10 proposals receive Road Map funding

The Road Map Steering Committee recently completed its review of the proposals put forward for funding for the 2015-16 academic year, ranking the top 10 to receive a portion of the $1.8 million base, continuing funding available. These funds will be used primarily to add support staff in areas of priority and need. A separate budget of $3.2 million will be used to hire new faculty to start in the 2015-16 academic year. New faculty lines are determined by the Provost’s Office in consultation with deans and department chairs.

“A number of the proposals we received were combined prior to the steering committee’s deliberations, due to their similarity,” said President Harvey Stenger. “We brought it down to 54 proposals and had members of the steering committee rank all of them online before we met to discuss them.”

During a day-long session in mid-June, the committee refined the online rankings – with the five strategic priority sub-committees focusing on those that aligned with its priority: creative activities, learning community, inclusive campus, global impact and strategic investments.

With limited dollars available for the 2015-16 year, it was impossible to fund more than a few proposals, said Stenger, so after each sub-committee ranked its assigned proposals, the entire steering committee ranked the top 10 proposals overall, again matching them with strategic priorities.

“As you can imagine, discussion was intensive,” said Stenger, “but we agreed on funding the following proposals, at a level yet to be determined, in the 2015-16 academic year:”

• Four staff hires for undergraduate and graduate student recruitment
• Twenty new lines for PhD student stipends and tuition
• Two staff hires for the “4-1-1” Program
• Seven staff hires in academic affairs to meet demands of enrollment growth
• Four staff hires for undergraduate advising
• Three staff hires to support Transdisciplinary Areas of Excellence activities
• One staff hire and seed funding for entrepreneurship and innovation partnerships
• One staff hire to direct a Language Center
• Additional funds for faculty start-up
• Two staff hires for the Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion

Specific information on the proposals moving forward can be found online, and the University will also jump-start those that are ready for implementation now by matching up to $1 million in funding, said Stenger.

These funding recommendations were reviewed by the Faculty Senate Budget Review Committee (FSBRC), which provided thoughts and recommendations on the process as well as the funding choices. While the FSBRC was in agreement with many of the top 10 proposals, some were not fully endorsed. These differences in priority are expected but in general were around a minority of the decisions.

“The foundation established by the original Road Map teams remains strong, and the current Road Map Steering Committee has been building on that work,” said Stenger. “The proposals we received came from all corners of our campus and I thank everyone for their participation. I pledge to keep you informed of our progress on the Road Map to Premier.“