The Observer, April 11, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 24
Open Forums still revising, refining university's strategic plan
Slowly yet surely, the university's strategic plan for the next five to 10 years is taking shape. In the latest series of open forums held by the University Plan Steering Committee over the past week, faculty, staff, alumni, and students offered their comments on the latest draft of the University Plan.
Such a plan is intended to guide the school's priorities in development, budgeting, fundraising, and additional operations over the specified timeframe. A final draft of the plan will be presented to the Board of Trustees in June.
While not all of the previous forums had been highly attended, the presence of president Barbara Snyder at last Tuesday's forum proved to spur turnout and stimulate discussion, particularly with faculty members.
Snyder led some portions of the forum, with others being directed by interim provost Jerold Goldberg. Richard Baznik, a member of the Steering Committee with a large role in the planning process, was also in attendance. The forums were structured around discussion of draft mission/vision statements for the university, as well as facets of five future goals.
At the outset of the forum, Snyder acknowledged the process of strategic planning is not immune to skepticism, but she asserted that the development of a strategic plan ultimately amounts to the development of a "roadmap for the [university's] future." She explained that devising a plan suited for the university is important not only in terms of practical consequences for budgeting and management, but also because it will essentially convey the university's principles to those outside the campus community.
Snyder claimed that conveying those values now would be particularly timely. Case is preparing to begin a desperately needed capital campaign: the first, Snyder noted, in 14 years.
The main goals of the discussion were to identify any specific oversights not included in the draft of the plan, and to get feedback on possible prioritization decisions that will soon have be made. To that end, much of the feedback from attendees was specific, whether about language to alter in the plan draft or about certain concerns.
For instance, particular words in the university's proposed mission statement were scrutinized. Some questioned what exactly "transformative" education, identified by the proposal as something for the university to develop, meant. Goldberg agreed that some work was still being done concerning phrasing.
Other hot topics ranged from how the university is perceived to emphasize research at the expense of the humanities, to the particular academic strengths Case should attempt to invest in.
Goldberg listed some of the particular areas that were being looked at as important to build upon, including energy and environmental issues, human health, creative resources like those in University Circle, and innovative institutions like the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence.
Both faculty and Goldberg pointed out a need for increased support of and investment in doctoral students, though not to the point of neglecting other parts of the campus community. The recruitment of talented doctoral students is just one of many planning issues that can be solved, Goldberg said, through either careful prioritizing or innovative planning.
Several audience members expressed the desire for Case to recruit more diverse students – one faculty member mentioned that he frequently found himself speaking with pre-law students who had the notion that Case was only a school for the sciences, and another felt that a preponderance of pre-med students only take classes and do research with the aim of getting into medical school, rather than out of any genuine desire for learning.
Goldberg stressed that the planning committee would like to bring the university into the middle of a continuum between a research university and a liberal arts college, saying that the committee is "trying very hard to put in language" that speaks specifically to the balance between science and the humanities. Snyder mentioned her belief that it is in part the responsibility of a university to inspire students' learning.
There was also talk of ensuring competitive pay for faculty. Snyder expressed a preference for such pay increases rather than expanding faculty size, mentioning that it allows the university to hire the kind of people who increase the university's reputation.
Though many faculty and other members of the university community have a desire to improve the infrastructure of some aspects of the university, and while Snyder ensured that certain infrastructure issues were being examined, she said that infrastructure improvement was not the most important part of strategic planning.
Both Goldberg and Snyder encourage continual participation in the planning process – those who participate have the opportunity to shape how the university will change in the near future.
"You have to know what your priorities are," Snyder said, before it is possible to budget effectively. Ultimately, choices about where to invest will have to be made, and the Open Forums are one way for the campus community to offer their views about those choices.
The committee is still collecting input through the University Plan website, at www.case.edu/provost/uplan.
