2023-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN
Inspire. Engage. Transform.
Recognizing that our students have unique needs and individual strengths, we will embrace a university‐wide, holistic approach to teaching and support services to meet students where they are and engage them accordingly on their path to success.
This Strategic Plan is designed to work in concert with the UW-Whitewater Vision, Mission, and Values, the Academic Plan, and strategic plans of the divisions and units across both the Whitewater and Rock County campuses.
Vision
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will be a national and international leader in providing transformational and empowering educational experiences.
That future will be achieved through a culture of collaboration and connectedness. Four strategic themes emerged through institution-wide conversations:
Enhance the value of a UW-Whitewater education
Create an inclusive environment for student success
Advance co-curricular experiences
Deepen a culture of collaboration
Themes
Four themes capture the broad and aspirational priorities of the institution in the next five years.
Enhance the value of a UW-Whitewater education
From communication and problem-solving ability, to critical thinking and intercultural competence, our students will develop valuable skills throughout their academic journey at UW-Whitewater that make them engaged citizens and outstanding candidates for careers and advanced education opportunities. We will achieve post-graduation outcomes consistent with an exceptional liberal arts education.
Create an inclusive environment for student success
Channeling our core value of inclusivity, we will recruit, retain and graduate students from all backgrounds. We will model the very best “people-first” delivery of our mission, where employees are approachable and responsive, spaces are welcoming, and students feel deeply connected and supported. To meet the ever-changing demands of the higher education landscape, we will adapt our program delivery models to address students’ desire for accessible and flexible programs of study.
Advance co-curricular experiences
To parallel our high-quality academic programs, we offer and promote highly effective co-curricular, outside-of-the-classroom programs that enhance the student experience and contribute to learning. We will initiate best practices in advising and support services university-wide to ensure consistent quality across our institution. We will expand our ability to identify and address barriers to students enrolling in, continuing or finishing a program — with the goal of driving students to successful and timely program completion.
Deepen a culture of collaboration
Driven by a shared institutional purpose to transform lives, we will build robust partnerships across colleges, divisions, departments and the broader region to collaborate on projects and initiatives, to advance ideas, and to share and grow resources. With people as our most valuable resource, our workplace will serve as a regional exemplar by cultivating positive employee morale and supporting overall wellbeing for faculty, staff and students. We will identify issues and opportunities that arise and address them in a proactive and timely manner.
Action Items
We will realize progress through a series of intentional actions to be implemented as early as possible. The Strategic Planning and Budget Committee is responsible for implementing, reviewing and revising the plans as necessary. Additional action items will likely be developed as we move through the plan.
Student Success
These groups will be charged with developing an institution-wide, collaborative student success network where all community members understand their role in supporting student success and have the professional development opportunities to fulfill that role.
Co-leads:
John Chenoweth, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Kristin Fillhouer, Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
2023-2024 Year End Update
Both the committee and council are up and running. A key task of the committee in year one was to develop a student success framework to define key components of student success at UW-Whitewater. The framework contains four major components: 1) Attainment of Learning Outcomes, Skills, and Competencies; 2) Engagement and Belonging; 3) Career Preparation; and 4) Academic Achievement and Persistence. The committee developed self-reflective questions for students and the institution for each of the four dimensions. The Student Success Council was established in Spring 2024 and has begun looking at the first year experience for UWW students.
This resource will provide easy access to student services, particularly those that support progress to academic attainment.
Co-leads:
Jackie Briggs, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment and Retention
Katie Patterson, Bursar
2023-2024 Year End Update
The one-stop shop action team engaged campus offices and students to understand needs and goals for the one-stop shop. They also explored one-stop shop solutions at other campuses. The one-stop shop will open in the University Center prior to the start of the Fall 2024 semester.
These individuals will support our students’ goals of academic and personal success.
Co-leads:
Paul Waelchli, University Libraries Director
Emma Draper, Campus Tutorial Services Assistant Director
Jeremy Lade, Pathway for Success Coordinator
2023-2024 Year End Update
The student success coach action team engaged campus personnel in conversation about the success coaching work that they do; and they explored how this work is done at other universities. At the end of the spring semester, campus committed to moving forward with developing a student success coaching program to begin in Fall 2024.
We will identify a single individual who, in collaboration with advising coordinators and others on campus, will have clear responsibilities for ensuring our advising model uses shared objectives and processes and ultimately supports student success.
Co-leads:
Marissa Greuel-Hainstock, Academic Advising and Success Director
Kristin Plessel, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
2023-2024 Year End Update
This team moved forward with an advising syllabus and university-wide assessment and has held two summer retreats for the action team including all advising coordinators on campus. The institution is moving forward to create a full-time professional advising coordinator position in the College of Arts and Communication, the only college currently without that position.
Each year, this event will highlight successful initiatives and identify further areas of improvement as we increase opportunities for student success.
Co-leads:
Jessica Stein, Academic Advising and Exploration Assistant Director
Amanda Krier-Jenkins, University Housing Associate Director
2023-2024 Year End Update
The Warhawk Success Conference was held on March 1, 2024, with 16 presenters from across campus. The keynote speaker addressed the topic of mental health. There were more than 110 attendees from many types of units across the university. The 2024-25 Success Conference is planned for Feb. 14, 2025.
We will establish a task force to examine specific student success opportunities. Initially, this group will review registration holds and our student debt trends as we work to enhance student social mobility.
Co-leads:
Sara Deschner, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer
Debbie Reuter, Center for Students with Disabilities Director
2023-2024 Year End Update
This action team looked at two items this year: student debt trends and registration holds. The group determined that our student debt upon graduation trends are going down and recommended continued focus on encouraging students to complete degrees in a timely manner as additional semesters contribute to increased debt. The group recommended establishing a taskforce to annually review registration holds. A registration hold related to a unique UWW mandatory training requirement was lifted for all but new students. For AY2024-25 we will review several Student Housing and billing processes that we believe impact student success, as well as review our scholarship application and awarding processes.
Program growth and development
We will review and improve pathways for students who transition from other institutions — including the Rock County campus — to UW-Whitewater. One focus will be to help students who are completing their associate degree at Rock County along their pathway to a four-year degree.
Co-leads:
Dave Hahn, Assistant Director of Admissions and Transfer Coordinator
Sarah Harvey, College of Integrated Studies Academic Program Manager
2023-2024 Year End Update
In 2023-24, the action team focused on mapping transfer processes from recruitment to enrollment/retention to identify and remove barriers; and articulation agreement development to support seamless transfer credits from Rock and other institutions. During the coming year, the work will focus on our NASH (National Association of System Heads) Transfer collaboration; articulation agreement development; transfer student recruitment, transfer credit review, and new program development.
This group will focus on driving growth, innovation, accessibility and a positive student experience for students enrolled in our fully online programs.
Co-leads:
Paul Ambrose, College of Business and Economics Dean
Susan Johnson, College of Letters and Sciences Associate Dean
2023-2024 Year End Update
The online council was established with representation from across the colleges and other areas. Key accomplishments included holding listening sessions with staff and developing plans for listening sessions with students in 2024-25; adding a “raise your hand” opportunity in WINS for applicants to indicate their readiness for enrollment; and developing an Online Program Student online new student seminar for Fall 2024.
To reinvigorate our curricular pipeline and create opportunities for interdisciplinary thought, we will hold an annual session to discuss new academic program ideas directly from faculty, students, and community and business leaders. Recommendations from this session will flow through our established academic processes, recognizing this as a key responsibility of the faculty.
Co-leads:
Susan Wildermuth, LEARN Center Director
Matthew Vick, School of Graduate Studies Dean
2023-2024 Year End Update
The action team held the first annual Curriculum Innovation Workshop on Nov. 10, 2023. The keynote panel presented on the state of the Wisconsin workforce and breakout sessions were held on program planning and interdisciplinary conversations The 2024-2025 workshop is planned for Nov. 8, 2024. The foci of the workshop will be Artificial Intelligence and Curricular Innovation.
The General Education Review Committee, Office of Academic Assessment and faculty teaching courses in the general education program will meet to establish a clear process for assessing the achievement of learning outcomes of the program, so we can more clearly articulate the educational value of the UW-Whitewater experience (both the Whitewater and Rock County degree programs).
Co-leads:
Jessica Bonjour, General Education Coordinator
Katy Casey, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning Director
2023-2024 Year End Update
Via instructor participation, rubrics were developed for assessing a signature assignment in each of the CORE classes. The rubric was embedded into Canvas and piloted in Spring 2024 in a few sections. In Fall 2024, core course coordinators will implement the rubrics to test functionality and create effective training.
Exceptional workplace and community
This new group will have appropriate representation across employment categories and will work with the Faculty Compensation Committee to help us achieve our goals related to employee compensation.
Co-leads:
Connie Putland, Chief Human Resources Officier
Kelly Delaney-Klinger, College of Business and Economics Associate Dean
2023-2024 Year End Update
The committee was established and began meeting in Spring 2024. Along with the committee work, each governance group was asked to submit compensation priorities to the chancellor. The chancellor has committed to addressing compensation as funds become available based on the overall enrollment and budget situation. The committee will continue to review compensation priorities and compensation analyses.
We will re-envision “student employment” as internship experiences with clear objectives and appropriate mentoring — and articulate the value of these experiences. We will review the student employee pay structure to ensure appropriate compensation.
Co-leads:
Kai Instefjord, Human Resources Manager
Josh Reed, Career Services Director
2023-2024 Year End Update
The team applied for a grant and received funding to expand the use of student employee experiences as a high impact practice in the 2024-25 academic year. Programming will include support of campus units to redesign their student employment programs through education for supervisors and developing a feedback and evaluation framework.
With transparency and shared purpose, the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee, the Faculty Budget Committee, as well as key faculty experts, will work together to help us achieve a balanced university budget that achieves strategic goals.
Co-leads:
Trisha Barber, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Financial Services
Mohammad Jafarinejad, Budget Committee Faculty Representative
2023-2024 Year End Update
Collaborative efforts were made across all divisions to address the $8.89 million structural deficit, primarily by revenue growth and providing budget relief of GPR-related expenses. The FY25 budget was submitted with only a $500,000 budgeted structural deficit. The Faculty Senate revised the Faculty Budget Committee to include representation on the University Strategic Planning and Budget Committee. This year, the team will look to communicate financial information to campus stakeholders in understandable, meaningful ways, as we attempt to eliminate the remainder of the deficit.
The Chancellor’s Leadership Council will provide a university-wide collaborative forum for strategic discussions, civil discourse, and critical conversations in advancing the institutional mission and core values.
Co-leads:
Mike Dugan, College of Arts and Communication Dean
Chancellor's Office
2023-2024 Year End Update
The 58-member Leadership Council was established. The leadership council programming and conversations focused on innovation throughout the year. Three sessions were held during the academic year, culminating in a summer retreat. Planning has begun for activities of the council in 2024-2025.
Students, employees, alumni, and the UW-Whitewater Foundation will work together to support the long-term success of our alumni and attract resources that support our mission and the goals of this strategic plan.
Katie Kuznacic, Vice Chancellor for University Relations
Ryan Callahan, Assistant Chancellor and Intercollegiate Athletics Director
2023-2024 Year End Update
This work focused on two paths, one engaging internal stakeholders and the other our external stakeholders. Fourteen Chancellor Listening Sessions were held with 300 participants invited to discuss current issues and opportunities. External work was focused on planning for a future fundraising campaign.
Metrics
We will measure our overall advancement on the strategic plan using the following metrics:
- Degree and credential attainment
- Graduation, job placement and graduate school placement rates
- Retention and graduation rates
- Student loan debt
- Social mobility index
- Institutional financial health
- Balanced budget
- Employee compensation relative to peers
A metrics dashboard has been created. Please follow the link here.