Dear Reader,

Hundreds of people participated in a yearlong process to develop clarity and direction for Southern. This creative and comprehensive vision represents a convergence of perspectives about what our University should look like when it reaches its 150th anniversary in 2019. Our efforts to capture a wide range of thoughtful opinions will miss many important and valuable insights and ideas generated during the process. The powerful work of the theme groups and committees that led to Southern at 150: Building Excellence through Commitment is available through complete reports located on the web at http://www.siuc.edu, choose Southern at 150.

A bold statement borne from the collective wisdom and vision of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the University is the fruit of our labor. You will see, that while we are good, we can continue to improve, setting our sights on excellence in every dimension. We will provide our students with first-rate educational opportunities. Our faculty and staff will have excellent facilities, tools and support. We recognize and value the opportunities afforded to us all by this unique region. Our neighbors will think of us as their University, and as a university that shoulders its responsibilities for economic vitality in Southern Illinois.

As a testimony to the great commitment that so many have for our University, this work will guide our progress forward - it is a living blueprint for our future. Our brand of higher education will remain accessible, be of the highest quality, and will be the foundation for a society that is better prepared to meet the challenges of future generations.

The legacy of Southern Illinois University Carbondale is ensured through a thoughtful and bold look ahead. Those who crafted this vision present a clear sense of their passion for excellence at Southern. We hope you share it.

Sincerely,

Walter V. Wendler
Chancellor

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

OUR PLAN, OUR PEERS, AND OUR ASPIRATIONS

On November 13, 2001, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Chancellor Walter V. Wendler announced that he would convene a group, with internal and external participants, to develop a campuswide plan. The plan would clearly articulate the kind of university we hope to be in 2019, when we celebrate our 150th anniversary.

More than 200 people were involved in the work embodied in the plan before you. The majority of participants were faculty, students, staff, and administrators from campus. Off-campus participation was enlisted from alumni and friends of the University, from throughout the region, state, and the nation. Their contributions mark an important step in generating ideas and building relationships with the vast community that we serve. The groups worked for more than six months at refining concepts and ideas that led to this report. Universities from across the nation were studied. A set of peer institutions and aspirational peer institutions was developed. Peer institutions include Auburn University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Ohio University, Oklahoma State University, Texas Tech University, Washington State University, and West Virginia University. Aspirational peer institutions include Louisiana State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Kentucky, and University of Missouri Columbia. These institutions were studied carefully and an analysis was conducted of where we are, where we would like to be in 2019, and what actions are needed to close the gaps in performance. These collective activities led to the plan, Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment.

The goal of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment is to articulate a series of commitments and actions that will place us among the top 75 public research universities in the United States by the year 2019, our 150th anniversary, while we continue to provide the foundation for academic, economic, and social progress in Southern Illinois.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Southern Illinois University Carbondale will: provide excellence in educational opportunities; forge an environment of collective and individual responsibility and accountability; foster an intellectually challenging, yet supportive environment for students, faculty, and staff; rigorously assess programs and allocate resources in ways that are responsive to our strengths and weaknesses; provide leadership for higher education in the state; promote the concept that the institution's concern extends to the whole individual and that our decisions are driven by a desire to do what is in our students' best interests. By embracing these beliefs and by pursuing their corollary actions, Southern Illinois University Carbondale will graduate students who:

• are creative, productive, and responsible
• are lifelong learners
• understand the foundations of inquiry and knowledge
• express themselves clearly and creatively
• understand the value of and need for effective team work
• are prepared to face the multitude of opportunities available in their pursuits and professions of life, and
• meet the workforce and societal needs of Illinois and the nation.

OUR ENVIRONMENT

Our mission, core values, history, geographic location, and desire to promote and deliver excellence in educational opportunity are forces in the environment that sustain and influence Southern Illinois University Carbondale. We serve a wide range of people who are growing in number, diversity and sophistication. We must serve them well.

Our ability to fulfill our mission is directly related to the vigor of the communities and economies of which we are a part. Therefore, we must assert leadership in addressing issues related to health, well-being, and economic development. The University wholeheartedly reaffirms its commitment to continuing and building upon our success in service to our communities, region, and nation.

OUR NEED

Our desires to anticipate future needs and make long-term commitments in ways that can be effectively measured and documented are critical to the creation of a vision for Southern Illinois University Carbondale. We must be respectful of our history, cognizant of our great strengths, recognize areas that need improvement, and draw a blueprint that will guide the institution into the first decades of the 21st century. This vision must represent our very best thinking, and it must reflect a positive perspective for the future of the University. Anything less and we fall short of our responsibility of leadership.

OUR CORE VALUES

• We will be responsive to the needs of our students and do our best to help prepare them for purposeful and productive lives.
• Diversity will strengthen our ability to attain our educational mission.
• We are a public institution and covet the confidence and trust of the public we serve.
• We are an academic institution dedicated to the discovery and preservation of truth, the freedoms required for such a commitment, and the importance of such actions in a free society.
• We will seek excellence in everything we do.
• We will endeavor to produce citizen-leaders with global perspectives.
• We will manage ourselves in a way that exceeds effectiveness. We will expect nothing less than the highest moral and ethical standards at every level.
• We will develop and foster pride in our University, its traditions and values.
• We will extend our reach throughout the world and bring the world to Southern Illinois University Carbondale and to Southern Illinois.

OUR MISSION

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a contemporary, comprehensive student-responsive research university committed to serving the society that supports it. We will serve by providing quality educational opportunities to our students so that the cause of a free society is advanced. Our teaching and scholarship will be perceived as being among the very best. We will lead by example in our service to others, embrace the value of service, and inspire our students to become citizen-leaders with global perspectives.

OUR VISION

The world of Southern Illinois University Carbondale is changing. We will have a different mix, if not different numbers of students at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. It is anticipated that up to 25 percent of the student population will be graduate students, while our undergraduate population should remain relatively steady. We will be known for a faculty and a student body that reflect the human and ethnic diversity and intellectual pluralism of the world. The academic credentials of our faculty will represent some of the best universities in the world. In some disciplines they will be world experts, in all they will be esteemed by their peers. Our staff will be challenged to be the very best in their respective fields.

Our campus will continue to be a place that is esteemed for its natural beauty. We will have new and redefined programs, while some programs will be eliminated over the next few decades. Our region and our state will view us differently than they do now. We will be seen as a strong public research university that provides the most relevant and comprehensive research experience for students who study here. Our resource streams will be different. As historical data indicate, the percentage of resources from the state in relation to our total budget will continue to decrease and resources from other sources will grow. The margin for excellence will be developed through research and private support, while the state will continue to provide the basic support for our University.

OUR COMMITMENTS: THE BLUEPRINT FOR OUR FUTURE

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is guided by the simple principle that our purpose is to provide excellence in educational opportunities so that our students will be prepared for lifelong learning, and the multitude of opportunities available in their pursuits and professions of life. By 2019, excellence will be central to our culture and will benefit our students, faculty, staff, and the region, state, nation, and world. We will strive for it, we will recognize it when it is present, and we will make the difficult leadership and management decisions to insist on working toward it always.

Ten major areas of commitment are necessary for the University to achieve excellence:

• Seek and Celebrate Faculty Excellence
• Lead in Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity
• Offer Progressive Graduate Education
• Promote Excellence in Undergraduate Academics
• Engage the Whole Student
• Provide Assertive and Deliberative Leadership
• Enhance Our Library and Knowledge Resources
• Serve Others
• Enrich Our Campus
• Cultivate Resources

NEXT STEPS

Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment is a living plan, not a paper plan that will sit on a shelf. Many people from both on- and off-campus have committed vast amounts of time and energy to the development of this plan. This plan is a broad statement of values, vision, and commitments intended to provide a blueprint for action and establish the foundation for the creation of detailed, measurable goals.

INTRODUCTION

"Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a great asset whether you are evaluating the effect the University has on local schools or the potential it brings for economic development.

When I first came to Carbondale this spring, I found that Southern Illinois University Carbondale has the flavor and feel of a great university. It is comprehensive, distinguished, and enjoys nationally recognized faculty. Writers, chemists, artists, engineers . . . they all help to expand the knowledge frontier. And they are here for our students.

We have already achieved more than most, and we continue to move forward. We must look forward and anticipate what the citizens of Illinois will need in five, ten, even 50 years from now. I will assemble a group with both internal and external participation that will address a campuswide plan. Ultimately, I want a plan that clearly articulates what kind of university we hope to be by the time we celebrate our 150th anniversary in 2019. We are not starting from scratch.

We have a beautiful campus; we have a history of making college possible for students with disabilities and minority students. We rank first in the nation among majority institutions in attracting and graduating undergraduate African-American males. Southern Illinois University Carbondale students can choose from more than 450 clubs and organizations. We are an international university with students from more than 100 countries. Many of our academic programs are excellent in their respective disciplines, when judged by durable national standards for quality.

And we must continue to look ahead. If there is an enemy to our progress, it is complacency. If we become comfortable with who we are, and where we might go, we will not have the whetted edge that is necessary for continued growth and development of our enterprise." *

*From an address to the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce
November 13, 2001
Walter V. Wendler, Chancellor
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

THE GOAL

The goal of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment is to articulate a series of commitments and actions that will place us among the top 75 public research universities in the United States by the year 2019, our 150th anniversary, while we continue to provide the foundation for academic, economic, and social progress in Southern Illinois.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is guided by the following principles:

• Provide excellence in educational opportunities to our students through the delivery of outstanding academic programs and by the generation and dissemination of innovative insights, ideas, and skills.
• Forge an environment of collective and individual responsibility and accountability to fulfill our obligations as a publicly supported institution of higher education.
• Foster an intellectually challenging, yet supportive environment for students, faculty, and staff by insisting on quality in all that we undertake. Aggressively encourage intellectual vitality in faculty, students, and staff by recruiting individuals from a variety of cultural, ethnic, social, geographic, and economic backgrounds.
• Rigorously assess programs, reallocating resources in ways that recognize, and are responsive to, our strengths and weaknesses.
• Provide responsive leadership for higher education in the state to fulfill our role as the first public institution of Southern Illinois.
• Actively promote the concept that the institution's concern extends to the whole individual, and to help students develop leadership skills and a moral and ethical perspective on the world.
• Create a safe and supportive environment for all who frequent our campus.
• Proclaim that the best higher education in Illinois generally, and at Southern Illinois University Carbondale specifically, is a shared enterprise relying on both public and private partnerships.

By embracing these beliefs and by pursuing their corollary actions, Southern Illinois University Carbondale will graduate students who:

• are creative, productive, and responsible
• are lifelong learners
• understand the foundations of inquiry and knowledge
• express themselves clearly and creatively
• understand the value of and need for effective teamwork
• are prepared to face the multitude of opportunities available in their pursuits and professions of life, and
• meet the workforce and societal needs of Illinois and the nation.

OUR PLAN, OUR PEERS, AND OUR ASPIRATIONS

More than 200 people were involved in the work that led to the plan before you. The majority of participants were faculty, students, staff, and administrators from the campus. Off-campus participation was enlisted from alumni and friends of the University across the region, state, and the nation. Their contributions mark an important step in generating ideas and building relationships with the vast community that we serve. The groups worked for more than six months at refining concepts and ideas that led to this report.

The initiating event for Southern at 150 was the creation of a planning group of 12 individuals from on- and off-campus who outlined a strategy for future efforts. The Phase Zero Advisory Group, as it became known, is listed in the appendix. All of the group members were invited to serve on the Southern at 150 Task Force. Two documents were developed from these early meetings.

The first document was a major benchmarking effort that assembled a set of peer and aspirational peer institutions against which we would gauge our efforts and through which we would filter our desires to change. The peer and aspirational peer institutions are part of the Illinois Board of Higher Education peer list with two exceptions: Ohio University and University of Colorado at Boulder, added to provide breadth. The institutions are:

The second document, the Phase Zero Report, included an overview of issues deemed to be important to the institution. This served as the kick-off document for the task force that assembled for the first time on January 17-18, 2002, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The following information on the Southern at 150 process is available on the Web at: http://www.siuc.edu, choose Southern at 150.

The Groundwork: The information assembled and the comparative data on a significant number of indicators, including the peer and aspirational peer comparisons, is available along with the Phase Zero Report.

The Foundation: More than 200 participants were assembled into ten theme groups organized to address major areas of endeavor for the University. Each group produced a report that summarized discussions, findings, and recommendations. The detailed reports of each theme group are available, along with the presentations each group made to the larger Southern at 150 committee.

The College Vision Statements: Each college prepared a vision statement for the next two decades. The colleges are the intellectual gathering places for faculty and students. Their visions inform and give character to the direction of the University.

The Vice Chancellor Vision Statements: The vice chancellors, who ensure the efficient operation of the institution, prepared vision statements to guide their respective areas.

The general direction for the campus comes from the Chancellor and Provost through a participatory planning process. The brainpower for this process comes from faculty, staff, students, and friends of the University. This planning process is collaboratively driven from the use of both a top-down and bottom-up approach.

OUR ENVIRONMENT

We must prepare for the future by assessing who we are and who we would like to become. In the words of Delyte W. Morris, the man who led the change from a normal school to a research university in the middle part of the twentieth century:

"We in education in Southern Illinois are faced with a trying task. The University's share of that task is large indeed. From the assurance of support by faculty, students and the general public, and the assurance of cooperation from other institutions of higher learning, comes courage to face this task. I believe it possible to build here an institution which will serve the needs of the people, providing at once a seat of learning and research, and an agency for community service – an institution with its organization so planned that it will provide the general advantages of a state university, and yet fill the gap of special needs usually provided in other communities by liberal arts colleges, colleges with self-help programs, denominational colleges, and technological and vocational institutes. I believe it is possible to be at once practical and scholarly, gearing our programs to the basic, fundamental needs of the people on the one hand, and pushing onward to new horizons of learning on the other. I believe that the University and our public schools of Southern Illinois can work as a unit toward a common goal. I believe that by combining our resources we can provide the kind of continuing enlightened leadership which will make it possible for this area to solve its problems and realize its destiny."*

*Excerpt from inaugural speech
May 5, 1949
Delyte W. Morris, President
Southern Illinois University, 1948-1970

Our mission, core values, history, geographic location, and desire to promote and deliver excellence in educational opportunity are forces in the environment that sustain and influence Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Expectations of the legislature, our alumni, and public school educators; the needs of students, faculty and staff; the requirements of families and future employers in our state and nation -- all influence what our University is and what it should be. We serve a wide range of people who are growing in number, diversity, and sophistication. We must serve them well.

The expression "doing more with less" is overused, but appropriate as we reflect on the environmental forces and demands that shape our present and future goals and aspirations. Providing educational opportunity in a student-responsive residential research university is a high calling. The world is changing and so too must we. Business in the old way will not fit the new world as it unfolds before our eyes. We are connected electronically to information and insight from a global perspective. While we allow that to shape us, we must remember we serve a real region, with real needs and people, who have desires and dreams of their own that we facilitate by providing them the power to change themselves and their circumstances.

We have excellent faculty, staff, and students. However, the best universities in America continually strive to increase the quality of the people who populate them. This is the nature of higher education. Excellence will be destroyed in an environment of complacency. We must continually strive to be better.

We are an economic engine for Southern Illinois, a responsibility that must rightly fit into the constellation of demands and forces, ideas and goals, that make up the environment in which we live.

These forces determine who and what we are. Our response to these forces, coupled with a passion for providing excellent educational opportunity to our students, allows us to see what we will become.

OUR VIEW OF EXCELLENCE

We plan to be better. If we focus on academic and service issues, and elevate the provision of educational opportunity for our students to the center of our work, our raison d'etre, we will become better and better. We will be excellent. Excellence is achieved when faculty members are recognized and rewarded for their work, when our students are challenged to transcend mediocrity, when our research, scholarly, and creative work is the subject of national attention, when we recognize that we cannot be everything to everybody, when our environment is acutely tuned to the needs of our people, when the campus exudes a sense of valuing Southern Illinois and the latent potential the region holds for the future, and, when we all agree that anything squandered is a loss, but human potential left incomplete is nearly a crime. This must be our passion.

When we define excellence we cannot look at a single idea or measure, but must look holistically at the concept. When we look to research expenditures rather than research quality as a measure of excellence we will miss the mark. If dollars rather than quality, creativity, or ideas are the measuring stick, we might fail. Excellence and the intellectual work of the faculty and students must be evaluated by the journals where work is published, the peer review parameters that performance or artifact is subject to, and the esteem held for the work in the respective discipline. Excellence is a multifaceted concept -- an idea that manifests itself differently in different settings.

We need an embedded view of what makes our people, our programs, and our places excellent so that every dimension of the organization is touched by the concept.

OUR NEED

Our desires to anticipate future needs and make long-term commitments in ways that can be effectively measured and documented are critical to the development of a vision for Southern Illinois University Carbondale. We must be respectful of our history, cognizant of our great strengths and areas that need improvement, and draw a blueprint that will guide the institution into the first decades of the 21st century. In order to respond to the needs of our students, faculty, and staff, a long-term view must be established. It must represent our very best thinking, and it must reflect a positive perspective for the future of the University. Anything less and we fall short of the responsibility of leadership that we carry, for our campus, our people, and the region of Southern Illinois.

The relationship of higher education to state government is changing. Over the past two decades, state support of the University has dwindled as a percentage of our total budget. While increases in research expenditures and tuition and fees have tempered the impact of these reductions, private giving and endowment support are short of our peer institutions and must dramatically increase to respond to a national trend in research university funding. Our student populations are changing. Competition for students from both in- and out-of-state universities is increasing. More scholarship and fellowship support must be developed. Faculty, the core of the institution, are being competed for in the same way as professional athletes -- with intense competition, requiring signing bonuses and start-up packages that must be matched if we are to get the best-in-field scholars to come to Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

We need a strategic, visionary plan for our University and a plan to evaluate our progress. We need a sense of where we are going, and a means by which to assess progress as we move in the direction we set. These needs drive our plan, and our planning.

OUR CORE VALUES

Student-Responsiveness: We must listen and respond to our students and provide instruction and services that help them achieve their full potential. We will welcome all students and do our best to prepare them for purposeful and productive lives. We may be challenged at times to reassess our current beliefs, attitudes, and methods.

Diversity: Diversity will drive our ability to attain our educational mission. As our world increasingly changes, so must we. We will not only respect, but also value differences in all their forms of expression as necessary to the creation of a view of each other that is balanced and healthy. We will be known for a faculty and a student body that reflects the human and ethnic diversity and intellectual pluralism of the world.

Building trust: We are a public institution and covet the confidence and trust of the public we serve. We will demonstrate integrity, honesty, openness, and accountability in our classrooms, faculty offices, business centers, athletic fields, and in every facet of university life. Our standards for academic decisions, development of staff and students, our relationships in classrooms, laboratories, studios, and offices, and our business decisions will be scrutinized by the highest national standards. Likewise, in our leadership, we expect and deserve unquestionable ethical and moral standards for decision-makers and decision-making.

Academic freedom and responsibility -- the cornerstones of excellence in higher education: We are an academic institution dedicated to the discovery and preservation of truth, the freedoms required for such a commitment, and the importance of such actions to a free society. This concept is not only critical for a university; it is the foundation for American democracy.

Excellence as the measure of all things: We will seek excellence in everything we do. We will define excellence with durable national and international standards. In order to be truly excellent we must look beyond ourselves and our immediate world. We must focus on the best. We must be determined in our quest to get there. We are better than we think we are, but not as good as we can be.

A more civil world: We will endeavor to produce citizen-leaders with global perspectives. Higher education in the United States, and particularly in Illinois, is recognized around the world for its quality. That quality is built on our form of government. Democracy empowers and encourages free thought. Free thought empowers and encourages new ideas. New ideas fuel individual accomplishment and a strong economy. But this equation only works in a civil society where people are treated with dignity and respect. It is civility that allows us to embrace unity and diversity and celebrate the work of individuals for their contributions to the greater good.

Leadership and management: We will manage ourselves in a way that exceeds effectiveness. We will be bright and thoughtful about solutions to problems. We will recognize that Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a place that values people and the human spirit. We will be wise. We will be careful. We will only be tolerant of the highest moral and ethical standards in managerial and leadership behaviors, at every level of university life. Our decision making should be directed toward excellence in all things.

Pride: We will develop and foster a sense of pride in our University, its traditions, and its values. Our view of pride will not be parochial, but will be broadly inclusive and used to constructively elevate each person whose life we touch.

World View: We must expand our reach throughout the world. Our international outreach and international programs will affect who we are and shape the University in every aspect of its life and organization. As we benefit from knowledge, resources, and students who come to us from around the world, we must reciprocate in kind. The products of our research, scholarly, and creative activities should be made available to improve economic, health, and social issues throughout the world.

These are our core values.

OUR MISSION

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a contemporary, comprehensive student-responsive research university committed to serving the society that supports it. We will serve by providing quality educational opportunities to our students so that the cause of a free society is advanced.

Our teaching must be excellent. We must take the act of teaching to the level of an art form. Our students should feel engaged and challenged, mentored and supported as they move through campus classrooms, laboratories, and studios. They should be confronted with the very best thinking in the fields in which they study. Critical thinking and problem-solving will be developed talents of every student. Our talents as teachers will assist them in making that happen. Great teachers foster the greatest learning environment.

Our scholarship must receive recognition. Our research, scholarly, and creative activities must be recognized nationally to best serve our students. The work produced by scientists and artists, writers and public servants of the University must be considered on par with any public research university in the nation.

We must lead by example in our service to others, embrace the value of service, and inspire our students to become citizen-leaders with global perspectives. Citizen-leaders are the legacy of America. One of the greatest citizen-leaders the nation and Illinois has ever known, Abraham Lincoln, understood the power and importance of learning and being an effective citizen-leader. Our aspirations should be clear and high. Our mission is to educate people who will become the citizen-leaders of the 21st century. They will be informed risk-takers. They will value honesty and forthrightness. They will understand and practice teamwork, and the common good. They will possess skills in creating a stronger democracy and utilize them in their chosen fields, for the betterment of society -- regionally, nationally, and internationally. Citizen-leadership will be cultivated through service-learning programs as well as targeted faculty/student outreach programs.

OUR VISION

The world of Southern Illinois University Carbondale is changing. We will host a different mix, if not different numbers of students at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. Many will continue to be from international locations, and many more will be American citizens of Hispanic origin. It is anticipated that up to 25 percent of the student population will be graduate students, while our undergraduate population should remain relatively steady. Our students will live in better residence halls and housing accommodations on campus. Living accommodations will look and be organized differently - some in groups with students from their respective disciplines, others with people from a wide array of study areas. Many will continue to be first-in-family to attend college. The diversity of the student population will increase. Our students will represent many racial and ethnic groups. Increasingly, students from other countries will come for undergraduate and graduate education. All of our students will be encouraged to pursue opportunities to study in an international setting. Almost all will have the opportunity to work on campus, many in fields related to their professional interest areas.

Our faculty will be diverse and their academic credentials will be representative of some of the best universities in the world. In some fields they will be world experts; in all they will be esteemed by their colleagues. They will subject themselves to the most rigorous international standards of peer review for their creative work, their scientific enterprise, and their scholarship. We will increase the number of faculty members in relationship to our student body so that a high-contact student-faculty ratio provides the very best that the research university setting has to offer. Our heritage provides the foundation for this kind of faculty; our future demands a comprehensive commitment to faculty excellence.

Our staff members will be challenged to be the very best in their respective fields. They will be held to high standards of accountability. As educators and as service providers, they will support and enhance the learning experiences of our students and the University community through quality programs, activities, services, and facilities. They will provide work and service to the University not only for the benefits packages and stability of employment, but for the challenges, rewards, and joy of working in a student-responsive research university environment. Our staff will be held in high regard.

OUR FUTURE IS SUSTAINED BY DIVERSITY:

"The College will be known for a faculty and a student body that reflects the human and ethnic diversity and intellectual pluralism of the nation. Its curricula in the study of race and gender, in ethnic and cultural studies, and its programs for Inclusiveness in the Arts and Diversity in Public Service will be mature and meaningful components of the life of the College. It will maintain contributions to the international context of education in the 21st century."

College of Liberal Arts, Vision for Southern at 150

Our campus will continue to be a place that is esteemed for its natural beauty. Our buildings and facilities will require little deferred maintenance; it will have become part of the culture of stewardship that will be constructed in the next 20 years. Our classrooms, laboratories, and studios will be technically sophisticated and provide the best support for high-caliber intellectual work. Our library will be respected by many research universities in the nation.

We will have new and redefined programs, while some programs will be eliminated during the next few decades. Many new master's degree programs will be instituted, some through asynchronous distance learning. All will be of high quality and relate to the distinctive competencies that drive our national reputation. Public radio and public television at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will be a web of communication with the region we serve, and assist the University in attaining its educational mission while providing informative entertainment for the citizens of our state.

Our region and our state will view us differently than they do now, and we will view ourselves differently than we do right now. We will be seen as a strong and vibrant research university that provides the best student-responsive research experience for students who study here. All of our undergraduate students will value scholarship in their respective fields. Our graduate and professional students will be immersed in leading research in their chosen discipline. Our service to the region and the state will be thoughtful, consistent, and responsive to our local needs, and meet the highest national standards for universities that serve the locale where they reside.

Our resource streams will be different. As historical data indicate, the percentage of resources from the state in relation to our total budget will continue to decrease and resources from other sources will grow. The margin for excellence will be developed through research and private support, while the state will continue to provide the basic support for our University.

SEEK AND CELEBRATE FACULTY EXCELLENCE

Our faculty is the foundation of the University. We must continue to recruit and retain nationally and internationally recognized faculty engaged in teaching, research, and service. The University must provide the physical and philosophical support necessary to allow our faculty members to engage in a full range of professional and service activities expected of them. A healthy academic environment that celebrates and rewards faculty for excellent teaching, research, and service; and values the innovations and results of research, scholarly, and creative activity is necessary to meet our goals. The core of a comprehensive, student-responsive research university demands our faculty passionately and creatively address the needs of undergraduate and graduate students through engagement in the broad learning opportunities available. A nationally recognized Center for Teaching Excellence could serve as a model program and would publicly demonstrate the value we place on continually improving our academic excellence.

Aspiration: Recruit and Retain High-Quality Faculty

A nationally and internationally recognized faculty committed to teaching, research, scholarly, and creative activity, and outreach should be the core of a comprehensive student-responsive research university. Faculty characteristics should reflect the commitment of the University to the important contribution the faculty provides to its success. The faculty will reflect the diversity of the larger society. Faculty will be nationally and internationally recognized, and productive as scholars participating in the full range of research or creative activity associated with their unique disciplines. They will have a solid foundation in disciplinary training and expertise, and simultaneously value interdisciplinary work. Faculty must be provided with adequate resources and facilities to develop a high-quality learning environment. The University will strategically hire and take steps necessary to retain high-profile teachers, researchers, and service contributors. High expectations for teaching, research, and service will prevail throughout the faculty. The faculty will engage in a student-responsive approach, involving undergraduate and graduate students in all aspects of their professional activities, including serving as mentors and advisors.

OUR FUTURE IS SHAPED BY OUR FACULTY:

"Our greatest strength is in the quality of our faculty. We will compete against the best business schools in the nation to recruit, nurture, and retain outstanding faculty. By the year 2019, eight additional endowed chairs, 12 professorships, and 16 competitive fellowships will have been obtained to allow the College to assemble an outstanding top 40 public business faculty."

College of Business and Administration, Vision for Southern at 150

Targets:

• Maintain a minimum 70 percent of all faculty members with full-time status and in continuing faculty appointments. Ninety-five percent of the faculty will have the appropriate terminal degree for their fields.
• Offer strong hiring packages to candidates that include competitive, norm-based salaries, generous start-up, and partner placement assistance so that we will be successful when competing for faculty with peer institutions.
• Passionately recruit candidates for faculty positions from diverse backgrounds, including those with international interest and expertise.
• Retain faculty members. No faculty member who we desire to keep should leave Southern Illinois University Carbondale for reasons other than family or geographic location.
• Maintain student/faculty ratios, appropriate to each discipline, that are equivalent to or better than our peer institutions.

Source: Peterson's 2002 4-Year Colleges Guide

Average of All Peer Institutions = 17

Aspiration: Support and Foster Faculty Excellence

The University should provide the necessary support to foster excellence in faculty instructional, scholarly, and outreach activities. The administration and faculty should share an understanding of the mission and long-range goals for Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The administration should take the lead in building and fostering a cohesive and productive working relationship with the faculty. Full, shared governance is a necessary ingredient for excellence. Resources should be available for faculty to carry out their teaching, research, and service responsibilities. Southern Illinois University Carbondale will provide the resources necessary to support expanded relations between the faculty and students and the envisioned role for faculty outreach. The University should adopt a proactive approach to external relations between the faculty and the Southern Illinois region.

Targets:

• Create 50 endowed chairs and 100 endowed professorships to aid in hiring and retaining excellent faculty. The Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor should establish a pool of resources to be used for "targets of opportunity" hiring. Create a salary pool for "visiting chairs," one- or two-semester appointments that departments and colleges can compete for, to bring prestigious senior scholars to campus as faculty/researchers. At least 20 percent of the "visiting chairs" will be reserved on a competitive basis among departments for visiting faculty from international institutions.
• Create a new category of faculty, contract faculty, who can be offered multi-year contracts with the opportunity for promotion and professional development. This category of faculty should represent 15 percent of the total faculty.
• Identify new sources of support for a well-funded system of faculty professional development opportunities that are available to all and distributed across all colleges. Our faculty should have opportunities equal to faculty at peer institutions.
• Faculty should increase and enhance collaborative and cooperative initiatives across disciplines. Develop and implement a nationally recognized support and reward system that encourages interdisciplinary work.
• Award outstanding teachers and scholars the title "Distinguished Teaching Professor," and "Distinguished Research Professor." Support and fund endowments for each, and create resident distinguished teaching and research professors to advise and mentor faculty, students, departments, colleges, and the administration.
• Ninety percent of our faculty should teach at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Aspiration: Construct Excellent Faculty Reward Systems

Faculty reward systems should be developed that promote the values of the institution and enhance the learning and discovery environment in an efficient and productive manner. Collaborative construction of faculty merit systems should convey the value of faculty to the process. Such reward systems must value, recognize, and reward excellence in teaching, research, and service, and efforts for integrating research and creative activity into teaching. Reward systems should encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue.

Source: American Association of University Professors
Average of All Peer Institutions = $60,833

*Average salary of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor.

Targets:

• Establish faculty salaries comparable to those of our peer and aspirational peer institutions.
• Maintain high standards for tenure that reflect both diverse department/college missions and the larger University mission. Conduct rigorous annual reviews. Implement a coordinated, faculty-approved, faculty-administered, post-tenure review process.
• Develop merit systems that are reliable, valid, flexible, sensitive to variations in performance, and address the diverse assignments of teaching, research, and service.

Aspiration: Establish a Center for Teaching Excellence

Expand the Center for Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching to include the integration of research into undergraduate education as a key concept for the center. The center should focus on teaching excellence at all levels and become a model program with national recognition for training of both faculty and graduate assistants. Other curricular and pedagogical objectives of this center include a stronger first-year experience for entry-level students, interdisciplinary courses and programs, undergraduate research initiatives, professional development, and mentoring, among others. Here the virtues of a major research institution are readily translated in a very tangible way to all our students at every level of achievement.

Targets:

• Cultivate an environment of learning where high-quality teaching forms the standard. Train future faculty members at all levels -- K-12, community colleges, and higher education institutions. Students should perceive that quality teaching remains the highest priority of the University.
• Pursue federal, state, and private support for the Center for Teaching Excellence and for professional development.
• Become a national model in the preparation and training of faculty and graduate assistants.
• Foster a strong peer relationship between faculty and graduate assistants to encourage collaboration.
• Establish a core curriculum that is nationally known for instructional innovation, such as service and problem-based learning, and academically sound curricula; as evidenced by recognized faculty, appropriate accreditations, and commitment to the philosophy of being student-responsive.
• Promote internationalization of the undergraduate and graduate curricula. Increase the number of courses related to global and international issues. Incorporate the importance of global education into the professional training of teachers at all levels.

OUR FUTURE IS FRAMED WITH STUDENT-CENTERED RESEARCH:

"Our vision of SIUC in 2019 is to be in the top 75 among public institutions in all important research measurement categories and be a university in which research is more completely integrated into the undergraduate experience, and truly student-centered."

Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Dean, Vision for Southern at 150

LEAD IN RESEARCH, SCHOLARLY, AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Research, scholarship, and creative activity performed at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, including the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, have many high-impact benefits including new knowledge, ranging from scientific discoveries to works of literature or art; enhancement of our reputation; enhancement of recruitment and retention of high quality students and faculty; enhancement of our ability to attract additional resources; enriched experiences that prepare students for success; improving the quality of the workforce; direct economic benefits from new resources attracted to the region; new jobs, spending, and taxes generated by new companies derived from university-developed intellectual property; an opportunity for budgetary growth; and a unique strength that distinguishes us. In short, high-quality intellectual work in all disciplines -- humanities and arts, sciences, education and the professional schools -- is the backbone of our University.

Source: National Science Foundation

Average of All Peer Institutions = $109.7 million

Aspiration: Top 75 Public Research University

Southern Illinois University Carbondale will strive to be a top 75 public research university in total and federal research and development (R&D) expenditures. Excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activity can stimulate greater success for programs across disciplines and contribute immeasurably to the reputation of the institution.

Targets:

• Increase the total R&D expenditures by 11 percent per year. Increase the federal R&D expenditures by 13 percent per year.
• Identify, pursue, and obtain new sources of external grant and contract funding. Establish relationships with granting organizations, private industry, and foundations and promote the University as a research institution of high quality.
• Develop incentive-based reward systems to encourage faculty to secure external grant funding.

OUR FUTURE IS EXPANDED WITH KNOWLEDGE:

"As a Carnegie Doctoral/Research Extensive University, SIUC is committed to the discovery of knowledge, teaching, and service, while concomitantly focusing on high standards of excellence, stimulating meaningful research, and encouraging intellectual development."

Provost and Vice Chancellor, Vision for Southern at 150

Aspiration: Enhance the Culture of Research and Scholarship

Research and scholarship will be integrated into every decision made on campus. Improvement can be realized in the development of the research enterprise on campus. Building a culture where research becomes an integral part of all undergraduate and graduate programs is essential. Substantially enhance research and scholarly productivity.

Targets:

• Enhance and develop existing and new centers of research, scholarship, and creative activity excellence, consistent with our academic aspirations.
• Develop interdisciplinary, interuniversity, and University-industry partnerships designed to foster research, scholarship, and creative activities. Increase by 200 percent funding from such partnerships.
• Commit to marketing the intellectual property of our faculty and its relevance to the community, state, nation, and world. Increase intellectual property licensing by 1,000 percent.
• Seek new domestic and international training grants that advance campus programs, and enhance national and international relationships.

Aspiration: Become the Best Student-Responsive Public Research University in Illinois

Research and scholarly activity provide new knowledge and intellectual stimulation that are vitally linked to the educational process. Cutting-edge faculty research and scholarship contribute to what will be in the textbooks of the future. At both the graduate and undergraduate levels, involvement of students in the process of conducting research, scholarly, and creative activities provides an enriched experience that better prepares them for success at the next level, and as a result also enhances the quality of the workforce. At Southern Illinois University Carbondale, we embrace the role of being a student-responsive research university where graduate and undergraduate student participation in research is a critical component of the overall student experience.

Targets:

• Increase the number of internship opportunities relating to research, scholarly, and creative endeavors with high expectations for interactive student participation in research. Twenty-five percent of our graduates will participate in short- or long-term internship opportunities.
• Increase research-focused scholarships and recruit top students for these scholarships. Increase funding for student workers for research, scholarly and creative activities, and service. The levels of funding will be above the mean for aspirational peer institutions.
• Develop new and enhance existing programs to incorporate research into undergraduate academics. Increase by 100 percent the undergraduate research opportunities for minority and female students. Increase University Honors Program participation by research-oriented faculty.
• Create a thesis and dissertation grant program to assist students with special one-time expenses such as illustrations, minor research equipment, etc.

Aspiration: Increase Giving to Support Research, Scholarship, and Creative Endeavors

Solicit funds for research from all potential sources, including alumni, individuals, business, industry, and partnerships. Encourage and nurture a mutually supportive relationship between the University and its alumni.

Targets:

• Target fundraising for specific research-related enhancements, such as undergraduate research scholarships ($10M), endowed fellowships ($20M), and 500 additional research assistants.

OUR FUTURE IS RENEWED WITH GRADUATE PROGRAM STRENGTH:

"The departments within the College of Science must strive to be research departments of national and international stature, while maintaining a strong commitment to the teaching of mathematics and science necessary to supply the needs of a scientifically trained workforce and a technologically literate populace. We believe graduate degrees will be increasingly important to prepare students for the workplace and the graduate programs in the College of Science will need to be strengthened and expanded."

College of Science, Vision for Southern at 150

OFFER PROGRESSIVE GRADUATE EDUCATION

Current trends suggest that the 21st century will be one of graduate and professional education as Illinois moves into a global, knowledge-based economy. Southern Illinois University Carbondale must advance its commitment to graduate and professional education to make this University distinctive. We are classified as a Carnegie Doctoral/Research Extensive university, placing us in an exclusive group of national universities. We must not merely maintain this status. The University must continue to build on this strong foundation to remain a leader in local, regional, national, and global affairs.

Benefiting from the opportunities to be an active participant in faculty research, our graduate and professional students will be able to further develop expertise in their chosen areas of interest through extensive involvement in research. Faculty will be encouraged to pursue research and research funding with consideration given to the potential for enhancing the graduate and professional experience. Interdisciplinary research is also believed to be of great value in developing a variety of skills that will add value to graduate and professional training.

The demographic characteristics of graduate and professional students are constantly evolving, and we must seek to meet the educational needs of groups that do not fit the traditional student model. The University and the faculty will continuously seek new instructional modes for the delivery of graduate and professional programs. The format, time of delivery, and the methods of instruction must be made more flexible.

Aspiration: Achieve Excellence in Graduate and Professional Programs

The University's ability to attract high-quality graduate and professional students and faculty depends upon offering nationally and internationally recognized Ph.D., master's, and certificate programs that make us distinctive. The University must continue to build on and strengthen its foundation of graduate and professional programs. The University must provide an environment that supports the intellectual development of graduate and professional students, enabling them to perform at their optimum level, and preparing them for distinguished careers.

Targets:

• Provide additional resources to enhance and/or develop an array of graduate programs at the master's level, focusing on programs in high demand. Double the number of students enrolled in master's programs.
• Maintain an appropriate balance of Ph.D. programs and provide additional resources to strengthen Ph.D. programs in high demand or with national preeminence.
• Increase by 100 percent the number of qualified applicants for graduate study.
• The University must continually assess the academic strength and reputation of the graduate and professional program inventory as a whole. Weak or unproductive graduate degree programs should be identified and actions taken to strengthen or eliminate programs through a collaborative shared governance process.
• Communicate the value of graduate and professional education, and the successes of our students. Focus on the unique contributions of graduate and professional education to the economy and quality of life of the region, state, nation, and world.

Aspiration: Acquire Funding to Recruit and Retain Graduate Students

The University must enhance efforts to recruit and retain a diverse group of the best students for our graduate and professional programs from throughout the region, the nation, and the world. This effort will require developing close contacts with other colleges and universities that provide students for our programs, especially those in our geographic region, by aggressively marketing our programs, and offering increased financial support for students. By 2019, 25 percent of our total enrollment will be graduate students.

Source: IPEDS Peer Analysis System, Fall Enrollment Survey

Average of All Peer Institutions = 13.6%

Targets:

• Secure funding so that a minimum 75 percent of our full-time graduate and professional students are on graduate assistantships or fellowships. Assistantship and fellowship stipends must be competitive with aspirational peer institutions.
• Double the number and dollar amount of graduate student stipends, as well as support for other research professionals and post-doctoral personnel. An endowment of $20M devoted to graduate student support should be established within five years.
• Match peer institutions in major external scholarships awarded to our students.
• Allocate a portion of all increases in graduate tuition to graduate student scholarships. In time, more of these scholarships should be funded by private donations.

OUR FUTURE IS BUILT ON QUALITY:

"The College of Engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will be the engineering and technology programs of choice where parents want to send their children, where students want to learn, where employers seek engineers and technologists, where industry and government find technological innovations, and where underrepresented and underserved populations are encouraged and supported to obtain a quality education."

College of Engineering, Vision for Southern at 150

PROMOTE EXCELLENCE IN UNDERGRADUATE ACADEMICS

We must recognize our academic programs as a top priority and the essential component for the continued health of the University. Quality instruction is the heart of our academic mission at the undergraduate and graduate level. An enhanced academic reputation will ultimately benefit recruitment, undergraduate retention, external fund-raising and will raise the real and perceived value of a degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. A nationally recognized Center for Teaching Excellence will serve as a model program and will publicly show the value we place on continually improving our academic excellence.

Students should take responsibility for their own growth and development and seek help when needed from faculty and staff. They must understand the parameters of academic integrity and honesty expected by the University community, and learn the expectations of each faculty member for class participation and attendance.

Aspiration: Shape High-Quality Undergraduate Programs

Providing high-quality, comprehensive, undergraduate education will improve the meaning and value of the undergraduate experience. Learning outcomes from undergraduate degrees should include a seamless combination of foundational skills, major-specific knowledge, ability to work in teams, cross-cultural comfort, and a desire to engage in lifelong learning. We will create an environment of discovery and learning in undergraduate academics and integrate research, scholarly, and creative activity into teaching at the undergraduate level.

Targets:

• Enhance nationally recognized programs whose graduates are in demand in the job market. Encourage program flexibility, adapt format, time of delivery, and method of instruction as needed. Survey and longitudinally track employer satisfaction with our graduates.
• Improve our undergraduate reputation score in Barron's, Peterson's, and U.S. News and World Report to meet or exceed aspirational peer institutions.

Source: U.S. News & World Report, America's Best Colleges, 2001 Edition

Average of All Peer Institutions = 3.0

• Review the curriculum, including the core curriculum, for its ability to achieve stated learning outcomes, program quality, enrollment size, and resource requirements and modify both funding and curriculum as appropriate. Maintain a strong core in the arts and sciences.
• Strengthen the Honors Program and the Communication Across the Curriculum program.

OUR FUTURE IS STRUCTURED THROUGH
OUTSTANDING PROGRAMS:

"The College of Applied Sciences and Arts by 2019 will continue to be recognized for outstanding professional and technical programs, will increase research and grant productivity that builds on industry collaboration and regional service, and will develop graduate programs taught by research-oriented faculty."

College of Applied Sciences and Arts, Vision for Southern at 150

• Create a Student Academic Resource and Retention Center. Support students with academic challenges and promote retention at all levels. Establish a comprehensive, coordinated First-Year Experience program.
• The University must continually assess the academic strength and reputation of the undergraduate program inventory as a whole. Weak or unproductive undergraduate degree programs should be identified and actions taken to strengthen or eliminate programs through a collaborative shared governance process.

Aspiration: Strengthen the Undergraduate Scholarship Program

Strengthening and maintaining a substantial undergraduate scholarship program, with an emphasis on merit-based scholarships, will attract incoming students of exceptional quality. The resources for scholarships in the past have been inadequate to compete with regional institutions. Competition for top undergraduate students will become more intense. Southern Illinois University Carbondale must plan to remain competitive in this area. As we strive to raise our program standards, we must also raise the standards and expectations of incoming students. We must recruit and retain exceptional students from throughout the region, the nation, and the international community. Fund raising for an undergraduate scholarship program is imperative for us to compete for students of exceptional quality.

Targets:

• Develop a National Merit Scholarship program and increase current merit scholarship funding to establish parity with aspirational peer institutions.
• Include undergraduate academic scholarship funding as a major component of any Southern Illinois University Carbondale Capital Campaign. Increase corporate-sponsored scholarship money by 400 percent.
• Assure that the undergraduate academic scholarship program is providing scholarship opportunities to minority, international, and female students.
• Allocate a portion of all increases in undergraduate tuition for student financial aid scholarships. In time, more of these scholarships should be funded by private donations.
• Increase unrestricted scholarship funding.
• Match peer institutions in major external scholarships awarded to our students.

Aspiration: Setting Higher Admissions Standards

As we strive to raise our program standards, we must also raise the standards for and expectations of incoming students. We must actively recruit and retain a diverse group of exceptional students for our undergraduate programs from throughout the region, the nation, and the international community. The University will ultimately benefit from raising our standards in terms of recruitment, retention, and a higher expected performance level of our students; thereby enhancing the academic reputation of the institution.

Source: U.S. News & World Report, America's Best Colleges, 2001 Edition

Average of All Peer Institutions = 11%

Targets:

• Strengthen admissions requirements -- class rank, standardized test scores (ACT, SAT), grade point average, high school core courses -- while we create greater flexibility, recognizing demonstrated leadership, service, and community involvement in the admissions process.
• Strengthen admissions requirements for students transferring from other postsecondary institutions, while we increase by 25 percent the number of transfer students.
• Significantly increase the freshman retention rate to 85 percent and the six-year graduation rate to 60 percent.
• Continue to lead aspirational peers in percentage of international students enrolled.

OUR FUTURE IS FORGED BY TRAINING OUR STUDENTS FOR CAREERS:

"The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts has made experience-based learning the bedrock of its undergraduate education. This approach has been facilitated by the presence of a daily newspaper and public radio and television stations in the College, which become the outlet for students' work in the news, persuasive communication, entertainment, film, and photography."

College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, Vision for Southern at 150

ENGAGE THE WHOLE STUDENT

By the year 2019, students will engage in a full, rich, multifaceted, and integrated University experience producing educated, productive citizens and citizen-leaders. University leaders will assume responsibility for enhancing this total experience with the support of the entire University community. The student body will be more diverse. More part-time and non-traditional students will attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale. English will be a second language to an increasing number of students. Goals for attending the University will be as diverse as the student body. Greater numbers of students will transfer to the University from community colleges. Engaging students in the broad learning opportunities available at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is critical. We will strive to create citizen-leaders with global perspectives.

The student experience takes place both in and outside the classroom. During the college years, students must learn to work well with other people, forge positive and effective relationships, test and internalize personal values, maintain commitments, and determine the role they wish to assume in society. An effective student life experience is shaped and influenced by faculty and staff working together to help students overcome financial, physical, emotional, social, spiritual, cultural, and even academic difficulties in order to achieve their academic and life goals. Students should also meet the expectations of the institution for civil behavior, respect differences, and provide service to the greater community. Students are also a part of the local community, and a successful student life experience can only be achieved when the University and the community operate in partnership to create positive experiences for the students.

The residential character of the University is recognized as an asset which should be further defined and developed, based on the belief that preeminence in this area will provide both a competitive advantage and the milieu within which character can be nurtured.

Aspiration: To Meet or Exceed the Expectations of our Students

Southern Illinois University Carbondale, committed to the student-responsive philosophy, will provide services to meet the educational, career-planning, physical, recreational, emotional, and mental health needs of our students. Our commitment to addressing all elements of the student experience needs to be broad-based, conveniently located, and appropriate in order to successfully and seamlessly support the mission of the University. Our programming for the University community will include individuals with national or international distinction. We will collect and disseminate accurate information about the student population to enable the University community to meet the needs of our students.

Targets:

• Improve the Recreation Center and Student Center, including expansion of existing facilities, so that coupled with the Library, these centers are the basis for co-curricular student life.
• Expand the services offered to meet student health care needs, including diagnosis and support of students with learning disabilities and promoting ADA awareness by expanding services for emotional and mental health needs in order to become the most supportive campus in the nation for students with disabilities. Wellness, health promotion, and risk reduction should be a major component of health-related programming and service delivery.
• Create and support traditions that foster a lifelong attachment to the University and build relationships among the University and its students and graduates.
• Enhance and support student involvement in activities that provide opportunities to build leadership and interpersonal skills. Increase student involvement in community service, volunteer activities, government, and programming. Create a Center for Ethical Leadership.
• Develop and maintain a multicultural, campus-wide, broad-based focus that will enhance each student's understanding of the value of diversity. Establish a multicultural center.
• Facilitate the integration of international students and their families into student life.

Aspiration: Develop Alternative Housing Options

Southern Illinois University Carbondale should create housing options to respond to the changing needs of the student body. The percentage of students who live in campus housing is slightly below the average for peers. Current housing options are older and limited in number. There is a need to renovate and upgrade current facilities and to construct new ones to meet emerging trends. Capitalizing on the residential character of the University experience will create competitive advantages and further opportunities for student development.

Targets:

• Monitor and assess student satisfaction in housing and respond to needs in an expeditious manner.
• Enhance housing programs that acknowledge the diversity of student needs, such as academic interest housing, special interest housing, or housing for diversity to promote diverse experiences in communication, living, and learning. Establish a Parent(s) in School program to enable student parents to live in an on-campus residence community to bring them into the center of student life.

Aspiration: Promote Intercollegiate Athletics

Athletic programs should be funded at a level comparable to our peer and aspirational peer institutions. The level of funding and support for student athletes is currently below other members of the Gateway Conference and Missouri Valley Conference and far below that of our peer and aspirational peer institutions. On most campuses, student life, a sense of school pride and spirit, and traditions center on an athletics program. Winning teams help to promote enthusiasm, pride, and involvement in "being a Saluki." They also increase visibility for the University and, therefore, aid in student recruitment. Without a commitment of funds and resources, winning teams cannot be created.

OUR FUTURE IS HEIGHTENED BY PROMOTING SALUKI PRIDE:

"As SIUC strives for excellence in teaching, research, and service/outreach at the 150-year mark, so should it strive for excellence in its athletic programs, which serve as an important link connecting the University with students, staff, alumni, and the surrounding region. A successful intercollegiate athletics program can be an important factor in generating the type of atmosphere where school pride is a defining characteristic of our campus."

Intercollegiate Athletics, Vision for Southern at 150

Targets:

• Structure athletics as an essential component of campus life. Fund athletics at the appropriate level to be able to compete in their respective conferences. Standards of performance will be comparable to campus-wide academic expectations.
• Encourage student involvement in sports and intercollegiate athletic events.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of facilities and support services for all sports. Develop an Athletics Facilities Plan in coordination with the Campus Land Use Plan.

OUR FUTURE IS FULFILLED BY CREATING CITIZEN-LEADERS:

"In all human service and education careers, it is essential for graduates to be knowledgeable and skilled in their cognitive area of expertise, to be understanding and sensitive to the needs of the diverse populations they serve, and to be skilled in the creative application of current technologies. The College is committed to preparing ethically responsible leaders who are critically reflective about their profession and who recognize they must continue to learn and refine their knowledge, values, skills throughout their professional lives."

College of Education and Human Services, Vision for Southern at 150

PROVIDE ASSERTIVE AND DELIBERATIVE LEADERSHIP

As our expectations rise for programs and students, we must also be able to review the way we conduct business. Stability in governance, leadership, and management must be cultivated in order to provide decisive, consistent, proactive, and adaptive direction in the pursuit of the University's vision for 2019. The leaders of the institution must be able to respond effectively to internal and external factors that demand innovation and change. Thoughtful, reasoned risk-taking within approved parameters should be commonplace, and rewarded at all levels of the organization. We should acknowledge and review failures as a means of learning and improving in the future.

Aspiration: Stability in Leadership and Governance

Foster development of a strong leadership team and stability in the University's administration. Establish clear, consistent expectations for administrators. We will support and encourage administrators who make bold and tough decisions that enhance the University's mission of teaching, research, and service.

Targets:

• Consult and collaborate with the college deans and chairs to structure initiatives and programs that promote the University's missions of teaching, research, and outreach. Manage the campus with a "Strong College Leadership" model, grounded in faculty participation.
• Effectively communicate administrative issues and procedures to faculty and staff. Provide more leadership opportunities and appropriate training to faculty and staff. Conduct the University's business in a professional and timely manner and create efficiency in shared governance.
• Provide for succession at every level so that there is at least one person prepared to step into an administrative vacancy on an interim basis, at any time.
• Encourage and support select faculty and junior administrators to take part in administrative internship programs such as ACE Fellowship Program and UWPA internships.

Aspiration: Develop Streamlined, Agile Administrative Structures

Develop a streamlined, administrative, decision-making structure with a minimum number of layers of personnel. Efficiency and effectiveness must be the end result in all endeavors. Ensure that key areas and personnel are represented in the input gathering and decision-making processes. Administrators should establish priorities and clearly communicate the expectations to all personnel.

Targets:

• Empower the entire campus community to make decisions that can achieve the most efficient and effective results. Communicate successes developed in one area that would be helpful to other areas of the campus.
• Empower top-level administrators to direct and implement strategic initiatives and changes with efficient faculty, staff, and constituent participation.
• Require administrators to set and communicate priorities, after appropriate consultation, and to institute those priorities with available funds.
• Reduce bureaucracy.

OUR FUTURE IS SECURED BY PROVIDING INFORMATION RESOURCES:

"As a viable resource for the University, the Library must be able to attract people for study, for discussion, and for enlightenment. The Library must also reach out to its patrons, on campus and in the community through energetic marketing of the Library's facilities, services, and unique holdings. The Library must establish partnerships with academic departments and strong bonds of mutual support and cooperation. It also has a responsibility to make its resources available for the betterment of the surrounding community. A strong and vibrant Library can lead to a forward-looking University – one that truly deserves to be a major force for change within the state and the region."

Library Affairs, Vision for Southern at 150

ENHANCE OUR LIBRARY AND KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES

The explosive growth of technology and its impact on knowledge distribution will dramatically influence University strategies and resources. In 2019, a student or researcher will access significant elements of the Library's collections from the solitude and privacy of a home, residence hall, or office any time of the day or night. It is likely that with the significant exception of scholarly monographs and original primary source material, nearly all of the Library's current research materials will be available over the network as digitized text and image.

Morris Library plays a central role that transcends disciplines and the provision of traditional library services. The library of the future will serve as a symbol of academic values, the centrality of research -- discovery and the quest for new ideas -- and the vitality of teaching and learning, not simply as a classroom exercise but as a foundation for a life of inquiry based on a commitment to intellectual integrity and an openness to diversity of ideas, opinions, and cultures, both social and intellectual. Resources necessary for the Library to serve these roles must be obtained.

A vision for the future is challenging when considering technology, which is evolving exponentially. While digitized information resources are readily available, projecting the impact this technology will have on daily life is more difficult. It is imperative to be progressive, flexible, and innovative in evaluating the application of technology. We envision resources that are selected wisely and carefully from among opportunities, matching potential promise with the needs of the campus and local expertise in a balance of risk and cost.

Aspiration: Create an Intellectual Hub

In 2019, Morris Library will serve as a busy marketplace of ideas and learning -- an inviting place for the campus community that facilitates and encourages nondirected learning outside the classroom in a context of research and scholarship. It will accommodate the needs of individual scholars as well as the special requirements of learners working in small groups. The Library will be widely recognized as a symbol of the academic mission of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Targets:

• Provide a balanced program of collections and services to meet the needs of our patrons for flexible access to information of all kinds in all formats.
• Carefully select physical collections and services to maintain the Library as the center of the campus community and academic life.

Source: Association of Research Libraries 1999 - 2000

Average of All Peer Institutions = 69

Includes only university library members of ARL. The ranking is based on an index that comprises five quantitative data elements in which ARL university libraries most resemble one another. The ranking includes 112 university libraries.

• Elevate Morris Library to rank in the top 50 of the Association of Research Libraries' publicly supported academic research libraries in the United States.
• Evaluate and update research, scholarly, and creative support services. Champion the professional development of faculty research with special programs, such as enhanced grant-writing incentives, sabbaticals, and mini-sabbaticals for special projects.

Aspiration: Offer Innovative Technology

Research and embrace new information technologies that are strategically consistent with higher education and the University's core mission and vision. The development and use of information technologies must be flexible, progressive, and innovative. We envision a matrix of services and technology that may not be on the cutting edge of every new application; but rather are selected wisely and carefully from opportunities, by matching the potential with the needs of the campus and local expertise in a balance of risk and cost.

Targets:

• Evaluate the recommendation for combining Library Affairs and Information Technology into a single division with a "Dean of Library Affairs and Chief Information Officer" reporting to the Chancellor or Provost.
• Increase by 10 percent per annum our investment in the technology base budget to maintain and upgrade the campus network backbone and individual desktop connections; fund the development of emerging technologies, such as Web-based education and distance learning; and support new, strategic technologies.
• Take the lead in developing Web-based education and the integration of information resources into Web-enhanced courses. Enable all classroom-based courses, as appropriate, to be offered via distance learning technologies as prompted by faculty interest, curriculum design, or market interest.
• Actively pursue, participate in, and embrace the use of Internet2 as a prominent research tool. Identify potential partners at universities, government agencies, and elsewhere for the development of networked information resources and teaching tools.

Aspiration: Provide Flexible Library Collections and Services

The proliferation of information in a wide variety of formats will require providing patrons with a balanced program of collections and services and flexible access to this information. The Library will continue to provide instruction and research support for both physical and digital collections in ways that keep pace with the rapidly changing and growing information universe.

Targets:

• Build and house strong collections matched to the curriculum and research needs of our academic community. Enhance and improve access to current journals, online subscriptions, monographs, and special collections.
• Develop new foci in special collections that support the reputation of the University in its distinctive competencies. Promote the history, culture, and heritage of the Southern Illinois region.
• Take a leadership role in enhancing consortia ties, and develop new relationships to improve access to materials from other collections.

OUR FUTURE IS COMPOUNDED BY FACILITATING
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

"The Office of Economic and Regional Development, in collaboration with the Dunn-Richmond Center and Southern Illinois Research Park, will serve as a catalyst for economic, community, and regional development in Southern Illinois. We will take the lead in partnering with entrepreneurs and community leaders to start, expand, and locate enterprises in the region in all sectors ranging from value-added agriculture to healthcare, retirement, tourism, advanced manufacturing, and high-tech enterprises."

Office of Economic and Regional Development, Vision for Southern at 150

SERVE OTHERS

As a resource for service and technical assistance, Southern Illinois University Carbondale will be actively involved with communities and other area educational institutions in promoting and developing economic opportunities in the areas of technology, manufacturing, agriculture, natural resources, tourism, retirement, and healthcare services. As a cultural hub, Southern Illinois University Carbondale will enhance the arts and be a leader in improving the quality of life for residents of the region. The University will evaluate and implement opportunities to expand its presence and services to the region. Fundamental to realization of service to Southern Illinois is the concept of citizen-leadership.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale should grow and expand its heritage of collaboration and partnerships with corporations, private business, and government by enhancing our visibility in other sectors and cultivating potential funding sources. Improving our corporate relations will enhance future fund-raising efforts.

Service to others is critical if we are to fulfill our missions. The University will aggressively pursue leadership opportunities to address social, health, and economic development issues of importance to our region and the larger extended area covered by the Delta Regional Authority. We will communicate our successes and our interest in seeking help from others as we pursue initiatives in these areas.

Pride from inside the organization serves as a beacon to the community, region, state, and nation. We must build and strengthen the pride that we have for Southern Illinois University Carbondale and develop mechanisms and traditions for communicating this pride throughout our internal and external environments.

Aspiration: Reaching Out

Southern Illinois University Carbondale will encourage efforts to collaborate and develop partnerships with corporations, private business, and government to enhance our visibility in other sectors and cultivate potential funding sources. Improving our corporate relations in a coordinated manner will lead to a more unified and cohesive organization, and will enhance future fund-raising efforts. Our culture will reach out to national and global audiences.

Targets:

• Provide both traditional and continuing education opportunities for professionals, evolving employment sectors, and for students, using flexible approaches and alternative locations.
• Offer education and training activities for a variety of pre-adult age groups. Continue existing education and athletic-related camps, clinics, and training programs, and build and promote new ones.
• Coordinate and expand our major cultural outreach programs.
• Facilitate campus use by nontraditional enrollees. Review the potential for an on-campus hotel.

OUR FUTURE IS STRENGTHENED BY PUBLIC SERVICE:

"The School of Law seeks to be the best small public law school in the country, delivering an education program that bridges the professional and graduate models. At the same time, the School of law seeks to fulfill one of the core reasons for its existence, namely, public service."

School of Law, Vision for Southern at 150

• Provide medical, dental, and social services to at-risk populations through service-learning and outreach activities.

OUR FUTURE IS TRANSFORMED BY ESTABLISHING PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS:

"SIU School of Medicine intends to aggressively pursue its vision as a community-based academic medical center. Linka