Progress Update on our Middle States Self-Study and Strategic Plan Refresh

January 31, 2020

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I hope your first week of the spring semester is going well. I am writing to share updates on the important institutional-wide work taking place in preparation of our Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Self-Study and in refreshing our current strategic plan, Tomorrow: Greater Impact and Success.

As you likely know, SUNY Oswego initiated its work on the MSCHE Self Study at the start of last semester. Our Self-Study is due to MSCHE in fall 2021 and will conclude with a campus visit by an external evaluation team in spring 2022. This Self-Study follows our last Self-Study, which was successfully completed in 2011-2012. It also follows the commended completion of our MSCHE Periodic Review Report, which led to MSCHE’s most recent reaffirmation of SUNY Oswego’s accreditation in November 2017.

To start our Self-Study process, in September 2019, Provost Scott Furlong and I appointed Self-Study co-chairs (Dr. Richard Back, associate professor of biological sciences, and Kristi Eck, chief of staff), a steering committee (representing all divisions of our institution, faculty governance and the UUP and CSEA unions), and over 70 faculty and staff members with a diverse breadth of experience and knowledge to serve on six subcommittees (aligned with the seven MSCHE Standards and Requirements of Affiliation).

Over the last semester, our Self-Study co-chairs, steering committee and subcommittee members have been working together to gather information and evidence from across the institution that explains and documents how the college is meeting each of the seven MSCHE Standards and Requirements of Affiliation. The subcommittees will submit preliminary findings to the co-chairs and steering committee members on February 14, 2020. These findings will help shape and direct the college’s priorities and actions in the months and years ahead as we remain steadfast to our continuous commitment to assessment and to improving institutional effectiveness and student learning outcomes with the everlasting goal of elevating student success and academic excellence.

I want to thank all of you who have already contributed to our Self-Study process over the past few months, and I encourage the entire campus community to engage with us in the weeks and months ahead as we continue to prepare our Self-Study. The Self-Study process creates and cultivates an environment for cross-institutional examination, reflection, analysis and action that helps propel us forward as we continue to nurture our areas of strength, informed by our work.

Please visit SUNY Oswego’s Middle States Re-Accreditation website for a complete listing of the steering and subcommittee members, our meetings to date, and to review our 2012 Self-Study, 2012 MSCHE Team Report, 2014 Progress Report, and 2017 Periodic Review Report. Please do not hesitate to contact me, our co-chairs, or our steering committee members if you have any questions.

Also intertwined this year with our Self-Study preparations is the refresh and renewal of our strategic plan. As mentioned at the fall 2019 Opening Breakfast, we are examining the impacts of our 2014 Strategic Plan: Tomorrow: Greater Impact and Success and we are on track to launch a revised strategic plan at the start of the fall 2020 semester.

To complete this goal, I convened a 44-member Strategic Plan Advisory Board this past November, and, on my behalf, I asked Chief of Staff Kristi Eck to conduct numerous focus groups with students, faculty, staff and external partners from across the institution during the months of December 2019 – February 2020 to examine and discuss eight focus areas that will be used to create institutional priorities for our next strategic plan.

Please visit the developing Strategic Plan website for a list of all focus groups scheduled to date. We invite you to attend an upcoming focus group if you have not already. Also, please watch for an email that I plan to send out next week that will invite you to comment and provide input on the focus areas for SUNY Oswego’s refreshed strategic plan.

Thank you for all you do to make SUNY Oswego a vital and thriving place!

Best regards,

Deborah F. Stanley
President