Social Impact Strategies & Success Measures

Milestones & Measures

The following milestones and measures aim to guide Texas Woman's University in its efforts to amplify the social impact aspects of its mission and brand. By setting clear objectives and regularly evaluating progress, the institution can ensure it is actively working towards creating positive, socially responsible impact and contributing to a more just and sustainable society.

Milestone 1: Develop and implement comprehensive social impact initiatives. (Strategies 1-3)

Measure: Create a task force or committee responsible for identifying key areas of social impact, setting goals, and implementing strategies.
Measure: Establish measurable targets for the number of social impact programs and initiatives to be developed and implemented each year.
Measure: Operational efficiency (e.g., costs, processes and procedures)

Milestone 2: Increase representation and inclusion of marginalized voices in decision-making processes and foster a culture of inclusivity and belonging within the institution. Develop mentorship and leadership programs specifically targeted at women and marginalized individuals. (Strategy 1)

Measure: Conduct an assessment of the current representation of marginalized groups in leadership positions and establish targets for improvement.
Measure: Conduct regular climate surveys to assess the sense of belonging among students, faculty, and staff.
Measure: Implement and assess diversity and inclusion training programs for all members of the university community.

Milestone 3: Identify strategic community organizations and stakeholders to collaborate with on social impact initiatives. Strengthen current and establish new partnerships and collaborations with a focus on transparent and honest partnerships. Create community partnerships that both benefit our students and the outside community. (Strategy 3)

Measure: Establish metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of community partnerships, such as the number of joint projects or the impact of collaborative research.
Measure: Organize community forums, town halls, focus groups, or public discussions to foster open and honest conversations on social impact topics and measure responses to our efforts.
Measure: Seek input and feedback from external stakeholders through surveys or focus groups to ensure their perspectives are considered in decision-making processes.
Measure: Monitor the outcomes and impact of collaborative initiatives to ensure they align with the institution's social impact goals.
Measure: Establish clear expectations, ethical guidelines, and deliverables for each partnership, including defined roles, responsibilities, and timelines and assess our success by our ability to meet these.
Measure: Regularly assess and report on the progress and outcomes of partnership projects, addressing successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Milestone 4: Enhance educational programs and curriculum to address societal challenges. Integrating social impact and sustainability concepts into the fabric of the institution (e.g., existing courses across various disciplines). (Strategies 2-3)

Measure: Assess number of new courses or programs focused on social justice, diversity, and sustainability and monitor student enrollment in these social justice initiatives.
Measure: Monitor student applications, retention, and enrollment numbers, staff and faculty application numbers, and awareness metrics such as social media presence (likes, follows, engagement, shares, impressions), media presence (podcasts, news articles, interviews), and website visits.

Milestone 5: Promote research and knowledge dissemination on social impact topics. (Strategy 2)

Measure: Percentage of grants or funding opportunities specifically dedicated to social impact research projects.
Measure: Track the number of research publications, conference presentations, and media engagements related to social impact issues.
Measure: Awareness metrics

Milestone 6: Recruit and retain diverse staff, students, and faculty across all corners of our institution. Increase interactions between academic departments and campuses in order to cultivate cross-disciplinary research and partnerships and encourage retention on all three campuses. (Strategy 1)

Measure: Promotion and tenure rates of faculty and promotion rates of staff
Measure: Faculty and student success stories - publicize stories that align with social impact on the Texas Woman's University social media platform (this is already being done in some programs)
Measure: Conduct a needs assessment survey and implement responsive programming
Measure: Reward Texas Woman's members for social impact work (e.g., inclusion in promotion and tenure standards)
Measure: monitor success of initiatives that target increases in work/life balance (e.g., childcare enrollment)

Milestone 7: Monitor and report past, current, and future progress on social impact initiatives and repair past missteps. Establish a comprehensive baseline for current initiatives and TWU’s social impact to measure growth and change over time. Leverage existing systems and amplify current initiatives (JNIWL) that are already developed and used (e.g., QEP and Sedona). Be honest partners and recognize both our positive and negative impacts on society (e.g., Quakertown) and make meaningful efforts to repair our past missteps (e.g., Quakertown scholarship fund for descendants of the community). (Strategies 2-3)

Measure: Develop a system to track and evaluate the outcomes and impact of social impact programs.
Measure: Publish annual reports on the institution's social impact achievements, highlighting success stories and areas for improvement.
Measure: Create GANTT chart to show expected outcomes via a projected timeline https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/gantt-chart-excel/
Measure: An Integrated model that shall include, Expected return calculation (ROI),mapping the logic model to show how theory is converted to action.
Measure: Collect time-series data during the implementation of each step of the process
Measure: Create a repository of work from faculty, staff, and students tracking work related to service, research, teaching, learning, programming, co-curricular experiences and other initiatives driven by TWU.

Strategies for Amplifying the Social Impact Aspects of the Mission and Brand at Texas Woman's University

Strategies around amplifying our social impact involve a systems-approach. Broad strategies, including examples for clarification, are listed here for consideration.

1. In our effort to create positive social impact by proactively supporting and affirming our institution, we will prioritize both the productivity and the wellbeing of our workforce and students by

Incentivizing collaborations between Academic Affairs and Students Affairs
Supporting faculty innovation through our policies and processes
Strengthening our capacity for ongoing training and professional development
Supporting work/life/school balance though policy and resource development

Examples:

Look for ways faculty (including those seeking tenure) can be supported/rewarded for social impact efforts such as service-oriented projects, research tied to community wellbeing, or the prioritization of open access resources
Support and protect the ability for groups to acknowledge and celebrate their cultures and belief systems
Expand childcare efforts for students to include options for faculty and staff needing assistance
In addition to sick leave and vacation leave, create personal business leave
Build in more extensive onboarding for faculty and staff that better connects them to student resources, such as basic needs, financial assistance, etc.
Acknowledge, incentivize, and reward collaborations between Academic Affairs and Student Life to more effectively problem solve issues tied to community wellbeing
Emphasize and fund ongoing training for faculty and staff. This could include efforts such as multi-day onboarding (including the expansion of training efforts for GAs and adjuncts), and a regular institutional training calendar that includes topics that might live outside of Human Resources (eg. students in distress, basic needs, mental health, classroom management, etc.). In essence, creating a culture of training that embraces lifelong learning with the workforce.
Develop more extensive wellbeing initiatives for faculty and staff
Expand resources that provide students access to wifi and computers
Create grants for PhD students to mentor undergraduate students

2. In our effort to amplify the education, research, knowledge, and service of our institution, we will prioritize effective methods of communication both internally and externally by

Building on existing communication channels to allow for more effective funneling of information
Creating an institutional hub for sourcing Texas Woman's research and service
Developing strategies and resources to improve the promotion and visibility of faculty, staff, and student work, including research
Assessing the best mechanisms for communicating information to students and to the workforce
Expanding open access and other innovations for making academic resources and research more accessible

Examples:

Have a dedicated office/department benchmark existing research and service projects and give recommendations on how to better communicate these efforts institutionally (rather than through individual departments or colleges)
Support the Texas Woman's QEP and use it as a mechanism for better training and publishing public scholarship
Create an institutional hub for faculty research and publications - ideally a webpage. Perhap better incorporating and using Sedona to automatically collect research publications
Create a centralized hub of campus resources for international students
Create, develop, and sustain a journal dedicated to women’s issues
Create a repository of success stories around adversity, struggle, etc. that are submitted by the Texas Woman's community, including alumni
Build a standardized online resource hub (Canvas) that is automatically available to any enrolled student or tie Student Life more intentionally to the online hubs used by the respective colleges as a way to communicate about campus and local resources (College of Business collaborative space could serve as an example to be built upon)
Explore using chat boxes and other mechanisms for quick communication around basic process and services
Create a report that gives insight to how many views webpages receive, most popular searches, etc. that is made available to departments
Build and maintain an institutional intranet
Consider UNIV 1231 or College of Arts and Sciences…places where all students have to go and take
Explore more effective use of the general university phone number as a Texas Woman's hotline for resources. Could include hiring students to help support through internships opportunities, part-time work, etc.
Create stronger opportunities for students to attend regional/local conferences through grants and/or scholarships. When creating these opportunities, subsidize lodging, meals, etc.

3. With intentionality, we aim to serve alongside our communities through the expansion of diverse and creative partnerships by

Sustaining partnerships with organization that closely align with the university’s mission, such as the Jane Nelson Institute of Women’s Leadership
Prioritizing, acknowledging, and rewarding service completed by our students, faculty, and staff
Encourage partnerships with other universities in the region that have common community-based goals in an effort to share resources
Look for innovative partnerships that support our environment and the sustainability of all
Determine priorities for community wellbeing based on institutional strengths

Examples:

Build research projects that align with the mission of the JNIWL
Partner with UNT and other post secondary institutions in the Dallas and Houston areas to better share resources, address community wellbeing issues, and expand resources to our largely nontraditional and commuter student populations
Explore partnerships that encourage the use of alternative transportation
Continue to build community resources for affordable childcare options for our students and, eventually, faculty and staff, such as partnering with the Texas Workforce Commission, on all three campuses
Work with community partners to address sustainability efforts on all campuses with the eventual goal of establishing a Sustainability Department in Facilities
Build an institutional hub for volunteer opportunities such as https://hopeclinicmckinney.org/
Create scholarships for Quakertown descendents