Over 30 people attended the university’s Strategic Plan Town Hall Tuesday and gave feedback on the different focuses of the plan while conversing with peers.
The event consisted of attendees who participated in conversations for 20-minute sessions. When time was up, attendees would switch to a different table if they chose to.
The plan’s mission is to “transform the Rio Grande Valley, the Americas, and the world through an innovative and accessible educational environment that promotes student success, research, creative works, health and well-being, community engagement, sustainable development, and commercialization of university discoveries,” according to UTRGV’s Strategic Plan booklet.
Mark Kaswan, Academic Affairs faculty fellow for Strategic Initiatives and a political science associate professor, said the town hall was a great event.
“We had dozens of people come from all parts of the university,” Kaswan said. “We had a session yesterday in Edinburg and then today it was in Brownsville and we had folks from administration, and then folks from other parts of the staff and we had faculty members.”
He said the only thing missing was more student voices.
Kaswan said they received good feedback.
“It’s one of those things where you can work on something for a long time and you try to be inclusive,” he said. “You have a committee of people who are knowledgeable about a subject and they do these plans that … reflect the things that they need to reflect and then you open it up to other people and you find out there’s all these other perspectives and ideas and things that are really valuable and so, the event is really useful for that, for giving people an opportunity to come together in that way and have input and be engaged in that process and it’s really, so, it’s really valuable.”
Kaswan hopes the conversations don’t end with the event, but that attendees talk to their colleagues as well. He also hopes people make use of the Strategic Plan website, which has goals, objectives and metrics.
“Absolutely everything, every single page on the strategic plan website has a comment … box for people to give us feedback, and, so, we encourage people to make use of that,” Kaswan said.
He said that after receiving feedback, the strategic plan review committee will meet for a follow-up conversation on next steps.
“All of the comments, all of the feedbacks that we receive, we will make use of and analyze it,” Kaswan said, “which doesn’t mean everything … is going to, in some way, be reflected in our plans, but certainly everything does affect the way that we’re thinking and the kinds of things we plan to include in the strategic, in our action plans.”
The different focuses of the Strategic Plan, according to the booklet, include:
—student success, where the goal is to support students in achieving their academic goals and reaching their professional aspirations through integrated learning experiences. Key initiatives include supporting instruction through faculty development, curricular evaluation and course redesign, increasing access to courses across campuses and platforms, and providing excellent advising through highly trained advisers;
—educational opportunities, where the goal is to strategically expand educational opportunities from “pre-K to post-doc” to increase learning, research, creative endeavors and community-engaged scholarships for people in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. Key initiatives include expanding existing and establishing new bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs and increasing access to educational programs through the development and implementation of innovative pedagogies and technologies;
—research impacting the Rio Grande Valley and beyond, where the goal is to increase the number and productivity of faculty and students engaged in research that improves the lives of people in the Rio Grande Valley. Key initiatives include attracting and retaining scholars engaged in research, building a research enterprise and increasing research opportunities;
—health and medical education, where the goal is to promote a culture of health and well-being for UTRGV and surrounding communities. Key initiatives include integrating, coordinating and leveraging programs and resources to support activities that enhance health, strengthening relationships with academic health programs, governmental agencies, hospitals, clinics and biomedical industry, and increase access to health and medical education programs;
—community engagement, where the goal is to foster sustainable community-university relationships to enrich scholarship, research, teaching, learning and creative activities while addressing critical societal issues and contributing to the public good. Key initiatives include increasing and strengthening community and educational outreach programs and opportunities, contributing to community wealth and asset building through partnerships, and facilitating and advancing public discourse around issues of local, regional, national, and global significance;
—bilingual, bicultural, biliterate, where the goal is to build UTRGV as a bilingual, bicultural and biliterate university. Key initiatives include supporting the development of coursework and programs that incorporate bilingual, bicultural and biliterate initiative, engaging faculty in community-based initiatives to build B3 programs and elevating the value and presence of biculturalism, the Spanish language and bilingualism;
—campus climate and professional development and growth for faculty and staff, where the goal is to cultivate a welcoming, inclusive and nurturing climate for all faculty and staff. Key initiatives include increasing recruitment and retention of excellent and diverse faculty and staff, strengthening initiatives to recognize and reward faculty and staff excellence, and engaging and empowering faculty and staff through shared governance, accountability, and transparency;
—globalization, where the goal is to foster a globally-connected university culture. Key initiatives include increasing global awareness and perspectives on campus, stimulating student learning through the expansion of study abroad opportunities and expanding global partnerships that align with UTRGV priorities;
—sustainability, where the goal is to institutionalize sustainability throughout the university and promote sustainability awareness in the community. Key initiatives include collaborating with community partners on shared sustainability goals, encouraging and supporting sustainable community–based entrepreneurial initiatives and increasing performance with an annual sustainability assessment program.
Metrics will be used in each initiative to measure its success.
