River Scheuerell
As some of you may know, Evergreen is in the process of developing the college’s next strategic plan. This plan will influence where the college chooses to focus time, effort, and resources over the next five years. As such, it is crucially important work, and to this point has been conducted largely behind the scenes. Here, I hope to peel back the curtain to provide a student perspective on the strategic planning process, give a sense of the importance of this work, and inform you of how you can engage to shape the plan.
I come to this as a student engaged in an academic internship, which in part has me working to support the strategic planning process. In fall quarter I heard rumblings that we were in a strategic planning year, which piqued my curiosity, but little info was readily available as to what this meant or looked like. Finally, towards the end of fall quarter, there was a student workshop offered to give insight into the process and gather feedback on what themes and issues were of importance to address in the plan. I attended this session and parleyed my engagement in this internship. While I have an official role in the strategic planning process, in this piece, I speak only as a well-informed student, and not on behalf of the planning team or the ‘administration.’
Evergreen is required to have a current strategic plan by the state, with the governor signing off on it once it has been fully drafted and approved by all of the relevant internal parties. When a current strategic plan approaches expiration, the college’s board of trustees, John Carmichael’s eight bosses, a group appointed by the governor to provide long-term strategic leadership, initiates the process of developing a new plan. This occurred last summer, and the board delegated the work of developing the new strategic plan to the president of the college, who delegated it to the executive vice president, who formed the strategic planning team and core team that have undertaken the work today.
This work has included many months of planning to make the plan, but we are now in a stage where words are being drafted and goals are coming into view. The main body of the strategic plan will be four strategic goals, each with a rationale and three to five accompanying strategies. The work of developing these goals and strategies has been given to four sub-teams composed of a mix of staff, faculty, and crucially students, something that was originally not planned, but I successfully advocated for. These teams are, 1: Access and Enrollment, 2: Student Learning and Success, 3: Community, Culture, and Campus Climate, and 4: Innovation and Vibrancy. The goals these teams are drafting are big picture, with the strategies being more specific and relating to actionable steps the college should take to reach the goal. Thus, it is crucial that we make sure that these strategies are reflective of what we as students want to see. That’s where you come in. Check your emails and look out for flyers directing you to a survey for you to submit feedback about the four goals and input on strategies you want to be considered. You’ll also have an opportunity to opt into a focus group to delve deeper into the work of any of the four teams you choose.
Strategic planning may seem esoteric or intangible, and those are valid critiques. Especially here where past strategic plans have often been excessively vague and minimally implemented. It’s also been said that strategic planning is the process we use to say no to good ideas. I sincerely hope that we can avoid these mistakes this time around and say yes to many of the good ideas that our community generates while understanding that we have difficult decisions to make around how to prioritize our resources so the ideas we choose to support can succeed. I can vouch that current leadership has a greater commitment to implementing this strategic plan than we have seen with past executives and plans. This implementation will begin over the summer and into the fall as planning units from different areas of the college will align their work to carry out strategies identified in the plan. The strategic plan will also inform the campus master plan, a long overdue comprehensive long-term plan for facilities and grounds to be updated next academic year for the first time since 2008. The groundwork for positive change is being laid and we must ensure that we achieve the change we want to see and ongoingly hold the college accountable to meeting the goals that our community upholds.
