As the Board of Trustees convenes on campus today and tomorrow, the biggest item on its agenda could lead to the long-anticipated approval of a 200-student enrollment expansion for the Pratt School of Engineering.
The expansion has been in the works for some time and seemed likely after the Board discussed the issue at length during its sub-committee meetings in May. If approved, the expansion would increase total undergraduate enrollment to over 6,600 students within four years of implementation.
"That's the biggest item for the Board this weekend, and it's on almost every committee's agenda," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. Burness noted that the Board has already done a lot of work on the proposal, hearing preliminary reports and analyzing the impact the expansion could have on everything from student housing to Arts and Sciences.
The Board is set to hear a presentation of the expansion proposal late Saturday morning by Provost Peter Lange. They will also hear reports from the student affairs and academic affairs sub-committees regarding the expansion.
"This is a chance to have a comprehensive presentation through the various committees," Burness said.
Following the presentation and reports, the Board will seek financial planning approval and authorization to proceed with a project definition of a new East Campus dormitory to support a larger freshman class.
Expansion would necessitate the construction of a new 100- to 130-bed dormitory, which would probably be built near Randolph Dormitory to help complete what Executive Vice President Tallman Trask called a "quad with a missing piece." Trask said the new dormitory is likely to resemble Randolph and Blackwell dormitories but with bigger rooms.
If approved, the expansion would enroll 50 additional undergraduates in Pratt each year. Trask said it is not yet clear how the University would house the additional students once they moved off of East Campus. He noted, however, that administrators are considering expansion on either West or Central Campus as possibilities to absorb the increase. Administrators said the University is ready to enroll the additional students, especially as construction on the $97 million Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering Medicine and Applied Sciences nears completion.
Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering, said work on CIEMAS is moving quickly and that she is in the process of color coding CIEMAS floor plans according to how much space each department or initiative will need and where that space should be located in relation to other departments or initiatives. Johnson said she is also thinking about ways to integrate liberal arts courses into the engineering curriculum, in keeping with the interdisciplinary spirit of CIEMAS.
Although the Pratt expansion will hold the Trustees' attention for much of the weekend, they will also hear a number of other reports. Among the issues on which the Board will hear updates are admissions, the capital campaign, information technology and the search for a successor to President Nan Keohane.
The Board will also hear a set of new international goals for the University, as almost all of the University's international goals from a decade ago have been reached.
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