Self Study /
Strategic Planning Process

A Self-Study Coordinator was selected in winter 1996, and in spring 1996, a Steering Committee was assembled which included the Coordinator, the Executive Vice-President and Provost, the Director of Budget and Planning, and chairs of ten "Goal Committees" convened to evaluate the university’s progress toward its eight strategic goals (three committees were convened for Goal 1 because of its breadth of scope). During the summer of 1996, the Steering Committee selected a broad and diverse membership of faculty, staff and students for each Goal Committee and wrote a detailed charge for each Goal Committee to pursue during the 1996/7 academic year.

Because nearly 100 people were directly involved in the Self-Study Committees, the Coordinator established several coordinating mechanisms to keep the process on track:

• A time-line established deadlines for completing the process in a timely manner.
• An orientation for all Goal Committee members in September jump-started the process.
• A Resource Room in the library acted as repository for documents gathered or requested by the committees.
• Two e-mail lists kept committee members informed about events as the process unfolded.
• A World Wide Web site provided easy access to basic information about the Self-Study Process, as well as to reports generated by departments and committees during the process.

Goal Committees worked with Institutional Analysis and the Director of Budget, Planning and Faculty Personnel to gather necessary documentation, and conducted surveys of faculty, staff and students.

Concurrently in Fall 1996, the Steering Committee issued guidelines to all academic and administrative departments for preparing Departmental Self-Study Reports. Each department created a committee to prepare its report, which included: a departmental mission statement; an evaluation of departmental goals and accomplishments since 1988 as they related to the eight University goals; and, based on this evaluation, a list of strategic initiatives for 1997/8, including those that required new resources. These Departmental Self-Studies became a primary source of information for the Goal Committees; they were available both in the Resource Room and on the WWW to the University community.

The departmental strategic initiatives then entered the University strategic planning process. This linked the Self-Study and strategic planning processes. Engagement in Departmental Self Studies broadened the range of people responsible for planning and heightened awareness of both the Self-Study and strategic planning processes. Units that lacked mission statements developed them, and the Administration had a better basis for evaluating strategic initiatives.

The Steering Committee reviewed and provided feedback on all Goal Committee reports in spring 1997. Complete texts of the Goal Committee Reports are available in the Resource Room and on the WWW. During Summer 1997, the Self-Study Coordinator and the Technical Editor utilized the Goal Committee reports and Departmental Self-Studies to write the University Self-Study. The Steering Committee reviewed drafts of the University Self-Study in summer and fall 1997, and approved the final draft in October 1997 for distribution. The final University Self-Study Report was mailed to the Consultant-Evaluators in November 1997, prior to their scheduled visit in January 1998, and placed on this Web site for public access.