President Helble welcomes students and the Lehigh community back after spring break, provides updates on the strategic plan, and previews a spring community conversation. Members of the campus community are invited to engage and ask questions at the event to be held at the end of April.
“I’ve been describing this stage of the [strategic] planning process as not the end, but more like the end of the beginning. As we look to the next phase and implementing the plan, there is tremendous excitement and momentum. We are making the future for Lehigh, together.”
Watch the video to hear President Helble's update.
Transcript of video:
Welcome back everyone for the second half of spring semester. I hope our undergraduate students had an enjoyable Spring Break and that everyone was able to recharge a little during a week without classes. As our semester enters its second half, our campus-wide strategic planning process is nearing the end of its initial stage. Nearly 500 students, faculty, and staff joined last month's hybrid session to review the draft framework of the strategic plan. Thank you all for the valuable feedback, questions and comments that many shared at this forum and that others shared through the Q&A sessions and recent surveys. We're in the process of incorporating your feedback and are on track to share the full plan and priorities with the Lehigh community in June. Our high-level priorities will include deepening our focus on interdisciplinary education at all levels of our curriculum, from undergraduate through the PhD, and deepening our focus on interdisciplinary research programs, growing initiatives in online learning to help reach new student learners and to help support lifelong learning for many communities including staff and alumni. Expanding educational pathways that foster innovative learning programs such as those supported by Lehigh's new business building, which is just open and is already housing 15 different courses in nearly 30 sections, making Mountaintop a destination and a home, and creating a Lehigh where every member of our community belongs fully and knows it. I've been describing this stage of the planning process as not the end, but more like the end of the beginning. As we look to the next phase and implementing the plan there's tremendous excitement and momentum. We are making the future for Lehigh together. Congratulations as we celebrate this milestone and the completion of what was an incredible engagement effort by students, faculty, and staff. And a huge thank you to Provost Nathan Urban and Vice President for Strategic Planning and Initiatives, Chris Cook, for leading a comprehensive full campus planning process. Finally, instead of a video update next month, be on the lookout for an invitation to join a live spring community conversation in late April. Feedback from our fall session indicated that students faculty, and staff who attend find these forums beneficial. So we'll continue them and we'll again survey participants at the end to ask for their feedback. We'll likely hold the next one in a hybrid format for those who prefer to engage remotely. Please join us for what's sure to be an engaging community discussion towards the end of the semester. I look forward to seeing you there.
