Future of Higher Education Research Team Report

School of Arts and Sciences Chairs/Program Directors Response to Big Questions, Faculty Survey

Mark Caprio

Tuesday, March 7th, 2017

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 (February 28th, 2017, Slavin Soft Lounge, about 20; presented by Dr. Edward E. Andrews and Dr. Comfort Ateh)

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 1.  If Providence College were to be best known for one thing only within the next 10-20 years, what should it be?

• ¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0
• The BEST liberal arts college in the area, focusing on undergraduate education
  • ¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0
  • But what does that look like?  How do we know if we’re the best?
• Move away from scholarship as a main priority and emphasize teaching
  • ¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0
  • this generated good discussion about bars for tenure, junior faculty publishing like crazy, cultural changes on campus, are teaching and scholarship mutually exclusive, etc.
• Concern about the growth of the business school
• Fidelity to its purpose, mission
• More student/faculty engagement
• Think about us as a liberal arts place or a research institution?
• Cultural shift or not? Either way, we need resources to support our mission

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 2.  What should the College be doing in the next 10-20 years that it isn’t doing today?

• ¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0
• Rethinking financial aid structure, meeting full need, and reassessing scholarships for athletes
• Fewer people in business school – rethink our marketing.  Are we overselling the business school?
  • ¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0
  • Can we sustain, like, 100 marketing majors?  Are they even getting jobs?
• Diversifying faculty
• Moving away from a sports culture…make academics main priority
• Rely less on contingent faculty

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 3.  If you had $100M+ new dollars to spend, how would you spend it?

• ¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0
• Increase TT faculty lines
• Close need gap for students – target students via admissions for ALL disciplines, but also this is a problem because we are increasingly moving to a full pay culture…HUGE wealth gap on campus
• But if everyone is doing the same thing in terms of financial aid, how do we fit in?
  • ¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0
  • It’s a problem because we’re losing them to other schools
  • Admissions policies created a long debate about gap on campus, as well as how we “gap’ students in terms of financial aid
• More interdisciplinary offerings
• Clean up east campus
• Charity – how do we help our neighborhood around PC?

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 4.  What should be the most important measure or indicator of the College’s success? Why?

• ¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0
• Student satisfaction and academic engagement
• Graduate programs? Fellowships? Jobs?
• Must measure multiple times (1 year out, 5 years out, 10 years out, etc.)
• Communicate more clearly with parents
• We need to market/publish results of our students, perhaps business does not have great results in terms of job placement