TUFTS UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Harleston played the powerful role of an "outsider inside", a leader within an institution who consistently voiced alternative viewpoints and sought out pathways for justice-based institutional transformation. Harleston left Tufts in 1981 to become the President of the City University of New York. The openings he created at Tufts remained, and a diverse legacy continued to unfold that affects the university to this today.
Bernard Harleston, visionary and community builder across generations, created openings at Tufts upon which so many other faculty and staff would make their marks. Born in New York City in 1930 to parents from Charleston, South Carolina, Harleston-along with several of his nine siblings-was a member of the first generation of his family to attend college, and they all went to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs): Howard, Tuskegee, and Fisk. Harleston attended Howard University, in Washington, D.C., before completing his PhD in psychology at the University of Rochester, in New York, in 1956. He joined the Tufts psychology department that same year, becoming the first Black faculty member in a tenure-track position in the School of Arts and Sciences. Over the ensuing decade, Harleston distinguished himself in his research, teaching, and collaborations with many faculty members across the university.
In 1968, Harleston left Tufts to become the provost of Lincoln University, a public HBCU in Oxford, Pennsylvania, but he returned to Tufts in 1970 to serve as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. In the context of the rising Black Power movement, as well as COINTELPRO-a series of covert projects by federal agencies to infiltrate and undermine Black social justice organizing-Harleston played the powerful role of what historian Barbara Ransby calls an "outsider inside," a leader within an institution who consistently voices alternative viewpoints and seeks pathways for justice-based institutional transformation. Harleston organized the first cluster hire of faculty of color at Tufts, bringing Gerald Gill (history), Marilyn Glater (political science), Bobbie Knable (English), Daniel Brown (languages and literature), and Pearl Robinson (political science) to the university. This younger generation of Black faculty and staff leaders had a transformative influence on the school for decades to come. "I feel I was doing my job," Harleston says. "We expanded the pool and reached further into the pool to look for candidates."
Harleston resigned as Dean in 1980 and left Tufts in 1981 to become the president of the City University of New York. The openings he created at Tufts remained, and a diverse legacy continued to unfold that affects the university to this day.
Job Titles:
- Dean of Students, School of Arts and Sciences ( 1980 - 2000 )
Beginning with the Africana Center and informed by her leadership and Tufts' commitment to admit and serve diverse student communities, Knable was also instrumental in the establishment of the Asian American Center, the Women's Center, the Latinx Center, and the LGBT Center. Knable believes the educational experience is enriched for everyone when institutional membership is accessible to diverse groups.
Tufts had reached the point of saying that it wanted to increase the diversity of its population, but it didn't do it merely to be praised for its kindness and generosity in making its education available to these new groups. In fact, it believed that the education of all its students would be enriched by having this broader population. And I think that that isn't necessarily something that one could take for granted in a lot of schools.
Job Titles:
- Provost and Senior Vice President ( 2012 - 2018 )
Harris broke the boundaries of stereotypes to become the first Black provost in the university's history. His major accomplishments include T10, Tufts' first comprehensive university-wide strategic plan, establishment of the University Senate, and the creation of the Tufts Century Ride, a bicycling event to build bridges and camaraderie. As an institutional builder, Harris recognized ways in which he was a mentor and model for people he may not even have known.
Although I usually just think of myself as Dave-the-provost, or Dave-the-president now, I realize that being the first African-American provost at Tufts, being the first African-American president at Union, may mean even more to others than I can appreciate.
Born in Philadelphia, David Harris had many experiences of "firsts" and "onlys" while growing up. When his family moved to the Philadelphia suburbs, he was the first Black child in Little League. He was one of the only kids on his block from a family experiencing significant financial insecurity, and he was one of the few kids of color in the mostly white, middle-class school he attended. Harris is also a member of the first generation of his family to go to college, winning a scholarship and receiving financial aid to attend Northwestern University. He studied social policy, went on to earn a PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan, and eventually took a faculty position at Cornell University.
Recognized early on for his talents as an administrator, Harris was named deputy provost at Cornell in 2007, and he became interim provost during the financial crisis of 2008. Beginning in 2010, Harris served the Obama administration in the Department of Health and Human Services, working on matters as diverse as homelessness, natural disaster relief, and comprehensive anti-poverty policy. The experience in Washington, D.C., gave Harris a front-row view on the processes of federal governance. He took this education with him back to Cornell, and eventually to Tufts, where, in 2012 he was named the university's eighth provost. Harris became the 19th president of Union College, in Schenectady, New York, in 2018.
At Tufts, Harris broke down the boundaries of stereotypes to become the first Black provost in the university's history. His major accomplishments include developing T10, Tufts' first comprehensive university-wide strategic plan, establishing the University Senate, and creating the Tufts Century Ride, a university-wide bicycling event to build bridges and camaraderie. An institution builder at Tufts, Harris is also recognized for the ways in which he was a mentor and model for others.
Associate Dean Vivian Pinn pictured with students from the Tufts University School of Medicine Class of 1980, circa 1980.
Job Titles:
- Dean, School of Arts and Sciences ( 2010 - 2014 )
Norris was the first Black tenured professor in the history of the School of Dental Medicine at Tufts; he became the first Black dean in the school's history in 1995. From his starting point as a scholarship kid from the segregated South to serving as dean for 16 years, Norris made a career in leadership characterized by crossing boundaries, taking down barriers, and conducting new kinds of conversations in the boardroom.
Growing up in segregated Texas in the 1950s, Lonnie Norris found role models in his teachers, the majority of whom were Black women. His high school principal, also the president of Fisk University's alumni association, helped secure his admission to Fisk, the celebrated historically Black university in Tennessee. Norris was granted a scholarship by the city of Houston, and grant-in-aide by Fisk University. Fisk was the first Black university to receive a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1953, and Norris, a chemistry major, became the university's first Phi Beta Kappa athlete in 1964.
The foment of the civil rights movement and Great Society programs infused his college years. Norris recalls the sit-ins and the student leadership of John Lewis, a fellow Fisk student just one year senior. After being drafted into military service, he eventually completed his doctoral degree in dental medicine, a master's degree in public health at Harvard University, and a postgraduate certificate in oral surgery.
In 1980, Norris joined the Tufts faculty, and in 1990, he became the first Black tenured professor in the history of the School of Dental Medicine. Named dean ad interim of the school in 1995 by Provost Sol Gittleman, Norris assumed the permanent deanship the following year. As dean, he devoted himself to increasing the size and expertise of faculty and staff, and to enhancing the avenues of collaboration with other parts of the university. Under his leadership, Tufts School of Dental Medicine became a national leader in the enrollment of Black and Latinx students. Norris oversaw a large-scale capital project that added five stories atop the school's building at One Kneeland Street in Boston, establishing the flagship for the Tufts Health Sciences campus. In 2008, Provost Jamshed Bharucha awarded Norris with the Provost Medal in recognition of his outstanding leadership.
From his starting point as a scholarship student from the segregated South to serving for 16 years as the first Black dean of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Norris made a career in leadership characterized by crossing boundaries, taking down barriers, and conducting new kinds of conversations in the boardroom.
Glater devoted herself to faculty development and to increasing faculty diversity and inclusiveness. She also started an initiative for outstanding first-years designed to support and retain students from underrepresented groups in science, math, and engineering. "I urged that everyone not keep telling me how…to prepare…or fix the students. Tell me what we're going to do about the people the students have to interact with."
Marilyn Glater grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, under the expanding horizons of America's Second Reconstruction (c. 1945-1968) before graduating from Swarthmore College in 1963 and obtaining her law degree from Yale in 1967. During the climacteric of 1968-the year of the Fair Housing Act and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.-Glater began working in New York City, in the Bronx, for the Neighborhood Medical Care Demonstration Project, a civil rights-era initiative in public health advocacy for urban communities.
After years of experience as a community-based lawyer in New York and Boston, Glater was hired in 1973 by Bernard Harleston, Dean of the Faculty, School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts, to teach constitutional law and civil liberties in the Department of Political Science. In 1987, she became the first Black Chair in the history of the department. In 1990, she began her decanal contributions to the university, ultimately serving as associate dean of the faculty and dean of natural and social sciences, in which capacity she oversaw 13 academic departments from 1994 to 1997.
Glater devoted herself to faculty development and to increasing faculty diversity and inclusiveness. She also started the First-Year Scholars Program, a summer initiative for outstanding first-years designed to support and retain students from underrepresented groups in science, math, and engineering. With Dean of Students Bobbie Knable and Professor of Sociology Paula Aymer, Glater designed a program to support Black women graduate students at Tufts, Harvard, and Brown universities by engaging them in a series of workshops and retreats.
The job of Black leaders entailed thinking carefully about how to get through the day and which battles to pick, Glater observes. Yet the experience was also filled with joys. For example, Glater, along with a few other Black administrators and faculty, organized Soul Sisters Soirees. Assistant to the President Rebecca Flewelling invited friends to her home every couple of months for "fabulous soul food dinners of fried chicken, collard greens, biscuits, and peach cobbler. We mostly laughed," Glater recalls. "The sisterhood helped [us] deal with the many challenges [we faced]." Black joy and companionship informed her leadership and her ability to effect change across the whole university.
Provost Harris talking to students at the Provost's annual Diversity Reception for students at the Alumnae Lounge, October 25, 2017.
As associate dean, Pinn focused on expanding admission of Black students, other students of color, and women, and on creating initiatives and networks to mentor these students once they arrived at Tufts. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the School of Medicine. "Seeing all those young and now not so young physicians who came through Tufts in my days there really is touching."