Nevada Board of Regents announce new strategic plan initiative

 As an outcome of a two-day workshop held by the Nevada Board of Regents, the state’s public higher education system will pursue a new strategic planning process encompassing its four community colleges, a state college, two research universities and research institute. The initial foundation of the plan will stem from the 2011 Strategic Directions for the Nevada System of Higher Education.

“Higher education is always in a state of change and we must always strive to not only adapt to that dynamic environment, but to also be the leaders of change to better serve the needs of our students and the state of Nevada,” said Rick Trachok, chairman of the Board of Regents. “We had an outstanding, and frank, discussion with NSHE leadership at our Aug. 25-26 meeting and those initial conversations will be the genesis for ongoing discussions with our campus, community, business and government stakeholders.”

Initial goals of the plan will include:

• Connecting NSHE’s mission with goals aligned with Gov. Brian Sandoval’s 2016 – 2020 Nevada’s Strategic Planning Framework.
• Increasing transparency and accountability with a focus on mission differentiation. 
• Dramatically improving Nevada’s college degree and workforce certificate attainment levels.
• Significantly improving enrollment levels among secondary school graduates and retention rates at NSHE institutions.
• Continuing to increase degree productivity at NSHE institutions.
• Eliminating equity gaps in enrollment, retention, graduation rates, and college degree and workforce certificate attainment levels for Nevada’s traditionally underrepresented populations.
• Significantly increasing research expenditure levels and commercialization activity at NSHE’s research institutions. 

“We must continue to create conditions for success in all that we do and build a plan on which we can continuously grade ourselves,” said John V. White, NSHE chancellor. “Updating our strategic plan to better define mission differentiation, improve accessibility, affordability, and transparency, as well as community and business partnerships, is vital to NSHE’s role in positively transforming the lives of Nevadans.”

The strategic plan will be developed by Chancellor White, with input from key higher education stakeholders, NSHE institutions, community members, faculty, students, and state leaders. “A plan is only helpful if it is participatory in its construction and garners widespread commitment throughout the System,” said White.

A presentation of the strategic plan is expected to be made to the regents for consideration at their January 2017 meeting.

An additional outcome of the meeting was a discussion on the role of the chancellor and expectations for NSHE leadership in anticipation of the national search for a permanent chancellor which will begin this fall.