have to be an entirely online publication.

Inquiry, a program for high school students, has also been impacted, as out-of-state participants were unable to afford the costs of traveling to the Hill. Still, IGL students were able to mentor delegations of high school students from Atlanta and New York City and travel with them to Shanghai, China to do joint research.

"But this disparity underlies what concerns us most -- for all of our innovation, it is the most disadvantaged schools we could not afford to fund for this option as we had originally hoped," Teichman said.

This innovation was particularly evident as EPIIC students work to preserve their annual symposium, which this year will bring a decidedly local perspective to the subject of global cities.

"Our students were excited by this challenge after their initial dismay, and redesigned the symposium using extraordinary and relatively local talent," Teichman said. They have managed to draw together an array of panelists and create a mostly "carbon-neutral" event in the process.

"In another instance of growth, our Clinton Global Initiative EMPOWER poverty alleviation and social entrepreneurship program has expanded significantly our donors recognizing that these [issues] need more than ever to be confronted. This enables our students to help those most disadvantaged and affected by the economic situation," Teichman added.

Moreover, a new donor's generosity allowed for the organization of a research trip to Ethiopia, giving Tufts students an unprecedented opportunity to interact with and learn from Ethiopian students, Teichman said.

Ultimately, while Teichman conceded that the recession has affected the IGL's budget "significantly" in terms of the bottom line, he feels that it will not have an overwhelming impact on quality.

"Perhaps it comes as a surprise, but in the midst of this crisis, we are experiencing a tremendously vibrant moment," he said.