The SOAS Strategic Plan

On May 1, members of the Salem State College School of Arts of Sciences voted on, and approved, a new strategic plan. The road to the new plan has been a long one, winding its way through union conflicts and the unfamiliar territory of “Delphi” procedures, but it appears that we have finally reached our destination.

The Strategic Plan for the School of Arts and Sciences (not to be confused with the new college-wide strategic plan), is a document that is used by the SOAS Dean’s Office and academic departments to set priorities for funding and for the implementation of school-level actions. The past strategic plan’s emphasis on the development of new programs, for example, resulted in the new Music major and the plan’s focus on interdisciplinarity resulted in the ITAS minor, among others.  The past plan was approved in 2000 and was clearly due for an update.

The SOAS Strategic Plan comprises a mission statement, general goals, and specific objectives. The SOAS Strategic Planning Committee, which is composed of faculty, staff, alumni, and student representatives, agreed that the document needed to be revised to reflect the School’s current situation and pared down to present a more tightly focused set of objectives.

Pre-planning for the revised strategic plan began in spring 2004, but the process really only started in earnest in fall 2004.  In an attempt to collect information about the school’s present situation and prospects for the future we administered a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis at the chairs’ meeting and distributed a set of open-ended questionnaires to faculty, staff, and students. Unfortunately, this part of the process stalled because of the unresolved union contract and many departments declined to participate.  The annual January retreat where much of the groundwork for the plan was to have been laid was also cancelled.

Reconvening in the spring of 2005, the committee agreed it had to move more directly and pragmatically to complete a revised draft by the end of the school year.  Through a series of small group discussions during meeting times we were able to put together the first draft, and this past fall we used a procedure known as “Delphi” to revise it. The document was circulated from member to member in four different electronic streams; each member had the ability to edit the document, including revisions made by previous readers.  In the spring, the revisions suggested by each of the four streams became the basis for final discussions during meeting times. By the end of April, the new document, including a newly worded mission statement, was complete and ready for school-wide distribution.

The new strategic plan will not be a great departure from the previous plan, but it is more focused and should be easier to act on. Apart from new language, the eight basic goals of the previous plan—focused on student learning, faculty development, program development, core curriculum, community relations and the support goals of staff development, facility development, and funding— have been retained. In addition, one new goal is being proposed, focused on the need to create and maintain a School of Arts and Sciences identity, both for internal and external audiences. This goal grew from a consensus that the achievements of the school were not fully understood outside the school and that the school needed to foster a greater feeling of community among its members.

Peter Oehlkers, Communications Department

Beacon, a regular column of ASpect, features noteworthy items in the School of Arts and Sciences.