Stanford trustees celebrate McMurtry Building, hear presentations on a variety of topics
At its recent meeting, the Stanford University Board of Trustees toured the new McMurtry Building for the Department of Art & Art History, heard presentations from university leaders, approved the design of the Bass Biology Building, and approved construction plans to build a new conference center and to renovate a graduate housing complex.
The Board of Trustees' meeting included the dedication of the McMurtry Building for the Department of Art & Art History.
At its Oct. 5-6 meeting, the Stanford Board of Trustees discussed a range of matters from the search for a new president, to the OpenXChange initiative and the Campus Climate Survey. Trustees also approved construction projects and celebrated the opening of the university's newest facility – the McMurtry Building.
Steven A. Denning, chair of the Board of Trustees, said the highlight of the two-day meeting was the dedication of the McMurtry Building for the Department of Art & Art History, the third building the board has dedicated in Stanford's new arts district in the last three years.
Also at the meeting, trustees heard a presentation on the results of Stanford's campus climate survey, which showed that Stanford has much more work to do in battling sexual assault and misconduct on campus.
Denning said the board fully supports the steps university leaders are taking to address those critically important issues through education, response, support and adjudication.
"We need to improve our culture in that regard," he said.
Trustees also heard a presentation on the launch of the university's OpenXChange initiative from Harry J. Elam Jr., vice provost for undergraduate education, and the Rev. Jane Shaw, dean for religious studies.
The board received an update on the global search for a successor to President John Hennessy from Trustee Isaac Stein, who is the chair of the Presidential Search Committee. Hennessy, who became president in 2000, plans to step down in summer 2016 after more than 15 years serving the university.
Denning encouraged members of the Stanford community to provide feedback to the committee through the website, which invites faculty, staff, students and alumni to provide comments on Stanford's key opportunities and challenges, and to suggest presidential attributes and names of prospective candidates.
Denning said the 19-member committee, which is conducting a highly confidential search, expects to receive hundreds of nominations. He described its work as a "collaborative community process" with broad membership from the entire Stanford community, including trustees, faculty, students, staff and alumni.
Ultimately, Denning said, the committee will recommend a single candidate to the Board of Trustees for its approval.
Trustees also heard a presentation from Persis Drell, who became dean of the School of Engineering in September 2014.
Drell, a professor of physics at Stanford and the former director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, gave trustees an update on the ongoing faculty-led evaluation and assessment of the school, which has nine departments, and the Institute for Mathematical and Computational Engineering (ICME), which is housed in the school.
Denning said the Engineering School is considering the best way to collaborate with Stanford's six other schools and the entire university to address complex global problems. He said ICME, which is a center of collaboration for computational research on campus, is well positioned to play a key role in that mission.
The trustees approved the design of the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Biology Research Building, which will provide laboratory space for about half of the department's faculty, staff and technicians when it opens in late 2018.
It is the third step in the board's approval process for the Bass Biology Research Building, which will become part of a future quadrangle of biology, chemistry and computer sciences buildings. The project is expected to return to the board for construction approval in June 2016.
The board gave construction approval – the final step in the process – to the new David and Joan Traitel Building, formerly known as the Hoover Institution Conference Center and Office Building.
Trustees also gave construction approval for the renovation of Rains Houses, a complex of 32 buildings that currently house 780 graduate students.
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