Focus Area #1 – Building a Campus Community That Values Teacher Education
1. How are our ideas bold/distinctive?
A) An open honest dialog on the relationship between the College of Education and other units
across campus is a bold but essential step if UNI is really interested in developing creative and
innovative programs and elevating teacher preparation to a position of respect within the UNI
community.
B) Seeking feedback from current students, alums, and others within the professional education
community across the state requires considerable boldness because we are likely to receive
responses we do not like and which, if we are honest in our quest for improvement, we cannot
ignore.
C) Giving Teacher Education a position of prominence in mission/vision/strategic planning
documents is perhaps moderately bold since there is likely to be some resistance or at least
skepticism in many quarters toward such an action.
2. How do these ideas elevate our strengths?
All of the ideas presented in the Opportunities section of our document are related to the core of
UNI’s history and address ways in which we think we might move in order to strengthen that
mission within the context of a modern university at a time when public education, at all levels,
is at risk and at a moment when American society needs a solid educational foundation more
than ever before.
3. How do our ideas address our weaknesses?
Our ideas acknowledge a variety of problems that UNI must address, but they also reflect the
conviction that the University has personnel, technological resources, and a heritage of
commitment to the people of Iowa that with good will and engagement on and off campus can be
tapped to move forward in constructive ways.
4. How do the ideas borrow from external excellence?
Thus far, our deliberations have focused largely on UNI’s strengths and weaknesses and on ways
in which we may turn our strengths into opportunities as we move forward. We have done so on
the assumption that turning to sources of external excellence may well be an important part of
the next phase of our deliberations.