Dear Faculty and Staff,
In mid-June, the President’s Council met to review and discuss the progress we have made in implementing our prioritized year 1 initiatives that are a part of our Uplift Valpo: A Beacon for Our Journey Forward strategic plan. As a campus, we have collectively made a lot of progress in a number of different areas, but there is still much work to be done to achieve our stated goals. I want to share just a few highlights and outcomes from the recent meeting to keep you all informed as we continue our collective work to achieve the ultimate goal of being a sustainable and thriving institution.
While we are still working on the final list of year 2 initiatives, many of the initiatives that began in the first year will continue moving forward. A challenge we face is how we operationalize the new and revised institutional work so that they become standard parts of who we are and what we do. For example, we need to appropriately support the Valpo Success Initiative (VSI) and Bloom Scholars program as they transition from pilot programs to established University activities.
Additionally, we need to continue to look for ways to build capacity to evolve and meet the challenges facing higher education institutions. Therefore, our collective work on operational sustainability will continue as we work to properly align our administrative and academic resources to best support the mission, values, and success of the students at Valparaiso University. A comprehensive administrative and academic review of our operations and offerings will be conducted over the course of the next eight months. This effort will be led by a steering team in cooperation with a consulting firm with a rich background in helping Universities form decision-making systems that reflect their goals and values. Further details about these efforts regarding timing and process will follow in the coming weeks from initiative co-leaders Provost Eric Johnson and Vice President Mark Volpatti.
While I don’t have a complete list of what our strategic action initiatives will be for year 2 yet, I want you to know that we are actively planning and evolving our prioritized work based on what we have learned from our success and challenges during our first year of implementation. The work will continue to be challenging. I thank you all for your continued support and effort surrounding our strategic actions, and all that you do to continually improve Valpo to better serve our students and become the thriving institution that we collectively desire.
