Monday Message: We've Got Strategy, Yes We Do!

Good Monday Morning, Student Affairs Roadrunners!

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Well, it’s here.? Friday marked the official kickoff of the 2024-2025 academic year – our 7th as a branch at MSU Denver and our 2nd of this strategic plan.? We have so much to be proud of thanks to your collective efforts and I know that this plan will move us further into the future, supporting all students on their academic and career journeys.?

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As we move into this year, bookmark this page – our 24-25 Student Affairs Strategic Plan!? https://www.msudenver.edu/student-affairs/student-affairs-2024-strategic-plan/

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The theme that kept running through my head on Friday morning – listening to Dr. Kevin R. McClure share the aspects of a Caring University, digging into our OKRs for this year, and hearing your comments during my session on supervision – is alignment.?? Not only do we need to be aligned cross-functionally to ensure our strategies take, but alignment provides structure and clarity.? I don’t know about you, but when I’m feeling overwhelmed or pulled in several different directions, clarity and structure are incredibly important.? They make things manageable, they help me prioritize, and they showcase a way forward.?

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The Student Affairs Huddle – my direct leadership team of Associate and Assistant Vice Presidents along with my office team – spent considerable time this summer contemplating the conditions necessary for our plan to be successful, for us to find alignment.? Two ideas emerged:? that our strategic plan is different but connected to a workload map and that each of us have specific roles.?

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Strategy ≠ Workload Mapping

Not everything that we spend time and energy on will be in our strategic plan. ??These plans are not meant to map all lines of effort (although we did that to ensure no one team was overburdened), they are meant to showcase an approach to meeting a future vision.? Our day to day work forms the foundation of all that we do – ensuring students are admitted, funded, and registered; connecting students with important resources; supporting their career journeys through a robust industry partnership model.? We can’t NOT do these things.? Our strategic plan must build on top of these and move us toward realizing our five goals.? And finally, a solid understanding of our day to day work and alignment with our strategic plan makes clear what innovations (aka Diamond Squirrels as Derek Bowers, MPP taught us!) we can and cannot take advantage of.

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Leadership Role Clarity

When we talk about needing clarity around roles here at MSU Denver, you might think to yourself, “Duh.”? But sometimes, our unstated assumptions about who is in charge of what might actually conflict. ?We identified four distinct roles as we move forward:

These scaffolded leadership roles are intended to ensure we are always in alignment and to illuminate inclusive leadership.? The overlap areas between each of these (along with many others that were too complicated to graphically design!) indicate feedback loops – opportunities for members of our team to share their perspective on what will make our work successful.? This year, we were focused on scaffolding the strategic plan with our evaluation and goal setting timelines so that everything resonates.? We will continue to improve this system in the coming years to better support all of us.?

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The Caring University

I don’t know about you, but I was riveted during Dr. McClure’s keynote.? Through his scholarship, he has identified so many concepts that we have been struggling with in higher education for decades.? I’m grateful that, with your support, we’ve made progress in Student Affairs on compensation, recognition, professional development, and pathways.? But we have much work to continue to ensure we are truly the best workplace for Student Affairs Educators.? As a reminder, Student Affairs will continue to elevate salary so that, by 2030, our base salary is no less than $50,000.? Additionally, members of our team who are presenting at conferences or have a volunteer leadership role in a professional organization may submit a request for funding to my office (more on that in a couple weeks!).? We hope to meet as many of these requests as possible.? Additionally, this year’s strategic plan focus on supervision and career ladder pathways will continue these efforts.

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My eye doctor once told me that we get headaches when our glasses prescription is out of whack because our brain is working overtime to focus.? Well, work feels like that sometimes as well.? It is my hope that the focus we are able to create through this strategic plan literally and figuratively reduces headaches for you – the absolutely best Student Affairs team around!

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Happy Monday!? Don’t forget to #GetRowdy at Convocation next week and Welcome Week the week after!

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Will