Internal Analysis--Academic Program Review

Internal Analysis--Administrative Review

The administrative review lists recommended actions for each administrative area. Services and units reviewed are listed, as is the composition of the review team. This was done to provide additional information on the source of the recommendations. T he detailed analysis that provided the basis for these recommendations is contained in the appendices of the report, along with the SWOT analysis and evaluation matrices developed for this purpose.

Four major themes were developed in the recommendations for the administrative areas: technology, reconfiguration, compensation and staffing changes, and BOR and state rules. The most common was the need for better use of technology to overcome staffin g, space, and budgeting problems. Along with the improved technology was the need for improved training in the use of both software and hardware.

Another theme was the movement or space reconfiguration of various services and offices to provide better services to the various customers (students, staff, and faculty). As the construction boom continues at UCF, these recommendations should become fe asible.

Compensation and need for additional staff were common themes, as was the need to rationalize BOR and State of Florida rules that make life difficult and costly for many areas of the University. The reorganizations suggested in several of the reviews w hen combined with the cost savings from rules changes may make possible some of the additional compensation and staffing recommendations.

Finally, many initiatives related to efficiency and effectiveness suggest the use of a three-year review cycle using quality initiative information from user councils, point-of- service evaluation, and other means to improve our services.

Explicit Recommendations of the Administrative Review

Accountability

Recommendation 1

Establish user councils to promote user-friendly processes and forms.

Recommendation 2

Review, using outside experts as needed, each administrative unit on a regular cycle in order to continuously improve and plan services. These reviews should be used for internal decision making and be included in the next strategic planning revision process.

Recommendation 3

Use information systems to maintain data as required for reporting to internal and external entities, and, through electronic means of publication, use technology to automate the collection and publication of accountability information.

Communication

Recommendation 4

Evaluate and implement multidirectional communications.

Recommendation 5

Establish an information policy.

Recommendation 6

Create administrative calendars for reports and tasks due on a regular basis (including dates when information is due to the administrative units and dates when reports are produced by these units).

Efficient and Effective Organization

Recommendation 7

Review and revise institutional policies and procedures to relieve the burden of bureaucracy.

Recommendation 8

Establish a common database; this relational database would benefit all academic and administrative units and help them generate the data they need for long- and short-term planning.

Image

Recommendation 9

Provide leadership in packaging and promoting the activities of the University.

Recommendation 10

Create and implement a media plan.

Team Building

Recommendation 11

Work toward unity of purpose and shared responsibility, focusing on the provision of an excellent experience for our students.

Recommendation 12

Emphasize team building and creating a cooperative environment among colleges, administrative offices, and university support services.

Technology

Recommendation 13

Maintain an advanced institutional technology infrastructure that supports the institution's primary functions of teaching, research, and service.

Recommendation 14

Make certain that every staff member and administrator has adequate technology.

User-Centered Culture

Recommendation 15

From application to graduation, use technology to facilitate each transaction.

Recommendation 16

Develop point-of-service evaluation for all services.

Recommendation 17

Offer services at times and in places appropriate to all students.

Internal Analysis--Campus Climate Review

The following recommendations have emerged as critical to the campus climate of the University. Addressing these issues will help the University meet the needs of our campus family (faculty, staff, administrators) and, most importantly, our students. It is our hope that UCF will continue to create an environment that enables each faculty member, student, staff member, administrator, and visitor to feel good about UCF.

Growth Issues

Because the main campus and area campuses continue to grow, the University must proactively plan enrollment growth, academic programs, and student services to meet the needs of our communities.

Innovation

As a growing metropolitan university, UCF should recruit and retain a diverse workforce whose leadership and involvement in teaching, research, and service enhance the general quality of community life. UCF must make opportunities available for faculty, staff, and administrators to increase their skills and share their interests and talents through scholarly pursuits and creative partnerships.

Partnerships

UCF must pursue opportunities for students to become associated with area businesses, agencies, and schools through on-site training, apprenticeships, co-op programs, etc.

Personalized Service

All academic and administrative departments should emphasize providing personalized services of the highest quality in order to meet the needs of a more diverse community and live up to our motto, Accent on the Individual.

Private and External Funding and Efficiency

The University must create a new model of funding that focuses on obtaining new types of public funding as well as private and other external sources. The President's success promoting the concept of equity funding and gaining legislative su pport is an excellent example of a new initiative. Emphasis must also be placed on increasing operational efficiency.

Specialized Space

Current projections from the University's response to SACS indicate an 80% increase in general classroom space over the next five years. Classroom space is expanding, but special program needs such as labs, practice rooms, multimedia classro oms, and faculty offices must also be addressed.

Student Financial Support

Attention must be given to an equitable distribution of resources for undergraduate, graduate, and nontraditional students.

Technology and Information Services

UCF must continue to enhance technological support systems and provide students, faculty, and staff with up-to-date information services on all campuses and across the curriculum.

Visibility

Involvement in the performing arts, cultural activities, and Division I athletics has created an opportunity for greater visibility and awareness of UCF. The University should continue its demonstrated excellence by the enhancement of the qu ality of these programs.

UCF's Values

Directional Values

¨ Pursue excellence in teaching, learning, communication, scholarship, expression, performance activities, and university support systems.

¨ Develop and implement technology in learning delivery systems, support service, infrastructure systems, and research and creative expression systems.

¨ Expedite the implementation of research results and new creative expression into classroom and campus systems.

¨ Build selected existing strengths and uniqueness into international prominence and impact.

¨ Develop strengths in support of metropolitan uniqueness and needs.

Human Values

¨ Enhance quality of life.

¨ Incorporate shared values of caring, respect, worth of the individual, integrity, and justice.

¨ Foster diversity and inclusiveness.

Operational Values

¨ Seek unity and cooperation in the pursuit of excellence.

¨ Create dynamic organizational structures in both academic and administrative areas.

¨ Develop partnerships and multidisciplinary collaborations.

¨ Encourage and support appropriate risk taking.

¨ Improve communication in a multidirectional manner.

Strategic Directions for UCF

Academic and Academic Support Units

Strategic Direction 1: Supportive Educational Environment

Key Strategies:

¨ Foster learning communities.

¨ Support undergraduate and graduate scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, and other forms of support.

¨ Involve undergraduates in research programs.

¨ Promote and continue to develop the newly formed Faculty Teaching and Learning Center.

¨ Promote the newly created math and writing labs.

¨ Provide adequate access to state-of-the-art laboratories.

¨ Provide service learning opportunities through metro-area partnerships.

¨ Enhance the educational experience through a commitment to high-quality teaching.

¨ Encourage the use of research to ensure the greatest level of currency possible in the curriculum.

¨ Emphasize and address the needs related to lifelong learning.

¨ Establish oversight coordination of and responsibilities for undergraduate studies--the "buck" must stop somewhere!

¨ Cultivate cooperation and teamwork by teaching students to work as productive members of diverse groups.

¨ Create an environment that cultivates strong academic values, including integrity and honesty.

¨ Require teaching experience for graduate students to ensure the quality of teaching in the future.

¨ Build a sense of community among subsets of students by establishing specialized floors in housing for specialized interests such as honors, LEAD scholars, and foreign languages.

¨ Foster student information literacy and independent learning through the use of advanced information technology resources and the infusion of technology into the curriculum as appropriate to the discipline.

Strategic Direction 2: Reputation

Key Strategies:

¨ UCF is the best-kept secret in the metro area--the University community must make a concerted effort to become a known and central player in the development of the metro region and the state.

¨ All members of the University community must become involved as ambassadors of UCF.

¨ The University should develop ways to show the value added to the region's citizens, commerce, and overall environment by its presence.

¨ Publicize the institution's information technology environment and innovative applications of technology.

Strategic Direction 3: Interdisciplinary Alliances

Key Strategies:

¨ Remove artificial walls between disciplines that have the potential to create new areas of knowledge by pooling their knowledge and talents.

¨ Create a culture of cooperation, collaboration, and cross-fertilization.

¨ Focus on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary possibilities for new doctoral program development--areas identified for exploration by the Strategic Planning Council (SPC) included biotechnology, digital media, public affairs, simulation and modeling, and text and technology.

¨ Identify and remove all barriers to interdisciplinary work.

¨ Provide appropriate oversight and coordination of interdisciplinary programs, such as assigning responsibility to one person at the university level for the development of interdisciplinary programs.

¨ Establish a fair reward system for faculty in interdisciplinary programs to compete for tenure, promotion, raises, and positive evaluations.

¨ Cultivate an environment that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration to meet the demands of an increasingly complex world.

¨ Create academic safeguards to ensure quality while promoting flexibility and support for multidisciplinary programs.

¨ Develop and strengthen existing interdisciplinary programs related to the greatest external forces.

¨ As appropriate, use communication and collaboration technologies to support interdisciplinary alliances.

Strategic Direction 4: Niche Disciplines

The list of niche disciplines includes the areas of greatest potential for UCF as identified through the external forces report and the academic review. The committee used the committees' reports as the basis of providing an unprioritized list. It will have to be prioritized based upon economic realities. In the external forces matrix in the academic report, programs that have a strong potential influence in the priority areas were identified by the academic review committee. The reader should refer to the academic reviews for specific information on the academic review committees' evaluations of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats present in each program. It is essential that the institution target its resources in the areas ident ified as strategic to its future. In order to receive enhanced funding, the council recommends that programs must establish performance objectives. Funding should be allocated for fixed periods of time, and performance should be assessed before making fu rther funding decisions for those programs. Moreover, the ranking of programs to be targeted for enhancement or implementation should be reevaluated and updated on an annual basis based upon new external forces, funding, and performance of targeted progra ms.

The list, in alphabetical order, appears below:

¨ Arts, entertainment, and hospitality

¨ Biotechnology and forensics

¨ Computer and information technologies

¨ Laser technology

¨ Simulation and modeling

¨ Social, public policy, educational, and health care systems related directly to our metro area

¨ Space launch

¨ Transportation and environment

Strategic Direction 5: Organization, Effectiveness, and Efficiency

Key Strategies:

¨ Identify and eliminate the burden of bureaucracy whenever possible.

¨Develop dynamic and adaptable organizational structures.

¨ Evaluate and improve organizational communication in all directions throughout the University.

¨ Develop and disseminate clear policies on communication--who receives what, when, and how.

¨ Produce data that are meaningful to administering and tracking individual degree programs and tracks.

¨ Disaggregate data to the appropriate levels identified by the internal users of the data so that they can make informed, appropriate, and timely decisions based upon accurate data.

¨ Reduce redundancy in reporting requirements.

¨ Provide leadership to the state in merging accreditation and program review requirements.

¨ Create an annual calendar with due dates for recurring deadlines and processes.

¨ Create seamless systems for articulation with community colleges.

¨ Promote a paperless environment.

¨ Create and distribute formats for all recurring reports to reduce unnecessary effort at the reporters' level whenever possible.

¨ Encourage innovative pilot projects.

¨ Develop user-oriented processes directed at the internal needs of the institution.

¨ Promote compatible systems so offices may freely exchange work products electronically or by disk.

¨ Improve quality of life by providing opportunities for faculty development.

¨ Cultivate an environment that encourages risk taking and bold actions in order to improve the organization.

¨ The Provost, in consultation with the deans, SPC, and Faculty Senate, should produce a list of new academic programs considered to be strategic to the institution; the list should be revisited annually, and these priori ties should be reflected in program funding.

¨ Standardize yearly annual reports of all academic units in such a way that information is easily retrievable and usable.

¨ Develop modern administrative information systems that support the efficient and effective operation of university offices and delivery of services.

¨ Foster operational excellence through the use of information technology to improve the accessibility and timeliness of services to students and employees.

¨ In recognition of our metropolitan setting, make key institutional processes and information accessible at all times through the campus network.

¨ Set performance targets such as those employed by the academic review (degrees, FTE, etc.), and flag programs for review when they fall outside the targets.

¨ Seek accreditation of all academic programs in which this process is recognized as a measure of excellence--use accreditation to improve self-assessment, visibility, and adaptation to changes in the discipline.

¨ Design a system to evaluate tenured faculty that gains the trust of the public, the legislature, and the academic community.

¨ Develop, publish, and distribute the mission statements and goals of all units on campus.

Strategic Direction 6: Partnerships

Key Strategies:

¨ Maximize the advantage of our location in developing partnerships.

¨ Address the needs of the metro area through partnerships by employing creative initiatives such as sharing facilities, pooling resources, sharing employees, and pursuing common agendas in concert.

¨ Develop on- and off-campus partnerships.

¨ Create ways to develop, characterize, categorize, count, and determine benefits of partnerships.

¨ Establish and encourage collegial interactions among all administrative units, academic units, and service units. Problem solving and cooperation among these groups should be a major goal; implementation of their findi ngs is the desired outcome.

¨ Expand private and other sources of funding through partnerships.

¨ Continue to improve UCF's funding through partnership with the legislative delegation.

¨ Seek opportunities to expand service-related programs and establish interdisciplinary programs that improve the planning for and provision of public health and safety-related services pertinent to demographic issues in our community.

¨ Ensure that university employees accept responsibility and be active participants in ensuring the good of the order through work on programs, university-level committees, and other efforts. The University should recogn ize the value of these efforts.

¨ Develop mutually beneficial and academically relevant partnerships with the community, schools and other post-secondary institutions, state and local government, and regional, national, and international companies.

¨ Establish partnerships with selected information technology vendors and leverage those partnerships to enhance academic programs, research opportunities, and campus information technology infrastructure.

¨ Strive for research centers to be active participants in the academic mission.

¨ Provide mentoring for nontenured faculty.

¨ Increase involvement with clinical and adjunct faculty to better serve the needs of our students.

¨ Establish collaborative partnerships with schools in order to enhance the professional development of school personnel and the involvement of parents and families.

Strategic Direction 7: Research

Key Strategies:

¨ Provide incentive programs to encourage the support of graduate students through faculty-generated grants and contracts.

¨ Encourage research that updates and informs the curriculum in all areas.

¨ Encourage an active research agenda for all tenured and tenure-earning faculty.

¨ Assess and plan the need for resources for the University's goal of attaining Carnegie Research I status, particularly in the areas of targets for contracts and grants and the funding and infrastructure necessary to sup port a research university. Reaffirm or reassess the goal based upon this information.

¨ Find extra funding through private and other resources to increase the ratio of research faculty.

¨ Clarify and communicate the value of research support for new centers and institutes that promote areas strategic to our future.

¨ Commit to providing benefit and compensation packages for recruiting or adequately supporting current faculty in discipline areas identified in the niches of the strategic plan that are selected by the faculty and admin istration in the next phase of planning to be areas of emphasis and excellence.

¨ Plan OCO for the life cycle of research and lab equipment (including furniture, etc.).

¨ Provide research opportunities for undergraduate students.

¨ Encourage applied research that strengthens our metro mission.

¨ Develop ways to describe and communicate the crucial role of the University's research mission to the public at large and the legislature in particular.

¨ Provide competitive funding to graduate programs in niche areas that establish recruitment and retention plans.

¨ Support faculty research efforts through access to high-performance computing and networking resources.

¨ Support the research environment by providing appropriate library collections and facilitating access to nonprint information resources.

Strategic Direction 8: Technology

Key Strategies:

¨ All employees will use appropriate technology in the implementation of their daily activities.

¨ All students will learn to use technology appropriate to their disciplines.

¨ All faculty will have access to appropriate technology in the classroom, as an adjunct to the classroom, and as a tool for classroom management.

¨ Technology will be used to offer and create innovative learning systems across the curriculum.

¨ Student support systems will fully employ appropriate technology.

¨ Research and other creative endeavors will be supported by technology.

¨ Through the library, the World Wide Web, and other appropriate vehicles, UCF will offer access to collections from around the world.

¨ Faculty development programs will assist in acquiring the appropriate skills to effectively select and use technology.

¨ The University infrastructure (and the SUS infrastructure) must support this new dimension.

¨ UCF should consider developing a national niche through the creation of an interdisciplinary program with an emphasis on the development of and application of technology in educational settings.

¨ Distance learning and alternative, innovative delivery systems should be developed to meet the changing needs of the University's clientele.

¨ Improve technology to aid faculty research and instructional support.

¨ Provide universal student, faculty, and staff access to modern information technology resources and services.

¨ Maintain an advanced institutional technology infrastructure that supports the institution's primary functions of teaching, research, and service.

¨ Develop and support an array of core network services (e-mail, WWW, information access, imaging, etc.) that supports and enhances UCF's mission.

Administrative Strategies

Strategic Direction 9: Accountability

Key Strategies:

¨ Continue to develop and enhance effective and credible accountability processes for all units, such as those outlined in the institutional effectiveness plans.

¨ Collect, evaluate, and publish point-of-service evaluation for all services and change services as indicated by the results.

¨ Set target time limits for provision of services; collect data and implement changes based upon timeliness of service.

¨ Set quality targets for services, monitor perceptions of quality through users, and implement changes if indicated.

¨ Work with user councils to improve services.

¨ Use the results of the Cycles and TQM surveys to improve services.

¨ Train and use students, alumni, or other appropriate individuals as evaluators of services; individuals should use all services provided to students and report their perceptions of their experience and suggestions for i mprovement.

¨ Review, using outside experts as needed, each administrative unit on a regular cycle in order to continuously improve and plan services. These reviews should be used for internal decision making and should be included in the next strategic planning revision process.

¨ Set goals and evaluate success annually for student satisfaction with the quality of services received (e.g., recruitment, advisement, admissions, retention, financial aid). Use these data to improve services and evalua te personnel.

¨ Use information technology to promote student-centered learning and personalize the delivery of administrative services.

¨ Use institutional information systems to maintain data as required for reporting to internal and external entities, and through electronic means of publication, use technology to automate the collection and publication of accountability information.

Strategic Direction 10: Communication

Key Strategies:

¨ Evaluate communication in all directions, across divisions.

¨ Conduct analyses that will promote effective and timely communication.

¨ Establish an information policy.

¨ Codify when and how to communicate with outside constituencies, where appropriate (e.g., legislature, news media).

¨ Create administrative calendars for reports and tasks due on a regular basis (including dates when information is due to the administrative units and dates when reports are produced by these units).

¨ Evaluate effectiveness and timeliness of contact with applicants to UCF.

¨ Collect information within the administrative units in such a way that it is easily retrievable and can be used for various reports.

¨ Foster communication through widespread use of electronic mail, the World Wide Web, and other electronic communication technologies.

Strategic Direction 11: Efficient and Effective Organization

Key Strategies:

¨ Continue the development of positive trends such as kiosks, telephone registration, and possible plans to automate financial aid.

¨ Design one-stop or minimum-stop shopping for students.

¨ Locate offices to enhance the flow for customers.

¨ Use paperless processes, when possible.

¨ Limit requirements for physical presence to situations when it is truly crucial; handle other transactions through available technology.

¨ Create user councils, where appropriate, to provide valuable information to providers.

¨ Plan and manage the University enrollment to ensure that resources are allocated in a manner consistent with the University mission.

¨ Review and revise institutional policies and procedures to relieve the burden of bureaucracy.

¨ Develop and implement a plan for the impending shortage of offices and specialized, non-classroom space in time to avert severe shortages.

¨ Establish a common database; this relational database would benefit all academic and administrative units and help them generate the data they need for long- and short-term planning.

¨ Provide staff development training for hardware and software.

¨ Promote excellence and quality as the foundation of all that UCF does.

¨ Offer the same or equivalent services to all faculty and students at all UCF sites.

¨ Systematically review and revise institutional policies, procedures, and personnel agreements to empower the institution to be an agile organization responsive to rapidly changing needs.

¨ Review staffing needs in all administrative units, eliminating unnecessary positions and making plans for additions as indicated.

¨ Based upon the assumption that turnover is wasteful and poor morale undermines quality, review compensation for staff and seek ways to make compensation competitive with other central Florida area employers.

¨ Ensure that budgets promote and support the strategic goals of the departments, the colleges, and the University.

¨ Develop modern administrative information systems that support the efficient and effective operation of university offices and delivery of services.

¨ Foster operational excellence through the use of information technology to improve the accessibility and timeliness of services to students and employees.

¨ In recognition of our metropolitan setting, make key institutional processes and information accessible at all times through the campus network.

¨ Continue to emphasize improvement through the endorsement of TQM processes. TQM outcomes assessment will be reviewed on a three-year cycle by the University Assessment Committee to ensure that the full institutional ef fectiveness process, including the feedback loop, is implemented.

Strategic Direction 12: Reputation

Key Strategies:

¨ Continue to build the athletic program as a means of gaining significant recognition for UCF.

¨ Create more effective communications, such as the publication of the UCF Facts.

¨ Improve mechanisms for collecting and communicating information on academic strengths, accomplishments, and other pertinent information.

¨ Provide leadership in packaging and promoting the activities of the University.

¨ Continue improvements such as professional-grade publications, uniform style, and marketing videos.

¨ Continue the coordination and coverage of the legislative issues, thus strengthening UCF's position with the legislature and the BOR.

¨ Create and implement a media plan.

¨ Create "how-to" packets for units and programs faced with the need to produce promotional materials.

¨ Integrate and fund, at the university level, selected promotional services, such as the provision of UCF information packets with UCF brochures, promotional videos, and other appropriate items to units upon request for use in their promotional activities.

¨ Develop and implement a marketing plan, engaging all areas.

¨ Promote an aggressive UCF Experts program, encouraging local news media to use UCF faculty and staff as experts when appropriate.

¨ Increase support for arts events and distinguished lecturer series as a method of outreach and as a way to build community support.

¨ Publicize the institution's information technology environment and innovative applications of technology to enhance the University's image.

Strategic Direction 13: Team Building

Key Strategies:

¨ Promote collegial interactions and information exchange across units about the mission and functions of those units.

¨ Create new teams and affiliations for groups facing similar issues or serving the same client.

¨ Work toward unity of purpose and shared responsibility, with a focus on the provision of an excellent experience for our students.

¨ Develop a culture of accessibility, where policy makers meet with students and faculty regularly, with variations in the format and topic as appropriate.

¨ Emphasize team building and creating a cooperative environment, particularly among colleges and between colleges and administrative offices.

¨ Provide electronic communication and collaboration tools to support team efforts.

Strategic Direction 14: Technology

Key Strategies:

¨ Provide staff the technology necessary to provide optimal services to their clients.

¨ Use technology whenever possible to overcome staffing, space, and funding shortages.

¨ Provide universal student, faculty, and staff access to modern information technology resources and services.

¨ Maintain an advanced institutional technology infrastructure that supports the institution's primary functions of teaching, research, and service.

¨ Develop and support an array of core network services (e-mail, WWW, information access, imaging, etc.) that supports and enhances the institution's mission.

¨ Develop modern administrative information systems that support the efficient and effective operation of university offices and delivery of services.

¨ Foster operational excellence through the use of informational technology to improve the accessibility and timeliness of services to students and employees.

¨ In recognition of our metropolitan setting, make key institutional processes and information accessible at all times through the campus network.

Strategic Direction 15: User-Centered Culture

Key Strategies:

¨ Develop point-of-service evaluation for all services.

¨ Include users in planning and designing services.

¨ Make decisions on building designs with the full participation of future occupants, at all phases.

¨ Offer services at times and in places appropriate to all students.

¨ Train staff to serve as facilitators.

¨ Involve future occupants in the facility planning process with consideration of esthetic needs in the decision-making process.

¨ Use Orlando's excellent location and rapid growth to strengthen the continuing education component to provide opportunities for lifelong learning that meet the needs of a wider audience of students.

¨ Tailor forms and standard reports--such as monthly budget reports--to the needs of the user and provide them in understandable and readable formats.

¨ Use information technology to promote student-centered learning and personalize the delivery of administrative services.

Strategic Directions and Assignments

Academic Review Recommendations and Assignments

Administrative Review Recommendations and Assignments

Strategic Plan Actions