Academic Senate presents pathway strategies for CMU's future
Members of the Strategic Envisioning Pathway committee presented updates on the various pathway strategies for improvement Central Michigan University will be adopting to the Academic Senate on April 6.
The committee was created during the Fall 2020 semester in response to a trend of decreasing student enrollment and public funding in recent years. The goals and strategies presented by the committee are the university's first steps to address the issues that lead to a decrease in enrollment.
"It's clear that we need to start thinking in terms of transformation and to imagine what the University should look like in a decade or two and begin to put the building blocks in place to get us to that point," said President Bob Davies. "The whole goal is to bring transformational change to (CMU) as we think about what our university can and should be by the year 2030."
The committee has developed five strategic pathways to focus CMU's efforts to making impactful transformations that will improve the university in the long run.
The first pathway is to focus on increasing the overall environment of CMU by prioritizing student wellness and success. To this end student affairs departments such as Counseling Center, Residence Life, student inclusion and diversity and others will start working closer together.
The second pathway is commitment to an environment of equity and inclusion across the community. CMU is putting in place a work team of Strategic Envisioning Pathways committee members to work towards this goal.
Pathway three is focused on creating and building relationships with other Michigan communities with the establishment of a Community Engagement Advisory Council which will use online platforms to create community engagement.
The fourth pathway is to address the changing dynamic of a modern college student by becoming more flexible with students. This means evaluating and applying the best modalities for students based on their situation, whether online or at global campus locations or other.
The fifth pathway focuses on curriculum that builds up core competence and technological skills to help students build lifelong skills for students.
The Strategic Envisioning Pathway committee has over 80 members made up of students, faculty and community members working together. A full overview of the prioritization strategy can be found on the Academic Senate recording sessions hosted on the CMU homepage.
Other Business
- Students will now be able to change the name displayed on their CMU degree progress form to their chosen/preferred name by submitting a name change form.
- The Senate voted to approve changes to the Clinical Psych PhD program which reduced the required class hours from 104 to 95 by removing elective class requirements.
Academic Senate meetings are live-streamed and recorded, available to access for free on the CMU homepage.
