Chancellor-Provost Conway’s Senate Presentation

March 31, 2022

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community:

On Friday, March 25, I had the great pleasure of delivering my inaugural Chancellor-Provost’s presentation to the University Senate, an opportunity to discuss Rutgers–New Brunswick’s successes and challenges during the current academic year; to introduce the new faces of our leadership team; and to describe exciting new initiatives and plans for our academic present and future.

I invite you to view the presentation video, and read the presentation text.

Among many other points of pride for Rutgers–New Brunswick, I provided an overview of the Academic Master Plan, a project made with significant input from students, faculty, and staff, as well as intensive research into our strengths and opportunities.

The Academic Master Plan establishes a clear path forward for our mission to serve the public through excellence in education, research, and public service. It is grounded in President Holloway’s commitment to academic excellence, institutional clarity, and a beloved community.

The AMP comprises four Pillars of Excellence: Student Success, Intellectual Communities, Research and Innovations, and Community Engagement, and provides a structure through which we will discover and implement new programs to realize its bold new vision.

You will soon receive an invitation to learn more about the AMP by attending an Academic Master Plan Virtual Town Hall on Tuesday, April 26, at which my office will unveil the final AMP report.

As President Holloway has said, “Cultivating academic excellence is not about building something new at Rutgers, but about building on what we already are and moving toward a vision of what can be.”

I thank each of you for your many contributions to our institutional success during this academic year and look forward to building an ever-brighter future on the strong foundation of the excellence that we embody.

Sincerely,

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

Read a Transcript of Chancellor-Provost Conway's Senate Presentation

Good afternoon, members of the University Senate, faculty, staff, and students. I wish each of you and your families the best of health. For those still experiencing losses and other adverse impacts of the pandemic, I wish you better days ahead. We will also continue to support our students, faculty, and staff impacted by the invasion of Ukraine.

I thank you for this opportunity to discuss the current state of Rutgers–New Brunswick, to celebrate our accomplishments over the past year, to examine existing challenges, and to preview our ambitious but well-grounded aspirations for the months ahead.

Over the past year, our campus community has worked to build a shared understanding of the way forward as we emerge from the pandemic. I look forward, for example, to the report from President Holloway’s Future of Work Task Force. I am inspired by the work that has already been accomplished with the Diversity Strategic Plan.

And I am proud that today I will provide an overview of Rutgers–New Brunswick’s Academic Master Plan, a project made with significant input from students, faculty, and staff, as well as intensive research into our strengths and opportunities.

The theme for the Academic Master Plan is “This Is What Excellence Looks Like.” It establishes a clear path forward for academic excellence in the service of our university mission.

My aspiration for Rutgers–New Brunswick is threefold:

For our academic community to be a national leader among institutions of higher education, and to build upon our existing academic greatness by defining excellence in inclusive research, pedagogy, and service toward the common good.

We also aspire to operational excellence. Although this institution predates the founding of our nation, in many ways we are in early stages of building strategic institutional clarity. It is important that this Chancellor-Led Unit be fully aligned with our central administrators for a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

We also aspire to become a beloved community—which for me means a place where we all feel welcomed, valued, and that we belong.

Rutgers–New Brunswick has entered a new era of partnership and coordination with the University central administration, for a direction that is focused on President Holloway’s three hallmarks of academic excellence, strategic institutional clarity, and beloved community.

But no Chancellor-Provost could commit to this partnership alone. I would like to introduce you to my team.

My cabinet includes Vice Provosts of research, academic affairs, faculty advancement and faculty affairs, and undergraduate education. I am also privileged to work with my Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff Alex Perez, and our Vice Chancellors for student affairs, enrollment management, advancement, marketing and communications, and finance; an Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology and Instruction; and our Senior Vice President for Equity who oversees the office for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement.

Reflecting our coordination with President Holloway’s administration, Rutgers–New Brunswick is also supported by centralized administrators including our Executive Vice President for Strategic Planning and Chief Operating Officer, our Senior Vice President for Human Resources, and our Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

The twelve academic Deans are my vital, close colleagues in ensuring that we provide our students with a world-class education and signature experiences while helping them thrive. This team looks a bit different than it did last year, with the addition of two Interim Deans: Interim Dean Ryan Kettler has led the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology since July 1, and Interim Dean Stuart Shapiro has led the Bloustein School since January.

Our Institute Directors and Residential Deans are also extremely important in ensuring we fulfill our university mission of excellence in education, research, and public service. And I am proud to introduce three distinguished new members of this group: James Knowles, an internationally recognized human geneticist and psychiatrist, is our new Director of the Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey; Julie Lockwood is our new Interim Director of the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; and Maura Reilly, a respected curator, writer, art consultant, and non-profit leader, is our new Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum.

I appreciate the support I receive from this stellar group of higher education leaders. Over the coming months, and during the next academic year, we will lead nationwide executive searches to bring the best and brightest minds into several existing open positions.

Now to celebrate our accomplishments.

The challenges of the past two years have not stopped our community from digging in, pulling together, and doing what must be done for our students.

This is reflected in our continued strong rankings. The U.S. News and World Report places Rutgers within the top 25 public universities. We have 20-plus programs and schools ranked in the nation’s top 20.

We have built on that success this year with the launch of several important new programs. I will highlight a few:

In August, we opened our One Stop Student Center’s walk-in location at Proctor Hall, which so far has welcomed 5,000 students and achieved outstanding satisfaction ratings. Since January 2020, the One Stop overall has processed more than 200,000 student inquiries across all of its intake channels—including walk-ins at Proctor Hall but also via email, online, and phone—and has consistently received high ratings from students.

In September we opened the Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services Community Center, which proudly stands up for adults with autism who can’t always stand up for themselves, and which amplifies the voices of those who can. The Center provides a wealth of services to help these important and vibrant individuals lead independent and fulfilling lives, while also advancing research and preparing Rutgers graduates for careers in support of adults with autism.

In October we broke ground for the Brandt Behavioral Health Treatment Center and Residence, which will be the centerpiece for the Rutgers Initiative for Youth and Behavioral Health and Well-Being. It will serve as the gold standard for evidence-based behavioral care and will extend world-class outpatient services to many New Jersey youth and young adults. The Brandt Center meets an important need in New Jersey. No New Jersey facility has offered treatment that is both exclusively for adolescents and young adults, and backed by an academic health leader like Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care and the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. I am very proud that the Brandt Center will address this important need.

The New Jersey Innovation & Technology Hub, which broke ground in New Brunswick this past October, will host the Rutgers Translational Research Facility. It is difficult to overstate just how significant this investment is for the State of New Jersey and Rutgers University. The Hub will foster increased opportunities for collaboration between researchers, clinicians, biologists, and the pharmaceutical industry. We will use it to support startup companies, industry partnerships, and professional learning, consistent with the goals of the Academic Master Plan. It will unleash the combined power of one of America’s greatest public research universities with industry and other academic partners—with profound positive impacts for our state and regional economies.

Rutgers–New Brunswick has many points of pride. We are one of the nation’s most diverse public research universities. We are a national leader in providing higher education access for first-generation students. And our students continue to win many prestigious awards.

For 12 of the past 15 years, we have been a top producer of U.S. Fulbright Student Grant winners, averaging 15 per year. During that same time, our students have also been awarded 34 Goldwater Scholarships, 11 Gates Cambridge Scholarships, Six Schwarzman Scholarships, and our first two Marshall Scholarships. Please join me in congratulating these students and in thanking Art Casciato, Director of the Office of Distinguished Fellowships, for supporting our students in this way.

As President Holloway recently told the University Senate, Athletics helps us tell a compelling story about Rutgers—one that inspires applicants, alumni, and friends to learn more about our great institution. And our student-athletes, across every team, have played with great heart and great success during these most difficult times. The clearest benchmark of the excellence of our student-athletes is our ranking in the Learfield Director’s Cup competition, which is based on a university’s overall performance in collegiate athletics. This success is due to the collective work of all of our student athletes.

Our campus community has shown so much courage, compassion, and resilience amid the staggering losses of the pandemic. But as strong as we have been, we must remember to look after our own mental health and wellness.

From April 25th through the 29th, Rutgers–New Brunswick will hold Wellness Week to remind our students, faculty, and staff about the importance of caring for our mental health needs; to become aware of the many institutional resources that can help; and to encourage us to take time, each day, to care for ourselves.

Excellence in education and research is not possible without world-class faculty. Rutgers–New Brunswick takes great pride in our entire faculty community.

In particular, I wish to highlight some of the many faculty members who have earned impressive national and international awards this academic year, including recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Sloan Fellowship, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Foundation, the Academy of International Business, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, and the Simons Foundation, to mention just a few.

As President Holloway recently said, “The research productivity of our scholars is breathtaking, and the pace is accelerating. … Our researchers are securing grants that have and will continue to change the world.”

Our Fiscal Year 2020 research expenditures primarily represent Federal, State, and local funds, supplemented by institutional funds and partnerships with businesses and nonprofits. This research is directed toward problems that affect our quality of life in New Jersey and beyond, and the human condition around the world.

To again quote President Holloway, “This is research in service to the common good.”

As a faculty member myself, and as one who understands that student success begins with having an excellent and well-supported body of faculty members, I am focused on the best ways to ensure that our faculty members have what they need to thrive and advance in their careers here at Rutgers–New Brunswick.

In 2019 we conducted a faculty satisfaction survey in partnership with COACHE—the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education. The survey yielded important insights from our faculty, and we created working groups to develop a set of recommendations.

This in turn led to our launch of the Faculty Development Council with representatives from each of our schools, and the Center for Faculty Success, which will support our faculty in three key areas identified by the survey: faculty leadership, faculty mentoring, and faculty career advancement.

To advance in these areas, we have added the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Faculty Affairs; created the Center for Faculty Success; bulked up our infrastructure in support of faculty success initiatives at the departmental level; launched the Provost Leadership Fellows program to support and develop future leaders; created a working group of department leaders and chairs, to confer with the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Faculty Affairs, and to support these initiatives locally; and created the Rutgers Associate Professors Project.

While proudly celebrating all that we have accomplished, we must also acknowledge and examine the many challenges we face as an institution, as well as some concerning trends.

I would like to begin this part of our discussion with a focus on the state of our resources—including the adverse effects of the pandemic.

The past two years have presented us with challenges in securing and retaining faculty and staff in a nationwide environment in which talented minds are retiring, resigning, or making other career choices. We have been especially vulnerable to losing staff and faculty with expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice issues, as more and more institutions pursue diversity and social justice agendas.

Our annual budget of $1.7 billion is funded primarily by tuition and fees, grants and contracts, auxiliary revenue, and state appropriations, among other sources. We are tuition-dependent; 41 percent of our revenue comes from tuition and fees. And the State appropriation is 13 percent along with some fringe support.

Our enrollment, which had been steadily increasing before the pandemic, is finally trending upward again after having leveled off during the past two years, which led to a significant loss in revenue. We will continue work to restore students’ access to our university.

Our operating expenses of $1.37 billion represent an efficient budget with significant, fixed costs that we cannot change. Most of our expenses represent the faculty and staff who are essential to our university mission of elevating the public good through excellence in education, research, and public service: 67 percent in salaries, wages, and fringe benefits.

Our current trend is one of upward pressure on our operating costs, and downward pressure on our revenues—a trend exacerbated by the pandemic and other societal factors. There are significant cost increases in almost every area.

Our students and their families are impacted by the cost of living, inflation, and other factors. As a result, we remain committed to increasing student support and financial aid—including through a new initiative called the Scarlet Guarantee, which I will discuss shortly.

Another upward pressure is in our infrastructure needs. This comes from the outpaced cost of deferred maintenance on residence halls, classrooms, and research spaces, with limited resources to direct toward these projects. Additionally, the pandemic has made abundantly clear that investments in our IT infrastructure are more important than ever.

And our revenues are driven down primarily by enrollment composition, discounted tuition, the very good decision not to raise tuition for the last two years, and other pressures.

Rutgers–New Brunswick recently announced our creation of the Scarlet Guarantee, a bold new tuition aid program that supplements the new State of New Jersey program called the Garden State Guarantee.

These initiatives provide significant tuition and fee savings to qualified New Jersey residents whose adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less. For those earning $65,000 or less, they can mean attending tuition-free for all four undergraduate years.

Rutgers–Newark and Camden set the pace in providing similar nationally recognized support programs, through their RU-N to the Top and Bridging the Gap initiatives. The Scarlet Guarantee now means that Rutgers–New Brunswick can join our sibling campuses in providing similar support to qualified students.

Initiatives like the one I just discussed and others will be important in helping our institution address the so-called “demographic cliff.”

This shrinking of so-called “traditional” college-age populations, due to the 2008 financial crisis, is something that universities have been preparing for since before the pandemic.

But fears of the “demographic cliff” only tell part of the story of our enrollment future. After all, these shifts will account for less than 40% of our enrollment. The rest of the story depends on our ability to compete for emerging students who will account for a much larger portion of our success.

We look to the research that shows increases in Hispanic students, life-long learners, and those whose lives and careers would encourage them to take advantage of online and hybrid programs. At Rutgers–New Brunswick, we view the emerging trends with a well-grounded sense of hope and optimism.

In a few moments, I will outline our Academic Master Plan, which has been a primary focus for this academic year. The Academic Master Plan charts a path forward for excellence that includes creating a welcoming community where students feel they belong.

A few words about our return to Rutgers.

Throughout our two-year experience of the pandemic, Rutgers University and Rutgers–New Brunswick have protected the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and communities by following the science and using the best available mitigation methods.

We have also implemented a return to campus plan that has been safe and responsible, and we continue to take joy in our community’s return to the Banks of the Old Raritan.

I still remember the excitement of August 2021, when Vice-Chancellor Mena and I walked along Seminary Place to greet students who were moving into the Honors College. And I experience deep satisfaction when I recall that, this January, Rutgers–New Brunswick resumed a predominantly in-person course schedule for our students.

And, of course, we are prepared for the changes to our policies on face covering and other measures that will take effect on April 4—and we are prepared as well to keep monitoring the pandemic and adapting our policies as appropriate.

I am truly proud of the courage, flexibility, and compassion that our entire campus community has shown and continues to show as we move forward.

Now for a preview our ambitious but well-grounded aspirations for the months and years ahead.

President Holloway set forth a bold challenge to our university community during his inauguration speech this past November. He said Rutgers has too often “shied away from embracing aspirations worthy of its potential” and has been “cautious about telling the world who we are and what we should become.”

He spoke about the academic excellence we already possess, and our potential to achieve so much more. He concluded: “Let us be unafraid to be bold, comfortable in our own skin, and confident in our abilities.”

The Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan takes up that challenge with a clear and ambitious vision for our academic future.

The Academic Master Plan is a roadmap for Rutgers–New Brunswick’s future as a leader in providing a rigorous academic experience; in solving the most complex grand challenges of our day; in public service and social justice; and in fostering student success.

We have created a strategy that prioritizes academic excellence; fulfills our three-part, land-grant mission; and prepares citizens who are civic-minded, intellectually curious, creative, and successful.

We have consistently met the goals of our Academic Master Plan timeline, and are finalizing our draft of the Academic Master Plan report.

Our data collection and stakeholder engagement included three town halls, with a fourth planned for April 26 to roll out the plan; surveys of students, faculty, and staff, with more than 4,000 responses; and nearly a dozen meetings with stakeholder groups that included undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, staff, and administrators at all levels.

Our 65-member Steering Committee includes broad representation from across Rutgers–New Brunswick’s schools and administrative units, serving all aspects of teaching, research, and student success.

We began this academic year by creating working groups to take on three components of the plan.

Working Group 1 was critical in writing the Academic Master Plan report. Working Group 2 considered what academic programs we want to build that would be part of the campus’ signature identity. Working Group 3 included three sub-groups that explored innovations in research, our student experience, and our public service mission.

The Academic Master Plan includes Four Pillars of Excellence: Student Success, Intellectual Communities, Research and Innovation, and Community Engagement.

Each of these pillars includes its own set of goals and objectives. The Student Success pillar, for example, calls for new practices to make Rutgers–New Brunswick more affordable and accessible; we have already started this through programs like the Scarlet Guarantee.

Our research on student success also focused our attention on the fact that many students find it challenging to navigate our institutional structures, which can be quite confusing. This lack of institutional clarity is in conflict with President Holloway’s vision, and it can adversely impact student retention and on-time graduation.

To address this issue, I have asked Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Carolyn Moehling to convene a Discovery Task Force that will examine ways to streamline these complexities, remove barriers that impede the student experience, and create a forum for more holistic and active student advising.

I invite each of you, and our entire campus community, to attend our final Academic Master Plan Town Hall, which will be held via Zoom on April 26.

This will be our opportunity to present the final Academic Master Plan report to the community.

Creating the Academic Master Plan has instilled in every member of our steering committee a profound awareness of and respect for the excellence at Rutgers–New Brunswick and the greater heights of which we are capable.

As President Holloway has said, “Cultivating academic excellence is not about building something new at Rutgers, but about building on what we already are and moving toward a vision of what can be.”

I am confident that the Academic Master Plan will guide our community toward its full potential as a world-recognized leader of education, research, and public service.

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