Strategic Planning Steering Committee Forum

Collected Questions

  • What is the plan for evaluation/assessment of the Strategic Plan? How will we know we’ve met our goals/objectives?
  • The publication of the Strategic Plan will detail a number of specific initiatives. Once the implementation phase of the Strategic Plan launches,yearly priorities will be identified; these priorities will inform methods and metrics for assessment and evaluation.
  • For the development of the full plan, will the leadership committees be expanded to include new members? New talent?
  • With the launch of the implementation phase of the Strategic Plan, which will take place over a period of several years, working groups with applicable expertise will be engaged and charged with the initiatives outlined in the Plan and these working groups will consist of current members but will also allow for new members to participate.
  • How and when will faculty have voice through shared governance structures in the “reconstructing” CAS and “new colleges”? So far these have been by passed. Will the BoT be informed that they cannot have faculty support until we have real voice?
  • Any initiatives published in the Strategic Plan that relate to a restructured College of Arts and Sciences and/or to the establishment of new colleges or schools will have the participation of faculty through the establishment of working groups and through applicable shared governance processes.
  • Have you included key prospective employers in your stakeholder pool? How do we know that we are graduating the students that employers/service agencies seek? Would we consider a civic engagement report card as part of the assessment of overall student readiness? (Not just academic)
  • While direct input from prospective employers was not considered as part of this process, there is an ongoing conversation with potential employers about hiring needs and feedback on our students’ qualifications relative to hiring needs. (By way of three examples, the Career Development Center, Co-operative Education Office, and the Teacher Education department collect these data regularly.) As the implementation phase is launched, innovative suggestions, such as a civic engagement report card,will be reviewed by applicable working group(s).
  • I haven’t heard anything about sustainability yet. Where does sustainability fit in to the strategic plan? This is mission-critical, especially with the Pope’s Encyclical.Environmental Justice and sustainability was not mentioned.
  • Can SJU please re-start its efforts on this? The other Jesuit universities are even divesting from companies which are responsible for greenhouse gasses.
  • The Strategic Plan highlights the university’s need for established sustainability goals and enhanced sustainability-related practices. During the implementation phase, which will commence over a period of several years, working groups will be charged with these efforts.
  • How is it determined, what qualifies as a “program of national distinction”? Who decides this? Does it depend on how much it’s powered by University Communications? On whether the program is “ranked”? Whether there is an accrediting agency?
  • National distinction speaks to those programs that are truly distinctive and can have a broad impact. In most cases we will look to qualitative measures such as well-established rankings or some form of peer review to determine. At the same time, however, we also want to leave room for programs on the rise that have the potential to reach this level.
  • Once a program has been identified we want to be sure that we are promoting it and doing what we can to invest including securing external resources so that these programs continues to excel.
  • The health of our students (physical/mental) directly impacts their ability to learn. Does the Strategic plan address the promotion of student health and well-being?
  • The Strategic Plan addresses student success; it is well documented that the physical and mental health of students is a critical component to this success. Promoting students’ health and wellness will be integrated into implementation plans to increase and ensure student success.
  • What commitments are being made for graduate programs, in terms of enrollment/recruiting and program growth and development?
  • How will “transformative student experiences” be applied to graduate programs and graduate student experiences?
  • With the publication of the Strategic Plan, initiatives relative to graduate enrollment, program growth and development, and transformative student experiences will be outlined, while specific commitments and other operational issues will be addressed in the implementation phase of the Plan, when working groups will be charged.
  • The mention of emphasis on need-based scholarship, will this move SJU more away from merit-based scholarship availability? Is this consistent with selectivity?
  • The allocation of institutional aid dollars will shift over time to our highest ability – highest need students. This means that wealthy-lower ability students may pay more in the future than they do today. This strategy will better position the university to complete for the very best students regardless of income. Details will be developed and communicated during the implementation phase of the Strategic Plan.
  • Any plan to grow the FT undergrad enrollment or are we committed to the 4,600 model?
  • There are no plans to significantly change the size of the student body. We remain focused on improving student selectivity and maintaining our exemplary levels of student retention.
  • What will be the role of adjunct faculty in the goal of enriching our academic quality and distinction?
  • Any plan to balance adjunct and full-time faculty at graduate level?
  • The Strategic Plan highlights the importance of clinical faculty and adjunct faculty as valuable members of the academic community. The objective of recruiting and retaining an outstanding and diverse faculty requires not only targeting resources to recruit, retain, and support faculty in general, but also establishing and implementing appropriate measures to allocate faculty resources among programs and disciplines, including those at the graduate level. Specific actions to identify and achieve these and related goals will be determined during the Strategic Plan’s implementation phase.
  • Service is academically important. Service-learning deserves inclusion in academic goals, not just student life. What about that?
  • Service-learning is acknowledged as a significant form of experiential learning and, as such, features prominently in several initiatives that will be published in the Strategic Plan.
  • President Reed mentioned a Campus Master Plan. Would you be able to say a little more about what that entails?
  • Decisions regarding facilities and the physical environment must be thoughtfully addressed and consider multiple factors and interests in order to effectively steward the University's resources. The Master Plan Advisory Committee, forming now, will engage in a comprehensive space study, including an assessment of current space capacity, condition and functionality, as well the campus planning process going forward.
  • Conference Centers need proper conference housing like Georgetown. Father Rashford looked into this 25 years ago ask him. We went to conference in Georgetown and Loyola Chicago. Deferred Maintenance needed a 20 year plan roofs, masonry, HVAC cycles every 20 or so years. Some roofs cost over 2 million, some HVAC systems the same.
  • We are presently collecting deferred maintenance costs for all academic buildings, residence halls, and all other university owned buildings. These costs will then be included in the 5 year capital plan. Implementing an Events & Conference Services function is in the Strategic Plan and is one of the initiatives designed to provide the university with another source of revenue.
  • Was the list of facilities all-inclusive? I didn’t hear any mention of Mandeville, which has been discussed for some time.
  • The space utilization study will be used to inform decisions regarding renovations or additions to existing facilities or the need for new facilities.
  • Will there be efforts to coordinate the many places/departments where service, civic engagement, and advocacy currently take place?
  • Do committee and working group members believe the draft of the strategic plan adequately addresses the core of the mission of a Jesuit University: “caring for the whole person mind, body, spirit”? I’m not certain it does.
  • Will spiritual opportunities include non-Christians?
  • In the spirit of cura personalis, the goal to deliver an integrated, developmentally-sequenced approach to experiential, leadership, spiritual and service opportunities for all students, regardless of faith tradition, will be communicated with the publication of the Strategic Plan, while tactical plans will be defined and completed in the implementation phase.
  • So grateful for the recognition of how important it is to have Jesuits, if we would renew Jesuits. I am nevertheless, worried about the Catholic nature of our University. As a 3rd year teacher of a faith and reason course, I am amazed that students don’t know how to describe: the Holy Spirit, the mass, councils of the Church, the 10 commandments, or what a bishop does. So, more Catholic faculty?
  • The Strategic Plan’s publication speaks to the university’s goals relative to recruitment and retention of an outstanding and diverse faculty, including Jesuits, while next steps will be defined and operationalized during the implementation phase.
  • An observation: depts. that have become largely “service depts.” for the GEP will need special support in achieving many of the discussed objectives.
  • The Strategic Plan’s academic quality and distinction objectives are founded on the premise that SJU must deliver a superior liberal arts education that is grounded in Jesuit and Catholic intellectual thought. Therefore, one key measurement of the plan’s success will be the quality of inputs from the university to the General Education Program and the quality of outcomes that the GEP delivers for our students. The role of support in achieving related objectives will be determined during the implementation phase of the Strategic Plan.
  • As faculty grows, will infrastructure and staff grow too?
  • The Strategic Plan does not endorse any faculty/staff ratios, nor does it attempt to predict or dictate the pace of hiring in these areas. University growth will continue to be carefully considered at all levels throughout the Plan’s implementation phase and beyond.
  • We have been talking about improving our external marketing for almost a decade now. What are the 1 or 2 essential first steps we need to take to improve this objective?
  • We reorganized our marketing and communications department under the guise of University Relations to foster a more integrated approach. Currently we are engaged in a national search for a Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and this individual will work with University leadership to create and drive marketing and communications strategy across the University.