Provost’s Wednesday Communiqué — October 3, 2012

Provost’s Wednes­day Com­mu­niqué — Octo­ber 3, 2012

Improve­ment Dimension: The ninth dimen­sion of the FoE is the Improve­ment Dimen­sion: “Foun­da­tions Insti­tu­tions con­duct assess­ment and main­tain asso­ci­a­tions with other insti­tu­tions and rel­e­vant pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tions in order to achieve ongo­ing first-year improve­ment. This assess­ment is spe­cific to the first year as a unit of analysis—a dis­tinct time period and set of expe­ri­ences, aca­d­e­mic and oth­er­wise, in the lives of stu­dents. It is also linked sys­tem­i­cally to the insti­tu­tions’ over­all assess­ment. Assess­ment results are an inte­gral part of insti­tu­tional plan­ning, resource allo­ca­tion, decision-making, and ongo­ing improve­ment of pro­grams and poli­cies as they affect first-year stu­dents. As part of the enhance­ment process and as a way to achieve ongo­ing improve­ment, insti­tu­tions are famil­iar with cur­rent prac­tices at other insti­tu­tions as well as with research and schol­ar­ship on the first col­lege year.” The Dimen­sion ratio­nale states: “A cen­tral com­po­nent of excel­lence in the first year is com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­ous improve­ment. Cam­puses improve by con­duct­ing assess­ment but more impor­tantly by using the results of assess­ment to drive insti­tu­tional change. Cam­puses also improve by edu­cat­ing them­selves through inter­ac­tions with other insti­tu­tions, con­tribut­ing research and knowl­edge to the exist­ing body of infor­ma­tion about the first year, and through expo­sure to other rel­e­vant research and scholarship.”

Effi­cient vs. Per­fect Deci­sion Mak­ing: Uni­ver­si­ties have a dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ship with deci­sion mak­ing than most orga­ni­za­tions. In gen­eral, fast deci­sions are made at the local level, while the global level makes slow deci­sions. At uni­ver­si­ties, the admin­is­tra­tion would like to move fast, but the uni­ver­sity gov­er­nance struc­ture remains dis­trib­uted and delib­er­a­tive. In many ways, gov­ern­ing a uni­ver­sity fast and slow is an almost per­fect par­a­digm, but dur­ing times of great change it may hin­der how the uni­ver­sity responds to its chal­lenges. Are we able to make effi­cient ver­sus per­fect deci­sions? The answer lies in an ancient cur­rency, that of trust. The trust of the fac­ulty, stu­dents, par­ents, and cit­i­zens must be earned but once obtained, can be used to safely nav­i­gate a uni­ver­sity dur­ing tur­bu­lent times.

Pres­i­dent Robert Frank Inau­gural Instal­la­tion: The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Inau­gural Instal­la­tion cer­e­mony for Dr. Robert G. Frank, will be held on Sun­day, Nov. 18, 2012 at 2 p.m. in Pope­joy Hall. You are invited to par­tic­i­pate in the fac­ulty pro­ces­sional at the cer­e­mony. If you are able to par­tic­i­pate, we ask that you fill out the regalia signup and par­tic­i­pa­tion form on the Inau­gu­ra­tion web­site (click on Fac­ulty Signup). It is impor­tant that fac­ulty plan­ning to par­tic­i­pate in Pres­i­dent Frank’s instal­la­tion cer­e­mony fill out this form, even in the case of fac­ulty hav­ing their own aca­d­e­mic regalia. The dead­line to order regalia is Fri­day, Oct. 5, 2012. Fac­ulty who sign up to par­tic­i­pate will NOT need to pick up a ticket to attend the event. Fac­ulty will be seated together in a des­ig­nated area.

What to Mea­sure: “Too much and too long, we seem to have sur­ren­dered com­mu­nity excel­lence and com­mu­nity val­ues in the mere accu­mu­la­tion of mate­r­ial things. Our gross national product…if we should judge Amer­ica by that — counts air pol­lu­tion and cig­a­rette adver­tis­ing, and ambu­lances to clear our high­ways of car­nage. It counts spe­cial locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruc­tion of our red­woods and the loss of our nat­ural won­der in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear war­head, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the tele­vi­sion pro­grams which glo­rify vio­lence in order to sell toys to our chil­dren. Yet the gross national prod­uct does not allow for the health of our chil­dren, the qual­ity of their edu­ca­tion, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our mar­riages; the intel­li­gence of our pub­lic debate or the integrity of our pub­lic offi­cials. It mea­sures nei­ther our wit nor our courage; nei­ther our wis­dom nor our learn­ing; nei­ther our com­pas­sion nor our devo­tion to our coun­try; it mea­sures every­thing, in short, except that which makes life worth­while. And it tells us every­thing about Amer­ica except why we are proud that we are Amer­i­cans.” Robert F. Kennedy Address at Uni­ver­sity of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968.

The Value of Higher Edu­ca­tion: As W. Buf­fett stated, “It is bet­ter to buy a won­der­ful com­pany at a fair cost than a fair com­pany at a won­der­ful cost.” Buf­fett of course knows the value of com­pa­nies but the same state­ment may be made about almost every good and ser­vice. What for exam­ple is the cur­rent and per­ceived value of a UNM degree? And how do we make it a more won­der­ful degree at a fair price? My take is that we tend to “over­es­ti­mate the cur­rent reward and under­es­ti­mate long-term ben­e­fit.” By focus­ing on the short term (earn­ings in the first year after grad­u­a­tion for exam­ple), and by our inabil­ity to mea­sure what is truly rel­e­vant (the future con­tri­bu­tion of cre­ative arts or patents), we risk los­ing sight of the “impor­tant” by con­tin­u­ously deal­ing with the “urgent.”

Kid­ney Research Insti­tute (KRI) @ UNM-HSC: The Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine recently received a $6 mil­lion gift to cre­ate a Kid­ney Research Insti­tute, mod­eled on the highly suc­cess­ful KRI at the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton. I would like to con­grat­u­late Dr. Pope Mose­ley, Chair of the Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine of the UNM Health Sci­ences and his team for bring­ing the effort to estab­lish this insti­tute at UNM. More infor­ma­tion may be found at: Kid­ney Research Insti­tute (KRI) @ UNM-HSC.

Chaouki Abdal­lah, Provost & Exec­u­tive Vice-President for Aca­d­e­mic Affairs

A PDF ver­sion is avail­able at: Provost’s Wednes­day Com­mu­niqué. Your feed­back and input are wel­come at: provost@unm.edu or at the elec­tronic town hall. Please also see the Provost’s Blog.