UMass Boston Shapes Strategic Vision for Next Five Years

By Jim Mortenson

A new stage of strategic planning at UMass Boston was recently announced to the university community by Chancellor Jo Ann Gora and Provost Paul Fonteyn.

“Our strategic plan will provide us with the essential framework and themes for guiding our institution over the next five years. University-wide participation by faculty, staff, students, and administrators is crucial to determining our success,” said Gora.
The strategic planning process is also an important and necessary prelude to the review of UMass Boston’s accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) scheduled for early 2005.

Gora has identified what she believes are two major themes driving the next plan: “service to students” and “service to the Commonwealth and being recognized for that service.”

Both themes were major components of the previous plan, Imagining a New Century: The Year 2000 Strategic Plan, which covered the years 1995 to 2000. The next phase will build on those successes, and the Provost’s Office, which is leading the process, has already taken a significant step toward encouraging that success, Gora said.
Both Gora and Fonteyn intend to complete and implement the new strategic plan by June 2003. While the timeline is ambitious, much important work has already been completed by the six strategic planning task forces that met during 2001.

According to Fonteyn, “The reports produced by the faculty, staff, and administrators who served on those task forces have given us an important head start in this process.”
A synthesis of those six reports, A White Paper on Planning, was prepared by the Provost’s Office and made available to the university community in May 2001. The reports and synthesis cover many areas, including mission, envi-ronment, resources, budget, fundraising, infrastructure, staff, computing assistance, undergraduate life, retention, general education, service learning, research, graduate life, faculty life, teaching loads, and assessment.

Gora and Fonteyn met with a newly constituted University Planning Council (UPC), or strategic planning steering committee, during a recent breakfast meeting on November 26. The UPC will announce new task forces and their members in the coming weeks.

A new feature of this strategic planning process is an interactive web site, which can be accessed by the “Strategic Planning” link near the bottom of the UMass Boston homepage.
Fonteyn said, “The site provides access to all of our major planning documents, and most importantly provides every member of our community with the opportunity to critique and discuss our past, present, and future directions.”

“Strategic planning is an iterative process,” added Peter Langer, associate provost, who led in the development of the site. “A web site is an ideal tool for encouraging thoughtful and productive dialogue,” said Langer.

Discussion buttons are integrated throughout the web site’s numerous planning documents and other resources, linking to the site’s discussion forum. Langer serves as moderator of the discussion forum.

“Once the task forces begin their work, the web site will serve as an ideal forum for members to discuss issues and concerns. Task force chairs will be able to post drafts of reports for review and comment by their colleagues. And, of course, the web site and the other elements of the strategic planning process will lead us seamlessly into the NEASC accreditation process which begins in September 2003,” explains Langer.

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