The Plan for Faculty, Staff, Administration

Vision: In order to achieve our vision, WSU faculty, administrators, and staff must be a complement of outstanding teachers, excellent scholars, and effective and efficient administrators.

The Plan for Faculty, Staff, and Administration

Goal 1: To attract and retain high-quality, full-time, culturally-diverse faculty and staff who manifest potential for excellent teaching, scholarship, and service to students, WSU and community.

Over the next decade, Winona State, like colleges and universities across the country, will be faced with a significant challenge in maintaining its faculty. The combination of anticipated retirements and fewer doctoral trained persons seeking careers in education will place WSU in a difficult situation as we proceed through the decade. We must retain the highly talented faculty and staff currently at WSU as well as begin a comprehensive plan of ''vacancy management" which will insure Winona State maintains adequate numbers of highly trained full-time faculty throughout the decade.

Goal 2: To create and maintain a strong program of faculty and staff development for individuals in all phases of their careers.

As the time away from formal training for our faculty and staff increases, so does the need to support further faculty and staff development. Participation in conferences, symposia, local, state, national, and international meetings must be encouraged and opportunities for additional formal education must be maintained and increased. Sabbatical and educational leaves must remain viable options for faculty and staff in all phases of their careers. Faculty scholarship and research must be encouraged, supported, and rewarded.

Goal 3: To create a sense of community between faculty and staff which fosters collegial intellectual and social contact.

Faculty, administrators, and staff need to be encouraged to form communities within the university which cross over disciplines and employment categories. Rituals of integration, celebration, and conflict resolution must be created. Formal and informal gatherings, academically and socially oriented, should be scheduled throughout the year. In recent years, WSU has made significant strides toward this goal with the Bush grant workshops, Lyceum series, quarterly graduation receptions, and Holiday Open House, along with the traditional faculty convocation, faculty and staff picnic, and commencement ceremony.

Goal 4: To assure that academic, student, and administrative support units provide services to faculty, staff and students in a comprehensive, timely, and courteous manner.

The support staff of Winona State will be critical in the implementation of our vision for the future. It is impossible for the mission of Winona State University to be carried out without the skills of our highly talented support staff.

Historical staffing patterns and workloads must be reviewed to determine areas of need for increased staff. In addition, there is a need to increase the use of technology to improve speed and efficiency in staff operations. Planned recruiting of new support staff is needed and planned development of all current staff must be a yearly goal.