Xavier University
Strategy Update 2015
May 19, 2015
Prepared By:
56 Perimeter Center East, Suite 103
Atlanta, Georgia 30346
770.454.1440
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Practical ● Dynamic ● Interactive
Overview
The Xavier University held a one-day planning session on May 19, 2015 to review and
update the strategic plan. The session was attended by members of the University
Strategic Planning Committee. Representatives from Leadership Strategies served as
facilitators and documenters for the session.
Retreat Objectives
The objectives of the retreat included the following:

Review progress on strategies and objectives

Make adjustments where appropriate
Session Agenda
I.
Getting Started
 Welcome and Opening Remarks
 Session Objective, Deliverables
 Most Proud
 Agenda, Ground Rules
 Review Prior Actions
II.
Review Objectives and Strategies – Part I
A. Student Success
B. Faculty and Staff
C. Programs
D. Campus
E. Financial Stability
F. Reputation and Community
III.
Key Changes in the Current Environment
 Higher education
 Our customers
 Our employees
 Our current situation
 Our partners
 Our upper management
IV.
Revise Objectives
V. Revise Strategies
VI.
Establish Priorities
VII.
Review Monitoring and Next Steps
VIII.
Close
Page 2
A. Documentation Contents
The documentation from the session appears in two documents.

The primary strategic plan document appears as a PowerPoint file and provides
the strategy components in an 11x17 format.

This update document contains the discussion notes and other analysis that
contributed to the primary strategic plan document.
Comments appearing in italic represent additions made by the documenter for clarity.
This appendix document includes the following sections:
I. Most Prouds ................................................................................. 4 II. Review of Objectives and Strategies ........................................... 5 III. Key Changes in the Environment ............................................. 15 IV. Revise Objectives .................................................................... 17 V. Revise Strategies ...................................................................... 17 VI. Establish Priorities .................................................................... 17 VII. Next Steps............................................................................... 17 Page 3
I. Most Prouds
Following an opening by Ron Durnford, the Vice President of the Office of Planning,
Institutional Research, & Assessment, the participants worked in four teams to identified
items that have occurred within the organization related to the strategic plan of which
they are most proud. A number preceding an item indicates the number of teams (if
more than 1) making a similar.
1. 2-Have BUILD grant
2. 2-Increased number of applications
3. 1000 level course pass rates
4. ACPE accreditation
5. Advising and monitoring
6. Bridge over canal
7. Center for continuing studies and distance education
8. Completion of the strategic plan
9. Doing more with less (staff, $, etc.)
10. Engaged interim VP
11. Filled high profile positions (ITC, sponsored programs)
12. Fitness center
13. Identified new president
14. Increased summer and distance learning
15. Marketing campaigns started
16. Mechanism for stakeholder feedback into strategic plan
17. Media placement
18. Raises for faculty and staff
19. Several high dollar and impact grants
20. Staff awards
21. Staff aligned with the mission
22. Staff recognition program
23. Tribute campaign
Page 4
II. Review of Objectives and Strategies
After completing the discussion of most prouds, the team reviewed each goal area by
identifying performance on objectives and recommending action on the priority
strategies. The following presents the overall grading for each goal area.
Overall Grading
Grade
Area
C
A. Student Success
D
B. Faculty and Staff
B
C. Programs
D
D. Campus
B
E. Financial Stability
C
F. Reputation
C-
Overall Grade
A. Student Success - Overall Grade: C
Maximize graduation and post-graduate success and overall student satisfaction
Objective
Year 1
Who
1a
Increase graduation rates (A&S)
48% (2007)
IR
42.3% 2008 cohort
F
1b
Increase graduation rates (COP)
75%
IR
78.9% 2012 P1 cohort
A
2a
Increase % of students to
professional/graduate schools or
working in a profession related to
their academic degree (A&S)
52%
IR
35.4% in Grad/Prof school or
working in their field
*53.4% (29.2% Grad/Prof. school
+ 24.2% working, possibly in
profession related to degree or
in other school)
A
2b
Increase % of students to
professional/graduate schools or
working in a profession related to
their academic degree (COP)
67%
IR
*58.5% working in their COP field.
*0% in grad/prof school
F*
questio
n about
the
measur
ement
3a
Increase overall student
satisfaction (A&S)
83%
IR
New IE survey instrument – revise
objective
NA
3b
Increase overall student
satisfaction (COP)
62%
IR
New IE survey instrument – revise
objective
NA
Page 5
Results YTD
Grade
Strategy
A2
A4
Revise the current student
advisement program to ensure
that it has an effective mentoring
component.
Create a comprehensive
database of students and
graduates (alumni) using
emerging technologies (e.g. social
media) and various data sources
to evaluate value of a Xavier
education and implement
learnings.
Who
Results
Anil
Kukrej
a,
Vanes
hette
Hender
son
*Proposal Developed
*staff recruitment in
progress
*Trustees provisionally
approved FY16 budget

Revised
advisement
program with
targets
Expectation

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Ron
Durnfo
rd,
Daniel
Sarpon
g
*Initial stages have
been developed for the
database, including the
identification of
pertinent variable
content
*In process of selecting
survey instrument and
vendor

Database

Procedures and
resources to
manage and
maintain the
database

Evaluation plan
and report of value
of Xavier education
(including strengths
and weaknesses)

List of learnings
(and how they
were implemented)
Status
Contin
ue
Contin
ue
1. Objectives

A1a – Should Y1 be the year 2020? So that we can see what we started
doing?
- Consider having activity or leading indicators for our measures
- Translate back to a freshman/sophomore retention rate
 A1b – Should the base year (since 4 years) have been 2009
 A2a – Should consider having 1 for grad/professional school and 1 for job
working
 A2b – Question about if the number is correct
- May have used the exit survey; if we want to use something else we need
to look at a different instrument
 A3a, A3b
- New instrument and develop baseline in 2015
- Consider if the pharmacy survey will continue to be used, or if additional
questions will be added from the pharmacy
2. Strategies
 A2
- Being sure that pharmacy is included going forward
 A4
- Seems to be all about the survey and requires people replying
Page 6
-
Need to focus more on relationship, working with COP to determine what
is happening with students, and building relationships with students on
what is happening with students when they graduate
B. Faculty and Staff Overall Grade: D
Maximize the development and engagement of faculty and staff.
Objective
1
2
3
4
Increase scholarly productivity
of faculty as measured by
faculty update sheets (4.1 may
have been average number of
products/faculty)
Increase teaching
effectiveness rating of faculty
as measured by overall rating
on student and chair/head
evaluation scores
Increase engagement by
faculty and staff as measured
by self-reported participation in
University activities, civic
engagement and decisionmaking/ governance
Increase effectiveness in
communication,
planning/organizing and
problem solving of staff
through participation in
workshops, conferences and 2
development
opportunities/semester
(Measured by Human
Resource and Unit
Assessment Instruments)
Strategy
B3
Implement a staff incentive
program to provide performance
achievements of staff
Year 1
Who
Results YTD
Grade
Acad.
Affairs
No data reported, consider
alternative metric
Not defined
adequately to
measure NA
Acad.
Affairs
No data reported, consider
alternative metric
Incomplete
Acad.
Affairs
for
faculty
HR-for
staff
Faculty: faculty update sheets;
nothing on faculty update
sheet that focuses on
University activities
Staff: we don’t have a
mechanism to gather this
F
Human
Resourc
es
Baseline data needed for
comparison (Can be
measured through IDRs for
managerial and professional –
could be data pulled from;
assessing administrative
support staff; have outlined
development plans for some
areas
Incomplete
1%
1%
Define
Base
Define
Base
Who
Results
Ralph
Johnso
n,
Joseph
Byrd
*staff recognition
program developed
*Prizes have been
budgeted
*Awardee selection
soon to be launched –
and awarded in the fall
of this year
Page 7
Expectation

Incentive program
implemented with
targets identified

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Status
Will be
comple
ted in
the fall
and
becom
e an
ongoin
g
progra
m
B6
Strategy
Who
Results
Implement an institutional
professional development
program for staff that will enhance
performance in communication,
planning, organization and
problem solving
Nedra
Alcorn
"In March 2015, the
Human Resources
office began offering
"Exceptionally Positive
Human Interactions
Program" training
sessions. The first
wave of trainees were
staff members in the
Financial Aid and
Admissions offices. At
present, 4 sessions
have been held and 21
staff members have
received training.
There are two more
sessions scheduled for
the coming month."
Expectation

Institutional
professional
development
program with
targets

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
1. Objectives

B1 – Not clear what we are measuring (define it in the objective itself, for
example: “as measured by number of products identified by faculty in the
faculty updates”
- Examples: publications, presentations (and could be other things)
- Is 1% increase relevant
 The objectives requires a lot of work to gather and go through hundreds of
sheets
- Do we want to continue to measure it this way or use something else?
 Consider looking at form to determine if overall, individual, or average or
something else (could be question #10)
 Different way: set a threshold and the number of people over the threshold
 Review each of the objectives determine what to keep, be very clear on how
we will measure
- Working along with Larry Calvin can be people from each area of the
University to have a point person to help obtain and secure the data
- Consider focusing our measures on those who need to improve
 Determine if these are the right objectives for the goal
Page 8
Status
Contin
ue
C. Programs
Overall Grade: B
Provide mission-driven programs that respond to changing needs of students,
the workforce, and society.
Objective
C1
Increase number of new
undergraduate, graduate,
certificate, and online programs
added over base year
C2
Increase mean overall student
satisfaction with academic
departments on Institutional
Effectiveness survey
C3
Increase the number of students
participating in internships, study
abroad, and other partnerships
using the senior survey, NSSE,
and Career Advancement Center
for data
C4
Review programs with low
enrollment and not critical to core
university initiatives as to viability
C
2
Establish a Xavier center for
continuing studies and distance
education (to attract adult
population)
Strategy
Year 1
2
4.10 CAS
Who
Results YTD
Grade
Acad.
Affairs
*Two additional graduate
programs have been added:
Partnership with Chicago School
of Professional Psychology
Clinical Psy. D,
*Ed.D program in Educational
Leadership within the Division of
Education
*MS in speech pathology has
been approved and will be
launched in 2017
*Minor in professional writing has
been approved and will be
launched in Fall of 2015
A
Clair
Wilkins
Will revise the baseline based on
new survey instrument
developed in AY15
New baseline CAS 85% and
COP 84%
NA
COP
Cambrice
TBD – Needs additional followup
Incomplet
e
Baseline
No Data
Acad.
Affairs
We have a program review
Continue
process; have completed reviews
with Sociology, Theology,
Languages. Going forward we
will be focusing on majors/minors
inside of programs and perform
analysis of what if we DID NOT
have this major, what would it
impact.
Added by the Board; deferred for
the moment
Who
Results
Anil
Kukrej
a,
Karen
Nichols
*Formal Proposal has
been developed and
submitted
*Staff recruitment
process has begun
*Trustees have
provisionally approved
FY16 budget
Page 9
•
•
Expectation
Center established
with targets,
staffing, policies,
procedures,
resources, budget
Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Status
Contin
ue
1. Objectives
 C2 – Reset baselines based on the satisfaction measures
 Consider focusing on departments that are less than a target
- (Difference between the goal and the strategy)
 Could consider converting the 5 point scale into a percentage
 C4 – Consider making this a priority --with the budget cuts in public colleges
and universities in Louisiana; could be an opportunity to pick up students in
majors
 C4 – consider moving to a strategy
D. Campus Overall Grade: D
Strengthen the infrastructure to support a comprehensive range of campus and
community activities.
1
Objective
Year 1
Reduce the level of deferred
maintenance as measured by
reduction in net total from
base year of deferred
maintenance
95% of
base of
31.5M
2
Bracy,
Dillon
ITC,
Williams
Maintain an updated listing of
most important technologies
impacting student learning,
research and collaboration,
addressing items from the
listing
3
Who
Achieve scheduled
replacement of furniture,
fixtures and equipment as
measured by master list of
present value (PV) funds set
aside
Bracy
Page 10
Grade
Requires an initial list of items
Incomplet
identified as deferred maintenance
e
– not yet done will know next fall if
target of 29.5 has been met
List of items







1 item
Fund Yr-1
PV Lvl
Results YTD
C
Network (access to university
resources and internet)
Email – Will go live in July
Blackboard Learn System
Blackboard Mobile Learn
Blackboard Collaborate
Hobson's Retain
LONI (for research collaboration
in conjunction with faculty using
high capacity computing)
Master list completed for ITC, but
not for other elements
Have not defined the PV of items
Don’t have fund for replacement
F
4
Wilkins
Increase overall student, staff
and faculty satisfaction with
the campus facilities and
physical environment by
“capture” survey
D
3
Base
Strategy
Who
Establish a prioritized scheduled
replacement for furniture, fixtures
and equipment
Marion
Bracy
Institutional Effectiveness survey Incomplet
results (students) to define a new
e
baseline in spring 2015
CAS 62% COP 64%
(when WiFi and Food services
taken out of calculations, score
increases to 71%)
At present we may have a
“capture” survey for faculty and
staff; don’t have measures for now
Don’t have baselines for 20132014.
Results
Partially completed
•
•
Expectation
Schedule
Identified resource
streams to support
schedule
Status
Contin
ue
1. Objectives
 D4 – Consider using the EBI bench marking survey for housing students
E. Financial Stability Overall Grade: B
*NOTE: We will not know until 7/15/15; we have asterisked these to indicate where we expect to be
Objective
1
Increase net resources
(cumulative over the five years)
Year 1
$300K
2
Increase endowment by 5%
annually from $166 million base
3
Grade
Phillips
Moving in direction to meet target
at close of financial year.
A*
Phillips
Not likely to reach target this
year. Since December have had
declines, we are probably now at
$162 million; don’t expect to get
back to $166 nor increase by 5%
for current FY
F*
Phillips
Moving in direction to meet target
at close of financial year; based
on trends expect to meet
A*
Phillips
This will not be available until
close of financial year; if we
make the targets in 1 and 3
should be able to reach the
objective
A*
$174.5M
$49.4
4
Increase the composite financial
3.0
index to 4.5 from 3.0
Strategy
Results YTD
5%
Limit controllable costs to 3%
annually from base $48 million
Who
Who
Resuls
Page 11
Expectation
Status
Strategy
Who
Resuls
E3
Develop and implement a
revised enrollment strategy
to achieve enrollment targets
that meet operational
requirements and includes:
accountability targets for
admission counselors and
departments; revised roles
from collaborative discussions
with departments,
alumni and others; reserve
allocations; strategies
to drive targets; low financial
risk families.
Winston
Brown
Still in mid-process for class
AY15-16
*Increase FR applications =
4500; actual ~4800
*Asian = +100, actual -16
*Hispanic = +100, actual l -3
*Social Science = +75, actual
+71
*Humanities = +75, actual +58
*Transfers = +400, actual -110
*Abroad = +75@, actual -2
*Deposits Mid Acad Risk =
+200, actual -22
•
Expectation
Enrollment
strategy (with
desired
targets)
• Results from
the
implementatio
n (against the
targets)
E6
Diversify non-tuition revenue
streams in order to increase
net resources (e.g. increase
rentals from convocations
center)
Ed
Phillips,
Ralph
Johnson
Have begun to systematically
rent out convocation center
•
•
Plan for
increasing
non-tuition
revenue
streams with
targets
Results from
the
implementatio
n (against the
targets)
1. Objectives
 E2 – Consider net increase from gifts and additions independent of what the
market does (measure what we are putting into the endowment)
 Consider adding a couple of objectives
- Enrollment
- Diversify enrollment
2. Strategies
 E3
- Look at enrollment not just applications
- Look at low financial risk families
 E6
- Explore other diversified revenue areas
- Animal care and use facility
- Research core
- Modeling
Page 12
Status
Contin
ue
Contin
ue
F. Reputation Overall Grade: C
Be recognized globally for our mission effectiveness, educational excellence, and
community engagement.
Objective
1
Maintain #1 ranking in three
areas: (a) graduating AA students
earning UG degrees in Biology,
Chemistry and physical sciences;
(b) AA entering and completing
medical schools; (c) AA students
achieving PhDs in life sciences
(a) NCES (b) AAMC; may not
be counted (c) Measured
by NSF,
Year 1
Who
Improve ranking among liberal
1 place =
arts colleges in southern region
160
3
(a) #1 AA Physical Sciences Incomple
(a) #7 AA Biological
te
Sciences, source Diverse
Issues in HiEd.
(Don’t believe the baseline was
#1 in this area)
Information is limited to
Clearinghouse data, AAMC
ceased sending rankings reports
to XU. AY 2013-2014, 23
students attended medical,
dental, osteopathic, and
veterinary school Fall 2014.
Revise Objective
(b) ?
(c) ?
IR
US NEWS ranking for 2015
#171 liberal arts colleges; (drop
10 places)
#6 HBCUs
F
3,072 - print, online, & tv - May 1,
2014 to May 1, 2015 ... per
R.Tucker at least 99% were
positive (only real negative are
the Archbishop's objections to
our commencement honorees)
5.6% increase
A
St.
Charles
Increase press and national
recognition as measured by the
number of positive
articles/mentions of Xavier in the
news
2900
4
Maintain or improve ranking
among HBCUs in HHS (#6) and
NSF (#12) in dollars funded
#6 & #12
or better
Strategy
Who
F1
Develop a summer research
program for highly motivated high
school students to increase
enrollment
Loren
Blanch
ard,
Margu
erite
Giguett
e
Sponsore
d
Programs
Information being gathered
ORSP
Results
Action deferred
Page 13
Grade
IR
1
2
Results YTD
Expectation

Summer research
program
established with
targets, staffing,
policies,
procedures,
resources, budget

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Incomple
te
Status
Cancel
led
Strategy
F4
F5
Identify and retain a marketing
firm to develop and implement a
strategic communication plan for
outreach locally, nationally and
globally
Implement Xavier awards
program for high schools to
recognize achievement and to
market our value
Who
Results
Kennet
h St.
Charle
s
Initial ad campaign
launched in New
Orleans and selected
Louisiana regions, April
2015; delayed
marketing firm hire until
new president was on
board

Branding plan
(includes defining
what we want the
brand to be,
desired targets)

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Reviewing suggestions
from Dr. Francis and
identifying staffing; not
moved on

Xavier awards
program with
targets

Results from the
implementation
(against the
targets)
Ron
Durnfo
rd,
Lasana
Cambri
ce
Expectation
1. Objectives
 F4 – question the value of the ranking (Deborah)
2. Strategies
 F4 – consider rewriting (concerning the branding element)
G. Other
1. Consider secure online site for gathering sensitive data
Page 14
Status
Contin
ue
Contin
ue
(more
aggres
sively)
III. Key Changes in the Environment
Following the review of the existing goals and objectives, the team discussed
environmental changes in the following six areas and identified potential strategies.
A. Our upper management
1. Environmental Changes
 New president
 New provost
 New ORSP associate vice president
 New vice president in ITC
2. Potential Strategies
 Brief the new president on the strategic plan so that he is aware
 Ensure participation in the strategic plan by other new members of the senior
staff in order to tap their knowledge and experience
B. Our current situation
1. Environmental Changes
 Transition uncertainty
 Growing and deferred maintenance (aging buildings)
 NCF tribute campaign can increase revenue
 Decreasing rank in national rankings
 HBCU capital finance loan with payments coming due
 First time non-COP doctorate in Chicago ??
 Higher discount to recruit classes
 XU threat of fiscal deficit (long-term financial impact)
 Continued challenges with enrollment
2. Potential Strategies
 Plan a welcome gathering for the president for faculty, staff, alumni, and
donors
 Establish the priority list by cost and urgency for deferred maintenance of
buildings
 The fault is development efforts to offset increasing the skilled trades ??
 Identify factors used in high impact national rankings in order for us to
address these factors as appropriate
 Increase focus on recruiting more low academic risk new freshman and
students with high academic potential to increase graduate pool of future
opinion leaders and recognized leaders (N)
A. Students
1. Environmental Changes
Page 15






Adult student recruitment
Student reduced preparation
Feeder schools enrollments are declining
More incoming freshmen need more academic resources
African American high school graduates, shrinking pool
Decreased student population
2. Potential Strategies
 Develop a plan and expand existing plan to meet the academic support
demands from an increase pool of at risk students
 Expand the academic risk model to identify diverse risk components in order
to implement more focused and timely intervention strategies.
B. Employees
1. Environmental Changes
 Pay scale low
 Loss of key middle level staff
 Losing good faculty
 Increasing salaries ??
2. Potential Strategies
 Utilize effectively available funding to incentivize faculty and staff growth and
increase job satisfaction
 Implement merit-based evaluation system that awards based on performance
C. Partners
1. Environmental Changes
 BUILD grant
2. Potential Strategies
 Implement the effective strategies of the BUILD grant to achieve overall goals
D. Industry
1. Environmental Changes
 Value of some majors
 HEA under review, possible changes and additional regulatory requirements
 HBCUs continue to be under stress
 Impact of rating system
 Changes to financial aid eligibility
 Parent plus loan
 State cuts to higher education
 Federal funding increases for MSIs
 Competing with major schools for minority students
Page 16
2. Potential Strategies
 Create a mechanism to periodically assess our competitiveness in the HE
market place in order to develop a more effective recruitment strategy
 Leverage currently available MSI federal funds to create an infrastructure to
increase competitiveness for other federal funds
 Monitor progress of parent plus loan; urge new president
 Advocate against a rating system
IV. Revise Objectives
See the strategy layout document.
V. Revise Strategies
Will be completed in a later session.
VI. Establish Priorities
Will be completed in a later session.
VII. Next Steps
The participants identified several actions as necessary to ensure follow-up on the
retreat's results.
Action
Assigned to
Due Date
1. Complete draft of plan & distribute to Ron.
Leadership
Strategies
5/26/15
2. B2 – Provide numbers for the target in order to
grade performance – Chair 11/2014, Student
May 2014
Marquerite
6/30/15
3. B4 – Establish baseline for 2014-2015
Ralph, Larry
7/31/15
4. C3 – Complete the collection of data for those
areas that we can
Marquerite,
Lasana
6/30/15?
Tony
6/15/15
Ron, Marion
6/30/15?
5. D2 – Review and update the list
6. D4 – Determine baseline for faculty and staff
based on 2014-2015 data
Page 17
Action
Assigned to
Due Date
Deborah, Gene
5/30/15
Deborah
5/30/15
9. Schedule the follow-up session to review
proposed strategies and priorities
Ron
6/30/15
10. Update the institutional effectiveness survey
with a review of items needed for the strategic
plan objectives
Ron
10/31/15
7. F1 – Check baseline on item (a), (b), (c)
8. F4 – Complete the gathering of information
Page 18