Dear Members of the Lehigh Community,
We wish students, faculty, and staff well as we conclude the semester, and hope you have the opportunity to enjoy time away from work in the coming weeks and over the winter break. Thank you for your sustained engagement throughout the strategic planning process this fall. Students, faculty and staff have attended 100 strategic planning sessions over 117 days, contributing 350 ideas across our four planning themes and providing the raw material for the working groups to synthesize. In culmination of this work, we will soon begin to draft the strategic plan.
Feedback requested
This week, the working groups described 20 potential initiatives, building on their presentations from November’s campus conversation. Drafts of these 20 initiatives (which will likely be combined and prioritized so that we have approximately ten in the final plan) have been posted to the Idea Portal (in no particular order). We are asking members of the Lehigh community to review these and give feedback and suggestions so that the working groups may continue to revise the potential initiatives for their work in January.
The refinement of these initiatives will be based on: 1. Alignment with Lehigh’s mission; 2. Breadth and depth of potential impact (global, local, regional, national); 3. Ability to build Lehigh’s distinction; and 4. Lehigh’s capacity and feasibility to execute the initiative.
Looking ahead
In January and February, university leadership will review the initiatives and proposals to assess their feasibility in relation to resource planning and implementation so we can have a draft plan ready for the campus to review on February 23, 2023. Details and an invitation will be forthcoming in the new year.
Throughout this process, we have heard from members of the Lehigh community that great ideas often lack time and space to be executed. Our strategic plan aims to provide the needed time and space to incorporate the most innovative and distinctive initiatives that will have the greatest impact. We look forward to our ongoing work together in the new year.
It is our future, our Lehigh,
Nathan Urban
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Chris Cook
Vice President of Strategic Planning and Initiatives