Strategic Plan for 2020-25

four students in their commencement regalia look in different directions during commencement

IUP's Strategic Plan for 2020-25 is designed to transform the culture at IUP to enhance the student experience by fostering exceptional student-centeredness. Transformation will include reordering resources to ensure every student is engaged and can be successful at every point in their journeytransitioning to the university, while enrolled at IUP, and after their time at IUP.

Core Principles

  1. Every student is a priority.
  2. Promote the search for, production of, and dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of our students and society.
  3. Provide a wide range of intellectual and professional opportunities for students that will assist them in developing their potential for becoming productive and responsible citizens.
  4. Construct an environment of respect that encourages the growth of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  5. Respond to students and their needs when and where they are to enhance student satisfaction.
  6. Design and re-engineer processes and procedures logically to improve ease of use for students.
  7. Improve communication, collaboration, and engagement across the university, and with our alumni and community partners.

Impact Areas

professor and student from a distance

IUP-Readiness

  1. Enhance and expand orientations to ensure all IUP populations—students, families, faculty, and staff, are successful.
  2. Create intentional connections (both formal and informal) between populations who are new to the university, with each other and with the university community.
  3. Create new and expand existing resources to ensure continuous improvement in the support of student success.
  4. Improve communications that highlight resources and tools available to support student success.

Details / Examples

    1. Develop programming for all incoming classes: freshman, transfer, commuter, re-admits, veterans, transient, graduate, international, clock-hour, non-degree seeking.
    2. Develop programming for the support systems of incoming classes: parents, guardians, spouses, households.
    3. Enhance orientation for all employees: faculty, non-faculty, students, graduate assistants.
    1. Create a Facebook page for parents of incoming classes; connect incoming students by geographic location; connect online students and regional campus students prior to class start.
    2. Broaden peer mentoring and employee mentoring programs.
    1. Develop a one-stop resource to assist students with questions.
    2. Create a "Common Hour" across the university for students to work with staff/faculty as needed.
    1. Explore new social media software and communication tools.
a group of female students pose with a Norm stuffed animal

Finding and Creating Community

  1. Create, enhance, promote, and support opportunities for students to engage and network with like-minded students, both socially and academically.
  2. Foster community-based initiatives and partnerships to increase experiential learning, research and professional opportunities for all students.
  3. Customize innovative methods of intentional social media use to promote engagement within the IUP community.

Details / Examples

    1. Review procedures that may impede support of opportunities for students.
    2. Foster collaboration between student organizations.
    3. Allow students to positively engage by offering more ways to connect.
    1. Pair students early with alumni, businesses, organizations, and other leaders to foster learning and networking opportunities.
    1. Encourage meaningful and responsible social media use across the IUP community; Establish the purpose of each social media tool across all levels—university, colleges, departments, clubs.
    2. Provide faculty and staff education on social media use to promote IUP initiatives.
    3. Encourage faculty to increase or initiate social media content to promote their scholarship and cutting-edge academics.
sideview of a female students face working at a desk

Mental Health and Well-Being

  1. Implement methods to support students in obtaining mental health services in a fast and efficient way when and where they need the help.
  2. Promote mental health wellness across all IUP environments.
  3. Collaborate with the community to engineer a responsive, comprehensive, and long-term system of mental health support for students.
  4. Educate and support students to attend to physiological, safety, and financial needs.

Details / Examples

    1. Re-examine current procedures for students obtaining mental health services (e.g., electronic systems of referral, teletherapy options, providing confidential space for teletherapy appointments, etc.).
    1. Re-engineer the frequency, content, and methods for communicating with students about mental health and wellness maintenance and support services.
    1. Establish a mental health system of support for IUP students that utilizes continuous care within the immediate community and in communities students reside (e.g. working with county provider; moving beyond referral only; providing space for teletherapy).
    1. Utilize a mental health system of support for faculty, staff, and students to use to support all students in attending to, obtaining, and maintaining mental and physical well-being supports.
a group of IUP students during commencement

Post-IUP Success

  1. Connect current and previous students to resources and programming that support career exploration, preparation, development, and success.
  2. Build stronger and intentional connections with alumni through mentorships, internships and business partnerships.

Details / Examples

    1. Work with the Career and Professional Development Center to enhance the curriculum
    1. Collaborate with university organizations (e.g. Alumni and Friends, Career and Professional Development Center).
group of IUP students in a classroom

Academic Success

  1. Enhance students’ initial experience at IUP, including academic support and personal development, in an environment that fosters health and wellness, and values engagement between all members of IUP.
  2. Establish and/or enhance student-peer mentorship programs within each college to provide academic support and social guidance.
  3. Enhance the course scheduling process across the university to better accommodate the students, allowing more flexibility, adaptability, and opportunities.
  4. Identify and address obstacles that impede graduation.
  5. Enhance advisee/advisor communication.
  6. Increase and enhance experiential learning, research, and professional opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

Details / Examples

    1. Create a classroom experience for new learners that facilitates their particular transitional needs from home to college.
    2. Create student cohorts to enhance student support systems.
    1. Evaluate types of peer mentoring programs at all levels to refine programs that benefit all student types.
    1. Evaluate offerings based on history, trends and student/course demand. May include more evening and weekend courses, as well as increased distance education offerings.
    1. Obstacles could include: Curricular, financial insecurities, bottleneck courses, course sequencing, timing and recurrence of course offerings.
    1. Structure more interactions between advisors and advisees.
    2. Promote how students should use advisors as a resource.
    3. Consider pairing all students with student success coaches.
    1. Create more funded opportunities for students. Encourage and fund student travel to professional conferences.
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