Subject: Program Analysis - Next Steps

Program Analysis—Next Steps

Our university has been engaged in program analysis for almost a year.  Program analysis has its roots in our strategic plan, and provides a guide by which we can make adjustments that help ensure  our university’s academic excellence and financial sustainability going forward.  It is a sign of our responsibility and stewardship that we take stock of our resources and capabilities in light of a rapidly changing environment and adjust our execution of our mission without compromising our values. 

Many individuals and groups have been involved in the program analysis process, including the Council on University Planning and Budget (CUPB), the Office of Planning and Institutional Research, deans, and department heads. The process has been open, with a website devoted to the effort, public meetings of CUPB, briefings to shared governance groups, and public press coverage. We owe thanks to all who have been involved in a very thorough process leading up to CUPB’s recommendations.

Next steps in the process involve adjustments to budgets and the plans those budgets represent to align with fiscal realities.  In taking those next steps we will be guided by our mission:

Eastern Illinois University is a public comprehensive university that offers superior, accessible undergraduate and graduate education. Students learn the methods and results of free and rigorous inquiry in the arts, humanities, sciences, and professions, guided by a faculty known for its excellence in teaching, research, creative activity, and service. The University community is committed to diversity and inclusion and fosters opportunities for student-faculty scholarship and applied learning experiences within a student-centered campus culture. Throughout their education, students refine their abilities to reason and to communicate clearly so as to become responsible citizens and leaders.

For close to 120 years, and through multiple episodes of social and economic change, Eastern Illinois University has successfully delivered on the promises inherent in its mission statement. Most recent evidence of such success can be seen in the university’s NCA self-study now nearing completion, in which the ability of our university to achieve superior performance as a premier comprehensive university is dramatically highlighted. Such achievement stems from persistent team effort on the part of all our faculty and staff, to whom the State of Illinois owes a debt of gratitude.

Fulfilling our mission – guiding and shaping students towards intelligent, courageous, and responsible leadership – has  always required and continues to require that we perform superior instruction undergirded by strong scholarship. This has been true since our beginnings in 1895 with a handful of faculty and a small number of students, and remains a core function of our university today. Our faculty now, just as before, must be the best teachers and scholars they can be. Superior instruction in our undergraduate and graduate programs is the cornerstone of the university. The actions we take and the principles we state pursuant to program analysis are founded on this cornerstone.

In twenty-first century America, much is required to complete our instructional mission and meet our societal obligations as a public university. Our dedicated staff provides highly necessary support for the academic mission. A student in a classroom, being instructed in an academic subject, also has been recruited, offered financial aid, and housed. Instruction is made possible by classrooms that are renovated, cleaned, heated, and made ready for learning.  Student readiness to learn is enhanced by service areas such as counseling, health and well-being, student life, and central advising which meet needs of the whole individual that fall outside what is met in the classroom. Individuals and offices who respond to state and federal requirements for universities handle, audits, reports on compliance, and more. While we remain true to our 120-year old mission, the execution demanded from us has changed, and today’s university is a large, complex organization that must perform many functions, executed by all of our faculty and staff, to achieve the primary goal of educating students and preparing them to participate fully in society.

In my many years as a faculty member, I have always appreciated all of my university colleagues who, by doing their jobs with passion and commitment equal to or exceeding mine, enabled me to focus on my teaching and research. I am certain that the faculty at EIU is equally appreciative of such support by the many dedicated individuals on our staff.

In moving forward with next steps in program analysis, we will decide which programs and activities should continue, and with what level of budgetary support. We will also be deciding on areas to provide additional resources, based on assessed potential to produce sustainable increases in enrollment. The initial set of specific actions will be announced by early June. We will support excellence, accessibility, and financial sustainability within certain ranges of operation. Among these are: 1) university student-faculty ratios of 15 to 1 to 18 to 1; 2) university average class sizes of 22 to 25; 3) university staff to faculty ratios of 1.4 to 1 to 1.8 to 1; and 4) tenure-track and tenured faculty percentage of all faculty of approximately 70%.

Together we are working for continuation and enhancement of superior, accessible undergraduate and graduate education at Eastern Illinois University. Together we are working to provide the academic excellence and personal relationships for which we are known. Together we are working for EIU to remain an institution of excellence and opportunity, as it has been throughout its history. Together we will achieve our objectives.

Thank you for your commitment to EIU.

Bill Perry

President