AQIP Criterion 5: Leading And Communicating

AQIP Criterion 5: Leading and Communicating

59

5C1 Leadership and communication systems

As the attached organizational chart shows (page 9), the Chancellor heads the internal leadership of the University. In addition to certain office support staff, he is primarily assisted by four Vice Chancellors. These are the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the Vice Chancellor for Administration, the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, and the Vice Chancellor for Development and Public Affairs. Under these Vice Chancellors are all of the faculty and staff who have day-to-day supervisory, decision-making responsibilities for managing the University and for communicating decisions to appropriate members of the University community.

In addition, the University’s leadership and communication systems include Faculty, Staff, and Student Senates which concern themselves with the welfare of their respective constituencies. Members and officers of all three Senates are elected by their peers. The Senates, particularly the Faculty Senate, make policy recommendations to the Chancellor.

Representatives of all three Senates also serve on the University Planning and Budget Council (UPBC), which includes representatives from the administration. The chair of the UPBC is chosen by the Presidents of the Senates with the approval of the Chancellor, and serves a three year term to provide continuity to the Council. The UPBC’s purpose is to advise the Chancellor on budget and planning priorities and resource distributions, and historically has played a very significant role in major budgetary and planning decisions. No major decision is made without the advice of the UPBC.

The University’s leadership and communications systems also include its Board of Trustees, President, and the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE). The Board of Trustees governs the SIU system which also includes Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The President is the chief executive officer of the SIU system. The IBHE establishes policies for all Illinois public, 4-year colleges and universities, and makes budget recommendations to the Governor.

5C2 Leadership system alignment with Board of Trustees and BHE

The Board of Trustees, the President, and the IBHE all communicate regularly with the Chancellor. In turn, directives from all three entities are transmitted to appropriate University personnel. In turn, those charged with implementing these policies, particular requests, etc., describe their results which are reported back to the source of the request.

The Presidents of the three Senates and the Chair of the Graduate Council attend every meeting of the Board of Trustees both to be informed of the Board’s decisions and workings and to provide comment and advice about pending matters.

The Chancellor meets regularly with the President of each Senate to discuss current matters facing the University, and also meets periodically with each Senate to keep each group informed of plans and operations and to answer questions on the minds of Senators.

Both the Faculty and Student Senates appoint representatives to the faculty and student advisory bodies of the IBHE. Those representatives report to their respective Senates on a regular basis.

5C3 Ethics, equity, social responsibilities, community service and involvement

In AY01-02, with broadly based constituency involvement, SIUE formally reviewed and revised its Statement of Values which forms the basis for all its actions (O1B)

With respect to ethics and equity, the University stresses the value of Integrity. Integrity includes accountability to those served and from whom SIUE receives support. It also includes honesty in its communications and actions. The University communicates the value of integrity to its various constituencies in many forms. These include the Student Conduct Code, the Student Academic Code, Ethics in Teaching, policies such as Academic Integrity in Scholarship and Research, and the diverse grievance policies.

The University underscores the importance of social responsibilities and community service and involvement through its value of Citizenship. Citizenship includes a commitment to social, civic, and political responsibility—globally, nationally, locally, and within the University. Citizenship takes the form of active partnerships and a climate of collaboration and cooperation among faculty, staff, students, and the larger community. Environmental stewardship is one important example of such cooperation. Communication of these values and expectations takes place through a variety of documents circulated on campus and through the University’s web site.

SIUE’s commitment to community service and involvement is further reflected in one of SIUE’s long-term goals, Active Community Engagement. The University annually evaluates its success in Community Engagement and annually sets short-term goals in pursuit of excellence in this area.

5P1 Setting directions

SIUE’s actions are guided by its Statements on Values, Mission, Vision, and Diversity and by its long-term goals all of which were developed with broad constituency involvement. These guiding statements were reconsidered and rewritten as part of the AQIP Action Project, “Strategic Planning Process.” A record of the Action Project is available at http://www.siue.edu/AQIP/goal4/index.html. The guiding statements form the basis for both short-term actions and strategic planning.

At the beginning of each academic year, the Chancellor, his support staff, and the Vice Chancellors hold a day-long strategic planning meeting. The purpose of the meeting is precisely to set directions for the academic year in alignment with the University’s mission, vision and values, etc. These directions take into account the needs and expectations of students and other important stakeholders by focusing on the University’s long-term goals: producing engaged students and capable graduates, developing and maintaining innovative high quality programs, hiring and retaining committed faculty and staff, maintaining an harmonious campus climate, encouraging active community engagement, managing sound physical and financial assets, and achieving an excellent reputation.

The Vice Chancellors have a keen understanding of the primacy of students and learning. That primacy played a key role in budget decisions for the current fiscal year, with no reductions being made in areas affecting direct instruction or student services. The UPBC uses student learning and student services as the principal criterion in budget recommendations. Figure 5.1 shows that the Academic Affairs and Student Affairs budgets increased in FY 04 while the overall University budget decreased. Note that the budget category, “Central,” covers university wide shared costs such as self insurance, the central data management computer system, and the state’s health insurance surcharge.

Figure 5.1
Incremental Budgetary Adjustments
FY 2003 to FY 2004
FY 03 / FY 04 / % Change
Academic Affairs / $69,346K / $69,695K / 0.5%
Administration / $23,374K / $22,492K / -3.8%
Student Affairs / $1,933K / $1,972K / 2.0%
Public Affairs / $1,644K / $1,671K / 1.6%
Chancellor / $1,312K / $1,225K / -6.6%
Central / $4,184K / $3,904K / -6.7%
Total / $101,794K / $100,959K / -0.8%

The cost reductions were effected through layoffs and positions not filled, no raises in FY 03 and reduced raises in FY 04,m delays in deferred maintenance of facilities, a cessation of new and expanded academic programs, and administrative cost recovery for support to auxiliary units, i.e., units that are funded locally through fees, sales, or other non-state allocations. The layoffs and positions not filled are expected to lead to less frequent cleaning of buildings, longer response time for building engineers, greater vulnerability in information technology and telecommunications areas, reduction in quality of support services to students, and increased processing time for administrative functions.

Areas that have been protected include faculty replacements (Figures 4.1 and 4.2), important assessment and program review activities (1P8, 1P11, 1P13, 1R1, 1R3, and 7P5), and faculty development (1P6, 1P9, 1R3, 2P3, 4C4, 4P2, 4P4, and 4P7).

5P2 Seeking future opportunities and building and sustaining a learning environment

University leaders are expected to be fully engaged in understanding developments at the state and national level relevant to their areas of responsibility. They do so by attending conferences, engaging with colleagues at other institutions, and through various media.

Because of that expectation and engagement, the University engages in activities too numerous to list in seeking future opportunities and building and sustaining a learning environment. But, examples include the work of the Office of Research and Projects in the Graduate School, which helps faculty apply for external grants to support research, funding from the Graduate School itself to support research, the development work of the SIUE Foundation, workshops for the improvement of teaching sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, yearly teaching honors awarded by student votes, and continual upgrade of facilities and technology. Further, the deans of the College of Arts and Sciences and of the Schools of Business, Dental Medicine, Education, Engineering, and Nursing, all have their own initiatives to enhance the opportunities and learning environments of their students. The dean of the School of Pharmacy will develop similar initiatives when students are admitted to the school in fall 2005. The University also sustains a vigorous and nationally recognized assessment plan to sustain and improve the quality of its academic programs (1P13).

5P3 Making decisions

All major decisions are made with broad collaboration. In most instances, that collaboration takes the form of standing committees. All curricular decisions are reviewed and approved in the Faculty Senate. All major budget decisions are made in light of advice from the UPBC. Student government is highly participatory in managing student funds, and in providing advice to the administration about matters directly affecting students.

The Chancellor works closely in collaboration with the Vice Chancellors as a group. Major decisions are made in a group, not in one-on-one discussion. In addition, the Vice Chancellors meet periodically, usually weekly, without the Chancellor to coordinate matters among their areas and to make decisions that cross administrative lines but which do not need the Chancellor’s approval.

5P4 Using information and results

A variety of information is used in diverse ways, depending on the level of leadership. For example, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors rely on data collected by the Office of Institutional Research and Studies from faculty, staff, current students, and alumni to evaluate progress in achieving the University’s Strategic Plan. The University’s progress on each goal is evaluated annually using both quantitative and qualitative data. Data about a vast array of matters are published in the SIUE Fact Book which is distributed very broadly (1I2). The Fact Book and the Fact Book Annex (which has even more detailed information) are both available on the University’s web page (http://www.siue.edu/IRS/factbook.html).

The Chancellor uses the Strategic Plan to prepare the annual State of the University address. As noted above, the Chancellor uses UPBC recommendations in making budgetary decisions. At another level, deans use data collected from annual evaluations of faculty and staff to make retention and tenure decisions. Similarly, the Provost uses recommendations from deans to make a variety of academic and fiscal decisions regarding faculty and staff and academic programs.

5P5 Communicating between and among institution levels

The Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, and deans all routinely communicate information downward. This occurs in writing, in oral conversations, by e-mail to faculty and staff listservs, and by copious information on the University’s web site. Upward and two-way communication is assured by open-door policies at various organization levels and by other institutional practices. For example, the Provost meets regularly with the deans, directors, and Provost staff in what is called the Academic Affairs Conference, and the minutes of these meetings are disseminated throughout the University. As another example, both faculty and members of the higher administration participate in bi-annual all-faculty meetings. In a very different vein, the Chancellor hosts coffees each month for all members of the University community. He uses these events both to convey recent news and to answer questions on any matters of concern which arise.

5P6 Communicating institutional expectations

The University’s mission, vision, values and long-term goals appear in many university documents. More importantly, they are continually reinforced by leaders in all communications. For example, they form the basis for the annual State of the University address. As another example, SIUE periodically makes presentations to the Academic Matters Committee of the Board of Trustees. Presentations are chosen to specifically illustrate one of SIUE’s values or long-term goals, and the presentation makes clear the linkage to those values and goals.

5P7 Encouraging, developing and strengthening leadership abilities

The SIU Board of Trustees places strong emphasis on the development of faculty, staff, and administrators. Each year SIUE develops a budget for the Board’s approval for faculty and staff development, and each year the Board receives a report on actual expenditures compared with the budget. In FY04, SIUE has a budget in excess of $2,450,000 for this purpose.

For faculty, the primary mechanisms for development are sabbaticals and attendance at workshops and conferences. For new faculty, the SIUE half-month paid orientation, held in the first half of August, forms the basis for integrating faculty into the culture of the University. The staff has broad access to University offered workshops and courses and is also routinely sent to off campus workshops and conferences. Staff are encouraged to enroll in credit courses, and many, to a limited extent, do so during work hours.

Each year, the University sponsors at least one administrator to attend each of the leadership programs sponsored by FOCUS St. Louis and the Belleville Chamber of Commerce. New department chairs typically attend national workshops designed to assist faculty as they move into leadership roles.

5P8 Planning succession

SIUE’s mission, vision, and values are integral to the culture of the institution and are not dependent on one or two leaders. In addition, SIUE leadership—from the Board of Trustees to department chairs-- has not been characterized by high turnover. New leaders are socialized into the SIUE culture in a multiplicity of ways. For example, newly appointed externally hired deans participate in the full two-week new faculty orientation program.

SIUE does not have a formal “leadership succession” plan. But, it does have formal processes for selecting leaders from the position of Chancellor to department chair. When a leadership position opens, there is no ambiguity about how it will be filled, including due attention to matters of equal opportunity.

5P9 Measuring leadership and communication and analyzing results

The Chancellor and the Vice Chancellors are evaluated annually by their supervisor based on their goals for the year. They are also evaluated on a three-year cycle by the Committee on Higher Administration Performance Appraisal (CHAPA), a subcommittee of the UPBC. In addition, the Faculty Senate evaluates the Chancellor and Provost annually and every three years makes an assessment of performance based on three years of data.