We have made history at Missouri State over the past 25 years.
Milestones include adopting the public affairs mission, changing the university’s
name, expanding our graduate programs, and establishing IDEA Commons and a campus
in China.
More recently we fought for more equitable funding, advocated for new programs outside
of our traditional mission, and leaned into public-private partnership opportunities.
We have been the second largest public university in the state for some time. However,
we have become more recognized and respected over the last 10 years. Our reputation
and profile have grown, and our influence is greater.
These things didn’t just happen. We made them happen.
The same will be true as we look toward the future. We cannot just wait for our next
successes to come to us. We must make them happen.
Embracing big ideas
When work began on this long-range plan (LRP), we decided to infuse it with our entrepreneurial
spirit and take a little different path in its development and presentation.
Our plans in the past have been good. They have helped us become who we are today
as an institution.
For this plan, we wanted to go farther. We wanted to create a vision that doesn’t
direct people what to do. We envisioned a plan that would inspire our faculty, staff
and students — one that allows everyone in the university community to dream bigger.
The steering committee was challenged to embrace big ideas — to craft a long-range
plan that weaves these big ideas around our public affairs mission.
See yourself in the stories
Prior plans laid out lists of goals we expected to accomplish over the duration of
the plan.
You will not see much of that in our 2021-26 LRP.
Instead, you will see a plan that tells aspirational stories and offers examples of
big ideas that will guide our decisions and reality over the next five years.
We want our faculty, staff, students, friends and alumni to see themselves, their
units and departments, and their businesses in the stories.
We hope the stories will evoke emotional reactions (positive or negative) and inspire
other ideas or ways to expand or interact with the ideas presented.
This plan allows more people at the university to be creative in developing their
own initiatives, programs and ideas.
We want our employees to be able to tie the work they do on a day-to-day basis to
not only the long-range plan but also the success of the university.
Building action plans
The LRP will exist as a creative sketch of our future. It will provoke and drive the
action items, initiatives and programs that will guide our future success.
So, while lists of goals and strategies don’t appear in this LRP, our annual action
plan will continue to be drafted each fiscal year.
We will still work through our central process of developing this action plan with
bulleted lists of initiatives organized under the four themes set forth in the LRP.
Each division and college throughout the university will be responsible for developing
their own lists of action items that align with the themes of the plan.
We will all continue to be held accountable for completing the tasks set forth in
these traditional organizational documents.
And there will be key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are metrics that most metropolitan universities use to measure
success. The LRP represents Missouri State’s nuanced approach to success in achieving
the KPIs.
Presenting the long-range plan
The LRP is one of three major planning documents.
The Strategic Enrollment Management plan was approved in 2020. The 2021-26 facilities
master plan and visioning guide for facilities has been approved. The LRP is the third
major planning document of the university.
All three plans create an integrated strategy that will be executed over the next
several years, driving the future success of Missouri State University.
