E-mail SAPCAS
E-mail SAPCAS |
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4 December 2000 TO: Senior Steering Council for College Strategic Planning (Professors Wikswo, Chair, Christensen, Eakin, Horowitz, Porter, Siegfried, and Wiltshire) FROM: John H. Venable, Dean SUBJ: Charge to the Council In light of Provost Burish's extension of the timetable for the University's strategic planning process, the College of Arts and Science has another opportunity to consider its own long-term plans and to propose additional initiatives to the University Strategic Academic Planning Group (SAPG). As you probably know, the SAPG has provisionally approved existing and proposed interdisciplinary initiatives in Law and Business, the Learning Sciences, Nanometer-Scale Materials, Biophysical Sciences and Bioengineering, the Culture of the Americas, and Environmental Risk and Resources Management, and transinstitutional initiatives in Neuroscience and Structural Biology. But central areas of College inquiry—discipline-centered and interdisciplinary foci of research and teaching—are not yet represented among the SAPG's favored programs. While I support these several initiatives recommended by the SAPG, and will entertain other scientific proposals for development within the College, I am deeply concerned by the virtual absence, to date, of humanities and social science representation in the SAPG-approved academic plans, and the imbalance of College or University emphasis that might be inferred from it. I therefore welcome the opportunity provided by the Provost to commission a second phase of the College planning process with the purpose of expanding its vision and widening its embrace—of rendering it inclusive, representative, and faithful to the College's total mission. I am very grateful to you for agreeing to serve the College in this effort by joining the Senior Steering Council for Strategic Academic Planning for the College of Arts and Science (SAPCAS). Your work will begin immediately and continue until a plan acceptable to the Dean and to the Provost has been designed, no later than the end of the Spring 2001 term. The Council should consult documents produced in the earlier phase of the College's academic planning but should not feel constrained by them. The Council will report to me. The Council is charged with the following tasks:
Please find attached an outline of the SAPCAS sub-committee structure that I am proposing. In most cases, one Steering Council member is assigned to a sub-committee. Sub-committees report, of course, to the Steering Council. I welcome your responses to this Council charge. |
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(SAPCAS) Caucus Structures, Proposals, and Possible Initiatives March 20, 2001 SAPCAS Senior Steering Council:
*Also members of the expanded SAPG Caucus 1: Charge: To solicit, review and/or design possible College contributions to multi-school, interschool, and transinstitutiional research/educational initiatives (including those listed below):
Caucus: Burke, Christensen, Eakin, Horowitz, Kreyling (Chair), Porter
Caucus: Bahry, Bell, Gay, Siegfried, Staros (Chair)Caucus 3: Charge: To review and select departmental or interdisciplinary proposals, graduate or undergraduate, for recommendation to the SAPG. Caucus: Haglund (Chair), Hancock, Jrade, WiltshireCaucus 4: To review or create over-arching proposals—e.g., on teaching, technology, research innovations, etc.—not identified with particular disciplines but embracing several. Caucus: Ayers, Doyle (Chair), Hancock, Jrade, McNamara, J. Plummer, Sapir, Weintraub, Wikswo Caucus 5: Charge: To research the "strategic academic plans" or similar documents from other institutions, particularly colleges of liberal arts within research universities, for additional ideas on initiatives appropriate to and plausible for implementation in the CAS. Caucus: Ayers, G. Graham, Harris, Weintraub (Chair)Caucus 6: Charge: To conduct an in-depth review of curricular offerings, programs, research projects, specialized knowledge and other academic activities in our sister Vanderbilt colleges for opportunities for additional synergistic collaboration with CAS at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Caucus: Cornfield, Damon (Chair), Marcus, Russell, ScottCaucus 7: Charge: To determine how the financial aid goals of the College might be optimized in light of this strategic planning exercise. Caucus: Siegfried (Chair), Christensen |
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December 18, 2000 Dear Faculty Colleagues: Â Â Â Â Â You will find attached to this letter another from Professor John Wikswo announcing the launching of a second phase of the College's strategic planning endeavor. We ask you to read it carefully, paying particular attention to the schedule it establishes for executing the process. Â Â Â Â Â We cannot stress strongly enough the importance of two themes of Professor Wikswo's letter:
     Thank you for your thoughtful, energetic participation.
John H. Venable Enclosures |
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December 14, 2000 TO: Faculty, College of Arts and Science FROM: John P. Wikswo, Chair, Senior Steering Council for College Strategic Planning RE: Strategic Academic Plan for the College of Arts and Science (SAPCAS) I am writing to request your help in our efforts to prepare a comprehensive strategic plan for the College of Arts and Science. A brief review of the ongoing University planning effort will help place our project in an appropriate perspective. In the Spring of 1999, Provost Tom Burish initiated an effort by the Strategic Academic Planning Group (SAPG) to develop a strategic academic plan for University Central. I have been a member of SAPG since its inception. In September, 1999, Provost Burish wrote to the University Central faculty and deans, requesting that each school submit a strategic plan to him by March 31, 2000. On February, 1, 2000, Dean Infante requested that A&S departments provide him with their strategic plans by 18 February, and on April 31, he submitted to SAPG his strategic plan for the College. SAPG, working under a tight time schedule set by the Board of Trust, reviewed the seven school plans, organized a planning retreat in July, and requested white papers on interdisciplinary proposals that had been outlined in the various school plans. Through the summer, SAPG continued to review proposals and formulate its core recommendations. By mid-October, SAPG had completed its initial effort, and distributed to the retreat participants a draft of a portion of the University Plan. By late summer, it became obvious to SAPG and a number of other faculty that the College plan, and the portions of it that were appropriate for inclusion into the University Plan, did not adequately present a strategy for continuing to build the College and anchor its central position in the University. Fortunately, at meeting of the recent Board of Trust, the deadline for completing the University plan was extended until 25 April, 2001. As a result of the extension of the deadline for SAPG, the College now has an opportunity to revisit and refine its strategic plan. Dean Venable has appointed a Senior Steering Council for College Strategic Planning, with Professors Christensen, Eakin, Horowitz, Porter, Siegfried, Wiltshire, and me as members. Dean Venable, Associate Dean Paul Elledge, and I have identified six sub-committees or Caucuses that will examine specific aspects of the College Planning effort. The Steering Council and the Caucuses comprise the group that will be responsible for Strategic Academic Planning for the College of Arts and Science (SAPCAS). Each department will have a faculty member serving on SAPCAS, not to act as a representative of departmental self-interests but to provide a bi-directional conduit of information between the faculty and SAPCAS. We have a great deal to accomplish in a very short time. We anticipate having a draft report to Dean Venable by early March to allow for adequate review by the College faculty and the Faculty Council prior to the April submission of the complete College plan to SAPG. That in turn means that the Caucus reports must be in draft form by 1 February and final form by 15 February. Hence we need input from the College Faculty immediately! I urge each of you to review both the enclosed documents (our Charge and the organizational plan for SAPCAS) and the strategic plan submitted last February by your department, and consider carefully how the College might best realize its potential for greatness. I would appreciate hearing from you in writing (Box 1807 Station B or john.wikswo@vanderbilt.edu) as soon as possible, and no later than January 15. In Dean Venable's words, "it is crucial to our future that [this project] be addressed with intelligence, imagination, vision, energy, and a collegial spirit." Enclosures |
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and Report Deadlines
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January 13, 2001 Â Â Â Â Â These seven premises will guide us in formulating and assessing proposals for shaping the aspirations and crafting the future of the College of Arts and Science.
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(SAPCAS) January 24, 2001 Prologue: Proposals should be consistent with the Chancellor's goal of advancing Vanderbilt to the front rank of American research universities, contribute to enhancing the intellectual environment of the College of Arts and Science, and strengthen Vanderbilt's covenant with the community. To accomplish this, the following ten criteria will guide us in formulating and assessing proposals.
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