Academic Affairs

Strategic Planning

 

NEW STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

Strategic Planning Document now available for reviewing.

Campus Vision, Mission, and Values

Gateway for Greatness (PDF)

During the Fall Semester 2007, a strategic planning effort began to update the current Action Plan, 2004-2008. A small Steering Committee led by the Chancellor and a larger Planning Team from the campus community was engaged in the process to help shape the plan and provide recommendations for implementing it. Working with an outside consultant, the university performed diagnostic analyses of background and baseline data. These analyses provided the groundwork for developing and refining campus goals and strategic priorities as well as identifying key initiatives related to each of the priorities of the campus.

A planning committee, including the provost, vice chancellor, and representatives of the Steering Committee, agreed on a planning process with the following characteristics:

The Strategic Planning Steering Committee-consisting of the chancellor, three vice chancellors, two vice provosts, and chairs of the Faculty Senate, Staff Association, and Student Government Association-guided the process and provided the general overview and strategic direction. The Planning Team-consisting of members of the Provosts Council and Senate Budget and Planning Committee, as well as directors of Institutional Research, Office of Equal Opportunity, and Office of Human Resources-offered broader inputs and guidance from the members perspectives. The process was launched with a meeting (facilitated by the planning consultants) of the Steering Committee and Planning Team on November 19, 2007. This collaborative meeting provided initial feedback for the diagnostic phase and set the initial direction of the process.

In the diagnostic phase, the consultants developed the baseline by collating and synthesizing background materials and engaging the individual units across campus in an internal/external assessment. The Steering Committee and Planning Team then reviewed the information to formulate an initial sense of strategic direction. Data examined included:

In an effort to spread the diagnostic process to all levels of university organization, individual units conducted an internal/external baseline analysis with their staff from a campus-wide perspective; the consultants provided a template and guidelines for conducting these analyses to encourage consistency in the data. In many cases, strategic planning processes in the units had been recently completed, so these processes connected the units analyses with the campus focus.

The consultants then engaged the Steering Committee to review the external/internal baseline and identify key observations from the campus wide assessment. These observations included:

The consultants prepared a final summary of external and internal baseline analysis; the Planning Team discussed implications, beginning to develop a sense of strategic direction. From these activities, the consultants developed the first draft of key goal areas. In the final step of the diagnostic phase, the Steering Committee reviewed the baseline, discussed implications, and confirmed the broader sense of strategic direction being developed as well as key goal areas.

The consultants synthesized input from the diagnostic phase to develop a draft of key goals for the UMSL 2012 Action Plan; then they facilitated a meeting with the Planning Team to further refine the goals and a Steering Committee meeting to finalize the goals. They also assisted the Committee to refine the existing mission and vision and oversee a process for obtaining constituent feedback, including existing mission, vision, positioning statement and goals. A second set of meetings with Steering Committee and Planning Team developed the strategic priorities and key measures of success; the consultants then facilitated discussion with constituents for feedback on strategic priorities and key measures.

In a third round of meetings, the collaborators developed the key objectives and supporting initiatives needed achieve each priority. In this phase the consultants met first with the Planning Team to brainstorm on key initiatives for each priority. They then convened the Steering Committee to develop criteria to decide among the options and then edit the input from the Planning Team with a goal of generating between five and eight initiatives for each priority and assigning responsible units for the priorities and initiatives.

In the Action Planning phase, the consultants will support campus leaders to develop timelines, accountability and measures in preparation for a draft of the Action Plan 2008 2012. Financial staff will assess the financial implications of the draft priorities and identify capital, investment, expense, and revenue implications. The Steering Committee and Planning Team members will review the document, edit the draft, and then seek internal and external feedback from key constituents, including functional committees, the chancellors council, and leadership councils.

The final phase, Approval and Commitment, includes developing follow-up processes for tracking progress and completing the financial projections. The planning process will close with a final approval and recommendation of the plan by the University Assembly Budget and Planning Committee, University Assembly/Senate, and the Provosts Council to the Chancellor. The Chancellor has the final approval of the updated Action Plan, which includes commitment to the action plans developed to implement the plan.