Dear Colleagues,
As we bring a busy academic year to a close, please find below the first of two communications from me this week regarding the year’s activities. The following is focused on our ongoing strategic planning process, as we are approaching a significant milestone.
Our campus-wide working groups have been meeting regularly throughout the spring semester and have produced a series of strategic goals, as well as related action steps to help achieve those goals. Over the past weeks of the semester, we hosted several open listening sessions with various constituent groups on campus. In these meetings, the working group co-chairs shared these goals and action steps with members of the campus community and were able to engage in productive dialogue around the strategic plan and the future of the college. It has been tremendously exciting to see so many faculty, staff, and students involved in this process, and it is resulting in a developing plan that is truly collaborative and reflective of ideas from across the community.
In the spirit of continued collaboration and transparency, we have created a space on the Becoming Lafayette website where we can share materials regarding the developing plan throughout the summer and into the fall. We will begin by sharing the slide deck containing the draft strategic goals and potential action steps, as well as a recording of the virtual open listening session that was conducted on Wednesday, April 24. When you review the slide deck or view the recording, you will notice a section titled ‘Emergent Themes,’ which begins to identify areas of commonality between the working group goals. These themes, around which the working groups have organically begun to coalesce, are likely to become a focal point of plan development as we move forward. At the end of the deck, you will also find a QR code that leads to a survey where you can continue to provide feedback related to the goals, proposed action steps, and developing themes.
In terms of next steps, we will be pulling together members of the strategic planning steering committee, the feasibility and implementation committee, and interested members of the working groups to continue to develop the plan over the summer months. This process will include review of all feedback received thus far as well as continued consultation with data sources and other materials that may help inform theme identification and prioritization. The goal will be to produce a draft plan by the end of the summer that can be shared with the community for further comment. We will then be able to engage and refine that document to move toward finalizing the strategic plan during the fall 2024 semester. We know that not all of the ideas put forward by the working groups will make it into the final plan but, as we have done throughout the process, we intend to provide an FAQ that outlines how and why certain elements were elevated over others and how the group might continue to promote good ideas that do not make it to the final document. We will be working with our drafting team to consider creative and effective strategies for engaging the community regarding the draft plan and welcome your thoughts regarding that topic at planning@lafayette.edu.
This is truly an exciting time to be a part of the Lafayette community, and we thank you for your continued engagement, critique, support, and innovation throughout this process.
To great things ahead!
President Nicole Hurd