14 May 2014

• General comments about the process
• Update on progress to date
• Next Steps
• Major themes likely to be represented in plan
• Audience feedback on likely themes

1. Process too fast
– Agility is critical
– 2004 Strategic Plan
• 9 months from first Steering Committee meeting to Trustee approval (October 2003 – July 2004)
• 8.5 weeks for Task Force work (January 5-March 5)
– 2025 Strategic Plan
• 12 months from first Steering Committee meeting to Trustee approval (November 2013-November 2014)
• 7.5 weeks for Part I Task Force work
11 weeks for Part II

(2)
2. Participation is limited
 2 open forums (December and May)
 Full day Alumni Assn. meeting
 Discussion Forum on SP Website
 Trustee Strategic Planning Committee
 6 Task Forces (>150 members)
 Open Task Force meetings
 Six Task Force wikis
 Provost’s Town Hall meeting (~ 70 attendees)
 President’s Roundtable (1.5 days)
 Full day April BoT meeting
 2 conversations with Institute of Fellows
 Conversation w/ Imaging Science Adv. Bd.
 Presentations to all governance groups
 President’s AMA on Reddit
 ~ 100 emails to SP email address
 Alumni Survey (891 respondents)
 4 “Salon for Strategic Thinking” meetings

(3)
3. The following are the decisions that have already been made:

• Mission and Vision
– Slightly modified since last shared
– Will be modified and shared again once SP draft is completed
• Part I of Task Force Reports received April 28
– Limited set of goals and strategies
– Approximate costs
• Part II due May 20 (was May 12)
– Rationale for each goal
– Executive summary

• Late May: Task Force Reports condensed and shared electronically with the community
• Early June: Steering Committee consolidates and integrates
Task Force Reports and all other input
• Late June: Sub-committee of Steering Committee prepares outline based upon above
• July 10 & 11: Trustee meeting dedicated to Strategic Plan
• July 15-Sept. 1: Writing sub-group of Steering Committee composes SP draft
• Sept. 1-30: Campus input
• October: Draft revised
• Nov. 14: Trustees approve new Strategic Plan

• RIT as a research university
– We are entering the “Research University” category, and we must embrace that descriptor as an important part of our identity
– We will be a unique, mission-driven, distinctively RIT Research
University—one in which all constituents prosper
• RIT as a student-centric university
– Student Success will drive much of this plan—nothing new here
– But the student population, the careers for which we are preparing them, and the packaging of education they are seeking are in constant flux; we must stay ahead of these changes
– And we must anticipate new definitions of student success, particularly with reference to career education (our signature strength and advantage)

(2)
• Other major themes that cut across all dimensions
– Interdisciplinarity (most frequently cited theme in all Task Force reports)
– Expanded global reach and identity
– Innovation: culture of experimentation
• Diversity—with a broader meaning
• Traditional: Increase under-represented populations and enhance their educational and professional opportunities
• Expanded: Deploy our remarkable diversity—not only ethnic, racial, and social but also programmatic, intellectual, experiential—as an engine of innovation and creativity

• Changes to the way we do things
– Organizational
• Possible change in some organizational models (strategy drives organizational models, not vice versa)
• Accounting processes
• Elimination of silos (academic, administrative, organizational)
– Cultural
• Willingness to take (calculated) risks
• Learning to value experimentation
• Leveraging difference to innovate and solve problems
– Space allocation (including greater deployment of virtual space)

• Demographics
• Affordability
• Accountability (to students; to parents; to federal/state governments; to accreditors)
• Technology