Previous Messages
- Campus Message on Strategic Plan (April 30, 2019)
- Feedback Report on Draft Strategic Plan (April 22, 2019)
- Strategic Plan / Full Draft for Review (April 1, 2019)
- Strategic Plan—High-Level Strategy (February 11, 2019)
- Strategic Planning / Core Values and Expected Behaviors (January 28, 2019)
- Strategic Plan High-Level Strategy (January 18, 2019)
- Strategic Plan Steering Committee / Discovery Report (December 20, 2018)
- Strategic Plan Daylong Session—January 11 (November 28, 2018)
- Strategic Plan Pulse Survey (November 26, 2018)
- Message from Jeff Malanson Regarding Strategic Planning Open Forum (November 8, 2018)
- Strategic Planning Open Forum and Website Announced (October 31, 2018)
- Strategic Planning Process Launched (October 19, 2018)
- Our Strategic Planning Process Begins (September 19, 2018)
Campus Message on Strategic Plan
April 30, 2019
Dear Campus Community:
We are proud to share the revised
In the coming
Early in the fall
We wish you the best of luck finishing up the semester and hope that you have a wonderful summer.
Take care,
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Feedback Report on Draft Strategic Plan
April 22, 2019
Dear Campus Community:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the draft strategic plan and offer your feedback. All of your thoughts, suggestions, questions, and concerns will help the Planning Teams revise their drafts into a much stronger final product. The feedback will also guide the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and the Leadership Team as we finalize the plan.
You can download the Feedback Report [PDF] on the draft strategic plan. It contains information on the feedback collection process, a summary of feedback collected, notes from each open forum and shared governance presentation, and complete feedback survey results.
Our goal is to have a final version of the strategic plan (pending the campus-wide plan prioritization discussion that will take place this fall) to share with campus by Tuesday, April 30.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan / Full Draft for Review
April 1, 2019
Dear Campus Community:
We have made tremendous strides in our strategic planning process during the past several months, and we are excited to share a draft of the complete strategic plan [PDF] with you today.
Our Aspiration Planning Teams have been hard at work for the past two months developing the objectives and strategic activities to support the aspirations outlined in our high-level strategy [PDF]. In the attached draft of the strategic plan, you will also find a brief overview of the process the Planning Teams used to carry out their work.
From Monday, April 1, through Friday, April 19, at noon, the Strategic Plan Steering Committee will collect feedback on the draft, including all objectives, strategic activities, and the narratives accompanying the vision and each aspiration. We will be collecting this feedback in a variety of ways, including open forums, a survey, the “Share Your Voice” feature on the strategic planning website, and presentations to the Student Government Association, Faculty Senate, Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Council, and Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee.
The committee also will hold five open forums that will be open to all students, staff, and faculty:
- Tuesday, April 2, 3 p.m., Science Building, Room 168
- Friday, April 5, noon, Science Building, Room 168
- Monday, April 8, 1:30 p.m., Kettler Hall, Room G46
- Thursday, April 11, 9 a.m., Kettler Hall, Room G46
- Wednesday, April 17, noon, Science Building, Room 168
We want to emphasize that what we are sharing with you today is a draft. The Planning Teams have devoted significant time and energy to developing their plans and are eager to receive your suggestions, questions, and feedback, all of which will greatly improve the final draft. Our strategic plan will guide university decision-making processes and resource-allocation decisions for the next six years; we want to make sure that we get your input and suggestions.
We look forward to talking with you about the plan in the coming days and weeks. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Ron Elsenbaumer
Chancellor
Jeff Malanson
Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan—High-Level Strategy
February 11, 2019
Dear Campus Community,
We are pleased to share with you the revised high-level strategy document.
From January 22 through February 1, the Strategic Plan Steering Committee collected feedback on the high-level strategy draft. We want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who participated in that process. You provided excellent comments and suggestions that the University Leadership Team carefully listened to as we revised the high-level strategy. Based on your feedback, we have a strong strategy upon which we will build the rest of our strategic plan.
Included in the high-level strategy are brief narratives that give further depth and definition to the Vision and Aspirations. These narratives were heavily shaped by the feedback we received. The narratives will be revised as the rest of our strategic plan takes shape, and you will have an opportunity to provide feedback on them in April.
As we move into the next phase of our strategic planning process, we are also pleased to announce the formation of our Aspiration Planning Teams. Over the coming weeks, these teams will undertake the critically important work of developing the Objectives and Strategic Activities that will make up our strategic plan. You can see the Planning Team rosters on the Leadership and Committees page of our website. Please join us in thanking each of these individuals for the important work they will be undertaking for the university.
This will be the last you hear from us until after Spring Break as we let the Planning Teams get to work. We are excited to see their plans develop.
Take care,
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Planning / Core Values and Expected Behaviors
January 28, 2019
Dear Campus Community:
Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s open forum on the high-level strategy draft [PDF] and completed the feedback survey. There will be another open forum to discuss the draft on Friday, February 1, at noon in the Science Building, Room 168, and you can continue to fill out the feedback survey until Friday, February 1, at 5 p.m. [Note: original date of Wednesday, January 30, was rescheduled due to weather conditions.]
Core values are one component of the high-level strategy. They define what we believe in and how we conduct ourselves. The Strategic Plan Steering Committee has developed a list of “Expected Behaviors” to support and give greater definition to each Core Value. We would like to receive your feedback on these Expected Behaviors (document attached). Questions related to the Expected Behaviors have been added to the feedback survey, and we will discuss them at Wednesday’s open forum. If you have already filled out the survey and would like to provide input on the Expected Behaviors, feel free to “Share Your Voice.”
On February 6, the Leadership Team will meet to consider all of your feedback on the high-level strategy draft and to make changes as necessary. On Thursday, February 7, we will hold two focus groups to test our revised high-level strategy before it is finalized and shared with campus. We hope you will RSVP for one of the focus groups here; please be aware that space is limited.
Have a great week!
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan High-level Strategy Draft
January 18, 2019
Dear Campus Colleagues:
On behalf of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and the University Leadership Team, we are happy to share with you the attached draft of the high-level strategy [PDF] for our new strategic plan. The draft includes our proposed Mission, Core Values, Vision, and Aspirations. An addendum to the high-level strategy draft will be circulated to campus on Monday, January 28, that includes a series of Expected Behaviors to support and give definition to each of the Core Values.
The Leadership Team used the data summarized in the Discovery Report [PDF] and the input documented in the Strategic Planning Meeting Summary Report [PDF] to develop the high-level strategy draft. Over the next two weeks (until Friday, February 1 at 5 p.m.), we will gather feedback on the draft from the campus community in several ways.
We will be hosting two open forums:
- Thursday, January 24, 9 a.m., Liberal Arts Building, Room 35A
- Friday, February 1, Noon, Science Building, Room 168 [Note: original date of Wednesday, January 30, was rescheduled due to weather conditions.]
You can also provide feedback on each part of the proposed high-level strategy using this survey.
Finally, and as always, you may ask questions or offer feedback using the “Share Your Voice” feature on the strategic planning website.
A report detailing all of the feedback received will be compiled and shared with the Leadership Team and the campus. The Leadership Team will incorporate this feedback into a final draft of the high-level strategy, which will be shared with
The next stage in the strategic planning process will be to form Planning Teams of campus experts (staff, faculty, and, where appropriate, students) for each Aspiration. These Planning Teams will undertake the work of developing the Objectives and Initiatives that will comprise our new strategic plan. If you think that you might be interested in serving on a Planning Team, please let Jeff know.
If you have any questions or concerns, please “Share Your Voice.” We look forward to talking about the high-level strategy with you.
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan Steering Committee / Discovery Report
December 20, 2018
Dear Campus Community,
On behalf of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, we are excited to share with you the Discovery Report [PDF] that is the culmination of the Discovery Phase of Purdue Fort Wayne’s strategic planning process. The five-page Discovery Report [PDF] contains an overview of the planning process to date, a discussion of key takeaways from the discovery data, a preview of the next steps in the planning process, and links to reports containing the full focus group and working group data.
In addition to sharing the Discovery Report [PDF] campus-wide, we also want to highlight a few statistics about the extensive discovery process.
From mid-October to early December, 261 members of the campus community participated in a series of focus groups, including 131 staff, 93 faculty, 24 students, and 13 external stakeholders. Hundreds more staff, faculty, and students interacted with the campus engagement boards, 345 staff and faculty completed the pulse survey, and 67 students completed an engagement survey. The Benchmarking, External Research, Campus Engagement, and Internal Environmental Scan working groups were composed of 13 staff and 11 faculty. These numbers do not reflect the significant support for the planning process we have received from others in the campus community, including the Chancellor and his staff; Communications and Marketing; and the numerous individuals who utilized the “Share Your Voice” feature on the strategic planning website and promoted focus groups, open forums, and the January 11 planning session to their colleagues and students.
All of these people—all of you!—have already contributed in meaningful ways to our strategic planning process, and we are deeply appreciative of each and every one of you for sharing your time, your expertise, your passion, and your insights.
We are also very excited to start the next phase of the strategic planning process with our all-day planning session on January 11, 2019. During that session, the Discovery Report [PDF] will serve as the foundation for our collective effort to reassess the university’s values, mission, and vision, and to begin developing the high-level goals for our new strategic plan. More than 220 of you have already RSVP’d, but we have plenty of space for more of you to take part. You can find the agenda for the planning session here [PDF], and you can RSVP to participate here.
If you have any questions about the Discovery Report [PDF], the January 11 planning session, or any other aspect of the strategic planning process, please reach out to us using the “Share Your Voice” feature on the strategic planning website.
We wish everyone a happy and restful winter break and look forward to seeing you on January 11.
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan Daylong Session—January 11
November 28, 2018
Dear Campus Colleagues,
We continue to gain tremendous momentum with the strategic planning process.
The working groups of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee are engaging in data gathering and other research that will help ensure the integrity and success of the campus-wide planning process. We want to express our thanks to everyone who has participated in planning meetings, focus groups, and surveys. Your ongoing input and involvement are essential.
On behalf of the Steering Committee and university leadership, we would like to invite members of the campus community to participate in what we are envisioning as a pivotal day-long planning meeting on January 11. Our goal for that day will be to engage a broad cross-section of campus constituents to help set the high-level strategy that will guide the development of the university’s new strategic plan.
We ask for a full-day commitment from participants to ensure continuity in the process and outcomes. Faculty members are asked to be creative in structuring class time that day to enable their own participation, as well as that of their students. Supervisors are also asked to allow staff the flexibility to participate that day.
We wish to stress what an incredibly important day this will be in the planning process—potentially the
The planning session will be held on Friday, January 11, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Walb International Ballroom. We ask that participants RSVP no later than Monday, January 7, to confirm their attendance.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via Share Your Voice on the Strategic Plan website.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Strategic Plan Pulse Survey
November 26, 2018
Dear Campus Colleagues,
As we embark on designing the future of our university through the strategic planning process, your input to date has been vitally important.
We are pleased to announce that the Strategic Plan Steering Committee’s Benchmarking Working Group will launch an annual Pulse Survey, currently designed to provide the initial baseline dataset of observations from our faculty and staff on the current state of the organization and what is needed for the university to achieve excellence in the coming years. All faculty and staff responding will have their responses “rolled up” for university-level reporting. At that time, the Benchmarking Working Group will synthesize that data with other benchmarking data that is being determined.
Your responses are completely confidential, and no one at Purdue Fort Wayne will ever see your individual responses. Respondents will be identified by an ID code. To ensure anonymity, the Benchmarking Working Group contracted with a third-party vendor, Gartner, to conduct the survey. Gartner is an independent consulting firm that has a proven record of administering staff surveys that are designed not only to ensure
Don’t miss this opportunity to share your voice! You will receive an email from Gartner on Tuesday, December 4, providing you with the survey web address and inviting you to participate. Please take a few minutes to complete it right away. The survey contains five baseline questions and one open comments question. You can provide your responses any time prior to midnight Friday, December 14, 2018.
The survey is fully web-based and can be completed using any computer or mobile device equipped for internet access. We are asking all managers to allow employees time to complete the survey during work hours if they so desire.
This is a unique opportunity to help us understand what is important to you as we shape the future of our university and create
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at [email protected].
Thank you,
Jeff Malanson, Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Krissy Creager, Cochair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee
Message from Jeff Malanson Regarding Strategic Planning Open Forum
November 8, 2018
Dear Campus Community,
On behalf of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, I want to express my thanks and appreciation to everyone who was able to attend Wednesday’s open forum on the strategic planning process.
The slides from yesterday’s presentation [PDF] have been posted on the Strategic Planning website. If you have any questions about the slides, or about the strategic planning process in general, please do not hesitate to reach out using the Share Your Voice feature on the website.
As I said yesterday, this was the first of a series of open forums at which we will provide updates on the strategic planning process, solicit ideas and feedback, and answer questions about any aspect of the process. If there are items that you would like to see addressed at a forum, please send us a message.
We are only a few weeks into the strategic planning process, but I am truly impressed with how involved so many of you have already been, either by attending the forum or a focus
You will be hearing from us again soon.
Take care,
Jeff Malanson, Chair
Strategic Planning Steering Committee
Strategic Planning Open Forum and Website Announced
October 31, 2018
Dear Campus Community,
The Strategic Plan Steering Committee is pleased to announce a campus-wide open forum, as well as a new website dedicated to the strategic planning process.
The open forum will be held next Wednesday, November 7, at noon in the Science Building, Room 168. This is an opportunity for the entire campus to gather together to discuss the strategic planning process that has just begun.
The Steering Committee has been conducting focus groups with campus constituents during the past few days. The open forum will serve as a continuation of the information gathering, data collection, and bench-marking activities that are beginning to take shape. As expressed by Chancellor Elsenbaumer in a recent campus message, those in supervisory roles are asked to allow time for their team members to participate in this important process.
Additionally, a new website has been developed that will serve as the communications hub for the strategic planning process. As the website continues to grow in the coming months, it will provide a centralized location for faculty, staff, and students to further engage with the strategic planning initiative. The site will include important documents and reports and will serve as a transparent archive for the strategic planning process.
An important feature of the new site is a Share Your Voice function that provides an opportunity for members of the campus community to ask questions and share ideas with the Steering Committee.
Please mark your calendars for the open forum and remember to bookmark the new website.
Strategic Planning Process Launched
October 19, 2018
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
I am pleased to report that our strategic planning process launched officially this week, and we are off to a tremendous start.
As you will recall, we recently sought campus-wide nominations and volunteers for membership on the Strategic Plan Steering Committee. This included nominations from the Faculty Senate, Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Council, and the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee. We also received an enthusiastic response from those wishing to volunteer to serve, and the
The Steering Committee met for the first time this week, and one of their first orders of business was to examine the make-up of the committee to be certain there is
I am confident the Steering Committee will ensure a comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive process. They will invite participation among all campus constituents and will seek input and perspectives in many, many ways as the planning process unfolds. The committee is already working on the creation of subcommittees and is working with our Office of Communications and Marketing to develop a website that will serve as the hub of information related to strategic planning.
That process started in earnest this week with five intensive focus group sessions that focused on gathering input, insights, and initial data. The sessions held thus far included a total of 51 participants from administrative and academic units. Information from these sessions will be incorporated into a comprehensive report of initial findings.
As I reported previously, the strategic planning process is being coordinated by Sean Ryan, director of the university’s Office of Engagement, and we are being guided in our work by Kathy Church and Gary Frank of Strategic Focus Associates.
I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to move us into a strategic planning
I know we all agree that this is a critical undertaking as we chart our course for the future.
Sincerely,
Ron Elsenbaumer, Chancellor
Our Strategic Planning Process Begins
September 19, 2018
Dear Colleagues,
As we settle into this new academic year—and with the university’s realignment now complete—it is time to turn our attention toward developing a new strategic plan for our institution. Engaging in a campus-wide strategic planning process is essential as we determine the path ahead for Purdue University Fort Wayne.
A truly comprehensive, inclusive, and transparent strategic planning process will ensure that we have an agreed-upon roadmap to guide every aspect of how we move forward as Purdue Fort Wayne—from academic planning to budgeting to philanthropy to capital expansion.
The initial phase of planning has just begun. Our
A key outcome of that session was the selection of Sean Ryan, director of the university’s Office of Engagement, as the coordinator of the strategic planning process. A steering committee, which will comprise about a dozen representatives, will help facilitate and coordinate three distinct phases of our strategy building—discovery, strategy formation, and deployment.
The Faculty Senate, the Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee, and the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee have been asked to provide nominations for individuals to serve on the committee. Additionally, the president of the Student Government Association has agreed to serve on the committee.
We now need your input—the first of many opportunities the entire university community will have to actively participate and shape the university’s next strategic plan. We are eliciting additional nominations of faculty and staff from across the campus to serve on the steering committee.
If you would like to nominate yourself or a colleague to serve on the committee, please forward the name and a brief summary of qualifications directly to Sean Ryan at [email protected] no later than
There is no task more critical to the university’s future than the creation and adoption of a comprehensive strategic plan. Thank you in advance for your participation in this process, as well as for the ideas, input, and enthusiasm you inevitably will bring to the mix through broad-scale involvement across campus.
Sincerely,
Ron Elsenbaumer, Chancellor