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\u2192As Colgate University settles into the first year of its third century, President Brian W. Casey<\/a> \u2014 an expert in the history of American higher education \u2014 is taking his job seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colgate\u2019s 17th chief executive is spending a great deal of time talking about Colgate\u2019s Third-Century Plan<\/em>, which he announced publicly during the Bicentennial Address at the All-Class Reunion<\/a> in May. He brought it to the full staff during its August meeting, to the Student Government Association when it convened after Arrival Day, to parents and family members during Family Weekend, and to residents of Hamilton, N.Y., on Colgate Day, Sept. 13. This academic year, he is on tour, discussing the plan with Colgate community members across America and in countries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em> is a long-term road map for Colgate. It sets forth a series of initiatives that focuses the institution on its fundamentals, strengthening them relentlessly, seeking to make Colgate the strongest possible version of itself. It is a plan that calls on Colgate to reinforce the foundations that make any college or university great: 1) attracting and supporting outstanding students, faculty, and staff; 2) strengthening the University\u2019s academic enterprise; 3) enriching the student experience; and 4) improving the campus. It is a plan to make Colgate one of the nation\u2019s small handful of truly outstanding colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGreat institutions know what they are, and then seek to enhance their fundamental characteristics. The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em> seeks, first, to articulate the distinctive features of Colgate, and then sets forth ways to make all these features stronger,\u201d Casey says. \u201cThe plan does not seek to make Colgate more like Williams or Bowdoin, Dartmouth or Duke (though we will compare ourselves to these great colleges and universities, and others), but to make it both distinctive and strong. We will pursue this plan over a long period of time, while moving as quickly as possible on the first initiatives. Following this road map \u2014 which will require resources, resolve, and rigor \u2014 will result in a Colgate that is academically, reputationally, and financially stronger,\u201d Casey concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full Third-Century Plan<\/em> can be read here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 39-page document represents two years\u2019 work logged by the president, the cabinet, dozens of campus committees, and the Board of Trustees<\/a>. Recently, members of these groups took a moment to reflect on the effort to create a plan that all could support \u2014 to go through the pages of the plan and elaborate on the underlying hope, excitement, and ambition that will secure Colgate\u2019s position as a leading American institution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Any audience listening to the president speak might be tempted to think that The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em> sprung, fully written, from the third floor of James B. Colgate Hall. But even as he walks his listeners logically from element to element, Casey is intent on keeping them from making this mistake. The reality is more complex, going back more than three years to the moment when the Board of Trustees hired him for the position of chief executive. Even then, the fiduciary body was laying the groundwork for action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we hired President Casey, we knew that we wanted to evaluate the board structure. We spent about a year looking at best practices of boards, how they should operate, and what the proper role of the board should be,\u201d says Board of Trustees Chair Michael J. Herling \u201979, P\u201908,\u201909,\u201912. \u201cAs the main pillars of The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em> became apparent, we were ready to restructure the board to make it a better facilitator of decision making \u2014 to align the programmatic committees of the board with the foundational elements of the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colgate now seeks to pursue its mission at an even higher level, to establish the University, more firmly than today, as one of the small handful of truly outstanding colleges and universities in the nation and the world. This Third-Century Plan<\/em> is a long-term plan for that quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 The Third-Century Plan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the president was going to many meetings. He and his cabinet members spent 18 months shuttling between 23 faculty governance committees, six committees of the board, and the Alumni Council<\/a>. Casey also revived and expanded a standing committee of the faculty, the Advisory and Planning Committee (APC), to serve as his campus-based working group to help draft the plan. Together, this committee and administrators reviewed past research and reports and discussed priorities and best practices. They spoke of Colgate\u2019s essentials and debated how they should be stewarded, how best to express them for maximum effect in the competitive higher education environment. A draft plan emerged with the board and the APC, covering an extensive amount of territory \u2014 every inch of the University\u2019s 575 acres and all of the programs that take place here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, for the first time since 1969, Colgate\u2019s president called a special meeting of the faculty to present the plan and to outline both board and APC discussions. The full board formally adopted the plan during its meetings on May 3\u20134, 2019; the Alumni Council endorsed the plan two weeks later. And then came the moment to present the plan to all gathered alumni during the historic All-Class Reunion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can\u2019t speak to other plans that Colgate has had in the past,\u201d Herling says. \u201cBut this was the result of incredibly thoughtful work by President Casey and his team. It captures the essence of the institution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The board\u2019s recent realignment around the plan\u2019s emerging structure made it possible for the body to transition into the prioritization of resources and approve funding for a series of first initiatives. Preparations and consultations had a further advantage: They allowed the institution and those who lead its seven divisions \u2014 admission, advancement, athletics, dean of the college, dean of the faculty, finance and administration, and communications \u2014 to take immediate action on those initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192<\/strong>The nation\u2019s attention is attuned to conversations around student debt. Colgate, for its part, has a proud, long-standing tradition of meeting the full financial need of every admitted student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In spite of this history, Colgate still included some federal loans in certain financial aid packages. Often, these loans were in the packages of middle-income students \u2014 undergraduates from families with salaries too high be eligible for Pell Grants yet not wealthy enough to shoulder the full cost of a Colgate education. Other institutions were sweeping in and recruiting these well-qualified candidates by offering them financial aid packages that promised a debt-free commencement. These were students Colgate admitted, students who belonged on our campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the introduction of The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em>, therefore, Colgate launched the No-Loan Initiative<\/a>, the first major initiative of the plan. This step removes all federal loans from financial aid packages for students with family incomes below $125,000. \u201cIf the obligation of loans is one of the things keeping our<\/em> students from coming here, then let\u2019s remove it,\u201d Casey says. \u201cThe University is incredibly fortunate \u2014 we are one of only two dozen institutions that have now moved into this position.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truly talented students, a leading faculty, and professional staff are all required for Colgate to be among the finest colleges and universities in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 The Third-Century Plan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cColgate faculty shoulder a herculean responsibility of simultaneously teaching and researching at the institution\u2019s expected level of excellence,\u201d says Tracey E. Hucks \u201987, MA\u201990, provost and dean of the faculty, and James A. Storing Professor of religion and Africana and Latin American studies<\/a>. \u201cMaintaining a balanced commitment to both pursuits is challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recruiting the most talented students, regardless of financial background, is one of the first steps in The Third-Century Plan<\/em>\u2019s Section I mandate. The recruitment of faculty is coequal. So the plan goes further, outlining the University\u2019s intention to make itself the ideal home for the world\u2019s most talented teacher-scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Third-Century Plan<\/em> addresses those challenges, providing scholars with more time to complete their scholarship and engage in new ways of teaching. Colgate, through this plan, seeks to have faculty maintain a teaching load equal to the finest colleges in the nation \u2014 eventually reducing their annual five-courses-a-year burden to an elite-college level of four. This might seem counterintuitive, given that faculty members are hired to teach. However, Hucks says, \u201cColgate\u2019s best teachers and the best scholars value time as an essential pathway for excellence in their classrooms and in their disciplines.\u201d Reduced course loads will free up hours and days to devote to course preparation, research, and student interactions \u2014 the kind that foster inspirational relationships between undergraduates and their mentors. It will also ensure that, at the moment Colgate is seeking to hire new teacher-scholars, it can say that its faculty will operate in conditions equal to the nation\u2019s best universities. No longer will we lose faculty to Williams, Bowdoin, or Princeton because our support is not up to expected levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Third-Century Plan<\/em> acknowledges that the most inspirational professors might themselves need to be inspired to come to Hamilton. It calls on the institution not only to create more time for faculty to do their important work, but also more endowed professorships to recognize their success. In this arena, Colgate is lagging behind its peers. \u201cFourteen percent of our faculty members hold endowed professorships; an average among our peers would be closer to 30%,\u201d says Gretchen H. Burke \u201981, P\u201911,\u201920, who chairs the board\u2019s campaign committee. \u201cEvery time you name an endowed professorship, it provides financial support for the institution, and it is prestigious for the professor. It lets candidates know that we support our faculty at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recruitment is more important now than ever, with vacancies opening in the ranks each year as a generation of faculty members reach emeriti status. \u201cWe are at a point where many of those who were hired when women came to campus 50 years ago are retiring,\u201d Burke says. \u201cThere are new professors coming to campus, the next teachers whom alumni will remember fondly, and that is why it is so important that we continue to attract the most brilliant candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192<\/strong>The Third-Century Plan<\/em> was designed to make Colgate academically stronger than ever before, and the Robert Hung Ngai Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative<\/a> illustrates the intention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Olin Hall, the home of the University\u2019s biology department <\/a>and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences<\/a>, was completed in 1971 and renovated in 1990. Significant research is conducted in the facility, but the HVAC systems now require expansion and the roof needs to be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crunching the numbers, administrators put the price tag at a $12 million minimum simply to bring the building up to needed operational levels. But the facility\u2019s challenges brought opportunities. \u201cAs we were looking at the plans to renovate Olin Hall, biology and psychology faculty in that building pointed out that they have been talking to each other, studying the brain and the mind, charisma, leadership, and the biological foundations of ethics,\u201d Casey says. \u201cMeanwhile, our language-acquisition researchers and our philosophers who study the mind suggested they would like to work with those folks, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A fundamental foundation upon which Colgate\u2019s stronger future rests will be the extent to which the University seeks to continuously strengthen the academic life of the University and nurture a culture in which intellectual rigor marks \nall of its endeavors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 The Third-Century Plan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Within this aging building, new partnerships were yielding innovative projects and providing countless teaching moments between faculty and students. \u201cSo, we said to ourselves, what if we transformed Olin Hall to provide a space for what could be the finest mind, brain, and behavior initiative in America?\u201d Casey says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert H.N. Ho \u201956, H\u201911<\/a> responded to the idea with a gift of $15 million. The University will solicit funds and dedicate current budget resources to round out the necessary commitment, resulting not only in more satisfactory ventilation, but a completely renovated facility that will encourage the kinds of interdisciplinary opportunities that are the hallmarks of leading American colleges and universities. \u201cOur students couldn\u2019t care less about 19th-century boundaries of intellectual life, and our faculty have long moved past these lines,\u201d Casey says. \u201cStudents and faculty want to solve problems; they want to think about complex things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Complex thinking will take place down the Hill as well, once the University fulfills its intention to design a Middle Campus Plan for Arts, Creativity, and Innovation \u2014 a concept that emerged alongside Mind, Brain, and Behavior, thanks to the outstanding curricular and scholarly endeavors of Colgate\u2019s faculty. \u201cBoth initiatives reflect a nexus for rich interdisciplinary collaborations and programs across campus and will provide students with access to cutting-edge facilities and robust avenues for research and intellectual creativity,\u201d Hucks adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As envisioned, the middle campus project will take a series of buildings that were designed independently \u2014 James C. Colgate Hall, Little Hall, Dana Arts Center, Persson Hall, and Case Library \u2014 and transform them into an intentional, cohesive new section of the campus. Within these buildings, some of which will be heavily renovated, the campus community will be able to study dance and computer science, entrepreneurship and painting, music, filmmaking, and art history. This will be done in complementary ways that amplify the means by which Colgate is already pursuing residential liberal arts education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cColgate has a deep tradition within disciplines like neuroscience, biology, computer science, and all aspects of the arts,\u201d says Alumni Council President Christian B. Johnson \u201902. \u201cBeing able to merge these disciplines geographically and intellectually is critical to the education of students as they prepare to become future leaders. Colgate has identified how these courses of studies, in combination, can make the institution stand out among its peers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Middle campus will also address the straightforward, long-standing need for spaces that enable students to express themselves. \u201cInstead of doing what most institutions have done \u2014 just build a big performing arts facility \u2014 we are going to develop something more innovative and useful: a middle campus that could be animated 24 hours a day with people doing creative things,\u201d Burke says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192<\/strong>\u201cYou can learn in a classroom from the four classes you take every semester, but if Colgate does its work well, you should be learning where you live,\u201d says Vice President and Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an ambitious goal. Students spend approximately 20,000 hours outside the classroom during their undergraduate years. McLoughlin and his staff are working with partners across campus to fill those moments with meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the launch of the 2019 academic year, all first-year students and sophomores now live within one of four Residential Commons<\/a>, living-learning communities of the kind one sees at many leading colleges. This is thanks in large part to the opening of the University\u2019s two newest residences, Burke Hall and Jane Pinchin Hall. Social activities and traditions are starting to form within each Residential Commons, giving them distinctive identities. Faculty are frequent visitors for topical lectures and philosophical conversations with students. During arrival weekend, each Residential Commons hosted first-year orientation sessions around academic success, living at a college, diversity and inclusion, and wellness issues. First-year seminar courses are linked to every Residential Commons and taught in classrooms located within each of the Residential Commons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Colgate must overtly and explicitly seek to create a deep, clear, and compelling campus culture \u2014 nurtured and expressed through its residential programs, its athletics program and other student activities, its ceremonies and traditions, and through the overall experience of the campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 The Third-Century Plan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough faculty and staff leadership, the walls of the classroom have become porous, and opportunities for continued learning extend into the residential experience,\u201d Hucks says. \u201cLiving and learning are important directives that have resulted in innovative FSEM links, committed faculty affiliates, expanded forms of mentorship, and an ongoing collaborative menu of intellectual and social programs for our first- and second-year students.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ultimate goal is to create a form of residential living on campus that prepares students for life beyond<\/em> campus. \u201cIt prepares students for the world, for living with people who are different from themselves, connecting across differences, and learning about one another,\u201d McLoughlin says. \u201cWithin the Residential Commons system, they will have conversations that are a little more intellectual than they might have in other environments and listen in ways that actually help them become more informed about one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those whose time outside the classroom includes Division I athletics, The Third-Century Plan<\/em> also addresses efforts to increase support for coaching staff, who serve as mentors and teachers in their own right. There is also a renewed focus on the University\u2019s athletics facilities and new athletics scholarships. \u201cRight now, we have varsity coaches and administrators in three different buildings,\u201d Nicki Moore, vice president and director of athletics<\/a>, says. Plans developing as part of the package of first initiatives include a renovation of Reid Athletic Center that would open up more space for staff. \u201cCurrent plans would put us in Class of 1965 Arena and Reid Athletic Center, alleviating space issues while continuing to keep the coaches proximate to each other.\u201d As in the University\u2019s academic buildings, where biologists share hallways with geographers, coaches from different sports find common cause when they commingle. \u201cWe have seen it already in the Class of 1965 Arena, where soccer, lacrosse, and hockey coaches work together,\u201d Moore says. \u201cHockey adapted drills that are actually for soccer, because they were trying to figure out how to do something that they saw soccer doing really well. The new facility has enhanced collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having received the benefit of a residential education \u2014 and, in some cases, having collected the learning experiences that come with playing sports at the highest level \u2014 undergraduates will be looking toward life after Colgate. Career Services, the Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships, and the University\u2019s entrepreneurship efforts are amassed in Benton Hall and begin helping in the quest from the moment of enrollment. These offices will receive additional support, through the plan, to bolster programs that already set the pace among Colgate\u2019s peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCareer discernment is not separate from intellectual growth; that is a false dichotomy,\u201d Casey says. \u201cCareer services is not the thing you do at the end of your Colgate career, but a learning process throughout your time on campus \u2014 as much a learning process as your first-year seminar or classes within your major. Let us view this not as a service, but as an educational experience that our students are going through, and we want them to do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192<\/strong>This fall, Colgate opened two new residences on the upper quadrangle, Burke Hall<\/a> and Jane Pinchin Hall<\/a>, which have added to a distinguished and distinctive collegiate skyline. Alongside Benton Hall, they are two of the latest and most obvious examples of Colgate\u2019s intentional commitment to the beauty of its historic campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeauty is not an addition, nor is it something that you hope comes to pass,\u201d Casey says. \u201cIt affects the experience, and it is something that is shared by everybody \u2014 every staff member, every faculty member, every student \u2014 so you have to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out that beauty is more than grass-deep. Beneath buildings both new and old runs the infrastructure that provides warmth in those harrowing Hamilton winters and electricity to operate classroom technology \u2014 not to mention the plumbing, fiber optics, and numerous additional utilities that allow a community to study the Dark Ages without experiencing them. All of this is under careful scrutiny and will be addressed as the University implements The<\/em> Third-Century Plan<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colgate must carefully steward one of its most precious assets: its campus\u2026 Enhancing the beauty of the campus, improving its infrastructure, and preserving its natural and built environment for future generations must remain high University priorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Sketch](\"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/08\/Colgate_portrait_Casey3.2.jpg\")
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I. Attracting Outstanding People<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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II. Strengthening the Academic Enterprise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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III. Enriching the Student Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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IV. Improving the Campus Environs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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