CLA Strategic Plan

CLA LogoGoal 1: Increase support to enable faculty and students to accomplish their goals

  1. Support research and develop research/grant opportunities (in addition to the workshops and other opportunities available through ORS)
    1. Facilitate interdisciplinary discussions concerning research
    2. Support faculty through writing groups
    3. Coordinate with faculty and staff to write grant proposals for college initiatives
  2. Work with departments to better define expectations for faculty
    1. Facilitate the processes for departments to clarify their policies concerning workload and faculty activities based on discipline
  3. Provide opportunities for professional development for faculty, staff, and students
    1. Work with departments to create career readiness workshops for students
    2. Work with departments to identify and address the professional needs of faculty and staff
  4. Create additional interdisciplinary and integrative programs
    1. Work with interested departments and faculty to create new majors, minors, and certificates with interdisciplinary and/or integrative foci
  5. Provide support for education abroad, education away, and internship opportunities
    1. Continue to explore development opportunities to support student participation in education abroad and internships
  6. Create effective and updated instructional spaces
    1. Identify the needs of faculty using High Impact Practices (HIPs)
    2. Find spaces that can be redesigned to better support HIPs in the classroom

Goal 2: Enhance outreach and communication efforts

  1. Create and implement a college recruitment plan including community, high school and community college outreach
    1. Work with departments, community colleges, high schools, and community organizations to identify opportunities to interact with potential students in meaningful ways
  2. Focus community outreach to increase partnerships with faculty, departments, and the college for the purpose of creating opportunities for student internships and employment
    1. Work with Friends of the Liberal Arts to facilitate relationships with industry leaders
    2. Find effective means to communicate with industry regarding the assets of Liberal Arts graduates
  3. Use social media for better communication within and outside of the college
    1. Create a strategic communications staff position
  4. Educate the MTSU community on the merits of the Liberal Arts
    1. Provide faculty and staff from other MTSU colleges with accurate information regarding the Liberal Arts and its programs
    2. Facilitate interdisciplinary interactions with faculty and students from other colleges

Goal 3: Increase diversity and support of underrepresented faculty and students.

  1. Work towards matching diversity of faculty and staff with diversity of the student body in the college
    1. Complete a study to define current imbalances
    2. Compose a committee to identify strategies for increasing diversity in the college
  2. Create mentoring programs and support groups for underrepresented faculty, staff, and students
    1. Work with departments to create and assess pilot programs
    2. Seek internal and external funding to support these efforts
  3. Create pathways for underrepresented students from middle school through graduate school
    1. Organize workshops to help potential students learn about higher education (at various levels) and the admissions process
    2. Create partnerships between departments and external graduate programs which seek to recruit and provide effective mentoring for underrepresented populations

Goal 4: Strengthen the sense of community

  1. Create a space for faculty from across the college to gather
    1. Find funding and a space to retrofit for faculty to be able to socialize and collaborate
  2. Create communal spaces within college facilities.
    1. Continue to identify informal learning space opportunities
  3. Facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and activities
    1. Support and facilitate interactions between departments and across colleges