The Future

In an effort to support continued excellence in the future, Iowa State University reviews its processes for planning, allocating resources, and evaluating progress. Iowa State University’s commitment to fulfilling its mission is reflected in consistent, comprehensive planning at all levels of the organization. For example, the charge to the 2005-2010 strategic planning committee was to develop a shorter, more substantive, specific, and strategic plan for use as a working document. The guiding principles for the strategic planning process called for an open, inclusive and iterative process.

Changing social, technological, economic and political environments have driven reorganization and restructuring of human, financial and physical resources toward advancing the land grant ideal. The section on faculty and staff provides details about efforts to attract, develop, and support faculty and staff, as well as an overview of important academic initiatives that will allow faculty and staff to respond to future needs. This section also provides information about initiatives to change resource allocations to improve learning, scholarship, and engagement with our constituencies.

The evaluation section describes a continuous cycle of planning, evaluation and feedback that involves students, staff, faculty, administrators, alumni and external constituencies bound by a common mission and vision for Iowa State University.

This self-study identifies several strengths, challenges, and future initiatives that are relevant to the future success of Iowa State. These are described in detail throughout this section of the self-study.

Planning:
A clearly articulated Strategic Plan guides Iowa State’s preparation for the future. Inclusion of all constituencies in the development of the plan promoted campus-wide awareness of and alignment around the mission, vision, and strategic plan. Administration has emphasized (and has begun to demonstrate) that the priorities articulated by the strategic plan will be used as a guide for decision-making and resource allocation. For example, performance indicators will be used to assess progress on strategic planning goals.

Faculty and Staff:
Iowa State provides a variety of professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, promoting and supporting the professional growth of new faculty through mentoring relationships with senior administrators. The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching is especially notable in its efforts to provide development opportunities for faculty and staff.

Resources:
Despite decreasing state financial support, Iowa State continues to develop forward-looking initiatives that enhance the achievement of the institutional mission. Examining existing resources and future needs resulted in efforts to develop a new budget model.

Evaluation:
The Office of Institutional Research plays an indispensable role in institutional planning and decision-making by collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and disseminating information about the University. In addition, in a recent audit of program review procedures, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, indicated that the purpose of program improvement was clearly embedded in Iowa State’s program review process.

Strategic Planning:
To fully implement the University strategic plan, it will be important to ensure alignment with unit strategic plans across campus. The implementation plan and reporting structure are still being developed and refined.

Faculty:
Faculty salaries continued to decline with respect to peer institutions, with an index of .95 for average Iowa State University faculty salaries compared to peer land grant university faculty salaries in FY2005. In addition, retention has been a challenge, especially with female and minority faculty.

Resources:
Substantial reductions in state funding for the University have required significant cuts in operating budgets, elimination of many positions, increased tuition, and reallocation of resources. Iowa State’s current budget model does not fully meet the increasing diversity of needs and fails to provide strong incentives to units of departments for undertaking new or increased responsibilities. A more flexible, responsive budget model is needed. Recent efforts to develop an alternative budget model emphasize the need to closely tie allocation of resources to individual units’ responsibilities and performance with reference to the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan.

Evaluation:
Efforts to evaluate achievement of strategic priorities and provide information regarding academic program improvement will require cooperation across multiple areas of the institution. Opportunities exist to further develop and implement full outcomes assessment plans in an effort to enhance achievement of university priorities.

Planning, Resources, and Evaluation:
The developers of the new budget model have been charged with ensuring that the model provides incentives and supports and rewards units that make progress towards strategic planning goals. This will require efforts to evaluate achievement of planning goals.

Faculty:
In order to address challenges in hiring and supporting faculty, the institution is exploring flexible career paths such as innovative part-time tenure opportunities, which may help to facilitate work-life balance issues. In addition, the institution will make improving faculty salaries a priority.