Strategic Planning Action Steps

Research and Academic Affairs

12/15/05

Mission

Arkansas State University educates leaders, enhances intellectual growth, and enriches lives. (ASU = e³)

Core Values

Arkansas State University values the following as central to our success:

• Student-Centered: We are committed to education, inquiry, and service in order to meet students’ changing needs. We foster lifelong learning, civic and social responsibility, leadership, and individual and career growth.

• Learning-Centered: We nurture intellectual flexibility, knowledge, and skills by integrating teaching, research, assessment, and learning to promote continuous improvement of our scholarly community.

• Excellence: We pursue excellence within the campus community through opportunities for achievement in teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity, and service.

• Diversity: We embrace diversity in all of its dimensions realizing that mutual respect for individuality and the inclusion of all are vital for both personal and institutional success.

• Service: We support and recognize service at all levels of the University. We strive to contribute to the benefit of the University, the Delta, the state, the nation and the world.

• Integrity: We hold high standards of character and integrity as the foundations upon which the University is built.

Vision

Arkansas State University aspires to be an academic leader recognized for innovation and quality in teaching and learning, international standing in strategic research areas, and commitment to outreach and service to the Delta and beyond.

Institutional Priority: Enhance the university’s reputation, visibility, and influence.

· Coordinate, develop, and support Arkansas State University’s academic leadership position in the Delta and beyond.

• Coordinate and focus our research and scholarship efforts in the Delta
• Provide short-term visiting professorships
• Become more involved in public policy and economic development
• Involve undergraduate students in research, scholarship, and creative activities
• Highlight existing program strengths and build new ones

• Enhance ease of transfer of students from community colleges
• Provide seamless program transition for ASU system and other community colleges
• Provide flexibility in academic offerings (evening, weekend)

• Increase outreach activities
• Develop K-12 pipeline
• Enhance current and develop new academic summer programs

• Encourage undergraduate and master’s level graduate students to pursue graduate studies

• Coordinate and expand internal and external communications.

• Target and coordinate public relations/communications
• Develop and support a centralized university calendar of events
• Share information across the campus in a timely fashion (e-mail, web, newsletter, radio)
• Promote achievements and accomplishments of current students and alumni
• Share information with system partners

o Collaborate and develop programs with partner institutions

o Establish a process for gaining national recognition from external higher education listings and awards

o Make greater use of alumni and current students for communication

o Break down silo walls both intra and inter campus

• Develop and implement an Arkansas State University Centennial Celebration with active involvement of all constituencies.

• Establish centennial celebration committee

• Update university history

• Develop collection of images, sounds, memorabilia and video

celebrating ASU’s history

• Develop slide show to be used in presentations

• Create coordinated cultural, artistic and scholarly activities

• Develop a plan to make Arkansas State University competitive in attracting and retaining faculty and staff.

• Develop effective recruiting guidelines and practices
• Develop standard recruiting package of information regarding ASU and the community

o Establish mentoring program for faculty and staff

• Offer competitive salaries, teaching load, and facilities

• Provide means by which academic staff can advance in salary, responsibility, and position title

• Expand professional development, e.g. mini-sabbatical or summer fellowships for pre-tenure faculty

Institutional Priority: Enhance learning by focusing on the institution’s priorities — teaching, research, and service.

• Establish Arkansas State University - Jonesboro as a premier learning centered university.

• Involve students in research, creative activity and service learning

• Promote the idea of learning as scholarship supported by assessment

• Integrate technology effectively into teaching and learning

• Incorporate active learning into classes, particularly large classes
• Redesign classroom space
• Install appropriate learning technology

• Design, develop, and implement a “Delta Educational Corridor.”

• Increase opportunities for faculty and staff development.

• Define and implement a revised faculty workload model, congruent with State of Arkansas funding mechanisms, which capitalizes on individual strengths in teaching, research, and service.

• Assure access to relevant, current information resources and learning technologies.

• Provide sufficient resources to the Arkansas State University library to support student and faculty teaching and research.

· Enhance infrastructure for research.

• Facilitate interdisciplinary research

• Establish an ASU Research Foundation

• Promote, support and market intellectual property developed by ASU faculty, staff and students

• Encourage acquisition of external funding for research and creative activity

· Build upon alliances and opportunities presented by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute.

Institutional Priority: Develop a cohesive campus community based on strong shared-governance, excellent communication, and mutual respect.

• Develop and implement a revised university governance policy.

• Develop and approve a revised Faculty Handbook.

• Enhance the effectiveness of university governance committees.

• Communicate with stakeholders in a timely manner

• Design and implement a process whereby committee effectiveness can be assessed and modified

• Facilitate open communication and information sharing among all constituencies.

• Develop a web-based monthly newsletter for the Research and Academic Affairs (RAA) unit

• Distribute newsletters to Chamber and other members of the community

• Create an “Ask the Vice Chancellor for RAA” website

• Develop and implement plans designed to enhance faculty, staff, and student morale.

• Regularly assess morale among faculty, staff, students

• Develop training and mentoring programs to enhance the success of administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

• Identify and provide funding for external training for new chairs/deans

• Develop workshops, reference materials, and mentoring for new administrators and staff

• Provide mentoring of temporary and part-time faculty

• Provide 24/7 online computer support

• Develop college and/or departmental student leadership programs

• Facilitate short-term or long-term experiences for students in national/international settings

Priority Institutional: Develop a culture of assessment to enhance institutional outcomes.

· Implement a flexible and comprehensive institutional assessment strategy with emphasis on general education and academic programs to improve student learning.

o Develop a process that is driven by departments and colleges with consistency in data collection and analysis

o Identify students-at-risk as early as possible

· Develop consistent data at the institutional level to support assessment and improvement.

Priority Institutional: Increase enrollment, retention rate, and graduation rate of both undergraduate and graduate students.

• Design and implement a comprehensive enrollment management plan.

o Reinstitute Retention Committee to develop and monitor retention initiatives

• Develop programs and services that address the needs and increase the enrollment of non-traditional-aged students.

• Provide academic support at appropriate times, especially during evenings and weekends

• Provide child care for faculty, staff, students

• Provide night dean or after hours ombudsman-like position

• Coordinate class schedules so that high demand degree programs can be offered at time available to non-traditional students

• Develop and implement a strategy to enhance student persistence and academic success.

o Introduce diagnostic testing for all freshmen and transfers placed by ACT scores and administer during orientation

o Improve advising

§ Designate special advisors in colleges whose faculty have higher advising loads to provide more flexible accessibility

§ Require advisor training and develop a system of advisor evaluation

§ Implement a degree audit

o Develop an effective transition program for academically under-prepared students

o Attain and develop a centralized Student Learning Center

§ Implement institutional tutoring program

§ Implement Supplemental Instruction for courses with high withdrawal/failure rates

o Improve/enhance developmental education

§ Develop multiple levels of developmental education courses Increase levels of all developmental education courses

§ Select faculty trained in developmental education instruction

• Assure student accessibility to ASU courses that will allow students to graduate in a timely manner.

• Optimize classroom scheduling

• Provide multiple year schedules

• Open additional sections of high demand courses as needed

• Develop and implement courses and programs to meet industry and community needs and interests.

• Develop an elder hostel program for senior adults

• Develop surveys to assess needs of community and implement new programs in response.

Institutional Priority: Enhance the diversity and inclusiveness of students, faculty, staff, and curriculum.

• Design and implement a comprehensive diversity plan.

• Recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate greater numbers of students from underrepresented groups.

• Establish and promote scholarships for underrepresented groups

• Attract, employ, retain, and advance greater numbers of university faculty and staff from underrepresented groups.

• Promote active vs. passive recruitment on the part of all appropriate faculty and staff

• Increase post-doctoral fellowships

• Utilize visiting professors

• Provide pre-doctoral fellowships (ABD)

• Provide support for instructors to pursue PhD

• Promote cultural awareness

• Protect underrepresented faculty/staff from over commitment to service

• Integrate diversity and global perspectives into the academic curriculum and into programs and services for university students, faculty, and staff.

• Provide resources for faculty development to incorporate diversity and multiculturalism into the curriculum

• Identify best practices in curriculum and instruction

• Evaluate current classes for integration of global and diverse perspectives

• Implement a system of responsibility, accountability, and recognition for advancing a multi-culturally diverse campus community.

• Review the impact of the Indian mascot and Indian Family on multiculturalism

Institutional Priority: Increase resources to the university.

• Develop and implement a plan to generate non-state revenues.

o Encourage and support faculty to improve their grantsmanship

o Develop graduate research assistantships through extramural grants

o Develop an aggressive plan of giving from alumni and friends of the colleges

o Promote the development of endowments to support college academic and research programs

o Develop and implement new budget model for summer school

o Spend resources to leverage new resources (such as hiring grant writer)

o Increase indirect cost recovery

o Generate revenues through licensing

• Enhance opportunities for colleges and administrative departments to become entrepreneurial.

• Develop financing models for entrepreneurial activities

o Develop policies allowing colleges and departments to recover and carry-forward funds through public outreach activities and auxiliary operations

o Establish plans to transition outreach centers to a "self-sustaining" mode

o Grow continuing education opportunities across all colleges

• Provide opportunities to increase intellectual property-driven activities.

o Support faculty, staff and student activity on innovations and research projects that could lead to development of intellectual property

o Provide support to researchers to develop their intellectual property

o Identify partners to financially support targeted intellectual property initiatives

Institutional Priority: Strategically manage resources among divisions and colleges based on institutional priorities.

• Define and implement an institutional allocation and reallocation process.

o Establish priorities in Research and Academic Affairs and allocate resources accordingly

o Develop policies for a reallocation process that equitably balances excellence in teaching, research productivity and public service benefits to the institution, based on college- or unit-specific missions

o Plan for programmatic and institutional growth

o Look at benchmarks—percent of university budget for Research and Academic Affairs as compared to similar universities and lobby for equity

o Establish a Research and Academic Affairs budget committee

o Establish efficiencies in Research and Academic Affairs for using available resource pools

• Allocate sufficient funds to the Arkansas State University library. 

o Use the recently implemented student library fee to enhance holdings in support of curricula and research activities

o Provide additional funding to supplement the current library budget and student library fees to achieve the minimum level of library funding recommended by the Higher Learning Commission

o Allocate new library funding for each new degree program approved and established at the bachelor, master’s and doctoral levels

o Fund additional full-time library positions to enable the library to provide the full range of services and expertise necessary for the expanding role and scope of the university