In 2005 Seton Hill University (SHU) faculty and students collaborated to develop a strategic plan to follow through the year 2010. “We had almost achieved all our goals a year ago in the spring of 2008,” said Mary Ann Gawelek, provost and dean of faculty,
By Stormy Knight
Setonian Alumna
In 2005 Seton Hill University (SHU) faculty and students collaborated to develop a strategic plan to follow through the year 2010. “We had almost achieved all our goals a year ago in the spring of 2008,” said Mary Ann Gawelek, provost and dean of faculty,
“so we decided maybe we should look at it again.”
According to Gawelek, strategic planning takes place in a three to five year cycle, and the university has outlined four different plans since 1996. The additions of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) as well as the economic downturn are two major changes not factored into the current five-year plan.
There are five core goals implemented in every plan: Claim SHU as a Catholic Liberal Arts institution, increase academic rigor in programs, keep campus life alive for all classifications of students, financial stability “and the newest goal for us is increasing our recognition as a unique educational opportunity,” said Gawelek.
Feedback from all campus communities is carefully considered in every strategic plan. Revisions of the current plan are now in the hands of the president’s council, which will be handed over to the board of trustees for review and approval. Several focus groups for students and faculty were held on topics such as branding, campus life and financial strength.
In April of this year, the SHU strategic plan went online in the form of a weblog (http://blogs.setonhill.edu/StrategicPlan) in order to gather feedback from professors and students. “There may be a faculty or staff member who would never blog who would come to a meeting, on the other hand, there might be somebody who would maybe more thoughtfully and possibly more comprehensively blog it and stimulate a response from somebody that would never happen during a 15 minute meeting,” said Gawelek.
On average, the focus groups were attended by 20 people and approximately 40 comments were published over the month long blogging endeavor. “It [the weblog] stimulated an interesting conversation. For me, it was very helpful to fine-tune the tasks and strategies in the academic area,“ she added.
There is strong support from the government, faculty and students to increase the use of new media such as weblogs. “We received a large federal Title III grant, and we want to make sure we maximize that possibility for faculty,” said Gawelek.
“We’re tired of the Powerpoints; I don’t want to see Powerpoints,” she added, “but what I do want to see is people out in the field connecting through Smartphones, looking for data, checking things out, podcasting.”
The Internet seems far from new technology these days, but online communication mediums change and evolve faster than most of us can keep up with. “Research shows if students find a website irritating, they simply leave,” said Professor of Spanish Debra Fraszer -McMahon in a comment on the strategic plan weblog on April 20, 2009. SHU’s webpage is considered the university’s biggest recruitment tool, and access to the web is now wireless, mobile and handheld.
Students and faculty showed a strong interest in improving online courses in terms of usability, thoroughness and availability. All Liberal Arts core classes with the exception of composition and senior seminar courses are currently in-session online, “we’re deciding if we should do this every semester and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the students and faculty from this,” added Gawelek.
Meeting notes from a student focus group on SHU branding were posted to the strategic plan weblog on April 6, 2009. According to the notes, students feel they are not learning well enough in online courses. Michael Arnzen, associate professor of English, published a reply reading that the reaction to the online courses was disheartening, “but I’ve heard these comments often by the students I advise.”
Arnzen added in the April 15, 2009 comment that online courses remain attractive to students and hopes the university continues to improve them, “possibly making them stand out offerings.”
Gawelek confirms that the use of blended teaching and interactive classroom technology will remain one of SHU’s priorities.
Aside from the technological desires, other new goals include continuing to move the visual arts downtown, strengthening SHU’s academic recognition on a global level and improving campus aesthetics.
Current plan initiatives already underway include the construction of stairs from the lower campus parking lots to the residence halls, and bleachers for the fields, said Gawelek. When the strategic plan is finalized, it will be available to the SHU community on Griffin’s Lair.