Overarching strategic goals established
As the co-chairs of the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC), we are pleased to provide an update on the status of the strategic planning process.
As a reminder, the strategic planning process has three stages: discovery and analysis; building and testing the plan; and refining, vetting and finalizing the plan. When we last communicated in December, we were nearing the completion of the discovery and analysis phase, having combed through the overwhelming amount of feedback (31 focus groups and discovery sessions with 480 total participants and 2,829 survey responses) to identify common themes for the plan’s strategic goals.
Since our last update, much work has been done by the Strategic Planning Committee to take the common themes that emerged from the strategic plan engagement activities to build the frame of the strategic plan. Additionally, data that emerged from the University’s simultaneous branding initiative were incorporated for consideration by the Committee.
The Committee has engaged in a deliberate iterative process to organize the emergent themes to create overarching strategic goals. The most recent draft plan is structured with the following four draft strategic goals:
- Transform lives through excellence and opportunity
- Power the future through research and creative discovery
- Drive progress for the region, state, nation and world
- Live our values to promote belonging and engagement
As part of these iterative steps, the Committee has also identified a number of strategic objectives under each overarching goal. These objectives are what will set the direction through which the four strategic goals will be realized. The Committee will be working diligently over the next several weeks to finalize these strategic goals and objectives. Please note that the wording for the goals listed here may be different in the final plan as the Committee continues to refine it.
Chancellor Gaber is committed to giving our campus the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the draft plan, and updated mission, vision, and values, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs). We anticipate vetting the draft strategic plan in late February. We remain on track to bring the strategic plan to the Board of Trustees at its April meeting.
It has been exciting to take the vast amount of feedback received from our faculty, staff, students, leadership, alumni, and corporate and other University partners and shape it into the blueprint that will propel our great university to its future.
In service,
Pinku Mukherjee
Irwin Belk Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education
Co-chair of the Strategic Planning Committee
George Banks
Associate Professor of Management
Co-chair of the Strategic Planning Committee