Strategic Plan Draft 2 - Memo from President Strikwerda

Download the Strategic Plan - Second Draft

Dear Elizabethtown College Community:

On behalf of the entire Strategic Planning Committee, I thank the hundreds of you—alumni, Board of Trustees members, community leaders, faculty, Leadership Council members, staff, and students--who provided feedback on the first draft of our Strategic Plan by attending a forum, sharing comments, participating in meetings or conference calls, or responding to the survey.

Based on your feedback, the Strategic Planning Committee has produced a second draft of the Strategic Plan which focuses on the three most important goals which attracted support:

• Achieving national recognition by building on the strengths we already possess, what we call “turning attributes into advantages”
• Creating an innovative academic and co-curricular program called Learning Everywhere which will provide our students with an innovative and high quality education that prepares them for success in the 21st century, helps us achieve national recognition, and strengthens our recruitment efforts,
• Focusing on stewardship, the strategic nurturing and utilization of our human, financial, Information Technology, and physical resources.     

Based on feedback to the first Plan draft, you’ll see a more deliberate focus on the three major goals and, for now, only the most important proposed action items from the first draft that would move the Plan forward. These action items have now been integrated into the Plan as strategies to accomplish the three goals. In addition to these changes in structure and format, a number of other changes have been made in response to your feedback:

• The role of alumni as mentors and advisors has been made clearer as one our crucial assets.
• Information Technology and new media now are highlighted as major areas for our work.
• Advancing global understanding, peace, diversity, and environmental sustainability are all now emphasized as critical strategies.
• The College’s heritage is recognized as an important strategy, one which will also strengthen our sense of place and our commitment to peace-making.
• Developing, not just recruiting, high achieving students, is a crucial strategy.

Please look over this second draft carefully and send any comments or questions that you have to me, Provost Susan Traverso, Strategic Planning Committee Co-Facilitator Prof. Murray, or any other member of the Strategic Planning Committee. I also encourage you to share your comments by completing this  Strategic Planning Survey  The Alumni Council, Board of Trustees, Faculty Assembly, Leadership Council, Student Senate, and other groups will all have meetings, fora, or conference calls to discuss the second draft as well. Your feedback is crucial to our success in writing a third draft for consideration by the Board of Trustees.

The Strategic Planning Committee and Senior Staff meanwhile will be working on a sample set of implementation steps by going over the Working Group Reports and all of the proposed action items from the first draft. Our goal is to have a draft set of sample implementation steps available to you in a number of weeks. If the Board approves a third draft of the Strategic Plan, we expect that the initial year of implementation steps would be identified by September, 2012.

Thank you again for your interest in our future and mission of Elizabethtown College.

Yours in service,
Carl J. Strikwerda
President

Download the Strategic Plan - Second Draft