Academic Planning Campus Conversations Round 2
Nov. 15, 2006
3-4 p.m., University Center, Aspen A
Facilitators: David Pringle, Robbyn Wacker
Themes:
- Was expressed in sessions attended by both faculty and staff
- Without good facilities it is hard to recruit and retain faculty, staff, and students
- Our “physical” image is important; parent who come see our run down facilities/grounds/classrooms get a negative impression
- Each are listed is a separate issue on their own- all should be in there
- Transpiring was a theme/issue that was brought up in the session- brought up repeatedly- consider that word in theme
- “leverage” tends to have a negative connotation;
- We need toot our own horn so we can show our good side
- Everyone else (CSU, CU, AIMS) has diversity – where is UNC?
- Employees who are aware of UNC and our quality is good for our students
- CSU is an intergraded [art of Fort Collins, but UNC just isn’t as intergraded- Greeley isn’t as “plugged in”
- Define community or communities
Missing in themes
- Possibilities for collaboration; collaboration is missing from themes
- Does appear several times in conversation we need to enhance too
- Engage the campus community in collaborative endeavors
- Foster intellectual environment at UNC; get together and talk about ideas and build on those ideas ( we are “stuck in our own worlds”)
- Diversity is missing (add what does it mean- should be as diverse as possible in our definition)
How do we get there?
- Compensation is critical (e.g. compete with CSU) look at salary’s of similar institutions and here in Northern Colorado and other like employers
- Bring compensation in line with….
- Give faculty/staff the facilities/ support /training to make us effective in our work
- Theme #2- what about diversity of faculty and staff
- Theme#3- invest in upkeep of grounds (personnel); we can’t do more with less
- Theme#4 – increase stipends for grad students
- Help faculty adopt/learn about new technologies
- Increase admissions standards
- Students need competencies in computer technology/ literacy BB; Ursa; Need to teach to students
- Retention of students- one more attention; smaller class sizes, increase learning communities, etc; need to so lots of things to attain high retention rates;
- Scholarship money need to increase
- Engage students in researching with faculty (grad and undergrads); also address teaching load to make this happen
- Compensation for doc dissertations
- Have a more active alumni – bring them back or on campus- etc; look back to UNC for recruiting students
- PR in general increased; raise awareness of our great academic programs
- Collaborate with faculty to assist with career services outreach activities