State of the University, Fall 2014

October 9, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

I hope your fall semester is off to a marvelous start. My annual fall letter is an opportunity for me to update you on the University and to give you a preview of topics we will work to address during the 2014–2015 academic year. This letter builds on my letter to you last spring (April 29, 2014) that laid out the proposed updates to our Strategic Plan and important changes in our system of faculty governance. I will return to these later in this letter.

First, let me review some of our highlights.

Overview

In September, we matriculated a freshman class of 3,914 students, considerably larger than our expected class size of 3,700, as, once again, we saw the yield increase on our offers of admission. The acceptance rate (or selectivity) for this class decreased to 34 percent and the academic qualifications for the class rose to a three-test mean SAT score of 1962 and a high school mean GPA of 3.63 for students entering our four-year schools and colleges. Although this class is unexpectedly large, we were able to accommodate all incoming freshmen in our housing system, but just barely.

This fall, we welcomed 29 new faculty members to the schools and colleges on the Charles River Campus; 25 of them were at the rank of assistant professor and four at the rank of associate or full professor. Three of these positions were newly established. On the Medical Campus, 48 new faculty members joined the schools of medicine, dental medicine, and public health last year, with an additional five assistant professors, one professor, and six instructors added this fall. These new faculty appointments included several important new academic leaders for the University; these individuals are listed at the end of this letter.

Finally, our comprehensive campaign continues with great (and heartening) momentum, driven by our development staff and academic leadership. We ended the second year of the public phase of the campaign at $697 million, an increase of over $165 million from the previous year, the largest single year total in the University’s history. Cash gifts to the University were $133 million, another all-time high.

The impact of the campaign is very tangible. During the past academic year we announced several new initiatives sponsored by significant endowment gifts. These include the establishment of the:

  • Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences
  • Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health in the School of Social Work
  • Yawkey Non-Profit Internship Program. In recognition, we have renamed the Center for Student Services at 100 Bay State Road the Yawkey Center for Student Services.

Several new facilities opened on campus:

  • Sumner M. Redstone Building for the School of Law
  • Engineering Product Innovation Center on Commonwealth Avenue
  • Alan and Sherry Leventhal Center, which is the home of our admissions reception

There are many other highlights from the last year, including advances by our academic programs and accomplishments of our faculty. Some of these are listed at the end of this letter.

Let me turn now to a review of several important matters from last year.

Faculty Governance

In my letter of September 29 to the faculty, I reported on the revision of the University Council constitution and related procedural changes that were approved by the Board of Trustees at the Board’s September meeting. The University Council is now more explicitly a body that exercises authority on academic matters, and faculty members now constitute a majority of the Council. These changes are significant because they give the faculty a much larger voice in academic policy-making across the University. Concurrent with this change, the Board also approved a new process for approving administrative processes.

The full text of the constitution can be found on the Faculty Handbook website.

Update of Strategic Plan

In my letter of April 29, 2014, I described areas we had chosen to emphasize in the update of the Strategic Plan. I list these below with comments on the progress we have made since April:

  1. Undergraduate general education
    • Emphasis: Create a common and compelling vision for the general education of all our undergraduate students, building on our model that combines liberal arts and sciences and professional education. Included in this vision is our commitment to a residential undergraduate community that prepares our graduates to be a positive force in the global society. This integrated vision will form the basis of a more unified, University-wide general education program.
    • Progress: This fall, Provost Morrison will charge a committee of distinguished faculty to develop the themes and areas that will comprise the general education program. The following year, a second committee will be convened to determine how to implement the proposal.
  2. Interdisciplinary research
    • Emphasis: Interdisciplinary research and scholarship in which Boston University can be uniquely excellent. As Boston University continues to emerge as a top private research university, we must continue to build excellence in our foundational programs and focus on bringing together faculty members from across the University. In the update of our plan, we propose to focus strategic investment in areas where we can have significant impact and be uniquely excellent.
    • Progress: In July, we launched a new University-wide center, the Center for Systems Neuroscience (CSN), with the goal of enhancing interdisciplinary explorations of brain functions. As I will explain in more detail later in this letter, the center will be housed in a new facility, the Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE), which is being designed to accommodate several University-wide interdisciplinary research groups that are carrying out cutting-edge work in the life sciences and engineering. We have also made great progress in preparing to launch the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) as a University-wide center that will accommodate the work of faculty from both the Charles River and Medical Campuses (see below).Last May, the University Provost also announced a recruiting initiative for faculty in the data sciences, with the objective of hiring six new faculty members in relevant disciplines who will be part of the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering; the new faculty may have appointments in a number of schools and colleges. These new faculty positions will considerably expand our capabilities in this rapidly emerging field.
  3. Professional graduate education
    • Emphasis: Professional graduate education is at the core of the mission of Boston University, and we are devoted to providing relevant graduate professional education. We strive to be leaders in the development of innovative, new professional programs and in the development of new delivery mechanisms to reach both the traditional and nontraditional graduate students who will benefit from our programs. To compete effectively in this arena, we will need to be nimble, which will require new and streamlined support services and processes.
    • Progress: Under the leadership of Tim Barbari, Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs, we have launched a major effort to enhance recruitment in our graduate professional programs and to incentivize academic units to innovate in graduate professional education and increase enrollment. A major initiative is the development of a uniform, online application system for graduate professional programs, which should be available by fall 2015.
  4. Diversity
    • Emphasis: Creating a community with racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity is critical to our success as a great private research university. The legacy of Boston University puts this mission at the core of the institution, but succeeding in creating this environment for our faculty, staff, and students will require the efforts of our entire community. We will affirm the value that a diverse faculty brings to the University by redoubling our efforts to recruit and support underrepresented minority faculty; this will include a renewed commitment to employing recognized best practices in faculty hiring, in particular. We must make diversity part of the fabric of excellence of the institution.
    • Progress: At its September meeting, our Board of Trustees ratified the statement about the importance of diversity to the University that was developed by an ad hoc committee co-chaired by Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Julie Sandell, and then-chair of the Faculty Council Professor Kathe Darr. This statement defines our vision and obligations and constitutes a re-affirmation of our University-wide commitment to take those steps necessary as envisioned in the renewal of our Strategic Plan.
  5. Digital learning
    • Emphasis: Digital learning environments have the potential to transform higher education for both residential and nonresidential students. We must be leaders in this revolution by leveraging our investment in edX and our long experience with distance education programs offered through Metropolitan College, as well as our other schools and colleges.
    • Progress: The Digital Learning Initiative (DLI), created in summer 2013 as a result of the recommendations of the Council on Educational Technology & Learning Innovation (CETLI), continues to make progress. Boston University’s first MOOCs were launched on edX. Our initial offering, Sabermetrics 101: Introduction to Baseball Analytics by Professor Anders of the College of General Studies, went live last May with 18,237 students registering and 1,947 of these earning certificates. In September, we launched two additional MOOCs: The War for the Greater Middle East by Professor Andrew Bacevich (10,619 students registered) and The Art of Poetry by Professor Robert Pinsky (13,332 students registered). The DLI also funded its first round of faculty proposals for incorporating digital learning environments into our residential offerings. The successful proposals are listed on the Digital Learning Initiative website and are described in a BU Today article. A second round of proposals is being considered for funding this fall. Next steps for the DLI include launching five new MOOCs this year, greater use of our growing digital investment to understand how students learn and how to improve teaching, and refining our still-developing digital strategy.
  6. College of Communication
    • Emphasis: Since the launch of our Strategic Plan in 2007, the world has undergone a revolution in communications as a result of the confluence of emerging technology and new paradigms in content delivery and social networks. The programs of the College of Communication are more central to the mission of Boston University than at any time in our history. We should capitalize on these factors by ensuring that our College of Communication is at the forefront of our highest-quality undergraduate and graduate programs. Accomplishing this goal will require investments in both the faculty and facilities of the College of Communication.
    • Progress: In September, the College of Communication welcomed its inaugural class in the Master of Arts in Emerging Media Studies program, which serves as the gateway to the recently approved PhD program in the same field. The first cohort of doctoral students is scheduled to begin studies in September 2015. This program will be the first doctoral program in COM’s history and is designed to produce groundbreaking research relevant to communication practitioners. The College has also benefited from the generosity of other donors who have funded three additional professorships. These are the Andrew R. Lack professorship in journalism and the business of media; the Sandra Frazier professorship in public relations; and the Sumner M. Redstone professorship in the study and practice of narrative. New York Times columnist David Carr was appointed to the Lack professorship this year and is currently teaching a graduate course in the changing economics of the media. Joining Carr soon on the COM faculty will be Martin Nisenholtz, the former senior vice-president for digital operations at The New York Times and a leading expert in the changing media environment. These senior-level additions will ensure COM’s continuing place at the forefront of higher education in media communication.
  7. Globalization
    • Emphasis: Since its inception, Boston University has been engaged in the world by welcoming international students to our campus, through educational programs, research, and community service around the globe, and by creating novel opportunities spurred by new cohorts of students from abroad to internationalize our curriculum. We must recommit ourselves to being a truly globally connected University and continue to innovate in our programs both in Boston and around the world.
    • Progress:
      Welcoming international students
      Boston University welcomed 7,081 international students to campus from 130 countries around the globe in 2013/2014, a 27 percent increase over the last five years. In response to the growth in international students, BU launched a collaborative workshop series entitled Academic Success in the US.Global programs, service, and research
      Over the past three years, our students and faculty have been in more than 100 different countries on all seven continents, pursuing research, study, and community service. New online training tools have been developed to provide additional support to faculty, staff, and students conducting educational or research activities abroad and away from BU’s main campuses.Study Abroad
      Boston University continues to be a national leader in study abroad with 41 percent of undergraduates participating in its best-in-class academic and internship programs on six continents. BU has established nine new student exchange programs, of which seven are with universities in Asia or the Middle East, including Sabanci University in Turkey and Nanyang Technical University in Singapore.

      Pardee School of Global Studies
      Thanks to a very generous gift, the newly established Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies has opened this fall as part of the College of Arts & Sciences. The School brings together the Department of International Relations and six centers and programs of regional and thematic studies to form its two divisions: a Division of International Studies (DIS) and a Division of Regional Studies (DRS). The oldest of these various units is the African Studies Center (established in 1953), the largest is the Department of International Relations, itself established 30 years ago as a center, and the newest unit is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) program, which is just six months old. At its inception the School has nearly 1,000 students, of which approximately 800 are undergraduates. The Division of International Relations has 40 faculty members who are core to the School; an additional 150 are affiliated with the Division of Regional Studies. The leadership and faculty of the School are devoting the greater part of this year to developing a strategic plan.

Academic Program Review

Since the development of our Strategic Plan in 2007, we have focused on enhancing the academic quality of all our programs. The Academic Program Review (APR) process, developed in 2011 by Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer, is a systematic, data-based process for assessing the quality and impact of our academic programs. The information we gather from these reviews, which include an assessment of program strengths and weaknesses by an external team of experts, informs our decisions about how to deploy our resources in a strategic way to enhance the quality of our programs. Of the 55 academic units that will be reviewed in the first cycle, to date we have completed 20 reviews, with seven programs undergoing review this academic year and eight reviews in the planning stages.

Budget and Finances

Let me next turn to the financial state of the University. The University continues to make progress in the face of headwinds that are affecting almost all of higher education. We closed Fiscal Year 2014 with reserves of $132.5 million, compared to $101.1 million a year ago. This remarkable level of reserves was a result of this year being the graduation year of our larger-than-expected class of 2014, as well as several one-time events, including a settlement of patent litigation and lower-than-expected increases in health care costs for our employees.

Of these $132.5 million reserves, $29.0 million was distributed back to the schools and colleges according to existing agreements. Approximately $13.5 million was used to support initiatives across the University, including faculty hiring and research initiatives. The remaining $90 million is being deployed for facility renovation and renewal. The major renovation projects that were undertaken this past summer are listed in this BU Today article.

Major projects that will continue throughout this coming year are the renovation of the Law Tower (which will be completed next summer) and the final design and beginning of construction for the Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) at 610 Commonwealth Avenue. Renovations to our student housing system continue, with the completion of the first year of a five-year project to remodel the apartments and suite-style residences on South Campus as well as the first phase of the project to fully remodel Myles Standish Hall in Kenmore Square.

Continuing with financial highlights, the University’s endowment grew by 16.7 percent to $1.61 billion during Fiscal Year 2014.The endowment spending distribution for Fiscal 2014 increased 3.1 percent over the Fiscal 2013 distribution rate, with the total income supported from the pooled endowment rising to $48 million in Fiscal 2014. Last year, our total research awards rose by 3.0 percent to $350.3 million, with most of this increase attributable to the faculty on our Medical Campus.

Our Fiscal Year 2015 budget stands at $2.088 billion, with the majority, 59.0 percent, coming from tuition and fees.

Although the University continues to generate the resources needed to improve the quality of our academic programs, we face several challenges. First, the erosion in the enrollment in several key graduate professional programs continues, driven by national declines in enrollment and enhanced competition for students. This erosion is negatively affecting our overall revenues and budgets for several schools and colleges. I reviewed our initiative to support graduate professional programs in the preceding section on updates to the Strategic Plan.

In parallel with our commitment to continue to improve the quality of the University, we must strive to insure that we are as efficient as possible with all our resources. To do this we must continue our effort to control and even reduce expenses, especially on the Charles River Campus. Our first effort focuses on moderating the growth of staff within the University. Although we have been able to support considerable staff growth across the Charles River Campus over the last five years (9.2 percent is the increase from the beginning of Fiscal 2010), we are projecting no staff growth for the next fiscal year unless the increased staff is directly related to one of several initiatives that will generate enhanced resources for the University. This limitation will not affect faculty hiring. Administrative leaders were alerted to this constraint early in the summer and have been planning appropriately.

In addition, we are working to remove $10 million of recurring expenses from the FY2016 budget. Our goal is to make targeted reductions, especially by improving our purchasing of services and materials from vendors outside the University. Examples are:

  1. Temporary labor
  2. Printing and copying
  3. Travel booking
  4. Acquisition of furniture
  5. Purchase of laboratory supplies
  6. Energy (electricity, fuel)

A substantial share of these savings will directly benefit individual faculty and academic units through the reduced costs of purchasing goods and services.

We are also continuing our work on service redesign to improve delivery and reduce cost through clustering. We expect that this effort will contribute to the $10 million cost reduction goal.

Outlook for the year ahead

Below are five issues and initiatives that will require concentrated focus during the coming academic year.

National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL)

In my letter to the community last month, I reported that after a decade of planning, construction, and legal proceedings, the NEIDL is nearing the start of full research operations. The NEIDL has been organized as an interdisciplinary, all-University research center reporting to the Vice President and Associate Provost for Research Gloria Waters. With this all-University structure, the NEIDL will bring together faculty investigators, research students, and staff from across the entire University to conduct infectious disease research.

As a BU Today series on Ebola highlighted, we already have very active and distinguished faculty colleagues working in the NEIDL. Faculty hiring will intensify in the coming year to complete the complement of investigators.

Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE)

In modern biological and medical research there is an emerging fusion of ideas from the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, medicine, and engineering. Many of the most exciting research frontiers, such as systems neuroscience and systems and synthetic biology, transcend disciplinary boundaries. The Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) at 610 Commonwealth Avenue is being developed as a facility to house initiatives in these areas. The building is being designed by Payette Architects as a dedicated nine-story laboratory building. The ground floor will house a neuro-imaging center and common areas for the researchers housed in CILSE and for collaborators from across the University. The upper floors are being configured as flexible laboratory space that will accommodate the intersection of life sciences, medical, and engineering research.

To date, space has been allocated for the new Center for Systems Neuroscience, for research teams in systems and synthetic biology and sensory communication and neuroengineering. There is space to accommodate additional interdisciplinary efforts.

We expect the public approval process for the design of the building to be complete in November and to have final design of the building in December. Subject to the approval of the Board, construction will begin in late spring.

Planning for the Redevelopment of the Turnpike

As you may have read in the media, planning is under way by the City and the Commonwealth to rebuild the section of the Massachusetts Turnpike running (east) from Allston Landing to where it drops below grade at the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. As part of this redevelopment there are plans to realign the tollbooths in Allston and to construct a new West Station commuter rail stop somewhere adjacent to Boston University’s West Campus. These proposed developments will have significant impact on the integrity of and access to our campus. If planned thoughtfully, the new infrastructure will open the way to the redevelopment of the now-vacant rail yards north of our campus, bringing new life to the west end of our campus. However, there are significant transportation issues that must be addressed in connection with the commuter rail station so that our campus environment is not compromised. I will keep you apprised as the planning evolves.

Review of Undergraduate General Education

As I mentioned earlier in the review of the update of our Strategic Plan, we are embarking on an effort to create a common and compelling vision for a general education program for all of our undergraduate students. This effort will build on our model that combines liberal arts and sciences and professional education. This will require significant commitment of time and energy, particularly on the part of faculty members who serve on the committees Provost Morrison will convene. But I believe we can develop a vision and attendant course structure to ensure that all our undergraduates have the knowledge and capacities to succeed in work and personal life in the complex, connected, and globalized world of the 21st century.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Brown signature
Robert A. Brown
President

New Appointments, Honors, and Awards

The past year there have been four new decanal appointments:

  • Christopher Moore—Dean, College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College, effective July 1, 2014
  • Adil Najam—Dean, Pardee School of Global Studies, effective April 1, 2014
  • Natalie McKnight—Dean, College of General Studies, effective July 1, 2014
  • Sandro Galea—Dean, School of Public Health, effective January 1, 2015

Erika Geetter was promoted to Vice President and General Counsel from her previous role as Deputy General Counsel.

Two of our research centers now have new leadership, with Medical School Professor Ronald Corley appointed as Director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories and Professor Michael Hasselmo, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences, chosen as inaugural Director for the Center for Systems Neuroscience.

Several outstanding senior faculty have joined the University, including:

  • Daniel Bluestone—Professor, History of Art & Architecture in the College of Arts & Sciences; American & New England Studies Program; Director, Preservation Studies Program
  • Karl Kirchwey—Director, Creative Writing Program, and Professor, Department of English, College of Arts & Sciences
  • David Carr—Andrew R. Lack Professor of Business Journalism, College of Communication

The individual honors and awards earned by faculty over the past year include:

  • Professor Brian Jack, School of Medicine, and Professor Alan Jette, School of Public Health, were elected to the Institute of Medicine.
  • Associate Professor Muhammad Zaman, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, and Professor David Marchant, Department of Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences, were named BU’s first Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors.
  • Professor Leonid Levin, Department of Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences, was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  • Professor James Johnson, Department of History, College of Arts & Sciences, was awarded both a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the Humanities and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship.
  • Assistant Professor Xue Han, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, and Assistant Professor Katherine Iverson, in Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, both received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
  • Professor Ha Jin, in English and Creative Writing, College of Arts & Sciences, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  • Three young faculty members earned Peter Paul Career Development Professorships: Assistant Professor of Human Behavior Ernest Gonzales, School of Social Work; Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Rachel Flynn, School of Medicine; and Assistant Professor of Global Health Jacob Bor, School of Public Health.
  • Assistant Professor Tim Gardner, who has appointments in both the Department of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, received BU’s Innovation Career Development Professorship.
  • Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Jonathan Klamkin won the NASA Early Career Faculty Award.
  • Professor Mark Crovella, Department of Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences, was named BU’s Innovator of the Year.
  • The Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Innovation in Teaching with Technology Award was given to the College of Arts & Sciences Department of Physics team of Professor Bennett Goldberg, Assistant Professor Pankaj Mehta, Master Lecturer Andrew Duffy, and Lecturer Manher Jariwala.
  • Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded to Assistant Professor Sharon Goldberg, Department of Computer Science, and Assistant Professor Jared Weinstein, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, both in the College of Arts & Sciences.
  • Professor Anders Sandvik was awarded a Simons Fellowship and Assistant Professor Pankaj Mehta received a Simons Foundation Investigator Award. Both are from the College of Arts & Sciences Department of Physics.

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