Enhancing the Student Experience [Programs and Curricula] 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. * Undergraduate research: As an important part of strengthening the undergraduate major, we will enhance opportunities for students to engage in research, scholarship, and creative activity 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. * Freshman 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, coupled with enhanced tutoring and mentoring, will better prepare beginning students for the expectations of upper-division work. * Information Skills: Every student 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. * Interdisciplinary Programs: We continue to encourage interdisciplinary programs as an important form of partnership within the institution. We will pursue new models of administering these programs in order to provide consistent staffing and operational support for these programs. * Instructional technology: Because technology plays a major role in instruction in the modern University, we will provide the equipment and training necessary for the effective use of modern instructional technologies in the classroom and laboratory, the studio, and the field. We will provide the equipment and training necessary for the effective use of modern technology in carrying out research and in collaborating on scholarly and creative projects. The University has a continuing commitment to diversity. In the context of a university education, diversity 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. An important aspect of diversity is an awareness of global perspectives. * Diversity in the Curriculum: Through support and incentives, we will encourage a greater variety of national and international perspectives -- cultural, ethnic, and intellectual -- in programs across campus.. * Study Abroad: We will seek funding for scholarships specifically designed for study abroad. * Exchanges: We will create reciprocity arrangements for students and faculty with foreign universities which will enhance cultural diversification at the University as well as facilitate study abroad. * Campus Culture: We will provide a more receptive campus culture for international students, providing the support necessary to help international students acclimatize themselves to our culture and laws, and to become members of the university community. [Student Support] 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. * 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. * Mentoring: We will develop programs that provide freshman and sophomore students increased contact with upper-division 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. * Mentoring: We will develop programs that will bring freshman and sophomore students into regular contact with faculty outside the classroom. Learning 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. * Internships: We will promote internship programs that link students from specific majors to educational experiences outside the university. * Career guidance: We will expand the resources and training offered to students as they pursue careers. * Graduate Study Advisement: We will assist undergraduates in obtaining information about graduate studies, both within the university and at other institutions, that would be appropriate to their preparation and goals. [Community of Scholars] 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. * Visiting scholars: We will make available funds for visiting scholars and external speakers for departments, in order to stimulate both faculty and students. * Conferences/Meetings: We will seek to hold professional academic conferences on campus, and provide funding to departments that organize such efforts. * 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] The quality of our students directly impacts the quality of scholarship and instruction. It is important that we continue to find ways to help the university attract the best students, both from Nevada and from around the world. * 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. * Recruitment: We will increase funding and recruitment activities to attract top undergraduate and graduate students. We will place special emphasis on recruiting students who contribute to the diversity of our University community. * Honors Program: The size of the Honors Program will expand to 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. * Fellowships: We will make fellowships available to departments and programs in time to make offers to prospective graduate students early in the recruitment process. Building Partnerships We recognize that we are part of a system of education in the state, and we will work to strengthen the partnerships we have with other educational institutions. [K-12] * Secondary Education: We will advance a centralized University effort and will encourage individual departments and programs to communicate with the middle and high schools regarding the skills and knowledge necessary for student success in college. * K-12: We will support activities that assist K-12 students in looking ahead to higher education, with particular focus on students who will contribute to the diversity of the University community. [UCCSN] * Partnerships: We will 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 expand cooperative programs between UNR and DRI. * Partnerships: We will seek coordinated strategies with our sister system institutions to ensure equivalent basic content and rigor of articulated courses and programs. * 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. * Partnerships: We will pursue opportunities for our students to carry out projects in partnership with business, government and other organizations that relate to their studies. 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. * 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. Supporting Faculty and Staff Excellence 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: As the state grows, so will the university. It is clear that we will be hiring more faculty and staff in the coming years. We will continue to recruit the highest-quality and most diverse candidates possible, in order to create a critical mass of top-notch colleagues for the enhancement of teaching and scholarship. * Faculty Positions: As scholarly activity, such as undergraduate research, becomes central to the education of our students, we will allocate resources based on factors more directly related to academic objectives than to faculty- student ratios. [Tools for Lifelong Learning] * Faculty Development: We will enhance faculty development opportunities and create services to assist faculty in research proposal, report, and presentation preparation. * Travel Support: We consider travel to be a key component of scholarship and instructional enhancement. Therefore, we will increase travel support for conferences, scholarly activities, and professional development. [Tools for Excellence] 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. * 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. * Research Funding: We will alter the Junior Faculty Research Grant program to allow flexibility in size and duration of grants. We will also make resources available to senior scholars and research faculty. * Technological 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. * Grants and Contracts Support: We will improve the institution's ability to accommodate the administrative needs created by our increasing level of grants and contracts, including the distribution of support staff to appropriate programs. * 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 consideration of a new category of technical staff, separate from classified employees and from faculty. * Mentoring: We will enhance mentoring relationships between new faculty and senior faculty, providing new faculty with needed information about the operation of the university and assistance in the promotion and tenure process. * Legislative Funding: We will develop a strategy for adding research infrastructure support to the university's funding formula and for obtaining full indirect-cost return from the legislature. * 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] 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 activities that contribute to 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 and form the basis for evaluation. * Reward System: We will revise applicable bylaws and codes to reflect broadened definitions of scholarship and creative activity and to reinforce the values we have articulated. [Graduate Faculty] 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. * Graduate Faculty Status: We will operate on the principle that departments and programs are qualified to assign appropriate faculty to teach graduate courses and to serve on graduate committees. Therefore, we will eliminate "graduate faculty status" which now divides our faculty. Improving Infrastructure [Technology] 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 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. * 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. * 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, expanded computer facilities capable of serving more students, and appropriate support for this equipment. * Faculty and Staff Computers: We will provide every faculty and staff member with a computer suitable to his/her needs, and direct connection to the Campus Network. * Technical Support Staff: It is important that the university provide adequate support for the technological infrastructure. * Campus Network: We will connect all classrooms, laboratories, offices, and residence halls to the Campus Network, and thus to the Internet. * 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] Vast resources are now available on the Internet, but those resources should not be considered as a replacement for information resources that reside at the University. * 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. * Access to Materials: Technology shall be fully utilized to obtain access to those materials not owned by the Libraries. * Library Collection: In developing the collection and providing access to other resources, we will be especially cognizant of the needs created by our strengthened emphases on undergraduate, graduate, and faculty scholarship and creative activities. [Physical Plant] 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. * Research Equipment: Departments and programs will assess the condition of research equipment, and develop plans for maintenance, upgrades, new acquisitions and appropriate support staff. * Classrooms: We will bring all classrooms up to a standard conducive to learning, recognizing that different disciplines have different needs. Planning for classroom renovation will include input from relevant faculty and staff. * Science and Engineering 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. * 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 and assist students in obtaining off-campus housing.