2015 - 2020 Strategic Plan Building a Community of Leaders: A Blueprint for Excellence

The Gatton College 2015 – 2020 strategic plan, “Building a Community of Leaders: A Blueprint for Excellence,” coordinates the college’s efforts to fulfill its mission, and to support the mission and strategic plan of the University of Kentucky. We are proud of the significant accomplishments of our students, faculty and staff toward reaching the university’s strategic objectives.

Goal 1

Create an academic and professional home

Create an engaged, inclusive, and diverse academic and professional home for students, staff, and faculty. Elevating all of our people and maintaining a collaborative, collegial, and supportive environment is essential to achieving all elements of our mission.

Create or enhance opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to develop new skills and realize professional aspirations.
Recruit, retain, and reward a diverse and accomplished community of students, faculty members, and staff members who are committed to learning, intellectual growth, and discovery.
Foster a supportive, accepting, and vibrant workspace for collaborations among students, staff, and faculty.

Promote and facilitate hiring practices for faculty and staff that improve diversity.
Increase the quality and number of students in the college through an aggressive student recruitment program.
Implement direct freshman admission to the Gatton College and a transfer program to enhance student success.
Enhance co-curricular support and enrichment programs to aid in retention and student success.
Align private scholarship awards with Gatton College goals for student success.
Engage with the business community to promote learning and professional opportunities.
Create a weekly common free period to support social and professional development.

Diversity of the Gatton College community relative to appropriate benchmarks
Turnover rates among faculty and staff members
Enrollment growth with improved academic success indicators for entering classes
First-to-second year retention
Graduation rates
Achievement gap between under-represented minority students and non-minority students
Results of an annual engagement survey of members of the Gatton College community

Goal 2

Improve student learning and career outcomes

Improve the learning and career outcomes of our students through more rigorous and relevant academic programs, meaningful enrichment activities, and improved academic and career advising.

Increase rigor and academic integrity.
Promote, support, incentivize, and reward teaching excellence among all faculty members and graduate teaching assistants.
Create or enhance enrichment activities to support intellectual, social, and emotional development of our students.
Provide innovative academic advising.
Provide innovative career advising.
Increase integration of academic and career advising.
Expand international focus.

Guide and champion a Gatton Code of Conduct for students, faculty, and staff that fosters professionalism, classroom behavior, ethics, civility, social responsibility, and academic integrity.
Establish a new honors program in Social Enterprise and other selective departmental honors programs that complement the new Lewis Honors College at UK.
Develop research opportunities for undergraduates and provide venues for presentation of their work.
Invest in academic and career advising, emphasizing innovative integration of both types of advising.
Initiate departmental and college teaching awards.
Expand internship opportunities, international experiences, and other enrichment activities.

First-to-second year retention
Graduation rates
Improved results in the assessment of learning outcomes
Student employment outcomes
Rate of student participation in international opportunities

Goal 3

Attract and support excellent scholars

Attract and support excellent scholars who produce rigorous, influential research at the forefront of business and economics. We will demonstrate the impact of our research and contribute to the university’s profile as a leading research-intensive institution.

Enhance the support, incentives, and rewards for faculty and doctoral student research on the basis of rigor, quality, impact, and external funding.
Identify, promote, and support areas of research excellence that distinguish the Gatton College.
Expand the number of research-active faculty members.

Provide competitive salary and research support for recruiting new research-focused faculty members.
Provide competitive support packages for doctoral students and take steps to improve the profile of entering students and the career outcomes of graduates.
Provide strong incentives for external research funding.
Proactively review compensation for research-active faculty members and preemptively respond to the market.
Increase summer research funding and improve procedures for allocating it.
Increase funding for conferences, workshops, and other investments in the human capital of our faculty and doctoral students.
Initiate departmental and college research awards for faculty and doctoral students.
Support visiting scholars and scholars-in-residence programs.

Number of publications in leading academic journals by faculty and doctoral students
Presentations at prestigious academic conferences by faculty and doctoral students
Number of citations, impact factors, h-indexes, or other appropriate measures of research quality and impact
External research recognition
External research funding
Time-to-degree of doctoral students
Quality of doctoral student placements

Goal 4

Increase external engagement and promote economic growth in Kentucky and beyond

We will translate our research and educational activities into practice by cultivating and strengthening mutually beneficial external partnerships and by supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the Gatton College, the university, and our region.

Enhance marketing communications of the Gatton College to promote engagement with and among the faculty, students, alumni, donors, employers, and other stakeholders with whom we partner.
Engage with businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations to improve their operations by sharing the expertise of our faculty and creating experiential learning opportunities for our students.
Promote and support an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Gatton College, UK, and the region as an engine for economic growth.

Create an alumni relations program.
Create a structured network of alumni and friends to develop internship and employment opportunities.
Increase faculty involvement in developing corporate partnerships for research, engagement, and employment opportunities for students.
Promote and disseminate faculty research in a format accessible to students, alumni, and external partners.
Increase internal and external promotion of Gatton College achievements.
Develop a network of investors and mentors to facilitate commercialization of UK technology and to assist economic development in Kentucky.
Encourage and support student participation in business plan or case competitions.
Develop a speaker series of successful entrepreneurs.

Revenue growth from external engagement activities
Marketing and brand awareness performance analytics
Employment outcomes of our students
Employment in start-up companies assisted by the Gatton College

Goal 5

Achieve operational excellence

To accomplish our ambitious mission, Gatton College’s internal operations will exemplify an efficient, transparent, flexible, and fiscally sound organization.

Develop and execute an internal communications plan to align each department toward fulfilling the Gatton College mission.
Implement best practices in organizational structure, management practices, funding mechanisms, and the services we provide to our stakeholders.
Be transparent with all stakeholders on the amount of investible resources and decisions to deploy them.

Conduct a comprehensive review of the current structure and processes in the college and reorganize and streamline as appropriate.
Regularly communicate with the college to ensure that everyone is aware of the structure, new processes, and their role in the strategic plan.
Use technology to enhance productivity and efficiency in research, teaching, administration, and engagement through the automation of business and academic processes where feasible.
Regularly communicate with the college to convey everyone’s role in increasing the amount of investable funding.

Reduced administrative expense as a percentage of overall revenue
Improved cycle-times for key processes
Client satisfaction with Gatton College services

2015 - 2020 Strategic Plan Building a Community of Leaders: A Blueprint for Excellence

Goal 1

Strategic Initiatives

Action Steps

Metrics

Goal 2

Strategic Initiatives

Action Steps

Metrics

Goal 3

Strategic Initiatives

Action Steps

Metrics

Goal 4

Strategic Initiatives

Action Steps

Metrics

Goal 5

Strategic Initiatives

Action Steps

Metrics

Gatton College of Business and Economics