Transcript: Faculty Assembly with Chancellor Ferrari, 9/2/98
Opening remarks by Ferrari: It’s wonderful to be here today. I’ve been here two months and have had the opportunity to get around campus and meet a number of people and have had a rush of information and opportunities. I’m still in the process of sorting through this. I’m trying to listen very carefully to students, staff, and faculty members about their dreams and hopes for TCU. This has been very energizing period for me over these last several weeks. I’ve learned a great deal about the character and values of the university and gained an appreciation for what we might become in the years ahead.
Let me say at the outset that I don’t bring a pre-packaged vision for the university. I’ve had experience with a number of institutions over the past 30 years, I’m sure some of my biases will show as we start talking about these questions. At the same time I’m approaching this chancellorship fresh. This is a fresh time for me to be part of a dynamic university community, one that has established itself in so many ways, and yet has so many bright days ahead. We have the capacity, talent, resources, and location to make a important mark on the future of private higher education in this country. What shape that will take, what turns we make in the road towards that goal, is still to be determined. I hope that we can, in fairly quick order, put together a bold vision, one we can share as a university community and one we can take to our stakeholders, our constituents and our friends, to persuade them that have what it takes to be truly a leader in American private higher education. That opportunity attracted me to the university, and I have found nothing, almost nothing, in the last few months to dissuade me from thinking that this is achievable. Let’s open the discussion up to questions.
Q: (Gregg Franzwa) A couple of years ago, TCU began using untenured instructors. Some faculty didn’t think this was a good idea and still don’t think this is a good idea. Without tenure these people are exposed to a number of difficulties.
A: (Ferrari) I am a strong believer in and defender of the tenure system in American higher education. There are, however, some needs and opportunities today they may need to be considered on a very selective basis for multi-year contracts. These faculty should have the privileges of all faculty. I don’t know to what extent we have used at TCU the non-tenured faculty contracts. But I’m not opposed to this when used appropriately, based on certain curricular needs and student enrollment needs.
Q: (Follow-up by Franzwa) What are the circumstances in which that is appropriate?
A: Some changes in a discipline may require this, or changes going in a profession. Some of our own eagerness to get into a particular field of inquiry in which we’re not certain yet of our long-term commitment. It would be unfair to bring someone in in a tenure role and then later on let them go should we not continue a program.
Q: (Chris Barry) I’m struck by the enormous financial resources in this university compared to our low aspirations as a university. What is your take on that?
A: (Ferrari) Well it is true that an institution with a $750,000,000 or so endowment enjoys a very special place in terms of financial resources. Drake was at the other end of that spectrum, with an endowment of about $80,000,000. What can we as an institution do with those kinds of resources? What can we do to gain national and international prominence that would mirror the ranking of 37th in the country in endowment. We’re going to be able to dream about the future; most institutions can’t. He asked, what can we do to improve our academic competence with these resources. We need to set a very ambitioius agenda for the decade ahead. We have the resources, so what do you think we can accomplish? Where should we set our sights? Some have said, “We are very good. We have good students now. Why rock the boat?” We can build a billion dollar endowment (which I want to do), but we ought not be complacent. My hope is that we’ll soon identify the goals that we ought to pursue. I think this might involve enhanced technology, enriched learning, centers of excellence, and the like. The resources that we have in place will help us dream big. We need to raise among our board and alums what it means to be an excellent academic institution.
Q: (Andy Fort) With the former chancellor, a number of us saw the board as his primary constituency. What do you see the faculty’s relationship to you?
A: (Fararri) (Jokingly) You’re the most important constituency! (laughter). The board, at especially private institutions, carries a great deal of authority. I’d like to see the board become more involved in the life of what faculty do. The faculty are an important constituency. Any first-rate institution gains its reputation by the strength of the faculty in its devotion to sound teaching, learning, to research and creative activity. This is what will determine our place in the future. We must have a staff that is fully dedicated as well to supporting the primary academic mission of the institution, that in their own way complements what we’re doing. We all have to be on the same page. We have a great staff, one that is very student centered. For me, being part of an institution which places students at the center is important.
Q: (follow-up, Fort) Some would say our reputation is based on its being a friendly place and our $750,000,000 endowment. Some people might be unhappy if we go in another direction.
A: (Ferrari) I hope the board will begin to look at the university in a fresh way. I think it’s wonderful to be a university that has a great liberal arts center, that is a big-time school, that is a friendly caring place that is located in a dynamic region. Those are all descriptions. But what is the value, what are the benefits, why does one want to come to TCU? What is it that happens as a result of what we do that prepares our students for leadership, for citizenship, for productive careers? We need to think about who we are and what we want to become.
Q: (Dwayne Simpson) I have two more mundane questions. The first is about Peoplesoft. Is there a reboot on this system? I have several research grants, and as we try to put the closure on those grants I can’t get information on salary or fringe–we are kind of flying by the seat of our pants, and we have lots of money that, if we don’t have the accountability on soon, then we and the university will be in trouble., We need some help with that system . We need some feedback and a better way to get in to get some information so that I can make sure that my records jive with the university’s records. I have light bills that we submitted and they don’t get paid. I’m not going to go into all the specifics. Can you give us an update on PeopleSoft? A second question has to do with the building program. The IBR is in the footprint of the Tucker building. I had engineers come in this morning to say that they checking the building out for moving the IBR. And they announced that to staff. No one alerted me or my staff to this ahead of time. We need some management for those kinds of issues.
A: (Ferrari) On the second point: That shouldn’t have happened this morning. No one should have gone over without informing you. There is no clear plan at this moment as to what happens to departments affected by the building. There are still questions about the Tucker Building, who will be there when all is said and done. There’s a question about mathematics, whether they will be in the building. Right now some 7-8 million dollars have been committed to the 17 million dollar project without mathematics and without considering IBR and sociology, and what happens to those departments. Clearly we’re going to have to think about how we take that next step, how all these hold together and what that total project will look like. Will there also be a need now for a social sciences facility that will accommodate some of these needs? Right now we are sitting with this project having been approved and some important funding committed. What the next steps are is another matter. I think it will take another year or more to raise all the money for what we currently have, but in that interim we need to find all the other pieces to the puzzle, and get you and all the others affected together. Okay, we’ll do that.
On Peoplesoft. I see David [Edmondson] over there. We’ve taken on an ambitious effort. For what it will yield, it will place us in a much stronger position in the future. I don’t come as a champion of Peoplesoft as much as I recognize it will provide us with a lot of strength, a lot of capacity for analytical work, for planning, for management of the institution. Not that we have that capacity now, but we certainly won’t have it in the future if we don’t get on board. But it is a tough transition. In the reports I’ve looked at, there are about 130 schools that have embarked upon what we’re doing . While we are experiencing some frustrations, all indications are–if it’s any consolation!–that we are in upper 3-4% of universities implementing it in terms of where we are in the process of implementing it. It’s taken incredible dedication of quite a number of staff members to make this thing go. But we’ll have a period of time to go before we get past this stage of initial frustration. We’re going to make some mistakes, but we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your grants or the institution.
Q: (Follow-up by Simpson) But a parallel recover system is what we need right now. We need some help with the immediate problems.
A: (Ferrari) We are trying to do what we can to get this straightened out. David, do you want to add to this?
Dave Edmondson: In terms of financial information we are beginning to roll this information out. I think you’ll be impressed. You’ll have a lot more access to real time information. That’s our goal.
Q: (Ed McNertney) I want to go back to students. Do you have some notion of the size of the university? Are we growing now?
A: (Ferrari) In the latest report I’ve seen, we have about 100 additional students than this time last year. The Freshman class is slightly smaller than last year. I spoke with the deans, the V-Cs about this question this summer: What is the optimal size of TCU? Their conclusion: we are at about an optimal size for TCU. No one made a strong case that we should shrink. We had much more conversation about mix, graduates to undergraduates, and question about diversity.
Q: Follow-up (McNertney) Through last fall we saw a clear jump in percentage of students accepted from 74 to 79%. And that was on top of an increase in the number of applications. Is this continuing?
A: (Ferrari) I don’t know what to say about this. I know our conversion rate is going up. It is in the high 30s right now. A year ago it was around 35. So people who are applying are more serious about TCU. This is a place I want us to be. We may need to look next year at becoming more selective. My hope is that as we strengthen the institution and its academic core and its intellectual vitality, we’ll find even more pressures along this line. Admissions has done an incredible job of bringing this class in; it’s a good strong class, an enthusiastic class.
I did see that we’re still in that second tier grouping in the US News and World Report. We’ll need to look at some things. Our retention rate, frankly, is not very good. It’s a little better than the national average, but it’s not where I think it ought to be. One out of five freshmen and sophomores who came here last year didn’t come back. Our retention rate is only 80%. I’ll have more to say about this at the convocation. I appreciate your comments.
Q: (Linda Moore) We’ve talked a long time about increasing diversity in the university. I’d like to know how you think we might go about increasing diversity.
A: (Ferrari) I’ve heard more talk about diversity than any other single topic since I’ve been hear. Sherrie Reynolds and I have talked about this topic and what ought to be on our agenda this year, especially about marketing the university. I thought the article today in the Skiff by a student of color was encouraging, about what she so far was experiencing this year compared to last year, Even though we know that we’re still struggling, as many private institutions are, with diversity of students. What I’ll say is that for us to be a first-rate institution we have to be more diverse–students, faculty, and board. We must mirror the diversity in the nation as well as the world. We know that most students today come to universities from a 500 or 600 mile radius. When you sit in a place like Des Moines, Iowa, has I have the past few years, that fact is pretty sobering. Only 3% of the population of that state are people of color. But we sit in a much richer, much more diverse environment. I think our students desire it and know it’s important. Not only those students who are African-American, Hispanic, and Latino, but Caucasian students too know that we’re a better place, a more quality institution if we are more diverse. I’m hoping we can make a major push this year in this direction. We are going to activate a Diversity Council this fall, as one vehicle to get a lot of people around the table to think about strategy to strengthen the overall diversity of the institution.
Ferrari to Art Busby: (jokingly). Art, don’t you want to ask something? I am a strong proponent of a multiple computer environment.
Q: (Steve Mann) The US News and World Report has us ranked in the second tier of institutions. Where does research fit in increasing our reputation?
A: (Ferrari) The reputation of the faculty plays a great role in those determinations. The academic reputation component is a survey instrument given to presidents, chief academic offices and admissions deans. We need to promote research, yes, but we also need not to be shy about promoting what we’re doing. As a newcomer, I think we have much more going on, more value in terms of intellectual vitality, that the world out there knows. Some people on the search committee put it this way, “We don’t want to be overly boastful. If we do good work, eventually the world will recognize you.” In research, teaching, in outstanding awards by our faculty, in competition for Truman or Goldwater scholarships, we need to spread the word about who we are and what we have. I don’t think we run the university to statisfy US News and World Reports, but we know it has become a terribly important medium for people to make judgments. Research, especially that kind of research that makes its way into key journals and new products, can gain a great deal of attention. But we have to talk about it, take pride in it, promote it. I’m not sure people in Fort Worth, much less the Metroplex, much less the world, realize what we have here. So let’s not be bashful about this institution. We need to set forth ambitious goals and tell the world about it. I think some of those other things are going to come along. If we’re not careful we’ll slip from where we are in those rankings. We are near the bottom in that second tier of institutions. Compared to those institutions we want to compare ourselves with, our graduation rate is low, our retention rate is low.
Q: (Arnie Barkman) What is the role of intercollegiate athletics in this whole mix?
A: (Ferrari) This is a very important question. To what extent does the athletic program complement the primary value of the mission of the institution. In what sense does it contribute to the overall goal of the institution? I look at institutions like Stanford, Duke, Wake Forest, or Vanderbilt, and I know that athletics play a positive overall role. Athletics has always been an important part of this institution. It’s an important part of our history and our tradition. And football especially has been an important part of this institution. Our board and others over a period of time have embraced Division I as the appropriate level of competition. With that in mind, I will do everything I can to ensure that we have the kind of Division I program that does match our values and our goals, and all the rest, and complements them, and does not detract from them. Now I don’t know where that will take me; that’s my read after the first two months. I know it’s an important part of TCU. I hear our alumni talk about it: I hear members of our community talk about it and people on the campus. We have an athletic director who appreciates the academic values and supports the concept of student athletes. We want a program that faculty are not embarrassed about, nor alumni for that matter, and one that reinforces and complements everything we’re doing. (Jokingly) Did I waffle enough on that?! For me athletics has to fit.
Q: (Jim Mayne) Tandy advertised this week for a vice-president for people. What is your thought about having human resources in a position in which they report directly to the chancellor?
A: (Ferrari) In terms of structure, there are a lot of models out there. I’m generally of the mind that I don’t want a whole lot more people reporting to me. I know in a lot of universities there are positions such as this. I don’t know enough right now to respond to this from an organizational point of view. I know we have a very fine staff. I know there are some key issues, especially in terms of general staff that need to be addressed. There are compensation issues as well for faculty as well as university staff. In due course, we’ll try to work through those. The overall environment is very important to me for the people who give their lives to this institution. Because I bring my own discipline and background in organizational behavior and development, I will be constantly asking questions about whether we are building the kind of the environment here where everyone finds this an exhilarating place, a place we want to be even if we had the choice to be anywhere else. I want people to feel that this is where they want to be, where they are appreciated, respected, treated fairly, whether it’s from their supervisor or their paycheck. I will try to create this environment.
Any other questions? Or advice that anyone wants to give?
Q: (Gregg Franzwa) Several years ago, it was suggested that a faculty member be on the board, and even a student. The answer to that query was not “no” but “hell, no.” Do you bring a different view of that?
A: There are universities around the country where there is a faculty representative and a student representative on the board. I understand that feelings on the board in the past have not been comfortable with this suggestion of faculty and student representation. The board has the authority to decide this. We need other outlets for good strong communication between board and faculty, however that might be accomplished. It may well be that having a person on the board achieves that. I’ve seen it work in a variety of ways around the country; sometimes it’s just a token person there and nothing really happens. I’m looking for much more substantive, deeper connections between the board and faculty and students and for other ways to step up interaction, understanding, and relationship between students, faculty, and board. I will concentrate on building stronger, more open relationships between students and the board, and faculty and the board. At Drake, faculty and students made reports to the board and had open exchange with the board members. We had faculty dinners and student dinners with board members.
Q: (Todd Schriber, Skiff reporter). Where do start? What it the most pressing issue?
A: Ferrari (Jokingly) So, I should know this, right? I think the most pressing issue is the planning process. We need to put together a planning process that gets all of us around the table in some way to develop a vision, a shared vision, where we can converge on those kinds of ambitious overall goals that form for us a vision for the future. Right now, I don’t see any existing mechanism for this. We have a lot of planning going on in different parts of the institution, but I’m not sure we have enough people around the table. My hope is that we get many around a table, with many from the institution and the community. I had a meeting with a business leader this morning who said TCU doesn’t seem to have passion. We need more passion. This is a great university and we’re going to be greater. We need this planning process so that we can say with passion, “This is what we stand for, this is where we’re headed, and we’re not going to be satisfied until we move farther down that road.”
Sherrie Reynolds thanked the chancellor for coming.