Strategic Plan in Detail

Washington State University has embarked on a major effort to plan its future. This effort will take two years and will involve the entire university community. I invite you to return often to this Strategic Planning web site to read updates and learn how you can contribute to our shared enterprise. I encourage you to share your ideas with the Strategic Planning Oversight Committee.
– President V. Lane Rawlins

President Rawlins presented this Strategic Plan to the Board of Regents at their January 25, 2002, meeting in Pullman.

Presidential Revisions Draft, January 8, 2002
Office of the President, Strategic Planning Oversight Committee

Vision
Washington State University offers a premier undergraduate experience, conducts and stimulates world-class research, graduate and professional education, scholarship and arts, and provides an exemplary working and learning environment that fosters engagement.

Mission
As a public, land-grant and research institution of distinction, Washington State University enhances the intellectual, creative, and practical abilities of the individuals, institutions and communities that we serve by fostering learning, inquiry, and engagement.

Values
Washington State University is guided by a commitment to excellence embodied in a set of core values.

Inquiry and Knowledge - Intellectual growth is at the heart of Washington State University's mission. We are committed to developing an informed citizenry, to fostering a love of learning and intellectual inquiry in all its forms - empirical, theoretical, and aesthetic - and to developing the capacity for thoughtful reasoning.

Engagement and Application - We are committed to partnerships focused on applying knowledge and expertise to address complex issues, especially, but not only, as that application enhances the partners' knowledge and understanding.

Leadership - We are guided by an ethic of leadership and service that recognizes the importance of identifying, articulating, and responding to the interests and needs of Washington State University's diverse constituencies.

Diversity - We are committed to a culture of learning that challenges, inspires, liberates, and ultimately transforms the hearts, minds, and actions of individuals, eliminating prejudice. Our differences are expressed in many ways, including race, sex, age, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, religion, class, philosophy, and culture. Respect for all persons and their contributions is essential to achieving our mission.

Character - Washington State University aims to create, through our work and our relationships, an environment that cultivates individual virtues and institutional integrity. To serve our diverse communities, we must first be a community that extends mutual respect and regard for all individuals and protects their right to free expression.

Stewardship - Careful shepherding of our financial, human, capital and intellectual resources is necessary for us to realize our values. In addition, the mission of the institution is most likely to be achieved when faculty, staff, and students at Washington State University take responsibility for upholding the full scope of these values.

Teamwork - A great strength of a university of distinction is the initiative and individual creativity of its members. But we also value a common commitment to achieving the institution's goals, a collective spirit, a dedication to teamwork, that transcends private concerns.

Strategic Goals
The University adopts herein a set of strategic goals to guide its actions and decisions. These goals address issues that are essential to the future success of Washington State University in carrying out its mission and achieving its vision.

The dozens of ideas for improving the institution that were advanced by the Design Teams support one or more of four overarching strategic goals. But the goals represent more than a distillation of the nine design team reports: they express the overriding aspirations that differentiate us from other institutions and define us as Washington State University.

These are intended to be transformational goals that will strengthen the university as a whole over the next five years. We begin with the recognition that Washington State University is an outstanding university and that this plan builds on the successes of the past. Not all elements of the institution require transformation, so some are not specifically included in the plan. We believe the design team reports, strategic plans from the budget areas, and the input from hundreds of members of the University community all support the aspiration that Washington State University become a research university of distinction, and that belief guided our efforts. This plan is not a road map, but a compass for the University's planning units - the budget areas - to use in developing their individual and more detailed strategic plans.

This plan is not a blueprint for centralized planning. It assumes a decentralized mode of strategic planning in which each budget area has responsibility for charting its own course in light of its own opportunities and strengths, and submitting budgets in which the priorities follow the plan. It assumes that budget areas will be supported in their plans to the extent that their plans are supportive of these major University-wide strategic goals.

The plan assumes a "living process" of strategic planning. Continuous refinement and improvement of the University's strategic plan will complement similar ongoing refinement of area plans as well. To facilitate ongoing planning, the University will continue to make the design team reports, and their appendices, available to planning units, which should adopt those recommendations that are pertinent to their strategic goals. The University will also maintain on the strategic planning web site a listing of the many changes that have already been implemented as a result of units reviewing the design team reports.

GOAL: Offer the Best Undergraduate Experience in a Research University

Sub goal 1: Attract, recruit, and retain a diverse high quality student body.

Required actions:
A. Implement recruitment and admissions strategies that reach and serve high ability students from high schools and community colleges.
B. Enforce more stringent retention standards.
C. Establish realistic enrollment targets that make clear we are striving to recruit the best students, not the most students.
D. Focus, coordinate, and integrate student recruitment and articulation efforts.
E. Develop and implement scholarship programs to attract high ability students.
F. Foster opportunities for study, internships, and experiential learning abroad to attract high quality students.
G. Make certain that all constituencies, including potential students, are aware of our institutional commitment to quality education.
H. Support outreach, recruitment, and retention programs that improve the diversity of our student body.

Sub goal 2: Create an academic culture that promotes and rewards one-on-one faculty-to-student and student-to-student interactions.

Required actions:
A. Recognize and reward faculty and staff for exemplary teaching, advising, mentoring, and leading.
B. Provide opportunities for more out-of-class interaction between students and faculty.
C. Provide increased opportunities for undergraduates to be exposed to "hands-on" research.
D. Provide increased opportunities for peer-to-peer faculty development and support programs that show promise for enhancing learning.
E. Work to more fully integrate diverse students and scholars, both domestic and international, within the University community.

Sub goal 3: Continually improve the quality of our program offerings and their delivery.

Required actions:
A. Establish an Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) whose objective will be to provide coordination of university-wide aspects of undergraduate education and to promote continuous improvement in the undergraduate experience.
B. Create learning communities and continuously evaluate their effectiveness in enhancing the undergraduate experience.
C. Encourage and fund curricular innovations, including collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches, that improve the quality of our offerings.
D. Infuse international content into curricula to prepare citizens to become effective participants in the global economy and in an increasingly diverse and multicultural society, and provide incentives to units and individuals to achieve this goal.
E. Align capital development priorities to support top-flight undergraduate curricular and extracurricular programs.
F. Include general education in regular cycle of program review with the goal of continuous improvement.
G. Evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative delivery methods and techniques utilized in producing higher education; undertake in-depth and high-level analysis of the benefits, impact, and cost of distance education delivery.
H. Promote dialog on methods and outcomes of instruction.
I. Determine where technology can efficiently, and usefully, enhance the educational process implement these enhancements.
J. Help faculty understand where technology will make their teaching more effective.

Sub goal 4: Provide student advising and mentoring that empowers students to complete their programs of study, improves retention, increases student satisfaction, and bolsters academic achievement.

Required actions:
A. Reward undergraduate advising and mentoring.
B. Communicate to students their shared responsibility in the planning and timely completion of their academic program.
C. Require each department or program to maintain formal advising policies and procedures.

GOAL: Nurture a World Class Environment for Research, Scholarship, Graduate Education, the Arts, and Engagement

Sub goal 1: Recruit, develop, and retain outstanding faculty researchers, scholars and artists.

Required actions:
A. Raise faculty salaries to competitive levels.
B. Alter the rank mix of senior to junior faculty at WSU to compare favorably with our peer institutions.
C. Develop targeted funding pools for faculty startup.
D. Develop targeted funding pools for effective recruitment and retention of faculty, assuring attention to underrepresented groups.
E. Develop new salary supplementation policy (e.g., soft money positions, practice plans, and other creative approaches).
F. Assure that high standards for annual review, promotion, and tenure are publicly communicated and uniformly applied.

Sub goal 2: Strategically develop areas of excellence in collaborative research, scholarship, and the arts.

Required actions:
A. Establish funding to be awarded competitively to support initiation of collaborative research.
B. Establish crosscutting interdisciplinary work groups.
C. Foster and reward interdisciplinary scholarship and research, including revision of promotion and tenure guidelines to recognize collaborative scholarship and development of model agreements for sharing of cost recovery among units participating in interdisciplinary work.

Sub goal 3: Develop targeted strategies to attract extramural funding.

Required actions:
A. Coordinate the institutional federal priority process to focus on university strategic research and scholarship initiatives.
B. Establish a multi-million dollar 5-year campaign to support biotechnology-related research from federal, state, and private sources.
C. Encourage colleges and departments to develop plans for growth of individual and collaborative grants.

Sub goal 4: Strengthen the infrastructure that supports research, scholarship and the arts.

Required actions:
A. Create an Advisory Research Council for the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
B. Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of research support groups: OGRD, OIPA, SPFO, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
C. Align capital development priorities with needs for improving and maintaining core infrastructure: research facilities, library resources, and information technology.
D. Create a Center for Biotechnology.
E. Build new facilities and renovate existing facilities, consistent with our program goals and directions, to support the next generation of activities in research, scholarship and the arts, including a performing arts center and a conference center.
F. Identify and support scholarly publications emanating from WSU.
    a. Identify and support Tier I journals produced and/or located at WSU.
    b. Increase visibility and prestige of university press publications.

Sub goal 5: Recruit a diverse high quality graduate student body and provide a supportive environment.

Required Actions:
A. Provide competitive graduate stipends and benefits.
B. Enhance TA training opportunities.
C. Provide graduate mentoring programs.
D. Strengthen recruiting relationships with domestic and international colleges and universities.

Sub goal 6: Establish a culture of engagement with problems and issues of interest to external constituencies.

Required Actions:
A. Fully implement the newly established University-wide Cooperative Extension plan to enhance the larger goal of university-wide engagement.
B. Develop local, state, national and worldwide partnerships to foster research, scholarship, the arts, and engagement.
C. Through partnerships, apply university knowledge and expertise to address and solve local, state, national, and worldwide problems and issues.

GOAL: Create an environment of trust and respect in all we do.

(REVISED 8/28/02)
Sub goal 1: Ensure just, equitable, and transparent decision making processes throughout the university through open communication that fosters understanding.

Sub goal 2: Create and support classroom and workplace environments that actively encourage substantive dialog and communication among members of the university community.

Required actions:
A. Encourage decision makers to solicit input from the university community.
B. Openly and candidly communicate decisions and reasons for those decisions to the university community.
C. Periodically assess employees' perceptions about how and whether they are valued and respected, and act on the results of that assessment.

Sub goal 3: Align the review and funding of all areas, units, and their personnel (faculty, staff, and administrators) with university goals and values, including diversity.

Required actions:
A. Use evaluation processes to communicate institutional goals.
B. Insure that annual reviews include discussion of performance in terms of institutional goals.
C. Insure that supervisors conduct annual reviews in a manner consistent with university policy and guidelines.

Sub goal 4: Promote a positive workplace in which employees are valued and professional growth encouraged.

Required actions:
A. Develop a balanced program of incentives, rewards, and recognition of the achievements and contributions of University employees at all levels.
B. Acknowledge job performance in all areas of faculty and staff achievement, including scholarship, research, the creative and performing arts, and outreach.
C. Encourage every department and college to develop a consistently applied recognition system for faculty and staff.
D. Periodically assess employees' perceptions about how and whether they are valued and respected, and act on the results of that assessment.

Sub goal 5: Develop and implement institutional programs that enable all members of the community to productively participate in a multicultural, pluralistic university.

Required actions:
A. Develop effective training programs for faculty, staff, student leaders, and administrators that will enhance organizational skills in such areas as diversity education, conflict resolution, personnel management, faculty recruitment, mentoring, and retention.
B. Provide orientation programs for new employees that communicate institutional values.
C. Periodically assess workplace and classroom environments for employee and student satisfaction.

Sub goal 6: Foster a high quality of life for all individuals throughout the university community.

GOAL: Develop a culture of shared commitment to quality in all of our activities.

Sub goal 1: Develop strategies that foster a university culture dedicated to adopting and extending best practices that promote an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement.

Required Actions:
A. Align responsibilities, authority and accountability.
B. Develop high quality programs and hire qualified personnel that will address the issues and needs of Washington citizens and the world.
C. Create an internal understanding and appreciation for Washington State University's high-quality teaching, research and outreach among all students, faculty, and staff across all of our Campuses, Colleges and Departments.
D. Emphasize quality above quantity when evaluating employees and programs.
E. Encourage units to identify measures of quality and benchmarks against which they should and will be evaluated in their strategic plans.

Sub goal 2: Create a university culture that supports efficient and effective collaboration.

Required Actions:
A. Improve the quality and effectiveness of internal communications, particularly among units engaged in related activities.
B. Improve and expand the flow of university information in all appropriate directions.
C. Eliminate redundant and overlapping committees and improve the effectiveness of remaining committees.
D. Undertake a comprehensive review of university academic and business policies, procedures and committees. Assess their function, necessity and productivity, institute changes to increase efficiency and effectiveness, and eliminate redundancy.
E. Establish new metrics in employee and program evaluations that emphasize collaboration, sharing of resources and multi-disciplinary efforts.
F. Reward successful collaboration.

Sub goal 3: Provide technologies that enhance effective links among teaching, research and outreach and that increase quality.

Required Actions:
A. Develop, secure and maintain instructional, business and administrative technologies necessary to efficiently and effectively meet growing demands from many sources.
B. Develop a clear and consistent university process for evaluating existing technology for effectiveness, efficiency and compatibility and introducing new, more efficient technologies.
C. Provide accessible training to all appropriate constituents to maximize the effective use of technologies.
D. Continuously evaluate and update infrastructure to support those technologies that are required for effective research, teaching, and administration.