Stanford Report, April 30, 2009

Minutes of Academic Council Annual Meeting, May 15, 2008

Prepared minutes of the annual meeting of the Academic Council of Stanford University held May 15, 2008 in Cubberley Auditorium.

I. Call to Order

President John Hennessy called the meeting to order at 4:30 PM. He introduced Professor Eamonn Callan, Chair of the 40th Senate.

II. Report of the Chair of the 40th Senate of the Academic Council

Professor Callan began by asking—and receiving—approval of the minutes of the annual Academic Council meeting in 2007, when Professor Sheri Sheppard was Chair of the Senate.

He then presented some of the highlights of the activities of the 40th Senate.

1. Vice Provost for Graduate Education Patti Gumport announced a new program to meet the challenge of providing graduate fellowships. to diverse doctoral students for academic careers the DARE [Diversifying Academia Recruiting Excellence] Fellowship Program.

2. Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Pat Jones reported on the status of faculty gender and diversity in race and ethnicity. The efforts to increase the number of women faculty members were encouraging The effort to increase representation of underrepresented minorities (URM) was led by Professor Al Camarillo, the Director of CCSRE [Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity], which appeared to be showing promise.

3. A petition signed by many faculty members led to a review of the Army High Performance Research Computing Center, a contract awarded to Stanford last year. The review was conducted by the Committee on Research (C-Res), in particular by the Chair of C-Res, Professor Steve Monismith. The report led to a lively and collegial discussion of the issue.

4. The most controversial issue addressed by the Senate in the past year was the appointment of the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, as a Distinguished Fellow by the Hoover Institute. Chair Callan thought that this debate would last long in the lore of the Senate's history. The passionate discussion was in large part civil. It led to the creation of an ad hoc committee that will examine the non-Academic Council appointment processes. Chair Callan thought that the deliberations of this issue exemplified the fundamental purpose of the Senate.

Chair Callan concluded his report by thanking all those who served on the Senate committees. He also expressed his appreciation to the staff of the Academic Secretary's Office, in particular the Assistant Academic Secretary, Trish Del-Pozzo.

III. Report of President John Hennessy, "Building the University Campus for the 21st Century"

President Hennessy thanked Chair Callan for his distinguished service as Chair of the 40th Senate.

Before commencing his address, the president recited the following notable events that occurred since the last annual meeting of the Academic Council.

Undergraduate admission. Last month Stanford held an "Admit Weekend" for those applicants who had been offered admission. This highly successful event may have played a role in the "yield" [percent of those offered admission who accept], which was the highest on record. The number of applications for the Class of 2012, 25,298, was the most ever, and as a consequence the admissions rate fell below 10% for the first time. President Hennessy noted that 18% of the students admitted are the first in their family to go to college.

Financial support. Last year many families felt the cost of Stanford was out of reach. A decision was made that families with an income less than $100,000 per year would not have to pay tuition; those with an income less than $60,000 per year would not have to pay anything.

Three Stanford students or alumni were named Rhodes Scholars.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former Vice President Al Gore, chairman of the IPPC (United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change). Six Stanford faculty were members of the committee.

Gretchen Daily, Professor of Biology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute, was awarded the 2008 Sophie Prize for research that utilizes innovative economic approaches to determine the value of our ecosystems.

Daphne Koller Professor of Computer Science, was selected to receive the first ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in computing science for pioneering work in artificial intelligence that utilizes both logic and probability.

Professor W.E. Moerner shared the Wolf Prize.

Professor Harold Mooney won three major awards for his pioneering work.

Two faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Five faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Seven faculty members were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Six faculty members were elected to the American Philosophical Society.

President Hennessy concluded this recitation by stating, "We are committed to maintaining the high standard of quality of the faculty; at the same time we are continuing to focus on increasing the diversity of faculty."

He then turned to The Stanford Challenge.

Already the funds raised have been employed to hire new faculty, increase student financial aid, and construct new facilities.

With regard to education Stanford is taking some new approaches to graduate education. In addition to DARE [see above] there are the SCORE [Strengthening the CORE] programs to support faculty and graduate students who propose ways to strengthen the quality of graduation education, and the SPICE [Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education] to internationalize elementary and secondary school curricula.

The first interdepartmental graduate fellowships (12 in all) were awarded this year. Because of concern about the volatility in federal research support the president has asked VPUE Gumport to explore other means of support and the Deans to look for new ways to support fellowships.

Thanks to the generosity of Helen and Peter Bing, Stanford will finally have a new concert hall by 2010 or 2011!

The School of Education was selected by Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to appoint 25 fellows dedicated to teaching K-12 education in under represented minority areas.

Earlier this year, with the support of $25 million from the Packard Foundation, Stanford partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to establish the Center for Ocean Solutions.

The Bing Overseas Program celebrated its 50th anniversary. New programs are to be opened in South Africa, China, Japan and Korea. Helen and Peter Bing awarded an additional $20M to support student study around the world.

The President led a group visiting several cities abroad telling them about Stanford. This generated much enthusiasm. Other cities will be visited this coming academic year.

Fund Raising. 69,350 alumni gave to Stanford last year. The Stanford Challenge has already received pledges of $3.5 billion, which have already started to be put to use, as previously noted.

The president concluded his remarks on this subject, saying, "Going forward we will still need funding for retaining and empowering our faculty and for education of our undergraduate and graduate students. We will build endowments for these key needs."

President Hennessy introduced the main topic of the meeting, "Building the University Campus for the 21st Century," by emphasizing a theme which continued throughout the rest of the meeting: "In planning our new facilities, we need to be more flexible, but at the same time we must enhance our campus environmentally and architecturally. We must keep in mind a 'Sense of Place.' Starting with President Casper, we are returning to the Olmstead Plan to do so.

"The Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environmental and Engineering (Y2E2) building is the latest 'green building', the home for environmental research at Stanford. It houses faculty with wide interests. In its construction, we learned a lot about sustainability and environmental and energy principles and will incorporate them as new benchmarks in the construction of subsequent buildings on campus, including those at the medical center.

"'Recyclemania' was a competition in which 400 colleges participated. Stanford placed first, beating Harvard and won the 'Gorilla Prize.' Accomplishments like these are possible because of the support of our faculty and alumni," the president concluded.

He then introduced members of the Panel.

Ann Arvin, Vice Provost and Dean of Research. Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.

Professor Arvin noted there were four key elements in planning our research buildings.

1. A more "modular" approach with more open space accommodating several investigators.

2. Based on the success of Y2E2, a focus on design that will support an interdisciplinary approach by the faculty.

3. Dedication of more of research space to shared facilities, such as major equipment that no single investigator could afford. As Vice Provost Arvin noted, "This has the side effect of encouraging cross fertilization of ideas."

4. A critical role for faculty in the design and implementation of the facilities. Providing input can be taxing on the faculty but is essential. Many faculty have dedicated considerable time and effort to this process.

David Kreps, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Theodore J. Kreps Professor in the Graduate School of Business (GSB).

Dean Kreps noted that he was "sitting in for my boss, Dean Joss."

"As almost everyone is aware, the GSB will soon break ground for a new campus across from Maples Pavilion. Why?"

Dean Kreps, answering his own question, explained that the construction of the present GSB was designed to fit the old curriculum: Small classrooms all had the same inflexible shape. The new programs of the GSB are much more diverse. For example there is a new MBA program in which 48 students will be looking for a place where they can do role playing activities. The present auditoriums are too small for this purpose. The space, moreover, needs to be flexible to continue to meet new curriculum needs; this means the use of much less concrete.

Dean Joss had three main concerns, the "3 C's"—Curricula, Campus and Collaboration.

Environmental sustainability is also an important principle in the construction.

David Lenox. University Architect and Director of Campus Planning

Planning new facilities is based on four components:

1. Strong values and principles. The requirements of the undergraduate college predominate; this means maintaining lots of open land.

2. Flexibility. We have to create buildings that adapt to new needs.

3. Optimizing intersections and connections among the faculty, and students.

4. Understanding environmental impact, particularly with regard to our adjacent communities.

Mr. Lenox stated that, "The greatest challenge is balancing need for greater density with preserving the present 'Stanford campus' ideal." Flexibility in design facilitates the accommodation departments increasing and decreasing in size. In creating a master plan for individual schools, like engineering, medicine, and business, that enhance these schools, however, we must be aware of the danger of creating isolated islands.

"We continue to strive for the 'Aha effect', the appearance of the campus that causes the observer to say, 'Aha.'"

Joseph Stagner, Executive Director, Sustainability and Energy Management.

We are closing in on the first General Use Permit of 1 million square feet. [Note: Stanford's General Use Permit (GUP), issued in 2000, authorized Stanford to apply for 2,035,000 net square feet of new academic and academic support facilities. There is only one General Use Permit. However, there was a condition placed on our application for academic square footage beyond the first million square feet. Stanford is near the point of having applied for the first million square feet of that permitted amount. A condition of the GUP specified that Stanford could not apply for any square footage over 1,000,000 until the Board of Supervisors approved a Stanford Sustainable Development Study. The Board of Supervisors did approve the Stanford Sustainability Study on April 7, 2009. Therefore, Stanford may now apply for the remaining academic square footage through the normal process established by the County. (Thanks to Larry Horton)].

Since 1990, the campus has grown 30% in area, but is using less water per square foot. Now we are starting to grow again. "Although 'single use transport' has decreased from 72 to 52% since 1990 our energy use has grown 35%. So we are now stepping back and taking a long look at our energy use. Recently teams have been formed to deal with various related topics: energy, air pollution and green house gas emissions, water, transportation and the definition of sustainability. With this input, we will have a better idea how to balance our resources. Many faculty are helping us.

The Panel having concluded its prepared remarks, President Hennessy opened the floor for discussion.

1. The first questioner asked, "How affordable are these 'cradle-to-the-grave' approaches?"

Mr. Stagner replied that, "We test what is the optimal reduction in energy use versus the resources."

President Hennessy added, "The most efficient energy use would be to make optimal use of our current buildings. We have found that remodeling of these buildings is often more expensive than constructing new buildings, however."

2. "Will sacrifices have to be made in the appearance of buildings to achieve sustainable goals?"

David Lenox replied, "Actually the cost of esthetics is not that prohibitive. One of the most important ways to reduce costs and yet achieve an esthetic result is to choose where a given building is built."

President Hennessy warned, "The issues of sustainability, however, cannot be trumped."

3. "One of the most important shared facilities on the campus is the library. There is a concern about its future. It's important not to rush into any decision about library space. Giving this issue serious consideration is essential."

The president agreed and quoted a colleague, "Access to the library for the humanities is as important as access to the laboratory is for the sciences."

4. "Has the original intention of the new Performance Center of incorporating many different disciplines in art been abandoned now with a single monolithic auditorium?"

The president explained, "Limitation by the space and funds available has meant we can only build a concert hall but not a theater, too. We have postponed the decision to build the latter until we have the resources to do it right. Buildings at Stanford last a long, long time."

5. "One of the limitations imposed by the GUP [General Use Permit] includes limitations on the medical center, requiring outsourcing some functions to areas away from the center. How will this affect teaching?" President Hennessy acknowledged the problem: "Stanford has long had the advantage of the neighboring schools on the campus; The GUP has now set limits on this goal. So we have had to make some difficult choices. That will be an ongoing process. The GUP will not last forever; we have actually grown more slowly, in part because of the enormous cost of construction."

The president concluded the meeting by noting, "Most of our planning activities came out of our needs-based approach and for that we have gotten much input from the faculty, particularly the younger faculty, because they will be here the longest."

There were no more questions.

IV. Adjournment

The annual Academic Council meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 5:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Rex L. Jamison, MD Academic Secretary to the University