Learning Resources

Abstract: “In 2013 TRU established ‘increasing sustainability’ as one of its five strategic priorities for 2014-2019. This Strategic Sustainability Plan (SSP) is aligned with the university’s strategic plan, and provides a focus for TRU’s efforts toward sustainability over the same period. The SSP is comprehensive in nature, and includes more than 130 recommended strategies across four key focus areas: Operations & Planning, Advocacy & Engagement, Learning, and Administration. The SSP is intended to provide a framework for each TRU department and operational unit to incorporate sustainability initiatives into their own planning processes (the structure of the plan is illustrated on the opposing page). . . . Unlike some strategic documents, the plan takes a comprehensive approach of documenting strategies over the next 5 years. These strategies are not all the responsibility of one department or office, but rather are shared among many. This comprehensive approach will allow each office or department to see where and how it can play a role in TRU’s sustainability journey.”

Abstract: A high-level document enumerating the institution’s five strategic goals and strategies for achieving each goal. The goals are framed as increasing and enhancing each of the following qualities:

1. Student Success
2. Intercultural Understanding
3. Research Capacity
4. Entrepreneurial Capacity
5. Sustainability

Abstract: The issue of better measurement of faculty productivity is securing increasing attention from national and state sources. Most discussion of this important topic focuses solely on the instructional component of how faculty spend their time. Productivity, to be assessed more completely, needs to be unbundled into its three component parts: instruction, research, and service. In addition, productivity alone is inadequate as a measure of faculty outcomes; what is required is a coupling of output with quality indicators. This article disaggregates productivity into its three parts and suggests quality measures to provide a fuller explanation of institutional behavior.

Abstract: In 1998, a Carnegie Foundation Commission Report criticized America’s 123 research universities for failing our educational system by ignoring undergraduate education. Notably absent from the Commission's list of recommendations was mentoring research university faculty as a strategy to improve their teaching. This article discusses strategic collaboration, a mentoring model that can contribute significantly to achieving this objective. Such a network can also create an environment conducive to interdisciplinary research that, because of its increased value and rewards at such universities, can provide an added incentive for faculty participation.