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 Strategic
Planning
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Minutes
> October 31
Strategic
Planning Committee
Minutes/Notes - Wednesday, October 31
Teague Library
Present: Doug
Bennett, Bob Southard, Margaret Hampton, Monteze Snyder, Rick Foreman,
Sara Penhale, Tamara Clark, Wes Miller, Paul Ogren, Nancy Sinex. Guest:
Len Clark
The minutes from
our October 24 meeting were approved.
- Wes and Tamara
gave a summary from their meeting with the Languages & Literatures Department
on Tuesday, October 30. Minutes from that session will be provided at
a later date. (Bob and Nancy met with the English/Humanities faculty
just prior to the SPC meeting on October 31. Minutes from that meeting,
along with the responses to the strengths & weaknesses exercise, will
be sent to committee members soon.)
- We discussed the
need for better communication with/for students in highlighting special
opportunities sponsored by the college. (For example, Doug referred
to the email he received from the parent of one of our current students
whose daughter was not aware of the many activities organized in response
to the events on September 11.) How do we make sure that students know
these activities are happening? We need to hear from students about
the best ways to communicate these messages.
- Also discussed
was our need to better project our academic quality and excellence through
highlighting the achievements of our faculty and students. Showcasing
excellence at Earlham should be done not only for our outside constituencies
(through publications like The Earlhamite) but also for our students.
(Many students are not aware of the publications, organizational leadership
and research achievements of many of our faculty.) Why don't we do this,
or do this more consistently, and what are the best ways to recognize
these achievements? Is the act of recognizing achievement and quality
in conflict with our testimony on simplicity?
- Doug provided
for consideration a copy of the final report outline with group assignments
for each topic section. Each section has two faculty or one faculty
and staff person, one student SPC member and one "paid" SPC staff person
(Doug, Bob or Nancy). The members present approved the outline and assignments
as presented.
- We talked about
student input in the strategic planning process. Newell indicated that
the planned article for the Word (which originally was to take the form
of an interview with some SPC members) was already written based on
information taken from the SPC web site. He will be meeting with the
Word editor to edit and enhance the article before publication. Newell
indicated that it would be important to include in this article the
ways in which we plan to gather student input in the process and to
raise some of the questions we hope students will address through their
participation.
- Three possible
venues for student input were suggested: (1) a quick-response survey
on our web site (linked by an email message sent to all students);
(2) dorm dessert conversations with SPC members; and (3) thematic
noontime gatherings with faculty, staff and student participation.
- Newell and Sara
will work with computing center staff to create the web site survey
and the necessary link from student email. We spoke briefly about
possible questions or check-off items for the survey. SPC members
are asked to bring suggestions for the survey to next week's meeting.
- Questions we
might raise in the article for students to consider could include
information about the outcomes from earlier planning processes: (1)
What facilities do we need that we don't have now? (Landrum Bolling
Center) (2) What academic programs do we need to develop? (3) What
special opportunities for students need to be created? (Riding Program).
- Doug, Tamara
and Newell's article (Doug's column) will appear in this week's Word.
- Len Clark joined
us and provided an update on the work of the Diversity Aspirations group.
Len indicated that a draft of a plan would be available to the EC community
later this semester (December 1). The plan will include a vision statement
and a set of goals, including commentary about where we are currently
and a group of strategic actions that will foster these goals (specific
improvements that ought to be tried). Len indicated that these strategic
actions represented some very bold (and likely expensive) ideas. Two
that were mentioned were (1) providing scholarship money for international
students and students of color to improve recruitment and retention
of a diverse student community and (2) the creation of new positions
at the college to increase the number of faculty of color. Len said
that consideration is being given to how we replace current international
and African-American faculty when and if they retire or leave, but it
was recognized by the committee that in order to reach a goal of a more
diverse faculty, additional positions would need to be funded by the
college. Fundraising efforts by the College would be tied to faculty
positions, allowing us to hire more faculty of color. (Len was asked
to provide the SPC committee with a list of tenure track faculty who
have been hired within the last 12 years.) Doug also mentioned data
gathered last year from students on ideas about diversity at Earlham.
Next Meeting of
SPC - Wednesday, November 7 - 4:00 - Teague Library.
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