Goal 5: Actions, and Measures

Goal 5: Develop a More Resilient, Adaptive, Student- and Community-Centered, Future-Focused Organization

This goal aims to ensure UH Hilo’s operational infrastructure, workplace culture, facilities, and strategic priorities are resilient and adaptable to evolving student and community needs, while proactively addressing future demands.

Actions

1. Leadership and Resource Development
   1. Build a community-driven leadership coalition, including Hawaiʻi County officials and state legislators, to identify Hawaiʻi Island needs and priorities and secure resources to address them, with support from University Relations.
2. Organizational Culture and Performance
   1. Embrace a culture of organizational performance improvement, including robust measurement of process and outcomes, use of appropriate statistical methods, regular input from undergraduate and graduate students, and conducting root cause analysis of performance failures to support program review and assessment, as well as improvements in student support services and administrative functions.
   2. Create a professional development program that targets critical skills needed on campus, including faculty- and staff-specific development and mentorship across the career span, alignment of promotion and tenure, and staff evaluation processes with campus mission, vision, values, and goals.
   3. Redeploy faculty and staff to support enrollment growth, rebuild trust, and ensure compliance with UH policy and UHPA contracts.
3. Data and Decision-Making
   1. Create dashboards with disaggregated student data to support student success.
   2. Develop and implement a campus-coordinated data fellows program.
4. Facilities and Technology Modernization
   1. Renew, innovate, and modernize facilities and information technology, including equipping most classrooms and meeting rooms for high-quality hybrid format, using space more efficiently and effectively, transitioning to clean and sustainable energy sources, strategically reallocating underutilized space, and communicating facilities improvement and maintenance plans.
   2. Automate more processes and improve upon existing automated processes to reduce paper use, expedite approvals, streamline workflow, and enhance transparency and accountability.
5. Strategic Hiring and Workforce Development
   1. Create an annual hiring plan for faculty to enhance synergies and address college priorities, allowing for early recruitment.
   2. Establish Desirable Qualifications that align with UH Hilo’s mission and values, and track progress in hiring candidates meeting these standards.
   3. Design a one-year onboarding process grounded in a sense of place and strategic framework.
6. Branding, Marketing, and Outreach
   1. Bolster external communications and marketing efforts in order to spread UH Hilo’s story of impact and success, including:
      1. Create routine space to share and highlight stories.
      2. Engage the Community Advisory Board to play a key role in executive hires to ensure ethical, diverse, visionary, competent leaders with a proven leadership record and strong commitment to the Hawaiʻi Island community and to transparency and shared governance.
      3. Build the UH Hilo Brand.
      4. Invest in marketing of individual programs and departments, both through digital ads and physical signage (currently both are not well supported and adversely impacting our enrollment).
      5. Encourage, support, and incentivize faculty involvement in marketing efforts.
   2. Convene a Hanakahi Council committee to develop an Indigenous-serving institutional prospectus in Hawaiian and English.
7. Community and Alumni Engagement
   1. Establish an alumni advisory committee and a formal donor relationship management program.
   2. Create an annual UH Hilo education expo to showcase scholarly works in the arts and sciences.
8. Fiscal Sustainability
   1. Adopt best practices in financial planning and budgeting to prioritize support for teaching and extramurally funded research and service.
   2. Establish a donor relationship management program to enhance donor satisfaction and scholarship funding.

Measures

1. Total student enrollment.
2. Faculty, staff, and student morale and satisfaction with UH Hilo, including campus culture.
3. Number of donors and total donations.
4. Economic impact to Hawaiʻi County and return on investment to the State, including:
   1. Number of jobs created.
   2. State tax revenue generated per dollar of state general funds spent on UH Hilo.
   3. Total return on investment to state per dollar of investment in UH Hilo.