October 20, 2017
Dear Friends of UM,
You may have heard about the University of Montana undertaking an Academic Program and Administrative Services Prioritization (APASP) process. This means a full review of all programs and services in which a University invests resources. It is an approach that hundreds of colleges and universities have undertaken nation-wide to refocus their curriculum and gain efficiencies.
At UM, we are doing prioritization as part of ongoing efforts to distribute limited financial resources more purposefully. This process will identify programs and services to invest in and strengthen, and others to disinvest in to make their financial resources available for reallocation. Through prioritization, we are also identifying outdated or inefficient processes and systems to improve. The goal is to make sure that essential, productive, and high-quality units have the resources they need to flourish.
Prioritization is being led by a university-wide task force involving faculty, staff, students, and administrators. For the last seven months, this group has worked on:
- Developing appropriate criteria for prioritizing programs;
- Identifying the most important indicators of program performance;
- Gathering reports from all academic and administrative units of the university; and
- Creating a process for evaluating program information and placing programs into prioritization categories.
Throughout this time, the Task Force has continually solicited feedback from the campus community and made adjustments based on that feedback. Task Force members, report authors, and program reviewers have put in many hours to enable a thorough and consistent evaluation process.
As a result of prioritization, some programs and services will be discontinued, some will be restructured, and others will receive additional resources to support their growth. Students currently enrolled in any programs that are discontinued or restructured will be able to finish their courses of study and graduate.
Prioritization will allow UM to refocus our efforts on a more concentrated, intentional set of programs and services. These actions are intended to help balance our budget and will inform future budget decisions.
Some important things to note:
- Students will be able to finish their degree programs, no matter what.
- This process will happen over the course of several years, not overnight, and it’s linked to our longer-term budget planning.
- UM is conducting prioritization to strengthen the institution now and for the future.
To learn more about APASP at UM please visit our website: www.umt.edu/apasp.
If you have questions, please email apasp@umontana.edu.
The APASP Task Force