At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the faculty discussed the new financial aid policy, the University's increased spending and a proposal by the Tenure, Promotion and Appointments Committee to change the time frame for reviewing associate professors' status.
TPAC proposed that associate professors be reviewed after 10 years of employment. The University has a "heavy" number of people who have been employed for the past decade - associate professors who should be reviewed, said Ruth Colwill, associate professor of psychology and chair of the Faculty Executive Committee.
Other universities have review periods even shorter than ten years, Colwill said. For example, Yale reviews associate professors after only five years of teaching.
Professors expressed concern that the shortened time frame would impact the criteria to become a full professor, while others endorsed the proposal, one professor saying that associate professors would no longer "languish for 20 years."
"The proposal we have in mind won't change the requirements, just change the time frame," said one TPAC representative who spoke at the meeting. "Brown has accumulated over the years associate professors who have been serving a long time."
President Ruth Simmons supported the proposed change in time frame.
"I don't believe there should be a penalty for being a faculty member at Brown," Simmons said. "A person who has been here for 12 years - at another university they would have been brought up."
The faculty also discussed the University's financial aid plan and other items that will receive increased funding.
Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, spoke with the faculty about the University's budget. Huidekoper stressed the increased endowment and fundraising, but added that "Brown still lags behind its peers."
The University's fiscal year budget for 2009 includes a 3.8 percent increase in tuition and a 24 percent increase in endowment payout, according to Huidekoper's presentation. The University will need to raise $56 million in new endowment funds but has only raised $20 million so far, and there are "big concerns" about raising the remainder, Huidekoper said.
The University's increased expenditures also include a 20 percentage-point reduction in the maximum health care premium contribution that employees in two-person or family plans pay, starting in January 2009.
Other University expenditures will include the hiring of 20 additional faculty, support for an improved sabbatical program, increased financial aid and a greater stipend for graduate students, Huidekoper said.
While the University has high aspirations for the budget, administrators are aware that their goals may be difficult to achieve in the uncertain economic climate.
"The budget may be overly optimistic," Huidekoper said. "We may need to make some mid-year, difficult decisions."
Still, Huidekoper said the University would "stick" to its commitment to the new financial aid program.
The University expects a $7.4 million increase in its financial aid budget, said Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98. Changes include eliminating loans for families earning less than $100,000, reducing loans for all students and eliminating the parental contribution for most families earning less than $60,000.
Despite the University's changes in financial aid, Brown will still have difficulty competing with other top universities, especially Harvard, Yale and Stanford, Kertzer said.
Many Universities have eliminated loans for all students, including Amherst and Bowdoin colleges, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania, Kertzer said.
Of students admitted to Brown who chose to matriculate elsewhere, the highest percentage attended Yale, Harvard and Stanford universities - at 13, 11 and 9 percent, respectively, Kertzer said. These same universities have increased their financial aid plans the most dramatically.
The University will also compete with Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania, which have greater financial aid packages for higher-income families than Brown does.
The University "tilted" its financial aid plan toward the less-wealthy and is not as concerned about the "upper end" of the University's population, Kertzer said.
Brown also has not budgeted for creating need-blind admissions for international students, but has "increased the marketable aid we've put into the international student pool," Kertzer said.
The University has put "about 15 percent more international students on financial aid," Dean of Admission James Miller '73 said.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth all have need-blind admission for international students.
