Campus team assisting in revising University Strategic Plan

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A broad-based team of campus community members has been put in place to assist Western Michigan University in revising its strategic plan.

The 23-member University Strategic Plan Transition Team received its charge from WMU's senior leadership in September.

The team is led by Dr. Jody Brylinsky, associate provost for institutional effectiveness. Its members represent every divisional unit at the University as well as the Faculty Senate, WMU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, Western Student Association and Graduate Student Association.

Known as The Gold Standard, the University Strategic Plan first went into effect in 2012. This inaugural plan covered a three-year time period that ended June 30. WMU is now in the process of updating the plan and having it span five rather than three years.

Brylinsky stresses that WMU is building on the existing plan, not redoing it.

"We're transitioning in the sense that we're making updates and moving to a five-year time period. The revisions will take into account the new input we'll be gathering this academic year, as well as the lessons we learned and the recommendations we received during the plan's previous three years," Brylinsky says.

"We'll be keeping the same three institutional pillars we have now—learner centered, discovery driven and globally engaged—and be fine tuning the goals and objectives so they better reflect current and future challenges, assumptions and aspirations. The revised plan language will include objectives and strategies that will allow for improved prioritization and that will link to existing University structures for implementation and support."

Transition team activities

The transition team will meet every two weeks through March 2016 to synthesize input from a wide range of WMU constituents and pair the information it receives with the results data gleaned during implementation of the inaugural 2012-15 plan.

The team also will refine successive versions of the emerging 2015-20 plan, within the established mission and core values of the University, and make recommendations regarding structure and language.

In addition, the transition team will oversee communication activities related to gathering input from the WMU community and rolling out the revised plan.

Campus participation

Students, faculty and staff members, and other members of the WMU community can stay involved in the strategic planning process in a variety of ways, including by:

• Participating in a Universitywide survey that will be launched later this semester to gather more input from WMU's stakeholders.
• Attending one of the public forums that will be held on campus early this spring.
• Joining one of the many groups that are working to implement aspects of the strategic plan, or working to develop or update strategic plans for their individual units.
  
• Regularly checking the strategic plan website at wmich.edu/strategic for news and announcements.

A draft of the 2015-20 University Strategic Plan should be available for review in January or February. The final version is expected to be ready for implementation beginning in early 2016.

For more information about the strategic planning process, visit wmich.edu/strategic. A copy of 2012-15 University Strategic Plan is posted there, along with the membership roster for the University Strategic Plan Transition Team and other significant documents.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.