November 5, 2003

TO: Michigan State University Community

FROM: Lou Anna K. Simon, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

SUBJECT: Vision for the Liberal Arts and Sciences at MSU

Today, Michigan State University faces significant intellectual and fiscal challenges. The situation is more serious because these challenges occur simultaneously. We know we cannot rely on incrementalism that extends or attenuates past practices and accomplishments as our response, now or in coming years. This is true for all MSU units, especially for the liberal arts and sciences.

But with challenge comes opportunity. The budget issues are real and press us to consider intellectual issues at a more rapid pace than we might like. But this situation creates an opportunity to act thoughtfully and creatively and to make significant strides forward in shaping the future of the university with deliberate speed.

I write to share preliminary thinking on the liberal arts and sciences at Michigan State University and to ask you to share your best ideas and innovative thinking in a series of purposeful conversations that will begin immediately.

Background
My remarks to the Academic Council on September 23 capture the intellectual challenge: “With our land-grant mission and heritage in mind, what kind of a university would society create for the 21st century, in order to respond to the challenges we face today, and those we anticipate tomorrow?”

The fiscal challenge comes from a growing pattern of public divestment in public higher education, driven, at least in part, by a sluggish economy and declining revenues. Last year we saw base budget reductions and reallocations totaling $31 million. Our expectation is that these circumstances will not improve in the next year or two, and like other public universities across the country, we must continue aggressive efforts at cost containment and revenue generation. While our efforts to raise private dollars through the Capital Campaign are critical to our future, those funds are targeted for specific projects and needs, and cannot be used to make up for the inevitable shortfall.

Even if the economic turmoil moderates, we anticipate a shortfall, and hence, significant reductions. It is likely that any state increase will be modest and will be coupled with federal and state expectations of tuition restraint.

We cannot—we will not—permit the fiscal challenge to determine our response to the intellectual challenge, an issue we have been addressing on an ongoing basis. Indeed, these times demand that we maintain— and perhaps even increase—our capacity to provide a sound liberal education to all of our students. However, the current environment challenges us to change in ways that maintain the liberal arts in a context that is reflective of our history and relevant to our future. Otherwise, we risk allowing fiscal imperatives to drive the process.

The liberal arts and sciences are a vital part of our heritage and central to our mission. The strength and vitality of everything we do is supported by our ability to provide students with opportunities to develop skills of thinking, argumentation and interpretation, to appreciate culture and context, and to understand their responsibilities as citizens of our society and the interconnected world.

Together, we will design the future for the liberal arts and sciences in our land-grant university of the 21st century. To be successful, we must apply our considerable talents and intellect to consider alternatives to our current organizational approaches. As in other areas of the university, we must consider consolidation, reorganization, repositioning, and/or elimination of administrative units at multiple levels to arrive at a realistic and meaningful future for the liberal arts and sciences at MSU.

The budget demands that we deal with our intellectual future in a more compressed timeframe and with a greater sense of urgency than we, as academics, may find comfortable. We have a better chance of weathering this budgetary storm and emerging from it a stronger, better positioned MSU if we mobilize to make the thoughtful choices to meet that intellectual challenge today. Because the humanities, social and natural sciences are at the core of a liberal arts education, your views and voices will play an essential role in charting a course through these shifting currents.

Next steps
To focus our efforts within this compressed timeframe, I have decided to begin three separate, but parallel, discussions immediately, in order to get a sense of the preferences and alternatives within the next two to three months, not the next two or three years.

The colleges directly involved will include: Arts and Letters; Communication Arts and Sciences; Human Ecology; James Madison; Natural Science; and Social Science. However, faculty and administrators in all colleges are encouraged to provide input, as the liberal arts and sciences provide the foundation for all programs.

1. Determining a course for the future. Dr. Marcellette Williams, Past Chancellor and Senior Vice President for International Relations at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and retired MSU faculty member (English and Comparative Literature) has accepted my invitation to facilitate conversations with invited faculty representing the diverse elements of the liberal arts and sciences and related areas.

She will facilitate serious and thoughtful deliberation about the future of the liberal arts at MSU. Considerations will include the following:

• How do we maintain—perhaps even increase—our capacity to provide a sound liberal education to all of our students?

• What should be done to foster the intellectual vitality of the liberal arts and sciences?
  

• What assets and collaborations do you now have across collegiate lines and how can/should these be strengthened and invigorated?
  

• What new linkages will be required to meet future needs?
  

• What innovations must occur to change the cultural climate so that we can strengthen the liberal arts, effectively integrate liberal arts across disciplines, and allocate resources that will nurture and sustain nationally visible programs?
  

• What concrete steps must be taken in order to achieve short-term goals that will result in long-term change?
  

• How can we reduce or eliminate organizational or operational redundancy while sustaining and enhancing academic quality?

While time unfortunately does not permit our being able to engage everyone in these conversations, all members of the University community are encouraged to provide input directly to Dr. Williams.

2. Addressing organizational and financial realities. Simultaneously, I have asked the deans, chairs and directors to engage in new thinking on ways to combine or share resources, especially regarding the streamlining of existing administrative structures and arrangements in their colleges and across colleges, as would be expected as part of the usual planning cycle.

We no longer can afford costly structures or special programs that do not have a wide impact on the key undergraduate, graduate and research missions of the university. This process must free up resources to invest in academic programs that will form the foundation of our reinvented future, and not simply maintain organizational and administrative structures because we find them comfortable and familiar.

3. Seizing the opportunity. We must begin acting on our vision within the annual budget process this year. Ongoing national and state budget circumstances require all of us to act faster and to be more flexible in thinking about our shared future. We do not have the luxury of the time that we normally enjoy and expect in considering such important questions.

We are in a “change or be changed” situation where we must seize this moment to the advantage of the liberal arts and sciences at MSU. We must accept that reality and the inevitability of change more quickly than we otherwise might. I fully understand that these pressures will not permit the kind of extensive discussions we would prefer, nor will we easily reach a consensus.

These parallel processes and the ideas and innovation they will generate ensure that budget realities are not the sole impetus driving us. We will be thoughtful as we move forward. What we do will shape the core of our University for the years ahead.

Moving forward
Our success in meeting this challenge depends on broad participation in formulating our future directions. I encourage you to join in these conversations and offer input and insights to your Deans and to Dr. Williams over the next two to three months. A summary of all of the input will be posted on my website in mid-December. Use this e-mail link to share your comments and ideas.

Input from the group conversations, individual submissions from faculty and others interested in the liberal arts at MSU, along with the deans’ deliberations will be essential in helping me to formulate a proposal for the framework and vision of the liberal arts and sciences which I will release early next semester. This framework and vision will incorporate the views of faculty and students, as expressed during discussions with Dr. Williams, as well as other relevant materials and information that you may choose to send to Dr. Williams, to the deans and to me.

Beyond these initial group discussions, our next step will be to engage deans, chairs and faculty in ongoing conversations about the details of implementing this framework and vision and during Spring Semester.

Your willingness to think creatively will be of utmost importance to MSU’s future.

Thank you.