Report of the University Senate
Academic Standards, Regulations and
Admissions Committee,
with input from the Student Affairs Committee
on
Dealing with the Effects of Increasing
Enrollment
on the Quality of Life and Education at
Rutgers University
April 2001
Over
the past half decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of
students enrolled at Rutgers University.
This increase, while welcomed for many reasons, also has created
stresses and strains on the quality of student life and on the availability of
academic and non-academic services.
Students have been increasingly vocal about such services as bus
scheduling and the time needed to travel between classes and dorms, the lack of
adequate parking, the scarcity of housing and the practice of housing three
students in a single room, closed and crowded classes, inaccessibility of
student services, among others.
In addition, the number of high school graduates
in New Jersey during the next decade is expected to grow dramatically, putting
ever-greater pressure on the University to expand enrollments still
further. The University is already
beginning to feel this pressure.
Undergraduate applications have increased by 31% over just the last four
years, and by 2008, there will be 20,000 more New Jersey high school graduating
seniors than there were last year.
While it is recognized that major additions to current capacity on all
Rutgers campuses will only come with increased state funding and bonding
ability, the University must take steps internally to alleviate current
overcrowding pressures and prepare for future increases.
In view of these developments, we call for the
creation of a committee, whose structure is specified below, to develop an ENROLLMENT AND STUDENT SERVICES ASSESSMENT
AND MASTER PLAN to outline how the
University plans to address current difficulties and future possibilities
regarding undergraduate enrollment.
The
issues involving enrollment growth at Rutgers cut across every sector, unit and
subdivision of this University. No one
committee that currently exists has the expertise or ability to comprehensively
address all of the issues that pertain to this problem. This is why we recommend the formation of a
new committee to issue the ENROLLMENT
AND STUDENT SERVICES ASSESSMENT AND MASTER PLAN, since it will take the
most knowledgeable and best-informed representatives at this University to
recommend solutions which will effect the quality of life and education at
Rutgers for a decade to come.
Proposal
Of foremost importance is the area of student
services. The Master Plan should address the following:
Student Services: To what extent must student
services, which includes, but is not limited to, housing, dining services,
student centers, health centers, financial aid offices, student accounting
offices, recreational services, and computing services, be
improved/modified/expanded to meet increasing demand?
In addition, the Master
Plan should address, but is not limited to, the following major areas:
· Inter-Campus
Enrollment Shifts: To what extent,
if any, should enrollment be shifted among the campuses through the use of
“market force” programs (e.g. 2-2 Engineering programs, 2-4 Pharmacy programs,
etc.)? Should caps be placed on the
enrollment of individual colleges and/or campuses?
· Transportation
Policy: How can we decrease the use
of individual vehicles on campus and what improvements should be made to
existing transportation systems?
· Academic
Services: First, what new
approaches to class scheduling can be implemented to promote greater use of
underutilized periods, and which enable departments and deans to schedule
classes according to a campus-wide coordinated plan which takes into
consideration parking, transportation, and classroom-utilization issues? Second, to what extent at the existing
numbers and assignments of faculty at each of the individual instructional
units and campuses sufficient to meet the needs of the university equitably
within and across academic units and campuses?
· Campus-Wide
Oversight: Are there any
improvements in the administrative structure of the university that would
enable more coordinated oversight and supervision of enrollment and student
services on the New Brunswick campus?
· The Future: What additional steps should be taken by the
University to prepare for the next 10 years of University Enrollment and
projected high school graduation rates?
Committee Structure
The committee shall be
composed of three equal groups of seven (7) representatives each: students, faculty, and administrators, plus
one (1) alumni member, selected as follows:
A. Students
1. The representative to the Board of Governors (1)
2. The undergraduate and graduate representatives to the Board of Trustees (2)
3. Four additional student representatives who are elected by the Student Caucus of the University Senate (4)
Of the seven student representatives, there must be at least one representative from Newark, Camden, and New Brunswick, and with at least one (1) of the four being a graduate student.
B. Faculty
1. There
shall be seven faculty members, elected by the Faculty Caucus of the University
Senate, with at least one representative from each of the Newark, Camden and
New Brunswick campuses. (7)
C. Administration
1. University Vice President for Academic Affairs (1)
2. Vice President for University Budgeting (1)
3. Vice President for Student Affairs (1)
4. Executive Vice President for Auxiliary Services (1)
5. Three additional administrators appointed
by the President of the University (3)
D. Alumni
1. There shall be one (1) alumnus member, elected by the Alumni Federation. (1)
Additional student, faculty and administrators may be asked to serve on select subcommittees.
This committee shall be an ad hoc subcommittee of the University Senate, and shall report to the Senate Executive Committee on a periodic basis to be mutually determined by the Senate Executive Committee and the University Administration. The committee chair, who shall be a non-voting member of the committee, shall be a member of the University Administration appointed by the President of the University.
Whereas, increasing enrollment
is currently, and will continue to be, an issue of great importance at Rutgers
University; and,
Whereas, student services have not increased at the same rate as enrollment; and,
Whereas,
this is affecting the quality of student life on all three campuses;
Therefore, Be it Resolved, that the University Senate accepts the recommendations on this and related issues put forth in the joint report of its Academic Standards, Regulations and Admissions Committee and Student Affairs Committee; and
Be it Further Resolved, that the committee recommended in the joint report
be established by the Chair of the University Senate and the President of the
University by June 1, 2001; and
Be it Finally Resolved, that the recommended committee should issue its
initial report to the Senate Executive Committee no later than its April 2002
meeting, to be docketed on the Senate’s May 2002 agenda. Said initial report should address each of
the issues with which the committee has been charged.