The Bowdoin Orient

March 9, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 19

Trustees meet to pass budget, award tenure

by ERIC CHAMBERS, STAFF WRITER

   The Board of Trustees had a busy schedule at last weekend's meeting held at the Black Point Inn in Prout's Neck, Maine. The Board discussed a report presented by the Committee of the Future, awarded tenure to five professors, finalized the College's budget for the next fiscal year, and talked about the possible construction of a new academic building.
   The report issued by the Committee of the Future was compiled in December after faculty, staff, and students visited other liberal arts colleges across the country.
   The report identifies what the committee believes are specific trends occurring in liberal arts education and focuses on areas such as identity, curriculum, faculty recruitment, admissions, and capital resources.
   Calling this an "opportunity for the self-education of board members," Secretary of the College Richard Mersereau said that the major purpose of this report was to identify the specific goals that a liberal arts college such as Bowdoin should have.
   Copies of the report are available on reserve at Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
   The trustees also voted to award tenure to five assistant professors: Nancy Jennings in the Department of Education, Scott MacEachern in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Madeleine Msall in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Elizabeth Muther in the Department of English, and Patrick Rael in the Department of History.
   The Board also approved the 2001-2002 budget for the College, presented by Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Kent Chabotar, and also approved the official tuition costs for the 2001-2002 year.
   The Board also discussed the construction of a possible new academic building on campus. This building would be located between Adams Hall and Memorial Hall and would house the psychology and education departments as well as the Baldwin Learning Center.
   Although Mersereau said that the plans for the building were in no way definite, "talking about it at the meeting is enough to say that we think enough of this plan to spend money on it, which is the first action that leads to approval." If plans are carried out, between $8 and $10 million will be allocated toward the construction.
   Although the trustees discussed many issues during the two-day meeting, only a few initiatives were voted on.
   Mersereau said, "The College is in transition right now, with the president Robert Edwards leaving and the president-elect Barry Mills coming in."
   Because of this, he said, the Board of Trustees is in a position that makes it difficult to make hard and fast decisions about policies concerning the future direction of the College.
   "We have made this as harmonious a transition as possible, with very encouraging results," Mersereau said.
   For the first time in over twenty years, the trustees' meeting was officially held off-campus.
   The reason for this, Mersereau said, was so that the members of the Board, including trustees, students, and other representatives, "could get to know one another much better in a relaxed atmosphere."
   One of the original intents of this meeting, which had been planned over a year in advance, was to officially elect the new president of the College. However, because the Presidential Search Committee made a decision six weeks ahead of schedule, the Board used the time to officially thank the Committee for its hard work and difficult decision-making.
   The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for May 10-12.