rtf – Academic Affairs

Dear Campus Community,

The purpose of this email is to provide an update on the College Restructure Taskforce. Meetings were held on April 11th, May 6th, and May 27th. During this time, the taskforce examined its charge (an overview is provided below), discussed the process and timeline for proposal completion, developed ground rules for the taskforce, started collecting data, formed working groups, and set a tentative agenda for the June 15th retreat. The Taskforce will address additional communications-related topics e.g., where to find information about the work, how to submit comments, and more in the near future. We appreciate your continued interest and will keep you apprised in the coming weeks.

Thank you,

College Restructure Taskforce

January 2022 overview of charge to College Restructure Taskforce

At present, our academic programs are organized into two colleges, a structure arising more from history than strategy. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has eight divisions spanning traditional liberal arts and sciences along with professional and pre- professional programs. The College of Education has three divisions that encompass far more than educator preparation programs. This structure served us well once. But over time, and through the evolution of programs and student interests, this structure may have created silos and workload inequities for academic program leaders, faculty and staff. As we consider developing new programs at new degree levels (e.g., professional doctorates), now is the time to re-examine, re-align and re-balance WOU’s academic programs so that our structures serve our current needs and position us to thrive in the future.

Academic Affairs

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June 15 Update

Dear Colleagues,

This spring, Provost Rob Winningham initiated and convened a College Restructure Taskforce composed of WOU staff, faculty, and administrators. The aim of the Taskforce is to recommend an equitable and sustainable academic structure that utilizes existing resources. Efforts to capitalize on division and unit-specific knowledge are reflected in the Taskforce’s constitution. Nonetheless, Taskforce members are focused on the totality of WOU’s academic programs and do not serve as division-specific representatives. Please feel free to reach out to any Taskforce member if you have questions or want to provide input. We also encourage you to share your ideas and questions using the form linked below.

At our June 15th retreat, the Taskforce:

discussed our collective SWOC analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges) and identified a range of issues and concerns that motivate our work;
brainstormed communication strategies for sharing information with the campus community;
strategized in breakout groups (Steering Committee, Communication, Workload/Equity, Current Structure & Comparators);
and established an agenda, assignments and addressed logistical needs for the next meeting on June 29th.

To minimize the burden on Taskforce members, the Communication Committee will be issuing updates via email from the Provost’s Office and posting these regular meeting summaries to the Taskforce webpage: http://wou.edu/provost/rtf/

As mentioned previously, we have also created a Google form where you can anonymously share input and ideas with the Taskforce. We encourage you to take a few minutes (or more!) to share ideas, examples or concerns you would like to make sure the Taskforce considers. The knowledge, expertise and perspectives of the entire campus community are critical to the college restructure effort.

College Restructure Feedback Form

Academic Affairs

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June 29 Update

Dear Colleagues,

The Restructure Taskforce met on June 29th. This meeting focused on exploring various models for restructuring WOU’s colleges. Taskforce members reported out, in small groups, a broad range of ideas for how to structure WOU’s current and impending academic programs. We discussed the primary goals driving our development of possible models, as well as aspects of the different structures that promoted or inhibited equity. We explored the struggles and insights that emerged from the process, as well as strengths of the various ideas presented by the small groups.

Together, we summarized some of the key insights from the small group discussions and established a plan for meeting our charge by September 15th. Among the recurring themes of that discussion was the importance of understanding what different programs do, what their delivery and resource demands are, and how they might find synergy with programs not currently housed in the same divisions or colleges (as well as what existing connections and affiliations should be maintained). A brief discussion of “schools,” “colleges,” and “centers” began, as some of the models we examined used different labels and unit sizes to maximize capacity and promote programmatic strengths.

We established the agenda for our next meeting (on July 13th), when we will continue the process of examining various structures and developing a set of proposed models that we can vet using institutional data from WOU. We strongly encourage members of the WOU community to complete the survey included in the last update (which is also available on the website by clicking on the “Give Feedback” button).

Please take a moment to share your questions, concerns, and/or suggestions with the Taskforce. We welcome and value your input, which will be most helpful in the next few weeks as we endeavor to narrow the range of possible structures to a short list that can be examined in light of our institutional goals, academic programs, staffing and resources. We’re grateful for your input on this important endeavor.

Academic Affairs

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July 14 Update

Dear Colleagues,

The Restructure Taskforce met on July 14th. We discussed comparator/competitor institutions used to inform the number and types of primary academic units in the Taskforce’s eventual restructure recommendation. This was followed by a discussion on the metrics/rubrics/lenses to be used for evaluation of draft restructure models. Taskforce members recognized various elements important to strategy that WOU might utilize, such as the role of serving Hispanic students, ensuring program synergy and collaboration, and reassessing TT and NTT faculty per unit, to name a few.

The steering committee prepared four draft restructure models, organizing academic units based on group discussions from the previous meetings. Individual Taskforce members selected one of the four models based on their perceived strengths and small work groups were formed. Each group reviewed and revised the draft models and briefly presented those to the taskforce as a whole.

We established an agenda for our next meeting (on July 27th), when we will begin to evaluate the models by the agreed upon metrics. Thus, evaluation of any draft model moving forward will be done using quantitative and qualitative raw data to check actual distribution of resources and synergies for each lasting model.

The Communication Subcommittee also reported on the content of the survey responses from the WOU community to date.

Academic Affairs

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September 14 Update

Dear Colleagues,
The Restructure Taskforce met on August 10, August 24, and September 14, focusing primarily on process and product. In consultation with Provost Winningham, the Taskforce members determined that additional time was needed in order to provide opportunities for revision and refinement of the proposal after the draft model has been shared with campus stakeholders. To that end, the Taskforce has scheduled listening sessions with the goal of gathering input from impacted employees:

Wed Oct 19th afternoon, 1 – 4 pm, WUC Columbia Room
Fri Oct 21st morning 8 – 11 am, WUC Columbia Room

Other smaller group sessions:

Staff Senate Presentation on October 4th, 10 – 11:30 am
Faculty Senate Presentation on October 11th, 3:30 – 5 pm
Coffee chat Q&A on Oct 5th, 8:30 – 9:30 at the Slippery (Main St & N. Monmouth Ave)
Coffee chat Q&A on Oct 7th, 12:30 – 1:30 pm outside Cafe Allegro (WUC)
Zoom chat room Q&A (Zoom Link) on Oct 6th, 9-11 am

Our August meetings focused on vetting a suite of possible models according to criteria developed early in the Taskforce’s process. The last meeting of August concluded with widespread consensus supporting one of the models. Further examination of the costs and staffing needs associated with that model was undertaken in preparation for the September meeting.

On September 14, the Taskforce met to review a cost-analysis for the preliminary draft model, and to review the materials that will be presented to stakeholder groups and the wider campus community for feedback beginning September 22.

The Taskforce members wish to reiterate how important your feedback is to informing the proposal we make to the campus and Provost at the conclusion of this process. Though our membership is representative of WOU’s academic administration and divisions, other members of the campus community have insights and experiences that are critical to ensuring the proposed structure works for WOU and the students we serve.

Please join us at the listening session aimed at your stakeholder group and use the anonymous form on our website to share your ideas and concerns at any point in the process.

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

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June 13: Campus Update

June 15 Update

June 29 Update

July 14 Update

September 14 Update

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