I hope that you all had a great and restful break and that you took time for yourself and your family. This semester promises to be a very busy one and we can expect a great deal of activity with regard to the UNC system since Erskine Bowles has formally taken over as President. I have been involved in several important meetings and I felt that you should be made aware of them. They will, over time, have major implications for Western and all other universities in the UNC system. But first, just a short update on enrollment seems appropriate.
Preliminary Spring Enrollment, next year’s budget, and current situation
Preliminary enrollment figures are encouraging. It looks as though, date to date, we will see a larger numerical and percentage increase in enrollment for the spring than we did for the fall. I do not yet have a breakdown of where students are enrolling and I do not have final figures, but it looks as though we will increase net enrollment by approximately 300 students compared to last spring.
Equally as important is next year’s enrollment. Since we did not make our targets this year we had to be very conservative with our estimates for next year. Therefore, resident credit funding is expected to be about even with this year. This means that we will focus on re-examining our distribution of funding rather than having major new funding to distribute. At the same time, it is critical that we make our enrollment next year or we can expect to have to give money—and positions—back to the state. Retention will play an important role in making our enrollment in the fall.
The only growth that is expected is in distance education. Pat Brown estimates a healthy increase in distance education enrollment that will be considered. What this means is that in the next budget request, most new funding will be associated with supporting increases in distance education. As you will see from the discussion below, this is emerging as a critical issue at the state level and we will need to respond fully.
Finally, I want to mention that we have been involved in a detailed review of our admissions procedures and especially in training our admissions counselors. I would like to thank Betty Farmer for her continued assistance with this training.
Earlier in the year, we were running a deficit in the number of applications compared to last year. We now have caught up. One of the critical issues we began to realize was the clarity of the message that we were giving potential students. So much has happened on this campus that it has been difficult for admissions to keep up. This caused us to institute a series of training programs and to create a process for on-going training. A number of faculty members have assisted with this process by taking part in relatively short programs that highlight their academic majors. This has been very helpful to admissions staff and I want thank every faculty member who has participated.
Board of Governor’s Meeting
Many Board of Governors’ meetings deal with important but relatively routine matters so I do not provide the campus with a lengthy update. The most recent meeting, however, was very different and it has potentially very significant implications for Western. Therefore, I felt that I should discuss some of the most critical issues with which we will be dealing over the next weeks and months.
Mission Review. The Board of Governors, based on discussion in the academic policies committee, voted to call for a full mission review of all campuses. Obviously, since this vote was just taken, the magnitude and direction of this review are not clear. At the same time, I would say that this review, if it is done well, has the potential to better align the University of North Carolina with long-term trends in globalization and the need for state prosperity. Focus on the relationship between true educational, scholarship, and service needs of the people of the state and the allocation of academic resources is very important and it represents a critical policy review that is required not only in this state but in most others. Erskine (and he asks to be called Erskine) has given the chancellors the opportunity to discuss major issues with him and I know that we all will have input into the process and potential outcomes.
Unless I am misreading the situation, I would anticipate a clarification of mission for each campus to be associated with achieving state-level goals and objectives. I would then anticipate an alignment of the Board of Governor’s strategic plan with those goals and objectives as well. Based on discussions this week, I also would anticipate a clear set of priorities that incorporate expected actions coupled with measurable outcomes. This will most likely be the basis on which budget priorities are established and through which institutions are expected to act. These system level processes should provide significant guidance to individual campuses regarding their expected roles in the state as well as their strategic directions and expectations for resources in the future. In this sense, I would anticipate that the system will become much more predictable, processes will be increasingly transparent, and that there will be increased coordination and communication.
Retention and Graduation. It is very clear both from Erskine’s and Brad Wilson’s comments that the system will focus increasingly on improving retention and graduation rates. Focus on retention is not new to Western, but the urgency to really deal with the issues can be expected to increase significantly and very soon. Although it was not stated in either’s comments, I would anticipate that it is likely that improvement will be based on quantitative targets for campuses and that this will have a major impact on how the campus is viewed. Because our retention rates are among the lowest in the system, this will have major implications for us. Likewise, I would anticipate that targets for undergraduate graduation rates will be higher than our current roughly 46 percent 6-year graduation rate.
We have a number of reviews under way with regard to our curricula, but I would encourage you in the strongest terms to look very, very carefully at the structure of your degree programs compared to other UNC system schools with significantly higher graduation rates to see if curriculum structure contributes to our lower rate. There will, of course, be many other areas that will need to be explored, but curriculum structure is within our immediate control.
Specifically,
- Each department has been asked to provide a “four-year degree plan” to show potential students how they can graduate within four years. Does that plan assume that a student declares a major in the first semester of the freshman year? Since we know that nationally the majority of students change their minds with regard to the major, are there alternatives that could allow a student to be “undecided” for a term or two and still graduate in four years?
- We often hear that we need to offer a particular curriculum so that students can “go to graduate school.” Yet, we know that there are many other campuses—even campuses with international reputations—that have more flexible major requirements in some of their majors than we. And, it is doubtful that schools such as Chapel Hill, Duke, or Vanderbilt do not prepare their students for graduate school. Therefore, I would encourage you to take another detailed look at your major to determine the degree to which it is reasonable for students to graduate within four years.
- It will be important for each department to assure that departmental advising is being done well and weighted appropriately in reappointment, tenure, promotion, and merit decisions. I am asking the Provost to work with the Faculty Senate to be sure that advising is being appropriately considered.
- We will continue to need to focus on the first-year experience. We have recently hired Ray Barclay to direct the Office of University Planning and he brings a wealth of experience to the job. Ray’s office will serve as the strategic analytic partner and facilitator of planning at the university with institutional research as an important function of that broad role. University planning and institutional effectiveness are directly related and are important issues for our campus as we move forward. I will ask Ray to work with Melissa Wargo, our new Director of Assessment, the Provost, and the Senate to assure that we have effective evaluation techniques as well as reasonable accountability in this critical area.
At the same time that we are engaged in these reviews, you should know that we will continue to strengthen our academic support systems and our non-academic student support systems. As a part of the review of non-academic areas, I have asked Bob Caruso, Chuck Wooten, and Rich Kucharski to begin discussions of how we handle under-age alcohol and any drug use issues. Recent surveys of parents of students who have withdrawn from the university in academic good standing suggest that these issues are of increasing concern. I will keep you informed as this review progresses.
Increasing focus on student needs. Erskine was especially clear in his interest in focusing on the needs of our students. Based on his comments, I would anticipate that there will be an emphasis on campuses developing a “student-centered culture.” We already are “student-friendly” but I would anticipate a much stronger emphasis on this issue as we go forward. Again, as we begin to understand the actual meaning of the President’s priorities we will need to establish effective mechanisms for assessing the degree to which our “expressed values” are reflected in our actual actions.
Increasing emphasis on distance and continuing education. It is clear from Erskine’ comments that he is focused on providing high quality education to all North Carolinians and that he is committed to “lifelong” education. Therefore, I would anticipate much greater attention to integrating distance and continuing education into the mainstream of the university. When he visited Western he specifically commented on this issue at some length and it was included as a point of emphasis in his board remarks.
Presidential Comments to the Board. Erskine is plainly linking economic issues with educational issues as one would expect. He opened his comments by noting that the global economic situation has not yet had its real impact on North Carolina. In his language, we are facing an “economic Tsunami.” He then noted that 40 percent of Singapore’s eighth graders score in the highest level on math competency exams compared to 7 percent of Americans. It is clear that he is focusing on how to position UNC to deal with these changing challenges.
To summarize many of his salient points:
1. We have an increasing challenge to improve education because of limited resources and tuition pressure.
2.We need to manage our resources with effectiveness and efficiency to help contain costs.
3. All areas of education need to work as a team to get more people better educated.
a. We must improve K-12 education
b. We must raise the quality of teachers
c. We must focus on math and science
d. We must develop qualified principals
4. There must be a seamless relationship with the community colleges.
5. We must focus on access and affordability
a. He has concern for scholarship availability
b. Facilities need to be better utilized, including evenings, weekends and summers
c. We must invest significantly in distance and continuing education
d. Current retention rates are not acceptable and represent a waste of state resources
6. We must focus on educational quality with particular concern for critical thinking, problem solving, and communication. [Note: I would anticipate that we will need to assess the degree to which we actually encourage development of these critical learning skills rather than asserting that they are incorporated into our traditional curricula.]
7. As we do economic development, we need to focus on industries that have a future.
8. UNC needs to maintain its commitment to public service
9. There needs to be emphasis on quality research including technology transfer and commercialization
10. We must attract and keep great faculty
11. UNC will need to work as “one university.” We have 196,000 students and we must do everything we can to help them.
Erskine’s discussion was powerful and direct. While I believe that I have captured the essence of his salient points, I would encourage you to read his comments when they are posted to the system web page at:
The University of North Carolina is clearly seeing a “new day.” I am personally very excited and heartened that we will increase the focus on the real needs of our students and our state. Please join me in welcoming Erskine Bowles as the new President of the University of North Carolina and in doing everything we can to support his visionary agenda for the system.
Passing of Our Good Friend Malcolm Loughlin
I could not finish this update without reference to the passing of one of the finest people I have ever met. Malcolm Laughlin died recently after a valiant struggle with cancer. I doubt that Malcolm ever met someone that he didn’t like and he had to be one of the kindest and most gentle of people. His work in Jamaica and his true caring for people were the embodiment of Western’s most cherished values. I don’t think I ever saw Malcolm with anything other than a smile on his face and he always exhibited a “can do” attitude that was contagious. The campus will not be the same without him. Deborah and I send our condolences to the Loughlin family and we hope that they always will remain a part of this campus community.
Well, this ends the update. I hope that you have a productive and enjoyable semester and I look forward to working with you.