Focus 2010

Identifying and fulfilling goals

Higher education is undergoing dramatic change. State support and funding continues to shift toward health care, corrections, shared revenues and other state priorities. With that in mind, UW-Stout developed a long-range planning process called Focus 2010 in 2003. Focus 2010 is a plan meant to look forward to the year 2010, identifying the important initiatives the university must undertake to remain a viable institution within its special mission.

Focus group sessions began in the fall of 2003 and were used to identify campus priorities that would reflect upon the future of higher education at UW-Stout. The sessions served as a way to look past current budget issues and daily operational issues, and imagine the structure, program array, enrollment, and approach to instruction for the future.

The Chancellor's Advisory Council used scenario planning to envision UW-Stout in 2010. Discussion began by identifying driving forces of change, major strengths of the campus and future opportunities. From this, the group projected a Background for Higher Education, Student Characteristics and Expectations, Faculty/Staff Characteristics and Expectations, and Institutional Characteristics.

From this review and discussions with a senior scholar from the Project on the Future of Higher Education, the Chancellor's Advisory Council identified four major themes. Five specific long-term goals were identified within these themes. The goals were discussed thoroughly at campus forum sessions throughout 2003–04. The themes and goals include:

Learning Community

Create a learning community that supports and encourages the engagement of its members in active learning.

Academic Programs

Prepare alumni for success.

Stout Technology Advantage

Achieve national leadership and excellence in educating students in the theory and application of a broad range of technologies.

Restructure for Efficiency and Effectiveness

Create a school outside a school enterprise that serves learners statewide, nationally and internationally.
Strengthen the on-campus organization by focusing on UW-Stout's unique mission within the UW System.

During the summer of 2004, a broadly represented group of faculty, staff, students and administrators used the goal documents to identify university priorities for 2004–06 and implementation plans for 2004–05. These were to be reviewed with the entire campus during the fall of 2004.

Implementation plans for the 2004–05 academic year include:

holding a visioning session with the technical college leaders, thereby creating additional partnerships and mutual alignment between programs and curricula.
bringing a consultant in to review curriculum and programs to improve marketability.
identifying new course synergies and relationships that allow for the sharing of courses, advertising and resources.
identifying two academic program proposals that can be established as a concentration/specialization within a 12-month or shorter time frame, and identify programs and concentrations to recommend for inactive status.
developing an action plan for nanotechnology.
promoting program specific career opportunities and the Stout technology advantage.
creating an all-university level external advisory board.
enhancing the teaching environment through realignment of specific support areas.
designing a first-year experience that creates a freshman learning community supported by faculty, student services and residence life.
developing a reallocation model for the colleges and school, and developing a system to centralize vacant positions to provide for a comprehensive review process.
proposing a planning process for enrollment management for both freshmen and transfer students.
recommending a marketing plan to effectively recruit students.

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Additional Resources:

Focus 2010 Materials
http://www.uwstout.edu/bpa/focus2010/index2010.htm