Guidelines

The SPR provides a forum in which the five main elements of an academic unit (research, faculty, curriculum, co-curricular activities, and administrative support) can be holistically considered. The SPR therefore has five main sections: Academic Development Plan, Faculty Plan, Curriculum Plan, Co-curricular Plan, and Administrative Support Plan.

The SPR is required of all Arts & Science departments, programs, institutes, and centers, but the expectation is that it would not need to be annually resubmitted. The SPR should cover a minimum three year period but can cover a longer term. The SPR should be updated whenever a new chair or director is appointed, but it may also be updated when the department or program feels a restatement is necessary. The Arts and Science deans may also occasionally request a department or program to reconsider its SPR.

We have filled in sections of the SPR with responses taken from last year's APR. You are not expected to make any revisions in these responses unless you feel the need to do so. In this initial year of the new format, we will ask that the chair review the responses and submit revisions, if any, once the chair has received the SPR Prototype from our office. Thereafter, the expectation would be that the SPR is not revised annually, but only at the beginning of a chair's term or when there is a significant change in the department's development plan. The SPR should be addressed to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, c/o Amber Min-Lee. One paper copy is required in addition to an electronic copy sent as an email attachment, addressed to Amber Min-Lee at amber.minlee@nyu.edu. Please use the following naming convention: SPR[unitname].doc.

 

A.0 Academic Development Plan

A.1 Research & Scholarship
In this section, we ask that you provide an overview and rationale for the department's scholarly direction. Please include the following:

• A description of the department's research profile especially in comparison to trends within the discipline. Comment on your department's areas of strength or weakness. (1.1)

• A statement of your department's most recent ranking(s). Name the survey(s), the date of the information used in the survey, the rank, and, if known, the total number of departments surveyed. (1.2)

• Name the three primary institutions with whom your department/program competes and the source from which you obtained this information (e.g., competition for new graduate students). (1.3)

A.2 Goals
In this section we ask that you provide a concise statement of your department's aspirations. Goals such as "improve the ranking of the department" are a given. You should set specific goals that are attainable in a certain time frame.

State your department's goals. Describe your strategies for achieving these goals (faculty hiring plans for fields and subfields in which you can achieve real distinction, reform of the doctoral and/or master's graduate programs, reform of the undergraduate programs, special initiatives etc.) and the time frame you have set to achieve your goals.

 

B.0 Faculty Plan
Recruitment of each tenure track, language lecturer, and clinical faculty line is de novo. Vacant positions are not an implicit right to recruit. Each proposal for recruitment needs to be justified on its own grounds in the context of the department's overall academic plan.

Prepare a three-year faculty staffing and development proposal and a brief justification of the proposal within the context of the department's overall academic development plan. Your proposal should address the following specific issues:

• Does the proposal represent a shift in research emphasis in an attempt to build distinction in an important field or subfield?

• Does the proposal represent an increase in faculty size? Is it in anticipation of future retirements/departures?

• Is it possible to accommodate the space needs of the new faculty member within existing departmental space?

In the case of proposed joint appointments with other Arts and Science departments or programs, each unit should provide a justification of the recruitment in its own SPR, along with a provisional division of teaching and service and an indication of how the two units will cooperate in the recruitment process. The proposal should also indicate which unit will provide an office for the hire (It is now FAS policy to provide only one faculty office for joint hires.). In the case of proposed joint appointments with another school, we will contact the dean's office of the relevant school or you may provide a memorandum from that school providing the above information.

 

C.0 Curriculum Plan

C.1 Curricular Structure
Provide a short description for the structure of your baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral curricula. Include a discussion of the frequency of course offerings, class size, and the types of non-faculty support (teaching assistants, graders, etc.) needed.

C.2 Teaching Assignments
Describe the policies and practices in your department governing the teaching done by faculty, clinical faculty, doctoral students, and part time faculty. In particular:

• Describe the normal course load for tenure and tenure track faculty, noting deviations from the norm (e.g. relief for administrative duties, etc.).

• Indicate the normal teaching assignment(s) for doctoral students.

• Describe the qualifications of your part time faculty, how you recruit them, and how you oversee their performance.

C.3 Major New Curricular Initiatives
In this section, we ask the department to provide descriptions of major new curricular initiatives that it would like to implement in the coming years, including revisions of undergraduate or graduate programs and new degree programs. As part of this section, we ask that departments also focus attention on masters, summer and study abroad programs; increasing enrollments in these programs is important for providing FAS with additional resources for support of faculty recruitment, graduate financial aid, and infrastructure.

C.3.1 Undergraduate Programs

• Provide a justification for each new initiative. How would each initiative contribute to your overall academic goals? Are there other departments and/or programs that will benefit from this initiative? Are there similar developments at other institutions?

• Generally discuss the administrative elements you would need to implement each initiative. Among other things, you should consider the following: Have the faculty considered and approved the initiative? Have you considered whether external approvals from New YorkState or other regulatory bodies are needed? Will additional space be needed: how much and what type?

• List the specific cost elements you project needing for each initiative. Note any implications for generating income or acquiring external support for the programs. Are there programs of lower priority whose resources could be reinvested to support the new initiative? Can the department generate incremental revenues to fund all or part of the initiative?

• Are you proposing to diminish, curtail or eliminate any programs? If so, provide a justification and note any implications for expenditures, income, and interactions with other departments or units.

C.3.2 Doctoral Programs & Student Recruitment

• Briefly describe your program's strategies and efforts to recruit outstanding graduate students including a discussion of the following:

• Program advertising and outreach events
• Applicant selection criteria
• Yield activities for admitted students
• List your top three competitors for graduate students
• Identify factors, aside from financial support (stipend, housing, and health insurance), that are most crucial for successful recruitment.

• Describe your program's advisement and mentoring procedures, intellectual enrichment beyond coursework and thesis/dissertation, opportunities for learning related research skills, and procedures to optimize time to degree.

• Describe your program's procedures to prepare students for the pursuit of academic and alternative employment, preparation for teaching, and your program's efforts to identify appropriate employment opportunities.

• Identify the optimal size for your graduate program and briefly describe your rationale including a discussion about faculty size, job market, competitive standing in the field, etc.

C.3.3 Masters Programs and Advanced Certificate Programs

• Do you have proposals for the development of new and/or expansion of existing masters programs? If so, include an assessment of competitor programs (locally and nationally), and assess applicant interest in the proposed program, providing data whenever possible. Describe any additional staffing or other resources you would need to implement your proposal. Would staffing the proposed program leave you sufficient resources to maintain quality and sustain current enrollment in your other programs? If not identify particular needs and, if possible, support the request with relevant data.

• Are there any special external or internal factors that require an additional investment of resources in order to maintain quality and/or enrollments?

C.3.4 Summer Programs (New York and Abroad)

• Are you proposing an expansion of your summer offerings, or are you considering enhancing (adding co-curricular activities) or repackaging current offerings (combinations of courses and/or accelerated study) in an effort to make them more attractive to NYU or special students? If so, project enrollments for new or expanded offerings, and indicate any additional staffing or administrative elements that would be needed to implement your proposals. In deliberating about whether and how to revise your offerings, please consider the needs of majors and minors, the interests of other NYU students who may take your courses as electives, and also the likely appeal to visiting students. If applicable, also consider how your offerings provide or prepare students for study abroad experiences and how they provide opportunities for students to complete specialized degree such as a BA/MA or a terminal master's degree?

 

D.0 Co-Curricular Programming
In this section, we ask the unit to assess its on-going co-curricular programming to determine how well it is contributing to academic goals and to propose new on-going and special programming.

• Briefly describe on-going seminar, conference and colloquia series. Describe what other departments and institutions participate in each forum.

• Describe and justify new, on-going, and special co-curricular activities including a description of potential participants, an estimate of costs, potential external sources of support, and how the program is to be managed.

• List professional journals based in the department and the term of the faculty member's editorship.

 

E.0 Administrative Support Plan

E.1 Please provide a departmental organization chart. Describe proposed changes in staffing (reorganizations, upgrades) for your department that you would like to implement in the coming years. Changes should be discussed in the context of your overall administrative structure and must include consideration of alternatives to increasing staff size.

E.2 Please provide an analysis of how your operating budget is allocated to support research, doctoral programs, undergraduate programs, masters programs, and co-curricular activities, and what if any changes you would like to make in these allocations in the coming years.

E.3 Describe the policies that your department uses to contain costs for long distance telephone usage, postage, overnight mail, and reprographics and any changes that you foresee in these policies. Departments that do not have effective cost containment policies for these categories cannot be considered for incremental OTPS funding.

E.4 Describe your current and anticipated use of ITS in support of departmental computing platforms, networking, advice, and teaching. Please indicate the courses for which you normally request class accounts.