Faculty, Staff Review UNC Tomorrow Plan

The UNC Tomorrow process continued on campus Monday in an open meeting to critique the latest version of the university's report to the UNCT Commission. More than 60 faculty staff and students attended, and about two dozen of them offered their perspectives on the document.

NC State's report is due on May 1. Drafts of the "living" document have been available on line since mid-March and Provost Larry Nielsen has conducted several meetings and open forums involving hundreds of NC State employees to discuss the drafts.

UNC Tomorrow is a systemwide initiative to help the University of North Carolina's 17 institutions become more responsive to the needs of the state. NC State's evolving document sets 28 broad goals for the university to pursue in the coming years, including enhancing the quality of the faculty and staff, improving access to higher education, producing more and better teachers, improving health and well-being, and finding solutions to the world's energy and environmental challenges.

At Monday's open forum in Withers Hall, faculty and staff discussed the current version of the document, a one-page summary that will serve as the basis for the larger report. The goals outlined in the document were identified by three teams – a faculty team, a partners team and a strategy team – appointed by Chancellor James Oblinger.

The document's broad language is designed to encompass a wide range of ideas that could be fleshed out in future years, Nielsen said.

"It's a labor-intensive process," he said. "But I feel good about where we are."

Nielsen said NC State's goals were closely related to recommendations made by the UNC Tomorrow Commission last December, as well as the university's strategic plan developed in 2006.

"There's no threat to NC State from this process," Nielsen said. "We only have to gain from it."

Still, the provost noted that not every goal outlined in the document was likely to be funded by the UNC Board of Governors through state appropriations. "There are realities," he said. "We have to say how much money we need and where that money will come from."

Faculty members from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences urged Nielsen to strike wording from the document identifying NC State as a "STEM flagship." The university has long been a leader in the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"We are strong in the STEM fields, but we're also strong in humanities, social sciences and other fields," said associate professor David Ambaras. "I hope in the document we could get away from that kind of language."

Nielsen noted that consensus seemed elusive in the process. "Among the many ideas that have been discussed, though, the goal of creating a sustainable campus is one thing on the list that nobody's objected to, except to say, 'Do more, do better, do faster.'"

Links

UNC Tomorrow

NC State's Response