1. How well do the five high-level goals in the UITS strategic plan support the IT organization's stated mission? How well do the goals address the needs of the various constituencies within the university?
2. UITS's commitment to collaboration did not end when the UITS strategic plan was finalized. Michael Mundrane considers the plan to be a dynamic document and has pledged to actively solicit feedback from the university community every two years to reassess the plan and its relevance to the changing needs of the university. Do you think such a strong commitment to collaborative strategic planning is more or less important at a public institution, such as the University of Connecticut, versus a private company? Is it more or less difficult to implement?

UConn's University Information Technology Services (UITS) Develops a Five-Year Strategic Plan

The University of Connecticut was founded in 1881 under the name Storrs Agricultural School. As the name implies, the school was originally focused solely on agricultural studies. In 1893, the school became part of the national land-grant college program, which provided land and funding to one college in each state whose focus was on teaching practical skills in agriculture, engineering, military arts, and science. Over the years, the school's name changed three more times'finally becoming the University of Connecticut in 1939'while its programs expanded into areas such as social work, law, and nursing. Today, UConn, as the school is commonly called, has more than 18,000 undergraduate students at its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, as well as 4,500 students who take classes at five smaller campuses across the state. Another 8,200 UConn students are pursuing graduate-level degrees in dentistry, education, law, medicine, and pharmacy, among others. The 200 employees who work for the University Information Technology Services (UITS) division at UConn are responsible for deploying, managing, and maintaining IT systems and services'including classroom applications, data management, desktop and software support, email, file services, high-performance computing, mobile applications, and Web services as well as the university's entire data network and telecommunications infrastructure. The primary mission of UITS is "to facilitate, coordinate, or implement information technologies that effectively enable the institutional missions of research, teaching, learning, and outreach." In an effort to ensure that it is fulfilling its mission, UITS recently undertook an intensive strategic planning process, the end result of which was a five-year strategic plan that defines the role UITS will play in fulfilling the university's larger mission. From the start, UITS utilized a collaborative approach to its strategic planning process, which began with conversations with key stakeholders, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators. The information gathered during these meetings helped UITS staff assess the current state of IT services across the university. The planning process then extended for several more months, with participation by various college deans and directors, members of the president's cabinet, and representatives from  the IT Partners program, which includes three advisory committees, made up of faculty, administrators, and IT staff, respectively. At that point, UITS released a draft version of  the plan and then spent more time gathering feedback from its various constituencies. The final version of the strategic plan identifies five highlevel objectives (referred to as goals in the plan) that establish how UITS will support UConn's institutional mission and the changing IT needs of the university community: Goal 1: Pursue IT solutions that empower members of our community to successfully, productively, and securely engage in all of their institutional roles as individuals. Goal 2: Pursue IT solutions under the guidance of our academic partners that facilitate effective research, enrich teaching and learning, and enhance institutional competitiveness for extramural funding. Goal 3: Pursue IT solutions in concert with functional partners that support the business of the university and increase operational effectiveness.