Fundraising Efforts Continue Ad Nauseam

At the first full Faculty meeting of the year on Tuesday afternoon, both Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and President Neil L. Rudenstine emphasized the importance of looking ahead to the future as the capital campaign draws to a close.

One of his major goals this year, Knowles said, is to increase the size of the Faculty. Adding new professorships would help reduce the size of classes and the overall student-faculty ratio.

"Looking ahead, I believe that the single most important need of the FAS for the coming decade is to increase the size of the faculty and to provide space for us all to work," he said.

Knowles pointed to the recent renovations of academic buildings, but he also said that to ensure office space for additional faculty long-term space planning is necessary.

While increasing Faculty size, Knowles said that there will be a special emphasis on building up the science departments.

Because many Faculty members in scientific fields are expected to retire in the next five years, more tenures will be offered to scientists, Knowles said. The University has already begun filling these positions, hiring unprecedented numbers of scholars in the physics and astronomy departments.

To help in the search for new Faculty members in the sciences, Knowles announced that he has formed a task force to investigate more ways of hiring women Faculty in these traditionally underrepresented areas.

The task force will, "ensure that our faculty searches, both for senior and junior colleagues, are as complete as they can be, and that stellar women candidates are being found and evaluated," Knowles said.

Another concern, Knowles said, is the recruitment and retention rates among junior Faculty. He said he plans to meet with the resources committee next week to discuss this issue.

When the meeting moved on to the president's business, Rudenstine discussed the formation of the Radcliffe Institute and the ongoing search for a new Dean to head the institute.

The search committee, Rudenstine said, is composed of 20 members, with each school represented by at least one senior faculty member.

Rudenstine said he agreed with Knowles' plan to increase the Faculty numbers. He pointed out, however, that these and other projects require fundraising to continue beyond the Dec. 31 end date for the capital campaign.

"There cannot be any let-up in the planning for the future," Rudenstine said. "The agenda for the future is exciting and stimulating and also expensive."

During the open question period, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Reverend Peter J. Gomes asked the only question of the afternoon.

Gomes said that though the Houses are in good repair they are crowded. He inquired if Harvard is planning to build a new House.

Both Knowles and Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis said that there was no need for a new House and that the House system was not more crowded than it has been in past years.

Lewis said unequal distribution of students among the Houses caused some Houses to be more crowded than others.

"I would say the distribution of students among the Houses are not optimal or rational," he said.

Knowles said when the goals for the capital campaign were established a new house was not needed. He said it might be possible to find extra space without building a new house.

"What I hope is that when major renovations occur in the Houses in the second half of the next decade," Knowles said, "we shall be able to capture space--from basements and attics--as we did when we renovated the freshman dorms a few years ago."

In other business, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Christoph J. Wolff requested that Rudenstine appoint a standing committee oh Higher Degrees in Public Health Sciences--the motion passed.

Wolff also spoke, for about 20 minutes, about increasing stipends for graduate students because they are sometimes lower than the cost of living in Cambridge.

In order to keep graduate students from leaving to other schools, Wolff said, GSAS must remain competitive.