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Expansion a balancing act, Simmons tells the faculty
Isabel Gottlieb
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Campus News
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.
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.