Core Component 1.B

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DRAFT

1.B The mission is articulated publicly.

  1. The institution clearly articulates its mission through one or more public documents, such as statements of purpose, vision, values, goals, plans, or institutional priorities.
  2. The mission document or documents are current and explain the extent of the institution’s emphasis on the various aspects of its mission, such as instruction, scholarship, research, application of research, creative works, clinical service, public service, economic development, and religious or cultural purpose.
  3. The mission document or documents identify the nature, scope, and intended constituents of the higher education programs and services the institution provides.

Argument

1.B.1. Pathways to Excellence clearly articulates SIUC's mission and values. Through this strategic plan, SIUC identifies goals and mechanisms for achieving the goals in support of the mission. SIUC publicizes daily activities associated with our mission through monthly e-mails from the SIU system President’s Office, SIUC Chancellor’s Office, and University Communications and Marketing newsletter SIU Today. Points of Pride are updated frequently on a dedicated website, highlighting various mission accomplishments by SIUC faculty, students, and staff.

Within the university, the mission statement is prominently displayed on the syllabus attachment recommended for all class syllabi and at the entry way of most buildings. Key components of the mission are displayed as banners on lamp posts across campus.

1.B.2. SIUC’s mission is documented in the strategic plan, as well as the values derived from the mission, short and long-term goals, objectives, and mechanisms to achieve those objectives. The strategic plan, approved by the SIU Board of Trustees in July of 2013, is available to the public as well as students, faculty, and staff on the Chancellor’s web page.  

Pathways to Excellence identifies 5 values that are linked to the mission statement:

  • We are proud of our status as a nationally ranked public research university.
  • We emphasize student achievement and success because achievement and success are essential if we are to shape future leaders and transform lives.
  • We celebrate our unique tradition of access, opportunity, and inclusive excellence.
  • We pride ourselves on innovation in research and creative activity, and outstanding teaching.
  • We understand our role as a regional economic leader and catalyst for economic development.

The following areas of focus have a goals and objectives that map these values to the university mission and direct the university's activities. 

 Student Success
The student success focus of the strategic plan addresses the outstanding teaching, nurturing student success, and transform lives statements within the mission. This component of the plan identifies 30 potential mechanisms to achieve the 9 objectives:

  • Focus first and foremost on the academic needs of our students.
  • Increase the number and dollar amounts of scholarships.
  • Every academic and support department will articulate knowledge and learning outcomes necessary to be a successful student.
  • Continue to develop programs that strengthen each student’s connection to the University community.
  • Cultivate, recognize, and reward excellent teaching.
  • Encourage the development and utilization of new teaching approaches.
  • Encourage mentoring at every level: peer-to-peer student mentoring, mentoring of undergraduates by graduate students, and mentoring of all students by faculty and staff.
  • Expand and optimize our undergraduate research and creative activity opportunities.
  • Expand service-learning opportunities to include apprentice models, internships, externships, and volunteer projects.

Successfully achieving these objectives will transform the lives of the SIUC student body.

Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

The Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity focus directly addresses strong elements of the mission: 1) innovation in research and creativity and 2) create and exchange knowledge. This component provides 18 proposed mechanisms to achieve four objectives:

  • Strengthen our status as a Carnegie Research University (High Research Activity).
  • Celebrate all forms of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.
  • Enhance research communities and workspaces.
  • Promote the unambiguous integration of our teaching and research missions by demonstrating that research facilitates student access to and participation in the creation of knowledge, and promotes interaction and mentorship among faculty and students that enhances learning, and provides valuable hands-on training and paraprofessional experience.

Diversity and Inclusiveness

The Diversity and Inclusiveness focus addresses the access, opportunity, and inclusive excellence statements within the mission. The strategic plan provides 16 mechanisms for achieving six objectives:

  • Increase awareness of our institutional commitment to diversity.
  • Develop and institute a plan for recruiting and retaining an undergraduate and graduate student body that reflects state and national statistics of the college bound population.
  • Develop and monitor a plan for hiring, retaining, and promoting diverse staff, faculty, and administrators based on state and national statistics of the qualified population.
  • Manage and monitor the climate on campus to ensure that all students, faculty, staff, and administrators feel welcome, satisfied, included, and supported.
  • Promote and highlight diversity pedagogy, research, and scholarship.
  • Obtain and strengthen endowments and scholarships for underrepresented/underserved students.

Community Relations

The Community Relations focus of the strategic plan ties into two important components of the mission, our role as a regional economic catalyst and our commitment to improve our communities. The strategic plan provides 11 mechanisms to address four objectives:

  • Develop connections with the broader community to enhance service learning, public service, and cultural and artistic mindfulness.
  • Maximize the capacity of the University’s boundary-spanning entities.
  • Optimize the impact of our research activities on the region and state and become a leader in basic, applied, translational research in key focus areas where the University already has noticeable strengths and that build on our commitment to outreach to our broader community.
  • Engage employers and industry partners in our pursuit of offering relevant high-quality degree programs that develop highly prepared graduates.

Finance, Infrastructure, and Resource Allocation

An additional focus of the strategic plan is Finance, Infrastructure, and Resource Allocation. This focus is an integral part of achieving the plan, providing 16 mechanisms to address five objectives.

  • Increase revenue from all sources.
  • Foster an entrepreneurial spirit within the University.
  • Seek financial efficiencies wherever possible.
  • Define the current resource allocation process and pursue improvements where appropriate.
  • Make greater use of the talents and skills of our faculty, staff, and students.

1.B.3. SIUC provides a diverse range of programs that promote individual student creativity, acquisition of knowledge, and technical competency that ensures student success, and supports the region and state.

SIUC student success is integrated in our Institutional Learning Outcomes that are achieved through curriculum and co-curriculum programs:

  • Civic and Global Engagement
  • Diversity and Inclusivity
  • Creative and Critical Inquiry
  • Communicative and Technical Literacy
  • Ethical Reasoning and Professional Integrity
  • Disciplinary Knowledge and Application
  • Emotional Intelligence and Teamwork

Student success begins with new student programs, freshman orientation classes, living learning communities in the residence halls, advisement, the Center for Learning Support Services, faculty and peer mentoring, and a wide range of cultural and co-curricular activities. The university's core curriculum, which is required for all students, is designed to provide students with a traditional arts and sciences foundation, and to foster a life of inquiry, creativity, and civic participation. The essential learning outcomes of the core curriculum are:

  • Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world
  • Intellectual and practical skills
  • Personal and social responsibility
  • Integrative learning

Creative experiences are provided primarily in the College of Liberal Arts (COLA) and College of Mass Communication and Media Arts (MCMA). COLA is comprised of 18 academic departments that provide a wide range of majors and minors.  Students in COLA typically have double majors and minors. Similarly, creative programs can be found in the departments of Cinema and Photography and the Radio, Television, and Digital Media, two components of MCMA.

Through its endeavors to conduct original research and acquire new knowledge, the Colleges of Science, Applied Sciences and Arts, Engineering, and Agricultural Sciences provide opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to acquire research experience while conducting original research and developing technological advancements, directly benefiting both student success and the regional community.  Many of these programs ensure student success by offering highly technical degree programs which are in high demand by regional and national industries. (e.g., health care, aviation and automotive technologies, computer science, biological science, and engineering).

Research beneficial to a rural, agricultural based, economy occurs across the University in many programs. Specifically, it can be found in the Agricultural Science programs in Agribusiness Economics, Animal Science, Forestry, and Plant, Soil, and Agricultural Systems as well as programs in the College of Science such as Zoology, Plant Biology, and Geology

Finally, like most rural regions, it is difficult for communities in southern Illinois to attract and retain educators and health care professionals. The College of Education and Human Services and School of Medicine produce new professionals with degrees in these critically important fields and provide multiple incentives for graduates to remain in the region post-graduation.

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