A multitude of opportunities, and the case for optimism at Bates: Part Two

INTRODUCTION

I want to thank the CFG for opening some space for me in this faculty meeting as we begin the winter semester. Now that I am in my fifth year in this position, I can apply a somewhat historical perspective on what we have been able to accomplish under some extraordinary circumstances. Four years ago, in January of 2019, I gave a speech to this body entitled “A multitude of opportunities, and the case for optimism at Bates,” which laid out several initiatives that were going to guide the work of our office and support our academic mission. Given that we were just over twelve months away from the historic challenges of a global pandemic, it is clear that my case for optimism was going to be tested. And in the face of these challenging headwinds, we have made a lot of progress.

In that presentation, I spoke about several initiatives.  These were informed by conversations that I had with faculty, staff, and students in my first six months, but also, importantly, by our Institutional Plan. The Institutional Plan was and is comprehensive, and was an incredibly useful guide to think about the priorities of our shared work.

For instance, the Institutional Plan called for:

·     Strengthening intellectual culture by more intentionally and effectively supporting faculty at every stage of their careers.

·     Creating a clear commitment to diversity

·     Elevating a culture that promotes creativity, intentionality, and reflection in teaching and learning.

·     Supporting all students for academic success

With Krista, Don, and Steve joining the dean’s office, and building from the work of Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir and Margaret Imber, including the work of previous administrations, we have been able to work on several of these initiatives. We have focused attention on creating an evidence based and nationally-informed faculty mentorship program. We launched the Foundational Dialogues initiative to continue our commitment to equitable and inclusive practices in our academic units. We have focused on academic advising through close examination of the First Year Seminar program and are now focusing on elevating our academic support structures for students.

Another initiative in 2019 was CFG’s creation of an ad hoc committee to examine the faculty handbook and the standards for tenure and promotion. The TPRC proposed, and the faculty then adopted in 2021, a re-organized and rationalized handbook with clearer criteria for evaluation of our permanent faculty. 

The TPRC effort also reintroduced the notion, that had been present in the Bates handbooks prior to 1983, that continued professional development in pedagogy needed to be part of the standards of teaching excellence for faculty. From this call, we worked with faculty and staff to explore how Bates might provide the kind of focused, serious, and desired training in teaching and learning. With input from many faculty and staff across campus, and careful planning and consultation with external experts, we launched the new Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning this year. Lindsey Hamilton joined us this fall as the inaugural director, and she has already been extraordinarily successful during this launch. The response to the CITL has thus far been fantastic. 

The Institutional Plan also called for:

·     Developing a model of general education that achieves our educational goals.

The MOIs that passed in 2018 was the first step. AAC’s proposal that was just presented, and that this body will consider over the next several months, represents a continued effort by our faculty to create a model of liberal arts education that best prepares students for the world they will enter after graduation. Our faculty have always recognized that the future of the liberal arts will play out in the context of global competition for talent and for the development of a more complete understanding of the forces that are shaping our world. The curricular proposal which was read by the AAC for the first time earlier tonight, with at least one course embedded in each major, will better prepare our students for the globalized reality that they will enter. They will understand more fully the history, structures, and cultural norms that have shaped society as we find it today, and they will have the knowledge and tools to use their energies to bring us a more open, equitable, and just world.  

I now want to turn to a matter of central importance to the strength and vitality of our academic program – the expansion of the faculty. 

The Bates College Institutional Plan, adopted in 2016, named as an explicit priority increasing the size of the faculty by adding additional tenure-track faculty lines. The plan stated the rationale as follows: 

“Every time Bates hires a new faculty member, the college makes a thirty- to forty-year investment in the continuing excellence of the liberal arts education we provide. The faculty is the cornerstone of this educational experience, and to sustain it we need to make a significant commitment to faculty expansion…” [Priority 1.2]

In January 2019, I noted that “You are a busy and dedicated group of faculty, and while this is a joyful profession, it is clear that your time and energy budgets are maxed out.” What was true then is even more true today. I heard then, as I do today, a persistent call to find resources to support what you do, and I have taken that call seriously. 

We are engaged in 17 tenure track job searches this year, as we hire permanent faculty to replace recent openings as quickly as we can. At the same time, I have been working closely with Clayton and Geoff to find ways to provide additional resources to support you in your academic work.

Through the Capital Campaign, we were able to add seven new tenure track lines to our faculty funded entirely by philanthropy. Today, I am happy to announce a goal to add up to eight more tenure track lines over the next three years. The capacity of our budget to support this growth is related to recent shifts in the composition of our faculty, prudent financial planning, and increased contributions to our budget from the endowment, due to gifts and market gains. It is important to note, however, that our ability to achieve this goal is contingent upon maintaining a stable and positive financial outlook at the college, which is by no means a certainty given the short- and near-term economic challenges we face that Geoff just described.

We will begin the process with three additive searches next year. Among other benefits, these new colleagues will help us maintain our position as one of the leading national liberal arts colleges; will help to reduce workload associated with advising and thesis; and will enhance the student experience with smaller class sizes and expanded curricular offerings.

I will work with the AAC to allocate these lines to the units where they will make the biggest impact. While these lines cannot support all the desires that each academic unit might have for itself, they should have a college-wide positive impact for faculty and students. We will use a disciplined approach to allocating these lines using the three-year plans and teaching planning tool to guide decision making. The new lines will be used to relieve enrollment pressures in areas of high student demand,  strengthen some of the academic units that have experienced destabilization over the past several years, meet goals for growth and innovation in our academic offerings that have been articulated in recent years, and address gaps in our curriculum. The AAC will use a data-informed approach to understand where curricular pressures continue to be a challenge and areas where we need to support growing student interest. 

I want to thank Matt Duvall and Jason Scheideman, who have been working on this project since the winter of 2019. We started with something that we called “Project 2020” not knowing what the world was going to throw at us in short order, but we never lost sight of the main purpose of that work. I also want to thank Clayton for her steadfast support of our desire to direct resources to the faculty and our academic program and Geoff and Doug Ginevan for their partnership in modeling the financial scenarios that have allowed us to move forward. 

If we are able to fully implement this plan, the addition of 15 new lines will represent a nearly 10% increase in the size of our permanent faculty over a ten-year period.  

I look forward to the winter semester, and the opportunities that 2023 will offer us. Best of luck with your courses.