Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 22, 2020

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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:

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!

 

Clif’s Notes for Nov. 6, 2018

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Today is Election Day. I encourage each of you to put the public affairs mission into practice by voting at the Welcome Center or your regular polling location. I am in China this week meeting with government officials and representatives of our partner universities, but I voted absentee before I left.

In last week’s Clif’s Notes, I summarized some of the issues on the ballot and told you how I voted on Proposition D (the transportation funding proposal). If you missed that note, you can find it here.

Setting new goals

When we developed the 2016-21 long-range plan, we also established measurable goals to track our progress under the plan.

I am pleased to report that the university has met two of these goals.

We set a goal of awarding 4,900 degrees and credentials annually. Last year we awarded 4,723 degrees and 461 certificates for a total of 5,184.

We also set a goal of having 14 percent of our faculty and staff be international or members of historically underrepresented groups. In fall 2018, 14.5 percent of our faculty and staff were international or members of historically underrepresented groups, a nearly 4 percent increase over the past 5 years.

The board discussed this progress, and the university established new goals.

The board recognized the flat trend in numbers of high school graduates in Missouri. The board also recognized that our future enrollment growth will be more focused on targeted areas of high workforce demand. Accordingly, we have established a goal of awarding 5,200 degrees and credentials annually by 2021.

The board and the administration agreed that it was important that we continue to press forward on our work to diversify the university’s workforce. Accordingly, we have established a goal of having 16 percent of our faculty and staff be international or members of historically underrepresented groups by 2021.

Room to improve

We have not yet reached our goals with regard to retention and graduation rates.

We have a goal of achieving an overall six-year graduation rate of 57 percent and a first-to-second year retention rate of 82 percent. Our 2018 rates were 54.5 percent and 78 percent respectively.

We also have a goal of increasing our retention and graduation rates for underrepresented, Pell-eligible and first-generation students to 79 percent and 50 percent respectively. Our retention rates for these groups of students range from 64 to 76 percent, and our graduation rates range from 38 to 57 percent.

We are doing a lot to achieve our retention and graduation goals. We continue to expand our designated GEP 101 sections. We are in the process of implementing the Center for Academic Success and Transition (CAST), creating an academic care team for students in academic trouble, encouraging more students to create and utilize four-year plans, providing training on proactive advising and undertaking numerous other initiatives designed to support student academic needs.

In December, the board will discuss the retention and graduation data and the initiatives currently underway.

I am proud of the work we have done, and I look forward to the work that lies ahead to achieve each of these important goals.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Aug. 29, 2017

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This is the second year of our Implementing the Vision long-range plan.

Over the summer, Administrative Council and Academic Leadership Council, in communication with the Board of Governors, developed the university-wide focus areas and action plan for the coming year. Those documents are now final and posted online.

Identifying focus areas

Last year we identified two focus areas:

  1. Increasing the number of graduates while maintaining academic rigor and quality
  2. Enhancing campus diversity and inclusion

This year’s focus areas continue with these two items and add “Funding” as a third focal point. This aligns with our work to develop a sustainable financial model in an era of declining state support (which I summarized in a prior note).

Highlights of the plan

Our action plan contains particular action items the university intends to work on this academic year. The action items are organized under the six areas set forth in the long-range plan. Highlights include:

  • Continue to grow enrollment of domestic students and sustain enrollment of international students
  • Strategically unbundle programs into stackable, micro-credentials and create nondegree training programs designed to provide participants with unique employment-applicable skills in strategic areas
  • Expand and enhance transition support for new students
  • Expand co-requisite course offerings
  • Initiate structured scheduling pilot programs
  • Collaborate with Faculty Senate to evaluate the reduction of the minimum number of hours required to graduate from 125 to 120
  • Initiate long-term strategies to decrease the student-to-faculty ratio
  • Increase the percentage of underrepresented faculty, staff and students
  • Enhance faculty and staff cultural competency through training and development initiatives and activities
  • Continue cultural consciousness/competency development for faculty, staff, administrators, students and the community to improve campus climate
  • Implement college and unit level diversity and inclusion initiatives consistent with the Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan
  • Develop and implement the Bear POWER program, a two year program for students ages 18 to 26 with intellectual disabilities
  • Increase efficiency by enhancing the university’s procurement policies and practices, negotiating favorable contractual terms, and evaluating opportunities to centralize and consolidate support staff services
  • Evaluate and revise the tuition, fee and scholarship policies
  • Evaluate opportunities to enhance campus facilities through public private partnerships
  • Increase compensation for faculty and staff

Working together, I believe we can make progress on these action items and continue to build on the university’s success.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Feb. 14, 2017

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Clif's Notes

We started the academic year with our first annual Action Plan under the 2016-2021 Long-Range Plan. We identified two focus areas—increasing the number of graduates while maintaining academic rigor and quality and enhancing campus diversity and inclusion. We also established measurable goals to hold the university accountable.

Staying focused despite challenges

As we work on the budget for next year, it is important that we remain committed to our focus areas. This is consistent with the guiding principles I highlighted in last week’s note. One of those principles says:

  • Protecting the core mission of the university—academic achievement, scholarship and student success—is paramount. Budgetary decisions should be consistent with the mission and strategic plan of the university, with a primary focus on preserving strong academic programs, increasing the number of graduates at all levels, and enhancing diversity and inclusion.

Our work to increase the number of graduates while maintaining academic rigor and quality and enhancing campus diversity and inclusion must continue despite funding challenges.

Leaders identified to advance effortsCarrington Hall

In addition to college and department level groups that are working on retention and graduation initiatives, several university-wide groups are working to ensure that we continue to move forward on our focus areas. Frank Einhellig and I have assigned administrators to lead particular efforts:

  • Wes Pratt is leading our efforts with regard to improving the transition for underrepresented, first-generation and Pell-eligible incoming and new students.
  • Rachelle Darabi is leading our efforts with regard to enhanced advising for such students.
  • Steve Foucart is leading our efforts with regard to financial incentives designed to encourage retention.
  • Kelly Wood is leading our efforts with regard to first-year experiences.
  • Dee Siscoe is leading our efforts with regard to living-learning communities.
  • Kathy Davis is leading our efforts with regard to retaining and guiding students who have not declared a major.
  • John Catau is leading our efforts with regard to structured schedules.

I met with each of these administrators last week to encourage them to press on with their work. Earlier this week I met with our senior administrative and academic leadership teams to track our progress on the items set forth in the Action Plan.

I want to thank all of our faculty and staff for their work on the focus areas. Together we will continue to move the university forward.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Nov. 1, 2016

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Clif's Notes

As you know, the university has identified two focus areas for the 2016-21 long-range plan:

  • Increasing the number of graduates while maintaining academic rigor and quality
  • Enhancing campus diversity and inclusion

Keeping ourselves accountable19273 MSU Spring 10 am Commencement. diverse

At the October Board of Governors Programs and Planning Committee meeting, we worked with the board to finalize specific measurable goals. These goals will be used to hold the university accountable and to ensure that progress is made in these focus areas. The goals, along with historical data, are reflected in the tables below.

Degrees and certificates awarded annually (July 1-June 30)
Fiscal year Degrees and certificates
FY12 4,473
FY13 4,311
FY14 4,409
FY15 4,431
FY16 4,642
Goal FY21 4,900
Six-year graduation rate
Cohorts Graduation rate
2006 cohort in 2012 55%
2007 cohort in 2013 53%
2008 cohort in 2014 55%
2009 cohort in 2015 52%
2010 cohort in 2016 55%
Goal fall 2021 57%
First-year to Second-year retention rate (fall to fall)
Year Retention rate
2011-12 75%
2012-13 75%
2013-14 75%
2014-15 78%
2015-16 79%
Goal fall 2021 82%
Six-year graduation rate
Cohorts Pell-eligible First-generation Hispanic/Latino Black African-American Two or more races
2006 cohort in 2012 51% 47% 41% 40% 57%
2007 cohort in 2013 48% 46% 48% 44% 59%
2008 cohort in 2014 50% 46% 42% 32% 61%
2009 cohort in 2015 45% 44% 45% 35% 46%
2010 cohort in 2016 49% 48% 52% 33% 43%
Goal fall 2021 50% 50% 50% 50% 50%
First year to second year retention rate (fall to fall)
Year Pell-eligible First-generation Hispanic/Latino Black African-American Two or more races
2011-12 65% 71% 75% 74% 66%
2012-13 68% 65% 73% 66% 63%
2013-14 66% 61% 71% 71% 67%
2014-15 72% 73% 78% 69% 72%
2015-16 71% 72% 75% 74% 83%
Goal fall 2021 79% 79% 79% 79% 79%
Faculty and staff that are international or members of historically underrepresented groups
Year Percentage
Fall 2011 10.5%
Fall 2012 10.7%
Fall 2013 10.6%
Fall 2014 11.0%
Fall 2015 11.5%
Goal fall 2021 14%

Understanding the numbers18903 Fall scenes on campus. Bob Linder/ Missouri State

These goals are not intended to be static. The university will review these goals each year when it unveils its annual action plan. Should the university achieve a measurable goal, the university may set a new goal or refocus. Likewise, if achievement of a goal becomes improbable, the university will explain the reasons for not meeting the goal and establish a new goal or goals that the university has a realistic opportunity to achieve.

Work is underway to achieve these goals. Specific action items are listed in the 2016-17 Action Plan. Earlier this fall, over 50 representatives from Missouri State University participated in a statewide Complete College America 15 to Finish, which we hosted on our campus. Conversations are ongoing to implement the strategies discussed at this conference. We are hopeful that these strategies, along with the action items in the 2016-17 Action Plan, will result in progress toward our measurable goals.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!