Members of the Case Western Reserve University community soon will be able to gauge the university's success toward realizing its bold vision to become the world's most powerful learning environment-on a virtual dashboard.

With the start of a new year, a recently appointed team of faculty, staff and administrators, called
the Vision Dashboard Steering Committee, will work with members of the Case community
to develop metrics to chart the university's advancements in seven visionary areas: undergraduate programs, graduate and professional programs, its academic medical center, new Vision Investment Centers, the campus environment, institutional culture and values and resources.

These measures will be aggregated and displayed this spring as a dashboard on a new Web site at http://www.case.edu/vision. The site, devoted entirely to the university's mission and values, will be launched this month.

The virtual dashboard will provide a picture of what Case's most powerful learning environment actually looks like: a university that combines experiential learning with rigorous scholarship; invests in the arts, humanities and social sciences; pursues productive partnerships; builds on existing strengths like engineering, biomedical sciences and professional education; and is guided by values that create a diverse, entrepreneurial, interdisciplinary, accountable environment.

"The vision dashboard will function much like the dashboard in a car," said Caryl Hess, assistant to the president for special projects, and chair of the Dashboard Steering Committee. "Members of the Case community will see various gauges, such as a dial for undergraduate programs and resources, and know at a glance that we are making positive strides toward our institutional goals."

An earlier committee, the Vision Investment Committee, formed and chaired by Hossein Sadid, chief financial and administrative officer, determined that Case could attain its vision if it focused its efforts on these seven elements:

• undergraduate programs: new liberal learning, enrollment management, College of Arts and Sciences investments, SAGES, advising, experiential education and rigorous scholarship
• graduate and professional programs: selective investment, focus on quality and recognition, build on traditional strengths (engineering, biomedical sciences and professional education), faculty investment and graduate and postdoctoral support
• academic medical center: premier educational and research programs, Case Research Institute, Healthy Cleveland and synergistic affiliations with all Cleveland hospitals
• new Vision Investment Centers: Biomedical Engineering; Fuel Cells and Energy Systems; Business as an Agent of World Benefit; Technology, Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (InTICE)
• institutional culture and values: excellence and leadership, Cleveland partnerships, empowerment, accountability, entrepreneurship, innovation, responsible risk taking, emphasis on technology transfer, diversity and efficiency
• campus environment: capacity and quality of space for research, education and campus life, master plan, college town, campus center, North Residential Village, information technology environment, enhanced University Circle
• partnerships and service orientation resources: community partners, alumni relations, marketing and communications, development, government support, trustee support, corporate support and royalties and endowment growth

In addition to Hess, members of the new Dashboard Steering Committee include: Don Feke, vice provost for planning and assessment; Colleen Gepperth, information systems administrator; Marty Gibbons, College of Arts and Sciences national development director; Mort Grusky, finance and administration vice dean; Jim Henson, institutional research specialist; Jayne Hoon, Case School of Engineering director of marketing; Debbie Joseph, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing director of marketing; Judy Lipton, School of Law Milton A Kramer Law Clinic Center professor; Diana Morris, associate professor of nursing and Center on Aging associate director; Ron Occhionero, School of Dental Medicine professor and associate dean of clinical affairs; Dan Ornt, School of Medicine visiting faculty; Joe Pieri, undergraduate studies assistant dean; Jim Rebitzer, Weatherhead School of Management economics professor and chair; Barbara Sciulli, School of Dental Medicine registrar/financial aid adviser; John Smolik, School of Dental Medicine director of finance and operations; Laura Tanski-Lockledge, director of budgets and financial planning; Betsy Tracy, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences associate professor; and Aaron Weinberg, School of Dental Medicine associate professor.

"The university community will want to stay tuned for more details regarding the progress of the Dashboard Steering Committee," Hess said. "The committee's ongoing efforts will take Case one important step closer to realizing our mission, values and vision of being the most powerful learning environment in the world."

Return to the online edition of the 1-15-04 Campus News.