President Ruth Simmons addressed a general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students in Leung Gallery Wednesday night, taking questions on the Plan for Academic Enrichment in an open forum that touched on several contentious issues.
The plan was approved by the Corporation in 2004 as the University's blueprint for improving campus infrastructure and strengthening Brown's academic profile. University officials have committed to releasing status reports approximately every six months. Feedback received at last night's forum will be incorporated into the next report, due in January.
Assistant to the President Marisa Quinn spoke first, citing several milestones the plan has already reached - Brown's student-faculty ratio has decreased from 10-to-1 to 9-to-1, its need-blind financial aid policy now provides funds to 43 percent of Brown's freshman class and applications to the Graduate School have jumped by 75 percent.
"If you look back at the plan, all of this was aspirational," Quinn said. "Now we've achieved so much of it."
Before opening the floor to questions, Simmons offered a brief statement praising UCS for its role in shaping the plan.
UCS Corporation Liaison Martin Bell '10 spoke first. "I had two friends who have now transferred from Brown" due to the closure of the Smith Swim Center, Bell said. A new facility isn't expected to open until 2010. "I have to wonder, would it take this long at Princeton or Harvard?"
"It would take longer there," Simmons replied, drawing laughter from the audience. "It takes a long time to build a building like this one."
Other students focused on broader issues. Jane Zhang '10, admission and student services chair for UCS, cited a March story in The Herald that found that financial aid awards often decrease substantially after freshman year. Zhang also protested the plan's lack of aid for middle-income families.
"We're almost certainly going to be debating how we can ease the pain that students and families are experiencing," Simmons replied. "Brown needs to be a diverse campus, and that means it should never be a place that only the very rich and the very poor can attend."
Academic and Administrative Affairs Chair Rakim Brooks '09 voiced concern that the Grad School's growth has threatened undergraduate teaching. Simmons said that at its inception, the plan had focused on increasing funds for research but that more teaching-related grants could be coming soon.
"Very strong graduate students bring up the quality of education at a university," she told The Herald after the meeting. "Because faculty - excellent faculty - require excellent grad students. So the better the graduate students, the better the faculty, and those are the faculty who are teaching (undergraduates)."
The 16 attendees unaffiliated with UCS were outnumbered by council members, but several stood to ask Simmons questions of their own.
Nina Ridhibhinyo '07.5, an environmental studies concentrator, protested the likely demolition of the Urban Environmental Lab. "We weren't told by staff, nor were we told by administration," she said. "I'd like to know how there can be greater transparency in the future."
"Let me say, first of all, that I apologize," Simmons said. "I can imagine, if I learned the building I was in was being changed or eliminated, I would feel pretty bad about that."
"The planning process, though, is a matter of using scarce resources to the best effect," added Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. But "it's being studied now what we should do," and it's possible the building will be moved, he said.
Simmons told The Herald she was satisfied with the event as a whole. "We made a concerted effort in the plan to build into it this kind of involvement and feedback, so, frankly, that we would make better decisions," she said. "This is kind of the roadshow, so we're going out to try to raise awareness and encourage people to really provide that feedback."
