Strategic planning kickoff

I’m writing to inform you about a new strategic planning initiative for the University of Massachusetts Boston. As many of you know, the current three-year strategic plan guiding our budgeting, academic, and administrative priorities was launched in 2007 and is reaching its end. I am very pleased that we have made significant accomplishments in pursuit of the goals and objectives in that plan, and I am confident that, with your help, we will achieve similar progress under our next plan and continue to move our university toward the ultimate goal of becoming a national model as a student-centered, public urban research university.

Toward this end, I am convening a Chancellor’s Strategic Planning Task Force to begin the work of crafting a plan that builds on the mission of the university’s founders and its previous achievements. In consultation with the university’s Executive Leadership Team, I have decided that moving to a five-year plan, focused on 2010 to 2015, will better serve the university’s long-range planning and better align our efforts with the requirements of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation process, scheduled for 2015. I regard this effort as a critical endeavor that will chart the course for the University of Massachusetts Boston over the next five years and will lay a new foundation on which to build in the years ahead.

I have asked Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Winston Langley to serve as the chair of the Chancellor’s Strategic Planning Task Force. I’m appreciative of his willingness to serve in this role, and I look forward to working very closely with him on this effort in the coming months. I have also extended invitations to numerous faculty and staff to serve on the task force to form a broad and representative group from our university community. (The names of the task force members can be found in an attachment to this email.) I’m grateful for their willingness to be a part of this effort, and I’m confident they will provide the leadership to help this university define the strategic direction that will guide us in the next phase of our development.

While this strategic planning process will be overseen by the task force and Provost Langley, I hope that all of you will feel welcomed to engage in helping the university shape its strategic plan and to achieve its goals. As the planning process moves forward, we will update you about ways in which you can share your insights and ideas and contribute to the process.

I have asked the task force to deliver an initial draft plan by late spring. The completion of this draft will then initiate a campus community review process over the summer, with a goal of finalizing the plan in fall 2010.

Our university is on a great trajectory. I hope you will join me in helping to plan how we can continue our progress toward becoming the student-centered, urban public research university for the 21st century.