Implementing Our Plan

VI. IMPLEMENTING OUR PLAN

The purpose of this Implementation Plan is to provide a process by which we can apply our strategic plan – The Action Agenda for 2010. The Implementation Plan’s objective is to ensure our Mission is achieved, our Vision is realized, and our Strategic Goals are attained. We will use three approaches to achieving this vision:

Alignment of Unit Plans and linking to the normal budget process - Unit plans will be updated annually and supported through the budget processes. Progress will be measured against performance metrics - consistent with national recognition.
Creation of a University Vision Initiative - A Request for Proposals to the entire Campus community will be issued in order to achieve our vision in a spirit of cooperation.
Reinstatement of the Research Excellence Fund (REF)- Develop a coordinated effort to reinstate all or part of this fund to assist new researchers, focussing on multi-disciplinary efforts.

The Alignment of Unit Plans and Linking to the Normal Budget Process

The implementation process was begun by having each of the fifteen major academic and administrative units (henceforth, “unit”) on campus develop individual strategic plans based on input from across the unit. Unit action plans were formulated to align unit goals with the Michigan Tech Strategic Plan. Action plans specified the unit objectives to be achieved, how those objectives aligned with Michigan Tech’s Strategic Goals, the methods for achieving the objectives, the timelines for achieving them, and the measures for assessing progress towards them.

Planning will continue annually at the unit level, including discussions of the alignment of unit plans with the Michigan Tech plan, how units can redirect resources and efforts to pursue Strategic Goals, how units across campus can coordinate some of their efforts, and how units have progressed on their plan according to performance metrics.

Now is the time to again look at our strategic portfolios, review goals, objectives, and strategies, and develop methods of measuring progress toward achieving the unit's strategic goals as outlined below in more detail. Units should also detail what new tasks and programs have been initiated and which task, thrusts, or programs have been scheduled for downsizing or elimination.

A second aspect of the Strategic Plan implementation is linking it to the creation of the annual University budget. Strategic activities can and will be supported through the budget allocation processes. Unit leaders are encouraged to evaluate how time, effort and money can be redirected in the pursuit of their initiatives and strategic goals, and how resources from friends, foundations and funding agencies can leverage University resources. We will use the budget process in synchronization with the yearly update of unit plans and measure progress against performance metrics consistent with national recognition.

In summary:

Fifteen major units and their constituent units/departments will continue to work through administrative channels to attain their respective strategic objectives (action plans).
Unit objectives or new strategic directions that need new resources will be submitted through the normal budget request process which will occur concurrently with the unit plan updates.
Overlap between the unit and University initiatives is possible and encouraged. All initiatives should point toward national recognition.
Units are encouraged to pursue their goals by seeking external funding.

Creation of a University Vision Initiative

We have established the University Vision Initiative process which will be used as seed funds for proposals from individuals or teams that support the University's Mission and Vision while achieving one or more of the Strategic Goals. It is anticipated that awards from the Vision Initiative process for strategic planning activities will be made annually. Requests for funds from the Vision Initiative process should anticipate the award cycle and plan accordingly. The process is described in detail in Appendix 1.

Strategic Planning and resource reallocation are a normal part of every operating unit’s activities. Therefore, special requests submitted to the Vision Initiative process off-cycle will generally be directed back to the proposer with the suggestion that funds be sought through other means such as the normal budgeting process or various unit sources. In the rare instances when an out-of-cycle request is considered, the Strategic Planning Working Group will apply review criteria similar to those used during the normal cycle.

This aspect of implementing Michigan Tech’s Strategic Plan is to coordinate efforts across campus. Unit leaders are best suited to be advocates for unit ideas and plans and to work with others across campus to make them a reality. However, extra effort is often necessary to bring key people and resources together to advance some of the more innovative, and sometimes higher risk, initiatives. Therefore, this Vision Initiative process proposed here will enable units working alone or in groups to pursue their most innovative and creative ideas to accomplish the goals of the University’s Strategic Plan. For the purpose of soliciting and identifying proposals of common interest it might be useful to restate some of the goals of the strategic plan as general interest areas:

Innovation in education (Goal 1)
Emerging technologies and research (Goal 2)
Residential and community campus (Goal 4)
Resources, size, and composition. (Goal 3, 5)

Examples of these interest areas are given in Appendix 2.

In summary, the vision initiative is meant to

Select strategic initiatives in support of the Action Agenda, complete with timelines, resource needs, and budget impacts;
Identify specific sources of funding for our strategic initiatives and develop specific plans to obtain funding;
Allocate resources in support of our most promising initiatives;
Invite participation by every member of the Michigan Tech community.
Promote a bottom up process. .
Encourage initiatives that cross unit boundaries.
Targets audiences different from the Research Excellence Fund, e.g., educational programs, university life, research support, etc.

Reinstatement of the Research Excellence Fund (REF)

This is self-explanatory. The emphasis is to build REF back over time to help new investigators and/or teams of investigators to build areas of national prominence. The focus is on faculty responsible for building the research enterprise.

These three approaches will be used in parallel. The fifteen major units and their constituent units, which developed individual strategic plans, will continue through the normal administrative channels to work towards their respective strategic objectives (action plans). Some of the constituent unit strategic objectives will not need new resources, but some may require new funds. These unit plans are linked to the annual University budget through the submittal of budget requests. These submittals occur concurrently with the proposals in the solicitation cycle described above and the call for proposals suitable for the Research Excellence Fund. Overlap between unit and institutional initiatives is possible, even encouraged. Units are also encouraged to pursue their goals by seeking grants, building their endowment, and forming coalitions with other universities around the world as well as with government and non-governmental organizations.

In a given year, the Provost, meeting with all relevant groups (the Executive Council, the Deans Council, the Strategic Allocation Committee, the Budget Advisory Group, the Strategic Planning Group, and the Board of Control's Finance Committee) throughout the decision-making process, will make the final determination of funding and, therefore, implementation of the strategic plan and this multi-faceted approach to achieving our vision.

Measuring Our Success

We measure progress at three levels (see also www.mtu.edu/stratplan/measurables.html ) :
The Goal Measures are university-level measurables and are purposely few in number. They are holistic, university-wide, appropriate for Board or university executive use, small in number, and developed once per strategic plan. They are rarely, if ever, revised. The six proposed goal measures are described below.

The Thematic/National Measures are measurements made by others that allow us to measure ourselves against peers and those to which we aspire to emulate. They are tied to national benchmarks and similar or identical to those used for national rankings. They are “top level” and cross-cutting and may measure more than one MTU strategic goal. The SPWG reviews data annually. Possible Choices include:

“The Nine Indicators of Competitiveness” (the Center’s “Top American Research Universities)
USN&WR Rankings
NSF Research Expenditures Annual Report
Selected Components of USN&WR Rankings
Research Council Doctoral Program Rankings
Carnegie Research Institution Classifications
National Survey of Student Assessment

Unit Measures are measurables developed and used by individual units to assess unit progress toward unit strategic goals stated and described in the Unit Strategic Portfolios. They are annually reviewed/revised by the SPWG, Deans, Chairs, Faculty, Directors.
The six proposed GOAL MEASURES and the associated 2010 goals are:

1. Increased student learning and academic success.

1. 70% undergraduate student graduation rate (6-year rate)
2. 60% graduate student graduation rate

2. Increase mix and diversity of graduate and undergraduate enrollments to achieve a total residential enrollment of 7,000 full-time students.

1. Total residential enrollment of 7,000
2. 15% of total enrollment to be graduate
3. 50% of our graduate enrollment to be doctoral students

3. Increase the national visibility of MTU.

1. Increase the number of non-Michigan undergraduate students by 10%
2. Increase the number of inquiries by 60%

4. Increase sponsored research.

1. To achieve $50 million of research expenditures by 2010.

5. Increase peer-reviewed scholarship.

1. 80% of tenured/tenure track faculty to be actively pursuing research, scholarship,
and/or creative activity
2. Increase peer-reviewed scholarship by 5% per year

6. Increase the University endowment.

1. Increase the endowment corpus to $400 million
2. 85% of the endowment is to consist of “people” assets (endowed scholarships,
fellowships, faculty chairs; professorships)

Some of the unit measurables will need to be modified or expanded in order to acquire the information that the SPWG will need in order to assess our progress towards achieving our University strategic goals. A member of the SPWG will be contacting each Portfolio manager during October to assist in developing measurables that can be appropriately incorporated into the university-level measurables.

The Board of Control expects to receive a report on all three levels of progress measurements at its March, 2003, strategic planning workshop. Thus, the SPWG will need to receive progress reports from all unit portfolio managers by February 1, 2003, in order to develop a comprehensive report for the Board. The SPWG member who is working with each portfolio manager will help develop a timeline that will allow the unit to meet this February 1 report date.