Report of the President, Bowdoin College

32 Pages·1997·3.3 MB·English

by  Bowdoin College. Office of the President

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WfReb.e, port of the President
AUGUST 1997 President Robert
This is the seventh annual report that I H. Edwards
have had the honor to present to the
Trustees ofBowdoin College. Were my
term to end this year, it would be about the
average length ofprivate college presidencies.
That it is not ending, and that my senior col-
leagues in academic affairs, finance, develop-
ment and admissions remain in their posts
after six years ofexcellent service to Bowdoin,
suggest one ofthe advantages ofthe strongest
private colleges. Most important academic
projects have long lead times, and the assem-
bling ofpeople, ideas, programs and funds
takes awhile. Broad institutional strategies
take even longer, since they require the collab-
oration and trust oftrustees and faculty, as well
as the understanding ofan alumni body. And
perhaps at Bowdoin, in Maine, the humors of
skepticism abate more slowly than they do in
less austere regions!
Take the science complex. Our academic
dean, Chuck Beitz, began planning that struc-
ture with our biologists and chemists literally
the day he took up his post in the fall of 1991. use ofthe endowment, and to raise the quality
It opens this autumn, 100,000 square feet, $22 and quantity ofstudent admissions. But we
million and six years later. Other physical have also developed planning strategies and
structures - the Smith Union, the renovated lengthened our financial horizon to ensure
Moulton Union, the two new residence halls, that we are operating within margins that will
the fiber optic computer network that now sustain a downturn when it inevitably comes.
links every campus room to the Internet, and
so forth - all required comparable mixes of A briefcomment on Bowdoin's "vital signs"
people, ideas and resources. Complex strate- at year end:
gies - expanding the student body by 10 per-
cent, the development ofan academic pro- • Admissions. Applications were down for
gram, such as Asian Studies or theater - are the Class of 2001 by about 10 percent, after
virtually impossible with discontinuities in having risen more than 40 percent over the
management. past four years. But at 3,975 they were still
Ifthere is a theme in this year's report then, near record highs. Yield - the percentage of
it's to reflect my sense ofBowdoin's institution- those Bowdoin accepts who accept Bowdoin -
al well-being - not the less real for its cumula- rose. The entering class will be 52 percent
tive close tie to the remarkable prosperity of women and 48 percent men; it will be more
the times - high employment, low inflation diverse racially and internationally than any
and interest rates, and a growing economy, in class before. It will be ofexcellent quality.
an environment of international peace.
Bowdoin is receiving resources that harder • Fund raising. The Development Office
economic times would not have provided, and reports that total giving to the College was a
we have been able to exploit them and the remarkable $18.6 million. Annual Giving
positive general state ofaffairs to establish a (which includes the Alumni, Parents and
series ofbalanced budgets, and a measured Friends Funds) raised over $4 million, as the
The Campus
program continued to
meets its target ofincreas- n addition to all this, it
I
ing by 5 percent each year has been a pretty
ofthe current New Cen- remarkable year on cam-
tury Campaign. Capital pus, with one major tec-
gifts totalled over $14 mil- tonic shift: the adoption of
lion. As we enter the final the Report ofthe Com-
year ofthe Campaign, the mission on Residential Life
College has raised over $90 by the Board ofTrustees,
million toward our $113 which launches the
million goal. College into a new era of
dining and residential and
• Finances. The social life. I won't review
College ended the year the Commission's Report,
with a balanced budget, its which has been widely cir-
fourth in succession. Our culated and read, but I'd
financial model projects a balanced budget for comment briefly on how things have played
the next two years, but not without having to out on campus this spring - and suggest why
stretch out or forego expenditures that the decision to move beyond fraternities that
Bowdoin would ideally make, notably on has left a number ofother campuses angry
physical plant and financial aid. The endow- and shattered has turned into a different sort
ment stood at approximately $329 million on ofthing at Bowdoin.
June 30, 1997. I believe all ofyou have some sense ofthe
new house system that will come into exis-
• Accreditation. After receiving the report tence in the coming year. Incoming first-year
ofan able visiting committee, the College students will go into the brick dorms, and the
received its expected 10-year reaccreditation. brick dorms and their residents will be associ-
This followed our own intensive self-scrutiny, ated with smaller houses on the campus
which led to the creation ofthe Commission periphery - with which students in the upper
on Residential Life. The New England class years will also associate. As I write this,
Association of Schools and Colleges has asked our building contractors are making about
the College to report on four items at the 5- $1.2 million in improvements ofsocial space,
year mark, in 2002: the state ofthe new resi- catering kitchens, and so forth to make these
dential life program; the condition of informa- houses attractive for fall. These are all houses
tion technology and computing; our review of that the College now owns or over which it
the College's academic curriculum; and the has direct control. A number ofupperclass
progress we have made regarding the status of students, in groups ofup to 12, have chosen to
women at Bowdoin. The Commission has associate with these residences and, in some
asked the College to provide it with a succinct cases, to live in them. Fraternities, as you
Mission Statement. know, will conduct no further rushes, but they
will be in existence through the year 2000,
• Various. In May, Bowdoin seniors threw and we hope that over the next two or three
one ofthe best parties Blythe and I have ever years chapter houses will join in the new sys-
attended: a black-tie dance celebrating "New tem, as some oftheir corporations are already
Beginnings," with the Count Basie Band, at discussing with the College.
which the Farley Field House became, for about But what went on in these last months is
800 Bowdoin students, Le Club Farley. Despite notable. After the Trustees voted their support
cold weather and changes in the social structure in principle for the Commission's Report in
ofthe College, the spring was not morose. March, an implementation group of 19 stu-
Report of the President
dents, holding a number of campus discus- Don Kurtz ofthe Class of 1952, the leader of
sions and working with the Dean's Office, the Commission, and of others on the
took hold ofthe residential life structure out- Commission, was not to end something, but
lined by the Commission and brought it to to create something: a residential arrange-
life. They designed a form ofhouse gover- ment, positive and inclusive, that an excellent
nance that takes as its model fraternity gover- dean's office can help students to lead and
nance; and they established social budgets - develop. By design, it will incorporate much
non-trivial at about $10,000 a house for each ofthe self-governance, potential for leadership
year. Then, on a vote by the student body, development, medium size, and social cheer
this new house system became the base of a that enabled fraternities at their best to meet
new structure ofstudent governance. student needs.
Fraternity leaders participated strongly in this
planning endeavor, and the Inter-Fraternity
The Academic Program
Council voted to join the Inter-House
Council, forming a joint governance council Meeting the needs ofstudents: students
for the new system - an act of remarkable who will conduct their careers in the
generosity that took courage and imagination 21st century. That is what residential life,
on the part ofsome excellent fraternity and everything else we do, is all about.
leaders. Bowdoin students today are, in important
The Chinese have a saying, which is never respects, different from those even our 25th
far from the mind ofa college president: reunion class remember: the entering class
"everything has lumps." The spring has had this fall will have just over 50 percent women,
lumps. There has been some grumpiness, just under 20 percent Asian, African-
but we've had open discussions and town American and Hispanic, and its members will
meetings to make sure that it was not sup- come from 30 countries. This is the world of Associate Professor
pressed. A few members ofone fraternity the coming century, and it gives one the most of Biology Amy
trashed their house, but this seemed a useful marvelous sense of excitement to see this stu- Johnson and
example to no one, since it led their alumni dent body treading the paths that Hawthorne students conduct
corporation to close the place. A couple of and Longfellow and Chamberlain, and research at the
seniors elected to take their diplomas without Mitchell and Cohen and Pickering, and most Coastal Studies
shaking the President's hand. But these are members ofthe Board ofTrustees walked. Center.
small lumps, and their paucity suggests the
exceptional quality ofthe student body and
the leadership within it, and the conse-
quences ofa unified Board ofTrustees acting
upon a respectful, far-seeing, and sensible
Commission Report.
We clearly have far to go. But the overall
spirit ofthe campus, fraternity and non-frater-
nity, has been optimistic, and the instinct of
the student body has been to create and
build, rather than to sulk or grieve or destroy.
As I have mentioned before, fraternities, in
recent years, have been serving the needs of
only 30 percent ofour students. But the
entire campus, fraternity and non-fraternity,
was afraid that, iffraternities disappeared,
there would be a void in the social life of
everyone. This is why the clear objective of
Assistant Professor
Patrick Rael and
students hold a
discussion outside.
We've done the hardest thinking possible (A) Faculty and the Academic
to design a new Bowdoin structure for social Program
and residential life, building on the past, and First, we completed an enterprise a few weeks
integrating what is known with an intelligent ago that clarified in my mind a genuine
estimation ofwhat is needed. But what of uniqueness ofBowdoin's education. For the
the intellectual side ofthe College - the past three years a faculty committee - the
education of the minds of our students? Faculty Affairs Committee - has been con-
What of the professional encouragement and ducting an extensive inquiry into what
development oftheir faculty, who will be Bowdoin faculty actually do. They conducted
teaching them well into the next century? a formal survey. How much ofwhat sorts of
We are not a hotel, restaurant, or health professional work does a faculty member
club, although we've become pretty good in accomplish in the average week? How is it
those domains. For all the sturm und drang measured: and from this picture, what should
of residential life, Bowdoin's overarching be the average teaching load? How can it be
purpose is the deepening and refining of monitored and fairly recognized? How can
intellectual capabilities. department chairs and those wildly exceeding
We have been moving slowly in this the norms be appropriately rewarded, rather
domain, for the last modest curricular than ignored or even discouraged?
reform - a reinstitution ofsome rather Two motivations drove this work forward.
-
broad general education requirements First is a concern for equity in bearing the
was in the early 1980s; a more comprehen- College's teaching load. Faculty rightly
sive reform, sensible and unexceptionable believe that they should carry roughly compa-
in retrospect, was voted down by the faculty rable loads measured by some roughly accept-
in the late '80s. I believe that almost every- able metric - and assume, in addition, access
one, faculty and deans alike, is inclined to to research and faculty development funds.
agree it is time for a fresh look at the acade- The second driver has been a genuine con-
mic program. I'd report a couple offore- cern for what the industrial world would label
shadowings that suggest the College is in a "productivity," but what the academic world
mood ofappropriate seriousness and would call the quality and density ofthe edu-
collegiality. cation that we provide our students. However
Report of the President
skittish faculty may be about adopting mea- well as write a language. The arts, music and
sures that boil down to units oftime, noting dance, theater and studio art have ofcourse
that this risks disregarding the notion ofquality utilized these techniques from the beginning.
and substance that fills these hours, there is a To attend a student presentation or visit stu-
general understanding that, as Bowdoin's costs dent exhibitions, or read student papers, can
and price rise, we need to be able to say with be a genuinely elevating experience. This is
some clarity what it is we do in exchange for an expensive form ofeducation, but it is also
what we charge. why one sees such exceptional growth in the
The Committee's findings are informative. confidence and intellectual powers of
Faculty work professionally an average of Bowdoin students over their four years.
around 57 hours a week. This includes teach-
ing, advising, course development, research (B) Student Perceptions
and running the College by doing such things How do we know that this really happens?
as faculty recruiting, service on tenure and Higher education is still better at measuring
promotion committees, curricular planning, inputs - courses, labs, facilities, faculty/student
and so forth. Second, although there is a ratios - than we are at estimating outcomes.
nominal teaching load offour courses a year - One can overstate the point, however: the
not low for the best American colleges - it intensive scrutiny ofable faculty members,
appears that the norm for Bowdoin faculty is who grade papers, judge honors projects, and
to teach the equivalent ofan additional award marks ofdistinction are scarcely trivial
course. This 4+1 norm was adopted by fac- appraisals ofachievement. Graduate school
ulty vote at the May faculty meeting, recogniz- admissions and workplace recruitment and
ing that, in addition to the four classroom national competitive scholarships - Bowdoin
blocks each year, faculty members conduct students and graduates won Marshall,
tutorials in the form of honors courses and Fulbright, Truman, Watson and NSF fellow-
independent studies - over 400 ofthem a year; ships this year - are also indices ofeducational
teach labs, run extra class sections, occasional- achievement, not just shrewd admissions work.
ly teach very large courses with huge exams And, as is widely known, Bowdoin graduates
and student paper loads, and lead field trips. end up, sometimes after a while, serving their
The point is educationally significant. society in a great variety ofvery rewarding
Unlike what most ofus knew, the education of ways.
a Bowdoin student today does not occur only But we began this year to try to get more in-
—
in modular - and incidentally the least expen- terestingly at this question of "added value"
sive - form: sitting at a desk in a room with 16 what is the nature ofthe increment to a stu-
other students (the average Bowdoin class size dent's intellectual and social growth that takes
is 17). An unenterprising student can still
manage to do that for four years. But the pat- Students "sign in"
tern ofeducation ofmost serious Bowdoin stu- to the College upon
dents is driven largely today by their own inter- matriculation.
ests and passions - to which faculty members
respond in individual and equally interested
ways. The pedagogical model is less the lec-
turer and the passive student recorder of infor-
mation, than the model ofcoach and athlete
or master and apprentice. In the sciences, all
Bowdoin students "do" science themselves, in
labs and in the field, under faculty supervi-
sion. Language students are coached to speak
and develop a cultural grasp ofa society, as
Report of the President
aspects ofthe academic experience at
Bowdoin. Getting to know faculty, working
with them one-on-one, and assisting with
research projects were common themes in
A
response to this question. few faculty are
disappointing, a few are highly intelligent but
cannot teach, but, in general, faculty are
"amazing" and "accessible."
In the coming year, the College will be
turning to an examination of its academic cur-
riculum, but this foundation offaculty com-
mitment, coupled with an alert, able student
body capable ofrising to it, is the base upon
which a curriculum depends. Education is
the spark that takes place between the minds
ofstudent and faculty member. The Internet,
CD-ROMs, new arrays oflearning software
are all becoming increasingly a part ofthe pat-
Professor of place while he or she is at Bowdoin. We tern oflearning, even changing it in some
Sociology Craig began by conducting, for the first time, respects. Students have always learned much
McEwen meets formal interviews with a randomly selected from one another beyond the classroom. But
with a student. number ofgraduating seniors - a bit over what will continue to distinguish the highest
10 percent ofthe class - about their experi- quality education from the lesser is the quality
ences at Bowdoin. We asked them what ofdiscourse that goes on between restless
expectations they had about college life and undergraduate minds and those oflearned,
about Bowdoin, about what had actually generous-spirited and stimulating faculty
happened—academically and socially. What members.
was most rewarding and exciting? What was We shall be thinking and planning and lis-
most disappointing? What was most difficult, tening to various authorities and experts in the
and was there adequate support? We learned coming year. We'll also be discussing with
a lot: we need to continue to increase our our own departments and students the ques-
support for student writing; study-away can be tions that we should be asking: general issues,
enormously rewarding, but a downer on such as the overall shape and direction and
return unless it's integrated into a continuing cumulative character ofa curriculum; the mix
course ofstudy; we need to conjure more seri- ofsubjects that should constitute general edu-
ously with the variables that determine course cation for a citizen ofthe 21st century - the
quality. There are a number ofother useful ideas and concepts an educated mind should
insights. be able to draw on; the differences in depth
But there is one important and encourag- and complexity that should exist in courses at
ing generalized finding. The key question we the introductory and the advanced level; the
asked was: what aspects ofyour academic nature and specific gravity ofthe academic
experience did you find most rewarding? major; the skills, such as writing and speaking
Were there any aspects that disappointed you? the English language, or being able to grasp
Here is what Institutional Research, who ran and apply fundamental quantitative concepts,
this enterprise for us, inferred from its colla- or fundamental aspects ofscientific reasoning
tion ofanswers from the interview sample: that should be considered capacities ofthe
Nearly all interviewees described their con- educated modern mind. This study will
tacts with individual faculty members to be probably take two years. The time is now
among the most rewarding and exciting right for this sort ofdiscussion to take place
Report of the President
with and among a faculty that is Kathleen
confident in itselfand the O'Connor,
standards that it is choosing to Director ofthe
establish. Writing Project,
I end this narrative, first, with reviews a paper
thanks to a Board ofTrustees that with a student
has acted with wisdom, forbear- tutor.
ance, and great humanity in tak-
ing the College for which they
have such affection and regard in
a direction which is partly
unknown. But I also close with
an understanding that, just as the
new generation ofstudents is
showing itselfto be freshly con-
cerned about history and origins -
of its College and its society -
Bowdoin is severing a connection with a part ;|;;|;$j|tJ^j|<
of its own past. Fraternities were never per- I must now regret the passing ofdistinguished
fect: they reflected some ofthe darker and members ofthe College, former Board
more unthinking prejudices oftheir times. members and members ofthe faculty who
But their benefits to their members were non- contributed greatly in their time to Bowdoin.
trivial. At their best, they bred loyalty and In the fall, Jean Sampson, a Bowdoin board
friendship; they provided the experience of member for nearly twenty years from 1976 to
leadership and accountability. That they 1994, well-known and widely respected for her
endured as long as they did, despite grudging work in the fields ofeducation and civil liber-
acceptance by the College, suggests that they ties, died ofcancer. David Hancock, a valued
were meeting needs ofsome excellent young former overseer and a member ofthe Class of
people. The College has now decided to end 1964, died in February. Next we lost Bob
them - a decision I have strongly advocated - Porter, whose leadership ofthe Investment
on grounds that their disadvantages were Committee brought about professional man-
greater than their advantages and that the agement ofthe endowment and whose contin-
College could do better. To do better, to uous interest in the College made it stronger
create the structure ofa residential and social in many ways. Then, in late June, Ernst
life that will meet the new realities ofstu- Helmreich, Bowdoin's Thomas Brackett Reed
dents living in a new age, is now Bowdoin's Professor of History and Political Science
pledge. Next to the goal ofstrengthening the Emeritus, died at the age of94. Professor
academic program it must stand as the Helmreich was a great teacher and historian
greatest single charge on our time and who opened a world of ideas to generations of
resources for the next few years. Bowdoin students. He, like these others, will
be sorely missed among the places and people
of Bowdoin.
Robert H. Edwards
President ofthe College
Report of the Dean for Academic Affairs
Endings and
Beginnings
Academic life is measured
in both endings and begin-
nings, and in the past year
we have had our fair share of
both. The most prominent end-
ing in the academic program, as
the president has noted, was the
completion ofthe faculty's ambi-
tious inquiry into faculty roles
—
and responsibilities known on
campus as the "workload pro-
ject." The most prominent
beginning was the undertaking
(by the Curriculum Committee) ofan equally ment ofour print collections, and create a
ambitious inquiry into the goals and structure three-college videoconferencing capacity for
ofthe liberal arts curriculum. More about use by faculty, staffand students.
both ofthese efforts later; first, a briefrecapitu- As I write, our biologists and geologists have
lation ofthe astonishing variety ofother acade- begun their move into the College's new sci-
mic milestones we passed during the year. ence facility, and extensive renovations to
After an enormously encouraging review, Cleaveland Hall, the chemistry building, are
the faculty unanimously endorsed continua- nearly finished. At the new Coastal Studies
tion ofthe Writing Project—the peer tutoring Center in Harpswell, the terrestrial ecology
program in writing skills established four years laboratory has been completed, the farmhouse
ago. The Quantitative Skills Development has been renovated for informal meetings and
—
Program a parallel effort approved in Spring seminars, and the marine studies laboratory is
—
1996 completed a very promising first experi- well into construction. And even as the paint
mental year. The faculty adopted an initiative dries in these new buildings, we are moving
proposed by the Curriculum Committee to intensively into the architectural design oftwo
—
encourage interdisciplinary teaching. other academic space projects renovation of
Standards for college-wide honors (including Searles Hall for physics, mathematics and
Latin honors and distinction as a James computer science, and renovation and expan-
Bowdoin scholar) were raised. A review ofthe sion ofMemorial Hall for theater, dance and
computerized course registration system, put general college use.
in place two years ago in an attempt to help We look ahead to welcoming the class of
more students get into their preferred courses, 2001 in a few weeks, whose members com-
revealed very impressive results; we'll seek fur- prise the last ofthe "expansion classes," mark-
ther improvements in the coming year as the ing completion ofthe plan to expand the
faculty's Recording Committee finishes work College by ten percent. At the same time, we
on a mechanism to spread out classes more shall welcome several new faculty colleagues,
evenly across the class day and week. With including the last wave of individuals holding
support from the Mellon Foundation, our new positions made possible by the growth in
librarians set out on a collaborative effort with student enrollment. All told, the faculty will
their colleagues at Bates and Colby to inte- have increased by about fifteen positions since
grate the three libraries' electronic information 1991 —for the most part in the most heavily-
—
services, help students and faculty members enrolled departments with the student/facul-
make effective use of electronic information ty ratio holding steady at just over 11 to 1.
resources, improve cooperation in the develop- Finally, as the president observes, the year