SSU Plan 1

Sunshine State University Strategic Plan

Komal Patel

Niralee Patel-Lye
SSU Plan 2

Part I: The University and Issues

Introduction

Sunshine State University (SSU) is a liberal arts school with a 51% overall acceptance rate and

seeks out students with a holistic background. Currently SSU enrolls 8462 undergraduate

students and 3830 graduate students. Between the summer of 2014 and summer of 2015, SSU

had 2128 students graduate with a Bachelors degree, 991 with a Masters, 244 with a research

based Doctoral degree and 180 with professional practicing Doctoral degree. SSU offers the

students 100 majors and minors to choose from, as well as incorporates work experience for

students. SSU expects all undergraduate students to have a field related internship, as well as a

capstone project. The university also has an alumnae mentor program in place to assist students

in their development, matched up by majors. Another element to enhance the student experience

is the class size and student teacher ratio. The ratio at SSU is 10 students to 1 teacher, allowing

for class sizes that are smaller, giving students more individual attention. There are 805 classes

between 10-19 students per class, 395 with 2-9 students, but still 49 classes with 100 or more

students. Other programs and opportunities for the students outlined in the report are study

abroad, boasting 300 programs, a wellness program, as well as a service learning engagement

and NCAA Division I athletic teams. With these impressive figures, there are bound to be areas

where certain students fall through the gaps, causing these impressive statistics to become

skewed.

Identifying Issues

Sunshine State University is home to many students with a diverse background ranging

from skillset to races. Still the interesting part of the accepted students into SSU show a bias

towards male students. There were 18,157 students that applied to SSU highlighted in the report,
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of which 8,998 were males and 9,159 were females. With these numbers one would assume that

either more females would be accepted, or some sort of even number of both would be admitted,

but the data goes on to show that only 1,724 females students were admitted while close to 200

additional male students were accepted. Due to this allowance, it goes on to skew the number of

students that enrolled, 1,069 males and only 938 females. This number is also reflected in the

total number of students enrolled at SSU and not just the incoming freshman. The data shows

that 4,386 males are in the undergraduate program and 2,245 in the graduate program while for

the female students there are only 4,027 in undergraduate and 1,427 females students.

In order to attend SSU students must not only have a holistic background and submit

SAT or ACT scores, but students must have also completed a minimum number of class subject

units at their high school, as well as actually hold a diploma, a GED will not suffice. These

students have already had to prove themselves in a different capacity by either returning to attain

the GED or needing to repeat coursework from somewhere else, and at Sunshine State they

would be instantly turned away if they were to look to gain a degree.

Part II: Creating the Plans

Addressing the Issues

To address the glaring issues that face the admissions at SSU, a plan needs to be

developed. Per OnStrategy, strategic planning would be the ideal way to set goals and ensure

they are reached. It goes on to outline the different steps that can be taken, including creating an

articulated plan with mission vision and objectives, observing market data, ensuring that all

members of the organization know what they are required to do, and finally hold regular

meetings to assess what has been completed and what still needs to be completed (OnStrategy,

n.d.). Part of creating the plan to address the admissions problems, involves action steps. An
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action step refers to the specific efforts that are made to reach the goals your agency has set

(Work Group for Community Health and Development, 2016a). While creating this plan and the

actions steps within it, different aspects of a SWOT analysis can be used. A SWOT analysis

focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Work Group for Community

Health and Development, 2016b). Using action steps and SWOT gives a clear breakdown of how

to create the plan that ensure the resolution will be reached. These steps include first identifying

the SWOT aspects, then discerning what needs to occur, how they will occur, who will carry the

actions, when the actions take place and what resources are required (Work Group for

Community Health and Development, 2016a).

The Plan and Execution

To tackle the issue with gender bias in admissions goals need to be set up. The ultimate

goal is to have as close to a 50-50 male to female admissions rate. Other goals would be to assure

the issue does not occur again, learn how the issue began, if it occurred just over the year

covered or multiple years, and finally how can the admissions process be changed to identify and

stop similar issues.

It is important to ensure that the planning team members are people who are committed

to the growth of the company, and who can provide valuable input to the process (Boatsman,

Gillmore & Wagner, 2014, p. 6). For this valuable input, it is imperative that not only are the

actual admissions board members, and enrollment consultants and manager involved, but also

departments such as an institutional diversity committee, or office of the provost. While at first

thought, institutional diversity department or team may only deal with issues dealing with race,

but diversity does also involve gender as well, by involving them, the team may have insight on

the best way to handle the admission problem. The Provost and his/her office could provide the
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necessary administrative back up needed, as the office may be responsible for maintaining the

schools mission and the standards of the institution. These people all need to come together to

determine how the error in admitting a significant number of male students over female students

occurred, and re-work the process to ensure the error gets rectified. This process could take up to

a year to just identify how it happened, another year or so to create the different solutions to fix

it, and the final year to implement it. From that point onwards, reports that get generated on

admissions and applicants can be annually monitored, maintaining gender admissions that are as

close to even as possible.

The issue revolving around admissions of GED holding students, requires a little more

effort as it involves creating a whole new set of admissions standard and requirements. SSU

already has in place a strict minimum of high school courses needed for those holding a

traditional diploma, and there will need another set of standards for GED holders. The people

involved in this would include the same admission board members, enrollment consultants and

managers, office of the provost, financial and treasury department, academic affairs office, and

university advancement office. This team can come together and create the base requirements

needed by the GED holders. The financial team along with the provost office can ensure that the

university has the space to accommodate the students in classroom size, staff, room and board,

and that the income from the tuition from the students can offset the expenditures incurred while

onboarding them. The offices of University Advancement can be responsible for ensuring that

the decision to bring on these students will aid the university in moving forward, and maintaining

the goals that it is setting out to accomplish for its students. Similarly, academic affairs office can

assist with if these GED holding students will be able to keep up with the rigorous course load,

and have the academic support that may be required. In addition to the admissions and applicant
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numbers to be monitored for these students, other factors that need to be monitored is the

graduation rate for these students, as well as their academic standing. If the data shows the

students continually at the bottom of the class rather than evenly dispersed or at the top of the

class, it may be wise to reverse the decision. Another piece of data that could be looked at for

these students is the time it takes for the GED holders to complete a degree, if it takes the

students more than the standard four years for an undergraduate degree, the office of finance as

well as the provost office needs to discern if the tuition brought in outweighs the poor outlook on

students who do not graduate within the traditional time frame, if the number is significant. The

time frame for this plan to include GED students, could vary significantly. It could take from 3-5

years to determine the requirements for acceptance, another one for finance issues, then finally

implementation under a pilot-program type period.

Conclusion

For Sunshine State University to correct the two admissions issues that was determined from the

Common Data Set, many different departments involved in admissions, academic offices, and

administration to create, execute and monitor plans to create a university that is inclusive while

maintaining standards. By involving multiple departments, a team can be created that will create

the SWOT analysis process and action steps needed to correct current issues and prevent future

ones. By doing this Sunshine State University can continue to prove itself as a successful holistic

university.
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References

Boatsman, Gillmore, & Wagner. (2014). Strategic planning and goal setting: Assessments:

Strategic planning goal setting [White paper].

OnStrategy. (n.d.). What is strategic planning, really? [Video].

Work Group for Community Health and Development, University of Kansas. (2016). Identifying

action steps in bringing about community and system change.

Work Group for Community Health and Development, University of Kansas. (2016). SWOT

analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Unknown, Arcadia University. (2016). Office and Facilities. Retrieved from

https://www.arcadia.edu/university/offices-facilities