Provost Drake is convening a special six-month task force to identify an academic infrastructure for programs, units, and colleges that will position the Division of Academic Affairs to deliver its mission successfully in the coming years. This new infrastructure will align with our strategic priorities, promote our institution and division’s financial sustainability, and ensure our students receive a high-quality education that empowers them in their pursuits, profession, and purpose. The task force will be our avenue for faculty and academic leadership to co-design an infrastructure that best advances our collective future.

In our co-design efforts, we will strive to develop an administrative and educational structure that facilitates the following outcomes.

• Creates a clear and intuitive academic structure for wayfinding and convenience, particularly when students change majors and programs.
• Reduces administrative overhead, redundancies, and inefficiencies. 
• Positions the University for recruitment and retention success as prospective students consider academic programs, units, and colleges at our institutions.
• Aligns the structure for our work with the Academic Affairs Strategic Framework and Reach Higher Together goals.
• Ensures a high-quality Grand Valley education.
• Serves the needs and advances the success of current and future students (e.g., first-year students, transfers, adult learners, and graduate students).
• Expands opportunities for experiential learning across programs and disciplines.
• Advances the value and visibility of liberal education as well as professional preparation. 
• Elevates interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. One example of this could be better connecting and consolidating environmental and sustainability programs in intentional ways.
• Promotes teaching and scholarly synergies. 
• Creates stronger structures for unit-level professional development, mentoring, and support.
• Facilitates coordination across units, colleges, and disciplines while also building upon disciplinary strengths. 

To help focus the task force’s discussions and conserve its time, there are clear parameters that will guide this significant work. 

• The resulting structure will not add additional colleges beyond the current eight degree-conferring colleges.
• The deliberations will include a review of innovative and effective models employed by other institutions.
• The resulting structure must create a sustainable organization going forward by producing significant cost savings rather than being a cost neutral endeavor.