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4-23-2003 | University Relations

Allen: Strategic plan with direction, trust are critical issues

Developing a strategic plan that provides direction and building trust on campus are two critical issues facing Iowa State, vice president for academic affairs and provost Ben Allen said during a campus forum April 23.

"It's very important to have a plan that provides direction, and then be sure everything else (such as the budget and promotion and tenure decisions) follows it," Allen said. "Although we have a nice five-year plan now that provides a lot of service to the university, some could argue that it doesn't provide enough direction."

Building trust was an issue Allen came back to several times during the forum, which was organized to give him an opportunity to discuss his leadership of the university's academic units. Since Allen wasn't a candidate for provost at the time three finalists came to campus last fall, he wasn't provided the opportunity to participate in the candidate open forums.

"I think the provost, the president and others have to be consistent," Allen said. "I'm picking up through the conversations I'm having that in certain pockets of the university, maybe that level of trust -- not with the president but with the provost office -- is not quite where it should be.

"And I need to understand why that is, and make sure I behave in a way that increases that level of trust."

Allen said he expects more changes at Iowa State due to budget reductions and the need to reorganize.

"As we go through that, the more trust you have in administrators, the more trust you have in your colleagues, the more trust you have in the processes, the more it will reduce the amount of anxiety and resistance to change."

Allen said he is focusing on three challenges. The first is that the university has too many objectives, given its tools, he said. For example, the university wants to improve the quality of faculty, increase the number of faculty and address salary compression. "Given at best a constant, and probably a declining, budget, how do we do that? What balances, what tradeoffs do we make in that process?" he asked.

He noted the university has to compete in national and international markets for top faculty. "We spend a lot of time and a lot of money in salaries and start-ups and other inducements to get the top people here. I firmly believe you have to have the top people," Allen said. "But, if you put more on the table here, will you have to cut back on the number of faculty over here?"

Retention is even more important, Allen said, because the university knows what talents it will lose if top people leave. "And how many problems do you create if you retain that person under conditions that everyone else in that department will be upset about? What's the tradeoff?

"I think I will be judged on how I make those tradeoffs," Allen said.

The second challenge, he said, is how to fund and govern interdisciplinary programs, institutes and centers that don't fit neatly into the college or departmental structures.

The third challenge, he said, is to develop programs that are ranked in the top 10 to 20 percent nationally, but at the same time accommodate student demand. "Those colleges, those departments that have a lot of students will probably have fewer resources for students," he said.

Students in colleges or departments that are less well funded eventually will "catch on and say, 'How come I'm paying the same tuition and getting a different quality of education?'"

"We say we want to invest in those high-ranked programs, but if we don't invest in these low-ranked programs, people drift away and a lot of those are really good sources of tuition revenue," he observed. "It makes it difficult to make decisions."

Allen said he believes a provost should help establish the culture of excellence and help colleges provide innovative and exciting things that are aligned with the objectives of the university.

"But, I think the most important role the provost can play is to serve more as a canvas, to create opportunities for multi-college initiatives," he said. "I still believe we can do more collaborative work across the university within the existing structure we have."

Allen said his priorities have not changed much since his term as interim provost. Those priorities include: recruiting and retaining top faculty and P&S employees; enhancing the promotion and tenure process; improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the university; improving the campus environment for diversity and enhancing the roles of the colleges and deans.

The Professional and Scientific Council organized the forum, which is available in streaming video on the P&S Web site.