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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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1-18-2005 Snyder cites progress, shares academic goals with senateFrom a napkin drawing to a record-breaking reality in just four years. The tale of the Buckeye Bullet, the 31-foot long electric racing car built entirely by Ohio State engineering students that recently broke both the national and international land speed records, provided an appropriate metaphor for Barbara Snyder’s annual State of Academic Affairs address to the University Senate Jan. 13 in the Saxbe Auditorium. “The Buckeye Bullet Racing Team exemplifies the best about Ohio State: dedication, innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, focus on the goal and the desire to be the best,” said the executive vice president and provost. “Our three-part mission to educate students for successful careers and rewarding lives, to benefit society through research and to have a positive impact on our community could be seen as a daunting task, but so could speeding across the Salt Flats at more than 300 mph … yet that hasn’t stopped our students. With dedication, innovation, collaboration, and a relentless focus on our agenda, we will achieve our goal of becoming one of the world’s premier public research universities.” After recounting key academic appointments made this past year, including five new deans and two regional dean-directors, Snyder cited progress in a number of endeavors presented in her senate speech a year ago and discussed four major initiatives — which spring from the Leadership Agenda — that the Office of Academic Affairs is undertaking this year. Update on 2003-04 initiatives “We don’t yet have average salary information from our benchmark peers, but we believe that our average faculty salary will be within one percent of the average of the benchmark group,” she said. “Although reaching the benchmark average will be an important sign of progress, we will need to go beyond the average if we are to recruit and retain the best faculty and staff.” A year ago, the research faculty track was just a proposal. But as one of the top priorities in last year’s Leadership Agenda and in a joint effort by the University Senate, the Office of Research and the Office of Academic Affairs, Snyder said the rule, approved last spring, has allowed six tenure-initiating units to modify their Appointments, Promotion and Tenure documents to permit the hiring of research faculty. The federation of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences has passed its one-year anniversary and surpassed a number of its goals, Snyder said. New programs, such as interdisciplinary minors in neuroscience and the legal foundations of society, and a new film studies major — all in various stages of development, are the product of a growing culture of collaboration in the arts and sciences, with students as the ultimate beneficiaries. “This new structure is allowing us to promote a world-class experience in the arts and sciences as never before. This stronger union is facilitating greater collaboration among the five arts and sciences colleges, the development of new curricular initiatives and the focusing of combined resources,” Snyder said. The Freshman Seminar initiative has made a promising launch, with 24 seminars taught during the 2003-04 academic year and 29 seminars slated for this year, Snyder said. A review of the pilot program by the Arts and Sciences Committee on Curriculum and Instruction found that 90 percent of the students would recommend the seminars to other students and 86 percent of faculty would like to teach their seminars again, leading the CCI to recommend continuation and expansion of the program. Another example of a new curricular offering initiated through the arts and sciences integration is the “Professional Pathways Seminars,” which Snyder said will allow upper-level arts and sciences students to explore interactions of the liberal arts with various professional programs of study. The pilot program will be launched next year with 15 seminars of up to 18 students each taught by faculty from the arts and sciences and the professional colleges. Snyder remarked that efforts to enhance educational diversity at Ohio State were made through expanded student recruitment and additional funds for the Morrill Scholarship program, and new initiatives are ongoing. A print and radio advertising campaign, targeting urban audiences and promoting Ohio State and college readiness in general, is underway, and the offices of Minority Affairs and First Year Experience continue to work together to accelerate recruitment efforts in a variety of venues. “I emphasized last year that our greatest challenge would be to create a truly welcoming climate that supports and celebrates diversity. A number of groups working on diversity issues across our campus contribute a great deal to the enhancement of the climate for diversity,” Snyder said, urging those bodies, such as the Senate Diversity Committee, the Diversity Council, the Multicultural Center and the Kirwan Institute, to improve communication and collaboration to ensure the university’s multiple diversity efforts have maximum impact. In the area of benefits, Snyder expressed gratitude to several people and university groups who helped push through a number of benefits and work/life improvements, including the sponsored dependent coverage for faculty, staff and students; the newly instituted paid parental leave for faculty and staff; and the increased stipend and subsidization of benefits for graduate students — all of which she said are a necessity to keep Ohio State competitive for top talent. 2004-05 initiatives Snyder charged the committee with recommending appropriate metrics for assessing the quality of doctoral programs and a sustainable funding model that will align state subsidy with quality. The committee’s interim report has been widely circulated among faculty and students for feedback, she indicated. “This initiative is not designed to cut costs but rather to ensure that the resources we now allocate to graduate education are being used strategically to support excellence in graduate education, in line with the recommendations of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and the Economy,” she said. Snyder also has called for a universitywide review of undergraduate education. She explained that the timing of the review was prompted by the fact that the General Education Curriculum has remained unchanged since 1988 and by requests from the past and current presidents of the Undergraduate Student Government. The 10-member committee Snyder convened will consider several specific aspects of undergraduate education, including the GEC, the number of hours required for graduation, the staffing of undergraduate courses and the appropriate role of Freshman Seminars in undergraduate education. To enhance undergraduate education and successfully implement the committee’s recommendations, Snyder said she has set aside $3 million in continuing funds, that will become available in FY 06, to increase the size of the faculty relative to the size of the undergraduate student body. Snyder said the final two priorities of OAA are closely related to the undergraduate experience: “Because the honors program helps us recruit high-ability students, we have decided to maintain the current size but require all honors students to satisfy minimum standards to stay in the program,” she said. “This will strengthen the program and ensure an intellectually rich and rigorous education for high-ability students.” Snyder then briefly covered plans to create an Office of Undergraduate Research, which will be a joint effort of the offices of Research and Undergraduate Studies and will serve to connect faculty and student research interests, oversee the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum and coordinate support for undergraduate research, among its functions.
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