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Inside Iowa State
December 21, 2000

Academic plan proposal on senate's January agenda

by Linda Charles
Provost Rollin Richmond's plan to support academic priorities through regular budget reallocations has an initial pool of $292,592. Priority this year will be given to recruiting and retaining under-represented faculty and dual-career couples.

Richmond will present the plan to the Faculty Senate next month. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9, in 260 Scheman.

The so-called "academic plan" was developed to serve as a bridge between the university's strategic plan and colleges, Richmond said. Initially, the provost had planned to build the fund with a reallocation from academic units of one-half of 1 percent annually for three years. However, because of this year's budget shortfall, the units were asked to reallocate 0.15 percent of their base budgets. Richmond said he is uncertain how much will be reallocated each year, but plans to work with deans, directors and Faculty Senate to build the fund over time. The current plan is to create a $5.8 million pool, but Richmond said that amount could change based on the university's economic situation.

As departments reallocate funds each year, those funds become part of the base budget in the Provost Office, creating a permanent, renewable pool of funds.

Funding for proposals will be for three to five years. For example, a department seeking funds to help cover salary and benefits could not request more than $35,000 for the first year. The funding would decrease to 50 percent of that in the second year and to 25 percent in the third year. By the end of the three years, the department would be expected to cover the total cost itself.

Requests for non-salary and fringe benefit costs can't exceed $60,000 in the three-year time frame.

Funding will be given throughout the year, although proposals are requested by mid-September and mid-February, when possible.

Priorities for allocations will be established periodically by the provost, deans and provost's advisory group, with input also from the Faculty Senate president and the University Resources and Policies Allocations Council.

The primary criteria in selecting proposals, include:

• Impact on the mission and key strategies of the university.
• Cooperation among colleges and academic units.
• Need (in terms of external and internal demand) for the program.
• Opportunity for innovation, collaboration and advancement to support new entrepreneurial efforts and leverage funding resources.
• Quality of both operating the program and assessing outcomes.

Academic units are encouraged to submit proposals to the Provost Office by Feb. 15, 2001. A proposal should include how the funds will be used and the academic plan criteria the proposal fulfills; vitae for faculty/staff involved in the proposal; supporting statements from all academic units involved; an explanation of the level of funding requested and a source for salary and benefits once the funds expire; proposed salaries, titles and start dates for faculty/staff involved; a statement of how affirmative action principles will be met by the proposal's implementation; and a statement of who will inform the deans council and provost's office of the outcome of offers made using the funds.

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Revis ed 12/19/00