Next steps in process for planning document

In addition to the creation of a College of Arts and Sciences, Provost Thomas E. Headrick has outlined several "next steps" to be taken in the coming year to implement his academic planning document. They are:

- The formation this fall of a committee or task force to examine the issues surrounding the creation of interdisciplinary centers and institutes, some of which were raised by faculty at meetings held last semester to discuss the academic plan.

The panel will address such topics as the procedures used to form the groups and through which they will secure support, the relationship between commitment to educational programs and research activities, the roles of departments and centers regarding claims on faculty time, and the means of appointing, promoting and tenuring members of departments and interdisciplinary groups.

- A reorganization of the Office of the Provost to better handle academic information systems and planning.

"We hope to upgrade the quality of information and also make a change in the ways in which the various kinds of academic information have been used in the past," Headrick said.

He said this step flows out of the planning report and some "quite legitimate concerns" expressed by faculty and staff about the quality of information the university has about its academic programs.

The reorganization "will enable us to focus much more attention on the information we need in order to make critical decisions, to manage our academic programs, to assess and evaluate those programs on a regular basis and to measure our performance as an academic and research institution," he said.

- Encouragement of more long-range planning among schools and departments. While some units have responded "quite fully" to Headrick's "invitation" to examine where they are and develop longer-term plans, he said others have not. "We've got to bring people who haven't responded into this process in a more direct way," the provost noted.

Sue Wuetcher, News Services Associate Director