[Tsa] Request for proposals and strategic planning process update

[Rae Henaghan]

----- Forwarded message from HCAnnouncements at hampshire.edu -----
    Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 10:35:36 -0500
    From: HCAnnouncements at hampshire.edu
Reply-To: HCAnnouncements at hampshire.edu
 Subject: Reminder: Request for proposals and strategic planning process update

Submitted by: Diana Fernandez

MEMORANDUM

Date: March 2, 2011

To: Hampshire College Community

From: Bill Brayton, Chair Strategic Planning Committee

Subject: Reminder: Request for proposals and strategic planning process update.

The strategic planning committee continues to invite written proposals for
projects that will have a deep impact on the future of Hampshire College. For
full consideration, proposals must reach the committee by March 9. All
correspondence should be forwarded to:

strategicplanning at hampshire.edu

Examples of projects may include:

- New or reorganized major program
- Major change in policy or methods
- A study
- Building or other construction

The strategic planning website is available at:

http://strategicplanning.hampshire.edu

On the site you will find the committee membership, a list of links to
background materials, notes on process and progress, meeting minutes, and a
community discussion board (https://cws.hampshire.edu/course/view.php?id=15).
The discussion board is a forum for collecting input from you regarding your
experience during the visioning sessions, your thoughts on the briefing
documents and other information that can be found at
http://strategicplanning.hampshire.edu as well as comments and suggestions for
the strategic planning process. You may also submit your comments via email at:
strategicplanning at hampshire.edu.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Below is an in-progress timeline for the SPC's work as well as a detailed list
of our nine (again in-progress) thematic areas. Also included is the
subcommittee membership specific to each theme.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

What Could The Final Plan Look Like And Who Would Do The Work?

- No "standard" method of developing or presenting content
- Use sufficient language to explain while maintaining interest; briefer is
better.
- Format, detail, and length vary widely. Mt. Holyoke's plan is 38 pages
(without appendices). Middlebury's plan is 70 pages. Hamilton's plan is 20
pages.

Suggested Content and Responsibilities

- Diana Fernandez will draft the final plan to help with consistent voice.
- Table of Contents [Diana]
- Introduction - How will this plan help Hampshire? [Marlene]
- Dashboard [Mark]
- Method - How did we evaluate initiatives? [SPC]
- Vision - Hampshire's future as seen through the Visioning Forums [SPC]
- Statement of Mission and Values
o Mission - what are we here to do?
o Vision - where are we headed?
o Values - what are our values and how do they inform our plan? [SPC]
- Themes and Initiatives [SPC]
- List of Appendices provided on-line [Diana]

Themes And Initiatives (Projects)

The Work Of The Subcommittees

Theme Development

- Each theme can be explained in a few paragraphs by incorporating the following
elements:
- What areas did you consider within your broad theme?; bulletize them, if you
wish
- Critical issue statement (the opportunity we hope to exploit or the problem
we're attempting to solve); typically 3 - 5 paragraph statement - it can be
divided into sections, if you wish.
- Use the existing critical issues paper or generate new
o Explain what critical problem or opportunity you address
- Each theme will be followed by the relevant initiatives

Generic Examples of Initiatives

- New or reorganized major program
- Major change in policy or methods
- A Study
- Building or other construction

Specific Examples of Initiative Language

- We will increase the diversity of our faculty by increasing the fraction of
international faculty by 5%. NOTE QUANTITATIVE TARGET HERE.
- To help our students compete for major fellowships and scholarships, we will
develop an intensive training program to include multiple rounds of interview
simulations.
- We will strengthen the bond between students and College by developing a new
program of all-campus lectures focused on the world's major challenges.
- We will create a master plan to determine desirable changes to the physical
environment and needed additional buildings. This plan will incorporate a space
study to examine the utilization of existing spaces.

Some of your projects may come directly from the list of ongoing initiatives
that Alan and Marlene generated. This is on our website
(http://strategicplanning.hampshire.edu).

Evaluating Proposed Projects

Before you propose a project to the SPC, please do the following:

First apply a High Level Screen (no documentation needed from you)
- Is the project strategic vs. tactical? If tactical, get it off to a vp, dean,
or Marlene for implementation.
- Is it discrete and implementable?
- Can we implement it within the 3 - 5 year time line?
o If not, put it in the long-term bin. Maintain a long-term bin.
- Does it require one or more subject matter experts? If so, consult them or add
them to your subcommittee.

For each initiative that passes through the first screen, apply a second.
Detailed Level Screen
Here, please document the application of the high level screen
The screen: (assign High, Medium, or Low for each of the following and share
these evaluations with the SPC)
- Project impact
- Probability of success
- Impact of not doing
- External funding probability
- Provide a rough cost estimate (using subject matter experts)

Sources for Potential Initiatives

- Visioning sessions
- SPC generated
- Monday Group
- Board of Trustees
- Any other campus constituency
- Strategicplanning at hampshire.edu
- Strategic planning discussion board
https://cws.hampshire.edu/course/view.php?id=15
- MC 2.0
- Existing Strategic Initiatives List
- New ideas will come to the committee, even as others are evaluated and put to
paper. The watchword here will be flexibility. We should be prepared to
reevaluate and reprioritize projects to the last moment.

Content And Format

- Mount Holyoke's strategic plan includes almost 30 themes subsuming roughly 120
actionable activities and studies.
- Middlebury's plan has 6 themes and 90 actionable initiatives.
- Colgate's plan included 14 themes and some 85 actionable projects.
- Hamilton College's plan included 6 themes and 85 projects, 15 of which
required capital construction.
- Based on our last meeting, the SPC is likely to propose 9 themes, give or
take. We're recommending that the subcommittees restrict the number of project
recommendations to
- 5 - 7, with a bias toward the former, realizing that some areas may have more
and some fewer.

One question: many more initiatives will be proposed than included in the plan
because of the screens. Do we somehow post those and make them available?

Time line

- Subcommittees meet continuously until March 23. Each committee reports out
each week on initiatives under consideration. SPC provides feedback with
respect to specific proposed projects throughout.
- SPC evaluates final projects to be recommended to the President. March 23 -
30. Marlene responds.
- SPC presents project recommendations to the Monday Group for feedback. April
4.
- SPC incorporates feedback and modifies projects, if necessary. April 4 - April
13.
- SPC presents projects at open forums for community feedback. April 13 - 15.
(This date may be pushed to the previous week)
- Marlene and others presents projects to Board of Trustees for board feedback.
April 13 -15.
- SPC incorporates board and community feedback and forwards final
recommendations to the President. April 15 - 27.
- President evaluates and modifies plan. April 27 - May 6.
- President and others present completed plan to the Board of Trustees.

How Will We Keep On Track?

- We'll ask each subcommittee chair to report out on progress, and specifically
on initiatives under consideration at each Wednesday meeting of the SPC.
- Each report will be no more than 10 minutes long.
- We may increase length of the SPC meeting occasionally to provide more time to
discuss individual projects. We may schedule special meetings around specific
projects, if even more discussion is required.

Subcommittee Themes and Membership
(Note: The below nine themes were developed in response to highest scoring
themes in the visioning sessions as well as subsequent SPC discussions.
Committee membership was based on the size of the theme category and the need
to strike a balance around expertise and representation. Student members serve
on all nine committees.)

Community Spaces
Bill Brayton (Chair)
Andrea Heredia
Mark Spiro
Amnat Chittaphong
Clay Ballantine

Financial Sustainability
Carla Costa (Chair)
Sigmund Roos
Mark Spiro
Marlene Gerber Fried
Alan Goodman
Clay Ballantine
Jason Tor
Andrea Heredia

Academic Vitality
Eva Rueschmann (Convener)
Alan Goodman
Laura Wenk
Kara Lynch
Nick Marshall-Butler

Hampshire's Image
Laura Wenk (Chair)
Zilong Wang
Carla Costa

Green Hampshire College
Jason Tor (Chair)
Dawn Ellinwood
Andrea Heredia
Rebecca Holland

Campus Community Enrichment/Healthy Campus
Dawn Ellinwood (Chair)
Eva Rueschmann
Zilong Wang

Diversity (No Chair)
Zilong Wang
Jaime Davila
Lourdes Mattei
Katie Irwin
Amnat Chittaphong

Participation/Governance
Lourdes Mattei (Chair)
Jaime Davila
Stephan Jost
Nick Marshall-Butler

Values/Mission
Kara Lynch (Chair)
Bill Brayton
Katie Irwin
Nick Marshall-Butler
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