Strategic Planning Process

LSUA uses a two-year strategic planning and assessment cycle. Every two years the Strategic Planning Steering Committee [2] reviews LSUA’s Strategic Plan [3] including the university’s mission [4] , vision [5] , and institutional goals [6] . The chair of the committee establishes a work plan or schedule of activities [7] [8] . The Strategic Planning Steering Committee solicits and discusses input from the university’s Planning Council [9] , and faculty, staff, students, prospective students, and community members through focus groups[10] and an ad-hoc Strategic Planning Task Force composed of representatives of all interest groups. The Steering Committee also examines data produced by Institutional Research and Effectiveness, such as needs assessments [11] ; annual surveys of faculty [12] , staff [13] and students [14] ; and enrollment [15] and retention data [16] . The Steering Committee ultimately recommends to the Chancellor revisions to LSUA’s mission, vision and institutional goals. 

The mission, vision, and institutional goals then become the basis for planning in all LSUA budget units/departments. Each academic department develops a departmental statement of purpose, administrative outcomes for the department, and desired educational outcomes (student learning outcomes) for each degree, certificate, and/or developmental education program it administers. Educational outcomes are designed to be assessed over a longer time period and typically do not change greatly during each strategic planning process. Each non-academic department develops a statement of purpose specific to the unit [17] as well as a set of departmental outcomes. All departmental statements of purpose and outcomes [18] are designed to support the university’s mission and goals. Each unit’s purpose and outcomes are reviewed by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee [19] to insure that they are appropriate.

Institutional Effectiveness Process

Evaluation or assessment at LSUA is systematized in LSUA’s institutional effectiveness process. At the end of the strategic planning process, each unit will have developed a list of three to six desired outcomes which will then be assessed over the next two years.  The same is true for assessment of the three to six educational outcomes for each degree or certificate program, except that these are typically not changed every two years so that longitudinal data may be acquired. 

In the first year of the two-year assessment cycle, early in the fall semester, each unit proposes assessment methods and criteria for achievement for each outcome it is assessing. These are detailed in Section I of LSUA’s Annual Assessment Forms [20] . Assessment methods and criteria for all units/programs are reviewed by the Coordinator for Planning and Assessment who, in conjunction with the appropriate vice chancellor, ensures that the assessments are appropriate and the criteria for accomplishment are challenging. Once its assessments have been approved, each unit proceeds to carry them out for the remainder of the year.

During the spring semester, each unit completes a draft of Section II of the Annual Assessment Forms [20] . In this section, the unit reports preliminary results of its assessments. The mid-year submission date serves to trigger action by units that may have neglected their assessments and prompts unit personnel to begin thinking about the data and planning for improvement if the initial data indicate achievement criteria will not be met.

The final submission of the Annual Assessment Forms occurs June 30 each year [20] . At that time, Section II must be updated to include results of assessment for the entire year. Section III of the forms is also completed at this time. In Section III, if a unit has not achieved an outcome, it must address what actions it will take in the future so that the outcome will be met. Completed assessment forms are again reviewed by the Coordinator for Planning and Assessment in conjunction with the appropriate vice chancellor. They are responsible for ensuring that each unit that did not achieve one or more of its outcomes has planned appropriate actions in response to its assessment results so that improvement of the institution will occur.

When all Assessment Forms have been submitted, reviewed and revised, the Coordinator of  Planning and Assessment then uses the Annual Assessment Forms to complete an executive summary based on all unit reports. This summary, the Annual Assessment Report Card [21] , describes the university’s progress toward meeting each of its institutional goals, and, hence, its mission.

The second year of the two-year assessment cycle is very similar to the first except that units normally do not need to devise assessment methods and criteria, as they simply continue with those that were approved the first year. If a unit finds its assessment from the prior year to be flawed or impossible to do, it may petition to change the method in the second year and the petition will be considered by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee.

Tie to Budgeting Process

During each fall semester, all units submit budget requests [22] for the next academic year. Budget unit heads are to consider their planned outcomes, previous year’s assessment results, and the Annual Assessment Report Card for the university, in making their requests. Each request must be accompanied by a written justification [23] relating the request to accomplishment of unit outcomes and institutional goals. Budget requests are reviewed by the Planning Council [24] , which then recommends priorities [25] for spending to the administration.

Other Planning and Evaluation Activities

Although the Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness processes are LSUA’s primary means of ongoing planning and evaluation, there are other types of planning and evaluation ongoing at LSUA that may or may not be included in the very structured Strategic Planning/Institutional Effectiveness process. Whether or not results of these assessments are reported in the formal process, these assessments provide valuable information to LSUA and are used for continued improvement so that LSUA may more effectively accomplish its mission. Some of these assessments are discussed below:

Evaluation of Faculty and Staff

Every employee at LSUA is evaluated annually. Classified employees (e.g., housekeeping, clerical, facility services) are evaluated according to the Department of Civil Service Rules and Regulations [26] . The supervisor of each classified staff person must complete a Performance Planning and Review with the employee each year. The planning portion involves setting expectations for the employee and the review session reviews accomplishments relative to those expectations.

Non-classified professional staff are evaluated by their immediate supervisors according to Policy Statement 203 [27] . In addition, each non-classified staff member who supervises five or more people is evaluated periodically (usually every two years) by those he/she supervises in a process referred to in-house as “bottom up” evaluation [28] . The Chancellor and Vice Chancellors are evaluated by all university employees. The results of evaluations by subordinates are returned to the employee and his/her supervisor prior to the evaluation done by the supervisor.

Faculty are evaluated in a number of ways. At the beginning of each fall semester, every full-time faculty member completes an Annual Faculty Plan [29] , which describes what that individual intends to accomplish for the year relative to instruction, professional development, university service and community service. The Faculty Plan must be approved by the department chair, dean, and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs. At the end of the spring semester, each faculty member completes an Annual Faculty Report [29] in which he/she evaluates progress toward each item in the faculty plan. The Faculty Report is also reviewed by the department chair, dean, and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs.

Students in every credit course are given the opportunity to evaluate their instructor using the Student Evaluation of Instruction [30] . Faculty, department chairs, deans, and the Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs receive reports from the student evaluations. Department chairs meet with faculty who have student evaluations that are substandard to discuss improvements that may be needed..

Twice a year, during the August and November registration periods, faculty members are also evaluated by their advisees, who complete an Advising Survey [31] . Results of the advising survey are also sent to faculty members, department chairs, deans, and the Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs. Faculty who score above the university average on the summative questions on the evaluation receive recognition in the Advising Honor Roll published in the employee newsletter.[32]

Finally, each faculty member receives an annual evaluation [33] [34] from his/her department chair. The department chair uses the Annual Faculty Plan/Report and the results of the student evaluations of instruction and advising, along with other materials, when completing the annual evaluation of each faculty member. Annual Evaluations, Faculty Plan/Reports and Evaluations of Instruction are all considered in decisions to award merit raises [35] .

Surveys

Each year, Institutional Research and Effectiveness distributes the Annual Faculty [12] , Staff [13] and Student Surveys [14] . All faculty and staff receive a survey. A sample of students (typically 900+ students) complete the surveys during a class period. These are, essentially, satisfaction surveys, and most administrative and support services units on campus place items on the survey regarding satisfaction with the services provided by the unit. In addition to LSUA’s in-house survey of students, LSUA administers the ACT Student Opinion Survey [38] , as required by the Louisiana Board of Regents. Results from both the ACT survey and in-house survey are distributed to department heads and higher administration. Units base improvements on the results of these surveys. Results of the surveys are also discussed by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee, on which the top LSUA administrators all serve, and improvements are made in response to survey results [39] [40] . In recent years, a sample of the improvements that have been made as a result of these surveys includes: 1) hiring an auxiliaries manager (who manages the bookstore and food services) and outsourcing of the bookstore and food services due to continued dissatisfaction expressed  particularly with the bookstore; 2) increased restrictions on smoking on campus in response to the wishes of a large majority of faculty, staff and students; 3) establishment of a part-time faculty mailroom and copy center in the library to attempt to improve communication and increase a sense of community/collegiality with part-time faculty; 4) construction of a new student parking lot; and 5) increased hours of operation in the bookstore, cafeteria, and library.

A number of other specialized surveys are administered each year. The results from these surveys are typically used as part of the departmental outcomes assessment taking place through the institution’s Institutional Effectiveness process. Some of these surveys include: surveys of employers of graduates [41] [42] from various degree programs; surveys of graduates [43] [44] (alumni) of various degree programs; evaluation of Institutional Research and Effectiveness [45] ; survey of candidates for graduation regarding general education competencies [46] ; surveys of students who applied for admission to LSUA but did not enroll [47] ; and surveys of students who did not continue at LSUA [48] from spring to fall semester.

Other Reports/Data

There are also a number of reports produced each semester by Institutional Research and Effectiveness that are reviewed by appropriate administrators. When report data indicate a problem or concern, steps are taken to make improvements. Each year, Institutional Research and Effectiveness compiles an LSUA Factbook [49] which contains data on most aspects of the institution. The Factbook is distributed to all departments and is available on the LSUA website. At the official census date for the semester, an Enrollment Summary [15] report is compiled and distributed to department heads and top administrators. This report details demographic breakdowns of the student population that semester, including such things as parish of residence, part vs. full time, race, gender, and entry classification (new freshman, transfer, etc.) so that comparisons can be made with previous semesters and years. This information has been used, for example, to make changes in marketing and recruiting efforts. At the end of each semester, a Grade Distribution Report [50] is compiled and distributed to department heads and upper administration. The data in this report have been used recently to target courses for additional peer tutoring [51] .

Institutional Research and Effectiveness also supplies data on an ad hoc basis when requested by any university department. Recently, two major university initiatives completed in conjunction with Noel-Levitz consulting firm produced a recruitment plan [52] and a retention plan [53] for LSUA. Both initiatives relied heavily on data produced in ad hoc data requests.

Informal Means of Input for Improvement

Finally, LSUA often receives informal assessment information in the form of suggestions or complaints from students [54] , faculty or staff. When these suggestions or complaints are found to have merit, the university takes action to address the issue. Recent examples of this type of input include additional lighting for the campus and a change in the fee payment process; both were results of suggestions made by students.

LSUA engages in ongoing, research-based, institution-wide, planning and evaluation processes. These include both formal and systematic Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Processes as well as less formal means. LSUA uses the results of its planning and evaluation processes to improve the institution and effectively accomplish its mission.