As I mentioned last week, two of the things we will focus on this year are completing our strategic enrollment management plan and developing the university’s next long-range plan and visioning guide.

SEM planning

We began developing our strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan last year. Unfortunately, the pandemic intervened and we had to stop working on the plan.

We have resumed our work on the SEM plan, and a final draft will be presented to the Board of Governors in December.

When we paused our process last year, we had finalized guiding principles and enrollment goals. We were in the process of developing specific strategies and tactics.

As we resume our planning process, we will narrow and reassess our goals to focus more directly on measurable success in enrollment, both recruitment and retention. We will develop strategies and tactics prepared to address the challenges identified before the pandemic but also to address the new challenges that have recently emerged.

As we narrow the focus of our SEM goals, we will also reduce the number of SEM councils involved in finalizing the plan. If you are involved with the SEM steering committee or one of the remaining SEM councils, please re-engage as we complete the plan.

All members of the university community will work together to implement the SEM plan. I look forward to presenting the final plan to you later this year.

Long-range planning

I hope you are as excited as I am to map our future through the 2021-26 long-range plan. We will develop that plan throughout this year and present it to the board for approval this summer.

Dr. Shawn Wahl and Suzanne Shaw will lead a steering committee for the long-range plan. The steering committee roster will be finalized in the coming weeks and a webpage with updates about the planning process will be published.

We want everyone in the university community to provide input and be part of the planning process. You will have multiple opportunities throughout this year to participate in focus groups, town halls and virtual exploration sessions.

Your first opportunity to engage is an interactive presentation titled Future Visioning Webinar. This presentation is scheduled from 1 – 2 p.m. Sept. 28. Additional details can be found online.

Your vision for MSU

We will also develop our 2021-2026 visioning guide. The visioning guide assists the university in planning our facilities for future growth and development. You can see the current visioning guide online.

Throughout this year, we will analyze our space needs, poll the campus community, and interview critical space stakeholders as we develop our next visioning guide. I hope you will engage in this important process, too.

Public Affairs Conference

The public affairs conference is next week.

The conference theme is The Power of Voice. We are surrounded by voices all offering different information, ideas, opinions and points of view.

This year’s conference will explore how these voices impact us, how we can use our voices, and how we can find ways to respectfully agree and disagree.

This year’s conference will feature four plenary speakers:

• Marcus Engel will present The Other End of the Stethoscope at 12:20 p.m. Sept. 30.
• Sue Klebold will present Reaching for Hope at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1.
• Lyrissa Lidsky will present Social Media Self-Sabotage at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 1
• A poetry performance by Ebony Stewart is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30.

This year’s conference is virtual, and individual Zoom links for each session are available on the conference website. Session start times have been scheduled to align with start times for most classes on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

All sessions of the conference are free and open to the public. No registration is required to participate.

As in prior years, employees may use up to two hours of their work time, in coordination with their supervisors, to attend the conference. I encourage you to attend, and I encourage supervisors to facilitate attendance by individuals in your offices or divisions.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!