After a year-long drafting process, UP publishes its five-year Strategic Plan
By Natalie Wheeler Staff Writer wheelern12@up.edu
On Sept. 16, the Board of Regents approved a five-year Strategic Plan for the University. For the past year, a cross section of the university community including faculty, staff and students met to collaborate on goals to accomplish between now and 2016.
Along with 46 other tasks, the document includes a $23 million recreation, health and wellness center and $14 million renovated library.
The 26-page plan encompasses a wide range of plans, from improving the Catholic studies and social justice programs to reducing energy costs by 10 percent.
According to Fr. Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., University president, the document is a blueprint for the development of UP.
"If you're going to be effective, you're going to have to plan how to do that," Beauchamp said. "So this is essentially the basic operational plan for the next five years."
The most immediate goals include Buckley Center renovations, such as installing new seats, and creating a plan to establish a Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, both to be completed by January 2012.
The document's goals were drafted by three subcommittees - teaching and learning, faith and formation and service and leadership - which represent the core mission themes of the University. A steering committee co-chaired by Beauchamp and UP's Provost, Br. Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C., also made sure the goals were in line with University objectives.
Executive Assistant to the President Fr. Gerry Olinger, C.S.C., who facilitated the strategic planning process, said creating the document helped better define University values.
"I think one of the real strong points of this current Strategic Plan is that we had a really good process of examining who we are, and for one of the first times, writing it out," Olinger said.
According to Olinger, the most important goal in the Strategic Plan is the Enrollment Management Plan, which will examine the University's capacity for student enrollment.
"It's looking at what our size should be," Olinger said. "We're examining what our capacities are, based on the classrooms we have, and the beds that we have in our residence halls, and faculty, and all of that."
In the fall, the committees drafted five broad goals - premier academic programs, mission-centered community, values-centered culture, quest for the common good and supporting the mission - as well as strategies for achieving those goals. Then in the spring, groups who had investment in the strategies - referred to as "units" within the University - were created to draft specific tasks pertaining to such strategies.
Professor of communication studies Elayne Shapiro, who co-chaired the teaching and learning committee, was proud of the variety of input within the committees.
"There was a lot of participation across the board, from faculty to staff to students," Shapiro said. "It was really a large cross section of the university who took part in it."
Ona Golonka, who graduated last year and is currently in graduate school in Poland, was a member of the teaching and learning committee. She said that she appreciated having a voice in UP's future.
"I did give input about what improvements could be made in student teaching and constantly brought up the subject of the necessity of more service learning trips being accredited with academic credit," Golonka said in an email.
Although the last five-year plan had many unfulfilled goals, such as the establishment of a UP chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Beauchamp said this plan is "not a wish list."
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Rev. Stephen Rowan, who was part of the steering committee, said goals in the current plan are more realistic.
"Some of these (in the last plan) cost a lot of money," Rowan said. "They were not thought through. This plan is much more thorough. We're asking 'How much is it going to cost?' and 'What areas are you building up?'"
According to Beauchamp, the committees will also produce yearly progress reports to update the University on the development of their goals. Beauchamp said other goals can be added within the five-year span, but that the Strategic Plan is the guiding document for the university through 2016.
To view the 2011-2016 Strategic Plan, go to www.up.edu and look under "Spotlights."
