AY 2012/2013
Unit Strategic Planning Report
Unit: BIOLOGY
Reporting Authority: Tom R. Cottrell, Chair, Biological Sciences
Date: November 1, 2013
A: Please complete the column titled “Outcome Assessment” on your own Unit Strategic Plan. Complete with as much
detail as you can provide. Where you cannot obtain data to complete the assessment, put “Data not available.” in
the space.
B. Please summarize each of the University’s Five Core Themes from your Unit Strategic Plan Outcome Assessment
report.
Theme 1: Teaching and Learning
In this theme we emphasized helping our students reach graduation efficiently. We have finished our
modification of the undergraduate program and this will streamline our ability to offer classes in the 2014-15AY.
We have initiated an entirely new assessment plan to track student progress. This plan is still forming but we
have made some significant progress in its construction. We had hoped to increase our faculty line by one FTT
and one FTNTT but have not been able to do this.
Theme 2: Inclusiveness and Diversity
Here we hoped to invigorate a visiting scholar program. Several of our faculty are working closely colleagues
from foreign universities and by this means we hope to open the door to more interaction with a diverse
population of faculty. We also had an outcome associated with increasing underrepresented groups in Biology.
Our percentage of non-white biology majors has increased to 37% since 2010 (up from 29%). We are unsure
whether this is a result of changing demographics regionally, or if our increased faculty diversity has played a
role. Relative to the university as a whole we are slightly more diverse (measured as “non-white” students).
The University has 34% non-white students while in Biology we are at 37%.
Theme 3: Scholarship and Creative Expression
Our outcomes in this theme are linked to maintaining our predominance in SOURCE, vis-à-vis other science
departments. We have done this, with our faculty involved in 45 oral or poster presentations in the 2013
Conference. We also identified an increased success rate in submitted grants relative to a baseline year of 2010.
On reflection this is a poor measure of what we hope to accomplish. Faculty who are funded for three years
beginning in 2010 are usually not submitting grants in 2011. With this situation in mind I am reporting the
percent of faculty who are funded during a given academic year. Even this count is problematic because some
faculty have multiple grants in a single year. How do we count these people? We have decided to count them
only once since the point is “grant funded” not “how many grants”. Further the count we provide are only
external grants, not internal. With these caveats we see that in the 2012-13AY 55% of biology faculty were
supported by external grants. In comparison, 45% were similarly supported in the 2010-11 AY.
We were unsuccessful in getting an accurate count of faculty participation in conferences. We are working to
improve the flow of information to the office as faculty update their CVs in order to solve this problem.
Theme 4: Public Service and Community Engagement
The Tours Program in Biology is a star performer. In 2012 alone we had nearly 7000 tour participants and we
have received no special funding for this outreach. We value these interactions with the public immensely and
many faculty and staff donate their own time to the endeavor. We have recently modified our tour policy in
order to help fund the tour program. Beginning this AY we are asking for $1/student when the tour group
comes from outside Kittitas County. By our count we may bring in more than $1000, helping in the care and
feeding of animals, and in cost of equipment upkeep.
We were unsuccessful in getting an accurate count of faculty participation in community outreach. We are
working to improve the flow of information to the office as faculty update their CVs in order to solve this
problem.
Theme 5: Resource Development and Stewardship
Perhaps the hardest theme to work on. We have worked toward better advertising the department through
tours, and through developing a video for the web page. We are also considering a newsletter but are still in
conversation about the goals and methods. Some of our faculty are involved in the brewing program and have
made important links with local breweries. We held many talks about a post baccalaureate program in
biomedical sciences and at the moment are stalled. None of our faculty have the time it would take to build and
head such a program. Despite the heavy teaching, service, and scholarship loads that they bear, the Biology
faculty are enthusiastic about our department’s direction. Our enthusiasm is perhaps one of the best ways for us
at the departmental level to meet enrollment objectives – enthusiastic and successful faculty attract and keep
students. One indicator that we’re doing well on this front is that when we populated our committees this year
they were all filled immediately. In other years we have had to go back multiple times asking for interest in one
or another aspect of self-governance.

Toward which theme(s) did you make progress, and how are students benefitting from this?
Our greatest progress was made on the Teaching and Learning. We have spent a huge amount of time
redesigning our curriculum and will implement these changes in spring 2014. In addition we have made great
strides toward an encompassing assessment program and are instituting changes this fall to begin this
assessment. Students have not yet benefited, but will when they are enrolling for courses (more courses that
meet needs will be available in a given quarter). Our assessment plans should inform our teaching and course
design, thus helping students.

Which theme(s) deserve special attention next year?
Teaching and Learning will again be our primary focus next year. New curricular changes and assessment
techniques will require much adjustment and tweaking before we are satisfied with the outcome. Secondarily,
we will work more on Public Service and Community Engagement, primarily through our Tours program.
C. How do you intend to utilize the data gathered this year to assist you in developing stronger programs?
I’m not convinced that the data gathered this year are very useful. But, I believe this exercise has been very
useful to see where we thought we were heading last year and where we think we’re heading this year. Several
of the outcomes seemed less important to us this year than last, the importance of other outcomes were
reinforced in our minds. This is the value of strategic planning. We view it as a road map and as with a road
map if you veer from a specific highway but are still going to your destination that’s okay. It is nice, however, to
keep a record of where you’ve been so you don’t go there again, only to find once again that the road was not a
good one. Extend my analogy further, sometimes even the destination needs to change, not just the route there.
That too is okay as long as the decision to go elsewhere is a reasoned one.
D. Based on your learning from this first year report, what parts of your strategic plan will you modify, add to, or omit
for next year? (Please attach an updated Strategic Plan with changes highlighted.)

Based on the ease of gathering data to support objectives, minor changes/deletions have been made, such as:
Changes in the indicator for success rate in submitted grants were made.
We’re beginning to request updated CVs from faculty at the beginning of the year in order to streamline some
information about faculty activities.
Bulleted Listing of Data needed:


Disaggregated time to graduation (transfers from native students)
Faculty presentations and public service counts (we’re attempting to streamline this by implementing a standard
request of CVs early in the AY.