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April 24, 2006 Volume 30, Issue 31 |
Foglesong meets with groups; launches strategic planning
In his first week on campus, President Robert H. “Doc” Foglesong met with students, faculty and staff and began a strategic planning initiative to identify the university’s strengths and opportunities, as well as existing and potential areas of excellence.
In a series of campus meetings, he recognized a recent yearlong planning effort chaired by Provost Peter Rabideau and said the new effort will build on it. “We don’t want to change things that are working well, but we want to makes changes where change makes sense,” he said.
A task force chaired by Dr. Gary Pike, director of institutional research, will gather baseline data for Mississippi State, comparing performance in a variety of areas to that of national land-grant universities with a similar structure and scope.
Faculty, staff, student, and community representatives will be nominated by constituent groups and appointed by Foglesong to begin the intensive analysis, which he has asked be completed by the end of July.
“I consider this a bottoms-up review of areas on campus, and I’m asking that the process be as open as possible,” Foglesong said.
The outcomes, which will be shared and discussed with campus and external stakeholder groups, will help shape the university’s goals and the best use of its resources, he added.
Potential, but not necessarily exclusive, areas that Foglesong has identified for study are:
• Academic excellence, including the undergraduate experience.
• Research and graduate/professional education.
• Service and outreach.
• Campus infrastructure.
• Relationships with constituents and bridging experiences.
• Employee-related matters, including salaries and benefits.
Pike’s task force will collect baseline data with the support of a variety of study groups that draw membership from throughout the university community and external constituencies.
The task force will make recommendations to a State of the Future Planning Committee chaired by Rabideau. Members of that committee are Ray Hayes, vice president for finance and administration; Dr. Bill Kibler, vice president for student affairs; and four members of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate.
In addition to Pike, task force members are Chris Clifford of Finance and Administration; Joe Farris of the President’s Office; Maridith Geuder of University Relations; Dr. Mark Goodman of Communication/Holland Faculty Senate; Dr. Jerry Gilbert of Academic Affairs; Dr. Lisa Harris of Student Affairs; Chuck Hill of the GeoResources Institute; Dr. Melissa Mixon of the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine; Dr. Al Rankins of Plant and Soil Sciences; and Dr. Melvin Ray of the President’s Office.
Information about the process will be posted at the president’s Web site at http://www.msstate.edu/president/.