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Strategic
Planning Task Force
John Robey
Ava Miller
Mary Curtis
Jay Phillips
Irma Jones
Alma Rodriguez
Judy Goodwin
Jose' Martín
Sylvia Peña
Anthony Zavaleta
Olivia Rivas
John Ronnau, Staff
Margie Mancillas, Staff
Victor Fuhro, Staff
Raymond Rodrigues, Chair
Budget Priorities FY 2000
We are the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost
College, referred to by
administrators and Board members as "The Partnership" ; by the students
or faculty or staff or
community members as "the University " or "the College" or "UTB/TSC;
and by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) as a "consolidated entity."
Many of us like to
describe ourselves as "unique," a community college and a university
both. We offer workforce
certificate programs and masters degrees. We are a "community university"
with international
programs. We struggle to identify our peers, to the frustration of
those who ask us to compare
ourselves to peers. Who are we? Where have we been? And where are we
going? This
strategic plan seeks to address those questions.
PLANNING
The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College has conducted
many planning
procedures and developed numerous plans in its brief history. As we
will demonstrate, the plans
have not all meshed neatly into a single coherent plan, but each has
served a meaningful
purpose. We intend to unify the planning.
The Agency Strategic Plan: As part of the biennial budget setting process,
the State of Texas
require that each public higher educational institution produce an
Agency Strategic Plan with an
accompanying Legislative Appropriations Request (the "L.A.R."). The
major categories of the
plan are set by the Legislative Budget Board and, as a result, do not
necessarily evolve logically
from the internal planning process of any higher education institution.
While many concede that
the resulting document does not reflect what the institution would
have produced without the
guidelines and may not be fully useful as a planning document, nevertheless,
most agree that it
does help focus the legislative agenda of the institution and guide
its future plans. In addition, it
does accurately reflect our needs. Through it, the institution can
attempt to focus the attention of
the legislature upon the institutional needs that the legislature can
help address.
In the last Agency Strategic Plan, UTB/TSC addressed the following goals:
to provide
instruction, to conduct research, to provide institutional support,
to provide public service, and
to support the historically underutilized business firms. The State
mandated measures included in
the most recent Plan were:
Enrollment
Percent of Hispanic enrollment
Number of degrees awarded
Percent of degrees awarded to Hispanics
Percent of faculty engaged in research and/or
creative activities
Percent of faculty conducting applied research
relevant to the University's mission of
teaching.
The primary focus of the Plan and the LAR is upon special item and exceptional
item requests
to the legislature. These special and exceptional items are funding
requests above and beyond
the funding allocated to the institution through the State's normal
formula funding. Because the
institution has grown rapidly and has had to implement many new programs,
the need for
special and exceptional item funding is crucial to the institution's
future. Without it, UTB/TSC
would have to reduce programs and thereby severely constrain its ability
to fulfill its mission.
The Plan is driven and developed centrally after each division contributes
its own ideas.
Ultimately, the final decisions about what special and exceptional
items will be requested are
made by the Executive Council and the President.
Institutional Focus Elements: At a 1996 summer retreat, the institution's
Executive Council
identified five particularly critical elements of the mission statement
for the Partnership that they
believed the institution should focus upon during the next five to
ten years. These "Institutional
Focus Elements" have guided subsequent planning and priority setting
activities:
Increase resources
Establish a sense of place
Implement the new programs created since the
Partnership
Complete the campus information and communication
system
Establish a systematic, institutional effectiveness
system.
Each division is responsible to address the focus elements in planning
its goals and objectives
and to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of those goals and objectives.
The Strategic Themes: As a new venture, the Partnership of UTB/TSC needed
to begin
formal planning and, at a summer retreat in 1993, the Executive Council
began discussions
about the roles that "strategic themes" might play in helping to guide
an on-going strategic
planning process. The Division of Academic Affairs, working through
the Deans' Council and
the summer deans and chairs workshops, developed goals based upon the
institution's mission
which were then described as five broad strategic themes.
Subsequently, drafts of the strategic themes were reviewed by the Executive
Council, the
Business Affairs Council, the Student Affairs Council, the Staff Senate,
the Academic Senate,
the Business Affairs Partnership Committee, the Student Affairs Partnership
Committee, and the
Academic Affairs Partnership Committee, with faculty having the opportunity
to comment on
evolving drafts through their departments. Eventually, a final draft
was accepted that included
the following "strategic themes":
Growth
Regional mission
Technology
Evaluation and assessment
Resources
The strategic themes may be read as encompassing virtually anything
that might relate to the
institution's mission, and, indeed, that would be true, but what they
have done is to organize the
activities of the institution into a meaningful pattern. In turn, each
unit can address whichever of
the long-term goals within the themes are most meaningful to it at
any given point in its evolution.
In Academic Affairs, for example, evaluation and assessment have been
emphasized by the
requirement that each department develop an academic assessment plan
and that it assess its
major every year. These plans are now in the first year of being implemented,
In addition, every
five years; each department must undergo a thorough review, which,
in turn serves as a strategic
plan for each department. Annual faculty self-assessments and evaluations
help inform
department and College or School planning, which in turn, informs Academic
Affairs planning.
Other institutional planning:
Divisional plans: While the Strategic Themes continue to guide the broad
planning of
Academic Affairs, each division has developed a plan based upon its
own context and needs.
These ideas have been brought to the Executive Council in various ways
and for various
purposes, but ultimately, they all have helped guide institutional
planning and budgeting,
sometimes fitting into the broader Agency Strategic Plan, sometimes
not.
Committee planning: The Academic Senate and its governance committees,
as well as the
Staff Senate, also contribute to the planning process of the institution.
Both Senates help to
determine policies and procedures for the institution and both serve
as valuable resources for
ideas and for developing plans and for monitoring plans. In addition
to regular standing
committees, the institution has relied upon a variety of ad hoc and
administrative committees to
conduct the regular, on-going work of the institution, work that not
only enables the institution
to adjust to changing circumstances, but also helps guide the major
planning efforts when
required.
Coordinating Board planning: There are external mandates for planning
that often compel the
institution to plan in ways it might not normally have chosen. In addition
to the Agency Strategic
Plan, for example, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)
regularly requires
curriculum development processes to be reported in systematic ways,
often carrying out the
mandates of the Legislature. At the moment, the THECB is determining
what the guidelines for
a legislatively mandated core curriculum of 42 semester hours might
be, and UTB/TSC happens
to be concurrently developing recommendations through a special General
Education task Force
on how to make the UTB/TSC general education program reflect its mission
and better its students.
System planning: The University of Texas System (the System) also mandates
specific plans to
specific times, often reviewing plans before they are sent to THECB.
Because the resources of
the System are sometimes strong enough to accomplish more than any
one institution might
accomplish on its own, the System develops central plans which the
individual institution must
address.
One recent result of System planning, for example, has been the ability
of our Library to link
itself electronically to other System libraries and to make use of
centrally-purchased on-line
resources. In another instance, the decision of the System to develop
a "virtual university" and to
move into distance learning in order to stay competitive with other
such national efforts, has
enabled UTB/TSC to make use of resources at other System institutions,
a step only in its infancy.
Consortium planning: UTB/TSC has gone beyond the State requirements
in its planning as
well. For example, the institution joined the Hispanic Educational
Telecommunications System
(HETS) to jointly plan for the development and sharing of resources
among the Hispanic
serving institutions that belong to HETS, ranging from Puerto Rico
to New Mexico. And
institutional planning has involved more than higher education units.
For example, we are
partners in a Tech-Prep consortium, have planning collaboratives in
conjunction with the
Brownsville Independent School District (BISD), and have used grant
opportunities, such as
the Model School projects, to strengthen our planning networks.
What we have described here is not a set of discrete planning activities
that have little
relationship to one another and therefore do not contribute to a meaningful
whole. Rather, we
have described a planning process that has remained flexible so that
it can address the rapidly
changing contexts in which the institution finds itself. We admit,
however, that this flexibility has
had its risks: by continuing to plan through the separate planning
processes discussed above, by
responding to external mandates or by seeking funds wherever the opportunities
may be, the
institution risks weighting some aspects of its activities in inappropriate
ways, acting upon immediate
need and opportunity rather than a carefully considered and constructed
future. Acting in such a
manner, we will not use our resources efficiently and effectively.
Those risks, in turn, may in fact
be intensified by the need to address growing student numbers.
"Strategic Planning" may be conceptualized in a variety of ways.
The traditional linear strategic
planning model involves environmental scanning, which attempts to assess
the changing context
in which we find ourselves, assessing the internal strengths and weakness
and external
opportunities and threats, establishing goals with clear strategic
actions that involve timelines and
responsible parties, and measures for evaluating the plan. That is
the model that is most
common and most easy to conceptualize on paper.
A second way of understanding strategic planning is the adaptive
model, described by Chafee
and Tierney(1). Recognizing that institutions exist in an ever-changing
external environment, with
constituencies who change over time and contexts that are enormously
complex, this planning
seeks to reallocate resources as the needs and demands of the external
environment changes,
including the reorganization of internal structures as needed. Chafee
and Tierney also describe a
third system, one involving the recognition of cultural and social
influences upon ways that
people communicate and understand their worlds. Here, the constituents
perceive their worlds
through their own sets of values and circumstances, trying to make
sense of them as they proceed.
In this view, then, strategic planning becomes more of an interpretive
process, seeking to create a
"vision-driven, strategic framework for competing for resources in
a future environment."(2)
For that reason, we have embarked upon an institutionally driven strategic
planning process that
attempts to maintain the current benefits of and capacity for flexibility
while also addressing
those needs that the institution itself identifies as it moves toward
its future, that focuses upon the
ability to interpret our mission in an ever-changing environment, while
also identifying and
recognizing our core values.
Our Strategic Planning group began its work by reviewing characteristics
of strategic planning
processes, but we kept one key concept in front of us: "…perhaps one
of the least important
products of the planning process is the plans…. The planning process
is an ongoing,
continuously changing, organic activity."(3) This strategic plan may
try to make sense of where
we have been, where we want to go, but unless planning remains an active
process in which
everyone has some role in contributing to the ongoing planning of the
institution, it will be an
artifact of our past.
_______________________________
1Chafee, Ellen E. and Tierney, William G. Collegiate
Cultures and Leadership Strategies.
New York: Macmillan, 1988.
2Cope, Robert G. Opportunity from Strength:
Strategic Planning Clarified with Case Examples.
ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 8. Washington, DC: Association
for the Study of Higher
Education, 1987, p.98.
3Morrison, James L, Renfro, William L., and
Boucher, Wayne I. Future Research and the Strategic
Planning Process. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Research Report No. 9
Washington, DC:
Association for the Study of Education, 1984.
STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS
[return to
beginning of plan]
STRENGTHS
- Sense of Mission: There is a significant awareness of
the mission and a commitment to that mission by the institution.
- Assessment and Evaluation: There is a wide range of assessment
and evaluation activities going on throughout UTB/TSC. At the institutional
level, for example, the recently constituted Institutional Effectiveness Partnership
Committee and Institutional Effectiveness Council have been working to
establish measures that our constituencies can appreciate and use to judge us. At the
academic department level, assessment has just begun.
- Programs to Meet Community Needs: The institution has
responded to community demand by creating a variety of new programs
designed to meet the educational needs of the region. For example, in addition to regular
academic programs, continuing education programs have grown.
- Technology Resources: The institution has acquired the latest
technologies through a number of different efforts, ranging from
grants to allocations from Southmost Union Junior College District to the focused use
of regular funds. Students have access to open labs, most faculty and administrative staff
have been connected to e-mail and other network and Web services, and the library
has built upon the UT System capabilities in making many electronic information resources
available to faculty, students, and staff. The promise for transforming pedagogy and
increasing student achievement is great.
- Student Support Services: The institution is committed
to strong staff support services. The student support services have successfully
grown through federal and state grant funding and allocation of regular UTB/TSC
funds.
- Rapid Response: Despite limited information system resources,
the faculty, staff, and administrators have been willing to plan in
a flexible and responsive manner, addressing needs as they are determined and building
programs as they are needed.
- Acquisition of New Facilities and Land: The institution
has aggressively sought new facilities and has had the support of the
District Board in acquiring additional property for future campus growth. The result is that there
is now space for continued growth and expansion of programs. The Legislature and
District Board have recognized the need for new facilities in providing funding for the
recently completed Science and Engineering Technology Building, for a future Health and
Life Sciences Building, and for a Technical Center.
- An Emphasis upon Teaching: At a time when most of the
United States expects its public universities to build strength in teaching
so that their graduates are better prepared, we have always worked to accomplish that.
WEAKNESSES
[return to
beginning of plan]
1.Mission: There is uneven understanding and interpretation
of the mission. The actions of
the institution do not reflect all that is
implied.
2.Fiscal Resources and Diversity of Funding: UTB/TSC remains
overly dependent upon
tuition, fees, and the State funding formula.
In addition to formula funding from the State,
UTB/TSC must rely upon "special" and "exceptional"
funding which is vulnerable to
legislative actions.
3.Professional Development: We have a serious need for
research on teaching and
learning and for the application of that research
to our teaching and learning support
efforts. Given the current budget and teaching
responsibilities of our faculty, we have not
had a systematic program of professional development
that builds upon the interests and
responsibilities of our faculty and that allows
those faculty to increase their skills and
knowledge about those areas that we hold them
responsible for: teaching, scholarship in
teaching, grant-writing, and service to our
community.
4.Underprepared Students: The ability of the institution
to prepare academically
underprepared students for success in college
work is not satisfactorily. The number of
students who successfully graduate is too
low.
5.Graduate Program Expectations: The expectations for students
in graduate programs are
unclear, both for entrance and successful
exit.
6.Faculty Expectations: We have not yet been able to establish
the proper balances of
teaching, service, and scholarship or creativity.
With growth, changing external
conditions, the demand for greater accountability,
and the additional responsibilities and
programs of a university, the teaching loads
of faculty must be re-examined and
reconceptualized.
7.Continuing Education: UTB/TSC has not been able to provide
the region with the
continuing education programming that is required
and that has not acquired the
resources to build the outreach programs expected
of a more mature institution.
8.Reliance upon Part-time Instructors: Given current resources,
we must rely upon
part-time faculty, and yet are unable to provide
them the training and support that they
need.
9.Advising: Advising has had to be borne primarily by the
Counseling Center, and there
has been no way to effectively track students
throughout their years here. The result has
been that the faculty have not been connected
with their students early enough to
increase the opportunities for retention,
and students have been allowed to drift with little
direct contact with faculty other than in
class. Although this has recently been addressed,
the total advising of students is an area
of concern because it is in transition.
10.Planning: While individual divisions and units have conducted
regular planning, and while
the institution has been able to address the
System and Statewide planning mandates,
systematic coordinated planning across the
boundaries of the divisions and units has not
occurred on a regular basis.
11.Data Management: Gathering, analyzing, and disseminating institutional
data and research
has been limited by available technical and
human resources. The result is that the
institution has not been able to develop a
coherent understanding of student progress and
other long-term research topics.
12.Equipment: The institution does not have a systematic plan
for the acquisition,
replacement, and maintenance of equipment.
13.Space: The campus has an adequate number of small classrooms,
but needs more
medium-sized classrooms, more space for administrative
support offices, space for
special projects, and space for student activities.
14.Ability to Acquire External Resources: The infrastructure
to support grant-writing is
inadequate: administrative support, professional
development, and ability to replace
faculty working on grants is inadequate.
15.Systematic Enrollment Management Efforts: We have no systematic
enrollment
management plans, encompassing both recruitment
and retention.
16.Image: We present a mixed image to the external world. We
have yet to fully come to
grips with who we are as an institution. Our
recruiting efforts and public relation efforts
have yet to find a clear image to project,
and so they move back and forth between
university and community college image. We
are part of a large university system whose
values are those of traditional universities,
while also being a community college with a
long history of support and effort. We have
yet to clearly establish what we are for those
external and internal to the institution.
17.Curriculum: The curriculum development process and speed of
implementation have led
to inaccurate curriculum descriptions and
a lack of coordination of inter-disciplinary
curricula such as our teacher certification
programs.
OPPORTUNITIES
[return to
beginning of plan]
1.Student Demand: The local MSA is projected to become
the fastest growing region in
Texas and of the fastest in the United States.
The educational level of the region is far
behind that of the State, which is, in turn,
behind that of the nation. In the past, few
students were able to afford to go away for
a university education and so did not. Upon
the establishment of the UTB/TSC partnership
and the subsequent growth in programs,
more students were attracted to the institution
and even more can be recruited into our
programs. Since the Partnership formed, student
demand has been so high that we have
not had to recruit extensively to attract
more students. Thus, the potential for future
growth remains strong.
2.Community Support: There is a strong opportunity to gain
support from the Lower Rio
Grande Valley, both in the United States and
in Mexico. The people in our service area
have seen this institution as holding out
great promise for the future of the region,
providing education for students who wish
to stay home and gradually building the
educational level of the region, with the
resultant economic appeal to additional
industries. The community has supported the
institution in the past through increased
taxes and donations to the endowment scholarship
program, through being willing to
work with UTB/TSC in acquiring new resources
such as land, and in supporting our
efforts in the legislature. The local school
districts have been willing to join us in
collaborative efforts to support their students,
whether it be through distance learning,
collaborative grant efforts, joint planning,
or a variety of other efforts. The faith that the
regional community has in the promise of UTB/TSC
is a strong resource to build upon.
3.External Grant Opportunities: Because this is an Hispanic Serving
Institution with a
student population and an external constituency that is predominantly
Mexican American,
the opportunities for external grants are great. We can use the economic,
educational,
ecological, and health needs of the region, the educationally
underserved population, and
community support to build strong cases and take advantage of untapped
opportunities
for external funding through grants and donations.
4.Demand for Graduates: Our graduates with bilingual/biliterate
capabilities are in high
demand by graduate programs elsewhere in the
country and by industry seeking to
diversify its workforce and build new markets.
5.Location: Located immediately adjacent to Mexico, UTB/TSC
is positioned to make use
of the opportunities that the North American
Free Trade Agreement provides, building
upon the programmatic opportunities, educational
opportunities such as subtropical
biodiversity, recreational opportunities such
as hotel management, linguistic and cultural
opportunities, and international agreements
that have and will be made. The human
interrelationships and technological links
across the border allow the institution to be a
leader in international programs and to contribute
to the economy and understandings of
both nations. We can create not only new academic
programs, but also centers,
institutes, and national conferences that
build upon our strategic location, bringing more
recognition and resources to the institution.
6.The Promise of Diversity: UTB/TSC serves students who
can be comfortable in diverse
settings and who are in high demand when educated.
Industry and graduate programs
across the nation are seeking a more diverse
work pool, and educated Mexican
American students are in high demand. The
knowledge that many of our faculty and staff
have about Mexico and Mexican American culture,
institutions, and government is a
resource that should be built upon.
7.Regional Demographic Trends: State demographic projections
indicate that the Lower
Rio Grande Valley is one of the two fastest
growing areas in the State with a young
population, projected to grow at 232 percent
in the near future. Considering the growing
industrial base and the relative growth of
the population, the opportunities to grow as an
institution while also serving the educational
and economic needs of the region are many.
8.Family Values: The strength of the extended family, proximity
to family members, and the
value our students have for their families
provide opportunities that we should build upon
in our programs.
9.Economic Development of the Region: Given the limited
economic opportunities for the
people we serve and the community efforts
to improve the economy and job market, we
can direct our teaching, research, and service
to support and lead those efforts. Our
academic and outreach programs have many opportunities
for growth with positive
results.
10.Health and Living Conditions: The health and living
conditions in the Lower Rio Grande
Valley, including a variety of pathologies
with distributions unique to here, and life in the
barrios and colonias provide teaching, service,
and research opportunities that can have
a positive effect.
11.Links to Mexico: The boundaries of higher education
and especially The University of
Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
are regularly expanding. We have
established links with Mexico and with Mexican
institutions. We are recruiting students
from Mexico and, with the "downward expansion"
to enable UTB to offer lower division
courses, we have increased the range of our
recruiting area to all of Texas and to states
outside of Texas, both in Mexico and the United
States. We have established
collaboratives with the public schools aimed
at improving the education of our students
and opening opportunities to collaborate with
public school teachers. And the central
programs driven by the U. T. System have provided
access to central resources, such as
those in distance learning and library on-line
resources.
THREATS
[return to
beginning of plan]
1.Changing National Agenda: The opportunities for serving
a diverse population and
addressing the priorities of external funding
agencies will be at risk if the trend to move
away from social justice programs continues.
2.Dependence upon the Border Economy: As the economy
of the border region and South
Texas fluctuates, so the future of UTB/TSC
can fluctuate.
3.Overdependence upon State Funding: The high dependence
upon State funding means
that the institution continues to operate
its academic programs and academic support
programs with marginal resources. With the
student demand high and the desire to
provide more programs for our students, we
continue to remain dependent upon
legislative support. Any drop in that support
means that we will be forced to reduce our
current services and stop the development
of new program efforts.
4.External accountability: State mandates to meet
accountability and performance
measures, such as the ExCET, may result in
externally imposed program restrictions and
sanctions. Comparisons to performance measures
common to all U. T. System
institutions may lead to unfavorable conclusions
unless we are able to establish and
justify performance measures appropriate to
our mission and our text.
5.Urgent Demand for Growth: Growth must be addressed with
adequate resources. The
efforts to meet the demand for new classes
and to implement our recently approved
programs may lead to our inability to address
the real and potential growth adequately.
Without carefully considered priorities based
upon the options available to us, we risk
overextending our resources and weakening
our current efforts.
6.Weak Preparation of Students: Since the numbers of students
requiring developmental
education continue to grow and since we are
determined to address the whole student,
not just the academic needs of the student,
we will continue to direct limited resources
toward that area resulting in less support
of other efforts. Internally, we debate our ability
to set standards for student expectations
higher than they currently are and the best
organizational structure and professional
development to address the situation. But,
without appropriate outreach and service to
the region's schools, focused research or
teaching our students, and resources to do
what we believe best, we limit our ability to
strengthen programs from associate degrees
through masters degrees.
7.Increasing Legislative Oversight: The Texas State Legislature (like
most legislatures in the
U.S.) is increasingly concerned about controlling costs, holding
institutions accountable
for the education of students in a timely and cost-effective
way, concerned about high
attrition and low graduation rates, and concerned about increasing
access for students.
For example, we have seen recent legislation on such matters as post-tenure
review. We
have experienced the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board mandates
that general
education credits be reduced and that ExCET scores be used as part
of the justification to
add new programs. We have undergone an audit of our use of special
funds. If the past is
a guide, we can expect increasing attention to the outcomes of our
efforts and possible
controls upon funding, controls based upon these external concerns
about the quality and
cost-effectiveness of higher education programs.
The Strategic Goals
Based upon our analysis of our strengths, weakness, opportunities and
threats,
the Strategic Planning Committee recommends the following strategic
goals:
I. Develop and revise our curricula in support of
our mission:
By the year 2010, UTB/TSC intends to achieve curricular equity with
other UT System
institutions of like size and category, having implemented at least
an equivalent number of
bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Our academic assessment programs shall
have matured
to the point that they are part of the fabric of our identity. Our
academic programs shall
reflect the best and most current knowledge in the fields that they
represent. We shall have
had approved at least one doctoral program. We shall have established
at least one center
or institute that is nationally acclaimed and shall have begun at least
one center or institute
in each school or college that is nationally recognized. Our expectations
and responsibilities
of our faculty shall be comparable to those of our aspirational peers
II. Increase the resources of the institution while
reducing our dependence upon State funding.
By the year 2010, UTB/TSC will have reduced its dependence upon State
funding to a level
comparable to its peer institutions, increasing the number of grants,
increasing the alumni and
community member donations to the institution, increasing gifts from
foundations, and achieving
a TSC tax base equivalent to that of its peers. Specific arms of the
institution, such as Continuing
Education and the Center for Business and Economic Development, will
support themselves and
the institution through the services that they deliver. Allocations
and reallocations of funds shall be
based upon the formal evaluations of programs and services, as well
as the needs identified through
planning processes.
III. Clarify and enhance our identity, both internally
and externally.
Periodic review, discussion and debate regarding the implications of
our mission is both worthwhile
and essential. The physical facilities will be expanded and enhanced,
the services to the community
will be improved, and both academic and student support programs will
be improved. Our public
relations efforts will be expanded and refined, ranging from an effective
enrollment management
plan to the dissemination of information about the accomplishments
of our faculty, staff, and students.
Our self-assessments will be designed to improve our efforts, to stimulate
debate about our future,
and to provide a basis for communicating to our constituents exactly
who we are.
IV. Contribute to the development of our region
UTB/TSC is committed to work with individuals, business, and agencies
of our community and region to:
* Develop a stronger and more vital community and region;
* Develop an informed and involved citizenry;
* Develop a competent and adaptable workforce; and
* Promote entrepreneurial and collaborative efforts to improve the
economy of the region.
Toward such ends, we will acquire new facilities for use in support
of the community and international
region that we serve, acquire grants to establish programs designed
to strengthen the community and
region, and offer programs that strengthen the workforce, leadership,
educational, and business resources
of the community and region.
V. Increase student achievement
UTB/TSC will improve the academic achievement of all of our students
in all of our programs--both
academic and student support programs, meeting or exceeding the standards
established by external
agencies. The institution will develop special programs to promote
the success of our students, ranging
from the initial orientation of students through mentoring programs
and internship programs to post-graduate
opportunities. We will evaluate ourselves and disseminate the results
of those evaluations to those constituencies
who most need to know of the quality of our programs.
VI. Enhance Student Life
The life of a university student is more than attending classes. As
a non-resident campus, UTB/TSC
will involve all students in at least one activity, club, sport, or
organization throughout all years of the
students' lives here, will provide opportunities for all students to
explore leadership opportunities, community
service, and intellectual pursuits. Student life will be enhanced from
the moment UTB/TSC first contacts
a student through orientation through graduation. Opportunities for
the students' families to participate in
the life of the students will be increased. Most importantly, the links
between academic and non-academic
activities will be strengthened.
Linking the strategic plan to the budget, Fall 1998
Based upon the Strategic Planning Committee and Executive Council review
of the strategic action plans
submitted to the Strategic Planning Committee, academic and student
support programs across the institution
will be asked to develop their budget requests according to the following
schedule:
Budget Activity Deadlines
1. The Strategic Planning Committee establishes broad budget priorities:
September 15.
2. Each department or individual office submits its budget proposal
to its
dean or vice president, addressing the priorities within the budget
request: October 15
3. Budget hearings for the divisions: December 10
Budget Priorities for
the 1999-2000 Budget
A. Already in Progress; Continue at Current Level of Funding
? Increase external funding through every means available.
Responsible: Executive Council.
? Improve campus-wide advising.
Responsible: Rodrigues and Rivas
? Finish the Datatel Colleague system implementation.
Responsible: Gawenda
? Improve teacher education across the campus.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Implement or improve assessment across all divisions.
Responsible: Executive Council
? Improve all certificate programs; begin to seek accreditation.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Continue planning and construction of Health and Life Sciences Building.
Responsible: Zavaleta
? Begin planning Student Center.
Responsible: Rivas and Zavaleta
B. Priorities Requiring New Funding
? Begin to improve faculty salaries.
Responsible: President Garcia and Rodrigues
? Increase the number of new faculty lines by 31 faculty.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Implement new General Education program.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Develop a distance learning plan.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Increase professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
Responsible: Executive Council
? Begin the biliteracy program.
Responsible: Rodrigues
? Complete and implement Enrollment Management Plan
Responsible: Rivas
? Establish a coordinated developmental education program.
Responsible: Rodrigues and Rivas
? Increase retention from 3% in three years to obtain an associate degree;
from 6% in six years to obtain a bachelor's degree;
from 23% who successfully complete developmental education within two
years by a
percentage specified in the enrollment management plan.
Responsible: Executive Council
C. Priorities Requiring External Funding.
? Establish a Cross-Border Economic Development Center.
Responsible: President Garcia and Roque
? Establish a high profile scholarship program.
Responsible: Rivas and Roque
D. Priorities without Additional Funding.
? Interpret the mission across the campus.
Responsible: Executive Council
? Secure legislative support for all special and exceptional items.
Responsible: Executive Council
? Establish an improved internal budgeting process.
Responsible: Gawenda
? Create a more "user-friendly" campus.
Responsible: Executive Council
? Restructure the financial assistance program.
Responsible: Rivas
? Enhance student life through community service, campus activities,
etc.
Responsible: Rivas and Rodrigues
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General
Education Task Force
Carolyn Green, Chair
Academic
Standards
Bob
Sledd, Chair
Curriculum
Committee
Graduate
Council
Marty Lewis, Chair
Academic
Standards
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Curriculum
Committee
Ron Lane, Chair--Liberal Arts (rlane@utb1.utb.edu)
Graciela Rosenberg--Education
Katherine Dougherty--Health Sciences
Wayne Wells--Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Charles Lackey--Business
Antonio Zavaleta--Dean of a College
Marilyn Dyer--Dean of a School
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Graduate
Council
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Strategic
Planning Task Force
Raymond Rodrigues <rrodrigues@utb1.utb.edu>
John Robey <jrobey@utb1.utb.edu>
Mary Curtis <mcurtis@utb1.utb.edu>
Ava Miller <amiller@utb1.utb.edu>
Eli Peña <eepena@utb1.utb.edu>
Carolyn Green <cwgreen@utb1.utb.edu>
Judy Goodwin <jgoodwin@utb1.utb.edu>
Peter Gawenda <gawenda@hp.utbtsc.edu>
Olivia Rivas <rivas@utb1.utb.edu>
Anthony Zaveleta <zaveleta@utb1.utb.edu>
Sylvia Peña <scpena@utb1.utb.edu>
José Martíin <jmartin@utb1.utb.edu>
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General
Education Task Force
Carolyn Green, Chair <cwgreen@utb1.utb.edu>
Joe Binder <binder@utb1.utb.edu>
Betsy Boze <bboze@utb1.utb.edu>
José Martín <jmartin@utb1.utb.edu>
Sherry McCullough <mccullough@utb1.utb.edu>
Art Brownlow <brownlow@utb1.utb.edu>
Jay Phillips <tjayp@utb1.utb.edu>
Aileen Johnson <ajohnson@utb1.utb.edu>
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