STAFF SENATE

October 22, 2008 at Staff Senate meeting. Kristine Mashaw reported that SPC members are looking at the Five Year Vision strategies and evaluating their progress. Please contact Kristine (kmashaw@montana.edu) with ideas for new strategies.

September 11, 2008 Members Attending: Jim Rimpau, Jeff Adams, Ahmed Al-kaisy, Diane Eagleson, Tom Hughes, Kristine Mashaw, Bruce Maxwell, Chris (replacing Jo Oudshoorn), Leslie Schmidt, Tom Wood Others Attending: Chris Fastnow

1. Introductions
2. Environmental Scan
   • Jim Rimpau spoke about the steady decrease in the number of high school graduates in Montana and the effect that will have on funding, as we are funded by the number of resident students enrolled. The projected number of HS graduates this year is 10,050, with that number decreasing to 8,890, in 10 years. This fall’s resident student enrollment was not as high as planned, and, the number is still up from last year. The official count is not done until the 15th day of class. Jim also pointed out that low freshman enrollments affect, at least, the next 4 years.
   • We can make up student numbers with non-resident students, but the state appropriation is still affected. MT state average incomes are among the lowest in the nation, keeping us from raising tuition. The money collected from non-resident students (about 140% of the cost to educate) subsidizes the money lost from resident students (only about 80% of cost). Our state appropriations are 50-70% of what other universities receive, forcing us to look at increasing efficiency.
   • We’ve done well by our vision, over the last five years, in increasing the number of “high end” students. We’re seeing an increase in ACT scores.
3. Discussion of Process to Update the Current Vision
   • The charge of this committee is to maintain the 5-year vision as a living document. Each goal is measured by a baseline and updated yearly according to the changing environment, accomplishments, and additional goals. At the next meeting, the committee will divide the goals and items among them and begin research and measurement.
   • How do we regenerate interest and increase the visibility of the 5-year plan? It is hard to generate interest among constituents not directly affected by the goals. President Gamble focused on the vision plan in his spring address this year, though we can’t expect this to be the focus each year. Communications published a glossy, summarized version of the plan as an external document. The accreditation process addresses the strategic plan in standard 1, which provides us with an opportunity to revisit and reintroduce the plan.
4. Other Business
   • A question was raised about the value in adding a Foundation representative to the committee.
   • There was a request for an overview of the status of the vision – in which areas have we succeeded/fallen short?
     1. We’re acquiring more usable space through leases and appropriate allocation of research dollars.
     2. Our goal of a 13,000-student enrollment was originally not thought to be making progress as, stated earlier, growth is not happening. However, we are now seeing growth through retention and graduate programs.
     3. Research is an area in which we’re not doing as well as planned. This is due to a decrease in national funding affecting such institutions as the NIS and NIH. They’re not growing, so they are not able to provide us with money.
     4. Salaries seem to be going backwards. It’s hard to have this in our strategic plan, as it is mostly out of our control. It is kept as part of the plan because it is always a high priority.
     5. We’re seeing progress in increasing the diversity across campus.
     6. The “Students in Transition” advisory program, funded by UPBAC, is a success in retaining students we may have otherwise lost as a result of not meeting the minimum requirements for their initial programs of choice, i.e. MTA and Architecture.

May 30, 2008 - MSU's Five Year Vision update is at http://www.montana.edu/vision. The link to the updated FY08 plan is in the top left.

February 8, 2006 - SPC consulted CEPAC over the continued appropriateness of the Five Year Vision tactics and goals. The concept of highlighting solutions to the local cost of housing etc was explored, and CEPAC subsequently raised this with President Gamble. Otherwise, CEPAC confirmed the inclusion of the professional development and training aspects, contained within 9 of the 23 classified tactics, within classifieds' current Pooled Resources project. CEPAC continues to track the progress of the remaining classified tactics and keeps in touch with the Classified Tactical Team regarding conceptual relevances.

December 15, 2005 - meeting postponed until the New Year.

Notes from SPC meeting on September 28, 2005
Members Attending: Jeff, Cathy, Jaynee, Becky, Henri, Bruce, Mark, Jon, Greg, Jim
Others Attending: Chris Fastnow

1. The committee looked at a bar chart that shows the status of tactics (ranging from No action or No update to Completed) within each of the six areas of the five year vision. There are still a number of the tactics that do not have a status report or update. Jim, Greg, Becky and Jo (the subgroup that has been doing updates over the summer) will look into those and try to reduce their number.
2. The committee looked at a table that summarizes the progress toward the various statistical goals that are articulated in the five year vision document. Chris reported that in five cases, the baseline score appears to have been miscalculated. Since the goals were typically set relative to the baseline figure, the goals in these cases need to be revisited. The committee discussed these cases and decided as follows:
   • Non resident headcount – the original baseline was 31% and the goal was set at 33%. The baseline should have been 25% so the committee agreed to reset the goal at 27%.
   • Number of freshmen with 3.6 HSGPA – the original baseline was 770 and the goal was 850 (a 10% increase). The baseline should have been 648 so the committee agreed to reset the goal to 715.
   • Faculty salaries – The baseline should have been 83%, not 78%. The goal does not change.
   • Percent of lower division credit hours taught by TT/T faculty – Original baseline should have been 47%. The committee agreed to let the goal remain at 50%+.
   • Number of alumni donors – There is some confusion about exactly what is (or should be) counted here. For example, are members of the alumni association automatically counted as donors? Chris and Jim will discuss this with Jaynee and propose some resolution.

3. The committee discussed the “Strategic Goals and Objectives for the University System” document that emerged from the September 2005 BOR meeting. We compared the goals and objectives in the MSU five year vision with the three goals in the MUS document. Those three are basically Access, Economic Development, and Efficiency. We tried to align the MSU document and the MUS document. Based on our input, Chris will resort the MSU document into sections corresponding to the three goals in the MUS document. We will try to rank the MSU goals/objectives within each of the three areas according to how well they “fit” the Regents objectives. We will give this document to UPBAC.

March 22, 2005 - Jim Rimpau mentioned that the tactics forwarded to UPBAC will be reviewed in UPBAC for the first time today. SPC is actively pursuing the other tactics and determining how best to progress them.

February 8, 2005 - Mark Reinholz says: I have little to report to CEPAC the SPC is working on what needs funding this year by UPBAC.

January 12, 2005 - Mark Reinholz reported that SPC has received about 200 tactics from the various Five Year Vision tactical teams. SPC is flushing out which tactics should be directed where. Those calling for business management philosophy change, rather than funding, will be directed to implementors other than UPBAC. UPBAC has requested, first, to receive items requiring funding for FY06. Mark stressed that SPC will address all 200 tactics, eliminate none.

December 2, 2004 - Mark Reinholz reported: The Strategic Planning Commission meeting was held Thursday December 2, 2004 at 1:00 pm in room 272 of the Strand Union Building. As this was the first meeting for most members, the meeting was dedicated to revisiting the committee charge and providing an introduction to the Strategic Visions and Tactics. To deal with the large number of Tactics, it was found to be in the best interest to review a small portion over several meetings to be held in December and January. For the interest of CEPAC members, these Tactics can be viewed at this URL: http://www.montana.edu/upba/vision/cutactics.html

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 10/28/08