September 19, 2013
MEMORANDUM
TO:
The Special Committee on Strategic Planning:
Frank B. Atkinson, Co-Chair
Linwood H. Rose, Co-Chair
Kevin J. Fay
Frank E. Genovese
Victoria D. Harker
Bobbie G. Kilberg
Stephen P. Long, M.D.
Edward D. Miller, M.D.
George Keith Martin, Ex Officio
and
The Remaining Members of the Board and Senior Advisor:
Hunter E. Craig
Helen E. Dragas
Allison Cryor DiNardo
Marvin W. Gilliam Jr.
William H. Goodwin Jr.
John A. Griffin
John L. Nau III
Timothy B. Robertson
Blake E. Blaze
Leonard W. Sandridge Jr.
FROM:
Susan G. Harris
SUBJECT:
Minutes of the Special Committee on Strategic Planning
Meeting on September 19, 2013
The Special Committee on
Visitors of the University of
p.m., Thursday, September 19,
Frank B. Atkinson and Linwood
Strategic Planning of the Board of
Virginia met, in Open Session, at 3:30
2013, in the Board Room of the Rotunda;
H. Rose, Co-Chairs, presided.
Present were Kevin J. Fay, Frank E. Genovese, Victoria D. Harker,
Bobbie G. Kilberg, Stephen P. Long, M.D., Edward D. Miller, M.D.,
George Keith Martin, and Leonard W. Sandridge Jr.
Special Committee on
Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
2.
Also present were Teresa A. Sullivan, Patrick D. Hogan, Paul J.
Forch, Susan G. Harris, Betsy V. Ackerson, J. Milton Adams, Susan A.
Carkeek, Anthony de Bruyn, Donna P. Henry, David W. Martel, McGregor
McCance, Maurie D. McInnis, Nancy A. Rivers, Colette Sheehy, and
Thomas C. Skalak.
Opening Remarks
Mr. Atkinson welcomed the newest members to the committee. He
explained they were coming into the process mid-stream and the
committee’s plan is to provide the completed Strategic Plan to the
full Board in November. He also said the planning process is never
really complete if you are engaged in continuous planning, so
providing the plan in November will really just be meeting a milestone
but certainly not the end of the process.
Mr. Atkinson said for the full Board session on Strategic
Planning scheduled for September 20, the committee selected three more
strategies to present to the Board. He said this is the first
committee meeting whereby only committee members were present and sees
it as a positive - an opportunity for member input and participation.
- - - - - - - - Briefing on Draft Strategies and Implementation Process
President spoke on positioning the University of Virginia over
the next five years. She said the University will be different in
some ways, and the same in other important ways.
When speaking about the differences we will see over the next
five years, she said we will have many more faculty. They will be top
scholars and researchers in their fields, and also care deeply about
the close teacher-student interaction that is a hallmark of the
University’s residential learning experience. She said we will have a
more robust research infrastructure for our faculty and students and
we will be doing more interdisciplinary work. She said all of the
strategies in the plan reinforce this future.
The things that will most likely stay the same are our value
proposition: high graduation rates, research that grows the economy
and creates jobs, affordability, and commitments to the Commonwealth.
President Sullivan said we will always support the Commonwealth, but
we will be more than the sum of our commitments to the Commonwealth.
She said our values will be the same: honor, ethics, service, and
diversity.
President Sullivan spoke briefly about rankings and where we will
be in 2018. She said in the latest U.S. News & World Report (U.S.
News) rankings for public universities, we are tied with UCLA at #2
and behind Berkeley in the #1 spot. We fare better than these two
Special Committee on
Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
3.
schools in some attributes, and worse in others. She said compared
with Berkeley, we are better in graduation and retention rank and in
alumni giving but we are behind in faculty resources, total financial
resources, peer assessment, reputation index, and a few other areas.
In comparison with UCLA, she said the University is better in
graduation and retention rank, SAT scores for students, alumni giving,
and a few other areas. We are behind in faculty resources, total
financial resources, acceptance rates, and a few other areas.
President Sullivan said in the overall U.S. News rankings that
include both publics and privates, we are in a five-way tie with UCLA
and three others at the #23 spot. Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Duke, and
other private universities dominate the top-10. She explained that
they have us beat in student-faculty ratio, so to gain ground we would
either need to hire a lot more faculty than we are already planning to
hire or cut enrollment. She said this shows that faculty and finances
are key areas for us to focus on as we finalize the Strategic Plan.
President Sullivan reviewed the five pillars of the draft
Strategic Plan, which are the strategic drivers, and the 15 associated
strategies. She said since the BOV Retreat in August, they have
continued to engage and receive feedback from a variety of
stakeholders to refine strategies. Feedback was received from the
deans, vice presidents, steering committee members, Faculty Senate,
and responsible units. During the Retreat, the Board members heard
about three strategies, and at the full Board session on September 20,
they will hear about three more selected by committee members.
President Sullivan briefly reviewed the nine remaining strategies. A
summary of the nine follow:
Pillar 1: The University is acclaimed for the quality of its
residential experience
The President said this is defined by a cohesive yet increasingly
diverse culture. She said it was deeply rooted in our institutional
values (honor, diversity, integrity, and student self-governance). It
focuses on strengthening our distinctive residential learning
environment, differentiating it, and increasing its intensity and
scope.
Strategy 1: “Student Leadership Development”
President Sullivan said this strategy builds on our institutional
heritage, existing strengths, and societal need for leaders. She said
leadership is fundamental to the entire university experience, from
admission to graduation. We should expand opportunities in the
curricular realm. We will formally integrate curricular and
extracurricular leadership training, beginning in the undergraduates’
second year. This is the time when students would typically develop
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Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
4.
their leadership skills that would allow them to take a leadership
role in their third and fourth years. Pat Lampkin has begun work in
this area with a proposal to establish a Lewis Leadership Institute
that would give a group of second year students a leadership
experience together (including the summer) so they would be better
prepared to assume a leadership role in their third and fourth years
on Grounds. President Sullivan said they are also hoping to develop a
valid and reliable indicator of leadership to include in the
undergraduate admission application.
Strategy 3: “Lifelong Alumni Engagement”
President Sullivan said based on a survey completed by alumni, it
is clear that the alumni want to be more involved in the University.
There are a number of ways to accomplish this, with MOOCs as one of
them. She said we also want to integrate alumni with students and
faculty. There is interest on the part of the students, especially
with alumni in the fields in their major area of study. She said the
Alumni Association is engaged with the University in this planning
process, as well as the Office of Engagement which works under the
development office and coordinates with the UVA clubs.
Pillar 2 — Strengthening the University’s Capacity to Advance
Knowledge and Serve the Public
President Sullivan said research is central to the University’s
founding vision of discovery and innovation. We will focus on quality
in research, scholarship, creative activity, and innovation,
addressing the important societal needs of the Commonwealth and the
world.
Pillar 3 — Provide Educational Experiences that Deliver New Levels of
Student Engagement
President Sullivan said the University is distinguished by
exceptional students, commitment of our faculty to their education,
and emphasis on student research, experiential learning, and
initiatives that promote public service. The goal is to create a
coherent and powerful educational experience even going beyond what we
do now.
Strategy 7: “Global Experiences”
President Sullivan said “global” is not confined to student
experience, although that is a critical element. The University will
be a key leader in the global exchange of knowledge through research
programs, curriculum, and student internships.
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Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
5.
Strategy 8: Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning
President Sullivan said this is a place where we can attain
institutional leadership that is evidence-based teaching and learning.
Assessment activities exist in four areas: CASTL-HE, TRC, VP Student
Affairs, and Institutional Assessment. We would like to assess the
comprehensive student learning experience (curricular, co-curricular,
extra-curricular) and use those findings to refine practice so that we
learn the best teaching methods and convey that information to faculty
members so it will can be used for developing future courses.
Pillar 4 — Assemble and Support a Distinguishing Faculty
President Sullivan said the generational turnover in faculty
gives us a real opportunity to sustain and advance the University for
future generations.
Strategy 9: “Faculty Leadership Development”
Supporting faculty to be leaders in the classroom, in the lab, in
the university, and in their fields is the goal. It involves
programming and skill development for our faculty.
Strategy 11: “Interdisciplinary Hiring”
Much of the new scholarship is at the nexus of disciplines. Not
knowing what the future holds in this area, the University can be
ready by having certain mechanisms in place, such as a template for
hiring someone with a dual appointment across disciplines.
Interdisciplinary hiring will also allow us to leverage our size to
achieve excellence in key areas.
Pillar 5 – Steward the University’s Resources to Promote Academic
Excellence and Affordable Access
This pillar is the way we will support the work of the first four
pillars. It challenges us to steward our resources in the best
possible way. We are committed to serving society by preparing
students for leadership, by fostering discovery and innovation, and by
ensuring that a University education is available to qualified
students, regardless of their circumstances.
President Sullivan said the University will achieve its goals of
academic excellence and affordable access by promoting a culture of
excellence and maintaining an intense focus on wise stewardship of all
its resources (human, financial, facilities, technology, etc).
Special Committee on
Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
6.
Strategy 12: “Affordable Excellence”
President Sullivan said this keeps the University both accessible
and affordable for all qualified students. It will require close
collaboration between the Board and the administration. Too many
decisions about affordable excellence have to be made at the Board
level.
Strategy 13: “Staff Excellence”
We need to develop leadership among our staff. We have an
excellent staff but over the years a great deal has changed in terms
of what they do. They have a fundamental role in supporting our
mission. She said we need to become a national model of excellence
for staff leadership development.
Strategy 15: “Philanthropy in Service to Strategic Priorities”
This focuses on aligning our philanthropic efforts with our
strategic priorities. She said right now we have a very complicated
way of raising money. We have a strong history of philanthropy, but
it can be streamlined and coordinated in ways that will enable us to
achieve our strategic goals more effectively.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
President Sullivan recapped where we started in the strategic
process and where we are now. She handed out a matrix entitled, “BOV
Requested Themes and Draft Strategies” (see Attachment 1 – Table 1).
The matrix shows the strategies are aligned with these themes. She
said she hoped the committee members see from the matrix that the
University took seriously the themes they were told to develop and
infused them throughout the 15 strategies.
She also provided a matrix that shows the key concepts
represented in the Mission Statement and the Vision Statement, and
showed where they were integrated. (see Attachment 1 – Table 2).
President Sullivan handed out another matrix of “Interrelatedness Between Strategies.” (see Attachment 1 – Table 3) This
matrix shows how each strategy is related to the other strategies.
Each strategy reinforces others in such a way that if we pursue all
15, we are moving in the same direction. The table shows why the
administration has not been able to provide a cost estimate yet: there
is a significant risk of double-counting if we don’t take into account
how these strategies reinforce each other. Mr. Hogan stated that is
something on which they will keep a close eye.
President Sullivan stated that among next steps, the University
will be integrating the pan-university plan with the school plans.
Special Committee on
Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
7.
She said the provost will work with the deans to integrate the school
planning with the strategic plan. This work is underway because the
deans have been so involved in the Strategic Plan development that
they are already familiar with what they need to do.
President Sullivan spoke about the budget for the Strategic Plan
along with Mr. Hogan. Mr. Hogan said they are working alongside the
Provost in developing a plan for the different strategies and possible
funding sources that may become available, as well as the needs. He
said they are also working with each of the deans to identify any
unaddressed needs they have that have been unfilled.
Mr. Hogan said from a sources standpoint, it is important to
estimate what impact, if any, philanthropy might be able to provide
with addressing any funding the plan requires. He said we would need
to look at joint ventures or partnerships we might have such as CCAM
and others that have brought research money and investments for
faculty to the University.
Organizational Excellence will most
certainly bring about some significant savings.
They intend to
capture those savings and put them in a strategic fund. Their initial
goal is $45 million of savings. Mr. Hogan said they would provide a
report at the November meeting, with potential strategies around
monetization of assets. They will look at any available reserves the
University has as well as what we expect to receive from operations.
Mr. Hogan said that as we look at strategic needs and school
needs, we will need to look long-term at financial aid. He said they
are going into levels of detail around personnel, technology,
equipment, any facilities improvements, and classroom reconfigurations
technology to help with flipped courses.
In November, Mr. Hogan expects to be able to provide, in a
summary format, how all the financial picture comes together, what it
looks like in terms of total cost and total investment needs. He said
whatever that five year plan looks like, we will need to build it into
the Financing Academic Excellence (FAE) framework developed last year.
If the Board approves the Strategic Plan at the November meeting, Mr.
Hogan said it will be important to bring in all of the sources and
uses on a typical budget basis and build that into the framework in
the December/January timeframe so that when the Board meets in
February, they will be prepared to have a really good discussion tool
around items going into the budget season.
Mr. Hogan said they are working on a template that will list all
of the pillars as well as who is responsible for implementation, and
how they will measure progress and cost. It will track milestones and
progress throughout the implementation period.
- - - - - - - - -
Special Committee on
Strategic Planning
September 19, 2013
8.
Upon motion, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
SGH:dr
These minutes have been posted to the University of Virginia’s Board
of Visitors website.
http://www.virginia.edu/bov/specialcommminutes.html
Attachment 1
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Attachment 2
Attachment 2
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