Home » Reports » Eighth Report Index » Strategic Initiative One

Eighth Report on the Strategic Planning Process
(June 2004)

Strategic Initiative One

Enhance and expand MU's position as a destination university, an outstanding AAU institution to which faculty, staff, and students worldwide are attracted and retained because of a stimulating intellectual environment, leading edge programs, and world-class colleagues.

• Develop and begin implementing by October 2004 a five-year plan to bring salaries and associated benefits to the average of our AAU peers in order to attract and retain excellent faculty and staff. This will require the development of new approaches that must, even in the current funding environment, produce salary increases that exceed the AAU average and that also exceed significantly the rate of inflation. (SPRAC/MU Budget Office)

• Create and implement by December 2004 an innovative approach to undergraduate financial aid that increases reliance on development gifts and campus jobs, decreases reliance on general operating funds, and better integrates campus, divisional, and departmental scholarship support in order to more effectively enroll and retain financially needy students. (Vice Provost for Enrollment Management)

• Develop and begin implementing by December 2004 a three-year plan to bring the funding packages for students pursuing the PhD degree or a master’s leading directly to the PhD to the average of the discipline in our AAU peers. Develop by that same date a plan for transition fee waivers and fellowships specifically for high quality international students who wish to pursue a doctoral degree at MU. (Graduate School)

• Develop and begin implementing by November 2004 a plan to encourage, support, and reward creative risk-taking and entrepreneurial activity by faculty, staff and administrators. Especially encourage creativity that crosses disciplinary and departmental lines to form collaborative programs of distinction. (SPRAC/Provost)

• Develop and begin implementing by February 2005 a plan, including incentives, to support the continuing transformation of MU to a more learner-centered environment with special focus on the development of critical thinking, communication, and life-long learning skills. (SPRAC/Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies)

• Develop a plan to create both on- and off-campus by March 2005 a climate of diversity that breaks down barriers of difference and facilitates behaviors grounded in respect for others, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, culture, sexual orientation, geographic origin, and socioeconomic level. (Deputy Chancellor)