The Graduate U-Council

MINUTES

Minutes of a meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community, March 8, 2000. In the absence of the President, the Provost chaired the meeting. Present were Mr. Allard, Professor Augst, Professor Babby, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Berneman, Ms. Briggs, Professor Craeger, Mr. Creesy, Mr. Dressner, Mr. Fattorossa, Mr. Garcia, Ms. Halliday (secretary), Ms. Ham, Mr. Jagtap, Mr. Kim, Ms. Makuchowski, Dr. Marks, Mr. Miller, Mr. Nemeroff, Provost Ostriker, Mr. Primer, Ms. Rosen, Dr. Spies, Rev. Strasburger, Mr. Vere, Mr. Wright. Absent were Ms. Abrams-Primack, Ms. Bedford, Professor Bergman, , Dean Deignan, Mr. DeRose, Mr. Ditter, Professor Duffy, Professor Glucksberg, Ms. Hargittai, Mr. Harris, Ms. Igo, Ms. Joyner, Professor Li, Dean Malkiel, Professor Martonosi, Professor Mendelberg, Professor Muldoon, Ms. Muller-Landau, Professor Page, Dr. Riley, Professor Rouse, President Shapiro, Professor Socolow, Professor Wildberg.

As announced in the agenda distributed in advance, the entire meeting was devoted to discussion of recommendations made by the Trustee long-range planning committee, the Wythes Committee. Since the Provost would lead the presentations about and the discussion of the recommendations he asked Vice President and Secretary Wright to chair the meeting.

Mr. Wright asked if there were questions or comments about the minutes of the February 14 Council meeting; hearing none, the minutes were adopted as distributed in advance of the meeting. He then asked the Provost to introduce discussion of the Wythes Committee recommendations.

Introduction

The Provost reminded the Council that he had provided a broad overview of the report in February. He underscored that the Trustees had directed the administration to distribute the report widely to receive comments from the University community. He suggested in the interests of assuring that all parts of the report would be reviewed that the recommendation that was receiving the most comment, to increase the size of the undergraduate student body, be discussed last.

The Size and Composition of the Faculty

At his invitation Dean Taylor presented the recommendations concerning the faculty. The Trustees noted the high quality of the faculty and reviewed size and composition of the faculty, as well as compensation levels. He remarked that the average age had been increasing recently, and for a number of reasons the ratio of tenured to non-tenured members of the faculty had also increased. He described the report's recommendations to achieve better balance and the Trustees concern that the University continue to seek diversity. The Trustees had also reviewed the health and vitality of academic departments, relying in part on National Research Council data. During discussion, members of the Council asked how decisions about allocations of FTEs to departments are made. The Dean cited as important contributing factors the number of concentrators and course enrollments. Students also noted that concern for building a diverse University seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the report, and encouraged the University to treat this recommendations seriously.

The Graduate School

Dean Wilson briefly reviewed the recommendations concerning graduate students and the future of the Graduate School. He noted that the high rankings of the NRC survey referred to by Dean Taylor were based on graduate education at participating institutions. The Trustees had noted the exceptional quality of the Graduate School, and recommended that the size remain approximately the same, with some continued modest growth in masters programs. The University must address the increasingly stiff competition from peer institutions for the best graduate students, and the recommendations would help Princeton achieve this objective. Finally, the Trustees expressed concern about the preparation that graduate students receive who will be assistants in instruction. Discussion following the Dean's presentation focused in part on graduate students as teachers. It was important that the overall high quality of graduate student teaching not be overshadowed by what were isolated problems. The Dean pointed to opportunities that the new Center for Teaching and Learning would bring not only to improve English proficiency but to provide significant resources to help all graduate students learn to be excellent teachers.

Staff

Vice President for Finance and Administration Spies provided information about recommendations concerning administrative and support staffs. He noted that since the 1980s the size of the staff had grown by 20%, for reasons that were directly related to the University's mission, especially planned growth in areas of student life, CIT, and development. However, since that time there had been no growth; indeed, the numbers were declining, and overall the Trustees recommended that resources directed toward staff be reduced as possible so that more resources could be channeled to support more directly the University's teaching and research mission. The Trustees had expressed particular interest in programs that allowed the University to review administrative services and in the pay-for-performance salary increase program that recently had been instituted. They believed that such steps helped assure high performance of the staff and the ability to institute cost reductions where possible. Discussion about the recommendations included Mr. Spies' description of administrative reviews, and remarks especially by students about the importance of staff who support students directly. Students expressed concern that if the size of the undergraduate student body were increased, the University's support of student life not suffer. The Provost agreed, and stated that if students were added, staff support in areas of student life would need to grow proportionately.

Distance Learning

Associate Provost Nugent referred to her January meeting with the Council during which she and her colleagues had presented an overview of use of technology in the classroom on campus. She focused her remarks on new initiatives that the University was pursuing with peer institutions designed to serve the University mission and in some instances expand that mission. The quality of these new initiatives would be the same as now exists in classroom teaching and the anticipated audience would first be Princeton students or newly admitted students and alumni. She mentioned the popularity of alumni programs that use technology and include distance-learning components and noted that students on campus regularly benefited from the experience faculty gained creating distance-learning programs for alumni. She noted Trustee enthusiasm for moving ahead as quickly as possible to implement new programs using technology.

The Library

University Librarian Karin Trainer reported that the Trustees had been informed about the challenges to maintain the level of acquisitions necessary to support the high University expectations in teaching and research, to provide adequate space for collections that continue to grow, to establish and maintain close associations with academic programs and to use to advantage new technology for delivery of information. She mentioned new library and study space that was being incorporated into new facilities under construction, including First Campus Center, and the Wallace and Friend buildings, and a possible upgrading of science libraries. In an effort to help the University community use new technology more effectively in the search of information, funds had already been provided to the library to institute appropriate training programs, and the Trustees supported continuing these programs.

Physical and Financial Resources

The Provost referred to charts describing physical and financial resources over the years and the University's policies with respect to establishing budgets and goals in these areas. He commented that the Trustees had supported greater efforts to encourage and help faculty seek outside sources of funding.

Undergraduate Education

The Provost then turned to the recommendation to increase the size of the undergraduate study body. He remarked that in an environment of modest growth it would be possible to address needs in a variety of areas. Discussion included the following points.

-- If the Graduate School does not grow, how will the additional teaching be achieved? Classroom space is also already at a premium in certain departments with specialized needs, such as music. The Provost commented that plans have been instituted to increase space in some areas such as dormitory and residential college space, but in each of the new buildings under current construction classroom space is being added, and there will be additional facilities for music. The Dean of the Faculty said that the mix of who teaches, including precepts, would change and, as is the case now, the trend would be for more faculty to teach.

-- Several comments and questions focused on providing adequate support for student life, noting that the demands now placed on the Dean of Student Life staff are significant and noting the important role that departments such as athletics, health services, religious life and undergraduate life play in assuring a positive Princeton experience for students. In addition, space requirements for students including such resources as performance space and athletic fields were also mentioned as requiring close attention. Would these increase? These were important concerns and the report might be revised to give more emphasis to the importance of student life. The financial calculations for meeting the challenge of an increase in students included increases in these areas to support a larger student body. Some additional performance and athletic spaces and facilities were under construction at the present time, and the University continued to review requirements in these areas.

-- How are determinations made about distribution of faculty FTEs? Dean Taylor said that the Trustees had instructed the University to consider where needs were greatest in making decisions about the distribution of FTEs.

-- Adding dormitory and a residential college could further decrease another important resource, open space. What steps were being taken to prevent loss of the beauty of campus? The University had commissioned an architectural firm to help analyze possibilities with preservation of open space as a serious priority.

Mr. Wright ended the meeting by thanking Council members for their comments which would be communicated to the Trustees. He asked if there were additional suggestions, that these be sent to him.

There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Halliday Secretary

-- Christine A. Faltum Office of the Vice President & Secretary One Nassau Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 609-258-2954 Fax: 609-258-1294