University provides February update on strategic initiatives

(Feb. 16, 2018) -- In an email sent today to UTSA faculty and staff, President Taylor Eighmy announced several town hall meetings for the UTSA community to learn more about the UTSA Presidential Initiatives. Additionally, Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic, tactical and operational initiatives underway to support the university’s strategic vision.

Town Halls Announced

In March, a series of town halls will give the campus community an opportunity to learn more about the progress of three Presidential Initiatives. Open to all faculty, staff and students, these sessions will kick off with updates from the task force chairs, followed by open dialogue and questions.

Finance & Budget Model Initiative
Tuesday, March 27 | 1:30 – 3 p.m. | Student Union Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02) | Main Campus                     
Wednesday, March 28 | 3 – 4:30 p.m. | Frio Street Building (FS 1.512) | Downtown Campus                         

Strategic Enrollment
Monday, March 19 | 4 – 5:30 p.m. | Buena Vista Street Building, Aula Canaria (BVB 1.328)  |  Downtown Campus
Monday, March 26 | 3 – 4:30 p.m. | Student Union Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02) | Main Campus                       

Student Success
Monday, March 19 | 4 – 5:30 p.m. | Student Union, Denman Room (SU 2.01.28) | Main Campus
Thursday, March 22 | 4 – 5:30 p.m. | Frio Street Building (FS 1.512) | Downtown Campus

Student Success Task Force

EAB representatives visited the Downtown and Main Campuses Jan. 30 and 31 to meet with college deans and associate deans, as well as representatives from the offices of Student Life Initiatives, Career Services, P-20 Initiatives, Welcome Center, Enrollment Services and UTSA Libraries to learn about their programming. This visit concluded EAB’s comprehensive inventory of UTSA’s array of student success initiatives. EAB has prepared a report that includes a set of recommendations and a proposed action plan for bolstering UTSA’s student success efforts. The report was presented to President Eighmy, the Senior Leadership Team, the deans and the task force earlier this week.

Strategic Enrollment Task Force

The task force met Jan. 24 and 25 to review the situational analysis work done by the five working groups. The working groups performed a SWOT analysis on their respective topics of student success, graduate and undergraduate academic programs, finances and recruitment/marketing. They also identified initial strategies for the Strategic Enrollment Plan. The Ruffalo Noel-Levitz consultant for UTSA built a diagnostic based on the SWOT analyses and UTSA's data sets, which was presented to the Senior Leadership Team and college deans. During the next few weeks, action plans will be developed for several of the initial strategies and will be presented at the task force’s next meeting, scheduled for March 6-7.

Finance and Budget Modeling Task Force

Work continues on the second phase of the Finance and Budget Modeling initiative. The newly formed steering committee is meeting every three weeks to review decision points for creating a preliminary budget model that can be used for evaluation. The steering committee will solicit feedback on these preliminary decision points from the larger task force along the way. Announcements will be made later this month regarding a budget training that will be available for UTSA leaders. This training will cover best practices, important terminology, and various aspects of budget analysis and development.

Strategic Communications Plan

The Strategic Communications initiative will create and implement a consistent, differentiated brand identity that builds favorable awareness and positive perceptions of UTSA. Foundational work for this initiative started last year when the Office of University Communications and Marketing (UCM) engaged Stamats, a leading higher education integrated marketing firm, to conduct market research on the UTSA brand. Stamats surveyed the campus community (students, faculty and staff), UTSA alumni, and Texas employers/hiring managers. Through its research analysis, Stamats has identified institutional strengths and strategic differentiators for the university. These findings and other insights will be used by UCM to inform the launch of new brand positioning and new advertising and communications campaigns later this spring.

SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation  

During the week of Feb. 5, members of the UTSA SACSCOC Reaffirmation of Accreditation 2020 team came together to review the revisions to the SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation and to reassess action items identified in the fall. Participants were provided with the current SACSCOC Resource Manual to guide them in their efforts. Team members from across the institution will be addressing all outstanding action items over the next few weeks and months based on these revised requirements.

Weighted Student Credit Hour Optimization Committee

The Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) Optimization Committee met on Feb. 1 to review the subcommittee reports.  The committee agreed to consider these top three recommendations from each subcommittee. A comprehensive report will be submitted to President Eighmy in the coming weeks.

National Security Collaboration Center 

The first strategic planning meeting took place Jan. 30 and was attended by federal, industry and nonprofit partners interested in co-locating in the National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC). Noblis, a research focused nonprofit, has also confirmed their partnership publicly in an article with the San Antonio Business Journal as part of their plan to expand operations in San Antonio. As a means to understand how the NSCC will impact our local economy, UTSA is developing an economic impact study to share with stakeholders and to help UTSA make the business case to potential state supporters.

Dreamers Center 

The Dreamers Center has now been in operation for just under a month and has already assisted many of UTSA’s DACA and un-DACAmented students with referrals resources. Interviews are currently underway for a permanent Program Manager.

Behavior Intervention Team

Interviews for the new Behavior Intervention Specialist position are currently underway. The specialist will be housed in an office on the 3rd floor of the North Paseo Building.

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Learn more about the UTSA strategic plan.

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