Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for all of your work to make this year such a positive return to full in-person operations for our students. As I watched our graduating students at our recent Commencement ceremonies, I was struck by their clear joy in reaching that milestone and in being part of such an engaging Lehigh community. It was your work and commitment to our students that made this possible, and it showed. I hope you and your families are able to take some time this summer to pause, rest and hopefully find some rejuvenation following the busy year we have had.
I am writing today with an update on the strategic planning effort that will begin this fall. As we prepare to undertake Lehigh’s first comprehensive strategic planning process since 2009, I asked a working group of faculty and staff, including many who participated in Lehigh’s prior strategic planning process, to spend the first part of this year analyzing our progress toward goals set forth in the original 2009 plan.
The group has now completed its review and report, which you can read in full on the Office of Strategic Planning website. I am grateful to the group for their collaboration and thorough review. The insights shared in the report are helping us “take stock” of the successes and lessons learned from previous efforts and then use these to inform our future planning.
I encourage you to read the executive summary and the full report (Lehigh credentials required). Please also consider providing your insights and suggestions through the comment form shared here by Friday, June 17, 2022. Following the deadline, comments will be summarized and incorporated in the appendix of the final report and will further help guide our efforts this coming academic year.
Provost Nathan Urban and Vice President of Strategic Planning and Initiatives Chris Cook will be writing later this summer to share information on opportunities and forums where we will be asking for your participation, and which will formally launch our strategic planning process in the fall semester.
More to come, and I look forward to your continuing engagement and feedback as we formulate our new plan together.
Joseph J. Helble ’82
President
