Advancing Emory's Vision
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Strategic Plan at Five Years SPECIAL ISSUE YOUR SOURCE FOR UNIVERSITY NEWS January 7, 2011 People Places Distinguished faculty 2 Emory’s distinguished A campus on the move faculty and engaged supports creativity, Engaged students 3 students are in the collaboration and spotlight. community. Building new ideas 4–5 Page 2–3 Page 4–5 Marking progress 6–7 A culture of giving 8 Advancing Emory’s vision early 175 years ago, the fledgling Emory College was chartered 40 miles west of Atlanta—a de- cade before the settlement called NMarthasville was even named Atlanta. The school’s mission was to mold character, even as it honed proficiency in such arts as Latin and mathematics among a corps of 15 young men paying $135 a year. Centuries and miles removed from its natal home, the Emory of 2010 is much larger, immeasurably more diverse, and vastly more accomplished—numbered among the Top 20 universities nationally, according to US News & World Report, and located in the top third of the Top 200 glob- ally, according to the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. How has this long arc of growth and maturation been sustained and even ac- celerated over the past five years, as Emory began to In a period when external research funding has continued to enhance on-campus housing for undergradu- implement the 10-year strategic plan forged by upwards increased to $535 million a year, the University also nearly ates, in the belief that the digital, networked world of the of a thousand faculty, staff and students in 2004-2005? doubled its faculty membership in select national academies, 21st century will retain a place for institutions offering a With dollars, decisions and daring bets, according to from 17 to 33, and added 138 net new tenured and tenure personalized collegiate experience at the heart of a world- the University’s senior leadership. track faculty, for an overall growth rate of 13 percent. New class research university. “The past five years disclose steady progress in quality, PhD tracks have been added in areas such as biomedical in- A campus map shows no fewer than 15 major construc- productivity and external recognition for our faculty, as we formatics and religion, conflict and peacebuilding. New mas- tion projects since 2005, representing one of the most ac- pursued a Faculty Distinction Fund strategy that balanced ter’s programs have been launched in bioethics; computation tive periods of building in Emory’s history. Importantly, all the recruitment of academic stars with the ethical com- and statistics; and development practice. were designed to enhance elements of the strategic plan and mitments we have to our existing talent,” says Earl Lewis, Mike Mandl, executive vice president for finance and foster the intellectual community. Projects ranged from the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. administration, says the campus has been, in some im- environmentally “green” Freshman Village (whose build- “From named chairs to mid-career associate professors to portant measure, transformed by major investments in out continues apace); to major academic and research fa- junior arrivals, Emory today has a richer, deeper professo- the special residential educational experience that the top cilities such as the Candler School of Theology, the Center riate than we did even at the turn of the 21st century.” universities deliver. For instance, the administration has for Ethics, and the Psychology and Interdisciplinary Please see VISION on page 8 Message from the president mory University’s strategic plan, “Where arrived at through long consultation and ECourageous Inquiry Leads,” has set our that we continue to adhere to. They hold course for the past five years, serving as out the greatest promise for us to advance our roadmap to 2015. During this time the our mission as a university to create, pre- landscape around us has changed dramati- serve, teach, and apply knowledge in the cally. But we can say one thing for certain service of humanity. about our experience so far: the national These five goals also grow naturally and economic climate has become thinner, and logically out of the priorities we established the terrain of higher education has be- five years ago: priorities of quality, distinc- come rockier, but the constellation of goals tion, financial strength, and resource stew- by which we are guided remains our true ardship. The stories in this special issue north. We are still headed in the right di- offer heartening confirmation that we have rection, and we can continue with confi- succeeded as a community in keeping these dence on the path we have set for ourselves. priorities always uppermost in our efforts That constellation of goals by which we of the last five years. We could not have are steering includes creating on our cam- done so without the strenuous thought, pus a world-class and diverse community creativity, imagination, and hard work of of scholars; enrolling the best students and countless men and women throughout our ensuring that they will have the best edu- several campuses. cational experience available; cultivating Among the highlights of our communi- an intellectual and physical environment ty’s success, an overview on pages 4 and 5 in that enhances the lives of all members of this issue offers a stunning summary of the our community, including staff, faculty, stu- major transformations in our campus since dents, alumni and our neighbors; achieving 2005. The roster of buildings erected, reno- One promise we made to ourselves while have some work to do in others. These areas due recognition as a place where scholars vations accomplished, and landmarks re- setting out on this journey to 2015 was to of concern are at the top of our list of issues work together to confront the human condi- stored is all the more remarkable given the check our progress regularly. Through the to address during this current academic tion and exploit emerging technologies for fact that all of these things were planned good work of our Office of Institutional year, and we are confident that we will be good; and exercising exemplary steward- before the economic downturn and were ac- Research, we have been helped by a full able to make course corrections. ship of our financial and other resources. complished with a heightened expectation of and detailed array of metrics in gauging Five years gone, with five to go, this re- As this special issue of Emory Report efficiency and fiscal responsibility. Happily, how we are doing with regard to student port serves as a toast to achievements thus makes clear, those goals and their corre- they have also brought plaudits from nation- quality, faculty strength, staff satisfaction, far and a spur to further hopeful aspiration. sponding themes remain unchanged and al organizations to the men and women who fundraising, and health care delivery. will endure. They are the consensus that we accomplished them (see page 5). We are doing well by many measures, but —President Jim Wagner EMORY REPORT JANUARY 7, 2011 2 Strategic Plan Update Distinguished faculty drive excellence Faculty members are an essential resource for achieving Emory’s Berlin, where she is completing a book on visual and verbal vision of an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged and diverse intel- thinking. In interviewing scientists and creative writers, lectual community. The strategic plan has allowed the University she asks them to respond to a series of words. No one ap- to invest new levels of resources to strengthen faculty distinction proach is correct, Otis says, yet differences in word and im- through development and excellence, tenure and promotion, and age creation can lead to frustration and misunderstandings. recruitment and retention. The following faculty are representa- In college, Otis was a molecular biophysics and bio- tive of the many scholars and teachers who embody the Univer- chemistry major with a penchant for literature electives. sity’s vision every day through their teaching, research, service Pursuing lab work after graduation, she found she missed and patient care. the “musicality” of sentence construction and so went back to school for a PhD in comparative literature, fueling her passion for 19th-century realist novels. Carol Anderson At Emory, Otis’ students represent a variety of disci- Carol Anderson, associate professor of African American plines and viewpoints. In her “Literature and the Senses” Studies, plunks down $250 million in fictitious funding and course, she encourages students to define terms and ex- Carol Anderson instructs her class to use it to transform the beleaguered New pressions familiar to them, such as “neurons firing” and York City public school system. “Foucauldian,” for the benefit of their classmates. The students go to town, erecting cultural centers and “I don’t just let words slide by,” she says. “Even the peo- health care clinics. Representing a cross-section of majors, ple who use the words aren’t always sure of the meaning.” they relish the freedom to think creatively and holistically, explains Anderson. A member of the U.S. State Department’s Historical Advisory Committee, Anderson studies how in- Deboleena Roy ternational and domestic policies influence issues of human Deboleena Roy bridges the divide between feminist theory rights and racial equality. Her first book, “Eyes Off the Prize: and the natural sciences. The United Nations and the African-American Struggle for As associate professor of women’s studies and neurosci- Human Rights” (Cambridge University Press, 2003), won the ence and behavioral biology, Roy asks different questions to Gustavus Myers and Bernath Book awards. Her forthcoming help guide scientific inquiry in the areas of neuroscience, ge- book examines the NAACP’s role in revitalizing global free- netics and reproductive health.