Strategic Priorities

Strategic Priority 1

Grow a safe, supportive, and welcoming NatSci community that empowers the best outcomes for all.

Access, community, and excellence (ACE) spur new perspectives and ideas, lead to innovation, and propel advances in NatSci’s scientific, educational, and outreach missions. Creating an inclusive community that promotes access for all is vital for achieving excellence in scientific and educational missions.

Goals and Action Items

Build a community where people have a voice, a sense of belonging, and a desire to stay.

• Establish an office of Access, Community, and Excellence (ACE) to foster an inclusive environment where every individual can learn, grow, and thrive.
• Identify and eliminate cultural and structural barriers that lead to unequal access and outcomes for all.
• Build a sense of community and create connections for retention of faculty, academic specialists, postdocs, support staff, and students

Enable a culture that aligns with MSU core values by increasing access and opportunities.

• Clearly articulate unit-level goals and expectations that are in alignment with university values and guidelines.
• Enable transparency in decision-making and open exchange of ideas in a culture where all contributors feel safe sharing their perspectives, and leaders consistently recognize and value those contributions.
• Develop and promote resources, training programs, and workshops that increase awareness and understanding of inclusive excellence while sharing principles, strategies, and practices that support inclusive environments at all levels.
• Improve the accessibility of physical, technological, and e-learning environments to maximize opportunity and wellness for all.

Grow the community in recruitment, admissions, hiring, career advancement, and retention via processes that ensure career growth.

• Expand and sustain workshops, resources, and trainings that align policies, structures, and processes with equitable and transparent practices across recruitment, hiring, and workplace culture. 
• Build programs and activities that reinforce our committment to MSU core values of integrity, access, opportunity, and excellence.
• Increase investment in undergraduate research and mentoring programs designed to broaden participation in STEM and recruit these participants to NatSci graduate programs.

Develop and apply equitable and transparent systems of performance expectations and evaluation, rewards, and promotion decisions.

• Establish the College Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (COFASA) to support the development, refinement, and implementation of policies and processes for evaluation, reappointment and promotion, and professional development of faculty and academic staff.
• Develop unit-level leadership teams committed to NatSci values and the training, assessment, and implementation of such values in each unit.
• Support work-life balance by expanding access to flexible resources and policies, while recognizing and rewarding individuals engaged in the mentorship and service commitments that shape academic and professional advancement.
• Adapt and strengthen policies and bylaws to adapt to institutional priorities.
• Establish a structured, transparent process for the annual review and 5-year review of chairs and directors.
• Strengthen transparent communications about policies and academic processes to promote access, opportunity, and accountability.

 

Strategic Priority 2

Prepare students and postdoctoral scholars for current and future careers by building strong disciplinary expertise and the skills necessary to solve problems, engage as informed citizens, and adapt to emerging challenges.

The ability to think critically is central to a well-functioning, free, and democratic society. NatSci builds critical thinking skills by training students to make careful observations, analyze data, and apply logical reasoning. NatSci prepares its graduates to succeed in any career that requires the application of scientific knowledge to critically evaluate evidence.

Goals and Action Items

Collaborate to deliver a broad and cohesive education in natural science.

• Articulate clear student learning outcomes for all majors and courses and continually improve instruction based on assessment of those outcomes.
• Connect the disciplines of natural science to deliver a coherent science education.
• Promote adoption of research-based teaching and advising practices to support the learning, development, and academic success of all students.
• Respond to the impact of generative AI on teaching and learning by adapting instructional approaches and learning goals, using AI tools to support student learning, and educating students on the appropriate and responsible use of generative AI in academic and professional settings.
• Ensure accountability for progress toward a graduate degree through annual mentoring meetings and written progress reports for each graduate student.

Raise student awareness of careers that apply scientific skills and expand opportunities for deliberate career planning.

• Ensure that undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs are well-informed about the diversity of careers for which their training prepares them.
• Expand opportunities for internships, externships, shadowing, research, education abroad, and service community-engaged learning to build career-relevant skills for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs.
• Expand the college’s career services mission to encompass graduate students and postdocs.

Strengthen NatSci’s growing programs focused on human health.

• Reimagine the college's curricula for health science undergraduate students to optimize their preparation for both post-graduate medical training and the full breadth of careers that further human health.
• Collaborate with health-related units throughout the university to establish a partnership that serves students pursuing health careers.

 

Strategic Priority 3

Maximize research excellence in biological, mathematical, and physical sciences and blaze new frontiers at their intersections.

The biological, physical, and mathematical sciences are core to understanding the natural world and are fundamental to advancing society’s health and wellbeing. Research teams whose members reflect a diversity of expertise, opinions, and life experiences often arrive at creative solutions to the most difficult challenges. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research across colleges, universities, and the private sector provides new opportunities for innovation and for student careers.

Goals and Action Items

Build on existing research strengths that are foundational to the college’s research, education, and service missions.

• Empower all faculty to pursue research directions with the greatest potential to further our mission.
• Enhance continued growth as a global research leader through infrastructure that increases funding success.
• Optimize the college’s strategic investments by coordinating resources.
• Engage the broader community in NatSci's research mission through communication and outreach.

Incentivize multidisciplinary collaborations that create new opportunities.

• Sponsor conversations and forums that encourage faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate student researchers to reach across disciplinary boundaries.
• Enhance support for innovative funding proposals that establish new cross-disciplinary collaborations.
• Promote and maintain flexibility to enable interdisciplinary approaches in graduate training.

Encourage collaborations that connect with emerging research priorities.

• Support research initiatives that broaden the college’s participation in emerging research trends.
• Encourage collaborations that capitalize on expanding research areas, including promoting planet and human health, driving the digital revolution, and uncovering principles of nature across scales.

 

Strategic Priority 4

Pursue scientific discoveries that address societal grand challenges, including climate change, emerging diseases, and food/water security.

The world's global society must pursue many different scientific and technological approaches to achieve a thriving planet and healthy communities. Part of MSU’s mission is to engage in that pursuit through research that addresses grand challenges impacting our state, nation, and world. NatSci must disseminate research findings widely, provide expertise to help implement real world solutions, and engage in translational work.

Goals and Action Items

Tackle challenging problems facing the planet, its people, and the sustainability of society.

• Engage MSU researchers at all levels of experience in the university’s land grant and Association of American Universities (AAU) missions.
• Invest in established research strengths with the potential to discover solutions to societal grand challenges.

Collaborate with partners both internal and external to MSU to develop and apply research-based solutions to challenging problems.

• Partner with industry, healthcare, and local businesses to commercialize MSU inventions, enhance economic development, and create internship opportunities.
• Partner with other colleges at MSU to establish collaborations that bring together a diversity of technical expertise, opinions, and life experiences to address societal grand challenges.

Pioneer new approaches to emerging global problems.

• Respond swiftly to emerging global problems through innovative applications of scientific research.
• Invest in both applied and fundamental research to address emerging grand challenges.
• Accelerate AI/Machine Learning/Data-driven discovery.

 

Strategic Priority 5

Cultivate and strengthen the college’s internal and external relationships through engaging communication, development, and outreach efforts.

Efective communications, development, and outreach activities are vital to the success of any academic enterprise. As a public institution and scientific community, NatSci is obligated to share — in a clear and accessible way — discoveries and innovations, particularly those supporting the public’s understanding of how science is important in their everyday lives.

Goals and Action Items

Extend the reach, influence, and efficacy of the college’s scientific and educational endeavors through innovative, compelling communications.

• Emphasize MSU’s core values of integrity, access, opportunity, and excellence into college themes, messages, and storytelling to authentically represent the college population and communicate actions and activities.
• Convey NatSci’s vision, mission, values, and research endeavors to support the recruitment and retention of outstanding students, staff, and faculty.
• Strengthen relationships with donors and other external funders by clearly communicating NatSci’s priorities, impact, and research excellence.
• Position NatSci as a leader in providing science-based solutions to people’s problems and enriching their lives.

Identify development efforts and initiatives that enrich the student experience, cultivate affinity among alumni and donors, and enhance the reputation of the college.

• Build and strengthen relationships with alumni and donors through current and new, innovative forms of engagement.
• Increase fundraising success with alumni and friends of the college as well as with corporate and foundation partners.
• Steward donors with strategic and intentional activities that focus on impact.

Broaden and amplify the sharing of NatSci’s research discoveries and innovations, transformative teaching, and student learning through outstanding outreach and education activities.

• Engage NatSci’s diverse audiences and communities by sharing information and expertise and inviting idea exchange around transformative research, teaching, and learning activities.
• Support and broaden existing connections — both online and in-person — with people, groups, and organizations outside of the science community to foster mutually beneficial relationships that encourage the exchange of ideas, resources, and expertise.
• Attract prospective students by sparking an interest in, and passion for, science.
• Leverage existing outreach and education activities at the college and university levels to enhance overall efforts and better harness department / faculty activities toward a common goal.

 

Strategic Priority 6

Demonstrate transparency, professionalism, and respectful communication in ways that contribute to the greater good of all.

Transparent, inclusive practices are essential to dismantling structural biases, establishing a more equitable environment, promoting a sense of belonging, increasing participation, and building trust. This strategic priority strives to create a climate and culture within NatSci that makes it possible to accomplish the college's strategic priorities and to respond with more agility to external pressures and crises. When all members of the community feel heard, valued, and respected, they operate at their fullest potential, thereby making human capital NatSci’s greatest asset.

Goals and Action Items

Promote professionalism and accountability.

• Establish a NatSci Human Resources Director position to provide strategic leadership in talent management, employee engagement, and organizational effectiveness.
• Facilitate collaboration between HR Director, Office for Access, Opportunity, and Excellence (ACE), and newly established College Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (COFASA).
• Develop a college-wide code of professional standards and behavior that aligns to university policies.
• Develop an onboarding process for chairs and directors that includes training in conflict resolution and bystander intervention.

Increase and practice transparency and respectful communication.

• Provide guidance to chairs and directors on leading constructive and transparent conversations during annual evaluations that reinforce shared expectations for respectful and professional conduct within units.
• Effectively communicate with all community members to ensure understanding of their roles, rights, and responsibilities.
• Cultivate a culture and climate where all can thrive through transparency, accountability, and inclusive practices.

Empower personal development through mentoring relationships.

• Explore establishment of a mentoring policy for faculty and academic specialists (FAS) to align with evaluation and promotion processes.
• Establish college-level guidelines for training and supervision of undergraduate learning assistants.
• Educate graduate and undergraduate students on characteristics of healthy and unhealthy mentoring relationships.