Three senates submitted reports about the Five-Year Academic Action Plan this week, all criticizing funding priorities and questioning whether the plan should proceed to the Board of Trustees without further discussion.
The plan proposes reallocating $37.2 million from the university's current budget over a five-year period to implement goals set by Vision Ohio such as strengthening undergraduate education.
Student Senate, Graduate Student Senate and Faculty Senate were asked to submit reports to the Five-Year Academic Action Plan Committee this week. The committee must make recommendations to Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl by Nov. 15, and she will report to the Board of Trustees at its February meeting.
Krendl said that though she has not seen the senates' reports, she is encouraged by the level of discussion about the plan.I've been really pleased to see that all of the senates have been engaged in substantive conversations about the goals and strategies and the timing issues
she said.
Student Senate was concerned about how the budgeted $37 million will be reallocated based on the plan's goals.The estimated investments for each strategy seemed unbelievably arbitrary according to Student Senate's report, written by Senate President Tim Vonville.
There needs to be a more defined breakdown of monies allotted to each objective.The senates all criticized the inclusion of funding for Intercollegiate Athletics in the academic plan. Faculty Senate passed a resolution Nov. 5 stating, goals and strategies consisting of hiring coaches or winning sporting trophies are not compatible with an academic strategic plan.
Student Senate echoed the Faculty Senate resolution in its report to Fine Arts Dean Charles McWeeny, chairman of the committee.
Senates also criticized the time frame for making decisions about the plan.
Maybe in the rush to prepare the draft [of the plan] the original procedures were abandoned because ... the different units had made their own strategy
Faculty Senate Chairman Sergio L+
including colleges' and all that
were set aside and preference was given to just a few budgets instead of looking at the big picture.Vonville said even after a month of looking at the plans, Student Senate was not confident they understood all the elements.
This thing needs to be narrowed down and defined before Student Senate can really stand behind it
it's all broad terms with little to no direct responsibility to where these are going
Vonville said.
Graduate students are concerned the university is not giving their programs enough priority, especially in funding, according to the Graduate Student Senate report.
It appeared that
quite possibly
Ohio University was backing out of some of its commitments to graduate students
President Dominic Barbato wrote. [The monetary allocation] creates a perception among graduate students that graduate education is not as highly valued as other initiatives in the (five-year plan).
Both student senates advocated postponing the plan's implementation until members could get more feedback from their constituent groups.
I want every single graduate student to know that we are not done advocating for this issue
