UMPI plan brings campus and community closer

16 years ago
By Kathy McCarty  
Staff Writer

    PRESQUE ISLE – The University of Maine at Presque Isle recently unveiled a strategic plan designed to bring campus and community closer together, with students benefiting from the process.
    “When Michael Sonntag came onboard as the vice president of academic affairs, this was one of the first things he and I sat down and discussed – what we should be doing for our students and the community,” said UMPI President Don Zillman, noting that “many pieces in the business sector (campus’s business program) could benefit from community interaction.”
    The process got underway last fall, shortly after Sonntag began his duties on campus.
    “He got the process going quickly and efficiently – not a lot of reinventing the wheel,” said Zillman.
    The plan, entitled “2008-2013: Engaging the Campus, Connecting with the Community,” is made up of three elements, according to Sonntag.
    “This plan is really about three things: doing everything we can to encourage student success on our campus, ensuring that our internal systems are operating smoothly so we can better deliver campus services to our students, and, as we focus on these two areas, taking every opportunity to develop and strengthen connections between our campus and the community,” said Sonntag. “The combination of these elements not only provides the best possible environment for our students to thrive, but also promotes more civic engagement, which allows our students to affect positive change in the place where they live and better prepare for the future.”
    Using the connection to the community as the unifying theme, Sonntag explained the strategic plan is organized into two “major strategic goals.”
    “Those goals are student success and institutional sustainability. Within student success, officials will review the University’s professional and liberal arts programs and align them with student interest, employment opportunities and community needs,” said Sonntag.
    Efforts will also be focused on student affairs programming that “helps students to develop a sense of personal identity and social responsibility and encourages them to get more involved in campus life,” he said.
    The plan will include students being more involved in hands-on work within the community.
    “In terms of community connectedness within the strategic goal of student success, officials will seek to establish more student service-learning projects, field work experiences and undergraduate research. Successful past efforts have included academic internships to create GIS databases for local municipalities and a community clean-up day sponsored by student organizations,” said Sonntag.
    Zillman said officials will also encourage faculty to conduct more scholarship and research that matters to the region and support all campus staff in initiating more community-centered projects, much like the Arts Aroostook cultural events Web portal the University helped to create as a resource for northern Maine.
    Under the second strategic goal, institutional sustainability, officials will focus on customer service, sound financial management and efficient administrative functions, said Sonntag.
    “One of the major changes this will bring to campus is a new academic structure, from schools and departments to colleges and programs. Academic programs previously were divided into six schools: Business and International Studies; English and Fine Arts; Human Performance and Leisure; Science and Mathematics; Teacher Education; and Psychology, Social Work and Criminal Justice. They are being replaced with the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Professional Programs and the College of University Programs,” explained Sonntag.
    “This helps to organize our academic programs in a much simpler way and create stronger linkages and lines of communication between administration and faculty, which ultimately provides our students with an environment that will help them better to succeed,” said Sonntag. “Implementing this new structure also provides us with an excellent opportunity to scrutinize each of our programs and ensure that we’re providing our students with the skills and the community-based experiences that will prepare them for the professional world.”
    Other objectives under institutional sustainability, according to Sonntag, include creating new student social spaces with particular attention to the needs of non-traditional and commuter students, providing more customer service-themed training opportunities for faculty and staff, improving and updating teaching facilities and focusing on fund-raising efforts that allow the university to invest in new programs and projects that benefit the region and the state, while continuing its long history of sound financial management.
    Officials also will implement a voluntary system of accountability so that the University can showcase how the efforts put forth by its faculty and staff leave a positive, lasting impact on its students and the community, said Zillman.
    “By making our institution more efficient, more financially sound, more customer-service oriented, and more adept at meeting the needs of our faculty, staff and students, we are creating the strongest foundation we can for student engagement and success,” said Sonntag. “And, as we do that, I think we’re going to see a campus that is making a huge difference in the community.”
    Zillman shared Sonntag’s enthusiasm.
    “I see the campus continuing to work with the community, for the betterment of all, not just our students,” said Zillman. “What we do here affects not only those on campus but the community as a whole – the community of Aroostook.”
    While the plan will be implemented over the next five years, officials will take time every year to assess how well they are meeting their goals, modify the plan accordingly and move toward achieving successful results.