Communication Regarding Strategic Planning
Friday, June 9, 2017
To the Campus Community,
On behalf of the Strategic Planning Committee, we would like to express our appreciation for taking time to send us feedback on the draft goals and objectives we sent on May 22. We received feedback directly through e-mail, through the anonymous Qualtrics survey link, and at various meetings, including that of UPRC. We would also like to let you know what the next steps are.
The Committee truly appreciates the time and thought that many of you put into reading the document with the goals and objectives and into giving us input as to what needed to be improved. We also appreciate the positive feedback that we got. Our goal now is to go back to the document and revise it based on the thoughts you shared with us.
Through the process of receiving that feedback, it became clear to us that further conversation was needed, not just about the goals and objectives, but also about the mission, vision and values of the university, since these are framing elements that help elucidate the goals and objectives. We also realized that having the metrics in the document, would help flesh out the goals into more tangible elements.
With all of this in mind, the next step for the committee is to continue work through Summer and, particularly, Fall 2017. At some point in early Fall, we will be sharing a revised and expanded document with the campus community, one that will include mission, vision, values and metrics. We will again hold focus groups with students, staff and faculty to gather final input on the document and its contents. Our goal is that through these focus groups we will be able to hold conversations that will help us outline a mission, vision, and values—with accompanying goals, objectives and metrics—that are clear in content and intent to the campus community as a whole, and that the Western community can embrace.
Sincerely,
WWU Strategic Planning Committee
Monday, May 22, 2017
Goals and Objectives
Dear Western Community,
On behalf of the Strategic Planning Committee, we are pleased to present to the University community our draft of the goals and objectives for Western’s next strategic plan.
We would like to describe the process by which we developed these goals and objectives. First was the committee’s formation, overseen by the University Planning and Resource Council and with constituencies selecting, from among their members, nominees to serve. The full list of members can be found here. President Randhawa charged the committee with the development of a strategic plan consisting of three to five aspirational goals, a set of objectives related to each goal, and associated metrics. He also charged the committee with the development of a list of aspirational peer institutions; that list with the criteria associated with its development will be shared with the University community for its feedback soon.
The committee’s first task was to hear from people both inside and outside the University community. We took two approaches to getting feedback. First, we conducted nearly 30 focus group sessions and open forums on and off campus. The complete list can be found here; files with comments can be found on this page. Second, we conducted two surveys, one of students, staff, and faculty, and one of alumni. Results can be found here.
Once the survey and focus group results were in, by early spring, we worked to identify common themes from the surveys and focus groups. Our summary of themes can be found here. From the themes, we worked on goals that would push us in areas in need of improvement, as well as in areas Western was seen as already strong. The next step we took was to set objectives related to each goal. We are at this stage currently, and we believe this is the time to ask for feedback from the University community. The document containing the goals and objectives can be found here. We are looking forward to receiving your feedback at WWUStrategicPlanning@wwu.edu; the web site has a link to this e-mail address as well. If you prefer to give your feedback anonymously, please click the link on the website here. Please provide your feedback by the end of the day, Wednesday, May 31.
After we receive your feedback we will revise our goals and objectives as necessary, add a framing narrative for the entire document and for each goal, and identify metrics by which to judge the University’s progress in accomplishing them. We will submit our final draft to President Randhawa by June 16, as he asked in his charge. That draft will be circulated in the summer and fall before final revision and presentation to the Board of Trustees for adoption.
We are honored to have been selected to work on this important task, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Paqui Paredes Méndez
Brian Burton
Strategic Planning Committee co-Chairs
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Dear Western community,
On behalf of the Strategic Planning Committee, I am sending you this e-mail to give you an update on our work and to inform you of the timeline for the process as well. But first, the committee would like to thank you all for your help this far as we work on our task. We received more than 1,000 usable responses to the survey (about 500 from students, 200 from faculty, and more than 150 from staff, and more than 100 from people who have multiple roles at Western) and we have conducted a total of thirty-two focus groups. We have gotten a wealth of information both from the responses to the survey and from the focus groups, information that is now informing our discussions to determine mission, vision, themes, goals and objectives.
We will take advantage of this opportunity to ask for your help again in assisting us with our discussions regarding aspirational peers. If you have not had a chance yet to answer the survey regarding aspirational peers, we would very much appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer it now: Aspirational Peers Survey.
Our goal is to be able to give President Randhawa a draft of the strategic plan and aspirational peer list by June 15th. Prior to that, we will again be asking for your feedback on two occasions, once to request input on goals, objectives, and metrics, and once to request feedback on a list of aspirational peers. We thank you in advance for your collaboration on this. We would also like to let you know that there will be time next year to give feedback on the document as a whole.
Again, thank you so much for your help and we look forward to continue working with you as we complete our task.
Paqui Paredes Méndez, PhD
Strategic Planning Committee co-Chair
Associate Professor/Chair
Department of Modern and Classical Languages
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Dear Western Community,
The WWU University Planning and Resources Council (UPRC), at its October 19th meeting, voted unanimously to create an ad hoc committee charged with writing a new strategic plan for WWU. The committee was to be composed of five faculty, one professional staff, one classified staff, two students, two members of the executive administration, one community member who is a WWU alumnus, and one member of the WWU Board of Trustees. In addition, Brent Carbajal (Provost) and John Bower (UPRC chair) were chosen to be “advisory members” of the committee.
UPRC also voted to build this committee through nominations from the following bodies:
Faculty – WWU Faculty Senate and UFWW
Professional Staff – Professional Staff Organization
Classified Staff – Washington Federation of State Employees, Public School Employees
Students – Associated Students
Community Member/Alumnus – President Randhawa
WWU Board of Trustees – President Randhawa
All nominees were confirmed by UPRC at its November 30th meeting. The committee is constituted as follows:
- Eric Alexander – Professional Staff Organization
- Megan Spiegel – Public School Employees of Washington
- Sabrina Chou – Associated Students of WWU
- Lauren Vásquez – Associated Students of WWU
- Vicki Hsueh – Faculty Senate
- Nabil Kamel – Faculty Senate
- Paqui Paredes – Faculty Senate (Co-chair)
- David Leaf – Faculty Senate
- Kristin Mahoney – United Faculty of Western Washington
- Brian Burton – Administration (Co-chair)
- Kathy Kitto – Administration
- Tony George – Community/Alumni
In its first meeting on Friday January 13th, the committee was charged by President Randhawa with developing a transparent and inclusive process that will culminate in the drafting of anew strategic plan for Western Washington University. It is intended that the new plan, deriving from the University`s core values, will set priorities and will inform decisions regarding resource allocation from AY 2017-18 through AY 2023-24.
As part of the process to develop the new strategic plan, the committee will be reaching out to the campus community on several occasions during Winter and Spring quarter, both in the form of surveys and listening sessions, with the hope of gathering input that will inform the discussions and actual drafting of the new strategic plan.There will also be opportunity to comment on the draft document before it is finalized.
As a committee, we would like to introduce ourselves and to ask you all to be involved and participate in this very important process. It is crucial that the campus community and all its constituents inform both the process and its final product.
As we initiate the strategic planning process, we want to begin by hearing from you – the Western community. This short anonymous survey asks you to provide us with feedback about Western and our shared futures. We invite you to stretch and broaden your view of WWU and to think at the University level as you answer these questions. Please be honest, open, critical, innovative, and bold in your responses. As a committee, our goal is to craft a representative and aspirational plan for Western`s future, and your voices will be central to fulfilling that charge.
We ask you to complete the survey by Friday March 17th. To complete the survey, please go to this link.
Sincerely,
WWU Strategic Planning Committee