My Armstrong Experience—Week Eight

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Oct 10, 2012, 03:27 pm - Carey Adams

By the semester clock we're just rounding mid-term. Classes have settled into a steady rhythm and, unless you're busily preparing for a second flex-term class, most teachers are in that comfortable if temporary (very) period where implementation supplants planning as the primary activity. Things look a little different from the administrative point of view, as most of the discussions I am involved in these days have to do with planning, even as we attend closely to carrying out plans previously made. (See Complete College Georgia and SPARC as just two examples.) Here are a few of the planning activities reflected in my weekly calendar agenda:

Enrollment projections: We are beginning right now to formulate our expected enrollments for Fall 2013, which have to be ready in just a few weeks.
Budget planning: Closely related to projected enrollments is our budget forecast for next year. Although we won't know our actual budget until well into the spring (contingent on state appropriations, tuition rates, for example), in just a few weeks we will begin the process of inviting units to submit budget requests which will then be vetted and prioritized at the Division and Cabinet levels before being presented to the President.
Class schedules and course rotations: Summer schedules are already set, of course, but department heads and deans are looking at course rotations two years out and updating programs of study to help students plan for timely degree completion. I also am asking deans to begin a new practice of budgeting for part-time and overload salaries on an annual basis.
Curriculum: Faculty know that the process for proposing, approving and implementing curriculum changes takes months to complete. For changes or additions to be effective
Fall 2013, the process already is well underway.
Comprehensive Program Review: Twenty degree programs will undergo program review this year, a process that begins now with the development of self-studies and does not conclude until next summer. In addition, we are beginning to re-examine our existing process and make preparations for improvements in 2013-2014 cycle.

Based on our dinner-time conversations, my 12-year old thinks I go to meetings for a living. He's not far off! But planning for our future is important and exciting work, and I am thoroughly enjoying working with my faculty, staff and student colleagues.

Have a great week!