Enhancing the College Park Campus: An Action Plan The University of Maryland at College Park July 31, 1989 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT COLLEGE PARK OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT May 10, 1989 The Honorable Peter O'Malley Chairman Board of Regents University of Maryland System Dear Mr. O'Malley: The 1988 legislation restructuring higher education in Maryland mandated the development of an enhancement plan for the University of Maryland at College Park. In response to this mandate, I am pleased to submit for review by the Board of Regents the enclosed five-year enhancement plan, the product of over nine months' work by faculty, staff, and students here at College Park. In light of the importance of this document for all of us, I would like to express on behalf of my colleagues my vision of the future and the importance of this enhancement of our University for all the citizens of Maryland. Ever since the passage of the 1988 legislation, we have been asking ourselves, "what will 'enhancement' mean?" What differences, in other words, will it make to be designated officially as the State's 'flagship' campus with a mandate to achieve parity with the nation's best public universities? In a real sense the first fruit of the legislation has been the mandate to think great thoughts, to aspire to be the best, and to begin to make changes with the confidence that the State will support our efforts with increased resources. The effect on the morale at College Park has been extraordinary. Those of us who have been here for several decades can remember nothing quite like it. There is now an excitement, a momentum for change, that is unmistakable. The Governor and the leaders of the General Assembly may have expected the legislation reorganizing higher education to be welcomed in College Park, but no one could have predicted the sense of excitement we have witnessed here this semester. As one of our Deans put it at a recent campus convocation, "These are magical days at College Park." The Honorable Peter O'Malley May 10, 1989 Page Two The planning document we have prepared is our attempt to translate this enthusiasm into practical terms, to translate aspirations for greatness into managed growth and the orderly strengthening of various aspects of University life. The exact dimensions of these changes will become clear as you and the members of the Board of Regents read through the document, but let me tell you now what our vision is, and what we think it will mean for the State of Maryland to have a premier comprehensive research university. We aim to become one of the nation's finest public universities, an institution that attracts outstanding students from Maryland and around the nation. We have for too long lost many of our best state students to Virginia and North Carolina, to Duke, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This must cease. We must offer curricula and instruction of consistently high caliber and we must make other changes -- in support for undergraduates, in dormitory life, and in the intellectual ambiance of the campus -- that will send a clear signal to prospective students that things have changed at College Park. We will strive to recruit a highly diverse group of men and women who share a seriousness of educational purpose. Once they are enrolled, we will work with them to forge an academic community that fosters intelligence and imagination, respects differences of opinion, and rewards those who perform at the highest levels of achievement. Our goal, within the next decade, is to deliver at a modest cost an undergraduate educational experience on a par with any of the nation's public universities and superior to that available at most private institutions. To achieve that goal, we must develop strong programs across the curriculum -- in the natural and social sciences, in the arts and humanities, as well as in selected professional schools. A university strong only in a few popular areas will neither enjoy a reputation as a major university nor recruit effectively among the very best prepared students. We aim to be a university known and admired nationally and internationally for the quality of our graduate education and research. We will be an institution where many of the most important discoveries occur in the sciences, where profound new scholarship emerges in the humanities, and where the nation frequently turns for its next generation of creative and performing artists. We aim to set a standard for public service to the State and nation that will be emulated by other traditional land grant colleges and universities. Our history and present role as a land and sea grant institution, our various service roles (to industry, agriculture, and government), our prime national location and -- increasingly -- international connections, and our size and diversity make us unusually well positioned to redefine the role and contributions made by the land grant university. We aim to become the main scientific and technological resource to fuel Maryland's economy and industrial growth. One need only look at other areas of the nation to see that this is The Honorable Peter O'Malley May 10, 1989 Page Three no idle hope. States that have invested in higher education have reaped rewards in terms of economic growth, industrial development in emerging technologies, clusters of research and development corporations, whole communities focused around scientific and technological activity. In addition to its economic and social effects, the creation of a national science and technology complex at College Park will bring into the State many of the nation's and the world's most brilliant students and scholars. Our existing faculty strength, our extraordinary location in the national capital -mid-Atlantic region, our existing laboratories and working ties with Federal and State agencies, all these make our aspiration for national scientific prominence both reasonable and realistic. We aim to become a model academic enterprise. Many would regard a university community as an ideal workplace: a sense of community among highly skilled and dedicated employees, an attractive and intellectually vibrant environment, a shared commitment to an educational ideal. College Park can become just such a model work environment, but it will require resources to correct for understaffed offices and underpaid staff, and most of all it will require the autonomy and flexibility to hire and retain the high caliber and diverse staff essential to the successful operations of a teaching and research institution. We aim to become a showplace for the talents of the citizens of Maryland. This will require major new facilities and renovation of existing facilities for the fine and performing arts, for intramural and intercollegiate athletics. The quality of our extracurricular life is already excellent; we must now see to it that the talents of our faculty and students are matched by the budgets and facilities with which they must work, and that our spectacular array of artistic and instructional activities is made widely available in person and through various media throughout the State. We aim above all to become the pride of Maryland. With the guidance of the Board and the support of the State we believe we can become the distinguished, prestigious academic institution Maryland deserves and needs. That distinction will manifest itself in various ways: our faculty will regularly receive the most prestigious awards for research and scholarship, our undergraduate students will be highly sought in the market place and regularly receive prizes and fellowships for graduate study at other prestigious institutions, our graduate students will increasingly populate the faculty ranks of the nation's leading colleges and universities, our campus services will regularly receive recognition for efficiency and creative efforts, and our campus will become increasingly praised for its excellence in design and livability. Our University will be recognized as a frequent producer of new ideas and technology, and high school students from Maryland and elsewhere will increasingly come to prize an acceptance letter from College Park as a badge of academic achievement as well as an invitation to join a select community of scholars. The Honorable Peter O'Malley May 10, 1989 Page Four That, as we conceive it, is what true academic excellence at College Park will look like. On the basis of my conversations with College Park's many supporters, I know it is a vision widely shared by others, and I know it is one to which you and the members of the Board subscribe. Other universities may share a similar vision, but few have any realistic hope of achieving such dreams. We do. No region in the nation has the intellectual, cultural and physical resources to compare with those in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. With an adequate resource base, with attractive facilities, we can utilize fully the advantage of our location to gain a competitive edge over almost any other university in the nation. Indeed, we have demonstrated repeatedly that departments in which we have been able to focus resources quickly achieve national prominence. Given adequate resources, given the support of the Board of Regents, and given the commitment to excellence that exists on our campus, our rise to the upper echelon of America's universities would be inevitable. We are fully prepared to begin the task of fulfilling these hopes and aspirations. The enclosed document describes the specific measures we believe enhancement will require. On behalf of all of us at College Park let me thank you and the members of the Board for your commitment to the enhancement of the University of Maryland at College Park. Sincerely yours, William E. Kirwan President WEK:sm Attachment Table of Contents Part I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 CHAPTER 1: PROVIDING AN EXEMPLARY EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . 6 UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Improving the Educational Experience for Undergraduates . . . . 7 Recruiting and Retaining Maryland's Best Students . . . . . . . 9 Quality of Student Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..12 GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Recruiting the Nation's Best Graduate Students . . . . . . . ..13 Increasing Diversity in the Graduate Student Body . . . . . . .13 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..13 CHAPTER 2: BUILDING A NATIONAL CENTER OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE ..15 ENHANCING SCHOLARLY PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..15 Strengthening our Core Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Specific Programmatic Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Collaborative Efforts in Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 CREATING A HIGH QUALITY TEACHING AND RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT . . .21 Competing for Faculty in the Coming Decade . . . . . . . . . .21 Improving Our Deteriorating Academic Facilities . . . . . . . .22 Rebuilding the Academic Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . ..23 Building Our Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..24 Keeping Pace with the Computer Revolution . . . . . . . . . . .25 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..27 CHAPTER 3: SERVING THE STATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 ADDRESSING AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS . . . . . ..28 PROMOTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..29 EXPANDING PARTNERSHIPS WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS . . . . . . . . . ..31 ASSISTING STATE GOVERNMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..32 IMPROVING COMMUNITY OUTREACH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..32 CHAPTER 4: CREATING A MODEL ACADEMIC ENTERPRISE . . . . . . . . . . . . ..34 STRENGTHENING OUR COMMITMENT TO ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS 34 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..36 RECRUITING AND RETAINING SUPPORT STAFF . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 ENHANCING THE SENSE OF CAMPUS COMMUNITY . . . . . . . . . . ..37 STRENGTHENING ALUMNI RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS . . . ..38 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..40 Part II INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..42 AN OVERVIEW OF RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS AND FUNDING SOURCES . . ..43 STAFFING AND SPACE REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 SUMMARY OF RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..48 Enhancing the College Park Campus: An Action Plan Part I Enhancing the College Park Campus: An Action Plan Part I Part I INTRODUCTION The University of Maryland at College Park is the flagship campus and the 1862 land grant institution of the University of Maryland System. As such, it has the unique responsibility within the System for offering a comprehensive array of degree programs at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels, drawing a diverse student body from all regions of the state, from across the nation, and from around the world; it serves as the primary statewide center for graduate education and research; and it offers, throughout Maryland, the most extensive set of service programs. The University aspires to become one of the nation's finest public universities by the year 2000, a university that emphasizes diversity within its community, attracts the nation's best scholars and the State's most talented students, and has teaching, research and service programs recognized as being the equal of those at any of the nation's great public universities. This vision of the University is shared by the State. The 1988 act reorganizing higher education in Maryland (Chapter 246 of the Laws of Maryland 1988) directs the University of Maryland System to: maintain and enhance the College Park campus as the State's flagship campus with programs and faculty nationally and internationally recognized for excellence in research and the advancement of knowledge; admit as freshmen to the College Park campus highly qualified students who have academic profiles that suggest exceptional ability; provide access to the upper division undergraduate level of the College Park campus for students who have excelled in completing lower division study; and provide the College Park campus with the level of operating funding and facilities necessary to place it among the upper echelon of its peer institutions. The document presented here is in response to the State's call for the enhancement of the College Park campus. It presents a plan of action for elevating the University of Maryland at College Park to the top tier of American public universities. In the plan, we describe specific initiatives that we believe are necessary in order for College Park to become a premier educational institution, a national center for scholarship, a valued source of public service, and a vibrant and inclusive academic community. In selecting the specific objectives set out in this document, we have made difficult choices that reflect several years of intensive planning and priority setting. The plan draws on the philosophy and recommendations of Malcolm Moos in The Post-Land Grant University: The University of Maryland Report (1981) and on the searching self-evaluation of our own 1986 Middle States Accreditation Report. It reflects campus wide studies that have set new requirements for undergraduate education, have committed the University to improving the status of minorities and women, and have established targets for computer workstations and library growth. It incorporates the deliberations of the faculty, students, and administrators who comprise the Provost's Academic Planning Advisory Committee, the University's Priorities and Finance Committees, the Deans' Council, and the Enhancement Plan Steering Committee. Planning and priority setting are a dynamic process, and this plan is neither the beginning nor the end of that process. The program initiatives presented here are central to our mission and are consistent with our current strengths. Likewise, our proposed service initiatives reflect those needs of the State that we are currently best suited to address. But no amount of deliberation can anticipate the changing needs and opportunities that will present themselves in the years to come. We must retain the flexibility to pursue new directions. Our primary goal is to create a university with the expertise, strength, and self-confidence to respond thoughtfully and effectively to the new problems and new opportunities of the twenty-first century. Our vision of academic excellence is shared by many institutions, but few of them have a realistic hope of achieving it. We do. The State of Maryland has recognized that one key to its future is a strong state university, funded at a level to match its best peers. We benefit as well from our location in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, offering an unparalleled combination of cultural, scientific, governmental, and natural resources. In the past we have taken advantage of these resources to achieve programs of national prominence in selected areas. Now we have the opportunity to use our talents in combination with enhanced State support to become a university of the first rank. We begin our drive for distinction from a position of considerable strength. The accomplishments of our faculty over the past several decades have been impressive. College Park has recently moved to fourteenth among all public universities in total amount of external research and development expenditures, putting us within reach of the top ten. We currently rank ninth among public universities in the number of distinguished awards and prizes won by our faculty. Moreover, recent national surveys have rated about a dozen of our academic programs as among the ten best in the country with another dozen cited as being on the threshold of distinction. Better programs attract better students. Grades and test scores of our entering freshmen are higher every year, and at a time when the number of college-bound students is declining nationally, applications for admission to College Park's freshman class have been rising impressively, 21 per cent in the past four years. At the graduate level, applications have risen 27 per cent over the same period and enrollment has increased almost nine per cent. These are strong indicators of our growing prominence. We have also gained distinction through our commitment to diversity. This past fall, 13.6 per cent of entering freshmen were black students, the second highest percentage among the 36 public institutions that are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU). We also have the highest percentage of black faculty and black graduate students among AAU institutions, although these numbers still fall well below our goal. The State of Maryland has recognized that an important key to its future is a strong state university. The legislation reorganizing higher education recognizes our accomplishments and offers us a challenge and an opportunity: to transform a very good university into a truly great one. The University is ready to take this step. To become a national center of excellence, to be ranked among the nation's leading comprehensive research universities, and to meet our statewide responsibilities as the flagship institution of a major state university system, we have set four goals: excellence in education, excellence in research, excellence in service, and excellence in the creation of a diverse and inclusive academic community. These will be taken up in the four chapters of this document. Because our primary responsibility is education, our first goal is to provide our undergraduate and graduate students with a learning environment of the highest caliber. When that goal is achieved College Park will be a magnet not only for the most talented students in the State, but for students from across the nation and around the world as well. An equally important commitment is that our student population should include a large and increasing representation from groups that have not been well served by higher education in the past. A second goal is to develop our research enterprise until it is of such quality that the University will be recognized as a national and international center for scholarship: a source of new knowledge and intellectual achievement in the arts and humanities and in the behavioral, social, physical, and life sciences. We will continue to build a base of expertise in the professional fields, including engineering, business, education, journalism, and those emerging fields where art, science, and technology intersect. Service to the State's people, business, and government is a distinguishing characteristic of a land-grant university. As Maryland's first land grant institution, our third goal is to help define and meet the needs of commerce, schools, communities and governments throughout the State. We will continue to address, in new as well as traditional ways, our important agricultural and environmental concerns. We aspire to become the State's first choice for technical assistance to businesses and government agencies; a catalyst for technological innovation and economic development; a provider of valuable services and information through educational outreach programs; a partner in our smaller and larger communities' efforts to solve social problems; and a continuing source of cultural enrichment. Such service will be an increasingly important part of the mission of College Park. Our final goal is to create at College Park an inclusive and enduring academic community, linking the past with the present and the future. A great university thrives on a strong sense of community among faculty, staff, students, alumni, and all the citizens who support it and gain from it. We depend upon and must actively nurture the support of these groups. We will not only ask for their commitment to our goals, but we will also try to meet their diverse needs through a high-quality working environment, efficient support services, and appropriate programs that reach out to alumni and friends. Excellence has its price. The State recognizes this fact; the legislation reorganizing the University of Maryland System mandates the System "to provide the College Park Campus with the level of operating funding and facilities necessary to place it among the upper echelon of its peer institutions." The University is willing and able to contribute its share of the cost. Our faculty have been increasingly successful in the competition for contracts and grants, and with improved facilities and support services, the awards from outside sources will continue to grow. The University has fared less well in attracting endowments and gifts. Fund raising and development activities, such as the Campaign for Maryland, have only recently begun. We realize, as other successful public institutions have, that an increasing portion of our resources must come from private contributions, a source we can tap more effectively as the citizens of Maryland gain increased pride in their university. Even with success on all these fronts, strong and sustained enhancement by the State is critical to our plans. But we believe in our vision, and we are committed to sharing the responsibility for generating the resources required for the full realization of our aspirations. The plan is divided into two parts. Part I describes a set of initiatives to be undertaken within the next five years and identifies the means by which we will measure our progress toward our ultimate goals. Part II provides a parallel and detailed analysis of the costs of these initiatives. We hope the plan conveys to our readers the excitement and sense of opportunity that have captured the imagination of the faculty, staff, and students at College Park. Enhancing the College Park Campus: An Action Plan Part I CHAPTER 1: PROVIDING AN EXEMPLARY EDUCATION The University of Maryland at College Park is the ninth largest campus in the country with nearly 28,000 undergraduates and over 8,700 graduate students. As the unique institution in the University of Maryland System with a comprehensive statewide mission, our programs affect more students than those of any other higher educational institution in Maryland. Students choose from among 120 baccalaureate majors and about 80 masters or doctoral programs. The consequences of enhancing the educational programs at College Park are substantial and far-reaching. In developing our status as an increasingly distinguished educational institution, our objectives are to: * provide a rich undergraduate curriculum that introduces students to broad areas of knowledge and stimulates their intellectual curiosity and creative talents; * enhance the coherence and depth of study in the student's major field; * offer graduate programs that are consistently ranked among the best in the nation, and that provide the benefits of study with leading scholars, scientists, artists, and professionals; * create a campus environment and academic community that foster intellectual and personal growth, appreciation for diversity, and understanding of differing cultures; * provide opportunities for minorities and other groups that have not been well served by higher education in the past; and * work in partnership with the other institutions in the University of Maryland System to insure that citizens of the State have access to a high quality, affordable education. The achievement of these objectives requires action. We describe below some specific steps we intend to take in order to realize our aspirations for excellence in education. UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION During the past year the University completed a full-scale reevaluation of undergraduate education at College Park. In the spring of 1988 the Campus Senate approved and the Board of Regents endorsed the Pease Report, Promises to Keep: The College Park Plan for Undergraduate Education, a comprehensive study that proposes significant changes in the undergraduate experience, beginning at the time students enter the university and continuing through their final semester. It calls for more coherence and rigor in general education requirements, greater depth in major programs of study, better opportunities for faculty and student interaction in and out of the classroom, and improved student support services, such as advising and career counseling. One of the Pease Report's recommendations is that students be exposed to broader perspectives through courses on ethnicity, gender and non-Western culture. Building on this idea, the Greer Report, Making a Difference for Women (1988), proposes a major curriculum development program aimed at incorporating the contributions and experiences of women into courses central to undergraduate education. It also calls for programs designed to acquaint faculty and staff with subtle forms of gender and race bias that may affect classroom interaction and inhibit learning. And it proposes that special programs be developed to encourage the participation of women in fields in which they have traditionally been underrepresented. These major planning efforts, together with important studies on honors students and advising, form the basis of the improvements in the undergraduate curriculum that are described in the initiatives that follow. Our reforms in undergraduate education will make little difference, however, if we cannot attract and ultimately graduate a diverse and talented student body. Our second set of initiatives in undergraduate education describes our proposed recruitment and retention efforts. Improving the Educational Experience for Undergraduates Increasingly, the nation's attention has been drawn to a perceived crisis in secondary and higher education. American students fare poorly in international comparisons of achievement, particularly in mathematics and science, and shortcomings in curriculum are often cited as the principal culprit. National reports warn of growing mediocrity in college education and suggest reform aimed at providing an undergraduate curriculum with more rigor and intellectual excitement, and with better opportunities for students to acquire breadth of knowledge across academic disciplines. Consistent with these concerns, the Pease Report proposed several specific improvements in the curriculum. The following changes are among the more significant that the University plans to introduce: * a pilot program of freshman seminars devoted to the study of major books and fundamental concepts, taught by full time faculty members in classes of no more than twenty students; * a coherent set of courses from the liberal arts and sciences that not only provides basic knowledge about the primary disciplines but also exposes students to the diversity of knowledge in the arts, humanities, natural and social sciences; * a general education requirement of at least one course specifically focused on issues of ethnicity, race, gender, or non-western perspectives; * a capstone course that requires students to synthesize learning from different parts of the curriculum, draw upon a deep understanding of their majors, think critically, exercise judgment, and communicate the results of their work; * a rich array of courses for honors students in an expanded honors curriculum; and * a summer program for development of faculty expertise in the scholarship on women and gender, and for the incorporation of the perspectives and contributions of women into the curriculum. In addition to changing the substance of undergraduate offerings, we will give greater attention to teaching methods and rely less on large lecture classes. The University has developed specific plans to help students become active participants in the learning process. We have already begun to: * reduce undergraduate enrollments by twenty per cent, in accordance with our five-year plan; and we plan to: * reduce the student-tenure-track faculty ratio to a level of 20 to 1; * increase incentives for faculty involvement in undergraduate teaching, with substantial increases in the funds available for innovative course development using new educational technologies; * create a Center for Teaching Excellence, one of whose responsibilities will be to improve classroom techniques, both for professors and for graduate teaching assistants; and * establish cooperative curriculum development programs between College Park and other institutions in the University of Maryland System. Innovative teaching often requires the use of new technology in the classroom. Effective implementation of these changes will require modernized laboratories and classrooms equipped with up to-date instructional equipment and materials. Chapter Two outlines our needs for equipment and facilities support for both teaching and research and includes our enhancement needs for additional faculty who will contribute to strengthening both the education and research programs. Recruiting and Retaining Maryland's Best Students Most college graduates obtain their first jobs within 100 miles of their undergraduate institutions. Attracting Maryland's best students to College Park means that these talented people will be more likely to contribute to their State's cultural, civic, and intellectual life. Too many of the state's Merit Scholars attend college out-of-state; the loss of human capital is enormous. As is shown by the substantial increase in the number and quality of student applications, we have made considerable progress in our recruiting efforts. But we still strive to increase the diversity and improve the academic profile of our entering freshmen classes. Over the next decade, the University will seek to admit students of diverse talents who have challenged themselves during their secondary school careers. In our admission practices we will give special consideration to students who have taken honors, gifted and talented, and advanced placement courses. We will also reserve space for students who have had limited success by traditional measures of performance but whose potential is high and for students at other universities in the System who want to major in programs offered only at College Park. Successful recruitment endeavors will require scholarship money. At present, the University offers only about 5O per cent of the amount of student financial aid available at peer institutions. Enhanced recruitment efforts will also require us to communicate more effectively the strength of our programs and the many opportunities, both in and out of the classroom, that College Park has to offer. As part of our recruitment initiatives, we intend to: * provide 100 four-year, full-expense Francis Scott Key scholarships for academically talented freshmen from all races and backgrounds; * increase the stipend of Banneker scholarships for high ability minority students, from tuition - only to full expense awards; * reach out to junior and senior high school students through expanded on-campus visitation programs, including a summer science and mathematics program to interest women and minorities in fields where they have been traditionally underrepresented; * improve communications with the population of potential applicants through a new electronic information service to high schools and community colleges throughout Maryland; and * enhance the Maryland Alumni Admissions Program, encouraging participation in student recruitment. In the past, College Park's retention rates have averaged ten to fifteen per cent below the rates of the best of its peers; fewer than half of the freshmen who come to College Park graduate from the University within five years. This rate of loss is unacceptable. The reduction in size of the undergraduate student body and the steady increase in the academic quality of students admitted should increase both retention and graduation rates. Much of the problem with our educational environment stems from a lack of individual attention, a characteristic of the impersonal nature of a large campus with high student-faculty ratios. Due to inadequacies in advising, many students' educational needs do not receive the personal scrutiny they deserve, nor do all students receive sufficient counseling to develop clear and realistic career goals. Our initiatives in this area are designed to make the University less impersonal and to provide better academic guidance and career counseling. These initiatives include: * the addition of 75 full-time advisors to make frequent advising available to all undergraduate students; * an expanded summer advising and orientation program, with increased participation by faculty members, for entering freshmen; * increased resources for campus-wide undergraduate retention efforts, with particular emphasis on the retention of minority students; * expanded counseling, support, and financial aid services for minorities; * expansion of pre-professional advising, internships, and career workshops, with particular attention to minorities and women considering careers in mathematics, the sciences, and engineering; and * development of a Transfer Student Resource Center to provide individual orientation for incoming transfer students and information resources for all students. Quality of Student Life The quality of intellectual life outside the classroom affects the vitality of the University. The quality of support programs and extra-curricular activities affects the University's appeal to students. And the attitude that the institution engenders towards cultural and ethnic diversity helps to shape its sense of community. The College Park campus suffers from a perception that it is a large and impersonal place where students have limited opportunities for meaningful interaction with faculty or with other students outside their disciplines. The size of the student body and the large number of part-time and commuting students have contributed to this image. Reducing the size of the undergraduate student body will, as mentioned above, address some of the problems inherent in a large urban campus. Increased financial support for students will reduce their need to seek part-employment, allowing them to pursue their studies full-time and to take full advantage of the intellectual and cultural amenities a great university has to offer. There are additional actions we can take that will make the College Park campus a more intellectually stimulating and welcoming environment in which students can live, work, and grow. Our plans cover a broad spectrum, and many emphasize the interaction of faculty and students. These initiatives include the following: * a series of department colloquia and campus-wide seminars to provide opportunities for dialogue between faculty and students from across the disciplines; * research support for undergraduates; * enhanced programs providing leadership and service opportunities for undergraduates; * the creation of a Student Honor Council, with its own hearing room and secretarial assistance, to help foster a student-based and campus-wide commitment to academic integrity; * an honors dormitory; * a Multicultural/International House, an academic "living and learning" residence hall; * development of a better ambiance in all of the dormitories through the creation of quiet study areas, reading rooms, tutorial services, and lecture series; * enhanced services for commuter students, including improved communications concerning campus activities and opportunities, with the objective of better incorporating these students into campus life; * improvements in facilities and additions to staff in two key student support services, the Health Center and the Counseling Center, which are the campus' primary physical, mental and emotional health units; * continued supervision of athletic programs, both intramural and intercollegiate, to insure their full compatibility with the University's academic mission; and * implementation of our recently developed Master Plan for Recreational and Athletic Facilities. Accountability The citizens of Maryland expect the University to make good use of enhancement support, and we will be prepared to show that these funds are used wisely and well. Some signs of our success will be intangible: the sense of intellectual excitement, the liveliness of faculty and student interactions, and the depth of the University's interests and concerns. But we will rely on more tangible measures of success as well. Within five years, we expect the following goals to be realized: * the mean high school grade point average of admitted students should rise from 3.0 to 3.3, with comparable increases in scores on standardized tests; * the percentage of black students in the entire undergraduate student body should increase from 9.7 per cent to 12 per cent. * the numbers of National Merit and National Achievement Scholars should increase by 40 per cent; * the five-year graduation rates for majority and minority students should each increase by 15 percentage points. GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION By the year 2000 almost half of today's college professors will have retired and there will be too few trained scholars to replace them, since there has been a serious decline in the number of American students who choose to continue their education at the graduate level. But it is not just in college teaching that the shortfall will be felt. Even in those industries in which we are now preeminent, such as computers, we are in danger of losing the competitive edge. The future of science, technology, scholarship, education, and business in this country is at risk. The University of Maryland at College Park, together with other leading graduate schools, has a responsibility to help reverse this dangerous trend. We must actively recruit graduate students from all segments of the population, provide them with adequate support, and engender in them a sense of the excitement of research. Students are influenced in their choice of graduate school by numerous factors, the most important of which are the quality of the faculty, departmental programs and research facilities. These elements are essential to research as well as education; excellence in research and excellence in graduate education go hand in hand. Enhancement of these dual aspects of scholarship will be the subject of Chapter 2. In this section we limit our discussion of graduate education to those aspects administered at the campus level. Recruiting the Nation's Best Graduate Students Today, financial support for education is limited. About half of all federal student aid for undergraduates is now in the form of loans, making the additional cost of graduate school a financial burden intolerable for many talented youths, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The national shortage of graduate students and the nation's poor record in attracting minorities to graduate school are compelling reasons for increasing the amount of financial support available. In 1982 the College Park campus had enough fellowship money to award 45 one-year fellowships of $1000 and 11 three-year fellowships of $4500. Since then the University, through its own reallocations, has developed a fellowship pool that currently supports 180 full-time students at $8200 per year. But impressive as the improvement has been, this number of fellowships compares poorly to the 300 to 500 available at peer institutions. To help with graduate student recruiting, we plan to: * triple the existing pool of fellowships to a total of 500, so that 10 per cent of the total number of full-time students can be supported from this source; * increase the number of teaching assistants by 10 per cent; * maintain fellowship stipends at a competitive level and keep pace with the cost of living in the metropolitan area; * increase the number of fully funded fellowships for minorities from 85 to 150; and * acquire -- through renovation, construction, or lease -- additional graduate housing units to relieve the shortage that discourages potential students from enrolling at College Park. Increasing Diversity in the Graduate Student Body Given the impending shortage of scientists and scholars, we cannot afford to discourage any of our talent. In many fields, the most promising solution to the crisis lies in increased participation in graduate education by hitherto underrepresented groups -- minorities and women. Yet in the past we have not done well by these groups, particularly black students. To attract these students and to reverse the national decline in the numbers of blacks attending graduate school, we must meet their special needs and remove the obstacles that often prevent them from completing their degrees. To this end, the University established in the fall of 1988 an Office of Graduate Minority Student Affairs. The following initiatives have been planned by this office for the purpose of recruiting talented graduate students and helping them with the critical transition between undergraduate studies and graduate or professional education. The office will: * encourage our own undergraduate minority students to apply to graduate school through informational programs on graduate study opportunities and financial aid; * support a program of campus visits each year by 200 prospective minority students, together with their sponsoring faculty and administrators, from targeted minority colleges and public institutions, including specifically the traditionally black colleges of Maryland; and * sponsor fully-funded summer "bridge" programs to enable as many as 30 promising undergraduate minority students each year to experience graduate life and conduct research with College Park faculty members. Accountability We expect our success in strengthening our graduate programs to be reflected in the following ways: * the number of prestigious fellows admitted as graduate students should rise; * the number of distinguished positions obtained by our PhD recipients should increase; * the proportion of graduate students among the total student body should increase from 24 per cent to 30 per cent (an increase of more than 1300 students over the present enrollment); * the proportion of black graduate students should rise from 5 per cent to 12 per cent; and * the number of doctorates awarded annually should increase by 10 per cent over the 1988 level of 364, and the number awarded to blacks by 25 per cent over the 1988 level of 24. CHAPTER 2: BUILDING A NATIONAL CENTER OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Nations depend on their educational institutions to make the fundamental discoveries that advance society, to train the minds that will be responsible for future intellectual and technical achievement, and to create the intellectual climate that sustains civilized values. The University of Maryland at College Park counts itself among the nation's vital research universities, with a goal of joining the top tier. We have a tradition of outstanding research and scholarship in numerous disciplines, and a special mandate to serve as the State's primary center for graduate education and the advancement of knowledge. In accordance with this mission, our goals are to: * foster a quality of scholarship in core disciplines that creates a consistent level of excellence across the University; * build on historic strengths and exploit more effectively the advantages of our location; * develop research programs of the highest quality in areas of particular importance to the State; and * create a research environment at College Park that attracts and supports the nation's finest scholars, teachers, researchers, and graduate students. A public university that is a center of intense, creative scholarship is not an isolated island of knowledge, but a source of intellectual, cultural and technological expertise that brings vitality to its community. Success breeds success. The better our reputation, the more we will be able to recruit first-rate faculty and students, the more attention our programs will receive from other outstanding scholars and from the community, the more funding agencies will support our endeavors, and the more business and industry will seek our expertise and assistance. Our purpose here is to define the steps we must take to create a research university worthy of our present accomplishments and our future aspirations. ENHANCING SCHOLARLY PROGRAMS The development of an academic institution is synergistic, built on the productive interaction of all of its parts. Consequently, the development of the core -- the traditional liberal arts and sciences -- is interdependent with the development of the rest of the University's programs. For convenience of exposition, however, our initiatives can be presented in two sections: those relating to long-range enhancement of the core disciplines, and those relating to specific areas that have been targeted for enhancement in the immediate future. Strengthening our Core Programs The heart of a university lies in the disciplines of the liberal arts and sciences. It seems clear, indeed, that the strength of the core programs sustains all the others; a university with a strong core is able to attract the best students and faculty and to serve as a resource for society as a whole. Moreover, the liberal arts and sciences carry the primary responsibility for undergraduate education, and College Park's renewed commitment to its undergraduates presupposes broad enhancement in this area. Within the academic world the eminence of an institution is judged almost solely by the strength of its programs in this core. Even those that are primarily scientific or engineering schools, such as MIT and Caltech, have integrated strong liberal arts programs into their curricula. Similarly, leading universities like Michigan and Virginia have outstanding law, business, and music schools, but their preeminence is grounded in roughly a dozen areas such as history, philosophy, English, foreign languages, physics, chemistry, and economics. In order to join the ranks of the best of its peers, the first priority of the University's programmatic enhancement must be to match (and aim to surpass) their excellence in these areas. No other strategy will suffice, for it is the mark of a great institution that its students are educated liberally, whatever their major, and that its core programs are recognized as outstanding. At College Park these programs are spread throughout several Colleges and possess varying degrees of strength. Some have already achieved national recognition and must be supported to build upon that status. Others are within striking distance of distinction. Our enhancement objective is to improve the quality of all of our core programs, and to make a half-dozen or more nationally preeminent. There are a number of strategies that we will deploy to achieve excellence in the core disciplines, recognizing that the process involves both long-range planning and taking advantage of opportunities that unexpectedly arise. Our initiatives include the following: Distinguished professorships: Within five years we will appoint 30 scholars of the highest distinction. The quality of faculty at all ranks is, of course, the key to the entire enhancement process, but effective enhancement of core programs depends upon recruiting scholar-teachers with established reputations. Such appointments can elevate a department to the forefront of its discipline, strengthen programmatic excellence, and attract high quality graduate and undergraduate students. Operating resources: Core departments must have the necessary operating resources to play the leading role they must occupy in an enhanced University. Special priority will be given to their needs in such areas as facilities, laboratories, support staff, and equipment. Graduate and undergraduate scholarships for the core programs: We will target special undergraduate and graduate scholarships so that the core programs can attract the best students. Graduate and undergraduate scholarships for the core programs: We will target special undergraduate and graduate scholarships so that the core programs can attract the best students. Distinguished visiting professorships: The campus will create 10 visiting professor positions to be used by core departments, in order to bring major scholars to campus for periods of a semester or an academic year. Such positions are common among our peer institutions; instituting this program at College Park will raise our standing both nationally and internationally, and will have a significant influence on the intellectual life of our faculty and students. Lecture and seminar series: We will provide hard-budgeted resources for each core department to run yearly lecture and seminar series (which at present are funded entirely from soft money). These activities are essential to the intellectual life of the University and no major institution is without them. Specific Programmatic Initiatives In addition to a long-range commitment to enhancing its core programs, the University regularly selects particular areas for special enhancement. In 1983 it established an Academic Planning Advisory Committee (APAC), a planning body consisting of faculty, administrators, and students, to advise the Provost and President on academic priorities and reallocation of resources. Based on APAC recommendations, the University developed a plan in 1985 to reallocate internal resources in order to enhance selected programs. Choices were based on several factors, including the quality of existing programs, special resources in the area, and the needs of our society. It should be noted that reallocation has had to take place within highly confining constraints. We have an obligation to support programs in which our undergraduate students enroll heavily, even when these are not among the ones we would want to emphasize for research development. There are external budgetary constraints as well. The State retains 2% of the salary and wage budget in the form of mandated "salary savings." In addition the Office of the Statewide University of Maryland System assesses a tax of 0.7% on all non-state revenues (for instance, external grants and contracts), which amounted to $1.2 million in fiscal year 1989. Despite these constraints, an impressive set of resource and program redirection has been accomplished. Following review and endorsement by the campus Senate, three academic programs have been eliminated since 1986, a fourth is under consideration for elimination, and five areas of concentration have been recommended to the Maryland Higher Education Commission for removal from our program inventory. Selected colleges have reverted a dozen faculty positions in the past three years, and these have been redirected to areas of higher priority. Through reallocation the University has increased the number of fully funded graduate fellowships from 17 in 1984 to 180 in 1989; has redirected more than $1 million since 1985 to the library's collections budget; and has constructed a $15 million research building. In addition, a number of academic programs have been targeted for enhancement. A program in linguistics was started in 1984 and has already become exceptional; the College of Journalism became a priority, and in a recent study by the Gannett Foundation was listed as one of the eleven "exemplary programs" in the United States; the Center on Aging received enhancement funds and today enjoys a national reputation. Currently, four areas have been recommended as focal points for substantial enhancement over the next five years. They do not represent the full range of our future endeavors, but rather some specific choices that respond at the present time to particular opportunities and promise significant rewards for the wider community as well as for the University. Biological and Environmental Sciences Revolutionary developments have drastically changed the nature of these scientific fields. Modern biology has the potential to improve radically the ability to detect and cure diseases, produce food, manufacture biological materials, and protect the environment. Because of the enormous potential for enhanced quality of life, universities with outstanding biology programs will serve as a significant catalyst for economic development. The primary focus of our attention in the biological sciences will be molecular and cellular biology, which is expected to be a dominant area of inquiry well into the twenty-first century. We have already made a large investment in this direction, but given the high cost of research and its tremendous rate of growth, much more is needed. We propose to enhance teaching and research programs in molecular and cellular biology and to strengthen our existing collaborative efforts with the National Institutes of Health, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of Maryland at Baltimore, and with the University of Maryland System's Biotechnology Institute. Development of additional expertise in the areas of molecular genetics, gene expression and regulation, biochemistry and plant biology will allow us to address a variety of important problems in areas such as molecular ecology, evolutionary biology, fermentation biology and biochemical processing, protein engineering, and rational drug design. Other areas of enhancement within the biological sciences include neuroscience research on aspects of the brain and nervous system from cell and molecular, biochemical, morphological, physiological, and behavioral perspectives. Our enhancement efforts in the environmental sciences will build on our considerable strength in our environmental and natural resource programs, with an applied focus on problems of special concern to the State, including integrated pest management, water quality, and marine and estuarine problems. Technologies for the Twenty-First Century Capitalizing on a long-standing record of achievement in physics, engineering, and computer science, as well as high-caliber work in associated academic and business fields, the University proposes to devote a share of its enhancement funds to develop its interdisciplinary high-technology research programs. Our efforts will emphasize new applications of basic discoveries in the physical, engineering and computer sciences and will incorporate aggressive means of transferring the campus' technical capabilities to State business, agriculture, and industry. We already pursue collaborative research with numerous Maryland-site corporations; our proposed programs will greatly extend such connections. Our initiatives will focus on three areas: (1) advanced materials with emphasis on new electronic materials such as high temperature superconductors and compound semiconductors and on composite materials, leading to development in such fields as infra-red opto-electronics, medical diagnostics, and energy transmission; (2) computer-integrated manufacturing and design, with attention to technology management and manufacturing entrepreneurship; and (3) computer and information sciences, with emphasis on software engineering, systems engineering, artificial intelligence, expert systems, parallel processing, and computer security. Public Policy and International Affairs The University is uniquely situated to become a major center for both international studies and public policy analysis. The decision of the National Archives to locate its $250 million primary research center, "Archives II," at College Park adds a focus to our efforts. The Archives will bring to our campus the nation's most comprehensive set of documents covering virtually every facet of American public life and issues of state. It will provide historical and contemporary perspectives of incalculable value to scholars and students interested in public policy research and to researchers who study America and its place within the global community. We propose to enhance our efforts in international studies, including the foreign languages which are essential for such scholarship. Our plans will include both historical area studies, such as our program in Africa and the Americas, and contemporary research on international relations. Examples of the latter are a comprehensive program focusing on U.S.-Soviet relations in areas ranging from nuclear arms control and disarmament to technological assistance and bilateral trade; and research on protracted ethnic and social conflict conducted by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. The University has considerable expertise in domestic public policy analysis as well, with policy-oriented programmatic strength in public affairs, education policy, history, journalism, economics, and political science. Our initiatives in this area will include studies of public finance (e.g., the impact of the 1986 tax reform act projections); analyses of agricultural, environmental and land use policies which have profound consequences for the State's urban and agricultural communities and for its primary natural resource, the Chesapeake Bay; research on post-secondary education governance and finance; and examinations of alternative strategies for economic development of the State and its various regions. Through enhanced funding the University will be responsive to requests from the State for timely analyses and will provide a dispassionate basis for making sound policy decisions, a role carried out by the flagship campuses in North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois and elsewhere. The Arts Drawing on the rich cultural resources of two major urban areas and the strength of its faculty, the University of Maryland at College Park has an opportunity to develop unusual distinction in the creative and performing arts. Already our academic programs in art history and musicology are nationally recognized. And our Handel Festival and piano competition are internationally acclaimed. Efforts are underway to develop a University orchestra of the caliber of the distinguished Maryland Chorus, to create an opera program, and to strengthen our theatre and dance programs. Central to our plans is the construction of a new educational center for the creative and performing arts. In addition to the capital funds required for the center, we will devote significant resources to students and faculty: expanded recruitment efforts, full-cost scholarships, special fellow-ships in the graduate music programs, and funding for affiliate artists and performers. Similar efforts will be made in other areas, for instance in creative writing, in which a Master of Fine Arts degree has recently been proposed by the institution, and in the visual arts. A characteristic of our development of the arts will be the close interaction between the disciplines of performance and scholarship and working partnerships with leading galleries and museums in the Baltimore-Washington area. Collaborative Efforts in Scholarship The location of the College Park campus offers opportunities for fruitful collaboration with the many cultural, scientific, and governmental organizations in the Baltimore-Washington area, such as the National Institutes of Health, the Archives, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Smithsonian Institution. Also of value are the joint programs which the University of Maryland at College Park enjoys with other institutions of the University of Maryland System, including the UMCP/UMBC engineering program, the UMCP Public Affairs/UMAB Law School interdisciplinary program, and the graduate program in Marine-Estuarine Environmental Sciences shared by the College Park, Eastern Shore, and Baltimore County institutions together with Frostburg State and the Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies. Additionally, several faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park participate through joint appointments in the System's Maryland Biotechnology Institute. There are many benefits from this collaboration. University research programs benefit directly; students are exposed to a wider pool of expertise and gain important internship opportunities; the State receives increased grants and contract income; and the general public gains from expanded cultural and scientific opportunities. For these reasons, the University seeks to: * expand the number and range of partnerships and joint programs with local, state, and federal agencies and other research-oriented organizations in the area; and * develop collaborative research efforts and faculty exchanges between College Park and the other institutions in the University of Maryland System. CREATING A HIGH QUALITY TEACHING AND RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT The quality of a university depends ultimately on the excellence of its faculty and students and on the adequacy of its facilities. These are the indispensable factors that produce the discoveries that change the way we live and that deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world. The University has recognized the importance of a long-range strategy for improving core departments. It has also identified, and will continue to identify, new program initiatives that offer particular promise. But the recruitment of excellent faculty and the provision of adequate research and teaching facilities are campus-wide goals. Competing for Faculty in the Coming Decade "A generation of top scholars was lost forever to our colleges and universities" (M. I. Sovern, New York Times). In the 1960s and 1970s a boom-and-bust cycle in American universities caused many promising young people to seek careers elsewhere. In the coming decade, massive retirements are predicted nationally in the humanities and social sciences, and universities will be forced to compete aggressively for faculty members to replace them. Competition will be even fiercer in the natural and physical sciences, where the National Science Foundation predicts that the nation will produce 400,000 fewer engineers and scientists than it needs by the year 2000, since industry as well as academia will be vying for the shrinking pool of PhD's. Reports by the National Academy of Sciences (Research Excellence Through the Year 2000, 1979) and the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (Report of the White House Science Council Panel on the Health of U. S. Colleges and Universities 1986) stress the urgency of this impending crisis. Over the past two decades the University has increased its ability to attract an outstanding faculty, which now includes members of national academies; Pulitzer Prize winners; an impressive number of Presidential Young Investigators and Guggenheim, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Sloan fellows; recipients of multi-million dollar competitive research grants; and internationally acclaimed artists and musicians. But to continue our success and to recruit and retain excellent faculty in the 1990s, extraordinary measures will be necessary. Our faculty salaries, for example, must be more competitive. We currently rank sixth of eleven among our peers in salaries paid to full professors, seventh in salaries paid to associate professors, and tenth in salaries paid to assistant professors. In addition to offering lower salaries than our competitors, we are situated in an area with one of the highest cost of living indices in the country. To compete during the next decade, we must * raise faculty salaries to at least the 85th percentile of our peer institutions and provide competitive compensation and benefits packages; * double the funds available for keeping our best faculty from being recruited by other universities; * increase two fold the number of endowed professorships so as to attract distinguished scholars; and * establish a multi-million dollar fund to provide research start-up costs to help attract young faculty. In many disciplines the most intense competition for faculty will involve minorities and women, particularly in fields where they have not been well represented in the past. The University has made a strong commitment to affirmative action, but at present only 17 per cent of its tenure-track faculty members are women, and only 3.2 per cent are black. Although these percentages compare favorably with peer institutions, we can do better, especially given our location near major suburban areas with high minority populations and job opportunities for spouses. In order to achieve our goal of a more diverse faculty, we will: * intensify our recruitment of black faculty so that the number of black faculty on campus are doubled; * increase the percentage of female faculty hired from 28 to 35, with special efforts in disciplines in which women have traditionally been underrepresented; and * monitor tenure and promotion rates for minority and women faculty members. Improving Our Deteriorating Academic Facilities American universities are plagued not only with a diminishing pool of outstanding faculty and graduate students, but also with decaying research facilities, outdated teaching facilities, and inadequate research space. The College Park campus shares the plight of other institutions. The quantity and quality of space represent the most serious obstacle to sustaining, let alone expanding, our scholarly activities. In the humanities, many faculty members do not have private offices in which to pursue research and meet with students. In the creative and performing arts, deplorable conditions in practice rooms and studios, and totally inadequate recital and performance halls, inhibit our creative endeavors and our ability to contribute to the cultural opportunities of the campus and the community. In all of our colleges and professional schools there is a near-total absence of suitable meeting places where scholars can discuss their work with one another. These conditions impede creative and scholarly activity and discourage a spirit of intellectual community. Similarly, the shortage and obsolescence of laboratory space impede advancement by our scientific research enterprise. The Engineering College serves as a striking example. Not only is it understaffed in comparison to its peers, with about two-thirds the average faculty size and twice the student faculty ratio; in addition it has to make do with one-half to one-third the space available per faculty member at peer institutions. As evidence of its concern for this nationwide problem, the National Science Foundation has recently established the Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program, which will offer facilities support on a competitive basis to universities conducting extensive NSF research. Our proposed initiatives to improve research and teaching facilities will be able to draw on federal funds such as these if our University is considered a good investment by the agencies concerned. The shortage of space is the most constraining factor on campus. If our current severe space shortages are not alleviated, many of our plans set forth in this document will be precluded. Our space deficiencies will take many years to remedy; the following are our facilities-related plans for the next five years only: * the development of a ten-year master plan that will identify our facilities needs into the twenty-first century; * a major program to provide 111,000 net assignable square feet of additional office space, 86,000 net assignable square feet of new research laboratory space, and 92,000 net assignable square feet of new instructional space (which would still result in a 241,000 square feet shortfall below State space planning guidelines); * full funding for our facilities renewal program designed to modernize existing academic and support facilities, funded annually at 2 per cent of the replacement cost of all state-supported buildings on campus ($12 million in fiscal year 1990); * a program to lease space where necessary so that space constraints do not preclude enhancement initiatives; * an increase in the staffing of the units that supervise renovation and construction of campus facilities; and * an increase in the staffing of physical plant to reflect the increase in facilities that must be cleaned and maintained. Rebuilding the Academic Infrastructure Adequate and appropriate space is essential for research, but in itself it is not sufficient. Researchers require laboratory equipment, research materials, clerical, technical and professional support, and funds for research-related travel. College Park has longstanding and continuing deficiencies to overcome. During the past two years, for example, we have stood in the bottom third of our peers in value of equipment per faculty and in new equipment acquisitions. And although our funding from external grants and contracts has increased 150 per cent since 1980 (from $32 million to $82 million) the size of our support staff in key areas - such as personnel, purchasing, and contract and grant accounting - has remained virtually unchanged. According to the White House Science Council Panel (1986), a minimum of $10 billion will be required over the next ten years to restore universities' research infrastructure. At the heart of the problem is the rapidly rising cost of laboratory equipment, increasing 50 per cent faster than the consumer price index. Recent federal and state regulations also add to the cost of doing research: institutions must have equipment to assure proper animal care, environmental safety, radiation safety, safety from biochemical hazards, etc. All of these changes, in turn, create personnel needs: for clerical and technical support, equipment purchase, and processing of sponsored research contracts. These problems are by no means confined to the sciences. The entire University has pressing needs for support staff and operating funds. Without adequate support, valuable faculty time is diverted to clerical and technical activities. In addition, when staff support and operating funds depend solely on the acquisition of external funding, the University's research and teaching agenda becomes severely restricted and unduly governed by the availability of federal research dollars. To address these needs, we plan the following initiatives over the next five years: * a substantial increase in equipment funds and technical support to research and teaching programs including, for example, new equipment for electronics, microscopy, and animal care; fabrication and materials preparation facilities; and audio- visual and computing instructional equipment; and * an increase in the size of the support and administrative staff - not just clerical, but technical and financial as well - to a level that matches the size of the faculty (which would still be below the average faculty/staff ratio at our peer institutions). Building Our Libraries The heart of a great research university is its library, which represents the principal connection with the intellectual past and with contemporary research. The quality of a university is therefore accurately mirrored by its library -- by the number and adequacy of its collections, by the accessibility of its holdings, and by its suitability as a working environment. Research libraries today face two problems. First, the amount of published information is growing at a geometric rate, and in addition the prices of printed materials are rising at double the rate of inflation; no single library can now afford to buy or store complete collections. And second, valuable collections already in place are literally decaying (the average life of a book printed on acid-treated paper is less than 50 years). New technological developments, however, promise to offer some relief. Many institutions are actively involved in preservation, spurred by a program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities that seeks to save the nation's great repositories of knowledge. Optical laser disk technology and high-performance communication networks provide new possibilities for storage, retrieval and information sharing. But these technologically-based solutions are costly and require major changes in the way libraries operate. The College Park library faces all of these dilemmas and opportunities, and suffers further from many years of neglect. Despite the fact that our system serves as the principal research library for institutions of higher education throughout the State of Maryland, it is the most poorly funded university library of all its peers (Middle States Report, 1987). Not only are we deficient in acquisition of materials, but staff shortages delay cataloguing and processing even those materials that are purchased. Campus budget requests for the past several years have identified the libraries as an essential priority, and some progress has been made, including a major addition and renovation program for McKeldin Library that is currently underway, planned development of a materials preservation program, enhancement of key collections, planned dispersion of certain subject collections to new branch libraries across campus, and adoption of new information technologies. Our further enhancement initiatives include: * increasing staff and acquisition budgets so that collections can be improved generally, and premier collections developed in disciplines identified as University priorities; * collecting scholarly materials in a rich diversity of media, including machine- readable formats and non-print collections; * enhancing the library's preservation program; * expanding network access to university databases and machine-readable collections so that our libraries can serve as the State's primary resource for scholarly information, and can avoid unnecessary duplication of holdings; * acquiring and developing new storage and retrieval systems, including optical disk technology, to improve access to library collections; and * enhancing the ambiance of physical facilities to create a modern research library that will be a scholarly center of national significance. Keeping Pace with the Computer Revolution Computers have become a fundamental tool for nearly all scholars. Numerical analysis by scientists and engineers and statistical analysis and data processing by social scientists are the most obvious uses. In addition, powerful new computer applications offer advanced graphics and imaging as well as sophisticated image and text storage and retrieval. During the past several years the University has attained a significant degree of excellence in academic computing. This has been achieved largely by careful leveraging of external resources, such as third-party vendor donations and federal grants and contracts. The University has become a leader in applying sophisticated "high-end" computing solutions to science, engineering, and economics. We are a member of the leading computing consortia in higher education, sponsored by such vendors as IBM, Apple, DEC, Sun Micro-systems, and NeXT. Additionally, the University is currently managing the largest of the national research networks sponsored by the National Science Foundation. As evidence of our accomplishments, College Park was chosen to showcase its computing achievements as host institution for EDUCOM '88, the nation's largest and most influential academic computing conference. We are, however, a long way from being able to offer the entire University unrestricted access to state-of-the-art computing. Increasingly, limitations in computing hardware and user support adversely affect our ability to recruit students and faculty. Currently only one workstation per 44 students is available (the average for our peers is one to eleven) and only one per five faculty members. Besides distributing computing more broadly around the University, we must meet the needs of our high-end users. Supercomputing is essential to many engineering and scientific disciplines, and access has become increasingly expensive. Appropriate computing enhancement will require the following actions: * providing one workstation (with associated hardware, software, printers, maintenance and support services) for each faculty member, and one for every 20 students (with a long-range commitment to provide one for every ten students); * developing multi-media teaching theaters, together with faculty support centers in which computer-based lectures can be prepared; * increasing the number of on-line databases, reference tools, and bibliographies, and improving access to them, including links to the library system; * improving scientific computing by providing access to supercomputer and high-quality graphics facilities; and * increasing computer support staff so that maximum use can be made of new workstations. College Park's continued excellence in the sciences and engineering, and continued growth in the social sciences, humanities, and professional schools, will depend in large part on our ability to provide facilities such as these. Accountability It is impossible to set quantifiable criteria for the general prestige that a great university enjoys, but as evidence of our growing national and international reputation, we anticipate that during the next five years * an increasing number of our academic departments will be recognized as national leaders in their disciplines; * faculty invitations to join national committees, academies and honor societies will increase, including service on such organizations as the Council of Economic Advisers, the Fulbright Commission, and the National Science Board; * the University total of competitive research grants will increase -- if the necessary space becomes available -- from $82 million to $100 million; and * income from licenses, royalties, and technology development contracts will triple from its 1988 level of $300,000. CHAPTER 3: SERVING THE STATE "Land grant universities have always had a special relationship with the people, industries, and governments of their regions" (Moos, The Post Land Grant University). They are engines of economic development and technological progress for their states, provide a major impetus for the development of public school systems, and represent a significant force in improving the quality of life. A land and sea grant institution, the University of Maryland at College Park has the unique responsibility within the University of Maryland System for comprehensive service throughout the State. Where we are strong in scholarship, we can contribute most in service, and the enhancement initiatives described below represent a second dimension to the research initiatives already presented. This continuity strengthens both. Our public service goals are to: * use new technology in science and information management to address the changing problems of Maryland's agriculture; * enhance our current role as a partner in State economic development and technological progress; * help improve the quality of teaching and curriculum in the public schools and address particular educational problems in the urban environment; * provide assistance to State agencies and local communities on a wide variety of technical and policy issues; and * improve the quality of life of Maryland's citizens by expanding cultural and intellectual programs of broad interest and by providing a wide range of social support services. ADDRESSING AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS Even as the size of the agricultural sector has declined nationwide, land use problems have continued to grow, making university research and outreach more important than ever. The economic plight of farmers and fishermen, and a recognition of their relationship to the quality of the environment, make research in agricultural and environmental issues critical. Most immediately, our activities in these areas seek to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay as well as the environments. Even in traditional areas of agriculture, the university's role agriculture, the university's role is growing and changing. The revolution in molecular and cellular biology has redirected research in hybridization, breeding, and pest management. Additionally, the explosion in information management, retrieval and dissemination is revolutionizing the way in which the land grant university can deliver information to its constituents. Today approximately one hundred Cooperative Extension Service faculty, together with agents in 23 county offices and in the city of Baltimore, provide assistance for the immediate benefit of Maryland's agricultural and fisheries economies. The following are examples of ways in which our proposed research efforts will enhance our ability to serve the needs of the State: * expansion of our research facilities in entomology and integrated pest management, with special focus on issues of importance to Maryland agriculture; * enhancement of an interdisciplinary effort emphasizing water quality and conservation, with particular attention to the interaction between agricultural runoff, the region's groundwater, and the Chesapeake Bay; and * development of a center for agricultural export and trade policy that will focus on Maryland agricultural products. PROMOTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The best economic development partner a state can have is a great university, as is illustrated by the highly visible achievements of the Route 128 high-technology belt surrounding Boston, the Princeton-New Brunswick corridor in New Jersey, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina. At the University of Maryland, the Engineering Research Center (ERC) is a significant mechanism of technology transfer from academic departments in the applied sciences to Maryland's business and industrial sectors. Established just five years ago, the ERC has already contributed toward developing existing industry and stimulating the creation of new "infant" industries in the State. A new program, Maryland Industrial Partnerships, stimulates technical innovation and enterprise by providing State matching-fund grants for university-industry research partnerships. Another branch of the ERC, the Technology Advancement Program (TAP), provides on-campus "incubator" facilities and support services for more than fifty fledgling Maryland businesses. The Systems Research Center is yet another example of successful collaboration between the University and the private sector. Founded in 1985 in cooperation with Harvard University on the basis of a $16 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the SRC has recently had its NSF funding raised to $21.3 million to encourage further university-industry research in artificial intelligence, advanced automation, and computer systems design. As enhancement in this area, we propose to: * increase the number of start-up companies that can be aided, by expanding the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program to a $6 million operation and by doubling the size of the "incubator" program; and * accelerate technology transfer between university researchers and Maryland industry by expanding our technology liaison activities, which assist researchers in obtaining patents, licenses, and development contracts. The decline in the competitive position of U. S. industry relative to the rest of the world transcends issues of technological innovation. There exists a need for new leaders in the business sector who combine strong technical knowledge with broad management expertise. The College of Business and Management, working in cooperation with the College of Engineering, has developed significant initiatives in this area. The Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity and the Michael Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship provide training and business assistance, the latter focusing on technology-based emerging growth companies. The Small Business Development Center supports more than forty small businesses each year. And more than one thousand managers benefit annually from the Center for Management Development's continuing programs. In this area of our enhancement efforts, we plan to: establish a set of core teaching programs at the University's Shady Grove center, offering advanced instruction and meeting the needs of the region's professional community in the fields of engineering, business and management and computer science; expand the Instructional Television System to provide a statewide network for professional continuing education; expand the Dingman Center to offer new graduate and undergraduate programs in entrepreneurship and venture management, to develop special research programs in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship, to provide special technical assistance to fast-growth high technology companies in Maryland, and to provide training programs and workshops for emerging growth companies in the State and the region; and * develop a public service arm of the Center of Excellence in Manufacturing that will participate in the statewide initiative to advance manufacturing in Maryland. EXPANDING PARTNERSHIPS WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS Historically, land grant universities have helped train our elementary and secondary school teachers, and have provided assistance for continuing professional development of the teaching force. At a time when a significant portion of the nation's teachers are not fully qualified in the subject areas they teach and when international test comparisons reveal our students to be sadly disadvantaged, this responsibility is more important than ever before. In addition to the traditional role of educating Maryland's future teachers, the University sponsors cooperative programs with Maryland schools to improve the skills of career teachers. Much of the work is done through professional development centers with topics identified by school system needs. One effort, Project Ten, involving the Maryland State Department of Education and the Charles, Prince George's, and Howard counties school systems, was selected as the outstanding model by the Association of Teacher Educators in 1988. A collaborative effort with Montgomery County, the Creative Initiative in Teacher Education, provides training for teachers who will work in the multicultural classrooms of the future. Special programs, during both the academic year and summers, are provided in mathematics, science, English, and literature. Relationships between the University and state and local agencies have a long and successful history. Outreach programs have been provided by the College of Education in all parts of the state, providing advanced degree opportunities and professional development which otherwise would not have been available in Southern and Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. To expand university wide collaboration with schools and agencies, a Task Force on School/University Cooperation was established recently to guide our future efforts. The Task Force consists of faculty and staff from both the public schools and the University. Our enhancement initiatives in public education emphasize what we believe to be the most critical issues today: the complex problems of urban schools and the education of disadvantaged students; replenishment of an aging teaching force with professionals competent in their fields and reflecting the demographics of school enrollment; and improving the teaching of all academic subjects, especially science and mathematics. These initiatives include: * expansion of our programs in Baltimore that address the critical issues of education in an urban setting, with emphasis on problems in special education, including the disproportionate numbers of minorities identified (often wrongly) as handicapped or learning disabled, the absence of parental and community involvement, and difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers; * expansion of early intervention programs for educationally and environmentally disadvantaged students of all school levels; * a science outreach effort through instructional television links to high schools, summer programs for high school and junior high school students, and an expanded program to bring high school teachers to campus as teaching associates *development of programs for the improvement of teacher education to insure in depth knowledge in subject disciplines, including participation in the Holmes Group - a consortium of universities committed to this principle. ASSISTING STATE GOVERNMENT As a key source of State intellectual and technical talent, we have an important role in providing assistance to State government agencies. Many faculty members at College Park are nationally and internationally recognized for expertise in key policy issues that face the State, such as public finance, local and regional economics, tax policy, higher education governance and criminal justice. College Park programs make a difference for local governments as well. One example is the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI) which assumes responsibility for the bulk of fire and rescue training for communities throughout the State, and has trained over 10,000 volunteers and professionals in fire fighting and rescue techniques. To assist in delivering expertise and services to State and local governments, and to improve the quality of information that reaches the general public, the University will: * develop a Maryland policy analysis group consisting of experts in economics, history, government and politics, education, public affairs, and criminology, so that the University can provide timely and expert advice to the State government; * establish student-staffed news bureaus in Annapolis and Washington to serve newspapers and broadcast stations in Maryland that lack permanent staff in those cities; and * recruit an expanded MFRI faculty to provide research in innovative fire and rescue techniques, and to design instructional programs that are compatible with new national professional standards. IMPROVING COMMUNITY OUTREACH Many of America's great public universities are located in towns whose names have become synonymous with a stimulating intellectual and cultural environment. The universities at Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Berkeley, Madison, and Austin have invigorated their communities by providing cultural activities of many kinds: lectures, symposia, dramatic performances, recitals, quality films, and art exhibitions. Since quality of life implies social involvement as well as cultural enrichment, these universities also provide an array of social support services. We would like the name "College Park" to bring the same picture to mind. In the past decade the University has matured both as a source of social services and as an important cultural resource. Our academic programs have strong links to area centers of learning and culture, including the National Gallery of Art, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, the National Archives, the Maryland Academy of Sciences, the Library of Congress, the Baltimore Aquarium, and the Smithsonian Institution. The University frequently sponsors conferences, seminars and outreach programs with these organizations. In addition, the Art Gallery mounts exhibitions and brings traveling ones to campus, Theater and Dance offer productions of professional quality, the department of Music sponsors the internationally acclaimed University of Maryland Chorus and Handel Festival, and the Office of Summer Programs sponsors the University of Maryland International Piano Festival and William Kapell Competition, and the National Orchestral Institute. Besides these cultural activities, the University also provides badly needed social support services to the community. For example, the Counseling Center operates an extensive program of psychological assistance to troubled youth, families and individual adults; the Hearing and Speech Department runs a public clinic, providing diagnosis and therapy for persons suffering hearing and speech disorders; and the Family Sciences Department offers therapeutic counseling to troubled families. Through enhancement, we intend to: * intensify efforts to bring the cultural resources of the University to the citizens of the State, with special emphasis on programs for the public schools; * improve our social support services for the general public, including expanding the range of services available for the elderly and their families; * forge a partnership with the city of College Park to develop a model town/university community; * focus research and outreach efforts on human ecology and human development issues including child day care, national health policies, family counseling, and human nutrition; and * design programming for the new College Park cable TV channel and the University video distribution system to reach external target constituencies. CHAPTER 4: CREATING A MODEL ACADEMIC ENTERPRISE The preceding chapters of this plan have focused on academic programs and on the faculty and students who are most directly involved with them. Beyond its academic programs, a university comprises many other activities and personnel, whose contributions are absolutely essential to its success. As part of the enhancement of College Park, it is necessary to focus on improvements in the operation of support services and on the quality of life of all the people who work there. Beyond the university extends a still wider community in the general public, particularly those who are its graduates. Some aspects of the quality of life of the community have necessarily been touched upon in earlier chapters. We focus here on four specific goals: * increase administrative effectiveness and efficiency; * recruit and retain a highly qualified, committed and diverse administrative support staff; * create a sense of community among faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends; and * foster a strong and supportive association with College Park alumni. STRENGTHENING OUR COMMITMENT TO ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS A university is an amazingly diverse administrative and operational entity, with a multiplicity of missions that distinguish it from other state-supported agencies and institutions. For some years now, the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants has recognized this difference and has promulgated a set of accounting, auditing, and reporting principles that are intended for higher education institutions. With specific reference to the University of Maryland at College Park, the 1985 external Middle States Review Team recommended substantial changes in the way the campus does business and called for the Board of Regents to appoint a panel of management consultants to develop the concept of the university as an "academic corporation." Such a corporation would be directly responsible for its own operations and administration, and would be held accountable for the services it provides and for the excellence of its instructional, research, and public service programs. To the extent that it has been possible, we have already instituted changes in our operations, following the recommendations of our own Middle States Self-Study. First, an evaluation process for academic support units has been implemented. This process includes procedures for independent expert reviews of all academic, administrative, student and institutional advancement units, including Motor Vehicles, Purchasing, Personnel, Payroll, Finance, Sponsored Programs, and Physical Plant. These reviews will be used to determine whether support units are meeting the needs of the academic community, and to increase understanding between administrative service providers and users. Another important change is underway. The University is in the process of obtaining a new computer-based financial management system to replace the existing outdated system. Once installed, this on-line interactive system will meet the financial management needs of academic departments and campus administrative units as well as the accounting requirements of the State. Despite the significant progress that has been made, the University is still constrained in several key areas by State procedures. For example, State purchasing regulations and procedures, introduced in 1981, are so complex that procurements become time-consuming and frustrating exercises of back-and-forth communications between purchasing agents and requisitioning departments. One unfortunate consequence is that nearly 50 per cent of our paperwork is associated with less than two per cent of the value of procurements. Similarly, in the area of personnel, the University Classified System is closely coupled to the State System, which may serve other agencies well but cannot meet the unique requirements of the university environment. It should be emphasized that the State has shown an increased willingness to respond to our unique needs. For, example, last year the University was granted greater control over building design and construction, reflecting the special design issues associated with laboratory and teaching space. Architectural and engineering appointments and contracting and construction supervision have now been delegated to the University. This should reduce the time required to construct and renovate facilities and should greatly improve the quality of construction. Given the improved governance made possible by Senate Bill 459, we have the opportunity to strengthen our commitment to administrative effectiveness, ensuring that our policies and procedures are shaped by an understanding of our academic environment, mission, and goals. To accomplish this, we plan to: * propose an appropriate relationship between the University and State government that combines increased management flexibility with accountability for the use of State resources; * upgrade administrative support services, particularly in the areas of public safety, purchasing, physical plant, and personnel; * develop a campus-based personnel system; and * enhance administrative computing and communication capabilities by bringing on-line access to all administrative offices. Accountability A basic tenet of sound management is that with increased authority comes greater responsibility for accountability. To this end, we plan to * increase the timeliness with which services are rendered; and * increase the level of satisfaction of campus users of administrative services, as measured by periodic evaluations. RECRUITING AND RETAINING SUPPORT STAFF The University can discharge its responsibilities as a corporate entity only if it can recruit and retain highly qualified administrative staff. Talented staff are attracted to work environments in which individual initiative is encouraged, creativity is rewarded, and salary and benefits are competitive. We labor at present with a pay scale structure that in effect rewards excellence and mediocrity equally and largely ignores our highly competitive economic environment. An undesirable consequence is that 43 per cent of the campus classifies staff have reached the top of their salary range and cannot be further rewarded for exemplary service, which makes them all too likely to seek employment elsewhere. There are other factors that affect our ability to retain excellent staff. We must provide a working environment that is characterized by good channels of communication, pleasant working conditions, and sensitivity to the diversity of employee backgrounds. In the past several years, we have begun to address these concerns by developing additional communications media, such as the faculty/staff newsletter Outlook, the campus cable channel, staff award programs and newsletters in individual colleges, and campus-wide convocations and working groups. Additionally, the University has demonstrated a strong commitment to affirmative actions by strengthening policies and procedures to recruit and retain minority staff. In spite of persistent efforts, however, we have not yet attained the degree of diversity that we desire. Our enhancement efforts must include continued progress along these lines, appropriately rewarding these members of the community and incorporating them more fully into the life of the institution. We intend to: * develop a merit pay system for classified employees; * upgrade professional (associate) staff salaries; * intensify recruitment of black and other minority staff members across all departments and units; * monitor internal promotions and job classifications to ensure opportunities for minorities, women, and staff persons with disabilities; and * improve orientation and in-service training for staff, incorporating a sensitivity to their diversity in backgrounds and needs. Accountability Our progress in recruiting a diverse, committed, and supportive administrative staff will be reflected in increased job satisfactions. In addition we expect to: * reduce the rate of employee turnover; and * increase the percentage of black and other minority administrative staff from 12.4 to 18. ENHANCING THE SENSE OF CAMPUS COMMUNITY A great university should foster a sense of community. It should be socially diverse and inclusive, reaching out to men and women students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of different backgrounds, races and cultural heritages, interests and commitments. The degree to which minorities and women feel welcome on campus depends in large part on the incorporation of their perspectives and contributions into its life. College Park has made significant progress in creating an institutional culture that recognizes and values diversity. Lecture series and cultural events regularly highlight the contributions of minorities and women, including campus-wide activities celebrating Black History Month and Women's History Month. The Office of Human Relations Programs sponsors regular equity training workshops for staff, students and the community. Three broadly representative, presidential-level commissions address the concerns of minorities, people with disabilities, and women. Still, much more can be done to integrate cultural diversity and gender into our campus programming. Another means for creating a strong community is the creation of a staff/faculty club, similar to those that exist on most university campuses of our size. Such a facility would become the focal point for intellectual and social exchange among staff members and with visitors, alumni, and friends when they come to campus. It would also provide recreational facilities and programs designed to enhance staff productivity through increased health and well being. We need, in addition, to insure a safe and hospitable environment. A visitor's Center will provide a helpful and friendly introduction for visitors to the College Park campus. Increased attention to safety and security will benefit both visitors and community members. To improve the quality of life for our diverse campus community we will: * enhance multicultural events and programs to provide the College Park community with a greater appreciation of the contribution of blacks, other minorities and women to the life of the University, to Maryland and to the nation; * build (with private funds) a faculty/staff club to strengthen the sense of community on campus and to provide a much needed meeting place for staff, faculty, visitors, and alumni;and * build a visitor's center STRENGTHENING ALUMNI RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS Great universities are characterized by close association with their alumni, supportive alumni programs and successful fundraising activities. An important feature of the bill reorganizing higher education in Maryland was the mandate for its individual institutions to assume responsibility for their alumni and development operations. This is a radical departure from the way these activities were structured in the former University of Maryland, and we welcome it. The University of Maryland at College Park is well on its way toward creating a strong alumni program. The Director of this program is working with an alumni committee to develop College Park's Alumni Association, and plans are underway to create alumni clubs around the State and in other regions of the country. Specific initiatives include the following: * create a campus center to serve as a focal point for alumni activities; * develop a cadre of alumni to participate in the recruitment of academically talented students; * establish alumni clubs throughout the state and in selected locations across the country; and * publish an alumni magazine. We recognize that to achieve status as one of the best public universities in the United States, we must develop a successful fundraising capability. To this end, we have reallocated resources and appointed fund raisers to many of our units. The effect has been dramatic. Cash gifts to the institution have increased from $6.5 million in 1986 to $14 in 1988. We are now preparing to announce a $100 million five-year capital campaign. Specific initiatives to further our fundraising capabilities include: * increased staff in the colleges and the University development office to improve our capability to prepare creative proposals and to build relationships with potential donors; * expansion of University public relations and creative services units to support alumni and development programs; and * a communication plan to inform the citizens of Maryland about academic excellence and accomplishment at College Park. Accountability Within five years we expect to: * develop 16 alumni clubs throughout the state; * increase the number of out-of-state alumni clubs from two to 15; * increase the number of active College Park alumni from 11,000 to 22,000; * increase our endowment from $35 to $60 million;increase the number of endowed chairs and professorships from nine to 20; and increase annual expendable funds from private sources from $11 million to $30 million. CONCLUSION This Enhancement Plan is offered as a significant step in the process of transforming a very good university into a great one. It is not the first step; the University of Maryland at College Park has improved steadily over the past two decades, and in recent years has taken increasing responsibility for planning its future. Much that is included in the document has a long history, the result of devoted work by self-study and priority setting groups. Nor will this plan be the last step, since successful planning is dynamic, evolving over time. The course for the future that it charts commands widespread faculty and administrative support, but it will inevitably be modified as new problems and new opportunities present themselves. Still, it is important to stress that the Plan embodies an integrated picture rather than a shopping list of miscellaneous items. The life of a university is communal and the effectiveness of its programs is synergistic; to modify any one aspect necessarily affects the others, and we are committed to working for the fulfillment of our aspirations across the whole range of our concerns. Part I of the plan describes what we propose to accomplish; Part II details the cost. The enhancement plan calls for an increase to our budget of $150 million in constant FY 1988-89 dollars spread over the next five years. The University will undertake to provide approximately 30% of this amount from sources such as fund raising activities, contracts and grants, and student fees. The remaining resources will, we hope, be provided by the State. Although an increase of approximately $100 million in State General Funds over five years beginning in FY 1991 would represent a very substantial commitment by the State, it is the amount required to raise state support for College Park "to the level of the upper echelon of its peers." This fact is explained in greater detail in Part II. More importantly, a commitment of this magnitude by the State would represent a wise and foresighted investment, both in the educational future of Maryland's youth and in the economic and cultural well-being of its citizens. It would lead to a public university of the first rank, a university that would be a source of great pride for all Marylanders. Moreover, such an investment would be returned manyfold from private endowment, from partnership with business and industry, and from foundations and federal agencies that seek the expertise of the nation's leading scholars. In short, the plan reflects the enthusiasm and commitment of our University community, and it presents detailed proposals through which we intend to bring about change. We have identified scores of specific choices which, if adequately funded, will make a profound difference in the life and distinction of our University. To this end, we have specified accountability measures by which our progress can be confirmed. But beyond that, we offer a longer-range vision -- extending not just over five years but over the decades to come -- of a university that will stand at the forefront of research and creativity, will be sought by the best undergraduate and graduate students, will draw vitality from racial and cultural diversity, and will be an invaluable resource for the State, the region, and the nation. Enhancing the College Park Campus: An Action Plan Part II Part II INTRODUCTION Part I of the College Park Enhancement Plan outlines the Campus' enhancement goals and objectives and the major initiatives targeted for the period FY 1991-1995. Part II identifies the resource requirements associated with each major initiative and suggests a schedule and sources of funds for the implementation of the Plan. The legislation that mandated this Plan called for the enhancement of the University of Maryland at College Park "as the state's flagship campus," with "the level of operating funding and facilities necessary to place it among the upper echelon of its peer institutions." The University has named five aspirational peers, basing our choice on a variety of factors including enrollment, percentage of graduate students in the overall student population, contract and grant funding, and library holdings. In making our selection we have been careful to choose universities that have statewide responsibilities and are viewed as flagship institutions. The designated aspirational peers for the University of Maryland at College Park are listed below. University of California at Berkeley University of California at Los Angeles University of Michigan University of Minnesota - Twin Cities University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill To provide perspective to the Plan, historical and comparative peer data are provided in Part II. It is important to note, however, that the availability and quality of comparative data are limited. As a consequence, we have sought, wherever possible, to use national data sources such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Survey (IPEDS) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) reports. In their absence, we have obtained data directly from individual peer institutions. AN OVERVIEW OF RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS AND FUNDING SOURCES In developing this Plan, we recognize that the enhancement of the University of Maryland at College Park will be a multi-year effort. Table 1 provides an overview of the resource requirements __________________________________________________________________ Table 1: UMCP Enhancement Plan Summary of Resource Requirements [1] ($ Thousands) ___________________________________________________________________ FY1991 FY1992 FY1993 FY1994 FY1995 TOTAL Chapter 1: "Providing an exemplary Education" $5,566 $5,683 $5,256 $4,023 $2,353 $22,881 ___________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2: "Building a National Center of Academic Excellence" 14,045 19,853 18,639 22,831 26,211 101,579 ___________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3: "Serving the State" 2,827 3,100 2,918 2,285 2,488 14,158 Chapter 4: "Creating a Model Academic Commun- ity" 2,841 2,360 1,975 2,710 2,580 12,466 ___________________________________________________________________ Total Resource Requirements 25,279 30,996 28,788 32,389 33,632 151,084 ___________________________________________________________________ [1] All funds are stated in constant FY89 dollars and represent permanent additions to the base. ___________________________________________________________________ for the enhancement plan and Figure 1 [UMCP Enhancement Plan: Annual Increments by Source of Funds: Figure 1 is not available in this ASCII computer file, otherwise it would appear here.] illustrates these requirements per fiscal year over the next five years. Certain aspects of the resource requirements are important to note. First, it is necessary to understand what is not included in this plan. Ongoing "maintenance" costs associated with the operations of the University--inflammatory increases and the cost of bringing new facilities on line--are not included. Resources required in these areas are provided by State based on formulas and are intended to maintain the status quo within the University's operating budget, not enhance the campus. Similarly, the Plan does not include the system wide cost-of-living, and standard faculty merit adjustments. These are determined on an annual basis and, again, are aimed at maintaining the status quo, not enhancing the campus. Finally, we have not included debt service on revenue bonds. Funds for debt service are dedicated to addressing deficiencies in our capital budget, whereas, the Enhancement Plan speaks to resource needs and opportunities associated with our operating budget. To the extent possible in a five year projection, the Plan incorporates all other resource requests the University expects to make in the five year period FY 1991 to FY 1995. Full funding for the Plan would require an increase in state general funds for College Park, dedicated to the Plan, of approximately 8.0% annually for the five year period. The timing of the allocation of enhancement funding is critical, since programs, space and personnel are integrally linked. That is, there must be sufficient space to accommodate not only existing personnel but also new faculty and staff members. Availability of space has been a significant factor in controlling personnel requests in the Plan. This point will be discussed in greater detail in the next section. The University realizes that it must, through internal reallocation, private fundraising, and growth in grant and contract activity, provide a significant portion of the resources associated with the Enhancement Plan. In Table 2 we propose sources of funding for the College Park Enhancement Plan. ________________________________________________________________ Table 2: UMCP Enhancement Plan Annual Increments by Source of Funds ($ Thousands) _________________________________________________________________ FY1991 FY1992 FY1993 FY1994 FY1995 TOTAL General Funds $17,879 $22,696 $18,288 $19,989 $20,532 $99,384 _________________________________________________________________ Tuition Revenue Dedicated to Enhancement at 3 Percent per year 2,100 1,100 1,900 2,500 2,500 10,100 _________________________________________________________________ Fund Raising (Spendable In- come) 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 20,000 _________________________________________________________________ Reallocation, Indirect Costs and Other Institu- tional Funds 2,300 3,700 4,600 5,400 5,600 21,600 _________________________________________________________________ As University fundraising and other revenue generating activities increase, the proportionate share of state general funds required will decrease. For example, in the first year of the Enhancement Plan the University requests $17.9 million in state general funds and will provide $7.4 million from private fundraising, tuition revenue, and a portion of the University's share of indirect cost recoveries on grants and contracts. By FY 1995, the Campus will generate $13.1 million for enhancement, and the share of enhancement resources required from state general funds will fall from 71% to 61% Trends in the mix of funding sources are depicted in Figure 2. [Figure 2: UMCP Enhancement Plan: Source of Funds FY 1991-1995: Figure 2 is not available in this ASCII computer file, otherwise it would appear here.] We believe that the resource requests of the Enhancement Plan stand on their own merits and that the full implementation of this Plan would result in the elevation of the College Park campus to the ranks of the nation's half dozen or so best public universities by the year 2000. However, given Senate Bill 459 's mandate that College Park be provided "with the level of operating funds and facilities necessary to place it among the upper echelon of its peer institutions," it is important to calibrate the resources called for in the Plan in the context of state support provided to College Park's aspirational peers. As indicated previously, precise measures of resource comparison among universities are difficult to obtain. For example, some of our aspirational peers have medical schools; we do not. One does not have an engineering school and four do not have agricultural colleges (traditionally high cost programs); we have both. Some include enrollment from continuing education programs (driving down their per student costs); we do not since in our System this function is largely performed by University College in our System. Nevertheless, and with these distinctions and methodological imperfections in mind, we note that Figure 3 [Figure 3: State Appropriations per FTE Student: UMCP vs. Aspirational Peers: Figure 3 is not available in this ASCII computer file, otherwise it should appear here.] suggests state support per full-time equivalent student (FTES) at College Park lags considerably behind the level of state support per FTES at our aspirational peers. Since these schools are among the nation's best universities and since their states have had a substantial ongoing commitment to support of higher education, it is reasonable to assume that over the next five years they will move forward vigorously in an effort to maintain their present level of preeminence. Thus, Figure 3 seems to indicate that the level of state support called for by FY 1995 in this Plan is not out of line even in comparison to the peers' present level of support by FY 1995. Therefore, we believe that this Plan is consistent both with our aspirations for preeminence as a public university, the mandate of SB 459, and funding the nation's best public universities. STAFFING AND SPACE REQUIREMENTS The addition of faculty positions called for in the initiatives outlined in Part I will enable the University to establish the kind of student to faculty ratios that are necessary for high quality undergraduate education. The State through its support of the University's plan to reduce undergraduate enrollment by 20 per cent during a five year period (1989-1993) has made a significant contribution in improving the ratio of students to faculty. Progress achieved to date is outlined in Figure 4 [Figure 4: Ratio of FTE Students to Full- Time: Ranked Instructional Faculty at UMCP:Figure 4 is not available in this format, it should appear here.] The Enhancement Plan provides the additional steps required to reduce further the student to faculty ratio to a 21 to 1 level comparable to that of institutions in the aspirational peer group. Student to faculty ratios at these institutions compared to the University of Maryland are illustrated in Figure 5 [Figure 5: Ratio of FTE Students to Full-Time: Ranked Instructional Faculty: UMCP vs. Aspirational Peers: Figure 5 is not available in this ASCII computer file, otherwise it would appear here.] Higher education is a service-oriented and by its very nature personnel intensive. As a consequence, full implementation of the Enhancement Plan will require additional personnel not only in terms of faculty and professional staff such as advisors, librarians and computer programmers, but also secretarial and clerical personnel, grants and contract officers, purchasing agents, maintenance staff, and other support personnel. The additional support staff positions requested in this plan will raise the staff to faculty ratio from its present level of .76/1 to .93/1 and will allow the University to approach its goal of equal numbers of support staff (financial, clerical, maintenance, etc.) and full-time faculty. Even with these additional staff positions the University will continue to lag behind its peers who enjoy ratios range from 1.2/1 to 1.8/1 (see Figure 6) [Figure 6: Ratio of Support Staff to Faculty: UMCP vs. Aspirational Peers: Figure 6 is not available in this format, it should appear here.] Table 3 shows the additional faculty and staff, by type of personnel, that will be required if the University is to implement the Enhancement Plan. In proposing additional staff, the University has considered: (l) the relationship of staff requirements to the goals, objectives and major initiatives of the University; (2) current deficiencies relative to the Campus' proposed peer group; and (3) the availability of sufficient space to accommodate additional staff. _________________________________________________________________ Table 3: Net Change by Staff Requirements _________________________________________________________________ Staff Requirements _________________________________________________________________ FY 1991 FY 1992 FY 1993 FY 1994 FY 1995 Total _________________________________________________________________ Faculty 20 35 40 50 55 200 _________________________________________________________________ Professional Staff (Advisors, Librarians etc.) 29 44 42 50 45 210 _________________________________________________________________ Support Staff (Clerical,Maintenance, Technical, etc.) 106 105 110 110 81 512 _________________________________________________________________ Total 155 184 192 210 182 922 _________________________________________________________________ The ability of a campus to accommodate growth in personnel is dependent not only on funding, but also on space. In conjunction with the Department of State Planning and the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the University of Maryland at College Park has initiated an ambitious multi-year program to address existing space deficiencies and to accommodate projected growth and new initiatives. Table 4 provides an overview of the types of space that will be added to the University during the next five years. Major capital projects include: the College of Business and Management/School of Public Affairs Building which will be 50% financed from private sources; the McKeldin Library renovation; the Animal Sciences/Agricultural Engineering Building Phases I and II; the Computer and Space Sciences Building Phases I and II; and the Plant Sciences Building. A detailed breakdown of capital projects for the entire ten year period, FY 1991-2000, is provided in the technical appendix to the plan. We believe that given the addition of these new facilities over the next 5-10 years and the renovation of existing space, we can accommodate the staffing requirements outlined above. ___________________________________________________________________ Table 4: Net Change by Major Space Type (in Net Assignable Square Feet) ___________________________________________________________________ Major Space Type ___________________________________________________________________ FY 1991 FY 1992 FY 1993 FY 1994 FY 1995 Total Office 73,876 16,088 -5,2951[1] 11,926 14,852 111,447 ___________________________________________________________________ Research 22,094 520 14,599 12,281 36,594 86,088 Lab ___________________________________________________________________ Classroom/ Class Lab 14,715 60,043 13,451 55 3,841 92,105 ___________________________________________________________________ Other 27,189 26,668 12,821 60,290 59 127,027 ______________________________________________________________