Focus Areas and
Key
Strategies
Drawing upon recommendations made by Boldness by Design task forces and vice presidential areas, Michigan State University had adopted a working list of priority objectives. These focus areas and key strategies provide a framework to advance the commitments of Boldness by Design’s strategic imperatives and guide investment and action across the MSU community.
Strategic Imperative 1
Enhance the student experience by continually improving the quality of academic programs and the value of an MSU degree for undergraduate and graduate students
Focus Areas
- The first-year experience
- Active and engaged learning
- Academic and social environments
- Connection between work and academic experiences
- Internationalization of the student experience
Key Strategies
- Prioritize the first year of college as the critical time to introduce students to a rigorous and engaged undergraduate experience
- Enhance transitional experiences, including welcome activities, for first-year students
- Expand opportunities for engaged learning, including research, internships, civic engagement, service-learning opportunities, use of technology, and active learning
- More closely link the undergraduate experience with the world of work through internships on and off campus
- Expand undergraduate living–learning opportunities, including an increase in first-year opportunities
- Support programs, policies, and strategies to ensure liberal learning target outcomes are met
- Work with student groups and others to generate a greater peer culture of expectations around inclusion, respect, and civility
- Expand and focus global/international content in curriculum
- Increase opportunities for international internships, research experiences, and seminars
- Promote development of intercultural (domestic and international) competence
- Provide multicultural training opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students
- Increase the rate of involvement in study abroad and other international experiences for students of color, students with disabilities, and precollege students
- Create greater opportunities for students to interact with others who are from different cultures and backgrounds
- Enhance the academic, physical, and social environments to support learning
- Align the resources and support services of the campus to student goals of inclusive excellence
- Make phased enhancements to campus recreational facilities
Strategic Imperative 2
Enrich community, economic, and family life through research, outreach, engagement, entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity, and inclusion
Focus Areas
- Outreach and communication
- Economic development
Key Strategies
- Develop sustained and aggressive programs to maximize MSU’s intellectual property estate, identify opportunities for commercialization leading to a diverse portfolio, and support start-ups derived from MSU faculty discoveries
- Enhance communication about faculty research that supports diverse communities, underserved communities, and communities that can be strengthened by the work of MSU public policy researchers
- Expand regional cultural economic development programs to include all areas of the state that promote arts and culture as part of their economic growth strategy
- Expand involvement in community and economic development partnerships to all urban areas of the state
- Create and test new biobased technologies, processes, and products
- Improve communication of public policy work and events
- Promote and reward community engagement of faculty and students
- Expand support for outreach and engaged research
- Continue to build a campuswide network among precollege programs in order to enhance efficiency and maximize outcomes
- Increase access for Michigan’s children to early childhood emergent literacy programs developed by MSU faculty and community partners
- Expand family-related research and outreach
Strategic Imperative 3
Expand international reach through academic, research, and economic development initiatives and global, national, and local strategic alliances
Focus Areas
- International recruitment and retention
- Faculty, staff, and student development
- Depth and breadth of global engagement
Key Strategies
- Sustain and enhance engagement strategies in Africa, enhance engagement strategies in China, and develop strategic engagement strategies for the Middle East and South America
- Increase the number of strategically selected countries in which the university has a formal, long-term presence
- Develop a model for collaborative hiring with partner international institutions to share and exchange faculty resources
- Develop dual degree programs and joint degree programs with partner universities in multiple countries
- Recruit and retain more high-quality international students from more diverse backgrounds
- Enhance international student participation in broader campus activities
- Prepare graduate and undergraduate students for global/international leadership and participation
- Explore feasibility of an international institutional review board for human subject research conducted outside the United States
- Increase access to various models of high-quality language instruction
Strategic Imperative 4
Increase research opportunities by significantly expanding research funding and involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in research and scholarship
- Focus Areas
- Research information systems
- Quality
- New research programs
- Targeted investment and promotion
- Undergraduate research
Key Strategies
- Support cross-university, interdisciplinary research initiatives in key focus areas: health and biomedicine, environment, family, bioeconomy, plant science, animal science, and nanotechnology and nanoscience
- Expand and promote targeted research areas that support economic development
- Develop a compelling vision and new funding support for arts and humanities research at MSU
- Engage in continuous assessment and improvement of policies, procedures, practices, and services that promote research activities
- Increase faculty support at the preaward research stage
- Expand use of advisory groups that include representative stakeholders to monitor progress of research support and to provide input on stakeholder satisfaction
- Complete development of an integrated research administration information system
- Provide training on regulatory affairs and research ethics to undergraduate and graduate students
Strategic Imperative 5
Strengthen stewardship by appreciating and nurturing the university’s financial assets, campus environment and infrastructure, and people for outstanding performance today and tomorrow
Focus Areas
- Maximization of endowment and entrepreneurial revenue streams
- Inclusiveness
- Environmental stewardship
- Business procedures stewardship
- Human capital stewardship
- Community safety and security
Key Strategies
- Develop a vision and framework for furthering inclusiveness at MSU
- Create a more inclusive work environment for staff members
- Engage in continuous review and improvement of practices to assure inclusiveness
- Improve the sustainability of MSU campus by reducing inputs, improving the efficiency of processes, and optimizing outputs
- Demonstrate commitment to care, preservation, and enhancement of the campus environment as a public resource
- Build on fundraising momentum and maintain minimum annual gift commitments at the level achieved during the Campaign for MSU
- Substantially increase university endowment
- Substantially increase external funding for research, including securing more center, program, and training grants; obtaining support from foundations in the arts and humanities; and developing more corporate partnerships
- Replace the university’s financial and human resource management systems to increase efficiency and improve the timeliness and accuracy of information
- Align planning, funding, and assessment practices
- Create expectations and opportunities for continuous learning and leadership development among faculty and academic staff
- Enhance technology capability and support across units
- Enhance computer access and training for labor employees, identify MSU workforce skill and knowledge development opportunities, and work collaboratively to design initiatives and programs
- Provide business procedures training for student organizations and groups
- Enhance employee retirement education and advice options
- Develop progressive emergency planning, management, and communications frameworks for the campus
- Enhance general exterior security of buildings and security of selected areas within buildings while maintaining reasonable open access to campus
- Engage in continuous review and improvement of safety in residence halls
