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Initiatives for Academic Enrichment
Brown Corporation introduced to leadership for next capital campaign
As part of a strategic discussion of the University’s future, members of the Brown Corporation were introduced to three co-chairs and two honorary co-chairs of the University’s next comprehensive campaign. That campaign will provide crucial support for the long-range Initiatives for Academic Enrichment.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — On Friday afternoon, Oct. 10,
2003, during a strategic discussion of the University’s future, members of
the Brown Corporation were introduced to the co-chairs who will lead the
University’s next comprehensive campaign. That campaign will develop the
resources Brown needs to carry out its near-term and long-range Initiatives for
Academic Enrichment.
“We are poised to begin the most aggressive fund-raising
campaign Brown has ever undertaken,” said Brown Chancellor Stephen Robert,
in presenting the campaign leadership to the Corporation members. “Working
together over the next several years, we will gather the means to support
superior teaching and learning, research and innovation at Brown, both in the
near term and for decades to come.”
The campaign leadership will include three co-chairs and two
honorary chairs:
- Elizabeth Z. Chace, campaign co-chair, is a 1959 graduate of Brown
and a member of the Board of Fellows. An athlete as an undergraduate, Chace is a
member of the board of directors of the Brown Sports Foundation, which she
served as vice president during a period of rapid expansion in its fund-raising
capacity. In 2001, she received the Paul L. Maddock ’33 Award from the Brown Hall of Fame for outstanding service to the University.
- Matthew J. Mallow, campaign co-chair, is a 1964 graduate of Brown. He
has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1990 and has served as
treasurer of the Corporation since 1998. He has been involved with previous
campaigns and with the Brown Annual Fund and has served on a number of
Corporation committees.
- Jerome C. Vascellaro, campaign co-chair, is a 1974 graduate of Brown
and a member of the Board of Trustees. He is a past president of the Brown
Alumni Association and has led the Brown Annual Fund to unprecedented success in
the last two and a half years as its national chair.
- H. Anthony Ittleson, honorary campaign co-chair, is a 1960 graduate
of Brown who has served the Corporation as a trustee and fellow since 1977.
Ittleson was executive chairman of Brown’s previous Campaign for the
Rising Generation. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.
- Artemis A.W. Joukowsky, honorary campaign co-chair and a 1955
graduate of Brown, has been a member of the Corporation since 1985 and has
served Brown as vice chancellor and chancellor. He has led three major
fundraising campaigns that more than tripled the size of the University’s
endowment, including the first campaign for the medical school. Now chancellor
emeritus, Joukowsky is a member of the Board of Fellows.
During the Friday afternoon session, Robert and Brown President
Ruth J. Simmons reviewed progress the University has made since its initial
proposals for academic enrichment were endorsed by the Corporation in February
2002. These include, among others:
- improvements in faculty recruitment, retention and compensation. Investments
in faculty, including a substantial increase in faculty size, are the
cornerstone of academic enrichment efforts. The Brown faculty now numbers more
than 600, its largest size ever.
- a robust program of facilities renovation and new construction. The
University was engaged in 43 projects during the summer, including dormitory
renovations, increased laboratory and instructional space, and renovation of the
Horace Mann building as a new home for the Graduate School;
- dramatic increases in graduate student applications, up 40 percent since
2001;
- improved undergraduate financial aid. The Class of 2007 was the first
admitted under the University’s need-blind admission policy;
- new courses, including seminar courses for first-year students. Increases in
faculty size made it possible to offer 139 new courses or sections in 21
different departments, with 24 new seminar courses designed exclusively for
freshmen.
The University administration has been developing longer-term
goals for academic enrichment and will present those goals to the Corporation at
its next meeting, in February 2004. Those goals and the comprehensive campaign
that will support them “will ensure Brown’s preeminence in 2013,
2023 and far into the future,” Simmons said.
“I will not deny that significant exertion lies between us
and this brilliant new era for Brown,” Robert said, “but we have
made an excellent start: The University community has already galvanized around
President Simmons’ Initiatives for Academic Enrichment which lie at the
heart of our plans, and we have recruited extraordinary co-chairs to lead us to
success in our campaign.”
In actions taken during its business meeting Saturday, Oct. 11,
2003, the Corporation:
- formally engaged six new trustees: Cornelia Dean; Galen V. Henderson, M.D.;
Samuel M. Mencoff; Kenneth J. O’Keefe; Eileen M. Rudden; and Laurinda Hope
Spear. The new trustees, elected at the Corporation’s spring meeting on
May 24, 2003, will serve six-year terms. Alain J.P. Belda and Bobby Jindal, also
elected in May, will be engaged at a subsequent meeting. [See news release 02-146]
- received a report of its Facilities and Design Committee which included the
approved design of the University’s new Life Sciences Building and plans
for developing a recently acquired commercial building at 70 Ship St. in the
Providence Jewelry District as a laboratory facility for the life sciences. [See news release 03-041]
- unanimously accepted the Strategic Framework for Physical Planning at
Brown and adopted its principles. This plan, developed by architect Frances
Halsband, charts a course for developing Brown’s core campus (including
more than 1 million square feet of new space) and ultimately for developing
facilities beyond College Hill. [See news release 03-039]
- received a report on significant gifts to the University, including a recent
grant to establish Mellon Graduate Workshops in support of graduate students in
the humanities and social sciences who are writing their dissertations. [See news release 03-036]
As part of its weekend meeting, the trustees and fellows
attended a Friday evening lecture by Nobel laureate Gary S. Becker, professor of
economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, who spoke on
“Education, Human Capital, and the Modern Economy.” The lecture was
presented by the Graduate School and the Office of the President in celebration
of the Graduate School Centennial.
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