January 18, 2006
To: Doane College Community
From: Jonathan Brand
Re: Strategic Planning Process
On August 29, 2005, I wrote a memo to you announcing the beginning of a strategic planning process (August 29 memo). I noted that there would be a central planning committee (the CPC) charged with developing an overarching document that would guide discrete task forces as they plan in particular areas. In that memo, I suggested that there would be 6 different task forces, each focused on a different subject matter area: 1) the student experience; 2) the curriculum and the faculty experience; 3) admissions/tuition and financial aid; 4) diversity; 5) facilities; and 6) Doane Lincoln/Grand Island.
During the fall semester, the work of the CPC revealed that the 6 task forces listed above would not adequately cover the full landscape of areas that need to be addressed in this planning process. As a result, there are now 8 task forces, which loosely correlate to the 6 areas above, focused on the following topics:
- The Curriculum and the Faculty Experience
- Post-Graduate Opportunities for Students
- Enrollment Management
- Lincoln/Grand Island Programs
- Diversity
- Student Life Programming and Student-Centered Facilities
- The Faculty/Staff Work Environment and Compensation
- Marketing
All of these task forces, in the aggregate, are intended to focus on one major goal: enhancing the educational experience of Doane students.
At the end of the fall semester, the CPC produced its overarching document, set out below in its entirety. In so doing, the CPC : 1) affirmed Doane’s mission, 2) created a vision for the future, 3) delineated major institutional goals, 4) identified barriers preventing us from achieving those goals, and 5) then developed major strategies. (There is a task force assigned to each strategy.) These major strategies, which should be consistent with our mission, pillars, and vision, are intended to overcome our barriers and better help us achieve our goals.
Each task force will develop specific, concrete initiatives (“tactics”) relevant to the particular strategy that, in the aggregate, will help us advance that strategy. In so doing, each task force should consider all of our institutional goals, which we are seeking to achieve. Each task force will also develop measurements or indicators that will help us evaluate our success at implementing the relevant strategy.
The task force that will address our programs in Lincoln and Grand Island will need to engage in some deeper planning than the other task forces. This Doane Lincoln/Grand Island task force will revisit the barriers that are preventing us from attracting and retaining ever better students, faculty, and staff in Lincoln and Grand Island (because there are likely different barriers than those we face in Crete). This task force will then break up into 4 smaller groups, each focused on a different program (i.e., our undergraduate program and our 3 graduate programs).
Kay Hegler and I hope that the task forces will complete their work by April 20, 2006 so that the CPC can then harmonize the different task force reports into one coherent strategic plan, ultimately to be reviewed by the Board of Trustees. To be sure, the CPC will also need to make sure that the plan, when completed, is financially feasible.
Here are elements of the Central Planning Committee’s Foundational Document:
Download the PDF version of this Strategic Planning Update.
The attached document is in pdf format. You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader loaded on your machine to open the document. You can download a free version at the Adobe website