UAF 2000

Goal 2

Provide high quality undergraduate education for traditional and non-traditional students

UAF offers a wide variety of academically excellent undergraduate programs that ensure the competitiveness of its graduates. It is distinctive as the state's primary residential campus. By the year 2000 UAF will need to become even more responsive to the needs of its students and their communities. By listening to students and analyzing their educational needs, we intend to halve the drop out rate among undergraduates. UAF must recognize and meet the challenges of fulfilling the general education as well as career preparation expectations of students, including quality vocational education. The following broad guidelines suggest ways units may design their own approaches:

  1. Make undergraduate education more responsive to student and community needs.
    1. Involve unit-based student advisory groups in each program or unit.
    2. Create community or profession-based advisory boards for all units and consult with them regularly.
    3. Provide support, retention and basic services which meet the needs of traditional, non-traditional, at-risk, and honors students.
    4. Include student and community representatives on UAF committees.
    5. Improve residence life programs through the enhancement of educational and recreational programming and training.
  2. Promote the quality and quantity of rural and vocational education at UAF.
    1. Encourage and support faculty, staff and students throughout UAF to work with the College of Rural Alaska, the Cooperative Extension Service, and other outreach units to create collaborative programs.
    2. Create a rural-vocational education (RVE) consortium with broad responsibilities to coordinate and improve rural and vocational education.
    3. Provide appropriate developmental programs for urban and rural sites.
    4. Regain Alaska's global leadership in distance delivery education.
  3. Improve the overall quality of undergraduate educational delivery.
    1. Find better ways to measure teaching effectiveness and use them as priorities in promotion and tenure review.
    2. Provide training opportunities in new teaching methods, advising and distance delivery for faculty by formal means and by networking.
    3. Set up programs where more advanced students mentor less advanced students.
    4. Encourage non-classroom experiences (internships, research projects, outside study, and community service) as an optional part of each undergraduate program.
    5. Promote leadership training available to students through extracurricular activities such as athletics, student government, clubs, honor societies, Army ROTC, professional societies, and interest groups.
    6. Expand the Honors Program to ensure UAF's position as the center for the most academically talented undergraduates in Alaska.
    7. Continually refine and improve UAF's core curriculum, majors, and minors to ensure the delivery of the highest quality education. 
Putting the plan into action
Goal 3