Susquehanna University:
A Plan for Greater Intellectual Engagement and a Stronger University Community
Priorities and Initiatives
This plan was developed around a framework of two broad commitments - achieving
greater intellectual engagement and a stronger Susquehanna University community. They became the touchstones of the planning process, along with a set of requirements that call for us to match resources to commitments, transform practices to accomplish objectives creatively and collaboratively, and to assess our efforts in ways that foster realistic appraisal and continuous improvement.
Priority I: Develop the Common Experience of Our Students
Priority II: Foster a Culture of Intellectual Engagement
Priority III: Create a Diverse Community
Priority IV: Support Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity
Priority I: Develop the Common Experience of Our Students
Create at the heart of our environment a formal set of shared learning experiences to further engage students in our academic community.
- Initiative 1: Entering the Community - Strengthen and focus the first year program for students.
- Initiative 2: Making Connections - Provide for all students educational opportunities that connect practice and experience to scholarly reflection, integrate liberal and professional education, and foster civic engagement.
- Initiative 3: Demonstrating Achievement - Develop a capstone experience for all students.
Priority II: Foster a Culture of Intellectual Engagement
Focus on developing and fostering a more intentional, widespread culture of intellectual engagement. We must be willing to embrace new partners, experiment, and reflect critically on our efforts.
- Initiative 4: Experiment with and institute various advanced forms of student/faculty collaboration - Create opportunities for student/faculty collaboration in "advanced professional activity" within a discipline or across disciplines.
- Initiative 5: Enhance sustained faculty scholarship and creative activity - Review current University financial support for, and policies and practices governing sabbatical leaves, workload flexibility, and evaluation and recognition of faculty professional development.
- Initiative 6: Creating a Cycle of Continuous Improvement - Assessment of student learning and development is critical to improving our practice and demonstrating successes. Thus, assessment ought to be a routine, ongoing, integrated component of our work reflected in how we approach student learning and how we develop, offer, and revise University programs, services, and initiatives.
- Initiative 7: Integrate Major University Events in a Way that Enhances Intellectual Engagement - The University will strive to integrate its cultural, intellectual, and social events.
Priority III: Create a Diverse Community
To achieve Susquehanna's educational mission it is critically important to increase diversity on our campus and to create an environment that is supportive of diversity in all of its forms.
- Initiative 8: Increase Diversity - Recruit, support, and retain students, faculty, and staff from historically underrepresented groups with the goal of achieving levels of participation that more accurately reflect the population of the United States.
- Initiative 9: Create a Sustaining Environment for Diversity - Understand, develop, and promote a community that finds strength in the diversity of all its members.
Priority IV: Support Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity
Create the conditions that maximize the contributions of every member of the university community. In our efforts to embrace excellence, we believe that everyone is both a learner and a contributor to learning. This priority is most importantly about cultivating ways of thinking and acting.
- Initiative 10: Nurture a Culture of Continuing Development - We will design, implement, and sustain a professional development program for faculty and staff that fosters continuing skill development and supports effective communication and collaborative decision-making within a culture of open exchange.
- Initiative 11: Cultivate a Culture of Open Exchange - We will design, implement, and sustain a comprehensive communication plan.
- Initiative 12: Plan for Institutional Assessment and Renewal - We will develop and implement comprehensive institutional renewal plans for human resources, facilities, and finances.
Requirements for Realizing Our Commitments
- Investment in People and Programs.
- Investment in Process.
- Investment in the Campus.
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