Achieving national and international preeminence in innovation, discovery and creativity is the first goal in WSU’s proposed strategic plan for 2008-2013.
A 23-member task force began meeting in early fall to update WSU’s 2002-2007 strategic plan, which included vision and mission statements, institutional values, goals and progress indicators.
The revised plan is being presented to the WSU Board of Regents as an information item at its May 1-2 meeting.
Larry James, associate executive vice president, said the proposed new plan was created by incorporating suggestions and comments gathered from throughout the university system, researching other strategic plans and arriving at consensus through vigorous discussion.
“It was a really good group,” James said. “Everyone had done their homework.”
While the mission and vision statements and institutional values were released several months ago, the goals, supporting strategic initiatives and progress indicators were the final pieces of the plan to be drafted.
As in the previous plan, the new strategic plan also lists four goals. In addition to the goal of achieving national and international preeminence, the remaining goals are:
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Provide a premiere education and transformative experience that prepares students to excel in a global society.
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Lead in relevant local, national and global outreach and engagement.
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Embrace an environment of diversity, integrity and transparency.
While WSU’s previous goals discussed undergraduate education separately from research, and engagement, the revised goals envision a more global education that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“Really what we were trying to do was achieve balance among undergraduate and graduate education, research and scholarship, and outreach and engagement,” James said, “and I think that’s reflected in both the mission and goals.”
Howard Grimes, a member of the goals subcommittee, said the plan acknowledges that for WSU to fulfill its role as a national land-grant research university, and keep its promise to the state, the region and the country, every department or unit must be engaged in important, groundbreaking research, the university must embrace and grow graduate education and the university must take its research outside of WSU to partner with people, groups and institutions “at a level we’ve never done before.”
“In this strategic plan, we are saying we aren’t a regional institution, we are a national, preeminent research institution,” he said.
Just as the previous strategic plan was created specifically to guide growth and development from 2002-2007, this strategic plan focuses on 2008 to 2013.
Corinne Mantle-Bromley, chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning, said the committee took seriously its charge to gather input from various constituencies and create a strategic plan that reflected a strong vision for the university.
“There may not have been as many people called to meetings, but there were a significant number of people involved in the process,” she said. “We listened very carefully to feedback.”
The draft plan being sent to the Regents also includes a lengthy list of possible benchmarks or criteria by which to assess progress.
Some of the criteria are the same as those used to determine AAU rankings, such as faculty membership in the National Academies and competitively funded federal research support. However, most of the criteria are broader than that.
For more information go to https://www.strategicplan.wsu.edu/vision-values-mission-goals.html
