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Senate
hears of capital campaign, diversity progress, and technology woes
BY SALLY ACHARYA
The university’s ambitious $200 million capital campaign, the
significant progress toward faculty diversity, and the technology
problems that have plagued campus this semester were leading topics
of discussion at last week’s meeting of the Faculty Senate.
By late October, $63.7 million had been raised toward the long-term
goal of $200 million in the recently announced capital campaign,
vice president of development Al Checcio told the senate.
Much of the money is intended to give a new face to AU, with $60
million for new facilities that will include a $20 million new building
for the School of International Service (SIS) and $20 million to
gut and rebuild the McKinley Building as a home for the School of
Communication (SOC). Another $30 million is earmarked for the Katzen
Arts Center, and $45 million will go for university endowments,
including endowed chairs, professorships, and scholarships.
The largest single source of donations so far has come from friends
and parents, with $28.1 million of a projected $70 million from
that source alone. “We’re finding out very quickly that
parents are a great source of potential gifts,” Checcio said.
“If their kids are happy, they’re happy.”
The percentage of alumni who donate has been historically weak at
AU, but has risen from only 10 percent in 1999 to 17 percent in
2003 with 19 percent expected in 2004. “You can see, in a campaign
like this, you’d like to see alumni [giving] a little bit higher
. . . [But] what we don’t have yet is a mature alumni prospect
base,” Checcio noted. “We have people on the other end
of our phone calls who’ve been disconnected [from AU] for 20,
25 years.”
However, he said, “We’re slowly beginning to move to a
respectable level.” AU hopes to match the national average
of 25 percent within the next few years.
Kogod School of Business is already close to its goal of $30 million,
having raised $23.4 million although its campaign doesn’t officially
begin until April. Goals for other schools and colleges, which have
also not officially started their campaigns, are as follows:
- „$5
million—College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), which has $1.4
million in cash and pledges so far
- $25 million—SIS,
of which $5.2 million has been raised or pledged
- $25 million—SOC,
with $1.8 million so far
- $5 million—School
of Public Affairs, with $365,000 so far
- $10 million—Washington
College of Law, with $5 million so far
The university campaign was announced on Oct. 16.
In addition, Provost Neil Kerwin and many on the senate expressed
their frustration at the service interruptions and slowness on AU’s
computer network. Kerwin drew attention to a detailed memorandum
by Carl Whitman, executive director of e-operations, circulated
from the Help Desk on Oct. 22, calling it “very illuminating
if not altogether encouraging.”
Worm and virus attacks have overloaded the network with traffic,
slowing down all users. There have been configuration conflicts
between wireless and wired networks. Failures in the software that
links computers and printers have kept many offices from printing.
And e-mail is being clogged by more than 100,000 e-mails received
daily from outside of AU’s system, including a daily flood
of spam and virus-infected e-mails.
“The ones I get a kick out of are the ones inviting me to get
my term paper written for me,” Kerwin noted wryly.
“I have never seen [the problems] so severe. It is disruptive
as it’s never been before,” said Wendy Swallow, SOC.
“The memorandum is helpful because it provides an explanation,
but it’s no solace,” Kerwin said.
These and other similar problems have also affected other universities
since the summer, Kerwin noted. While e-operations has battled the
situation with solutions ranging from changes in network engineering
to cleansing of individual computers, the scope of the problem remains
significant, and the university needs to engage in “a lot of
concentrated effort” to assure users of smooth service, Kerwin
said. “We need to take a long hard look at both hardware and
software,” he said.
Kerwin also told the senate that the report on the proposed University
College is expected to be finished and circulated by mid-month.
The committee has been asked to be “absolutely brutal”
about the strengths and weaknesses of different options. “I
imagine it will generate as much comment as any [curricular change]
I’ve seen in my 28 years here,” said Kerwin, noting that
he expects a “spirited discussion.”
Dean of academic affairs Ivy Broder, vice president and general
counsel Mary Kennard, and Caleen Sinnette Jennings, performing arts,
CAS, also shared information on progress toward campus diversity.
Among the data on faculty:
- Faculty
of color comprise 18 percent of the faculty and 50 percent of
this year’s new tenure-track hires.
- Women comprise
44 percent of full-time faculty and 73 percent of new tenure-track
hires.
- African-American
faculty are evenly split between men and women, with 21 African-American
faculty members of each gender.
“I think we’re making good progress on at least some measures
of diversity,” Broder said.
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