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Planning
our Strategy for a New Century
Achieving Excellence 1995-2002
In
the fall of 1995, the University of Pennsylvania articulated
its commitment to become one of the premier research and
teaching universities in the nation and the world. With
this goal in mind, the University initiated a planning
process of which the strategic plan, Agenda for Excellence,
was the first step, followed by the publication of Six
Academic Priorities, the diversity priorities and the
school strategic plans the following year. Our success
in achieving the goals and priorities laid out in these
documents was reported in Almanac last May:
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Penn's
academic rankings have risen;
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Student
selectivity has improved;
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Faculty
accomplishments and recognition have increased;
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Research
funding has dramatically expanded;
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Administrative
restructuring has yielded greater efficiency and effectiveness;
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Revitalization
of the West Philadelphia community has accelerated;
and
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Our
fundraising efforts have strengthened considerably.
Yet,
with all of this success, we cannot afford to be complacent.
We face new challenges and new opportunities--the most
important of which are detailed in this plan. We bear
an obligation to maintain and renew our existing academic
programs and facilities in order to remain attractive
and appropriate for the next generation of scholars, students,
and professionals. We also, as always, seek to explore
those frontiers of knowledge where this institution's
faculty and resources can make a tangible difference for
generations to come. Fulfillment of these responsibilities
requires a continuous and thoughtful dialogue throughout
the University, both about our academic and educational
agendas and the operational and financial capacities required
to achieve them.
The Process of Planning
In
November 2000, the University Trustees met to discuss
the development of Penn's next strategic plan. By spring
2001, the Council of Deans, the Academic Planning and
Budget Committee, the President's Advisory Group, and
the Executive Vice President's senior management team
were engaged in a series of discussions to determine the
goals and priorities that should be included in the new
Strategic Plan. These discussions resulted in a tentative
outline for the plan that provided the framework for the
next step: the establishment of 14 committees, consisting
of over 200 faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate
students from across the University, to focus more substantively
on the major areas of the plan. The committees have been
hard at work since early in the fall semester. In February,
we held an Open Forum to solicit additional suggestions
and encourage more input from the University community.
Refining
the Plan
The
following draft plan is the result of this extensive
and inclusive effort. As you will note, this new plan
builds on the Agenda for Excellence, but updates
it to reflect Penn's current context. As with the Agenda,
it will also provide a blueprint for preparing revised
school plans, a basis for estimating and relating projected
costs to the University's financial capabilities and constraints,
and a roadmap for the University's future fundraising
efforts.
This
proposed plan is now presented for comment. We welcome
your suggestions and encourage a full review by faculty,
students, and staff. We would appreciate receiving your
responses by April 23. Please send your comments to Linda
Koons, Executive Assistant to the Provost, koons@pobox.upenn.edu.
Judith
Rodin, President |
Robert
Barchi, Provost |
John
Fry, Executive Vice President |
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Building
on Excellence:
The Next Agenda
A
Strategic Plan for the
University of Pennsylvania
April 2002
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Penn's
Special Strengths and Future Challenges
Introduction
While
the term "strategic planning" may sound abstract, in
fact the planning process embodies our collective effort to answer
a set of fundamental questions: given our historic mission and
purposes, what specific goals do we set for ourselves in the years
ahead? Penn and the nation's other great universities play a singular
and distinctive role in shaping the future of society, in this
country and around the world. Universities are institutions with
long histories, whose shared mission entails a complex and continuing
act of negotiation between the old and the new, conserving, interpreting,
and transmitting mankind's legacy of intellectual and cultural
achievement while at the same time adding to that store by producing
and transmitting new knowledge.
Strategic
planning is the organized effort we make to examine our aspirations,
articulate our goals, identify our strengths and weaknesses, and
set our priorities. It does not necessarily involve re-invention,
radical change, or right-angle turns: Penn is already a place
of immense achievement across a broad horizon. Rather, the planning
process offers a periodic opportunity for all of the university's
stakeholders--faculty, students, trustees, administration--to
take stock, to challenge and inspire each other, to develop a
strategy, and ultimately to choose among diverse objectives. In
approaching this task, we are guided and energized not only by
the concrete achievements of the past seven years, but also by
the rich legacy of our predecessors and the enormous institutional
strengths they have bequeathed to us.
From
its founding, Penn has chosen a distinct path in higher education,
its character in large part shaped by the practical genius of
Benjamin Franklin. Franklin called for an institution that would
link the theoretical and the applied--or, as he put it, the "ornamental
and the useful"--while promoting service to "mankind,
country, friends and family." With its emphasis on the liberal
arts and sciences, the curriculum of the early College of Philadelphia
differed substantially from that of the other colonial colleges
of the time, offering students new fields of study such as modern
literature, political science, applied mathematics, history, and
physics.
The
contemporary University of Pennsylvania is a direct descendant
of its colonial forebear. The central role of the liberal arts
and sciences is matched by Penn's many excellent professional
and graduate schools, which have helped to shape our modern-day
character and global reputation.
Building
on Our Strength
Penn's
historically unique combination of the "ornamental"
and the "useful" has helped us achieve our position
at the forefront of American and international scholarship, education,
and professional life; it also has endowed us with some important
assets as we face the challenges ahead.
These
assets include:
Our World-Class Faculty
In
the face of kaleidoscopic change, the core mission of the University
of Pennsylvania remains unaltered: to pursue new knowledge through
acts of invention, research, and scholarship, and to transmit
knowledge through teaching. That mission is embodied in the
university's faculty. Penn is especially fortunate to have on
its faculty many extraordinary women and men whose talent, achievement,
diversity, and dedication constitute the university's chief
strength. In virtually every field of study, from chemistry
to criminology, from life science to law, Penn's faculty are
making fundamental contributions to knowledge. By every available
measure, the quality of both our research and teaching has grown
in distinction in the recent past.
The Diversity of Our People and Ideas
Penn
rejoices in the rich diversity of persons, groups, points of
view, academic disciplines, and programs that grace the campus
of the nation's first university. Tapping our diversity to strengthen
ties across all these boundaries enriches the intellectual climate
and creates a more vibrant community. Fostering and nourishing
this diversity, especially among students, faculty, staff, and
trustees must remain central to the core mission of the University.
Our
Interdisciplinary Environment
Having
all twelve schools situated on a single compact campus facilitates
opportunities to nurture new relationships among faculty and
to bring advances in one discipline to bear on problems in many
others. Our environment rewards those who can reach between
and among departments, schools, and the central university,
in order to create new programs and to develop new approaches
to important problems. This spirit of entrepreneurism and risk-taking
is acknowledged as one of our most distinctive features.
Our
Urban Context
Penn
is an urban institution, located in the heart of the nation's
fifth largest city. Our location is valuable not merely for
the cultural riches that Philadelphia offers, but also for the
wonderful laboratory it provides for learning, teaching, research,
and service. Civic engagement in all its multifaceted forms
has become the norm and hallmark of Penn's faculty and students,
as it has of the university itself.
Our International Scope
We
are also an increasingly international institution. Many of
Penn's schools now have active and growing international components--Wharton,
Nursing, Medicine, GSFA, and Education among them. Sixteen percent
of our student body comes from abroad. More and more Penn students
are spending time abroad during the course of their studies.
Our Entrepreneurial and Engaged Spirit
Penn
is an especially dynamic place; an institution that has been
described as "a bustling collection of entrepreneurs of
the mind, finding ingenious ways to stretch slender resources
to further ambitiously conceived academic ideas." A singular
energy and vibrancy defines our campus. Our students are described
as "feisty, intellectually self-confident, risk-takers,
independent thinkers, and intellectually engaged," a description
that also fits our faculty.
The Challenges
Franklin's
vision of melding intellectual and practical connections with
a strong commitment to service provides the framework of what
we are today: a great research university, noted for the excellence
of our undergraduate experience, our strengths across a wide array
of schools and fields, and our ability to foster innovative connections
among disciplines, faculty, students, and the larger communities
we serve. As we move ahead, preparing to make bold, but careful,
long-term investments in the university's future, we need to measure
our strengths and resources against a number of significant challenges.
The
twenty-first century represents a new world for Penn, and for
American higher education generally. Some of the challenges we
face reflect long-term trends in technology, communications, transportation,
Philadelphia's evolution as a city, and the internal dynamics
of various disciplines. Others reflect the realities of a financial
and political environment that will be far more challenging than
that of the mid-nineties. These are some of the factors that must
be considered in charting Penn's course into the next half-decade:
Faculty Recruitment and Retention
Our
single greatest challenge will lie in faculty recruitment and
retention. Hiring and retaining teacher-scholars of uniform
excellence is the prerequisite to all our institutional ambitions.
Globalization
We
are a global competitor in the higher education market. This
exposes us to risks and opportunities that arise much faster
than the slower, more predictable, pace of domestic change.
Technology
Nothing
drives the pace of change faster or more unpredictably than
the evolution of technology. The next few years will test our
capacity to adapt, change, contribute to, and even direct, this
technological revolution.
Defining
Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century
While
the university's mission will remain constant, the methods and
practices that guide research and teaching will almost certainly
undergo unprecedented change in the decades ahead. Along with
technology and globalization, Penn will find itself challenged
by the shifting demographics of its students, by serious financial
constraints, and by an unpredictable political climate. We will
need to apply all of our agility and imagination to meet the
demands of the professions and the educational needs of our
students in the decades ahead.
Regional
Economic Development
Occupying
a key economic and geographic position in the fabric of urban
Philadelphia means that Penn is a major factor in determining
the quality of life and attractiveness of the Delaware Valley
region--in turn, a crucial determinant of our ability to attract
students and faculty to the region, and especially to West Philadelphia.
Finding ways to help Philadelphia renew its regional economy
will be one major determinant of our own future success.
Financial Capacities and Constraints
Large
investments in Penn's future--first and foremost in academic
programs, faculty and students, but also in land, in buildings,
in new technologies, in regional development and in preparing
for the unpredictable--require financial resources. Unfortunately,
we are still seriously under-endowed relative to our peer institutions.
Challenging
Ourselves
Taken
together, these considerations have led us to conclude that we
will continue to need the breadth of perspective, the engaged
practicality, the adaptive flexibility, and the openness to the
interdisciplinary that have become the hallmarks of our university.
Thus, as we face the world of the twenty-first century, we know
that over the next five years Penn must challenge itself to achieve
four strategic objectives that form the framework of the following
plan:
I. Solidify
Penn's position as one of the premier research and teaching
institutions in the nation and in the world.
II. Build
upon our special strengths to develop five selected academic
priorities that will differentiate Penn among international
research universities of the first rank.
III. Adapt
our educational and alumni offerings to the learning needs of
current and future generations.
IV. Develop
the physical, financial, operational, and entrepreneurial capacities
to sustain our academic excellence.
The
Strategic Goals and Initiatives that follow build upon the accomplishments
of our past, while setting out a new course that meets the challenges
of both the present and the future. Achievement of these goals
will fulfill the four strategic objectives outlined above and
help secure Penn's place as one of the great universities at the
forefront of education, research, and scholarship in the twenty-first
century.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS |
I.
Academic Excellence
Solidify
Penn's position as one of the premier research and teaching
institutions in the nation and in the world.
|
Nothing
is more essential to the securing of Penn's preeminence than recruiting
and retaining a faculty of universal excellence. This excellence,
in turn, must be reflected in the undergraduate education we offer,
the graduate education we provide in training future generations
of faculty, and the research we carry out. The quality of Penn's
faculty, research, undergraduate education, and graduate education
are the major determinants of our reputation, vitality, attractiveness,
and competitiveness.
Goal: Build
and retain an outstanding faculty.
A
major international research university must have as its highest
priority the building, strengthening, and retention of a world-class
faculty. We must continue to attract and retain outstanding faculty
if we are to sustain our position as one of the top universities
in the nation and the world. Although many on our faculty are
already exceptional, virtually every one of our chosen academic
priorities will require strengthening of our faculty in key areas.
Competition for top talent will increase in the coming years--not
only for junior faculty, but also through the senior professorial
ranks--and we must be vigilant in our recruitment and retention
initiatives. We must work harder to retain outstanding junior
and senior faculty when our competitors come calling--indeed,
our goal is to anticipate competitive recruitment before it occurs.
We must make effective mentoring of junior and mid-career faculty
the norm. Building and retaining a universally outstanding faculty
will also require us to address: the tension between specialization
and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research and
teaching; the need to increase the presence and leadership of
women and underrepresented minorities on the faculty; the need
to integrate new learning technologies into our pedagogy; and
the need to recognize the changing demographic profile of the
faculty. To meet these challenges will require the strongest possible
commitment of resources--both in human effort and in finances--from
across the institution.
Recommendations
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Be
creative and proactive in retaining our best and brightest faculty
at all levels. We must sustain and reward exceptional
Penn faculty with a strong compensation program and with
an environment that encourages and nurtures their scholarly
growth throughout their careers. Improving our efforts to retain
outstanding junior and senior faculty will require better information
and a dramatically higher level of cooperation among departments,
schools, and the central university administration. Effective
mentoring of junior and mid-career faculty, as well as attention
to quality-of-work-life issues and responsiveness to the individual
needs of senior faculty, will be required. We will need to increase
the number of funded endowed professorships and explore options
for term chairs for our more junior faculty.
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Assist
schools and departments in identifying outstanding candidates
for the faculty, paying particular attention to gender and minority
equity, and develop new mechanisms for appropriately enhancing
and expanding recruitment efforts in key areas and key populations.
To achieve our ambition to recruit and retain the finest faculty,
we will have to expand recruitment networks beyond the usual
disciplinary and professional organizations. Deans and department
chairs must be enabled to engage in carefully coordinated recruiting
efforts. Central mechanisms must be developed that can respond
quickly and effectively to special needs and situations.
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Develop
mechanisms to recognize and enhance the roles and contributions
of faculty members in the later stages of their careers. We
must systematically initiate long-term planning with senior
faculty to help them map out professional development goals.
In particular, we should develop creative ways in which senior
faculty can be productively engaged in activities relating to
the university's core mission, such as the mentoring of junior
colleagues.
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Focus
on teaching as well as research in crafting faculty incentives
and goals. Facilities and resources must be provided to
train and support faculty in the innovative use of new technologies
in their teaching. Outstanding teaching must continue to be
recognized in the promotion process.
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Consider
new, more creative and flexible models for the appointment of
future faculty, exploring such innovative possibilities as joint
faculty appointments with top universities, both locally and
abroad. In this spirit, we must find new ways to encourage and
facilitate inter-school appointments, teaching, and research.
We should also encourage the use of practice faculty, with the
faculty of each school determining whether and how the use of
practice faculty advances the educational mission of the school.
We should explore new models of faculty activity and scholarly
engagement at multiple sites.
Goal: Sustain
excellence in all undergraduate education programs, while building
on those unique aspects that differentiate Penn among its peers.
We
are committed to offering a broad undergraduate education in each
of our four undergraduate schools. Such an education lays a durable
foundation of knowledge, analytical skills, habits of critical thinking,
and imagination that are essential to a multi-faceted, satisfying,
and productive life. To foster such an educational experience, we
must also create the best possible community in which students live
and learn and in which mutual tolerance and adherence to the highest
standards of academic integrity are principles of paramount importance.
We must ensure that all of our students take advantage of the diverse
intellectual and cultural resources available to them, both on campus
and in the greater Philadelphia region. Our students must be able
to create and use new technologies effectively and be prepared to
exercise intellectual, creative and organizational leadership in
all areas of their lives. Finally, we must provide our students
with an education for citizenship, helping them to become knowledgeable
about today's society and comfortable engaging the complex moral,
political, cultural, and social issues they will face as citizens.
Recommendations
-
Improve the integration of the undergraduate educational program
across the schools. A more integrated approach to the undergraduate
educational experience will require us to develop common curricular
experiences for all our undergraduates that ensures an introduction
to broad areas of human knowledge, as well as the development
of writing and communication skills, foreign language competency,
technological and quantitative proficiency, and exposure to
the arts. A Penn undergraduate education should culminate for
all students with an integrated academic experience, such as
a senior design project, an independent research experience,
or the creation of a work of art or business plan. We must develop
the financial, technological and human resources necessary to
facilitate such student efforts. To achieve our ambitious goals
in undergraduate education, we must increase the participation
and strengthen the involvement of graduate and professional
school faculty in our undergraduate educational programs to
ensure that every undergraduate student has access to Penn's
best faculty in all of the university's departments and schools.
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Expand
cross-school and cross-disciplinary programs, focusing on differentiating
strengths and the development of new signature interdisciplinary
programs and tracks--particularly in the strategic academic
areas identified in the Agenda for Excellence and this strategic
plan. This might include the development of courses that
integrate campus and city cultural institutions within a common
curricular experience for all undergraduates, a program that
focuses on leadership and society, or new cross-school majors.
But first and foremost, expanding such inter- and cross-disciplinary
initiatives for undergraduates will require that Penn reduce
or eliminate impediments and disincentives to such programs
that may be present in our administrative and budgeting systems.
It will also require regular curriculum reviews to encourage
continuing excellence and commitment to curricular goals, and
appropriate academic advising support for students to help them
synthesize their multi-faceted academic experiences into a single,
integrated whole.
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Encourage
excellence in the innovative use of technology to enhance teaching
and learning. Offering a preeminent undergraduate educational
experience in the twenty-first century will require Penn to
become a leader in the application of state-of-the-art technological
methods in our educational programs, and the adoption of innovative
teaching technologies by the faculty in all aspects of education.
We must make educational and "courseweb" software
available to all faculties and offer training to both faculty
and students in the use of these programs to their best educational
advantage. We must also encourage our faculty to develop innovative,
cutting-edge courses and instructional methods.
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Encourage,
emphasize, and reward excellence in every aspect of the teaching
mission. We must continue to require evidence of teaching
excellence in all decisions to hire and promote faculty. We
must also continuously review and improve the methods we use
for teaching evaluation and assessment. In order to make available
to all faculty the resources that will enable them to enhance
their teaching, we should develop a University-wide Teaching
and Learning Center.
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Provide every undergraduate with superb academic and career
advising--essential components of an excellent undergraduate
education.
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Attract and retain students of different origins and cultures.
To ensure diversity in our student body, we must enhance
the recruitment of minority and international students to our
campus, and ensure that, once here, they find an environment
that is supportive and welcoming to all cultures and racial
backgrounds. Attracting the best and most diverse students to
Penn will require that we improve the resources for financial
aid in order to ensure that all students, independent of need,
have access to a Penn education.
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Make substantial investments in the university's residential,
classroom, and extracurricular facilities. If we are to
provide the kind of environment that will make the Penn undergraduate
experience the best that it can be, then we must support the
further development of the College House System as living-learning
communities, paying particular attention to the expansion of
the Wheel program, which provides on-site academic advising
and mentoring. We must also accelerate the renovations of classrooms
and the installation of, and support for, instructional technology.
We must consider the establishment of additional hubs to help
meet student academic, cultural, and extra-curricular needs.
And we must continue to develop facilities and venues that provide
sufficient, equitable and attractive athletic and recreational
spaces.
Goal: Strengthen
the quality and national visibility of graduate Ph.D. education
across all of Penn's schools.
Penn's
standing as a university of the first rank depends in large part
upon its reputation as a center of graduate Ph.D. education and
its commitment to train a new generation of scholar-teachers. Many
of the leading faculty at premier research universities and colleges
are the product of only a handful of institutions, and we will work
to continue to be one of those elite institutions. Outstanding faculty
demand a vibrant graduate student population as an integral part
of their academic environment. The training of graduate students
as cutting-edge researchers and teachers is also indispensable both
to research and to the undergraduate experience at the university.
Sustaining and extending excellence in graduate education requires
recognition that graduate education is an essential component of
the university's mission.
Recommendations
-
Improve the national rankings and visibility of Penn's graduate
programs, while addressing issues of program quality and consistency
of education throughout the graduate program. Penn's unique
graduate group structure for doctoral education has many strengths,
but also allows disparities in program quality and in the quality
of mentoring graduate students receive. Each of our graduate
groups should strive to provide an educational program that
is ranked among the top decile in its discipline. We should
consider improving central oversight of graduate education to
assist with issues of standards and quality control. We should
reevaluate current review procedures for graduate groups with
the purpose of establishing performance measures that assess
these groups on their ability to recruit top students, monitor
student progress, achieve timely completion of degree, and place
graduates in top positions. We should reduce or eliminate budgeting
and administrative issues that constrain interdisciplinary and
interschool educational programs, and encourage all graduate
groups to include faculty from several departments to the greatest
extent possible.
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Recruit the most competitive and diverse population of graduate
students possible in each of our identified graduate programs.
Improving Penn's ability to attract and nurture the very best
graduate students will require that we strengthen every aspect
of the graduate academic environment. We must ensure that fellowships,
benefits, and support packages are consistently competitive,
and enhanced recruitment tools and resources are available.
We must expand support for professional advancement and extraordinary
research expenses. We must enhance opportunities for graduate
students to refine their research and teaching skills, increase
opportunities for them to interact with our undergraduate students,
and assist them in independent scholarly activity.
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Improve the integration of undergraduate and graduate education.
We should facilitate greater graduate and undergraduate
student interaction through such venues as the Center for Undergraduate
Research and Fellowships, and consider establishing forums where
undergraduates can learn about, and learn from, the research
achievements of our graduate students.
Goal: Improve
the quality, impact, visibility, and translatability of Penn's academic
research and scholarly activity.
Our
standing as a premier scholarly institution is directly related
to the quality and vitality of the research of our faculty, just
as our aspiration for excellence is dependent on the ability to
create and transmit new knowledge. Such efforts help to attract
the best students and the most distinguished and productive faculty.
They are also a critical determinant in defining our influence on
national and international issues, policies, programs, and goals.
Penn's research not only seeks to answer fundamental questions in
science, engineering, medicine, the social sciences, the humanities,
and the professions, it is also part of the university's teaching
mission, helping to fulfill Franklin's original vision of a learning
community that serves the national purpose. In planning for research
at Penn, it is essential to preserve and promote an environment
conducive to scholarship, to focus on the quality and impact of
our research efforts, to develop ways to make our research excellence
more visible to the larger community, and to translate our efforts
into the marketplace more effectively.
Recommendations
-
Assess research impact and quality throughout the institution.
Such an assessment will require the development of appropriate
metrics that will allow us to identify areas in which substantial
investments will strengthen key university research efforts,
to recognize and reward outstanding research accomplishments
by our faculty, and to plan effectively for future research
initiatives.
-
Continue to improve the infrastructure for the management of
research and the control of research risks. We must invest
in our research management infrastructure and in our education
and compliance programs to update our staff and investigators
continuously in all aspects of their research efforts. Continued
improvement in this area may require that we reorganize our
central administrative and research support services along domain-specific
lines that cut across school and departmental boundaries. We
should also consider using a distributive staffing model to
facilitate grant management, human subject research and laboratory
animal care, and expanding efforts to enhance the professional
development of support personnel in all areas of the university
providing research support services.
-
Strengthen social science research and develop the appropriate
infrastructure for this research at Penn. Strengthening
our social science research activities will require the development
of a university-wide mechanism to encourage, support, and coordinate
efforts in social science research across the university. This
mechanism should help to bring together faculty with common
interests and approaches and facilitate all aspects of scholarly
activity, including the exchange of ideas, collaborative research,
and resource sharing.
-
Improve the efficiency of research administration and work to
moderate the operational costs of research and research facilities.
With the availability of more refined cost data, we must
now focus on containing and, where possible, moderating the
escalating expenses associated with our research enterprise.
We should establish equitable guidelines for the recovery of
research costs from projects funded through non-federal sources.
To the greatest extent possible, automated systems should be
developed to streamline and integrate the processes of grant
submission and administration, investigator certification, and
protocol approval.
-
Strengthen our support for the translation of research advances
to the public domain. As one of the nation's great research
universities, Penn is at the forefront of the generation of
new ideas. Consistent with Franklin's mandate, we must now be
more attentive to the extension of those ideas from the laboratory
to practical application. Support for the development and commercialization
of the intellectual property developed by our faculty should
be increased, and the efficiency and effectiveness of our current
processes should be assessed and improved.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS |
II.
Academic Priorities
Build
upon our special strengths to develop five selected academic
priorities that will differentiate Penn among international
research universities of the first rank.
|
We
must capitalize on our special strengths to define specific and
targeted academic opportunities in order to secure and differentiate
our position among international research universities of the first
rank. In realizing Franklin's vision and the strategic objectives
that emerge from it, we have identified five interdisciplinary areas
in which we believe Penn is most likely to leverage its historic
and contemporary strengths and successfully differentiate itself
during the next five years.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS |
The
Urban Community
Goal:
As one of the nation's premier academic institutions, Penn can and
should be a nationally recognized leader in urbanism.
Philadelphia,
the nation's fifth largest city, is a microcosm of the challenges
facing American cities today. Our location creates many opportunities
for model partnerships, analysis of the critical problems confronting
cities, and the design and testing of new approaches to urban revitalization.
We
already have many strengths in this area. Under the Urban Agenda
and the West Philadelphia Initiatives we have established ourselves
as a national leader in demonstrating ways urban institutions of
higher education can engage with their surrounding communities:
by enhancing public spaces, public education, housing, and commercial
development. We also have demonstrated a leadership role in our
Urban Studies program, one of the strongest of its kind in the nation.
However,
while we are known for our work in city and state governance, criminal
justice, health policy, education policy and communications and
the media, we are not recognized as an institution for public policy
research or training despite having numerous research centers, faculty
and courses in this area. This is in part due to our long tradition
of decentralized, entrepreneurial approaches to urban issues. If
we wish to achieve a national reputation in urbanism and public
policy, a central organizing mechanism that would provide visibility
for these efforts is essential.
The
university's commitment to its urban agenda and its concrete actions
in West Philadelphia and across the city have set a high standard
of achievement. We must now build on these successes by marshalling
and enhancing our intellectual resources and extending Penn's impact
to the closely related areas of civic engagement, leadership, and
public policy.
Recommendations
-
In order to advance our reputation as a national leader in urban
scholarship, we will need to make substantial investments in
social science research, focusing in particular on public policy
and urban issues, and in developing a supportive academic infrastructure.
Such an effort will require a variety of steps: facilitating
a set of strategic faculty hires to catalyze interdisciplinary
work on cities and their regions, creating prestigious postgraduate
fellowships that will bring experts to the campus who
can strengthen our academic and research programs, establishing
a graduate group in urban studies that will collaborate with
other graduate groups in developing joint doctoral degree programs,
and encouraging greater participation of standing faculty in
the undergraduate urban studies program by reducing the barriers
to their teaching in that program. We need to strengthen
and improve the coordination of existing public policy and urban
education programs across the campus. We must find a mechanism
to facilitate closer collaborations among these programs; find
ways to bring together faculty members working on public policy
and urban issues from a variety of different perspectives; begin
to sponsor joint activities, such as lectures and symposia;
and assist faculty in seeking grants to support their research.
-
We should develop a broad urban research program that focuses
on the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Such a program should
support a broad range of interdisciplinary research projects,
including regular surveys of the population and panel studies
of the city's social and economic institutions and such study
areas as the city's history, politics, and demography. We should
also expand our data sharing and policy analysis partnerships
with Philadelphia.
-
We should support and encourage the expansion of the Center
for Community Partnerships. The center is recognized as
the model for university-civic engagement. Penn should help
fund its core management and facility costs and support
its academically-based community service courses that
integrate research, teaching, and service.
-
We should continue to forge academic linkages with the West
Philadelphia Initiatives by establishing an independent board
of scholars who will have sufficient funding and authority to
assure that data and methods for evaluation will meet a standard
worthy of Penn and its faculty.
-
We need to develop a coherent focus for leadership development,
encouraging each school and academic program to examine how
leadership is taught, and to consider ways in which this topic
can appropriately be introduced into the curriculum and other
academic activities. Such an effort would be facilitated
by the development of a central database or clearinghouse of
information about faculty doing research in or teaching about
leadership.
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The
Life Sciences
Goal:
Building upon our unique resources, we must seize the opportunity
to differentiate ourselves from our peers in the critical and rapidly
moving area of life sciences research.
It
is widely acknowledged that the next revolution in the expansion
of human knowledge will take place in the life sciences. Many of
our peer institutions have recognized this and are making major
investments in this area. However, Penn is virtually unique in having
a world-class medical school and medical research enterprise, an
academic health delivery system, and a natural sciences and engineering
academic infrastructure on the same compact campus. The contiguity
of these resources provides an opportunity for synergy and innovation
that is unsurpassed.
The
1990s witnessed a significant renaissance in the life sciences at
Penn, encompassing diverse components of the Schools of Arts and
Sciences, Dental Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and, most
dramatically, Medicine. There was also a highly visible increase
in the integration of the life sciences with previously disparate
disciplines, from engineering to law, business, ethics, and public
policy. In many respects, Penn is ideally suited to meet the challenge
of cross-disciplinary research with its self-contained urban campus,
the proximity of professional schools and hospitals, the supra-departmental
graduate group structure, and the many interdisciplinary centers.
Penn
approaches the life sciences initiative with a great deal of strength.
But there are challenges to be confronted. First-rate research and
educational facilities must be made available throughout the university
in order to minimize resource disparities among collaborating departments;
opportunities must be created for faculty who transcend traditional
departmental identities; there must be ongoing investment in shared
equipment resources and core facilities that facilitate the interdisciplinary
agenda; and the life sciences research programs in some of the schools
must be strengthened through greater attention to leadership and
resources.
In
surveying the emerging biological landscape, a number of conceptual
themes emerge, defining experimental viewpoints that cut across
systems, diseases, and disciplines and that represent areas of particular
opportunity for Penn.
Recommendations
-
Genomics and Beyond: The Biological Information Continuum.
What is the information substratum upon which biological
systems are built? How can statistical and mathematical models
be used to interpolate and extrapolate information to predict
biological outcomes? In order to answer these questions Penn
will need to strengthen existing efforts in genomics, develop
new initiatives in proteomics and other emerging genomic technologies,
support genomic-scale biomedical research projects that seek
to apply new technologies at all levels, and promote bioinformatics
and biocomputational modeling.
-
Formative Processes in Living Systems: Traversing the Life Span.
How does structure take form in biological systems? This
fundamental question can be considered for a continuum of biological
structures from proteins and chromosomes to cells, to embryos,
to adult aging. To answer it, Penn will need to strengthen stem
cell biology, promote clinical translation in this area, and
strengthen aging research.
-
The Continuum of Structure and Function: Integrative Physiology
and Beyond. How does structure translate into function,
and function to behavior? This fundamental question can be addressed
in a diversity of biological contexts, such as the study of
how pathological interactions between proteins cause disease,
or the study of the physical basis of the mind and behavior.
Penn will need to strengthen existing efforts in both cognitive
neurosciences and systems neuroscience, to nurture the already
rich environment of immunological sciences, and to build programs
in cardiovascular biology.
-
Advancing the Biology of Tomorrow: Diagnostic and Therapeutic
Frontiers. What are the molecular and cellular bases
of complex disease processes, and how can insights into pathogenesis
be leveraged for innovating the next generation of diagnostics
and therapeutics? Penn must enhance its research capabilities
by building on existing strengths in quantitative and integrated
biological imaging, structural biology, drug design, gene therapy,
cancer biology, infectious diseases, fetal surgery, and transcriptional
and RNA disorders.
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OF CONTENTS |
Technology
Innovation
Goal:
Penn must be a leader in the application of technology, in the development
of new technology, and in the technological education of its students.
We
recognize that the physical size of our technology facilities will
require us to focus our efforts in selective areas and build on
our differentiating strengths. Based on this assumption, we have
selected several areas for special development: computer and information
science, bioengineering and biotechnology, and nanotechnology.
The
boundary between engineering and the life sciences is crumbling,
with rapid advances ranging from the engineering of living cells
to the development of biomedical devices. In this area Penn enjoys
a unique differentiating opportunity, with remarkable strength in
life science research and related engineering fields.
The
cutting edge of engineering is now at the level of molecules, and
the manipulation and organization of nanometer-scale material into
technologically useful devices has become a new and rapidly expanding
area of interest for the discipline. The future needs of our nation
and the world will require innovative approaches to supplying our
energy needs while respecting our environment.
The
information and computing sciences underlie the technological revolution
now underway in academic disciplines ranging from ancient history
to medicine. It is imperative that all of our students, no matter
what their specific area of focus, are technologically literate,
that all of our faculty have access to the newest advances in technology,
and that our engineering faculty are at the cutting edge in the
development of this field.
Recommendations
-
We must continue to focus on the development of Computer and
Information Sciences within the School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences. Building on recent successes, additional key faculty
recruitments must be made, allowing the expansion of educational
and research programs that link to and interact with other schools
on campus. Special attention must be given to opportunities
to develop and support the information-processing infrastructure
that will be the common language of tomorrow's life sciences
research.
-
Building on our current strengths in bioengineering and in the
life sciences and medicine, we should aggressively expand our
efforts in the areas of bioengineering and biotechnology.
New facilities will be needed to house new faculty and research
programs. Interdisciplinary educational programs at the undergraduate
and graduate level must be nurtured and expanded. Strategic
hiring in SEAS should focus on enhancing programs that are connected
to the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Arts and Sciences, in
such areas as cognitive science, bioinformatics and biotechnology.
-
We must develop an intellectual and physical focus in the new
area of nanotechnology that includes improved facilities for
research and curricular activities related to nanoscale science.
Our efforts in this burgeoning field must differentiate us from
other efforts around the nation, and should focus on the interface
between physical and biological systems, drawing on our unique
strengths in the life sciences and the proximity of our physical
sciences, engineering sciences, and medical sciences.
-
We must maintain our core capabilities in engineering and the
physical sciences in order to be at the forefront of technology
changes in the critical area of energy and the environment.
Penn has significant strengths in environmental science that
provides differentiating opportunities at this interface; these
opportunities for both research and curricular innovation should
be explored and developed.
-
We should encourage the development of curricular offerings
and research efforts that span the twelve schools, their faculties,
and their student bodies. A series of courses should be
developed for the general undergraduate population that address
technology in society, with the goal of ensuring that all our
undergraduates are technologically literate. We need to encourage
all our schools to exploit opportunities for new programs in
technology as they arise. We also must expand cooperative efforts
between SEAS and other schools to develop unique educational
programs at the master's level in biotechnology, information
technology, and related fields.
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The
Global Opportunity
Goal:
In order to develop a coherent global strategy for the University,
we must leverage and enhance our distinctive strengths as an international
institution.
All
twelve of Penn's schools and virtually every academic program incorporate
a global perspective as part of their curricula, and faculty in
a wide variety of disciplines view international issues and comparative
approaches as integral to their own research agenda. Indeed, the
global dimension of virtually every discipline is becoming increasingly
important as technology reduces the natural barriers of time and
space, and this trend is likely to continue. In addition, the Penn
community includes students, faculty, and staff from many different
countries and cultural backgrounds, generating a truly diverse environment
in which to live, learn, teach, and work.
However,
while the Penn campus abounds in international presence, as well
as international study programs, area studies, centers, and institutes,
the university receives comparatively little recognition for its
academic strengths in global studies, due at least in part to its
decentralized academic environment. Moreover, in the absence of
central coordination, Penn cannot fully realize the synergies inherent
in the existence of so many international programs and resources
on one compact campus.
Recommendations
-
Develop and launch new internationally focused academic programs
and initiatives in areas where Penn already enjoys distinct
competitive advantages. We are currently strong in language
and area studies and offer strong undergraduate and graduate
degree programs in International Studies and Business. New areas
of focused development might include international health, international
business and finance, and the interdisciplinary study of ethnopolitical
conflict.
-
Strengthen disciplinary and professional academic programs that
focus on areas of critical importance to international studies
and research, such as comparative politics, strategic studies,
the legal aspects of international relations, and communication.
We need to reinforce the global reputation of the university
by recruiting and supporting faculty and staff with international
expertise in key areas. This goal would build directly upon
recent successful efforts to strengthen the Political Science
Department, which has recruited a number of outstanding new
faculty.
-
Create the infrastructure to develop bolder future international
initiatives. Penn needs a coordinating mechanism, such as
an Institute for International Studies, to promote scholarly
collaboration among faculty and students who pursue overlapping
international interests, facilitate external funding, encourage
the recruitment and appointment of faculty dedicated to international
studies across disciplinary boundaries, and act as an advocate
for advancing the global dimension in education and research
across all twelve schools.
-
Encourage the presence of international students and American
students with international interests on the Penn campus. The
presence of faculty and staff having international expertise
and of strong internationally-focused academic programs will
help attract students with global interests, as will the continuing
development of international linkages and faculty and student
exchange programs. We need to emphasize to a greater extent
our international environment in our admissions literature and
recruitment programs, identify meeting and social spaces for
international groups and programs, and implement co-curricular
experiences that provide global, cross-cultural educational
experiences for students, such as study tours, student-run conferences
and global service learning initiatives.
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Arts,
Humanities and Society
Goal:
In order to capitalize on our academic strengths in the humanities
and our unique cultural resources, Penn must build an infrastructure
that supports innovative, interdisciplinary cultural programs and
curricular development.
Penn
is home to a remarkable collection of scholars dedicated to deciphering
languages, literatures, and artistic expressions of peoples around
the globe. We are also home to a number of premier cultural institutions
capable of transmitting humanistic understandings to a broader public.
In addition, Philadelphia itself contains outstanding cultural institutions
that provide still more opportunities for research, learning, and
outreach to a broader public.
Despite
these potential strengths, Penn has underutilized its cultural institutions
and those of the city, as well as its arts and humanities faculty,
in enriching the education of its students and its interactions
with the public. This under-utilization is, in part, related to
a lack of collaboration between Penn's academic departments and
the cultural institutions of both Penn and the city. If implemented,
the recommendations here will significantly enhance both the vitality
and the visibility of our artistic and cultural activities.
Recommendations
-
Construct a broad arts and culture curriculum to integrate better
the resources of local cultural institutions into an enriched
common experience for all undergraduate students. Under
the guidance of the Provost's Council on Arts and Culture, we
should integrate our cultural institutions more thoroughly into
our educational programs, giving students direct contact with
world cultural and artistic expressions.
-
Develop graduate courses that will contribute to the enhancement
of our cultural institutions, as well as those of the Philadelphia
region. The Provost's Council on the Arts and Culture should
work with schools and departments to encourage proposals for
graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses aimed at contributing
to the enhancement of Penn's cultural institutions, as well
as those of the broader Philadelphia area.
-
Encourage closer ties between academic departments and cultural
institutions at Penn, as well as those of the Philadelphia region.
Such efforts could include the improved publicity of events,
both on campus and in the Philadelphia community; the development
of a Penn Arts and Humanities website; and distribution of a
weekly Arts and Humanities calendar of events. We should
also share the ongoing interpretation of the arts and humanities
by our faculty with a broader public through our cultural institutions.
In this way, we will enhance public understanding of the world
and knowledge of the ways that the world understands itself.
-
Make possible, through short-term institutes, greater scholarly
collaboration between arts and humanities faculty and those
in the professional schools around issues of public values and
world cultural diversity. These institutes could form part
of an expanded Penn Humanities Forum and would include faculty
fellows and graduate students drawn from the arts and humanities
and the professional schools. The fellows would be given teaching
relief during their tenure at the institute. The institutes
themselves would represent rapid responses to emerging opportunities
and would be time-limited. Two specific proposals are: an Institute
for World Cultures, which would be designed to promote direct
engagement among Wharton, SAS, and other schools in the area
of languages, cultures, regions, and globalization; and an Institute
for Public Values, which would engage in the contemplation of
values and ethics, as well as interacting with and debating
public intellectuals over key social issues (such as terrorism,
cloning, animal rights, genetic modifications of food, or racism).
-
Fund a Visiting Professorship in the Arts and Humanities
for one semester per year that would encourage interdisciplinary
research and teaching, and foster collaboration with Penn's
cultural institutions. Candidates could be proposed by programs,
departments, or cultural institutions, with the professorship
awarded competitively through the Provost's Council on Arts
and Culture.
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III.
The Continuum of Education
Adapt
our educational and alumni offerings to the learningneeds
of current and future generations.
|
As
we envision the changing character of higher education in the years
ahead, we know that we will need to reach beyond the limited, episodic
transactions of past years. We intend to build a lifelong continuum
of learning, encompassing current students, alumni, pre-college
matriculants, executives, and a wide range of professionals. We
will expand the number of constituencies to whom we reach out, and
we will enhance the quality of the academic experiences we offer.
To do so, we will need to take advantage of the technologies that
make distance education possible, and we will have to re-examine
structures of academic governance across the university.
Goal: Penn
should provide a continuum of educational opportunities that engages
learners throughout their lives and in various stages of their careers.
Penn
should strive to shift its model for intellectual contact between
the university and its students from a model of brief, episodic
contact to one of continuous and ongoing interaction throughout
their careers and their lives. We should examine our role as an
educational institution in serving non-traditional learners, and
consider expanding our vision of Penn's educational portfolio. The
university should enter into a lifelong-learning commitment with
all participants in its education programs, both those who have
studied in our traditional degree-granting programs, and those who
participate in any of our continuing education activities. Increased
focus on, and involvement with, our alumni must form a central part
of this effort. We should identify basic standards and best practices
for all programs across the twelve schools that provide education
along the continuum of learning. We should also identify new markets
of learners and provide services and facilities that meet their
needs.
Recommendations
-
All students and alumni should expect an intellectually and
professionally enriching educational connection to Penn that
extends throughout their lifetime. This initiative will
require that we actively pursue new concepts for educational
offerings, including new professional master's degree and certificate
programs, as well as alumni education and enrichment programs.
We will have to consider multiple delivery platforms, such as
the Internet, on-line reading groups, travel and on-site study,
short on-campus programs, summer campus stays, and individual
mentoring. We will also have to cultivate more intensively
our pre-matriculated students, already a target audience, to
ensure their lifelong connection to Penn.
-
Establish a Provost's Council on the Continuum of Learning
that will develop an inventory of existing continuing education
projects, develop approaches to integrating and strengthening
these programs and their marketing, and identify potential areas
of collaboration.
-
Selectively identify new markets of learners, focusing on those
groups that can best take advantage of Penn's unique strength,
while also involving our full-time staff and their families
as part of our community of learners. Improvement in this
area will require greater support for marketing activities and
creative leveraging of existing courses, academic programs,
and educational facilities as well as continued support for
staff educational programs. We should create a centrally coordinated
service to provide market research, planning, and analysis for
Continuum of Learning programs. Incentives should be designed
that will encourage faculty to teach in innovative and non-traditional
formats.
-
Provide better service to non-traditional learners participating
in Penn programs by making services available at the times when
these students are on campus, such as evenings, weekends, and
during the summer. We should analyze our current academic,
residential, and support facilities and develop a plan that
optimally utilizes all these facilities by both traditional
and non-traditional learners. Our aim is to make Penn an active
and vital learning environment throughout the day, week and
year.
Goal: Encourage
the reconnection of our alumni to Penn and one another.
When
each student matriculates, Penn enters into a commitment with that
student to provide education and enrichment over the course of his
or her life. Potentially, our alumni could regard Penn as their
enduring "intellectual home." When this happens, alumni
become a critical competitive advantage as they communicate the
strengths of the university while advocating our need for resources
and support. To achieve this intellectual bond, our relationship
with our alumni must go well beyond the traditional focus on volunteer
activities and fundraising. Penn must set the standard among peer
institutions for facilitating our commitment to a lifetime of education
and enrichment for every alumnus. Our Alumni Relations program must
be developed to assure that Penn is a special learning community
for alumni while also engendering their pride in Penn.
Recommendation
-
Improve educational programs for and ongoing contact with alumni.
Engaging our alumni in a lifelong educational continuum and
creating a stronger intellectual bond between them and Penn
will require that we integrate alumni education and academic
program planning. We need to showcase the strength of the Penn
faculty with educational programming and events stratified by
age, geography, interest, ethnicity, and affinity group. We
need to partner with other university constituencies to bring
targeted programming and events to our global alumni. We should
also consider expanding our programs in alumni education and
begin to think of alumni as teachers and mentors who can help
us enrich the educational experience of our students.
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IV.
Operational Capacity
Develop
the physical, financial, operational and entrepreneurial capacities
to sustain our academic excellence.
|
To
achieve the academic and programmatic goals outlined in the previous
sections, it is critical that Penn's non-academic activities be
carried out with administrative professionalism, strategic vision
and fiscal responsibility. These values are important not only for
their own sake, but also because they serve our academic purposes.
Building our institutional capacities by operating efficiently,
strategically, and cost-effectively, is essential so that academic
research and education can flourish.
Goal: Create
a physical environment supportive of the academic and research missions
of the university, both on campus and in its surrounding environment.
The
accomplishment of the university's academic mission depends on attracting
to Penn an exceedingly talented and highly motivated population
of students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Attractive, functional
physical facilities are essential to this success, and these physical
resources must be woven together with other determinants of the
Penn environment--a vibrant cultural hub, varied shopping and dining
opportunities, and efficient transportation. The Campus Development
Plan, adopted last year, provides a framework for campus improvement
and growth in support of the academic mission. It calls for the
creation of a campus environment that knits the buildings, walkways,
and open spaces together into an attractive, functional urban setting
and recommends improvements in classrooms and student residences.
During the next five years, we should strive to make substantial,
but strategic, progress in implementing this plan.
Recommendations
-
Preserve
and strengthen the core academic buildings at the center of
campus life and learning. We should develop a long-term
strategy for improving and renovating older academic buildings
in the center of campus. We will need to invest in the capital
renewal, rehabilitation, and appropriate adaptive reuse of these
existing buildings.
-
Create
a coherent identity for the entire campus by extending the quality,
character, and amenity of the pedestrian core to the rest of
the campus. We need to consolidate and improve the academic
infrastructure within the core and consider the relocation of
non-student support and service activities to the periphery.
We should also begin to address the disparity that exists in
the condition and maintenance of university buildings and classrooms,
with a special focus on how best to maintain facilities that
are shared by several schools or divisions. We need to move
forward with plans for renovating and upgrading student housing
on the campus and to explore strategic partnerships with third
party developers to build such housing.
-
Create a culture that encourages Penn and the surrounding community
to become a more inviting and supportive place within which
to live, work, study, and visit. For example, we should
help create a new and improved University City transportation
environment in conjunction with SEPTA and neighboring institutions
that continues the work already in progress with regard to streetscape
improvements, traffic calming, new signals and bicycle lanes.
We should better integrate food, retail, and cultural venues
and begin to develop a plan for more comprehensive and varied
retail to support our diverse campus constituencies. We also
need to sustain the ongoing improvements to Penn's West Philadelphia
neighborhood.
-
Develop new programs to encourage the purchase of housing within
the University City, the expansion of rental housing, and the
provision of temporary accommodations for visiting faculty and
scholars. We must sustain and build upon the progress already
achieved through our previous investments in this area. To do
so, we need to increase the level of home ownership in University
City, identify and then transform--with the help of the public
and private sectors--vacant and poorly maintained properties
into new apartments and condominiums, and, in partnership with
other University City-based institutions and the private sector,
further enhance the quality-of-life in University City.
Goal: Build
and enhance the university's financial capacities.
Because
the short-term outlook for revenue growth and enhancements is limited,
Penn's financial capacities will be enhanced largely through the
efficient use of current resources. Support for targeted priorities
will need to be generated by redirecting investment of our current
resources to a specific set of priorities.
Recommendations
-
Undertake
a comprehensive assessment of Responsibility Center Management
budgeting to ensure that the principles, process, and formulas
that drive resource allocation at Penn continue to serve the
university's strategic needs. Several of the strategic planning
committees have identified institutional goals they believe
are being impeded by our current responsibility center budgeting
system. Given the significant period of time that has elapsed
since this system's initial implementation, we believe it is
time to review all facets of this budgeting model and, where
necessary and appropriate, make changes that will increase its
responsiveness to the university's current requirements.
-
Implement
new strategies for revenue generation and asset maximization.
In addition to aggressively controlling costs and, where
appropriate, reducing expenses, we need to identify and pursue
suitable opportunities that will help to increase the university's
revenues. One possible opportunity is to leverage our existing
assets in off-cycle times, particularly during the summer, identifying
appropriate ways in which our facilities and other resources
could be made available to meet external market demands.
-
Continue
to develop strong internal control and compliance mechanisms.
We need to further enhance and build upon our existing framework
for control and compliance, to ensure that the gains achieved
in recent years are not lost.
Goal: Enhance
the university's operational capacities.
Reprioritizing
work, eliminating unnecessary tasks, and significantly increasing
the skill base of staff are a few measures that can be taken to
improve our overall efficiency and effectiveness within schools
and centers. Such efforts should help to provide funds needed for
academic programs and goals.
Recommendations
-
Further
leverage the shared services model for existing central services
and eliminate redundancies between the center and the schools.
Wherever possible, we must identify services that are currently
being provided in an inefficient and needlessly redundant fashion
so that any underlying resources can be recaptured and directed
to support other institutional needs and programs.
-
Establish
a priority-setting body to determine what information technology
priorities will be developed with existing resources. Given
the ever evolving nature of information technology systems and
their escalating costs, we must establish a system for prioritizing
such demands to ensure that our investments address the most
compelling needs and generate the maximum returns.
-
Make
the career and professional development of staff a top priority.
We can achieve this goal in part by continuing to link performance
appraisals with merit pay increases, but we must also commit
to building depth and strength in key operational areas.
-
Develop
incentive plans for cost containment, and establish targets
with stated rewards. In addition to identifying possible
new revenue streams, we must also focus our efforts on achieving
appropriate expense reductions and making our service delivery
systems more efficient.
Goal: Encourage
and support entrepreneurial activity.
Penn
routinely generates innovative opportunities that have the potential
to enhance both institutional reputation and revenue. Some are entrepreneurial
opportunities that create the potential to generate new businesses
around faculty research discoveries. A much larger number are innovative
opportunities that can be pursued as new programs or services or
by licensing technology to a company. Significant gains from innovation
can be attained only if we create a climate that encourages and
rewards individuals and departments pursuing these opportunities.
Recommendations
-
Engage
in a long-term effort to create an institutional culture that
encourages the creation and support for innovative initiatives.
We must infuse throughout our institution an appreciation
for creative thinking and innovation that can help us to enhance
our processes and systems, improve the quality of our internal
services, and identify possible new sources of revenue.
-
Examine
and optimize the university's policies relating to patenting
and licensing, to ensure that the entities responsible for facilitating
technology transfer are well organized, efficiently run, and
adequately resourced.
-
Improve
our ability to identify and support new entrepreneurial initiatives
in the social sciences, humanities, and administrative areas.
Where possible, we should use existing staff in schools and
centers as agents to identify entrepreneurial opportunities,
with efforts then supported by a central organization that provides
overall administrative and financial support (patterned after
the Center for Technology Transfer's distributed staffing model
for the life and physical sciences).
-
Improve
our success in launching new initiatives by identifying a resource
pool to fund feasibility analyses, proof of concept work, and
start-up support for new initiatives. Such a resource pool
would not be a venture fund; rather it would help Penn projects
compete more effectively for pre-seed and seed stage venture
capital. The resource pool would provide all of the funding
to make an initial assessment of the feasibility of an opportunity.
Subsequently, resources would be provided by both the pool and
the school, center, or institute from which the opportunity
originates.
-
Provide
meaningful incentives for innovations that fall outside the
patent policy, with a particular focus on the social sciences,
humanities, educational ventures, and administrative services.
This broader policy should be patterned after the patent policy,
but should consider a different revenue sharing model that enables
reinvestment in improving shared infrastructure and replenishing
the resource pool.
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OF CONTENTS |
Members of the Strategic Planning
Committees
Arts,
Humanities and Society
Greg Urban,
SAS, Chair
Arthur Caplan, Medicine
Julia Converse, GSFA External Affairs
Claudia Gould, ICA
Dwight Jaggard, SEAS
Tom Lussenhop, Office of EVP
Paul Meyer, Morris Arboretum
Dan Raff, Wharton
Michael Rose, Annenberg Center
Jeremy Sabloff, University Museum
James Serpell, Vet Medicine
Stephanie Sherman, Col 03
Lawrence Sipe, GSE
Gary Tomlinson, SAS
David Wallace, SAS
Liliane Weissberg, SAS
Staff: Steven Gagne, Office of the President
Campus
Environment
Omar Blaik, Facilities and Real Estate Services,
Chair
Lee Nunery, Business Services Co-Chair
Maureen Rush, Division of Public Safety, Co-Chair
Doug Berger, Housing and Conference Services
Eugenie Birch, GSFA
David Brownlee, SAS
Dennis Culhane, Social Work
Robert Furniss, Transportation and Mail Services
Hanni Hindi, Col 02
Marilyn Kraut, Human Resources Sam Lundquist, Dev. and Alumni
Relations
Tom Lussenhop, Office of the EVP
Lucy Momjian, Treasurer's Office
Charles Newman, Facilities and Real Estate Services
Michael Rose, Annenberg Center
Thomas Stump, SEAS
Andrew Zitcher, VPUL
Staff: Leslie Mellet, Facilities & Real Estate Services
Continuum
of Education
Al Filreis, SAS, Chair
Robert Alig, Alumni Relations
Beverly Edwards, Human Resources
Richard Hendrix, College of General Studies
Anne Keane, Nursing
Susan Lytle, GSE
Robert Mittelstaedt, Jr., Wharton Executive Education
Gail Morrison, Medicine
Anne Nicolaysen, Col '02
Jason Parsley, Grad, SAS
Sharon Thompson-Schill, SAS
Dana Tomlin, GSFA
Lyle Ungar, SEAS
Rick Whitfield, Audit and Compliance
Staff: Stephanie Ives, Office of the VPUL
Entrepreneurial
Activity
Phil
Goldstein, P2B, Chair
Robin Beck, ISC, Co-Chair
Jim O'Donnell, SAS, ISC, Co-Chair
Lou Berneman, Center for Technology Transfer Chris Bradie,
Business Services
Mary Lee Brown, Audit and Compliance
Frank Claus, Student Financial Services
Steffie Crowther, Dev. and Alumni Relations
Christopher Hopey, Executive Education, GSE
Vijay Kumar, SEAS
Lisa Prasad, Business Services
Paul Sehnert, Facilities and Real Estate Services
Barry Stupine, Vet School
Gary Truhlar, Human Resources
Staff: Sara Gallagher, Office of the EVP and Shaheedah Saalim,
P2B
Faculty
Janice
Bellace, Wharton, Chair
Takeshi Egami, SEAS
Sharon Moorer-Harris, Human Resources
Joan Hendricks, Vet Medicine
John Dixon Hunt, GSFA
Rebecca Maynard, GSE
Michael Mennuti, Medicine
Medha Narvekar, Dev. and Alumni Relations
Edward Rock, Law
James Saunders, Medicine
Herb Smith, SAS
Irene Wong, Social Work
Staff: Marge Lizotte, Office of the Provost
Financial
and Operational Capacity
Rick
Whitfield, Audit and Compliance, Chair
Craig Carnaroli, Finance/Treasurer's Office, Co-Chair
Jack Heuer, Division of Human Resources, Co-Chair
Ken Campbell, Comptroller's Office
Peter Cappelli, Wharton
Jeanne Curtis, ISC
Scott Douglass, Wharton Finance and Administration
Mina Fader, Facilities and Real Estate Services
Fred Glessner, Center for Technology Transfer
Phil Goldstein, Penn to Business
Chris Griffith, Human Resources
Walter Licht, SAS
Susan Phillips, Dean's Office, Medicine
Tom Rambo, Division of Public Safety
Ramin Sedehi, SAS Finance and Administration
Steve Semenuk, Budget and Management Analysis
Marie Witt, Business Services
Staff: Pat O'Toole, Audit and Compliance
Global Perspective
Richard Herring, Wharton, Chair
Sandra Barnes, SAS
Peter Berthold, Dental Medicine
Omar Blaik, Facilities and Real Estate Services
Robert Boruch, GSE
William Ewald, Law
Garret FitzGerald, Medicine
Joanne Gowa, SAS
Tania Johnson, Grad SAS
Stephen Kobrin, Wharton
James Lok, Vet Medicine
Ian Lustick, SAS
James O'Donnell, SAS
Ed Resovsky, Dev. and Alumni Relations
Donald Silberberg, Medicine
Joanne Yun, Col '04
Staff: James Gardner, Office of the President
Graduate Education
Walter Licht, SAS, Chair
Norman Badler, SEAS
Michael Baker, SAS External Affairs
Cala Beatty, Grad, SAS
Andy Binns, SAS
Evis Cama, Grad, SAS
Nader Engheta, SEAS
Joseph Farrell, SAS
Susan Gennaro, Nursing
Ajani Jain, Wharton
Amy Johnson, Business Services
George Mailath, SAS
Mickey Selzer, Medicine
Greg Tausz, Finance Administration
Joel Waldfogel, Wharton
Staff: Karen Lawrence, Office of the Provost
Life
Sciences
Mark Tykocinski, Medicine, Chair
Susan Davidson, SEAS
George Day, Wharton
Martha Farah, SAS
Barry Hilts, Facilities Operations
David Lazar, Col '02
Sam Lundquist, Dev. and Alumni Relations
Susan Margulies, SEAS
Sandra Matalonis, Technology Transfer
Glenn McGee, Medicine
David Roos, SAS
Hans Scholer, Vet Medicine
Robert Seyfarth, SAS
Jerome Strauss, Medicine
Hugh Lee Sweeny, Medicine
John Wolfe, Vet Medicine
Staff: Janine Corbett, Office of the Provost
Organizations,
Institutions and Leadership
Janice Madden, SAS, Chair
Robin Beck, Information Systems and Computing
Michael Black, Administration and Finance, Medicine
Jamaine Davis, Grad Medicine
John DiIulio, SAS
Colin Diver, Law
Nicole Epps, Col '03
Gerald Faulhaber, Wharton
Vivian Gadsden, GSE
Margaret Goertz, GSE
Jerry Jacobs, SAS
Charles Mooney, Law
Steven Oliveira, Wharton Dev. and Alumni Affairs
Brian Strom, Medicine
Marie Witt, Business Services
Michael Useem, Wharton
Staff: Max King, Office of the VPUL
Research
and Scholarly Activity
Craig Thompson, Medicine, Chair
David Asch, Medicine
David Balamuth, SAS
Danielle Bujnak, Grad, SAS
Glen Gaulton, Medicine
Phil Goldstein, P2B
Erica Holzbaur, Vet Medicine
Jean-Marie Kneeley, SAS External Affairs
Vijay Kumar, SEAS
Douglas Massey, SAS
Lindsey Mathews, Col '02
Barbara Medoff-Cooper, Nursing
Paul Messaris, Annenberg
Olivia Mitchell, Wharton
Kim Scheppele, Law
Rogers Smith, SAS
Staff: Jeanne Leong, University Communications
Technological Innovation
Dawn Bonnell, SEAS, Chair
Lisa Marie Bouillion, GSE
Chris Bradie, Business Services
Nick Bryan, Medicine
Yang Liang Chua, Grad GSFA
Margaret Cotroneo, Nursing
Jeanne Curtis, ISC
Peter Davies, Medicine and SEAS
Ray Gorte, SEAS
George Hain, SEAS Development
William Hamilton, Wharton
Branko Kolarevic, GSFA
Mitch Marcus, SEAS
Reed Shuldiner, Law
Harbir Singh, Wharton
Staff: Steven Fabiani, ISC
Undergraduate
Education
Steven Fluharty, Vet Medicine, Chair
Rick Beeman, SAS
Michael Cancro, Medicine
Frank Claus, Student Financial Services
Dennis De Turck, SAS
Thomas Dunfee, Wharton
Tom Farrell, Dev. and Alumni Relations
Cristle Judd, SAS
Barbara Kahn, Wharton
Mark Liberman, SAS
Lindsey Mathews, Col '02
Kathy McCauley, Nursing
Max Mintz, SEAS
David Pope, SEAS
Julie Schneider, GSFA
Staff: Anita Gelburd, Office of the Provost
Urban
Community
Dennis Culhane, Social Work, Chair
Larry Bell, Business Services
Eugenie Birch, GSFA
Marjorie Bowman, Medicine
Joseph Gyourko, Wharton
Lucy Kerman, Office of the President
Shiriki Kumanyika, Medicine
Melissa Kushner, Col '02
Jeremy Martin, Grad GSFA
Ann O'Sullivan, Nursing
Janet Pack, Wharton
John Puckett, GSE
Maureen Rush, Public Safety
Lawrence Sherman, SAS
Carol Wilson Spigner, Social Work
Tom Sugrue, SAS
Mark Stern, Social Work
Staff: Carol DeFries, Office of the Vice President for Government,
Community and Public Affairs
Building
on Excellence: The Next Agenda is
the fifth in a series of planning documents issued by the
University of Pennsylvania.
The
earlier reports were:
Comment
on Building on Excellence: The Next Agenda may
be sent via e-mail by April 23, 2002
to koons@pobox.upenn.edu.
CLICK
HERE TO PRINT Building on Excellence: The Next Agenda
IN PDF
(8 1/2 x 11 paper needed)
|
Almanac, Vol. 48, No. 28, April 2, 2002
|
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:
Tuesday,
April 2, 2002
Volume 48 Number 28
www.upenn.edu/almanac/
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