Fall 2019 Feedback and Suggestions: Priorities
Feedback from visits and email
What do you see as the top priorities to be included in the updated 2025 plan to advance our vision as a premier student-centered, public research land-grant university?
View feedback from
- Agriculture and KSRE
- Architecture, Planning and Design
- Arts and Sciences
- Business Administration
- Education
- Engineering
- Graduate School/Office of the Vice President for Research
- Health and Human Sciences
- K-State Global Campus
- K-State Libraries
- K-State Olathe
- K-State Polytechnic
- President, CFO, COO, CIO, DCM, HCS and General Counsel
- Provost and Student Life
- Veterinary Medicine
Agriculture and KSRE
| Align with our vision of food and agricultural rural revitalization; require every student to take two overlay courses (e.g., within K-State 8); maybe relate to 2025 initiatives or land-grant mission? |
| Recruitment and retention of top talent (faculty and staff) and a merit plan |
| Improve student recruitment efforts by modernizing the system, being more creative and flexible, and online options; never say “no” to campus visit requests |
| Merit implementation to build incentives |
| Enhance outreach, engagement, and extension |
| Upgrade facilities |
| Global Citizen – revitalize prior relations and former connections/relationships in developing countries for study abroad and other experiential learning; serve as model and signature opportunities for other universities across the globe (i.e., India, Ethiopia, Africa, Asia); we have lots of examples and need to revitalize these connections |
| Reducing barriers to success |
| Stabilize enrollment |
| Maintain strong collaboration |
| Fundraising |
| Minimize redundancies, streamline paperwork |
| Grassroots endorsement (make sure all faculty believe in the vision/plan) |
| Consistent message (branding) |
| Increased efficiencies – admin, department, and student levels |
| The 2025 plan must be connected to the budget model |
| Enhance the national and international reputation |
| Enhance recruitment of multi-cultural students |
| Need to recognize western and southern Kansas State University Student focused – strong teaching and advising |
| Student focused – strong teaching and advising |
| Innovative ways to reach non-traditional students |
| Upgrade facilities |
| Take better care of the look of the campus |
| Improve facilities and infrastructure |
| Increase visibility to prospective students and improve recruitment |
| Increase amount and visibility of research info and extension publications |
| Commitment to diversity |
| Be nimble and responsive to technological changes and changes in demographics, timely |
| Economic development of the state |
| Demonstrate value and return on investment on public and private investments in KSU |
| Champion value of factual, science-based info |
| Explore diverse ways to fund and maintain programs as well as facilitate discussion of our value to legislature |
| Maintain footprint and impact of extension to broaden horizons |
| Focus on safety of the campus community |
| Facilities |
| Hold true to a dynamic student experience – undergraduate research, study abroad, internship, extension experience |
| More visible connection to the Extension experience/network across our state to the undergraduate experience |
| The Extension system is the unique distinction available only to K-State students; just like undergraduate research, international experience, an intentional research or internship experience for every undergraduate degree would set each graduate apart in the marketplace |
| Facilities |
| Faculty retention and staff retention |
| Technology infrastructure and use in research, teaching, and extension/engagement |
| Balance tuition vs. costs |
| Kansas – research, investment, funding, economic-development, extension, etc. |
| Students – non-traditional, diversity, demographics, enrollment, etc. |
| Utilization – Efficiency, resources, redundancy, faculty, retention, facilities, etc. |
| Upgrade our information technology infrastructure. Explore strategies for for improving digital engagement with key audiences. Specifically, those that facilitate co-creation of knowledge. Support rural broadband initiatives to improve rural lives, which may increase enrollment in the process. |
| Strengthen online degree programs with opportunities for face-to face-mentoring of distance learners. Create opportunities for ALL learners to receive the social support they need to be successful. |
| Explore strategies to address negative perceptions of Kansas. The state’s image is a major barrier in attracting technology companies and a diversified workforce and students. |
| Increase staffing diversity in student services. Professionals and student ambassadors at university are homogenous for the most part. Find ways to attract and hire people who can relate to learners of all ages and backgrounds. Provide more training and support for current faculty and staff. Clarify expectations of faculty in helping students access these services. |
| Visionary Goal – Remove “By 2025” from the draft vision because student-centered should be right now, not later |
| We need to emphasize campus safety – open carry, etc.; need to move counseling center back to the middle of campus |
Architecture, Planning and Design
| Engaged scholarship community engagement – the modernization of the land-grant mission |
| Access to educational model – increase opportunities to access (online courses programs) |
| Leveraging land-grantness, access to communities – opportunities for engaged learning, scholarship, and research |
| Using new technologies to increase the dissemination of the knowledge |
| Support with funds, facilities, infrastructure for transdisciplinary collaborations |
| Better communication of current initiatives |
| Create a design innovation incubator for funding and communication of all transdisciplinary K-State initiatives; serve as an incubator (connecting design with other disciplines and colleges, private industry partners); industry wants to fill gap at this level – we can do this; students see they have a say in this |
| Design sustainable futures – responding to current and next generations and changing world; create accessible and affordable quality education |
| Integrate Design (!) for better problem solving innovation |
| Experiential learning; research teams having a designer on them will have very different results |
| Students want to see how they are going to change the world |
| Increasing access – can we get to universal access for those admitted? |
| Equity should be a consideration of access is important |
| Resources are a limiting factor – we need support for all three of these missions |
| More balanced set of priorities in 2025 – better balance of resources for all three of our missions |
| “Student-centered” – we need resources for linking students to undergraduate research opportunities |
| How do we prepare students to deal with the very real impacts of global climate change? |
| Thinkers and leaders – we need to prioritize how we are developing innovative ways of leading in education |
| Use our professions to deliver the thinkers and leaders who can address our complex future of systemic problems. |
| Do we want to lead in distance learning? |
Arts and Sciences
| Recognizing diverse points of view – building character of citizens/civility |
| What we do as A&S is central to all of the strategic initiatives – how do we make better opportunities for people? This should be articulated in all of our departments; we need to be a part of all of this |
| Basic research, creative, and scholarly activities |
| Data analytics |
| Resiliency and sustainability |
| Equity, access, social justice |
| Value all the disciplines |
| To be student-centered means we have to make KSU affordable: inexpensive, safe housing, study spaces, financial aid that reduces debt, living wage initiatives for student and faculty/staff workers, address income inequality, mental health services, students need classroom facilities improvement (furnished, climate control – heating and cooling) |
| Reduce reliance on part-time, adjunct labor |
| Scholarship support for all students who need it |
| Recruitment of students from underserved populations and communications |
| Preserving the liberal arts breadth of educational experiences that prepare people for lifelong learning |
| Communicating value of liberal arts, science, and technology to the broader public |
| Fostering citizenship |
| Research and scholarship – high quality |
| Link between scholarship and citizenship |
| Innovation AND quality |
| What does Cyber Land Grant University mean? |
| Innovation can’t be separated from quality |
| Global good, health, and biosecurity and aviation are content specific and limited |
| Value in learning |
| Quality education |
| These are not in the plan, but should be: visionary areas appear narrowly focused and omit important areas of strength (like engineering social sciences, humanities); need to explicitly add RSCAD (advancing frontiers of knowledge); climate change – lots of work in most of our basic sciences; data analytics |
| We support the growth of the whole person, they can become the best version of themselves, and make positive contributions to society |
| We teach our students how to understand the world around them – the science world, the social world, and their own inner world – and to communicate their knowledge |
| More state funding |
| Invest in a liberal arts education – families spend so much money to send their kids to liberal arts college; as we think about our land-grant mission, as we think about access for all, we need to really truly invest in liberal arts |
| Student-faculty ratios: more broadly, continuing the student “centeredness” requires access to faculty, to research opportunities, more individualized education; this requires stable, secure, tenure-track lines (not just in research, but in teaching); stability of faculty is crucial to the best education; we need stability of funding for faculty in humanities and liberal arts: to regularized, permanent positions will shared governance and a respectable wage; targeting and retaining diverse faculty. |
| Student funding, especially need-based; it is crucial for access for all; recruitment and support for diverse students |
| Diversity (as seen throughout): diversity of faculty and staff, diversity of student body; advocating and supporting diverse students and faculty |
| Valuing the scholarship, creative activity, and discovery in RSCAD; energizing our students to participate in RSCAD; we ask our students to be visionaries; to reimagine how we do all of our work; creating and space and time to value SCAD; we need better physical resources across campus – better buildings, access to wireless (mold, asbestos, etc.) |
| Supporting faculty development and survival |
| Improving basic research infrastructure and core center support |
| Develop curriculum to align with organizations to provide ongoing continuous education opportunities |
| Facilities 10 years ago 160 staff; now 60 staff and 2x106 square feet more to cover |
| Need to deal with $1 billion dollar back-log of deferred maintenance |
| Increasing student involvement in RSCAD activities; we have already sent some ideas: resilience, data analytics, basic research (see October 31, 2019 Washington Post article – long-awaited cystic fibrosis drug could turn deadly disease into a manageable condition) |
| Basic research and scholarly work should be present in all priorities |
| Incorporating ethics and data science into the description of cyber land-grant initiative |
| Focus on resilience |
| Investing faculty and facilities to meet the university’s mission |
| Love “as stewards of land, air, water…” – climate change in vision statement priority |
| Is upholding past about traditions of old or heritage, i.e., treaty ancestral lands |
| Diversity, a diverse and inclusive world – name it, we are doing it |
| Priority to keep CAD in RSCAD (creative activity and discovery) |
| “Serving diverse communities” – how can you expand enrollment without consideration of a diverse population and education about various aspects of that population (service departments – Statistics, English, Comm. Studies, Music, Theatre and Dance) |
| If strategic initiatives do not appear to include arts and humanities except as possible service vessels/to meet the defined goals, we are not same |
Business Administration
| Our inability to be flexible in our processes and move quickly prevents us from developing more programs that are in demand |
| Less emphasis on Leadership Studies represented in/on everything |
| Utilize extension network – communicate one-on-one (e.g., western Kansas never sees people colleges) |
| Be more lean – duplicated departments and initiatives – need to rationalize |
| What are hiring demands? Are we optimizing programs? Position programs to make students successful! |
| Have mandatory program for all students regarding resume, workplace etiquette, etc. |
| Faculty/staff evaluation improvement – punish/reward system, performance evaluation standard |
| Across college having dedicated advisors |
| Prepare for disruption of higher education – alternatives online, high school students who don’t want to go to college |
| Make sure students are ready before we admit them |
| Embed more in communities |
| Prepare adult learners |
| Reach out to students who didn’t complete |
| Focus on online – people aren’t moving back to Manhattan, do certificates, etc. |
| Corporate education – we aren’t as flexible as other schools |
| Transfer Students – 2+2 programs, be more flexible, partner with community colleges because land-grant |
| Don’t be so tied to traditional college experience |
| Corporate engagement |
| High emphasis and investment on technological infrastructure |
| Shift in recruitment of non-traditional students |
| Investment in employees at all levels |
| Focus on revenue generation instead of sacrifice for the new budget model |
| Match incentives with what the university is trying to accomplish |
| Working with Ft. Riley |
| Community and profession outreach opportunities – how do we connect with extension |
| Offer international experience to every student – opportunities to develop intellectual diversity (global mind-set), opportunities to offer financial support to students taking international experience |
| Have a more consistent student support service across campus |
| Business should be a core area for students in other fields to get exposed to – embed business classes in curriculum of students in other areas that may benefit from understanding how to run a business, focus on ethics and sustainability, global experience may be a fifth goal to add to the four that already exist |
| Do a better job of preparing our students for the digital world – potential fit within the cyber land-grant goal |
| Increase research resources and support, specifically library resources, databases, summer support, etc. |
| Become more customer-centric organization with better feedback mechanism from all stakeholders, especially students |
| Redefine the student target and expand the market |
| Transitioning into skill-oriented outcomes |
| More interdisciplinary partnerships across campus |
| Enrollment |
| Broad definition of target students – demographically, geographically |
| Institutional flexibility to allow for educational innovation |
| Determination of what students need so we can accurately provide those services |
| Community improvements to improve desirability |
| Partnerships with industries that would hire graduates and to improve placements |
| Message consistency among campus partners |
| Improved ksu.edu usability |
| Improved capabilities in electronic marketing |
| Updating antiquated paper based paperwork framework to prevent needless barriers |
| Culture of change |
| Managing access – ensure accessibility through managing finances and costs so that we can be accessed broadly |
| Providing a broad range of educational opportunities through innovation in how we deliver education and how students can access that education |
| Focus on ways that we help students gain success – modular learning, lifelong learning, broader view of who our students are or should be, more flexibility |
| Integrating and leveraging meaningful technology to increase effectiveness in achieving our goals and our reach into communities; use top techs, make them available in communities through education and promoting sharing |
| Messaging why our research is important and doing a better job of becoming more integral to business development in our communities through end-to-end partnerships through multifaceted sharing of expertise – everything from consulting to centers to integration with classes, corporate training |
| Experiences that expand the opportunities for individuals to access university through non-credit modular and other similar experiences offered in conjunction with companies |
| Updating to have premier facilities |
| We must be effective at promoting ourselves as a premier institution |
Education
| Quality and growth |
| Accessibility – both affordability and underserved population and geographic; Kansas is above the national average in high school grads with no postsecondary education, or no postsecondary degree or certificate – there is an opportunity to be more responsive |
| A priority innovative academic program and delivery; responding rapidly to needs by streamlining approval process; revisit the degree mindset and consider other credential programs that meet the needs of most people |
| Work toward greater diversity and inclusion of all groups of people |
| Emphasize personal messages to potential students to mirror personal experiences on campus |
| Create a feeling of welcome for diverse populations; fostering a culture for other communities to feel included here |
| International Common Element in 2025 refresh – seems buried in these discussions and seems like we are leaving it behind |
| Diversity and inclusion of diverse populations; need for diverse perspectives; keep recruitment of diverse student and faculty populations at the forefront |
| The more diverse we are, the more successful we will be |
| Work with community colleges; increase number of 2+2 programs/model – improving pipeline from community colleges to 4-year universities; focus on retention as well |
| Not just about getting students here, but going to them; meeting people where they are at; increasing online and hybrid programs available |
| Satellite facilities – are there other places we can be? |
| Global Campus |
| Increasing cultural competency |
| Supporting student success and retention (requires supporting their families as well) |
| Continuing research on retention and needs of diverse populations (beyond freshman year) – funding, sense of belonging, etc. |
| Making path to degree completion and career attainment more clear; creating a culture of support |
| Increasing partnerships with trade industry – where there is room for growth; offering certification; go back to basics – agricultural needs |
| Asking businesses in Kansas what they need from future employees (and out-of-state Kansas) |
| Foster community cultural wealth (Tara Yosso, 2005) |
| Infrastructure – technology, service data: stay ahead of emerging trends with tech; focus on accessibility – programs that are geared to individual students/needs; social/emotional support for students; research/scholarship – time for faculty to engage with projects |
| Get courses online: redefine traditional ways of thinking about enrollment (caps on classes limit growth, revenue, accessibility) |
| Innovate/collaborate to solve “old” problems; stay open-minded with challenges; innovation across the board |
| Redefine the 4-year model – no more making kids take general education courses they do not need for their degree (costly, burdensome) |
| Establish targeted hiring priorities to maximize current available resources to support faculty research to improve teaching across the campus and community |
| Strategic initiative to recruit, retain, and respect students, faculty, and staff across the campus and community |
| Empower pre-service teachers |
| Return on investment |
| Personalize learning experience for both on-campus and online programs |
| Aspire to be top provider of online licensure |
| Increasing accessibility through medium of teaching, multiple pathways, scholarship, “place conscious” pathways |
| Funded research based on needs of state and global partners, especially as connected to our centers: includes emphasis on grant writing, being nimble and adaptable, re-inventing to meet new needs, feeding our efforts through internal collaboration, interdepartmental, colleges across campus, external partnerships |
| Leadership with regard to interdisciplinary efforts on campus, especially with regard to funding model |
| Recruitment efforts, especially those that are interdisciplinary and highlight our land-grant emphasis while promoting career pathways |
| Continue working to attract diversity of students and faculty – culture and thought |
| Attract and retain the very best teachers/researchers |
| Increased incentives for innovation |
| Increased incentives for bringing in external funding |
| Promote an entrepreneurial spirit within faculty to encourage a growth mindset regarding curriculum, funding, etc. |
| Create more white-space for faculty members to be allowed to grow into their research/pedagogy/scholarship aspirations – this, of course, will serve students as well |
| Improve visibility of our efforts |
| Technology to enhance/leverage increased student access to resources and support, e.g., Zoom with advisor for transfer/non-traditional/not on campus – advisor meeting |
| College of Education model for advising campus-wide |
| Enhancing access to education through technology |
| Identify faculty barriers to getting funding for research |
| Build faculty research/grant application skill and capacity/knowledge (i.e., training, workshops) |
| Expose faculty to other private or not-for-profit funding options |
| Continue to focus on student research experience opportunities (make this something revered/given esteem among faculty and students) |
Engineering
| We should be taking advantage of local partners (Fort Riley, NBAF) to be a leader in Defense and Homeland Security; there is a lot of money in cybersecurity and leverages the vision of the cyber land-grant university |
| Instead of trying to make the whole university “Top 50” – define the elements where we excel and effectively support and promote these initiatives |
| Change culture to gain more acceptance of risk; understanding that big rewards often require risk – both in research and in teaching |
| Actually be strategic, tough decisions need to be made but programs with better return on investment need to be prioritized |
| Make sure students feel included, e.g., financial aid, access, opportunity, mental health |
| Sustainable/resilient infrastructure (e.g., power/energy, cyber, civil/transportation, environmental/climate change, industrial) |
| Increase the number of research active graduate students |
| Advancing distant learning, making it intellectually accessible |
| Outreach, state, national, intersectional visibility |
| Make strategic investments that align with increasing university impact |
| Develop a system that rewards progress on university impact |
| Define specific measures that align with goals and objectives and measure what is important |
| Make sure strategic initiatives do not alienate groups through limited scope |
| Treat faculty and staff better (e.g., consistent raises, opportunities for advancement, decrease zero sum games across campus) |
| Michael Kramer (Nobel Prize) – poverty focus of work ties closely with food priority/initiative |
| Focus our educational priorities and research to meet the needs of the state of Kansas – better communicate with business, community members, policy/budget influencers, i.e., legislature/regents |
| Education – how to get knowledge extended beyond campus |
| Multidisciplinary teams – research/development and classroom environment |
| Research – communicate to the students in the classroom environment; involve them in research but also communicate the value to their learning and society so when they become the future leaders/decision makers, university funding is a higher priority |
| Sustainable development – responsible use of resources |
| Integrate research into the RCM budget model |
| Increase economic impact for our region/sate – find a way to quantify this number |
| Valuing merit raise for top performers – increase faculty retention |
| Space for targeted enrollment numbers |
| Innovative/hands-on classrooms/learning spaces |
| Artificial Intelligence and application to machines, vehicles, systems, etc. – possible additional strategic focus |
| Identify strategic investments – trends in industry |
| Continue to be good at educating students |
| Investment into teaching faculty to make faculty more effective |
| Investment into student services |
| Focus on the things that make us great knowing it cannot be everything – invest in those things that have the ability to grow |
| Be the best engineering program in Kansas and one of the best places for an engineering degree at the undergraduate level in the Midwest |
Graduate School/Office of the Vice President for Research
| Adequate funding from state |
| Convey vision across |
| Educate faculty, staff, and students on what Land Grant is and means – Land Grant 101 for the 21st Century: Ag (food, not “Ag”), Engineering, Service, Education for everyone |
| Encourage relationships between departments interdisciplinary |
| Enrollment, retention |
| Career employment – employment after degree steps |
| Additional scholarships and assistantships – not only undergrad level |
| Graduate school has own assistantships to award |
| Out-of-state students pay only 150% tuition/fees – not only undergrad (Midwest Student Exchange) |
| First generation grad students be offered same as undergrad |
| Online and enhanced programs for non-traditional/adult learning |
| Evening courses taught on campus – pay campus rate not global rate fees |
| Additional certificate programs |
| Facilities improvement |
| Redefine the land-grant university definition: Global perspective, not only the State of Kansas State |
| Competitive stipends and tuition support for our graduate students: Grad students contribute to teaching, research, and outreach |
| Competitive salary and benefit packages for faculty and staff |
| Continue support for work/life balance efforts, i.e., parental leave, one step but not the end |
| Lobby Board of Regents for universities to collaborate with technical and community colleges for students to earn advanced degrees |
| Continue to increase efforts to be military friendly – credit for prior learning |
| Families, businesses, prosperity (align with KBOR) |
| Stabilize budget – diversity funding/find new revenue streams |
| In innovative ways, prepare students to engage and prosper in the 21st century – match teaching and research to external needs/global opportunities |
| Understand and accept our strengths |
| Infrastructure – facilities, IT integration |
| Continued Financial Growth/Fundraising – fundraising from private sector, state funding |
| Compensation for Employees – recruit, retain |
| Human Health Expansion: One Health – Human, Vet, Public Health; Nursing/PA |
| Ag, Engineering, Vet Med – foundation bedrock – continued emphasis |
| Biosecurity |
| Identify strengths and long-term commitment by University to support valued areas |
| Research transformed into applications, i.e., vaccines |
| Translational research, medicines |
| Providing expertise to students and adults to develop policy regarding biosecurity threats |
| Emphasize positive aspects of what we do to better our global world |
| Innovation and Education: Platform and content; peer faculty evaluations |
| Cyber Land-Grant: Appropriate resources – new budget model helping? Employee benefits (work life balance – working remotely, maternity leave, flex schedule, etc. |
| Student Experience: Classroom knowledge – real life application (internships, etc.) across all degrees |
| “On campus” opportunities for Global Campus students (organizations, etc.) |
| Closer relationship with active students and Alumni Association in attempt to foster relationships and long-term loyalty |
| Building a modern Extension model that applies to new models of communication/outreach |
| Continuing to enhance the rural communities of Kansas – helps to build opportunities in rule communities that will allow for students to stay in the state |
| Building a funding model that allows tuition to remain attainable for students in Kansas – can’t replace tuition numbers with coastal students and inflate the cost for Kansas students |
| Build student outreach programs that engage middle-high school students to introduce them to facilities, majors, and the K-State experience at early ages and a deeper level |
| Continue to engage the state and legislature to re-inform the value of higher education – need to communicate the same to citizens who don’t currently hear that message; need a more compelling message, ROI |
| Modernizing the delivery of Higher Education to match the changing needs of industry (time frame and content) |
| Continue to enhance our efforts to encourage diversity in students, hiring of faculty, etc. |
| Student recruitment and retention |
| Maintaining high quality (including affordability and return on investment) |
| Emphasizing research and expanding on capabilities) |
| Bringing in additional funds that can catalyze undergraduate research experience and support faculty |
| Provide an environment that allows faculty to compete for funding |
| Adopt to ever-changing society by embracing diversity, improving international focus to ensure well-rounded experience for students |
| Expand our global focus for public services and research applications |
| Continue to expand global food systems initiatives |
| Adapt to changing environment: Training and educate the community we serve; non-traditional higher education opportunities |
| Late adopter advantage – what has worked for others |
| Focus on technical, short-term trade skills – non-traditional degree focus that is based on land-grant mission/community, i.e., MTC teaches vet tech, etc., that we do not |
| Increase research and extension in targeted areas: bio defense/ag security; animal health corridor; vaccine development; global food systems; increased engage with non-traditional partners, industry |
| Global Food Systems – be specific (all-encompassing) |
| Animal Health |
| Develop two year program around animal corridor |
| Continue to cultivate relationship with national security and economics |
| Biosecurity |
| Climate Change |
| Online programs – new version of Global Campus, tuition (bring costs down), not duplicating classes |
| Cybersecurity |
| Break down divide between Olathe and Salina campuses |
| Partner with government agencies to make collective decisions based on new governor initiatives |
Health and Human Sciences
| Mission and Vision (revised) |
| Innovation in education – online learning |
| Research, student success |
| High quality faculty – support, resources |
| Collaboration throughout the university |
| Brand – how we market ourselves and promote ease of use and access to university information and resources (example – website) |
| Engagement, outreach, extension |
| Non-traditional students – those already in the workforce and is coming back for more education (or first higher education), flexibility |
| Awareness of student support programs, like mentoring, especially past the first year |
| Responsiveness to business and industry |
| Technology – improving student enrollment experience, etc. |
| Student engagement (e.g., invest in TopHat) – experiential learning |
| Public health – nationally accredited program |
| Innovative classroom spaces (e.g., outside) |
| New College of Health building that includes Kinesiology |
| Incentives for collaboration across units, with community partners, etc. |
| Better faculty mentorship programs |
| University infrastructure (lights, heat, etc.) |
| Review approval process in wake of new RCM model – prevent decisions based on self-interest |
| Prioritize health-related programs to support new strategic initiative |
| Students’ well-being: career readiness, physical health, mental health, basic needs (food, shelter), academic preparedness (infrastructure to provide support network), quality of learning, embracing learning styles of new population (flexible course offerings, second career students, applied and experiential experiences) |
| Inclusion initiatives: is research inclusive, encouraging innovation and foster intellectual curiosity, putting individuals in high-level positions that can assist underrepresented students, central student life facility that houses all services for student well-being (embrace student life cycle from recruitment to alumni), collaborative effort |
| Reward staff: advisors/student services, valuing support staff, provide career ladder |
| Back our initiatives with correct people |
| Facilitating teaching and research – blending it together; involving the students in research developing pathways to share with the community |
| Tracking outcomes and growth of alumni from programs; developing plans to address entry level needs based on employer data and alumni surveys; taking data to improve current students and prepare future alumni |
| Collaboration across colleges to build programs/degrees to develop new visions, new ideas, to develop contemporary degrees that will grow, weaving technology into plans and proposals, identification of future needs and initiate development of programs/degrees/certificates before our competitors |
| A focus on quality education at the same time that we achieve financial stability; we are being pushed toward more students in classes with lower cost faculty, over-worked faculty, faculty who have little or no time for research responsibilities, will scholars be teaching our students; faculty need to be researchers and they need to have time for teaching/mentoring and research |
| A focus on knowledge and skills for any learner at any time in life in addition to traditional BS, BS, PhD |
| We need to respect the scientific facts of climate change (CC) and address how we educate for CC mitigation and adaptation |
| Stand-alone commitment to human health (it’s our strategic initiative) and well-being (Gallup’s five indicators of well-being: career, community, financial, physical, social) |
| Sustainability |
| Civic engagement |
| Rural vitality (land-grant universities are uniquely situated) |
| Address the “brain drain” of Kansas communities |
| Improved facilities and accessibility of facilities |
| Prioritize support for student success, all students can be successful |
| What is the place of research in the RCM model, i.e., incentivize and support research/discovery; consider putting research/discovery in the investment pool; maybe designate “strategic investment” funds toward research |
| Incentivize and support the engagement/services/outreach mission |
| Cross-college, department collaboration – for programs, courses, innovations |
| Commitment to human health |
| Expanded view of aviation to include other aspects of transportation and associated infrastructure, including space, road, rail innovations needed in today’s world |
| Student wellness |
| Health |
| Community viability and vitality (on and off campuses) |
| Human infrastructure including living wage for K-State and all state employees |
| Focusing on student success requires attending to the needs of all our campus community and the roles that each of us play, including off campus employees (janitors, groundskeepers, good service and workers are not widgets) |
| Recommitment to the Sustainability Strategic Plan |
| Revisit Graduate Education plan to include non-traditional graduate education (i.e., professional) in recognition of different career pathways |
| Include climate change in the Global Food and health biosecurity initiative or as a standalone |
K-State Global Campus
| Online is the area of growth – universities that are successful have mandate from leadership for this growth |
| Have a specialized admissions process for Veteran’s – recognize challenges of coordinating timing of paperwork with VA, Financial Aid, and Office of Veteran Affairs. |
| What is our rank as a top 50? |
| What does premier mean? |
| Student-Centered |
| Include our student personas |
| Improvements of services |
| Upsell opportunity with micro-credentials |
| Support for faculty to do it well |
| Online is the future |
| Where is the support and push to move to online? |
| How serious are we? |
| Cyber – Artificial Intelligence tools |
| Aviation – several opportunities to move online and micro-credentialing |
| Expanding recruitment efforts as a K-State brand to encompass all campuses so that those who want to stay home can still be part of K-State by completing a degree online |
| Support throughout university for credentialing/micro credentialing as another way to engage students |
| Increased emphasis on the non-traditional students – flexible to scheduling to connect with life schedules |
| Enhancing student services for graduate students, especially for online students |
| Fully staffing student services as the funnel fills; growth is good but not if they are not supported once they get here. |
| Look at how we teach – teaching in a variety of ways to reach a diverse population |
| More opportunities for students to apply knowledge to experiences – internships |
| Strategic decision making based on accurate data |
| More interdisciplinary options |
| More collaborations (departments, colleges, etc.) |
| Value advising, student contact is important to look at how students feel connected to KSU |
| Top notch student services and interactions (faculty, financial aid, career services) may need more resources for these services |
| Get what students need – short courses, just in time training, preparation for tomorrow’s workforce needs |
| Envision the Cyber Land Grant University concept and expand the vision (digital technology, technology use, tools, information, protection data collected) |
| Stay true to original land grant mission – citizens of Kansas State University |
| Town hall – quantitative research, qualitative research |
| Understand and address the issues facing Kansas citizens |
| Challenges – ability to connect everyone where they are, advocate for these people |
| Reduction in teaching – causing students to take online, directly affected by lack of connectivity |
| Leveraging what we do well to help with bringing in high quality students |
| Online education, market education, scalability for class sizes, stackable credentials/customized degree, integrated online strategy, affordable degrees and consistency in program pricing |
| University marketing plan with a sizeable budget to promote the university in other states |
| Access to learning opportunities and information |
| User-friendly information (website), describe in language the user understands, mobile-friendly |
| Affordability for students |
| Resources for students from all backgrounds – consider barriers for applicants; can these be removed? |
| Connection across all university constituents to needs of constituents (i.e., students, alumni) |
| Think globally – how to expand reach |
| Meeting state goals – employment, educated citizenship |
| Tie to research, tie to industry needs (NBAF) |
| Thinking beyond the “traditional 19 year old freshman” – make sure all students are served equitably |
| Collaboration across the university – centralize services where it makes sense, break down silos |
| Agility to respond to changing needs/priorities |
| Clear focus of student/learner centered pedagogy/quality of learning to be separate from research mission; not reasonable for faculty to be both in most areas |
| Lifelong learning opportunities – improve non-traditional/adult learner options (outreach, engagement, professional development, continued learning) -; expand reach of K-State to fulfill Huron recommendations |
| Strategy around hiring and resource initiatives (questioning that 2025 plan was on hold due to lack of project management resources) |
| Speeding up timeline and development – need to be less risk-averse, slow process currently; need to run through long and complex approvals (Faculty Senate as an example) |
| Focus on changing audience/university mindset – need to understand future learner needs |
| Communication and continued training of teaching faculty and staff and their role with mission and vision of university and market and work-force requirements/needs |
| Focus on entrepreneurial attitude; staying in touch with current and future trends; embodied campus-wide (not only Global Campus) and efficient modes of disbursing information. |
| Look at generations and workforce needs, look at questions of values of degrees – what are all the other options? Where will K-State meet those needs? Should be driven by student/learner and not K-State faculty and administration (market-focused groups identifying skills and needs from constituents) |
| Our priorities need to reflect the following: K-State needs to be competitive with other institutions; facilities need to be attractive; be able to streamline operations and process to be efficient (have many archaic practices); infrastructure |
| K-State branding needs to showcase our innovation; all facets need to strive to be a premier institution – leaders in higher education (pioneers in the new landscape of the future of higher education) |
| Ensure students are central to research (undergraduate research opportunities); ensure excellent services (quality advising; inclusivity; culture central to students) |
| Understanding broader student base – age, needs, flexibility – ask students what they want/need, location |
| Improve procedures for admissions, transcript analyzation, enrollments, financial aid, cashiers, credit for prior learning |
| Compress need to function as one University |
| Reduce intentional “cannibalization” for financial resources |
| Community and outreach education, non-credit, workshops, UFM (community engagement) |
K-State Libraries
| Well-rounded education important; develop a full range of knowledge, skills, interests such as hard skills (e.g., technical) and soft skills (communication, negotiation, and especially critical thinking) |
| Sustainability planning, budget, priorities, goals |
| Service learning – assignments that offer real value to both community and standards |
| Provide for more faculty positions and rewards and retention |
| Library or university of creativity across all disciplines, foster entrepreneurship, innovation, creation, and the thrill of achievement and success |
| Foster deep intellectual curiosity and love of learning – lifelong impact on standards |
| Well-funded library – providing access to research and create an environment for student success |
| Expand online education presence |
| Raise more money for Foundation |
| Ethically grow our private/public partnerships |
| Advising students in a way that helps them best use their resources; not continue pursuing a degree they will not be successful |
| Ensure teaching faculty have the necessary abilities to effectively teach students |
| Have better internship opportunities for high school/freshman to try out their jobs before pursuing a degree in that field |
| Infrastructure – technology, building, and grounds maintenance; library collection (important for accreditation and research) and staffing to support initiatives |
| Explore corporate land grant (other universities) partnerships to help with funding |
| Explore other methods for funding – grants, etc. |
| Having departments and university work together – less duplication of services, licenses, facilities, staff etc., would save money |
| Assessment of process – efficiency reviews, workflow reviews |
| When a priority is implemented – use project management to ensure completion (i.e., Total Rewards) |
| Recognize and promote accomplishments which will help with recruitment and retention |
| Service learning |
| Don’t lose sight of importance of soft skills and humanities |
| Library of creativity – simulates creativity in all disciplines, love of learning and cultivating intellectual curiosity |
| Affordability |
| Balanced pathways for research and teaching – value excellent teaching as much as research |
| Open access and scholarly communication; ties back to value of access |
| Attracting and retaining faculty and staff |
| Not having pathways for advancement of USS and classified professionals |
| Clear mission for Global Campus and making more accessible and affordable; how do we differentiate our Global Campus |
| More student advisors to help retention, more resources to help student well-being, mental health, food security, physical health |
| Need-based scholarships through senior year |
| Making education affordable and relevant |
| Produce scholarship that benefits the public |
| Excellence in teaching |
| Increased enrollment |
| Attract and retain top teaching and research faculty |
| Student success |
| Emphasizing commitment to diversity, inclusion, and the global world |
| Communications and marketing |
| Non-traditional students and connection at different life stages with perspective students |
| Graduate and undergraduate students |
| Cost |
| Scholarship for need – more than merit |
| Diversity scholarship beyond merit and need |
| Access – whether distance education or library resources, students have to be able to mutually access resources as good remotely as locally |
| Remove structures that don’t support collaboration |
| Critically looking at new budget model in support of student-centered services – service units |
| Must assess new budget model |
| Climate change and water |
| How do we define a liberal education |
| How do you balance the liberal education with the practicing of getting education – need X hours to get degree but not all liberal classes affect practicality |
| Evolving to support new careers/positions impacted by online social/technology changes, e.g., students offered jobs over others because they can think creatively |
| Innovation does not mean redo what we have, but reenvision of what we have – something like CAT community classes |
| Stop trying to be everything to everyone – identify what we do really well and be ok letting the other stuff go, but don’t look at as “winners/losers” |
| Focus on non-traditional students who are growing as a student population |
| Recognize how state’s culture and population are developing in order to meet current needs |
| Working to make college education more affordable; make communities aware how K-State grads are impacting them |
| Making college affordable for a diverse population |
K-State Olathe
| Recruit, retain, and graduate workforce-ready students |
| Develop robust student support structure for success |
| Activate deep community reach way before high school |
| Increase non-credit experiences to engage future students |
| One health focus, interdisciplinary |
| Enable and support satellite campuses to be nimble and innovative; improve collaboration between campuses (remove the competitive barriers) |
| Recruit, retain, and develop faculty dedicated to student success, research programs |
| Develop and strengthen online presence to deliver needs/wants of future students |
| “Just in time” education – we have to “skate to where the puck is headed” – W. Gretzky |
| Student-centered experiences in and out of the classroom for traditional and non-traditional students |
| Explore and expand programming in KC |
| Leveraging our expertise and reputation in strength areas (expand programming in KC – USDA, eliminate programs and services not in our wheelhouse) |
| Aligning resources to support recruitment, marketing and retention of students |
| Align resources with viable programs |
| Align reward concepts – reward excellence in all areas – education, faculty, staff, and research |
| Recognizing excellence |
| Continue to focus on diversity |
| Optimization of administrative services to better support “top priorities” |
| Locate programs in regions where students are living/working |
| GLP/GMP courses |
| Cyber-education |
| Increase collaboration across all campuses |
| Develop continuity to business needs – clear path from education to job (business) |
| Possible fifth initiative – responsiveness to business |
| Value partnerships with alternative education systems – develop strong relationships and avenues for collaboration; acknowledge value of alternative education systems, e.g., community colleges, MCC, vet tech program partnerships (2+2 with college of agriculture, animal science), technical programs, etc. |
| Need to build business education partners (e.g., hospitality management – could do this with other areas (animal health data management – Kim Young); how does this work with KBOR, etc.? We need help with this |
| K-State Olathe representation in 2025 planning |
| Innovation in education – need to change policies and procedures to allow innovation; we need to be able to be nimble, agile, and responsive; quicker turnaround on new initiative |
| Invest in online learning to increase quality, consistency, and training for faculty, pedagogy; new/better technology – integrative; project based/team based to allow interaction/engaged online learning environment; keeping up to date on cutting edge technology |
| Communication among departments/units/colleges – one university – for internal (university) and external (community) |
| Less obstacles/red tape for students, staff, and faculty: hiring process, enrollment, finding information, staff and non-tenured faculty promotion – no career paths |
| Olathe – JCERT restrictions lifted |
| More for-credit programs that are in high demand in region, existing programs from KSU, MHK and Polytechnic, aviation in KC as example; more undergrad completion programs |
| Plans for program growth – adding faculty, courses taught on campus |
| Be innovative in how we deliver – on site, downtown, etc., i.e., Fri/Sat, quarterly face to face, online |
| Look at KSU Olathe to help grow enrollment |
| Collaborative |
| How can technology to maintain 3-legged priorities |
| Take education to community – e.g., labs not available for some areas (dental hygiene) |
| How do we best deliver lifelong education |
| Don’t ignore the importance of “soft skills” in career/business |
| Research focus is still critical |
| Cooperate with industry to benefit them and lower tuition costs |
| Right-sizing our initiatives (don’t have to always grow) – stay in our lanes of what we do well |
| Create more unity within the system – we already have our KSU hats on |
| Be more accessible to a diverse student group: cost, place-bound students, working adults, international program – improvement |
| Incentivize people that actually accomplish the goals of the vision |
| Employee-first management leads to better customer service – including accountability |
| Statewide extension, urban areas |
| Funded strategies to perform the land-grant mission state-wide |
| Deliberate effort to fully maximize K-State extension state-wide as a means of projecting MHK capabilities |
| Committed investment in the KS urban areas |
| Determine and fund a plan to create a sustainable Olathe campus, that allows maximum impact by K-State in KC |
| Educate all of K-State as to what a land-grant university is |
K-State Polytechnic
| Affordability |
| Provide educational opportunities for all audiences with different modes of delivery |
| Competency-based learning – learn as you go/self-paced |
| Transparency |
| Adaptability |
| Staying current with technology/trends/student wants and needs |
| Consistency |
| High school connections/allow introductory core classes online |
| Military tuition rates |
| Educational innovation (off campus learning) |
| Collaboration with community partners |
| Extending the classrooms through technology |
| Scholarship of teaching and learning |
| Maintain/expand the Extension program |
| Develop sustainable programs |
| Increase the number of social sciences and liberal arts on Polytechnic campus |
| Don’t forget about using the university undergraduate SLO’s to define the university degree |
| Innovation in education (to get what we have to the people who need it) |
| Distance learning pedagogy |
| Connectedness, within online classes as well as face-to-face |
| Undergraduate research; mentorship of undergrad students |
| Research needs to be aimed at improving something |
| Behave entrepreneurially – finding resource streams and opportunities to add value that can be merged in ways that build and disseminate value for society |
| We need metrics that monitor areas of weakness as well as strengths regarding student centeredness – don’t lose track of students who are struggling |
| Aviation – experts in airport improvement grants (Federal monies); partner with business to provide facilities and equipment |
| Education – philosophy of technical education (lifelong learning methods) |
| Business and industry needs |
| Global aviation initiative |
| Fiscally responsible |
| Expansion to new markets – innovation in current markets |
| Include student-centered approach to vision statement |
| Changes to current processes to focus on student experience, from interested student to alumnus – finding inefficiencies and reward them to provide a superior student experience that only K-State can provide |
| Push more into community service for all campuses – allows for further integration and support of institutional objectives, furthering land-grant mission |
| Student-centered/relevancy: On demand skill training for the generation that might be out of a typical college-age, such as senior citizens; but also to stay relevant with changing technologies and upgrade knowledge. Also, bringing everyday examples into the classroom – get out of the textbook; support those that are teaching the students – make such faculty and staff have resources they need and know how to teach/learn (go to professional development courses every few years to stay up with what’s current in each area); have a collaborative space; streamline processes that help us to be more adaptable and flexible |
| Access to affordable education |
| Access to student resources |
| Partnerships |
| Internships |
| Global market – price of tuition |
| Revise how global classrooms function |
| Classroom functions |
| Meeting the needs of working students |
| Evaluate the needs of students vs. focusing on needs of faculty/staff/university |
| Staff-professional development opportunities |
President, CFO, COO, CIO, DCM, HCS and General Counsel
| Perform outreach to citizens and the world |
| Have industry representatives come into the classroom to share with students; what they need from them when joining the workforce |
| Making sure we reevaluate the committees we have in place and make sure we have the right people on these committees that can help that group succeed |
| We need to stabilize our funding so that we can offer the things we really need to make us premier university |
| Certificate programs – build on extension outreach to create pipeline: micro-credentials, stackable credentials |
| Focus on competencies/outcomes |
| Ensure infrastructure in place to meet demands – awareness of limitations across state (e.g. broadband) – state, KSU |
| Ensure we are “listening” to constituents statewide and inform 2025 |
| Embrace innovation – pedagogy, culture |
| Ensure stay in touch with constituents |
| Students at center, be unique – traditional and nontraditional |
| Identity – we need to be good at what we are good at, establish who we want to be and differentiate from others in the state |
| Aviation with the land grant and agriculture |
| Chance management – why do all of the changes we are making matter? How does it matter to each unit and efforts? How do their efforts fit into the whole and make an impact? |
| Focus on what K-State is delivering; students need to know that what they are doing is going somewhere and their outcomes are a value for the money they spent |
| Repackaging education changes the cultural perception of higher education as a gatekeeper of the experience and credentials and “democratizes” the opportunity of learners and industry to right size their educational experience and maximize the value |
| Enrollment |
| Create new streams of funding |
| Deferred maintenance – improve facilities |
| Create value behind coming to K-state – unique |
| Updated technology – efficiency, streamlining processes |
| Affordability of receiving education here |
| Highly, educated, experienced faculty |
| Land-grant roots |
| More financial support for “normal” students |
| Faculty and staff are better educated, more opportunities for professional development |
| Creating industrial partnerships, cooperations |
| Restore state funding to keep costs affordable |
| Promote extension offices |
| Retention of faculty/staff |
| Become a top employer |
| High quality student education |
| Quality buildings, maintained well |
| Cyber structure |
| Value of higher education |
| Leader in understanding student debt – address the cost |
| Refocus what the 4 years look like |
| Pool of donors for debt forgiveness |
| Transform new values for new generation – give and take of creating my education |
| Differentiate public school vs. private school |
| Telling our story, selling our value |
| Research |
| Our focus on human health, our adaptation |
| Cross-curricular in classes, more certification to help prepare for years after college education |
| Provide education in different areas |
| Have life skills |
| Diversity values, inclusive institution; show them “why” is important |
| Continue increasing student enrollment, retention, and graduation |
| Support faculty and staff growth and development to support student retention and graduation – supply necessary resources to accomplish this |
| Explore workplace demand for careers to continue to expand and adapt and refresh academic programming |
| Provide supportive and inclusive practices to recruit and retrain diverse students, faculty and staff |
| Extend community and global outreach and partnerships to collaborate and embrace the universities values, vision |
| Leverage emerging technologies to become cyber land-grant university |
| Find new and increased revenue streams |
| Targeted advertising to OSS + ISS |
| Capitalize on our strengths to increase enrollment |
| Diverse online degree offerings |
| Foster successful, loyal, and generous alumni |
| Identify key and emerging research areas |
| Impressive, well-maintained facilities and public appearance |
| Enrollment is #1 |
| Need-based scholarships |
| Affordability and accessibility |
| Inclusiveness |
| Intellectual diversity and neuro-diversity |
| Be a step ahead in non-traditional teaching methods; innovative; quicker to action; adaptability; futuristic |
| Know it’s okay to fail and learn from it |
| More streamlined and less bureaucratic |
| Remove barriers to success – economic, structural, institutional, cultural |
| Trust in each other |
| Culture of innovation |
| Right-size university – enrollment, unit size/funding |
| Ensure service and support centers are adequately supported; benchmarking using data and metric from peers |
| Seek agreement on what can be discontinued |
| More fully utilize summer term to drive degree completion to 3 years versus 4 years |
| Certification programs – create innovative way to increase revenue through connections with industry |
| Ensure funding is adequate – faculty/staff, building maintenance (infrastructure), resources/tools |
| Research funding |
| Student recruitment/retention |
| Streamlining operations, reducing redundancies |
| Need diverse environment and inclusion – faculty/staff |
| Listen to what the students are wanting |
| Need partnerships with industries to define what the needs are for college graduates – university-wide |
| Obtain necessary resources |
| Commitment to developing service unit resources |
| Aligning operations across units toward the same common goal |
| Shared vision, common goal is students |
| Create a culture that support a sense of belonging |
| Retaining/graduating students in all demographics |
| Retaining valuable employees |
| Direct resources to help students, faculty and staff thrive in their communities |
| Connect everything we do to the student centered vision of the university |
| Increase corporate partnerships to enhance student experience and help with placement after degree – work with state to make this happen |
| “De-silo” the academic centers: programs could be integrated for students’ academic training and for their careers |
| Look at ourselves: become more efficient, data-driven, look at processes |
| Increase student population – and the right mix of students : utilize alumni/recent graduates to speak about the value of their education (all students – not just the super-successful) |
| Employees – focus on EE wellbeing; healthy and content employees create better spaces for students |
| Recruiting: First gen, diverse, ensure inclusivity when these students come, create a safe place for all |
| Quality of life: students, staff, community |
| Infrastructure improvements across the whole university |
| Effectively communicate the impact of our research and teaching and value of K-state |
| Use foundation funds to keep education affordable |
| Improve resources for first generation students and families |
| Our students are taught by the folks doing the research and writing the textbooks |
| Employees contribute to student success – support/training/awareness |
| Work study available for students |
| Facilities – support teaching/research |
| Technology – not scalable enough; look at pillars and be more on demand |
| Expand outreach to communities – statewide expand beyond agriculture, other ways to engage public |
| Capitalize on facilities throughout state, Olathe/Extensions research units |
| Online, blended – online and class meetings (use Olathe for online hybrid) |
| Explore industry partners |
| Lower educational costs/set up students so they don’t have to leave school with so much debt (no debt) |
| Digital transformation that enhances and simplifies the student experience |
| Reevaluate processes and traditions to see what is holding us back and how we can implement new strategies to enhance and move forward to the future |
| Dedicate and secure adequate resources to implement planned changes |
| Marketing and promoting research opportunities to students in a way that gets them excited about research and participating in research – need to develop advertising campaigns focused on promoting new vision (unified university messaging) |
| Cross functionality across colleges to build a student experience that provides the best program and outcome |
| Establish a visible identity that tells people who we are (current students, potential students, alumni, donors, etc.) |
| Retention of students who are struggling to give them the support that the need financially, academically, and socially in order to succeed |
| Use data to identify students who are potentially at risk to proactively assist them in their academic endeavors; provide actual support resources that can help |
Provost and Student Life
| Encourage more collaboration across units, especially in light of new budget model to reduce silo effect |
| The term “student-centered” needs to be clearly defined; this requires student input, NOT in the form of a survey, e.g., Student Life asks student representatives to consider if they see themselves in visions/goals, and if they believe the office is actually doing that; “who we think we are” versus what we do/where we’re going – this requires looking at student goals, not necessarily in retention/graduation rates. What is a truly student-centered metric? |
| Diversity and also inclusion – critical to any student-centered approach; recruiting and retaining faculty/staff – it’s not always best to hire from within; hiring from beyond facilitate culture shifts -making students feel encouraged to go to different programs |
| Linking “student-centered” to research – requirement of all faculty/departments to incorporate BOTH components into programs; cannot continue to be viewed as 2 separate programs; would include undergraduate programs and non-traditional programs (music, art, etc.); paradigm shift – how do we talk about research? It’s intentional and not optional, better direction from Provost/higher levels |
| Ensuring students necessary skills to integrate into society |
| Student health and safety could be included health area; good choices, north campus clean-up, mental health support |
| Consistency/Ease of understanding: examples – policies, admission standards, tuition and fees, differences in college |
| More unified goals, collaboration that is intentional to ensure understanding of each other, our goals, and outcomes; work smarter, not harder; collaboration must be integrated into plan, ensure it continues after initial goal |
| Must be serving industry needs and making sure they have social skills/leadership/communication skills |
| Enrollment – please get this squared away!!! |
| Global approach, service, impact, reach |
| Student well-being |
| Student vs. faculty – be open/willing to make changes to the system, e.g., semester schedule – we need a fall break! |
| Be faster with changes – the historical narrative that we are a slow moving system to do things has to change; although we are changing structure now, we are still stuck in many of our daily practices |
| Affordability |
| Technology – so many of our systems, procedures, and basic (day-to-day) functions are very outdated; the message this communicates and how it limits abilities of change and our mission and needs to be addressed, e.g., search process paper applications, forms, Canvas, website. KSIS slow process for administrative functions like payroll and reimbursements – these are much harder to utilize than could/should be |
| Streamline process for students to complete education experiences; see Netflix – how can the Netflix model inform our educational process |
| Streamline process to partner with industries and civic organizations to embed learning and research within community |
| Need to improve how research leads to better learning, practice, education; need to communicate this better |
| What does the word “multicultural” really mean – first-gen, international students, non-traditional? Where do international students fit into this? Need to consider internationalization in this refresh – global versus internationalization; recruit and invite international students; translate recruitment materials into more languages; cannot just be ELP – need to include all departments; create more accessibility to international students to access university resources; team up with departments to help international students to stay at KSU |
| Aggressively recruit out-of-state students from high cost states that might not be able to access their own land-grant university (e.g., California, Texas, IL) |
| How to create a more positive image of Kansas – need to work with elected officials and city of Manhattan to make Kansas a more desirable place to live; support business developments so students see coming to KSU as a pathway to get a good job in the state of Kansas |
| Resource efficiencies and keeping them finalized appropriately so individual colleges/departments that do not have the funds pop up with new offerings |
| Caution – centralizing doesn’t always allow us to truly meet the unique needs of every unit and may stifle innovation |
| Work within the new budget model to understand where efficiencies can be gained |
| Student recruitment - various populations; making sure we know how to serve them well – don’t over enroll past resources available; try to increase applicants to allow us to be more selective in our yield |
| Preparing for the future of education – working with the innovation of technology leading to the innovation in teaching |
| Improved advising |
| Need-based aid |
| Improved transfer evaluation, complete IB, Cambridge |
| Develop improved transfer pipelines |
| Develop stronger/more tech curricula partnerships? IT programs |
| Curriculum development to workforce/demand; curriculum development to embrace technology in every major |
| Coordinate the K-12 educational outreach extension, faculty, College of Education, etc. – offer a phenomenal menu of resources that is K-State branded and makes clear our role as “your” public university to all educators/schools who use |
| Wellbeing – students and faculty (K-State community); having one model of wellbeing/wellness for entire university; mental health – proactive approach/prevention |
| Collaboration in programming – between Student Life departments, academics, community, etc. |
| Data driven decision making |
| Evaluate academic programs: better advising; evaluate number of credits required; look at faculty hiring and how it ties into wellbeing |
| Include diverse perspectives in developing solutions; outreach to women and affinity groups to help strengthen their experiences to contribute – this approach can help the university build a bench for diverse leaders on campus |
| Improve relationship between university and community to help with recruitment/retention of faculty and students |
| Discuss barriers and make priorities; multiple pathways to acquire education – who is our student and how do we help them |
| Balance tools and resources to recruit/retain faculty/staff to help attract students. Faculty/staff can be a key to helping attract students, which help with enrollment efforts. Faculty and staff morale should be a priority. For example, if morale was improved, faculty/staff can help generate more ideas to attract students |
| Resources to help improve advisors relationships/tools to help improve services to students |
| Faculty/staff engagement and development – are people equipped to do what we need to do? |
| Identify/communicate return on investment – how has K-State land-grant contributed to economic development? Global food systems? Cyber-land grant, etc.? |
| Undergraduate research experiences |
| Financial accessibility |
| Career readiness skills and values to prepare for the future – experiential learning opportunities |
| Build capacity to advance equity |
| More undergraduate scholarly opportunities and experiential learning opportunities |
| Engaged/innovative online learning |
| Mental health services |
| Creating more high-impact learning opportunities; create more awareness – really focus on community partnerships |
| Providing the appropriate access for everyone who needs it, existing programs and make them more clear for those who think there’s a barrier; getting new-student services more involved with outreach |
| Breaking the communication barriers; build more effective communication channels between departments/divisions |
| Reinvest in personal connections between faculty/staff across campus; community building |
| Be more creative in driving students to majors/minors that actually fit them; figure out where attrition is and giving those students better options and alternative pathways to keep students here; innovative curriculum |
| Adaptable to serve different populations |
| Affordability |
| Visual/visible representation of our values, our student population |
| More partnerships for lower-cost education |
| More campus collaboration, less silos |
| Student engagement in their purpose of being here – high-impact learning, co-curricular experiences |
| Define student-centered and incentivize for buy-in from all parts of the university, both academic and student affairs |
| Innovative, modernized methods of education |
| Communication between all of access/touch-points with students; interventions |
| Re-define our role/responsibility towards supporting student success so it’s a part of everyone’s job |
| Draw connections for students between experiences to enhance their success, e.g., why is undergraduate research important? |
| What can we do to show we are a great school to attract international students? |
| Scholarships |
| Make progress on the achievement gap – graduation rates comparable across all student populations |
| Address affordability – find innovative ways to help students with the cost of attendance (expanded textbook initiatives, need-based aid, lower average college debt) |
| Involve cooperative extension – integrate work in classrooms and labs at university, create a loop of information/data with Kansas communities on needs/challenges, find solutions/make progress get feedback |
| Understand and demonstrate the value of higher education |
| Communication and collaboration – both up and down the organizational structure; empowering units to make decisions to benefit students. |
| Develop efficiencies – don’t duplicate resources, don’t add more options |
| Identify barriers for students and continue to reduce those (staff member was transferred 7 times to resolve a student hold) |
| Actually redeploy SSC and administration enforces use; one student system is most beneficial to students and university; notes in a file cabinet don’t help an advisor across campus or housing staff – MAXIMIZE EFFICIENCIES!!! Combined with FERPA training, minimize additional fees, etc., that only add cost to students/extra software programs |
| More effective use of space – confidential space for those offices that need it |
| We would like to see realistic, measurable goals with plans for assessment |
| Clear communication about what happens now – how are these notes used? Is this just an activity to make (without action) us feel valued? |
| Innovation – new partnerships, new tracks to degree completion, learner programs, certificate programs |
| Ability to train/retrain people in the workforce |
| Assessment and tracking of students |
| Individualized student plans rather than one size fits all |
| Fees associated with classes – barrier for people and affects accessibility |
| Financial barriers of taking exploratory classes to find a good fit/major/career |
| Meeting needs of non-traditional students (caretakers, single parents, veterans, full-time employees) |
| Innovation and education: rethinking paying for “internship, practicum, capstone” experiences, research experiences as well |
| Stronger and consistent academic advising |
| Utilization of SSC/navigate to enhance student experience and student-centered |
| Training and professional development for staff and faculty – retention of faculty and staff |
| Consistency of curriculum |
| Affordability – gap funding for students who have amounts due (not huge amounts); barrier to enroll, not retaining these students |
| Communicate that students can still come to K-State even if they’re not in one of the 4 strategic initiatives |
| Evaluation of dual and transfer credit |
| Having tools and staff to help run efficiently |
| Affordability |
| Vocabulary across campus – creates miscommunications and lack of transparency; what makes something easier for one office might make it harder for a different office |
| Promotion of existing programs |
| Focus of transfer students – expected to already have college experience, and lost during transition into KSU |
| We know students have a choice, how can we ensure students choose us |
| Accessibility on campus |
| A buy-in from the whole university and whole investment – get information/data from all areas of campus/ not only on international students – also for diversity; keep everyone accountable - international focus (global citizens, incoming international students) |
| Financial support for all community |
| Accessibility – meeting them where they are |
| Authentic connection for students/faculty across campus |
| Transparency and communication across campus |
| Increased enrollment |
| Increased retention |
| Increased graduation rates |
| Fostering diversity and inclusion |
| Affordability/availability of scholarships |
| Creation of a policy hub |
Veterinary Medicine
| Faculty and staff morale |
| A strategic plan or approach to right funding for KSU; putting responsibility back on the colleges rather than a strategic approach to funding; just tell the truth rather than smoke and mirrors |
| Priorities include food and veterinary medicine |
| Let currently sustainable programs remain sustainable instead of siphoning off to support unsustainable programs |
| Biosecurity |
| New VDL |
| Increased enrollment/recruitment (graduate and undergraduate) |
| Increased focus on graduate student education |
| Continue to enhance infrastructure: Multi-disciplinary research facility with state-of-the-art cores/services; research park; translational research opportunities (incubator), includes existing infrastructure to instantly begin work |
| Student recruitment – targeted, increase public visibility of key programs, stronger public reach |
| Sustainable funding model |
| Attracting nationally recognized faculty |
| Refocusing on programs that are important – MPH, nursing program |
| Evaluate college and programs to find most valuable |
| Interdisciplinary programs – Vet Med working with Business |
| Bringing industry into classroom |
| Enhancing technology – all around |
| Be early adopters – not late stragglers |
| Bring back the Office of Undergraduate Research |
| Truly look at the physical infrastructure – students need more hands-on experiences, not just lecture spaces |
| Vet Med specific – additional information and focus on the Masters programs and what benefits over time you would have |
