Strategic Alignment
The Jayhawks Rising alignment processes have two key goals:
To implement strategies that advance the University’s mission to educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world. These strategies support objectives aligned with one of our five campus goals, which are further aligned with our mission-based institutional priorities. These priorities are informed by our core foundations, which define the University’s core accountabilities. Assessment processes ensure that we are continually evaluating progress. The Jayhawks Rising strategic alignment model visualizes the connections between core foundations, mission, priorities, goals, objectives, metrics and targets, strategies and assessment.
To guide all institutional units in considering how their work and accomplishments contribute to advancing our institutional priorities - Research & Discovery, Healthy & Vibrant Communities, and Student Success - fostering stronger alignment across all areas.
The Jayhawks Rising alignment processes facilitate collaboration and alignment across institutional priorities, goals, objectives, and strategies. These processes also enhance transparency and accountability through effective communication with both internal stakeholders and external constituents.
Core Jayhawks Rising Alignment Process
KU leadership gather for a two-day retreat to review institutional strategies from the past fiscal year and set new strategies for next fiscal year; multi-year strategies will likely carry-over.
The new strategies are posted to the Jayhawks Rising website and shared with campus by December.
Campus Goal Teams for each institutional priority area meet three times each year to provide updates.
Each December and January, the academic deans and vice provosts on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses present unit-level plans that demonstrate intentional ties between their unit’s work and the priorities of Jayhawks Rising.
The strategic alignment presentations are delivered to an audience of other KU leaders that includes the Chancellor, academic deans, vice chancellors and vice provosts of administrative support units, and university governance leaders.
Unit-level plans also indicate the critical success factors that are used to measure progress.
To become a more data informed community, presenters also highlight institutional-level metrics that their school or functional unit influences. To support this, Analytics, Institutional Research, and Effectiveness provides Strategic Alignment Briefing Books to all academic deans and vice provosts in November to help them prepare for their presentations. Strategic Alignment Briefing Books or SABBs are comprehensive data guides that collate data from multiple tools to help deans and VPs understand data related to key metrics that are in alignment with our Jayhawks Rising strategic priorities.
To ensure the audience of reviewers have a common frame of reference, each presenter uses a template to prepare and deliver their presentations.
Campus Goal Teams for each institutional priority area meet three times each year to provide updates.
In March, the Campus Goal Teams also provide written updates on each of the Jayhawks Rising strategies. These updates are compiled into a report by Analytics, Institutional Research, & Effectiveness, which is then uploaded to the Jayhawks Rising webpage and shared with campus via email.
- Campus Goal Teams for each institutional priority area meet three times each year to provide updates.
Additional alignment processes
Campus Constituent Survey Implementation Team
The Campus Constituent Survey Implementation Team meets three times each year to review recommendations from KU's broad constituent surveys and prioritize recommendations that best align with the Jayhawks Rising priorities, objectives, and strategies.
Performance Goal Alignment with Jayhawks Rising
During annual performance evaluations, all employees at KU are encouraged to reflect on how their work and goals align with Jayhawks Rising.