Phase II - Enhance Academic Excellence at Brown by Increasing the level and quality of support for key Academic Departments and Programs
To achieve its goals and remain in the ranks of the most outstanding universities, Brown must continue to provide support to promising academic and research programs across the University. Phase II of the Plan seeks to provide resources to enable targeted programs to attract and retain outstanding scholars and further build programs of academic excellence. These scholars will in turn enable Brown to attract the most sought-after undergraduate and graduate students. In order to pursue our academic goals successfully, therefore, it is essential that we continue to have nationally prominent programs of research and graduate education. The reputation of Brown among our peers depends heavily on the strength of our academic departments and programs.
Brown has a number of excellent departments that have already been strengthened by the Plan for Academic Enrichment or are coming forward with new proposals for ways that they can be strengthened. Those proposals include requests for additional faculty positions, for more graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows, and for essential new resources to support faculty and student research (e.g., facilities and equipment, library and technology support, etc.). Many proposals will also include compelling ways to strengthen undergraduate teaching and provide opportunities for undergraduate participation in research efforts, but they start with the excellence of the faculty and the quality of research.
This Phase II priority requires targeted investments in academic departments and programs, the Graduate School, and research initiatives to further enrich the academic excellence of Brown.
- Add resources to academic departments or programs based on their capacity to achieve academic excellence
- Improve the quality and impact of the Ph.D. programs of the Graduate School through targeted investments and carefully focused expansion
- Identify the most promising areas of research throughout the University and improve our effectiveness in attracting outside support for these areas through targeted investments, greater collaboration, increased seed funding, and better support for faculty seeking external funding
- Provide high levels of support for those multi-disciplinary centers and initiatives that have proven most effective in raising the level of research and strengthening neighboring departments