In recognition that a new plan for strategic actions was essential to achieving YSU’s mission and vision, the Plan for Strategic Actions to Take Charge of Our Future was adopted with input from administration, faculty, staff, students, and community members. This plan was developed through a collaborative process lasting 18 months. The five distinct phases of this process are chronicled on the university’s strategic planning website.
The new strategic plan, including new mission and vision statements, was adopted June 4, 2020, and has guided the institution’s operations since receiving BOT approval. YSU operationalizes this mission through attention to the goals and strategies associated with the strategic plan.
The operating budget plan supports the University’s Plan for Strategic Actions to Take Charge of Our Future, and includes a forecast of revenues that is based on an analysis of future economic conditions and demographic trends. As one of the university’s most important administrative tools, the budget serves to support actions for achieving goals associated with the Plan to Take Charge of Our Future.
Key initiatives currently being implemented are:
- Academic Program Enhancement and Effectiveness - APEEI is supported by Gray Associates having developed an information interface with data on nearly all fields of study catalogued in the U.S. Department of Education’s Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). With an analytics platform, it is possible to assess competitors’ program offerings, local and national student demand, and employment opportunities for over 1,000 fields of study. These data are useful in identifying new programs to be considered, and opportunities for enhancing the viability of the current academic programs.
- Curricular Efficiency - Curricular efficiency and effectiveness focuses on improving student/academic success through a variety of different measures that ultimately improves, among others, student learning, student retention, graduation rates, and costs both to the student and the university. Curricular effectiveness focuses doing the right things in pursuit of appropriate goals and using resources to their fullest. The curricular efficiency team has reviewed course data from across the university and developed tools to assist programs and the university to use resources more effectively.
- Academic Program Transformation - Academic Program Transformation embraces a commitment to aligning educational programs with the goal of ensuring that our students are personally enriched, engaged, and productive citizens of the world. It acknowledges the obligation to ensure curriculum and program offerings continually adapt teaching and learning innovations to meet the needs of those served by the institution. Through Academic Program Transformation, YSU ensures the institutional mission and program goals provide faculty members and students a distinctive experience that serves as a differentiator for a YSU education. Establishing institutional learning outcomes that enhance the value of a YSU degree as well as a unique and transformative general education program, are integral to this initiative.
- Community Engaged Campus - The community engaged campus is driven by the value that arises from mutually beneficial campus community partnerships which incorporate diverse perspectives that strengthen the collective impact on the region. Through the utilization of the GivePulse (YSU PenguinPulse) platform, YSU will collect all community engaged experiential learning occurring both within and outside of the classroom. YSU PenguinPulse serves as the community engagement clearinghouse to enhance communication, collaboration and coordination. The YSU PenguinPulse newsletter showcases community engagement impact and serves as the source of campus communication for community engagement and partnerships. The Community Partner Advisory Committee provides opportunities for input from community partners and adheres to the value of listening to the needs of the community and addressing needs collaboratively. The Community Engagement Council will lead the development of YSU's application to the Carnegie Foundation Elective Classification for Community Engagement.