Task forces key part of developing long-term strategic plan

University Park, Pa. -- The University Strategic Planning Council charged by Penn State President Graham B. Spanier last November to develop an overall, five-year and beyond strategic plan for the University, is making good progress toward its stated goal.

"The council, which has met bi-weekly since January, has identified numerous issues and challenges that are critically important to the continued long-term success of the University," said Louise Sandmeyer, executive director of planning and institutional assessment and a member of the council. "We've also charged seven task forces to address some key themes and make recommendations to the council."

The task force reports, which will remain internal to the council at least initially, will be completed by October. The council will use the information from the task force reports in conjunction with the strategic plans from colleges, campuses, and support units due this July to formulate the University's overall strategic plan.

"The task forces are dealing with complex and weighty issues, but they are essential to our future decision-making. We would like the task forces to be unfettered by the constraints of producing a public document and to be able to 'step outside the box' to rethink issues and challenge conventional wisdom," said Rod Erickson, executive vice president and provost, and chair of the council.

"The process is different from past strategic planning processes in that it involves a broader range of ways to get input into the final University plan, which will be informed by the individual unit plans and the task force reports," said Yvonne Gaudelius, assistant vice president and associate dean for Undergraduate Education. "The membership of each task force is very broad and reaches across the University."

To this end, the council has included on the task forces many individuals who are not on the council.

"The task forces include members of the Board of Trustees, as well as faculty, staff and students who have not been involved with the University Strategic Planning Council, so we can get greater input from the wider University community," said Sandmeyer.

The task forces, their chairs, and some of the topics they will address, are:

-- Achieving Academic Excellence, Dan Larson, chair. This group will address how the University should define and measure academic excellence; how the University can enhance the academic/intellectual environment, especially with respect to undergraduate education; and other topics.

-- Campus Missions, John Romano, chair. This group will address the demographics, student recruitment and positioning of the Commonwealth campuses in relation to the market; how campuses can more creatively and effectively share resources, both academic and non-academic; and other topics.

-- Ensuring Student Success, Yvonne Gaudelius, chair. "Our task force is examining key issues related to how we define student success, what strategic indicators we might use to measure how well we are performing, and how well we are preparing students to address broader issues such as the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, integrity and membership in a global society," Gaudelius said.

-- Information Resources, Technologies and Services, Nancy Eaton, chair. This group will focus on three overarching issues: teaching and learning technologies, research infrastructure, and IT applications that would improve the operations of the University. "There are a series of cross-cutting issues that are relevant to all three areas," said Eaton. "IT is pervasive in every aspect of higher education and therefore is critical to the deliberations of the USPC and the University's strategic plan."

-- Internationalizing Penn State, Rob Crane, chair. This group will address what it means for Penn State students to be international citizens and globally literate; how the University can involve more students in international programming; and other topics.

-- Land Grant Mission, Don Heller, chair. This group will address how to adapt the 19th century Land Grant mission to the 21st century global environment; student access; what role technology plays in shaping the 21st century approach to the Land Grant mission; and other topics.

-- Resource Management and Revenue Enhancement, Al Horvath, chair. This group will address how the University assesses the impacts of continued budget recycling and whether there is a better, more systematic way of looking for greater efficiencies and funding new initiatives; how the University can more appropriately handle the turnover of faculty and staff as the Baby Boom generation retires in greater numbers and identify major opportunities that may accompany this change; and other topics.

"Each task force is charged with examining a part of the University's mission that stretches across single units, hence the task force reports will deal with broad, University-wide issues and structures. This will enable us to think strategically about issues that may not be addressed in the single-unit plans," Gaudelius said.

Once the University Strategic Planning Council has the task force reports and unit-specific strategic plans, it will work to develop the draft University-wide plan, which will be reviewed starting in February 2009 by members of the Board of Trustees, the President's Council, the Academic Leadership Council, the Faculty Senate, student leaders, the Alumni Council and other groups of key University stakeholders. The finalized plan is expected to be implemented at the start of the 2009-10 academic year.

For more information about the council, visit http://www.psu.edu/president/pia/strategic_planning/uspc/index.html and for a listing of task force members, visit http://www.psu.edu/president/pia/strategic_planning/uspc/task_forces.pdf online.