March 2002

Schools are looking to be more entrepreneurial — through philanthropy as well as revenue-generating activities — to fulfill their funding needs, especially in a time of shrinking public support.

Critical need for space, especially for research, as we move forward

Balancing teaching and research — afraid that research demands will affect quality of teaching; on the other hand, need to engage in significant research to advance knowledge, and to raise the profile of the schools and University. At the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, the added dimension of patient care exacerbates this issue.

Many schools would like to promote their excellence better to the outside world — better marketing to peers and to the public, both nationally and globally.

Desire for more international opportunities for students and faculty; all schools have international initiatives but want to increase these opportunities more strategically.

Costs of new technology — it is necessary to become more technologically sophisticated to maintain excellence and to continue to compete, but it is expensive.

Competition for the best new faculty is more intense than ever; our limited resources make recruiting even more difficult. This is especially crucial as many current faculty are nearing retirement. In addition, schools are feeling the added challenge of recruiting and retaining minority faculty to maintain a diverse faculty pool.

Lack of adequate support for graduate students causes the University to lose great fledgling scholars, and affects the ability to do significant research.

We need to provide Web-based instruction in order to reach broader audiences and to provide new educational resources, without losing the "sense of place" and the emphasis on values-based instruction that is a hallmark of the institution.

The University does not have enough mechanisms in place to trade information between schools (and in some cases, between departments). Too often schools learn "by accident" about programs they might have been able to partner on with other schools.

Concern that while the University needs to "grow" several areas, such as the sciences, we may lose our nimbleness and the intimate character of our teaching if we get bigger. One way to address this is to encourage more cross-school collaboration to maximize resources.