September 2014
I am writing to inform you that we launched the college’s strategic planning process with the
first meeting of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC). The twenty-one members of
the SPSC are charged with developing the college’s five-year strategic action plan with a
deadline of April 20, 2015, for completion of their work. The work of creating the plan will
involve a broadly inclusive feedback process at various stages and we will soon provide a
detailed explanation of how and when our community can provide feedback and input.
The members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee are:
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Suzanne Blum Malley, Interim Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Associate
Professor, English
Micheal Bright, Administrative Assistant, Cinema Art and Science
Joseph Cancellaro, Chair, Interactive Arts and Media Department; Associate Professor,
Interactive Arts and Media
Peter Carpenter, Faculty Senate President; Associate Professor, Dance
Dale Chapman, Part-time faculty, Cinema Art and Science
Michelle Gates, Vice President of Business Affairs and CFO
Kevin Henry, Associate Professor, Art and Design
Sara Kalinoski, Sophomore, Art and Materials Conservation major, Art History Minor;
President of the Student Government Association
Chet Kamin, Columbia College Chicago Board of Trustees Vice Chair and Chair, Board
Planning Committee
Brian Marth, Director, College Advising Center
Onye Ozuzu, Chair, Dance Department; Professor, Dance
Philippe Ravanas, Chair, Business and Entrepreneurship Department; Professor, Business
and Entrepreneurship
Pegeen Reichert-Powell, Associate Professor, English
Anne-Marie St. Germaine, Interim Vice President of Communications and Marketing
Jeff Schiff, Professor, English
Parker Stockman, Creative Writing Fiction MFA candidate
Diana Vallera, President Part-time Faculty Association (P-fac); part-time faculty,
Photography
Keri Walters, Assistant Dean for Faculty Advising, School of Fine and Performing Arts;
Special Assistant to the Provost for Transfer Initiatives; and Interim Director, Degree
Evaluation
Sona Wang, Columbia College Chicago Board of Trustees and Co-Chair, Board
Education Committee
Stan Wearden, Senior Vice President and Provost; Professor, Journalism; Chair, Strategic
Planning Steering Committee
Sharon Wilson-Taylor, Associate Vice President and Dean of Students
Pegeen Quinn will serve as staff assistant to the committee.
The strategic plan will focus on six strategic goals each derived from the White Paper,
“Redefining Our Greatness”, that I presented to the college community in May. They are:
1. We will become a truly student-centric institution whose core purpose is to serve our
students, fostering their personal and creative growth, supporting their academic
achievement, and preparing them for lifetimes of accomplishment and meaningful
contribution. Our primary student success outcomes will be graduation and employment.
2. We will ensure that our curricula have clear and relevant learning outcomes and are
structured so as to best connect our students with current and emerging realities and
effectively prepare our students to succeed as creators and creative agents in the twentyfirst century.
3. We will be known as a national leader in higher education for our systemic and
comprehensive commitment to diversity and inclusion as a fundamental basis for
accomplishing our mission.
4. We will be known as an animating force in our communities, our city and in the larger
world beyond.
5. We will engage in sophisticated enrollment management practices to achieve the optimal
student body – a student body whose composition reflects our mission-based
commitment to diversity; whose members are uniquely suited to take fullest advantage of
the distinctive offerings of our institution and who will succeed at Columbia College
Chicago.
6. We will responsibly allocate our resources to best support institutional priorities and
goals and we will build the wealth of new resources – human, financial, capital, and
technological – necessary to fulfilling our mission and our promise as an institution.
Each goal has been assigned to a subcommittee comprising members of the larger committee.
The subcommittees are charged with developing the rubric for community feedback which will
ensure the rich, diverse input necessary to translating these very broad strategic goals into
specific actions. Following this initial month-long phase, the process will proceed broadly as
follows:
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Community feedback solicited through the end of the semester
Data and feedback aggregated and compiled by staff (mid-December to mid-January)
Initial drafts developed by SPSC, followed by my review (through mid-March)
Draft strategic plan posted for full community review and feedback (late March through
early April)
Further revisions by SPSC (April)
My final review (late April)
Presentation to Board of Trustees for review and approval at May 2015 Board meeting
(late April)
Immediately following the approval of the plan, we will be creating an implementation oversight
group which will meet quarterly to review progress. All college leadership – directors,
department chairs, deans, and vice presidents -- will be required to create appropriate
implementation plans which will serve as a basis for measuring their effectiveness and success.
Additionally, on a regular basis, the Board of Trustees will review a strategic dashboard of
performance indicators taken from the strategic plan in order to monitor our progress towards
achieving our goals. That ongoing review will also serve as a basis for the Board’s annual
evaluation of my work.
A topic which arose at this morning’s meeting was the possibility that some in our community
might approach the planning process with skepticism and a kind of ‘planning fatigue.’ Several
committee members mentioned earlier planning processes that had not gelled around a defined
path to the future and that had generated widespread disillusionment given the lack of subsequent
action.
My best response to this concern is to reaffirm my fundamental commitment to moving our
college forward. For me, the strategic plan is the roadmap to the next stage of our development
and to the next stage of our achieving differentiated excellence in the larger world. Like
everyone else, I have neither time for nor interest in a planning process which does not propel us
to a tangibly better place.
We have set ourselves an ambitious schedule but I believe that it is imperative that we have a
meaningful, bold action plan in place as we look ahead to the 2015-16 academic year. I thank
you in advance for your participation in this process as it develops under our provost’s
leadership.
Kwang-Wu
Kwang-Wu Kim
President and CEO
Columbia College Chicago