2008 Woodie Awards
University releases sweeping 10-year plan
Ken Pitts and Kevin Robillard
Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: News
The university yesterday unveiled a draft of its strategic plan for the next decade, proposing bold changes in international education, graduate programs, the CORE curriculum and distribution of resources to departments, along with specific goals for fundraising, recruitment and diversity.
The strategic plan, which comes out once a decade, guides the university through the near future, ultimately aiming to make it "world class." Goals, ranging from specific benchmarks to vague long-term hopes, cover virtually every area of the university - from media relations to improving Route 1 to building a new center to help professors with teaching skills.
"This plan is a plan for reshaping the university. This plan is a plan for building a university that the citizens of the state of Maryland - and, quite frankly, of the nation - will be proud of for many years to come," Provost Nariman Farvardin said. "If the plan is successfully developed and implemented, it's a transformational plan."
Though the plan's scope is broad, it emphasizes four areas: the university's CORE general education program, graduate education, international programs and improving the community surrounding the university.
"If these four are not the priorities for a world-class university, I don't know how you can build a world-class university," Farvardin said.
Some of the initiatives the plan outlines are long-standing goals of the university, but many ambitious new goals. Here are a few of the university's most dramatic new projects.
CORE
The biggest change for undergraduates in the future will be the proposed overhaul of general education, or CORE, requirements. The proposed program is based on themes instead of disciplines. For example, planners suggest that instead of filling a history requirement, students will fulfill a "civic engagement" requirement. It is also likely that the revamped CORE program will also involve fewer credits.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Another major part of the plan is improving and expanding the university's international programs enough to make "travel, study, and work abroad ... a normal part of a student's [u]niversity experience." The plans aims to increase the number of students studying abroad every year from 1,270 last school year to 3,000 ten years from now.
It also aims to increase the number of students who participate in internship and service-learning abroad, and for 50 percent of undergraduate major programs to include a prominent in their curricula.
In addition, the university will add a Global Studies minor that could be expanded into a major or master's program, and planners hope to make a globalization and interdependence category in the new general education plan.
The new general education category is key to implementing an international focus, said Kathy McAdams, an associate dean for undergraduate studies.
"You can go through CORE without talking about anything outside the United States," she said.
The university also hopes to increase the proportion of international students from the current 2 percent, aiming for 5 percent in the next five years and 8 percent in the next 10 years.
"The more cultures we bring to the university, the better," said Bill Montgomery, vice-chair of the strategic plan steering committee. "We're training people to live in this globalized world."
GRADUATE EDUCATION
The graduate education goals seem to be designed to solve a checklist of long-standing complaints about financial problems from graduate students. The plan says graduate students will have the "financial support to compete with the top graduate programs in the country" and "graduate with little or no debt."
The university said graduate assistant stipends will be competitive with peer institutions, with a recommended minimum of $18,000. In order to do this, the university is proposing cutting the number of doctorate students on campus by about 22 percent, adding "a cost-saving modification in health insurance ... that does not reduce benefits," and better matching the size of doctorate programs to available resources.
Devin Ellis, a graduate public policy student who served on the strategic planning committee, called the proposal for graduate education - with its cut in the number of students and increase in funding for those who will remain - "ambitious."
"It makes some tough and controversial decisions," Ellis said.
But the proposed stipend hike "is not an enormous 'Wow' number," Ellis said, pointing out that many graduate assistants already make more than $18,000 a year. "But it's going to make a huge difference for folks in the humanities."
The cut in the number of doctorate students, however, is "likely to cause a lot of hair-pulling in certain departments on campus," Ellis said.
The ultimate goal for the graduate education plan, Ellis said, is to raise the university's 48 percent doctorate graduation rate, which will help the university rise in graduate program rankings. The higher stipends, combined with an increase in full-time students, should be able to do just that.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
The strategic plan includes ambitious academic goals.
The number of university programs in the top 10 nationally should be 50 or more by 2018, the plan states. Also, every major program at the university should be ranked in the top 50 by that year. "The continuation of major programs that do not reach that target will require approvals and special justification," the report warns. Montgomery said the part was sure to be debated.
"Is it achievable? Probably," he said. "But it's not a guillotine of sorts."
The strategic plan also aims to make it easier for the provost to award funding to colleges based on achievements and take away funding if he believes it's not needed.
The university doesn't regularly take resources away from colleges even if the number of students enrolling falls - meaning the ratio of professors to students in various colleges can differ significantly.
Also, if a professor leaves, his college will retain only half of his salary. The other half will go to the provost's office for reallocation.
"The deans aren't going to like this," Montgomery admits.
The college the professor leaves can get the funds back, but "you're going to have to prove that it's worthwhile," Ellis said.
Programs with low enrollment or productivity will be reevaluated . The plan seeks to stabilize undergraduate enrollment at about 25,000 students by 2013.
OTHER GOALS
In addition to the new initiatives, the strategic plan also reiterates goals the university has had for months or even years: improving Route 1 and the surrounding area, building more student housing, making the campus carbon-neutral, increasing student and faculty diversity and getting more of the best Maryland high school students to come here.
There are other new ideas, including a university teaching center to help professors and graduate students develop their teaching skills. New research goals include having over $600 million in research funding by 2018 and developing at least six university-wide major research initiatives in critical areas such as climate change and nanotechnology.
WHERE'S THE MONEY?
The wide scope of the plan begs one question: How does the university plan to pay for the changes it proposes? Where will the university get the money to increase faculty and graduate assistant salaries, add international programs and build more housing?
Part of the answer will be fundraising from alumni. The university wants to raise more than $1 billion dollars by the end of 2011. By 2018, the university wants to increase its current endowment from $420 million to more than $1.2 billion, which would start to close a major endowment gap between Maryland and its peer institutions.
Also by 2018, the university wants to double the number of alumni donations and have a quarter of all alumni donating to the university annually.
Though administrators hope the state will increase funding, Farvardin said the university won't rely on it.
"We're not going to put all our eggs in one basket," he said. "We're going to leave no stone unturned, but we are not going to exclusively rely on the state of Maryland to help us achieve the goals of this strategic plan; we are going to do this one way or another."
Montgomery made it clear the university is seeking more input about the plan, which is likely to go through at least one more draft before going to the University Senate for final approval by April 21.
"It's not written in stone. Read it yourself," he said.
robillarddbk@gmail.com
pittsdbk@gmail.com
The strategic plan, which comes out once a decade, guides the university through the near future, ultimately aiming to make it "world class." Goals, ranging from specific benchmarks to vague long-term hopes, cover virtually every area of the university - from media relations to improving Route 1 to building a new center to help professors with teaching skills.
"This plan is a plan for reshaping the university. This plan is a plan for building a university that the citizens of the state of Maryland - and, quite frankly, of the nation - will be proud of for many years to come," Provost Nariman Farvardin said. "If the plan is successfully developed and implemented, it's a transformational plan."
Though the plan's scope is broad, it emphasizes four areas: the university's CORE general education program, graduate education, international programs and improving the community surrounding the university.
"If these four are not the priorities for a world-class university, I don't know how you can build a world-class university," Farvardin said.
Some of the initiatives the plan outlines are long-standing goals of the university, but many ambitious new goals. Here are a few of the university's most dramatic new projects.
CORE
The biggest change for undergraduates in the future will be the proposed overhaul of general education, or CORE, requirements. The proposed program is based on themes instead of disciplines. For example, planners suggest that instead of filling a history requirement, students will fulfill a "civic engagement" requirement. It is also likely that the revamped CORE program will also involve fewer credits.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Another major part of the plan is improving and expanding the university's international programs enough to make "travel, study, and work abroad ... a normal part of a student's [u]niversity experience." The plans aims to increase the number of students studying abroad every year from 1,270 last school year to 3,000 ten years from now.
It also aims to increase the number of students who participate in internship and service-learning abroad, and for 50 percent of undergraduate major programs to include a prominent in their curricula.
In addition, the university will add a Global Studies minor that could be expanded into a major or master's program, and planners hope to make a globalization and interdependence category in the new general education plan.
The new general education category is key to implementing an international focus, said Kathy McAdams, an associate dean for undergraduate studies.
"You can go through CORE without talking about anything outside the United States," she said.
The university also hopes to increase the proportion of international students from the current 2 percent, aiming for 5 percent in the next five years and 8 percent in the next 10 years.
"The more cultures we bring to the university, the better," said Bill Montgomery, vice-chair of the strategic plan steering committee. "We're training people to live in this globalized world."
GRADUATE EDUCATION
The graduate education goals seem to be designed to solve a checklist of long-standing complaints about financial problems from graduate students. The plan says graduate students will have the "financial support to compete with the top graduate programs in the country" and "graduate with little or no debt."
The university said graduate assistant stipends will be competitive with peer institutions, with a recommended minimum of $18,000. In order to do this, the university is proposing cutting the number of doctorate students on campus by about 22 percent, adding "a cost-saving modification in health insurance ... that does not reduce benefits," and better matching the size of doctorate programs to available resources.
Devin Ellis, a graduate public policy student who served on the strategic planning committee, called the proposal for graduate education - with its cut in the number of students and increase in funding for those who will remain - "ambitious."
"It makes some tough and controversial decisions," Ellis said.
But the proposed stipend hike "is not an enormous 'Wow' number," Ellis said, pointing out that many graduate assistants already make more than $18,000 a year. "But it's going to make a huge difference for folks in the humanities."
The cut in the number of doctorate students, however, is "likely to cause a lot of hair-pulling in certain departments on campus," Ellis said.
The ultimate goal for the graduate education plan, Ellis said, is to raise the university's 48 percent doctorate graduation rate, which will help the university rise in graduate program rankings. The higher stipends, combined with an increase in full-time students, should be able to do just that.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
The strategic plan includes ambitious academic goals.
The number of university programs in the top 10 nationally should be 50 or more by 2018, the plan states. Also, every major program at the university should be ranked in the top 50 by that year. "The continuation of major programs that do not reach that target will require approvals and special justification," the report warns. Montgomery said the part was sure to be debated.
"Is it achievable? Probably," he said. "But it's not a guillotine of sorts."
The strategic plan also aims to make it easier for the provost to award funding to colleges based on achievements and take away funding if he believes it's not needed.
The university doesn't regularly take resources away from colleges even if the number of students enrolling falls - meaning the ratio of professors to students in various colleges can differ significantly.
Also, if a professor leaves, his college will retain only half of his salary. The other half will go to the provost's office for reallocation.
"The deans aren't going to like this," Montgomery admits.
The college the professor leaves can get the funds back, but "you're going to have to prove that it's worthwhile," Ellis said.
Programs with low enrollment or productivity will be reevaluated . The plan seeks to stabilize undergraduate enrollment at about 25,000 students by 2013.
OTHER GOALS
In addition to the new initiatives, the strategic plan also reiterates goals the university has had for months or even years: improving Route 1 and the surrounding area, building more student housing, making the campus carbon-neutral, increasing student and faculty diversity and getting more of the best Maryland high school students to come here.
There are other new ideas, including a university teaching center to help professors and graduate students develop their teaching skills. New research goals include having over $600 million in research funding by 2018 and developing at least six university-wide major research initiatives in critical areas such as climate change and nanotechnology.
WHERE'S THE MONEY?
The wide scope of the plan begs one question: How does the university plan to pay for the changes it proposes? Where will the university get the money to increase faculty and graduate assistant salaries, add international programs and build more housing?
Part of the answer will be fundraising from alumni. The university wants to raise more than $1 billion dollars by the end of 2011. By 2018, the university wants to increase its current endowment from $420 million to more than $1.2 billion, which would start to close a major endowment gap between Maryland and its peer institutions.
Also by 2018, the university wants to double the number of alumni donations and have a quarter of all alumni donating to the university annually.
Though administrators hope the state will increase funding, Farvardin said the university won't rely on it.
"We're not going to put all our eggs in one basket," he said. "We're going to leave no stone unturned, but we are not going to exclusively rely on the state of Maryland to help us achieve the goals of this strategic plan; we are going to do this one way or another."
Montgomery made it clear the university is seeking more input about the plan, which is likely to go through at least one more draft before going to the University Senate for final approval by April 21.
"It's not written in stone. Read it yourself," he said.
robillarddbk@gmail.com
pittsdbk@gmail.com
The document used to report these stories is part of a work in progress. The plan is likely to change after the university community provides input.
To view the document used to report these stories in its entirety, visit the website http://sp07.umd.edu Community feedback is critical to the success of the strategic plan. To offer your comments, visit the website http://sp07.umd.edu/feedback.cfm The committee is accepting responses until March 21.
Submit a letter to the editor or post a comment below.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 7
WZD
posted 3/07/08 @ 12:37 PM EST
So, Bill Montgomery says "We're training people to live in this globalized world."
Really? Then why no mention of education in foreign languages? If the study of languages is not included in this idea of "Global Studies" then what the university is putting forward is a de facto concept of unilateralism where Americans impose English language and culture on the rest of the world. (Continued…)
thefrontpage
posted 3/07/08 @ 2:23 PM EST
Does the 10-year plan include scrapping a wasteful $700 million white elephant development plan that makes no sense on any level? Does the 10-year plan make any plans for lowering tuition, and helping out students from middle- and lower-class families who can't afford outrageous tuitions? Does the 10-year plan include plans for eliminating the ridiculous housing crunch at College Park? Does the 10-year plan include anything about lowering the costs of textbooks, which has become criminal? Does the 10-year plan include anything about improving crime, parking, food, housing and corruption problems at College Park and other campuses? Does the. (Continued…)
C Slacker
posted 3/08/08 @ 7:03 AM EST
Where is increase money for LEADERSHIP programs? I do believe that we need to provide LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES and LEADERSHIP LEARNING for our students. (Continued…)
Dan
posted 3/08/08 @ 10:41 AM EST
Ah yes, the sweatshirts. Gotta have those sweatshirts.
"Good sweatshirts make good leaders." - Robert Frost
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