In the few weeks since campus leaders submitted the three-year Strategic Plan to U. of I. President Bob Easter, strategy already has given way to measurable action.
Several initiatives have started to meet the plan’s four overarching goals: fostering scholarship, discovery and innovation; providing transformative learning experiences; making a significant and visible societal impact; and resource stewardship and strategic investment.
“We’re moving forward strategically and as quickly as possible because it’s imperative this plan doesn’t sit idle on a shelf,” said Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise. “It will serve as our guide as we face the challenges that the future is already presenting to us.”
Stig Lanesskog, the associate provost for strategic planning and assessment, said the plan is being implemented at various levels.
“The biggest and most recognizable initiative is the faculty hiring plan,” he said, “but there is activity on several fronts.”
To date, college hiring plans have been completed and submitted, and 180 faculty searches have been authorized for this academic year. The goal calls for hiring 500 new faculty members in the next five to seven years.
Lanesskog said that faculty cluster hiring aligned to the broad themes of the chancellor’s Visioning Future Excellence initiative, which identified imperative academic areas the university should be prepared to address in the next two to five decades, also would be used to rebuild the faculty.
He said there also are efforts underway to enhance the undergraduate learning experience, including the recent creation of the Office for Undergraduate Research and the newly reorganized Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, which will assist with the development of 21st-century teaching techniques.
Charles Tucker, the vice provost for undergraduate education and innovation, said the entire campus will help determine the future of undergraduate education at the U. of I.
“We are about to launch a campus discussion on transforming undergraduate education, and this fall we will seek input from a broad cross-section of faculty, students and staff,” Tucker said.
“It’s really an effort to answer the broader question of what we want our students to know and to be when they leave here.”
The campus also is determining how to best organize interdisciplinary research efforts aligned to each of the Visioning Future Excellence themes. As first steps, working groups are being organized for the humanities, for integrative scholarship in the arts, and for the social and behavioral sciences. In addition, the director for the Center for a Sustainable Environment has been hired.
The plan recognizes the campus must be more “intentional” in creating self-generated revenue streams, Lanesskog said. As one example, colleges currently are evaluating opportunities to develop and grow revenue-producing academic programs.
In addition, the campus is restructuring the responsibilities and resetting the expectations of its fundraising operations at all levels of the university, as growth in philanthropy is expected to be a key source of funds for strategic investment.
The plan also aims to implement practices and programs to improve and embrace campus diversity. For example, $500,000 in new scholarship money has been added to help attract a more diverse undergraduate class, with a focus on students from the university’s pre-college program.
To address faculty diversity, funding for the Target of Opportunity hiring program has been increased for colleges seeking to meet diversity goals.
