In her first address to the Academic Council as provost, Sally Kornbluth introduced the process that will lead to the University's next strategic plan.
Kornbluth—who stepped into the role of provost July 1—told faculty that Duke will engage in a period of "pre-planning" this year, developing the themes and organizational structure it will use to formulate a strategic plan. She noted the importance of a planning process that brings together faculty and administration, rather than having one group lead the other.
"It's not only the plan we get in the end," Kornbluth said. "It's really the process by which we get there."
Kornbluth said the strategic plan will center on academics—working with Duke's schools, centers and institutes. Exactly how area such as student affairs, admissions and athletics will be incorporated is yet to be decided.
"I'd like to think about the plan as a roadmap with concrete deliverables, but it's not a manual—or even worse, a contract," she said, noting the curveball thrown by the economic downturn in the middle of the last strategic plan. "We want to set out a series of goals that, should all go well, we can meet many of those goals going forward."
The coming year will be used to gather input from across the University and spark dialogue on possible areas of focus for the plan. Kornbluth described the process as one of "collaborative committees," chaired by faculty with administrators participating. In order to hear as many voices as possible, the steering committee will host small faculty dinners throughout the year and request one-page strategic summaries from each major University unit.
Kornbluth noted a number of possible themes that the committee might discuss in the coming year—how Duke can strengthen individual disciplines while furthering interdisciplinary work, how the University can extend its global reach in a way that provides mutual benefits for all parties, how to pursue online education.
Ultimately, she noted, the aims of the strategic plan will be proposed by the steering committee and vetted by faculty.
"I'm honestly not coming into this with any preconceived notions about exactly what the themes are going to be," Kornbluth said.
The University released its last strategic plan—"Making a Difference"—in 2006. In eight chapters and more than 100 pages, the document outlined goals focusing on six central themes—interdisciplinarity, knowledge in the service of society, affordability and access, the importance of the humanities, internationalization and diversity.
Slated to cost $1.3 billion at the time of its proposal, "Making a Difference" achieved many of its goals but left others incomplete. Under the plan, Duke created two new institutes, launched signature programs such as DukeEngage, began the renovation of the West Union and completed the Financial Aid Initiative, among other milestones. But financial constraints meant that projects such as the proposed "New Campus," which would have overhauled Central Campus, did not come to fruition.
At Thursday's Academic Council meeting, faculty pointed out the need to assess Duke's performance on the last strategic plan before jumping into the next one—noting that, for many aspects of the plan, the question of success is a nebulous one and quantitative assessments of progress are not necessarily available.
"We've done a lot of things in the past 10 or 15 years that we knew were informed by the strategic plan, but I think the faculty would like to sort of know—how are we doing?" asked Craig Henriquez, James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent professor of biomedical engineering.
In other business:
President Richard Brodhead presented biomedical engineering professor Warren Grill with the University Scholar/Teacher of Year Award, which is given annually to a faculty member who demonstrates excellence both in teaching and in research.
Grill is a Bass Fellow and was named an Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor last year.
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