Student Life Strategic Plan

We know transformative learning occurs outside of the classroom through intentional experiences and in primed environments. We promote student personal and professional learning, growth, and development through a comprehensive set of skills. We empower students to step into their own learning journey with self-agency. Consistent with the IUB 2030 Plan and strategies, student degree and career attainment are at the forefront of our work as we partner to prioritize co-curricular high-impact practices and career competencies.

Support a thriving student experience through personal and professional skill attainment

1. Assess needs and implement programming and experiential opportunities aimed at interpersonal relationships, efficacy, resiliency, empathy, communication, conflict management, civil discourse, critical-thinking, and help-seeking/self-advocacy skills.
2. Enhance and expand targeted services to support learning outcomes and foster personal development skills to support the graduate student experience.
3. Promote student health and well-being outcomes through skill development, raising student awareness, and impacting related metrics.
4. Enhance leadership development learning opportunities.
5. Integrate professional skill development competencies into student-employment opportunities.

Offer transformative curricular and co-curricular student learning experiences

1. Expand curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities for personal growth, academic success, and career success.
2. Implement and assess student learning outcomes.
3. Collaborate to bridge the gap between academic affairs and student life through intentional partnerships.

Facilitate environments for student learning, growth, and development

1. Cultivate a welcoming campus environment where students are empowered and able to take accountability for their learning.
2. Provide opportunities for students to demonstrate agency in self-reflection and understanding of themselves and others.
3. Support students through challenges in ways that foster personal growth and build resilience.

We put students at the center of our work and provide comprehensive support outside the classroom so students can be successful inside the classroom. We invest in the holistic support of students and create innovative spaces and opportunities for students to practice healthy skill development that will last them a lifetime. We develop and maintain partnerships so student needs are met seamlessly, and resources are made readily available through our programs and services.

Invest in the support of student academic success

1. Address the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, vocational, economic, and environmental (including systemic governance) needs of students in support of increasing student retention and graduation.
2. Aid students in developing agency to address physical, psychological/intellectual, social, cultural, economic, and environmental (including systemic governance) needs for themselves.
3. Reduce student risk of interpersonal violence through education, prevention, early intervention, and community engagement.
4. Invest resources to address student food and housing insecurity.

Re-imagine programmatic engagement and student support services

1. Implement data-informed decision making for staffing models, funding support, service offerings, and programmatic decisions.
2. Assess and track student usage trends to align programs with needs.
3. Remove barriers to access of services through assessment, re-imaginging access, and the promotion of resources.

We respect the dignity of others, treat them with civility and understanding, and we support students in their efforts to fulfill the Indiana Promise and do the same. Through this, we create shared experiences and co-create engaged and welcoming communities that promote belonging and wellness. We support a Hoosier identity that transcends a student’s time on campus.

Invest in holistic campus engagement of students

1. Develop transformative engagement opportunities and spaces that promote physical, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, vocational, economic, and environmental (including systemic governance) well-being.
2. Implement innovative and emerging tools to boost engagement and facilitate community belonging. (i.e., platforms, apps, building a pathway).
3. Support shared community where students engage frequently with active participation, work toward shared goals, and experience deeper belonging.

Innovate and support community development

1. Facilitate opportunities for students to understand themselves in relation to others.
2. Assess and address the health and well-being of existing communities.
3. Understand student needs and reimagine the campus residential community experiences through assessment and best practices (i.e., res life, apartments, Greek life, university properties).
4. Innovate pathways for student agency in developing their own communities through residence hall communities, academic communities, joining an organization, being involved in civic engagement, or student employment.

Prioritize student belonging

1. Reimagine and center a culture of respect, dignity, civility, understanding, integrity, and responsibility via the Indiana Promise and IUB 2030 Student Success and Opportunity plan in engagement and belonging strategies.
2. Design environments, programs, and communications that support a culture where students feel seen, valued, included, and connected—across all departments, touchpoints, and experiences.
3. Enhance belonging efforts for undergraduate, graduate/professional, transfer, and international students.
4. Empower and equip students to have agency in their own sense of belonging.

Support a shared Hoosier identity

1. Partner across campus to define and promote a shared IUB Hoosier identity that will permeate the student’s experience before, during, and after their time at IU by connecting students with each other, with the university, with resources, and by demonstrating that IU has their back along the way.
2. Promote peer-led opportunities consistent with research and national best practices to enhance engagement and leadership skills, and support belonging through peer-to-peer interactions.
3. Educate and engage community members, campus community members, and family members on the importance of their support role in student belonging and success, and on identifying and using campus resources.

We believe staff are the most valuable resources in our shared goal of a thriving student experience; as a people-first organization, we collaborate seamlessly to be a place they want to work. This means we invest in the holistic support, development, and retention of staff. We commit to a purposeful staff experience and opportunity for belonging by focusing on learning and development, removing barriers, and retaining talent.

Advance staff through learning, leadership, professional growth, and career development

1. Implement leadership training programs tailored to early, mid, and senior career stages that empower staff to set their own learning and professional stretch goals.
2. Create mentorship and coaching initiatives pairing experienced leaders with emerging talent.
3. Host regular leadership forums and workshops focused on skill-building and innovation.
4. Encourage cross-departmental projects to develop leadership skills through collaboration.
5. Advocate for policies that encourage well-being for staff.

Operate as one Office of Student Life by building partnerships that drive student success

1. Further develop the Office of Student Life shared identity to represent who we are today and tomorrow.
2. Identify and remove barriers to student and staff success.
3. Maximize collaboration to increase resources, information, and operations and reduce duplication to meet student and staff needs. 

Focus on retaining staff by recognizing individual contributions and supporting their growth

1. Align people, goals, and systems for impact.
2. Create space for growth through smart alignment.
3. Strengthen staffing, strategy, and support systems by optimizing people, processes, and performance.
4. Strive to ensure staffing levels meet department needs
5. Partner with HR to grow future leaders.

We are committed to demonstrating organizational excellence by living our values and showing our work. By streamlining policies, processes and procedures, growing a culture of assessment, maximizing resources, fostering collaboration, and telling the Office of Student Life’s story, we are building a foundation from which to grow in the years to come.

Grow a culture of assessment

1. Prioritize unit-level goals aligned with IUB 2030, the OSL strategic plan, and area best practices that use assessment to inform programmatic, human resource, and financial decision making.
2. Demonstrate transparency in operational excellence through the sharing of metrics, data, and best practices locally and nationally.
3. Inventory and expand operational systems for assessment and transparency, and educate staff
   on common language, metrics, goals, expectations, and systems.
4. Practice identifying and addressing data gaps to improve student learning and success and use data to inform decision making and to set priorities.

Align budgets with strategic plan priorities

1. Use data to inform financial and human resources allocation.
2. Identify existing gaps and inefficiencies to guide financial decisions.
3. Explore other revenue and income streams to achieve goals (i.e., grants, external partnerships).

Review and advocate for field-leading policies and practices that encourage student well-being and are grounded in our values, research, best practice, ethics, and the law where applicable

1. Identify and define policies and procedures for review.
2. Develop a framework to evaluate operational excellence, including other definitions for consistency, timelines for review, and connections to values, research, best practice, ethics, and the law.
3. Systematically review policies and procedures with staff and student feedback.
4. Make policy and practices accessible to those who need them or those who should know about them.