Editor's note: Due to a glitch in the Webex security setting, the Feb. 9 town hall for faculty and staff was scheduled again for Feb. 21 (4:30 p.m., 0114 Student Innovation Center and via Webex Events.)
What do we want Iowa State University to be over the next 10 years?
Next week, the campus community will get a first glimpse of "to be" statements drafted by faculty, staff and students working to shape the next ISU strategic plan.
A faculty-staff town hall meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, in the lower level auditorium of the Student Innovation Center. Faculty and staff also can opt to join virtually via Webex Events.
A similar town hall meeting for students will be held Feb. 16 at the same time and location, and it also will be available via Webex Events. Links to both virtual events can be found on the 2022-2031 Strategic Plan Development website. Recordings of both town hall meetings will be posted on the site.
"We'll be seeking reaction and discussion on draft statements on what we see Iowa State becoming," said Peter Dorhout, chair of the strategic plan steering committee and vice president for research. "Our working groups drafted the statements based on four themes or pillars -- innovative solutions, education experience, knowledge and discovery, and community engagement."
"We'll also share our initial thinking about success factors -- the ways in which we'll measure success once the plan is in place. We definitely want to hear from faculty and staff on other ideas to measure success."
Regular updates
Participants at the town hall meetings will hear more about a draft process for inviting campus and external stakeholder input on a regular basis through the span of the nine-year plan.
"We're eager to hear input on a strategy we've been envisioning that enables campus and external stakeholders to propose ideas to achieve the 'to be' statements of our plan," Dorhout said. "Our hope is to determine a process that allows us to seek input, request proposals and consider and recommend new ideas or initiatives to invest in that are in line with our priorities."
Part of the process will be to communicate progress on a regular basis, which may take the form of an online dashboard of success stories as they accumulate.
In addition to the town hall meetings, the working groups identified stakeholder groups to seek input from, both on campus and off. The list includes Faculty Senate, P&S Council, Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Student Government, alumni, business and industry leaders, state elected officials, prospective students and parents, state community leaders and others. Many of these groups will be contacted over the coming weeks.
And coming soon is a web-based survey for providing additional input to the 2022-31 plan. Once it's ready, access to the survey will be from the strategic plan development website.
