Strategy III
Invest selectively in academic programs, faculty and staff,
to ensure growth with excellence.
The stature of a university is defined in terms of the quality of its
faculty. To create access with excellence, it is essential that faculty
be recruited who will contribute to our teaching needs and also enhance
the quality of our academic programs through inquiry. The problem is,
under constrained resources, we cannot expect to provide the highest level
of excellence in all that we do. The strategy of selective investment
attempts to both meet the instructional needs of a growing student
population and retain national leadership in selected fields. This is a
very difficult and even contentious strategy to implement. There will be
no substitute for strong academic leadership, and wise faculty
participation. We offer several beginning recommendations.
Recommendations
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Growth of academic units should be selective; not all disciplines and
programs can or should expand proportionally. Emphasis should be placed
on both instructional need and academic excellence. Resources should be
targeted to academic fields where the University has a competitive
advantage, identified excellence, or the potential for developing
excellence through growth.
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Resources should follow students. Units that grow, through increased
service loads or more majors, should be provided with the resources
necessary to provide access and maintain quality education. Under a
strategy in which growth favors academic excellence, this second
recommendation provides balance in the distribution of resources to ensure
that departments growing by student demand are not driven academically
downward.
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Implement routine procedures for the measurement and reporting of
accountability as part of the fabric for all University personnel and
programs. Such procedures are essential to selective growth for excellence
as well our public responsibility for accountability.
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Encourage broad participation within and across academic units in
planning for growth, including the possibility of a competitive process
of
applications for growth in faculty positions. Not all academic units
should or need to expand. To maintain quality, faculty must evaluate the
costs and benefits of growth in their own and related units. We also
recognize that some units in the University, may actually be reduced in
size so resources can be reallocated to insure quality in units undergoing
growth.
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Balance growth to avoid discontinuities in program development. Two
problems that must be kept controlled:
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Growth in lower division undergraduate programs should not artificially drive
the growth in graduate enrollment as a means of providing teaching
assistants.
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Growth in courses that provide general proficiencies such as mathematics,
laboratory experiences, or lower division prerequisites, should not unduly
drive faculty appointments. Other solutions to these problems should be
sought, perhaps through flexibility in teaching assignments.
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Create flexibility in allocation of teaching assignments among
faculty.
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Allow qualified graduate students in one department to compete for teaching
appointments in other departments.
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Allow qualified faculty in undersubscribed disciplines to teach basic
courses in oversubscribed departments.
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Provide positive incentives for faculty to invest in teaching.
