Northwestern administrators are planning for the next 10 years, this time soliciting the community’s input as to NU’s future.
The University released a framework earlier this month for the next University-wide strategic plan, which is set to take effect at the beginning of 2011 and run through the end of the decade. The Highest Order for Excellence, the title of the last strategic plan, and its companion piece have helped to set the course for NU since 1997.
The outline, available on the Northwestern Web site, is the first step in putting together a new plan. This is a process University Provost Daniel Linzer said will run through 2010. A number of issues and questions are listed in the outline, including globalization, strategic partnerships with other institutions and the NU community outside the classroom.
“We’re going to be coming up with a small number of items that really will take this University to the next level, things that are plausible,” University President Morton O. Schapiro told The Daily last week. “A lot of strategic plans either don’t differentiate a college or university from its peers, or they do, but they’re not practical.”
Linzer said those involved in the process so far include administrators, trustees and students like those in Associated Student Government. He said he wants to incorporate students, faculty and staff, and NU community members can submit comments on the framework online until Dec. 1.
“I am quite sincere in wanting this to be a broad community process that everybody has ownership,” Linzer said. “What emerges is going to be our plan collectively.”
ASG President Mike McGee said administrators have made a point of getting the perspective of students, something he said the last strategic plan lacked. The final draft of the last plan says eight students were planning groups for The Highest Order of Excellence.
“What we’ve shown as students is that we care about Northwestern, and we care about its image, and we actively participate in shaping this image,” the Communication senior said. “I definitely think students should be involved in this process.”
Schapiro said he learns something new about NU every time he meets with students.”To ignore the student input is crazy,” he said. “So you have to listen.”
The reason for this focus on students can be attributed to the administration taking students’ input more seriously, said ASG Student Life Vice President Matt Bellassai.
“We have a vested interest in where the school is going,” the Weinberg sophomore said. “Even after we graduate, we still have the Northwestern name attached to us.”
One item listed in the outline for the next plan details building a diverse and inclusive environment, an objective which the framework says the University has only “partially succeeded” in accomplishing.
Freshmen Urban Program co-chair Maddie Orenstein said NU has made headway in improving student and faculty diversity, but added the University has a long way to go.
“We need to push ourselves further in emphasizing that we strive to be diverse in every way,” the SESP senior said. “The lack of socioeconomic diversity and racial diversity on our campus hinders the base that we have to talk intellectually about the issues.”
Linzer said the next step in forming a new strategic plan is finalizing an outline by the end of December using comments from the NU community, and then turning over this outline to working groups, composed of students, faculty and staff, in January.
He said the makeup of these groups will be determined later in the process.
But those who will be involved in the plan will be encouraged to use “purple sky” thinking, which Linzer said is “thinking outside of the box.”
“It’s trying to turn some people loose and not feel constrained about the current realities,” he said. “It should be a fun group.”
