Why have a Strategic Plan?
The University of Windsor can be a place of pride for all who are a part of it only through the efforts of all. Empowering everyone to contribute to the University’s future success will not happen in a passive way. It will require that we plan and that we measure whether we are succeeding. It will require that we have goals that can be achieved through actions. Everyone who is a part of the University should feel a sense of pride at convocation as graduates cross the podium and reach an important milestone. Everyone who pursues their academic or professional discipline should feel intellectually stimulated and rewarded. Everyone who works here should feel good about what they do. And our community here and abroad should know it.
A Strategic Plan should lay out the framework within which people can become engaged in shaping the future of the University. It should crystallize for the world what is important to us. It should be readable by those who are not a part of the University of Windsor but want to know more about us. It should create the framework within which we can identify those things we will measure of ourselves, so that we know if we are making progress. In the long run, a Strategic Plan should guide us toward achievements that are of undeniable value. It should inspire students to want to come here and faculty and staff to want to work here, and enable our community to benefit from the value we create.
At the same time as it should reflect the aspirations of all who work and study here, a Strategic Plan must also show that we can focus. It is not possible to be all things to all people, and a Strategic Plan cannot be a wish list. We do not have the luxury of pursuing every idea or activity that we have, nor should we engage in too many pursuits. We simply will not be able to do them all as well as we want to, or do them as well as we should in order to meet the expectations there are of us.
For these reasons, I am calling the new Strategic Plan “Thinking Forward… Taking Action”. It is possible that during the consultations leading to its finalization a better name might emerge. Regardless of the name, there is no question that our future success demands that actions be foremost.