Three months ago, University President, Dr. Bill Kibler, announced the launch of a new Strategic Planning effort. I wanted to give you an update of our progress.

We are using the current 2014-2018 Strategic Plan as our starting point. Although much of that plan remains valid, we now realize we needed stronger buy-in from the SRSU community and stakeholders, should have taken more time to share the strategic plan, and added more methods to measure progress. This experience taught us that to have a successful, measurable strategic plan we will need to take more time and be more inclusive. While the new plan will take longer to build, it will be in better shape to serve as our prime means of guiding Sul Ross’ future.

In the development of the new strategic plan, the committee has drafted six goals and the objectives associated with these goals. Because the development process relies heavily on feedback from many key people who were unavailable during the summer break, this work will continue over the next few months as people return to the campus and the committee holds outreach events.

Those new strategic goals as they exist today are:

• Promote Growth in Academic and Research Excellence
• Target Recruiting, Maximize Retention & Increase Graduation Rates
• Recruit, Retain & Develop Faculty, Staff and Student Employees
• Strengthen a Sustainable & Diversified Financial Base
• Build and Enrich Stakeholder Relationships
• Unify and Enhance the Image and Visibility of Sul Ross

Meanwhile, I encourage you to submit comments, suggestions, and concerns about the strategic planning process and the future direction of Sul Ross State University to this blog.