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Strategic Plan

On October 22, 2021, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the University’s new strategic vision. The vote was an endorsement of the tremendous care, thought, and innovation that people across campus invested in crafting a shared vision for UT’s future. With approval of the University’s new strategic vision, the College of Communication and Information’s strategic planning process is now officially underway.

Fall 2021

SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) data (PDF file) compiled in August by CCI faculty, staff, and members of the CCI Board of Visitors provided the foundation for discussions among the college leadership team. The team has prepared a working draft (PDF file) of a proposed new CCI vision and mission along with five goals for the College that connect to the University’s new strategic vision and land-grant mission.

The College will now further develop its draft goals and strategies through small goal teams. To build these teams, the dean’s office solicited nominations from the school directors. As we created the goal teams, we considered faculty career tracks and stages, staff representation, as well as balancing all teams by diversity and school representation.

The following five goal teams comprised of CCI faculty and staff will be charged to further develop the vision, mission, and goals and their accompanying strategies. We will aim to complete this phase of our work by January 24, the first day of spring semester classes.

Goal 1 – Innovative Academic Programs and Enrollment

Derrick Holland, Emily Paskewitz, Cindy Welch, Guy Harrison, and Alexis Anderson

Goal 2 – Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Sifan Xu, Jenny Crowley, Wade Bishop, Erin Whiteside, and Beth Meko

Goal 3 – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Faculty/Staff Recruitment

Joe Stabb, Chioma Marbrey, Vandana Singh, Amber Roessner, and Hillary Tune

Goal 4 – Collaboration, Adaptability, and Innovation

Matt Pittman, Laura Miller, Brian Dobreski, Melanie Faizer, and Amy Forrester

Goal 5 – Alumni and Community Engagement

Courtney Childers, Annette Winston, Carolyn Hank, Joy Jenkins, and Jimmy Holt

Spring 2022

In early Spring 2022, our work will involve the following:

  1. We will hold college-wide open sessions over two weeks in early February to discuss our proposed goals and strategies, after the above teams complete their work.
  2. In late February, we will draft metrics to measure our progress on the strategic plan.
  3. We will create an online form to solicit feedback from faculty, staff, and students.
  4. The dean’s office will engage the undergraduate and graduate student advisory councils on elements of our planning.
  5. We will hold virtual discussions with members of CCI’s Board of Visitors to ensure alignment with contemporary industry trends.
  6. We will compile the past five years of CCI data related to student success, research and scholarship, diversity and inclusion, and alumni engagement to establish a baseline for future key CCI performance metrics.
  7. We will also benchmark CCI alongside similar colleges at comparative and aspirational peer institutions. This work will help us establish five-year performance targets for key metrics related to the attached goals, such as enrollment, doctoral degrees conferred, graduation rates, retention rates, underrepresented minority faculty, staff, and students, research and scholarly productivity, philanthropic support, and many others.
  8. All feedback received via open sessions, through the online form, and through the BOV and student advisory councils will allow the college leadership team to further crystalize the plan and prepare it for a college vote in late spring or early fall 2022.

Our collective work now will steer the direction of the College into the next decade. Please check back for regular updates on CCI’s strategic planning process.