September 30, 2008

Kathy Robinson
President, Faculty Association

Mark E. Workman
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the questions posed at the September 4th Faculty Association meeting.  I apologize for the delay in doing so; it took a while to sort out the genealogy of lines pertaining to the second question.  While I responded verbally to the first question, I will take the liberty of providing a written outline of my response to that question as well as my response to the second question for the benefit of those colleagues who were not able to attend the meeting.

Question one:  Given the current budget crisis, the fact that we have a full complement of advisors, and the fact that Banner produces student progress reports/roadmaps, why are we wasting money on "roadmap coordinator" positions when there is no discernable benefit to students and a considerable cost?

Response:  I must respectfully reject the premise of the question.  The potential benefits to be derived from this position far exceed its cost.

Retention and degree completion are important for two reasons:  one is that, by mandate of the Board of Governors, the university has been and will continue to be evaluated and funded on its ability to retain students and graduate them in a timely manner; the second is that we owe it to students to give them the best advice we can about how to attain their educational objectives and to intervene when they diverge from achieving them.

Our rates are not as high as they should be in comparison to peer institutions.  (Our six-year graduation rate is 45%; our first-year retention rate is 79%.)  UNC Wilmington, for example, has higher rates of graduation and retention (60% and 83% respectively) attributable to a higher residential and full-time student population. While our student profile is increasing, and our dorm availability growing, it will take us longer to move our retention and graduation rates on those bases given the size of our part-time and commuter population.

As confirmed by OPPAGA (Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability) reports, roadmap initiatives have proven to be successful at UF and FSU.

In their conversations with the Task Force on Undergraduate Advising, every dean expressed a need for greater advising resources.  In the current fiscal environment we cannot afford to meet that demand.  What we can do is provide a service to the advisors that will facilitate their work.

The roadmap coordinator will work closely with each college advising office, with ITS, and with enrollment services to develop and maintain electronic programs of study that will alert both advisors and students to issues as they arise in a student’s progress toward degree completion and alert deans to bottleneck areas that might impede student progress so that scheduling can be adjusted accordingly.

The position will be housed in and report to the Associate VP of Enrollment Services.

The position has been funded largely with an empty A&P line that belonged to the president.  Indeed, this is as much the president’s and the Board  of Trustees’ initiative as it is that of AA.  The president and I discussed the need and timing for this position; we both agreed that we could not afford to defer this initiative.

With regard to the potential expansion of this initiative, that would depend upon two factors.  The first is the degree to which it proves to be effective.  The second is the degree to which it is funded by the Board of Governors and legislature.  The BOT was enthusiastic about the Legislative Budget Request that we submitted; regrettably, in the current fiscal environment it has virtually no chance of being funded.

This initiative, either in its nascent or potentially fully developed states, is not an effort to move toward centralized advising.  On the contrary, it will serve to augment the existing structure.

Response:  In terms of incremental funding, the net result of AA administrative appointments, transfers, and reductions is that the staff of Academic Affairs has grown by one new position since 2002.  To put this growth into a larger context, it is important to note that during this same period of time UNF’s enrollment has increased by approximately 1,900 students and the faculty has grown by 95 positions.

The position of Assistant Vice President for Research was established in 2006.  This position was recommended by the Search Committee after two unsuccessful searches for the position of Dean, Graduate Studies and Research. This position is funded ½ from E&G and ½ from C&G.

A Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies was established in 2007.

An Assistant Vice President position was cut in 2007. This cut resulted in Joann Campbell taking on the duties associated with space.

The Associate Vice President position previously held by Dennis Gayle and Bill Wilson was reclassified to an Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, with OFE, CIRT, Undergraduate Academic Enrichment, and Honors reporting to the AVP.

The Associate Vice President position previously held by Hank Camp was reclassified to an Associate Provost for Assessment and transferred to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Research. That position, subsequent to a recent resignation, will be reduced to an executive director.

Two support positions were transferred out of Academic Affairs to two units which report to Academic Affairs – Undergraduate Studies and Institutional Research.

As noted above, the roadmap coordinator position referred to in question one was funded with rate from a vacant A&P line and some rate redirected from a vacated administrative line.  This position is housed in and reports to Enrollment Services.

A spreadsheet detailing the AA staffing changes is available for your review.  While we will search (see number 5) for an executive director of assessment (to replace the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness who recently resigned) there are no new positions being proposed within AA.