Vol. 7 No. 2
October/November 2004

Upon Reflection
University leadership urges a new "discipline" of planning

My job is to make sure that the academic focus of the institution is always front and center.
Earl Lewis, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

If we’re going to be rigid, operating in the nineteenth century and resisting change, then we’ll go the way of the Light Brigade.
Kenneth Thorpe, Woodruff Professor of Health Policy and Management

Phase to phase

Strategic Planning Steering Committee

To learn more

Scholarship in Time
Or, Sipping champagne from a fire hydrant
Bruce Knauft, Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Anthropology
and Executive Director,
The Institute for Comparative and International Studies

Is the Bible Green?
Ancient Israelite and early Christian perspectives
on the natural world
Carol A. Newsom, Professor of Old Testament

Further reading

The Mind and the Machine
A Review of Digital People by Sidney Perkowitz
Darryl Neill, Professor of Psychology

Endnotes

Return to Contents

The strategic planning process, co-chaired by Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Michael Johns and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Earl Lewis, began in March 2004 and is expected to conclude in May 2005.

Phase I of the process ended in September. President Jim Wagner first appointed a steering committee of faculty and senior administrators. Phase I involved much information gathering, including a series of “opportunity groups,” one-time gatherings of faculty, chaired by the deans, for brainstorming and identifying unique opportunities and priorities. Each school and unit was asked to complete an “environmental assessment,” a thorough analysis of internal and external context and position based on “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” Each school and unit also developed a list of “priority strategic issues” affecting it over the next five years. Finally, a number of task forces, composed primarily of faculty, began to take shape to examine issues and initiatives that cut across the entire university. The first of these was formed in the summer around internationalization, chaired by Tom Robertson, dean of the Goizueta Business School. Others are expected to convene soon in areas of focus such as public policy, community and diversity, and information technology.

Phase II of the process began in September and is expected to wind up in February 2005. It involves the formulation of major, university-wide initiatives (the work of the cross-university task forces) and strategic plans for each of the schools, as well as the identification of required resources.

Phase III, projected to begin in March 2005 and last about three months, will result in a final consolidation of the university’s goals, strategic initiatives (both university-wide and within each school and unit), and a plan for investing in these goals and initiatives. The final plan will be presented to the Board of Trustees in June. From there, the plan will become the platform for a comprehensive capital campaign.