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The Office of the Provost & Executive Vice President

Contact Us

Provost and Executive Vice President

Physical Address:
Administration Building
Room 105
Moscow, ID
83844-3152

Phone: 208-885-6448
Fax: 208-885-6558
provost@uidaho.edu

Mailing Address:
875 Perimeter Dr.
MS 3152
Moscow, ID
83844-3152

Directions

Program Prioritization

IPEC oversees the process of program prioritization, which the State Board of Education has required of all Idaho public universities as part of their annual budgeting process. IPEC set out to develop a sustainable model of program prioritization that would enable UI to meet State Board requirements while also helping to achieve the university goals that were framed within the Strategic Plan and determined by the University Budget and Finance Committee. The 2016-17 program prioritization process enabled us to support two major university goals: namely, raises for faculty and staff as part of the university’s efforts to bring salaries more in line with market rates; and equitable funding packages for graduate teaching assistants.

The criteria and procedure for ranking programs were developed by two separate work groups consisting of faculty and staff, and the prioritization process was completed during summer 2017. Though IPEC had initially planned for program prioritization to operate by means of “position control” (only refilling certain high-priority faculty and staff lines), in the end, we determined that this process would be detrimental to the well-being of the university, and instead requested budget reallocations from academic and support units. We are currently beginning to plan the next program prioritization, which will coincide with the first Strategic Plan waypoint in 2019.

Communications

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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provostevpwiencek@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: Faculty and Staff in Academic and Student Affairs
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: October 5, 2017
SUBJECT: Reallocation Targets for Each College and Mid-Level in Academic & Student Affairs
Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
 
As promised, I am following up with the final recommendations for reallocation from units reporting to the provost. Consistent with next steps outlined in my last update, the original program prioritization reallocation targets have been assessed against enrollment measures such as student credit hours delivered per faculty, enrollment (majors) per general education budget, and enrollment trends (increase or decrease per year, over the last three years) per general education budget.  
 
The enrollment picture and evaluation is complex and does not provide a simple correction to the current reallocation targets identified by program prioritization. Some metrics would suggest that those with higher teaching loads are also seeing higher reallocation targets. On the other hand, the enrollment trends (most colleges are losing enrollment) are consistent with the college reallocation targets suggested by program prioritization. In summary, the enrollment data do not support modifying the budget reallocation targets set by the program prioritization process. The reallocation targets are summarized in the table below.
 
The reallocations range from 1 to 2.5 percent nominally, with everyone contributing to the final reallocation plan. My direct reports (deans, vice provosts, etc.) will develop a reallocation plan, in consultation with their respective teams, and submit it to me by October 23. I will then finalize the overall plan and forward to President Staben for his consideration on November 1.
 
It is hard to make such difficult decisions, and we have spent hours deliberating on this matter. I appreciate all of your hard work and understanding as we seek to find ways to move our strategic goals forward together. These reallocated funds will come back to us in the form of increased faculty and staff compensation, as well as nationally competitive teaching assistant support. Our No. 1 goal for this year is to substantially grow tuition revenue via enrollment and, thus, minimize the amount of reallocation required in future years.
 
In closing, I want to reiterate my thanks to everyone who has participated in this process, a process that has taken over two years to complete. I am surrounded by loyal and dedicated faculty, staff and students and grateful that you are helping move us to higher levels of excellence.
 
Best wishes
 
John
 
Mid-level Percent of General Education Budget
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences 1.09%
College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences 2.33%
College of Art & Architecture 2.33%
College of Business & Economics 2.15%
College of Education, Health and Human Sciences 2.23%
College of Engineering 1.15%
College of Law 0.93%
College of Natural Resources 1.27%
College of Science 2.25%
College of Graduate Studies 0.54%
Strategic Enrollment Management 0.93%
General Library 0.52%
Provost/Executive Vice President Area 0.93%
Student Affairs 1.33%
University Outreach - Boise 2.64%
University Outreach - Idaho Falls 1.02%
University Outreach - Northern Idaho 1.03%
Vice Provost for Faculty 1.86%
Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives 1.68%
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provostevpwiencek@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: Faculty and Staff in Academic and Student Affairs
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: October 2, 2017
SUBJECT: Update on Academic and Student Affairs Budget Reallocations
Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
 
I am following up on my earlier memo about the reallocation plan for Academic and Student Affairs. I have reviewed your suggestions posted on SLI.DO, and I appreciate the time many of you took to share your perspectives. In addition, I met with my direct reports, including the deans of the colleges, the vice provosts and the dean of students on September 25. Their feedback and your SLI.DO comments have resulted in the recommendations below.
 
Based on the conversations and SLI.DO postings, the guiding principles for our reallocation plan will include the following:
  1. The program prioritization evaluations will remain an important factor in determining reallocation targets. Some members of the team felt that there was significant effort expended to get to this point; therefore, the results need to be honored, given the community-based process that was utilized. Others recognized that the evaluation process has some room for improvement. In particular, the evaluation did not sufficiently recognize a few high enrollment programs, sending an inconsistent message about our strategic goals. 
  2. Consistent with the last statement, both SLI.DO responses and the leadership team recommend additional weight and scrutiny be placed on enrollment metrics such as majors (including pro-rated double majors), student credit hours delivered and enrollment growth. This is consistent with the strategic plan’s waypoint one emphasis on enrollment.
  3. Appropriate care will be taken to normalize any measurements by total teaching FTE (including only those positions funded by general education funds). Normalization will account for the relative productivity of units based on resources available to them.
I will continue to work with the leadership team to look at data (see points 1-3 above) and arrive at final reallocation targets and plans for each area. The goal is to finalize our plans no later than November 1. I will continue to update you at each step of the process.
 
Best wishes

John
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provostevpwiencek@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: Faculty and Staff in Academic and Student Affairs
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: September 21, 2017
SUBJECT: Input Requested for Student and Academic Affairs Budget Reallocations
Dear Colleagues,
 
Consistent with the president’s memo of yesterday, we must develop a plan to reallocate $1.268 million from the academic, strategic enrollment management and student affairs area by December 1, 2017. In several areas, we have put a hold on search processes until there is more clarity on the sources of these reallocated funds; thus, it would serve our interest to have our first draft to the president much sooner.  This would allow for more certainty and the ability to get most of these searches underway. Our funds, combined with other VP area reallocations and newly identified internal sources, will underwrite the top University Budget and Finance Committee (UBFC) recommended initiatives. As part of those initiatives, our areas will see an additional $1.027 million for salary adjustments and $2.3 million for competitive teaching assistant compensation.
 
I want to assure everyone that this amount of money is not going to disrupt the normal course of work and service in academic and student affairs. This amounts to a 1.49% reallocation of the total $85.3 million base budget in our areas. The Budget Office estimates that there is more than $3 million of long-term vacant positions (vacant in excess of one year) and unallocated base funds within the academic and student affairs areas. Thus, it is my intention to put some reasonable focus on using such funding as part of this reallocation process.
 
Within academic and student affairs, we will develop a set of guiding principles that will help us formulate a reallocation plan. I will be transparent in the process, as is my common practice, but I also will be nuanced in the implementation. Fundamentally, these decisions are fraught with high levels of impact both within any given department but also across the entire university. Thus, I will not be bound by formulas or monolithic criteria in recommending a final reallocation plan that can work for everyone in academic and student affairs.
 
I look forward to hearing from you on what our guiding principles for this reallocation should include.  Let me start this conversation with some ideas. First, contribution toward the strategic plan remains very high on my list and, more specifically, contribution toward enrollment growth and student success. Thus, any reallocation must be designed to maintain and serve our current enrollment, as well as acknowledge and reward trends in enrollment. Second, the fiscal capacity of any given college or area to contribute to a reallocation should be part of our decision-making process. Finally, centrality to mission and scholarly excellence are important considerations as well; although, we have struggled to come to agreement on how best to measure such matters.
 
I would like to invite all of you to submit or to vote on other key guiding principles that should be considered in the reallocation process. Votes and feedback should be submitted through a tool called Sli.do, available at https://app.sli.do/event/7r0wijzh/ask. Although limited in the amount of characters (300) to state your idea, this tool allows for voting – both up and down — on these ideas as well as providing a feedback to perhaps improve or adjust an idea. Please take a few minutes to share your ideas under the “Questions” tab and to vote on ideas being suggested by others. We will accept this input through September 29, 2017. If you have questions about how to use Sli.do, please call Peggy Lynd or Lodi Price and they will be happy to assist you.
 
I will start the reallocation plan development with the deans, vice provosts and other direct reports within the next week. We will focus on narrowing the guiding principles and airing ideas and/or concerns. After getting input from the Sli.do poll, my staff will prepare related data and implications for additional discussion among the deans, vice provosts and other direct reports. After these two rounds of discussion, I will work with the team to finalize specific targets for each college, vice provost and student affairs area. I believe we can finish this work by mid-October.
 
Once we finalize reallocation plans across the entire university, the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) will turn its attention toward continued improvement in the evaluation process supporting program prioritization. My sense of IPEC discussions to date indicate that the primary issue is criterion two — contribution toward strategic plan. A recurring question from many of you is, “how do I improve; what do I focus on?” given that the evaluation process needs improving. I am confident that if you focus on achieving the goals and targets spelled out in your cascaded plans, then you will fare well on criteria two during the next round of evaluations, scheduled for roughly two years from now. Specific modifications to criterion two will be the subject of additional university discussion this year, but my sense is that the evaluation of the contribution to the strategic plan is likely to flow from the cascaded plans that are already in place.
 
In closing, I truly believe we are at a pivotal moment for the University of Idaho. We are choosing to shape our own future by setting priorities, developing plans together and executing on those plans even when it is difficult to do so. These are all trademarks of excellence. I hope you can join me in taking pride in giving well-deserved salary and compensation adjustments to our faculty, staff and teaching assistants in the coming months.
 
Best wishes,
John
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University of Idaho
Office of the President
president@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/president
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: Chuck Staben, President
DATE: September 20, 2017
SUBJECT: Thank You for Participating in Program Prioritization Process

Thank you for participating in the Program Prioritization process and for attending the open forums regarding Program Prioritization last week. As I listened to each concern and comment, I was grateful for the open environment we have at UI and the transparent nature of the process - led by more than 50 staff and faculty members and engaging hundreds. Although our process was not perfect, it has provided useful information.  We will use the rankings to identify reallocations we must make for progress.

One difficulty with rankings is that such a process can leave people feeling undervalued. Although the ranking process caused us to order programs in some fashion, each member of the Vandal family is valued and appreciated. Program prioritization, particularly in the absence of new net revenue, is necessary to position ourselves to meet the lofty goals of our strategic plan – a plan developed by all of us to serve all of us. We are investing in UI to make it an even better place to work for our faculty and staff while we continue to serve Idaho as its higher education leader.

Rankings are never easy. With the rankings done, we quantified reallocations and we are now moving together to fund our two highest budget priorities: market-based compensation and teaching assistantships. All of you deserve to be paid equitably for the hard work you do every day for our university. The executive leadership team and I are committed to making this a reality.

I have asked each vice president to submit a reallocation plan for my consideration by December 1, 2017.  This will allow sufficient time to finalize the plans by January 1, 2018.  The reallocations will inform the budget setting process and fiscal year 2018-19 baseline budgets.  

I encourage you to continue engaging in the process and to feel ownership in it as we strive to make the University of Idaho the best institution possible. 

Go Vandals! 

 
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provostevpwiencek@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost & Executive Vice President
DATE: September 7, 2017
SUBJECT: Results of the Program Prioritization Process
On behalf of the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC), I am writing to confirm our university goals as shaped by our strategic plan, and to explain how the result of the program prioritization process is helping to propel these goals into action.
 
As you may recall, the University Budget and Finance Committee (UBFC) recommended two highest priority projects for this fiscal year:
  1. Market-based compensation for faculty and staff, and
  2. Fully-funded, competitive teaching assistantships (TAs).
These two priorities reflect the priorities of strategic plan Waypoint One (Goals 3 and 4); namely, growing student enrollment via retention and improving the workplace environment. With the help of the program prioritization process, we have identified $4 million, which will allow us to make significant headway toward funding these two priorities.
 
The graphic below shows the sources of these investment funds. Half of the funds ($2 million) will come from reallocation targets identified through the program prioritization process. The other half of the funds will come from other sources, including tuition revenue and strategic reallocation of centrally managed funds. The total $4 million of investment funds will fully fund the TA request and partially address the market-based compensation request.
To make progress toward market-based compensation for UI employees, this year we will implement mid-year raises. And to fund the TA compensation priority, College of Graduate Studies Dean Jerry McMurtry will work with the academic deans and the Graduate Council to address our funding of TA appointments so that we remain nationally competitive. Teaching assistants are an important component of meeting our enrollment and research goals stated in the strategic plan and, much like faculty and staff, their compensation has fallen out of step with the market.
 
As you may remember, through the program prioritization process, each program received a relative ranking that was translated into a normalized score. You can find the program prioritization results on the provost’s webpage. IPEC has decided not to place programs into quintiles as originally planned. Instead, we recommended, and President Staben approved, modification of the reallocation methodology. Rather than a rigid position control methodology to recover salary dollars via position control, each vice president and the President’s Office (which also includes University Communications and Marketing, Athletics, the Office of Equity and Diversity, etc.) will contribute funds, or reallocate funds, as illustrated in the chart above. The reallocation targets are directly linked to the normalized scores of Banner departments in a given executive’s area.  Executive-level officers will work with their respective teams to develop a reallocation plan, which will be approved by President Staben. Approved reallocation plans will be effective in FY19 (starting on July 1, 2018) so units have a year to plan for changes.
 
The current estimated impact for each executive area of responsibility (including both budget reductions and budget increases) is shown below. Please note that the estimated reallocation and market-based compensation amounts have been rounded, and may change to reflect additional data and input.
Executive Level   Total Gen Ed Salary Budget Sources   Market-Based Compensation (Mid-Year)  Competitive TA Compensation   Net Resource Flow
President   $6,762,717 $(222,000)   $76,000 $ -   $(146,000)
Provost (Academic & Student Affairs)   $68,393,631 $(1,268,000)   $1,027,000 $2,300,000   $2,059,000
VP Advancement   $1,542,883 $(41,000)   $41,000 $ -   $ -
VP Research & Economic Dev.   $1,049,507 $(6,000)   $63,000 $ -   $57,000
VP Finance   $3,548,321 $(88,000)   $97,000 $ -   $9,000
VP Infrastructure   $11,827,637 $(375,000)   $396,000 $ -   $21,000
Other Internal Sources   $ - $(2,000,000)   $ - $ -   $(2,000,000)
Total   $93,124,696 $(4,000,000)   $1,700,000 $2,300,000   $ -
The current base salary budget is in the first column and the reallocation amount is in the second column (parenthesis represent budget reductions). New resources added back to each executive area of responsibility are in the third and fourth columns. The last column shows the difference between resources added and resources subtracted via reallocation. 
 
As we finalize this process, IPEC will host two open forums to present and summarize the program prioritization process and answer questions. These open forums will be held on Monday, September 11, 2017, in the Vandal Ballroom, with connections statewide. See the statewide viewing locations here. The first forum will be held from 8:30-10 a.m. and the second forum will be held 10:30 a.m. to noon. 

Thanks to all of you for your hard work and effort — both in your daily contributions as well as in this important process. Though the process has been arduous, we are excited to be able to achieve our university community’s strategic goals.
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost &
Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost & Executive Vice President
DATE: Sept. 6, 2017
SUBJECT: Program Prioritization Town Hall Sessions Sept. 11
As noted in a communication from President Chuck Staben on August 22, detailed information about program prioritization will be distributed later this week. In anticipation of that release, the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) has scheduled two town hall meetings for Monday, September 11, to respond to questions and provide clarification about the process and next steps.
 
The first session will focus on academic departments; the second will focus on non-academic programs, including student and faculty support; centrally provided services; and research, outreach and Extension units. All employees are welcome to attend either session. The sessions will be live-streamed to our statewide centers.
  • Session 1 (academic departments): 8:30-10 a.m. Pacific time, Monday, Sept. 11, Vandal Ballroom, Pitman Center
  • Session 2 (non-academic departments): 10:30 a.m. to noon Pacific time, Monday, Sept. 11, Vandal Ballroom, Pitman Center
Streaming locations:
  • Boise Water Center: Room 248 (Session 1) and Room 162 (Session 2)
  • Boise Law and Justice Center:  Room 307
  • Coeur d’Alene: Room 213
  • Idaho Falls: Room TAB 320
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University of Idaho
Office of the President
president@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/president
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: Chuck Staben, President
DATE: Aug. 22, 2017
SUBJECT: Program Prioritization Update
When classes ended last spring, there were several big projects pending or in motion, including State Board of Education required program prioritization. Program prioritization is a process that helps us to efficiently reallocate funds to high priority projects in support of our strategic goals. 

The university has many priorities, but the most critical are funding for market-based compensation adjustments for staff and faculty and competitive compensation including tuition/fee waivers for teaching assistants. Funds identified by the program prioritization process will be reallocated to fund these two priorities.

The UI community provided input into the program prioritization process, which helped inform how we would evaluate and score every UI Banner department. Departments were evaluated using a mixture of quantitative data, financial data and surveys. The data have been analyzed and we will share the department scores in early September. We are planning open forums shortly thereafter to share information and help you understand the results and next steps. 

The Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee, the vice presidents, the deans and I have reviewed the department scores and other data. We are now evaluating options for linking these scores to reallocations.  Reallocation is not easy; but we know reallocated funds will return to units in the form of increased wages and support for teaching assistants, our highest priorities.

Each of us has a distinct leadership role at the University of Idaho and together our partnership will help UI rise to even higher levels of excellence. Thank you for working with us as we continue to improve our university. Additional information about program prioritization and the funding of our priorities will be shared in the coming weeks.

I thank Provost Wiencek, the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee and all who participated in this important process.
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provostevpwiencek@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: May 25, 2017
SUBJECT: Update on Program Prioritization Evaluation Progress

I am glad to report we are making good progress toward completing the evaluation component of our Program Prioritization initiative. After incorporating UI-wide feedback, we have collectively agreed to use three criteria to evaluate departments:

  1. Essentiality to the University of Idaho’s mission
  2. Contribution to the University of Idaho’s strategic plan
  3. Institutional financial investment in Banner departments

In my last update, I shared the tools developed by the Institutional Planning Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) and the workgroups to assess Banner departments on criteria #1 and #3. At that time, the workgroups and IPEC were still working on tools and measurement weights for criterion #2. I want to thank the workgroups and IPEC for completing these remaining tasks last week.

The criterion #2 evaluation tools for each Banner department subgroup (Academic, Student/Faculty Services, Research Centers/Extension/Community Outreach, Centrally Provided Services) can be found here. Each of these tools will require you to provide a narrative description of your contribution to the strategic plan and your Banner department will receive a request to provide this narrative description soon.

Initial weights for the three evaluation criteria will be assigned to eliminate any bias related to unit size. The workgroups have agreed to the methodology that will be used to set these weights, which will be documented in a final process development report expected in late summer.

IPEC and the workgroups acknowledge this process has extended beyond the spring semester, contrary to our planned goal and timeline. However, gathering university community feedback and making the necessary and substantial revisions was more important than being on schedule. We acknowledge the process unfolded piecemeal and may have caused some confusion about what was needed in the criterion #1 contextual statements. We will consider some last minute revisions to the contextual statements recently provided for criterion #1 if absolutely necessary, provided you contact us immediately. We plan to launch this evaluation tool on June 1, so we need any requested changes done in the next few days. If you have questions about whether you should make such changes, feel free to contact Lodi Price (lodi@uidaho.edu) or Peggy Lynd (plynd@uidaho.edu).

Please remember this process will be monitored annually. We will adjust for unintended or unanticipated outcomes. Thank you again for your support and participation in this critical process. We will become stronger and better together!
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President, IPEC Chair
Marla Kraut, Chair, Academic Banner Department Workgroup
Jeff Dodge, Chair, Support Banner Department Workgroup
DATE: April 10, 2017
SUBJECT: Revised Program Prioritization Framework
The Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) and the two Program Prioritization workgroups are recommending a revised evaluation framework in response to input provided by University of Idaho faculty and staff through a recent feedback survey. The revised evaluation framework has three key elements, which will be used to evaluate all Banner departments. This revised approach also aligns our Program Prioritization and strategic planning efforts. The three elements are:
  1. Impact and essentiality to the University of Idaho’s mission
  2. Contribution to the University of Idaho strategic plan
  3. Institutional investment
The first element, impact and essentiality to the University of Idaho’s mission, was included in both workgroups' evaluation criteria. To ensure more consistency across all department types, this particular assessment tool will be jointly developed by the two workgroups and applied uniformly to all Banner departments at the university.

The second element, contribution to the strategic plan, will be assessed using focused tools specific to each of four key functional areas of the university:
  1. Academic Banner departments
  2. Student/Faculty service Banner departments
  3. Research centers/Extension/Community engagement Banner departments
  4. Centrally provided service Banner departments
These tools are being developed by the two workgroups and will incorporate specific feedback received from the recent survey. Given the expanded scope of work, the workgroups will augment current committee members as needed to ensure we have sufficient depth of knowledge in each of these key functional areas represented. Workgroups plan to complete their work by the end of April. This refined toolset will allow for more customized and relevant evaluation as suggested by the UI community feedback we received.

The third element, institutional investment, will measure the relative resources available to a Banner department so the contribution to the strategic plan element is appropriately scaled to the level of resources available to the Banner department. In this element, the highest ranked programs will have minimal or no institutional investment (i.e. General Education funding) thus mitigating any bias based on size. This element will be weighted appropriately to prevent bias against either small or large Banner departments as measured by their General Education funding levels. As in element one above, this element will be applied uniformly to all Banner departments at the university.

In closing, IPEC and the workgroups have addressed most of the concerns raised by our community in the revised framework. We have more details to iron out and some concerns may remain, but we are confident that we have made significant and meaningful improvements based on your feedback. Once again, thank you for participating in the feedback process. 

I am extremely grateful to the workgroups for their continued hard work and investment in this process.  We anticipate finalizing the assessment tools by the end of April and forwarding them to President Chuck Staben for approval in early May. Once finalized, I will provide another update to the university community.
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost & Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: March 27, 2017
SUBJECT: Revisions to Program Prioritization Evaluation Process and Criteria 
Thank you for providing input on the initial program prioritization draft evaluation criteria. Your feedback is very important to the process and we are making significant changes to the criteria based on that feedback. I want to thank the workgroups for their hard work in producing the initial criteria and their continued investment in doing this process well. A spreadsheet including all the feedback we received on the criteria is available on the Provost’s Office website. A brief synopsis of the feedback and a reminder of next steps is below.

108 departments, 121 individual faculty and 54 individual staff completed the feedback tool. In addition, our office directly received several longer narrative emails and feedback. The detailed position control guidelines were not posted in a timely way on the provost’s website, so there were many questions asked that are addressed in that document. Nonetheless, it is clear that some substantial changes in the approach and the criteria are recommended by our community.

Based on these comments and suggestions, revisions to the program prioritization process and outcomes should be adopted to ensure that the result will:
  1. Align well with the strategic plan, using the same language and metrics. There was particular concern that research productivity was not properly measured or weighted in the initial draft criteria.
  2. Allow more refinement so experts in a given area do the evaluation (especially for the non-academic units).
  3. Account for or mitigate bias related to unit size.
  4. Allow more nuanced evaluation that involves human wisdom and judgement. Avoid metrics and measures that treat units as “one size fits all.”
  5. Have a balanced mix of quantitative and qualitative measures and make sure that mix is consistent across all units (i.e. do not have many quantitative metrics for academics and none for other units).
The Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC) will discuss ideas to address these concerns in the coming days. As discussed in earlier communications, IPEC will forward feedback to the workgroups with suggested changes. Given the feedback, it is clear the proposed changes will be substantial.

Based on typical employee turnover and the proposed position control policy, we estimate 3-4 percent of general education funds will be redirected to the University Budget and Finance Committee (UBFC) for use in funding high priorities. With those funds, we will make substantial headway on important institutional priorities, such as market-based compensation and in-state tuition waivers for teaching assistants. In addition, if we grow enrollment by 500 full-time undergraduate students, we will be able to adjust the position control policy so that less money is subject to reallocation. If we get an additional 1,000 undergraduate students (1,500 total above current enrollment), we will have the latitude to stop all mandatory reallocation based on quintiles if we so choose. For now, these reallocated funds will be our means to feed innovation and growth at the University of Idaho as we launch our strategic plan. Once enrollment picks up, we will be able to adjust the policy as we reap more revenue from new enrollments.

In closing, let me say again that we do not have the option of refusing to conduct program prioritization. This is a State Board of Education policy requirement that must be implemented in a sustainable and systemic way by the end of this fiscal year. We have complete latitude to design and adjust the process in ways that work best for our great institution, which is what we are doing now. We will have a process in place this summer and it will launch on July 1, 2017. It may not be perfect, but we can adjust the process each year based on our experience and understanding of the impact on the institution.

Thank you again for your participation in this important process. More information will be provided as we move through the next steps.
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President
DATE: March 8, 2017
SUBJECT: Position Control Guidelines
Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on the program prioritization process. I appreciate your input, feedback and ideas to help make this process effective and valuable as we work toward the ambitious goals we have set in the Strategic Plan.

The website for program prioritization has information to guide the process. But, the Position Control Guidelines, a vital piece to this guidance, were omitted during the website creation. The mistake has been corrected and you can now find this helpful document among the others on the site. We apologize for the mistake. 

Please review this document as it provides much of the detail of reallocation of salaries based on prioritization. 

Thank you for your support as we compile your feedback and apply it to the process. If you have questions or need additional guidance, please contact Lodi Price at lodi@uidaho.edu.
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John Wiencek, Provost & Executive Vice President
DATE: February 14, 2017
SUBJECT: Feedback on Draft Program Prioritization Evaluation Criteria
As many of you are aware, a few years ago the Idaho State Board of Education required all four-year colleges and universities in the state to develop and implement a program prioritization process. Last year, the board implemented a new policy that requires all four-year colleges and universities to embed program prioritization into the annual budgeting and program review processes, and to provide annual progress reports. For this reason, the university is developing a refreshed program prioritization process in order to:
  1. Fulfill the board’s mandate in a manageable and sustainable way, and
  2. Better use our resources to achieve the goals of the university’s strategic plan, which aims to grow and evolve the university further toward the next level of excellence. 
To ensure this critical work is done effectively, UI Faculty Senate, Staff Council and ASUI nominated a group of Vandals to serve on the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee (IPEC), which is charged with many tasks, including implementing a refreshed program prioritization process consistent with the State Board of Education’s policy. IPEC and two working groups of frontline faculty and staff — one for academic units, one for support units — have developed draft criteria we will use to evaluate and rank academic and support units.  
 

We Need Your Input

In order to help our university community understand program prioritization and provide feedback on the draft evaluation criteria, we created an informational video presentation and support materials which are available at www.uidaho.edu/program-prioritization. Please watch the video, review the support materials and provide feedback by Wednesday, March 8. 
 

How to Provide Input

IPEC asks each department head to call an all-department meeting and watch the video together as a team. After each department has watched the video, the department should discuss the draft criteria and offer feedback and suggestions for modification. Using notes taken at that department meeting, the department head will provide feedback using the survey created for this purpose (there are support materials available on the website to help guide these discussions). The survey results will be used to improve and revise the criteria if necessary. Individuals may fill out the same survey instrument if they would like.

Once the feedback is collected, IPEC will review it and forward any suggested modifications to the working groups. The working groups will meet in mid-March to finalize their recommendations for the president. The goal is to have final criteria approved by President Staben by early April. At that point, the Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditation Office will develop data and survey instruments and conduct the program prioritization process. The new process will be implemented on July 1, 2017. 

We will assess and adjust the program prioritization process annually to ensure it is effectively helping the university thrive and excel.

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this important process and for providing your input. This is an important initiative — one that will help us to promote institutional excellence by directing resources to high priority needs, framed within the strategic plan — and we need your partnership to ensure it is effective.
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University of Idaho
Staff Council
staffcouncil@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/staffcouncil
TO: University of Idaho Staff
FROM: Greg Fizzell, Staff Council Chair
DATE: October 26, 2016
SUBJECT: Staff Volunteers Needed to Serve on Program Prioritization Subcommittee
This fall, the University of Idaho is embarking on a program prioritization process under the guidance of Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek.
 
As part of this effort, UI Staff Council has been asked to recruit 20 staff members to participate on two subcommittees: One will focus on academic programs and the other on non-academic units.
 
Both exempt and non-exempt staff members from units on and off campus are encouraged to participate. Those wishing to serve must be available for a one-day session on Thursday, Nov. 17 (academic programs) or Friday, Nov. 18 (non-academic units). If there is sufficient need, these two groups might re-convene to address feedback from Provost’s Council and the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee. Travel sponsorships will be available for participants from non-Moscow sites. Video conference/phone will also be available for those unable to travel.
 
If you are interested in participating in one of these subcommittees, please email Marty Lunt, Staff Council Secretary, at martyl@uidaho.edu no later than Friday, Nov. 4, 2016. Please indicate whether you prefer to join the academic programs or the non-academic units group, or if you have no preference.
 
Thank you for being willing to serve our university and represent your fellow staff members.
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University of Idaho
Office of the President
president@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/president
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: Chuck Staben, President
DATE: October 10, 2016
SUBJECT: Appointments to the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness Committee
 

I am grateful to UI Faculty Senate, Staff Council and ASUI for nominating a group of Vandals to serve on the Institutional Planning and Effectiveness committee (IPEC). The IPEC will be comprised of:
  • Cruz Botello, President, ASUI (or designee as needed)
  • Elizabeth Brandt, Faculty Senate Chair and Professor of Law (interim appointment)
  • Dan Ewart, Vice President for Infrastructure
  • Brian Foisy, Vice President for Finance
  • Mary Kay McFadden, Vice President for Advancement
  • Janet Nelson, Vice President for Research and Economic Development
  • Jodie Nicotra, Associate Chair, Associate Professor, English Department
  • Janice Todish, Administration and Fiscal Operations Director, CLASS
  • John Wiencek, Provost and Executive Vice President (Chair)
The IPEC will begin its work immediately and will likely establish subcommittees or working groups to help accomplish the tasks before the committee which include the following:
  1. By February 2017, provide recommendations to incentivize enrollment growth.
  2. Identify opportunities to gain efficiencies and effectiveness by consolidating key UI services such as information technology, development, finance, human resources, student advising, communications and marketing, research support (pre-award and post-award) and some facilities management functions by February 2017.
  3. Successfully launch the new strategic plan by coordinating and aligning unit/college Cascaded Plans.
  4. Advise and consult with the University Budget and Finance Committee (UBFC) to ensure the UBFC’s recommendations are consistent with the strategic plan.
  5. Implement a refreshed program prioritization process that is consistent with the State Board of Education’s new policy.
  6. Continue to explore opportunities to include a portion of unexpended year-end funds in the UBFC process.
Please join me in offering support, advice and constructive feedback to this committee as they begin their important work.
 
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University of Idaho
Office of the Provost
& Executive Vice President
provost@uidaho.edu
www.uidaho.edu/provost
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: John M. Wiencek, Provost & Executive Vice President
DATE: October 29, 2015
SUBJECT: Update on Program Prioritization
 

As many of you know, a few years ago, the Idaho State Board of Education mandated each higher education institution develop and implement a program prioritization process. The board is now looking for the process to be embedded into the budget, strategic planning and program review processes in the state’s four-year institutions. Our goal is to embed the prioritization process into these other processes in such a way that it is manageable and sustainable.
 
UI's response to the board’s mandate was a program prioritization process we called Focus for the Future, or FFF. At the request of Faculty Senate leadership, I provided an overview of the FFF process from my perspective as a relative newcomer to the University of Idaho at the most recent Faculty Senate meeting. The PowerPoint slides from that presentation are available here. I took the liberty of suggesting improvements to the process as well as summarized current board and legislative expectations.
 
In summary, we have more work to do, but we also have learned quite a bit from the FFF process. I want to express thanks to Interim President Don Burnett and Interim Provost/EVP Katherine Aiken for envisioning the process and successfully completing a difficult task in a short time frame while faced with significant uncertainty.
 
The subsequent conversation within Faculty Senate about FFF was direct and productive, and, in general, Faculty Senate was in agreement that we have learned a great deal from the process, which will inform and improve the next version of program prioritization. The members were appreciative of the transparency of the overview and are willing to move toward an improved methodology. 
 
Having secured the general agreement of Faculty Senate, I will constitute a committee in the near future that will seek to improve the program prioritization process and embed the process in our budget, strategic planning and program review processes. I look forward to attaining the best of ourselves and of our great University of Idaho.
 
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Provost and Executive Vice President

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83844-3152

Phone: 208-885-6448
Fax: 208-885-6558
provost@uidaho.edu

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