Imperative


Under Responsibility Centered Management, deans and executive directors act as the chief executive officers of their respective unit by setting the “tone and influence (of) the culture for sound financial stewardship by deploying financial resources in support of strategic missions and operational goals.
U of S Financial Authority Policy

The College Plan

i. Courageous Curiosity

By acting thoughtfully, and jointly, the College of Arts and Science will renew, strengthen, and advance arts and science disciplines, programs, and research, scholarly, and artistic work, and collaborate, thereby setting strategic directions for the university as a whole. Creativity is empowering and in the College of Arts and Science, creativity is in all that we do. It is encouraged, accepted, championed and rewarded.
  • Enable a culture of research, scholarly, and artistic work (RSAW) engagement by increasing external support and a diversity of outputs, strengthening collaboration and connections, enabling an environment for RSAW trainee success and discovery- and curiosity-based research in arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences;
  • Increase undergraduate student engagement in RSAW;
  • Prepare graduates, versed in humanities, sciences, social sciences, technology and fine and performing arts for a diversity of future life pursuits;
  • Through ideas and data, investigate through basic research what is and what has been, and innovate what needs to be, whether curiosity- or problem-driven.

Guideposts:

Growth in scholarly influence, visibility, and impact
Success in attracting the best students, trainees, faculty, leaders, and staff from across the globe
Improved success in peer-reviewed funding
Teaching excellence that inspires curious, courageous learners

  • Pursue a deep understanding of Indigenous peoples, settlers and immigrants, the cultural diversity, the connections, and the economies on this land;
  • Create a center to support all aspects of Indigenizing RSAW, guided by community input;
  • Enable the success of Indigenous students both throughout their studies and preparing them for success upon their graduations;
  • Address the challenges of racism and colonialism in the college and university.

Guideposts:

Growth in the number of Indigenous policies, programmes, curricula, and initiatives developed with and validated by Indigenous peoples
Recognized Indigenous leadership in the college
Amplified Indigenous student, faculty and staff recruitment and retention efforts
Systems and structures—including tenure, promotion, and merit practices—that support and recognize Indigenization
A college community—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—increasingly empowered by active and ongoing system-wide learning that supports the growth and sustainability of Indigenization

  • Encourage and enable established disciplines and emerging fields of study to work jointly to create new conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and translational innovations to address challenges of today and tomorrow;
  • Redesign or reimagine the structures of curricular and collegial processes such that innovation and connection can flourish across all institutional lines;
  • Prepare all our students for a world in which they will be called upon to analyze complex problems, plan courses of action, provide responsible leadership, and engage cultural diversity, and ways of knowing. Students will learn to create and innovate, inspire and enlighten, argue with persuasiveness, speak and write with clarity and precision, understand qualitative and quantitative data, and use technologies, tools, instruments, information systems and artistic expression in transformational ways.

Guideposts:

Growth in the diversity and strength of interdisciplinary programs
Recognized leadership in interdisciplinary models and methods
Systems and structures aligned with interdisciplinary culture
Growing global recognition and leadership in applying interdisciplinary approaches within our signature areas

  • Solve problems: share our teaching and learning as well as our RSAW with multiple communities in multiple ways, ensuring multi-directional processes of learning that involve interaction and listening, with the shared goal of generating mutual benefit;
  • Create problem-solving relationships: develop and promote strong, permanent relationships with communities, and a commitment to knowledge mobilization in our scholarship;
  • Establish symbiotic community connections: be a catalyst to forge strong connections to the wider world, and connect the local to the global.

Guideposts:

Increasingly empowered culture of experimentation and entrepreneurship among students, faculty and staff
New and enhanced applied learning experiences for students
Growing leadership and recognition in artistic, scientific, technological and social innovation
Expanding community engagement in discovery and innovation

ii. Boundless Collaboration

The College of Arts and Science will create and strengthen partnerships inside and outside the college and university, create diverse teams and nurture critical skills, set platforms for identifying local and global issues and solve complex problems. Together, we will be innovative: taking measured risks and working dynamically.
  • Continue Curriculum Renewal: introduce writing, quantitative reasoning, and Indigenous learning requirements into degree programs;
  • Embrace the diversity of our disciplines, guiding them to cooperation in fresh interdisciplinary ways;
  • Address global questions and concerns from strong disciplinary bases.

Guideposts:

Growth in recruitment of global faculty and students to all disciplines
Increased recognition of disciplinary strength and impact globally
Stronger, more diverse community connections within disciplines

  • Simplify degree and certificate paths, and leverage our unique capacity for cross-departmental and inter-disciplinary programming;
  • Pursue strategic enrolment increases, balancing our existing and projected capacity with the needs and desires of our students;
  • Create strategic complement plans for faculty and staff;
  • Articulate and embed community engaged scholarship and collaboration, as well as interdisciplinary RSAW and teaching, in departmental standards for tenure, promotion and merit;
  • Reward and celebrate good college and university citizenship and service;
  • Make visible and meaningful investments in student services, leading to positive student experience and student outcomes.

Guideposts:

Systems and structures increasingly contribute to building the culture of trust essential to collaboration
Tenure, promotion, and merit systems appropriately recognize and reward disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration and community-engaged scholarship
Student experience increasingly shaped by collaborative learning opportunities
Physical and virtual environments across our college enable a connected, collaborative, and welcoming community
Increased morale and job satisfaction for college employees

  • Enrich internationalization: increase domestic student participation in study abroad and student exchanges; increase faculty participation in international RSAW and teaching programs; actively, strategically recruit and support international students; engage students in certificate- and degree-based classes that teach international dimensions;
  • Connect within and beyond the college through local, national and international collaborations, increasingly with alumni and donor-investors;
  • Establish Arts and Science student cohorts – diverse student communities nurtured by the diverse college environment, including faculty and staff mentors
  • Enhance creativity through connection; the breadth of RSAW and teaching and learning in the college provides an ideal environment for exchange of ideas, starting with students at the undergraduate level;
  • Share strategies and resources with our regional college partners and students.

Guideposts:

Growth in the number, diversity, and scale of local, national, and international partnerships in research, scholarly and artistic work, scholarship and training
International students increasingly view the college as a destination for unique, high-value learning opportunities
College policies and support systems enable effective partnerships across sectors, geographies, and cultures
A spirit of holistic wellness and mutual respect imbuing all our engagement efforts

  • Promote respect and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities;
  • Enact the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’s Calls to Action on Indigenous student success, culturally appropriate curricula and for-credit programming in Indigenous languages;
  • Emphasize Indigenous student supports, Indigenous-focused academic programs and RSAW, and Indigenous faculty recruitment and retention;
  • Participate in collaborative TriAgency research programs that directly or indirectly contribute to Reconciliation.

Guideposts:

Growth in number, diversity, and strength of programming initiatives contributing to Reconciliation
Leadership in Reconciliation models, initiatives, and methodologies
Systems and structures that support Reconciliation
Strong evidence of initiatives that are responses to the TRC Calls to Action

iii. Inspired Communities

We will embrace all of who we are and all of who we will be, together.
  • Strengthen partnerships (possibly through an Advisory board to the dean) with the City of Saskatoon, local community-based organizations, and neighboring communities, to become delineated under a formalized process for consultation;
  • Develop a program for appointing a community scholar(s) and elder(s)-in-residence;
  • Strengthen partnerships with individual Indigenous communities, within and beyond the province;
  • Articulation and teachings of manacihitowin will be fluid and deeply known and evident throughout the college;
  • Enhance reciprocity and coordinated initiatives (such as maximizing internship opportunities for Indigenous students with Indigenous governments and organizations);
  • Implement Universities Canada’s principles on Indigenous Education.

Guideposts:

Increased number of experiential cultural and language opportunities for all students, staff, faculty, and leadership
Protocols and policies that are respectful of diverse Indigenous cultural groups
Systems and structures that support collaborative and reciprocal relationships and partnerships with Indigenous peoples on- and off-campus
Practices and policies that respect and honour Elders, Traditional Knowledge Keepers, and Language Teachers
Articulation and teachings of Manacihitowin will be fluid and deeply known and evident throughout the whole campus community

  • Maintain strengths in dual credit for high school students, seniors programming, and community non-credit programming; and promote life-long learning;
  • Pursue mutually-beneficial Memoranda of Understanding and Agreement with other colleges and universities, other partners;
  • Commit to environmental sustainability and to reducing the college’s environmental footprint.

Guideposts:

Enhanced contribution to communities’ overall health and wellness, quality of life, and capacity to achieve social intents
Increased impact on communities’ capacity to protect the environment and promote ecological sustainability

  • Celebrate and share the successes, accomplishments, events and experiences of our college, and of our individual faculty, students, staff and alumni using all available channels;
  • Promote the recognition of our researchers, scholars, and artists locally, nationally, and internationally;
  • Successfully build identity while enhancing and upholding the reputation of the institution;
  • Profile our RSAW, policies that inform, stories that teach, artwork that engages and events that reach our community and beyond.

Guideposts:

Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others in our community understand and value the college/ university story and can carry it into their conversations
Increased share of traditional and digital media
Improved reputation and institutional recognition locally, provincially, and globally

  • Support philanthropic activity and engagement in support of the college's fundraising priorities
  • Devise a stewardship plan to ensure our donors are recognized in a consistent and meaningful way;
  • Refine our Alumni Engagement strategy to develop a culture of alumni engagement from day one of graduation.

Guideposts:

Strengthening of mutually beneficial relationships with alumni to serve the needs of our graduates and our college
Growth in the degree and depth of alumni engagement—as ambassadors, partners, supporters, and donors
Expanded, more diverse donor base in Saskatchewan, across Canada, and globally
Substantial increase in donor support toward our mission

Academic Plan Summary

Capital Plan Summary

Engagement Plan Summary

Enrolment and Student Experience Plan Summary

Faculty Relations Plan

Plan Lead: Vice-Dean Faculty Relations

Faculty

  • We have a complement planning process, which includes a strategy for Indigenous faculty recruitment.
  • Faculty members participated in the Modified Reduced Appointment Retirement Plan(MRARP).
  • We consider Academic Programming Appointments where appropriate.
  • We consider joint appointments between departments and/ or colleges where appropriate.
  • We provide non-strategic spousal appointments where appropriate and beneficial for other colleges or the university.

Indigenization Plan Summary

People Plan Summary

Plan Lead: Chief Operating Officer Finance and Resources

Staff

We have moved from a model of complete decentralization of clerical staff to a hybrid model of central and local support under a single manager – Administrative Support Group (ASG) - resulting in significant cost savings. As our ASG evolves, we continue to look for opportunities to reduce redundancies with ConnectionPoint and to bring additional departments into the model as departmental front office retirements and resignations occur.

The voluntary exits during 2017-18 also provided opportunity for some restructuring of instructional and technical support in our large science departments to both better align with current needs and to streamline – i.e. more appropriately combine duties - to reduce cost.

We have taken advantage of the SBA model to reduce direct costs and to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

All open staff positions are carefully reviewed for opportunities to eliminate or modify.

Research, Scholarly, Artistic Work Plan Summary

Human Resources SBA

The Strategy Map

university-plan-weave.jpg

OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK: “THE WEAVE”

We have come to understand the essence of the University of Saskatchewan’s strategic plan in the visual representation above: a conceptual framework that the countless community members who have contributed to its evolution now affectionately call “the weave”.

The symbolism of our strategic framework as a tightly woven belt of fabric is highly intentional. Our strategy is at once strong and flexible—resilient in an era of global urgency and unprecedented social and technological change. Our strategy is multidimensional, true to the complexities and contradictions that inspire the creativity and generosity of great institutions. And our strategy is highly integrated, tying together our University’s legacy, spirit, and future into a singular description of who we are and aspire to become.

  • The vertical threads capture our four principles—SUSTAINABILITY, DIVERSITY, CONNECTIVITY, CREATIVITY—as interpreted and discovered through the gift of Indigenous languages and teachings.
  • The lighter horizontal threads reinforce core elements of our mission: fostering interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to DISCOVERY; uplifting the experience of INDIGENIZATION in our lives as students, educators, scholars, and citizens; preparing students for enriching careers and fulfilling lives as engaged global citizens through excellence in TEACHING AND LEARNING; and nurturing the innovative, accessible and welcoming spaces essential to meaningful ENGAGEMENT with our diverse communities.
  • The darker horizontal threads describe the scope of our vision and spirit of engagement: our special connections to the REGIONAL communities in which our students, faculty, and staff live and work; the unique and enduring PROVINCIAL partnerships that allow our university to contribute meaningfully to the social, cultural, and economic life of Saskatchewan; the distinguishing leadership, talent, and ideas our university brings to the NATIONAL stage as we work to create a brighter, more prosperous, and more sustainable future for Canada; and the INTERNATIONAL research, teaching, and community partnerships essential to our university’s position as a globally relevant institution of higher learning.

Together, these interlaced threads give strength to the three COMMITMENTS and twelve GOALS that underpin the INTENT of this plan: to be the university the world needs. Our commitments and goals represent our contract with the communities and partners that give us purpose—an institutional promise to be better and do more, woven into the tapestry of history, identity, and vision that will stretch with us into our future.

If the weave is as true an expression of who we are and aim to become as we believe the weave to be—and if we are true to the spirit and substance of this strategic framework over the coming years—we are confident that we will be able to achieve the five ASPIRATIONS that will define the success of this plan in 2025: Transformative Reconciliation, Productive Collaboration, Meaningful Impact, Distinguished Learners, Global Recognition.

The University Plan

Over the next seven years we will achieve our vision of contributing to a sustainable future by fulfilling our mission of leading interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to discovery, teaching and outreach. Informed by our principles of connectivity, sustainability, diversity and creativity, we will engage our communities to discover and share knowledge and solutions that impact lives and create opportunities.

University Plan 2025