America's New Public University

With the arrival of this week's application deadline for funding in the second round of Strategic Directions initiatives, it's all too easy to lose sight of the Strategic Directions Charter's bigger picture.

Although the initiatives play a vital role in the process, they must not overshadow the implementation of the charter at IU.

The implementation has three primary components. The first was the translation of the charter's 30 recommendations into more than 1,300 specific goals with detailed timelines and benchmarks. That process is complete and substantial progress has already been made on many of the specific goals. For more information, you may wish to visit the World Wide Web site at the beginning of this column.

The second implementation component is the development of campus plans at IU Bloomington, IUPUI and the regionals. IUPUI's plan is done; Bloomington's is nearly finished and the regionals are working on theirs.

With these plans in hand, we will be ready to commence the third and final phase of implementation: the identification of individual unit priorities on each campus. Using the campus plan as a guide, all schools and departments will identify their high-priority strategic directions and, more important, specify the steps being taken to achieve them.

Of course, the incentive funds for specific initiatives continue to draw attention. Tuesday marked the last day to submit proposals for Round II of the SDC funding process.

In the week before the deadline, faculty and staff had submitted 239 letters of intent. As Thanksgiving approached, campus reviews were in progress, and from reports received from the campus liaisons, we anticipated receiving at least 256 proposals by Tuesday.

In fact, the total will probably increase because some proposals were not accounted for, including several in the "Academic Excellence" category. This will most likely put the number of proposals to be reviewed at well over the 250 submitted for the last competition.

Five panels of faculty, staff and students will review the proposals. The panels will be chaired by Jeffrey Alberts (IUB professor of psychology and associate dean of RUGS), Doris Merritt (professor emerita of medicine, IUPUI), Eugene R. Kintgen (IUB professor of English and associate dean of RUGS), David Stocum (professor and dean of the School of Science, IUPUI), and Albert Wertheim (IUB professor of English and RUGS associate for research and development in the humanities).

This is an exciting time at IU as we take yet another step toward becoming America's New Public University.

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Viewpoint is open twice monthly for opinions on topics and issues that affect IU campuses and their surrounding communities. To submit your idea for "Viewpoint," contact "IU Home Pages" editor Jayne Spencer by E-mail (jhspence@indiana.edu), Fax (812-855-7002) or campus or U.S. Mail (IU Office of Communications and Marketing, 400 E. 7th St., Poplars 721, Bloomington, IN 47405). Please summarize your column idea and the points you intend to make and develop into a 500-600 word column. Viewpoint is open to faculty, staff, students, parents or community members and is intended to express the opinions of individuals, not special interest groups. The "IU Home Pages" Executive Board reserves the right to edit or reject any submitted copy.

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