CSULB's Vision and Strategic
Priorities articulate our commitment to strive for the highest
quality in our instructional and support programs in order
to provide our students with the best education possible.
Our Vision and Priorities have been developed on the basis
of broad consultation within our community.
In 1999, the Resource Planning Process
Committee (composed of administrators, faculty, staff, and
student representatives) recommended to the President that
a process be developed by which "mid-range" (2-3
year) goals might be established in order to focus the decision-making
processes of the Resource Planning Process. The President
accepted this recommendation. In 2000, the Resource Planning
Process Committee adopted the mid-range goals as the framework
for soliciting proposals and used the goals an important input
into funding recommendations. A separate document reports
campus progress toward the goals.
Campus mid-range planning goals were
developed collaboratively by the Provost, the Vice President
for Administration and Finance, the Vice President for Student
Services, the Vice President for Development, and the Chair
of the Academic Senate. The Director of Strategic Planning
facilitated this collaborative effort. The discussions aimed
at identifying priorities that reflected shared all-university
concerns and not those specific to the mission of each Division.
The goal was to come to agreement about our most pressing
problems and to create mid-range planning goals that each
division could use to focus its budget priorities. In short,
the primary goal was to have everyone working toward jointly
agreed-upon ends.
These mid-range goals were created
within the context of our existing Strategic Priorities; they
do not replace them. Moreover, because these mid-range goals
deal with current issues that may change somewhat each year
as they are negotiated against the backdrop of changing circumstances.
We expect that the normal period for these goals to remain
largely intact will be three years. Finally, these mid-range
goals do not encompass everything that is important in the
pursuit of our Strategic Priorities. They attempt to give
priority to dealing with the most significant current challenges
and opportunities so that our efforts can be concentrated
where they will bring us closest to our long-term goals.
The establishment of mid-range planning
goals gives us the opportunity to assess how well we are achieving
our objectives by providing more specific short-term goals.
These goals include agreed-upon indicators of success that
will help us to track our success. This will also facilitate
the formation of new mid-range goals as the year’s progress
and we move on to new challenges.
Tidal Wave II presents a tremendous
challenge to California institutions of higher education and
has the potential to affect all aspects of the university.
CSULB's enrollment is expected to grow steadily over the planning
period, with freshman demand particularly strong. For the
first time in many years, the university expects to be fully
funded next year for its enrollment. During the planning period,
we expect that our applications for freshmen will close in
November and we will remain closed to new lower division transfer
students. We expect to reach our currently defined campus
enrollment capacity within one to two years. Once we reach
our academic year campus capacity, we expect that the campus
impaction plan will be approved by the Chancellor's Office.
The state budget provided to the CSU
within the new Partnership with the Governor will increase
modestly over the planning period to support enrollment growth
at marginal cost. Once the campus attains impaction, less
state funding for enrollment growth will be available.
We will continue to promote aggressively
a positive image for the campus, using the President’s
Scholars Program as our flagship effort to attract high performing
students. The campus understands that best practice of enrollment
management is not limited to controlling admissions but includes
managing course availability, retention, and support services
for students.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will we continue to cope with
additional costs of enrollment growth that are not covered
by marginal state funding? What is our plan to facilitate
timely degree completion? How can we continue to best utilize
marginal cost funds to maintain quality of instruction and
services?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Seek approval for impaction status as soon as warranted
by enrollment demand.
Develop a plan for services that are required to retain
continuing students and improve time to degree.
Develop plan or a process to maximize classroom utilization.
PLANNING
AREA II: RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN A NO-GROWTH ERA
ASSUMPTIONS
CSULB will soon reach physical plant
capacity and will therefore receive less enrollment growth
funding, bringing to an end of the recent period of significant
campus budget growth. Campus planning efforts must shift focus
from allocating new dollars to planning in a period of no-growth.
We expect that the Resource Planning Process Committee will
continue to recommend workload formula allocations to divisions
for at least one and perhaps several years.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will CSULB planning efforts adjust
to a period of no-growth? How will emerging needs and new
initiatives be funded? How will funding be provided for ongoing
high-cost programs?
MID-RANGE GOALS
End the practice of "salary annualization"
after AY 2000-2001.
Rethink campus planning structures and processes to adjust
to an era of limited growth.
CSULB will convert to year round operation
(YRO) in summer 2001. The campus will proactively plan for
impacts of YRO in many areas including academic policies,
academic calendar, facilities maintenance, operations, staffing,
and personnel. The campus will proactively plan for a reasonable
transition period for our Continuing Education program, which
is a valuable campus asset. Financial aid in the summer term
under YRO will be provided in the form of State University
Grants (SUG) and student loans.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How shall we examine and revise our
schedule of fees? How can we maintain the viability and benefits
of our Continuing Education operation? What / how will the
CSU adjust campus capacity under YRO? Will summer become a
recognized admissions term? What impact will YRO have on our
regular term enrollment? How do we determine which academic
programs can be sustained at high quality during the summer?
What impact will YRO have on our non-resident/international
students? As part of our impaction plan, should the campus
require summer enrollment prior to their first term for freshman
students requiring remediation?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Implement the short-range YRO plan for summer 2001 and
until such time as we are able to implement long-range arrangements
to manage YRO.
Develop a long-range plan for YRO with broad university
consultation.
Develop a plan to provide appropriate compensation for
department chairs and other personnel under YRO.
PLANNING
AREA IV: QUALITY OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
ASSUMPTIONS
We can expect that enrollment growth
will increase demands on all of our campus services and will
increase workload for our faculty and staff. Our changing
student mix has significant impacts on campus services and
instructional programs. Maintaining the quality of our teaching-learning
environment and services is vital to retaining our status
as a "university of choice" for excellent students.
Faculty scholarship and creative activity
and staff professional development are critical to maintaining
the quality of the educational environment. Significant numbers
of faculty will retire in the planning period creating a challenge
to maintain adequate staffing for our academic programs. We
must ensure that adequate resources are available to replenish
the ranks of the tenured and tenure-track faculty, as well
as provide resources for continuous professional development
of both the current and future CSULB faculty.
We must also maintain high quality
advising and support staff, continuously improve the quality
of classroom environments and the Library, and strengthen
the institution’s platform of information technology
tools to support student learning. Meeting these needs will
pose a significant planning and budgetary challenge to the
University in a time when less additional state funding will
be available.
At all times, we must ensure that CSULB
is a highly safe environment and that we are prepared for
potential emergencies.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will we maintain quality of instruction
and services as enrollment grows rapidly? How will we support
necessary programmatic
growth and change, as state funding becomes less available?
How should faculty workload be organized to balance service
to students with scholarly and creative activities?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Implement a strategic plan for systematically increasing
"tenure density" over the next three years to
five years.
Identify resources needed to support faculty scholarship
and to strengthen the research infrastructure in support
of scholarly and creative activity.
We can expect that the construction
of the four currently approved, major state capital projects
(Renovate Fine Arts, New Science Building, Telecommunications
Infrastructure, and Fire/Life Safety) will significantly impact
the campus. We can further expect that enrollment growth will
increase demands on all of our campus services and facilities.
Our campus needs additional student housing; enrollment growth
will exacerbate this shortage and our shortage of faculty
office space, classrooms, labs, and support space. The California
energy crisis will have a financial and operational impact
on the campus.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will we ensure fully efficient
and appropriate utilization of campus instructional facilities
and faculty and staff offices and workspaces? How will we
maintain quality of services and the teaching-learning environment
for students? Which of the identified alternatives will we
select to develop new student housing? How will we ensure
that CSULB will continue to be a highly safe environment and
that we are prepared for emergencies at all times? How do
we make energy conservation a permanent part of the campus
culture?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Maintain the adequacy and quality of the physical environment,
including classrooms and faculty and staff offices.
Conduct a comprehensive review of the campus physical
master plan.
Accelerate the calendar for the allocation of instructional
resources.
Ensure adequate housing to meet the growing student demand.
Ensure that CSULB continues to be a highly safe environment
free of violence, hostility, harassment, and discrimination;
and that we are prepared for emergencies at all times.
Promote a major co-generation project for the campus
under the Governor's recent budget message objectives.
Identify possible off-campus sites for non-instructional
(e.g., research) programs.
Optimize the campus' ability to cope with the California
energy crisis through aggressive conservation and energy
efficient equipment, systems, and practices.
The Common Management System (CMS)
project will provide a state-of the-art campus information
system including modules for human resources, financials,
and student administration. CMS will provide essential modernization
of campus information systems. The cost and time commitment
for CMS will affect other campus priorities. CSULB information
users, working with their counterparts from other campuses
within the CMS collaborative approach, will influence changes
in campus practices that are necessitated by CMS. Vendor support
for the current student administration system will become
unavailable sometime in the next few years. CSULB has been
notified it was not selected as a first wave campus for development
of the Student Administration system. This will necessitate
the campus explore other options.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will we effectively utilize the
benefits offered by CMS? How will we control and adjust to
the substantial changes in campus practice necessitated by
the collaborative approach of CMS? How will CMS affect our
other priorities? What are the alternatives or options for
student administration given the delay in CMS?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Attain substantial implementation of CMS Human Resources
and Finance modules by the end of the three-year planning
period.
Maximize the benefits obtainable from CMS by adopting
best practices and maintaining a system-wide leadership
position in the implementation process.
Communicate effectively with the campus community about
CMS benefits and costs of implementation plans.
Find and implement a new student administration system
that meets anticipated campus needs.
PLANNING
AREA VII: ASSESSMENT, QUALITY, & ACCOUNTABILITY
ASSUMPTIONS
CSULB is committed to the enhancement
of quality in all of our programs, activities and services.
We will do everything necessary to ensure maintenance of regional
accreditation and to meet standards for professional accreditation
where applicable. The Trustees have adopted the Cornerstones
Accountability initiative and formulated accountability measures
for all campuses. The Cornerstones initiative includes a significant
emphasis on assessment. The CSU will continue to encourage
system-wide quality improvement initiatives. The campus will
ensure compliance with Federal, State, and CSU requirements.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
MID-RANGE GOALS
Complete a thoughtful campus review for the Western Association
of Schools and Colleges resulting in full regional accreditation
for the campus.
Track key indicators of quality of instruction and services
as enrollment grows rapidly in the three-year planning period.
Encourage and support quality improvement programs in
campus divisions and units based on respectively appropriate
frameworks (e.g., academic assessment, program review, and
balanced scorecard).
Begin to integrate, coordinate and share communication
internally within the campus about quality improvement programs
underway in respective campus divisions and units.
Continue the comprehensive communication strategy regarding
assessment, quality and accountability for external constituents,
including the Chancellor.
We benefit from having a critical
mass of faculty and staff members engaged in grant and contract
work. Expanding our entrepreneurial activities in ways consistent
with campus mission will bring benefits to the campus. Endowment
enhancement is the next essential step in our development
strategies. Success of development strategies will rely heavily
upon enhancement of relationship building with our constituents.
OPEN/UNDECIDED ISSUES
How will we create a University climate
that will motivate and encourage faculty and staff members
to successfully engage in grant and contract work? How will
we appropriately expand our entrepreneurial activities? How
will we best advance our endowment efforts? How will we successfully
broaden the support from more alumni, friends, parents, business
and corporate sponsors in the life of the university? How
will we secure funding to expand or maintain current efforts
designed to enhance the university’s image, including
programs, alumni events, publications and other media? How
will the administration of the student scholarship programs
be handled?
MID-RANGE GOALS
Develop and implement an incentive plan to support faculty
and staff grant and contract activity.
Increase our focus on current students and their potential
lifelong relationship with the university following graduation.
Broaden the revenue base of the CSULB Foundation.
Increase endowment-directed gifts substantially each
year.
Expand contact with alumni through general and targeted
publications, programs, services and on-line information.
In order to enhance the quality of our instructional
services to the University’s corporate, government,
and professional constituents, support Continuing Education
in development of a new Professional Education Facility.
