Developing a New Strategic Plan for
the California State University
November 2006
Overview of the Planning Process, and Domains for Discussion
As approved by the California State University's Board of Trustees in September 2006, the CSU's strategic plan to succeed Cornerstones will focus on major elements of the University's mission, access and excellence. This planning exercise is being overseen by a system-wide steering committee, which has developed a preliminary framework organized into the six domains presented in this document. Existing CSU policies and plans are the starting place for this effort, including current Board policies that relate to resource acquisition, student access and success, and the priority to close the faculty salary gap. The resulting plan, tentatively titled Access to Excellence, will identify additional strategic priorities to meet the challenges facing the institution and the individual campuses, and will provide the basis for initiatives needed to ensure access and excellence into the future.
The planning process will be collaborative and consultative, beginning in the winter of 2006-2007 with an initial series of President-led campus conversations focused on the issues raised in the planning domains. These conversations may well focus on additional questions that campuses deem to be of importance, as well. In April 2007, a system-wide summit will be held to review feedback from the campus conversations prior to the development of a draft plan. Following internal consultation and revisions, the draft plan will be the basis for a series of public convocations in the fall of 2007 targeting key external stakeholder groups, including public policy audiences. The final plan will be submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval in May of 2008.
Campus Consultations
The purpose of beginning the process at the campus level is to ensure that the process leading to the next CSU strategic plan will be broadly inclusive, involving dialogue among—and outreach to—the multiple constituencies that define the University and its mission. The steering committee urges Presidents to ensure a campus consultative process that will include students, faculty, and staff, as well as alumni, members of advisory boards, and other community stakeholders from outside the institution. Consistent with the CSU's commitment to shared governance, Academic Senates and Associated Students, Inc. should play significant roles in the campus conversations.
Recognizing that it may not be possible for every campus to schedule a single all-campus event that will involve simultaneous participation by the full range of stakeholders, we hope that as many campuses as possible might find a way to do so.
In addressing each the following issues, it would be useful to consider the perspectives both of the individual campus and of the CSU system as a whole . Specifically,
What are the strengths of your campus and the CSU system now?
What would you like either or both to be doing better in the future?
What changes need to occur at each level (campus and system) in order to do what each should be doing?
How could technology help to achieve goals and/or improve business processes in this area?
Questions proposed for inclusion in each campus conversation follow.
Domain 1. Assuring Access
Encouraging improvement in P-12 students' academic preparation and eliminating the achievement gaps among different groups of students
Encouraging students to consider the option of going to college early in their academic careers.
Delivering comprehensive advising about getting to college, beginning in middle school.
Seeking the help of networks of campus supporters - parents and family, alumni, community leaders, internship providers - in doing this.
Addressing the needs of special learners, as through adaptive technology.
Making the pathway to CSU from community college apparent,and removing barriers to transfer and success.
Ensuring that campus and system policies work in support of access.
Domain 2. Connecting to P-12 Schools and to Community Colleges
Seeking and securing value from partnerships with P-12, California Community Colleges, and interested community constituencies
Forging partnerships valuable enough to be regarded as a national model.
Assuring strong partnerships that will be sustainable over the long term.
Assuring that partnerships with P-12 and Community Colleges are effective two-way relationships.
Collaborating in development of expectations in key content areas such as math, language arts, science, and social studies.
Forging partnerships that address the state's workforce needs.
Collaborating to seek extramural funding to accomplish shared objectives.
Learning from, and implementing recommendations from, P-12 and Community Colleges in the preparation of teachers for both segments.
Domain 3. Fulfilling Commitments to Multiple Stakeholders
Identifying and reaching out to, partnering with, and serving the right set of local, regional, national, and international groups / constituencies.
Identifying and developing relationships with new stakeholder groups.
Maintaining and strengthening connections with internal stakeholders.
Establishing indicators that demonstrate that the campus values internal stakeholders.
Encouraging faculty and staff to be involved in partnerships with external stakeholders.
Encouraging involvement of alumni as mentors for current students.
Publicizing/ marketing strengths to show stakeholders the benefits of engagement with the CSU.
Identifying strategies that will sustain connections with key stakeholders, both internal and external
Identifying and employing strong strategies for each of these.
Identifying policy changes that might make campuses and the system better stewards of state resources.
Domain 4. Ensuring Success in Student Learning
Demonstrating the achievement of outcomes-based competencies among students and communicating these outcomes in ways that are clear and accessible to students, parents, and the public.
Awarding of credit to degrees using rigorous learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom and employing both traditional and nontraditional pedagogy.
Assuring that comprehensive student advising continues through to graduation from the CSU.
Tracking student success beyond the traditional six-year graduation rate.
Measuring and improving transfer student success.
Assessing the success of campus internship programs, and contributions to student success as a result of support from parents, community, and donors.
Assuring "start-to-finish" support for students with deficiencies in academic preparation from the time they are accepted into the university.
Involving student affairs professionals alongside faculty in providing needed support.
Ensuring that campus and system policies work in support of student success.
Supporting student participation in the research and scholarly and creative activities of faculty
Preparing students with a global perspective, language abilities, cross-cultural competencies, and technological capabilities that will lead to successful lives and lifelong learning skills.
Domain 5. Faculty/Staff Excellence to Promote Student Success
Across multiple program types (baccalaureate; graduate; credential; certificate):
Demonstrating and valuing faculty quality as an important input to student success
Demonstrating and valuing staff quality as an important input to student success.
Affirming the co-curricular experience of students as contributing to student maturation and academic success.
Recruiting and retaining high-quality and diverse faculty, staff, and administrators for the future.
Identifying desired characteristics in the faculty, staff, and administrators of the future
Identifying and addressing potential roadblocks to success in recruiting and retaining high-quality and diverse faculty, staff, and administrators for the future
Supporting the teacher-scholar model for faculty
Ensuring appropriate professional development for staff
Supporting high performance by faculty, staff, and administrators.
Recognizing multiple contributions from both faculty and staff, including for faculty roles in research and in service to the broader communities served by campuses.
Ensuring service excellence in every area to support student achievement, satisfaction, and persistence.
Domain 6. Now and in the Future: Campus / System Identity
Defining and articulating core strengths and essential identity.
Identifying those national and international priorities that should become part of the CSU's core identity.
Affirming and assuring the vitality of the values of shared governance in an environment of student participation and collective bargaining.
Identifying and revising as necessary those policies at every level that hinder strong definition / articulation of core strengths and essential identity.
Engaging key state and national policy-makers in dialogue about CSU's future
Inviting input to the definition and articulation of essential identity.
Encouraging policy-makers to embrace CSU's vision for itself
Successfully marketing CSU vision and achievements to policymakers to ensure that funds needed for success will be available on a predictable basis
Developing consensus (with policy makers and others) about the roles and responsibilities of the CSU.
Addressing the issue of affordability within the context of access, excellence, individual campus mission, and state and individual/family responsibility.
Assuring that demand and capacity are in appropriate balance for every campus, and every region of the state.
Thinking strategically about appropriate growth trajectory in the context of current and future demographic realities
Assuring that smaller campuses with important regional missions may thrive.
Ensuring the distinctive missions of individual campuses, and envisioning those distinctive missions within the CSU essential identity.
Assuring appropriate balance among undergraduate, graduate, credential, and non-degree programs
Addressing demands and opportunities arising from the arrival of the "digital age," including appropriate development of on-line and distance learning