Strategic Planning Process: Call for Participation
Last's January's Academic Summit began a two-year process that will lead to the adoption of Skidmore's next strategic plan by May 2015. I write to invite your active participation in continuing this work. Opportunities for people to participate as groups and individuals will be included in this strategic planning process.
At this time, the IPPC invites groups within the college community to contribute to the initial phase of work: A. Data Gathering. Please see page 3 of the accompanying document for a more complete description of this phase of the process. Specifically, we are inviting groups (e.g., governance committees, clubs and organizations, departments and divisions within the college) to contribute 2–3 page white papers that address the following three questions:
- How does your group view the college today?
- How does your group view the external world?
- How does your group describe the college you would like to see us become by 2025?
We encourage you to be creative and forward-thinking in your responses. And we will need to hear from you by Wednesday, December 4.
The IPPC will consider your ideas and make them available through the Strategic Planning website: https://www.skidmore.edu/planning/
Please consult the website for instructions about how to submit your white paper.
As you are no doubt aware, strategic plans matter. Our previous plan, Engaged Liberal Learning: The Plan for Skidmore 2005–2015, has guided our work over the past eight years. During this time, we have:
- completed the Zankel Music Center;
- implemented the First-Year Experience Program;
- added several new majors and minors;
- increased the size and diversity of our faculty;
- stepped up recruiting for the physical and life sciences and increased the tempo of planning to take those programs to the next level of excellence;
- increased student participation in study-abroad experiences;
- increased the diversity of our entering classes and developed new programming to support our more multi-cultural study body;
- enhanced community on campus by completing the North Woods and Sussman Village apartments, updating all our traditional residence halls, and renovating the dining hall;
- developed our campus sustainability efforts, including the application of geothermal heating and cooling in all our new buildings and several existing ones;
- developed new programs dealing with responsible citizenship and civic engagement;
- increased the size, strength and diversity of our applicant pools;
- developed the Transitions and Transformations initiative to assist graduates in transitioning to their post-Skidmore lives;
- increased support for intercollegiate athletics and health and wellness on campus;
- completed the successful Creative Thought-Bold Promise Comprehensive Campaign ($216.5M); and
- doubled the size of our endowment (currently at $303M).
Equally important, the Strategic Plan gave us a common institutional vocabulary based upon its four goals: I. Student Engagement and Academic Achievement, II. Intercultural and Global Understanding, III. Informed, Responsible Citizenship and IV. Independence and Resources.
Our task in creating the next strategic plan is to build upon the success of the past years, realizing that none of the four goals of the previous plan could ever be fully achieved. Indeed, they all represent fundamental institutional commitments, based in our mission, that we would never want to abandon. So the next plan needs to articulate a set of goals that reflects our fundamental values, the present state of the college, the external environment we face and our collective vision of where we want the college to be by 2025. The accompanying document outlines the process we will follow in creating this plan.
Thank you for your attention and for your interest in the important process of strategic planning.