A year after University of Iowa President J. Bruce Harreld formed two Path Forward teams to broaden campus involvement in policy decisions, the teams are in the process of implementing several new policies and initiatives on important issues, such as student mental health and raising the university’s national research standing.

These processes have involved input from more than 100 faculty, staff, and students and are designed to support the areas outlined in the UI’s Strategic Plan 2016–2021.

“When we draw from a cross section of campus, specifically people with expertise on a given issue, we widen our perspective so that together we can find the best answers,” says Harreld. “And especially now that we face funding challenges, where we may have 15 brilliant ideas and only enough resources for five, we need that wide lens to inform difficult choices.”

The two Path Forward teams, created in the spring of 2016, consist of faculty, staff, administrative leadership, and students from across campus. Of the two, the Operations Team focuses on policies and initiatives that could be implemented within 18 months, whereas policies and initiatives that could take up to five years are assigned to the second team, the Strategy Implementation Team.

As part of the process, shared governance bodies such as Staff Council and Faculty Senate provide a list of high priority issues facing the university. The teams then assign these issues to subcommittees and identify a subcommittee chair for each. That chair’s first task is to assemble the remainder of the subcommittee by drawing from shared governance bodies; administrative leadership; and faculty, staff, and student experts on the issue.

“Who doesn’t want to be asked to draw on their expertise to enhance the community that they’re a part of?” says Steve McGuire, professor and Studio Division coordinator in the School of Art and Art History. The Operations Team named McGuire chair of the Student Mental Health Subcommittee after the issue was identified as a high priority by UI Student Government (UISG).

According to Excelling@Iowa, a University College early alert system for identifying struggling students, mental health issues are the most common reason students cite when withdrawing from the UI.

As chair, McGuire guided a subcommittee with members from University Counseling Services, Academic Support and Retention, Student Health and Wellness, and UISG. Its goal was to propose policies or initiatives to the Path Forward teams, which in turn have begun collaborating with the appropriate campus units to implement the recommendations, and is working to find funding for them.

“This is something that’s not been done on this campus before,” says McGuire. “It formalizes collaboration and transparency, and it puts decision-making in the hands of a much larger group of people than has been the case in the past. There were things we identified and solved that would never have received attention in the past.”

McGuire’s subcommittee met every two weeks for a year and investigated best practices from other universities to form three proposals: that the UI form a mental health advisory team, offer student resiliency training, and train faculty and staff to better respond to students displaying mental health–related distress.

McGuire says most of the committee’s recommendations wouldn’t require any new funds, and the Operations Team is in conversation with the Division of Student Life about implementing them. The recommendations that do require new funds, however, will soon enter the budget process, where they will be considered alongside other proposed initiatives.

Recommendations by the subcommittee working on the university’s national research standing are similarly entering the budget process.

“To raise our research standing, there are things we can do with what we have, but really we need to hire more faculty and provide them and existing faculty with more support,” says Daniel Reed, vice president for research and economic development.

The Strategy Implementation Team chose Reed as chair of the National Research Standing Subcommittee in the spring of 2016, and his team proposed several recommendations last fall, such as new incentives for researchers, focused faculty hiring, and increased recognition for faculty winning national grants and awards.

While many of the proposals are being implemented and are in the budget process, Reed’s subcommittee is now investigating follow-up questions posed by shared governance bodies, such as how to improve the ratio of tenure/tenure-track faculty to students.

“Our job is to enable faculty, staff, and students to be successful and productive,” says Reed. “There’s nothing more satisfying than meeting with a group, listening to what they want to do, and knowing that you’ve made it possible for them to pursue that dream.”

How to become involved in the university’s decision-making process should not be a mystery, Harreld says.

“I think the people of this university are here because they want to make a contribution, and this process is a meaningful way they can do that,” he says. “Now that the Path Forward teams are up and running, I hope that the process is becoming clearer to campus and that those who want to can find a way to support and serve our community.”