"Destiny is not a mater of chance; it is a matter of choice. The best way to ensure the future we prefer is to invent it." President Charles E. Kupchella addresses community leaders at a recent forum sponsored by the Greater Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce.

UND sets a plan for even higher levels of excellence

By Dave Vorland

The University of North Dakota has released its new strategic plan, Building on Excellence, expanding upon the initiatives of its 2001 predecessor, Pathways to the Future.

Thanks to strategic planning, UND today has more of the characteristics of a national doctoral research university, with a critical mass enrollment, more graduate students, enhanced infrastructure, and a growing level of externally funded research, scholarship, and creative activity.

Progress has been made on many fronts.

For example, the University’s full professors as a group have seen their average salaries rise since 1999, significantly closing the gap with their colleagues at peer universities nationwide.

Or take UND’s growth as a research institution, measured by such factors as the value of the grant proposals submitted by faculty to external agencies ($306 million in 2005, compared to $79 million in 1999) and in the amount of grant-funded expenditures ($74.7 million, compared to $40.6 million).

Tangible success can also be cited in curriculum innovation, enrollment, expanded facilities, internationalization of the campus, the wellness movement, and more.

Of course, factors besides planning have helped to bring these achievements. Two of the most important have been new investment dollars yielded by several years of tuition increases, and the Legislature’s decision to give the university system, including UND, more flexibility in allocating resources.

The new plan addresses questions such as what we can do to ensure an even greater University, given the state’s declining pool of high school students and taxpayers who already rank at the top in their per capita support of higher education. The answer: complete the transition from an excellent state university to an even better national university.

More of UND’s future students and more of its revenues need to come from outside the state. UND must compete more vigorously in the national market and add even more value to its education and research. It must also market itself better.

The key to this process of “reinventing” the future? Solid, relevant strategic planning, says President Charles E. Kupchella. The new plan sets out to maintain the momentum from the previous document.

Building On Excellence also lays the groundwork for new initiatives, including a complete overhaul of UND’s programs of instruction to
tie them together with a strengthened general education core and with measurable student outcomes at all levels.

Another high-visibility initiative is intensified fundraising and grant seeking by academic units. In the past, Kupchella said, there was too much reliance upon fundraising efforts by the UND Foundation, excellent as its efforts have been. Now, deans and staff will partner more directly with the Foundation to increase appeals to foundations, corporations, and friends as well as alumni.

Among the goals: expanding the endowments held by UND and its affiliated foundations from the current $150 million to $500 million.

Building On Excellence contains 319 high-priority University-wide strategies, as well as criteria to measure success. Each of the institution’s 160 operating units have also developed plans.

A printed copy of Building on Excellence can be obtained by contacting President Kupchella’s office; the complete document also can be viewed on the Web at www.und.edu/stratplan/.

Editor’s Note: The author, Dave Vorland, former executive assistant to three UND presidents, was deeply involved in strategic planning, including the most recent effort.