Strategic Planning at Appalachian Fall 2013. Strategic Challenges for Higher Education

Strategic Planning at Appalachian

Fall 2013

Strategic Challenges for Higher Education

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Strategic Challenges

• Removing boundaries• Establishing Interdisciplinary Programs• Supporting Entrepreneurial Efforts &

Technology• Redesigning & Personalizing Student Support

Services• Emphasizing Connected & Lifelong Learning• Investing in Technologically Competent Faculty

Hanna, D.E. (July/August 2003). Building a leadership vision: Eleven strategic challenges for Higher Education. Educause.

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Strategic Challenges

• Building Strategic Alliances with Others• Incorporating Learning Technologies into

Strategic Thinking• Measuring Program Quality• Achieving Institutional Advantage• Transforming Bureaucracy, Culture &

Assumptions

Academic Affairs


National & State LevelTrends, Opportunities &

Threats

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Political/Legal/Governmental

• Increasing demand for accountability & effectiveness

• Further shifting toward political conservatism• Increasing micromanaging by General

Assembly & the Board of Governors• Growing public demand for tax reductions• Increasing use of performance funding for

state agencies• Tightening of student loan policies &

availabilityAcademic Affairs

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Economic/Occupational

• Further resistance to increasing public funding levels to universities

• Continuing shift of educational costs to students as tuition & fees

• Growing competition for private & federal dollars• Continuing availability of jobs in health and

business services

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Economic/Occupational

• Increasing demand for job preparedness by university graduates

• Increasing global interdependence• Increasing demand for workers to function in

multi-lingual, multi-cultural business & social environments

• Increasing pressure on universities to facilitate economic development

• Declining support for public liberal arts education

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Social/Demographic/Cultural

• Growing disillusionment of higher education by the general public

• Increasing cultural & ethnic diversity in the population

• Increasing aging of student and general populations

• ?? High School grads• Substantial grown in central piedmont and

coastal regions of North Carolina

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Technological/Scientific

• Expanding demand for & capabilities for alternative instructional delivery systems

• Increasing use of distance and on-line learning• Increasing demands for increased productivity,

through technology, in education• Increasing availability of vast amounts of information• Increasing emphasis on knowledge of how to reach

available information• Continuing job displacement due to technological

advances

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Campus LevelStrengths & Weaknesses

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Internal Strengths

• Tradition of teaching excellence and strong faculty

• Location in the mountains within 3 hours of metropolitan areas

• Excellent educational value• Excellent cultural opportunities & programs• Strong academic reputation

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Internal Weaknesses

• Relatively low public funding levels• Discipline & organizational territorialization• Lack of ethnic diversity• Diminished concern for students’ interests• Incentive programs that emphasize the

individual rather than department of college• Excessive decentralization resulting in

inefficiency

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Strategic Plan: Reach Greater Heights

The Strategic Plan, Reach Greater Heights, was implemented in 2008. The BOT extended the current plan for one year to allow the campus time to complete the SACS reaffirmation process.

Discussions for new plan will begin in the fall of 2012.

Campus will seek BOT approval for the new plan in the summer or fall of 2013.

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2008-2012 Strategic Plan Priorities

Quality: Create & maintain superior curricula, programs, financial incentives, and intellectual environments to attract, educate and graduate an exceptional and diverse community of students.

Research: Provide resources to enable all faculty members to perform quality research and creative activities and enhanced resources in successive, focus areas of strength to enable Appalachian to make a sustained and major contributions in those fields.

Human Resources: Allocate resources, develop support services, and promote a collegial culture to attract, develop and retain an exceptional faculty and staff.

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2008-2012 Strategic Plan Priorities

Outreach: Apply our intellectual, academic, cultural and research resources to promote sustainable economic growth, prosperity, and quality of life throughout this region and state.

Identity: Develop and implement a comprehensive plan to protect and enhance our distinctive historical, geographical, and cultural identity associated with our location in the Appalachian mountains.

Resource Management: Practice sound management of institutional resources to continue to be a good value for students.

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Strategic Plan Progress

The 2008-2012 Strategic Plan had a total of 59 metrics.

18 (31%) of the 59 were met. Examples include: Implement & assess General Education program Increase scholarship endowment to $30 million Obtain accreditation or reaccreditation of selected academic programs Develop & implement learning outcomes assessment by academic units Employ best practices with staff performance reviews Complete College of Education building Establish College of Health Sciences Create Office of Sustainability Develop & implement a campus-wide sustainability plan Improve space utilization to appropriate UNC benchmarks

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13 (22%) of the 59 are ongoing activities. This means there is no endpoint to the activities cited in the Strategic Plan, but progress was made. Examples include:

Conduct research and prepare policy analyses to inform university decision makers

Develop selected Professional Science Master’s and Professional Master’s degrees (Developed 3)

Complete the construction of the College of Health Sciences and Allied Professions Complex

Attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in major construction or modernization capital projects as appropriate

Increase on-campus residential housing to 40% of undergraduates and maintain that level (Currently 39%)

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16 (27%) of the 59 were not met. These areas were targeted by the campus, but the desired outcomes were not reached. Examples include:

Increase percentage of entering freshmen with Predicted Grade Point Average above 3.0 to 60% (Fall 11: 53%)

Increase the six-year graduation rate to 75% (Entering class 05: 65%) Increase the percentage of underrepresented and international

student enrollment to 15% (Fall 11: 12%) Increase sponsored program support to $18 million (Fall 11: Est. $10

million) Employ best practices with promotion and tenure, post-tenure review

and merit policies

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9 (15%) of the 59 are not yet targeted. They remain important issues for the campus but formal implementation was not initiated. Most of these were not targeted because of budget reductions. Examples include:

Increase student participation in study abroad programs by 25% Increase sponsored program awards in each focus area to $5 million Increase faculty salaries to the 80th percentile of those at our peer

institutions and maintain salaries at that level Employ best practices in providing support services for faculty and

staff Increase financial support for faculty and staff development Increase staff salaries to appropriate labor market benchmarks

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For 4 (7%) of the 59 , they are not priorities for the campus. We have no plans to target. Examples include:

Exceed the mean general GRE/GMAT/MAT score of the relevant discipline for all graduate programs

Establish research partnerships with other institutions Increase the number of programs in the Hickory metropolitan area Meet or exceed peer benchmarks for physical plant expenditures per

student FTE

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University Planning & Priorities CouncilUPPC

The UPPC has been meeting since September 2012 to identify the priorities for the new strategic plan.

A subcommittee has reviewed the mission, vision, core assets, core values and essential characteristics of the University. These important statements are being vetted with campus stakeholders.

The mission statement must be submitted to the General Administration for review by September 2013.

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Our Process: Appreciative Inquiry

• For significant change to happen, three conditions must be present:

• Enormous external pressures• People inside who are dissatisfied• Coherent alternative plan, model or vision

• Appreciative inquiry is a process that involves discovering institutional strengths through creative conversations that focus on what people within the organization are doing well and on how they are achieving excellence.

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Suggested Guiding Principles

• We are committed to make the meaningful engagement of institutional stakeholders, the heart of the strategic planning process

• We are committed to transparency• We will actively seek an external perspective• We are committed to dealing with the tough

issues within our institution

Sanaghan, P. (June 2102) Strategic Planning: 5 tough question, 5 proven answers. Academic Impressions.

Academic Affairs

University Planning & Priorities CouncilUPPC

The UPPC has been leading the process for planning the strategic direction of Appalachian State University and will evaluate progress on the newly developed Strategic Plan.

The UPPC is participating in the strategic planning process by assisting and advising the BOT, Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellors in developing forward-thinking actions to achieve the mission and vision of Appalachian State University by:

Identifying potential priorities for the campus to protect and enhance the Academic Core;

Revising the university-wide strategic plan; Recommending criteria, principles and processes for resource allocation in support of

the strategic plan; and, Monitoring success in achieving intended outcomes, and recommending changes to

the Strategic Plan as needed following annual review.

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UPPC Responsibilities

Reviewing mission, vision and value statements. These statements should be reviewed at least every three years.

Periodically reviewing progress on past and future plans

Reviewing data from IRAP and identify areas in need of resources to meet the goals of the Strategic Plans. The Council will: o Identifying strategies to ensure we maintain ongoing focus on

the Plan; and,o Identifying ways to integrate our planning efforts with

assessment and budgeting processes.

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Strategic Priorities: Thinking Differently

We do not need priorities related to:• Being good stewards of our financial resources. That is simply a

requirement for a high quality institution.

• Offering competitive salaries for faculty and staff. We cannot reach our goals without competing for the best employees.

• Having programs accredited. What is the alternative?

• Using our resources to meet our goals. This is a given.

All these items (and others) must be tracked and measured but they don’t represent strategies or priorities, but rather best practice.

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Steps of the Planning Process

• UPPC members self-selected a working group• Team leaders were selected for each group• Other members of the campus community

were invited to participate in the working groups

• Areas of strength for the topic were identified• Innovative ideas to further strength threads

within the topic were identified• 3 to 5 strategies for possible inclusion in the

plan were createdAcademic Affairs

Working Groups

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Undergraduate Education Graduate EducationResearch SustainabilityGlobalization Work-Life BalanceOutreach & Engagement AthleticsResources Technology & E-LearningDiversity Accountability & EfficiencyStudent Life

Sustainability at Appalachian

The Strategic Planning Survey

A survey about the strategic direction for Appalachian sought input from:

Faculty Students Staff Members of Campus Leadership Boards Parents Alumni The Community

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The Strategic Planning Survey

Total number of respondents: 1436 408 Incomplete1028 Completed

Students 38% Faculty 22% Staff 17% Leadership Boards 1% Parents 13% Alumni 5% The Community 2%NOTE: Respondents could select more than one demographic category.

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Draft Mission

Appalachian State University, along with other schools in the University of North Carolina system, is strongly committed to teaching, research, and service as we prepare students for lifelong learning and careers. Appalachian is distinguished by location, programs, and vision. On a campus with the advantages of a large university and the atmosphere of the small eclectic town of Boone, students are transformed through strong relationships with faculty and staff and learning that is invigorated by the old and new traditions of the mountains. Students learn to think critically, to communicate effectively, to make local to global connections, and to understand the responsibilities of community membership in an innovative undergraduate curriculum. They learn in the disciplines with dedicated faculty who value teaching and research, in graduate programs that inspire inquiry and prepare them for the professions, in co-curricular programs that enrich classroom experience, and through outreach. A deep and broad commitment to sustainability and inclusion guides Appalachian’s investment in our people and our region as we value our traditions while preparing for what has not yet been imagined.

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Draft Vision

Appalachian is guided by our long-standing connection to Boone and the mountains. As we embrace the best of old and new traditions, we acknowledge that our campus, town, and community are intertwined, and we commit to balanced and sustainable relationships. We aim to educate students for employment and lifelong learning in an environment of social justice, civil discourse, and inclusion. As we anticipate and adapt to challenges, we commit to efficiency, accessibility, and work-life balance on our campus.

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Draft Essential Characteristics &Core Assets

Appalachian’s essential characteristics make us unique among our peers:• A teaching institution valuing small classes, consistently recognized

nationally as excellent value • Faculty dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, new strategies, and

new technologies in an innovative interdisciplinary, integrative curriculum • Staff dedicated to excellence in student support services, co-curricular

programming, and a safe and beautiful campus• A transformative learning environment in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a

location of great beauty and cultural and recreational opportunity • An appreciation for the traditions of the region and a desire to connect

responsibly to the world• A green ethos inspiring academic programs, faculty and student research,

and care and concern for the planet

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Draft Statement on Sustainability

Sustainability at Appalachian State University is not a trend, it is a tradition.

We are active stewards of our State’s interconnected financial, cultural and

natural resources. Through engaged scholarship, we balance critical, creative

and global thinking in a living laboratory, transforming theory into practice

and fostering responsible citizenship.

Documents

Strategic Planning at Appalachian Fall 2013. Strategic Challenges for Higher Education