This chapter describes the University's recent strategic planning process, current planning assumptions, principal immediate and longer-term planning agenda, and mechanisms for planning and implementing change.
The concept of Eastern Michigan as a Learning University is also explicated.
In his inaugural address, President William Shelton stressed the need to focus on "the classroom, on the community, and on collaboration" as subjects most fundamental to the University's vitality. He identified the 1989/90 year as one for "coming together," during which extensive self-examination would take place. During the self-study year, the University concentrated intently on assessing its current circumstances, determining the direction the institution was taking at that time, and identifying a preferred direction for the University. The self-study process, described earlier in this report, was complemented by additional planning efforts conducted by the Office of Planning and Advancement. Those efforts and the NCA self-study resulted in the aggregation of substantial information regarding the whole University.
The planning efforts culminated in several important decisions. First, the Board of Regents, in February of 1990, adopted the University Mission Statement described in Chapter II of this report and printed in the current catalogue. Second, the Board also adopted the following planning assumptions:
Undergraduate Instruction.
Selected Graduate Programs.
Research.
Corporate Education.
Public Service.
Ypsilanti and Southeastern Michigan.
Midwestern United States.
the International Community.
Arts and Sciences.
Business.
Education.
Health and Human Services.
Technology.
Finally, in the early Spring of 1990, a series of three public forums were conducted by the President of the University, involving approximately 250 faculty, staff, and students. At these events, coordinated by the strategic planning staff, facts were shared with the University community regarding the institution's current academic, financial, and enrollment circumstances. Views were sought on preferred directions for the University and the vision of the senior University leadership was shared with forum participants.
Traditionally colleges and universities have tended to define themselves according to whether they are "research" institutions at which research and scholarship are pre-eminent or "teaching" institutions at which the delivery of instruction is pre-eminent. At times such distinctions have been genuine, at other times specious. A planning vision based on such a distinction does not appear to be useful to Eastern Michigan University.
Instead, the distinguishing trait sought by Eastern will be one derived from the emphasis the University places on learning. The guiding principle for such a "learning university" is that the learner is the primary beneficiary of all actions and decisions. Traditionally, universities have focused on the accumulation of faculty, research, and physical resources as evidence that educational purposes are being served. The learning university focuses on the extent to which the students, faculty, and staff of the institution are learning as evidence that educational purposes are being served.
Based on examination of current institutional circumstances (through this self-study and extensive additional research by strategic planning staff), input from the University community, and a careful analysis of alternative prospects for the University. The following are considered as:
A Learning University is based on a Talent Development Model. A Learning University:
A Learning University:
A Learning University emphasizes active modes of learning and high levels of student involvement in all areas of university life. A Learning University:
A Learning University emphasizes competencies in Writing; Higher-Order (Critical) Thinking and Problem-Solving; Creativity; Learning-to-Learn and Self-Assessment Skills; and the Integration and Application of Knowledge, with Liberal Arts as the center of its undergraduate program. A Learning University:
A Learning University reaches out to the world. A Learning University reaches out to the world through active involvement in:
Assessment is an integral part of a Learning University. A Learning University:
In a Learning University, Teacher Effectiveness and Faculty Development and Renewal are high priorities. A Learning University:
In a Learning University, decision-making is guided by a vision of a learning community which offers:
A Learning University:
More extensive detail regarding the concept of the Learning University is available in the primary data file of this report. The principles outlined here will guide the specific planning that is described in the balance of this chapter.
Immediate and Longer-Term Plans
In the earlier chapters of this report several important challenges that face the University have been described as the immediate actions that are being taken to respond to those challenges. There are several such immediate plans that are repeated here to emphasize their relative importance among the developing circumstances of the University. The longer-term plans of the University will be explored through a new planning mechanism that is described in the final section of this chapter.
Immediate Plans
Earlier in this report there were several important issues for which immediate plans of action had been formulated and were described. In order to place longer-term planning in proper perspective, it is worth reviewing some of those key shorter-term action plans.
The organization of University Computing is currently under review, with one decision already made and certain others still being examined. Academic Computing User Services is now responsible to the University Provost. As a separate entity, User Services is responsible for ensuring that the instructional program of the University receives all appropriate computing support. This is of particular importance as new Basic Studies requirements are put into force and computing in general is more widely depended upon in virtually all
academic areas. Additional organizational changes in University Computing are under study and will be discussed with NCA evaluators at their discretion during the on-site visit.
The Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) is currently in the stage preparatory to its installation. A cardless registration systems has been initiated as a transitional step to full implementation of ISIS. Marked improvement in the course registration process is already apparent.
Major resource additions to Library acquisitions has brought that budget to approximately one million dollars per year. As part of the University facilities plan a program statement has been submitted to the State of Michigan in anticipation of a major renovation and addition to Library facilities.
Space and deferred maintenance needs are being addressed through the comprehensive facilities plan adopted recently by the University. That plan combines requests for additional State support, user fee support, redirection of current resources, and possible federal funding to underwrite the most significant facilities requirements facing the University.
Extensive use of non-tenure track faculty in the delivery of instruction is being moderated through a plan implemented within the Division of Academic Affairs. Financial and planning commitments have been made to reduce lecturer usage (and consequent section coverage) by one-third over the three- to four-year period beginning 1991/92.
Intensified efforts are now underway to monitor grading practices at the University. These efforts are endorsed by the Deans' Advisory Council and they are being implemented under direct supervision of the Provost's Office.
Planning is now underway for the implementation of a comprehensive, multi-faceted student outcome assessment program at the University. Outcome assessment is a central feature to the concept of Eastern Michigan as a Learning University; consequently the design and implementation of such a system will be given substantial priority and attention during the next two years.
Longer-Term Plans
While the issues reviewed above are being addressed by the University and attendant action plans are underway, there remain other important aspects of the institution's future for which there must be provisions.
During the 1990s, the University will commemorate its 150th year as an educational institution. In preparation for that time and for the challenges that will face the University as it enters a new century, there has been established an approach to long-range planning referred to as Blueprint 150. The first year of the plan has been one of self-examination, termed by the President of the University as "a year for coming together." During the next three years, movement toward the full realization of Blueprint 150 will be managed as follows:
1990/91 Development of Strategies
1991/92 Implementation of Actions
1992/93 Re-evaluation.
During 1990/91, A Year for Learning Together, to ensure that the University devotes sufficient attention to larger, strategic, definitive issues that face it, and to ensure that appropriate expertise and creativity are given to such issues, and to ensure that the development of Eastern Michigan as a Learning University will be a pre-eminent goal, The President's Commission on the Learning University has been established. Following is a discussion of the responsibilities of the Commission, its principal operational procedures, its membership, and the opening agenda for the Commission, beginning the Fall of 1990.
The President's Commission on The Learning University
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the Commission are:
Operational Procedures
The Chair reports to the President and meets with the Cabinet, regularly advising it on the progress of the Commission. The agenda for the Commission is set by the Cabinet with
the approval of the President. The agenda evolves each year and should always reflect the strategic planning interests of the University. Operational issues should not be taken up by the Commission, but by the responsible unit of the University.
The Commission is free to establish ad hoc committees and task forces made up of members from throughout the University. The Commission has a budget administered by the Chair. Use of the Commission budget should concentrate on the exploration of issues put on its agenda by the Cabinet. The budget can be used to stimulate or facilitate a particular innovation, but such use of the budget must have prior approval of the President with advice from the Cabinet.
The Commission is required to hold monthly forums in which information and opinion is sought from the University community. It is also expected to communicate regularly in writing with the University community. Such written communication will consist, at a minimum, of the publication of an annual report to the University. Such a report will be reviewed and approved by the Cabinet and President, and distributed to all permanent faculty and staff of the University as well as to the leadership of all major student groups and organizations. The report should be devoted to issues on the Commission agenda. It should contain specific recommendations to pertinent units of the University each year for actions on the agenda subjects. It should also contain proposals for additional items to be added to the agenda as they emerge from the evolving circumstances of the University.
Membership
Chair: Executive Counsel to the President for Strategic Planning
Members:
Opening Agenda 1990/91 A Year for Learning Together
Principal Agenda
Assessment: Devise a system to determine what the consequences of the University's collective educational activitiesare to students. Such a system should document student intellectual, personal, and professional achievement against standards that are defined as a result of assessing student capacities when they first come to the University. The system should have provision for the collection and reporting of all assessment results. The system should also provide methods for employing outcome results in academic program review and in the definition of overall University planning. To speed the pursuit of this aspect of its agenda, the Commission is directed to appoint an ad hoc steering committee and associated task force, and to charge it as described in Chapter IX of the NCA Self-Study.
Academic Programming/Design: Devise a plan to connect enrollment management to program purposes and character and to connect program review to resource allocation. Such a plan should ensure that an appropriate relationship will exist between the size of the student body and the purpose, character, and resources of the individual academic programs of the University. Such a plan should also make clear the basis on which decisions should be made to maintain, change, increase or decrease in size, or eliminate programs.
Affirmative Action: Devise a long-term plan to ensure full access to the University's Educational and Support Services and to continue attracting a diverse faculty and staff.
Environment: Devise a preferred description of the physical environment of the University to guide continued facilities planning. Such a description should include an expression of priorities for continued facilities development to distinguish among equally-legitimate needs that compete for limited resources.
Academic Support: Devise a preferred description of the student support services at the University to guide the units delivering those services and, further, define a communication mechanism that will unify currently disparate service sectors of the University.
Secondary Agenda
Budget Reallocation: Devise a set of methods to facilitate the movement of University resources from sector to sector of the University according to changing circumstances.
Marketing/Communication: Devise a method of ensuring firm connection between marketing/communication and academic program character and purpose.
Resource Base Expansion: Devise an approach to integrate the newly-formed University Foundation into an intensified effort at expanding the University's resource base through development and fundraising activity.
Eastern Michigan University continues to evolve along lines defined by 141 years of tradition and by an established pattern of responsiveness to the needs of Southeastern Michigan. The University community and its leadership have used the self-study process and related planning mechanisms to define clearly where it stands. Further, the University has an emerging consensus regarding the direction it wishes to take in the foreseeable future. There is an understanding of the "angle of deflection" between the direction in which the University has been tending in recent years and the preferred direction chosen for it through thoughtful examination of alternatives.
The immediate plans and the longer-term planning agenda, both described above, will help to carry the University in its preferred direction. The establishment of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership will also provide a major element necessary to impel the University in its preferred direction.
The planning agenda set forth for the President's Commission on the Learning University is ambitious. It will require several years for plans and subsequent actions to emerge on all issues. The planning agenda, no doubt, will be modified as further understanding and developing circumstances require. What is most important, however, is that the University is ready to respond to such further understanding and developing circumstances. It is, in short, prepared to continue accomplishing its purposes.