GOAL 1: ACADEMIC DISTINCTIVENESS AND QUALITY

Enhance our distinctive learning experience to produce talented graduates with the knowledge and skills essential for critical thinking, meaningful civic engagement, international competency, an appreciation for the arts, lifelong learning and the ability to lead and adapt in a rapidly changing world.

Objective A: Ensure the alignment of General Education, the major, assessment, undergraduate and graduate program review, and co-curricular activities with the above goal.

• During the quarters-to-semesters conversion at Wright State University, curricula from each program were evaluated and refreshed to improve their relevance and effectiveness for contemporary students.
• Wright State University’s first-year writing program in the Department of English    Language and Literatures was one of three programs in 2010 to receive the Liberal Studies’ Exemplary Program Award for accomplishments in creative programs by General Education faculty and administrators committed to ongoing improvement.
• Wright State began distributing copies of The New York Times across campus as part of the New York Times Readership Program, which strives to enrich student learning inside and outside the classroom, provide an additional resource for students to explore global issues, promote critical thinking and discussion and engage students in active learning.

Objective B: Diversify and enrich academic and professional programs, including non-degree.

• Wright State University’s Institute of Defense Studies and Education unveiled a new, state-of-the-art professional training program designed to teach students how to defend against cyber attacks and construct computer systems that are more prepared to fend them off.
• Wright State University launched a new doctoral program, the Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainability and Renewal in Organizations, the first doctoral program to be offered by the College of Education and Human Services and the only program of its kind in the region.
• In the wake of devastating disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti, Wright State University’s College of Nursing and Health created the Disaster Nursing Specialty to better prepare health care professional for such situations.    

Objective C: Recruit and retain a nationally/internationally recognized diverse, learning centered faculty and staff.

• Mechanical and materials engineering assistant professor Haibo Dong, Ph.D., won the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, providing more than $400,000 to advance the knowledge of biological fluid dynamics in free-flying animals.
• Award-winning Wright State University professor/filmmaker Julia Reichart and filmmaker Steve Bognar premiered The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant on HBO. The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award.
• Charlotte Harris, Ed.D., Dean of the College of Education and Human Services, was recognized by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Research on Women and Education (RWE) special interest group for significant contributions to AERA on behalf of women, girls and education. She was also inducted into the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, Dayton Region’s Hall of Fame.

Objective D: Enhance the quantity and quality of dialogue with our various communities to ensure our academic relevance and distinctiveness.

• Wright State University conducted the Diversity and Inclusion Project, a cultural assessment survey accompanied by a new website dedicated to the initiative. Following up the survey, several campus Diversity and Inclusion Town Hall Meetings were held to engage students and staff in candid discussions about diversity on campus.
• In consecutive years Wright State University was recognized by G.I. Jobs magazine and Military Advancement Education magazine and was named a “Military Friendly School” in recognition of the support the university provides for student veterans and students in the military.
• Wright State University continues to foster and explore innovation through diversity on campus with the aid of the annual Quest Conference. The most recent theme, A Quest for CommUNITY, reaffirmed past themes that dealt heavily with disability issues, gender issues, and race.

GOAL 2:  EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Enhance student access to and successful participation in higher education through quality and innovative instruction and student life programs that increase graduation and career placement for a diverse student body.

Objective A: Improve the enrollment and retention of direct-from-high-school, graduate and nontraditional student populations.

• From Fall 2008 to Fall 2010, Wright State’s total enrollment grew more than 12% to a record of nearly 20,000 students. Despite a declining number of high school graduates in Ohio, the university saw a 10.7% increase in the number of direct-from-high-school students.
• By Fall 2010, Wright State had more than 6,300 students over the age of 24. These non-traditional students make up 32% of the university’s student body.
• Established in 2009, the Wright State Graduation Fund provides scholarships to help financially needy students complete their degrees.

Objective B: Enhance the academic success of students.

• The university developed the Wright State Academy, a five-week intensive course designed to give at-risk students the writing and study skills necessary to succeed in college courses.
• In 2010, Raj Soin College of Business students placed in the top three for the ninth consecutive year at the Society for Advancement of Management Annual National Case Competition.
• Also in 2010, the Wright State Model United Nations team achieved the highest recognition possible at the National Model UN Conference in New York City. This marked the 32nd consecutive year that the team has won top honors.

Objective C: Develop effective educational processes to assist students in meeting post-graduate career and educational goals.

• The College of Education and Human Services recently began offering a certificate program called “The African American Experience in Education.” The program is designed to help future educators relate to African American students, making them more effective teachers in urban public schools.
• The Women’s Center and Career Services regularly offer $tart $mart, a workshop that educates women about the wage gap and trains them to negotiate better salaries.
• Each year, Career Services offers an Etiquette Luncheon, where a certified business etiquette trainer coaches participating students on the finer points of business dining and networking.

GOAL 3: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Expand our scholarship in innovative and targeted ways to address regional, national and global needs.

Objective A: Build a national and international research reputation

• Wright State has been designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a research university with high research activity and ranks fourth among Ohio’s public universities in federal research expenditures.   
• The Air Force awarded $6.4 million in contracts to a regional consortium of companies led by the Wright State Research Institute for research designed to help improve human performance in dealing with terrorist threats, combat fatigue and other defense issue.
• Wright State is now home to seven Centers of Excellence, six of them designated as the state's leading university center for its area of research. These Wright State-based centers partner with businesses and the military, generating new jobs, millions of dollars in economic impact and savings for industry.
• The Wright State Research Institute is developing a groundbreaking system that would scan the skeletal structures of people at airports, sports stadiums, theme parks and other public places that could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks, child abductions or other crimes. The images would then quickly be matched with potential suspects using a database of previously scanned skeletons. The idea has been submitted to the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity, a U.S. research agency formed to meet important technical challenges faced by the intelligence community.
• Ties between Wright State’s Aerospace Medicine Residency program and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base are expanding and flourishing under the Base Realignment and Closure-directed consolidation. Wright State is partnering with Wright-Patterson in many medical, human performance and other projects affected by BRAC.

Objective B: Enhance Research and Sponsored Programs infrastructure, leading to more external funding.

• Wright State has signed an agreement with Miami University to share the services of Technology Transfer and Development. This will lead to an increase in collaborative research projects, particularly in the area of commercialization.
• Supplemental funds have been made available to investigators with internal grants designed for research initiation, technology transfer and faculty professional development. Investigators use these grants as “seed” funding to collect pilot data, leading to more competitive applications to funding agencies.
• The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will implement an integrated database solution to handle pre-award and research compliance functions. It will enable the office to automate the proposal routing process, streamline electronic proposal submission to the federal government, provide more efficient interaction with the research compliance committees and effectively search for funding opportunities. 
• The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs began offering Proposal Writing 101. The lecture-style training walks novice grant writers through the process of writing a proposal and covers the basics such as describing the main components of the proposal, where to find funding, proposal writing tips and budget preparation.

Objective C: Foster discovery at all levels in the educational pipeline (K–16+)

• Wright State hosted its first-ever Science Olympiad Invitational, which pits teams of bright young middle and high school students from around the country in science and engineering competitions that often involve everything from astronomy and fossils to balsa structures and battery-powered vehicles. It was one of two invitationals the university will stage before hosting the National Science Olympiad Tournament in 2013.
• Summer enrichment courses at Wright State for grades K–9 attract children who desire challenge, are interested in learning and personal growth, and have the motivation to succeed. Educators and professionals from the Miami Valley provide a stimulating and challenging learning environment that encourages creativity and critical thinking.
• Upward Bound is a precollege program that is designed to motivate and provide academic skills for 8th, 9th or 10th grade students from first-generation college and low-income families. The program gives students the opportunity to strengthen the fundamental learning skills that are necessary to complete high school and graduate from college.

GOAL 4: COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION

Provide leadership to promote and support social, cultural and economic development within the region through our collaborations with local, state, national and global partners.

Objective A: Increase the opportunities within the curriculum for community engagement.

• Wright State was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its support of volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. The university is listed on the Honor Roll with Distinction for its strong institutional commitment to service and campus-community partnerships that produce measurable results for the region. Only 114 institutions across the country received such an honor.
• The university developed a class in which students get a hands-on look at how nonprofits manage their resources through fundraising, volunteering and grant writing. Students work with the charity of their choice, and that hard work pays off when they get to give the money they’ve raised to their chosen organization at the end of the term.

Objective B: Enhance the university’s presence with the Dayton/West Central Ohio regions, and beyond, in ways that benefit communities.

• A program designed to provide college scholarships over for as many as 500 academically promising local high school students from poverty-stricken families. Wright State and Sinclair Community College co-launched the program. Modeled after a program in Florida and set to run over a 10-year period, the Montgomery County*Ohio College Promise program is a one-of-a-kind plan for the Dayton area.
• Wright State accountancy master’s students used their auditing skills to help Huber Heights schools gauge the effectiveness of several programs. Teams analyzed sports participation fees, the dining program, requirements for continuing education and recent elections, breaking down the geographical distribution of votes for and against different kinds of levies. 
• University students spent their spring break participating in service projects in rural Appalachian communities near Athens, Ohio. The group worked on “Samaritan” projects, where they assist low- or fixed-income seniors and people with disabilities. Much of the work involved home improvement or repairs.
• Staffers from The Guardian, the student newspaper at Wright State, made a relief trip to Joplin, Mo., ravaged by an EF5 tornado that killed more than 140 people and destroyed 7,000 homes. The volunteers helped with cleaning, cooking and separating donations.

Objective C: Offer degree and other education programs consistent with regional and state needs.

• Wright State students learning about philanthropy awarded mini-grants to the House of Bread, the Linda Vista Project and the Children’s Hunger Alliance, which serve the community on issues related to poverty, food insecurity and homelessness. The Citizen Scholar course, Philanthropy as Citizenship, is one of over 100 being offered via the Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan Campus Compact organizations to increase students’ knowledge about the processes and issues involved in fundraising.    
• The National Center for Medical Readiness, also known as Calamityville, has been established to better prepare the region, state and nation for emergencies such as weather disasters, terrorist attacks or hazmat situations. http://www.medicalreadiness.org/calamityville/index.html NCMR is developing a state-of-the-art facility to provide a one-of-a-kind training opportunity for the world's medical, public health, public safety, and civilian and military disaster responders.

GOAL 5:  VALUED RESOURCES

Develop and sustain the human, financial and physical resources required to accomplish the university’s strategic goals.

Objective A: Encourage and support the professional development and wellness of faculty and staff.

• The new Wright State Leadership Academy provides staff with the essential tools necessary to improve performance. Its programs include The Performance Appraisal: An Obligation, Leadership the Wright Way and Executive Education.
• Human Resources organizes an annual Health and Benefits Fair for all Wright State employees. The fair includes free blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, flu shots and presentations by retirement providers.
• Each year, President Hopkins honors outstanding faculty, staff and units with Presidential Awards for Excellence.

Objective B: Enhance fiscal and operational management.

• In 2010, Wright State was awarded more than $118,00 in rebates from Dayton Power and Light for its installation of energy-efficient lighting and heating/air conditioning equipment. In addition, the upgrades save the university an estimated $45,000 annually.
• Budget reductions in FY 2012—to be shared by every unit on campus—have been softened by a planned $2.1 million increased return on the university’s financial investment portfolio and record enrollment last fall of nearly 20,000 students, which boosted tuition revenue.

Objective C: Generate increased revenue.

• Created in 2008, the Institute of Defense Studies and Education is dedicated to providing high-value educational programs using best practices relevant to the United States Department of Defense, including certificate programs in Supply Chain Management, Psychology of Terrorism and Cyber Security.
• Ohio’s Third Frontier program approved up to $5 million for Wright State to purchase a national center of excellence in human performance. The center has led to advances in human-performance technologies for pilots and, various others through research, development, training and commercialization.

Objective D: Increase investments in facilities/technologies to achieve strategic goals.

• Ground was broken at the Wright State University–Lake Campus for construction of the satellite campus’s first residential apartments. The construction is part of a $9 million construction and renovation project in 2009.
• The newly constructed Matthew O. Diggs III Laboratory for Life Science Research, a “green” building, received a Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The Diggs Lab was the first laboratory in Ohio to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-NC Gold status.
• Recent technology investments include the WrightBuy E-Procurement system used by the Wright State Purchasing Department to improve efficiency in the ordering process. The Wright State Department of Human Resources has also made a switch to improve efficiency. The department now uses PeopleAdmin for the employment application process.