The Strategic Priorities Panel appealed for funding allocation to Provost Paul Gaston and an audience of deans, professors and administrators yesterday. Combined, members of the panel requested roughly $1 million for their respective programs.

The panel consisted of Undergraduate Studies Dean Gary Padak; Honors College Dean Larry Andrews; Steve O. Michael, vice provost for diversity and academic initiatives; Ken Cushner, executive director of international affairs; and Albert L. Ingram, who represented the Faculty Professional Development Center.

Padak spoke about the need to increase experiential learning experiences for students. He promoted the Kent State United for Biloxi trip as such an experience, but still advocated more opportunities for student to learn through experience in Kent.

Students consider learning to be a chore during grade school years, and they look to college to be different, Padak said. Kent State is not living up to their expectations, he said.

“We are not delivering the goods,” he said.

A sample of fund requests presented at the meeting were:

• Andrews requested $20,000 above the original furniture budget for furnishment of the of the new Honors Center. He also requested $40,000 for classroom technology in the building.

• Michael requested $60,000 for national visibility for Kent State, as well as $100,000 for faculty hiring and $10,000 for diverse student recruitment.

• Ingram requested $50,000 for an educational technologist to help develop teaching and learning workshops for professors, as well as $20,000 for a graduate assistant.

• Cushner, who joked that he took the numbers for his request off of the PowerPoint display because he “heard that there was no money left,” did provide numbers for how much income international affairs generates for the university. A total of 888 international students brought over $16 million to Kent State in 2005, Cushner said.

All the proposals will go before a council of deans to be prioritized before the end of the week.

Contact academic affairs reporter Derek Lenehan at [email protected].