e-News Strategic Plan Updates
In the spring of 2010, the U.Va. Engineering School began developing a strategic plan to help the School realize its full potential for research and educational excellence. Check this page for monthly updates on the plan and visit the Strategic Plan website for more information.
January 2012: Strategic Plan Update
The following are activities associated with the strategic plan that have occurred this month:
- • Nine champions have been identified to lead 11 initiative teams. These include teams on graduate students, first-year curriculum and professional advising, faculty recruitment, research and alumni engagement.
- • Four proposals to address 10- and 11-month appointments, staff empowerment, professional advising and alumni engagement will be presented to the strategic plan advisory committee in January.
December 2011: Strategic Plan Update
The goals that rose up out of the year-long, school-wide Strategic Planning Process include preparing faculty for leadership, increasing the impact and expanding the reach of SEAS research, creating an environment where faculty and staff can succeed and creating a model for operational excellence.
During the last month, two actions that grew out of the plan were implemented. They are:
- The positions of associate dean for graduate programs and associate dean for research were combined into an associate dean of research and graduate programs position. This new position will go to Professor Pamela Norris at the first of the year.
- A system that will allow individuals to look up grant expenditures has been implemented with the help of Luke Lu (SIE ’12). who worked with U.Va.’s Cardiovascular Research Center to adapt a system that is already in use there. The new SEAS system will greatly improve engineering researchers’ ability to get information quickly.
Contact Chip Morton, project manager, at hsm2za@virginia.edu for more information.
November 2011: Strategic Plan Update
The SEAS Strategic Project Management Office (PMO) has been set up under the direction of Barry Johnson and Bob Bremer. Faculty champions (Ed Berger, Scott Acton, Bill Johnson, Eric Loth and Lloyd Harriott) are assembling teams to move implementation of the plan forward. Proposals for strategic plan initiatives should be brought to the Strategic Plan Implementation Committee for review. The committee is made up of PMO members and faculty champions. Contact Chip Morton, project manager, at hsm2za@virginia.edu for more information.
October 2011: Strategic Plan Update
Chip Morton has joined the Strategic Plan Team as project manager. He has over 20 years’ experience in project management, analytical and communications roles in industry, academics and in non-profit organizations. He is a graduate of U.Va. with degrees in English and Math, Class of ’76 and Computer Science, Class of ’79. His role will be to help the Engineering School move forward on initiatives identified in the Strategic Plan. Chip can be reached at hsm2za@virginia.edu.
September 2011: Strategic Plan Update
Dear SEAS Community:
The U.Va. School of Engineering and Applied Science’s “Strategic Vision 2011” is now ready for implementation. This living document will guide us in the coming years as we strive to empower those in the SEAS Community to create a better future.
This future will include a more vibrant and rewarding environment for faculty, staff and students. For society, it will translate into the education of more engineering leaders — at both the undergraduate and graduate level — for the innovation economy. The plan will help us marshal our collaborative research strengths toward creating a sustainable future, engineering improved health, advancing the cyber and physical infrastructure, and providing personal and societal security.
You can read an overview of the strategic plan here.
The plan came together thanks to the hard work of so many of you. Over 30 faculty and staff were directly involved, and over 250 faculty and staff from SEAS and across U.Va. engaged in the process. We also received input from more than 1,000 alumni and friends of SEAS. I am thankful for everyone’s participation.
At this point we are identifying champions within the SEAS community who can help us achieve goals in the following key areas:
- preparing graduates for leadership
- increasing research impact
- expanding SEAS’ reach
- creating an environment in which faculty and staff can succeed
- creating a model for operational excellence
- identifying resources for the future.
Again, thank you to everyone who participated in module teams, workshops, interviews, open houses and surveys and in any other way contributed to this strategic planning process. Implementing recommendations of the plan will not happen overnight and will require your help. I look forward to working with you as we move forward together to make this the Engineering School that we want it to be.
Best wishes,
Jim Aylor, Dean
August 2011: Strategic Plan Update
The strategic plan has been presented to department chairs and has been sent to faculty and staff. The plan and the implementation strategy will be presented to faculty and staff at a town hall meeting September 13. Details on the plan will be presented in the September issue of e-News.
July 2011: Strategic Plan Update
Recommendations from the strategic plan are being prioritized and integrated into a cohesive plan. An implementation strategy is being developed including metrics to measure our progress. The plan is on target to be launched in the fall 2011.
Thanks to all members of the SEAS community for their participation in this important process.
May 2011: Strategic Plan Update
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| Faculty and staff had a chance discuss the strategic plan’s development with module leaders during an Open House on April 21 in the Rodman Room. |
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Strategic plan team leaders over the past few weeks have discussed their initial findings and recommendations with the SEAS community. These interactions are helping them develop a comprehensive plan that remains on target for completion by June 1.
An Open House held on April 21 gave more than 100 faculty, staff and students an opportunity to discuss the findings and recommendations of the strategic planning teams — research, undergraduate program, graduate program, finance and organizational alignment.
Team leaders are considering feedback from this Open House, combined with more than 200 responses to the faculty and staff survey, and more than 1,000 alumni responses, in the creation of the strategic plan.
The following bullet points highlight the major findings of the surveys:
- Undergraduate Alumni Survey
- Our undergraduate alumni pursue a wide variety of fields after graduation, with only about a quarter identifying themselves as practicing engineers. 97 percent would still choose U.Va. for their undergraduate education.
- The experiences that alumni found most important were the senior thesis, undergraduate research and internships. The most desired experiences that had not been available were the business minor and international study.
- When we asked alums "What could we have done better?" the recurring themes were: more business courses; more "real-world" projects/hands-on learning; more flexibility in the curriculum/access to non-SEAS courses, but also more technical rigor; more "leading-edge" teaching, faculty and technologies; and more proactive career support.
- Graduate Program Alumni Survey
- The graduate survey included both M.S. and Ph.D. alumni. As expected, the M.S. students had pursued a wide variety of fields after graduation (50 percent were not aligned with their field of study at U.Va.), while the Ph.D.s were focused primarily in research and education.
- 92 percent would still choose U.Va. for their graduate education.
- When we asked "what could SEAS have done better" the recurring themes common to both M.S. and Ph.D.'s were the need for: more "real-world" exposure; more cross-disciplinary research; more "leading-edge" faculty and technologies; and more "soft skills" training. Ph.D. grads also highlighted the need for more training in grant writing, research skills and teaching.
The initial findings and recommendations of the module teams were presented during a May 4 faculty and staff town hall meeting. This presentation generated meaningful discussion about specific proposals, and a subsequent open house held on May 11 allowed for more-detailed discussions about the emerging plan.
You can read more about the most recent developments in the strategic planning process at www.seas.virginia.edu/admin/strategic/.
As always, please send any suggestions to seasplanning@virginia.edu.
April 2011: Strategic Plan Update
The strategic planning group is completing outreach activities and has surveyed faculty and staff. More than 200 faculty and staff participated in the survey.
Through surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews, the group has heard from thousands of members of the SEAS and U.Va. communities. It has also benchmarked SEAS against other engineering schools across the country. This has provided valuable information on the state of the school today, and has generated many good ideas to help the group to move forward.
The strategic planning group is now busily capturing its findings and drafting recommendations on the future direction of the school.
An Open House is scheduled for April 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Rodman Room of Thornton Hall. This will be an opportunity for the planning group to share/discuss its initial recommendations with members of the SEAS community, and for the SEAS community to provide feedback.
In addition, on May 4 there will be a town hall meeting for SEAS faculty and staff. In that meeting, the planning group will present an overview of the draft strategic plan, which will then be made available for comment by the SEAS community.
As always, please send along any suggestions to seasplanning@virginia.edu.
Module team leaders recently met with SEAS students to discuss the status of the strategic plan and solicit feedback for its further development.
The strategic planning group continues to engage members of the SEAS community in developing a final plan, which is on target for completion by the end of the spring semester. Alumni of the undergraduate and graduate programs were surveyed earlier this month about their experience at SEAS and to learn about their ideas for planning the School’s future. More than 1,000 alumni participated in the survey. Last week surveys were e-mailed to all SEAS faculty and staff and the response rate is continuing to grow.
In addition to getting feedback from surveys, strategic plan leaders will be hosting an open house in mid-April. The forum will allow faculty, staff and students to review posters about each of the strategic planning modules — research, undergraduate program, graduate program, finance and organizational alignment — and talk with module leaders.
On May 4 there will be a town-hall meeting for faculty and staff. During the meeting, module leaders will present the preliminary findings and recommendations of the plan.
February 2011: Strategic Plan Update
As you know, we began a strategic planning process in spring 2010 to help the Engineering School realize its full potential for research and educational excellence.
Various leaders in the strategic planning group have been conducting interviews and holding small group meetings and workshops for faculty and staff. They also have been meeting with leaders from other schools and universities. During these meetings, they have been listening to various members of the SEAS community and increasing their understanding of the issues affecting our School. They also have held an all-day workshop for our SEAS Trustees.
Over the coming months, we’ll continue to develop, evaluate and integrate the best ideas from within and outside of the Engineering School. Our goal is to publish the initial Strategic Plan in late May of this year.
Your role in this process is critical. We have prepared separate surveys for both undergraduate and graduate program alumni to collect your feedback on various aspects of the plan. These surveys are an important way for us to understand your experience at SEAS and to chart our course for the future.
I encourage you to participate. Please visit the Strategic Plan website at www.seas.virginia.edu/admin/strategic and to send any questions or comments that you have to SEASPlanning@virginia.edu.
Thanks for your support and for all that you do for the School.
All the best,
Jim Aylor
January 2011: Strategic Plan Update
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| Module team leaders met with members of the SEAS Trustees to discuss the status of the strategic plan and solicit feedback for its further development. | |
Module teams are busy engaging key members of the Engineering School community, including faculty, trustees, staff, students and alumni. The teams are also getting input from outside the Engineering School and U.Va.
Deliverables for four of the strategic plan modules — undergraduate program, graduate program, research, and finance — have been defined. They are available for review on each of the module pages on the Strategic Plan website.
An initial report on the results of the strategic plan is on target for delivery in June 2011.
If you have comments or questions about the strategic plan, please e-mail seasplanning@virginia.edu.December 2010: Strategic Plan Update
Jim Aylor, dean of the Engineering School, and Mike King and Jim Traub, members of the Strategic Planning Project Management Office, shared Strategic Plan updates with faculty and staff during a Town Hall meeting on Nov. 16.
Presentation of the findings of the first four modules — undergraduate program, graduate program, research distinctiveness and finance — are expected in February 2011.