Planning process continues with discussions of practical solutions for change

This year, several hundred faculty, staff and students have responded to the challenges outlined by Provost Billy Frye in his October report "Choices & Responsibility: Shaping Emory's Future." For the second consecutive year, a survey has been issued and several planning activities have taken place.

While last year's planning events gathered together the Emory community to collectively articulate directions for Emory's future, this year's activities have concentrated on finding practical strategies for moving in those directions. Members of the University Priorities Committee (UPC) and the Faculty Council came together on April 25, to evaluate the results of the conversations and make recommendations for implementing change.

Conducted over lunches held from November to January, the survey involved approximately 500 people in small groups. Members of the UPC and Faculty Council led the discussions, which centered on the topics addressed in "Choices & Responsibility." The topics selected for discussion by most of the survey participants -- the balance between teaching and research, community, and interdisciplinary scholarship -- were considered during the April 25 meeting. The other two issues--infrastructure and external relations--will be taken up at a later time.

Approximately 40 people, including faculty from each school, devoted the day to exploring specific objectives that would bring better balance to teaching and research, promote interdisciplinary scholarship and enhance community. The group then discussed barriers to achieving the objectives and discussed next steps. Objectives identified by the group included:

* increasing the priority of teaching in the reward system and the budget process;

* more clearly articulating the criteria for good teaching;

* strengthening the structures that support interdisciplinary scholarship;

* devoting quality physical space to the support of community; and

* emphasizing intellectual life as a goal of community.

In addition to the survey, planning activities have included a series of visits to academic departments conducted by President Bill Chace and Frye as well as the annual retreat of deans, directors and senior officers.

Departmental visits

Chace and Frye visited academic departments over the spring semester. Held to broaden the conversation with faculty, the discussions indicated both significant concern and considerable optimism about Emory's future. Summing up what he learned from conversations with faculty, Chace said: "The faculty is concerned about the intensity of the intellectual culture of the campus; about the depth and long-lastingness of our fiscal resources; about the discipline required to live within a world of constraint; about the advantages and yet the difficulties of genuine cross-disciplinary research and teaching; about the quality of the students. . . ; about the heavy demands placed on the faculty to be, at once, scholar, teacher, and citizen; and about the ways in which genuine academic excellence is gained and recognized."

Deans and directors retreat

The deans, directors of major units and senior administrators met Feb. 19-21 in Pine Isle for their annual planning retreat. Whereas last year's retreat focused on ways to support greater coordination among University units, this year's retreat concentrated on interdisciplinary scholarship. Chace opened the meeting by observing that higher education owes to the outside world a responsible accounting of its value, a difficult task given that the public perceives the academy as expensive, arcane, inefficient and not part of the common good. In Chace's view, increased financing alone will not solve the revenue problems universities face; in fact, revenue is a problem only insofar as it defines the maximum we can spend. Meaningful change includes reducing cost and creating consensus that there is need for change.

Frye then reported on the conversations he has had across campus, many of which raised issues relating to interdisciplinary scholarship. "There seems to be little overt disagreement with the points made in "Choices & Responsibility," although there is understandably some skepticism about the administration's intent and ability to actually address those issues," Frye noted at the retreat.

Other retreat discussions concerned the evolution of current interdisciplinary graduate programs; joint appointments, joint or dual degrees, centers, or programs; library integration and information technology; experiential learning; international programs; and budget.

Conversations at the retreat suggest that the deans, directors and senior officers support a number of specific initiatives that advance interdisciplinary scholarship, including efforts to foster faculty collaboration, increase the ability of the University to meet societal needs and achieve greater budgetary flexibility.

Other planning activities taking place this year include:

* the formation of a committee, chaired by Law School Dean Howard Hunter, to investigate ways to bring about closer connection among the libraries; and

* explorations begun by the University Program and Budget Committee to better align program development and the budget process, especially to better link resource allocation with evaluation.

Steps for next year

Over the summer, Frye expects to assimilate the information that has come from this growing conversation. "I plan to prepare a report for release in the fall which will suggest some steps that could be taken to move us closer to our desired goals for Emory," he said.

--Susan Frost