The Michigan Tech Plan: Elements for Success

IV. ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS.
Achieving our goals and implementing the objectives outlined in the Draft Strategic Plan will require that Michigan Tech make adjustments in a variety of areas. Some of these changes could be substantial and might entail policy and procedural changes, or marshalling financial resources beyond the scope or reach of any single unit.

We must always remember that we are a student-centered institution. A core element of our goals and objectives is that we have to optimize our enrollment at the undergraduate and graduate level. Everyone should recognize that this plan requires a commitment of significant financial resources if we are going to carry out its innovative goals, objectives, and strategies. We can do this by enhancing out financial resources and by making better use of our existing resources through increasing our capabilities in financial analysis, budgeting, resource allocation and reallocation, and planning. All are in order. We must also consider what advantages we might gain by making organizational adjustments that would bring together those people working on common concerns. We acknowledge that achievement of certain goals will require expansions or renovations of facilities, such as the proposed center for integrated learning and information technology. However, we also recognize the need to more fully utilize existing space by an improved allocation process that considers the attributes of that space (information technology access, for example).

These kinds of processes will help us achieve our goals, however, they are not the ends. Our success will be based on our ability to focus on results, not activities. Results-driven programs are more effective than activities-oriented programs and aim for quick, measurable gains within a few months. Thus, it is important that we begin to identify key measures of our progress toward reaching our goals. Some possibilities are:

Achieve recognition as one of the nation's research universities and move into the first tier of Michigan’s universities;
Increase the number of doctoral students to 500 by 2010
Move from Leaders for Innovation capital campaign to building an endowment of $500 million by 2010;
Develop greater resources from external sources, partners, and the state of Michigan so that by 2010 sponsored research plus philanthropy will equal state appropriations plus tuition and fees;
Improve the standing of Michigan Tech’s undergraduate and graduate programs in National Rankings of colleges and universities;
Reach targets for optimal enrollment recognizing that many programs already have too many undergraduate majors. Many of the new students will be in new programs in interdisciplinary areas like Bioinformatics;
Benchmark the key characteristics of “aspirational” universities as a means of measuring our progress;
Become a benchmark for innovative and inspirational undergraduate programs.

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