 "Photo: Jen Stiles/Cardinal Points")
Coinciding with reaccreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Plattsburgh State has embarked upon a strategic plan to better serve the college’s students, faculty and staff.
The plan’s five prioritized themes and goals look to enhance the college’s academic excellence and reputation; enrich student, faculty and staff expectations; increase environmental conservation and sustainability; promote more effective use of resources; and provide service to our region and beyond.
In January 2008, PSUC President John Ettling said a consultant was brought to campus to help launch a planning process for implementing the strategic plan, which was put into place last spring.
Ettling said the idea to implement strategic planning stemmed from 2002, when a regional accreditation team from the Middle States Commission visited PSUC for its 10-year accreditation renewal. In this meeting, Ettling said, the college’s two major criticisms included strategic planning and processing.
However, Ettling said neither of these criticisms jeopardized accreditation.
This is not the first strategic plan PSUC has launched, as Ettling said strategic planning was already under way in June 2004 when he arrived on campus.
But when the process for the newest plan began in 2008, Ettling said PSUC didn’t anticipate the tough months ahead.
“When we first met with that consultant in January 2008, we had no idea that the budgets were going to fall apart and had no idea that, in two months, Eliot Spitzer was going to resign in disgrace,” Ettling said.
Nevertheless, Ettling said planning processes can be just as useful in tough times as good.
But in times of budget cuts, and the possibility of more in the future, Patricia Higgins, interim provost and vice president for student affairs, said PSUC has had to look at how to better allocate their resources to enhance academic excellence and reputation.
“We need to be able to move our resources around a little bit when fields change, the needs of society change or the popularity of certain programs change,” Higgins said. “We need to be able to pick and choose which areas we are going to refill in places.”
Higgins said a program review and administrative review report is being delivered to the faculty senate on Tuesday, looking at each individual department and ways in which to enhance them.
Higgins said while the report doesn’t cut any specific programs, the possibility still remains.
“It could result in cutting a program, but it could result in revising it and making it more efficient,” Higgins said.
She added that a program within the mathematics department with a bachelor of science degree was proposed early on in discussions regarding program cuts, but said its final decision has not been reached yet.
At the same time, Higgins said new program proposals, including a multi-media journalism program and a professional science master’s program, aim to enhance student’s education and to better prepare them for the workforce within today’s society.
This ability to better distribute resources will allow for academic excellence and reputation to stay intact at PSUC during a budget crisis that has had an effect on the hiring of new faculty, Higgins said.
“We may not even keep the same number as we have now. That is, we might not replace everyone who leaves,” Higgins said, adding that this number may actually decrease. “We may not be able to because of the budget situation we are in right now.”
Regardless, Lynda Ames, affirmative action officer and member of the strategic plan task force at PSUC, said current faculty is doing all it can to maintain high academic standards during tough times.
“Right now, I have to say our morale is very high, and we are working very hard,” Ames said. “We don’t like the budget cuts, but we are working with it as best we can.”
Currently, older faculty is working on mentoring younger faculty members in an attempt to help retain the newer faculty at PSUC, Ames said.
“We are trying to do as much as we can possible to make sure their teaching experiences are the best they can be,” Ames said. “It takes time on the part of the faculty, but it doesn’t cost any money.”
But with more cuts, Ames said faculty morale could take a hit.
“I think we in the faculty will do our very best to maintain our high standards, but eventually, if we cut and we cut and we cut, it will be hurt at some point — it’s hurting already,” Ames said.
Robert Davis, chairperson to the strategic plan task force and communication disorders and science professor at PSUC, said the college is also trying to increase academic excellence at PSUC by being more selective in admission processes.
“We have been admitting higher quality students over the last five years, so that should yield higher four- and six-year retention rates going forward,” Davis said.
Davis also said that while there is always a possible of further cuts, the administration will “do everything it can” not to do this, and that if necessary, cuts would not impact the quality of academic and support programs, as this is essential to the mission of the strategic plan.
“I’m confident that no cuts will be made that will compromise our ability to strengthen our academic and support programs to better educate and serve our students because that is essential to our mission,” Davis said.
Davis also said that amidst budget constraints, the college is looking to save money and increase revenues by becoming more efficient, especially in its energy use.
“Many building renovation projects will continue to be made, which will greatly improve conservation and campus sustainability.”
Ettling said the efficient use of energy is very important, as energy expenses sometimes cost more than large academic programs.
In addition, Ettling said the college is to receive stimulus money from the governor’s office to buy a metering system, which could help reduce energy cost by determining what buildings are — and aren’t — energy efficient.
The voluntary separation program, which offered retirement incentives to long-time faculty, could also raise revenue, Ettling said, as the college could hire a replacement out of graduate school at a much lower salary, or not make a replacement at all if the position is not of student interest nowadays.
Ettling said the loss of these faculty members will not create a decrease in academic standards.
“At other places where I’ve worked, not here, I’ve noticed that some people, even though they’ve been around for a long time, have lost some of whatever it was that made them good teachers once upon a time,” he said. “So bringing in a newly minted Ph.D. in that field, what that person lacks in experience, he or she may more than make up for it in energy and enthusiasm.”
Davis said that this semester, study groups of both faculty and students will represent each of the five themes within the strategic plan. These groups will look to help create processes that will help facilitate the themes into college life as much as possible, which will help reaccreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education come 2012.
“We are aligning the self study for reaccreditation with the strategic plan, and this will help strengthen each process,” Davis said.
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