Overview of Strategic Planning

The first formal strategic plan for the Division of Student and Institutional Relations guided departmental actions for fiscal years 1990 through 1993. In its next strategic plan, for 1994-2000, the Division of Student Affairs linked planning with budgeting by listing fiscal year and cost, where appropriate, for each strategy in the plan. Also, Student Affairs departments began reviewing their plans twice yearly by reporting in writing the status of each current strategy and revising their plans as necessary. The third strategic plan, for fiscal years 1999 through 2004, focused on the improvement of core processes and also incorporated assessment into the planning process.

In 2003, Texas State University-San Marcos began work on a new strategic plan for fiscal years 2004 through 2009. Information about the university planning process is available from the Planning and Assessment site for Texas State. During this process, the Division of Student Affairs revised its vision, mission, and goals. Student Affairs departments also developed their vision, mission, and goal statements, then developed objectives to support academic plans and to support department efforts based on the Student Affairs goals and the University planning goals. For each objective, departments developed a set of strategies to meet the objective.

Departments identified assessment methods and performance targets for each departmental objective. For each strategy, they identified the person(s) responsible for accomplishing the strategy, any new resources needed or reallocations to be made, the cost, source of funding, and timeline for completing the strategy.

Student Affairs departmental plans are monitored using a Microsoft SQL application developed by staff in the Vice President's Office. The Strategic Plan System (SPS) is a web-based, password-protected system accessed by authorized users in each department who enter, edit and update their strategic plans online. Information is extracted from this system to meet University strategic plan reporting requirements.