Dear Faculty and Staff,

Welcome back! Those of you who have been away are sure to notice the three new construction projects that got underway this summer: a new student center, a new College of Education and Human Services building, and a new parking garage (replacing Z lot). New dorm construction will also start in December near the bookstore.

The academic endeavors that are underway as well, promise to bring positive changes to CSU. This year will be very full with, in addition to our service, teaching and research mission we also: (1) start the 10 year NCA accreditation process, (2) continue integration into a System (requiring definition of Centers of Excellence and mission differentiation), (3) plan for our first joint BS/MD program with NEOUCOM, (4) redesign graduate admissions and assistantships and last but not least (5) initiate a record number of faculty searches. See below for details on each of these initiatives.

Recruitment and retention of talented students through engaged learning continues to be a high priority. Last year the enrollment at CSU (as measured by SCH) grew for the first time in years. It is essential to continue this upward trend with faculty involvement in activities that support both retention of our undergraduates and recruitment of new graduate students.

Pride in CSU is justifiably at an all time high and it will certainly help with the recruitment of a new President. I know you all join me in both thanking President Schwartz for his transformational leadership and sadness that he will be leaving the presidency of CSU. To see some of your accomplishments last year under his leadership, go to "50 Ways We Engage" at http://www.csuohio.edu/engagedlearning/50ways.html. By your demonstrated "stewardship of place", the faculty and staff continue their commitment to serving and leading Cleveland into a bright future.

I appreciate all of your hard work to make CSU the best it can be and look forward to working with you on all of these important projects in the coming year.

Sincerely,
MJ Saunders
Provost

CSU's 10 year NCA Accreditation

Cleveland State University, in compliance with the North Central Association and the Higher Learning Commission, will be conducting an institutional Self Study addressing the five NCA/HLC-mandated criteria: 1) Mission & Integrity; 2) Preparing for the Future; 3) Student Learning & Effective Teaching; 4) Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge; and 5) Engagement & Service). The Self Study will identify best practices related to each criterion, assess CSU's ability to incorporate these practices across its campus, and make self-recommendations where possible. During this nearly two-year process, the University will identify institutional strengths, weaknesses and opportunities as well as identify strategies that align Vision Unlimited and the University System of Ohio Strategic Plan 2008-17 with the internal and external needs of Northeast Ohio. Evaluative in nature, the Self Study provides the NCA/HLC's Consultant Evaluators the background and the basis for making recommendations that will help shape the University's future. Dr. R.D. Nordgren and Dr. Gitanjali Kaul will co-chair the accreditation committee and many, many members of the CSU community will be involved in various aspects of the process.

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Requirement from Chancellor for Trustees to Submit CSU's Mission Differentiation and Centers of Excellence by May 09.

In Fall 2007, the new Chancellor for Higher Education in Ohio, Eric Fingerhut was appointed and began working on a strategic plan for a University System of Ohio. The Chancellor took particular interest in N.E. Ohio and argued that the public universities (CSU, Kent, Akron and Youngstown) had overlapping missions and duplicated programs. For a while a merger between U. of Akron and CSU was discussed; however, the Chancellor decided that if the universities clearly differentiated their missions a merger would not occur. CSU leadership proposed two clear foci - health and business and civic life. When the Chancellor's strategic plan was finalized in Spring 2008, he identified a focus for CSU "contributing to the region's growing health care and biomedical economy". All Ohio public universities, including CSU, have been mandated to develop and deliver to the Chancellor an academic strategic plan by May 2009. This plan should include our understanding of our area of focus, as well as how we will build on and strengthen resources in this area.

"Each of Ohio's 13 public university main campuses will have distinctive missions, which include a comprehensive, high-quality education, as well as the establishment of nationally-recognized Centers of Excellence. In a report to the Chancellor due at the end of 2008, each university will identify and establish goals for their Centers of Excellence. This report, which must be approved by the Board of Trustees, will also specify the externally-recognized standards that will be used to measure progress. The Chancellor, in consultation with the Director of Development, will approve or seek modifications in the reports to guarantee a range of academic strength sufficient to drive the global competitiveness of Ohio's economy. The Chancellor will take the final, approved Centers of Excellence into account in making all future funding decisions and recommendations. Part of base subsidy will be based on meeting goals of mission differentiation and progress of Centers of Excellence." …Ohio Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2008-2017

"Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University, the state's 8th ranked public research university, is focused on contributing to the region's growing health care and biomedical economy. This positive direction, which is a logical extension of its historic emphasis on the STEM disciplines and economic development studies, should be supported and encouraged by the state, business and civic leaders. Cleveland State is expanding its presence in downtown Cleveland, a critical development for the regional economy." …Ohio Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2008-2017

I believe that a thoughtful response with wide faculty input is essential for this crucial time for CSU. The CSU task Force on Excellence and Engagement, chaired by Dr. Barbara Margolius, met throughout the Spring and Summer and will have a final report to the Provost that will be shared widely to the Campus community. This report, as well as the Chancellor's Strategic Plan and our own Vision Unlimited strategic plan will form the basis for the discussion this year at CSU.

A critical first step in this process is to develop an understanding of the meaning of an institutional focus on health and how it can further our goal to become a Carnegie recognized "Community Engaged" university. The term health can be applied to individuals, institutions, communities, and the environment. Do we at CSU want to use the term health as a form of sustainability that requires good stewardship of people, communities, and the environment? What is the role of economic development in our concept of health? Do we believe that a liberal education is the foundation of healthy persons and communities? How can a liberal education, social science, scientific, business, legal, urban, and engineering perspective inform a concept of health? What role does civic engagement play in the institutional health of CSU? Is engagement in the world a characteristic of healthy individuals and institutions?

The President and I plan to provide a variety of venues for the conversation about CSU's meaning of health, mission differentiation and centers of excellence - town hall meetings, department and college meetings, a roundtable (facilitated by the Learning Alliance for Higher Education) and a forum with the Chancellor. This planning will also use existing structures and processes - the University Strategic Planning Committee, Faculty Senate, Colleges, as well as asking for input directly from faculty, staff, students, and the community. I urge you to participate fully in the discussions and planning as it is a crucial time for CSU's future. Faculty engagement is fundamental for the future integrity of this institution.

1. Build on Vision Unlimited and Report from Task Force on Excellence and Engagement (report finalized in mid September)
2. The Learning Alliance for Higher Education (formerly Pew Roundtables) will run roundtable on Excellence and Engagement on October 29, 30 with help of Strategic Planning Committee.
3. University wide discussions on Centers of Excellence and Engagement and mission differentiation.
4. Colleges will update or initiate academic strategic planning.
5. Visit by Chancellor -- Night of November 4th All day November 5th
6. Progress toward attaining Carnegie Classification of Community Engagement
7. Report to Trustees early spring to help shape their report to the Chancellor.

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CSU Partnership with NEOUCOM

The Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) and Cleveland State University (CSU) have agreed to join forces to provide increased access to medical education for students in northeast Ohio, particularly in the urban areas served by CSU. This partnership will focus on recruiting a diverse group of future physicians with an expressed interest in providing primary care in urban and underserved areas. Particular efforts will be made to facilitate entry for adult, returning students through a direct-entry post-baccalaureate program, and to mentor high school students in urban areas to facilitate entry into the BS/MD program.

This plan is in direct response to the ten-year strategic plan released by Chancellor Eric Fingerhut in March 2008 and legislative action making CSU a formal partner with NEOUCOM. In this plan, Chancellor Fingerhut outlined the expectation that NEOUCOM would add CSU to the BS/MD program, as well as expand its presence in Cleveland.

From the Strategic Plan of Higher Education 2008-2017:

"NEOUCOM should then be charged with adding Cleveland State to its list of schools that feeds students to the BS/MD program at its Rootstown campus and with expanding the schools presence in both Akron and Cleveland."

"In Cleveland, this presence should take the form of additional capacity for training primary care physicians; a capacity that is called for by the need in northeast Ohio and that is complementary to the existing medical schools in Cleveland. This presence would also make it easier for Cleveland State University and NEOUCOM researchers in molecular medicine studies to collaborate with the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic."

We will be proposing to establish two programs that would complement those already in place in the NEOUCOM consortium:

1. A post-baccalaureate direct entry program for students who have bachelor's degrees in fields other than science or who need additional science to ensure their preparation for medical studies. Included in their preparation for entry to NEOUCOM, these students would complete not only the pre-medical science requirements, but also a structured curriculum in urban health. This would familiarize them with the sociological, cultural, and political considerations that affect healthcare service in urban and minority communities. We believe that older students, career changing adults, and other non-traditional students are prepared to make a commitment to primary care and to work in urban settings
2. A BS/MD Program with a strong emphasis on preparing and educating students from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds. This program will reach into area high schools to begin working with students as early as their sophomore year, to ensure that they reach the university level with the skills in mathematics, science, communication, problem-solving, and work behaviors that are needed to succeed in medical school and in professional practice. The BS component of the program will include three years of activity at selected high schools to build a cadre of high school graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds whose preparation enhances their probability of success in a demanding six or seven year BS/MD program.

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Graduate Admissions and Assistantships

Graduate Admissions is now co-located with the rest of the Graduate School under the direction of the new Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Vera Vogelsang-Coombs. Graduate admissions will be moving to a paperless electronic admissions system to better serve all of the graduate programs at CSU. New attention will be paid to recruitment of students and an efficient admissions process.

CSU has not increased the GA allotment in close to 10 years (except to partially cover tuition increases). There have been no cost-of-living increases or additional stipends added. The result is diminishing support for GAs.

"Grad Assistantships" is about an 8 million dollar line item in the CSU budget. The money does not come directly from the State, no amount of GA support is required or underwritten, and finally, there is no ability to just give free tuition -- it must be charged back to a unit. Funding for GAs comes from the same sources of revenue as faculty and staff salaries, heating and cooling, etc. --- tuition and state subsidy.

We have a very small undergraduate enterprise supporting the graduate teaching and research mission in comparison to other state universities -- with over half of our graduates getting post-baccalaureate degrees each year -- the highest ratio by far in the state. And as you know, our total FTE (or headcount) is about 4 thousand students less than our peak enrollment years and about 3000 less than a stable fiscal model predicts.

We all know the demographics of the Cleveland region and cannot expect high school graduates to increase ---- and our resulting freshman class will not increase. Therefore we must look to retain more of our undergraduates if we are ever able to put more money into our graduate assistantships.

If we use the talents of the graduate students that we are investing in, to help our undergraduates succeed, then we will increase retention, and generate 4 years of tuition and subsidy from an individual student rather than one or two semesters of revenue. We lose close to 40% of our freshman class each year and only 27% graduate in 6 years.

Our detailed analysis of graduate student employment showed that only 25% of our CSU funded GAs were involved in instruction as TAs, tutors or advisors. This is far below any university in the country. At most institutions RAs are solely funded by grants and contracts.

At CSU we need to use these successful students to help our far less successful undergraduate population. And the good news is that graduate students want to do this, are good at it, and when the retention numbers increase, we will put the new dollars into additional graduate assistantships.

There are of course healthy reasons for keeping some RAs -- grant matches, starting packages for new faculty, community-based commitments, chaired professorships to name a few. However we need to drastically shift the balance at CSU to TAs. Dr. Rosemary Sutton and Dr. Vera Vogelsang-Coombs will be working on helping train GAs as tutors, advisors and TAs.

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Faculty Searches

Fifty faculty searches have been authorized for Fall 2009, 25% more than last year and 33% more than in 2007. Searches were authorized based on many factors including: CSU and college strategic plans, open line because one third retirement teaching commitment completed, accreditation requirements, program review outcomes, growth, balance of full time and part time faculty within program, research needs and scholarly profile, and numbers of majors and graduate students.

These new faculty present a great opportunity to CSU for both continual improvement of the qualifications of the faculty and recognition of the evolution of academic disciples for the next 30 years. The search committees, Departments and Colleges have a great responsibility to cast a wide net by broadly described research areas, early searching and multiple recruitment activities. I am encouraging each search committees to recruit faculty who can fully participate in, and further our engaged learning and community engagement mission (within the context of the specific discipline). We must recruit and make offers early in season to get the best faculty available.

We will also be searching for the Director of Honors (January 09), Director of General Education (January 09), Engineering Dean (January 09) and Urban Dean (Fall 09). I am very grateful to Dr. Barb Margolius, Dr. Liz Lehfeldt, Dr. Bahman Ghorashi and Dr. Ned Hill for their extraordinary service to CSU in those positions.

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