II. Planning Process

 

Planning at Texas State is undertaken with many objectives in mind. These include:

·         To guide us toward achieving our mission and shared values through identified goal statements.

·         To reflect our university goals and initiatives in the development of the university budget.

·         To assess our progress toward achieving these goals at all levels of the institution.

·         To support the integration of planning, budgeting, and assessment at the department, college, division and university levels.

·         To involve the entire university community in the development of plans at various levels of the institution.

·         To direct the use of assessment results to improve processes and revise plans.

·         To provide feedback to the community on the progress toward achieving our goals.

As Texas State began developing our 2012-2017 University Plan, we wanted to ensure that the university conducted a thorough review of the mission statement and university-wide goals and initiatives to determine if there were critical areas where we should make changes.

The review process took two years to complete. In order to prepare for this review, in fall, 2010, the President’s Cabinet reviewed the ongoing environmental scan prepared by the Office of University Planning and Assessment. From that scan the Cabinet created a document entitled “Impacts on University Planning 2012-2017 Plan.” This document was distributed to all faculty and staff in order to aid the review process. It addressed the possible economic, political, social, and technological impacts on the upcoming 2012-2017 plan.

            Following this distribution, the university community began review of the university mission statement. All faculty and staff had the opportunity to respond to an online questionnaire containing three questions: 1) What major content or concept should be included in the current mission statement and/or core values that are not currently included? 2) What major content or concept should be deleted from the current mission statement and/or core values? 3) Is the current mission statement, including core values, appropriate as it is?  If so, note here “no changes.” The vast majority of feedback indicated that the mission statement should not be changed. The president announced this information to faculty and staff, and the mission statement was not revised.

            In spring 2011, we began a review of the university goals using a similar process. After a preliminary committee reviewed feedback, the President’s Cabinet met to review feedback and make changes to the university goals. The president announced the 2012-2017 goals to the university community via e-mail at the beginning of the fall 2011 semester. The review of university initiatives to achieve 2012-2017 goals began immediately.

            In fall 2011, faculty and staff had the opportunity to meet with others in their departments to have conversations about draft university initiatives and provide feedback to the President’s Cabinet. The Cabinet discussed all suggestions for change that were received and made revisions based on feedback. Most feedback indicated that the draft initiatives were appropriate. However, the Cabinet did incorporate suggestions into revised initiatives to meet the 2012-2017 goals. Most suggestions that were not incorporated into university initiatives seemed more appropriate for department, college, and division plans that would be developed in spring 2012.

            By January 2012, Texas State had created the 2012-2017 university mission statement, goals, and initiatives to achieve those goals. Using this information, all academic and administrative units created draft plans that linked to the university goals and initiatives. In March and April, academic deans and vice presidents presented in open forums an overview of 2012-2017 planning priorities developed within colleges and divisions. In addition, the President appointed four committees to read across college and division plans to gather information for special initiatives that the university would address in the new plan. These initiatives included HSI, distance learning, internationalization, and research and scholarly/creative activity. The Equity and Access Committee and the Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Equity and Access also created a diversity plan that would be included as an appendix to the university plan.

            At a June 2012 retreat, the President’s Cabinet reviewed the draft University Plan to determine changes that needed to be made. In addition, the Cabinet reviewed reports submitted by the “read across” committees. As a follow-up to this review, the Cabinet conducted interviews with chairs of the “read across” committees to discuss and clarify information provided in the reports. The Cabinet also revisited the “Impacts on University Planning 2012-2017 Plan” document to update information. Colleges and divisions were given the opportunity to revise plans using information from the “read across” committees, revised “impacts” document, and the diversity plan. Final changes were made to the plan, and it was approved by the President in August, 2012.  The plan was launched September 1, 2012.

            As is our tradition, Texas State began a formal 2-year review of 2012-2017 University Plan in May 2014. Draft new key performance indicators and proposed revisions to university initiatives were prepared by the Director of University Planning and Assessment and reviewed individually with each divisional vice president. A revised “Environmental Scan 2014” was presented to the President’s Cabinet, along with the modified list of goals, initiatives, and key performance indicators in August 2014. Upon Cabinet approval, the president announced the formal 2-year review of the plan to the university community at the fall 2014 convocation. The campus review of the draft revised 2012-2017 University Plan began immediately. Faculty and staff had the opportunity to meet with others in their departments to have conversations about draft university initiatives and provide feedback. This feedback was collected and presented to the President’s Cabinet in October 2014 and the formal revised 2012-2017 University Plan was approved. Beginning in spring 2015, all academic and administrative units will have an opportunity to revise their plans in accordance with the revised University Plan and link to the revised university goals and initiatives. These revised college and division plans will be available within this plan, as well as on the University Planning and Assessment website.