October 26, 2004

President Wilson convened the first meeting of the 2004-05 Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) at noon. He noted that because the SPSC that was organized in February 2003 had worked hard to complete a draft Vision Statement for a strategic plan, the current SPSC was now ready to embark, with our colleagues throughout the community, on the “fun part” of planning: identifying the major initiatives on which we will work over the next several years. Specifically, he charged the committee as follows:

The charge to the SPSC is to develop a planning document of no more than 12 to 15 pages by May, 2005, that (1) presents a vision for the University over the next 5 to 10 years; (2) identifies 6 to 8 major goals emerging from this vision; and (3) develops a number of strategies that, if pursued vigorously and well, will allow the community to achieve its goals. In the course of this work, the SPSC will identify both quantitative and qualitative indicators for measuring progress, although that effort is not the primary focus of the committee’s work for the year. The committee will also suggest timelines for reviewing progress, reporting results to the campus community, and renewing the plan as the University accomplishes some goals and discovers others.

President Wilson expanded on this charge by stressing that communication with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trustees is vitally important throughout the planning process and that members should bear in mind that they have been selected to represent the interests of the entire community as they work to formulate the plan. He then made the following additional points:

The SPSC's first task is to review the draft Vision Statement to make sure that it encompasses the primary hopes and aspiration of the community. He reminded members that the statement had been distributed to the campus community last spring and had been discussed favorably at the May meeting of the Board of Trustees. He further observed that the draft seemed to him to incorporate in a general way most of the “big ideas” he had heard since his arrival on campus; therefore, his preference is to make only those revisions to the draft that SPSC members believe are absolutely essential.

After reviewing the Vision Statement, the SPSC will brainstorm on themes or issues flowing from the vision that might serve as planning priorities. The President reminded the group that one such planning priority—increasing diversity—had already been determined by a Trustee resolution in Spring 2004.

After two brainstorming sessions, the SPSC will identify 6 to 8 major themes that can serve as planning priorities from what will surely be a much longer list. The goal is to identify these themes by the end of the Fall 2004 semester so that work groups can develop them further in Spring 2005.

The President then turned the SPSC’s attention to the draft Vision Statement and asked for members’ assessment of its suitability and completeness. A consensus quickly emerged that the vision for IWU articulated in the draft was indeed rich and comprehensive enough to guide the planning process. Committee members agreed, however, that it was advisable to reflect further on the draft before formally endorsing it.

The President then asked committee members to begin brainstorming about themes or issues that might serve as planning priorities. (In preparation for this discussion, SPSC members had studied a detailed compilation of issues and concerns drawn from a number of task force and committee reports between 2001 and 2004, including but not limited to, the North Central Self-Study and Visitor’s Report.) He asked that during this free-ranging discussion, the group continuously test the Vision Statement draft by asking whether each issue mentioned could be directly related to a sentence or phrase in the vision. The remainder of the meeting was spent generating a list of potential planning themes while simultaneously looking back at the Vision Statement draft to be sure it provided a foundation for pursuing a particular theme, should that theme later emerge as a planning priority.

The committee agreed to continue this discussion at its next meeting on Thursday, November 11.

Distributed to faculty and staff 11/11/2004