Planning

Process Principles for Cal Poly Plan:

• Build on prior committees and planning efforts, particularly the University's Strategic Plan;
• Consult with those whom Cal Poly serves:
  • Media announcements and presentations,
  • Surveys,
  • Focus groups,
  • Forums;
• Refine joint governance process that is clear, fair, consistent, and consensual, further developing the Steering Committee members' understanding of and effectiveness with the process;
• Develop an integrated multi-year plan to address the issues and priorities identified through the Cal Poly Plan process in a comprehensive manner, including a multi-year funding strategy;
• Continue Steering Committee and involvement of Vice-Presidents and Deans to monitor progress regarding student progress to degree, quality, enrollment growth, funding, investments, and improvements in efficiency and productivity;
• Develop an analytical base to support deliberations about priorities, to enable future monitoring and assessment of success, and to facilitate transferability.

Enrollment

Enrollment Principles for Cal Poly Plan:

• Return to 15,000 full-time equivalent students (FTES) for the academic year (Cal Poly's Master Plan level) over the next three to five years (about 17,000 students);
• Rebuild summer enrollment;
• Consider Master Plan improvements to accommodate future enrollment growth to 17,400 AY FTES.

Distribution of future enrollment growth by level and program, applying the following:

• Cal Poly's mission with respect to the program mix,
• Diversity/representation,
• Student and applicant quality,
• Demand for graduates,
• Needs of the State of California,
• Facilities & equipment -- quality & capacity,
• Academic program/Teaching capacity,
• Staff/Service capacity,
• Community and environmental impacts.

Finance and Investments

Finance and Investment Principles for Cal Poly Plan:

• Recognize Board of Trustees' policy that the State University Fee will not increase to more than one-third of the cost of a student's education;
• Continue State support for enrollment growth;
• Recognize quality and costs associated with Cal Poly mission, as stated in the campus Strategic Plan ("learn by doing" -- what makes Cal Poly unique);
• Affordability -- assure financial aid sufficient to provide at least the same level of support as at present;
• Assure access for an increasingly diverse student population;
• Regard any new campus-based fee as supplementary to other sources of revenue in the General Fund operating budget, with revenues to remain on campus, and not used to supplant current budgets;
• Derive the level of any new campus-based fee from the level of investment necessary to make a demonstrable difference toward student progress and educational quality;
• Invest revenues from any new campus-based fee solely in visible (identifiable) quality and productivity enhancements (including student progress toward degree completion);
• Invest all revenues from any new campus-based fee to directly benefit students, their teaching and learning;
• Match new campus-based student fee revenues with State funds and private contributions, to maximize Cal Poly Plan investments;
• Develop fiscal flexibility;
• Address some priorities without financial investments, through no-cost and low-cost efforts as well as operational efficiencies.

Priorities for Allocation of Campus-Based Differential Fee, considering the following:

• Ability to achieve Cal Poly Plan purposes and goals rather than pro rata allocation based on a unit's historic proportion of the campus budget;
• Findings from surveys of students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and advisory groups, and other forms of constituency consultation;
• Assessment of needs by divisions and colleges.

Additional Investment Considerations:

• Incentives and support sufficient to encourage faculty and staff experimentation, and innovations in student learning,
• Potential as a model for transferability, or broader applicability or benefit, beyond the unit initiating a proposal,
• Contribution to Cal Poly's Strategic Plan goal of achieving a pluralistic campus with a diverse student, faculty and staff population,
• Immediate impact as well as long-term value of investments,
• Ongoing obligations as well as fixed-term investments,
• Direct support costs associated with selected investments,
• Sequencing of investments in initial and future years.

Remaining Finance and Investment Choices:

• Future campus-based fee structure and phasing;
• Future financial aid structure, pending Board of Trustees' approval.

Process for Defining and Building Quality, Productivity, and Accountability

Principles Regarding Process for Quality, Productivity and Accountability:

• Involvement of campus constituents in defining and measuring quality and productivity;
• Accountability at institutional and program levels;
• Linkage between planning, resource allocation, and performance;
• Continuing investments in quality and productivity:
  • Student productivity -- More effective student learning; retention and progress toward degree goals; curricular flexibility;
  • Institutional productivity -- More effective use of fixed resources;
  • Individual faculty and staff productivity -- Capitalization of faculty; innovation in meeting responsibilities.

Remaining Choices Regarding Process for Quality, Productivity and Accountability:

• Structure and schedule for continuing dialog to define quality and productivity, to develop accountability measures for both, and to create internal links between performance and resource allocation.

Mutual Understandings Between Cal Poly and CSU

Core themes established during summer 1995:

• Cal Poly Plan as a unified whole whose parts are inter-related and should not be unilaterally altered;
• Enrollment decisions about student mix based on sound academic reasons and the Cal Poly Strategic Plan goals (including diversity and affordability);
• State appropriations and State University Fees allocated for enrollment growth or quality enhancement not to fall below system-wide averages as a result of the Cal Poly Plan. Long-term financial arrangements to assure that Cal Poly can maintain the resources to preserve its polytechnic mission;
• Chancellor's Office to work with Cal Poly regarding financial aid policies and their impact on student access and campus revenues;
• Cal Poly and the Chancellor's Office to work together to develop definitions of costs, baselines, and timelines for assessing the fiscal impact of the Cal Poly Plan.

In addition, Cal Poly was encouraged to pursue the following:

• Fiscal flexibility, including the pursuit of other revenue sources and control the expenditure of new revenues generated through the Cal Poly Plan;
• Employee relations with respect to supplemental collective bargaining agreements;
• Initiatives to enhance institutional, student and faculty/staff quality and productivity;
• Process assessment to improve the quality and effectiveness of campus services;
• Curricular issues, including general education, articulation, and degree approval; and
• Capital improvements to accommodate future enrollment beyond 15,000 AY FTES.