As one of the top land-grant universities in the country, MSU must continually adapt to changing circumstances and provide a vision that meets current and future goals. To do so and become a model world-grant university for the 21st century, MSU must organize itself to face undefined conditions and situations. The four objectives set forth by the senior leadership position MSU to pilot tomorrow's higher education. The university must have systems that support and facilitate this endeavor.

The four objectives are briefly outlined below:

Flexibility

MSU must respond to emerging opportunities and challenges as presented. The university's ability to be successful will depend, in part, on the speed and agility with which it faces these situations. The new systems must support the capability to respond quickly and effectively to indefinable circumstances.

Transparency

Information is the life-blood of any complex organization. The ability to collect, process, store and use key data leads to improved decision making, effective operations and accountability. MSU's information, within the boundaries of legal and ethical responsibilities, must be easily available and accessible to individuals in the university who need it in the course of their work.

Standardization

Consistency coupled with bounded creativity provides an opportunity for a reliable approach to managing the business of the university. While systems integration is a difficult endeavor, the ability to share information commonly over systems and provide greater transactional flow will reduce chances for error and ensure trustworthy results. Processes and technology must be dependable across campus.

Delegation

The faculty and staff of Michigan State University are one of the university's greatest strengths. The ability to assign authority intentionally to the appropriate levels of the institution thereby eliminating needless reviews and steps is paramount. The new systems must support this goal through the workflow and business rules. This page should be here soon.....