UNC-system Board of Governors to discuss controversial strategic plan

The UNC-system Board of Governors will discuss the first draft today of the strategic plan that will guide the UNC system’s campuses for the next five years.

The draft, which was unveiled Monday, will bring closer scrutiny to a plan that students and faculty have criticized due to a lack of input.

Budgetary figures are also not included in the draft, so it will be difficult to determine how much the plan will cost, said board member Phil Dixon.

“It would be premature to decide on it now,” Dixon said.

The plan aims to make North Carolina one of the top 10 “most educated states” by 2025 and increase the percentage of degree-holding North Carolinians from 29.5 percent to 37 percent by 2025.

In order to meet this goal, the plan calls for improving graduation rates, offering more opportunities to military members in the state and creating a support program for the approximately 1.5 million individuals in the state that have some college credit hours but no degree.

The proposed plan will also help current students, said Kevin Kimball, the UNC-system Association of Student Governments chief information officer, by improving academic advising and assisting student transfers.

“Overall, I would give the plan high marks,” Kimball said.

But he is concerned about certain policies in the draft.

The report proposes the use of standardized tests, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment, to test a course’s effectiveness.

“We should be monitoring how that part of the plan develops,” Kimball said.

Andrew Perrin, professor of sociology at UNC-CH, said he was concerned about the plan’s proposal to recruit 24 “rainmaker faculty,” or high-profile professors that will attract more research dollars and top-tier faculty.

Such a proposal would likely cause administrators to focus on some academic areas more than others, he said.

But another goal of the plan is to better connect universities with local communities, Dixon said.

“The plan will address the needs in the state where there are shortages in the workforce,” Dixon said.

Shortages are constant in fields such as dentistry and nursing, he said.

Board members will vote on the final plan in early February, Kimball said.

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.