Strategic Plan aims for the future
by SARAH RYKOWSKI
Saint Mary's News Editor
While Saint Mary's gets a physical face-lift from the initiation of the Master Plan, the College is also undergoing a more mind-bending transformation through the tenets of the fledgling Strategic Plan.
"The Strategic Plan entails a systematic envisioning of where we, as the college community, see Saint Mary's College being five years from now," said Mary Jo Regan-Kubinski, a member of the Steering Committee for the plan. "The Master Plan will be a part of the Strategic Planning process, particularly as we attend to facilities and, of course, fiscal management."
Individual committees were created to deal with certain areas that were deemed important to the College's future. Curriculum, diversity, student development, technology, marketing and communication are all addressed by current committees. The Catholic identity of Saint Mary's, fiscal management, buildings and facilities, enrollment and human resources will all be addressed shortly.
"The final outcome will integrate the thinking about these areas," Regan-Kubinski said. "It is anticipated that everyone in the College community will benefit."
The Steering committee and the individual subcommittees are currently seeking input from several groups, including the newly formed Diversity Board and Student Government at the College.
"Every committee tries to incorporate members from all different aspects of the community, from students to faculty to staff," said Akmaral Omarova, Diversity Board president. "Every committee tries to reach out to students especially in some way, shape or form. There is no clear guideline as to how."
Indeed, the individual committees have approached student government, sent out mailings such as letters and surveys, and posted signs around campus. The Diversity Committee put up signs in the Noble Family Dining Hall where students could write down their definitions of diversity for the edification of the committee.
"We truly want the College community to participate in this venture," Regan-Kubinski said. "We understand that strategic planning is new to the College and that we will need to work to help all on campus to become engaged in it on a continual basis."
The Strategic Plan itself came out after the administration realized that it was necessary to look at the College not only on a year-by-year basis, but also with their eyes on what the future would bring in terms of the College.
"They did not have strategic plans every year," Omarova said. "Now they want to take a hard look at Saint Mary's future. They want to take a step back to see how Saint Mary's will be in five years."
College President Marilou Eldred initiated the project, and the committees began formation shortly after the renewal of her contract by the Board of Trustees.
The vision of the committee has the project turning into more than just an initiative, however.
"Our goal is not an implementation plan, but a strategic plan which identifies initiatives and issues that we need to address in order to actualize what we envision five years from now," Regan-Kubinski said.
"As a result, although there will be concrete strategies within the plan, the process will be ongoing."
Omarova, a member of the Diversity Committee involved with the Strategic Plan, and also of the Technology Committee, sees it as an important project.
"On paper all of these ideas sound great," Omarova said. "We want to put it into action so it is not just stagnant on paper."
While most of the committees are still in the planning and mapping stages, a meeting is set for next January for all of the committees to meet and put their objectives together. The Steering committee will then evaluate all of the results and find the points at which the findings overlap. These strategic points will form the larger-scale Strategic Plan for the College.
Some of the projects that the Technology Committee is considering include incorporation of technology in the classroom, a computer literacy requirement for graduation, networking the whole campus under one system — from grades to bank accounts — and training faculty to deal with the new advances the College makes in technology.
The diversity committee, on the other hand, is still discussing ideas, and has not yet come up with plans to implement them.
"Hopefully every committee's vision is a realistic one, so that we will see results," Omarova said. "It's very exciting and promises a lot of change, if it gets implemented."
While committees are still soliciting information and suggestions from students, the project is more in the hands of faculty and staff at this point.
"From this point on it is mostly faculty and administration," Omarova said.
Still, Omarova is confident that the decisions being made will benefit the College.
"If I could come back in five years and see these things being implemented I would be very happy," she said.
All News Stories for Monday, December 4, 2000
