The aftermath of assessments — Program prioritization evaluations conclude and concerns are raised by faculty senators

Faculty Senate focused last week’s Tuesday meeting around the recently released program prioritization evaluations and special orders regarding the Great Colleges to Work For survey and the International Programs office.

In the chair’s report, Patrick Hrdlicka reported that he has received positive feedback from faculty regarding the bulleted list of key talking points he has sent to his colleagues in an effort to up communications surrounding Faculty Senate this year.

The program prioritization evaluation process concluded recently. Open forums were held on Sept. 11 for discussion and questions about the research results and what they mean for departments in the future. In the Provost’s report, John Wiencek responded to some department’s claims that the results of the recent assessments of their programs are unfair by saying that the process has room for improvement but is not deserving of all of the criticisms it is receiving.

Department of Business Faculty Sen. Terry Grieb noted he was pleased with the transparency with respect to the numbers regarding the program prioritization results. He said it was refreshing to see the administration holding itself responsible along with the colleges. Grieb also questioned the validity of the results and rankings of the department and asked for further explanation on how the findings will affect rankings.

Provost John Wiencek responded by explaining they viewed it as a research project, as opposed to a sociological one. Wiencek also stated there was ample opportunity for all departments to have a voice in the process before the research was actually conducted.

“I’m open to improvement and rational discussions but I’m not too appreciative of hypocritical talk about how this wasn’t inclusive or inviting or people weren’t allowed to comment on how to do things. That’s not the truth and to criticize things but to not be a part of the process is sort of like talking about the president and not voting. In my world that’s just not an appropriate thing to do. I would encourage people to be engaged as we try to improve the results,” Wiencek said.

Hrdlicka seconded Wiencek’s statement that employees had ample opportunity to give input throughout the program prioritization process. Hrdlicka also stated that as a member of the Faculty Senate leadership, he takes partial responsibility for missing key players when staffing last year’s work groups.

Hrdlicka raised concerns about the loss of jobs due to the program assessment and rankings. Wiencek responded by saying that the aim of the research was not to cause job loss but there is always some “natural turnover” at the university. Wiencek also noted that some of the vice presidents at UI have relatively small budgets, so any cut in their budgets can make for the possibility of changes in faculty and staff.

Following discussion on program prioritization, Rula Awwad-Rafferty, a member of the President’s Diversity Council, presented the results of the Great Colleges to Work For survey to the Faculty Senate. The goal of the survey, according to Awwad-Rafferty, was to assess campus climate as a work environment and to create strategic plans to address areas that staff and faculty find troubling around the university. The results of the survey will soon be available to all of the university.

Awwad-Rafferty noted and spoke on recurring themes across all categories of the survey. The themes she listed specifically were mistrust of senior leadership, lack of communication, lack of transparency and poor behavior which she described as micro-aggressions.

Awwad-Rafferty stated the results of the survey warrant more cultural competency training and more training on work-based behavior. She also noted that faculty, as a whole, had the highest areas marked as warrants attention.

Another topic of discussion involved an increase in international students.

The number of international students at UI increased by about eight percent this fall according to Mary Ellen Brewick, the director of international marketing and recruitment. Brewick pointed out that this percentage is technically unofficial and will be verified by the UI Fall Census on Oct. 8. Brewick attributed the recruitment team’s recent success to the strength of programs such as electrical engineering, the International Program’s office, as well as UI’s partner, The Global Student Success Program.

Katie Schiffelbein, director of the American Language and Culture Program (ALCP) at UI, gave an overview of the ALCP and conditional admission for international students. Conditional admission is utilized when a student meets the academic requirements for admission to the university, but not the English language requirements. These students are then placed into the ALCP program and go through intensive English language classes until they meet the UI regular admission requirement for language.

Schiffelbein noted there was about an 80 percent increase in international graduate students at UI this year. Schiffelbein also said she hopes that in the future more graduate programs will accept conditional admissions and that she would like to help graduate programs make that transition.

Elizabeth Marshall can be reached at [email protected].

 

 

 

 

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