Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek spent his summer meeting deans, touring the state and visiting branch campuses.
Wiencek began his tenure at the University of Idaho June 1, and previously served as the interim provost and vice president of academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, a university with more than 30,000 students.
During the time he has spent on campus, Wiencek said upper administration must improve its internal communication with faculty and staff members. In the past, he said upper administration decisions could seem like mandates to faculty and staff.
“You can never over-communicate,” Wiencek said.
He said upper administration must do a better job communicating what actions are being made and why the changes are important.
“Before we take action, we need to understand the implications of those actions,” he said about the decision-making process.
Before he arrived on campus, Wiencek said university administrators decided to go forward with a plan that would remove spread pay for UI faculty due to legal concerns.
Spread pay allows faculty with appointments that last less than a year to spread their pay over a 12-month period, Wiencek said.
Claire Whitley | Argonaut
John Wiencek, University of Idaho’s Provost and Executive Vice President, helps students move in Thursday. Wiencek started his position June 1 and now serves as the university’s chief academic officer.
“And faculty expressed a lot of concern about it,” Wiencek said of the change, adding that employees said the change would cause a significant financial burden for their families.
According to Wiencek, it was not a graceful way to rollout a change, and mentioned he was surprised there was not more discussion surrounding the decision.
Taking into account faculty concerns, Wiencek said he decided to send out a memo hitting the reset button on the decision and requested more discussion.
To find out more about the university, Wiencek said he met with a number of deans and received tours of their departments as well as visited the Coeur d”Alene and Boise branch campuses. He said he has plans to meet with all of the deans on campus and as well as visit the Idaho Falls campus.
Wiencek said he values institutional knowledge and anticipated that it takes about a year to understand issues within the UI community.
While UI has challenges, Wiencek is optimistic about the long-term future of UI and said having a strong research base and a great undergraduate experience will position the university for growth.
“These are gems we really need to build on,” he said.
Wiencek said UI administration is interested in improving the undergraduate experience by improving the residence halls and increasing retention rates by helping students reach their professional goals.
“It”s a great university,” he said. “And it”s got some great programs.”
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryantarinelli