Chancellor David Wilson

Chancellor's Communiqués

June 29, 2007

To: All UW Colleges and UW-Extension Colleagues
Fr: Chancellor David Wilson

In this Message:

1. Why Plan?
2. What Are Our Guiding Principles?
3. What is our Vision?
4. What Are Our Strategic Priorities and Goals?
5. Where Do We Go From Here?

Dear Colleagues,

This month's Chancellor's Communiqué focuses on a single, important topic – strategic planning. I urge everyone to read carefully my thoughts as we now embark upon what can sometimes be labeled the unglamorous work of an institution. As we think about our strategic planning process, I am reminded of a remark by Helen Keller. She once said that one of the things she despised all of her life were people who had great vision, but no sight. Our strategic plan will be our sight.

A few months ago, I outlined the general approach we would take to get us to the shared vision of being the maximum access institutions within the UW System. It is time to turn our attention to the strategic planning process itself — that visible road map to enable us to achieve this vision. In late April, my senior colleagues and I spent two days in a retreat format at the Lowell Center here in Madison to begin a conversation around the process we should put in place to enable us to have a broad strategic plan covering both institutions. While an institutional-level strategic plan has been commonplace within the UW Colleges, it has not been the case with UW-Extension. Based on the recollections of those who have been here for a significant period, UW-Extension has never had such an institutional plan. UW-Extension unit plans have sufficed for an overall plan. Thus, devising a shared institutional strategic plan is, once again, charting an exciting new course for us.

Why Plan?

A broad strategic plan at the institutional level would enable us all to focus on a set of carefully defined strategic goals. Both institutions will then be held accountable for reflecting some of these goals in the specific plans they will develop. Such an overarching plan gives us a sense of direction at the institutional level, above and beyond simply being a collection of our parts. It will articulate what we think is important for our institutions to focus on in order to make our state healthier and wealthier. An institutional plan would also enable us to better use our existing resources, and to more effectively harness support for new resources around some common goals. Let me also add that our institutional plan will not be a dissertation, a voluminous document that looks great, but is rarely read or referenced after producing it. No, that is not what we are aiming for in this process. Our plan will be crisp and focused on a few priorities. It will be constructed in a fashion that is easily understood by all of our stakeholders.

What Are Our Guiding Principles?

Guiding principles are the philosophies we live by within the UW Colleges and UW-Extension. They are what we value in our colleagues and in our institutions. As we devise our roadmap that will guide us to a higher level of access and excellence, in keeping with the spirit of the "Wisconsin Idea," some things will always be "on the bus," to paraphrase Good to Great author Jim Collins. These guiding principles were derived from conversations we had with many of you in the 2006 internal listening sessions. As you recall, some of the questions I asked during those conversations were: "When you think of UW-Extension, what comes to mind? When you think of the UW Colleges, what comes to mind?" In addition, further input was gathered from colleagues during the March retreat.

The Guiding Principles

1. Respect for others and their ideas. Our institutions cannot flourish if we do not appreciate everyone as a valued contributor. As such, we will welcome multiple perspectives on issues that come before us and appreciate alternative views on those issues.
2. Inclusiveness. Our institutions value diversity in all forms, particularly gender and ethnic diversity. We expect our workplace to be reflective of that diversity, and our programs, courses and initiatives to reflect perspectives from those who are the beneficiaries of our work.
3. A Passionate Commitment to our Shared Vision of Maximum Access. Our institutions value loyalty to our missions. We value the transformative power of education and its magical ability to positively change lives and communities. We believe in bringing to our work a healthy combination of passion, problem solving skills, smarts, and a positive attitude. Within the UW Colleges and UW-Extension, we value looking forward, not back.
4. Collaboration. UW Colleges and UW-Extension programs and culture are rooted in collaboration. We will uphold collaboration as a hallmark to guide our continued work.
5. Open Communication and Mutual Trust. Our institutions are public institutions and we value addressing difficult issues openly, listening intently, and the sharing of information.
6. Excellence. Our institutions value excellence and aim to be the best in the nation at carrying out our access mission.
7. Sense of Humor. We take our work very seriously, without taking ourselves seriously. Laugh and the world will laugh with you; cry and you cry alone.
8. Patience and Celebrations. Sustained change often follows a process. As we continue to further define collaborative synergies for our institutions, patience will be a virtue. We are building a cathedral — not a sand castle. Along the way, we will take some time to celebrate our successes.

What is our Vision?

We unveiled our shared vision of maximum access for the UW Colleges and UW-Extension on February 7th in Madison.

This is a vision that has excited all of us and will challenge us to continue examining our existing practices and assessing the effectiveness of our ongoing programs to insure that they remain relevant and responsive to the needs of the state of Wisconsin. As state needs shift, so must some of our programs and the approaches we use to deliver them. Given our presence in every county in the state, our institutions are poised to understand and respond to state needs at the local level more than any other UW institution. Our maximum access vision will enable us to serve these needs in unprecedented fashion.

What Are Our Strategic Priorities and Goals?

There are six major strategic priorities that will drive our strategic plans. I distilled priorities from the data of the external listening sessions I conducted around the state, the numerous internal conversations we have had with several hundred colleagues, and from the report Enhancing the Mission of the UW Colleges. As you recall, an expansive list of these emerging themes were presented via the Town Hall format in January. The goals under each priority were also derived using the same process.

These priorities/goals will focus our efforts on achieving the vision of maximum access and will allow each institution to bring to the effort its strengths and expertise. The six major strategic priorities (not listed in any priority order) are as follows:

Strategic Priority A: Increase Innovation

Goal 1: Develop innovative institutional structures, input and delivery strategies to facilitate access to higher education for the people of the state.

Goal 2: Foster innovative approaches to fulfilling our access mission.

Goal 3: Develop new ways of doing business by using emerging technologies and creating new strategies for engaging our constituents, institutional partners, stakeholders, and others.

Strategic Priority B: Increase Diversity and Global Awareness

Goal 1: Enhance efforts to serve diverse and underserved audiences.

Goal 2: Recruit and hire a more diverse faculty and staff.

Goal 3. Effectively serve a more diverse student body.

Goal 4: Enhance the level of understanding of the world beyond the state of Wisconsin.

Strategic Priority C: Nurture a Climate of Entrepreneurship and Community and Economic Development

Goal 1: Support the creation of new enterprises by entrepreneurs across all segments of the economy.

Goal 2: Support the expansion of high impact enterprises across all segments of the economy.

Goal 3: Increase the level of educational accomplishment across all segments of the Wisconsin workforce.

Goal 4: Increase the programming directed at addressing workforce needs within the rapidly changing state, national and global economies.

Goal 5: Support emerging agricultural niche markets and the environment.

Strategic Priority D: Increase Access to the Higher Education Resources of the State

Goal 1: Bring more adults and place-bound students into our classrooms and on-line offerings.

Goal 2: Use technology creatively to bring more educational programs from across the UW System into homes and schools around the state of Wisconsin.

Goal 3: Expand delivery systems and locations, particularly in Northern Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Madison to offer a pipeline for more Wisconsin residents to access UW resources.

Goal 4: Offer more baccalaureate degree completion programs on our campuses and via e-learning and increase collaborations with the Wisconsin Technical College System to offer UW Colleges' liberal arts programs on their campuses.

Goal 5: Ensure that the tuition at the UW Colleges is at a level that promotes maximum access to the UW System.

Goal 6: Explore ways to use our Cooperative Extension offices to deliver credit courses around the state.

Goal 7: Expand the array of continuing professional development programs in a targeted way to better serve the needs of businesses and professionals in the state of Wisconsin.

Strategic Priority E: Increase Services to Families and Youth

Goal 1: Work with local communities to assist them further in addressing contemporary social challenges, including crime, drug use, teen pregnancy, food security, and poverty, utilizing cutting-edge research to inform our mutual efforts.

Goal 2: Support enhanced programs to promote effective civic engagement on the part of all citizens.

Strategic Priority F: Increase Public and Private Investment in our work

Goal 1: Effectively articulate the impact of our work to our constituents and public officials.

Goal 2: Articulate a compelling case for enhanced public funding for UW-Extension and UW Colleges.

Goal 3: Explore the feasibility of creating a development drive to enhance the diversity of our funding sources.

Where Do We Go From Here?

During the next few weeks, I will seek feedback from the various governance groups on these strategic priorities/goals. Following feedback on the goals, I will appoint a Strategic Planning Steering Committee that will design the strategic planning process. The lead person from the central administration who will provide leadership to the strategic planning process will be Vice Chancellor Marv Van Kekerix, who will also chair the committee. Also, based on the feedback I received from those who attended the February 21, 2007 presentation of Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), I will engage Dennis to be a resource for us as we move this process along. NCHEMS will not write our strategic plan nor direct it. That work will be done, as it should be, by us. I will ask NCHEMS to work with us to insure that we are asking the right questions, that we understand the various external pressures that will greatly affect the directions we will be going, and that we are speaking with and including the right audiences in our conversations.

Dennis has subsequently given a presentation to the Board of Regents at its June meeting, titled Higher Education and the Future of Wisconsin." I think the UW System might also engage him to be a resource to UW System and the Board of Regents as it embarks upon a strategic planning process as well. I think it would be helpful to us to have the same resource person since he is acquainted with our institutions and with many of the major themes we have identified that will shape our program directions. Some of these programs directions are likely to have kinship with those the UW System will also be addressing.

I envisage that the steering committee will not be unwieldy, but it will be large enough to have adequate representation from both institutions, yet small enough to be able to function quickly and effectively. I will work closely with the appropriate governance bodies to ensure that faculty and staff are represented in this process and that their voices are heard.

I anticipate that the major work on the strategic plan should take place between August 1, 2007 and March 2008. A completed plan should be in place by summer 2008. The chart below outlines the steps/time frame we will employ over the next year to produce our plan.

Those units in the UW Colleges and UW-Extension that are already engaged in strategic planning will move forward with their work, but will be expected to be engaged in the overall institutional process so that unit plans are in concert with what we have identified as our strategic priorities.

Please send me your feedback by July 20, 2007, and/or let me now if you have further questions. I will address the strategic planning process during the next Chancellor's Wisline, which is scheduled for July 31 (12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m.).

Kind regards,

David

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