University Plans
University Strategic Plan
- ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
- FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
- STAFF PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT
- STUDENT SATISFACTION
- DIVERSITY
- GOVERNANCE AND COLLEGIALITY
- INSTITUTIONAL SIZE
- UNIVERSITY RELATIONS AND IMAGE
Cal Poly's Strategic Plan was developed as a means to guide the university over the next several years. It establishes a direction for achieving the mission of the university by setting forth the goals and priorities which will direct its future planning, resource allocation, and decision making.
1. ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
The purpose of academic programs at Cal Poly is to fulfill the university mission of pursuing and transmitting skill, knowledge and truth. Cal Poly's academic programs support the university's unique comprehensive, polytechnic mission and should all be assessed periodically to ensure that they meet student and societal needs. Cal Poly should provide the necessary resources to ensure the highest quality of service to its students to facilitate their progress throughout all phases of their educational careers.
Goals:
1.1 Consistent with the provisions of Title 5, Sections 40050 and 40051 of the California Code of Regulations, Cal Poly shall affirm its polytechnic orientation emphasizing undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate professional and technical programs, while providing high-quality programs in the arts, humanities, and natural, social and behavioral sciences that characterize a comprehensive, polytechnic university. These programs shall encourage students to be imaginative and assume leadership in the future.
1.1.1. Cal Poly shall ensure that a significant majority of Cal Poly students are enrolled in professional or technical programs.
1.1.2. Cal Poly administration shall continue to seek necessary state resources to support a high-quality polytechnic university.
1.2 Cal Poly shall continue to admit and graduate the highest quality students possible.
1.3 Cal Poly may admit freshmen into majors, or colleges, or admit them into the university without declaring a major.
1.4 Cal Poly's general education will continue to maintain a technical component consistent with the university's character and will provide means whereby graduates:
will have achieved the ability to think clearly, logically, and creatively; to find and critically examine information; to communicate in English orally and in writing; and to perform quantitative functions;
will have acquired appreciable knowledge about their own bodies and minds, about how human societies have developed and how they now function, about the physical world in which they live, about the other forms of life with which they share that world, and about the cultural endeavors and legacies of world civilizations;
will have come to an understanding and appreciation of the principles, methodologies, value systems, and thought processes employed in human inquiries.
1.4.1 Cal Poly's general education program shall provide alternatives by which undergraduates can complete the CSU mandated requirements for general education.
1.4.2 Cal Poly shall establish policy to facilitate general education transferability.
1.4.3 Cal Poly shall ensure its graduates will have acquired knowledge regarding technology, its importance to society, and its impacts on the natural systems.
1.4.4 Cal Poly shall strive to prepare its graduates with an ability to function in a global society.
1.5 Cal Poly shall support and develop high quality postbaccalaureate programs that complement the mission of the university.
1.6 Cal Poly shall provide a campus environment where a strong commitment to teaching and learning exists, and all members of the campus community are motivated to work together in the pursuit of educational goals.
1.7 Cal Poly's instructional programs will vary in size depending on such factors as:
- relevance to mission
- quality of program, faculty, students, and staff
- support of the university's Educational Equity and Affirmative Action plans
- projected demand by students and employers
- overlaps with programs in other institutions, including the number and size of similar programs offered elsewhere in the state
- requirements of accreditation associations
- resource requirements (variety of faculty, staff, facilities, equipment, library resources)
1.8 Cal Poly's decisions about academic programs and administrative organizations shall be based on the educational needs of students and society and the efficient, effective and appropriate use of resources within a program.
1.8.1 Cal Poly shall review these decisions regularly.
1.9 Cal Poly shall participate in self-supporting programs that offer educational opportunities for nontraditional, nonmatriculated students.
1.10 Cal Poly shall ensure that the academic curriculum is appropriately infused with issues of gender and cultural and racial pluralism, including social, political, and religious similarities and differences among societies.
1.10.1 Cal Poly shall require for graduation, successful completion of course work that focuses on the issues of gender and cultural and racial pluralism, including social, political, and religious similarities and differences among societies.
1.10.2 Cal Poly shall ensure that the content of courses across the curriculum include relevant issues of gender and cultural and racial pluralism, including social, political, and religious similarities and differences among societies.
1.10.3 Cal Poly shall encourage academic programs abroad, both in general terms, and especially in those areas of relevance to the students' major courses of study.
1.11 Cal Poly shall encourage global awareness through international exchanges, studies abroad, and interactions with students from abroad.
2. FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
The faculty shall be encouraged to be proficient and current in their disciplines as well as their teaching skills. Cal Poly shall continue to encourage faculty to belong to appropriate professional organizations. The university will promote the involvement of faculty in national and international activities. Cal Poly will provide the necessary support to ensure that faculty have the opportunity to achieve success in the scholarships identified below.
Faculty Professional Development
Excellence in teaching is the primary purpose of Cal Poly's faculty, and active participation in various types of scholarly activities is essential to meeting this goal. Cal Poly recognizes and endorses four types of scholarship as part of the expectations for faculty. A Carnegie Foundation report entitled Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate identifies these as the Scholarship of Teaching, the Scholarship of Discovery, the Scholarship of Integration, and the Scholarship of Application. Each of Cal Poly's faculty members must be active and proficient in the Scholarship of Teaching. While activity in the three remaining areas characterizes the career of a faculty member, at any given time it is likely that one area will receive greater emphasis than the others.
Cal Poly endorses the broad definitions of the four types of scholarship set forth in the Carnegie report. The following thoughts extracted from the Carnegie report summarize the mission of teaching and scholarship at Cal Poly.
The Scholarship of Teaching. As a scholarly enterprise, teaching begins with what the teacher knows. Those who teach must be well-informed and steeped in the knowledge of their fields. Teaching is also a dynamic endeavor which must bring students actively into the educational process.
Further, teaching, at its best, means not only transmitting knowledge, but transforming and extending it as well. In the end, inspired teaching keeps scholarship alive and inspired scholarship keeps teaching alive. Without the teaching function, the continuity of knowledge will be broken and the store of human knowledge diminished.
2.1 Cal Poly shall continue to encourage its faculty members to be proficient and current in the subjects they teach.
2.2 Cal Poly shall continue to improve opportunities for each faculty member to be skilled in classroom or comparable modes of instruction and to have the most up-to-date means of information technology available.
2.2.1 Cal Poly shall continue to place particular emphasis upon teaching methods that require students to take an active role in their own learning.
2.3 Consistent with its expectations, Cal Poly shall continue to improve classroom space, classroom equipment, supplies, study space, communication and information technologies, books, periodicals, and other resources.
2.4 Cal Poly shall develop an on-going and effective program of conferences and workshops on teaching and use of information technology to ensure the highest possible quality of instruction across the campus.
The Scholarship of Discovery comes closest to what is meant when academics speak of "research." This scholarship contributes not only to the stock of human knowledge, but also to the intellectual climate of the University. Not just the outcomes, but the process, and especially the passion, give meaning to the effort. The probing mind of the researcher is a vital asset to Cal Poly, the state, and the world. Scholarly investigation and/or creative activity, in all the disciplines, is at the very heart of academic life, and the pursuit of knowledge must be assiduously cultivated and defended. Disciplined, investigative efforts within the University should be strengthened, not diminished. Those engaged in the Scholarship of Discovery shall ask: What is known and what is yet to be discovered?
The Scholarship of Integration involves the serious, disciplined work of interpreting, drawing together, and bringing new insight to bear on original research. This scholarship can involve doing research at the boundaries where fields of study converge, or it can involve the interpretation and fitting of one's own research--or the research of others--into larger intellectual patterns. Integration means making connections across the disciplines, placing the specialties in larger context, illuminating data in a revealing way, often educating nonspecialists, too. Those engaged in the Scholarship of Integration shall ask: What do the research findings mean and is it possible to interpret what has been discovered in ways that provide a larger, more comprehensive understanding?
The Scholarship of Application involves using knowledge to solve problems. This scholarship is a dynamic process where new research discoveries are applied and where the applications themselves give rise to new intellectual understandings. This scholarly activity, which both applies and contributes to human knowledge, is particularly needed in a world in which huge, almost intractable problems call for the skills and insights of university faculties. Those engaged in the Scholarship of Application shall ask: How can knowledge be responsibly applied to consequential problems, and how can social, economic, and other problems define an agenda for scholarly investigation?
2.5 Consistent with its expectations, Cal Poly shall continue to improve its support for the Scholarships of Discovery, Integration, and Application. Such support shall include but not be limited to assigned time, facilities, equipment, travel, and research assistance.
2.6 Cal Poly shall recognize and support professional activities to the disciplines (such as holding office, editing journals, reviewing books and participating in professional meetings) and service to the university and larger community (such as serving on committees and activity in community groups and activities).
3. STAFF PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT
Excellence in support of students and faculty is the primary goal of Cal Poly's staff, and participation in activities that lead to professional growth and achievement is essential to meeting this goal. Professional growth and achievement includes continuing education related to a staff member's current position as well as education and training for future careers. Professional growth and achievement may entail different activities for different staff members and may include opportunities to increase their awareness of, and participation in, projects locally, nationally, and internationally.
In a university, it is appropriate for all members of the campus community to have the opportunity to seek further learning.
3.1 Cal Poly's staff members shall have the opportunity to pursue additional education and training whether in pursuit of a degree, certification, or personal life-long learning.
Staff members must have available to them the tools necessary for professional growth and achievement. This shall include the opportunity to enhance skills in their current fields, to be exposed to recent developments in technology and information, and to acquire additional education.
An important part of professional growth and achievement, especially on a campus as relatively isolated as Cal Poly, is participation in professional organizations and opportunities to attend professional conferences.
3.2 Cal Poly's staff shall be encouraged to be proficient and current in their professions in order to provide the highest quality support to students, faculty, and the university at large. In support of this, Cal Poly shall continue to improve and update the work environment.
3.3 Cal Poly's staff shall be encouraged to belong to appropriate local, state, and national professional organizations.
3.4 Staff professional growth and achievement shall be recognized by the university.
3.5 Cal Poly shall institute revised performance evaluation standards that set fair and high standards for performance of staff members. These performance standards shall take into consideration the stated expectations for professional growth and achievement and recognize staff members who endeavor to meet those expectations.
3.6 Consistent with its expectations, Cal Poly shall encourage staff participation in the Scholarships of Discovery, Integration, and Application. Such staff support should include, but not be limited to, active involvement in domestic and/or international projects and research.
4. STUDENT SATISFACTION
The experience of students directly relates to their satisfaction and the prospect that they will persist with their academic programs to graduation. Student satisfaction at Cal Poly is enhanced by the ambiance of a small university setting, low student-faculty ratios, and the continuing commitment to provide a motivated, technologically current as well as globally-based learning environment. The university must continue to support and promote student satisfaction through early affiliation with specific advising programs, respect for the rights of the individual, access to student services, and opportunities to participate in activities that develop the whole person.
4.1 Cal Poly's administrative, academic, and student services programs shall promote student retention, success, and graduation in a timely manner.
4.2 Cal Poly's administrative processes affecting students shall be efficient, effective, and oriented toward service.
4.3 Cal Poly shall provide services, such as library and information services, computing, and audio-visual services, that improve the learning environment.
4.4 Cal Poly shall administer regularly a systematic survey of student attitudes toward academic, administrative, and support services.
4.4.1 Cal Poly shall establish and implement a thorough approach to investigating the reasons why students choose to discontinue study at Cal Poly.
4.5 Cal Poly shall provide a campus environment where the rights of each member of the university community are respected.
4.5.1 The Cal Poly community shall strive to be free of all forms of harassment.
4.5.2 Campus policies for handling harassment complaints will comply with state and federal law.
4.6 Cal Poly shall provide an environment in which social, co-curricular, and multi-cultural programs motivate students, faculty, and staff to work, participate, and socialize together.
4.6.1 Cal Poly shall maintain programs to recognize and integrate the social and educational interests of international students.
5. DIVERSITY
Diversity enhances the quality of life and education for all members of the Cal Poly community and enriches the social and professional climate both on and off campus. The concept of diversity assumes recognition and respect for differences in age, country of origin, creed, economic background, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, race, and sexual orientation. The development and maintenance of an integrated multicultural campus is the responsibility of all members of the Cal Poly community. Achieving educational equity within a diverse student body will require programs in outreach, recruitment, retention, career planning, and the promotion of timely graduation with special emphasis on reflecting the diversity among CSU eligible students within the state. Cal Poly commits to meeting the proportion of eligible underrepresented individuals by job category in appropriate recruiting areas. To achieve a truly integrated multicultural campus, members of the faculty, staff, and student body must participate in academic and cultural programs that promote the sensitivity, understanding, and appreciation necessary for the successful attainment of this ideal.
5.1 All members of the Cal Poly community shall work cooperatively to achieve an integrated multicultural, multi-racial, and multinational campus in which the educational and professional opportunities for the student body, faculty, and staff are enhanced.
5.2 The composition of the Cal Poly community shall reasonably reflect the cultural diversity of those Californians qualified for enrollment or employment at Cal Poly.
5.2.1 Cal Poly shall initiate or maintain programs to increase the number of qualified student applicants, attract and retain students of high caliber, and increase the diversity of the student population in accordance with the campus enrollment management plan.
5.2.2. Cal Poly shall establish effective outreach programs to increase the number of underrepresented students, faculty, and staff members and participate to the fullest extent possible in CSU programs for increasing faculty, staff, and student diversity. In addition, Cal Poly will have programs that promote the personal and professional success of underrepresented members of the university community.
5.3 Cal Poly shall create a campus environment that ensures equal opportunity for professional and personal success in all segments of the university community.
5.4 Cal Poly shall value diversity and promote mutual respect and interaction among all individuals. Cal Poly shall identify and support effective programs for educating Cal Poly faculty and staff members, students, and off-campus local constituencies in cultural diversity and for encouraging an integrated, diverse community within the university.
5.5 Cal Poly shall create academic and cultural programs to demonstrate to the campus and the community the contributions of culturally diverse groups.
5.6 Cal Poly shall continue to support academic and cultural programs to assist members of the campus community in developing global competencies.
5.7 Cal Poly shall initiate, maintain, and support programs to increase the participation of students, faculty, and staff in international endeavors.
6. GOVERNANCE AND COLLEGIALITY
Effective university governance depends on a shared sense of responsibility and commitment to the university's educational mission. Collegiality encourages the participation of all constituencies in the decision-making process and creates a work environment that builds cooperation, mutual respect and high morale, and helps achieve the university's goals.
6.1 Cal Poly shall clearly identify, evaluate, and communicate its governance structure, including its agents and their roles and responsibilities, and adopt a structure that includes all constituencies.
6.1.1 Cal Poly's governance structure shall implement shared decision making. This involves fostering mutual respect and a set of values that regards the members of the various university constituencies as essential for the success of the academic enterprise.
6.2 Cal Poly shall regularly evaluate and modify its governance structure and the roles and responsibilities of the structure's elements, with particular attention to collegiality and the coupling of authority and responsibility.
6.3 Cal Poly shall evaluate and enhance its roles, relationships, and responsibilities with the CSU Board of Trustees and with the Chancellor's Office.
6.4 Cal Poly shall determine the role of other authoritative structures such as the California Postsecondary Education Commission, employee organizations, the governor's office, and the state legislature in its operations, and its responsibility to those structures.
7. INSTITUTIONAL SIZE
Constant improvement in quality is essential to Cal Poly's success in achieving its goals. To accomplish this, facilities frequently need to be altered or added. However, qualitative increases cannot be sustained without money, material, and people to nourish them, and growth beyond adequate resources leads to a deterioration of quality. The university must continually balance size and resources and must develop the additional resources that excellence requires.
7.1 Cal Poly shall continue its commitment to planned changes in institutional size.
7.1.1 Cal Poly shall not undertake any growth without adequate facilities and supporting resources.
7.1.2 Campus ambiance shall be improved by ensuring that new facilities are consistent with a master plan for the physical improvement of the campus.
7.2 Cal Poly shall explore alternative educational models and technologies to enhance the quality and quantity of the services it provides to its students and other constituencies, including business and industry.
7.2.1 Cal Poly shall consider alternatives to the university's current quarter system.
7.2.2 Cal Poly shall explore new technologies and new off-campus study programs that offer the potential to increase the quality and quantity of the education and services it provides.
7.3 Cal Poly's planning for institutional size shall reinforce the campus' goals for quality and diversity.
7.3.1 Cal Poly shall determine and maintain a beneficial balance in the mix of international students enrolled.
7.4 Cal Poly shall continue to develop and expand auxiliary services such as the Cal Poly Foundation enterprises to enhance the quality and quantity of support services and programs delivered to the campus community.
7.5 Cal Poly shall consult with the City and County of San Luis Obispo and participate in public forums in planning for and mitigating the impact of changes in institutional size.
7.6 Cal Poly shall actively seek all appropriate sources of financial and material support, expanding its efforts to take advantage of untapped existing opportunities and to create new ones.
7.7 Cal Poly shall consider its human resources as part of any evaluation of resources--especially when considering the adequacy of resources to support increases in enrollment.
7.8 Cal Poly's physical environment and services shall continually be improved by creative planning that emphasizes a comprehensive, humanistic environmental awareness.
8. UNIVERSITY RELATIONS AND IMAGE
Cal Poly has a multitude of relationships with many and varied groups. Its image is similarly multifaceted, depending on the quality of each relationship. While Cal Poly's reputation is enviable, it is neither perfect nor permanent. Active, open, and honest relations are the foundation of a positive image and build understanding, lasting good will, and support for the university's programs and goals. Cal Poly should continue to build and maintain relations and an image that reflect the highest integrity and help the university achieve its goals.
8.1 Cal Poly shall continue to develop a comprehensive program of active relations with the university's diverse constituencies and audiences to ensure effective, efficient, positive and mutually satisfying relationships, including those relationships within the local, national, and international communities.
8.1.1 Cal Poly shall treat its personnel as full partners in the university's endeavors, fully recognizing the value and importance of both faculty and staff, and shall be guided by a commitment to fostering a community spirit on the campus.
8.1.2 Cal Poly shall ensure the coordination of its various relations programs.
8.1.3 Cal Poly shall ensure that all pertinent information about the university is effectively communicated to the university community, the general public, and to appropriate news media.
8.1.4 Cal Poly shall be a good neighbor and enhance the university's positive impact by emphasizing open communication with the city and county and addressing concerns of the local community.
8.1.5 Cal Poly shall strive to increase parent and alumni participation in campus life and activities in order to build a stronger base of support as well as pride and satisfaction among both current and former students.
8.1.6 Cal Poly shall consider business, industry, and private donors to be partners with the university, and shall strive to develop mutually satisfying relationships and a climate that will maintain and increase the level of support.
8.1.7 Cal Poly shall continue to evaluate and address changes in its relationship with the state government and other levels of government as appropriate.
8.1.8 Cal Poly shall foster a spirit that embraces and celebrates the cultural diversity of all peoples and especially of its campus constituents.
8.2 Cal Poly shall strive to enhance the university's image among all of its audiences and constituent groups, local, national, and international.
8.2.1 Cal Poly shall seek a clear understanding of the university's different audiences and the different attitudes and images they have regarding the university.
8.2.2 Cal Poly shall accurately reflect in its communications the university's mission and goals, a vision of its future, the quality of its human resources and programs, the realities of campus life, and a concern for the university's long-standing reputation built on honesty and integrity.
8.3 Cal Poly shall publicize its strategic planning effort and its strategic goals immediately upon adoption of the Strategic Plan.