“Standard I: The institution’s mission defines its purpose within the context of higher education, the students it serves, and what it intends to accomplish. The institution’s stated goals are clearly linked to its mission and specify how the institution fulfills its mission.” (I.1.001.MSCHE_Standards_RoA)
Summary Declaration
Syracuse University has a clearly defined vision, mission, and goals that form a coherent whole as expressed in the University’s 2015 academic strategic plan, titled Trajectory to Excellence (I.1.002.Trajectory_to_Excellence). Thus, based on our review of documentation collected by the review team, we conclude that Syracuse University is in compliance with Standard I. The vision and mission of the University establish its purpose within the larger context of U.S. higher education. The stated goals of the academic strategic plan provide a roadmap for how the University fulfills its mission and how it will continue to do so over coming years.
Overview of Satisfactory/Exemplary Criteria
Criterion 1.1 describes the ideal attributes of an institution’s mission and goals. Ample evidence exists showing that the mission and goals of the University were developed through a collaborative, participatory process. Numerous working groups, including stakeholders from both within and outside of the University, contributed to the development of each component of the academic strategic plan, including the current mission and goals. A total of 132 faculty, students, and staff participated in the development of the academic strategic plan, and more than 200 additional campus community members participated in open forums.
VISION
Syracuse University aspires to be a pre-eminent and inclusive student-focused research university, preparing engaged citizens, scholars, and leaders for participation in a changing global society.
MISSION
As a university with the capacity to attract and engage the best scholars from around the world, yet small enough to support a personalized and academically rigorous student experience, Syracuse University faculty and staff support student success by:
- Encouraging global study, experiential learning, interdisciplinary scholarship, creativity, and entrepreneurial endeavors
- Balancing professional studies with an intensive liberal arts education
- Fostering a richly diverse and inclusive community of learning and opportunity
- Promoting a culture of innovation and discovery
- Supporting faculty, staff, and student collaboration in creative activity and research that address emerging opportunities and societal needs
- Maintaining pride in our location and history as a place of access, engagement, innovation, and impact.
Many examples exist showing the efforts of these working groups, but one particularly valuable example is reflected in the records of a community brainstorming event known as the Day of Conversation. The Day of Conversation, timed to coincide with draft publication of a preliminary, outline version of the academic strategic plan, comprised three working sessions to which all members of the University community were invited. More than 650 campus community members attended one or more of the working sessions. A presentation from that day shows that more than 1,000 unique perspectives emerged from that highly public process of evaluating an early draft of the academic strategic plan (I.1.003.Day_of_Conversation). In addition, slides from the Day of Conversation include further evidence of a collaborative, participatory process with leaders for each goal and their respective conclusions. Lastly, all parts of the administration who are charged with the responsibility of institutional development and improvement, including trustees, the Chancellor, deans, and other stakeholders, were integral to the overall planning process.
Together these groups helped to ensure the University’s new mission and vision, as well as the academic strategic plan, address external and internal contexts and stakeholders. For instance, the academic strategic plan emphasizes external goals under the themes Internationalization, Discovery, Commitment to Veterans and Military-connected Communities, and Innovation. The academic strategic plan also addresses internal contexts and stakeholders through its One University, Student Experience, and Innovation themes. At the April 15, 2015, Board of Trustees meeting, the new University mission and vision statements were approved; the Board reviewed a draft of the academic strategic plan in June 2015 and supported its completion; a complete version of the academic strategic plan was approved by the Board of Trustees at its May 2016 meeting.
Since the plan’s adoption, the Chancellor and the provost have led the University’s leadership teams in aligning individual school, college, and functional units’ strategic plans with the University’s mission, vision, and academic strategic plan. For example, in its strategic plan, Syracuse Abroad recently re-articulated its vision: “As a leader in innovative study abroad, Syracuse Abroad aspires to provide transformative and affordable global academic experiences through study, research, and intern opportunities for all students, fostering a transnational spirit of inquiry and preparing students as responsible global citizens and professionals.”
The Chancellor frequently begins his leadership meetings and retreats by reviewing the University’s mission and vision. Furthermore, he has restructured his leadership team to reflect the strategic initiatives of the University.
Within academic affairs, Provost Michele G. Wheatly sent an email to the campus community on December 19, 2016, (I.1.004.Provost_Wheatly_ASP_Implementation) laying out her approach to implementing the plan. The approach included completing a listening tour, appointing personnel to her team, requiring academic deans to align their school and college strategic plans with the University efforts, and ensuring that her offices continue to collaborate with the other functional areas of the Chancellor’s executive team to improve support for an outstanding student experience. Relatedly, academic deans have begun sharing their strategic plans and key performance indicators at Board of Trustee meetings to demonstrate the ongoing alignment. For example, at the November 2017 meeting of the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee, Dean Michael Tick of the College of Visual and Performing Arts reviewed his college’s recently completed strategic plan.
Criterion 1.2 relates to the University’s goals being realistic, appropriate and consistent with its mission. The mission of the University centers around supporting student success while capitalizing on the size and scope of the University, thus stating: “As a university with the capacity to attract and engage the best scholars from around the world, yet small enough to support a personalized and academically rigorous student experience, Syracuse University faculty and staff support student success…” The mission then proceeds to identify six key elements that we believe are essential to student success. Four of those six elements in the University mission relate to scholarly inquiry and creativity:
- Encouraging global study, experiential learning, interdisciplinary scholarship, creativity, and entrepreneurial endeavors
- Promoting a culture of innovation and discovery
- Supporting faculty, staff, and student collaboration in creative activity and research that address emerging opportunities and societal needs
- Maintaining pride in our location and history as a place of access, engagement, innovation, and impact
Likewise, the goals in the academic strategic plan emphasize scholarly inquiry and creativity. For instance, the first goal under the plan’s Discovery theme specifically cites the intent to “Foster a University-wide culture that celebrates and advances creative work and research in ways that inspire discovery, enhance teaching and learning, and magnify our impact and interconnections with the world.” (I.1.002.Trajectory_to_Excellence, p. 10).
Examples of this University-wide culture’s existence are plentiful. Consider the story of Samantha Usman, who graduated in May 2016 with a BS in Mathematics and Physics. Samantha was a student researcher in the Syracuse University physics department when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) group made its historic first discovery of gravitational waves in 2016. Usman was interviewed in the December 2016 issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity:
“I’ll admit I even got a bit teary-eyed when a giant 10-foot-tall projection of David Reitze, the LIGO lab director, proudly announced, “We did it!” I can’t even imagine what it’d be like for my mentors, Prof. Brown and Prof. Peter Saulson, who’d been working on this for decades.”
Samantha’s research experience, alongside her faculty mentors, represented a heady moment for Syracuse University as it appeared on the world stage together with the many other distinguished universities that comprise the LIGO group. While this is perhaps the most visible example of Syracuse’s commitment to discovery, hundreds of Syracuse faculty and students work on exciting projects every day.
Criterion 1.3 focuses on the alignment of University goals with student learning outcomes and institutional improvement. The mission also details two other components of the academic experience that are designed to support student success:
- Balancing professional studies with an intensive liberal arts education
- Fostering a richly diverse and inclusive community of learning and opportunity
These components of the mission are also emphasized in the academic strategic plan’s themes and goals. For instance, the second goal under the first theme, The Student Experience, cites a commitment to “Sustain an inclusive, accessible campus of opportunity for a richly diverse student body, including international students, students with disabilities, underrepresented students, and veterans.” (I.1.002.Trajectory_to_Excellence, pg. 8)
The student experience and learning outcomes as well as continual improvement were addressed at every level of the strategic planning process, including goal identification, development, and implementation. Indeed, according to its website, the Fast Forward Syracuse initiative identifies as its goal, “to strengthen Syracuse University by embracing change and prioritizing student needs as the primary focus of everything the University does. Fast Forward Syracuse will serve as the framework for these future improvements.” (I.3.001_Fast Forward Syracuse _ FAQs). The Fast Forward initiative integrates the academic strategic plan, the Campus Framework, and Operational Excellence to better leverage curricular and co-curricular programs and services, facilities, and processes to optimize the student experience and institutional improvement. The Fast Forward initiative included a consideration of all of the Syracuse University campuses, including Syracuse Abroad centers and domestic campuses in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.
The University continues to publicize and distribute information about our mission and goals through the University website; University news stories; campus emails; meetings with the University Senate; open forums featuring Chancellor Syverud and Provost Wheatly, such as the State of the University addresses; and the Daily Orange, the University’s student-run newspaper.
The Academic Strategic Plan: Trajectory to Excellence frames the University’s goals within the challenges facing higher education and the dynamic landscape in which Syracuse operates. Therefore, the goals outlined in the plan are realistic, appropriate to higher education, and consistent with Syracuse’s mission. Furthermore, the academic strategic plan is grounded in the distinguishing strengths of Syracuse University, strategically enhancing the likelihood of success in achieving them.
Areas of Continuous Improvement and Recommendations
Criterion 1.4 focuses on the assessment of the University goals and mission. As the University continues to implement the elements of the academic strategic plan, the formal assessment of progress as cited in Criterion 1.4 and institutional improvements will become more clearly evident. Assessment at the programmatic, co-curricular and operation functional levels have been initiated based on the new structures and procedures developed in 2014. All units reporting up to the Chancellor are being held accountable by the Board of Trustees to continually improve based on concrete data and findings from assessment and key performance indicators demonstrating progress. Periodic assessment of the University’s mission and goals will become increasingly important as the short-term goals of the academic strategic plan are realized. To ensure this element of continuous improvement, Chapter 5 contains a recommendation relevant to Criterion 1.4: Recommendation 1 pertains to systematic institutionalized assessment and contains actions designed to strengthen implementation and monitoring of assessment.