*Exposure Draft: Strategic Plan 2013-2017

This draft contains existing and proposed version of The College of Micronesia-FSM Strategic Plan 2013-2017 issued for open discussion prior to its release as a final document or pronouncement. A pdf version is attached below. We encourage all faculty and staff to read the plan and post comments. 

There is a survey on vision options, mission options, and values for college-wide input. This survey is available only through Friday, April 12, until 1830 Pohnpei time. Here is the survey link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8TXG7C.

By participating in the Strategic Planning survey, you have the opportunity here and now to vote on your preferred College Vision, College Mission, and to put forward your Core Values for COM-FSM.

The College of Micronesia-FSM

Strategic Plan 2013-2017

April 6, 2013

Vision

Existing: The College of Micronesia-FSM will assist the citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia to be well-educated, prosperous, globally connected, accountable, healthy and able to live in harmony with the environment and the world community.

Vision (proposed options)

College of Micronesia-FSM Aspires: Our goal over the next five years is to transform COM-FSM into a learning organization that is a financially sound, premier community college recognized for exceptional student experience, exceptional employees, and our contributions to national success.

College of Micronesia-FSM will provide educational opportunities of the highest quality and will embrace the life-long pursuit of knowledge and the enrichment of the diverse Micronesian communities we serve.

College of Micronesia-FSM will be a best practices higher learning community committed to the development of an educated citizenry.

Board Endorsed Strategic Directions: 

The College of Micronesia-FSM has focused on six strategic directions for the COM-FSM vision of where we want to go as an organization over the next five years.

Focus on student success

The College of Micronesia-FSM will pursue excellence in student success and will develop a balance between “access and success” with appropriate career pathways for FSM students.

Emphasize academic offerings in service to national needs

The College of Micronesia-FSM will increase the number of 4-year program opportunities while also strengthening the career and technical educational opportunities for non-college-bound students.

Be financially sound, fiscally responsible, and build resources in anticipation of future needs

The College of Micronesia-FSM will generate diversified revenue sources, create an allied foundation, and accumulate reserves and endowment assets.

Invest in and build a strong capacity in human capital

The College of Micronesia-FSM will support and strengthen faculty, staff, and administrators through establishment of aspirational goals for credentialing and funding professional development and building upon organizational and leadership capacity.

Become a learning organization through development of a learning culture guided by learning leaders

The College of Micronesia-FSM will operate under the assumptions that learning is a skill and is worthy of investment and mastery, and that the communication of information and participatory governance are pivotal to organizational success. There will be support of the time, energy, and resources necessary to foster critical reflection and experimentation towards institutional improvement through double-loop learning and systematic thinking.

Evoke an image of quality

The College of Micronesia-FSM will be viewed as a model institution for best practices exhibited through quality, excellence, and integrity of both employees and graduates. The college will maintain regional accreditation without sanction for the maximum six-year cycle allowed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges: Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Focus on student success

The College of Micronesia-FSM will pursue excellence in student success and will develop a balance between “access and success” with appropriate career pathways for FSM students.

Measures of Success

• Evidence of new pedagogy
• Evidence of new curricula
• Retention/persistence rates (year by year enrollment)
• Graduation rates
• Number of students who transfer to four-year degree programs
• Internship experiences
• Exit interview assessments
• Job placement of graduates
• CCSSE survey results
• ISLO assessment
• Longitudinal graduate surveys

Emphasize academic offerings in service to national needs

The College of Micronesia-FSM will increase the number of 4-year program opportunities while also strengthening the career and technical educational opportunities for non-college-bound students.

Measures of Success

• Articulation agreements
• Partnership programs
• Viable distance learning options

Measures of Success

• Viable opportunities with agencies and NGOs development
• Training opportunities
• Viable opportunities for increased student access to certification examinations
• Evidence of new pedagogy
• Evidence of new curricula
• Job placement
• Number of internships
• Employer surveys of graduates/interns

Be financially sound, fiscally responsible, and build resources in anticipation of future needs

The College of Micronesia-FSM will generate diversified revenue sources, create an allied foundation, and accumulate reserves and endowment assets.

Measures of Success

• Established allied foundation
• Revenue sources
• Reserve fund balance
• Endowment asset balance
• Investments
• Grants
• Other revenue sources we should include?

Invest in and build a strong capacity in human capital

The College of Micronesia-FSM will support and strengthen faculty, staff, and administrators through establishment of aspirational goals for credentialing and funding professional development and building upon organizational and leadership capacity.

Measures of Success

• Credentials/degrees/professional designations
• Professional memberships/affiliations
• Aspirational goals
• CCSSE
• Professional contributions (publications, presentations, committee service, etc.)

Measures of Success

• Capacity needs assessment
• Prioritization of capacity needs
• Identified capacity needs with resource allocation
• Assessment of impact
• Professional development achievements
• Meeting accreditation standards
• Consultant use for technical assistance and special projects

Become a learning organization through development of a learning culture guided by learning leaders

The College of Micronesia-FSM will operate under the assumptions that learning is a skill and is worthy of investment and mastery, and that the communication of information and participatory governance are pivotal to organizational success. There will be support of the time, energy, and resources necessary to foster critical reflection and experimentation towards institutional improvement through double-loop learning and systematic thinking.

Measures of Success

• Assess life-long learning skills
• Plans, policies, and other institutional evidence reflecting allocation of time, energy, and resources for critical reflection
• Program assessments/reviews
• Professional development opportunities
• Evidence of double-loop learning and systematic thinking (gap identification with improvement plans)

Measures of Success

• Communication assessment/survey
• User testing
• Technology assessment
• Technology upgrades
• Contract with Telecom
• Policies online

Evoke an image of quality

The College of Micronesia-FSM will be viewed as a model institution for best practices exhibited through quality, excellence, and integrity of both employees and graduates. The college will maintain regional accreditation without sanction for the maximum six-year cycle allowed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges: Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Measures of Success

• Recognition of excellence
• Accreditation affirmation
• Employer surveys (of students)
• Employee performance evaluations
• Program reviews (continuous quality improvement)

Mission

Existing: Historically diverse, uniquely Micronesian and globally connected, the College of Micronesia-FSM is a continuously improving and student-centered institute of higher education. The college is committed to assisting in the development of the Federated States of Micronesia by providing academic, career and technical educational opportunities for student learning.

Identified problematic terms: “uniquely,” “committed,” “assisting,” “globally,” and “development.

Proposed: 

Option 1

College of Micronesia-FSM is a continuously improving, learner-centered institution of higher education delivering relevant programs and services that maximize national, student, and stakeholder opportunities. 

Option 2

Historically diverse and globally connected, the College of Micronesia-FSM is a continuously improving and learner-centered institution of higher education. The college is committed to assisting in the development of the Federated States of Micronesia by providing academic, career and technical educational opportunities for student learning.

Option 3

The College of Micronesia-FSM is a continuously improving best practices learner-centered institution of higher education committed to the success of the Federated States of Micronesia by providing academic, career and technical educational programs.

Core Values

We believe in: 

I will insert survey results and visualize results:

Institutional Student Learning Outcomes

Board Endorsed: 

COM-FSM graduates will demonstrate:

1. Effective oral communication: capacity to deliver prepared, purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.
2. Effective written communication: development and expression of ideas in writing through work in many genres and styles, utilizing different writing technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images through iterative experiences across the curriculum.
3. Critical thinking: a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.
4. Problem solving: capacity to design, evaluate, and implement a strategy to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.
5. Intercultural knowledge and competence: a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.
6. Information literacy: the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.
7. Foundations and skills for life-long learning: purposeful learning activity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge, skills, and competence.

Note to credit AAC&U

"Reprinted [or Excerpted] with permission from Assessing Outcomes and Improving Achievement: Tips and tools for Using Rubrics, edited by Terrel L. Rhodes. Copyright 2010 by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.”  (ILOs and VALUE Rubric permission)