Letter from President Hatch
Having spent the past year meeting with many of you and learning much about Wake Forest’s opportunities and challenges, I am convinced that we are ready to enter a new strategic planning process for the University. Our new plan will build upon existing strengths and identify areas where we need to improve, through defining strategies, setting priorities, and developing tactics to reach our goals.
I am pleased to announce that Provost William C. Gordon and Senior Vice President Nancy Suttenfield will co-chair our planning process, which will begin this month and reach its conclusion in the fall semester of 2007.
This is an exciting time for Wake Forest. As I near the end of my first academic year here, I am more confident than ever that Wake Forest has the ability to continue to take a significant place within higher education. It is also a critical time for us: we need to focus our thinking and marshal our collective efforts if we are to be successful in our quest to move forward. Our strategic planning process is, most importantly, an expression of our mission and vision, and this will be the starting point for us. Input from campus constituents will be critical to the success of this initiative. As you will see from the planning steps and timetable posted on this Web site, we will seek input and feedback at several critical points in this process.
Our planning effort will be guided by a Planning Council which will steer the planning process and track its results. Membership on the Council, also listed on this Web site, will comprise broad representation across the campus.
Initially, the Council's members will examine both internal and external factors that affect Wake Forest, within the context of higher education. Next, they will create a strategic framework—a set of strategic priorities that will set the parameters for the broad-based, campus-wide planning process. These strategic priorities will be presented to the campus community for feedback. Early in 2007, each academic and administrative unit will be asked to create plans for their respective areas, addressing these strategic priorities. Final priorities will be determined in the summer of 2007. Our goal is to complete the strategic plan in the fall of 2007. Faculty and staff will participate extensively at all levels of this process, which is designed to be both a bottom-up and a top-down process.
In the coming weeks, you will receive specific information from Bill Gordon and Nancy Suttenfield on how the process will work. We will post general information on this Web site as well as on Window on Wake Forest. During the course of the summer months, I encourage you to check these information sources for updates.
Perhaps the most interesting and invigorating part of any strategic plan is what an institution learns about itself during the journey to an ultimate set of priorities. I am confident that the steps outlined above will enable us to work as a cohesive community toward shared goals, and I look forward to working with you in this endeavor.
Thank you for your good work and for your participation in this exciting planning process.
Dr. Nathan O. Hatch
President, Wake Forest University
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