Imperatives for Excellence

Provost’s Action Plan for AFIT Strategic Guidance

- S. S. Sritharan

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Vision of the United States Air Force

“Our purpose is to ensure the Air Force can always provide responsive and effective Global Vigilance- Global Reach-Global Power”

- America’s Air Force: A Call to the Future.

Five core missions within air, space & cyber domains:

1. Air and space superiority

2. Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)

3. Rapid global mobility

4. Global strike

5. Command and Control

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Game Changing Technologies for Air Force

• Hypersonics

• Nanotechnology

• Directed Energy

• Unmanned Systems

• Autonomous Systems

How can AFIT team with AFRL and the DoD enterprise to achieve world leadership in these thrusts?

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AFIT’s Vision

Be an internationally-recognized leader for defense-focused technical graduate and continuing education, and related research, and consultation

AFIT’s Mission

Advance air, space, and cyberspace power for the Nation, its partners, and our armed forces by providing relevant defense-focused technical graduate and continuing education, research, and consultation

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AFIT Strategic Priorities I. Support the Air Force Vision by providing high-quality academic and continuing education programs that enable the Air Force to sustain its competitive advantage – maintain the most technically proficient, best-educated, and best-trained air force in the world. II. Support faculty, staff and their families. III. Attract and develop outstanding faculty, staff and students. IV. Develop and maintain strategic partnerships. V. Attain, sustain and improve education support infrastructure. VI. Increase and sustain stakeholder awareness of AFIT’s value proposition.

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Provost & Academic Dean

• Alongside with the AFIT President, be the advocate of AFIT’s mission and vision to the stakeholders, academic peers and DoD enterprise.

• Champion of academic excellence: faculty scholarship and student learning.

• A collaborative leader who connects with each faculty, staff as well as

students through effective communication and institutional transparency.

• Builds professional connections at national and international level. • Provides leadership and integrity to university operations at every level.

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Academic Affairs Organization Provide academic leadership and administrative oversight for AFIT

• Budget planning and execution.

• Coordinate strategic planning process at every level.

• Academic quality and integrity.

• Excellence in student and faculty research programs.

• Faculty promotion and tenure processes.

• Centralized personnel management and hiring processes.

• Regional, institutional and programmatic accreditation processes and sponsor curriculum reviews.

• New faculty orientation and faculty mentoring programs.

• Coordination of classroom learning assessment programs. 7

Strategic Resource Allocation Resource allocation to align with strategic plan –Budget policy and imbedded incentives should reflect the values of the institution. • Faculty mission funding similar to civilian universities –``the

nine/ten-month model”. • What are the resources needed to move the institution forward? - Research facilities, office space - Seed grants for research and curricular innovations - Faculty travel support

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Excellence in Education • Be the center of excellence for the Air Force in graduate and professional

continuing education focusing on air, space and cyber space. • Offer multi-modal, cutting edge classes and accredited degree programs. • Stimulate and enrich educational experience with: - student research seminars - distinguished lecture series and colloquia - research workshops • Reward teaching excellence and innovation with particular attention to modes of

delivery: - on-campus - off-campus - distance learning (synchronous vs. asynchronous) - classified courses in government and industry sites, etc.

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AFIT as a supportive and welcoming enterprise

• Establish an annual merit reward system for faculty and administrative and research staff:

- teaching excellence and innovation

- research excellence

- entrepreneurship

- collegiality, service and citizenship

• Outreach activities and programs involving AFIT faculty, students, staff and family and also regional community.

• Cultivate a climate of support, inclusiveness and high morale.

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Attract & Develop Outstanding Faculty, Staff &

Students .

• Establish “Distinguished Professorships” as a level above full professorship. • High quality faculty recruitments to achieve and sustain distinction in Air

Force’s top priority areas.

• Adapt research and education programs in emerging technological areas to prepare the students as future leaders and informed decision makers in STEM.

• Foster a climate of scientific excellence through seminars and workshops by distinguished visiting scholars (National Academy members, Nobel Laureates).

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Global Visibility & Strategic Partnerships

Enhance the visibility of AFIT in the science & technology enterprise at large

• Expand the visibility of the institution in both national and

international arenas. • Enhance the scientific and academic visibility as well as

influence of the college in national and federal laboratories to form educational partnerships.

• Educational and research partnerships with top-tier universities

and institutes worldwide.

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Infrastructure

• Optimal laboratory and IT-Infrastructure recapitalization for resident and distance learning programs.

• Prime access to literature, books, journals and other library services.

• Finest classified facilities. • Very best VTC facilities in open and classified domains. • HPC and Classified computing capabilities.

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Genuine Commitment to Diversity

• Promote race and gender diversity in every element of operation in the institution.

• Develop strategies to achieve diversity through student and faculty

recruitment. • Promote equity in career opportunities and in reward distribution. • Actively explore and establish educational and research initiatives and

partnerships to enhance diversity.

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Enhance Stakeholder Awareness

• Strive for shared values of excellence with the Air Education and Training Command and the Air University to best support Air Force Vision of the Future.

• Effective communication programs – highly informative and engaging newsletters and web pages for individual, departmental as well as institution level academic portfolio and accomplishments.

• Cultivate stewardship with the support network –Board of Visitors,

Alumni, Industrial partners. • Utilize newsletters to articulate needs as well as to show impacts of

investment.

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Accreditation & Peer Recognition

• Cultivate a culture of commitment to programmatic and institutional accreditation.

• Diligence and attention to accreditation processes in every level of the institution (self-studies, capstone project assessments, learning assessments, etc.)

• External peer reviews of individual departments.

• Strategic planning within each department aligning with the institutional vision and its strategic priorities.

• Responsive to inquiries and guidelines by accreditation agencies.

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