Why are we doing this now?
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The easy answer: The old plan was a ten year plan and ten years is about up.
The more complete answer: The world is changing. o Declining state support, growing cost pressures. o Strong appetite by students/stakeholders for “excellence.” o Explosion of technology impacts in delivery. o We have successfully navigated a difficult decade and our “planning” will help us navigate the next decade.
How has the campus community been involved in the strategic planning process?
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Members of the campus community serve on the strategic planning working group.
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Over 250 people participated in five campus forums which were held in spring 2013. People who were unable to attend were invited to provide electronic input. (Additional campus forums will be held in October.)
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Periodic updates have been provided to the campus via email, Blackboard (Mines.perm: SPWG:
Strategic Planning), and at Faculty Conference.
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Strategic planning subgroups have been formed to solicit input regarding key questions related to courses/curricula, size/viability, reputation/demographic, graduate program health, and operational initiatives.
Who are the members of the strategic planning working group (SPWG)?
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As of August 19, 2013 the members included Heather Boyd, Tom Boyd, Tony Dean, Rod Eggert, Dan
Fox, Karen Gilbert, Ramona Graves, Peter Han, Pat Kohl, David Marr, Barry Martin, Nigel Middleton,
John McCray, Kevin Moore, Vicki Nichol, Terry Parker, John Poate, Dendy Sloan, John Spear, Kay
Schneider, Colin Terry, and Kirsten Volpi.
What is the role of the strategic planning working group?
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Draft Mission, Vision, Values statements
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Draft Strategic Goals and Strategies
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Address Operational Initiatives in Fall 2013. These are not part of the strategic planning process, but are issues (Campus Communications, Business Processes, and Budget Reporting/Information
Availability) that require immediate attention in order to facilitate the planning process.
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Address key questions, develop action steps, create metrics to measure achievement, and coordinate implementation of the plan.
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How can I provide input regarding the strategic planning process?
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Contact any member of the strategic planning working group.
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Contact your Department Head or Dean.
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Send feedback to planning@mines.edu
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Contact Cynthia Pepper at Pepper consulting: 313.850.6302 or chpepper@pepperconsultinggroup.com.
What is the role of the consultants (Cynthia Pepper and Marilyn Opdyke)? In other words, why are we not doing this ourselves?
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Facilitate the development of guiding principles for the planning process.
Advise the strategic planning working group throughout the entire process to facilitate development and implementation of the strategic plan.
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Share expertise related to best practices.
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Convene open forums where all constituencies feel comfortable providing input, review feedback submitted via the forums and the electronic survey, and consolidate the input into eight critical issues.
These critical issues informed the creation of the goals and strategies.
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Provide unbiased advice (based on the input they received at the forums) regarding strengths, challenges, and potential priorities for the future.
How were the Mission, Vision, and Values developed?
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The basis for the Mission, Vision, and Values statements are: the statutory mission, the vision statement from the 2004 strategic plan, elaboration on the campus mission within the campus
Bulletin, the Profile of the Colorado School of Mines Graduate, notes on the academic environment from the undergraduate catalog, the notes on Institutional Values and Principles from the Graduate
Bulletin, and finally, the student honor code.
How is scholarship represented in the Mission, Vision, and Values?
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Scholarship is reflected in the elaboration of the Mission (“…educates students and professionals, and creates knowledge through research… achieve excellence in its academic programs… and in its application of knowledge for the development of new technology ”) and Vision (“…continually enhancing its l eadership in knowledge creation… Mines belongs in the top tier of educational institutions …”)
How does the Values statement influence how we operate?
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The Values statement is intended to serve as the basis for how we make decisions. For example, we are not likely to offer a course that teaches students to develop integrity. Instead, we expect that the value of integrity will guide our interact ions and our students’ interactions with others.
How has the Profile of the Mines Graduate informed the strategic planning process?
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The Profile was foundational to the development of the Mission, Vision, and Values. Statements in the Mission, Vision, and Values closely align with the expectations of graduating students as described in the Profile.
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What is the timeline for the strategic planning process?
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The Board of Trustees and the campus leadership launched the planning process in January 2013.
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Initial planning occurred from January to May, strategic objectives were finalized in June-September, and the plan will be finalized in October-December.
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Implementation of the strategic plan will begin in January 2014.
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A complete timeline is on the “Process” section of the Blackboard site and in the August 19, 2013 updates to campus at the Faculty Conference (also on Blackboard.)
Whose job is it to implement the goals and strategies?
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Strategic planning is a campus-wide initiative. All departments and therefore all faculty, staff members, and administrators will contribute to achievement of the plan in various ways (which will be determined as we continue to develop the plan.) But each of us will align our efforts and activities with the goals, strategies, and action steps which support the Mission, Vision, and Values.
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We will develop achievable action steps and will direct our efforts to achievement of these action items. This will enable us to focus our efforts on activities that position us to achieve the strategic plan.
Everyone is already very busy. How will we have time to implement the strategic plan?
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Addressing operational initiatives (Campus Communications, Business Processes, and Budget
Reporting/Information Availability) will enable us to work more efficiently.
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We will establish priorities and consider the possibility of eliminating low priority responsibilities from our workloads when possible. (In other words, we may stop doing things that do not contribute to our achievement of the strategic plan.)
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The strategic plan is intended to be a 5-10 year endeavor. We will implement action steps throughout this time period as resources (human, fiscal, and physical) are allocated to support implementation of the plan.
What are the next steps?
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We will invite you to participate, as is appropriate, in the next steps in the planning process. Fall semester initiatives include the following: o Solicit confirmation of Mission, Vision, and Values with campus community. o Obtain Board of Trustees ’ approval for the Mission, Vision, and Values. o Take the plan to the Deans and Departments. Develop the plan from the department to team to individual levels. o Provide regular updates from the Planning Team. o Convene forums in the early fall. o Implement an e-survey to solicit campus-wide feedback on the goals and initiatives (if the esurveys prove to be effective). o Compile existing “external” survey data and acquire new survey data. o Confirm cultural impact. o Commit to “Walk the Talk.” o Develop metrics to measure progress. o Determine strategies to manage and monitor progress.
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