LA&S Strategic Plan Draft Released

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Strategic Planning Committee has released an end-of-year draft and is soliciting final comments from faculty and staff before rolling out the plan in fall 2015.

The draft identifies as its major initiatives: representing and promoting the strengths of faculty and student research in contributing to the quality of teaching and learning; enhancing the quality of the academic experience for students and faculty; and articulating the LA&S story of liberal education for students and the public.

Associate Dean Stella Turk, who served on both the campus-wide Strategic Planning Committee and Graduate School Strategic Planning Committee in 2013-14, chaired the committee, which was composed of department Chairs, faculty and representatives from the Dean’s Office. Members included Kathryn Burke (Communication Disorders), Mary Christensen (Languages, Literatures and Cultures), Glenn Geher (Psychology), Susan Lewis (History), Jerry Persaud (Digital Media and Journalism), Vicki Tromanhauser (English) and Despina Parker (Dean’s Office).

In drafting the strategic plan, the committee sought to identify linkages to the campus strategic plan as well as the LA&S vision and mission statements. Feedback from faculty and staff was sought during all stages of the process. In the fall, the committee distributed a Qualtrics online survey that asked LA&S faculty to prioritize items in the college’s strategic plan as well as provide feedback on initiatives that might lead to improvements in their work as scholars and teachers.

“In survey research, obtaining a high ‘N,’ or number of participants, is critical to ensure that your data are generalizable,” noted Geher, who developed the survey with psychology graduate student Andrew Shinkus. “I think the committee and Dean’s Office staff did a great job of getting the word out and our N, of over 70 faculty, to my estimation, allows us to feel confident that the data we collected are a valid reflection of the population of LA&S faculty that we are hoping to represent.”

The committee examined the survey results to identify themes, which formed the foundation of the three major initiatives. From there, the committee developed objectives, which include increasing visibility and recognition for faculty and faculty-student scholarship, creating faculty development opportunities, developing workload efficiencies, supporting advising, providing students and external audiences with an understanding of what a liberal education means, and providing unified marketing strategies for the college.

The strategic plan that emerged, and will now be refined by additional faculty input, is one that builds upon work already being done in LA&S and discussions that have continued throughout the year.

“What I found, and what the committee saw as well, is that the strategic plan is highlighting things that we are already moving towards, and that was extremely validating for us. It meant that we didn’t have to make a major shift. We were looking for refinements and specific guidance, and I think we received that with faculty feedback,” Turk said.

Suggested action items include a campus-wide showcase for student and faculty scholarship, a Liberal Arts and Sciences major/minor fair and efforts to showcase the value of a liberal education.

“What I found, and what the committee saw as well, is that the strategic plan is highlighting things that we are already moving towards, and that was extremely validating for us.”

-Associate Dean Stella Turk

“The major theme that we found is that we must do a better job of articulating the liberal arts,” said Turk. “Because the liberal arts is so broad and infiltrates all areas of life, we make the assumption that it’s obvious to everyone. We’re learning that we have to draw those connections, and I think marketing is a major way in which we can make those connections work. I think faculty are busy, staff are busy and they don’t always think about promotion. In some ways they think that it should be self-evident. We’ve learned that it can’t be self-evident. We have to make those connections.”

Some items that emerged during the planning process did not make it into the current draft because the Dean’s Office was able to move quickly to address the issues. A College of Liberal Arts and Sciences events calendar in Zimbra was launched on April 21 to provide a centralized location for displaying event announcements and the Dean’s Office has streamlined the budgeting process for shared faculty for interdisciplinary programs.

The strategic plan draft can be viewed on the LA&S Blackboard site, in the file “LA&S Information.” The comment period will end May 20. Please contact members of the committee with any suggestions or comments. Those interested in serving on an oversight committee once the final plan has been released are also encouraged to volunteer.

Turk said the planning committee “feels a certain level of investment and pride in the plan,” and would like to have a role in assessing the implementation of the plan. An annual report card will be distributed to track progress towards objectives.

The strategic plan will be reviewed again in five years. “Some things will be completed fast, but our expectation is we’re going to have progress in all of these areas,” Turk said.