President’s Strategic Imperative Fund

The Center for Faculty Excellence will provide essential support to faculty throughout the arc of their careers, from recruitment to retirement. The initiative will harness a complement of resources designed to advance faculty goals in teaching, research, and service, and to build capacity for academic leadership.

In alignment with Strategic Plan Goal 5, this initiative will empower faculty and staff through professional, career, and development opportunities that are designed to enhance employee wellbeing and success.

This initiative will expedite implementation of our Inclusive Excellence Plan through the creation of an Inclusive Excellence Champions Program, an Inclusive Excellence Diversity Symposium, and educational and workshop opportunities that will strategically enhance our inclusive excellence work.

The Skills Infusion Program will continue our strategic work of bringing industry and higher education together in meaningful collaborations that engage high-wage, high-demand employers in Indiana with our faculty and curriculum.

In alignment with Strategic Imperative 1F, this initiative will enable students to create an experience record that translates their courses, degree programs, co-curricular experiences, and intercollegiate athletic experiences into a clear description of learning outcomes, competencies, and transferrable skills.

Multiple departments in CCIM will collaborate to develop a suite of micro-credentials, learning modules, workshops, and certificates that span six graduate programs. This initiative aligns with Strategic Imperative 2C, targets adult learners who wish to learn new skills, and serves as a model for other colleges to develop similar stackable, cross-departmental, cross-college initiatives.

This initiative will fund a Faculty Fellow for Undergraduate Research to advance multiple strategic imperatives in our strategic plan. This initiative will also foster and support increased opportunities for undergraduate students and faculty to engage in the high-impact practice of undergraduate research.

This initiative will prepare our students for careers in the fast-growing industry of esports. The University will develop curriculum that advances the skills and knowledge needed for this new industry, including animation, computer science, game design, marketing, sports administration, and digital production.

This student-centered initiative strengthens our efforts to identify and serve students with basic needs. This proposal was broadened in scope to reflect the increase in need that students will face due to COVID-19. The initiative is also designed to improve retention rates for high-risk populations.

This initiative will enhance our ability to recruit and retain talented staff and faculty, in alignment with Strategic Imperative 5C of our strategic plan. The initiative will also improve critical processes within Human Resources to increase efficiency and leverage best practices in recruitment and retention.

This initiative will advance Goals 2 and 3 of our Strategic Plan and will strengthen our University’s commitment to support regional vitality, educational attainment, and economic development in East Central Indiana.

The creation of an enterprise-wide CRM is critical to accomplish Goal 5 in our strategic plan, particularly 5H: Our people, processes, technology, policies, and infrastructure are strategically aligned to support academic excellence and enable operational efficiency and effectiveness. This grant supports Phase 1 of this initiative, which focuses on serving adult learners. Our new CRM will streamline communications and business processes, contain costs, and improve the overall University experience.