Strategic Plan Steering Committee Updates

Update 7 - May 25, 2022

SHSU Community,

On Friday, the Texas State University System Board of Regents approved the strategic framework containing a new mission statement, values, vision statement, and strategic priorities.

As the next step in this process, we have developed draft goals to reinforce each strategic priority and assigned Strategic Priority Champions and task forces, specifically for each goal, to support resourcing decisions and monitor progress.

As a reminder, we would like your input on how to measure the proposed goals (see below.) By clicking on the survey, you can choose goals of interest and provide both an objective and key performance indicator. This information will be forwarded to the goal task forces for consideration. The survey will close at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1.

Survey

We appreciate your partnership and support.

Dave Glaser, Co-chair
Chief Strategy Officer
dpg016@shsu.edu
936.294.1010

McCartney Johnson, Co-chair
Deputy to the President
majohnson@shsu.edu
936.294.1594

Update 6 - May 2022

SHSU Community,

Our strategic planning process continues to move forward. This month, the strategic framework will go before the Texas State University System Board of Regents for approval. Meanwhile, we have developed draft goals to reinforce each strategic priority and assigned both Strategic Priority Champions and a task force, specifically for each goal, to support resourcing decisions and monitor progress.

Your participation has been critical throughout this process, and we welcome your input on how to measure the proposed draft goals (see below.) A survey was emailed to you on May 4, inviting you to share your feedback. You can choose goals of interest and provide both an objective and key performance indicator. This information will be forwarded to the goal task forces for consideration. The survey will close at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1.

Strategic Priorities

• Prioritize Student Success and Student Access
• Embody a Culture of Excellence
• Elevate the Reputation and Visibility of SHSU
• Expand and Elevate our Service to the State and Beyond

Draft: Strategic Priorities and Goals

Prioritize Student Success and Student Access

• Recruit, retain, graduate, and transform students to succeed to drive sustainable growth
• Academic agility
• Implement innovative, market-driven academic programs supported by flexible scheduling and modality
• Develop micro-credentials that provide academic credit toward degree programs
• Establish pathways from professional competencies to academic credit
• Eliminate opportunity and achievement gaps

Embody a Culture of Excellence

• Academic excellence
• Align processes and resources, such as staffing, facilities, technology, and other assets to strategic priorities
• Provide a supportive, empowering, and culturally responsive workplace
• Integrate and advance an institutional culture that fosters and embraces inclusive excellence and a climate where students, faculty, staff, alumni, community partners, friends, and visitors feel included and supported
• Provide excellent and timely service to students, faculty, staff, visitors, and alumni

Elevate the Reputation and Visibility of SHSU

• Increase internal and external strategic partnerships within three years
• Increase local, national, international high-profile quality events hosted by SHSU
• Strengthen relationships with the greater SHSU community including counties and municipalities
• Identify/improve, promulgate, and leverage SHSU brand
• Become a successful NCAA Division 1 (FBS) member of Conference USA
• Establish a more visible and high-profile culture of philanthropy, service, and community engagement

Expand and Elevate our Service to the State and Beyond

• Promote career readiness and attainment through experiences that facilitate personal and professional development and connections
• Provide innovative ways to engage and serve the community
• Enhance programmatic efforts and initiatives for historically underserved or underrepresented populations for educational opportunities
• Establish community engagement as a signature high impact practice and program for the university
• Utilize regional alumni (clubs) and opportunities to facilitate university initiatives
• Obtain higher education parity in funding

We appreciate your partnership and support.

Dave Glaser, Co-chair
Chief Strategy Officer
dpg016@shsu.edu
936.294.1010

McCartney Johnson, Co-chair
Deputy to the President
majohnson@shsu.edu
936.294.1594

Update 5 - April 2022

SHSU Community,

With your input, we’ve finalized the university’s strategic framework, which is composed of mission, values, vision, and strategic priorities. The framework is being sent to TSUS Board of Regents for their approval in May. Over the next several months, our efforts will focus on finalizing goals that underpin the strategic priorities. These measurable goals, reinforced by resourcing decisions and our communications plan, will enable us to move from who we are today toward our vision of the future (who we want to be).

The President’s Extended Cabinet has assigned two strategic priority champions, by position, to each of the four institutional priorities. While these champions will oversee and finalize the goal development, a goal task force will provide the support needed to ensure the goals are measurable with objectives and key performance indicators.

If you would like to become a member of a goal task force, please reach out to your respective department heads or the alumni office. Students should contact General Glaser or Dr. Johnson. Working with the President’s Extended Cabinet, the goal task force teams will be assembled and assigned to a strategic priority over the next several weeks.

Strategic Priority 1: Prioritize Student Success and Student Access

• Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
• Senior Vice President for Strategic Enrollment and Innovation

Strategic Priority 2: Embody a Culture of Excellence

• Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Operations
• Vice President for Student Affairs
• Advisor - Senior Vice President for Strategic Enrollment and Innovation

Strategic Priority 3: Elevate the Reputation and Visibility of SHSU

• President
• Athletics Director

Strategic Priority 4: Expand and Elevate our Service to the State and Beyond

• Vice President for Advancement
• Chief Strategy Officer

We appreciate your partnership and support as we continue to build out the strategic plan for Sam Houston State University. 

Best, 

Dave Glaser, Co-chair
Chief Strategy Officer
dpg016@shsu.edu
936.294.1010

McCartney Johnson, Co-chair
Deputy to the President
majohnson@shsu.edu 
936.264.1594

Update 4 - March 2022

SHSU Community,

We’ve reached a significant milestone in our strategic planning process. The work completed in the first phase, based on your input, helped to build a meaningful and representative strategic framework. This framework, composed of mission, values, vision, and strategic priorities, will serve as a guide for planning and decision-making over the next decade. The strategic framework will be submitted to the Texas State University System Board of Regents for approval in May.

Our next step is to develop the supporting goals which reinforce the strategic priorities. These measurable goals, supported by resourcing decisions and our communications plan, will enable us to move from who we are today toward our vision of the future.

Your input in building the strategic framework was critical, and we now need a similar level of effort to build out the goals. On March 21, strategic priority champions will be identified by the President’s Extended Cabinet. Their responsibility will be to oversee and finalize goal development that support each strategic priority.  For each goal, there will be a cross functional task force comprised of staff, faculty, students, and alumni. These task forces will help identify what SHSU should strive to achieve during the next 1 to 3 years, and the broad, university‐wide, multi‐year strategies that should be adopted.

We appreciate your partnership and support as we continue to build out the strategic plan for Sam Houston State University.

Best,

Dave Glaser, Co-chair
Chief Strategy Officer
dpg016@shsu.edu
936.294.1010

McCartney Johnson, Co-chair
Deputy to the President
majohnson@shsu.edu 
936.264.1594

Update 3 - January 2022

Dear SHSU Community,

We've made steady progress towards developing an updated strategic plan for Sam Houston State University. In Fall 2021, the Strategic Plan Steering Committee (SPSC) began laying the groundwork needed to develop and formalize a strategic plan. To ensure the plan is representative, meaningful, and impactful, SHSU stakeholders were asked to voice their thoughts and opinions through surveys and focus groups.

The work completed in this first phase, which includes an environmental scan, survey/focus group data, and SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis becomes the basis for the next step in the process - building an updated strategic framework. This framework, composed of mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities, will be our guideposts for decision-making over the next decade.

We plan to share the proposed framework with the community and gather additional input. Presentations and discussions with both Faculty and Staff Senates will be conducted in February/March.

For planning to be successful, it needs to be a collective and thoughtful effort. We thank you for your participation and the work being done by SPSC members.

You can follow along with updates and information on our webpage.

Sincerely,

Dave Glaser, Co-chair
Chief Strategy Officer
dpg016@shsu.edu
936.294.1010

McCartney Johnson, Co-chair
Deputy to the President
majohnson@shsu.edu 
936.264.1594

Update 2 - November 2021

We want to provide you with an update on the continued work of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee. The strategic planning process is in full swing. We are steadily moving forward through the first phase of discovery and envisioning as we develop insights needed to build on the existing strategic framework (mission, vision, and values).

Focus Workgroup

Workgroup members are meeting with various stakeholder groups. Focus groups have been conducted with Student Government Association, Student Organizations, President’s Expanded Cabinet, President’s Council, Faculty, Staff, Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, Alumni Board of Directors, and Community Leaders. Additional focus groups will occur throughout November and the beginning of December.

Co-leads: Karen Sherrill and Tiyahri Wilson

Economic Research and Survey Workgroup

Workgroup members created a pilot survey for Students, Parents, Staff, Faculty, Alumni, and Business and Civic Influencers. Feedback from the pilot has been positive, with a strong response rate. The team is reviewing the results and incorporating the feedback into the final survey revision. Final revisions will conclude this weekend. The survey will launch on Monday, November 8 and remain available to complete through Friday, November 19.

Co-leads: Rachel Valle and Mike Yawn

 

Update 1 - October 2021

We have taken our first, exciting steps on a road of discovery that will help us plan and clearly navigate through the next decade. This collaborative and participative process, one that engages faculty, staff, students and the greater community, will bring forward bold and innovative ideas to meet opportunities and challenges that foster true transformational change.

In an increasingly complex world where the only constant is change, our goal is to position ourselves so that we can consistently make a life-changing impact on generations of students. To do that, our plan must be a living embodiment of our mission. A plan that encourages creative thinking, emboldens thoughtful action and builds continuous value.

For this plan to be meaningful and impactful, to make it work, we need you to be an active participant in this journey. Your voice is needed. To keep you informed, we plan to reach out through a number of ways including surveys, focus groups and other forums that are conducive to constructive dialogue and thought.

In addition to members serving on the Strategic Plan Steering Committee (SPSC), who represent areas and groups across campus, we will provide periodic updates to keep our community informed.

Phase One: Discovery and Envisioning

We are currently in the data collection and analysis phase of the planning framework. The SPSC has divided into two work groups to collect valuable feedback and data that we can build upon as we move forward.

Focus Groups

SPSC members will meet with various stakeholder groups to collect and analyze information and perceptions related to the university’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, often referred to as a SWOT analysis. This team is meeting weekly to foster greater communication and coordination among the ten stakeholder focus groups.

Co-leads: Tiyahri Wilson and Karen Sherrill

Economic Research and Surveys

Members have divided into two groups to address economic research and key constituent surveys. Economic research includes gathering and analyzing data relevant to the university’s enrollment and financial stability. Surveys directed to students, faculty, staff, alumni and other key constituencies are under development and will go live in November. Feedback and data received from the surveys and economic research will complement the information gathered in the focus groups helping us further clarify SHSU’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Co-leads: Rachel Valle and Mike Yawn

SPSC Membership

John T. Adams
Rhonda Beassie
Benji Cantu
Fernando Chavez
Mona Cockerham
Mike Dewey
Ross Guida
Walter Fitzgerald
Debbi Hatton
Pamela Haven
Juan Hernandez
John Jordan
Josh Reynolds
Kris Ruiz
Amanda Scarborough
Karen Sherrill
Ron Shields
Susan Troncoso Skidmore
Saranya Srikanth
Angie Taylor
Chris Tritico
Rachel Valle