University on better financial footing, Hennessy tells council

BY RAY DELGADO

President John Hennessy, delivering his annual address to the Academic Council Thursday in Cubberley Auditorium, told the Stanford community that although financial challenges still exist, the university is on better footing thanks to diligent cost-cutting and an unexpected budget surplus.

"I know it has been a long couple of years for our faculty and staff, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your support and your sacrifices," Hennessy said. "Although we are in a better situation this year, significant challenges remain, and we must continue to be diligent and contain costs."

Hennessy warned that faculty and staff compensation could be threatened by skyrocketing health care costs, which rose 16 percent last year. But he also highlighted the tremendous strides made in the university's fundraising efforts, with $930 million raised during the three-year-old Campaign for Undergraduate Education and the second-best tally ever for overall fundraising.

Hennessy also spoke in detail about the university's efforts to address global environmental ills through the recent creation of the Stanford Institute for the Environment. The institute is designed to provide a broad infrastructure "to support and encourage the growth and interplay" of some of the university's other environmental programs like the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources, the Center for Environmental Science and Policy, the Global Climate and Energy Project, and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program.

Hennessy highlighted numerous university achievements over the past year, including:

• Five Stanford students and recent alumni selected as Marshall Scholars and two selected as Rhodes Scholars, the best showing the university has had in a single year.
• A new early admissions program that proved more popular than expected, coupled with the steady increase in the quality of the applicant pool.
• The creation of the Community Partnership Awards for local individuals or organizations that have partnered with Stanford to serve the neighboring communities. The third annual Community Day also remained popular with area residents, drawing thousands of visitors to the campus April 4.
• The organization of the first ever Minority Alumni Conference Weekend, beginning April 30, as part of the university's ongoing diversity outreach efforts. He also highlighted modest gains made in the number of women and minorities on the faculty last year.
• The opening of the James H. Clark Center for bioscience and bioengineering, a centerpiece of the university's goal to increase multidisciplinary research.
• The establishment of a new professorship in Islamic studies and the Center for Islamic Studies, part of an ongoing effort to expand and strengthen the university's research and teaching in international studies.

Faculty Senate Chair Tom Wasow also delivered a report on the senate's actions of the past year. He highlighted three resolutions that approved recommendations for regulation and oversight of student initiated courses, supported the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics as it debates the future of college sports policies, and encouraged libraries and faculty to support affordable journals, rather than those put out by some for-profit publishers whose pricing practices have harmed library budgets.

The senate also renewed or extended the authority of eight interdisciplinary programs to nominate students for degrees and/or honors; modified the regulations governing co-terminal baccalaureate and master's programs to allow students more flexibility when they apply for such programs; approved revisions to the Research Policy Handbook regarding principal investigatorship (PI) eligibility and criteria for exceptions for non-PI roles; and authorized a modification to the academic calendar of the School of Medicine to allow first-year medical courses to begin earlier in the year.