More than a year ago, 60 people participated in an administrative retreat meant to drive development of the university's second Strategic Plan. The document developed there is now nearly complete and will go into effect in July, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.
Faculty and staff have one more chance to comment on the draft of the 2012-2017 Strategic Plan. Provost Terry King is hosting an open forum from 3-4 p.m. Thursday in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Cardinal Hall A.
At Tuesday's noon open forum, about 15 faculty members gathered to hear a presentation by Jennifer Bott, Ball State's associate provost for learning initiatives.
Bott said the plan was composed after task force members evaluated the previous strategic plan and its effectiveness at the retreat and set goals for what they wanted to develop in the next five years. They sought public input, engaging in conversations with professors, alumni, community members, parents, high school counselors and students.
In almost every one of those "stakeholder discussions," Bott said there was an emphasis placed on improving campus morale.
"So one of the big changes we've made in the new strategic plan is to focus on how we can elevate the morale and job satisfaction of our employees," Bott said.
Efforts to gauge and improve the contentment level of employees will be seen as soon as September, when a campus-wide job satisfaction survey is administered to all non-student university wage earners.
William Knight, the executive director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, said those asked to take the survey will include everyone from administrators to professors and instructors to Dining Services cashiers or custodial workers. The survey will be combined with the annual diversity climate survey and should take, on average, about 15 minutes, Knight said.
"The idea is that if we do this every two to three years, we're hoping that we see improvement," Knight said. "In areas where we're not, or it's just not where we want it to be, hopefully there'll be some initiatives that will help it move forward."
Possible initiatives could include instituting a university-wide childcare system for faculty, improving salaries or money available for faculty to present material at conferences or adjusting the ratio of contract vs. tenure track faculty.
Those in attendance at Tuesday's open forum brought up all of these issues, as well as the ideas of improving faculty-student relationships and helping students pursue unique educational experiences, such as a semester abroad, and still graduate on time.
Other highlights of the plan include improving the rates of Honors Diploma graduates attending Ball State, improving the university's retention rate and evaluating the classes in which the highest percentages of D, F and W grades are given.
"Students that don't get a C, for example, are not prepared for the next class; they're not prepared even in that material," King said. "The reason we want to eliminate that is they'll be prepared."
Bott said task force members will continue work on the plan over the summer. Interested individuals can read the current draft of the plan and provide feedback to its authors here. They may also email suggestions to plan2017@bsu.edu.
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