Discovery Academic Strategic Plan
| Discovery Goal: Raise the national and international prominence of MSU in research, creativity, innovation, and scholarly achievement; fortify the university's standing as one of the nation's leading public research universities. | MSU Target | Unit Strategy | Unit Objective (optional) | Unit Metric | Person Responsible for Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective D.1: Elevate the research excellence and recognition of our faculty. | |||||
| Metric D.1.1: By 2019, MSU will attract and retain faculty of national and international recognition, including society fellows, artists with museum-level exhibitions, acclaimed writers and critics, and performers and composers whose work engages audiences at leading venues. | Increase in measures of recognition (baseline not determined) | Address salary issues. |
• Raise faculty salaries to at least 80% of representative peers. • Increase salary floors. • Address compression and inversion. • Increase amount of promotion increases. (absolute amount or % of salary) |
Provost | |
| Metric D.1.1 | Create 12 endowed professorships/chairs by 2019. | Deans | |||
| Metric D.1.1 | Assess, inventory and establish a schedule for renovating teaching, creative activity and research facilities, starting with the oldest and most unsafe areas (OR to meet peer standards for equipment, resources and safety standards). | Provost/VPR | |||
| Metric D.1.2:. By 2019, national and international recognition of MSU faculty will improve as measured through accomplishments such as national awards, peerreviewed publications, invited presentations, journal citations, fellowships, editorial positions, technology transfer activities, visiting appointments, scholars visiting MSU, occurrence of scholarly conferences on the MSU campus, membership on governmental policy committees, review panels, museum-level exhibitions, creative work that engages audiences at leading venues, and placement of doctoral students. | Increase in measures of research and creative productivity (baseline not determined) | Encourage creation of College committees to nominate faculty for national/international awards. | Provost | ||
| Metric D.1.2 | Develop a process for preemptive retention offers. | $150-200,000 pool? | Provost | ||
| Metric D.1.2 | Provide funding for faculty development such as travel to peer-reviewed conferences to get professional experience. | Provost/VPR | |||
| Metric D.1.2 | Provide seed grants for interdisciplinary research to groups of individuals from different departments with a project that has a high probability of securing external funding. | Provost/VPR | |||
| Metric D.1.2 | Strategically recruit faculty who would bring new expertise and collaborative opportunities (e.g., a member of the National Academies) | Provost | |||
| Metric D.1.2 | Create affiliate appointments for faculty from other institutions to encourage mutually beneficial engagements in research and teaching. | Provost | |||
| Metric D.1.2 | Increase the percentage of instructional faculty with a terminal degree | Baselines? | Provost |
| Discovery Goal: Raise the national and international prominence of MSU in research, creativity, innovation, and scholarly achievement; fortify the university's standing as one of the nation's leading public research universities. | MSU Target | Unit Strategy | Unit Objective (optional) | Unit Metric | Person Responsible for Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric D.1.3: By 2019, MSU will improve its rank among Carnegie Classified Research Universities – Very high Research Activity (RU/VH) RU/VH institutions on four measures: STEM R&D expenditures (current rank 94); Non-STEM R&D expenditures (rank 92); Number of S&E research staff (rank 96); and Doctoral conferrals (rank 106). | Improved rank | Encourage more grant writing. | Market the OSP Pre- Award Office and grant writing/editing firms on retainer. Provide professional development opportunities in grantwriting. | VPR | |
| Metric D.1.3 | Invest in sponsored research centers/institutes and establish new ones based on University strengths. | VPR | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Pursue classified DOD research. | VPR | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Increase the number of self-funded, fully-funded research faculty. | VPR/Provost | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Improve core research facilities. | Develop the infrastructure for campus-wide scientific computing. | VPR | ||
| Metric D.1.3 | Provide faculty with clear expectations at hire regarding acquiring competitive grants. | Provost | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Create interdisciplinary graduate programs, especially at Ph.D. level. | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Recognize supervision of graduate students in faculty workload model. | Larsen | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Provide graduate students with clear expectations of responsibilities and time to degree completion. | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.1.3 | Increase graduate student numbers and improve quality of doctoral student applications. | Create new doctoral programs. [e.g., material science]. Offer competitive GTA stipends, tuition waivers, benefits. | Grad Dean | ||
| Objective D.2: Enhance infrastructure in support of research, discovery and creative activities. | |||||
| Metric D.2.1: By 2019, funding for capital projects from public and private sources will increase in order to provide state-of-the-art laboratory, studio, and other space-related resources to a growing community of scholars and artists. | Increased funding for research and creative space/ improvements (baseline not determined) | Develop partnerships with private entities | VPR | ||
| Metric D.2.1 | Pursue Innovation Campus opportunities. | VPR | |||
| Metric D.2.1 | Develop systematic data driven metrics for allocation of research space by 2014. | VPR/Provost | |||
| Metric D.2.2: By 2019, MSU will increase grant-sponsored investment in centers, core facilities and resources to expand state of the art tools, expertise, and opportunities for research and creative activities. | Increased grant-sponsored investment in research- and creativty-supporting infrastructure (baseline not determined) | Encourage PIs to include facility and equipment funds in grants and in submitting facility improvement and equipment grants. | VPR | ||
| Metric D.2.2 | Develop an institutional repository of intellectual output of campus. | Library Dean | |||
| Metric D.2.2 | Develop a centralized funding model to enhance and support service contracts, maintenance and operations of core facilities. | VPR |
| Discovery Goal: Raise the national and international prominence of MSU in research, creativity, innovation, and scholarly achievement; fortify the university's standing as one of the nation's leading public research universities. | MSU Target | Unit Strategy | Unit Objective (optional) | Unit Metric | Person Responsible for Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective D.3: Expand the scale, breadth, and quality of doctoral education. | |||||
| Metric D.3.1: The percentage of faculty who advise doctoral students will increase by 2019. | Increase in % who advise (baseline not determined) | Develop and enhance doctoral programs. |
1. Integrate doctoral student advising in workload considerations and P&T reviews. 2. Consider allowing research and affiliate faculty to chair the graduate student committees of students working under their direct supervision. |
1. Grad Dean 2. Grad Dean |
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| Metric D.3.2: The graduate population will increase 20% to approximately 2,350 by 2019, with an emphasis on increasing doctoral student enrollment. | 2350 graduate headcount enrollment | Increase the number of and grow graduate programs, including quality online Masters. | Strategically hire TT faculty in areas that will directly increase graduate student enrollment. | Provost | |
| Metric D.3.2 | Offer competitive GTA/GRA stipends, tuition waivers, benefits | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.3.3: By 2019, graduate degrees awarded annually will increase to 625; Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) masters and doctoral degrees will increase to 325; all doctoral degrees will increase to 80. | 625 graduate degrees annually; 325 STEM grad degrees annually; 80 doctoral degrees annually | Explore cross disciplinary opportunities for new graduate programs. | Grad Dean | ||
| Metric D.3.3 | Use program review to evaluate under-enrolled programs and potentially reinvest in new programs. | Larsen | |||
| Metric D.3.3 | Require graduate students to meet with their committees at least once a year. | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.3.3 | Implement a graduate student tracking system and require department heads to review progress of students annually to make sure they are on target to timely conferral of graduate degree. | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.3.3 | Reduce average time to doctoral degree conferral by at least one year | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.3.4: The number and proportion of graduate students presenting at national and international meetings, publishing in high-profile academic outlets, earning high-profile fellowships, placing in national and international competitions, and garnering prestigious first job placements will increase by 2019. | Increase in number and proportion of grads with productivity (baseline not determined) | Establish graduate internship programs with nonuniversity partners, including business, nongovernmental organizations, and international partners. | Grad Dean | ||
| Metric D.3.4 | Require doctoral students to submit a peerreviewed publication, presentation, other scholarly product and/or proposal for external funding prior to graduation. | Grad Dean | |||
| Metric D.3.4 | Include graduate student presentations in annual faculty evaluations | Larsen | |||
| Metric D.3.4 | Track and report initial placement of graduate students after graduation. | Grad Dean |