Baylor Begins Public Input Portion of Strategic Planning Process

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Baylor University has begun the public input portion of its Strategic Planning process by inviting faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of Baylor to be active participants in shaping the direction of the university's next 10-year plan.

To help guide that process, the university has launched the Strategic Planning website at www.baylor.edu/profuturis. The website includes a timeline of the planning process, links to helpful resources such as the university's mission statement, foundational assumptions, core convictions and unifying academic themes, and forms for groups and individuals to provide input as the process moves forward.

Baylor President Ken Starr has appointed Dr. Elizabeth Davis, executive vice president and provost, to lead the university-wide strategic planning process.

"Dr. Davis has embraced this responsibility with great enthusiasm," Starr said. "Working with her colleagues, she has already established a multifaceted visioning exercise that will, during the next year, inform the development of the plan that will guide and inspire our progress during the coming decade."

Before a period in which input will be solicited, Davis has provided a document entitled "Envisioning Our Future" that establishes a framework and asks questions designed to generate dialogue and engage Baylor's constituents. The document can be downloaded here.

"In designing our strategic planning process, every effort has been made to ensure that all voices can be heard," Davis said. "We are asking that faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends take considerable time to reflect on Baylor's character and purpose, on the progress that we have made in our storied 165-year history, and then to be creative in charting the many ways Baylor University can, and should, in the future, serve Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, the church and the world."

In addition to the information provided on the Strategic Planning website, Davis is initiating meetings with on-campus groups to explain the process and encourage participation. After the first of the year, Davis said the university will seek additional input through a series of town hall meetings, similar to those held for the presidential search process.

Davis has asked that faculty, staff, students and alumni ponder the questions in the "Envisioning the Future" document, and think about what Baylor might be 10 or 15 years from now.

"How should our influence be felt in the graduates we produce, in the scholarship we create, and in the communities in which we live and serve?" Davis said. "Ahead of us lies the opportunity to do many things, but we must consider the best path for Baylor to take as a national research university that resolutely embraces its Christian identity. We occupy a distinctive place in higher education; all of us need to participate in determining how we can best act in this privileged position."

The process will result in the presentation of a draft plan for consideration by Baylor's Board of Regents at the homecoming meeting in 2011.

Media contact: Lori Fogleman, director of media communications, (254) 710-6275