I’m serving on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. This is a committee that is tasked with taking Dr. Kim’s white paper, “Redefining Our Greatness,” and putting it into action. Our goal is to create a five-year plan, called “Achieving Our Greatness,” that will help us define who we are, who we want to be as a college, and how to get there, as the Provost said in his recent college-wide email. We are composed of faculty, the president, provost, dean, trustees, myself, and one undergraduate student.

Our committee is broken down into six sub-committees, and I’m on the one exploring how our college can improve on its 21st-century curricula across the board. Each committee is hosting a roundtable discussion based on their tasks. The roundtable information was emailed to all on campus, but if you didn’t get that email (because you are not yet a part of the Columbia community), the schedule is as follows:

1. Optimizing Enrollment:  Wednesday, November 5
2. Community Engagement:  Tuesday, November 11
   
3. Aligning Resources with Goals:  Thursday, November 13
4. 21^st Century Curriculum:  Monday, November 17
5. Our Commitment to Student Success:  Friday, November 21
6. Diversity and Inclusion:  TBD

We are also undergoing a six-week endeavor, where we ask ten questions in each of six categories on a website called The Civic Commons. We ask that Columbia’s community participate in these discussions, as we hope to gather the best data from this and use this to shape the five-year plan. The Civic Commons has information about what it is and how to behave on this platform on their website, and you should read the information before posting. Please get involved in the conversation and help us out! That website is here.