2024-2027 STRATEGIC PLAN
Click below to read about the inputs and frameworks used during the process of creating the Division of Student Affairs Strategic Plan.
Inputs and
Frameworks
Process
Strategic
Plan
Inputs and Frameworks
The following internal and external guiding frameworks and documents were used in the creation of this strategic plan and cross-walked to align our foundations, approach, student development strategies, progression of DEIJ efforts, leadership, human resources, assessment, legal and technology considerations, finances, facilities and infrastructure, and sustainability efforts:
Internal Frameworks and Guiding Documents:
External Frameworks and Guiding Documents:
- Boyer Commission 2030 Report (PDF)
- Council on the Advancement of Standards
- NASH Equity Action Framework (PDF)
- NASPA/ACPA Competencies
- NASPA 2022 Compass Report
- Professional Association Standards (examples include NACE and NIRSA)
- Summer 2023 External Review Executive Summary (PDF)
- USC Racial Equity Tools
Process
The existing DSA strategic plan expired in 2019. While efforts were underway to start an updating process at that time, revising the strategic plan was put on pause during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on the immediate needs of students matriculating at Colorado State University.
Thus, the DSA began the strategic plan drafting process in March 2022 with a visioning session among VP Council members. Through the assumption of Student Success centered in equity as an outcome and the foundations of university and professional association context, they were asked to think about why and how Student Affairs is relevant to students at Colorado State University and to identify challenges, innovations, and trends within their functional areas for the next 5-7 years. Finally, they were asked to identify what the division should keep, change, and eliminate from our practice. Directors within the division were invited to participate in the same visioning activity in August 2022. Staff compiled and themed the responses from VP Council members and division Directors in Fall 2022 and grouped them into two broad categories: the needs of students and staff. From this work the following visual path to a strategic plan was developed.
In January 2023, open feedback sessions were held for all levels and classifications of staff members and separate feedback spaces specifically for students. Staff were shown the visual and asked to help identify gaps and areas of focus or priorities. Students were also shown the visual but were asked about their experiences to inform our process. Students shared the ways in which they experience student affairs, how they define success, their greatest needs for support, what services or supports are missing from their experience, and what keeps them at CSU.
Staff and student feedback was compiled and sent, along with the VP Council and Directors visioning session notes, to Dr. Josefina Carmona of Carmona Consulting to prepare for an external review in Summer 2023. Dr. Carmona visited campus in July 2023 to review artifacts and conduct informal pláticas through the lens of equity and student success. Dr. Carmona’s findings centered around many themes, with the focus of the following integrated into the strategic plan:
- Address salary and labor inequities to create a sense of connection between DSA staff and executive leadership
- Develop a shared definition and vision for equity and Student Success, including investing in professional development for equity-mindedness and collaboration across campus
- Focus on identity, evolving the division’s structures, and internal communication strategies
Upon receiving a draft of Dr. Carmona’s report, VP Council engaged in the development of equity and student success frameworks to guide the forthcoming strategic plan. Additionally, leadership furthered progress on salary inequities through off-cycle salary increase requests and the Staffing Strategies Working Group continues to meet to improve equitable and flexible environments for DSA Staff.
Once Dr. Carmona’s final report was submitted, a strategic plan drafting committee developed priorities that emerged from our internal and external processes. The critical task of making meaning of the myriad materials developed to create our strategic plan was led by Dr. Carmen Rivera, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, with input from Dr. Jon Cleveland, Executive Director of the Career Center; Kacee Collard Jarnot, Director of Assessment; Dr. Jen Johnson, Director of the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement Office; Dr. Erin Patchett, Director of Administration and Assessment in Campus Recreation; and Amber Ramoz, Director of Campus Activities.
The draft was circulated to VP Council in February 2024 and with minor edits was reviewed and implemented with division Directors in March 2024. Further efforts to roll the plan out to to students and staff happened in Spring 2024 through division-wide town hall meetings, the creation and sharing of this website with students and staff, and direct follow-up with students who participated in each phase of the creation of the strategic plan.
2024-2027 Strategic Plan Nourishing our roots to bear the fruits of student success.
The CSU Division of Student Affairs recognizes the ever-changing landscape of higher education and the field of student affairs specifically. This strategic plan is in recognition of that landscape and aims to position our division to serve our students as they are now by investing in our staff and structures and holding ourselves accountable to progress.
Four Leading Priorities
The four priorities for our plan have been informed by an intentional process that draws from the university strategic plan, professional association standards, input from staff and students, and our external review. They are listed below, with measurable goals to help guide the work:
Knowing students: understanding them, serving them
- Conduct research aimed at better understanding the needs of current CSU students to streamline programs, services, and entry points for students to create equitable access and engagement in relevant and developmental experiences.
- Align resources and Student Success priorities from a lens of equity: student sense of belonging and purpose, student wellbeing, and career development.
- Support individualized student self-efficacy to access resources and encourage making connections between learning inside and outside of the classroom.
Knowing our staff: investing in them, empowering them
- Embrace and invest in the University’s compensation and classification work specifically for our division and build promotion and development opportunities.
- Champion a healthy quality of work life for our employees by focusing on mission-driven priorities to determine reasonable workloads and streamline programmatic decision making.
- Promote environments that welcome our employees to show up authentically, recognize how our respective social identities & experiences promote our student success efforts.
Evolving our impact: making informed decisions, sharing our story
- Refresh and reinvest in the DSA assessment cycle to align priorities, operationalize technology, and improve data-informed decision-making strategies to meet unit and program goals and demonstrate the division’s impact on Student Success.
- Center sustainability from an environmental, economic, and equity lens in decision-making, processes, operations, and student and staff engagement.
- Practice more robust internal communication focused on direct communication loops spanning from entry-level staff to VP Council to deepen our Division identity and value proposition.
Evolving our division: aligning resources, improving structures
- Conduct a programming audit to reduce replication of efforts that provides clarity for students, centers the DSA Student Success framework, and more efficiently uses resources to right-size staffing and workloads.
- Review processes for internal advancement, procurement, and budgeting to identify and address inequities.
- Build professional capacity and space for VP Council to lean into divergent perspectives and healthy conflict to engage in change management as a leadership team with a shared vision of student success.