Academic Year 2004-05
—Exploring Strategic Themes
The second year of the Strategic Directions Initiative was dedicated to formulating five-year action plans to advance USD toward its strategic goals. The goals created during the first year of the planning process were deliberately cast as visionary, leaving ample opportunity for creative planning.
Administrative Retreat
On September 1, 2004, Institutional Research & Planning facilitated an administrative
retreat for the President's Cabinet to begin the discussion of action planning. Each vice president and dean summarized the strategic objectives in his or her area to inform the group as a whole.
During the fall semester, Cel Johnson and Larry Gardepie interviewed each of them to identify how their existing plans might best contribute to the institution's strategic goals. From these interviews, they developed a series of themes to focus the action plans.
Strategic Directions Workshop |
Larry Gardepie speaks at the workshop. |
Open Forums
Institutional Research & Planning then hosted a series of open forums, one for each of the seven topics, to solicit additional input. Each forum was an hour long so that members of the campus community could attend discussions centered on the topics of interest to them. For a summary of the comments offered by forum participants on a particular topic, please click the appropriate X under 'Forum Notes' in the table below.
Additional Feedback
Participants in both the workshop and the forums were encouraged to submit comments or additional ideas. Please click the appropriate X under 'More Ideas' to review them.
Proposals Addressing Workshop Topics
After the open forums, Institutional Research and Planning worked with different groups to draft action plan proposals on several of these topics. To review, please click the appropriate X under 'Draft Plans.'
| Table Topics | Workshop Ideas |
Forum Notes |
More Ideas |
Draft Plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catholic Social Thought > themes | X | X | X | X |
| Diversity and Inclusion | X | X | X | pending |
| Information Technology | X | X | X | X |
| Internationalization | X | X | X | X |
| Marketing | X | X | X | X |
| School of Peace Studies | X | X | X | pending |
| Student Life | X | X | X | X |
Four other proposals were developed to address issues that have been discussed during the planning process but were not specifically addressed as topics at the February workshop. All represent multi-year endeavors which, if achieved, would strengthen the institutional foundation for achieving our strategic goals.
The President and vice presidents reviewed the action plans and recommended that four topics be developed as Strategic Directions Initiatives during the next academic year: Catholic Social Thought, Diversity and Inclusion, Internationalization, and Integrated Learning. Many of the other topics will continue as ongoing institutional initiatives.
