Five-year plan questions answered

How will five-year plans be used?

Plans will be used in a variety of ways to enhance our ability to set and meet goals to benefit the college, our students and our stakeholders. Here are four primary ways the plans will be used:

  • Allow the college community, including the APC and the dean, to provide feedback on priorities and plans.
  • Guide the dean in making decisions about investments.
  • Assess overall success at the department and collegiate levels.
  • Report to the Chancellor, Provost and others by rolling up individual plans.

Why can’t the plan just be one page?

Goals are important, but it can be difficult to reach a goal without considering how to do the work. The root of our governance is sharing the effort to set and reach goals. Documentation of those shared goals and strategies to reach them is the best way to ensure planning is truly a collective effort.

Why is philanthropic support called out separately?

Two reasons: Philanthropy could support any of the three primary mission areas of the college (teaching, research and outreach), so it has a one to many relationship, whereas other revenue areas have a one to one relationship (increasing 131 programs is part of instructional efforts and increasing indirect costs is part of research work), it is also an area the university expects the college to report on separately from other revenue.

What if we cannot work equally across all goal areas?

We expect every department/collaborative to be driven by unique strengths and weakness, and anticipate that each unit may weight each goal differently. Within the plan, we encourage you to reflect your overall priorities.