By Zachary Sampson, News Correspondent
Northeastern President Joseph Aoun, along with Provost Stephen Director and Faculty Senate Chairman Lou Kruger, outlined the university’s academic plan at the State of the University address yesterday.
Aoun spoke in the Curry Student Center Ballroom to a mixed crowd of students and faculty about the university’s standing and policy.
Future plans were a key topic in the address, specifically detailing a proposed widespread innovation initiative. The president focused on innovation as the central idea in his broad academic plan for the upcoming years.
“What we want to do is very simple, focus on innovation in terms of the student experience, have more flexible programs [and] have more opportunities nationally and internationally,” Aoun said.
He referenced a small book provided to the event’s attendees titled, “Excellence by Design,” to emphasize this idea. The book contains data and key points, illustrating a noticeable rise in areas of the Northeastern make-up, including SAT scores, diversity, alumni engagement and research funding.
“The university is in great shape,” he said.
While acknowledging the achievement represented by these figures, Aoun and other speakers recognized the need to maintain growth.
“We can’t rest on our laurels,” Director said.
He noted the need for Northeastern to maintain its place in a changing world, a goal he hopes to accomplish through his innovation initiative.
Speakers pushed the development of a more innovative academic community as a great opportunity for Northeastern.
“There is angst in society … the world is moving forward aggressively,” Aoun said. “I personally believe this is an invitation, a call to this university that has a tradition of innovation, in terms of scholarship, in terms of learning, to be innovative.”
Dr. Murray Gibson, dean of the new College of Science, said he was attracted to the university because of its determination to expand and investigate new ideas.
“Innovation is key to everything,” he said. “So I think the idea of the innovation initiative is to try to reward and encourage innovation in all kinds of different ways, perhaps ways that weren’t looked at before. [It is] a great opportunity for new things to happen here in the next five years.”
Some attendees said they believe the academic plan provides Northeastern with a successful framework.
“Innovation, I think, is a very good idea to create an atmosphere for students where they feel that they are getting the best of what they paid for: the best resources, the best technology, the best teachers, which needs to be available to them,” said Jeff Kimball, a sophomore communications studies major.
The university’s Long Range Plan primarily focuses on four areas: education, faculty, research and student experience.
The education portion of the plan centers on broadening and enhancing current academic degree programs available to students.
At the undergraduate level, Director said the goal is to “increase flexibility in our current offering,” later adding, “at the graduate and professional master’s degree levels, we need to continue to create innovative, flexible, high-quality degree programs that align with emerging fields.”
In terms of research, speakers outlined the goal of increasing collaborations among core disciplines. The objective is to encourage advancement through collaborative, innovative research efforts at the university.
Efforts to better student experience focus on areas of Northeastern life beyond the classroom, and the university’s strong co-op program is key to this portion of the plan, Aoun said.
“[Co-op] is a unique system, and we are the leaders of this system, and we need to keep innovating there,” he said.
Though other schools have recently slowed the hiring of full-time professors, Northeastern has stepped up the signing of more tenured faculty, a trend expected to continue over the next few years.
“When it comes to faculty, the plan should call for a major increase,” Aoun said. “I hope that we can recruit up to 300 new faculty members, 150 to replace existing spots, and 150 new spots.”
The new faculty positions are part of an attempt by officials to push the university forward as a leader in new technologies and ideas, Aoun said.
“We must approach faculty recruitment very strategically,” Director said. “We need to take advantage of the opportunities to claim leadership in emerging fields.”
Gibson, the College of Science dean, said he was encouraged by this strategy.
“For the university, it’s absolutely the right thing,” he said. “You constantly have to bring new people in, people with new ideas, professors at different stages, so without that I don’t think I would come here.”
Steven Crock, a freshman architecture major, said he thinks students hope to feel the effect of new faculty the most.
“I think ideally, more faculty would be beneficial to most students,” he said “Hopefully that would lead to more one-on-one time with each student, more individual attention to help each student learn.”
Aoun said the university has a plan to pay for more instructors. Last year, Northeastern received a gift of $5 million from Rich D’Amore, a venture capitalist and Northeasten alumni, for innovation.
The financial impact of the Academic Plan also affects Northeastern’s budget system, with the implementation by the end of the year of what Director called a hybrid budget model.
“In this model, the academic units will have more responsibility for their own operations and also will be the primary beneficiaries of the entrepreneurial activities that they undertake,” he said.
Beyond economic impact, the plan calls for a cost in terms of effort exerted by all members of the Northeastern community.
“The plan is an invitation to each one of us to roll up his or her sleeves and start working,” Aoun said. “It’s a framework, it’s not the answer. You have the answers.”
Aoun focused a significant amount of his speech on the need for everybody to participate and advance this plan for it to work.
“It’s a great opportunity, and once again, I believe that we have a window of three years before the competition starts getting back in business,” Aoun said. “Let’s capitalize on that.”
