Following the example of the UNC-CH Faculty Council and other UNC system schools’ staff and faculty assemblies, the Employee Forum passed a resolution asking for direct representation on the UNC Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions.
The next Committee on Strategic Directions meeting is set for December 12, 2012. The meetings are available to stream live online at the committee’s webpage.
The full resolution is reprinted in its entirety below.
Resolution 12-03
Resolution on the UNC Strategic Plan for 2013-2018
November 7, 2012
WHEREAS, The UNC System is initiating strategic planning for 2013-2018 to set current and future priorities, resource planning and allocation, program planning, and review and refinement of academic missions reflecting the University’s deep commitment to help North Carolina respond to changing state needs and economic challenges, and
WHEREAS, the University of North Carolina Tomorrow Initiative, which led the previous strategic planning period, visited all 17 UNC campuses; held 11 highly attended Community Listening Forums across the state; held 11 Faculty Forums with all 17 UNC campuses that were attended by faculty, staff, and students; conducted an online survey with 6,700 respondents; and ran a blog on the UNC Tomorrow website in order to be more responsive to the needs and challenges of our state1, and
WHEREAS, the Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions has neglected to elicit sufficient feedback from the faculty, staff, students of the UNC system, and the North Carolina public, and
WHEREAS, the University of North Carolina Tomorrow Initiative allotted a year for information gathering, discussion, and formation of a 5-year plan while the current Advisory Committee intends to form a similar plan within a 4-month period, and
WHEREAS, the Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions has only one member assigned to represent the interests of all UNC-system staff, and
WHEREAS, a single representative is inadequate in order to ensure that the Strategic Plan, as ultimately presented, will represent the best interests of all staff at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, much less all UNC-system staff, and
WHEREAS, the possible addition of new members is acknowledged in the Strategic Planning Overview and Charge2, and
WHEREAS, faculty and student groups from a number of Universities in the UNC system have already requested that their own representation be expanded in response to concerns about inadequate representation on the Advisory Committee, and
WHEREAS, the UNC-system employs approximately 70,000 North Carolina residents among its 100 counties4 and can directly influence the retention, skills and education, well-being, and health care of this workforce, and
WHEREAS, the Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions has detailed five goals in addressing “North Carolina’s long-term economic competitiveness” through “its ability to develop and retain the talent needed to drive innovation”3 that fails to describe these goals as applicable toward the workforce it, itself, employs, relies on, and must recruit and retain, and
WHEREAS, the Strategic Planning Overview and Charge2 of the committee includes a charge to “serve in an advisory capacity to the President to help assess the current and future workforce needs of the state,” yet neglects to define or address these needs in any of its five goals,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions be expanded to include greater representation of the staff of the UNC system, and
BE IT RESOLVED, that the five goals put forth by the Advisory Committee be amended to include goals oriented toward staff recruiting, retention, education, well-being, and health care as part of its mission, and
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions provide an open line of two-way communication between itself, the public, and all Universities in the UNC system by holding regular open forums across the state, as the University of North Carolina Tomorrow Initiative previously, in order to ensure that all needs are met in the most efficient, applicable, and effective ways possible, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the timeline set for the formation of a Strategic Plan be extended to adequately address the well-founded concerns detailed by this resolution and the other formal concerns submitted by faculty and student groups across North Carolina.
Signed on behalf of the members of the Employee Forum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Jackie Overton, Chair of the Employee Forum
References
1. University of North Carolina Tomorrow Commission Final Report 2007 http://www.northcarolina.edu/nctomorrow/reports/commission/Final_Report.pdf
2. Strategic Directions Initiative Statement of Strategic Planning Overview and Charge http://www.northcarolina.edu/strategic_direction/meetings/index.php
3. Strategic Directions Initiative Statement of five goals entitled “UNC: Our Time, Our Future”. http://www.northcarolina.edu/strategic_direction/meetings/index.php
4. Impact of the University of North Carolina by County: A high-level look at UNC’s involvement in all 100 counties in North Carolina http://www.northcarolina.edu/reports/index.php?page=download&id=1311&inline=1