In late July, President Smith convened an Optimization 2.0 Working Group which launched the second phase of our program array work that was done last fall. The working group includes faculty and staff from across the university, including university leadership, faculty, staff, deans, and representatives from key departments such as admissions and marketing. The team’s objectives are to align programs with campus identity, effectively meet the needs of current and prospective students, ensure fiscal efficiency, and support the long-term sustainability of the five primary campuses and the university. Over the first four meetings, the group has reviewed and updated proposed elements of campus identity for each campus that will be highlighted in messaging, the website, and other channels once they are finalized. In conjunction with this work, the group has also reviewed program revenue/cost models as is beginning to align programs to disciplinary clusters that will be used as part of optimization. Watch for town hall meetings on each campus in September where additional details about this work will be shared.
The Academic Programs team is also happy to report that the faculty handbook is close to being published, and the work revising Academic Policy processes is nearly complete. Details of these efforts will be posted on the Portal soon.
Finally, it is the time of the year when faculty and staff begin to create academic schedules for the Spring term. We have revised the term schedule building process based on what we learned from the work that was done to create Fall. More details will be shared with those involved in the process in the coming weeks.