With the 2017-18 academic year kicking off, the University of Idaho’s administration remains focused on fulfilling more objectives in the strategic plan. UI President Chuck Staben said pinpointing exact goals for a year-long timeline is challenging when there are so many factors in measuring the the university’s progress. However, he said the strategic plan is a long-term plan and is confident progress will be made.
Staben said alongside the many objectives within the nine-year plan, the first priority is increasing enrollment. “My number one goal for quite a while, and is embodied in the strategic plan, is increasing enrollment at the University of Idaho,” Staben said. “And really trying to change Idaho’s college-going culture, and enhancing the opportunities for the student of Idaho.”
Staben said although expecting a significant hike in enrollment over one year is unrealistic, his administration is doing its best to fulfill its enrollment goal in accordance with the plan.
“I don’t see this kind of change happening in one year,” Staben said. “This is a multi-year effort, and so what we’ve been doing is putting in place mechanisms and processes that will help to enhance that.”
Staben said the university constantly looks to refine its previous enrollment systems in order to make the enrollment process more efficient. Staben said a big reason for the university’s progress would be the workers who comprise his administration, naming UI’s Provost and Executive Vice President Dean Kahler and Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives Cher Hendricks.
“We’ve spent a lot of time over the past year building our team,” Staben said. “We feel like we’ve been making progress, while at the same time being poised for further progress.”
Staben said he is confident in UI’s ability to complete the strategic plan within the allotted time.
“I’m always more inpatient then I should be,” Staben said. “I always want to move faster and reach higher, but I would say we are doing well. I would say we are fundamentally on track, and doing quite well.”
Staben said the biggest struggle with the university reaching its goals would be the general lackluster college-going culture that has become redundant in Idaho.
“I think the big long-term challenge on the enrollment goal – would really be Idaho’s college going culture,” Staben said. “We’re looking at a High School graduate population of about 46 percent that go on to secondary education, and that needs to increase significantly to reach our
enrollment goals.”
Staben said a change in morale and culture is not an impossible one.
“A college education really opens doors both economically and personally,” Staben said. “But the struggle is changing that culture, making people understand that they have access to a great education. College education is attainable. It is likely to require some effort, it may require them to take out a loan, but the payoff is such a wise investment in themselves. That kind of culture change is not a trivial one, in my opinion.”
Along with enrollment, the strategic plan has four main categories — innovate, engage, transform and cultivate. Staben said there is progress being made in each category, but specifically referenced the innovation and cultivation aspects of it.
“When it comes to innovating, one thing we’re planning is – what may be the United States best research dairy called the Café Project,” Staben said. “We’ve received ten-million dollars in appropriation from the legislature to really feed that project.”
Staben said this year he has seen a lot of progress in cultivating the community. The university has put a lot of focus on insuring its employees are appropriately compensated by adopting a system of market based compensation, which he said has helped allocate funds for salary increases.
“I see us moving forward on multiple fronts,” Staben said.
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]