Tisch Library to house new café

Students and faculty will soon be able to enjoy bagels and books as well as coffee and conversation when a new café opens in the Dranetz Tower at Tisch Library. James Glaser, dean for undergraduate education, said the café will be “a place where we hope students and faculty will interact…our hope is that it will become a gem on campus.”

Architectural rendering of the new Tisch Library café. © Livermore Edwards & Associates

Glaser said the idea for a centrally located café was a recommendation of the president’s Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience. “Right now,” he said, “there’s very little space on campus where students and faculty can interact. The idea was to put it in the library, which symbolically and geographically is an ideal place. To have these interactions happening with books and ideas all around is wonderful, and this space should represent what Tufts is all about.”

Glaser described Dranetz Tower as “a very lovely, beautifully lit, architecturally interesting spot on the main floor” of the library. The new space is expected to also be used for poetry readings and talks by authors. Books by faculty will be showcased, and there will be exhibits of faculty and student artwork. Glaser said he envisions that faculty will hold office hours at the café and that students working on a project might use the café for a meeting place. He said his office will buy beverages for any individual faculty/student meetings held at the café.

Abraham Dranetz, E44, an overseer to the School of Engineering for whom the tower is named, is enthusiastic about the café being located there. “I think it’s a very good idea,” he said. “When this was first built, I thought it might be used as a room for special get-togethers and meetings that were of an informal nature. I think it will attract a lot of attention.”

An opening date for the new café has not yet been announced.