Strategic plan group discusses how to connect University

By Kate Foss

Collegian Reporter

The students, faculty and administrators who make up the Integrated Academic Enterprise working group are calling for increasing cross-school collaboration in courses at the University of Richmond.

The leaders of the group, Provost Steve Allred, and Kathy Hoke, the associate dean of Arts and Sciences and an associate professor of mathematics, hosted an open forum Tuesday night to solicit feedback about the four goals the group has drafted.

For interdisciplinary and cross-school connection, group members spoke about allowing undergraduates to take more courses outside of their majors and having more shared classroom sessions.

Hoke said that the working group felt that students were interested in more interdisciplinary studies.

"We have a sense that generally that is something a lot of students would want to see," Hoke said.

The interdisciplinary plans also include an evaluation by the faculty of the first-year Core course, in addition to a review of the General Education Requirements with consideration to the newly adopted unit system.

The group is also pushing for the creation of a faculty development center, which would provide a place for professors to discuss teaching methods and, in turn, allow faculty to find others with common interests. That could lead to cross-course collaboration.

Allred said that the center could be useful for both new professors and those who were already settled in their ways.

"Part of what it would do is help new faculty think of ways to improve their teaching," Allred said. "But also it could reinvigorate teaching for professors who have been around for a while."

The group is also seeking to make acquiring tenure more uniform in the academic departments, and offering more funding to interdisciplinary study. Establishing connections between academics, outside pursuits and life goals was the group's final goal.

Following this round of feedback, Allred said the working group would revise the goals, and present them again in mid-October for the community's review. The group is aiming to finish their portion of the plan by December, he said.

Contact reporter Kate Foss at katie.foss@richmond.edu