H. Patrick Swygert,
President
October 1996
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The Strategic Planning Process
Shortly after the Board of Trustees elected me
President, on April 22, 1995, I initiated a strategic planning process to ensure
our ability to provide what Howard University has always provided our nation,
Leadership for America, and to continue Howard's historic mission of considering
great questions and educating leaders emboldened by their Howard experiences to
take on the task of finding solutions to those questions. The narrative that
follows speaks to a vision that resonates with our history: Howard University as
the national repository of the African-American cultural experience; the center
of African-American thought, critical analysis and leadership.
I have sought to move expeditiously while making
the process a collaborative effort involving the Trustees, students, faculty,
staff, and alumni. In a letter addressed to the Howard University community in
the summer of 1995, ideas were solicited about the University's academic and
administrative organizational structure. As part of this consultative process, I
also visited each of our schools and colleges and I spoke as well to many
faculty, students, staff and alumni.
In July 1995, the first of five retreats was
convened. Retreats were held for Trustees, faculty, students, staff, and the
University's academic and administrative personnel. My purpose in convening
these retreats was to begin the process by which a shared vision for Howard
University could be developed. Nearly 300 members of the University community
participated in one or more of the retreats.
Two principles formed the foundation for the
strategic planning process: 1) the belief in the academic mission of the
University and that students undergraduate, graduate, and professional and the
faculty who nurture their growth, are our first priority; and 2) the belief that
Howard's unique mission continues to justify its direct Federal appropriation,
while appreciating the reality that the University will have to generate more of
its future revenues from private sources.
Further, as part of the strategic planning
effort, a University-wide, consultative body was created and charged with the
responsibility to receive and respond to issues submitted to them regarding the
future direction of the University. The twenty-five member University Advisory
Committee was composed primarily of faculty members selected by the executive
committees of the respective schools and colleges. The Committee was chaired by
Distinguished Professor Joseph E. Harris, of the Department of History.
In addition to the University Advisory
Committee, I also received valuable feedback from a smaller working group
consisting of nine senior faculty and staff members of the University. The
Strategic Planning Working Group was chaired by Professor Richard English, Dean
of the School of Social Work.
A strategic planning process, by its nature, is
a work in progress. I view 1996-97 as a transition year in which discrete
implementation issues related to migration and organizational realignments will
be resolved by appropriate committees made up primarily of faculty and academic
administrators from the affected schools and colleges. These committees will
form the principal consultative working groups and will be established
consistent with University policies.
An important part of the process that we have
been engaged in over the past year has been providing the University community
with an opportunity to share their opinions and insights on the central issues
that we should be addressing.
The strategic planning process is focused on the
revitalization of our academic enterprise. The second phase of the strategic
planning process will include a review and assessment of each of our academic
programs. The program reviews will begin this fall.
The Mission
The University's mission is central to
everything we do and is found in a 1989 resolution of the Board of Trustees.
Howard University is a comprehensive,
research-oriented, historically Black private university providing an
educational experience of exceptional quality to students of high academic
potential with particular emphasis upon the provision of educational
opportunities to promising Black students. Further, the University is dedicated
to attracting and sustaining a cadre of faculty who are, through their teaching
and research, committed to the development of distinguished and compassionate
graduates and to the quest for solutions to human and social problems in the
United States and throughout the world.
Vision Statement
Howard University is a comprehensive
research university, unique and irreplaceable, defined by its core values, the
excellence of all its activities in instruction, research and service, and by
its enduring commitment to educating youth, African Americans and other people
of color in particular, for leadership and service to our nation and the global
community.
Core Values
I believe that these are our core values: first,
this University must continue to be dedicated to an unequivocal search for
truth; second, this University must continue to be a place where African
Americans and others can come to study, free of oppression of any type, stripe,
or kind; third, this University must engender and nurture an environment that
celebrates African-American culture in all its diversity; and fourth, this
University must provide a caring, nurturing and respectful environment for all
of the members of the Howard family: students, faculty, staff, Trustees, and
administrators.
Further, Howard University must engender in its
students the spirit and quality of leadership for which Howard faculty and
alumni are already known. That leadership is manifest in the form of service to
the local, national and international community.
Howard University is unique in its diversity and
we value that diversity. We are diverse in our community of faculty, staff,
students and alumni who reflect the global community. And, we are diverse in
regard to the wide range of fields of study and scholarship that is pursued each
day. Our diversity is directed at the realization of the American ideal for all
Americans. We seek to ensure equal protection under the law and equal
opportunity, fair reward for a life of work and service, and the opportunity for
all to acquire an education and to enjoy adequate health care.
HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE REPORT
The following report contains a description of
my vision of the strategic direction in which Howard University must progress in
the next five years to realize the aspirations embodied in its mission statement
of becoming a research university of the first rank, maintaining our tradition
of providing educational opportunities to promising Black students, and making
real the core values of the University.
Howard University will enhance its legacy of
Leadership for America by creating a number of new entities, and by focusing on
four strategic areas in order to advance our mission.
Those four strategic areas include the
following:
I. Strengthening Academic Programs and
Services
Howard can earn for itself a new reputation that
distinguishes it from other universities by focusing the intellectual power of
our faculty and the potential of our students in stronger, but fewer in number,
disciplines and programs.
The academic mission will be enhanced by a new
configuration which will result in the creation of several new entities:
- the new College of Arts and Sciences, which
will offer a core curriculum for all undergraduate students, combining the
strengths of the current College of Arts and Sciences with those of the
College of Fine Arts and incorporating the National Center for
African-American Heritage and Culture (described below);
- the College of Engineering, Architecture
and Computer Sciences;
- the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied
Health Sciences, combining the strengths of the College of Pharmacy and
Pharmaceutical Sciences, the College of Nursing, and the College of Allied
Health Sciences;
- the National Center for African-American
Heritage and Culture which will serve as the major repository for research on
Black culture, both domestic and international, and which will encompass and
expand upon the treasures already existing within the University in the
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and other notable collections;
- the Center for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning, supported by the Fund for Academic Excellence;
- the Technology Center which will seek to
serve as an interface between the telecommunications revolution and the
University by making these emerging technologies available to students and
faculty;
- state-of-the-art libraries for Health
Sciences and Law; and
- the National Leadership Institute.
II. Promoting Excellence in Teaching
and Research
Promotion of excellence in teaching, learning,
and research will be fostered by the creation of a Center for Excellence
in Teaching and Learning, a concept that I have found to be very
effective. Additionally, the campus will be enhanced through the initiation of
eight major capital development projects incorporating not only bricks and
mortar but new technology. Faculty research productivity will also be spurred by
establishing high quality interdisciplinary academic programs; by adjusting
research faculty teaching loads; by augmenting faculty salaries with income from
grants; by establishing and sustaining key research centers and laboratories; by
recruiting outstanding investigators in key research areas; and by increasing
graduate student stipends.
These steps will amplify our faculty's
commitment to high-quality instruction, and support our conviction that our
undergraduate and graduate students must be richly nourished in both mind and
spirit.
Capital initiatives planned for the University
include rehabilitation of the Miner Building to house the new National
Center for African-American Heritage and Culture; the creation of an
Interdisciplinary Science Center on the main campus; the construction of
state-of-the-art Health Sciences and Law Libraries; and four technological
projects designed to ensure that the University has information and
communications capabilities appropriate for a Research Level I national
institution.
Major elements in our effort to promote
excellence in teaching and research include upgrading the campus environment to
ensure that student services are orderly, reliable and responsive; having a
well-organized, highly-skilled administrative and logistical infrastructure; and
improving our physical plant. A University-wide faculty workload policy, and a
uniform system for performance evaluation for all University staff and
administrators are also essential elements.
The careful selection, continued training and
skilled management of personnel dedicated to the safety of the campus community
is a priority of the University. Faculty, students, staff and visitors are
entitled to a healthy, safe and secure environment.
III. Increasing Private Support
The University will develop a capability for
raising significant funds from private sources as a substantial complement to
the federal support it now receives. An effective fundraising capacity will be
developed to increase revenues from the private sector, with emphasis on
increased alumni contributions. One of our development goals is to increase the
current 5% participation rate of alumni in financial support of the University
to 30% by the year 2001.
All of this will combine to lay the groundwork
for a capital campaign to increase significantly the University's endowment.
IV. Enhancing National and Community
Service
Howard University will continue to develop
cooperative and synergistic relationships with its surrounding community through
innovative projects and partnerships designed to enhance community relations,
economic development, and our legacy of service to the District of Columbia and
the nation. We envision the creation of the National Leadership
Institute for these purposes. The University will continue to explore
strategies which best enable Howard University Hospital to continue to serve as
the situs for medical, dental and health-related education, research, training
and service.
STRATEGIC
DIRECTIONS
There are many things that we could do to
advance our mission, but we cannot do everything at once. Choices must be made.
This report contains a description of my vision of the strategic direction in
which Howard University must progress in the next five years to realize its
aspirations of becoming a research university of the first rank, maintaining our
tradition of providing educational opportunities to promising Black students,
and making real the core values of the University. I believe that the University
will benefit greatly if we begin this journey with a vigorous and substantive
effort in these four strategic areas:
I. Strengthening Academic
Programs and Services
II. Promoting Excellence in
Teaching and Research
III. Increasing Private
Support
IV. Enhancing National and
Community Service
PLAN
OF ACTION
I. Strengthening Academic Programs and
Services
Although there may be differences of opinion as
to how best to achieve the goal, the Howard University mission statement clearly
speaks to the University's aspirations to become a comprehensive, national
research university of the first rank, serving a predominantly African-American
constituency, while continuing Howard's historic commitment to service.
It is said by some that there is an inherent
tension between the two goals of providing educational opportunity and the
aspirations of a major research institution. One might add to this supposed
'tension' the additional factors of the University's strong commitment to
community service and the challenge of continuing to recruit the very best
students of color in light of increased competition from majority institutions.
We are mindful that these challenges are real: every post-secondary institution
seeks the most gifted students. At Howard, our standards for admission and our
exit standards will continue to provide real challenges to students of academic
promise with the tenacity to make the promise a reality. One can and should take
heart from the success enjoyed by our sister institutions with similar
aspirations (access and excellence) and our own nearly 130 years of success.
We are fortunate that the University has a
clearly articulated mission. The challenge before us is to allocate current
resources intelligently, and to increase those resources from private sources to
achieve the goals that have been defined. Like all institutions, even those
select few that are fortunate enough to enjoy strong financial support from the
federal government, Howard is not immune to the impact of present and emerging
economic realities.
There is no reason why our University cannot be
a strong research institution while maintaining its tradition of educational
opportunity. Howard has distinguished itself over the years by achieving an
admirable balance between the two. Maintenance of this balance requires the
clear articulation of priorities, coupled with careful and continual scrutiny.
Programs need to be assessed and decisions made about select areas to be
strengthened and new areas to be explored.
In repositioning the University to face the
challenges of the twenty-first century, we cannot rest on our reputation as the
flagship of higher education among HBCUs. We must, instead, build our reputation
on the acquisition of new knowledge. The University's potential for distinction
in the twenty-first century as a leader in the acquisition, as well as in the
dissemination and application, of new knowledge, is not only unmatched among
HBCUs, but it will probably be unmatchable for the foreseeable future.
For several generations, Howard University has
been a national source of innovative scholarship in the social and behavioral
sciences, especially as they apply to knowledge about the African-American
family, about the role and development of voluntary associations within the
African-American community, and about the unique and race-specific political and
religious life of African Americans. Howard's social and behavioral scientists
have informed the American public of the issues regarded as central and critical
to African-American thought.
Howard will continue to nurture its cadres of
great thinkers in the disciplines of the social and behavioral sciences and
maintain its position as the national center of African-American thought and
critical analysis. To this end, the University will strengthen and unify its
interdisciplinary study and research on the African-American experience and the
Diaspora.
Howard can realize its historic mission only if
it repositions itself successfully to meet the challenges, and exploit fully the
opportunities of the twenty-first century. The Howard University that this plan
envisions is the Howard University where hard and determined work continues to
define the faculty experience and the student experience.
New Schools and Colleges
One of the first strategic actions that I am
proposing is the creation of three new colleges which combine the strengths of
several existing colleges and reinforce the academic mission of the University.
This strategic framework calls for the creation
of three new schools: an undergraduate college -- College of Arts and Sciences
-- that would include the existing College of Arts and Sciences along with the
College of Fine Arts; a College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences
that would consolidate the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the
College of Nursing, and the College of Allied Health Sciences; and a College of
Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences that would merge the School of
Engineering and the School of Architecture and Planning, while strengthening the
study of Computer Science. The strategic framework also envisions a different
kind of graduate school, one where graduate study administration is more closely
centered in the individual schools and colleges and the Office of the Provost --
a model that is found in many national research universities.
Listed below is the new configuration of schools
and colleges:
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences
College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Sciences
College of Medicine
School of Law
School of Divinity
College of Dentistry
School of Social Work
School of Business
School of Education
School of Communications
Graduate School
An essential facet of my vision for Howard
University is that in focusing the intellectual power of our faculty and the
potential of our students in fewer but stronger disciplines and programs, Howard
University can create for itself a reputation that clearly and unambiguously
distinguishes it from other universities. We must, and we will, in full
consultation with the respective faculties, clearly articulate school and
college mission statements. Many of the schools and colleges already have begun
this process of close examination; the Office of the Provost will work closely
with the schools and colleges in completing this very important task. The focus
so important to the University requires clear and well-understood priorities for
the schools and colleges.
Core Curriculum
I am further proposing that the faculty develop
a core curriculum for all undergraduate students to be centered in the College
of Arts and Sciences. The core curriculum would ensure that all Howard students
not only have a well-grounded understanding of the University's unique
leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement (which advanced the liberation of
women, as well as people of color), but that each graduate of the University
possess the highest order skills in language, mathematics, the use of computers,
and the ability to think critically and communicate effectively.
Early in the twenty-first century, these skills
and attributes will be the sine qua non for all career seekers. Howard graduates
with these abilities will be certain to have greater career opportunities. The
core curriculum also would guarantee that all Howard students understand the
importance of national and community service in a maturing and pluralistic
democracy.
The National Center for African-American
Heritage and Culture
I am also proposing that certain existing
elements of the University be reconfigured to create a National Center
for African-American Heritage and Culture. This Center would include
the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, the University's museums, exhibition
spaces like the Gallery of Art, as well as performance facilities such as
Cramton Auditorium and the Ira Aldridge Theater.
In addition, the Center would join the
performing-and-visual-arts visitation program, oral history recordings and
collections, music and dance performances in the African tradition, as well as
other exhibitions and public information programs. The Center would be
reinforced by the academic programs of African American Studies and African
Studies.
Long before Black land grant colleges were
created, Howard University was educating the recently freed African slaves who
brought with them much of the African culture which they had acquired from their
ancestors and managed to preserve. As Howard evolved to a comprehensive
University that offered instruction in Art, Music and Drama, among other
disciplines, men and women of Howard soon infused in these fine arts the African
culture with which their heritage had endowed them.
Over the years, Howard has accumulated a
permanent collection of African and African-American art that is unparalleled
and benefited greatly by the presence of faculty like James Porter and Lois
Mailou Jones. Meanwhile, Howard alumni, like sisters Debbie Allen and Phylicia
Rashad; Ossie Davis; Jessye Norman; Roberta Flack; and Donald Byrd, are
achieving at the highest levels as exponents of drama and music.
Simultaneous with this demonstrated prowess in
the fine arts was the presence on the Howard campus of intellectual giants in
national and international service, like Rayford Logan, E. Franklin Frazier,
Alain Locke, Sterling Brown, Ralph Bunche, John Hope Franklin, Ernest Just,
Patricia Roberts Harris, Andrew Young, Vernon Jordan, Zora Neale Hurston, L.
Douglas Wilder, Thurgood Marshall, Charles Drew and Nobel Laureate Toni
Morrison, to name a few. These men and women brought to their disciplines of
history, sociology, philosophy, literature, political and natural science, law
and medicine, the African-American perspective rooted in the African-American
tradition which, in turn, was rooted in their African heritage and culture.
Howard University has the constituent elements
for the National Center for African-American Heritage and Culture. Clearly, the
traditions and history of Howard University make it an ideal setting to create a
major repository of research on Black culture to identify and highlight the
African and African-American influence that has been exerted, through the
thoughts, words and actions of stellar African-Americans, on the national and
international cultures of the world. It is our obligation to make that reality
more accessible to the American public.
Fund for Academic Excellence
The proposed academic reorganization can
undoubtedly yield significant financial savings but, equally important, it could
be the catalyst for a seminal improvement in our capacity to coordinate and
focus more sharply our academic programs along the lines of excellence. I want
to emphasize the great opportunity this process provides for the evaluation of
all our academic programs in the departments, colleges and schools in order to
eliminate course redundancies, develop interdisciplinary cooperation, facilitate
resource sharing, and enhance the quality of instruction generally.
The resulting administrative savings could be
used for many things, but I propose that all savings from the reorganization of
schools and colleges and the subsequent program consolidations be reinvested in
a fund to create a mechanism expressly designed to promote and foster continued
excellence of the Fund for Academic Excellence.
Given that the University currently has no such
fund, it is easy to understand how this kind of venture capital fund,
consistently investing several million dollars for excellence each year, could
make a substantive difference in the quality of the University's academic
environment by the year 2000. While the principal outcomes from the proposed
strategic realignments will be in strengthening our quality focus, and improving
academic and management coordination, the immediate financial benefits are not
trivial.
Infrastructure: Academic
Programs and Student Services
Strong academic programs are dependent upon
efficient and effective support from a well-organized, highly-skilled
administrative and logistical infrastructure. The administrative systems for a
national research university like Howard must be tightly organized and
characterized by a knowledgeable and motivated staff.
Orderly, reliable and responsive student
services are the sine qua non of student satisfaction at any university, and
arguably they determine in perpetuity the students' image of that university and
their inclination or disinclination to support it after graduation.
Admissions, registration, housing, and financial
aid are all essential to the life and well-being of the student community. When
a prospective student expresses interest in matriculation at Howard University
and receives a timely response, the likelihood of enrolling the student is
greatly increased. Recent efforts to take advantage of existing technology,
including the Internet and the World Wide Web, seem promising. But more can be
done, and improving the quality and speed of the University's response to
student inquiries of all kinds is our immediate objective.
II. Promoting Excellence in Teaching
and Research
In order to ensure that our students continue to
receive the best teaching and the most advanced knowledge available, I propose
to establish a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
The proposed Center for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning (CETL) amplifies our faculty commitment to high-quality
instruction, effective educational preparation of students at the undergraduate
and graduate levels, and a conviction that students must be richly nourished,
both in mind and in spirit. The CETL's goals would include building a community
of dedicated faculty to effect beneficial changes in the University's teaching
culture, while supporting traditional methods of instruction. The proposed CETL
would offer seminars and workshops to encourage excellence in teaching, provide
awards for outstanding faculty, establish support groups for new teachers, and
make advanced technologies more readily available to faculty and students.
In promoting excellence in teaching and
learning, both within and across the many disciplines, departments, and schools
and colleges of the University, the CETL would assist faculty in staying abreast
of the new knowledge, instructional methods, and technologies that affect
learning.
The CETL will lend support to teachers and
students at all levels of the academic spectrum. The CETL's location should be
in a welcoming environment where faculty can come together to share innovations,
support and encourage one another, and develop creative teaching projects.
I envision a Center for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning powered by teams of faculty and organized around several
complementary themes: to enrich undergraduate education through active learning,
team teaching and other innovative instruction; to develop and implement a
teaching portfolio system to describe and evaluate more effectively
instructional quality and teaching standards; to support excellence in teaching
by offering orientation for new faculty and teaching assistants; and to organize
a central library of material related to teaching, in which exemplary course
syllabi, examinations and other instructional materials would be available.
The strategic framework assumes that the
University will continue to attract faculty of exceptional ability and students
of extraordinary promise. The proposed core curriculum and Center for Excellence
in Teaching and Learning are two of the many recommendations that I am proposing
as part of this strategic framework that are designed to enhance these important
attributes.
One way of stimulating research inquiry and
teaching innovation is through the establishment of high quality
interdisciplinary academic programs. These interdisciplinary programs could
facilitate collaborative research, enhance collaborative core units, promote
faculty participation from various departments, encourage joint appointments,
and establish training of students by an interdisciplinary faculty. I expect
interdisciplinary programs to be highly competitive and flexible and, where
appropriate, to focus on state-of-the-art disciplines and fields of study.
Faculty Research
To foster greater productivity in faculty
research, I am also proposing several additional steps including:
- adjusting teaching loads for faculty engaged
in sponsored research;
- developing a faculty compensation plan for
augmentation of faculty salaries with income from grants;
- establishing key research centers and
laboratories;
- recruiting grant-successful, high-energy
investigators in those research areas that best reflect the University's
core values.
Faculty Workload Policy
Although many of the University's schools and
colleges have faculty workload policies, currently there is no University-wide
policy. As a result, there exists wide variation both among and within our
individual schools and colleges. There should be such a University-wide policy,
and I propose that it be developed by the faculty, in consultation with
departmental chairs, deans and University governance.
Components of a faculty workload policy would
include: faculty-to-student contact hours; student advisement; research;
creative and scholarly activities; preparation; university service; and public
service that is profession-related.
When policies have been accepted and adopted by
the various academic units, a method of accountability also should be devised to
assure fair distribution of work, full participation by all faculty, and
incentives for exemplary performance. A uniform time frame for workload
evaluation (once a year, once every two years, etc.) should be established for
all units.
Follow-on actions to be taken after
establishment of the standards will include: communication of the standards to
faculty, students, staff and administrators; examination of current systems used
to assess accountability for faculty, students and staff, as well as
administrators and deans; and recommendations to allow the University to assess
its progress toward a 'shared vision' of the appropriate daily operation of the
institution.
For those University employees who are not
members of the faculty, professional and support staff performance standards
should produce greater fiscal and operational efficiency, help improve the
quality of life on campus, and help to create a refined campus environment.
I am initiating, therefore, a formal evaluation
process. At the center of the administrative and staff evaluation systems is a
position profile that spells out the responsibilities and expectations for each
University position. Exceptional performance will be recognized and rewarded,
and poor performance will result in appropriate action. The goal is to increase
existing efforts to make superior performance the rule, rather than the
exception.
Infrastructure: Capital Projects
I have included several capital projects as part
of my strategic planning framework that are designed to support excellence in
teaching and research.
These major initiatives include four 'bricks and
mortar' projects, and four technology projects. Taken together, Infrastructure
Two is designed to complement the University's first Infrastructure Project
which was funded by the Congress in 1992. Infrastructure Two will advance
significantly our ability to compete in a global society, and will help ensure
that we remain a strong Research I University well into the twenty-first
century.
Infrastructure Two also complements the proposed
new Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and is part of the
information platform on which we will soon begin to explore distance learning
seriously, both domestically and internationally, in concert with our new Ralph
J. Bunche International Affairs Center.
The new building projects that are part of
Capital Projects Initiative include:
The Miner Building
The Miner Building will undergo complete
rehabilitation to house the National Center for African-American Heritage and
Culture.
Health Sciences Library - Main Campus
Law School Library - West Campus - Designed to
be state-of-the-art digital resource facilities, these libraries will add
significant capacity to two of our professional areas of study.
Science and Engineering Center - An
interdisciplinary center designed to upgrade the University's facilities in
the basic sciences and engineering, as well as provide a robust foundation for
substantive research in emerging fields.
The technology projects that are part of
Infrastructure Two include:
A. Faculty Network (FacNet)
When I became President, fewer than 1 percent of
the faculty had access to the University's fiber optic Wide Area Network (HUNet)
and, through it, to the Internet and the World Wide Web. At my direction, with
federal funding, as of Charter Day 1996 the campus network had been extended to
reach the offices of more than fifty percent of the full-time faculty. As part
of this strategic planning process, we intend to continue extending campus
connectivity so that every full-time faculty member has access to the network
this year. As compression technologies and multimedia software improves, we
expect to add internet desktop video capability to the faculty network.
B. Student Residential Network (ResNet)
Over the summer, we began extending the campus
network to student residential facilities. When completed, ResNet will allow
students access to all appropriate campus systems.
C. Information Lab at Technology Center
The second floor of the new Technology Center at
Wonder Plaza will be configured to create a 200-station ěsuper labî for
24-hour-a-day student and faculty use. In addition to computers, the lab will
include training rooms, workshop space and multimedia equipment.
D. Howard University Television Network
The University is fortunate to have prominent
national and international guest speakers visit the campus on a daily basis.
Generally, these sessions benefit only one class or particular group. Often,
others in the University community and the community at large wish that they
could have participated.
This past summer, as part of the Howard
University Television Workshop, the Howard University public television station,
began development of the Howard University Television Network. This initiative
will create a campus video network connecting major academic buildings and other
relevant campus sites to the University's television station. This will allow
special events to be videotaped routinely for subsequent campus distribution
and, where appropriate, broadcast.
This initiative will also place video monitors
in several classrooms, lecture halls, faculty lounges and student residential
facilities so that the new seven-channel campus-wide feed, i.e., four broadcast
channels (CNN, CSPAN 1, CSPAN 2, and the University's public television
station), and three closed circuit channels (Campus Events and Information, plus
two programmable channels for special events - Faculty A and Faculty B) can be
received. Thus, when our faculty members are on CSPAN, CNN or Howard University
Television, they can actually have their classes participate.
The Howard University Television Network
includes the creation of a corporate quality video conference capability at the
desktop and in the Technology Center, utilizing the University's television
station for taping, broadcasting and distribution.
Campus Environment
Security is a major concern for all Universities
located in urban areas. The University has made a number of recent improvements
designed to enhance campus safety. Improvements in this area are certain to
result in increased student satisfaction with campus living.
Such a campus climate will redound to the
benefit of the University's image across the nation, and will exert a positive
influence on the current efforts at enrollment management. The ultimate result
can be that prospective entrants will be told by friends or family attending
Howard that the University provides a good environment for serious study and
personal development. Moreover, current and potential faculty and staff will be
able to take comfort in, and be encouraged by, the tranquility of a revitalized
campus environment in which pride of accomplishment and collegiality support
superior performance, minimizing concern for personal safety and property
security.
III. Increasing Private Support
Howard University is unique among the nation's
private colleges in having both a federal charter and a permanent authorization
from the United States Congress. The University has received a federal
appropriation in every year since its founding 129 years ago. The federal
commitment to the University has been in place through four major wars, the
Great Depression, 25 U.S. Presidents and numerous political party changes. The
federal investment is needed for Howard University to continue to be a major
avenue for postsecondary access, the nation's principal producer of Black
academic excellence, and one of the linchpins of American higher education.
Clearly, Howard University has demonstrated an
exceptional capacity for securing federal support. The University now must
develop a complementary capability for raising significant funds from private
sources. As a national research university, Howard does not compare well with
institutions of similar size and array of programs in terms of private
fundraising. Although there are many explanations, the University also has not
yet received the kind of financial support from its alumni that is enjoyed by
its peer institutions. Establishing an effective development operation is one of
the University's most important priorities. Without such a capability, it will
be difficult for the University to fulfill its mission completely, to strengthen
its financial independence, or to provide much-needed operating resources.
As the only national African-American
Carnegie-designated Research Level I university, Howard should excel in private
fundraising, especially from alumni. Alumni will be challenged to do much more
for Alma Mater. We also will actively engage students and parents in meeting the
challenge of generating more private support for the University. Further, each
school and college will be expected to support this effort actively.
Given Howard's mission, the University needs to
be more engaged in research activities. There are too few grants and contracts
being awarded to us and too few grant applications and research proposals being
submitted. Indeed, not enough of our faculty are engaged in sponsored research
activity.
Cooperative and synergistic relationships
between a university and its local and national corporate sources of research
grants and contracts the potential future employers of its graduates ó create
an environment for generating additional private financial support.
The potential for partnership between private
industry and the Howard University research base is practically unlimited.
Equally significant and of immediate possibility is the unlimited potential for
research in collaboration with local, state and national government agencies in
seeking solutions to national and international socio-economic problems,
especially those that impact disproportionately on communities of color.
Increased revenues from the private sector can
be used to upgrade our increasingly mature physical plant, to extend and
accelerate recent improvements in our technological infrastructure, and to
enhance the overall quality of campus life for faculty, students and staff.
All of this will combine to lay the groundwork
for a capital campaign to increase the University's endowment significantly.
Time frame: We will increase to 30% the
percentage of alumni participation by 2001. To reach that goal, the alumni
targets for the next five years are:
10% for 1997
15% for 1998
20% for 1999
25% for 2000
30% for 2001
The Treasurer will document annual alumni
contributions in the report to the Board of Trustees each September. As a
complement to this initiative, I have directed that all University auxiliary
enterprises must be operating free of University subsidy by the end of 2001.
IV. Enhancing National and Community
Service
As I stated at the outset of this report, the
concept of Leadership for America is one we take seriously at Howard. This has
been a major theme running through our history. We envision creating the
National Leadership Institute, as part of the College of Arts and Sciences,
tying together all of the disciplines and departments of this great University,
offering a multidisciplinary approach to national service and leadership for our
nation and our people.
A commitment to service is one of the core
values of Howard University's tradition and history. That commitment to service
receives most of its recognition at the national level, but it extends to our
relations with our neighbors in Washington, D.C. as well.
It is my unalterable intention that Howard
University continue to produce distinguished and compassionate graduates who
will provide Leadership for America in the twenty-first century. In light of the
core curriculum which I have described above, and inextricably tied to our
mission to become a comprehensive, research-oriented university, is our
obligation to take the lead in addressing the problems of the nation's
inner-city schools. Unless we do so, there will be very little opportunity to
provide 'an educational experience of exceptional quality to students of high
academic potential with particular emphasis upon promising Black students'. And
there will be fewer students of 'high academic potential' coming from the
inner-city systems. The University has the intellectual power and a traditional
inspiration to accomplish this task. In doing so, it would render the nation as
great a public service in the twenty-first century as it did with civil rights
in the twentieth century.
I have, therefore, requested that the Department
of Education recommend to the Congress funding of a special initiative, in a
dedicated appropriation, to strengthen the ability of Howard University to
support essential improvements in the public schools of the District of
Columbia.
For the last several years, the University has
been highly successful in its relations with the community-based organizations
in the surrounding community. There has been a substantial reduction in the
'town and gown' rivalries and enmities that plague many universities existing in
urban settings. These efforts will be underscored with the presence of the new
Howard University Community Association office, which will advance the strategic
relationship between Howard University and its neighborhood. The project also
will provide additional tangible evidence that the University's concerns for
campus security and its desire to continue to be a good neighbor to the
surrounding community are not mutually exclusive. And recently, the University
received a major grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
to undertake activities to improve community economic development. The
University created a partnership between the University and two community
non-profit organizations. Howard also will actively support the revitalization
of business enterprise in the Shaw area, working with community-based
organizations and leadership.
Historically, the University has rendered great
service to the city and the region with its medical education and training of
African-American and minority health care providers, as well as the health care
provided by Howard University Hospital (HUH). The Hospital has assumed the
burdens of providing more and more un-reimbursed and under-reimbursed care,
without diminution of health care quality. Clearly, HUH cannot continue along
this path. The Hospital, as principal clinical situs for the School of Medicine
and as one of the major health care providers in the District of Columbia, is
vitally important to the University, its medical school, and the community. We
will continue, therefore, to explore all possible ways and means of continuing
the Hospital as this great resource of teaching, research and health care
delivery.
For its part, HUH, through the Agenda for Change
initiative and implementation of the recommendations which followed the
initiative, has already undertaken substantive reform of its practices. More
remains to be done, but a good start has been made in strengthening HUH
activities across a wide spectrum of management practices.
The hospital administration and the University
are fully aware that the fast-moving dynamics of managed care and other
reimbursement and coverage issues require us to consider new and innovative ways
of delivering health care, including more emphasis on ambulatory care for
patient services, and network and other possible structural arrangements for the
Hospital.
CONCLUSION
There are three final points that I want to
emphasize. First, we are engaged in a strategic planning process in order to
fortify our heritage of leadership and service and to make real our core values.
Second, the spirit of cooperation and dialogue that has evidenced itself on
campus over the past year is essential to this process, and must be maintained.
Third, I sincerely believe that we must move briskly in the strategic directions
that I have outlined:
1) Strengthening Academic Programs and Services,
2) Promoting Excellence in Teaching and Research, 3) Increasing Private Support,
and 4) Enhancing National and Community Service. In so doing, we will maintain
fidelity to the vision of Howard University as a comprehensive research
university, unique and irreplaceable, defined by its core values, the excellence
of all its activities, including research, teaching and service, and its
commitment to educating African Americans for leadership and service to the
African-American and global communities.
Let us begin.
