Ball State's Strategic Planning Task Force announced Monday that it can now receive feedback and comments about the plan that will set the course for the university from 2006 to 2010.
The strategic plan provides the university with a blue-print for improvement within a specific time frame, Beverley Pitts, provost and chairwoman for the task force, said.
The task force gathers information and provides recommendations for goals the university should aspire to, according to the 2004 Strategic Plan Progress Report.
"It's quite usual for universities to engage in strategic planning," Heather Shupp, executive director of university communications, said. "It's important to think through goals and objectives on a regular basis."
President Jo Ann Gora appointed the 26-member task force earlier in the year, Pitts said.
The group, which has met since January, is still in the beginning stages of its research, Shupp said. It is gathering information about everything concerning higher education, including the local and state environment that the university is operating in, Pitts said.
The task force has created a Web site to post meeting agenda minutes so people can respond and give input as to what they think Ball State's goals should be, Pitts said.
"Everyone needs to agree that our strategic plan is in the direction we want to go," Pitts said. "We want to keep everyone well informed along the way so they can respond and react."
Although the strategic plan that Ball State is working with does not end until 2006, the task force is working on the new plan now because it will take time to gather information to create recommendations for university improvement, Pitts said.
"We have some time here," she said. "We want to be sure we have time for campus feedback."
The current strategic plan includes recommendations to enhance excellence in learning through quality students and quality programs, to attract high-quality faculty and staff through competitive salaries and to increase enrollment through student retention.
Pitts said the university has succeeded in achieving many of the current plan's goals. One goal was to increase the university's student retention. The 2004 Progress Report stated that Ball State's retention rate increased from 68 percent in Fall 1997 to 80 percent in Fall 2003. The report attributes the success to the Freshman Connections program.
Once the task force completes the Strategic Plan recommendations, the document will go to Gora, Shupp said. If Gora approves the plan, it will then go to the Board of Trustees for final approval. If Gora does not approve, it will go back to the task force to be changed. Then it will go back to Gora and onto the board.
The task force hopes to have an initial outline for what they want to recommend by the end of the semester, Pitts said. The overall goal is to have a final report for Gora by the Fall.
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