Members of the faculty and staff, students, friends, ladies and gentlemen:
I am pleased to be with you this afternoon to talk about the University and our mutual goals for the future here in this new home. Susan and I have been in Singapore now for a bit more than one year, and the past 12 months have passed more quickly than any similar period I can remember. During the academic year just completed, one of the greatest achievements was the completion of the new campus on time and within budget. I expect that we will continue to encounter a few problems as we settle in to the new spaces and start to run programmes, but SMU is in the enviable position of having perhaps the most advanced total campus environment of any university in the world.
We also had another good recruiting year, and each school was able to add senior, experienced faculty as well as more junior ones.
New programmes were launched. Executive education flourished. Faculty research productivity continued to grow. The results of teaching surveys indicated that SMU faculty are doing well in the classroom. Members of the public are responding positively to SMU as indicated by the extraordinary number of applicants to the undergraduate programmes and the quality of those applicants, even though we raised tuition fees by 15%. Thus far employers also seem to be responding well based on the placement results from the first cohort of graduates as well as the rate of success among students looking for internships. The signs are positive, and our job is to keep things moving in the right direction. I thank all of you for the very good results that we have had so far, and I look forward to continuing to work together to build a dynamic, creative, innovative research and teaching university of the first rank.
The Strategic Plan has been put into place and has received the general blessing of the Board of Trustees and of the Strategic Issues Advisory Committee. Many of the specific items mentioned in the Plan have been adopted or completed already. The Plan remains a useful outline for us to keep in mind as we continue to develop specific programmes.
I. Curriculum Development
One of the defining characteristics of SMU is the core curriculum required of all students. We are training students to be leaders in their respective fields. To be effective leaders, they must be able to communicate ideas and directions to others.
They must have some understanding of context - historical, sociological, cultural, and psychological. They should have a basic understanding of the governing principles of science, most especially of the basic scientific method of skeptical inquiry. The best will be driven by passionate curiosity about the world and about their particular areas of interest, but curiosity can be nurtured and developed even among those who come to the university with a narrow linear focus on learning facts as opposed to learning how to go about the very process of learning and inquiring.
II. Degree Programmes
The growth in degree programmes will come primarily at the post-graduate level. Some of the programmes now in place are prospering. Others are too new to be judged. But if SMU is to become a serious research institution, the number of post-graduate degree programmes will necessarily increase in the next few years.
Specifically, I would like to have in place by the end of the next academic year a definite time and implementation plan for PhD programmes; for one or more MBA and EMBA programmes; a decision on the implementation of law degrees and a master's programme; and serious consideration of other schools that might be in SMU's future.
III. Faculty Development
We should continue to hire talented junior faculty, recruit senior faculty who can serve as mentors, and solidify procedures for systematic reviews through the tenure and promotion process. Specifically, I would like us to identify and recruit targeted senior faculty in all schools; to regularise the review processes for promotion, tenure, and annual merit consideration; clarify the relationships between practice track and tenure track faculty and the respective expectations; engage the faculty more deeply and substantively in governance and planning; make more substantive use of the Faculty Senate; increase the opportunities for direct faculty interaction with senior administrators; encourage more interaction and collaboration across schools; and re-consider recruitment goals and targets in order to build our strengths and more clearly identify areas of substantial need.
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IV. Teaching and Student Life
The classroom experience is one of the defining characteristics of SMU. As we begin to review large numbers of faculty for promotion, retention, and tenure, I want to be sure that we provide clear guidance on the importance of teaching; that we have in place fair and reliable means for determining whether faculty are being successful in the classroom; that we recognise and reward good teaching, but also do not overlook poor teaching; and that we let students know that the quality of classroom instruction is important.
Outside the classroom, I want to make sure that student co-curricular activities are readily available to all and that all are fully encouraged to participate in meaningful ways, and that the co-curricular portion of student profiles is given due attention. Some co-curricular programmes are primarily for the development of social interaction, physical exercise, collegiality, or just plain fun; but I would like to see more attention paid to the intellectual mission of the University in student life programmes, especially those that connect to the whole University or to the outside.
V. Student Admissions
In expanding the pool of applicants to the various schools, in handling the huge volume of applications, and in recruiting cohorts of very high quality students for SMU - our collective efforts have been nothing short of remarkable, especially for a new institution. For the near term, one of the biggest challenges will be to maintain the momentum and to consolidate the gains that have been made. For the longer term, I hope that we can focus on three issues: how best to continue to emphasise the SMU "difference" and to attract students who have passion and potential; how best to use limited financial aid resources to make sure that financial need is not a deterrent to the matriculation of meritorious applicants; and how best to increase the recruitment of foreign students.
VI. Financial Matters
During the next few years I want to move to a more de-centralised budgeting process. Part of this process will include the inclusion of indirect cost allocations to the various budget centres to account for the enterprise costs associated with general administrative overhead, facilities maintenance, utility charges, expenses related to students, and so on. Actual experience in the new campus during the next year will help to set the baselines for many of these costs.
Fund raising will continue to be an activity of paramount importance. The roles of Directors and other staff will vary in terms of fund raising, but there will be many instances in which various members of the staff will be critical players. In every encounter with a member of the community, no matter how fleeting, each member of the SMU community is an ambassador. The perception of an institution is based, in large part, on casual, informal encounters with the public - a parent seeking information for a child, a tourist curious about this new place in the middle of the city, a civil servant on lunch break in the concourse, a guest for one of our lectures.
VII. Facilities
Many people in the community will judge us by those programmes on campus that are open to the general public or to the members of one group or another who are here for a lecture, a seminar, an arts programme, or some other event. There also will be great interest in using these splendid new buildings, though the priority for usage always should go to SMU students and faculty who are employing the facilities for educational and research purposes. Hostels will be important to the future development of SMU - completion of plans for those already committed and identification of other hostel sites are important for the next year.
VIII. Library
The Library is a key connector to the information resources that are necessary for the growth of research within SMU. With a new facility, a new professional Director, a location near the National Library, and up to date information technology, the Li Ka-shing Library can rapidly become a highly efficient and highly important centre of intellectual development. There is no great research university anywhere that does not have a great library. Some, like the Bodelian at Oxford or Widener at Harvard, have fabulous collections of materials. Others have more limited collections.
But all have highly qualified professional librarians who are able to provide the support needed for any scholar to do the most advanced research work possible. Today the relationship between Information Technology and the Library is one of the most critical within a university. The same is true at SMU.
IX. Personnel
During the past several years we have helped to develop a performance based review system.
Actual experience has provided additional information and feedback that will assist in tuning the system to suit the needs of SMU. Additionally, the staff should be encouraged to form their own Council, similar to the Faculty Senate, to provide a forum for the discussion of issues of importance to the staff with members of the senior administration. It is also important to me that staff are empowered to do their jobs. My philosophy always has been to hire good people and then stay out of their way so they can do their jobs. I also expect people to have initiative and to take responsibility. "See it, do it." Most of the time an individual staff member knows his or her area better than a more distant supervisor, and it is the skill of the individual on which I and other administrators rely.
We are a privileged group of people who have been entrusted to educate the future leaders of Singapore and the region - and, I have no doubt, some of global consequence. We are fiduciaries of that trust - all of us - and have the rare opportunity to create a new, and I am not shy to say, noble institution dedicated to the search for truth and the betterment of the human condition. My thanks to all of you for having brought us this far. Let's continue together.
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