Steps Toward Achieving the Vision of 2015
Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift
Taken from the December 15th, 2005, Graduate Council Minutes
“Chancellor Vandegrift reminded the Graduate Council that it was his opinion that in many respects, SIUE was all ready a premier Metropolitan University. His goal was to achieve national recognition of our excellence by 2015. He distributed to the Council, “SIUE: Steps Toward Achieving the Vision of 2015,” a bulleted list that summarized his report to the university of October 19, 2005.
The Chancellor noted the following things:
- While we will always serve our region by accepting quality transfer students, the academic preparation of our first-time, full-time freshman class will continue to improve and thus increasingly characterize us as a premier Metropolitan University. In the near term, we will hold our freshman class at 1700, and the purposeful development of our undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs will results in controlled overall enrollment growth.
- SIUE will enhance its overall reputation as a university committed to maximizing student learning. As such, we will continue efforts focusing on the freshman experience, advising, General Education, honors, major programs, and the attendant requirements of the library in support of our progress.
- SIUE will become a more residential campus, expanding its summer program and opening its residence halls during the summer to become recognized as a 12-month university.
- We will improve materially the graduation rate of our students as we think more broadly about the total educational experience of students at SIUE.
- Our graduate level programs will flourish as more certificate programs and applied professional degrees will be developed by our faculty and offered throughout the region.
- Our faculty will continue in the teacher/scholar model, and we will be known as a university with quality teachers who are also adept practitioners in the scholarly pursuit of their disciplines.
- Our Student Affairs services, Administrative support services, and University Relations initiatives will be excellent supports of our progress, and they will parallel developments in the academic arena with innovations of their own, further characterizing the distinctiveness of the educational experience at SIUE.
- Our campuses in East St. Louis and Alton will expand their reputations for community outreach and services.
- We will have active support from regional citizens as they increasingly recognize the value of our work and their support of the University will increase both in material and non-material ways.
- Our alumni, many of whom will continue to reside in the area, will recognize that the value of their degrees is increasing yearly, and they will become more actively engaged partners in our work.”
Source: Vandegrift, V. (2005). SIUE: Steps toward achieving the vision of 2015. Paper distributed at the Graduate Studies and Research Graduate Council meeting of December 15, 2005.
