Over the summer, Chancellor Phyllis Wise and Provost Ilesanmi Adesida announced a new three-year strategic plan for the University.

The campus leaders’ 2013-2014 plan calls for many vast changes, in addition to slight improvements in almost every facet of the campus.

The plan’s goal is to make the University the “pre-eminent public research university with a land-grant mission and global impact,” according to the plan.

One of the staples of the plan is to hire 500 new faculty members over the next five years. The number of faculty members on campus has been declining since 2008. 

Wise said the University didn’t hire faculty to replace the departing members due to budget constraints and uncertainty about the future, and because of that decision, the University can afford to hire new faculty members with the money saved.

Wise said she isn’t sure where faculty members will be hired.

“We want to pay real attention to where is student demand, what majors are the most popular and are we understaffed (in that area)?” she said.

In addition to hiring new faculty members, the plan created many new ways for faculty to work together.

“So much learning and discovery is done in teams so what we’re trying to do is hire four or five faculty all in one area, so they complement each other,” Wise said.

In addition to hiring complementary faculty members, the plan calls for a searchable faculty database, so faculty members can find other researchers to collaborate with. There is also a plan for indirect cost recovery to help make faculty collaborations easier to finance.

Wise said the University is exploring new ways to maximize grants for the social sciences, including looking into the possibility of a new social sciences research institute and increasing funding for the Humanities and Arts Scholar Support Programs by 50 percent.

The plan calls for a slight raise in tuition, from $552 million dollars in 2013 to $600 million in 2016, though Wise said she doesn’t expect tuition to rise significantly.

Under the new plan, the number of budget deficits would fall from 113 to 75, and the total deficit would decrease from $93.5 million to $50 million.

Students can also expect to see a focus on the online experience of education, and Wise said the strategic plan calls for online learning to become incorporated in a “bigger and better way.”

A small increase in graduation rate, a larger percentage of undergraduate students having research experiences, higher freshman yield and higher ACT scores for admission are all among many other vast areas where the University expects to see slight improvement, making all aspects of the University better for students, Wise said.

“The strategic plan is based on what we can do better for students,” she said.

Wise said she and Adesida will be involved in the implementation of the strategic plan, but she will also spend time working on expanding the University’s global impact, developing the Champaign-Urbana economy and helping to create a more friendly campus climate.

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.