A Time for Reflection

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SSUs Strategic Planning Efforts

• A Time for Reflection
• Fall, 2009
• M. Crow, SSU IRP

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Our plan evolved over time

• Brown/Silver initiative (2000)
• Gates/Scott revision (2007)
• Yarbrough/Wyatt modification (2008)

NOW Time for a thorough review!
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Plan contains a vision for the future

• Savannah State University will become the
  institution of choice in our region, where
  students maximize their potential in a nurturing
  environment that embraces social and intellectual
  diversity. The University will create an
  efficient, student-centered culture, responsive
  to the needs of its stakeholders, supportive of
  ideals and ethical verities, and loyal to its
  splendid

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Contains new mission statement 1

• Savannah State University, the oldest public
  historically black university in the State of
  Georgia, develops productive members of a global
  society through high quality instruction,
  scholarship, research, service and community
  involvement. The University fosters engaged
  learning and personal growth in a
  student-centered environment that celebrates the
  African American legacy while nurturing a diverse
  student body. Savannah State University offers
  graduate and undergraduate studies including
  nationally accredited programs in the liberal
  arts, the sciences and the professions.

1. Subject to final approval from the BOR.
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To support an explicit new theme

• Under leadership of President Yarbrough
• A value-added experience
• To infuse all aspects of curriculum operations

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Contains five long term planning goals

• Maximize comparative advantage
• Expand institutional capacity using TQM, etc
• Advise mentor to recruit retain students
• Enhance public image communication
• Foster continuous professional development

Towards which we have been planning for some time.
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Each goal fleshed out with short-term planning
objectives

• Across departments units
• Across curriculum majors
• Diverse stakeholders involved
• Specific champions identified
• Linked to USG system goals objectives

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(1) Comparative advantage 7 objectives

• Expand/strengthen centers of excellence
• Co-curricular activities for targeted groups
• Internship programs in each major
• Entrepreneurial training in each major
• Active learning teamwork in courses
• Expand study abroad opportunities
• Community involvement component in majors

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(2) Institutional capacity building 8
objectives

• Core curriculum learning outcome effectiveness
• External partnerships with organizations
• Program scheduling adjustments
• Program demand forecasting
• Facility realignment/development
• Adjust staff social processes for technology
• On-line budgeting accounting software
• Revise core curriculum pedagogy

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(3) Recruitment Retention-7 objectives

• Track student goal achievement
• Organize lower division University College
• Profile student types to recruit for SSU
• Put 20 of core curriculum on-line annually
• Induce student use of e-mail
• Expand minority student participation
• Allocate achievement scholar awards by discipline

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(4) Image communication8 objectives

• Use distinctive university logo
• Communicate more using WHCJ-FM radio
• Publicize campus research intellectual activity
• Develop community advisory groups for majors
• Assign media liaison for each college program
• Enable institution-wide scheduling software
• Develop campus speakers bureau
• Publish successful student bios to web site

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(5) Professional development7 objectives

• Build toward all instructors w/ Doctorates
• Monitor faculty engagement in campus affairs
• Senior faculty to mentor junior faculty
• Veteran administrators mentor novice admin.
• Clerical staff obtain MOUS certification
• Department staff X-trained
• Schedule training to support strategic objectives

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Plan details on-line

• http//irp.savannahstate.edu/IRP/Strat-Plan-Docs/S
  SU_StrategicPlan.pdf

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Planning is connected to SACS standard 2.5

• The institution engages in ongoing, integrated,
  and institution-wide research-based planning and
  evaluation processes that
• (1) incorporate a systematic review of
  institutional mission, goals, and outcomes
• (2) result in continuing improvement in
  institutional quality and
• (3) demonstrate the institution is effectively
  accomplishing its mission. (Institutional
  Effectiveness)

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also connected to SACS standard 3.3.1

• The institution identifies expected outcomes,
  assesses the extent to which it achieves these
  outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement
  based on analysis of the results in each of the
  following areas (Institutional Effectiveness)
• 3.3.1.1 educational programs, to include student
  learning outcomes
• 3.3.1.2 administrative support services
• 3.3.1.3 educational support services
• 3.3.1.4 research within its educational mission,
  if appropriate
• 3.3.1.5 community/public service within its
  educational mission, if appropriate

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Most importantly, planning helps..

• Develop our learning environment
• Improve our curriculum
• Enhance our learning strategies
• Maximize our support services
• Integrate operations with community

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Campus involvement needed to

• Evaluate outcome utility of planning
• Judge relative importance of goals to SSUs
  future
• Advise whether to halt, continue, or revise goals
• Judge value success of specific objectives
• Advise whether to halt, continue, or revise
  objectives
• Itemize outcomes of planning to date
• Collect evidence suggesting future directions
• Tie org unit curriculum plans to campus plans

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To that end, two immediate actions

• A web survey about planning out to staff by end
  of month. (Please respond!) Info collected to
  inform next round of planning.
• Department chairs/heads asked to return
  unit-level plans and outcomes (on-line or
  on-paper template provided) by deadline.

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In conclusion, four thoughts

• Teaching does not create learning learners do.
  Teachers create learning environments.
  (paraphrase, John Holt, 1985)
• The work of teaching is constructing a laboratory
  for learning broad and varied to challenge a
  range of interests and abilities. (paraphrase,
  Bill Ayers, 1993)
• A college must promote a deep orientation to
  learning and discourage a surface one or it
  actively undermines its very rationale for being.
  (paraphrase, John Tagg, 2003)
• When you can measure what you are speaking about,
  and express it in numbers, you know something
  about it when you cannot, your knowledge is of a
  meager and unsatisfactory kind. (paraphrase,
  Lord Kelvin)

Help us create a more effective learning
environmentby planning.
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Food for thought ideas

• Bill Ayers (1993), To Teach The Journey of a
  Teacher
• John Tagg (2003), The Learning Paradigm College
• John Holt (1989), Learning All The Time
• Erik Margolis (2001), The Hidden Curriculum in
  Higher Education
• Ira Shor, ed. (1987), Freire for the Classroom A
  Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching
• Frank Sweet (2005), Legal History of the Color
  Line The Notion of Invisible Blackness