Bowling Green State University (BGSU) staff and faculty gathered to share ideas and comments about how they can improve the Forward Plan, a “shared plan to create public good,” at a Strategic Plan Discussion, led by President Rodney Rogers.
At the start of the meeting, Rogers opened by addressing where BGSU has been in the past.
“We talked about the trust of higher education, and some headwinds we’re facing politically,” Rogers said.
Rogers then proceeds to talk about where BGSU is right now.
“We’ve [BGSU] had an overall increase of about 6% of our total enrollment over the last 10 years. So we have been stable and growing,” Rogers said.
After Rogers finished his speech, he asked faculty and staff to split into small groups to discuss where BGSU fits among the three extreme archetypes with an “all in” on student experience (A1), the economic driver university (A2) and the pathway university (A3).
“I think that A1 [“all in” on student experience] really sets BGSU aside…the opportunities somebody has in that college [college of musical arts], is just so unique, and it’s all immersive, especially when they’re living on campus, and they’re doing events,” said a BGSU staff member.
Another staff member had a different idea, moving more into the economically driven university.
“I think maintaining where we’re at with A1 is sustainable and moving into A2 [the economic driver university]…there’s a lot of cost involved with the ‘all in’ student experience that not everyone’s willing to see increases for. So, if we’re finding revenues from our A2 experience, we can maintain what we’re offering now, we keep making it really great and then find ways to offset the cost of that,” said a BGSU faculty member.
For half an hour, staff and faculty reviewed the Forward Plan to identify what needed to be added or enhanced.
“…provide some of those more integrated pathways for students, and be really intentional about ITS [information technology service] as an example where we could have student employees that have real work, real experience, bridge the gap across one to three years. AI [artificial intelligence] is sort of taking away, but also we brought up organizations that don’t have the money to fund that [important opportunities for students],” said a BGSU staff member.
Another staff member brought up challenging students and forming connections with others.
“We’ve had more challenging academic students where students can work together, to enhance their actual study skills and their learning skills and to overcome those academic challenges,” said a BGSU faculty member.
After all the discussions are concluded, Rogers and his team will take feedback from staff and faculty on what was discussed and will develop an updated Forward Plan.
