Institutional Effectiveness Strategic Plan, 2022-26

Goal 1: Provide contextualized data and analyses to describe and evaluate the university

Objectives:

1. Continually increase the visibility and strengthen the understanding of the university and its performance
2. Expand usage of relevant supplemental data sources
3. Maintain and expand communication channels to disseminate information

Goal 2: Proactively support others in using University data to its full benefit

Objectives:

1. Actively integrate data into annual campus priorities
2. Implement new strategies to help customers/consumers find answers to their data questions
3. Develop new methods to exchange knowledge and develop skills across analytical areas
4. Increase data literacy among administrators, faculty, and staff

Goal 3: Improve quality of data and access to information produced by Institutional Effectiveness

Objectives:

• Contribute to a collaborative and strong effort for data governance and quality
• Streamline the flow and improve the data in IE-supported systems
• Identify potential efficiencies that would improve time to delivery for regular projects
• Continue to improve delivery and usability of data and analyses

Goal 4: Build and maintain organizational capacity and develop human resources within Institutional Effectiveness

Objectives:

1. Employ project management best practices
2. Ensure each staff member is supported for participation in meaningful professional development
3. Foster a work environment that supports employee wellness

Prioritization Guidelines

In a data-informed culture, Institutional Effectiveness will encounter requests that compete for its limited resources. To assign our available resources efficiently, IE has developed a basic schema for determining how and where to place its resources. A primary objective of IE is to serve the institutional needs by asking the question, “Does this request address institutional goals/priorities and/or help the university move forward as an institution?” In general, IE does not respond to requests from students or assist with class projects.

Category 1: Information needed for campus decision makers (senior leadership, deans, etc.); institutional initiatives; external entities (State Board of Education, State or Federal government, etc.)

Category 2: Information needed for specialized accreditations; grants; program approvals, evaluations, and reviews

Category 3: Information requests to meet individual faculty or staff needs, such as specialized research, conference presentations, etc.

Category 4: General interest requests (“good to know”) not tied to particular university goals or initiatives; may include ad hoc requests from external entities not affiliated with the university

Alignment with the University Strategic Plan, Blueprint for Success

The Office of IE supports many units across all divisions of the University. As a service unit, we directly or indirectly support all of the University’s strategic goals. The Office of IE is most connected to Goal 1: Improve educational access and student success and Goal 4: Foster Thriving Community.

Implementing the IR Strategic Plan

The Office of IE will develop annual work plans to work toward achieving the goals of the strategic plan. This will enable IE to understand annual and longer-term University plans and priorities and contribute to them in a proactive way. The OIE will review and report the progress on our goals on the timeline required for the Blueprint for Success.