October 11, 2000

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:Ê J. Aieta, A. Ali, M. Anderson, L. Balfour, A. Bayer, J. Bethel, R. Bliss, J. Bozewicz, E. Cale, L. Carr, A. Cohen, S. Collins, P. Dover, J. Edmunds, R. Eng, S. Eriksen, S. Feinstein, M. Fetters, F. Fleischmann, R. Frost, L. Godtfredsen, S. Gordon, N. Govoni, D. Grewal, C. Gwin, C. Gwin, H. Han, N. Harris, K. Hevert, L. Higdon, S. Holt, L. Isaacson, J. Jeannet, K. Jones, J. Kassarjian, K. Kelly, R. Kimball, D. Kopcso, H. Kopp, J. Lange, N. Langowtiz, M. Levy, J. Lindsey-Mulliken, R. Mandel, R. Markus, J. Marthinsen, K. Matsuno, J. McKenzie, K. McKone, C. McNair, M. Minniti, P. Mulligan, C. Nixon, B. Pattridge, J. Philips, L. Polutnik, G. Prichett, F. Rafii, S. Rangan, T. Reilly, J. Ricciardi, D. Rotfort, C. Rufin, J. Saber, S. Schiffman, B. Seitz, S. Sokuvitz, J. Stamm, N. Taylor, M. Tropp, G. Truman, R. Turner, J. van Bommel. C. Wain, S. Ward, J. Williams, A. Zacharakis

Richard Mandel brought the meeting to order at approximately 3:30 p.m. after which it was agreed that the minutes of the September 5, 2000 Faculty Meeting would not be reviewed at this time.Ê They will be discussed and approved at the next meeting.

Elections:Ê Board of Research (BOR) and Technology Advisory Board (TAB)

Hank Deneault told the group that he would conduct two elections.Ê The first one is to fill a one-year vacancy for the Marketing Division representative on the Board of Research.Ê The Chairs and Deans have nominated Ken Matsuno and Neeraj Bharadwaj. The second election is to fill four slots on the Technology Advisory Board (TAB).

At this point, AVP Fetters was asked to update the faculty on the latest developments with regard to TAB. Fetters said last spring Steve Ericksen chaired a task force which studied thoroughly imbedding technology in the required curriculum and ultimately in the elective courses.Ê Fetters is beginning to implement the task forceâs recommendations; a new position, Director of Curriculum Technology, will be created.ÊÊÊ Discussion is underway to appoint a Technology Implementer in the graduate program, similar to those in the undergraduate and SEE programs.Ê The TAB will continue to explore experimentation in the curriculum.ÊÊ The Internet Advisory Board will be formed and 2 faculty members will be appointed to set the priorities for IT decisions at the college.Ê Mike Fetters will work with the Chairs and Deans to select the two members.ÊÊ Finally, AVP Fetters will continue to work with ITSD and the faculty to plan for an implement the dynamic use of technology in the curriculum.

As a result of these proposals, AVP Fetters asked if it made sense to continue with 6 people on the TAB or should the number be reduced.Ê The chairs and deans feel the TAB should be reduced to 3 members.Ê After some discussion of the pros and cons, a motion was made and seconded to reduce the number of members on the TAB from 6 to 3. A vote was taken and the motion failed, maintaining the number of TAB members at 6.ÊÊ Continuing members on the TAB will be: John McKenzie and Joe Aieta from Math & Science and Larry Isaacson-Marketing.Ê The Chairs and Deansâ nominations include:Ê Neal Harris-Economics, Joseph Weintraub-Management, Andrew Zacharakis-Entrepreneurship, Carol Gwin-Marketing and Jeff Melnick, History and Society.Ê Richard Frost, History and Society, was nominated from the floor and added to the TAB ballot.ÊÊ

Later in the meeting, the following election results were announced.Ê The new member to the Board of Research will be Ken Matsuno.Ê The 3 new members to the Technology Advisory Board are Neal Harris, Joe Weintraub, and Jeff Melnick.

Professor Kent Jones announced that the search team for a new Graduate Dean is scheduling meetings over the next few weeks and said that interested persons should contact Louise Savary or Beverly Balconi to arrange an appointment.

Presidentâs Remarks:ÊÊ

With regard to the previous discussion about increased technology in the curriculum, President Higdon added this is a major priority of the college.Ê He said that he recently asked Mike Fetters to come up with an action plan for instructional technology support for faculty, over and above what we are doing now

Lee Higdon said that Babsonâs endowment stands at $220 million, up 100% from where it was 3 years ago.Ê This increase is due in part to the $15 million sale of land to the Olin College of Engineering and from appreciation in the portfolio.Ê

The president announced that a gift to build a new Performing Arts Studio was donated by Richard Sorenson during the presidentâs recent trip to Florida.Ê After some research, the decision has been made to renovate a section of Trim Hall as opposed to constructing a new building, thereby reducing the cost from $4.5 million to $1.1 million. The new studio will be constructed over the summer and will hopefully be ready by September 2001.

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President Higdon advised that the governance board meets shortly to vote upon a plan to restructure and downsize the membership from its current 85 members.Ê The Board of Trustees currently consists of 35 persons; this will be increased to a potential maximum of 45, but probably will not reach that number.Ê The Corporation Board will cease to exist, and the governance board for this institution will be a Board of Trustees.Ê In addition, a Board of Overseers will be created, and will be charged with very specific missions to support the college; it will not meet as frequently as the prior Corporation Board.Ê Some new committees will focus more strategically on the undergraduate, graduate and SEE programs.Ê A 10-person interim board will nominate the successor board to be appointed in February 2001. Mr. HigdonÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ believes these changes are steps in the right direction.Ê

Academic VP Remarks - Mike Fetters

Mike Fetters said he too wanted to reiterate the importance of imbedding technology in our curriculum in order to improve student learning.Ê Deans Schiffman and Carr are working closely with their Decision-Making Boards on this effort. The two major distance-learning initiatives (under the leadership of Tom Moore and John Bourne/Sloan Foundation) are also driving forces. He totally agrees with Mr. Higdon that this is a major commitment for all of us, and we will be working with faculty to accomplish this goal.ÊÊ

AVP Fetters announced that grants have been awarded as follows:

á Jim Hoopes received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to support his management research;

á Ted Grossman received a grant from Bear Sterns to research B2B trends and will be working with P.J. Guinan and Terry Reilly;

á Donna Stoddard just received funding to do work on e-knowledge.

Mike Fetters made the following announcements:Ê Professor Larry Smith is recovering from his recent heart attack and is doing well.Ê Mike will not be able to attend the November Faculty Meeting because of travel plans to Bright China Management Institute in China.

College Calendar Concerns ö Professor J.P. JeannetÊ Ê

Professor Jeannet presented 3 starting principles/recommendations the Babson faculty would like to have considered concerning future scheduling of the college academic calendar:

1. The undergraduate and graduate school calendars should be merged into one calendar, effective September 2001.

2. The facultyâs time should be considered more strongly in the future than it has in the past;

3. A 3-year cycle should be presented so that faculty can plan their schedules more effectively.

After discussion of the issues of the various programs and the need for flexibility, a vote on each of the individual recommendations was taken.Ê It was unanimously approved to support items #2 and #3 for further consideration.Ê The motion to merge the undergraduate and graduate calendars, item #1, was not supported by the faculty.

Faculty Discussion: The Babson Advertising Campaign ö Lee Higdon

President Higdon acknowledged that many members/stakeholders of the Babson community do not feel that the new advertising campaign represents Babson in the best light.Ê He indicated that Richard Voos, Director of Planning, will provide some important background information on the process and explain how the Mullen Advertising Company was selected. ÊRichard will also share the results of the campaign, which are mixed.Ê The goal of this advertising campaign was to promote and invest our unique brand in an increasingly competitive marketplace.Ê President Higdon stressed the importance of the entire Babson community feeling committed and involved in the process; the next challenge will be to revise the current design.

Richard Voos told faculty that, for the most part, there has been universal approval of the concept of the Babson Moments, and the tag lines Always Thinking, and the most innovative, integrated, entrepreneurial business school in the world.Ê Some people think the ads are funny, even interesting; there have been positive reactions to the 3 print ads, which ran in U.S. News and World Report and Business Week, and the 3 television commercials.Ê On the other hand, we have received very clear feedback about what people feel is objectionable.Ê The ads were aimed at prospective students ö two of them specifically to prospective undergraduate students.Ê The focus was to drive people to the Internet by using television commercials and the numbers show that in this regard the ads were a success; on an average over 300 persons visited the Always Thinking web site daily in the last few weeks.Ê

A comment was made that however successful the ads were in attracting people to our web page, many people still have an issue with the content of the ads and the way Babson was portrayed.Ê Lee Higdon reiterated that, regardless of the results, we need to deal with the negative feelings about the use of television advertising and about some of the specific advertisements.

Richard Voos explained that the decision to increase advertising was made after looking at the last 5 years, i.e., the flatness of the numbers of inquirers, the changing competitive environment and the need to promote the college more effectively.Ê A great deal of research was conducted about the market trends and after a bidding process, Mullen, the largest ad agency in New England was chosen.Ê Substantial data was provided to them; Mullen also conducted extensive in-house research and looked closely at business trends in the new economy.Ê They came to the following advertising positioning statements: adaptability breeds success; and Babson is the school that equips students with the creative, adaptive skills to thrive in the new economy.Ê It was felt that this position and these concepts and the tag lines leverage our strengths and enable us to differentiate ourselves from the competition.Ê After a major meeting of the task force, Mullen came back with the ad campaign that you have seen and we signed off on the final execution.ÊÊ

Richard Voos indicated that we will continue to advertise; no question there will be a need for more input sooner from the various stakeholders in the community.Ê

A great deal of discussion ensued regarding the concept of the Babson Moment and how advertising could better portray the value of the educational experience.Ê A comment was made regarding the difficulty of significantly differentiating ourselves from the competition, while at the same time, appealing to the various target audiences, i.e., prospective MBAs vs. prospective undergraduates.ÊÊ

Professor Allan Cohen praised the advertising committee for the work they have done, and reminded everyone how difficult a task it is to find exactly the right message upon which we can all agree.ÊÊÊ

An appeal was made to increase funding in order to improve the various web sites. It was agreed that the Babson web page was vastly improved.Ê Mike Fetters agreed that some of the divisions need help with getting their websites developed and progress is being made to that end.Ê

The meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.