UI faculty leaders had mixed feelings after hearing about a university plan to hire 100 faculty for new positions over the next five years despite budget cuts.

The Task Force on Research and Creative Excellence — the newest of six task forces created by the UI — is in the process of identifying five to 10 areas, including sustainabilty, where the university can “achieve international eminence.” The university will then use the information to hire faculty to work in these areas.

The UI Faculty Council heard about the initiative in a presentation from Michael Cohen, the cochairman of the task force, at its first meeting of the semester Tuesday.

Members of the task force plan to broadly discuss the plans with faculty, staff, and students sometime after Labor Day, he said.

“We’re trying to get input from all across the campus,” Cohen said.

The six task forces are dedicated to “articulating the university’s strategic vision and priorities in education, research, and service,” according to the website.

The plan follows the Iowa Promise, the UI’s strategic plan for 2005-2010. Under the plan, the UI has raised faculty salaries, strengthened undergraduate education, and increased the diversity of faculty, staff and students, according to its website.

UI Provost Wallace Loh said he has high expectations for the task force.

“We can’t excel in everything, so we want to concentrate on focused excellence,” Loh said.

After the meeting, Faculty Council member Richard Valentine mostly agreed with the plan.

“It just seems to make sense,” he said. “It seems to be inclusive across [all colleges], and it is refocusing existing energies.”

Although the plan may seem flawless on paper, Valentine said it might be harder than it sounds.

“The university is just so complex,” he said. “No business or corporation can touch it in complexity. It’s literally like juggling cats.”

The biggest concern for Faculty Councilmembers is how the UI will find money for the new faculty positions after suffering a $34 million state budget cut in 2009. Though the cut was covered by $35.5 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, officials said they are preparing for a cut just as deep in 2011.

Although hiring new faculty could result in a tighter budget, Loh stressed the number of faculty has shrunk by roughly 5 percent while the number of undergraduates has increased by approximately 7 percent over the past eight years.

“This isn’t going to happen over night; it won’t even happen over a year,” he said. “This is still a work in progress.”

Planning for the task force began over the summer and is scheduled to be completed in December.