President’s Report
President John Kroger presented new data from the Office of Admission this term. This application term has seen an 80 percent increase in the number of applicants from two years ago, from 2890 applicants in 2013, to 3950 in 2014, to more than 5300 in 2015. Kroger acknowledged that it is difficult to gauge the quality of applicants, though reported that the proportion of applicants who score highly on standardized tests (34 or more on the ACT or 2100 or more on the SAT) increased from 356 in 2013 to 715 in 2015.
Kroger also reported that the Office of Admission will be trying a different approach with regards to how they distribute financial aid offers in light of recent insights in admission data. Historically, about 50 percent of students receive financial aid from the college. When the Office of Admission sends out acceptance letters, it attempts to maintain this ratio. For accepted applicants who receive financial aid, the yield rate — the percentage of accepted applicants who decide to go to Reed — was 30 percent.
However, Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Milyon Trulove found that within that 30 percent, there were actually two groups: the yield for those who had high need was 41 percent and the yield for those who had low need was 8–9 percent. After doing some case studies to follow up, they concluded that financial aid has not been giving sufficient aid to students with low financial need. Thus, they are planning to provide greater financial aid packages to these middle class applicants.
According to Kroger, the approximate current makeup of the student body is 20 percent low income (50–70 thousand in family income), 30 percent middle income (70–250 thousand dollars), and 50 percent high income (250 thousand dollars or greater).
Kroger also noted that the Discriminatory Harassment & Sexual Misconduct Policy will be discussed at the April Faculty meeting.
Library Weeding
College Librarian Dena Hutto discussed the procedures for removing books from the library. The library is currently at 85 percent of capacity, she reported, with some sections such as Government Documents over capacity.
Currently the policy involves librarians identifying books to be removed and faculty from relevant departments giving final approval. Faculty may request a report from the librarians on the books being examined, including information about how often the book is used. Recently, as systems have been updated, the library now has data on the circulation of every book at Reed as well as every book in Summit. With this new information, the library is considering providing this information upfront when they send lists of books to the faculty for review.
The library is looking to avoid expansion if possible, because of the costs that would incur. Two alternatives they are looking into is acquiring more compact shelving and off-site storage. Compact shelving is still somewhat expensive and could only be used in the basement rooms of the library because they are so heavy. Off-site storage is a solution that is particularly expensive, because the building would need to be climate controlled. One possible way to pursue this that is being explored is working with Lewis and Clark and other local private colleges on starting a shared storage site, as a way to share the cost.
Committee on Academic Policy and Planning
Chair of the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning Paul Hovda presented proposals for new course requirements, course listings, and study abroad opportunities. The Art and Philosophy departments added new requirements, both of which included a new junior seminar for each department. New courses included classes in Philosophy, Economics, Psychology, and Sociology. The new study abroad courses expanded offerings to Budapest, Jerusalem, London, and Edinburgh for Computer Science, Dance, and Political Science majors.
All CAPP proposals were unanimously approved by the faculty, excepting one abstention.
Diversity Report
Dean for Institutional Diversity Mary James gave the annual diversity report, which compared the number of under-represented minorities in Reed’s student, staff, and faculty populations.
James looked at the under-represented minority categories of Black/African Americans, Hispanics/Latino/Latina, Native Americans/Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders/Native Hawaiians at Reed in comparison to the 2010 Census for the United States and specifically to Portland.
The URM students are 16.7% of the student body. If Reed’s student population reflected the diversity in the 2010 Census, then 31% of the student body would be URMs, increasing the current 228 URM students to 431.
For both staff and tenured or tenure-track faculty, there are far fewer URMs than would be proportional to the census, James reported. For tenured or tenure-track faculty members, only 12 of the total 135 are underrepresented minorities; if this were reflective of the census, there would be 42.
“… Our students can major in 16 of our departments and never work with an underrepresented minority faculty member who is on tenure or tenure track,” James said.
With this, James emphasized that every hiring decision matters for diversity.
Community Affairs Committee
The faculty meeting did not get to the Judicial Board Code changes until the last five minutes of the meeting. After spending a few minutes giving a brief overview of the changes, Irena Swanson asked for comments and questions. “Has this been run past college counsel at this point?” and “I found a typo” was all that was offered. After realizing that there was a class at 6:10 scheduled in the room, Kroger declared the meeting adjourned.