Vice President for Student Affairs—Strategic Plan
Mission Statement | Divisional Highlights | Divisional Challenges | Divisional GoalsMISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Division of Student Affairs is to develop, with others in the University, opportunities for students to become productive citizens through the creation of challenging environments that contribute to students’ intellectual, spiritual, physical, social, cultural, moral, and emotional growth, and in so doing engage them with the widest range of persons within the University and beyond.
2010-11 DIVISIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
The past academic year (2009-2010) marked opportunities for each department within the Division of Student Affairs to share their respective departmental highlights and challenges in subsequent pages of this document. For the Division as a whole, some highlights from this past year include:
- The successful completion of the Student Affairs responses for SACS.
- Actively participating in discussions and committees related to the proposed new undergraduate curriculum and have Student Affairs staff members represented on a number of the undergraduate curriculum implementation committees.
- Developed and implemented a collaborative budget reduction process to meet the university requirement that all administrative units reduce their budgets by 4% over a two-year period.
- Worked on a partnership with the Provost to develop a residential commons program for the implementation of a Board of Trustees Sophomore Live-on Requirement.
- Currently working with KSQ Architects and Hier Associates to design a new 1250 bed residential housing complex and to convert our entire residential life experience to a residential commons model.
- Regularly evaluating the recommendations of the President’s Commission on Substance Abuse Prevention and developing new initiatives to support the goals of the Commission.
- Periodically evaluating salary compression for positions division-wide and charging a Salary Equity Committee with coordinating salary adjustments as needed.
- Actively coordinating efforts which engages the entire Division in a Branding Alignment Campaign. All departmental websites and collateral are meeting requirements that match both university and Divisional brand standards.
And throughout the year we have continued to advise, guide, and support student development and student learning, and respond to critical student needs and issues, through our myriad programs, services, activities.
DIVISIONAL CHALLENGES
Our major challenges as a Division are outlined in our strategic planning document which in sum are related to our need to enhance our high quality services, activities and programs for students in the midst of budget challenges; to be good stewards of our resources and ensure that we deploy our resources effectively; meet the challenges associated with substance abuse on campus; and our focus on facilitating male student development and finding strategies for their engagement and positive decision-making.
DIVISIONAL GOALS
Student Success
A Common Student Experience/COMMUNITY SMU: Enhance student connections to one another and to the university by creating a common set of experiences for all SMU students, with particular attention to the residential, curricular and co-curricular experience of first and second year students. The emphasis on building community among our undergraduate student population beyond particular interests groups is a recurring theme in much of our own research about our challenges as an institution.
Substance Abuse Education and Prevention: Implement and assess recommendations in the President’s Task Force on Substance Abuse and provide ongoing attention to substance abuse issues. Renovate the Memorial Student Heath Center so that it becomes a central resource for Health and Wellness programs in support of recommendations of the President’s Substance Abuse Task Force.
Student Gathering Spaces: Create and Invest in the development of spaces and places on-campus that provide opportunities for the diverse members of our campus community to connect with one another, and that also facilitate and support university traditions, with particular attention to new and renovated residential halls, the student center, the chaplain’s office, the band hall; as well as other buildings and facilities that meet these needs.
Student Learning
Residential Education: Partner with the Provost’s office to develop a residential life/education model that intentionally involves faculty in the residential community in addition to continuing to support the rich social and learning experiences that the residence life program currently provides. In particular explore the concept of a Residential College/Commons model and build new and renovate existing residential facilities toward becoming a residential university.
Leadership Development and Career Preparation: Develop a comprehensive co- and curricular leadership program directed at students in all stages of leadership development, including courses, workshops, internships, student counseling and advisement, student work and leadership positions that help prepare students for leadership positions on campus and for the world of work and business, civic and other post-SMU leadership endeavors.
Service- Learning: Provide additional opportunities for service learning experiences and create faculty development and participation incentives that will increase the number of faculty that include service learning in their courses.
Exemplary Division of Student Affairs
Facilities: A major step toward our becoming an exemplary division of student affairs is to have buildings and/or facilities that support our vision for the student experience at SMU and that are the best examples of such facilities in the country—the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports is one example of a student affairs building that meets that objective as our many of our recently renovated residence halls. Our list of student affairs buildings for development and/or renovation as previously mentioned includes: Residence Halls to meet the Sophomore Live-on requirement; the Memorial Student Health Center; a new Band Hall; an expanded or new Student Center; an Inter-Faith Center.
Competitive Salaries: We want to continue to attract and retain the best and brightest staff members to be part of the Division of Student Affairs. While performance will always remain the criteria for any salary increases, we will also annually benchmark our staff salaries and target those positions which are not in the line with market salaries for salary increases.
Communication/Technology: Enhance our ability to communicate with students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and others through a comprehensive communication plan including print, web and other media. Increase technological support for student affairs departments and explore technological applications in support and/or delivery appropriate services, programs and activities