Message from the President

As many will recall, several years ago our University Planning Council created Southeastern's strategic plan, Vision 2017.  This plan, including a mission statement, core values and strategic priorities, can be found at the following link:  Vision 2017.

 

Given that we are now in the second half of the 2016-17 academic year, it is an appropriate time for us to revisit our strategic plan.  Accordingly, in the weeks ahead I will convene the University Planning Council and initiate the strategic planning process.  As a reminder, throughout the planning process, the Council will engage a variety of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and other interested community members. 

 

As you would expect, many elements of the Vision 2017 Strategic Plan have become ubiquitous in our campus culture and activities.  Student success, relevant and responsive programming, financial urgency, collaborative programming and integrated communications/marketing have all become areas of increased focus.

 

As we begin the strategic planning process, a necessary initial step is to provide an assessment of the progress made with Vision 2017.  While data and information regarding multiple aspects of Vision 2017 have been collected and reported in various venues over the last several years, I have asked each of our division heads to help ensure we have comprehensive information that will allow us to gauge the progress, or lack of progress, if appropriate, that has been made on all the strategic priorities.  These findings will be shared with the campus and will help inform the work of the Planning Council.

 

Of course, there are many ongoing initiatives directly linked to our Vision 2017 strategic priorities, especially those associated with student success, enrollment and funding.  Given how rapidly the higher education environment is evolving, it is simply not realistic for us to pause these initiatives while we engage in the planning process.  It is hard to imagine, however, that any forward-looking planning process would conclude that these areas of focus should no longer be priorities of the university.  So as to not lose our momentum, we will continue moving forward with these initiatives while we assess our progress to date and look to the strategic planning process to help shape and evolve these and future initiatives.

 

John L. Crain
President