In July 2023, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) initiated a strategic planning process with the support of Clarus Consulting. Through this process, the College aimed to set a strategic direction that will energize its community members across all 19 departments and align with UAB’s Forging Ahead opens a new website plan for 2024-2028. Ultimately, the work resulted in a strategic plan that will guide the overall direction of the College and serve as a touchstone for decision-making over the next five years. Explore the plan below, hear from Dean Kecia M. Thomas opens a new website on CAS News, and learn more about the process.
Mission
The College of Arts and Sciences ensures that each student leaves UAB with the knowledge and tools to succeed in an expanding and increasingly connected world.
Foundational Values
Throughout the planning and data-gathering process two unique College values emerged which supplement the University’s shared values of Collaborate, Act with Integrity, Respect All, and Excel. The two additional CAS values center on Viability and Organizational Health.
Community members expressed a value of openness and transparency related to resource allocation and the strategic alignment of resources with College priorities, especially in light of a complex and rapidly changing higher education landscape. Community members also elevated the importance of our diverse learners’ academic and psychosocial needs, given the isolating experience of the pandemic, as well as the importance of attending to the wellness of the faculty and staff that serve them.
Strategic Plan Overview
The CAS Strategic Plan is structured around three pillars:
- Student Success,
- Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities, and
- Community Engagement.
Goals, objectives, activities, and metrics are presented for each pillar separately. However, it should also be appreciated that these pillars intersect in ways that support a CAS culture of engagement. For example, experiential activities are mentioned throughout all pillars as opportunities to develop students’ competence and career readiness (Student Success) and to connect with the community in mutually beneficial ways (Community Engagement). Research, scholarship, and creative activities are also vehicles for experiential learning that impact learners’ success in and outside of CAS and UAB.
Pillar 1: Student Success
Goal: Provide a state-of-the-art, inclusive academic environment known for excellent teaching and mentoring that will support students’ retention and timely graduation.
Objectives, Activities, and Metrics
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Objective One
Expand recruitment strategies to include prospective students who are in the Birmingham area, graduate and adult learners, and learners who have not yet completed a four-year degree.
- Host micro-departmental CAS recruiting events on campus.
- Develop and launch CAS virtual recruitment events for prospective undergraduate students and virtual departmental events for prospective graduate students.
- Promote more partnerships and events with high schools and community colleges in the greater Birmingham area and beyond.
- Leverage central resources to expand student recruitment.
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Objective Two
Grow and connect to resources ensuring student retention and graduation.
- Develop an assessment plan for CAS advising.
- Connect students to campus wellness resources and strategies through CAS “Local Beginnings” courses.
- Encourage freshmen and transfer students to identify and eventually participate in extracurricular activities that are meaningful to them.
- Expand scholarship availability.
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Objective Three
Foster a culture that will attract and retain a diverse faculty and staff committed to student development and community building.
- Promote faculty development and use of pedagogically sound, high impact practices such as the delivery of Quality Matters-certified online courses.
- Encourage CAS faculty and academic advisers to participate in more teaching and mentoring-oriented professional development such as those offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
- Continue support for new faculty through strategic efforts such as the CAS New Faculty Orientation series and departmental mentors.
- Encourage faculty and staff to participate in CAS community events such as CAS Night at Regions Field and the CAS Staff Appreciation Event.
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Objective Four
Provide relevant, experiential, and accessible learning opportunities that leverage the College’s diversity and align with the ‘Blazer Core’ curriculum.
- Encourage faculty to engage in experiential learning activities including:
- faculty-mentored student research, scholarship, and creative activities
- service learning,
- education abroad, and
- course-based internships.
- Foster faculty exploration of innovative Blazer Core components such as Trailhead and Community Engagement.
- Steer faculty towards exploring more high-impact practices in their teaching vis-à-vis the Blazer Core flags.
- Encourage faculty to engage in experiential learning activities including:
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Objective Five
Increase meaningful teacher-learner engagement opportunities that strengthen learners’ connection, belonging, and well-being.
- Create new courses or educational and extracurricular opportunities that strengthen a sense of connection, belonging, and well-being for students.
- Increase faculty training opportunities by campus partners and units that will support faculty in fostering a sense of well-being, belonging, and support for students.
- Encourage and reward faculty participation as faculty advisors for departmental clubs and student-focused groups.
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Student Success Metrics
- Increase the number of QM certified online courses by 5% by 2028.
- Increase the number of CAS members who participate in CTL workshops by 5% by 2028.
- Increase experiential learning activities by 5% by 2028.
- Increase first-year retention rate by 3% by 2028.
- Improve the six-year retention rate to 70% by 2028.
Pillar 2: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities
Goal: Support faculty, staff, and students as they conduct impactful research, scholarship, and creative pursuits that reflect interdisciplinary perspectives, enhance quality of life, and improve society. The College is especially well-positioned to excel in research, scholarship, and creative activities across the areas of: Health, Emerging Technology and Society, Inclusive Communities, and the Environment.
Objectives, Activities, and Metrics
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Objective One
Promote and incentivize excellence in research, scholarship, and/or creative activity across all departments.
- Assist CAS departments in developing reward and recognition mechanisms to acknowledge success and excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activities.
- Assist CAS departments in developing a mechanism for sharing indirect expense recovery with researchers.
- Assist departments in identifying resources for faculty publication expenses (e.g. indexing, copy editing).
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Objective Two
Increase awareness of funding opportunities and resources to support the development of fellowship applications and grant proposals.
- Organize a workshop every semester for tools utilized in identifying funding opportunities and identifying potential collaborators.
- Organize a College process for increasing pre-submission reviews (e.g. The Implementation Group) of funding applications for CAS faculty.
- Expand delivery of CAS professional development programs by the Office of Research.
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Objective Three
Attract and retain faculty to lead and expand research, scholarship, and creative activities within the College, across UAB, and beyond.
- Facilitate targeted recruitment of highly productive and successful faculty through support from campus partnerships such as the UAB Growth With Purpose Faculty Recruitment Fund, the Heersink School of Medicine’s Impact Fund, as well as other schools and centers.
- Assist CAS departments in developing effective strategies for the mentoring and retention of early career faculty.
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Objective Four
Foster an environment of programs, systems, and initiatives that support interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and creative activities.
- Expand the existing CAS Interdisciplinary Team Award by collaborating with other units on UAB campus.
- Encourage and incentivize interdisciplinary initiatives across CAS and the University through the UAB Team Science program.
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Objective Five
Encourage public research, scholarship, and creative activities and local partnerships that connect more communities with faculty and students’ expertise.
- Organize campus talks and events that are relevant to and accessible to the public.
- Organize research talks tailored to the community and their needs in local libraries or social spaces (e.g., Science on Tap).
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Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Metrics
- Increase grant submissions by 15% by 2028.
- Increase grant funding by 15% by 2028.
- Increase research expenditures by 15% by 2028.
- Increase delivery of the number of funding related professional development programs by 10% by 2028.
- Ensure the annual CAS faculty hiring plan includes at least 30% of proposed lines in the 4 priority areas (Health, Emerging Technologies and Society, Inclusive Communities, and the Environment).
- Increase usage of pre-submission reviews by 15% by 2028.
- By 2028, establish a research recognition system that can be implemented across the 19 departments.
Pillar 3: Community Engagement
Goal: Expand community relationships to create meaningful opportunities that produce mutually beneficial outcomes.
Objectives, Activities, and Metrics
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Objective One
Grow faculty engagement in the community, including the delivery of service-learning opportunities, participation in community-based research, and delivery of continuing education.
- Communicate and elevate existing resources for community-based work such as the CAS Student Engagement Grants.
- Spotlight faculty success in community-based research, scholarship, and creative activities.
- Invest resources in the development of continuing education programming.
- Ensure department handbooks are inclusive of community-based research, scholarship, and creative activities as examples of professional work considered for annual reviews as well as promotion and/or tenure criteria.
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Objective Two
Increase service-learning participation among students.
- Expand service-learning course delivery across all departments.
- Ensure each department offers at least one service-learning course per academic year.
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Objective Three
Expand student participation in community-based internships and diverse learning opportunities that create professional networks they can leverage upon graduation.
- Expand and celebrate connections with community partners (e.g., annual luncheon, media stories).
- Create more opportunities for enhancing students’ access to community and professional networks.
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Objective Four
Grow opportunities that utilize strengths in ways that provide developmental opportunities and outreach to the community.
- Grow community learning and continuing education opportunities.
- Expand and support public lectures in community venues by researchers/scholars/artists in the College.
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Community Engagement Metrics
- Increase faculty participation in community engagement by 5% by 2028.
- Increase student participation in community engagement by 5% by 2028.
- Increase number of CAS outreach programs to 6-12 graders by 10% by 2028.
Watch a Summary of the Strategic Plan
Download a Summary of the Strategic Plan Opens a PDF.
Process
The College hired the Clarus Consulting Group to develop its 2024-2028 strategic plan. The project was spearheaded by a representative group of leadership, faculty, staff, and students. It began with a formal kickoff meeting in July 2023. The meeting confirmed project objectives and processes and identified some key elements of a successful planning process, including aligning to UAB’s strategic plan and creating opportunities for individuals to have a voice through meaningful participation in the planning process. The kickoff meeting also identified key stakeholders and topics in preparation for the next phase of the process: a stakeholder engagement initiative.
Stakeholder engagement was the centerpiece of the planning process. Stakeholder engagement began at the CAS Chairs’ Retreat in August 2023, where College leadership and chairs across 19 departments engaged in visioning exercises for their respective departments and the College as a whole. Next, Clarus collected insights from key stakeholders through 18 in-depth interviews and four focus groups. Stakeholders included graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni who represented all 19 of the College’s departments and its operations teams. Approximately 80 individuals participated in interviews, focus groups, and/or the visioning session. This comprehensive stakeholder engagement initiative was designed to not only gather valuable insights, but also to ensure support and commitment among those instrumental in plan implementation. Clarus synthesized and analyzed the stakeholder feedback and presented a summary of key findings to the CAS project planning team during a Stakeholder Feedback and Priority Setting Session in October 2023.
The project planning team reconvened in November 2023 for a full-day strategic planning session to develop the strategic plan. The session included reviewing key themes from stakeholder engagement and UAB’s Forging Ahead Strategic Plan, affirming the College’s strategic priorities identified during the feedback session, and developing goals and objectives for each priority area. The outcomes of the session were used to develop a draft strategic plan grid for review by CAS. From there, the College’s leadership team refined the plan and tasked working groups to identify metrics for each pillar. In addition, Dean Kecia M. Thomas presented the plan to department chairs and solicited feedback. Dean Thomas also invited feedback from alumni during an Arts and Sciences Alumni Board meeting on November 7, 2024, as well as from faculty and staff during a CAS Community Meeting on November 15, 2024. Lastly, Dean Thomas distributed the strategic plan to faculty, staff, and students via email and encouraged all who received it to complete an anonymous survey or participate in focus groups to further refine the plan.
After months of engagement and editing, the College delivered the strategic plan to UAB’s Provost, Janet Woodruff-Borden, Ph.D., in December 2024 for final approval. CAS now looks forward to implementing the plan over the next five years.
Contact Us
Do you have additional questions about the strategic plan? Want to learn more about how the College will measure success? You can reach out to us at