Shaping the future of the California State University system is not an easy task, but it is a job that Cal Poly, along with the other 22 CSU campuses, has been undertaking since November 2006.
Through a series of campus-wide conversations, Cal Poly has been aiding in the development of a new CSU strategic plan, titled “Access to Excellence,” that will serve the university system for the next 10 years.
“The aim of strategic planning is to develop some long term goals as an institution,” said Bruno Giberti, a faculty representative to the CSU Steering Committee and architecture professor.
The next step in the two-year planning process will be a system-wide summit that is scheduled for April 24 to 25 in Newport Beach.
The summit will include people from each CSU campus, about 350 in all, who will discuss their ideas based on six domains that the CSU Board of Trustees outlined. Cal Poly is sending 14 representatives made up of faculty, staff and students.
“(The strategic plan) needs to come from the grassroots and be fed upwards so that anything (the CSU system) comes up with truly reflects the real need within each campus and ultimately the whole state,” said Unny Menon, interim assistant vice provost for Academic Programs.
After the summit, the CSU Board of Trustees will take all the input from each campus and write a comprehensive strategic plan.
“We hope that in 14 months from now, we will have a strategic plan that will guide system-wide priorities for the next 10 years,” said Keith Boyum, CSU assistant vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.
“Access to Excellence” will take effect for the 2008-09 school year, replacing the old strategic plan, “Cornerstones,” that has been in place since 1998.
A recent assessment of the Cornerstones strategic plan by the CSU system showed accomplishments in nine of the 12 principles outlined.
“Cornerstones had some success, but left room for improvement,” Menon said. “The next plan needs to take note of those.”
The CSU system suggested six main points for the campus discussions including assuring access, connecting to P-12 schools and community colleges, fulfilling commitments to multiple stakeholders, ensuring success in student learning, faculty/staff excellence to promote student success and campus/system identity now and in the future.
“The principles that emerge will set the kind of rules for campuses to develop programs,” Menon said. “The students will experience either significant improvements or face constraints.”
Beginning in January, each of the seven colleges, Associated Students Inc., the Academic Senate and a group of community stakeholders, including representatives from Cuesta College and Hancock College, met individually to discuss how these six areas could be addressed in their programs.
“Cal Poly took it very seriously,” Giberti said. “They like to think of themselves as a leader in the CSU.”
One of the main focuses for Cal Poly is preparing P-12 students for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) areas of study that the university specializes in.
“Are we graduating people in those disciplines in numbers that satisfy the needs of the country?” Giberti asked. “The fact of the matter is that we actually really aren’t doing that.”
Some ideas that have come out of the planning conversations to address this problem are to begin more outreach programs that will assess students’ abilities at certain points during their education and then set them on the right track for eligibility in the CSU system.
“The university can’t just be a passive recipient of students who were prepared by somebody else,” Giberti said.
Another important focus is ensuring quality faculty and staff for the CSU system, which currently serves 450,000 students, 19,000 of which attend Cal Poly.
“The strategic plan will ensure that the CSU lives up to what students need,” said CSU media relations specialist Paul Browning.
Faculty/staff excellence was one of the most important domains discussed in the ASI discussion, ASI President Todd Maki said.
“Rather than teaching the same curriculum that’s been around for the last 50 years, we want to include industry that teaches towards the future, not the past,” Maki said.
The CSU sees “Access to Excellence” as a step in helping the state as a whole make changes in education.
“Part of the importance of the strategic plan is for the CSU to go to the legislature and say, ‘look, this is an important problem for California and we’re part of the solution,'” Giberti said.
One of the challenges of the strategic plan is helping people to see the big picture and the long-term effects it outlines.
“It doesn’t affect (students) today, but it will affect them tomorrow and next year and certainly in the next 10 years,” Menon said.