While Cornell squeezes its brains to “reimagine” itself in the face of a $135 million deficit, President David Skorton and Provost Kent Fuchs tried to tap into the minds of the Cornell faculty members in an open forum yesterday afternoon.

The decisions made under the overarching banner of Reimagining Cornell — touted as “one of the most comprehensive self-examinations in its 144-year history” — will have an impact on the structure of colleges, Fuchs told about 150 faculty members at Kennedy Hall's Call Auditorium yesterday.

The two decision-makers, however, repeatedly stressed that Cornell's “core values,” such as academics and research, will be staunchly defended. The University aims “to be more academically excellent but with less resources,” Fuchs said.

Skorton said the “almost overwhelming” strategic planning will take into consideration which components and institutional values are critical, what Cornell is prepared to lose, and what positive attributes, other than a smaller budget, could emerge from the restructuring effort.

“Forgive me for saying this, but there are things we could do better,” Skorton said.

He also stressed that the project’s goal is not entirely balance-sheet oriented. Rather, “Reimagining Cornell” is an effort to return financial flexibility to the University to allow faculty to, once again, “reach for high aspirations” without worrying that fulfilling their needs will result in a budget cut elsewhere at Cornell.

Following a presentation on the University’s financial developments that led to the creation of this project, Skorton and Fuchs responded to faculty members’ questions, many of which expressed concerns about morale amongst employees.

One faculty member said that Cornell is “significantly less collegial than 20 years ago” and “hopes the collegiality doesn’t get lost in times of stress.” Former Dean of Faculty Charlie Walcott also publicly voiced his concern about the cutting of support staff and stressed the need for more teamwork between faculty member and support staff.

While Cornell is still advertising open positions, the pace of faculty hiring is only a third of what it was a year ago. During the question-and-answer session, Prof. Jonathan Culler, English and comparative literature, described how the lack of hiring translated into anxiety among younger faculty members at Cornell, who are worried about their future at this institution because leaders at peer institution show resistance in trimming faculty size. For example, Yale publically stated it would be “imprudent” to decrease overall faculty size last Friday, according to The Harvard Crimson.

In response to Culler’s concern on faculty morale, Fuchs stressed that the hiring freeze is only temporary, and Skorton pointed out that Reimagining Cornell could indirectly revive the momentum in hiring.

“The purpose of this strategic planning is to return flexibility to the provost, so faculty hiring can [go on in the future] and other initiatives can be pursued,” Skorton said.

Recalling his conversations with deans, Fuchs said he suspected that some areas need more faculty members while others have too many.

“Not all areas should grow. There are some that should stay the same or grow ... There are some that should shrink,” Fuchs said of department sizes.

In the spotlight: President David Skorton speaks to faculty at a “Reimagining Cornell” forum yesterday in Call Auditorium. Faculty expressed concerns that the University’s latest strategic planning initiative would hurt morale.

Throughout the 90-minute forum, Skorton and Fuchs both repeatedly said that Cornell’s administration has room for streamlining. Responding to a question on his powerpoint presentation, “is Cornell more complex than it needs to be to achieve its core mission?” Fuchs said: “I think it is in some respects, especially on the administrative side.”

In answer to the request of Prof. Tarleton Gillespie, communications, for an update on Cornell’s financial situation, Skorton and Fuchs announced that although the endowment was predicted to shrink by another 5 percent this year, the actual change is smaller. The goal to cut $215 million by 2014 was based on a financial model which “can be very imprecise,” and Fuchs said he is more “worried about making too many cuts than too [few].”

While October will be an important month as it marks the deadline for task force reports and Bain & Co. recommendations, the final decisions will be made in December. According to Skorton, the financial situation at Cornell is “set for now”, and there should be no cuts for the rest of this year. However, by July next year, there will be specific plans to save $135 million.

Transparency was also one of the main issues addressed at the forum, where Skorton read aloud excerpts of an unattributed e-mail that stated “there is a perception of secrecy.” Throughout the forum, which was broadcasted live online, the two top administrators reiterated the importance of faculty participation in the strategic planning process. Several audience members praised the administration’s efforts to maintain transparency.

“I thought the presentation was excellent,” said Ajay Garg, visiting scientist at Cornell Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization. “There is complete transparency in the process, and [Reimagining Cornell] will have positive impacts on the success of Cornell.”

“I thought the audience was very thoughtful and serious,” said Prof. William Fry, plant pathology and Dean of Faculty, who made introductory remarks at the beginning of the forum. “There will be changes made on a scale that we have not seen in my long time here. It’s just a hugely important time in the history of the University and the future of the University.”

“One of my concerns is that the size of the faculty will shrink, and I hope that doesn’t happen. Faculty morale [is another major concern of mine] as well,” Fry added. “I’m interested to see what direction the University might choose to make Cornell a stronger place which we all can be proud of.”

As for the outside consultants hired by the university to provide suggestions through this process, Bain & Co., Fuchs stressed once again that they are here to make suggestions, not decisions, and none of their suggestions will be in the areas of scholarship, research and education.

“I’ve been on the cover [of the Sun] about half the days of the past month,” he said. “Don’t trust everything you read,” he pleaded.