| PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION |
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| Major Findings |
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| In its planning, the University has identified the major trends and
developments that they believe will present challenges and opportunities
for its future growth and development. These include the projected growth
trends in the population, the changing demographics of the school age
population, the economic growth factors that will influence the education
and training needs of the future, and the increasing demand for persons to
fill professional and managerial jobs that require a university degree.
The development of the strategic plan involved an extensive self-examination by SFSU and was broadly participatory. The faculty members interviewed were laudatory about the inclusiveness of the process. The six themes of the strategic plan follow from the SFSU mission statement. The current strategic plan does not identify priorities for implementation of the 156 recommendations. The new administrative structure provides for a team of vice presidents, working with the president and entrusted to oversee the areas of academic affairs, student affairs, business and finance, and university advancement. A new executive level deanship for human relations has also been established. In Fall 2000, the faculty numbered 1,696 with 44% tenured or tenured track and 55% lecturers. The high percentage of lecturers is a continuing concern of the University. In Fall 2000, about 61% of the tenured/tenure track faculty were at the rank of professor. This is also a concern of the University and portends a major turn over in the faculty in the next 10 years. It is addressing this concern by increasing the number of new faculty recruited at the assistant professor rank. For example, in Fall 2000, 91% of new hires were at the assistant professor rank as compared to 43% in Fall 1992. |
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| Strengths, Challenges, and Recommendations |
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| The Team applauds the efforts of SFSU to address the issues of planning,
priorities and budgeting and the team recognizes that much has been
accomplished. The Team understands that on a campus that seeks broad
involvement in decision making, setting priorities from among some 156
recommendations is difficult. Nonetheless, the Team has serious concerns
that SFSU is attempting to do too much at a time when financial and human
resources are limited. The Team therefore recommends that:
Recommendation 1. SFSU must continue to work toward developing and implementing a process whereby priorities and timelines for implementing various recommendations are established. The Team believes that in order for this to be effective and to gain buy-in by campus constituents, this process/procedure must be explained clearly to the University community. We therefore also recommend that: Recommendation 2. SFSU must continue to work to improve communications between the various campus constituents and particularly between the senior administrative officers and the faculty and staff. |
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