Strategic Plan
Goal
Design a flexible curriculum to teach storytelling across multiple platforms and media, paying close attention to trends and changes across communication industries.
Strategy 1
Create early opportunities for students to practice their storytelling skills.
Critical Tasks:
- Create first-year seminars that give students an opportunity to practice their storytelling skills.
- Create boot-camp opportunities to give students immersive experiences in narrow but highly valuable storytelling skills.
Strategy 2
Revise curriculum to emphasize digital and social media storytelling.
Critical Tasks:
- Explore reducing lower-division requirement to one of three general education courses (Media History; Media Uses and Effects; Social Media Today).
- Develop a more robust group of 4000-level capstone and advanced courses targeted to student success.
- Create a storyteller-in-residence program that attracts first-rate professionals to the School.
- Incorporate digital media in every 3000 and 4000 level courses.
- Create Emerging Media Lab to foster innovative technology use in our courses.
Strategy 3
Enhance advising opportunities to assist students in navigating the curriculum.
Critical Tasks:
- Create guided pathways to use as models for choosing upper-division elective courses.
- Enhance faculty mentorship program in the School.
Metrics:
- Number of first-year seminars
- Number of bootcamps
- Number and quality of 4000-level capstone courses
- Inventory of digital media assessments in 3000 and 4000 level courses
- Creation of emerging media lab
- Development of pathways for use in advising materials
- Increased contacts between students and faculty mentors
Goal
Help JMC students succeed in college and in the first steps of their professional lives.
Strategy 1
Provide students with at least three high impact practice (HIP) opportunities during their time in the major.
Critical Tasks:
- Flag HIP opportunities for students in advising documents.
- Develop process for counting how many HIP opportunities students take advantage of during their time on campus.
- Securing additional external resources to support HIPs.
Strategy 2
Enhance offerings within the School to increase the academic preparedness of students.
Critical Tasks:
- Develop cohort model using First-Year Seminars
- Use advising resources to identify at-risk students for early intervention.
- Develop Graduate School Information Workshop for juniors and seniors who may have an interest in pursuing a graduate degree.
- Implement metacognition modules in the School’s lower-division required courses.
Strategy 3
Enhance offerings within the School to increase student wellness.
Critical Tasks:
- Offer CPR training to faculty and staff.
- Implement VR Meditation Station in Student Center.
- Offer wellness opportunities specifically tailored to under-represented population in the School’s community.
Strategy 4
Develop a broader array of training opportunities to prepare students to enter the job market.
Critical Tasks:
- Assist the School’s Professional Advisory Board in creating a “Gateway Experience” for graduating seniors.
- Create a faculty professional mentoring day for undergraduates.
- Revamp JMC-supported student groups.
- Offer financial training for early and late career undergraduate majors.
Strategy 5
Develop a broader array of networking opportunities to help students identify internship and job opportunities.
Critical Tasks:
- Develop profession-specific speed-networking opportunities for students.
- Create a webinar series in which alumni educate students about opportunities in particular career paths within specific geographic areas.
Strategy 6
More aggressively place student work in national competitions and increase number of students who win these awards.
Critical Tasks:
- Work with Daily Iowan to create a more intentional process for producing award-worthy student work.
- Engage students to learn about award-worthy projects they may have completed during internships.
Metrics:
- Number of HIP opportunities in curriculum
- Amount of external resources for undergraduate experiences
- Development of Gateway Experience Program
- Number of speed networking events
- Development of Webinar series
- # of student awards
Goal
Foster a supportive environment within the School that builds success through the inclusion and participation of diverse groups and perspectives.
Strategy 1
Provide more training opportunities for faculty and staff.
Critical Tasks:
- Work with faculty and staff to ensure that everyone completes the UI BUILD program.
- Pursue more immersive and experiential DEI training opportunities for faculty and staff.
- Require all faculty and staff who serve on search committees to complete the UI implicit bias training.
Strategy 2
Offer DEI training opportunities to undergraduate students.
Critical Tasks:
- Engage with college and campus units working on DEI issues to ascertain the availability of training opportunities for students.
- Host public forums that raise issues of race, gender, sexuality, etc. for discussion within our community.
Strategy 3
Create a more inclusive School environment.
Critical Tasks:
- Develop more inclusive celebratory events in the School.
- Add a field for a diversity statement in online job applications for all full-time faculty job descriptions.
- Continually update DEI concepts and themes in the undergraduate curriculum.
- Increase faculty, staff, and student diversity.
- Explore opportunity to create a student advisory board for the School.
Strategy 4
Support faculty and staff in becoming leaders in DEI initiatives on campus, and in the professions and disciplines.
Critical Tasks:
- Support faculty in creating and teaching courses within the UI BUILD program.
- Offer faculty training to lead public forums in the School on diversity-related themes.
- Encourage faculty to assume leadership roles on campus related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as diversity councils.
Metrics:
- Completion of BUILD Program
- Numbers of DEI Training Opportunities for faculty, staff and students
- Number of Public Forums
- Development of SJMC Student Advisory Board
- Number of BUILD courses taught by faculty
- Number of faculty assuming DEI leadership roles on campus
Goal
Address the needs of under-represented faculty, staff, and students to ensure they have access and opportunities to be successful in the School.
Strategy 1
Actively seek more resources for students from underrepresented populations.
Critical Tasks:
- Actively work to raise scholarships for this population of students.
- Create a paired mentorship and internship program for students from under-represented groups.
Strategy 2
Support underrepresented faculty to be successful in their careers.
Critical Tasks:
- Provide resources for underrepresented faculty to attend national and international professional conferences.
- Facilitate early career mentorship opportunities for early-career faculty.
- Offer early-career financial support for under-represented faculty.
Strategy 3
Engage university administrative units that support under-represented faculty, staff, and students.
Critical Tasks:
- Offer more services and training in the School for under-represented faculty, staff, and students.
- Incentivize faculty and staff to offer their time and skills to administrative units that support under-represented groups.
Metrics:
- External resources raised for under-represented students
- Paired mentorship program
- Number of career advancement opportunities, amount of financial support, and number of services for early-career faculty
- Development of incentives for faculty and staff to work with administrative units supporting under-represented groups in the School
Goal
Address the needs of international faculty, staff, and students to ensure they have access and opportunities to be successful in the School.
Strategy 1
Provide additional academic support for international students.
Critical Tasks:
- Increase writing support for international students.
- Create a peer mentoring program in our doctoral program for international students.
Strategy 2
Increase resources to attract and retain international faculty and students.
Critical Tasks:
- Collaborate with international students to aggressively pursue college and university fellowships and awards.
- Develop summer support opportunities for international students.
Strategy 3
Engage with college and university units that support international faculty, staff, and students.
Critical Tasks:
- Offer more services and training in the School for international students.
- Incentivize faculty and staff to offer their time and skills to UI International Programs and the Obermann Center.
Metrics:
- Development of writing support for international students
- Development of peer mentoring program
- Number of graduate fellowships and awards
- Summer opportunities for international graduate students
- Number of services dedicated to international students
- Participation of faculty with International Programs and Obermann Center activities
Goal
Enhance the School’s relationship with the communities and professions we serve.
Strategy 1
Create partnerships with companies in the professions in which our students seek jobs.
Critical Tasks:
- Develop and maintain a database of organizations that have partnered with SJMC in service learning opportunities for students.
- Develop and maintain a database of organizations which hire our students as interns and employees.
- Enhance support for our internship and career placement office in the School.
Strategy 2
Support translation of research and creative activity into applications usable by the communities and industries we serve.
Critical Tasks:
- Create communication plan to disseminate our research and creative activity to our professional and community partners.
- Create incentives for faculty to engage with professional associations in the industries we serve.
Strategy 3
Improve communication with the communities and professions we serve.
Critical Tasks:
- Develop a communication plan.
- Enhance opportunities for members of the Professional Advisory Board to serve as ambassadors for the School in professional communities.
Strategy 4
Increase alumni engagement with the School.
Critical Tasks:
- Actively diversify membership on the School’s Professional Advisory Board by gender, race, age, and professional expertise.
- Continuously review governing documents of the School’s Professional Advisory Board to ensure its active engagement with alumni.
Metrics:
- Creation of database of outreach and engagement partners
- Increased financial support for SJMC internship and career placement activities
- Development of communication plan for disseminating research and creative activity
- Amount of resources available for faculty to participate in industry events
- Development of Ambassador Program for the PAB
- Amount of diversity on the PAB
Goal
Promote publicly engaged scholarship, creative activity, and teaching.
Strategy 1
Revise School governing documents to include incentives for publicly engaged scholarship and creative activity.
Critical Tasks:
- Integrate publicly engaged scholarship, creative activity, and teaching in the School’s tenure and promotion policies.
- Integrate publicly engaged scholarship, creative activity, and teaching in the School’s merit review process.
Strategy 2
Explore investments the School might make to amplify publicly engaged scholarship, creative activity, and teaching.
Critical Tasks:
- Integrate publicly engaged scholarship, creative activity, and teaching in the School’s tenure and promotion policies.
- Create an event series in the School for faculty to present their research and creative activity in public forums.
- Support faculty to present their research and creative activity in public forums.
Metrics:
- Integrate public engagement and outreach activities in SJMC promotion & tenure and merit review documents
- Development of colloquia series for faculty to present their work
- Number of faculty presenting their work in public forums
Goal
Enable faculty to become leaders in their disciplines, and advance innovative media research and creative activity that makes a significant impact within the society, the professions, and the disciplines.
Strategy 1
Create an environment within the School that enables faculty to pursue research/creative activity.
Critical Tasks:
- Maintain equitable distribution of service within the School.
- Organize teaching loads to ensure that faculty have equal time to pursue research/creative activity.
- Leverage college and university resources to provide faculty with more training in the practice of seeking grants.
- Create a structure within the School to nominate faculty for professional recognition.
Strategy 2
Make the School a destination for high-level research and creative activity in the disciplines and professions we serve.
Critical Tasks:
- Make targeted Investments in the School’s doctoral program.
- Recruit and retain high-performing doctoral and postdoctoral students.
- Actively seek additional resources for faculty to conduct research and/or pursue their creative activity.
- Recruit and retain high-performing faculty.
- Pursue external resources to create the School’s first endowed chair.
Metrics:
- Service and teaching load distribution in the School
- Amount of grant-seeking training for faculty
- Number of faculty winning professional recognition
- Amount of investment in the SJMC doctoral program
- Citation Ratings for faculty
- Citation Rankings Comparison w/Peer Institutions
- Endowed Chair