"Vision Ohio"

An Academic Plan for Ohio University

Several fundamental principles and goals guide our strategic planning process. They are outlined below:

Mission Statement
Vision Statement
Core Values and Guiding Principles
Goals
- Undergraduate Academic Goals
- Graduate Education and Research Academic Goals
- Faculty, Staff, and Student Quality and Diversity Goals
- Environment Goals
- Infrastructure Goals
- Enhancing National Prominence Goals

(Recommended Mission and Vision Statement from the Executive Implementation Team 1/13/06)

Mission Statement

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Ohio University holds as its central purpose the intellectual and personal development of its students. Distinguished by its rich history, diverse campus, international community, and beautiful Appalachian setting, Ohio University is known as well for its outstanding faculty of accomplished teachers whose research and creative activity advance knowledge across many disciplines.

Vision Statement

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Ohio University will be a nationally prominent research university recognized for the excellence of its faculty and the balance they strike between teaching and scholarship; for its students' engagement in scholarship, leadership, and international education; for its extensive network of partnerships; for its diverse and inclusive campus; for its loyal and engaged alumni; and for its commitment to addressing society's educational, economic, and cultural challenges.

Core Values and Guiding Principles

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As Ohio University works to achieve its vision, a set of fundamental principles guide our decisions:

Academic integrity is an inherent element of the institution and requires commitment to the highest standards of personal honesty and ethical behavior.
Strong undergraduate programs with a liberal arts core are a vital and necessary foundation.
Strong graduate and professional programs are necessary to achieve our educational, research, and creative mission.
All forms of research, scholarship, and creative activity are vital to the intellectual life of the university, and their integration into both graduate and undergraduate curricula is a key component of student success.
Learning at the university is enhanced by creating a community of students, faculty, and staff who come from diverse backgrounds. That community benefits from our commitment to international education and the inclusion of global perspectives in our curricula.
Advising, mentoring, personal interaction, and active engagement among faculty, staff, students, and alumni greatly enhance the educational experience.
Learning is derived from the totality of the college experience, including activities both inside and outside the classroom.
Shared governance—the inclusion of input from all constituent groups is central to our decision-making processes.
Our continuing success requires judgments about and selective investment in initiatives that will advance our mission.
Accountability is essential to effective management and requires commitments to assessment, planning, decision making, and continual improvement.

To support our educational mission in achieving the goals outlined above, we require a well-maintained infrastructure of people and facilities. Our academic support services exist to serve the academic mission: they should be effective, efficient, and continually improving. A sense of community and an appealing environment provide a special place in which to learn, live, and work. All individuals in the university community are valued; their skills and knowledge should be cultivated, their work supported, and their leadership skills developed. Interactions among all individuals in the university community should be built on standards of civility, integrity, caring, and collaboration. Our commitment to the region is expressed through stewardship of shared resources, access to programs and services, and contribution to economic development.

Goals

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The major goals of Ohio University’s academic plan are as follows:

Undergraduate Academic Goals

Establish a common intellectual experience for all first-year students that leads to a common set of fundamental intellectual skills. This includes the creation of an inquiry-based core curriculum that serves as the foundation of the academic mission.

Support high quality undergraduate programs that serve the needs of the region, state, and nation.
Provide abundant opportunities for students to learn beyond the classroom and to develop the ability to work collaboratively.
Inculcate among students a sense of personal responsibility, acquaint students with the values associated with the public good, and foster the acquisition of intercultural fluency.

Graduate Education and Research Academic Goals

Support high-quality and distinctive graduate education programs that serve the needs of the region, state, and nation. Support the development of programs and policies that prepare graduate students for careers in academic and professional settings.
Selectively invest in graduate education and research in the areas of
- Health and wellness
- New technologies: basic research and development
- Energy and the environment
- Social, economic, and cultural development
- Arts and humanities
Support growth in scholarly activity and research productivity that lead to increased sponsored research, creative activity, and national prominence.

Faculty, Staff, and Student Quality and Diversity Goals

Recruit and retain exceptional faculty and staff for creating and sustaining preeminent programs of learning, engagement, research, creative activity, and scholarship.
Provide support to departments, faculty, and staff to develop nationally prominent teachers, scholars, and researchers and to foster policies that support the accomplishment of the academic mission. Develop and sustain an office of faculty and staff development that coordinates all development activities.
Establish and implement recruitment and hiring practices that lead to a diverse and inclusive academic community.
Recruit, support, develop, and retain academically talented undergraduate and graduate students.

Environment Goals

Develop an inclusive, supportive, learning-centered research university environment that encourages all academic and academic support units to work both individually and collaboratively to accomplish the university vision. Foster the development of faculty, staff, and student orientation programs to support such an environment.
Develop and sustain an environment of engagement in which students, faculty, staff, and alumni are supported and encouraged to participate in the solution of community and regional problems related to Pre-K through grade 12 education, economic development, and health issues with special emphasis on those problems relating to Appalachia and underserved populations. Develop a facilitative office to support and coordinate partnerships to solve local, regional, and state problems.
Develop an environment of inclusiveness in the classroom, campus, and community.

Infrastructure Goals

Implement a budget allocation process involving a metric-driven accountability system (e.g., a balanced scorecard approach) that links budgeting to the implementation of the academic plan.
Implement enrollment management, operational efficiencies, and endowment development strategies that support the accomplishment of the academic plan.
Establish and implement an information technology infrastructure involving both educational and academic support computing capabilities that facilitates the accomplishment of the academic plan.
Establish academic support structures that facilitate the accomplishment of the academic plan, including an oversight office that coordinates all diversity and inclusiveness efforts.
Implement an approach to evaluating the contributions of academic support units to accomplishing the goals of the academic plan that includes the participation of faculty and specialized consultants.

Enhancing National Prominence Goals

Support programs that encourage faculty, staff, students, and alumni to apply for nationally competitive awards, honors, and memberships in prestigious academies and societies that enhance the national prominence of the university.

Develop strategies for identifying, communicating, and marketing all activities of university programs, individuals, and alumni that assist in raising the national prominence of the university.
Develop strategies to enhance the national prominence of the university through cultural events and competitive athletic programs that demonstrate the scholar/artist and scholar/athlete models.

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"VISION OHIO"

These are, indeed, worthy goals. The leadership of OU should lead OU and its students toward this vision by example.

Download the entire "Vision Ohio" document here:

From an open letter from the United Swim Parents to Ohio University President Roderick McDavis and Ohio University Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt:

[This phrase appears twice in the "Vision Ohio" document to which they refer. Look on pages 7 and 19 of "Vision Ohio - 2" immediately above.]

These selected statements of principle from "Vision Ohio" speak for themselves.

Academic integrity is an inherent element of the institution and requires commitment to the highest standards of personal honesty and ethical behavior.

Learning is derived from the totality of the college experience, including activities both inside and outside the classroom.

Shared governance—the inclusion of input from all constituent groups is central to our decision-making processes.

[-- From a letter sent to the Ohio University Board of Trustees by the Team Coordinators.]

Accountability is essential to effective management and requires commitments to assessment, planning, decision making, and continual improvement.

Provide abundant opportunities for students to learn beyond the classroom and to develop the ability to work collaboratively.

Implement a budget allocation process involving a metric-driven accountability system (e.g., a balanced scorecard approach) that links budgeting to the implementation of the academic plan.

[...and finally]

Develop strategies to enhance the national prominence of the university through cultural events and competitive athletic programs that demonstrate the scholar/artist and scholar/athlete models.

From the "Vision Ohio" working document, page 25, under "Enhancing National Prominence Goals:"

"Assess overall ratings of men's and women's athletic programs in the MidAmerica Conference (MAC) with the goal of being in the top two by 2010."

"Assess graduation rates of student athletes with the goal of being in the top five national public universities annually." [Isn't this the metric the dropped teams enhanced? See this page for the graduation success rate of dropped teams.]

From the "Vision Ohio" working document, page 72, "Resources Committee Appendices, Appendix B, Enrollment Options for Ohio University."

"Increasing proportion of out-of-state students

[Those southeastern states would include Maryland and Virginia, the home states of a great many of the dropped athletes.]

[NOTE: 5 of 28 on the Ohio State University's 2007 women's lacrosse team are from out-of-state.]

[Is the Athletic Department exempt from following the "Vision Ohio" plan? Our guess is that they may not have read "Vision Ohio" and were not aware of this effort in another part of the University to increase out-of-state enrollment recruiting for sports.]

[The people who wrote this, presumably, were not aware of the Athletic Department's secret committee decision to use this metric. They likely couldn't know because the committee worked behind closed doors.]

[Also, see page 105 of the "Vision Ohio" document for more on this metric.]

The "Vision Ohio" Academic Plan is copied below from OU's website for your review:

Goals

Undergraduate Academic Goals

Graduate Education and Research Academic Goals

Faculty, Staff, and Student Quality and Diversity Goals

Environment Goals

Infrastructure Goals

Enhancing National Prominence Goals

DROPPED TEAMS

2006 Women's Lacrosse Team

Swimming and Diving

and

Track and Field

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