Northern Star Thursday, April 23, 2015
Volume 115, Issue 86
The Truth Shall Bear All Light
Since 1899
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Program prioritization criteria revealed Process questioned at Faculty Senate
Timeline • Fall 2014: Exploratory period for program prioritization • Spring 2015: Academic and administrative task force members selected and criteria chosen • Fall 2015: Programs reviewed • Spring 2016: Funding allocated based on recommendations of academic and administrative task forces following program review • July 1, 2016: Fiscal Year 2017 begins with funding based off the recommendations of the program prioritization task forces
Jackie Nevarez News Editor T @NevarezJackie
DeKalb | Finalized criteria for the program prioritization of academic and administrative programs show reviews will focus on how programs contribute to NIU’s mission. Carolinda Douglass, vice provost for Academic Planning and Development, presented the criteria to Faculty Senate on Wednesday. Program prioritization is the process the university will undergo to review academic and administrative programs to determine mergers, cuts and increases in funding. The two task forces, academic and administrative, will consist of no more than 20 members nominated by faculty, staff and students. The academic task force will include tenured faculty and instructors while the administrative task force will consist of staff, tenured faculty and instructors and at least one representative from each division. More than 100 people are being considered for the task forces, and up to 40 will be selected and trained in the summer. Academic programs will be reviewed on eight criteria, including the quality of students and faculty, demand for the program and the contribution the program makes to diversity. The programs’ contribution to the university’s mission as well as the quality of students and faculty have the most weight in the review process. Administrative programs will be reviewed on five criteria, including quality, productivity and demand. Importance to the university mission is weighted the most
Dilip Kumar Sripuram | Northern Star
Associate English professor Tim Ryan speaks during the discussion about criteria for program prioritization at a Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday in the Holmes Student Center. Ryan questioned the effectiveness of program prioritization, which is a review process being undergone at NIU to determine if programs are being funded appropriately.
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...I’m sure we will never agree on the wisdom of embarking on program prioritization, but I want to say that we have thought about many of the arguments we made, that you have made, and we will continue to listen to them.” Lisa Freeman Provost
important for administrative program review. Weighted the least is opportunity analysis, which is comprised of reviewing opportunities
for cost-saving, additional revenue and improvement of staff efficiency, among other things. Associate English professor Tim Ryan said he and other faculty are concerned by program prioritization continuing without adequate discussion of its purpose and outcomes. “Administrators at other universities say that it suffers from a variety of logical flaws,” Ryan said. “Academics describe it as anti-intellectual. Some colleges that performed program prioritization talk of it as a miserable failure.” Program prioritization benefits large programs, Ryan said, as universities cut small programs’
funding and award it to larger programs instead of addressing decreasing resources. Robert Dickeson, author of “Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance,” suggested in his book universities skip faculty in the shared governance process of prioritization, Ryan said. Dickeson’s book has been provided to NIU faculty, staff and administrators as a resource for program prioritization. Ryan asked Douglass and Provost Lisa Freeman why program prioritization was chosen instead of departmental and program recommendations for
funding, which was answered by applause amongst the faculty. Although program review has been done by departments, the university has never linked the results of the reviews to NIU’s resources, Freeman said. Cuts across the university have prevented NIU from increasing factors like program quality and enrollment, but Freeman said program prioritization allows resources to be shifted from administrative programs to academic programs. In regard to Dickeson’s 1994 book, Freeman said it is a starting point and not a manual for prioritization. “So, I’m sure we will never agree on the wisdom of embarking on program prioritization, but I want to say that we have thought about many of the arguments we made, that you have made, and we will continue to listen to them,” Freeman said. “But I do not think it’s a fair characterization of our process to say we have adopted a flawed methodology published in 1994 with no thought about how it would fit our culture or what the impact would be.”
Men’s tennis plays host during MAC Championship tourney
Patrick Smith Staff Writer T @NSSportsPatrick
Gavin Weaver | Northern Star File Photo
Then-sophomore Simon Formont hits a ball back against Toledo April 12, 2014, in DeKalb. Men’s tennis will take on the Buffalo Bulls during the MAC Championship tournament on Friday at the West Tennis Courts.
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DeKalb | Men’s tennis will look to win the program’s first MAC Championship when it hosts the tournament this weekend. The Huskies (18-5, 4-1) will take on the Buffalo Bulls (10-10, 2-3) for the second time in six days when the teams meet at 10 a.m. Friday at the West Tennis Courts. The semifinal between the Western Michigan Broncos and the Binghamton Bearcats is 2 p.m. Friday. The championship match between the winner of each semifinal is 1 p.m. Saturday in DeKalb. “It’s going to be tough facing
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Buffalo the second time around,” said head coach Patrick Fisher. “They [were] picked five spots ahead of us, and they [were] picked to win the MAC, so they’re a good team. We’re going to have to step up and have a great game like last week.” The Huskies beat the Bulls, 5-2, when the teams met Sunday in Buffalo, N.Y., and they captured their second-straight MAC regular season championship. “Yes, I think that we’re pretty confident,” said senior Frederic Cadieux. “If we play Buffalo like we did last week to win the MAC [regular season] championship we’re confident that we’ll win.” The Huskies have competed in
every MAC Championship since 1999, but they have yet to win. “We come into every MAC tournament believing that we can win,” Fisher said. “We believed that we could have won in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and we still had the same mindset that we had this year. Hopefully, this year we will pull through.” Cadieux said the players are confident they’ll bring the title to NIU for the first time. “We will go into this tournament and give it our best shot, and I think that’s good enough for us to break through and finally win the MAC Championships,” Cadieux said.
What to do this weekend
Looking for a guide of what to eat, drink and do this weekend? The Northern Star has you covered. Go to Page 7 for a preview of the 90s Tribute Show or check out Page 9 for a Weekend Guide from Scene.