UI faculty say plan to evaluate programs lacks enough specifics

Fri., Nov. 12, 2004

Associated Press

MOSCOW, Idaho – The University of Idaho Faculty Council is advising President Tim White that the proposed guidelines for evaluating all the school’s programs are too vague.

In a letter to be sent to White this week, the council said the recommendation of a special task force that assessed the university’s financial problems lacked the specifics needed to properly prioritize programs.

“I don’t know how we do it,” council member Bob Rinker said. “There’s no silver bullet to solve this one.”

White set up the task force last summer to come up with a plan for dealing with up to $36 million in red ink over the next several years. White planned to begin making decisions on cuts next week. The faculty council believes that is too soon, considering the lack of a system for ranking programs for reduction or elimination.

University Provost Brian Pitcher also had questions about evaluating programs against one another and earlier advised White that it would help simplify any process “so it can be implemented without taking months or years.”

The task force suggested factors such as number of students involved and value a program provides to overall education as points of measurement in its report that made no specific recommendations on program elimination.

But White has already said university programs would not be eliminated simply because they do not generate cash as long as they are essential to students’ college experience.

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