The Plan for Academic Enrichment has been well received on campus because "it has a set of goals and a direction," President Ruth Simmons told the faculty Tuesday at its monthly meeting. But she stressed that despite the Campaign for Academic Enrichment's "measurable progress" much more work needs to be done to achieve the plan's goals, with a focus on balancing growth.
This semester, University officials have collected feedback on the plan from various campus constituencies, such as the Brown University Community Council, the Brown Alumni Association, the Graduate Student Council and the Division of Campus Life and Student Services. In addition, administrators have organized open forums with students and solicited comments from faculty.
The Plan for Academic Enrichment is a comprehensive blueprint for strengthening Brown's academic profile, and the Campaign for Academic Enrichment is a fundraising drive publicly launched in October 2005 that aims to raise $1.4 billion by 2010. The campaign reached the $1-billion mark in May.
At the faculty meeting Tuesday, Simmons emphasized the importance of balancing faculty growth with infrastructure and facilities growth. Referring to the addition of more faculty members, Simmons said, "(We need to) grow more modestly to catch up with infrastructure needs. Continuing to expand the faculty without (that) would be a mistake."
However, Simmons added, that does not mean the University will stop hiring faculty altogether, and she said some people have suggested that the University focus its faculty expansion on "looking for preeminent scholars."
Similar questions of balance came up in regard to areas Simmons called "international prominence" and "research and teaching." Faculty members shook their heads in dissent when Simmons asked, as an example of the challenges of allocating resources, "Should we ration multi-disciplinary centers and concentration departments? ... Have we gone too far?"
Simmons told the faculty that an open forum about advising and the curriculum showed that students overwhelmingly support strengthening the advising system. Multi-disciplinary concentrations and diversity of students and faculty are other concerns among students, according to Simmons, as well as the "bifurcated environment for financial aid" in which students wealthy enough to afford Brown's tuition outright or those qualified for significant financial aid are drawn to the school - but students "squeezed" in the middle, Simmons said, do not want to rely on loans to finance their Brown educations.
Compared to other schools that have begun reducing the load of student loans, "we will be at a disadvantage if we don't reduce loans," Simmons said. "But that's an enormous cost," she added. "It may be the most important, but if we do it something else has to go."
Other student concerns include improving campus life spaces and residence halls, adding common space for graduate students and expanding wireless Internet access, Simmons said.
In response to questions from faculty members, Simmons cited the improvement or expansion of Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantships and student internships and the University library system as other possible fundraising targets for the future.
A more formal review of feedback collected about the plan will be presented to the Corporation, the University's highest governing body, in February.
Balance of resources is also a serious consideration for the Graduate School. The University's net investment in support for doctoral students has risen over the past few years, from $7.01 million in 2005 to $12.06 million in 2008, Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 said at the meeting. The most significant budget increase has been in individual stipends for doctoral students.
"Six to seven years ago, we were not competitive with top grad schools (in terms of) stipends," Kertzer said, but now doctoral students at Brown receive larger stipends. The increase in financial support for doctoral students also reflects the rising costs of health insurance, which the University covers for grad students.
The Grad School's selectivity has also increased in recent years. Only 9 percent of the most recent pool of applicants to the Grad School were admitted, though Kertzer noted that enrollment was lower in this year's entering class than in previous years.
A somewhat contentious issue - and another example of the budgetary balancing act of which Simmons spoke - has been the question of the availability of teaching assistants in each department.
"Some departments are hard-pressed for TAs, which has remained the same even as the number of students supported goes up," Kertzer said. As the faculty expands, the shortage of TAs to assist with classes worsens.
Although it has felt the "growing pains" of the University's expansion, Kertzer said, "The Graduate School is a high priority of the plan. We need it to be strong and flourishing."
Also at the faculty meeting, Associate Professor of Psychology Ruth Colwill, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, reported that the FEC is reviewing the now-temporary position of faculty ombudsperson to consider making it a permanent position. Professor of Neuroscience Diane Lipscombe put forth a motion by the Academic Priorities Committee to reword part of the Faculty Rules and Regulations dealing with concentration and graduate degree proposals, but after some heated discussion the issue was postponed until a later date.
