UW-La Crosse Strategic Plan
Sustaining Excellence
The UWL Strategic plan is comprised of 4 pillars which focus on students, community and employees.
Increasing community engagement
UWL embraces community engagement as a key component to our teaching, scholarly, & service mission.
Increasing community engagement
Goals
- Initiate strategies that create and promote increased opportunities for students’ community engagement that are academically grounded.
- Measure, assess and create accountability structure for community engagement across UWL.
- Market mutually beneficial relationships between UWL and private/public organizations in the greater La Crosse community, state, region, and globally; in particular, focus on the importance of public/community engagement in advancing UWL’s mission centered on the value of a Liberal Arts education.
- Integrate community engagement into UWL policies and procedures.
- Secure funding to support continued community engagement.
Metrics:
Increase participation in internships/clinical/field experiences by UWL Students to 65% of graduating seniors.
62% of UWL Seniors reported participation in internships/clinical/field experiences on the 2017 NSSE survey. 2020 NSSE results will be available fall 2020.
Expand number of partnerships reported on the UW System Partnership Collection.
3,389 Partners were reported across all 6 areas of 2017-18 UW Partnerships Report.
- 2015-16, 3215
- 2016-17, 3243
- 2017-18, 3389
- -
Increase number of projects in progress or completed through the Project Opportunities Board.
19 of the 89 active projects received FY 2016 through FY 2020 have been completed. 4 of the 89 projects received across this same time are in progress.
Increase number of student hours reported for volunteering in the community annually.
Hours of community service reported by University Centers and Athletics Department Annual Reports.
- 2017-18, 15905
- 2018-19, 18952
- -
Actions
- UW-La Crosse filled the Community Engagement Coordinator position in Summer 2019. The coordinator began to report data on community engagement efforts and make connections within the local community to provide for increased opportunities for collaboration.
- Through the Margins of Excellence Grant, UWL produced videos available on the university website that highlight our experiential learning practices that involve community partners.
- Staff from the Wisconsin Campus Compact met with Academic and Student Affairs administrators, the Community Engagement Council, faculty, and students to provide advise on community engagement efforts.
- The Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning has offered support and workshops for faculty on finding funding for high impact practices and community engaged learning opportunities.
Achieving excellence through equity & diversity
UWL is committed to being an equitable & welcoming community to maintain our status as a high quality & competitive university.
Achieving excellence through equity & diversity
Goals
- Achieve demographic equity in access and retention for students, staff, faculty, and administrators. Equity liaison initiative
- Provide fully inclusive educational experiences for all students.
- Ensure that all employees are engaged in creating a dynamic and welcoming campus community.
- Make UWL's Equity & Diversity efforts highly visible and coordinated across campus.
Metrics:
Reduce gaps in first-to-second year retention between not-first-generation and first-generation students. The current retention rate of not-first-generation students is 86%. The most recent retention rates of first-generation students:
- 2015, 85%
- 2016, 78%
- 2017, 83%
- 2018, 77%
- 86%
Reduce gaps in first-to-second year retention between not Pell eligible students and Pell eligible students. The current retention rate of not Pell eligible students is 85%. The most recent retention rates of Pell eligible students:
- 2015, 84%
- 2016, 80%
- 2017, 84%
- 2018, 77%
- 85%
Reduce gaps in first-to-second year retention between students in the majority race/ethnicity group and students of color. The current retention rate of the majority race/ethnic group is 84%. The most recent retention rates of students of color:
- 2015, 81%
- 2016, 77%
- 2017, 79%
- 2018, 81%
- 84%
Increase UWL’s compositional diversity of faculty and academic staff. Monitor to ensure it meets or exceeds the median value of the UW Comprehensives (10.5% in 2018, excluding UWL) overall as well as across employment categories.
- 2015, 10.8%
- 2016, 9.7%
- 2017, 9.5%
- 2018, 10.1%
- 10.5%
UWL has an overrepresentation of persons of color among our “unskilled” staff (per 2017 Affirmative Action report). The intent of this metric is to review compositional diversity not just overall, but across various job categories, similar to how we monitor achievement gaps of students.
Increase UWL’s compositional diversity of the student body, both undergraduate and graduate. Monitor to ensure it meets or exceeds the median value of the UW Comprehensives (11.5% in 2018, excluding UWL).
- 2015, 8.7%
- 2016, 9.3%
- 2017, 9%
- 2018, 9.5%
- 11.5%
Actions
- The UWL Division of Diversity & Inclusion was formed in spring 2018. In addition to her other duties, the Vice Chancellor of Diversity & Inclusion collaborates with academic deans and department chairs to recruit, retain, and promote diverse staff and faculty.
- The Equity Liaison Initiative is a strategic, cooperative, campus-wide effort to identify and close equity gaps affecting students and employees. An Equity Liaison is a faculty or staff member designated within each unit who analyzes and interprets equity data, gathers relevant resources, and advocates for evidence-based strategies to help their unit better anticipate and address equity gaps.
- The Admissions Office convened two small groups to review recruitment from different vantage points. Group #1 focused on how to be more inclusive of faculty in the student recruitment process and Group #2 focused on how the Office of Multicultural Student Services, Athletics and others could collaborate with Admissions staff.
- The University now offers an Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Certificate program to its employees. Each certificate will require participants to engage in at least eight equity- and inclusion-related workshops, trainings or events over two years. Participants must apply those experiences in a project.
- Equity Liaisons will pilot a workshop introducing Restorative Justice to UWL. The workshop will provide feedback to determine next steps for our campus.
Investing in our people
UWL recognizes that our status as a high quality and competitive university depends on our faculty and staff.
Investing in our people
Goals
- Prioritize employee compensation.
- Promote an environment of employee inclusion, ownership and engagement.
- Create clear and consistent assessment and accountability policies for all employees.
Metrics:
Work toward achieving 92% of external market parity compensation across all employee classifications. View the CUPA salary review.
Faculty
- 2016, 89%
- 2017, 89%
- 2018, 87%
- 2019, 88%
- 92%
Instructional Academic Staff
- 2016, 97%
- 2017, 97%
- 2018, 94%
- 2019, 93%
- 92%
Non-instructional Academic Staff
- 2016, 100%
- 2017, 99%
- 2018, 95%
- 2019, 95%
- 92%
This is an aspirational goal for UWL, which would require investment of $2.75 million dollars in FY20 dollars. External market parity is CUPA for Faculty, IAS, and matched NIAS positions. Other sources, such as UW System match are used when CUPA data is unavailable. As part of UW La Crosse’s commitment to Sustaining Excellence and the focus on Investing in our People, the University has distributed lump sum payments to eligible staff. View Lump Sum Payment Allocations to University Staff.
Monitor expenditure of Educational Assistance benefit funds each year across employee classifications (academic staff, university staff, etc.).
Educational Assistance Benefit paid out to UWL employees
2018-19
2017-18
The annual budget for Education Assistance is $85,000 (the program began in January 2018). Unspent funds carry over into the next year.
Sustain high levels of employee engagement as reported on Employee Engagement Survey. View the current levels of engagement report.
94%
Positive engagement
Spring 2018
(additional metric to be included based on outcome of Employee Engagement Survey working group)
Actions
- Use national data metrics to assess employee compensation. Work toward achieving 92% of external market parity compensation across all employee classifications.
- According to the FYS 19 UWS System Report on Faculty Turnover & Compensation adjustments UWL reported the highest amount of base adjustments and number of faculty receiving compensation adjustments for the UW comprehensive institutions. UWL also reported the highest amount of one-time compensation adjustments for both faculty and staff.
- The University conducted an Employee Engagement Survey in spring 2018 and will continue to assess employee engagement through a bi-annual survey.
- The Employee Engagement Action Team convened throughout spring 2019 and responded in concrete ways to the results of the Employee Engagement Survey data collected in 2018. Highlights of the Action Team’s work included: strengthening partnerships between Human Resources & the Division of Diversity & Inclusion, aligning of training and professional development opportunities with needs indicated by the survey, and two completed initiatives designed to provide better communication of and access to resources for all faculty and staff (the HR Calendar feed and the Be Well@UWL).
- The Joint Multicultural Affairs Committee, Employee Engagement Action Team and the Steering Committee of the Equity Liaison Initiative partnered to pilot and implement an online course on workplace diversity and inclusion. This course will be the first step in the Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Certificates program but is available for all staff and faculty and will be a required part of the onboarding process for new employees.
Advancing transformational education
High-impact teaching & learning opportunities that are proven to aid student success across diverse backgrounds.
Advancing transformational education Goals and Metrics
Goals
- Increase the opportunities for students to engage in high-impact practices by graduation.
- Monitor persistence and retention rates with the goal of improvement.
- Expand international/global learning opportunities for all students.
- Enhance graduate education.
- Increase opportunities for cross-disciplinary teaching and learning.
- Evaluate and revise the General Education program.
Metrics:
Increase retention of first-year students to 90%.
- 2014, 85%
- 2015, 86%
- 2016, 83%
- 2017, 86%
- 2018, 84%
- 90%
Increase retention of transfer students to 80%.
- 2014, 81%
- 2015, 77%
- 2016, 76%
- 2017, 77%
- 80%
Expand participation in first-year seminar to 100% of new first-year students and selected transfer students.
- 2014, 18%
- 2015, 12%
- 2016, 17%
- 2017, 23%
- 2018, 31%
- 2019, 27%
- 100%
Increase the number of UWL students graduating with an education abroad experience to 23%.
- 2014, 23%
- 2017, 19%
- 23%
The 2020 NSSE results will be available fall 2020.
Increase graduate enrollment to 1,000 students.
- 2015, 758
- 2016, 818
- 2017, 818
- 2018, 867
- 2019, 963
- 1000
Actions
- The First-Year Seminar is currently completing its pilot phase, with 21 instructors offering seminars in Fall 2019. Over 100 instructors are currently enrolled in the FYS 100 Instructor Certification course (which includes online and in-person training components) to prepare for FYS going to scale in Fall 2020.
- Campus began a slow roll out of EAB's Navigate platform in Fall 2019. The Academic Advising Center (AAC) and a pilot group of faculty began using Navigate for advising and scheduling during the fall semester. In Spring 2020 we launched PRO@UWL which replaced Eagle Alert as an early alert system.
- The General Education Working Group has drafted a final proposal and rationale for revising the General Education curriculum. In Fall 2019, the proposal was shared with various governance groups, including the General Education Committee of the Faculty Senate, for feedback. Campus-wide feedback was also sought through online survey and open forum sessions.
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The General Education Assessment Advisory Working Group met throughout Summer 2019 to propose a new model for program-level assessment of General Education. This programmatic assessment model has been vetted by Faculty Senate Executive Committee, the General Education Committee and the General Education Assessment Committee and is currently in its implementation phase.
- After completing participation in the ACE Internationalization Laboratory (2017-2019) an Internationalization Advisory Group was established. The role of the advisory group is to support UWL’s strategic goal of advancing global learning for all students.
- Graduate Education continued its progress through the Graduate Strategic Plan, including completing a Graduate Program Director Workload and Compensation report, offered a new grant to support interdisciplinary projects serving graduate programs, and developing an online Orientation and Resource Guide.
About
Mission
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse provides a challenging, dynamic, and diverse learning environment in which the entire university community is fully engaged in supporting student success. Grounded in the liberal arts, UWL fosters curiosity and life-long learning through collaboration, innovation, and the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. Acknowledging and respecting the contributions of all, UWL is a regional academic and cultural center that
prepares students to take their place in a constantly changing world community. The university offers undergraduate programs and degrees in the arts and humanities, health and sciences, education, and business administration. The university offers graduate programs related to areas of emphasis and strength within the institution, including business administration, education, health, the sciences, and the social sciences.
Vision
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse aims to foster within each student the curiosity, creativity, and tenacity necessary to solve the regional, national, and international challenges of the 21st century. The university's official motto mens corpusque ("mind and body") will continue to guide our direction as a student-centered university committed to a quality education for the whole person. As such, it will continue to provide opportunities both inside and outside the classroom for the development of sound mental, emotional, and ethical skills, as well as general well-being. Our students, faculty, and staff will experience the world through constantly evolving technologies and cultures. Thus, the skills of effective communication, critical thought, leadership, and an appreciation for diversity must be the hallmarks of a UWL education.
Values
Fassett Cotton, our institution's first leader, serving from 1909-1924, conceived the original University of Wisconsin-La Crosse educational philosophy of the total development of the individual. Later, history professor and Dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, William M. Laux (1922-1967), suggested the symbols of our official university seal along with the accompanying Latin phrase, mens corpusque ("mind and body"), to exemplify our collective commitment to a high quality education for the whole person.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse values:
- The mens corpusque educational philosophy that recognizes each student as a whole person and aspires to enhance both mind and body through the noble search for knowledge, truth, and meaning central to a wide range of high quality learning experiences and scholarly pursuits.
- Diversity, equity, and the inclusion and engagement of all people in a safe campus climate that embraces and respects the innumerable different perspectives found within an increasingly integrated and culturally diverse global community.
- A high quality of life and work balance, incorporating best practices for shared governance and the acquisition and efficient management of resources, equitable compensation, general wellness, and social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
- Civic engagement and a renewed commitment to the Wisconsin Idea, in which our socially responsible campus serves as a resource for our increasingly intertwined local, state, and global communities, collaborating and sharing resources and expertise to improve the human condition.