Nov. 11, 2021: Fall 2021 Board of Trustees Meeting Update

Dear Colleagues,

I write to share this summary report of the fall 2021 Board of Trustees meeting, which took place on campus from Wednesday, Oct. 20, through Friday, Oct. 22. The sessions were held in person for the first time since the pandemic began. I am grateful to everyone who planned and participated in these important discussions as we continue to navigate University life with COVID-19. My thanks to Professor Coralynn Davis, faculty chair; Professor Gary Steiner, faculty secretary; and Professors Paula Davis, Sue Ellen Henry, Jasmine Mena, Kenny Mineart, J.T. Ptacek, Stu Thompson and Kat Wakabayashi for their participation in various committee meetings.

We were pleased to welcome our six new trustees for 2021-22, who were voted in as members at our April meeting and whose term officially began July 1, 2021. They include Carolyn Ainslie '80, Frank Brown '78, Michael Dominguez '91, Carolyn Miles '83, Kathy Vizas '79 and Audra Wilson '94. We also offered a special welcome to our three new 2020-21 trustees, whose terms began on July 1, 2020, and who joined us for their first in-person Board meeting. They are Keren Bergman '88, Tom Buchholz '84 and Sam Nana-Sinkam '10. I thank all of these recently elected trustees for stepping forward to serve their alma mater in this important way.

The Academic Affairs Committee met on Wednesday evening in a new time slot intended to eliminate overlap between the meetings of the Academic Affairs and Student Life committees. Provost Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak reported on student success initiatives including the Thrive at Bucknell Committee, which is charged with implementing strategies from the Retention Task Force. Provost Mermann-Jozwiak further described three initiatives related to Diversity & Inclusive Excellence. These include cluster hiring of faculty; a postdoc-to-tenure-track program for faculty; and pursuit of a McNair Scholars grant, which would support students from underrepresented groups who are interested in STEM disciplines.

Joe Tranquillo, associate provost for transformative teaching & learning, Ghislaine McDayter, associate provost for scholarship & creative inquiry, and Jahnia Treadwell '25 presented on the Pathways project. Pathways is an electronic or "eportfolio" platform that allows students to curate, with feedback from others, their growth and development as they progress through Bucknell — a process that encourages them to be more reflective about their college experience.
Interim Dean of the College of Engineering Erin Jablonski shared updates on current initiatives within the college including the Moonshot initiative, an effort to graduate by 2030 a class of engineering students who reflect the diversity of the nation’s workforce.

In the Student Life Committee meeting on Thursday, Dean of Students Amy Badal discussed where students are developmentally, especially after the campus transitions back to in-person living and learning. The committee discussed mental health concerns and trends seen nationally across many college campuses and experienced at Bucknell. Dean Badal shared plans to hire two more full-time counselors for the Counseling & Student Development Center as one step to address these challenges.

The trustees on the Student Life Committee also heard from two Bucknell student-athletes who participated in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Boati Motau '25 and Rayven Sample '24. Director of Athletics & Recreation Jermaine Truax spoke to the committee about the NCAA name, image and likeness (NIL) policy and NCAA transfer legislation, and their impact on Bucknell student-athletes.

Thursday's Finance Committee meeting focused primarily on the five-year integrated financial plan and resulted in two takeaways. First, it was noted that there will be ongoing pressure on expense management to ensure that the expense growth rate lags the growth rate of net comprehensive fees over the coming years. This resulted in a request for more discussion about how the University intends to confront this challenge while continuing to provide competitive compensation for its faculty and staff. That will be a focus of future meetings.

Second, members discussed how the investment rate of capital spending needed for continued revitalization of facilities inventory must fit within the integrated financial planning model. Specifically, they want to have a clearer understanding of the reinvestment requirements in the existing facility stock for consideration in future planning. The committee offered two motions as described below during the business meeting.

The Advancement Committee met in conjunction with the Finance Committee, and Scott Rosevear, vice president for advancement, provided an update on campaign progress and next steps with the trustees. The committee also received an overview of the findings of the Career Leadership Collective, which recently completed a University-wide analysis of Bucknell's services to students and employers.

In an executive session, the full Board welcomed Cathy Trower, president of Trower & Trower Inc., for an important dialogue on the topic of board engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion. This conversation advances the University's commitment to DEI in important ways, and is a continuation of programming that began last fall with a Board presentation from leadership of the Posse Foundation.

In an executive session on Friday morning, Provost Mermann-Jozwiak shared updates with the trustees on the timeline for the Dean of Engineering search, expectations for the upcoming Middle States review process, and feedback from the Values and Voices programming series.

Trustees received information on Bucknell's standing in the annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings, where the University is 38th (from 34th the previous year) in overall rankings of national liberal arts colleges. Bucknell's retention rate remained the same, while our academic reputation and student excellence rankings were slightly lower than in the previous year. Notably, the University was ranked seventh in innovation, an increase from 42nd last year; and was ranked for the first time in the categories of undergraduate teaching, co-ops/internships and learning communities. In a proactive effort to enhance our rankings, a working group of University leaders will focus on this challenge throughout the year and regularly evaluate our progress.

During the trustee business meeting, the Board approved four motions. Members voted on a finance motion on capital project design not to exceed $1 million to explore potential construction of new Bucknell West student housing to replace the current modular buildings that are well past their expected lifetimes. The approved motion will provide funding for design plans to help determine whether to move forward with replacing the existing Mods. The trustees also approved a motion for capital project construction of an athletics team building near Christy Mathewson–Memorial Stadium. This facility is part of the $40 million commitment recently made by Michael Pascucci '58, P'81, P'87, G'21, G'22.

In two other motions, the Board approved a tenure motion for a faculty member who joined the University after the April 2021 Board meeting and approved the election of Marlene Hurd '79, P'10 to trustee emerita status effective Nov. 1, 2021. We thank Marlene for her years of service to the Board.

On Friday evening, the trustees and other guests attended a reception and tour of Holmes Hall, the new home of the Kenneth J. Freeman College of Management and the Department of Art & Art History. A formal dedication of the building followed on Saturday morning and featured a ceremony honoring the generosity of Trustee Steve Holmes '79, P'06, P'08, P'12 and his family. We are grateful to the Holmes family for their loyalty and commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

As we all continue to adjust to University business under the "new normal" of COVID-19, I thank you again for your dedication to our students. While some precautions remain in place, our ability to pivot and continually adapt have ensured that academics and campus life continue without interruption. I deeply appreciate our faculty, staff and trustees — the people who make our success possible.

Sincerely,

John C. Bravman
President