Long Range Planning Coordinating Committee
Meeting Notes from December 10, 1998
To: Faculty and Staff From: Conrad Festa Re.: Long Range Planning Coordinating Committee (LRPCC)
The Long Range Planning Coordinating Committee (LRPCC) met December 10, 1998 to discuss the process we would be following as we develop our College of Charleston Long Range Plan. In an effort to keep everyone informed of the process and where we are in this process, I have been asked to pass the following information along to you.
Clear, complete, and factual information will be needed if we are to make informed recommendations concerning the future of the College of Charleston. Responsibility for gathering that information will reside in the Working Groups. Working Groups will be composed of members from the LRPCC and persons outside the Committee who will be appointed by the President. The President, in consultation with the Provost and the Chairman of the Board, will make these appointments from the pool of persons who have expressed an interest in serving on one or more of the various Working Groups. Every effort will be made to solicit the names of persons interested in serving on Working Groups. Six Working Groups will address the following interest areas:
After the Working Groups have been formed, they will immediately begin to collect the information concerning their issues that the committee members and the members of the various constituency groups will need to provide the Committee and the President informed advice. The findings of the Groups will be organized in reports to the LRPCC and will be widely available to all of our constituencies (faculty, staff, alumni, etc.).
At the same time that this work is going on, public forums will be held addressing key issues that may potentially impact any mission decisions that the President and the Board may ultimately make. To that end, this spring there will be a public colloquium that presents a basic environmental scan (the economic landscape, the educational landscape, and the political landscape). After the presentations, opportunities will be provided the audience to participate in a discussion of the possible impact of this information.
When the activity of the Working Groups is concluded, the LRPCC will develop a preliminary draft document that outlines a variety of scenarios and supporting information. LRPCC members will be assigned to the various constituencies* and will serve as Constituency Liaisons. In this capacity the Constituency Liaisons will provide the constituencies with the preliminary draft document. The Constituency Liaisons will then receive feedback about the document from the constituents and will report this information back to the LRPCC. The LRPCC then will develop a final report of its findings and present that to the President and the Board of Trustees.
The President has said that the entire process should take between 18 months and two years. We plan to have the initial work of the Working Committees completed within 15 months. That will allow ample time for feedback from the constituencies. We plan to complete the first phase (Working Groups) by the end of December 1999 and have a report in the hands of the President by June 2000. Some slippage may occur, but we feel confident that we can complete our work within the two year outside limit requested by the President and the Board.
The committee as a whole expressed its strong desire to encourage the active participation in some capacity of all who are interested.
* - The constituency groups are as follows: Faculty, Alumni and Parents, Students, Staff, Deans and Chairs, Board of Trustees, Government, Education, Neighborhoods, Business/Sponsors/Donors/Support Organizations.