Vision Statement
CAHNRS will be a catalyst and the preferred partner for building a resilient and prosperous Washington, enabling Washington and beyond to thrive in an ever-changing environment.
Mission Statement
CAHNRS will achieve its vision of fostering local and global communities that thrive by 1) developing an adaptable workforce that easily navigates changing employer needs and employment opportunities by advancing evidence-based practices in experiential education, 2) leading in research excellence to solve society’s ‘Wicked Problems’ related to agricultural, human, and natural resource sciences, and 3) helping to create positive change for communities, families, and individuals through community-centered outreach and engagement.
Vivid Descriptions of our Visions
Within 10 years, CAHNRS will be the go-to place for learning, working, and partnering because of our research, teaching, and engagement excellence and because of the culture within CAHNRS.
CAHNRS will have the reputation of being the destination institution for help addressing complex issues with solutions that ensure affordable and nutritious food for everyone while stewarding our natural resources such that our air and water are cleaner, our soils are healthy and fertile and we have improved resilience to the effects of climate change. CAHNRS will be a source of inspiration to other institutions and businesses as an admired thought leader. We will live up to our land-grant mission of serving communities with a two-way dialogue for identifying problems and solving them together. Hunger and health problems related to unhealthy diets will be rare due to affordable and nutritious food availability. Communities will have strong pillars of civic engagement, economic opportunities, social well-being, environmental responsibility, educational access, and inclusivity.
Employers across the globe will look to WSU CAHNRS to educate their workforce in agriculture, human, natural resources, and related fields because CAHNRS teaches in a way that combines knowledge with professionalism, problem-solving, and creative thinking. Learners will seek out WSU CAHNRS for their lifelong training needs because they know they belong and they know they will leave ‘job ready’.
CAHNRS will select new employees from among the very best applicants because of our reputation for excellence and employee care. Our people of all demographics are embraced and employees of all titles are equally valued, rewarded, and empowered to be their best selves.
Strategic Plan goals
Goal 1: Be a great place to learn
Strategy: Enhance the student experience
- Re-evaluate and align our majors, curricula, and certificates with the interests of today’s students, informed by industry advisors, to enhance their employability and career readiness. Determine desired outcomes and metrics in key areas: professionalism, leadership, communication, equity and inclusion, critical thinking, teamwork, technology, and career and self-development (*NACE standards).
- Develop new certificate programs for academic credit responding to industry needs and enhancing student credentials.
- Enhance experiential learning and career path opportunities through internships and undergraduate research experiences at local sites, Research and Extension Centers (RECs), county offices, commercial labs, industries, and more.
- Increase mentoring opportunities by fostering connections between undergraduate students and graduate students or postdocs through jobs, internships, and research opportunities, supporting professional development of all involved.
- Utilize research labs and research activities at local farms, core labs, and other facilities to expand opportunities for students to engage in lab and field trips as part of their coursework.
- Identify a space and establish a Student Success Center to provide a holistic student experience. This center will offer readily accessible resources and services such as financial aid counseling, mentorship, academic advising, career readiness support, and recruitment activities.
Strategy: Increase student enrollment, retention, and completion rates
- Develop a placement success strategy that effectively tracks the career outcomes of our recent graduates. Focus on improving the return rate of graduate placement surveys to better understand and showcase their next steps. Communicate placement success to students, university, industry and public.
- Strategically engage in CAHNRS-wide recruitment events by increasing faculty and staff buy-in and participation to strengthen recruitment efforts across the college.
- Provide meaningful opportunity for real-world experience for all students: global campus students, those needing financial aid, those needing coaching and support.
Goal 2: Advance excellence in and impact of research and Extension programs
Strategy: Diversify and grow our funding sources and resources across the state (campuses, RECs, county offices), with improved program support, operations support, and facilities with a collective intent of expanding program activity and reach
- Explore and expand current funding models and initiatives for positions and operations support (salary & benefits, start-up packages, ongoing support) with industry partners, alumni and supporters.
- Convene groups of faculty to envision large interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and/or systems- oriented projects and identify cooperators with academic, research, Extension or other expertise to successfully address recalcitrant problems.
- Enhance connections and partnerships with local governments, agencies (WSDA, Commerce, Ecology, DNR, etc.) and other funding sources to support our work with communities, families and individuals.
- Investigate campus institutes/centers that help to promote a two-way exchange of industry employees working on campus and faculty and students working at industry to work in a particular thematic area. Utilize more commercial labs for projects to support graduate students, working either at the commercial lab or in WSU labs with funding from the company.
- Engage faculty and staff to consider changing the structure of the college to better address societal problems and ensure that research and extension enterprises are synergistic and forward looking and not legacy based.
Strategy: Create a compelling story to enhance traditional funding support for R/T/E missions
- Create a working collection of impressive accomplishments by expanding the Tour of Impacts.
- Encourage each department to have an active committee to nominate faculty, staff and students for awards.
- Build broad initiatives with which to seek state, federal, donor, agency support and increased enrollment.
Strategy: Expand community engagement and enrichment in partnership with communities & stakeholders
- Expand learning opportunities with non-credit certifications.
- Incentivize faculty participation in citizen science & community science opportunities.
- Create more capacity in Extension.
Goal 3: Be a great place to work
Strategy: Improve employee retention
- Implement supervisory training expectations.
- Periodically remind faculty and staff that people with all levels of leadership roles are the stewards of their people feeling valued and enjoying their jobs through all stages of the employee life cycle.
- Build onboarding programs for all employee classifications.
- Build a plan to ensure equitable compensation for AP all employee classifications.
- Engage chairs, directors, and managers to expand career development and advancement options for all employee classifications.
- Establish mentorship programs to support the career development of faculty and staff from underrepresented groups.
- Build onboarding programs for all employee classifications that include CAHNRS For All commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Demonstrate a CAHNRS-wide expectation of mutual respect and belonging.
Strategy: Improve employee recruitment and hiring practices for securing a competent and diverse employee base
- Provide training on selecting the appropriate position title, compensation rate and the best position description to generate the most appropriate pool of applicants.
- Expedite the hiring process using optimized hiring processes (see also Obj. 4 strategy 1).
- Seek opportunities to “grow our own” through student recruitment and training.
- Identify and implement best practices for hiring and interviewing that minimize bias and reach a diverse pool of candidates.
Goal 4: Be efficient, clear, equitable, and agile in our processes and practices
Strategy: Conduct an annual survey to identify key operational practices or policies that need optimization or documentation
- Identify support processes that CAHNRS should but does not have.
- Scrutinize current procedures for operations like hiring, paying invoices, etc. for efficiencies and unnecessary steps.
- Create and implement procedure documentation for consistent delivery.
- Create a clearinghouse for procedure documentation.
- Build a culture of process responsibility instead of task accountability.
Strategy: Create unit-level resource allocation methodologies
- Allocation of existing unit support funds (advising, operations) to optimize research, teaching and extension functions.
- Faculty FTE allocation.
- Process for investment and distribution of ROI.