University of Idaho Provost John Wiencek and his committee spent Monday morning on the defensive line.
Faculty members had seen how their peers ranked their programs’ value to the university and how the administration planned to use that information to reallocate funds accordingly.
“They’re proud of what they do, so of course many faculty were very anxious,” said Faculty Senate Chair Patrick Hrdlicka. “It’s not nice to have your peers rate your work in the bottom fifty percent.”
In two open forums Monday morning, the university’s Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) presented the results of a campus-wide survey of university employees that will be included as a significant factor in the university’s program prioritization process. IPEC includes two faculty members, a staff member and a student among the five vice presidents.
Program prioritization, mandated by the State Board of Education (SBOE), requires Idaho schools to present to the board a plan to prioritize what the schools do and reallocate funding accordingly.
“The state board’s goal is we more effectively use the resources we have before we ask for more,” IPEC member and Vice President of Finance Brian Foisy said.
Committee member and former Faculty Senate Chair Liz Brandt said the committee is backing off the rankings to some degree and that other factors will be taken into consideration. The degree to which the rankings will be considered is up in the air.
As of the Provost’s September 7 memo, the plan is for reallocation of funds to be “directly linked to the normalized scores” of departments. Foisy used utilities — ranked lowest among service departments — as an example of where other factors would need come into play.
“If utilities isn’t essential, I don’t know what is,” Foisy said.
The committee received comments from mathematicians and statisticians among the faculty who criticized the committee’s methods — in particular, combining qualitative data with quantitative data and combining departments with graduate programs with those that don’t.
“I find it odd to rank qualitative data,” said Ryanne Pilgeram, associate professor of sociology. “We usually do that to learn about the people responding, not their responses.”
Nearly every comment critical of the formula received applause from the faculty audience. A faculty member introducing themselves at the microphone as being an instructor of statistics or mathematics received laughter in anticipation of criticism.
Throughout the forums, Wiencek, a chair of the committee, and Vice President of Finance Brian Foisy returned repeatedly to one defense — SBOE mandated this.
But some faculty said they saw this as an excuse.
“Part of what we pay the president to do is influence the state board,” said David Yopp, professor of mathematics. “I don’t like the excuse that we had to do this.”
Others commented on the openness of the board mandate.
“I acknowledge the state board made you do this, but you didn’t have to do it in this way,” Pilgeram said.
Not all comments were critical. Some faculty expressed appreciation that the data was published in a public report.
“This is the first time we’ve seen the results be this transparent, and I applaud you,” said Paul Amador, program planning director in Coeur d’Alene.
Returning and future students will mostly see benefits, the ASUI President and recent addition to the committee, McKenzie MacDonald, said.
“Since this reallocates money internally, that just means tuition doesn’t need to be raised as much,” MacDonald said. “The funds aren’t on the backs of students.”
Hrdlicka said that in general, faculty shouldn’t worry about their jobs.
“It is unlikely someone will lose their job,” Hrdlicka said. “What the departments have to come up with isn’t actually that much.”
He said $2 million in reallocation can be spread across lower-priority departments in such a way that will minimize harm to any one.
“Now, we need to move forward,” Hrdlicka said.
The university has until December 31 to submit a proposal for reallocation to the SBOE.
Nishant Mohan may be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan.