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Strategic Plan for College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Mission

In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, we empower learners in their pursuits, professions, and purpose. The college enriches society through excellent teaching, active scholarship, advancement of equity, and public service.

Vision

Through our commitment to liberal education, CLAS strives to be an inclusive and equitable community of inquiry where students, staff and faculty collaborate to pursue and create knowledge, to enact global citizenship, and to engage and support our many communities.


Values Statement

We value and work to foster a community in which inclusion, equity, access, and respect for difference sustain, and are sustained by, a liberal education that is accessible to and beneficial for all.

We value the uniqueness and the diversity of human experiences and standpoints and support a student-ready approach to the continuous improvement of CLAS structures and processes.

We value structures and processes that provide faculty and staff opportunities to develop as professionals and leaders, that support a reasonable balance of time and energy across all areas of our lives, and that provide opportunities to connect and build relationships. We value the life of the mind, in all its forms, and recognize that the creation of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge are closely connected activities for teacher-scholars.

We value a curriculum with an emphasis on pathways, experiences, collaborations, and connections that occur within and across courses, disciplines, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, and career plans. We believe that student engagement should be a top priority in all disciplines and at all levels, so that students understand the value of education as a lifelong process instead of viewing each course or degree solely as a means to an end.

We value reciprocal relationships with alumni and other community partners. Alumni are valuable allies as we strive to create experiential learning opportunities for our students and to enhance student understanding of the career-related skills and competencies gained through their university curriculum. We seek dialogue with current and potential community partners, and we will develop partnerships around their needs and goals.

Planning Process

During the Winter 2021 semester, CLAS began a strategic visioning process in parallel to GVSU’s Reach Higher Together planning process. The goal of the CLAS visioning process was to develop a shared vision for the future of public liberal arts and sciences education at Grand Valley and to imagine possibilities for how that vision could be realized over time. The visioning process included 90-120 minute facilitated workshops for all units in CLAS, for all CLAS governance committees, and for various other groups of stakeholders (e.g., PSS, APs, unit heads, students). The workshops drew on Appreciative Inquiry and utilized a SOAR analysis. From January through March 2021, 498 CLAS faculty, staff, and students participated in 33 virtual SOAR workshops. The workshops were highly participatory, with a majority of time spent in small group discussion and brainstorming, along with some large group report-out and discussion. A listener/notetaker was assigned to each session, and participants also recorded the ideas generated using Jamboard.

Concurrent with the visioning sessions, a small group of thirteen faculty and staff formed the Winter Strategy and Innovation Group. The College Office put together a group of faculty with diverse experiences and perspectives and Dean Drake invited them to join the Winter SIG; criteria for membership included bringing external relationships, a track record of creativity and innovation, quantitative skills, experience as effective committee members and leaders, dedication to students, disciplinary diversity, a vision for online/hybrid pedagogy, knowledge of GVSU, and experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Over the course of the semester, they read and discussed an archive of documents that tapped into the national conversation about possible futures for the liberal arts and sciences in the changing landscape of higher education, attended the visioning sessions as listeners and notetakers, and met to assess the Jamboard data that the visioning conversations had generated.

In May 2021, a group of four faculty members analyzed the qualitative data that was generated during the winter visioning sessions. The data analysis group focused on discerning the patterns of feedback regarding CLAS strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and possible strategic initiatives.

The CLAS community identified several strengths of the College, including the faculty’s shared commitment to high-quality, student-centered teaching; the understanding that scholarship and service are valuable activities that enhance our pedagogical practice; and the multidisciplinary expertise that resides in CLAS. Faculty and staff saw opportunities for the College to increase support for students, staff, and faculty, to realize more meaningful multidisciplinary collaboration, to develop a more innovative and collaborative curriculum, and to engage more deeply with the communities and CLAS alumni in Grand Rapids, West Michigan, the state, and the world. They aspired to be even more student-centered in teaching and in resource allocation. They were committed to building a relationship-rich ecosystem for learning and working, and they sought to collaborate more creatively and effectively across traditional academic boundaries. They valued diversity, equity and inclusion and wanted to continue building the knowledge and capacity to center DEI in our decision-making and daily work.

On May 26-27, 2021, a group of twenty-one faculty and two staff members--the Summer Strategy and Innovation Group (SIG)--met to prepare for their summer work. The College Office invited all members of the Winter Strategy and Innovation Group to continue work into the summer if they so desired. On day one, the data analysis group presented the results of their analyses, and three members of the Winter Strategy and Innovation Group presented key concepts and ideas they encountered during the conversations that took place during the winter semester. The goal was to bring the Summer Strategy and Innovation Group into the research-based conversation from the winter and to lay the foundation for the summer work. Unit heads and the dean’s leadership team also attended to stay abreast of the conversation. On day two, the Summer SIG focused on developing a draft vision statement for the College. The Summer SIG was then divided into three groups, and each group was given the assignment to imagine CLAS 3-5 years from now. What strategies and tactics/initiatives would take the College down the path of realizing the vision suggested by the data and articulated in the draft vision statement? After working for a month, each group presented their thinking at meetings on June 28 and June 29. 

Based on the feedback from the summer work, the Dean’s Office wrote a draft vision and commitments document that was presented to the entire CLAS faculty and staff in August 2021. Units were asked to provide feedback on the draft vision plan, and based on that feedback, the vision and commitments were revised and finalized in Winter 2022. In June 2022, a team of CLAS leaders and university partners attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities Institute on High-Impact Practices to work with national experts on finalizing a set of equity-centered strategies and tactics to achieve our vision and enact our commitments--this is the CLAS Voyage.


Collaboration

CLAS set about its visioning work with an eye to university planning efforts, and the Dean ensured that the groups working through the CLAS process were kept abreast of the Reach Higher 2025 drafts and discussions. In addition, CLAS pursued visioning as an iterative process that sought input from faculty and staff within in the college at multiple points during the process. CLAS also collaborated with stakeholders across the institution, including the Director of General Education, the Director of the Center for Undergraduate Scholar Engagement, the Director of Career Services, the Vice Provost for Instructional Development and Innovation, the Vice Provost for Graduate and Lifetime Learning, and the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs (Curriculum).

  

Building Capacity

In order to build the capacity to launch and sustain the CLAS Voyage, in Fall 2022 the Dean created the CLAS Center for Experiential Learning (CCEL). Beginning in Fall 2025, the Voyage guarantees all CLAS students five experiential learning opportunities: an academic seminar called the Embarking Experience, two high-impact practices embedded in their major, a capstone experience, and regular opportunities for guided reflection. This model fulfills the Reach Higher 2025 promise of an empowered and equitable education and ensures career and life readiness. CCEL provides the administrative infrastructure to create and maintain opportunities for students to participate in experiential learning; facilitates collaboration across and beyond the university, including coordinating the Laker Accelerated Talent Link program; creates and disseminates resources to students and faculty to support experiential learning (including professional development and funding); and leads the assessment of experiential learning in CLAS. 

Other capacity-building work includes:

Commitments

Empowered Educational Experience

Key Performance Indicator

Experiential Learning

Baseline

55.9%

Description

Student self-reported information from sophomores, juniors, and senior undergraduate students on course or program-related activities including workplace-based experiences, community-based learning, study abroad, collaborative research, and living-learning communities. By the end of the 2023-2024 AY: 75% of CLAS majors will align with the curricular model of the CLAS Voyage (2 unavoidable high-impact practices in place for every major in CLAS), putting us on track for 100% for the incoming class of 2025. 100% of the Laker Accelerated Talent Link cohort will have successfully completed the cohort experience. The Laker Accelerated Talent Link program will include 5-7 new business partners, 2 additional certificate options,and 100 student participants for AY 2024-2025.

Progress - Fall 2023

75.9

The percentage of sophomores, juniors, and seniors who self-report having participated in experiential learning grew from by 20 percentage points over 2022. This jump likely reflects a broadening of the definition of experiential learning.

Progress - Winter 2023

43 of 48 majors (90%) have identified which two courses will provide experiential learning to their students and the remaining 5 have identified one course. In collaboration with experiential learning offices on campus, we have planned and will launch in Summer 2024 the CLAS Voyage Summer Institute, facilitating conversations between faculty in 21 units as they assess alignment with the frameworks for experiential learning and high-impact practices. 21 of 21 students (100%) completed their cohort experience in the Laker Accelerated Talent Link (LATL) program and began their internships with the 5 inaugural partners. As of March 1, one new partner has committed to joining LATL. 32 students have applied for the 2024-2025 cohort, 16 of whom are from CLAS.


Lifetime of Learning (25+ Enrollment)

Key Performance Indicator

New Adult Student Enrollment

Baseline

85

Description

Number of new FTIAC, Graduate, and Transfer students age 25 or older entering in fall. Strategies and goals: TBD after discussion with Provost's Cabinet.

Progress - Fall 2023

82

Based on data sent to us from VP Bernal, new adult student enrollment in CLAS has fallen by 3 students since 2021.


Culture of Educational Equity (CEE)

Key Performance Indicator

Students of Color

Baseline

84.0%

Description

% Students of Color (Afr Am, Hispanic, Nat Am, Asian, Pacific Islander, excluding nonresident international) Strategies/Goals By the end of the 2023-2024 AY: 75% of CLAS majors will align with the curricular model of the CLAS Voyage (2 unavoidable high-impact practices in place for every major in CLAS), putting us on track for 100% for the incoming class of 2025. Note that the research shows that high-impact practices positively impact the retention and success of underrepresented students. We will have launched our partnership with the Gardner Institute to redesign gateway high DFW courses; a project plan and timeline will be in place, four multi-section courses to redesign will have been identified, and all faculty and staff involved with those courses will be engaged in the project.

Progress - Fall 2023

19.5%

Since 2021 the percentage of students of color in CLAS has increased by 2.9%.

Progress - Winter 2023

43 of 48 majors (90%) have identified which two courses will provide experiential learning to their students and the remaining 5 have identified one course. In collaboration with experiential learning offices on campus, we have planned and will launch in Summer 2024 the CLAS Voyage Summer Institute, facilitating conversations between faculty in 21 units as they assess alignment with the frameworks for experiential learning and high-impact practices. Partnership with the Gardner Institute to redesign gateway high DFW courses has been launched. Five multi-section courses have been identified and all faculty/staff have attended an orientation meeting with course design work and professional development beginning May 6.


Key Performance Indicator

Faculty of Color

Baseline

14.0%

Description

% and # Tenured/Tenure-track/Affiliate Faculty of Color -- total % of Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Latino, Multiethnic, and Native American full-time. CLAS goals align with GVSU goals: 19% Faculty of Color in Fall 2024 and 20% Faculty of Color in Fall 2025. Strategies/Goals Every unit in CLAS will have developed a DEI professional development plan for its faculty and staff by the end of AY2023-2024. CLAS will continue implementing inclusive hiring practices, including required training for all unit heads, search committee chairs, and participating TT/AFF faculty.

Progress - Fall 2023

15.4%

The percentage of faculty of color has grown by 1.4% since 2021-22.

Progress - Winter 2023

Met with all CLAS unit heads to discuss the College’s DEI-AB professional development initiative. Feedback from the unit heads was incorporated into the guidelines for writing unit DEI-AB professional development plans. Units will submit their plans to the Dean’s Office by May 10, 2024, and begin implementing them in Fall 2024. Revised the 2023–2024 CLAS tenure-track and affiliate search process document to make the search process more inclusive and equitable. Facilitated a meeting with search chairs and unit heads of hiring departments about the College’s inclusive approach to hiring faculty. Asked the search chairs of every tenure-track and affiliate search conducted in 2023 – 2024 to offer each finalist a personalized, confidential portion of their on-campus visit to learn about resources that should not be asked by the search committee. 15 out of 17 searches in Phase 1 of hiring had at least one candidate request a personalized portion of the on-campus visit.


Key Performance Indicator

Sense of Belonging

Baseline

62.1%

Description

% of faculty in college who responded to confidential survey indicating “the extent to which you experience a sense of belonging or community at GVSU” as “very satisfied” or “generally satisfied”. Strategies/Goals Every unit in CLAS will have developed a DEI professional development plan for its faculty and staff by the end of AY2023-2024. CLAS will continue implementing inclusive hiring practices, including required training for all unit heads, search committee chairs, and participating TT/AFF faculty.

Progress - Fall 2023

56.4%

The percentage of faculty indicating "the extent to which you experience a sense of belonging or community at GVSU" as "very satisfied" or "generally satisfied" fell by 5.6% since 2021.

Progress - Winter 2023

Met with all CLAS unit heads to discuss the College’s DEI-AB professional development initiative. Feedback from the unit heads was incorporated into the guidelines for writing unit DEI-AB professional development plans. Units will submit their plans to the Dean’s Office by May 10, 2024, and begin implementing them in Fall 2024. Revised the 2023–2024 CLAS tenure-track and affiliate search process document to make the search process more inclusive and equitable. Facilitated a meeting with search chairs and unit heads of hiring departments about the College’s inclusive approach to hiring faculty. Asked the search chairs of every tenure-track and affiliate search conducted in 2023 – 2024 to offer each finalist a personalized, confidential portion of their on-campus visit to learn about resources that should not be asked by the search committee. 15 out of 17 searches in Phase 1 of hiring had at least one candidate request a personalized portion of the on-campus visit.


Additional Commitments

Key Performance Indicator

New Student Enrollment

Baseline

1,888

Description

number of new FTIAC, Graduate, and Transfer students entering in fall.

Progress - Fall 2023

639 students

In Fall 2023, 639 more students enrolled in CLAS than in Fall 2021.


Key Performance Indicator

1st Year Fall to Fall FTIAC Retention

Baseline

79.5%

Description

1st Year Fall to Fall FTIAC Retention CLAS Goal = GVSU Goal: 86.7% in 2024, 88.0% in 2025. Strategies/Goals By the end of the 2023-2024 AY: 75% of CLAS majors will align with the curricular model of the CLAS Voyage (2 unavoidable high-impact practices in place for every major in CLAS), putting us on track for 100% for the incoming class of 2025. Note that the research shows that high-impact practices positively impact the retention and success of underrepresented students. We will have launched our partnership with the Gardner Institute to redesign gateway high DFW courses; a project plan and timeline will be in place, four multi-section courses to redesign will have been identified, and all faculty and staff involved with those courses will be engaged in the project.

Progress - Fall 2023

.3%

.3% more students returned in Fall 2023 than in Fall 2022.

Progress - Winter 2023

43 of 48 majors (90%) have identified which two courses will provide experiential learning to their students and the remaining 5 have identified one course. In collaboration with experiential learning offices on campus, we have planned and will launch in Summer 2024 the CLAS Voyage Summer Institute, facilitating conversations between faculty in 21 units as they assess alignment with the frameworks for experiential learning and high-impact practices. We have 25 faculty from five units participating in the Gardner Institute. They are engaging in curriculum enhancement work over the summer.


Key Performance Indicator

NPS

Baseline

+19.4

Description

Students only. Net Promoter Score, how willing an individual is to recommend positively an institution to other people such as family, friends, peers, or associates; measures student experience, satisfaction, and engagement and predicts institutional growth, can range from a low of -100 to a high of 100; provides a snapshot and should be used with other measures.

Progress - Fall 2023

13.9

The net promotor score for students in CLAS increased by 13.9 from Fall 2022.


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