The provost set a goal to improve the student-faculty ratio from 14.7 to 1, to 13 to 1 at Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting.Provost Nowell Donovan said TCU must hire 59 new faculty to meet this goal.

In the past three years, 41 new faculty positions have been created, Donovan said.

Donovan emphasized to the group of about 40 faculty members the importance of forming one-on-one relationships with students and what it means to teach leadership.

“Every Frog that hops out of here has to really count,” Donovan said. “Students must know when and how to lead.”

The proposal from the Honors Program to transition to an honors college was also highlighted in the meeting.

While it has not been officially decided wether the honors college will be created, Donovan said, it would be established in the Student Center in fall 2009.

Peggy Watson, director of the Honors Program, said the honors college would provide more support and better advising for honors students.

Donovan said having an honors college is predicted to improve the status of the university.

He also said he wants TCU to be “internationalized.”

By 2012, he said, he hopes 100 percent of students have some kind of international experience before they graduate and wants at least 55 percent involved in the study abroad program.

Donovan concluded the meeting with an announcement of a provost forum in the Student Center Ballroom at 3 p.m. Monday, where 300 students are expected to attend and participate in round-table discussions about the implementation of the plus/minus system.