Chapter 2: Goals and Purposes

Criterion One: The institution has clear and publicly stated purposes consistent with its mission and appropriate to an institution of higher education.

ABSTRACT: This chapter describes the ways in which the institution communicates to the public its mission and its commitment to excellence in teaching and educational standards.

Planning Process

The development of Indiana University South Bend's current planning process was influenced by both external and internal initiatives that emerged concurrently during the 1995-1996 academic year.

External to the campus, Indiana University President Myles Brand launched the university on a self-evaluation process to identify the steps Indiana University should take to maintain its commitment to excellence in a changing society and changing century. Called the Strategic Directions Initiative, this all-university self-evaluation produced more than 30 points of reference for growth. Regional campuses were encouraged to conduct evaluations on their own campuses, noting when and where the regional campus missions and goals matched the Indiana University initiatives.

Internally, the IUSB Campus Directions Committee was established by the IUSB Academic Senate in the spring of 1996 in response to increased administrative, faculty, and staff interest in strategic planning and budgeting. The committee, which included faculty, staff, students, and administrators, was charged with assessing annually Indiana University South Bend’s mission, direction, priorities, and progress. As stated in the charge, "This assessment encompasses providing recommendations on, or revising, as appropriate, the campus mission statement, the broad campus objectives and priorities, the strategic initiatives, and the long-run plans for the teaching, scholarship or creative activity, and service programs or activities that implement the campus plan."

Given its campuswide make-up, the committee is well formed to review issues of academic freedom and intellectual vitality, to evaluate the combination and purpose of Indiana University South Bend's approximately 100 degree and certificate programs, and to determine whether the campus is adequately expressing its learning expectations for students. Recognizing the importance of campuswide inclusion in the process, the committee sponsored small-group discussions and group meetings on the future of the campus. Some 250 faculty and staff members made individual contributions in these sessions. Additionally, the committee sought input from students through open meetings and small focus groups.

A broad constituency was consulted to evaluate the extent to which Indiana University South Bend is supportive of community needs. Approximately 120 community members, including 50 alumni, responded in round-table discussions about the future of Indiana University South Bend. The committee considered this input in forging the institution's new statement, published as a brochure titled Mission and Strategic Priorities which includes:

A new mission statement
Statements of commitment to students and alumni, the community, and faculty and staff
A declaration of campus priorities
Identification of the Indiana University Strategic Directions Initiatives most directly related to achieving campus priorities

This brochure is located in the NCA Resource Room.

Mission Statement

To focus efforts designed to meet the campus commitments to students and alumni, the community, and faculty and staff, the IUSB Academic Senate also identified in December 1997 four priorities to guide campus decision making into the next century:

Once a draft of Indiana University South Bend's strategic initiative statement was developed, the Campus Directions Committee faced the much more difficult and important task of encouraging constituent review, revision, consensus building, approval, implementation, and on-going planning. The final document, called Mission and Strategic Priorities was approved by the IUSB Academic Senate on December 5, 1997. Following approval, copies of the document were sent to all members of the campus community. The work was also featured in the alumni magazine Vision and the continuing education catalogue that is distributed to more than 45,000 homes. Additionally, all visitors to Indiana University South Bend, as well as its more than 7,000 students and approximately 1,000 employees, view a statement of the university's mission and four campus priorities on framed posters hung across campus.

Knowing the campus mission and priorities, however, is not enough. To focus attention on campus priorities, the Campus Directions Committee asked each academic and nonacademic unit on campus to develop a plan to pursue at least two of the campus priorities. The committee also asked each unit to specify two or three specific goals under each chosen priority and report its progress toward accomplishing the goals by December 31, 1999. With the cooperation and support of the chancellor, the vice chancellor for academic affairs, and the senate budget and academic personnel committees, the committee also asked each unit to formulate its budget request for the 1999-2000 academic year in the context of that plan.

During 1999-2000, in addition to continuing its work toward making academic units accountable based on the four campus priorities, the committee planned to work on several new issues. First, a report responding to President Brand's directive that each campus prepare a response to the Indiana Community College Initiative which was announced in 1999. (See Appendix C.) Second, the committee expected to seek campus input for a vision statement. Building on the information gathered three years ago, the campus will develop a statement addressing what Indiana University South Bend aspires to be in the coming years. As with the mission statement, the committee will obtain faculty senate endorsement of this statement before it becomes part of Indiana University South Bend's planning documents. Third, the committee plans to begin work on a programmatic mission statement, specifying the focus and boundaries of our program offerings.

Indiana University South Bend's priorities and commitment statements speak to its campus mission by publically recognizing its responsibilities to the regional community. These responsibilities include not only in-class instruction promoting the intellectual growth of students, but also responsibilities to promote the economic and cultural growth of the community.

At the same time, Indiana University South Bend recognizes its position as a regional campus of Indiana University, values the superior quality of its faculty and academic programs, and places high priority on providing a working environment that supports and encourages hiring and retaining outstanding and diverse faculty, administrators, and staff.

With clear priorities pointing the direction, Indiana University South Bend has the opportunity to move into the next century as an outstanding example of regional campus excellence. The on-going challenge will be to find the most effective ways to allocate resources to meet the expectations of all constituents.

In its report to the IUSB Academic Senate in October 1999 the Campus Directions Committee noted that of the four campus priorities, the chancellor has been working most obviously on improving campus links with the community and on enhancing the image of the campus in the community, the public relations elements. With the restructuring of student services, progress related to student centeredness and support for programmatic excellence, the internal elements, are gaining more prominence.

Whereas the four campus priorities identify Indiana University South Bend's values, they do not provide direction for the allocation of resources. This became clear when the campus faced a budgetary dilemma because of a shortfall of student enrollment in fall 1999. There was no strategic plan for responding to such a crisis. When approving the mission statement and priorities in December 1997, the faculty made it clear that these priorities were not themselves prioritized, e.g. ranked in importance. The Campus Directions Committee understands that the budgeting process should be linked to campus priorities. The 1999 budget requests were an initial attempt at making these linkages.

There are two further concerns. Lacking direction for implementation of vaguely formulated goals, there is no system of accountability. The allocation of resources is not demonstrably influenced by budgetary accountability or program viability and promise. Small increases in state funding and uncertainty about growth in student enrollments combined with an incremental policy for increasing budgets and little attention to how resources already allocated are being used, there is little opportunity for program innovation and improvement.

Indiana University South Bend is not unique in having assumed a posture that calls for attempting to be all things for all people, for providing a wide range of programs and ready access. This has been the mandate and the justification for public higher education. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that a lack of focus, combined with limited resources, hampers the opportunity to achieve excellence in critical areas. The campus cannot have excellence in programming by funding everything inadequately. Making the hard choices requires commitment and strategy. Indiana University South Bend still needs to develop a strategic plan for accomplishing its mission. The process has begun and needs to be encouraged and supported.