Trailblazing Distinction
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TRAILBLAZING DISTINCTION OPEN. INCLUSIVE. COMPREHENSIVE. POLYTECHNIC. 2020-2025 STRATEGIC PLAN 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Trailblazer Nation, Welcome to the future of Dixie State University. Included in the pages that lie ahead are ambitious but attainable goals, strategies, and desired outcomes that will guide the growth of the institution for the next five years. Trailblazing Distinction, our 2020-2025 strategic plan, not only includes rigorous action plans that will elevate the university’s offerings and set us apart from any other institution in the nation, but also provides specific strategies to help us implement initiatives that will be a great benefit to our students. The success of our last strategic plan, Dixie 2020: Status to Stature, which was made possible through the dedication of our incredible university community, has proven that we can facilitate important growth in the institution and make a remarkable impact on our students’ lives. In fact, through Status to Stature, we increased student retention by 4.3 Percent, added 112 academic programs, invested in countless professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, enhanced our support for inclusion and equity campus-wide, strengthened our connection to the community, and established the strong trailblazer identity for Dixie State athletics. I am excited to build on this momentum by implementing the strategies included in Trailblazing Distinction. This plan will lay the foundation necessary for the university to be open, inclusive, comprehensive, and polytechnic while continuing to provide unique learning experiences, valuable resources, and unprecedented “Active Learning. Active Life.” opportunities. Dixie State will make learning accessible by removing barriers and providing access to everyone as part of our dedication to being an open and inclusive university that serves the needs of our community. Furthermore, by featuring active and applied learning experiences In education, science, technology, engineering, health sciences, humanities, business, and the arts that integrate liberal arts curriculum, we will offer a comprehensive polytechnic education that prepares our graduates to make a significant impact on our world. As you look through the following highlights of our 2020-2025 strategic plan, it will quickly become evident that great things are on the horizon for Dixie State University. To read the complete strategic plan, please visit Strategicplanning.Dixie.Edu. By working together to accomplish the goals included within Trailblazing Distinction, we will ensure that every day is a great day to be a trailblazer. Richard B. Williams President of Dixie State University MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR Fellow Trailblazers, 2 What an honor it has been to witness the incredible growth Dixie State University has experienced over the past five years. Having served on the institution’s Board of Trustees since 2012, I have had a front row seat to the University’s transition from Status to Stature as part of the 2015-2020 strategic plan. As we embark on the journey of Trailblazing Distinction, I am thrilled to represent the Trustees in the strategic planning process this time around. Watching Southern Utah come together and lend their expertise to help the community’s university successfully complete its last strategic plan was nothing short of amazing. Thanks to this tireless effort, we truly have attained university status and the accompanying ability to provide our students with a myriad of experiences and opportunities that our founders couldn’t even fathom when they established the institution in 1911. Now, as we begin to work on the five goals of the 2020-2025 strategic plan, Trailblazing Distinction, we once again will need to embrace the grit, sacrifice, and determination upon which this community and University were built. Dixie State’s efforts to become an open, inclusive, comprehensive, and polytechnic University are both profound and expansive, meaning this strategic plan will prepare Dixie State to fulfill meaningful achievements while involving a significant number of people. By coming together, we will prepare the university to serve the students of our nation for generations to come. The plan’s polytechnic focus will not only prepare students to be qualified workers for a sector that is rapidly growing nationwide, but also will set our graduates up for fulfilling careers and lives. I look forward to partnering with you to provide future Trailblazers with the Dixie education that has so aptly benefitted so many before them. Together we will blaze a trail of distinction for our University, our community, and a better tomorrow. David Clark Chair of the Dixie State University Board of Trustees MESSAGE FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIR Fellow Trailblazers, Soon after achieving university status in 2013, President Williams introduced a strategic planning culture to the campus with a new plan to be created on a five year cycle. The inaugural strategic plan titled “Dixie 2020: Status to Stature” aptly described the theme of our first five year effort that transformed the institution from a college to a university. The plan was an overwhelming success and today there stands a rapidly growing and increasingly impactful regional public university serving the citizens of Utah. With university stature achieved, we now confronted the vexing question of what kind of 3 university to become. How should we distinctively fulfill our mission as an open access and dual mission regional university and simultaneously be an economic catalyst for southwestern Utah? President Williams appointed the 2025 Strategic Plan Steering Committee in September 2019 and selected AASCU Pinson consultants Dr. John Welty and Dr. Dene Thomas to guide the planning process. We hosted broad consultations and open forums among various stakeholders of the university to solicit their valuable input. We invited national speakers to discuss trends and welcomed constructive arguments and embraced diversity, hoping to learn novel ways of delivering the best quality of education and thoughtful ways for creating an even greater societal impact at home and across the state. The result is a bold and visionary blueprint that creates a distinctive and highly relevant 21st century university to best serve our state and local region. The plan is animated through a new educational mission and institutional vision based on four design features: open education, inclusion, comprehensive, and polytechnic and aims to achieve exceptional student learning and success. Within each design feature, a set of fundamental tenants will frame the creation of university programs and services for decades. Responsive to our statutory mission and expectations from the state, providing open and inclusive education will advance educational opportunity, equity and social justice, while becoming a comprehensive polytechnic university will elevate the career readiness of our students through active, applied and authentic learning experiences. I wish to express my sincere gratitude and recognize the extraordinary work of the steering committee, goal teams, our consultants and countless others who reviewed earlier drafts of the plan and made substantive contributions to its formulation. There is good reason to be proud of this plan and I am excited to implement “Trailblazing Distinction” as we embark on a long journey to fulfill our Vision. Michael Lacourse, PhD Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Chair of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee STRATEGIC PLAN STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP Ms. Sheila Bastian, Executive Assistant to the Provost/VPAA Dr. Jason Boothe, Director of Athletics Mr. Jason Browning, Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness Mr. Brooks Burr, Development Officer Mr. DaviD Clark, Chairperson, DSU BoarD of Trustees Dr. Lauren DiSalvo, Faculty, College of Arts Ms. Darlene Dilley, Assistant Vice PresiDent for Enrollment Management Ms. Tiffany Draper, PresiDent, Staff Association Ms. Taylor GoDfrey, DSUSA PresiDent Dr. Kristy Grayson, Faculty, College of Business Ms. Jyl Hall, Director of Public Relations Dr. Nancy Hauck, Associate Provost for Community anD Global Engagement Mr. Ryan Hobbs, Executive Director, Digital anD ExtenDeD Learning 4 Dr. RanDy Jasmine, Faculty, College of Humanities anD Social Sciences Dr. Michael Lacourse, Provost anD Vice PresiDent for AcaDemic Affairs Dr. Michelle McDermott, Past-PresiDent, Faculty Senate Dr. Erin Ortiz, Director, General EDucation Mr. Travis Rosenberg, Executive Director, Human Resources Dr. McKay Sullivan, Faculty, College of Science Engineering anD Technology Dr. Tasha Toy, Assistant Vice PresiDent for Campus Diversity, Chief Diversity Officer Mr. Henrie Walton, Special Assistant to the PresiDent for Government anD Community Affairs Mr. Courtney White, Chief of Staff to the PresiDent Dr. LinDa Wright, Faculty, College of EDucation 5 GOAL TEAM MEMBERSHIP GOAL 1 ACADEMIC DISTINCTION Co-Chair Dr. Lauren DiSalvo, Faculty, College of Arts Co-Chair Dr. McKay Sullivan, Faculty, College of Science, Engineering, anD Technology Member Dr. Pam Cantrell, Associate Provost, Academic anD BuDget Planning Member Dr. Stephen Lee, Dean, College of Humanities anD Social Sciences Member Dr. Olga Pilkington, Faculty, College of Humanities anD Social Sciences anD Assistant Director for UnDergraduate Research Member Dr. Travis Ficklin, Faculty, College of Health Sciences Member Dr. Raisa Alvarado, Faculty, College of Humanities anD Social Sciences