| Interim President Kerwin holds open forum on AU goals BY MATT GETTY Interim President Neil Kerwin last week took a fresh approach toward establishing university goals for the 2006–07 academic year. Kerwin invited the entire AU community to an open forum dedicated to their questions and suggestions on university goals. 
Photo by Jeff Watts
“In the past we have heard—sometimes very pointedly—that these goals were established in a very top-down way,” he told students, faculty, and staff who filled the Kay Spiritual Life Center for last Tuesday’s forum. “I thought we could try to deviate from that practice by . . . asking the community what you think we ought to be dealing with over the next 12 months.” Following a brief opening statement that highlighted such recent achievements as the Guggenheim Fellowships earned by two members of the AU faculty, Kerwin addressed questions and comments from the audience for more than an hour. The input, as well as information gathered from similar forums within the schools and colleges, he said, will help shape his discussions with AU deans and vice presidents this summer. Those discussions, he expects, will yield between four and six university-wide goals, which will then serve as touchstones for staff and department goal setting. Efforts related to the new construction projects for the SIS and SOC buildings were major topics of discussion at the forum. In response to SIS dean Louis Goodman’s question about the impact of the proposed new SIS building on the university, Kerwin pointed to the Katzen Arts Center as an example of how building projects can reach beyond bricks and mortar. “There’s nowhere you go in town where people talk about AU that they don’t talk about that building,” he said. “It’s had a transforming effect on the university. Prospective students who visit campus and walk through the Katzen Center now have a completely different way of experiencing American University than ever before.” The Katzen’s success, Kerwin indicated, also means that AU is poised to become a regional leader in the arts. “I’ve got great expectations for the arts program,” he said. “There’s no reason why it can’t be the best in the region.” The discussion also included questions about strengthening AU’s international student recruitment, increasing ethnic diversity, and “greening” the campus through increased energy-efficiency and conservation efforts. A few questions also focused on the university’s governance reform efforts. Encouraged by the AU Board of Trustee’s increased transparency and campus involvement, Kerwin expressed confidence in AU’s ability to move forward. “[Governance reform] is the one thing that sits on all of our shoulders from the Board of Trustees all the way down to the very core of this university,” he said. But judging from such accomplishments as AU students’ recent record showing in the Presidential Management Fellowship Program, he added, “it doesn’t appear that this university has used that as an excuse not to perform.” |
