日期: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 08:36:17 -0400
发件人: "LSE" <alumni@lse.ac.uk>
主题: LSE Director's Newsletter to Alumni - April 2008
收件人: "LSE Alumni" <xukeyeh@yahoo.com>
I have recently adopted the practice of sending alumni a brief update on events at the School, which I hope you find of interest. This latest note reports on the Lent Term 2008, which has just finished.
New Chairman
Peter Sutherland is now in place as our new chairman. Tony Grabiner stepped down at Christmas after nine years. So far the transition has been very smooth, and Peter has made himself available for quite a number of School events in addition to the formal meetings of the Council. He will be attending our next Asia Forum in Singapore this month. I am sure many of you will have an opportunity to meet him over the coming years.
Events
It has been a very lively year so far, with a wide range of events on campus. Visiting speakers have included Mohammad Yunus, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Joe Stiglitz, Leon Brittan, Maurice Saatchi, Valdas Adamkus the President of Lithuania and Mike Mukasey the US Attorney General. In the next week we have the President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, and the new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It seems that no official visit to the UK is complete these days without a speech at LSE. Only Nicolas Sarkozy resisted our blandishments, preferring to go to Arsenal’s new stadium instead, hosted by Arsène Wenger. Until we appoint a French Director, we can’t compete.
Sadly, we also put on two valedictory lectures by Professor Fred Halliday, who is retiring from his position here at the end of this academic year. Fred has a new research position in Barcelona, though he will be back here from time to time. We shall miss him.
Buildings
It always amazes me that so many events, both School and student run, manage to take place in our congested premises. Fortunately, significant improvements are now in prospect. The New Academic Building on Lincoln’s Inn Fields is proceeding well and should be fully open for the next academic year. It is a £70 million project which will significantly increase the number of large spaces we have available, as well as providing a new home for staff in the Law and Management Departments. We have greatly benefited from close to £10 million of donations to the project, much of it from alumni. Over the summer we will also be carrying out a major refurbishment of the fourth floor of the Old Building – the Brunch Bowl and the Beavers Retreat, which will produce much better quality space than we currently have. There are a number of other minor projects under way as well, as we continue to invest significantly in the campus.
Campaign for LSE
The Campaign for LSE, launched under my predecessor, targeted £100 million of donations. Thanks to the support of alumni and friends, we have now achieved that target and, on 10 March, we held a celebration dinner to thank donors and volunteers for their support. It was a splendid occasion in Middle Temple Hall. We showed a video of tributes from many donors who explain why they have thought it worthwhile to give us money over the years, including a number of alumni from the UK and overseas.
That will be useful as we move forward. Because although we have achieved the £100 million target, we certainly have absolutely no intention of letting up. Fundraising has become a way of life for all universities, and it is crucial that we continue to build financial support for students, to invest in our facilities and to seek funding for new faculty and new research programmes. Mary Blair will be retiring as director of development and alumni relations around the end of this year, when the new building has been opened, and we have already begun the search for her replacement. Our recent fundraising record has been very good but the challenge will be to maintain that success on a continuing basis.
Alumni Relations
As many of you will already know, we have appointed a new head of alumni relations to replace Matthew Horton, who left at the end of last year. She is Charlotte Armah who joined us from Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) where she has been membership relations manager since 2001. I am sure you will enjoy interacting with her in the future. She has hit the ground running.
Research
You may also be interested to know about some exciting new research initiatives underway in the School. From time to time the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council holds competitions for universities to host research centres on important and topical issues. This year we have won with two bids, a dramatic outcome given the very small number of centres awarded across the country as a whole. We will be hosting a new Centre on Spatial Economics, looking at the way in which economic growth is promoted and encouraged on a regional basis. And we have been awarded a significant sum to establish a new Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. We have strong hopes of being able to supplement the government’s financial support with some investments from private donors. It is our ambition to be the leading European centre in the Economics of Climate Change in the coming years and I am confident that we are now very well placed to achieve that, under the leadership of Nick Stern.
Awards
You may have seen that John Ashworth, my predecessor but one, was knighted in the New Year Honours List and Professor David Metcalf was awarded the CBE. Lynne Brindley, Jean Sykes’ predecessor as Librarian, is now a Dame. We congratulate all of them.
Student Support
A couple of years ago the government introduced a new fee regime for domestic students, which increased the headline fee, but also required universities to expand their bursary provision, using part of the additional income. There is a new government regulator called the Office of Fair Access which monitors universities’ performance. They recently published a league table which showed that some universities have not, in fact, made available all the additional financial support they promised. I am pleased to say that LSE has done so, indeed we have spent rather more than expected both on student support and on widening participation programmes.
We have also just been awarded a significant additional grant from the Sutton Trust and The Goldman Sachs Foundation to support the LSE Choice programme. This brings year 10 and 11 students from schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in London into LSE for classes and mentoring. It has proven successful in raising the aspirations of talented young people, and enabling them to fulfill their educational potential in higher education.
Student Politics
You may have seen in the press that the LSE Students’ Union passed a motion calling for the School to ‘divest’ from Israel and companies investing or trading there. An earlier motion, describing Israel as an ‘apartheid state’, failed.
The School, as you would expect, has no institutional political position on the Middle East, and we have explained that we are not committed in any way by this motion, just as we rejected calls for an academic boycott last year. We do not plan to implement a policy of divestment, though the Council’s investment committee is looking to develop a Socially Responsible Investment Strategy.
Sabbatical
As you may have seen, I asked for a short sabbatical at the time I agreed another five year term here as your Director, and the Council agreed. I will be taking some time off in the summer term, to work on a new book. In fact I will still be carrying out a number of School functions such as graduations, chairing the Academic Board etc, but the three pro-directors will be in the front line for most purposes. I am sure the School will run very smoothly in their capable hands.
Howard Davies
Director
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