Early Bird

Strategic Planning Team needs your best ideas

SPT to meet with as many campus community members as possible over next six weeks.

By Dan Vaccaro

April 11, 2019

The Strategic Planning Team held its first meeting April 5 and developed a plan to gather information and ideas from as many campus community members as possible before the end of the spring semester.  

“In the spirit of inclusive leadership, our goal is to reach out to a broad community on campus and bring what they are saying as faithfully as possible back to this group,” said co-chair Matt Makley, professor of history and president of the Faculty Senate. “Then we will distill that information and use it to guide us as we develop the strategic plan.”

Makley and co-chair Cathy Lucas, chief of staff and vice president of strategy, led the SPT in an exercise to define a broad and inclusive list of campus stakeholders based on four categories: faculty, staff, students and other (i.e., alumni). The target stakeholder list included more than 50 constituent groups.

In the next week, each SPT member will be assigned as lead for at least one of these groups and tasked with facilitating a 30-minute roundtable discussion with six to eight people from that group. Participants will also be asked to fill out a digital survey before leaving the roundtable.

“We want our colleagues to really focus on what is possible for the future of the University,” Lucas said. “There is already a buzz about who we are and what we are doing on this campus, so how can we build on that positivity as we look toward 2025?”

Lucas noted that there will be Universitywide town-hall events May 6 and May 13 for those who want to share ideas. More details will be available on those gatherings in the coming weeks. An email survey will also be sent to all faculty, staff and students. Any member of the community can share feedback at any time using the form on the Strategic Planning website.  

The SPT will also be gathering information from external constituent groups such as alumni, partners, board members and local business leaders. All of this work is part of the data-gathering phase of the strategic-planning process that will take place over the next four months with the hope of engaging as many as 5,000 people.

As a reminder, all faculty, staff and students are invited to a Strategic Plan Launch and Learn event with State Demographer Elizabeth Garner on April 15 from noon-1 p.m. in the CAVEA. Please RSVP by April 12.

The next event in the monthly Launch and Learn series will be May 22 with Tami Door, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. The series features experts on topics connected to the University’s strategic-planning effort and is intended to help gather information, generate ideas and provide a forum to engage with one another on issues pertinent to the future of our institution.

President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., will also speak about the strategic plan in her Spring Update on April 18. All faculty and staff are encouraged to attend that event.

Stay tuned to the Early Bird for ongoing updates on Strategic Plan 2025.