By JEANETTE BENNET
The Strategic Planning/Self Study found a common theme in the reports sent to them by the colleges: low employee morale.
In their gathering of information from campus entities, the committee found that BYU’s personnel are very strong due to their longevity at BYU and their experience. However, this also was seen as a weakness.
” … Employees exhibit low morale as they experience infrequent opportunities for growth, mobility and career development,” according to the study.
“The university enjoys relatively low turnover, especially in administrative and professional/craft staff positions. Openings providing opportunities for movement or promotion are relatively infrequent,” according to the Self-Study. “The low turnover, coupled with an apparent and historical proclivity for the university to hire from without, especially at executive levels, compounds the lack of opportunity.”
Other general recommendations given in the Self-Study are as follows:
* University should review DMBA master retirement plan.
* Appoint a Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies to provide for the identification, development and administration of interdisciplinary degree programs.
* Dean of Undergraduate Studies needs to give high priority to dealing with issues related to the freshman year.
* Registration for honors classes could be made more fair by equalizing the telephone registration opportunities.
* Teacher evaluations should be done by peer assessment, student evaluation and systematic pre- and post-tenure evaluation.
* Teaching and research assistant money should be increased within the departments. Graduate students are paid varying amounts across campus, ranging from $270 to $3,000 per credit hour. Graduate financial aid is well below national and competitive averages and needs to be brought up to par.
* The university should create a program for new faculty specifically designed to ease the transition from graduate education to the classroom and from other settings to BYU.
* Pre-med degrees should be eliminated and departments now offering pre-med degrees should offer degrees within traditional fields of study as supported by departmental interests and resources.
* Professional programs, although effective and of high quality, are often too narrowly conceived and need to include more curricular balance between practice and theory.
* A single database should be created from the several existing databases that include information about students and faculty, ensuring that when information is updated at one location, the new information will be available throughout the database.
* The Daily Universe should be disconnected from the Communications Office and operate under the university president.
* More study space needs to be incorporated throughout campus, as the library with its new addition can only provide space for 17 percent of enrolled students.
