Strategic Plan

TTU Abilene Strategic Plan

DRAFT

Goals

Have an average annual production of one PhD and two MS thesis degrees per faculty member (not counting non-thesis students)
Have a ratio of seven graduate students for each faculty member.
Have the following demographics in our student population:
- 50% domestic students
- 50% International students
Have a recruiting process that brings between 10 and 15 high quality new students to the Abilene campus every year.
Be recognized as a world leader in the following areas:
- Software Engineering
- Robotics
Have a program to assist faculty in obtaining external funding.
Reach and maintain a high level of research productivity, both quality and quantity.
- Average two conference and one journal publications per year per faculty member.
- Average $100,000 in research funding per faculty member per year.

Direction for Achieving Goals

Roughly in order of importance:

Develop and implement a successful graduate student recruitment strategy.
- Create a marketing strategy and an environment where students want to come to Abilene.
  - Build a cohesive research group in an area that does not compete with the strengths of the faculty in Lubbock.
  - Create a research focus that makes Abilene unique and desirable for some segment of the student population.
  - Provide assistantships and other employment opportunities.
  - Offer scholarships for first-year students.
- Find ways to help full-time students survive once they get here.
  - Team with City of Abilene and TTU School of Pharmacy to provide low-cost student housing within walking distance.
  - Find ways for our students to be employed by TTU and provide services for local Universities/Businesses.
  - Encourage and suport all faculty to aggressively seek external funding.
Develop a cohesive research focus in a small set of related areas.
- Aggressively pursue external funding through collaborative grant proposals
  - within TTU Abilene research group
  - with ACU, Hardin Simmons, and McMurray
  - with TTU School of Pharmacy
  - with researchers at TTU Lubbock
- Create an environment where faculty want to come to Abilene, and want to stay here.
  - desirable and unique research focus
  - opportunity for collaboration with TTU Abilene faculty
  - collaboration with faculty at local universities and TTU Lubbock
  - mentoring of assistant professors
  - Cohesive research group in the areas mentioned above
  - Associate chair takes an active role in fostering faculty development

Long-term Strategic Plan

Major tasks which must be accomplished, in order of importance.

Develop yearly working plan with enrollment and funding targets. Evaluate funding from all sources and develop plan to sustain student positions such as RA, TA etc. Yearly plan should be based on the long-term plan, but revised according to previous year performance and number of faculty.
Metric: diffenence in student population from long-term targets.
Create cohesive research group in a relatively high-demand subfield that is not competing for students with faculty at TTU Lubbock. This will draw certain students to Abilene, while the majority still go to Lubbock.
Metric: Number of students who apply specifically for Abilene because of desire to work in a particular area, not counting those employed locally. Number of collaborative grant proposals and publications.
Develop externally funded research in order to provide student employment opportunities
- Research Institute
- Help current faculty to obtain grants
- Collaboration with local university faculty
- Take advantage of services offered by DCOA
Metric: Total external funding obtained.
Find ways to increase ``pay-your-own-way'' enrollment - i.e. those who don’t require a scholarship or RA award.
Metric: Number of full-time students who are not receiving support.
Develop plan to increase access to program for part-time students
- flexible scheduling
- online courses
- short courses
Metric: Number of part-time students who are actively taking classes.
Develop solutions to unmet needs which keep students from applying
- Identify needs. Some of the following may have an impact on our application rate
  - Lack of housing
  - Lack of funds for living expenses
  - Lack of available jobs
  - Lack of knowledge of benefits of attending site
  - Difficulty in meeting requirements
    - Obtaining GRE scores
    - Lack of math skills and CS background
  - Scheduling difficulties
  Metric: Needs assessment document.
- Develop long-range plan to meet needs
  - Develop downtown student-oriented housing
  - Develop ``on-campus'' job opportunities
  - Identify other ways to provide for living expenses
    - RA, GA, TA
    - Find out how International students can make money under F-1 visa restrictions
    - Continue to assist Develop Abilene to develop technology industry in Abilene
    - Sponsor GRE pre-courses or discover a way for students to pay to attend ACU prep course
    - Hold math camps and identify way for prospects to increase math skills
    - Offer courses in evenings and online to increase access to program
  - Develop plan to recruit international students
Metric: Number of applications for Abilene campus.
Relationships with prospective students
- Develop methods to help prospects through application and enrollment process
- Develop plan to identify and recruit new prospects
Metric: Percentage of prospective students who enroll for classes.
Relationships with sources of students, such as universities and businesses
- Forge relationships with new sources (Hardin Simmons, McMurray, Millsoft, Air Force Base, etc.)
- Maintain relationships with existing sources
Metric: Number of students from each source who apply.
Advertising
- Identify target audience and their locations
- Identify vehicles which reach target audience in their location
- Identify strengths and branding values
- Identify core messages and stories to tell
- Consistently incorporate branding and values in core messages
- Follow current students and use their stories to develop prospects
- Develop media plan
- Develop print advertising plan
- Develop event plan
Metric: Find out how many students apply to our program because of advertising.
Evaluate demand among Dyess Air Force Base personnel for site programs.
Metric: Number of Dyess personnel who apply.
Develop plan to develop prospects from local K-16 entities (i.e. local ISD’s, junior colleges, 4 year universities) starting with the 5th grade
Metric: Number of people from these sources who apply.

Computer Science at Abilene Student Recruitment Plan

This recruiting plan is based on Thomas J. Jackson's recommendations. Items are listed in order of importance.

Find out what time of year students are shopping for a graduate program.
- Web site activity was peak between December 15 through and February 15.
- Applications peaked between February 15 and April 15.
It looks like we should be actively recruiting during January and February.
Run a targeted direct-mail campaign to increase awareness of TTU Abilene in our target market.
1. Get names and addresses from EDS for everyone in North America who has taken the GRE and is interested in Computer Science. DONE
2. Get referrals from faculty in Lubbock and at other institutions
3. Create database of addresses, and write a program that can automatically print labels and send poscards from the database once each week. Send ten postcards to each person. Send one postcard by snail mail to each person. Send remaining postcards by email if we have their email address, or snail mail otherwise. DONE
4. Create postcards and mail them to our target market. IN PROGRESS
Build a database with a web-based front-end, to track potential recruits. Give Abilene faculty/staff access to the database IN PROGRESS
Get more students to show interest in TTU Abilene, and get their contact information
1. Rebuild the TTU Abilene website with recruiting as the main focus. We are selling TTU CS at Abilene. IN PROGRESS
  - Purchase ``Pay Per Click'' advertising. DONE
  - Define our areas of research strength and state them clearly on the web site. DONE
  - Insert Keywords, so that we show up at the top of Google, Yahoo, etc. for queries related to our research strengths. DONE
  - Minimize number of links to web sites outside of TTU Abilene. DONE
  - On every page of our web site, offer potential students a free TTU Abilene mouse pad if they give us their name, phone number, and address. Automatically enter their data into our database. Need budget to design and print the mouse pads
  - Once we get them to visit the TTU Abilene website, show them why they should come here:
    - Reputation
    - Research and Faculty
    - Costs and Financial aid
    - Location
      - Cost of living
      - Recreation opportunities
      - Education opportunities (if they have children, they want to know about our schools)
      - Cultural opportunities
      - Entertainment opportunities
      - Shopping opportunities
      - Special opportunities (relationship with community)
      - Transportation. We have a good bus system.
    IN PROGRESS
  - Opportunities after graduation. Answer question ``What's in it for me?'' Need student and alumni testimonials
    - List of where our former students are working.
    - Letters from Former students.
  - Size: Sell the point that we are a small unit and they will get to work closely with and be mentored by their professors.
  - Facilities and technology Need photos/videos
  - Environment (Climate and Culture)
  - Find out what other core messages matter to our ``shoppers,'' and get those messages on our web site. Need budget to hire someone to do market research.
2. Develop a recruiting poster, and send it out to other CS departments at the right time.
3. Use Public Relations (News Releases, Feature Stories, Special Events, etc)
Make it possible for applicants to specify Abilene when using ApplyTexas. DONE!
Contact the prospective students, at the right time, with the right message, and the right messenger. Contact each potential recruit 13 times.
The Contact Steps for each recruit are:
1. Initial Email Reply (As soon as we get their name)
2. Two page Letter, Brochure, and Business Reply Card (24 to 48 hours after Email) NEED TTU Abilene CS brochure and BRC
3. Application Packet (2-3 days later) NEED paper application
4. Invitation to visit (3-5 days later) NEED Short letter
5. Phone Call from one of our students: Gather information about the potential recruit, and enter it into our database. Most important fact: What area are they most interested in. Ask if they mind us emailing them more information. (One week later) NEED to develop ``script'' and train students.
6. Send Jumbo Web Card (After Student Contact) Have caller write personalized message. NEED jumbo web card
7. Faculty member phone call. Use information from Student Phone call to select faculty member. Match faculty research with student interest. Communicate to potential recruit what makes your department special and unique. Be a ``purple cow.'' (Two weeks after Web Card) NEED script, with information so faculty member can answer questions about administrative stuff.
8. Career Opportunities. Two page letter plus fact sheet by email if they indicated OK. (Two weeks later) NEED info about alumni and one-paragraph alumni statements.
9. Phone call from staff. Where are we, how can I help with your enrollment, finding a place to live, etc. NEED script
10. Funding: two page letter and fact sheet about financial aid. Use email if they indicated ok. (Four weeks later) NEED letter and fact sheet
11. Phone-A-Thon: Best faculty and students to pitch TTU Abilene. (One week later) NEED script - things to highlight
12. Location: two page letter and fact sheet and/or Chamber of Commerce Brochure. Email if possible. (Two weeks later) NEED to get permission from C.O.C. to email their brochure.
13. Have Dean/Chair email to ``Close the Deal'' with a two page letter. (2 weeks later) NEED to get letter from Pam
Streamline application evaluation. Try to get Abilene faculty to evaluate Abilene applicants. Improve turnaround in admissions.
Once we have convinced them to apply, and have accepted them. Get them to Enroll.
The steps for getting them Enrolled are:
1. Send Letter of Acceptance. Include Funding. (As soon as they are accepted)
2. Phone Call - Tell them that they are Accepted and tell them about any Funding they are awarded. Ask if they have any questions. (3-5 days)
3. Assign them an advisor, based on their interests. Have Advisor send letter or email. (one week later)
4. Advisor Phone Call (one week later)
5. Dean's Letter (one week later)
6. Dean's Phone call (one week later)
7. Letter from Student (one week later)
8. Student phone call (one week later)
9. Alumni letter (one week later)
10. Alumni phone call (one week later)

Student Enrollment Targets

The following chart shows our target enrollment for the next five years. Each horizontal box represents a student. We assumer that MS students will typically be enrolled for two years, while PhD students will be enrolled for four years. Some students will have funding, either from our startup funds, or from research grants. Other students, shown with the white bars, will be self-supporting. Reaching these numbers will require active recruiting and success at obtaning external funding.

$\includegraphics{student_numbers.eps}$

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TTU Abilene Strategic Plan

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