A-State Family:
As I discussed in my March 12 email to you, our strategic planning efforts are under way. I wanted to provide you with an update so that everyone knows where we are on the process. You will recall that the Steering Committee held a day-long retreat in March to develop the context for the planning process and to draft out ideas about major (very broad) themes for the plan (generally: Academics, Research, Student Success, Community, Global, and Cultural Leadership). As you will see, we are doing a lot of work in the foreground to better prepare the campus and community to engage in the plan later on.
Next steps:
1. Members of the Steering Committee are preparing to lead six focus groups that will discuss the major themes that were developed in our first day-long retreat with the Napa Group consultants. The committee is currently populating the members of each focus group (roughly 12 members each), and those meetings will take place over the course of the next month.
2. Following the completion of the focus group meetings, the Steering Committee will hold a second all-day retreat at the end of May, where we will use what we learn to further refine our themes and to prepare for our town hall meetings, wherein our entire community will have the opportunity to engage in the plan.
3. The Steering Committee is scheduling a series of town hall meetings with each of our constituencies in the coming several months:
June: Community
July: Staff
August: Faculty
September: Students
4. Finally, the Steering Committee has developed a Strategic Plan website, which will be where you can track our progress as we create the Strategic Plan and then as we implement it. Visit the website at: AState.edu/StrategicPlan.
I close by publicly thanking the members of our Steering Committee. I remain impressed by their energy and passion for getting this right. To a person, they are dedicated to creating a plan that serves A-State’s faculty, staff, and students well, not just today but long into the future. Higher education is changing dramatically, and this plan will help us proactively be ready to meet the challenges in front of us. Your representatives are serving you well during this process.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Best,
Kelly
PS -- If you would like to read the book the Steering Committee is reading, Robot-Proof, the Dean B. Ellis Library has a digital copy that you can access at these two sources: EBSCO or Project Muse.