Summer Session Records

Collection

Call Number: UA087

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains annual reports, correspondence, photographs, and brochures generated by summer sessions. It also includes several files of material from 1917 through the 1980s that were gathered by Russell Miller as part of his research for Light on the Hill: A History of Tufts College 1852-1952. These cover several Tufts summer programs, such as the Summer School of Music and the New England Summer Band Institute, as well as the final report of Academic Summer Science Institute for Science Teachers (ASSIST) in 1957.

Dates

Creation: 1917 -- 2012

Creator

Summer School of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Organization)
Tufts Summer Session (Organization)

Language of Materials

English

Access

Open for research. This collection may require review before it is available for use. Please contact DCA for further details.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Digital Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish. Copyright to all materials created by Tufts University employees in the course of their work is held by the Trustees of Tufts University.

Biographical / Historical

Summer Sessions at Tufts were established in 1942 as part of the college’s response to World War II. Tufts was heavily involved in the war effort, providing training to members of the armed services, and educational opportunities for both civilians and returning service members. The School of Liberal Arts, Jackson College, the Engineering School, and Medical and Dental Schools all adopted some form of accelerated program through the use of summer sessions in order to quickly prepare a large and diverse student population to enter the working world at home or join the battle overseas. After the war drew to a close in 1945, Tufts decided that it would return to the traditional two-semester academic calendar and maintain the Summer Session, adapting it for peacetime needs.

As of 2020, Tufts’s Summer Session provides high school, undergraduate, graduate, and adult students with opportunities to enroll in a wide variety of courses in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the School of Dental Medicine, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and the University College. Students can choose to attend the First Session, Second Session, or a 12-week Session between May and August. In keeping with the program’s roots, these sessions are accelerated compared to classes taught in the spring and fall semesters. Classes are available in a combination of physical and online formats. In 2020, the Summer Session was temporarily shifted to a fully virtual format in response to the global outbreak of COVID-19.