U. introduces goals for new strategic plan

With the new year recently underway, the development of a University-wide strategic agenda has emerged on the radar screen for completion and implementation by the end of 2002.

The new blueprint for the University comes on the heels of the completion of the five-year Agenda for Excellence, the strategic plan that was put in place in 1995, the year after University President Judith Rodin was inaugurated.

The new set of goals detailed in the strategic plan will be aimed toward further improvement of the University's physical development, financial affairs and stronger steps towards globalization and technological advancement.

"In general, the new plan will continue to expand on what the current plan [the Agenda for Excellence] focuses on," Provost Robert Barchi said. "Undergraduate education will continue to be a major focus of the strategic agenda, along with attention to graduate education."

The new plan will also be geared towards the development and retention of outstanding faculty, the quality of research, further technological innovation and the expansion of academic initiatives in departments, such as the life sciences.

But while the first draft of the strategic plan will not be released until after a University-wide forum that will be held later this month, the basis for the new plan has been in the making for well over a year.

Announced in 1995, the Agenda for Excellence established a list of nine goals for Penn to tackle over a five-year period.

Ranging from seeking greater research opportunities for the University to managing the University's human, financial and physical resources effectively, the Agenda proved successful in many of its targeted areas.

At the 2000 fall retreat for the Board of Trustees, administrators began to reflect upon the University's progress under the Agenda and to look ahead toward future goals.

"We began the process of looking at the current Agenda for Excellence -- what we had accomplished, how well we had achieved the goals and reviewing the areas where we thought needed attention," Barchi said.

Last spring, a formal report on the Agenda was released by the University. It was followed by the formation of seventeen committees, each with faculty and student representatives, to discuss future plans. Last semester, these groups met regularly with Barchi and Executive Vice President John Fry to discuss and shape their emerging proposals.

Now, on the verge of presenting a draft of the strategic agenda, differences between the old agenda and the new one have become apparent.

"We come to this process on the heels of a prior strategic plan that was implemented and was successful, so it's not as much of a tabula rasa as we had in 1996," Rodin said. "The parameters of where we succeeded and the areas where we still have needs were much clearer at the beginning of the second process."

Since 1995, the University has raised nearly $1 billion in funding. The campus has undergone numerous physical improvements, including the renovation of Perelman Quadrangle and the construction of Sansom Common. Moreover, Penn is now ranked as one of the top five universities in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Rodin has acknowledged that the new agenda will not be as "dramatically different" for Penn as the first one was. If anything, the agenda has provided a foundation for the development of a new plan.

"I think that the Agenda for Excellence has been an outstanding framework for the development of University initiatives and moving the University forward," Barchi said. "We're looking to extend and build on the past Agenda."

Yet in the development of the new agenda, administrators chose to involve a wider range of people in its planning stages. While the Agenda for Excellence was primarily composed by senior administrators, the new strategic agenda has incorporated insight from both graduate and undergraduate students.

"We decided to do this as a huge University-wide, multiple- committee process," Rodin said.

Now, as these committees turn in their reports in anticipation for the open forum later this month, the strategic agenda is entering a new phase of development.

Following a discussion at the winter Board of Trustees meetings next month, development will turn to the analysis of the funding opportunities based around the agenda's needs. Depending on the financial demands of the new agenda, administrators will decide whether additional money will have to be raised to accomplish the goals that have been laid out.

And if all goes well, the new strategic agenda will be implemented by the end of the fall semester.

"By the end of 2002 we'll have a plan we'll be working on implementing already, and by the end of 2003, we'll have a prioritized, priced set of programs within that plan, and we'll keep going," Rodin said.

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