Minnesota State University Moorhead will connect our overarching vision for institutional structural, cultural and policy change that will enable the college/university to fully achieve its public serving mission and commitments embedded in our university strategic anchors.

Strategy 1

We will focus relentlessly on student achievement and students’ return on their investment. Strategy 1 involves engaging students with the community in educationally purposeful ways. Our outcomes specifically tie to this strategy with a focus on students in learning communities participating in service during their first year at MSUM. We also expect 75% of our students to engage in at least one community service activity during their time at MSUM.

Strategy 2

We will create a campus community that is diverse, inclusive, globally aware, and just. Factors in this strategy specifically involve creating a campus culture

that values and celebrates diversity of ideas, perspectives and people. We intend to provide specific training and support to faculty, through a fellowship program, who will include service learning as part of their curriculum for at least two semesters. The faculty fellows will meet to discuss pedagogy, celebrate successes and learn from missteps over the course of an academic year. Those faculty who wish to continue as part of the program can then serve as mentors to a new cohort. In addition, the university will encourage and support faculty and staff that want to integrate service learning and community engagement into their work with students. The Community Outreach and Engagement Committee will work to provide professional development opportunities for faculty and staff to share their work in a train the trainer model that will ultimately help create a stronger culture of community engagement at MSUM.

Strategy 3

We will be indispensable to the social, cultural, and economic advancement of Moorhead and the surrounding communities. A specific focus in this strategy is to enrich the community through academic, athletic, arts, service and leadership. Three of our outcomes tie specifically to this strategy through funding a position, partnering with United Way for the annual Day of Caring and with an annual food and toiletries drive during Homecoming. We are specifically committed

to working on civic engagement that increases student engagement and

retention. We are working to audit the campus community to gather baseline data related to current civic engagement projects and initiatives. We are also working on more collaboration and coordination of the civic engagement opportunities occurring across the campus. We want to improve communication related to MSUM’s connection to the community and civic engagement. We specifically want to highlight more stories in our marketing tools and website related to the current service – taking place across campus and in the community.

We plan to collaborate with the United Way, Charism and key community stakeholders to increase our involvement, and raise the profile of the Day of Caring initiatives happening in the Moorhead-Fargo area. We are also committed to building on our tradition of including a service project for each Homecoming. Finally, we would like to grow our involvement in the annual spring Big Event. We plan to continue involvement in smaller initiatives, but we would like have three large high profile service events each year.