Executive Summary

March 2010

Top Ten and Peer Institutions

The College of Arts and Sciences is unique in that it houses a broad range of disciplines: natural sciences, mathematics, statistics, humanities, social sciences, and the arts, as well as a number of interdisciplinary programs and specialized centers and institutes. Over the past year and a half, the elected Academic Planning Council of the College of Arts and Sciences has considered the question of how to determine the top ten and peer institutions for a College of our size and complexity. The Academic Planning Council has examined programmatic, enrollment, and research funding data from the following sources:

• The Top American Research Universities, 2008 Annual Report, The Center for Measuring University Performance;
• Carnegie classifications;
• Association of American Universities (AAU) membership criteria;
• U.S. News and World Report list of Top Public Schools: National Universities.

As the Academic Planning Council has grappled with this question, it has observed that it is not a national norm for arts and sciences colleges to identify top ten and peer institutions for colleges as a whole. The Academic Planning Council has concluded that there is not a consistent and coherent set of institutions that can be identified as the top ten and peers for the College of Arts and Sciences. Rather, it is more effective and ultimately more useful to identify top ten and peer institutions in specific disciplines.

Recently, each academic department in the College has developed a list of institutions considered to have the top ten departments in the discipline. Our departments have identified forty-five (45) public and thirty (30) private institutions whose relevant departments can be considered top ten in the discipline, or in some cases, subdiscipline. Similarly, our departments have identified forty-four (44) public and eight (8) private institutions whose relevant departments can be considered peer or close peer aspirants.

Where possible, the College will begin to use comparative data related to peer institutions in decision-making processes, e.g., self-studies for external reviews.

Strengths of the College of Arts and Sciences 2005-2009

Faculty Hiring

Over the past five years, the College has hired 160 new faculty. This group comprises one third of the College’s total faculty. Although we have made some significant senior hires, most of the hires are junior-level hires from the best graduate programs in the nation and the world. Our new faculty hires bring to the College and to the University the most advanced and current theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and techniques to enrich our curriculum and research agenda.

Faculty Support and Retention

Once recruited and hired, faculty must be given the support and opportunities they need to distinguish themselves as leaders in their fields and to produce the level of research, scholarship, and creative activity expected for a major research institution. The College has initiated programs and policies designed to support faculty at various stages of their careers: competitive salaries and start-up packages for new hires; full-year salary support for faculty at all ranks who receive prestigious external fellowships; enhanced option for full-year sabbatical with 65% salary, an increase from 50% of salary; bridge funding for research active faculty; Associate Professor Development Award.

In the period from 2005 to 2009, the College has committed $5.3 M to faculty start-ups, and leveraged an additional $9.4 M from the Office of the Provost, the Office of Research, and individual departments.

The College has made 75 retention offers since January 2005 and retained 76% of the faculty with those offers.

Faculty Productivity

The College has devoted considerable resources to support innovative research, both in our core disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. We have established four new research centers and institutes (the Institute for African American Research, the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, the Confucius Institute, and the Parenting and Family Research Center); reconceptualized a broader role for the Interdisciplinary Mathematics Institute; strengthened the Electron Microscopy Center; and established the Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory in Earth and Ocean Sciences. Two new initiatives in Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities have begun to garner grant support, attract new faculty, and provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary research.

Faculty productivity across the wide range of disciplines in the College--- the arts, humanities, social sciences, and mathematical and natural sciences---cannot be measured by a single set of standards. Rather, a series of measures must be employed to gauge our progress toward national and international recognition for faculty achievements as varied as books, edited volumes, articles, papers, exhibitions, performances, and sponsored research.

In the period from 2006 through 2009, College faculty have authored 95 scholarly books, 67 edited volumes, and 25 creative works. In the same period, natural sciences faculty have produced 1,777 articles for scientific journals, including 18 papers published in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Another measure of productivity is, of course, research funding. Since FY 2005, College faculty have been awarded a total of $223 M in sponsored research funding, including awards from the National Institutes of Health, US Department of Commerce, National Science Foundation, US Department of Defense, US Department of Health and Human Services, and US Department of Energy. The total for FY 2006 is our all-time high, but this total includes congressional earmarks. The College’s plan is to focus on peer-reviewed competitive funding, and our progress toward replacing earmark funding with competitive awards is strong. For the first quarter of FY 2010, our total is $19.8 M, up $5 M from the $14.4 M we had logged at this same point last year. This represents a 37.5% increase from last year’s first quarter earnings.

The College’s support of research productivity has been successful in two CoEE hires: the CoEE Chair in Nanoelectronics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the CoEE Chair in Polymer Nanocomposites in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. We are actively recruiting for two additional CoEE chairs in Brain Imaging in the Department of Psychology and in Childhood Neurotherapeutics in the Department of Biological Sciences. Additionally, we are preparing proposals for a CoEE Chair in Data Analysis, Simulation, Imaging and Visualization and one in Ecological Forecasting.

Undergraduate Education

The College’s degree programs serve our own undergraduate majors, but we are also entrusted with the primary responsibility for general education for all undergraduates at the University, as well as specialized course work required for a number of professional school majors.

Since 2005, one of our chief priorities has been to manage the curriculum carefully so that students throughout the University have access to the courses they need to complete general education requirements and to enter and progress through their majors. We have also been cognizant of the unique role we play in offering basic and specialized courses for undergraduates in majors such as engineering, business, education, nursing, pharmacy, and journalism, among others. Through careful monitoring of admissions and enrollment patterns, we have developed a successful approach for managing curricular offerings and instructional staffing needs. Indeed, as we have faced unprecedented budget cuts over the past year, this system has allowed us to maintain our firm commitment to providing undergraduates with the courses they need.

To respond to student demand and trends in the disciplines, the College has developed a number of new undergraduate programs: BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (approval granted by CHE, pending final approval by SACS, BS in Environmental Sciences, BA in Dance, a minor in Chinese Studies, and a teacher certification track in our undergraduate foreign language majors, with plans for a BA in Environmental Studies underway. We have funded projects designed to improve mathematics education including a new placement test and a new precalculus course. We have supported the revision of first-year writing courses to improve student learning in this critical skill. We have supported the adoption of new, more sensitive placement testing for foreign languages. Also, we have encouraged experimentation with service learning, and modified summer school operations.

The College has also devoted considerable efforts to undergraduate advising. A task force on advising completed its work in 2008, and its recommendations have formed part of our continuing efforts to improve advising. The integration of the College's two offices for undergraduate advising in Summer 2009 with the opening of the College's Undergraduate Student Services Office in Flinn Hall is a significant accomplishment; the office serves the nearly 7500 Arts and Sciences majors as well as students across the University interested in our courses and programs.

The College has been and continues to be actively involved in the development of a new general education curriculum for the University, known as the Carolina Core.

Graduate Education

The College‘s graduate programs are critical to the College’s vision of creating and sharing knowledge at the frontiers of inquiry, and contribute directly to the College’s agenda in research, scholarship, and creative activity. Doctoral education in particular is a key focus for graduate education in the College.

Since 2005, the College has strengthened graduate education on several fronts. First, we have established a stable, sustainable system for graduate student support, both GTA and GIA, throughout all of our departments and programs. We have set graduate stipend levels at the midpoint in the range of comparable institutions, and increased the number of College-supported stipends from 499 in FY 2006 to 677 in FY 2009, totaling $13.2 M annually. In the same period, graduate stipends provided by grant funds increased from support of 140 graduate students to support of 268. For FY 2010, despite severe budget cuts, we have maintained the FY 2009 level of support for our graduate students, and committed to fully funding tuition for graduate students awarded full-time, College-supported assistantships in FY 2011.

Second, to support graduate student research and creative activity, we have implemented the Graduate Student Travel Award for presentations and performances at national and international conferences/venues. Since January of 2007, the College has awarded 225 travel awards and more than $114,000 to graduate students from across the College, enabling first or solo-authored presentations and performances at major national and international meetings, conferences, symposia, and theatre and artistic productions.

Third, after careful planning, we have launched two new graduate degree programs: the PhD in Anthropology and the PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice. A proposal for a PhD program in Spanish has been developed and submitted for approval with an anticipated program start date of Fall 2010. We have developed new concentrations in existing degree programs to capitalize on faculty expertise, e.g., the public law concentration in the PhD in Political Science and a concentration in applied and computational mathematics for the PhD in Mathematics degree program.

Space and Facilities

We have partnered with our colleagues in University Space and Facilities to improve our space in support of our educational and research mission. By investing $9.9 M over five years ($7 M for research space), we have been able to leverage about $24.5 M from the central administration to remodel our space and upgrade our facilities.

Community-Building, Planning, and Recognition

The College must not only fulfill our educational and research missions effectively, but we must communicate our ideals and activities within the College and University and among our supporters and the public.

Since 2005, the College has established procedures for shared decision- making with the elected Academic Planning Council and with the chairs and directors of our academic programs. The annual strategic hiring plan process has helped to define programmatic aspirations and priorities and identified strategic plans for achieving them.

The College has launched an ambitious series of efforts to publicize our accomplishments and aspirations. These include the College's In Focus newsletter, a comprehensive Annual Report, and The Case for the College of Arts and Sciences, a development publication with companion pieces for our departments and programs. We have founded the Board of Visitors; together with our ten partnership boards, this body provides valuable advice to the College and serves as a major fund-raising arm for the College. The College has established an active alumni program: we host an annual College Alumni Award Ceremony and involve our Alumni Council in recruiting and mentoring our undergraduates. The Dean travels widely within the state and beyond, hosting receptions and meeting prospective students and their families as well prospective friends and donors.

These efforts have borne fruit. Since 2005, the College has garnered $34.8 M in private support for our programs, faculty, and student scholarships.

Challenges

The College faces a number of challenges in the next five years. With respect to some of these challenges, we are confident in our ability to meet them. We have demonstrated that we are capable of recruiting faculty and students of the highest caliber, supporting an ambitious research agenda, delivering academic programs of the highest quality, and building a base of alumni, friends, and supporters who share our vision of the role that higher education can play in our state, nation, and global community. The fiscal crisis of this past year has confirmed that we can not only manage our limited resources well, but deploy them strategically to preserve and enhance our core mission in the long term. Nevertheless, the College faces two overarching challenges that are a source of deep concern and that will require the sustained attention of the College and the University as a whole.

Compensation

The first challenge is maintaining appropriate faculty, graduate student, and staff compensation. Over the past five years, the College has made systematic efforts in regard to increasing compensation. But in an era of shrinking budgets, the College does not have the continuing funds needed to keep our large and productive faculty, staff, and graduate students paid at competitive levels.

Space and Facilities

The second challenge is our aging space and facilities. Working in substandard and inadequate space constrains the potential of our faculty, staff, and students. The College needs both more research space and improvements in existing space to support the ambitious research agenda of our faculty. We need more and higher quality teaching and office space to support the academic mission of the College. Significant financial resources are required to expand, update, remodel, and improve infrastructure in the College’s teaching and research facilities.

We are aware that these challenges cannot be overcome quickly or easily. We know that we must apply ourselves as a College, in partnership with central administration and the University as a whole, to raising funds from a variety of sources to address these needs. First, the College must raise additional revenue from tuition by working with the University to set, achieve, and manage ambitious, yet realistic enrollment goals for both undergraduate and graduate programs. Second, the College must continue our successful efforts at raising private philanthropic dollars to fund professorships, fellowships, scholarships, and program enhancements. Finally, the College must direct increased attention to generating more grant funding, increasing our aggressive efforts with both public and private foundations.

Advance Carolina

As home to nearly 500 tenured and tenure-track faculty, 120 instructors and research faculty, more than 1200 graduate students, and nearly 7500 undergraduate students, the College of Arts and Sciences is both an outstanding research and graduate institution and a major undergraduate college. We are justifiably proud of our broad range of doctoral, master's, graduate certificate, and undergraduate degree programs, and our enduring commitment to the principles and values of liberal education, serving all undergraduates at the University of South Carolina through our general education curriculum.

The College of Arts and Sciences is proud of the leadership role that we play in the life of the University. Indeed, we are keenly aware that we are vital to the present interests and future aspirations of the larger University. Thus, Advance Carolina is a call to action that we have helped shape and readily accept. The College of Arts and Sciences' goals, as articulated in this Blueprint for Academic Excellence, are evidence of our dedication to the principles and values that underlie Advance Carolina.

Our five goals clearly align with and support the specific goals of Advance Carolina.

To develop an educated citizenry through excellent programs for all undergraduate students in the University of South Carolina.

The College's first goal reflects Advance Carolina's emphasis on Teaching and Learning. Excellence in teaching and learning in our academic programs is a core principle that guides all of our decision-making. Our first responsibility is to ensure that our students receive the highest quality educational experience. At the undergraduate level, this responsibility is not only to students who choose to major in one of our disciplines, but to all undergraduates at the University through our general education curriculum.

To foster research, scholarship, and creative activity by supporting, retaining, and recruiting faculty members who are or will become nationally and internationally known as leaders in their fields.

It is only through a strong faculty that the College can provide superb teaching in the arts and sciences; discover, disseminate, and apply knowledge about the natural and human world; and effect positive change in the broader society. Thus, we are committed to recruiting faculty of the highest caliber and supporting and retaining them throughout their careers. The College’s second goal mirrors Advance Carolina’s emphasis on fostering faculty accomplishments in Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement.

To develop the next generation of intellectual leadership through its excellent graduate programs.

Graduate students contribute directly to the discovery, critical examination, integration, preservation, and communication of knowledge, wisdom, and values. Independently and in collaboration with faculty, graduate students learn to frame questions in order to extend human knowledge, build new understandings of nature, develop new ideas, and create new images. The College’s emphasis on building and enhancing excellent graduate programs and supporting graduate students reflects the importance of Teaching and Learning and Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement in the goals of Advance Carolina.

To encourage positive change through engagement with the broader society.

With our broad array of disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs and specialized centers and institutes, the College is uniquely positioned to engage the broader society. Our engagement focuses on three main areas where our expertise is crucial for the state of South Carolina: improving K-12 education, fostering economic development, and improving civic life. Increasingly, our expertise is engaged to address issues of national and international importance. This College goal fully supports the emphases on Service Excellence and Recognition and Visibility in Advance Carolina.

To raise the visibility and recognition of the College and its constituent units.

The College continually strives to build recognition of the achievements of our faculty, staff, and students among our members, supporters, and the public. We do so to build the reputation not only of the College, but of the larger University and the state of South Carolina. Our efforts in publicizing, promoting, and celebrating the achievements of our members and the quality of our programs serves Advance Carolina’s aim for Recognition and Visibility for the entire University of South Carolina. Within the College, we continually strive to enhance collegiality among our members. Communicating, strategic planning, and shared decision-making contribute greatly to the sense of community so important to the quality of professional life. Our commitment to these principles supports Advance Carolina’s emphasis on the Quality of Life in the University Community.

Goals, Achievements, Future Plans, Short-Term Initiatives

GOAL 1: To develop an educated citizenry through excellent programs for all undergraduate students in the University of South Carolina.

DESCRIPTION
The College of Arts and Sciences is the intellectual core of the University, uniquely situated to transform the lives not just of its own students, but of all students at the University. This goal mirrors the University’s mission to provide all students with the highest-quality education; that is the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for success in life and responsible citizenship.

ACHIEVEMENTS (2008-2009)
For the past five years, the College has pursued strategic objectives and priorities to realize this goal. Our programs serve the nearly 7,500 undergraduate majors in Arts and Sciences, and we are entrusted with the primary responsibility for general education for all undergraduates at the University, as well as specialized course work required for a number of professional school majors. Our commitment to undergraduate education is the first guiding principle for all of our decisions and actions.

The severe budget cuts sustained by the College in 2008-2009 could have easily tested our resolve and compromised our commitment to undergraduate education. Instead, we responded to the cuts not by simply conducting a budget-cutting exercise, but by engaging in serious academic planning for both the short and long-range future of the College and the University as a whole. One of our key priorities, indeed our first priority was the preservation of resources needed for core elements of the curriculum: courses taken most often by first-year students, courses needed by graduating seniors, and courses needed to enter or advance within a major. Additionally, we agreed that undergraduate advising resources were another key priority.

Most of the emergency measures the College took in 2008-2009 affected faculty and staff hiring, faculty development, unit organizational structures, and administrative expenses. But some emergency measures affected the undergraduate experience in noticeable but non-essential ways. In 2009-2010, students had fewer electives and less variety in class choices, larger classes, and less convenience in class scheduling.

The sacrifices made by our faculty to ensure the essential quality of our undergraduate programs have been heroic. We have continued to plan for the future in prudent and responsible ways, and our plans for 2009-2010 and beyond reflect our commitment to undergraduate education.

General Education

• College faculty were and continue to be active and significant contributors to the proposed Carolina Core.
• Increased attention was applied to placement and learning methods in key first-year courses to maximize student success. Of particular note was the development of a new course MATH 116 “Brief Precalculus.”
• The backlog of upperclassmen in introductory courses is an ongoing concern to which we have dedicated substantial funding and planning. In 2008-2009, we authorized the hire of three additional instructors in Spanish to reduce the backlog in first-year Spanish.
• The Academic Planning Council remained actively involved in the discussion of general education reform and the enrichment of undergraduate education through new programs and initiatives.

New Degree Programs

• Plans were completed and approvals were obtained to open a new degree program, the Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences.

Advising

• The College combined the two College offices that serve our undergraduate majors into a single Office of Undergraduate Student Services housed in Flinn Hall.

New Structures for New Opportunities

• The creation of the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment has consolidated resources for key research, academic, engagement, and service programs focusing on the environment. The new school houses four undergraduate degree programs: BS in Geology, BS in Geophysics, BS in Marine Science, and BS in Environmental Sciences.

Undergraduate Program Enhancements

• A College Task Force on Summer School studied enrollment issues and made recommendations resulting in Summer 2009 course offerings that were more responsive to student needs.
• The College supported an exploratory course for engaged learning in philosophy “Helping the Disadvantaged.”
• Despite difficult fiscal circumstances, the College maintained our traditionally strong relationship with units such as the SC Honors College and Capstone Scholars Program. College faculty continue to teach honors courses with departmental incentives for participation. We have sponsored the Capstone Study Abroad experience, and our First-Year English program has partnered with Capstone to offer special themed sections of ENGL 101 and 102 for students in that program.

Facilities

• Dedicated a new facility for the Dance program.

Emergency Measures

• Established emergency course minima guidelines for sustaining undergraduate courses in a tight fiscal climate.

FUTURE PLANS (2009-2010)
General Education

• College faculty are active and significant contributors to the general education revision process; we are reviewing existing courses and discussing new ones for the proposed Carolina Core.
• The Academic Planning Council remains actively involved in all aspects of undergraduate education.
• Increased attention will be applied to placement and learning methods in key first-year courses to maximize student success. Foreign language placement tests are being revised and re-normed for implementation in Summer 2010. MATH 116 “Brief Precalculus” was first offered in the second eight weeks of Fall 2009; we will look carefully at performance data in MATH 141 Spring 2010 to gauge MATH 116’s effect.

New Degree Programs

• Plans are underway to develop a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies as a companion program for the newly implemented Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences, maximizing the resources and expertise of the new School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment.
• The Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is expected to receive final approval for implementation in Fall 2010.

Curriculum Management

• In difficult budgetary circumstances, the College will maintain our commitment to delivering the highest quality undergraduate education by maximizing existing faculty resources.

INDICATORS

• The College annually compiles data from major University databases and Arts and Sciences sources, to measure progress over time against the benchmarks
  established in prior years.
• Not all facets of a large and complex College can be measured.
• Included in this section are College-level measures of student access to and performance in courses and programs; student independent and international learning and research; and student recruitment, retention, and graduation.

GOAL 2: To foster research, scholarship, and creative activity by supporting, retaining, and recruiting faculty members who are or will become nationally and internationally known as leaders in their fields.

DESCRIPTION
The transformation of the lives of our students begins with those who create and share knowledge at the frontiers of their disciplines, the faculty of the College. The excellence, breadth, and diversity of our faculty are vital to the University as a whole.

ACHIEVEMENTS (2008-2009)
For the past five years, the College has pursued strategic objectives and priorities to realize this goal. We have been largely successful at recruiting, retaining, and supporting a strong faculty. Since 2005, the College has hired over 160 new faculty. Our faculty have garnered $223 M in sponsored funding, produced 1,777 scientific articles and published 95 scholarly books, 67 edited volumes, and 25 creative works.

The severe budget cuts sustained by the College in 2008-2009 have slowed our progress toward some aspects of this goal. In response to budget cuts, the College took emergency measures and canceled nearly all of the 55 searches authorized for 2008-2009 and deferred sabbaticals until 2010-2011.

We responded to the cuts not by simply conducting a budget-cutting exercise, but by engaging in serious academic planning for both the short and long-range future of the College and the University as a whole. One of our key priorities was the preservation of our tenured and tenure-track faculty lines and the support necessary for faculty productivity. Our plans for the future and actions taken in 2009-2010 reflect our commitment to this priority.

Faculty Recruitment

• Hired 5 new faculty.
• Fully funded all startup commitments for faculty hired in the 2007-2008 cycle.

Faculty Promotion, Support, and Recognition

• Promoted 38 faculty.
• A total of 10 Arts and Sciences faculty have been named as American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Fellows (4 in 2008 and 6 in 2009.)
• Full salary support for faculty recipients of prestigious fellowships.

Research Achievement and Support

• The creation of the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment has consolidated resources for key research, academic, engagement, and service programs focusing on the environment.
• Continued implementation of College plan for space utilization and facilities improvement.
• Formally established the Institute for African American Research, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Parenting and Family Research Center.
• Garnered $41.3 M in research funding from all sources in FY 2009.
• Aggressively sought federal stimulus funding from sources such as NSF and NIH.

FUTURE PLANS (2009-2010)
Faculty Recruitment

• Authorize 30 faculty searches in key areas for 2009-2010.
• The College has determined an ambitious plan to become the home of 6 CoEE chairs. With two CoEE chairs already hired, one offer in progress, and one search in progress, the College is advancing toward realization of this objective.

Faculty Promotion, Support, and Recognition

• Since 2005, the College has focused its resources and energies toward recruiting and hiring over 160 new faculty. With this accomplished, the College will refocus our efforts to mentoring and supporting faculty throughout their careers. Specific plans include an enhanced sabbatical program for 2010-2011 offering faculty the option of a semester with full pay or a year with 65% pay.
• Reinvigorate the Associate Professor Development Award; 13 associate professors have received this award in 2009-2010.

New Initiatives

• The College is a major participant in a statewide alliance through EPSCoR for a biofabrication initiative. The project is funded through a $20 M award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The initiative provides for the recruitment of 22 new faculty with expertise not currently available in South Carolina, and the College will aggressively seek a proportion of these positions, likely in applied and computational mathematics.

INDICATORS

• The College annually compiles data from major University databases, and Arts & Sciences sources, to measure progress over time against the benchmarks
• Not all facets of a large and complex College can be measured.
• Included in this section are College-level measures of faculty recruitment, retention and awards, and College efforts in support of faculty research, scholarship and creative activity.

GOAL 3: To develop the next generation of intellectual leadership through
its excellent graduate programs.

DESCRIPTION
Integral to the College’s vision of creating and sharing knowledge at the frontiers of inquiry, graduate students are active participants in the University’s pursuit of a vibrant research and scholarship program. These students directly contribute to the discovery, critical examination, integration, preservation and communication of knowledge, wisdom and values. During their graduate careers, students learn to frame questions in order to extend human knowledge, build new understandings of nature, develop new ideas, and create new images, as well as shape methods and procedures that further these efforts.

ACHIEVEMENTS (2008-2009)
For the past five years, the College has pursued strategic objectives and priorities to realize this goal. We have been largely successful at building strong graduate programs and supporting graduate students, especially those at the doctoral level. Since 2005, the College has established stable, systematic, and sustainable plans for graduate student support.

The severe budget cuts sustained by the College in 2008-2009 have slowed our progress toward some aspects of this goal. We responded to the cuts not by simply conducting a budget-cutting exercise, but by engaging in serious academic planning for both the short and long-range future of the College and the University as a whole. In addressing the cuts, one of our key priorities was the preservation of our existing level of graduate student support. Our plans for the future and actions taken in 2009-2010 reflect our commitment to both preserving and enhancing graduate student support.

Graduate Student Support

• Established and maintained stable, systematic, and sustainable plans for graduate student support.
• Preserved all graduate student funding and tuition abatements at existing levels.
• Since January 2007, the College has made 225 awards, totaling more than $114,000 in travel support to graduate students presenting work at national and international professional conferences, symposia, and performances.

New Graduate Programs

• A proposal for a PhD in Spanish has been developed and submitted to CHE.
• An Applied and Computational Mathematics area of emphasis has been developed and approved for the PhD in Mathematics.
• PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice admitted first class in Fall 2008.

Graduate Program Quality Assurance

• Academic Planning Council completed academic program reviews of six units with graduate programs, and initiated three additional reviews of departments with graduate programs (these were concluded Fall 2009.)
• The School Psychology graduate program was reaccredited by APA for a full seven-year cycle in 2009.

New Structures for New Opportunities

• The creation of the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment has consolidated resources for key research, academic, engagement, and service programs focusing on the environment. The new school houses five graduate degree programs: PhD and MS in Geological Sciences, PhD and MS in Marine Science, and the Master of Earth and Environmental Resources Management (MEERM.)

Emergency Measures

• Established emergency course minima guidelines for sustaining graduate courses in tight fiscal climate.

FUTURE PLANS (2009-2010)
Graduate Student Support

• For FY 2011, the College has developed a plan for fully funding tuition abatements for full-time, College-supported graduate assistantships.
• Concern for issue of compensation and benefits for graduate students is ongoing.

New Graduate Programs

• The College has encouraged proposals for new initiatives in graduate education.

Graduate Program Quality Assurance

• The College will continue the cycle of thorough external reviews of graduate programs.

Data Collection

• A system for collecting and aggregating data on PhD placement is in development.
• The College continues to monitor recruitment of underrepresented groups enrolled in our graduate programs.

Graduate Program Management

• Effective Fall 2010, the College will relax emergency course minima guidelines for graduate courses in selected areas.

INDICATORS

• The College annually compiles data from major University databases, and Arts & Sciences sources, to measure progress over time against the benchmarks established in prior years.
• Not all facets of a large and complex College can be measured.
• Included in this section are College-level measures of faculty productivity and grantsmanship, graduate program review, graduate recruitment, time to degree, and College support for graduate students.

GOAL 4: To encourage positive change through engagement with the broader society.

DESCRIPTION
As the largest unit at the heart of South Carolina’s flagship institution, the College has a special obligation to the broader community. The College is uniquely positioned to engage the community and to advance the state’s agenda in improving K-12 education, fostering economic development, and improving civic life. The College’s reach extends beyond the borders of South Carolina to encompass a national and international focus.

ACHIEVEMENTS (2008-2009)
For the past five years, the College has pursued strategic objectives and priorities to realize this goal. We have been largely successful at building strong links with the community through our academic programs, research, and targeted programs of service and outreach. As we considered how we would address the severe budget cuts sustained in 2008-2009, we determined that among other priorities, we must maintain our commitment to the broader society in ways in which our expertise is essential. As the College of Arts and Sciences in the state’s major research institution, we have the unique opportunity and responsibility to effect positive change in K-12 education, economic development, and state and local government. Increasingly, our expertise is engaged to address issues on an international level.

K-12 Education

• The College has maintained our commitment to academic programs that prepare K-12 educators and specialists and to programs serving K-12 students and teachers.
• A constellation of hires in School Psychology was completed to support a key program serving K-12 education.

Research that Serves the State

• The College supported a successful proposal to establish the Parenting and Family Research Center that conducts research on child and family well-being, with an emphasis on prevention strategies.
• A junior hire in nanoscience polymer research has been concluded successfully to support the senior CoEE hire made in 2007-2008.
• The creation of the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment has consolidated resources for key research, academic, engagement, and service programs focusing on the environment.

Civic Life

• The University’s Rule of Law initiative is led by the Walker Institute for International and Area Studies. Focusing on rule of law issues in transitional and post-conflict societies, this initiative brings the expertise of the College to bear on critical international problems in conflict prevention and resolution, post-conflict reconciliation strategies, law reform and legal institution-building, and the diffusion of internationally recognized norms of human rights and rule of law.

FUTURE PLANS (2009-2010)
In difficult budgetary circumstances, the College will continue to organize engagement and service programs effectively and efficiently and to seek external funding for projects where appropriate.
K-12 Education

• The College will continue to engage young people’s interests through events such as the Science Fair, Physics Day at the Fair, High School Mathematics Contest, Young Artists Workshop, and Split P poetry workshops.
• The College will continue its commitment to providing high quality programs for the preparation of K-12 teachers.

Research that Serves the State

• The Institute for African American Research plans to host a major conference in March 2010; the conference will explore issues in education, public health, and immigration---key issues for the state of South Carolina.
• The School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment is aggressively seeking grant funding to support interdisciplinary research on a variety of environmental topics and issues.

Civic Life

• A major Rule of Law conference is planned for May 2010.

INDICATORS

• The College annually compiles data from major University databases and Arts and Sciences sources to measure progress over time against benchmarks established in previous years.
• Not all facets of a large and complex College can be measured.
• Included in this section are College-level measures of support for community engagement, K-12 education, economic development, and the improvement of civic life.

GOAL 5: To raise the visibility and recognition of the College and its constituent units.

DESCRIPTION
Building an identity for the College among our members, supporters, constituents, and the public promotes the reputation of both the College and the University. The College continually strives to build recognition of the achievements of our faculty, staff, and students, and to enhance collegiality within our own community.

ACHIEVEMENTS (2008-2009)
Private Philanthropy

• Despite the difficult economy nationwide, annual private giving to the College grew in 2008-2009 to $11.6 M.
• The College has developed a comprehensive case statement with component pieces describing individual departments and programs for use in promotional and fundraising activities. Plans are ongoing to establish a Dean’s Circle of donors at the $25,000 and above level.

External Relations

• The College Board of Visitors continues to foster strong community support for the College.
• The College Alumni Council continues to promote the achievements of our alumni, and works to strengthen the linkages among past, present, and future students.

Community-Building

• The College has weathered the severe budget cuts sustained in 2008-2009; this achievement is a testament to the strong and flexible approach the College has taken and continues to take with strategic planning that involves the College leadership and governance.
• Through organizational structures and special events, the College continues to create collegiality among our members.

FUTURE PLANS (2009-2010)

• The College will redouble efforts to attract private philanthropy and exercise careful stewardship of gifts. To do so, the College has hired a second development director who will join the staff in July 2010.
• In difficult budgetary circumstances, the College will continue to build positive relationships with supporters and alumni, and within our own community.
• The College’s constituent units will be encouraged to set goals and objectives using comparative data from peer/peer aspirant institutions in self-studies for external reviews.

INDICATORS

• The College has compiled data from major University databases and Arts and Sciences sources to establish benchmarks against which to measure progress over time.
• Not all facets of a large and complex College can be measured.
• Included in this section are College-level measures of community-building and promotional activity.

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Contact:  Mary Ann Byrnes/Editor, Online Handbook (777-5371 or byrnes@sc.edu)