Strategic Plan
A strategic plan serves as a kind of scaffolding for the operations of any organization so it may reach its mission (which reflects why it exists and what it aims to achieve, including serving its many stakeholders). It is designed to keep the organizational members on track together towards shared goals, and to reflect the organizational identity as outlined in its mission statement. To help the organization reach those goals, a strategic plan may include objectives which identify specific tasks reflecting those goals. Within those objectives, action items may be developed to provide detailed activities or methods organizational members will use to reach the objectives. Having strategic plan goals also means developing metrics to ensure we are meeting our goals. The metrics not only assess to what degree a goal has been met, but may also determine whether the actions were of any use. In order to know whether a goal has been met, more specific targets are created. Finally, progress towards targets and goals may be measured both short-term (such as every 1-2 years) and long-term (such as every 5 or 10 years).
The College of Letters & Sciences (CoLS) is one of many University of Wisconsin-Whitewater colleges. It has its mission, and every five years, it aims to update its strategic plan to meet the mission. It is imperative that updating the strategic plan includes not only a look back at progress via the metrics and targets, but also to listen to current voices of CoLS stakeholders. Those stakeholders for CoLS include students, faculty, staff, administration, members of the campus community and also the city of Whitewater community and beyond. Therefore, a strategic plan is not only important for the CoLS operations, but also for the stakeholders.
To include as many stakeholder voices as possible, during the Fall 2022-Spring 2023 year the CoLS created a Strategic Planning Workgroup. The members are working through a specific process which includes offering different avenues for voices to be heard. These include focus groups, interviews, online surveys, meetings, and secondary data. See further below for details on the process, opportunities to get involved, and to meet the workgroup members.
General Strategic Plan Terminology
- Mission statement: This reflects why our college exists and what it intends to achieve.
- Vision Statement: This reflects what our college intends to become within the timeframe of the strategic plan.
- Strategic Plan (AKA: Strategic Priorities): Contains goals which help align efforts across stakeholder groups as progress is measured both short term (such as every 1-2 years) and long term (such as every 5 or 10 years).
- Goals: Broad statements that reflect intended mission outcomes.
- Objectives: Identify more specific directions reflecting those broader goals.
- Actions: Detailed activities or methods to meet the objectives.
- Metrics: A performance measure, means to assess whether actions were of any use, and the degree to which goals were met.
- Target: A specific value to be achieved by our college for each metric.
