ACADEMIC PLANNING INITIATIVES SUMMARY 2006
April 15, 2006
This list represents a summary of the key topics raised in the academic planning process conducted during the academic year 2005-06. There is no priority implied in the order in which things are listed. For further details see the lists of ideas and issues raised in each of the areas of the Academic Plan: Mission/Vision/Values, Faculty, Students, Curriculum, Support for Instruction, Co-Curriculum, Educational Effectiveness and Learning Outcomes, Quality Assurance and Academic Leadership. These lists of specific ideas can be found as appendices to this document. They are however meant to be a starting point for ideas related to specific initiatives, not all encompassing lists.
Mission/Vision
M1 Create a forum for sustaining on-going conversation among faculty about the nature of our academic disciplines within the context of our Christian convictions and our Wesleyan heritage. In particular to discuss additional ways that we might give witness, separately and corporately to God's holiness by our participation in God through Christ in our academic life.
M2 Consider creating a structure that would award funding to departments to advance “prominence” and “voice.” There are differences between disciplines in achieving prominence and voice. For one discipline it might be having a faculty member publish a paper in a refereed journal, for another it might be having a group of students make presentations at a conference, and for a third it might be a strong program serving the local community.
M3 Create a forum for on-going discussion about the meaning the University vision and the long range direction of the institution. Some of the issues raised include the impact of graduate programs on our identity as a liberal arts university, the effect of changing to “university” status, the impact of dividing the institution into colleges and the diverse understandings of the direction in which the university is headed.
M4 Expand the support the University centers and academic departments in developing colloquia, seminars and national conferences hosted at PLNU.
Faculty - Development
F1 Consider changing the format of faculty meetings to include more emphasis on teaching, research and community building. This could include 10-15 minute pedagogy demonstrations, 10-15 minute research presentations, information about the Center for Teaching and Learning website and department/site/school introductions and overviews.
F2 Increase the number of faculty gatherings during chapel time. This could be done on days when there are “convocations” in PLNU chapel (e.g. ASB speeches). Use this time for additional pedagogy, technology and research presentations.
F3 Expand the opportunities for teaching development. This includes support and mentoring for new teachers, training for adjuncts, providing support for integrating faith into the classroom and providing access to mentoring and coaching for faculty who would like to improve their teaching evaluations.
F4 Study and revise the support for faculty scholarship and service. Ideas include giving consideration to the needed number of sabbaticals to support the current faculty size, additional release time for research and service on University projects, research contracts, unifying the university grant proposal process, expanding the number of targeted university grants, providing support for writing book proposals and outside grant proposals and supporting faculty/student research. Consider ways that additional funding can be obtained for scholarly work including endowed chairs.
F5 Create a system for helping faculty to plan their career and sustain scholarly work. Help faculty to lay the ground work for sabbaticals and to find their personal balance between research and teaching.
F6 Revise the current faculty evaluation system to one that is more formative (the Faculty Resource Committee is working on this).
F7 Expand the structures that support long-term adjuncts. Recommendations include multi-year contracts and some support for professional development.
F8 Provide Department Chairs, School Deans, Site Directors and Center Directors with some fundamental training in management, personnel issues and the navigation of PLNU systems. Review load credit for chair responsibilities.
F9 Continue the University’s efforts to increase the diversity of the faculty.
Faculty - Governance
F10 Consider moving some of the “routine” tasks done in the faculty meeting to the Academic Council (chairs, school deans, site directors and vice provosts) so that the faculty meetings can focus on significant issues and short presentations related to teaching, pedagogy and technology.
F11 Look at the current system of PLNU Faculty Committees. Give consideration to the structure, the necessary training for committee chairs and more effective methods of communication from the committees to the faculty as a whole.
F12 Review the impact of dividing the university into colleges and schools. Are there unintended consequences that should be discussed?
F13 Review the structures for Center Directors offering input into the University’s academic vision and direction.
Students
S1 Have Admissions and the Enrollment Management Committee make regular presentations to the faculty about the admissions process. There seems to be a lack of clarity about precisely how students are ranked and the role that admissions counselors play in the process. Faculty have expressed a desire to understand how the current student population is shaped before raising questions or making suggestions.
S2 Create a structure for supporting student research beyond the current Honors Program. This includes funding of travel and materials, assisting faculty with grant writing to obtain funding and providing mentoring and assistance for faculty who would like to begin research programs involving students.
S3 Continue to expand the University’s efforts to recruit and retain a diverse undergraduate student body. This includes investigating which activities have been most effective, deepening and broadening recruitment efforts and continuing to support the work of the Office of Diversity and International Students.
S4 Review the usefulness of the university and departmental websites and their effectiveness in communicating information to current and prospective students. Issues include the consistency of information across department websites and adequate support for maintaining the sites.
S5 Expand the support offered to graduating undergraduate students as they transition into their first careers and/or graduate studies. Consider the ways these efforts might have a positive impact on future alumni relations.
Undergraduate Programs
U1 Support the General Education recommendations of the WASC CPR Committee Two: Educational Effectiveness Indicators and the GE Task Force (see appendix). The report provides a philosophical framework for updating our GE curriculum. Other issues raised include providing support for the faculty who teach in the GE Core, continuing to encourage cross-discipline collaboration in GE and working to achieve some basic consistency between sections in the GE program. It is also essential that it be regularly reinforced the no full time faculty member will lose his or her job as part of the transition to a new GE program.
U2 Continue to strengthen our commitment to the liberal arts as part of a discussion of PLNU’s core academic commitments. This includes providing support for reading and writing across the curriculum, continuing to reduce the number of large classes, maintaining the firm caps on the number of units in undergraduate majors to allow students more room for electives and integrating service learning into more of our courses.
U3 Continue to expand the University’s focus on diversity through both curricular and co-curricular programs and collaboration between these areas. This includes investigating which experiences and course are most helpful in developing our students’ cultural competence, supporting the work of University centers that focus on these issues and forging further ties between the Office of International Studies and the Diversity Committee.
U4 Seek creative ways to fund integrative learning opportunities. These include study abroad experiences, student internships connected with the work of our University centers, service learning and programs in various academic departments. Assistance is needed in the areas of grant writing, publicity and fund raising.
Graduate Programs
G1 Create a clear philosophical statement for graduate programs. (The GSC is working on this.)
G2 Facilitate further conversation about graduate programs among the faculty as a whole. There are a variety of understandings about the University’s vision for graduate programs.
G3 Evaluate the overall model for graduate programs. Items to be considered include the system for the evaluation of program and site proposals, the resources need to support self-sufficient programs, structure of the administration of the programs, program calendars, student orientation to support services, student data gathering and best practices from other institutions (a consulting firm has been hired to provide an external evaluation to supplement work that has been done internally to address these issues).
Support for Instruction
SI1 Create a campus master plan for technology and equipment replacement that is funded to realistic levels paying particular attention to the needs of the end users.
SI2 Provide careful attention to the cost of technology for all new programs and sites so that appropriate start-up costs are allocated and the additions become part of the replacement cycle. It is essential that ITS and the library are consulted in the early stages of planning.
SI3 Support changes in the library to accommodate the increasing use of technology. This includes modifying the physical space to create an information commons, reconsidering the allocation of resources for department-guided purchases, increasing funding for databases, and expanding faculty and student training in these resources. Also consider the site-specific needs of graduate programs related to library support.
SI4 Revitalize the Technology Committee and have it assist with integrating the new Instructional Technologist into the University community. Items to be considered include evaluating new teaching technologies, supporting electronic portfolios, controlling wireless access in classrooms, helping to increase the technological literacy of faculty and students and evaluating the need for a University-wide laptop requirement.
SI5 It is recommended that the Administration create a plan, in careful consultation with the end users, to complete the needed facilities work on the Point Loma Campus. This includes the construction of the much needed Science Complex, renovation to existing buildings (Evans Hall, Keller Visual Arts Center, Salomon Theatre and others), and other construction (School of Theology and an exercise facility). Attention needs to be given to faculty office space as well.
SI6 Evaluate classroom and laboratory furnishings and equipment. Do our current classrooms support a rich variety of pedagogical methods? It appears that we need further classrooms for “group work” but a complete evaluation needs to be undertaken and rooms renovated, equipped and furnished accordingly. Hits:3 X:0 Points:21
Collaboration and Community
C1 Expand educational collaboration in our academic community. This includes work between departments, between curricular and co-curricular areas, between sites, between graduate and undergraduate programs and with external partners. Suggestions include faculty guest lecturing at other sites or in other programs, service learning opportunities, staff in co-curricular areas guest lecturing in classrooms and creating a training and debriefing process for all students who engage in international experiences. In addition there is a desire for further collaboration among the centers and between the centers and academic departments.
C2 Create time for sustained dialog and planning related to furthering partnerships between curricular and co-curricular areas. In the mid 1990’s PLNU had a schedule that allowed for a mid-day activity period once per week. Find a way to create a similar time that was protected from all other meetings which could allow for:
- Faculty, student and staff interactions around spiritual issues (e.g. Discipleship groups);
- Faculty, student and staff reading groups;
- Faculty and staff conversations related to collaboration in and out of the classroom;
- Conversations related to the work necessary to support GE;
- Opportunities for presentations related to pedagogy and research as well as issues of interest to both faculty and co-curricular staff.
C3 Be intentional in strengthening community among the University faculty as a whole, this means having common experiences and shared time together. This includes making better use of technology, making changes in faculty meetings and the fall faculty workshop and looking for time to engage in team and relationship building particularly across disciplines and sites.
C4 Improve communication. This includes making better use of available technology to include all faculty at all sites in PLNU events and meetings, regular updates on planning and major decisions made by Cabinet, centralized information about upcoming events, broader exposure of the work of various departments and centers, centralized information about the “non obvious” expertise of faculty and staff members (e.g. ministry experiences, leadership training, etc.) and improving the information flow between Cabinet and department/school/site leaders.
C5 Expand the opportunities for faculty, staff and students to build relationships across class and ethnic lines.
Planning and Assessment
P1 Strengthen the work of the Office of Institutional Research. This includes adding staff to support data gathering and assessment and expanding the use of faculty and honors students in needed research projects. Follow the recommendations of WASC CPR Group One: Data regarding the needed changes. (The MICS department has begun the process of establishing a multi-disciplinary faculty/student research program to support IR and an additional staff member for IR is currently being sought.)
P2 Increase assessment support and assistance for curricular and co-curricular University units as recommended by the WASC CPR Group Six: Assessment. This includes funding for training, support with data collection, and increased staffing in the Office of Institutional Research.
P3 Investigate providing the needed additional support for both the PLNU program review process and for departments seeking outside accreditation. These tasks often become a significant burden on individual departments. It is hoped that the EER Group reviewing these processes will include a cost benefit analysis in their work.
P4 Implement the modified PLNU strategic planning process paying particular attention to gathering wide University community input (including broad academic representation at all levels of planning), detailed communication about the process and the link between planning and budgeting.
P5 Provide academic decision makers, including department chairs and school deans with ready access to vital institutional data and with ready access to accurate data comparing PLNU with other institutions of similar size and values. Consider which benchmarks should be use to measure excellence.
P6 It is recommended that the Administration create a clearly defined process for evaluating proposals for new sites and programs. All key personnel (staff, faculty, administrators) need to be involved in the early stages of investigation, discernment and planning.
Appendix items:
Mission, Vision, Values Initiatives and Recommendations
Faculty Initiatives and Recommendations
Students Initiatives and Recommendations
Curriculum Initiatives and Recommendations
Support for Instruction Initiatives and Recommendations
Co-Curriculum Initiatives and Recommendations
Educational Effectiveness and Learning Outcomes Initiatives and Recommendations
Quality Assurance Initiatives and Recommendations
Academic Leadership Initiatives and Recommendations