Navigating Tufts University: A Guide to Resources and Information

Tufts University offers a wide array of resources and services designed to support students throughout their academic journey and beyond. From academic advising to mental health services, this guide provides an overview of the key departments and offices available to students at Tufts.

Academic and Career Support

Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies

Tufts University provides comprehensive support for undergraduate students through its Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies programs. These teams guide students in pursuing their undergraduate degrees, exploring research and scholarship opportunities, and applying for professional degrees.

Career Center

The Career Center at Tufts is dedicated to fostering transformational experiences that shape the lifelong professional, academic, and personal development of students and alumni. The center helps students prepare for their future careers.

StAAR Center

The StAAR Center provides academic support through one-on-one academic coaching, writing consultations, tutoring, study groups, and workshops. These programs promote engaged, collaborative learning, building on students’ strengths while addressing their concerns and questions.

Student Life and Community

Office for Campus Life

The Office for Campus Life at Tufts University aims to build community and inspire the growth of the whole student through a support system of guidance, compassion, service, and leadership. Located in the Mayer Campus Center, the office fosters the growth and development of students in leadership and self-governance. It also assists students in planning and coordinating a broad range of social, cultural, and educational programs.

Community Standards

The Dean of Students Office supports social and academic life at Tufts. They help maintain a campus environment of mutual care and respect by offering formal and informal methods for conflict resolution and by promoting the University's Community Standards.

Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion (DSDI)

The Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion (DSDI) serves as a resource for all undergraduate and graduate students interested in thinking about social identities and how they impact our lives and the world.

Fraternity and Sorority Life

Fraternity and sorority membership enhances opportunities to meet new people, achieve academically, hone leadership skills, and serve the broader community through philanthropic and service opportunities.

Residential Life and Learning

The Office of Residential Life and Learning oversees all aspects of residential living, including on- and off-campus housing, roommate selection, and Fraternity and Sorority Life. Student and professional staff collaborate with campus partners to create educational and social programming that fosters a community of inclusivity, belonging, and learning.

Restorative Practices

With the integration of restorative approaches, Tufts aims to create an environment where connection is a priority, relationships are valued, and conflicts are seen as opportunities for growth and addressed within the community.

Health and Wellbeing

CARE

CARE’s mission is to provide free, confidential, culturally-supportive, and trauma-informed support to all Tufts undergraduate and graduate students impacted by sexual misconduct/harm and to create a culture of respect, consent, and community accountability.

Counseling and Mental Health Service

Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS) is Tufts’ counseling service for students. Their team of mental health professionals is available to help students feel mentally and emotionally well.

Health and Wellness

Health and Wellness helps prepare students for their academic and co-curricular journeys by facilitating an introduction to their peers and to Tufts’ services.

Public Safety

The Department of Public Safety works with the community to ensure college is exciting, fun, enriching, and safe for all students, from matriculation to commencement.

Financial and Administrative Services

Financial Services

Financial Services supports students with their unique financial needs, from paying the bill to finding a job on campus.

Read also: Exploring Tufts Athletics

Registrar

The Registrar's Office is the custodian of Arts, Sciences & Engineering (AS&E) undergraduate and graduate student records. They facilitate course registration and changes, degree certification, grading, transcripts, enrollment verifications, the Bulletin, transfer of credit, and other functions related to the student record.

Student Services

Student Services is the first point of contact bridging academic and administrative functions and services at Tufts. They provide a wide range of support, including guidance on how to pay tuition, apply for financial aid, and obtain a transcript. Student Services collaborates with students, families, faculty, staff, and outside agencies to provide accurate and timely information and support for university transactions.

Global Opportunities

Tufts Global Education

Tufts Global Education is committed to providing transformative, intercultural experiences to students, encouraging them to engage in the world with curiosity, approach new challenges with innovation, and distinguish themselves as responsible, active citizens of the world.

School Specific Resources

Engineering Dean's Office

The School of Engineering's undergraduate and graduate deans are available to support students, faculty, and staff. Their leadership empowers the Tufts engineering community to improve the world through the advancement of science, technology, and engineering.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Dean's Office

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office supports the vision and strategy of the Graduate Dean and strives to create an intellectually engaging experience for graduate students. The office interacts with all administrative units that touch graduate students, including academic affairs, admissions, student affairs, and development.

Additional Resources

Athletics

Tufts takes tremendous pride in its Jumbo student-athletes, who represent the University with distinction on the field, in the classroom, and throughout their lives. Tufts Athletics aims to provide transformational experiences for varsity student-athletes.

Dining

Tufts Dining operates 11 on-campus eateries and manages meal plans. They also oversee the JumboCash, Rhino Bucks, and Meal Money programs, which allow students to load funds onto their ID cards to pay for food and more.

Family Engagement

The college experience is a major transition for the entire family. Tufts partners with families from the time their student arrives on campus to the day they graduate, and through all the milestones in between.

Tisch Library

Tisch Library and its branches, the Lilly Music Library and the W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library at the SMFA, embrace Tufts University's mission wholeheartedly. The library provides access to a wide range of resources, including:

Dance productions and documentaries by influential performers and companies of the 20th century.
Data Planet: Access to national and international standardized datasets covering business, finance, economics, sociology, and more.
Ovid database: Critical assessments of systematic reviews from medical journals.
New World Records: A diverse catalog of American music recordings.
Web of Science: Patent literature from 40 patent-issuing authorities.
Dietary Supplements Labels Database: Information about ingredients and health benefits claimed by manufacturers of dietary supplements.
Digital Theatre Plus: Streaming access to British theatre productions, including Shakespeare plays, modern dramas, and musicals.
Dimensions: A linked research knowledge system bringing together grants, publications, citations, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents.
Directory of Open Access Journals: A database of free, full-text, quality-controlled scholarly journals.
DynaMed Plus: An evidence-based clinical decision support tool for physicians and medical professionals.
DynaMedex: Combines the point-of-care decision-making information of DynaMed with the drug information of Micromedex.
Reference Solutions: U.S. and Canadian business, health care, and residential listings.

Understanding Student Privacy and FERPA

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA grants students the following rights:

Access to educational records: Students have the right to inspect and review their education records within 45 days of submitting a written request to the Registrar’s Office.
Right to seek amendment: Students can request the amendment of education records they believe are inaccurate by submitting a written request to the Registrar’s Office.
Consent for release of information: Tufts must obtain a student’s written consent before releasing personally identifiable information from their education records, unless an exception applies.

Directory Information and Privacy Blocks

Tufts University may disclose certain directory information without student consent, including a student's name, address, telephone number, email address, photograph, date and place of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, enrollment status, degrees and awards received, and most recent previous educational agency or institution attended.

Students who do not wish to have their directory information released can request a privacy block through the Student Information Systems (SIS). To request a privacy block:

Log in to SIS.
Navigate to the "About Me" section.
Click on "Privacy Settings."
Click on "Edit FERPA."

Students should select the appropriate privacy setting through SIS as soon as possible to ensure their information is not made available to third parties.

Exceptions to FERPA

There are several exceptions to FERPA that allow Tufts to disclose personally identifiable information from student education records without student consent, including:

To Tufts officials with a need to know.
To officials of another educational institution in which the student seeks to enroll.
To authorized representatives of the U.S. Department of Education, the Comptroller General, or state and local educational authorities.
In connection with a student’s application for or receipt of financial aid.
To state and local officials to whom information is specifically required to be reported by state laws.
In a health or safety emergency.
In compliance with a subpoena or other legal action.
When the information is a record of a campus disciplinary proceeding.

Policy Updates and Contact Information

The University reserves the right to change its FERPA policy from time to time. Proposed changes will normally be developed by those responsible for the policy with appropriate stakeholders. The approval entities have sole authority to approve changes to this policy. For additional information about authorizing disclosures from your education records, please contact the Registrar's Office.

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