Cal Poly Pomona has embarked on a Strategic Planning Process that will chart the university’s course for the next several years while also identifying top academic and campus initiatives and the resources and facilities to achieve those objectives.
“With the economic downturn, the campus faced significant reductions over the past few years. We need a period in which to recalibrate and chart our path ahead. The strategic planning process will fundamentally address where we are, our vision for the future, a plan to achieve this vision, a process for monitoring our success, and the resources we will acquire and apply in the execution of this plan,” says University President Soraya M. Coley.
A Strategic Planning Steering Committee will be formed with faculty members appointed from the Academic Senate, as well as staff, students and administrators from diverse groups within the campus and the external community. The Strategic Planning Process, which will conclude in the fall, will seek to build on the progress of the earlier blueprint and align new goals with current strengths.
An overarching task for the Strategic Planning Steering Committee will be to examine, with campus engagement, the university’s polytechnic identity for the 21st century, how it fits into the future of higher education, and the advantages it provides to students and graduates. Cal Poly Pomona is one of only two polytechnic campuses in the California State University system and among only a handful of polytechnic universities in the United States.
To help navigate a comprehensive and timely strategic planning process, Cal Poly Pomona has hired Huron Consulting Group to support the Strategic Planning Steering Committee in its facilitation of this process. The firm has consulted with the CSU system and several campuses on their strategic plans.
Huron Consulting has outlined an approach that aims to answer four key questions:
- What are Cal Poly Pomona’s most valued areas of strength and differentiation?
- What are the opportunities and areas of risk to be mindful of?
- How do we bring our resources to bear in ways that confer maximum value to the university’s students, faculty, staff and the broader community?
- How do we frame a compelling vision for Cal Poly Pomona’s path forward that all members of the campus community can embrace and contribute toward?
“The strategic planning process will be inclusive and transparent as we work to provide periods of review and dialogue across the university,” Coley says. “Engagement and input from the campus community, including alumni and other stakeholders will be instrumental. We are an extraordinary institution and we have a variety of opportunities ahead. Our planning will be essential to focus our energies, recommit to our values, and align our resources with our aims. ”
A strategic planning website is being developed to provide news updates, messages from the steering committee and important documents. The website will allow the campus community to give input and feedback throughout the process. In addition, town hall meetings and focus groups also are planned as other means to attain feedback.
Coley alluded to the strategic plan in her address at Fall Conference last year. Coley has cited that findings from a months-long, campus-wide listening tour of every division and department would be instrumental in formulating the next strategic plan.
“On my listening tour, I heard from a diverse array of campus stakeholders about their concerns, hopes and visions for the university,” Coley says. “And I will continue to conduct these tours until I have met with all the departments and units across the campus. I have also begun to meet with different student groups. With this input from our community, we are launching a strategic planning process to bring these goals and aspirations together under a collective vision and a plan that is real, concrete, and measurable.”
In 2008, then-President Michael Ortiz led the university through a comprehensive review that resulted in agreement on a shared vision, mission and core values. Under the cooperative leadership of faculty and administrators, the university launched the first step toward the adoption of a new strategic plan and campus priorities through 2015.
Among the numerous achievements from the 2011-2015 strategic plan are:
- A nearly 41 percent increase in first-time freshman applicants
- A 28 percent increase in student transfer applicants
- A nearly 37 percent rise in undergraduate applications to 46,650
- An approximate 16 percent jump in enrollment to 23,966
- A nearly 42 percent increase in veteran student enrollment
- Six-year graduation rate increase
- Four-year graduation rate increase
- A 42 percent jump in the amount of financial aid awarded to nearly $198 million
The full assessment of the 2011-15 strategic plan is available online.