Provost sets six major goals
Provost Reed Dasenbrock has set six major goals for the current academic year. Dasenbrock says other steps will likely emerge as the university gets a firm grip on enrollment trends and how the state will fund higher education in the future. Dasenbrock's outline for academic development is highlighted below.
Photo: Provost Reed Dasenbrock
Develop Short and Long-term Strategies for Smart Enrollment Growth
The instructional budget of the university depends almost completely on enrollment, both from the funding formula and from tuition revenue. UNM has experienced and gotten used to increasing enrollments that have generated additional formula and tuition revenue. Enrollment trends now seem to be flattening out or perhaps even declining. It will be important to get a better sense of just what is happening and why, but the university also needs to work on specific initiatives which should lead to targeted enrollment growth.
** Develop a dual enrollment agreement, including funding mechanisms, with APS.
** Consider an increased focus on out-of-state recruiting of freshmen, currently less than 10 percent, especially from California; need to work on inconsistencies in out-of-state competitive scholarships.
** Work on increasing the number of transfer students from branches, Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) and other two-year schools through improved articulation, advising and financial aid.
** Work on developing summer school, intersession, second eight-week semester and other less traditional curricular shapes.
** Improve efficiency of student services which impact enrollment (Financial Aid, Bursar’s Office) and develop a more student-friendly and functional disenrollment policy.
** Continue to improve retention and graduation rate. A task force report on Improving the Graduation Rate is due in December.
** Continue to build enrollments in Rio Rancho and move towards establishing a campus there.
** Continue to develop and implement new degree programs to fit new needs: B.A./M.D., Film and Digital Media, Nanoscience and Microsystems, M.A. in Native American Studies and others. This includes working with the New Mexico Higher Education Department on the degree approval process.
** Focus on increasing graduate enrollments through an analysis of current programs and set targets for program size, utilize new recruiting funds allocated to departments, increase recruitment efforts aimed at UNM graduating students, and step up international efforts, especially in Latin America, India and China.
Continue to Implement Agenda for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
** Consider requiring all freshmen to participate in the Freshman Academic Choices.
** Continue to implement new undergraduate programs such as B.A./M.D. and educational opportunities such as the Congressional Internship Program.
** Strengthen pre-professional programs such as pre-law and pre-health
** Expand and restructure undergraduate research offerings.
** Use Regents Endowment allocation to expand and increase awareness of study abroad opportunities.
** Consider recommendations of the task force report on the Honors Program due by the end of this year.
Make Visible Progress on the Agenda for the Emerging Majority
** Continue to make progress on eliminating gaps in retention and graduation rates. This is the focus of the proposed Special Emphasis for Accreditation.
** Implement recommendations from Hispanic and Native American Issues Task Forces.
** Consider recommendations from the Task Force on African-American Issues report that is due by the end of 2006.
** Pursue an aggressive resource acquisition strategy for minority-related programs (U.S. Education Dept. Title V, state and federal legislative requests).
** Continue to strengthen relations to Diné College and other tribal colleges in the state.
** With University Communication and Marketing (UCAM), Office of Governmental Affairs and others, pursue national visibility strategy on these issues, including an expanded role in Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
Continue to Implement Areas of Marked Opportunity and Public Engagement
** Formalize the administrative structure and coordination mechanisms for existing Areas of Marked Opportunity.
** Start UNM-wide discussions on areas of public engagement.
** Aggressively pursue funding from the state of New Mexico for ArtsLab and Biomedical Engineering and federal appropriations for Radio Astronomy, ArtsLab, Biomedical Engineering as well as other sources, including competitive federal grants, foundations and private support.
Strengthen Relations with National Labs
** Realize the opportunities created by the new Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) contract by creating new administrative structures in the state and at UNM through the Institute for Advanced Studies (internal faculty and administrative structures); growing educational programs at lab through UNM-Los Alamos and Extended University; and growing collaborative research with the lab.
** Support creation of a Department of Energy Discovery Science and Engineering Institute at Sandia National Laboratories.
** Strengthen relationship with Center for Integrated Nano Technology (CINT) at SNL and LANL, especially through new M.S./Ph.D. in Nanoscience & Microsystems (NsMs).
** Strengthen relationship with the Air Force Research Lab.
Continue to Improve Community Connections
** Continue to make UNM economic development friendly by establishing an economic development office on campus in the Office of the Vice President of Research and Economic Development; provide enhanced Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) support; continue to integrate STC with UNM.
** Continue and institutionalize the work of the Provost’s Committee on Civic Engagement.
** Through Areas of Public Engagement, Research Learning Program and other initiatives, strengthen ties to community in city and state.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu