At the Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 24, University of Idaho Provost John Wiencek gave an apology to those affected by the memo released the day before regarding the new plan to centralize advising at UI.
“I want to take ownership of the things I could have done better,” Wiencek said. “For offending people and for upsetting them, or heightening their anxiety, for leading to a lot of confusion — I apologize.”
Wiencek said that even though the rollout of the plan was not handled in the best way possible, the plan laid out in the memo is still solid and will be beneficial to the university in creating unity and increasing retention rates.
Wiencek pointed to the fast-paced rollout for what caused confusion and anxiety for some staff and faculty members. Wiencek said that some associate deans felt as if they were not included enough in the development of the new plan.
The memo announced there will be a new plan for the training and management of UI professional recruitment and retention staff. This group includes academic advisors. The memo said the majority of advisors and other staff affected by this change would stay in their current positions. According to the memo, the realignment of staff outlined in the memo is expected to be completed by Dec. 1 2017.
Cognitive dissonance, the topic of the UI 2017 Common Read, is what Wiencek said has played a role in the resistance to change the current structure and organization of advising at UI. Wieneck said the planning process to centralize advising began June 2015.
Wiencek also acknowledged that there has been a lot of anxiety and emotion regarding the new plan and its implementation. According to Bill Smith, the UI International Studies Program Chair, unknown details are underpinning unease about the proposal.
“Like many other departments, we anxiously await more details on the centralization plan as it remains unclear how significantly it will impact our unit,” Smith said. “We hope that the process will be open and that we will have time to adjust strategies, policies and procedures regarding advising in such a way as to minimize the impact on our unit and our students.”
ASUI Representative to the Faculty Senate Jesse Watson commended the provost for moving to a centralized advising system on the behalf of ASUI and the ASUI President, McKenzie MacDonald. MacDonald later said that while she cannot speak for all members of ASUI, she is on board with the proposal and supports the effort to centralize advising.
“There are many students on this campus that have had a poor advising experience — an experience that forced them to take an extra semester, or one that didn’t focus on them as a whole person. The plan proposed by the Provost and the Office of Strategic Enrollment Management will hopefully decrease the amount of challenges students face during advising season,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald said she is sensitive to the concerns expressed by faculty and hopes they will be taken into consideration during the implementation process.
On Oct. 26, Wiencek released another memo about the new plans. Again, Wiencek apologized for the anxieties caused by the first memo and confirmed that the new plan will be beneficial to the university — especially for retention rates.
“I realize now that the announcement was sudden and without adequate context. This has caused anxiety and confusion that might have been minimized through direct conversation,” Wiencek said in the memo.
The memo said that without a change in advising, the university will be unable to reach its long and short-term goals unless it increases its retention rates and recruiting efforts within the next two years. According to the memo, the current Program Prioritization efforts the university is undergoing will not be a sustainable way for UI to reach its goals if the changes in advising don’t also occur.
“We have an ambitious strategic plan that is worthy of our best effort,” Wiencek said. “Although the enrollment picture at the University of Idaho is getting better, the Fall 2017 enrollment report indicates that we are falling short of our strategic plan’s enrollment targets and the gap is widening.”
According to the memo, the deans and the president all agree centralized advising and recruiting are essential to the university completing its strategic plan and most staff impacted by the changes will be able to stay in their current offices.
The memo also said the UI Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team will meet with staff impacted by the changes which will occur due to centralized advising and other members of college leadership. Then, according to the memo, SEM will host an all-campus meeting to answer questions about the next steps for the university with centralized advising. Wiencek said he anticipates the meeting will be scheduled before Thanksgiving.
“Our goal is to evolve toward a more unified and consistent advising and recruiting model over the next year,” Wiencek wrote in his second memo of the week.
Elizabeth Marshall can be reached at [email protected]