by Mark Sprague on October 7, 2011
University of North Carolina President Thomas Warren Ross gave his inaugural address on October 7, 2011 at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T) in Greensboro. In the speech he addressed seven items the University must do in order to continue our three-part mission (teaching, research, and service) in order to strengthen the people and communities of North Carolina. Ross said that the University must:
- Start with a new and heightened focus on academic success and academic accountability.
- Find new ways to help finance our programs and operations.
- Become more innovative and nimble [by consolidating services where appropriate].
- Refine our academic priorities and identify programs of excellence [we cannot be everything to everybody].
- Recognize our duty to serve all students, not just the traditional 18-year-old recent high school graduate.
- Do even more to unleash our faculty’s brainpower and creativity in a more strategic, targeted fashion to help solve some of our state’s and our world’s toughest problems.
- Prove once again that North Carolina’s deep-rooted belief in the transforming power of education has not been misplaced.
The full text of President Ross’ speech is available on the University of North Carolina Web site.
by Marianna Walker on August 18, 2011
East Carolina University’s Fall Faculty Convocation will be held on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. in Wright Auditorium. Traditionally, faculty convocations are held on the first Monday of the Fall semester. However, this year the change in date will allow for Chancellor Ballard to attend an August 22 meeting of all Chancellors with UNC President Tom Ross and obtain information on the current state of affairs.
During Fall Faculty Convocation, Chancellor Ballard will address the ECU Faculty and provide news from UNC General Administration relative to the budget and the state of the University and academic priorities. Attached and noted below is the full agenda. Please make plans now to attend Fall Faculty Convocation!
Fall Faculty Convocation Agenda
by Mark Sprague on August 18, 2011
Chancellor Ballard appointed the Program Prioritization Committee (PPC) with Ron Mitchelson as Chair in May 2011. The PPC membership includes administrators, faculty (including the Chair of the Faculty), and the Chair of the Staff Senate. The PPC charge is to continue the work of the Educational Planning and Policies Committee (EPPC) on how we should address tight budgets at ECU by recommending criteria that could be used to prioritize programs in case we have to make academic program cuts and by recommending ways to reduce administrative expenses through consolidation of academic units. The PPC will conduct studies during this academic year with a final report submitted to Chancellor Ballard on April 30, 2012. The Program Prioritization phase in underway right now, and the Potential Reorganization and Efficiencies phase will begin in January. (PPC Timeline) [click to continue…]
by Mark Sprague on April 26, 2011
Scott MacGilvray and Scott Gordon contributed to this article.
The ECU Educational Policies and Planning Committee (EPPC) and the University Budget Committee (UBC) gave a joint report on budget-related items at the April 19 Faculty Senate meeting. Although offered jointly, the EPPC and UBC sections of the report were developed separately by each respective committee. Chancellor Ballard charged the EPPC to develop prioritization criteria for programs, departments, schools, and colleges and to explore options for consolidation/realignment of colleges, schools, and/or departments that may reduce administrative costs with minimal or no losses of faculty and staff positions. The Chancellor charged the UBC to provide advice on budget matters. This joint report provides important faculty input from these Committees on what we can do to reduce costs and manage the budget crisis.
The EPPC portion of the report has two sections: prioritization criteria and consolidation/realignment. The prioritization section consists of a matrix for comparison of criteria for productivity, centrality, and quality with other campus organizations and various external entities (e.g. UNC-System, Peer institutions, etc.). Other universities—including Washington State University, Indiana State University, and Central Michigan University—have developed prioritization criteria, and the EPPC consulted their published documents as a reference. If program elimination is necessary at ECU for long-term cost savings, these criteria will be used to determine which programs to consider for elimination. The report does not recommend any type of weights for the criteria. Weighting will be an important part of any discussion on prioritization and any future prioritization decision.
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