February 23, 2002

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

I am writing to report on our collective and continuing efforts to expand and enrich Brown's academic resources and programs. The Proposal for Academic Enrichment that many of us have been working on since the beginning of the academic year was the primary topic of discussion during the Corporation meetings yesterday and earlier today. I am pleased to report that the Corporation has unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed that proposal, including both the general directions laid out there-and in my earlier discussions with the faculty-and the academic and planning goals suggested by the detailed proposals.

Although there has been much discussion about this proposal over the last several months, allow me to reiterate the essential elements:

First, a roughly 20 percent increase in the size of the faculty over the next five to ten years. The specific proposal is to add fifty to sixty positions over the next three years, a total of 100 over five to ten years. The proposal also includes a salary initiative, enhanced departmental support, and increased funding for faculty recruitment and start up.

Second, significant increases in support for graduate students, including full health insurance coverage, increased stipends for many fellowships and assistantships, increased summer support, and more TA positions. Some of these improvements will take effect in the 2002-03 academic year; others will be phased in during the next three years.

Third, need-blind admissions at the undergraduate level, starting with the class of 2007 (freshmen matriculating in September 2003). The Corporation also approved a plan to eliminate the work requirement for first-year students on financial aid, equalizing the opportunity for those students to focus on their academic work and the rich cultural and co-curricular offerings at Brown.

Fourth, improvements in library and computing resources and other support services, with additional one-time funds being provided to upgrade significantly our basic infrastructure in those areas. We are also engaged in more comprehensive planning to develop longer-term strategies for ongoing support for these essential services. The Corporation has asked that we return with a plan for each of these vital areas with due speed.

In the coming week, we will distribute a summary of the proposal that was considered by the Corporation, which will provide additional context and details.

While approval of this proposal is good news, it will also mean a good deal of work for all of us. Recruiting faculty, addressing new and continuing programmatic needs, improving support for our students, improving facilities and infrastructure are all important goals that require planning, dedication and hopefulness about the future. We are still at the very beginning of this process and we will need the help of the entire faculty in order to move forward from here.

We have already begun discussions with department chairs and others about a series of extremely important decisions that will have to be made this spring: Where can the additional faculty positions be allocated to most effectively address our highest priorities and most urgent teaching and research needs? How can these positions, which will comprise primarily visitors and other temporary appointments in 2002-03, position us to make the best appointments to the tenured and tenure-track faculty in subsequent years? How can we use the extra salary money to reward the highest levels of merit among current faculty and to attract and retain the very best teacher-scholars? What support must be put in place immediately so that we can accommodate these additional faculty and provide the critical elements of support for all our faculty (space, equipment, computing and library support, departmental support, etc.)?

A memorandum sent last week by the Dean of the Faculty to all department chairs and directors of programs outlined some of the ways we will be working to answer these and other questions. We are also talking with the Faculty Executive Committee and others about how current procedures and policies might be improved to facilitate better collaboration between the faculty and the academic administration in order to produce the best possible decisions. This is clearly a time of great hopefulness for Brown, but realizing the potential of this moment will require the very best effort from each of us.

I am proud and pleased that the Proposal for Academic Enrichment, which drew heavily upon your past planning efforts, reflects the essence of what Brown has been and what we want it to be in the future: an absolutely superb undergraduate college set in an equally superb center for graduate and professional education and faculty scholarship. The priorities expressed in that proposal reflect the longstanding values of Brown: support for the best faculty and students and for the academic programs that bring them together and enable them to do their best work. Now it is our job, working together, to implement these proposals in the best possible way for Brown and to build on these efforts to develop longer-term and more comprehensive goals for the University and a strategy for achieving those goals. I applaud the leadership of both the faculty and the Corporation in developing a truly exciting set of academic and financial aid initiatives. I appreciate all that you do for this great University, and I look forward to working with you to ensure the brightest future for Brown.

Sincerely,

Ruth J. Simmons