Academic Plan 2011-2016

Learning : Create environments in which learners acquire new knowledge and skills and new ways of thinking, feeling, and doing.

1. Improve student writing by expanding writing across the curriculum, establishing desired measurable outcomes, and gauging achievement of these outcomes.
2. Involve every undergraduate in at least one research experience because active learning improves students’ academic success, and critical thinking and research skills are so important to employment and citizenship in the 21st century.
3. Identify qualities desired of graduating students and develop methods to assess their development in general education and the major.
4. Provide additional and alternative student-centered methods for learning through:
   • increased availability of online courses and programs
   • expanded use of pedagogically effective academic technology
   • multidisciplinary teaching initiatives
   • service and other forms of experiential learning
5. Support faculty to effectively use academic technology, innovative pedagogies, and multidisciplinary teaching initiatives that create student-centered learning environments and enhance information literacy, and increase faculty support for teaching as a scholarly activity to assure quality and currency of instruction.
6. Refresh and enhance our classrooms and teaching laboratory infrastructure.
7. Strengthen our commitment to undergraduate and graduate learning and its improvement, by assessing the quality and success of programs and initiatives and using findings for improvement, change, and supporting distinction.
8. Expand the scope and reach of Continuing and Global Education to increase student access and provide revenue to support the academic mission of the University.
9. Increase our graduation rate by six percentage points and cut the achievement gap between traditionally represented and under-represented groups by fifty percent.
10. Enhance our climate of diversity to promote understanding, competency, research and dialogue.
11. Advance intercultural competence that is needed in a global society by expanding opportunities for study abroad and international service learning and increasing recruitment and retention of international students.

Scholarship : Discover, integrate and apply knowledge that enriches California’s Central Valley and the world.

1. Support and expand a culture of scholarship, research, and creative accomplishments that:
   • advances disciplinary knowledge
   • serves the region
   • is integral to improved and relevant teaching
   • promotes intellectual and cultural diversity
2. Foster collaboration that addresses emerging knowledge areas and the complexity of today’s problems by encouraging and supporting multi-disciplinary areas of emphasis and the development of faculty cohorts.
3. Enhance graduate scholarly initiatives that:
   • benefit from a significant increase in Master’s-level graduate students
   • involve the faculty in doctoral education, both internally, and through “pipeline” relationships with doctoral institutions 
   • enhance business/industry relations leading to career opportunities for students
4. Ensure the growth of scholarship and research by expanding support for grant and contract activity. 
5. Increase assigned time for research-active faculty.

Engagement : Graduate productive citizens who contribute to the intellectual, cultural and economic life of our diverse region and global society.

1. Promote an ethic of service in all students by providing every undergraduate with a course-based service-learning or other significant engagement experience by working to include such a course in every program's required or core coursework.
2. Support and recognize the programs and centers that historically or currently provide opportunities for engagement with the region, nation, or world.
3. Enrich the artistic and cultural life of the region by engaging the community through performances, readings, art exhibits, festivals and other intellectual and artistic programs.
4. Offer university expertise through partnerships with K-12, health-related areas, industry, government, and projects involved in urban and regional transformation.
5. Increase support for undergraduate and graduate research that benefits our region and serves the greater good through new and innovative knowledge.

Drafted February 2010
Reviewed by School, College, and Library Deans and Faculty, March-April, 2010
Reviewed by President’s Cabinet, June 2010
Revised by Provost’s Leadership Team, with participation of Academic Senate Chair, September 2010
Approved by Provost’s Leadership Team, September 21, 2010