Work continues on UNT's Academic Plan

A 16-member steering committee has been working this spring with Howard Johnson, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and his office to write and revise UNT's Academic Plan. Johnson says the plan will serve as a roadmap to guide the university's academic future and clearly define its institutional identity.

Creation of the plan began in Fall 2003 with a campuswide collaborative process that has involved more than 200 faculty members. The formal plan, which Johnson says will remain a living document that is refined as needed, is expected to be complete by the end of April.

The first of its kind at UNT, the Academic Plan will help focus the university's responses to the pressures that surround higher education today while keeping academics at the center of the university's goals, says Celia Williamson, special assistant to the provost.

The plan will build a common vision and determine key initiatives in undergraduate and graduate education as well as research and scholarship for the near future. It will focus the institution's energy on those areas and build the commitment to accomplish the initiatives, Williamson says.

To create the plan, Williamson and the committee are working with campus reading groups that include the Faculty Senate, Regents Professors, retired faculty members, the Student Government Association, the Graduate Student Council, alumni and the Staff Council.

"Each section of the plan will be read and reviewed by the reading groups before it is finalized," Williamson says. "The creation of the plan has been an open and involved process, and that pattern of communication is expected to continue."

Once the formal plan is released, each academic unit will be asked to create individual plans by October, Williamson says.

To learn more about the academic plan, visit web2.unt.edu/vpaa/AcademicPlanpg.cfm.

BY KELLEY REESE kreese@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Inspirational speaker "Rudy" Ruettiger to visit UNT
• Regents raise board-designated tuition $6 per semester credit hour
• Tenure granted in one appealed case
• Defense bill funding of $3.1 million buys UNT two electron microscopes
• International Week at UNT starts April 4
• Project aims to preserve web information for posterity
• UNT to host annual Texas Higher Education Law Conference April 11-12
• April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
• Staff Council hears update on campus master plan, proposed child care center
• Senate approves tenure appeals process resolution

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