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Susquehanna University Annual Report 2003 | |
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President's Letter
ARCHIVES
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Academic Body and Soul
A New Plan Sets the Stage for Intellectual Engagement and Community The invitation was difficult to resist. Dean of Student Life Tracy Tyree -- her Ph.D. incognito under a baseball cap, backpack and fake tattoo -- bounced down the aisle of Stretansky Hall exuding the attitude of a new first-year student. All the better to illustrate her commitment to the task at hand: inviting gathered colleagues to consider students as their first priority as the campus works to craft initiatives for a new strategic plan.
The goal is to enhance the student experience and strengthen the university in the next five years and beyond, and expectations are high. The most recent strategic plan produced excellent progress in quality, size, diversity and strength of the student body. The momentum has helped propel Susquehanna out of the regional spotlight and into a new competitive environment of national liberal arts colleges. An Inclusive Process
The new plan is the result of two years of gathering and distilling the opinions and ideas of more than a thousand people in the extended campus community. Alumni, parents, board members, friends, and outside experts joined with staff, administrators, faculty and students. "It was exciting to see how the university community shared ideas, concerns and goals and how they quickly became actions in a strategic plan," explains Student Government Association President Malcolm Derk '05, who participated in the planning kickoff and has been involved throughout the process.
The process incorporated a comprehensive self-study in preparation for the university's 2004 ten-year accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Eight task forces generated initiatives to fuel a draft by the strategic planning advisory group. Last spring, the board of directors' planning and priorities committee and Susquehanna faculty endorsed the plan. In November 2003, the full board will consider blueprints for 12 initiatives aligned with four broad priorities. (See Strategic Plan Priorities and Initiatives) The plan will include outcomes, actions, and benchmarks for each initiative as well as resource requirements that will help shape priorities for the university's next capital campaign. Academically Engaged Community "To implement the dreams we have on paper, we need to take the first steps, even today, even next week, even this year," explains Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of History Linda McMillin, 2002-03 chair of the Middle States Steering Committee. "This plan identifies key people and processes and new or changing structures that will help us achieve our goals." The plan of action grew out of an initial draft statement of strategic vision and themes recognizing that everyone on campus, from tenured faculty to salaried staff, shares the responsibility for teaching. Two main goals - to strengthen intellectual engagement and to enhance the community -- became the touchstones. "But in the course of the past year, we realized that there's really no separating these two things," says McMillin. "They're like body and soul. The intellectual engagement brings the community together and it's the community that makes the intellectual engagement possible." Learning and the Liberal Arts College
Susquehanna has focused attention on a new national group of schools as models for some of the next steps in keeping with the university's 2000 reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The move pulled Susquehanna out of its previous regional group and into a national liberal arts category. "These are the institutions where the best practices for undergraduate learning are being found," says Susquehanna President L. Jay Lemons. The connections between such institutions and student learning are not just gut feeling, guesswork, or public relations, but the evidence of a growing body of research. The data includes widely respected work by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. Compared to their counterparts at other types of institutions, students at private liberal arts colleges are more satisfied with the faculty and quality of teaching and more likely to complete the bachelor's degree, concludes Institute Director Alexander Astin. His research also links study at liberal arts colleges to increased chances of graduate study and winning fellowships. One of the plan's strengths, says Lemons, "is the way that we are making the links between the initiatives and the research that's been done about positive effects on student learning." Residential Opportunities In a residential campus setting, students actually spend about 90 percent of their time outside classes, and that time offers countless opportunities to learn through interaction with other students, faculty and others from housekeepers to residence life staff. "It's important for us to think about the student experience as a seamless experience," stresses Dean Tyree. "How quickly and well students get established, get their grounding, is really important," she adds. "The more connected they feel, the more positive the impact on their learning and their overall satisfaction." One of the four priorities in the new plan aims to develop the common experience of students to promote and sustain those connections and shared knowledge. A key initiative focuses on that time when students enter the community and includes plans to improve orientation and first-year programs to help significant relationships happen sooner. Making Connections
Another initiative targets connections to the larger world through off-campus experiences such as internships, study abroad and service learning. Dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business Jim Brock, who served as faculty member in residence with the school's London Program in the spring of 2003, is researching the impact of such experiences. "You can draw a pretty direct connection between the change that takes place in our students during off-campus study and their ability to be leaders and to be more ambitious in their own lives," he says. "They do things they never realized they were capable of doing and they come back more comfortable operating from a global perspective."
A related initiative looks at ways to enhance and recognize the achievement demonstrated in a student capstone experience -- senior year scholarly research or creative work done under a faculty mentor and shared in a public forum. Attention to such goals illustrates the strategic plan's academic focus, says Associate Professor of Biology David Richard, a member of the board of directors and a Middle States task force chair. "What we have is a document that has gone out and captured, I think, what is working really well and then is trying to institutionalize those practices," he says. Intellectual Engagement Fostering a culture of intellectual engagement is the third priority. Key initiatives here include increasing opportunities for faculty scholarship and creative activity and experimenting with advanced forms of student/faculty collaboration. A related initiative calls for a clear understanding of goals for student learning both inside and outside the classroom to create a cycle of continuous improvement. "We need to look at new ways that allow faculty to pursue sustained scholarship that fits within the program of teaching," says Dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences Terry Winegar. "We also could do a better job of recognizing and rewarding those scholarly activities."
Integration of major university events can also enhance intellectual engagement. "Ideas and clusters of ideas thread their way through the cultural life of the institution," points out Laura de Abruna, dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Communications. Related courses, lectures and performances create a synergy that can support an exciting and richly connected learning environment. Creating a Diverse Community
A priority to create a diverse community includes initiatives to not only increase diversity but also to create a sustaining environment for diversity across all areas of campus culture. "The value of an academic program can be richly enhanced by having a diverse student population," stresses Lemons, who points out embracing diversity also offers a practical response to demographic projections and fulfills a moral and civic obligation. To demonstrate commitment to a multicultural community, the plan calls for creation of a Presidential Task Force to provide leadership and guidance to help the campus attain its primary diversity goals and monitor effectiveness. Resource Requirements Support for communication, collaboration, and creativity -- the fourth priority -- includes goals for continuing professional development, open exchange, and institutional assessment and renewal. Among the initiatives is a proposal to annually measure institution-wide progress through key performance indicators in areas such as finance, facilities maintenance, equipment replacement, technology, development, staffing, compensation, and fundraising success. "We're moving to develop a multi-year plan," says Executive Vice President for Administration and Planning Sara Kirkland. "This means not only identifying actions, but also proposing benchmarks, and identifying resources that will help us implement this plan to meet our commitments." Many of the endowment and program priorities for the university's next major capital campaign will tie directly to needs uncovered in the planning process. Campaign facilities projects, which also emanate from the strategic plan, include dining and social space to enhance the 24-hour learning experience, and new science facilities and classroom improvements to foster intellectual engagement. "We have the impetus and tools and goals," says Lemons. "This plan has the potential to make Susquehanna an exemplary model for undergraduate education by embracing ambitious initiatives that are based on practices that we know profoundly and positively affect student learning." |
