Right after the new year, President Andrews sent an e-mail response to the two questions posed by readers of this blog (details below). I was very pleased that he also addressed these two concerns at Convocation on Wednesday, 7 January.
The two questions and answers are as follows:
1. Is literally "everything" on the table as we discuss budget cuts. His one-word answer is "yes."
2. What constitutes a "Program of Distinction" and how is this designation approved? Here, I'll cut and paste his e-mail response:
"We have one official program of distinction on our campus. It is IRAPP. That program resulted from the Higher Education Reform Act of 1997. In this legislation, each comprehensive institution was asked to develop and submit a proposal to create a program that had the potential to achieve national distinction. The past president and provost worked with the campus community to solicit proposals. My understanding is that IRAPP was selected from three or four proposals submitted. The proposal was reviewed on campus and by the BOR and submitted to the CPE and was approved. Annual reports of progress are submitted to the CPE via Academic Affairs. An institution may have additional programs of distinction. However, the CPE is not approving new programs with funding."
At Convocation, Dr. Andrews noted that the Space Science Center is not a "Program of Distinction," although he reiterated that the program is a valuable part of MSU's future.
I hope these answers help. Please continue to let me know what is on your mind. If you haven't read my posting on Presidential Evaluation and Compensation, please see the archives.
Ron
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3 comments:
Silicon Holler
Appreciate you asking the president important questions and keeping his feet to the fire regarding faculty concerns. The fact that President Andrews indicated during convocation that "everything will be on the table" was good to hear but doesn't mean much until the academic audit is complete. Looks like a lot more PR is going to be conducted on these "distinctive" programs to drum up support in the future. To have a space science program without an engineering program seems to be missing the mark. That’s like having a school for brain surgery without a medical school, that starts at the freshman level. It should also be noted that if other programs on campus with only 24 students got a multi-million dollar new building, a dozen new faculty, and only taught half time, that program should become quite "distinctive" also. This all might seem a bit critical of Space Science. I hope the program is a success for our university. It is an interesting concept. The attempt here is to focus on an even handed approach to the evaluation of our programs. If "everything is on the table" and is included in the academic audit than why weren't all programs included in the audit process, like our current program of distinction? During convocation, President Andrews once again invoked the line that faculty numbers are increasing while student numbers are decreasing without acknowledging some of the reasons why. More monitoring needs to be done about what is happening on this campus and I can only believe that the Silicon Holler mystery is just going to get more interesting as time goes on.
I have heard from a few very reliable sources that the administration tried to move the Program of Distinction designation from IRAPP to Space Sciences but that they were blocked by CPE.
Is this true?
James Garfield why did you wanted to become the president of the United States?
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