ey cS HARVARD UNIVERSITY Facurry oF Arrs ano Sc1rNces Micnass D. Sven, Unaverstey Han. Dean Castmnipe Massacnusers 02138 October 9, 2008 Dear Colleagues, Welcome to the start of the 2008-2009 academic year. As I mentioned in the Annual Report in May, this year marks the start of a new tradition, one that is meant to match the natural rhythm of our organization. The Annual Report that ! published in the spring served as a retrospective summary of the accomplishments of the previous academic year and closed the books on the previous fiscal year. This fall letter looks ahead, highlighting several FAS-wide priorities for the current academic year and providing updates on recent activities. With this communication, I will share with you my thinking behind some key priorities, but know that the selection and summary | present here provides just a glimpse of the robust activity in the divisions, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), the Division of Continuing Education and elsewhere around the FAS, We start the year with many positive developments: a record number of graduate and undergraduate applications; the most diverse class of undergraduates and the largest number of graduate students ever admitted; notable success in faculty searches;' strong endowment returns during the past year in a difficult economic environment; eatly successes in an ambitious approach to campus sustainability; and the blossoming of many exciting intellectual initiatives Unfortunately, all is not rosy. With the ongoing turmoil in the financial markets, the world has entered a new era of economic uncertainty. Nationally, colleges and universities are operating under greater scrutiny by Congress, government agencies, and the public than ever before. This has resulted in increased demands to quantify the benefits of programs, justify costs, and demonstrate compliance with state and federal regulations. The FAS, along with the rest of the nation, is facing the problem of rising food and energy costs, as well as considerable increases in the cost of construction. These challenges arise at a time when the FAS is facing a structural deficit in unrestricted come created primarily by building projects and faculty growth. This deficit, if not " To date, from the 2007-08 offer year, 20 tenured offers and 30 tenure-track offers have been accepted, OF the senior offers, 12 are intemal promotions. TaLEPHONE: (617) 4951566 FAX: (617) 495-8208Dean's Letter to the Faculty October 9, 2008 Page 2 addressed, will limit our ability to undertake new initiatives, will hamper campus renewal, and will stifle educational innovation Although the challenges before us are substantial, we must not allow them to dissuade us from the pursuit of our academic aspirations. How will we plot a path past these challenges? In part this will be accomplished through an empowered academic leadership supported by better administrative structures and processes. Important. too, will be the impact of the changing nature of the University, from a collection of independent schools to a place of increasing cross-school cooperation and joint activities. At the end of the day, we all will be engaged in setting priorities and making trade-offs. | am deeply committed to allowing us to do so in a climate of responsiveness. transparency, and collaboration, vities we undertake in pursuit of our academic mission have changed dramatically over the past decade. A review of our organization and adjustments to it were long overdue, and change was necessary to capitalize fully on the opportunities. before us. Over the past year, I devoted much of my time to rethinking and reshaping the structure of the academic and administrative leadership. Largest in this has been a deepening of the engagement of the Academic Deans (i.e., Dean of the College, Dean of GSAS. the Divisional Deans and the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) in FAS-wide decision-making and resource allocation. One specific change has been an increase in the size of the Academic Deans’ discretionary budgets so that they have more independent authority to seed promising new research and pedagogical projects. With greater authority comes greater responsibility. and each Academic Dean is now staffed by an administrative dean and a small, dedicated administrative team to help honor the commitments made. I am also sensitive to the fact that we need to streamline decision-making beyond what can be accomplished with a discretionary budget. Thus, for example, I have established an offer budget for each divisional dean, which should reduce the layers of decision-making and create a more responsive faculty recruitment process. This budget functions like a checkbook, allowing offers ofien to be crafted without consultation beyond the divisional dean's office. The divisional deans as a result will now be in a much stronger position to assist departments and centers in achieving their important academic goals. These changes will allow me more time to talk directly with the faculty about strengthening the FAS in service to its academic mission. Academie and Budget Planning Throughout this year, the Academic Deans will work closely with the departments and other academic units on academic and curricular planning and priority setting. In August, the department chairs received a letter asking them about their undergraduate andDean’s Letter to the Faculty October 9, 2008 Page 3 graduate curricular needs and the intellectual areas in which the departments would like to focus future investments. A similar letter was sent recently to FAS-alfiliated centers, The answers to these questions will help inform the Academic Deans as we determine how to allocate resourees for the academic year 2009-2010, Through a series of retreats over the summer, the Academic Deans reviewed the FAS financial position and vetted a new annual budget planning process that is being rolled out ina limited form this year. The goal is simple: to create a process that consistently produces an annual budget that is clearly aligned with our academic programs and new initiatives. To accomplish this. the new process is designed to be significantly more transparent and to operate with greater faculty input than the process followed in past years, We will learn from our efforts this year, make adjustments in the process, and adopt a more complete process next year Campaign Planning Our efforts to establish long-term academic goals provide a foundation for determining FAS priorities for a future fundraising campaign, During the summer and into September, the Academic Deans and I met together and with the FAS and University Development Offices to start a conversation about campaign planning. This fall, the Academic Deans and | will engage the faculty in conversation about a future campaign and the FAS priorities that might be included. Some important priorities are already clear. Last December, the University committed itself to a more generous undergraduate financial aid program, and we must raise funds to cover this commitment. The significant growth in our faculty over the last half-decade creates a demand for more graduate students. It follows that we must now raise funds for more, and possibly more generous. graduate fellowships. Finally, we will also require new funds to achieve all that we aspire to change in the undergraduate experience, both inside and outside the classtoom. These goals, in addition to the priorities that emerge from our academic planning process, will inform the themes of the campaign, A University-wide campaign shaped by academic priorities is a complex undertaking. Success of a campaign depends not only on a compelling vision for the future, but also on carefull consideration of the worldwide financial climate. Independent of when the campaign actually launches, we must proceed with our campaign planning so that we may act when the time is right Defining Liberal Arts Education for the 21° Century In the context of today’s complex global community, the FAS is defining liberal arts education for the 21° century. As a world-class research university with a deep commitment to undergraduate education, Harvard is able to offer a uniquely rich and