Working
Group on Targeted Excellence
Charge from the Provost
February 21, 2002
One of the recent goals President Wefald is that
of becoming a Top 10 Land-Grant Institution, reflecting a composite
of strengths across the scope of our mission. To achieve that
goal, the university must ensure that its academic program offerings
will best serve the needs of the citizens of Kansas and lead
to greater standing among universities in the next 10 years.
Today, K-State fulfills its mission in a very effective manner,
especially in terms of service to undergraduate students and
to constituents who depend on the university for information
and economic development. However, it is in the best interest
of the university and those who depend upon it to move further
up in academic standing among American universities. It is the
right time to build on the resource-based planning to date,
and turn our strategic planning process toward developing the
best approach for K-State to identify and invest in those programs
that will have the greatest impact in this respect. Upon reviewing
the strategic plan just completed over the last two years, one
will find that what follows is in very close alignment with
it, in the sense that the existing plan delineates what it takes
for any specific program to be successful in terms of resources,
infrastructure and other support.
By way of context, three fundamental issues
should be recognized:
- K-State has many high quality programs that
are central to the needs of constituents across the state
and region. Some of these are sole sources for a national
constituency (Grain Science and Milling are examples), while
others are critical to regional arrangements (Architecture
and related disciplines and Veterinary Medicine are examples).
Many of these are crucial to our mission, but may not play
a definitive role in how K-State is viewed across the country
in terms of standing among comparable universities.
- Programs that may have the greatest effect
on institutional reputation are all of great importance to
the ability of the university to accomplish its mission, but
do not necessarily coincide with those in greatest demand
at any given time by our constituents. To a significant extent,
the programs that have the greatest impact on institutional
reputation are those included in the National Research Council's
rankings of graduate programs. It should be noted that there
is a move afoot to include some Agriculture and Human Ecology
programs in these rankings.
- K-State has a long and rich history as an
undergraduate university with some good graduate programs
and some areas of research strength. These have expanded considerably
in the last ten years. However, the main determinant of institutional
reputation in the world of universities is graduate programs.
K-State currently participates in program reviews
promulgated by the Kansas Board of Regents. This process allows
us to assess current programs and to determine if they meet
the criteria set by the Board of Regents for continuance of
the programs. However, for K-State to fulfill its mission and
achieve its goal of becoming a premier institution, in line
with President Wefald's goal of becoming a Top 10 land-grant
institution, we must go beyond this program review and develop
a strategy to identify those programs on which the greatest
emphasis should be placed.
Many of the new, cutting-edge areas of inquiry
are at the interface of various disciplines, and interdisciplinary
study is an area that is experiencing phenomenal growth at many
universities. Thus, as part of our strategic plan, we also must
consider structures that can best support programs that spread
across the auspices of more than a single academic department.
Thus, the Working Group on Targeted Excellence
is charged with four related tasks:
- Identifying the characteristics of programs
in general which, within K-State's mission, obligations to
stakeholders, and strengths, would have the greatest effect
in moving the university's national reputation up, and
- Developing guiding principles, criteria,
standards and procedures for determining how funding should
best be distributed to enhance those programs with the most
promise of elevating the university's stature. This has been
addressed in a number of ways at other universities and resource
materials will be provided for reference. For instance, a
competitive proposal process has been used in at least one
high profile example.
In concert with the development of guiding principles, criteria,
standards and procedures, the Working Group should consider
addressing such issues as:
- How smaller departments in all colleges
can find the capacity and the critical mass to develop
an area of programmatic strength. This might be accomplished
by such means as focusing department strength in a particular
sub-discipline, while maintaining an ability to teach
a wide array of undergraduate courses.
- How departments, regardless of their size,
can seek interdisciplinary partnerships to enhance critical
mass and to form viable graduate programs.
- Funding must be a central issue in addressing
these objectives. A subcommittee of the Working Group, augmented
by appropriate fiscal expertise, will be appointed to work
with the administration to identify a realistic amount of
money to be made available over a five-year period and to
develop specific mechanisms for earmarking it for this purpose.
This aspect of the process will be finished simultaneously
with the rest of the committee's work.
- A comparative study of similar strategies used
at other institutions will be made. The purpose is to learn
from others what has worked well and what has not worked as
well.
After the initial guidelines, criteria, standards
and procedures are identified, a series of forums will be
held to share this information with the campus community and
to gather additional input from faculty, staff and administrators
to further refine the process. Once the procedures are finalized,
they will be submitted to the provost. Strategies to enhance
programs in general may be an additional outcome of the deliberations
of the Working Group.
Using the procedures developed by the Working
Group, the university will identify a limited number of programs
for investment over time to help them reach the desired level
of national recognition and achievement.