Reflection & Growth in Strategic Planning

As we look forward to the future, we reflect on CSM's development, growth, improvement, and alignment opportunities. Our honest reflection includes an extensive assessment of our strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities. Our campus community provided input into four key activities that inform our strategic planning for the college of the future:

• Presidential reflections on first 100 days
• Campus climate survey
• Antiracism surveys
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) analysis with corresponding competitor analysis

Presidential Reflection on First 100 Days

Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza became CSM’s 10th president, on July 1, 2022. At the start of her presidency, she embarked on a one-hundred-day campus listening tour. Her listening tour informed the development of our institutional priorities. Highlights from this tour focus on the following:

Prominent Characteristics

• The campus focuses on “doing good”
• Teaching and scholarship are a priority
• The 100-year legacy shapes our future
• Collaboration is central to our work
• Mental and financial health are important to us

Opportunities

• Ensure all populations are served equitably
• Provide adequate resources to operational areas to create stability
• Create comprehensive economic development infrastructure
• Build the CSM brand in the community, from early education to college
• Interrogate programs, services, and curricula that have not led to equitable outcomes or student achievement
• Invest in antiracism, as our Solidarity Statement claims

Participatory, Shared Governance

• Shared governance requires shared responsibility
• Create space to reflect, discuss, and connect
• Communicate to build understanding and avoid confusion
• Establish a process to facilitate the feedback cycle for committee representatives
• Reflect on and assess institutional governance committee effectiveness

Values

• Create a culture in which BIPOC faculty, students, and staff feel authentic care
• Enhance campus engagement and voice
• Review and revise practices, policies, processes, and procedures that create barriers to student achievement
• Budget allocation should reflect our priorities
• Inspire innovation and creativity
• Be accountable, be thoughtful, and lead with urgency
• Celebrate each other and the diversity of our students

The presidential reflections led to a campus-wide assessment of all aspects of our climate to gauge alignment and opportunities for growth. The first step was an assessment of antiracism on campus.

Campus Climate Survey

The last campus climate survey was conducted in 2017. The institution has experienced many transitions over the previous five years. Therefore, the president felt it necessary to complete a climate survey in Spring 2022.The next campus climate survey will be administered in two years. These surveys play an essential role in our college planning. We want to note what is working well and consider ways to improve.

An external agency, ModernThink, collected feedback about our campus climate. All members of the CSM community were invited to participate. With a high participation rate of 42%, CSM faculty and classified staff shared their perspectives and highlighted growth opportunities.

Here are the ten areas the College will focus on over the next five years: collaboration; communication; con­fidence in senior leadership; diversity, inclusion, and belonging; faculty and staff well-being; job satisfaction and support; mission and pride; performance management; professional development; and supervisor/department chair effectiveness.

Antiracism Surveys

Throughout 2021 and 2022, CSM engaged students, faculty, and staff in an assessment of antiracism on our campus. The student survey was conducted in 2021 with a 12.1% response rate. The faculty and staff antiracism survey was conducted in 2021 with a response rate of 20%.

Student Survey Observations

Environment and culture: Overall, students reported high to moderately high feelings of safety and belonging at CSM.A majority strongly agreed with feeling “safe being who I am” and agreed that CSM has places and programs where they feel a sense of belonging. Collegewide, fewer than one in six students reported having observed race- or appearance-based incidents by faculty or staff, while one-half to two-thirds denied such observations. However, more than one in four disabled, LGBTQ+, and Black/African American students reported having experienced microaggressions. Of those responding affirmatively, Black/African American, disabled, and LGBTQ+ students agreed at higher rates than other groups.

Perceived connection between identification and ed­ucation: Disabled and Black/African American students consistently perceive a connection between their racial/cultural identity and disability, and the quality of their overall campus experience, inside and outside the classroom.

Pedagogy/curriculum: Disabled and Black/African American students consistently perceive a connection between their racial/cultural identity and the quality of their overall campus experience, inside and outside the classroom.

Faculty and Staff Survey Observations

Overall, faculty and staff feel that CSM is a culturally responsive campus, yet discrepancies between what people believe and do at CSM exist:

• 5% of the respondents perceive racial and ethnic tension on campus
• 7% of respondents say they notice students being treated differently by coworkers based on appearance
• 6% of respondents felt that committees do not have diverse representation

If we are to create an equitable campus and culture, antiracism must become a matter of policy and practice. In addition, we are reviewing our equity policy and practices. An ombudsperson will be hired to investigate and resolve student issues related to equity and antisexism. Other action steps toward this have been discussed and incorporated into our integrated plans.

SWOT/Competitor Analyses

Managers and senate leadership participated in a SWOT* analysis to fully understand all of the factors CSM faces in developing the college of the future. Our SWOT analysis was facilitated by the Society for College and University Plan­ning (SCUP) in June 2022, and revealed the following factors:

* In the future, we plan to use an alternative analysis model suited for higher education and less deficit-based.

Building upon the SWOT analysis, SCUP coached College of San Mateo leadership through a competitor analysis that revealed the following: