Chancellor Phyllis Wise and Provost Ilesanmi Adesida discussed their vision for the campus at a town hall meeting Monday in an overflowing auditorium at the Beckman Institute.

In her two years in office, Wise said she has worked with the campus community to develop a shared vision for the future of campus. Wise expressed her view that “higher education is at a crossroads” and discussed the implementation of a plan to keep the University ahead of others going into the future, stressing the need to make decisions quickly in order to stay ahead of the curve.

While Wise expressed her vision for the campus, Adesida outlined specific strategic plans based on that vision. The plans included hiring 500 new faculty in the next five to seven years and increasing funding for Humanities Arts and the Social Sciences by 50 percent, beginning in the fall. He also discussed the implementation of a new campus-wide office to assist in grant writing, as well as increased cross-disciplinary communication, without too much centralization.

“Clearly, it’s just a beginning and sampling of what will come out of campus planning actions,” Adesida said.

The audience was comprised largely of faculty and staff with a few students. Those in attendance were able to ask questions, which ranged from improving communications to help make students aware of what is going on in the campus community to the quality of teaching on campus and the welcome process for international students.

One main area of concern addressed by students and faculty was the ability to provide financial aid to students considering attending the University. Wise said they recognize that limited resources are a problem. While the University addressed more need than ever before last year, the unmet need pot rose to an unprecedented $72 million, Wise said.

Although Wise repeatedly said the administration needs to move quickly in order to be successful, she didn’t present a timeline for action.

“They have a lot of big plans for the future, and I’m really interested to see how that plays out in my experience because I’m a sophomore, so I only have two more years left,” said Ashley Peterson, sophomore in Engineering. “They said they’re moving quickly, but I want to know how quickly and how fast these initiatives will come up before I graduate.”

Instead, Wise discussed her view on the overall future of higher education in the United States, and her future vision for the University.

“In 20 to 50 years, there will be fewer great research universities than there are today,” Wise said. “I believe that the ones that will survive and thrive are the ones that embrace and manage change. They are the ones where excellence is both broad and deep. They are the ones that will be relevant to society, that will add value to the people who are paying for that education. They will be the ones that contribute to the quality of life of the citizens around them, and they will be the ones that perceive the sense of urgency, that are agile enough to embrace change and not be managed by the changes.”

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected].