06/13/95
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Despite budget constraints, the university and its seven schools plan new research, teaching and construction programs, some of which involve redirecting resources from existing programs, according to the provost's budget plan to be presented to the board of trustees at its June 15-16 meeting.
Among the initiatives outlined in the budget plan, which Provost Condoleezza Rice also presented to the Faculty Senate on June 1, are new academic programs in coastal environments, computer prototyping and systems engineering, comparative studies in race and ethnicity, and global corporate management; an Asia Pacific Scholars Program patterned after the Rhodes scholarships; and some restructured master's and dual-degree programs with an international policy studies component.
New university-wide initiatives include developing a year-long curriculum to teach science and mathematics concepts to non-science majors; pilot projects to enrich learning through technology; and the creation of a language center to be the academic resource for teachers of language.
A 20 percent changeover in the faculty of the School of Engineering is expected in the next few years, according to the report, and the Graduate School of Business plans to increase its tenure- track faculty of 78 by 10 positions. The School of Humanities and Sciences is in the process of reallocating departmental billets, and the report says it is possible that some faculty will get no salary raise in the future, as the school moves to make productivity a criterion in considering compensation. Faculty at the School of Medicine have launched efforts to gain more industrial support for their research, and the associate dean of graduate policy and the vice provost for student affairs have launched a series of monthly administrative meetings to keep tabs on rapidly changing federal policy on support of graduate education.
School of Earth Sciences.
Three new junior faculty positions will be created over three years to establish a program in the School of Earth Sciences for research and teaching on the physical, chemical and biological processes that occur along ocean margins and on the record of environmental change preserved within coastal sediments. The initiative represents a "significant expansion of the scope of the school" into a subject area that the school's faculty says will be on the cutting edge of earth sciences over the next decade, according to the budget plan.
Two-thirds of the human population lives in coastal regions and most of future exploration for hydrocarbon resources will occur in continental margins. The school will work toward establishing a formal relationship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
The School of Earth Sciences also is planning to revise its curriculumto respond to the recommendations of the Commission on Undergraduate Education (CUE). The school will craft specifications for minors, following CUE's recommendation for the use of minors to encourage students to select a cohesive core of electives. It also will develop experimental tracks for the proposed science core -- a three-quarter sequence for non-science majors.
The School of Engineering expects a 20 percent turnover in faculty over the next several years, primarily due to retirements, and the school plans to allocate the positions to the new fields of computer prototyping and systems engineering. The former involves prototyping designs for everything from computers to airplanes to bridges before actual hardware prototypes are built. Systems engineering refers to the idea that modern engineered systems are very complex, requiring people trained in many disciplines to design, build and operate them.
"While we have considerable strength in most engineering disciplines, we need a few key faculty who can bring a systems perspective to the curriculum and strengthen our related research effort," the budget plan states. In the past few years, the school has been expanding in the areas of computer graphics and rapid prototyping, hiring faculty, and establishing laboratories, which are under construction.
The business school authorized 15 faculty searches this past year and plans a net gain of about 10 faculty over the existing 78 tenure-line faculty in the next several years. The increase is designed primarily to expand teaching and research on the globalization of corporations.
The school also hopes to raise funds to build a residence at Serra Street near Campus Drive that will house graduate students and business executives who take continuing education classes. Executive education provides 20 percent of the school's annual revenues but requires new investment, the school's planning and review process determined, because of restructuring in businesses themselves and stiffer competition among continuing education programs.
"Applications have declined steadily over 10 years . . . to the point that, absent action, they will force the [executive] programs to shrink," the budget plan says. The 280-room residence would be used for executive education in the summer, and 60 rooms would be reserved for executives during the academic year. The school also is expending funds to develop materials for courses on managing a diverse workforce and managing on a global basis.
The School of Humanities and Sciences this year initiated a three-year plan to redirect resources in its 28 departments by removing faculty billets from some; restructuring the dean's office to eliminate one associate dean and the highest-ranking staff position; and reorganizing the language departments into a new Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages.
"The operations of the departments of sociology, food research, classics and music were scrutinized last year, and the results of the evaluation were mixed," the budget plan says.
The sociology department will be allowed to replace three retiring faculty because the department is expected to contribute to the new center for comparative studies in race and ethnicity. Also contributing to the comparative studies program will be the history department, which is searching to fill a new position in Afro- American history; the English Department, which is planning a search in Chicano literature; and the political science department, which has begun a search in civil rights and urban studies within its American politics group.
The classics department "made a couple of key appointments and is making a dramatic turnaround," the budget plan says. The plan warns that the Food Research Institute is "at a crossroads in terms of the age and energy of its faculty, and a review committee has been formed to consider various options for the future structure of this department."
The music department is undergoing a reorganization that involves a closer incorporation of computer music. Work will continue in restructuring foreign language and literature departments.
One of the university-wide initiatives is to recruit a distinguished scholar to be the founding director of a new language center to supervise all language instruction and oversee the development of proficiency tests for those undergraduates who choose that route to fulfill their language requirement. "The mission of the center also includes encouraging the development of computer- based instructional materials and encouraging ties between language instruction and programs in linguistics, literature and cultural studies," the plan states.
The school also has increased research support for junior faculty and is expanding its offerings to sophomores, including a small-group seminar program and a pre-autumn quarter "college" in which sophomores and faculty meet for several weeks of intensive academic exploration.
The law school will launch a $50 million fund-raising campaign on alumni weekend to help it fund goals developed in the school's 1989-1994 long-range planning process. Those goals include strengthening the "generalist" law curriculum by expanding the areas of business law, intellectual property, environmental law and dispute resolution -- areas the school believes mesh with the career paths of its graduates and with the university's strengths as a whole. Campaign funds also will be used to raise faculty salaries to be more competitive with peer law schools.
The school hopes to expand continuing education programs for business executives and corporate directors that have the potential to generate income. It recently acquired Owen House to house academic and executive education programs, and it hopes to acquire Huston House to house interdisciplinary programs, including the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies.
The law school also is concerned about its ability to provide financial aid and loans to students who want to pursue public interest or government law, according to the budget plan, and it is negotiating with Stanford Federal Credit Union to create a loan program with below-market interest rates tied to the lower default rate of the law school's graduates.
Reorganization to reflect changes in the field of health care and in research financing will continue at the medical school, whose leaders seek "to establish a position rooted in flexibility, greater alternatives and a broader economic foundation," the budget plan says.
The faculties of the school's basic science departments have initiated programs with biotechnology, pharmaceutical and venture capital industries to complement their federally supported research," the report says. "Further, under the leadership of Paul Berg, the school entered into a novel sponsored research agreement with Smith Kline Beecham in which the company will award $2.5 million over the next five years to Stanford scientists in a competitive application program."
The clinical departments, reorganized with the creation of Stanford Health Services, must continue to seek new ways to remain competitive as a health care provider while serving the school's academic mission, the report says. The school's leadership will continue to explore "alternative structures for organization and collaboration." For example, planning for the Medical School Lab Surge II building now centers on planning for interdisciplinary work in cancer research and the neurosciences.
The school also has redesigned its administrative management of sponsored research and will assess whether the underlying theory behind the reorganization applies to other administrative functions at the school.
Under the leadership of a new dean, Richard Shavelson, the education school has established an internal review committee and an external review team to draft a five-year plan for possibly redirecting the school. Shavelson also said he expects the school to expand joint academic and research programs with other schools. Possibilities include links with the business school on formal education and the workplace, with engineering on technology for education, with law on the impact of litigation on education, and with humanities and sciences on the teaching of subject matters.
The Hoover Institution, which reduced its budget by $500,000 this year, intends to reduce it by $1.4 million next year and to raise its gift target by 15 percent to $5.2 million.
Budget cuts this past year included reducing the visiting scholars program; cutting staff support for research; and not renewing some senior research fellows on fixed-term contracts. Six senior fellows will retire next year and six more fixed-term senior fellow contracts will not be renewed, the budget plan says. The visiting scholar program will be curtailed further, and some administrative positions will be eliminated or consolidated.
Hoover has, however, launched a search for the fully endowed position of Hanna Senior Scholar in Education and is planning to expand its development office. An anonymous donor also has pledged to underwrite a major renovation project for the Hoover Library, and restricted gifts have been raised to upgrade computer capabilities. The recent asbestos abatement and seismic upgrade of the Lou Henry Hoover Building cost about $2.2 million, funded equally with university funds and Hoover funds.
The center, which is federally funded through the Department of Energy, anticipates spending $200 million in 1994-95 compared to $194 million this year. The funding in President Clinton's budget proposal calls for expanding the use of federal laboratories by more clients. It anticipates that use of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory will increase from 6.2 months to 9.5 months per year.
Fabrication is expected to continue on the "B Factory," the $177 million five-year construction project to explore why more matter than antimatter exists in the universe.
Ten independent laboratories, centers and institutes that report to the dean of research account for about 35 percent of the total non- Medical School research volume and "remain well positioned intellectually and financially to support Stanford's presence in the interdisciplinary and international world in which we live," the budget plan says.
New activities include a research workshop series for the Humanities Center, which will bring together scholars with broad interdisciplinary interests, and construction of a new laboratory building north of the McCullough building, which will lead to the relocation of 20 faculty in science and engineering fields.
As a university-wide initiative, the Institute for International Studies plans new tenure-track faculty and senior fellow appointments over the next five years, dual-degree programs with the professional schools, a restructured master's degree program in international studies that will include a track designed for students with particular interest in Asia and the Pacific, and the Asia Pacific Scholars program to bring outstanding students from Asia to Stanford for two years of advanced training.
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