Office of Undergraduate Studies - Strategic Plan

Mission

The Office of Undergraduate Studies (OUGS) provides cross-college and –divisional leadership and support to ensure an integrated undergraduate experience at CSUSM.  By serving our 21st century learners holistically, we prepare them for diverse and demanding educational environments.  Through collaborative approaches and high-impact practices (HIPs), we ensure early mastery of critical skills, foster intellectual independence, and champion creative inquiry.  With the intentional and continuous support of OUGS, our students graduate equipped to advance human knowledge and ready to contribute to an ever-changing global society.

Vision

OUGS seeks to inspire students to become curious, thoughtful, ethical, capable, and culturally intelligent learners who persist in their education and realize their full academic, personal, and professional potential.

Strategic Objective #1

Establish the Office of Undergraduate Studies as the central campus hub for fostering and enhancing the academic success of undergraduate students.

Measureable Goal A: Establish an OUGS Advisory Council.

1. Establish an Advisory Council whose broad membership, including students, will participate in cross-functional sub-groups to address specific issues affecting undergraduates.
2. Determine the scope and charge of this Advisory Council.
3. The Council or sub-groups address at least one specific issue each year and make corresponding recommendations to the Dean.
4. The Dean of OUGS and Advisory Council work across campus to implement decisions that result from the recommendations.

Measurable Goal B:  Integrate and deepen the analytic capacity to make data-driven decisions that support undergraduate students’ academic success.

1. In partnership with Institutional Planning & Analysis (IP&A) and Instructional & Information Technology Services (IITS), begin to develop and sustain data-driven early warning systems to identify low-, medium-, and highly-engaged students in a timely fashion so that faculty and staff can intervene in support of our students.
2. Share analytics with relevant campus units to promote cross-unit and –division program development in support of students’ academic success.
3. Determine the extent to which early alert systems in Student Affairs can be integrated with the data systems OUGS develops to support students’ academic success.  Support Student Affairs’ integration of early alert systems as is feasible.

Strategic Objective #2

Secure funding for the development of initiatives that improve undergraduate students’ engagement, persistence, retention, and graduation rates.

Measurable Goal A:  Pursue external funding to support initiatives related to persistence, retention, and graduation rates.

1. Facilitate writing and submission of grants/initiatives that support engagement, persistence, retention, and graduation rates.
2. Submit or implement grants/initiatives each year.

Measurable Goal B:  Lead the Graduation Initiative Steering Committee (GISC) in addressing CSUSM’s persistence, retention, and graduation rates.

1. Conduct a literature review of critical factors that increase persistence, retention, and graduation rates.
2. Review and/or begin to conduct data-driven research particular to CSUSM that reveals the bases of undergraduates’ attrition rates.
3. Work closely with other CSUs to exchange and leverage best practices for addressing student persistence, retention, and graduation rates.
4. Develop research questions based on the literature review, the data research, and the overarching CSU experience, the answers to which will help CSUSM close the identified academic achievement gaps.
5. Establish a benchmark set of data by which we will determine our success.
6. Begin to develop a campus-wide plan aimed at increasing persistence, retention, and graduation rates.
7. Facilitate campus progress towards CSUSM’s Graduation Initiative as established by the Chancellor’s Office for our campus.

Measurable Goal C:   Share and interpret data with undergraduate support programs such as Undergraduate Advising, CAMP, ACE, and the Faculty Mentoring Program to determine necessary additional academic support for undergraduate students across the campus.

1. Identify current undergraduate support programs.
2. Begin to develop a strategy and criteria for sharing data across programs.
3. Initiate data sharing with support programs.

Measurable Goal D:  Design and deliver a promotional campaign for academic support programs.

1. Develop a promotional campaign to build faculty, staff, and student awareness regarding the academic resources available to undergraduates.
2. Begin to create materials and social media presence that give voice to the ways in which CSUSM supports undergraduate students’ academic success.
3. Reach faculty, staff, and students by participating in student orientations, new faculty orientations, and convocation. 

Strategic Objective #3

Facilitate undergraduate students’ mastery of critical skills and advocate the use of HIPs that support achievement of undergraduate learning outcomes across the colleges.

Measurable Goal A: Advance the mission of CSUSM’s academic learning centers across the colleges.

1. Establish benchmark analytics about student use of and faculty support of centers such as the Math Lab, Writing Center, Academic Success Center, Supplemental Instruction, and the STEM Center.
2. Increase student use of each learning center.
3. Develop (in partnership with IP&A) a process for measuring the effectiveness of the academic learning centers.
4. Recruit up to one faculty member per learning center to serve as a faculty liaison.
5. Develop a 5-year strategic plan for each learning center. 

Measurable Goal B:  Increase student participation in HIPs.

1. Establish benchmarks regarding student participation in HIPs at CSUSM.
2. Increase student participation in the CSUSM HIPs identified as trackable.

Measurable Goal C:  Invest in ongoing faculty and staff development.

1. Support the August Cross-College/Library Conference for Instructors Teaching First-Year Students.
2. Partner with the Faculty Center to establish a baseline of professional development specifically related to undergraduate teaching that has occurred across the university over the past 5 years.
3. Work with the Faculty Center to recommend a plan to strengthen and/or expand professional development specifically related to undergraduate teaching and learning.
4. Identify professional development needs for OUGS staff.
5. Provide support for OUGS staff to participate in at least one professional development activity each year.

Measurable Goal D:  Partner with the University Assessment Council in mapping undergraduate learning outcomes.

Strategic Objective #4

Identify and enhance partnerships, collaborations, and alignments that support students’ academic success across campus.

Measurable Goal A:  Steward and expand partnerships with programs such as Undergraduate Advising; Academic Programs; the Faculty Center; the Division of Community Engagement; Graduate Studies and Research; Student Affairs; the Office of Diversity Educational Equity & Inclusion; and the North Country Professional Development Federation. 

1. Develop a strategy and criteria for strengthening existing partnerships, phasing-out partnerships, and identifying and developing new partnerships.
2. Utilizing the criteria, begin to strengthen existing partnerships or phase them out.
3. Use criteria to initiate and cultivate new partnerships.

Measurable Goal B:  Partner with faculty and staff to expand and integrate student learning communities in First-Year Programs and beyond.

1. Research and develop a model for expansion of learning communities for first-year and transfer students.   
2. Expand first-year and transfer student learning communities across the colleges.
3. Secure resources to create a Coordinator of Learning Communities position.
4. Recruit a coordinator.

Strategic Objective #5

Identify and enhance partnerships, collaborations, and alignments that create interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, domestic and global learning opportunities across campus.

Measurable Goal A:  Promote (through partnerships) interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students.

1. Support campus units (e.g., library, colleges, Student Affairs) in promoting interdisciplinary, cross cultural, and global opportunities for students.
2. Identify (through partnerships) the interdisciplinary opportunities that already exist across campus; make faculty and staff aware of these opportunities, and help to promote them to students.
3. Lead a conversation with the Faculty Center for enhancing interdisciplinary opportunities within and across colleges.
4. Develop a set of possibilities with the Faculty Center for enhancing interdisciplinary opportunities within and across colleges.

Measurable Goal B:  Promote (through partnerships) cross-cultural and global learning opportunities for students.

1. Partner with the Faculty Center; Student Affairs; the Office of Diversity, Educational Equity & Inclusion; and with Global Education to create avenues for cross-cultural and global idea generation and implementation.
2. Identify (through partnerships (even if they are returning)) the cross-cultural and global opportunities that already exist; make faculty and staff aware of these opportunities, and help to promote them to students.
3. Work with the Faculty Center; Student Affairs; Office of Diversity, Educational Equity & Inclusion; and with Global Education regarding creation of additional cross-cultural and global opportunities for students.
4. Develop a set of possibilities with the Faculty Center; Student Affairs; Office of Diversity, Educational Equity & Inclusion; and with Global Education for enhancing cross-cultural and global opportunities for students.