Preparation for the Steering Committee Retreat

The Steering Committee for the WSU Strategic Planning Initiative is preparing for a two-day retreat later this month. Our goal for the retreat is to develop a draft of the strategic plan. Parts of the plan will be taken out in April for our last round of campus and community town hall meetings.

There is a tremendous amount of data for the Steering Committee to consider. If you look at our website, it contains much of these data. If you can imagine reading all of the information, making sense of it, and then developing a vision and big, audacious goals for WSU, that is what the Steering Committee will be doing at the retreat. As you might expect, the Steering Committee is data fatigued at this point. Fortunately, two graduate students are working on projects to help us make sense of the data. 

We hope that everyone who has wanted has taken the opportunity to participate in the data gathering process. If there is anything you would like to tell the Steering Committee before we move into the plan-writing phase of our initiative, there are several ways to contact us. First, provide your thoughts through the “Talk to Us” link on our website. Second, post comments to this blog. Third, e-mail Steering Committee members at the addresses listed on our website. 

Thanks to all who have participated thus far. The process will be a success because of you.

Town Hall Thoughts

This week (Thursday, February 28) we hosted a joint campus and community town hall meeting. We talked about core values and big, bold visions for WSU. Thank you to all the attendees. Your participation helps shape our important work on WSU’s strategic plan.

A big “thank you” to our guest blogger, Charlie Claycomb (WSU Alumnus 1971, 1991), who provides his thoughts about the town hall. 

There was a great turnout for the Strategic Planning meeting this week. There were people from Wichita City Council, WSU, Butler Community College, and the general community from Wichita, Goddard, Haysville, Andover, El Dorado, and Kansas City to name a few. There was much discussion about what values are important for our university and its strategic plan.

The general theme seemed to be that students and the university would benefit from more practical experience and more cross discipline idea exchange. It was felt that students would be more successful during and after college if they had broader real world information and experience.  

There were far too many ideas shared in the meeting than one could record mentally, but notes were taken and bold ideas were left on note cards for future assimilation. This is an exciting process with many valuable ideas coming from all who attended.

Weather -- What Else is there to Talk About?

Just kidding! The past couple of weeks have been a relatively quiet time for the strategic planning process as we continue to gather data from our community.  Here is a quick update on the process.

If you did not see the interview about the WSU strategic planning process, with my co-chair Ed O’Malley, in the February 15 edition of the Wichita Business Journal, make sure you check it out.

The WSU student subcommittee is analyzing the results from the WSU Student Town Hall meetings. We are excited to learn what the students heard from their colleagues. 

Recently, Steering Committee members engaged in Roundtable Discussions with various groups around campus. Those of you who attended are much appreciated.

We geared up for our third town hall meeting, but that’s where the weather interfered. We cancelled our February 20 town hall. Now we plan a combined campus community and the larger Wichita community town hall for:

Thursday, February 28, 2013, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, WSU Metropolitan Complex, Multipurpose Room

We hope to see lots of you at the combined town hall. It will be exciting to get a mix of campus and community participants. This town hall will be the last group opportunity to participate in the strategic planning process before a two-day Steering Committee retreat scheduled for late March. (More about the retreat in a later blog post.)

Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you Thursday, February 28, 2013!

Join the Discussion - Add Your Voice

If you have not checked out the WSU Strategic Planning Initiative website, you should. Right now, there is a terrific video that stars our WSU student subcommittee for strategic planning. They all look like stars!

The video is promoting the WSU Student Town Hall meetings. These meetings are designed to give WSU students the opportunity to voice their opinions about the future of WSU. The Student Town Hall meetings are set for:

Monday, February 11, 2013, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM, Hubbard Hall, Room 208 (Greek night)
Thursday, February 14, 2013, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, CAC Theater
Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM, Ahlberg Hall, Room 200

If you are a student, please take the opportunity to attend. If you know students, encourage them to attend.

We also have two February Town Hall meetings set for the campus community and the larger community:

Campus Town Hall: Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM, WSU Metropolitan Complex, Sudermann Commons

Community Town Hall: Thursday, February 28, 2013, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, WSU Metropolitan Complex, Multipurpose Room

At these meetings we’ll ask you about your big, bold, exciting visions for WSU and discuss the work of the Steering Committee on mission and core values.

I know that everyone is busy. It is difficult to make time in our schedules to attend another meeting or event. But please remember that this initiative is important to the future of Wichita State University, and consequently to your future as an employee, student, or community member. Please join us and add your voice to the initiative.

Collaboration: What does it mean?

We enjoyed an energized meeting with the WSU Center Directors yesterday (January 31, 2013). The lively discussion and insightful ideas are tremendously beneficial to our strategic planning data gathering process. The notes from the meeting will be available on our website—wichita.edu/wsustrategy—as soon as they are transcribed. 

One item of discussion, among many, was the vital importance of collaboration. This topic has surfaced at many of our meetings and town hall events. The Steering Committee is considering what role this concept should play in WSU’s strategic plan. What does it mean, specifically for WSU? How should it be addressed in WSU’s strategic plan? What phrase or term should be used to describe it? One phrase we’ve tossed around is “interprofessional collaboration.” Some people like it; others think there must be a better description. What do you think? 

• How should collaboration at WSU be defined? 
• Is there a term or phrase that captures this definition?
• How can we go about fostering collaboration at WSU? 

We would love to hear your thoughts please.