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The Ohio State University Academic Plan

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->2003 Update (new)
October 2003

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First Year Report

Academic Plan
Table of Contents

Preface

Executive Summary

The Ohio State University Vision

Setting the Stage: Context and Strategies for the Academic Plan

Strategies and Initiatives:

  • Build a World-Class Faculty
  • Develop Academic Programs that Define Ohio State as the Nation's Leading Public Land-Grant University
  • Improve the Quality of the Teaching and Learning Environment
  • Enhance and Better Serve the Student Body
  • Create a More Diverse University Community
  • Help Build Ohio's Future

Facilitating Actions:

  • Obtain Increased State Support
  • Improve the Organization and Delivery of Instruction
  • Increase Organizational Flexibility
  • Improve the Faculty Work Environment

->Continuing Activities

Resources

The Academic Scorecard

Print Out The Academic Plan
(pdf file)

Create A Diverse University Community

Academic Plan (Power Point Presentation)

Continuing Activities

This plan does not include every activity that will take place at Ohio State over the next five years - opting instead for a more focused and manageable list of initiatives. As already noted, the initiatives and facilitating actions herein are only a few of many important activities that are ongoing at the University, some of which carry substantial price tags to which we are already committed. However, the initiatives noted in this document, in the aggregate, should also play a major role in moving the University toward its vision.

Over recent years, a handful of excellent planning documents have made scores of useful recommendations on ways to improve the University. For example, The G-QUE (Graduate Quality of University Experience) and I-QUE (Inter-professional Quality of University Experience) reports contain many excellent recommendations on improving life for graduate and professional students. We expect many of these recommendations to be implemented. The same holds true for the Research Commission Report, recommendations from which are being implemented over a period of years.

Recently, the University issued an excellent Diversity Action Plan with many compelling recommendations. We are committed to implementing these recommendations, including the creation of a Council on Diversity, more support for The Women's Place, and accountability measures such as Diversity Council Report Cards and administrative evaluations.

We face many challenges in seeking to become a truly great public teaching and research university. Among them is a more meaningful system of faculty and staff development, along with improved professional development to benefit our students, including more and better training for graduate teaching associates. We also need a more systematic, campus-wide approach to planning that improves constancy of purpose and alignment of goals while improving follow-through. There are many good ideas for new multidisciplinary programs, including a proposed Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Americas. While it is not specifically highlighted in the plan, we are working hard to better prepare students, faculty, and the community for the global community of the 21st century. And just as market-competitive compensation is necessary to recruit and retain an excellent faculty, so is it essential to recruit and maintain a top-quality staff.

Many exciting initiatives are under way to help us contribute to Ohio's future. Three such outreach efforts coincide with the Ohio Board of Regents' current statewide priorities: Economic development, healthcare delivery, and improvement of primary and secondary education. A fourth area of ongoing emphasis is Campus Partners. Education and economic development were discussed earlier in the report. Regarding the others:


  • Healthcare Delivery. We are committed to becoming one of the nation's leading academic medical centers by combining research excellence in cancer, cardiology, and other fields with state-of-the-art healthcare delivery. The Ohio State Academic Medical Center's mission of teaching, research, and patient care increasingly extends beyond campus laboratories, clinics, and hospitals to the people of Ohio and sometimes the world. Initiatives range from a $60-70 million Heart Hospital scheduled to open in 2003 (complementing our new Heart & Lung Research Institute) to the Collaborative Task Force for Healthy Communities - 16 University specialists in areas such as public health, oncology, cardiology, pulmonary disease, and psychology. Task Force members will work closely with the Columbus Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Health to establish principles and practices that will bring about a healthier city and state population.

  • Campus Partners. A partnership of The Ohio State University, the City of Columbus, and the neighborhoods of the University District, Campus Partners is a non-profit community development corporation committed to revitalizing those neighborhoods. In so doing, it creates an improved environment for students and faculty, provides opportunities for experiential learning, protects the University's investment, and improves a section of Columbus that has declined in appearance and safety. One objective is to facilitate greater cooperation and coordination to improve neighborhood public services, e.g., crime reduction, more effective trash collection, better code enforcement, etc. Another is to increase the level of home ownership in the University District. And still another is to complete the University Gateway Center, a $100 million, mixed-use urban redevelopment project.

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