EXPANSION OF THE PHYSICAL PLANT was a built-in characteristic of the Mayer administration. It had become a particularly urgent need on the Medford campus in the 1970s and into the 1980s, together with the rebuilding of Barnum and a crash effort in modernization of other buildings whose maintenance had been deferred for at least a decade. Although the Fletcher School had nearly doubled in size between 1964 and 1979, no expansion of its facilities had taken place during the fifteen-year period. Enlarged quarters were absolutely necessary if the school was to continue to progress in an orderly way. Of all its needs, adequate facilities for the library were the most pressing. An architectural firm was engaged in 1975 to develop plans. Just as this study was drawing to a close, at the urging of Mayer and through the efforts of Tufts contacts in Washington, the federal government authorized $15.1 million to construct two model "intercultural centers," one at Georgetown University and one at Tufts, after the latter had submitted a proposal in 1977. The federal government provided to Tufts, of that amount, more than $3.6 million in grant authority and $3.1 million in loan authorizations. On the strength of this, together with the possibility of substantial private grants and gifts and the efforts which the school had made in identifying its needs, President Mayer authorized the preparation of specific architectural drawings for a new building. Design plans were completed in 1978 by the firm of Architectural Resources in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which called for a budget of $8 million. Private matching funds had to constitute at least 20 percent ($1.6 million) of the total cost. Because less than that amount had been raised by mid1979, the projected date for groundbreaking had to be postponed until 1980.

The bulk of the necessary private funds came from the Cabot Family Trust (more than $2 million eventually). Many of the Cabots had had a long interest in and association with the Fletcher School. After a total expenditure of $8.6 million, the John M. and Elizabeth L. Cabot Intercultural Center was opened and dedicated on 19 September 1981.

The building was constructed on the site of a former parking lot adjacent to Goddard Hall. It contained a 350-seat auditorium

Increased cooperation with Arts and Sciences and the undergraduate student body was made possible (at least in theory) with classrooms that could be shared, library facilities open to the entire Tufts community, and the Silvio O. Conte Language Laboratory, with forty-eight listening and recording booths serving the entire Hill. The language laboratory was named in honor of a prominent Massachusetts congressman who had been a consistent (and influential) supporter of the school. By 1985, the Cabot Center was used more, in terms of numbers, by undergraduates than by Fletcher students. It housed the large International Relations program, a joint effort between the Fletcher School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. One addition was made to the Medford campus in 1984, on President Mayer's initiative, which attracted much less attention than

In the physical realm, Tufts continued to be burdened with fires in the late 1970s, although not of the seriousness of most of those plaguing the Hallowell administration. On 2 April 1977 a three-alarm fire destroyed the roof and third floor of Curtis Hall. Because of its age (eighty-three years) the structure was underinsured, and reconstruction cost the university $250,000. The campus radio station, WMFO, which occupied the entire third floor, was completely destroyed, including a collection of hundreds of records. The fire left fourteen student organizations temporarily homeless, but the refurbished building was reopened by the beginning of the next school year (the fall of 1977).

Another three-alarm fire, caused by defective electrical wiring, gutted two of the three classrooms of the Eliot-Pearson Children's School on 24 November 1978. The damage to the building, which had been completed in 1962, amounted to more than $500,000. There was insurance coverage for all except a $100,000 deductible. Temporary quarters were first set up in the lounge of Haskell Hall, a dormitory on the south side of the campus. The Children's School was then moved to Hooper Lounge in the Electrical Engineering Department in Cousens Gymnasium. The damaged portion of the school was rebuilt in 1980 with funds raised through alumni contributions and other private sources, and at the same time a connecting link was built to tie the building complex together. A third campus fire on 3 March 1979 heavily damaged Carpenter House, which had started out as a private residence, then housed a fraternity, followed by the Afro-American Center. At the time of the fire it was serving as a dormitory. The building was uninsured (because of its age) and was repaired and remodlelled at a cost of $155,000.