By Asia Fields
The Board of Trustees voted to approve Western’s strategic plan, which trustees lauded as a “North Star” for the university, at its meeting on Friday, April 13.
The strategic plan, which is for 2018-2024, came out of an 18 month process which involved getting campus feedback, according to an email sent out by President Sabah Randhawa Thursday, April 19.
The Strategic Planning Committee was co-chaired by Paqui Paredes, professor of Spanish and chair of the department of modern and classical languages, and Brian Burton, associate vice president for academic affairs.
“We didn’t hear that we wanted to become a different institution, but we did hear very clearly and loudly that we need to be better,” Paredes said.
Karen Lee was the only trustee who voted against the plan. She said she thinks it doesn’t adequately discuss growth or the business side of planning.
At the meeting, Randhawa said he had some concerns about the targets for metrics that the committee laid out, but understood that these will be discussed in conversations across campus. He said he strongly supported the plan, which he said should be a guide, rather than providing every detail.
“It’s important to remember that this plan is a broad roadmap that provides guidance as we move forward; in other words, it is the start of a journey, not the conclusion,” Randhawa said in the email sent to campus.
The next step is to address funding to advance the plan, which will be done by a committee that will be formed this quarter, he said in the email.
However, he said the university will move forward with the priorities in the plan, such as by hiring faculty and increasing funding for student success and retention, and increasing diversity of the student body.
Bill Lyne, an English professor who served on the committee, said he recognizes that the final product will not be read by many, but that it is important for guiding the university.
“As important as it is to us, there’s not one prospective student who’s going to read that thing. And there’s not one legislator, I can bet my house on this, who is going to read our strategic plan,” he said. “It’s important though, for us. And I think the identification of what comes next in terms of resources is hugely, hugely important.”
What is a strategic plan?
A strategic plan outlines where an organization will go in the near future and how it will reach that point. They typically include mission, vision and value statements; analysis of strengths and weaknesses; and an action plan with ways to measure success.
Western’s strategic plan says it is a “roadmap and vision for our future.”
Randhawa instructed the Strategic Planning Committee to create a plan focused on Western’s core values and mission.
The plan is also supposed to inform decisions about funding and resource allocation through 2024.
The committee was charged with receiving feedback from the campus community in developing the plan and identifying strengths and challenges.
What kind of feedback did the committee get?
At the Board meeting, Paredes read a statement from Burton, the other co-chair, who was not in attendance.
“In many ways, the plan is not the work of the committee, but the work of everyone at Western who in honesty and openness told us of their love for the institution, their heartache for its flaws, their pride in its strengths and their hopes for its future,” he wrote.
The planning committee received 2,874 responses to their survey from faculty, staff and students.
The committee also sent a survey to alumni, which received 1,293 responses.
The survey respondents mostly identified Western’s strengths as faculty, the Western community and academics. The respondents identified Western’s biggest challenges as the administration, finance, faculty community and student life, and diversity.
All of the responses to these surveys can be found here:
Data from campus community survey
Data from alumni survey
So what’s in Western’s plan?
The plan includes four goals for Western:
- Provide a transformative education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity.
- Advance a deeper understanding of, and engagement, with place.
- Foster a caring and supportive environment where all members are respected and treated fairly.
- Pursue justice and equity in its policies, practices, and impacts.
The plan also outlines three ideals, which are advancing inclusive success, increasing Washington impact and enhancing academic excellence.
One component of the first goal is reviewing and improving the general education requirements (GURs).
The second goal is to “acknowledge and honor the richness and multiple meanings of place, from local to state, national, and global,” and to engage with this at the university in a respectful way. It includes recognizing “debts and obligations” to indigenous and Native nations and focusing on sustainability.
The third goal includes strengthening shared governance, or including students, staff and faculty in decision making. It also includes supporting the physical and mental health of the campus community.
The fourth goal includes recruiting and retaining more underrepresented and first-generation students, improving retention of diverse faculty and increasing affordability. It also includes protecting survivors and preventing sexual assault, as well as other types of violence, discrimination, harassment and bullying.
More about the specific goals can be found in the strategic plan.
The plan also includes benchmarks for success.
Why did Trustee Lee vote against it?
Trustee Karen Lee said she feels business considerations and planning for growth are important components to any strategic discussion, and is not something that should wait to be discussed later.
“My concerns are really around: Is this strategy or is this a statement of values? And from my perspective as a Trustee, this document and this strategic plan are a stake in the ground about values,” she said. “But in my mind it is not strategy.”
The strategic plan says that the committee saw the goals as values to be worked toward.
Lee said she felt Washington State University’s plan was an example that showed specific strategies, as it includes goals such as starting a medical school.
She said that with the exception of the second goal, she doesn’t feel the goals tell strategically where the university should be in five years. She said the plan should include plans for growth, such as what will be done with residence halls to accommodate for growth. She also questioned whether a five year timeframe before the plan was reworked was too long.
At the meeting on Thursday, April 14, Trustees Betti Fujikado and Chase Franklin also said they would have liked to see a little more on how the university would implement the plan. But overall, all the Trustees except Lee supported it, sometimes getting emotional about how they felt the plan embodied the spirit of Western.
“To me, it’s really fitting that our values are the center of our strategic plan,” Student Trustee Trista Truemper said.
She said the essence of higher education is the transformative process outlined in goal one, and that it shouldn’t be devalued, in response to Lee’s comment that it was important, but not strategic.
Paredes said it wouldn’t have been possible for the committee to establish concrete actions, as these need to go through university academic and budget processes.
Randhawa said the plan will need to result in concrete action, but is a guiding document.
“If the plan doesn’t help us to get to that point, we have failed in our effort,” Randhawa said.
Chair Sue Sharpe said she appreciates that the trustees express their differences in perspective, “so the campus community knows we’re not just little puppets.”
After her vote on Friday, Lee said she values and supports the work of the strategic planning committee, and looks forward to work on business components moving forward.
“I want to acknowledge that it takes a lot for an institution to be willing to uncover its perceived flaws and to be willing to put on paper to put a stake in the ground and say that we want to do better,” she said.