The University’s framework for planning, Wesleyan 2020, adopted by the Board in 2010, remains in place. Cabinet officers have used it to develop dashboards for purposes of administrative review and assessment of progress – including reports to the Board. The President’s dashboard is naturally the most extensive, with nineteen metrics within the four overarching rubrics: academics, equity & inclusion, recognition, and finance. Human Resources continues to ask all employees to develop their annual goals in partnership with their supervisor within the rubric of Wesleyan 2020.
A comprehensive update on what has and has not been achieved since 2010 with respect to the overarching goals, objectives, and strategies of Wesleyan 2020 was published by the President at the end of 2016. In concert with that look-back document Wesleyan 2020 – Update December 2016, the President also offered a forward-looking document Beyond 2020 – Strategies for Wesleyan that is currently open to review by (and input from) Wesleyan stakeholders.
Within Academic Affairs, planning and evaluation are conducted much as in 2012: specific plans continue to be developed and implemented by the three Deans in concert with other senior administrative staff and department chairs; regular meetings of the Provost with the Deans and the two Associate Provosts allow for regular and careful coordination of planning and evaluation efforts; and the Provost sits (with the President and the Vice President for Finance and Administration) on the Executive Budget Committee which consults on financial planning with Cabinet and the Budget Priorities Committee (an advisory committee comprising faculty, staff, and students). One change is the expansion of the annual external review process beyond the traditional academic departments and programs to include some larger academic units, such as the library, the international studies programs, and the writing programs.
Crucial to the collection and evaluation of data bearing on our progress in meeting strategic objectives is the Office of Institutional Research, and here the University has made new investments to bring the office up to three full-time staff. One new position, the Associate Director of Assessment, should be of great assistance with evaluation and examining institutional effectiveness going forward.
The university has also made a substantial IT investment to bridge institutional data silos so that key leaders can make holistically informed, data-driven decisions. Broadly speaking, there are three categories of data: student data, financial data, and human resource data. Student data is further subdivided into Admission data (housed in a cloud-based product called Slate), Financial Aid data (housed in a product called PowerFaids), and Academic data (departments, courses, enrollments, etc – housed in a PeopleSoft database). A search for a data analytics solution that was capable of handling all three categories of data resulted in our selection of a product called Blackboard Analytics in 2014. The long term project objective is to have one repository (a.k.a. a data warehouse) that will allow for accurate, timely, and streamlined reporting of data in service of university goals; we are beginning to generate regular reports from the data already available in this repository.
Most of our facilities projects have been driven by concrete needs and questions, and it seemed important to think more broadly about aligning the evolution of the campus with our educational aspirations — particularly given how changes in technology are affecting teaching and learning. In 2015 a team of consultants worked with us to develop a set of eleven principles to guide campus development over the next decade: Synergy of Residential and Academic Experience; Network of Informal Learning Spaces; Spectrum of Formal Learning Spaces; Transparency of Indoor/Outdoor Spaces; Engagement Local and Global; Image: Recruitment & Retention of Students, Faculty & Staff; Asset Preservation; Residential Community Building; Economic Feasibility; Environmental Sustainability; High Utilization. As part of the process, Sasaki surveys told us that one of the least-liked places was said to be Fisk Hall, and this past summer it was (partially) renovated according to these principles, which are also reflected in the 2015 work done on the Exley Lobby, the 24/7 study space, and the Pi café and patio. While planning principles are not equivalent to a new campus master plan, we see the principles as serving us well for the time being, and we are presently considering several scenarios for facilities spending over the next 15 years that focus on renovating existing buildings, possibly replacing one part of our science building complex, and adding one or two structures that would build on our programmatic strengths.
The tenth planning principle, Environmental Sustainability, is part and parcel of a comprehensive Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) rolled out in 2016 that details the parts to be played by different areas of the university: Administration (with respect to planning, engagement, health and well-being), Academics (curriculum and academic operations), and Operations (buildings, grounds, dining, energy, purchasing, transportation, waste, and water). The SAP shows us how to integrate sustainability into all that we do.
Planning in a more speculative mode continue to take place at the highest administrative levels and on the Board. In 2016 the Board formed a number of task forces to make use of trustee experience and expertise with respect to strategic options and dedicated one, entitled “Futures” to brainstorming about alternative business models for Wesleyan. Likely considerations include changes in tuition models and cost structures and alternative ways to provide students a Wesleyan education – from offering more master’s degrees to low-residency models.
All strategic plans have a shelf life, and the end-point of Wesleyan 2020 is self-evident. But as yet there has been no reason to veer from its fundamental goals. As the President has put it, “If we can continue to energize Wesleyan’s distinctive educational experience, enhance recognition of Wesleyan as an extraordinary institution, and work within a sustainable economic model while retaining core values, then at that point in the future when a new direction seems in order, the new strategic plan will have an extraordinarily strong foundation on which to build.”