A Failure To CommunicateHow ignorance costs more than our tuition

Too many times have I heard the gripe, “I wish our University would stop acting like it is so poor.” I had to laugh when I saw the heaping pile of booklets stacked up next to the newspapers in the Mail Room. Despite the best efforts put forth by the University to get all of us to read the Plan for Academic Enrichment (PAE), the apathy of the student body prevailed. We continued to make snide comments about the University’s stinginess, or wrote editorials extolling the naiveté of the administration’s assumption that we would actually read enough to justify the cost of the print run. Curiosity got the best of me as I brought my booklet back to my room, half expecting it to convince me that such endeavors were going to enrich my academic experience; to my surprise, it did.

How widely known is the fact that over the past six years, since Boldly Brown (The Campaign for Academic Enrichment, which released the PAE) began in 2002, it has added an additional $1.14 billion to the endowment of our University? That represents almost half of the $2.3 billion total endowment reported by Brown, coming from a “40% increase over the number of gifts received in the four years prior to the Campaign.” Here are a few more figures to mull over: over 79 new professors were hired, and the student-to-faculty ratio decreased to a 9:1 ratio (more befitting an Ivy League university). Also, there was a 50% increase in international financial aid, and $15 million has been put forward towards the renovation of the J. Walter Wilson laboratory, so as to create a new student center. Lastly, over $20 million has been donated to fund the modernized Nelson Fitness Center. All this just scratches the surface of the extensive list of innovation and improvement highlighted by the PAE publication. Additionally, our course catalog has expanded by 9% to over 1,722 classes offered, and “need blind” financial aid has become integral in admissions.

Despite these improvements, however, there are many areas in which our University is still lacking. It is no secret that despite the near doubling of international financial aid, it is still not need blind. For a University so focused on improving diversity and so proud of its 9% international enrollment for the Class of 2011, the lack of need-blind aid is counterproductive and almost insulting. The recent announcements that MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth (to name a few) are offering need-blind financial assistance for international students makes me question why we are not on that list. Perhaps I was correct in my questioning of the $4 million Peter Green house relocation, a $1 million walkway, or the construction of a $3.8 million temporary pool (could this money have been better spent?). The additional announcement of the financial aid policies for domestics students by these competitive institutions has also left me questioning the budgeting priorities of our University, despite the fact that great steps have already been taken.

In addition to issues with aid, faculty advising is crude at best. As a matter of fact, my own adviser refused to respond to requests for recommendations from two advisees, myself included. Some of the most useful advice and assistance has come from my Meiklejohn adviser or the Woman’s Peer Counselor in my hallway. I applaud their effectiveness, but urge the University to consider some sort of reform for faculty advising. Perhaps there should be more monetary incentives for current faculty, besides the hiring of those more befitting of the role and those who do not put students second to their research. Having more interaction beyond the once-a-week, hour-long faculty study break can make all the difference for both those currently enrolled here and those considering enrollment.

Lastly, even our residential experience is sub-par compared to that of our peer institutions. In addition to our poorly maintained facilities, many other schools have faculty that live in the dormitories, dine with the students, and make themselves more available. Plans for new residential halls and renovations are being tossed in the air, but maybe a reform of the entire residential system should be considered. I am a strong proponent of the residential college system, like those at Oxford or Yale. I envy the cohesion of house members and the entrenchment of faculty in their lives. Perhaps the new policies of sophomore squatting may help give some Brown dormitories more of that ‘personal’ feel (as one may say), but we still have much to learn in terms of dormitory self-worth.

Despite the best efforts of the University to improve both undergraduate and graduate education, the Plan has made many oversights. Serious consideration of priorities should be put into financial assistance and life outside of the classroom. On the other hand, the student body is equally responsible for ignoring the Plan for Academic Enrichment altogether. One of the main requests made by President Simmons was that we, as members and users of these resources, give our input. In the “Letter from the President” at the front of the booklet, she writes, “I look forward to your guidance on how the Plan can be further improved to position Brown as an outstanding institution of higher education in the decades to come.” Too many Brown Daily Herald articles reveal the poor adherence to this request, citing the few and dwindling numbers of students in attendance at discussion meetings. That being said, we still have much to be thankful for in our academic environment, and should stop referring to our University as poor. Much has been accomplished in the classroom to maintain our reputation as an excellent undergraduate institution. There should be no piles of discarded booklets, as the matters addressed by the Campaign are ones that drastically shape our education and our livelihoods. In some cases, ignorance is bliss, but in the case of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, ignorance costs us so much more than the tuition we are paying.