Annual Operating Plan Objectives 2022-2023

Elevate the academic profile of the University

2022-2023 University Academic Profile Objectives:

• Implement a plan to review all academic policies. Some policies are inconsistent and therefore serve as barriers to students. This objective will serve as the process to ensure all policies correctly reflect those currently utilized. 

• The CMI will support University admissions recruitment by conducting outreach to high school students.
• To increase student response rates for course evaluations. Our goal is to increase the response rates to 40% by the end of the 22/23 AY.
• Begin the three-year process of establishing accreditation with ACEJMC for the School of Communication.
• Market existing programs in Community Engagement & Leadership to external audiences through social media, events, partnerships, etc.
• Study and propose changes to departmental programs, including the doctorate, master, and undergraduate programs in Community Engagement & Leadership.
• Increase partnerships with Community Groups throughout the Pittsburgh community.

Expand high-quality online and hybrid programs to provide a Point Park education to populations underserved by the University's on-ground program.

2022-2023 Online and Hybrid Programs Objectives:

•  Create a new school for continuing and professional studies, present for Board approval, build an initial portfolio of programmatic offerings, and publicly launch the school. 

Create opportunities for innovative, integrated learning.

2022-2023 Innovative, Integrated Learning Objectives:

• Developing the classroom management capacity of faculty is the overarching goal of the CIE for the 2022-23 academic year. The syllabus modernization project is the first focal point of the classroom management initiative.
• Educate FT/PT faculty members on how to aid the neurodiverse student populations in navigating the classroom setting by holding one training sessions each semester beginning in the 2023 Spring semester.
• Move the University from current LMS, which is Schoology to the new system, which will be Canvas.
• Develop a Learning Management Page for Tutoring Services that will be available to all students when the new LMS is introduced in Fall 2023.

Elevate the regional and national profile of faculty.

2022-2023 Faculty Profile Objectives:

• Organize two Arts and Sciences colloquiums in the 22-23 academic year, one in the fall semester and one in the spring semester.

Promote Inclusive Excellence as a cultural and academic value

2022-2023 Inclusive Excellence Objectives:

• ISLA- Bringing a better understanding of diverse needs across the University community.

• Restructuring the shared model of student advising.

Implement and practice the tenants of shared governance across University operations

2022-2023 Shared Governance Objectives:

• Implement recommendations from the course Enrollment Task Force per Dr. Soto's instructions.

Connect every student with at least one meaningful experiential learning opportunity each year.

Develop a sense of community and pride throughout the University.

2022-2023 University Community and Pride Objectives:

• Continue our basic needs support for students, including food, clothing, housing, and other financial and enrichment needs.
• While simultaneously focusing on student engagement through the lens of student retention, it is important to understand that if you regularly engage students, you retain students. Enhancing student engagement through the participation and involvement of university athletics will result in a more robust sense of university pride and spirit.

Promote the connection between the liberal arts foundation and preparation for careers now and throughout the lives of Point Park students.

2022-2023 Liberal Arts Foundation and Career Prep Connection Objectives:

• Beginning in November 2022, Career Development will host a targeted career expo for the Rowland School of Business majors to connect downtown employers seeking students for internships, co-ops, or experiential learning opportunities. The expo will be more targeted, focusing on individual departments and majors. If the expo through the school of business is successful, the practice will expand to other schools in the coming years.
• Departmental education on co-op processes and the appropriate use of the Handshake system that will result in better data collection, alleviation of responsibility for the faculty, and education for the sake of Handshake buy-in.

Foster a culture of respect, civility, and inclusivity in the Point Park community for all students,
staff, faculty, alumni, and administrators.

2022-2023 Culture of Respect, Civility, Inclusivity Objectives:

• Increase faculty-student relationships by having more organized and personal communication and contact between Arts and Sciences faculty advisors and students/advisees.

Goal 5 - Quality of Campus Life:

2022-2023 Quality of Campus Life Objectives:

• Reset rooms will function as a safe space for students to utilize when they need a moment to reset, regardless of the situation in question.
• The Student Health and Wellness center will hold two workshops over the course of the academic year. The overall attendance goal for these two workshops will be a total of 4 students.

Develop and implement an ongoing, rolling three-year strategic enrollment plan that ties directly
to a rolling three-year financial plan that clearly demonstrates the operational vitality of the
University and generates enough resources to reinvest in the University according to the Strategic Plan.

• Expand outreach efforts to Northern Virginia in hopes to increase new freshman enrollment by 5 students.
• Increase the number of bachelor's alumni who return for Point Park graduate programs by enrolling 20 students in the early start/4+1 programs in 2022-23 (Spring, Summer, and Fall 2023), via such methods as coordinated outreach with schools/departments, email, and text messages, digital signage, and class visits.
• Work with the Business Office, Online Education and our partner, Sextant Marketing, to review and optimize our working relationship to increase the probability of reaching and exceeding enrollment targets for our online degree portfolio outside of the School of Education.

Leverage the University's brand to promote being on the cutting edge of innovation in
communications, media, technology, business, and the arts, inside and outside of the classroom.

Adopt models of resource development and constituent engagement that align and support the
University's strategic initiatives.

2022-2023 Resource Development and Constituent Engagement Objectives:

• Continue to Increase Point Park University's social media followers and engagement with a focus on Instagram. Increase Instagram followers by 10%. Instagram followers as of 8/1/22 = 12,009. Increase to 13,210 by 8/1/2023.
• Establish operational enhancement charge and annual endowment administrative fee policy and generate $55,000 in discretionary revenue through them.
• Raise $200,000 in budget-relieving dollars and increase the total percentage of alumni giving through the first annual 24-hour Day of Giving and 6-8 electronic and print appeals.
• Secure $750,000 in revenue from the foundation, corporate, and government sources while diversifying the sources of funding the University pursues.
• Use benchmark data to establish processes in conjunction with involved offices/departments, including the business office, human resources, development resources, and academic affairs. Train internal programmatic grant managers on the new system.
• Cinema Arts Prospective Student Filmmaking Workshop: A unique cinema arts recruitment event for high school students (in the region) to visit the campus where they will be able to shoot a scene in the sound stage and take it through the post to a screening in the GRW in one day.

Grow the Board Designated Reserve Fund by 35 percent.

Implement integrated strategies and systems designed to increase workplace productivity by
developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilizing people with the
required skills and aptitude to meet the University's current and future needs.

2022-2023 Workplace Productivity Objectives:

• Financial aid contributes to a yearly A-133 financial audit. This year our goal is to aim for zero findings to return at the end of the auditing period (August 2023). 
• Arts and Sciences currently have three administrative support staff to assist the dean, the four department chairs, and all faculty. How can we organize the three individuals to best meet our needs? 
• Build a sense of community and involvement among employees and students through the enhancement of employee recognition programming.
• Compensation Modernization Project for rollout beginning 2023-2024 academic year.
• Successful Technical Implementation of Jenzabar J1 Enterprise Resource Planning Tool.
• Improve staff development and recognition by providing at least two individualized training sessions to new and continuing Operations staff, developing in-depth SOPs for all Operations positions, and awarding monthly safety recognitions to current Operations staff members.
• Develop training for University departments involved in contracting.
• Review handbook and all policies, update, gain approval, and deploy to Point Park staff and faculty intranet site.
• Creating a better onboarding process for new employees by including cross-functional service expectations and training (Accounts Payable, IT, Procurement).
• Work alongside the general council to provide training to employees (faculty, staff, and students) with regard to the use of campus facilities for minors.
• Develop a strategy for affinity group development and implementation by supporting employees through robust, supported affinity groups.
• Build a sense of community and involvement among employees and students through the enhancement of employee recognition programming.
• Compensation Modernization Project for rollout beginning 2023-2024 academic year.

Goal 6 - Technological Infrastructure:

Build the technological infrastructure to enhance our instructional and administrative needs.

• The Pittsburgh Playhouse currently uses Tickets.com aka Pro-Venue. This software has it's roots in servicing large sporting events, namely Major League Baseball. In fact it is wholly owned by Major League Baseball. It, therefore, was built to serve the needs of organizations that sell tickets at high volume, event by event. However, it was not developed with arts and culture in mind. The arts require a ticketing system that allows for supporting patron loyalty, developing multiple revenue streams from a patron, and acting as a fully realized CRM tool. In this, the final year of our contract with tickets.com, we will move away from this system to a system that better suits our needs. Our plan is to join the Cultural Trust Box Office Consortium. With modest upfront costs, we will realize future savings by joining the shared service offered by the Trust.
• Meet with individual departments to review RFP Policy and Procedures.
• A new wireless system will allow for more capacity for all students, faculty, and staff.

Improve utilization of facilities and space.

• The Professional Career-Readiness Center is an education and resource center that provides programs and services to enhance student success by creating opportunities to achieve career readiness, increase knowledge of career pathways, and connect to experiential learning such as internships and co-ops. The PCRC also assists students in developing professional skills and connecting to meaningful employment through strategic partnerships and targeted events.
• Relocation of the Center for Media Innovation to the West Penn building first floor. This has allowed us to save money by no longer using leased space. Additionally, it has allowed us to learn from the space over the five years it was open and to make the space more efficient.
• Continue to provide an exemplary learning and working environment for the campus community through the planning, designing, and contracting of interior and exterior spaces to support the University mission.

Develop a strategic planning assessment strategy to align resources with the plan.

• Develop and refine assessment processes that measure SERP effectiveness (i.e., ROI, impact on enrollment, retention, document SERP decisions to resource allocation).
• Create operational metrics, including benchmarks and goals for UtilizationMarketing ROIEarned RevenueGifts and GrantsDemographyCustomer satisfactionStudent EmploymentSuccess and realizing the mission.

Optimize the efficient use of University resources across all levels of operations.

2022-2023 Optimize the Efficient use of University Resources Objectives:

• The Office of Student Accounts will increase the number of students enrolled in direct deposit by 10% for fall 21 compared to fall 20. This will increase the timeliness in which refunds are delivered to students as well as decrease the cost associated with sending student refunds.

• Work alongside the general council to provide training to employees (faculty, staff, and students) with regard to the use of campus facilities for minors.
• Continue to Improve Customer Service/Satisfaction by carrying out initiatives such as decreasing hot/cold calls, decreasing unscheduled equipment replacement, improving completion of preventative maintenance, and decreasing reactive work requests.
• Challenge annual budget spending and annual budget roll-over, comparing actual versus budgetary spending to determine whether or not the department needs that particular budget or can be reallocated to a different sector of the university where better needed. Reviewing the current year's actuals versus budget from a variance perspective. Forecasting yearly spending and finding savings to repurpose or reallocate to other areas of the university. to accurately analyze our operating cash projections as a result of the budget analysis
• Shared Resources Project: Participating in a grant-funded pilot program with neighboring universities to identify opportunities regarding shared expenses to save on operating costs.

Create opportunities for field studies to complement doctoral-level coursework.

2022-2023 Doctoral-level Field Studies Objectives:

• Offer master and doctoral level coursework in praetorship with external community members, including city/county, design thinking organizations, nonprofit organizations, etc.

Leverage partnerships with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and government agencies to create relevant and impactful dissertation thesis project opportunities.

Utilize our facilities and programs to engage campus communities to advance our mission.

2022-2023 Campus Communities Engagement Objectives:

• Create a platform for students to contribute original content for a hyperlocal news site serving Downtown.
• We encourage you to continue your professional development with LinkedIn Learning. Follow your curiosity and professional interests. Keep exploring to earn micro-credentials and digital badges that sync with your LinkedIn profile! You will have permanent access to the "Become a Point Park All STAR" Learning Path upon enrollment. The course consists of 11 chapters that align to a different STARS value: Passion, Openness, Integrity, Nurturing, Trust, Vision, Appreciation, Learning, Unity, Excellence, SuccessAt the end of each month, the course completion will be reviewed. You will become an official Point Park All STAR if you complete the course.
• Increase participation in Staff Assembly Community Engagement initiatives throughout the academic year.
• Develop an on-campus event for local high school students, exposing them to the University and, more specifically, to the majors in Arts and Sciences.
• The School of Communication will assist all Deans and chairs with high school recruitment efforts while establishing a program to filter high school students into the School of Communication.
• The Student Health and Wellness Center will hold three workshops over the academic year. The overall attendance goal for these two pieces of training will be a total of 20 people.
• Launch the national Bonner Leaders program on campus. Recruit new leaders from the incoming class of 2022-23 and form partnerships with external nonprofit organizations.

Emphasize the University's mission and focus on community engagement by attaining the "elective" Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement.

2022-2023 Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement Objectives:

• Continue and grow programs and activities that were part of the Carnegie Foundation Classification for Community Engagement, including social impact grants, annual awards, badging, and other engaged activities

Establish influential and impactful constituent outreach and engagement

2022-2023 Constituent Outreach and Engagement Objectives:

• The CMI will increase the number of citizens of all ages engaged in local journalistic storytelling via various media (written and spoken words, images, videos, podcasts, etc.).

• Create an annual report for the Pittsburgh Playhouse that will highlight the Playhouse's major accomplishments, inspire readers about our mission, build trust, and thank patrons for their support.
• The benefits of creating an advisory board include the diversity of opinion and experience it can bring to facilitate an improvement in the leadership and performance of our program. These qualities are not typically present in the traditional board of directors. Advisory board benefits include the following: Create fundraising and sponsorship opportunitiesAudience DevelopmentStrategy development with an outside perspective.

Strategic engagement with our alumni.

2022-2023 Alumni Engagement Objectives:

• Create meaningful occasions for alumni and donors to engage with Point Park University through 6-8 Pittsburgh-based alumni events, 3-4 national events (LA, NYC, FL, DC, or Philly), two donor stewardship events, 2-3 scholarship donor dinners, relaunching The Point (twice a year), and volunteer opportunities.