Sustaining the Momentum and Framing New Solutions: A Strategic Agenda for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at Michigan State University
2007-2012

Version 4.3, April 29, 2008

Introduction
The College of Social Science at Michigan State University has completed a strategic planning process to develop the College’s next five-year vision and strategic agenda. We have created a measurable plan of action for moving the College to a new level of excellence over the next five years.

Our plan seeks to improve the performance and impact of the College of Social Science across its research, teaching, and engagement missions. Our intent is to create a compelling vision for the future of the College, linked to a set of integrated goals, strategies and metrics that can guide us toward our shared purpose and enable selective investment in high priority areas.

Faculty, staff, and students will benefit from this plan through increased resources and opportunities in the College. Our prospective students, graduates, and donors will benefit from stronger programs that enhance the value of a College of Social Science degree. The College will benefit from moving proactively to strengthen the position from which it operates. Adopting the plan will allow us to continue advancing knowledge and transforming lives within the wider university community.

With nearly 500 points of contact over the past year, many thoughtful minds and committed individuals have helped craft the plan. During 2007-08, the College engaged in a collaborative and inclusive process to involve all constituent groups within the college and the larger campus environment, to ensure that all voices were heard and all points of view were taken into consideration. Each person’s participation was essential to shaping the plan and identifying specific steps required to increase overall excellence throughout the College. Everyone’s continued involvement will be critical to our success in implementing the plan over the next five years.

This strategic plan is a dynamic working document that will evolve with the college. We will revisit this document annually, reflect upon our collective accomplishments, and refine it with our growth and progress.

Our Mission
To create, disseminate, and apply knowledge in the social, behavioral and economic sciences, and to enhance what we know through interactions with other disciplines and professions across campus and beyond.  We are committed to advancing knowledge by gaining a deeper understanding of the human and social dimensions of the world around us, and the relations of those dimensions to the natural and technological worlds.  We transform lives through collaborative learning and responsive engagement with people and communities, both locally and globally.  By advancing knowledge and transforming lives, we join our university in making lasting contributions to the larger society in which we are situated.

Our Vision for the Future: 2012
The College of Social Science and its units are acknowledged as resourceful, innovative, intellectual leaders in the social, behavioral and economic sciences, on MSU’s campus, as well as nationally and internationally:

• Collaborating in research, teaching, and engagement with partners in the STEMM disciplines – (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine), and
• Excelling in knowledge creation, dissemination, and application related to global engagement and diversity that is a consequence of any human endeavor at global scales.

Our Values

• Ethical conduct, especially honesty and integrity in all that we do;
• Innovation and entrepreneurship – this is not only the energetic spirit that enables us to survive and thrive in challenging times, and also our budgeting model;
• Communication and collaboration – we will be working hard to keep up open lines of communication between the deans’ offices and all of our constituent groups;
• Diversity:  demographic and intellectual – there should be no demographic or intellectual litmus tests for any program in this college, it is an open marketplace of ideas;
• Mutual respect, civility, and courtesy – the keywords are tolerance and collegiality;
• Sharing resources with our partners – we have to invest if we expect a return.

Goals and Objectives for 2012
This vision and goals are the foundation for the College’s objectives. The vision for 2012 acts as a point of reference for the College over the next five years. There are two categories of goals: Mission-Oriented goals and Supporting goals. A Mission-Oriented goal is directly tied to furthering the research, teaching, and engagement of our college mission. A Supporting goal provides resources that help to enhance and sustain the efforts of the Mission oriented goals. An objective serves as a tool for evaluation of the College’s progress toward its vision and a strategy is a specific initiative the College will undertake to achieve those larger objectives.

Next Steps
Headed by the Dean’s office, the implementation process will proceed in phases. The intent will be to begin with those strategies that are most fundamental and most necessary to our future success. We will build on the progress of these strategies to continue the momentum necessary to address strategies that require more advanced preparation. The College also will utilize a coordinated campaign approach, which means that units and individuals within the College may pursue other strategies that support our goals. Two-way communication throughout the year will let everyone know what is happening, and provide opportunities for input and feedback.

Goal 1—Mission Oriented: Sustain and Enhance Core Capabilities, Signature Programs, and Strong Interdisciplinary Efforts (BbD I-V)*

Vision 2012
The College of Social Science has succeeded in sustaining and further developing its core disciplinary and professional strengths through careful stewardship and internal investment.  It has further enhanced its Signature Programs through investment and attraction of external resources.  Strong interdisciplinary and cross-college endeavors are promoted, especially in two broad thrust areas: 1) the social, behavioral and economic science dimensions of STEMM; and 2) global engagement and diversity that is a consequence of any human endeavor at global scales.

Objectives

• Ratings and rankings of the college’s core and signature programs are sustained and improved;
• Recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty and graduate students are enhanced;
• The college acts as a stimulus for excellence in developing cross-college proposals;
• The College encourages each academic unit to be involved in at least one cross-college endeavor;
• The College ensures that its unit’s intellectual assets are engaged in major strategic initiatives.

Strategies

• College units develop new strategic plans through a coordinated campaign approach
• RFP processes for core signature and interdisciplinary programs are developed and deployed;
• The College provides leadership in mobilizing resources toward global engagement;
• An enhanced metrics framework is developed to link outcomes with resource allocations.

Goal 2—Mission Oriented: Foster Research Excellence (BbD IV)*

Vision 2012
Build on and enhance College strengths in knowledge creation and dissemination.  Call for all Departments and Schools to demonstrate research impact and contribute to our resource base to support research.  Invest wisely to enhance research productivity while setting high expectations for faculty.

Objectives

• Demonstrate continued progress in knowledge creation through high impact disciplinary-based scholarly publications.
• Promote excellence in targeted interdisciplinary research of high social value.
• Challenge each Department and School to continuously increase external funding to support sponsored research.
• Expect all faculty to contribute to scholarly research mission.
• Improve external rankings of graduate programs.

Strategies

• Implement a comprehensive research plan, including the following elements:
  • Each unit develops in the next academic year its own plan to enhance research activity, measure its success, and contribute to increased external funding.
  • Determine most cost-effective strategies for the College to complement unit efforts to facilitate faculty success in securing external funding.  Establish enhanced College Research Support Services within one year.
  • A unit’s success in meeting its research plan is taken into account in allocation of faculty positions.  Units are encouraged to identify “target of opportunity hires” willing to bring excellent research programs with significant ongoing external funding to MSU.
  • Research expectations of new faculty are to be made clear at hiring and maintained in the tenure and promotion process.
  • Each unit documents a program for mentoring junior faculty in its research plan.
  • All faculty contribute to the research enterprise.  Excellence in research is required for promotion.  Continued research activity, including mentoring, is expected of all tenured faculty.  Faculty later in their careers who are no longer highly research active contribute in other ways.
  • Graduate student research will be strengthened by establishing a college fund to support enhancements for graduate student research.  We will focus on fundraising for graduate student support, and base resource allocation on quality metrics.

Goal 3—Mission Oriented: Student Experience Through Active, Collaborative Learning (BbD I)*

Vision 2012
Student experience is enhanced through experiential and active- and inquiry-based learning in large and small classes.  Integrative Studies provides an arena in which to cultivate and institutionalize teaching innovation through collaboration between faculty, teaching assistants, and undergraduate assistants. A diverse faculty and staff serve as the foundation for implementing this goal. Graduate education is strengthened.

Objectives

• All faculty are engaged in teaching enhancement efforts.
• All bachelors degree candidates have at least one out-of-classroom learning experience oriented toward civic engagement, study abroad, and/or career learning.
• Instructional technology is made more readily available and evenly distributed among units.
• The capacity to provide five-year funding for graduate students continues to expand, while such packages become institutionalized.
• Core college curriculum review to ensure quality student experience.

Strategies

• Use Provost’s support to create and institutionalize a Teaching Innovation Program in Integrative Studies (underway).
• Develop a cadre of teacher-scholars the TIP to collaborate with other active learners in efforts to expand teaching innovation throughout the College.
• Strengthen and institutionalize undergraduate research initiatives currently funded by Provost.
• Regularly review study abroad, study away, and service learning components of the curriculum to ensure quality student experiences.
• Integrate global initiatives such as MSU Dubai into the College teaching culture.
• Complete the restructuring of Integrative Studies under its new director, with emphasis on small sections (now 36 capped at 25 seats) and new courses (to add to the 6 created in the past 2 years) and active- and inquiry-based learning.
• Expand graduate student participation in the College Teaching Certification Program.
• Seek additional resources to support graduate study.
• Ensure supportive learning environment for diverse students at all levels.
• Begin review of College core curriculum.

Goal 4—Support Oriented: Enhance Resource Development through Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Advancement Efforts (BbD I-V)*

Vision 2012
The College continues to expand its income from private philanthropic support, research grants, and contracts.  Strategic initiatives and collaborative partnerships among our internal and external constituencies attract significant financial support to enhance our scholarship capacity in the College.  Obtaining new resources is a means to achieve our mission, not a mission in itself.

Objectives

• The College and each unit have a plan for securing additional resources needed to support our mission-oriented goals.
• Mirror the University’s distribution balance of general and non-general fund revenue.
• Build on the accomplishments of the recent capital campaign and lay foundation for future successes.
• Increase average annual fundraising results to $10M/year (a 43% increase over recent campaign average of $7M/year).
• Substantially increase financial support available to recruit the best and brightest graduate students to MSU.

Strategies

• Enhance development activity and increase philanthropic support, including (in progress):
  • Identify and qualify the top 1,000 prospects from expanded alumni population of over 85,000 and implement ongoing communication and cultivation strategies to secure future financial support.
  • Develop college and unit-specific fundraising priorities.
  • Work with faculty to match donor interests with unit needs.
  • Partner with the units to provide engagement opportunities for alumni that steward current donors and cultivate new prospects.
• Develop joint research, programmatic and fundraising strategies to increase financial support for graduate student education.
• Increase revenue secured by research grant submissions and awarded contracts and associated indirect costs.
• Develop additional successful business models for entrepreneurial activity and share best practices among the key constituencies within and beyond the College of Social Science.
• The College seeks ways and means to return values to our communities by connecting our intellectual assets to economic development efforts in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region.

Goal 5—Support Oriented: Sustain and Enhance an Intercultural and Inclusive Community (BbD I-V)*

Vision 2012
The College provides quality support through programs and initiatives that foster a community climate that acknowledges and appreciates cultural, ethnic, socio-economic, linguistic, socio-linguistic, sexual orientation, and geographical diversity.

Objectives

• Create the College of Social Science Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusive Affairs (OEDIA) that supports and enhances the College’s commitment to an inclusive community.
• Provide services that are aligned with the College’s vision to foster leadership, oversight, and an infrastructure for supporting an intercultural and inclusive community.
• Provide information, consultation, support, and resources to the College of Social Science community with regard to diversity, harassment, discrimination, and disability matters.
• Manage and support the University’s compliance efforts in areas of diversity, inclusion, harassment, discrimination prevention, and compliance with all applicable State and Federal civil rights laws.
• Assist linking faculty, staff, and students to the necessary resource structures within and outside of the College.

Strategies

• Offer individual consultation with department chairs and directors, supervisors, faculty, staff, and students.
• Establish a mechanism for reporting complaints of harassment and discrimination.
• Develop infrastructures for responding and tracking complaints of harassment and discrimination.
• Provide an on-going, college-wide training/program initiative that addresses some of the recurring issues/concerns being reported.
• Work collaboratively with entities within and outside of the College to ensure access and support for necessary resources.
• Establish a web presence to facilitate sharing information and providing updates around issues relating to our inclusive efforts.
• Create interest groups where faculty can form broad networks across disciplines to enhance inclusion and multi-culturalism.
• Incorporate information related to our inclusive efforts in existing and other appropriate communications with the College community.

Goal 6—Support Oriented: Communicate Excellence in Intellectual Leadership to Key Audiences (BbD IV-V)*

Vision 2012
The College promotes its unique strengths and impacts internally and externally. It implements a strategic communication plan that identifies target audiences, key messages, and appropriate channels for dissemination.

Objectives

• Position the social, behavioral, and economic sciences at MSU as a diverse and dynamic intellectual community which is central to understanding and addressing the myriad challenges facing our world at local and global levels.
• Build awareness of the expertise in the College available to policy and decision makers
• Enhance a sense of community within the College.
• Increase capacity to provide development-related communication.
• Ensure the College’s intellectual assets are included in major strategic activities as the University tells the MSU story.

Strategies

• Establish regular opportunities for faculty at all levels and across disciplines to network with the dean, associate deans, and among themselves.
• Expand program of faculty visits to legislative staffs in collaboration with the University’s Government Affairs Office.
• Strengthen collaboration with the University’s media relations team to tell newsworthy stories of outstanding scholarship.
• Bolster resources to support and manage the development of external relations publications.
• Implement a program of consistent communication with alumni to advance development messages. Engage the faculty in translating basic research findings into communications that demonstrate the impact of research on the University’s communities and society at large.
• Provide communications consultation to formal and informal communicators within the College.
• Link college marketing messages to university themes and priorities.

Goal 7—Support Oriented: Steward our Resources (BbD V)*

Vision 2012
Develop new initiatives to renew and emphasize a service orientation in the Dean’s Office and throughout the College.  Manage the resources in the College efficiently and transparently.  Enhance the value of our assets and resources by everything we do.

Objectives

• Continuously seek ways to serve the needs of our faculty, staff, and students through responsible and strategic leadership.
• Develop means to obtain feedback from key constituents to identify issues and concerns that the College’s leadership can respond to.
• Develop processes to ensure the responsible and effective management and care of our physical, informational, financial and human assets.
• Seek to ensure integrity and add value to our College and University in everything we do.

Strategies

• Increase the use of metrics of quality to guide the allocation of college resources.
• Improve the continuous cycle of program review for all of the units in our college.
• Assist the College community to develop succession plans for leadership positions throughout the College, including all chairs, directors, associate deans and dean positions.
• Maintain and enhance the quality of our facilities, the security of our information, the development of our human resources, and the stewardship of our endowments.
• Establish a faculty development program whereby junior faculty across disciplines meet and learn about the research policies and resources of the College and the Dean’s Office.

*Boldness by Design