May 2, 2005 Forum delivered by Provost Sona K. Andrews
We want to thank all of you for coming today and for your continued engagement in this process of defining Boise State University's future. We continue to be impressed by the level of engagement our faculty, staff and students have at Boise State. We know that some of you have come today for just that; to continue to be part of the active process of planning. We know that part of your motivation for attending is also out of curiosity; curiosity to find out what all this means for your department, for you, and for your work.
What we hope to accomplish today is to further explain what our strategic planning process is all about. Many of you have participated in the process thus far, but we think it worth reminding you just what that process is, why we are doing this, and what the outcomes will be.
We could have taken a variety of approaches in deciding how to go about planning for Boise State’s future. We choose to adopt an inclusive process, one that involves everyone on campus. This may not be the easiest model, but it certainly is a way that we can ensure we benefit from all your voices. I remind all of us that the process of planning is not a tidy one. We did not start having answers and it is through a collective process that we will define our future. We view this process as one where we will create a plan together. We are confident that the inclusive process we have created will serve Boise State well.
We also want to share with you today what you told us through the focus groups, interviews, via the web, and as you stopped us in the hallways and walkways of the campus, and yes, even in the grocery store. We will outline for you the next steps in the process. And finally, we will respond to the issues and questions you have raised.
Please know that this will be the first of a number of campus forums over the course of the next year that will allow us to share with you our collective work as we make progress on our strategic plan. Also know it will not be the only means by which we exchange information, discuss ideas, and get your input.
There is value in us looking at what we already say about ourselves. On our website we describe Boise State as “a metropolitan university reflecting the character of Idaho's capital city - a center of business, government, finance, and technology - and serving the academic needs of the state through graduate and undergraduate programs, research and public service.” This is a vibrant picture of a university that has a strong tradition of teaching excellence, is public, has a wide range of degree programs, and serves the citizenry of the state of Idaho.
We want to make it clear that Charting our Future is about continuing Boise State’s trajectory to become a leader in higher education. We are talking about a planning process that will build on our solid past. That will move us from good to excellent. A planning process that puts first and foremost the pursuit of knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge in terms of both the learning environment that our faculty and staff create for our students and in the scholarly/creative work conducted by our faculty in expanding the boundaries of knowledge.
I have personally throughout the course of my academic life experienced a range of institutions; whether as a student, faculty member, or administrator. I received my bachelors degree from a regional 4 year state college. I spent a year as an American Council on Education Fellow at a small private liberal arts college. I received my Masters and Ph.D. and held my first faculty post at major research universities. And I was a faculty member and administrator at a nationally ranked urban university before coming to Boise State.
Although each of these universities are distinct from one another, they share the same fundamental building blocks that define most universities in this country. In my opinion these building blocks are necessary to be a university. Their cornerstones are the arts, sciences (typical, natural and social), and the humanities. They create a foundation designed to develop a breadth of opportunities and experiences for students to learn, expand their knowledge, and ways of thinking. Know that through this planning effort we will not abandon those basic building blocks that every institution needs to have to be a university. They include our core curriculum, student services programs, and the breadth of academic experiences that make for a rich learning environment. What our planning effort will do is put a focus on our vision to create a university that is also defined by its metropolitan and research characteristics.
When I interviewed at Boise State a year ago, I said that metropolitan universities where defining what higher education would look like in the 21st century. I truly believe that. I said that cities are places where people want to live, work, and learn. That they are also places where many of the most important issues facing society play themselves out. As a university located in a city and a growing metropolitan area we have the opportunity and an obligation, if for nothing more than our geography, to be shaped by and to shape our urban environment.
Through our planning effort we will create a plan for action to realize this vision. Not only will we create a plan, but we establish benchmarks to define our activities and measure our progress to know when we reach our goals.
Some of you may be wondering, why do any planning at all? Forward inertia has not been one of higher education’s strong suits, but are we willing to leave our future up to chance? Organizations are most effective when they have a well articulated and ambitious vision for the future. One of my mentors always says “Vision trumps everything.” Vision alone, however, is not enough. As Joel Arthur Barker, an individual that has written much about how organizations work says “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
We want to make sure that we take charge of our future and the direction we wish to move as a university. Having a vision is about setting your own destiny. The way we see it unfolding. Having an ambitious vision for the future gives us something to reach for.
So here we are, about to embark on an ambitions set of goals and actions to define the role of a metropolitan research university of distinction. It will be an exciting and rewarding endeavor for our students, for us, our community, and the state we live in. It is about us charting out our own future, both in destination and in route. We are asking all who participate to tell us not only where we are going, but how we will get there.
We think it is important that we keep in mind a set of assumptions as we move through this process. As I stated earlier, the primary mission of a university is the pursuit of knowledge. Let’s make sure we never lose sight of that in this process. We hope to create a plan that leads to a vision for the future, a set of guiding principles and strategies to realize our vision.
Our focus has been and always will be students. Don’t for one minute think that because the word student is not in our “tag line” that they are not central to all we do. The word university says it all. After all, the definition of a university is that of an educational institution. If there were no students we would not be here. Let’s make sure we never lose sight of that.
Our plan will be strategic. It will not include everything we do. It is not an inventory, but rather a way to achieve focus and alignment. It will be dynamic, not static. Through planning we will be better positioned to make appropriate decisions. Decisions about academic program growth, facilities, infrastructure, and where we invest our resources.
So, what is the planning process? You were provided a brief description when we sent a campus wide solicitation in February asking for your participation in the focus groups, but let me provide a little more detail now.
We started with our already defined mission; who we are. Our mission as defined by the Idaho State Board of Education is that “Boise State University is a comprehensive, urban university serving a diverse population through undergraduate and graduate programs, research, and state and regional public service.”
Then there is our vision—To become a Metropolitan Research university of Distinction. This where we want to be. We are currently in the phase of the process where we are operationally defining what that visions means.
We will also need to know where we are in relation to that vision. Our current situation. And we will need to understand the gap between our vision and current situation. How far do we need to go to realize our vision.
From there we will then set goals, strategies, and actions to determine what steps our institution might take to realize that future and what resources will be required. For example a goal might be to increase the number of graduate programs. The strategy to reach that goal would be determining the needs and where those growth areas might be. The action would be hiring faculty and putting resources into that area to create or build the program.
We also need to establish key performance indictors (KPI’s). These are the measure by which we know if we are achieving our goals, the outcomes for which we will hold ourselves accountable. So taking my previous example of the desire to increase the number of graduate programs, the KPI might be the number of new PhD. programs.
The strategic targets are the 2 or three things we will focus on each year to get us to our goal.
The result will be a strategic plan for implementation that will serve as the foundation for a five year planning window. Please keep in mind that this process is dynamic: with a beginning but no end. So, what does it mean to be a metropolitan, research university of distinction?
We took the approach that the response to this question needed to be derived at the hands of many and as I have said, we enlisted the help of the entire campus to do so. As you know, everyone—all students, faculty and staff, were invited to share their views.
Not to belabor the point of process, but let me remind you how we obtained your participation. The entire campus was sent an invitation to one of 30 focus groups held during the month of March and early April. We also invited everyone to send your input via the web.
We were impressed by the interest and dedication the campus showed. Close to 600 of you attended a focus group session or provided input via the web. The results of your collective work is posted at our website.
The ideas from all the focus group work can be viewed on our website. The accompanying slides represent a distillation of your collective ideas and thoughts you shared with us about Boise State’s future. They are your thoughts about what it means to be a Metropolitan Research University of Distinction.
It is from these characteristics and attributes, the ones that you have provided, that we will define what being a Metropolitan Research University means for Boise State. It is not a definition that we will take off the shelf that belongs to someone else, but rather one that is specific to us, where we will chart our own future and how to get there.
So what are the next steps?
To take all that you have told us and use it to operationally define what it means to be a Metropolitan Research University. To do so we will constitute a Strategic Directions Planning Team, made up of 40 or so individuals. I know this sounds large and you are probably wondering who will be on it. It will broadly represent the campus and there will be more information forthcoming in the near future about this group. They will take the themes and work that you provided and build on that foundation to develop definitions that are reflective of your ideas.
We will conduct a GAP analysis to benchmark where we are and determine what gaps we wish to bridge. The Strategic Directions Planning Team will develop and present strategies and goals to realize actions. You can be certain that along the way we will ensure that the process continues to remain as open as we stated and that we confer with appropriate deliberative bodies. We will work together, at all levels of the university to create clear and measurable KPIs to monitor our progress.
I can’t help but be reminded of some of the sage advice Jim Collins gives in his book, “Good to Great.”
He says “As organizations change the process should be an organic, cumulative transformation—not a revolution.” This is why I said earlier that we are continuing on our trajectory as a university. He also reminds us “that there will be no single defining moment to tell us we got there. “ It will rather be a series of steps, based on our KPIs, that allow us to see the progress we are making.
We also know that we will need to build capacity and momentum to achieve our vision. We can do so through our existing institutional values and core beliefs. You might ask what those are. They were defined over 10 years ago in Boise State’s 1993 Strategic Plan and reaffirmed in our 2000-2005 Plan.
They speak to an educational environment for students and employees that values quality education, the individual, and our working together. They are all about creating opportunities for our students and their future, developing partnerships, prioritizing our academic programs, building our research potential, and making collective decisions and investments that lead to our vision.
We do believe that ours is a vision that truly defines what a university will look like in the 21st century. I said earlier that we will build on our traditions, but we need to realize that ours is an institution that has been continually transforming itself since its inception. Think about the continued evolution of Boise State. There are some advantages in our newness. We are not hampered by a history that does not inhibit change. After all, our history at Boise State has been all about growth and transformation.
Who would have thought 20 years ago that Boise State would be the university it is today? This campus has not been known for resting and taking a break, and now is certainly not the time to rest. Not when we have the opportunity to do the utmost we can to ensure that the environment we create on this campus is the best it can be for our students, faculty and staff, community and state. Not when we take the attitude that we can continue to do better.
I want to remind you of the collective will it will take to continue Boise State’s forward momentum. Strategic Directions will be the vehicle to guide us along the way.
Throughout the process you have raised important questions and issues. We have recorded these and know how important it is to address them now and as we do our work. I certainly will not be able to address all of them today, but let me start, with the promise that as we go through the process that we continue to listen, respond, and adjust our course according.