Dear Faculty and Staff,

Welcome back to spring semester 2008!  I want to talk to you briefly about plans to form a Task Force on Engagement and Excellence reporting to the Provost. 

Cleveland State University recently completed a new strategic plan “Vision Unlimited: Building the future through shared goals, student success and the advancement of knowledge” after a five year process. This was, and continues to be, an ongoing, collaborative, open, and transparent process with annual review, revision and reporting. Central elements of the plan included: the need to facilitate signature programs, explore new initiatives, develop an engaged CSU community, maintain and expand collaboration and community partnerships, meet the community’s educational and economic development needs and finally to build a strong and unique image.

I have talked with many of you about “Engaged Learning” as a unique niche that CSU fills and have heard very positive responses from all our constituencies. Engaged learning to the CSU community means everything from the bond between students and professors that facilitates academic success to a partnership with the Greater Cleveland community to stand with them to solve the major problems facing the twice labeled “poorest city in America”. CSU, as the only public university in a large metropolitan area, has always been engaged with the community and its students. We are now poised to work with all of you to take engagement to the next level.

We also find ourselves in the midst of extraordinary external pressures from the State and the new higher education System to examine the academic strengths of this institution, especially as they impact the economic and civic needs of the community we serve. The positive side of this introspection is that it is helping us to define not only what CSU has evolved into but also plan the CSU of the future.

CSU has great potential to become a model for the engaged university. In its less than 50 years of existence it has grown, without many external forces or internal analysis, into an institution that is a “steward of place”. The kinds of faculty and students that have committed to CSU have generated an institution that cares about each other and others. The strategic planning process continually brought this theme forward. With new external pressures on CSU from the Chancellor to define a unique niche, a role in economic development and mission differentiation, it is time to take our strengths and build on them.

Our major responsibility now is to take the university-wide strategic plan, our commitment to the community we serve and our excellent academic offerings to embed the values of engaged learning and excellence in all academic and student activities. Our planning for the future must also include a strategic and inclusive approach to defining signature programs and new initiatives.

Therefore, I am forming a Task Force on Engagement and Excellence to help chart the course for the CSU of the future. Dr. Sheldon Gelman, President of the Faculty Senate, and Dr. Connie Hollinger, Chair of the University Strategic Planning Committee will meet with me later this week to identify faculty and staff for the Task Force. The members will be charged with helping to set an academic agenda of excellence and engagement. Some of the tasks will be to catalogue the already extensive engagement activities and programs, define the academic and economically important areas of strength, identify the resources needed for excellence, expand the opportunities for community outreach, and identify ways to embed an assessment and reward system for engagement activities.

I look forward to working with the Task Force and all of you on creating a CSU that we can all continue to have pride in.

Mary Jane Saunders
Provost