*** ENRICHING AND INTEGRATING THE UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE EXPERIENCES *** [Programs and Curricula] 1.1 With the Core Curriculum well established, the quality of the major and graduate curricula becomes a primary focus. The major and graduate instructional programs need to prepare their students to think critically, to solve problems, and to function in the diverse world outside the University. 1.2 * Undergraduate research: As an important part of strengthening the undergraduate major, we will enhance opportunities for students to engage in research and scholarship, under the mentoring of faculty and graduate students. Examples will include the encouragement of senior theses in appropriate departments, funds to support undergraduate research and publication, and more liberal access to graduate instruction. 1.3 * Curriculum: We will strengthen the rigor of the freshman-year experience, both within the current core courses and, where appropriate, in new department- and college-specific courses designed to introduce students to the methodologies of their prospective disciplines. Increased rigor will better prepare beginning students for the expectations of upper-division work. 1.4 * Information Skills: Every graduate of the university will have the opportunity to develop critical information skills that can be applied to solving problems of our society and that will make students competitive in today's marketplace and prepared for lifelong learning. The curricula will include the basic principles of information retrieval and the critical analysis of data as essential elements in critical thinking. 1.5 * Program Review: We will continue the process of reviewing all graduate programs on a regular, systematic basis for the purpose of building and maintaining high quality in those programs. We will critically assess the quality of existing graduate programs and their relevance to 21st century jobs. 1.6 * We will pursue the goal, which is now within reach, of awarding at least fifty Ph.D. degrees each year. 1.7 * Interdisciplinary Programs: We will continue to encourage interdisciplinary programs, and will work to provide consistent staffing and operational support, administrative oversight and assessment of these programs. 1.8 * Teaching Assistant Enhancement: We will continue to improve pedagogical training for graduate teaching assistants. 1.9 * Graduation Time: We will seek to shorten the time to graduation of master's and doctoral students. [Technology in Instruction] 1.10 Technology plays a major role in instruction in the modern University. Computers and related equipment, particularly when connected by networks across the campus, the state and the world, empower learners as never before to seek out information where it resides and to apply it to the questions at hand. 1.11 Computers are also used by instructors for the dissemination of class announcements, syllabi, reading lists, and consultation times. Papers are submitted and corrected electronically; science labs can utilize computer-based analysis; art collections and musical works are accessible by computer; reserve materials in the library can be accessed through computer networks. Instructors also create lecture presentations using digital presentation tools; and textbook producers are moving toward multimedia (CD-ROM and videodisc) presentations. 1.12 * Instructional technology: We will provide the equipment and training necessary for the effective use of modern instructional technologies in the classroom. This will include the training of instructors in the use of databases and presentation technologies and the training of all in the use of technology, including the Internet, in carrying out research and in collaborating on scholarly projects. [Student Support] 1.13 Many students who leave the University without graduating do so within the first two years. Reasons vary from financial hardship to inadequate academic and career guidance, to isolation from more senior students and faculty. These conditions are even more critical for certain segments of the student population such as first generation and ethnic minority students. 1.14 * Scholarships: We will increase scholarship money to improve access and encourage scholastic achievements. As part of this effort, we will implement scholarship policies that encourage increased participation in the University community, because such participation is known to be an important factor in student success. 1.15 * Mentoring: We will develop programs that provide freshman and sophomore students increased contact with senior students, who will serve as academic mentors, introducing them to the academic expectations of the junior and senior years and to career opportunities in their majors. 1.16 The student's learning path does not end at graduation. It is therefore incumbent upon us to help the student make a transition from the university's formal instruction to a career or to graduate studies. 1.17 * Internships: We will promote internship programs that link students from specific majors to educational experiences outside the university. 1.18 * Career guidance: We will continue to offer students resources and training as they pursue jobs upon graduation. 1.19 * Graduate Study Advisement: We will assist graduating seniors in obtaining information about graduate studies, both within the university and at other institutions, that would be appropriate to their preparation and goals. [Diversity] 1.20 The University has a continuing commitment to diversity. Diversity, by its nature, is difference. In the context of a university education, it is the opportunity to explore departures from traditional associations. It is a conscious movement into a world of both ideas and realities that may be different from accustomed experiences. With the changing demographics of our state and nation, our future depends on our ability to provide education and ideas that embrace diversity. 1.21 An important aspect of diversity is an awareness of global perspectives. At no other time in American history have we been forced to confront the global realities that we now face. It is imperative that we profoundly reshape our educational goals so that international education becomes an integral part of a basic educational experience for all students. The University is well positioned to use study abroad as a primary springboard toward achieving global competence for a significant number of students. 1.22 * Diversity in the Curriculum: We will increase "in-class" diversity experiences by continuing to support the efforts of the Core Curriculum Diversity Committee and the recommendations of the International Task Force. We will provide incentives for faculty to internationalize the courses they teach. 1.23 * Study Abroad: We will fund scholarships specifically designed for study abroad. 1.24 * Study Abroad: We will develop new study abroad sites. 1.25 * Exchanges: We will create reciprocity arrangements with foreign universities through a limited number of fee waivers and teaching assistantships which will enhance cultural diversification at the University as well as facilitate study abroad. 1.26 * Exchanges: We will provide greater support for faculty exchanges. 1.27 * Campus Culture: We will provide a more receptive campus culture for international students. 1.28 * International Students: We will provide the support necessary to help international students acclimatize themselves to our culture and laws, and to become members of the university community. [Community of Scholars] 1.29 As a center for learning and scholarship, it continues to be our goal to make the University a community of scholars, both within the confines of the campus and through community involvement. Collegiality is an important element in scholarship, as the exchange of ideas produces greater creativity. 1.30 * Visiting scholars: We will make available funds for visiting scholars and external speakers for departments, in order to stimulate both faculty and students. We will ensure that some of these visiting scholars bring diverse perspectives. 1.31 * Conferences/Meetings: We will seek to hold professional academic conferences on campus, and provide funding to departments that organize such efforts. 1.32 * Community involvement: We will invite members of the community, both in the Reno area and throughout the state, to participate in the intellectual life of the University through attendance at events, enrollment in formal and informal instruction, and technology-based communications with our faculty and students. [Recruitment] 1.33 * Admission Standards: We will conduct ongoing assessment of our admissions standards, in the contexts of growing enrollments and of our rising academic standards within the curriculum. 1.34 * Recruitment: We will increase funding and recruitment activities to attract top students from Nevada and surrounding states to the University. 1.35 * Diversity: We will place special emphasis on recruiting high-quality students who contribute to the diversity of our University community. 1.36 * Honors Program: The size of the Honors Program will keep pace with the number of qualified students we can attract, because these students establish a mark that helps to raise the academic standards of the University. 1.37 The quality of our students directly impacts the quality of research and graduate studies. It is important that we continue to find ways to help graduate programs attract the best students, both from Nevada and from around the world. 1.38 * Fellowships: We will make graduate fellowships and assistantships consistently available for departments and programs with active graduate programs. Fellowships will be available each year to make offers to top students early in the recruitment process. 1.39 * Diversity: We will expand the quality of the graduate student applicant pool and increase the diversity of the graduate student population by active recruitment. *** BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS *** [K-12] 2.1 * K-12 Standards: We will advance a centralized University effort and will encourage individual departments and programs to communicate with the middle and high schools regarding requirements for admission and the prerequisites (skills and knowledge) for student success. 2.2 * K-12 Outreach: We will support outreach activities to assist K-12 students in meeting higher academic standards, with particular focus on students who would contribute to the diversity of the University community. [UCCSN] 2.3 While continuing to build higher quality in our undergraduate programs, we also recognize that we are part of a system of undergraduate education in the state. 2.4 * Partnerships: We will seek to create partnerships with departments at UNLV in order to offer students and faculty on both campuses opportunities not available on their home campuses. We will maintain the cooperative programs that currently exist with DRI. 2.5 * Partnerships: We will engage in dialogues with the community colleges to seek coordinated strategies to use each institution's resources most effectively. 2.6 * UCCSN Standards: We will maintain communication with departments at our sister system institutions in order to ensure equivalent basic content and rigor of articulated courses. [Academic Projects in Partnership] 2.7 * Partnerships: Academic experiences outside the classroom and laboratory are central to students' life at the University. Ideally, these experiences will expose students to a diversity of individuals, at all levels within the University community as well as in areas outside the University related to their academic work. Therefore we will pursue opportunities for our students to carry out projects in partnership with business, government and social institutions that relate to their studies. [Outreach Teaching, Research, and Service] 2.8 In all of our arenas -- instruction, research and creative activity, and service -- our contributions occur outside as well as within the boundaries of our campus. Such contributions constitute outreach: the generation, transmission, application, and preservation of knowledge for the benefit of external audiences in ways that are consistent with University and unit missions. 2.9 In essence, outreach activities are partnerships between the University and the communities (local, state, regional, national, and international) in which it exists. Outreach is not a category of endeavor separate from our instruction, research and creative activities, and service; rather, outreach activities occur within each of these categories. 2.10 * Outreach Goals: Individual faculty, departments, schools and colleges will evaluate the extent to which they can appropriately participate in outreach activities. Outreach activities will be incorporated into faculty's teaching, research, and service functions via the role statement and will be recognized and rewarded through the tenure, promotion, annual review, and merit pay processes. 2.11 * Industry relations: As a resource for scholarship, we will develop relationships with industries that promise to diversify the state's economy in the 21st century. In these activities, we will provide real-life learning opportunities for our students, bring additional resources to campus, and help address critical problems and issues facing our communities. Finally, we will value contributions to the University mission that foster such partnerships. 2.12 The success of economic diversification in Nevada is dependent on further development and support of local companies. To develop successfully, companies must learn to compete in an ever increasingly global market. 2.13 * Sponsorship: We will encourage private sector sponsorship of University students studying abroad, and foreign students studying at the University, in accordance with the needs and interests of Nevada industries. 2.14 All of these considerations, from undergraduate research to the information infrastructure to basic research to partnership with community institutions, are threads in the fabric of the University. They contribute to the success of men and women, young and old, who come to the University or use its services from afar, to learn and to discover knowledge. We are proud of our students, and we are committed to providing them with the resources they require to learn, the skills they need to inquire systematically, and the culture that inspires their creativity. *** IMPROVING FACULTY AND STAFF EFFECTIVENESS *** 3.1 The university's mission weaves the faculty's primary activities of teaching, scholarship, creative activity, and service, into a seamless fabric. Our instruction includes not only teaching what is known, but also seeking that which is not known and instilling the methods of creative and thorough scholarly inquiry in our students. Our scholarship is both a service and a learning resource for our local and global communities and, as such, is inseparable from our instructional activities. The sum of our activities empowers our students to become educated women and men in society, armed with the intellectual tools necessary to surmount the challenges of today and tomorrow. We seek to deepen the understanding, among all groups within as well as among those outside our campus, that scholarship and instruction are inseparable within our mission. [Hiring] 3.2 As the state grows, so will the university. It is clear that we will be hiring more faculty members in the coming years. One of the most important challenges we face is that of hiring well. 3.3 * Quality/Diversity: We will continue to recruit the highest-quality and most diverse faculty possible, in order to create a critical mass of top-notch colleagues for the enhancement of teaching and research. 3.4 * Faculty Positions: We will continue to allocate faculty positions among departments and colleges with reference to a variety of criteria, including instruction, research and creative activity, and service. As scholarly activity becomes increasingly important in the education of our students (e.g., in undergraduate research), allocation of resources is based on factors more directly related to objectives than are faculty-student ratios. [Tools for Lifelong Learning] 3.5 * Faculty Development: We will create services to assist faculty in research proposal, report, and presentation preparation. 3.6 * Faculty Development: We will enhance faculty development opportunities with specific emphasis on those faculty and activities that contribute to the university's diversity objectives. 3.7 * Travel Support: We consider travel to be a key component of research and scholarship. Therefore, we will increase travel support for conferences, scholarly activities, and professional development. [Tools for Effectiveness] 3.8 As the size of the faculty increases, it is crucial that we provide both new and current faculty with the tools they need for success in instruction and scholarship, including adequate space, staff support, and equipment. 3.9 * Start-up Support: We will continue to provide start-up packages competitive with those in a scholar's discipline. Start-up moneys will include funds for instructional tools and equipment as well as research materials. 3.10 * Research Funding: We will expand the Junior Faculty Research Grant program to allow larger grants. Research resources will also be made available to senior scholars as needed. 3.11 * Administrative Support: Where appropriate, we will devise technological solutions that improve communication, facilitate instruction and scholarship, and enhance administrative efficiency. A beginning example is the availability of class schedules via computer, accomplished this year. 3.12 * Grants and Contracts Support: We will improve the institution's ability to accommodate the administrative needs created by our progress toward $100 million annually in grants and contracts. 3.13 * Staff Support: We will systematically assess the specific needs of each program on campus to determine where increased administrative staff support is most needed. 3.14 * Research Personnel: As the number of soft-money staff positions on campus continues to grow in response to increased research funding, we will address the difficult personnel issues surrounding these positions. We will update personnel policies to allow flexibility in hiring, promoting, and terminating staff positions. Our examination of this issue will include balancing principal investigator rights and employee rights. It will also include creation of a new category of technical staff, separate both from classified employees and from faculty. 3.15 * Mentoring: We will encourage the establishment of mentoring relationships between new faculty and senior faculty, providing new faculty with needed information about the operation of the university and with opportunities for increased participation in the life of the university. 3.16 * Funding: We will develop a strategy for adding research infrastructure support to the university's funding formula. 3.17 * Funding: We will continue to work to obtain full indirect cost return from the legislature.. 3.18 * Interdisciplinary Research: We will facilitate the organization of research groups that include researchers from a variety of programs, to study different aspects of a common research problem. [Reward System] 3.19 A reward system is a statement of values. Therefore we will orient the structure of faculty performance standards and remuneration to the values we hold with regard to instruction, scholarship, outreach activities, the encouragement of diversity in the university community, and collegiality. Essential to the university's Land Grant Mission for the 21st Century is a reconsideration of the traditional faculty roles of teaching, research, and service. This reconsideration includes vigorous support and evaluation of teaching, a broadened concept of scholarship, and a definition of outreach that surpasses "service" to become an essential element of our central academic mission. To achieve this, we have begun to put in place a system of merit, promotion and tenure that recognizes both the unique talents of each faculty member and the specific expectations of the academic unit for that person. This system is built around a "role statement," specifying expected levels and types of teaching, research and other activities for that person. The role statement is developed by the faculty member in consultation with department chair, dean and program director, and is to be the basis of evaluation. 3.20 * Role Statements: Every faculty member will have a role statement. 3.21 * Reward System: We will revise applicable bylaws and codes to reflect a broadened definition of scholarship and to reinforce the values we have articulated. [Graduate Faculty] 3.22 Although the university of Nevada was established more than 120 years ago, only in the last decade have we taken our place among the major universities in the United States. At this stage of maturation, we are more confident of our own judgment as citizens of the academic community, and less reliant on structure and credentialism. 3.23 * Graduate Faculty Status: We will operate on the principle that all faculty at this university are qualified to teach at both undergraduate and graduate levels and to serve on the advisory committees of graduate students. Therefore we will eliminate "graduate faculty status" which now divides our faculty. *** IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE *** [Technology] 4.1 Because learning and scholarship rely upon information, the information infrastructure of the enterprise is of primary concern. The university community and society in general are placing greater societal and economic emphasis on the value, collection, management, and strategic importance of information. To form a culture that will support active scholarship into the 21st century, the university is developing a climate that welcomes the opportunities offered by our expanded access to knowledge and information. This new environment enables broad-based communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, expanded contact with our students, and coherent integration of our diverse information technologies and resources. 4.2 The university has made progress and continues in its determination to build an easy-to-use, reliable, widely available, integrated, high-performance information infrastructure and support system. The university will use this infrastructure to acquire, organize, manage, and provide systematic access to information resources, regardless of format, and to facilitate the enhancement of instruction, student learning, research, and outreach activities, regardless of location. 4.3 * Student Computers: Students will either own or have access to computers that will serve as workstations, providing them with the necessary levels of access to instructional and research resources. We will provide expanded terminal hours on campus, as well as expanded computer labs capable of serving more students. A widely accepted national standard is a ratio 15 students for each computer terminal. By that formula, we would have 800 terminals; we have 60-75. 4.4 * Faculty and Staff Computers: We will provide every faculty and staff member with a computer suitable to his/her needs, and connection to the Campus Network. At this time, 75 percent of faculty and staff have a computer, and 90 percent of those have a network connection. Some have access by telephone modem. 4.5 * Technical Support Staff: It is important that the university provide adequate support for the technological infrastructure. A nationally accepted ratio for computer support is one support person for every 20 faculty members. With 600 faculty, that would be 30 support people. We currently have seven people, plus some measure of support from System Computing Services. 4.6 The "nervous system" of the modern university is the computer network, enabling the diverse parts of the enterprise to communicate with one another and with the world at large. It is expensive but essential. At the University of Nevada, Reno, we have extended the computer network to include 60 percent of the buildings on campus. 4.7 * Campus Network: We will connect all classrooms, laboratories, offices, and residence halls to the Campus Network, and thus to the Internet. 4.8 * Network Support: We will ensure the funding for continued maintenance, replacement, evolution, and growth of the Campus Network to achieve state-of-the-art performance and reliability. [Information] 4.9 Vast resources are now available on the Internet, but those resources are scattered and lack order, system, or unity. Therefore the Internet, however vast, must be considered as a collection of additional resources, not as a replacement for information resources that reside at the University. 4.10 * Library Materials: We will continue to improve the physical collection of the library, as well as increasing access to materials in electronic format. The Libraries will increasingly make available materials in full-text and image-based formats; an adequate level of support must be made available to support this technology. 4.11 * Access to Materials: Technology shall be fully utilized to obtain access to those materials not owned by the Libraries and to acquire for the user at time of need rather than in anticipation of need. 4.12 * Library Collection: In developing the collection and providing access to other resources, we will be especially cognizant of the needs created by our new emphases on undergraduate research in the major, and the needs created by new areas of graduate and faculty research. [Equipment] 4.13 * Research Equipment: We will assess the condition of research equipment, and develop plans for maintenance, upgrades, and new acquisitions [Physical Plant] 4.14 The physical campus will remain the hub of the University's activity. However, the needs of that campus will change, given our growth and our productivity. The University operates beyond its official business hours, and will likely expand its hours of operation in coming years. Moreover, our population growth produces a continuing need for more classrooms, offices, laboratories, and other types of campus settings. 4.15 The University adopted a master plan for land and buildings in 1989, a plan that is still in effect but will require review in the light of changing needs. One such review is a thorough space utilization and needs study that has been completed this year. The study indicates that the University will face a critical shortage of instructional, research and support space within the next decade. 4.16 * Classrooms: We will bring all classrooms up to at least a minimum standard conducive to teaching. In so doing, we will recognize that a "minimum standard" means different things in different disciplines. Planning for classroom renovation will include input from relevant faculty and staff. 4.17 * Laboratories: We will update, upgrade, and expand laboratory facilities in the sciences and engineering. Currently, many teaching labs operate with out-of-date equipment, and lab limitations restrict the number of students who can take numerous courses. 4.18 * Campus housing: In continuing to strive for a campus environment conducive to the scholarly interaction of students, we will seek to provide expanded housing for undergraduates and graduate students. 4.19 * Study centers: We will seek to create additional study centers on campus. ****************************************************************** [Miscellaneous -- Left Over Stuff] 5.0 The university has these overall goals for research: obtain Carnegie Research I University status by 1997; grow research and other sponsored projects to $100 million by the year 2000; see one or two faculty members elected to the National Academy of Science/Engineering; increase the number of women and minorities in science and engineering; increase faculty invention disclosures and technology licensing, and expand applied research and university/industry partnerships, particularly with Nevada companies. 5.1 Students will come to the University directly from high school, from Nevada's community colleges, from colleges and universities outside the state, and from careers and life experiences that have separated them from formal education. In order to achieve our instructional goals, we must work to raise the academic standards of our University and to convey those expectations to our students, prospective students, and the community at large. 5.2 Supporting learning and scholarship at the university are our hard-working, capable staff, as well as resources including information technology and the physical plant.