UNIVERSITY PARK – At its Oct. 17 meeting, the Penn State Faculty Senate heard updates on the University’s strategic planning process and from the Board of Trustees leadership on their priorities and areas of focus. The senate also passed legislation revising its standing rules of procedure and bylaws.
Strategic planning process
Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith updated the senate on the University’s strategic planning process, which recently completed its first of five planned phases to advance the five key goals outlined by President Neeli Bendapudi.
The work groups charged with advancing Bendapudi’s five key goals: enhancing student success; growing interdisciplinary research excellence; increasing land-grant impact; fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB); and transforming internal operations, have wrapped up the information-gathering and analysis phase. Phase one work is beginning on a sixth presidential goal, introduced this summer, to transform health through academic and clinical synergy.
Smith solicited feedback from the senate on the strategic planning process, including what went well with the process for the 2016-2025 plan and what could be done differently. Faculty senators raised concerns about the length of the process and time commitment asked of faculty to participate in committees and task forces, without guarantee that their ideas and recommendations will be implemented as part of the plan.
“Neeli’s intent is for broad engagement from the community and a streamlined plan with clear goals that are ambitious and scaffolded by metrics and an accountability plan, and a bold pursuit of that,” Smith said. “We’re going to have a plan with six big goals, but it’s also going to be the case that great ideas and opportunities are going to present themselves. We might go after some of those, while others might not align with the vision. But the strategic plan doesn’t mean we’re only going to do these things and nothing else.”
Smith said he had similar conversations with the members of President’s Council and the Academic Leadership Council.
Phase two is planned to begin this fall with a University-wide strategic planning exercise that will use insights garnered in phase one to drive next steps. Opportunities for stakeholder participation are expected and progress will continue to be periodically shared with the University community, including information on future engagement opportunities.
Board of Trustees share priorities
Faculty Senate received an update from Penn State Board of Trustees Chairman Matt Schuyler and Vice Chairman David Kleppinger about the board’s priorities and areas of focus for the upcoming year. Those priorities include refining the board’s governance structure to focus on strategy and Penn State’s future, while still devoting appropriate time to problem-solving. The chairs both met with the Commonwealth Caucus on Monday.
“I just wanted to take a moment to say how proud we, as a board, are of this University. We spend a considerable amount of time talking about the past, present and future, and I will say that the pride we have in this University continues to rise,” said Schuyler. “The pride we have in all of you and what you bring to this University is very high and continues to rise. We are committed to ensuring that continues, whether that’s work in the classrooms, laboratories or studios. We aim to get better, but where we stand now is something of great pride.”
Faculty senators addressed the trustees with concerns about the status of the University’s total appropriation request of $483.4 million for 2024-25, which has yet to be approved by the state General Assembly.
Both Schuyler and Kleppinger expressed optimism that the appropriations bill will get approved with the University’s commitments still intact, while acknowledging the frustration felt by faculty members and others waiting on potential salary increases. Schuyler and Kleppinger said they anticipate that the new two-year budget model approved by the trustees in July will help alleviate this uncertainty in the future.
In response to questions about the board’s commitment to DEIB, Schuyler pointed to the board’s efforts toward recruiting and retaining more diverse candidates for leadership positions within the University. His examples included naming President Bendapudi as the first woman and person of color to serve as president in University history and assembling the most diverse President’s Council and leadership team.
“We, as a board, feel very strongly that Penn State should be a welcoming environment for all and an environment where everyone feels they belong, if they want to belong here. Therefore, our goal really is to become the most inclusive and welcoming environment in this regard,” Schuyler said. “The question is about how we get there. The board is 100% supportive of this administration’s focus on outcomes. So, the moves you see being made and discussions that are occurring may feel disruptive in the moment but are all born out of this notion of getting to outcomes. Talk is fine, but outcomes are what really matters.”
Updates from University leadership
Taking inspiration from a recent visit with Penn State Global, Executive Justin Schwartz, vice president and provost, thanked faculty for their contributions to increasing students’ knowledge and skills to address global challenges and navigate a connected world. He also highlighted Penn State’s improvement in rankings, released in September, including rising 29 places to No. 122 in the world in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and 17 spots to No. 60 among national public universities U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” for 2024.
“These snapshots of good news and data-driven metrics that show us doing well are also significantly attributable to our faculty,” he said. “So, again, this is my opportunity to say that the hard work of our faculty really does get recognized in many quarters around the globe.”
Schwartz also addressed several topics initially brought up at September’s Faculty Senate meeting, including students’ access to disability services, faculty safety and expectations for visitors to campus.
Since the addition of two full-time disability specialists and two part-time graduate students, the average wait time for an appointment with a disability specialist has decreased from four to six weeks last year to two weeks this fall, Schwartz said. A partnership with New Student Orientation also allows incoming students to indicate their desire for academic accommodation before arriving on campus, getting the process started faster. While the vast majority of students who ask for accommodations are receiving them, Schwartz said there is still work to do.
The process of reunifying Penn State’s two law schools — Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle and Penn State Law on the University Park campus — has begun its second phase, Schwartz said. The American Bar Association ad hoc committee, comprised of Danielle Conway, dean at Penn State Dickinson Law, Vincent Romero, interim dean at Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs, and three additional representatives from each school, is meeting weekly to build up its communications and engagement plan, which will include updates to the senate. More details will be forthcoming as a timeline is finalized, he said.
Schwartz also announced the creation of a standing joint committee on artificial intelligence (AI). The committee will look both at integrating AI into the classroom and degree programs, as well as safeguarding academic integrity. In response to questions that have arisen over the past few years about how the University can better protect faculty from various outside threats, a standing joint committee on faculty safety is also being created.
Schwartz thanked members of the task force charged in December with establishing a visitors’ code of conduct for the University. The policies, which include Visitor Rights and Responsibilities (AD103) and a Trespass Warning Policy (AD104), are now in effect. The policy on rights and responsibilities sets expectations for visitors on campus, including adherence to federal and state laws, local ordinances, any applicable policies, procedures and rules of the University, and reframing from interfering with University activities and programs.
Other business
The senate also:
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Passed legislation related to revising its standing rules of procedure and bylaws with the goal of making meetings more efficient and language more modernized. These changes include granting the senate chair more flexibility to reorder the agenda or group reports and replacing the Forensic Business Section of the Order of Business with a General Discussion Section to further encourage the exchange of ideas among senators. Revisions were also passed to replace the unused Senate Data Adviser role with a Data and Analysis subcommittee of the Officers and Chairs Standing Committee.
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Heard informational reports about undergraduate research and the Senate Council’s visits to seven Commonwealth Campuses during the 2022-23 academic year.