SJSU Academic Master Plan Executive Summary

The Task Force found significant interest across the university in developing new graduate and doctoral programs, interdisciplinary degrees, certificates, online programs, degree-completion pathways, and professional and continuing education. Colleges are also exploring programs connected to emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, health, sustainability, education, and other fields of regional and societal importance.

This activity reflects considerable academic energy and responsiveness to changes in disciplines, student interests, and workforce needs. As these efforts continue, SJSU would benefit from a more coordinated approach to the academic portfolio as a whole. Program development will continue to emerge from faculty expertise and disciplinary knowledge, while university-level planning can help identify where new investments are most likely to advance the larger academic mission.

Such planning should take into account the different forms that academic growth can take. A promising area may warrant a new degree program, but in other cases a certificate, minor, concentration, interdisciplinary collaboration, or continuing education offering may provide a better fit. Decisions should also consider the relationship between new initiatives and existing programs, the availability of faculty and staff capacity, anticipated student demand, research opportunities, and long-term financial sustainability.

Graduate education deserves particular attention as SJSU develops its R2 identity. New master’s and doctoral programs can deepen areas of faculty scholarship, create pathways for advanced professional preparation, and expand opportunities for students to participate in research. These programs also require substantial and sustained investment. A graduate and doctoral education strategy would help identify areas where faculty strength, student demand, societal need, and institutional capacity are especially well aligned.

The Task Force also found growing interest in interdisciplinary academic work. Many of the questions students and faculty want to address cross traditional disciplinary and college boundaries, yet the university’s administrative and budget structures can make collaborative programs difficult to create and sustain. Future academic planning should therefore include attention to the mechanisms through which interdisciplinary programs are developed, staffed, governed, and resourced.

Recommended Actions

1. 1. SJSU should establish a recurring academic portfolio planning process that examines existing programs alongside opportunities for new undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, certificate, online, and professional education. The university should develop transparent criteria for major new academic investments, including academic strength, student demand, workforce and societal need, research opportunity, equity and access, institutional capacity, and financial sustainability.
   2. As part of this work, Academic Affairs should develop a graduate and doctoral education strategy that identifies areas in which SJSU is particularly well positioned for responsible growth. The university should also establish clearer mechanisms for developing and supporting interdisciplinary and cross-college programs and should regularly review existing programs to identify opportunities for investment, redesign, collaboration, consolidation, or other forms of renewal.
   3. Planning for new programs must include consideration of the faculty, staff, advising, facilities, technology, and administrative capacity required for long-term success.

Student success has been a central institutional priority at SJSU and should remain closely connected to future academic planning. The university has invested significantly in advising, tutoring, peer support, analytics, wellness, career education, and other services. The Task Force also identified work underway to address courses with high rates of non-passing grades, improve coordination among academic support services, expand access to undergraduate learning assistants, and use data to support timely outreach to students.

These efforts provide a strong foundation, while the Academic Master Plan creates an opportunity to examine student success more broadly through the design of the academic experience itself. Course availability and scheduling, degree requirements, advising structures, administrative processes, curriculum, and pedagogy all influence students’ ability to make progress toward their degrees. Data on student outcomes can help identify where particular courses, requirements, or processes create persistent barriers and where institutional attention may be needed.

Graduate student success should become a more visible part of this work as graduate education expands. Graduate students require strong academic mentoring, access to research and professional development, timely progress through their programs, and preparation for the range of careers they may pursue after graduation. 

Experiential learning is another area where SJSU has a strong base upon which to build. Students already participate in undergraduate research, internships, clinical experiences, performances, community-engaged learning, capstone projects, entrepreneurship, student teaching, and other forms of applied learning. These experiences allow students to connect academic study with complex problems, develop professional relationships, and gain a clearer understanding of how their education relates to their future.

The availability of these experiences varies across programs, and some students face financial, scheduling, or other barriers to participation. Student success should be understood not only through overall institutional outcomes but also through differences in students’ experiences and outcomes across populations. Examining disaggregated data can help the university identify where curricular structures, administrative practices, or educational environments create inequitable barriers to progress, participation, and belonging. A more intentional university-wide approach could help ensure that experiential learning becomes a defining feature of an SJSU education while allowing colleges and programs to develop models appropriate to their disciplines.

Recommended Actions

1. 1. SJSU should continue integrating student success into decisions about curriculum, pedagogy, advising, scheduling, academic policy, analytic infrastructure, and administrative practice. Academic Affairs should work with colleges and other divisions to identify and remove unnecessary administrative and curricular barriers to student progress and should continue strengthening coordination among advising, tutoring, peer support, career education, and other academic support systems. This work should recognize the strengths, experiences, and aspirations students bring to their education and focus institutional attention on the conditions that enable students to thrive.
   2. The university should continue developing data and analytics capacity that allows faculty and staff to identify predictive patterns and equity gaps in student progress and use those findings to improve academic programs and support. Particular attention should be given to courses and curricular pathways where students consistently experience difficulty and, as stated above, identify and address administrative barriers that can be removed to support student success. 
   3. Each college should assess its existing experiential learning opportunities, identify disparities and financial, scheduling, accessibility, or other barriers to participation, and develop a plan for expanding meaningful access to those experiences. Over time, the university should work toward ensuring that every student has an opportunity to participate in at least one substantial experiential learning activity appropriate to the student’s field of study.
   4. As graduate education expands, SJSU should also strengthen graduate advising, mentoring, research opportunities, professional development, and other forms of support.

SJSU’s Carnegie R2 designation represents an important institutional milestone and provides an opportunity to clarify the role that research, scholarship, and creative activity should play in the university’s future.

Research growth can be assessed through external funding, expenditures, publications, performances, creative work, graduate education, and other measures. For a comprehensive public university, however, the significance of research also lies in how it contributes to teaching, student opportunity, public engagement, and the intellectual life of the institution.

The teacher-scholar model offers a useful foundation for this work. Faculty research, scholarship, and creative activity enrich curriculum and create opportunities for students to participate in the development of knowledge. This relationship is especially important at SJSU, where undergraduate and graduate students can gain access to research experiences that have a direct effect on their academic and professional development.

SJSU’s disciplinary breadth is another important strength. Research excellence takes different forms in engineering, the sciences, business, education, the humanities, health fields, social sciences, the arts, and professional disciplines. As the university develops its R2 strategy, its policies and investments should recognize the range of scholarly and creative practices represented across the institution.

The university’s location also shapes the possibilities for its research mission. San José and the broader region are sites of extraordinary technological and economic innovation, as well as significant challenges involving housing, health, sustainability, transportation, education, inequality, culture, and the social consequences of technological change. SJSU is well positioned to bring together faculty, students, public agencies, industry, nonprofit organizations, and community partners around these and other complex questions.

Interdisciplinary and community-engaged research already occurs across the university. Greater coordination and sustained investment could allow these forms of scholarship to become an even more visible part of SJSU’s research identity.

Recommended Actions

1. 1. SJSU should develop and articulate an institutional vision for research, scholarship, and creative activity appropriate to an urban public research university. That vision should recognize the breadth of scholarly and creative work across the university and should describe the relationship among faculty research, graduate education, undergraduate research, teaching, and public engagement.
   2. The university should continue expanding opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research, scholarship, and creative activity and should connect future graduate and doctoral growth to areas of established and emerging faculty strength.
   3. Sustaining research growth will also require continued investment in faculty start-up support, research facilities, technology, sabbaticals, research administration, RSCA assigned time, and specialized staff expertise. The university should periodically assess whether pre-award, post-award, compliance, technical, and other support functions are keeping pace with growth in externally supported research.
   4. SJSU should continue developing interdisciplinary research clusters and other structures that allow faculty to collaborate around consequential problems and should strengthen external partnerships when those relationships support the university’s academic and public missions.

The priorities described in this plan depend upon SJSU’s ability to recruit, retain, and support talented faculty and staff. Over the past several years, the university has used strategic hiring strengths to encourage faculty recruitment in areas of institutional opportunity and interdisciplinary importance. The Task Force found broad interest in continuing strategic faculty hiring, including in areas connected to artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, health, sustainability, and fields that span multiple colleges.

The next phase of this work should draw on what SJSU has learned from the current hiring-strengths approach. Strategic faculty hiring can be more closely connected to academic portfolio planning, graduate education, research priorities, interdisciplinary opportunities, and student needs. At the same time, colleges must continue to maintain the disciplinary capacity necessary to deliver strong existing programs. New investments will be most sustainable when they complement the academic foundations upon which they depend.

Faculty retention and development are equally important. Competitive salaries, start-up packages, research support, mentoring, clear expectations, sabbaticals, leadership development, and opportunities for continued professional learning all contribute to faculty success. Rapid changes in teaching, research, and technology also mean that professional development must be available throughout a faculty member’s career. Recruitment and retention also depend upon creating inclusive working and learning environments in which faculty and staff experience belonging, access to professional opportunities and institutional support, and see their contributions recognized and valued.

The Task Force heard similar concerns about staff capacity. Growth in academic programs and research creates additional work in advising, laboratories, research administration, curriculum, scheduling, facilities, technology, accreditation, and student support. When staffing does not keep pace with academic activity, those responsibilities are often redistributed across existing staff and faculty, limiting the capacity for future growth.

For this reason, faculty and staff planning should be considered together as part of the university’s academic strategy.

Recommended Actions

1. 1. SJSU should evaluate the current hiring-strengths framework and develop a next-generation approach that identifies a limited and evolving set of areas where coordinated faculty hiring can advance academic programs, interdisciplinary research, student opportunities, and the university’s regional and public mission.
   2. The university should balance strategic hiring in emerging areas with the faculty capacity needed to sustain existing programs and should continue improving faculty recruitment and retention through compensation, start-up support, mentoring, professional development, sabbaticals, and other investments.
   3. Academic Affairs should also develop a coordinated approach to faculty professional development that responds to changes in teaching, research, technology, student needs, and academic leadership.
   4. A division-wide assessment of staff capacity should accompany future academic and research planning. That work should include attention to staff career pathways, succession planning, professional development, and the specialized expertise required in areas such as research administration, technology, facilities, advising, and academic operations. Major proposals for new programs and research initiatives should address staffing implications as part of their development.
   5. In alignment with our commitment to institutional excellence, the integration of AI should be designed to reduce administrative burdens and enhance teaching, prioritizing the professional development, upskilling, and retention of our faculty and staff over personnel displacement.

Universities regularly respond to changes in knowledge, technology, student needs, and professional practice. The pace of current technological development, particularly in artificial intelligence, makes the university’s capacity to adapt increasingly important. Faculty across SJSU are already experimenting with AI in teaching and research, colleges are developing AI-related curriculum, and the university is investing in professional development and technological infrastructure. These activities reflect significant interest across disciplines and raise questions that extend well beyond the use of particular tools.

Students will need disciplinary expertise as well as the ability to evaluate when and how emerging technologies should be used. Faculty will need opportunities to reconsider assignments, assessment, curriculum, and research methods. Academic programs will need to respond to changing professions while maintaining the intellectual foundations of their disciplines. Staff will increasingly use new technologies to support academic and administrative work. Researchers will both apply these technologies and study their social, cultural, ethical, scientific, and economic implications. A coordinated academic approach to AI can bring these areas together while allowing different disciplines to respond in ways appropriate to their fields. Such an approach should include curriculum, pedagogy, research, ethics, professional development, student preparation, accessibility, and the responsible use of technology in university work.

The same need for coordination applies to academic infrastructure more generally. Laboratories, classrooms, computing environments, advising systems, curriculum processes, data infrastructure, scheduling systems, research administration, and faculty development shape the university’s ability to carry out its mission. Investments in these areas should be connected to the academic priorities identified through the planning process.

Recommended Actions

1. 1. SJSU should develop a coordinated academic approach to emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that addresses curriculum, pedagogy, research, ethics, professional development, student preparation, and appropriate administrative applications.
   2. Teaching and learning support should continue to provide faculty with opportunities to experiment with and assess emerging pedagogies and technologies. The university should also continue investing in digital, creative, information, and AI literacies in ways appropriate to different disciplines.
   3. Future investments in laboratories, classrooms, computing, specialized facilities, and other physical and technological infrastructure should be aligned with academic and research priorities. Academic Affairs should also continue modernizing advising, scheduling, curriculum, data, and administrative systems with attention to reducing unnecessary complexity and improving the experience of students, faculty, and staff.
   4. Because the pace of technological change makes long-term prediction difficult, SJSU should develop processes that support thoughtful experimentation, assessment, and adaptation. Shared governance, academic quality, accessibility, equity, privacy, and intellectual integrity should remain central to that work.

Charge

The Academic Master Plan Task Force was charged with collecting and synthesizing existing college and unit plans and helping develop a framework for the future direction of the academic enterprise at SJSU.

The Task Force examined five areas identified in the original charge:

• • the future mix and development of academic programs;
    faculty hiring priorities and the future of the hiring-strengths approach;
  • teaching, learning, and professional development infrastructure, particularly in response to artificial intelligence;
  • institutional support required for SJSU’s growing research enterprise; and
  • staff hiring and professional development necessary to support Academic Affairs.

Student success emerged during the Task Force’s work as an important cross-cutting issue and is incorporated throughout the framework.

Membership

• • Melinda Jackson, Dean, Undergraduate Education, Task Force Chair
  • Eva Chavez, Analyst, Institutional Effectiveness/Faculty Success
  • Marcelle Dougan, Associate Professor, Public Health
  • Patrick Jurney, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Katie Koho, Senior Academic Advisor, College of Humanities & the Arts Student Success Center
  • Ellen Middaugh, Professor, Child and Adolescent Development
  • Cassandra Paul, Professor, Physics & Astronomy
    Vishnu Pendyala, Associate Professor, Applied Data Science
  • Ryan Skinnell, Professor of English & Comparative Literature
  • Anne Marie Todd, Dean, College of Social Sciences
  • Jessica Trask, Associate Vice President for Research, Office of Research
  • Kezban Yagci Sokat, Associate Professor, Marketing and Business Analytics

Methodology

The Task Force reviewed recent curriculum developments, college and unit planning and priority documents, materials supplied by Academic Affairs units, and information generated through Task Force discussion. These materials were used to identify recurring themes, opportunities, constraints, and areas where greater institutional coordination may be useful.

The appendices preserve many of the examples and priorities gathered during that process. They provide context for the broader commitments and recommendations presented in the main report.

Organize the existing college and unit material under the following categories:

• • Graduate and Doctoral Education:  Include existing and proposed graduate and doctoral programs identified by colleges, including initiatives in Social Sciences, Education, Health and Human Sciences, and other areas.
  • Certificates, Professional Education, and Stackable Credentials:  Include examples of certificates, continuing education, professional education, and stackable pathways identified by Engineering, Business, Health and Human Sciences, and other colleges.
  • Online and Degree-Completion Programs: Include the inventory of asynchronous degree-completion programs and other initiatives intended to expand access for working, transfer, and nontraditional students.
  • Interdisciplinary Program Development:  Include existing and proposed collaborations involving multiple departments or colleges, as well as emerging areas that may benefit from cross-college academic development.
  • Experiential Learning:  Include examples of undergraduate research, industry-partnered capstones, consulting projects, internships, clinical experiences, student teaching, performances and creative activity, community-engaged learning, and other discipline-appropriate models.

Organize the existing material around:

• • the current hiring-strengths approach;
  • recent interdisciplinary and AI-related hiring;
  • emerging college hiring priorities;
  • faculty start-up investments;
  • compensation and salary competitiveness;
  • research support;
  • sabbaticals;
  • onboarding and mentoring;
  • RTP support;
  • teaching and learning professional development; and
  • other faculty recruitment and retention needs identified by colleges.

Where possible, distinguish existing university practices from future needs identified during the Task Force review.

• • Academic Progress and Advising: Include advising structures, course scheduling, administrative barriers, and related systems identified through the Task Force process.
  • Academic Support: Include Peer Connections, tutoring, undergraduate learning assistants, and other academic support programs.
  • Data-Informed Student Success: Include existing analytics, predictive approaches, work concerning courses with high rates of non-passing grades, and other efforts to use data to improve student outcomes.
  • Experiential Learning: Cross-reference the fuller inventory in Appendix B and include information concerning access, participation, and existing college models where available.
  • Teaching and Learning: Include CFETI, faculty learning communities, inclusive pedagogy, online education, and other teaching initiatives identified through the Task Force review.
  • Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies: Include existing college and university initiatives related to AI curriculum, AI-informed pedagogy, digital and creative literacy, computing, ethics, and faculty professional development.

Organize the existing material concerning:

• • growth in research expenditures;
  • institutional research investment;
  • undergraduate research opportunities;
  • RSCA support;
  • research clusters;
  • centers and institutes;
  • pre-award and post-award administration;
  • intellectual property, export control, and other compliance functions;
  • sabbaticals and faculty research support;
  • laboratory, computing, creative, and other specialized facilities;
  • interdisciplinary research;
  • community-engaged scholarship; and
  • external research partnerships.

The inventory should reflect the breadth of research, scholarship, and creative activity across the university’s disciplines.

• • Academic and Administrative Capacity: Document staffing needs identified by colleges and Academic Affairs units.
  • Research and Technical Staffing: Identify research administration, laboratory, technology, facilities, and other specialized staffing needs associated with academic and research growth.
  • Professional Development: Include existing programs and identified needs related to AI, data systems, policy, leadership, and other areas.
  • Career Development and Retention: Include career ladders, succession planning, recognition programs, professional development funding, and other strategies identified during the review.
  • Administrative Systems: Include examples of technological and process improvements intended to reduce workload and improve service.

The Academic Master Plan builds upon Transformation 2030 by identifying how Academic Affairs can advance the university’s strategic goals through decisions about academic programs, student success, research, faculty and staff investment, teaching and learning, and infrastructure.

This alignment should be revisited periodically as both Transformation 2030 and the Academic Master Plan continue to evolve.

• • Design the Academic Portfolio for SJSU’s Next Decade
  • Make Student Success an Academic Design Principle
  • Define the SJSU Model of an Urban Public Research University
  • Invest in the People Who Make the Academic Mission Possible
  • Build an Academic Infrastructure for a Period of Rapid Change

• • Engage and Educate; Excel and Lead; Connect and Contribute
  • Engage and Educate; Grow and Thrive
  • Engage and Educate; Excel and Lead; Connect and Contribute
  • Grow and Thrive; Excel and Lead
  • Rebuild and Renew; Engage and Educate; Excel and Lead