HLC Self-Study - Indiana University South Bend

RESPONSE TO CONCERNS
which was recommended in the 2005 Strategic Plan. The Chancellor also took the lead in
organizing IU South Bend’s engagement in the Indiana University “Mission Differentiation
Initiative” (including the adoption of a new campus mission statement) promoted by
IU President Adam Herbert, and facilitated by IU-Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth R.
R. Gros Louis, Vice President Charlie Nelms, and IU Southeast Chancellor Emeritus F. C.
Richardson. The further development of the campus Assessment Committee, its workshops,
competitive assessment grants, and its informational web site, were further steps to meet
the HLC team’s #1 concern.
MEETING CONCERN A (1):
Develop Comprehensive Strategic Plan
• Foundations for the Future: Campus-Community discussions of institutional
mission, strengths, and challenges (2001)
• Phase I Strategic Planning: Environmental Scan (2002)
• Gateway to Excellence: Drafting and Review of Strategic Plan by Campus
Directions Committee (2003–04)
• Submission and Approval of Strategic Plan by HLC (2005)
• Organization of Strategic Planning Advisory Council (2005–07)
• Integration of Strategic Planning and HLC Self-Study Process (2004–07)
Drafting the IU South Bend Strategic Plan has involved a wide-ranging exploration of the
ways in which the campus has identified, justified, and defined its major goals, in concert
with its central academic mission to promote student learning. While campus planning
history does reflect such priority setting efforts in a number of areas (physical plant expansion,
new program development, enrollment management strategies, student support
services), the campus has reached a new level of consensus about the need to integrate our
three major avenues for institutional change and advancement: Assessment, Budgeting, and
Strategic Planning. To this end, the 2005 Strategic Plan called for the annual review of a
series of institutional metrics, which constitute key performance indicators. The recommendations
within the plan include the establishment of specific benchmarks to evaluate
institutional progress.
A number of significant developments since 2005 have advanced the process of integrating
assessment results at the unit, program, and institutional levels more directly into the budgetary
and strategic planning process. These efforts have been spearheaded by the campus
administration, and reflect a series of planning efforts coordinated by the Chancellor’s Cabinet,
the Academic Cabinet, the Academic Senate, and reviewed by the Strategic Planning
Advisory Council. The Director of Institutional Research has undertaken an annual review
and report to the Strategic Planning Advisory Council on the “Metrics” of progress outlined
in the Strategic Plan. The results of these efforts, described in more detail in Chapters
3 and 4 (Criteria One and Two) in this self-study, include the discussion and development in
2006–07 of a coordinated, cyclic campus strategic planning calendar—which would represent
a significant advancement from the process described in “Gateway to Excellence.”
2:4
Indiana University South Bend Self-Study Report 2007