Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Below, you will find the remarks I shared at yesterday’s meeting of the University Senate. My brief updates included the progress on the vice president for research search, where we stand on enrollment and the extension of our test optional policy. The balance of my comments focused on the Academic Strategic Plan Preparation Group and how this process will unfold.
Sincerely,
Gretchen Ritter
Vice Chancellor and Provost
Remarks from March 23, 2022, Meeting of the University Senate
Good afternoon. I hope everyone had a restorative spring break. I want to update you on the vice president for research search, where we stand on enrollment, as well as the extension of our test optional policy. Then my main focus for today will be to provide an overview of the Academic Strategic Plan Preparation group and our vision for that process.
Vice President for Research
On the VPR search, the committee, which is being led by Professor Duncan Brown, is working with Korn Ferry and the position has been broadly advertised. The priority date for candidates to submit materials was March 21, although the position remains open to applications until filled. There are currently about 40 candidates under consideration and I am encouraged by indications that the search is progressing well. More information can be found at academicaffairs.syracuse.edu/vprsearch.
Enrollment
I want to give an update on undergraduate enrollment. We received more than 41,000 applications for fall 2022. Deposits are up 6% year over year for early decision students and up 13% overall from this time last year. The proportion of students of color is up slightly. The percentage of international applicants is down slightly. As you know, in undergraduate admissions, yield has a huge impact on our overall academic rankings. This is especially true in programs where we are trying to recruit top students. I encourage all of you to contribute however you can over the next few weeks to encourage the students we have admitted to commit to coming to Syracuse in the fall.
We are continuing to see unevenness in graduate enrollment. One of our priorities for the upcoming academic year is to have enrollment management, the Graduate School and academic units partner to work more collaboratively on graduate recruitment, admissions and enrollment goals. As we refresh the Academic Strategic Plan, we will simultaneously refresh the strategic enrollment plan and will be looking to refine our goals and strategies for DEIA, transfer students, international students and post-traditional students, for our undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.
Test Optional Policy Extension
Finally, we are going to implement a one-year extension of our test optional strategy for the 2023-2024 enrollment. This additional year will enable robust analysis of performance, retention, application trends and peer group assessment.
Academic Strategic Plan
Let me turn then to discussing our strategic planning refresh effort.
Strategic planning necessarily begins with an assessment of where we stand now and articulating the core values that guide our work. The Academic Strategic Plan Preparation group (which is chaired by Jamie Winders and Steve Bennett) will take on this work over the next few weeks. In preparation for the broader planning effort in the fall this group will help to provide training on strategic planning for key leaders, assemble key data on our own profile as well as that of our peers, and lay out the expected process for the fall, including what working groups we will need, ensuring that there are opportunities for input from various stakeholder groups, developing a communications plan, as well as a schedule for the work.
When the actual strategic planning refresh work begins in the fall, you will see a process that is iterative and crosscutting in nature. It will be iterative in that the central goals that we articulate for the broader University will be developed in parallel and in dialogue with the goals and objectives that are unique to the schools, colleges and other academic units. It will be cross cutting in that there will be a set of vertical areas of focus that are core to our mission around educational excellence; research and creative excellence; and public impact. Cutting across all of these pillars will be a set of horizontal focus areas that will include enrollment strategy; national and international engagement; DEIA; as well as budget and resources. Finally, the last characteristic that I will mention for our fall planning effort is the priority that will be given to populating our working groups with mid-career rising leaders. This will be an opportunity for all of us to benefit from the insights and expectations of these talented, forward-looking faculty and staff, and it will also be an opportunity for all of them to get a broader view of the University as well as to meet and learn from one another.
Finally, I want to offer some reflections on where I hope we will be at the end of the process of refreshing our academic strategic plan. It will have been a successful effort, in my view, if we end up with a plan that has the following characteristics:
1. It is relatively simple, has broad support and can be readily articulated by various stakeholder groups around the campus.
2. The plan is distinctive to Syracuse University.
3. It is aspirational but achievable.
4. Success under the plan can and will be measured.
5. It will guide decision-making at every level of the academic enterprise: in academic affairs, at the school and college level, and within the departments and other academic units.
6. The plan is coherent; the various axes, both horizontal and vertical, work together as a complimentary whole.
7. It operates as a living guide for our work that has built into it a process for regular review and adjustment in response to changing opportunities and challenges.
Let me conclude by thanking all of you in advance. Strategic planning, even in the form of a refresh as we are imagining here, takes a lot of effort on the part of many, many people. We are undertaking this work to collectively affirm the values that guide what we do, to agree as a community on where we are going and elevate our excellence and impact as a University.