The prospect of implementing a life sciences institute at the University was the topic of discussion when faculty members from the College of Literature, Science and the Arts gathered yesterday with University President Lee Bollinger and Provost Nancy Cantor.
Many faculty members expressed excitement toward the project and toward the promising advancements related to their fields. But others seemed to question from where funding for the project money would come and the role that existing departments and faculty would play in the institute.
Yesterday's discussion follows a report that the Life Sciences Commission released in February outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the University in areas concerning life sciences. The report also made specific recommendations regarding programs and structure of the institution.
Bollinger said he would most likely have a proposal ready for the University Board of Regents next month, and he speculated that life sciences could have its own curriculum and faculty appointments within three years - costing the University $200 to $300 million.
"As a University we aspire to be at the top of every major area of research and teaching we engage in," Bollinger said, adding that the University has strengths in areas relating to life sciences, but this institution would help make the University one of the leaders in the field.
Interdisciplinary work would be the basis for the life sciences institution, joining together various social sciences, humanities, law, business, physics and biology.
"We don't want to create an institution that is by itself isolated," Cantor said. Joint faculty appointments are an example of how the University already utilizes methods to make life sciences a reality, she said
The life sciences institution may have effects beyond enhancing the current connections between different disciplines.
"This may have an effect on our imaginations like physics has had on art and literature," Bollinger said.
Cantor said there is a ripple effect for an interdisciplinary program like life sciences. Many others at the University will be invigorated to do new work, she said.
Executive Vice President for Research Fawwaz Ulaby said the institution is timely, focused and right for the University.
"Biology and chemistry is where it's going to be for the next 20 to 25 years," Ulaby said. "This is where we should put our energy."
Biophysics Prof. Daniel Axelrod commented that the program seems more like regrouping interdisciplinary groups than a new institution.
He asked how the life sciences would affect existing interdisciplinary groups and also noted that life sciences relied on existing professors that already involve themselves in a diversity of activities.
"There's very little time for intellectual activity," Axelrod said.
Cantor noted that most of the programs the life sciences encompasses already had crossed her desk in the form of proposals from current faculty members. She said this reassured her notion that combining resources from existing departments and faculty members will be easy.
Undergraduate education also was a concern of many attending yesterday's discussion.
"There is a core group of undergraduates who are excited about this," LSA first-year student Ben Singer said, adding that students might be weary of devoting time to a risky field of study before they even think about graduate school.
Cantor discussed creating a "vertical integration" between undergraduate and graduate education that would help bridge the gap.
Information Prof. Paul Edwards said the life sciences report seemed to focus too much on molecular biology and its benefits on health care.
"We are at the top of the learning curve," Edwards said, explaining that the research to follow would target diseases involving a smaller population than the one mentioned in the report.
The University is attempting to share knowledge with Michigan State University and Wayne State University. The forum for interaction would be called the "research corridor." Funding is expected to come partly from money acquired by the State of Michigan through recent settlements with the tobacco industry, pending Gov. John Engler's approval.
But Engler hopes to use the money for higher education scholarships.
"There would be substantial money left over for this proposal," Bollinger said, adding that there are private donors who would support life sciences but not other aspects of University research. The "research corridor" would require $50 million a year from the state government, Bollinger said.
Bollinger said the University should be working with other institutions to etch out areas of common interest.
Ulaby said the "research corridor" would strengthen working teams and curb competition for state research money.
"The pal system is better for each of these parts than if each was alone," Bollinger said.
04-09-99
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