Prepared for UMBC Retreat
August 16-17, l999

The External Environment
The environment in which colleges and universities operate today is dynamic and characterized by conflicting pressures which challenge institutions to make hard choices about their priorities and markets. At a time when applications from the baby boom echo generation flood undergraduate admissions offices, the numbers of part-time and adult learners have also grown significantly. And, as the cost and price of education increases, students and their parents are behaving more like consumers and expect more value and service for their money. Research universities, in particular, are criticized for shortchanging undergraduate students by not providing access to top professors, genuine research experience, curricula leading to a coherent body of knowledge, or opportunities to develop critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills. The shift to a technology-driven, global economy is creating demand for educating-and re-educating-the technical workforce and is changing the way teachers teach and students learn and the kind of services students expect. Eighty-one percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 71 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds use the Internet, and more than 50 percent of adults 25- to 54-years old are online. 

The current market environment offers many opportunities for colleges and universities and has stimulated intense competition for students, programs, and resources. Elaborate marketing efforts and aggressive financial aid packages are employed to attract the best students. Four-year institutions are creating seamless 2+2 programs to capture community college graduates. And a proliferation of distance education and satellite programs reach out to adult learners. University of Maryland University College currently has the largest online curriculum in the nation, serving 6,000 students. 

The institutions that will thrive in this complex and dynamic environment will be those that know what they want to achieve. Strategic planning is an opportunity to clarify and communicate institutional direction and goals so that market opportunities can be met proactively and effectively. 

UMBC's Position
UMBC has achieved success in a short time. Pursuing our ambition to become one of the best public research universities of our size despite operating in a difficult fiscal environment, the campus has exceeded the expectations of many. Comparison of the campus with 58 other mid-sized research universities shows that UMBC is among the smallest in enrollment, faculty, and staff but ranks high in most measures of quality, including prestigious faculty awards and memberships (18th), freshman retention (10th), freshman SATs (7th), and six-year graduation rate (5th). Research grants and contracts have grown from $6.6 million in 1989 to $51.2 million in 1999. This past year, UMBC faculty attracted more than $20 million in federal research awards, positioning the campus at the Research II level for the first time. Private support for UMBC has grown as well, from $400,000 in 1989 to $10.5 million in 1999. The University's endowment grew from $132,000 to $12 million in the same period. 

These achievements are especially remarkable because UMBC has not been adequately funded to carry out its mission as a research university. While state appropriations to the campus increased in absolute dollars from 1989 to 1998, adjusting for inflation reveals a 10 percent decrease in state funds during this period. Chronic underfunding of UMBC has challenged the University's ability to meet current needs and invest in the human resources, systems, and facilities necessary for the campus' continued development. It has been difficult to move forward with new initiatives while basic support needs are unmet. Fortunately, improved state revenues and increased appreciation for UMBC's mission as a research university have led to a 17 percent increase in state general fund support for UMBC in FY 2000, with additional increases anticipated over the coming four years. These funds- along with projected increases in tuition revenue from enrollment growth, research overhead funds, and private support-would make phased investments in the future development of the campus possible. 

Development of UMBC's Supporting Infrastructure
Even while challenged by underfunding, UMBC has made progress in building the faculty, staff, systems, facilities, and additional funding needed to support the University's development: 

Faculty and Staff-The FY 2000 budget includes more than $8 million for new and current faculty and staff salary, wage, merit, and COLA programs. This made possible 44 faculty searches and 31 new faculty hires, of which 18 are new positions. In addition, 39.75 FTE new staff will be hired. Two endowed chairs and several faculty fellowships have been established to enhance faculty retention. A faculty development center has been created, and institutional staff development funds have been established. 

Information Systems-Introduction of EASI, the procurement card, and the campus card have improved service and information provided to faculty, staff, and students. The campus has also purchased a new financial information system which will improve both procurement and accounting reporting and provide web-enabled access. A new Oracle-based student information system is in development. In the interim, four computer systems have been added to enhance the operation of the existing student information system and a Shadow SIS is being implemented to provide better access to data. New admissions and advising systems have been purchased, and an RFP will be issued in fall 1999 for a new human resources system to integrate with the financial information system. New systems are costly and complex to develop, so full implementation will take several years. 

Computing Infrastructure-The MLL International Multimedia Center is complete, all classrooms now have basic equipment, availability of data/video projection equipment has increased 300 percent, all teaching spaces have network connectivity, ethernet connections have been established in two-thirds of the residential units, all classrooms are wired for data access, UMBC's Internet2 connection is complete, and the network connection to all academic buildings will be completed in the 1999-00 academic year. Through the computer replacement initiative, 115 faculty and staff computers have been replaced in each of the past two years and many classroom and lab computers have also been replaced. In addition, an Instructional Development Center is being implemented in conjunction with the Faculty Development Center, and web resources for instruction are being upgraded. 

Library Resources-The FY 2000 library budget is the largest in many years and provides modest monies for new acquisitions for the first time in about 10 years. Enhanced online resources and services include additional purchased online databases, with improved access to online journals and services. A new project for slide digitization provides faculty with online images for teaching and study. 

Facilities-Completion of the Physics Building and Fieldhouse addition makes eight new classrooms and one additional lecture hall available. The new residence hall adds 240 new beds and an additional 240 new beds are scheduled to be built by fall 2000. Facilities currently in the planning or construction stage include University Commons, Biological Sciences renovations, Chemistry renovations, an Information Technology/Engineering Building, structured parking facilities, and additional residence halls. 

Funding-UMBC is participating in development of new state funding guidelines as mandated by the Higher Education Governance Bill passed in the 1999 legislative session. These guidelines, based on enrollment and peer comparison, will be used to establish a per student funding level for the campus. In this process, UMBC, UMB, and UMCP were identified as research universities, while all other USM institutions were designated as master's level. This recognition of UMBC as a research university, the campus' funding relative to peers, and its growing enrollment, position UMBC favorably to receive increased funding in the future. 

The Evolution of Planning at UMBC
1986 Strategic Plan-A strategic planning process initiated by then President Michael Hooker led to development of plans by all academic and service departments in which each identified its mission, strengths and weaknesses, aspirations and benchmarks, and current and future resource needs. The process also identified cross-cutting issues to be addressed at the institutional level, including improved student retention, increased diversity, increased research productivity, expanded graduate education, broader service to Greater Baltimore, library enhancement, increased student financial assistance, improved enrollment management, management flexibility within departments, revenue producing activities, assessment of the Honors Program, departmental support, space concerns, growth of evening student enrollments, and increased computing support. 

Vision II-Progress toward achieving goals of the 1986 strategic planning process was stopped short by a recession and state fiscal crisis in 1991 which reduced funding for the University of Maryland system by about 20 percent. In a series of budget cuts over five years, UMBC lost more than $4 million in state funding as well as several academic programs and the tuition revenue these produced. 

University Retreats-Since 1995, President Freeman Hrabowski has had a tradition of holding an annual university retreat, gathering a broad representation of the campus for dialogue on the University's priorities and future direction. These sessions, and subsequent discussions on campus, yield an annual set of working priorities which guide decision-making. 

Provost's Committee on University Priorities-In 1995, PCOUP was established as a forum for cross-campus discussion about redesigning administrative processes and academic experiences to achieve the University's goals within constrained resources. Priorities which received focus in this process included faculty and staff development, the undergraduate experience, graduate education, the campus environment, and strategic alliances and partnerships. Subcommittees made reports and recommendations regarding recruitment and retention of high quality undergraduate and graduate students, support for faculty instructional and research activities, the improvement of staff development opportunities, the development of a campus environmental ethic, the enhancement of the freshman experience, and the coordination of campus outreach efforts. 

Middle States Self-Study Report-This 1996 report identified as challenges for the future UMBC's chronic underfunding, narrow array of programs, and small number of faculty and staff. It pointed to the need to add faculty to keep pace with student demand and to achieve a critical mass of faculty in key research areas. The report also noted the opportunity to involve more students in such special experiences as study abroad, internships, and research experiences. Finally, the report set selective expansion of programs as a goal, noting the importance of striking an appropriate balance between programs in science and technology and other areas, undergraduate and graduate programs, and between academic programs and student life and student support services. 

Planning Today at UMBC
UMBC's current approach to planning is to focus at the institutional level on strategic issues important to the University's future. In this past year, ad hoc task forces studied and recommended strategies for enrollment management, continuing education, and advising. During the 1998-99 academic year, the enrollment management task force report was widely shared, discussed, and accepted. The latter two reports, completed in the spring and summer of 1999, will be discussed in various campus settings and considered for adoption in fall 1999. 

Enrollment Management Task Force-This task force met in the 1998-99 academic year to establish enrollment targets through 2007. Task force recommendations included: increasing undergraduate enrollment to 10,000 and graduate enrollment to 2,000 while maintaining or improving quality, increasing the percentage of full-time undergraduates, doubling the number of out-of-state undergraduates, adding a small number of new undergraduate programs to attract enrollments while developing strategies to increase capacity in high-demand majors, developing new applied graduate programs to attract non-traditional students, selectively increasing the number and level of graduate assistantships to compete for high quality graduate students, increasing graduate student diversity, and assessing the need for graduate student services. Campus-wide discussion of the task force recommendations indicated support for the enrollment goals, provided that appropriate faculty, staff, and facilities infrastructure exist to support growth. The campus dialogue also endorsed using the task force report as a foundation for a university planning and resource allocation process to support the goals outlined in the report. 

Continuing Education Task Force-The report recently released by this task force offered a vision of continuing education as 1) Entrepreneurial and innovative, serving as an incubator for services, programs, and administrative processes; 2) Flexible in its systems and services and responsive to faculty interest, campus priorities, and market demand; 3) A key partner in campus outreach efforts; 4) An important contributor to the enhancement and fulfillment of the core campus mission; 5) A source of revenues that support other campus initiatives and provide seed money to finance new continuing education activities; 6) A project manager to facilitate the University's response to market demands; and 7) A means of exploring new program areas and targeting others for growth. 

Advising Task Force-The working report recently completed by this task force includes among its recommendations: 1) Adopt a working definition of a "standard" advising session and a template to assist students and faculty with advising; 2) Train graduate students and staff to supplement faculty during orientations; 3) Build upon the "New Majors Week" established in l998 to provide entering students with opportunities to meet other majors and faculty in their departments; 4) Improve the transfer credit evaluation process; 5) Give departments the option of advising their majors during the freshman year; 6) Establish a faculty advisory group to work with undeclared majors advised by Academic Services; 7) Affirm as policy expectations of faculty with regard to advising; 8) Link resources for advisement to the campus' planning and budget process. 

Moving Forward
Building on our success and priorities established through past planning efforts, the campus will engage this year in a strategic planning process meant to further develop UMBC's position as an honors university and research institution, and to strengthen the campus' ability to successfully navigate the competitive, technology, and resource challenges facing higher education. A Strategic Planning Steering Committee composed of the Provost, vice presidents, deans, general counsel, and faculty senate president and vice president, has met over the summer to lay the foundation for this process, including defining an overarching vision to guide the strategic planning effort: 

UMBC: An Honors University in Maryland seeks to become the best public research university of our size by combining the traditions of the liberal arts academy, the creative intensity of the research university, and the social responsibility of the public university. We will be known for integrating research, teaching and learning, and civic engagement so that each advances the other for the benefit of society

The planning process will focus at the institutional level, drawing together broadly representative task forces to articulate vision, goals, and priorities for the next three to five years in three areas of strategic importance to UMBC's future: our development as an honors university, the campus' research culture and environment, and student life. The priorities identified by the task forces will inform resource allocation beginning with the 2002 budget cycle. 

The work of the task forces will be guided and integrated by a Planning Leadership Team composed of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee along with the task force chairs and the co-chairs of UMBC's five-year Middle States Review. Task forces will be asked to: obtain early and broad community input from faculty, staff, students, and external constituencies; benchmark current performance against best practices at UMBC and elsewhere; recommend strategies for closing the gap between aspirations and current performance; recommend priorities for implementation; and keep the campus informed about goals and proposals on an ongoing basis. Final reports of task forces, with three-to-five-year recommendations, are expected in May 2000. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee will receive the reports, share the recommendations with campus governance groups, and make implementation recommendations to the President's Council and the Budget Committee. 

The planning process is intended to set institutional vision and strategic course rather than produce comprehensive plans for all UMBC academic and administrative departments. This year's institutional process will serve to provide a context for departmental planning activities and a foundation for more comprehensive institutional planning in future years.