The Strategic Plan has undergone additional revisions since the campus community received their last draft of the plan Aug. 25.
The plan has become more student-centric and underwent a board of trustees review during their Sept. 25-26 meeting, according to Student Trustee David Teslicko, who officially became a member of the board during the meeting.
"I was surprised by [the board of trustees'] awareness of student issues," he said.
Student Government President Seth Cutter said the Board members he spoke with during their revision of the Strategic Plan really wanted to understand student issues like financial aid.
"They really wanted to know if issues like need-based and merit-based financial aid is an issue [students] talk about," Cutter said.
The campus community will see the next draft of the Strategic Plan within the next week, according to William DeLone, chair of the Steering Committee for the Strategic Plan.
DeLone said he was also pleased with the process and said the revisions have been helpful in creating more succinct goals.
"We have made a tremendous amount of progress, but there is still work to be done," he said.
The strategic planning committee still needs to identify priorities and create more specific goals, DeLone said.
The committees plan to meet at the end of October in order to make more pointed goals, as well as to remove the unnecessary goals, Teslicko said.
The plan needs to have a more identifiable mission statement, and it needs to be written by just one person, he said.
Discussing the plan within the board of trustees came with quite a bit of debate, due to the diversity of the board. Discussion over athletics, finances and technology was particularly interesting, Teslicko said.
Student input on these goals is crucial, according to DeLone.
Members of the campus community are invited to join in a discussion about the next draft of the plan at noon Oct. 28. This meeting will take place in the Mary Graydon Center, he said.
In difficult economic times, the Strategic Plan's goals may be difficult to fund, but that issue would be dealt with during the Board's budget discussion in November, Teslicko said.
The Strategic Plan will have a major influence on the budget of the next two years, DeLone said.
AU President Neil Kerwin said action steps and a budget for the Strategic Plan will be developed by May 2009, according to an e-mail to the campus community.
The original copy of the Strategic Plan included 40 goals for the direction of the university over the next ten years, The Eagle previously reported.
You can reach this staff writer at jcalantone@theeagleonline.com.
