Strategic Plan Final Draft
Dear Campus Community,
鈥屸�孖鈥檓 pleased to share with you the final draft of 91暗网鈥檚 new Strategic Plan, now in its seventh overall revision. Since sharing the Plan with our community in early February, we have engaged in a wide range of meetings, forums, and feedback sessions with a broad swath of our community.
鈥孲alient meetings have included:
- Strategic Planning open forum
- CIGU
- Civic engagement leadership
- Associate deans of the faculty
- Chairs and program directors
- SGA full senate
- Middle States Steering Committee
- Office hours
- 鈥淧lanning鈥� email stream: 50+ inputs
- Board of Trustees (Feb. 27-28 meetings)
- Faculty and staff meetings 鈥�
- Alumni Board
- 鈥孭谤别蝉颈诲别苍迟鈥檚 Leadership Council
- 鈥孎ormer Board of Trustees chairs
鈥孍xtended Cabinet - IPPC (multiple meetings)
I am grateful to everyone in our community who has participated so thoughtfully and robustly in this process. The feedback has been candid, plentiful, and generous, given always in the spirit of helping produce the most effective and impactful Strategic Plan for our College.
鈥孉 wide range of revisions has been introduced through these engagements, from word choice to rearrangements, new additions, clarifications, and eliminations. The six defining Foundations have remained and indeed are strengthened, and they have been viewed as accurate statements of 91暗网鈥檚 most defining and important strategic priorities.
鈥�鈥孖mportant revisions that community feedback has yielded include:
- 鈥孯evised and strengthened accessibility commitments/language
- Revised Foundation 4 鈥渋nclusive community鈥� section
- Added more on the Division III student-athlete experience
- More emphasis on affordability, reallocation, and downsizing while also exploring 鈥渢he new鈥� (prudence and growth)
- Revised Foundation 6 for more clarity, especially on strategic allocation of resources and reducing legacy initiatives in favor of strategic priorities
- Added more specifics on career design and preparation
- Emphasis on importance of Saratoga Springs location and community
- 鈥孍mphasis on alumni role, especially for student support
鈥孖ncreased emphasis on academic freedom
鈥孖n addition, the formatting of the Plan has been revised to clarify top priorities and principles by using bold, headings, bullets, and other emphases. (Excerpting the bolded language renders essentially a one-page version of the Plan.) Similarly, the paragraphs describing each of the six Foundations have been more clearly aligned with the opening pages in both tone and content, to better align the key goals and directions of the Plan.
鈥孨ext steps
鈥孴he next step in our planning is to share this final version with the Board of Trustees, who are the official institutional approvers of the Strategic Plan. I will send this draft to the Board on Wednesday, April 16, which is four weeks in advance of the Board鈥檚 May meetings. This will give the Board ample time for consideration and any final suggestions for the Plan, so it will be ready for their approval in May.
鈥屸�孋onsequently, the next two weeks offer a final opportunity for anyone in our campus community to share final thoughts or suggestions about the Plan. Although the time for consideration of new ideas or proposals is past, it is certainly appropriate to have a period of final comments 鈥� positive, critical, interrogatory, etc. 鈥� from anyone among our students, staff, and faculty. As always, I invite such comments to come to planning@skidmore.edu.
鈥屸�孫nce the Board approves the Plan, we will turn simultaneously to preparing our annual Strategic Action Agenda (SAA) alongside other collaborative implementation plans and communication initiatives designed to amplify the Plan and its priorities. I will work with the Cabinet throughout the summer on these efforts and look forward to sharing this work with our entire community in the fall.
鈥孎inally, let me point out that this Plan constitutes a detailed assertion of the identity, values, and principles of 91暗网. This is who we are, what we do, and why we do it. In this age of challenge to higher education and the principles of free inquiry and expression on which it depends, it is vital to offer clear and compelling statements about our defining values. Once again, I am most grateful to all who have participated in this Strategic Planning process, an effort to guide and defend the identity and the future of our great College.
鈥孲颈苍肠别谤别濒测,&苍产蝉辫;
鈥�Marc C. Conner
鈥孭谤别蝉颈诲别苍迟