Johns Hopkins University
Commission on Undergraduate Education
Final Report | May 15, 2003

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

During the next 12 months, Commissioners organized themselves into four working groups (Academic Experience, Advising and Career Support, Diversity, and Student Life), reviewed relevant reports from peer institutions and national associations, examined undergraduate survey data, spoke with key campus faculty and administrators, met with external consultants, and conducted focus groups in order assess the current state of affairs and to make recommendations for improvement in undergraduate education. An interim report was produced and distributed in late January 2003. Subsequently, over two-dozen community meetings were held during February, March and early April to discuss CUE's interim recommendations. After consideration of all the comments and suggestions from members of the meetings and from a special e-mailbox set up to receive feedback, this final report was created, endorsed by the full Commission and sent to President Brody and Provost Knapp.

The Commission believes that the mission of Johns Hopkins University with respect to undergraduate education is to prepare students to be informed and engaged global citizens. Undergraduates in all programs should hone critical thinking skills and develop their creativity. Those preparing for advanced study or the professions should achieve mastery of their disciplines. Graduates should be ready to engage in a lifetime of learning related both to their chosen career and to their personal interests.

In the Commission's view, to great extent, the University fulfills that mission. Hopkins students are offered a wide array of outstanding academic programs. Student who anticipate later graduate or professional study are prepared exceedingly well; those who enter the professions directly demonstrate high levels of professional competence. Undergraduate education takes place in a stimulating environment that is culturally diverse and rich in its international dimensions. Like their faculty mentors, large numbers of Hopkins students are engaged in the process of research and discovery.

Notwithstanding the many positive aspects of our undergraduate programs, students' current levels of satisfaction with both their academic and social experiences at Johns Hopkins are lower than we should find acceptable and do not reflect the educational experience that the University can and should provide. In terms of institutional reputation and our own values, we cannot afford to continue business as usual. Ours is an institution that accepts excellence as a threshold criterion for any undertaking. We expect to be competitive for the very best faculty and students. We expect to engage in world-class research. Our goal should be to offer the very best quality undergraduate experience.

To meet this goal, we have work to do and needs that must be addressed. The single most important undergraduate need at Johns Hopkins is to strengthen the sense of community. The second is the need for better integration of the elements of the undergraduate experience and for a healthier sense of balance. A third need around which many of the recommendations cohere is the need for undergraduate education at Hopkins to be more personal. There is also a need to reconcile the gap between the perception of not caring and the reality that many do indeed feel passionately about the satisfaction and success of undergraduates. And, finally, the need to be more intentional about undergraduate education is a fifth need and the focus of many of the recommendations.

The following 34 recommendations from the Commission cover four broad areas of undergraduate life at Johns Hopkins: the academic experience, advising and career support, diversity, and student life. Not all these recommendations are equally important in the context of each of the different divisions. The Commission does, however, think there are several that should be given priority as a result of their potential impact. These are the provision of small group or "capstone" experiences for upperclassmen; guaranteed university housing for Homewood students; and a significant increase in the diversity of the undergraduate student body. The Commission urges the five schools to develop plans to implement these recommendations and to identify resources to support them. Together, we think they have the potential to enhance significantly undergraduate education in this research-intensive environment.

Recommendations Regarding the Academic Experience

1. Assign specific responsibility for assuring the quality of undergraduate education to a senior level administrator in each school's dean's office and regularly bring together those individuals to facilitate discussion of undergraduate concerns across the University.

2. Appoint a faculty Director of Undergraduate Studies in each department or degree program that offers an undergraduate major.

3. Conduct broad reviews of the quality of undergraduate degree programs on a regular cycle, in addition to, or as part of, existing reviews of academic departments.

4. Assure that juniors and seniors have access, within their majors, to small classes and to appropriate small group experiences, including "capstone" courses.

5. Expand the opportunities available to first-year students for intellectually engaging academic experiences in a small group format.

6. Provide various faculty incentives for good teaching, and ensure deliberate and appropriate recognition of teaching excellence in faculty evaluation for promotion and tenure.

7. Increase support for faculty and graduate students in teaching effectiveness -- including pedagogical consultation, assistance with enhancing teaching and learning through instructional technologies, and strengthening the course evaluation system -- and improve the campus physical infrastructure to enable such.

8. Support actively efforts to ensure that all members of the University community are educated about what constitutes academic integrity and understand their obligations to act with honor in each and every academic matter.

9. Encourage efforts to broaden the mix of academic interests in the student body in order both to enrich the intellectual discourse and to match student enrollments more closely to academic resources.

10. Ensure that the undergraduate experience has a significant international dimension by offering students attractive opportunities for foreign study and internships, coursework with an international character, and campus activities and programs that take advantage of the University's rich international resources.

11. Thoroughly study the current weekly course schedule and class scheduling practices to determine whether adjustments might be made to enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience.

12. Give final examinations only during the final examination period.

Recommendations Regarding Advising and Career Support

13. Strengthen faculty engagement in advising by making expectations clear, by providing mentoring and orientation, and by more explicitly including effective service as an advisor as one of the considerations for salary and promotion decisions.

14. Improve communication and leverage activities among the career support services offices, departmental advising coordinators, academic and pre-professional advising staff, alumni offices' staff, and other related service providers.

15. Explore the centralization of some advising/career support resources, such as study abroad, internships, and fellowships.

16. Create a position within the Johns Hopkins Alumni Office that, in concert with the various school career support service offices, would develop networking and internship opportunities for undergraduates.

17. Assure undergraduate access to professional career planning and development services, including employment support for the growing number of undergraduates who choose not to go directly to graduate/professional school and desire employment after earning their baccalaureate degrees.

18. Assure adequate physical and technical facilities (including a state-of-the-art website and electronic student portfolios) for career support services offices in each school.

19. Assure that each school tracks its graduates' post-baccalaureate activities, whether advanced study or employment.

20. Include an evaluation of academic advising and career support in all undergraduate satisfaction surveys.

Recommendations Regarding Diversity

21. In the area of student recruitment, significantly increase the diversity of its undergraduate student body so that, within five years, Johns Hopkins is in the top decile of its peer group in the enrollment of under-represented ethnic minority students. Toward that end:

Prepare a detailed plan for enrolling African-American, Latina/o, and Native-American students, complete with action steps, funding requirements, and an aggressive timetable.

Endorse the proposal of the Homewood Admissions' Office to establish "The Baltimore Scholars Program" to provide full scholarships (tuition and fees) to graduates of Baltimore City Public Schools who are admitted to an undergraduate program, beginning with the entering class of 2004.

Develop linkages with other Hopkins ethnic minority outreach programs, including successful diversity initiatives by the Center for Talented Youth, and consider forging partnerships with community colleges.

Prepare a detailed plan to improve both retention and graduation rates of all students, complete with action steps, funding requirements, and an aggressive timetable.

Improve the retention and graduation rates of subgroups of students who are lagging behind their peers. A systematic study should be undertaken to identify the factors that cause students not to persist and to provide a basis for designing appropriate programmatic support and interventions to achieve this goal.

24. Assess, within the schools, whether the content of the curriculum taken as a whole provides undergraduates with sufficient opportunities for exposure to diverse disciplines, fields, languages, cultures, and ideas, and where needed, expand the offerings to do so.

25. Assure an array of offerings that reflect the diversity of our campus, city, and nation, including developing a special speaker's series to bring the University community together for at least two major events each year that would focus on issues of diversity.

26. Increase efforts to recruit under-represented ethnic minority staff, especially in those areas that provide student services, and prepare a detailed plan for hiring under-represented administrative staff, complete with action steps and an aggressive timetable.

Recommendations Regarding Student Life

27. Create a coherent, comprehensive residential program, supported by appropriate housing and dining services, that provides Hopkins undergraduates who live in University housing with a variety of living/learning options that support and enhance their academic experience while strengthening the sense of campus community.

28. Begin immediately to develop new residences at Homewood which would, over a period of no more than 10 years, guarantee four years of housing to all Arts & Sciences and Engineering undergraduates who wish to remain in University housing. Explore the feasibility of accommodating Nursing, School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, and Peabody students in Homewood residential options.

29. Explore the possibility of a "freshman campus" on the west side of Charles Street.

30. Develop campus facilities to support the need for informal, social interaction as well as for group study.

31. Provide interdivisional programming and intramural sports opportunities (including field space) that create a greater sense of community for Homewood, Peabody, Nursing, and SPSBE students.

32. Increase participation and leadership of academic administrators in student life, making their presence known on their campuses.

Academic administrators should engage regularly with students in both formal and informal situations.

Deans of each school should meet formally with their student councils every month.

The President and Provost of the University should meet each semester with Student Council leadership.

34. Support partnerships to enhance the Charles Village neighborhood and to develop additional amenities that could improve the quality of life for Charles Village residents as well as Hopkins faculty, students and staff.

© 2003 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
Last updated 17May03 by dgips@jhu.edu