Tufts University to Remove Sackler Name from Medical School Facilities and Programs
Tufts University will remove the Sackler name from all programs and facilities on its Boston health sciences campus, Tufts University President Anthony P. Monaco and Chair of the Board of Trustees Peter Dolan announced to the Tufts community today. The university also will take steps to increase its support of programs aimed at the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and addiction.
“The Tufts University School of Medicine’s values include a commitment to relieve suffering, improve quality of life, and promote integrity and social responsibility. Given the human toll of the opioid epidemic in which members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma are associated, it is clear that continuing to display the Sackler name is inconsistent with these values,” said Monaco. “This decision also acknowledges the countless individuals and families who have suffered so much loss, harm, and sorrow as a result of the opioid crisis. And it acknowledges members of our own community who have struggled on a daily basis with the university’s very public association with the Sackler name.”
The university will remove the Sackler name from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences; the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education; the Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical and Engineering Sciences; the Sackler Families Fund for Collaborative Cancer Biology Research; and the Richard S. Sackler, MD, Endowed Research Fund. The name does not appear on the university’s other campuses. With today’s announcement the entities will be named the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the Tufts Center for Medical Education; the Tufts Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences; the Tufts Fund for Collaborative Cancer Biology Research; and the Tufts Endowed Basic Science Research Fund.
The university will also establish a $3 million endowment to support education, research, and civic engagement programs aimed at the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and addiction.