I hope that by now every member of the campus community has heard about the strategic planning effort currently underway at Mills.
While this semester will be a period of intensive work on creating a plan to carry Mills through the next five to ten years, the process of strategic planning has been underway at Mills for quite some time.
In the spring of 2000, the board of trustees formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Planning. The efforts of this group resulted in a Board approved motion in October of 2001 to “Reaffirm Mills’ dedication to undergraduate education for women and graduate programs for men and women as continued strategic direction for the College, and endorse the recommendation by the Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Planning to strengthen current graduate programs and to explore additional graduate programs designed for the advancement of women in position of leadership in the community and in the professions.” This motion set the parameters for detailed planning work that lay ahead.
In the spring 2002, a Campus Strategic Planning Steering Committee (CSPSC) was formed. This committee included representatives from the undergraduate and graduate student body and the Staff Advisory Committee; all of the members of the Faculty Executive Committee; the Academic Deans; the Associate Provost; the Assistant Vice President for Library and Technology; and the College Officers.
In addition to the CSPSC, there were five working groups that gave careful consideration to how Mills could become bigger and better while ensuring and building on the qualities that distinguish Mills from other liberal arts colleges.
I want to acknowledge the countless hours devoted to this task throughout spring 2002, and thank the members of the CSPSC and the working groups for the their thoughtful input in the planning process and their service to the College.
The College has made a commitment to deliver a completed strategic plan to the Board of Trustees in February of 2003, and the CSPSC is hard at work this semester to make sure that we meet that goal. The membership of the CSPC has changed slightly with shifts in faculty who are Executive Committee members and Deans.
Building on the work that was completed in the spring, the CSPC is in the process of construction a plan that includes priorities for the College; specific goals to help us realize our vision with regard to these priorities; and performance indicators to be used in assessing progress toward our goals.Every member of the Mills community is invited to follow the progress and participate in the planning process. The documents being used by the CSPSC and those produced by this committee are available to the community on the Strategic Planning page of the Mills Web site; www.mills.edu/PRE/STRATPLAN.
I would encourage each member of the Mills community to review this information and enter the discussion to help formulate a strategic plan that is truly reflective of the wealth of values and vision in all of us.
