I.
Preamble
Student Services planning integrates strategic thinking
into the process for continuous quality enhancement. Strategic
thinking involves projections that extend beyond any single-point
forecast in the environment. Student Services strategic
planning is based on an annual cyclical process of assessment,
planning, budgeting, program review, and continuous quality
enhancement.
II. Focus
The core values of learning, community, responsibility,
integrity, and quality underlie the educational/administrative
philosophy of Student Services. The Student Services mission,
goals, and strategies are congruent with those established
for The University of Iowa. The goals delineated in Bridges
Beyond the Next Horizon to which Student Services most
directly responds are:
Goal #1: An undergraduate experience that enables students
to fulfill their intellectual, social, and career objectives.
Goal #5: Highly productive organization that supports
the mission and values of the University.
Through collaboration with other vice presidential units,
colleges, and administrative departments, Student Services
endeavors to contribute to accomplishing the full range
of goals in the University Strategic Plan.
III. Aspiration
To create and maintain experiential learning opportunities
which promote the highest standards of quality in campus
life and academic culture.
IV. Mission
To develop innovative programming that will encourage
collaborative learning among students, faculty, staff,
and the community to foster multicultural learning that
provides students with experiential learning opportunities
to prepare them for the responsibilities of enlightened
citizenship in a free and just global society.
V. Environment
On national and university surveys, more than seventy
percent of entering students indicate interest in career
counseling and internships during college matriculation.
Experiential educational opportunities for liberal arts
majors has become as significant in many instances as
they are for students in professional programs. Increasing
emphasis is being placed on internship experiences for
placement after graduation. Student experiences documented
in an electronic portfolio are becoming increasingly important
as the major source of placement information for graduating
seniors. Graduate students in academic programs are becoming
more interested in internship opportunities and professional
options outside of academe.
Diversity among students is expanding in some areas and
remains a challenge in others. More than fifty percent
of university students are women. Greater than fifty percent
of those students with disabilities have learning disabilities
and attention deficit disorders. The percentage of Black
students has remained at the same level for several years
while Latino and American Indian students have increased
slightly. Foreign student enrollment has been on a decline,
especially among undergraduates. Pan-Asian student enrollment
is becoming more diverse among American Asian students.
Support services for under-represented students need to
become more campus wide in focus to address the breadth
of interests that have emerged among under-represented
students. Ensuring continued access to equal education
opportunity and increasing retention of minority students
is a major focus in the environment.
The environment for today’s college student is in
a constant state of change. Based on their experiences,
many new students’ expectations for information technology
may be more advanced than some information technology
systems on campus. Many students today have come from
homes where they have had their own rooms and may not
desire living in traditional residence hall rooms. Providing
technologically equipped residence halls with opportunities
for social spaces and personal amenities is a constant
focus for Residence Services.
Student nutritional habits are influenced by national
brands and students desire variety in choices which challenges
traditional campus foodservice organizations and menu
plans. There is decreased demand for the traditional twenty-meal
per week dining plan in residence halls. Students desire
more portability of meal plans to eat in different campus
settings including classroom buildings and libraries for
snacks and beverages.
The abusive use of alcohol is a national public health
problem. The availability of alcohol in the community
is significant. There are more than ninety liquor license
holders, including more than seventy bars, within a one-mile
radius of the campus. The curtailment of binge drinking
and underage drinking among students is a major health
and safety University objective.
Historically, Student Services facilities have been located
based on opportunistic planning which has resulted in
random placement of services for students disconnected
from most undergraduate centers of academic activities.
Purposeful planning to develop a master plan for Student
Services now offers the opportunity to create affinity
groupings of Student Services in central areas of student
activity on campus.
Approximately fifty-three percent of students utilize
the Iowa Memorial Union at least once a week during the
course of a semester. The planning survey revealed that
usage would increase to approximately seventy-nine percent
with a facility renovation/reconfiguration. Financial
analysis indicates an increase in food service revenue
of approximately 75%
($3.3 million pre-renovation) and 20% ($3.8 million pre-renovation)
increase in bookstore revenue after complete renovations.
Among eleven comparable universities, including regents
universities, examined in the planning analysis, the University
of Iowa has the third lowest amount of recreation space
per student. Focus group interviews revealed that there
is strong support among students to improve recreation
facilities and moving to a student fee–based recreation
system from the current user fee–based system.
Within the next decade, the University will be faced with
relocating most, if not all, Student Services facilities
in frame houses. Retaining cultural centers, while providing
individual identity for under-represented cultural groups
in the university, is a necessity for enhancing racial
diversity and student retention.
Civility on the campus is a topic of concern. Increased
emotional stress is apparent among some students as indicated
by reports from the University Counseling Service. In
1998-99, the UCS registered twenty-one percent more hours
counseling individual students than in the previous year,
ten percent more hours for couples and seven percent more
hours for groups.
VI. Goals and Strategies
The strategies in this strategic plan represent the basic
missions of Student Services departments. Qualitative
and quantitative indicators of progress are addressed
through the annual cyclical process of assessment, planning,
budgeting, program review, and continuous quality enhancement
for each Student Services department strategic plan.
Goal No. 1:
Every student shall have equal access to a healthy and
safe learning environment conducive to personal growth.
Strategies:
1. Maintain and increase the level of comprehensive Residence
Services that provide clean, safe, healthy, and sound
quality accessible housing targeted for entering year
undergraduate students and for a portion of students with
families at reasonable costs.
2. Maintain a standard of excellence, increase the quality
and variety of nutritional foods, and create innovative
alternatives for contract meal service in Residence Services
and integrate them with cafeteria, fast food, satellites,
and catering food services run by the Iowa Memorial Union
at reasonable prices.
3. In collaboration with UIHC (University of Iowa Health
Care) maintain a high quality, financially sound, and
an adequately equipped Student Health Service as a primary
care center for students with particular attention to
the prevention of alcohol and other substance abuse and
increased knowledge about the prevention of AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases among undergraduate students
while maintaining open access through modest fees to patients.
4. Increase and maintain a high level of accessibility
and quality of psychological services through counseling,
assessment, consultation and developmental programs for
students at minimal cost for established basic services.
5. Foster the development and coordination of education
programs and administer disciplinary judicial procedures
emphasizing respect for the rights of others, and personal
responsibility for one’s own actions while advocating
safety, personal security, and deterrence of violent behavior
in the university community.
Goal No. 2:
Each student shall be encouraged to become aware of his/her
place and responsibilities in the world community, to
honor differences among people, to develop the ability
to empathize with people from differing cultural backgrounds,
and to become aware of the interdependence of people and
their natural environment.
Strategies:
1. Encourage students to increase their self-esteem through
development of individual potential and achievement of
educational degree objectives.
2. Plan, coordinate, and encourage the development of
diverse and balanced educational, cultural, social, and
personal development programs and activities to assist
individual students and student organizations to become
aware of global diversity, and to develop the skills necessary
for constructive interaction with people from varying
cultural backgrounds.
3. Foster and expand the educational emphasis and stress
on students taking full responsibility for their actions
through the student judicial procedures and the applications
of sanctions for violations of the Code of Student Life.
Goal No. 3:
Each student shall be assisted in developing skills in
critical thinking, reasoning, decision making, interpersonal
communications, advocacy, and leadership.
Strategies:
1. Strategies cited for Goal No. 2 are also applicable
for Goal No. 3
2. In collaboration with the faculty and academic advisors,
broaden opportunities for experiential learning through
internships and cooperative education programs as a basis
for helping student learn to evaluate options to initiate
and implement career plans.
Goal No. 4:
Each student shall have opportunities to be exposed to
programs to enhance appreciation of the visual and performing
arts and opportunities to participate in cultural, social,
and recreational activities to promote life-long learning.
Strategies:
1. Maintain high standards for programming and financially
stable operations with a diverse range of performing arts
at affordable prices for students, faculty, staff, and
general public to achieve global excellence in aesthetic
development.
2. Foster and advocate to update campus recreation programs
and facilities for leisure time activities serving a wide
range of able-bodied and disabled individuals.
Goal No. 5:
Professional support shall be provided to the colleges
and departments in developing and administering policies
and procedures affecting students and judicial procedures
associated with the Code of Student Life.
Strategies:
1. Ensure full compliance with all provisions of the Student-Right-to-Know
and Campus Security Act affecting university operations.
2. Provide consultation and clarification to administrative
offices, and student affairs programs on issues related
to Policies and Regulations Affecting Students.
Goal No. 6:
The quality of student life shall be maintained at a high
level by providing resources for the faculty to support
teaching functions through the provision of information
about student characteristics, environmental conditions,
and experiential learning opportunities which are relevant
to the academic development of individual students.
Strategies:
1. In collaboration with the Office of the Provost, develop
and disseminate periodically a summary of University of
Iowa student characteristics report to the faculty and
administration.
2. In collaboration with faculty, academic advisors, and
the Graduate College, foster student participation in
the University of Iowa Washington, D.C. Internship Program,
other internships and participation in developing an individual
electronic portfolio.
Goal No. 7:
The quality and relevance of Student Services programs
shall be advanced through functional coordination, optimization
of organizational structure, sound financial management,
evaluation including regular reviews, program assessment
and effective implementation of approved recommendations
in the context of continuous quality enhancement.
Strategies:
1. Utilize the University Criteria for Enhancement and
Reduction in Programs as the basis for the Guidelines
For Assessment, Planning, and Program Review of Student
Service programs.
2. Utilize periodic Program Coordination meetings and
the Student Life Leadership Council to foster communication
among student affairs and services programs and offices
in colleges.
3. In collaboration with FUS (Finance and University Services)
conduct periodic reviews of the financial management of
auxiliary programs (Hancher Auditorium, Residence Services,
Iowa Memorial Union).
Goal No. 8:
The vitality of Student Services staff shall be maintained
by selective recruitment, affirmative human relations,
effective communications, staff development programs,
prompt resolution of grievances, and recognition of excellent
performance.
Strategies:
1. Actively recruit a diverse pool of candidates in each
search for new staff.
2. Integrate equal educational opportunity concepts and
expectations throughout student affairs and services programs
3. Annually invite Student Services and Student Life Leadership
Council staff to an appreciation reception.
4. Emphasize annual performance appraisals for staff at
every level in Student Services.
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