State of the University, Spring 2014

April 29, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

Our academic year is quickly coming to an end with commencement just two weeks away. Before our academic community disperses for the summer, I want to update you on several matters that are important to us all. These include:

• Undergraduate and graduate enrollments for fall 2014
• Changes in our faculty governance structure
• Revising our Strategic Plan

Undergraduate and Graduate Enrollments

We have just concluded the admissions process to select the undergraduate class for fall 2014. We expect to enroll approximately 3,700 of our record 54,200 applicants. Early indications suggest that this will be the most academically accomplished class in our history. Moreover, the acceptance rate for applicants has dropped to an all-time low of 34 percent.

Our progress in attracting an ever-stronger undergraduate cohort ties to the improving quality of our academic programs and services, to our campus residential environment, and to the growing reputation of the University.

Our commitments to residential education and student success are bearing fruit in other ways. Most notably, our retention rate for undergraduate students continues to improve. Also, while we continue to decrease the overall size of the incoming freshman class, shifts in students’ academic interests (and career aspirations) translate into greater demands on faculties in several schools and colleges. For example, since 2010, the number of applicants to the School of Management has increased by 87.7 percent and for the College of Engineering by 94.6 percent. To accommodate those significant shifts in demand, we must necessarily reallocate resources in order to maintain quality.

We also are focused on helping our students explore career opportunities. The staff of the Center for Career Development is working energetically to expand internship opportunities for our students both in the Boston area and around the world.

Graduate professional programs continue to encounter the headwinds of competition for prospective students and the erosion in the perceived value of some professional degrees in the workplace. Entering graduate and professional enrollments are projected to be down approximately 3 percent next fall, when compared to the fall 2013 enrollments. Since Fiscal Year 2012 we have experienced a decline of approximately 4 percent in these programs. Because we are a tuition-dependent university, the budgetary implications of decreased enrollments for several of our schools and colleges are significant. In order to reverse this trend, I believe we need to re-envision existing professional master’s programs and create new ones that clearly offer tangible value to students. An initiative to accomplish this goal is beginning.

Faculty Governance Structure

We continue to work to improve the faculty governance structure for the University; we are in the final stages of ratifying the most important changes in faculty governance in recent history. These are:

• Establishing a definition of faculty status as a key element of the Faculty Handbook.
• Revising the Constitution of the University Council to make explicit the authority of the faculty governance structure in approving academic policies for the University.

Both proposals are being discussed by our governing bodies and, once approved, will be taken to the Board of Trustees at the September meeting. The details are described below.

Definition of Faculty

The Faculty Handbook is the compilation of those policies and processes that pertain to the entire faculty of Boston University. The Handbook does not currently include a simple overarching definition of what constitutes the faculty of Boston University. To address this lacuna and provide a baseline that permits clearer articulation of policies that might pertain to limited subsets of the faculty, the Faculty Policy Committee of the University Council, with the support of the Faculty Council, has proposed the following definition:

The Faculty of Boston University consists of:

• Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors
• Those with professorial titles modified by Research, Clinical, and of the Practice
• Lecturers of all rank
• Instructors

This overarching definition is without regard to the percentage time of the appointment of an individual faculty member. I believe this broad definition appropriately clarifies what constitutes membership in the faculty, and allows us to structure other bodies of the faculty, such as the Faculty Assembly, Faculty Council, and membership on the University Council as appropriately defined subsets of this group. The definition for membership in the Faculty Assembly and eligibility for election to the Faculty Council only differ by the percentage time commitment to the University required, with membership in the Faculty Assembly requiring an appointment of at least 50 percent time.

Faculty Governance

The revision of the Constitution of the University Council is more substantial. It is intended to replace an outdated policy stipulating that the Council must be composed of equal numbers of faculty members and administrators. The new policy establishes a clear majority of faculty members. The proposed membership would include the officers of the Faculty Council; the immediate past Chair of the Faculty Council; Faculty Council representatives holding assistant, associate, and full professor titles including those modified by clinical, research, or of the practice; senior or master lecturers; and the chairs of the Faculty Council standing committees holding the titles listed above. This cohort of faculty members (as defined by the various categories) currently numbers 44 individuals. The proposed administrative members of the Council would constitute a smaller, defined group with primarily academic responsibilities at the University. These members would be: the President; the University Provost; the Medical Campus Provost; the Deans of the schools and colleges; the Associate Provosts for Faculty Affairs, Strategic Initiatives, Undergraduate Affairs, Graduate Affairs, and Graduate Medical Sciences; the Vice President and Associate Provost for Global Programs; the Vice President and Associate Provost for Research; the Vice President for Enrollment and Student Affairs; the University Librarian, the Dean of Students; and the Dean of Marsh Chapel.

Presently, 24 of these 30 leaders also hold faculty appointments.

With this realignment of the membership, we also have reorganized the committee structure of the Council to parallel the types of policy deliberation and development associated with faculty governance. Beginning next fall, the committees will be:

• Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies
• Graduate Academic Programs and Policies
• Research and Scholarly Activity
• Student Life and Policies
• Faculty Policies

Each committee will be co-chaired by a member of the Faculty Council and the academic leader (usually an associate provost) with the relevant responsibility. Recommendations from the University Council will come to the President for final approval.

Along with these changes, we are restructuring the process for review of policies that are consequential beyond the principally academic domains of student life, degree/program review, and setting of academic standards. Such policies are often described as “administrative”; examples would include changes in employee benefits, information technology access policies, and the myriad policies required to maintain compliance with federal laws and regulations. In our new process, changes in administrative policies will be vetted by the Administrative Council and the Council of Deans after consultation with stakeholders, with the final approval resting with the President.

I believe this new format for the University Council will amplify the voice of the faculty in critical academic decision-making, as well as streamline our process for modifying administrative policies. I expect that this revision will also make possible a more concentrated focus on undergraduate programs in the deliberations of the University Council and that this is needed if we are going to continue to make progress on strengthening undergraduate education, which is emphasized in the revision of the Strategic Plan, to which I now turn.

Update of the Strategic Plan

Last spring, in my letter to you (Spring 2013 letter), I made the case that it was time to update our Strategic Plan. This decision was based both on our progress since 2007, when the plan was put in place, and the changes in the world affecting higher education.

We started developing the revision last summer and now are finalizing changes. There is a consensus among all involved that the revised plan should keep us focused on our trajectory as a major private research university. Most of the objectives in our original plan remain in place today. We must recognize, however, the increasing emphasis our students (undergraduate and graduate) place on the higher education value proposition; i.e., the utility of a degree relative to cost. As costs increase, students’ focus on value can only intensify. As we go forward we must do whatever we can to modulate cost increases and ensure that increases translate directly to enhanced program quality.

Seven objectives have emerged for the updated Strategic Plan. These are:

1. Undergraduate general education. Create a common and compelling vision for the general education of all our undergraduate students, building on our model that combines liberal arts and sciences and professional education. Included in this vision is our commitment to a residential undergraduate community that prepares our graduates to be a positive force in the global society. This integrated vision will form the basis of a new University-wide general education program.
2. Interdisciplinary research. Emphasize interdisciplinary research and scholarship in which Boston University can be uniquely excellent. As Boston University continues to emerge as a top private research university, we must continue to build excellence in our foundational programs and focus on bringing together faculty members from across the University. In the update of our plan, we propose to focus strategic investment in areas where we can have significant impact and be uniquely excellent.
   • For example, we have considerable strength and substantial commitment in the important interdisciplinary areas of photonics research, synthetic and systems biology, systems neuroscience, information and data sciences, infectious diseases research, and global health, as well as others.
   • We also recognize that investments in urban health, global studies, and materials science will have the potential to build new areas of strength.
   • Organizationally, we propose to emphasize research centers and institutes that span our schools and colleges and that focus on building research communities in select areas. These centers and institutes should be appropriately resourced to support the associated faculty, who will have their academic appointments in departments and schools and colleges.
3. Professional graduate education. Professional graduate education is at the core of the mission of Boston University, and we are devoted to providing relevant graduate professional education. We strive to be leaders in the development of innovative new professional programs and in the development of new delivery mechanisms to reach both the traditional and nontraditional graduate students who will benefit from our programs. To compete effectively in this arena, we will need to be nimble, which will require new and streamlined support services and processes.
4. Diversity. Creating a community with racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity is critical to our success as a great private research university. The legacy of Boston University puts this mission at the core of the institution, but succeeding in creating this environment for our faculty, staff, and students will require the efforts of our entire community. We will affirm the value that a diverse faculty brings to the University by redoubling our efforts to recruit and support underrepresented minority faculty; this will include a renewed commitment to employing recognized best practices in faculty hiring, in particular. We must make diversity part of the fabric of excellence of the institution.
5. Digital learning. Digital learning environments have the potential to transform higher education for both residential and nonresidential students. We must be leaders in this revolution by leveraging our investment in edX and our long experience with distance education programs offered through Metropolitan College, as well as our other schools and colleges.
6. College of Communication. Since the launch of our Strategic Plan in 2007, the world has undergone a revolution in communications as a result of the confluence of emerging technology and new paradigms in content delivery and social networks. The programs of the College of Communication are more central to the mission of Boston University than at any time in our history. We should capitalize on these factors by ensuring that our College of Communication is at the forefront of our highest quality undergraduate and graduate programs. Accomplishing this goal will require investments in both the faculty and facilities of the College of Communication.
7. Globalization. Since its inception, Boston University has been engaged in the world by welcoming international students to our campus, through programs, service, and research around the globe, and by creating novel opportunities for new cohorts of students from abroad. We must recommit ourselves to be a truly globally connected university and continue to innovate in our programs both in Boston and around the world.

The themes that define Boston University run throughout these strategic priorities: we are an urban and global community of scholars, students, staff, and alumni committed to creative, innovative, and sustainable engagement in the breadth of academic, intellectual, civic, and entrepreneurial activities that make the world a better place to live.

Finally, we must recognize that much of our progress toward our goal of being a great private research university has resulted from our efforts to deliver value for our students and faculty in everything we do. Our operating model relies on efficiently using our resources and generating the reserves needed to fund our capital needs and our initiatives. We must continue to hold true to our model, even as we gather new philanthropic support from our alumni and friends. Indeed, the new focus on philanthropy is a commitment to enhancing academic and research excellence that augments the commitment we make by carefully stewarding the resources from tuition dollars and research support.

In this update of the Strategic Plan we recommit ourselves to enhancing the value proposition of Boston University by focusing our resources on the quality of our academic programs, faculty, and research. We also are committed to using Academic Program Review as a transparent and rigorous process to measure academic quality and impact and as a basis for leadership decisions about either allocation of new resources or redistribution of existing ones.

Our goal is to finalize the update of our Strategic Plan by next fall and to incorporate the revised directions as part of the budgeting process for Fiscal Year 2016, which coincides with the academic year beginning July 2015.

Conclusion

As we make mid-course changes—accounting for our progress over the last few years and the shifting pressures on the University—we should take stock of the University’s widening stream of philanthropic support. Most of our new initiatives have been launched with resources generated by our Campaign. The Pardee School of Global Studies, the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, and the Sumner Redstone Building for the School of Law are wonderful examples of how new support is transforming the University.

As we consider what we must do to keep Boston University strong, we should reflect on our community of students, faculty, and staff and the strength that comes from our sense of purpose and our collective efforts. As I close this letter I am mindful of the pain we all endured after the horrific bombings at the finish line of the Marathon a little over a year ago and how we were touched by the loss of our graduate student Lu Lingzi. On April 21 seven members of the Boston University community ran the Marathon wearing numbers given to them by Lingzi’s parents. They honored her and Boston University. We are all privileged to serve our students and the noble purposes of Boston University.

Have a wonderful summer.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Brown
President

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