Faculty Session
November 11, 2005
Here is the summary of the discussion held by Wayne State faculty who examined three of the strategic directions contained in the current plan. Faculty members focused on the learning experience, pre-eminence in research and scholarship and the engaged university.
1. Learning Experience: Establish and sustain a superlative learning experience that builds upon the unique values and attributes of WSU.
- Capitalize on our assets as an urban university in a metropolitan location.
- Integrate the international dimension and interdisciplinary approaches into the curriculum.
- Enhance faculty retention while focusing on junior and senior faculty, providing support and recognition.
- Address the unique needs of differing student populations, including high-achieving students and poorly prepared students.
- Require that undergraduates take math and writing competency exams early in their academic career.
- Improve student services, advising and financial aid.
- Enhance infrastructure and facilities.
- Look beyond U-M and MSU for comparisons; find universities with similar missions and students as WSU.
- Consider granting associate degrees.
- Continue the discussion on enrolling 40,000 students, identifying the optimal size of WSU.
2. Pre-eminence in Research and Scholarship: Strengthen our performance as a nationally recognized research university by focusing on our competitive advantages, enhancing our scholarship, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach to research, and collaborating with government, industry and other institutions to enhance economic growth and the quality of life.
- Create mechanisms to support multi-disciplinary research, however do not favor multi-disciplinary over other types of research.
- Take a broader approach to research and support the robust and rigorous triangulation of disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research.
- In addition to big science, focus on research opportunities presented by our location in metropolitan Detroit and emphasize research areas that make Wayne State unique.
- Actively promote and publicize the university’s research to the general public through aggressive public relations efforts.
- Solidify the university’s regional reputation and enter into regional partnerships and collaborations.
- Stimulate discussion and debate on the role and mission of the urban university.
4. Engaged University: Develop mutually beneficial partnerships with our community as catalysts for social, cultural, economic and educational enrichment of the region.
- Assume a more active and aggressive leadership role in the community; do more than just act as a catalyst.
- Extend community partnerships and engagement to beyond the immediate neighborhood.
- Expand the role and mission of successful programs such as the Math Corps.
- Create new K-12 initiatives to impact educational quality and policy.
- Provide funding from the general fund to support new engagement initiatives.
- Shift the focus in the current strategic plan from the capital campaign to the university’s commitment to community engagement.
- Serve as a venue for cultural interaction by offering diverse and engaging programming to attract people to campus.