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Retreat to discuss strategic planning: Oct. 28 and 29, Tolovana Inn, Cannon Beach.
Working Groups
Strategic planning is a dynamic process, so the rosters of the seven Strategic Planning Working Groups will likely continue to evolve. That said, here are the Strategic Planning Working Groups – faculty, administrators, staff, students, trustees, and alums – in place as of May 23rd.Portland/McMinnville Working Group
Jennifer Heath, Chair
Enrollment Working Group
Brian Gilbert, Chair
Student Life Working Group
Tanya Tompkins, Chair
Academic Programs/DCE Working Group
Kaarina Beam, Chair
Faculty Working Group
Chris Gaiser, Chair
Finances/Infrastructure Working Group
Joelle Murray, Chair
External Relations/Support Working Group
Jeff Peterson, Chair
Linfield College Strategic Planning
For many years, Linfield has held values in common, some of them explicitly stated in documents and speeches, some of them imbedded in our culture and daily behavior. The college has also created a series of strategic plans that have articulated those values and provided guidance for the future.
As the 2010-11 academic year comes to a close, we are about to enter the fifth and final year of our current plan. We also face important strategic questions about Linfield’s future. And thus we have formed a new strategic planning process.
In fact, the beginning of this process began with a retreat of the Linfield Board of Trustees in May 2010. At that meeting, the Trustees informally laid out a series of questions, some large and some small, that must be faced by the college as we move into an uncertain future. The Trustees were guided by previous studies, some internal (e.g., the Discovery Collaborative’s research report) and some external (e.g., “Colleges 2020: Students”). We subsequently arranged for Trustee/Faculty/Administrator/Student dialogue, again informal, about the questions we face. And finally, with the help of consultant Dr. Larry Large, we adopted a “plan to plan” at the beginning of 2011.
There are several layers of the planning process. I have appointed an Executive Planning Council (EPC) with seven members. Chaired by the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Dean of Faculty (now Bob Wolcott, later Susan Agre-Kippenhan) the EPC also includes professors Patrice O’Donovan (CPBC member and Portland campus librarian), Scott Smith (FEC chair) and Lex Runciman; administrators Glenn Ford (EPC vice chair, Vice President for Finance & Administration) and Susan Hopp (Vice President for Student Affairs & Athletics); and Trustee Dave Baca. I am an ex officio member of the committee; Meridith Symons and Jennifer Ballard provide staff support.
The EPC provides oversight for the process and ultimately writes the strategic plan. But much of the hardest and detailed work will be conducted by the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) and its seven working groups. I am grateful to Lex Runciman for chairing the SPC, and I am equally grateful to the seven professors who will chair the task groups that address the major questions we face.
Although we have now formed these working groups, the major work will be done during fall semester, 2011. While we intend to articulate key questions and gather pertinent data prior to September, the working groups will meet regularly, hold public hearings, gather information, address questions, and ultimately create formal recommendations in white papers to be forwarded to the EPC in late November 2011. The EPC will consult constituencies and seek resolution of conflicting priorities or opinions before creating a final strategic plan to be presented to me, and then to the Board of Trustees, in February 2012. That plan will take effect at the beginning of our new fiscal year, July 1, 2012.
I believe that we are unlikely to change our mission dramatically as a result of this process. And I am certain that Linfield’s fundamental values, both explicit and implicit, will continue to guide us. But I sincerely believe that we must devise a true plan that sets tangible goals and priorities for the college, resolves some of the major internal questions that we face, and addresses the external opportunities—and threats—that the future holds. In fact this must be more than a plan for the next five or six years; it must define our direction for the long-term future. This will be an arduous process, but it will also be exciting.
We invite you to visit this website regularly to learn about the progress we are making as we ask and answer questions about Linfield’s future. We welcome email inquiries at planning@linfield.edu. And we urge you to attend the public meetings and hearings that will be held throughout the fall semester. I know that this process will require time and energy from all of us, but if we do this well, it will assure and strengthen the future of the college. Not only must we articulate our values and goals, we must also design a path to reach them. That path will be formed in our strategic planning process.
Thomas L. Hellie, President