<p>Excerpt from the Tallahassee Democrat, here:
<a href=“http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070215/BREAKINGNEWS/70214029[/url]”>http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070215/BREAKINGNEWS/70214029</a></p>
<p>***“Obviously AAU is interested in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine) disciplines. We need to go further. We understand that,” President T.K. Wetherell recently told FSU trustees. But with the university’s traditional strengths in the arts and humanities, “What we want to do is raise all boats,” he said </p>
<p>Hasselmo, a former University of Minnesota president who headed AAU from 1998 to 2006, visited the FSU campus in November. His observations: </p>
<li><p>“There is an embedded ‘culture of achievement’ in the faculty and administration at FSU.”</p></li>
<li><p>“FSU clearly fits within the search image for potential membership in the AAU…University must perform… (on) federal grant expenditures, national academy members…doctoral program rankings, awards in the arts and humanities, quality and quantity of scholarly publications, state/industrial funding, Ph.D. graduates, number of postdoctoral fellows and quality of undergraduate education.” </p></li>
<li><p>“Must sustain programs that are of high quality, such as those associated with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, add resources to those that are on the cusp of such distinction and selectively, add new ones, giving special attention to the sciences, engineering and medicine.” </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Reacted communication professor Davis Houck: “I don’t think the liberal arts and social sciences are going anywhere at FSU; we’re just being asked to do more, do it better and with less (relatively speaking) resources.” And English professor and writer David Kirby said: “I take it as a compliment…when Professor Hasselmo talks about preserving programs that are already of high quality, I presume he means writing, film, music and so on.” </p>
<li><p>“Colleges of Engineering and Medicine afford great potential to contribute to many of the AAU indicators. Management issues must be resolved so that engineering (college) can attain full potential…Imperative for the College of Medicine to aggressively recruit a large cadre of research-oriented faculty.” </p></li>
<li><p>“The ‘Pathways’ program is an excellent vehicle for strengthening the university.” </p></li>
<li><p>“Higher expectations in terms of performance and productivity should be placed on existing faculty.” </p></li>
<li><p>“Allocation of state funding based on enrollment works against quality.”*** </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Looks like proper funding for FSU from the Legislature would be a decent start.</p>