Approved by Board of Governors on December 5, 2020*

In this ever more rapidly changing world, Truman State University’s overarching purpose has remained—to provide a high-quality liberal arts and sciences education to academically talented and intellectually engaged students from every corner of Missouri and all parts of the world. We exist to open opportunity, promote access and social mobility, foster excellence and enable every student to pursue and achieve their unique goals.

Through a renewed liberal arts and sciences curriculum that is deliberately built for the modern world, we are dedicated to each of our student’s individual pursuits and ensure their engagement in learning and discovering their personal and professional purpose by providing intentional curricular and co curricular opportunities which are applicable to real-world challenges.

While the challenges of declining state support, tuition caps, societal devaluation of the liberal arts, the disaggregation of higher education and increased competition have not abated, this strategic plan is designed to ensure engaged focus on the core areas essential to the present and future success of the University.

Utilizing a slightly modified version of the 4 Disciplines of Execution (McChesney et al., 2012), this plan focuses on impacting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) foundational metrics. The 4 Disciplines are: 1) Focus on the Wildly Important Goal (WIG); 2) Act on the Lead Measures; 3) Keep a Compelling Scorecard; and 4) Create a Cadence of Accountability. Based on the concept of the Pareto Principle/80-20 Rule in which 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes, the plan is composed of three primary initiatives designed to impact the foundational metrics. Resource allocation will support the implementation of the initiatives.

Undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus community developed this initiative and metric focused plan over the course of a year (see Appendices A and B).

The grounding for the initiatives and metrics is three overarching commitments – Organizational Excellence, Student Success and Achievement, and Professional and Societal Impacts. These three commitments are the basis for realizing our mission and vision.

Mission Statement

The mission of Truman State University is to offer an exemplary undergraduate education to well-prepared students, grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, in the context of a public institution of higher education. To that end, the University offers affordable undergraduate studies in the traditional arts and sciences as well as selected pre-professional, professional, and master’s level programs that grow naturally out of the philosophy, values, content, and desired outcomes of a liberal arts education.

Vision Statement

Truman will demonstrate its public liberal arts and sciences mission by developing educated citizens needed to protect our democracy and offer creative solutions to local, state, national and global problems. It will do so through transformative experiences that foster critical thought, daring imagination and empathetic understanding of human experiences at home and around the world. Truman graduates will be citizen-leaders committed to service; globally competitive; able to thrive in the complexities of an advanced, technical and multicultural world; and inspired to live healthy and meaningful lives.

In addition to the three initiatives mentioned above, Truman is committed to making continued improvements in institutional effectiveness. That is, engaging in ongoing activities to organize evaluation, assessment, and improvement efforts that demonstrate how well we are fulfilling our mission and achieving our goals.

While there are many measurements used to indicate continued progress, Truman will focus on making improvements that ensure continued good standing with our accreditation body, maintain compliance with federal and state reporting requirements, enhance development and advancement opportunities, and demonstrate organizational excellence.

These improvements will be quantified through the following core metrics:

Taken in total, institutional effectiveness activities represent improvement efforts that encompass operations management, decision making, and institutional planning.

*Amended April 5, 2021 –
• Added “and implement” to the statement “Develop a Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan …” in the Campus Climate Initiative. (p.4)
• Expenditure per student was eliminated from Financial Perspective (p.5) as it is no longer a State performance measure.
• Changed the Foundation Metric name of “Next Destination Rate” to “First Destination Rate” to correspond with the State performance measure name.

Development of the plan

On November 11, 2019, a Town Hall Meeting was held to introduce the strategic plan framework and serve as the official kickoff of the planning process.

With the core structure of the plan identified, the campus as a whole provided the opportunity to participate in the development of initiatives to be enacted that will impact one or more of the metrics.

To appropriately focus and stay the course on making improvement in these areas to be defined in quantitative terms, the campus community was challenged to reframe thought processes away from the notion that new initiatives translate to additional demands for all, to a more focused view that defines how we do differently, and reprioritize what we do and how we advance, knowing that some things may need to be set aside for the time being if they don’t align with stated objectives for each category. This new lens through which to view the process opened the door to new and innovative ideas without the encumbrance of increased time and other resource demands for each member of the community.

While the campus community continued to brainstorm initiatives, several working groups were established to explore possible metrics to be used for those areas that did not have clearly defined measurements. Specifically, working groups were established for campus climate, alumni satisfaction and employer satisfaction. The working groups were also provided access to the Strategic Plan Oversight Metrics Group, and a list of Strategic Plan Expert Liaisons who served as points of contact in regard to data collection and available data sets, as well as content experts from various areas of campus to provide guidance on their respective functions and how various metrics and data sets may be most useful (see Appendix B for a list of Metric Team Working Groups, Strategic Plan Oversight Metrics Group and Strategic Plan Expert Liaison membership.)

A Strategic Plan Drafting Team was appointed by the President to examine all the feedback from individuals and working teams and incorporate those ideas and concepts into an initial draft plan. The next phase will be to have the draft plan vetted by appropriate stakeholders and submit the final version to the Board of Governors for approval at their December 2020 meeting.

To ensure the campus community remains focused on the priorities, initiatives and progress, the University will host a SPAW session twice per year (once in August, and once in January.) Engaging at regularly scheduled points will provide opportunity to the University to discuss current status and progress toward goals, maintain our focus on our specific goals, and ensure the plan remains a dynamic document, which is nimble and allows changes to occur as needed.

Working Groups for 2021-2025 Strategic Plan – Metric Teams/Groups

Campus Climate Strategic Plan Metric Team

• Melissa Garzanelli (Chair; Human Resources Generalist)
• Shania Montufar (Student)
• Sara Seifert (Director of Public Safety)
• Brad Turnbull (Interim Director of Center for Diversity and Inclusion)
• Jonathan Vieker (Director of Retention)

Employer Satisfaction Strategic Plan Metric Team

• Lance Ratcliff (Chair; Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Education)
• Tara Hart (Director of Admission)
• Sarah Mohler (Assistant Professor of English)
• Jenni Nuhn (Assistant Director of Career Services)
• Trevor Shonhiwa (Assistant Professor of Accounting)

Strategic Plan Drafting Team

• Tim Walston (Chair; Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics)
• Carolyn Cox (Professor of Health Science)
• Mike Garzanelli (Comptroller)
• Kevin Minch (Associate Provost)
• William Nelsen (Assistant Director of Residence Life)
• Becky Pike (Director of Development, School of Business)
• Diane Richmond (Director of Learning Technologies)
• Emma Rollings (Student)
• Bridget Thomas (Director of Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of Classics)

Alumni Satisfaction Strategic Plan Metric Team

• Stacy Tucker Potter (Chair; Director of Engagement)
• Adam McMichael (Assistant Director of Union and Involvement Services)
• Madison Peterson (Assistant Athletics Director – Compliance and Operations)
• Amanda Shreves (Assistant Director of Admission – Technology)
• Tim Wiser (Assistant Professor of Physics)

Strategic Plan Oversight Metric Group

• Steve Petersen (Point of Contact; Assistant to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs)
• Nancy Asher (Registrar)
• Dean DeCock (Director of Assessment and Professor of Statistics)
• Tammy Roberts (Director of Administrative Computing)
• Steve Wynn (Associate Dean of Libraries for Technical Services and Systems)

Strategic Plan Expert Liaisons

Advising – Andrea Maag (Interim Director of Center for Academic Excellence)

Next Destination for Graduates (Career and Graduate/Professional School) – Dave Lusk (Associate Vice President for Career Development)

Employers – Suzanne O’Mara (Director of Development/Corporations)

External Reports – Arletta Nelson (Assistant to the Vice President for Administration, Finance and Planning)

Financial Aid – Marla Fernandez (Director of Financial Aid)

Governance –
• Scott Alberts (Faculty Senate President and Professor of Mathematics);
• Kara Jo Levery (Staff Council Chair and Career Ready Coach);
• Deanna Schmidt (Student Government President; Student)

International/Study Abroad – Tim Urbonya (Executive Director of International Education)

Information Technology Services –
• Donna Liss (Chief Information Officer)
• Tammy Roberts (Director of Administrative Computing)

Recruitment – Tara Hart (Director of Admission)

Retention – Jonathan Vieker (Director of Retention)

Student Research – Jessica Colpoys (Office of Student Research Director and Assistant Professor of Agricultural Science)

Underserved/Underrepresented Students –
• Heather Cianciola (Director of McNair Program and Assistant Professor of English)
• Brad Turnbull (Interim Director of Center for Diversity and Inclusion)