The "2004-05 Report Card," gauging the progress (or lack thereof) toward 23 "Towson 2010" goals, was handed out at a campus press conference in the Minnegan Room of the Johnny Unitas Stadium Field House.
"This report card tells us what we've done, where we are, and where we're going," executive assistant to the president Ted Zaleski said.
"I want you all to take it home and have your spouse or significant other sign it," Caret joked.
Caret assigned grades for the plan's five themes and 23 goals, but not the 86 action items. He gave an A for enrollment management, growth and mix, an A for partnerships philosophy, an A minus for resources for success, a B minus for student experience and success and a B minus for telling and selling the story.
"If we were able to do that much in the first year and a half, we should be able to move forward pretty aggressively," Caret said.
The report card was designed to hold the campus accountable for completing the action items outlined in "Towson University 2010: Mapping the Future," a strategic plan that was introduced in fall 2004. At the time, Caret expressed interest in grading progress toward Towson 2010 every year.
In his Fall Address on Sept. 8, 2005, Caret said a report card would be distributed by November. At the press conference, he admitted the process was "a couple months behind where I thought we would be," and attributed it to complications in setting up a database of the action items.
"We're at a point now where we've got a database with all these goals and action items, Caret said. "It has timelines in it, it has the people who are responsible in it, and it has milestones in it."
The database will help ensure the plan is implemented.
"There's nothing like a data point to either make you smile or make you nervous," Caret said. "We're going to use a lot of data points, and we're going to use them often."
Caret some parts of the plan are almost done, while others have "moved hardly at all."
He cited service learning as an example of the latter. The plan calls for Towson to "require every student to participate in at least one service-learning opportunity" and "double the number of service-learning projects over five years." During the report card process, administrators noticed the items weren't moving, so they scheduled a meeting with individuals who are the "champions of service learning" on campus.
Caret noted that Towson 2010 is a "sliding five-year plan" that could be altered.
"Every quarter, you'll get an update on all 86 action items and where we are," Caret told the administrators in the room.
Many of the goals related to enrollment and partnerships have already received A's. Only two goals received C's: "Engage students in off-campus educational experiences" and "solicit feedback from our graduates and their employers to measure our success."
"Some of these things are not easy to do," Caret said. "Some of these things will take years of effort. But I need all of us to approach it that way. I need you to be involved and I need more of you to be involved."
Caret concluded his remarks by expressing a desire to assign straight A's.
"By 2010, I want to graduate," he said.
Towson 2010 "Report Card:" The Grades
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