President Shirley Ann Jackson conducted the school-wide Spring Town Meeting this Monday, covering a range of topics affecting many aspects of life at the Institute. The students, staff, and faculty of RPI in Troy were joined by their colleagues from the Hartford Campus via Simulcast in attending this meeting, held in DCC 308. Jackson had members of her cabinet as well as her newly appointed chief of staff, Laban Coblentz, on hand to help provide information and answer questions.
Jackson began the meeting with coverage of her attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this past January, in which 26 university leaders from around the world agreed that there should be a “focus on capacity building on universities in developing countries” and in sustainable campus development through commitment to reducing energy usage and reducing the carbon footprint. She acknowledged the student initiative for sustainability and mentioned that there will be a similar administrative-led effort.
Jackson also recognized the Lally School for recently being ranked 26th in the nation among the top 50 undergraduate business programs in 2008, stating, “We say congratulations to the leadership and especially to the faculty and students at the Lally School of Management and Technology.”
On the administrative side, there have been a few new additions, with Coblentz succeeding Cynthia McIntyre as Jackson’s chief of staff, and James A. Knowlton as Director of Athletics. Coblentz comes from a strategic advisor and communications specialist position with the International Atomic Energy Association and has also served as a senior advisor to Jackson from 1997 to 1999, when she served as chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Knowlton served in many capacities at West Point, his alma mater, before joining the staff of Rensselaer, including deputy and interim director for the athletics department. Knowlton also serves as chair of the NCAA Hockey Rules Committee.
Jackson also touched on the increase in the quality and quantity of applicants, specifically for the Class of 2012. Applications for graduate and undergraduate enrollment have increased, with an expected 3,000 applications for graduate school and 11,200 applications for undergraduate school. The undergraduate application increase shows 100 percent growth since 2005, with more than 134 percent for women, 203 percent for under-represented minorities and 200 percent for students outside of the Northeast region. According to Jackson, “Not only is the quality excellent, but we are realizing that as things stand today we have a selectivity of 39.8 percent.” Jackson also congratulated the administration, faculty and staff at the Hartford Campus for increasing registration numbers.
The administration has also engaged in an aggressive recruiting effort for hiring new faculty. Jackson specifically noted that “our investment in the constellation faculty concept is showing returns as well as our investments in other faculty recruitment.” Twenty-nine new faculty members have been recruited and have started thus far, with 24 more to begin in Fiscal Year 2008 and another five to start in FY09. Jackson tied in the faculty recruitment to the Institute’s research enterprise, which she noted “ … thrives because of cross-disciplinary interaction between faculty in different schools and departments,” and also compared quite favorably to peer and aspirant institutions in terms of federal funding.
Jackson also reviewed the FY09 budget, which was approved by the Board of Trustees last month. According to Jackson, the $296.7 million budget will be used to continue investigating the Rensselaer Plan vision and transformation of Rensselaer. The budget brings the total investment in The Rensselaer Plan up to $800 million. It also includes a 5.9 percent tuition increase, to $36,950, and a 3 percent increase in room and board, to $10,730. The financial aid program has increased by more than $10 million to a total of $80 million, and the Presidential Scholars program for Ph.D. students has also been expanded. According to Jackson, 46 percent of the undergraduate tuition revenue is returned to undergraduates in the form of financial aid. There has also been some major additions to the financial aid budget from endowments and other philanthropic sources. According to Jackson, the trustees have approved new funding for summer study and for work study students, and are pursuing new funding sources for students pursuing a co-terminal bachelors and masters program. Jackson noted that although growth and research funding has slowed, “We have been successful to this point and expect to remain so going forward.”
New opportunities for study abroad and plans for a required international experience for undergraduate experience are being explored. Such opportunities such as faculty led programs will begin next summer. The School of Engineering will begin its international program by sending a first cohort of engineering juniors in the spring of 2009. The School of Architecture will expand its undergraduate study abroad program with the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology at Ahmadabad, India. In addition, there are plans for an International Scholars program at Rensselaer at Hartford for professional executive education.
On a different note, the Board of Trustees approved a name adaptation to one of RPI’s Schools, in order to advocate for the arts and to recognize the impact of the EMPAC, reflected in the new name, The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The School will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary on April 25 with lectures, a student art exhibit, a GameFest and several competitions, as well as an outdoor concert in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Russell Sage Laboratory.
Jackson also introduced plans for new residence models to enrich student life. The Clustered Learning, Advocacy, and Support for Students program, incorporates a milieu of deans to expand outreach to and advocacy for students on and off campus. In particular, there will be an assistant vice president for student life under which the dean of students and dean for residence life will operate. Under the dean of residence life, there will be a large hierarchy of other supporting deans.
Jackson also announced the 2008 commencement speaker, David Gergen, and honorary degree recipients Ret. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, Jr., and Shirley Tilghman, stating that the presence of these leaders would provide an opportunity for the campus to benefit from their thoughts and wisdom.
Jackson recognized the efforts in reviewing faculty governance by the faculty and the administration. In addition to the Faculty Governance Review Committee, a committee led by Kagan and Provost Robert Palazzo have been involved in reviewing the faculty senate constitution and working on a resolution on the definity of faculty.
The question and answer session of the Town Meeting included many questions and statements from the student body. These questions covered topics including the state of the environmental engineering program, the decision to not reopen the “Virtual Jihadi” as well as the Institute’s commitment to academic freedom. Jackson and Dean of the School of Engineering Alan Cramb affirmed that at this point in time the state of the environmental engineering Program is being considered but no final decisions have been made. In response to a question on the decision to not reopen the “Virtual Jihadi”, Coblentz reviewed the decision process of the administration, which included viewing the exhibit.
There were also questions on requiring students to study abroad, the consideration of sophomores being required to live on campus, and the position of the stage for the pep band in the Houston Field House.
