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Strategic Planning 2021-22

Introduction

As announced by Acting President & Provost Herbert A. Medina and Vice President for Financial Affairs Eric Barger, the University of Portland will engage in a strategic planning process during the 2021-22 Academic Year.

It is essential that UP's next strategic plan be grounded in the Catholic and Holy Cross mission of the University, build upon past successes (including those achieved in the last strategic plan), and aspire to achieve new goals. The new strategic plan will guide financial and and operational planning and will establish priorities in the University's decision-making. The plan must state what the University intends to accomplish in measurable terms, and outline a means to achieve its stated goals.

The Process (Updated: March 8, 2022)

A Strategic Plan Steering Committee comprised of fifteen individuals from across the University has been constituted to determine the primary themes of the next strategic plan and shepherd the plan's development.

Throughout November of 2021, Committee members hosted over thirty Deliberate Dialogue sessions with University constituents to gather perspectives on themes and priorities that should appear in the strategic plan. The Committee also considered the perspectives received via an online feedback form completed by over seventy community members. In total, nearly 600 UP students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends participated in this process.

In December of 2021, the Committee assessed the perspectives shared during the Deliberate Dialogue sessions and via the feedback form, performed additional research and ideation, and identified the main themes of the strategic plan and the goals associated with those themes. The Co-Chairs subsequently presented the Committee’s work to the University’s Board of Regents in January of 2022 and received additional feedback.

In late January of 2022, the Committee held a workshop in which it further discussed feedback (including competitive analysis materials) and discerned priorities and strategies based on all the feedback gleaned to date. The result of these efforts is a revised working strategic planning document.

The Committee has now organized itself into six subcommittees, each of which will focus on developing tactics for each theme and sub-theme in the working draft of the plan. Each subcommittee is co-chaired by two members of the Committee as follows:

Theme 1: Tammy VanDeGrift and Casey Shillam

Theme 2: Father Jim Gallagher and John Watzke

Theme 3: Mike DeVaughn and Father John Donato

Theme 4: Cara Hersh and Karina Handeland

Theme 5: Amy Eaton and Elise Moentmann

Theme 6: Eddie Contreras and Brenda Greiner

The subcommittee co-chairs are now reaching out to the broader community to expand their subcommittee. The goal of each subcommittee will be to flesh out its assigned theme and sub-themes with tactics. Additionally, each subcommittee will examine how progress on each theme will be measured and assessed. Once the subcommittees are fully constituted, membership details will be posted on this site. In the meantime, community members are encouraged to contact any of the co-chairs to share thoughts/contributions on the themes and sub-themes in the current working draft of the plan.

The Strategic Planning Website

Community members are encouraged to explore this website to learn more about the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, review relevant community messages, view a schedule of past Deliberate Dialogue sessions, and contribute their own perspectives via an online Community Feedback Form.