University provides July updates on strategic initiatives

(July 20, 2018) -- In an email sent today to UTSA faculty and staff, President Taylor Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic and tactical initiatives underway to support the university’s strategic vision.

Finance and Budget Modeling Task Force

On July 16, Huron Consulting and Provost Espy co-hosted a retreat for UTSA’s deans. During the meeting, Huron reviewed recommendations for the proposed budget model design, structure and allocation methodologies - the so-called “dials and levers” of the model that can be customized to fit UTSA’s unique strengths, priorities and culture. UTSA’s senior leadership team will meet with Huron on July 23 to review and provide feedback on recommendations for the proposed model. Huron will then provide a summary of all feedback and updated suggestions regarding the budget redesign to the full task force on July 25. Also this month, Huron is meeting individually with department chairs to discuss college-specific issues. A new website related to the budget redesign is under development.

Downtown Campus Task Force

The Downtown Campus Experience sub-group is working with various university offices to scale up student and campus services, resources and activities in preparation for increased student enrollment in the fall. In June, the group hosted its first “Table Talk” event to engage and share information with the campus community regarding new housing options and changes to the curriculum, among other topics. Updates are now being posted regularly to a new Downtown Campus news and updates page, linked from the Downtown Campus Initiative website.

Campus Master Plan

This week, UTSA and the Urban Land Institute co-hosted a visioning session to explore issues and opportunities regarding San Antonio’s near westside. A variety of institutional stakeholders representing near westside institutional and governmental organizations, supporters of economic development efforts and urban planners participated. The results—which will start to become available in August—will inform the guiding principles for the Downtown Campus master planning efforts. This visioning with institutional partners precedes planned conversations that the campus master planner and master planning task force will have with near westside area community organizations and the UTSA community later this summer/fall.

Student Success Task Force

In June, EAB met with deans and the Senior Leadership Team to provide an update on the proposed four-phase plan to improve student success:

• Phase 1 – Assessment
• Phase 2 – Awareness and Alignment
• Phase 3 – Implementation
• Phase 4 – Evaluation

A student focus group, comprising a diverse group of approximately 15 undergraduate and graduate students, was convened to vet and refine a student-centered definition of student success for UTSA. Continuing summer 2018 efforts are centered on Phase 3 (implementation) with key action teams.

Strategic Enrollment Task Force

The task force work is complete for Phase 1 of the Strategic Enrollment Planning process. Eight initiatives have been identified to begin during the 2018-19 academic year, which is designated as “year zero” of the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. Work is underway to complete the initiative’s final report and begin discussing Phase 2 initiatives. A survey to assess academic program demand will launch in August. Ruffalo Noel Levitz will return to UTSA in September to set the implementation plan in motion and to work with campus community members on Phase 2 initiatives.

Data Governance and Integrity Council

In addition to ongoing work on UTSA’s key performance indicators and data dashboards, the Data Governance Council is engaged in additional projects to enhance the university’s operational efficiency. The Council identified major opportunities in BANNER and formed a steering committee to determine what changes need to be made in order to support all software platforms that need input from BANNER. A space software initiative has been launched to map all UTSA space accurately on one platform (FM Systems). In addition, scheduling software (25Live) will be used across the campus based on space data from FM Systems to schedule rooms/events—including classroom scheduling—ensuring we use our space as efficiently as possible as we pursue student population growth. The data governance model has been presented to the deans, and they have identified a point of contact in their colleges to serve on the Data Governance College Leads committee, which will launch at the beginning of the fall semester.

SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation

The Steering Committee has completed almost all of its meetings with the Racing to Reaccreditation sub-teams in order to address action items identified last fall and spring. Work has now started on writing rough drafts and reviewing narrative content. A series of writing workshops will be offered to the sub-teams in August to assist with the writing and documentation process.

National Security Collaboration Center 

UTSA continues to recruit partners for the National Security Collaboration Center, with the 24th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) (AFSPC) and the 25th Air Force endorsing the collaborative Government-University-Industry (GUI) partnership model through formal letters of support. New industry partners Parsons and Peraton have provided letters of support and intent to collaborate in the NSCC.

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