UHM Strategic Plan Could Use Improvement
By Alana Folen

In Need of a Better Plan

At a recent informational briefing, Sen. Clayton Hee, chair of the Committee on Higher Education, criticized the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's Strategic Plan, saying it was too brief and "needs to be beefed up."
"When you review the plan, it's very broad," Hee told UHM interim Chancellor Denise Konan and UH system-wide Chief Financial Officer Howard T odo. "I would offer that maybe the plan needs to be beefed up, and give some confidence to those who read it," Hee said.

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Sen. Clayton Hee

"Plans should be road maps to destinations, and I would suggest that based on these pages that it's difficult to get to a road map," Hee added. "This is a nine-year strategic plan, 2002 to 2010, nine years in maybe nine pages ... I'm not familiar with a strategic plan that is this brief."

A Guiding Plan

Konan acknowledged the broadness of the plan, but told Hee that simplicity was beneficial. "So it may be that there are more details in terms of an implementation strategy that need to be put into play, but a benefit of this plan is that it's easy to remember. It’s something that can serve as a guide, and with more detail and more complexity comes other issues," Konan said at a recent briefing at the State Capitol.
"I think the broad message of the strategic plan has the benefit in that it can serve to guide the many different and complex arrays of units that we have under our campus," Konan said. "We have a very complicated university. We have many units. We are serving many different functions, and to me there's a great value in trying to bring some simplicity to that. And this plan has served a really useful function – when I go to meetings people do quote from the plan and there are parts of the plan that really help to guide and motivate members of my community."

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Interim Chancellor Denise Konan

A Vision of Uncertainty

Interim Vice President for Academic Planning and Policy Linda Johnsrud agreed with Hee that the strategic plan was broad. "I think it's a beautiful statement of values and direction, but it lacks implementation ability," she said. "It's a strategic vision. I would say it's not a strategic plan."
Johnsrud said the plan does a good job of capturing the values, goals and directions of the university, but more work could be done to improve the plan. She is working to update it. "I think where it falls short is providing us real information under state priorities," she said. "The whole point of it is to give us more precise direction."

Plans for the Future

Konan said UHM has many goals in mind for the implementation of a performance-based budgeting process for this year and the years to come. "This coming fiscal year, increased tuition revenues will be allocated to support student success," Konan said. "Next year, we are planning to critically analyze our program base budgets to ensure that resources align appropriately with missions."
In addition, Konan told legislators that the executive and managerial performance evaluations have been re-written to include criterion on school, budget planning and performance.

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Officials debate over issues like the UHM strategic plan.

"Our biennium budget process requires units to justify program change requests based on their alignment with our mission and strategic plan, past performance relative to other units, and their ability to reallocate existing resources and funds," Konan said.
Konan also stated that professional development and training for fiscal officers can be improved by implementing fiscal quality controls and improving administrative lines of communication among fiscal officers. In order to achieve this, Konan said that a Manoa financial data report will be posted on the Web and an annual report on the fiscal condition and overall performance will be published.
Konan told the committee that she is optimistic about the future.
"We're really trying to focus on improving our accountability, improving our transparency," she said. "It's a stepping-stone for us. We're getting better." 

Strategic Plan Background Information

UHM's strategic plan, Defining Our Destiny, was established in 2002 with widespread consultation and sanction by the Board of Regents. Konan said the plan serves as a cornerstone for decision-making. She told legislators, "It contains benchmarks for our progress, many of which we have met."
Konan told the committee that the university is on schedule with the time line put forth by the critical financial audit report of UHM given to the legislature in Dec. 2005 by the state auditor. In the past year, Konan said the budget level summary has been reconfigured to show data at the unit level, quarterly financial reports have been posted on the Web to enhance the transparency of operations, and a Campus Planning Day was hosted in October with 250 campus leaders to discuss the fiscal conditions of the university.