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The year just concluded

Last year was much about learning, me learning about you, you about me.  There were those listening sessions involving over 2,000 people, a stakeholders survey, the electronic forums, discussions on immediate plans for Western, and hundreds of other meetings with individuals and groups around the state.  Combine this with our planning and transparent budgeting process, driven as it was by mission, vision, and SWOT analyses at both the university and planning unit levels.  What we put in place was an extension of our strategic planning process. 

Given the prospect of budget cuts, the existing strategic plan was so broadly inclusive that it could not be pursued in equal measure on all its many dimensions.  We needed to settle upon some realistic areas within the existing plan upon which to concentrate our immediate tactical efforts.

Who determined those areas?  You did:  campus, community, Board of Trustees.  Mid-year, I reported back on what you had told me were our needs and priorities.  They all fit within the existing strategic plan but were more immediately relevant and practical, focusing as they necessarily had to on steps we all could take that did not initially require significant new funding.   These areas you identified provide the structure I will now use to report back to you on the year just concluded.

Keeping an eye on the clock, I will pick only selected highlights.  A more comprehensive annual accounting is available on the web, attached to these comments. Please refer to the 15 Initiatives on my website. .

Our outstanding record of research and creativity continues:  last year, you published 80 books and edited volumes, 379 refereed journal articles, presented 696 papers at scholarly conferences, and showed artistic creations at 232 exhibits and 479 performances in addition to producing 35 recordings. Two patents on inventions by faculty were issued and the reviews of two other patent applications are pending.

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