Strategic Plan Adopted

Tonight at the Faculty Senate, the first step in developing a strategic plan was adopted. For months, the campus has been involved in a developing a comprehensive review setting the agenda for a strategic plan that was required by the accrediting agency. A committee of 30 with another 100 faculty, students, and administrators developed the document, Innovation and Impact: Renewing the Promise of the Public Research University, which was subsequently presented in a bunch of public forums and the language expanded and revised.

Several people spoke up at the faculty senate, some to praise the document and others to point at various problems and shortcomings. I had prepared some remarks in advance.

  I would like to thank the members of the Joint Task Force on Strategic Oversight, and the many allied committees that have worked long and hard to create the current document. I applaud your efforts. This work is difficult, often thankless, and too often conducted in an atmosphere of cynicism.

  I've heard many people say, "Ho-hum. I've seen these plans come and go." I exhort my colleagues to actually read this document and to recognize that this -- this -- is not just more of the same.

  The document is not perfect, but it is not just a list of numerical targets. It is not just following the crowd. It is not just aspirational language. It is not just a laundry list of administrative goals. It is something qualitatively different.

  This document represents genuine soul searching on the part of many thoughtful people throughout the institution. This document aims to raise the consciousness of all of the members of the University community -- that we find the ground shifting under our feet.

  We need to look carefully at where we are and where we want to go. We need to come to know what we are and decide what we intend to be. This is not a task of the administration -- it is the task of all of us.

  But this is only the first step. Next, we need to take this agenda and begin building the concrete steps to carry us forward toward our goals. As chancellor Lombardi was fond of saying, "time is the enemy". I urge my colleagues to not merely adopt this report, but to go back and read it carefully, and begin helping to figure out how every one of us can start making these things happen.

  We're going to need all of us. This is your invitation.

Very last spoke Tom Lindeman, who reminded us, quite rightly, that the document places too much emphasis on teaching and not enough on learning. In many places in the document, you could probably replace the word "teaching" with "learning" and the document would be fundamentally stronger. He also reminded us that the University does not merely serve the interests of the public. The University must also stand apart and be an independent voice that critiques the public. Academic Freedom, which is not mentioned in the document, must remain a key mission of the academy -- even if, or especially when, the public does not necessarily see that in its interests.

The report was adopted unanimously by the Faculty Senate. Now we move on to step two.