Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back! I hope your break was restful and enjoyable, and that you had plenty of good quality time with your family. It’s a new year, yesterday was the first day of class for the Spring 2015 semester, and there is opportunity for new resolutions.
I wanted to give you a preview of some of our resolutions – and what to expect in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture this semester. As you know, last semester the University rolled out its refreshed Strategic Plan for 2014-2019, which can be found online on the WSU website. The plan outlines four themes consistent with previous University plans. Two of these themes are articulated as the University’s two central foci: (1) accelerating the development of a preeminent research portfolio (“Theme 1: Exceptional Research, Innovation, and Creativity”); and (2) transformative educational experience to undergraduate and graduate students (“Theme 2: Transformative Student Experience”).
(The other two themes are: “Theme 3: Outreach and Engagement,” and “Theme 4: Institutional Effectiveness: Diversity, Integrity, and Openness.”)
We’ve shared with you previously that our College plan would be linked to the University plan. According to President Floyd’s introduction in the WSU 2014-2019 Strategic Plan, strategic investments will be guided by the new plan, which makes it even more imperative that the VCEA plan is very well-aligned with the University plan. The University will track its progress through a series of metrics that are expected to demonstrate increases in the size and diversity of the undergraduate student body due to increased admissions of freshman and transfer students, and improved student retention; and by benchmarking our research productivity against our aspirational peers and the outstanding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU).
Our College leadership – the chairs, associate deans, and some of the research leadership – has put together a strategic plan draft that is aligned with the University plan but that reflects our own College’s aspirations and needs. We’ve shared earlier elements of this draft plan with you. In the near future, we will be sharing the entire draft plan with you, seeking your suggestions, edits, and comments, with the goal of completing the VCEA Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 well before the end of this semester. Both the University and the VCEA plans will include an implementation plan that includes potential initiatives and tactics; quantitative metrics; and other types of evidence of progress toward goals and subgoals associated with each theme.
Even though our implementation plan is not yet finalized, we are in the midst of some of the most important tactics and initiatives that will shape our College for decades to come: hiring as many as 28 new faculty members this year. As I wrote to you back in October, we will be filling many of these positions at the associate or full professor rank, in order to maintain a healthy balance of faculty ranks well into the future, and to ensure a rapid increase in research and scholarly productivity as we onboard new faculty. We will also be hiring faculty into our highest priority research thrust areas, which may be informed by the Office of Research 120-Day Study, which is scheduled for completion this month. Your role in the recruiting process is very critical as we bring excellent faculty candidates to campus for interviews and visits, and we thank you in advance for your active participation. We recognize that support of exceptional research, innovation, and creativity will require resources, and we will continue to pursue a variety of opportunities to bring in needed resources for faculty. An example of this was Dave Field’s recent equipment grant program that was made possible through a private gift to our College specifically supporting engineering research. And of course, thanks to the generosity of PACCAR, the PACCAR Environmental Technology Building will showcase renewable materials and technologies developed by VCEA faculty, and provide drastically needed research space for our faculty and their interdisciplinary collaborators.
We are also moving ahead with some initiatives and tactics aimed at the other central theme, around a transformative student experience. For many years, we have recognized that one of the things that makes our student experience so successful is the great hands-on experiences that our students gain, making them “Work-Ready, Day One.” In further support of a transformative student experience, then, we are putting in place a co-op and internship program and have hired Sandi Brabb as the coordinator. In addition, our development staff and John Schneider have worked with donors and stakeholders to develop the Frank Innovation Zone (FIZ), which will greatly support hands-on activities for our student groups. We will be meeting early this semester with officers of the 40+ student clubs to introduce them to the FIZ and get them involved.
With these examples above, you can see how important private fundraising has been, and will continue to be, to the success of our College in reaching our strategic goals. The University and the WSU Foundation will be celebrating the end of the Campaign for WSU sometime during the fall 2015 semester, and we are looking forward to a successful finish. The Campaign for WSU was initiated in July of 2006, with the goal of raising $1 billion – a seemingly audacious goal at the time. But as of November 30, WSU had raised over $961 million! Our College’s development team has worked very hard, through this campaign, raising $111 M of our $125 million campaign goal, as of November 30, 2014.
So we ask you for these resolutions:
- Watch for the draft strategic plan in the near future, and please send us your feedback once you’ve seen it.
- Be sure to contribute to shaping the future faculty of your department or school by attending the candidate interviews.
- Thank a member of our development team next time you see one!
Thank you for all you do for VCEA and WSU!
Candis Claiborn, Professor and Dean