Together We Plan: Campus Community Day Follow-Up Items

Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are almost there…the long weekend is coming. But before we head out to shop, cook, and get ready for time with family and friends, I have important updates from the strategic planning process I would like to share now.

Last Thursday’s strategic planning workshop, led by our Consultants from Credo, was a huge success. Over two hundred of us attended the afternoon-long program where we generated a substantial number of ideas. These ideas—once they are gathered, collated, and revised—will help us structure the foundational themes of the plan itself. Please be aware that the team at Credo is in the process of doing exactly that. Over the next three weeks, they will collate the ideas and input provided at the workshop, and that which is generated through this survey, and make their review available to the university community. We expect to receive materials from them right before the term break.

As part of this organizing, we have found that structuring a Strategic Plan around three themes (four at most) is the best way to start a targeted planning process. The organizing themes must capture the issues we most want to prioritize over the next four to five years. They must be broad enough to allow faculty and staff to generate creative and constructive action plans. Simultaneously, they must be specific enough to accurately guide energy and resources to the areas we most want to enhance.

As demonstrated by the employee-wide event last week and this alternative vehicle for providing input, we are deeply interested in having as many of your perspectives as possible inform the emerging themes and the actions plans that will flow from them. If you were not able to participate in last week’s event, you may still participate in the process. Towards that end, you will find links here to the materials and feedback tools needed to lend your voice to California Lutheran University’s next strategic plan.

As you get ready to dig in, we have arranged for you to have access to the actual Credo recording from Thursday’s face-to-face workshop. You may access it here. Additionally, presentation slides can be found here.

After listening to the recording and/or reviewing the slides, please take 30 minutes or so to step back and give us your personal input. You can use the links delineated below. These links replicate the exercise that was done in break-out tables/rooms. They are organized by proposed theme, and each theme has a prompt (in bold face type) and directions for generating a response. Please note that you must log into the surveys with your Cal Lutheran email address in order to access them.

• Theme One: STUDENT EXPERIENCE
• Theme Two: FULFILLING WORK EXPERIENCE 
• Theme Three: DISTINCTIVE IMPACT
• Is there a theme or idea that is missing: MISSING THEME

Please submit your thoughts by December, 6 at 5:00 pm.

Thank you for your participation as we plan for the future of Cal Lutheran and best wishes for a joyful and rejuvenating Thanksgiving holiday.

Lori E. Varlotta, Ph.D.
President