He has named Sean Sullivan, previously associate provost for resource management, as vice provost for academic information systems and planning. Sullivan will direct the new Office of Academic Information and Planning, which will include the Office of Institutional Analysis.

Elmira Mangum-Daniel, previously assistant provost for resource management, has been appointed associate provost for resource management, assuming responsibilities for budgets and financial plans previously held by Sullivan. Mangum-Daniel will be the contact person for budgeting and financial issues for the academic units.

Sullivan will coordinate all university-wide, long-range planning and management activities; build an academic management information system, and design a long-range, budget-planning strategy using responsibility-centered management (RCM). He will continue to oversee facilities and educational-technology matters.

Headrick said he will appoint an advisory committee to assist Sullivan in developing information systems and performance measures.

Headrick noted that the academic-planning effort of the past 18 months, the efforts of the dean of the Graduate School to develop more coherent oversight and direction for graduate education and the exploration of new budgeting systems, such as RCM, all "have accentuated the costs of the fragmented, incomplete and unintegrated information systems with which we have worked."

Moreover, growing demands for accountability "make it imperative that the university develop performance expectations and measurements and routinely assess and evaluate our progress," he said.

The reorganization, Headrick said, will enable the Provost's Office "to focus more attention on the information needed to make critical decisions, manage our academic programs and measure our performance. This is a crucial initiative.

"Without a functioning information system and performance measures attuned to our mission and goals, this university will be hampered in its efforts to develop and improve."