AStrategic Plan. 22 goals for the next 5 years.
In May 2014 Associated Students (A.S.) adopted a six-year Strategic Plan: 22 A.S. goals and 14 A.S. advocacy priorities to achieve by 2020. The plan addresses a frustration expressed by students for years: continuity.
Why A Strategic Plan?
Every year UCSB students elect new leaders for AS and appoint new students to head the many boards, commissions, and services that make up A.S. These leaders then have one academic year (minus breaks) to accomplish something. Yet, many things UCSB students want A.S. to do take more than a year to plan, fund and implement. Our solution? A Strategic Plan.
The plan helps us:
- Think ahead: Define an achievable and desirable set of goals in five focus areas to accomplish over the next few years;
- Be responsible: Identify the resources we have and need to accomplish those;
- Reach out: Partner with others within A.S., on campus and in the community;
- Engage: Increase the number and diversity of students aware of and participating in these efforts;
- Be accountable: Measure our progress and report to ourselves and to you;
- Remember our purpose: Make sure we are all on the same page regarding the mission and values that guide us.
The Plan
A Strategic Plan is a Living Document
Ideas? Want a Speaker? Want to be Involved? Find a Typo? Contact Us.
Who are we? We are a group of AS involved students committed to guiding this Strategic Plan process from beginning to end, supporting everything from planning to implementation.
A.S.’ Goals
A.S. does a lot of things. Not everything we do is addressed in this strategic plan. This plan is to ensure things that will take more than a year to accomplish and require collaboration and coordination across different parts of AS are planned and can get done. First, from our surveys and forums, we identified areas on which students need and want A.S. to focus over the next several years, Our Focus Areas. Next, from the results of surveys and forums, A.S. identified specific Goals we could accomplish by 2020:
| FOCUS AREAS |
GOALS: Actions to Accomplish Purpose |
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| Improve Academic Support Coursework, degree & campus environment |
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| Improve Student Well BeingSafety, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual wellbeing, food, sleep, shelter |
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| Improve Student ExperienceNon-academic support, growth, and development as well as fun, enrichment, and connections |
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| Address Community, State, National & Global IssuesAdvocacy and activism: Working for positive change |
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| Improve Internal OrganizationThe way AS works |
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We also, identified threads or themes running through the comments and concerns. For each goal in each focus area, we address these threads as well:
| Resources Money, people, sustainability: ensure we have necessary resources to achieve these objectives and ensure a financially secure and environmentally sustainable long-term future for AS. | AS examined the resources needed to accomplish these goals. They are outlined in the plan, pages 14-27. More specific resource discussions will result as we begin implementing the plan. For more information about AS resources, see the AS Annual Report. | |
| Collaboration Within AS, outside AS: understand the roles of the many entities within and outside AS; build relationships based on mutual respect and understanding; work with those whose help we need to achieve short and long-term objectives. | A.S. does not operate in a vacuum. Many of our goals require (and will be better with) collaboration with UC administration, community groups or elected officials. Our Goals all assume cooperation from these entities. Where we were not sure of collaboration, or knew we would meet opposition, we set Advocacy Priorities. | |
| ParticipationPublicity, recruitment, diversity: increase the number of students aware of and participating in AS activities; the number actively involved in AS, and the diversity of those involved. | AS considered outreach, publicity and diversity for each goal. You will find these outlined when you look at specific goals. If you have more ideas, or would like to be involved, please contact us! | |
| AccountabilityMeasure and report: Track and measure what each AS entity does and what resources it uses to do it in a manner that is useful for determining efficiency and effectiveness; report those findings at least annually. | AS is committed to measuring and reporting on the success of these goals. We will post reports here after we begin implementing the plan. |
The Mission & Values that Guide AS:
A.S. Mission
To help students uphold high academic standards and provide leadership, employment, cultural and growth opportunities that serve the campus community and beyond.
A.S. Values
- Supporting students through their UCSB experience
- Accountable (transparent, fiscally responsible, efficient) to ourselves and the students for the money and resources with which they entrust us
- Enabling student voice (advocate, express, lead)
- Helping students accomplish important things (impact, empower, initiate, make possible)
- Collaborating: on campus, with other UCs, in the community, but especially with one another.