In my years at Ohio University, one persistent gap appears to be the disconnect between those who plan and provide resources to academic programs, and the faculty's access to partnering in that planning. Since faculty have a great deal of control over the development and delivery of academic programs, I was curious about President Gonzalez's thinking in regard to fostering a practical partnership between faculty and administration for more granular planning to provide the right programs at the right size to the right students, in a sustainable way.
There is no question that faculty must lead the development and revision of academic programs, as well as have a strong voice in decisions about the right sizing or sustainable growth of those programs. It's been my experience that the best way to drive deep collaboration in program planning is for faculty to engage in robust conversations within your department or school about your academic offerings, their appropriate size, and which learners they will serve. Insights from campus partners, such as Enrollment Management, University Communications & Marketing, and Institutional Effectiveness & Analytics, can help inform those conversations. Those conversations should surface ideas and recommendations for your Dean to help inform resource decisions made by the Dean and the Provost in consultation with the President and CFO. Ultimately, the decisions must consider multiple factors and don't always perfectly mirror the recommendations from faculty, but it is important that we are leveraging our department and college structures to do that bottom-up planning.