I find it helpful when meeting with colleagues to compare notes on how our various institutions respond to challenges and trends in higher education. I am pleased to share with you in this newsletter ways in which Susquehanna University has addressed recently: integration of strategic planning and accreditation review; recognizing invisible diversity; and improving undergraduate writing. I would welcome hearing your comments or suggestions for approaching these or similar challenges.

Jay Lemons
President

Susquehanna University chose to frame the decennial review process for its reaccreditation by the Middle State Commission on Higher Education within the context of our strategic planning process. We used the first round of strategic planning to frame how we would design the Middle States self-study, which in turn is helping to articulate future planning. We encouraged widespread participation among the campus community so that by the end of the process we would have a successful self-study document and accrediting team visit, in addition to widespread agreement on a new strategic plan that could be implemented immediately.

Susquehanna University began laying the groundwork for a new strategic plan in the fall of 2001. We invited faculty, staff and students to participate in conversations about the qualities imbedded in the Susquehanna experience that are significant contributors to the success of students. In addition, members of the campus community were asked to articulate their dreams for Susquehanna. Those conversations were complemented by visits from four different nationally recognized experts who provided assessment of the higher education environment and helped us talk about our institutional identity, culture and change. Their recommendations along with information distilled from campus discussion groups led to the creation of a Draft Statement of Strategic Vision and Themes in the spring of 2002, which was endorsed by the campus community and the board of directors. It provides a broadly stated vision for Susquehanna's direction over the next five to seven years. Its two main themes, or commitments - strengthening intellectual engagement and strengthening community - were intended to help guide the Middle States self-study.

Beginning in the fall of 2002, the campus Middle States Steering Committee and eight self-study task forces used the strategic commitments to engage the campus community in developing more detailed and specific actions to move the university toward the vision articulated in the Statement of Strategic Vision and Themes. In addition to assessing Susquehanna's performance on the 14 standards from Middle States' Characteristics of Excellence, each task force addressed one or both of the main strategic commitments or the requirements needed to achieve those commitments in their respective area of study. Because the self-study process served both the Middle States reaccreditation and the university's strategic planning processes, task forces were responsible for making recommendations for both the Middle States Report and suggesting new strategic initiatives.

The final self-study document will be submitted in fall of 2003, with the Middle States team visit occurring the following spring. We anticipate having a new strategic plan operational in November 2003. While there is still much work ahead, we are encouraged that closely integrating a review of past and current performance with discussion of new strategic directions is bringing the campus community together in ways that are uplifting, energizing, and of valuable benefit to all Susquehanna students.

The Susquehanna University community is looking beyond the familiar notion of diversity, which tends to focus on race. A grant from Susquehanna's new Center for Teaching and Learning is funding an initiative in 2002-03 that focuses on often-invisible differences, such as socio-economic status, religion and sexual orientation. The goal is to better understand what the campus environment is like for non-majority students and to self-examine what biases faculty and staff bring to the classroom or the work environment that impact the experience of students. Careful attention to visible and invisible diversity is crucial to improving student learning and student success.

Nine faculty, deans and administrators attended the American Association for Higher Education summer academy in Mt. Snow, Vt., to help lay groundwork for the project. The Susquehanna initiative targets professional development of faculty, staff and administrators through a series of workshops and speakers in the 2002-03 academic year:

• Social class was the topic of a fall semester workshop. About 30 percent of Susquehanna students are first-generation college students, some from working-class families. Some of those students have financial struggles not recognized or understood by their classmates or professors. Others deal with conflict between their intellectual life at school and life at home where scholarly pursuits are not understood or encouraged.
• A winter workshop on sexual orientation examined attitudes and behaviors toward individuals who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. A central question was how can the university ensure that their educational and social experiences are positive and inclusive?
• Founded upon Lutheran traditions and ideals, Susquehanna University also encourages religious diversity through enrollment of Jewish students and other non-Christians. At a workshop in the spring of 2003, faculty and staff examined how their belief systems may impact pedagogy and their understanding of the student experience in and outside of the classroom.

Following each session, participants were invited to continue the dialogue through Blackboard discussion groups. By continuing the conversation and broadening our understanding of diversity, the university aims to become a more welcoming place for all students, faculty and staff.

Susquehanna University takes pride in its 10-year-old Writers' Institute, which recently received a $500,000 grant to further encourage and support student interest in writing. The institute's three-member writing faculty have published 17 books, with five more scheduled for publication in the next 18 months, and have received recently three Pushcart Prizes. In the six years since Susquehanna began offering a writing major, the number of writing majors has more than quadrupled, from 12 to 53. Like many other schools, however, we have been in the process of strengthening our freshman writing program for the past year or two. The need to make improvements in this area was further reinforced by the results of the 2002 National Survey of Student Engagement, where we found some differences in the performance of our students as compared to their peers at other national liberal arts colleges.

The Susquehanna University faculty recently approved a new core course and program for first-year students that will be offered beginning in fall 2003. Similar to the "Freshman Writing Seminar" that it replaces, "Writing and Thinking" will focus on improving students' critical thinking and writing skills and will be based on an expository writing model. A major change, however, is that full-time faculty members from various disciplines will teach the course. Faculty from across the disciplines will have access to training and other activities designed to enrich and foster cooperation between instructors. The course will help institutionalize the idea that quality writing is inseparable from quality thinking, and that good writing is about much more than spelling and grammar. "Writing and Thinking" will lay the groundwork for the kinds of writing and analysis students will be doing in all other classes, as well as internships or other such co-curricular experiences. Having professors from various departments teach the course will help first-year students learn that intellectual expression through effective writing is critical in all areas of study.

In addition to elevating expectations for freshman writing, the course will also be more explicit about outcomes. In that way, the faculty will be better able to assess program quality and student learning.

Susquehanna University is a national liberal arts college enrolling approximately 1,900 undergraduates in the School of Arts, Humanities and Communications, the School of Natural and Social Sciences and the Sigmund Weis School of Business. For additional information on programs described in FYI, please contact the Division of University Relations, 514 University Avenue, Selinsgrove, PA 17870-1164, phone 570-372-4119, or e-mail robertso@susqu.edu. Previous editions of FYI may be found at www.susqu.edu/fyi.