Chancellor-Provost’s Annual Senate Presentation

May 8, 2023

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community:

I was honored to recently deliver the Chancellor-Provost’s annual presentation to the University Senate, an opportunity to highlight some of our recent and ongoing achievements and to provide an update about the future of excellence at Rutgers–New Brunswick.

My presentation outlines the strategic priorities and initiatives we are undertaking as we implement the Academic Master Plan and its Four Pillars of Excellence: Scholarly Leadership, Innovative Research, Student Success, and Community Engagement.

These initiatives are being developed by working groups composed of faculty, staff, and—in many cases—students, and include, among many others:

• Discovery Advantage, a wholesale reimagining of the student experience across four central themes: Curriculum, Advising and Academic Support, Living-Learning Communities, and Enrollment and Marketing

• ScarletWell, a public health and prevention-focused approach to mental health and wellness for all community members

• The Chancellor-Provost Challenge, which will support new investments in transformative, cross-disciplinary scholarship projects created by faculty from across our campus

To learn more and consider getting involved, I invite you to view the presentation video and read the transcript, which is included below.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Read the Transcript of Chancellor-Provost Conway’s Senate Presentation

Good afternoon, everyone. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to address the University Senate and our university-wide community of faculty, staff, and students.

To begin my presentation, I would first like to say a bit about the unique moment we find ourselves in, here in our campus community and within our larger society.

People are taking a critical look at their institutions and systems on a broad level, perhaps accelerated by the pandemic and its disruptions. The pandemic has caused us to pause and reconsider how we live, love, and work.  Individually and collectively, our community members consider what could be done differently; what could be done better?

This is positive. This spirit of reflection can lead to change. And it is evident in the community feedback that drives our Academic Master Plan and other commitments to excellence.

It is a spirit that says: Despite our excellence, there are issues to address. Many students feel they need to be supported or feel more at home in our large institution. Much of our great work is done in silos. And our failing infrastructure and evolving administrative processes present daily hassles that distract us from the work we love doing. Let’s recognize these concerns and work together to change them.

While I understand and respect the intensity of feelings and deeply held views shared by members of our community, my call to our community is to maintain a culture of mutual positive regard, kindness, and compassion and a culture of respect and goodwill that is larger than the disagreements that will take place within it.

The campus progress report I will share today demonstrates what we have accomplished together. We are better together, and I hope we remember this.

Today’s presentation will focus on some of our recent and ongoing achievements. And I will give an update about our future, including the bold and exciting steps we are taking in implementing the Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan and other initiatives that support our students, push the boundaries of interdisciplinary scholarship, and serve our communities.

These initiatives grew from what our faculty, staff, and students said that they valued and the kind of institution they aspired to become.

I am heartened by the direct engagement with our community and stakeholders these past months as we decide how and where to set our priorities. And I am grateful to every team member and student who spoke up and volunteered to serve when we asked for their help.

The community-driven approach also informs the strategy and structure we use to develop new initiatives.

We begin, in general, by appointing committees, task forces, or working groups that include representation from faculty, staff, and in many cases students, who help us answer critical questions: How do we approach achieving our priorities? Are there any flaws in our assumptions? What is the best way forward?

I asked our academic units to share some signature activities currently underway in their areas that are great examples of our Academic Master Plan. I must say I received an overwhelming response from the community, and I will share just a few examples today. Our community is highly engaged in developing local expressions of the Academic Master Plan, and I look forward to all that they will produce. Today, I will present examples of a series of bold new campus-wide initiatives representative of the future excellence at Rutgers–New Brunswick.

I am genuinely excited about how engaged our community is and our mutual desire to refine our institution to become even better for the students we hold so dear. Our work this past academic year represents a true community-wide partnership in serving our university’s mission: To elevate the public good in New Jersey and beyond through excellence in education, research, and service.

* * * * *

So, to begin: Where are we today?

In September, we took our place in the rankings as number 19 among the nation’s top public universities. Last year we were number 23.

We also advanced in our U.S. News ranking among all national universities to Number 55 this year, up from Number 63 last year.

How did we achieve these improved rankings?

We did it through the ways we support our first-rate faculty, who are central to our mission. They are the ones who provide the world-class education and world-transforming research that are our hallmark.

We did it through the tireless dedication of our staff, including those who remained on campus through the pandemic and other interruptions and who demonstrate every day the heart, talent, and hard work that make our University mission possible.

And we did it through the committed support of our brilliant, hardworking, and deeply motivated students. All are highly qualified and have unique needs based on their diverse walks of life.

Let’s talk a bit about student success and zero in on the statistic on the lower right side of this slide:

Rutgers–New Brunswick has produced more than 300 Fulbright Student Grant recipients. We have been a top Fulbright producer for the better part of two decades.

We have also produced 11 Gates Cambridge Scholars, six Schwarzman Scholars, and our first three Marshall Scholars.

I am very grateful to Anne Wallen, our Director of Distinguished Fellowships, and her outstanding team for the support they offer our students. As I said, they are brilliant students.

* * * * *

Now we are heralding the collective excellence and brilliance of Rutgers–New Brunswick with a new marketing campaign. Perhaps you have seen our advertising at the Newark Airport or on select billboards across social media, Google, and programmatic TV as part of our undergraduate recruitment marketing.

The concept statement for these brilliant ads is as follows:

As New Jersey’s State University, we believe in progress—for our institution, others, and humanity. But as determined, curious, and aware as we are, we know that progress, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, is not a destination. It’s a journey. This is why Rutgers–New Brunswick is relentless in pursuing and supporting the next great ideas and discoveries that will span generations and uplift us all.

This is the concept that underlies the Academic Master Plan implementation: Progress is earned.

* * * * *

As I reflect on the concept of progress, I think about our esteemed faculty.

To stay within a reasonable time limit, I will briefly highlight some of the many faculty members who have earned impressive national and international awards this academic year.

As you can see, this list across two slides includes recognition from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Sloan Fellowship, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Grant, the Fulbright-Hays Grant, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Much of the progress we are making begins with Rutgers–New Brunswick’s partnership with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, for the COACHE surveys of faculty job satisfaction.

We worked with COACHE on our first faculty survey in 2019. We recently completed a new survey, and its results will be available in the fall. In both cases, we are focused on supporting and developing faculty of all ranks and at all stages of their careers: new-, mid-, and late-career faculty, chairs, and department leaders.

The results of the first COACHE survey bore very successful fruit for the benefit of our faculty and ripple out to benefit our students, our academic reputation, and our institution.

We have implemented substantive changes in faculty development and research support.

These include the creation of the Center for Faculty Success, which currently provides a wide array of faculty development programming and will open its new physical center at 24 College Avenue next fall.

We have also developed a set of best practices for department-level mentoring; a Provost Teaching Fellows program for faculty advancement; significant enhancements in our research infrastructure; and many more.

* * * * *

The Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan (AMP)

I previewed the Academic Master Plan at my Senate address last year. And I am proud today to give you a full update on its implementation.

The AMP is Rutgers–New Brunswick’s roadmap to excellence. Our AMP Steering Committee developed the plan through nine months of intensive research and engagement with our campus committee.

This effort included surveys that yielded more than 4,000 responses and stakeholder meetings with undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators.

In September, President Holloway joined me to announce the implementation of the AMP. We presented an ambitious suite of initiatives that will transform the student experience, sharpen our focus on the health and well-being of our community, invest in transformative and cross-disciplinary research, and more.

As a reminder, the AMP stands on Four Pillars of Excellence, which reflect the values of our campus community and the wealth of our inherent excellence. Those pillars are Scholarly Leadership, Innovative Research, Student Success, and Community Engagement. These pillars are not separate. They are intertwined. Each pillar contains and mutually supports the others.

And now as we begin the implementation phase of the AMP, we asked each of our schools and divisions to conduct an inventory of already-existing initiatives that fulfill and uphold the Four Pillars of Excellence. And I will just share a few of those pre-existing programs:

Reefense: A Mosaic Oyster Habitat for Coastal Defense. Rutgers was awarded a $12.6 million DARPA grant to develop an oyster-based shoreline ecosystem to help protect coastlines from storm damage, flooding, and erosion. It will use novel cements and concretes alongside state-of-the-art shellfish breeding and the latest ecological engineering of shoreline habitats. This Innovative Research is intended to foster Community Engagement and make our communities resilient. A true embodiment of the AMP and a true indicator of progress.

The Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies is a collaboration among the School of Communication and Information, the Institute for Women’s Leadership, and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the School of Arts and Sciences. The chair—currently held by the internationally recognized writer, editor, cultural critic, and educator Roxane Gay—draws eminent scholars and practitioners to engage the University community in debate and scholarship about new media, social change, and power structures. This is a representation of the Scholarly Leadership and Student Success pillars of the AMP. We’re talking about progress.

Socially Cognizant Robotics for a Technology-Enhanced Society (SOCRATES) is a partnership between the School of Engineering, Bloustein, and the School of Arts and Sciences. It focuses on the societal impact of robots as we integrate them into everyday life and work—and develops "socially aware technologists" alongside "technologically aware social scientists." SOCRATES is a National Science Foundation-sponsored NRT or National Research Traineeship. This unique project is an outstanding example of Scholarly Leadership that pushes the boundaries of our knowledge; Innovative Research that connects schools and disciplines; our creation of new opportunities for Student Success and Community Engagement.

The Integrated Dance Collaboratory at the Mason Gross School of the Arts researches dance as an intervention for public health, wellness, and education. It offers movement classes for those with neuromuscular conditions and our Neurodivergent community. The Integrated Dance Collaboratory is another example of Innovative Research that transcends disciplines for Scholarly Leadership and Community Engagement.

The Eco-Glider Offshore Wind Initiative. In addition to so much more work being done within the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences is leading the Eco-Glider Offshore Wind Initiative, with funding from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities. It will deploy robotic underwater gliders off the New Jersey coast for research to strengthen the emerging offshore renewable energy industry. Yet another example of progress: Innovative Research that creates new opportunities for Student Success and supports economic and supports economic and Community Engagement.

* * * * *

Discovery Advantage

The Academic Master Plan initiatives that I’m about to discuss with you are being led across our campus. I want to preface this by saying it is due to extensive collaboration between members of the Chancellor-Provost Cabinet and the Deans Council. We also partnered with the New Brunswick Faculty Council and other campus offices to make this work possible.

While I will highlight some key individuals tasked with leading the various initiatives I am about to present, please know that many committees and task force members have made this work possible, and I wish to thank them in advance.

Those pre-existing programs I just mentioned are just one small part of the Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan. Our purpose in creating the plan was to challenge Rutgers–New Brunswick to go beyond. To reach ever farther. To recognize, as we say in our marketing campaign, that progress is a continual pursuit.

Yes, we embody excellence. But, to continue preparing students who will make a difference in our ever-changing world, we must not rest within that excellence. We must continue pushing forward.

And if you were to ask why? This slide shows the answer: For our students. Student Success is an animating spirit behind the Academic Master Plan for a bold new AMP initiative called Discovery Advantage.

Discovery Advantage is a wholesale reimagining of the student experience.

It starts with our clear-headed understanding that—despite the best efforts of our faculty and staff—Rutgers is not known for an ideal student experience. Our academic organization is complex and confusing. Transferring to Rutgers is challenging. Academic support and student participation in career services are inconsistent. And we need clear academic pathways to success.

So with Discovery Advantage, we ask: What if we simplify the ways we admit and onboard our students, the ways we support them throughout their student experience, and the ways we prepare them for success after their time here is complete?

I want to thank Kathleen Scott, Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience in the School of Arts and Sciences, who is heading this initiative to address the issues that students experience across four central themes: Curriculum, Advising and Academic Support, Living-Learning Communities, and Enrollment and Marketing.

As you can imagine, Discovery Advantage involves much work throughout our community and several workstream committees under Kathy’s direction. This faculty- and staff-led initiative will yield significant benefits for our future students, and I look forward to their recommendations.

* * * * *

Teaching, Learning, and Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative

The next initiative focuses on: How do we maximize student learning? We must provide our instructors with resources and support on current and emerging best practices in teaching, learning, and inclusive pedagogy.

This initiative is being led by Senior Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Carolyn Moehling, who are working with a very productive task force of faculty across our institution to provide recommendations.

Next fall, we hope to launch the Institute of Teaching and Learning, dedicated to supporting our faculty and those who teach our students.

15+ to Finish

This fall, we launched our 15+ to Finish campaign, led by our Office of Undergraduate Education.  It informs students about the value of finishing 15 or more credits per semester to minimize costs and graduate on time. And, with our website at success.rutgers.edu, we connect students with the resources they need to achieve that goal.

ScarletWell

Our next initiative attends to the well-being of our beloved community. Centering the success of our students must start with a culture of mental and physical health and wellness that includes all of us: not just students but faculty and staff.

Our campus community overwhelmingly embraced this value during the development of the Academic Master Plan. And it is a philosophy that I embrace wholeheartedly as a psychologist, educator, and researcher.

So I am very proud to have launched ScarletWell—a public health and prevention-focused approach to mental health and wellness for all community members. This initiative is led by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Salvador Mena, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Laura Curran, and Dean of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology Arpana G. Inman.

Related to this, but on a slightly separate track, the ScarletWell Task Force is also developing a strategy to establish Rutgers–New Brunswick as a center of excellence in behavioral health, in partnership with RBHS, something I plan to achieve by supporting an intellectual community of faculty who research behavioral health and wellness issues, emphasizing population-level interventions.

I would also like to emphasize that the State of New Jersey shares our interest in supporting the mental health of our students. This week we learned that the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education had awarded Rutgers–New Brunswick and RBHS, jointly, a $1.8 million “Mental Health in Higher Education: Community Provider Partnerships Grant” due to the Murphy Administration’s understanding of this need among college students statewide. I thank Dr. Noa’a Shimoni and the ScarletWell leadership team and their committee for making this possible.

We are pleased to partner with the State to recognize and address this public health issue.

Innovation and Economic Prosperity

Our status as New Jersey's land-grant University confers on us a responsibility to serve the common good as a driver of economic opportunity and community engagement. I wish to thank Peggy Brennan, Director of Resource and Economic Development at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Jacqueline McGlynn, Manager of Special Projects to the Chancellor-Provost, for leading this effort as we work toward recognition by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University.

This designation recognizes higher education institutions that demonstrate a substantive, sustainable, and institution-wide strategic commitment to regional economic engagement, growth, and opportunity.

On the community engagement side, we are pursuing a reaffirmation of the Carnegie classification for our campus. That work is being led by Senior Vice Provost Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke from my office, and Executive Director Brian Kurisky from the Rutgers Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE).

The Chancellor-Provost Challenge

As you have seen through the illustrations I presented earlier, Rutgers–New Brunswick is home to transformative research that harnesses the power of interdisciplinarity. The Chancellor-Provost Challenge is part of our effort to push transformative, cross-disciplinary scholarship even further, an initiative led by the New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost’s Office of Research. Thanks to Vice Provost for Research Denise Hien and Vice Provost for Life Sciences Research and Partnerships Jean Baum.

With a plan to invest $15 million over five years to create interdisciplinary scholarly communities across multiple academic units to focus on issues such as climate and sustainability, data science and artificial intelligence, and other pressing matters, we launched the first Challenge this year.

In March, we chose four outstanding proposals that will focus on critical issues of climate science and AI.

A New Strategy for the Life Sciences

The final AMP initiative I will describe today—though certainly not the last one in our toolbox—is a new strategy for life sciences scholarship being led by Jean Baum, our new Vice Provost for Life Sciences Research and Partnerships, in close collaboration with the New Brunswick Office for Research led by Vice Provost for Research Denise Hien.

Jean has been tasked with developing a strategic framework to re-envision STEM research, particularly life sciences research, across Rutgers–New Brunswick and in partnership with RBHS. Our new approach will bring our scholars together to embrace the power of interdisciplinarity that I see as a largely untapped strength of our institution. It fosters foster new opportunities for joint research and external funding. And it strengthens our relationships with government, nonprofit, and industry partners.

Brandt Behavioral Treatment Center and Residence

And finally, on the subject of interdisciplinary scholarship to address grand challenges, I want to share a behavioral health project, the Brandt Behavioral Treatment Center and Residence, supported by our generous donor, Marlene Brandt, who has made this center possible.

This state-of-the-art facility is scheduled to open on our campus in Fall 2023 as the centerpiece of the Rutgers Youth Behavioral Health Initiative—and as the crowning jewel of a partnership that includes:

• Rutgers–New Brunswick through the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, which has just launched the and the Rutgers Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness, led by Dr. Joshua Langberg who, yesterday, brought together more than 100 community partners and foundations for a Youth Mental Health Equity Summit;
• RBHS through Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, led by President and CEO Dr. Frank Ghinassi, who has been an amazing partner in this initiative;
• And the Rutgers University Foundation, under the leadership of Foundation President Kimberly Hopely.

And thanks to all of our campus partners. This is a partnership that starts with this belief statement:

No parent should struggle to find high-quality, evidence-based mental health care for a teen or young adult suffering from a behavioral health disorder.

The Brandt Center embodies our Academic Master Plan’s Four Pillars of Excellence:

• It will be New Jersey's first treatment center exclusively for adolescents and young adults, backed by an academic health leader like Rutgers. This represents the pillar of Scholarly Leadership.
• It will be the gold standard for evidence-based youth behavioral care and extend world-class outpatient services to many people in need, representing the pillar of Community Engagement.
• It will train the next generation of clinicians here at Rutgers, representing the pillar of Student Success.
• It will create a lasting and all-embracing impact on mental health delivery—one that will reverberate across families and generations, upholding the pillar of Innovative Research.

* * * * *

I am confident that these many community-driven initiatives will guide Rutgers–New Brunswick to realize its potential as a national leader of excellence in higher education.

I am grateful to the faculty, staff, students, and administrators who have worked so hard this academic year to advance these initiatives. And I look forward to updating you on our collective progress next year.

It has been a great privilege to share these observations about the current state and future aspirations of Rutgers–New Brunswick.

Thank you.