The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

'Southern at 150' an elastic document

With the possibility of new leadership looming over the University, Board of Trustees Chairman Glenn Poshard reaffirmed Friday that "Southern at 150" is an elastic document that needs constant revision to be successful.

Poshard said colleges must take responsibility of "Southern at 150" by developing detailed plans to achieve its mission. The chairman also said the board expects the University to give it frequent updates from SIUC administration on the plan's progress.

"Unless we have specific goals and objectives tied to timelines and people, those broad, general directions can't be achieved," Poshard said. "The board is going to ask for those specific plans from the colleges. Don't give us a plan and put it on the shelf and let it collect dust."

Chancellor Walter Wendler unveiled the plan-aiming to become a top 75 public research institutions by its 150th birthday in 2019-in 2002, but speculation rose about its future when Wendler announced his candidacy for president of Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi Nov. 22.

"Southern at 150" needs to be able to change with the ebb and flow of state budget money, and it also needs to be able to adapt to its campus' needs, Poshard said. One of those needs is to address how to recognize scholarly and creative activity in the arts and humanities.

In August, the University hired a team of consultants to examine its research capabilities in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The team's report, which was released in October, pointed out that the liberal arts faculty did not feel like a part of "Southern at 150" because they believed much of the plan was based around the sciences.

Poshard said the arts are extremely important to the University, but admitted it is easier to track progress in the sciences because research dollars can be gauged. Poshard said such an issue is an example of how the plan can adapt.

"It is an elastic document," Poshard said. "It was never developed to just be a hard rock. Any long-range plan of 15 to 20 years has to be flexible and change along with that."

Stanley Fish, a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a higher education expert on long-range planning, said high administration turnover in universities, which is becoming a national trend, can cause such plans to fail.

Fish, who has published many columns on the subject in the Chronicle of Higher Education, was a part of Duke University's long-range plan during the 1980s. He is also working with his current university to develop a long-range plan.

"In my view, long-range planning is always an effort to substitute procedure for leadership," Fish said. "People have faith in plans that its structures can produce good outcomes.

"Structures do not produce good outcomes. Leaders produce good outcomes. If you don't have leaders, you can have all the structured long-term planning in the world, and it won't do you any good."

Since the 22-year reign of Chancellor Delyte Morris, the tenure of an SIUC chancellor has averaged 3.3 years.

Poshard said keeping a chancellor at the University for an extended period of time is difficult because competition for good administrators is fierce, but the next search committee must address such a question, if the need arises.

Poshard said the arts are every bit as important on this campus as the sciences, especially because the arts and humanities help society understand its differences.

During the Graduate Council's Thursday meeting, Wendler assured the council's members that whether he leaves or not, SIUC and its plans will go on.

"The University is in better shape than it was two or three years ago," Wendler said, "and I think it will be even better in three or four years from now, no matter who is here or what is going on."

 

 

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