U. unveils new strategic plan

Provost Robert Barchi and Executive Vice President John Fry unveiled the latest draft of the University's new strategic plan at an open forum held yesterday in College Hall.

Coming on the heels of the Agenda for Excellence, a five-year-old formula for University improvement developed by administrators in 1995, the new plan will outline further institutional, organizational and academic improvements.

The development for the new plan began in the fall of 2000 at the University Board of Trustees retreat in November of that year.

Last spring, 17 committees, each with faculty and student representatives, were formed to discuss goals for the new plan. The committees met regularly with Barchi and Fry last semester to help shape the plan's framework.

Yesterday's open forum gave Barchi and Fry the opportunity to outline the plan's key points and then open the floor to questions and comments from the 75 students, faculty and staff members in attendance.

In the formal segment of the presentation, Barchi described the top priorities of the new plan as a "three-dimensional matrix" of institutional goals, organizational priorities and academic opportunities.

"If you look at the wording in the Agenda for Excellence, it said that we should move up in the rankings -- we feel that we're there, basically," Barchi said. "Now we need to figure out... how to solidify that position and what differentiates us from the other schools that are in that top half-dozen."

Barchi listed a number of institutional goals that would be included in the new plan, such as building and retaining a strong and diverse faculty, creating a physical environment supportive of the University's academic and research missions and improving the quality of research and scholarly activity at Penn.

Barchi also emphasized the new plan's focus on integrating undergraduate and graduate education.

"Graduate students need to work on teaching, and undergraduates need to participate in educational experiences that involve graduate students," Barchi said. "We need to make sure that the experience is a positive one in both directions."

After Barchi's remarks, Fry outlined the plan's organizational priorities, which include upgrading the University's operational and financial capacities.

"We need to improve Penn's success in launching new initiatives by creating a resource pool to fund feasibility analysis and startups," Fry said.

The list of academic priorities that the new plan will address includes paying more attention to the University's arts and humanities departments and supporting further technological innovation.

The last hour of the forum gave attendees the chance to give feedback to Fry and Barchi about various components of the new plan.

"This isn't the end of the process," Barchi said at the forum. "This is still part of the process of gathering information and gathering suggestions and ideas.

"Don't think of this as a close-out because it's not -- it's really just the opposite," he added. "It's extending the process to further what I hope will be an open dialogue in the next few months."

Among the issues raised by those in attendance were the University's capability to manage the growing administrative staff, the continued focus on academic integrity among students and faculty and the fostering of a "community of scholars."

Neurology Professor John Detre questioned whether some components of the plan were invested too heavily in the University's financial ventures, as opposed to focusing on Penn's academic environment.

"It seemed as though in the areas that I'm familiar with, it sounded like a portfolio for a venture capital firm," Detre said. "This may be a very wise decision for the future because having money is better than not having money. On the other hand, academic centers of excellence have traditionally been a place where pure knowledge and pure ideas have been pursued without concerns about a dollar return on the investment."

Others, including University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Director Jeremy Sabloff, asked about how the plan's continued emphasis on undergraduate research would play out.

"There are lots of resources on campus in various centers where you have people doing research but who are not full-time faculty or staff members," Sabloff said after the forum. "How do you take advantage of the undergraduates to work with them? What are the incentives for a staff person to work with students, and how can the faculty be reassured that they're maintaining quality?"

A draft of the new strategic plan will be published early next month and presented at the Board of Trustees meetings in mid-February. Barchi said he hoped that a final version of the plan would be ready to be approved by the Board at their annual June meetings.

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