Last week a review of Mississippi State University designed to encourage growth in productivity was released on the campus’ Web site. The document, FutureSTATE 2015 was designed as a strategic vision for the institution.
“In April 2006, we began a comprehensive strategic review designed to help us set a course for the next decade and achieve the vision I articulated at the time: to become the most respected land grant institution in the region,” MSU President Robert “Doc” Foglesong said in the executive summary of the plan.
It is advisable for a new president to formulate a new plan with students, faculty and staff, director of the Stennis Institute Marty Wiseman said.
The plan reviews the university’s efforts in areas such as academic excellence, leadership and character development, fiscal stability and resourcefulness and research and economic development, Foglesong said.
“Hundreds of hours of inquiry and discussion were distilled into more than 100 recommendations, backed up by reams of data and analysis. A period of comment by the university community produced numerous helpful suggestions that are also reflected in the plan,” Foglesong says in the document.
“This plan asks the question: what are we doing, and what should we be doing?” he said.
“It helps to clarify, for everyone involved, the direction the university is headed,” Wiseman said.
The plan does not go into specifics as much as a general direction the university should take, university provost Peter Rabideau said.
“The plan really provides directions and ideas and things that need to be implemented,” he said.
Some universities tend to lean their plans toward specific majors, and this hurts the productivity of a university when it is just known as an engineering or agricultural school, Wiseman said.
“[FutureSTATE 2015] is wide-ranging, as befits a comprehensive university,” he added. “What will remain to be seen will be how unforeseen events cause changes to be made to the plan.”
These unforeseen events could include things such as a student enrollment increase, he said.
“Any university strategic plan needs to be a living document,” Rabideau said.
The university will try to review the document annually and change it when necessary in order to keep university priorities consistent with new opportunities, the changing environment and the needs of Mississippi and the nation, Foglesong said.
Also, few universities are as focused on meeting the needs of their states as Mississippi State University, Foglesong said in the document. This university and this state are on the brink of great success and growth, and the futures of both the university and the state are intertwined, he said.
More than any other university, MSU’s future will determine the future of the state. As a land grant institution, we must be, as much as possible, all things to all people. The plan is comprehensive enough to reflect this goal, Wiseman said.
“For the state of Mississippi to be successful, Mississippi State must be successful,” he added.