Visioning Process
The University focused on creating a vision statement and clarifying our core values in 2003-2004. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee oversaw a very inclusive process which gathered input from the internal and external campus community. Over 500 members of the campus community participated including students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni and community members. The mission, vision, and core values will be used to guide University directions in the coming years. These documents will be confirmed in the early phase of the University’s Strategic Planning during 2004-2005.
Mission, Vision Statement, Core Values
Academic Senate Approval of Vision and University, Values 4.12.05
The faculty, staff, administrators, and students of California State University, Stanislaus are committed to creating a learning environment which encourages all members of the campus community to expand their intellectual, creative and social horizons. We challenge one another to realize our potential, to appreciate and contribute to the enrichment of our diverse community, and to develop a passion for lifelong learning.
To facilitate this mission, we promote academic excellence in the teaching and scholarly activities of our faculty, encourage personalized student learning, foster interactions and partnerships with surrounding communities, and provide opportunities for the intellectual, cultural, and artistic enrichment of the region.
Stanislaus State strives to become a major center of learning, intellectual pursuit, artistic excellence and cultural engagement for California’s greater Central Valley and beyond. We will serve our diverse student body, communities and state by creating programs, partnerships and leaders that respond effectively to an evolving and interconnected world.
In order to achieve our mission and vision:
- We inspire all members of the campus community to demand more of self than we do of others to attain new knowledge and challenge assumptions. We challenge one another to be fully engaged, responsible citizens with the ethics, knowledge, skills, and desire to improve self and community.
- We value learning that encompasses lifelong exploration and discovery through intellectual integrity, personal responsibility, global and self-awareness, grounded in individual student-faculty interactions.
- We are a student-centered community committed to a diverse, caring, learning focused environment that fosters collegial, reflective and open exchange of ideas. We, as students, create the collegiate experience through initiative, participation, motivation, and continual growth to meet the demands of self and others.
- We, as faculty, elicit, nurture, and enhance the different voices of our selves, students and communities through deliberate engagement, continual discovery and ongoing transformation.
- We, as staff and administrators, contribute to the learning environment by demonstrating the knowledge, skills and values that serve and support the University's mission.
Visioning Process Conducted in 2003-2004
To create the University vision for 2010
Visioning: Need to clarify
Who we were, “Honoring the Past”
Who we are now, “Confront the Present”
Who do we want to be, “Look toward the Future”
- The strategic vision needs to come from (and therefore reside in) the hearts and minds of the stakeholders (Boulding/Ziegler Model).
- The vision statement must be short, too long of a list of values dilutes the self-organizing power of a vision. (Boulding/Ziegler).
- The statement should contain a rich ambiguity (metaphor, imagery, value-words, implication, etc.) which demands engagement and interpretation by the reader (McMaster).
- The concept of vision is the organizational attempt to define possibility, exploring what is possible is what opens possibility (McMaster).
University History
In order to honor the past and record our history, we need stories of who we were. We need to record our history so it can be summarized in the catalog, on the Web, and in other pertinent documents. The history can be recreated by:
- Interviewing original faculty and administrators.
- Inviting members of the campus community to share stories and historical documents.
- Engaging a writer to summarize the history for publication in various documents.
Efforts to define who we are today began last year when the Strategic Plan underwent full review. The University examined progress achieved under the Strategic Plan initiated in 1997 and refined in the Pathways to the Future document. Documents available that describe the University’s Strategic Plan and current status include:
Cornerstones
Pathways to the Future
WASC Pathways to Learning
White Papers prepared to examine progress made in each of the Strategic
Planning goals and final recommendations
Academic Program Review Reports
ACE Globalization Grant
Environmental Scan
Stanislaus State Regional Impact Report
A summary document, patterned after Pathways to the Future, is needed to clearly describe accomplishments and continued efforts toward achieving the mission of the University. University efforts to achieve its mission will also be documented in the institutional self-study to be prepared for WASC re-accreditation and reflected in department program reviews.
Evidence of university values need to be gathered to help define current values. An exploration of ceremonies and rituals that have developed to successfully communicate values can help define what the University is now.
The campus community needs to engage in a process of defining what is possible. Opportunities to think and dialogue about values and possibilities for the future are needed. A number of steps will be needed to engage all stakeholders and to achieve the final goal of creating a vision statement. The Strategic Planning Steering committee will guide the process and make the final recommendation to the President. Recommended steps:
- Create an opportunity for the campus community to help derive our shared vision using an open web site and group exchanges to share stories and values.
- Invite faculty/staff/students/alumni to participate by:
- Posting a message enunciating why they came to Stanislaus State
- Posting messages stating something special or rewarding that happened while they were here
- Sharing their education vision
- Request each College to conduct visioning discussions and seek input from an open session with staff
- Conduct visioning exercises with Foundation and University Board members
- Invite faculty/staff/students/alumni to participate by:
- Complete the process by summarizing final themes and shared values to prepare the vision statement
- Conduct two open sessions for the campus community to seek input on the evolving themes and value statements
- Hold a Visioning Summit facilitated by Dr. April Hejka-Ekins, Professor of Politics and Public Administration and Dr. Gene Murti, Professor of Management Operations and Marketing in May with broad representation of the campus community to create the foundation for the vision statement. Representation from various constituents will participate in this culminating process:
- Division Vice Presidents
- Deans Council
- Faculty Governance
- Department Chairs
- Staff Representatives
- Foundation Board of Trustees and President’s Advisory Board members
- Student Governance
- Strategic Planning Committee members
- Alumni
Updated: April 09, 2024