MSU called for student, faculty, staff, alumni and community member feedback on a draft form of its strategic plan last Wednesday at a day-long event in SUB Ballroom B.
After nearly a year and a half of collaboration, Cruzado’s Strategic Planning Committee (SPC), composed of 40 volunteers from throughout campus, presented a revised vision statement to the public last week, along with a list of values and a collection of five core goals for the university.
The proposed values are respect, integrity, students and excellence (RISE), while the list of identified goals includes success, access, engagement, stewardship and the integration of the three components of the land-grand mission: teaching, research and service.
The values and goals were displayed on posters throughout the ballroom with supplies for attendees to write their comments regarding each element of the strategic plan.
Jim Rimpau, the vice president for planning, commented that by 5 p.m. a few hundred individuals had been in and out of the ballroom, and the web page that was open for notes on the plan had also received significant interest.
Kit Parker, a sophomore who attended the feedback session for a leadership class, explained “Students are the foundation of a school and it is important to build it upward.”
Fellow sophomore, Jonah Barta, added, “I’m here because I think all students should be involved in the development of the university.”
MSU’s Budget Director and SPC member Kathy Attebury explained that the strategic plan helps tie university funding and resources to the goals of the university and prioritize proposals. “We’ll evaluate all of [today’s] comments and make adjustments,” she said.
Heather McKenney, a senior in photography, said, “I hope the people who came today were able to add intelligible input for a collaboration between faculty and students.”
Dr. Deedee Combs explained, “The planning council understands the importance of getting feedback from the wider community.” The plan is slated to be finalized within a month after the committee presents to Cruzado in early March.
Both Combs and Dean of Students Matt Caires commented on the immense interest in the proposed goal of engagement, and Caires explained that engagement largely involves rethinking students’ experiences outside of the classroom.
A senator for the College of Engineering, Michael Townshend spoke on the significance of student feedback, “The most important thing is to bridge some of the disconnect between students and administration.”
Caires, who is also a member of the SPC, addressed the difficulty the committee will face in encompassing each concern and comment generated from last week’s session in the final plan. “To be strategic, you have to set priorities,” Caires said. “We can’t be all things to all people, so what can we be?”
