Board of Trustees - November 2007
November 19, 2007
Dear Members of the Bucknell Community:
It is a pleasure to share with you today my customary summary of the most recently completed Board of Trustees meeting.
This meeting was held on campus beginning Thursday, November 8, and concluding on Saturday, November 10. Twice a year – in April and November – the Board holds full Board meetings, during which Board committees meet and major areas of University business and policy are discussed.
During its most recent meeting, the Board discussed a variety of significant University issues and action areas, including the campus master plan, comprehensive campaign, the draft Academic Vision, and the external communications strategy. The Board also discussed the question of arming our public safety officers, a summary of which was provided in the email sent to campus this past Wednesday.
The information below summarizes each of the other major action areas the Board discussed. These are followed by extended descriptions of the Board's deliberations.
As I hope this summary suggests, during this meeting the Board had the opportunity to discuss in-depth a host of considerable work that is engaging individuals, departments, and programs across campus and beyond. Thank you for these continued efforts, and best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving break.
Sincerely,
Brian C. Mitchell
President
Summary
I. Academic Affairs
In Academic Affairs, the trustees recognized faculty scholarly achievements, discussed the Strategic Academic Vision, advanced the Common Learning Agenda, and deliberated the creation of a
II. Campus Master Plan
The Board advanced the campus master plan by approving a flexible framework for the development of the campus over the next five to 75 years. This decision sets the context for the continuing series of discussions ahead across campus this spring as the University finalizes the campus master plan for the Board's consideration at its April meeting. More
III. Finances
The Board accepted the positive news of an unqualified report on the University's 2007 financial statements from our outside auditors, and discussed the University's endowment , which increased nearly $77 million in fiscal year 2007, raising the total to just under $600 million. More
IV. Long-Range Planning Committee
The Board took a crucial step in The Plan for Bucknell by approving a series of metrics and peer institutions for tracking the University's progress. These decisions provide important benchmarks for ensuring that the University calibrates its progress soundly within the highly competitive environment of higher education in which it moves and provide an important measure of accountability to the Board. More
V. The Plan for Bucknell Implementation
The Board discussed the latest steps forward in the implementation of tactics to achieve The Plan for Bucknell and the process being established to link implementation to the Strategic Academic Vision and comprehensive campaign. The Board expressed enthusiasm for the progress or The Plan and anticipated a new series of major steps forward in 2008. More
VI. Comprehensive Campaign
The Board established a significant early benchmark for the comprehensive campaign by deciding that $400 million would be the initial goal, and discussed a comprehensive feasibility study that provides extensive information about the best paths to fulfilling the University's campaign objectives. These actions significantly advance campaign planning and the momentum that the campaign is developing in its early phase. Commitments to the campaign already total more than $45 million. More
VII. Communications
The Board endorsed the University's comprehensive external communications and marketing strategy, which establishes as a priority the academic and intellectual experience that Bucknell offers and which is designed to ensure consistent, strategic messaging to support the University's goals in admissions, the comprehensive campaign, The Plan for Bucknell, and other areas. More
Extended Details
I. Academic Affairs
A. Scholarly Achievement: The committee recognized scholarly achievements of selected faculty, a practice it intends to make a tradition for this committee. The following faculty and their work were recognized: Carl Milofsky co-authored Pragmatic Liberalism: Constructing a Civil Society; David Rovnyak co-authored Modern NMR Spectroscopy in Education; Julian Bourg authored From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought; and Katharyn Nottis, Margot Vigeant and Michael Prince co-authored a grant funded by the National Science Foundation, Using Inquiry-based Activities to Repair Persistent Student Misconceptions of Critical Engineering Concepts.
B. Strategic Academic Vision: Deans Jim Orbison and Chris Zappe presented the draft of the Strategic Academic Vision. This vision is meant to connect, in specific ways, The Plan for Bucknell and tactics being developed to implement it. The drafting and review process has progressed well. Ultimately this vision will articulate aspirations, goals, and assessment processes that build on The Plan.
C. Review of Common Learning Agenda (CLA): Dean Zappe noted that a variety of tasks associated with reviewing the CLA have been completed so far, including a survey of faculty about their perceptions of the CLA, benchmarking analysis of curricula at 32 frame-of-reference institutions, and information gathering from current students. The Curriculum Committee of the
D.
E. Merger of Academic and Student Affairs: Dean of Students Susan Hopp stressed that student affairs should provide services to support and promote student success. She noted several related initiatives being considered, including a sophomore year experience program, a refined residential college model, and a center for civic engagement.
F. Faculty Governance: Chair of the Faculty Marty Ligare updated the committee on the University Review Committee task force, which is responsible for re-examining policies and procedures related to evaluating faculty for retention and promotion. Chair Ligare noted that these policies were last reviewed in the early 1990s and that a review now is timely given the relevance to faculty and university governance. This comprehensive review includes examination of departmental and university review processes as well as benchmarking against frame-of-reference institutions. He anticipated that an interim report of the task force's work will be completed in March 2008, with a final report due in the fall 2008 semester. The committee asked that the faculty governance review process be coordinated to soundly parallel the Board's governance review process.
II. Campus Master Plan
Thursday evening, the Building and Grounds Committee and the ad hoc Committee on Community Relations discussed the current status of the campus master planning process, including with our consultants from Shepley Bulfinch and from Brailsford and Dunlavey. Specific items reviewed included a proposed long-term planning template – called a "Flexible Framework" – for the use of University property, and the potential of community, state, federal, and private partnerships to achieve the shared goals of Bucknell and Lewisburg for downtown. The latter set of projects, which has been discussed previously with campus groups and in the media, comprises both the Bull Run Gateway Neighborhood between Market Street and campus (from 5th Street to 7th Street), and development of anchor facilities on Market Street itself. Until we find a better name, we are referring to these projects collectively as our Lewisburg Core Community Initiative, which is more comprehensive than the former idea of a "
Friday afternoon, the full Board took a tour of campus in an envisioning exercise meant to explore possibilities over the next five to 75 years for University properties and facilities. This tour concluded with an extensive discussion about these ideas. The next day, the full Board accepted the recommendation of the Buildings and Grounds Committee to endorse the conceptual long-range Land Use Flexible Framework resulting from the Campus Master Planning process.
The Flexible Framework is essentially a Land Use Plan, that describes what sections of the campus will be set aside for what uses. It becomes the framework for making decisions about what facilities could go in which locations, including how facilities connect with each other, the use or maintenance of open spaces, areas for pedestrian and automobile traffic, and other decisions related to the campus landscape.
My congratulations to Vice President for Finance and Administration Dave Surgala and Vice President for External Relations Charlie Pollock on the continued positive Board reception to these campus master plan and
III. Finances
A. Audit Committee: The Audit Committee and the full Board accepted the University's fiscal year 2007 financial statements as audited by KMPG, which included their unqualified report, a positive conclusion to the annual auditing process.
B. Investments: Chief Investment Officer
IV. Long-Range Planning Committee
Upon the recommendation of the Long-Range Planning Committee, the Board approved a series of eight metrics for tracking University progress on The Plan for Bucknell. The Board has asked the administration to provide regular updates on University performance relative to these metrics. These metrics are not meant to dictate University actions, but instead to give the Board a sense of the impact that Plan implementation is having on this broad set of indicators that admissions and personnel prospects, alumni, donors, government agencies, and others constituencies in higher education often use as a shorthand for institutional success.
The Board also asked the administration to provide for its consideration a set of peer and aspirant institutions that could serve as a useful comparison group for the type of academic, administrative, compensation, financial, student enrollment, and personnel recruitment data that institutions of higher education typically track. This list of colleges and universities will be used for broad overview assessments of such collective areas rather than for specific peer comparisons in any such areas at this point. The Board has approved the following 13 institutions serving as this overview cohort, at least for the next few years:
V. The Plan for Bucknell Implementation
The Board was apprised of the latest steps forward in the implementation of The Plan for Bucknell, notably the work of Director of Strategy Implementation Ed Loftus to develop a transparent and systemized process for carrying forward the tactics implementation process. We also informed the Board of steps being taken to ensure the tactics development process informs the comprehensive campaign and the Strategic Academic Vision, and which Ed has been preparing for campus dissemination.
VI. Comprehensive Campaign
The Development & Alumni Relations Committee took actions in the following areas:
A. Parents Board: The committee welcomed to its meeting Jack Morrison, president of the Bucknell Parents Board of Directors. Mr. Morrison updated the committee on the Parents' Board work, including the performance of the Parents Fund, which set a fundraising record of $1.46 million in FY2007.
B. Events: Sam Lundquist, vice president for development and alumni relations, discussed Homecoming and Family Weekends in October, which were both a tremendous success and had academics as their centerpieces.
C. Fundraising: Fundraising for this year is 150% ahead of last year to date, and commitments to the comprehensive campaign thus far total $45.2 million.
D. Comprehensive Campaign: The committee discussed the work of the University's Campaign Organizing Group and the Grenzebach Glier & Associates (GG&A) feasibility study, both of which have made important contributions to the University's campaign readiness. Upon the recommendation of the committee, the Board approved a $400 million working goal for the campaign, which allows the university to identify its fundraising priorities against this important revenue source in support of The Plan for Bucknell. Vice President Sam Lundquist will continue to discuss the development of specific goals for the campaign with a variety of campus groups over the next several months.
VII. Communications
Chief Communications Officer Pete Mackey presented to the Board the University's external communications and marketing strategy, which the Board endorsed. The strategy is based on the recently completed comprehensive research by Peter D. Hart Research Associates about perceptions of Bucknell and its communications practices among alumni, admissions prospects, members of Bucknell's various boards, college leaders, donors, leaders of higher education associations, and parents. This is the most comprehensive study of Bucknell's reputation ever conducted. This strategy benefited in particular from intensive conversations on this issue within the University Management Group during the past nine months.
This strategy puts at the forefront the academic and intellectual experience Bucknell offers and defines messages and methods for effectively and consistently delivering that message and its related sub-strategies on a national level. Building on the goals of The Plan for Bucknell, it also describes the reasoning behind these communications strategies, a series of related new communications initiatives, and our decision to add "University" to the Bucknell wordmark.
This strategy is designed in particular to raise the national stature of the University and its academic programs, strengthen the University's success recruiting students ideally suited to thrive at Bucknell, and shape the messaging that will contribute to a highly successful comprehensive campaign. Dr. Mackey will continue discussing this strategy in-depth over the coming months with a variety of campus groups.
