STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
September 13, 2007
Members Present
Lisa Foss, John Palmer, David Sikes, Diana Burlison, Debra Leigh, Avelino Mills-Novoa, Julie BresnahanStark, Jim Sherohman, Dan Wildeson, Judy Kilborn, Annette Schoenberger, John Burgeson, Brenda
Wentworth, Jennifer Jay, Jennifer Tuder, Robin Ewing, Debbie Bechtold, Sara Grachek, Annette Day, David
DiMaria, John Eggers
Special Guests: President Earl Potter
President Potter’ Charge

Strategic Planning encompasses everything that we do. Accountability is at the forefront of
higher education and is receiving a great deal of public attention with a strong relationship to
dollars and cents.

As a part of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, we should become fully
acquainted with the measures of their Voluntary System of Accountability and then evaluate our
plans and practices to see if what we have in place will lead us to success.

We need to develop a continuous improvement plan based on the framework of the Malcolm
Baldridge National Quality Award and become the voice to shape our habits in that direction.

Evaluate our results in comparison to our peer universities. There are four types of comparisons
that we can use:
1. Comparable – as close as possible to SCSU with the only difference being how the people
behave.
2. Competitive – not like us
3. Aspirational – who we would like to be like, same mission, a tier above
4. MnSCU System List – Lisa Foss and the SPC will work together to improve this list

Provost Spitzer and the Deans have been charged with developing and outlining a process for an
academic plan and the SPC will be asked to review and weigh in on the validity of the process
and how it fits in with the master plan that needs to be completed in two years.

We need to develop facilities to fit the programs that we have not develop programs to fit the
facilities.

A Master Plan will be developed in the next two years and the SPC will be asked to review
closely and weigh in on this process.

We need to plan with the City of St Cloud more actively and be completely aware of each other’s
visions as we strive to become more of a “University Town”. Part of this plan includes the
universities role in developing the Coborn property on Fifth Avenue and the city’s plan of
developing the quarries in a city park.

The master plan needs to look more widely to include the Department of Transportation plans of
possibly turning Hwy 10 into a freeway with restricted access and pushing University Boulevard
through to meet up with Hwy 10.

SCSU and the Student Life and Development office needs to work together and accept the
responsibility of being a positive image in the SCSU neighborhoods and focus our intellectual
capacities on the quality of life in these neighborhoods.

Within three years, a healthier, more comprehensive Strategic Plan needs to be developed which
addresses the culture of the campus being a welcoming and inviting place to work, learn, and
live. This does not mean starting completely over but rather looking at what has been done and
seeing how it fits with our new Academic and Master plans and also how our practices align with
the MnSCU Board’s measures.

The budget and the strategic plan must be integrated as President Potter has done in other places
and has found to be very successful.

Sober Bus – Research was conducted and completed over the summer and President Potter and the
University will be working with the Mayor to implement this plan.

In regards to the question of faculty workload there was conversation around two thoughts:
o Level of quality we are trying to reach and the funding that is connected
o Four course load is inconsistent with our vision
SPC Priorities for the 2007-2008 Academic Year
-
-
Accountability work from MnSCU and National Accrediting Agencies has to go forward
Collaboration with academic plan, master plan, and facilities plan
Responses to the academic plan work
The message is clear that at all levels we will engage in purposeful planning to get rid of the disconnect.
Enter into a cycle of integrated improvement and activity
Discuss motivation tactics that will allow us to work with integration and accountability on top of an
already heavy workload
Determine how we continue to use assessment and planning to move the university forward.
The Academic Plan appears to be top priority and we need to structure our time to deal with the
priorities which includes an invitation for Provost Spitzer and the Deans to attend the Sept. 27 meeting
to talk about the process. Timeline – Next 30 days
Invite Steve Ludwig to Oct. 11 meeting to talk about the Facilities Plan process
Attend and participate in the Budget Advisory meetings – see email sent on Sept. 12
Become familiar with the framework of the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award – President Potter was
an evaluator
Peer Institution List Development
Develop a reasonable peer group using Ed Trust and IPEDS as a source (handout)
Peer list will change based on what you are using the information for
President Potter wants to use the list to talk to MnSCU about why he thinks the institutions on our list
are our best choice of peers.
President Potter encouraged us to not use outcomes to select our peers, or how much we spend per
student but rather looking at other variables first. We should look at input rather than output.
Determine how many peers we list and how we categorize and prioritize them (generally 20-30)
In order to put together the peer list by the end of October to the entire campus the work of the
committee needs to be done sooner than that.