The last comprehensive strategic plan for ASU-Jonesboro was conducted in 1993. In that process, we made plans for the development of graduate programs to be added to the baccalaureate base of the university, and anticipated the first ASU doctoral program. More recently, the graduate offerings of ASU include more masters' and specialists' degrees, and two additional Ph.D. programs. Many of the programmatic goals of the 1993 plan have been realized or exceeded, and additional graduate development is indicated.

A separate strategic plan was drawn in 1996. It focused upon the goal to develop a system of campuses associated with ASU. The plan led to the accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the independent but related campuses at Jonesboro, Beebe, Mountain Home, Newport, and Marked Tree. The goals of that plan have been realized by these accreditations, and by the legislative recognition of the ASU System in addition to the campuses of ASU.

As part of the HLC visit to Jonesboro in 2002-03, we asked that our accreditation team provide information which could be used as a platform for development of ASU over the next decade. The HLC report is provided as a link to this document, as is my response to the report. I invite you to read these documents so that you may understand the specifics of the HLC observations.

There are significant influences which also will shape the development of the university, such as demographic and mission issues in higher education, collateral issues in regional and statewide economic development, state funding for higher education, and opportunities we may hope to create in the future. The final solutions defined for the "Lakeview" court decision may have a dramatic impact on school funding, and the subsequent availability of public money for support of higher education.

More immediately, we see the need at ASU to develop systems to effectively integrate the assets associated with the Arkansas Biosciences Institute.

These and other issues have contributed to an environment characterized by change, and challenges placed on the university to respond meaningfully to these problems and opportunities. These issues were realized by the HLC visitation team and have been enumerated in their report, including:

• The need for subsequent attention to and refinement of the ASU assessment effort. This will be an ongoing process through all areas of the university. In addition to interest expressed by HLC, assessment and performance-based evaluation will be a principle of state funding for all Arkansas public education institutions in the future.
• The need for an articulated enrollment management plan for ASU-Jonesboro. We will begin this definition using fall 2003 enrollment data as a baseline for targeted goal-setting. This effort will be overseen by an Enrollment Management Task Force, to be named this year.
• The need for a new strategic plan to foresee the next definition of the university. It is timely for the development of this plan, owing to institutional changes since the last planning effort in 1993, but also to address the profound opportunities presented by the research mandate given to ASU by the people of the state by passage of Initiated Act 1 in 2001. In this measure, the voters were given an opportunity to approve or reject the inclusion of ASU among a group of existing research entities, and to receive funds from the tobacco settlement. The measure passed two-to-one.

How will we go about the strategic planning process, and how will it work? We have retained a professional consulting company, Penson and Associates of Tallahassee, Florida, to assist in the planning process. The contract for this consultation is $27,900. Our primary planning consultant is Dr. David McFarland of Tampa, Florida. Dr. McFarland will work with us throughout the year, and has already spoken with many campus representatives. His work will be coordinated through the office of the vice chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs and Dr. Lynita Cooksey will coordinate support for the process. Dr. Cooksey may be reached at lcooksey@astate.edu.

There will be a Strategic Planning Council, to be chaired by Dr. David Cox, Professor in the College of Education. The council will oversee the process and communicate progress of the effort to the campus and external communities. It also will coordinate and monitor the activities of several task forces as a part of the plan, to include an environmental scanning/driving force task force, a governing ideas task force, an institutional distinctiveness task force, and possible task forces to address governance, diversity, and graduate education, as these were identified by HLC as needing to be addressed in the planning report.

The strategic planning effort will be a collaborative process with a large number of stakeholders' conferences, forums, focus groups and meetings. I hope that each person on or off campus who has an interest in the development of the plan will take an active part in that process. Dr. Cox will try to accommodate the involvement of all who are interested. You may contact him at dwcox@astate.edu. He also will draft individuals who are particularly qualified to help.

If you wish to comment on any aspect of the process, if you have questions about it, or if you wish to add information beyond the process described above, please contact Dr. David McFarland directly at mcfarland925@aol.com. Dr. McFarland will visit ASU on several occasions over the year, and will be in frequent contact with the process by telephone.

At the end of the planning process, a written plan will be produced and shared with constituents for commentary. After subsequent consideration and assignment of responsibilities to initiate the plan, the completed document will be advanced to the Board of Trustees for their review and adoption.

What will come from this strategic planning effort? First, I hope that the campus and external communities will share information, concerns, and dreams about what our university may become. Coupled with the self study which formed the HLC report, the strategic plan process will complete an extraordinary discussion among many persons about how we now see the university, and what we hope that it may become.

A tangible outcome will be a document that will define our ambitions, and which also will advise our successors about our wishes for their subsequent development of the university we will leave to them.

This planning document will be available for the HLC team when it returns in 2006-07. They will be able to gauge the success of our immediate efforts following the publication of the plan.

Finally, I am hopeful that the new plan will reinvigorate the university toward its future, and that each of us may more clearly see how we fit into this development. If we commonly understand the direction we intend to steer, we are more likely to get there together. And if we can do that, we will be a stronger university. I look forward to working with you in this process, and well beyond it.


Leslie Wyatt
president@astate.edu

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