By Jacquie Powers
The Cornell Board of Trustees heard an upbeat progress report from President Hunter Rawlings on his five major priorities for the university and a report of mixed progress from Associate Provost Winnie F. Taylor on the university's efforts toward achieving a more diverse, inclusive community.
In addition, Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, reported on the preliminary recommendations of the Residential Communities Implementation Plan Steering Committee.
Rawlings, at the daylong meeting at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art May 24, listed his five priorities for the past year: defining the university's role in New York state; restructuring administrative services through Project 2000; coordinating and reordering academic programs; improving faculty and staff compensation; and improving the living and learning environment for students.
"We have made significant progress in these areas, although much work remains to be done," he said. Summarizing progress on the priorities, he said:
·On Cornell's role in the state: There has been "major improvement in the university's relationship with New York state" and with the State University of New York system, at least in part due to the appointment of interim Chancellor John Ryan as chancellor.
Rawlings reported that he helped organize a coalition of presidents and chancellors of both public and private higher education institutions in the state to discuss budgetary and other issues of concern. He and eight other coalition members met with state officials in March to discuss these matters and agreed to continue the partnership to promote education priorities in the future.
·On restructuring services: Project 2000, which is designed to restructure and streamline administrative work at the university, is "proceeding well." The goal, Rawlings said, is to improve work and speed work and to apply the resulting savings in both money and manpower to the core mission of the university -- education.
·On reordering academic programs: The new universitywide statistics department was a first step at integrating faculty efforts across college lines. And, Rawlings said, the recently established Provost's Fund for Academic Initiatives "has helped in this effort to move across disciplines." The fund has helped finance the hiring of several faculty whose appointments will cross disciplines and colleges.
·On improving faculty and staff compensation: Improving salaries "is increasingly important in order to remain competitive with our peer institutions." Rawlings said the salary improvement pools for both endowed faculty and staff include funds set aside for special case equity increases. (See related budget story, above.) He also said he is encouraged with regard to statutory salaries because Ryan has made salary negotiations a top priority at the state level.
·On improving the living and learning environment: He is encouraged by the record number of awards and honors Cornell students have won this year -- 13, including two Rhodes, three Marshalls, a Mellon, a Beinecke, a Truman, three Goldwaters, a Churchill and a Keasbey. In addition, he pointed out, Cornell's student team defeated 75 other schools in a national race-car design and performance competition. It was the fourth time Cornell has won the competition in the past nine years.
Taylor told trustees "we have achieved limited success" in diversifying the campus community. She noted that there are 68 fewer faculty at Cornell today than there were in 1992, and that "although the number of minority and women faculty each increased by 12 between 1992 and 1996, the inevitable effect of fewer new faculty hires will be fewer opportunities to diversify our faculty along racial, gender and ethnic lines."
She said her annual report, "Inclusion," on the status of women, American Indians, Asian Americans, Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, which covers the five years ending in 1996, shows that while the percentage of Hispanics on the faculty has increased 0.8 percent in the past five years, no other underrepresented minority group's representation has increased by more than 0.4 percent. (The report is available by calling the associate provost's office, 255-5358.)
Currently, she reported, 10 percent of faculty members are minorities, compared with 9.5 percent last year. Of those, 1.8 percent are Hispanic, up from 1.6 percent last year; 2.5 percent are black, down from 2.6 percent last year; 5.4 percent are Asian, up from 4.9 percent; and 0.3 percent are American Indian, down from 0.4 percent.
She noted that while women today represent 19 percent of faculty compared with 18 percent five years ago, "there has been little or no increase in women and minority representation at the full professor and associate professor ranks. In fact, representation has remained flat, with women steadily constituting 10 percent and minorities 7.5 percent of full professors.
"We must develop strategies to increase substantially the tenure track for women and minorities," she said.
Murphy presented trustees with a preliminary report from the Residential Communities Implementation Plan Steering Committee. The committee has been working to formulate a plan to implement a broad, universitywide residential plan following a set of principles adopted by the trustees a year ago. The goal is to provide "supportive residential communities that contribute to an intellectually engaged and socially responsible campus environment."
Murphy said the committee had identified weaknesses in the campus residential experience and has begun to develop recommendations to address those weaknesses. The committee's foremost concern, she said, is the differences that exist between West and North campuses. In addition, "the committee believes that stronger connections among students living in different residences need to be developed so that students interact across racial, ethnic, college and class-year distinctions," she said.
Trustee John P. Neafsey, co-chairman of the trustee Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life, noted that the committee had discussed the residential committee report a day earlier and that some trustees had expressed "disappointment" with one recommendation in the report. They disagreed, he said, with the recommendation that the university maintain freshman choice as it currently exists, which allows freshmen to live in program, or theme, houses.
A year ago Rawlings, in outlining the university's broad residential principles, said he supports a common freshman residential experience for all students to transition them better into the campus community.
Murphy said the committee expects to issue a final report with recommendations in September. Those recommendations will focus on three main areas, she said: on facilities, including a new residence hall; programming, which will involve activities that link students across residence halls and communities; and communication, which will address stereotyping and perceptions relating to the differences between West and North Campus residents.