The UCA community is invited to attend a town hall meeting on April 15 on the university’s current strategic planning initiative.
The meeting will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. in East McCastlain Ballroom. It will be moderated by Dr. Dave McFarland of Penson Associates Inc., a research and consultations firm serving universities, colleges, and systems of universities, governing boards and commissions in higher education.
Four tasks forces — Core Values (Mission, Vision, and Values), Planning Assumptions, Institutional Distinctiveness, and Driving Forces — began meeting in early February to lay the foundation for the strategic plan. The groups’ findings will be presented during the town hall meeting.”We’ll discuss and refine statements that university-wide committees have prepared on UCA’s core values, driving forces, and institutional distinctiveness, with a view to moving these drafts into final statements that we can all agree with and can then use to set the university’s goals for the next several years,” said Mike Schaefer, chairman of the Strategic Planning and Resources Council. The council has been charged with the development of the strategic plan. The council consists of representatives from the staff, faculty, students, alumni, UCA board of trustees and the community.
The task forces’ statements are available under the “Strategic Plan 2010” link on the UCA homepage so that everyone can read them in advance and come to the meeting with questions, comments, and alternative ideas ready, Schaefer said.
Other information available at the link includes Dr. McFarland’s explanation of the purposes of strategic planning and his step-by-step breakdown of the whole process.
“President (Allen) Meadors and Provost (Lance) Grahn have repeatedly stated that strategic planning can only be successful if everyone at the university has a voice in the process,” Schaefer said. “This meeting is our next opportunity to make our voices heard.”
If anyone has questions or concerns in advance of the meeting, contact Schaefer at schaefer@uca.edu or 450-5119.