Excerpt from April 13, 2006 Faculty Senate minutes:
Dr. Larson
distributed IDC’s Preliminary Criteria
for Additional Masters Programs and reported that IDC has been spending
much of its time this year thinking about additional masters programs. The issue was discussed last month at a
faculty forum and the discussion was valuable.
IDC has also met with the Chancellor when she shared some of her
thoughts about masters programs.
IDC’s Preliminary Criteria for Additional Masters
Programs -- dated 13 April 2006 follows:
In a recent meeting the Institutional Development Committee
(IDC) carefully read UNCA’s Mission Statement and
concluded that “Additional Masters Program do not
appear to be excluded by the
In light of the above IDC has begun the process of
formulating criteria to be used in identifying candidates for additional
Masters Programs at UNCA. The criteria
below reflect IDC’s current thinking, thinking which will assuredly develop as
further opportunities to comment are provided to the university community. The criteria below are of the nature of
necessary conditions, that is, all of
the criteria would have to be met for a Masters Program to be seen as
appropriate. Here are the criteria:
A. Masters Programs
should enhance the undergraduate program.
B. Masters Programs should be interdisciplinary
and not housed in a specific department.
C. Masters Programs should be programs of
excellence that UNCA can do better than other universities.
D. Masters Programs should meet broadly defined
community needs.
E. Masters Programs should hold promise of
longevity.
F. No more than 3% (approximately 100) of UNCA
students should be in Masters Programs.
G. Masters Programs should be financially self
sustaining.
Once again, these criteria are preliminary. It should not be inferred from this list that
IDC now advocates the
establishment of additional Masters Programs at
UNCA, rather, IDC simply holds that if there are to be additional Masters
Programs, they should meet specific tests.
One
additional consideration has weighed very heavily on IDC’s deliberations,
namely, the perceived state of interdisciplinary programs at UNCA. IDC senses that current interdisciplinary
programs are under great strain and that too few full-time faculty
are involved in programs such as Arts and Ideas and the Humanities (to name
only two). The ongoing implementation of
the new ILS program is also highly interdisciplinary. It seems prudent to address existing strains
on undergraduate interdisciplinary programs before embarking upon additional
Masters Programs.
Dr.
Larson added that IDC envisions a university-wide process to identify a set of
proposals of masters programs. With additional criteria for MLA programs
considered as a group, a body would then determine what group of masters
programs makes sense for UNCA. Dr.
Downes noted that IDC wanted balance and complementarity - these
criteria came out of long, congenial conversations with the Chancellor, and she
believed the criteria reflected the Chancellor's feelings. Dr. Padilla announced that another faculty
forum will be held May 3, 2006 to receive additional faculty input.