By Cliff Foster

The communication phase of “A Time of Transformation: 2012-17 Strategic Plan” is underway with presentations to the campus community on the origins, objectives and strategies of the blueprint that will drive the University over the next five years.

Five members of the Strategic Planning Committee are guiding the communication effort, providing primers to the MSU Denver community, from its leaders to academic departments to student service programs. They are strategic planning committee co-chairs Cathy Lucas, associate to the president for marketing and communications, and Kamran Sahami, president of the Faculty Senate; Myron Anderson, associate to the president for diversity; Paul Cesare, assistant director of admissions, and Lunden MacDonald, associate professor of Spanish.

“This is not just the University’s plan, it’s everyone’s plan,” says Lucas. “All of us need to embrace the four strategic themes with their corresponding goals, objectives and strategies in our daily operations so that it guides the institution as a whole.” The four themes are: Student and Academic Success, Community Engagement and Regional Stewardship, Institutional Culture and Institutional Resources.

According to Anderson, the plan is not meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust. “We want it to be an engaging, interactive plan that came from the ground up and that’s going to be implemented from the ground up.”

The communication effort began at the Board of Trustees retreat in October, when Lucas and Sahami made a presentation about the strategic plan. Following the retreat, the University’s 15 leadership areas within the President’s cabinet were shown the PowerPoint presentation with the expectation that they, in turn, will further disseminate the plan. The presentation is augmented by the strategic planning website, which will soon feature additional content, and by a brochure summarizing the plan.

Implementation is not one-size-fits-all. A department or a school, for instance, might develop its own strategic plan along the lines of the overall University plan. Other units might come up with a list of strategies to carry out parts of the plan that speak directly to their mission.

“Leaders may have different ways of reaching their goals and objectives for their unit,” Anderson says. “They may not have a formal strategic plan. However, as they look at the goals and objectives of their unit, we want this strategic plan to be a guide and hopefully their goals and objectives will align with the strategic plan. How they get there, that’s their call.”

The brochure that highlights the strategic plan puts it this way: “It is particularly incumbent upon departmental chairs, managers and individual faculty and staff members to read and understand the plan and to use it as a road map in their own planning efforts.”

As the strategic planning process was winding down last spring, School of Business Dean Ann Murphy and her faculty developed a plan for the school using the University blueprint as a guide. The five-year business plan has seven goals, with committees overseeing each of them and activities to meet the objectives by certain timelines.

“I may have moved ahead because I was fairly new to the dean’s position, and it was such a great opportunity to be able to use the University’s planning to tie it into the school,” she says.

In the School of Professional Studies, a committee with department representatives drafted a school-wide plan, based on the University model. Department chairs will use the school’s plan, which includes goals, activities, strategies and timelines, to create plans for their units by the end of the semester.

“The departments are free to make a vision for themselves and suggest things that we may not have thought of,” says Dean Sandra Haynes. “The expectation is they will align with the themes and think big about where they want to be in the next five years.”

The goal for the communication effort, Anderson says, is to make the presentation to every leadership area and institutional unit that requests it before 2013 Spring Break. Contact Julie Sharer-Price, administrative assistant to the president/Office of Institutional Diversity at jsharerp@msudenver.edu, to schedule the presentation.