Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost

The Executive Vice President and Provost leads efforts in academic excellence in undergraduate, graduate and professional education, and in the creation, sharing and applications of new knowledge. This document provides a series of pathways for achieving outcomes necessary for improving the academic prowess of Iowa State University.

The key to accomplishing these basic objectives is in the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty, staff and student body that is committed to intellectual rigor and challenge. Although the institution must provide its students with a comprehensive education, the plan also recognizes that the university must invest in those areas that reflect an emphasis on science and technology that is influenced by humanistic and socio-behavioral perspectives.

We recommend the continued use of Academic Plan Pool (APP) funds for partner accommodations. Allocations of these funds should be made to support the recruitment of an excellent and diverse faculty and staff. We propose that the fund be renamed Dual Career Opportunity Fund.

The plan calls for us to stretch our imaginations, and envisions a university that rewards creativity and that is forward thinking. While this plan details the short term goals envisioned in the 2005-2010 University Strategic Plan, it encourages and promotes visionary thinking that will take us well into the future.

Priority 1, Education: Strengthen undergraduate, graduate, and professional education to enhance student success at Iowa State University and beyond.

• Improve the rigor, challenge, and international reputation of academic programs.
  1. Recruit and retain outstanding students, as evidenced by an increase in the average ACT score and increased enrollment in programs that serve high ability students.
  2. Increase the number of programs ranked in the top ten nationally, based on NRC, US News & World Report or other appropriate measures. Each college will have at least one top ten program.
  3. Improve the perceived rigor and challenge of academic programs as measured by students through the National Survey of Student Engagement.
  4. Reward faculty for developing innovative curricula and/or teaching strategies. Measures of innovation include improvements in student learning, and adoption of instructional materials at peer universities.
  5. Evaluate the perceived efficacy of the Iowa State educational experience by obtaining feedback from employers about the students they hire.
  6. Departments and colleges will partner with Athletics when appropriate to ensure an environment that allows student-athletes to succeed.
  
  
• Strengthen students' critical thinking, creative abilities, and communication skills.
  1. Every student will participate in multiple and extensive problem-solving experiences appropriate to their discipline of study so as to learn and practice critical thinking, creative abilities, communication, and information literacy skills.
  2. Every undergraduate student will participate in Iowa State's implementation of multi-modal communication across the curriculum.
  3. Increase opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in collaborative research and learning projects, as well as actively participate in faculty research projects and faculty-guided special projects courses.
  
  
• Enhance students' understanding of global, cultural, ethical, and diversity issues
  1. Review courses used to meet US diversity and international requirements to ensure that these intended outcomes are satisfied.
  2. Increase opportunities for meaningful international experience for undergraduate students (e.g. study abroad, internship or work opportunities).
  3. Expand library collections and programs to support diversity, multi-culturalism, and globalization.
  
  
• Create an environment that welcomes students to explore a variety of disciplines and career paths. Enhance services to enable students to find rewarding careers.
  1. Increase the number of open option students and provide adequate advising for first year students.
  2. Review first year programs to determine if curricular pathways exist for students to change majors during their first year.
  3. Each College with undergraduate programs will create a first year seminar course that highlights areas of study in the College.
  4. Integrate into learning communities opportunities to interact with faculty and students in diverse disciplines. Include tours of campus facilities and research laboratories.
  5. Develop theme-based, linked courses that pull together multiple disciplines.
  6. Encourage departments to host visitors from industry and national laboratories to share with students potential career paths in their field.
  7. Promote existing career fairs and college career services.
  
  
• Partner with K-12 schools and community colleges to facilitate transfer to and student success at Iowa State University.
  1. Increase the number of articulation agreements with community colleges.
  2. Work with faculty at community colleges to ensure more comparable educational experiences.
  3. Develop a system of pre-registration advising for easier entry to ISU.
  4. Work with high schools to facilitate appropriate access to college courses.
  
  
• Develop, recognize, and reward excellent teaching.
  1. For faculty who do not have substantial teaching experience, develop training focused on teaching and classroom management strategies and sensitivity to a diverse student body.
  2. Make classroom performance a required component of professional development for untenured faculty.
  3. Encourage academic departments to perform peer teaching reviews of all faculty and assist them in utilizing campus resources for teaching.
  4. Set an expectation that improved student learning through innovative teaching strategies will be rewarded in the same way that innovative research is rewarded.

Priority 2, Programs: Increase the number of graduate, professional, and research programs that are among the very best -- especially in areas that build on university strengths and address local and global critical needs.

• Recruit and retain outstanding faculty who are or will be leaders in their fields.
  1. Compete for the best new faculty, who will bring a rich diversity of training, ideas and experience from the top schools in their field.
  2. Recruit mid-career or senior faculty in targeted areas.
  3. Retain the university's most prominent faculty through partnerships among the departments, colleges and the office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.
  4. Show progress towards elevating faculty salaries toward the top third of our peer institutions.
  
  
• Leverage strengths in science and technology to enhance research and scholarly excellence with emphasis on interdisciplinary initiatives involving biological, materials, and information sciences.
  1. Support computationally-intensive, interdisciplinary initiatives with leading edge high-performance computing facilities and access to national research networks.
  2. Support initiatives which attract and retain the full range of researchers in these areas.
  3. Partner with university centers, industry and others to take advantages of expertise both inside and outside of the academy.
  
  
• Enhance areas of excellence in the arts, humanities, and social sciences that build on and complement the university's unique strengths.
  1. Offer a sufficiently wide range of courses in the arts, humanities, and the social sciences to ensure all undergraduate students, regardless of major, receive a comprehensive education.
  2. Support those already strong graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities and encourage the development of interdisciplinary programs in areas that would address institutional strengths in science and technology.
  
  
• Improve facilities and support services for research.
  1. Develop an interdepartmental mechanism for sharing equipment.
  2. Develop a transparent system for sharing research/laboratory space.
  3. Enhance support services for grant writing and contract management.
  4. Review Indirect Cost Distribution to increase flexibility for colleges and departments.
  5. Renegotiate standard ICD with major funding agencies.
  6. Update and align the IT infrastructure to better support the needs in research computing.
  
  
• Enhance the visibility of outstanding faculty members and staff, research accomplishments, and graduate and research programs.
  1. Increase the number of national research awards and disciplinary recognition.
  2. Develop on-line and print publications that promote research. University relations should aggressively promote the institution's accomplishments.
  3. Increase the number and quality of graduate and professional students to bring our ratio of undergraduate to graduate and professional students more in alignment with our peer institutions.
  4. Fully fund graduate tuition scholarships and increase graduate student stipends to allow department and programs to be fully competitive with their peers.
  5. Coordinate graduate recruitment between the Graduate College and department and programs.
  6. Enhance support for interdepartmental and interdisciplinary programs.
  7. Work with peer institutions to improve access to US universities by international students wishing to pursue graduate and professional degrees.
  8. Enhance the visibility of Extension programs and faculty.

Priority 3, Economic Impact: Translate discoveries into viable technologies, products, and services to strengthen the economies of Iowa and the world.

• Expand the use of intellectual property developed at Iowa State University.
  1. Review findings of the intellectual task force and implement results.
  
  
• Strengthen educational and outreach programs aimed at Iowa's economic, workforce, and technology development.
  1. ISU Extension will lead efforts in outreach programs aimed at Iowa's workforce and technological development.
  
  
• Foster an environment that encourages faculty, staff, and students to engage in transfer of technology and entrepreneurial activities.
  1. Put in place reward structures to encourage transfer of technology and entrepreneurial activities.

Priority 4, Iowa Life. Elevate the state's appeal as a place to live, learn, work and play.

• Strengthen our partnerships and communications with Iowans to better identify, address, and solve problems.
  1. ISU Extension will lead efforts to improve the state's quality of life.

Priority 5, University Life: Ensure that the university is a great place to learn and work. The vitality of university life depends on leadership from the academic units in the university, and the following goals should guide decision-making and community building.

• Expand the diversity of people, ideas, and cultures, and nurture an environment in which diversity can thrive.
  1. The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost will work with other units to implement the plan for Diversity, Equity and Community, 2006-2011. The plan includes measures of improvement.
  
  
• Achieve a sustainable balance between responsibilities and resources that will allow the university to efficiently and effectively realize its vision.
  1. Academic units will develop a budget model that matches academic responsibilities with adequate resources.
  2. Adopt differential tuition and fee structures as appropriate.
  3. Explore the most effective administrative structures for intercollegiate and interdisciplinary programs.
  4. Develop a plan for space allocation that allows the university to reach its potential in research and graduate education.
  
  
• Foster an environment in which all members of the university community can contribute their fullest while pursuing satisfying personal lives.
  1. Develop a comprehensive and equitable plan for spousal/partner accommodation.
  2. Continue to pursue the adoption of the Arrival of Children policy, develop policy statements on family leave, childcare, and flexible workplace, including a Part-time Tenure policy.
  
  
• Provide a rich array of extracurricular opportunities to learn, lead, and enjoy life.
  1. Departments should be encouraged to develop clubs that provide pre-professional experiences.
  2. Encourage departments to bring in alumni and other external speakers to work with students on intellectual growth.
  3. Support continued growth in Learning Communities, service learning and internship opportunities.
  4. Become leaders in VEISHEA planning to facilitate the overlap of academic and extracurricular activities.
  
  
• Advance the excellence of the university through enhanced connections between ISU and its family of alumni and friends.
  1. Departments, colleges, and the library will continue to enhance their outreach to alumni, including newsletters, visits to individual alumni, event planning, and access to the e-library.
  2. Alumni will be considered a resource to enhance the academic mission.

Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, 1550 Beardshear Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-2021
Phone 515-294-9591, Fax: 515-294-8844