Having convened multiple times throughout the summer, Brandeis’ strategic planning forces are set to release a draft framework to the Brandeis community on Oct. 9. Announced in 2011, this potential five-year plan has been praised by President Lawrence as ”an exciting time for all of us. It is a chance for us to build on the great strengths of this university and, working together, to envision a defining future for Brandeis and to reach for it.” The Strategic Planning Steering Committee is composed of faculty from different quarters of Brandeis academia, from Heller and IBS to those in the arts and sciences. This plan will seek to ensure Brandeis’ future success, something Provost Steve Goldstein is confident it will achieve. He sees it as a time to “come together with a description that encapsulates the energy of the students, the faculty and the staff as we go forward.”
Goldstein explained that this draft, set to be released on Oct. 9 will include some details but not all.
“The mission, the goals and the large strategies will be there, but in the framework, which is what’s coming out first, it will not be filled out with the details in the way that a plan is,” Goldstein said in an interview last week. “A healthy plan is a way of making choices because the world keeps changing in front of you. We will be talking about specific things but more importantly we will be talking about strategies and principles.”
After its release Oct. 9, students will be invited to participate in six feedback sessions that will occur on campus between Oct. 10 and 17. The Board of Trustees will then evaluate it at its meeting on Oct. 30 and 31. Feedback on the plan will be available in December, with the final draft presented in front of the board on Jan. 23, 2013. Students are encouraged to contact the Strategic Planning Steering Committee with questions at any time.
In regard to what this draft will entail, Goldstein describes it as not entirely revolutionary. “I don’t think it is going to be new. Brandeis is about inclusion, social justice, excellence, individual potential and preparing for the world. The core mission of Brandeis, what we have achieved after the first 64 years is going to be embodied in the statement of the strategic plan. It is based on those strengths and distinguished accomplishments that we are going to go forward.”
Goldstein cites the plan as “a unique moment where I get the opportunity and we as an institution get the opportunity to define what it is we want to have as our identity.”