Office of the University Registrar

Summary of the Goals of the 2007 Strategic Work Plan

  • Goal 1: Ensure the continued development of shared faculty governance at the University of Florida and its integration into all aspects of academic life at college and department levels.
  • Goal 2: Design and implement a program for increasing the number of faculty to achieve parity with top ten public AAU universities in those departments and colleges most critical to the University of Florida's core mission and academic reputation.
  • Goal 3: Develop and implement a systematic strategy to improve the racial and gender aspects of broad faculty diversity that the university needs to achieve its educational mission.
  • Goal 4: Raise faculty salaries to the mean of the top ten public AAU universities. Improve the university's fringe benefits package so that it is commensurate with those of top ten public AAU Quality of Life.
  • Goal 5: Align the university's policies concerning quality of life issues with those at top ten public AAU universities. Improve the overall climate for faculty, with special attention to issues identified in the faculty survey.
  • Goal 6: Work with the surrounding community and the city of Gainesville to improve the quality of life in the community and to ensure a vibrant, sustainable environment in which to live and work.
  • Goal 7: Implement at department and college levels the Faculty Senate recommendations on tenure, promotion, mid-term review and mentoring.
  • Goal 8: Increase the number of opportunities for sabbaticals and levels of support to align more closely with sabbatical programs at top ten public AAU universities.
  • Goal 9: Develop strategies to recognize and reward, internally and externally, faculty who have demonstrated outstanding achievement, including strategies to increase faculty membership in national and international academies.
  • Goal 10: Complete the $150 million Faculty Challenge Campaign.
  • Goal 11: Provide postdoctoral fellows and associates with salaries, benefits, office space, professional development opportunities and other support services commensurate with those at top ten public AAU universities.
  • Goal 12: Increase the cultural, ethnic, racial, gender and socioeconomic diversity of the student body to achieve the broad student diversity needed to achieve the university's educational mission.
  • Goal 13: Provide a wide range of excellent co-curricular/extra-curricular activities and student services to maximize students' development as outstanding scholars, leaders and citizens in Florida, the nation and the global community.
  • Goal 14: Continue to develop strategies to expand student access to educational programs through distance education.
  • Goal 15: Continue to improve the academic quality of undergraduate students and develop strategies to improve the graduation rates incrementally while maintaining academic integrity of degree programs and providing students the flexibility to find majors that best fit their interests and talents.
  • Goal 16: Lower class sizes in areas where large class sizes are especially detrimental to the pedagogical goals of those classes, improve the adviser/student ratio, provide students with opportunities to develop research and writing skills, and enhance academic support for students.
  • Goal 17: Provide financial aid sufficient to meet the needs of students.
  • Goal 18: As appropriate, increase the size and quality of graduate and professional programs to align with top ten AAU public institutions while addressing state, regional and national needs.
  • Goal 19: Improve graduate assistant stipends and alumni fellow stipends, increase dissertation fellowships and provide competitive benefits for graduate assistants and fellows.
  • Goal 20: Review the recruitment, mentoring, professional development practices, retention rates and time-to-degree statistics in individual departments and seek appropriate improvement.
  • Goal 21: Review department placement records and develop state-of-the-art placement and tracking services to support placing University of Florida graduates in nationally and internationally recognized programs, institutions and other relevant settings.
  • Goal 22: Develop specific initiatives aimed at enhanced recruitment, retention and development of staff to be competitive with local, regional and national markets.
  • Goal 23: Structure a competitive compensation program that rewards staff performance.
  • Goal 24: Design and deliver various training opportunities for staff to advance competencies and career development.
  • Goal 25: Identify critical space and facilities needs across the university and implement a long-range plan to resolve them.
  • Goal 26: Given the central importance of the libraries to the research and teaching missions of the university, develop a separate strategic plan specifically devoted to long-range planning to meet future needs for library resources and facilities, and bring library resources at the university in line with top ten public AAU universities.
  • Goal 27: Review information technology needs and develop a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure to support faculty and students, with emphasis on increasing, from the end-user's perspective, the compatibility of IT units, while maintaining their integrity.
  • Goal 28: Develop faculty resources specifically in the arts and humanities by providing a supportive research environment to increase faculty productivity; recruiting and retaining the best faculty possible in the arts and humanities and; developing a plan to build the size of arts and humanities programs to achieve parity with top ten public AAU institutions.
  • Goal 29: Promote the arts and humanities to the university community, to the national and international academic communities and to the public at the local, state and national levels. Support outreach programs to the state and local community.
  • Goal 30: Enhance existing and develop new programs to promote international research, teaching and study abroad and exchange programs.
  • Goal 31: Support Title VI centers in making competitive grant applications to secure extramural funding.
  • Goal 32: Identify where there is fragmentation in research and teaching programs in the biological sciences at the university and introduce coordinated training in biology as a way of addressing it.
  • Goal 33: Develop a plan to achieve leadership in fields in the life sciences selected to match the strengths of the university and its partners by sharing talents and resources of the colleges and units involved in life sciences and focusing and coordinating their research efforts.
  • Goal 34: Strengthen the faculty and programs in the areas of cancer and genetics, bio-nanoscience, life science and emerging pathogens in conjunction with completion of the Cancer and Genetics Research Complex, the Nanoscale Research Facility, the Biomedical Sciences Building and the Pathogens Research Facility.
  • Goal 35: Create a campus-wide Institute of Ecology and Environment, an integrative and broadly conceived entity similar to the McKnight Brain Institute, to focus efforts of the widely dispersed faculty and to coordinate the activities of existing units concerned with environmental studies.
  • Goal 36: Continue and strengthen the university's activities to generate and to promote renewable energy technologies through integrated research, education and training.
  • Goal 37: Strengthen the IFAS statewide network of extension, research and academic programs to continue to be relevant and to provide science-based solutions to Florida's citizens.
  • Goal 38: Increase extramural funding and scholarly productivity for agricultural research, extension and academic programs that span basic discovery, innovation and application.
  • Goal 39: Develop a staffing plan and a coordinating plan for the participation of faculty in nanoscale science and technology research in conjunction with completing construction of the Nanoscale Research Facility.
  • Goal 40: Develop a plan for assessing the impact of anthropogenic nano-compounds and materials on health and environment, including attention to research on natural nano-materials.
  • Goal 41: Continue to expand the university's activity in space science and look for ways to increase interdisciplinary research and collaboration in this area.
  • Goal 42: Strengthen the educational and research facets of professional programs and colleges, with special emphasis on interdisciplinary endeavors, as appropriate.
  • Goal 43: Review resources available for training information technology professionals and develop as necessary plans to provide adequate resources to assist the state and the nation to meet their needs for professionals educated in information technology.
  • Goal 44: Assist the state in addressing critical shortages of health care professionals.
  • Goal 45: Maintain and strengthen the system of clinics and hospitals and strengthen the Shands HealthCare partnership.
  • Goal 46: Assist the state to improve the pre-K to 20 educational system through research, demonstration programs, outreach with school districts, community agencies, other higher education institutions and training more educators and teachers, especially in high need areas.
  • Goal 47: Improve the health and well-being of children and families through research, education and service. Promote interdisciplinary approaches to complex health and social problems facing children and families.
  • Goal 48: Enhance faculty, resources and interdisciplinary connections between relevant units to address the social, medical and legal aspects of aging.

The President's 2007 Strategic Work Plan

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