Roadmap for the Future: Excellence in Action
Strategic Initiatives 2008 - 2013
Goal 1: Enhance the Culture of Faculty Excellence
Strategy: Attract, develop, and retain excellent faculty through improvements in academic resources and competitive compensation, within an environment of open communication.
Objective 1.1:
Elevate faculty salaries to national, discipline-specific standards such as those provided by the SREB or CUPA-HR peer averages by 2013.
a. Increase the number of endowed professorships/chairs.
b. Encourage faculty to pursue sponsored research grants that allow salary lines and indirect cost returns.
c. Improve programmatic and administrative efficiencies that will allow the reallocation of resources toward faculty salaries.
d. Encourage colleges and departments to seek outside funding to support academic programs.
e. Continue to reallocate new institutional resources toward elevating faculty salaries.
Objective 1.2:
Increase the number of nationally-recognized intellectual contributions 50% by 2013.
a. Recognize/reward/show appreciation for exceptional professional activities.
b. Review and establish specific criteria within each college’s merit raise process to ensure that professional activities are rewarded.
c. Identify and expand research resources and inform faculty and staff about those resources.
d. Require college departments to review, refine, implement, and distribute policies related to research publication expectations for faculty.
e. Review, refine, implement, and distribute college policies related to research publication expectations for graduate faculty.
f. Use the annual performance evaluation contract to ensure the realization of predetermined scholarship goals.
g. Encourage departments to create seminar/working paper series to encourage academic discourse.
h. Encourage research designs which incorporate faculty and staff collaborations across disciplines, colleges, and institutions.
i. Create a competitive, outcomes-based university fund designed to supplement college and departmental funding for research activities.
j. Increase support for national and international conferences on campus and in the region.
Objective 1.3:
Increase the number of grants and contracts awarded by outside entities 100% by 2013.
a. Develop and coordinate a faculty workload policy at the Academic Affairs level that encourages faculty to become involved in research and in seeking new grants and contracts.
b. Develop college and department faculty workload policies that are consistent with the university policy, encouraging faculty to become involved in research and in seeking new grants and contracts.
c. Align support for sponsored research with national best practices, in particular, consolidate grant and contracts into an Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR).
d. Hire an administrator for both academic and non-academic areas to locate, apply for, and administer grants for projects and initiatives.
Objective 1.4:
Increase attendance at professional development meetings 25% by 2013.
a. Implement a required program of faculty development for all faculty, including full- and part-time.
b. Colleges will implement a performance planning and evaluation system to enhance faculty development outcomes.
c. Establish an endowment in the ULM Foundation that will provide travel funds for professional development in a competitive process.
d. Focus professional development programming with a view toward (a) major theme(s) for the year.
e. Redesign the faculty orientation program with a focus on professional growth.
f. Refocus the efforts of the TLRC to support the professional development needs of the faculty.
g. Create a program that will provide support for instructors pursuing terminal degrees in their field of expertise.
h. Create a program that will support faculty seeking knowledge that will support implementation of best practices from the academy.
Objective 1.5:
Increase the percentage of faculty expressing satisfaction regarding open communication with the administration to 75% by 2013.
a. Create and implement an internal communication plan for the university.
b. Study and implement a plan for shared governance.
c. Encourage faculty to participate in shared governance.
d. Develop an instrument and method to evaluate open communication.