The Pavlis Honors College (PHC) and the Enterprise Program are excited to establish and launch our joint Engagement and Belonging strategic plan. Our plan is inspired by Michigan Tech’s vision, which states:
Michigan Tech is a globally recognized technological university that educates students, advances knowledge, and innovates to improve the quality of life and to promote mutual respect and equity for all people within the state, the nation, and the global community.
Our plan is also motivated by the anticipated possibilities of welcoming future generations of faculty, staff and students, including those who are from underrepresented groups, ensuring that they are not only recruited, but retained, to the best of our ability through systematically structured initiatives, programs, and curriculum design.
Overview
Our plan is divided into two interrelated areas of focus that we will prioritize over the next three years in both the Pavlis Honors College and Enterprise Program. These areas were derived from a robust, two-phase SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. One SWOT analysis was conducted with faculty and staff, and another was conducted with the PHC’s Undergraduate Student Advisory Board (USAB). These two areas are retention and recruitment.
The execution of our strategic plan will be a collaborative effort among various constituents and stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, advisory boards, and alumni. In alignment with our Honors Abilities, we value the diverse perspectives of all of the above-mentioned partners, and we are ready to embrace the ambiguity and welcome the challenges that are associated with the execution of this plan. We submit this plan with the understanding that continuous improvement and an annual evaluation will be necessary to remain relevant to the students we serve. We aim to remove barriers to education that have historically and systematically disadvantaged individuals from minoritized and marginalized groups.
Through this strategic plan, the Pavlis Honors College and the Enterprise Program at Michigan Technological University will inspire diverse students to lead, create, and forge their own paths to success, becoming the next generation of scholars who make a difference globally.
Pavlis Honors College and the Enterprise Program
Planning Domain: Retention
Monitor/Team Leader: Darnishia Morris
Goal #1
Building PHC Community: Cultivating a sense of belonging and foster an inclusive and welcoming culture
| Projected Outcomes from Baseline |
| 1. Increased retention from HON1150 to HON2150 |
| 2. Have positive impact on Engagement and Belonging programming on campus; visibly advertise Engagement and Belonging programming |
| 3. Hold at least one PHC community building event per semester that centers on Engagement and Belonging issues |
| 4. Evaluate and reduce barriers for curriculum completion |
| Action Items | Timeline |
| 1. Develop and implement an exit survey, with the goal of 90% of exiting students completing it in order to better understand why students leave the program |
Summer 2024 |
| 2. Pilot gender inclusive housing in the Pavlis LLC | Fall 2024 |
| 3. All PHC faculty & advisors offered the opportunity to attend trainings on strengthening Engagement and Belonging in honors education and/or inclusive STEM teaching | Summer 2024 |
| 4. Research and identify best practices in creating inclusive course materials | Fall 2024 |
| 5. Expand and increase student participation in Global and Community Engagement conference | Summer 2026 |
| 6. Collaborate with CTL to conduct accessibility review for all PHC Canvas courses. While canvas courses are not required to be accessible, evaluating our courses will provide a baseline for enhancing accessibility in the future | Summer 2024 |
Planning Domain: Recruitment
Monitor/Team Leader: Marika Seigel
Goal #2
Increase enrollment of students in the Pavlis Honors Program, including those from underrepresented groups, thereby increasing diversity of Michigan Tech student body as a whole
| Projected Outcomes from Baseline |
| 1. Redefinition of honors - expanding the opportunities of the honors program to students who do may not immediately identify as honors students |
| 2. Enhance recruitment of current students, including those with diverse backgrounds |
| 3. Increase engagement of alumni and external advisory board in recruitment of prospective students, including those from diverse backgrounds |
| Action Items | Timeline |
| 1. Purposeful and intentional engagement with admissions to inclusively recruit students (both pre- and post-admissions) |
Summer 2025 |
| 2. Review messaging on website and promotional materials in collaboration with UMC to ensure that it is inclusive, making revisions as necessary | Summer 2025 |
| 3. Benchmark best practices in recruiting diverse student populations | Summer 2024/Spring 2025 |
| 4. Conduct recruitment outreach to 10 student organizations that represent the interests of underrepresented groups | Summer 2025 |
| 5. Hold campus tabling events with current PHC students | Spring 2025 |
| 6. Recruit 10 alumni, external advisory board members, and/or community stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to share their stories relating to PHC and Enterprise | Fall 2026 |
| 7. Support campus-wide events that center Engagement and Belonging themes and content; also incorporate into existing events such as Design Expo and the Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium | Fall 2026 |
Planning Domain: Retention
Monitor/Team Leader: Nagesh Hatti
Goal #3
Understand the current demographics of the Enterprise students
| Projected Outcomes from Baseline |
| 1. Baseline data - Understand the current demographics of the Enterprise students |
| 2. Past Trends - Identify demographic trends in the Enterprise student pool for past 3 -5 years |
| Action Items | Timeline |
| 1. Reach out to the university SAIS/IT department to get relevant data on Enterprise student body for the past 5 years. Review the data to make sure it fits the requirements. Work with SAIS/IT to get any additional relevant data |
Fall 2024 |
| 2. Analyze the data and identify the current and past trends in the demographics of the student body within the Enterprise program and compare this with the university as a whole. Gain an understanding of the diversity makeup of the student body. | Spring 2025 |