Plan for the Class of 2000Final Report of the Program Planning CommitteePreface
The Plan for the Class of 2000 emphasizes the academic goals for Wake Forest University that must have priority over the next decade. This comprehensive Academic Plan, the third since 1986, is intended to provide a blueprint for a major increase in the quality of undergraduate education. It is designed to be phased in with the class entering in the fall of 1996.
From the outset, the planning process has been a shared search for what is best for Wake Forest. The committee of eleven faculty, two students, and three administrators has sought information and opinions from seven consulting administrators and three student consultants; two hundred faculty questionnaires; an all-day faculty retreat; eighty-two hearings; several open forums with students; subcommittees on instruction and on technology; two visits to other universities; and special sessions with alumni councils, student government representatives, and the College Board of Visitors. We also sought reaction to 500 copies of a "white paper" and 1,000 copies of an Interim Report.
The committee has been impressed by the care with which departments and programs have prepared for their hearings and by the considered nature of their requests. We wish to thank students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have cared enough about the well-being of Wake Forest University to give their time and energy to this planning process. The report has been greatly enhanced by their involvement.
Committee Membership
John P. Anderson, Administration/Planning/Finance David G. Brown, Provost (Chair) William Conner, Biology Gloria Cooper, Human Resources Huw M.L. Davies, Chemistry Paul D. Escott, History Frederick Harris, Babcock Graduate School of Management Cheryl Leggon, Sociology Dale R. Martin, School of Business and Accountancy Wilson Parker, School of Law Teresa Radomski, Music Paul M. Ribisl, Health and Sport Science (Vice Chair) Matthew Rush, Undergraduate Student Representative Ian M. Taplin, Sociology Claudia Thomas, English Robert Upchurch, Graduate Student Representative
Ex-officio Members
Laura C. Ford, Associate Provost Ross Griffith, Institutional Research Jean Hopson, Provost's Office Dana Johnson, School of Business and Accountancy Gordon A. Melson, Graduate School Thomas E. Mullen, Dean of the College Derek Rogers ('94) Julianne Surface ('95) James N. Thompson, Bowman Gray School of Medicine Brent Watkins ('95)
Introduction
The world Wake Forest confronts is changing dramatically (See Appendix A for Major Forces and the Trends Likely to Influence Wake Forest University During the Next Decade). We are entering a new era in which an unprecedented amount of information will be available. Focused plans are essential if we are to continue providing the best possible education for our students.
This plan will allow Wake Forest students to compete in this new era. It will provide new and expanded academic opportunities to Wake Forest's first-year students entering in the fall of 1996, and all classes that follow them. In addition to current offerings, the Class of 2000 will have available to them:
*A first-year seminar course of 15 or fewer students 150 upper-class scholarships
* A program of collaborative research with faculty 175 study-abroad scholarships
* Greater course availability, with the creation of over 100 new classes
* Greater professor availability, with an 8 percent reduction in the student-faculty ratio
* More state-of-the-art instrumentation, especially in the sciences, and classroom capacity to link to the Internet
* Expanded library holdings
* Twice as many endowment-supported professors enriching the faculty
* An internationalized curriculum
* A computer-enhanced curriculum, fiber-optic cable to every residence hall and classroom, and a personal computer owned by each student
The Plan for the Class of 2000 focuses the energies of the University on the central academic experience of undergraduate students. It is a crucial component of the upgrade of all aspects of the University that began in 1983. It follows the Law School's 440 Plan, an ambitious reorientation of the Babcock School's Program, the Physical Plant Master Plan, the Heritage and Promise Campaign (which significantly raised scholarship and faculty salary dollars), and the Plan for a Self-Perpetuating Board of Trustees.
We believe that the continued success of Wake Forest depends upon its ability to offer students small classes, individualized instruction, and personal mentoring from nationally prominent scholars. Our goal is to build upon The Teacher-Scholar Ideal (A statement of the Teacher-Scholar Ideal appears on the inside back cover.) and strengthen the historic purposes of the University (See Appendix B for the Trustee-approved "Mission and Purpose of Wake Forest University.") by finding ways to enhance the education of Wake Forest students. The faculty has no desire to follow the model of the large, impersonal university. Instead, our recommendations are designed to preserve the distinguishing features of our heritage and to help us become a better Wake Forest.
While 36 recommendations constitute the heart of this report, we emphasize four concepts:
* Wake Forest must continue to personalize and individualize the professor-student relationship. Our highest priority is to increase the faculty's time that is available to spend with students. This goal can be realized only by expanding the size of the faculty.
* During their first year, students set aspirations and form intellectual habits. We therefore place a high priority on improving our campus' intellectual climate, renewing our commitment to small classes, and reaffirming the importance of mentoring students. We urge establishment of a First-Year Seminar Program that provides every first-year student the prospect of at least one very small academic class in which he/she could begin to acquire critical analytic skills through rigorous study of disciplinary or interdisciplinary themes.
* Curricular and resource enhancements should emphasize the particular passions and needs of individual students, individual professors, and individual departments and programs. Existing institutional themes and programs need bolstering before expanding to new programs or adopting addtional institutional themes.
* To remain competitive with the nation's best liberal arts programs, the University must aggressively pursue additional resources from all sources--gifts, grants, contracts, operating economies, and fees.
Our deliberations began without any significant budget increases in sight. We have therefore proceeded cautiously and deferred many valid proposals. We have suggested virtually no new programs. Instead, we have addressed the basic needs of existing programs. Until all our recommendations are implemented, Wake Forest's academic excellence is in jeopardy.
All of our recommendations can be implemented with an increase of $8-10 million in annual recurring budget (The costs, as detailed in Appendix C, are best understood after reading the 36 recommendations.). From one perspective, this is a very small figure--less than 8 percent of our total budget. From another perspective, $10 million represents nearly $200 million additional endowment. We recognize that these needs will have to be met over a 5-8 year period with funding shared by new gifts and grants, reassignment of internal resources, new income sources, and regular budget increases. As a means of indicating priority among recommendations, we have identified $3+ million of highest priority annual needs.
Recommendations
The Plan for the Class of 2000 is for the students. Accordingly, our recommendations have been grouped to show their impact upon the quality of undergraduate education. The categories are as follows:
A. Ideals B. Personal Teaching C. Class and Program Availability D. Top Quality Faculty E. Scholarship Support F. Information and Technology
As a means of assigning priorities to our recommendations, this report concludes with a fuller description of Phase I.
A. Ideals
Recommendation A1 Wake Forest must remain a University with a deep and distinguishing commitment to students and to the service of humanity.
Our central task is to challenge and nurture -- in the liberal arts tradition -- each of the individuals whose academic, moral, and personal development is our reason for being. Pro Humanitate expresses our goal for both faculty and students.
Recommendation A2 Wake Forest should strive to bring together the best features of a liberal arts college and a research university by pursuing the Teacher-Scholar Ideal and by fostering a true community of learning, in which principled and talented students and faculty know each other and learn together.
Drawing on its traditions and its strengths, Wake Forest must seek to combine the devotion to students that has always characterized the College with the intellectual creativity that marks the University.
B. Personal Teaching
Recommendation B1 Wake Forest reaffirms its commitment to small size.
To maintain the kind of community that is essential to our success, the undergraduate student body must remain at approximately its current size. Where modest increases in graduate enrollment are necessary to achieve critical mass in certain programs, these increases must be in character with Wake Forest's values and traditions and should enhance scholarship and undergraduate education (See Appendix E, Table 2).
Recommendation B2 Wake Forest reaffirms its traditional commitment to teaching students in small classes, particularly in their first two years.
It is crucial that beginning students establish intellectual connections with the faculty. The number of lower division classes offered by each department should not be allowed to decrease (unless a department must accommodate a reduction in the number of faculty or a major change in student demand). The Dean of the College should work with each department to analyze the availability of smaller classes in the lower division and shift instructional capacity as needed.
Recommendation B3 Every College faculty member should continue to teach undergraduate students.
Wake Forest must remain a University where students have access to their professors. Research enriches teaching; it does not substitute for teaching. All college faculty, whether junior or senior, should teach undergraduates. Deviations from this policy should require the express approval of the dean of the College or the school.
Recommendation B4 The College should establish a standing committee on teaching.
Excellence in teaching has always been Wake Forest's primary emphasis. Throughout campus, individual professors are constantly seeking more effective ways to stimulate student learning. Many have expressed their wish for a campus center or similar effort to encourage excellent teaching. Studies suggest that the most effective of these efforts are discipline-based, invitational rather than interventional, and based on self-assessment rather than external evaluation. We need a mechanism within the College, similar to committees in the professional schools, that provides advocacy, budget, staff, speakers, exchange of information, the design of assessment instruments (such as student portfolios), and collegial advice in this most important domain.
Recommendation B5 Each Reynolda Campus faculty should consider, modify where appropriate, and adopt the proposed "Principles of University Teaching."
This committee endorses the "Principles of University Teaching."(These principles are set out in Appendix D). These Principles were developed by a group of faculty led by Professor Joseph Milner (Chair, Department of Education) at the request of the committee.
Each College department and the faculties of the School of Law, the Babcock Graduate School of Management, and the School of Business and Accountancy should consider, modify where appropriate, and adopt these Principles. This statement should be presented to new members of the faculty and can serve as a basis for the evaluation of teaching effectiveness.
Recommendation B6 The University should aggressively seek students with diverse academic interests who demonstrate strong intellectual ability, personal motivation, and leadership potential. We should continue seeking to balance the demographic characteristics of our student body.
College classmates are a primary influence upon the quality and character of the learning environment. Bright, intellectually motivated students who seek a school centered in academic rigor and the Pro Humanitate philosophy must be skillfully recruited, thoughtfully chosen, and often provided with financial help. The Joint Admissions Committee should consider policies that accommodate an occasional star in the arts and humanities who may have weak quantitative SATs and, correspondingly, an occasional science star with low verbal SATs.
Recommendation B7 The Academic Planning Committee should consider advancing to the faculty a proposal to offer a First-Year Seminar to as many first-year students as practicable.
First-Year Seminars, a concept strongly supported by the student body, will ensure that most first-year students enjoy at least one small class with ample opportunity for intellectual exchange with both peers and instructor. The Seminars will permit teachers to explore subjects of particular interest with first-year students and to engage them in critical reading and writing. When Academic Planning considers First-Year Seminars, we recommend that (among others) the following alternatives be evaluated: prescribing a common reading list, asking each professor to teach the seminar using an area of special expertise, and staffing the program from departments where the current demand for instruction may not be as great as in recent years.
Recommendation B8 The University should study ways that students, faculty, and administrators can work together to strengthen the atmosphere for learning and personal growth on campus.
Wake Forest should acknowledge that activities outside the classroom have a substantial impact on learning, academic life, and the moral and personal development of each student and should strive to ensure that this impact supports our academic mission. Student organizations should be challenged to provide positive constructive experiences for their members. Campus life should include activities which raise the consciousness of students, faculty, and administrators to moral, political, cultural, and environmental issues in our society. Departments should consider the coordination of course offerings with student service projects and volunteerism, so that--where appropriate and justified--students could earn academic credit for educational experiences gained through service.
Recommendation B9 The University should solicit carefully considered comments from recent alumni as a part of the process of all tenure evaluations.
After leaving Wake Forest, students may gain a new perspective on the value of certain courses and instructors. Reflections from recent alumni would be extremely useful in the evaluation of faculty. Half of those alumni contacted should be randomly selected and the other half identified by the candidate.
Recommendation B10 The University should strictly limit temporary and part-time faculty positions to no more than 15%.
In moderation, part-time and temporary faculty provide important diversity, vitality, and flexibility to a university faculty. Yet, they usually do not bring a permanent faculty's continuity of expertise, which is needed to build library collections; stimulate new course offerings; build research laboratories and programs; and contribute to significant long-term investments. In addition, they are unable to provide long-term continuing relationships between individual students and their faculty mentors during college years and beyond. This kind of individualized attention to the student is the hallmark of a Wake Forest education, and it demands a preponderance of permanent appointments to the faculty.
Recommendation B11 The University should add several academic support staff positions over the next decade.
Technical support personnel are needed to maintain and upgrade instrumentation and to free faculty to spend time with students -- where their priority lies. We will improve instruction by releasing faculty from time-consuming maintenance of instruments and by having University-wide technical support in areas such as computing, statistics, and grant development.
Some of our current professional support personnel should be shifted to the offices of the Dean of the College, the Dean of the Graduate School, and to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
Recommendation B12 Every effort must be made to add 40 new full-time faculty positions by or before the year 2005. The committee identifies this need for more full-time faculty as the University's highest priority.
The Wake Forest University student/faculty ratio is now 12.7 to 1. In order to lower this ratio to one similar to those at other colleges known for their concentration on individualized instruction, significant numbers of full-time, tenure-track faculty need to be added over the next decade. Wake Forest has the highest student/faculty ratio among the private institutions in our joint-admissions group. To bring this ratio down toward the average requires the addition of 40 faculty.
Student Faculty Ratios--1993-94 Joint Admissions Private Institutions
Duke 8/1 Emory 9/1 Vanderbilt 9/1 Richmond 11/1 Washington & Lee 11/1 Davidson 12/1 Wake Forest 13/1 Average 10/1
Source: Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, 1995.
Hearings with department chairs and program directors have identified pressing, immediate needs for at least 40 new faculty positions. While the Committee recognizes that we are in a climate of fiscal restraint, meeting these valid needs will have an impact on the quality of undergraduate education at Wake Forest. We must expand the size of our faculty while maintaining approximately the current size of the undergraduate student body.
Recommendation B13 Departments should be creative and flexible when assigning teaching loads. Systems that balance total workload (not just teaching load) should be considered.
This Committee repeatedly heard pleas from faculty for more time, so that faculty could better perform all aspects of their job-- teaching, research, professional development, and service. Time constraints emerged from our inquiries as the most pressing issue for faculty. The Committee is aware of the financial implications of an immediate campus-wide drop in teaching load. Nonetheless, we urge pursuit of this long-term goal.
In the meantime, departments that confront teaching load problems should immediately be enabled to achieve flexible teaching load assignments. Extraordinary service commitments, whether departmental or University-wide, as well as research projects should be taken into consideration when assigning teaching loads.
Recommendation B14 The Academic Planning Committee should consider: (1) Reviewing the entire core curriculum to determine whether it currently meets the needs and purposes of the College; (2) A proposal from the fine arts departments to create a separate division of fine arts, including the specification of a fine arts requirement; and (3) A proposal from the English department to develop new programs that require writing across the curriculum in small interdisciplinary seminars and writing-intensive courses in the various disciplines.
This committee heard a variety of opinions regarding the curriculum, which ranged from general satisfaction to comments that it was outdated, overly defined, and has not been significantly revised for more than 20 years.
While this Committee adopts no position on the issue of restructuring the curriculum, two specific proposals which may have a significant impact upon it merit special attention. If either of these proposals come to fruition, then the curriculum will be affected. The fine arts involve modes of learning often quite different from those in the humanities and relate in a special way to the development of aesthetic values. To ensure that this component of our students' education is realized, a separate division deserves consideration. Recognizing the need for more writing-intensive courses at Wake Forest, the English department has expressed willingness to lead efforts to incorporate writing into courses throughout the disciplines. Both of these proposals are consistent with our goal of providing the most stimulating and interactive education possible.
C. Class and Program Availability
Recommendation C1 Each year the University should schedule a major symposium on a topic of broad intellectual or artistic interest. The various programs of the symposium should be highlighted on campus by actively discouraging conflicting events, and by the full coordination of information regarding all events.
Campus life would be enriched by an annual symposium of general interest and substantial intellectual or creative value. More interdisciplinary events, with multiple sponsorships, need to be encouraged. The programs should be designed for integration with classroom instruction. The proceedings of these symposia should be published or otherwise preserved, if possible.
Major events (such as the Secrest Artists Series) should not have to compete with other major events. Efforts to enhance the academic, intellectual, and cultural climate at Wake Forest should not result in scheduling conflicts and reduced attendance. Information regarding all campus events should be more readily available, perhaps through e-mail, to encourage participation.
Recommendation C2 The American Ethnic Studies interdisciplinary minor should be implemented no later than the fall of 1995.
Some time ago, both the Student Government and the College Faculty adopted resolutions favoring the introduction of an American Ethnic Studies minor. This program is designed to use existing courses and should not prove a costly addition to our curriculum. Means should be found to launch this program by no later than the fall of 1995.
Recommendation C3 The University should continue to pursue full funding for a new divinity school but remain steadfast in its belief that no program implementation should occur until full funding is in place.
The need for ministerial training in strong universities with a Baptist heritage persists. Yet, in this era, ambitious programs cannot be started without having a negative impact upon existing programs unless new and otherwise unavailable funding can be located. Sponsorship of an annual conference on divinity education within universities would be a promising and economically feasible initiative toward attracting full funding.
D. Top-Quality Faculty
Recommendation D1 Wake Forest must reaffirm its commitment to quality research and scholarship by providing resources that facilitate faculty scholarship and by recognizing the scholarly efforts of the faculty.
In addition to its central focus on individualized and personal instruction, the University must recognize the value of scholarship. For Wake Forest to realize the Teacher-Scholar Ideal, it must encourage excellent scholarship.
Wake Forest is committed to offering students access to professors; its resources allow professors to do state-of-the-art work in their respective fields. This unique setting differs greatly from that found at many small liberal arts colleges, where students seldom are exposed to or participate in professional research projects. It also differs from the environment at research universities, in that we are committed to spending time with our students and to integrating our research and teaching.
Recommendation D2 The University should continue and expand its commitment to existing graduate programs at both the Master's and Ph.D. levels. Ph.D. programs, while still remaining relatively small, need to add students and faculty in order to achieve the critical mass necessary for success.
The graduate programs at Wake Forest are an important part of the whole University. The presence of quality graduate programs enhances the prestige of the University and can be an important factor in the recruitment of the best qualified faculty who are committed to the Teacher-Scholar Ideal. Graduate programs require critical mass to attract high quality faculty and students and to be competitive for external funding, particularly for major instrumentation.
Recommendation D3 The University should expand the Faculty Leave Program to enable every faculty member with a justified project to have a leave each seven to ten years.
At the present time, too few faculty members have had the professional benefit of a teaching sabbatical. On the other hand, funding for a universal program appears problematic. Thus, aspirants for university-supported leaves should demonstrate their pursuit of external support. Those who extend the University resources by obtaining external funding should be eligible for more frequent leaves.
Recommendation D4 In striving to establish 20% of its tenure track positions with dedicated endowments, the University should emphasize chairs and professorships for faculty who exemplify the Teacher-Scholar Ideal.
Endowment-supported faculty appointments continue to be a major focus of the University's successful Heritage and Promise Campaign. Salary enhancements, accompanied by special privileges, are a particularly effective way to attract and retain the very best new faculty. We urge the use of many periodic awards for faculty in all professorial ranks.
Recommendation D5 The University should raise faculty salaries to a level above the average of joint-admission institutions in all ranks in 2-5 years. The University should raise faculty salaries to the top third of the joint-admission institutions in all ranks within a decade. Adequate projected annual increases for faculty need to be maintained. Likewise, the University should evaluate non-faculty salaries to insure that they are fair and competitive.
For Wake Forest to recruit and retain the best teacher-scholars, faculty salaries must be competitive. Compared with nine institutions which share the most joint admittees with Wake Forest, progress has been made since the last program planning cycle. Progress has been especially effective at the assistant and associate professor levels (See Appendix E, Table 4.).
Recommendation D6 The University should expand efforts to provide competitive means for recruiting minority and female faculty and provide a supportive environment for retaining them.
It is important, for students and for the institution, that Wake Forest have a faculty that is both talented and diverse and that offers role models and advisers for all our students. Women and minority faculty, moreover, have repeatedly stressed the difficulty of fulfilling the Teacher-Scholar Ideal when they are burdened by disproportionate service and advisory assignments. Service and advisory commitments can become burdensome because, while it is crucial that their perspectives be represented on committees and that all students (especially minority and female students) have mentors, there are not enough of these faculty on campus to meet all these needs. As a result, some women and minority faculty may be less free to concentrate on their teaching and scholarship.
Recommendation D7 The University should offer a menu of fringe benefit options in order to provide flexibility for those in need of child care. While continuing to support the local clearinghouse for child care, the University should work toward the establishment of a day care center near campus within five years.
The era of stay-at-home mothers is over for many American families, including most of the families who have a parent working at Wake Forest. The University Senate conducted a study of campus child care needs and community availability in 1990 and concluded its examination by passing a resolution urging the University to start a day care center. Leading universities, including Duke and Vanderbilt, have already established campus day care centers. Wake Forest finds itself at a significant disadvantage in recruiting junior faculty when it must bid against universities offering this benefit. The availability of child care for all Wake Forest employees would also serve to increase job satisfaction and further create an atmosphere of community on our campus.
E. Scholarship Support
Recommendation E1 The University should inaugurate an extensive program of funded Teacher-Scholar Fellows and continue funding for collaborative study and research through the Individualized Instruction Spire Committee.
The Individualized Instruction Spire has already proven its value to numerous students and a Teacher-Scholar Fellows program will encourage individual undergraduates to join their professors as junior partners on scholarly research projects. While improving opportunities for mentoring and assisting student progress into advanced work, these are also a means of supporting upperclass achievers with financial assistance.
The University should establish a Teacher-Scholar Fellows Program. Up to 150 competitive, merit-based fellowships should financially assist junior and senior students who collaborate with faculty mentors. Some fellowships also should be used to encourage the professional growth of students from groups that are under-represented in certain disciplines.
The Individualized Instruction Spire Committee should be established as a standing committee of the College for the purpose of detailing and administering this program.
Recommendation E2 The University reaffirms its commitment to the internationalization of the curriculum, the faculty, and the student body.
Wake Forest graduates are entering an environment in which an understanding of other cultures, some grasp of fundamental global issues, and an enhanced ability to function across cultural and national borders, are increasingly important. To that end, Wake Forest should continue encouraging faculty to incorporate an international perspective into current courses as appropriate and to develop new or revised courses in international studies. Faculty and students should be encouraged to travel and conduct research abroad.
Of particular concern is the need to expand opportunities for students to study abroad. The University should significantly increase the number of Reynolda Campus students who earn academic credit while studying abroad (Approximately 30 percent of Wake Forest's 1994 graduated seniors, 25 percent of Babcock, and 5 percent of the law graduates received degree credits for coursed taken abroad.). Accomplishing this objective will require program and policy changes, such as the development of the Tokai program, additional summer study options, formal affiliation with programs such as the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies at Rome and the American School for Classical Studies in Athens, additional financial aid (especially for students studying abroad in the summer), and aggressive promotion by the Office for International Studies (As study abroad increases, the number of students on the Reynolda Campus should remain at current levels.).
A related and important development should be the consideration of more work in Central and South America. These areas of the world can be made more accessible to our students and can be supported by existing faculty expertise. European Studies merits consideration as a possible minor.
F. Information Technology
Recommendation F1 The University should increase library funding for book and journal purchases and for new technologies, as well as support the necessary training, exposure, and expertise that allow access to the information.
A high quality library is central to the academic excellence of a university. Traditional resources such as books and journals are multiplying in cost and number and Wake Forest must keep pace with this increase. Because of an infusion of new technology, the functions of academic libraries are dramatically expanding. The services provided at Wake Forest must be expanded, both in terms of hardware and personnel. Moreover, users must be educated about the range of services available and how to use them effectively.
Recommendation F2 The University should sustain its emphasis upon computerization, especially the capacity to access intellectual networks and to use appropriate databases for analysis.
By the Fall of 1996, all teaching should proceed from the premise that students have personal access to and routinely use computers. The University should consider the possibility of requiring all incoming students of the Class of 2000 to buy a personal computer and should investigate means for making this possible for all of our students.
Computers have a profound effect on modern education. We need to ensure that computers play an integral role in education at Wake Forest. The reason for this is twofold. One, faculty must be efficient users of technology to enhance their teacher-scholar role. Two, students must leave Wake Forest with the needed skills to succeed in the modern, highly technological world.
The Computer Advisory Committee should study the adequacy of advisory personnel and training opportunities, study the reconciliation of networks within the campus, and create a strategy that will assure access to burgeoning databases and instructional capacities. Early access to the North Carolina Information Highway, which must include a fully equipped teleconferencing center, is essential.
Recommendation F3 The University should regularly budget start-up and matching funds, both to attract new faculty and to enhance the possibility of being awarded grants from external funding sources.
Wake Forest seeks to recruit, reward, and retain excellent teacher-scholars. These individuals often need advanced instrumentation and facilities in order to maximize their productivity. In the arts and humanities, this might mean a state-of-the-art computer work station with CD retrieval capability, a library supplement, or the acquisition of an important reference collection. In the sciences, this usually means area-specific instrumentation. Start-up funds are used to supply these items and are part of the hiring process at all universities. In order to recruit the best faculty, Wake Forest must be competitive in this area. It is important to note that at Wake Forest, undergraduates have unusual access to facilities and instrumentation and thereby benefit directly from the start-up funds used to acquire them.
Recommendation F4 The overhead return policy should be readjusted to encourage departments with the greatest set-up and matching needs to help generate these funds.
A considerable amount of external support is necessary to sustain departments with significant equipment needs and, particularly, the graduate programs in the sciences. Faculty in those departments should be expected to seek external funding to support their programs, and their departments should retain more of the overhead funds obtained.
Recommendation F5 The planned upgrading of the space for Tribble Hall departments should be completed at the earliest possible date. Efforts should continue to secure external funding for new buildings for the departments of Psychology and of Health and Sport Science, as well as a residential study center in Washington, DC.
Our campus physical plant is well-built and well-maintained. Tribble Hall needs new basic systems, a thorough facelift, and new presentation technology. The committee commends efforts that are already well under way. The departments of Psychology and of Health and Sports Science will require additional and upgraded space if they are to consider the initiation of Ph.D. programs. Such expansion will allow enhanced collaboration with the Bowman Gray School of Medicine and will facilitate the University's ability to remain competitive in rapidly changing health-care environments. In addition, we endorse efforts to acquire a fully-funded residential study center in Washington, DC, which would benefit students and faculty in almost every discipline.
G. Added Revenue
Recommendation G1 The University must aggressively pursue additional resources from all sources--gifts, grants, contracts, operating economies, and fees.
Additional funds are absolutely critical to the improvement of education at Wake Forest. Without additional funds, we cannot take advantage of the opportunities before us. Pressing needs for the use of such resources are specified throughout this report.
Recommendation G2 Faculty should be expected to seek external grants. Faculty-initiated gift and grant ideas should be encouraged, facilitated, and rewarded. The University should redouble its efforts to generate foundation and gift support for academic programs, research projects, endowed laboratories, matching equipment funds, and department endowments.
In order for the faculty to provide students a challenging academic environment, the academic infrastructure must be up-to-date and well-maintained. Much of this can be achieved through careful use of internal sources, but external funding sources must also be maximized in order to ensure that the modern facilities necessary for research and instruction are available at Wake Forest.
Recommendation G3 The University should consider expanding summer offerings.
Wake Forest has traditionally maintained a relatively small summer school, thereby enabling faculty and students a change of pace and opportunities for travel and research. With more students studying abroad during the academic year and with an increasingly costly learning infrastructure, expanding student opportunities and increasing net income during the summer months deserve thoughtful reconsideration.
Highest Priority Needs
Wake Forest continues to grow in strength, both academically and financially. Yet, critical needs exist. This is an opportune moment to achieve a still higher level of educational excellence. We have discussed ways that we believe would be possible to implement all of our recommendations within the next 5-8 years, and we believe that such implementation is of crucial importance to the future of the University.
At the same time, we recognize that our committee is expected to assign priorities to our many recommendations, in case implementation must be phased. In this final section, we outline one plan for the allocation of the first $3.2 million. As in all of our recommendations, we emphasize those recommendations that will have the most direct impact upon improving the student experience at Wake Forest.
Personal Teaching and Class Availability
To assure continuation of Wake Forest's close student-faculty relations in this era when both students and faculty must devote more time to keeping abreast of their subject matter, and to assure the availability of desired classes when students are demanding an increasing array of majors and specialized courses, our first and highest priority is to add more faculty. Twenty-four new faculty will go a long way toward enabling a special seminar (i.e. 15 students) for each first-year student, a 20% increase in the number of seminar-size classes in the underclass years, an expanded program of faculty leaves (which will enable faculty to fulfill their scholarly obligations without locking their office doors), and a threshold breadth of specialties in our undersized science departments.
A larger faculty will also enable more time for such activities as learning new teaching techniques, spending time with students outside of the classroom, and attending symposia with students. These are critical elements of the Wake Forest way that must be preserved and extended.
Excellent Faculty
Maintaining and increasing the quality of the faculty is our second essential priority. In the sciences, successful faculty recruitment requires "start-up" funding which we believe is best achieved by changing the overhead return policy. Throughout the faculty, in addition to sustaining regular increases in faculty salaries as projected in the University's planning models, we are recommending an additional 1 percent and, beyond this, special attention to the salaries of full professors. Financially, the most feasible way to augment full professors' salaries is via a combination of twenty $5,000 professorships and three fully-funded chairs.
In this first phase, we believe it is important to address the paucity of African-American faculty by providing special recruitment incentives to departments and individuals and by establishing the Ethnic Studies minor. These actions will provide a wider variety of role models for all Wake Forest students.
Junior/Senior Merit Scholarships
The creative design of junior/senior scholarship programs that link merit scholarships to intense educational experiences is another high priority. As soon as possible, we urge the establishment of 100 faculty-student internships and 40 scholarships for students to study abroad. Graduating seniors consistently cite "study abroad" and "paid work with an individual professor" as highlights of their academic experience at Wake Forest. Our hope and expectation is that these experiences can be extended to a broader array of students through private gifts.
Information and Technology
Finally, our needs for keeping pace with information technology are urgent and non-deferrable. We recommend that the first phase of funding include approximately $250,000 of new funds for computer access, technical support, teleconferencing, and library acquisitions.
Phase I Needs
Personal Teaching
60 first-year seminar sections (Faculty postions are costed at $40,000 salary + $10,000 + $5,000 induced cost secretarial support & computer & travel. Sixty first-year seminar sections represent the equvalent of 12 faculty positions. This plan proposed that 6 of the 12 positions be new and that the remainder be covered by current faculty and faculty-qualified administrators.) $660,000
4 technical academic staff (Total dollars for technical staff are the 4 x $35,000 listed here + $30,000 for technical support in the teleconferencing area.) 140,000
Class and Program Availability
70 new small classes (14 faculty) (Faculty postions are costed at $40,000 salary + $10,000 + $5,000 induced cost secretarial support & computer & travel. Sixty first-year seminar sections represent the equvalent of 12 faculty positions. This plan proposed that 6 of the 12 positions be new and that the remainder be covered by current faculty and faculty-qualified administrators.) 770,000
Annual symposium 75,000
Ethnic Studies minor 100,000
Top Quality Faculty
Endowment-supported faculty positions (Total dollars include twenty $5,000 salary "add ons" which may be assigned to individuals in all professional ranks and three chairs at $100,000 each.) 400,000
Faculty salary increase (Total dollars for faculty salary increase are 6% per year in the annual budget + the $100,000 listed here + $50,000 listed at minority recruitment + $100,000listed at endowment-supported faculty.) 100,000 6 faculty leaves (Leaves are costed at 6 x $20,000 in replacement compensation.) 120,000
Minority faculty recruitment (Total dollars for minority recruitment are $50,000 listed here + $110,000 as a consequence of "requiring" 2 of the new positions to be minority + $5,000 for an endowed professorship to at least one minority faculty member + $75,000 for Ethnic Studies Director.) 50,000
Scholarship Support
Teacher-scholar fellows $200,000
40 students abroad 80,000
Graduate scholarships 90,000
Information and Technology
Library 150,000
Computer access 100,000
Start up/matching funds (Total dollars for start up and matching funds are $150,000 listed here + $50,000 from a change in the overhead return policy + additional dollars generated by the new overhead return policy as grants grow.) 150,000
Overhead return policy(Total dollars for start up and matching funds are $150,000 listed here + $50,000 from a change in the overhead return policy + additional dollars generated by the new overhead return policy as grants grow. 50,000
TOTAL $3,235,000
Funding for the initial $3.2 million expenditure will likely need to come from a variety of sources. To emphasize the importance of this program to the faculty and staff, we are proposing that approximately one-fourth of the funding come from grants generated by the faculty and from the reassignment--especially toward the first-year seminar--of faculty and administrative time.
It is anticipated that approximately one-fourth of the initial funding will come from gifts devoted primarily to student scholarships and faculty endowments.
We anticipate that roughly half will need to come from the regular budget. This may mean excluding students studying abroad from our enrollment limits, expanding summer use of the campus, or, as a last resort, increasing tuition (For tuition comparisons with other institutions, see Appendix E, Table 5.). (Should higher tuition be considered, such an increase should begin only with the class to enter in 1996, would not apply to students already enrolled, and would be accompanied by upward adjustments in financial aid.)
Realization of these important goals in an era of financial strain will require careful coordination, phased planning, focused decision-making, and strenuous effort by many people. To mark progress toward these goals, we strongly recommend that, for the next several years, an annual report on progress be made to the University Senate and other appropriate bodies.
Coordinated five-year academic planning should continue to originate with the individual schools and departments of the University, each well informed about University missions and finances. All academic programs should undergo periodic review.
To us, it seems important to reaffirm President Hearn's vision of the University by closing our report with selected quotations from his Ten-Year Report to the University: To Dream With One Eye Open.
* "There are two ultimate purposes of the university. The first is to prepare young people for lives of accomplishment. The second is to search for truth as the basis of civilized life."
* "The academic and moral values of Wake Forest are the legacy of three vital and living intellectual traditions: Judeo-Christian and Baptist heritage, political democracy, and liberal education."
* "These commitments are summarized in the Wake Forest Motto: Pro Humanitate."
We have recognized the traditional strengths of Wake Forest and acknowledged its current needs. This blueprint, focused on the pending arrival of the Class of 2000, suggests the means for successfully pursuing Wake Forest's Pro Humanitate objectives into the 21st century.
Appendix A: Major Forces and Trends Likely to Influence Wake Forest University During the Next Decade
The challenge before Wake Forest is to act in anticipation of major forces and trends, during a decade when:
* Ecology and the environment, the humanities, and religion will be increasingly emphasized.
* Minority, women, and international students will make up an increasing percentage of the enrollment of colleges and universities.
* Societies will become much more multicultural and multilingual.
* Parents, students, accrediting bodies, and the general public will demand accountability and improved quality, reflecting a new wave of consumerism.
* Information will assume greater importance than land, labor, or other forms of capital.
* Decisions will increasingly be made by teams.
* Change will become the norm.
* Downsizing and vertical integration in industry will have repercussions for colleges and universities.
* The University will assume a greater role in civic responsibility as interest in public and community service increases in the larger society.
Source: Consultations with Wake Forest faculty and alumni groups.
Appendix B: The Mission and Purpose of Wake Forest University
Wake Forest is a university dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. Its distinctiveness in its pursuit of its mission derives from its private, coeducational, and residential character; its size and location; and its Baptist affiliation. Each of these factors constitutes a significant aspect of the unique character of the institution.
The University is now comprised of six constituent parts: two undergraduate institutions, Wake Forest College and the School of Business and Accountancy; the Graduate School; and three professional schools: the School of Law, the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, and the Babcock Graduate School of Management. It seeks to honor the ideals of liberal learning, which entail commitment to transmission of cultural heritages; teaching the modes of learning in the basic disciplines of human knowledge; developing critical appreciation of moral, aesthetic, and religious values; advancing the frontiers of knowledge through in-depth study and research; and applying and using knowledge in the service of humanity.
Wake Forest has been dedicated to the liberal arts for over a century and a half; this means education in the fundamental fields of human knowledge and achievement, as distinguished from education that is technical or narrowly vocational. It seeks to encourage habits of mind that ask "why," that evaluate evidence, that are open to new ideas, that attempt to understand and appreciate the perspectives of others, that accept complexity and grapple with it, that admit error, and that pursue truth. Wake Forest College has by far the largest student body in the University, and its function is central to the University's larger life. The College and the Graduate School are most singularly focused on learning for its own sake; they therefore serve as exemplars of specific academic values in the life of the University. Beginning as early as 1894, Wake Forest accepted an obligation to provide professional training in a number of fields, as a complement to its primary mission of liberal arts education. This responsibility is fulfilled in the conviction that the humane values embodied in the liberal arts are also centrally relevant to the professions. Professional education at Wake Forest is characterized by a commitment to ethical and other professional ideals that transcend technical skills. Like the Graduate School, the professional schools are dedicated to the advancement of learning in their fields. In addition, they are specifically committed to the application of knowledge to solving concrete problems of human beings. They are strengthened by values and goals which they share with the College and Graduate School, and the professional schools enhance the work of these schools and the University as a whole by serving as models of service to humanity.
Wake Forest was founded by private initiative, and ultimate decision-making authority lies in a privately appointed Board of Trustees rather than in a public body. "Funded to a large extent from private sources of support, [Wake Forest] is determined to chart its own course in the pursuit of its goals. As a coeducational institution it seeks to `educate together' persons of both sexes and from a wide range of backgrounds--racial, ethnic, religious, geographical, socioeconomic, and cultural... Its residential features are conducive to learning and to the pursuit of a wide range of co-curricular activities. It has made a conscious choice to remain small in overall size; it takes pride in being able to function as a community rather than a conglomerate. Its location in the Piedmont area of North Carolina engenders an ethos that is distinctively Southern, and more specifically North Carolinian... As it seeks further to broaden its constituency and to receive national recognition, it is also finding ways to maintain the ethos associated with its regional roots."
Wake Forest is proud of its Baptist and Christian heritage. For more than a century and a half, it has provided the University an indispensable basis for its mission and purpose, enabling Wake Forest to educate thousands of ministers and lay people for enlightened leadership in their churches and communities. Far from being exclusive and parochial, this religious tradition gives the University roots that ensure its lasting identity and branches that provide a supportive environment for a wide variety of faiths. The Baptist insistence on both the separation of church and state and local autonomy has helped to protect the University from interference and domination by outside interests, whether these be commercial, governmental, or ecclesiastical. The Baptist emphasis upon revealed truth enables a strong religious critique of human reason, even as the claims of revelation are put under the scrutiny of reason. The character of intellectual life at Wake Forest encourages open and frank dialogue and provides assurance that the University will be ecumenical and not provincial in scope, and that it must encompass perspectives other than the Christian. Wake Forest thus seeks to maintain and invigorate what is noblest in its religious heritage.
Source: Wake Forest University Board of Trustees, April 1986
Appendix C: Estimated Annual Cost (current dollars)--Program Planning Report Needs
Item Cost
Ideals
A1Commitment to students and service $--------
A2 Strive for a community of learning ---------
Personal Teaching ($1,095,000)
B1 Remain small ---------
B2 Keep small classes ---------
B3 All faculty teach undergraduates ---------
B4 Establish a committee on teaching 10,000
B5 Adopt ÒPrinciples of TeachingÓ ---------
B6 Academically strong student body ---------
B7 60 first-year seminar sections (12 faculty x $55,000)
660,000
B8 Intellectual climate 75,000
B9 Solicit alumni comments regarding tenuring ---------
B10 Limit part-time/temporary faculty ---------
B11 10 technical academic staff @ $35,000 each 350,000
B12 Add 40 new faculty ---------
B13 Flexible teaching loads ---------
B14 Areas for Academic Planning review ---------
Class and Program Availability ($1,385,000)
C1 Annual symposium 75,000
C2 Ethnic Studies minor 100,000
C3 Pursue funding for School of Divinity ---------
100+ new small classes(22 faculty x $55,000) 1,210,000
Top Quality Faculty ($3,291,700)
D1 Commitment to research/scholarship ---------
D2 Critical mass in graduate programs
(6 faculty x $55,000) 330,000
D3 12 faculty leaves @ $20,000 each 240,000
D4 Endowment-supported faculty positions 650,000
D5 Faculty salary increase 1,871,700
D6 Minority faculty recruitment 50,000
D7 Day care 150,000
Scholarship Support ($830,000)
E1 Teacher-scholar fellows
(150 students x $2,000) 300,000
E2 Students abroad (175 students x $2,000) 50,000
Graduate assistantships (12 students x $15,000)
180,000
Information and Technology ($1,700,000)
F1 Library book/journal/media purchases 500,000
F2 Computer upgrade and teleconferencing 1,000,000
F3 Start-up and matching funds 150,000
F4 Overhead return policy 50,000
F5 Upgrading/acquiring new physical space ---------
Added Revenue
G1 Pursue additional resources ---------
G2 FacultyÕs pursuit of external grants ---------
G3 Review summer school program ---------
TOTAL $8,301,700
Notes on Appendix C:
B12: Forty new positions are distributed as follows: 6 positions for first-year seminars, 22 for small classes,5 for endowment-supported professors, 6 to achieve critical mass in graduate programs, and 1 Ethnic Studies Director. The committee anticipates that 30 sections of the first-year seminar will be taught by current faculty and faculty-qualified administrators.
D4: This figure includes thirty $5,000 add-ons to existing faculty positions and five $100,000 chair-level positions. The endowment support may be applied to a position at any professorial rank.
D5: This figure reflects dollars required to bring WFU salaries at all ranks to those of the third highest institution, Emory (see Appendix E, Table 4). The calculations are: $11,100 x 135 professors; $2,100 x 86 associate professors; $1,800 x 74 assistant professors, and $3,300 x 18 instructors. Data for salaries and faculty were taken from Academe, vol. 80, no. 2, 1993-94.
Appendix D: Principles of Teaching
* Encourage students to develop concepts, build knowledge, create theories, and apply them in the world.
* Challenge assumptions--those of students as well as those in the field--maintain an open intellectual conversation where all clear thinking is valued, and resist building an agenda, indoctrinating students, and requiring acceptance of a ready-made set of ideas.
* Promote students' active involvement in class by eliciting their questions, posing yours, exploring ideas, and inviting students to extend the course's intellectual pursuits beyond the boundaries of the class.
* Engage students with the ideas and materials of the course, by using diverse and various approaches to student understanding and participation.
* Develop strategies for students to learn collaboratively in groups as well as individually so that knowledge can be shared and cooperation encouraged.
* Provide various ways for students to convey the knowledge and understanding they have developed in your course and make your evaluation of their work fair, quick, integral to learning, explanatory of your judgment of that learning, and invitational to student self-assessment, rather than merely a quantitative grading of the performance on a few end-products.
* Encourage students to enter the full life of the university by your own enthusiasm for and participation in the intellectual, cultural, and artistic events of the university.
* Profess to students your reasons for being drawn to your discipline, and its potential importance to their own lives.
* Help students understand what advanced study in your discipline entails and how to prepare for it.
Developed by the Task Force on Instructional Effectiveness, November, 1993. Task force members were: Joseph O. Milner, Chair, Bashir El-Beshti, Mary Friedman, Ellen Kirkman, and Richard Zuber.
The Teacher-Scholar Ideal
Wake Forest endorses a Teacher-Scholar Ideal and as a University is committed to providing the environment in which this ideal may be realized for both faculty and students. By "teacher-scholars" we mean faculty passionately committed to teaching and actively engaged in advancing their fields of specialty. By "providing the environment" we mean that faculty will have appropriate teaching loads and adequate infrastructure, and that the full range of their professional endeavors will be recognized and supported. Students will benefit directly from this commitment. They will interact with their faculty mentors and with each other, acquiring both a grounding in the liberal arts and opportunities for excellence in their chosen fields.
The work of the faculty is to encourage the development of imaginative thinking and creativity as well as spiritual and philosophical inquiry, to foster aesthetic and ethical judgment, and to promote the use of language with integrity. The core conceptual skills of critical thinking, pattern recognition, reasoning by analogy, scientific observation, and alertness to new discoveries can be imparted to aspiring students by caring, enthusiastic faculty mentors. The discipline of effective teaching, of synthesizing old and new knowledge with imagination and passionate curiosity, inevitably raises new questions and makes the faculty stronger scholars. Teaching and scholarship are inextricably intertwined.
Wake Forest students share the responsibility for their education. Faculty serve as catalysts for the students' own growth; they are not to function as mere conduits of information. Wake Forest students should not merely absorb information from faculty, but should engage in significant individualized research, which they will share with both the faculty and their fellow students. It is the goal of this University to provide students the opportunity to both teach and learn from one another.
Wake Forest strives to bring together the best features of a liberal arts college and a research university. Our University should become a model for students seeking individualized instruction by a faculty with strong commitments to teaching, research, and professional endeavors. The presence of talented artists and scholars and of significant research programs within a nurturing environment offers unique benefits to our students. Individualized instruction, plus mentoring by accomplished scholars, helps our students achieve their potential and compete effectively for the most selective opportunities in graduate study and employment.
For teacher-scholars, teaching and scholarship are synergistic aspects of a single challenge and a single vocation. The existence of high-quality but moderately-sized graduate programs is a distinctive feature of Wake Forest and one that furthers this synergy. Our graduate and undergraduate students have the opportunity to gain experience in significant research projects, to keep pace with the expanding knowledge and sophisticated techniques of current disciplines, and to enhance meaningful research throughout campus. Such students, and the presence of talented scholars in every field, enrich the educational experience for all.
Source: Wake Forest University, 1993-94 Program Planning Committee
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