The UCA Board of Trustees has approved a new strategic plan to guide the university for the next three to five  years.
President Meadors created the Strategic Planning and Resources Council in Spring 2009 after an accreditation visit from the Arkansas Higher Learning Commission. They told Meadors that while UCA was doing a lot of things right, the creation of a strategic plan was necessary to give UCA a unified plan for the future.
Michael Schaefer, an English professor at UCA and the chair of SPARC, said that UCA will not be making any major changes in doctrine or in the way it operates. He said that notable changes will be in the assessments of departments’í educational effectiveness.
Schaefer said UCA was doing most things correctly, but that the Arkansas Higher Learning Commission said a strategic plan was necessary to keep UCA on track.
Schaefer said Meadors had experience with making a strategic plan at the last university he worked.
SPARC consisted of faculty, staff and administration from all over UCA. Schaefer said UCAPD, SGA and many other groups were represented. The earlier drafts of the plan were made public so the UCA community could comment and submit ideas for the plan. Each group in the committee also drew up their own ideas for the committee and SPARC consolidated all of the plans into one unified plan.
“It was surprising how much overlap there was in the plans,” Schaefer said.
The plan focuses on the future of the university in broad ways. Diversity is a key issue for the plan, which UCA plans to promote.
Much of the plan involves ideas for continuing to improve the educational atmosphere of UCA. This includes relationships on and off campus, such as other universities and legislative bodies.
A large part of the plan also deals with UCA’s ability to adapt to a budget that may not increase in the near future. This includes maintenance.
The plan also deals with integrity for the entire UCA community by laying out ways for UCA to be more connected to the community.
The plan works as an official common sense strategy for UCA to follow for the next three to five years.
There will be yearly reviews of its effectiveness with a comprehensive review at the end of the term.
According to the plan, it is not a firm plan with room for improvement. The plan says UCA should make sure that the current SPARC efforts are perused, accessed, re-evaluated, and part of ongoing dialogue. This means that the UCA community will be able to critique and improve the plan by continuing to give SPARC ideas.