Strategic Plan 2022

FAU COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

STRATEGIC PLAN 2022

FAU’s College of Business faculty and administration have updated our strategic plan to address the challenges of a dynamic environment in the state of Florida and for academic institutions throughout the country. The revised strategic plan continues to complement the initiatives of the university while improving the specificity of the objectives and tactics that will focus our efforts to improve the portfolio of our highly qualified diverse faculty, staff, and students, better prepare our students for their futures, enhance teaching and advising on a vibrant postpandemic campus, and elevate the scholarly profile of the college. Advancement of these goals will require the individual dedication and collaborative commitment of all our internal stakeholders, and as many alumni and external stakeholders as we aspire to engage. Advancement of these goals is necessary for us to succeed in our vision of becoming an internationally known and nationally ranked business school.

MISSION

Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business sustains an environment of entrepreneurial action and intellectual achievement through research and teaching, creating access to educational programs and opportunities for our constituents emphasizing the diverse people, industries, and issues of the south Florida region and beyond.

VISION

We aspire to be an internationally known and a nationally ranked business school.

STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

GOAL 1: Strengthen the portfolio of the college’s highly qualified diverse faculty, staff, and students.

Objective: Attract highly qualified diverse faculty and staff.

Tactic: Collect the following data and use it to improve search effectiveness.

Report where job advertisements are published and assess whether media outlets were effective in attracting diverse applicants; the number of applicants by gender and race/ethnicity; the number of applicants interviewed by gender and race/ethnicity; the number of offers made by gender and race/ethnicity and whether the first choice accepted the offer.

Tactic: Develop materials to promote the strengths and diversity of the college, department, program, and the institution’s geography.

Provide materials on the college website with a link included in position advertisements that can be modified as appropriate and allow for tracking viewership.

Objective: Retain highly qualified diverse faculty and staff.

Tactic: Ensure that faculty and staff are paid based on merit of performance and commensurate with market pay of similarly accomplished faculty and staff at comparable institutions. Take incremental steps to accomplish this objective.

Benchmark faculty current salaries with appropriate public record databases (e.g., AACSB salary data for public institution) and develop criteria for implementing appropriate salary adjustments within the financial means of the college.

Tactic: Take steps to establish consistent mentoring practices for career development across departments.

Track faculty mentorships in each department; report mentorships in service area of annual faculty activity reports.

Tactic: Collect data and use findings to develop a retention plan that can be implemented in the near term.

Conduct separate focus groups among faculty of each academic rank, and among AMP staff.

Report tenure track and non-tenure track and staff by gender and race/ ethnicity over time.

STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Objective: Improve retention of first-year and second-year undergraduate students.

Tactic: Foster opportunities that support retention of all undergraduate students, especially first and second students who are pre-business majors.

Track assessing the success of opportunities already undertaken by the college; collaborate with other colleges to learn more about other initiatives attempted; and consider adding more lower-level business courses to the Intellectual Foundations Program.

GOAL 2: Prepare and support students for careers, community engagement, and foster global awareness.

Objective: Ensure curriculum relevance.

Tactic: Evaluate and enhance business academic programs.

Review and recommend enhancements to elements common to collegewide programs (BBA and MBA); track curriculum goals from the 7-year program reviews (e.g., undergraduate marketing and finance, as well as any major that has not changed since 2012); engage alumni for feedback to enhance program quality; and establish and engage with department/ program advisory boards in compliance with the Board of Governor’s recommendation to “Create a Symbiotic Partnership between State Universities and Florida Businesses”.

Objective: Strengthen student connections with the local community.

Tactic: Foster engagement with local constituencies.

Report students’ participation rates in internships and related company/ industry sectors; track guest speakers in courses; report experiential course-based activities; promote and measure student involvement with the college’s centers such as the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Services Marketing and Management.

Tactic: Engage international constituencies and develop cosmopolitanism among students.

Report international student enrollment and U.S. students who study abroad and work to increase both; track College of Business international partnerships; promote both faculty and student Fulbright opportunities; and report on and support diversity components of academic courses and programs.

STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Objective: Support student economic and social mobility.

Tactic: Provide intergenerational social mobility pathways for professional and personal success.

Target services for first-generation college students and Pell Grant recipients and report their enrollments; and report graduation rates of underrepresented groups.

GOAL 3: Enhance excellence in teaching and advising to address the challenge of sustaining a vibrant post-pandemic campus environment while meeting the demand for high-quality online delivery.

Objective: Ensure faculty development in pedagogy and course delivery.

Tactic: Encourage faculty to complete certifications by taking advantage of the university incentive program and acknowledging certification completion in annual faculty evaluations.

Track full-time and part-time faculty completion in eDesign, Quality Matters, and ACUE certifications each semester through reports generated by the Center for Online and Continuing Education (COCE).

Tactic: Encourage faculty to adopt flipped classroom pedagogy for classes that have any level of in-person course delivery and acknowledge interactive in-person pedagogy in annual evaluations.

Track full-time faculty adoption of flipped classroom pedagogy reported in annual faculty activity reports; annually assess the percentage of sections taught using flipped classroom pedagogy by the department.

Objective: Encourage faculty mentoring of students.

Tactic: Encourage faculty mentoring of undergraduate students (as distinct from ad hoc advising) and acknowledge efforts in annual faculty evaluations.

Track full-time faculty mentoring efforts reported in annual faculty activity reports pertaining to the following: assigned faculty advisors of student organizations; one-on-one mentoring relationships; research clusters (2+ students); and research collaborations (e.g., co-authorships, student assistance on faculty research, and directed independent student research).

Tactic: Encourage business community mentoring and acknowledge efforts in the annual report of the college.

STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Track the number and affiliation of business executives engaged in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students; and the number of students mentored by business executives annually.

Objective: Ensure appropriate staffing for the Office of Student Academic Services (SAS) in support of student success and timely graduation.

Tactic: Provide staff capacity to ensure effective advising.

Track advisor-student ratio; the total number of advising appointments for students; 4-year and 6-year graduation rates; and excess student credit hours by academic year.

GOAL 4: Enhance research productivity and scholarly profile of the college.

Objective: Increase high-quality research productivity by the faculty.

Tactic: Provide encouragement of high-quality research and assess the effectiveness of summer grant initiatives as appropriate. Continue and grow ongoing appointments of Fellowships and Professorships in recognition of high research productivity.

Track the number of publications in leading journals, such as those on the Financial Times 50 List and the Academic Journal Guide 4*, 4, and 3 lists; the number of publications in peer-reviewed journals; the number of Fellowships and Professorships appointed; and the funded expenditures for the total appointments.

Track the invited academic presentations or exchange scholarships to other universities; and the disciplinary national/international awards/recognitions.

Objective: Establish a college research leadership profile as an institution of influence in academia.

Tactic: Provide financial support for hosting scholarly workshops or conferences, and for researchers from other academic institutions to provide seminars or collaborate on scholarly projects with college faculty.

Track the workshops or conferences hosted annually, any organizational/ institutional affiliation of the event, and the expenditures devoted to these initiatives; and the individual scholars annually, the programs/departments hosting these scholars with their affiliations, and the total expenditures for these events.

STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Tactic: Encourage faculty participation in academic journal editorial roles and academic conference leadership roles, and when appropriate for senior-level participation (e.g., Editor of a highly ranked journal or Program Chair of a major conference) provide assignment adjustments.

Track editorships and associate editorships of top-tier academic journals; leadership positions in academic and professional organizations.

Tactic: Improve knowledge dissemination and transfer of research findings to the general public for the benefit of businesses, consumers, and society.

Track regional print and broadcast media hits; national/international print and broadcast media hits; and social media hits by academic year.

Objective: Increase external funding for research.

Tactic: Encourage hiring faculty with the capability to submit grants for external funding, and encourage existing faculty to partner with appropriate faculty in the college and outside the college on research proposals of mutual interest.

Track the number of proposals and grants applied for and awarded from agencies and non-profits with funding amount; the number and amount of “gifts in kind” for research (i.e., an external party supports college research through a third party; and time in hours support for grant proposals.

Objective: Improve research productivity and placement of Ph.D. students.

Tactic: Mentor Ph.D. students to publish in high-quality journals.

Track Ph.D. student publications with or without FAU faculty co-authorship.

Tactic: Increase Ph.D. graduates in AAU and Carnegie Very High Activity Research Universities or equivalent.

Track placements at AAU or equivalent institutions; and placements at Carnegie 1 or equivalent institutions.

Approved by the College of Business Faculty Assembly on April 27, 2022

2022