PETIT JEAN MOUNTAIN -- Giving more authority to campus chancellors and lowering costs to students will be key goals in a University of Arkansas System strategic plan, the first in 25 years.
The skeleton of the plan, which is expected to be completed by this fall, was hammered out during a two-day UA board of trustees retreat Wednesday and Thursday at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain.
Other priorities include increasing graduation rates, improving retention and creating a system "dashboard" to track progress toward goals and the financial state of the system.
"The retreat gave the trustees the opportunity to focus on key issues that will drive the success for our students over the next five to 10 years," said UA System President Donald Bobbitt in an interview after the meeting concluded Thursday. "It's very important, because almost every expert who has made a prediction on the future economic success of the state or region has said it is highly dependent on the number of degreed citizens of that area."
And making a degree more affordable for students and cost-efficient for the system -- while increasing the quality of the overall education produced -- is a priority, the board decided.
"We have to ask ourselves: What are our efforts to keep these students on campus, learning and graduating?" trustee Jane Rogers said.
Bobbitt discussed several tuition-reducing measures such as discounting rates for classes taken before 8 a.m. or after 3 p.m. or for summer courses.
Comparing the proposal to the reduction of airfare for early-morning or late-night flights and charging a premium during high-travel times, Bobbitt said, "We're used to the fact that some opportunities are going to be more expensive because they're more convenient."
Another option that would affect student retention and put more money in students' pockets is implementing "tuition rebates." In that plan, if a student takes two consecutive semesters and maintains a certain grade-point average, a percentage of the tuition would be credited to the last semester in college.
"At the last semester, if they have a credit balance, we would cut them a check," Bobbitt said in an interview. "In the overarching view, it motivates students to take full-time loads, not drop classes and work hard. It helps with retention and increases graduation rates."
While the goals are commendable, trustee David Pryor said, the structure and administrative role of the board needs to change to become "less transactional and more transformational" in order to focus on bigger issues and allow for more meaningful conversations at meetings.
"Do you feel like we, in our discussions, meetings -- and our whole philosophy -- should be more active and not as reactive?" the former U.S. senator asked the other trustees.
Trustee John Goodson, reflecting on the current schedule, said, "I think meeting five times a year forces you to be more reactive."
The UA trustees' regularly scheduled board meetings span two days and include hundreds of transactions such as deciding property purchases, approving programs at individual campuses and voting on the renaming of a campus building.
"Our job isn't to run the institutions," Trustee Reynie Rutledge said. "We need to have more of an opportunity for strategic thinking and setting goals."
Granting more authority to campus chancellors is a necessity, Trustee Cliff Gibson said.
The size of the campus, however, should dictate the level of authority given, Rutledge said.
"The major purchases would still come before the board," he said.
Joel Anderson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said in a phone interview Thursday that the board was on the right track by discussing how the roles should be altered to meet the current needs of the system.
"It is helpful from time to time to revisit how you sort roles and decisions between central decision-makers and decision-makers at the constituent campuses. When you increase the number of layers of decision-makers that have to be involved in a decision, you slow down the decision," Anderson said.
"Authorizing decision and action at the campus level enables nimble and faster responses. The system, however, can do some things better. An example is health insurance, where a bigger group of employees almost always gets better rates than a small group. Also, system-level purchasing in some areas could potentially save us all money."
Laying out the bones of the strategic plan and setting the top priorities of the board were just the beginning of the process, board Chairman Jim von Gremp said. The trustees' involvement from this point forward, however, will be minimal until the final plan comes before them for approval.
"This will be an open process, but it's not designed for the board to be involved every step of the way," he said. "It's designed for Don [Bobbitt] and his staff to take the lead."
Von Gremp said that he will meet with Bobbitt and his staff members in the next three weeks for an update on the process and that he expects a full proposal to go before the board in the fall.
Shane Broadway, director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, said in an interview Thursday that it is commendable that the board members came together to develop a long-term strategic plan.
"It is very important as a part of their responsibility and oversight of their institutions to examine their policies and goals, especially when you have a number of new leaders at the system and campus level," Broadway said. "The process will, I believe, be a productive one and will be one where I know the focus will continue to be on what is best for our students that are served by their institutions."
Metro on 06/20/2014