Intra-University Research Symposium: Panels on Long-Range Planning and Mission of the University
Abstract
Description
University leadership and faculty held an off-site retreat with sessions spanning two days to discuss long-term planning for the university.
Session 1: Speakers included Board of Visitors member K. Wayne Smith describing seven essential elements of a good long-term planning system, a representative from development describing the current structure and purpose of the planning process, the leader of strategic planning at Bowman Grey School of Medicine discussing the planning process used by medical school, and the chair of the faculty senate discussing the role of the faculty in the planning process. The formal remarks were followed by questions and comments from the audience which are obscure in the audio.
Session 2: Wallace Carroll, publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal, reflected on the relationship between Wake Forest and the community, with a focus on how the university could enhance the intellectual life of the city. Carroll's segment ends at 1:07:35. A new session begins at 1:11:25, focused on an assessment of the university's current mission. Speakers included Provost Wilson representing the university as a whole, Dick Barnett representing the undergraduate college, Doyle Fosso representing the graduate school, and Bob Pritchard representing the professional schools. Dr. Wilson focused on core aspects of Wake Forest's identity that would be expect to persist including an emphasis on liberal arts education while maintaining strong professional schools, as well as character education. He also made the case that certain facts should be assumed for purposes of strategic planning: maintaining similar size of the schools, high quality of students, lack of dramatically different departments/curriculum components, and continuity of faculty (70% of faculty were tenured at the time).
Session 3: Continuation of prior audio. The Q&A session after Dr. Wilson's remarks touched on topics including increasing the number of endowed faculty chairs, elimination of certain interdisciplinary majors, relationship between the graduate and undergraduate experiences, increasing faculty research and publication, and viewpoint diversity within departments. Remarks from President James Ralph Scales begin at 34:50 regarding the future of Wake Forest. He focused on the university's continuing commitment to undergraduate education, accompanied by small graduate and professional programs, funded primarily by tuition and gifts. He also responded to a number of complaints about the university's commitment to the Baptist faith and discussed the likely future separation of the university from the Baptist church.
Session 4: In the first panel of the second day of the retreat, Dr. James Bond of the law school and Dr. Peter Peacock of the business school spoke on the issue of whether Wake Forest should seek to become a national university, presenting data in support of the position that Wake Forest should remain regional. The next panel focused on the role of the medical school within the university, and included detailed discussion of the medical school's institutional history and sources of funding. In the third panel, beginning at 1:07, Provost Wilson spoke about the development of the undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences and explained the objective of maintaining the programs at their current size and scope.
Session 5: Gene Lucas, former University Vice President for Business and Finance, spoke about (i) sources of tension between colleges and other institutions (businesses, community members) in the goals, time horizons, risk-taking, and diffuse sources of authority within a college, and (ii) sources of common understanding. In his responses to audience questions, he spoke on diverse topics including the school's increasing financial reliance on tuition and gifts and the wisdom of purchasing foreign study locations.
Session 1: Speakers included Board of Visitors member K. Wayne Smith describing seven essential elements of a good long-term planning system, a representative from development describing the current structure and purpose of the planning process, the leader of strategic planning at Bowman Grey School of Medicine discussing the planning process used by medical school, and the chair of the faculty senate discussing the role of the faculty in the planning process. The formal remarks were followed by questions and comments from the audience which are obscure in the audio.
Session 2: Wallace Carroll, publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal, reflected on the relationship between Wake Forest and the community, with a focus on how the university could enhance the intellectual life of the city. Carroll's segment ends at 1:07:35. A new session begins at 1:11:25, focused on an assessment of the university's current mission. Speakers included Provost Wilson representing the university as a whole, Dick Barnett representing the undergraduate college, Doyle Fosso representing the graduate school, and Bob Pritchard representing the professional schools. Dr. Wilson focused on core aspects of Wake Forest's identity that would be expect to persist including an emphasis on liberal arts education while maintaining strong professional schools, as well as character education. He also made the case that certain facts should be assumed for purposes of strategic planning: maintaining similar size of the schools, high quality of students, lack of dramatically different departments/curriculum components, and continuity of faculty (70% of faculty were tenured at the time).
Session 3: Continuation of prior audio. The Q&A session after Dr. Wilson's remarks touched on topics including increasing the number of endowed faculty chairs, elimination of certain interdisciplinary majors, relationship between the graduate and undergraduate experiences, increasing faculty research and publication, and viewpoint diversity within departments. Remarks from President James Ralph Scales begin at 34:50 regarding the future of Wake Forest. He focused on the university's continuing commitment to undergraduate education, accompanied by small graduate and professional programs, funded primarily by tuition and gifts. He also responded to a number of complaints about the university's commitment to the Baptist faith and discussed the likely future separation of the university from the Baptist church.
Session 4: In the first panel of the second day of the retreat, Dr. James Bond of the law school and Dr. Peter Peacock of the business school spoke on the issue of whether Wake Forest should seek to become a national university, presenting data in support of the position that Wake Forest should remain regional. The next panel focused on the role of the medical school within the university, and included detailed discussion of the medical school's institutional history and sources of funding. In the third panel, beginning at 1:07, Provost Wilson spoke about the development of the undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences and explained the objective of maintaining the programs at their current size and scope.
Session 5: Gene Lucas, former University Vice President for Business and Finance, spoke about (i) sources of tension between colleges and other institutions (businesses, community members) in the goals, time horizons, risk-taking, and diffuse sources of authority within a college, and (ii) sources of common understanding. In his responses to audience questions, he spoke on diverse topics including the school's increasing financial reliance on tuition and gifts and the wisdom of purchasing foreign study locations.