Let me begin by reviewing some of the progress we’ve made on a number of fronts this past year:

Strategic Plan: we are well on our way to completing the new strategic plan. During the past year, we have compiled an accountability report, reviewing the UALR Fast Forward years against the backdrop of that document. This report will serve in some ways as a companion piece to UALR Fast Forward and as a preface to the new plan. We shared an early draft of the strategic plan with both internal and external audiences, and the strategic plan subcommittees revised their assignments in light of that input. Next, the six subcommittee chairs reviewed the resulting material to streamline, eliminate duplication, and focus on strategic priorities. I will forward the resulting document for campus-wide review and input before the end of the semester.

Student Success: as the strategic planning process has unfolded, student success has emerged as UALR’s top priority, and we have made good progress on student success initiatives this year. We initiated a student success granting opportunity which afforded a number of units across campus the opportunity to pursue evidence-based, results-oriented efforts targeting the success of our students. We undertook some restructuring in central administration to heighten the focus on student success. The Chancellor and I, as promised, held a series of meetings with all chairs whose units include undergraduate programs and their deans to discuss the performance of students in their departments. I have been very impressed with the enthusiasm with which student success has been embraced and by the innovative and thoughtful ways the campus community has responded to this charge.

Undergraduate Curriculum Review: this year has witnessed much study and work by the Undergraduate Curriculum Revision Task Force focused toward making appropriate recommendations to ensure the quality of UALR’s undergraduate curriculum with specific attention to the core. We should expect to hear much more from that group next year.

Governance Document Revision Process: in light of the Faculty Roles and Rewards I and II documents and the University Promotion and Tenure Guidelines, many academic units across campus have expended a great deal of effort and thought revising their governance documents this year. Only a few documents have actually made it to my office and to the Governance Committee for our review, and I thus anticipate a great deal of activity on governance documents next year.

Leadership Changes: UALR is experiencing a significant set of leadership changes.

• Dr. Mary Good, the inaugural dean of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology will retire this summer; Dr. Eric Sandgren from UNLV will join us as her successor.
• Dr. Linda Musun, Professor of Psychology, former Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, former Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and current Dean of Extended Programs, will retire this summer.
• Jerry Stevenson’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs duties are changing to include Linda’s responsibilities and continued responsibility for the Office of International Services.
• Christy Drale will assume responsibility for some of Jerry’s current responsibilities (management of the Provost’s Office and its budgets, special events, faculty hiring, orientation, reappointment, tenure, promotion, OCDA, and retirement activities) while expanding the position’s portfolio to include emphases on areas we have simply not heretofore had the resources to staff: leadership development, management of academic space utilization, and support and advocacy for academic affairs instructional and research technology.
• Daryl Rice joined our office in January of this year as the new Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs/Student Success. His portfolio will include supervision of the Office of Transfer Student Services, the Academic Success Center, Cooperative Education, and the Office of Undergraduate Academic Advising.
• The shuffle of responsibilities has allowed us to expand the responsibilities of Susan Hoffpauir’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs position to include a concentrated focus on diversity. We will miss Susan as she moves to the position of Associate Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service.

It has been a challenging year, but it’s been a good year in which we’ve taken on some important issues which will advance our university.

While I’m noting leadership changes, allow me to salute to Dr. Andrew Eshleman who has made an excellent Assembly President during the past year. He has offered a strong voice on behalf of the faculty and their perspective. He is a solution seeker and a facilitator. He is a caring leader and an excellent partner. I know that he will experience much success in his new leadership role as Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Portland. We send with him our very best wishes for success.

Reflections

I take here the opportunity to express my gratitude to the UALR community for eight great years of working together on behalf of UALR. Personally, I have been blessed with and appreciated your support, your patience and forgiveness, your vision, your hard work, and your mentorship. I have grown as an administrator through my association with you, and I know that, for many reasons, I owe the opportunity which is now in front of me to you and your tutelage. I have enjoyed excellent working relationships with people throughout this campus. I have had particularly rewarding relationships – even when we didn’t agree – with faculty leadership, especially the four Assembly Presidents – Pete Tschumi, Fred Williams, Richard Ford, and Andrew Eshleman, and members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. I have learned from you whether you knew it or not. I have had excellent dean colleagues, excellent Associate Vice Chancellors for Academic Affairs, a great office staff, and excellent partnerships with my colleagues in the Direct Reports Groups.

I must particularly and seriously acknowledge Joel. As I noted in my acceptance speeches in North Carolina, Joel has been a real mentor to me, providing me opportunities during my provostial years to take on projects normally associated with the role of a chancellor in order to prepare me for this time. I am very grateful.

It’s breathtaking for me to look back to 2003 when I came here. I want to note a handful of what’s happened. This is not about me; rather it’s where we as an institution have come together.

• We raised admission standards twice.
• UALR’s average ACT has gone up 3 points in 3 years.
• The numbers of UALR students in developmental courses have dropped dramatically.
• We have the highest enrollment in institution’s history.
• We have seen the strong emergence of an emphasis on undergraduate research.
• The Donaghey Scholars Program has expanded to 100 students.
• Under Charles Donaldson’s leadership, the African-American Male Initiative has emerged as a very successful student success initiative which in just a short time has achieved widespread recognition.
• We have added seven new doctoral programs – in Audiology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Reading, Criminal Justice, Bioinformatics, Integrated Computing, and Engineering Science and Systems.
• We have expanded online offerings.
• We have retooled and reintroduced the Executive MBA program.
• We have added extraordinary niche programs in applied design, dance, information quality, taxation, and construction engineering.
• The Law School has achieved national recognition of its legal writing program.
• We have founded the Nanotechnology Center, the Institute on Race and Ethnicity, and the Arkansas Studies Institute, and strengthened the Sequoyah National Research Center.
• We have doubled the number of nursing graduates and increased by 40% the number of licensed teachers we graduate annually.
• We have built the Stephens Center and the new EIT Building.
• We have purchased the University Shopping Center and moved KUAR/KLRE, Audiology and Speech Pathology, Applied Design, the Sequoyah National Research Center, TRIO programs, and others into much better facilities there.
• We began the long-term project of redeveloping Coleman Creek through the Trail of Tears Park.
• We have renovated Stabler Hall and the chemistry labs and Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.
• We have tripled the number of beds in residential facilities through the beautiful addition of new, state-of-the-art student housing.
• We have broken ground for the Nanotechnology Building, the track and field/cross-country/and soccer complex, and the Student One-Stop Center.
• We have brought in millions of federal dollars to support instructional and research programs at UALR.
• We have well surpassed the original $75M goal for the comprehensive campaign, having recently hit $92M.
• We saw both men’s and women’s basketball teams make it to the big dance this year.
• We have launched the University District initiative to redevelop our part of UALR.
• We landed one of only 21 U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhood planning grants out of around 350 applications.
• We helped to parent the Clinton School into being.
• We have conducted studies for our region on wastewater management and transportation and the prison system and Riverdale traffic issues.
• We have hired fabulous new faculty and staff.
• We have updated business processes.
• We have gotten connected to ARE-ON.
• We have articulated Faculty Roles and Rewards I and II and university-wide Promotion and Tenure Guidelines.
• We have made real strides in improving our infrastructure for and focus on student success.
• We have developed a much-improved public relations campaign to tell our story.
• We have built a robust alumni association.
• We have reached out to partner with other institutions of higher education.

For every item noted above, there are 20-30 others that are just as wonderful. But also, for every achievement noted above, there are 20-30 other projects we need to tackle and accomplish. But it is important acknowledge what we have accomplished.

Let me reiterate that this list is not about me; I have not been involved in many of these efforts. But, as I prepare to leave, I am taking a look back at the years I’ve spent here, and I’m taking a moment of personal privilege to hold up a mirror to you to show you what you have done. It is incredible just how far we have come in such a short period of time. And we have done it with integrity and by working together.

Let me end with an exhortation: now is not the time to slow down. There are plenty of challenges to go around, not the least of which is the budget scenario. But stay focused on the long view – the university we want to be…

• Where measures of students success demonstrate the success of our efforts.
• Where we graduate students who make remarkable contributions in their professions and in their demonstrated understanding of the roles they need to play in their communities.
• Where we embrace and own our designation as a doctoral research university.
• Where we hire brilliantly, inviting colleagues to join our ranks who are demonstrably committed to students and their potential, who have robust research agendas, and who represent the diversity which is our community and which is America.
• Where we mentor colleagues and future leaders.
• Where the name University of Arkansas at Little Rock is synonymous to everyone with adjectives such as “excellence”, “innovative”, and “vibrant.”
• Where student life and co-curricular activities ground students in their university.
• Where we continue to lead the way in what I refer to as “the new world order in higher education”, embracing the rapidly changing world of higher education for maximum benefit and competitive advantage.
• Where we not only engage the community, but are the community leader.
• Where the university’s immediate community, the University District, is a revitalized, vibrant part of our city.

UALR has made remarkable progress. It has a long, challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, and meaning-filled road ahead of it. Keep focused on moving forward toward that evolving vision. And thank you for letting me share the ride for these past years.

Sincerely yours,
David Belcher
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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Update on Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood (Susan Hoffpauir reporting)

A coalition of partners that includes UALR, the City of Little Rock, LRSD, New Futures, the Central Arkansas Library System and Arkansas Children’s Hospital received one of only 21 Promise Neighborhood planning grants from the US Department of Education last fall for the Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood (CLRPN). The grant gives Little Rock the opportunity to create a plan to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in a designated area of the city that includes the section of central Little Rock south of I-630 between Martin Luther King Drive and Boyle Park and the five traditional public schools that serve the majority of children and youth in this area: Bale, Franklin, Stephens, Forest Heights, and Hall. The goal is to work with children, families, schools, community organizations and partners to create a coordinated pipeline of programs and services that will provide the support children need to successfully get from cradle to career. The CLRPN’s grant award for this one-year planning process totaled $430,098. This award is being matched locally in cash and in-kind pledges of $219,349. More information about the CLRPN is available at www.littlerockpromise.org.

Strategic Planning Update

During the last couple of months, the subcommittees of the strategic planning steering committee have been reviewing the input gathered from the campus community and through two winter meetings of community leaders and revising the strategic plan’s goals, objectives, and strategies with that input in mind. The subcommittee chairs then formed a team to streamline the document to eliminate duplication, target the strategic, ensure its comprehensive nature, and revise to achieve a single voice. The resulting document is four pages long and is designed to identify the overarching priorities which will be addressed individually by champions (individuals, groups like the Faculty Senate, etc.) in the implementation phase.

In the coming weeks, we will host open hearings for faculty, staff, and students and for external stakeholders to glean reactions and perspectives before writing the anticipated final draft. Please plan to participate in those open hearings if at all possible.

Disability Statement for Syllabi

We made a conscious decision in the fall to await the report of the consultant from Ohio State who came to campus to provide an objective assessment of UALR and its work in the area of disability resources before revisiting the disability statement which faculty include in their syllabi. Due to a challenging personal situation, our consultant has, with apologies, been unable to complete his report.

Faculty Senate President Eshleman and I visited with Chancellor Anderson about the situation, and we determined that President Eshleman and I would draft a disability statement for review by two committees – one comprised of faculty and one comprised of colleagues from the Division of Educational and Student Services – hoping to generate good input which will provide the basis for an appropriate statement for UALR faculty syllabi. Our hope is to have that statement ready for consideration by the Faculty Senate at that body’s May meeting.

Sincerely yours,
David Belcher
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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Student Progress Meetings with Chairs and Deans

As you may recall from my University Assembly address last August, the Chancellor and I decided to hold student-major progress meetings with chairs and deans during the course of the year as part of our student success efforts. These meetings are modeled on those which the Chancellor has been conducting for about 6 years with Athletic Director Chris Peterson and individual coaches about student-athletes and their academic progress. We finished those meetings yesterday. There are 34 departments with undergraduate programs; we met with half in the fall and half in the last couple of weeks.

These meetings were extraordinarily interesting and informative. I learned about initiatives which departments have been undertaking on an ongoing basis for a number of years. Additionally, the data with which chairs grappled in preparation for these meetings have prompted some departments to reexamine internal processes and to discuss some of the challenges which the data revealed. I am very impressed with the work of the chairs in preparation for these meetings and the concentrated efforts of faculty around campus who are taking the student success charge seriously.

I should note that several ideas for policy changes emerged from discussions with department chairs. For example, one chair, who happens to be a member of this body, has suggested that perhaps the withdrawal deadline should be earlier in the semester than it currently is. This topic is certainly worth discussion and exploration and I look to your leadership in assessing the merits of a variety of such proposals.

Joel and I will continue to hold these meetings each year, but, with Daryl Rice’s guidance and leadership, we will work with chairs to make the process less onerous through streamlining and better timing.

Strategic Plan

Allow me to give you a very brief update on the strategic planning process. As you will recall, I sent out the initial draft of the strategic plan to the campus community in the late fall; we received a number of good, helpful comments. I had planned to host two meetings with external constituents (alumni, community leaders, donors, etc.) on January 10-11, days which ended up being snow days. We rescheduled those meetings for Monday and Tuesday of this week and received excellent feedback from people who love this institution and the growth and transformation they are seeing here.

The next step is to send campus and external comments back to the subcommittees for review and revision. I hope to have the next iteration of the plan out to you for your own review and response by the end of February.

Book Discussion Report

Some of you may have participated in the annual book discussion event which we have been hosting annually for the last eight years. The last of this year’s discussions will take place later this afternoon. The purpose of this endeavor has been to bring together UALR faculty, staff, and students and community leaders to read and discuss a book which has implications for universities and communities who seek to work together on issues of mutual concern and importance.

(I may have told you that the idea for this annual event grew out of a conversation which Roby Robertson and I had in the middle of a keynote address during a conference we attended in my third month on the job. I am grateful to Roby for that conversation.)

This year, 70 faculty and staff, 64 community members, and 6 students participated in the meetings. I have already received a lot of positive feedback, and I hope that those of you who have participated found the experience rewarding.

Budget

Finally, budget planning is upon us. While we have very little concrete information about budgetary prospects this year, I think it is safe to say that few anticipate a great deal of additional money allocated to higher education.

We are proceeding with budget hearings soon. You may recall that, given the budget situation last year which included 3 cuts from the state, we decided not to have the hearings in February 2010 as normal.

While that made sense on one level, not having the hearings robbed us of the opportunity to share campus-wide priorities with one another. We lost that aspect of campus-wide dialogue. So, regardless of budgetary prospects – and they do not appear to be as bleak as last year’s, we will host budget hearings this year. They will take place on February 14-16. As is our custom, we have invited the membership of the Planning and Finance Committee to attend in order to glean their input in the process. I will certainly keep you informed on the budget planning process as it unfolds.

Sincerely yours,
David Belcher
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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Strategic Plan Update

Either later today or Monday, I will be sending to the campus community an email with two significant components:

• Accountability Report – a document which looks back on the last 5-6 years at UALR, noting both achievements and challenges within the context of UALR Fast Forward. This document in some ways serves both as a closing chapter on UALR Fast Forward and as an introductory chapter to the next strategic plan. Regardless, it is important before articulating plans for the future to understand where the institution is and has been. The accountability report seeks to fulfill this purpose.
• Rough draft of the new strategic plan and an opportunity for input. The strategic planning committee and subcommittees have been studying, exploring, debating, and drafting for some weeks now, and it is appropriate to share these early thoughts and seek your guidance and feedback. You will find redundancies, some old ideas, and some new ideas – it is not yet a tight document, and there is plenty of room for improvement, modification, and change. I charged the subcommittees with trying to streamline the goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics by eliminating those tasks which are routine, those which are not strategic, those which are not realistic, and those which are not priorities. Kathy Oliverio in my office has put together a response mechanism which allows you to provide feedback after every goal, objective, and strategy, and which provides another box at the very end of each goal’s webpage for submission of additional thoughts and ideas related to that goal. I urge your participation in this feedback opportunity.

Undergraduate Curriculum Revision Task Force Request for Input

Recently, you received a request via email for input related to initial thoughts from the Undergraduate Curriculum Revision Task Force related to their review of the undergraduate curriculum. Let me encourage you to share your thoughts on that project as well.

University of Arkansas Board of Trustees Meeting

I attended the UA Board of Trustees meeting in Fayetteville on behalf of Chancellor Anderson last week. One of the highlights of the meeting from UALR’s perspective was the Board’s official approval of the establishment of the Institute on Race and Ethnicity. As you are aware, the Institute is the result of an extensive planning effort, led by the Chancellor and a group of faculty and staff who have been meeting together for three years, which included gleaning input from interested community leaders and partners. The Institute is designed to bring to bear on the problems related to race and ethnicity the benefits of educational, research, and applied solutions which UALR, with its long history of community engagement, is well-positioned to generate. We certainly anticipate that faculty and students across campus will be engaged in the Institute’s activities. UALR’s Board of Visitors voted at their September Board meeting to recommend the Institute’s approval and the Donaghey Foundation has awarded the university a $200,000 grant over a three-year period to assist the institution in launching this initiative.

Campus-Community Book Discussion

I will send an email just after the Thanksgiving break inviting you to participate in the campus-community book discussion sessions in January. This year’s featured book is Richard Florida’s latest – The Great Reset, a work which guides the reader in viewing the current economic challenges against the backdrop of two major earlier economic crises: the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Long Depression of the late 19th century. (For additional information) Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, writes, “The Great Reset shows how new technology and the new geographies of living and working come together to drive recovery….must reading for anyone who wants to understand where we are now and where we are headed.” I am about 2/3 of the way through the book and think you will enjoy its thought-provoking perspectives.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Sincerely yours,
David Belcher
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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The 11th-day UALR headcount enrollment this year was 13,242. This figure is higher than the comparable statistic last year by 75 students. Because of this year’s advent of the Lottery Scholarship, some might have anticipated a larger headcount gain, but several factors, including increased admissions standards, contributed to the modest nature of the gain. It is important to remember that the 11th-day figure is a preliminary number; all universities spend several weeks after the 11th-day census date reviewing enrollment data to ensure that it is clean. Typically, the final count is lower than that reported on the 11th day.

The latest information I have is that 1336 UALR students hold the Lottery Scholarship this year. One of the challenges before UALR and the other colleges and universities around the state is helping Lottery Scholarship students to understand the requirements (minimum GPA, hours completed, etc.) for retaining their scholarships. Various offices and people around campus will be making a special effort in the coming weeks to reach out to Lottery Scholarship students toward this purpose.

Student Success

As those of you who were present know, the Chancellor and I used our University Assembly address to charge to the university community to own improvement of retention and graduation rates. Here is a brief update on student success initiatives:

1. Most importantly, this effort has generated great enthusiasm and energy around campus.
   1. There are conversations taking place all over campus in various departments and units, looking for effective ways to contribute to the cause.
   2. Several faculty who teach in the College of Business’ MBA program are starting CafeMBA, an initiative which will pull MBA students together into a community through regular social activities.
   3. The Department of Teacher Education is redefining the job description of an open staff position to focus more on advising.
   4. The Department of Music has divided its former Recruitment and Retention Committee into two separate committees because retention was getting lost in recruitment activities.
   5. College of Business Dean Chelte has dedicated some one-time funding for an internal granting opportunity for faculty who want to seek ways of engaging students in research activities.
   6. I’m sure there are many more examples of great faculty- and staff-led initiatives being launched in pursuit of student success. These are just the ones about which I’ve heard.
   7. I emailed earlier this week a Request for Proposals for funding from one-time dollars which have been set aside for various campus units – singly or in partnership – to support creative ideas of faculty and staff designed to enhance student success. The deadline for applications is October 15. Susan Hoffpauir is shepherding this project; she received about 20 queries about this opportunity from around campus within hours of the email announcement.
   8. As I announced at the University Assembly meeting, one of our student success strategies is to create a new position reporting to me – an Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success – who will champion the cause of student success. We will vest in the person in this position the authority, responsibility, and accountability for improving retention and graduation rates at UALR. I hope to have the position announcement out within the next two weeks.
   9. Once the new Associate Vice Chancellor is hired, he/she will work with others on campus to orchestrate the shifting of Academic Advising to Academic Affairs. This undertaking will necessitate a great deal of thought and consultation with people across campus, particularly our good colleagues in University College, to determine how to organize advising to be most effective. And I anticipate that we will have to invest additional resources to adequately meet the needs of faculty, departments, and colleges as they assume greater ownership of advising.

   Transfer Pilot

   As you may recall, Chancellor Anderson requested and received Faculty Senate approval several years ago to launch a pilot project to allow four departments (Biology, Construction Management, Criminal Justice, and History, all of whom volunteered for the pilot) to waive for transfer students certain university-wide requirements for the baccalaureate degree when it appeared to make sense to do so. The five baccalaureate degree requirements involved were:

   • UALR core curriculum requirements.
   • Major requirements.
   • Minor requirements.
   • The requirement of 45 upper-level hours.
   • The requirement of 30 hours in residence.

   Participating programs were asked to collect quantitative and qualitative data on each student included in the pilot program, including types of waivers given, reasons for waiving the requirements, number of transfer credit hours the student brought to UALR, and the number of hours toward graduation saved as a result of the waivers.

   We now have preliminary results of the pilot in an initial report. You can access that report at http://ualr.edu/academics/files/2010/08/TransferPilot10.pdf. Some items which may be of particular interest include these:

   • 110 students participated in the pilot program.
   • Requirements most often waived: UALR core curriculum requirements (average waived was 3.9 hours) and requirement of 45 upper-level hours.
   • Typical reasons for waiving UALR core hours included:
     • Course was in the core at a previously attended private or out-of-state institution.
     • Student had taken one or more other, non-core courses in the subject area.
     • Student had met the 35-hour core requirements specified by ADHE.

   I urge your review of this document and anticipate that the results may perhaps prompt consideration of extending additional flexibility to all departments and/or changing the undergraduate degree requirements with which the Undergraduate Curriculum Revision Task Force is grappling.

   Strategic Plan

   We began the process of revising the strategic plan with a review of accomplishments associated with UALR: Fast Forward, a review which included a campus-wide solicitation last spring semester for achievements related to the goals, objectives, and strategies of that document. Jim Lynch took the more than 550 responses and fashioned them into a broad outline for an accountability report envisioned as more of an executive summary-type document rather than a strategy-by-strategy accounting of achievement. In light of Jim’s retirement, Huey Crisp from the Department of Rhetoric and Writing has taken responsibility for completing that report which should be out in the coming weeks. We will make the resulting document available to all.

   The strategic planning steering committee held preliminary meetings in the summer to frame issues which then formed the basis for the bulk of the conversation at the Chancellor’s Leadership Group’s annual retreat. Once we had decided to devote the CLG Retreat to the strategic planning process, we requested that Joel invite additional faculty and staff to participate in the retreat in light of the fact that faculty (other than deans) and staff (other than administrators) are not particularly well-represented on CLG. He readily agreed, and we included faculty leadership from the colleges.

   Six themes have emerged from these initial conversations:

   1. Making student success UALR’s top priority.
   2. Offering high-quality, cutting-edge educational experiences for students prepared for rigorous study at the university level.
   3. Fostering the maturation of the research mission in alignment with UALR’s Carnegie classification as a doctoral research university.
   4. Responding to local, state, region, and national priorities to generate economic development and ensure quality of life.
   5. Demonstrating UALR’s commitment to diversity, equality, and global understanding.
   6. Maintaining and supporting the human resources and infrastructure necessary to support UALR’s mission and vision.

   I spent 15 days early this semester trying to shape the broad array of brainstorming ideas which emerged from the CLG Retreat around these themes into an organized document. This material will serve as a point of departure for series of conversations in a variety of formats (roundtable discussions, web-based response opportunities, focus groups, open hearings) with faculty, staff, students, and external partners later this semester.

   Thank you for your commitment to UALR.

   Sincerely yours,
   David Belcher

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   ]]> http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/09/17/september-2010/feed/ 0 http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/05/07/may-2010/ http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/05/07/may-2010/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 19:50:28 +0000 adm_wordpress http://ualr.edu/academics/index.php/2010/05/07/may-2010/ Please see my remarks to the Faculty Senate on Friday, May 7, 2010. Faculty Roles and Rewards II I voice my support for the…  
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   ]]> Please see my remarks to the Faculty Senate on Friday, May 7, 2010.

   Faculty Roles and Rewards II

   I voice my support for the Faculty Roles and Rewards II document (FRRII). Full-time, non-tenure track employees serve important functions at our university, and I think it important to acknowledge them formally and tangibly when appropriate.

   It is also important to note that the FRRII document underscores that departments retain authority in decision-making related to the issues spelled out in the document.

   Strategic Plan Revision Process

   I have recently sent faculty two requests for input in the strategic plan revision process, and I reiterate here those requests.

   1. I seek your assistance in identifying goals, objectives, strategies, and pledges from the current, long-range plan, UALR: Fast Forward, which you believe should be retained in the updated draft to be developed over the next 6 months. The link below will take you to a website listing all goals, objectives, strategies, and pledges. Please send your thoughts on which of the goals, objectives, strategies, and pledges should be retained via email to Kathy Oliverio: kmoliverio@ualr.edu. Please be sure to identify the goal, objective, strategy, or pledge clearly (for example: Goal 2, Objective 3, Strategy 4 or Pledge 6). We would appreciate any rationale for your choices that you wish to share. Website: http://ualr.edu/about/strategicplan/update/.
   2. I seek your thoughts on UALR’s development over the next few years. Specifically, what should UALR be in 5-7 years and what specific steps (goals, objectives, strategies) will get us there? Please submit any thoughts you wish to share to Kathy Oliverio at kmoliverio@ualr.edu, and include in the email subject line the words UALR Strategic Plan/Vision to help us in cataloguing the responses.

   I recognize that this is a very busy time of the academic year. There is no deadline for submission of ideas, and thus I hope you will feel free to turn to these requests after finals and commencement are completed. I will also reiterate this request for input several times during the summer. I hope to have early thoughts and feedback compiled for reactions by the time school begins.

   End of the Year

   For reasons we have discussed in detail before, this has been a challenging year. But it has also been a good year filled with many accomplishments, and I thank the faculty for their efforts in making it so.

   I am also grateful to Richard Ford who has served as President of the Faculty Senate for the last four years. He has been a great partner and colleague and a worthy advocate for the faculty. It has been my pleasure to work with him.

   Have a great summer!

   Sincerely yours,
   David O. Belcher
   Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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   ]]> http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/05/07/may-2010/feed/ 0 http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/04/16/april-2010/ http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/04/16/april-2010/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:02:01 +0000 adm_wordpress http://ualr.edu/academics/index.php/2010/04/16/april-2010/ Please find below my remarks to the Faculty Senate on Friday, April 16, 2010. Board of Trustees Curricular Actions At its meeting this morning…  
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   ]]> Please find below my remarks to the Faculty Senate on Friday, April 16, 2010.

   Board of Trustees Curricular Actions

   At its meeting this morning the UA System Board of Trustees approved two new UALR programs: the Construction Engineering program and the Shepherd Program in Poverty Studies. These will be presented to the Higher Education Coordinating Board at its meeting later this month.

   Accreditation Visits

   Since my last Faculty Senate meeting, UALR has hosted the final two accreditation visits of the year – those for the Bowen School of Law and for the Art Department. I was involved in exit interviews in both cases and am pleased to report that both academic units received strong, supportive reviews.

   The burden of nine accreditation visits in a single year has been challenging for us this year. However, the accreditation process is very important. We live with our programs day in and day out, and we have a real sense of strengths, challenges, and trajectories for our programs. It is important periodically to bring in objective sets of eyes to affirm, confirm, and guide. The accreditation process helps to ensure the quality of our programs and that we stay aligned with developments in our disciplines.

   I am pleased with and proud of the outcomes of the nine accreditation visits this year. Certainly, we have issues which we must address. But the outcomes of the reviews have been positive. And I am very proud of and grateful to the many people across our campus who have shepherded the self-study and site visit processes which demand great amounts of time, energy, and thoughtful reflection.

   Strategic Plan Revision Update

   As you know, I solicited input earlier this semester from the campus community about our achievements in recent years related to the goals, objectives, and strategies of our strategic plan, UALR: Fast Forward. We received in excess of 550 responses. I have asked Jim Lynch to compile an executive summary of those responses for us to share with both internal and external audiences.

   The next phase of the strategic plan revision process will consist of two solicitations. The first solicitation will request your perspectives on what goals, objectives, strategies, and pledges from UALR: Fast Forward we should retain in the revised plan. We have achieved some of our goals; we have decided not to pursue others because of changes in circumstances, priorities, etc. Still others are ongoing pursuits. The first communiqué will ask for your thoughts on which of these we should retain as priorities.

   The second request will solicit perspectives on where UALR should be or go in the next 5 – 7 years. What should UALR look like 5 – 7 years from now, and, with answers to that question in mind, what goals, objectives, and strategies should we put in place to help us get there?

   You will be receiving these requests within the next several weeks. I anticipate having some preliminary drafts of goals, objectives, and strategies for the revised plan ready for review and response by the time school starts in August.

   Sincerely yours,
   David Belcher
   Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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   ]]> http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/04/16/april-2010/feed/ 0 http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/02/22/february-2010/ http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/02/22/february-2010/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:51:07 +0000 adm_wordpress http://ualr.edu/academics/index.php/2010/02/22/february-2010/ UGC Proposal that the Faculty Senate President and Provost appoint the Task Force to revisit the Undergraduate Curriculum Senator Nick Jovanovic raised some questions…  
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   ]]> UGC Proposal that the Faculty Senate President and Provost appoint the Task Force to revisit the Undergraduate Curriculum

   Senator Nick Jovanovic raised some questions earlier today via an email to senators about the UGC motion on the Faculty Senate agenda proposing that the Faculty Senate President and Provost appoint the membership of the task force to revisit the undergraduate curriculum. Please feel free to do as you see fit with that motion. FS President Ford and I were simply trying to facilitate moving forward on the topic of revisiting the undergraduate curriculum, and a body needs to be formed to take ownership of this initiative. The UGC already has a consistently full agenda with the regular undergraduate curricular proposals. In the 1980’s, then Chancellor Jim Young appointed the Blue Ribbon group which addressed the core curriculum; Ford and I saw the proposal from the UGC as a means to involve faculty in the process of putting the task force together. And the proposal mirrors the process which former Faculty Senate President Fred Williams and I used to appoint the Faculty Roles and Rewards Task Force in late 2005, a process which, because it worked so well in that case, seemed to be appropriate for this endeavor as well. I do think there is a great deal of merit in appointing this task force to ensure that the group has appropriate breadth – both senior and junior faculty, faculty with differing points of view, etc.

   Follow-Up on Senator Jim Nickels’ Remarks regarding Implementation of ACT 182

   Senator Jim Nickels, who serves as a representative in the General Assembly, shared with the Faculty Senate that there is draft legislation which, if adopted, would modify the processes associated with implementing ACT 182, the transfer act. The current process with such legislation is that the Arkansas Department of Higher Education puts an implementation process in place and UALR, like all institutions of higher education, then works in collaboration with ADHE to comply. The draft legislation, if adopted, would require consultation on institutional compliance plans with a legislative committee.

   Budget

   I will initiate during the week of February 22 a budget planning exercise to engage deans in the process of grappling with potential budget cuts. The purpose of the exercise is not to nail down the cuts we will make; rather, the purpose is to grapple with the potential challenges which cuts would pose for us; to study how, for example, we would make significant cuts to our budgets without impacting enrollment which accounts for a large majority of UALR’s revenue; and to explore creative strategies we might pursue. The budget picture continues to be unclear, and it will not likely clear until mid-spring. The goal of this exercise will be to be prepared.

   Sincerely yours,

   David Belcher

   Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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   ]]> http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/02/22/february-2010/feed/ 0 http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/01/28/january-2010/ http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/01/28/january-2010/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:41:36 +0000 adm_wordpress http://ualr.edu/academics/index.php/2010/01/28/january-2009/ Please find below my remarks to the Faculty Senate at its meeting on Friday, January 22, 2010. While I am focusing the bulk of…  
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   ]]> Please find below my remarks to the Faculty Senate at its meeting on Friday, January 22, 2010.

   While I am focusing the bulk of my remarks today on budget issues, I do want to share a message from the Chancellor, who is attending an Arkansas Presidents and Chancellors meeting, regarding the draft IRB Policies and Procedures.

   Status of IRB Policies and Procedures

   Chancellor Anderson has asked Matt McCoy in the UA System General Counsel’s office to review the UALR draft document against the backdrop of compliance with federal regulations and in comparison with similar documents at other institutions both in Arkansas and outside of state. Discussions between Joel and Matt are ongoing. That document and the comments on it – both in support and in disagreement – are on the Chancellor’s radar screen.

   Budget Cuts Earlier This Fiscal Year

   UALR received some one-time funding in the budget processes of Spring 2009. President Sugg instructed the various UA campuses to set aside one-time funding in a reserve in anticipation that we might very well encounter budget cuts during the course of the current fiscal year. In fact, we encountered two budget cuts in the second half of 2009. Because of the reserve fund and increased enrollment in the fall, UALR was able to accommodate the budget cuts without any impact on budgets around the campus.

   Budget Cut Announced January 11

   UALR’s share of the $106M budget cut which Governor Beebe announced on January 11 is $1.415M. UALR’s reserve fund designed to take care of budget cuts was depleted in October 2009, so the Chancellor instituted two freezes: hiring and purchasing.

   The hiring freeze impacts both this current year (in the Academic Affairs division, these are largely non-faculty positions) and next year (both faculty and non-faculty positions).

   The purchasing freeze impacts non-personnel budgets. As Chancellor Anderson detailed in his January 13 memo, the purchasing freeze is a temporary freeze through February 4 and is designed to give the institution the time to review our current budget situation and accomplish the immediate budget cut thoughtfully and with as great a degree of flexibility as possible.

   The various divisions of the institution are pursuing their allocated cuts which are proportional to the percentage of the overall institutional budget the various divisions supervise.

   The Academic Affairs percentage of the budget cut is $1,085,822. Here is how we are accommodating this figure:

   1) We are looking first at all non-faculty personnel vacancies to see if these can be frozen for the rest of this fiscal year. Salary savings from these positions can be applied toward the cut. While there will probably be a few exceptions for positions in particularly critical areas, most of these will be frozen. Were state revenue to turn around in the coming months resulting in our not having to take a cut in next year’s budget, those positions would be available to be filled with the beginning of the next fiscal year. This process just claims salary savings from non-faculty personnel vacancies for the rest of the current fiscal year.

   2) The second target for budget cuts is the provost’s instructional reserve budget. This is the account in my office where faculty salary savings accumulate. Thus, if a faculty member resigns and the position is not filled, the money accumulates in this account. Note: this is not a carry-forward account; that is, I lose any unspent funds in this account at the end of the fiscal year (June 30). However, this funding source is reserved exclusively for instructional purposes and is my only source of funding for emergency hire situations (faculty member has to be replaced because of catastrophic illness, for example), suddenly needed extra classes (as, for example, has occurred because of our remarkable surge in demand for calculus classes), and additional funding to supplement college summer budgets to accommodate summer enrollment demand. I am collecting the best estimates possible on summer school needs for this summer to ensure that I have enough to accommodate summer enrollment demand, a process which will help me know how much of the provost’s instructional reserve I can contribute to the budget cut.

   3) The rest of the budget cut will have to come from non-personnel budgets (maintenance budgets, predominately) around the campus. I will distribute proportionate cuts to the deans who will work with their colleges to accommodate these one-time cuts.

   After we have identified the sources for UALR’s budget cut, we will remove the purchasing freeze and continue with business as usual.

   Next Year’s Budget

   The budget picture for next year is unclear. The Governor’s budget presented on January 11 does call for a cut. In addition to these expected cuts, we are also aware of some known additional costs which are headed our way – increases in utility costs (ca. $500,000 by current estimates) and in health care insurance (ca. $600,000 if UALR covers the cost of the employees’ portion of the increase as it has done in recent years). There are additional unknowns: state revenues could be better or worse than forecast; the General Assembly will soon convene for its first-ever fiscal legislative session and it is unclear what the implications of such a session might be; student enrollment for next year is unknown (though maintaining and even growing the UALR student population will be a top priority); and we do not know whether or not a modest tuition increase is likely, taking into consideration, on one hand, the trying circumstances in which many Arkansas families find themselves and, on the other, the anticipated budget cuts faced by universities who are experiencing significant enrollment increases.

   The picture is unclear. It is my hope that we will get some guidance soon on how much UALR might expect in cuts for next year so that we might engage in a thoughtful planning process. However, until we get such guidance we are on hold and the hiring freeze, with very few exceptions, will be in place.

   We do anticipate that we will have to cut our budget next year; we do not yet have a sense by how much. It will be imperative that we cut strategically and respond to the resulting situation creatively to ensure that we maintain our institution’s momentum.

   In light of the anticipated budget cut, we will not host our regular budget hearings which tend to focus largely on how to spend anticipated new monies. The chancellor will, however, orchestrate budget discussions to maintain the transparency we value at UALR and to glean input and feedback as we target strategic decision-making.

   I am grateful for the patience, goodwill, and understanding demonstrated by our university community as we face challenging times. We will get through this tough period, emerging as an even stronger, more focused institution of higher education.

   Sincerely yours,
   David Belcher
   Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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   ]]> http://ualr.edu/academics/2010/01/28/january-2010/feed/ 0 http://ualr.edu/academics/2009/12/07/december-2009/ http://ualr.edu/academics/2009/12/07/december-2009/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:08:21 +0000 adm_wordpress http://ualr.edu/academics/index.php/2009/12/07/december-2009/ December 7, 2009 Dear Colleagues: I write to share with you my report to the Faculty Senate in its meeting on Friday, December 4,…  
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   ]]> December 7, 2009

   Dear Colleagues:

   I write to share with you my report to the Faculty Senate in its meeting on Friday, December 4, 2009.

   We knew coming into the 2009-2010 academic year that this was going to be a big year, full of big, challenging projects. We have already hosted six accreditation site visits this fall and look forward to three more in the spring semester. The faculty has grappled with university-wide promotion and tenure guidelines and IRB policies and procedures. The Faculty Roles and Rewards II Task Force is preparing a draft document for faculty consideration in the coming months. And, under the leadership of President Ford, the faculty is beginning to explore the revisiting of the undergraduate curriculum with a particular focus on the core curriculum.

   This is weighty, substantive work which faculty is addressing on top of routine responsibilities of teaching, research, and service. Engaging in this work requires enormous amounts of time, thought, and energy. I appreciate the faculty’s commitment to this university demonstrated through its engagement in these discussions and processes.

   It is not unusual for us as a faculty not to agree with one another on everything. This is OK. If there is any place where debate should occur, it should be in the academy. And what we find at UALR is that there are good, thoughtful people engaged on all sides of the topics at hand.

   From time to time, it is important for us to push ourselves back from the immediacy, the urgency, and the friction surrounding debate on these topics to remember this: that good people are engaged on all sides of the issues. We may disagree with one another, but we are colleagues.

   Thank you for being good people who believe in UALR to such an extent that you will engage in these debates.

   Happy Holidays!

   David Belcher

   Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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