Campus-wide planning processes have developed since 1995 to integrate the University’s mission with a set of strategic initiatives. The initiatives are part of a well-articulated Investment Plan that will enhance both the financial resources and the programs of the institution. This will increase UWM’s ability to fulfill the varied aspects of its mission within the state.

Some of the key parts of UWM’s mission are its obligations to provide a wide array of degree programs, a balanced program of applied and basic research, and a faculty who are active in public service. The planning processes developed since the mid-1990s are tied directly to the campus mission. The Milwaukee Idea challenged the campus community to identify research areas that fit the opportunities of the University, to build links to the surrounding business community, and to strengthen the University’s community engagement in ways that would benefit the city, the metropolitan area, and the state. The broad themes were aligned under the “3Es”: Education, Environment and Economy. The Investment Plan established campus goals and priorities within an overall vision of the institution’s future that balanced its teaching, research and engagement values.

The outcomes are best illustrated by considering some specific examples of initiatives that grew out of the campus’ strategic planning processes, and the resulting campus investments.

• The Institute of Environmental Health was one of the Milwaukee Ideas’ First Ideas, and initiated in August 2001 as collaboration among the colleges of Letters and Science, Nursing, Health Sciences and the School of Education. The Institute has developed projects in support of basic research (zebrafish genomics and toxicology), applied science (public health issues related to fish consumption among Hmong in Wisconsin), and education (pre-college programs and teaching modules). This has been done by building multidisciplinary collaborations between the participating colleges, a pilot grant program, and by working for the establishment of new research clusters.
• The Urban Teacher Education initiative is a major commitment by the University to engage with the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to provide new educators (teachers, counselors, administrators, etc.). About a dozen faculty members have been hired in support of this effort. This initiative has developed to include a campus-wide Carnegie grant in collaboration with MPS to engage not only the School of Education, but also the College of Letters and Science and the Peck School of the Arts in enhancing teacher preparation and supporting graduates during their early teaching career. Another large NSF grant supports an UWM-MPS partnership in mathematics.
• Biotechnology was one of the initiatives funded under the New and Expanded Programs theme of the Milwaukee Idea budget request. The goals are to build a research cluster that builds on existing strengths in Biosciences and Chemistry, and to establish a new master’s degree program that will supply graduates for biotech employers in Wisconsin. Three new faculty members arrived in fall 2003, with a fourth starting in fall 2004. The campus has invested nearly $500 thousand in renovating new research space and is in the process of purchasing an instrument array for the research cluster. The three new faculty members have already submitted $5.7 million in grant proposals to the NSF, the NIH, and other funding sources. The entitlement to plan the new master’s program was submitted to UW System in spring 2003.

The Investment Plan framework provided the overall strategic plan at the campus level since 2000. In 2003-04, the Provost asked the major administrative (administrative affairs, student affairs, UWM libraries, etc.) and academic (schools and colleges) units to write planning documents that reviewed the past few years and that presented a plan for the future. These plans provide a framework for the various initiatives these units proposed for funding in the next few years. This process resulted in a set of plans that are integrated with Investment Plan goals and provide guidance for future development.

The linkages between the strategic planning and budgeting processes are best seen in the directions provided by the Provost for school and college budget requests, and the investments made with new state funding provided for the Milwaukee Idea First Ideas and the initiatives developed for the Investment Plan.