Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 6

GA UR HEACHIHG FQH THE TOP DEMOCRAT ANO CHRONICLE. ROCHESTER. N.Y.. SATURDAY. APRIL 19.

1986 Tho University of Rochester si a glance Faculty salaries Here's how UR's average faculty compensation compared to the number-one ranked schools. Endowment The university's endowment ranks within the Top 10. In millions $2,486 Harvard University $2,273 University of Texas System Princeton University $1,283 Yale University $1,061 Vital statistics Enrollment: 4,575 undergraduates; 1,845 graduate students. Faculty: 1,100 full-time professors: 90 percent hold doctoral degrees. 7 Tuition: $10,330 for 1985-87 $9,600, Eastman School; $10,500, Graduate School of Management; $14,600, Medical School); estimated total annual costs: $16,000.

About 80 percent of the undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. 1 'i Student fife: 85 percent live on campus '17 fraternfties, 4 sororities. Sport: 1 1 varsity men's teams, 11 varsity women's teams and more than 30 intramural and club sports. Campuses: River, University Medical Center, South (research) and Eastman. University schools: Arts and Science; Engineering and Applied Science; Graduate School of Education and Human Development; Graduate School of Management; Eastman School of Music; School of Nursing; School ot Medicine and Dentistry.

,.0 Stanford University $944 Year School Salary (in Rank thousands) 1980- 81 Berkeley $42.6 1 University ol Rochester 31.1 37 1981- 82 Cal Tech 48.9 1 University of Rochester 34.5 38 1982- 83 Cal Tech 51.3 1 University of Rochester 38.5 30 1983- 84 Cal Tech 53.3 1 University of Rochester 38.5 30 1983- 84 CalTech 55.8 1 I University of Rochester 41.5 26 1984- 85 Stanford 61.4 1 University of Rochester 44.9 26 1935-83 University of Rochester 48.1 NX Source ol dalt American Association ot Umersily Prohxsora Columbia University $as5 $845 Massachusetts Institute of Technology $568 University of Rochester University of California $559 $517 University of Chicago Source ol data Dtreclorv ol Hiqhei Education MOds Prepsa arSir ideas mm i ummiuijii iwyiuun njnnMninwi piawiw mum AJi JW By Mary Holleran, Erik Gunn end Jim Myers Democrat and Chronicle The five-year plan that the University of Rochester's Board of Trustees approved yesterday builds on proposals aired earlier this year to restructure the university's curriculum. The plan calls for a significant infusion of money, both from the university's endowment and from a major fund-raising campaign. That money is to enrich faculty salaries and research and pay for major renovations, expansion and new facilities. Following are details of the plan. Endowment The university plans a major fund-raising campaign, which President G.

Dennis O'Brien said would seek "a lot more" than the university's last major drive. About $108 million was raised from 1975 to 1980. More immediately, the trustees yesterday approved a plan to pump an extra $50 million from its endowment earnings into the university over the next five years. The endowment is worth $581 million and ranks eighth in the nation. Robert France, vice president for planning and budget, said the plan calls for spending 7'j percent of the endowment's market value instead of the current 5 percent The university is projecting that the $31.6 million of endowment money spent in this year's $195 million budget will rise to $50 million by 1991.

That's a very aggressive use of endowment," France said. "You have to be careful that you do not rob the future for the present" France said the university's endowment is invested primarily in venture-capital securities, which yield low dividends but increase sharply in value. The total rate of return of those investments the sum of the dividends and the increases in capital value is being projected at about 12 percent a year on the average, France said. Thus, with 7'2 percent going into the university's operating budget, the plan counts on inflation staying under 4'2 percent over the long term. Salaries Some of the endowment will be used to raise faculty salaries to compete with those offered for the top-ranked scholars in various disciplines nationwide.

"We have to compete for our national leadership faculty," O'Brien said. "We recruit very good faculty, we develop them well, then they become national scholars and then somebody comes and says come to wherever." Faculty salaries will not increase across the board. O'Brien said that while he is concerned about keeping its nationally recognized faculty members, it is the professors who are not new but not yet top scholars whose salaries need boosting. Programs "Rochester should truly be an intellectual community, not a collection of specialty shops," O'Brien said. His plan to start new and unique kinds of education programs is aimed at breaking down educational barriers between graduate and undergraduate students and give them opportunities to share their educational interests as well as experiences outside school.

They include: Take Five a tuition-free fifth year of school for selected undergraduates. University Centers, linking faculty and students from various disciplines to study critical problems and new areas of research. The Rochester Conference, a week set aside for multiple conferences involving the entire university community and city residents. University Day, an afternoon each week when regular class schedules will be suspended so that faculty, students and staff can regroup for short-term courses or half -day seminars or lectures. These changes in the academic calendar could make room for participation courses involving off-campus groups and individuals, and for residential courses involving a social or civic group of students taking a course together.

Tuition Tuition increases lie ahead, said O'Brien a statement that brought hisses from students who attended his speech at Strong Auditorium. "Tuition at the University of Rochester constitutes only 27.4 percent of the university's income. In a sense, the rest of the product, 72.6 percent, is delivered free. Tuitions contribute not a dime to the Laser Lab, but 50 undergraduates study there each year," he said. Tuition for most students next year will be $10,330, an increase of $930.

Average room and board costs for undergraduate students will be $4,325, or $548 more than this year. Tuition will be $9,600 for Eastman School of Music students; $10,500 for Graduate School of Managment students; and $14,600 for Medical School students. Facilities Some of the plans for renovation and new construction of university buildings are well under way. Others are just on a "wish said Roger Lathan, vice president for university relations. Immediate projects, many of which have been previously announced, include: A new computer science engineering laboratory, already under construction.

The $15 million Sibley Music Library building on East Main between Gibbs and Chestnut streets, next to the Eastman School of Music. Lathan and George Angle, vice president for public affairs, said financing for the project, to be built by Wilmorite is still being worked out with the city of Rochester, and that groundbreaking could begin by next fall. Renovating the hockey rink in Genesee Valley Park on the west bank of the river near Elmwood Bridge, adding 1,500 seats and enclosing it It would then be shared by the community and the university. The UR and the city would split the cost, pegged at $1.5 million to $2 million. Plans are to finish the rink by the fall.

New dormitories for Eastman School of Music students. The current dorms, which house 425 and are at Prince Street and University Avenue, "badly need updating of their mechanical and utility systems," Angle said. Such a project would cost about $10 million. Angle said the university is leaning toward building new dorms for the same price or a little more. Expansion of the Institute for Optics.

"The whole field of optics is burgeoning," Lathan said. "Our graduates are in enormous demand." Continued pursuit of the university's plan to close off Wilson Boulevard and landscape the east bank of the Genesee River as part of the extensive river corridor development project. That plan also calls for a footbridge to the west bank and possibly a development of stores and restaurants and other businesses catering to the student market. Athletics UR has joined other research universities in plans to form a new athletic association that will be national in scope but committed to the Division III philosophy of sports. There are six potential members and two others still mulling it over, O'Brien said.

Already publicly mentioned as potential members of the conference, besides UR, are Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. "They're all like us," O'Brien said, explaining that they are professional schools that offer doctoral degrees and are in major cities. A joint announcement about the new athletic association will be made in mid-June, he said. John A.

Reeves, UR director of sports and recreation, said the new association, which could eventually include 10 or more schools, will take UR teams into major cities in the country. He said that will aid in the recruitment of students and student-athletes and in contact with UR alumni. "I think it will be great for the city of Rochester as well," he said, "because it will mean a lot of interface with schools around the country." Research A new position, vice president for research, will be established "to give the highest level of attention to this essential source of income," O'Brien said. About $90 million is received each year to support research in medicine, the sciences and humanities. That is the largest single source of revenue for the university, accounting for 37.8 percent of the total.

O'Brien said he has narrowed to three the number of people being considered for the post and will make an announcement before the end of the school year. The vice president of research is "not going to be a salesperson but someone to energize the faculty," O'Brien said. Also, an "opportunity fund," which could reach $1 million, will be set aside as seed money for some research projects and to continue existing projects when outside money is temporarily unavailable. it "ft ilfi i a I 'H ill')! 'I 1 1 4 'i i 4 -t Dwmia R. Floaa Democrat and Chronicle University of Rochester President G.

Dennis O'Brien cheered by students after saying UR will stay UR. O'Brien: blend of philosopher, administrator By Andy Pollack Democrat and Chronicle George Dennis O'Brien is a man who merges the broad perspective of a wry philosopher with the practical skills of an administrator trying to lead his university forward in a competitive, ever-changing world. O'Brien, who began his tenure as the University of Rochester's eighth president on July 1, 1984, champions the importance of a liberal education that challenges a student's intellect and values. To emphasize his concern for the classroom, he has continued to teach philosophy courses. O'Brien, an engaging, witty man comfortable in the public eye, has tried to shape a unified image for the university on campus and off and meld its various strengths from music to medicine into an academic whole.

As he said yesterday, the University of Rochester "should truly be an intellectual community, not a collection of specialty shops." In that effort, O'Brien has encouraged students to delve into the complex world outside the campus. And he has won praise from neighborhood leaders who say he has effectively prodded the university to become a more active participant in the Rochester community. O'Brien, 55, joined the UR from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, where he had been president and a professor of philosophy since July 1976. He graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1952 with an English degree and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1961.

He taught philosophy at Princeton University from 1958 to 1965, when he joined the Middlebury (Vt.) College staff as an associate professor in 1965. He later became dean of the faculty before leaving to become president of Bucknell. O'Brien launches his first big push to earn recognition for the school "Do we want to be like the Ivies?" O'Brien asked himself, referring to the prestigious Ivy League schools. "We have very great strengths in professional and graduate education. I think it would be a mistake for us to try to imitate the sort of old conservative style of the Ivies," which tend to focus primarily on undergraduate education, he said.

The plan's overall goal of pushing the university into the top 1 percent of all colleges and universities will depend on an unknown factor the ranking system. He said UR will know when it's near the top when educational leaders mention its name in the same breath with national universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale. sion outlined by O'Brien in his inaugural address and the early months of his administration, in which he said he hoped to cultivate an all-encompassing intellectual environment that would give students a fuller appreciation of the value of education. Many items outlined in the plan related to athletics, performing arts, retail centers and curricular plans are "subtle, but very important, ways to make the years at the University of Rochester better and more fulfilling." In developing this plan, O'Brien said it was necessary to decide what kind of image the university wanted to reflect and how to best gain national recognition of its programs and faculty. "We have done very well in the construction of a very powerful academic institution, and that's the fundamentals.

Now we have to add on, make all that machinery really work." That "adding on" includes boosting faculty salaries to make them competitive with other universities and industry, and continuing excellent research. For students, this means new, unique educational programs such as University Day, which will give undergraduates a chance to discuss research with graduate students and faculty in various areas. There will be participation courses that will involve members of the business, legal and service communities. These ideas are consistent with the vi carry that message to your potential publics," O'Brien said. He also said the university needed "a signature" to distinguish it from other institutions of higher learning.

And he believes the plans he and other university officials have worked on for the last 19 months will be a good start. But, O'Brien said in an interview yesterday, "I'm not absolutely sure everything will come off as planned. "Universities go through cycles of development. And in my judgment, we're at a cycle of development when we want to look at certain areas we have not emphasized as much in the past. One is undergraduate education and another is the Rochester community.

By Mary Holleran Democrat and Chronicle Yesterday's announcement of an aggressive five-year plan to enhance the University of Rochester's prestige marks the first major push by President G. Dennis O'Brien to earn national recognition for the school. Even before his inauguration in October 1984, O'Brien expressed his concern over the school's image. His friends who were not familiar with the university's educational stature "thought it was a branch of the SUNY system, a low-priced institution with an OK, but not excellent, faculty." "Those perceptions are quite wrong, obviously. The problem is how do you i.