University Times

Specifics are taking shape in accord with the University’s ongoing strategic planning process.

More is to come, said David DeJong, executive vice provost, but a half-dozen initiatives for advancing the strategic plan  — and what will be done this year to move those initiatives toward long-term goals — have been laid out.

Highlights of this year’s goals include plans to:

• Develop a series of MOOCs to train faculty and staff on diversity and inclusion;
• Establish a faculty fellows program that will support implementation of best practices in their disciplines;
• Streamline the process for visits from international scholars;
• Buy an enterprise customer relationship management system;
• Review advising practices with a renewed focus on individual student outcomes, and
• Expand Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education staff in the areas of personalized learning, discipline-specific learning, assessment and next-generation technologies.

The six initiatives are to:

• Enrich the campus environment by becoming a laboratory for the development, testing and implementation of innovative, discipline-based approaches to teaching and learning.
• Enrich the on-campus learning environment through a more personalized approach to the student experience.
• Partner for impact.
• Create a diverse, inclusive environment.
• Create an environment with support structures aligned to our mission and free of unnecessary barriers to success.
• Create a data- and computation-rich environment.

The full list is detailed in a link in the “working groups” section at www.pitt.edu/impact.

DeJong said forums will be scheduled this term to provide the University community an opportunity to react; feedback also can be provided via the strategic planning site.

—Kimberly K. Barlow