PART I SUMMARY
Preceding chapters and sections of the Academic and Student
Affairs portion of the strategic plan contain important goals and
objectives. As many of them are gradually accomplished, the University's
academic and outreach programs, teaching and learning environments,
research and creative activities, and support services and atmosphere on
the campuses will be notably enhanced.
In the Concept and Preparation of a Functional Mission
document, the Ohio Board of Regents requested that the University
identify its distinctive strengths and provide concrete responses to the
following points:
Where does the institution see itself in three years? In five years?
In ten years?
Identify and discuss five strategic goals, objectives, and
implementation strategies to be realized in the next three years, in
the next six years.
At a university as complex and comprehensive as Kent, it is not
realistic to identify only five or even ten goals for implementation in the
next three to five or six years. Nonetheless, in a general sense the
questions and requests contained in the concept paper of the Ohio Board of
Regents as well as appropriate responses are integral to any strategic
planning process and plan. This Academic and Student Affairs part of the
Kent State University strategic plan provides focus through the
development of important goals and objectives. In the context of
providing direction in a decade delineated by constrained resources, it is
prudent to end Part I of the strategic plan with a more limited number of
initiatives which will be specifically targeted for implementation in the
next three to five years.
The list that follows--which is not in priority order--contains
seventeen initiatives for implementation in the next three to five years.
Throughout, this strategic plan has stressed the interconnected, mutually
supportive, and complementary nature of units and functions at Kent State
University. Thus, the holistic view has been an underlying thread of the
plan. In emphasizing the importance of a University-wide viewpoint, it is
not surprising that the seventeen initiatives are closely linked to and
dependent upon each other.
While the inter-relationships among initiatives argue against
listing them under specific headings, there are general themes which
emerge from them. Building a Sense of Community is certainly a major
theme of initiatives one, five, six, and seven. Initiatives two and three
center on Fostering an Environment for Student Success. The
Importance of the Integrated Eight-Campus System is the primary
emphasis for initiative four. Initiatives eleven and twelve are in Support
of Teaching Development and the Use of New Technologies for access
and learning. Initiatives eight, nine, and ten discuss Distinctiveness in
Undergraduate Programs. Initiatives thirteen and fourteen involve
Direction and Focus for Research and Graduate Programs. The last
three initiatives, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, underscore the
Importance of Educational Outreach and Public and Private Sector
Partnerships.
The list of initiatives does not explicitly include many of the goals
and objectives from earlier chapters. That does not make these goals and
objectives less important, and most of them will be achieved by the end of
the decade.
Initiatives for the Next Three to Five Years
The terminology below may differ slightly from earlier chapters,
but the importance of all of the seventeen major initiatives that follow has
been established from the goals and objectives appearing in previous
chapters.
1. Continue to build a sense of community among students, faculty,
and staff.
The success of Kent's instructional, research, service, and co-curricular
programs depends on the talents and contributions of the University's
students, faculty, and staff. Kent is committed to promoting shared
decision making and accountability, teamwork, and a spirit of community
among faculty and staff. Thus, it will foster department, school, and unit
productivity and accountability through teamwork, group rewards, and
visible recognition of unit-level achievements.
2. Complete and implement an enrollment and retention plan that
will increase the quality and diversity of the student body.
This enrollment and retention plan projects steady-state headcount
enrollments of 25,000 at the Kent Campus and 10,600 at the Regional
Campuses by the end of the decade. It will incorporate objectives and
strategies for increasing the number of underrepresented students on all
eight Kent State University campuses. It anticipates actions that
eventually increase the number of graduate students to approximately
twenty-five percent of the total Kent Campus enrollment. Special
attention will be given to increasing the number of students who relocate
to the Kent Campus from the Regional Campuses. The number of transfer
students should also increase, as should the number of nontraditional
students. Services will need to be provided in more suitable ways at the
Kent Campus to nontraditional students. The enrollment and retention
plan should also specify strategies like developing reciprocity agreements
with neighboring states to increase the number of out-of-state students and
other strategies to increase the numbers of international students primarily
on the Kent Campus. It will also project a gradual increase in selectivity
at the Kent Campus.
3. Restructure certain administrative functions to facilitate student
success and ensure that student concerns are addressed at the
highest administrative levels.
Plans to develop and implement a student success unit to consolidate,
coordinate, and improve functions to enhance student success, retention,
and baccalaureate graduation rates should proceed with due dispatch. This
new unit might be primarily responsible for functions such as career
planning, counseling, advising of undeclared majors, and developmental
services. Any overall restructuring involving student affairs units should
ensure that student concerns are addressed at the highest administrative
levels.
4. Build on the strengths represented by the eight campus Kent
State University System.
Its eight campuses extend the University throughout the region and help to
make Kent the university for Northeast Ohio. The University needs to
capitalize more effectively on its System to increase the number of
students who receive baccalaureate degrees at the Kent Campus after
beginning at a Regional Campus. Thus, the University will have to
recognize the needs of non-traditional students for better services.
Regional Campuses should meet most of the service expectations
established by the Ohio Board of Regents in its Securing the Future report
while continuing to point to fundamental differences between regional
campuses and community colleges.
5. Create a positive learning environment in which diversity is
understood and appreciated.
The University will introduce diversity issues to students through Early
Advising and Scheduling and assure appropriate discussion on diversity in
orientation classes. More opportunities for cross-cultural communication
need to be fostered through vehicles like campus-wide lecture programs.
Campus life programs specifically geared toward shared experiences and
selected group activities stressing the strengths and complexities of
diversity merit support.
6. Enhance the University's living-learning environment.
Through its Kent Campus, the University is the only public, residential
institution in Northeast Ohio. With thirty-one residence halls and family
housing along with appropriate support programs, the University will
continue to be unique in the region for its ability to serve residential
students of all ages. Kent Campus programs include many opportunities
for all students to develop leadership and human relations skills. To foster
its living-learning environment, the University is dedicated to assuring
campuses are safe and to working to eliminate any remaining barriers that
limit accessibility for persons with disabilities.
7. Continue to increase the quality and diversity of the faculty while
striving to build a stable cadre of teacher-scholars for the twenty-
first century.
The University should increase the number of tenure-track faculty in
specified schools and departments based upon carefully developed
priorities. It will enhance its efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented
faculty and staff and address concerns relative to promotion and tenure.
For the next three years, the University must preserve the fiscal integrity
of the STRS Retirement Incentive Program while still providing for a
timely flow of some replacement positions into departments and schools.
8. Identify, develop, and publicize a select number of distinctive
undergraduate programs for which Kent State University would
be known regionally.
Already the University has many distinctive undergraduate programs
which, with limited additional investment, might become greater magnets
for student recruitment and help frame public opinion regarding program
excellence at the University. Examples include architecture and
environmental design, nursing, teacher education, communication studies,
journalism, Pan-African studies, fashion design, visual communication
design, integrated life sciences (the B.S./M.D. program), computer
science, natural sciences, and criminal justice studies. Perhaps the most
visible example of program excellence is the Honors College with its
strong liberal arts base and notable reputation.
In a period of constrained resources, new program development, such as in
allied health areas and engineering technology, may need to occur among
clusters of units and/or in tandem with the curtailment of existing
programs. Within the last few years, the University has discontinued
baccalaureate programs in Industrial Design, Social Work, Transportation
and Logistics, and Organ Performance, to name but a few. It has also
discontinued associate degrees in a number of areas including Marine
Retail Operations Technology at the Ashtabula Campus and Office
Management Technology at the East Liverpool Campus.
9. Review and revise curriculum to ensure quality, relevance, and
the timely completion of academic programs.
Undergraduate curricula should be reviewed to ensure the overall value of
programs and courses. To the extent possible, appropriate upper-division
courses need to be redesigned to include relevant diversity material.
Attention also needs to be given to reducing undue program complexity
and over specialization. Classes which continually have low enrollments
should be examined for possible reorientation, consolidation, or
discontinuance. The University will build upon its existing outcomes
assessment program to evaluate undergraduate learning more fully.
10. Ensure that the Liberal Education Requirements (LER) as a
program achieve liberal arts purposes.
The Liberal Education Requirements represent an undergraduate program
strength for the University. Nonetheless, the LER program would benefit
by an increased emphasis on writing, through the development of a limited
number of carefully chosen interdisciplinary courses, and from more full-
time faculty teaching regularly in it. The LER program should be revised
to integrate multicultural perspectives more fully into appropriate courses.
Excessive intrusion of major requirements into the LER program should
be eliminated, which may facilitate the transition of students (including
those from Regional Campuses) into a wider variety of majors and
therefore reduce second-year attrition.
11. Continue to reinforce the importance of the scholarship of
teaching and enhance University support for teaching
development.
The University needs to facilitate development opportunities to assist
faculty in responding to different learning styles and cultural perceptions
of increasingly diverse student populations. It should increase the use of
peer evaluations and systematic evaluation of teaching portfolios in the
evaluation of the scholarship of teaching as well as the teaching practice.
Excellence in all aspects of teaching (including advising) warrants notable
recognition.
12. Enhance access, teaching, and learning by utilizing state-of-the-
art instructional and communication technologies.
The University needs to maintain currency in technological development
in all majors, as well as develop and maintain electronic linkages among
all eight of its campuses. Particular attention should be given to linkages
between libraries, two-way audio-video linkages for credit and noncredit
programming, and an integrated student information management system.
Data, voice, and video network access should be provided to all academic
buildings and the residence halls. To the extent possible, systems used
throughout the campuses for major administrative and academic functions
should be compatible. As the University integrates new technologies into
its operations, it will be essential that training opportunities be provided in
the effective use of these technologies.
13. Develop more focus in graduate programs with attention to those
of particular importance to the State in general and Northeast
Ohio in particular.
Kent State University is a major Ph.D.-granting institution and will
continue to be. The University currently offers the Doctor of Philosophy
in Education with options in five distinct disciplines. The Doctor of
Philosophy in Business Administration also includes options in several
different fields. The Ph.D. is conferred in nineteen separate liberal arts
disciplines, some of which contain additional Ph.D. options.
In the context of constrained resources, the University must decide how
many advanced graduate programs (including master's degree programs) it
can realistically offer and still maintain program vitality. Units within the
University have been reviewing and deciding which advanced graduate
programs should be continued and which should be consolidated or phased
out. Recently, the School of Theatre decided to phase out its Ph.D.
program in Theater Studies. In its strategic plan, the College of Business
Administration proposes to consolidate five Ph.D. options in
Administrative Sciences into one and restructure options in three other
departments into a series of better coordinated programs. Already the
basic sciences have clustered strengths into just a few Ph.D. options.
Administratively, the University generated considerable savings when it
consolidated the Graduate College and the Division of Research and
Sponsored Programs into the Division of Research and Graduate Studies.
The University will need to do more of this kind of review, consolidation,
and possible pruning to assure the long-term vitality of its advanced
graduate programs and to provide for the development of a limited number
of new doctoral programs.
14. Reinforce Kent's leadership role in research and creativity at
state and national levels through the attainment of Carnegie
Research II status.
The University will increase the level of federal support for research and
development to at least $12.5 million while continuing to award the Ph.D.
to more than fifty candidates per year, thereby fully satisfying the current
criteria for Carnegie Research II status. Support for units already
generating external and particularly federal funding such as biological
sciences, chemistry, education, the Liquid Crystal Institute, mathematics
and computer science, physics, and psychology should be increased. The
University should ensure that its Libraries and Media Services maintain
full membership in the prestigious Association of Research Libraries as
well as increase acquisitions and services that support attainment of
Carnegie Research II status.
Units should be encouraged to focus on achieving notable excellence in a
limited number of research and creative activities in order to maximize the
potential for attracting external funds. Increased indirect cost recoveries
from attaining Carnegie Research II status should help support research
and creativity activities integral to the broad mission of the University as
well as interdisciplinary efforts that have the potential for external
funding. Existing centers, institutes, and other interdisciplinary initiatives
that facilitate research and creativity should be reviewed periodically to
assess vitality and long-term potential.
15. Be a partner with communities and local and state
governments in facilitating community and economic
development through technology transfer and outreach.
The University should support units like the Urban Design Center in the
School of Architecture and Environmental Design to be partners in
creative design solutions to urban planning and facilities development.
Leadership from units such as the Northeast Ohio Employee Ownership
Center and the School of Technology in aiding communities to adjust to
new economic and manufacturing realities will be promoted. The
University will encourage and recognize the involvement of faculty from
Departments such as Criminal Justice Studies, Pan-African Studies,
Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology in applied research on
societal issues and culture preservation. It also will encourage the
continued involvement of Education faculty in the development of
community leadership and the application of research to address
educational problems. The College of Business Administration plans to
become more involved with the Northeast Ohio business community,
continue the development of executive and professional programs, and
provide information and expertise to small businesses.
16. Provide leadership in the development and implementation of
lifelong educational opportunities for the citizens of Northeast
Ohio and surrounding communities.
Kent will continue to be responsive to the needs of working professionals
in Northeast Ohio for continuing education and to the specialized needs of
business and industry for work force training and development. Through a
wide range of associate degree programs and selected upper-division and
graduate coursework, the Regional Campuses will respond to the
educational needs of place-bound and nontraditional students in their
service areas. Kent State University will continue to be a center for
cultural activities through its fine and performing arts programs and public
radio station.
17. Promote cooperative efforts and collaboration with other four-
year institutions, community colleges, and secondary and
elementary schools.
The University will collaborate with other Northeast Ohio institutions in
the selective development of distinguished research programs such as the
Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials. The
development of promising new cooperative graduate programs such as the
proposed collaborative doctorate in Nursing and the four-universities
sponsored Ohio School of International Business will be encouraged.
Kent's College of Education will continue to play a leadership role with
the more than 140 school districts in Northeast Ohio that receive
undergraduate and graduate students for field practica and internships, and
in partnership projects such as the Professional Development Schools
and Classrooms for the Future.
Cuyahoga Community College and other neighboring community colleges
will continue to be major partners with Kent through dual enrollment
programs, cooperative recruitment of underrepresented students into
advanced study, research on adult education, and faculty opportunities for
graduate study. Regional Campuses will stress cooperation with local
schools and agencies through initiatives such as the Tech Prep programs
linking public schools and the Salem, Trumbull, and Tuscarawas
campuses, as well as the on-site instructional programs offered at the
Trumbull Correctional Institution by way of the Trumbull Campus.
Evaluation
As a regular feature of the annual planning process, the
departments, schools, colleges, and divisions will evaluate progress in
attaining the goals and objectives from this Academic and Student Affairs
strategic plan. Units should employ evaluation tools that more fully assess
accomplishments and are responsive to an interested public.
Chairs, directors, and Regional Campus deans will be responsible
for leading the evaluation process at department, school, and campus
levels, with deans or vice provosts having similar leadership
responsibilities for evaluating progress at college, division, and system
levels.
The provost will have overall responsibility for evaluating annual
progress toward achieving goals and objectives from the strategic plan and
for reporting on this progress to the Faculty Senate, the President, and the
Board of Trustees. As with any living plan, when goals and objectives
from the strategic plan are achieved, others will be moved to the forefront
and additional ones will receive consideration.
Kent State University: the University for Northeast Ohio
The character of Kent State University into the new century will
reflect its long and admirable record of achievement. But the future of the
University also is dependent upon the vision held by and the actions of
those currently responsible for its welfare: students, faculty, staff,
President, and Board of Trustees. This Academic and Student Affairs part
of the strategic plan points to a vision for the future emanating from the
Role and Mission of Kent State University and the Kent Institutional
Characteristics. It is a vision whose primary attributes are described
below.
First, this vision reaffirms as an essential distinguishing feature
the residential nature of the Kent Campus, a feature unique to Kent among
public Northeast Ohio institutions. It is a vision that utilizes even more
notably the strategic locations of the eight Kent State University campuses
and new technologies to provide greater access and learning opportunities
to students diverse in race, ethnicity, gender, and age. And this vision
capitalizes on the University's network of campuses to make more
available to residents, communities, organizations, and businesses the
talents and range of services available through the University.
Second, this vision recognizes Kent State University as well
known for an array of excellent undergraduate programs and for a superb
total learning environment. It projects Kent as a university that paves the
way for students to complete degree programs in timely ways through
effective instruction, the use of new technologies, informed advising, and
a caring faculty and staff.
Third, this vision sees Kent State University as the senior
research-oriented public university of Northeast Ohio, in externally
funded, as well as unfunded, research and creative activity, in the breadth
and quality of graduate offerings, and in the use of applied research and
technology for community progress and economic development. It is
a vision that establishes Kent State University as a national and
international leader for a carefully chosen and limited number of
outstanding doctoral and research programs. The Liquid Crystal Institute
has an array of research activities that already have reached this level of
distinction. Others will be selectively and sequentially developed.
Fourth, this vision projects Kent as a cultural and intellectual
center through its programming in the fine and performing arts, seminars
and conferences for working professionals, special exhibits and shows at
the Kent State University Museum and other units, nationally acclaimed
public radio station and University Press, and recreational opportunities
and intercollegiate athletics events.
The strategic plan builds upon the Kent State University of the
past and present. Thus, the University already has realized or is close to
realizing many features of the vision enumerated above. To fully realize
the vision will require ongoing planning, making choices, resource
allocations that reflect priorities, and a spirit of cooperation and
colleagueship.