Strategic Planning

1. Unit-level strategic planning is aligned with and supports President Drake’s 2020 Vision and with the university’s mission/vision, values and core goals.
2. The Office of Academic Affairs stewards unit-level strategic planning for the university.
3. Colleges, regional campuses, and vice presidential units will have strategic plans.
4. Each strategic plan will include measures that demonstrate progress toward the unit’s goals.
5. Every college and vice presidential unit will make a version of its strategic plan publicly available.
6. Strategic plans, goals, and measures will be evaluated through a collaborative, open process. All plans will be reviewed centrally and—as identified in collaboration with the units under review—by academic and administrative entities that are actively engaged with those units.
7. Plan progress will be an element of deans’/vice presidents’ annual and reappointment reviews.
8. Plans will be reviewed regularly and updated as need be.
9. When there is a change in the leadership of a unit, the new leader, in collaboration with the unit, will reaffirm the strategic plan or revise it as needed.
10. The strategic planning process will be linked to periodic external programmatic/academic unit reviews and accreditation efforts.

To encourage an ongoing culture of strategic thinking and accountability, OAA requires new and/or reappointed deans and vice presidents who report to the executive vice president and provost to revise or reaffirm their strategic plan in the first year of their tenure in that new role. Vice presidents and deans typically engage the full range of their constituencies in considering the existing plan and possible revisions to it. Revisions are drafted and then approved according to unit-level processes.

A copy of the revised plan is forwarded to OAA, where it receives a first review, led by the vice provost for academic and strategic planning. Adjustments are made, as necessary, then OAA sends the plan out for broader review by six to eight units across the university. These units will normally have some affinity with the unit whose plan is being reviewed. They are identified by the unit involved in partnership with OAA. An important goal of such a review is to increase awareness of the unit being reviewed and promote linkages across units that lead to collaborative opportunities. To cite one recent example, the College of Social Work’s plan was reviewed by the College of Education and Human Ecology, the College of Public Health, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Ohio State at Lima, the College of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Office of Outreach and Engagement, and OSU Extension.

Reviewers are asked to provide feedback, guided by the following four questions:

1. Did the plan clearly demonstrate the unit’s unique contribution in support of the university? Did the letter from the dean to the university community highlight the role of that unit? If your answer to either question is no, please explain.
2. Did the plan provide an adequate internal and external scan of trends facing the unit? If not, how could the description of those trends be improved?
3. Did the plan articulate clear strategic goals with specific targets? Did it adequately describe how these goals support the university’s core goals? If the answer to either question is no, what additional detail is needed?; and
4. Can your unit help the unit being reviewed move its strategic agenda forward? How? Does the plan support and further the strategic goals of your unit? How?

The vice provost sends the comments to the unit leader, who shares them within the unit. The name and contact information for each reviewer is included to ensure transparency and accountability, and conversation with the reviewers is encouraged by OAA. Final adjustments are made, as needed, and the plan is posted on the OAA strategic planning site.

At the college and vice presidential unit level, still other tools help leaders develop and update their strategic plans. For example, to keep its plan viable, each of these units has developed a list of its top ten goals for the next two to three years. The vice provost meets with each dean and vice president in the fall and again in the spring to discuss his or her goals and respond personally to questions, offer advice, and understand how best OAA can support the unit’s efforts to achieve those goals. To promote accountability, deans’ annual reviews are based, in part, on their progress toward their goals.

College strategic planning is also informed by academic program reviews at the department level. These reviews include a self-study, an external review, and a robust reporting process that involves the provost, the relevant dean, and the department chair. It results in the development of a detailed action plan that helps the department move forward in alignment with the college’s strategic plan. These reviews are a partnership of OAA and the unit under review. All of Ohio State’s 106 academic departments have been through their initial review, and OAA has now launched the second round of reviews.