Updates
Watch the video of the March 31 Open Forum
March 31: Open Forum
Dimond Library, Fifth Floor Reading Room
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — Informal Question Period
12:30 to 2:00 p.m. — Join President Huddleston and others for a Formal Question
Period
2:00 p.m. to 3 p.m — Informal Question Period
All are invited to come to an open forum for more conversation
about the ideas coming out of Working Groups. Please come and share your
thoughts. Please read summaries of the top ideas which have emerged from
the Working Groups' consultations across campus. These summaries are posted
below. Then come, meet your colleagues, ask questions, and share your thoughts.
If you are unable to attend, please feel free to post your comments.
Strategic Planning Working Groups Updates
Letter from Mark Huddleston
January 20, 2009
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the beginning of what promises to be another exciting and productive
semester at UNH. This is a week of new beginnings—full of both challenges and
promise—for our nation and our University. I am writing to update you on an initiative
which is also full of challenges, but even more importantly, full of promise: our
Strategic Planning effort. This process is resuming in earnest this month, after
a semester of initial logistical work.
As I wrote to you earlier in the fall, colleagues from all corners of campus
came together both to serve on the steering
committee and to participate in a series of roundtables. The roundtables
produced a set of nine broad themes. These represent areas of widespread interest
for how the University can build on its strengths and chart its future course.
Nine working groups are being convened—one to investigate each theme—and are
being led by co-chairs from within UNH and our external community of partners. You
may view the charges for the groups on the Strategic Planning Web site at www.unh.edu/strategicplanning. Here
you will also find the co-chairs and, in the next couple weeks, the full group
membership lists. These groups will meet intensively throughout February
and March.
Before the working groups convene, I urge your participation in an open
electronic community forum. Please take some time now to read the charges,
think about what interests you, and post your thoughts online through the links
provided. I expect this electronic forum will be illuminating for both the working
group members and all who participate, and count on a robust exchange of ideas
to inform the groups’ discussions. While comments can be posted throughout
the process, please know that your ideas will receive the benefit of a fuller
exploration and role in the groups’ deliberations if you submit them by
February 1st, near the beginning of their meeting schedules.
The working groups will meet throughout February and March, and they will update
the steering committee as their work progresses. Every two weeks, a brief summary
will be posted on the Strategic Planning Web site for all members of the community
to review. At the end of this period, a summary of all the work to date will
be posted on the Web site. Then, in early April, I will host an open forum, at
a campus location to be determined, to encourage conversation and debate. In
April and May, the steering committee will digest the comments from the community
and the reports of the working groups and produce an outline of the three to
five “big ideas” which this process will yield. Another series of
roundtables will be held in the late spring or early summer, and by early June,
I expect to have a draft strategic plan in hand for my review.
During the summer, I will lead the effort to communicate our draft plan not just
to our campus community, but to our alumni, partners in the academic, research,
and business communities, and other external constituents. Just as I count on
all of us to participate in the discussions leading up to the formation of this
draft plan, I hope I will have your support in sharing it with others as well.
After this period of sharing and refinement, I anticipate that our plan will
be finalized in September. I expect UNH’s mission will be all the clearer
and more viable for our collective efforts.
I understand that this strategic planning exercise has required and will continue
to require much hard work on the part of many people. I am grateful for your
willingness to give your time and expertise to this process. I hope that everyone
visits www.unh.edu/strategicplanning throughout
the process. Only through widespread participation will we be able to select
and embrace bold new initiatives that we can pursue together with enthusiasm.
Best regards,
Mark W. Huddleston
President
Letter from Mark Huddleston
October 13, 2008
Dear Colleagues,
As I stated in my installation address, we are embarking upon the development
of a comprehensive, campus-wide strategic plan for the University. The first
meeting of the 30-member steering committee was
held last week, under the facilitation of Bob Zemsky, Chair of The
Learning Alliance and one of the co-authors of Remaking
the American University: Market-Smart and Mission-Centered. Bill Massy,
his co-author and consulting partner, is also working with us on this highly
inclusive, bottom-up process as we chart the strategic course for UNH over the
next five to ten years. The steering committee is comprised of representatives
from across the University and our greater community: faculty, students,
staff, deans, a Durham town council member, a member of the USNH board of trustees,
a UNH Manchester business advisory partner, and Alumni and Foundation board directors
are all members. You will find a complete listing of the steering committee members
with their titles at www.unh.edu/strategicplanning.
This link will be updated as the strategic planning process unfolds over the
course of the academic year.
The result of this process will be the first overarching strategic road map the
University of New Hampshire has ever had. This will enable us to chart
our course guided by four or five major initiatives describing where we want
to go and how we plan to get there. Our aim is to forge a common vision, strategy,
commitment, and enthusiasm for moving our University forward.
The steering committee will meet throughout the fall semester, and a larger group
of colleagues from across campus will meet in roundtable groups in late November
to discuss the general themes which will have emerged by then. Out of the
roundtable discussions will emerge several thematically based working groups
which will be charged with framing more specific proposals for consideration
by the whole campus community in a series of public, open forums in the spring.
As I also mentioned in my speech, I have formed several commissions and groups
to examine issues central to our University. The Blue Ribbon Panel on Research,
co-chaired by Dr. Jan Nisbet and Dr. Amitava Bhattacharjee, will be releasing
their findings shortly; the President’s Panel on Intercollegiate Athletics,
chaired by David Roselle, president emeritus of the University of Delaware, is
about to meet for the first time; and Healthy UNH, co-chaired by CHHS Dean Barbara
Arrington and VP for Finance and Administration Dick Cannon, will undertake a
broad examination of wellness and healthcare issues so important to all of us
at UNH. The recommendations from each of these groups will be folded into
the strategic planning process, as appropriate.
This is an exciting and important process and it will demand a great deal of
time and commitment. I am very grateful for the hard work and dedication
that members of the UNH community are willing to give to this critical process. Thanks
to all of you in advance.
I look forward to seeing the fruits of our collective labor.
Best regards,
Mark W. Huddleston
President
First meeting of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, October
1
Bob Zemsky facilitated introductions and described the logistics and planning
around the strategic planning process which will last until the end of the
spring semester.
Second meeting, October 15
David Proulx, assistant vice president for financial planning and budgeting, presented an overview of the financial picture of UNH. This included a breakdown of revenue sources, operating expenses, and the challenges UNH is facing with the economic downturn, increasing tuition costs, fees and expenses, and reductions in financial aid.
Third meeting, November 6
Bob Zemsky discussed the structuring of the agenda and the process for the series of roundtables which will be held on November 20 and 21. The committee was also given a topline summary of the UNH interviews that were conducted by Bob Zemsky and his team earlier in the fall semester.