The Faculty Senate convened Tuesday for its first meeting of the 2013-14 academic year to discuss the five identified pillars of the University’s strategic planning initiative, which will be presented to the Board of Visitors when it convenes later in the month.
Two pillars will focus on students, namely student leadership and the residential community. Two will focus on faculty, including faculty retention and research. The final pillar will focus on structuring the University’s funds effectively.
During the meeting, attendees were broken into five groups — one for each pillar — and they discussed 15 strategies to address the various pillars’ objectives, providing an opportunity for faculty members to to ask questions and express concerns about proposed strategies. Individual proposals were recorded and will be reviewed by the Strategic Planning committee later this week.
“This is intended to put people together who are from different schools and different departments and come up with some new thoughts,” said Drama Prof. Gweneth West, former Senate chair.
Having non-Senate faculty from all parts of the University share their thoughts at the meeting is important because the Strategic Plan will affect everyone, said Senate Chair Chris Holstege, an associate emergency medicine professor.
Assoc. Biomedical Engineering Prof. Timothy Allen, a Senate member, said he is optimistic about the upcoming strategic plan. “We really spent a lot of time thinking about the specifics in the three strategies we were assigned and the language used, and how what’s being proposed is different from what we’re already doing at U.Va.,” Allen said. “The documents we had were not perfect, there was room for improvement and revision.”
The committee aims to have a complete draft of all 15 strategies by November.
“As the strategic plan is moving forward, we look at those strategies and refine them,” Holstege said. “Once we agree upon the pillars and these strategies, we will know how to act on them.”
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