Goals and Initiatives

A great deal of valued work takes place in our academic and support units, and we expect progress to continue in a variety of areas, many of them not cited in this plan. That is because a strategic plan by definition is built upon targeting and focus. It cannot and should not capture every aspect of an institution.

By focusing resources and initiatives in support of the five themes, we expect to achieve our vision for the long run and to make substantial progress on our specific goals over the next three to five years. The time required to implement the initiatives that support the goals will vary depending upon budget realities and available resources.

This section presents three goals and a summary of initiatives to achieve them, including initiatives aimed at individual goals and overarching initiatives that contribute to all three goals. A more complete list of initiatives appears in Appendix B, which is the preliminary iteration of an implementation plan to be fully developed by July 2004. Many of these initiatives emerged from the OSU 2007 planning process; some have already been implemented and are not included in this plan. While the vision, values, themes, and goals in this plan will endure, the implementation initiatives will change along with circumstances, and we continue to welcome suggestions on how best to accomplish our goals.

We will continuously assess our progress toward the goals by monitoring the effectiveness of our initiatives through the metrics listed in Appendix A. We will set short-term targets that will move us toward our long run goals and ultimately to our vision. In implementing our goals and initiatives, we will be guided by our core values of accountability, diversity, integrity, respect, and social responsibility.

Goal 1. Provide outstanding academic programs that further strengthen our performance and pre-eminence in the five thematic areas.

Building upon existing strengths and centers of excellence, we will focus new investments in areas with the potential to significantly benefit the economic, social, cultural, and environmental future of our communities, state, nation, and world. Over the next 18 months, we will develop specific initiatives and programs for the five themes that will chart our course over the next five years. These initiatives and programs will include greater student involvement in meaningful scholarship activities; deeper and more lasting collaborations within OSU and between OSU and our many academic, corporate and government partners; and a higher visibility in Salem, Portland, and Washington, D.C. These initiatives and programs will guide faculty hires; investments in teaching, scholarship, and outreach; state and federal funding; and the development of a capital campaign.

As measures of progress, we will:

1. Increase total grants and contracts from $137 million in 2002-2003 to $171 million in 2007-2008
2. Move the publication index from 1,381 in 2002-2003 to 1,588 in 2007-2008
3. Strengthen the entering student profile - Increase incoming GPA/SAT for undergraduates from 3.46/1079 in 2002-03 to 3.5/1150 in 2007-08; increase students of color from 13% to 15%, and international students from 6% to 9%, by 2007-08
4. Move OSU's ranking in U.S. News and World Report from tier 3 to tier 2 by 2007-08

Summary of Initiatives:

• Fund up to six proposals for significant, integrative programs that advance excellence in the thematic areas.
• Increase the quantity and quality of significant scholarship and high impact research.
• Develop processes that align curricular programs with and advance the five themes.
• Align OSU's Federal and State Agendas for maximum relevance and funding opportunities.
• Build and sustain faculty strength in thematic areas through coordinated faculty hires.
• Evaluate Extension, Extended Campus, and Outreach programs, and redirect them as needed to advance progress in the thematic areas.
• Develop targeted programs at Cascades, Hatfield Marine Science Center, and Portland.

Goal 2. Provide an excellent teaching and learning environment and achieve student access, persistence and success through graduation and beyond that matches the best land grant universities in the country.

We will create a dynamic and vibrant learning environment inside and outside the classroom that deeply engages students in the life of the university by connecting them to our primary activities of teaching/learning, scholarship, and outreach. We will pursue initiatives that promote high-level student engagement, provide a relevant and integrated educational experience, and enhance student success. This goal will be augmented by progress in the thematic areas, which will create rich and powerful academic experiences that help students become successful leaders and responsible social contributors.

As measures of progress, we will:

1. Raise Freshman-to-Sophomore Retention Rates from 80% in 2002-2003 to 83% in 2007-2008
2. Increase the Six-Year Graduation Rate from 58% in 2002-2003 to 62% in 2007-2008
3. Improve postgraduate satisfaction, as measured by an increase in the combined rating of "excellent" and "very good" on the Graduate Satisfaction Survey, from 82% in 2002-2003 to 85% in 2007-2008

Summary of Initiatives:

• Promote teaching as an academic discipline and provide training, resources, and support through two new Centers on campus to enhance teaching, learning, and advising.
• Develop an enrollment management plan that incorporates all of the factors we must balance to produce the outcomes we seek within our unique context. This plan will include admissions and retention policies that promote a diverse educational community and a financial aid program that enables the achievement of our access, diversity, and student profile goals.
• Align curricular and co-curricular programs and support services to respond to the shared and unique needs of our students, promote student development, encourage a broad and diverse educational experience, and support student success.
• Implement curricular approaches that promote course access and allow students to engage in long-range academic planning.
• Pursue efforts to encourage and support student-faculty interaction in a wide range of educational contexts.
• Enable P-16 partnerships, including expanding dual-enrollment agreements with community colleges in the region and providing educational opportunities to P-12 students through pre-college programs and distance education.

Goal 3. Substantially increase revenues from private fundraising, partnerships, research grants, and technology transfers while strengthening our ability to more effectively invest and allocate resources.

Our ability to achieve Goals 1 and 2 depends on our capacity to generate new resources and to redirect existing resources to initiatives and activities that achieve our strategic goals.

Working with the OSU Foundation and the OSU Alumni Association, we will develop and implement a comprehensive University capital campaign. This campaign will attract new gifts to support faculty, programs, and student scholarships as well as to build new facilities that enhance access and excellence. In addition, we will assess our existing administrative structures and processes to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and enhance the quality of services.

As measures of progress, we will:

1. Increase annual private fundraising from $43 million in 2002-2003 to $75 million in 2007-2008
2. Increase the annual growth rate of non-state dollars from 3.2% in 2002-2003 to 5.0% in 2007-2008

Summary of Initiatives:

• Develop and successfully complete a University capital campaign.
• Significantly increase federal funding of research.
• Develop technology transfer capabilities, joint ventures, and collaborative partnerships that advance our excellence in the five thematic areas.
• Assess and improve processes in key areas including human resource management, business services, information processing, and space allocation.
• Reduce administrative costs and redirect these resources to academic programs and strategic initiatives.

Overarching Initiatives

This plan also includes overarching initiatives that contribute to all goals. These will promote an institutional environment that empowers faculty and staff to develop and implement new ideas and creates an organizational structure that aligns resources with goals and provides accountability. These overarching initiatives, also listed in Appendix B under the goals with which they best fit, can be summarized as follows:

• Implement an institution-wide framework for employee performance and career development.
• Develop shared and sustained leadership with consistent articulation of a compelling vision, long-term perspective, personal empowerment, and a clear link between authority, responsibility, and accountability.
• Configure academic units, centers, institutes, programs, support services, and cross-cutting efforts to maximize contribution to our goals while achieving efficient delivery of services.
• Implement a cohesive and coordinated assessment program that identifies program/unit-level outcomes and mechanisms to measure results and use them to improve programs and services.

The University has achieved significant success with two recent organizational reconfigurations that followed detailed planning by members of the faculty, OSU leadership, students, staff, and other stakeholders: Establishment of the College of Health and Human Sciences and the re-emergence of the School of Education. These examples suggest that additional gains are attainable through further reconfiguration. Such further integration of existing units can complement the interdisciplinary, collaborative culture envisioned by the development of thematic areas and enhance opportunities to attract new resources. It can also provide optimal operational efficiencies when organizational units are sized to balance economies of scale with responsive service and provide opportunities to redirect existing resources to support core activities.

The University will review academic programs to insure that they have the appropriate critical mass of faculty in tenure track positions to credibly provide the breadth and depth of quality in each program that is appropriate for a Top 10 land grant University. Further, the proportion of tenure track to fixed term faculty should be sufficient to protect academic freedom and program integrity.