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STRATEGIC PLAN

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE

A STRATEGIC PLAN THROUGH THE YEAR 2008

for the

JESS and MILDRED FISHER
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
TOWSON UNIVERSITY

GOALS AND STRATEGIES FOR 2003 – 2008

The Jess and Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics reaffirms its commitment to be a distinguished student-centered college of science and mathematics offering outstanding undergraduate and graduate programs of the highest quality to a diverse student population.  For the next five years, the Jess and Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics plans to focus on the following goals and strategies to help it achieve or maintain this level of excellence as it proceeds through the first decade of the 21st century.

GOAL 1.  Provide a highly effective and supportive environment for learning and scholarly pursuits

Strategies:

1. Actively encourage and increase student participation in undergraduate research and independent projects. [Possible measures: # REU grants; proportion of graduating seniors who have had an undergraduate research experience; number of student-authored presentations at scientific meetings.]
2. Enhance faculty development in the use of new technologies in their teaching.
   [Possible measures: Number of Web-based courses offered by FCSM; number of course innovations that involve the use of computer technology; number of distance education courses; number of faculty attending conferences each year that focuses on the use of technology in the classroom; number of technology-based curriculum grants.]
3. Improve faculty advising and mentoring of students with specific attention to career planning and placement.  [Possible measures:  student advising satisfaction questionnaire.]
4. Develop new highly selective and innovative undergraduate programs or new concentrations within existing programs that would fill an important niche in the State and address future workforce needs.  [Measures: New program initiatives]
5. Increase the number of internships taken by FCSM majors during their course of study.  [Measure:  Number of internships filled each year.]
6. Strengthen secondary education major programs in the college by pro-active recruitment of teaching majors and by insuring that college curriculum is aligned with the national science and math standards.  [Measures: Number of FCSM students graduating as secondary education majors.]

Strategies:

1. Provide serious support for meaningful assessment of teaching and learning.
2. Reduce the reliance on part-time and adjunct faculty. [Measure: percentage of SCH taught by PT faculty.]
3. Provide support (in money as well as in P&T matters) for professional development and the formulation of new strategies for teaching and for new/revised curricular offerings. [Measure: # seminars on the scholarship of teaching and learning in the sciences and mathematics.]
4. Continually monitor, assess, and reform (when necessary) the FCSM portion of the General Education Program to ensure high quality and effectiveness. [Periodic reviews of General Education program.]

Strategies:

1. Develop and support select applied graduate programs or new tracks in existing programs to meet workforce needs in the State.  [Measure: degree of success in receiving approvals for new programs.]
2. Increase recognition of graduate students (e.g., Best Thesis Award, travel/research grants).  [Measures: new awards, dollars provided annually for travel/research.]
3. Help foster a greater intellectual community that includes graduate students.  [Measure: # graduate seminars, graduate student meeting spaces.]
4. Substantially increase the stipend level and number of assistantships to make graduate programs in the college nationally competitive.
5. Encourage departments to develop more effective recruitment techniques to attract greater numbers of high quality applicants.
6. Expand relationships with institutions that could host (and pay for) more MS students (e.g., UMBI, FDA).
7. Develop assessment techniques to measure quality of graduate programs.

Strategies:

1. Achieve 9/9 teaching loads on a regular basis for all faculty active in scholarship.
2. Create the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
3. Establish a FCSM fund for faculty travel/research above and beyond what is available from the University, perhaps on a matching fund basis with the department.
4. Promote more grant writing/collaborative research among FCSM faculty across departmental lines.
5. Develop community-based research projects involving multiple departments.
6. Encourage the use of sabbaticals to expand the research base of the College.
7. Provide a special one-time-only teaching load reduction in a given semester to support a faculty member with grant writing.

The quality of a college is no better than the quality of its faculty and staff.  If the college is to maintain an intellectually challenging environment supporting and appreciating a diversity in people and ideas, and an environment in which learning and scholarship can flourish, the college must have a highly qualified and diverse faculty and staff of sufficient size.

Subgoal 2A.  Insure that faculty and staff salaries remain competitive with those at peer institutions

Strategies:

1. Focus faculty recruitment to support economically viable programs.
2. Evaluate departmental faculty, staff and material resources to assure best allocations of resources.
3. Provide documentation and talking points on the role of FCSM and Towson in the health and economy of the State.  We could use a few pieces on strategically selected success stories in which our programs have made a big difference.
4. Annually collect data from peer institutions and from the CCAS Hiring Survey for purposes of insuring that FCSM remains competitive in terms of starting salaries, and start-up funds.
5. Continue to provide (when possible) merit plus base merit to highly meritorious faculty and equity adjustments to address salary compression problems when appropriate.

Strategies:

1. Establish a more effective mentoring program to help new faculty in writing grants.
2. Encourage interdisciplinary projects that enable faculty to share resources.
3. Increase departmental operating budgets to support the work of the faculty and their students, giving particular emphasis to the start-up needs of junior faculty and the ongoing research needs of tenured faculty.
4. Encourage, support, and reward faculty development for new instructional delivery systems and new learning approaches.
5. Ensure that college staff have opportunities to attend workshops and conferences that will advance their professional development.
6. Form collaborative efforts with industry or other research institutions.

Strategies:

1. Develop a fair hiring practices presentation delivered to all search committee members before a search is begun.
2. Offer competitive salaries and try to better display a welcoming atmosphere for women and minorities.
3. Target Ph.D. granting institutions in states with high minority populations and use databases on web for minority Ph.D.s.

Be sure the tenure and promotion process does not discriminate against women who want to start families.

Subgoal 2D.  Decrease dependence on part-time faculty while increasing number of faculty pins over time

Strategies:

1. Review departmental course offerings and streamline where possible,
2. Develop departmental long-term (> 5 years) faculty hiring plans

GOAL 3.  Recruit, retain and graduate a diverse undergraduate and graduate student body of high ability

If the college is to maintain and enhance its academic reputation where students can be intellectually challenged as members of a learning community, it is important that the college improve the quality of its student body while also supporting diversity and accessibility.

Subgoal 3A.  Improve the overall quality of the undergraduate student body as measured by average SAT scores and high school GPA and class rank

Strategies:

1. Increase programs bringing local area teachers to FCSM facilities.
2. Establish a list of faculty/staff willing to visit local schools (with a FCSM student) to give presentations and establish a fund for these presentations.
3. Restart the FCSM Science Information Day for area high schools.
4. Secure more scholarship funds through college fundraising efforts
5. Establish articulation agreements with various community colleges.
6. Use our best students as FCSM ambassadors to high schools.

Subgoal 3B.  Improve the overall quality of the graduate student body as measured by GRE and TOEFEL scores and undergraduate GPA

Strategies:

1. Establish a more attractive aid package for graduate students.
2. Encourage an increase in the number of full-time graduate students.
3. Provide support for inviting promising candidates to campus during February and March.
4. Encourage, when appropriate, the inclusion of graduate student support in proposals for external funding.
5. Encourage fund-raising for graduate fellowships and scholarships.

Subgoal 3C.  Enhance the diversity of the student body in the college both in terms of gender and ethnic background

Strategies:

1. Increase diversity in the faculty and staff.
2. Develop and encourage foreign student exchanges for FCSM departments.
3. Better communication and articulation with the State’s community colleges and high schools.
4. Work with departments to provide mentoring and other types of support for the well being of minority students.
5. Improve our image with high minority populations by increasing outreach (e.g., MESA program).

GOAL 4:  Improve the college infrastructure and facilities to support the teaching, research, and service missions of the College

In order to sustain a high quality learning and scholarly environment, it is essential to have in place a quality collegiate infrastructure that is maintained and upgraded on a continuing basis.  Sufficient building space/facilities/utilities, modern laboratory equipment and instrumentation, “smart” classrooms, computer labs, an adequate library collection, and an adequate technical support staff and budget are all critical to providing that infrastructure for a college of science and mathematics.

Subgoal 4A.  Acquire enough building space and adequate HVAC systems for the college that will enable it to successfully carry out its teaching and research missions

Strategies:

1. Establish a comprehensive summary of currently available physical facilities and how they are used. Review and make reallocations, where appropriate.
2. Ensure that all external funding proposals include adequate consideration of and clear identification of physical space needs.
3. Summarize, prioritize and communicate current building/HVAC deficiencies to the Provost and to Physical Facilities.
4. Preserve the space the college already has and lobby to get capital funds for building new space.
5. Develop a long-range space plan for the college that addresses projected needs by the year 2013 and work with central administration in the implementation of this plan.

Subgoal 4B.  Fully incorporate computers and other instructional technology in all aspects of the college’s teaching programs

Strategies:

1. Establish wireless networking for selected groups of students as a pilot project.
2. Continue to have a computer replacement policy that allows for the best equipment to be available to students.  Towson should plan to equip all classrooms on campus so that no matter where you are assigned to teach, you have access to the computer and reasonable demonstration equipment and software.
3. By the year 2007, convert at least twenty-five percent of classrooms in the college to “smart classrooms” with multimedia capabilities to permit the use of new delivery systems that encourage active learning and critical thinking.
4. Hire a full-time college technology specialist to provide professional support for the maintenance and upgrading of computer hardware and software and related technology in the college’s instructional and research programs.
5. Seek external funding, especially from private sources, for the acquisition of computers and other instructional technology.

Subgoal 4C.  Upgrade and maintain basic laboratory equipment and instrumentation that support the core programs in the science disciplines

Strategies:

1. Develop plan to keep major instrumentation current including: instrument depreciation; encouraged use of interdepartmental acquisitions; sharing of departmental/college funds for acquisitions; establishment of targets for both internal and external funding, etc.
2. Establish additional staff positions (departmental or interdepartmental) to support major instrumentation.
3. Integrate more extensively the use of major instrumentation in undergraduate courses.
4. Promote college and/or university support of software licenses.
5. Seek external funding (with university matching funds) for the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment for instruction and research.
6. Work with the Provost’s Office to develop an amortization plan to replace obsolete or worn out laboratory equipment on a regular schedule.

Subgoal 4D.  Preserve and enhance the library collections in the sciences and in mathematics

Strategies:

1. Establish a common “search” room in FCSM for students in searching literature with the help of the Internet.  Appropriate computers, software, access accounts and search instructions should be available.
2. Retain all memberships in digital libraries and consortia that allow for sharing.
3. Better utilize the on-line library collection.
4. Encourage faculty to donate from their private collections.
5. Encourage departments, in cooperation with the Library, to periodically review and assess current collections in their disciplines and work to rectify any crucial unfulfilled needs.

GOAL 5.  Foster and strengthen mutually beneficial ties with external constituencies

As an academic unit of a public university, the college has an obligation to contribute to the prosperity and quality of life in Maryland through outreach and partnerships.  There are numerous (or various) constituencies (alumni, business and industry, school systems, community colleges, government agencies, and community groups) that can be encouraged to appreciate and support the programs and services of the college through mutually beneficial ties with the college community.

Subgoal 5A.  Promote and establish, where appropriate, effective partnerships between the college and Maryland’s business and high technology communities

Strategies:

1. Establish monthly FCSM seminar using local/regional speakers.
2. Establish and promote contact with FCSM graduates employed locally.
3. Establish a FCSM Advisory Board.
4. Offer tailor-made Master’s or certificate programs to industry and schools and government agencies.
5. Provide research opportunities for students and faculty with companies or agencies in this area.

Subgoal 5B.  Strengthen the relationships between the college and its alumni

Strategies:

1. Develop departmental inter-active Websites for communicating and promoting contact with alumni.
2. Increase the use of FCSM alumni in seminar programs.
3. Establish departmental newsletters  to alumni in all FCSM departments.
4. Work with the Division of Institutional Advancement to develop a comprehensive database of FCSM alumni information.
5. Develop a coordinated network of alumni and friends to provide support for the major goals of the college.
6. Include alumni on a college advisory board.
7. In coordination with the Division of Institutional Advancement, secure major gifts and donations to the college from corporate sponsors, foundations, prominent alumni, and friends of the college.

Subgoal 5C.  Establish and coordinate partnerships with educational, governmental, and professional organizations

Strategies:

1. Select seminar speakers that will support potential partnerships.
2. Increase the number of educational partnerships and collaborative projects with school systems that will contribute to the improvement of K-12 science and mathematics education in Maryland and beyond.
3. Actively pursue research collaborations and partnerships with other institutions of higher education in Maryland and beyond.
4. Establish collaborative relationships with government agencies and laboratories as well as professional organizations.
5. Establish science education and teacher development outreach efforts that utilize strengths of the Towson faculty, students, and programs (e.g., the Towson Tiger Science Bus).

GOAL 6.  Establish more international exchange opportunities for students and faculty

Strategies:

1. Establish exchange programs for completing undergraduate research overseas.
2. Increase faculty participation in international exchanges.
3. Promote participation in new foreign exchange programs sponsored through external agencies such as DAAD.
4. Establish a FCSM Visiting Scholar Program through University and industrial funding.

May 23, 2003

The Jess and Mildred Fisher
College of Science and Mathematics
Smith Hall, Room 312 (campus map)

Phone: 410-704-2121
Fax: 410-704-2604
E-mail: fcsm@towson.edu