Engaging Challenge The Sesquicentennial Plan 9-10-07 Enrich the world �You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world.� -Woodrow Wilson Message from the President I am pleased to present Engaging Challenge, The Sesquicentennial Plan, an ambitious document that takes bold, innovative steps to develop our students as true global citizens. Building on our learner-centered culture, the plan imagines compelling ways in which we will deliver a SUNY Oswego education to cultivate intentional learners with global views and inventive solutions designed to enrich the lives of students, communities and our world. Our previous strategic plan Engagement 2000: A Learner-Centered Culture set a new direction for the college and became a powerful organizing theme that served as the catalyst for thoughtful renewal of the educational programs and physical design of our campus. Guided by our shared commitment to the learner-centered concept and a commitment to excellence, SUNY Oswego strategically forged ahead, emerging as a prominent college recognized for its distinctive learning paradigm that encourages members of the college community to interact on a meaningful personal level and to develop relationships that enhance teaching, learning, research and the service commitment of the college. The Sesquicentennial Plan is designed to bolster and enrich the academic culture on an even broader scale. Our goal is to ensure that all our students receive the best education possible through opportunities to craft their own educational paths, with access to a wider array of learning venues, using the most up-to-date technologies, equipment and state-of-the-art facilities to prepare them with the skills and intellectual capacities needed to be leaders in managing globalization in an equitable, ethical and sustainable way. The strategic directions and goals contained in this plan will help to advance the college, our students, faculty and staff through the rapidly evolving circumstances of a new era. We envision a college where students are highly directed, intentional learners with clear understanding of the interdependencies among major global challenges and are prepared to offer solutions that address the root causes of societal issues in order to build a better world. This will be fully expressed as an essential element of a SUNY Oswego education and will help lead the college and our graduates to national and international distinction. We have arrived at a plan that recognizes our potential for greatness and our intent to provide an education of enduring importance. I am deeply grateful for the many members of the college community who informed, strengthened and participated in drafting the plan that will serve as an unwavering guide toward the college�s sesquicentennial celebration in 2011. Deborah F. Stanley President Our Identity Founded in 1861, the State University of New York at Oswego is a comprehensive college with a student body of 8,300 learners and more than 400 faculty. Located on a spacious 700-acre tree-lined campus on the southeast shore of Lake Ontario, SUNY Oswego is a prominent multi-purpose college serving the citizens of New York state and beyond and has earned worldwide fame for educational excellence through its commitment to personalized instruction, quality research and thriving community involvement. Together our three divisions - the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business and School of Education - offer a full range of baccalaureate and master�s programs with more than 110 major, minor, cooperative and pre-professional options, from Accounting to Zoology. The College of Arts and Sciences is characterized by a number of distinctive clusters and programs in such areas as Global and International Studies, Meteorology and Human-Computer Interaction. Its programs in Chemistry, Art, Music and Theatre are nationally accredited. The School of Education, accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, is a major source for K-12 educators across New York State. The School of Business - accredited by AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) - is the only public business school in the Central New York region with this distinction. The learner-centered approach embedded in our instructional culture stresses quality education and real-world experience through prestigious internships and intriguing study-abroad opportunities that span the globe. SUNY Oswego enjoys a national reputation for excellence, competes at the highest level for the best faculty and the most talented students and has been widely honored for its distinctive learning paradigm, innovative first-year programs, exceptional teaching, engaged students, successful student outcomes, vibrant communities and state-of-the-art facilities. In all that it does, the college measures itself by scrupulous standards, promises continuous improvement, pursues excellence and high quality and holds its entire college community to the highest principles of civility, fairness and personal integrity. Our Mission Our mission is to contribute to the common good by lighting the path to wisdom and empowering women and men to pursue meaningful lives as productive, responsible citizens. Our Vision Inspired by a shared commitment to excellence and the desire to transcend traditional higher-education boundaries, SUNY Oswego will be a premier institution that provides a transformative experience to a diverse body of students, empowering them to live ethical and meaningful lives and build a better world. Directing Our VIEWS With focused commitment to our mission and vision, we have identified five strategic directions � Vitality, Intellectual Rigor, Engagement, World awareness, and Solutions - as key to achieving our aspiration as a world-class institution that prepares its students as responsible global citizens who are humane, thoughtful and influential actors on the world stage and who provide valuable leadership in their communities and professions. The intent of the plan is to establish a direction and specify priorities to help ensure that SUNY Oswego becomes a stronger institution in the future. The directions are clear but still allow the college to respond to an ever-changing environment. As the plan becomes a living document over the next several years, we will see and experience an institution that builds on our historically strong virtues and has significantly renewed our approach to education, research and, most noticeably, our sense of global responsibility. Vitality First and foremost, we will be a college that radiates a vibrant, intellectually engaging, forward-thinking, culturally and artfully spirited, collaborative and proud community. We will be held together by shared values and a common vision and be supported by expanded and diverse sources of revenue so that we can continue to sustain and further accentuate academic excellence as we go forward. Intellectual rigor We will be an institution where the academic and intellectual environment in which students learn will be rigorous, stimulating and more diverse. The needs of our students will be better matched through challenging academic programs with merit and need-based aid that will allow us to compete for the very best students regardless of their financial circumstances. As a result, our student body will become increasingly diverse in talent and experiences. Students will be drawn into the work of faculty engaged in scholarship, research and the production of new knowledge at the forefront of their disciplines. Students will interact with faculty in a variety of settings including courses in emerging areas of inquiry, richer offerings in traditional areas and participation in meaningful research projects including individual and team-orientated research, field studies or in a research-rich context such as intensified learning environments in other countries. For all students, this will mean a broader and more comprehensive teaching-learning environment. Engagement As one of the leading public institutional citizens in the Central New York area, we will take advantage of the substantial human and other abundant resources of our region to build new and more collaborative ties with neighbors and neighboring institutions to advance the quality of life for all our citizens. Students, faculty and staff will be deeply engaged in community service, democracy-building projects, partnership consortia, enterprises and other significant ways to grow vital communities and economies at the local, regional and state levels. We will help develop the citizens, leaders and workforce that communities need to improve and enhance their vitality. World awareness Our campus community will reflect the world�s rich diversity and our students will have a deep understanding of themselves and respect for the complex identities of others, their histories and their cultures through a global curriculum and internationalized co-curricular and extracurricular offerings. By building and engaging in a diverse environment, students, faculty and staff will develop a greater understanding of how to more powerfully participate in a complex pluralistic society. Solutions The college will give priority to applying research, scholarship and creative activity to solve real-world problems. Students will examine pressing social and ethical questions of the day and will work in partnership with the world community to define research issues. Every discipline will have a role to play in finding solutions to global challenges and in creating opportunity. This responsibility requires strength and commitment but also multicultural sophistication and understanding, intellectual agility and a global view. Our community will embrace diverse cultures and also provide the academic courses and engagement activities relevant to demonstrating global responsibility. Our actions will give new meaning to the construct of world citizenship. Through our strategic directions of Vitality, Intellectual Rigor, Engagement, World awareness and Solutions, we will be a closely connected community of scholars with lifelong allegiance to the college, learning and humankind, resulting from the synergies of a culture rich in pride, intellectual energy, diversity, curiosity, inquiry, innovation and service. We will be an academic community moving in concert with the needs of the world. Vitality �The vitality of thought is an adventure. Ideas won�t keep. Something must be done about them.� -Alfred North Whitehead Vitality Secure the college�s stature as a world-class comprehensive college with intellectual and cultural vitality that provides an excellent education of exceptional quality to every student, supported by a strategically driven organizational structure and robust financial plan. Goals: o Design exemplary programs with remarkable academic identity, standing and success o Recruit, nurture and retain faculty and staff of distinction o Create a sense of pride, spirit of unity and lifelong affinity for the college o Strengthen the basic building blocks of the institution necessary to maximize the intellectual and community spirit of the college Intellectual Rigor �An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.� -Albert Camus Intellectual rigor Sharpen our focus on academic excellence by creating a vibrant intellectual climate rich with ideas, inquiry and discovery by providing students with meaningful experiences and opportunities that challenge them to reach their full potential as intellectually empowered, creative, thoughtful, responsible and productive persons. Goals: o Foster an atmosphere of high expectations, intellectual integrity and appreciation for the power of education o Recruit, engage and retain academically talented, independent, highly motivated, mature, responsible and self-directed students o Provide transformative learning experiences for students that leverage the college�s strengths o Expand scholarly and research capabilities and opportunities for faculty and students Engagement �Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.� -Margaret Mead Engagement Unite and enrich the college community by offering, promoting and valuing individual and collective contributions to the common good and by developing closer and more collaborative ties and partnerships with the broader society. Goals: o Create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement o Build a shared sense of community by nurturing trust, collaboration, communication and healthy living o Broaden the college�s service mission to include stronger interaction, dialogue, communication, societal and economic benefit and mutual concern for the local community, region and state o Deepen the understanding of the occurrence, observance, response and recovery of global emergencies to better prepare graduates as responsible global citizens World awareness �For those who have seen the Earth from space, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.� -Captain Donald E. Williams, NASA Astronaut World awareness Adopt an expansive understanding of the world in order to develop the capacity of students to be fully human: self-aware, self-governing and capable of respecting the humanity of fellow human beings. Goals: o Cultivate a deeper and broader degree of human understanding o Promote appreciation for the richness of diversity, people and voices o Expand multicultural and international understandings and experiences for students, faculty and staff o Demonstrate a commitment to stewardship of the world environment beginning with our campus Solutions �The important thing about a problem is not only in its solution, but also the strength we gain in finding the solution.� -Anonymous Solutions Give priority to developing knowledge and translating the expertise of our community of scholars in research, scholarship and creative activity to find solutions to the problems of our time. Goals: o Nurture the social consciousness of students and their interest in critical global challenges o Increase understanding of complicated problems that afflict society o Enable faculty and students to translate knowledge important to society Our Planning Process At President Stanley�s direction, the strategic planning effort began in spring 2006 with her appointment of a widely representative and experienced team to begin a new institutional planning initiative to result in a sesquicentennial planning document for SUNY Oswego. Over the past year, the 30 members of the Strategic Planning Advisory Board, with the thoughtful input of constituents from across the college community, conducted a thorough, highly consultative and far-reaching analysis of our institutional purpose, priorities, needs and aspirations. Following the analysis, the advisory board developed strategic direction and goal statements that describe the impact the college aspires to have on identified opportunities and how to achieve it. Our strategic directions take into account external, unforeseen changes and will clearly serve to guide the college into a defined future. We believe the plan realistically captures our potential for greatness as a nationally and internationally recognized comprehensive college of distinction. Our work to build a stronger, more prestigious institution is not over. The hard work of implementation lies ahead. Bringing the plan to life will require detailed action plans and the same good will and imagination that characterized the planning process. For each strategic direction we will identify the significant tasks that must be accomplished, as well as individuals, groups and departments responsible for implementing each task. We will also identify a time frame to achieve our goals and a means of monitoring and evaluating progress. As we move forward through the planning process we remain a community inspired by the concept of learner centeredness and committed to advancing the college�s reputation as a major leader in higher education. Engaging Challenge articulates our proactive vision and describes a culture of momentum that will drive the college to the next level and help us reach our ambitious aspirations for the future. Sesquicentennial Planning Advisory Board 2006-2007 Deborah F. Stanley, Convener President Mary Beth Bell Director of Libraries Susan Camp Chair, Faculty Assembly Lorrie Clemo Assistant to the President for Special Projects and Campus Communication Susan Coultrap-McQuin Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kerry Dorsey Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Elizabeth Dunne Schmitt Associate Professor and Chair, Economics, College of Arts and Sciences Joe Grant Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Bernie Henderson College Council member Lanny Karns Dean, School of Business David King Dean, Graduate Studies and Research Nick Lyons Vice President for Administration and Finance Rhonda Mandel Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Linda Rae Markert Dean, School of Education Rameen Mohammadi Acting Associate Provost Yvonne Petrella Director of Continuing Education Mike Pisa Interim Chief Technology Officer Gerald Porter Associate Professor, Counseling/Psychological Services, School of Education Jim Scharfenberger Associate Vice President and Dean for Students Affairs Richard Skolnik Associate Professor, Accounting, Finance and Law, School of Business Joyce Smith Chair, Academic Policies Council, Faculty Assembly Charles Spector Chapter President, United University Professions Alfred Stamm Chair, Priorities and Planning Council, Faculty Assembly Dan Tascarella President, Student Association Casey Walpole Civil Service Employees Association Staff to Committee Nancy Bellow Executive Director of Business and Community Relations and Planning Julie Harrison Blissert Director of Public Affairs Jerry DeSantis Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Howard Gordon Executive Assistant to the President Mehran Nojan Director of Institutional Research