Provost John Aber has asked academic departments and programs to undertake a set of initiatives to facilitate the reallocation of budget and facilities according to priorities identified in the university’s strategic plan and informed by last year’s Academic Review. The initiatives aim to increase efficiencies and free faculty time for close teaching and mentoring, increase recruitment and retention of students, build to strengths in research, and increase the number and flexibility of pathways to a UNH degree.

In a letter sent to faculty today, the provost noted the growing success of key revenue-enhancing initiatives highlighted in the strategic plan, The University of New Hampshire in 2020, which was adopted in 2010. Navitas, the program to recruit and enroll international students, has grown to more than 200 students in the 2012-13 academic year. More than 100 courses are currently offered through eUNH, the online teaching platform students can access year-round.

Aber also noted that the University-wide budget cuts made to address last year’s $38 million funding shortfall relied heavily on a voluntary separation incentive plan, which yielded more than 120 positions, 40 of which were faculty positions.  The impact of these losses in personnel was unevenly distributed across academic units and it had been anticipated that some would need to be refilled. Currently, the provost expects to refill 24 of the 40 faculty positions strategically targeted to academic areas showing exceptional growth or promise.

The seven initiatives described by the provost are intended to further address the impact of the state funding cuts, as well as the outcomes of the Academic Review, which asked each college to assess its activities in light of their alignment with the college’s mission, as well as through the lenses of efficiency and effectiveness.

Each initiative will yield specific plans to be presented to the colleges, deans, executive committees, chairs, faculty and staff:

• Develop college-specific processes for assessing intensity of use, and policies for allocation of research laboratory space and facilities.

• Consider combining some very small departments into larger, more diverse and integrated departments

• Identify departments with exceptional impacts on college and university finances and explore measures to reduce negative impacts.

• Develop and compare college workload guidelines that balance the three-part mission of tenure-track faculty (some colleges already have these).

• Conduct an external review of the graduate school and status of graduate programs.

• Continue and conclude the campus-wide, multi-year discussion on the organization of interdisciplinary areas of research excellence in marine, earth and space sciences. 

• Connect and enhance pre-college programs, and competency-based methods for assigning advanced standing and awarding college credits.

The complete text of the Provost’s letter can be seen here http://www.unh.edu/strategicplanning/letter-provost-john-aber.