Campuses:
Based on the six strategic priorities, this plan identifies three key initiatives in support of its aim for institutional excellence. Over the next five years, we will undertake:
These three initiatives are in response to the strategic priorities identified by faculty, staff, students, alumni and relevant stakeholders of CFANS. Task forces will be assembled around each of these initiatives with specific charges to meet both long- and short-term goals. The task forces will include mixtures of faculty and staff and be strongly encouraged to seek input from students, alumni and stakeholders. Task forces will also seek expert advice from appropriate units within the university such as the Center for Teaching and Learning, Learning Abroad Center, Career Services Center, Digital Media Center, Office for Instructional Technology, Office of Equity and Diversity and others.
Linkage between Initiatives and Strategic Priorities
The strategic initiatives are viewed as the most immediate ways that we can begin to address the strategic priorities. In other words, they help us find specific ways to implement the priorities. For example, priorities A, B, C and E will be directly addressed by curriculum revitalization. As we consider competing ideas, we will measure them against the priorities to help decide which to pursue, and just as importantly, which not to pursue. They provide guiding principles for our majors, minors, and programs. Campus culture transformation will primarily address strategic priorities D and E. Faculty and Staff Capacity Building is a way to help our faculty and staff develop the skill and knowledge sets needed to achieve the goals outlined by all of the strategic priorities. This is an area where the college will need to make investments in terms of professional development opportunities and release time for faculty and staff. Priority F - Sustain a Responsive, Collaborative, and Creative Work Environment defines principles of shared leadership, inclusiveness and transparency that the college will strive for as we work toward achieving the strategic initiatives. The strategic priorities will be given to all task forces and will be addressed in their recommendations.
While majors and courses have been revised and improved over the years, the CFANS undergraduate curriculum as a whole has not undergone a comprehensive review in nearly twenty years. Given changes in employer needs, prospective student interests, demographic shifts, civic issues, and understandings around effective teaching and learning, CFANS leaders believe that it is time to initiate a curriculum review and revitalization.
Based on focus groups, strategic planning, literature reviews, and University-directed priorities, CFANS leadership has designed a Curriculum Revitalization Initiative that will result in:
The Curriculum Revitalization Initiative will be led by faculty with consultation and involvement of key staff and students. Resources allocated for this process will be used to provide relevant facilitation, strategic communications, design, literature review, convening, and implementation costs. This will be a two-step process.
This is an ambitious undertaking and will require leadership, transparency and commitment from the college; involvement and innovation on the part of our faculty; and consultation and partnerships with of our students and stakeholders. This is also our opportunity to take bold steps that will make our undergraduate program an international leader in academic rigor, application of science, student engagement, cross-cultural competency and educational innovation. This effort has strong support from the college and university leadership and will be a top priority of the college for the next several years.
The goal is not necessarily to create a common set of courses all CFANS students will take, but rather to review the majors, minors, and overall structure of CFANS undergraduate programs. The challenge will be achieving balance between competing goals such as prescriptive vs. flexible curricula, depth vs. breadth in balancing disciplinary focus with interdisciplinary competencies, meeting the university student learning and developmental outcomes1, providing opportunities for student research, cross-cultural experiences, and experiential learning and of course fitting all of this in 120 credits. These are complex and difficult tasks and in the course of creating this document we knew that faculty often have conflicting opinions on how to best accomplish our undergraduate program goals. However, CFANS cannot afford the status quo if we are to continue to have rigorous, vibrant, relative and attractive undergraduate program. The workforce requirements, student demographics and interest in specific majors, institutional climate, recruiting environment, and nature of the competitive advantage for our students have all changed and we need to realign the considerable expertise and innovation of our faculty with these changes. Our undergraduate program currently has many examples of excellence, creativity, and innovation; but we will only remain that way if we stay ahead of the changing landscape of undergraduate education and workforce demands.
Throughout the strategic planning process, the need for a recognizable, memorable, and relevant college identity was frequently indicated by key stakeholders. The task of integrating multiple collegiate cultures and majors with very different emphases calls for constructive and future-oriented consideration of the impact, potential, and importance of campus culture in the undergraduate experience. We assume that our efforts to create a strong, inclusive and visible campus culture will improve student and faculty recruitment and retention rates as well as increase long-term alumni involvement.
Given our strong commitment to sustainability and the momentum within the institution and higher education toward “green” campuses, CFANS will launch a robust and comprehensive Campus Culture Initiative. A task force will be convened to address this initiative.
Task Force Charge: Make recommendations to facilitate the creation of a student-centered collegiate and campus culture in St. Paul.
The Campus Culture Initiative will be led by faculty and staff with involvement from students. Resources allocated for this effort will be used for planning, special events, strategic communications support, evaluation, and other costs associated with initial launch.
Capacity building refers to increasing the knowledge and skill set of our faculty and staff including opportunities such as training, professional development, and resource allocation to achieve the goals outlined in this plan. To sustain a supportive and effective learning environment for students, faculty and staff must collectively possess strong skills in curricular design, pedagogy, advising, institutional planning, student support services, and multicultural competency. To build a supportive base for our ambitious efforts to revitalize curriculum and transform campus culture, CFANS will identify, design, and execute an integrative Faculty and Staff Capacity Building Initiative. A task force will be convened to address this initiative.
Task Force Charge: Make recommendations for the college to develop a capacity building plan for faculty and staff that will allow the college to meet the broad goals of the strategic plan.
This intentional and targeted effort to build the capacity of key collegiate personnel responsible for the many functions of undergraduate programs will provide a critical ‘soft skills’ infrastructure in support of a revamped curriculum and robust campus culture. Resources committed to this effort will support training, professional conferences, evaluation design, learning communities development, and management needs associated with the above impacts. In addition to creating a college-level task force focused on the broad implications of this initiative, a workgroup also will be formed within the Student Services Office to address specific needs and workflow issues of its staff.
