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BU Draft Strategic Plan, September 16, 2004
Sustaining Excellence in a Climate of Change:
Our Roadmap for the Future
Foreword
Preserving a legacy of excellence
In its relatively short history – less than 60 years – Binghamton University has achieved distinction for the quality of its creative endeavors and for the economic and social impact of its collaborative work with business, educational, governmental, and not-for-profit organizations. In higher education, we are often cited for and take great pride in “doing it right.” One of the best public institutions of higher learning in the nation, Binghamton embraces its responsibility to use its expertise and knowledge to promote the public good. Our faculty, through their scholarship and enterprise, make significant contributions to understanding hearts and minds, society and culture, the physical world in its myriad forms, and the deepest reaches of abstract thought: analytical, philosophical, and mathematical. They are also educators who care deeply about preparing students--both undergraduate and graduate--for meaningful and productive lives. Across the board, the University’s strength lies in its people. Our faculty, staff, and students represent a variety of cultures, backgrounds and ideas. Our campus environment is open and supportive, enriched by this breadth of intellectual and creative energy. As an institution, we are large enough to mount new and exciting ventures in research, teaching and service, yet small enough to be a community. Within the State University of New York system, and increasingly well beyond it, we are known as an institution of excellence.
We recognize, however, that “excellence” is a delicate state of being. Once attained, it will not endure without visionary, prescient planning and campus-wide dedication to mission. Like most institutions of higher education, Binghamton University faces important challenges rooted in shifting national trends and state and institutional realities. If we are to sustain the excellence for which Binghamton is known, we must chart a course that addresses these challenges. Further, we must find a way to seize the opportunities for excellence that they create. Expanding on the commitment that has helped us so successfully come this far, we must reassess and build on our strengths, while carefully examining our limitations and making realistic choices about how to address them. We must remain mindful that what helped us to succeed in one context might not be as helpful in the next. We must regularly and unflinchingly assess and evaluate our progress against our stated goals. Last spring, it was toward this end that President DeFleur commissioned the Strategic Planning Council. Bringing together representatives from Binghamton’s faculty, staff, and undergraduate and graduate student bodies, the Council was asked to lead the campus in developing proposals that could help the University realize its greater potential. But first, there was much to consider about the current climate.
Responding to the winds of change
In past generations, public higher education was viewed as a public good, and public taxation was the generally accepted means of paying for it. Today, a college degree is more commonly viewed as a benefit to the individual who holds it. Consequently, the public increasingly expects the costs of higher education, even public higher education, to be recouped through individual tuition rather than taxes. Simultaneously, the demands on colleges and universities have dramatically increased. The public expects institutions of higher education to help drive economic development, improve K-12 education, cure disease, design better approaches to caring for the elderly and infirm, and resolve seemingly intractable international problems. Calls by state and federal governments for greater accountability are also a part of the changing environment in which we must continue to learn to flourish. Meanwhile, technological advances have given rise to a new constellation of learning environments—traditional and virtual—that can benefit Binghamton University and its students if we appropriately position ourselves to respond to them. Time and place no longer constrain the creation or sharing of knowledge and information. New methods of teaching and learning as well as non-traditional avenues for degree certification are enabled by the Internet and enhanced telecommunications. Such advances broaden the scope of what is possible for Binghamton. The increased competition they give rise to, however, also has the potential to challenge the preeminence of residentially based campuses such as ours. As we move into the future, we must guard Binghamton’s rich tradition of providing residential students with individual attention and mentoring, even as we seek to harness new technologies and augment the ways that non-traditional students can interact with us.
Small enough to want to grow, young enough that we are not as well known as we should be—Binghamton University is an institution in transition, in a climate in flux. Only thoughtful planning can position us to leverage our strengths and capitalize on the myriad opportunities spawned by such conditions.
Given the current climate, it would be unrealistic for the University to expect significant increases in state support in the foreseeable future. Yet operating costs—salaries, equipment, supplies, utilities—will assuredly continue to rise. Hunkering down and waiting for the State to rebound is not a viable option; we would only lose ground as promising opportunities passed us by. Strategic planning will instead allow us to grow out of our economic constraints. Through optimal use of current resources, through rational choices in program growth, through expanded partnerships with business and industry, and through persistent pursuit of sponsored funding and gifts from alumni and friends, Binghamton can ensure that it will remain a strong and vibrant institution of higher education well into the future.
In carrying out its charge, the Strategic Planning Council has been diligent in its efforts to involve the campus community in the planning process. Throughout its term of service, the Council broadly solicited recommendations using a dedicated web site that provided ease of access to the entire University community. Subcommittees of the Council met face-to-face with deans, and with selected faculty, staff, students and members of the larger community. A separate electronic survey distributed to faculty and administrators offered the chance to weigh in on campus strengths and weaknesses as well as environmental threats and opportunities. The Council’s deliberations drew heavily upon what the University community had to say, and a number of observations about the University resonated throughout the Council’s discussions and helped to guide its thinking. The Council came to view Binghamton University as an institution that:
- attracts outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are increasingly sophisticated consumers
- provides all students with exceptional opportunities for faculty mentoring and individual interaction
- offers on-campus students a uniquely meaningful, value-added residential college experience
- exists in a competitive sponsored research environment that increasingly demands interdisciplinary approaches and real-life applications of new knowledge and technologies
- wrestles with the need to balance the equation between its graduate programs and sufficient, sustainable resources
- will significantly strengthen its vibrancy, its contribution, and its competitive edge by framing, communicating and implementing a new strategic plan
- will benefit from new policies and procedures that directly link budgeting and resource allocation to the Strategic Plan
- will best ensure its success by establishing appropriate performance measures and by regularly engaging in systemic assessment/evaluation that tracks our progress towards our stated goals.
The suggestions that follow take these perceptions into account and are the result of hundreds of hours of data collection and discussion, analysis and debate, and negotiation and consensus building by members of the Strategic Planning Council. They are intended to be responsive to concerns and suggestions raised within the University community, and are designed to broaden the University’s range of influence, enhance its visibility and acclaim, and ensure its vibrancy and vitality into the next decade. They are a first draft of our roadmap for the future. We seek your comment and critique. Feedback can be forwarded by e-mail to: provost@binghamton.edu, by hard copy (to Laura O’Neil, AD-707), by phone (607-777-2141), or in person to Mary Ann Swain by October 8, 2004.
A mission with vision
Binghamton University is a premier public university dedicated to enriching the lives of people in the region, nation and world through discovery and education and to being enriched by its engagement in those communities.
In support of the University’s mission, our planning focuses on four overarching themes:
- reinforcing the University’s vital core by means of faculty hiring and the promotion of intellectual synergy amongst its scholars and researchers
- expanding educational opportunities at all levels
- enhancing outreach and engagement
- diversifying the University’s revenues while carefully assessing and evaluating existing operations and new initiatives.
Reinforcing the University’s core
Poems, novels, sculptures and songs enlighten the human experience. Observation and experimentation crystallize understanding of the social and physical world in which we live. Consistent with its stated mission, which is to enrich lives through discovery, education and engagement, the University must do all it can to enable those activities—within and across traditional organizational lines, and at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of education. Our aspiration is simple—we intend to significantly expand the University’s research, scholarly, and creative endeavors. These activities depend on and are rooted in the strength of our faculty. Our first priority, then, must be to reinforce that vital core through faculty hiring.
Strategic Goal 1:
Support faculty hiring to advance research within the disciplines and at the interface between the disciplines.
Faculty discovery, creativity and scholarship are stimulated and enlivened by wide-ranging and insightful interchange with peers in their profession. The University envisages a campus in which research is undertaken within a variety of faculty organizations — departments, school-linked-clusters, interdisciplinary research groups, and so forth. To facilitate these activities we will need to expand our approach to faculty hiring, while maintaining the strength of our traditional departmentally based research programs and our commitment to providing unparalleled undergraduate educational opportunities. In order to accomplish this, the University will develop policies that empower research clusters and alternative work groups to initiate and complete faculty hires in current and emerging interdisciplinary programs. In such cases, schools and departments would also play an important role in the hiring process, a role that would include providing the Provost and President with feedback about the contributions candidates could make to the teaching of required courses in undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Even with an aggressive hiring plan, Binghamton University will not be large enough in the near future to provide a nucleus of faculty in every sub-field. Absent the daily exchange of ideas with like-minded colleagues, however, it is difficult to advance one’s intellectual work. Consequently, to provide a provocative environment and maximize the impact and visibility of their efforts, academic units will need to be thoughtful about choosing a focus for their intellectual work and graduate programs. A radical rethinking of how breadth can be achieved at the undergraduate level, where the University has established and is deeply committed to maintaining a reputation for excellence, will also be needed. Approaches employing different types of faculty, new mixes of traditional and e-learning, independent study, and credit by examination will likely be among those considered.
Strategic Goal 2.
While sustaining excellence in our undergraduate programs, expand graduate education by strengthening the role of the Graduate School, further developing traditional and interdisciplinary graduate programs, and improving graduate stipends.
Advances in knowledge flow from active interchange among seasoned scholars and bright aspirants. Binghamton’s ability to attract the best and brightest undergraduate students is well established and must be maintained. Equal attention must also be paid to attracting and retaining quality graduate students, who are key to Binghamton University’s educational and research missions. The biggest challenge to expanding graduate education at Binghamton University is improving graduate stipends.We attract excellent graduate students because of the quality of our faculty and the individual mentoring they provide to students. If our graduate stipends fall any further behind those of our competitors, however, even these advantages will not be sufficient to convince the best among those admitted to enroll at this University.
Most graduate programs are tied to or closely linked with a single department. This is a long-standing tradition, and these programs should grow and continue to serve a large fraction of our graduate student population. As our interdisciplinary research programs expand, however, we will see an increasing number of research faculty and students whose interests may not easily fit into existing department-based graduate programs. In keeping with our mission and other strategic goals, promoting the formal establishment of additional interdisciplinary graduate programs that can maximize the contribution of faculty, staff and students affiliated with research clusters will be a natural and appropriate step. Research clusters should aggressively apply for appropriate federal and non-governmental training programs to enhance training support and stipend levels for graduate students working with them. “Proof of principle” is already provided by Binghamton’s materials science program, an interdisciplinary degree program not affiliated with a single department. The proposed biomedical engineering program is being created along similar lines. Interdisciplinary programs could also naturally evolve out of many other research areas. [One example would be a graduate program in bioinformatics. Bioinformatics research requires the contributions of faculty with backgrounds in anthropology, biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine/nursing, and physics. This important new field of study also spawns fundamental business, ethical, historical, social, and psychological questions, and faculty from disciplines dealing with these matters could also be expected to become involved. If a bioinformatics research group were to be formed at Binghamton, it would be reasonable to develop a corresponding bioinformatics graduate program to provide an outlet for the affiliated research faculty to teach courses in their specialty, and to streamline the process of graduate work for students undertaking bioinformatics research.] Designing more interdisciplinary graduate programs could open opportunities for every member of Binghamton’s faculty. In this way, even faculty in departments without a doctoral program will have a chance to affiliate with and contribute to doctoral education.
New interdisciplinary programs will need to find a “home” so they can be effectively promoted and coordinated, and Binghamton’s existing Graduate School is the natural choice. In support of this goal, the Graduate School should be empowered to provide closer oversight of graduate education, including providing a home for some interdisciplinary programs. Resource allocation to the Graduate School should be increased to enhance its ability to serve the institution’s growing needs. An accountability budget, wherein the Graduate School budget is tied at least in part to the success of the graduate programs on campus should be implemented. The Faculty Bylaws, including the Bylaws of the Graduate School, should also be closely reviewed, modernized, and simplified where possible to facilitate approval of new courses or initiatives involving research clusters and interdisciplinary graduate programs.
Binghamton’s intellectual leadership will be underscored by offering graduate programs in relevant and burgeoning fields of study, with carefully designed curricula that meet the needs of students and society. Specific research emphases are best built on faculty initiatives. Picking “winners” is no easier in the arts, sciences, and engineering than it is in the world of horses or business. The University proposes instead to adopt a highly adaptive scheme: hire the best faculty we can and allow the structure of their research programs to self-organize. As research programs begin to evolve from this approach, faculty with expertise needed to further strengthen these initiatives can be hired. We believe this strategy will result in a more creative, flexible, and effective way to advance the intellectual life of the University. Developing procedures that provide maximal organizational flexibility, while depending upon the faculty for intellectual leadership should be a primary goal of the University. Implementation of these strategic initiatives will significantly enhance the quantity and quality of the research programs at Binghamton, thereby increasing its contributions and reputation.
Strategic Goal 3.
Prioritize and accelerate development of additional research space, including the Innovative Technologies Complex, to ensure the infrastructure necessary to support the growth of sponsored research.
A productive, University-wide research enterprise can serve to significantly enhance the reputation of the University, drawing in the best new faculty and students, providing additional resources for the campus, improving the educational environment, and generating new knowledge, new opportunities and often new jobs for the community. Within the next year, at the eastern edge of the campus, the first building in the Innovative Technologies Complex will come on line, providing much needed space for new and expanding research programs. To ensure that the momentum established by this initiative is sustained, it will be essential to vigorously pursue plans for development of other buildings on that site. Moving forward with the development of the downtown center and maximizing educational and research use of facilities being provided to the University by Endicott Interconnect Technologies at the Endicott (IBM) campus should also be high priorities. Increasing research space and infrastructure in these and other ways is critical to the University’s future. Research programs enabled by new spaces will result in the hiring of research faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and staff, even if no additional state funded faculty lines are provided.
Coupled with the aggressive pursuit of additional research space, the University should develop a feasible plan for regular renovation and maintenance of its research facilities. This plan should address renovation of space for new faculty as well as installation of new equipment. Proposed processes need to be cost-effective, timely, and responsive to the campus’ rapidly changing research needs. Greater flexibility in approaches to design and construction will also be needed to help achieve this goal.
Strategic Goal 4:
Encourage faculty with common interests, within and/or across academic unit, to physically organize themselves in the manner they believe will best assure success in their teaching, research and creative activities. Empower such groups, based on their level of extramural funding, to purchase and maintain their own equipment and facilities.
By reducing bureaucracy wherever possible and by embracing policies that help clear new pathways for collaboration, the University will provide an atmosphere that supports the fluid creation and dissolution of interdisciplinary work groups and programs consistent with its mission. Historically, the best research, scholarly and creative work came from within the traditional disciplines, and much important work will continue to be undertaken in those disciplines. But, increasingly, the problems of foremost concern to the state and nation and of greatest interest to funding agencies are complex and require an interdisciplinary approach. Departments greatly facilitate teaching as well as certain types of research, scholarship and creative activity, and they will remain key elements of the University. But where alternative work groups or research clusters could further enhance interdisciplinary and applied research, they must be encouraged. Where they could better position faculty to engage in multidisciplinary scholarship, creative activities and teaching, and to obtain external funding in new thematic research areas at the crossroads of traditional disciplines, they must be supported. [An example of an interdisciplinary research approach involving social sciences, humanities, the professional schools and performing arts would be a “public service” research cluster. One case suggested to the Strategic Planning Council involved “School-linked-services,” described as “an innovative system of delivering services in which community agencies and schools collaborate to provide a variety of health and social services to children and their families at or near school sites” (Hare, 1995). School-linked-services are an explosive phenomenon across the US, spanning pre-school through high school programs. Many of these programs are connected through partnerships with universities. They involve education, as well as legal aid services, mental health services (social work, psychology), nursing services and expressive arts including creative writing and poetry, music, dance and theatre. A school-linked-services research cluster could seek funds to establish, expand, run, provide student internships and evaluate school-linked-services in the Southern Tier and beyond.] No single organizational structure will serve the University best in every case. Solutions or structures that work well in one context may not be effective in another. Faced with this reality, in so far as possible, the University’s organizing principle will be to promote intellectual synergy amongst its scholars and researchers. This bold initiative will require the University to devise more flexible means of marshalling and deploying its resources, including facilities and infrastructure, to facilitate and support non-traditional, faculty-initiated approaches to discovery and education.
The success of faculty research programs often depends on a group’s ability to bring appropriate physical resources and facilities to bear as it quickly adapts and responds to shifting funding imperatives and new directions of inquiry. Delegating authority and responsibility for the purchase, maintenance, and operation of core equipment and facilities to investigators in active research clusters fosters such flexibility. This implies that faculty in equipment-intensive and facilities-intensive research clusters should receive appropriate support from the University for the purchase and maintenance of equipment and facilities in the cluster, based on the research cluster’s level of extramural funding.
The University should adopt as a guiding principle the idea that the cost of operating and maintaining core research facilities and equipment ought to be borne by the faculty groups who are the primary users of these resources in their daily research activity. Within University guidelines, responsible charge-back arrangements should be employed to support departmental use of equipment for educational purposes and the intellectual work of faculty not affiliated with the cluster. These initiatives will help to create a new culture of incentives, a culture in which faculty groups who have been successful in obtaining extramural funds will be further motivated, subject to grantors' restrictions, through the institutional assignment to them of responsibility, trust, and flexibility in advancing their research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.
Strategic Goal 5
Create a fluid space allocation process to foster establishment of physical research clusters that can house core equipment and other specialized facilities needed to support faculty investigations.
Encouraging faculty to organize themselves according to shared research interests will not have its full impact without attendant changes in the infrastructure supporting research. The facilities of most researchers at Binghamton are located in space controlled by their home departments, whether or not the majority of their collaborators are in their department. The department structure works well for many aspects of our teaching mission and for some types of research, but it is not ideal for interdisciplinary research and teaching activities. The importance of enhancing both our interdisciplinary research and teaching activities is rapidly becoming evident through the proliferation of funding opportunities, such as the National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Initiative. While organized research centers exist at present, in many cases these are virtual groups, with participating faculty still physically located within departmental space. A fluid space allocation process would enable faculty to physically come together around a number of different research thrusts and to disband and reorganize as research interests change. Assuredly, periodic reconfigurations will put pressure on many different units within the University. New policies and procedures that result from this initiative, however, will set the University’s standard at quick, adaptive responses, while recognizing realistic constraints where they exist. Expanding the total inventory of available research space through the construction of new buildings, retrofitting of existing buildings, and purchase or lease of space in the Greater Binghamton area will foster the University’s ability to expeditiously provide research space.
Strategic Goal 6.
Ensure that policies and procedures for tenure, promotion, and merit review appropriately recognize interdisciplinary research efforts across the institution.
Working at the intersection of disciplines or professions can have important practical consequences, especially for younger faculty hired into traditional academic units. Currently junior faculty who engage in interdisciplinary projects might succeed in securing career enhancing extramural funding at serious cost to their departmental performance, which is key to tenure and promotion. Recognizing the limitations of current procedures, the University must develop policies and processes that will allow junior faculty, without jeopardizing their tenure status, to maximize their research and scholarship by affiliating with like-minded peers across the disciplines. Staff, too, have specialized expertise that can contribute to the University’s research efforts across organizational lines. They should be encouraged and rewarded for this important interdisciplinary contribution to mission as well.
Expanding educational opportunities
In keeping with its mission, Binghamton University must continue to evolve if we are to serve the needs of students who are increasingly diverse in socioeconomic status, ethnicity and culture, age, life-stage circumstances, and geography. Public higher education has historically provided citizens of this country with access to opportunity and the means to succeed. But economic well being is increasingly driven by knowledge and information, and advanced degrees will become even more important in the future. Three component exigencies, therefore, seem especially important to this phase of our institutional evolution: (1) the need to enhance educational opportunities by growing enrollments and adding additional degree programs, (2) the need to enrich the mix of instructional methodologies employed by faculty, and (3) the call to respond rapidly to educational needs arising from the fast-paced, high-performance work world.
Strategic Goal 7.
Increase enrollment in traditional programs and expand through bold, but careful selection, the number of degree programs, schools and colleges within Binghamton University.
As a young institution Binghamton is still in transition. We are a research university, but lack the size and breadth of other institutions with longer histories. Essentially this means we have fewer faculty than our institutional peers and competitors. Faculty create new knowledge, design intellectually challenging programs of study and partner with others to enhance the public good. In order to be able to increase the ranks of faculty through hiring, we should continue to increase enrollments in existing programs. At the same time, we should astutely investigate opening new programs, schools and colleges, maximizing our demonstrated ability to provide an excellent education across a range of disciplines and professions and offering educational opportunities to students whom we do not now serve.
Based on its review of employment projection data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics for the years up to 2012 and other information about the availability of professional degrees at public institutions in the State of New York, the Strategic Planning Council recommends a number of favorable candidates for such expansion for further campus review and consideration:
- New schools in education, environmental resources & safety, fine arts, health sciences, human development, law, pharmacy, public administration, public health, and social work; and
- New programs in audiology, dance, database management, gerontology, mental health & substance abuse, music education, network systems & data communication, physical therapy, occupational therapy, organizational psychology, school counseling, speech/language development/pathology, student affairs administration, and teaching English as a foreign language.
Three criteria should shape the ultimate selection for new educational ventures: (1) viable intellectual intersection with other campus programs, (2) reasonable career path for students, and (3) possibility of incremental resources from a variety of sources. More study is recommended and likely candidates for immediate evaluation are schools of education, law, public administration, and social work, and new programs in gerontology, speech/language development/pathology, student affairs administration, and teaching English as a foreign language. Bold action is needed. The prevailing assumption should be that the University must consider when to open a new school or program, not whether to do so.
Strategic Goal 8.
Enrich the mix of instructional methodologies employed by faculty.
Carefully designed lectures, discussion sections, and laboratories, all delivered and overseen by excellent faculty are time-honored ways to foster learning among small numbers of talented students. But the world is changing. Reductions in support for higher education as well as the many new ways that high school students experience and interact with the world make finding supplemental methodologies a necessity. An instructional model based on a small faculty/student ratio is no longer feasible for all courses and all degree programs, and no university can afford to ignore advances in educational technology. A new mix of traditional methods, coupled with those supported by emerging technologies, can sustain and enhance our ability to foster deep learning, critical thinking, and creative problem solving among our students. Indeed, current practices suggest that a hybrid model is already being successfully employed on this campus, where Binghamton faculty have widely adopted technology as a means of enhancing highly individualized instruction or increasing their professional accessibility through e-mail. The University should encourage faculty experimentation with new technologies through training workshops and small grants program, and should devise new ways to share promising practices widely.
Young people entering college are immersed in a rich electronic environment and expect campuses to match, if not exceed, their high school experiences with technology. Additional investments in computer aided learning and distance education are a given. The question is where those investments will be targeted. Summer and winter sessions offer excellent venues for trying out various instructional technologies and for extending the educational reach of the University. Computer aided and distance education technologies will also enable the University to respond rapidly and effectively to educational needs arising from the fast-paced, high-performance work world. The need for education is life-long. In all likelihood, graduates will change jobs several times in their lives. Even if they do not, the competencies required to succeed within any given company or organization are dramatically changing. People will need to become perpetual learners, continually updating knowledge and improving skills in order to compete. A high-performance work world will be best served by the availability of a combination of traditional and flexible learning opportunities. Graduate degrees will be important for advanced preparation of individuals in a number of fields. But other opportunities for “just-in-time learning” or “made-to-fit learning” will also be important. Binghamton University needs to develop a means to respond in a timely and effective way to the rapidly changing educational needs of our alumni and others who could benefit from new courses, certificates, and other thoughtfully designed educational experiences.
Adopting a business entrepreneurial model for summer session, winter session, and continuing professional education that returns revenue to the schools and programs for cost/effective projects should stimulate units to engage in these forms of education. All costs associated with the course would be covered by tuition, and incentives would be built into the system in support of the faculty and departments that create the courses and draw the students.
Strategic Goal 9.
Enhance the role that the collegiate communities play in undergraduate education for students both on and off campus.
Binghamton students are intelligent and motivated to succeed. Faculty/student interactions and interactions among students themselves contribute to Binghamton’s culture of achievement, which extends well beyond academics. Students seek and the campus provides multiple opportunities for them to exert initiative and hone their skills. Our collegiate communities are a particularly unique feature of this process. Other campuses might have evolved targeted living/learning programs, but the opportunity to live for four years in a residential community with its own identity, traditions, and faculty leadership is not replicated on any other U.S. campus. Adopting a more sequential plan of learning experiences to advance confidence and mastery would enhance the impact of the collegiate communities. Academic Affairs and Student Affairs should work together to outline year-to-year expectations for developing student’s skills and competencies as well as to identify the programs and projects that could foster those outcomes.
Students live on and off campus, sometimes moving back and forth between the two. As housing options in the broader Binghamton area increase, there will be a need to fashion further ties between community living and the vibrant on-campus culture fostered by the collegiate communities. Many off campus students are individuals who transfer from a community college or another institution. A more concerted approach is needed to assure that transfer students are fully integrated into the fabric of life on campus that so nurtures both intellectual and social development.
Strategic Goal 10.
Enhance the internationalization of the campus by improving students’ language competencies, integrating study abroad into the major, changing policies and practices that hamper studying abroad, and offering a broad range of other kinds of international opportunities for students, faculty, and staff.
Transcultural understanding and skills are imperative for graduates who will live in a world that is increasingly interdependent. Binghamton has made great strides in providing opportunities for students to study abroad and otherwise improve their cross-cultural understanding and competence. We are proud to have been recognized as one of two research campuses with exemplary programs in this area. But more can be done. We can increase the number of students who study abroad by enhancing students’ language competencies and integrating study abroad into the major. An important next step would be to identify how to integrate study abroad experiences with the objectives of different majors. The University could also be more systematic about helping students to articulate their own goals before departure and to reflect upon their experiences upon return. Experimenting with technology as a way to increase students’ language proficiency can improve students’ preparation for study abroad. Finally, we need to ensure that campus policies and the availability of financial aid do not function as disincentives to studying abroad.
Some students may not be able to study abroad. Creating additional joint degree programs with international universities where U.S. and international students work together within the same major over several semesters brings an important international perspective to the campus. Expanding Languages Across the Curriculum, supporting international festivals, and developing new ways to promote meaningful interchange among Binghamton’s national and international students contributes to the same goal. Additionally the University should encourage faculty and staff opportunities to participate in international programs and advance international ties.
Enhancing outreach and engagement
“I would have learning more widely disseminated,” said Justin S. Morrill, the Vermont legislator who led the land-grant initiative which greatly expanded public higher education. That land-grant initiative brought the resources of state universities to agricultural and rural America. Within that land-grant movement a powerful covenant between the people and the peoples’ universities was born. In exchange for tax support, public universities would increase access to education and serve community needs. This nation is no longer an agricultural society and therefore the original covenant with the public that supports us needs modification. How, then, does Binghamton fulfill this covenant in today’s world?
Reframing our service mission is a place to start. We need to go beyond traditional notions of service in which the university sees itself as transferring its expertise to the community. A view that knowledge is generated within the university and then applied in external contexts may blind universities to the significant achievements that can arise from true partnerships with these “communities of interest.” Practitioners, be they parents, marital partners, workers, businessmen, elected officials, diplomats, educators, administrators often have insight into the important questions to be asked and promising hypotheses about where to seek an answer. They can be especially clear on the limits to current knowledge for resolving difficult problems. To extend the boundaries of knowledge and effective practice, it is in Binghamton’s best interests to manifest a proactive engagement with these “communities of interest.” A spirit of openness and reciprocal influence should characterize our relationships with external communities. We are enriched as an institution when we listen to community views of what we are doing and are responsive to what they say. Joint ventures that both define problems and approaches to resolution should become the norm for working with the community, where community stands for local area, region, state, nation, and beyond. In essence, renewing the covenant means finding new ways to integrate all three aspects of the University’s mission – teaching, research and service.
Strategic Goal 11.
Anchor the University’s engagement with the community with a downtown center.
A downtown center should be the hub of University efforts to partner with the community and to make educational programs more accessible to community members, and should become a vibrant, energizing presence in the city of Binghamton. Realizing the University’s commitment to being engaged with the community will take more than a physical space, however. An advisory committee for the downtown center, comprising representatives from both the University and the community, could identify areas of greatest promise for joint University-community projects. Members of the advisory committee could also act as catalysts in both sectors, helping to speed action toward agreed upon goals. An immediate agenda for the advisory committee might be to devise ways to make both the University and the community more accessible to their respective members. Better signage, transportation, parking, maps, library use and borrowing privileges, incentives for exploration, and so forth could benefit students new to the community as well as community members who wish to broaden their engagement with the campus. Establishing an Office for Outreach in the downtown center would provide a highly visible coordinating agency for university/community partnerships, and developing ways to solicit and respond to input from the community would foster the success of this venture.
Some degree, certificate, and continuing education programs are particularly enriched by interactions with the community. Students in such programs as education, nursing, public administration, and social work need opportunities to practice and build their skills in community settings. Creating a Center for Applied Community Research with a charge to assist community and governmental organizations with grant applications and program evaluation could assist community organizations and also provide excellent educational experiences for students. Internships are another excellent way to integrate important learning experiences for students with services to the community. The Office for Outreach could create, foster, and coordinate internships. Services and amenities that will assure an enticing environment for community members and students will be important to the success of the downtown center. Parking, a commons gathering area, food service, access to the Internet, meeting rooms, and a resource center are among the features to consider.
Established, demonstrable two-way partnerships should also considerably improve our joint competitiveness for grants and other sources of revenue. To be successful, all University/community partnerships should engage in the entrepreneurial pursuit of funding opportunities from multiple sources. Elevating the level of outreach activity might well contribute to the institution’s future ability to garner additional State funding for all aspects of its mission.
Finally, before outreach can be successfully extended to external communities, the University must effectively engage the campus community, particularly its employees — faculty and staff — who are so integral to its past, present, and future successes.
Strategic Goal 12.
Create incentives to promote involvement of faculty, staff and students in community outreach. Ensure that policies and practices, including those related to promotion and discretionary salary increases do not impede collaborative work with the community.
Recognizing the value of contributions made by all members of the University is important. Staff, as well as faculty, should be supported when their professional expertise advances a partnership with the community. The University needs to create an environment that supports deep engagement in the community as integral aspects of our discovery and educational missions. Mini-grants, paid internships, co-curricular “credits,” and other methods could provide inducements to engage with the community.
For faculty, definitions of research, scholarship, and creative activity should be augmented to encompass the kinds of work that arise from being deeply engaged in the community. Faculty should make their work available to scrutiny and critique by expertly prepared colleagues, but current publication outlets are too limited to capture the contributions faculty can make by bringing their expertise to bear on issues of concern to community partners. There should be a place in the recognition process for serious popular writing, insightful case studies, and significant policy formation to advance our faculty as “public intellectuals.” The University might consider developing venues for sharing the results of work in the community (beyond those that already exist) that have import for a broader disciplinary or professional audience – perhaps, for example, an electronic refereed journal devoted to case studies.
Strategic Goal 13.
Significantly enhance the University’s stature as a successful technology transfer agent.
The University should find ways to communicate to faculty and staff the importance and possible public utility of the work that they are doing, and to become an even more successful agent in the transfer of new ideas and technologies to the community. Since technology transfer takes time, it is important to reward faculty and staff for taking steps to make their ideas and work more accessible to others. The Office for Outreach and the Office for Technology Transfer should further develop processes and incentives to facilitate the infusion of University knowledge into the public domain.
Strategic Goal 14.
Ensure the best possible management of all University employees, both faculty and staff.
Our aspiration is to create an environment that brings out the best in everyone. Establishing such a workplace begins with a culture of respect – respect for every individual, respect for every idea, respect for the contributions inherent in each job title within the organization, and respect for the physical campus on which we work. Showing respect arises both from an attitude of care, concern and responsibility for our campus environment and for an appreciation of the acquired skills, personalities, and promise of those around us. The success of the University is inextricably tied to those who work here. To achieve our aspirations, we will need everyone to bring their heads, their hearts, and their hands to work every day.
The University needs creativity and initiative from all its members. Its managers must foster a climate in which the ideas of all are taken seriously. Frontline workers need to know that their ideas and their expertise are valued. Good managers recognize excellent performance and reward it appropriately. They also learn how to coach poorer contributors to improve their performance. Finally, effective managers portray sensitivity to the person as a whole. Work is an important part of peoples’ lives, but not the whole of their lives. Wherever possible the University should be flexible about adjusting work schedules and work requirements to help individuals deal with reasonable, time-limited personal demands and circumstances.
Because of the influence they wield, all managers and supervisors, from the President on down, should have formal preparation for their roles in the lives of others. This training should be designed to foster effective communication, mutual problem solving, win-win conflict resolution, sensitivity to diversity, crisis management and coaching/mentoring skills to help foster professional development across the institution.
Workspaces also play an important role in productivity. Assuring a healthy and safe work environment minimizes injuries and time away from work. Concerns expressed about health and environmental issues and other dangers in the workplace should be taken seriously and, when verified, unsafe/unhealthy conditions should be expeditiously remedied. People spend long hours in the work place. An inviting environment is energizing; a drab environment can be depressing. Developing a regular schedule for repainting, refurbishing and improving University grounds, and sharing that schedule with the University community is another way to demonstrate the University’s respect for its talented workforce.
Strategic Goal 15.
Make professional development a University-wide priority.
Outstanding faculty and employee orientation and professional/staff development programs foster high performance. Both should be enhanced on this campus. Orientation to one’s new job should have common and individualized components. All who join the institution should be introduced to the campus, its culture, and its aspirations. We should strive to assure that each individual understands how his or her job contributes to our University-wide aspirations. A successful orientation ends when the individual understands what it will take to be successful in the position and has been given the appropriate tools to become an accomplished contributor. When orientation ends, professional development begins. The University needs to help its members improve their skills overtime so that everyone is prepared to move the institution forward in a changing environment. An important component of the evaluation of supervisors ought to be their record in enabling the continued professional development of those who report to them.
Promotions are key markers in professional development, but a loyal and stable workforce often limits promotional opportunities. The University, therefore, cannot depend upon promotions alone to recognize and reward the contributions of its members. Binghamton should develop a more varied and rich reward structure tailored to the preferences of different groups. Bonuses, prizes, travel, conference attendance, and special privileges are some examples of rewards that might be considered. The University should also explore a program of “job swapping” to allow talented, long-term employees an opportunity to take on different responsibilities, to continue to grow, and to contribute in new ways. Finally, the University should review its criteria for all positions and ensure that requirements for promotion and success are appropriate and attainable.
Diversifying Revenues, Careful Assessment/Evaluation
National and state trends indicate that it is unlikely that the University will return to the proportional State support that it received in the past. In the face of this harsh reality, we must further diversify our revenues and intensify our efforts to garner external sources of funding. A second, even more ambitious, comprehensive gifts campaign is critically important to the University’s future. Increases in extramural funding through grants, state and federal earmarks, and gifts from donors to support discovery, education, and outreach are also needed, and the involvement of a much larger number of faculty and staff in those efforts is essential. The University can realize additional resources from patents and licensing agreements that can help to bring inventions and products to market, but commercializing the use of our facilities and service capabilities wherever appropriate and possible is another way to generate revenues. Identification of more effective and efficient operating procedures can also free resources to advance University goals, and many successful ideas can be expected to come from faculty and staff. Wherever possible, the University again needs to ensure that its policies enable a share of the revenues generated or recovered to go to those who make it happen – hopefully to the individuals themselves, but certainly to their units.
Strategic Goal 16.
Create policies that foster entrepreneurship. Recognize and when possible reward those responsible for successful entrepreneurial activity.
Everyone within the University can advance our mission, enriching lives. In an entrepreneurial enterprise, people are encouraged to be continually watchful for opportunities that will advance the organization’s vision. Taking calculated risks is expected and rewarded. Learning from experience is understood and encouraged. Resources are focused on the most promising avenues to success. Achievements are visible and celebrated. Those who create wealth share in the gains made. The University should strengthen its commitment to fostering an entrepreneurial campus environment by developing appropriate procedures and policies to access, capitalize on, and reward faculty and staff resourcefulness and creativity. This should include establishment of a system that recognizes and when possible rewards the individuals or groups responsible.
Strategic Goal 17.
Establish plans, within each major organizational unit, that articulate how the unit will advance the University’s goals. Annually evaluate progress.
Our articulated aspirations are broadly conceived. Pathways to their achievement are multiple and diverse. The President and Vice Presidents should now develop an integrated planning and budgeting process to advance these University-wide goals. The process begins with each division developing an action plan for how it can advance these strategic goals. Divisional proposals should outline possible actions to be taken alone and in concert with other divisions, resources to be sought, funds requested from University sources, and indices that will be used to monitor progress. Synthesizing unit proposals is the next step. The Vice Provost for Strategic and Fiscal Planning is charged with collecting and reviewing divisional plans and making recommendations to the President and Vice Presidents for the most promising next steps, the budget allocations to underwrite those actions, and the means (metrics) to assess progress annually. Senior Staff deliberations on proposals will result in a more detailed framework to guide the decisions and actions of all members of the University community. Each summer Senior Staff should review the University’s progress in achieving its goals, identify emerging opportunities and potential threats in the surrounding environment, and make appropriate modifications in its approach to the future.
Strategic Goal 18.
Develop a comprehensive plan to communicate the University’s aspirations and achievements to internal and external constituencies.
Achieving the University’s goals will require support from within and outside the institution. Fortunately for Binghamton, people enjoy supporting winners. Our winning story needs to be widely and repeatedly told. Telling it internally will prepare a league of well-informed campus ambassadors out of students, faculty and staff. Telling it externally will expand and enhance our successes with faculty and student recruitment, economic and community outreach, and private and public endowments and fundraising. Binghamton should review and where necessary revise its communication strategies to assure that institutional messages and messaging consistently capture and relay our strategic initiatives and achievements to advance our mission. Periodic checks with target audiences to evaluate how the materials are received are important to assure that our communications investments are wise and are working for us. As a primary challenge, effective communication of the University’s Strategic Plan should help to fuel and direct our interactions with critical constituent groups in the days, weeks and years ahead.
Conclusion
Binghamton University enjoys a national reputation for excellence, but we know that our past achievements will not assure our success as the world changes around us. Known for the talents and scholarly contributions of our faculty, the selectivity and achievements of our students, and the dedication and ingenuity of our staff, Binghamton wants to grow, to increase its sphere of influence and contribution, and to become an even more vital and vibrant home to discovery, education and engagement. Our commitment to the principles set forth in this new strategic plan will keep Binghamton moving toward its institutional aspirations. It will leverage our current strengths, help us to enhance educational opportunities, engage the world more broadly, and energetically develop new, diversified sources of revenue. It will also help us to define the measures needed to assess and evaluate our position as we seek the best and strongest future possible for Binghamton University.
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