Project SLU 2000 is Up and Running

It means a lot of hard work by a lot of different people. But with the cooperation of a diverse number of students, faculty and staff, work is progressing on the seven major academic goals of Project SLU 2000.

"The seven academic initiatives are addressing areas that will have an immediate impact on teaching and research," said Dr. Shirley Dowdy, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "The faculty appreciate these extra investments in support of academics."

The first of these seven initiatives is the creation of up to 32 new faculty positions over the next three years.

"The focus of this new faculty initiative is on enhancing pedagogy in the freshman and sophomore classes and developing very concrete student-faculty interaction programs," said Provost Sandra Johnson.

Enhancements to the quality of education for these students can be achieved by decreasing student/faculty ratios, increasing the number of small classes and increasing the proportion of full-time faculty, she said.

In September University President Lawrence Biondi, SJ, issued a request for proposals -- with specific and focused criteria for selection based on the work of a faculty committee -- as part of the new faculty initiative.

That request led to the submission of 16 proposals for a total of 27 new faculty positions.

Johnson said these proposals are now under review by a committee of faculty and students consisting of Drs. Irene Schulze (chair), Dennis Wacker, Muhammad Islam, Gregory Comer, Kathleen Hoover, Karla Scott, Joy Short and Lewis Perry and students Meghan Clune and Mark Pitlyk.

These women and men will judge the proposals based on criteria assembled by a committee of Dowdy and Drs. Neil Seitz, Charles Kirkpatrick, Dennis Wacker, student Jay Perry, Janet Laney and chaired by Johnson.

"These new faculty positions are oriented toward teaching in a new way," Kirkpatrick said. "The courses are very interactive between the students and the faculty. It's not a traditional approach. Students become an active part of the project. This represents a different way of looking at learning."

The criteria focused on developing enhanced classes for freshman and sophomore students, as well as increased opportunities for student and faculty interaction in and out of the classroom.

The foundation of many of these criteria, including an increased interest in student-faculty interaction, came from the Report of the Hearing Committee of the First-Year Task Force and the original task force, the 1997 report of the Retention Management Committee, the Report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and other sources.

"All of that work those groups had done and came forward with is what formed the foundation for how to allocate new faculty positions," Johnson said. "The criteria didn't come from nowhere. It was based on several years of work."

In addition, the committee distributed the draft criteria to a number of resource groups, and an open meeting for faculty comment was held in early August.

After incorporating suggestions and revisions, the criteria for the proposal and award process were finalized.

The review committee now is using these criteria to judge each of the 16 proposals.

An external reviewer (David Buckholdt, the academic vice president at Marquette University) also is studying the proposals.

Johnson said the committee is not making a committee-as-a-whole recommendation.

"I'm getting evaluations from each individual member," she said. "They also will repeat their discussions in a committee, so I do have the benefit of their thinking as a group. And, of course, the deans where the appointments will be made will be involved in the process."

Although the University has committed to funding up to 16 new faculty positions in fiscal year 2001, up to 10 in fiscal year 2002 and up to six in fiscal year 2003, positions not awarded in the first year will be available the next.

"So what's not funded now can be developed further and resubmitted for the second round," she said.

Proposals for the new faculty positions may be submitted any time over the three-year process, but the review process occurred in October for next year's appointments and will be conducted in April 2000 for the following fiscal year.

In addition to the creation of new faculty positions, Project SLU 2000 also includes six other areas focusing on academics. These include:

Enhanced scholarship programs. (See related story.)
An increased number of graduate assistantships. This will improve the selectivity of graduate programs, increase the competitiveness for external funding for research, enhance the University's reputation as a source of faculty and researchers for universities and industry, and slow the rate of growth in the numbers of full-time staff required to support increased research efforts.
The creation of Centers of Excellence. This initiative will allow the University to support centers of excellence with the objectives of increasing the amount of external funding for research or teaching, attracting outstanding students and faculty, and positioning the University to be the top-rated institution in particular areas.
Improved faculty salaries. This will allow the University to retain current excellent faculty and attract highly qualified faculty with outstanding potential or established reputations.
The creation of designated research funds to provide start-up funds for new faculty, bridge funds for successful researchers and seed money for projects with great potential for external funding or technology transfer.
The development of faculty research leaves in addition to the present sabbatical program. This initiative aims to increase the research productivity of faculty.

"Over the next several months, we will be distributing criteria for the remaining six initiatives based on the work of committees, with input from different resource groups," Johnson said.

"There are working committees in place for the goals involving graduate assistants, centers of excellence, designated research funds and faculty research leaves," she said. "The working committee for faculty salaries will be announced shortly."

Membership on these committees was announced in a letter from Biondi earlier this fall. Johnson said that in addition to these seven academic areas, it's important to understand Project SLU 2000 in its full complexity.

"SLU 2000 has three major arms to it: information technology, facilities and academics. Academics isn't the only part of it. So that means we're improving student facilities, athletic facilities, recreational facilities, residence halls. That's a major thing the students will see. We're improving information technology, which is going to be a big improvement for administrative efficiency, research and teaching.

"I hope people can see that the facilities -- which include class renovations and student facilities and information technology -- all contribute to the quality of the academic experience as well. SLU 2000 is not just academic -- it's a total University approach to improving the quality of the student experience here, teaching and research, and, of course, as a workplace."

Johnson said the academic initiatives don't just focus on undergraduate education, although that's a big part of it. She emphasized that Project SLU 2000 "also aims to improve our position as a research university.

"There really are two goals. What's been more prominent is the focus on undergraduate education. But there's also a focus on making us a more effective competitor in research. We want improve our position as a major research university."

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