Posted on Nov 1, 1999
If we needed yet another example of technology's capacity to change higher education, it appeared in a page one story early this fall in The New York Times. Under the headline “Free College Notes on Web,” the article described a new Internet venture that has hired students at sixty-two universities to take notes in core courses. The notes are then posted on a central Web site, available for viewing by anyone — including, of course, other students in those courses.
The creator of the site says he started the service to help students augment their own notes or to help them catch up if they have been sick. But he conceded, the story went on, that the site could be used by students who simply overslept or decided to skip class.
My first reaction was one of dismay, for that's not what college is all about. My second was resigned acceptance, since I suppose someone had to think of this “solution” sooner or later. My third was one of concern, given that it will provide more ammunition for the critics of higher education. And my fourth ….
Well, no need to continue. The point is that in a few seconds this new technology — perhaps more accurately, this new use for an accepted technology — set off a variety of emotions.
I realize I'm hardly alone in having these kinds of conflicting feelings. How many of you, for example, now take for granted the ease, convenience, and speed of e-mail while bemoaning the lack of time it gives for reflection and the unwanted messages it seems to encourage? Technology is here to stay — obviously — and I am convinced of the rightness — the necessity — of having the best available equipment for use by our students and faculty. Last year, as you know, we proudly opened our F.W. Olin Center, a high technology classroom and laboratory building, and in the past few months we have received several major grants to support the purchase of such sophisticated equipment as computer-based oscilloscopes and fluorescent and inverted microscopes. With both the Olin building and the new grants, we aggressively sought support because we knew the results would make Union a better college.
What the story about the college notes on the Web did was to raise, once again, the wild card nature of technology and its role in higher education. Clearly, technology has the power to effect the most basic changes. For example, the American system of higher education was built on the principle of nearness; Union was founded because the citizens of upstate New York, valuing education and knowing how important it would be in the new country, wanted a college within reach for their children. Today, technology makes physical proximity less important than it was in the past, presenting challenges because it represents a potentially different modus operandi from how Union has operated.
For more than two centuries, an overriding strength of Union has been what, for want of a better phrase, I will call the personal touch. We take great pride in our student-to-faculty ratio of eleven to one because it is a shorthand way of expressing a system that works — a system built on continuing and close contact between student and teacher. And we know it works because our students, our faculty, and our alumni tell us it works.
Right now, we are in the midst of an exercise we go through every ten years — a self-study that is an integral part of being reaccredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Although we will, of course, be reaccredited, the process is not just an exercise. for there is value — real value — in reviewing our strengths as well as the places that need improvement. Since Union is strong in many key areas — enrollment, facilities, finances, among others — our self-study is focusing on selected topics rather than a more general, comprehensive model. Our committees, primarily composed of faculty but also including students and staff, have chosen to look at our “community of the mind.” As of this writing, their work is in the draft stage, but I already see strong reaffirmation of our approach to learning.
One committee is examining student intellectual life, with special attention to student research. The committee notes that expectations of student involvement in undergraduate scholarly activity have become a lynchpin of the Union curriculum. In its survey of faculty members, the committee heard an overwhelming majority say that undergraduate research enables the development of critical thinking, as well as organizational, creative, writing, oral, and problem-solving skills — all of which are critical post-college skills. Among students, an overwhelming majority praised the overall helpfulness of independent scholarship. And among alumni, nine out of every ten surveyed said that undergraduate research increased their desire to further their knowledge and develop their skills.
At Union, undergraduate creative and scholarly activity is not reserved for the sciences; such activity extends across the College, and the 300 students who participate in our own Charles Steinmetz Symposium represent nearly every academic department (although, to be sure, the heaviest concentration is in the sciences and social sciences). In music, for example, scholarly work could be the creation of a musical composition and its performance; in modern languages, an inquiry into historical and literary events and texts, such as Spanish literature during and after the Franco regime; in political science, an analysis of how bills named after victims have become increasingly common in state legislatures; in biology, the ethics of organ donation and the possible state of a national transplantation policy; in engineering, design projects that could lead to new inventions, such as a flame seeking and extinguishing robot. In all cases, this kind of work involves the mutual exploration of a problem by a faculty member and a student. It means, in short, the ongoing student-faculty interaction that is a foundation of Union.
Research, in many cases, also emanates from our terms abroad program, another Union strength. Based now in twenty-seven lands, our programs expose our students directly to a wide range of cultural and scientific learning opportunities. In one case, through the virtual term abroad with Middle Eastern Technical University in Turkey, technology is the guiding force.
Technology, whether it is new or simply new uses of existing technology, has the capability of changing student-faculty relationships. More dramatically, technology can even mean an entirely new breed of higher education, as evidenced by the University of Phoenix. Traded on the NASDAQ exchange, this profit-making college (created by a liberal arts college graduate) is regionally accredited and enrolls tens of thousands of students online, coast to coast.
Should we — can we — ignore the new technologies? No. Should we abandon what we have done so well for more than 200 years? Of course not. What we must do is to examine, on a continuing basis, the new technologies and figure out how to integrate them into our two century-old system. Expensive, yes; necessary, definitely. It requires the careful allocation of resources. But if we are to continue to strengthen Union in its present and for its future, we must do so. This summer, we asked Doug Klein, professor of economics, to assume the newly-created position of associate dean for informational technology. For the next two years, Doug will examine ways of bringing the liberal arts and technology closer together with, for instance, team-taught courses. He will also examine partnering with companies to put online a portion of our graduate program, thereby getting our feet wet in the area of distance learning.
Certainly, the ramifications of technology can be daunting. But with Union in a position of strength, thanks to so many of you, we are able to turn our attention to the proper use of technology.
It is, then, with great optimism that we face the future and the challenges that technology brings. And it is with great pride that we pause to look back at 1998-1999. Your college continues to grow stronger, and I am delighted to report the following:
— We once again enjoyed a record applicant pool (3,760), enabling us to become more selective, with an admissions rate of forty-six percent. Included in a class of 536 students are a record number of students of color, representing eighteen percent of the freshman class.
— Our Union Scholars Program continues to draw tremendous interest, with sixty freshman scholars enrolling this fall to take an enriched program of study that enables them to graduate in three years (last June, a Union scholar graduated first in his class and is now at Columbia University School of Medicine). As you know, we continue to oppose the idea of merit scholarships (we are now one of only four colleges out of the 108 in New York State that does not offer merit scholarships), since we believe that all students should be admitted to Union on the basis of merit and that aid should be awarded on the basis of need. Through the Union Scholars Program, we are able to remain true to this principle and, at the same time, to attract top-end students.
— Our students have continued to make a difference in the lives of the children in the Schenectady community. As I have reported to you on past occasions, the percentage of students engaged in community service continues to rise, with well in excess of fifty percent doing pro bono work and with all first-year students during freshman orientation working on a variety of projects that improve the Schenectady community. Since I believe fervently, as John Adams said so eloquently two centuries ago, that “the end of education is to produce educated men (and women) and useful citizens,” the student reaction to community service is very encouraging.
— More than fifty percent of the Class of 1999 studied abroad, with Union again ranking among the top dozen colleges in the land in the percentage of students who study abroad. Although we send students to twenty-seven countries, we are eager to expand those opportunities, and we are delighted therefore with the grant that we received, together with Hobart and William Smith Colleges, from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to work on developing joint programs. In addition, we added this year a program in Fiji, and we will add exchanges in the Balkans as a result of my trip this past summer, although I would be hard-pressed to say that it will be one of the more popular programs at Union.
— Three of the four new tenure-track lines to be held by faculty of color, narrowly defined, have been filled with first-rate individuals. While this aggressive program of affirmative action is one that may still face legal tests, we are convinced that it is an appropriate action for Union to take, and we are pleased to have taken it.
— Our focus on undergraduate research continues , with a record 300 students participating in the eighth annual Charles Steinmetz Symposium and with Union once again sending the largest delegation (other than the host institution) to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Given the criticism that is appropriately leveled at colleges and universities by those who feel that faculty too often focus on research, at the expense of teaching, we believe our program of undergraduate research is a good juxtaposition, for it enables students to work hand-in-glove with faculty, gives practical applications to the theoretical, and helps differentiate Union from the other fine colleges with which we compete.
— No faculty member at Union receives tenure without being a first-rate teacher; however, no faculty member can receive tenure without also being a scholar. Teaching and scholarship are intricately connected, and the superb teaching that is done here is augmented, not lessened, by the fact that this year faculty published four books and forty-two journal articles, made eighty presentations at professional conferences, and earned a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
— Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the spectacular F.W. Olin Center, a high technology classroom and laboratory building that will support computer instruction throughout the College and be used by all Union students at some point in their undergraduate career. In addition, Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library, was the principal speaker at the dedication of the new Schaffer Library, a building that has been transformed thirty-nine years after its original construction into a home for books and technology. Since we are not wise enough to develop the perfect library of the future or foolish enough to build the perfect library of the past, we renovated the facility, provided an endowment to maintain and operate it, and raised funds for a $3 million technology endowment to give us the newest in equipment as technology evolves.
— We received, along with nine other colleges, the National Science Foundation award for the integration of research and education, which provides $500,000 and, perhaps more importantly, recognizes Union as a leader and innovator in tying together teaching and research. We also ended the month of June spectacularly with a $270,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for support of our East Asian studies program, $400,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the joint program with Hobart and William Smith that I referred to above, $500,000 from the Fred L. Emerson Foundation for the work that we are doing to improve the area to the west of the College, $500,000 from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for laboratory equipment in the sciences, and $500,000 from the Kresge Foundation for science and engineering equipment and an endowment to maintain, upgrade, and replace equipment.
— We balanced our budget for the tenth straight year and adopted a budget for 1999-2000 that calls for a 3.45 percent blended increase in tuition, room, and board, the seventh consecutive year with a percentage reduction.
— We raised in excess of $14 million in total funds for the College, with a record in unrestricted annual fund giving and with the percentage of our contributing alumni moving back up to forty-six percent.
— Our endowment grew to $260 million, after a draw of 5.4 percent. While our endowment is not as large as those of our main competitors, it is used appropriately and prudently, with the principal growing by at least the rate of inflation and with a draw that meets the wishes of our donors. Indeed, one of the tragedies of American higher education is the belief among many that, since quality seems to be measured in this country on the basis of wealth, we should increase our endowments by drawing as little as possible from them.
— In October we announced an exciting college-community partnership, the (US) Union-Schenectady Initiative, which is designed to revitalize the neighborhood immediately to the west of the College through a long-term partnership with local banks, the community college, the local housing authority, churches, and the city. In April we announced the specifics of the US plan, which calls for the College to invest $10 million in the area for faculty, staff, and student housing, a security outpost, and a community center that will be staffed by our students. We will also provide financial incentives for faculty and staff to become homeowners in the neighborhood (four already have), and we will — in an attempt to drive out absentee owners — make scholarship funds of up to $1 million available annually to cover the full cost of tuition for the children of homeowners who meet Union's admissions standards, live in their homes, and maintain their property at a standard to be established by a newly-created neighborhood association.
Since no college in America has made a commitment of this magnitude as a percentage of its resources, I am often asked why we are making this investment. In responding, I cite two facts: First, sixty percent of those students who apply to and are accepted by Union, and who choose not to come, give Schenectady as the reason for their decision; and second, it is the right thing to do.
— Union joined with local business leaders to create a business incubator, U-Start, which will provide professional space and expert mentoring services to entrepreneurs. The facility that houses U-Start is already filled, and we are negotiating for an enlarged space to complement what has already been done.
— We received more publicity in the course of the past year about our actions — in the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Washington Post, on National Public Radio, and in a range of other local and national media — than we have ever received before. In addition, C-Span prominently featured Union in a live two-hour broadcast about Chester Arthur, Union alumnus and the twenty-first president of the United States. For those who work so hard on Union's behalf, the recognition is certainly appreciated.
The success that we enjoyed last year is the result of the work of the men and women who toil diligently on Union's behalf, for we are indeed blessed — I am blessed — with a group of people who know their jobs and do them well. In addition, we are tremendously fortunate to have so many wonderful supporters in our ranks. Ideas are important, especially on a college campus. However, unless one can transform those ideas into action — which means that unless one has the support to make those ideas become reality — we will not be able to move this historic institution forward. Thanks in part to your support, we have been able to transform idea into reality. Thanks in part to you, we have indeed moved Union forward.
For your support and for the obvious interest that it represents in this marvelous institution, I thank you. We are — and I am in particular — most appreciative for the efforts that you have made on the College's behalf, and I only hope that you have the same feeling of satisfaction in the investment that you have made in Union that we have in putting your funds to good use.
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