The vision is for K-State to become a premier/top ten land grant institution by re-inventing ourselves in new ways that keep us at the leading edge as a major student-centered research university.
The strategy to move us toward our vision is based on implementing a series of priorities that have evolved over the past year with input from faculty, department heads and deans. One of our priorities is to continue to strengthen support for our productive faculty, and an example of a strategy evolving from this priority is to effectively elevate our most distinguished faculty toward national recognition in such forums as membership in the National Academy of Sciences.
Our vision is directly focused on being among the elite of land grant universities and is based on our successes in the areas of the land grant mission associated with teaching, research and outreach, serving the citizens of Kansas , the nation and the world.
Being top ten as a land grant is a goal that allows us to strive to be better than we are today; to be among the elite land grant institutions nationally. Such a level of attainment will help us to be recognized (using objective criteria) nationally and internationally as being among our nation's finest public land grant institutions. By identifying and leveraging the strengths of our faculty we can make unique and distinctive contributions to our state and nation. This success will surely help us in faculty and student recruitment and retention and help the university more effectively build partnerships with other major land grants nationally.
Being student-centered means we care about students. Student welfare and success is our first priority. Such student success is, of course, based on having and retaining an outstanding faculty at the forefront of research and creative endeavors.
The short answer is yes. Our university, college and department mission statements, reflecting our land grant tradition, are quite broad. However, we cannot be all things to all people. I expect department heads to stay in contact with their deans as they work with their faculty to identify priorities for their departments that are consistent with the missions of their colleges.
The President and I use every opportunity to describe our vision. However, we realize that more details about our expectations are needed, and we are working with the deans and others to develop them. The outcomes will depend on what you and your colleagues do. When new resources become available within colleges, they will be distributed to those units who have well-developed plans for how those resources would be utilized to advance their department, their college and the university. The Board of Regents applauds our efforts in this direction.
We want to focus on the benefits that we gain as a result of us all working together.
Our multi-million dollar, five-year Targeted Excellence Program is now in the process of accepting the third round of proposals for significant resources. The proposals that were funded in each of the last two years have all involved collaboration across disciplines and colleges. We also are working with deans to encourage, recognize and reward interdisciplinary synergies and the enhanced benefits that come with such efforts.
Because our vision is to enhance the national recognition and standing of K-State, we must consider the measures that are currently being used by various groups and organizations to compare and rank institutions, even though we may not agree with all of them. Many of these measures and benchmarks are input-driven, rather than a reflection of the value added by the institution to its students, and we desire to focus some attention on these outcome measures. Thus, our approach will be both to consider the measures currently being used by the University of Florida , and to identify other measures that we think address the values that are important to us as a land-grant student-centered research institution. We will work with the deans and department heads to further identify and share the measures that we jointly agree upon.
Our success is measured in a variety of ways, and rankings, benchmarks, and perception are all factors. Our ultimate goal is to be nationally recognized as an innovative, creative, forward-thinking institution that seeks new ways to enhance the educational experiences of its students and elevate the national recognition of our faculty. We can accomplish this goal by setting priorities, striving to leverage the strengths of our faculty members, and creating a culture that fosters collaboration.
We cannot just "make do" any longer. To achieve our vision will require new thinking and new strategies. The new priorities that we set will almost certainly require reallocation and even possible elimination of current options within programs. Departments and colleges must think through the alternatives, they must be entrepreneurial and work with the administration to identify new sources of funding, and they must decide if and how they want to reallocate their current resources to help fund the priorities they select.
Examples of alternative sources of funding include private giving, corporate donations, foundation funds, federal appropriations, competitive federal grants, and licensing income.
We will work with the Kansas Citizens for Higher Education, which is sharing information with various groups around the state about the needs of higher education, we will utilize our extension network, and we will enlist the support of our alumni, parents of our students, and friends of the university throughout the state. All of these groups have the potential to provide support as Kansas taxpayers.
These departments play a critical and on-going role for KSU to be a comprehensive, student centered, research institution. Course offerings through these departments foster and hone critical thinking skills, effective communication abilities, enhanced aesthetic appreciation, informed ethical decision-making, and an increased awareness of one's place in a diverse world. They insure that our students' educational experiences will be broad and not one-dimensional. Faculty members in these departments team with those units that contribute in other ways to advance our goal of achieving top 10 standing.
What is it going to cost Kansas State University to become a premier top 10 land-grant institution? That is, what will we become? How will we change? What will be a new image?
Aristotle observed, "We are what we repeatedly do." Our vision drives our actions, so defining what we want to become is imperative. Even as we aspire to be a comprehensive, student centered, research university, we realize that we cannot be all things to all people. Therefore, we must align our collective strengths, resources, and efforts with our vision, emphasizing and exploiting competitive advantages, creating new ones along the way, and minimizing efforts where our strengths and opportunities for excellence are fewest.
To be successful, we must continually assess our priorities. Failure to recognize the need for on-going self-examination and change will insure a descent to mediocrity, as we educate tomorrow's students for yesterday's challenges and opportunities.
In these times of economic uncertainty and rapidly escalating costs for health care and medical insurance, individuals may be tempted to stay in faculty positions longer than they might otherwise choose to do. Kansas State University 's phased retirement program was developed, in part, to allay such concerns and has provided a mechanism to assist faculty members in their retirement planning. KSU faculty members can utilize this program, along with others that may be developed in the future, as they see fit to their appropriate advantage.