“Grad Days” commenced Tuesday afternoon with a keynote speech by University President Teresa Sullivan on the future of graduate students at the University in the light of major changes in the higher education system.
The two week-long celebration highlights graduate student life and the contributions of graduate and professional students to the University.
Dwindling state and federal funding, increased demands for affordability and accountability, and questions about how best to incorporate emerging technologies have left American higher education in a “precarious state,” Sullivan said. Universities must either “adapt or die,” she said.
Sullivan lauded the work of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, created by the President’s office last year to develop ideas and work with the Board of Visitors on meeting strategic goals.
To identify areas for improvement, an academic assessment of the University is currently being conducted by the Baltimore consulting firm Art and Science Group, Sullivan said. The group is working to identify what areas the University can improve on by comparing it to nine peer public and private institutions, Sullivan said.
Establishing competitive faculty salaries to attract and retain top-tier faculty will be a necessary step in keeping the University afloat, Sullivan said. The Board passed Sullivan’s proposed commitment in February to put the University in the top 20 institutions for faculty salaries as measured by the Association of American Universities by 2017.
Sullivan also expressed reservations about some of the more radical shifts to education – highlighting the problems with online education which she said is expensive and largely unable to distinguish between average and exceptional students.
Grad Days will continue for the next two weeks and will include events geared toward minority students and a lunch discussion panel with LGBTQ faculty.
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