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Six-Year Institutional Plan Preface The College of William and Mary Today: William and Mary is the second oldest institution of higher education in North America , its royal charter dating to 1693. Building on its “ancient and venerable” roots, William and Mary has become one of the premier universities in the nation. The College, beginning with its designation as a “Public Ivy” nearly twenty years ago, has witnessed a remarkable growth in its national reputation such that it is now routinely considered among the top national universities in surveys of every kind. Whether we are the sixth best public university or the 31 st best university in the nation in USNWR rankings, the “ Hottest Small Public University ” in the country according to Newsweek, or one of the most wired and now most unwired campuses, the College has undeniable national status as a highly selective public university. That reputation reflects our unique size, our commitment to high quality undergraduate and selective graduate and professional education, and our dedication to teaching in the interests of the common good. This uncompromising commitment to quality education has generated steadily increasing numbers of applications, topping at 10,500 for 1350 slots in the Class of 2009. William and Mary’s stature allows us to recruit superlative faculty and staff as the essential ingredients to a community of the best teachers, students, researchers, scholars, creative artists, and professionals. Our faculty win international awards, obtain external resources at several times the national average, and consistently demonstrate their commitment to teaching and learning. Our graduate and professional programs increase in stature annually. External research support has more than tripled since 1997, and private giving increases annually reaching record levels in 2004-2005. We are national leaders in engaging undergraduate students in research, scholarship, and creative endeavor. Our success in study abroad programs has become a hallmark of the William and Mary experience. Our student retention rates, graduation rates, and success upon completion of degrees are comparable only to the most elite institutions of higher education in the country. Our graduates are sought after by the top-ranked graduate and professional programs and major corporations, non-profits, and government agencies. We demonstrably prepare the future leaders of our society and the professions. In short, the College of William and Mary is as strong as it has ever been. We have a new president who has the enthusiastic support of the entire campus community and who brings energy, creativity, and new ideas to the College. In addition, under his leadership, the College is reconfirming its commitment to be a great public university and affirming that we will continue to work assiduously on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth. As we begin this planning exercise and look six years into the future, we hope to reap dividends of more intentional planning, greater fiscal and administrative flexibility, and enhanced authority for our Board of Visitors as the foundation for continuing excellence. There is nothing that is broken; little that needs to be fixed. In a manner of speaking, our task is to enhance an institution whose success and excellence are manifest while selectively seeking opportunities for greater success and achievement that neither detract from nor endanger the things we do so well. The Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act of 1995: The Higher Education Restructuring Act of 2005 requires that all four-year institutions in the Commonwealth prepare a Six-Year Plan. This plan is to consist of three parts: 1) an Academic Plan, 2) a Financial Plan, and 3) an Enrollment Projection Plan. The Academic Plan describes the institution’s mission and vision and then addresses each of nine specific goals that have been established by the Commonwealth and are called the “state ask” as part of the restructuring plan. The Financial Plan provides the fiscal context by which each institution intends to achieve these nine goals and any other goals approved by that institution’s Board of Visitors. These two portions of the Six-Year Plan will be submitted to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) in fall 2005. The Enrollment Projection Plans were submitted in the summer and approved by the State Council recently. The Six-Year Plans take effect July 1, 2006 and will be annually evaluated by SCHEV using a “Virginia Scorecard” currently under development. The on-going process will involve annual assessment of progress toward planning goals and biennial resubmission of six-year plans. Hence, goals set in this year’s planning process may be revisited and altered every two years. The six-year planning process is independent of the requirements to be met to achieve Level 3 status (previously informally known as “charter status”) under the act. This latter process involves the negotiation and signing of Management Agreements between eligible institutions and appropriate agencies of state government in administrative areas such as information technology, personnel, capital outlay, and procurement. The Planning Context for the College of William and Mary: Planning always occurs in a context. The Higher Education Restructuring Act was initiated by the Commonwealth’s universities and endorsed by their Boards following a decade of declining state support and premised on a clear realization that a new “contract” between the public colleges and universities and the state was essential to the success of post-secondary education. The over-arching goal is to return authority to the local level by re-empowering the Boards of Visitors to exercise their statutory role as the governing boards of Virginia ’s institutions of higher education. The College already has in place a Board-approved five-year strategic budget that identifies critical goals in such areas as faculty/staff salaries, student financial aid (undergraduate and graduate/professional), administrative services and support, and selected programmatic initiatives. This plan outlines the resources needed to achieve these goals, but not the sources of new revenues. In addition, recent changes in budget and space planning procedures on campus as well as implementation of the institutional Process of Institutional Effectiveness as part of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaccredidation have created a new, collaborative methodology for arriving at consensus on priorities and for assessing progress toward our goals. It is our hope that this Six-Year Plan will allow the College’s senior leadership to work collaboratively with the Board of Visitors, the General Assembly and Executive Branch, and our many friends and supporters to chart the College’s destiny over the next half-dozen years. Part A – Institutional Narrative Mission and Vision: The College of William and Mary remains faithful to its unique mission as a mid-sized, public, residential liberal arts college with strong, but selected graduate and professional programs. W&M is the pre-eminent small public university in the nation and successfully competes in many areas with the premier national universities both public and private. It is widely recognized as offering an exemplary undergraduate liberal arts degree competitive with the best private colleges and universities in the nation. Its graduate and professional programs are nationally competitive and annually increasing in stature. The faculty has sustained a steady increase in research over the past decade, such that externally funded research has more than doubled over this period. W&M is committed to its public mission. We see ourselves playing a unique, but critical role in the diversity and quality of the Commonwealth =s system of higher education. We blend the best features of an undergraduate college with the opportunities offered by a research university. We sustain a continuing commitment to a rich learning environment that fosters close interactions and mentoring relationships among students and teachers. We provide a challenging arts and sciences curriculum that encourages creativity, independent thought, and intellectual depth in a predominantly residential undergraduate setting. We offer selected high quality graduate and professional programs that prepare students for intellectual, professional, and public leadership and engage the Commonwealth’s needs in such critical areas as K-12 education, scientific research, and economic development. We are committed to continue the high quality of our programs and maintaining the excellence of our students, faculty, and staff while not becoming complacent or stagnant. Our baccalaureate recipients are highly sought after by the top graduate and professional programs in the world. Our graduates leave well-prepared to assume leadership roles in the public and private sector on the state, national, and international scenes. As the premier, small public university in the nation, the College of William and Mary is one of the great public universities of the world, competing internationally with the best institutions, public or private, in the excellence of its students, faculty, and educational experience. An integral part of that vision is for us to be as accessible and affordable to Virginia residents as is possible. Strategic Initiatives: Many, if not all, of the strategic goals and objectives outlined below are consistent with the specific goals outlined in the Higher Education Restructuring Act of 2005. The goals and objectives described arise from continuous strategic planning exercises at the College including: the 1994 Strategic Plan, entitled Into the Fourth Century: a Plan for the Future of the College of William and Mary ; the College’s 2004-2008 Strategic Plan submitted to SCHEV in 2003; the College’s Five Year Strategic Investment Plan approved by the College’s Board of Visitors in November 2003; and the Process of Institutional Effectiveness being implemented as part of our 2005-2006 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaccredidation.
In general, these initiatives are designed: 1) to maintain and enhance the quality of William and Mary’s existing programs, 2) to maintain national competitiveness in terms of the quality of students, faculty, and staff, 3) to assure that the resources are in place to preserve and enhance the investments that the citizens of Virginia have made in the College’s future, and 4) to identify selected strategic initiatives consistent with our unique mission and the needs and aspirations of the Commonwealth for higher education. In the interests of simplicity, we simply outline the highest priority goals and objectives that the College has identified and then present those that are consistent with the eleven goals of the Higher Education Restructuring Act of 2005 in a format that allows a ready concordance with those goals.
Priorities for the College of William and Mary over the Next Six Years : Attract and Retain High Quality Faculty and Staff
Attract and Retain a Strong and Diverse Student Body
Maintain and Enhance the High Quality of Academic Programs
Support Core Operations
Expand Revenues
Achieving these ambitious goals on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth will require a steady increase in the availability of resources. Some of these will, we hope, come from renewed commitment on the part of the Commonwealth to meet the base adequacy goals. We will continue aggressively to seek funds from private sources – individuals, foundations, and corporations – and from external funding agencies where appropriate, particularly in support of research and economic development. The College, in order not to duplicate existing programs at other Virginia institutions and in keeping with its liberal arts mission and unique role, foresees neither major new academic programs nor any expansion of its programs to other areas of the Commonwealth. The only new off-site program that is under discussion at the College --no final decisions have been made -- is a Washington Semester Program to be taught by current William and Mary faculty for a student population made up predominantly of William and Mary undergraduates. It would be located at our existing office in D.C. and will be self-funded requiring no appropriated funds. Part B – Academic Component Goal 1 Consistent with institutional mission, provide access to higher education for all citizens throughout the Commonwealth, including underrepresented populations, meet enrollment projections, and degree estimates. The College in its enrollment projections (see Part D) plans modest growth over the next six years. This growth can be summarized in the following table:
Headcount Enrollment Projections
Most recent enrollments (Fall 2005 estimates) are a total headcount enrollment of 7401 (at William and Mary, FTE typically tracks at 97.5% of headcount enrollment) in Academic Year (AY) 2005-2006. Of this number, 5526 are undergraduates. The remaining nearly 1900 students are graduate and professional students enrolled in six Ph.D., the Psy.D., and four masters programs in Arts and Sciences; in masters and Ph.D. programs at VIMS; in masters, Ph.D., and Ed.D. programs in the School of Education ; in the MBA and MAC programs in the School of Business ; and in the LL.M. and J.D. programs in the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. The projected enrollment growth over the six-year period of this plan will take total headcount enrollment in AY2011-2012 to 7916, an increase of about 515 students or 7%. This modest increase is in keeping with our intention to retain the unique assets of a mid-sized university as well as to control the impact of the College on the residential community in which we are located. The size of the undergraduate student population will grow during this period to 5883, or a net increase of about 350 students or 6.5% over the estimated AY2005-2006 level. We project the in-state headcount enrollment in Fall 2011 to be 3884 for an increase of slightly over 480 or 14.4% over the AY2005-2006 level. It is our expectation (see Goal 6) that significant numbers of these students will be VCCS and RBC graduates. Our projected increase in the size of the freshman class is 20 per class, hence of the 240 additional undergraduates we plan to enroll by fall 2011, 80 will be first-time freshmen and the balance will be transfer students from predominantly two-year institutions. The additional 160 students who will enroll by fall 2011 will be distributed among our graduate and professional programs. We project a modest increase in several of our science Ph.D. programs in order to achieve critical mass for world-class research and to sustain higher levels of grant activity. We foresee some growth in Education graduate programs, in such high demand areas as science/math education, counseling and special education, and K-12 administration, and an increase in the size of the MBA and MAC programs in the School of Business following the completion of the new facilities for the School of Business . Goal 2 Ensure that higher education remains affordable, regardless of individual or family income, and determine the impact of tuition and fee levels net of financial aid on applications, enrollment, and student indebtedness. The College of William and Mary, under the leadership of its new president, has set as a goal increasing the economic and social diversity of the student body at the College. We are absolutely committed to assuring access to any qualified and admitted Virginian regardless of family income. Last year, the College spent $24.2M on student financial aid. Of that, $2.6 M, or just over 10%, came from state-appropriated funds. While just over 51% of William and Mary students received some financial aid, about 29% received need-based aid. As is true nationally, the more selective an institution is in admissions, the lower the relative proportion of students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups. Thus, while 8% of William and Mary students are eligible for Pell grants, the federal grants given to students whose family income is keyed to the federal poverty level, the national average for all four-year institutions is close to 24%. As we have indicated, William and Mary is not alone. One recent study has shown that among the 146 most highly selective four-year colleges and universities in America , the number of students whose families are in the bottom quartile of socioeconomic status is 3%. William and Mary does better than this—but not well enough to meet our obligations as a public institution. Gateway William and Mary : At the present time, any Pell-eligible student at the College receives a combination of grants and loans so that his or her indebtedness will not exceed one year’s tuition and fees. This is as generous as any other public institution in the state or region. Nonetheless, this means a student whose family may earn as little as $30,000 may leave the college with debts of up to $12,500. This burdensome level of debt may discourage students from lower SES groups from applying to or accepting admission from the College. And, if they do attend, their legitimate concern with respect to debt repayment may discourage them from some career choices like K-12 education or from going on to graduate or professional school for fear of adding even more to their personal indebtedness. Hence, over the period of the six-year plan, the College of William and Mary is committed to seeking, from all sources – state-appropriated scholarship funds, federal, and private support -- sufficient funds to assure that 1) we meet 100% of financial need for in-state undergraduates and 2) any student whose family’s annual income is less than $40,000 can spend four years at the College and graduate debt-free. This new initiative, called Gateway William and Mary, is one of the highest priorities for our new president. In addition, both through our goal to increase the numbers of VCCS graduates who transfer to the College (see Goal 6 below) and aggressive efforts to recruit in-state students from lower SES groups, we hope to double the number of students who would receive assistance by the end of the six-year planning period. As noted, we will continue our commitment to providing additional financial aid through grants and loans to those Virginians whose families are not in the lower SES groups, but who still have demonstrable need. In addition, as tuition and fees increase over the period of the six-year plan, we will readjust the level of financial aid for all students to assure that insufficiency of family resources will not be a barrier to attending the College. Goal 3 Offer a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs consistent with our mission and assess regularly the extent to which the institution's curricula and degree programs address the Commonwealth's need for sufficient graduates in particular shortage areas, including specific academic disciplines, professions, and geographic regions. The College already offers a broad range of degrees including twenty nine baccalaureate degree programs, twenty masters level programs, and twelve doctoral programs. We view this as a full range of programs for an institution of our size and foresee at this time no additional degree programs during the period of this six-year plan, although discussions are being held for several new, interdisciplinary programs which would combine the resources of existing programs. These include a combined MPP/M.S. in Marine Science with a focus on marine resource management and policy and a LL.M/Nursing degree in collaboration with VCU. Our focus in areas of critical need for the Commonwealth are primarily in the areas of the physical, mathematical, and biological sciences and in teacher education. As a liberal arts institution, it is not possible to track students into these areas of critical need as might be the case in institutions which admit first-year students directly into programs like teacher education, engineering, or nursing. However, one of the foci of our new initiative in seeking increasing numbers of RBS and VCCS transfers to the College (see Goal 6) will be to target students with interests in K-12 education and the sciences/mathematics. Currently, about one-third of baccalaureate degrees awarded each year at the College are in the sciences. One-third of our doctoral programs and one-quarter of our master’s programs are in these same areas. Our enrollment projections for the six-year plan (see Goal 1) call for modest increases in these programs. During the period of the six-year plan we will, in addition, implement innovative new programs allowing undergraduates to minor in Marine Science and Applied Science in addition to their conventional majors in the basic sciences. These new programs will graduate students with unusual skills and they will be competitive for top graduate programs and high level jobs in these areas of critical need. In K-12 education during the baseline year of 2004, 140 teachers completed baccalaureate or master’s degrees at William and Mary and received initial state licensure in Virginia . Of these program completers, twelve were awarded the Meritorious New Teacher credential signifying exemplary performance. Twenty-one individuals completed degrees in educational leadership to earn their administrative endorsements. The School of Education also produced graduates for K-12 in the following critical shortage areas: eight reading specialists, eight school counselors, and 10 school psychologists. Again, as noted in Goal 1, we will modestly increase enrollments in some of these critical needs areas while targeting two-year transfers (Goal 6) with interests in K-12 licensure. Thus far, William and Mary has chosen not to offer alternative route to licensure programs. Since 1996, the M.A.Ed. Program in Curriculum and Instruction has effectively served post-baccalaureate students, most of whom are career switchers, allowing them to earn the master’s degree and licensure through a full-time, 14-month program. (Data on completers of this program are included above.) A number of individual courses are open to non-degree students who are working toward licensure or re-licensure. Course enrollments in 2004 toward K-12 re-licensure totaled 165. We feel that, in the long run, this strategy will produce more highly qualified teachers who will be capable of assuming leadership roles in their schools and school divisions. Goal 4 Ensure that the institution’s academic programs and course offerings maintain high academic standards, undertake continuous review and improvement of academic programs, course availability, faculty productivity, and other relevant factors. The single most critical strategic goal in regards to ensuring the quality of academic programs is to preserve and enhance the quality of the faculty. It is for this reason that achieving the 60th percentile of salaries relative to our SCHEV peer group remains our highest priority over the period of the six-year plan. In addition, it is essential to retaining the best faculty and attracting the best students that we have facilities appropriate to a world-class university, hence our initiatives over the next six years, though a combination of public and private support, to renovate, expand, and construct new academic and research space for the Schools of Business and Education and for new laboratory and studio/rehearsal/performance space for the sciences and the arts. In addition, we are supporting innovative curricular reforms in our School of Business to position our MBA and MAC programs among the best in the nation. Several new and continuing initiatives that are focused on the quality of the undergraduate education experience at the College of William and Mary will continue to receive priority attention in this six-year plan. These include expanding opportunities for undergraduate research as the hallmark and capstone experience of a William and Mary education and to expansion and strengthening of our Study Abroad and Study Away programs. We have expanded these programs, doubling every three years the number of undergraduate students taking advantage of these opportunities. Currently, about 800, or the equivalent of two-thirds of each graduating class, has an international research or study experience during their academic career. It is our goal that each William and Mary undergraduate will have an opportunity for study or research abroad by 2010. One final initiative that we view as critical and transforming to the educational experience of our students is the MyNotebook initiative which will, by 2010, assure that every William and Mary undergraduate has a business-class notebook computer or its equivalent and that the use of that device is integrated into the instructional environment in a seamless and powerful way. This program is in its pilot stage this academic year. Continuous Improvement of Academic Programs: Commencing in 2001, a task force has been studying existing practices of planning and evaluation of academic programs in anticipation of the 2005-2006 SACS review. The task force includes senior administrators, faculty members, and representatives from the professional/administrative staff. It became clear to the task force that the planning and evaluation efforts had become mechanical and reactive in response to the budget stringencies of the early part of the decade. Hence, we have created a new and integrated approach to institutional effectiveness premised on evidence-based decision-making. This effort has yielded an institution-wide strategy referred to as the Process of Institutional Effectiveness, or PIE. All administrative units at the Vice Presidential level have developed or are developing and implementing the process. All academic departments and programs within the School of Arts and Sciences, likewise, have developed or are developing and implementing the process. The School of Marine Sciences also has developed a plan that follows the PIE model. The remaining three schools (Business, Education, and Law), have completed plans that link to the process through their individual accrediting requirements. The newly designed Process of Institutional Effectiveness builds on earlier efforts to track goals, objectives, and evaluations. Because the new process asks for information on a common set of elements from both academic and administrative units, it facilitates an integrated examination of evaluative information for planning, evidence-based decision-making, and continuous improvement. In addition, in February 2004, the Faculty Committee on University Priorities (FCUP) was created to facilitate the implementation of the process of institutional effectiveness. The final piece of the new process for institutional effectiveness is a planning and decision making calendar that establishes dates for submitting information describing unit expectations, objectives, evaluations, and recommendations. This information is reviewed at the appropriate academic and administrative levels before recommendations move forward to the FCUP and the Provost. For example, PIE data are forwarded from academic departments and programs in Arts and Sciences to the Dean of Arts and Sciences, who reviews these data before sending recommendations to the Provost and the FCUP. The planning calendar establishes dates for budget decisions and for publishing those decisions in order to ensure a close connection between recommended priorities and budget decisions (http://www.wm.edu/provost/UPIECalendars2005_08.pdf ). Program Review : In this area, a task force was appointed to study existing practices of planning and evaluation and as a result recommended the development of a fully integrated process of institutional effectiveness. With the implementation of the aforedescribed PIE process and our imminent SACS review, a newly designed program review procedure is being implemented. Basically, this new program is focused on issues raised continuously in the PIE process. Data will be centrally and electronically collected to assure consistency and reproducibility of comparative data between and among units. Program reviews will be conducted in “clusters” so that like programs are reviewed in concert and so that opportunities for inter- and cross-disciplinary outcomes can be encouraged and enhanced. All academic programs under the new system to commence in AY 2006-2007 will be reviewed at least every seven years, if not more frequently. Negative outcomes or failure to achieve goals and objectives in a timely manner as assessed in the annual PIE process can trigger reviews of programs at any time. Goal 5 Improve student retention such that students progress from initial enrollment to a timely graduation, and that the number of degrees conferred increases as enrollment increases. As a highly selective institution, the College of William and Mary’s six-year graduation rate is second in the nation among all public colleges and universities and our four-year graduation rate ranks eighth among our SCHEV peer group -- with the seven above us all being private institutions (Georgetown, Duke, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Boston College, Brown, and Vanderbilt, in that order). Our six-year graduation rate, in excess of 90%, is well above the 80% average of our peer group and our 95% first year retention rate is far beyond that of the vast majority of institutions of higher education in the nation. Much of the credit for this success, beyond the high quality of our students and faculty, lies in a highly effective faculty-based academic advising system that assures that first-time students meet early in their academic careers and frequently thereafter with a trained faculty advisor to lay out an academic plan that will allow them to graduate on time. The average time-to-degree for a William and Mary baccalaureate degree is less than 4.1 semesters. Exit surveys of students who do not graduate indicate that the over-whelming majority leave as a consequence of factors beyond our control: personal or medical issues, change of interests or career goals requiring fields of study that we do not offer, distance from home, or disenchantment with a medium-sized college in a small-town setting. A relatively small number leave due to academic difficulties or financial problems. There is neither statistical nor anecdotal evidence to suggest that William and Mary students fail to graduate on time as a consequence of the non-availability of required courses. This is dynamically monitored by the deans and, though students may have to wait a semester to get their favorite course at their preferred time of day, students are not remaining on campus for additional semesters to complete their 120 hours for graduation. Hence, we do not feel that major efforts in improving retention or time-to-degree will be a worthwhile expenditure of scarce resources. We will assure, through systems currently in place and demonstrably successful, that as we experience modest enrollment growth and aggressively seek student from lower SES groups, we will maintain the current high retention and low time-to-degree numbers. Special attention and new resources will be focused over the period of the six-year plan on transfer students from RBC and the VCCS to assure that they, too, have comparable success rates (see Goal 6). Much of our confidence in this regard is based on our experience with the aforementioned academic advising system which will be adjusted to meet the needs of these students. Goal 6 Consistent with its institutional mission, develop articulation agreements that have uniform application to all Virginia community colleges and meet appropriate general education and program requirements at the four-year institution and provide additional opportunities for associate degree graduates to be admitted and enrolled. Current State of Articulation : The College has an articulation agreement with RBC (see http://www.rbc.edu/Faculty/William%20and%20%20Mary2002.htm). We guarantee acceptance to all Richard Bland College graduates with an Associate in Arts Degree (A.A.) or an Associate in Science Degree (A.S.) who have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.00, exclusive of physical education, and who have been recommended by Richard Bland’s provost. The College of William and Mary also awards junior standing to all VCCS and RBC students who are admitted with an associates degree. They are certified as having completed all general education requirements with the exception of our General Education Requirement (GER) 4B (Non-Western Cultures and History), GER 6 (Creative and Performing Arts), GER 7 (Philosophical, Religious, and Social Thought), the lower-division writing requirement, and the foreign language requirement. These requirements can be met, however, through transferred course work at the community college level. Planned Agreements : The College of William and Mary seeks to dramatically increase the number of students admitted from community colleges. We are preparing two agreements with this goal in mind. An agreement with the VCCS will guarantee acceptance to all community college and RBC students who meet certain criteria, such as a minimum 3.6 grade point average overall and a grade a “B” or higher in English 111 and 112. We are working with VCCS officials in the fall of this year to ensure the speedy implementation of this agreement. We are also preparing articulation agreements with individual community colleges in the Tidewater area and elsewhere, with the goal of ensuring that community college students have a better chance of success after admission to the College. These agreements will allow students at area institutions with a grade point average of 3.6 or higher to enroll in William and Mary general education courses, while still paying tuition to their home institution. If they maintain a minimum grade point average in both their courses here and in the courses taken at their community college, they will be guaranteed admission after receiving their associates degree. In addition, the College is aggressively seeking external funds to increase its recruitment of qualified students from RBC and the VCCS. We will increase the size of our Admissions staff to put in place specialists in recruiting from two-year schools as well as increase staff in academic advising and student affairs to support his group of students. New courses will be added to provide a first semester seminar comparable to our acclaimed freshman seminar program so that new two-year transfers will have the equivalent experience of working in a seminar setting with a faculty member and no more than fourteen other students as they develop their critical thinking, writing, oral communications, and analytical skills. We will implement extensive orientation programs tailored to the unique needs of two-year transfers to allow a smooth transition to the four-year setting and to assure an easy adjustment to the residential setting and student life. William and Mary faculty and staff will be developing close professional relationships with their counterparts at RBC and in the VCCS so that they may better prepare their best graduates for the highly competitive academic environment characteristic of institutions like William and Mary. With the implementation of the SCT/Banner student record system, our IR staff, working with the Office of the Registrar, will begin careful monitoring and assessment of progress and success of RBC and VCCS transfers both to track their progress and assure timely intervention if needed by student affairs or academic advising staff and so that we may communicate to the schools from which our transfers come as to their success and areas that may need attention in the future. Goal 7 Actively contribute to efforts to stimulate the economic development of the Commonwealth and the region in which the College is located and in areas that lag the Commonwealth in terms of income, employment, and other factors. William and Mary actively contributes to economic development in Greater Williamsburg and in areas throughout the Hampton Roads region, some of which lag the Commonwealth in economic development. William and Mary’s undergraduate and graduate programs prepare students for a wide range of careers. As a center of learning and research, the university attracts high value-added economic activities that gain competitive advantage from the intellectual resources, skills and infrastructure the university creates. The university’s economic impacts include the following: direct employment, procurement and construction activities; the provision of infrastructure through access to labs and specialized facilities; mentoring and consulting with industry; technology creation and transfer; and close collaboration with local and regional economic development authorities. William and Mary’s economic development program promotes collaborative linkages with industry through vehicles such as the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Industry Partnership Committee, facilitated by the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, and the Hampton Roads Research Partnership, where the university has the lead in the development of a regional sensors cluster. In 2004, the university hired a full-time director for its new technology transfer program, and in 2005 it filed 12 patent applications and executed its first licensing agreement. William and Mary has a Technology and Business Center , funded in part by CIT. In FY2004, the Center provided business acceleration and mentoring services to roughly 25 clients, who reported economic impact of $2.6 million from working with the Center. In FY2005, the Center served approximately 50 clients, doubling its outreach. In addition, the individual schools have significant outreach programs, particularly the School of Education , with its K-12 programs, and VIMS, with its state-mandated economic assistance programs for the marine industry. William and Mary actively collaborates with state, regional, and local economic development organizations, including the following:
As an example, in 2005 the university began a collaboration with the City of Portsmouth , an economically impacted city, to launch a strategic review of its waterfront and related assets to develop new economic opportunities. Collaborations with Williamsburg include the adaptive reuse of the Sentara Williamsburg Community hospital facility. Additionally, the W&M Endowment Association is a partner in a 300-acre mixed-use development known as “New Town,” adjacent to the main campus in James City County . That development, a model program reflecting the New Urbanism, will include a business, research, and technology park to help stimulate the local economy. VIMS has partnered with industry to develop a program in coastal and estuarine observation and prediction that 1) fosters relationships that combine science, engineering and communications, 2) serves as a clearinghouse for emerging opportunities for collaboration, 3) facilitates rapid response to requests for proposals, 4) develops cutting-edge sensor and observing system technology, and 5) expedites application of new technology to practical problems. The program facilitates use of observational data and model output to help guide the management of marine resources, economic development, planning for extreme events, assisting maritime and recreational operations, and supporting military security. Primary industry partners include INCOGEN, Luna Innovations, Northrop Grumman, Oceana Sensor, SAIC, Sias-Patterson, WernerAnderson and ExxonMobil. In addition, the College will implement and continue a number of homegrown initiatives in research that will have significant long-term impacts on economic development in the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area and the Commonwealth. We will continue to play a leadership role in the Southeastern Universities Research Association, SURA ( the Provost of the College has, over the past decade served as a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Finance Committee of SURA) – the contract manager of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News. William and Mary faculty and students from the Departments of Physics and Applied Science have been and will continue to be among the major research user groups at this preeminent lab in nuclear physics which has a $100M per year budget and at the Applied Research Center (ARC) adjacent to the J-Lab. In addition, our leadership in SURA has been a major contributor to the NOAA- and ONR-funded coastal monitoring program known as SCOOP, of which VIMS is the lead institution. SURA has also been a major player in the National Lambda Rail initiative which will provide high-speed massive broadband connectivity for all research universities in the state in support of grid computing, visualization technology, and computational biology. In addition, the College’s Center for Excellence in Aging and Geriatric Research, in collaboration with EVMS and MCV, continues to serve the growing needs of the elderly by providing public policy-based research into health care delivery. VIMS is developing major initiatives for actively monitoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystems in order to establish baseline data that will play a major role in the preservation of that critical environmental system as well as providing guidance for smart and green development in the Bay watershed. VIMS will also continue to seek funds to support the Clean Marina Program, a popular Federal program that provides education, outreach, and technical assistance to marinas to protect and improve water quality. We expect, in the next few years, to launch the William and Mary Research Institute (WMRI) a new experiment in applied research. It will be housed in yet-to-be-constructed space that will be leased from the William and Mary Endowment Association in New Town where it will serve as a home for faculty and their externally funded research groups that need new space in which to incubate applied research initiatives. Faculty and other researchers, including advanced graduate students, will be able to scale up research programs rapidly and spin-off potential technology transfer start-ups made possible by our previously described investments in patent applications and licensing. Goal 8 Consistent with institutional mission, increase the level of externally funded research conducted at the institution and facilitate the transfer of technology from university research centers to private sector companies. The College of William and Mary is a research university. Current externally funded research expenditures are approximately $48 M annually with major funding to VIMS, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Education . “Main Campus” Research Expectations: Excluding VIMS, the “main campus” externally funded research expenditures are about $28M. Our six-year plan is to increase externally funded on the main campus by 5% annually to $37.5M by 2012. We would be more aggressive in our six-year plan were it not for the fact that critical new laboratory and other facilities for the School of Education and key science programs (Biology, Psychology, Physics, Computer Science, Computational Science, and Chemistry) will not come on line until two to five years into the six-year plan or, in the case of our Integrated Science Complex Phase III, even later. We are currently limited in our ability to apply for external funding and adequately support the research mission by out-dated and inadequate facilities. For example, our Physics department has approximately 25% the assignable research space per faculty member than all of their aspirational peers with whom they compete for research grants and contracts. Our School of Education has many unmet space needs such that many of its research programs and centers are scattered in inadequate leased space. They have been cited by their accrediting agency, NCATE, for insufficient space and that is one immediate impetus behind the acquisition of he Sentara Hospital to which Education will move in late 2006. In addition, several key science programs have insufficient faculty to provide critical mass. We will be seeking four new faculty lines in Computer Science to allow us to reposition that Ph.D. program into new areas of research. One new faculty position will go to the Ph.D. program in Applied Science for biomaterials research and one to Psychology in the rapidly growing area of neuroscience. In addition, we will have to increase the size and number of graduate stipends as well as provide additional support for technicians and post-doctoral fellows in all graduate programs to foster a significant increase in external funding. To attract the best graduate students in the sciences, one must have competitive assistantship offers, which, in many cases, we do not because of the absence of available funding. Graduate students are a critical component of academic research. Increasing this resource has been a priority of our Five-Year Strategic Budget Plan as approved by our Board and will be a priority for the Six-Year Plan. Finally, as part of our 1994 Strategic Plan, the College committed to expanded opportunities for undergraduate research and independent scholarship. We have accomplished much in this regard and believe we are among the premier institutions in the nation in offering such opportunities to our pre-baccalaureate students. Nonetheless, we can and will do more by providing more internal research grants for students and faculty to work collaboratively on research and creative ventures and opening new off-campus opportunities for our students to be involved in research at other institutions of higher learning, at federal laboratories, and in the corporate sector. A central focus of our Quality Enhancement Plan required by SACS for our reaccredidation will be internal initiatives and reallocations of resources to assure that we are a community of learners that sustain independent learning and research by our students. VIMS Research Expectations: Support from external grants and contracts now accounts for more than one-half of the VIMS annual budget of $40 M. VIMS increased its level of external support from grants and contracts from $9.9 M to $20.4 M between 2000 and 2005. Part of VIMS' success has been in linking federally-funded research with pressing societal issues in Virginia . VIMS will continue to take advantage of its strategic location on the Chesapeake Bay , and in moving quickly when there are emerging opportunities for new research thrusts at the federal level. A 50% increase in external support over the next 6 years to $30M is anticipated. The new Marine Research Building Complex will provide state-of-the-art space for housing many of these research activities. An important key to success in research is institutional support for such research endeavors as: 1) start-up packages for new faculty, especially in the sciences, that allow them to get their research program jump-started; 2) availability of matching funds for federal and other grants; 3) administrative support in such key areas as grants and contracts administration, foundation and corporate relations, and technology transfer; and 4) availability of internal summer and academic year grant programs and other support for scholarly travel, research assistants, materials, research leaves, and library resources that allow faculty to maintain their research program and to seek external funds and fellowships in a highly competitive market. The College of William and Mary currently spends well over $5M a year from a combination of indirect cost recoveries (IDC), ETF, eminent scholars matching funds, E&G, and private sources to support the research activities of our faculty. Over the period of the six-year plan we will expand this by aggressively seeking new external and private support and reprogramming IDC funds where appropriate. Summary: Hence, the College of William and Mary, “main campus” and VIMS, will experience an aggregated increase in external funding over the next six years of about $20M or a 42% growth. This annualized growth of 6% will take externally funded research from the AY2004-2005 level of $48M to $68M by 2012. Goal 9 Work actively and cooperatively with elementary and secondary school administrators, teachers, and students in public schools and school divisions to improve student achievement, upgrade the knowledge and skills of teachers, and strengthen leadership skills of school administrators. William and Mary’s nationally-ranked School of Education has well-established academic programs and partnerships to support K-12 education. Through a range of preparation programs nationally recognized by their specialty associations, the School of Education produces highly qualified teachers, specialists, and administrators for K-12 schools across the Commonwealth. The School of Education also provides continuing professional development for practicing educators through extensive on-campus and field-based programs. Close collaborative relationships with public schools enable the School of Education to address specific K-12 needs most effectively and to secure additional external funds from federal agencies and private foundations in support of training and technical assistance partnerships. The School of Education hosts seven centers that are actively involved in service to the K-12 community:
Throughout the year, these centers offer numerous institutes, workshops, and conferences for practicing educators. In 2004, the School of Education conducted 134 discrete professional development events that served more than 3,038 K-12 personnel. School of Education faculty and center staff also work closely with K-12 colleagues to plan, implement, and evaluate specific projects for school improvement. Twenty-three different partnership programs involving more than 200 specific negotiated relationships with fifty-eight separate school divisions were active during 2004. Thirty-eight (66%) of the school divisions partnering with William and Mary had one or more schools unaccredited. Two new partnership programs are being initiated in 2005 extending our reach and addressing critical areas of need for the Commonwealth. In collaboration with Lancaster , King and Queen, and Northumberland County Schools and with generous support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the School of Education is launching PILLR S II: Closing the Gap in Middle Schools , which will raise the level of achievement of all students in grades six to eight in these small rural school divisions. A second program, supported with NSF funds through Virginia’s Math-Science Partnership Grant, will provide middle school teachers with mathematics content and pedagogy necessary for them to become “highly qualified” to teach required courses in algebra and geometry. Led by a math educator in the School of Education , this collaborative program engages faculty from Education and Mathematics Departments across five universities (William and Mary, Hampton, Norfolk State , Old Dominion, and Virginia State ) with K-12 math specialists and master teachers providing a sequence of courses for 60 teachers from 28 school divisions and 2 private schools. The College of William and Mary is fully compliant with the Teacher Education and Licensure (TEAL) data collection project. The Office of Professional Services provides information for initial licensure through TEAL I. Both the Dean and Associate Dean of the School of Education currently serve on the statewide advisory committee to develop TEAL II, a comprehensive system for collecting follow-up data on graduates of teacher education programs and other beginning teachers. When TEAL II is operative, William and Mary intends to be fully compliant.
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Campus, Board to consider academic plan College earns prestigious double-A credit rating |
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