S1 - E97 - Unit Effectiveness Plans (Culture)

ASCEND Podcast

A key to creating a campus culture around student success, retention, and completion is making sure that everyone knows these are priorities for campus. From experience we have learned that organizations fund those things they value most. Therefore, it is important that we also measure those things we want to fund.
Within higher education, faculty know why they exist. However, student affairs units do not always know why they exist or in many cases have forgotten why they exist on campus. Far too many student affairs units believe their purpose on campus is to house students, plan fun events, and keep students safe. These are all important, but are often seen as “fluff” by administrators and our academic affairs colleagues.
In order for student affairs units to become more relevant on campus, they must be able to show how they connect to the core components (teaching and learning) and bottom line (budget) of the institution.
To do this, we have every unit within the division of student affairs create a Unit Effectiveness Plan (UEP). UEPs guide units through the process of mapping their purpose to the institution’s mission and help them think through how they complement the academic mission of the institution as well as contribute to the overall budget on campus.
In the end, these UEPs become 5-10 page living documents that are updated each summer before the beginning of the academic year. Once written, the updates become much easier and less time-consuming. But, most importantly, this process helps each unit pause for an afternoon as a team and all get on the same page before embarking on a new school year.