Under the leadership of President Faith Hensrud, Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College launched separate strategic plans for the period of 2018-2023. However, implementation of these plans was disrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 as well as Dr. Hensrud’s retirement at the end of the 2021- 2022 academic school year.

At the beginning of his presidency in July, 2022, Dr. John Hoffman shared his intent to develop an inaugural shared strategic plan for BSU and NTC grounded in the common cornerstone values of advancing holistic student learning and success and diversity, equity and inclusion. President Hoffman also lined up work from the Postsecondary Value Commission as a framework for organizational development and for demonstrating the relevance and value of the education provided by BSU and NTC. The initial timeline consisted of seasons of listening, planning, action and acceleration, spanning the 2022-2023 academic year.

However, after the financial consequences of the significant enrollment loss since FY2019 became clearer, President Hoffman pivoted mid-year to a two-year strategic direction plan to help BSU and NTC navigate enrollment and budgetary challenges while establishing a foundation for a long-term strategic planning process to be initiated during the 2024-2025 academic year. The rational for the two-year plan was that the primary focus for both campuses needed to be addressing immediate enrollment and budgetary challenges and that the disruption of budget cuts, a hiring freeze and early retirement incentives, layoffs and retrenchments would consume significant campus energy and attention, thus compromising the ability of internal stakeholders to engage fully in the design of a longer-term plan.

Leading up to the strategic direction development process, President Hoffman conducted more than 40 listening sessions and interviews with internal and external stakeholders. Additionally, the BSU and NTC cabinets convened in November 2022 to engage in environmental scanning processes and to stress test the preliminary themes of people, place and programs shared during the president’s inaugural address.

In July 2023, President Hoffman convened a strategic direction planning group for two full-day planning sessions to refine, vet and expand upon prior environmental scanning and preliminary plan priorities.

The work of this group was shared at fall semester opening breakfast meetings for employees at BSU and NTC. The framework also informed the content of a Strategic Direction survey administered at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester. Drawing from the results of the strategic direction survey and each of the prior steps in the process, President Hoffman presented a draft version of this plan to bargaining units leads during the week of September 18, 2023 and then to each unit individually through meet and confer or shared governance sessions during the week of September 25, 2023, with the goal of launching the plan near the beginning of October 2023.

As a two-year plan, the goal vision for the planning process is to be dynamic, not static. Work related to some of the strategic priorities began prior to the finalization of the plan and it is expected that the plan will evolve over the next two years and inform a more comprehensive future plan.

Joint Cabinet Strategic Planning Outcomes

Because of the significant and disruptive impact of external factors in recent years (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, large shifts in public opinion), we converted the traditional SWOT analysis that begins with internal strengths and weaknesses before considering external opportunities and threats to a “TOWS analysis” that shifted to begin external and shift inward.

Threats

• Financial challenges and reduced state funding.
• Impending demographic changes including the “enrollment cliff,” rural and regional population decline.
• Strong competition from within Minnesota paired with loss of Minnesota traditional age students to surround states.
• Increased skepticism regarding the value of higher education paired with the vilification of colleges and universities by right-wing media.
• Lack of awareness of BSU and NTC within the region and beyond — both mindfulness of our existence and awareness of programs, quality, cost and value.
• Elements of intolerance in the Bemidji community and across Northern Minnesota.
• Challenges in securing workforce (e.g., colleges and universities no longer viewed as an employer of choice, lack of housing, higher paying jobs outside higher education).
• Impressions of Bemidji as an unsafe, high-crime community.

Opportunities

• New markets for enrollment growth including American Indian students, adult learners, degree completion students, students from low-income backgrounds and first-generation college students, among others.
• Regional workforce demands for educated, skilled labor.
• Greater regional interest in online and hybrid modalities (primarily among adult learners).
• There are growing pockets of increased hope for BSU and NTC as valued partners for American Indian tribes, communities and individuals.
• Local and regional high schools are interested in expanding partnerships with colleges and universities; similarly, regional colleges are interested in partnerships with BSU.
• Businesses, industry, non-profit organizations and government leaders in Bemidji and Northern Minnesota are interested in expanding partnerships with colleges and universities for workforce development.
• The BSU-NTC alignment is unique and appealing to regional industry.
• Local leaders recognize the need to develop a more inclusive economy and they view BSU and NTC as strategic partners.
• There are untapped markets of students interested in the location of BSU and NTC within lakes and woods with opportunities for hunting, fishing, recreation and outdoor activities.
• Many in the Bemidji community and region invest in and/or are drawn to Beaver Athletics.

Strengths

• BSU and NTC have strong faculty, student affairs educators and professional staff who are commited to the cornerstone values of advancing holistic student success and diversity, equity and inclusion. Many are open to change.
• BSU and NTC offer many unique, high-quality programs that are regionally relevant. BSU faculty generally share a commitment to interdisciplinarity and the infusion of liberal education knowledge, skills and dispositions into majors that drive career readiness. NTC faculty share a commitment to a hands-on learn-by-doing approach.
• Whereas there is much work to do, BSU and NTC have both made strides in DEIA+ work. The location among Minnesota’s three largest Native Nations, BSU’s long history of Ojibwe and related offerings and recent collaborations with American Indian partners are also a strength.
• The BSU-NTC alignment is unique in Minnesota and across most of the U.S. Shared leadership across BSU and NTC also helps to drive common vision.
• BSU and NTC’s location is a strength – particularly in terms of connections to the region and relatively less competition than experienced elsewhere in the state, but also in terms of connections to the lake, the woods, etc.

Weaknesses

• Enrollment declines over the past five years (BSU) and 10 years (NTC) have had a significant impact on
  revenues.
• Large deficits paired with depleted fund balances limit the ability of BSU and NTC to invest in growth.
  Without short-term change, financial trends could threaten institutional viability.
• There are pockets of employees who are resistance to change or who have a limited inclination to “dream big.” Historical practices of non-responsiveness internally and externally or “brushing items under the rug” makes it difficult for some employees to take risks or lean into new initiatives. Fear related to budget cuts and potential layoffs and post-pandemic exhaustion fuel these challenges.
• Many System, University and College structures are bureaucratic and inhibit our ability to change quickly or respond to market needs. The specialization of many academic programs and non-instructional areas is expensive and inefficient.
• “Minnesota nice” culture tends to be conflict-avoidant, making it difficult for leadership to understand
  the real nature of concerns shared by employees or unions.
• BSU and NTC’s marketing efforts have not been well-funded or supported. This has contributed to a lack
  of clear brand identity (it gets watered down to please everyone) and awareness.
• Internal and external constituents are often not aware of institutional strengths or accomplishments.
• We have significant equity gaps in terms of retention and graduation rates. There are pockets of resistance and of apathy regarding DEIA+ work among employees. Campus climate needs attention.
• Compensation for employees in several programs or functional areas makes it difficult to retain and
  recruit employees.
• BSU and NTC’s campus infrastructure (especially for facilities and technology) needs significant attention.
• We have not fully embraced the BSU-NTC alignment. It seems we do not know if we are fully in or out and voices concerned about either merger the cost of the alignment carry significant weight in campus dialogues.
• Some curricula are dated and/or lacking in relevancy. We do not currently have strong program review processes that include accountability to ensure change occurs when problems arise.

Stress-Test for People, Programs and Place

Outcomes of the meeting conducted in November 2022 are below.

Summary of Retreat Comments: People

• Can we develop a sense of belonging metric that cuts across all of these?
• We should separate alumni and community into two separate areas; also, where do families fit in?
• Could we add outreach to incarcerated individuals as a potential initiative?
• Learning communities could be an intervention for students.
• Do we do DEI accidentally or intentionally?
• We will need to develop and internal and external culture of philanthropy
• We will need to make budget allocations for professional development to help employees doing work in reorganized areas
• Can we also reverse map our needs for people and for employment PDs?
• Better yet, what would reverse mapping and backward design look like in each of these three areas?
• The word “innovate” is in the mission statements of both BSU and NTC, but we are not really innovative – what can we do to empower people to be innovative?
• Do our demographics reflect the community? To which community should we benchmark targets for students, faculty and other employees?
• There are difficulties for students who want to transfer NTC credits out; there are difficulties for BSU to accept NTC credits (and credits from other tech colleges and community colleges)
• We need to focus greater attention on recruiting and retaining employees
• Our academic pathways for students need to be more prescriptive, especially given the population of students we serve
• Should this be termed “people”? Perhaps it should be more about what we want for people
• Could we look at themed professional development, perhaps from an organization such as ACUE to advance pedagogy across all our faculty?

Summary of Retreat Comments: Place

• We need to do more with the ICR
• NTC should become a NASNTI – BSU should set a plan to get there
• There are access issues in our tunnels
• We need to be honest with the stories of place – e.g., genocide
• How do we do more to connect facilities and DEI
• We should do more to advance the story of how American Indians and Tribal Nations are an asset to the North
• We need to tell an integrated story of place – marketing is really important
• Themes of place worked for some programs in the last planning cycle – e.g., social work
• The BSU social work program is different than other programs because of place but we do not tell this story well
• Criminal justice has a tribal justice emphasis – again, we do not market programs that fit with our strategic identity well
• We need to do more with NTC and the connection to local and regional workforce needs
• We have huge deferred maintenance needs – how do we address this in the plan?
• We need to right-size our res hall and update programs to fit current and projected occupancy
• We need to consider the tech capabilities of people in Northern MN when addressing delivery modalities
• Could we partner with the Chamber, Greater Bemidji or others in marketing both Bemidji and BSU-NTC?
• Childcare is huge and we used to offer daycare – could we bring that back?
• We need to focus on the role of sustainability in this section.

Summary of Retreat Comments: Programs

• We need to do a beter job of defining the alignment, pathways and reverse transfer options
• There are opportunities to do more with military-affiliated students
• Much of our DEIA+ content in the curriculum is ornamental – we need to infuse DEIA+ better
• We have to catch up with delivery modalities – NTC should be a greater resource here
• We need to clarify shared services within the co-curriculum.
• Could NTC become a community college?
• Do we know which businesses in the region would pay for their students to atend college?
• What about more weekend and evening classes?
• At BSU, it is as if TAD checked the creative box and now we’re done – we need to do more
• Do more in Cedar Hall for families
• We need more exemplars of regionally-focused programs so we can explain what we mean to faculty
• We need time and space to be innovative
• We should travel to Tribes more often
• How do we do more with TRIO programs – can we scale?
• Prior learning assessments and competency-based education are huge opportunities
• Faculty at BSU and NTC do not know each other well – that is a barrier to collaboration
• Do more with co-requisites – perhaps courses at NTC while taking classes at BSU
• Again, we should reverse map and backward design this section

Summer 2023 Strategic Direction Retreat Information

1. The membership of the SPWG will span BSU and NTC and will include external stakeholders. Input and feedback from the work group must consider the impact on both institutions.
2. The goal is to generate a single strategic planning framework to guide both BSU and NTC. The plan will consist of approximately three strategic priorities, each with perhaps 3-5 strategic initiatives. For each strategic initiative, we will identify either metrics or status measures. We should be able to present the plan as a 1-2 page document.
3. A preliminary framework should be ready for adoption early in the Spring 2023 semester; the final plan
   should be adopted before the end of the academic year.
4. We will not engage in efforts to revise mission, vision or values for BSU or NTC prior to the launch of the
   plan. Student success and diversity, equity and inclusion will serve as cornerstone values for the plan.
5. Operationalization of the strategic plan will occur in multiple places. One will be the set of strategic initiatives aligned to the strategic priorities. The second will be alignments of all other plans (academic, enrollment, budget, facilities, campaign, etc.) to the common strategic plan.
6. Strategic priorities and initiatives should undergo a “stress test,” meaning that they should distinguish us from our top competitors in ways that are:
   1. Relevant to majorities of Northern Minnesota students, employees, alumni and community
      stakeholders without missing the interests of minoritized groups;
   2. Difficult to replicate by other institutions, particularly our top competitors; and
   3. Provable to the market, meaning that we can provide quantitative and/or qualitative data to
      document our work.
7. Strategic priorities and initiatives will inform budgetary, personnel and programmatic decisions and
   result in meaningful change as compared to current baselines.
8. SPWG members will provide input and feedback on environmental scans, potential strategic priorities and initiatives, proposed metrics and measures, etc. SPWG members are not expected to formally recommend or adopt strategic actions. SPWG members are expected to report regularly to their respective bargaining units or stakeholder groups and to serve as conduits for engagement in the planning process by members of the groups they represent.

Membership

The following members have been involved in the strategic direction drafting process.

Cabinet Members

• Allen Bedford, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs (BSU)
• Nicholle Bieberdorf, Academic Dean (NTC)
• Chrissy Downwind, Vice President for American Indian Student Success and Campus Diversity Officer
• Krisi Fenner, Vice President for Finance and Administration
• Travis Greene, Vice President for Student Life and Success
• Ashley Gonzalez, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Associate Campus Diversity Officer
• Allyssa Joseph, Vice President for Advancement and Executive Director for the BSU Foundation
• Ketmani Kouanchao, Executive Vice President and Senior Academic Administrator (NTC)
• Brit Lauritsen, Athletic Director (BSU)
• Henoc Preciado, Interim Head of Staff
• Carola Thorson, Vice President for Enrollment Management
• Megan Zothman, Campus Human Resources Officer

Union Representatives

• Anna Carlson (IFO)
• Maria Eastman (MMA)
• Rebecca Hoffman (IFO)
• Jordan Lutz (MSUAASF)
• Tia Miles (MAPE)
• Ekren Miller (IFO-Coaches)
• Emily Piller (MSCF)
• Brent Steinmetz (AFSCME)

Supervisors, Department Chair and Other Campus Representatives

• Theresa Eckstein, Information Technology
• Micah Friez, BSU Foundation Staff
• John Gonzalez, BSU Department Chair
• Justin Klander, BSU Foundation Staff
• Ana Lopez-Aguilera, BSU Department Chair
• Nicole Naasz, NTC Staff
• Eric Sand, BSU Athletics
• Halbana Tarmizi, BSU Department Chair

Students

• Michael Bailey (BSU at large)
• Darby Bersie (BSU Student Senate)
• Sarah Kessler (BSU Student Senate)
• BSU and NTC Foundations
• Cynthia Cashman (BSU)
• Doug Fredrickson (BSU)
• Kayla Winkler (NTC) (Also represented Sanford Medical as a Community Member)

Community Members

• Colleen Cardenuto, Bemidji Area Schools
• Dave Hengel, Greater Bemidji
• Ashley Jones, Community Member
• Abby Randall, Bemidji Chamber of Commerce
• Jeremy Olson, Bemidji Area Schools Superintendent