PRESIDENT OUTLINES NEW GAINS,
PLANS AND CONCERNS TO FACULTY

By Vinny Reda

President Karen R. Hitchcock addressed the University faculty on Sept. 11 with a message combining good news and a series of initiatives that focus on programmatic, infrastructural and intellectual progress for Albany’s future.

“With this year’s budget we have, together, declared that continuing simply to ‘scrape our resources together’ to assure the continuance of all our various programs and activities is not a strategy sufficient to our shared goal of institutional excellence,” she said.

“Continuing to reduce the resources available to all will, surely, reduce the quality of all.”

In a number of areas, she said, the recent past has shown no sign of retreat. “This past summer has been remarkable in many ways,” she said, citing the ground-breaking for the new library on June 10 and the “topping-off” ceremony of the CESTM building on June 27 — turning points, she said “in our advocacy regarding the need to increase substantially the physical resources and facilities of our university.”

She also noted the preparations for the School of Public Health’s move to the new campus in Rensselaer, the 7,000 visitors and athletes who came to the campus for the New York State Special Olympics, and the additional 50,000 visitors who witnessed parts of the New York Giants Summer Training Camp.

“Beyond the $2.3 million in physical improvements that the training camp made possible for our campus, beyond the constant and positive media coverage, hearing these guests say ’I’ve never been on the campus before, it is so beautiful,’ or ’We had no idea this campus had so much to offer’ . . . added immeasurably to the positive benefits of this experience.

“It has, indeed, been a remarkable summer.”

Hitchcock thanked those who helped make recent campus advancements reality. “And, nowhere has that commitment been more apparent than in the academic planning process we undertook last year.

“As you know, the principle which guided us as we confronted the difficult choices we, and all institutions of higher education, must face, was focus: identifying and then investing in those programs that we believe are central to our mission and to the very special learning environment of a research University.” She pointed to the faculty recruitment plan approved last year which resulted in the hiring of 19 new members. She also detailed efforts to work with the overall 1996-97 University Budget — “greatly delayed” this year due to the lengthy state budget process — and to focus and enhance the University’s mission through the process.

“Our collective resolve in reaching this important, though difficult, moment is a testimony to our shared commitment to the excellence of our University,” she said.

“As stewards of the legacy of this exceptional institution we owe our University more than a future of gradual decline. The programmatic decisions made this year reflect a different strategy — reflect an institutional willingness to re-examine our priorities and reconfigure ourselves to assure a future — not of gradual decline — but rather one of continual growth in quality.”

Schools of Business and Information Science and Policy and the College of Arts and Sciences are reorganizing some offerings in order to create “enriched centers of excellence,” said, adding that the process has not been painless.

“Such decisions, as critical as they might be, do not come without tremendous cost — the impact on the people involved in the resulting layoffs, non-renewals, and retrenchments cannot be over-emphasized. Please know that we will do everything in our power to address the needs of our colleagues who have been affected directly or indirectly.”

“These colleagues,” she said, “have, over the years, contributed their time, their energy and their considerable talents to this institution. . . to all of us. We owe them no less.”

She admitted that what is known about next year’s state budget “does not lead us to expect any major infusion of new state resources,” yet maintained that the main motivation for academic program decisions was not mere budget challenges, but a “re-examination of academic priorities in the context of seven years of erosion of our state appropriation . . . and the reality that to retain and enhance our national competitiveness will require — above all else — quality in all that we do.”

She added that “the nature of our planning environment is as important as the actual magnitude of any projected budgetary shortfall.”

Acknowledging that much was hoped for this year from the Legislature in terms of increased administrative and financial management flexibility at SUNY campuses — as reflected by the Board of Trustees’ Rethinking SUNY report — Hitchcock reported few gains, mostly in the area of the campuses’ spending of end-of-year balances. Personnel and hospital management flexibility recommendations were not acted upon.

“While also not approved, differential tuition, perhaps the most discussed proposal of all, will surely continue high on the list of SUNY-wide initiatives,” she said.

She then pointed to four “key areas” for the University’s future:

• Resource Development

The President reported advancement in Albany’s pursuit of non-state revenues: the Campaign for Albany is at $53 million toward its $55 million goal and will conclude in late 1996, three years ahead of schedule — “now the largest and most successful campaign yet mounted by any campus within the State University of New York;” the 1995-96 Annual Fund exceeded its $1.4 million goal; Marinus N. Henny, ’73, executive vice president of Sony Corporation of America, will be the new National Annual Fund Chair; and research funding exceeded projections by $13 million as well, to $90 million.

More good news, she said, was SUNY Central’s reinstatement of the SUTRA program, a plan which allows campuses to retain a percentage of any revenue generated beyond their tuition revenue target, and which brought $839,000 to the University in 1993-94 and $815,000 in 1994-1995. No SUTRA program existed in 1995-96.

• Enhanced Learning Environment

The President highlighted areas of achievement, yet added, “we have been doing well, but I know we can do better.” She said that, “despite an 8.1 percent decline in freshman applications — a decline markedly less than most other campuses in the system — we were able to meet, indeed exceed, our target without compromising the quality of our incoming class,” adding that 1996-97 includes 116 new Presidential Scholars and 1,118 “highly qualified” new transfer students and 1,430 graduate students.

She outlined new admissions steps, including improved coordination of student services, and the hiring of the national enrollment management consulting firm of Noel Levitz to advise Albany in the coming year. “We will be developing admissions strategies designed specifically to improve the academic profile of our incoming students, as well as to increase in a significant way the presence of out-of-state and international students in our undergraduate student body.”

“Here at Albany, as at institutions of higher education around the country, student retention has decreased, most notably in the freshman-to-sophomore year return rate. While substantially above national norms, our return rate in the sophomore year has decreased from nearly 90 percent to the mid-and even low 80 percent range.

“We must assess the specific reasons for this decline here at Albany, and then design programs to reverse, where possible, this trend. Of course, at the core of any successful recruitment and retention program is the quality of our academic programs. Without this, we can not hope to recruit, let alone retain, students of quality.”

She announced nationwide searches to begin for a new Dean of the School of Business, and for “the critical position” of Vice President for Academic Affairs.

But she offered a challenge to the faculty as well. “The results of numerous national studies, including those of our own Office of Institutional Research, are clear: the most important factor in student satisfaction and retention is positive contact with faculty, both within and outside the classroom.

“Clearly, the degree to which our teaching faculty become engaged with our students, particularly in their first two years, can have a major impact on the quality of the academic program they receive; and it is, after all, the quality of our academic programs that is the most potent factor in retention.”

She noted advances toward better learning. This Fall more than 25 General Education courses will have World Wide Web home pages. Curricular experiences “beyond the classroom” such as Science Long House and the Honors Halls, have helped inform the design of Project Renaissance, an interdisciplinary living-learning curricular initiative just begun. “Within weeks of announcing this program to our applicants, all 200 available seats were filled,” she said.

On the doctoral level, said Hitchcock, a review of programs begins this year under the direction of VP for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies Jeanne Gullahorn, with the support of the Graduate Academic Council of the Senate.

She also expressed an immediate area of concern affecting all recruitment and retention of strong faculty and students — the quality of the physical infrastructure of the campus.

“If we are to aspire to Research I status, addressing our campus’ if we are to foster the kind of dynamic learning environment which will sustain and increase our national prominence, infrastructure needs must remain a key institutional priority.”

Calling the new library, CESTM and the new campus “only a beginning,” she reported that advocacy for a “fair share” of SUNY capital and construction funds “has begun to bear fruit. First, we have received approval to proceed with planning for a new building to support chemistry and other laboratory-based disciplines . . . coupled with major rehabilitation of the current chemistry building, (this) represents the first step in a longer term plan to address the facility needs of the entire campus.

“As important as this new facility is, much more than a building-by-building approach will be required if we are to ensure an infrastructure sufficient to meet current needs and to fulfill our aspirations as a research university. Therefore, I am also extremely pleased to announce the recent commitment by the SUNY Construction Fund to provide funding for a full Master Planning Process for our campus during the coming year.”

She said the final plan will include a set of SUNY-endorsed capital budget priorities to be submitted over a number of fiscal years to the Legislature. “Through this process we will have the opportunity to define the long-term infrastructure needs of our entire University — from parking and recreational space, to the academic buildings so critical to our mission,” said the President.

• Advocacy

In order to identify new sources of funding and then position the University to be competitive for them, Hitchcock said she will appoint a University director of governmental relations.

“At most research universities in the country” she said, “people holding this position . . . monitor state and federal legislation and are responsible for identifying funding sources for the programs of research and scholarship of the faculty.”

Albany’s director will also coordinate with a Washington, D.C. firm, “to assure our day-to-day presence in the Congress and various federal agencies which support research initiatives in areas of interest to our faculty.”

• Planning

“No strategic planning process, however well-organized, will succeed unless we are willing to step back and view our institution as a whole — to meet, across disciplines, and confront the intellectual issues at the core of our enterprise,” said the President.

“No strategic planning process will succeed unless we recognize the fundamental challenges we face as custodians of the intellectual integrity of our institution; unless we participate as a community of scholars in the discourse surrounding the nature of the liberal learning at the heart of the baccalaureate degree; unless we share with one another the transformation occurring in our disciplines and the impact of such transformation on pedagogy.”

To further this collegial ideal, Hitchcock announced that a group of faculty will work with her to organize a campus-wide Presidential Seminar Series designed to address key issues facing the academy, among them evolution of the disciplines; general education as a vehicle for a liberal education; the issue of standards; the academy’s commitment to affirmative action; the apparent disjunction between our faculty reward system and the public’s expectations of our institutions; and current challenges to shared governance.

“The guest speakers chosen will represent different points of view on such issues and, in certain cases, we will organize faculty debates to highlight particular areas of interest to our academic community . . . Every member of the University community will have a role to play,” she said.

“If we are to sustain, and give real meaning to our commitment to excellence, each one of us must invest in the process of defining how that excellence will be realized.”