Introduction

{ T H E  I D E A }

T H E  G O A L
The goal of Vision 2020 is to continue the academic evolution of Texas A&M University so it is generally considered one of the ten best public universities in America by 2020, while retaining, or even enhancing, many of the unique features that have differentiated the university in the past.

T H E  B E S T
In order that a course might be charted to our goal, significant research was undertaken to ascertain which public universities are regarded as “the best” and why.
   To identify qualitative and quantitative attributes of superior public institutions, two approaches were taken. The first was to consider the most prominent ranking systems and their results, as published by US News & World Report and the National Research Council. Six institutions are currently ranked among the nation’s ten best public universities by both of these sources: University of California – Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of California – Los Angeles, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, University of California – San Diego, and University of Wisconsin – Madison. Comparisons are drawn between Texas A&M University and these six institutions at many points throughout this document.
   In addition, a number of other universities were deemed worthy of study, in order that all colleges and programs at Texas A&M University be accurately measured against leading academic
counterparts. These institutions are Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California – Davis, University of Illinois – Champaign-Urbana, Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, Purdue University, University of Florida, and University of Texas – Austin.

O U R  S T R E N G T H
Texas A&M University is committed to improvement. We have faced challenges, accepted
change, and improved, while responding to a dynamic environment. Planning and accomplishing
goals are part of the culture of Texas A&M University. While we desire to be, and to be recognized as, one of the ten best public universities in America, we cannot sacrifice the existing strengths and qualities that have carried us to where we are today. We must balance our distinctiveness and the common traits of the best universities in America. If we meet the challenge, we will not only be recognized for our excellence nationally, we will also be able to add value to our students, our faculty, and the State of Texas as an educational leader.
   There will undoubtedly be significant differences between the great universities of today and the great universities of 2020. At the same time, these differences will not affect the core of what an institution of higher learning is. Great faculties are indispensable. Gifted and attentive students are needed. Scholarship of the first order is required. Libraries and access to knowledge resources are part of the foundation. Change will affect every aspect of university life, and our willingness and ability to change is our greatest asset.
   Many characteristics distinguish us nationally. We fare very well in our ability to attract National Merit Scholars. Some programs, such as our nautical archaeology unit and its affiliated Institute of Nautical Archeology, are the best in the entire world. Our chemistry program is consistently identified as outstanding, the more remarkable for the dramatic growth it has experienced in the last three decades. The colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Business, Engineering and Veterinary Medicine are frequently cited as among the very best in the nation. Education for leadership is a fundamental and distinctive part of our campus life. Our ability to engender an attitude of good stewardship marks us; we have the lowest ratio of administrative to general costs of any university in Texas. Today, an expansive physical plant reminds us of the intensity of our growth.
   We have many existing strengths in which we can and do take pride. Our greatest strength, though, is our desire to be better.

T H E  N E E D
The destiny of Texas is inextricably linked to the level of quality of its premier institutions of higher education. A report of the Texas Commission on Higher Education said in 1987, “We believe higher education is vital to human advancement and that support for higher education reveals a society’s commitment to progress.”
   Some may say Texas A&M University has made great progress in the last three decades and that we are good enough. They are right on the first point but wrong on the second. They are wrong for two reasons. First, what distinguishes the human species is the opportunity to improve our condition and seek new levels of understanding of humankind and nature. Anything but continuing to strive to be the best is just not acceptable. As the chart above (Table 1) makes clear, Texas A&M University must continue its quest for excellence at both the undergraduate level, which is reflected in the U.S. News & World Report ranking, and the graduate level, which is seen in the lack of ranking at all by the National Research Council.
   The second reason those who say we are good enough are wrong is that we live in a global world of great change and advancing technology. In such a world, competitive excellence is defined by more rigorous national and global standards. Goods, ideas, people, and students flow readily from place to place. The state and our region will not prosper if we fail to measure ourselves by standards accepted the world over. Many of Texas’s best students will go elsewhere, and those who remain will be disadvantaged. The state will not prosper economically if our best and brightest leave or cannot obtain the requisite opportunity to develop their talents.
   Our student-faculty ratio is 25 percent higher than the best public institutions. Even in our strong colleges we have far too few National Academy members. Doctoral programs, especially in the social sciences and humanities, need development or need improvement by objective comparison through the National Research Council. Our graduate student population, while large in absolute numbers, is too small at 18 percent of the total student population; the best institutions have graduate student populations of more than 30 percent. Total research expenditures place us in the top ten nationally. However, our federally funded research expenditures, those attained through national competition, are only 63 percent of those at the best public universities. Our library has 1/3 the volumes and 1/5 the serials of the best public institutions.
   Underfunding is the root cause of unfavorable comparisons to the best public institutions and prevents us from providing the same level of opportunity to our students. An objective evaluation of our position reveals an inescapable conclusion: As much progress as we have made, we are not yet a nationally prominent institution. Compared to the best public institutions, we significantly underspend them. Our spending in 1997 dollars per student ($9,500) is approximately half that of the best public institutions. Only 17 percent of the total ($1,600) comes from our participation in the Permanent University Fund, the state support that was originally intended to assure excellence in the state’s flagship universities. How good we are is testament to our careful use of the resources we have had.
   Excellence in people, programs, and opportunity is required for greatness and to be competitive with the best national institutions. Seemingly incremental changes, like so many of those required to move us from the position of being an “A” institution to an “A+” institution, are as dramatic as any changes the institution has ever set out to accomplish. Significant resources will be required. Visionary leadership; a commitment to excellence on the part of every faculty member, staff member, and student; and the willingness to take considered risks are all as important as financial resources.

O U R  C O R E  V A L U E S
A prerequisite to planning change is articulating the core values that will drive all our decision-making.

O U R  V I S I O N
Energy and boldness in creating a culture of excellence will be the hallmark of Texas A&M University in 2020. It will mark us among the best, guide our decision-making, and empower us to continue to improve. Our vision for 2020 addresses, through careful and honest analysis, our strengths and weaknesses. It reflects a steadfast determination to build on strengths, eliminate weaknesses, seek opportunities, and face threats creatively and energetically. We will create a culture of excellence that fulfills the need for an institution with quality of the first order.
   In 2020 Texas A&M University will be even more distinctive than it is today. That distinctiveness
will be created on a foundation of quality that is widely recognized and measured by world standards. Our students will be among the best and brightest that the state, nation, and world have to offer. At the undergraduate level, they will have many highly respected avenues for leadership development. Our graduate students will be greater in number, come from the best institutions around the globe, be well supported, and have opportunity for intellectual growth that is the equal of the best public universities. Our faculty in all fields and disciplines of the campus will have recognition for their scientific and creative acumen and also for their care and concern for students, their commitment to teamwork, and their appreciation for the membership they hold in our community of scholars. Our people will be diverse, not only in representation, but in the differences of view that fuel the engines of thought that compose great institutions of higher education. There will be more of us. The graduate population will grow in size, while the undergraduate programs will serve at least the same number of students. We will seek appropriate matches for people and resources.
   Our campus will be attractive. It will be sensitive to people and not overrun with motor vehicles. It will offer excellent facilities for study and research, laboratories which people come from the world over to use for the freshness of technology and capability provided. The majority of students will still live here, many more in residence halls on campus, but Texas A&M University will be known as a seedbed for the best distance and advanced forms of educational technology available.
   We will have new programs, especially at the doctoral level in some of the humanities and social sciences whose present absence undermines the quality of every program on campus. Our great professional programs and the genesis of the institution as a land grant university will be more important than ever before. Weak programs will be refined, reconstructed, or eliminated. Excellent universities cannot tolerate weak programs of any kind. If a program is important, then it will be made excellent.
   The scholarship produced by faculty and students will be the best available in many fields. Campus experts will be frequently referred to in the national and global media for the knowledge and insight they bring to current issues. We will have participated in the invention of new ways of assessing quality in scholarship that are responsive to changing forms of information technology. Much of the insight for this growth will come from a refreshed alliance between the library and the scholarly traditions of faculty members. We will have reinvented the roots of the university, reflecting our understanding that the flow of knowledge is the foundation for the university.
   Because of efforts over the past few decades, the legislature and the people of Texas will have a deeper appreciation for the role that flagship universities play in the state’s economy. The general population will be more aware of what universities do for the economy and for their quality of life. Our heritage of service will provide the foundation for this awareness, but it will be built upon by a new view of how a university can provide leadership. We will take our responsibility to inform in a way that serves as a benchmark for other institutions of higher learning.
   New alliances and new forms of teaching and learning will have been born at Texas A&M University in the early part of the 21st century. These will shape educational programs that go beyond the individual and affect learners from childhood to old age, in primary and secondary schools, in corporate office and places of production, individually and in groups, for profit and for fun. This is the changing nature of higher education, and it will mark Texas A&M University.
   Resources will be seen in a different light at Texas A&M University. The state will provide the foundation for the infrastructure that is needed to create and sustain a culture of excellence. Private resources will provide opportunity for study and research that exceeds the state’s capability to support our work. These gifts and support will come from individuals and corporations. Many times they will be unrestricted, but at other times specific to programs created through strategic alliances that benefit both the giver and the institution. Lastly, a fair-share cost of educational opportunity will be paid by students, both in degree programs and through extension, cooperative education, and other forms of specialized service that the university will provide.
   This is a glimpse of our future, constructed on the ideas generated by the Vision 2020 task force. It is a future that is respectful of our past and bold about what will come. This is Texas A&M University in 2020.

C R E A T I N G  T H E  C U L T U R E  O F  E X C E L L E N C E
Excellence in anything is a rare commodity, and unlike many commodities it can disappear if not continually cultivated. Our excellence has grown over our history through the determination of the people who live and work here. We must continue to aspire to be better than we are. One way to say this is that we must continually expect and create a culture of excellence. A culture of excellence will set the tone for our future, build on existing strengths, and recognize our commitment to quality.