Summer Progress on the New HSU Strategic Plan

June 29, 2015

Dear Colleagues:

We have worked together as a community for the last nine months producing a strategic plan for our shared future.  Faculty, students, staff, and administrators sat down together to examine our needs and strengths, gathered ideas from others, and created a document that will generate positive change as we enter HSU’s second century.  Those ambitious first steps are now complete. 

Much work is yet to be done.  We face some challenges, but our HSU community has the will, dedication to our students, motivation, and talent to realize our goals.  We also also have the opportunity to embrace the plan as a way to challenge our thinking about how we achieve our goals, build trust in our community, and work together.  During implementation, we can reconsider our decision-making processes, reconfigure our methods for communication, and align our resources with a clear, unified, and long-term focus.

The members of the implementation committee will begin their work at the beginning of the upcoming fall semester.  To help establish some groundwork for implementation, Mary Glenn (College of Professional Studies) and Josh Smith (Information Technology Services) have been spending some time this summer collecting information about work already underway and to research decision-making and implementation models.  Mary served on the Cabinet for Institutional Change and its steering committee, and Josh has extensive experience in process improvement.

Everyone has a role in the implementation of the plan.  Your voice was crucial in its development, and your involvement will continue to be crucial as we implement actions.  The strategic plan link is here: http://www2.humboldt.edu/strategicplan, and the home page includes a button to submit your suggestions and ideas. We will also be updating you with information about implementation via myHumboldt, the President’s Blog (http://www2.humboldt.edu/president/blog), e-mail, and other announcements about progress and activities.

The strategic plan will not be a static document.  This is an evolving, dynamic process.  Every year, we will report on our accomplishments – and our failures -- so that components can be evaluated and re-calibrated as necessary.  The plan will also serve as a reminder to all of us that we are one community, working together to define what we mean by excellence and what we hope to achieve with, and for, our students.

Thank you again for your participation, candid feedback, hard work, wisdom, and time that you have invested in this process.

With best wishes,

Lisa A. Rossbacher, Ph.D.
President        

Noah Zerbe, Ph.D.
Chair of the University Senate and Professor of Politics     

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