Northwestern released a copy of its 10-year strategic plan Monday night.
The 28-page plan outlines the University’s goals for the next decade, highlighting areas of research in which the University intends to focus, plans for extending learning beyond the classroom and ideas on improving diversity and community at NU.
“This strategic plan builds on Northwestern’s current strengths and focuses our energies and resources on the most pressing issues that we are distinctively positioned to address,” according to the plan.
The University provides several examples within the document of the school’s recent achievements – including economics Prof. Dale Mortensen’s Nobel prize, Design for America program going national and Dance Marathon’s continued success year after year – that the school wants to build upon.
“It’s about what we are doing collectively,” said Provost Dan Linzer told the Daily prior to the unveiling of the plan. “What does our combination of schools position us to do and how do we get people thinking about our collective ambitions?”
The plan mentions the University’s interest in focusing on research about areas such as nanoscience, biomedical sciences, global health and sustainability.
It also mentions a desire to incorporate more experiential learning into curricula and “create a year-round educational experience.”
In terms of the University’s role in the international sphere, the plan targets the creation of research hubs in Asia and the Middle East.
As for building community within campus, the plan mentions “creating community gathering spaces” but does not specifically mention the creation of a new student center, which the Associated Student Government has been proposing since 2010.
“There are two conditions to have a transformative plan: one is you have to have a good plan, and the other is you have to implement it,” said President Morton Schapiro in an interview with the Daily before the unveiling. “… I think we have a really good plan; now we have to implement it.”
University administrators will formally present the strategic plan Tuesday.
Katherine Driessen contributed reporting.
